February 14, 2017 6:00 AM
Morning Reads for Tuesday, February 14
Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope that you went to the kind of elementary school where the students were required to bring a Valentine for everyone in the class (and if you didn’t, I hope your shoebox wasn’t empty at the end of the day). If you prefer your Valentines to be a little more literary, I recommend these. And of course, always, there are these.
- Henryetta, Oklahoma residents are out of luck if they planned on attending the town’s annual Valentine’s Day dance. What that town needs is a scrappy newcomer!
- To Obama with love (and hate, and desperation). It’s a moving piece written before the 2017 Inauguration and it poses quite the contrast to what we are seeing from today’s White House.
- For the first time, the VA will not be headed by a veteran.
- Are you using a free tax return service? Buyer beware.
- Only thirty percent of commuters to Seattle’s city center drive alone. 47% use transit. This, in a city that lost its mass transit funding to Atlanta 46 years ago.
- Idaho Republicans tried to build a better alternative to Obamacare. It didn’t work.
- A Marietta ice cream manufacturer is concerned about Trump’s NAFTA renegotiation.
- Fast Company named two Atlanta-based companies, Mail Chimp and The Home Depot, to its list of the 50 most innovative companies in the world – on all of planet Earth!
- Speaking of major Georgia companies, Duluth-based AGCO is using Google Glass to build a better tractor.
- Georgia’s surgeons want $1 million from the state’s Super Speeder fund to put tourniquet kits in every public school in Georgia.
- Violent crimes are increasing in Warner Robins.
- Grant’s Lounge in Macon – and the birth of Southern Rock.
- For the first time since Prohibition, Savannah has a distillery.
- Nobody will choo-choo-choose you as their Valentine if you “upskirt” them – and soon in Georgia, it might land you in jail.
About Author
Teri
Teri Anulewicz is a Democrat who represents House District 42 in the Georgia General Assembly. She previously spent nearly a decade on the Smyrna City Council. A native New Orleanian and quasi-Texan, Teri graduated from Agnes Scott College in 1998. She's been a front page contributor since 2015, and she compiles each Tuesday's Morning Reads.
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Flynn got canned for lying to his bosses, or as he put it, ‘inadvertently briefing with incomplete information’. For me, that’s better phrasing than ‘alternative facts’ any day.
Sociopaths can’t help themselves. The Russian interference in the election was fading as a GOP issue in the face of the craven lust to exercise power, but Trump couldn’t help himself in telling the Japanese prime minister all about his electoral victory while about the same time Steve Miller was talking about millions of fraudulent votes.
It’s a testament to either Flynn’s incompetence or a “can do whatever I want attitude” that as National Security Advisor that he didn’t know others were listening in on a call between him, a US citizen at the time, and a Russian ambassador. We’re in good hands. Believe me.
Words I never wanted to hear again: What did he know and when did he know it?
Pence should be extremely angry. He stood in front of the country and repeated lies he was fed. He has been undercut and made to look foolish.
The cozy relationship between Trump’s administration and the Russian government must now be fully and impartially investigated. I suggest Sally Yates as head.
Nunes (intelligence chairman) put out a statement praising Flynn’s service, and has said that the House will not look into the question of whether Flynn was compromised.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I have to pay more attention to Pence. I haven’t heard him say anything yet that didn’t sound like him repeating stuff he’s been fed. Is he a thinker?
He thinks he has a direct line to God.
HB208 is insane. It will get to the point where you can’t afford to hunt or fish anymore unless you are wealthy. Every year they come for more and more money. I love the argument we are the lowest. Then we go up Then AL, FL, & TN says we are the lowest and their fees go up and up and up. Oh and the increased boat fees are crazy. Tax increase. I hope this bill dies. So they governor gives the game wardens a 20% pay raise and they come back and want more and more money.
Deja vu- the Iranian hostage crisis. Allegedly George H.W. Bush was negotiating on behalf of R. Reagan before the election. If he did he got away with it though. He wouldn’t have been stupid enough to do it over the phone.
Flynn’s calls weren’t before the election. They were after and not one syllable was illegal. He got booted for not being truthful w Pence. That’s it. I guess the Libs see it as a symbolic scalp. Ok. Enjoy…
Trump was not president until January 20. Flynn committed treason before that.
Since you seem determined to defend Trump regardless, makes me suspicious of you and your motives.
Treason? Good Lord…
Seakelp!
Idk about treason, but there’s certainly some legal concerns. The largest-looming one is not just about this connection with Gen. Flynn, but about the pattern of interactions with Russian officials.
