#and i said redacted because the letters are for my mutuals and want it to be as much of a surprise as i can make it even tho they know it's

[that-was-anticlimactic]

i might make tater tots... but i need to work on [redacted] and [redacted]’s letters... but i want to write joe with depression angst... but i want to curl up in my bed and hibernate...

[star-puff]

ღ a love letter, to me and to you.

truth be told, i said to myself that i wouldn’t get too sappy today. i was already doing a new years/milestone event, and i thought to myself, ‘this is good enough. at least i’m not doing nothing for the end of the year’ and i left it at that. that is, until now. i’ve already responded to a few mutuals that have mentioned me in their love letters, and it felt...a bit empty to just leave the year with half-hearted affirmations of the few. so here i am, not even 2 hours from when the ball drops, writing a love letter to me and to you (especially you).

to my followers:

where do i even start. there aren’t a lot of you, at least in comparison to other bigger blogs, but 400!! 400 of you saw my writing and made the conscious decision to join me in my shitposting adventure about 2D boys and the ocs that i somehow force into the role of ‘reader.’ i want to say thank you, but it seems a bit overdone at this point. because ‘thank you’ doesn’t even begin to express the gratitude i have for giving my writing a chance, for clicking on that ‘read more’ and unlocking a world i’ve created.

i’ve never been super confident about my writing, always questioning if what i’ve written, what i’ve bared my soul into creating was even good enough to be seen. frankly, i still have problems with that internal struggle, but having people say that they like it? that my writing made them feel emotions and took them some place other than where they were? i can’t even begin to describe how happy that made me, that i’ve done for others what others have done for me. if there’s anything i wanted to achieve with my creations, it’s making people feel. thank you for making it known that i’ve achieved that.

there wasn’t any obligation to read my stuff, to like it, to follow me, but you did anyway. hell, sometimes i wonder if i’m even deserving of it (but this isn’t the time for self-pity, so shush imposter syndrome! back away!!!!). but for doing all of the aforementioned i’m saying, due to my lack of words to express my emotions fully, thank you.

love,

meg <3

to my mutuals:

i! love all of you!! from the ones who i interact with regularly to the ones who are always sporadic, i love each and every one of you. thank you for being friends with me, thank you for allowing me the chance to be friends with you, i hope you know that if you’re my mutual i see your work & your vibes and i mean it when i say enjoy it and i want to see more.

(to the ones i haven’t seen for a while, i miss you a ton :( i hope you’re doing well, laughing the happiest laughs and eating the tastiest food and living your best life <3)

you’ve allowed me to feel a little less lonely during quarantine, talking to friends who are awake when i should be asleep, screaming about anime and manga that none of my irls are even remotely interested in, you’ve really provided me with a community where i feel comfortable sharing my opinions and thoughts, however random and weird they may be. i won’t be doing any direct letters, partially bc i think i’ve said all i need to say at one time or another, but when i say there are a few special, special people who are a part of my mutual circle, you know who you are. i love you so, so dearly, i hope you know how much you mean to me.

(if you don’t, i’m making a home in your inbox and nesting until you’re forced to call pest control to rid yourself of me. this is not a threat this is a promise >:( )

love,

meg <3

to me:

(to the me of last year)

hey you!! bitch!!!! who would have thought that you would’ve started a tumblr blog about writing fanfiction? when you couldn’t even go a month without writer’s block??? it’s wild, i know, but hey! life’s wild! go with the flow!

i want you to know that things get better :) you stop crying at random times at 2AM, you stop getting that random pang of loneliness when everything feels too far away from you, you stop feeling abandoned and like a dirty rag set in the sun to dry. you’ve made friends! you’ve become more social, you’ve formed a little circle of online friends, you’re a little stressed out because of college and senior year and a? global pandemic that your country doesn’t really take seriously?? and online classes but you can say that you’re happy now :) and sure, you miss some school friends, you miss going to class and talking to teachers but you made a very, very good new friend. someone you can tell pretty much everything to, someone who is on equal level as [redacted] and [redacted]. someone who has a rat dog that you’re not sure likes you or not but at least he follows you around sometimes and lets you pet him so maybe it’s okay! and even one of your online friends is someone you talk to almost every day, even though she ghosts you sometimes (if you see this, which you probably won’t...i l*ve you ok).

