May 20, 2018


News and Views


IF I WIN THREE OR FOUR MILLION DOLLARS ON THE LOTTO AND GET TO LIVE ANOTHER FIFTY OR SO YEARS, I WILL GO HERE, AND LOTS OF OTHER PLACES, UNLESS CLIMATE CHANGE REALLY DOES KILL EVERYTHING OFF EXCEPT THE ANIMALS THAT WE SHELTER IN ZOOS AND RAISE ON SPECIAL PRESERVATION FARMS. I WILL ALSO BUY A COMFORTABLY SIZED COTTAGE AND SETTLE IN UNTIL I BECOME BORED AND DECIDE TO MOVE ON.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/adapt-or-die-cbsn-originals/?intcid=CNM-00-10aag7i
CBS NEWS May 20, 2018, 12:01 AM
Adapt or die: Can evolution outrun climate change?

Across the planet, animal and plant species are on the run. A rapidly changing climate is shifting when and where plants blossom, and forcing creatures big and small to migrate and learn new tactics for survival.

It's a trend that's likely to accelerate as scientists expect to see more extreme weather events — intensifying storms and droughts, and greater temperature fluctuations on land and sea. To understand the impact, researchers are flocking to a unique, living lab: the Galapagos Islands.

The Galapagos, a remote, rocky archipelago 500 miles off the coast of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean, are home to animals that don't exist anywhere else in the world — animals so unique that they inspired Charles Darwin to formulate the theory of evolution after his famous voyage aboard the H.M.S. Beagle in the 1830s.

Species like giant tortoises, marine iguanas, flightless cormorants and finches with finely-tuned beaks evolved in isolation here over millions of years — since long before humans walked the Earth. But today, those that fail to adapt to their changing environment within the space of a few brief generations may face the prospect of extinction.

iguana.jpg
An iguana perches on the Galapagos' rocky coast. CBS NEWS

CBSN Originals traveled to the Galapagos to see firsthand how the effects of both climate change and adaptation are playing out right now.

The coral detective
Marine biologist Jon Witman from Brown University comes to the Galapagos regularly to monitor the effects of climate change on the evolutionary process.

"It's been stated that the Galapagos is the natural laboratory for evolution. And we're saying that it's a natural laboratory for studying climate change and evolutionary responses to climate change," Witman told CBS News' Adam Yamaguchi.

He said evolutionary changes that once unfolded over hundreds of thousands of years are now happening before our eyes.

"It's a major new perspective in evolutionary biology and ecology, because it's forcing ecologists like me to think about adaptation and natural selection on the period of ten years or so," he said.

Witman's team is focused on understanding the impact underwater, diving to inspect the health of coral reefs and see how changes in water temperature may be shaping changes in marine species.

Part of what they're looking for is the impact of repeated El Niño systems, which he calls "the greatest modulator of climate on the planet." El Niño is a complex weather phenomenon that results in a warming of Pacific Ocean waters, which can devastate marine populations. Its counterpart, La Niña, cools the water and helps foster growth and recovery in the ecosystem.

These warming and cooling cycles test the resilience of species to withstand opposite extremes.

Coral will bleach and eventually die if the water becomes too warm or too cold. And since 90 percent of marine species — from algae all the way up the food chain — rely on the habitat of coral reefs, the consequences are far-reaching.

15 creatures that could disappear with the Great Barrier Reef

Witman is concerned about evidence that climate change may make the naturally-occurring El Niño and La Niña cycles more frequent and more extreme — pushing nature's resilience to a breaking point. Will animals be able to cope?

"That's the $64 million question* that we want to answer," he said. "Yes and no. I think the no part is that the El Niño stress may recur so frequently that the species that are stressed don't have enough time to recover before the next El Niño comes.

"There's no doubt we are in an unprecedented period of global stress in terms of climate impacts. And basically the natural world is being hit by what I call the big three. Certainly climate change is up there. Habitat destruction by humans is absolutely key. And we're also adding pollution to the ecosystem. It sounds pretty grim, and it is grim."

