Hello 'Pussy' this is Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle:
Study finds your grammar “Just Below 6th Grade Level”
Do you have any idea why they feel so ashamed? I do!
Should I remain in bed, leave my country or fight against the dragon?
( see also the story by Wolfgang Hampel,
' Betty MacDonald: Nothing more to say ' )
Betty and Don MacDonald in Hollywood
Nancy and Plum - and Betty MacDonald fan club fans,
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel
and Betty MacDonald fan club research team are going to share very
interesting info on ' Betty MacDonald and the movie The Egg and I '.
Betty MacDonald fan club exhibition will be fascinating with the international book editions and letters by Betty MacDonald.
A Betty MacDonald fan club fan told me that Betty MacDonald wasn't crazy about the movie The Egg and I.
Is this true and what do you think of the The Egg and I movie and the Ma and Pa Kettle sequels?
That's a great photo. You can see Betty MacDonald - and our Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Darsie Beck!
Betty MacDonald fan club exhibition will be fascinating with the international book editions and letters by Betty MacDonald.
A Betty MacDonald fan club fan told me that Betty MacDonald wasn't crazy about the movie The Egg and I.
Is this true and what do you think of the The Egg and I movie and the Ma and Pa Kettle sequels?
That's a great photo. You can see Betty MacDonald - and our Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Darsie Beck!
Betty MacDonald fan club fans are especially fond of egg cookbooks and of celebrity
recipes. The Favorite Egg Recipes of Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray was published in a booklet form by the National Egg Board as an
advertising compliment to their movie, "The Egg and I."
In 1947, Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray stared in "The Egg and I." The movie was based on Betty MacDonald's book of the same name. It was a wildly popular account of her life as a young bride on a chicken farm. When I say The Egg and I was a popular book, I mean that in less than a year it sold a million copies! The film rights were quickly sold and in 1947 the book became a movie with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray.
In addition to Colbert and MacMurray, the film co-stared Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride as Ma and Pa Kettle. (The co-stars have nothing to do with egg recipes, but I am a huge fan of Ma and Pa Kettle) Main was nominated for an Academy Award for best Supporting Actress but she lost to Celeste Holm in "Gentleman's Agreement." (It is so hard to win for comedy!) After all the publicity, practically everyone involved with the book was sued. According to the folks down on the farm, old Mrs. MacDonald portrayed them negatively and they wanted monetary gains for being made to look foolish! And they did indeed get paid, but enough about them.
The Favorite Egg Recipes of Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray features introductions by the two stars, a recipe from each bearing their names, and a handful of additional egg recipes. What do they say about the egg?
According to Colbert: "The egg is really one of the greatest boons to womankind, ranking with the sewing machine, the electric washer, the permanent wave and the right to vote."
According to MacMurray: "The egg, for my money, is the best friend of any man ever trapped in the kitchen."
I love eggs as much as the next person, but I am not sure I would equate them with voting rights. What a difference seventy years makes. Well we are still eating eggs, still voting, and still drinking. Of course, today we are drinking alcohol. In 1947 such drinking, especially endorsed by the family friendly National Egg Board, was frowned upon. Here is an eggy julep for you, in the truest sense of a sweet, flavored drink, as opposed to the kind that most often feature a good shot of bourbon. Egg and I Julep
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups orange juice, strained
1/3 cup lemon juice, strained
Crushed ice, club soda
Blend eggs, sugar and salt. Add fruit juices. Shake or beat until sugar is dissolved. pour over finely cracked ice to fill tall glasses 1/2 full. Add club soda slowly. Stir.
Serve promptly.
Feel free to add a big ol' glug of bourbon
Vita Magica by Wolfgang Hampel is really fascinating and very interesting.
Wolfgang Hampel introduces life and work of Betty MacDonald at Vita Magica January 2017.
Wolfgang Hampel and Friends of Vita Magica visited Minister of Science of Baden-Württemberg, Theresia Bauer in Stuttgart.
They visited Landtag and had a great time there.
We are looking for your favourite city for International Betty MacDonald fan club event 2017.
Send us your votes please.
Deadline: January 31, 2017
Do you have any books by Betty MacDonald and Mary Bard Jensen with funny or interesting dedications?
If so would you be so kind to share them?
Our next Betty MacDonald fan club project is a collection of these unique dedications.
If you share your dedication from your Betty MacDonald - and Mary Bard Jensen collection you might be the winner of our new Betty MacDonald fan club items.
Thank you so much in advance for your support.
Thank you so much for sending us your favourite Betty MacDonald quote.
You'll be able to read more info during January.
We are so glad that our beloved Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli is back.
New Betty MacDonald documentary will be very interesting with many new interviews.
Alison Bard Burnett and other Betty MacDonald fan club honor members will be included in Wolfgang Hampel's fascinating project Vita Magica.
Very exciting Betty MacDonald fan club news!
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel is going to present life and work of Betty MacDonald in Vita Magica January 2017.
You'll be able to read more info during January!
Vita Magica December was very successful.Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel invited a very famous author.
The visitors enjoyed Vita Magica very much.
A great event!
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel interviewed Betty MacDonald's daughter Joan MacDonald Keil and her husband Jerry Keil.
This interview will be published for the first time ever.
New Betty MacDonald documentary will be very interesting with many interviews never published before.
We adore Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli
Thank you so much for sharing this witty memories with us.
Wolfgang Hampel's literary event Vita Magica is very fascinating because he is going to include Betty MacDonald, other members of the Bard family and Betty MacDonald fan club honor members.
It's simply great to read Wolfgang Hampel's new very well researched stories about Betty MacDonald, Robert Eugene Heskett, Donald Chauncey MacDonald, Darsie Bard, Sydney Bard, Gammy, Alison Bard Burnett, Darsie Beck, Mary Bard Jensen, Clyde Reynolds Jensen, Sydney Cleveland Bard, Mary Alice Bard, Dorothea DeDe Goldsmith, Madge Baldwin, Don Woodfin, Mike Gordon, Ma and Pa Kettle, Nancy and Plum, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and others.
Linde Lund and many fans from all over the world adore this funny sketch by Wolfgang Hampel very much although our German isn't the best.
I won't ever forget the way Wolfgang Hampel is shouting ' Brexit '.
Don't miss it, please.
It's simply great!
You can hear that Wolfgang Hampel got an outstandig voice.
He presented one of Linde Lund's favourite songs ' Try to remember ' like a professional singer.
Thanks a million!
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli and our 'Italian Betty MacDonald' - Betty MacDonald fan club honor member author and artist Letizia Mancino belong to the most popular Betty MacDonald fan club teams in our history.
Their many devoted fans are waiting for a new Mr. Tigerli adventure.
Letizia Mancino's magical Betty MacDonald Gallery is a special gift for Betty MacDonald fan club fans from all over the world.
Don't miss Brad Craft's 'More friends', please.
Betty MacDonald's very beautiful Vashon Island is one of my favourites.
I agree with Betty in this very witty Betty MacDonald story Betty MacDonald: Nothing more to say by Wolfgang Hampel.
I can't imagine to live in a country with him as so-called elected President although there are very good reasons to remain there to fight against these brainless politics.
Eloquence is a trait valued by debate team coaches but not necessarily needed for the White House. Though their supporters will always defend them, George Washington and George W. Bush are just two of many presidents considered poor public speakers — and there have been many commanders in chief in the two centuries between them who were not necessarily golden-tongued. Now, an academic paper has put some presidents and political candidates’ language on trial. “A Readability Analysis of Campaign Speeches From the 2016 US Presidential Campaign,” released this week by Carnegie Mellon University, analyzed stump speeches to measure their “readability” — the reading level of an address, ranked from first grade to 12th grade. And, according to a summary from the university, the study found “most candidates using words and grammar typical of students in grades 6-8, though Donald Trump tends to lag behind the others.”
Lately,
it appears Trump has gone back into the field to drag in a whole new
bunch of State contenders.
My favorite is Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California, a person you have probably never heard of even though he’s been in Congress since the 1980s and is currently head of the prestigious Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats.
Rohrabacher
is also a surfer and former folk singer who once claimed global warming
might be connected to “dinosaur flatulence.” My favorite is Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California, a person you have probably never heard of even though he’s been in Congress since the 1980s and is currently head of the prestigious Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats.
Don't miss the very interesting articles below, please.
I think the future dinosaur flatulence will be the behaviour of 'Pussy' and his very strange government.
Poor World! Poor America!
The most difficult case in Mrs.Piggle-Wiggle's career
Hello 'Pussy', this is Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.
You took calls from foreign leaders on unsecured phone lines, without consultung the State Department. We have to change your silly behaviour with a new Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle cure. I know you are the most difficult case in my career - but we have to try everything.......................
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel sent his brilliant thoughts. Thank you so much dear Wolfgang!
Hi Libi, nice to meet you. Can you feel it?
I'll be the most powerful leader in the world.
