"The rampant inflation that has plagued Venezuela since Mr. Maduro ordered the printing presses to crank out more and more Bolivars has made it impossible to import much of anything from abroad. Medicine isn't available except on the black market at prices virtually no one can afford. City dwellers, who a few years ago, were dining at first-rate restaurants can now be found digging through the garbage behind those very restaurants looking for discarded food to stave off starvation. No one is safe on the streets of Venezuelan cities, which are now among the most dangerous on earth. ...

"It's hard to imagine the economy collapsing even further, but in October the regime is going to have to decide what to do about some $3.4 billion in international loan repayments due to creditors who are going to want to be paid in dollars, not worthless Bolivars. The loans were made to the state-run oil company and if Mr. Maduro defaults, his country will end up even more isolated than it is today.

"As things worsen, open civil war looms just over the horizon -- a civil war that could lead not just to tens of thousands of dead, but a wave of refugees the likes of which we have not seen in this hemisphere."

"The shift to the left by Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York demonstrates the power of a party base that is abandoning the Jewish state.

"Both were once rock-solid supporters of Israel. But both have other priorities these days -- they are thinking about running for president in 2020. Their problem is that no one who plans to compete in future Democratic primaries can ignore the growing power of their party's left wing, which has grown increasingly hostile to Israel.

"The influence of the far left is the only thing that might explain why Booker and Gillibrand are presenting themselves to their party's base as less than fully supportive of Israel. The context for this development is a sea change in the Democratic party that has been taking shape over the past two decades. Where once the Democrats were the lockstep pro-Israel party and Republicans were divided about backing Israel, the parties' positions are now reversed. Republicans today are nearly unanimous in their enthusiastic support for the Jewish state, and they oppose all measures that endanger its security. Now it is the Democrats who are split, with polls showing that those who identify with the party are far less likely to back Israel than Republicans are."

"The Obama administration 'misled' Americans into thinking signing up for Obamacare would be cheaper than it really was, according to an inspector general's report Thursday that said the IRS dramatically understated the actual cost of enrolling.

"IRS officials sent the letters to try to prod Americans to comply with the 2010 health law's 'individual mandate' that penalizes them for not holding coverage.

"But as part of the letters, the IRS said most people could find plans for $75 a month or less once government subsidies were figured in.

"That was untrue -- in fact, the average cost was more than twice that figure, at $168 a month, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said."

"President Trump made clear Wednesday that he wants to not just enforce the immigration laws on the books but drastically change them, admitting fewer immigrants and making skills a higher priority in determining who is let in.

"That is a major development in a debate that has largely been dominated by distinctions by legal and illegal immigration.

"The bill sponsored by Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and David Perdue, R-Ga., that Trump endorsed at the White House goes beyond building the wall or dealing with illegal immigration.The RAISE Act would drastically reduce legal immigration and move away from a system where most immigrants are admitted because of who they are related to rather than what they can contribute to the U.S. economy."

"I'm frequently asked about the status of my lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice over the secret, unlawful intrusions into my computers, exposed in 2013. As my federal case moves slowly through court system, there is a new development: ongoing forensic work of my computer laptop system has revealed a second government Internet Protocol (IP) address used in the illegal cyber-attacks on my computer laptop system.

"The IP addresses don't belong there.

"In a new affidavit filed in federal court last week, cyber-security expert David Scantling states, '[T]he presence of these USPS addresses on [Attkisson's] computer is not a mistake; it is not a random event; and it is not technically possible for these IP addresses to simply appear on her computer systems without activity by someone using them as part of the cyber-attack.'

"Scantling served as a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and as a Department of Defense (DoD) civilian employee. He's familiar with 'Advanced Persistent Threat' ('APT') cyber-attacks. In fact, he developed and deployed similar APT cyber-attacks against foreign government, commercial, insurgent and terrorist targets. He also developed and deployed cyber-security countermeasures in the private sector to defend against such attacks."

Read entire article here.

"The Mooch comes, the Mooch goes, but the real news, the good news, is that there is now going to be order in the court of Donald Trump.

