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

HISTORY NOTED – I write this on a momentous day in history.  Having recently returned from a cruise along the Columbia and Snake Rivers following the route of Lewis and Clark, I noted that it was on September 23, 1806 that Lewis and Clark and his fellow explorers returned from their expedition in the nation’s Northwest.

In a letter to President Thomas Jefferson, Lewis wrote:

“In obedience to your orders, we have penetrated the Continent of North America to the Pacific Ocean, and sufficiently explored the interior of the country to affirm with confidence that we have discovered the most practicable rout (sic) which does exist across the continent by means of navigable branches of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers … the total distance from the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi to the discharge of the Columbia into the Pacific Ocean 3555 miles.”

It was on June 20, 1803 that Jefferson penned a four-page letter of instruction to Lewis.

THE GUN BAN DILEMMA – As a follow-up to my September 20, 2019 special report, “What to do about the shootings,” additional information has come to my attention.

Colt, manufacturer of the AR-15 rifle, announced that it is exiting the consumer rifle market, reporting that “the market for modern sporting rifles has experienced significant excess manufacturing capacity,” believing that there’s an “adequate supply for modern sporting rifles for the foreseeable future.”

Of course, that suggests the production could resume when Colt believes the demand is there.  Colt is committed to the Second Amendment.

While Democrats claim to have a bill that would ban assault rifles, don’t believe it. While still in the draft stage, I understand, it prohibits the “sale, transfer, production, and importation” of semi-automatic rifles and pistols that can hold a detachable magazine that can hold more than 10 rounds.  It also includes semi-automatic shotguns with features such as a pistol grip, detachable stock, and ammunition feeding devices that can hold more the 10 rounds.

The legislation offered by Democrat Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island names 205 specific firearms he would prohibit.

And get this: The bill fails to include military style weapons – some 16 million – already in circulation.  In addition, there are hundreds of millions of handguns in the country that take far more lives.

Is it any wonder that Republicans, with constituents from red states who actively support the Second Amendment, will not support the Democrat plan?

In an op-ed by Alex Kingsbury in the New York Times, from my “hold” file, Kingsbury notes that “Nearly one-third of residents of the United States own a gun, two-thirds of gun owners own more than one and nearly half of all firearms in civilian hands are owned by three percent of the population.

“Fears about gun bans cause even more guns to flow into civilian circulation,” wrote Kingsbury, evidenced by the fact that there was a 15.5 uptick in gun sales in the wake of the El Paso and Dayton shootings.

Kingsbury’s op-ed appropriately was headlined, “It’s Too Late to Ban Assault Weapons.”

HAVE YOU HEARD that Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, one of the Democrats’ brain trusts in the House, compared the weight of an AR-15 to “10 boxes that you might be moving?”  There’s more.  She claimed the rifle fired a .50 caliber round, the ammunition of a machine gun.

BY THE WAY, I understand that Democrats do not want gang bangers included in “red flag” legislation.  Does that make sense?

CLIMATE CHANGE HOAXETTE Greta Thunberg and the uninformed kids spewing threats of the end of the world as we know it should be put in time out, declared Stephen Kruiser in PJ Media.

“Scaring young people into believing that climate change is going to kill them is child abuse,” Kruiser believes. “The adults responsible for spreading this hysterical propaganda should be rounded up and jailed.

HE CAN’T WIN – The left likes to refer to President Trump as anti-gay, but look who’s trying to block his nomination of an openly gay U. S. prosecutor, Patrick Bumatay, to a seat on the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals – Democrat Sen. Kamala Harris.

DID YOU NOTICE that President Trump appeared before an audience of some 50,000 Indian-Americans, alongside India’s prime minister Narendra Modi, at a gathering in a Houston, Texas football stadium on Sunday?

The president is hoping to appeal to Indian-American voters, a growing political force in the U.S., with his business-friendly agenda – especially the 2017 tax cuts – as well as his tough talk on terrorism and his decision to show up at the rally even though the ethnic group has generally backed Democrats, according to Anita Kumar.

The cheering crowd chanted “U-S-A” and were seen snapping pictures during the event.  An Indian businessman from Michigan and founding member of the Republican Hindu Coalition, noted that it’s sending “a message to the Indian community that Trump is a big friend of India.  That message will definitely motivate people.”

EVEN THOUGH a Twitterer, who tweets @PlaysTrumpCard said, “70,000 brown-skinned people standing, applauding and shouting “Trump Trump Trump in Houston, Texas, with the Indian Prime Minister himself praising Donald Trump, I think today should be the end of the Democrats’ ‘Trump’s a white supremacist’ narrative because it’s idiotic,” don’t hold your breath.

Using their special gauge, Democrats have a way of determining the “blackness” of individuals the president has met with.  I’m not referring to the color of their skin; how dark or light.  Whatever the tone of their skin, if they lean right, they aren’t really black enough.  In other words black enough to vote Democrat.

You would think that would no longer play after the historic event that saw a host of blacks, who supported the president’s criminal justice reform legislation, were seen applauding him at the signing.

MEANWHILE – Democrat presidential candidates Warren, Harris, Castro and Steyer prefer to lie to blacks, stating, for instance, that in the Ferguson, Missouri shooting, Michael Brown, was “murdered,” despite an exhaustive investigation that involved “their own” Attorney General Eric Holder.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.