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

THE BIG QUESTION – On July 19, 2019, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta resigned rather than be a distraction for President Trump’s agenda, over a 12-year-old role he played as a federal prosecutor in a plea deal over the sex crimes of Jeffrey Epstein. The media was unmerciful in its reporting.

Now we are learning that Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris, as California attorney general, negotiated a plea deal for former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, a serial sexual harasser, which let hm escape jail time and avoid registering as a sex offender.

Appearing on “The View,” Harris referred to the Epstein deal as a “simple, very light pat on the hand.”

Filner’s team was able to plea his charges down to mere battery, which assured that he would not have to register as a sex offender despite alleged repeal defenses.

Filner didn’t have to show up for his sentencing because of an unusual clause in his plea agreement that likely helped him avoid further public scrutiny. Talk about “a very light pat on the hand.”

Perhaps the Epstein and Filner cases don’t command a direct comparison, wrote Emily Larsen and Joseph Simonson for The Washington Examiner, but both involve powerful figures given sentences lighter than they would have otherwise received absent their public profile or deep pockets and political influence.

Harris’ campaign biography rests heavily on her career as a prosecutor, including six years as California attorney general, but the Examiner notes that the Filner plea deal is omitted. Strange.

Here’s the question: Will the media (and Apology Joe Biden) ignore this as she campaigns for the Democrat nomination?

POOR ANDREA MITCHELL – NBC News’ chief foreign affairs correspondent, again failed to do her homework before airing a story. Mitchell marveled that anyone would use the word “socialist” in references to the four members of the Mob Squad.

“None of these members of Congress are socialists,” Mitchell said, “but that is the way the Republican leadership want to frame the election.”

As it turns out, both Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib are members of a group called the Democrat Socialists of America (DSA), which claims to be the “largest socialist organization” in the United States, reports Becket Adams of the Washington Examiner, who did do her homework.

In addition, The Washington Beacon reported that one of Omar’s staffers told a DSA representative that she was “proud to call herself a democrat socialist … she’s very excited about this.”

You may recall that in May 2016, Mitchell falsely stated that the allegations of sexual misconduct that have dogged Bill Clinton even before he took the White House have all be “discredited,” including the raping of Junita Broaddrick.

SO MUCH FOR DEMOCRAT CIVILITY – Montana Senator Jon Tester, appearing on MSNBC’s anti-Trump show, “Morning Joe,” offered some advice to Democrats vying to challenge President Trump in 2020, writes Trent Baker in Breitbart. “Don’t be afraid to punch back,” Tester said, “punch him in the face.”

NOT TO BE OUTDONE, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes denounced all Republicans and Trump supporters Thursday night while putting down “such patriotism” he witnessed at the president’s Greenville, North Carolina rally. He suggested Trump supporters “must be peacefully, non-violently (aren’t they the same?) and politically destroyed.”

To top it off, Hayes demanded that the president’s “America First” agenda, and those who support it, be “utterly confronted and destroyed. The heart of the thing must be ripped out.”

FINALLY, RECALLING MY CAREER IN SPACE – The space program that is. As we celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, I am reminded of my experiences working on the fringes of the U. S. space program. I say “fringes” because my role in communications and public affairs was to develop product literature and to promote the nation’s space program.

After my discharge from the Air Force, I went to work for the Instrument Division of Lear Siegler Inc. in Grand Rapids, Michigan. While the company was primarily in the defense business, we soon began producing instruments for space craft. The early capsules, like Gemini, were equipped with those similar to those we produced for Navy fighters.

I had the honor of meeting of Astronaut Roger Chafee of Grand Rapids soon after joining LSi. We were all in shock when Chafee, along with fellow astronauts Virgil (Gus) Grissom and Edward White died in a Saturn launch pad fire on January 27, 1967.

On January 22, 1968, I witnessed the first launch and test of the Lunar Module at Cape Kennedy. LSi designed and produced attitude director indicator the Lunar Module and attitude director indicators for the Apollo command capsule.

Later that year, I went to work for Sperry Flight Systems, a division of Sperry Rand, and I was at the Cape for the first night time launch in the Apollo series – Apollo 17 – on December 7, 1972. What a thrill! The rumble of the engines. The shaking ground. Experiencing daylight at night.

I would later have the honor of meeting Astronaut Ron Evans, who remained in the Apollo 17 command module while his crewmates Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt went to the lunar surface to do a variety of scientific experiments and map and photograph the terrain. Ron later joined Sperry Flight Systems’ space marketing organization in Phoenix.

I met Schmitt some years later, after he was elected to the U. S. Senate in New Mexico. We invited him to participate in the company’s establishment of its new Sperry Defense Systems Division there.

On July 15, 1975, Sperry Flight Systems President Bob Roe invited me and my family to join him for the launch of the Apollo-Soyuz mission at the Cape.

Apollo-Soyuz never received much media attention, even though it was the first joint U.S.- Soviet space mission. It was billed as a symbol of détente and rather unceremoniously marked the end of the so-called space race. The mission involved the docking of an Apollo Command/Service Module and the Soviet Soyuz 19 capsule.

After a number of years of designing and marketing space hardware within the Sperry Flight Systems organization, August 21, 1986 marked the establishment of Sperry Space Systems, a division devoted entirely to space programs. A unique replica of the monolith from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey was unveiled at the facility entrance.

The division became known for its systems for the Space Shuttle and control moment gyros and other devices used in a number of satellites and the Hubble Telescope.

LAUGH-OF-THE-DAY – The View’s Joy Behar, of all people, wants President Trump to be brought up on changes of hate speech.

          May God continue to bless the United States of America.