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

MANUFACTURING JOBS – Within Friday’s jobs report was the notation that manufacturers added 32,000 jobs in December for an increase of 2.3 percent for 2018. “It shows the benefit of the new capital investment spurred by tax reform and deregulation,” commented the Wall Street Journal.

IT IS WITH PLEASURE that I remind you that manufacturing employment fell by 210,000 during Barack Obama’s two terms, and that it has risen by 473,000 jobs in Donald Trump’s first two years.

FLASHBACK: “When somebody says like the person you mentioned (Trump) who I’m not going to advertise for, that he’s going to bring all these jobs back. Well how exactly are you going to do that? What are you going to do? There’s uh, huh no answerer to it. He just says, ‘I’m going to negotiate a better deal.’ Well how? How exactly are you going to negotiate that? What magic wand do you have? And usually the answer is, he doesn’t have an answer.” – Barack Obama, June 2016.

LIBERAL FAUX ADMIRATION CONTINUES – Certainly, you have noticed how Democrats find words of praise for dead Republicans. You saw it during the memorials for Sen. John McCain and they often quote Abraham Lincoln.

 Nancy Pelosi raised eyebrows among her colleagues quoting Ronald Reagan during her acceptance speech: “When we’re talking about dreamers, let us remember what President Regan said in his last speech as president. He said, “if we ever close the door to new Americans, our leadership role in the world will soon be lost.”

Of course, we know he wasn’t referring just to our southern border, he was talking about immigration of talented immigrants from around the world. Reagan often referred to assimilation as a means for people from any country could become true Americans – by adopting the nation’s principles of freedom, according to Stephen F. Hayward, historian and Reagan biographer.

FLASHBACK: As negotiations proceed over border security, we must now forget how President Reagan was bamboozled in 1986 by signing the Simpson-Mazzoli Act that granted amnesty to 2.7 million illegal immigrants with the promise of controlling the border and penalizing employers who hire illegals. That promised enforcement didn’t occur.

“Future generations of Americans will be thankful for our efforts to humanely regain control of our borders and thereby preserve the value of the most sacred possessions of our people, American citizenship.” – Ronald Reagan, November 6, 1986

“Nobody’s certain it’s going to work. But everyone was certain the present situation is just terrible. So if it doesn’t work, we’ll have to go back to the drawing board.” – Then Rep. Chuck Schumer, November 6, 1986

Twenty years later, Senators Simpson and Mazzoli said this in a Washington Post op-ed: “Although we have pride of authorship, we also believe that the shortcomings of the act are not due to design failure, but rather to the failure of both Democrat and Republican administrations since 1986 to execute the law properly.”

Campaign promise or not, President Trump must finally secure our border. It’s long overdue.

A MEMORABLE CHARACTER from my days in the aviation business – former Southwest Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher – passed away on January 3, 2019 at 88. He stepped down as CEO in 2001 and as chairman in 2008.

I don’t have the space here to tell you stories about this chain-smoking, Wild Turkey loving guy behind the success of Southwest Airlines, but I found the poignant message conveyed in Saturday’s full-page Wall Street Journal ad placed by the employees and retirees of the airline touching:

“Dear Herb – Thanks for always remembering our names. For keeping our airline flying high and our spirits higher. For always being there. For giving everyone (and we do mean everyone) a kiss on the lips. For arm wrestling for our slogan. For being both the hardest worker and the life of the party. And for turning a Company into a Family. We will forever be in your debt, and we will aspire to keep your spirit alive. With love and gratitude, The Employees and Retirees of Southwest Airlines.”

Do you wonder, as I do, how many CEOs could earn such praise from employees.

I WASN’T ALONE in my disappointment with columnist Peggy Noonan’s asking for “noble rats” to tell-all about President Trump’s habits in my December 31, 2018 post. Three letters to the editor of the Wall Street Journal reflect this disappointment in Noonan.

Connie Lovell of Pinehurst, North Carolina took issue with Noonan, for focusing her ire on President Trump while overlooking “the duplicity in Congress and the vigilante style of Justice Department and the IRS.”

While Noonan wants insiders to speak up about Trump and put their names out there, Lovell reminds us “there are many books about the chaos in the Trump administration … and there are many others authored by supporters of the president willing to put their reputations on the line in defense of the president’s accomplishments and his right to govern.”

Regarding the resignation letter of Jim Mattis, admired by Noonan, Lovell noted that “others in the administration argue candidly that it is futile to fight a war for 18 years without rules of engagement sufficient to defeat our enemy.”

Phil Ruland of Newport Beach, California says Noonan’s push for insiders to put their names on tell-all about Trump will only result in more media ridicule stories, and asks what Noonan “expects this to accomplish?”

“Why not challenge the mainstream media to do something radical … (honestly and factually) report on the president’s policy failures and accomplishments?” asks Ruland.

Larry Jensen of Madison, Wisconsin found humor in Noonan’s comments on Trump’s TV viewing habits. “I wish I had a list of the TV shows he watches so I could send it to Republican members of Congress.

Jensen seems mystified by Noonan’s problem with Trump keeping his campaign promises in a “heavy-handed, erratic and graceless manner,” while “the real problem is a refined and oh-so-polite Republican establishment too timid and clueless to convey its message effectively or keep its political promises.”

JOE BIDEN SUPPORTERS might well want to stop and consider the criticism he received from former CIA Director and Defense Secretary Robert Gates: “I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”

Recall also, that Barack Obama picked Biden as his 2008 running mate in order to “add foreign policy expertise to the ticket,” as the Washington Times put it then.

It was during the 2012 campaign that Biden admitted that he opposed authorizing the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound.

And  don’t forget Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s endorsement that “He brings a level of experience and seniority which I think is really important.” Really, Senator.

            May God bless the United States of America.