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The famous "dossier" on Donald Trump – supposedly compiled by British ex-MI6 spook Christopher Steele, acting as a contractor for Glenn Simpson and Fusion GPS, themselves contractors for the Hillary Clinton campaign – "salacious and unverified" though it might have been, was "crucial" to the FBI's efforts to obtain the original FISA on Carter Page as well as the three renewals of that FISA.  That the "dossier" was "salacious and unverified" we have on the authority of disgraced former FBI director James Comey, and that it was "crucial" to the Carter Page FISA is attested by the equally disgraced former deputy...

On a cloudy afternoon this summer, Christine Hallquist, a former utility executive from Vermont, listened closely as Danica Roem, the Virginia state delegate who won national recognition when she became the first transgender person elected to her state’s Legislature, offered tips as the pair canvassed a stark residential neighborhood here. Ms. Hallquist is transgender, too, but Ms. Roem’s advice had nothing to do with gender identity. Try a light, rhythmic knock. Leave a handwritten note with campaign literature if no one is home. Try to earn every vote. “I have so much to learn,” Ms. Hallquist said, duly incorporating Ms....

Omarosa Manigault-Newman appeared irritable and fumed at Savannah Guthrie before abruptly cutting off an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show on Monday morning, claiming she had another interview to get to minutes after proclaiming, “I’ve got all the time you need.” Manigault-Newman was on the morning show to share a recording of a conversation she says she had with President Trump the day after she was fired by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. Guthrie began the interview by playing the recording and plugging Manigault-Newman’s new book, “Unhinged,” but things quickly turned awkward. Guthrie asked the former “Apprentice” star if...

Left-wing billionaire Tom Steyer said perhaps there could be a "nuclear war" that would provide a "real course correction" to Donald Trump's presidency during an interview published by Rolling Stone.

Video at link. Actor and producer Rob Reiner has news for President Trump: He’s the first commander in chief to be supported by the “mainstream media.” The man who starred as “Meathead” in the television series “All in the Family” says Mr. Trump is shielded from criticism by the mainstream media. He made the claim while talking politics Friday with the ladies of ABC’s “The View.” “This is the first time also in American history where we have had a president — every president uses propaganda to sell a policy — Republicans and Democrats,” Mr Reiner said...

Publicly fretting about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, last month, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin assured an audience at the Economic Club of Washington that "one of the things we will be working very closely with the G-20 on is making sure that this doesn't become the Swiss numbered bank accounts." He specifically cited the difficulty cryptocurrencies pose to tracking transactions as a major concern. Soon afterward, India's finance minister, Arun Jaitley, sounded an even stronger note, saying, "The government does not consider crypto-currencies legal tender or coin and will take all measures to eliminate use of these crypto-assets in financing illegitimate...

It seems the movements in Syrian skies are telling a story of an impending confrontation between the United States and Russia. Yes, the planes keeping watch over Syria belong to Russia, but Putin is Assad’s keeper. It is almost as if Assad is the child, and Putin is the father. Make no mistake about it, this looming war will be fought between the US and Russia. At this time, Iran is making decisions for Syria, as Assad is holed up in a Russian bunker. While Iran is filling Assad’s shoes, Russia is filling his skies. Russian jets have been routinely...

After being offered an opportunity to sing the national anthem before a Nevada minor league baseball game, a woman has decided to turn it down after learning that she can’t bring her gun to the stadium. Alishia Wolcott was picked by the Reno Aces to sing after she submitted an audition tape in March, she told Fox News. But after she and her husband went to the stadium on Saturday to attend a game as spectators, they saw security included metal detector wands, which she claimed was a new measure this year. "Upon walking up to the stadium we saw...

The news these days often sounds pretty wild and far fetched. But, over at MSNBC's AM Joy, host Joy Reid and the gang speculated the possibility of federal marshals placing the commander in chief in handcuffs and hauling him before special counsel Robert Mueller, should President Donald J. Trump choose to ignore a subpoena in the ongoing Russian interference probe. But, Joy Reid wondered, what would happen if President Trump became a recluse at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and refused to leave the White House? Upon the possibility that the Donald would refuse to testify, guest attorney Nicholas Akerman dreamt...

Roger Stone communicated privately with an entity directly involved in hacking the Democratic National Committee ahead of the 2016 White House race, The Smoking Gun has reported Mr. Stone, a veteran political consultant, swapped private Twitter messages last year with “Guccifer 2.0,” the website reported citing an unnamed source. If accurate, the allegation means Mr. Trump’s longtime confidante and one-time presidential campaign manager spoke in private with a persona intimately implicated in the operation that helped dash Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s chance at the White House, and would undeniably amplify existing concerns regarding Trump’s alleged ties to Russia. Indeed, the...

