Andy's Ouster at the FBI
FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, otherwise known as “Andy” in the infamous “insurance policy” text messages between Struck and Page, is leaving the Bureau. Anyone saying this is no big deal is seriously fooling themselves.
McCabe’s ouster comes the same day his boss, Director Wray, reviewed the classified memo prepared by the House Intelligence Committee. Some Congressman are even saying the memo shows KGB like behavior by the FBI. Others say it shows evidence that the controversial Steele Dossier was used as an excuse by the FBI to get a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign. For a refresher, the Steele Dossier was financed by the DNC and the Clinton Campaign. Fusion GPS, the firm that commissioned Steele to compile the dossier, was also working for someone else during that same timeframe… the Russian government.
As if that doesn't look bad enough, CNN reported late last night that Director Wray sent out an all-employee email yesterday evening hinting that McCabe’s dismissal had to do with an incoming Inspector General report investigating the handing of the 2016 Hillary Clinton email investigation.
And the hits just keep on coming. Was the House Intelligence Committee memo ON TOP OF the incoming Inspector General report the final hit that ultimately knocked McCabe out?
What the heck is going on at the FBI? We know McCabe’s wife received a campaign donation from a Hillary Clinton political action committee when she was running for the Virginia State Senate back in 2015. Did that payment buy his loyalty? We also know that Struck and Page were close to McCabe as revealed in their text messages. I refuse to use the words “Secret Society” here, but were these Three Amigos (McCabe, Struck and Page) the… uh… not spoken of - but definitely not secret - club… but definitely not society?
The House Intelligence Committee memo drops sometime this week. We’re about to find out if this is all just partisan hype or, as Struck says, something “ there there.”. This is feeling more and more like a Looney Tunes cartoon the further we get into this. So on that note… Stay tuned.
The 'Opportunity Zones' of the New Tax Plan
Was that Republican-backed tax plan evil or what?
At least that’s the official line from Democrats, that the plan is all about lining the pockets of companies and rich people. And how trickle-down economics is a myth invented by Republicans to make you poor and miserable. Democrats have repeated basically the same lines since Andrew Jackson. And the media helps repeat that message over and over.
Not that this tax plan was a brilliant overhaul of the system. It’s a very mediocre plan that could’ve been a lot better. But there is one part of the tax plan, which almost no one has talked about, that is designed to help some of the most economically depressed areas of the country.
This stealthy part of the tax plan is buried on page 130 of the bill. It allows states to designate certain regions within their borders as “Opportunity Zones.” These will be areas with high poverty, unemployment, and slow business growth. Businesses and venture capitalists that invest long-term in these “Opportunity Zones” could save a ton of money through avoiding capital gains taxes.
Over the last five years, the U.S. economy has grown and added jobs, but the growth has been mostly in large cities. From 2010 to 2014 – prime Obama years – more businesses closed in rural America than opened.
Investors will be allowed to create “Opportunity Funds” for the designated zones around the country to seed new businesses, expand existing businesses, or develop real estate. If investors maintain their investment for ten years, they avoid paying capital gains taxes altogether.
The chairman of President Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers said if this plan works, “We’ll look back ten years from now and say this was one of the most important parts of the tax bill, and one we didn’t talk nearly enough about.”
There are plenty of ways to be cynical about a provision like this. Maybe it’s a corporate scheme to take rural America for a ride while avoiding taxes. Or maybe it really is what it sounds like – the government actually cracking open a window of opportunity, for private business to do what it’s best at, and in the process help parts of the country that need a boost. What a concept.
The 'Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act' Fails in the Senate
At five months in the womb, babies have 10 fingers and 10 toes. They can yawn and stretch. They can also feel pain.
Despite this scientific fact, the Senate voted against the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act” which would ban late-term abortions on babies at 20 weeks.
46 out of 97 Senators decided they wanted to continue the debate on the bill rather than pass it.
It’s not a perfect bill by any measure. It still allows babies conceived by rape or incest to be aborted and it draws a hard line at 20 weeks.
Does that mean a 19 week and six-day-old baby conceived by rape doesn’t feel pain?
That baby absolutely feels pain.
And even if there was some point in the womb where babies don’t feel pain, does that mean it’s ok to kill them? Just because it doesn’t hurt, is it ok to take that life? No. Period. We shouldn’t be dismembering and sucking babies up with a vacuum. Abortion is and always will be a hideous and barbaric act no matter what gestation period it occurs or how that baby came to be.
As a society, we need to reject abortion wholly and completely. But this bill was a step in the right direction.
It showed a glimmer of hope that maybe we are beginning to realize the sheer horror and murder of abortion.
I have no doubt humanity will realize what an atrocity abortion has been.
And that realization will serve as a gruesome blemish on mankind’s history.
Let’s hope we open our eyes sooner rather than later.
