It appears on the record that Andrew McCabe, the FBI's recently fired deputy director, was a vicious man who used the power of his office to attack an FBI agent and General Michael Flynn, who rose to her defense. 

He admitted under oath that the FBI had started an internal investigation into Gritz's personal conduct after learning that she "had filed or intended to file" a sex discrimination complaint against her supervisors.  This bone-headed statement constituted an unequivocal and legally fatal admission that the FBI had illegally retaliated against Gritz for exercising her protected right to file such a complaint.

This was not McCabe's only unforced error.  Two weeks after Gritz filed her EEOC complaint, McCabe had her investigated by the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility for "time card irregularities".  This inspired move constituted yet another illegal retaliatory act and pure gold for Gritz's case.

For someone with a law degree, McCabe had made a complete fool of himself.

As these events unfolded, McCabe became Deputy Director of the FBI.  In that capacity, he was a central figure in the Trump-Russia collusion investigation, and it was then, according to reports, that he saw his chance to get back at Flynn.  Citing three anonymous FBI employees (who themselves fear retaliation), Circa.com reports that McCabe expressed such intense dislike for Flynn that these employees became "uncomfortable as the Russia probe began to unfold and pressure built to investigate Flynn."  One employee was so concerned that he consulted private legal counsel for guidance.

Despite his underlings' concerns, McCabe's plan of retaliation against Flynn proceeded apace.  According to Joseph diGenova, the newest member of President Trump's legal team, McCabe set up Flynn for the interview that led to the general's indictment for lying to the FBI.

In a twist of fate, the prosecution of Flynn seems to be falling apart, but McCabe is in serious legal jeopardy for a series of illegal acts which the author details.  "McCabe is about to find out what it is like to be on the receiving end of the federal criminal justice system.  If that happens, losing his pension will seem like a paper cut compared to the legal chainsaw massacre that awaits him.  Just ask General Flynn."

This week, his perfidy was further exposed.  Mollie Hemingway sets out the latest serious charges against McCabe.

Finding himself under fire, McCabe leaked to ABC that Attorney General Jeff Sessions himself had been under investigation for "Russian collusion," a charge as ridiculous as the investigation was unwarranted, in a leak clearly designed to suggest there was an effort to obstruct the investigation by firing him.    

The Washington Post based its story on leaks from – well, you can guess the source, can't you?  And the "suspicious" conduct consisted of this, reports Hemingway:

Sessions attended a Heritage Foundation event in July on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention that was attended by about 50 ambassadors.  When the event was over, a small group of ambassadors approached Sessions as he was leaving the podium, and Kislyak was among them, the Justice Department official said.

Oh.  In this light, the March 2017 leak to the Washington Post from Andrew McCabe "Justice Department officials" looks more like a set-up to force a recusal than a legitimate concern about Russian takeovers.

(This is doubly ridiculous because the FBI had informed Sessions that his meetings with foreign contacts while he was a senator carrying out his duties did not have to be disclosed.  So they told him he need not disclose these on his security form but then found something nefarious about perfectly innocent contacts.)

McCabe's boss, James Comey, testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee that he had not informed Sessions about the investigation.  Hemingway continues:

NBC News' Ken Dilanian reported "Comey confirmed that he had been talking about a story that NBC News and other outlets had already reported – about classified intelligence suggesting an undisclosed meeting between Sessions and the Russian ambassador to the U.S. in April 2016 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.  That's according to two sources familiar with what Comey said."

This leak of an explosive, shocking third meeting with Kislyak turned out to be – and you'll want to sit down for this one – that both Kislyak and Sessions attended the same foreign policy address by candidate Trump and – again, please tell me you're sitting down for this classified intelligence I'm about to share with you – they both attended the same short VIP reception just before the event for ambassadors and senators and other important figures.  I'll give you a few minutes to collect your thoughts about this.

We already know that former DNI James Clapper lied to Congress.  Now we have Comey and McCabe plotting to undermine Sessions.  It seems that the top officials of our intelligence apparatus were doing everything in their power to keep their skullduggery from coming to light.  It's of a piece with the NSA wiretapping congressional members who would be expected to have fought the no-deal "Iran deal." 

