Trump’s Lawyer: It’s Time to End the Mueller Probe

The president’s personal attorney hopes Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein follows ‘the brilliant and courageous example’ of Sessions, who just fired Andrew McCabe.

President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, John Dowd, told The Daily Beast on Saturday morning that he hopes Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will shut down Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russia’s election interference.

Reached for comment by email about the firing of former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Dowd sent The Daily Beast the text of Trump’s most recent tweet on the subject, which applauded the dismissal.

“I pray that Acting Attorney General Rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and bring an end to alleged Russia Collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe’s boss James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt Dossier,” Dowd then wrote.

‘Nunes memo’ published after Trump declassifies controversial document

Trump has allowed the release of the memo, which Democrats say is a crude attempt to undermine Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation.

Republicans on Friday released a controversial memo that alleges an abuse of power by the FBI in its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, after Donald Trump declassified the document and accused top officials of bias.

The House intelligence committee chairman, Devin Nunes, published the memo minutes after the president’s approval, despite a warning from the Department of Justice that it would be a “reckless” act. Democrats have portrayed the memo as a crude attempt to undermine the credibility of the Robert Mueller investigation into possible collusion between the Kremlin and members of the Trump campaign.

The four-page memo, released with a letter from the White House, alleges that the FBI omitted key information when it applied for a wiretap on an adviser of Trump’s campaign. The findings “raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions” with the court that approves surveillance requests, the memo says. It also claims they “represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses”.

Trump reportedly turned on his acting FBI director and mocked his wife in a phone call right after he fired James Comey

• In a phone call right after he fired James Comey as FBI director, President Donald Trump asked the acting director, Andrew McCabe, to ask his wife how it felt to be a loser, NBC News reported.
• McCabe departed the FBI as its deputy director on Monday.

Trump reportedly launched a campaign to discredit potential FBI witnesses

• President Donald Trump reportedly pressed senior aides to launch a campaign to discredit senior FBI officials.
• Trump believed that those senior FBI officials were likely to be witnesses against him in the ongoing Russia investigation.
• Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether Trump’s efforts constituted obstruction of justice.

Trump denies bombshell report that he asked for Mueller to be fired

President Donald Trump has denied a bombshell report that he once ordered the firing of the special counsel leading the investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia, calling the report “fake news.”

The New York Times on Thursday reported that Trump ordered Robert Mueller to be fired last June, one month after Mueller’s appointed as special counsel. Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who had been leading the Russia investigation, in May.

James Comey: Former FBI director questioned for hours by Robert Mueller’s team over Trump-Russia links

Former FBI Director James Comey has been questioned by the special prosecutor probing possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, it has been reported.

Mr Comey, who was fired in May 2017 as Donald Trump became increasingly frustrated by the FBI’s own investigation into possible links to Moscow, was said to have been questioned about a series of memos he kept in which he detailed interactions with the President that “unnerved him”.

In one such memo, which Mr Comey subsequently testified about on Capitol Hill, he noted that Mr Trump had asked him to drop the FBI investigation into former former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

Mueller interviewed Jeff Sessions, making him the first Trump cabinet member to be questioned in the Russia probe

• Attorney General Jeff Sessions was questioned by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office for several hours last week, according to The New York Times.
• This makes Sessions the first sitting cabinet member in President Donald Trump’s administration to be interviewed in Mueller’s Russia probe.
• Sessions is a key figure due to his contacts with a Russian ambassador during the campaign, his role in the firing of former FBI director James Comey, and his presence at the meeting at which a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser pitched a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

New poll suggests Trump’s attacks on the Russia probe and the FBI are having an unexpected effect on voters from both parties

• A new poll finds most Americans want to see special counsel Robert Mueller complete the Russia investigation.
• The NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll published on Wednesday reports that, among national registered voters, 69% say Mueller — whose team of prosecutors is trying to make sense of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign was involved — should be allowed to finish their work.
• When broken down by party, a majority of both Republicans and Democrats expressed the same sentiments.
• The poll released on Wednesday also found a majority of registered voters have some level of confidence in the FBI, despite repeated attacks on the agency from Trump and his allies.

