I don't want to put the blame on Margaret Brennan or Face the Nation, because she's far from the only journalist to do this.

THE MEDIA MUST STOP USING THE PHRASE "MEDDLING" WITH RESPECT TO VLADIMIR PUTIN'S DIRECTION TO HACK THE 2016 ELECTION.

Full stop. Using the term 'meddling' vastly minimizes exactly what Putin has essentially admitted to doing: interfering in our democratic process for a specific result, against the will of the people of this country. He is not some hapless would-be crook from a Scooby Doo cartoon

He has ATTACKED this nation and weakened the very foundation of our democracy. Without a single bullet or casualty, Vladimir Putin has declared war on the sovereignty of this nation.

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Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, a longtime confidante of Donald Trump, on Sunday told CNN that the network could get more interviews with him if reporters promised only praise.

In a Sunday interview, CNN media analyst Brian Stelter asked Ruddy to suggest to Trump that more administration officials be made available to the network, given Trump's particular focus on CNN as "fake news" and encouraging his staffers to refuse interviews with the network.

"I’m glad you’re here, Chris, and I hope you’ll suggest to the president to make more Trump aides available," Stelter said.

"Next week, could we do a program about all of the president's economic successes?" Ruddy proposed. "Can we do that?"

"I just get one hour to talk about the media," Stelter explained.

"If I could get [White House economic adviser] Larry Kudlow to come on, would you be open to it?" Ruddy asked.

"I'm sure many people at CNN would love to interview Larry," Stelter acknowledged.

"Maybe the president will come on if you just talk about his economic successes," Ruddy advised.

Many Congressional Republicans were shocked—SHOCKED!—this week at Donald Trump’s humiliation in Helsinki. Like the rest of the world, they watched in real time as an American president kowtowed on foreign soil to a dangerous adversary of the United States. Siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the repeated conclusions of the unified American intelligence community and the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, Trump once again rejected the idea of Moscow’s ongoing interference in U.S. elections that began in 2016. “Make no mistake about it,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned, “I would say to our friends in Europe, we understand the Russian threat and I think that is the widespread view here in the United States Senate among members of both parties.”

But that’s not all McConnell said after Trump shamed himself and his nation on the global stage:

"We may take up legislation related to this. In the meantime, I think the Russians need to know there's a lot of us who fully understand what happened in 2016, and it really better not happen again in 2018.” [Emphasis added.]

Mitch McConnell should know. After all, he was one of the Gang of 8 Congressional leaders briefed by the Obama White House in August 2016 on the strategy and scope of the Kremlin’s cyber-aggression designed to tilt the presidential election to the Republican Donald Trump. But McConnell chose partisan advantage over patriotism, warning Obama of hell to pay from the right if the president went public about the Russian attacks.

Of course, it was hardly the first time that right-wing rage—or even just the threat of it—led American policymakers and law enforcement officials to backtrack, change course, or just remain silent. After all, in 2016 former FBI Director James Comey went public with the Bureau’s investigations of Hillary Clinton while withholding information about the growing Trump-Russia scandal, precisely because of the withering conservative hell storm he would face if did anything else. And as a quick glance back shows, from the fate of the Bush torture team and raising the debt ceiling to the battle over Obamacare and even the 2000 Florida recount, the focused fury and organized outrage of the ranting right led press and politicians alike to edit their options and alter history.

Marco Rubio joined Jake Tapper on CNN "State of The Union" this morning to discuss a variety of Trump-related issues. To say he showed a moderately functioning spine would be a lie - it had the consistency of overcooked pasta.

Regarding Putin coming to the White House (vomit) and the symbolism (vomit) behind it and how offensive it is to most Americans (gag):

TAPPER: The White House says plans are in the works to bring Vladimir Putin to the white house for a meeting in the fall. what's your reaction and do you think if Putin comes to town he should also come to Capitol Hill?

