What really seems to interest Americans
The results are in, and they show what Americans really care about: the head-bashing business of professional football.
In the same week that the Bills and Steelers were going at it in a mediocre National Football League (NFL) game, the U.S. House of Representatives was engaged in a much bigger game – impeachment of a U.S. President – with huge implications for the nation.
That’s less than half number of people who tuned on the afternoon of Nov. 24 to watch the powerhouse New England Patriots take on “America’s Team,” the Dallas Cowboys, on Fox.
Almost twice as many people watched that game as turned in to view the impeachment vote.
“At 8 p.m., CBS had 6.7 million viewers for the ‘Survivor’ season finale, while ABC had 5.7 million for its live remakes of two classic Norman Lear sitcoms, Nielsen said. That’s almost certainly more viewers than they would have attracted if they had stuck with news.”
Disconnected nation
What this says about the state of politics in the currently unUnited States of America will be left to readers to decide.
If President Donald Trump survives until May 20 of next year, his career as president will have lasted as long as that of the average NFL player. And sports bookies are at this point posting 5000-to-1 odds that Trump survives an impeachment trial in the Senate, whenever that happens.
“To reiterate, given the way Republicans have fervently defended Trump throughout and with Republicans possessing a 53-46 advantage in the Senate, it’s unlikely the president is removed from office. In order to remove him, every Democrat along with 20 Republican colleagues would need to vote ‘Yes.'”
Odds Shark noted the betting site Bovada is giving better odds – 500 to 1 – that Trump will resign. The shark also reported various betting sites giving odds on key Republicans in the Senate who might vote to remove Trump from office.
Among those on the list were Sen. Lisa Murkowsksi, R-Alaska. It was 3-2 she’d vote to keep Trump.
The bookies were also thinking a House impeachment followed by a Senate judgment in Trump’s favor would aide a bid for re-election.
“It’s interesting to note that on the day the impeachment inquiry opened on September 25, the president’s odds to win the 2020 election were +120 at online sportsbook Bovada,” the Shark reported. “However, the day after the House of Representatives voted to impeach, his odds to win the election are at a four-month high at -105.”
A long battle
The election that followed was close, and Democrat efforts to oust Trump began before he was even sworn in. That coupled to the President’s ranting, bombastic, in-your-face, never-apologize personality turned up the political heat and heightened the interest within the political class both left and right, but there are some indications average Americans are tired of listening to all the squabbling.
Some people say they’ve grown so weary they’ve turned off the news, and there are some indications that might be happening on a significant scale.
Faith in the media has dipped to 41 percent, according to Gallup, despite being buoyed by a big pool of Democrat believers.
The split between the Democrat/liberal/progressives and everyone else has only furthered debate and argument about which news organizations lean left and which lean right. The bickering doesn’t do much to enhance the credibility of journalists in general among independents and non-partisans.
Only about 36 percent of those readers trust the news, but that’s more than twice the 15 percent of Republicans. The reaction of some news organizations appears to have been to turn toward their liberal base.
The news environment is now such it is possible that some people have decided the headbanging of the NFL looks less unsettling. University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers in September reported their polling of Americans found a surprising number of people having trouble coping with the current political news.
Staying away for a reason?
“…Nearly 40% of respondents report experiencing stress as a result of politics, while roughly a fifth or more report losing sleep, being fatigued, or suffering depression because of politics,” their peer-reviewed study at Plos One reported. “More than 10 percent report non-specific physical health issues related to politics and four percent even indicate they have considered suicide as a result of politics. Approximately 10 to 30 percent of the population also believed that politics took an emotional toll on them by triggering anger, frustration, hate, guilt, or leading to comments they later regretted.”
“Our sample was designed to be representative of the approximately 248 million adults living in the United States,” the researchers said. “Important caveats always attend when extrapolating from samples to populations but if our findings are even remotely externally valid then tens of millions of American adults perceive politics as exacting significant social, psychological and even physical health costs. Rough estimates based on Table 2 would be that approximately 94 million people believe they have been stressed by politics, 44 million believe they have lost sleep, 28.5 million that their physical health has been adversely affected, and 11 million that politics led them to consider suicide, though particular caution surrounds behaviors that are less common.”
