March 28, 2020

Biden or Sanders would beat Trump in an election right now

The poll was released March 24 and found:

Biden -- 47 
Trump - 42 

and

 
Sanders- 46 
Trump - - 42

Survey: 
https://morningconsult.com/2020-democratic-primary/ 

Newsweek article: 
https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-bernie-sanders-would-both-beat-donald-trump-general-election-if-it-were-held-today-1493939

March 28, 2020

Biden or Sanders would beat Trump in an election right now

The poll was released March 24 and found

Biden -- 47
Trump - 42

and

Sanders- 46
Trump - - 42

Survey:
https://morningconsult.com/2020-democratic-primary/

Newsweek article:
https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-bernie-sanders-would-both-beat-donald-trump-general-election-if-it-were-held-today-1493939

March 27, 2020

President Trump is as popular as he's ever been right now

PLEASE DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER!

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/politics/donald-trump-gallup-approval-polling/index.html

President Trump is as popular as he's ever been right now

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Updated 12:18 PM EDT, Wed March 25, 2020

(CNN) - Here's an indisputable fact: President Donald Trump is as popular today as he has been since his first day in office.

In a new Gallup poll, 49% approve of the job Trump is doing as president while 45% disapprove, matching the highest his approval rating has ever been in Gallup surveys. A Monmouth University poll released on Monday showed Trump at 46% approval, again the best he has done in that poll in more than three years.

In the Gallup poll, 60% of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing in handling the crisis while 38% disapprove of how he has done. Six in 10 independents approve of how Trump has done on the coronavirus as do more than 1 in 4 (27%) of Democrats. In the Monmouth poll, 50% say Trump has done a good job with coronavirus while 45% said he has done a bad job.

We've got our work cut out for us. I know this is mostly rally round the flag driving his numbers. But Trump has so benefited from this crisis, and I don't just mean financially, that I'm certain there will be more crises in September and October.

It could be Venezuela or it could be something with China, given the way they are hiding their coronavirus numbers. But the bastard thrives on chaos. And he's finally figured out a formula for selling it.

We're all information warriors now. We need to persuade friends in person and online. We need to convincingly document now and through the fall the errors, the corruption, and the long-term harm coming from Trump.

After the war of the coronavirus, we have a bigger war on ignorance and bigotry to fight. And more importantly, we have to fight the war against the apathy and demoralization that Republicans are depending on to keep control of government.

March 27, 2020

Trump is Rorschach. He's not trapped in this crisis. We're trapped in here with HIM

It'll be the same result as with the prison scene in the Watchmen movie. Lots of chaos, lots of conflagration, lots of bodies lying around... But before we get to that big payoff, we are at this moment.

Trump is not trapped in the politics of this moment, despite his paranoid belief that he is. Instead, all of American politics is trapped inside the pandemic with him. I've seen comparisons made to Trump from fiction, everything from Frankenstein's monster to the mayor from Jaws.

But now he's Rorschach from Watchmen. Delusional, uncompromising, instinctively aggressive, wrapped up in his own crazy worldview, pathetically insecure, and disdainful of the consequences of his own actions, no matter how many people die. He's a small man with a big job, a living trainwreck.

The polls I've seen show that just barely under half of Americans think Trump is doing a good job. That is a lot of ignorance, a lot of compelled gullibility, a lot of disconnection from the facts of this pandemic.

We can have all sorts of theories about whether it's Stockholm syndrome or the Dunning-Kruger effect that binds his voting base to his cult of personality. The reality is he has enthralled a wide swath of middle America, played on their fears and turned them into devotion to his quirky irresponsibility.

And now he's acting like a Fifth Columnist, creating chaos and divisions behind our supply lines before we can fight this horrible virus. The invasion will run deeper and kill more Americans ... and he just doesn't care. In fact, he thrives on the chaos. He's a dim man with strong instincts; and his instructs are driving him to make the situation worse.

God help us.

March 26, 2020

Please don't call it karma

I know in the west we use karma as a synonym for poetic justice. But that's not this.

This virus is not punishing hubris. When some foolish governor of Mississippi, or the idiot lieutenant governor here in Texas, or some disease mocking knucklehead congressman from Florida falls sick after mocking the disease or telling his constituents we have to get back to work before the quarantine has flattened out the curve enough to keep our hospitals from breaking, there's no karmic balancing of the good and bad in the universe.

And the people who a fall sick cause of someone else's the scientific ignorance about quarantine protocols are not asking for it the way these reckless politicians and right-wing journalists are. It's random who you run into. It's random who an ill person coughs on. It's random who touches the wrong surface at the wrong grocery store. These things happen where people are most crowded, particularly in cities, and even rigorous efforts to limit contact will be imperfect.

It's not just that people who live in cities are more likely to be Democrats and thus more likely to be the early cases exposed to the coronavirus, it's also that fact that the concept of karma is that your actions have an impact on your future fortunes. That's not at all what happens with the coronavirus and covid-19.

Somebody's actions and words don't just endanger themselves. Being stupid about social distancing and hygiene protocols won't just get you sick. You get your parents sick, when they are the ones most at risk of dying. You get your neighbors sick, your grocery clerk, your gardener, people you ride in the elevator with at work, if you're foolish or vulnerable enough to have to go in. It's the Uber driver who comes to take you to the hospital, and it's the nurses and doctors who care for you while you recover. People misled by these reckless politicians and right-wing journalists will get them sick too... and might just kill them. The innocent, the unlucky, the essential, and the heroic.

Don't call it karma. It's not poetic justice. It's profound irresponsibility. It's disrupting or destroying innocent lives and making our country weaker. There's nothing balanced or cosmically corrective about spreading this disease.

March 23, 2020

I'm looking for a comprehensive critique of what's wrong with the Republican relief bill

What I've heard so far...

* Families making more than $75,000 a year $2400 +$1000 per kid, but families making under that only get $1200 + $1000 per kid, and singles who didn't pay taxes in both 2018 and 2019 only get $600. Basically a reverse Robin Hood

* Companies can get bailouts even if they end up firing lots of workers

* OSHA regulations are hand waived

* Companies who spent their profits on stock buybacks are still eligible. And there are incomplete regulation preventing the bailout money from funding more stock buybacks


I'm also looking for sources I can read myself. But I'm getting into arguments with Republicans on Facebook and I'd like to have some ammunition the point out the seriously partisan slant in McConnell's package.

( Yes, I just use the phrase "McConnell's package" and you're going to have to live with that image in your mind)

March 20, 2020

Let me show you how it's done (revive the market edition)

Thank you, Mister President. May we get back to saving lives now?

March 20, 2020

The Trump Depression. The Trump Slump.

This year really sucks.

March 14, 2020

1. It's not a problem 2. Thoughts and prayers 3. It's Obama's fault

4. We did a tremendous job, I hear people are telling me, just a tremendous job, because my genius brain was in charge when this happened
5. We need a tax cut

March 13, 2020

If Trump had been impeached and removed, Mike Pence would be handling the emergency

I'm starting to think God hates us