CHUCK SCHUMER, MEET CHUCK SCHUMER: Brendan Kirby at LifeZette found an interesting speech on immigration issues delivered by the present Senate Minority Leader in 2009. Schumer said things then that Schumer today would condemn as racist. If he’s intellectually honest, that is. Why are you vigorously shaking your head and saying “No, he’s not!!!!”?

RECOVERING ADDICT: “SAFE-INJECTION SITES” WON’T END OPIOID EPIDEMIC: Matt Mossburg was a rising political star in Maryland in the mid-1990s but then an opioid addiction changed everything. He’s learned a lot since then and one thing he’s certain about is the new wave of treatments like safe-injection sites and variations thereof that give addicts limited doses of their drug.  Continued addiction, not sustainable recovery, is the result. Mossburg explains in today’s LifeZette.

TRUMP’S FIRST-YEAR BOOM IS LARGELY DUE TO DEREGULATION BUT THINK ABOUT THIS: Merely cancelling an expensive federal regulation doesn’t immediately convert the compliance cost into a potentially productive new investment. The capital has to be reallocated and some time is required for the new investment to produce sufficient return to offset the former compliance costs. Huh?

In other words: “It takes time for the economy to recover the costs of excessive regulatory compliance and to redirect capital to productive uses, so the gains seen during Trump’s first year are likely attributable in significant part to the expectations generated by his slashing the red tape. The full impact of the deregulation is still to be felt.”

And remember, the Trump tax cuts aren’t in effect until February. Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute estimates regulatory compliance cost the U.S. economy $1.9 trillion. Trump can’t repeal all federal regulations but what if his tax cuts and the continuing positive impact of deregulation in coming years produces an economic boom that far exceeds the Reagan era? Ponder that one a bit!

FDR DIDN’T KNOW PEARL HARBOR WAR COMING, GRASSY KNOLL WAS EMPTY AND RR DIDN’T HAVE ALZHEIMER’S IN THE WHITE HOUSE: Craig Shirley, a former colleague in the 1980 Reagan campaign, has since become the pre-imminent biographer of the former president’s campaigns and administration. So the man knows what he’s talking about when he writes this morning on LifeZette concerning recent comments by the White House physician:

“It would be nice to dismiss Dr. Jackson’s ill-informed and without-substance comments and move on, just as the White House would like to put the hearsay concerning Trump’s mental health behind it.

“But he and Trump’s tweets have now given new life to an old and most-thought extinguished and ridiculous rumor. So once again, Reagan historians have to beat it down. Dr. Jackson’s uninformed comments made news and, even worse, they were uttered by a White House physician, giving the veneer of officialdom.”

In other words, no, Reagan’s capacity to govern was not impaired during his second term, contrary to the myth first propounded by those who fought him at every step in his efforts to restore American liberty and win the Cold War against the Soviet Union.

COULD YOU TEXT SOMEBODY EVERY FOUR MINUTES FOR FIVE MONTHS? That’s what those FBI lovers, Counter-Intelligence agent Peter Strzok and bureau lawyer Lisa Page, did during those now-formerly missing five months. Think about that for a moment:

• There are 12,960,000 seconds in five 30-day months.
• 12,960,000 divided by 50,000 equals a new text message every 259.2 seconds.
• That means Strzok and Page texted each other on average every 4.32 minutes.
• Every day of every week of every month for five months!
• Give or take a few here and there, of course.

More at LifeZette.

DEVIN NUNES’ MOM DIDN’T RAISE NO FOOL: The House Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman was told yesterday by the Department of Justice that it would be reckless to make public his four-page summary of classified information on FBI surveillance abuses during the 2016 presidential campaign. Let us review it beforehand to remove anything that shouldn’t become public in order to protect U.S. intel “sources and methods,” DOJ said. Right.

Well, that ain’t gonna happen, if Rep. Peter King of New York is to be believed. King, who is a senior GOPer on the intel panel, told Laura Ingraham late last night that Nunes, a California Republican, will send the memo straight to President Donald Trump, pending release. Trump has already said he favors #ReleaseTheMemo, so why circumvent DOJ? Nearly 200 House members have already reviewed the memo in a secure setting (though only a handful of Democrats).

“If we gave them this memo [in advance], what they would do is, it would be passed out to all their friends in the media to tear it down before it even gets out there,” King told Ingraham, LifeZette’s Kathryn Blackhurst reports.

“Everything that’s in that memo is from the Justice Department — information we found. There’s no surprises there to them. They just want to be ready to … make a pre-emptive attack on it. We’re not going to let them,” King said.