So about as many people watched the impeachment hearings as were moved to think suicidal thoughts shortly after Trump’s election, which is when the Nebraska researchers gathered their data. They speculated that might have skewed the results.
“Our results also provide insight into the populations most likely to believe politics is adversely affecting them at the time the survey went to the field. They are younger and unemployed; more disagreeable (more critical and quarrelsome), and less emotionally stable (more anxious and easily upset). They tend to be politically liberal, strongly disapprove of President Donald Trump, and have low opinions of their political opposites (they see them as uninformed, closed-minded, and untruthful),” the researchers wrote. “They also tend to discuss politics frequently and to be actively involved in a range of political activities.
“It may be that the costs of politics were unusually acute when this survey was administered, just two months after the inauguration of an extremely polarizing president. The fact that left-leaning people who disapproved of Trump were among the most consistent in reporting negative health costs raises the possibility that our sample is capturing a moment in time when costs for that group were particularly high.”
Sadly, one might surmise their negative health costs are likely higher now with efforts to oust Trump having dragged on for so long and the Senate looking like it could support him.
Dr. Robert Lustig, a noted endocrinologist has theorized a biochemical basis for this stress overload labeled Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), “ostensibly a mental condition in which persons have been driven effectively ‘insane’ due to their dislike of Donald Trump to the point at which they abandon all logic and reason.”
As a result, he said, “many of us have now become Trump. The more dopamine and cortisol, the more we lose our ability to discern truth from post-truth, the more irritable we become, and the more we abandon our cognitive control and with little regard for the consequences.”
Watching football might be considerably healhier.
Categories: Commentary, Politics
A friend of mine said He voted for Trump, because anyone that could make both the democrats and republicans mad deserved his vote.
Now tell me this, might be just another conspiracy thing, but have you ever noticed when you spell Trump, spellcheck either suggest “trumps or trumpet” and won’t ever offer a capital T for trump (see), however when you spell Obama (see) it will always make it with a capital O with no other suggestions.
Wrap your mind around that one now.
PS…. Conspiracies make run on sentences OK…..
Enjoy fellas!! Well, until a job killing, over-regulating Democrat gets in and has to feed the lunatic base.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/trump-economy-to-boom-in-2020-big-money-managers
Enjoy Brian,your paying for it(and me too unfortunately, but will defer $19k/yr for the next 4 yrs).
+$trillion budgets for as far as the eye can see.Only difference between democrat and republicrat is :dems tax and spend, reps borrow and spend
I am serious. Humans need to start forming a resistance to preserve our natural animal rights. AI is coming and we must be prepared!,
Chris,
The “resistance” is up and running…not only to protect human animal rights but to protect all animals from extinction on earth.
Wa Post specifically just mentioned the “resistance” in an article on Trump’s Impeachment (Which passed approval in the House).
This is a very special time in America.
A Saudi National stands up in a Navy flight class in America and starts killing innocent Americans and he is Not a Terrorist??
An animal rights activist takes pictures of sick and dying cows getting pushed by a bulldozer to slaughter and she is labeled a Terrorist?
The Elite in Power are nervous that their blind and ignorant control of the population is waning and we see mass protest of neo con policies from SF to Hong Kong.
Activists have learned to circumvent our bought and paid for Legislators and now are Lobbying Corporations directly with Social Media and Protest.
Like I have said before your money is your real vote…make each dollar count!
I love the lib bumperstickers. Which one is it – “COEXIST” or “RESIST” ?
Bryan,
I just found an interesting picture of the Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton warmly “embracing” at Trump’s most recent wedding?
How is it that two dueling Elitists were just best friends a few years ago?
Is it that there are fewer Benjamins at the top to go around or is it all just a made for TV Reality Show that puts Left against Right while the wealthy elite laugh all the way to the bank?
