Here are my observations and opinions on selected news of the day.
I JUST KNEW IT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN – Just as I predicted in my note on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s latest trip to North Korea yesterday, the Never-Trumpers in the media would be out to criticize the president’s hasty meeting with Kim Jung Un and his failure to negotiate a deal. Even though the president has repeatedly stated that it would take time.
Stating that “President Trump prides himself on negotiating savvy,” the left-leaning AXIOS AM’s Jonathan Swan naturally saw the outcome as “entirely predictable” and again refers to anonymous sources as he claims “People who’ve worked with the president say he viscerally fears being played for a sucker and humiliated.”
The media will poke fun of the president being out-foxed, but it will be another mistake on their part. The president could toughen sanctions and reinstitute the war games. And about that proposed meeting in New York City, Kim … forget it.
I WOULDN’T OF THUNK IT – That is, I would never have thought I would be writing something positive about President Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, but he wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post in which he stated:
“The reality is that abolishing ICE is not a serious proposal. The outright abolishing of ICE would compromise public safety.”
Although Johnson is not a supporter of President Trump’s zero tolerance policy at the border, I have to agree with Thomas Lifson of the American Thinker, who referred to Johnson as “A Dem grown up (who) warns the crazies that ‘Abolish ICE’ is a really bad idea.”
(Graphic courtesy the lid.)
I KNOW, I KNOW – You’re sick and tired of the infighting between legislative intelligence and oversight committees with the Department of Justice regarding the stonewalling of documents and the availability of Obama minions, who still “work” in the federal inner sanctum, to testify.
So am I, but I’m thankful we have Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who will not be deterred. He’s seeking testimony from some 40 former Obama staffers who now make up the Deep State with a goal of sabotaging the Trump administration. Importantly, he wants them interviewed in an open setting for the benefit of the American people.
AN ODD REVERSAL – While the left-leaning USA Today was touting “Salaries: US wage growth in June was 2018’s strongest so far,” the more right-leaning CNBC was bemoaning the news, tweeting @CNBC “America’s labor shortage is approaching epidemic proportions, and it could be employers who end up paying.”
Twitterers sounded off against CNBC, who appeared to see rising wages as a problem from the point of view of employers; one citing the “self-pitying tone of the network’s tweet instantly highlighted the problem of viewing economic news only from the perspective of bosses, as opposed to workers.”
USA Today saw the news putting workers “in the driver’s seat to negotiate for better pay in order to fill these (increasing job) roles.”
Two interesting points of view.
NO SECURITY CLEARANCE – “(Peter) Strzok himself posed a security risk while he was investigating Trump & his campaign aides for national security threats,” wrote Paul Sperry @paulsperry on July 6, 2018, “Strzok flunked a 2016 internal polygraph by FBI, yet retained access to TS/SCI classified info & continued to run 2 major espionage probes.”
“What makes this so eye-popping is that this guy was all his life an intelligence professional,” commented Monica Showalter at the American Thinker. In the intelligence world, a security clearance, especially a really high one, is not only the job requirement, it’s the ultimate status object.”
Normally, when you flunk a polygraph and you’re out. Showalter says it “suggests that Obama-style standards were in place,” and of course who was running the FBI? James Comey.
So, this too lends itself to further questioning of the individual who conducted the polygraph test, but also Strzok, who is due back to testify this week.
May God bless the United States of America.
