NEWS AND OPINION:
Well, here’s an incoming trend that most Republicans and conservatives have expected.
“It’s been less than two weeks since former President Donald Trump vanquished Vice President Kamala Harris, setting the stage for his return to the White House in January. Yet even though their preferred candidate lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College, the liberal media are already taking swipes at Trump’s initial Cabinet picks, an early indication that the press plans to hound the new president’s every move,” writes Rich Noyes, contributing editor of Newsbusters.org, a conservative media watchdog.
“If you’re feeling a little deja vu, it’s because we saw the exact same thing eight years ago, after Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016. As NewsBusters carefully documented at the time, liberal reporters and commentators savaged Trump’s first group of appointees as ’radical’ and ’racist ignoramuses” who ’disdain the missions of their assigned agencies,’” Mr. Noyes noted in a written report released Sunday.
“You can hear more than echoes of the media’s 2016 temper tantrums in their reactions to Trump’s 2024 Cabinet picks. It suggests we’re in for another four years of hyper-drama, with the media elite once again engaged in daily fistfights with a White House aiming to bust up the old establishment’s grip on power,” Mr. Noyes also noted.
Find his precise report at Newsbusters.org.
EXPLAINING THE BASICS
House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” to answer questions posed by host Jake Tapper, who was particularly interested in Republican plans on immigration.
“What’s the legislation plan here?” the host asked his guest.
“Here’s what the plan entails. It’s securing the border right out of the gates. This is what the American people have demanded and what they deserve. They want a secure country. They want a secure border, and we will deliver upon that. That’s what the mandate of the election was all about,” Mr. Johnson replied.
“We know how to do that. We have legislation that we passed in the previous Congress, in this Congress, HR 2, that would be the most secure border legislation ever passed. But President Trump, I suspect, will use his executive authorities beginning on Day One and we will come behind with legislation, and we will make sure we have a sovereign, safe and secure nation. Again, that’s what we have to deliver,” he said.
What about Mr. Trump’s nominees for Cabinet positions?
“The nominees that the president has put forward … are persons who will shake up the status quo. And I think what the American people … delivered with the mandate in this election, is a demand that we shake up the status quo. It’s not working for the American people. So, you used the term in the opening about how these are ’disruptors.’ They are. I think that’s by design,” Mr. Johnson noted.
“Any president has the right to name their own Cabinet, to nominate persons that they think will fulfill their agenda. And the people that are on this list will do that. They will go into the agencies that they’re being asked to lead, and they will reform them,” he said.
DISGRUNTLED VOTERS WORLDWIDE
“Whether on the left or the right, regardless of how long they’ve been in power, sitting governments around the world have been drubbed this year by disgruntled voters in what has been called the ’super year’ for elections,” noted the Associated Press in a report released Sunday.
“Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election was just the latest in a long line of losses for incumbent parties in 2024, with people in some 70 countries accounting for about half the world’s population going to the polls,” the report said.
“Issues driving voter discontent have varied widely, though there has been almost universal malaise since the COVID-19 pandemic as people and businesses struggle to get back on their feet while facing stubbornly high prices, cash-strapped governments and a surge in migration,” the AP report noted.
“There’s an overall sense of frustration with political elites, viewing them as out of touch, that cuts across ideological lines,” Richard Wike, director of global attitudes research at the Pew Research Center, told the news service.
“Lots of factors are driving this, but certainly feelings about the economy and inflation are a big factor,” he said.
Mr. Wike also noted that a Pew Research Center poll of 24 countries found that the appeal of democracy itself was “slipping” as voters reported both economic distress and a sense that no political faction “truly represents them,” the AP report said.
SCIENCE CORNER
Vulcain – a “giant American dinosaur” that inhabited Earth about 150 million years ago – sold for $6.3 million at an auction in France on Saturday.
The “majestic” skeleton of this Apatosaurus — formerly known as a Brontosaurus — measured 68 feet long and retained approximately 80% of its bone mass, a total of 306 fossilized bones and a mouthful of large teeth. Vulcain was excavated in Wyoming in 2018.
The sale was organized by French auction houses Collin du Bocage and Barbarossa before a live audience at Chateau de Dampierre-en-Yvelines just outside Paris.
Vulcain fetched a handsome price — placing behind the Apex Stegosaurus (which went for $44.6 million), the T-Rex Stan ($31.8 million), the Raptor ($12.4 million), and T-Rex Sue ($8.4 million), according to a press release shared with Inside the Beltway.
POLL DU JOUR
• 51% of U.S. adults say scientists should take an active role in public policy debates about scientific issues.
• 48% say scientists should focus on establishing sound scientific facts and stay out of policy debates.
• 41% say scientists do not have enough influence in public policy debates.
• 37% say scientists have “about the right amount” of influence in public policy debates.
• 20% say they have too much influence in public policy debates.
SOURCE: A Pew Research Center American Trends Panel survey of 9,593 U.S. adults conducted online and by phone Oct. 21-27 and released Thursday.
• Follow Jennifer Harper on X @HarperBulletin, on Facebook @HarperUniverse.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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