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

HOW SMALL CAN YOU GET? – Video coverage shows one of Rep. Elijhah Cummings’ pallbearers, Bobby Rankin, shaking hands with Democrat and Republican leaders, intentionally snubbing Sen. Mitch McConnell.

And during the service, Hillary Clinton took a not-so-veiled shot at the president and first lady.  While comparing Cummings with his namesake, the Biblical prophet Elijah, who stood up against the wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, she said, “like the prophet, our Elijah could call down fire from heaven – but he also prayed and worked for healing.”  The added, “Like that Old Testament prophet, he stood against corrupt leadership of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.” The crowd roared in acknowledgement.

Recall, too, that the media was critical of President Trump’s condolences to Cummings family and friends, insinuating it wasn’t sincere.

HOW UTTERLY RIDICULOUS – The Democrats are calling in witness after witness in an effort to determine if President Trump is guilty of offering a quid pro quo to Ukraine President Zelensky, even though the transcript of their phone conversation clears him of it.

You will recall that Rep. Adam Schiff, realizing that it was so, opened his September 16, 2019 questioning of acting DNI Michael Maguire with his own version of the conversation resembling that of a Mafia boss intimidating someone.  Shameful.

By now, nearly everyone should know that a quid pro quo is a favor or advantage granted or expected in return for something.  Well, what’s wrong with that?  Nothing.  In fact, I expect my president or his representative to demand something in return for our aid.

The media, however, carrying water for the left, is falsely claiming the president “asked for dirt” on Apology Joe Biden.  Not true.

Even while campaigning, Trump often spoke of his disapproval of providing aid to countries that don’t like us, and vote against us in the United Nations.  He has also dealt with NATO nations in paying “their fair share.”

In the case of Ukraine, he wanted to be sure Zelensky was going to weed out corruption, and he asked for a favor in matters that transpired during the 2016 election.

GET OVER IT – I have to hand it to Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s chief of staff, for addressing quid pro quo head-on with the media on October 17, 2019: “The press should get over it. It happens all the time,” citing that they always make everything sound like are you still beating your wife.

A QUESTION FOR THE MEDIA: If you accept a leak of sensitive information from a  government official, and publish it, that’s a quid pro quo because the official expected to see evidence of it in your newspaper or network appearance.  And when you gave that FBI agent a pair tickets to the Washington Nationals, though unspoken, was that a quid pro quo, or simply and under the table payoff?

THE WASHINGTON POST, again stooping to activist journalism, felt compelled to add it’s two cents worth to the fake news being circulated in the Swamp that supporters of President Trump are suffering from Trump Fatigue Syndrome.

With its article, “Donald Trump is stressing out America,” they are falling in line with their columnist Robert Samuelson, who used his Trump Fatigue Syndrome theory to give credence to his “all in” for the president’s impeachment.  (See my October 23, 2019 comments under “Dems seeking to turn supporters against Trump.”

If the Beltway “journalists” would get out into fly over country they would find that support remains solid for Trump’s reelection, and realize that Trump Fatigue Syndrome is diagnosed to those in the east who are unable to shake Trump Derangement Syndrome, an East Coast ailment.

NOT TAKING THEIR SUPPORT FOR GRANTED, President Trump says in a 2020 Election Kickoff fundraising letter, “It’s time to come together once again, to defy the pundits, the pollsters and the naysayers to continue our fight to Keep America Great.  And I have one question:  Are you still with me?”

“This election is not just about beating Democrats,” said Trump. “They want to dismantle border security, tax working Americans to death, use your tax dollars to fund their pet projects, in short, reverse every inch of progress we’ve made in restoring American’s greatness.”

APOLOGY JOE BIDEN DOESN’T DESERVE THE NOMINATION of his party.  He simply doesn’t think before opening his mouth to speak.  He didn’t hesitate to attack President Trump over his use of the word “lynching.”  Not until he was reminded that he, too, used the word, did he apologize.

Then there was his appearance on 60 Minutes Sunday when, in one breath, he said, “Look, I wasn’t raised to go after the children,” when asked if President Trump’s children have acted properly and avoided conflicts of interest. “Their actions speak for themselves,” he said.

However, Biden couldn’t just leave it at that.  “My children are not gonna sit in on cabinet meetings,” he offered.  “What’s improper about that?” responded anchor Norah O’Donnell.

