TGIF 4/24/20

Hey - look - another Friday. How about that?

We're going to take a slightly different path this week, because I happened to hear someone mention comments made by Piers Morgan about Donald Trump. I was fascinated by the paraphrasing of Morgan's remarks, and I was fortunate that there's a transcript.

Morgan, the person who was telling the story, is one of 47 accounts the president follows on Twitter -- so he's definitely part of the 'in crowd'.  Or, more accurately, he was of the in crowd, and he was one of the 47 lucky accounts Trump follows -- but not any more, at least not as I write this. Because now there are 46, and Morgan isn't one of them.

What did the Brit say that got appear to have gotten him in hot water? Among other things, that he has "been watching these daily briefings with mounting horror, frankly, because this is not what presidents should be doing."

Presidents, Morgan said, have to "be calm, they've got to show authority, they have to be honest, they have to be accurate, entirely factual with what they're telling the people and they have to have an ability to show empathy." And, "on almost every level of that, Donald Trump at the moment is failing the American people." 

It's important to note that Morgan's comments came before yesterday's allegedly joking, sarcastic comments from the president, which we'll get to in a sec.  But first, more Morgan.

Donald Trump's approval ratings are falling and the reason for that is -- he needs to understand this -- they're falling because people don't trust him. They think he's turning these rallies -- these daily briefings into self-serving rallies, and they don't understand why he can't just do the basics of crisis leadership, which is to make the public come with you, and to believe you, and to feel that you're on their side and you're showing them the empathy that they need when so many people are dying.

Attacking Trump's ratings? That's like the third rail of being a Trump friend, I think. But that wasn't all.

Donald Trump, if he's listening to this or watching, you will win the election in November if you get this right. If you stop making it about yourself and make it about the American people and show that you care about them over yourself, you will win. And, conversely, you will lose the election in November if you continue to make it about yourself, you continue playing silly politics, continue targeting Democrat governors because that suits you for your electoral purposes. None of that matters.

Now, it would appear that Morgan did not make these comments in jest, and it wasn't a really bad attempt at sarcasm. We know this, because he hasn't retracted the comments. And he won't. Because, well, because he has courage, and convictions.

Whereas the president has zero courage, zero convictions, and absolutely no sense of humor. Because apparently, when the backlash struck today, the comments below were said to have been sarcasm.

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  So I asked Bill a question that probably some of you are thinking of, if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting.  So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it.  And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too.  It sounds interesting.

ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BRYAN:  We’ll get to the right folks who could.

THE PRESIDENT:  Right.  And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute.  One minute.  And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning.  Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs.  So it would be interesting to check that.  So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with.  But it sounds — it sounds interesting to me. So we’ll see.  But the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute, that’s — that’s pretty powerful.

So, the official White House transcript shows that the president was addressing his remarks to Acting Undersecretary Bill Bryan, who "leads the Science and Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security..." - and yet, here's what the president said today about those remarks.

I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,

He's a liar, the president is, as we know. And he's proved that again, as he does regularly. There should be no doubt about that, although I can't imagine how there has been any doubt about that for the past nearly five years - or more.

So, how does all of this tie to our usual TGIF theme? Well, I 'm saying Piers Morgan had a good week, and the president had his typical week, which is usually a bad one. He's among the usual suspects for that dubious honor.

Now, in the interest of something that was actually intended as a joke, and is not true and is completely ridiculous, I offer these remarks, which are funnier if you read them with Trump's voice in your head.

See, you go into the spray tan booth, but instead of spraying you gently with that orange dye, they'll turn up the pressure and blast you at the SAME time with both the UV light AND the disinfectant - at the same time, can you believe it?

The spray will be SO POWERFUL that it will penetrate your skin, and the light will get in there, and the disinfectant will get in there, and it will be like a BEAUTIFUL cleanse - so important, doing the cleanse. Doing the cleanse. And think of it - your pores will be opened up just like our beautiful ECONOMY, the greatest economy EVER, they tell me. Best ever. Even bigger pores, even bigger economy than ever before, even bigger. So important.

And JOBS! Think of all the JOBS, good old American jobs, that's right! We'll buy American UV lightbulbs, made right here in the US, they're going to reopen the plants and make the bulbs, not the orange ones that make me look bad, the good ones, the great US made UV bulbs, only the best and we'll make the disinfectant too.

I can use the D, I'll invoke the D, like never before, nothing like this before, we'll get those factories, GM will get those old factories open again, the people working again, good American people, good American jobs for the bulbs and the spray and the disinfectant, the best in the world. So important, the best in the world. No one can make the bulbs and the disinfectant like we can. 

Like I always say, #BuyAmerican and #HireAmerican, so important, so beautiful. It's going to be beautiful, and clean, so clean. 

TGIF everyone - whether you're kidding, not kidding, being sarcastic, or just plain being honest. Which, as we know, is the best policy. As is washing your hands and keeping your distance. Even from nice people like me.

The Dem Debates, Round Two

I did it. I watched all of both of this week's debates.

And I shared what was going on with any willing reader on my Facebook page. I did get a thank you from a few people who noted (paraphrasing here) "thank you for sparing me the agony" or similar sentiments.

So, after watching and capturing the shenanigans for posterity, what do I know now that I didn't know before, or what happened that solidified my earlier thinking?

For starters, the progressive candidates went on record stating that if you challenge their ideas as being too far out there for the majority of the electorate, you're not worthy of being called a Democrat, you shouldn't be running for president, or both.  I have changed my registration from Democrat to unaffiliated, in part for that reason, that the progressives think it's their way or the highway, and the rest of us can just go home.

