THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2025
What the Times said may have been worse: As of Tuesday afternoon, The Economist / YouGov survey was out with its latest results
It was reporting results from almost two thousand respondents. ("U.S. adult citizens.")
How many respondents approved of President Trump's job performance? Here's what the survey said:
Approval of Donald Trump, recession fears, financial anxiety, and grading universities: May 2-5, 2025 Economist/YouGov Poll
[...]
42% of Americans approve of Donald Trump's job as president, while 52% disapprove, for a net approval of -10
This is the second weekly Economist / YouGov Poll in a row in which Trump's net approval did not fall, after four straight weeks of declines.
Forty-two percent of respondents said they approve! Like the sympathetic characters at the end of Chekhov's Lady with Lapdog, we Blues may tend to wonder where we go from here.
What keeps his rating even that high? Why aren't his approvals much lower?
We Blues may be inclined to ask such questions. There may be several answers:
In part, as we noted on Tuesday, we have an entrenched two-party system. Within that system, tribal loyalties tend to linger.
That said, there may be other factors at play—factors we Blue Americans may have trouble spotting. We'll start today with a pair of reports from the New York Times.
Shades of the immortal Mark Twain! It has now been twenty days since the president posed with that alleged photograph of a certain detainee's knuckles. What the president said that evening was a fairly obvious fraud, and it was so right from the start.
That was Friday, April 18! This very morning, at long last, the New York Times has responded:
Trump Has Made Claims About Abrego Garcia’s Tattoos. Here’s a Closer Look.
Gang experts say the tattoos on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s knuckles are unlikely to signify gang membership. The president says otherwise.
That's the dual headline above Juliet Macur's detailed report. The laborious effort appeared online at 5:01 this morning.
That long delay isn't Macur's fault. It does recall what Twain was the first person not to say.
We refer to what he actually didn't say about how long it can take for the truth—remember the truth?—to catch up with a howling misstatement.
The New York Times didn't rush to address that latest groaner. Neither did the Washington Post. Neither did MSNBC.
It has become almost wholly normalized—for whatever reason, the sitting president makes constant howling misstatements! The New York times also took it in stride when he went on and on, then on and on, about all the 150-year-olds who were maybe receiving Social Security checks—an endless, ridiculous presentation he made before a joint session of Congress!
Major groups are afraid of Trump. They've chosen to pull their punches with increasing alacrity.
Has that behavior, by major Blue orgs, helped maintain Trump's approvals? We can't necessarily say that it has, but we also can't say that it hasn't.
The Times was slow to respond to April 18 misstatement. Also, the Times is reporting this today, right there in its print editions:
Biden Blasts Trump in BBC Interview: ‘That’s Not Who We Are’
Six months after his party lost the presidential election, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is stepping back into the public spotlight with a scathing condemnation of his successor and his handling of international affairs.
In his first broadcast interview since leaving the White House, Mr. Biden attacked President Trump’s management of the war in Ukraine and his dealings with global allies. Speaking to the BBC, Mr. Biden also defended the timing of his own withdrawal from the 2024 presidential campaign.
[...]
In his halting speaking style, Mr. Biden boasted of being “so successful on our agenda.” He again defended his decision to seek re-election last year despite polling that, even before he began his campaign, showed that many Democrats did not want him to run for a second term.
"In his halting speaking style?" Lerer and Kwai's editor waited until paragraph 8 to insert that minor piece of theater criticism.
Yesterday afternoon, on the Fox News Channel, the reviews of this "halting" performance were perhaps a bit more aggressive. Such comments were also perhaps a bit less courteous in tone:
MARSHALL (5/7/25): ...You know, a lot of people who are older, they don't want to just sit home or be "put out to pasture," so to speak. They want to be active and involved, and I think that is what it's more about.
JUDGE JEANINE: So, Greg, because he wants to be more active and involved, would you go listen?
GUTFELD: Fine! Do it on his time, don't do it on our time. Go out literally to a pasture and pass away! He chose BBC because it stands for "Biden—Bury or Cremate?"