The penguin wrangler
There are fewer than 1,000 Galapagos penguins on the islands, and Gustavo Jimenez is on a mission to capture every last one of them. The researcher and his team work day and night to chase down and scoop up the birds so that they can be measured and studied, then released back into the wild.

"We're worried what happening in the planet. The planet is just — is one, just one house for everybody, for every species. So we know we need to protect them," Jimenez said.

He's tracking the health of the penguins and whether they're having babies. The data he gathers on this endangered species will be critical to understanding how the changing climate may affect their feeding and breeding patterns — and may help find clues to evolutionary changes the species is undergoing.

Their survival is not assured. The planet is currently experiencing one of the greatest extinction events since the dinosaurs disappeared 65 million years ago. While extinction is a natural phenomenon, with one to five species historically being lost each year, these days it's occurring at 1,000 to 10,000 times the natural rate. Dozens of species worldwide are being lost forever every single day.

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The Galapagos Islands are home to many unique bird species. CBS NEWS

It's a threat potentially facing the flightless cormorant, a bird Yamaguchi calls an "oddity of evolution." Somewhere around two million years ago, its evolutionary path diverged from other cormorants and it lost the ability to fly. The Galapagos cormorants didn't need to fly; they could find all the food they needed in the waters off the islands' jagged rocks, so they developed powerful legs and webbed feet to help them become strong swimmers instead.

Penguins share those rocks, nesting in pairs in the cave-like crevices. Jimenez said climate change is having a noticeable impact on them, forcing penguins to move their nests to higher ground. The researchers keep a record of each location.

The penguins' ability to adapt — which helped this species thrive near the equator while most penguins chill in Antarctica — offers their best hope for the future. But this time around, they may not have millions of years to figure it out.

"Maybe the time is smaller than before, and the problem is how they could adapt … in that short time," Jimenez said.

Darwin's finches today

Researcher Jaime Chaves is a self-described "bird geek" who's taken an interest in studying Darwin's finches — the very species that helped inspire Charles Darwin's landmark book, "The Origin of Species," in 1859.

Darwin documented how the beaks of these small birds varied from island to island to take advantage of available food sources. Those with sharp beaks feasted on insects while others with short, stout beaks plucked seeds from the ground. Natural selection meant those best suited to their environments thrived and multiplied, while others struggled and died out. Eventually they developed into 14 distinct species.

Chaves and his team string up very fine netting between the trees to capture finches for study.

"We're gonna analyze and collect the data on their morphology, that is, how different their beaks are," he explained. "The beak shape is one of those traits in birds that is so key because it will determine the fate of that group."

Chaves and his students track minute changes, year to year, in the shapes and sizes of the finches' beaks as the flocks adapt to the varieties of food available. Those with inadequate beaks don't survive. And because the finches breed two or three generations every year, "in so little time, you can see evolution in action," he said.

These rapid adaptations may give it an advantage for survival in a changing world. In 2017, researchers discovered that an entirely new species had been formed when a wayward bird mated with another finch species and produced offspring. Chaves expects to see more of that happening globally as various species migrate.

But it won't always work. "Many species will not be able to make it," he said, echoing the concerns Jimenez expressed for the penguins and Witman for the coral ecosystem. "For many species in which you have this limitation of time, you might be too late."

It may be the ultimate test of the survival of the fittest, and many species — even our own — could lose out.

"I think the issue right now that we have is that the changes are happening in such a short period of time. The same amount of change that you've seen happening in a couple of millions of years has happened in the last 40 years," Chaves said. "From our perspective of humans, we have understand that it's our responsibility that these changes are happening because [of] our own mishandling of the planet."

It's no longer enough for animals to evolve. They have to adapt now, adapt fast — or die.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

*$64 MILLION QUESTION*
HOW MANY OF YOU REMEMBER WHEN THIS WAS THE $64 THOUSAND DOLLAR QUESTION? IT WAS A VERY POPULAR TV SHOW, ALONG WITH ANOTHER SIMILAR SHOW CALLED “THE MILLIONAIRE,” A MAN SO WEALTHY THAT HE GAVE NUMEROUS PEOPLE (ONE AT A TIME, OF COURSE, SO THE PRODUCERS COULD MAKE A HUMAN DRAMA OUT OF EACH EPISODE.) IT ACTUALLY WAS A GOOD SHOW. AND WHO DIDN'T WANT A VERY WEALTHY MAN TO PICK THEIR NAME (BY WHAT MEANS?)


