McCabe/Comey/Trump War – Why is this bad for the Country?

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe wrote memos describing his conversations with President Donald Trump and other events and has turned them over to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The memos, written soon after each event, describe McCabe’s dealings with the White House and what former FBI Director James Comey told McCabe about his interactions. 

Attorney General Jeff Sessions terminated McCabe Friday, two days before his scheduled retirement, saying internal investigators found Mr. McCabe made an unauthorized disclosure to the media and “lacked candor” on multiple occasions. 

In a statement late Friday, McCabe said that there has been an effort to "slander" him and accused the push to remove him as being part of the Trump administration's "ongoing war on the FBI and the efforts of the Special Counsel investigation," which is looking at whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election. 

Mr. Trump said Saturday afternoon that Mr. McCabe was “caught, called out and fired.” “How many lies? How many leaks?” Mr. Trump said, adding that former FBI Director James Comey “knew it all, and much more!” 

Nine minutes later, Mr. Comey responded on Twitter saying, “the American people will hear my story very soon.” He has a book scheduled to be released next month. “They can judge for themselves who is honorable and who is not,” Mr. Comey said. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday said he believes the Senate Judiciary Committee should hold a hearing on the firing of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. 

“I think we owe it to the average American to have a hearing in the Judiciary Committee where Attorney General [Jeff] Sessions comes forward with whatever documentation he has about the firing, and give Mr. McCabe the chance to defend himself,” Graham, a member of the panel, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” 

“I believe when it comes to this issue we need as much transparency as possible to make sure it wasn’t politically motivated,” he added.

Mueller Team Leaks Information to the New York Times

The Mueller investigation is a sieve of leaks, it seems like every few minutes the New York Times is releasing some new piece of information about the Russia investigation. However, these “inside” tips usually come from anonymous sources, meaning that Mueller or someone who is a part of his team is behind it, because no one else has access to this information. So, what is Mueller doing about all of the leaks? Nothing! And his office is supposed to be secure, not leak it to newspapers who hate Trump. Mueller’s in charge and everyday new information is coming out of his office. The common thread in all of these articles is that it makes Trump look bad.

New York Magazine’s Profile of Hope Hicks

A new article published in New York Magazine profiles Hope Hicks, who was the White House Communications Director. However, this article is another example of the corruption of the press. Hicks served her country and had worked closely with Trump since the beginning, however, this profile uses unnamed sources to make her look bad.  

The gist of the story is that Hope Hicks had been unhappy for months and wanted to leave the White House long before she announced her resignation in February. The author of the article, Olivia Nuzzi, wrote on twitter that Hicks would not speak on the record. In her article, Nuzzi reports that Hicks told Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner that she was unhappy in August of last year. 

As time went on, the article says, Hicks continually wrote in her notebook a “series of scenarios” of her stepping down, when she should do it, and how she should do it and how each scenario would be reported in the press. She concluded that if she stepped down right away, it would be played as very bad news for the administration, so she decided to wait.

Another factor in her decision to resign (and when to resign) was her prominent role in both congressional and special counsel investigations into the Trump campaign and Russian election interference. 

Despite this, many people were still surprised when Hicks resigned from her White House position last month.  She had been with the president from the very beginning of his campaign and was known as Trump’s most trusted aide and confidant.

Democrats Hold Double-Digit Lead For 2018 Midterm Elections

Democrats are enjoying a 10-point advantage over Republicans in congressional preference for the 2018 midterm elections, even as President Donald Trump's job approval rating has increased, the latest national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds. 

Fifty percent of registered voters say they prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress, while 40 percent want a GOP-controlled one. 

Meanwhile, the NBC/WSJ polls finds that Trump's approval rating stands at 43% among all Americans, which is up four points from January. 53% of adults say they disapprove of the president’s job, down from 57% two months ago.

Facebook’s Role in Data Misuse Sets Off Storms on Two Continents

Senators John Kennedy and Amy Klobuchar sent a letter to Senate Judiciary chairman Chuck Grassley Monday, urging him to call Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify in regard to new reports of his company allowing political campaigns unmonitored access to user data. 

“Facebook, Google, and Twitter have amassed unprecedented amounts of personal data and use this data when selling advertising, including political advertisements,” the letter reads. “The lack of oversight on how data is stored and how political advertisements are sold raises concerns about the integrity of American elections as well as privacy rights.” 

