[St Charles Owl]

A striking op-ed piece has been published anonymously in the New York Times from a Senior Trump Administration Official:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opini...e=Homepage

The NY Times piece is causing a real stir over this side of the pond!! Trump is understandably furious although he hasn't gone postal on denying anything in it, just that the person is a coward and should make himself known to the White House. Trumps's base of course don't believe a word of it, the NY Times is a left wing paper known for its attacks on Trump down the years so that gives it no credibility. On the back of Woodwards book though it does create a knew set of topics with regards to thee way the WH is currently being run, but more importantly who is actually running it!!!

Is this all just a taste of what we might see in the next couple of months as we approach the November mid-term elections? The polls currently show the Dems winning important seats and maybe gaining control of some part of the Government, they show Trump still in the low 40s approval rating but they also show an economy that is doing very well with unemployment at very low levels and most economic indicators on the positive side now and projected into the future. The Dems have already lost to Trump even though they showed he lied, paid off people, was completely sexist, is a bigot, maybe a racist, is not a credible option for President, so they are going to have to be very careful using those same tactics again because it doesn't seem to affect his supporters that he is all those things. Having a robust economy means Trump can lean on that with vigour to show his policies are working, that jobs are coming back to the US, that he has agreed a new trade deal with Mexico that benefits the US more and he will leave Canada behind if he needs to, that most Americans are actually paying less tax than they were under Obama and that immigration is at its lowest point in the last few decades. He will claim he created all of this with his MAGA policies, and even though the media and Dems will show that most of these things have nothing to do with his policies, his supporters will absolutely lap it up!!

[0762]

Now Barack Obama on a podium and slamming into Trump and "lets have a return to honest politics" - absolutely unprecedented in the history of US politics and Trump commenting that he fell asleep listening to the speech (he had to say something negative eh). It just indicates to me that there are two Americas, two separate polarised populations and the challenge for the Democrats is to attract a big majority of the US population and keep their support onside. The other associated move is to find a reputable leader who will be admired and respected in order to push on to better political position.

[WBA-Josh]

President Trump has now said that there was not 3000 deaths in Puerto Rico last year due to two hurricanes. The 3000 deaths had been reported by an Independant report commissioned by the Puerto Rico Government.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrati...uerto-rico

It looks like President Trump is going back to making Conspiracy Theories to distract people from what is happening currently. Not only is there Hurricane Florence on its way to the Carolinas, the Administration transfered just under $10 Million from FEMA to ICE over the summer to help deal with the Southern boarder and Paul Manafort is in negotiations with Robert Mueller’s team over a plea deal.

https://www.npr.org/2018/09/12/647021316...6857183027

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/...story.html

[WBA-Josh]

Paul Manafort has agreed a plea deal with Robert Mueller’s office which includes co-operation with the Russia Investigation.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/1...eal-823882

[0762]

The "noose is gradually tightening" around Trump's neck and Robert Mueller and his staff must be delighted their work in dealing with Manafort and deciphering what Trump's election campaign was really all about.

[WBA-Josh]

President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his accuser both want to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee next week.

Kavanaugh says that the accusation that he tried to rape a woman at a party when they were both teenagers is false whilst the accuser has passed a polygraph test, her story matches her therapist’s notes and she wants to testify publicly about the claims.

It’s going to be very interesting next week if it happens.

[hibeejim21]

Trump is completely insane, I know that's self evident by now but it just bears repeating.

[WBA-Josh]

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/michael-...d=57959664

[WBA-Josh]

Saturday Night Live is back and they started off strong with a Brett Kavanaugh’s testimony sketch.

https://youtu.be/VRJecfRxbr8

I watched both testimonies on Thursday and I found Dr Ford to be credible even with some small gaps in her account (expected because of how long it has been since then) and whilst I found Kavanaugh to have credibility as well, his conduct during the hearing made him look unstable and unfit for the Supreme Court. His partisan rant about it being a Clinton revenge conspiracy was in particular troubling for a man in his position.

I believe the incident happened and that Dr Ford is telling the truth. I don’t believe Kavanaugh is lying about it on purpose though and instead he simply doesn’t remember it happening.

[St Charles Owl]

The rhetoric over here about this whole thing is at fever pitch and once again dividing the country even more. Have yet to come across a democrat that doesn’t believe and support Ford, nor a Republican who doesn’t support Kavanaugh!! She is a whore and liar, he is a rapist and sexual predator is the type of stuff going around. Problem is neither characterizations are right and this is a classic case of he said, she said and there can be no proof entered by either to prove their assertions. Not sure what the FBI will find, but I would think they will say that there is no evidence of an assault by him on her.

The likely upshot is this will go to a vote in Congress and it will come down to the one or two Republicans who are wavering to stand up and develop a backbone and vote to not confirm him. Even before all this I never thought he was suitable anyway, he is far to right wing and far too politically biased to be a SC judge. I expect a Republican president to appoint right leaning judges, but this guy is right out on the fringes of the right.