Here are my observations and opinions from my select news of the day.
AG BILL BARR (the federalist)
BARR JUSTICE – I have a feeling that many of you may be confused, if not disappointed in what seems to be a lack of justice in Attorney General Bill Barr’s DOJ. We were still absorbing the sentencing issue in the Roger Stone case, when we learned that former Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe would not be charged.
I found it interesting that the ill-informed left immediately sought Barr’s resignation for his handling of the Stone case, and again attacked the president for interfering, but when it came to the McCabe announcement … crickets.
Quick to criticize the relationship between Barr and President Trump, the left conveniently forgets that President Kennedy installed his brother Robert to be his attorney general. I have written recently about Eric Holder, President Obama’s “wingman,” who bragged about being “an activist attorney general.” Unbelievably, that didn’t prevent the arrogant Holder from criticizing Barr and Trump.
“We should not let the media and a bunch of left-wing activists drumming up former prosecutors to complain and obfuscate the facts, nor allow them to ignore the unbelievably rampant abuse at the DOJ under the most recent Democrat administration,” writes Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) in The Federalist.
I WAS REMINDED of opinion pieces I wrote in 2009 and 2010 in opposition to the end-of-life health care rationing thoughts of Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, one of the contributors to ObamaCare, when I heard Democrat presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg casually say, “If you show up with prostate cancer and you’re 95, we should say ‘go and enjoy, have a nice day, live a long life.’ There’s no cure and we can’t do anything.” With respect to treating older Americans, Bloomberg said, “(It’s) going to bankrupt us.”
Within ObamaCare was the formation of the Independent Payment Advisory Panel, a 15-member group of unelected federal employees, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The word “rationing” is not used, but it was designed along the lines of Britain’s NICE program, designed to reduce health spending – code words for reducing care for seniors.
“The decision is not whether or not we will ration care – the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open,“ said Donald Berwick, President Obama’s nominee to administrate the program. Fortunately, Republican’s blocked his nomination.
Whether it’s Bloomberg, Sanders, or any of those single-payer plan pushers on the left, senior care would suffer under their administrations.
NATIONAL SECURITY – There has been considerable upheaval on the National Security Council, the organization that is supposed to advise the president on foreign policy. Michael Flynn was entrapped by rogue FBI agents of the Deep State. H.R. McMaster resigned, as did John Bolton, but we now have in place, Robert O’Brien, who is draining the swamp with the confidence of the president.
Problems have plagued the NSC since its founding in 1947, notes former Navy secretary, John Lehman, in an excellent Wall Street Journal op-ed, “A Campaign Against Bureaucratic Bloat in U. S. Foreign Policy.
In his column, Lehman takes readers through the tumultuous times following World War II, under President Truman, and the Nixon-Kissinger era. He drew a comparison of Kissinger’s tight-knit organization of 32 policy professionals with President Obama’s 400. Obama had 1,300 administrators to Kissinger’s 60.
Citing evidence of President Trump’s actions, Lehman writes, “Perhaps this is a sign of a more nimble and functional security council.”
HO HUM – The New York Post reported that the Rev. Al Sharpton incurred a debt in his unsuccessful campaign 15 years ago that is still unpaid. Federal Election Commission documents put the figure at $925,713.78. He says he’s willing to meet with the FEC to reach a settlement. Don’t hold your breath.
GIVE IT UP, NANCY – Appearing on CNN last Saturday, sour puss Nancy Pelosi interjected during an interview to again make her case that President Trump was not acquitted of impeachment:
“You can’t have an acquittal unless you have a trial, and you can’t have a trial unless you have witnesses and documents – so he can say he’s acquitted, and the headlines can say ‘acquitted,’ but he’s impeached forever – branded with that, and not vindicated.”
In a February 15, 2020 tweet @TeamPelosi, she added “His final verdict is coming in November – from #CA12 and all across America.”
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
