• This story just appeared in The NY Times.

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump acknowledged the possibility on Friday that Russia had hacked a variety of American targets, including the Democratic National Committee, after an almost two-hour meeting with the nation’s top intelligence officials.

Mr. Trump asserted that the hacking had no effect on the outcome of the election.

In a statement issued after the president-elect was briefed by senior American intelligence and law enforcement officials, Mr. Trump said: “While Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organizations including the Democrat National Committee, there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election including the fact that there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines.”

For months, Mr. Trump had publicly resisted any suggestion that Russia was involved in cyberattacks during the 2016 presidential election and had mocked the intelligence agencies behind assessments on Russian hacking. After Friday’s briefing, he said he had “tremendous respect” for the people who work for American spy agencies.

But just hours before, the president-elect had attributed claims of Russian hacking to embarrassed election-year rivals, calling the storm surrounding the cyberattacks a political witch hunt being carried out by his adversaries, who he said were embarrassed by their loss to him in the election last year.”

He is #PutinsPresident.

During the heat of the election, our blog poet disappeared.

He/she is back! Posted today in response to the article about the poet who could not answer the questions on the Texas standardized test about her own poems:

“Understanding Poetry”

To understand a poem
You shouldn’t ask the poet
Cuz poets all are dumb
And, worst of all, don’t know it.

They’ll tell you this and that
And even ’bout the other
They’ll tell you ’bout their cat
And tell you ’bout their brother

They’ll tell you everything
Except what you desire
So never give a ring
And never ever hire