Trump Tower meeting with Russians ‘treasonous’, Bannon says in explosive book

Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon has described the Trump Tower meeting between the president’s son and a group of Russians during the 2016 election campaign as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”, according to an explosive new book seen by the Guardian.

Bannon, speaking to author Michael Wolff, warned that the investigation into alleged collusion with the Kremlin will focus on money laundering and predicted: “They’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.”

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, reportedly based on more than 200 interviews with the president, his inner circle and players in and around the administration, is one of the most eagerly awaited political books of the year. In it, Wolff lifts the lid on a White House lurching from crisis to crisis amid internecine warfare, with even some of Trump’s closest allies expressing contempt for him.

A ‘very forceful’ Trump pushed Republican congressional leaders to shut down the Russia investigation

• President Donald Trump has reportedly been lobbying Republican members of Congress to end their investigations of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.
• Trump urged Sen. Richard Burr, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, to shut down the panel’s Russia inquiry.
• Trump’s lobbying resembles his moves earlier this year to get the FBI Director James Comey to close an investigation into the president’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
• Flynn is a central figure in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, and is thought to be cooperating with Mueller.

Mueller is turning up the heat on Jared Kushner

• President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has reportedly landed in Mueller’s crosshairs.
• Mueller’s team has begun to question witnesses about some of Kushner’s conversations and meetings with foreign leaders during the transition.
• Investigators are also homing in on Kushner’s role in pushing Trump to fire former FBI Director James Comey in May.

White House insiders paint a grim picture of Trump’s increasingly volatile behavior

• Some White House insiders and close associates of President Donald Trump have expressed concern about Trump’s behavior of late.
• Ongoing feuds with members of his own party have isolated Trump as he struggles to implement his agenda.
• Trump’s public fights on social media have only grown more intense including with members of his own party.
• Trump has reportedly found himself isolated in a White House that’s far more subdued under the direction of chief of staff John Kelly.

A cadre of White House insiders and close associates of President Donald Trump have painted a grim picture of an increasingly volatile Trump, who in the last few weeks has found himself at the center of near-constant battles that have frequently spilled out into the public.

Here’s who Trump should pick as the next FBI director

A former FBI agent with more than two decades of service told Business Insider in a recent interview that they believed Fran Townsend, President George W. Bush’s homeland security adviser, would be a great choice for the bureau’s next director.

The former agent, who spoke on background to provide their candid thoughts on the fallout of President Donald Trump’s bombshell firing of FBI Director James Comey last week, said Townsend would check off a lot of boxes for Trump.

Donald Trump ‘has 60% chance’ of being impeached after James Comey firing

Donald Trump’s firing of FBI director James Comey has seen the odds on his impeachment slashed to their shortest ever price.

Bookmaker Paddy Power said its odds reflected a 60 per cent chance of the billionaire being impeached during his first term in office.

Vladimir Putin is having a late career resurgence—in the hockey rink

“We have nothing to do with that.”

Vladimir Putin was put on the spot by an American reporter in Russia last night, asked to comment about US president Donald Trump’s abrupt firing of FBI chief James Comey the day before. Given the controversy about alleged Russian meddling in the recent US election—the subject of a high-profile FBI investigation—it was a fair question to ask the Russian leader.

Trump-Russia investigation: Michael Flynn ordered to hand over papers

A US Senate panel investigating Russian interference in last year’s election has issued a rare formal demand for documents from President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser.

Michael Flynn has failed to voluntarily co-operate with the investigation, the Senate Intelligence Committee says.

The Mysteries and Tragedy of Russia’s Bottomless Karst Lake (PHOTOS)

The water is serene but deathly cold – and danger lurks beneath its surface. Yet, in the aquatic depths the promise of discovering hidden underwater caves and relics of our past awaits. Here, beauty and allure belie risks – but risks that some are prepared to take.