Judging by the reaction of DOJ and the onslaught of attacks by Dems and their allies in the Mainstream Media claiming the document is merely a partisan screed, Nunes must have succinctly captured a mountain of information that these people are desperate to keep out of the public’s gaze. You don’t suppose it shows Obama’s coteries at DOJ and the FBI trying to help Hillary gain the Oval Office instead of jail, do you? Really?

FIVE THINGS THE ABORTION INDUSTRY DOESN’T WANT WOMEN TO KNOW: Kim Ketola explains in LifeZette why, to cite just one of her five examples, 100 percent of abortions performed at home (i.e. abortion pills) are fatal to at least one human being. But that’s just the beginning because there is also this, which Ketola says pro-abortion media like Women’s Health don’t dare mention:

“At no point does Women’s Health tell its readers their regular doctor won’t likely cooperate with their plan, and that the provider they do see will not likely treat them if there are complications. And isn’t it just a little misleading to reassure women about having an abortion in the comforts of their home — while not warning them they will have to deal with the ‘remains?'”

There’s just no other way to deal with what’s left of the dead baby: “That will involve either retrieving the fetus from the toilet or soiled linen, and/or making the devastating decision to flush.”

And no, I am not mansplaining. Just reporting.

WE HAVE QUESTIONS, SO MANY QUESTIONS, ABOUT RUSSIA AND WHO? What is the phenomenon shrinks talk about in which a person projects onto a nemesis characteristics they despise in themselves?

What if the Trump/Russia Collusion narrative is projection by the Clintonista liberals, obsessed as they are with getting even with Trump for defeating Hillary? Charles Ortel continues his series this week in LifeZette asking some disturbing questions and offering evidence that is even more disturbing.

And if these questions make you a bit uncomfortable, did any of us ever expect to hear a U.S. senator tell the nation his committee has an informant describing meetings outside of the Department of Justice of a “secret society” from within the FBI devoted to stopping any presidential candidate or incumbent chief executive. Strange times we live in, friends and neighbors.

SURPRISE! JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REFUSES TO RELEASE MUELLER’S BUDGET REQUEST: Of course you’re not surprised. Judicial Watch submitted the Freedom of Information Act request for documents for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s budget. No can do, DOJ said, citing FOIA’s exemption five, the “deliberative process,” which is the transparency law’s all-purpose get-out-of-jail-free card for federal officials. Brendan Kirby of LifeZette has more.

MEMO TO CHUCK SCHUMER – GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT BEFORE TANGLING WITH LAURA INGRAHAM: This was the Senate Minority Leader’s second worst mistake over the weekend, with the first being causing Schumer’s Shutdown. Kathryn Blackhurst has more at LifeZette.

HERE’S WHY TRANS-NATIONAL “CHARITIES” LIKE THE CLINTON FOUNDATION are all-but-perfect tools for using influence-peddling by corrupt politicos to make themselves wealthy while appearing to be humanitarians. Charles Ortel lays it out this morning in LifeZette.

NEW POLL SAYS ITS LINDSEY GRAHAM, NOT STEPHEN MILLER, OUT OF TOUCH: The results of new Harvard CAP/Harris Poll are likely to shock South Carolina’s often-mirthful Lindsey Graham, but not to anybody who actually listens to Heartland America, somebody like the Trump White House senior aide. That’s the lead for LifeZette’s Brendan Kirby but he’s got much more that is guaranteed to give the Washington Establishment serious heartburn.

LET US COUNT THE WAYS COMEY’S FBI SAVED HILLARY FROM AN ORANGE JUMPSUIT: Former U.S. Attorney Joseph DiGenova has found seven and he ought to know because he’s been there, done that on FBI investigations and Department of Justice prosecutions.

HERE’S WHY THE URANIUM ONE SCANDAL IS YUUUGE: Charles Ortel lays it out in LifeZette. Yes, uranium is an essential resource and Hillary Clinton played a key role in making it possible for the Russians to gain control of a fifth of U.S. supplies. But there is even more to this one.

NO, CHUCK, I DON’T BELIEVE IT IS 1995 ALL OVER AGAIN: At least that’s what it seems reading Bloomberg News, The New York Times, AP and The Washington Post. No, really.

CLOCK ON CLINTONS TICKING DOWN UNDER, TOO: Former President Bill Clinton signed a $25 million Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian government in 2006 at a time when he apparently was not legally able to do so, according to Michael Smith, an Aussie investigative journalist and retired police detective.

During the formal ceremony announcing the MOU, Smith said “Clinton spoke as the decision-maker wholly responsible for the performance of the Clinton Foundation.  He held no such role and while he may have been confident in his ability to influence the board of the Clinton Foundation – his statements about control and establishment of the Clinton Foundation were false, misleading and had the effect of engendering unwarranted confidence in what turned out to be a false narrative concerning the foundation’s ability to deliver on its agreements.”

