Here are my observations and opinions on my selected news of the day.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, the wire service most local news outlets go to for reporting on national news, is being clobbered on Twitter by those who believe the AP crossed the line with its tasteless obituary of George H. W. Bush.

I won’t repeat their words here, but suffice it to say that this gives American’s another reason to see the media as distrustful reporters of news.

MURPHY BROWN, the revival of a TV series I panned here in my November 25, 2018 post, is destined for the ash heap, soon to be cancelled. Candace Bergan, appearing on “The View” said the series would not have returned if Hillary Clinton had been elected.

JIM COMEY, the disgraced former FBI director, has had second thoughts on quashing the subpoena ordering him to appear before a Congressional closed hearing next week. He will appear and the transcript will be released following the hearing.

MARK PENN, writing in an opinion piece for Fox News, says, “There’s no doubt that the outline of Mueller’s report was written a long time ago and is being filled-in. For those who thought Mueller would deliver a balanced and thoughtful report, his latest actions suggest that instead, we are seeing an all-out attack on the president and the presidency the likes of which we have never seen.

“Get ready for the fight of the century coming soon and it will be about everything except collusion with the Russian government,” he concludes.

 THE NOT-SO-PURE liberal NPR was caught blatantly lying about Donald Trump Jr.’s 2017 Senate testimony. Despite reporter Phil Ewing’s erroneous reporting, NPR failed to correct it even hours after it was first published, allowing a number of other lazy journalist’s to use NPR’s initial report.

GUESS WHO ELSE FELL FOR THE STORY? Rep. Eric “The Mannequin” Swalwell (D-CA), who leaps for the nearest microphone to push his Russian conspiracy theme.

“A good lesson for all kids (and for anyone in the White House): the truth always comes out,” Swalwell wrote @ericswalwell. To which Donald Trump Jr. responded, “You were saying, Eric? Maybe you should read the correction issue rather than chasing yet another shiny object. After 2 years of fails it just makes you look stupid (a fitting look for you). Obviously the truth isn’t convenient for your objective so I imagine you’ll stay quiet!”

THE BILL AND HILL SHOW, a 13-stop tour of the pair on stage answering scripted questions, continues to fall flat during Thursday and Friday appearances in Canada.

“Curtains for the Clintons,” was the headline over Maureen Dowd’s column in the New York Times, in which she admits “feeling sorry for the Clintons.” Dowd further admits to paying $177 for an advance ticket in Toronto, while stating that on the day of the event some unsold tickets were slashed to single digits.

Dowd referred to the venue – Scotiabank Arena, the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs – as “a depressing sight.” Half of the 19,000-seat arena was curtained off and organizers were scrambling to cordon off more sections with black curtains due to lack of sales.

“I’m still looking at large swaths of empty seats, and I cringe at the thought that the Clinton’s will look out and see that, too,” Dowd writes, “stretches of empty seats bear witness to the passing of their relevance.”

A World News Update reporter commented that “Bill Clinton looked good and relaxed. Hillary Clinton looked ‘frumpy” in her clothes. Hillary Clinton did most of the talking … Bill Clinton was being deferential to his wife. He definitely didn’t want to eclipse her.”

In addition to reporting on the softball questions, the writer sensed that the event ended sooner than expected, suggesting that the “Clinton’s started to look bored.”

In Montreal, Bill claimed that “Canada has done such a good job of both managing its contemporary diversity (whatever that means) and it has a very interesting immigration system.”

Hillary touted Canada as superior to the United States. “I really applaud the economic model.”

Better look out, Mr. Trudeau.

PIGS ARE FLYING to China. Reportedly, a disease sweeping through Chinese hog herds is helping negate the effects of the trade war for American farmers, with U.S. pork sales to China back to levels before tariffs were introduced. China has been the third largest buyer of U.S. pork.  The U.S. is the largest exporter of pork.

LEFT-LEANING COLUMNIST E. J. Montini of the Arizona Republic (the Arizona Repulsive to some), dedicated his piece on Sunday to “Donald Trump’s daffy, dangerous climate-change denial,” accusing the president of being a non-believer in climate change.

Fake news. The president has acknowledged climate change, but has said there is no evidence that it is man-made. He, too, believes the key word is “change,” as the world has experienced cyclical weather changes throughout history as chronicled in a timeline of climate scares since 1895, recently published by the American Thinker.

In an attempt to belittle the president, Montini showed his naivete by telling his readers that every middle-school student probably knows about climate change.

Why stop there, E.J.  High school and college students, too, are fed the left’s propaganda of climate change being “potentially deadly to our children and grandchildren.”

Meanwhile, greenhouse gas emissions continue to go down in the United States, while a number of members of the costly Paris Accord are having to back off their emission reduction goals.

WHAT A GREAT IDEA! – “What if a successful company decided to ask if it could fund $10 million toward infrastructure improvement projects,” wrote Rod Livdahl of Mesa, Arizona in a letter to the editor of the Arizona Republic, as he stated in preference over their demand for millions of dollars in tax breaks and offering a few thousand jobs.

“Maybe it’s time we took another look at what we expect from those to whom much has been given,” he says, careful not to refer to business money-grubbers.

GOOD IDEAS, HOWEVER are often shot down in Washington DC.  I’m not sure if Livdahl is aware of President Trump’s infrastructure plan introduced during his first year in office. It made private financing the cornerstone of his infrastructure plan, not entirely dissimilar to Livdahl’s idea.

His plan offered $137 billion in federal tax credits to private investors who want to back transportation projects that he claimed would unleash $1 trillion worth of infrastructure investment over 10 years. He offered to cut red tape to expedite projects.

President Trump, with his construction background, knows that costs tend to go higher and projects take longer when state or federal governments build projects instead of the private sector.

“Democrats are attacking it as a betrayal of basic government responsibilities,” reported Politico when the president unveiled his plan mid-2017, “calling it ‘privatization.’” That’s a dirty word in Washington within the “resist” crowd.

President Trump wants to reverse the “we’ve always done it this way” attitude, but their animosity toward him and Congressional partisanship stand in the way of what he terms “the biggest and boldest infrastructure investment in American history.”

So far, Congress has allocated just $21 billion of the $1.5 trillion the president requested, slightly more than one percent of his goal. With the Democrats soon to take over the House, who knows what to expect?

            May God bless the United States of America.