[...]
As long as Joe emerges from the crypt with his old man smell—nobody is listening to what he's saying. They're just looking at it and going, "Christ! This actually was president?"
WATTERS: [Snickering]
Full disclosure! Because this was The Five, not the 10 p.m. Gutfeld! show, the co-host didn't offer any of his ubiquitous images of President Biden pooping or [BLEEP]ing in his pants. Still, so said the furious Master Gutfeld, who may be the strangest person ever encountered in the annals of "cable news."
Just this once, there was no allusion to President Biden soiling himself! Instead, we heard about his "old man smell," and we heard that he should literally go off in a pasture and die:
Yesterday afternoon, Leslie Marshall sat in this program's one "liberal" chair. Marshall is a sensible, intelligent, centrist Democrat. She's a long-time Fox News Channel contributor. Also, she's the long-time host of a nationally syndicated radio show.
Marshall rarely appears on The Five. Yesterday, there she was!
Marshall may not be fully aware of what transpires on this "cable news" channel. It seemed to us that we heard her gasp at several points during Gutfeld's commentary.
Fuller disclosure! The New York Times doesn't report or discuss what happens on Fox News Channel programs. Neither does the Washington Post. Neither do the stars on MSNBC.
(Mediaite avoids discussing Gutfeld's behavior as it might avoid the plague. The site may have accepted the absurd idea that his work is just a form of "political satire.")
No one reports on Fox! People like Gutfeld and Judge Jeanine thereby receive a total pass for the highly consequential ways they've broken with journalistic traditions.
Meanwhile, the latest numbers are in, and this is what they tell us:
Week of April 28 Cable News Ratings...
[...]
Fox News held 14 out of the Top 15 spots of the most-watched cable news shows of the week among total viewers. The Five (3.687 million viewers at 5 p.m. ET) led the way as usual. MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show (1.997 million viewers) claimed the No. 8 position.
The Five led the way as usual! For the record—in the course of what was once (admiringly) called "her performance of the Rachel figure," Maddow doesn't report or discuss what happens on Fox programs either.
Gutfeld discussed the former president's smell. He said the former president should go to out to a pasture and die.
To her credit, we thought we heard Marshall gasp on those occasions. Like most denizens of Blue America, she may not be fully aware of the ways the times, they've been a-changin'.
Gutfeld engaged in his familiar advocacy of death. There are very few places where this termagant won't go.
How nutty is this 60-year-old harridan? On his 10 o'clock, primetime program, his misogyny is undisguised. His obsession with human waste material surpasses all understanding.
In this recent Facebook post, you can see him telling his fans about his new, poop-themed coffee mug. What's wrong with this very juvenile person? We have no idea.
That said, if you watch Gutfeld's full statement about President Biden's "halting delivery," you'll be seeing something which takes us beyond his characteristic lack of restraint.
Alas! You'll be seeing an angry indictment of the Democratic Party and the mainstream press corps. In our view, his indictment can't be dismissed out of hand. In our view, it's hard to say that his indictment might not be basically right.
You'll be seeing one of the reasons why we've said, for quite a while, that no matter how hard they try, it's almost impossible for Fox News Channel propagandists to be totally wrong.
Sad! According to the New York Times, President Biden displayed "his halting speaking style" when he spoke to the BBC. We'd call that description a major whitewash. Ugly comments to the side, we'd say the descriptions which littered the Fox News Channel yesterday came closer to the apparent truth.
With this, we arrive at one of the ways Blue America has enabled President Trump, and Candidate Trump before that. In his recent interview with Mediaite, Charlie Sykes mentioned this part of a larger problem.
We continue to use the original headline on this report. We enter Sykes' discussion in progress:
Is ‘Never Trump’ Dead? Charlie Sykes On The One Thing That Could Actually Restrain Trump
[,,,]
SYKES: Simply saying "These are fake issues, don’t pay any attention to them" means that you shut yourself off from things that voters are talking about.
