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

POORER MICHIGAN – This is a follow-up to my piece “Poor Michigan” a play on Michigan’s slogan Pure Michigan, published on May 20, 2019 in which I wrote how my beautiful former home state had become an embarrassment politically. After electing a Democrat governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and reelecting a do-nothing Democrat senator, Debbie Stabenow, they elected Democrat Rashida Tlaib to represent them in the U.S. House.

Now we learn from Mike Tokes @MikeTokes: “Weeks after giving herself a $35,000 raise, Karen Weaver, the mayor of Flint, Michigan, is laying off 33 firefighters and 20 police officers as Flint leans toward municipal bankruptcy.”

Her new salary of $125,000 is seven and a half times as much as the $16,554 per capita income of the city of 100,000. The 7-1 vote in favor of her raise was aided by the “aye” votes of the several felons who serve on the city council.

So, Flint follows other Democrat-run cities in the country that look after its leadership while the residents suffer from that poor leadership. Baltimore comes to mind.

THERE’S A CHANCE FOR MICHIGAN to elect a Republican, John James, who plans to unseat Democrat incumbent Gary Peters. You may recall he gave Stabenow a run for her money in 2018. Republicans must also work to replace RINO Justin Amash.

While several pundits claim President Trump is trailing Apology Joe Biden in Michigan, Trump remains popular there despite hysterical criticism from Democrats, according to Rick Moran at PJ Media.

MEANWHILE, IN WISCONSIN, prominent Republicans are moving swiftly to shore up support for President Trump, according to David M. Drucker at the Washington Examiner. While Trump was the first Republican nominee to win Wisconsin since 1984, 2020 is shaping up to be close again.

HEY JOE! About those funds you plan to restore to California’s high-speed rail project – the billion dollars reclaimed by President Trump – has anyone told you about the ethics investigation over the authority’s deputy chief operating officer? It seems as though Roy Hill signed a $51 million change order that benefited a company in which he owned in excess of $100,000 stock.

Apology Joe Biden has indicated he would restore federal funds for this fund-gobbling project as part of his $4 trillion green energy plan.

“TIMES HAVE CHANGED” – When I heard Apology Joe Biden say that during his recent change of position on the Hyde Amendment, that prohibits federal funding of abortions, I wondered out loud, what’s changed? I scanned the countless accounts of his remarks on the Internet, but without success.

I did find a reference to an inquiry of his change in position by CNN’s left-leaning Brianna Keilar addressed to Biden’s campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield.

“So why this change now?” Keiler asked, “if you’re trying to convince people that this isn’t about political expediency, which is part of Joe Biden’s hallmark or as he would hope it to be, then don’t you have to explain substantively how he changes his mind from Wednesday to Thursday on an issue as significant at this?

“Did he speak to advocates? How did he do it? Did someone give him evidence? What kind of evidence? Did he speak to advocates? Did he speak to women? What was the impetus? What was the inflection point that changed his mind?” Keiler pressed. “He has not explained his evolution other than to say that he changed his mind.”

HERE’S A POINT OF VIEW – David Marcus, writing @BlueBoxDave: “Biden destroyed his candidacy tonight. He’s pointless now. Just another progressive but too old.”

To which, Matt Margolis of PJ Media remarked, “He has a point. If Biden isn’t the ‘centrist’ alternative he’s been made out to be, what does he bring to the table beside name recognition?”

THANKS TO JUDICIAL WATCH Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, we have learned that Bruce Ohr, who along with his wife Nellie, have been “up to here” in the Deep State effort to end the Trump presidency, received $42,250 in performance bonuses during the Trump/Russia investigation. Ohr was deeply involved in the highly controversial Justice Department surveillance of the Trump presidential campaign. Nellie was associated with Fusion GPS

Judicial Watch also obtained an e-mail revealing that Nellie informed him that she was deleting e-mails sent from his DOPJ account. Other e-mails showed that Bruce Ohr remained in contact with dossier author Christopher Steele after Steele was terminated by the FBI.

This is but the tip of the iceberg soon to uncovered by DOJ IG Michael Horowitz in his report expected to be published this month.

HOW BIG AN ISSUE is climate change? Democrat Elizabeth Warren sees it as a bigger challenge than World War II. Ludicrous. Bill Nye, the phony science guy, claims there is a Pearl Harbor moment in climate change every week referring to the tornadoes, flooding and wildfires.

History is replete with disastrous floods – Kansas City in 1844, Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1882, the Pacific Northwest in 1862, and more recently Minnesota in 1965.

Every candidate on the left insists we facing imminent disaster from climate change, and is willing to “invest” your money in dealing with this global issue with unproven schemes.

LESSON ON GUN USE – Recently, I listened intently to a conversation a few golf buddies, including a former Forest Service special agent, were having about guns; more precisely, don’t draw it unless you are prepared to use it.

Coincidentally, my varied reading habits drew me to a piece written about a hunting guide and a fellow hunter who were ferociously attacked by two Grizzly bears while they field dressed an elk that had been downed with an arrow in Wyoming.

Sadly, the guide had removed his chest holster and shirt several yards away from where they working on the elk. The hunter scrambled to get the semi-automatic gun, a Glock, but couldn’t get it to fire. He threw it toward the guide, but one of the bears was mauling him. The hunter mounted a horse and rode to where he could get cell service for help, but it was too late for the guide.

This was a sad case where the guide obviously felt the need to be armed, but seemingly felt comfortable removing his weapon while working on the elk. The hunter, who retrieved the gun didn’t know how to chamber a round so it could be fired.

Presumably, if you own a gun for your personal or family safety you have availed yourself of proper training to avoid the misfortune of this guide and fellow hunter.

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT IT? Trump-hating MSNBC Morning Joe host, Joe Scarborough, and his colleague wife, Mika Brzezinski actually had kind words for the president during his Normandy speech. “He delivered what I believe is the strongest speech of his presidency,” and Mika added that “(It) measured up to the moment and really was a true salute to the unity of this day.”

                       May God continue to bless the United States of America.