“You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, prime minister of free, independent Canada, after last night’s OT hockey win over the USA.
Thank you for giving us the highlights and lowlights of social media, Trump Era. Like Fox...so we don't have to? God help this nation and all of the others that suffer because of what we do.
OMG. That was the funniest yet. Those two noble shepherds, standing there and tolerating that abuse. Eli was waiting for a reward treat...Auggie was simply enduring, thinking "I just have to get through this silliness." Poor little Pete...he was so cowed. The other dog I don't know, but he looked like he had no clue that the point was to make him look funny to humans. Keep 'em coming, Charlie. I screen shot this one for dark days!
Polls are irrelevant. The only things that could matter are if the companies owned by Trump friendly billionaires take significant economic damage. Or if Republicans in red districts face significant, well resourced challengers from the left in the 2026 election (something that is currently a fantasy).
Democratic party leadership currently has no plans to make either of these things happen.
Eventually the approval ratings will hit and remain bottomed out a little above 40% as was the case throughout much of Trump 1.0. There will be a solid 33% that will deny all reality and will never abandon the cult.
Just as during his first term and the interregnum period Congress will have to submit to the 33% to survive the primaries which will leave the Democrats with a wedge to drive between MAGA and independents who are not invested in Trump himself as much as they might like some of his policies. But if his policies back fire, as they already are, the thought of voting for a Democrat becomes more of a realistic alternative.
Depends a lot on how much Fox and Elon can continue to whip the right wing into a frenzy of 'outrage.' Notice that Trump's policies on tariffs are one of the things that scored the lowest on approval w/ MAGAs. That's likely because the Murdochs are quick to Foxsplain tariffs (because of their obvious financial vulnerabilities), but not so quick to explain the complexities of other horrible Trumpian policies. Watch the corporate take on this, and esp. the corporate right wing news. It all depends on how much they care to actually educate their flock in a truthful way.
-His approvals have JUST started declining. While Trump may or may not care, it's going to bleed into Congressional approval, and they DO care. It will always take weeks of decline and discord to push Congress into any sort of action. I think most are awaiting a definitive SC opinion on his power-grabs; their reactions will be a defining moment.
-Trump DOES care about the stock market, and the stock market will not like mass layoffs, steep tariffs, constitutional crises etc., eventually forcing a quasi-reset.
-While Trump won a 1.5% popular vote victory on the back of cultural reactionary gravity against the woke culture wars, there remains a firm majority who do not like MAGA politics or what it stands for (this is shown how other MAGA candidates other than Trump usually have flopped and/or underperformed). It's hard to pursue a grand Cultural Revolution-type movement when most of the country is against it; the demographics and history of Hungary are much more favorable to Orban's authoritarianism than the U.S. is to Trump's.
The Glass Half-Empty Take:
-Trump has completely bought into Musk's "it will require massive unpopularity before the glorious triumph of our new libertarian techno-crat state" and will be unmoved by both approvals and the stock market. Having a circle of yes-men and cowards will further insulate him from any smidgens of reflection. The cries of the old monied elite will be ignored because Musk can just outspend them all anyway.
-Trump doesn't care about popularity because he doesn't intend for any fair federal elections to occur under his watch anyway. Bondi's DOJ and Musk's hacking/bribery into voting systems will ensure Democrats lose any close elections and the guardrails to contest them will be too difficult to overcome.
-Related to the last point, a la Steve Bannon, Trump actually welcomes large-scale civil unrest so he can declare martial law and solidify an authoritarian dictatorship a la Putin. They will have no intention on ever giving up power because doing so will expose everyone to certain legal consequences after the dust settles that they have no intention of ever facing up to.
Back in December I would've said the Glass Half-Full Take is much more likely. But given the actions of the past month and the Senate giving him full deference on all of his most insane picks, I think the Half-Empty take is not a conspiracy take at all, and on many days, is >50% of being the correct take. Let's all pray that is wrong.
I agree. Most of this obscene coup event is predicated on their assuming that there will not be another election, or at least a "free and fair" one. I'm not entirely convinced that they won last November, but Democrats are terrified of questioning that election, because the GOP would never let them live down the perceived hypocrisy after their own 2020 denial.
However, we have good reason to suspect that Trump did not win this time, considering if anything all the despicable voter purging in the right wing states, which purges focused on minority and blue voters(See Greg Palast, voting rights expert). No wonder Democratic voting was down...some of those people were intimidated as hell to even try to show up at the polls. And that's the way Republicans wanted it. Add in the likely illegitimately discarded votes (i.e., postmarks, late arrivals from overseas, etc.) and that close vote in 2024 would be challenged for its integrity and a recount. God knows what Musk's minions managed to do in the electronic arena.
