<p>Ali Velshi, the pudgy-cheeked host of “Velshi” on MSNBC, personifies everything wrong with that very small cadre of so-called news providers that operate out of New York City and Washington, D.C. That is not to say he is an outlier. No. No. No.</p>
<p>Velshi is one of a class of left-wing propaganda peddlers that permeate the Big Apple media cabal. Not only does he have his own show, he also pops up as guest host for other personalities in the MSNBC stable – or as a guest interview. He is like the actor who plays multiple roles in a fictional Hollywood production.</p>
<p>There are times when I watch “Velshi” (because it is my job to be fully informed), it starts to take on the attributes of a parody – a comedic skit. I find that true of a lot of progressive thinking.</p>
<p>Consider Velshi’s recent appearance. His one guest was Nina Jankowicz. It was her title that brought about my first outburst of laughter. She was listed as “The Wilson Center Disinformation Fellow.” At least they were honest enough to say that she specializes in disinformation – and she did live up to that on the “Velshi” show.</p>
<p>I also got a kick out of the fact that even the left-wing gender policy police have not seen the irony of Jankovic being referred to as a “fellow.” She is probably a woman – but I say “probably” out of consideration of those claiming their own gender identities in these sexually fluid times. I just do not know her well enough to know her biology or self-identity. Just kidding, of course.</p>
<p>Finally, I never fail to get a kick out of the fact that all those uber progressives gather at an institution named after the most racist and white supremacist President since the Civil War, Woodrow Wilson. Why the cancel culture – that is tearing down statues of George Washington &#8212; has not reached the pinnacle of progressive think tanks is beyond me.</p>
<p>Velshi’s other guest was a chap (I think) named Clint Watts. His title is impressive in length. He is the Senior Fellow at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University and a Foreign Policy Research Institute Fellow. Try to fit that on a typical business card.</p>
<p>Their main issue was what they allege to be President Trump’s abuse of presidential powers. They accuse him of imposing his views – his will – on the various departments of government. They accuse him of replacing a lot of top bureaucrats with his people. They see that as an abuse of power.</p>
<p>I thought that is the very thing we the people want when we elect a President. We want him to implement the policies for which we voted. I can still remember from my long-ago civic classes – which have been largely canceled by the left-leaning education bureaucracy – that the Executive Branch was under the authority of the President. He is the person constitutionally appointed to do the hiring and firing – occasionally with the consent of the Senate. It is the President’s policies that are to be carried out by a loyal and obedient Executive Branch bureaucracy – as long as the orders from the Oval Office are legal. Otherwise, our vote has no meaning.</p>
<p>The left, of course, believes that the bureaucracy is the constant core of our government. Elected officials are to simply allow the bureaucrats to wield their power indiscriminately – and in perpetuity. We saw that thinking when various bureaucrats testified that Trump did not follow “standard practices and procedures” – meaning that he did not FOLLOW the policies of the unelected and unaccountable professional government employees. We saw it when the left refers to the Departments of Justice and State as “independent agencies.” Utter balderdash. They are under the authority of the President … period. He is wielding his constitutional powers, not abuse them.</p>
<p>Another evergreen theme of the #NeverTrump Resistance Movement is that the President is “undermining” critical government agencies by his criticisms. But even as folks like Velshi &; Co. condemn criticism of the law enforcement, the intelligence and the medical agencies, they engage in their own criticism of … (you guessed it) … the law enforcement, the intelligence and the medical agencies.</p>
<p>As is always the case on the left, Jankowicz and Watts focused on what they saw as Russian interference in the upcoming election – going along with the left-wing media’s partisan narrative. They kind of slough off the intelligence reports regarding the Chinese and Iranians. Maybe that is because the latter two have been said to be helping the Biden campaign. Ya think?</p>
<p>Watts specifically warned of the danger of foreign powers procuring secret campaign information and putting it into the “news space” – as he called it – to influence the outcome of an election. Isn’t that exactly what our news media does as a matter of course? What law enforcement says is a crime, the folks of the Fourth Estate call good journalism. At least the Trump Justice Department indicted Russian operatives for meddling. The Trump State Department booted a number of Kremlin “diplomats” out of the United States for election interference. And the Trump Treasury Department imposed economic sanctions on Mother Russia. Conversely, the media folks get Pulitzer Prizes for breaking the law in a similar manner.</p>
<p>Watts also provided me with a head-scratcher. He said that Russian influence could undermine the people’s confidence in the electoral process and “drive them (us) to surveil election officials.” In other words, having people looking over the shoulders of those people running our elections is a bad thing – a Russian plot. Without oversight (surveillance) our elections officials, the United States would have unfettered election fraud.</p>
<p>I am at a loss to explain why so many otherwise intelligent people get suckered in by this claptrap journalism from people like Velshi – and the tortured logic of the left. Because the myopically focus on left-wing news, I guess they simply do not even know what they do not know. And the Velshi crowd will try to make sure that they never do.</p>
<p>So, there ‘tis.</p>