monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Back in April 2016, when the notion of Donald Trump in the White House still seemed fanciful, The Post’s Robert Costa and Bob Woodward sat down with Trump, and Costa, at one point, raised the subject of the nondisclosure agreements for employees of which the candidate was so fond.

Costa: “One thing I always wondered, are you going to make employees of the federal government sign nondisclosure agreements?”
Trump: “I think they should. . . . And I don’t know, there could be some kind of a law that you can’t do this. But when people are chosen by a man to go into government at high levels and then they leave government and they write a book about a man and say a lot of things that were really guarded and personal, I don’t like that. I mean, I’ll be honest. And people would say, oh, that’s terrible, you’re taking away his right to free speech. Well, he’s going in.”

Reader, it happened.

In a series of tweets March 17 and 18, President Trump made a number of inaccurate or misleading statements about the investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. As a reader service, here’s a quick guide to his claims.

The House Intelligence Committee made no such conclusion. The Republican majority offered a preliminary set of conclusions, released in a one-page summary of a draft 150-page report, which said they found “no evidence of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy” between the Trump campaign and Russia. Democrats on the committee have said the investigation was still incomplete and key witnesses had not been interviewed. The House panel investigation has been deeply split along partisan lines from the start, in contrast to a parallel Senate probe.

The president’s sweeping attack on the FBI, Justice and the State Department appears to mostly refer to former FBI Director James Comey, who Trump fired in 2017, and former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, who was fired late on March 16 for allegedly authorizing disclosures about the details of an investigation into the Clinton Foundation.

Comey, after he was fired, passed a memo concerning a conversation with Trump to a professor, in hopes, he said, that it would be disclosed to the media. The reference to State is more obscure, but it may refer to contacts between two State Department officials and Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the “dossier” that alleged connections between Trump and Russia.

The question of McCabe’s wife’s political activities emerged during the campaign and Trump constantly has gotten it incorrect. The timeline shows any connection to Hillary Clinton is pretty thin, though McCabe claims that Trump brought up his wife in almost every conversation.

On March 12, 2015, Jill McCabe, a hospital physician, announced her candidacy for the Virginia Senate. The political action committee of then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), a close Clinton ally, gave $452,500 to McCabe, and the state Democratic Party gave her campaign an additional $207,788.

That was about one-third of the $1.8 million budget for her campaign.
Meanwhile, on March 2, 2015, the New York Times first reported on Clinton’s email server setup while she was secretary of state. At the time, McCabe’s husband, Andrew McCabe, was running the FBI’s Washington, D.C., field office.

In July 2015, the FBI launched a criminal investigation of Clinton’s server. The D.C. field office provided resources and personnel to the email probe. In September, Andrew McCabe moved to the FBI’s headquarters, taking the No. 3 position.

In November 2015, Jill McCabe lost her race. Three months later, in February, Andrew McCabe became the FBI’s deputy director and part of an executive team overseeing the Clinton email probe.

In any case, it’s hard to see how McAuliffe would know that the husband of someone he was supporting in a Virginia legislative race was going to be promoted months later.

In 2016, reports emerged that the FBI was investigating $120,000 of donations to the McAuliffe’s campaign and inauguration made by U.S.-based companies controlled by Chinese businessman Wang Wenliang.

No charges have been filed.

There are so many things incorrect in this single tweet that it’s hard to know where to begin.

First, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was appointed because Trump fired Comey and then went on television and suggested it was because of the Russia probe. That left the Justice Department little choice but to appoint an independent prosecutor. (Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself, so the decision was made by deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein.) Mueller’s probe has yielded concrete evidence of Russian meddling, including the indictments of Russian individuals and entities.

Second, the investigation did not start with the dossier written by Steele. (Steele was working for political research firm Fusion GPS, which has a contract with a law firm that worked for the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.) Instead, it was a tip from the Australian government, which notified U.S. authorities about a drunken conversation between a Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, and an Australian diplomat in May.

Papadopoulos claimed the Russians had “political dirt” on Clinton. The memo released by the Republican majority of the House Intelligence Committee, which Trump has approvingly cited, confirms the counterintelligence investigation into Russian meddling began in July, 2016, because of the tip about Papadopoulos. The information in the dossier only came to the attention of the FBI later.

Third, there is no evidence the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) application to monitor Carter Page was used to spy on the Trump campaign. On Sept. 26, 2016, Page announced he was taking “a leave of absence” from the campaign. On Oct. 21, the FBI sought and received a FISA court order to begin surveillance on Page. So that was just days before the election — and after Page was no longer part of the campaign.

The order is renewed at least three more times over the next year, meaning that the FBI is able to convince the judges — all appointed by Republicans — that surveillance continues to provide assistance to investigators.

As for the probe being a “witch hunt,” the number of guilty pleas and indictments so far demonsrate that Mueller is finding evidence of malfeasance.

This tweet is prompted by a passage in McCabe’s statement defending himself against charges of unauthorized leaking about the Clinton investigation: “I chose to share with a reporter through my public affairs officer and a legal counselor. As deputy director, I was one of only a few people who had the authority to do that. It was not a secret, it took place over several days, and others, including the director, were aware of the interaction with the reporter.”

During May 2017 testimony, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) asked Comey two key questions: “Director Comey, have you ever been an anonymous source in news reports about matters relating to the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation?”

Comey replied: “Never.”

Then Grassley asked: “Question two, and relatively related: have you ever authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation?”

Comey replied: “No.”

Whether Comey’s answer was untruthful may turn on the question of authorization. McCabe asserts he had the authority to have the conversation with the reporter and that Comey was “aware of the interaction.” But he does not say Comey authorized the conversation — and Grassley did not ask if Comey was aware of anyone in the FBI acting as an anonymous source.