Grab some popcorn: Redmond has asked for feedbackMicrosoft’s about to test a new feature of Windows 10 that will force users to employ its Edge browser under some circumstances.Revealed in the announcement of Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17623 for Skip Ahead, the change means “we will begin testing a change where links clicked on within the Windows Mail app will open in Microsoft Edge”.Microsoft’s justification for the change is that Edge is the best, most secure browser on Windows 10.But the change will reportedly override users’ preference for default browser.While that’s naughty in lots of ways and makes Microsoft’s...

Barbra Streisand partly blamed President Trump for the high school mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, saying the president’s actions and rhetoric “brings out the violence in people.” Speaking to Variety magazine in an interview published Tuesday, the 10-time Grammy-winning singer suggested that 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who fatally shot 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, was “affected” by Mr. Trump’s election.

Former CIA Director John Brennan had harsh words for House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes on Sunday morning, calling the controversial four-page “FISA memo” created by Nunes’ staffers “exceptionally partisan” and that Nunes has “abused the office” by refusing to allow Democrats on his committee to make their own rebuttal document public. “That Devin Nunes and Republicans denied the ability of the minority, the Democratic members of that committee, to put out its report is just appalling. I think it, it really underscores just how partisan Mr. Nunes has been. He has abused the office of the chairmanship of HPSCI. And...

Litigation may be as American as apple pie, but some lawsuits are so destructive that they stand out even among the hugely expensive wreckage wrought by our legal system. The most prominent current example is the "children's" climate lawsuit (Juliana v U.S.): A group of kids, including "future generations, through their guardian Dr. James Hansen," claim that the government's actions and failures to act have caused climate change, thus violating the youngest generation's constitutional rights to life, liberty and property, and have failed to protect essential public trust resources. I leave the numerous legal issues to the lawyers, although precisely...

David Bossie responds to New York Times article. Video at link House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, in a recently published profile of President Trump, gave a stinging criticism of the president’s early months in office, suggesting his “lack of knowledge" for the job was tantamount to somebody without a medical degree “being asked to perform brain surgery.” “The bigger problem, the thing people need to understand, is that he was utterly unprepared for this,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a New York Times story published this weekend about Trump’s daily routine. “It would be like you or me going into a...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a Little Rock audience over the weekend that her husband’s first White House bid was successful in large part because Fox News Channel did not exist. Bill Clinton, his wife, and long-time ally James Carville convened at the Clinton Foundation on Saturday night to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his presidential election. The trio discussed changes to the political landscape with the advent of social media when the brainchild of media mogul Rupert Murdoch took center stage. “Unfortunately, our body politic’s immune system has been impaired because there has been a concerted effort...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Monday called it “sad” that President Trump did not make human rights a priority during his meeting with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte. The White House said the two leaders “briefly” discussed human rights in the context of Duterte’s drug crackdown, but the Philippine president’s spokesman said the issue was not discussed. Since taking office in 2016, Duterte has carried out a “war on drugs,” which has led to thousands of killings of suspected drug dealers and users, according to Human Rights Watch. Trump praised Duterte at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, saying the...

Rep. Adam B. Schiff, who is leading House Democrats’ inquisition into Trump-Russia collusion, has not given up on proving that his party’s financed, Kremlin-sourced dossier is true. The Californian pressed his case again this month during a long closed hearing with former Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page to try to revive what had become dormant charges of criminal conduct. Mr. Schiff, who on Wednesday labeled President Trump “the worst president in modern history,” previously said that one of his main objectives for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence investigation is to find which dossier parts are true. In the...

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Tuesday told The Associated Press that Russia and some of President Trump’s policies are a threat to American democracy. While Russia poses an external threat, “in many respects, the challenge from within is more serious because we have a president who takes issue with the First Amendment and a president who describes the press as the enemy of the people,” Schiff said. He also cited Trump’s criticism of judges who rule against him and his efforts to limit immigration from Muslim-majority countries as threats to democracy, adding that Trump is attempting to undermine the ongoing...

A Dallas man who reportedly traveled to the nation’s capital for the purpose of killing “all white police” at the White House was arrested, according to the Secret Service. The Secret Service says its Protective Intelligence Division was notified at around 2:55 p.m. Monday by the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland to be on the lookout for Michael Arega. SNIP The Secret Service located Arega on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue near Lafayette Park where he was detained and arrested by uniformed officers at around 4:05 p.m., officials say. He was not armed with a weapon when he...