"Two top Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are questioning former national security adviser Susan Rice about an 'unusual' message she sent to herself on Jan 20, 2017 -- President Trump's Inauguration Day.

"Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) questioned Rice why she sent a note detailing a conversation she observed on Jan. 5 between then-FBI Director James Comey and then-President Barack Obama.

"'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,' they wrote in a letter to Rice.

"They said that in the message, Rice noted how Obama repeatedly emphasized during the meeting on Russian election hacking with Comey that he wants every aspect of the issue handled 'by the book.'"

Read entire article here.

"Why is the United States reliant on China and Russia for strategic minerals when we arguably have more of these valuable resources than both these nations combined? This has nothing to do with geological impediments. It is all politics.

"This is an under-reported scandal that jeopardizes American security. As recently as 1990 the U.S. was number one in the world in mining output. But according to the latest data from the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. is 100 percent import dependent for at least 20 critical and strategic minerals (not including each of the 'rare earths'), and between 50 percent and 99 percent reliant for another group of 30 key minerals.

"Why aren't alarm bells ringing?

"This import dependency has grown worse over the last decade. We now are totally dependent on imports for vital strategic metals that are necessary components for everything from military weapon systems, to cellphones, to solar panels to scores of new age high-technology products. We don't even have a reliable reserve stockpile of these resources.

"Fortunately, the Trump administration is working to reverse decades-long policies that have inhibited our ability to mine on federal and private lands our own abundant resources -- mostly in the Western states like Montana, Colorado, Wyoming and the Dakotas."

Read entire article here.

"Amid the brouhaha about the Nunes memo and the DACA controversy, an item from Greg Hinz of Crain's Chicago Business caught my eye. Local demographers crunching Census data estimate that Chicago's black population fell to 842,000 last year, while its white non-Hispanic population increased to 867,000. National political significance: in our three largest central cities -- New York, Los Angeles, Chicago -- gentry liberals have become the dominant political demographic group.

"That's consistent with election results. Gentry liberals -- the phrase is urban analyst Joel Kotkin's -- are the political base of each of those cities' mayors, Bill de Blasio, Eric Garcetti, and Rahm Emanuel. That's something new in American politics. Modest-income Jews used to be a key group in New York, white married homeowners in Los Angeles, 'bungalow ward' ethnics in Chicago. In time they faced challenges from candidates with non-white political bases -- blacks, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans in New York, Mexicans in Los Angeles, blacks and Hispanics in Chicago. Now gentry liberals are on top.

"This reflects demographic change. Blacks have been moving from central cities to suburbs and to the South. Mexican immigrant inflow largely shut down circa 2008. Affluent professionals and single college graduates have colonized -- gentrified -- neighborhoods like Park Slope, Silver Lake, and Wicker Park, with bedraggled but potentially attractive housing stock convenient to downtowns.

"The trend is visible elsewhere -- not only in San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, but also in Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, even in Cleveland and Detroit. It's widespread and strategic enough to be changing the face of the Democratic Party.

"There's irony in this. Gentry liberals have produced the highest-income-inequality metropolitan areas in the nation. They decry gentrification, and the accompanying movement of low-income blacks and Hispanics out of their neighborhoods, even as they cause it. They sing hymns to diversity even as they revel in the pleasures of communities where almost everybody believes and consumes exactly the same things -- and votes uniformly Democratic."

Read entire article here.

"Senate leaders announced a bipartisan two-year budget agreement Wednesday that would provide nearly $300 billion in additional funding, a crucial step toward averting a Friday government shutdown and ending a months-long impasse on spending priorities.

"The plan would suspend the federal debt ceiling until March 1, 2019, and would provide almost $90 billion in hurricane and wildfire disaster aid. A Senate vote is expected Thursday, followed by the House. ...

"Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky called the plan a 'significant agreement' among Senate and House leaders that gives both parties what they want. It includes a long-sought defense spending boost that was the top goal of Republicans who lead both chambers in Congress and gives more funding for domestic programs sought by Democrats. ...

"Defense spending would increase by $80 billion over current law in this fiscal year and $85 billion in the one that begins Oct. 1. Non-defense spending would rise by $63 billion this year and $68 billion next year."

"Classism is foul any way you cut it. It's nasty, it's uncharitable, and it often relies on shame and embarrassment as a means to control those at the bottom. It's also very un-American, given our nation's extremely egalitarian culture in comparison to almost anywhere in Europe.

"The Democrats and their media boosters, however, have a classism problem.

