"Tighten your seat belts because the U.S. economy is in for another frightening bumpy ride that Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen calls the 'new normal.'

"That means we're facing a prolonged period of much slower job creation and painfully anemic economic growth in the middle of a deeply divisive presidential election.

"In a downbeat assessment of the economy's prospects, the Fed again postponed raising interest rates in the face of weakening economic data that is teetering on the edge of another recession. ...

"And the Fed doesn't expect the Obama economy to do much better over the next two years."

"In the wake of the worst mass shooting in US history, the search for ISIS's role in the carnage has focused on whether the group directed or merely inspired the attack, but the terror in Orlando shows that we're missing the point.

"The truth is that ISIS is creating a new role for themselves, not as the director who maps out the plans, or even the actors who carry it out, but rather as the producers of terror who ensure that operations are a success by attracting the right cast, providing a rough draft of the script, and ensuring publicity after the fact. ...

"Orlando brings up a new specter of fear for Americans. Instead of trained ISIS operatives slipping into our country to form sleeper cells, we must now confront the reality that 'lone wolf' attackers are far from alone when we consider the world of training and online inspiration at their fingertips.

"ISIS has found a way to bring the fight to us, and it is more crucial than ever that we find a way to effectively counter their online propaganda before they recruit others."

"A future president needs to ask Congress for a declaration of war against all jihadi organizations that threaten to attack the United States, our military, our citizens or our interests. No phony limits, such as just declaring war only on ISIS or al Qaeda (names change). All violent jihadis who target us, now or in the future, are mortal enemies.

"Why formally declare war? It brings focus, unleashes resources, eases our self-defeating rules of engagement, clarifies laws and, critically, changes mind-sets. It lets us cull the political generals and replace them with fighters and gets the lawyers off the battlefield.

"We need to use whatever military tools are required and employ them with resolve and without second-guessing those who fight. The best way to save lives, military and civilian, is to kill those you need to kill as quickly as possible."

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"ISIS ... has learned the West's true vulnerability. A free society simply can't police everyone at once, and a relentless propaganda campaign aimed at radicals worldwide will yield jihadists who are ready to kill with any and all weapons available. The Paris attacks were conducted in a nation with far tighter gun controls than any state in the United States, and it resulted in more than twice the casualties of Orlando. Europe has suffered more than the U.S. in spite of its restrictive legal regime. The virus is spreading.

"The gun-control debate is nothing more than a destructive distraction. Is there a single viable gun-control proposal of the last decade that would keep a committed jihadist from arming himself? Indeed, the gun-control debate keeps us from focusing on the true danger: a terrorist movement that's learning how to attack a free society. It keeps us from focusing on the terrorists' capabilities and motivations. It keeps us from asking the very hard questions about how to defeat a movement that's based not just in a jihadist army that takes and holds territory but also in an ancient religious idea that has never gone away."

"The U.S. can no longer treat the Islamic State, a resurgent al-Qaeda, and other terrorist organizations as distant enemies. Islamic terrorists' war on us has returned to American shores, and it will continue here as long as we refuse to exercise the tactics necessary to stamp it out. ...

"Orlando, like Paris and San Bernardino and London and Madrid and countless other attacks, is an attack on a way of life, painstakingly built up over centuries, that cares first and foremost for freedom. Now more than ever the West must uphold that way of life -- and take the fight to those who seek to destroy it."

"An explosive report released Thursday suggests that Google manipulated its search engine to boost Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton by burying unflattering stories about her.

"A video posted by SourceFed, a news and pop-culture website, accused Google of attempting to boost secretly Mrs. Clinton'€™s candidacy. ...

"The allegations by SourceFed, whose YouTube page shows 1.7 million subscribers, come on the heels of an Internet scandal involving allegations that Facebook manipulated its 'trending topics' section to omit conservative-friendly stories."

"Employment: The economy has 'turned the corner,' we keep hearing. We'€™re now in a 'solid' jobs recovery, still others repeat. Funny how just a single month's data can alter the narrative.

"Unfortunately for the narrative, May's jobs report showing just 38,000 jobs created -- vs. a consensus Wall Street estimate of 160,000 new jobs -- was so far under trend that it can only be one of two things: a complete fluke, or an ominous sign that the economy is starting to seriously sputter. We're betting on the latter. ...

"Making things still worse, median family income in April stood at $57,243, still 0.6% below its level of 2000 -- a shocking indictment of Obama's policies built on massive regulation of the economy (Dodd-Frank, EPA), cheap money (Fed zero interest rates), interference in free markets (minimum wage and housing), and the takeover of one whole sector of the economy by the federal government (ObamaCare).

"Anyone who expresses surprise at the current economic doldrums just isn't paying attention."

"Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are different in many ways, but perhaps never more so than in their approach to punctuality. While Clinton is habitually hours late, Sanders almost always sticks closely to his campaign schedule.

"So it was a surprise to see Sanders show up 40 minutes late to his speech at Tuesday night's election rally in Santa Monica, Calif. He was reportedly caught up in watching election returns back in his Los Angeles hotel room; the uncharacteristic delay seemed to reveal a man grappling with a momentous decision. Should he stay, or should he go?"

"A lawsuit that forced the Internal Revenue Service to publish a list of all groups that were potentially subjected to inappropriate scrutiny could lead to the deposition of Lois Lerner, former head of the IRS' tax-exempt wing and the unofficial face of the IRS scandal.

"NorCal Tea Party Patriots, a California-based conservative group, filed the only successful lawsuit to date against the IRS for targeting practices that landed the agency in a firestorm of criticism in 2013. Last week, a judge in the Southern District of Ohio forced the IRS to release a list of 426 groups that may have faced discrimination when they applied for tax-exempt status. ...

"Lerner infamously invoked her Fifth Amendment rights and refused to answer questions when she was called before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to testify about the tax agency's targeting in 2013 and 2014."

"They were among the nation's top priorities for deportation, criminals who were supposed to be sent back to their home countries. But instead they were released, one by one, in secret across the United States. Federal officials said that many of the criminals posed little threat to the public, but did little to verify whether that was true.

"It wasn't.

"A Globe review of 323 criminals released in New England from 2008 to 2012 found that as many as 30 percent committed new offenses, including rape, attempted murder, and child molestation -- a rate that is markedly higher than Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have suggested to Congress in the past. ...

"The public rarely learns about ICE's decisions to release criminals until something goes wrong -- because immigration is the only law enforcement system in the United States that keeps such records secret."

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