Events are moving fast in Trump era America.
Trump confidante Roger Stone just got indicted.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pulled the plug on Donnie’s State of the Union MAGA rally.
And the serial swindler who sold his passionate, ill-informed minions on a fantastical Mexican border wall was forced to eat his brain-dead campaign promise — by a girl!
How fast are events moving?
Only a couple days ago, millions of Americans took to the streets nationwide to resist President Trump and his agenda – and the news and social media were buzzing about the dust-up between BuzzFeed and Special Prosecutor Mueller over whether it’s kosher to say there’s solid evidence that Trump told his lawyer-fixer, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress.
Now, Cohen says Trump told him to lie — which sounds entirely plausible. Given Mango Mussolini’s reputation as a pathological liar, it’s completely reasonable. In fact, if it’s a question of whether or not Trump’s lying or encouraging lies, the answer is nearly universally, yes.
Yes! Trump is lying and promoting lies.
But as Trump tries to Tweet-twist the facts, the negative drumbeat continues. His lies piles on lies. And lately, his lies have begun to catch up with him. Remember that wall across our entire southern border that Mexico was going to pay for?
Starting today, Trump’s Great Wall Cave-in will ignite even more strident right-wing blowback. It was Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter who buckled him into a political straightjacket – and surprise! – Donnie’s no Houdini. Might they spare him for attacking windmills at their behest? (I doubt if any of them ever actually read Cervantes.)
Taking the political temperature today, I predict that by the summer of 2019, President Blowhard Bankruptcy will be revealed to all but his most ardent fascist-religious fans to be a dismal, derelict, treasonous failure.
Why do I think so?
Part of it is a gut feeling.
I feel this to be true.
I can sense where this Trump/Russia thing is going. Like I could sense trouble when I was a kid and my brother and I were wrestling around in the living room – and we broke our mom’s best vase.
We could lie. We could tell the truth. But no matter what we said – we were guilty of the crime. And we’d ultimately pay for that crime.
Now, President Trump is paying for his crimes.
So, what will Americans think of Trump by the summer of 2019?
Women’s March 2019 Los Angeles. You had to be there.
Let’s look at the numbers.
And not just the hundreds of thousands who showed up in downtown Los Angeles to enjoy the Women’s March 2019. (I’ve illustrated this post with photos of the march, as I accompanied my wife & some wonderful friends.)
Let’s focus on dry, nerdy numbers. Cold, hard numbers are hard to dispute. Especially numbers that mean so much to our Dear Orange Leader…
How is Trumpty Dumpty doing in the national approval polls?
Let’s take a look at Trump’s current poll numbers in comparison to, say. George W. Bush…
When President George W. Bush left office in January of 2009, he was one of the most unpopular departing presidents in U.S. history. The Iraq War was a crime. There were no WMD. Then the economy collapsed. And oh yeah, Hurricane Katrina, too.
According to a CBS News/New York Times poll, George W’s final approval rating was 22%. 73% disapproved.
Bush’s final approval rating was the lowest for an outgoing president since Gallup began asking the question over 70 years ago.
C’mon, Donnie! You can underperform Dubya!
You can do it!
For what’s left of you Donald Trump fans out there, dig this…
Trump’s current approval rating is far below the final ratings of two-term presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, who both ended their terms with a 68% approval rating.
Barack Obama — the first black President — enjoyed a 53% approval rating while Hillary Clinton took on Trump during the 2016 election.
Two years later, Trump is in deep trouble.
Nate Silver and 538’s average poll numbers on the eve of the 2018 mid-term elections indicated a substantial Blue Wave. Trump’s approval was at 41.8% — and his disapproval at 52.8%. Trump was underwater by 11%.
Sure enough, the GOP got its clock cleaned in the 2018 mid-term elections — giving the gavel back to Speaker Pelosi. Hello, Madam Speaker!
As of tonight, 538’s Presidential approval poll average puts Donald Trump’s support at 39.3% His disapproval is 56%.
Trump is now underwater by 16.7%.
He was down by 11% before the midterms. He lost nearly 6 points before he caved on his Wall.
It’s only going to get worse for Orange Julius Caesar.
What follows are my favorite shots from the Women’s March in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, January 19th.
Let’s have fun and march until Mango Mussolini falls — and drags the GOP into the dustbin of history.
Who could possibly disagree?
Over-the-top satire? I don’t think so, Vice President Pence.
This is my Women’s March 2019 posse. Bad ass, for sure. I was very safe.
This was a big, big march. And everyone was having fun! Winning feels good!
What else is there to say?
Let’s be clear. Trey Gowdy is no friend of Democrats and progressives. And he looks kinda like the infamous “Bat Boy” of tabloid fame.
A deeply conservative House member from South Carolina, it was Gowdy who chaired the committee that spent over two and a half years and $7.8 million investigating Hillary Clinton’s role in the 2012 Benghazi embassy attack. And he barely put up any honest, objective resistance while House Intelligence Committee Chairman (and traitorous weasel) Devin Nunes turned that formerly bipartisan body’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election into a Republican whitewash of Donald Trump’s role in that affair.
But in recent days, Gowdy, who served as a federal prosecutor before he became a politician, is taking positions that few Republicans have dared to take. Of course, Gowdy is not seeking re-election to Congress, so like GOP Senator Jeff Flake and a precious few others, he no longer has to sacrifice every ounce of his integrity to satisfy the prejudices of the rabid Trump/GOP base.
Trump has been using his bully pulpit – with an accent on the word “bully” – to make wild claims that President Obama ordered the FBI to spy on his campaign. But in the days after that May 24 meeting, Congressman Gowdy has been busy throwing cold water on Trump’s spurious “Spygate” claims.
Gowdy’s refutation of Trump’s “Spygate” bullshit hasn’t stopped the Mango Mussolini from continuing his Goebbels-like assault on the truth. He and his bug-eyed TV lawyer Rudy Giuliani have doubled down on their “Spygate” lies – and aren’t likely to stop.
USA FINALLY SAYS, “YOU’RE FIRED!”
Unlike “Roseanne” — which drew 18.2 million viewers for its debut in March 2018 and established itself as ABC’s highest-rated and most watched new series of the 2017-18 season – “Trump” had suffered from historically poor ratings from the outset.
Savaged by the critics, “Trump” relied on relatively strong numbers among its core demographics: poorly educated whites (ages 50-105), white evangelicals (ages 45-Rapture) and racists and xenophobes of all ages.
Trump became famous for whittling down the contestants by firing one of them at the end of every episode. “You’re fired” became its host’s trademark line.
Though Trump still fired one or more employees at the end of every episode, the “Trump” series format was confused and convoluted — made even more so by a drawn-out subplot in which Trump was investigated for various sinister activities ranging from money laundering and paying hush-money to porn stars and Playboy bunnies to conspiring with Russian agents to steal the 2016 election. Though these plot twists made headlines, they failed to lift his sagging ratings beyond his core demo of greedy sociopaths, hypocritical self-styled Evangelicals and angry, aggrieved white people.
In a statement announcing the cancellation, USA noted that “’Trump’ was never a ratings winner, but we hoped that it would improve over time and widen its appeal to a larger, more inclusive audience. It failed to do so.” Left unspoken but resoundingly clear in USA’s statement was the fact that “Trump” attracted a negligible audience among blacks, Latinos, and other minorities – nor was it a hit with large majorities of women, educated whites and religious people with a moral conscience.
USA’s statement went on to say that, “Over its less than two-year run, “Trump” presented an increasingly skeptical public with a revolving cast of ever more bizarre characters and outrageous plot lines that defied credulity and provoked confusion and disgust among the wider audience we had hoped the series might someday attract.”
USA insiders say that the final nail in the “Trump” coffin may have been driven in by its titular star’s recent Tweet wishing Americans a “Happy Memorial Day!”
Trump’s sudden cancellation of his proposed June 12 nuclear summit with North Korea’s despotic leader Kim Jong-Un caught just about everyone — including our South Korean allies — by surprise. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Trump’s about-face on the summit was the tone of his letter informing Kim of his decision.
Paul's Voyage of Discovery & Etc. 