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

YES, FORMER FBI AGENT PETER STRZOK has finally been fired as a result of the findings in DOJ IG Michael Horowitz’s report, but you may not be aware of what led to that decision.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said that his case would be reviewed by the Office of Professional Responsibility, promising that process would be “done by the book.”

Strzok and his lawyers met on July 24, to make a final pitch to Candice Will, who leads the OPR. Strzok’s lawyer said that Will had decided that his client face a demotion, a 60-day suspension and a “last chance agreement.” Can you believe it?

Fortunately, FBI Deputy Director David L. Bowditch overruled and ordered Strzok’s termination. That should go a long way in convincing the FBI’s straight shooters that Strzok’s abuse of his position will not be tolerated in the future.

Strzok would have us believe that his bias against Donald Trump and for Hillary Clinton never figured into his decisions

WHAT ABOUT OMAROSA MANIGUALT-NEWMAN? She was given a role in the Trump campaign and administration based on her loyalty to Donald Trump. She allowed her position in the White House as a liaison with the black community, however, to go to her head.

Word is that she abused her position to demand excessive limo services and perks. When the president heard of her abuses, he instructed his chief of staff John Kelly to work it out. It was Kelly who determined that she had to go.

She has been a wannabe since her days on The Apprentice and in the end proved she wasn’t up to the responsibility of a White House staffer. Her actions are clearly those of a distraught employee, who decided to cash in on a show-and-tell book with stories that will surely be discounted in the days ahead.

NEWSPAPERS UNITE is the call by Marjorie Pritchard, deputy managing editor for the editorial page of the Boston Globe to more than 100 newspapers to decry President Trump for calling them out for disseminating “fake news.”

She’s asking them all to denounce the president in editorials on Thursday. To that, blogger Don Surber remarked, “Denouncing President Trump is something they only do on days ending in the letter “y.”

Pritchard is calling for newspapers to “educate readers” that an attack on the First Amendment is unacceptable. I’ll bet you didn’t realize that you needed to be educated on the First Amendment.

But, as Sorber noted, freedom of the press is just one of five God-given rights protected by the First Amendment. “When it comes to religion, newspapers are largely atheistic. One year, the local newspaper did not even mention Easter on Easter Sunday … except in the paid ads.”

I EXPECT THE WEAK-KNEED newspapers of the left will comply and have already drafted their editorial for Thursday’s edition. Some, like the Arizona Republic, have already been critical of the president’s position on the media.

YOU MAY RECALL that I was stunned by Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s casual comment last week about the Chinese spy she had in her employment for 20 years; that he didn’t have a security clearance, and thusly he would not have access to classified information.

I suggested that as her driver he was in a position to overhear cell phone conversations and questioned if she ever left her laptop in his custody.

Since then, Marc Thiessen, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, who is now a syndicated columnist, wondered if the driver recorded on his phone conversations that Feinstein had with passengers or on the phone. And if she left her phone, iPad or laptop in the car while she went to meetings, special events, dinners, etc.

“It seems improbable that Feinstein never once discussed anything sensitive in her car over a period of years,” wrote Thiessen, who wondered if he had access to any of her mobile devices.

Relating a discussion he had with a former top intelligence officer, Thiessen wrote “someone in that position could give an adversary (China) a whole bunch on atmospherics and trends and attitudes which are from time to time for more important that the things we call secret.”

During the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton’s e-mail misuse, I expressed my disbelief that she and her staff seemed unaware that an unclassified e-mail with her meeting schedule, giving times, places and with whom, was of value to bad actors.

“Feinstein owes the country a detailed explanation of how she let a Chinese spy into her inner sanctum,” says Thiessen, “And the media should give this security breach the same attention they would have if it involved Russia and the Republicans.” Fat chance.

“IF TRUMP’S VOTERS TURN OUT THIS FALL, they’ll give Republicans a big Senate majority,” predicts Tom Mitchell, a top financial-industry investment research analyst, in The Federalist.

Although he says that incumbent Sen. Debbie Stabnenow “looks like a landslide winner based on analysis” in Michigan, Kramerontheright is very much impressed with challenger John James, who has been endorsed by President Trump.

Senators Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, and Claire McCaskill in Missouri “would likely lose if those (Republican) voters come back this year. He sees Minnesota’s incumbent Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith in close voting.

In Indiana, Democrat incumbent Sen. Joe Donnelly “looks almost certain to lose at this point,” according to Mitchell. “(Pennsylvania’s Sen.) Bob Casey’s continued career depends on his winning back blue-collar voters who deserted Clinton for Trump in 2016.”

“Our sense is that Republican voters haven’t recognized how much jeopardy the party is in. Many are content to listen only to their safe media spaces that repeat illusions about a ‘red wave’ and invoke 2016 when the media said Mr. Trump couldn’t win.” – Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal

DO YOU REMEMBER reading about Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, the new darling of the Democrat left, who was supposed to introduce Hawaiian candidate Kaniela Ing during a rally, but forgot and walked off the stage without doing so?

Ing managed to secure just six percent of the vote.

INCIDENTALLY, have you heard what Ocasio-Cortez said on The Daily Show? Pressed by host Trevor Noah to explain how she would pay for the free health care and free college she proposes, she suggested if people “pay their fair share” in taxes and the government makes some “back of the envelope” budgetary adjustments based on “our values,” the government will have the requisite revenue to pay for her campaign promises. An economics wizard.

“If we reversed the tax bill and raised our corporate rate to 28 percent; if we do those two things and also close some of the loopholes that’s $2 trillion right there,” she incorrectly explained.

She also spoke of implementing a carbon tax and the “reprioritization” of spending; referencing the cutting of military spending. “We gave the military a $700 billion increase, which they didn’t even ask for.”

We can only hope the Democrat party continues to endorse her appearances on TV and candidate rallies.

          May God bless the United States of America.