“Donald Trump, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Melania Trump at the Trumps’ wedding reception, in January 2005…
Donald and Hillary look “just like teenagers in love” in the flashbulb moment, as David Patrick Columbia, the editor of the website New York Social Diary, notes dryly.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/06/magazine/when-hillary-and-donald-were-friends.html
“This is a very special time in America.” Indeed it is, it’s also a very sad time. We have an entire House of Congress trying to overthrow a duly elected president. What happens next decides if we are a Constitutional Republic with equal branches of government as we were during the founding of our country, or if we are a lawless country run by the whims of whichever branch decides it’s the one in charge.
As Benjamin Franklin responded when asked “what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Will we keep our republic, special time indeed.
Steve O,
Like I show with the picture of the Clintons and Trumps arm in arm, it is neither Bill Clinton or Donald Trump that are the cause of the problem.
Don has just been Impeached by the House exactly like Bill was nearly two decades ago.
To think we still have a form of Republic or Democracy is only in debate.
Americans sold out their choice by submitting to the two party system that is easy to control by big business and banks.
The outcome of Trump’s Impeachment will be the same as Bill’s but the real problems for the American Consumer / Worker will remain.
The only hope for change is to lobby the corporate community directly just like the politicians have done for centuries.
Steve S. you remember when “Rev” Al Sharptongue and the “Rev Love Child” Jackson used to sing Trump’s praises while Trump did so much and poured his money into. the black community? Hmm, kind of like today.. But, whose side are those hypocrites on now? The Democrat hero and founder of Planned Parenthood (ironic huh?).
“We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members” – Margaret Sanger
Steve,
Actually the only hope for change is to not elect insiders and career politicians. I know it sucks that Trump isn’t an insider or career politician, but if you want change none of the Democratic candidates for President would do anything but keep to the Democratic party status quo and ideas that proven failures. In fact the only candidate for President who irks both major parties is the incumbent. So if you want to vote for change you should vote for Trump, otherwise you are voting for more of the same…as ironic as that might sound.
Until Nancy forwards the articles of impeachment to the Senate Trump hasn’t, in fact, been impeached. That’s yet another curious intricacy of our republic and the rule of law that the Democrats in the House would like to subvert.
As we evolve further into technology, we can see the ying and yang of technology versus a natural life. We are not too far away from an AI Revolution where we turn into biological units living in a virtual reality. We are now programmed into two mental units in order to divide our human resistance to the underlying program. So do not feed the angry feelings to AI….RESIST!
As far as the Trumpster goes, he is highly entertaining and energizes both sides of the spectrum. He sort of wins the reality show of life.The media-absorbed masses eat it all up.
Gotta give him a lot of credit for the stamina to fight the Deep State.
Andrew Yang (he’s running for the Democratic Presidential nomination) said last night during the Democratic Presidential debate:
“The more we act like Donald Trump is the cause of all our problems, the more Americans lose trust that we can actually see what’s going on in those communities and solve those problems,”
“We have to stop being obsessed with impeachment, which unfortunately strikes many Americans as a ball game when you know what the score is going to be, and start digging in and solve all the problems that got Donald Trump elected in the first place.”
After the debate he said:
“You can’t blame a TV network for saying impeachment is like the news of the day. It is historic. [But] as a candidate running for president, I need to be talking about things that are different from impeachment.”
It’s nice to see that there might be one candidate on the Democratic side that isn’t completely out of touch with reality.
Look at how much Trump has accomplished so far. Then look at how much more he would/could have accomplished if it hadn’t been for Democrats obsturcting every inch of the way.
Bryan,
I think the part that rings the bell for me in what Andrew Yang said was that we need to “start digging in and solve all the problems that got Donald Trump elected in the first place.” That is the key. Virtually “everybody” overlooked it in 2016, if you weren’t an elitist lefty or media acolyte then it was obvious…America didn’t want the status quo, we didn’t want another year of Obama let alone another four. “The economy stupid” is a famous quote. Well…the economy stupid…is better than it’s ever been because Trump did exactly what he said he would, and it’s getting better.
