Here are my observations and opinions on a few items in the news.
THOSE OBSTRUCTIONIST DEMOCRATS on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who voted unanimously to confirm Sen. John “Swift Boat” Kerry as secretary of state in 2013, couldn’t see their way clear to confirm Mike Pompeo for that position today. And, remember, Pompeo was confirmed last year to be director of the CIA.
Using one of the Senate’s archaic rules, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) convinced Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) to vote “present,” to break a tie. That enables Pompeo’s confirmation to go to the floor for full senate vote.
I stand by my statement of April 19, 2018 that anti-Trumpers are un-American. They are simply putting their anti-Trump party first, before the country. Clearly, they don’t want President Trump to succeed in any way.
ANNAFI WAHED, who unabashedly admits to being “a bleeding-heart liberal” and “a card-carrying member of the liberal elite,” who was once a campaign staffer for Hillary Clinton, has had it with “dogmatic progressive ideology and groupthink.”
When she began publishing under TheFliopSide.io, a daily digest of liberal and conservative commentary, her fellow liberals were highly critical of her efforts. In answer to their remarks that those who voted for Trump were “duped” and an “aberration,” she responded, “I refuse to believe that 63 million of my fellow Americans were duped.”
“For all our smugness, we liberals have little to show. Republicans control the White House. Congress and 32 state legislatures.
In her op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, “A Warning to My Fellow Liberals,” she writes, “From one liberal to another: can we stop the ideological purity tests and admit that there are more ways than one of solving a problem? Can we please stop being such jerks?
How refreshing.
Incidentally, Wahed went to high school on New York’s Upper East Side, graduated from Bryn Mawr and once demanded a six-figure salary at a Big Four accounting firm.
JOB CORPS FAILURE – I was sorry to read in The Wall Street Journal today that its editorial board believes “Congress and the Trump administration should take a hard look at the Job Corps and see if it’s worth the money or merely tricking too many young people with false hope.”
A new report from the Labor Department’s inspector general shows that the $1.7 billion Job Corps training program is a flop. Yet, as the Journal reports, the U.S. economy is desperately short of skilled workers, and the federal government claims it wants to help. “… too many government training programs show poor results,” says the Journal, “and those shouldn’t have a permanent claim on taxpayer dollars”
My regret stems from a short stint I had working for the Educational Science Division of U.S. Industries, Inc., which had a contract to operate the Job Corps Center at the former Fort Custer near Battle Creek, Michigan. It had the support of the governor and a number of top business executives.
As a public information officer there in 1965, I witnessed the training of young men, mostly minorities, in a variety of trades, including heavy equipment operations and maintenance, auto repair, welding, machine shop and general clerical duties.
Although it wasn’t part of the curriculum, I was able to recruit and teach those who had an interest in journalism and photography and helped them start a newspaper for the center.
Since then, I was exposed to training programs established within aerospace companies in an effort to employ technically qualified people to manufacture sophisticated avionics. I recall engaging the help of community colleges in the training needs we required.
Since the nation is experiencing a difficulty finding people with the right skills to fill the millions of job openings, I believe companies not already doing their own training, will soon be doing so to meet their needs.
