Here are my opinions and observations on some items in the news.

BREAKING NEWS – Have you heard that our unpresidential president, who suffers from dementia, has agreed to a face-to-face meeting with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un in an effort to denuclearize the Korean peninsula? He will be the first U.S. president to meet with a North Korean leader in 30 years. Remember how the media reported that the president was threatening war with his insults of the North Korean leader as “fat,” referring him jokingly as “Little Rocket Man,” and boasting that his nuclear button is bigger than Kim’s?  When are they going to recognize that Trump is not your typical politician?

THE MEDDLING OF MC CAIN – I have written about the unwillingness of Sen. John McCain (RINO-AZ) to bury the hatchet with President Trump and put the personal insult behind him. On one occasion I wrote of McCain’s involvement with the much-ballyhooed Russian dossier. You may recall that McCain sent David Kramer (no relation), a former State Department official and senior fellow at the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University, to England to meet with the dossier’s fabricator Christopher Steele.

In “Christopher Steele, The Man Behind the Trump Dossier,” in the March 12, 2018 edition of The New Yorker, author Jane Mayer surfaced a bit of information regarding McCain’s dispatch of Kramer to meet with Steele. Considered to be a Russia expert, Kramer met with Steele and went over the dossier for hours.

An excited Kramer wanted to share the document and promised to share it only with McCain. It was arranged that he would be sent a copy in Washington. Mayer learned from a former national security official, who spoke with Kramer at the time, that one of Kramer’s ideas was to have McCain confront Trump with the evidence, in the hope that Trump would resign. “’He would tell Trump, ‘the Russians have got you,’” the official told her. Mayer writes that Kramer’s lawyer said his client never considered such a move.

“Ultimately, though, McCain and Kramer agreed that McCain should take the dossier to the head of the F.B.I,” writes Mayer. In what was reportedly a ten-minute meeting with James Comey on December 9, 2016, “to McCain’s surprise, the F.B.I. had possessed a copy since the summer.”

Kramer’s reaction, according to Mayer’s contact, was “Shit, if they had it all this time, why didn’t they do something?” When he learned that the dossier was an open secret among journalists, he asked “Is there anyone in Washington who doesn’t know about this?”

In January 2017, after Comey had briefed President Obama, Vice President Biden and the chiefs of the top intelligence agencies, Comey met with President Elect Trump in Trump Tower to review the dossier. Four days later that briefing was reported on CNN, and BuzzFeed posted a copy online. By process of elimination, speculation centered on Kramer as the leaker, according to Mayer.

Interesting, but we may never know the truth.

FLORIDA STUDENT REFLECTS ARROGANCE – You may recall last month that I criticized David Hogg, one of the students who survived the Parkland high school shooting, for leaping onto the gun control issue by attacking the NRA, and those who accept campaign funding from the organization. They were invited to appear on all of the media.

Hogg and another student, Cameron Kasky, were recently invited to appear on leftist Bill Maher’s show, where they were tossed softball questions and permitted to repeat their “it’s all about guns” mantra, and brag about hanging up on the president of the United States.

In a Robert Tracinski piece in The Federalist, “Dear Annoying Parkland Kids: We Gave You A Pretty Awesome World, Try Not To Mess It Up,” he quoted from Kasky’s “sanctimonious little lecture.”

“I mean this sincerely, I really do, to all the generations before us, we sincerely accept your apology,” said Kasky, “We appreciate that you are willing to let us rebuild the world that you f***ed up.” His parents must be proud.

Tracinski thoughtfully reminded his readers that “over the past 35 years, there have been only five cases in which someone ages 18-20 used an assault rifle in a mass shooting, meaning that the most commonly proposed gun control measure would have little effect.” He added that crime is down, murders are down, and violent crimes committed with guns are way down. But the likes of Hogg and Kasky now consider themselves experts on the topic.

Further commenting on Kasky’s “f***ed up” world claim, Tracinski reminded that the median family income in America is nearly triple what it was in 1950. The rich have gotten richer and the poor have also gotten richer. Assuming the students believe that prior generations have ruined the environment, Tracinski states that emissions from the six common pollutants are down 73 percent, and our air and water are about as clean as they have ever been.

