"The Veterans Affairs-scandal headlines speak for themselves. The Daily Beast: 'Veteran Burned Himself Alive outside VA Clinic'; azfamily.com: 'Dead veterans canceling their own appointments?'; New York Times: 'Report Finds Sharp Increase in Veterans Denied V.A. Benefits,' 'More than 125,000 U.S. veterans are being denied crucial mental health services,' and 'Rubio, Miller ask committee to back VA accountability bills.'

"Are these headlines from 2014, when the VA scandal broke? The sad answer is no. All these headlines -- and so many more -- are from the past ten days, a fact that also speaks for itself."

"The head of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is linked to a Russian bank involved with an emerging international scandal, according to documents reported on Tuesday.

"Registration forms indicate that the Podesta Group signed up to lobby for the Sberbank of Russia in Washington about a month ago, in early March. The bank has been implicated in a scheme unearthed on Sunday in which leaders worldwide illegally stashed their assets overseas.

"The Podesta Group was founded by John Podesta, the chairman of Clinton's 2016 campaign for president and a chief of staff to former president Bill Clinton. His brother, Anthony Podesta, is listed as a lobbyist for the account on the March filing."

"Two senior intelligence analysts at U.S. Central Command say the military has forced them out of their jobs because of their skeptical reporting on U.S.-backed rebel groups in Syria, three sources with knowledge of their claim told The Daily Beast. It's the first known instance of possible reprisals against CENTCOM personnel after analysts accused their bosses of manipulating intelligence reports about the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS in order to paint a rosier picture of progress in the war.

"One of the analysts alleging reprisals is the top analyst in charge of Syria issues at CENTCOM. He and a colleague doubted rebels' capabilities and their commitment to U.S. objectives in the region. The analysts have been effectively sidelined from their positions and will no longer be working at CENTCOM, according to two individuals familiar with the dispute, and who spoke on condition of anonymity."

"Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes he's found the solution to global Islamic terrorism: love and empathy. He has announced that, essentially, all we need to do is hug it out, that perhaps one Giant Hug will overcome the global jihadist network of maniacs who exist only to murder. ...

"To have someone as engaged in the tech and information world as Mr. Zuckerberg propagate the nonsense that all the world needs is a hug, highlights the dramatic importance of rejecting this tripe, showing global leadership the door and elevating those who understand the worldwide threat. You won't be surprised to learn the solution is actually very kind -- introducing Islamists to Allah. As quickly as possible."

"Merrick Garland, President Obama's choice to fill Antonin Scalia's position on the Supreme Court, falsely blamed the YouTube video 'Innocence of Muslims' for the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens during the Benghazi attacks, court transcripts show.

"Judicial Watch flagged Garland's comments, which came during a Jan. 10, 2013 hearing as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the conservative watchdog group for 52 photos of the body of Osama bin Laden. ...

"Garland and the two other judges voted unanimously in favor of the government against Judicial Watch, thus withholding the photos."

"President Obama's weekly radio address on Saturday was his latest attempt to reassure the country that the U.S. is making significant progress in the fight against Islamic terrorism, notwithstanding the Brussels airport attack last week and the Paris massacre in November. Alas, it didn't take long for reality to contradict the soothing rhetoric. The very next day, a Taliban splinter group inspired by Islamic State bombed a crowded park in Lahore, Pakistan, killing more than 70 people, mostly women and children. ...

"The New York Times recently reported that the Pentagon had presented the White House 'with the most detailed set of military options yet for attacking the growing Islamic State threat in Libya,' where U.S. officials believe the group may be setting up a new base. The White House's response? The 'plan is not being actively considered, at least for now,' said the paper, 'while the Obama administration presses ahead with a diplomatic initiative to form a unity government from rival factions inside Libya.'

"Mr. Obama's biggest foreign-policy blunder was drawing a red line on the use of chemical weapons in Syria and then not enforcing it, which ultimately facilitated the spread of ISIS. The administration badly underestimated what would quickly become the world's most ruthless terror group, and now it may be overestimating its ability to deal with Islamic State's homicidal leaders diplomatically."

"Think of ISIS as the Facebook of Islamic extremism. When it started out in 2004, Facebook was just a bunch of nerdy Harvard undergraduates. Today it has more than 1.5 billion users. When ISIS started out in 2006, it was just a bunch of Iraqi jihadists. Today, according to data from the Pew Research Center, ISIS has a minimum of 63 million supporters -- and that is based on opinion polls in just 11 countries.

"Only a very small minority of members of the ISIS network need to carry out acts of violence to kill a very large number of people indeed. Naively, the US government talks about 'countering violent extremism.' But what makes the network so deadly is precisely the non-violent extremism of the majority of its members. Some preach jihad: they are the hubs around which clusters of support form. Some tweet jihad, with each tweet acting as a link to multiple others nodes. Non-violently, the network grows."

"The Clinton e-mail scheme has always been about avoiding accountability, about denying the public a window into Hillary Clinton's disastrous decision-making, her deceptive public pronouncements, and the promiscuous interplay between State Department and Clinton Foundation business. The goal was to keep Secretary of State Clinton's communications from the public until after the 2016 election, at which point President Clinton would be well positioned to bury them permanently.

"Now, the goal is in sight. To pull the scheme off, all Clinton needs is for the current (and future?) attorney general to stonewall for another eight months. Don't forget: The Obama Justice Department has been stonewalling on the egregious Fast and Furious investigation -- in which a federal agent was murdered -- for over five years. You don't think Lynch can tap dance for eight months?

"The question is, Will the public, the media, and the Republican-controlled Congress let her do it behind the Clintonian curtain?"

"What this week really demonstrated was not that Obama has a wee problem with 'the optics' of his job, but that he's stuck forever in campaign mode, confusing rhetoric with leading. ISIS just laughs and reloads when the president chides them.

"Beginning to normalize relations with Cuba is a good idea -- but Obama loved the picture of himself giving a speech in Havana so much that he skipped over the part where he'd win concessions from the regime. Giving away the game was his opening bid.

"We have the kind of president who would drive away from a car lot congratulating himself on his sweet deal after paying the sucker'€™s price -- plus extra for the 'protective undercoating.'"

"There are said to be 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. Most are and have been peaceful and peaceable, living their lives and, especially in America, taking an admirable role in the life of the nation.

"But this is a tense, fraught moment within the world of Islam, marked by disagreements on what Islam is and what its texts mean. With that context, the child's math: Let's say only 10% of the 1.6 billion harbor feelings of grievance toward 'the West,' or desire to expunge the infidel, or hope to re-establish the caliphate. That 10% is 160 million people. Let's say of that group only 10% would be inclined toward jihad. That's 16 million. Assume that of that group only 10% really means it -- would really become jihadis or give them aid and sustenance. That's 1.6 million. That is a lot of ferociousness in an age of increasingly available weapons, including the chemical, biological and nuclear sort.

"My math tells me it will be a long, hard fight. We will not be able to contain them, we will have to beat them.

"We must absorb that central fact, as Ronald Reagan once did with a different threat. Asked by his new national security adviser to state his exact strategic goals vis-a-vis the Soviet Union, Reagan: 'We win, they lose.'"