Here are my observations and opinions on the impeachment trial and other select news of the day.
THE WHITE HOUSE RESPONSE in the Senate impeachment trial mercifully came Saturday as a brief preview of what’s to come on Monday, giving members the rest of the weekend to, at least, get butt relief.
The brief preview should give Schiff & Co. an indication of what they can look forward to on Monday afternoon, and the senators can be assured that the White House counsel will not take the fully allowed time for their response.
THERE ARE POLLS, but the television viewer results are quite enlightening. The TV ratings folks report that the soap opera “The Young & The Restless” drew 3.70 million viewers on CBS versus 1.50 million who viewed its Wednesday coverage. The numbers watching soap operas versus trial coverage on ABC and NBC are similar, reported Rich Noyes of NewsBusters.
A FELLOW BLOGGER EXPOSES NOONAN – Regular readers will recall my frequent comments on the opinions of Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, the most recent published in my last post – “Noonan fantasizes” – in which she suggested the impeachment trial be broadened for history’s sake.
While scanning some of my favorite blogs this morning, I noticed that Don Surber also exposed her for what she is – a liberal who claims to be a conservative. In his piece on Saturday, “The lightness of being Peggy Noonan,” he, too, recognizes her as an “elitist fraud, superficial, flighty, and lazy.”
ANOTHER FRAUD – When I don’t recognize the byline on a column or op-ed, I always refer to the end to learn who he or she is to determine the individual’s credibility.
The headline in Sunday’s Arizona Republic, “What Evidence Would Sway You?” caught my attention, but I never heard of the author, Jonathan Zimmerman. I noted that he teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania and has written a book on college teaching in America.
The red flag went up, but I decided to see what he had to say anyway. No surprise. While noting that “the evidence is already overwhelming,” and conceding that he had made up his mind that President Trump should be removed from office, he admonished Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for predicting the outcome, and violating the “impartial justice” oath. Surely, Zimmerman has heard the remarks of Chuck Schumer?
He attacked McConnell for coordinating the trial process with the White House, even though Democrats, led by Tom Daschle, similarly coordinated his party’s plan with Bill Clinton’s counsel in 1999.
Laughingly, Zimmerman closed with, “As of right now, I think Trump should be removed. But I must keep my mind open to new arguments and evidence …”
CNN GAINS ANOTHER LEFTIST FROM CNBC – It was quite easy for the left-leaning John Harwood to function at CNBC for 14 years, because for some time, the business channel was the dominant source for business news on television for the east coast business elite, who are major donors to Democrat candidates. In addition, NBC, the parent company, fosters leftist views on its NBC News and MSNBC outlets. He has made frequent anti-Trump remarks, including as a campaign debate moderator.
SPEAKING OF NBC – The network allowed a freelance writer, Noah Berlatsky, to write an unbelievably anti-Trump opinion piece for its online Hot Take.
Insinuating that Trump’s 2015 reference to rapists and criminals coming across our southern border, as many on the left do, that all those crossing the border are rapists and criminals, is false. With no credible racist remarks to attribute to the president, he again turns to 2015, when Trump didn’t repudiate David Duke fast enough to suit him.
Incredibly, Berlatsky began his piece with “Trump made it clear in his campaign that ‘Make American Great Again’ meant that America was greater when white people’s power was more sweeping and more secure.”
Berlatsky claims that “white voters approved that message by a whopping 58 percent to 37 percent,” without attribution.
In an obvious attempt to paint Trump voters as racists, he quotes Terry Smith, a visiting professor at the University of Baltimore School of law, who wrote, “racist voting is not just immoral, but illegal … when voters go to the booth, they’re not expressing a mere personal preference … voters who pull the levers to harm black people are violating the Constitution.”
MEANWHILE, President Trump continues to make inroads in minority communities with all-time low black and Hispanic unemployment records, the signing of his First Step Act feature of his criminal justice reform effort, and the restoration of funding to black colleges. He spoke at the Blacks for Trump rally in Atlanta in November as a kick-off for that organization to support his 2020 reelection.
Blacks welcome the president’s enthusiastic support of the 2nd Amendment and were heavily represented in Richmond, Virginia to oppose proposed limits on the amendment in the Commonwealth.
And did you notice who was at the president’s side during his appearance at the March for Life? None other than Martin Luther King’s niece, Alveda King.
HAVE YOU HEARD that satisfaction “with the way things are going” in the United States has reached a 15-year high? That’s about four times the low points registered under President Obama.
The latest Gallup survey revealed that 41 percent are satisfied with the direction of the nation, a level not hit since 2005, during the George W. Bush administration.
VOTING ON YOUR SMARTPHONE – “There is a firm consensus in the cybersecurity community that mobile voting on a smartphone is a really stupid idea,” said Duncan Buell, a computer science professor at the University of South Carolina, who specializes in election technology.
Leave it the liberals of the Greater Seattle area to ignore the warning to become the first in which every voter can cast a ballot using a smartphone, “an historic moment for American democracy,” they have stated.
About 1.2 million eligible voters could take part in a board of supervisors’ election next month.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.