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

THE LEFTIST MEDIA likes to point to President Trump’s low approval rating as an indicator of his unlikely chance of being reelected.  The latest Gallop poll shows him at 45 percent approval at the same point in the presidency of Barack Obama, whose approval was at 42 percent.  You will recall that Obama went on to reelection.

HOW SMALL CAN THE DEMS BE?  Early on, there was the group of some 70 Democrat members of Congress who refused to attend the President Trump’s inauguration.

More recently, you may recall the smarmy Stanford University scholar, Pamela Karlan, revealing during her impeachment inquiry testimony how she walked on the opposite side of the street in Washington DC rather than walk past the Trump Hotel.

They get smaller.  New York’s Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo vetoed a noncontroversial bill that would have allowed all federal judges to officiate weddings in the state because some might have been nominated to the bench by President Trump, according to Allan Smith of NBCNews

“I cannot in good conscience support legislation that would authorize such actions by federal judges who are appointed by this federal administration,” said Cuomo.   “President Trump does not embody who we are as New Yorkers. The cornerstones that built our great state are diversity, tolerance and inclusion.”

THEN THERE’S THIS – CBC-TV in Canada edited-out Donald Trump’s cameo appearance in the 1992 film, “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.”

YOU MAY NOT HAVE HEARD, thanks to the purveyors of fake news, who would prefer you not know about good news, but President Trump ended the 40-year battle to repeal the military “widow’s tax,’ which was included in the National Defense Authorization Act signed last Friday.

“Modern journalism is all about deciding which facts the public shouldn’t know about because it might reflect well on President Trump.” – With apologies to Jim Treacher @jtLOL

When a service member dies while on active duty or from a military-related illness, their families may be eligible for both the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC).  Previous law prohibiting “double-dipping,” so for every dollar paid out via DIC, one dollar was offset from the SBP.  The offset cost families roughly $11,000 annually. Not only have those families lived through the nightmare of losing a spouse or loved one, they have had to stay afloat financially as well as emotionally.

I found it doubly gratifying since the president listened to the pleas of Gold Star mothers and widows who have been pressing for this action since mid-way through the Obama tenure.

You may recall that Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Florida Democrat, falsely accused Trump of insulting a Gold Star widow in 2017, based on remarks she overheard on a speakerphone.

Gold Star father Craig Gross, who lost a son, defended the president, saying “he is doing a lot of good things as far as Gold Star families are concerned. One on one, you would find that he is very, very empathetic and very compassionate, not only toward Gold Star families, but also in regards to our active duty.”

THE MEDIA STILL TALKS OF A DARK AMERICA – The media began painting a picture of a dark America the day of President Trump’s inaugural address. I recall reading and re-reading his address, and what I read was an inspiring message in which he repeated his aim to put America first. It was devoid of the usual political clichés.

The “darkness” of America surfaced recently during Hillary Clinton’s interview with Howard Stern, and again during NBC’s Meet the Press host Chuck Todd talked about America being “in what feels like a more dark period.”

The darkness I see can be attributed to the Washington “resistance,” those in the Obama Deep State, who fraudulently attempted to bring down the Trump presidency since his election, and the congressional left, who conspired as a body to vote for articles of impeachment.

Certainly, Trump supporters see in their president someone who indeed wants to Make America Great Again, as evidenced by a vibrant economy that allows them to confirm that their lives are better today than in 2016.  The darkness they see is in the dark chocolate they enjoyed over the holiday.

THE AMERICAN THINKER writer Daniel John Sobieski, who I have often quoted, came down hard on FISA presiding judge Rosemary Collyer, as I have recently.

“Did she just wake up?  Where has she been?” he said, while suggesting that “having returned from her vacation on Mars and just in time for retirement, has demanded of the FBI revised procedures to ensure that the multiple frauds committed  upon the court, including inclusion of fraudulent material, omission of exculpatory information, and the deliberate alteration of documents to mislead the court.

“It was farcical to hear her, in the face of multiple felonies in a Deep State plot bordering on sedition, suggest that revised procedures for the handling and submitting of FISA applications is the answer to our chief law enforcement agency’s attempt to overthrow a sitting president of the United States,” wrote Sobieski.

Kramerontheright has little faith in FBI Director Christopher Wray’s tenacity to clean house as well as correct warrant procedures.

Reminding his readers, as I have done here, of Rep. Devin Nunes’s letters with evidence of fraud, Sobieski notes, “Wait, what? Now she’s shocked some two years after she was told with documented evidence that the FBI was lying to her and the eleven FISA Court judges?”

Sobieski questions where Chief Justice John Roberts was during this fraudulent activity. He appoints those FISA judges and one would assume that he monitors their activities. In his piece, “What About Your FISA Judges, Justice Roberts?” he asked “why they were totally oblivious to the criminal fraud that was occurring around them and before them, oblivious to the point where one could legitimately ask if their blindness was willful and purposeful.”

LEFTIST COLUMNIST E. J. MONTINI of the Arizona Republic, who never passes up a chance to attack Sen. Martha McSally, criticized her “playing the part of a good little lamb in the herd (it’s flock. E.J.) of Republican sheep during any upcoming impeachment trial,” while he ignores how the Democrat “lemmings” followed Speaker Pelosi.

Montini, and colleague columnist Laurie Roberts, continually criticize McSally’s backing of the leader of her party, President Trump.  How misguided.

Montini didn’t like the fact that McSally rallied Tucson Republicans as she said the “only abuse of power that we’ve seen going on” is from Democrats.

“Working closely with the White House and fulfilling her role as a juror in good faith are contradictory,” says Montini, while suggesting that she should wait to pass judgement until after all the evidence is presented, as if we haven’t heard enough from Nadler & Co.

A REMINDER FOR ALL, especially E. J. Montini.  Sen. Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi have attacked the GOP for openly coordinating with the White House on the impeachment trial strategy.  However, they have conveniently “forgotten” that Senate Democrats, led by then Minority Leader Tom Daschle, did so, too, with President Clinton, and aide John Podesta, in 1999.  It was widely reported by the Associated Press at the time, according to Joel B. Pollak of Breitbart.

The result was a united Democrat Party with every Senate Democrat voting to acquit the president.  Montini seems willing to overlook Democrats who support their president.

WOULDN’T YOU KNOW IT?  You can almost count on Alaska’s Sen. Lisa Murkowski to be the one to divide the party on any issue.  She has signaled that she is disturbed with the fact that her Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is coordinating trial strategy with the White House.

“To me, it means that we have to take that step back from being hand in glove with the defense.  I happen to think that has further confused the process,” she said.  She wants a “full and fair process.”  Would that be like the Pelosi-led Schiff/Nadler process, Senator?

“(Murkowski is) one of the Democrat Party and media’s reliably favorite GOP senators.” – Mark Levin @marklevinshow

“How this woman is a Republican is beyond me,” writes Michael Van Der Galien of PJ Media. “It doesn’t come as a shock that she breaks with McConnell on impeachment.  Sad and pathetic? Yes.  But shocking?   Nope.”

SPEAKING OF FAIRNESS, how fair is it that four senators – Booker, Warren, Sanders and Klobuchar – all of whom are out to see that President Trump is not reelected, will be able to cast a vote against him in the Senate impeachment trial. Recusals in fairness, anyone?  Or voting, “present?”

May God bless the United States of America.