"We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S. Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue!"

"President Trump said Tuesday he wants to deploy U.S. troops to guard the southern border until his proposed wall is built, a move that could significantly escalate his efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.

"The president told reporters that he has been discussing the idea with Defense Secretary James Mattis, arguably his most trusted Cabinet adviser.

"'Until we can have a wall and proper security, we are going to be guarding our border with the military,' Trump said during a meeting with Baltic state leaders, with Mattis sitting at his side. 'That's a big step. We really haven't done that before, or certainly not very much before.' ...

"Sending troops to the border would be an unusual but not unprecedented step.

"Former President George W. Bush deployed 6,000 National Guard troops to the southern border in 2006 to assist the Border Patrol while more border agents were hired and trained. Former President Obama made a similar deployment in 2010, sending 1,200 guardsmen to the U.S.-Mexico frontier."

"President Donald Trump's administration is urging Congress to reshape the Sen. Elizabeth Warren-crafted consumer finance agency before it can be used as a tool for 'tyranny.'

"'The [Consumer Financial Protection] Bureau is far too powerful, with precious little oversight of its activities,' CFPB acting director Mick Mulvaney said in a statement Monday. 'The power wielded by the Director of the Bureau could all too easily be used to harm consumers, destroy businesses, or arbitrarily remake American financial markets.'

"Mulvaney released a semi-annual report to Congress Monday, detailing the CFPB's work between April and September 2017, when Obama appointee and current Ohio gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray led the bureau.

"'The structure and powers of this agency are not something the Founders and Framers would recognize,' Mulvaney argued in his letter accompanying the report. The CFPB appears tyrannical in that it appears to accumulate 'legislative, executive, and judiciary, [powers] in the same hands,' Mulvaney suggested, quoting from James Madison's 'Federalist Number 47.' Such an accumulation of power 'may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny,' Madison wrote."

"As the tragedy at Parkland, Fla., inspires discussion (and some screeching) about how to keep our children safe, the politically correct answer heard over and above all others is 'gun control.' The widely held assumption is that America is suffering a major increase of gun violence.

"According to the FBI, the truth is very different: Gun violence is not just down over the last 25 years, it's way down, as is violent crime overall, down to levels not seen since the 1960s (for murder) and 1971 (for violent crime generally).

"So, if we can at least agree that we would all like to reduce violence in America, especially violence that victimizes children, then let's at least try to start with the facts. ...

"When a discussion is sparked by a tragedy like the mass shooting at Parkland, it's easy, and even understandable, that emotions can dominate the discussion. But if we want real, long-term results -- less violence and safer children -- then while we comfort those who are in pain from the recent tragedy, we must focus on what works.

"And that starts with the facts."

"Facebook has hit the headlines in recent weeks over its handling of your private data, and now the shocking extent of information held by Google has been revealed.

"In a series of tweets, one IT expert has laid out exactly what the search giant knows about him, dating back to 2008, which he describes as 'preposterous'.

"It ranges from every place he visited in the past year to every website he clicked on, and even contained files deleted from his Google Drive cloud storage account. ...

"Web developer Dylan Curran, based in Waterford, Ireland, decided to download both his Facebook and Google archives on Saturday.

"The data held by the world's most popular social media site was fairly large, at around 600mb, equivalent to roughly 400,000 Word documents.

"But this paled in comparison to Google's data file, which was 5.5gb, almost ten times larger. This is around the same size as three million Word documents."

Read entire article here.

"Only in Washington would it be a scandal for the government to ask a person who wants to be represented in Congress if they are an actual U.S. citizen.

"That there are elected public officials out there publicly denouncing the Census Bureau for wanting to ask the simple question reveals just how utterly unserious political leadership in America has become today.

"The census is a ritual required by the Constitution every 10 years to determine exactly how many congressional districts get apportioned to each state. This is to ensure equal representation in Congress. No small thing. ...

"Aside from their unshakable romance with lawlessness, these ridiculous leftist politicians see illegals as future indentured voters. And they want them to be counted just as American citizens to increase their own representation in Congress.