The first reports of misbehavior on Facebook’s part came Friday, when the company announced it had severed ties with Cambridge-Analytica. Facebook was heartily criticized for not checking that Cambridge-Analytica had deleted information obtained on 50 million users and was able to access that information throughout the entirety of the campaign.

However, a former digital staffer for Barack Obama’s second presidential campaign now says the company exhibited the same behavior in 2012. 

Austin Explosions: Police Ask Residents to Stay Inside

A fourth bomb was set off in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, March, 18, 2018, at 8:30pm. There have been four bombings over the last 16 days in Austin. Police believe that this fourth bomb was related to the other three set off earlier this month. The latest bomb was left on the side of the road in a predominately white neighborhood. It is believed that this bomb was triggered by a tripwire. This was the first explosion to break with the pattern of doorstep deliveries. The two men in their 20s who were either biking or walking their bikes past the bomb were taken to a hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries. 

So far, these bombings have led to two deaths, and another four people have been injured. The first three bombs were set in packages that were placed on people’s porches. All of the homes that were targeted in the first three bombings were those of minorities. The police have no suspects at this time

The first blast occurred early on March 2 in the Harris Ridge neighborhood of north Austin. The bomb was a device, similar to a pipe bomb, which was contained in a normal-sized delivery box. The two bombs after were made and delivered in a similar fashion. Anthony Stephan House, 39, died from injuries he suffered after opening the package. He was an African American male. 

The second blast occurred on the morning of March 12th in the city's East MLK neighborhood. The bomb detonated when the victim brought it inside and opened it. It killed 17-year-old, Draylen Mason, and injured another woman. Both victims were African American.  

The third blast occurred later on March 12th in the neighborhood of Montopolis which is a few miles from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The midday blast left a 75-year-old Hispanic woman badly injured.

Trump to Unveil Opioid Plan Seeking Death Penalty for Drug Dealers

President Trump is in New Hampshire today, speaking at Manchester Community College, where he is announcing the Initiative to Stop Opioid Abuse. New Hampshire is a state that the opioid epidemic has hit hard and where 2016 presidential candidates, including Trump, discussed the issue of addiction at length. 

The President’s plan includes expanding access to the gold standard of treatment for an opioid addiction and ensuring first responders are equipped with an opioid overdose reversal drug. It also includes law enforcement measures, and addiction advocates have been urging the administration and lawmakers to steer away from a war-on-drugs approach they say hasn’t worked in the past. The law enforcement measures include allowing the Department of Justice to seek the death penalty for some drug dealers “where appropriate under current law,” a move that faces high hurdles. The concept of the death penalty for certain drug traffickers is something Trump has been outspoken about, but this will be the first time it will be part of an official administration plan. 

Trump’s plan is expected to stiffen penalties for high-intensity drug dealers. The death penalty proposal would be something the Justice Department will be “examining to move ahead with to make sure that's done appropriately” and not wait for Congress to propose possible legislation on the matter. 

Other elements of the plan include, reducing the demand and over prescription of opioids, cutting off the supply of illegal drugs and increasing treatment and recovery services.

National Debt Tops $21 Trillion For First Time Ever

According to the U.S. Treasury, for the first time in history, the national debt surpassed $21 trillion last week. Approximately 6 months ago, on September 8, the national debt was at $20 trillion. The landmark comes shortly after Congress passed and Trump signed, a suspension on the federal debt limit last month, allowing the government to borrow an unlimited amount of money until March 1, 2019. Since the debt ceiling was lifted on February 9, the debt increased by more than a half-trillion-dollars in six weeks. 

The national debt level under the Obama administration jumped from $10.6 trillion to $19.9 trillion, nearly doubling the debt when he entered office.

Mail Time!

• Bill, why hasn't Zarate been deported? President Trump should have walked him over the border himself! This lawsuit is a disgrace and a slap in the face of our legal system.

• Hi Bill...It seems to me we're fighting an uphill battle...With the progressives dominating the media, academia, mainstream TV programming and commercials...How do we fight back to make our views known?
• Bill ‐ why don't we just institute a 10-year path to citizenship. All illegals and dreamers need to register. They would pay regular taxes as well as a citizenship tax ‐ that would help state and local governments.

Word of the Day: Coxcomb