SuperHawk John Bolton is ousted, as Trump says he “disagreed strongly” on Iran, Venezuela, Afghanistan, North Korea, and the moustache….--regarding the scrapped plan to host Taliban leaders at Camp David, Mehdi Hasan gets it mostly right
--Trump’s first national security advisor, Gen. Mike Flynn is trying to wriggle out of his guilty plea
--at ConsortiumNews, Patrick Lawrence says Macron’s shift on Russia signals opening to reduce tensions
--but the anon-sourced report of extraction of Kremlin mole may be an effort to keep Cold War 2.0 going, and The Guardian speculates his name is Oleg Smolenkov
--at MintPress, editor Mnar Muhawesh builds a persuasive case that US is backing Hong Kong protests
--federal judge in Oakland renews national injunction of Trump’s illegal asylum policy
--Senate Democrats will force a vote they expect to lose, trying to end Trump’s “national emergency” declaration
--while heat for impeachment rises, Dems keep it on back burner, shifting focus to drug prices and gun control
--Trump held a mob rally in North Carolina to smear the moderate Democrat who was victim of GOP election fraud, and smears Bahamians, too
--former FEMA officials indicted for corruption in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria
--in Israel, desperate Bibi pledges to annex much of West Bank and apparently ordered airstrikes in Syria yesterday
--Google faces anti-trust investigations in 48 states, but not in California or Alabama
--does Trump want to help the homeless in California, or just use them to attack Democrats?
--as her presidential fortunes dim, Sen. Kamala Harris strains credibility with criminal justice reforms she ignored while California attorney general
--CA Gov. Newsom is under fire for negotiating some exemptions to new zero tolerance vaccination bill, and PBC thinks Newsom got it right
Source