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From a report: O.K., it's not that surprising. But what did surprise two psychologist as they attempted to get to bottom of why so few people actually send thank yous is that many people totally "miscalibrate" the effect of an appreciative email. They underestimate the positive feelings it will bring. "They think it's not going to be that big a deal," said Amit Kumar, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies well-being. They also overestimate how insincere the note may appear and how uncomfortable it will make the recipient feel, their study found. But after receiving thank-you notes and filling out questionnaires about how it felt to get them, many said they were "ecstatic," scoring the happiness rating at 4 of 5. The senders typically guessed they'd evoke a 3. To be clear -- the notes in question were not your typical "thanks for the Amazon gift card." Rather, the 100 or so participants in each of the four experiments were asked to write a short "gratitude letter" to a person who had affected them in some way. Sample letters included missives of appreciation to fellow students and friends who offered guidance through the college admissions process, job searches and tough times. In lab experiments, Dr. Kumar observed that it took most subjects less than five minutes to write the letters. Further reading: Finding Emails With Certain Variation Of Thank You Vastly Improves Response Rate, Study Finds; and Apparently, People Say 'Thank You' To Self-Driving Pizza Delivery Vehicles.

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A collection of wallpapers that include a variety of rich colors is the best way to showcase your iPhone’s premium screen. Today’s Wallpapers of the Week try to capture that color pallet with a selection of animated scenes. From bright yellows to cool blues, the wallpapers are a great addition to our collection.... Read the rest of this post here

"Crisp and colorful anime landscape wallpapers" is an article by iDownloadBlog.com.
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Never mind the information in the newly released FISA memos show very clearly why the FBI was completely justified in surveilling Carter Page, Trump's propagandists over on state-run TV are still using them as an excuse to undermine Robert Mueller.

Trump was tweeting up a storm this Sunday, thanking Judicial Watch and lying about what their FOIA request revealed:

Congratulations to @JudicialWatch and @TomFitton on being successful in getting the Carter Page FISA documents. As usual they are ridiculously heavily redacted but confirm with little doubt that the Department of “Justice” and FBI misled the courts. Witch Hunt Rigged, a Scam!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2018

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CNN host Jake Tapper on Sunday confronted former Trump campaign staffer Carter Page with evidence that he admitted being an "adviser" to the Kremlin.

During an interview on CNN's State of the Union, Tapper noted that a recently released FISA warrant said the FBI believes Page has been "collaborating and conspiring" with the Russian government.

Throughout the interview, Page repeatedly dodged questions about his connections to the Kremlin.

"The document accuses you of being a -- quote -- agent of a foreign power. Were you?" Tapper asked.

"Jake, this is so ridiculous," Page replied. "It's just beyond words. You know, it's -- you're talking about misleading the courts. It's just so misleading going through the 400 plus page documents, where do we even begin? It's literally a complete joke. It only continues. It's just really sad."

"Were you ever an agent of a foreign power?" Tapper pressed. "Did you ever advise the Kremlin or work with the Kremlin on anything?"

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All roads may lead to Rome, but once you get there, good luck taking the subway. The sprawling metropolis is expanding its mass transit system -- a sluggish process made even slower as workers keep running into buried ancient ruins. From a report: "I found some gold rings. I found glasswork laminated in gold depicting a Roman god, some amphoras," says Gilberto Pagani, a bulldozer operator at the Amba Aradam metro stop, currently under construction not far from the Colosseum. Pagani is part of an archaeological team at the site, a certified archaeological construction worker trained to excavate, preserve and build in cities like Rome, with thousands of years of civilization buried beneath the surface. The presence of ancient artifacts underground is a daunting challenge for urban developers. For archaeologists, it's the opportunity of a lifetime. "I think it's the luckiest thing that's ever happened to me, professionally speaking," says Simona Morretta, the state archaeologist in charge of the Amba Aradam site. "Because you never get the chance in a regular excavation to dig so deep. That's how we've found architectural complexes as important as this."

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Michael Avenatti, attorney for alleged Trump mistress Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, on Sunday called out Alan Dershowitz for having a poor record of accuracy when it comes to predicting outcomes for the president's legal troubles.

During a panel discussion on ABC's This Week, host George Stephanopoulos reported that tapes had been leaked of Trump speaking to former personal attorney Michael Cohen. Trump claimed the two minute tape is exculpatory because he is heard saying that he cannot purchase the rights to the story of one of his alleged former mistresses, former Playboy Playmate Karen Mcdougal.

Avenatti argued that the release of the tape would impact Daniels' case against Trump "in a big way."

"I can tell you that for a fact there are multiple tapes," Avenatti revealed. "There are multiple tapes of President Trump, number one. That's first of all. That ultimately is going to prove to be a big problem for the president. You know that old adage, 'you live by the sword and die by the sword,' will be true in this case because the president knew his attorney had a predisposition towards taping conversations with people, and Cohen had shared tapes with the president along the way during the ten years of legal representation."

