Here are my observations and opinions of selected news of the day.
BRENNAN IS FULL OF HIMSELF, let’s face it. President Trump’s revocation of his security clearance was overdue. While John Brennan claims the action was designed to silence him. Not so. He is still free to speak in opposition to the president.
By now you are probably aware that individuals who are no longer in key national security positions are granted the privilege of retaining their clearance should the current administration desire to call them in for consultation.
“Mr. Brennan has a history that calls into question his objectivity and credibility,” reads the White House statement, referring to his “erratic conduct and behavior.” Brennan has leveraged his former position and access to make a series of outrageous allegations, including treason, using his association with MSNBC and CNN as his platform.
It’s quite simple. Since there is no way President Trump would ever consider consulting with the dishonest Brennan, his security clearance is no longer appropriate.
I would think the same would be true of the other former officials now being considered for security clearance revocation – Clapper, Comey, Hayden, Yates, Rice, McCabe, Strzok, Page and Ohr – who have all taken part in the Deep State effort to discredit the president. I would assume that Comey, McCabe and Strzok have already lost their clearances. If not, why not.
I have heard some individuals state that Michael Hayden should not be included, but he, too, has used his former positions as director of the NSA and CIA to gain TV prominence for authoritative comment.
When word of Brennan’s clearance revocation was announced in the White House press briefing, Hayden claimed, “I certainly try to be respectful for both the office and the person of the president. But you know you’ve got to tell the truth and if something’s not right or true you’ve got to point that out.”
That’s all well and good, but Hayden hasn’t shied away from criticizing President Trump, and even went out of his way to do so in a book. “(Hayden) is among Trump’s most prominent and incisive critics,” wrote Mathew Continetti in his review of Hayden’s book.
THAT BOSTON HERALD push for the nation’s newspapers to write editorials in opposition to President Trump’s references to fake news, was addressed in a tweet from Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to President George W. Bush, tweeted that “multiple newspapers printing the same editorial message amounted to collusion.” He cited it as another example of a media double standard, reminding us of the media’s criticism of Sinclair media when it had all of its stations carry the same editorial message.
“Some saw the mass editorial-writing effort by newspapers as a move that could backfire, by allowing the president and his supporters to argue that the anti-Trump messages were reflective of a bias against the president by the media,” commented Brett Samuels in The Hill.
As expected, my local newspaper, the Arizona Republic, like a lemming, complied with The Boston Herald’s plea of sympathy for journalism, and devoted two-thirds of its editorial page to attack the president and support journalists.
Wondering about the next four, perhaps eight years, the Republic editorial board says many journalists have concern for incessant harassment and vilification, asking, “Will we face obstruction at every turn?”
They just might find an answer to that if they would stop and recognize the obstruction the president faces daily from the Democrat party and the complying media.
Interestingly, the Republic published a letter from a reader, Norman Gross of Sedona, Arizona, who, while referring to the “sanctimonious press,” suggested that when criticized, they “run and hide behind the First Amendment.”
HOW SOON THE MEDIA FORGETS – The media jumped all over the president for calling Omarosa Manigault-Newman “a dog,” but less than three months ago the “shocked” media was MIA calling for professional consequences against TBS’s Samantha Bee for referring to Ivanka Trump as a “feckless c**t?”
ANDREW CUOMO, the Democrat governor of New York, told a group of women that “We’re not going to make America great again. It was never great,” while wrapping up a speech highly critical of President Trump.
The late Mario Cuomo, his father, probably tuned over in his grave when he heard that. During Mario’s speech at the 1984 Democrat Convention, he spoke of the “magnificent mosaic that is America,” and praised America as the greatest country on earth and said that he learned about America’s greatness by watching and learning from his parents.
“Remember, we became a great nation making things and selling them to others for their marks and yens,” – Mario Cuomo, 1992
It’s too bad Andrew didn’t bother to learn from his grandparents. Instead, he was listening to Barack Obama, who could never seem to say convincingly that he believed in American exceptionalism.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER – When disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok, who clearly made his bias against President Trump known, was fired he decided he needed to raise funds for his defense and turned to another anti-Trumper – Bill Kristol and The Weekly Standard.
In his pitch for money, this testimonial stated: “The Weekly Standard, a leading conservative magazine, declared that the “overwrought tale of bias” surrounding Pete is “just sound and fury.”
The GoFundMe’s “cherry-picked” words from a paragraph in a piece the magazine published last month, in which it stated “And until there’s evidence Strzok actually took action to taint the investigation, the overwrought tale of bias at the FBI is just sound and fury.”
The testimonial, appearing with those of other far-left media outlets, made Strzok into some kind of “folk hero” in a 20-page homage to Strzok’s years of selfless service,” according to Breitbart.
I understand that Strzok has raised some $500,000 from his fellow biased friends.
May God bless the United States of America.
