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

THANKS TO THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo won’t get away with his foolish plan to purge fossil fuels. Since 2016, Cuomo has repeatedly blocked permits for new pipelines that could have increased the flow of natural gas into New York.

Cuomo claimed that the pipelines would cause environmental harm and that his state would depend on the efficiency of renewable energy.  A moratorium on new gas connections prevented 800,000 New Yorkers and about 300,000 New Englanders from the cheaper gas for heating.

The average household using natural gas for heating this winter spends $580, compared to $1,501 for heating oil and $1,162 for electricity, according to the Energy Information Administration.  A household using natural gas for space and water heading instead of electricity would save about $2,400 a year.

On Monday, the Journal’s editorial board reported of Cuomo’s ordering the utility National Grid to resume natural gas hookups, but in the process is trying to place the blame of natural gas “disruption” on National Grid, on which he ordered an investigation.  “Cuomo has a habit of bullying others to cover for and fix his policy blunders,” wrote the Journal board.

FLASHBACK – This editorial is especially heartening to me because I recall hearing about a friend who, in a conversation, was relating the story of Cuomo’s blocking of natural gas pipelines and his moratorium on new gas hookups resulted in higher energy costs for New York and New England, only to be laughed at and accused of peddling Fox fake news.  Unfortunately, he won’t get the last laugh, because those same deniers are still oblivious to what’s happening outside of their backyards.

A FOLLOW-UP ON FOX DRIFTING TO THE LEFT – Add Chris Wallace, host of Fox News Sunday, to the list of the network’s personalities taking it to the left.  When he asked Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s chief of staff, to comment on a “well-connected Republican” who allegedly told Wallace there was a 20 percent chance the GOP would vote to remove the president from office, I couldn’t believe my ears.

I wasn’t alone.  “What Wallace was doing was engaging in propaganda, creating a smear based on the flimsiest hearsay,” remarked Roger L. Simon in PJ Media.  Chances are Wallace simply made up the story to see if Mulvaney would bite on it.  He didn’t, but the other Beltway media repeated it.

Greta Van Susteren, Wallace’s former colleague, said he “should know better than to use anonymous “well-connected Republican.” “He should name names or don’t say it at all,” she said.

The employment of anonymous sources by the media has been debated for years, but since Donald Trump was elected, their use has escalated.

When you hear – ‘a source close to someone or other’ or a ‘person in a position to know’ – be skeptical.

AS IF WE WEREN’T ALREADY AWARE, Issues & Insights reported that two news stories published over the weekend carried the same message; that the State Department was out to get President Trump.

Politico published a lengthy piece entitled, “The Revenge of the State Department,” in which it reports that current and former foreign service officers have defied Trump administration orders, and have been willing to appear for interviews by the Schiff kangeroo court.

Some of them have said they are upset because they “were demoted or sidelined following attacks by conservative media.”  And some complain about what they see as Trump’s “dangerous brand of diplomatic malpractice.”

“An administration official who watches State closely,” Politico reports, “ dismised allegations of a morale problems under Pompeo as ‘garbage’ and said complaints are overblown.”

It was Pompeo who recently said that he wanted to give State its “swagger” back.

“Trump Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney had it exactly right when he said that ‘career bureaucrats … are saying, ‘You know what? I don’t like President Trump’s politics so I’m goiong to participate in this witch hunt.’”

The other article published over the weekend appears in the not-so-widely-circulated Foreign Affairs, where Wiliam Burns, deputy secretary of state under President Obama, writes that “Trump’s treatment of State Department officals was akin to Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s savage campaign against  ‘disloyalty’ in the State Department.” He overlooks the fact that there were communists in the State Department.

“So, what we have here are career bureaucrats who don’t like the way Trump is conducting foreign policy,” comment the editors of Issues & Insights. “Why? Because they know better than some ousider who doesn’t play according to the rules.

“There is no question that many of them would be delighted to see Trump removed from office, not because he did anything impeachable, but because they can’t abide by the 2016 election results.”

COUPLE THE ACTIVITIES AT STATE with what has been uncovered in the intelligence community and chillingly recounted in Andrew McCarthy’s book, “Ball of Collusion,” and it’s easy to see how the Deep State protected Hillary Clinton while trying to undermine Trump.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.

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