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In the first episode of Season 3 on ABC’s hit TV show Scandal, Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) gets an epic lecture from her father, Rowan (played by the brilliant Joe Morton). By this time in the fictional world created by writer Shonda Rhimes, the country knows what viewers have known since early in Season 1, that Olivia Pope is the mistress of the president of the United States. Rowan knows that the successful, overachieving daughter he raised is about to experience hell—not only for being outed as the woman who is sleeping with the married Republican president but also, or perhaps especially, because she is a black woman. As he addresses his soon-to-be-disgraced daughter, he reminds her of a lesson he taught her throughout her childhood: that she, as a black person, has to be twice as good as them (meaning white people) to get half as much as what they have.

The show about politics and scandal in Washington, which ended its seven season run this April, was wildly unrealistic in so many ways—though in today’s political climate, the fictional world of Scandal seems way more normal and saner than our current reality. However, this particular scene and what Rowan was attempting to impart to Olivia is a concrete reality for many black people of a certain age who heard the exact same thing from our own parents. 

Tucker Carlson’s plan to demonize Democrats as dangerous criminals, while posturing as a voice of reason, didn’t quite work out as he planned when he tried to debate Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) over Trump’s treasonous behvior in Helsinki.

As I’ve repeatedly noted, Carlson seems unable to debate like a grownup. And, since he has previously faced off with the formidable Swalwell, Carlson took some extra time before the discussion to smear Democrats with lies and the kind of inflammatory rhetoric he was pretending to dislike:

CARLSON: The left has run out of possible verbal attacks on President Trump – there are none left – all that’s left is violence.

Carlson never cited anyone promoting violence, just verbal confrontations, occupations and noisy demonstrations. Yet he concluded, “Why wouldn’t you use violence” listening to all the verbal criticism of Trump. “Harassment and occupation could easily turn into something far worse,” Carlson continued. “The left is recklessly egging it on.”

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Megan Zahneis, writing for The Chronicle of Higher Education: Academics have traditionally distrusted Wikipedia, citing the inaccuracies that arise from its communally edited design and lamenting students' tendency to sometimes plagiarize assignments from it. Now, LiAnna Davis, director of programs for Wikipedia's higher-education-focused nonprofit arm Wiki Education, said, higher education and Wikipedia don't seem like such strange bedfellows. At conferences these days, "everyone's like, 'Oh, Wikipedia, of course you guys are here.'" "I think it's a recognition that Wikipedia is embedded within the fabric of learning now," she said. One initiative Davis oversees at Wiki Education aims to forge stronger bonds between Wikipedia and higher education. The Visiting Scholars program, which began in 2015, pairs academics at colleges with experienced Wikipedia editors. Institutions provide the editors with access to academic journals, research databases, and digital collections, which the editors use to write and expand Wikipedia articles on topics of mutual interest. A dozen institutions, including Rutgers University, Brown University, and the University of Pittsburgh, are participating.

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Last October, in “God, guns … and Russia?” I wrote about the magnanimous contribution that the NRA made to the election of Donald Trump. The gun group endorsed him on May 20, 2016, much earlier in the election cycle than they had ever before endorsed a Republican presidential candidate. From Politico’s report on the pushback of the membership to the endorsement:

To endorse so early in the process is virtually unprecedented for the group; they didn’t get behind Mitt Romney in 2012 and Sen. John McCain in 2008 until October.

That, and the $30 million spending pledge struck me as odd at the time, but it wasn’t until later that the ties between the NRA and the woman now sitting in a jail cell awaiting trial became clearer. I wrote about Maria Butina’s Russian gun rights organization, The Right to Bear Arms, and her work with the Russian banker and politico Alexander Torshin, who was a lifetime member of the NRA.  The close ties between the Russians and the NRA has led to speculation that the NRA money for Trump’s election campaign may have come from Russia.

As I wrote last October:

The Right to Bear Arms hosted a delegation from the NRA during the same time frame. Attendees included David Keene, NRA board member Pete Brownell, NRA donor Joe Gregory, and Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke, he of the boy-scout-merit-badge-covered uniform shirt who became a top Trump surrogate. They not only met with Torshin and Butina, but with a sanctioned Russian, ​​​​according to Tim Mack of The Daily Beast.

“In March 2014, the U.S. government sanctioned Dmitry Rogozin—a hardline deputy to Vladimir Putin, the head of Russia’s defense industry and longtime opponent of American power—in retaliation for the invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

Eighteen months later, the National Rifle Association, Donald Trump’s most powerful outside ally during the 2016 election, sent a delegation to Moscow that met with him.”