“The world we older generations have given today’s kids is actually pretty awesome. We can’t protect them from every danger and every risk, and we can’t stop every tragedy like the Parkland shooting. But by historical standards, our kids will be safer, healthier, and wealthier, and they can expect to live longer and more untroubled lives than we did, or than our parents did, or than our grandparents did.” – Robert Tracinski

No one can deny that the surviving students and teachers of the Parkland shooting have experienced a traumatic event in their lives, but it doesn’t make them gun control experts, and the fawning media is giving them a false impression by using them as pawns in its gun control agenda.

WHERE ARE THOSE CONCERNED STUDENTS on the misuse of cell phones? That “weapon” reportedly takes the lives of 11 teens every day; teens who text while driving? When should we expect their march on Washington to demonstrate their concern over death by cell phone? Fat chance.

A friend of mine recently shared with me the concern another friend of his has with the overblown publicity on gun control and school safety, while teen deaths by texting-while-driving kills more students in two days than the Florida shooter murdered in ten minutes of a single day.

Teen deaths from texting while driving have outnumbered those from drunk driving, according to a study conducted by the Cohen Children’s Medical Center of Hyde, New York that revealed over 3,000 teen deaths per year are associated with texting while driving. Texting students often have one or two others in the car with them who are also put at risk.

Researchers have found that laws against texting while driving have had little impact. Fifty-seven percent of teens surveyed admitted to texting while driving and most don’t realize that at 55 mph, their car can travel the length of a football field in the 4.6 seconds of an average text, received or sent.

Think about it. Where can those student activists have more impact … convincing their fellow students not to text and drive or simply adding to the decades-old gun control noise.

THE SAD STATE OF HOLLYWOOD MOVIES – I didn’t comment on the Oscars after its four-hour marathon, because I didn’t watch it. But the fact that the ABC broadcast of the awards took a 20 percent hit in viewers has to tell us something.

Columnist John Podhertz believes the ratings are down because few Americans see most of the nominated movies anymore. If you’re not interested in the movies, why waste time watching the increasingly tedious award ceremonies honoring them?

Perhaps President Trump said it best – “We don’t have stars anymore.” I agree. Who the heck is Sally Hawkins? There are no Humphrey Bogart’s, Spencer Tracy’s and Gregory Peck’s, and no Katherine Hepburn’s, and no Olivia deHavilland’s anymore. The closest, in my mind, are Gary Oldman and Helen Mirren.

I rarely go to a movie starring someone who has ridiculed the president or conservative issues. I don’t care what they think. Someone once said that it’s difficult to admire someone for his or her ability to read lines written by someone else. A great actor can change your mind. Robert DeNiro is one such actor, however, since his recent obscene diatribes against the president, I will avoid seeing his future work.

Hollywood seems to go out of its way to find scripts they can develop into in-your-face films to upset conservatives. Jimmy Kimmel seemingly admitted so during the Oscars when he said, “We don’t make films like ‘Call Me By Your Name’ to make money. We make them to upset Mike Pence.”

ADVOCACY JOURNALISM is on display at the left-leaning Arizona Republic. On February 27, 2018, columnist Joanna Allhands authored a piece under a banner headline, “If Arizona teachers strike, here’s how they should do it,” providing three ways for teachers to strike effectively.

“Walk out en masse – and stay there … districts would have no choice but to cancel school … and believe you me, that would strike fear under elected leaders’ hides to act,” Allhands recommends.

I put the piece in my “hold” pile while I decided if I would write about it. I didn’t have to wait long. On March 7, 2018 Republic, the headline on Laurie Roberts’ column read, “Will Arizona teachers follow W. Virginia’s lead?” Teachers there won a five percent pay raise after striking for nine days.

“Hmmm,” Roberts coyly opened her column, as if to say, ‘Hey Arizona teachers … you could do this, too.’ After reviewing the W. Virginia effort, she reported on efforts by various Arizona educators to test the waters here. Remarking that it would be “the stuff of nightmares for (Governor) Ducey, who is up for re-election,” she concludes with another “Hmmm,” as if to say ‘go for it, teachers.’