all i’m saying is, it gets better. you learn to love yourself and your creativity a little more than you do now. you get a funky lil mechanical keyboard to motivate you to write. you still have some issues you’re working out, but hey! this is only the meg of next year, not the meg of forever :)

be good to yourself, okay?

sincerely,

future you, 2020.

[kianlon]

Fanfic ask game 🍷 ❌ 👀 🤩 😬 🎶 ✨!!!! (Hoho! Compliment #2! 😎)

🍷: Why, just this afternoon I had 2/3 of a bottle of wine and solved one of my scene transition woes! I don't always drink and write, but when I do, it goes well for me. It actually solves a common typing woe of mine, which is that my left hand types faster than my right so I waste fewer time having to correct my typos.

❌: I have a hard time ruling tropes out entirely, because it turns out that one of my least favorite to read (Poor Communication Kills) is actually quite fun to put characters through. Plus, there are ways to make it work well. That said, I think I can safely say I won't be doing any Liar Revealed stories because that kind of thing just has too much... tension I guess? Like, I don't want the character's lie to spiral further out of control, I want the character to be honest before it gets to that point. Reading it kinda makes me feel like *I'm* gonna get in trouble for their lie.

👀: Hm... well, a WIP that I haven't started posting yet is a Digimon 02 AU in which Yolei and Cody pick up the opposite DigiEggs and a few different paths are taken because of this. It's turning out far more canon-divergent than I thought it would thus far but it's kinda fun to not constantly be trying to make sure stuff is technically still complying with the show. An example of something that's changed: I'm leaning far more into characterizing Ken as a gamer who just doesn't understand that Digimon are real and his actions have consequences. That is canon, but let's just say Ken's actions lean far more evil than they do uninformed. Nah, Ken just thinks he's in Pokémon.

🤩: My favorite character to write that isn't an OC is TK Takaishi from Digimon. Canon really doesn't take much time to explore his trauma from the first adventure so I sure as heck am gonna. Plus his relationships with everybody else are interesting.

😬: Oh ho ho! I previously mentioned the fic I'm most embarrassed by, which would definitely be the worst for my friends to stumble onto, but they know I write fic so they'd just be like "this sure was a choice y'all made, huh".

My family, on the other hand... I think my dad might know I write fic? It's always really hard to tell with him. I really, really don't want them to find Redacted. Dad would probably enjoy it, actually, but Mom would be very upset by things like swears, the POV character's relationship with her mother (which... yeah, has a bit of basis in reality), and most of all by the fact that I'm not either monetizing my writing or spending the time on more worthwhile pursuits like additional schooling.

(My partner knows I write fic, knows my screenname, but won't look it up which I appreciate because I don't wanna get dunked on for life imitating art ((accidentally made a couple with our mutual pining issues and basically our dynamic years before meeting him)) or for one specific fic me and Em wrote as a teenager...)

...The Adventures of Mary Sue, a fic which would be the most embarrassing thing for my co-workers to find. I would die. We found a fic called How to Make a Very Suckish SYOT and decided to follow its instructions to the letter, and those parts are honestly still funny, but we included holiday specials because we felt guilty over not updating and... yeah. The best thing I can say about those chapters is that one of them got me $20 from my ex-gf for writing something, quote, "worse than My Immortal". My co-workers, fortunately, are all older than me by a significant margin and the one person who isn't would never look for fic, but I can't guarantee they'll never see my account still up on my laptop if I forget to close it before going out on a call, so that's one of my current worst work fears.

🎶: I sure do listen to music! Normally it's my writing playlist or one of my playlists that fits the vibes of the scene I'm working on. Lately I've been listening to 21st Century Breakdown (the album) by Green Day on loop when I feel like looping something because Bowling for Soup was right, I really do be listening to the same shit I listened to in high school.