The Joe Biden age story was very frustrating for a lot of folks, because you could not engage in a conversation with a voter anywhere in the country without his age coming up.
And yet, if you brought this up in progressive media or on certain Never Trump sites, you got flooded with what we began to call "Blue MAGA," which was, "Don’t talk about it, don’t bring it up. It’s not relevant."
I do think that if you’re going to confront the enemy, you need to understand your enemy’s strengths as well as his weaknesses. And I think that this is one of those moments.
Even Sykes was engaging in euphemism there. As messaging agents like Gutfeld endlessly noted on Fox News Channel shows, the issue wasn't Candidate Biden's age. The actual issue was his apparent cognitive decline.
Greg Gutfeld is one of the strangest people who has ever appeared on "cable news." His lack of restraint—and his endless focus on human waste, along with his undisguised misogyny—are his distinguishing characteristics.
That said, he was much more right than Blue America's tribunes concerning Candidate Biden's apparent cognitive issues. Everyone knew it but us! Those of us in Blue America just kept saying this:
"Don’t talk about it. Don’t bring it up."
This topic remains an extremely safe space for Fox News Channel employees. Any time the going gets tough with respect to President Trump's behavior, they're strongly inclined to default to discussions of matters like this.
President Biden's re-emergence on the scene will be the gift that won't stop giving to these tribunes of Red America. Over here in Blue America, we Blues will continue to refuse to deal with what our leadership cadres did—with what they will continue to do—with respect to this unfortunate state of affairs.
Many other such failures exist in Blue America, serving Red American interests. We Blues continue to traffic in denial about the way this syndrome works.
President Trump is holding steady at 42 percent! Our question would be this:
Despite our legendary intellectual greatness, do we intellectually brilliant Blues just keep propping him up?
Tomorrow: The teenage student's tale
Trump and America move ahead with UK tariff deal. Biden never did this.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/05/fact-sheet-u-s-uk-reach-historic-trade-deal/
right, Dickhead in Cal, Biden never instigated a stock market crash for insane reasons floating around in orange chickenshit's dusty skull.
DeleteBiden never did what, DiC? Impose high tariffs and then “negotiate” them back down? That’s like if I set fire to your house, and demand you thank me when I start to partially put it back out.
DeleteBesides, do you believe what you read from the White House these days?
“the announcement with the UK is limited in scope, heavy on future commitments and leave in place the existing 10% universal tariffs Trump placed on virtually all goods coming into the United States during his “Liberation Day” announcement on April 2, according to a US and UK official who previewed the deal for CNN.”
—according to CNN.
Delete@12:16 - Trump negotiated tariffs and other barriers on US exports BELOW what they had been. That's good for US businesses and farmers. It's easier to sell stuff to UK buyers.
A 10% tariff on British exports into the US is GOOD for us. It helps domestic businesses compete with UK businesses and it raises revenue.
On his way out, Biden issued blanket tariffs for literally anything sold between 2014 and 2024.
DeleteBut we don't import that many blankets.
DeleteDickhead is celebrating a new 10% tax on US consumers purchasing British imports. He is an ass.
DeleteBy the way, the United States runs a trade surplus with the U.K.
Delete"Trump negotiated tariffs and other barriers on US exports BELOW what they had been."
DeleteThis is patently false.
Oddly, I cannot get Google to tell me what the tariffs on Britain were under Biden. It only gives details about Trump's announced 10% tariff.
DeleteIt is standard for trolls like DiC to misinform.
DeleteDiC explain the "win" in terms of the UK being one of the very few countries where the idiot supposedly thinks we are winning not losing. If we are already winning why fuck with it? And I see a lot of evidence that great thinker like you think the tariffs are not a tax on us. God u a silly boy.
DeleteThe UK tariff deal may have marginally improved our trade terms with a partner who represents 1.8% of our foreign trade.
DeleteTariffs targeted at imports that have price advantages due to foreign government subsidies or labor practices that are substandard, including wages, are arguably appropriate in leveling the playing field. Across the board tariffs make no sense and raise prices. They will be inflationary with respect to products imported from Great Britain. Price stickiness will be a problem if a future administration rolls back tariffs after demonstrating their ineffectiveness.
