reggieandlee
reggieandlee's JournalBTRTN: The Glass Floor... Why Donald Trump's Approval Rating Never Budges
Born To Run The Numbers on the fact that from Charlottesville to shitholes, all the way to the current raging wild firings and Stormy weather, Donald Trump's approval rating seems frozen in a narrow band from 38% to 43%:
http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/03/btrtn-glass-floor-why-trumps-approval.html
Excerpts: "Call it the glass floor. It is invisible and yet seemingly so impenetrable. What gives? Liberals spit out the words through clenched teeth: 'What will it take to make those uneducated Red State morons finally change their minds? What atrocity must Trump commit that will actually lower that approval rating?'
Contrarians at our core, it is our duty and burden here at BTRTN to challenge the premise and reframe the question.
It is indeed frustrating and galling to speculate what it will take to make Republicans think less of Donald Trump. But it also may miss the point. It is, we believe, more educational to ask what this president is doing to have earned the absolute blind and untouchable loyalty and devotion of 42% of the population. The question is not 'what must he do wrong to alienate this core,' but 'what is the fix that keeps these addicts coming back for more?' My fellow Americans, ask not what is appalling to liberals, ask what is so implausibly enthralling to red necks."
BTRTN: The Glass Floor... Why Donald Trump's Approval Rating Never Budges
Born To Run The Numbers on the fact that from Charlottesville to shitholes, all the way to the current raging wild firings and Stormy weather, Donald Trump's approval rating seems frozen in a narrow band from 38% to 43%:
http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/03/btrtn-glass-floor-why-trumps-approval.html
Excerpts: "Call it the glass floor. It is invisible and yet seemingly so impenetrable. What gives? Liberals spit out the words through clenched teeth: 'What will it take to make those uneducated Red State morons finally change their minds? What atrocity must Trump commit that will actually lower that approval rating?'
Contrarians at our core, it is our duty and burden here at BTRTN to challenge the premise and reframe the question.
It is indeed frustrating and galling to speculate what it will take to make Republicans think less of Donald Trump. But it also may miss the point. It is, we believe, more educational to ask what this president is doing to have earned the absolute blind and untouchable loyalty and devotion of 42% of the population. The question is not 'what must he do wrong to alienate this core,' but 'what is the fix that keeps these addicts coming back for more?' My fellow Americans, ask not what is appalling to liberals, ask what is so implausibly enthralling to red necks."
BTRTN: Lawyers, Neocons, and Bunnies
Born To Run The Numbers' weekly "Saturdata" review of seven days that were out-of-control even by Trump standards:
http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/03/btrtn-lawyer-neocons-and-bunnies.html
Excerpts: "The Warren Zevon song title that inspired the headline of this piece falls short of encapsulating the week, by a long shot. There were indeed lawyers (John Dowd departing), neocons (John Bolton arriving) and a bunny (Playboy’s Karen McDougall unloading), but also so much more – a total of eight major stories populating a week that, even by Trumpworld standards, was overloaded, almost entirely due to Trump’s own actions...
"Trump also decided to give Vladimir Putin a call to congratulate him on campaigning his way to his latest 'electoral' win. We’re not sure what is more remarkable, Putin’s manipulation of his own election to garner 77% of the vote, or his manipulation of the 2016 U.S. election to get Trump to 48%... Word leaked that H.R. McMaster’s national security team had recommended that Trump not call Putin, with the colorful detail that they had stamped DO NOT CONGRATULATE on his morning briefing papers (the latest evidence that the White House is, indeed, a day care facility with Trump as Chief Child). This leak itself became news, because only a very small group of people would have known this tidbit, and one of them leaked it within hours of the briefing reaching Trump’s desk, indeed within hours of the call itself. This leak (and the ignored advice that inspired it) might have been the fatal blow for H.R. McMaster as National Security Advisor, but he had been a dead man walking for weeks, if not for the entire year-plus since he replaced – remember this guy? – Michael Flynn."
BTRTN: Lawyers, Neocons, and Bunnies
Born To Run The Numbers' weekly "Saturdata" review of seven days that were out-of-control even by Trump standards:
http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/03/btrtn-lawyer-neocons-and-bunnies.html
Excerpts: "The Warren Zevon song title that inspired the headline of this piece falls short of encapsulating the week, by a long shot. There were indeed lawyers (John Dowd departing), neocons (John Bolton arriving) and a bunny (Playboy’s Karen McDougall unloading), but also so much more – a total of eight major stories populating a week that, even by Trumpworld standards, was overloaded, almost entirely due to Trump’s own actions...
"Trump also decided to give Vladimir Putin a call to congratulate him on campaigning his way to his latest 'electoral' win. We’re not sure what is more remarkable, Putin’s manipulation of his own election to garner 77% of the vote, or his manipulation of the 2016 U.S. election to get Trump to 48%... Word leaked that H.R. McMaster’s national security team had recommended that Trump not call Putin, with the colorful detail that they had stamped DO NOT CONGRATULATE on his morning briefing papers (the latest evidence that the White House is, indeed, a day care facility with Trump as Chief Child). This leak itself became news, because only a very small group of people would have known this tidbit, and one of them leaked it within hours of the briefing reaching Trump’s desk, indeed within hours of the call itself. This leak (and the ignored advice that inspired it) might have been the fatal blow for H.R. McMaster as National Security Advisor, but he had been a dead man walking for weeks, if not for the entire year-plus since he replaced – remember this guy? – Michael Flynn."
BTRTN: In Case of Firing, Pull Here.
Born To Run The Numbers on what might happen if Trump actually goes nuclear and fires Robert Mueller.
http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/03/in-case-of-firing-pull-here.html
Excerpts:
"There are people who say that Donald Trump never really wanted to be President. They may have had a point back in the run-up to the election, but they are dead wrong now. Today, Donald Trump is desperate to hold onto his office, because he may have realized that being President of the United States is his best strategy and perhaps only hope for avoiding jail time – for him, and most of his family.
So let’s say Trump does fire Sessions and Rosenstein, and does find a toady who is willing to execute the Bork chop on Mueller. The real question is how Congress will react. Indeed, given that Republican congressional leadership appears to have catastrophic congenital defects – Ryan has no spine and McConnell has no balls -- it’s our bet that their view will be that Trump was acting within his authority in firing the special counsel, and that this action alone does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense. Each will pronounce the need to find a new special counsel, but everyone will know that the nominees coming from the Justice Department will be carefully screened Trump advocates. The risk will rise that the entire investigation will crumble.Which is why we think that Robert Mueller may have already planted a time bomb that is programmed to explode if – and only if – Trump elects to fire him."
BTRTN: In Case of Firing, Pull Here.
Born To Run The Numbers on what might happen if Trump actually goes nuclear and fires Robert Mueller.
http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/03/in-case-of-firing-pull-here.html
Excerpts:
"There are people who say that Donald Trump never really wanted to be President. They may have had a point back in the run-up to the election, but they are dead wrong now. Today, Donald Trump is desperate to hold onto his office, because he may have realized that being President of the United States is his best strategy and perhaps only hope for avoiding jail time – for him, and most of his family.
So let’s say Trump does fire Sessions and Rosenstein, and does find a toady who is willing to execute the Bork chop on Mueller. The real question is how Congress will react. Indeed, given that Republican congressional leadership appears to have catastrophic congenital defects – Ryan has no spine and McConnell has no balls -- it’s our bet that their view will be that Trump was acting within his authority in firing the special counsel, and that this action alone does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense. Each will pronounce the need to find a new special counsel, but everyone will know that the nominees coming from the Justice Department will be carefully screened Trump advocates. The risk will rise that the entire investigation will crumble.Which is why we think that Robert Mueller may have already planted a time bomb that is programmed to explode if – and only if – Trump elects to fire him."
BTRTN: What Does Pence Know, and When Did He Know It?
Born To Run The Numbers on a question that isn't getting much ink: if Mueller has an open-and-shut case on Trump, can Mike Pence avoid the debris field? And what does that mean for the line of succession?
http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/03/what-does-pence-know-and-when-did-he.html
Excerpts: "If, indeed, it is discovered that Mike Pence was present during a discussion that is proffered as evidence of obstruction of justice, how can he not be impeached as well, simultaneously? If Mike Pence, the second most senior officer of government, was in any way exposed to an act of obstruction and said and did nothing about it, he is essentially a party to the cover-up. There is no such thing as 'only obstructing justice a tiny little bit.' You are innocent, or you are guilty...
Perhaps the most interesting tidbit about Mike Pence is that he was actually one of the people who was told to 'clear the room' – along with the far more publicized hall loiterer, Jeff Sessions – while Donald Trump asked only Comey to stay inside the Oval Office for the now famous February 14, 2017 meeting. It was after Sessions, Pence, and four other senior officials were asked to clear the room that Trump allegedly asked Comey if he could 'let go' of the investigation into Flynn. Are we to believe that when Trump asked for that private time that neither Sessions nor Pence knew why Trump excluded them from the conversation? Are we expected to assume that once Comey emerged from the meeting that Pence and Sessions had no discussion about the Comey meeting with the President? When Pence finally heard Comey’s account of the meeting in Congressional testimony, are we to assume that Pence never asked Trump to give his account of the meeting?"
BTRTN: What Does Pence Know, and When Did He Know It?
Born To Run The Numbers on a question that isn't getting much ink: if Mueller has an open-and-shut case on Trump, can Mike Pence avoid the debris field? And what does that mean for the line of succession?
http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/03/what-does-pence-know-and-when-did-he.html
Excerpts: "If, indeed, it is discovered that Mike Pence was present during a discussion that is proffered as evidence of obstruction of justice, how can he not be impeached as well, simultaneously? If Mike Pence, the second most senior officer of government, was in any way exposed to an act of obstruction and said and did nothing about it, he is essentially a party to the cover-up. There is no such thing as 'only obstructing justice a tiny little bit.' You are innocent, or you are guilty...
Perhaps the most interesting tidbit about Mike Pence is that he was actually one of the people who was told to 'clear the room' – along with the far more publicized hall loiterer, Jeff Sessions – while Donald Trump asked only Comey to stay inside the Oval Office for the now famous February 14, 2017 meeting. It was after Sessions, Pence, and four other senior officials were asked to clear the room that Trump allegedly asked Comey if he could 'let go' of the investigation into Flynn. Are we to believe that when Trump asked for that private time that neither Sessions nor Pence knew why Trump excluded them from the conversation? Are we expected to assume that once Comey emerged from the meeting that Pence and Sessions had no discussion about the Comey meeting with the President? When Pence finally heard Comey’s account of the meeting in Congressional testimony, are we to assume that Pence never asked Trump to give his account of the meeting?"
BTRTN: How's That Hopey-Changey Thing Working For You, Donald?
Born To Run The Numbers on Hope Hicks' sudden decision to resign:
http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/03/hows-that-hopey-changey-thing-working.html
Excerpts:"Other than family members, Hope Hicks has been the closest, longest-standing associate of Donald Trump, and it is for a very obvious reason. When Donald Trump evaluates personnel, he cares about personal loyalty far more than competence, expertise, experience, knowledge, and wisdom combined. All Donald Trump wants to know is that you will unflinchingly have his back and that you will take his secrets to your grave. In a White House of toadies, Hope Hicks was the sickest of the sycophants, so ferociously loyal to Donald Trump that she made Ivanka look like a grousing outlier...
"Hope Hicks may simply be a young person who is in process of realizing that her deep and unmitigated trust in Donald Trump was misplaced. Perhaps someone has finally explained to her that this drama is heading to a place where there will be no longer be a 'President Trump' to protect her. Perhaps she is realizing that everyone who tries to escape the White House is suddenly a 'coffee boy' left to twist in the wind. Perhaps she is realizing that the cost of her loyalty is increasing by the day if not by the hour."
BTRTN: How's That Hopey-Changey Thing Working For You, Donald?
Born To Run The Numbers on Hope Hicks' sudden decision to resign:
http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/03/hows-that-hopey-changey-thing-working.html
Excerpts:"Other than family members, Hope Hicks has been the closest, longest-standing associate of Donald Trump, and it is for a very obvious reason. When Donald Trump evaluates personnel, he cares about personal loyalty far more than competence, expertise, experience, knowledge, and wisdom combined. All Donald Trump wants to know is that you will unflinchingly have his back and that you will take his secrets to your grave. In a White House of toadies, Hope Hicks was the sickest of the sycophants, so ferociously loyal to Donald Trump that she made Ivanka look like a grousing outlier...
"Hope Hicks may simply be a young person who is in process of realizing that her deep and unmitigated trust in Donald Trump was misplaced. Perhaps someone has finally explained to her that this drama is heading to a place where there will be no longer be a 'President Trump' to protect her. Perhaps she is realizing that everyone who tries to escape the White House is suddenly a 'coffee boy' left to twist in the wind. Perhaps she is realizing that the cost of her loyalty is increasing by the day if not by the hour."
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