"When House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., used the word 'crumbs' to refer to tax reform-related bonuses and wage increases, it seemed like a one-off political blunder. In her haste to attack anything bearing the Republican brand, it appeared the California congresswoman merely didn't fully think through what she said. We've all been there before. But the attitude that $1,000-plus bonuses and wage increases are actually insignificant amounts, and that the people who are excited about them are perhaps not particularly bright or well-educated, has persisted in the anti-GOP ranks, casting Pelosi's remarks in a new light.

"That is, it seems increasingly clear that the strategy to counter the GOP's tax reform efforts includes not just the usual attacks on congressional Republicans, but also a campaign to shame the not-too-terribly-wealthy who are now enjoying the benefits of the bill's passage."

"A newly released document from the Senate Judiciary Committee says Christopher Steele, the former British spy who compiled the Trump dossier, wrote an additional memo on the subject of Donald Trump and Russia that was not among those published by BuzzFeed in January 2017.

"The newly released document is an unclassified and heavily redacted version of the criminal referral targeting Steele filed on Jan. 4 by Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. It appears to confirm some level of coordination between the extended Clinton circle and the Obama administration in the effort to seek damaging information about then-candidate Trump.

"According to the referral, Steele wrote the additional memo based on anti-Trump information that originated with a foreign source. In a convoluted scheme outlined in the referral, the foreign source gave the information to an unnamed associate of Hillary and Bill Clinton, who then gave the information to an unnamed official in the Obama State Department, who then gave the information to Steele. Steele wrote a report based on the information, but the redacted version of the referral does not say what Steele did with the report after that."

"This week we saw a perfect example of how corrupt journalism has become. There was an opportunity to report the news and journalists and their fellow travelers in the pundit class balked. While that wasn't unusual, what was is how they did it in the lead up to the news, not bothering to wait until they'd seen what they were attempting to discredit. There was an unprecedented attempt to make the release of the FISA memo NOT NEWS before anyone knew what was in it.

"Over the past two weeks, Democrats scrambled to 'warn' the public that the release of the FISA memo would 'damage national security' were it released. Journalists picked up the mantra and ran with it, unquestioningly parroting it in badgering Republicans about why they would support its release considering this charge. There was virtually no discussion as to whether or not this allegation was true or an attempted partisan distraction, it was simply accepted and repeated as if it had been carved into stone tablets by a burning bush and sent directly to the teleprompter in their TV studios.

"The memo, of course, was nothing of the sort. There was nothing that was a threat in any way to national security, no remote mention of sources or methods. It was all a Democratic Party lie immediately adopted by journalists. As with past false stories that needed to be retracted or corrected, there was no comeuppance for those who spread the lie to the media, nor the media figures who regurgitated it. It happened, and when it was proven to be a lie, it was memory-holed."

"FBI abuse of power is a real threat. We saw it under J. Edgar Hoover. These people have the spy equipment and the guns. Both Congress and the president need to keep a close eye on them.

"And these days, there are bad actors at the FBI. ...

"With federal law enforcement, ultimate control rests with the president and oversight and funding come from Congress, but the professionals there are to act as independent professionals. They are not supposed to be allies of the president. Equally, they are not supposed to be his antagonists."

"Trey Gowdy is done with politics.

"The House Oversight Committee Chairman for years has joked privately about quitting Congress and returning home to South Carolina. On Wednesday, he finally pulled the plug -- likely for good.

"A rising star that many Republicans once considered a dark-horse for speaker of the House, Gowdy announced Wednesday he would not seek reelection or any political office and would instead return to the justice system. Sources close to him say he wants to return home, practice law and maybe teach and write a book with his friend Sen. Tim Scott.

"'Whatever skills I may have are better utilized in a courtroom than in Congress, and I enjoy our justice system more than our political system,' the South Carolina Republican said."

"It's an observation so strikingly true that you wonder why you didn't think of it earlier. 'Donald Trump,' a friend said the other day, 'is teaching the Republican Party how to fight and how to win.'

"The evidence is everywhere everyday, and it was on vivid display Tuesday night. The president remains in a fighting mood, determined to keep punching his way forward. ...

"If this was Trump reaching out his hand, he was doing it from a position of strength and supreme confidence. If there is to be compromise, Dems will have pay dearly for it.

"That the president intends to drive a hard bargain was made clear during his remarks on immigration when he said pointedly, 'Americans are dreamers, too.'

"The tough tone, leavened only by the moving stories of first responders, military heroes and other noteworthy guests seated near the First Lady, suggests that Trump is sticking with what got him to the dance in the first place.

"He will continue to be who he is."