It’s Friday afternoon as I commence penning this and as fast as things are developing please excuse me if I miss something big. Again, the week that just passed had so many big political stories that it is impossible to identify a single one as the biggest. With that in mind I want to comment on several. Let’s explore.

Just before I started to write this a news flash informed me that Shepard Smith has just resigned from Fox News. I have to credit my wife for this observation because her immediate remark was, “Bill Barr just had lunch with Murdoch”. Do those dots connect? I tend to think they do. Trump was vocally unhappy with a recent Fox News poll. Shepard Smith has recently refused to carry Trump’s water on Fox. Could Barr have been relaying Trump’s unhappiness with Fox News to its owner? I think that is not only possible but highly likely. Murdoch may not be willing to mess with the integrity of the polls, but could Smith’s “resignation” be a concession to Trump?

If my spouse aided theory is correct it appears to be the second time that Murdoch acquiesced to Trump. Can anyone forget the Republican debate with a “bleeding” Meagan Kelly questioning Trump and Trump’s subsequent boycott of a subsequent Fox broadcast debate? Kelly’s career at Fox didn’t last long after that. (By the way, the boycott night was when Trump did his own “telethon” where he pledged $1 million to the veterans which never materialized until after the Washington Post’s David Farenthold exposed Trump’s lie.)

To the surprise of nobody with a functioning brain Donald Trump failed to win the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize but he did put himself in line for the ISIS Man of the Year award if such an award exists. (If it doesn’t ISIS may have to create it to recognize Trump’s exemplary service to the organization.) By betraying the Kurds Trump effectively removed the guards of the 12,000 ISIS prisoners in Northern Syria. Trump turned 12,000 contained and neutralized ISIS warriors into a ready reserve to be redeployed in the very near future. They may well surface in an American town near you and your family.

A lot is being made of the polling showing that the majority of Americans seem to be in favor of at least the impeachment inquiry if not Trump’s removal from office. The number I’m looking at is the registered Republican number which is currently running about 4:1 against the impeachment inquiry. Until that number gets to or near 50% don’t expect mass GOP Senate “defection”.

That brings me to an interesting question: Does Trump control Fox News or can Fox News decide Trump’s fate? Watch that Republican number on impeachment.

It appeared Trump was bringing on Trey Gowdy to head his defense team then it all changed. Is Trey Gowdy really the best the sitting President of the United States can get? If I were casting the role of the less than brilliant son of a plantation owner in the Old South who spent a good part of his time molesting the female slaves could I pick someone who looked the part more than Gowdy? I certainly wouldn’t pick him to play the part of the genius defense lawyer! It’s not like Gowdy has such a sterling record when dealing with congressional inquiries. How much money and time did he waste on Benghazi? (Incidentally, it was our money and time that we paid for.)

Then there is Trump’s handling of the economy. Consider the fact that Trump has already spent more money on aid to the farmers to compensate for his misguided tariffs than the Obama administration spent to save the American auto industry. In Wisconsin alone 1,600 family farms have been lost since Trump took office. Rural white communities: keep voting for Trump since he has been so good for you.

One of Trump and Bubba’s rationales for tariffs has been that Americans would buy American goods when the Chinese goods were priced higher due to the tariffs. Well, global economics isn’t a zero sum, two-dimensional game like local real estate. In many cases the Chinese goods have been replaced by not American, but goods from other foreign countries. American workers and industries didn’t benefit but American consumers paid higher prices.

Staying on the economic front for a bit, last week we learned that for the first time in American history billionaires are legally paying a lower federal income tax rate than the working class. Rust Belt working class whites: keep voting for Trump – he’s done so much for you.

Facebook is knowingly running false Trump ads that CNN has refused to run. Maybe that is why Mark Zuckerberg had an Oval Office meeting with Trump and CNN is the target of his falsehoods at press conferences. All I have to say is that if Facebook is your primary source of political information you don’t take your responsibility as a voter very seriously.

Saudi Arabia is one of the richest countries on the face of the earth. They certainly should be able to afford the defense of their nation. Why did the Defense Department announce the deployment of 1,800 additional troops complete with aircraft and air defenses to the kingdom last week?

Trump continues his schoolyard name calling game for anyone he doesn’t like. That worked in the GOP primary and Bubba loves it. The rest of us think it is stupid and insulting to our intelligence. ESPN sportscaster Chris Berman made a name for himself giving baseball players clever nicknames which spiced up the nightly highlights. Donald Trump is no Chris Berman! Smart Democrats like Adam Schiff are wearing the nicknames like badges of honor. Last week I came up with a new impossible mission challenge: diagraming a Trump sentence.

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