Betty MacDonald: Nothing more to say
Copyright 2016 by Wolfgang Hampel
All rights reserved
Betty MacDonald was sitting on her egg-shaped cloud and listened to a rather strange guy.
He said to his friends: So sorry to keep you waiting. Very complicated business! Very complicated!
Betty said: Obviously much too complicated for you old toupee!
Besides him ( by the way the First Lady's place ) his 10 year old son was bored to death and listened to this 'exciting' victory speech.
The old man could be his great-grandfather.
The boy was very tired and thought: I don't know what this old guy is talking about. Come on and finish it, please. I'd like to go to bed.
Dear 'great-grandfather' continued and praised the Democratic candidate.
He congratulated her and her family for a very strong campaign although he wanted to put her in jail.
He always called her the most corrupt person ever and repeated it over and over again in the fashion of a Tibetan prayer wheel.
She is so corrupt. She is so corrupt. Do you know how corrupt she is?
Betty MacDonald couldn't believe it when he said: She has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country.
Afterwards old toupee praised his parents, wife, children, siblings and friends.
He asked the same question like a parrot all the time:
Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?
I know you are here!
Betty MacDonald answered: No Pussy they are not! They left the country.
They immigrated to Canada because they are very much afraid of the future in the U.S.A. with you as their leader like the majority of all so-called more or less normal citizens.
By the way keep your finger far away from the pussies and the Red Button, please.
I'm going to fly with my egg-shaped cloud to Canada within a minute too.
Away - away - there is nothing more to say!
I can understand the reason why Betty MacDonald, Barbara Streisand, other artists and several of my friends want to leave the United States of America.
I totally agree with these comments:
This
is incredible! I'll You get what you pay/vote for and Trump is the
epitome of this ideology. America I won't feel bad for you because you
don't need my sympathy for what's coming but I am genuinely scared for
you. 'Forgive them lord for they know not who they do' or maybe they do
but just don't care about their future generations who will suffer for
this long after the culprits have passed away.
Daniel Mount wrote a great article about Betty MacDonald and her garden.
We hope you'll enjoy it very much.
I adore Mount Rainier and Betty MacDonald's outstanding descriptions
Can you remember in which book you can find it?
If so let us know, please and you might be the next Betty MacDonald fan club contest winner.
I hope we'll be able to read Wolfgang Hampel's new very well researched stories about Betty MacDonald, Robert Eugene Heskett, Donald Chauncey MacDonald, Darsie Bard, Sydney Bard, Gammy, Alison Bard Burnett, Darsie Beck, Mary Bard Jensen, Clyde Reynolds Jensen, Sydney Cleveland Bard, Mary Alice Bard, Dorothea DeDe Goldsmith, Madge Baldwin, Don Woodfin, Mike Gordon, Ma and Pa Kettle, Nancy and Plum, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and others - very soon.
It' s such a pleasure to read them.
Let's go to magical Betty MacDonald's Vashon Island.
Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Linde Lund and Betty MacDonald fan club research team share their recent Betty MacDonald fan club research results.
Congratulations! They found the most interesting and important info for Wolfgang Hampel's oustanding Betty MacDonald biography.
I enjoy Bradley Craft's story very much.
Don't miss our Betty MacDonald fan club contests, please.
You can win a never published before Alison Bard Burnett interview by Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel.
Good luck!
This CD is a golden treasure because Betty MacDonald's very witty sister Alison Bard Burnett shares unique stories about Betty MacDonald, Mary Bard Jensen, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and Nancy and Plum.
Wolfgang Hampel's Betty MacDonald and Ma and Pa Kettle biography and Betty MacDonald interviews have fans in 40 countries. I'm one of their many devoted fans.
Many Betty MacDonald - and Wolfgang Hampel fans are very interested in a Wolfgang Hampel CD and DVD with his very funny poems and stories.
We are going to publish new Betty MacDonald essays on Betty MacDonald's gardens and nature in Washington State.
Tell us the names of this mysterious couple please and you can win a very new Betty MacDonald documentary.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli is beloved all over the World.
We are so happy that our 'Casanova' is back.
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel
and Betty MacDonald fan club research team are going to share very
interesting info on ' Betty MacDonald and the movie The Egg and I '.
Another rare episode (from March 21 1952) of the short-lived comedy soap opera, "The Egg and I," based on best selling book by Betty MacDonald which also became a popular film.
The series premiered on September 3, 1951, the same day as "Search for Tomorrow," and ended on August 1, 1952.
Although it did well in the ratings, it had difficulty attracting a steady sponsor. This episode features Betty Lynn (later known for her work on "The Andy Griffith Show") as Betty MacDonald, John Craven as Bob MacDonald, Doris Rich as Ma Kettle, and Frank Twedell as Pa Kettle.
