Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is en route to Washington DC for a meeting with President Trump:

Moments ago the U.S. Treasury Department announced official sanctions against Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah (El Aissami).  El Aissami is the Executive Vice President of Venezuela.

WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Venezuelan national Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah (El Aissami) as a Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) for playing a significant role in international narcotics trafficking.
El Aissami is the Executive Vice President of Venezuela.
El Aissami’s primary frontman, Venezuelan national Samark Jose Lopez Bello (Lopez Bello), was also designated for providing material assistance, financial support, or goods or services in support of the international narcotics trafficking activities of, and acting for or on behalf of, El Aissami.
(more…)

Anyone who has followed the deep weed construct of current U.S. politics against the backdrop of DC’s UniParty fear of President Trump can fully grasp the desperation of the professional political class to undermine the expressed purposes and intents of Trump to drain the proverbial swamp in Washington DC.

Toward that end – the myriad of vested financial and political interests, including those interests amid the corporate Mostly Swamp Media, are frantically lashing out -and latching on- to any issue that might aid the undermining objective.

“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones”.

This is a famous quote from Niccolo Machiavelli which acutely describes the current confluence of events.   Draining the proverbial swamp of the inherent corruption, and subsidiary corruptible influences from the entrenched benefactors, is the overriding source of the angst against the new administration.
For the media who depend on the bile in the swamp’s retention pond – to manipulate public opinion – no falsehood is out-of-bounds; no attack too severe; no rules of decency or diplomacy are considered; the ends justify all means as the war of attrition begins.
The approach from those who benefit from life amid the swamp is essentially a zero-sum outlook.  Either the parasites win, or they will have forever lost their indulgences. (more…)

U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaking at a joint news conference, Monday February 13th, 2017.

In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sean Spicer Twitter @PressSec

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

There is a Live Stream at the bottom of the updates:

An immediate evacuation in Butte County Northern California has been issued as the primary spillway for the Oroville Dam is expected to experience catastrophic failure at any moment.  70,000 Residents of  Downtown Oroville, Thermalito, and Palermo are under immediate threat and should evacuate with extreme urgency.

EMERGENCY EVACUATION: Auxiliary spillway at Oroville Dam predicted to fail within the next hour. Oroville residents evacuate northward.

— CA – DWR (@CA_DWR) February 13, 2017

OROVILLE, Calif. – An immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered. Supervisor Bill Connelly said specifically people who live in Downtown Oroville, Thermalito, and Palermo.
An evacuation center has been set up at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico. The Elks Lodge in Paradise is also opening their RV Park for free to evacuees. Space is limited in the RV Park. (more…)

Defying the jackbooted thugs permeating pop culture, singer and song writer Joy Villa grabbed attention tonight at the Grammy’s red carpet event with a gown that declares “Make America Great Again.”

The back of the red, white and blue dress had “TRUMP” bedazzled on the train.
(more…)

Continuing with the absurd politics of a Mexican Presidents’ desperation to keep Mexicans from returning to Mexico:

… President Enrique Peña Nieto recently budgeted about $50 million to the country’s 50 consulates to help pay the costs of defending migrants who are in the U.S. illegally and facing deportation. –LINK–

A bizarre, albeit understandable policy, given the dependency on the Mexican economy created by $25 billion in remittances sent home from Mexican nationals illegally living/working in the U.S.
(more…)

Nigel Farage appeared on Fox News Weekend to share his perspectives on the current state of U.S. politics, the Mostly Swamp Media’s (MSM) Trump derangement syndrome, and the newly labeled antagonism surrounding Trump’s “travel ban”: