"The worst-kept secret in Washington, D.C. is that Congress will once again fail to do its most basic constitutional job and pass legislation to fund the federal government beyond the end of the current fiscal year on September 30.

"Although both party's leaders are slow to admit it, the annual fight over $4 trillion of federal funding is heading down a now-familiar path. Lawmakers will lurch toward a government shutdown, pass a temporary continuing resolution to keep federal doors open, and eventually agree to a last-minute omnibus funding bill -- a massive trillion dollar-plus package riddled with waste and cobbled together without public scrutiny or congressional debate.

"And lawmakers wonder why their approval ratings hover in the teens.

"Worse, Republicans will take the blame, because they run Congress. What a policy and political debacle a few weeks before the November elections."

"Tom Brady has been held more accountable 4deflating footballs than Hillary for lying, evading transparency laws & risking national security."

"The United States appears to be entering another era of dangerous internal instability similar to the one it endured in the 1960s-1970s. ...

"Our enemies increasingly may gamble that provocations won't elicit a U.S. reaction. Or that even if America did respond, the resulting domestic divisions and turmoil would diminish the effectiveness of the response.

"Add to the equation record debt and vast cuts in the defense budget, and our enemies may conclude that we are Rome of AD 500, Britain of the late 1940s, or Russia of the 1980s.

"To be blunt, America's vulnerable post-war global order may already seem to those abroad to be bloated carrion ready to be picked apart by opportunistic vultures."

"The Obama administration circled the wagons around Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, with Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch refusing to detail why she didn't pursue criminal charges against the former secretary and the State Department going to bat for her, saying she shouldn't have to testify under oath about her secret email account.

"Facing irate Republicans on Capitol Hill, Ms. Lynch repeatedly passed the buck to others in the Justice Department, saying that while she announced she wouldn't pursue charges against Mrs. Clinton, the decision was made by the FBI and career prosecutors and she had no public thoughts on the matter.

"She said refusing to divulge details of her decision protected her employees from political pressure, but Republicans said she was the one engaging in politics by protecting the Clintons as repayment for having been appointed as a prosecutor by President Bill Clinton."

"Democratic senators have been assigned conservative nonprofit groups to call out by name on the chamber floor in speeches on Monday and Tuesday criticizing corporations and advocacy groups for opposing Democratic climate policies, internal emails reveal.

"Nineteen Senate Democrats will attack specific organizations in what they are calling a 'web of denial,' according to a schedule of floor speeches circulated by Emily Enderle, a top environmental policy adviser to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who is spearheading the effort.

"Internal emails about the effort obtained by the Free Beacon reveal a highly coordinated plan between members of Congress and environmental activist groups to fuel a public relations and legal offensive against fossil fuel companies and groups they support."

"The cold-blooded massacre of police officers in Dallas late last Thursday night is a terrible reminder of what peace officers in America face every day they go out to do their jobs. That is so whether it is in skyscraper-walled canyons of our biggest cities or in the smallest, tree-shaded New Hampshire village. Those whose mission is 'to protect and to serve' need our support, and prayers, now and always."

"Snipers opened fire on police officers in the heart of Dallas, killing five officers and injuring six others during protests over two recent fatal police shootings of black men, police said, in a week that bore dark echoes of the tumultuous civil rights era. ...

"The attacks made Thursday the deadliest day in U.S. law enforcement history since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which tracks on-duty officer deaths."

"FBI Director James Comey stood before the nation and issued a list of Hillary Clinton's astounding wrongdoings Tuesday as regards America's national security -- and then said he was not recommending prosecution because, in essence, what Mrs. Clinton did was 'extremely careless' but not criminal.

"As he spoke, I recalled F. Scott Fitzgerald's peerless description in 'The Great Gatsby' of a feckless wealthy couple: 'They were careless people, Tom and Daisy -- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into . . . their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.'

"Fitzgerald's Tom and Daisy are pikers compared to Bill and Hillary."

"Tuesday morning, FBI Director James Comey stepped up to a podium and calmly and methodically demolished every single Hillary Clinton lie, spin, and evasion regarding her misuse of classified information. Months of deception blew up in her face. And then Comey decided to make her president of the United States.

"Rarely have 30 minutes of television so perfectly encapsulated the decline and fall of the rule of law and the extraordinary privileges enjoyed by America's liberal elite. After listing abuse after abuse -- and detailing lie after lie -- Comey declared that 'no reasonable prosecutor' would prosecute Hillary for her obvious and manifest crimes. It's good to be a Clinton. ...

"[R]ules and standards are for the little people. The FBI demolished every Clinton excuse and blew apart every Clinton lie, but soon she might well walk into rooms serenaded to the sweet sounds of 'Hail to the Chief.' To paraphrase the words of Benjamin Franklin, we've got a banana republic, if Hillary can keep it."

"Each year, the United States falls farther behind in educating K-12 students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). It falls behind in teaching the next generation of technology workers for American companies. And it falls behind in instructing cybersecurity professionals who will help protect our country. This deficiency puts our national security at greater risk. After years of analyzing this challenge, it's now time for the federal government to act and help address this vulnerability. Congress should invest in the future by providing adequate resources for K-12 computer science education for the next fiscal year, especially in this transition period between presidential administrations.

"During the last 20 years, the size and skill level of the technology workforce has not kept pace with the demand for workers. Routinely, American companies and government agencies post more job vacancies than there are qualified candidates to fill them. But this scarcity starts much earlier: Over three-quarters of K-12 schools do not offer computer science classes. And the federal government provides inadequate funding to states and local school districts to support the appropriate and necessary STEM education initiatives. ...

"The federal government has a responsibility to educate our students beginning in elementary and secondary school. This investment will create a more skilled foundation for the next generation of technology workers and cybersecurity experts. It's time for Congress to appropriate the necessary, targeted funds to provide STEM education. Our national security depends on it."