Betty MacDonald fan club exhibition will be fascinating with the international book editions and letters by Betty MacDonald.
I can't wait to see the new Betty MacDonald documentary.
Enjoy a great breakfast at the bookstore with Brad and Nick, please.
Have a very nice Sunday
Urs
Another rare episode (from March 21 1952) of the short-lived comedy soap opera, "The Egg and I," based on best selling book by Betty MacDonald which also became a popular film.
The series premiered on September 3, 1951, the same day as "Search for Tomorrow," and ended on August 1, 1952.
Although it did well in the ratings, it had difficulty attracting a steady sponsor. This episode features Betty Lynn (later known for her work on "The Andy Griffith Show") as Betty MacDonald, John Craven as Bob MacDonald, Doris Rich as Ma Kettle, and Frank Twedell as Pa Kettle.
Betty MacDonald fan club exhibition will be fascinating with the international book editions and letters by Betty MacDonald.
I can't wait to see the new Betty MacDonald documentary.
Enjoy a great breakfast at the bookstore with Brad and Nick, please.
Have a very nice Sunday
Urs
Vita Magica
Betty MacDonald
Betty MacDonald fan club
Betty MacDonald forum
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English ) - The Egg and I
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( Polski)
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - LinkFang ( German ) Wolfgang Hampel - Academic ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - cyclopaedia.net ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - DBpedia ( English / German )
Wolfgang Hampel - people check ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Memim ( English )
Vashon Island - Wikipedia ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - Monica Sone - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( French )
Wolfgang Hampel - Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle - Wikipedia ( English)
Wolfgang Hampel in Florida State University
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel
Betty MacDonald fan club interviews on CD/DVD
Betty MacDonald fan club items
Betty MacDonald fan club items - comments
Betty MacDonald fan club - The Stove and I
Betty MacDonald fan club groups
Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Linde Lund
Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Greta Larson
Betty MacDonald fan club fan Heiderose Teynor
Study Finds Trump’s Grammar “Just Below 6th Grade Level”
“It is based on the observation that some words (and grammatical structures) appear with greater frequency at one grade level than another,” Maxine Eskenazi, a scientist in the university’s Language Technologies Institute, and Elliot Schumacher, a graduate student, wrote. “For example, we would expect that we could see the word ‘win’ fairly frequently in third grade documents while the word ‘successful’ would be more frequent in, say, seventh grade documents. We would not see dependent clauses very often at the second grade level whereas they would be quite frequent at the seventh grade level.”
Then, they needed some speeches to analyze.
“A database was collected containing documents from each of the [then] five current presidential candidates: Ted Cruz (5), Hillary Clinton (7), Marco Rubio (6), Bernie Sanders (6), Donald Trump (8),” the paper read. “… They range from the declaration of candidacy speech to campaign trail speeches to victory speeches to defeat speeches.” What about a historical comparison? “We also analyzed the readability of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address … and a speech from Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan,” the researchers wrote.
The results showed that the level of our political discourse had deteriorated — partly because of Trump.?
“Speeches by past presidents while on campaign and the Gettysburg Address were at least at the eighth grade level,” the paper read. “The candidates’ speeches mostly went from seventh grade level for Donald Trump to tenth grade level for Bernie Sanders.”
The researchers also tried to measure “the degree to which the candidate changes their choice of words from one speech to another.” The result appeared to confirm the perception of Hillary Clinton as a chameleon.
?“[Change] could reflect an effort to take into account the different audiences or circumstances (winning or concession speech in a state, for example),” they wrote. “We can see that Hilary Clinton has the highest standard deviation and so the biggest change of choice of words from one speech to another, while Ted Cruz varies the least in his choices.”
Up next was a look at politicians’ grammar.
“We see that George W. Bush had the lowest level and Abraham Lincoln the highest,” the paper read. “Amongst the candidates, levels are between sixth and seventh grades except for Donald Trump (grade 5.7).”
A summary of the study put this result in another light. The linguistic top of the pops, it turned out, was the Gettysburg Address — which came from the pen of a man with little formal schooling.
“In terms of grammar, none of the presidents and presidential candidates could compare with Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address — an admittedly high standard, with grammar well above the 10th grade level,” the summary read. “The current candidates generally had scores between 6th and 7th grades, with Trump just below 6th grade level. President Bush scored at a 5th grade level.”
Vocabulary and Grammatical Comparison (Carnegie Mellon University)
The researchers, who used a measure of readability meant to account for differences between written and spoken language, noted that evaluating public speakers is not easy.
