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.

WILL CLINTON FOUNDATION FRAUD COST GATES FOUNDATION, WARREN BUFFETT BILLIONS? At LifeZette, Charles Ortel explains why if you are reading this and you are an attorney or accountant for a private foundation that’s donated to the Clinton Foundation, three phrases should come to mind: “Due Diligence,” “taxable expenditures” and “material changes.” Same goes for folks in places like Great Britain, France, Sweden and Australia (just to name a few of many).

LAURA INGRAHAM TO SHERIFF JOE: “You’ll be 91 after your first term is up!” Former Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced his candidacy for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Jeff Flake earlier this week. He is 85 years old.

Today on Ingraham’s radio show, he all but vowed eternal loyalty to President Donald Trump and declared his confidence in the Chief Executive’s negotiating skills in dickering with congressional Democrats on DACA, chain migration and immigration lottery. Amazing how a presidential pardon can soften up a hardliner.

ANOTHER REASON FOR THE WALL – THE FEDS MISS TOO MANY BAD GUYS ON THE BORDER: Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials missed really bad guys in all 40 screening cases reviewed by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General. Many of them were national security risks of the highest order.

HILLARY MISHANDLED HUNDREDS OF CLASSIFIED DOCS AND SKATED. THIS GUY GOT JAIL: Kristian Saucier took some private photos of the nuclear sub on which he formerly served, presumably to show family members and to keep for old time’s sake. Hillary Clinton put hundreds of highly classified official U.S. government docs on her private server. Saucier got jail, she got to run for president. This is equal justice under law? Check out Saucier’s answer.

LIBERAL DEMS TRYING TO PROTECT TAX BREAK FOR THEIR WEALTHY DONORS: Yes, it’s probably all but impossible to believe but liberal Democrats in big blue states like California and New York are feverishly seeking ways around the recently enacted tax reform measure’s cap on the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT). It turns out, according to LifeZette’s Brendan Kirby, that the biggest beneficiaries of SALT are wealthy tax filers with big mortgages and other properties, plus high individual rates. And in a Blue State, those filers tend to be donors to liberal Democrats. Purely coincidental, right?

CONVENTIONAL POLITICAL WISDOM THINKS TRUMP IS IN TROUBLE – WRONG!!: Actually, it’s those who are prisoners of the conventional political wisdom who are in trouble. And it’s Trump who understands the new paradigm underlying American political flow – populist conservatism. You don’t have to agree with that proposition to find the analysis in “What Trump is Doing Right” by LifeZette White House Correspondent Jim Stinson worth pondering.

UPDATE: My apologies, dear readers, for inserting the wrong link earlier this morning. The 14 concealed carry pistols page was something I was looking at earlier this morning, for the obvious reason. Not sure how it happened, but the link is corrected now.

CONSERVATIVES IN UPROAR ON TRUMP’S ‘BRING BACK EARMARKS’ COMMENT: President Donald Trump mused during today’s White House meeting with Republican and Democrat congressional figures that back in the good old days when congressmen could be bought and stayed bought for the right (earmark) price (OK, that’s not exactly how it was said but cut me a little Wolffian slack here), there was a lot more bipartisanship. It took about three nanoseconds for leaders of the fight a decade ago to abolish earmarks to roast Trump.

‘MORNING JOE’ ACTUALLY CLAIMED MEDIA COULDN’T TALK ABOUT TRUMP’S MENTAL STATE: Until, that is, Michael Wolff came out with his increasingly discounted book and claimed everybody around the chief executive thinks he’s losing/lost it between the ears. LifeZette’s Kathryn Blackhurst points to multiple instances when Joe Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski speculated at length on whether Trump is mentally stable. Reminds me of advice I read long, long ago at the dawn of the blog age: “Go ahead and claim it; we’ll fact-check your a–.”

MEA CULPAS ARE A BITCH, JUST ASK STEPHEN K. BANNON: When President Donald Trump said of his former White House strategist that he “lost his mind” when he lost his job at the Chief Executive’s right side, it marked one of the most definitive such repudiations in American political history. Today Bannon seeks a way back into Trump’s good graces with multiple apologies. Curious that he gave his statement exclusively to, of all publications, Axios.

ELITES CAN’T BELIEVE TRUMP ACTUALLY WILL DEFEND AMERICA: Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is amused by the reactions up and down the Northeast Corridor to President Donald Trump’s decision to terminate U.S. aid to Pakistan.

“It has so thoroughly shocked the elites that we actually are going to protect America, and defend America, and that we’re actually going to render judgment,” Gingrich told radio host John Catsimatidis in an interviewed aired on 970 AM. “That is such a shocking moment for a lot of our elites that they don’t know how to deal with it.” LifeZette political reporter Kathryn Blackhurst pulls together multiple comments on the same theme by Gingrich, CIA Director Mike Pompeo and British Prime Minister Teresa May.