“It’s just simply improper because you (the president) should make it clear to the American public that everything you’re doing is for them. For them.” As if Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are not involved in issues for Americans.

Seemingly, forgetting that his son, Hunter, was on the receiving end of big bucks from a Ukraine firm even though he knew nothing about the energy business, he had the gall to insult Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, saying “(they are) engaged in the day-to-day operation of things they know nothing about.”

When O’Donnell asked, “You don’t think that Jared Kushner should be negotiating a Middle East peace solution?” Biden said, “No I don’t. What credentials does he bring to that?”

Kramerontherigtht notes that Kushner is Jewish and a successful business man with extensive negotiating experience, equal to most ambassadorial nomination credentials.  He also received rave reviews for his work in the passage of the Criminal Justice Reform bill.

Ivanka, as an advisor to the president, recently led an international fund drive – Women’s Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative – aimed at help in women in countries where they face discrimination in getting loans and starting businesses.

It should be noted that neither Ivanka or Jared accept pay in their positions, and both can be trusted not to leak sensitive material.

OPEN BOOK QUIZ – Speaking of the concern over nepotism, what revered Democrat president brought his brother into his administration, not as an advisor, but as attorney general of the United States?

THEN THERE’S THIS – The leftist media and the Obama administration holdovers, who make up the Deep State, with a mission of undermining President Trump, are all concerned that he is using his attorney general, William Barr, to do his bidding.

Their selective amnesia is sickening.  It was Obama’s attorney general Eric Holder, who was obviously under orders to protect Lois Lerner at the IRS, when she came under fire for blocking tax exempt status for conservative political action committees.  Holder said he was proud to be Obama’s “wingman.”

Then there was Obama’s second attorney general Loretta Lynch, who participated in the cover for Hillary Clinton, while DOJ and FBI individuals under her were permitted to conduct covert anti-Trump activities.

This will all be revealed with facts in Michael Horowitz’s DOJ IG report, soon to be released, with few redactions we are told.  It cannot be released soon enough.

DANGER WILL ROBINSON, and Jim Comey, Andy McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, et al.  With the announcement that John Durham’s investigation into the provenance of the Russia probe is now a criminal investigation, the list of people lawyering up in Washington is getting long, according to Roger L. Simon in PJ Media.

“Who started it?  Who are the treasonous/seditious culprits who conspired to overthrow an election?,“ asks Simon. “Well, we should soon be finding out, although we can make some educated guesses.”

“We do know absolutely who collaborated in the crime, who were the accessories to and in some cases the instigators of this most heinous plot in American history … the mainstream media.

“They were more than willing conduits to lies leaked to them by a long list of truly dishonest, unpatriotic Americans – some inside our intelligence agencies and no doubt some foreigners as well,” writes Simon.

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP – Are you ready for this?  “Freeing Our Minds and Innovating Our Pedagogy from White Language Supremacy,” was the title of a guest lecture by Asao Inoue, an Arizona State University professor and associate dean of Integrative Sciences and Arts (WHAT?) at Ball State University.

“We are all implicated in white supremacy,” Inoue said.  “White language supremacy is the condition in classrooms, schools, and society where rewards are given in determined ways to people who can most easy reach them, because those people have more access to the preferred and embodied white language practices, and part of the access is a structural assumption that what is reachable at a given moment  for the normative, white, monolingual English user is reachable for all.”

You may have to read that again to fully comprehend what he said.

I wonder how many students were able to sit for this full 75-minute lecture. Certainly, parents who sent their sons or daughters to Ball State must wonder if this lecture, co-hosted by Ball State’s English department, university writing program, and Office of Inclusive Excellence (Inclusive Excellence!?), will contribute to their future success.

WHICH LEADS ME TO THIS – Ten years after the publishing of the best-seller, “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future,” evidence suggests we are only getting stupider, according to columnist Casey Chalk following his interview with the author, Mark Bauerlein.

In his review of American students’ embarrassing knowledge deficits – their disparagingly dismal knowledge spanning many disciplines: history, civics, math, science, technology and the fine arts – he also skewers academia’s over-emphasis on what it calls “critical thinking.”

While making his case this is “deeply dangerous for American civic life, Casey believes “for our republic to operate on the principles on which it was founded, citizens must be educated enough to responsibly fulfill their daily civic duties, not the least of which is to be an informed electorate.  Our self-governing system simply cannot be sustained when two-thirds of Americans can’t name our three branches of government.”

May God continue to bless the United States of America.