“Assessing the readability of campaign speeches is a little tricky because most measures are geared to the written word, yet text is very different from the spoken word,” Eskenazi said in a statement. “When we speak, we usually use less structured language with shorter sentences.”
Trump, for one, seems to intuit that many of his supporters are not grammarians.
Stephen King Just Summed Up Trump’s Attack On Meryl Streep Brilliantly
By
Posted on
But Trump is incapable of ignoring even the pettiest of slights.
The presidency of the United States is perhaps the most emotionally taxing job in the world, and requires great personal strength and conviction to properly execute. The well-being of millions of people lie in the hands of the president, along with their very lives.
Trump’s inability to let a perceived slight from an actress who didn’t even call him out by name – and his insistent need to insult and demean his critics – shows just how emotionally immature he is and how unqualified he is to lead this nation.
Friday January 13, 2017
Donald Trump news conference 'clear attack on the free press'
President-elect Donald Trump refused to answer questions
from CNN at his first news conference, Jan 11, 2017, declaring the news
outlet as 'fake news.' (Evan Vucci/Associated Press)
more stories from this episode
- Donald Trump news conference 'clear attack on the free press'
- 1 in 10 Canadians can't afford prescriptions: the case for national pharmacare
- Ont.'s anti-human trafficking director knows first-hand about 'hidden' crime
- We're bad at feeling compassion for large groups, says psychology professor
- January 13, 2017 full episode transcript
- Full Episode
On Jan. 11, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump held his first press conference in months.
It was at this news conference Trump declared CNN as so-called "fake news" and refused to take questions relating to the network's report on unverified intelligence documents that suggests Russia has compromising information on the president-elect.
Some observers worry this move signals a presidency that is already taking an authoritarian tone. And it has journalists having to explore the best ways to cover the incoming U.S. administration.
"This is a clear attack on the free press. It's violating every norm and standard that we have in countries like the United States and Canada," policy analyst Jasmin Mujanović tells The Current's Friday host Laura Lynch.
"It's signaling that he intends to … fundamentally remake what it means to live in a republic of laws in the United States."
Trump on fake news0:45
"I don't think it's an accident that some of the most prescient analysis and critique that has come out over the last year year and a half has been from people who have studied authoritarianism, you know in the Middle East and Eastern Europe etc."
He tells Lynch that Trump normalizing lying on public record as a means of public policy and as a means of governance as well as normalizing fringe extreme movements, "are all incredible blaring red flags."
Political columnist Susan Delacourt takes issue with journalists in that news conference telling Lynch "they were egging [Trump] on and trying to get him to say something scandalous."
"It was kind of a dereliction of duty on the part of the media I thought."
Trump's conduct at his recent news conference
is 'not becoming of someone who purports to be the leader of the free
world or at the very least the leader of a democratic republic,' says
policy analyst Jasmin Mujanović. (Seth Wenig/Associated Press)
"Donald Trump is a marketer. He's a businessman and he thinks that the media is there primarily to help him do his job and when it doesn't he's you know 'you're fired' or 'you're fake news' or he can shout them down."
"The problem is is that the line between using the media for that purpose and then just discounting them altogether is it can be easily breached."
When it comes to holding Trump to account, Mujanović has little faith the media can make that happen.
"I don't want that to be interpreted as an attack on the media. I have colleagues who work in journalism. I just think that the issue is that reporters in the United States and Canada and large parts of Europe really have no first-hand experience with authoritarianism so to them this is this is entertainment. This is a circus."
Delacourt's advice to the Washington press corporations over the next four years:
"Don't allow yourself to be played off each other. Hang together."
"And remember that your job is a public service that sometimes competition between the media is not as important as the public service — a democratic rule of the media."
Listen to the full conversation at the top of this web post.
This segment was produced by The Current's Pacinthe Mattar, Ines Colabrese and Sujata Berry.
How a Sensational, Unverified Dossier Became a Crisis for Donald Trump
WASHINGTON
— Seven months ago, a respected former British spy named Christopher
Steele won a contract to build a file on Donald J. Trump’s ties to
Russia. Last week, the explosive details — unsubstantiated accounts of
frolics with prostitutes, real estate deals that were intended as bribes
and coordination with Russian intelligence of the hacking of Democrats —
were summarized for Mr. Trump in an appendix to a top-secret intelligence report.
The
consequences have been incalculable and will play out long past
Inauguration Day. Word of the summary, which was also given to President
Obama and congressional leaders, leaked to CNN Tuesday, and the rest of
the media followed with sensational reports.
