According to a recent Gallup poll, American’s satisfaction with the way they are being governed has bumped up by 10 points in the past year (the green line below).
38% now say they’re satisfied with the way they are being governed.
Let’s drill down on those numbers…
I thought that the NY Times’ anonymously written I Am Part of the Resistance op-ed was pretty vacuous.
I was expecting a bombshell and got “where’s the beef?”
But, as a faithful Forensic Files viewer, I did get some amusement from the op-ed…
Will ‘hate trump love’ in the midterm elections?
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Lots of chatter re: a forthcoming ‘blue wave’ in the 2018 midterms.
The usual quantitative metric is the so-called Generic Congressional Ballot …. which queries folks on which parties’ (unnamed) Congressional candidate they’re likely to vote for.
At the end of 2017, the Dems had a 13 point advantage.
That gap has narrowed to under 4 points in the RCP poll-of-polls.
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And, the the most recent individual polls indicate that the gap is continuing to close…
That’s what Jen Psaki, a CNN political commentator says.
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The silly talk (and bias) is getting sillier and sillier.
Here’s the backstory…
At a campaign rally this week, President Trump was pitching the need for voters to show a photo ID.
To illustrate the point, he rattled off a list of places that require IDs: airports, bars, gun shops … and he slipped in: grocery stores.
Obviously out of touch says CNN’s Psaki. Source
Hmmm.
Let’s drill down on that, Jen.
Have to admit, I had to do a double-take when I saw this non-Trump-bashing New York Times headline:
More specifically, referring to NATO’s 2% defense spending guideline, the Times editorial read:
Now that the smoke has cleared from the NATO summit meeting, the most tangible result is apparent:
President Trump advanced President Barack Obama’s initiative to keep the allies on track to shoulder a more equitable share of NATO’s costs.
Hat tip to the Times for getting this one half-right.
Here’s the half that they didn’t get right…
One of the most amazing interviews I’ve ever seen
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Last night, I was flipping channels to see both sides of the NOKO analysis.
When I clicked to CNN, my reaction was “what the hell?”
There was Chris Cuomo interviewing Dennis Rodman – who was bedecked in a ‘Make America Great Again’ and sporting a PotCoin.com t-shirt.
I put down the remote, figuring the interview would provide some comic relief to the looping partisan analyses I’d been hearing.
That’s not what I got.
I doubt that it was what Cuomo expected either.
My bet: the CNN storyline was supposed to be that Trump was relying on “The Worm” – Rodman’s NBA nickname – for diplomatic advice … demonstrating how shallow and unprepared Trump was for the talks.
That’s not the way things turned out.
Here are some highlights…
Trey Gowdy isn’t turning on President Trump … he’s doing him a favor.
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First, a disclosure: I’m a big Trey Gowdy fan.
Since I’m a fan of Forensic Files, I oft see reruns of him putting bad guys away.
These days he seems to know the law and be able to cut to the chase.
To that point, the National Review has proclaimed him to be “the voice of responsibility and reason.”
Let’s start with Gowdy’s frequently looped remarks on CBS This Morning …
That’s one of two questions that I have about “spygate”
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I’ve gotten great amusement from the evolution of the spying-on-Trump story …
First, the FBI/CIA denied that that they planted a spy on the Trump campaign … “no way, Trump is crazy”.
Then there were a flurry of stories indicating that a spy was indeed engaged … “but don’t release his name”
Then the positioning: “that would be a good thing” … “done to protect Trump” … from what?
Finally, the name of the spy-who-wasn’t was leaked … some professor with a long history working with the FBI & CIA.
But, he wasn’t a “spy”, he was a “tasked informant”.
OK, that parsing should make everybody feel better, right?
Let’s dig a little deeper…
There’s an interesting parallel, and a lesson for all.
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This week, the internet (and most news shows) were ablaze with the question “Do you hear ‘Yanny’ or ‘Laurel’?”
In a nutshell, a 1-word audio loop is played … some folks hear the word ‘Yanny’, some hear ‘Laurel’.
