BREAKING NEWS: CALIFORNIA IS A BLUE STATE
And other brilliant points to make on your morning Zoom....
Created by popular demand! (h/t Dan Rather)
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SURVIVING
WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Blue governor, Blue state – what was all the fuss about?
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: CNN, with no apparent irony, said it best: one of their five takeaways from the recall is that there are no takeaways.
Lessons from California are limited
Many of the lessons Democrats across the country can take away from the defeat of the recall are far less definitive -- complicated both by the fact that that state, with its nearly 2-1 registration advantage for Democrats, looks little like most key races in 2022 and that recall elections, by nature, create unique electoral conditions.
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RATING
Americans' views have dimmed on the way President Joe Biden is handling his job as president, with 42 percent approving and 50 percent disapproving, according to a Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pea-ack) University national poll of adults released today. This is the first time Biden's job approval has dropped into negative territory since taking office. In early August, 46 percent of Americans approved and 43 percent disapproved of the way Biden was handling his job.
In today's poll, Democrats approve 88 - 7 percent, while Republicans disapprove 91 - 7 percent and independents disapprove 52 - 34 percent.
Biden's numbers on his handling of the response to the coronavirus are mixed, with 48 percent approving and 49 percent disapproving. This compares to August, when he received a 53 - 40 percent approval rating on his handling of the coronavirus.
Americans give him a negative score on his handling of foreign policy, 34 - 59 percent. In August, 42 percent approved and 44 percent disapproved of his handling of foreign policy. They also give Biden a negative score on his handling of his job as Commander in Chief of the U.S. military, with 40 percent approving and 55 percent disapproving.
On his handling of the economy, Biden receives a negative 42 - 52 percent rating. In August, it was a slightly negative 43 - 48 percent rating.
WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: The former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee cannot like those foreign policy numbers.
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: No Democratic strategist with a candidate on the ballot in 2022 can like those “handling of the economy” numbers.
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MILLEYING
Two days after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, President Donald Trump's top military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, single-handedly took secret action to limit Trump from potentially ordering a dangerous military strike or launching nuclear weapons, according to "Peril," a new book by legendary journalist Bob Woodward and veteran Washington Post reporter Robert Costa.
Woodward and Costa write that Milley, deeply shaken by the assault, 'was certain that Trump had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election, with Trump now all but manic, screaming at officials and constructing his own alternate reality about endless election conspiracies.'
Milley worried that Trump could 'go rogue,' the authors write.
"You never know what a president's trigger point is," Milley told his senior staff, according to the book. (CNN)
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The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff twice called his Chinese counterpart in the final months of the Trump administration to reassure him that Donald J. Trump had no plans to attack China in an effort to remain in power and that the United States was not collapsing, according to “Peril,” a new book by the Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. (New York Times)
WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: My guess is that Milley didn’t realize just how obvious it would be that he was Costwood’s major source.
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Welcome to the Woodward publicity machine/gravy train, Mr. Costa.
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FIRING
WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: The little dictator goes all Rocket Man whenever he craves some attention from the West.
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: From the November 22, 2016 Wall Street Journal:
The Obama administration considers North Korea to be the top national security priority for the incoming administration, a view it has conveyed to President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team, according to people familiar with the conversations.
President Barack Obama, in a policy of “strategic patience,” refused to engage his administration in high-level negotiations with North Korea, waiting for leader Kim Jong Un to show he was committed to abandoning his nuclear arsenal.
Current and former administration officials now worry that the pace of North Korea’s nuclear weapons development, particularly its steady march toward the ability to mount a weapon on a ballistic missile, demands a more aggressive strategy.
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LIFTING
Senate conservatives will filibuster any attempt to raise the debt ceiling that they can, closing off one of Democrats’ pathways to avoiding a U.S. default later this fall.
While the GOP has vowed it won't give Democrats the affirmative votes they need to raise the borrowing limit, the party could theoretically decline to filibuster a debt bill, allowing Democrats to increase the nation's credit cap with a simple majority vote in the Senate. But Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in an interview that he won’t allow that to happen, echoing his party's growing insistence that default be avoided along party lines using the budget reconciliation process — a tactic Democratic leaders have thus far eschewed.
“Democrats have the full ability to raise the debt ceiling as a part of reconciliation,” Cruz said. “They want political cover.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/14/cruz-filibuster-democratic-debt-511771
WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Cruz passes Josh Hawley in the “most obstructionist Republican Senator” sweepstakes. It will only be a brief lead, however.
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Don’t believe anyone who tells you they know how the debt ceiling, government shutdown, infrastructure, or reconciliation September-to-remember dramas are going to play out.
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UNSURPRISING
Alex Murdaugh, the prominent South Carolina lawyer whose wife and son were shot and killed in June, asked a former client to kill him this month so his other son could collect a $10 million insurance payment but survived being shot in the head, the police said on Tuesday night. (New York Times)
WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: I knew it; case closed.
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: “Follow the money” and “cherchez la femme” still hold.
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NORMING
WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL ASK ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Who? What’s the big deal?
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: At certain moments on certain topics, pretty close to GOAT status.
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MATCHING
WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: I don’t know who that is, TC.
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Ya, uhm, he is not the Beatles.
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TIPPING
WHAT THAT LOUDMOUTH WILL ASK YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Why should I leave a tip when I can read Wide World of News for free?
WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY ON YOUR MORNING ZOOM: Halperin works hard for the money; leave a tip, please.
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