Stay away from "shiny objects".

To quote Uncle Joe Biden, this Russian story with the trump administration is "kind of a big deal".

Now comes word that the president's lawyer, Michael Cohen, hand delivered a peace plan for Russia and Ukraine to former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. and in it he outlined a plan to ease the sanctions against Russia. It's scary stuff. From all accounts the twitter in chief did not even know about this "plan".

Throw in the fact that James Comey, the FBI director, delivered a classified briefing to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Friday, and now there is a call for a bipartisan investigation into the administration's Russian problem.

Still don't think it's a "big deal"?

Well on Friday that same Senate Intelligence Committeee sent letters to a dozen agencies and individuals and they directed them to preserve records related to the investigation of Russia trying to influence the 2016 elections.  (In other words, do not delete the e-mails.)

I am hoping that we won't continue to get caught up with the "shiny object" strategy of Herr trump. His constant screeching and twitter outbursts about things such as crowd sizes and who is--- or isn't showing him love shouldn't let us lose sight of the real serious issues facing his administration.

They are issues that could derail this presidency and put the I word on the table.

It's President's Day, so it's a good time to remind ourselves that not all presidents are created equal, and that some of them, history will now show, were not even meant for the job.

Days of dysfunction, chaos, and law breaking.

I hate to keep beating a dead orange horse, but team trump, you really have to get your s**t together.

Let's forget, for a minute, all the seriously wrong,  ill-prepared, and unqualified people the president has appointed to cabinet positions. That is bad, but it's not as bad as his minions breaking the law.

We will start with Kellyanne Polls, who clearly broke the law by promoting the sale of Ivanka trump's products on FOX VIEWS from the White House.

 “I hate shopping, but I’m going to get some myself today,” Conway, a special counselor to the president, said from the White House briefing room. “I’m going to give it a free commercial here, go buy it today.”

Whoops!

Even more egregious than one Conway did, though, is what transpired between the Russian Ambassador to the United States and trump's national security adviser, Michael Flynn. (I hope that he at least knows what the START Treaty is.)

"Michael Flynn, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for national security adviser, held five phone calls with Russia's ambassador to Washington on the day the United States retaliated for Moscow's interference in the U.S. presidential election, three sources familiar with the matter said.

The calls occurred between the time the Russian embassy was told about U.S. sanctions and the announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin that he had decided against reprisals, said the sources. They spoke on condition of anonymity, citing internal U.S. government deliberations about the issue.


The calls raised fresh questions among some U.S. officials about contacts between Trump's advisers and Russian officials at a time when U.S. intelligence agencies contend that Moscow waged a multifaceted campaign of hacking and other actions to boost Republican Trump's election chances against Democrat Hillary Clinton." [Source]

Of course, the trump administration lied about these calls ever taking place, but now, thanks to good reporting, we are learning that they did.

The craziest part of this story is trump saying that he was not aware of what Flynn did. (If you believe that I have a wonderful antique bell here in Philly with a slight crack on the side to sell you.) Trump, who is always watching the news and wants to know everything going on with all of his people, did not know that General Flynn had conversations with the Russians? I need a break.

Finally, remember that  salacious dossier that contained some rather racy things (ahem ahem, golden showers) about our president that he called "fake news"? Well, as it turns out, it might not be so fake after all.

 "As noted by correspondent Jim Sciutto earlier today, multiple current and former law enforcement and intelligence officials have stated that an intelligence intercept has confirmed some of the conversations described in the dossier.

Sciutto did state that this doesn’t confirm the more extreme allegations made in the dossier but intelligence and law enforcement agencies now have greater confidence in the document’s credibility.

Sciutto also pointed out that when they tried to get a comment from White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on the story, Spicer told them “we continue to be disgusted by CNN’s fake news reporting.”' [Source]

Sorry Sean, given your administration's track record of late, we are riding with CNN on this one.