On the other hand, the more moderate candidates believe that the extreme policies will hand the election to Donald Trump, and so we have to find a reasonable way to bring Independents, disaffected Trump voters, and yes, Democrats, including the millions who stayed home in 2016, to show up at the polls to vote for our guy or gal. It will be interesting to see how this continues to play out. 

What else?

Twice I've suggested that Joe Biden should not run for president. He listened to me in 2015 race, but he ignored me this time. After last night's debate, I'm even more convinced than I was after the first one that I'm right and he shouldn't have entered the race.

I've been listening to the pundits saying that Biden did much better than the first time, that his defense of his record last night should have reassured his voters that everything's going to be OK. But I've gotta say, I agree with one of the talking heads on CNN during the wrap up that the bar was set so low for Biden after his disastrous performance in the first debate that he would have had a hard time not doing better.

And I'm reminded, as I hope you are, of those same 'low bar' expectations when Trump was debating his opponents - and it never went away. The bar continues to be low for Trump as president, even lower than it was for Trump as candidate. Have we learned nothing? Or, should I say, have the pundits learned nothing?

I honestly don't know if Biden has the best chance to beat Donald Trump - I know lots of people think he does, but I'm not convinced. 

I don't like Bernie Sanders, at all. Not just because he doesn't belong on the stage with Democrats - because he isn't one - but because he comes off as an always-angry two-trick pony: "big pharma and health insurance companies" is pony number one, and "millionaires and billionaires" is pony number two. Or vice versa, I'm not sure anymore which pony is which.

But healthcare and health insurance are not the same thing, and health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies are not the same thing. And not all health insurance companies are for profit bullies. Bernie and the rest of them conflate all of this, and it makes a mess of things. He and the others have to be doing this on purpose. I can't like him any less than I do already, but that makes me like the rest of them a little less, too.

If the candidates in the Tuesday debate, or in the Wednesday debate, were the only ones in the race, we'd have a better idea of where things stand. But they're not the only ones, so we have moderators torn between trying to keep all the focus on the group they're sitting in front of, or trying to make it seem like the debate is really 20 people not just ten. This stinks for the candidates, for the moderators, and most importantly for the voters who have only a speaking point's relationship with the candidates and the debates. And those speaking points, the zingers? Those are the media's bread and butter, for sure.

You know what I'm talking about - "I wrote the damn bill!" and Warren's "I don't know why people take the time to run..." line, and Booker's "You're dipping in the Kool-aid" crack, Gillibrand's promise to Clorox the Oval Office, and more. But there is so much more to the debates than the snappy retorts and attacks and hit lines. And while it seems there's no time like the present to play the sound bites, we don't seem to have time to talk about anything else other than who's leading in the polls (which are meaningless right now). To quote Joe Biden, that's a bunch of malarkey. It is never too early to talk about what these 20 candidates  stand for. Again, look back to the 2016 race, and don't repeat the same mistakes.

What else?

It's time - or past time, as the case may be - for some of these folks to do a Swalwell and step away from the race. Who's on that list? Marianne Williamson. Tim Ryan. Bill de Blasio. Michael Bennet. Steve Bullock. Julian Castro. Beto O'Rourke. The other five who are supposedly in the race - Tom Steyer, Seth Moulton, Joe Sestak, Wayne Messam, and Mike Gravel - yeah, no. Don't even bother.

That leaves us with, in no particular order, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang, Cory Booker, Sanders, Biden, Tulsi Gabbard, John Delaney, John Hickenlooper, Jay Inslee, Amy Klobuchar, and Kirsten Gillibrand.

It's a good mix (even if I wish two or three of them weren't in it), and includes veterans, young people, old people, moderates, progressives, business owners, people of color, lawyers, entrepreneurs, wealthy people, a climate guy - in short, it leaves us with people who have different enough thoughts on how to move forward to have an actual conversation.

And finally, speaking of hit lines, and of moving forward, I'm going to leave you with Andrew Yang's closing statement. He's not a conventional candidate, by any stretch of the imagination, but he nailed what's going on, and how people react to what's going on, very clearly.

Coming up next? Questions I wish I had heard at the debates. 

A Crisis by Design

The national news media has succumbed to the threat of being yelled at by the biggest bully in the whole damn valley, and all of the major networks will give free airtime to the president so he can tell us all about the crisis at the southern border that, frankly, is entirely by design - his design.

Now, don't get me wrong - we have long had an immigration problem, and it needs to be fixed - about that, there should be no question. But, that immigration problem is not defined by the need for a wall, and it won't be fixed by the construction of a wall, whether it's a big beautiful concrete one (about which the president knows more than anyone) or some variation on a theme of steel slats that is equally aesthetically pleasing (about which the president knows more than anyone) or even just concertina wire and chain link fence (about which the president surely knows more than anyone).

Since he announced his candidacy, "Build That Wall" has been the cry around which his supporters will reliably rally, because we are meant to fear the dark skinned people who cross the southern border.

It matters not whether they have crossed legally or illegally really - because just by looking at them, we are unable to tell which is which, just like we can't tell a good black person walking down the street, or shopping in a store, or making a phone call in a hotel lobby, or swimming in a pool, or hailing a cab, or driving down the highway or doing any number of other things that human beings do, from a bad one.

That's the point of fear. And that's the basis of this 'crisis' that the president has created, embraced, and exacerbated, and which he now must trying and convince us is real.