The MOU provided $25 million from Australian taxpayers and the foundation pledged to match that amount from its own funds for HIV/Aids projects in Papua New Guinea, China and Vietnam. Smith reportedly was asked to provide the FBI with evidence he’s accumulated over a multi-year effort about Clinton Foundation activities in the Pacific region and Asia, much of which appears to be extremely damning. More details at LifeZette.

SHOULD JEFF FLAKE APPLY FOR A JOB AT CNN AFTER HE LEAVES THE SENATE? Well, at least one media veteran thinks the soon-to-be-former Arizona Republican would fit right in at CNN. But not just any job, thanks to Flake’s absurd comparison of Donald Trump to Joseph Stalin.

That’s according to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who said of Flakes Wednesday floor speech that “Stalin is the second most dangerous person in the 20th century. He killed more people than anyone except Mao Zedong. To compare him to an American president is such an absurdity that Senator Flake probably could get a job at CNN or somewhere else as a reporter.”

THEY SAID IF TRUMP WON, HE WOULD SLASH THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY: And OMG, look, he’s actually doing it! Congress changed the law to make it much easier for the Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary to fire poor performers at VA. And sure enough, VA Chief David Shulkin says he has gotten rid of “thousands of employees from VA’s roll and set a standard for accountability so that those employees that are continuing to do an excellent job in serving are surrounded by other employees that have the same commitment.”

Shulkin was the highest ranking Obama appointee Trump kept around and then promoted him to run the department that was literally letting veterans die as they waited months on end for basic health care services they were guaranteed in return for serving the country in the military. LifeZette’s Brendan Kirby has more. 

SMALL BUSINESSES ARE ALREADY INVESTING DUE TO TAX CUT: That’s the word from Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Linda McMahon, who, according to LifeZette’s Brenda Kirby, hears that message from entrepreneurs and small business owners all the time.

“Well, what they’re saying with the new tax reform package passed is that they are going to take the proceeds from any tax savings that they have and reinvest them in their business,” McMahon said during an interview Thursday on Laura Ingraham’s Talk Radio show. “So, you know, they complained about taxes. They wanted to see regulatory reform. And under President Trump, they are seeing both of those issues addressed. And they’re very enthusiastic about it.”

That’s the good news. The not-so-good news is that McMahon wants “to see more loans because that means more businesses are taking advantage of this access to capital. And they’ll either use it to grow, or they’ll use it to start a new business, or they’ll use it to add an employee.” All true but wouldn’t it be better if those guarantees and loans came from the private sector rather than the taxpayers via SBA?

AUSSIE COMPLAINTS ON CLINTON FOUNDATION CORRUPTION GO TO FBI: Australian taxpayers have sent multi-millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation since 2006, and it appears the charity conducted business in much the same highly questionable ways Down Under as it has here in the U.S. Michael Smith is a retired Aussie detective and a popular radio talk show host. He’s also a demon on digging through documents and finding astonishing facts and data. FYI: Australia is far from the only foreign country in which serious troubles are brewing for the Clintons.

IF GANG OF SIX IS SERIOUS ABOUT A COMPROMISE … Then why does their proposal that elicited such a, shall we say, visceral reaction from President Trump effectively provide amnesty for 10 million of the illegal immigrants now in the country? They knew going in there was no way Trump would accept that, especially when their proposal also provided a mere token amount for building the wall.

ONE IN FOUR NON-BELIEVERS PRAY TO GOD DURING A CRISIS: That’s according to Tearfund, a Christian group in the UK, based on a survey of Brits. LifeZette’s Maggie Lit has more on one of the more surprising survey results of the year.

UPDATE: Thanks to Eugene Volokh – UCLA professor, Reason Magazine author and libertarian blogger extraordinaire – I discovered an interesting illustration of the old saw that Americans and Brits are separated by a common language.

It seems the survey practice over there is to include under the self-ID terms “None” and “No Religion” atheists and people who are unaffiliated with any organized religion but who may have some belief in a divine being. Here, None and No Religion normally excludes the latter folks but not always. That being the case, rather than one of every four atheists prays to a god during a crisis, the figure from the Tearfund queries is more likely closer to 11 percent.

COULD DOUBLING THE BLACK VOTE FOR GOP BE TRUMP’S MOST VIP TRIUMPH? Hasn’t happened yet, but Niger Ennis of the Congress On Racial Equality (CORE) and Shelby Steele of the Hoover Institution see a growing unease among Democrats and liberal civil rights activists that Trump is heading in that direction. And if it happens, Dems could become the minority party for a very long time.

NEW POLL SHOWS GOP CONFIDENCE UP ON COUNTRY’S DIRECTION: But guess who’s still trapped in doom and gloom.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF POTTY MOUTH PRESIDENTS: Bet you can’t guess who gets the top spot.