2017 Feb 12^th

The man of the hour is retired Lt. General Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s National Security Adviser. General Flynn has been criticized for telling a Russian ambassador that Russia should not respond to then President Obama’s sanctions against Russia because once Trump was in control those sanctions would disappear.

This may explain why Putin did not respond as expected when we sent a number of Russian agents packing because of their interference in our election. Normally, in the tit for tat world of diplomacy, Russia would have expelled at least the same number of our diplomats. This time for some curious reason, Putin did nothing. If our National Security Advisor, General Flynn, had, indeed told a Russian diplomat not to worry, this unusual lack of response makes perfect sense.

General Flynn has denied he had any such conversation. He quite specifically denied it to Vice President Pence who told reporters the he knew that there was nothing to the charge. How did the vice president know that? He knew it because General Flynn told him so. Then, a bit later, General Flynn admitted that his memory was a trifle foggy about all this that perhaps he did talk to a Russian ambassador, he just wasn’t sure about it.

I can tell you who was sure: American intelligence agents who monitor the communications of Russian agents, their ambassadors and others as well. They had General Flynn’s conversation on tape if his memory was a bit hazy about the content of that conversation, they could remind him…and remind the rest of us.

The facts I have mentioned here are in the public domain. On Meet the Press this morning an expressionless Stephen Miller, an advisor to the president, was asked about this and he admitted that he had been given no instructions on the matter and therefore he had no comment. Trump responds to everything: he even responds when a department store stops selling a line of shoes his daughter Ivanka sells, but when his national security advisor lies to his vice president, he has nothing to say. (Keep in mind that General Mattis, his secretary of defense, is the general who canned Flynn for incompetence an action that led to his retirement.)

Flynn’s lies to the vice president are only part of the problem: We must assume Flynn was oblivious to the fact that our security people would be monitoring the phone calls of Russian agents. This man is National Security Advisor to the President of the United States and he didn’t know that his own security people would be monitoring Russian phone calls. How is this possible? How can a man this ignorant of basic techniques of the craft he supervises hold a position of national importance? The only answer is because he was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Donald J. Trump. Look at the screw-up of the executive order crafted by Stephen Miller and Steven Bannon, an order that has surely embarrassed Trump when the ninth circuit threw it out. Are Miller and Bannon secure? You betcha. There just aren’t that many people of even marginal competence willing to have their name associated with this administration.

On the other hand they haven’t tapped Governor Sarah Palin, or Annie Coulter yet. They might show up in Trump’s second month.