Click here if you haven’t heard the audio clip.
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What’s up with that?
Here’s the ruling that might be the most problematic.
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There was some hoopla last Friday when a Federal judge admonished Mueller’s prosecutors in one of the Manafort cases … and ordered the delivery of some here-to-fore withheld documents.
With regards to the admonition: Judge T,S.Ellis opined the obvious: that the case had nothing to do with Russian collusion … and that special counsel’s office wanted merely to pressure Mr. Manafort to provide information about Mr. Trump that might be the basis for prosecution or impeachment proceedings … and that the special counsel was acting in an “unfettered” way, far outside the boundaries of his charge. CNN
Judge Ellis then ordered the Mueller prosecutors to produce the original unredacted DOJ documents that established the special prosecutor’s scope of investigation.
The prosecutors said “no can do” because there’s sensitive (classified) information in the documents.
The judge’s reply:”C/mon guys, I decide that, not you” … and he insinuated that he would dismiss the case if he didn’t get unredacted copies, pronto.
The implication: If the special counsel refuses to produce the documents … and if the judge follows through on his threat … then, there will be a precedent on the books of a court action based on the ruling that the special counsel is exceeding his legal scope of inquiry and failing to comply with court directives.
That could be a relief for Trump “satellites” who are charged with crimes that seem unrelated to Russian collusion,
But, in my opinion, the Manafort rulings are the least of Mueller’s potential worries …
A fast trip from ‘hair on fire’ to ‘whatever’
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The follow up to the Facebook story can be summarized in a couple of headlines.
The Washington Post started walking back the Trump angle:
Of course, one had to read to the bottom couple of paragraphs for the revelation of who the “more” were.
And, to boot, there’s some clear evidence of collusion.
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Loyal readers know that I’m not a big fan of Facebook.
I’m amazed by the amount of sensitive information that people post and, for most, the lack of interest (or sophistication) in protecting the privacy of that information.
So, I wasn’t surprised when yesterday’s “shocking” headlines started rolling about FB’s massive data breach.
By mid-day, the previous “no big news” climate shifted to near market hysteria
Why?
Bang … a Trump connection headlined in the NY Times:
In a nutshell, a data outfit called Cambridge Analytica “harvested” the personal information of more than 50 million Facebook users … and fed the information to Trump digital campaigners.
OK, data breaches are bad … it’s horrible to have your private info fall into the wrong hands (i.e. Trump’s)
Hmmm.
But, Trump and his supporters are all Neaderthals, right?
How did they do it … and where did they get the idea?
Here’s what you need to know …
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Last might, around 10 p.m., AG Sessions issued a press release indicating that Andrew McCabe was being fired.
Here’s Session’s statement (with my emphasis added):
After an extensive and fair investigation and according to Department of Justice procedure, the Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) provided its report on allegations of misconduct by Andrew McCabe to the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).
The FBI’s OPR then reviewed the report and underlying documents and issued a disciplinary proposal recommending the dismissal of Mr. McCabe. Both the OIG and FBI OPR reports concluded that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor − including under oath − on multiple occasions.
The FBI expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, integrity, and accountability. As the OPR proposal stated, ‘all FBI employees know that lacking candor under oath results in dismissal and that our integrity is our brand.’
Pursuant to Department Order 1202, and based on the report of the Inspector General, the findings of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility, and the recommendation of the Department’s senior career official, I have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately.
The key points:
1) Inspector General Horowitz – applauded by all (before last nite) as a straight arrow – found that McCabe committed serious transgressions.
2) The IG forwarded some of his conclusions to the OPR – an internal watchdog group with a reputation for cutting transgressors a lot of slack.
3) The OPR recommended to AG Sessions that McCabe be fired for his transgressions.
4) Sessions – acting on the OPR’s recommendation – fired McCabe.
Note: It was the OPR that recommended that Sessions recuse himself from the Russia probe.
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I flipped between Fox ,CNN and online news sites when the announcement came down.
Talk about different worlds and different views …
A couple of headlines tell the story:
