Friday, July 06, 2018
Scott Pruitt "Resigns" (Was Fired) As EPA Administrator
On Thursday, Trump sent the tweet above, announcing that he had accepted the resignation of Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt. Make no mistake though. Pruitt was fired from that job. He loved the job, and would never have resigned on his own.
Pruitt had piled up a list of ethical lapses that was pages long, and at least 15 investigations into his conduct were under way. Under any ethical presidential administration (of either party), Pruitt would have been fired many months ago. But ethics is not a concern of the Trump administration, and Pruitt was doing what Trump wanted done -- trashing regulations that prevented corporations from fouling our air and poisoning our land and water -- so Trump kept him in the job and ignored the numerous ethical violations.
Pruitt was a friend to the fossil fuel industries and corporate polluters, and he was a climate change denier. That was what Trump liked about him, and putting him in charge of the EPA was like putting a fox in charge of the henhouse. It may take decades to undo the damage Pruitt has done to our environment.
So, why did Trump fire him? If it wasn't for the ethical violations and Trump was happy with him trashing the environment, why was he fired? Simple -- he had become an embarrassment that Trump could no longer ignore. Pruitt was in the headlines too much, taking up headlines and air time that Trump thinks only he has the right to. Trump was getting tired of making excuses for Pruitt and afraid that Pruitt's corruption was starting to taint the Trump administration (even though Trump is the most corrupt individual in Washington).
In the end, Pruitt learned what many other former Trump employees have learned. While Trump demands loyalty, that loyalty is a one-way street (and is never returned). Trump will happily toss an employee under the bus to save himself. On Thursday, Pruitt got tossed under that bus.
Who Is The Most Popular Supreme Court Justice ?
With the announced retirement of Justice Kennedy, I thought it would be interesting to see what the public thought of each of the Supreme Court justices -- and the Economist / YouGov Poll evidently thought so also. They asked their respondents if they had a favorable or unfavorable rating of each of the justices. Their survey was done between July 1st and 3rd of a national sample of 1,500 adults, with a 3 point margin of error.
Who is the most popular (most favorably viewed justice? That would be Ruth Bader Ginsburg at 36%, followed closely by Thomas at 35%, and Kennedy and Sotomayor at 34%.
When you look at the net favorable rating (favorable minus unfavorable), the top is Kennedy with 12 points, followed by Ginsburg and Roberts at 9 points.
None of the justices had a higher unfavorable than favorable rating.
Trump Is Not Winning Any Friends Over Immigration Policy
In an effort to appease his base, Donald Trump has followed through on his campaign promises on immigration. But while that pleases his racist and xenophobic base, it does not appeal to the majority of Americans.
Just look at the results of this new poll on Trump's odious immigration policies. The public opposes his immigration policies by a 19 point margin, thinks it should be easier (instead of harder) to immigrate to U.S. by a 17 point margin, does NOT think undocumented immigrants are more likely to commit crimes by a 44 point margin, oppose separating immigrant children from parents by a 24 point margin, want those children and parents united by a whopping 71 point margin, and think the separation policy is a violation of human rights by a 24 point margin.
Trump thinks those policies will help Republicans in the coming election. But that will only happen if Democrats and Independents stay at home on election day (like they did in 2010). I don't think that will happen this year, and Trump's immigration policies are only helping to insure a huge turnout of those who oppose his policies.
The charts above show the results of a new Quinnipiac University Poll -- done between June 27th and July 1st of a national sample of 1,020 voters, with a margin of error of 3.7 points.
The Republican Party Must be Destroyed (For Its Own Good)
Regular readers of this blog will know I am a progressive Democrat. I have never voted for a Republican, and probably never will. But that doesn't mean I think this nation only needs one political party. We have seen what happens to countries with only one party, and it isn't pretty.
Our traditional two-party system has worked pretty well. Having two parties acting as a check on each other prevents either party from turning the country into an authoritarian dictatorship. And it lets the citizens (through their vote) decide the path the country should take.
