Politically, We're Still Far From The Public Accepting Impeachment For Trumpanzee

Polls show that most Americans know Trump's a liar. Revelations of more lies-- daily revelations of more lies-- isn't going to change anything. That he's a dishonest asshole is baked into the cake. It looks like Señor T was partially correct when he said he could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and not lose any voters. "Any voters?" Wrong. He won't lose the obsessed racists and willing fascists. In reality, though, he has lost voters.

A new Ipsos poll for Reuters found that union members who voted for Trump in greater numbers than for Hillary have been abandoning him. His support among union members is down by 15 points in the last year-- now at 47% from a high of 62%. Union members put Trump over the top in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. That wouldn't happen again if the election was held today. Many union members who vote dfor Trump in 2016 have buyer’s remorse and plan to take it out on Republicans in November. Reuters quoted a 37 year factory worker in Dubuque: "Trump is for the rich. [Republican Congressman] Blum’s for big business. They said they were for the workers, but they’re not."

That sentiment should encourage Democrats, who saw their once-reliable labor vote help send Trump to the White House after he vowed to revive Rust Belt factories with trade tariffs and ailing coal mines with environmental deregulation. Now-- with coal still struggling and Trump stoking a trade war-- many union workers have soured on the president ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections, the Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll shows.

...A loose coalition of union leaders, Democratic strategists and political action committees (PACs) aims to seize on that shift by directing money and campaign workers to about 30 competitive races in union-heavy districts. The party needs to gain 23 seats to retake the U.S. House of Representatives... Democratic strategists are targeting blue-collar enclaves of the Midwest, along with districts covering California farmlands, New York industry towns and Montana wilderness. They aim to trash the Republican tax cut, along with Trump’s failure to back a minimum wage and his attempt to repeal Obamacare.

...In interviews with Reuters, union members criticized the tax cut, along with Republican moves in some states-- including Iowa-- to curtail collective bargaining by public employees. And while Trump’s tough trade talk attracted many union workers to his campaign, some now worry his policies may protect some blue-collar jobs at the expense of others. Trump’s steel tariffs, for instance, could raise prices for the raw material used in factories supporting union jobs.

Reuters/Ipsos polling data shows union workers now view Democrats more favorably on key issues such as healthcare, the economy and taxes.

The percentage of union members who favored Democratic stances on health care, for instance, rose 7 points to 42 percent since March 2017, compared with 29 percent favoring Republicans. Democrats saw similar gains on taxes, jobs and the economy.

Ken Jones, a retired mechanic and Teamster union member, backed Trump because he believed Clinton was “crooked”-- borrowing Trump’s signature insult-- and that Trump might curtail illegal immigration, create jobs and fix Obamacare.

“Now I see he’s not going to do anything,” said Jones, of Oklahoma, who plans to vote Democratic this fall. “The working man don’t get nothing out of it. I never voted Republican until Trump, and it was the worst mistake I ever made.”

Pew released a new post simultaneously-- with some good news for Trump and some bad news.

A majority of Americans find little or no common ground with Donald Trump on issues, but the share who say they agree with him on many or all issues has risen since last August. The public’s assessment of Trump’s conduct as president is little changed over the past nine months, with 54% saying they don’t like the way he conducts himself as president.

Currently, 41% of the public agrees with Trump on “all or nearly all” or many of the issues facing the country, while 57% agree with him on just a few issues or virtually none. In August, just 33% said they agreed with Trump on many or all issues.

Ethics, of course, is a weak point for Trump and his whole regime. In Congress it's another story, a very partisan one. Republicans are sticking with Trump like flies to dog shit. Members of Congress don't care about ethics at all unless someone is caught. Interestingly enough, over the weekend a Fairbanks newspaper reported that Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) warned Trump to keep his mitts off the Mueller investigation. This is particularly important because House Republicans are expected to impeach Rod Rosenstein this week. It will just take a couple of Senate Republicans to throw it out and with Murkowski's statement, it's likely she'll be one of them.

"I have said all along that Mueller should be allowed to take this investigation wherever it takes him and his team," she said. "And I said that at the beginning and I repeat that, because I believe very, very firmly in that. And I think any efforts to thwart that are dangerous.

"If the investigation takes them to an additional turn that needs to be followed, I think this is what we're asking for when we ask for an independent investigation," she said. "That means that the president can't meddle. That means that the attorney general can't meddle. That means that the United States Senate can't meddle, and I just firmly believe that they should be able to take it where it goes."

..."I do not subscribe that this is some kind of a witch hunt," she said, referring to President Donald Trump's oft-repeated criticism of the special counsel inquiry into alleged Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election and that now appears to have spread to other matters involving Trump and his associates.

Reports regularly surface that Trump is highly frustrated by the investigation and that some of his supporters are urging Mueller's firing.

The Senate Judiciary Committee last week, in a bipartisan vote, approved a bill that would provide for judicial review of a president's firing of a special counsel. The counsel would have, under the proposal, 10 days to seek an expedited review of his or her firing. The bill also would require the attorney general to report to Congress if a special counsel is fired or appointed and to provide Congress with details if the scope of the investigation changes.

Murkowski said she is inclined to support the bill if it reaches the Senate floor.

"I have had good discussion with colleagues about this legislation," Murkowski said. "So I have said that I would consider supporting it, and based on what passed out of committee, if it comes to the floor, unless something changes I'm prepared to support it."

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said, however, that he will not allow the bill to proceed, citing constitutional concerns about encroaching on executive branch authority.

Murkowski also defended the FBI's work on the Russia investigation. The agency has been a frequent target of Trump, who only last week in a Fox News interview said, "And you look at the corruption at the top of the FBI, it's a disgrace. And our Justice Department, which I try and stay away from, but at some point, I won't."