I'm no conspiracy theorist, and like to be a graceful loser, but the Election of 2024 smells.
I only learned yesterday that, in a prisoner exchange to repatriate an American teacher, Trump released back to Russia a cryptocurrency mobster.
I know the saying, "Follow the Money", but a lot of what Trump is doing makes way more sense if you "Chase the Crypto". It may even be his sole driving motive right now.
I hope he enjoyed the result of the game. Well done Crosby, McConnor and the rest of the Canadians. Lose or win ( yeah, we had faith) you are ours. We will never be 51.
I watched the Sam Stein interview with a really sharp Navy retiree who got fired from FEMA so fast he couldn't even get his personal items. It was bad...and worth a watch, however, 4 hours after that video was released...guess what? He got a call indicating that they realized they had made a mistake...please return to work. LOL...I think somebody was a little worried about the poor PR this particular firing was going to provide.
If it's the same incident, I saw that it was his US senator who intervened on his behalf. Many people don't even know that most elected legislators have an aide who specializes in casework for individual constituents.
Polls mean nothing, especially to DonnieFelon. He got his return thanks to the rubes who bought his bull. He doesn't need them anymore. The Rs in Congress have already raised the white flag. So forget polls and decide how to declaw and then dethrone.
The felon does pay a lot of attention to polls - he will lie about them or praise them but he never never does not notice them. Never. So polls are very useful munitions - keep throwing them at his face. He melts..
Can we see what the public thinks of Bezos Amazon? I have quite all my Amazon subscriptions because of the WaPo thing against Harris and the inauguration.
Agreed. I just completed my (hopefully) last order, to clean out a gift card. Bezos is a whore to the Trump Establishment. No principled corporations left, it seems, except maybe Apple. I'm waiting for the other shoe to fall on that too.
Polling schmolling...the man is in office, his whatever you wanna call Musk is taking a wreaking ball to the federal government. It'll take years to undo the mess and who knows what consequences, both intended and unintended, will reveal themselves in the future.
Thank you for giving us the highlights and lowlights of social media, Trump Era. Like Fox...so we don't have to? God help this nation and all of the others that suffer because of what we do.
Approve, disapprove is bullshit. I tell pollsters I refuse to participate in any poll that doesn’t give me the option of despising the bastard.
You mean like I used to fork-up Rasmussen phone polls on purpose?
Keeping that dog picture handy for needed laughs! Thank you!😆
OMG. That was the funniest yet. Those two noble shepherds, standing there and tolerating that abuse. Eli was waiting for a reward treat...Auggie was simply enduring, thinking "I just have to get through this silliness." Poor little Pete...he was so cowed. The other dog I don't know, but he looked like he had no clue that the point was to make him look funny to humans. Keep 'em coming, Charlie. I screen shot this one for dark days!
Polls are irrelevant. The only things that could matter are if the companies owned by Trump friendly billionaires take significant economic damage. Or if Republicans in red districts face significant, well resourced challengers from the left in the 2026 election (something that is currently a fantasy).
Democratic party leadership currently has no plans to make either of these things happen.
The Republican numbers in the WaPo poll just show how out of touch THEY are with the rest of the country.
Eventually the approval ratings will hit and remain bottomed out a little above 40% as was the case throughout much of Trump 1.0. There will be a solid 33% that will deny all reality and will never abandon the cult.
Just as during his first term and the interregnum period Congress will have to submit to the 33% to survive the primaries which will leave the Democrats with a wedge to drive between MAGA and independents who are not invested in Trump himself as much as they might like some of his policies. But if his policies back fire, as they already are, the thought of voting for a Democrat becomes more of a realistic alternative.
Yes, they may in fact be "sick of winning."
Depends a lot on how much Fox and Elon can continue to whip the right wing into a frenzy of 'outrage.' Notice that Trump's policies on tariffs are one of the things that scored the lowest on approval w/ MAGAs. That's likely because the Murdochs are quick to Foxsplain tariffs (because of their obvious financial vulnerabilities), but not so quick to explain the complexities of other horrible Trumpian policies. Watch the corporate take on this, and esp. the corporate right wing news. It all depends on how much they care to actually educate their flock in a truthful way.
The Glass Half Full Take:
-His approvals have JUST started declining. While Trump may or may not care, it's going to bleed into Congressional approval, and they DO care. It will always take weeks of decline and discord to push Congress into any sort of action. I think most are awaiting a definitive SC opinion on his power-grabs; their reactions will be a defining moment.
-Trump DOES care about the stock market, and the stock market will not like mass layoffs, steep tariffs, constitutional crises etc., eventually forcing a quasi-reset.
