Born to Run the Numbers shows its contrarian streak, hoping that the Mueller investigation does not reach its conclusions too quickly.

http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/02/btrtn-four-dimensional-chess-what-does.html

Excerpts:
"Mueller appears to have his plea-bargainers singing like regional semi-finalists on The Voice. He’s following more money than Standard and Poor’s. He’s got more email than Gmail and the guy wearing Mueller’s biggest bull’s eye has already confessed at least one crime to Lester Holt on national television...
"We all need to hope that Mueller is actually capable of playing four-dimensional chess. Three D, as we all know, is defined by width, height, and depth. The fourth dimension is time. As we consider all the elements in the investigation, the matter of how he manages the clock may be as vital to the outcome as anything.
"The minute Robert Mueller turns over his final report to the Department of Justice, he is no longer in control of the investigation. As soon as he turns over his findings to the Department of Justice, he has handed the authority for all subsequent steps to the Republican-led Department of Justice, then the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, and then the Republican-dominated House of Representatives. The entire impeachment process could be shut down cold at any of these three stages… before it ever gets to trial..."

Born to Run the Numbers shows its contrarian streak, hoping that the Mueller investigation does not reach its conclusions too quickly.

http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/02/btrtn-four-dimensional-chess-what-does.html

Excerpts:
"Mueller appears to have his plea-bargainers singing like regional semi-finalists on The Voice. He’s following more money than Standard and Poor’s. He’s got more email than Gmail and the guy wearing Mueller’s biggest bull’s eye has already confessed at least one crime to Lester Holt on national television...
"We all need to hope that Mueller is actually capable of playing four-dimensional chess. Three D, as we all know, is defined by width, height, and depth. The fourth dimension is time. As we consider all the elements in the investigation, the matter of how he manages the clock may be as vital to the outcome as anything.
"The minute Robert Mueller turns over his final report to the Department of Justice, he is no longer in control of the investigation. As soon as he turns over his findings to the Department of Justice, he has handed the authority for all subsequent steps to the Republican-led Department of Justice, then the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, and then the Republican-dominated House of Representatives. The entire impeachment process could be shut down cold at any of these three stages… before it ever gets to trial..."

With rank and file Republicans now in lock step behind Donald Trump's efforts to undermine the FBI, the Mueller investigation, and the rule of law, BornToRunTheNumbers finds it unconscionable that the most senior GOP leaders are standing idly by and allowing this assault on our democracy to proceed. Where are Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan?

http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/02/btrtn-appeasement-of-eunuchs.html

Excerpts: "Yes, other than Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are supposedly the two most powerful government officials in the nation, and both appear to be about as essential to the national dialog as Rosenkrantz and Gildenstern. They are as integral to the functioning of our democracy as the Cleveland Browns are to the Super Bowl. If our impending constitutional crisis were staged for Broadway, it would be called “Two Farinellis and the King..."

"There’s a new term entering the vernacular, which I heard for the first time from a brilliant young Ph. D. candidate who is studying American History. He told me that the likes of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are now being referred to as the “Vichy Republicans.”
Is there any person of character, courage, and principle in the Republican Party today who will play the role of Victor Laszlo in this movie, and inspire the Vichy Republicans to sing "La Marseillaise" in front of Major Strasser? Is there any Republican who is willing to stand up and say that destroying the FBI to save Donald Trump is a devil’s bargain?"

With rank and file Republicans now in lock step behind Donald Trump's efforts to undermine the FBI, the Mueller investigation, and the rule of law, BornToRunTheNumbers finds it unconscionable that the most senior GOP leaders are standing idly by and allowing this assault on our democracy to proceed. Where are Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan?

http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/02/btrtn-appeasement-of-eunuchs.html

Excerpts: "Yes, other than Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are supposedly the two most powerful government officials in the nation, and both appear to be about as essential to the national dialog as Rosenkrantz and Gildenstern. They are as integral to the functioning of our democracy as the Cleveland Browns are to the Super Bowl. If our impending constitutional crisis were staged for Broadway, it would be called “Two Farinellis and the King..."

"There’s a new term entering the vernacular, which I heard for the first time from a brilliant young Ph. D. candidate who is studying American History. He told me that the likes of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are now being referred to as the “Vichy Republicans.”
Is there any person of character, courage, and principle in the Republican Party today who will play the role of Victor Laszlo in this movie, and inspire the Vichy Republicans to sing "La Marseillaise" in front of Major Strasser? Is there any Republican who is willing to stand up and say that destroying the FBI to save Donald Trump is a devil’s bargain?"

Born to Run the Numbers on the Numbers on yet another example of Trump seeming to squander political gain in his obsession to undermine the Mueller investigation:

http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/02/btrtn-is-trump-on-rise-or-did-he-just.html

Excerpts:

"One might have thought that a rational politician with an experienced communications team would have allowed the SOTU lovefest to endure over several news cycles, but Devin Nunes took care of that. And Trump, of course, is the real source of the stomp-over-myself strategy, for he was the one who insisted on the release of the memo – indeed, such a release requires his authorization -- and he could have certainly delayed the timing.

We’ll have to wait for next week to see how much of Trump’s approval gain he gives back by desperately championing this ridiculous gambit and absurdly claiming, as he did this morning, total “vindication.”

Born to Run the Numbers on the Numbers on yet another example of Trump seeming to squander political gain in his obsession to undermine the Mueller investigation:

http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/02/btrtn-is-trump-on-rise-or-did-he-just.html

Excerpts:

"One might have thought that a rational politician with an experienced communications team would have allowed the SOTU lovefest to endure over several news cycles, but Devin Nunes took care of that. And Trump, of course, is the real source of the stomp-over-myself strategy, for he was the one who insisted on the release of the memo – indeed, such a release requires his authorization -- and he could have certainly delayed the timing.

We’ll have to wait for next week to see how much of Trump’s approval gain he gives back by desperately championing this ridiculous gambit and absurdly claiming, as he did this morning, total “vindication.”

Born to Run the Numbers on Donald Trump's State of the Union Address:
http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/01/btrtn-state-of-delusion-address.html

Excerpts: "Last night Donald Trump opened his first State of the Union address by declaring his passionate desire for unity. Now, there are very few things that Trump supporters and opponents agree on, but the idea that Trump is passionately seeking unity? Pretty much everyone in the country can disagree with that... Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters would tell you that his appeal lies precisely in his political incorrectness. They would tell you that they love the fact that he says out loud what they secretly believe. They love the fact that Trump called a broad swath of African nations “shitholes.” They support a guy who equated neo-Nazis, anti-Semites, and white supremacists with those who protested such bigotry. They would tell you that they love the fact that he says things that piss off those liberal intellectual elites. Unity? Trump supporters adore the fact that most mornings he writes tweets that are precisely intended to bludgeon, vilify, and slander segments of our society that they loathe.

"Sure, Donald, the state of our union is actually pretty decent considering the carnage you've wrought in your first year in office. And if you leave out all the degrading and embarrassing things you've done -- the bigotry, misogyny, the assertions of "fake news," the venomous twitter rage, the insults to our allies and the pandering to tyrants, your efforts to undermine the FBI, and the fact that you are the subject of the biggest investigation into allegations of criminal behavior by the President since Watergate, then perhaps you can conclude that the state of the union is great...Which is to say that this union is holding up despite you, not because of you."

Born to Run the Numbers on Donald Trump's State of the Union Address:
http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/01/btrtn-state-of-delusion-address.html

Excerpts: "Last night Donald Trump opened his first State of the Union address by declaring his passionate desire for unity. Now, there are very few things that Trump supporters and opponents agree on, but the idea that Trump is passionately seeking unity? Pretty much everyone in the country can disagree with that... Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters would tell you that his appeal lies precisely in his political incorrectness. They would tell you that they love the fact that he says out loud what they secretly believe. They love the fact that Trump called a broad swath of African nations “shitholes.” They support a guy who equated neo-Nazis, anti-Semites, and white supremacists with those who protested such bigotry. They would tell you that they love the fact that he says things that piss off those liberal intellectual elites. Unity? Trump supporters adore the fact that most mornings he writes tweets that are precisely intended to bludgeon, vilify, and slander segments of our society that they loathe.

"Sure, Donald, the state of our union is actually pretty decent considering the carnage you've wrought in your first year in office. And if you leave out all the degrading and embarrassing things you've done -- the bigotry, misogyny, the assertions of "fake news," the venomous twitter rage, the insults to our allies and the pandering to tyrants, your efforts to undermine the FBI, and the fact that you are the subject of the biggest investigation into allegations of criminal behavior by the President since Watergate, then perhaps you can conclude that the state of the union is great...Which is to say that this union is holding up despite you, not because of you."

Tomorrow is the anniversary of Trump's inauguration. Born to Run the Numbers wonders why Americans are not more outraged.

http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/01/btrtn-end-of-year-of-living-complacently.html

Excerpts: "Our very political climate is changing, far more rapidly and with more immediate potentially disastrous consequence than even the disruption that our ecosystem that is having upon our planet. Donald Trump is not weather, he is climate. He is changing who we are, how we interact with other nations, and how we govern ourselves. And yet the simple truth is that we the people aren’t doing much about it."
"When a democracy functions well, individuals in political parties are loyal first to the nation and second to the party, and are therefore capable of objectively assessing the actions of their own. Read again, if you will, the lists compiled above, only this time imagine Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton committing any single one of the offenses on this list. Just one. Can you imagine the Republican vitriol, venom, and calls for impeachment that would have faced Obama or Clinton if they had committed any of those heinous acts? When the party in power pardons its own leader for every offense but crucifies its opponent for any offense, you do not have a functioning democracy."
"Martin Luther King, Jr. did not virtually cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Four college students at Kent State University did not die in a Vietnam War Protest chat room. Civil disobedience can’t be emailed in. It is a real, human, flesh and blood outrage intentionally staged directly in front of the town hall."

Tomorrow is the anniversary of Trump's inauguration. Born to Run the Numbers wonders why Americans are not more outraged.

http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/01/btrtn-end-of-year-of-living-complacently.html

Excerpts: "Our very political climate is changing, far more rapidly and with more immediate potentially disastrous consequence than even the disruption that our ecosystem that is having upon our planet. Donald Trump is not weather, he is climate. He is changing who we are, how we interact with other nations, and how we govern ourselves. And yet the simple truth is that we the people aren’t doing much about it."
"When a democracy functions well, individuals in political parties are loyal first to the nation and second to the party, and are therefore capable of objectively assessing the actions of their own. Read again, if you will, the lists compiled above, only this time imagine Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton committing any single one of the offenses on this list. Just one. Can you imagine the Republican vitriol, venom, and calls for impeachment that would have faced Obama or Clinton if they had committed any of those heinous acts? When the party in power pardons its own leader for every offense but crucifies its opponent for any offense, you do not have a functioning democracy."
"Martin Luther King, Jr. did not virtually cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Four college students at Kent State University did not die in a Vietnam War Protest chat room. Civil disobedience can’t be emailed in. It is a real, human, flesh and blood outrage intentionally staged directly in front of the town hall."