I picked up that the Pres. made a statement that he did not direct Flynn to talk to the Russian official “about the sanctions”. That appeared to be a classic political/legal evasion to me, implying that the then Pres.-elect did request the communication. But it’ll be near impossible to discover the full truth behind the directive.
Russian ambassador confirms in an interview with WaPo that conversations were had before the election…
Im baffled by your refusal to admit that Flynn was in the wrong here. I know Trump is your guy but when did you become that much of a hyper partisan that you refuse to accept basic truths?
Flynn was in the wring by lying to Pence and is it illegal to have conversations w Russian ambassador? What crim statutes were violated?
The Logan Act?!?!?! The one that’s 250 years old and nary one prosecution? That will work!!!! Find a US Attorney who’ll take that!!! Oh Lord my side is hurting on that one!! “A liberal mind is a terrible (and typical) thing to waste…”
It is illegal to negotiate as a private citizen with a foreign government. Yes the law is old but Congress also never saw fit to get rid of it.
If Flynn was lobbying for a relaxation of sanctions Russia stands to make millions off of oil and gas. Could Tillerson also be in play here?
You forgot Tom Price in your conspiracy scenario! Surely he stands to make money, too! Lol!
Flynn lied about it. That’s all you need to know about that. The next question is: Why?
I think sheer hubris. I think ge thought he didn’t need to explain himself to “lowly ” VP. I know it sounds unlikely but I think it’s as simple as that.
If you think “not needing to explain himself” is the same as “lying to the vice president” then we are not going to have a very productive conversation.
No need to be baffled…. Ethics, prudence, decorum, etc are not conservative considerations, only the exercise of power matters.
Did Trump squeeze into an SR-71 Drew and fly to Moscow?! Y’all are seriously becoming unglued.
So the previous administration can lie repeatedly (over 26% of the time straight up lies, 53% if you add ‘half truths’ during the 8 year run according to Politifact – http://www.politifact.com/personalities/barack-obama/) and not face the media onslaught now ongoing against Trump.
One comparison that really jumps out to me – Obama sending Susan Rice out to blatantly lie to the American people about the needless deaths of four US citizens during the Benghazi attacks. She lied, they knew yet the media en masse defended her and the clan of Obama incompetents repeatedly. Now we fast forward to Flynn’s situation where he is forced to resign for essentially doing his job then lying to a few admin people about it. Maybe he should be out, but it is illuminating to see how the media and each administration reacts to actions like these.
Obama has 9 “Pants on Fires”, Trump has 63 already! OK, so yeah, we all know politicians lie, especially campaigning, but you have to admit that we are uncharted territory. Even Nixon wasn’t this prolific.
But the scary thing is the types of things he lies about. He lies about the most stupid, trivial stuff, with no discernible purpose except ego gratification. Usually we can kind of understand why a politician lies about something- they have a reason to. This is bizarre, childish, “just because” stuff. Crazy.
Remember the time Politifact gave Roy Barnes a “Pants on Fire” for a metaphor? Apparently it was a colossal liee to say he’d prioritize education spending even if he had to scrape the gold off the Dome. I’d be skeptical in counting up them as some statistical watchword.
So are you saying Trump doesn’t lie any more than previous presidents? What is your point?
You’re arguing within someone that thinks the Obama administration’s spin and liberties with the truth and comparable to Trump’s, and as such you’ll have better success arguing with your dining room chair and table.
Your link doesn’t support your math. That’s not surprising.
Meanwhile, Remember the Benghazi!
Last time I added 2+12+12 it equaled 26. Then add 26+27 and even with Common Core it equals 53. Maybe you should seek remedial math assistance xdog.
The table you linked to changed, I swear. But thanks, I’m sure I’ll find occasion to remind you of your trust in Politifact in the future.
**edit** Or someone could jump in sooner.
Politifact does not conduct a random sample of statements to evaluate.
But if you are using their methods to present evidence, then it seems fair to present all the stats. And everybody did their addition properly.
Frankly, I expect most political statements to be “half-truths”. I.e., spin.
But even if Politifact was unfairly selecting more of DJT’s lies to evaluate (rather than a random sampling)- it doesn’t change the fact that people have tended to react hypocritically to lies, based on their partisan preference, and there is little excuse for defending any lie, regardless. No need to comparison shop and say he lied, so she can or whatever. That’s immature. Call out the lies, don’t defened them. Certainly put all statements to task for evidence. In the end, the burden of proof is on the one who makes the statement. See Miller v. Stephanopoulos.
So… What’s Trump’s next move?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/world/europe/russia-cruise-missile-arms-control-treaty.html?_r=0
Russia’s strategy seems to be coming into focus: Engage us in asymmetric conflicts everywhere they can: Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, Iran…