IF TRUMP WOULD DO FEWER UNDERHANDED, FINANCIALLY AND POLITICALLY OVERBOLD AND ILLEGAL THINGS, HE WOULDN’T HAVE TO WORRY SO MUCH. WHAT DID HE THINK ALL THE CONNECTIONS WITH RUSSIA WOULD CAUSE IN THE INTELLIGENCE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT COMMUNITIES, AND WITH MOST OF THE LEGISLATURE AS WELL? MOST PEOPLE, EVEN THE CONSERVATIVES, CARE ABOUT AMERICA.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/20/president-trump-says-he-demand-justice-department-probe-into-fbi-informant/627162002/?csp=chromepush
President Trump says he will demand Justice Department probe into FBI's use of informant
Deirdre Shesgreen, USA TODAY Published 2:39 p.m. ET May 20, 2018

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Sunday said he would “demand” a Justice Department investigation into whether the FBI “infiltrated” his 2016 presidential campaign.

“I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes — and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!” Trump said in a tweet Sunday.

The president’s tweet — one of about a half-dozen angry social media posts he wrote on Sunday — was an apparent reference to reports in theNew York Times and Washington Post that a secret FBI source met with Trump campaign officials several times during the 2016 campaign. The informant was reportedly working for FBI as part of its investigation into Russian interference with the American election.


Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes - and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!

1:37 PM - May 20, 2018
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Both the Times and the Post reported last week the unnamed informant met with Carter Page, then a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, and George Papadopoulos, an unpaid campaign adviser, to gather intelligence on possible contacts between the Trump operation and Russian officials.

The stories have infuriated Trump and his allies, who allege the informant was planted inside Trump’s campaign by the FBI to spy “for political purposes.”

“Reports are there was indeed at least one FBI representative implanted, for political purposes, into my campaign for president,” Trump tweeted on Friday. “… If true - all time biggest political scandal!”

But the informant was not “implanted” in the campaign, according to the media reports.

Here’s what the Times reported last week:

“F.B.I. agents sent an informant to talk to two campaign advisers only after they received evidence that the pair had suspicious contacts linked to Russia during the campaign. The informant, an American academic who teaches in Britain, made contact late that summer with one campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, according to people familiar with the matter. He also met repeatedly in the ensuing months with the other aide, Carter Page, who was also under F.B.I. scrutiny for his ties to Russia," the story says.

Some of Trump’s most ardent supports in Congress have demanded information from the Justice Department about the confidential informant. Justice Department officials have said revealing that information would endanger the agency’s sources and methods — potentially risking lives.

On Sunday, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he had not seen any evidence to suggest an informant was placed inside the Trump campaign. And he said any move to reveal the identity of a secret FBI source would be illegal and should be prosecuted.

“The first thing you learn when you get involved with the intelligence community is that you need to protect sources and methods and that if you were to out or to burn such an agent, that person's life could be in jeopardy,” Warner said on CBS’ Face the Nation. “And I find it outrageous that the president's allies are in effect playing fast and loose with confidential information.”



YESTERDAY’S REPORT ON THIS SUBJECT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/05/19/trumps-increasingly-tortured-claims-about-muellers-russia-probe/
Trump’s increasingly desperate, tortured claims about the Russia probe
By Aaron Blake May 19 [2020]

The Trump team's strategy on the special counsel's Russia investigation is to foment chaos, throw things at the wall, and worry about the facts later — or not at all.

The New York Times's Maggie Haberman on Friday crystallized this in a CNN interview. “The through line is: They don't care,” she said. “They're not looking to be seen as making this credible argument. They are just looking to get a win.”

