"American democracy has been corrupted, and if not cured, the disease will be fatal. There is no other conclusion to be drawn when the public is deceived on the scale that was revealed (but ignored) by James Comey. The stunning truth is that the American political and media establishment allowed a phony story -- that they knew was phony -- to dominate our political discourse for months. When James Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week, he revealed that he had informed many important Congressional leaders that there was no investigation of President Trump and the Russians underway, even as MSNBC, CNN, The New York Times, and the Washington Post daily carried stories alluding to an imaginary investigation.

"None of these informed leaders spoke out! They allowed a make-believe tale intended to harm the legitimacy and therefore political power of President Trump to dominate mindshare in the nation's collective political conversation."

"Watergate it wasn't. Not even Clarence Thomas versus Anita Hill. This was Jim Comey's revenge tour and the former FBI boss threw every bomb, punch and handful of mud he could find at Donald Trump.

"Three hours later, the president was still standing. A little dirtier, to be sure, but stronger because he survived the much-anticipated onslaught.

"Consider the day from the partisan angles. If you started as a Trump supporter, you still are. You were buttressed by the disclosures that the media got lots of big anti-Trump stories wrong, and not surprised that Comey, like much of the permanent government, was against the president from the start.

"At the end of the day, you're wondering, Where's the beef? Where's the crime? ...

"Even worse for the left, Comey confirmed that Trump was not under personal investigation in the Russia-collusion probe. That had to hurt like Election Night all over again, with Hillary Clinton losing again."

Read entire article here.

"Ahead of former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director James Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, the committee released the seven-page prepared statement Comey provided on Wednesday. While it's clear that Comey and his allies believe the statement is proof that President Donald Trump acted inappropriately, and perhaps even illegally, the statement itself is a much bigger indictment of Comey's own behavior over the last six months. Not only does Comey's statement corroborate Trump's claim that the former FBI director told him three times that the president was not being investigated by the FBI, it also reveals the Beltway game Comey was playing with the investigation. ...

"The most damning aspect of Comey's prepared testimony is his admission that he deliberately refused to inform the public that Trump was not being personally investigated by the FBI. Comey's justification for this refusal to publicly disclose material facts -- that those facts might change -- is laughable, especially in light of Comey's 2016 two-step regarding the investigation of Hillary Clinton. ...

"Comey's own words reveal in lurid detail the game he was playing. They reveal that Trump's claims about the investigation, and his claims about Comey's characterization of the investigation, were completely accurate. They reveal that Comey was giving one impression to the president and Congress in private and deliberately allowing an entirely different one to gain currency in public. Comey's mistake wasn't in thinking the Beltway two-step was the best way to keep his job. His mistake was assuming that Trump wouldn't dare to stop dancing."

Read entire article here.

"On Thursday morning, James Comey returns to a very familiar forum, and a very familiar conundrum. The former FBI director will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee about his observations of the FBI's investigation into possible Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election, and especially whether any attempt to influence him by President Trump played a role in his abrupt termination. Comey has an opportunity here to publicly air any grievances over his firing, free of the professional requirements for discretion during open investigations.

"So, will what he has to say make any bit of a difference? The problem for Comey is that both Democrats and Republicans have spent nearly a year attacking him for failing to exercise professional discretion when it mattered, and politicizing the FBI as a result. So whether his testimony will have any sway depends on whether he can overcome his massive credibility problem. ...

"The Senate Judiciary Committee recently sent Comey a letter requesting answers to seven questions related to his meeting with Trump, along with any memos he wrote contemporaneously to record the contents of their conversation and any other such memos written after meetings with then-President Barack Obama and officials at the Department of Justice. According to online news site Circa, Comey politely declined to answer those questions on the basis of now being a 'private citizen.' If that's true, some on the Intelligence Committee might question why Comey wants to talk to them about Trump but not to the Judiciary Committee.

"In other words, we can expect a lot of drama this week on Capitol Hill. Whether any of it moves the needle on these controversies remains to be seen, but given the damage done to Comey before this, don't expect to hear much that will stick."

"Political media and DC elites often forget that the average American family is struggling to save for the future -- and in fact almost half couldn't cover an unforeseen $400 expense. Despite the fact that millions of men and women across this country are working second and third jobs, they are struggling to feed their families.

