"Critics say Trump's wiretap claim is baseless, but what is truly lacking in solid evidence is the claim that there was some sort of collusion between Trump or his aides and Russian officials to hijack the election. Yet that's all Trump's foes (and much of the press) want to talk about.

"Remember, too: Team Obama has a record of abusing power for political gain, as when the IRS targeted conservative groups.

"At this point, it's hard to know for sure if Trump Tower was actually bugged, and if so, who authorized the tapping and why. But given Team Obama's record -- and the never-ending bid to overturn the election -- there's little doubt why Trump might think the worst."

"The U.S. government has quietly spent millions of taxpayer dollars to destabilize the democratically elected, center-right government in Macedonia by colluding with leftwing billionaire philanthropist George Soros, records obtained by Judicial Watch show. Barack Obama's U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia, Jess L. Baily, has worked behind the scenes with Soros'€™ Open Society Foundation to funnel large sums of American dollars for the cause, constituting an interference of the U.S. Ambassador in domestic political affairs in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

"The cash flows through the State Department and the famously corrupt U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID), which is charged with providing global economic, development and humanitarian assistance. USAID has allocated about $5 million to leftwing Soros groups in Macedonia since 2012, documents show, and at least $9.5 million has been earmarked by the agency to intervene in the Balkan nation's governmental affairs for 2016-2011. State Department figures have been tougher to come by and Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the numbers. Judicial Watch also fired off a public records request to USAID because the preliminary figures, obtained through various sources in both the U.S. and Macedonia, appear to be incomplete.

"Here's how the clandestine operation functions, according to high-level sources in Macedonia and the U.S. that have provided Judicial Watch with records as part of an ongoing investigation. The Open Society Foundation has established and funded dozens of leftwing, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Macedonia to overthrow the conservative government. One Macedonian government official interviewed by Judicial Watch in Washington D.C. recently, calls it the 'Soros infantry.' The groups organize youth movements, create influential media outlets and organize violent protests to undermine the institutions and policies implemented by the government. One of the Soros' groups funded the translation and publication of Saul Alinsky's 'Rules for Radicals' into Macedonian. The book is a tactical manual of subversion, provides direct advice for radical street protests and proclaims Lucifer to be the first radical. Thanks to Obama's ambassador, who has not been replaced by President Trump, Uncle Sam keeps the money flowing so the groups can continue operating and recruiting, sources in Macedonia and the U.S. confirm."

"Robots are coming for more Americans' jobs -- and you can blame the Fight for $15 fanatics. ...

"It's hard to blame firms facing a sky-high $15 minimum wage for looking to rein in costs, but the toll is ugly. Job-loss estimates from a $15 minimum in New York alone run as high as 600,000 -- from automation as well as shops closing and just trimming staff.

"Meanwhile, a new Heritage Foundation report predicts a $15 mandatory wage floor will push up fast-food prices 'at least a fourth.' And since lower-income groups rely more on fast food and other products made by minimum-wage workers, they'll be hit hardest. ...

"Great: Humans lose their jobs. Machines take over. And you can thank the US labor movement."

"The truth is that Presidential speeches to joint sessions of Congress are quickly forgotten. Within a week, the nation will be on to other topics. But while the speeches are forgotten, the impressions they leave will live on. Last night, Mr. Trump finally became President Trump. That should scare the crap out of Democrats.

"President Trump's speech was, frankly, a conventional speech to a crowd that favors convention. He sounded the part. He hit the right notes. His remarks on Ryan Owens and having Mrs. Owens there were electric and unifying. It was a moment of non-partisanship in a hyper-partisan age. That moment allowed all but the most cynical partisans to be American, not partisan. The President put the nation ahead of the tribe. That matters. ...

"The President's performance should scare Democrats because they had placed their bets that President Trump is incapable of rising to the occasion. But he did. They cannot now rely on letting President Trump self immolate. They are now going to have to relate to real people in the heartland again, but how can they?"

"The administrative state has been called 'the fourth branch' of government. It involves an alphabet soup of executive agencies that wield legislative, executive and judicial powers and thus run outside of and counter to our constitutional system. The agencies write 'rules' that are laws in all but name, then enforce them and adjudicate violations.