.@MaggieNYT: We talk a lot about the White House "telling falsehoods" or being "uninformed," but "they don't care; they are not looking to be seen as making this credible argument. They are just looking to get a win." pic.twitter.com/TEiyi1YBYe

— New Day (@NewDay) May 18, 2018

Exactly. Regardless of whether Trump or his aides did anything wrong with regards to Robert S. Mueller III's Russia investigation, it's notable just how often they have cast aside logic and reality in defending themselves. Plenty have surmised that this is because the truth is so damning; the alternative is that they just aren't very good at this and/or “don't care.”

But it's worth emphasizing just how seldom their arguments have been made in good faith or with any real logical backbone. The White House has gone further than even most politicians generally go in stretching the bounds of legitimate discourse — including more than once this week.

The most recent example of this strategy is the supposed FBI informant within the Trump campaign. After Trump tweeted about the possibility that the FBI had "implanted" someone in his campaign "for political purposes" -- apparently based on pure speculation -- the New York Times and The Washington Post both reported Friday night that it was actually an American academic who met with multiple members of the Trump campaign, not a "spy."

Below is a recap of five of the most tortured arguments put forward to undermine the Russia investigation.


President Trump, announcing the withdrawal of the United States from the Iran nuclear deal earlier this month. (Jabin Botsford/Washington Post)
Mueller's probe is bogus because there's no proof of collusion yet

This is perhaps the most popular talking point among Trump's most vocal supporters. If the investigation is legitimate, they argue, why haven't we seen any demonstrable proof of collusion yet? It has been a whole year!

The answer, of course, is that it's an ongoing investigation, and we probably know only about a tiny fraction of the evidence collected. The only hints we get about what is going on behind closed doors has come from people outside the investigation who have participated in one form or another and from a few court filings that Mueller has been compelled to file. Like any other prosecutor, Mueller has a huge interest in concealing his hand before he absolutely has to reveal it.

In other words: We would never have expected to see evidence of collusion by now. That doesn't mean it does or doesn't exist. And the idea that we haven't seen it rolled out publicly means basically nothing. It's not a serious argument.

The FBI was spying on the Trump campaign

The flavor of the month for Trump and his defenders has to do with an alleged FBI informant who was working for the Trump campaign. This is being used to substantiate the idea that there is a witch hunt with a predetermined outcome.

Trump this week repeatedly seized upon a speculative argument from the National Review's Andrew McCarthy.

Wow, word seems to be coming out that the Obama FBI “SPIED ON THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN WITH AN EMBEDDED INFORMANT.” Andrew McCarthy says, “There’s probably no doubt that they had at least one confidential informant in the campaign.” If so, this is bigger than Watergate!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 17, 2018
He even suggested that the informant was “implanted” by the FBI, “for political purposes.”

Reports are there was indeed at least one FBI representative implanted, for political purposes, into my campaign for president. It took place very early on, and long before the phony Russia Hoax became a “hot” Fake News story. If true - all time biggest political scandal!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2018

Except ... that was based on secondhand reports that were admittedly speculating and drawing inferences. Even Trump's attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani admitted Friday that Trump doesn't know whether someone was “implanted.” And now we find out that it wasn't someone insider the campaign after all. The Times and The Post aren't naming the academic, because the FBI believes it could endanger the source, but both reports describe a decidedly non-controversial arrangement.

And yet, this was being billed by Trump as potentially the “all time biggest political scandal” and, in Giuliani's estimation, something that would require shutting down the Mueller probe.

Obama wiretapped Trump Tower

Speaking of that Giuliani interview, he actually acknowledged in it that a past Trump theory about being surveilled by law enforcement still hasn't been proven. That would be Trump's 14-month-old tweet alleging that Barack Obama wiretapped Trump's offices during the 2016 campaign.

“For a long time, we've been told that there was some kind of infiltration,” Giuliani said. “At one time, the president thought it was a wiretap. There were some FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] applications. We've never been notified that he was on a — on a tap or an intercept.”

Never mind that Trump stated this as fact.

Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
If there is anything this episode should demonstrate, it's that Trump isn't exactly discerning in his conspiracy theories and that his claims of an “implanted” FBI informant probably shouldn't be taken at face value. If Trump knows something, he should say it. Until then, skepticism is more than warranted.

