• Editor’s note: Last week was a whirlwind with Trump firing his own Dept. of National Intelligence (DNI) leaders for doing their lawfully required duty to inform Congress that Russia is meddling in the 2020 election to benefit him and Bernie Sanders. Then Trump tried to blame the Democrats for what he called fake news.
• Of course a potential Roger Stone pardon loomed large, as did his other controversial pardons of white collar corruption criminals.
• While the Cornavirus has consumed leaders of world governments, Trump cast off concerns.
• With the last 2 weeks of Trump’s Presidency his most contentious, if re-elected, what havoc will he create when he no longer needs his voting base for another campaign?
• These stories last week did not make front-page headlines, yet would have in “normal times,” though these are not normal times, yet were too important to miss:

“I spoke to experts on authoritarian rule about Trump’s behavior this week. They say 2020 could be our last free election”

“Inevitably, the people who last in the cabinet of an authoritarian leader are people who end up doing his personal-slash-official business, because you can no longer separate the two,” by Andrew Feinberg, UK’s Independent. Read more

“Lawyer: Assange was offered US pardon if he cleared Russia”

“WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to claim during an extradition hearing that the Trump administration offered him a pardon if he agreed to say Russia was not involved in leaking Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, a lawyer for Assange said Wednesday [Feb. 19],” by the Associated Press. Read more and Read more

“Steve Rattner: Less job creation under Trump than Obama”

“Trump took to Twitter again on Monday [Feb. 17] to proclaim the success of the economy on his watch. But, according to Morning Joe economic analyst Steve Rattner, Trump’s claims included exaggerations and lies,” by Morning Joe, MSNBC. Click here [Ed. note: This jobs report is from Trump government’s own statistics. Trump will now have to fire the one who produced the report, eh?]

“Trump Wants to Control the Judicial System, But Judges Are Fighting Back”

“Neither the Federal Judges Association nor the letter from former Justice employees carry any legal weight, but they represent a coalescing of dissident voices from within the legal system,” William Rivers Pitt, Truthout. Read more

“Editorial: Revenge of the swamp creatures: Left and right, Trump pardons corruption”

By Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News. Read more

“Sonia Sotomayor Just Accused the Supreme Court’s Conservatives of Bias Toward the Trump Administration”

By Mark Joseph Stern, Slate. Read more

“No One Knows How Many Immigrant Kids Have Disappeared in US Custody”

By Aura Bogado, Reveal. Read more

“‘A Travesty and a Disgrace’: Trump Quietly Issues Memo That Could Abolish Union Rights for 750,000 Federal Workers”

“This administration will not stop until it takes away all workers’ rights to form and join a union,” by Jake Johnson, Common Dreams. Read more

“Trump’s New Spy Chief Used to Work for a Foreign Politician the U.S. Accused of Corruption”

“Richard Grenell did not disclose payments for advocacy work on behalf of a Moldovan politician whom the U.S. later accused of corruption. His own office’s policy says that could leave him vulnerable to blackmail,” by Isaac Arnsdorf, ProPublica. Read more

“Don’t buy China’s story: The coronavirus may have leaked from a lab”

By Steven W. Mosher, New York Post. Read more