DeleteTaxing all imports from the UK at a 10% rate is great for the American consumer, according to DiC. You know, the troll who vehemently criticized the last administration for the price of things.
Delete"It helps domestic businesses compete with UK businesses and it generates revenue."
DeleteBrilliant commentary. You've been on this planet for upwards of eighty years and you have no clue about the bonehead economics of the tariff umbrella created here. Raising revenue by broadly taxing the US consumer is regressive and inflationary. And, of course, there was no reason for it, no fentanyl argument and no UK sweatshops with child labor. Stupidist fucking policy toward a country with which we have a trade surplus!!!
That you do not get this is a window into the mind of a MAGA cult member.
The tariffs that Trump is imposing are unconstitutional. Just a small detail that rarely gets mentioned by our news media.
ReplyDeleteIn what ways are these tariffs unconstitutional?
DeleteEducate yourself.
DeleteArticle I Section 8 of the Constitution grants Congress authority to regulate commerce with other nations. Nothing in the Constitution gives the president a role.
Delete“President Biden's re-emergence on the scene will be the gift that won't stop giving”
ReplyDeleteOf course Gutfeld will keep taking. I would phrase it that way, rather than the way Somerby phrases it. Somerby basically is telling Biden to go off and die, because Gutfeld and the right wing are going to make fun of him. It’s like everything else: Democrats must weigh the reactions of people like Gutfeld before “allowing” Biden to speak his mind.
Next, Somerby will tell us that focus groups are the way to figure out which policies Dems should support.
Somerby is hyper focused on Biden's frailty, such as it appears to Somerby, yet never mentions Trump's condition, which is worse than Biden's (the Alcatraz word salad the other day would have ended any Dem's career).
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Republicans can assault women, stare off into space during press conferences for long periods of time, rant nonsensically, plunder our economy, deport US citizens, etc. with nary a word from our local heroes.
Somerby is also hyper focused on Gutfeld, who makes Republicans look bad.
It is time for Somerby to be honest about his pro Republican agenda.
But it will never happen because, typical of Republicans, lacking integrity is a feature, not a bug.
"Somerby is hyper focused on Biden's frailty, such as it appears to Somerby, yet never mentions Trump's condition,"
DeleteExcept that Somerby constantly references Trump's mental health, to the extent it's almost an obsession.
Read much?
"Within that system, tribal loyalties tend to linger."
ReplyDeleteThis is an understatement. People's political affiliation is part of their identity as a person. It is most often inherited from their parents and part of a family tradition. My bridge partner told me in 2015 that she was voting for Trump because she was a Republican and had never voted for a Democrat in her life (at age 82). Political affiliation is part of what defines someone as a person.
Republicans build on that. They attack Dems and demonize them in ridiculous ways that even red voters know are unrelated to any issues, calling Dems demons and spawn of Satan, pedophiles, and so on. This is not about any issues but about "branding" and labeling, something Trump understands well and Republicans as a party have embraced beyond any appeal to reason. For Dems to fight back against that, we would have to demonize the right, but Trump is caricature of a criminal and even the truth about him comes across as extreme name-calling. Sticking to the issues (Hillary and Michelle's "high road") doesn't work to shift political identity to the extent that it has become part of how a person defines himself.
Who can be shifted then? It would take a major catastrophe, such as receiving no FEMA aid or having one's veteran son dissed for his sacrifice, an event with the emotional strength to shift personal identity. Beyond that, the Trump identity is supported by a subculture that engages in rallies (which are social events) and conversation and bolsters a person's sense of who he is. By linking that sense to bro culture and manliness, Trump has made it even harder for anyone to change. Dems have been labeled as wusses since John Kerry. What man wants to give up the gender consequences of being red instead of blue?
