Manafort, Podesta Group highlight DC swamp culture

President Trump has railed against the “swamp” of Washington, D.C. There could be no better illustration of how that swamp operates than the Manafort-Podesta affair. We do not know whether Mueller will pursue other aspects of the D.C. swamp, such as the Clinton Foundation and its pay-to-play antics.

go to TheHill.com

Steele dossier farce shows why Trump relies on Twitter

The Washington Post’s “fact check” of the dossier concludes that it consists of “rumors that couldn’t be independently verified” and claims “that would have been publicly known.” Its grand conclusion: “Although it’s impossible to say that the dossier is entirely inaccurate (there are some glimmers of accurate predictions), it is also impossible to say that it has been broadly validated.”

Trump haters surely had hoped for more than “some glimmers of accurate prediction” from the Post. The Post, however, consoles its readers with the fact that there is still hope: The “unsatisfying answer has a side effect: It gives either side of the political fight all the ammo that it might want.” In other words, keep up the good fight.

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Why Was Obama's Justice Department Silent On Criminal Activity By Russia's Nuclear Agency?

The failure of this “gang of four” to blow the whistle on Rosatom means they must recuse themselves from any Russian investigations, Robert Mueller included. The attempts in Washington to link Trump with Russia may turn out to shine light on much bigger scandals. It is time to investigate the investigators.

go to forbes.com

Sadly, we must rely on Russian oligarchs to reveal truth on Trump dossier

What a mess! U.S, citizens must rely on Russian oligarchs — not their elected representatives or the Justice Department and FBI — to learn the truth of the Trump dossier, which continues to serve as the tottering foundation of the Trump-Russia collusion story.

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The Black Swan of the Russian Revolution

go to Independent Review (note: behind a firewall)

Like the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Revolution caught almost everyone off guard. Contrary to Marxist-Leninist dogma, the Bolsheviks’ victory resulted not from communism’s alleged inevitability but rather from a series of coincidences and accidents that could have been otherwise.

Obama's DOJ slow-walked probe despite national security concerns

Given their tarnished record, the American public should ask whether Robert Mueller, Rod Rosenstein and Andrew McCabe should be allowed to preside over any investigation of Donald Trump’s Russian connection, for which no evidence appears to exist other than a dodgy dossier.

We can understand Trump’s outrage at his newly-appointed attorney general’s decision to appoint a special prosecutor. The FBI and Justice Department should investigate the Clinton-Russia connection, but given their record, can they be trusted? 

go to the Hill.com