✨: Now you're killing me, I'm not good with compliments!! Uh... let's see... most of my old humor stuff still makes me laugh when I go back and re-read it so I did something right there!

[strawberry7777-blog2]

mutual understanding

kira

april 18th | 1:03 pm

i don’t know if you’ll ever see this letter, but when i first started getting to know you- i found myself slowly opening up to you and i don’t normally open up to people easily especially if i don’t know them.

when it came to you i found it easy, i never told you this but i thought about it long and hard … about how i was forming my relationship with you at that time, i was confused and i didn’t know if you were worth knowing who i was and what i have done in the past. but i did it anyways, i told you everything and i trusted you. because you looked trustworthy and you didn’t judge me for who i am before you met me. 

i don’t know why you embraced my mistakes with open arms just like that … to be honest, at that time i was lost and my mistake was just so traumatizing and it made me feel like i’m no longer worthy of being loved. when i first came here to the philippines, i didn’t befriend people

i just went on with my day and then go home- 

it was a routine already and then … i met you.

you were the only person there for me when no was and you offered to listen to my rants and whatever it is that made me sad or happy.

you drive me to places when i didn’t have my license yet and you were kind enough to buy me food even though you didn’t have that much money. 

i never once doubted your love and trust, i poured all of my love and praise to you because that was something that i never really got from my parents- shocking right? i always talk about how great my parents are and how hardworking they are and how much they love me? 

but i never got the same attention they gave to my younger siblings, so there’s my reason to why i gave my all to you. 

i know that you weren’t getting the love and affection you want from your parents so i decided … that maybe i should do it to you, even though i wasn’t getting anything in return. as long as you were happy then i’m alright ♡

but things change, 

you changed. 

i changed. 

there was more fights, more arguments- we were never really in the same page. whenever i have an opinion, it’s different from yours and sometimes it starts an argument and then it leads to a fight and then we just don’t talk to each other. 

there are nights where i just want to go to you and just say sorry and that i didn’t mean to yell at you or be mad at you, but it always seemed to be me trying to piece us together again, but then again… 

there was never really an us right? 

we were just friends. 

friends who went out together. 

friends who kissed.

friends who held hands.

friends who saw each other bare.

friends who showered together. 

friends who have seen each other’s thoughts.

i really wanted to make things work with you, but then i realized that you were slowly drifting away from me. 

you can’t even look me in my eyes anymore and the more i tried to spend time with you i feel like you were just being forced and you would always say that you’re only coming with me so i’m not alone and every time you said those words a piece of me breaks every time because that just shows how you were slowly losing interest in me, or maybe you never really had any interest in me at all.

remember that time when we talked and i asked you why you never told me about [redacted] and how she still thinks that you like her blah blah, when tita told me that i never held any grudge or anger or hated towards you or her, instead i gave you the benefit of the doubt and decided to understand. 

i wasn’t mad, i was just sad. 

i was sad that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me about that. i was sad that i didn’t hear it from you. i was sad that you think that everything that you hid from me, you can hide forever.

 is that why you hated taking photos with me? is that why you didn’t want to take a silly tiktok with me? is that why you didn’t want us to be seen in the mall because you might see her or someone you know from school? because you didn’t want your image to be blemished? by me? 

when you brought up my scandal with my ex, my heart broke to pieces, i suddenly forgot how to speak and i just wanted to fall to my knees at that time because i didn’t know you thought of me that way. the difference between us was that i WAS HONEST WITH YOU, i told you everything about my ex and how i wasn’t proud of what i have done. 

and you?

you hid yours from me and had the audacity to say “why do i have to tell you?” why do i have to tell you? seriously?

instead of always making me feel like crap or unloved in the past two months, why didn’t you just end it? 

why didn’t you just say that you no longer felt that way towards me? 

why didn’t you say that you only wanted to stay as friends? 

why didn’t you say that?

why did you have to continue pulling a dead horse, why did you have to always make me look like a fool? you know that i started liking you and that my feelings are truly genuine for you.

so, why?

or were you waiting for me to be the one to finally break and end all of this? is that it? is this a game to you? like my heart can just regenerate and be fine the next day? is that it?

but i thank you too, because i learned a lot from you. 

for a short time you made me happy, made me feel loved even if it may be fake this whole time. i don’t wish anything bad for you, i just want you to find someone who will always be there for you. i want someone to listen to you and love you more than i ever did. if i wasn’t enough or i was too much, i hope this girl will be enough. i really thought that you were maybe the one, but i guess god has better plans. i’m hurt, my heart broke, but that’s okay. 

it will heal and i will learn to love once again, i will still be the same. 

i will love with all of my heart, because i know that if i’m with the right person i will never be too much or not enough; for them it will be fine. but as of now, i will focus on myself because i pretty much lost half of me while in the process of healing from all of this.

you might just laugh at what i have to say and that i’m just being overacting, but this are my feelings and i’m not afraid to embrace it. the more i hide it the more it will depress and break me more. you probably understand that right? 

hopefully. 

you probably don’t feel anything while reading this and that’s alright, sana all like you- can just go on with life and forget things and people.

i wish you all the best, take care.

[ryan-almighty]

Dennis Rader BTK human blood portrait print by Ryan Almighty ..Mounted on foamcore and sealed. signed and numbered (only 5 made signed in silver) has a copy of the letter of Radar giving his approval of the project (which he later redacted) A mutual friend was a penpal of RADER and the portrait was originally supposed to be in her blood... As someone told Rader about my work and he expressed interest... I told the said penpal to have him mail me directly which he did.... When I responded and suggested he contribute some hair he had a hissy fit and backed out, hence the said penpal backed out as well (welcome to the world of Murderabillia lol)... This project was strung along for months and I live by the mantra of THE ART MUST GO ON .... With that being said I proceeded with the project using my own blood, Why? because FUKM that's why.... My art, my rules... And I kinda like the story that goes with the piece :) I'm selling these for $50 postage paid PM me if you want one... Get a little provocative piece of BTK #ryanalmighty #Ryan #Almighty #Gillikin #real #human #blood #painting #painter #humanbloodpainting #darkart #DennisRader #BTK #truecrime #serialkiller #morbid #bloody #gore #weird #outsiderart (at Almighty Studios) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bso2F0olduD/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=elqwu7h2fg6x

[oldguardaudio]

PowerLine -> The silence of Susan Rice vs. Susan Rice responds, sort of

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Daily Digest

Nunes responds

Rebut this

The silence of Susan Rice

“Bubbles of Our Own Liberal Sentiments”

Susan Rice responds, sort of

Nunes responds

Posted: 24 Feb 2018 02:21 PM PST

(Scott Johnson)House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes was ready to go with his own response to the Democrats’ memo that I have embedded in the adjacent post. I have uploaded his point-by-point response to Scribd and embedded it below. It is a useful document. Moreover, by contrast with Adam Schiff et al., Nunes is a credible player. Consistent with my comments, he notes some of the Democrats’ rebuttals of points not made by the Republicans. In any event, here is his response.

Democrat Memo Charge and Response by Scott Johnson on Scribd

(more…)

   Rebut this

Posted: 24 Feb 2018 02:01 PM PST

(Scott Johnson)The powers that be have redacted and released the House Intelligence Committee Democrats’ memo rebutting the committee Republicans’ four-page memo. In a quick reading, among other things, I find it rebutting claims that weren’t made. The Democrats vouch for the credibility of Christopher Steele when the only relevant question is the credibility of his sources. The Democrats also challenge just about every point made by the Republicans.

The Democrats are overinvested in the synthetic collusion scandal. They stand by all the works of the Department of Justice and the FBI. To borrow a phrase attributed by Susan Rice to President Obama, they did everything strictly by the book. According to the Democrats, Carter Page deserves what he got. One wonders how it is that he remains a free man.