TGIF 11/16/18

How was your week?

Better than the president's maybe?  He failed to go to Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day, with no explanation offered. Until today, that is, when an explanation materialized: he was busy doing the country's work, making lots of phone calls and other stuff, and besides, he just visited a cemetery in another country (after not visiting one as scheduled), and doesn't that count?

And then there was the Mueller tweet storm, and how Trump's "easily" finished his written questions, without the help of his lawyers, we're told, even as Rudy Giuliani,one of those lawyers, is expressing concern that there could be 'traps' in the questions. With no timetable from Mueller, it's hard to know when we'll find out if in fact traps were laid and bait taken, or whatever the appropriate metaphor would be.

And finally, there was the order by one of his own judges that people's enemy #1, CNN's Jim Acosta, must have his White House access restored temporarily pending further discussions (or dismissal of the whole thing).  Trump said it was no big deal, while at the same time suggesting that he'll implement rules and regulations for press conferences. Oh, the irony of the anti-regulation president needing to have protective regulations to talk with the press..

You probably had a better week than Britain's PM Theresa May, too. Her Brexit deal gives everyone something to hate, caused bombshell resignations and was reported as chaotic uncertainty. Not bad for someone trying to do something that's almost impossible.

Who actually had a good week?  Brian Kemp, the vote-suppressing former Georgia Secretary of State who will be the state's next governor, now that Stacy Abrams has determined she cannot win.

But to watch an elected official who claims to represent the people in the state baldly pin his hopes for election on suppression of the people's democratic right to vote has been truly appalling.

This is not a speech of concession. Because concessions means to acknowledge an action is right, true or proper. As a woman of conscience and faith, I cannot concede that.

So did the First Lady; she who rules the East Wing got a key West Wing person fired.

And so did Elvis Presley, who along with Babe Ruth, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, Minnesota Vikings star Alan Page and others, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by president Trump.  The president noted Presley's military service, movie career, award nominations and wins, and "record breaking" crowds.

TGIF, everyone.

TGIF 11/9/18

Most of the midterm elections have been decided, but there are a few key races still unsettled, including some US Senate seats, governors and some House races.

The fact that votes are still being counted is a good thing, compared to the alternative: legitimately cast ballots being cast aside for some self-serving process. That appears to be the hope of some in the GOP, but it's hardly the American way.

They all need to keep counting - the world isn't going to come to an end if we don't know who's going to be the senator from Florida or Arizona, and it's not going to come to an end if we don't know who's going to be the Governor of Georgia.

The best thing, I think everyone agrees, is that the political ads are now a thing of the past. We've been waiting for these days since August. Now, the signs? Yeah, that'll take a little longer. I'm thinking there should be a timeframe for getting those out of the way and recycled, what do you think? By the time the last vote is counted?

The president has left the country, off to France to join others in Armistice Day celebrations, commenting that

It should be a very beautiful period of time, the 100th anniversary of the ending of World War I. We have many countries - the leadership of many countries will be there, especially since they heard the United States will be there. And we look forward to that.

Sigh.

You may recall the alternative was that he'd be here, having a tens-of-millions-of-dollars parade, ostensibly to celebrate our veterans, but perhaps more to get a sense of what it would be like if "his people" gave him the same level of respect that Kim Jong Un gets from his people. Sure, it was a sarcastic remark... right?

Trump also said he didn't know Matt Whitaker, the man he just appointed as acting Attorney General (Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III was ordered to resign, of course) which appears to be a lie, and that the video of CNN's James Acosta allegedly placing his hands on an intern was not doctored, which also appears to be a lie.

It also seems that he may have been more involved in the payoffs to the porn star and the Playboy bunny than he has maintained, which could mean he has committed at least a tiny bit of campaign finance shenanigans. And that's the Wall Street Journal bringing us this news, not CNN or MSNBC.

For his part, Whitaker comes off like a hot mess: comments about the courts, about the Mueller investigation including that there was no collusion; his involvement with a shady company... all great qualifications, right?

 There are bipartisan calls for protecting the investigation, but Mitch "I'm only here to pack the courts" McConnell is not interested in that. It will be interesting to see if that ew spirit of bipartisanship we've had for the past two or three days will still be noticeable by this time next week. My hope is yes, my fear is no.

TGIF.

Sunday School 7/8/18

Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!

That's right -- three of the five major Sunday classrooms gave us a big old helping of Rudy Giuliani today. Let's take a look and see how consistent the president's special mouthpiece attorney was in his appearances, shall we?

First up? Rudy and George, on ABC's This Week; here are the highlights:

• regarding former Trump 'fixer' Michael Cohen's interview last week, Rudy said the president shared his opinion, that Cohen should cooperate, there's no reason to believe he did anything wrong, the president did nothing wrong, what happened to Cohen was horrible
• on what Cohen might say to Mueller's team, no concerns there as long as he tells the truth, we're home free
• there have been on discussions of a pardon for Cohen, it would just muddy the waters, and anyway there's no reason to even think about it
• as far as Rudy knows, the president didn't tell Cohen to make the Stormy Daniels payments, he didn't know about it at the beginning, some foggy point down the road he found out
• there's still no timeline for Trump to sit down with Mueller, but he really wants to, and
• they have to consider that the Mueller investigation is unconstitutional because it violates the Appointments clause, according to several people.