“A sapphire in a ring of green trees.” That’s how this stunning lake has been described. Even on overcast days, the water has a deep, crystal blue color like the gemstone to which it has been compared.

But there is much more than splendor to this lake. Beneath its smooth surface lie mysteries as yet unsolved. And some of these are secrets that the lake will not easily give up; at least, not if the recent tragic death of one diving explorer and the hospitalization of another are read as telltale signs.

9 Magical Zen Gardens

Zen garden is an interesting and deeply spiritual aspect of Japanese gardening traditions. The typical Zen garden consists of an enclosed and shallow sand box of sorts which features predominantly sand or gravel with rocks of various shapes and sizes.

The rocks and sand (or gravel) are the chief elements of the garden, which generally creates the scene of islands in the sea. The sand or gravel in a Zen garden represents the sea or ocean and is used instead of water. It will be carefully raked by tending monks to create the impression of waves on the surface of a body of water.

The rocks themselves represent islands or rock formations jutting out from the water. The overall goal is to create a small-scale recreation of an aerial or cliff-top view of an intricate coastal scene. One of the primary differences between a Zen garden and most other varieties is the lack of living elements. Although grass may sometimes be included, no other plant or flower species will be found in a classic Zen garden.

This can be both unusual and exotically appealing to people with no past experience with the history and meaning of a Zen garden.

The world’s most extraordinary hotels in pictures

Mihir Garh, Rajasthan 
“The fort sits in splendid isolation amid the Thar Desert near Jodhpur. It looks like an enormous sandcastle, a mirage, and is not just a unique place to stay; it’s a shrine to the artistic and architectural traditions of Rajasthan in general and Jodhpur in particular.”

Planet Baobab, Botswana
“Botswana’s Makgadigadi Pan comprises the world’s largest network of salt pans – a thirsty, mirage-inducing landscape of flat, shimmering expanses under hard blue skies. Halfway along the sole tarred road through this arid moonscape, a statue of an anteater towers at the dusty verge. It is a surreal sight, and an appropriate signpost for the distinctive Planet Baobab.”

Prendiparte B&B, Bologna, Italy
“A medieval high-rise turned romantic hideaway, the Torre Prendiparte is unlike anywhere else you’ll ever stay. The living area is on the first two floors and comprises a snug, classically-furnished living room, mezzanine bedroom, and kitchen. Above this is the former jail where you can still see graffiti left by prisoners on the 2m-thick walls.”

Qasr al Sarab, UAE
“Rising from the shifting sands, Qasr Al Sarab appears like a mirage on the edge of the vast Empty Quarter desert. Outside high crenellated walls echo fortresses of old. Inside rooms continue the dream of Arabian Nights with sumptuous fabrics, carved Islamic designs, woven rugs, wooden doors and metalwork lanterns.”

Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge, Tasmania, Australia
“A stay at Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge plunges you into the heart of Tasmania’s wilderness, with luxury that feels as organic as your surrounds. The cabins are nestled privately in the bushland, with wallabies bounding past the windows and wombats shuffling amid the trees.”

Free Spirit Spheres, British Columbia, Canada
“Suspended in the trees on sturdy guide ropes, Vancouver Island’s Free Spirit Spheres look like giant eyeballs peering deep into the British Columbia woodlands. Step inside and the handmade orbs – accessed via spiral rope staircases or slender steel bridges – are lined like comfy boat cabins with built-in beds and cabinets.”

Taskonak Hotel, Goreme, Cappadocia, Turkey
“Göreme has dozens of beautiful cave-hotels but Taşkonak manages to dish up the cave-suites and stupendous views Cappadocia is famous for without breaking your budget.”

Thonga Beach Lodge, iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa
“One of few such lodges within the extraordinary 328,000 hectare iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a Unesco world heritage site.”