Russia didn't affect the election results

Central to Trump's argument that the Russia investigation is bogus is the idea that Russian interference in the 2016 election either didn't occur or (more often) didn't matter. Trump and those close to him have repeatedly cited nonexistent evidence that Russia didn't affect the election results.

First, it involved pointing to the intelligence community's initial assessment of Russian interference. Then the White House re-upped it when Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein spoke about indicting 13 Russians in February.

Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President. The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong - no collusion!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 16, 2018
Except neither the intelligence assessment nor Rosenstein actually weighed in on this question. The intelligence assessment said explicitly that it wouldn't do so, and Rosenstein said there was “no allegation in the indictment of any effect on the outcome of the election.” That's not even close to saying there was no effect, though; it just means the indictments didn't address such an unknowable thing.

The fact that this bogus talking point has persisted for 16 months now is as much proof as we need that the Trump team isn't operating in good faith.

The unverified Steele dossier formed the basis of the Russia probe

This was the entire purpose of the Nunes memo: to suggest the Russia investigation was predicated on a bogus Steele dossier that was used to justify monitoring Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

The problems? The memo's main substantiation of that claim was a contested paraphrase of testimony that top FBI official Andrew McCabe gave behind closed doors to the House Intelligence Committee — not even a direct quote. And secondly, even the Nunes memo acknowledged that the Russia investigation began months before the Steele dossier was used in a FISA application. The original launching point was apparently Papadopoulos's boozy claim that Russia had dirt on Hillary Clinton.



“.... IF HE HAD BOTHERED TO ACTUALLY READ IT HIMSELF RATHER THEN PARROT THE FOX NEWS DISTILLATION AND DISTORTION OF THE STORY, HE WOULD SEE THAT IT NOT ONLY DOESN’T INDICATE THAT NO COLLUSION WITH RUSSIA HAS BEEN FOUND, BUT THAT IT EXPANDS THE NUMBER OF COUNTRIES HE’S ACCUSED OF COLLUDING WITH.”

THIS IS JUST TYPICAL LYING – TRUMP’S MAIN POLITICAL TACTIC. AS BERNIE SANDERS SAID OF HIM, HE’S A “COMPULSIVE LIAR,” NOT JUST “WICKED” LIAR; ALTHOUGH WHEN HIS LIES HURT OTHERS AND/OR OUR COUNTRY THAT IS DESPICABLE IN MY VIEW.

https://washingtonpress.com/2018/05/20/trump-junior-got-caught-red-handed-and-his-father-angrily-set-out-to-put-out-the-fire-2/
Trump just threw a level ten tantrum over his son’s latest corruption scandal
BY VINNIE LONGOBARDO
PUBLISHED ON MAY 20, 2018

It seems that despite his lack of a law degree and a demonstrated disdain for actually believing in the rule of law, President Trump would really prefer to be holding the position of Attorney General.

What other conclusion can be drawn from what appears to be one of his longest tweet storms ever this morning?

If Trump’s paranoia and the intensity of his backlash are directly related to the level of pressure he feels from the encroaching investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, then the plethora of developments of the last week has put Trump in an explosive Mt. Kilauea mode.

Typically for the President’s Spring 2018 collection of tweets, the subjects covered in today’s cascade of molten verbal detritus were primarily the “Crooked” media, his litany of collusion denials, attacks on “Crooked” Hillary Clinton, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, “Witch Hunts,” and various other Democratic “what-about-isms” that he conjures up to distract from his own mountain of misdeeds.


Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Things are really getting ridiculous. The Failing and Crooked (but not as Crooked as Hillary Clinton) @nytimes has done a long & boring story indicating that the World’s most expensive Witch Hunt has found nothing on Russia & me so now they are looking at the rest of the World!

9:04 AM - May 20, 2018
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Well, it’s hard to argue with Trump’s first sentence here, although the reasons for seeing the ridiculousness of the situation are likely quite different for the president and the rest of us.

While Trump may try to spin The New York Times scoop yesterday about the newly revealed 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Saudi, Emirati, and Israeli representatives eager to aid his election efforts as a long and boring story. if he had bothered to actually read it himself rather then parrot the Fox News distillation and distortion of the story, he would see that it not only doesn’t indicate that no collusion with Russia has been found, but that it expands the number of countries he’s accused of colluding with.

