Here are my observations and opinions on my selected news of the day.
LEAVE IT TO THE MEDIA, including Fox News Channel’s left-leaning Chris Wallace, to make the shielding of the name USS John McCain from President Trump’s view more than a 24-hour story. Even the president’s chief of staff Mick Mulvaney was questioned about it on Face the Nation.
AN IDEA WORTH CONSIDERING – I recently wrote about the billions of dollars that legal and illegal immigrants are sending back home to Mexico each year – $33.48 billion last year; an increase of 10.5 percent over the 2017 figure and the highest figure registered since records began in 1995.
To put it in perspective … remittances are Mexico’s second largest foreign currency earner after auto exports, which totaled $142 billion.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), who has been a staunch supporter of President Trump’s get-tough policy on immigration, doesn’t like the idea of threatening Mexico with tariffs as a penalty for not cooperating in stemming the tide of illegals entering the U.S.
However, he suggested, “There’s another option that would do less harm to the American economy, such as slapping a fee on remittances Mexicans in the U.S. back home from their earnings here.”
Those in opposition to that plan believe it would likely backfire, in that the cutoff of remittances would disrupt lives in Mexico, causing more migration to the United States.
Perhaps our negotiators meeting with Mexican authorities this week could at least hint at the possibility of taxing remittances if they don’t help us solve the immigration crisis at the border.
NOT ALL TALK ON THE GOLF COURSE is about golf, courses, clubs and balls. A conversation last week arose about the lack of civics knowledge exhibited by people confronted with a question by someone with a microphone on the street. It’s embarrassing.
Here’s such an example from the Internet. Nicholas Carlson, who at least admitted his lack of knowledge, wrote @nichcarlson: “I am super embarrassed to report that I only learned this week that all 435 members of the House of Representatives are up for re-election every TWO years. That’s insane. No wonder they’re all grandstanding like they’re in the middle of a campaign all the time. Because they are!”
(Kamala Harris.org)
KAMALA HARRIS FOR THE PEOPLE signs are out and about in California as Sen. Kamala Harris seeks the Democrat nomination for president, however, Katy Grimes, editor of the California Globe wonders what people?
While Harris was appearing at a $28,000 per person event at the home of billionaires Ann and Gordon Getty in San Francisco, she reports that Rep. Barbara Lee spoke on Harris’ behalf at the California Democrat Party Convention, where the crowd chanted ‘Ber-nie! Ber-nie! Ber-nie!
DID I WATCH THE GILLIBRAND TOWNHALL? No! Ever since I heard her use the F-word several times during her June 9, 2017 appearance at the Personal Democracy Forum at New York University just to be cool among the students, she has turned me off. Asked about President Trump keeping his promises, she responded, “has he kept his promises? No. F**k no.”
TWO NEW YORKERS, veterans Silvio Mazzella, 74, and Anthony Vitaliano, 78, appeared on Fox & Friends Sunday to tell their story of attending a townhall meeting by Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. It was her first appearance in her district since January, scheduled to discuss local issues.
Mazzella and Vitaliano became upset at the meeting when AOC blamed American actions for the problems in Yemen and was critical of the relationship between the president and Benjamin Netanyahu, referring the Trump’s withdrawal of the U.S. from the Iran deal.
The veterans walked out of the meeting with disgust, although AOC spokesperson Corbin Trent denied that they did so.
THE CLIMATE CHANGE PROPAGANDISTS are at it again. They want you to believe that all of this tornado activity is due to climate change. Checking NOAA’s chart of Annual Count of Strong and Violent Tornados, 1954 -2104, I found that that the high number has varied wildly over those years … 1956 (98), 1964 (105), 1973 (134), 1982 (70), 1998 (65), and 2011 (85). 2018, the first year since record-keeping began, saw no violent tornadoes with fatalities.
The wackos are already predicting that global warming will be responsible for hurricanes of greater intensity during the coming season.
May God bless the United States of America.
