Commentary

Last week, I told you about the pending release of former Attorney General William Barr’s book.  In Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, Barr recounts his explosive meeting with President Trump who objected to the Justice Department’s failure to pursue fraud in the 2020 election.

Barr concedes that there were pockets of irregularities, but at the time “had yet to see evidence of the fraud on the scale necessary to change the outcome of the election.”

Because I believe it is necessary to put the 2020 election behind us and work now to assure the integrity of state elections in 2022 and 2024, I may not read Barr’s book, except for his recount of other issues he addressed. 

I still think he was an excellent choice as AG.  He returned to government service believing that “he could help the department during a fraught period,” obviously recalling the tenure of Jeff Sessions and Sally Yates.  “I don’t regret coming in because I think it’s always an honor to serve the nation,” he said.  Trump offered him a chance to restore to what he (Barr) saw as executive authority lost in the post-Watergate era.

Often unfairly criticized for his support of the administration, Barr told the New York Times, “You take the job to help the administration do its best for the country.”

Lest we forget, Barr was critical of the investigators for special counsel Robert Mueller, believing they “were too biased to expose FBI wrongdoing.”  That belief led him to tap John Durham to open a criminal investigation into the origins of the Russia inquiry.

The January 6, 2021 Investigation Scam

There’s further evidence that the House investigation on the January 6, 2021 protest at the Capitol is simply an effort to continue to use it against former President Trump and his supporters leading up to the midterm elections.

In a 221-page filing in federal court, the panel said it has evidence that Trump and his associates engaged in a “criminal conspiracy” to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election.

Of course, it doesn’t mean Trump will be charged, or that the Justice Department will even investigate if the panel refers it.  Congress does not have the power to bring criminal charges. 

Clearly, the disruption of Republican election campaigns over the next eight months is the reason for the left’s investing the time and funds to keep this in the news.

Restarting the Keystone XL Pipeline

CNBC’s Ron Insana reports that while energy prices are soaring, the Keystone pipeline wouldn’t have eased the pressure, saying we should “blame the Saudis and the Russians for the decline in U.S. output, not the cancellation of a single project, in the overall scheme of energy production, is a rounding error.”

No, restarting the Keystone pipeline won’t affect prices at the pump today, but it would put us back on the path to energy independence, and at least one Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia made a plea to President Biden to reverse his January 20, 2021 executive order revoking the $8 billion expansion.

Manchin was joined by Montana’s GOP Senators Steve Daines and Jon Testor, citing it as a national security issue.  Pennsylvania Democrat Rep. Frank Burns introduced a resolution in the House calling on Biden to restart the pipeline, citing the foreign greedy oligarchs “who want to hold our economy hostage.”

The Heritage Foundation reminds us that the pipeline would provide us with a more efficient and less risky transportation of crude than by tanker trucks, rail tankers, and notes that our Gulf Coast refineries were built largely to handle medium and heavy crude, such as those coming from Alberta, Canada.

Then, of course, there’s the matter of jobs for the middle class.

Some say that Biden’s approval rating would rise if he announced a reversal in the construction of the Keystone.  Not enough to matter.

Politics and Blogging

Every now and then, I read the blog, “According to Hoyt,” written by Sarah A Hoyt, also an author of a couple dozen novels.  I recall when I first ran across it, thinking how creative her domain name was.  Of course, I had heard of “According to Hoyle,” the Brit barrister who wrote several books and pamphlets on card games.  He has long been considered the final authority when disputes arise.

When I began thinking of a name for my blog, I believed my name had to be part of the title that appropriately described its content.

When I saw the subhead “Politics” below the colorful heading on Hoyt’s blog, I stopped to read what was on her mind.

“Bizarrely, I’m a politics addict, and follow it way more than is good for my brain and blood pressure,” she wrote.  While I consider myself a news or politics wonk, I understand what she’s saying.

Hoyt claims not to fully understand politics, is not fond of it, and doesn’t trust those who engage in it.  I’ve often thought of that, too.

She wrote how she hid her politics while in college, and later tried to maintain the same balance in her career.  “That didn’t work,” she adds, because it had become necessary for her to vocally endorse everything on the left to stay in the good graces of the establishment.

“Everyone on the left whom I’d considered friends,” she said, “banished me when I came out of the closet.”  Lately, she has been wondering if she had become a political fanatic and the mirror image of the left.

“The problem I have with the left, is that I can’t be friends with people who wish me dead, despoiled or permanently silenced,” wrote Hoyt, noting that the left has decided it’s their way or the highway, and we’re supposed to be obedient.

In my relatively small circle of friends, I have been able to keep them.  I have Kramerontheright to say what’s on my mind, and they can choose to read it or not.  And I hope you do so, regularly.

Now, more than ever … may God continue to bless the United States of America.