Here are my observations on items in the news.

WITH TAX CUT DETAILS STILL TO COME, Democrats and other naysayers are already spouting how it will help the wealthy and ignores the middle class. Here’s a sentence from Binyamin Applebaum’s New York Times story on how President Trump’s tax cut plan helps the rich: “The plan would not benefit lower-income households that do not pay federal income taxes.”

“So, let’s see: a tax cut doesn’t help people who don’t pay taxes,” writes Steven Hayward, “Whoa! What a concept! Let that sink in a minute.”

I wonder if Applebaum’s desk at the Times is next to Paul Krugman’s, who on the morning after the presidential election, predicted “a global economic recession with no end in sight.” Krugman also mocked Trump’s GDP projection.

MELANIA TRUP ACCUSED OF RACISM – It wasn’t enough that the anti-Trumpers fabricated a racism accusation over the president’s SOB remark regarding the NFL players who are dishonoring the flag and our national anthem. After the First Lady read from Dr. Seuss’s “Oh, the Places You’ll Go,” to an elementary class in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she donated ten Dr. Seuss books to the school, but the school librarian, Liz Phipps Soeiro, refused to accept the gift, criticizing Trump administration education policies and images in the books. Phipps Soeiro claims the illustrations in the Suess books are “steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures and harmful stereotypes.” Will this nonsense ever stop?

A FOLLOW UP TO MY “NO LONGER AN NFL FAN” PIECE – On September 25, I recalled my school days when we stood and pledged allegiance to the flag every morning, and how I couldn’t have imagined then the disrespect for the flag and our national anthem that we are experiencing today.

TWO DAYS LATER, the left-leaning Arizona Republic gave front page coverage with a color photograph of a Chandler High School senior who has been sitting during the pledge. When confronted by the teacher in private in the hallway, the black student said, “I personally don’t stand for the pledge because of everything that’s been going on in the African-American community, with police brutality and protests that have turned violent.” BUT, when the teacher asked her to stand in the hallway during the pledge in the future, the parents complained to the principal, who sided with the student, indicating he was proud of her. THE TEACHER later apologized to the student in front of the class, no doubt forced to do so by the principal. The teacher, I assume, needed the job and didn’t have the option of resigning. A sad day in our public school system.

AN ASIDE – In addition to the pledge that we responsibly recited beginning in elementary school, my public high school principal led us in the Lord’s Prayer. Can you imagine that taking place today?

GREEN BAY PACKER FANS, perhaps the most dedicated fan base in the NFL, said “hell no” to the players’ plea for fans to stand and lock arms in support of them during the playing of the national anthem on Thursday night. While a few did so, most stood with their hands over their hearts or saluted in military style.

HERE IS AN EXCERPT FROM THE NFL POLICY MANUAL that makes it quite clear what is expected of each team. “During the playing of the national anthem, players on the field should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking.  Players in the bench areas should do the same, and line themselves up evenly along the sidelines.”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT NASCAR, several car owners openly disagreed with Dale Earnhardt Jr., who said protesting during the national anthem was okay with him. “Anybody that works for me should respect the country we live in,” said Richard Childress. Richard Petty agreed saying, “Any protester who works for him will be fired.”

“No one has the ‘right’ to protest on his company’s time,” writes Denise McAllister in a compelling piece published in The Federalist this week. “Here’s a lesson for those too immature or narcissistic to grasp it on their own: When you are at work, you don’t have the right to do, say, or wear anything you want. You have contracted your time to another person or a group, and it is your responsibility to do what they required of you. It is perfectly within their rights as employers to say they will fire anyone who does something they forbid on their time.”

Obviously, the 84 percent who supposedly support the players’ right to protest in the recent Seton Hall University poll are unaware of a person’s rights on or at a place of business.

AN ASIDE: As a public affairs vice president with a Fortune 500 firm, I was not permitted to cite my political opinions as I do in this blog, not even a letter to the editor of a newspaper.

MCALLISTER’S PIECE can be read in its entirety by clicking here.

NETWORK COMPLICITY – The networks seem to like what the players are doing to get back at the president for his remarks. Except for the Super Bowl, they typically do not televise the national anthem, but they obviously see this as a means to keep the controversy going.

TOM BROKAW just cannot stay retired, but MSNBC’s Morning Joe was more than happy to have him on air bad-mouthing President Trump. Referring to the president’s comments on the NFL, Brokaw claimed that Trump, and some people on the right, want “to destroy the prevailing culture in this country,” adding “This is a crisis point for this country.” Really? Tom. Really?

WORD FROM ANOTHER WACKO – Liberal activist Naomi Klein is blaming oil and coal companies for the devastation of Hurricane’s Harvey and Irma and has called for their prosecution for climate denial. “You know,” she said, “These are not just natural disasters. These are disasters that have become unnatural, that have become unnaturally catastrophic, because of the impacts of climate change, but also because of deregulation” – and get ready for this – “because of inequality, of racial injustice.” (Media Research Center)

TRUMP CLEANS A “SWAMPER” FROM HIS CABINET – Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price represented what Donald Trump saw wrong in the Washington D.C. swamp during the campaign – individuals who spent taxpayer money like it was their own. In Price’s case, he chalked up $1 million in private air travel in less than nine months. President Trump was not happy, and called for Price’s resignation Friday. There are those who speculate Trump’s dissatisfaction with Price was linked to his inability to pass the repeal and replacement of ObamaCare. Maybe. Regardless, he’s gone.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER, I GUESS – Many conservatives criticized the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture for snubbing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at its opening last year. At the same time, the museum devoted considerable space to the Black Panthers, hip hop, the Black Lives Matter movement and even a pin reading, “I Believe Anita Hill.”

Now, as the museum celebrates its first anniversary, Thomas will finally be honored, but at the same time, the museum has accepted gear worn by Colin Kaepernick, who refused to stand for the national anthem. Believe it.