February 6, 2024

'Why are President Biden's approval ratings so low?' And why my pants are not on fire about it

President Biden only won the 2020 election by about 3 percent...

so he starts out in approval polls with nearly 48 percent set to vote negative by reflex on his approval.
Even during the "honeymoon period", he only scored 56% approval.

Well, almost every Republican will vote negative in any such poll, whether they really believe that or not
(and almost every Republican will vote negatively just because President Joe Biden IS A DEMOCRAT...)

True independents may see some things not going as they would like, so many of them vote negatively.

What is really killing President Biden's approval ratings right now are the negative votes of "soft Democrats",
and the left side of the party (of which I am one, but I would not answer a general approval rating poll in the negative---
my only negative would be on the question of the Israeli Gaza war).

Presidential approval ratings don't mean what they used to--- that all those who 'disapprove' of your job performance are very likely to vote against you--- not when your opponent is a certifiable racist, monster, sexual predator and senile lunatic.

The economy continues to get better. Those who complain about "inflation" are actually complaining about inflation that already happened--- what they really mean is that "prices are still too high". Prices are not continuing to go up at a high rate, which is the actual definition of inflation.

What they ought to be complaining about is "capitalist corporate greed"----
Supply issues have eased, but corporations refuse to lower prices and are making record profits as a result---
and rents and housing costs are just too damned high.

Yeah, people complain about high prices ( "inflation" ), but they continue to spend at a high rate anyway...
High consumer spending does not help prices to ease.

That is certainly not the fault of President Biden, and he ought to put their greed into the cross-hairs of the "bully pulpit" more often than he is doing. Polling shows that this message has resonance, not just for the Democratic base, but for everyone....


The latest NBC poll shows President Biden 'doing worse than ever' and behind Trump by 5 percent nationally,
but the results of the top-rated Quinnipiac University poll from last week
showed results directly OPPOSITE those of the NBC poll, and President Biden with a national lead of 6 percent,
and the gender gap growing in favor of Democrats, and people starting to feel better about the economy!

As such, I'm not going to worry about the polls that one or the other of the networks want to promote---
they are getting to resemble "CLICK-BAIT" on the internet! Professional pollsters have the "know-how"
to pre-set their poll sampling to generate any 'result' they might want,
if they choose to operate that way.... (I don't claim that they are,
but the issue does seem to be in doubt).


People "vent" in polls, and many Democrats are "venting"--
(and almost ALL Republicans are venting, continuing to complain about Bidenomics
when most of them are doing better than ever!)

Yes, people VENT in polls, but they do not VOTE in them...
They can only VOTE in THE ELECTION, which will have actual consequences which they will begin to understand....

I think hardly anyone who voted against four more years of Trump,
are going to suddenly change their minds and vote for four more years of Trump, by the time the election comes around...

The biggest danger to President Biden's re-election is the 'spoiler effect' that third parties may siphon off anti-Trump votes--- and that some 2020 Biden voters could stay home--- not that these people will vote for Trump--- although they *might* do it in a poll, which doesn't count--- because they want to VENT because "not everything is perfect under President Biden"!!!

As President Biden likes to say,
'Don't compare me with the Almighty, compare me with the alternative'!

February 3, 2024

A Confederate general refused to surrender and fled to Mexico. Texas park named for him is the center of this standoff

A Confederate general refused to surrender and fled to Mexico. The Texas park named for him is the center of another standoff

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/01/us/shelby-park-texas-border-history-cec/index.html#:~:text=Joseph%20Orville%20Shelby%20was%20a,than%20surrendering%20to%20Union%20forces.

Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, has become a staging ground for state forces, the epicenter of a standoff with the federal government and a stark symbol of dysfunction at the border.

But there’s another story about this park that’s far less well known than the recent legal battle over immigration enforcement in this border city.

The 47-acre park along the Rio Grande was named after a Confederate military leader who fled to Mexico in 1865 rather than surrendering to Union troops.

