Here are my observations and opinions on selected news of the day.

TRUMP’S FINEST HOUR – For obvious reasons, that headline over a story by Roger L. Simon in PJ Media, caught my attention. “Writing it,” he said, ”I assumed people’s heads would explode. It’s about as far as you can get from today’s conventional wisdom.

“Virtually every member of the smart set from Pelosi to McCain to some ninety-five percent of the media, including several cowards at Fox News, to, alas, Lindsay Graham (who should know better) are going out of their minds excoriating Trump for being soft on Putin, even for being ‘owned’ by the neo-Soviet strongman. John Brennan – once a communist himself, so he should know – accused Trump of treason.

“Suppose Trump had done the opposite, exactly what these people demanded – verbally and viciously assaulted Putin for all his totalitarian tropes from annexing Crimea to humiliating John Podesta for being so dumb as to fall for a phishing attack (all right – I’ll be fair – for invading computers of Democratic Party operatives, allegedly to elect Trump) and so forth?

“What would that have accomplished? The obvious answer is zilch.”

“IT’S NOT EASY to overstate Trump’s blundering performance after meeting Putin on Monday. But John Brennan did, wildly,” wrote Fox News Channel’s senior political analyst Brit Hume @brithume.

THEN THERE WAS THIS thought from Tracy Jeffords @TracyJeffords: “You know, if every day for the last 542 days hadn’t been the end of the world I’d probably be a bit more upset today. I didn’t like it, it was disappointing, but I can’t handle all the mass hysteria and manic behavior.”

“THE INDICTMENT of 12 Russian military intelligence agents last week on charges they hacked into Democratic National Committee and other servers during the 2016 campaign,” says former attorney general Michael Mukasey, “raises questions about the timing of the announcement and the work of the hackers themselves,“ in a Wall Street Journal op-ed today.

While the president was aware of the announcement prior to his trip, Mukasey explained that the DOJ has a long-standing policy that would require prosecutors to consider the impact of their action on significant events outside the criminal justice system, and to act with due diffidence.

“From a law enforcement standpoint, there was nothing urgent about these indictments. All 12 defendants are in Russia; none are likely to see the inside of a I.S. courtroom,” Mukasey reasoned.

MORRELL THINKS WE JUST FELL OFF THE TURNIP TRUCK – Appearing on CBS this morning, former deputy director of the CIA Michael Morrell said that he would advise senior officials in the intelligence community to consider resignation considering the president’s perceived lack of confidence in them over the Russian meddling issue.

Does Morrell think for a minute that their grievance over President Trump’s confidence is greater than it must have been in 2012 when Morrell sided with the Obama administration and unsuccessfully blamed the FBI for the misleading cause of the Benghazi attack in which two of his CIA operatives – Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods – lost their lives?

Morrell gave misleading testimony to Congress involving his participation in the “sanitizing” of the talking points used by Susan Rice in her Sunday round of TV talk show.

I doubt if Morrell thought of resigning after he disgraced the entire CIA community and their families with his failure over Benghazi.

Incidentally, after leaving the CIA he joined a PR firm of Hillary Clinton supporters, and authored an op-ed endorsing Clinton for president in the New York Times in 2016, two thirds of which was an attack on candidate Donald Trump as “unqualified” and “a threat to our national security.”

While Morrell acknowledged Clinton’s presence in the situation room during the raid on Bin Laden In that op-ed, he conveniently failed to mention Benghazi. Yet Morrell said his training as an intelligence officer taught “me to call it as I see it.”

Clearly, Morrell continues to aid the Deep State.

LOST IN THE CLOUD over the perceived failure of President Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin was the announcement by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in which he credits the president for his effort in encouraging fair share increases by member countries totaling $43 billion.

Certainly, you recall how the media has criticized the president for badgering our allies while he insists that he and American taxpayers are tired of carrying more than our fair share of NATO’s budget. Now he needs to pressure UN countries to pay up.

DEMS NEW DARLING STUMBLES – Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, the 28 -year-old admitted socialist, who defeated Rep. Joseph Crowley in New York’s District 14, stumbled when questioned in friendly liberal territory and proved she wasn’t ready for prime time.

During an interview on PBS’s Firing Line, Ocasio-Cortez’s knowledge of foreign policy issues was tested and she failed. While preferring to talk about domestic issues with references to riots in Ferguson, Missouri and the South Bronx, PBS host Margaret Hoover drew her into a discussion about the Middle East where the issues are very different.

“Of course. Well (pause) yes. But I also think that what people are starting to see, at least in the occupation of Palestine, is just an increasing crisis of humanitarian conditions, and that to me is where I tend to come from on this issue,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“You used the term ‘the occupation of Palestine,’” asked Hoover, “What did you mean by that?”

Ocasio-Cortez stumbled trying to explain her thinking but concluded with an admission that she was not an expert. “Do you think you can expand on that?” pressed Hoover.

“Yeah, I think I’d just say that I am not the expert in geopolitics on this issue,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

I can picture Representative Crowley with a huge smile on his face.

AND FINALLY – If you missed Tucker Carlson’s interview Monday with Stephen F. Cohen of NYU on the Helsinki summit, you should watch it by clicking here.