Trump knows what got him elected. The media has ignored it, trivialized it, dismissed it, demonized it, or ignored it. The impeachment that Pelosi is trying her best to turn into an unimpeachment by not forwarding to the Senate is further proof that these people have no idea what they are doing they just can’t deal with an outsider getting into their business.
No President in my lifetime has done more to positively impact my life than President Trump has done, other than President Reagan. Many, many Americans know the same thing is true and many many Americans will deny that it is true but they know it is so.
The greatest thing about The Greatest Donald Trump is he made “The Gang of Three”.
And thats how history will mostly remember him, he could single handedly cure aging, but history will only remember one thing..
And that will eat him up like a cancer till that point in life where he cant control sh*tting in his bed, and drooling down his chin.
The best thing about the conclusion of his first term is, at worst it will be over in 4 yrs.Perhaps before then he will release his tax returns(by court order) like he promised when he was merely candidate DJT.
Amen! Bingo! Exactly why I approve of Trump. Not necessarily for who he is but for what he does. He is bascially heaven sent at the perfect time. Exposing a cancer most of us chose to overloo for the sake of argument. A cancer our forefather’s warned us about. A cancer most in the Democrat Party seem to embrace with glee. The worst of mankind. Hopefully the Communist/Socialist sleeze that has taken over the racist Democrat Party will fade back into the sewer where it belongs.
I didn’t vote for Trump last election and I think he’s a pompous ass who should talk less and twitter even less, of course I thought the same thing about Obama well except the twittering he didn’t do much of that.
Since day one, actually before day one, of the Trump Administration there has been a concerted and real effort to overthrow our duly elected president. This is a sad time for our Republic. Our news media is so far in the tank for Democrats they cannot even fathom how anyone could support him. There has been no reason to watch this impeachment because going back 3 plus years we all knew that the Democrats were going to find something, anything, and try and make it stick. The Russian bit didn’t work because they used a dossier by Russian spy that Hillary Clinton paid for to discredit her main presidential opponent and used the full force of the Obama Administration and a court system that was completely abused by our own Justice Department to spy on American citizens, and political opponents. The fact that some people can’t or won’t see this next part as ironic would be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad. Since the Russian bit didn’t stick, they took a new tack…enter Joe Biden and son. So now Democrats are accusing the President of trying to discredit his political opponent…sound familiar? How is he trying to do that, by using the US Government to withhold funds unless Ukraine investigates Joe Biden son for corruption, in a quid pro quo agreement. This is the same Joe Biden who bragged on camera that he told the Ukraine to fire the prosecutor who was investigating his son for corruption or he would withhold funds, and guess what happened they fired him and Joe released the funds…quid pro quo. The fact that some people can’t or won’t see the irony would be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad.
There’s simply no reason to watch a story unfold that is as ridiculous as this one, you can’t even make this stuff up. And yet so many people think Trump is the devil and so many think he is the next messiah. He’s neither, he just an elected official who has angered a lot of other elected officials. It’s really horrible theater and football offers so much more drama and real life action and adventure.
Our country is being run by people who think we are all idiots, and we keep re-electing those same people so they clearly have good reason to think that.
Excellent post Steve-O. 100% spot on.. “We are impeaching President Trump over quid pro quo, oh wait, can’t do that, let’s try Obstruction of Congress”. Guess Pres. Trump didnt get the memo that the corrupt Biden’s are off limits. A Democrat corrupt, criminal joke is right. Be nice to see some hang for their treason. Firing squad is too good for that cancer.
Don’t send the impeachment articles to the senate at all. Just let Trump boil and go crazy. In the meantime we can all relax and enjoy the rest of this year and next year. Possibly next year if there is a change in the makeup of the senate, the republicans or the SCOTUS allow the requested witnesses to testify the trial could go on if not a moot issue by then. After all Moscow Mitch has already said we shouldn’t vote on letting important votes to happen during an election year. (For example Merrick Garland.)
If Trump has this hanging over his head he might not be so open about scheming with Putin to interfere in another election.
