National security adviser attempts to reconcile Trump's competing impulses on Afghanistan  —  In meeting after meeting with his national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, this spring and summer, President Trump angrily hammered home two questions:  —  He wanted to know why the U.S. military …

Martin Shkreli Is Found Guilty of Fraud  —  Martin Shkreli, accused of defrauding his hedge fund investors and a pharmaceutical company, was convicted on three of eight counts on Friday, after a five-week trial in the Federal District Court in Brooklyn.  —  He faces as much as 20 years in prison.

Leak Investigations Triple Under Trump, Sessions Says  —  Washington — Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Friday that the Justice Department was now pursuing three times as many leak investigations as the previous administration, a significant devotion of law enforcement resources …

Kelly's Rules for Trump's West Wing: Stop Bickering, Get in Early, Make an Appointment  —  New Chief of Staff John Kelly moves quickly to bring order and discipline to a West Wing riven by conflict  —  White House Chief of Staff John Kelly with Donald Trump's son-in-law and Senior Advisor Jared Kushner at the White House on Thursday.

Murder conviction in Blackwater case thrown out, other sentences overturned  —  A U.S. appeals court on Friday threw out the first-degree murder conviction of a former Blackwater Worldwide security guard sentenced to life in prison in the killings of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in a Baghdad traffic circle in 2007.

This Trump real estate deal looks awfully like criminal tax fraud  —  Two tax lawyers break down the president's sale of two condos to his son. … President Trump clearly doesn't want to release his income tax returns to the public.  Members of the public and commentators …

Keep the Trump Leaks Coming  —  The president is too incompetent to serve, and Congress must be pressured into removing him.  —  Both in content and in context, the official transcripts of Donald Trump's January phone calls with Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull …

TRUMP, AMERICA'S BOY KING: GOLF AND TELEVISION WON'T MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN  —  Now that he's president, Trump frequently departs the White House and spends the weekend golfing at either his South Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, or his country club in the New Jersey suburb of Bedminster.

Wasserman Schultz Says Laptop She Sought To Keep From Police Was Awan's, Not Hers  —  Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz never actually saw the computer she fought to block the Capitol Police from examining as evidence in a criminal case against her IT aide by saying it was hers, she told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Thursday.

Poll: Americans in battleground districts would strongly oppose Trump firing special counsel Robert Mueller  —  WASHINGTON - Americans in 99 congressional battleground districts - primarily represented by Republicans - would disapprove by a two-to-one margin if President Trump fires Russia special counsel Robert Mueller.

Amid Washington dysfunction, lack of accomplishments, Trumps clings to his shrinking support  — As political and legal troubles mount, President Donald Trump holds ever tighter onto a base of support that grows ever smaller.  — Trump has placed cultivation of intensity within his base …

Russian Lawyer Tells State TV She Met Trump Jr. to Ask for ‘Help’  —  The Russian lawyer who reportedly met with Donald Trump Jr. to offer him compromising material on Hillary Clinton, told state television she wanted to “ask him for help.”  —  “It was a private meeting,” …

Hunt for Trump dossier author inflames Russia probe  —  Two Republican House Intelligence Committee staffers traveled to London earlier this summer to track down the former British intelligence operative who compiled a controversial dossier on President Donald Trump and Russia, according to three people familiar with the matter.

CNN insiders rip Jim Acosta's antics as ‘auditions’ for his own show  —  Jim Acosta is suddenly one of CNN's most controversial figures even among some of his CNN colleagues, who say his public battles with the Trump administration are going too far.  —  One of Acosta's colleagues …

In the key 2018 battlegrounds, Trump's support is as high as ever  —  Why Democrats can't really crow about the president's declining approval numbers.  —  Ever since Inauguration Day, the public's faith in the president has been eroding.  According to the latest Gallup surveys …

US created 209,000 jobs in July, vs 183,000 jobs expected  — The U.S. economy added 209,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate dipped to 4.3 percent, according to a government report Friday.  — The report comes with the economy at a crossroads as President Trump has promised 3 percent economic growth.

Other presidents paused to meet the press before going on vacation — not Trump  —  Acosta's full exchange with Stephen Miller  —  President Trump has let almost six months pass without holding a solo press conference.  Now he's heading off on a two-week vacation with no immediate plans to meet the press.

Forget scenic traditions — Trump vacations in the land of spray tans  —  WASHINGTON — There's been an unspoken norm among presidents that their vacations are glamorous, or at the very least, scenic.  —  In election years, they tend to bow more to the masses.  But most other years are set aside for mixing with elites.

Kamala Harris is one of the most progressive (and attacked) leaders in America  —  Please let's not do this again.  Do not preemptively attack a rising bonafide star in the Democratic Party who happens to be an imperfect human being who shares a gender with Hillary Rodham Clinton.  —  No politician is perfect.

How to avoid nuclear war with North Korea  —  There are no good options to curb Kim Jong Un.  But blundering into war would be the worst  —  IT IS odd that North Korea causes so much trouble.  It is not exactly a superpower.  Its economy is only a fiftieth as big as that of its democratic capitalist cousin, South Korea.

Amazon selling toilet paper printed with Trump tweets  —  Amazon is selling toilet paper with President Trump's tweets printed on it.  —  A single roll of the two-ply paper goes for $11.99 on Amazon, slightly less than the $12.95 that it costs for a role of toilet paper with pictures of Trump's face.

RRH Elections AL-Sen R Primary Poll: Moore Leads Strange 31-29  —  Moore, Strange likely headed to runoff; Brooks likely to finish third; Race for first is tight and runoff may be very competitive  —  With less than two weeks until the closely-watched special Republican primary …