These are my observations and opinions from my select news of the day.
SALUTE TO FIRST RESPONDERS – The Navy Blue Angels and Air Force Thunderbirds have been saluting first responders with impressive flyovers of a number of cities. (photo by Lt. Comdr. Aaaron Hicks)
DURING THE VIRTUAL TOWNHALL with President Trump Sunday night, a woman complained about his angry tone during the press briefings. His “tone” was related to his responses to the gotcha questioning of the hostile White House press corps.
Of course, the bias media is aware that President Trump won’t rollover and ignore their negative probing. He has been under steady media attacks since June 2016, when he announced that he was entering the race for president. They were unsuccessful in removing him in first term, and are now focused on blocking his reelection.
I had already planned to address media bias again when I heard the woman’s question, but an e-mail from a friend convinced me the time was right. He asked me if I watched media critic Joe Concha and Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center on Fox’s Life, Liberty & Levin show following the townhall. The facts they presented give credence to the president’s belief that the press is indeed the enemy, at least one of the enemies.
SOME CURRENT EVIDENCE from the Media Research Center… On March 9, 2020, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough railed that the White House was “not in touch with reality” and that the administration’s “stupidity” is “going to kill Americans.” … MSNBC Morning Joe regular Donny Deutsch commented that the president’s remarks on the virus were not reassuring but “one more instance of his sociopathic behavior.” … New York Times columnist David Brooks, appearing on PBS, said of the president, “this is what happens when you elect a sociopath as president, “while the co-host liberal Mark Shields agreed, adding, with a smirk, “America first fails.” … Meghan McCain, co-host of ABC’s The View, said “(The pandemic) could be the silver bullet that takes out this administration.” … Brian Szoka, president of the Google funded TechFreedom, tweeted: “Serious question – could there possibly be any greater poetic justice in the universe than for Trump to die of the virus?”… finally, when Princeton professor Eddie Glaude stated that the virus could be Trump’s Katrina on MSNBC’s Deadline White House, host Nicolle Wallace joyfully added “it seems to me that this is an event that could take down a presidency,” claiming it revealed Trump’s “incompetence.”
SPEAKING OF TONE, during the president’s Phoenix Honeywell visit Tuesday, a member of the press, believed to be CNN’s Jim Acosta, put forth his “gotcha” question following the president report on progress made with – “Does that mean mission accomplished.” The president didn’t take the bait.
AND DEMOCRAT LAWMAKERS, too, haven’t let up on their effort to demean President Trump since their unsuccessful impeachment trial. On Monday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) called the deaths from the coronavirus “casualties” of the Senate’s refusal to remove Trump from office in February.
Reminded of the question that was floated during the impeachment trial as to whether the president should be removed from office if found guilty, Schiff responded, “Some days we lose the equivalent of the number of people we lost on 9/11, and you know I think there’s no way we could have foreseen how tragic his malfeasance would be in the remaining months of his administration.”
Schiff is a sick man.
MEANWHILE, you may have noticed that President Trump has increased his attacks on China, with regard to the origins of the virus and Chinese stonewalling of the investigation and the need to reduce the industrial supply chains that make us too dependent on the Asian giant.
“The Trump administration is ‘turbocharging’ an initiative to remove global supply chains from China and weighs new tariffs to punish Beijing for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak,” according to Reuters.
This will not be an easy task. Many U.S. companies have invested heavily in Chinese manufacturing and rely on China’s 1.4 billion population for a major piece of their sales. UN data shows that China overtook the U.S. as the world’s top manufacturing country in 2010, and was responsible for 28 percent of the global output in 2018.
Our dependency on China for pharmaceuticals amid the virus outbreak has again opened concern for supply chain attention, and it should aid the president in his effort to continue his effort to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.
A lot will depend on China upholding its end of the bargain in the Phase One trade agreement.
IF THERE IS ANY DOUBT how the Obama administration dealt with China, and most likely how a Biden administration would deal with China, one can see a weakness represented in Obama “boy wonder” Ben Rhodes’ concern with the toughness with China exhibited by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “This is really dangerous language – both in inciting bigotry against Asians and raising the risk of conflict with China,” he tweeted @brhodes. Apology team Obama was not into showing strength.
Sounds like what we heard from Democrats over Trump’s reference to “fire and fury” threat and his nickname of “Rocket Man” for Kim Jung Un. They were sure we were going to go to war with N. Korea.
A PAIR TO DRAW TO – Joe Biden, accused of sexually assaulting an aide, Tara Reade, was invited to appear with Al Sharpton, who once promoted Twana Brawley’s false accusation of rape, on MSNBC.
Biden assured Sharpton that at least two black females are on his list of proposed running mates.
THE 40TH BIRTHDAY of the Department of Education on Monday went by unnoticed, and reminded me of my long belief that it was one department that should be dissolved.
Officially designated in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, splitting it off from the former Health, Education and Welfare department, and designating it as a Cabinet-level department on its own.
Since then, the department grew from 3,000 employees and an annual budget of $12 billion. The latest figures show the department has grown to 4,000 employees, and a 2019 budget that supports $129.8 billion for various segments.
A 2015 review of salaries shows that senior and executive level staff earn $170,000 on average.
During his 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan called for the total elimination of the department. Once in office, he significantly cut the budget, and in his 1982 State of the Union Address he submitted a plan for major savings by dismantling the department, but it was blocked by a Democrat House.
In 1996, the Republican platform stated: “The federal government has no constitutional authority to be involved in school curricula or to control jobs in the market place. This is why we will abolish the Department of Education, end federal meddling in our schools and promote family choice at all levels of learning.”
Under President George W. Bush, the budget grew from $46 to $60 billion, primarily supporting his No Child Left Behind Act.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Rick Perry made the news when he had a memory lapse while stating the third of three departments he would eliminate if elected. One of those was Education.
President Trump named the capable Betsy DeVos to head the Department of Education and has strongly supported school choice.
My belief that we need to abolish the Department of Education was clearly stated by the late Sen. Barry Goldwater in his 1960 book, Conscience of a Conservative:
“… the federal government has no funds except those it extracts from the taxpayers who reside in the various states. The money that the federal government pays to State X for education has been taken from the citizens of State X in federal taxes and comes back to them, minus the Washington brokerage fee.”
I believe education savings accounts for K-12 students, enacted in Arizona in 2011 and four more states since, would be a better way to assure that funding goes to the students and services they require without funding the Washington bureaucracy. Some 8,000 students now have ESAs in Arizona.
With an ESA, all program and administrative overhead funding now sent to the U.S. Department of Education is deposited instead into an ESA for each student enrolled. It puts the students and parents closer to the funding choices.
After 40 years of experimenting, it’s time to give the states and communities control over their education funding. Of course, there needs to be a means for handling Pell grants and student loans, perhaps in Treasury.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
