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

ANOTHER REMINDER why we need Attorney General Bill Barr to do a thorough house-cleaning at DOJ and in the FBI surfaced in Kimberly A. Strassel’s Wall Street Journal column on Friday.

“Once Mr. Mueller established that the dossier was a pack of lies, he should have investigated how it gained such currency at the highest levels of the FBI. Yet this report makes clear he had no interest in plumbing the antics of the bureau, which he led from 2001-13. Instead, he went out of his way to avoid the dossier and give cover to the FBI,” commented Strassel.

That supports the comment of The Federalist’s Ben Weingarten that I quoted in my April 24, 2019 blog piece, “A Mueller omission of significance” – that it “smacks of an attempt to downplay its (the dossier) significance.”

You will recall the number of times I referred to the cozy relationship of Mueller and the disgraced former FBI Director Jim Comey.

WITH GDP GROWTH HITTING 3.2% in the first quarter, I thought it would be entertaining to review what some of the so-called experts were warning when President Trump ordered the shutdown that extended into January.

Politico: “Across Wall Street, analysts are rushing warnings that missed federal paychecks, dormant government contractors and shelved corporate stock offerings could push first-quarter growth close to or even below zero.”

Reuters: “U.S. economic growth will take a hit this quarter from the longest-ever government shutdown.”

Macroeconomic Advisors: “Growth for Q1 at a mere 1.5 percent.”

AP: “The longer the shutdown persists, the more it could erode consumer and business confidence, compounding troubles for an economy already slowing.”

I remind you also of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Hiltzik, whose column, “If Trump thinks he can get more than 3% economic growth, he’s dreaming,” appeared in the Los Angeles Times May 19, 2017.

“The U.S. hasn’t had a sustained real annual growth of better than 3% since the 1990s, with a brief spurt in 2004 and 2005. Making up the difference from 2% to more than 3% looks like a pipe dream,” he wrote.

“High rates of growth, and the productivity that drives it, are likely distant memories from a bygone era.” – Bill Gross, Janus Capital

One might say that pessimism for the Trump economy began with New York Times’ Nobel Prize-winning columnist Paul Krugman, who, shortly after midnight on Election Day 2016, foolishly wrote the “markets are plunging … if the question is when markets will recover, a first pass answer is never. We are probably looking at a global recession, with no end in sight.”

HAVE YOU NOTICED how women’s organizations and the media have been asking Democrat men running for president if they would select a woman as a running mate, but never ask any of the Democrat women running if they would select a man as running mate?

Cory Booker and Eric Swalwell didn’t hesitate, saying they would select a woman. How sad. What ever happened to the thoughtful response – ‘I will select the individual who I consider the best qualified, and capable of assuming the presidency?”

WHILE BIDEN’S POSITION ON PAST ISSUES are surfacing on the Internet and finding their way into the media as expected, word that black Democrat strategist Symone Sanders has joined the Biden campaign has emerged.

You may recall her statement, “in my opinion we don’t need white people leading the Democrat party right now,” commenting on Howard Dean’s plan to run for reelection to the position of chairman of the DNC in 2016.

MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT BIDEN’S AGE, and normally that wouldn’t be an issue for me, but watching him as he arrived in Delaware this week I saw and older Joe Biden, and oddly enough, I’m not alone.

“Finally, there’s no getting around the fact that Joe Biden of 2019 just looks older than the man we saw standing next to Obama a few years ago,” wrote Jim Geraghty, in his National Review piece, “Joe Biden Could Be the Next Hillary Clinton.”

Taylor Lewis, writing in American Thinker, referred to “the liver-spotted Joe Biden, the shriveled and pale second banana to Barack Obama.”

AS BETO O’ROURKE’S POPULARITY SINKS, Bloomberg’s Emma Kinery noted that just 35 people attended a rally scheduled for him on the campus of UNLV in Las Vegas Friday despite an effort to retweet an invitation extended by Vegas for Beto @VegasForBeto: “Who is excited to see Beto O’Rourke in Las Vegas tomorrow at UNLV. We can’t wait to continue the conversation with him. Retweet this Vegas.”

‘NO ONE LIKES YOU, KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND’ is the headline over a piece written by Madeline Osburn in The Federalist, in which she says, “The white, blonde senator from New York is consistently polling below one percent among all Democrat candidates.”

Gillibrand, in the view of Kramerontheright, has made the mistake of making women and women’s issues the focus of her campaign. Yes, abortion, sexual harassment and abuse are important to women, but by focusing on those issues alone she is belittling their roles in business and in the home, where the economy, the First and Second Amendments, immigration, trade and national security are of equal importance to women as to men.

HERE’S AN EXAMPLE of how the media treat their own with kid gloves. During CNN’s townhall in Manchester, New Hampshire, host Don Lemon talked about Bernie Sanders’ position favoring felons being able to vote, even the Boston Marathon bomber.

When it came time to speak with Sen. Kamala Harris, Lemon asked, “Do you agree with that, Senator?” She followed with a song and dance about the right to vote.

“But people who are in – convicted in prison, like the Boston Marathon bomber, on death row,” he repeated.

“I think we should have that conversation,” Harris responded.

“Okay. All right, thank you,” said Lemon.

So, there you have it. Even though she gave him the perfect opportunity to follow up and apply pressure, he let her off the hook. He could have said, ‘Well, Senator, that’s what this townhall is all about … let’s have that conversation.’

AS SUBPOENA’S FLY and talk of impeachment persists, the House Judiciary Committee and House and Ways and Means Committee continue their over-zealous oversight of President Trump and his administration. Despite the results of the Mueller Report, they are determined to continue on their path of undermining his presidency.

A big mistake.

HOW NICE OF AOC to sponsor a 5K in Queens billed as a “Family Fun Run” in support of her Green New Deal on the Saturday following Earth Day. However, many of the 400 runners didn’t realize their $30 registration fees were going directly into Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign coffers, according to Kevin Fasick and May Kay Linge in the New York Post.

“We’re getting together for our own health, for our planet’s health … and to fight for the Green New Deal together,” she told participants as they set off on the run.  But in the fine print from her website on the event, the truth was revealed – “Registration fees are contributions to AOC for Congress.”

                           May God bless the United States of America.