Literacy does have its value, Mr. President.


Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
....At what point does this soon to be $20,000,000 Witch Hunt, composed of 13 Angry and Heavily Conflicted Democrats and two people who have worked for Obama for 8 years, STOP! They have found no Collussion [sic] with Russia, No Obstruction, but they aren’t looking at the corruption...

9:11 AM - May 20, 2018
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Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
...in the Hillary Clinton Campaign where she deleted 33,000 Emails, got $145,000,000 while Secretary of State, paid McCabes wife $700,000 (and got off the FBI hook along with Terry M) and so much more. Republicans and real Americans should start getting tough on this Scam.

9:19 AM - May 20, 2018
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The only response to this portion of the tweet storm is that the Republican investigations of Benghazi and Hillary Clinton’s email server went on for two and half years, cost millions, and found nothing, so shut the f#@k up.

Trump divisive reference to “real” Americans, i.e., anyone not opposed to him, is another example of how his dog-whistle race-baiting is embedded in virtually his every utterance. His mangling of the facts of the issues he brings up will be accepted as truth by his base, while those who bother to do their research into the real facts will simply get further insight into Trump’s media manipulation techniques.


Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Now that the Witch Hunt has given up on Russia and is looking at the rest of the World, they should easily be able to take it into the Mid-Term Elections where they can put some hurt on the Republican Party. Don’t worry about Dems FISA Abuse, missing Emails or Fraudulent Dossier!

9:29 AM - May 20, 2018
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Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
What ever happened to the Server, at the center of so much Corruption, that the Democratic National Committee REFUSED to hand over to the hard charging (except in the case of Democrats) FBI? They broke into homes & offices early in the morning, but were afraid to take the Server?


9:37 AM - May 20, 2018
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Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
....and why hasn’t the Podesta brother been charged and arrested, like others, after being forced to close down his very large and successful firm? Is it because he is a VERY well connected Democrat working in the Swamp of Washington, D.C.?

10:04 AM - May 20, 2018
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The final three tweets in this extended disco mix of Trump’s greatest hits focus primarily on attacking Democrats in preparation for the intense battle for control of Congress in the midterms.

Trump starts by again falsely asserting that “the Witch Hunt has given up on Russia,” before setting up the “what-about-isms” that he hopes will prevent a Democratic victory in the mid-terms that could be the prelude to his impeachment.

Clearly, Trump appears like he wants to be prosecuting these matters himself in a court of law. rather than merely appealing to the court of public opinion on social media. However, even he knows that he’s no lawyer and given his proven history of being allergic to basic facts (3,000 untrue or misleading statements in 466 days in office as of May 9th, according to CNN, or 6.5 lies per day), his credibility with those who haven’t drunk his kool-aid is in tatters.

Outside of being a gauge of how close to uncovering the truth Mueller’s investigatory team really is, Trump’s tweets are worthless and should be seen as the desperate childish screams of anger at getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar that they are.

Add your name to millions demanding Congress take action on the President’s crimes. IMPEACH TRUMP & PENCE!

VINNIE LONGOBARDO
VINNIE LONGOBARDO IS A 35-YEAR VETERAN OF THE TV, MOBILE & INTERNET INDUSTRIES, SPECIALIZING IN START-UPS AND THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA BUSINESS. HIS PASSIONS ARE POLITICS, MUSIC AND ART.



POLITIFACT’S ANSWER TO TRUMP’S QUESTION:

[Says John Podesta "refused to give the DNC server to the FBI and the CIA. Disgraceful!"
— Donald Trump on Friday, July 7th, 2017 in a tweet]

NOTE: POLITIFACT DENIES THIS CLAIM.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/jul/11/donald-trump/did-john-podesta-deny-cia-and-fbi-access-dnc-serve/.
Did John Podesta deny CIA and FBI access to DNC server, as Donald Trump claims?
By Manuela Tobias on Tuesday, July 11th, 2017 at 11:12 a.m.

