Here are my observations and opinions on my selected news of the day.
THOSE DEMOCRATS and their complicit media simply couldn’t pass up an opportunity to criticize President Trump. When he accepted Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ resignation – okay, he was fired – the Dems were more in a tizzy over the naming of Mathew Whitaker, Sessions’ chief of staff as acting AG.
Their first salvo was a charge that he has never been confirmed by the Senate, and OMG, he’s going to interfere with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of alleged collusion of the Trump team with Russia and obstruction charges relating to the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.
President Trump named Whitaker as acting attorney general under the Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, which enables him to name an acting officer who may serve as such for 210 days, commented former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy in National Review.
The DOJ legal department has since cleared the appointment, but that won’t stop the Democrats from further challenges.
INCLUDING “THE FLAKE” – Arizona’s embarrasssing Sen. Jeff “the” Flake, still trying to be relevant, has threatened not to vote for any judge appointments unless the Senate officially prevents the president from firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Everyone knows that the president is not happy with the Mueller investigation, but he has assured Senators Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham that he has no intention of doing so. The fact that “The Flake” associates himself with the liberal Democrat Sen. Chris Coons should tell you something.
Flake indicated that he would not vote to advance any of the 21 judicial nominees pending in the Judiciary Committee, or vote to confirm the 32 judges awaiting a confirmation vote on the floor until a bill to protect Mueller is brought to the floor for a full vote.
NOTE TO DEMOCRATS: Mueller’s activities are controlled by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, not Whitaker, and Mueller, the man you believe will torpedo the Trump presidency, is working without Senate confirmation.
NO DOUBT YOU’VE HEARD about French President Emmanuel Macron’s slap at President Trump’s declaration of being a “nationalist,” referring to it as a “betrayal of patriotism” during a speech celebrating the 100th anniversary of the World War I armistice. How can anyone question President Trump’s patriotism? Ask the NFL. Ask those Medal of Honor recipients he lauds.
(Courtesy of artist Jon McNaughton)
“If Mr. Trump is wrong on many things,” wrote Walter Russell Mead, “on one big issue he is right. However tangled its history, nationalism is an important force in global affairs that world leaders should respect.
“Mr. Macon’s disdainful remarks made for good headlines, but his inability to appreciate the role of nationalism in world politics exemplifies the failure of imagination at the root of many of Europe’s troubles.”
You can read Mead’s full response to Macron’s disrespectful speech online in his Wall Street Journal column, “Macron’s Faux Pas on Nationalism.”
“What exactly is French patriotism nowadays?” writes David P. Goldman of PJMedia as he recalls a 2017 WIN/Gallup poll citing the fact that just 29 percent of the French are willing to fight for their country.
Does anyone believe that President Trump would refuse to come to the aid of France?
THE MEDIA RESPONDS to the Acosta controversy. Fox News Channel produced a weak statement of support for CNN, partially because CNN supported Fox during the Obama presidency. Bob Woodward chimed in with, “Too many people for Trump or against Trump have become emotionally unhinged about this. “(Acosta is) a boring narcissist who wants to make all press conferences about him,“ writes Roger L. Simon in PJMedia.
“Does the First Amendment require the president to listen to a partisan and inaccurate lecture?” asks James Freeman of the Wall Street Journal, reminding readers that Acosta opened with “I wanted to challenge you on one of your statements that you made in the tail end of the campaign – in the midterms.”
Questioning the president’s characterization of the immigrant caravan as an “invasion,” Acosta declared, “As you know Mr. President, the caravan was not an invasion. It’s a group of migrants moving up from Central America towards the border of the U.S.
Freeman referred to the dictionary for the definition of “invasion” as I did here recently, citing the words “to encroach upon,” “to intrude,” “infringe,” and “violate.”
“Your campaign had an ad showing migrants climbing over walls and so on. But they’re not going to be doing that,” the all-knowing Acosta predicted. CNN may not be airing the migrants sitting on top of the wall near Tijuana, and those arrested for violating the border, the real mainstream media is, however.
DON’T YOU JUST LOVE IT? – Among those standing with President Trump yesterday as he announced his support for the First Step Act, a prison and sentencing reform bill, were several blacks, in and out of office. Two well-known blacks, however were at an impasse; do they support the administration effort or not.
While Al Sharpton of the National (In)Action Network was accusing the Trump administration of “declaring war” on minorities, CNN contributor and commentator Van Jones tweeted @VanJones68: “Give the man his due. Donald Trump is on his way to becoming the uniter-in-Chief on an issue that has divided America for generations.
‘THE BOOM GOES ON,” cheers the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report. “Looking at the number of millionaires, we see that there are 42.2 million millionaires worldwide, which is up 23 million over the previous 12 months. Our research indicates that the United States added 878,000 new millionaires – representing 40 percent of the global increase – to its already sizable stock,” the bank said.
The report showed that U.S. wealth grew at 6.6 percent, higher than the world average of 4.6 percent. “A prominent feature of the world wealth outlook this year is the seemingly relentless rise in household wealth in the United States,” the report states. Credit Suisse conceded that “there is no end in sight.”
WHAT! NO FREE TURKEY? – Ben Wolfgram, owner of Ben Shot, a small novelty glassware company in the community of Hortonville, Wisconsin, is giving each of his employees a choice of a handgun as a Christmas present.
Wolfgram indicated that he wasn’t concerned about workplace violence because he has a small staff, and each of them know each other well.
HOLLYWOOD’S LACK OF CREATIVITY – I recently wrote of the lack of creativity in Hollywood, doing remakes of old film classics like “A Star is Born.” I learned today that there will now be a remake of “High Noon,” the 1952 Stanley Kramer (no relation) film that won three Oscars, including Best Actor, won by Gary Cooper.
The remake had to negotiated with Karen S. Kramer, wife of the late producer-director, who said the movie’s theme is the hallmark of many Kramer films and comes at a time when such a message is needed more than ever.”
Okay, if they must, I just hope they don’t cast Ryan Gosling in the lead role as Marshal Will Kane.
May God bless the United States of America.