So, these arguments by Somerby and those attacking Dems in the press are way off base. They seem to suggest that if we just had the right set of issues, the right candidate, just addressed the issues Trump has made salient logically (without the game-playing emotional appeal) then Dems would peel off more Republican votes and win. I think it is way more likely that the 40% still standing with Trump are the people who define themselves in terms of their politics. It would take therapy or an epiphany or a tragedy for those folks to risk examining their own identity. That is because the purpose of one's identity is to give stability and continuity to the thoughts, actions and judgments made by people through the course of their lives. It is who we are, a strong component of personality. Defining ourselves as a dad or a smart person or a rugged individualist or handy with tools or a pet lover, creates structure in our lives that is important to mental health. People who have built their sense of themselves around being Trump supporters are not going to change because Bernie runs instead of Biden. They would need an intervention, rehab, and even then the attempts to change them would likely fail.
So, what Somerby is saying today and those saying it with him, is all a load of crap when it comes to how people really think and vote. The issues only matter to those who separate their sense of themselves from those issues and party image. There are plenty of people who do that, but there are apparently 40% who don't. Why isn't it fewer? Because many people don't care enough about our country or the issues to investigate and vote according to goals, ideals and principles. They vote because Trump is strong, they identify with him and feel good whenever he owns the libs. Why? Because they are stupid, undereducated, and lack ego strength.
A way to create a stronger Democratic voting base would be to stress our union roots, our historical support for civil rights, the great presidents who have addressed major crises (FDR, Truman, LBJ) and our charismatic leaders (JFK, Clinton, Obama), our embrace of women's leadership and our financial accomplishments (Clinton's balanced budget, LBJ's war on poverty). We should emphasized that we stand for justice and opportunity for all. Harris did this and people responded enthusiastically to her message.
DeleteRepublicans discovered that it was a mistake to attack their own party members, enforcing party discipline. Trump's current success may be nothing more than his ability to enact revenge on anyone who disses him or deviates from his wishes. It may be that authoritarianism makes a party stronger, but at what cost. Tolerance of diversity among people fosters diversity of opinion within a party. Dems can and do attack each other, the dissent is a hallmark of our party, embodying the values of arriving at consensus through a democratic process that uses discussion to examine all sides of issues. Somerby's (Pelosi's, Clooney's) attacks on Biden are a prime example of Democratic tolerance for diversity of opinion. But it may make it necessary to work harder to achieve the critical mass needed to win against corrupt Republicans. Had Democrats rallied behind Biden after his bad debate (as they did after Obama's bad debate), I believe Dems would have won, as close as the election was. I also think Dems would have won with Harris had Trump and the Republicans not lied & cheated, been helped by Putin & Russia, and been backed by a massive influx of billionaire funding. Elections aren't supposed to be conducted like that. But Somerby blames Biden, just as others are trying to blame Harris, without sounding like racist, sexist assholes for criticizing a woman who ran a "nearly perfect" campaign in a much shorter time than others get, and neary won. Harris lost because Dems stayed home. Republicans wouldn't stay home like that because their goal is always winning, not finding the perfect candidate with the bestest and most perfect policy alignment with one's own beliefs. With the diversity among Democrats, every election must be a compromise for many voters, because it is impossible to find a single candidate who is that best choice for the wider variety of Dem voters.
Hillary, the most qualified candidate ever, lost because she was portrayed as crooked by Republicans and Dems didn't defend her strongly enough to overcome that branding. The irony of her losing to such a huge criminal as Trump is being avoided by assholes like Somerby, who never said a good thing about her in the months leading up to the election, much as he never found Harris perfect enough to praise, much less defend from Republican attacks. And then he has the nerve to complain because Dems lost to Trump!
Trump's cult of personality is the ultimate "identity politics".
DeleteHillary was portrayed as crooked by the most corrupt lying sack of shit conman to ever step foot into the oval office, and the liberal media played right along with him, hounding her over her daily routine emails as SoS.
DeleteIMO they're both both con-persons.
DeleteEvery asshole is allowed an opinion under our constitution. Despite massive effort, the right never managed to prove any of its manufactured accusations against Hillary.
DeleteRepublicans are waiting for Trump to make perjury legal, before they try Clinton for her "crimes".
