Caen Spree: Gallup gives in, Bondi B.S., etc.

dot dot dot’s all folks

We’re doing dot dot dot, because why not? Thanks, Herb Caen, for popularizing journalistic ellipses; maybe an appeal to short attention spans is what this newsletter needs ...

We’re so used to major institutions capitulating to Trump — universities, law firms, newspapers, Congress — that you may have missed the latest:

Gallup will no longer measure presidential approval after 88 years

... The company said starting this year it would stop publishing approval and favorability ratings of individual political figures, saying in a statement it “reflects an evolution in how Gallup focuses its public research and thought leadership.”

... “This change is part of a broader, ongoing effort to align all of Gallup’s public work with its mission,” a spokesperson for Gallup said.

Bulllllshit. Kudos to Brandon Freeman for pointing out that Gallup also pulled a similar stunt the last time Trump was president (“Only a year after Gallup switched its presidential tracking poll… from daily to weekly, the company will announce Friday that it plans to measure President Donald Trump’s job-approval rating only on a monthly basis”).

My best guess is that, as Tubby’s numbers are in free-fall (37%, last time Gallup checked), his mob muscled the pollster to pipe down. (Corporate-speak sure is great cover for that! In a simpler time they’d have had to say their Trump pollsters got sick and had to take a long, long rest.) Not sure if Trump’s trying to silence all the other polling orgs — I wouldn’t be surprised if Gallup was the only name he could remember to tell his goons to threaten...

Hey, how many of you remember when the FAA blocked airspace over El Paso — that is, yesterday morning? Our dumbass Secretary of Transportation and our dumbass Secretary of Defense offer contradictory stories as to why they did it, and why they didn’t give anyone a heads-up. I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried something reeealy shady in the future and it had a greater chance of success because they’ve been getting us accustomed to crazy things happening for no apparent reason, making us less inclined to pay attention. Or maybe they’re just (as mentioned) dumbasses...

The malfeasance of our Prestige Press is so well understood by all thinking people (i.e. you, me, and a couple thousand other weisenheimers) that I suppose I don’t need to point out that headlines saying Pam Bondi “exchanges jabs with lawmakers,” or “clashes” with said lawmakers, obfuscate to the point of prevarication the shitshow that the AG brought to Congress, including not only her usual nasty cracks but also a long rant about how the Dow is doing great so no one should give a shit about children raped by prominent friends of Tubby and probably Tubs himself. The papers headline and sometimes write it up as if both sides (or BOTHSIDES! as we like to say here in the cynic’s corner) were equally guilty, but the Congressmembers, who do occasionally get obstreperous, are just trying to keep up with the lie-and-slander machine Bondi brings every time she shows up.

I’ve been so disgusted by this kind of horserace political coverage that it’s made me oversensitive to other sensational journalistic forms, like the strung-out story of the mother of whatshername who got kidnapped by a guy dressed like an ICE agent (has anyone worked that angle?) for gazillions in bitcoin and the cops and FBI are just sort of watching like NHL referees as whatshername and the kidnapper work it out. I just can’t enjoy it like normal people — I, who once made a pub crawl of the OJ Simpson Low-Speed Pursuit! Of even such simple joys have I been deprived! Yet another reason to hate these fucking Republicans...

Oh, speaking of the Bondi hearings, I hope you noticed that Eric Swalwell told her to start taking seriously the death threats that he and his colleagues, and their families, regularly get from Trump’s deranged followers due to his violent outbursts. I remember back in November when Trump said the Congressmembers who told soldiers not to follow illegal orders had committed treasonous acts “punishable by DEATH” and a lot of his mouth-breathers let them know they agreed and planned to see to it. (These are the same members who were just spared federal persecution for their legal and reasonable statements by a DC grand jury, continuing drunken Jeanine Pirro’s losing streak).

I’m pretty much convinced Tim Walz dropped his reelection campaign because, given Tubby’s ravings about Walz and Somalis and Medicaid fraud, he figured he’d been marked for assassination, just like Minnesota state rep Melissa Hortman and her husband. When this bullshit is ended, there have to be not just trials but also tribunals.

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