-While Trump won a 1.5% popular vote victory on the back of cultural reactionary gravity against the woke culture wars, there remains a firm majority who do not like MAGA politics or what it stands for (this is shown how other MAGA candidates other than Trump usually have flopped and/or underperformed). It's hard to pursue a grand Cultural Revolution-type movement when most of the country is against it; the demographics and history of Hungary are much more favorable to Orban's authoritarianism than the U.S. is to Trump's.
The Glass Half-Empty Take:
-Trump has completely bought into Musk's "it will require massive unpopularity before the glorious triumph of our new libertarian techno-crat state" and will be unmoved by both approvals and the stock market. Having a circle of yes-men and cowards will further insulate him from any smidgens of reflection. The cries of the old monied elite will be ignored because Musk can just outspend them all anyway.
-Trump doesn't care about popularity because he doesn't intend for any fair federal elections to occur under his watch anyway. Bondi's DOJ and Musk's hacking/bribery into voting systems will ensure Democrats lose any close elections and the guardrails to contest them will be too difficult to overcome.
-Related to the last point, a la Steve Bannon, Trump actually welcomes large-scale civil unrest so he can declare martial law and solidify an authoritarian dictatorship a la Putin. They will have no intention on ever giving up power because doing so will expose everyone to certain legal consequences after the dust settles that they have no intention of ever facing up to.
Back in December I would've said the Glass Half-Full Take is much more likely. But given the actions of the past month and the Senate giving him full deference on all of his most insane picks, I think the Half-Empty take is not a conspiracy take at all, and on many days, is >50% of being the correct take. Let's all pray that is wrong.
I agree. Most of this obscene coup event is predicated on their assuming that there will not be another election, or at least a "free and fair" one. I'm not entirely convinced that they won last November, but Democrats are terrified of questioning that election, because the GOP would never let them live down the perceived hypocrisy after their own 2020 denial.
However, we have good reason to suspect that Trump did not win this time, considering if anything all the despicable voter purging in the right wing states, which purges focused on minority and blue voters(See Greg Palast, voting rights expert). No wonder Democratic voting was down...some of those people were intimidated as hell to even try to show up at the polls. And that's the way Republicans wanted it. Add in the likely illegitimately discarded votes (i.e., postmarks, late arrivals from overseas, etc.) and that close vote in 2024 would be challenged for its integrity and a recount. God knows what Musk's minions managed to do in the electronic arena.
I'm no conspiracy theorist, and like to be a graceful loser, but the Election of 2024 smells.
"CNN POLLS" LOL
Fake News... You are suffering from "TDS"!
Fake news getting it's information from fake news...
That describes the author of this substack.
I only learned yesterday that, in a prisoner exchange to repatriate an American teacher, Trump released back to Russia a cryptocurrency mobster.
I know the saying, "Follow the Money", but a lot of what Trump is doing makes way more sense if you "Chase the Crypto". It may even be his sole driving motive right now.
I hope he enjoyed the result of the game. Well done Crosby, McConnor and the rest of the Canadians. Lose or win ( yeah, we had faith) you are ours. We will never be 51.
Regarding Pete, I suspect he probably was disappointed that he got the elf had and not a set of antlers.
I watched the Sam Stein interview with a really sharp Navy retiree who got fired from FEMA so fast he couldn't even get his personal items. It was bad...and worth a watch, however, 4 hours after that video was released...guess what? He got a call indicating that they realized they had made a mistake...please return to work. LOL...I think somebody was a little worried about the poor PR this particular firing was going to provide.
If it's the same incident, I saw that it was his US senator who intervened on his behalf. Many people don't even know that most elected legislators have an aide who specializes in casework for individual constituents.
Approval ratings don’t matter for a guy who never plans for elections anymore.
Elections, no. But as rabid a narcissist as drumpf is, tanking poll numbers will mean LOTS of ketchup on the dining room walls.
Polls mean nothing, especially to DonnieFelon. He got his return thanks to the rubes who bought his bull. He doesn't need them anymore. The Rs in Congress have already raised the white flag. So forget polls and decide how to declaw and then dethrone.
The felon does pay a lot of attention to polls - he will lie about them or praise them but he never never does not notice them. Never. So polls are very useful munitions - keep throwing them at his face. He melts..
Can we see what the public thinks of Bezos Amazon? I have quite all my Amazon subscriptions because of the WaPo thing against Harris and the inauguration.
Agreed. I just completed my (hopefully) last order, to clean out a gift card. Bezos is a whore to the Trump Establishment. No principled corporations left, it seems, except maybe Apple. I'm waiting for the other shoe to fall on that too.
Polling schmolling...the man is in office, his whatever you wanna call Musk is taking a wreaking ball to the federal government. It'll take years to undo the mess and who knows what consequences, both intended and unintended, will reveal themselves in the future.