In a story earlier this week, Popular Science magazine explored an age-old topic: Do people need to safely eject a USB stick before they pull it from their computer? The magazine's take on it -- which is, as soon any ongoing transfer of files is complete, it is safe to yank out the flash drive -- has unsurprisingly stirred a debate. Here's what the magazine wrote: But do you really need to eject a thumb drive the right way? Probably not. Just wait for it to finish copying your data, give it a few seconds, then yank. To be on the cautious side, be more conservative with external hard drives, especially the old ones that actually spin. That's not the official procedure, nor the most conservative approach. And in a worst-case scenario, you risk corrupting a file or -- even more unlikely -- the entire storage device. To justify its rationale, the magazine has cited a number of computer science professors. In the same story, however, a director of product marketing at SanDisk made a case for why people should probably safely eject the device. He said, "Failure to safely eject the drive may potentially damage the data due to processes happening in the system background that are unseen to the user." John Gruber of DaringFireball (where we originally spotted the story), makes a case for why users should safely eject the device before pulling it out: This is terrible advice. It's akin to saying you probably don't need to wear a seat belt because it's unlikely anything bad will happen. Imagine a few dozen people saying they drive without a seat belt every day and nothing's ever gone wrong, so it must be OK. (The breakdown in this analogy is that with seat belts, you know instantly when you need to be wearing one. With USB drives, you might not discover for months or years that you've got a corrupt file that was only partially written to disk when you yanked the drive.) I see a bunch of "just pull out the drive and not worry about it" Mac users on Twitter celebrating this article, and I don't get it. On the Mac you have to do something on screen when you eject a drive. Either you properly eject it before unplugging the drive -- one click in the Finder sidebar -- or you need to dismiss the alert you'll get about having removed a drive that wasn't properly ejected. Why not take the course of action that guarantees data integrity?

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The Electra Team has so much going on as of late that it feels like the jailbreak community is experiencing a revitalizing rebirth. And for anyone who likes installing jailbreak tweaks, that’s excellent news.

In this roundup, we’ll discuss all the jailbreak tweaks released in Cydia from July 16th to July 22nd. As usual, we’ll discuss our favorite ones first and then outline the rest afterward.... Read the rest of this post here

"LiveRings, Semperon, and more jailbreak tweaks to try this weekend" is an article by iDownloadBlog.com.
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When it comes to listening to podcasts on iOS, there are so many great options. The Apple Podcast app comes built into every iOS device with syncing. It’s certainly a great app, but is it the best? On iOS, users have countless third-party options as well. My goal for this article is to break down some of the major podcast apps, and then determine which is best. more…

It’s unclear who initially came up with the Twitter hashtag #VoteLikeBlackWomen, but it is one that everybody should heartily embrace. Had it been the guiding principle for not-black Democrats and folks who call themselves progressives during the 2016 election, we would not be fighting for our lives against a white supremacist traitor ruling over a Republican party which is happily supporting racism, misogyny, homophobia, Islamophobia, and xenophobia.  

My mom raised me to believe voting was a sacred duty, and to honor the sacrifices of my ancestors who fought and died to garner the ballot—against all odds.

I was thinking about the women of my family when I tweeted this last week:

x

I'm proud to be a black woman today - the group that wholeheartedly voted for Hillary and not  #TraitorTrump.  In spite of how this country has treated us over the centuries and up until today - we are the true patriots.  Bless you-grandma, mama, aunties, sisters and daughters.

— Denise Oliver-Velez (@Deoliver47) July 16, 2018

I vote like those black women.

When the Republican Party of the past offered more breathing space for black folks: we voted for them. When the Dixiecrats, White Citizens Councils, and Klansmen fled into the Republican embrace, the women of my family became staunch Democrats. 

When I made a decision to vote for Hillary Clinton, I did so knowing that my mom would have done so and I followed in her footsteps. No matter my own lefty leanings, black women had spoken. 

x

#votelikeblackwomen
good advice from @Ange_Amene pic.twitter.com/N3x2cJ8Qe2

— mattresstagging (@mattresstagging) May 23, 2018

The young black women (like Amene) and young black men I follow on black Twitter pull no punches. They fight to get Democrats of all colors elected. We are well aware of the fact that we are the ones who have suffered and will continue to bear the brunt of a right-wing controlled Supreme Court.

They point to voting data.  Look at Virginia: