Important headlines for January 11th:
Bottom Line: These are stories you don't want to miss and my hot takes on them...
Excerpt: A hastily arranged airport rendezvous Tuesday ended with an announcement from President Donald Trump’s administration that the state of Florida is “off the table” for new offshore oil drilling, a declaration that brought both relief and protests of election-year politics.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott met with U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke at the airport in Tallahassee Tuesday afternoon. Both men emerged 20 minutes later to face waiting reporters, who had an hour’s notice of the meeting. “As a result of our interest in making sure that there’s no drilling here, Florida will be taken off the table,” Scott said. Zinke said the decision was a culmination of multiple meetings between Scott and Trump administration officials. Scott’s office on Tuesday produced an Aug. 17 letter from the state Department of Environmental Protection expressing its concerns about “safety and environmental protection” surrounding any oil and gas exploration. But the letter did not expressly oppose the drilling proposal.
Florida’s long, fragile coastline and ecosystem has always made drilling “the third rail” of politics in the Sunshine State — an issue lethal to anyone who supports it.
Hot Take: Ever since this announcement we've had an undercurrent reported alongside the announcement that's stemmed from what can only be described as a conspiracy theory by Senator Bill Nelson. He's alleged that this was all a political stunt. What's all of this? The Trump administration would show an interest in drilling off Florida's coast. Rick Scott would then fight the administration's decision, win, and look like a hero for those who're leery of offshore drilling. While anything's possible this conspiracy would have had to be in the works since August and choreographed right up to the last-minute press notification of the announcement Tuesday. And all without any leaking of this "grand plan" anywhere along the way? And we're to believe that's what happened?
It wreaks of desperation by Bill Nelson and is nearly beyond belief with even deeper consideration. Ok, so let's say you think Rick Scott is diabolical enough to concoct this 5+ month conspiracy. What would the Trump administration have to gain by playing along? Conversely, if this were a conspiracy and evidence of this were found out what would the Trump administration have to lose? Get the point? Yet our media is covering Bill Nelson's claims as though they're credible. Any questions?
Fire and Flimsy: The Michael Wolff Way Isaac Chotiner, Slate
Excerpt: Fire and Fury’s shoddy journalism manages to indict both Wolff’s tactics and the whole media ecosystem around him.
Hot Take: That pretty much sums it up. As I've stated – I don't even believe that Michael Wolff believes his own BS. It's beyond belief frankly. Statements like nearly 100% of Trump's administration questioning his ability to govern daily. That Trump didn't know who John Boehner was, or frankly that Steve Bannon was responsible for almost all of the content in the book. The same Steve Bannon fired for lying, leaking and who's walked much of what he said to Wolff back in the first place. For Wolff, if a lack of integrity doesn't bother you it's genius. Get treated as a rock star by the biased media and make huge money selling it to desperate folks who want to believe in it. It's an instructive moment in media because we've been able to identify which factions still care about the truth. Despite being left leaning outlets – Slate and the Washington Post have stepped up to tell the truth. There's time for others in the national media but I'm not holding my breath.
A Ludicrous Ruling That Trump Can't End DACA Josh Blackman, National Review
Hot Take: Without making this more complicated than it needs to be...In 2012 President Obama signed an executive order called DACA. In 2017 President Trump signed an executive order that would end it. It's implausible to suggest that the current President doesn't have the unilateral ability to strike down a unilateral order by a previous president. Unfortunately, the is the most evident example to date of how politically corrupt certain judges and courts have become. There can be nothing but politics behind that ruling that has no chance of holding up upon appeal should the administration choose to do so. There's a chance this will be a moot point with the passage of immigration reform legislatively so we might not get to that point but what's going on here with unprecedented judicial activism shouldn't be ignored.
Until tomorrow...