A Federal Emergency Management Agency case study describing the park notes that it was named for General Joseph Orville Shelby, known to some as the “undefeated rebel.”

read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/01/us/shelby-park-texas-border-history-cec/index.html#:~:text=Joseph%20Orville%20Shelby%20was%20a,than%20surrendering%20to%20Union%20forces.



Interesting and ironic history.... Did Governor Abbott know about it??
My first guess is NO, although he knew enough to plagerize from Texas's secession document, he doesn't strike me as any kind of student of history...

My second guess on the whole matter is, they will be very happy to learn about this-- as it underlines their whole 'undefeated' narrative...


I am reminded of the John Wayne-Rock Hudson movie, "The Undefeated", which was based on the circumstance of a Confederate general refusing to surrender and moving his remaining troops to Mexico, obviously based upon this historical fact. The rest of the film was highly fictionalized, of course...

February 1, 2024

There Is No Overstating How Frightened White Loser MAGA Republicans Are Of Taylor Swift (Wonkette)

https://www.wonkette.com/p/there-is-no-overstating-how-frightened

There Is No Overstating How Frightened White Loser MAGA Republicans Are Of Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift is going to be the thing that pushes them over the edge. And we get to point and laugh at it.

by EVAN HURST

::: snip:::

There’s a lot wrapped up in it, but the existence of Taylor Swift — and her boyfriend Travis Kelce, who pisses them off for a number of overlapping reasons — says something about their level of powerlessness in American culture, something they can’t bear to conceptualize. Swift is like a walking, breathing billionaire manifestation of the fact that they can pass all the fascist laws they want, elevate any strongmen who tickle their fancy, take away people’s very bodily autonomy — but they can’t force anybody to respect them. Or like them. Or want to fuck them. Or want to sit with them at lunch. Or simply not make fun of them on a daily basis.

These people have the world’s thirstiest desire to be the cool kids just once, and they want to matter to American culture, but we are never ever ever getting back together with them.

One more thing: The hysterics we’re witnessing, specifically regarding the voting? Haven’t celebrities influenced how people have voted before? Particularly young people? Sure. But we think Taylor Swift is too powerful and hits too close to their homes.

Remember how they used to fantasize that she was a secret Nazi like them? She wasn’t, and not only that, one gets the sense that white fascist MAGA Americans are desperately frightened that she might be the thing that makes their little angels escape from the MAGA lifestyle. We think white conservatives are shitting their pants because they’re literally scared their daughters are going to weigh the options, and having been exposed to Taylor Swift and the outside world she represents, they will realize MAGA people, including their own families, are fucking insane, and throw in their lot with the non-insane billionaire who’s actually rather normal, the one whose music gives them liiiiiiiiife, the one with the hot football boyfriend with sexual magnetism and vaccines shooting through his veins.

:::snip:::

I love Wonkette-- they have a very snarky way with words!

January 24, 2024

Tom Petty's "American Girl"--- Did the Haley campaign have permission,

and PAY FOR the use of that song???

(I just heard the beginning of it at the end of the Haley speech....)
I trust that their campaign was not so stupid as to use it
without having paid for such use---

On the other hand, I have my doubts that the estate of Tom Petty
would have sold that use to them---
but that is their choice, Tom is dead, God Bless Him.....

Most of us should by now be well aware of how some political campaigns appropriate these rock songs for public use, without abiding by the legal requirements--- that is why I ask the question. I don't know the answer, I give it up to the researchers....

Meanwhile.....

"Well, she was an American Girl.... raised on promises
She couldn't help thinking there was a little more life, somewhere else.."

January 24, 2024

"REMEMBER THE ALAMO!" Yeah, ok....

(referencing the current disagreement between Texas and the Federal Government about the border, which the 'Supreme Court' has decided in favor of the Federal Government's supremacy about the border....)


Well, the thing to 'remember' about the Alamo is, that every white defender of that post DIED---
President Santa Anna, dictator of Mexico at the time,
kicked their asses and KILLED THEM ALL....

(somehow that is a 'matter of pride' among Texans,
even though it makes no sense from a military standpoint....)


Now many of them want to secede from the Union again---
no doubt they could call up many 'texas militia' armed with AR-15s....

Not much against the advanced weapons of the US military---
stupid Texan cannon-fodder......


Regardless, personally I am quite uncertain that I would favor spending patriotic American blood to force them to stay in the Union....

I would favor spending government funds to evacuate all those in that state who remain loyal to the Union---

after that, I don't give a shit what happens to the rest of those deluded people....

January 24, 2024

Via the 1968 Dem primary precedent, Trump has LOST the NH Primary!!!

He is the de-facto incumbent of the Republican primary---
as such, he should have WON by a much larger percentage.....

His results are pathetic tonight, and he knows it!


Brace yourselves for a late-night 'Truth Social' angry barrage....

January 24, 2024

So Dean Phillips is no Gene McCarthy, tonight...

Results at this moment appear to show President Joe Biden winning the New Hampshire primary with
about 74% to Phillip's 20.8%,
without even being on the ballot....

https://www.google.com/search?q=New+Hampshire+Democratic+primary+2024&sca_esv=600935136&sxsrf=ACQVn09pUY0tO0Pjx4Llgslo6ES68WPi5g%3A1706059872682&source=hp&ei=YGiwZYGiJ_rDkPIPn5G1qAk&iflsig=ANes7DEAAAAAZbB2cALWcjMW9xwSdz2YuklPG9l0w-7E&ved=0ahUKEwiB0rKl8PSDAxX6IUQIHZ9IDZUQ4dUDCA8&uact=5&oq=New+Hampshire+Democratic+primary+2024&gs_lp=Egdnd3Mtd2l6IiVOZXcgSGFtcHNoaXJlIERlbW9jcmF0aWMgcHJpbWFyeSAyMDI0SLFXUABY5lFwAHgAkAEAmAGqAaABph2qAQUxOS4xOLgBA8gBAPgBAcICDhAAGIAEGIoFGLEDGIMBwgILEAAYgAQYsQMYgwHCAgsQLhiABBixAxiDAcICERAuGIAEGLEDGIMBGMcBGNEDwgIIEAAYgAQYsQPCAgUQABiABMICDhAuGIAEGIoFGLEDGIMBwgIOEC4YgAQYsQMYxwEY0QPCAgUQLhiABMICDhAuGK8BGMcBGJIDGIAEwgILEC4YgAQYxwEY0QPCAgsQLhiABBjHARivAQ&sclient=gws-wiz

Senator Gene McCarthy (D-Minnesota) was the initial challenger to the re-nomination of President Lyndon Johnson's re-nomination in 1968. He had an arguably "just cause"--- his opposition to the war in Vietnam. This year Mr. Phillips has had no such compelling cause for his challenge to President Joe Biden, only that 'Biden is old and he might lose'

Likewise in 1968, Johnson did not appear on the 1968 New Hampshire Democratic primary ballot---
(not sure of the reason, only that he did not file for it?? Campaigns began much later back in 1968.... it seems to me that he had never 'declared' his candidacy for re-election at that point).

Regardless, write-in votes for President Johnson in the '68 N.H. primary defeated McCarthy by a margin of roughly 49-44 percent (according to my memory since I can't find a link, but I am a student of the 1968 campaign)

Even though Johnson out-polled McCarthy without even being on the ballot, the media decided that it had been a "victory" for Gene McCarthy-- because it was so close.... and the New Hampshire results may have had an influence on President Johnson's decision to withdraw from the race a month later... as well as the decision of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy to also challenge him for re-election, on the grounds of his opposition to the Vietnam war, and his perception that President Johnson was not doing enough about the problems of the cities...


Well, this is not 1968, we are not engaged in a questionable war, President Joe Biden is not Lyndon Johnson (although his domestic accomplishments are likewise commendable), and Rep. Dean Phillips is not Gene McCarthy or Robert F. Kennedy, nor does he have any justifiable cause to challenge the re-nomination of a president whom tonight, in his concession speech, he called a very 'good man'....

