++ The knives are out for Steve Bannon. The national media is doing everything in its power to remove one of the major anchors of Donald Trump's political revolution. In many ways, Bannon is the glue that holds together the ideological and practical sides of the Trump administration. Losing him would be an enormous blow to the original goals of so many supporters.
   Reports that Trump is distancing himself from Bannon has prompted an almost audible cheer from the press corps. Why is the media so obsessed with Bannon? For one, he's the intellectual heart of the Trump movement. 
    Don't kid yourself Trump, you need Steve Bannon more than ever. Article (Thanks, Charlie) 

++ Earth Day Co-Founder Killed and Composted His Girlfriend -    Link     (Thanks, Lanny)

++ John Brennan's CIA operated like a branch office of the Hillary campaign, leaking out mentions of this bogus investigation to the press in the hopes of inflicting maximum political damage on Trump. An official in the intelligence community tells TAS that Brennan's retinue of political radicals didn't even bother to hide their activism, decorating offices with "Hillary for president cups" and other campaign paraphernalia.
   Seeking to retain his position as CIA director under Hillary, Brennan teamed up with British spies and Estonian spies to cripple Trump's candidacy. He used their phony intelligence as a pretext for a multi-agency investigation into Trump, which led the FBI to probe a computer server connected to Trump Tower and gave cover to Susan Rice, among other Hillary supporters, to spy on Trump and his people.

   A supporter of the American Communist Party at the height of the Cold War, Brennan brought into the CIA a raft of subversives and gave them plum positions from which to gather and leak political espionage on Trump. He bastardized standards so that these left-wing activists could burrow in and take career positions. Under the patina of that phony professionalism, they could then present their politicized judgments as "non-partisan."  More  (Thanks, Stephanie)

++ Ben Carson Finds $500 Billion (Billion!) In Errors During Audit Of Obama HUD - "The total amounts of errors corrected in HUD's notes and consolidated financial statements were $516.4 billion and $3.4 billion, respectively," the auditors wrote.
   There were several other unresolved audit matters, which restricted our ability to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to express an opinion. These unresolved audit matters relate to (1) the Office of General Counsel's refusal to sign the management representation letter, (2) HUD's improper use of cumulative and first-in, first-out budgetary accounting methods of disbursing community planning and development program funds, (3) the $4.2 billion in nonpooled loan assets from Ginnie Mae's stand-alone financial statements that we could not audit due to inadequate support, (4) the improper accounting for certain HUD assets and liabilities, and (5) material differences between HUD's subledger and general ledger accounts. This audit report contains 11 material weaknesses, 7 significant deficiencies, and 5 instances of noncompliance with applicable laws and regulations.
    The same problems were detailed for each of the last three audits, and the auditors say the continued problems "were due to an inability to establish a compliant control environment, implement adequate financial accounting systems, retain key financial staff, and identify appropriate accounting principles and policies." Article   Will Ben use a scalpel or a chain saw?

++The economic burden of America's accumulating mountain of regulatory requirements is almost unimaginable: According to a study from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University covering the years from 1977 through 2012, regulation's drag on the US economy has made the economy a whopping $4 trillion smaller than it otherwise would have been.
   One of the reasons for this massive effect is that, as regulations become more and more complex and burdensome, prospective entrepreneurs and managers must expend more resources on issues related to regulation and thus have less available for innovation and corporate growth. More  

++ The federal regulatory cost reached $1.885 trillion in 2015. - Federal regulation is a hidden tax that amounts to nearly $15,000 per U.S. household each year. In 2015, 114 laws were enacted by Congress during the calendar year, while 3,410 rules were issued by agencies. Thus, 30 rules were issued for every law enacted last year.
   Many Americans complain about taxes, but regulatory compliance costs exceed the $1.82 trillion that the IRS is expected to collect in both individual and corporate income taxes from 2015.
  Some 60 federal departments, agencies, and commissions have 3,297 regulations in development at various stages in the pipeline.
   The top five federal rulemaking agencies account for 41 percent of all federal regulations. These are the Departments of the Treasury, Commerce, Interior, Health and Human Services, and Transportation.
   The 2015 Federal Register contains 80,260 pages, the third highest page count in its history. Of the seven all-time-highest Federal Register total page counts, six occurred under President Obama. More!

++ Presidential Executive Order on Identifying and Reducing Tax Regulatory Burdens - The Federal tax system should be simple, fair, efficient, and pro-growth.  The purposes of tax regulations should be to bring clarity to the already complex Internal Revenue Code (title 26, United States Code) and to provide useful guidance to taxpayers.  Contrary to these purposes, numerous tax regulations issued over the last several years have effectively increased tax burdens, impeded economic growth, and saddled American businesses with onerous fines, complicated forms, and frustration.  Immediate action is necessary to reduce the burden existing tax regulations impose on American taxpayers and thereby to provide tax relief and useful, simplified tax guidance. See The Order Here