On MTP, Rudy and Chuck Todd talked about and around a number of subjects, with these highlights:

• on his previously saying the 4th of July was some kind of important date on the question of whether Trump would talk to Mueller, Rudy says they'll now need to know some factual basis for the investigation, because so far there's no collusion found by Mueller or by anyone else including the Trump team researching the collusion issue
• Trump's admission that he misled the public about writing Donnie's statement was just an incorrect recollection, no big deal mostly because nothing ever came of the meeting
• yes, the president's anxious to sit down with Mueller because he's done nothing wrong, but it's the lawyers like me that are keeping him from doing so, because the investigation is so biased, not Mueller himself, but the investigation is, and someone needs to investigate the people on the team and read their texts, but the president wants to testify if there's any basis for the investigation
• it's OK if Cohen testifies, he's not going to lead Mueller to the president
• there's no problem with Trump sitting down with Putin, he has to, no matter what the Senate report says about Russian interference, and he is ready to regularize things with Putin but Putin will have to meet Trump more than halfway.

And finally, on CNN's State of the Union, Rudy and Dana Bash chatted on similar subjects, leaving us with these highlights:

• even with all of the leaks, no one's found any factual basis for the investigation, but if there is one the president would be happy to sit down with Mueller's team, and I don't mean evidence of a crime, just some suspicion of one would be nice
• the president can't just fire Mueller, even though this is the most illegitimate investigation ever, and biased and what a mess, but if Trump fired him the media (the enemy of the people, as we know) would say Mueller was fired because Trump was guilty
• Comey is the biggest villain in all of this
• There have been leaks, lots of leaks, they leaked reports, they leaked meetings, they leaked about Manafort and Cohen
• The Trump team has seen everything Mueller has, 1.4M documents, they've debriefed everyone important and so they know that Mueller has nothing which is why he's pushing for the interview with Trump
• We're not banking on him not issuing a subpoena, but if he does issue one, we'll quash it because you can't do that unless you have a really good case that the information you're looking for can't be found any other way
• Mueller wants to interview Trump's Chief of Staff General Kelly, that's being handled by some other attorney, we're saying no because hey, let's see the texts from Mueller's team since this is all after the Horowitz report showing how corrupt everything is
• No, I'm not trying to delay the end of this until after the midterms, I want to get it over with, I'm not worried about any political considerations, but Mueller can't indict, there's no basis for that, but impeachment is what everyone's talking about, look at Maxine Waters and I have to listen to what everyone is saying not just the leaders who aren't saying this but how do I know they're not lying?

I love that last part -- how can we possibly know that everyone else isn't lying? - coming from a guy who's boss lies with extraordinary ease, with great conviction and great results.

See you around campus.

Sunday School 4/15/18

I only visited one classroom today, ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos -- I just didn't have it in me to go sit through the rest of them. 

If you're interested, here are transcripts for Fox News Sunday (UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and lame duck Congressman Trey Benghazi Gowdy),  Meet the Press (Sen Joni Ernst, former CIA Director John Brennan, and lame duck House Speaker Paul Ryan), Face the Nation (Haley again, former veep candidate Sen. Tim Kaine) and State of the Union (Sen. Angus King, Preet Bharara, and Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels' attorney).

So why ABC and George?  Mostly because Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was giving an interview, something that doesn't happen all that often. What did she have to say?

On Syria: The mission 100% met its objectives to destroy critical chemical weapons infrastructure, and send the 'red line' message to Russia, Syria and Iran. On 'next steps', she offered

Look, the president has got three big objectives when it comes to the conflict there. He wants to defeat ISIS. He has talked about this relentlessly. We are almost there. We have made extraordinary gains against ISIS...And this president has lead that effort. And he's been successful on that front.  The other things we have to do, we have to contain Iran, We have to make sure that the bad acting that they have been a part of doesn't continue and doesn't grow. Those are big and key points. And then last, we have to stop the spread and the use of mass chemical weapons, and that was one of the things you saw the president take action on, on Friday. Those are big things that the president has been focused on  and we've had some success so far. We're going to continue building on that.

And on James Comey, about whom the president tweeted rudely during their discussion, Sanders gave us this information in response to a handful of questions.

Look, it's been very clear that James Comey is a self-admitted leaker. He lied to Congress. He's been inconsistent...

Look, he said that he opened the Hillary Clinton investigation on its merits, now we're finding out certainly it had something to do with the political landscape. I find it outrageously unbelievable that Jim Comey, the man that takes these copious notes and recollects every detail of every conversation that he had can't remember why he would have specifically opened an investigation into a presidential candidate, particularly somebody he thought would become the president.... I mean, give me a break. The guy knew exactly what he was doing. He thought Hillary Clinton would win. And he thought this would give him some cover. He thought that he made these decisions based on the political landscape and not on the facts of the case.

And when the person that is supposed to lead the highest law enforcement agency in our country starts making decisions based on political environments instead of on what is right and what is wrong, it's a really dangerous position. And I think that's one of the reasons there is such a huge bipartisan consensus that James Comey doesn't have credibility and shouldn't be leading the FBI any longer. 

Regarding the president's pardon of Scooter Libby, former VP Dick Cheney's guy, and whether it was Trump's way of sending a message to Mueller and everyone,

That couldn't be further from the truth. Once again, Adam Schiff barely - rarely bases any comments in reality. Talk about a grandstander. He probably is hook line and sinker buddies with Jim Comey. They both have never found a TV camera they don't love to be in front of.

And finally, Stephanopoulos asked

Is the president actively considering firing Robert Mueller or removing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein from overseeing the investigation?

Sanders' response?