"In the end, if you cannot ask a person living in this country if they are a citizen, then what does it even mean any more to be an American citizen?"

"TALLAHASSEE -- The much-anticipated clash of Florida political titans will soon be official, as Florida Gov. Rick Scott, the two-term governor flush with cash and popularity, prepares to formalize his 2018 challenge to Bill Nelson, a three-term senator and the only statewide-elected Democrat.

"For months, both sides have been taking less-than-subtle jabs at each other as battle lines were etched out on the midterm elections landscape in this closely watched race in the nation's biggest battleground state. National groups from both parties have long been in narrative-setting mode, trying to frame their opponent in the worst possible light as this year's election cycle begins.

"'I have a lot of respect for Bill Nelson; he has won statewide races, but he is in the fight of his life here,' said Brian Ballard, a prominent Florida lobbyist and Scott fundraiser. 'To me, Rick Scott is the guy I don't want to face statewide if I'm a Democrat.'

"On Monday morning, Scott put to bed any lingering doubt about whether he would run when he said he would be making a 'major announcement' on April 9."

"President Donald Trump's decision to appoint former UN Ambassador John Bolton to serve as his National Security Advisor is arguably the most significant single step he has taken to date toward implementing his America First foreign policy.

"The news hit America's enemies and competitors -- from Pyongyang to Teheran to Moscow to Beijing -- like a wall of bricks Thursday night. ...

"Bolton's healthy skepticism for international agreements; his support for a foreign policy that prioritizes the advancement of American national interests over multilateral diplomacy; and his belief that Obama's signature diplomatic achievement, the nuclear deal with Iran, is a disaster, all make him the senior diplomat most aligned with President Trump's America First agenda in Washington.

"The combination of Trump and Bolton no doubt puts fear in the hearts of America's enemies, and heartens America's allies. Given the hatred Bolton inspires in the Washington swamp, it took great courage for Trump to appoint him. America and its allies will be the primary beneficiaries of this bold move."

"COLUMBIA, Mo. -- There is nothing very intimidating about Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, the 38-year-old grandson of a farmer with a slight frame, affable personality and constant smile. He's a package filled with grace not heat.

"But beware the silent warrior. Like David taking on Goliath, Hawley is going after Google -- a company so entrenched in our lives, it knows how we shop, where we travel, what we read and, thanks to our calendars, what we're up to every single day of our lives. ...

"So, in November of last year, the father of two launched an investigation to find out if Google is violating antitrust laws to crush its competitors.

"'Someone at some point has to take a stand and ask the hard question, "What exactly is it that Google is doing with our personal information?"' Hawley told The Post. 'It's time somebody held them accountable for the information they are collecting and how they are using it.'

"Search-engine companies like Google make the majority of their money through advertising. Hawley wants to know how Google collects and uses its customers' private information, and if they bias search-engine results to hurt or bury other content providers' information and advertising. Last summer the European Commission hit Google with a record $2.7 billion fine for unfairly favoring their own services over those of competitors."

"The omnibus spending bill was crafted in secret and will be passed under pressure; raises discretionary spending as the national debt grows; and fails to deliver on any major GOP priorities except increased defense spending. What might turn out to be the signature achievement of unified Republican government this year is the sort of legislation that would have been right at home in the Obama administration.

"Start with the process. The 2,232-page bill was written in secret by leaders of both parties, unveiled Wednesday night, and passed by the House this afternoon. If the Senate doesn't pass the budget by Friday, the government will shut down. So much for the 72-hour rule Republicans sought back during Barack Obama's first term. The procedural abuse means that many lawmakers are voting up-or-down on a bill they didn't write and had no opportunity to debate. It adds up to a breakdown of the budgetary process, a particular embarrassment for Congress given that passing budgets is one of the few duties that it still discharges with regularity.

"The massive, 13 percent increase in discretionary spending was prefigured by the agreement on budget caps that congressional leaders reached in February. It remains remarkable that, even with control over the branches of elected government, the GOP cannot secure funding for the military without dangling such unnecessary spending for domestic programs."