Saugerties Lighthouse, New York state, USA
“Saugerties Lighthouse is a historic 1869 landmark that makes a wonderful base for exploring the scenic Hudson valley. It is 100 miles north of New York City, and the red brick building has played a pivotal role in safely guiding steamboats, barges and other vessels safely along the Hudson river over the years. More recently (in the mid 1990s), the lighthouse was transformed into a two-room B&B, providing safe haven of a different sort.”

The Gibbon Experience Treehouse, Bokeo Reserve, Laos
“The tree houses erected by conservation group Animo are a thing of architectural wonder, straddling the giant trunks of strangler fig trees. But more extraordinary still is that to reach these vertiginous eyries you’ll have to trek through the fecund realm of the tiger, then catch a series of exhilarating zip lines strung across the forest canopy, before flying into your night’s accommodation.”

Amazing color pictures from 1960s Budapest

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National Geographic Photo Contest

 

 

 

 

100 years old pictures in colours before World War I

Türkei, Bursa, Ladengeschaeft einer Confiserie, Auguste Leon, 1. Juni 1913

Vietnam. Tonkin, Leon Busy, 1914

Indien, Statue des Heiligen Stiers, Stephane Passet, 29. Januar 1914

Österreich, Wien, Judengasse, Fotograf unbekannt, 23. April 1913

Mongolei, nahe Ulaanbaatar Urga, Stéphane Passet, 23. Juli 1913

Irland, Galway, Marguerite Mespoulet, 26. Mai 1913

Indien, Uttar Pradesh, Agra. Mausoleum Taj Mahal von Shah Jahan für Mumtaz Mahal, Stéphane Passet, 19.-21. Januar 1914

Indien, Amritsar. Marmorne Strasse zum Goldenden Tempel, neben den rituellen Reinigungsbecken, dem Darbar Sahib und dem Hari Mandir, Stéphane Passet, 15. Januar 1914

China, nach Kalgan. Nomadenlager, drei Männer und ein Junge vor einer Jurte, Stéphane Passet, 18.-21. Juli 1912

Water pipe smoking. Samarkand

Mongolei, Ulaanbaatar. Der Finanzminister des unabhängigen Staats Mongolei auf dem Marktplatz, Stéphane Passet, 22. Juli 1913

Major Lazer & DJ Snake – Lean On (feat. MØ)

Listen To A Rare 1965 Recording Of Stanley Kubrick’s Most Profound Interview

When physicist and renowned author Jeremy Bernstein (born December 31, 1929) penned a terrific piece on 37-year-old burgeoning director Stanley Kubrick for The New Yorker, the story gained so much attention that Bernstein was commissioned to write an even more elaborate profile of the legendary filmmaker. Normally Kubrick would have flat-out refused, however, he agreed due to the fact that he shared a common passion with Bernstein — chess. When Bernstein travelled to Oxford, England for the conversation on November 27, 1965 it was also captured on tape. The interview remains to this day one of the most profound conversations with Kubrick ever recorded, and you can listen to it in full below.

Helios – Hope Valley Hill (Arms and Sleepers Remix)

Keith Kenniff – Helios

Mac DeMarco // “Brother” (OFFICIAL SINGLE)

 

Alan Watts: Sense of Nonsense

November 27, 1965: A Rare Recording of Stanley Kubrick’s Most Revealing Interview

“People react primarily to direct experience and not to abstractions; it is very rare to find anyone who can become emotionally involved with an abstraction.”

George Orwell on how to make the perfect cup of tea

Excerpt from Orwell’s fantastic 1946 essay outlining his 11 “golden” rules of tea /

Harald Grosskopf’s 1979 Masterpiece “Synthesist” Is 7 Minutes Of Pure Amazingness

Yesterday TEEN DAZE released a new mixtape which you can stream and download by visiting ThePlayground.co.uk.  The 8-track collection provides a perfect ambient backdrop for pretty much any situation, but the crown jewel of the mixtape is unquestionably Harald Grosskopf’s brilliant track “Synthesist”.