"Those Americans -- from Western North Carolina to Ohio to Pennsylvania to Michigan -- aren't focused on the latest breaking 'news' on the Russia investigation. They care about seeing results and solutions that help their businesses survive -- and grow. They care about having access to high quality, affordable health care. They care about lower taxes that allow them to keep more of their paychecks. They care about the safety and security of their family.

"And, in Washington, we have done an abysmal job of maintaining our primary focus on those issues. Passing important policy that impacts every day Americans requires consensus building, marketing our ideas to constituents through media and building coalitions of support. With the constant focus on Russia, big important policy items like tax reform have been stalled."

"Former FBI director James Comey is formally refusing to answer questions submitted to him by a bipartisan group of senators, suggesting he no longer must do so as a private citizen.

"Comey sent an email from his private account last week rebuffing the seven questions that had been submitted to him by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley and the committee's ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein after Comey's final testimony as FBI director to the panel last month. Comey was fired by President Donald Trump shortly after his appearance. ...

"The 'private citizen' excuse was considered unusual by the senators since numerous former government officials have testified before Congress in recent weeks."

Read entire article here.

"Call in the cops. Release the tear gas. Make arrests. Convict the arrested. Give the convicts real punishments.

"Repeat those steps, again and again.

"That's how colleges and the civil authorities with jurisdiction over them should react to campus protests that turn violent, or that block free access to public spaces, or that physically interrupt people's work or 'occupy' their workspaces, or that shut down the right of others to speak.

"It is long past time to overrule mob rule, to protect the rights of interested listeners to listen, to insist that words and viewpoints are not violence and should not be met with violence. And it's time to teach spoiled brats that they are the ones abusing an unearned privilage - the privilege of higher education - if they use force or its threat or even their vocal cords to deny free speech to others that the agitators denounce for being 'privileged.'"

"Of all the endless commentary on President Trump's NATO speech, let's at least put to rest the claim that his thundering at delinquent members to pay their share is somehow a threat to the alliance. ...

Of NATO's 28 members, only the United States, Britain, Greece, Estonia and Poland meet the target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense.

Angela Merkel's Germany manages just 1.2 percent. If 'we Europeans must really take our fate into our own hands' (as she said after Trump headed home), she'll have to put a lot more money where her mouth is. ...

As the president noted, if every member had met the target these last eight years, 'We would have had another $199 billion for our collective defense.'"

"According to a recent National Economic Research Associates Economic Consulting study, the Paris Agreement could obliterate $3 trillion of GDP, 6.5 million industrial sector jobs and $7,000 in per capita household income from the American economy by 2040. Meeting the 2025 emissions reduction target alone could subtract $250 billion from our GDP and eliminate 2.7 million jobs. The cement, iron and steel, and petroleum refining industries could see their production cut by 21% 19%, and 11% respectively.

"Not only would these unfair standards reduce American job growth and wages and increase monthly utility costs for hardworking families, they would fundamentally disadvantage the United States in the global economy. The result: our economic output would lag while other countries continued to expand their GDPs.

"The agreement's proponents market it as a panacea for addressing the impacts of climate change, but at its core, it is about increasing government control -- over the economy, the energy sector and nearly every aspect of our daily lives. It represents the exact misguided, top-down, government-knows-best approach that American voters resoundingly rejected in 2016."

"Most Democratic leaders are dynastic and geriatric: Bernie Sanders (75), Hillary Clinton (69), Elizabeth Warren (67), Diane Feinstein (83), Nancy Pelosi (77), Steny Hoyer (77), or Jerry Brown (79). They are hardly spry enough to dance to the party's new 'Pajama Boy' and 'Hands Up, Don't Shoot' music.

"Yet those not past their mid-sixties appear unstable, such as the potty-mouth DNC head Tom Perez and his assistant, the volatile congressman Keith Ellison. Or they still believe it is 2008 and they can rally yet again around 'hope and change' and Vero possumus. That politicos are talking about an amateurish Chelsea Clinton as a serious future candidate reflects the impoverishment of Democratic political talent.

"In such a void, a traditionally progressive media, including the entertainment industry, stepped in and fused with what is left of the Democratic party to form the new opposition to the Republican party and in particular to Donald Trump. The aim now is to alter culture through the courts and pressure groups rather than to make laws."