And he didn't come close to Gene McCarthy's New Hampshire primary results in 1968, against a candidate who was not even on the ballot.


Frankly, he got the shit kicked out of him......! And Rightly So!

(not-withstanding poor predictions from somewhere in Brooklyn)


Phillips will not be recognized in election history as much as McCarthy from 1968....

He is more on the level of the Republican congressman who challenged President Nixon for re-nomination in 1972....
Does anyone remember what his name was?
And do the rest of you remember that any such challenge ever took place???

If that guy had many public events, I suspect that he also suffered the embarrassment of no one showing up...

In the words of Dean Phillips, perhaps the most memorable quote from this ill-considered campaign,
'sometimes you build it, and no-one shows up...)


I am awaiting Mr. Phillip's inevitable endorsement of the re-election of President Joe Biden!!!

January 19, 2024

Trump has ALWAYS "appeared disoriented"--- even in 2016,

he could never appear to finish a complete sentence---!!!
much more in 2024....


To me, that has been one of the most annoying things about him---
in second place, that he has to try to interrupt and shout over his debate opponents....


President Joe Biden should not debate him, unless the microphones are muted between responses
as a condition

(but Joe should have a sign in his pocket awaiting deployment,
which says
"why don't you just shut up??!!!"

January 16, 2024

My personal reaction to the 2024 GQP Iowa caucuses.....

First off, these were the most predictable and most un-interesting and un-entertaining caucus results from Iowa that I have ever been forced to view
('forced to view' because that is my long-time habit since 1980)...

Iowa caucuses are very well-known for producing at least one 'surprise' result,
but they certainly failed us tonight

(of course the Democratic results won't be known until Super Tuesday,
but my opinion is that President Joe Biden will end up with more votes than Trump had---
especially since the Democrats are voting by mail, and didn't need to plunge into arctic temperatures to vote...)

Ok, moving on.....

Yeah, Trump "won". No surprise there....
but 49% of Iowa Republicans who showed up, voted for someone else....
In a state "Trump-full" of evangelicals, that seems like a disappointing number,
from the MAGAt point of view....

A "quasi-incumbent" who is the leader of a cult, should have done better than that, IMHO.
(OMG, it must have been RIGGED against him!) LOL

Moving on.... the Ron DeSantis speech was delusional---
(and just after I reached that personal conclusion, the Scripps-News moderator
described it with that very same word, LMAO)

There is no future state where 'DeSanctimonious' can win.... He spent the wad on Iowa, and came up short...
He barely ekked out a second-place finish in Iowa, which was probably the result of an expensive 99-county ground game
(and Nikki, even though overtaking him in the polls, had no statewide ground-game here, other than in some urban areas---
she has been banking on New Hampshire--- that is why she failed to take second-place here, although it was close....)

Haley has a chance to win in New Hampshire--- and Ron does her a favor by staying in---
(most of his votes would likely go to tRump when he quits)---

but Vivak's withdrawl and endorsement of Trump may make it a wash....

Even if Haley can pull out an upset over Trump in New Hampshire, (on the strength of independent and any Democratic cross-over votes,
she likely won't be able to win in her own state, and that will be the end of the story...


Meanwhile, dRumph filled his diaper--- I could smell it from here!


What I would really like to see in New Hampshire, is that Fighting President Joe Biden gets more votes in his primary than Donald Dumbass-- even though he isn't even on the ballot.... seems like an even chance to me...

Also, I root for Nikki to give him a black eye in that primary---
even though she has nowhere else to go from there afterwards....

Cheers!

January 6, 2024

Fill in the blank: "What a sick ________ !!!!!!"

(From President Biden's speech today, about when tRump talked about the attack on Paul Pelosi, and laughing about it....

President Biden didn't finish the sentence...... later he said 'Sometimes I'm glad the Irish in me can't be seen', lmao)


President Biden did a fine job today--- and I loved the FIRE in his delivery!
The American people love a fighter!

I have my own opinion about the missing words, but I'll leave it to someone else to fill in the blank...