"By agreeing to the wish of new chief of staff Gen. John Kelly that Anthony Scaramucci vacate the premises, President Trump sent a dramatic signal of his personal commitment to changing the ways of his White House.

"Other changes are sure to follow in the coming days. There likely will be no more open-door Oval Office gabfests and no more kibitzers loitering in the hallways hoping to catch the president's eye and scramble his schedule. Oh, and leakers will meet a firing squad at dawn on the White House lawn."

"Misconceptions have dominated the debate over Republican legislation to reform Obamacare. The press has spread those misconceptions, and Republicans have done almost nothing to dispel them. That's not the only reason Republicans have so far proven unsuccessful in enacting health-care legislation. It's probably not even the most important one. But it is a big one, and Republicans still don't seem to understand it.

"The first misconception is about how many people would 'lose' their health insurance under the Republican legislation. The House bill would supposedly 'take away' insurance from 23 million people; the bill the Senate considered over the last few weeks would supposedly take it away from 22 million; and the 'skinny bill' would take it away from 16 million in one year. No charge was made more frequently by Democrats against the bill. The press frequently repeated it and rarely challenged it.

"But it wasn't true. Under each of these bills, most of the reductions in coverage were driven by the voluntary decisions of people to go without insurance once they were no longer threatened with fines if they made that choice. The Congressional Budget Office report on the skinny bill implies that about 14 million people would leave the insurance rolls for that reason once the bill was enacted. An additional million or so would leave the rolls because the departure of those 14 million would send premiums higher."

Read entire article here.

"It has been 10 days since Democrats received the glorious news that Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley would require Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort to explain their meeting with Russian operators at Trump Tower last year. The left was salivating at the prospect of watching two Trump insiders being grilled about Russian 'collusion' under the klieg lights.

"Yet Democrats now have meekly and noiselessly retreated, agreeing to let both men speak to the committee in private. Why would they so suddenly be willing to let go of this moment of political opportunity?

"Fusion GPS. That's the oppo-research outfit behind the infamous and discredited 'Trump dossier,' ginned up by a former British spook. Fusion co-founder Glenn Simpson also was supposed to testify at the Grassley hearing, where he might have been asked in public to reveal who hired him to put together the hit job on Mr. Trump, which was based largely on anonymous Russian sources. Turns out Democrats are willing to give up just about anything -- including their Manafort moment -- to protect Mr. Simpson from having to answer that question.

"What if, all this time, Washington and the media have had the Russia collusion story backward? What if it wasn't the Trump campaign playing footsie with the Vladimir Putin regime, but Democrats? The more we learn about Fusion, the more this seems a possibility."

"Theodore Roosevelt offered Americans a 'Square Deal.' His fifth cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, gave us 'The New Deal.' Modern Democrats, who have lost election after election, are now offering the country 'A Better Deal.'

"Speaking in Berryville, Va., a small town that voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump and is represented by a Republican in Congress, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, 'Too many Americans don't know what we stand for.'

"Actually, they do know, and that's why Democrats don't have the White House, why they lost their congressional majority and the reason they are in the minority in most state legislatures and governorships. ...

"This latest effort to fool voters into believing Democrats have something new to say, or better policies to try, isn't a better deal, it's a raw deal."

"Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), the former Democratic National Committee chairwoman, has been under intense criticism over her retention of Imran Awan as a technology aide. While other members severed connections to Awan after he was accused of wrongdoing months ago, Wasserman Schultz retained him. He has now been arrested at Dulles International Airport in an alleged attempt to flee the country.

"Awan is an IT staffer accused of a scheme to double-charge the House for IT equipment. He and his family have made millions of dollars on the House payroll working for Democratic members, according to a Politico report.

"Today Wasserman Schultz fired him. However, her refusal to terminate the association seemed curious to many, particularly since he was barred from accessing the House's computer system since February. In the meantime, the Capitol Police and federal authorities were finding evidence of double billing for computers, iPads, monitors, keyboards and routers. Wasserman Schultz has also been accused of not cooperating with investigators and there are ongoing negotiations over access to her computer. After months of investigation, Wasserman Schultz is still in negotiation over access to her laptop."

Read the entire article here.