It's clear to me that these agencies, under these former officials, were operating in the Soviet style – appropriating to themselves the right to run the government.  All three branches of it.

Had Trump not been elected president, we would have been kept in the dark as to what they had been up to.  And sadly, the media failed in their duty to expose them, acting instead as the recipients and megaphones of self-serving leaks from the corrupt Deep State.

This adds special gravity to this past week's passage of the omnibus bill, a monstrous text that gives the Democrats everything they wanted.  Drudge headlined the events:

TRUMP SIGNS MONSTER SPENDING BILL...
BUDGET BLOWS INTO OBLIVION...
VOWS 'NEVER AGAIN'...
Congress Gives Self Bonus!
Planned Parenthood Gets $500 Million...
Lawmakers Had 1,000 Minutes to Read 2,232 Pages...
FLASHBACK: Ryan, McConnell LIE About Funding Border Wall...
Pelosi, Schumer declare victory... 

It is dispiriting in the face of so much administrative agency corruption to see on the internet so many people critical of the president for not vetoing the bill.  He needs us now, for if he fails in the sweeping out of this evil, we are truly doomed, with the Constitution relegated to a merely historic document from a better age.

The bill, as it turns out, was truly bipartisan:

Extraneus explains:

The House passed the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill, 256-167, with 145 Republicans and 111 Democrats voting "yes."  The "no" votes came from 90 Republicans and 77 Democrats...

In the Senate it was 25 Rs and 39 Ds for, with 23 Rs and 8 Ds against.

So, a majority of Rs voted for the bill in both chambers. 

I think a veto would have been a bad move, even if sustained.  It was a bipartisan bill and Trump would clearly have been responsible for any resulting shutdown, and would have been without the backing of either chamber's leadership, who were enthusiastic supporters of the bill.

And the refusal to veto was a responsible choice, for, among other things, our military is in desperate shape, and the Democrats had a hook – funding it only through this bill.

Tom R lays it out::

When I was in the Army my entire career was spent as a logistics/maintenance officer.  I was in Desert Storm and saw firsthand what kind of negative impact a long-term deployment, especially in harsh desert conditions, had on the materiel readiness of the equipment.  IMO GEN Mattis is not exaggerating when he says the military is in desperate need of this funding.

Obama and the Democrats knew full well the significant negative impact that resorting to continuing resolutions every year would have on long-term military readiness.  The sequestration on spending they imposed was brutal.  I think the Democrats with malevolent intentions refused to agree on annual fiscal year budget deals because they knew the continuing resolutions were damaging military materiel readiness and national security.

Last night I was watching Rand Paul on Fox News and I felt like reaching thru the TV screen and b----slapping him. He may not like all the spending he felt was unnecessary (that he documented in his tweets yesterday) but he knew full well that the $700 billion allocated to the Pentagon was justified. 

I don't know if Trump intended to veto the bill or not but if he did intend to veto it, my guess is that GEN Mattis talked him out of it. 

I'm with Don Surber on this:

Now to discuss why President Trump did not veto the budget bill.

This is a battle he cannot win.

The power of the purse belongs to Congress, and every presidential budget is dead on arrival.

Every year, the opposition party reminds the president of that.

This budget is the first truly bipartisan measure to pass during the Trump Era when America became great again.

The children got to order the meal, and it is all candy, candy, candy.

Funding for the Democratic Party via money laundered at Planned Parenthood continues.  The abortionists get the money to cover "free" abortions (billed as women's health services) and then donates [sic] much of it back to Democrats.  The Hyde Amendment be damned.

Republicans have done this for years.  They never stopped.  Why should they stop now?

Ryan stiffed funding for the wall, causing Ann Coulter to have palpitations.

But what was the president supposed to do?  Really shut down the federal government for two weeks until surrendering.  He has no base in Congress.  His base is among the American people.

So the swamp critters won a round.

By failing to abolish the filibuster and riding the pork train, the Republicans in Congress have handed a minority party the governing oar.

They are saying we have a majority, but we don't want to act as if we do – you do what you want.  And the Democrats did.