IT BAFFLES ME in this day and age that elected officials seem to be unaware of the existence of video tape and communications archives.
Anxious to jump at an opportunity to call for the resignation of another Trump administration member, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) fired off a tweet, “I’ve been on the Armed Services Com for 10 years. No call or meeting w/Russian ambassador.” But oops … on Jan. 30, 2013 she tweeted, “Off to meeting w/Russian Ambassador,” and oops there’s a photo of the meeting. Then on Aug. 6, 2015 she tweeted, “Today calls with British, Russian, and German Ambassadors.”
Did McCaskill simply forget these meetings, or did she intentionally neglect to mention them when she attacked Attorney General Jeff Sessions, on March 2. 2017? She foolishly attempted to cover her tracks by tweeting a response, “Never met one on one w/him.” Well, Senator, neither did Sessions. Two Sessions staffers were in the meeting in his office, and his other meeting was in a large group meet and greet setting following the Republican convention.
IT SMELLS – Two months ago, you may recall my criticism of President Obama, who in his final days in office, expanded the power of the National Security Agency, which significantly relaxed longstanding limits on what the agency may do with information gathered by its surveillance operations, largely unregulated by American wiretapping laws. The change, increasing the risk that officials will see private information about innocent people, was signed by then Attorney General Loretta Lynch two weeks before Obama left office. You remember Loretta. She’s the “top cop,” as Nancy Pelosi would say, who privately met with former President Bill Clinton at a time when Hillary Clinton was under investigation. Obama’s spokesman said, “neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U. S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.” That leaves Obama’s DOJ, because FBI Director Jim Comey said it wasn’t the FBI.
REPLACING OBAMA’S DIPLOMACY WITH MILITARY STRENGTH – Heritage Foundation Vice President James Carafano wrote an interesting op-ed in the Washington Examiner regarding the State vs Defense budget changes coming under the Trump Administration. Under President Obama, the budget in the State Department grew by 30 percent during his tenure, while defense spending went down 24 percent in Obama’s last five years. Obama’s “soft power” of diplomacy has been a failure as the world is no safer. Islamist terrorism has spread to 16 countries, the Russian reset failed, North Korea and Iran are nuclear threats and China is in the midst of a major build-up of its military.
We often think of the foreign aid that State dispenses in hopes that it spreads good will for the U. S., but last year Obama inserted $3.45 billion for gender (yes, gender), climate change and biodiversity programs. State has also added a number of envoys, and each with a staff. Yet, we have become the laughing stock of the world.
BILL NYE “THE SCIENCE GUY” EXPOSED – The Media Research Center reported that Netflix is giving Nye a platform to rant about his liberal views on a show laughingly called, “Bill Nye Saves the World.” To the so-called mainstream media – ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and CNN – Nye is their favorite global alarmist. Nye, who has a degree in engineering, but is by no means a scientist, continues to claim “The Science Guy” title given to him by the folks at Disney.
Appearing on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” a week ago, Nye repeatedly failed to answer a specific question on climate change. Carlson conceded that “most people are open to the idea that the climate is changing,” but asked Nye to what degree is human activity causing it?” Nye ignored the question and smugly stated “it’s a settled question. Human activity is causing climate change.”
Carlson tried six different times to get Nye to be specific. Seemingly frustrated, Nye claimed that humans are “100 percent” responsible for the change in climate that we may be witnessing. To that, Carlson said, “You’re not a scientist. You’re a popularizer. So much of this you don’t know. You pretend that you know, but you don’t know, and you bully people who ask you questions.”
Nye’s new show will reportedly attempt to refute religious leaders who espouse anti-scientific claims. That should be interesting, as Nye has denied the existence of God, and the fact that he really isn’t a scientist has become known.
ANOTHER EPA OVERREACH – When Marquette County in Michigan discovered a large deposit of nickel and copper in the state’s upper peninsula, they proposed that a new county road be constructed to allow transporting the ore to the refinery just 22 miles away. The existing road, three times as long, would send the noisy and heavy truck traffic through commercial and residential areas in small towns, as well along the edge of Northern Michigan University campus. State and local officials saw the proposal as an environmental and safety project that would create jobs. Although the new road would save some 500,000 gallons of fossil fuel annually by the 104,00 pound trucks that would be driving 1.5 million miles less a year, not to mention the noise and safety factors, the EPA has arbitrarily disapproved the project. Hopefully, new EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt will give this project a go-ahead.