I'm not aware of any plans to make those movements. Look, the president has been extremely cooperative, as have a number of members of the administration. Everything that's been asked of us, we've provided. And we're continuing to be cooperative. But we do have some real concerns with some of the activities and some of the scope that the investigation has gone, but 100% maintain that at this point, after repeating it for nearly a year and a half, there absolutely was no collusion with Russia and that's exactly what they've been investigating.

Not only has the special counsel but a number of different congressional committees have been looking at this for over a year and come up with nothing. I think it really is getting time to move on and I certainly think the American people would appreciate Congress and the rest of the country being able to focus on some of the things that really impact them.

Of course, everyone keeps telling us nothing's going to happen the rest of this year, with the mid-terms and all, so I wish George had pushed her on that one a little.

And Adam Schiff, the Congressman from California who has been a thorn in the Administration's side in his role as ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, had this to say about Sanders.

I don't think she likes me very much, George.

See your around campus. 

Poll Watch: A Little Bit of Good News

I was intrigued by a headline noting something about Americans are not hating the president as much as we used to, so I followed the link until I got to the source: a recent CNN/SSRS poll, taken via cell and land line phones March 22 - 25.

Here's what apparently drove the headline: Trump's approval rating is now 42%, up three percent from the January poll. And while his overall approval rating is better on this poll than it has been since early March 2017, there is still some room for improvement.

For example, 48% approve of how he's handling the economy, but:

• only 39% approve of how he's handling the foreign affairs;
• only 36% approve of how he's handling gun policy;
• 47% think he's been too easy on Russia; and
• only 38% approve of how he's handling foreign trade.

On that Russia question, 4% think he's been too tough on them -- I'm guessing those are the Mueller witnesses?

The questions get a little more interesting, delving into what the respondents thing about certain characteristics and how those might apply to the president.

• cares about people like you: 56% disagree; 42% agree
• can bring about change the country needs: 52% disagree, 45% agree
• is honest and trustworthy: 59% disagree, 36% agree
• can manage the government effectively: 57% disagree, 40% agree
• will unite us, not divide us: 60% disagree: 30% agree
• someone we can be proud of having as president: 59% to 38%

All six of those have swung in Trump's favor since the last time the questions were asked. A new question appeared on this survey, asking whether people think Trump respects the rule of law. The answer is no: 58% disagree, and only 38% agree.

Here are a few questions related to Trump's Cabinet members and whether they are more or less likely than Cabinet members of other presidents.  According to respondents, Trump's folks are more likely to misuse taxpayer money, less likely to be well qualified for their jobs, less likely to bring a fresh perspective, less likely to understand our needs, more likely to use their position for personal gain, and equally likely to cut spending and government waste. 

There are also a couple of questions related to the women of Trump - Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal - which show that 63% of respondents believe the women, and 51% believe that the should be able to talk about their relationships with Trump, even though they've been paid to be quiet.

There's a lot of detail in the survey, much of it consistent with what we've seen in other surveys: Republicans and men are his strongest demographics, many times being the outliers, the only groups that are on his side, across a variety of questions.

We'll have to see whether this slight positive trend for Trump continues, and if his collection of Red man friends will be enough to keep him in the tippy-top shape house or building or whatever you call it on Pennsylvania Ave. 

PPOD 3/6/18: The Nunberg Trials

It's been over a year since I did a Pet Peeve of the Day, or PPOD, post.  The last time I was so inspired, it was Mitch McConnell who made me do it. This time, it's Sam Nunberg and all who got caught up in the whirlwind that was yesterday.

Nunberg, a former Trump campaign staffer who, according to this opinion piece, was fired not just once but twice by Trump, received a subpoena from Robert Mueller's grand jury, asking for any and all documents of any kind related to Carter Page, Corey Lewandowski,  Donald Trump, Hope Hicks, Keith Schiller, Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Roger Stone, and Steve Bannon. Nunberg might once have been a nothingburger with the campaign, but someone seems to think he's a somethingburger with a plateful of sides.

So he gets a subpoena, and he starts feeling his oats, and before you know it, he's all over the cable networks, calling in a la Trump to show after show, expanding his resistance to the subpoena, expanding his thoughts on whether the president might have done something worthy of Mueller (yes to that one, or maybe not, or maybe maybe), #JoeBidenliterally expanding everything, before our very ears. He ended the night with one last phone call to a reporter for New York magazine.

To say it was a cluster is an understatement. To say it was a media sh*tstorm is not even coming close. In one interview, Nunberg was asked if he had been drinking. Not because the interview would have been stopped, had he been - oh no. It would have only been better if he had been under the influence!

Nunberg may be seeking treatment after he gets acquainted with the grand jury on Friday; he's cooperating, now that he's had some time to think about it, and to consider the advice he received from CNN's Jake Tapper and MSNBC's Maya Wiley.

Stephen Colbert had this take on things. Michael D'Antonio, author of the opinion piece linked above, had this take on things.

Let's get something straight. I am Sam Nunberg. You are Sam Nunberg. In a way, every American who feels disoriented by the bizarre reality of Trump World is Sam Nunberg... 

Comforted by his wealth and power and with apparently little empathy for those he hurt, Trump  has made an art out of denigrating others and promoting himself. Along the way he has collected effective enablers and jettisoned those, like Nunberg, who didn't quite fit the paradigm Trump established. The same dynamic rules the White House, which explains the turmoil there, and it impacts every American who recognized that Trump is at best incompetent and at worse, destructive...