There is some new information provided. The FISA warrant on Carter Page was authorized and renewed three times by four different federal judges (see page 3). In a heavily redacted portion of the memo, the Democrats go to town on Page (pages 3-5). I infer from guarded comments made to the press by committee Republicans that there may be something to this. Chairman Nunes has released the statement below.

Nunes Statement on Release of Democrat Memo with point by point refutation. https://t.co/JjXyslktSz pic.twitter.com/P7UaGEQVsE

— Nick Short 🇺🇸 (@PoliticalShort) February 24, 2018

There is much more that could be said. We badly need the FISA warrant application and related representations in renewal proceedings redacted and released. As always, I urge interested readers to review the documents with your own eyes. I have uploaded the memo to Scribd and embedded it below.

House Dems’ Intel Memo by Scott Johnson on Scribd

   The silence of Susan Rice

Posted: 24 Feb 2018 09:13 AM PST

(Scott Johnson)By letter to Susan Rice dated February 8, 2018, Senators Grassley and Graham posed 12 numbered questions. I posted the Graham/Grassley letter in “Rice papers the file.” By letter dated February 23, 2018, attorney Kathryn Ruemmler has now responded to the Grassley Graham letter. I posted Ruemmler’s letter nearby this morning in “Susan Rice responds, sort of.”

Let’s take an inventory. I have italicized my accounting below, subject to further thought and analysis:

Question 1. Did you send the email attached to this letter to yourself? Do you have any reason to dispute the timestamp of the email?

Answered.

Question 2. When did you first become aware of the FBI’s investigation into allegations of collusion between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia?

Not answered.

Question 3. When did you become aware of any surveillance activities, including FISA applications, undertaken by the FBI in conducting that investigation? At the time you wrote this email to yourself, were you aware of either the October 2016 FISA application for surveillance of Carter Page or the January 2017 renewal?

Partially answered.

Question 4. Did anyone instruct, request, suggest, or imply that you should send yourself the aforementioned Inauguration Day email memorializing President Obama’s meeting with Mr. Comey about the Trump/Russia investigation? If so, who and why?

Partially answered.

Question 5. Is the account of the January 5, 2017, meeting presented in your email accurate? Did you omit any other portions of the conversation?

Not answered.

Question 6. Other than that email, did you document the January 5, 2017, meeting in any way, such as contemporaneous notes or a formal memo? To the best of your knowledge, did anyone else at that meeting take notes or otherwise memorialize the meeting?

Not answered.

Question 7. During the meeting, did Mr. Comey or Ms. Yates mention potential press coverage of the Steele dossier? If so, what did they say?

Answered narrowly (“In the conversation Ambassador Rice documented, there was no discussion of Christopher Steele or the Steele dossier, contrary to the suggestion in your letter”).

Question 8. During the meeting, did Mr. Comey describe the status of the FBI’s relationship with Mr. Steele or the basis for that status?

Answered narrowly (see above).

Question 9. When and how did you first become aware of the allegations made by Christopher Steele?

Not answered.

Question 10. When and how did you first become aware that the Clinton Campaign and the Democratic National Committee funded Mr. Steele’s efforts?

Not answered.

Question 11. You wrote that President Obama stressed that he was not asking about, initiating or instructing anything from a law enforcement perspective. Did President Obama ask about, initiate, or instruct anything from any other perspective relating to the FBI’ s investigation?

Not answered.

Question 12. Did President Obama have any other meetings with Mr. Corney, Ms. Yates, or other government officials about the FBI’ s investigation of allegations of collusion between Trump associates and Russia? If so, when did these occur, who participated, and what was discussed?

Not answered.

Susan Rice has lawyered up. For some reason or other, with respect to several pointed and important questions, she is resting on her right to remain silent.

