Here are my observations and opinions on items in the news.
I’M MORE THAN DISGUSTED with the passage of the $1.3 trillion Omnibus bill, but I recognize that we simply don’t have the votes to pass a conservative bill. Doing nothing would have crippled our military. I predict that Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan haven’t heard the last from President Trump. He wasn’t happy.
Ginger@SpicyMustang wrote: “Regardless of how you feel about the Omnibus bill, it’s still a good day when you can wake up and realize Hillary Clinton is not our president.
WE CAN EXPECT John Bolton, the president’s new national security advisor, to clean house on the National Security Council. Political appointees brought in by his predecessor and holdovers from the Obama era can expect a pink slip. Reportedly, Bolton will focus on identifying the sources of leaks and those disloyal to President Trump.
NO NEED TO KNOW – I’m all for transparency in the government, but not in the Central Intelligence Agency. We don’t need another John “Loose Lips” Brennan in that position.
Gina Haspel (CIA photo)
As you are probably aware, President Trump has named Gina Haspel, 61, to become the first woman to head the CIA. Haspel, who has risen through the ranks at CIA over 30 plus years replaces Mike Pompeo, who will soon assume the secretary of state position.
“After a career as a CIA clandestine officer, little, if anything, is known about Ms. Haspel’s private or public life,” wrote Nancy A. Youssef in The Wall Street Journal, “Until last year, when she was named deputy director at the agency, her name wasn’t publicly known.”
Youssef reports that details of her personal life – education, marital status, interests – “have remained shrouded in mystery. She has no record of public speeches, writing or congressional testimony.”
I believe that’s the way it should be for anyone in the CIA. We don’t need to know. But Youssef says, “it falls to the agency to share something about her interests.” Why?
We can expect Senators to press her for answers to some cockamamy questions during her confirmation process, especially concerns over human rights issues. I expect this very accomplished woman will be prepared.
The activities of the CIA should be kept within the agency. I don’t want our future director to be a guest on any Sunday morning news program.
I have written of my disgust with leftists who use children in protests. Mike Allen of AXIOS captured this photo of a 4-year old who made his own poster on the right, a handgun in the crosshairs. His idea?
AND YOU THOUGHT the March for Our Lives against gun violence was organized by kids for kids. Did you really? As it turns out, the March was quietly registered as a 501(c) (4), a designation that allows them to keep its big money donors secret from prying eyes, according to the Daily Wire.
And the kids are definitely no longer in charge … if they ever were. A number of leftist organizations like Planned Parenthood, Everytown for Gun Safety, and the Giffords organization are dictating the agenda and schedule.
George Kieffer, chair of the Board of Regents of the University of California; Jeri Rhodes, of the Friends Committee on National Legislation and former CFO for Greenpeace; Aileen Adams, who served under Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaralgosa; and others form the group’s board of directors.
The Parkland students? Well they will serve on the “advisory board,” with no apparent official say over the way the funds are dispersed.
SORRY, COLONEL, but you really won’t be missed. I’m referring to Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, who resigned from his position as a military analyst for the Fox News Channel after some 10 years.
While he conceded, “I long was proud of the association,” he now believes that Fox has “degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices” to becoming a “mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration.”
He cited Fox commentators’ attacks on the FBI, DOJ, intelligence agencies, and other branches of government, knowingly causing harm to the country.
Would Peters prefer that the politicization and corruption of those agencies go unreported? CNN and MSNBC aren’t reporting it.
After President Obama’s December 2015 Oval Office address on the threat of terrorism, it was Peters, appearing on Fox, who called Obama “a total pussy.” And, he was permitted to follow with “Mr. President, we’re not afraid! We’re angry! We’re pissed off! We’re furious! We want you to react. We want you to do something. You’re afraid! I mean this guy is such a total pussy, it’s stunning.”
I would ask Peters: How is such an indictment as that any different than Fox’s criticism of the Obama holdovers who now make up the Deep State with a mission of bringing down President Trump?
Yes, Fox has been covering the Washington scene and have, with the exception of Shepherd Smith and Juan Williams, generally supported President Trump. I have been watching Fox since it was established. The change I have noticed has been the addition of more contributors with opposing liberal views.
I have appreciated Peters’ views as a military analyst over the years, and recall his opinions on ISIS, North Korea and Iran. It is unfortunate that he felt he could no longer provide his analysis.
He really won’t be missed. Fox is fortunate to have the premier military analyst in Gen. Jack Keane (Ret.) as a regular contributor.
AND FINALLY … the American Thinker reports that former First Lady Michelle Obama told Washington Post pop fashion writer Robin Givhan that her vegetable garden was all a ruse. But it was supposed to be off the record.
“What’s more innocent than a garden,” Mrs. Obama said. It was all to conceal her real agenda by enticing people to trust her. Because anyone would be racist not to.
“What she had in mind was an Alinskyite grand plan for eurotrashifying America into one of Europe’s miserable failing social democracies where the government watches everything you do, leaving you with zero choices,” said Monica Showalter of the American Thinker.