Nunberg deserves our empathy. Yes, he brought some of the pain upon himself. However, he has also been abused and misused. He's a man who reached the end of his ability to cope with Trump. Most of us have an idea of how that feels.  

Dan Rather called had this take on things (a mixed message, to be sure).

As one saw all of this unfold, one didn't know whether to laugh or weep. It was a sad spectacle for journalism but, worse than that, it was a sad sight for the country (that the president would have had a political advisor who) gives every appearance of being one of those people who score in the high 90s on the Dumb Test.

That's where I'm going to leave it.  A journalist calling it a "sad spectacle for journalism" while making himself a sad spectacle by insulting a man who clearly - clearly - was out of his element, and who was taken advantage of by the media, who acted as if they simply couldn't help themselves.

And that's why this is my Pet Peeve of the Day.

Sunday School 3/4/18

Kinda of in a funk today, so my attention span was limited and I only visited one classroom, CNN's State of the Union with Jake Tapper at the helm.

The first guest was Peter Navarro, who is the White House Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy. Navarro's goal today was to convince us that president Trump's surprise announcement of tariffs - 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum -- was a great idea, good for the president, good for our steel and aluminum workers, and #MAGA.

Navarro said the tariffs would go into effect next week, maybe the week after, once the White House lawyers get all their ducks in a row. Tapper played some video of the president blaming China for overproduction and saying that needed to be addressed, and then he reminded Navarro that China doesn't make the top ten steel importers into the US. Here's how Navarro responded:

So, the bigger picture is that China has tremendous overcapacity in both aluminum and steel. And so what they do is, they flood the world market with this product. And that ripples down to our shores and to other countries. So China is, in many ways, the root of the problem in both aluminum and steel for all countries of the world.

But let's be clear here about what the president's doing. Let's lay this on the table. This is an action, basically, to protect our national security and economic security. And the president was quite clear. We can't have a country that can defend itself and prosper without an aluminum and steel industry.

Silly me - I thought we couldn't be a country without a border wall, and without getting rid of chain migration and stuff. I was wrong, I guess.

Tapper reminded Navarro, speaking of national security, that the Pentagon was not in favor of what Trump did.

The Pentagon wrote a memo about the tariff, saying, indeed the unfair steel practices do create a national security problem. But the Pentagon also said that the US should use targeted tariffs and avoid angering allies who are needed for other diplomatic national security reasons, such as Canada, such as South Korea. If you are invoking the national security exemption, should you not also be listening to the Pentagon on how to apply these tariffs?

Navarro's answer was reminiscent of Trump's "I alone can fix it" comment.

What I love about this president is, he listens to all points of view, both within his government and outside, and then he makes the tough decisions. 

Which includes ignoring the Pentagon.

Also on the show was Ohio Governor John Kasich, who is considered a potential challenger to Trump in 2020. Tapper talked to him about the president's trade tariffs (Kasich is not a fan) and the president's 'gun control without due process' plan; Kasich is again not a fan. Rather, what he's trying in Ohio is a restraining order, which comes with due process.

In terms of our gun retraining order, it means, if you have somebody in the family who sees trouble in the family, they have an ability, either go to law enforcement or the court in order to get those guns out of that person who's having a very difficult time, get the guns away from them. If you're a neighbor or somebody outside, you can go to a police officer who can investigate and then go to the judge. There's got to be speed in this, because we don't want people who are emotionally - you know, emotionally in upheaval, who could pose a threat either to themselves or to somebody else, to be in a position where they can have a gun.

Kasich also noted that the agenda changes, quickly.

And by the way, have we forgotten the Dreamers, the DACA, the young people who came here? They're not even in the news anymore. And I don't - I can't believe Congress is -- Congress has got to do something on guns. 

And you know what? I think the president will sign something. If he doesn't, send it to him anyway. I mean, the deal is that you don't ask permission. You legislate; you get it to the president, you see what he does.

 I believe he will sign some really good, strong, common sense gun legislation. Send him the Dreamers. We can't be taking these kids that have been -- or young people who have been here, some of them for 20 years, and ship them out of the country for political reasons. 

Tapper also asked Kasich about 2020, and whether someone should challenge Trump, even if it's not Kasich who does it. .

Well, come on Jake. We don't know what's going to happen next week. That's not -- you know, all I'm doing is making sure that, both now and when I'm out, that I can have a voice that can help the country, that can bring it together. That's all I'm particularly interested in at this point. And if I go any further than that, Jake, I won't be able to get in my house tonight. My wife will have it barricaded. 

So, I'm not going there.... 

And, listening to the entire exchange  between Kasich and Tapper, I was reminded why I liked Kasich more than any of the rest of the Republicans. First, he's reasonable, and second, he has a great sense of humor and hes not afraid to use it - which is something we could use a whole lot more of in DC.

See you around campus.

TGIF 1/26/18

Well, we made it through another week -- yay us!  Here's some of what happened while we were busy living our lives.

The president went to Davos, a town somewhere in the Swiss Alps, to talk about #MAGA and #AmericaFirst and other stuff to a bunch of world leaders and an equally interested bunch of billionaires.

Word is he stuck to the script very closely, and managed to keep the off-the-cuff remarks, well, on his cuff, I guess.

After he was done with the official speech, he did manage to get in a few 'fake news' comments when he was questioned about an article in the NY Times saying he wanted to fire Robert Mueller last summer. The story is that he backed off when one of his lawyers threatened to quit. Typical fake news from the NY Times, he said, or something along those lines.

Fake news was in the news for a whole nother reason this week -- that being the arrest of a Michigan man who threatened CNN. Some of his 22 messages are below.