   “Bubbles of Our Own Liberal Sentiments”

Posted: 24 Feb 2018 08:35 AM PST

(Joe Malchow)I think that I am like most American men in, every five or ten years, directing my reading deep into the Revolution and the Founding generation. It is impossible to resist the magnetic attraction of this period. It is not that the Founding Fathers were geniuses (though some were) or gods (though one was close). Instead, there seems to be something about the vacuum of the founding moment and the men who filled it that gave rise to a decades-long period of writing, speechmaking, and statecraft that was benevolent, intelligent, honest, and crafted to secure a true durability. Therefore these men, whose brains weren’t of course any better than the brains today, were so much less molested by self-deception, pieties, lore, and loyalties that they produced world-changing thought transcending everything else then existing.

It is a worthy subject for a later time why the American founding moment was so exceptional in human history. To be sure there have been many founding moments since, from Africa to Italy and many places otherwise. Mostly their results have been very sad. I wonder if it had something to do with the generalist liberal arts education received by most of the participants at the Continental Congresses, the Constitutional Convention, and the later House of Burgesses. There were lawyers, of course, and at least a few doctors (Benjamin Rush and Josiah Bartlett. Anyone else?). But by and large, they were well-read non-experts and family men. I imagine that today, Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School would be happy to supply your fledgling country with all manner Experts bearing Ph. D.s., each without the annoying encumbrance of a traditional family life or the cruft of knowing, say, Plato.

Anyway, here is something that John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson on September 4, 1785. Adams was in London and Jefferson was in Paris. It comes from American Sphinx by Joseph J. Ellis, who prefaces the lines I wanted to share.

In addition to their mutual animosities toward England and their common sense of indignation at the insufferable arrogance of the king, the friendship worked because Jefferson deferred to Adams. After all, Adams was his senior and had been negotiating with the French and English for five years. Jefferson’s deferential pattern began as soon as he arrived in France: “What would you think of the enclosed Draught to be proposed to the courts of London and Versailles?” Jefferson inquired. “I know it goes beyond our powers; and beyond the powers of Congress too. But it is so evidently for the good of the states that I should not be afraid to risk myself on it if you are of the same opinion.” The proposal envisioned reciprocal rights for citizens of all nations, complete freedom of trade and a reformed system of international law.

Yes, Adams replied, it was a “beau ideal” proposal, but unfortunately it was also completely irrelevant to the current, and cutthroat, European context: “We must not, my Friend, be the Bubbles of our own Liberal Sentiments. If we cannot obtain reciprocal Liberality, We must adopt reciprocal Prohibitions, Exclusions, Monopolies, and Imposts. Our offers have been fair, more than fair. If they are rejected, we must not be Dupes.”

I read that highlighted quotation from Adams and thought: only one modern politician would say something like that, and he is Donald Trump.

By the way, I returned to my books on the Founding this time because of the Broadway show Hamilton, which we have had the good fortune to see twice. It’s truly a wonderful work. (For a glimpse of why here are five random American teenagers reenacting the Act I song “Non-Stop.”)

   Susan Rice responds, sort of

Posted: 24 Feb 2018 07:12 AM PST

(Scott Johnson)Barack Obama installed Susan Rice as his National Security Advisor in recognition of her service to him as a knave and fool in the matter of Benghazi. As National Security Advisor she sent an email on Obama’s last day in office shortly before President Trump inauguration. Released in redacted form on February 12, the email is one of the most intriguing bits of evidence to have emerged in the alleged Russian collusion scandal. The email purports to memorialize January 5, 2017, Oval Office meeting including President Obama, Comey, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, Vice President Biden and Rice herself regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election. What a crew.

Rice wrote:

President Obama began the conversation by stressing his continued commitment to ensuring that every aspect of this issue is handled by the Intelligence and law enforcement communities “by the book.” The President stressed that he is not asking about, initiating or instructing anything from a law enforcement perspective. He reiterated that our law enforcement team needs to proceed as it normally would by the book.