Mr.
Trump denounced the unproven claims Wednesday as a fabrication, a
Nazi-style smear concocted by “sick people.” It has further undermined
his relationship with the intelligence agencies and cast a shadow over
the new administration.
Late
Wednesday night, after speaking with Mr. Trump, James R. Clapper Jr.,
the director of national intelligence, issued a statement decrying leaks
about the matter and saying of Mr. Steele’s dossier that the
intelligence agencies have “not made any judgment that the information
in this document is reliable.” Mr. Clapper suggested that intelligence
officials had nonetheless shared it to give policy makers “the fullest
possible picture of any matters that might affect national security.”
Parts
of the story remain out of reach — most critically the basic question
of how much, if anything, in the dossier is true. But it is possible to
piece together a rough narrative of what led to the current crisis,
including lingering questions about the ties binding Mr. Trump and his
team to Russia. The episode also offers a glimpse of the hidden side of
presidential campaigns, involving private sleuths-for-hire looking for
the worst they can find about the next American leader.
The
story began in September 2015, when a wealthy Republican donor who
strongly opposed Mr. Trump put up the money to hire a Washington
research firm run by former journalists, Fusion GPS, to compile a
dossier about the real estate magnate’s past scandals and weaknesses,
according to a person familiar with the effort. The person described the
opposition research work on condition of anonymity, citing the volatile
nature of the story and the likelihood of future legal disputes. The
identity of the donor is unclear.
Fusion
GPS, headed by a former Wall Street Journal journalist known for his
dogged reporting, Glenn Simpson, most often works for business clients.
But in presidential elections, the firm is sometimes hired by
candidates, party organizations or donors to do political “oppo” work —
shorthand for opposition research — on the side.
It
is routine work and ordinarily involves creating a big, searchable
database of public information: past news reports, documents from
lawsuits and other relevant data. For months, Fusion GPS gathered the
documents and put together the files from Mr. Trump’s past in business
and entertainment, a rich target.
After
Mr. Trump emerged as the presumptive nominee in the spring, the
Republican interest in financing the effort ended. But Democratic
supporters of Hillary Clinton were very interested, and Fusion GPS kept
doing the same deep dives, but on behalf of new clients.
In June, the tenor of the effort suddenly changed. The Washington Post reported that the Democratic National Committee had been hacked, apparently by Russian government agents, and a mysterious figure calling himself “Guccifer 2.0” began to publish the stolen documents online.
Mr.
Simpson hired Mr. Steele, a former British intelligence officer with
whom he had worked before. Mr. Steele, in his early 50s, had served
undercover in Moscow in the early 1990s and later was the top expert on
Russia at the London headquarters of Britain’s spy service, MI6. When he
stepped down in 2009, he started his own commercial intelligence firm,
Orbis Business Intelligence.
The
former journalist and the former spy, according to people who know
them, had similarly dark views of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia,
a former K.G.B. officer, and the varied tactics he and his intelligence
operatives used to smear, blackmail or bribe their targets.
As
a former spy who had carried out espionage inside Russia, Mr. Steele
was in no position to travel to Moscow to study Mr. Trump’s connections
there. Instead, he hired native Russian speakers to call informants
inside Russia and made surreptitious contact with his own connections in
the country as well.
Mr.
Steele wrote up his findings in a series of memos, each a few pages
long, that he began to deliver to Fusion GPS in June and continued at
least until December. By then, the election was over, and neither Mr.
Steele nor Mr. Simpson was being paid by a client, but they did not stop
what they believed to be very important work. (Mr. Simpson declined to
comment for this article, and Mr. Steele did not immediately reply to a
request for comment.)
The
memos described two different Russian operations. The first was a
yearslong effort to find a way to influence Mr. Trump, perhaps because
he had contacts with Russian oligarchs whom Mr. Putin wanted to keep
track of. According to Mr. Steele’s memos, it used an array of familiar
tactics: the gathering of “kompromat,” compromising material such as
alleged tapes of Mr. Trump with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel, and
proposals for business deals attractive to Mr. Trump.
The
goal would probably never have been to make Mr. Trump a knowing agent
of Russia, but to make him a source who might provide information to
friendly Russian contacts. But if Mr. Putin and his agents wanted to
entangle Mr. Trump using business deals, they did not do it very
successfully. Mr. Trump has said he has no major properties there,
though one of his sons said at a real estate conference in 2008 that “a
lot of money” was “pouring in from Russia.”