DeleteBiden cared about our society:
ReplyDelete"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently announced its intent to bring Google under its regulatory supervision, a move that could establish a new era of oversight for tech companies delving into financial services...In December, the CFPB announced the step, saying it had determined services offered by Google Payment had posed a risk to consumers."
Trump shits on our society:
"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau discontinued its order designating the supervision of Alphabet's Google Payment Corp, reversing a Biden-era decision to monitor the nonbank financial platform"
All zero of the Republican voters who are economically anxious, and not at all just a shit pile of bigots (hat tip corporate mainstream media), are going to turn on Trump like a pack of rabid wolves. Let's hope Trump has his army of unicorns ready to protect him.
Delete"He again defended his decision to seek re-election last year despite polling that, even before he began his campaign, showed that many Democrats did not want him to run for a second term. "
ReplyDeleteThis despite Biden/Harris winning the primaries and the nomination of their party. They were the first choice among Democrats before the NY Times and Republicans started their smear campaign about his age. That campaign used fake videos published by the Washington Post and the NY Times to present gaffes that never happened. Hur's release of a statement about Biden being a well-intentioned old man with a bad memory was against DOJ policy and out of line, intended only to portray Biden badly after the investigation turned up no wrongdoing regarding Biden's classified documents. Just as Republicans did to Hillary, suggesting she had a stroke and showing video of her slipping on airplane stairs (as Trump and most other presidents have also done), the right wing conducted a campaign in which they suggested that Jill Biden was secretly running the govt because of Biden's frailty. Another version said that Michelle Obama was acting for Biden. There is still a conspiracy theory that Biden's staff and relatives conspired to keep him in office when he was incapacitated. The press and Somerby both ignored the evidence of those who interacted with Biden regularly, or who met him in official functions including high level meetings and war peace talks.
Somerby led the charge against Biden. That makes him partially responsible for Trump's presidency, because Biden and Harris and other analysts believe Biden would have won had he been defended and treated fairly by his own party.
Biden is now the ex president. He is taking his rightful place as an elder statesman and icon of the Democratic party. His presidency was highly successful under difficult circumstances and he did not let any of us down. I think we let him down. For Somerby to write a headline like "President Biden should go off and die?" is majorly offensive, a travesty, an insult to all Democrats, even with the question mark he appended to it, to suggest he is just posing a question that others are asking. Somerby owns the filth he wrote today. He is not simply an asshole but not much of a decent person.
We have a tradition, at least on the left, or respecting those who have served their country. It is why we say "Thank you for your service" to our military. It is why public servants who are elected to Congress have pensions. It is why people listen with respect to the opinions of former presidents, but also former secretaries of state, former cabinet members, and others who contributed to helping out government do its best work on behalf of the people. That notion of public service disappeared with Trump, but that is no excuse for Somerby to wish death on Biden, even with a question mark. No decent person does that, even with their enemies.
Somerby is perhaps showing that he is too old for this self-chosen task. He should be ashamed to have written what he did. When Trump is finally removed from office, I will not be wishing death on him, no matter how many more people he hurts or even kills. I will rejoice that he is out of office and look forward to repairing the damage he did. Wishing death on an opponent strikes me as a Republican tactic, the words of someone lacking all empathy for humanity. This isn't the first time Somerby has disgraced himself and reveal his lack of character.
"President Biden's re-emergence on the scene will be the gift that won't stop giving to these tribunes of Red America."
ReplyDeleteWe Blues! We failed to stop a major news organization from interviewing a former president!! What a bunch of brainless hypocrites we are!
The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 are the gifts the Blues won't stop giving to the Red tribe.
ReplyDeleteI'm no longer sure where you are getting your info, however good topic. D.
ReplyDeleteI must spend some time studying much more or working out more.D.
ReplyDeleteThank you, very great article. D.
ReplyDeleteFantastic blog! Do you have any helpful hints for aspiring writers? D.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping to start my own blog soon but I'm a little lost on everything. D.