In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

News about two sets of polls over the weekend brings me back to the question I raised a week ago , in which I cited Rush Limbaugh's often-expressed view that the polls aren't meant to report the news, they're meant to shape it. So in that context, what are we to make of the weekend's new polls showing Trump trending ahead of Joe once again? For CNN : Former President Donald Trump has opened his biggest lead ever captured in the CNN poll of the American electorate, enjoying a six-point advantage over incumbent Democrat President Joe Biden. Trump, at 49 percent, is six percent ahead of Biden’s 43 percent when the two are polled head-to-head. For Gallup , President Joe Biden averaged 38.7% job approval during his recently completed 13th quarter in office, which began on Jan. 20 and ended April 19. None of the other nine presidents elected to their first term since Dwight Eisenhower had a lower 13th-quarter average than Biden. . . . Jimmy Carter is the only ...

Let's recall that a week ago, Judge Merchan wasn't going to let Trump take any days off from his New York trial : The New York judge overseeing former President Trump’s hush money trial said Monday that Trump cannot attend arguments on presidential immunity at the Supreme Court next week. It came after the judge earlier delayed a decision on allowing Trump to attend his son Barron’s high school graduation in May. The attempts by Trump to take off certain days of his hush money trial that is expected to last weeks, if not months, came as the first day of trial was officially underway in Manhattan. . . . “Arguing before the Supreme Court is a big deal, and I can certainly appreciate why your client would want to be there, but a trial in New York Supreme Court . . . is also a big deal,” Judge Juan Merchan said to Trump lawyer Todd Blanche, rejecting his request to let the former president play hooky. “I will see him here next week,” the judge added. While the judge cle...

Remarks from Joe Biden in his recent interview with Howard Stern drew some attention this week . Following the death of his first wife in an auto accident, "I got put in that 10 Most Eligible Bachelors list," he told Stern. "And a lot of lovely women ... would send very salacious pictures and I just give them to the Secret Service. And I thought somebody would think I was ... " The president then seems to trail off. U.S. senators and House representatives are not provided Secret Service detail, though many do travel with some security. He then discussed how he met his current wife, first lady Jill Biden. He went on about meeting Jill: "I just gave up," Biden continued. "I got a call from my brother. So, I have a girl here at Delaware; Jill is nine years younger than I am. He said you'll love her. She doesn't like politics." What I haven't seen anyone mention so far is that the Stern interview appears to have been ta...

Via the Washington Examiner : A judge in Florida went on an unsealing spree this week, making public a trove of documents that had previously been filed under seal or in heavily redacted form in former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case. The documents, which included hundreds of pages of exhibits, motions, and other filings, underscored the close communication the Biden White House and the National Archives and Records Administration had in the year before Trump was indicted. . . . Trump has consistently maintained that NARA was out to get him and that the agency had been maliciously coordinating with President Joe Biden’s White House from the outset of its pursuit. Newly unredacted court papers showing Trump and Smith battling over access to discovery in February reveal examples of the communication Trump has criticized. In fact, the records confirm a lengthy history of collaboration among the White House, the National Archives, and the Justice Department ...

With the start of the Trump New York trial, the legal theories behind the various Trump lawfare cases are beginning to become clear. Alan Dershowitz gives a 30,000 foot interpretation in this YouTube video . At 7:28, he gives a simplified version of the prosecution's strategy: Today was the first, pretty much, day of trial for Donald Trump. There's only one problem withthe trial: no reasonable person can figure out what the crime is. For example, today the witness was this guy Pecker from the National Enquirer, this kinda rag, that does "catch and kill", yuou know, he makes money by geting rich people to pay him to buy stories from people who are going to be exposing famous people, and then he buys the story and gets an exclusive with the accuser, and then doesn't run the story. A pretty sleazy journalism, not a crime! Why did we have a whole day of testimony on something that may be immoral but isn't a crime? And in the next days, we're ...

Although the New York courts have announced that they intend to post transcripts of the Trump trial "before the end of the following business day", this so far hasn't taken place, and the most recent transcript on the site is from Monday. Thus, at least so far, I'm having to rely on incomplete media accounts of the record. Here's the version of vesterday's blowup on Breitbart : Merchan then asked Blanche to explain if Trump believed he was not violating the gag order when he reposted the Truths. “I’d like to hear that,” Merchan exclaimed. Blanche tried to explain, but Merchan said, “Blanche, you’re losing all credibility. I have to tell you right now, you’re losing all credibility with the court.” There's a not fully helpful account of the proceedings in reverse chronological order on CNN . The exchange above appears to have taken place near the end of the hearing, close to the start of the day's trial at 11:00 AM. The specific issue, acco...

In the middle of her podcast yesterday, while discussing the Trump trial in New York, Megyn Kelly interrupted the discussion to announce, "This just in! Pecker's up!" and proceeded to giggle. This, of course, was a reference to David Pecker, the former publishing executive who is the lead prosecution witness in the trial. Her reference to his being "up" meant that he was taking the stand as they spoke, but the point, of course, was the bawdy implication that could be drawn from the circumstance. This, it seems to me, is the emerging problem for the prosecution with this trial, and as with anything else, no plan survives contact with the enemy. After more than a week, it's been a bore. During jury selection, we had the usual talking heads outlining the usual defense strategies for choosing jurors, with the usual pontifications about New York juries -- except that the usual things didn't happen. Politico was one of the few outlets to notice: A...