In Science We Trust

A new Pew Research poll on which professions are trusted finds Americans believe in the medical community acting in the country's best public interest the most, followed by the US military and the scientific community overall.

About three-quarters or more of Americans are confident in the military, medical scientists and scientists in general to act in the best interests of the public. But fewer than half of Americans report similar confidence in the news media, business leaders and elected officials, according to a Pew Research Center report released earlier this month.

One-third of the public (33%) has a great deal of confidence in the military and an additional 46% say they have a fair amount of confidence. The high ranking of the military is consistent with a 2013 Pew Research Center survey, which found 78% of the public said the military contributes “a lot” to society. 

Similar shares of Americans express at least a fair amount of confidence in medical scientists (84%) and scientists (76%). 

The public expresses less confidence in school and religious leaders. About two-thirds (65%) say they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in K-12 principals and superintendents and 53% have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in religious leaders. 

Americans are least confident in the news media, business leaders and elected officials to act in the best interests of the public. Majorities have not too much or no confidence in each of these three groups, a pattern that is shared across the political spectrum. For example, majorities of both Democrats (68%) and Republicans (78%) say they have not too much or no confidence at all in elected officials to act in the best interests of the public, in keeping with previous Pew Research Center studies showing near-record low trust in the federal government.

The survey also shows that Republicans trust professions less overall than Democrats or independents with the obvious exception of the military, and that religiously unaffiliated Americans have serious trust issues with religious leaders overall.

Overall the news media is only trusted by a little over a third of the country to act in the public's best interest, a little less than business leaders at 41%, but political leaders are in the basement at 27% (there's that number again...)

I would think after this election that all three groups would want to take a serious look at themselves as to why so few Americans trust them to act in the public's best interest.

Because for the most part?  They don't.

The Other Side: The 5 Stages Of Trump

I'd say this clinical autopsy of the Trump campaign from David Freddoso at the DC Examiner is about as antiseptic as it comes, as at this point we're well past ignoring the GOP elephant in the room that is Donald Trump's unprecedented meltdown.

One of the strongest arguments Trump made during the primary in support of his own candidacy was his promise to self-fund. In focus group after focus group, with voters across the ideological spectrum, the pledge proved widely popular. It gave his supporters — and many rank and file conservatives who viewed Trump with skepticism — comfort that Trump possessed the means to fund a competent campaign, despite Trump's dismissal of a typical finance or campaign infrastructure. Even establishment Republicans were heartened by the notion that, if nominated, Trump would not divert resources from the rest of the Republican ticket. 

As winter turned to spring, Trump secured the nomination and his campaign made no attempts at online or direct-mail fundraising. This was a critical error on his team and a missed opportunity to seize financial support from a dedicated and fired-up grassroots base. Warning signs about Trump's lack of fundraising were dismissed by members of the press and justified by his apologists due to recurring assurances that Trump was worth billions and would self-fund. 

As spring turned to summer, not only did Trump refuse to put significant sums behind his effort, but he structured his campaign to use donor money to reimburse himself for campaign loans. Predictably, high-dollar donors sat on their wallets and publicly questioned Trump's commitment to victory. They demonstrated little desire to fund an organization that came across as dedicated to subsidizing Trump companies as opposed to field offices, staff and basic campaign operations. 

As Trump capitulated to pressure and filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to forgive his loan, he continued to use costly and inefficient Trump facilities, airplanes and products. This was occurring as Clinton's operation encouraged frugality with donor funds, similar to the Mitt Romney, Barack Obama and George W. Bush campaigns before it. 

Now it's crunch time. Unsurprisingly, Clinton has the resource advantage to put more states in play with each passing week. The burden has fallen to the Republican National Committee to finance, organize and execute a national ground game in support of Trump as well as endangered House and Senate Republicans across the country. Establishment Republican donors, most of whom were ardent supporters of Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, have stepped up to give significant funds to Trump victory programs with the RNC. Some are even funding a top-tier super political action committee effort in an attempt to soften Clinton's support in targeted Senate states.

Despite Trump's claims to be worth $10 billion and his insinuations that he owns a store worth more than Romney, Trump has put only slightly more of his own money into his campaign than Romney dedicated to his first campaign in 2008. When you take into account all the campaign money squandered on Trump companies, Trump may actually spend less than Romney did in 2008.

Yes, and keep telling yourself that the reason Trump is going to get mauled is because he didn't spend enough money.

Really is no hope for these guys, is there? Hey "principled conservatives", ask yourself why this race has been over since May.

StupidiNews!

• At least 19 people are dead after a hospital fire in eastern India Monday night, more than 100 were injured by flames and smoke.
• Retired US Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright has plead guilty in a deal with federal prosecutors to lying to the FBI over leaks involving the Stuxnet computer worm and Iran.
• Russia's defense minister says that Russia and Syria will pause air strikes on Aleppo in order to allow UN aid convoys into the area on Thursday.
• Apple has shelved its automaker project for now, scaling back plans to enter the US auto market itself and instead to partner to create self-driving cars.
• The website for Senate Republican fundraising is one of thousands to have been infected with skimming software that stole credit card data for at least six months.