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Author: Mary Chastain

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Mary Chastain

Mary is the resident libertarian. She covers stories in every vertical, but her favorite thing to do is take on the media. She saw its bias against the right when she was a socialist.

Mary loves the Chicago Cubs, Chicago Blackhawks, tennis, cats, Oxford comma, Diet Coke, and needlework.

While everyone concentrates on the White House, the Democrat Party continues to dive deeper into a civil war. Former interim DNC chairwoman Donna Brazile has taken aim at failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign. Democratic strategist Stanley Greenerg is "still fuming about Hillary Clinton," especially since Democrat candidates are still using her failed tactics.

The CIA has released thousands of documents, videos, computer files, and pictures that U.S. forces captured during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan in May 2011. FDD's Long War Journal (LWJ) has been pressing the agency to release these items, which have given us insight into al-Qaeda and the man responsible for the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed over 3,000 Americans. This includes bin Laden's journal and more recent images of his son Hamza bin Laden.

Sayfullo Saipov, 29, killed eight people and injured 11 on Monday in Lower Manhattan when he plowed a rental pickup truck into a crowd of people. He screamed "Allahu Akbar!" after he exited the truck and police confronted him. An officer shot Saipov and took him into custody. They transported him to a hospital and he's recovering from surgery. Authorities found Saipov's notes near the truck, in which he declared he carried out the attack for the terrorist group the Islamic State (ISIS).

A man identified as Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, 29, from Tampa, FL, drove a rental pickup truck down a bike bath and into a crowd in Lower Manhattan while shouting "Allahu Akbar!" The attack killed eight people and injured at least 11 others. The police shot and took the Saipov, an Uzbekistan native, into custody. He is recovering at a hospital.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) has told The Dallas Morning News that he will retire at the end of his term:
"Today I am announcing that I will not seek reelection to the US Congress in 2018. Although service in Congress remains the greatest privilege of my life, I never intended to make it a lifetime commitment, and I have already stayed far longer than I had originally planned," Hensarling wrote to supporters today.

Eyes are on tax reform this week as the GOP controlled House plans to release its tax reform bill on November 1, which may include elimination of state and local tax (SALT) deductions along with changes to 401(k) retirement plans. Both have received proper outrage, especially from representatives in high-taxed states. But if the elimination of state and local taxes pass the House, the Senate GOP said they have a unified front on that issue.

U.S. forces have captured Mustafa al-Imam, a key militant in the 2012 Benghazi attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. From CBS News:
The commandos captured the man in Libya just before midnight local time on Sunday and are transporting him back to the U.S., officials told The Associated Press. The suspect is in the custody of the Department of Justice and is expected to arrive within the next two days on a military plane, according to one of the officials.

On Sunday night, BuzzFeed published an interview with actor Anthony Rapp, who accused Kevin Spacey of making a sexual advance on him when he was only 14-years-old over 30 years ago. Spacey stated he did not remember the incident, but also used the opportunity to officially come out as a gay man, which has been speculated for many years. Now many, especially in the LGBT community, have blasted Spacey for using his sexuality as cover for his alleged sexual misconduct. They have a point because I noticed a lot in the media making the story about Spacey's sexuality instead of Rapp's claims.

President Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday that he has never seen so much "anger & unity" among Republicans over the "lack of investigation" into Hillary Clinton's connection to a dossier developed in the 2016 presidential race to smear him. Trump made the comments after Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), chairman of the House Oversight committee, said on Fox News Sunday that he has concerns over Hillary's campaign paying a law firm over $12 million for the dossier.

The New York Times reported that the Navy has opened an investigation to determine if two members of the Navy SEAL Team 6 strangled a Green Beret in Mali last June:
Staff Sgt. Logan J. Melgar, a 34-year-old veteran of two deployments to Afghanistan, was found dead on June 4 in the embassy housing he shared in the Malian capital, Bamako, with several other Special Operations forces assigned to the West African nation to help with training and counterterrorism missions.

FIFA has decided to reject a request from the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) to sanction Israel due to athletic activities that take place in the West Bank. From The Jerusalem Post:
"The FIFA Council takes note of the documents adopted by international governmental bodies concerning the relationship between Israel and Palestine – such as United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which comprises recommendations without sanctions – but has decided that it should not take any position on their contents," the statement read. "The FIFA Council acknowledges that the current situation is, for reasons that have nothing to do with football, characterized by an exceptional complexity and sensitivity and by certain de facto circumstances that can neither be ignored nor changed unilaterally by non-governmental organizations such as FIFA."

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has made a trip to South Korea and the DMZ where he made it known that North Korea has accelerated itself as nuclear threat. From Fox News:
“North Korea has accelerated the threat that it poses to its neighbors and the world through its illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear weapons programs,” Mattis said.

In a largely symbolic vote, the Catalonian parliament voted for independence from Spain on Friday, which caused the Spanish Senate to allow Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy direct rule over the region. From The Wall Street Journal:
The separatist legislators said Catalan voters gave them a mandate for the declaration in an Oct. 1 referendum on independence. Catalan authorities say around two million voters cast ballots and that the vast majority voted in favor of secession. However, opposition parties boycotted the vote and the Spanish government declared it illegal. The vote was also marred by clashes with the police.

Despite two massive hurricanes, the GDP, which is the measure of goods and services produced in America, grew to 3% in the third quarter. Experts estimated a growth of only 2.5% because of the natural disasters, but the "increase in inventory investment and a smaller trade deficit" helped offset the slow spending after the hurricanes. The White House economists have also said that if the proposed changes to corporate taxes go through the GDP could jump between 3 and 5 percent in a few years.