But today's Republican Party has lost its way. It is no longer a traditional conservative party. It has become a cult of personality -- following a racist, xenophobic, and misogynistic leader who has no respect for the traditional conservative principles of the party. It's now the party of Trump -- devoid of values or principles.
It needs to be decimated by voters in the 2018 and 2020 elections. That needs to happen so it can rebuild itself, and once again offer voters a real choice -- so it can shed its current cult status and once again become a real political party.
I'm not the only one who believes this. Consider this small part of an article by Max Boot in The Washington Post:
After a lifetime as a Republican, I re-registered as an independent on the day after Donald Trump’s election. . . .
I am more convinced than ever that I made the right decision. The transformation I feared has taken place. Just look at the reaction to President Trump’s barbarous policy of taking children away from their parents as punishment for the misdemeanor offense of illegally entering the country. While two-thirds of Americans disapproved of this state-sanctioned child abuse, forcing the president to back down, a majority of Republicans approved. If Trump announced he were going to spit-roast immigrant kids and eat them on national TV (apologies to Jonathan Swift), most Republicans probably would approve of that, too. The entire Republican platform can now be reduced to three words: whatever Trump says. . . .
Personally, I’ve thrown up my hands in despair at the debased state of the GOP. I don’t want to be identified with the party of the child-snatchers. But I respect principled conservatives who are willing to stay and fight to reclaim a once-great party that freed the slaves and helped to win the Cold War. What I can’t respect are head-in-the-sand conservatives who continue to support the GOP by pretending that nothing has changed.
They act, these political ostriches, as if this were still the party of Ronald Reagan and John McCain rather than of Stephen K. Bannon and Stephen Miller — and therefore they cling to the illusion that supporting Republican candidates will advance their avowed views. Wrong. The current GOP still has a few resemblances to the party of old — it still cuts taxes and supports conservative judges. But a vote for the GOP in November is also a vote for egregious obstruction of justice, rampant conflicts of interest, the demonization of minorities, the debasement of political discourse, the alienation of America’s allies, the end of free trade and the appeasement of dictators.
That is why I join . . . other principled conservatives, both current and former Republicans, in rooting for a Democratic takeover of both houses in November. Like postwar Germany and Japan, the Republican Party must be destroyed before it can be rebuilt.
Thursday, July 05, 2018
Public Still Has A Very Low Opinion Of Donald Trump
Trump's job approval has been upside-down since he was sworn in. This is not only because he's done a poor job in leading the country, but people just don't have a very high opinion of him as a person.
The public thinks he is dishonest by a 20 point margin, says he has poor leadership skills by a 12 point margin, doesn't believe he cares about average Americans by a 12 point margin, thinks he's not level-headed by a 28 point margin, doesn't believe he shares their values by a 23 point margin, and thinks he's provides very poor moral leadership by a 26 point margin. The only thing they give him credit for is being intelligent, but obviously they don't like the way he uses that intelligence.
Those are some very poor numbers, and that tells me he's not going to have any coattails for GOP candidates to cling to in the coming election.
The chart shows the results of a new Quinnipiac University Poll -- done between June 27th and July 1st of a national sample of 1,020 voters, with a 3.7 point margin of error.
New Poll Supports The Idea Of A Blue Wave
These charts reflect the results of a new Quinnipiac University Poll -- done between June 27th and July 1st of a national sample of 1,020 voters, with a 3.7 point margin of error.
The numbers look good for Democrats. Democrats hold a 9 point advantage over Republicans in the generic ballot. Add to this the facts that the voters disapprove of the job Congress is doing by a 63 point margin, and want Congress to act as a check on Trump by a 51 point margin.
That would make it seem that Democrats are in a good position. All they need to do is get their voters to the polls, and that should happen since Democrats are more motivated to vote than Republicans.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)