"Boston University law professor Gary Lawson describes how this works in the case of, for instance, the Federal Trade Commission:

"'The Commission promulgates substantive rules of conduct. The Commission then considers whether to authorize investigations into whether the Commission's rules have been violated. If the Commission authorizes an investigation, the investigation is conducted by the Commission, which reports its findings to the Commission.

"'If the Commission thinks that the Commission's findings warrant an enforcement action, the Commission issues a complaint. The Commission's complaint that a Commission rule has been violated is then prosecuted by the Commission and adjudicated by the Commission.'

"Welcome to government by commission."

"Trump administration officials believe that a Department of Homeland Security report that undercut the president's position on his travel ban was drafted with the express intent of leaking it to the press, a source close to the department says.

"The source said the report was drafted by those loyal to the Obama administration inside the department's office of intelligence and analysis. The drafters relied solely on open source material, which meant it could be delivered to reporters without violating federal laws on mishandling classified information.

"'This was not really a leak but sabotage,' the source said. 'This report was commentary. This is insurrection. They all took an oath.'

"The leak to The Associated Press appears to follow a pattern of suspected Obama loyalists still inside the government releasing draft documents that are immediately refuted by the White House, such as a supposed plan to mobilize the National Guard to arrest illegal criminal immigrants."

"A Chinese-American businessman at the center of a Clinton campaign finance scandal secretly filmed a tell-all video as an 'insurance policy' - because he feared being murdered.

"In footage provided exclusively to DailyMail.com, Johnny Chung spills details on how he illegally funneled money from Chinese officials to Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election bid.

"The Chinese-American Clinton fundraiser recorded the 'elaborate videotaped testimony' while in hiding in 2000.

"He smuggled it to trusted friends and family with instructions to release it to the media in the event of his untimely death because he believed he was at risk of being assassinated.

"Chung is believed to still be alive and living in China.

"The video was obtained by author and historian David Wead for his new book Game of Thorns, which traces Hillary Clinton's unsuccessful 2016 campaign and the Chinese government's long-running operation to buy political influence in Washington."

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"When you give your acceptance speeches, thank your publicist, limo driver, manicurist, masseuse, day nanny, night nanny and weekend nanny. Your attorney Marty Singer for killing that salacious National Enquirer story. Thank your spouse, children, middle school drama teacher. Your astrologist and psychologist. Thank your pool boy and gardener, accountants, assistants, Pilates teacher, hot yoga instructor, teeth-whitening dentist and most of all, Bosley and Botox.

"You can even thank Wolfgang Puck for naming a pizza after you.

"But please, stay off politics.

"We're exhausted."

"An organization originally created to boost former President Barack Obama's 2012 presidential campaign, has partnered with the Indivisible Project to organize national disruptions aimed at derailing President Donald Trump's agenda.

"Organizing for Action (OFA), originally named Organizing for America, is training tens of thousands of organizers to engage in protests designed to amplify the size of resistance to Trump's policies. Recently, organizers have focused on disrupting town halls hosted by Republican lawmakers speaking about repealing Obamacare, restricting immigration from terror-ridden nations and building a border wall.

"'The goal is to make Republicans, even from safe districts, second-guess their support for the Trump agenda.'"

"Clearly in empirical terms, nothing that Trump in his first month in office has done seems to have justified calls for violence against his person or his removal from office. What then accounts for the unprecedented venom?

"As we saw from his recent free-wheeling press conference, Trump's loud, take-no-prisoners style is certainly anti-Washington, anti-media, anti-elite, and anti-liberal. He often unsettles reporters with bombast and invective, when most are accustomed to dealing with career politicians or fellow liberal officeholders who share their same beliefs. As part of Trump's art-of-the-deal tactics, he often blusters, rails, and asks for three times what he might eventually settle for, on the expectation that critics of his style will be soon silenced by the undeniable upside of his eventual achievements. This is a long-term strategy that in the short term allows journalists to fault the present means rather than the future ends. Trump's unconventional bluster, not his record so far, fuels the animosity of elites who seek to delegitimize him and fear that their reputations and careers can be rendered irrelevant by his roughshod populism. He also has reminded the country that some of the mainstream media and Washington-New York elite are often mediocre and boring."

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