Russia

Authored by Wayne Madsen via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Authored by Matt Taibbi via RollingStone.com,

Amid the chaos of James Comey's firing, new questions about the timeline of his fateful investigation

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper appeared on This Week Sunday, and said some head-scratching things.

In the "he said, she said" world of unconfirmed, unsourced political intrigue, on Friday the US went to sleep with fresh news of the latest diplomatic snafu by Trump, when the NYT reported that during his president with the Russian Foreign minister Lavrov on May 10, Donald Trump said that Comey is a "nut job" and that his firing "eased pressure" from the ongoing Russian investigation.

The exchange in question:

Over the past week a lot of digital ink has been spilled trying to preview and predict what will take place during Trump's first official mammoth visit abroad, when over the next 8 days after an overnight flight on Air Force One, Trump will hopscotch from Saudi Arabia to Israel to the Vatican. He’ll close his trip with a pair of summits in Brussels and Sicily. The stakes are great for Trump who makes his debut on the international stage: he’s the first president since Jimmy Carter to not travel abroad during his first 100 days in office.

Authored by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

“With the stroke of a pen, Rod Rosenstein redeemed his reputation,” writes Dana Milbank of The Washington Post.

What had Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein done to be welcomed home by the Post like the prodigal son?

Without consulting the White House, he sandbagged President Trump, naming a special counsel to take over the investigation of the Russia connection that could prove ruinous to this presidency.