Fake news. I'm coming to gun you all down.

I'm smarter than you. More powerful than you. I have more guns than you. More manpower. Your cast is about to get gunned down in a matter of hours.

I am coming to Georgia right now to go to the CNN headquarters to f---ing gun every single last one of you. 

Proving, once again, that words matter -- including those repeated over and over and over by the president.

Other words mattered, too. Those of the more than 150 survivors, or their representatives, who spoke at the trial of disgraced and incredibly insulting Dr. Larry Nassar. Those of the judge in the case, even the inflammatory ones she used, such as suggesting that a lifetime of what Nassar did to his victims would be OK with her, if not for the Constitution and all. Those of the USOC, which issued an ultimatum to the board of USA Gymnastics: resign, or be decertified. Even the words of USA Gymnastics, when they severed ties with the Karoly Ranch, one of the places where Nassar apparently gave the athletes 'treatments' with impunity. But mostly, the words of the survivors, who spoke with amazing, and sometimes alarming passion, courage, and clarity.

Let's end on a 'better them than us' note, shall we?  It seems New Orleans needed to clean out the city's storm drains. City workers didn't find a 'fatberg' like they find in the UK -- but they did find 93,000  pounds -- 46 and half tons - of Mardi Gras beads in a five-block stretch.

Here in my neck of the woods, the DPW worries about getting the leaves picked up before a major snowfall comes and the leaves end up in our storm drains. Sort of puts us on Easy Street, compared to the Big Easy.

TGIF, everyone.

Sunday School 5/21/2017

For today's Sunday School, I managed to drop into two classrooms: Fox, the home of fake right news, and CNN, the home of fake left news. I'll leave it up to you to figure out who's faker, who's newsier, or who's more true to their school, so to speak.

Starting with CNN - I am left handed, after all - we had Jake Tapper opening the show letting us know how well received president Trump has been on his first international trip.

President Trump has so far been greeted very warmly in Saudi Arabia. Here he is (on video) joining in a ceremonial sword dance welcoming him. The Saudis even projected his image onto the hotel where he's staying, the next best thing to having his name on the building, I suppose. 

He moved on from there, with guest Little Marco Rubio, who sits on both the Senate Intelligence and Foreign Relations committees; the focus of the conversation was on Trump's morning speech, in which he offered this:

We are not here to lecture. We are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be or how to worship. Instead, we are here to offer partnership based on shared interests and values to pursue better future for us all. 

Tapper's question was whether Trump had strayed too far from the traditional role of America supporting human rights and democracy., and whether Rubio would have ever made such a speech.

Well, I mean, yes, that would not have been part of a speech that I would have delivered, for the reason that I think it's in our national security interest to advocate for democracy and freedom and human rights, now, with a recognition that you may not get it overnight. There needs to be a period of transition...That said, I would tell you that the White House and I have a different approach on the issue of human rights. I'm much more forceful and open and vocal about criticizing whether it's Egypt or Saudi Arabia for its human rights record.

The conversation shifted to the Comey Conversations. Tapper was interested in what Rubio would ask Comey when he comes to the Senate for an open session after the holiday.

...did he keep these memos? What do the memos say? And why did he write it? And how did he feel? Did he ever feel like he was being put in a position where he couldn't do his job? There's no doubt that that's the questions that are going to get asked, and asked repeatedly. And the American people deserve to have an answer to that. And I'm happy that Director - or former Director Comey is going to appear publicly before the Intelligence Committee to answer these questions, so we can get it directly from him, and not simply have to rely on a third-hand account of how he felt and/or what was in those memos.

Rubio also made it very clear that, regardless of the press reports, he's confident that the Intelligence Committee will do their due diligence and get to the bottom of things, as will Robert Mueller in his role as the special counsel.

Let us finish our work, let us collect the facts, let us document them, let us put it out in a report. And then, based on that, I will take a firm position. And then the people could say one - whatever they want to say. But we have got to finish our work. That's my job. And that's what I'm going to do.

Meanwhile, down the hall to the right, Chris Wallace had Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and John McCain separately and exclusively, on Fox News Sunday. Tillerson was pressed a bit by Wallace to explain the difference between candidate Trump  and president Trump, and why Muslim countries should trust him, or believe him.

Here's Wallace.

Given that past rhetoric, why would Muslim leaders trust Mr. Trump now? And on the other hand, if the president is so concerned about human rights, why isn't he talking about it publicly this weekend?

And here's Tillerson's response,

Well, Chris, I think this is one of the great attributes of this president, is that he is willing to call issues out, confront them, speak very plainly and bluntly about them. And in many ways that motivates these countries to want to understand why the feelings in the US are the way they are, but also to engage, to address those... And the president himself has said he has learned a lot on this trip, and he's learned a lot about the people, he's learned a lot about their culture. And I think this is an - it's a really important process in terms of how we move forward with this relationship between the Muslim world and the non-Muslim world...

Wallace also pressed Tillerson on the women's rights/ human rights issues that Trump harped on during the campaign, but that were not mentioned in the advance copy of Trump's big speech.

Well, Chris, I think the way you address those human rights issues and women's rights issues is to improve the conditions in the region. And today conditions in the region are under a lot of stress because of the threat of terrorism, the threat that Iran poses to instability in the region. And these subjects are being discussed as well, and there are efforts underway to, I think, improve the rights of women, the participation of women in the society throughout the region.  