Shanghai Tower (650 meters)

Raskalov and Russian photographer Vadim Mahora broke into and climbed the Gensler-designed Shanghai Tower, soon to be China’s tallest and the world’s second tallest skyscraper at 632 meters (2,074 feet) high. Although the tower will eventually boast the world’s fastest elevators (reaching 40mph), the pair had to climb the 120 flights of stairs by foot (taking them about two hours); they then spent another 18 hours sleeping and waiting for the weather to clear. The staggering resulting images show not just the dizzying heights, but also fantastic views of the adjacent Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center (together, the trio of buildings that are re-defining the Shanghai skyline).

Adam Magyar – Stainless, 42 Street (excerpt)

High speed video recording in NYC at Grand Central station.

Tolkien & Sendak On The Psychology Of Fantasy & The Powerful Effect Of Fairy Tales On The Adult Mind

In March 1939, renowned fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien penned an essay enitled “On Fairy-Stories” which explores the nature of fantasy and the cultural role of fairy tales. His argument is the same — that there is no such thing as “writing for children.” Tolkien writes: “A ‘fairy-story’ is one which touches on or uses Faerie, whatever its own main purpose may be: satire, adventure, morality, fantasy. Faerie itself may perhaps most nearly be translated by Magic — but it is magic of a peculiar mood and power, at the furthest pole from the vulgar devices of the laborious, scientific, magician. There is one proviso : if there is any satire present in the tale, one thing must not be made fun of, the magic itself. That must in that story be taken seriously, neither laughed at nor explained away.”

Tolkien adds: “Creative fantasy, because it is mainly trying to do something else … may open your hoard and let all the locked things fly away like cage-birds.” You can read more excerpts from Tolkien’s essay by visiting BrainPickings.org.

The Aqualibrium Garden – The Future of Food

The Aqualibrium Garden – The Future of Food by “Aqualibrium”

The fish in the self-cleaning aquarium in the bottom chamber of the Aqualibrium Garden provide the nutrients that feed the plants in the self-watering grow space in the upper chamber. This cycle… like nature herself… is automatic, providing the potential to grow an abundance of fresh vegetables, herbs and flowering plants all year.

The Real Walter White (VIDEO)

When AMC’s Breaking Bad premiered in 2008, one of Alabama’s most successful meth cooks was already knee deep in building a massive meth empire. His name? Walter White. In this documentary, Walter tells us the secret behind his product, how he stacked up thousands of dollars per day, and why his partner is now serving two life sentences.

A new industry born from the disaster — LED indoor farm

A new industry born from the disaster — LED indoor farm

Awesome pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope

 

 

 

 

Great Gardens: “Prospect Cottage” by Howard Sooley – NOWNESS

http://vimeo.com/103807651

Great Gardens: “Prospect Cottage” by Howard Sooley – NOWNESS

Speeding Around The World in Under 5 minutes Time Lapse

17 Countries. 343 Days. 6237 Photographs. One incredible journey.

GoPro: Wild Downhill Ride with Claudio Caluori

Claudio Calouri and Will Longden takes us on a wild run through the UCI Downhill Course at Leogang in Austria.

World’s smallest cat – Big Cats

森の木琴

TOUCHWOOD SH-08C http://answer.nttdocomo.co.jp/touchwood/

“TRUMP ANTHEM” — A Bad Lip Reading of Donald Trump

Snow falls in the Sahara desert

The town of Ain Sefra, on the edge of the Sahara desert, was hit by icy weather last week – and even snow.

Snowfall is very rare in the Sahara, despite the fact that it can be cold at night – because there’s rarely enough water around for any kind of precipitation.

Unbelievable Unlikely Animal Friendships Compilation 2017

Winds on this mountain in the US will make it feel like -67C

Temperatures on a mountain peak in the US state of New Hampshire could fall so low you risk getting frostbite in just a couple of minutes.

Micro Wind Turbine

Oxmo Puccino – 365 Jours

The Future Of Transportation

The World in 2050