The
second Russian operation described was recent: a series of contacts
with Mr. Trump’s representatives during the campaign, in part to discuss
the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Mrs. Clinton’s
campaign chairman, John D. Podesta. According to Mr. Steele’s sources,
it involved, among other things, a late-summer meeting in Prague between
Michael Cohen, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, and Oleg Solodukhin, a Russian
official who works for Rossotrudnichestvo, an organization that promotes
Russia’s interests abroad.
By
all accounts, Mr. Steele has an excellent reputation with American and
British intelligence colleagues and had done work for the F.B.I. on the
investigation of bribery at FIFA, soccer’s global governing body.
Colleagues say he was acutely aware of the danger he and his associates
were being fed Russian disinformation. Russian intelligence had mounted a
complex hacking operation to damage Mrs. Clinton, and a similar
operation against Mr. Trump was possible.
But
much of what he was told, and passed on to Fusion GPS, was very
difficult to check. And some of the claims that can be checked seem
problematic. Mr. Cohen, for instance, said on Twitter on Tuesday night that he has never been in Prague; Mr. Solodukhin, his purported Russian contact, denied in a telephone interview
that he had ever met Mr. Cohen or anyone associated with Mr. Trump. The
president-elect on Wednesday cited news reports that a different
Michael Cohen with no Trump ties may have visited Prague and that the
two Cohens might have been mixed up in Mr. Steele’s reports.
But
word of a dossier had begun to spread through political circles. Rick
Wilson, a Republican political operative who was working for a super PAC
supporting Marco Rubio, said he heard about it in July, when an
investigative reporter for a major news network called him to ask what
he knew.
By
early fall, some of Mr. Steele’s memos had been given to the F.B.I.,
which was already investigating Mr. Trump’s Russian ties, and to
journalists. An MI6 official, whose job does not permit him to be quoted
by name, said that in late summer or early fall, Mr. Steele also passed
the reports he had prepared on Mr. Trump and Russia to British
intelligence. Mr. Steele was concerned about what he was hearing about
Mr. Trump, and he thought that the information should not be solely in
the hands of people looking to win a political contest.
After
the election, the memos, still being supplemented by his inquiries,
became one of Washington’s worst-kept secrets, as reporters — including
from The New York Times — scrambled to confirm or disprove them.
Word
also reached Capitol Hill. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona,
heard about the dossier and obtained a copy in December from David J.
Kramer, a former top State Department official who works for the McCain
Institute at Arizona State University. Mr. McCain passed the information
to James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director.
Remarkably
for Washington, many reporters for competing news organizations had the
salacious and damning memos, but they did not leak, because their
contents could not be confirmed. (Mother Jones magazine was an
exception, publishing a story on Oct. 31
that described the dossier, its origin and significance, while omitting
the titillating details.) That changed only this week, after the heads
of the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and the National Security Agency added a
summary of the memos, along with information gathered from other
intelligence sources, to their report on the Russian cyberattack on the
election.
Now,
after the most contentious of elections, Americans are divided and
confused about what to believe about the incoming president. And there
is no prospect soon for full clarity on the veracity of the claims made
against him.
“It is a remarkable moment in history,” said Mr. Wilson, the Florida political operative. “What world did I wake up in?”
Jonathan Martin, Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.
Get politics and Washington news updates via Facebook, Twitter and in the Morning Briefing newsletter.
A version of this article appears in print on January 12, 2017, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: How a Crisis Spilled Out of a Sensational, Unverified Dossier. McCain unloads on Putin during Mattis confirmation hearing: ‘He needs us as his enemy’
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) unloaded on Russian President
Vladimir Putin Thursday during Defense Secretary-designate Gen. James
Mattis’ confirmation hearing.
McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that, under Putin, Russia has “invaded Ukraine, annexed Crimea, threatened NATO allies, intervened militarily in Syria, leaving a trail of death and destruction and broken promises in his wake.”
“Russia’s military has targeted Syrian hospitals and first responders with precision weapons,” McCain added. “Russia supplied the weapons that shot down a commercial aircraft in Ukraine. Russia’s war on Ukraine has killed thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.”
The senator pointed out that Putin’s “disrespect for our nation” is evidenced by Russia’s deliberate interference in the November election through “cyber attacks and a disinformation campaign designed to weaken America and discredit Western values.”
McCain said that he has watched three presidents fail to improve relations with Russia — and those failures were not due to “a lack of good faith and effort on the U.S. side”: “Putin wants to be our enemy. He needs us as his enemy. He will never be our partner, including in fighting ISIL. He believes that strengthening Russia means weakening America.”