PHOTOGRAPH -- Donald Trump speaks at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany on July 8, 2017. (AP)

Trump tweeted that "everyone here is talking about why John Podesta refused to give the DNC server to the FBI and the CIA."

Trump’s premise here is wrong. Podesta had nothing to do with the DNC server because he didn’t work at the DNC; he worked for Clinton’s campaign. The DNC claimed they received no direct requests from the CIA, and the CIA did not comment.

The DNC says it cooperated with the FBI, providing information on the server through a third-party vendor.The FBI provided no comment, but then-FBI director Comey said it was an appropriate substitute.


Share The Facts
Donald Trump
President of the United States

Says John Podesta "refused to give the DNC server to the FBI and the CIA. Disgraceful!"
in a tweet – Friday, July 7, 2017



FORMER CIA HEAD JOHN BRENNAN HAS GIVEN ONE MORE CREATIVE AND ARTICULATE LAMBAST FOR THE DAY AGAINST THE WORST OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY: THE “CON-MAN-DER-IN-CHIEF”, PAUL RYAN, & MCCONNELL. FOR THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OR SO THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATORS WERE SPEAKING OUT AGAINST TRUMP, BECAUSE THEY WERE DISMAYED ABOUT WHAT HE DID AND SAID, AND THE UNBELIEVABLE CHAOS IN THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH. THEN, ALMOST IN UNISON, THEY (NEARLY) ALL BEGAN TO DEFEND TRUMP, IF THEY WERE NOT PRAISING HIM. I DO BELIEVE THEY MUST PASS OUT THE SCRIPTS THAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO USE.

https://washingtonpress.com/2018/05/20/pres-obamas-cia-director-just-issued-a-blistering-attack-on-mcconnell-and-ryan-for-silence-on-trumps-fbi-tantrums/
Pres. Obama’s CIA director just issued a blistering attack on McConnell and Ryan for silence on Trump’s FBI tantrums
BY VINNIE LONGOBARDO
PUBLISHED ON MAY 20, 2018

The man that the right-wing will ignore and denounce as part of the “Deep State”, John Brennan, the former CIA Director under President Obama, just issued a powerful accusation against the two top Republican leaders in Congress, placing the blame for any damage done to our democracy by the destructive tactics of President Trump squarely at their feet.


John O. Brennan
✔
@JohnBrennan
Senator McConnell & Speaker Ryan: If Mr. Trump continues along this disastrous path, you will bear major responsibility for the harm done to our democracy. You do a great disservice to our Nation & the Republican Party if you continue to enable Mr. Trump’s self-serving actions. https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/998256454590193665 …

4:35 PM - May 20, 2018
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Brennan was responding to the latest in a veritable tornado of tweets vomited forth from the paranoid mentality of our Con-Man-der-in-Chief this morning after a week of further revelations about the depths of the collusion and obstruction that he doth protest too much against.


Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes - and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!

1:37 PM - May 20, 2018
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Trump’s attempts to discredit our nation’s law enforcement agencies to save his own ample, but poorly protected posterior, have Brennan’s blood boiling over the failure of the two mainstream Republican leaders, one already a lame duck, to even utter a peep of reproach to the President over his deceitful and hateful rants.

Of course, with the disclosure of Russian payments to the NRA which in turn donated copious amounts of campaign cash to multiple members of the GOP, the entire Republican party is implicated in the same collusion that the president is mired in now.

While the former CIA Director may be properly assigning the blame for the failure to reign in an out-of-control incipient autocrat, Brennan is likely to be disappointed to see his attempts to shame the Republican Congressional leadership into rising to defend our democracy end in failure.

The only thing that Speaker Ryan and Majority Leader McConnell will be defending at this point will be their own self-interests and that means trying to keep their control of Congress and their own butts out of prison for their own obstructions of justice as they put party over country again and again.

VINNIE LONGOBARDO
VINNIE LONGOBARDO IS A 35-YEAR VETERAN OF THE TV, MOBILE & INTERNET INDUSTRIES, SPECIALIZING IN START-UPS AND THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA BUSINESS. HIS PASSIONS ARE POLITICS, MUSIC AND ART.