But Phil, it was Hillary scheming with the Russians..This we haVe clean evidence of. Obviously you cannot underatand the #50 million Mueller Report. LET ME HELP – THERE WAS NO TRUMP RUSSIAN COLLUSION.
According to Noah Feldman, the constitutional expert brought forward by the Democrats during the impeachment hearings, “If the House does not communicate its impeachment to the Senate, it hasn’t actually impeached the president. If the articles are not transmitted, Trump could legitimately say that he wasn’t truly impeached at all.” Feldman also said “Strictly speaking, “impeachment” occurred – and occurs — when the articles of impeachment are presented to the Senate for trial.” He goes on to say “A president who has been genuinely impeached must constitutionally have the opportunity to defend himself before the Senate.”
You can read the rest of his opinion on what not bringing the articles of impeachment to the Senate means here https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-12-19/trump-impeachment-delay-could-be-serious-problem-for-democrats
Lisa Pelosi 3-2 would vote to retain Trump? Nope. Just like with Kavanaugh, Lisa Pelosi will crumble when ultra-far-left nutcase women from Alaska (Ivy Sponholtz, Shannon Moore, Holly Brooks, and many others) run to DC and burst out crying in front of her. Lisa is spineless. And she is a puppet to Pelosi.
Football on TV…Fox News…Impeachment coverage…Social Media…this is ALL a good diversion from the Quagmire that is currently going on in the Middle East. (Forever War)
From Israel to Iran, the middle east is a mess and the U.S. Military Industrial (Congressional) Complex has its hand in ALL of it.
The only bipartisan agreement in Congress these days is the approval of the run away Pentagon Budget and the lack of stopping Trump from sending more and more troops to Saudi Arabia.
Sure the media focused on 1,000 troops withdrawing from Syria…while at the same time 14,000 were sent to protect the dictator of Saudi Arabia’s oil economy?
Now the Pentagon stated they might send another 14,000 GI’s to the sandbox…and Congress is stuck in a classic “family feud” of the Hatfields vs The McCoy’s.
“Defense Secretary Mark Esper is considering sending additional military forces to the Middle East to deter Iranian attacks, the Pentagon’s policy chief acknowledged Thursday after initially trying to knock down a news report that said as many as 14,000 troops could go…
…he said that of an initial 14,000 troops sent to the Middle East since the spring, about half have been aboard warships, and the other half included ground and air units that have reestablished a major air base in Saudi Arabia.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/05/american-troops-middle-east-iran-076369
The “impeachment” is not complete until Nancy sends the articles to the Senate. Mitch should declare the whole shebang Null and Void. Ridiculous embarrassment.
Hmm. Impeachment “a much bigger game” than Bills vs Steelers?
Only if they jumped to the Lingerie League!
Hmm, use the Russians and a discredited UK operative, Christopher Steele for Hillary’s opposition research on Trump..Make up a phony “pee” dossier, Solicite a Dem run company Fusion GPS to shop around the bogus document. Get the corrupt media and FBI onboard, send lies to the FISA Courts, spy illegally on a US citizen and presidential nominee. Make up a phony “Russian Collusion” story, feed it to the lying media, spend $50 million of the taxpayers money to “investigate” the lie. All so you can use the FISA warrant to investigate Trump and his minions in HOPES of finding something. When that doesnt work, make-up another lie, this time the phony Ukraining hoax.. Meanwhile ignoring Biden’s corrupt family history and his sleezy son’s Ukraining oil gig for $86,000/mo. Never raising an eyebrow that Joe’s crooked, drug addicted son has never stepped foot in the Ukraine and is not even in the gas business. Not to mention Nancy Pelosi’s crooked son sitting on a Ukraining oil board socking away $10’s of thousands monthly.
Only thing Trump has done is shown America how corrupt and criminal the Democrat Party and media are. We are witnessing how ignorant, gullible, and brainwashed the majority of Democrat voters are..
If a Democrat accuses you of something, you can net they are doing the same, if not worse.
This Democrat, 3rd World cancer goes much deeper then what we see here..
KAG 2020