“We must proceed realistically on this basis,” McCain continued, adding that the United States must display strength to any “adversary that seeks to undermine our national interest and challenge the world order.”
McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that, under Putin, Russia has “invaded Ukraine, annexed Crimea, threatened NATO allies, intervened militarily in Syria, leaving a trail of death and destruction and broken promises in his wake.”
“Russia’s military has targeted Syrian hospitals and first responders with precision weapons,” McCain added. “Russia supplied the weapons that shot down a commercial aircraft in Ukraine. Russia’s war on Ukraine has killed thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.”
The senator pointed out that Putin’s “disrespect for our nation” is evidenced by Russia’s deliberate interference in the November election through “cyber attacks and a disinformation campaign designed to weaken America and discredit Western values.”
McCain said that he has watched three presidents fail to improve relations with Russia — and those failures were not due to “a lack of good faith and effort on the U.S. side”: “Putin wants to be our enemy. He needs us as his enemy. He will never be our partner, including in fighting ISIL. He believes that strengthening Russia means weakening America.”
“We must proceed realistically on this basis,” McCain continued, adding that the United States must display strength to any “adversary that seeks to undermine our national interest and challenge the world order.”
Mr. Tigerli in China
Copyright 2016 by Letizia Mancino
translation by Mary Holmes
All rights reserved
Yes Betty, either or it seems he wanted to fly only with
Singapore Airways.
Boeing or Airbus, it’s just the same
isn’t it? Aren’t they both just fat birds with 500 passengers?
Yes, but Singapore Airlines has the
most beautiful airhostesses: delicate, fine, graceful… Mr. Tigerli had looked forward to the flight
so much!
So the little man was disappointed?
You just can’t imagine how disappointed
he was.
But thank God one of the hostesses was a
pretty Chinese girl. Mr. Tigerli purred loudly but she didn’t hear him because
the purring of the Airbus 380 was even louder.
The poor cat!
You’ve said it Betty. Mr. Tigerli was
in a very bad mood and asked me for a loud speaker.
I’m sure you can get one in 1st
Class.
“”Russian Girl” had even heard you over
the roar of the Niagara Falls” I said to Mr. Tigerli. “You are a very
unfaithful cat. You wanted to get to know Asiatic girls. That’s how it is when
one leaves one’s first love”.
And what did he say to that?
“Men are hunters” was his answer.
Yes, my dear cat, a mouse hunter. And
what else did he say?
Not another word. He behaved as if he
hadn’t heard me.
The Airbus is very loud.
I told him shortly “Don’t trouble
yourself about “Chinese Girl”. There will be enough even prettier girls in
China. Wait till we land in Guilin”.
Did he understand you?
Naturally Mr. Tigerli understood me
immediately. Yes, sweetheart, don’t worry. They will find you something sweet
to eat.
And he?
He was so happy.
No problem going through the immigration
control?
Naturally! Lots of problems. How could I explain to
customs that the cat had come as a tourist to China to buy shoes?
Fur in exchange for shoes…
Don’t be so cynical Betty!
Cat meat in exchange for shoes?
He came through the pass control with
no trouble!
Is this Mr. Tigerli?
 |
Betty MacDonald's Vashon Island is a paradise.
info to: Sandra Lorinda Traci Petr Dana Jana Michaela Rebekah Swiss Charrd Tru John Darsie Darsie Toby Jeanine Carol Justin Lila Daniel Mo Nika Steve Neal Jitka Jitka Tami Pete Laurie Maia Nancy Kelly Pam Mary Jan and all our other friends
www.bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.com/
info to: Sandra Lorinda Traci Petr Dana Jana Michaela Rebekah Swiss Charrd Tru John Darsie Darsie Toby Jeanine Carol Justin Lila Daniel Mo Nika Steve Neal Jitka Jitka Tami Pete Laurie Maia Nancy Kelly Pam Mary Jan and all our other friends
www.bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.com/
Take an illustrated day trip through Washington state’s largest city with artist Candace Rose Rardon.
gadventures.com
Linda White yes,if my health allows.I have a few problems but is something I have always wanted to do,especially as I reread her books.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · August 1 at 6:37pm
Linde Lund Dear Linda I'll keep you posted.
Like · Reply · 1 · August 1 at 6:42pm
Bella Dillon · Friends with Darsie Beck
I still read Mrs Piggle Wiggle books to this day. I love her farm on vashon.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · August 1 at 10:32pm
Lila Taylor Good morning...Linde Lund
Unlike · Reply · 1 · 18 hrs 
