Stormy Days Ahead
The surprising raid on the President’s personal attorney’s offices and home opens a whole new dimension to the investigations. Simply put, as have have written often, it appears to us that the “collusion illusion” is a dead end. However, the financial side of things is a whole different game. Something is coming now and this is going to get messy.
There are two areas that jump out as potential targets:
1. The payment to Stormy Daniels, and who knew what, when and what they said they did.
2. The Trump finances and foreign dealings before the election.
One of those two is the area of investigation and either is a problem for Trump and the Republicans. What started on a lie “collusion” is now opening new fangs.
Impact on the 2018 Elections
This will put the administration and thus the Republicans in a worse position than they were before. Unless other events overtake things (and six months is a long time in politics) this is a headed for a Democratic tide wave. The odds of Speaker Pelosi is very probable at this point.
Syria
Some far leftists will yell the action we are about to take in Syria is a Wag The Dog scenario. They will do so because we expect a very strong action by the administration. They will see it was done so strongly because of a desire to take attention away from the Mueller and now new investigation.
They will be wrong. A strong action is a must.
The President promised and for credibility reasons he needs to act. Failure to so and he becomes Obama and red lines that means nothing.
Second he must be extra strong to show North Korea he means what he says. A strong action here will convince Kim Jong un that Trump is not one to fool around with.
Third Putin has to know we are serious. No way that Assad did what he did without Putin’s knowledge and thus approval.
Fourth Iran. They are watching to see if Trump is as tough and “crazy” as they fear. He has to assure them he is as he prepares to cancel the Iran deal.
So expect a big action — if not done by the time you read this.
A Tax Update
Remember all the noise about this tax cut was for the rich? Well here’s a stat out this week:
In 2018, households in the top 20% will have income of about $150,000 or more and 52% of total income, about the same as in 2017.
But they will pay about 87% of the income taxes. This is up from about 84% last year
So let that sink in. The top 20% will earn the same ratio of income this year as last. However they will pay 87% of the federal taxes. That 87% is up 3%. Wait I thought this was a tax break for the rich. Will the liberals and MSM apologize for their false accusations.
The Ratings
MSNBC has continually closed the gap on Fox and the ratings below illustrate that. With the announcement last night of the new probe, I am guessing they will win a few days this week too.
Total Viewers TUESDAY.
Fox wins but they and MSNBC are much closer than the past.
- Total day: FNC: 1.570 | CNN: 778 | MSNBC: 1.238 | HLN: 208
- Primetime: FNC: 2.488 | CNN: 1.018 | MSNBC: 2.186 | HLN: 280
4p: | 5p: | 6p: | 7p: | 8p: | 9p: | 10p: | 11p: | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FNC | Shep: 1.275 |
Shep: 2.269 |
Baier: 2.234 |
MacCallum: 2.008 |
Carlson: 2.416 |
Hannity: 2.931 |
Ingraham: 2.111 |
Bream: 1.336 |
CNN | Tapper: 887 |
Blitzer: 1.188 |
Blitzer: 1.033 |
Burnett: 923 |
Cooper: 1.034 |
Cooper: 1.055 |
Lemon: 962 |
Lemon: 751 |
MSNBC | Wallace: 1.313 |
MTPDaily: 1.401 |
Melber: 1.139 |
Matthews: 1.626 |
Hayes: 1.820 |
Maddow: 2.747 |
O’Donnell: 1.992 |
Wlms: 1.403 |
HLN | Michaela: 69 |
Cupp: 67 |
Banfield: 89 |
Banfield: 144 |
Killer: 189 |
Killer: 295 |
Files: 355 |
Files: 452 |
Total Viewers WEDNESDAY. Fox wins again by a small margin.
- Total day: FNC: 1.594 | CNN: 721 | MSNBC: 1.205 | HLN: 214
- Primetime: FNC: 2.541 | CNN: 923 | MSNBC: 2.241 | HLN: 279
4p: | 5p: | 6p: | 7p: | 8p: | 9p: | 10p: | 11p: | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FNC | Cavuto: 1.203 |
Five: 2.152 |
Baier: 1.967 |
MacCallum: 1.753 |
Carlson: 2.581 |
Hannity: 2.938 |
Ingraham: 2.103 |
Bream: 1.318 |
CNN | Tapper: 789 |
Blitzer: 760 |
Blitzer: 818 |
Burnett: 944 |
Cooper: 1.003 |
Cooper: 869 |
Tonight: 891 |
Tonight: 711 |
MSNBC | Wallace: 1.113 |
MTPDaily: 1.205 |
Melber: 1.291 |
Matthews: 1.597 |
Hayes: 1.805 |
Maddow: 2.779 |
O’Donnell: 2.139 |
Wlms: 1.461 |
HLN | Michaela: 80 |
Cupp: 57 |
Banfield: 118 |
Banfield: 142 |
Files: 202 |
Files: 287 |
Files: 340 |
Files: 404 |
Total Viewers THURSDAY. MSNBC edges Fox to win the night.
- Total day: FNC: 1.526 | CNN: 690 | MSNBC: 1.266 | HLN: 205
- Primetime: FNC: 2.392 | CNN: 861 | MSNBC: 2.424 | HLN: 225
4p: | 5p: | 6p: | 7p: | 8p: | 9p: | 10p: | 11p: | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FNC | Cavuto: 1.139 |
Five: 2.004 |
Baier: 1.918 |
MacCallum: 1.693 |
Carlson: 2.496 |
Hannity: 2.704 |
Ingraham: 1.974 |
Bream: 1.273 |
CNN | Tapper: 697 |
Blitzer: 779 |
Blitzer: 713 |
Burnett: 814 |
Cooper: 918 |
Cooper: 853 |
Tonight: 808 |
Tonight: 752 |
MSNBC | Wallace: 1.231 |
MTPDaily: 1.179 |
Melber: 1.357 |
Matthews: 1.618 |
Hayes: 1.803 |
Maddow: 2.904 |
O’Donnell: 2.565 |
Wlms: 1.759 |
HLN | Michaela: 89 |
Cupp: 83 |
Banfield: 126 |
Banfield: 181 |
Files: 168 |
Files: 243 |
Files: 265 |
Files: 456 |
Total Viewers FRIDAY. Fox wins the night.
- Total day: FNC: 1.408 | CNN: 675 | MSNBC: 1.151 | HLN: 202
- Primetime: FNC: 2.140 | CNN: 902 | MSNBC: 1.849 | HLN: 255
4p: | 5p: | 6p: | 7p: | 8p: | 9p: | 10p: | 11p: | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FNC | Cavuto: 972 |
Five: 1.760 |
Baier: 1.603 |
MacCallum: 1.371 |
Carlson: 2.267 |
HannitySpcl: 2.590 |
Ingraham: 1.562 |
Bream: 1028 |
CNN | Tapper: 729 |
Blitzer: 748 |
Blitzer: 772 |
Burnett: 863 |
Cooper: 1.121 |
Cooper: 812 |
Tonight: 770 |
Tonight: 703 |
MSNBC | Wallace: 1.177 |
MTPDaily: 1.165 |
Melber: 1.251 |
Matthews: 1.430 |
Rvolution: 1.251 |
Maddow: 2.526 |
O’Donnell: 1.769 |
Wlms: 1.271 |
HLN | Michaela: 83 |
Files: 75 |
Files: 97 |
Unmask: 160 |
Unmask: 230 |
DeathRw: 247 |
Files: 287 |
Files: 409 |