Trump jumped to the conclusion that Comey lied. Nevertheless, Comey’s emphatic responses may cause him trouble.

Just because McCabe supposedly did not take notes, he still could have summarized the conversations for a memo immediately after the conversation. Comey had a practice of emailing his summary to a few close aides, thus creating a record and time stamp. The time between the conversation and the record of it would be an important part of establishing the memo’s credibility.

Mueller is a registered Republican, as is the man who appointed him, Rod Rosenstein. Publicly available voter registration information shows that 13 of the 17 members of Mueller’s team have previously registered as Democrats, while four had no affiliation or their affiliation could not be found, The Washington Post reported.

Nine of the 17 made political donations to Democrats, their contributions totaling more than $57,000. The majority came from one person, who also contributed to Republicans. Six donated to Hillary Clinton.

Federal regulations prohibit the Justice Department from considering the political affiliation or political contributions of career appointees, including those appointed to the Special Counsel’s Office. So Mueller is legally prohibited from considering the political affiliations of the people he has hired.

It’s worth noting that Trump himself was big donor to Democrats, including seven times for Hillary Clinton, before he decided to run for the Republican presidential nomination. Trump switched his party registration at least five times; he was a registered Democrat from 2001 to 2009.

This tweet is prompted by a passage in McCabe’s statement defending himself against charges of unauthorized leaking about the Clinton investigation: “I chose to share with a reporter through my public affairs officer and a legal counselor. As deputy director, I was one of only a few people who had the authority to do that. It was not a secret, it took place over several days, and others, including the director, were aware of the interaction with the reporter.”

During May 2017 testimony, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) asked Comey two key questions: “Director Comey, have you ever been an anonymous source in news reports about matters relating to the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation?”

Comey replied: “Never.”

Then Grassley asked: “Question two, and relatively related: have you ever authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation?”

Comey replied: “No.”

Whether Comey’s answer was untruthful may turn on the question of authorization. McCabe asserts he had the authority to have the conversation with the reporter and that Comey was “aware of the interaction.” But he does not say Comey authorized the conversation — and Grassley did not ask if Comey was aware of anyone in the FBI acting as an anonymous source.

so they can continue controlling the Black population and with any luck eliminate it like their founder Sanger wanted to.

Sanger was indeed a believer in eugenics, but the basic concept that humanity could be improved by selective breeding was an article of faith for many in the years before World War II. Winston Churchill, Herbert Hoover, Theodore Roosevelt, George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells all supported the movement. African-American leader W. E. B. Du Bois backed many of its principles as well.

Although the eugenics movement included some who had racist ideas, wanting to create some sort of master race, "only a minority of eugenicists" ever believed this, according to Ruth Engs, professor emerita at the Indiana University School of Public Health and an expert in the movement.

At the time that Sanger was active, Engs wrote, "the purpose of eugenics was to improve the human race by having people be more healthy through exercise, recreation in parks, marriage to someone free from sexually transmitted diseases, well-baby clinics, immunizations, clean food and water, proper nutrition, non-smoking and drinking."

It’s a far cry to equate eugenics with advocating the elimination of black people.

"My name is Marlon, but my family calls me BOTUS. It's short for Bunny of the United States."

These are the words of Marlon Bundo, a pet rabbit belonging to Vice President Mike Pence - or at least, these are his words according to a children's book presented by Last Week Tonight presenter John Oliver in a bid to rival Pence's own book about the bunny.

The original book, Marlon Bundo's A Day in the Life of the Vice President, was written by Mr Pence's daughter Charlotte and illustrated by his wife Karen. It tells the story of the VP through the eyes of his family's rabbit.

Oliver's rival book, A Day In The Life of Marlon Bundo, penned by Last Week Tonight writer Jill Twiss and illustrated by E.G. Keller, tells the story of the same pet as he falls in love with and marries another male rabbit - taking aim at Pence's history with LGBT rights.

When announcing the book launch on his show, John Oliver said there were "a few small differences" between his book and Pence's.

"Our rabbit has a bow tie," said Oliver. "Also, our story is about Marlon Bundo falling in love with another boy rabbit."

Oliver said profits from the book would be donated to the Trevor Foundation, which aims to prevent suicide of LGBT young people, and AIDS United, which has a mission to end AIDS in the United States.

Proceeds of Pence's book will be donated to Tracy's Kids, an art therapy program, and A21, a charity which aims to end sex trafficking.

Oliver's parody book has been praised online, with one person calling it "an act of subversive brilliance".

Some people instead praised the audio book, which features Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons as Marlon Bundo, with Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson voicing love interest Wesley.

Parsons married his boyfriend in 2017 while Ferguson, who married his boyfriend in 2013, has also declared his support for Modern Family featuring a transgender child.

The discussion continued on Reddit's subsection dedicated to politics, where John Oliver was labelled "a real life superhero" and praised for highlighting charities which were "doing great work".

But one person called Oliver's book "petty" and "mind-numbingly stupid," among comments - mostly urging people to buy the unofficial parody - posted on the official Marlon Bundo Instagram account.

"Oliver's response book seeks to tear down Pence through his wife," read another criticism.

An Orange County middle school teacher’s Twitter posts criticizing Muslims and seeming to endorse white supremacy groups have upset some parents at the school, who learned about the social media writings this week.

“Orange County middle school teacher has an incredibly racist Twitter account...retweeted an anti-Muslim post by Identify Evropa, a white supremacist group that aims to create a white ethnostate.”

Oh, and let me offer you a hearty and robust WHO CARES about your limited understanding of what either I or others write. It falls into the category of tough ti&&y, no one gives a crap.

Jim Carrey‏Verified account @JimCarrey · Mar 17


This is the portrait of a so-called Christian whose only purpose in life is to lie for the wicked. Monstrous!