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

THE LONG KNIVES ARE STILL OUT for Martha McSally in Arizona. The left-leaning Arizona Republic made a big deal out her “mea culpa” meeting with the McCain family upon being selected to fill the seat of former Sen. John McCain by Gov. Doug Doucey.

Laurie Roberts and E. J. Montini, columnists for the newspaper, took turns this week to offer advice to McSally as she becomes the state’s newest senator.

Although Roberts had earlier recommended McSally’s selection – a suggestion that met with reader outrage – now she seems to think she can criticize her and offer her, I am sure, unwanted advice.

When McSally didn’t offer to kiss Kyrsten Sinema’s ring when asked how she would get past the “treason” remark made during the campaign, Roberts didn’t like McSally’s response that she is putting that in the past and simply stated, “I’m humbled to have this appointment.”

“Not a promising start,” said Roberts, who wants McSally to “morph into a more moderate Martha,” and join with Sinema against the enemy, President Trump. Roberts, a never-Trumper, cautioned her about “kissing up” to the president.

Further, Roberts wants McSally to remember whose term she has been tapped to serve out. “My advice to her: Remember who he was and who you used to be.”

Montini was quick to put his interpretation of McSally’s meeting with Cindy McCain, suggesting that McSally “apologized for having disrespected Sen. McCain during the campaign in order to suck up to Trump.”

Montini wrote that “Cindy McCain is a gracious woman and, like her husband, a loyal Republican team player.”

Has he forgotten that this “gracious” woman insisted that the president of the United States not attend her husband’s memorial? And what about that “team player” who let his party down when he voted “nay” on the repeal of ObamaCare after vowing to repeal or replace?

On McSally’s appointment, the “gracious” Cindy McCain tweeted: “I respect Governor Ducey’s decision to appoint Rep. McSally to fill the remainder of his term. Arizonans will be pulling for her, hoping that she will follow his example of selfless leadership.”

“She didn’t have to respond so graciously responding to the appointment of McSally. But she did,” wrote an obviously disappointed Montini.

BUT THERE’S MORE – Ben Domenech, publisher of The Federalist, chose to write an obituary of sorts on Martha McSally, reviewing all of the mistakes she made in her primary and general election campaigns.

If that wasn’t enough, he felt the need to mention the 2020 election she now faces, noting that “she will be running in tandem with Donald Trump’s re-election effort, and she will have to deal with Arizona’s complicated view of the president as well as continuing revelations from Democratic congressional investigations into his administration,” before complimenting Arizona Democrats with their “strong Senate candidates.”

Kramerontheright thinks you should be reminded that Ben Domenech is the husband of Meghan McCain

A BILLION HERE, A BILLION THERE, and pretty soon, you have real money. I was reminded of this quote which is often, but incorrectly, attributed to former Illinois Republican Sen. Everett Dirksen.

Those of you who oppose President Trump’s request of $5 billion for border security, please take into consideration that 2017 records reveal that we taxpayers at the federal, state and local levels shell out $134 billion to cover costs incurred by the presence of more than 12.5 million illegal aliens, and about 4.2 million citizen children of illegals.

The billions go for educational purposes, medical, justice expenditures, welfare and some infrastructure expenditures.

When was the last time you heard Pelosi or Schumer oppose those costs?

ISN’T IT WORTH A MEASLY $5 BILLION to provide border security – walls, fences, surveillance – to help stem the increase in annual illegal support expenditures?

NO SURPRISE – On March 8, 2018, I wrote of Sen. John McCain’s use of David Kramer (no relation), a former State Department official and senior fellow at the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University, to meet in London with Christopher Steele, the fabricator of the dossier on Donald Trump.

At the time, I wrote of Kramer’s disappointment when he was instructed to turn it over to the FBI. To McCain’s surprise, he learned during a December 9, 2016 meeting with James Comey, that the FBI already possessed a copy of the dossier.

It has been my contention that it was McCain’s intention to use the dossier against Trump, who he disliked.

NOW WE HAVE LEARNED through a court filing Wednesday, revealed by the Daily Caller, that Kramer provided the copy of the dossier to BuzzFeed News, which later published the dossier on January 10, 2017.

What were those comments about Senator McCain again?   “Selfless leadership” and “loyal Republican team player?”

WITH THE LATEST FAUX HYSTERIA we are now experiencing with President Trump’s decision that he may pull troops out of Syria and Afghanistan, coupled with Defense Secretary James Mattis’ announcement that he will retire in February, and rumors that the president doesn’t listen to advisors, the following quote reminds us of past foreign policy failures.

“It is truly astonishing, after the record of the last fifteen years, for the American foreign policy establishment to have a sh** fit about someone rejecting their counsel,” offered Michael Brenden Dougherty @michaelbd.

FOR EXAMPLE, consider Tennessee’s outgoing Sen. Bob Corker, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a frequent critic of the president, who pulled a “Jeff Flake” after learning of the president’s plan to remove troops from Syria.

            May God bless the United States of America.