As part of their oversight efforts, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Grassley and subcommittee chairman Graham obtained the email from the National Archives in response to their request for records of meetings between President Obama and Comey in the collusion investigation. Rice sent the email to herself with a copy to Curtis Ried (Twitter feed here) on January 20, 2017. Grassley and Graham were struck by the context and timing of this email and sent a follow-up letter to Rice. The letter reads in part:

It strikes us as odd that, among your activities in the final moments on the final day of the Obama administration, you would feel the need to send yourself such an unusual email purporting to document a conversation involving President Obama and his interactions with the FBI regarding the Trump/Russia investigation. In addition, despite your claim that President Obama repeatedly told Mr. Comey to proceed “by the book,” substantial questions have arisen about whether officials at the FBI, as well as at the Justice Department and the State Department, actually did proceed “by the book.”

According to the email, the meeting further took up the question whether Trump could be trusted with “information fully as it relates to Russia.” Andrew McCarthy authoritatively explicated Rice’s email in the NR column “What Did Comey Tell President Trump about the Steele Dossier?”

Susan Rice has now responded to Senators Grassley and Graham through attorney Kathryn Ruemmler. Ruemmler is the global co-chairman of the Latham & Watkins white collar criminal defense practice. She formerly served as White House Counsel to Obama.

Ruemmler’s letter on behalf of Rice asserts that denies that there was anything unusual about Rice’s email purporting to memorialize a crucial meeting two weeks after the meeting had occurred, on her way out the door. Ruemmler’s letter on behalf of Rice states:

The memorandum to file drafted by Ambassador Rice memorialized an important national security discussion between President Obama and the FBI Director and the Deputy Attorney General. President Obama and his national security team were justifiably concerned about potential risks to the Nation’s security from sharing highly classified information about Russia with certain members of the Trump transition team, particularly Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.

In light of concerning communications between members of the Trump team and Russian officials, before and after the election, President Obama, on behalf of his national security team, appropriately sought the FBI and the Department of Justice’s guidance on this subject. In the conversation Ambassador Rice documented, there was no discussion of Christopher Steele or the Steele dossier, contrary to the suggestion in your letter.

Given the importance and sensitivity of the subject matter, and upon the advice of the White House Counsel’s Office, Ambassador Rice created a permanent record of the discussion. Ambassador Rice memorialized the discussion on January 20, because that was the first opportunity she had to do so, given the particularly intense responsibilities of the National Security Advisor during the remaining days of the Administration and transition.

Ambassador Rice memorialized the discussion in an email sent to herself during the morning of January 20, 2017. The time stamp reflected on the email is not accurate, as Ambassador Rice departed the White House shortly before noon on January 20.

While serving as National Security Advisor, Ambassador Rice was not briefed on the existence of any FBI investigation into allegations of collusion between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia, and she later learned of the fact of this investigation from Director Comey’s subsequent public testimony. Ambassador Rice was not informed of any FISA applications sought by the FBI in its investigation, and she only learned of them from press reports after leaving office.

Ruemmler’s statement goes on offense about “concerning” discussions intercepted by Rice’s colleagues at the NSA along with the “distraction” routine practiced by lying Democratic liars. Ruemmler serves up a lame excuse for the tardiness of Rice’s email and slyly inserts a reference to the advice of White House Counsel. In substance, however, Ruemmler’s statement cries “nobody here but us chickens,” just as Rice’s email itself did. There seems to be a postmodern echo in here.

The Grassley/Graham letter posed 12 numbered questions to Rice. I posted the Grassley/Graham letter and the appended Rice email via Scribd in “Susan Rice papers the record.” Ruemmler’s letter to Senators Grassley et al. is embedded below. By my reckoning, Ruemmler’s letter answers to question 1, part of question 4, and narrowly responds to one or two others with a dollop of the Obama defense (she learned about it in the newspapers). For some reason or other — no excuse is offered on this score — Ruemmler’s letter declines to answer the rest of the questions submitted to Rice.

Susan Rice Response to Grassley-Graham by sonamsheth on Scribd

   PowerLine -> The silence of Susan Rice vs. Susan Rice responds, sort of PowerLine -> The silence of Susan Rice vs. Susan Rice responds, sort of Daily Digest Nunes responds…