But you now, the primary reason we're here today is to confront this threat of terrorism. If we do not defeat Daesh, if we do not defeat these forces of evil, there will be no conditions under which we can even hope to improve the human rights for all of the people in the region.  

For his part, Arizona Senator John McCain was his quotable self. First up, here's what he has to say about Trump firing Comey.

I don't know. I  -- honestly, I cannot explain a lot of the president's actions. I don't think it was a wise thing to do. Mr. Comey was highly respected and highly regarded. And so I can't -- I can't explain it. I don't think it was a smart thing to do.

And, on Trump telling Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that he had fired 'nutjob' Comey?

I don't know how to read it except that -- and I - I'm almost speechless because I don't know why to - how - why someone would say something like that. But I know this, Mr. Lavrov is the stooge of a thug and a murdered who used Russian precision weapons to strike hospitals in Aleppo, who's committed human rights violations all over the place... has acted in the most thuggish and outrageous fashion and he had no business in the Oval Office. 

There's more in both of the transcripts, including the panel discussions on both shows and an interview with Judy Collins (on Fox).

See you around campus.

Red Rover, Send James Comey On Over

Here are some of the takes on The Tall One's testimony today.

From NBC

At the outset of a pivotal week in Washington, FBI director James Comey delivered a political gut-punch to President Donald Trump Monday - and the news possibly could get worse for the president in the days and weeks ahead. 

In sworn testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, Comey said there was no evidence to Trump's claims that Barack Obama wiretapped him and Trump Tower, as the current president alleged in a series of tweets earlier this month. And he conformed that his agency was investigating the 2016 Trump campaign's links with Russia's effort to intervene in the presidential election bid.  

From CNN

FBI Director James Comey said for the first time Monday that the bureau is investigating whether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow while Russia was interfering in the presidential election.

Comey also delivered an implicit rebuke to President Donald Trump, saying that he had "no information" to support claims by the President that he was wiretapped on the orders of predecessor Barack Obama.

From the Associated Press

President Donald Trump produced a running commentary Monday on FBI Director James Comey's testimony to Congress. Thanks to the length of the hearing an the immediacy of Twitter, Comey was able to comment on the president's commentary without leaving his seat. It was a nearly real-time exchange that circled back on itself, like a cat chasing its tail

Trump tweet: The NSA and FBI tell Congress that Russia did not influence electoral process.

The Facts: No such assurance was offered by Comey or his fellow witness at the hearing, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers. They did not offer any conclusions about whether Russia succeeded in influencing the election.

Comey asked about the tweet while he was stilt testifying: I'm sorry, I haven't been following anybody on Twitter while I've been sitting here.

From Newsday

FBI Director James Comey on Monday confirmed publicly for the first time that his bureau is probing Russian meddling into last year's election -- searching also for any links or possible coordination between the Kremlin and the campaign of President Donald Trump. 

The reveal came at the start of a five-hour congressional hearing at which Comey also disputed Trump's claim via Twitter that his predecessor had wiretapped Trump Tower.

I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI, Comey said.

From ABC

During the five-hour hearing, Comey also confirmed an investigation of possible links between Trump associates and Russia, a story line that the president has decried alternately as a "ruse" and "fake news." Comey also indicated that Vladimir Putin hated Hillary Clinton "so much" that he had a "clear preference" for her opponent.

With respect to the president's tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, I have no information that supports those tweets, Comey told the House Intelligence Committee today at his much-anticipated hearing -- the US law enforcement community's first public response to wiretapping allegations that the White House has promoted for more than two weeks.

And we have looked carefully inside the FBI. The Department of Justice has asked me to share with you that they answer is the same for the Department of Justice and all its components. The department has no information to support those tweets.

And finally, from the president himself

Sunday School 3/5/17

I know, I know.

We've had a few weeks of no school; blame it on the fact that I've put my pajamas on inside out and put the toilet paper in the freezer, or whatever it is that kids to when they want school to be cancelled.

Today, anticipating we'd have a lot of consistency in what was discussed in our various classrooms, I tried something different with today's lectures: I used a keyword search.

Here are the words I figured would be making an appearance: FISA, foreign,impeach, impeachment, intelligence, investigate, investigation, lie, lied, lies, Obama, resign, resignation, Russia, Russian, Russians, Sessions, Trump, and wiretap.

I realize it's an imperfect analysis, with no context for how the terms were used. It's also imprecise; Attorney General Sessions was a guest on NBC's Meet the Press, and every time he spoke, his name appeared in the transcript, so there's a bit of skewing there. Also,if a show talked about Obamacare, in addition to Obama being mentioned in relation to the Trump tweet-storm, that will also skew the numbers.

Keyword	ABC	CBS	CNN	FOX	NBC
FISA	10	6	6	4	17
Foreign	7	4	2	6	8
Impeach/Impeachment	1	0	0	0	1
Intelligence	28	21	18	41	36
Investigate/Investigation	34	24	16	27	30
Lie/Lied/Lies	7	0	9	3	1
Obama	40	15	33	51	20
Resign/Resignation	5	2	2	2	6
Russia/Russian/Russians	50	38	31	56	89
Sessions	18	3	15	21	18
Trump	101	40	50	97	69
Wiretap/Wiretapped	29	6	11	14	8

Is there anything grossly unfair just looking at the numbers? Not really. Was there anything earth-shattering in any of the shows?  Nope, not that I saw. 

We'll see what the week brings us. Supposedly we'll get a new travel ban tomorrow, although with all of the churn, that might be delayed a little, until it can get the attention it deserves.