Insecurity:Overriding the objections of security officials, President Trump ordered his former chief of staff John Kelly to give Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner a top clearance, The NY Times reports. Among the agencies that didn’t want Kushner to get the highest security clearance was the CIA, the paper says. 

  Trump has the authority to do what he did, but it’s a mystery that he, Jared, and Jared’s wife Ivanka Trump all deny it.

  Both Kelly and the White House counsel at the time, Donald McGahn, wrote internal memos objecting to the Kushner clearance. Trump had previously told the Timesthat he played no part in getting clearance for his son-in-law.

  The objections to giving Kushner top-secret clearance have never been publicly detailed. It is known that there are concerns about his real estate ties to foreign entities. Kushner gave scant information on his disclosure documents and had to update them dozens of times.

Authority Figure:Vladimir Putin, Mohammed bin Salman, and now Kim Jong-un. President Trump, following his adoration of dictators, told reporters yesterday that he believed Kim when the North Korean strongman denied knowing anything about the mistreatment of American college student Otto Warmbier, who died just days after his release in a coma from a Hermit Kingdom prison.

  Trump said, “He knew the case very well, but he knew it later. Got a lot of people, big country, lot of people. And in those prisons and those camps you have a lot of people and some really bad things happened to Otto.” He went on, “He tells me that he didn’t know about it and I will take him at his word.”

  So, to drive this home, President Trump says he believes that the dictator of North Korea did not know that his jailers were torturing to death an American prisoner whose captivity was worldwide news.

Can You Hear Me Now: President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen yesterday completed a second day of closed-door testimony before Congress. He says he’s coming back March 6^th. Cohen keeps mentioning Trump’s money man, Allen Weisselberg, who could be the next one hauled in for grilling.

The Fish Rots:Just weeks before national elections, Israel’s attorney general plans to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

 Netanyahu is running for his fourth consecutive term and claims the charges are politically motivated. He said on national television, “I intend to serve as your prime minister for many years. But it depends on you. Not on the commentators and TV studios and articles. It depends only on you.”

  Sounds familiar.

  The charges have been brewing for two years. The attorney general accuses the 69-year-old  Netanyahu of trading official favors for gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars including cigars, Champagne, jewelry, and even for flattering newspaper coverage.

Econ 101:The US gross domestic product grew at a 2.6 percent annual rate in the final three months of last year, a decent number, but a sign that the economy is slowing. For a brief time in the middle of the year the economy was growing at an unsustainable 4 percent.

  The White House issued a rosy statement saying, “For the first time in 13 years, America’s economy hit the 3 percent growth milestone for a calendar year, thanks to an expectations-beating fourth quarter in 2018.”

 The “beating” of expectations was that the economy slowed less than expected. The Trump administration predicts growth at 3 percent of more for years to come and, again, few economists think that’s possible.

Political Climate:Andrew Wheeler, the former coal industry lobbyist who’s been rolling back regulations as temporary head of the Environmental Protection Agency, was confirmed yesterday by the Senate to take the job permanently. The appointment is in keeping with the Trump administration policy of installing people who’ve been fighting federal agencies for years to run and dismantle them. 

Electric Shock:Pacific Gas & Electric, the giant Northern California power company, admitted that failure of its equipment was probably the cause of the so-called “Camp Fire” that killed 86 people in and around Paradise, Calif.

  The focus of the fire investigation is on a 56-mile transmission line. The official cause has not been determined, but PG&E said the company “believes it is probable that its equipment will be determined to be an ignition point of the 2018 Camp Fire.”

  PG&E has already declared bankruptcy in anticipation of $10.5 billion in damage claims.

 The Obit Page:André Previn, a human music machine who was a composer, conductor, and performer in jazz, pop, and classical music, has died in Manhattan at age 89.

  Previn won four Oscars for scoring movies, including “Gigi” and “My Fair Lady.” He played jazz piano and was director or principal conductor of a half-dozen orchestras.

  The musician was the father of Soon-Yi Previn, whom he adopted with his third of five wives, the actress Mia Farrow. Soon-Yi ended up marrying Farrow’s long-time boyfriend, Woody Allen, in what became a lifelong tabloid scandal for the comedian movie-maker.

Moneyball: As baseball salaries reach for the stars, right-fielder Bryce Harper has been awarded the biggest guaranteed contract in the history of baseball. He signed for 13 years and $330 million with the Philadelphia Phillies. Last week, Manny Machado became the first free agent to break the $300 million line, signing a 10-year deal with the San Diego Padres. 

  It’s a children’s game.

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