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

IT’S DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN – With apologies to Yogi Berra … Over the past couple days, I have observed what I call the faux hysteria taking place among the elite of “old Washington.”

I’m not talking about the government shutdown. It’s but another blip in the partisan fight aimed at obstructing the Trump presidency.

In my last post, I referenced past Defense Secretaries and generals who fell out of favor with their commanders-in-chief and the American public.

With the appearance of former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Fox News Sunday, I was reminded of his brief stint in that position, being named by former President Obama upon the departure of Robert Gates.

Panetta’s experience with Obama when the president decided to curtail combat operations in Iraq is quite similar to the conflict between President Trump and his outgoing Defense Secretary James Mattis over the president’s decision to pull troops out of Syria and Afghanistan.

In Panetta’s book, he wrote, “It was clear to me – and many others – that withdrawing all our forces would endanger the fragile stability then barely holding Iraq together.”

“Fragile stability” are the words now being used to describe Syria and Afghanistan.

To me, the following passage from Panetta’s book strikes a similarity we are now hearing taking place within the Trump White House today.

“My fear as I voiced to the president and others, was that if the country split apart or slid back into the violence that we’d seen in the years immediately following the U.S. invasion. It could become a new haven for terrorists to plot attacks against the U.S.

“Under Secretary of Defense Michele Flournoy did her best to press that position, which reflected not just my views but also those of the military commanders in the region and the Joint Chiefs. But the president’s team at the White House pushed back, and the differences occasionally became heated.

“Flournoy argued our case, and those on our side viewed the White House as so eager to rid itself of Iraq that it was willing to withdraw rather than lock in arrangements that would preserve our influence and interests.

In June of 2014, Obama’s team of national security advisors were under attack for not foreseeing the collapse of Iraq’s army forces. The Washington Post editorial page asserted the “pretense” of Obama’s claim to have ended the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Arizona’s Sen. John McCain called for the wholesale resignation of the team, beginning with Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

Even the arrogant Democrat Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal called the situation in Iraq “dire and dangerous.”

That pretty much covers my reason for using the term déjà vu? Going back even further; can you imagine the fireworks in the Lyndon B. Johnson White House when Robert McNamara was defending his Vietnam strategy?

CHRIS WALLACE, host of Fox Sunday Morning, I believe, stepped over the line of professional journalism commentary and decency by asking former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta if he thought President Trump was fit to be president. Fortunately, Panetta responded with a politically correct statement.

We hear enough of the shameful remarks from likes of MSNBC’s Chris Mathews and Lawrence O’Donnell and CNN’s Don Lemon.

HUGH HEWITT tweeted about the obnoxious Chuck Schumer’s obstruction of the president’s desire to improve border security @hughhewitt: “This isn’t a debate, or an argument. It’s a fact: Chuck Schumer closed the government because he would not allow $5 billion of the $4 trillion the federal govt spends annual to be spent on border barriers. It’s an absurd, political stunt by Chuck Schumer. It’s his shutdown.”

ABC NEWS proudly announced that “On January 19, 2019, thousands of women will march in the streets of Washington D.C. and cities across the world for the third year of the Women’s March.”

GIVING US OUR LAUGH-OF-THE-DAY from The Original Hillbilly, who tweeted @Laural.Monroe33: “And they still have no idea why they are marching.”

          May God bless the United States of America