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

COMEY’S ‘BALLS’ – Sorry to be so crude, but using the word “hubris,” or other synonyms like “arrogance,” “conceit,” and “pomposity” just doesn’t hack it when referring to the former disgraced FBI Director James Comey.

The 79-page DOJ IG report released Thursday concluded that “Comey’s retention, handling, and dissemination of certain memos violated Department and FBI policies, and his FBI employment agreement” and that “much of the content of the memos was directly tied to FBI investigative activities, in order to achieve a personally desired outcome.”

“The civil liberties of every individual who may fall with the scope of the FBI’s investigative authorities depend on the FBI’s ability to protect sensitive information from unauthorized disclosure,” reminds Glenn Greenwald, commenting on the IG report content.

And let’s not forget that because of his abuse of power, he was instrumental in plunging the nation into two years of hysterics about Russian interference, notes David Harsanyi, of The Federalist.

While the DOJ IG “found no evidence that Comey or his attorneys release any of the classified information contained in any of the memos to members of the media, he did illicitly pass them on to a lawyer friend, who in turn leaked them to a friendly New York Times reporter who been spreading the Russian conspiracy theory.”

“I don’t need a public apology from those who defamed me, but a quick message with a ‘sorry we lied abut you’ would be nice,” Comey arrogantly tweeted, adding “and to those who’ve spent two years of talking about me ‘going to jail’ or being a ‘liar and leaker’ – ask yourselves  why you still trust people who gave you bad info for so long, including the president.”

President Trump tweeted, “Perhaps never in the history of our Country has someone been more thoroughly disgraced and excoriated than James Comey in the just released Inspector General’s Report.  He should be ashamed of himself.”

“The Inspector General’s report shows Comey violated the most basic obligations of confidentiality that he owed the United States Government and the American people, ‘in order to achieve a personally desired outcome,” wrote Stephanie Grisham, White House press secretary.

Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted @LindseyGrahamSC: “The Inspector General’s report is stunning and unprecedented rebuke of a former Director of the FBI.”

Former CIA operative Buck Sexton didn’t hold any punches in his response @BuckSexton: “So James Comey was – it’s official now – a sanctimonious, self-righteous bureaucrat who believed in holding other people to standards that he himself was free to break when he saw fit.”  This should surprise no one.

Surprisingly, CNN called the DOJ IG report “very damning.”

Comey, who regularly touted the importance of the rule-of-law, “spat in the law’s face, and now he’s rubbing our noses in it,” according to the Daily Caller.

We knew that the IG had limited prosecutorial authority to bring charges, and Attorney General William Barr has declined to bring charges against Comey, but there are other shoes to drop, regarding the FISA warrants by the DOJ IG and by  U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation.  I would be shocked if Comey wasn’t implicated.

A while back, I told you that Comey was a man feared in Washington DC, similarly to J. Edgar Hoover, not because of his being an imposing figure at 6 foot 9 inches tall, but because of what he knew about each of them.  Now, there are a handful of Deep State associates of Comey who live in fear, but not of Comey,

 YOU PROBABLY HEARD that MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell was forced to retract a story on Wednesday night that tied President Trump finances to Russian sources.  In his retraction he admitted not going through “the vigorous verification and standards process here at MSNBC “– pause for a laugh – “before repeating what I heard from my source.”  In his initial report he said “if true” but that wasn’t good enough. “I should not have said it on-air or posted it on Twitter.  I was wrong to do so.”

His initial report was aired on the leftist Rachel Maddow show, too.  Of course, she went through a theatrical look of shock, weaving back in her chair, when O’Donnell revealed his “scoop.”

LASTLY, the name Bret Stephens may not mean anything to you.  He is the pathetic journalist who left the Wall Street Journal to join The New York Times.  He considers himself a conservative but he’s a never-Trumper merely because of the president’s character.  In his piece, “Why I’m Still a Never Trumper, on December 29, 2017, he cited the tax cuts, deregulation, more for the military, less for the UN, the Islamic State crushed in it heartland, Assad it with cruise missiles, troops to Afghanistan, arms for Ukraine, a tougher approach to North Korea, Jerusalem recognized as Israel’s capital, the Iran deal decertified, Title IX kangaroo courts on campus condemned, yes to Keystone, no to Paris, Wall Street roaring and consumer confidence high, Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court.

“What, for a conservative, is there to dislike about this policy record as the Trump administration rounds out its first year in office?” he asks.  “I agree with every one of the policy decisions mentioned above, but I still wish Hillary Clinton were president.”

To Stephens, “Character does count, and virtue does matter, and Trump’s shortcomings prove it daily.”

So, why bring up Stephens?  He doesn’t like it when he’s on the other end of criticism.  A George Washington University professor compared him to a bedbug in the New York Times newsroom as a metaphor.  Stephens was deeply offended.

RASMUSSEN REPORTS revealed in a recent survey that major American media outlets are losing the public’s support with most voters believing the average journalist is liberal.

The survey analysis said 61 percent of likely voters think reporters at major news organizations deserve scrutiny.

You may recall my disappointment in Fox News Channel, with its recent hiring of former DNC chair Donna Brazile, and an apparent disinterest in challenging guests who make false statements about Trump or his policies.  I understand that the president is also not too happy with Fox.

                    May God continue to bless the United States of America.