SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2016

Today’s Good News And Bad News

From Our Local Political Junkie We’ll Call “Cincy Dave”

GOOD NEWS FOR HILLARY
In January, Michigan passed a bill to eliminate straight ticket voting, where someone could mark their ballot with one mark – all Democrats or all Republicans, something that Michigan has had for over 100 years, and was widely used by African-Americans.   The purpose of the bill was to make it take longer to vote, because voters would have to vote for each office individually, thereby creating longer lines in majority black voting precincts and discouraging some people from voting.  It was just another, although unusual, voter suppression technique.  Of course, opponents of the law sued and after a few lower court battles, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday, upholding a lower court decision that struck down the law.

BAD NEWS FOR TRUMP
The story about Trump paying a bribe to Florida Attorney General, Pam Bondi to drop the fraud case against Trump University has produced another reaction.  An Anti-Trump PAC has filed a formal complaint with the Department of Justice.    The DOJ will, of course, investigate, taking their good sweet time about it.   This will allow the story to hang around and possibly build as more facts dribble out, a little at a time.  However, the investigation is unlikely to be completed before election day, so Trump is in no immediate danger of being indicted for bribery before then.  In the event he is elected and Republicans retain a house majority, he could avoid impeachment as well.  Stay tuned on this one as there is surely more to come.   

TRUMP ON RUSSIAN TV
Thursday, Trump went on Russia Today (RT) a cable TV channel wholly owned and controlled by the Kremlin, to claim that Russia is not trying to influence the U.S. presidential election.  The interview was broadcast in Russia in both English and Russian.  We are sure that Vladimir was happy to hear what he had to say, even as he reviewed plans for the next two months of cyber attacks.  Trump also went on to trash the president and U.S. foreign policy, which the dictator was also happy to hear.  Trump has made repeated statements kissing up to Putin over the course of the campaign, so much so that their relationship has been called a “bromance.”

PENCE AGREES WITH TRUMP ON PUTIN/OBAMA 
Trump’s running mate, Gov. Mike Pence (R-IN), has also now jumped on board the Putin train. During an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, he opined:“I think it’s inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country, and that’s going to change the day that Donald Trump becomes President of the United States of America.”   Pence is treading on thin ice here.  He seems to be under the delusion that he will be in the running to be a presidential candidate in future years, but that statement will undoubtedly come back to haunt him.  Saying good things about an evil dictator that shoots down civilian airliners full of people, kills political opponents, and invades other countries, probably won’t go over too well with any except the most hard-core right wingers.  If Pence likes dictators, he would have really loved the ones from World War II.  

PENCE RELEASES TAXES
Even though nobody was asking for them, Mike Pence released his income tax returns yesterday and they showed nothing unusual or unexpected.  Last year, he earned 113,000 and his wife didn’t earn anything.   The release just again pointed out that Trump has not released his, obviously because there is something in there that would cost him more votes than not releasing the information would.

HILLARY HOLDS PRESS CONFERENCE
Hillary has been pilloried in the press for not holding a news conference for nearly nine months. On Monday and Tuesday, she talked to reporters in her new plane, which has a press section.   The day before yesterday, she went whole hog and held an official, formal press conference.   A Chris Cillizza put it, “And, nothing happened. The world didn’t stop spinning. Toilets still flushed the same way.” Reporters asked questions and she answered them. It wasn’t painful at all. At press conferences, most of the questions are about public policy issues, something Clinton knows a lot about. If a reporter were to ask her about Aleppo, he or she would get a very detailed answer about the situation, explaining all the options and why all of them are bad. She would definitely not say: “What is Aleppo?” (as did Gary Johnson). It is clearly to her advantage to hold more press conferences in the future.    

INTELLIGENCE OFFICIAL VS. TRUMP
In Wednesday night’s interview on NBC Trump stated that during his briefing by intelligence officials, they communicated their disagreement with Barack Obama through their body language. David Priess, a U.S. intelligence official who used to give those briefings to George W. Bush, called it “wildly unlikely.” Intelligence briefings are supposed to be, of course, confidential and Priess suggests that Trump is, “seeking to politicize intel briefings he’s received in a way that no other candidate has ever done.” It’s hard to disagree with that conclusion.  Is anyone surprised that Trump can’t keep his mouth shut about anything?  

MICHELLE BACHMAN
Former Minnesota member of congress, Michelle Bachman, has always been considered a little nutty.  Recently, she claimed that God supported Trump in the GOP primary. (Isn’t it funny how God always has the same opinion of things as the one telling it?)  Anyway, now she can be certified as clinically insane.  She has stated that, if elected, Hillary will jail Christians and prosecute churches and non-profits. Apparently, Michelle thinks that Christians are a small enough minority that they are susceptible to persecution. She also probably doesn’t know that Hillary is a Methodist – the same as W. Bush, but probably a little more devout.

TODAY’S MEANINGLESS POLL
Indiana can best be politically described as the most Southern state that is north of the Ohio River.  So, a polling result like this is completely expected.

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