Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Some Interesting Results From Latest CNN Poll
The charts above reflect the results of the CNN / SSRS Poll -- done between August 21st and September 1st of a nationwide sample of 2,077 adults, with a 2.7 point margin of error.
Many Think Trump Is Too Old And Unhealthy To Be President
The charts above are from the YouGov Poll -- done between September 2nd and 4th of a nationwide sample of 1,177 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.
Is This The Country We Really Want To Be?
Sadly, that time has passed. Other nations no longer see an example to be followed. Now we are a rogue nation to be avoided as much as possible. When they look at the U.S. now, they see something different. They now see:
- A nation that cannot be trusted to keep it agreements and treaties.
- A nation with a chief executive that tries to bully other nations with tariffs and cutting off aid.
- A nation with a government that's trying to restrict (or eliminate) free speech.
- A nation that's sending federal troops to illegally occupy its major cities.
- A nation whose leader is using the Justice Department and federal law enforcement to punish his critics and political enemies.
- A nation that cuts taxes on the super-rich while instituting tariffs (and other regressive taxes) that punish most other households with increasing prices.
- A nation that helps the rich get richer while the middle class struggles to keep up with inflation, and the poor and working classes fall further behind every day.
- A nation that is rich, but has the largest number and percentage of children in poverty of any developed nation.
- A nation that just passed a law to take health insurance away from millions of people, and significantly raise health insurance prices for millions more.
- A nation where extremist political rhetoric is causing a rising tide of political violence.
- A nation with more guns than people, and weak laws that allow an average of more than one mass shooting every day.
- A nation with a minimum wage so low that many full-time workers cannot escape poverty.
- A nation that denies due process to immigrants (both documented and undocumented).
- A nation that refuses to join the world community in fighting to control global climate change.
- A nation that is erasing equality gains by women, nonwhites, and the LGBTQ community.
- A nation whose chief executive is claiming authoritarian powers (and Congress and the Supreme Court are allowing him to do it).
THIS IS WHAT THE UNITED STATE HAS BECOME!
IS THIS REALLY THE NATION YOU WANT?
Monday, September 29, 2025
The Public Is Not Buying Trump Claims Of A "Great" Economy
The charts above are from the CBS News / YouGov Poll -- done between August 29th and September 2nd of a nationwide sample of 2,344 adults, with a 2.3 point margin of error.
The Slumbering Giant Of America Is Now Stirring. Soon He Will Roar
The following post is by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich:
It was an extraordinary week. The slumbering giant of America is awakening.
Americans forced Disney to put Jimmy Kimmel back on the air. Over 6 million people watched Kimmel’s Tuesday monologue assailing Trump’s attempt to censor him. Another 26 million watched it on social media, including YouTube. (Kimmel’s usual television audience is about 1.42 million.)
Trump’s dictatorial narcissism revealed itself nearly as dramatically in the criminal indictment of former FBI director James Comey, coming immediately after Trump fired the U.S. attorney who refused to indict him.
As did Trump’s demand that prosecutors go after philanthropist George Soros, Senator Adam Schiff, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and other perceived enemies.
As did Trump’s order yesterday, directing the “Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth” to use “full force, if necessary” to “protect War ravaged Portland” Oregon and any “ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.” He is escalating his use of the U.S. military against Americans.
There was also his bonkers speech to the United Nations telling delegates that their nations are “going to hell.” His attribution of autism to Tylenol, even though doctors say it is safe for pregnant women in moderation. His unilateral imposition of tariffs as high as 100 percent on imports of pharmaceuticals and kitchen cabinets.
Friends, his neofascism and his dementia are both in plain sight.
Americans — including independents and many Republicans — are appalled by what we’re seeing.
His polls continue to drop.
Voters are turning against him and his Republican party. On Tuesday, Democrat Adelita Grijalva won Arizona’s 7th Congressional District in a special election — leaving House Republicans with a majority of just five.
Grijalva’s victory comes on the heels of another Democratic win: James Walkinshaw’s in Virginia.
Two more special elections are coming, in Texas and Tennessee.
Speaker Mike Johnson is struggling to hold House Republicans together, facing rebellion on issues such as the release of files relating to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Democrats are refusing to go along with Republicans to fund the government beyond Tuesday unless Republicans agree to extending Affordable Care Act subsidies — now set to expire at the end of the year and cause 24 million people to lose coverage or pay skyrocketing premiums.
Friends, I can’t tell you exactly when the tipping point will occur — when elected Republicans will rebel against him, or when his dementia becomes so apparent he’s forced to resign, or when so much of the nation rises up against his dictatorship that he’s impeached and convicted of high crimes — but we’re getting closer.
As I said a few days ago, I’ve been in and around politics for 60 years and have developed a sixth sense about the slumbering giant of America. That giant is now stirring. He about to stand. He’s angry. Soon he will roar.
Your activism is working.
Trump Wants To Control Who Can Speak At The U.N.
The words above, from Colombian President Gustavo Petri, will probably shock many Americans. But they shouldn't. He has a point.
Donald Trump appeared at the United Nations last week, and among other things, he remarked about the organizations inability to solve world problems. I believe the UN does a lot of good in the world, but it does have some problems.
I wonder if Trump realizes that he is one of those problems. Last week, the UN debated the possibility of a two-state solution to solve the problems between Israelis and Palestinians. But not all parties were able to appear and speak at the UN. Trump refused to allow representatives of Hamas to enter the U.S. and appear at the UN. Whatever one might think of Hamas (and they deserve the criticism they receive), shouldn't all sides be heard if a solution is to be found?
Then, after President Petro joined a demonstration supporting Palestinians, Trump revoked his visa and forced him to leave this country. Petro did not commit or support violence. He just peacefully demonstrated with others. Shouldn't that be his right (since our Constitution affords the same rights to everyone in this country - even visitors)?
We are currently having a problem with the Trump administration trying to suppress free speech in the United States. But we need to also support free speech at the United Nations. How can solutions be found when only some are allowed to speak? If the United Nations is to work, everyone must be included.
But Donald Trump thinks he should have the right to restrict who can enter this country to speak at the United Nations. He should not have that right!
As long as Trump tries to control who can appear before the UN, President Petro has a point. Maybe the UN should be moved to a country that will respect everyone's ability to address it - even those with unpopular views.
Sunday, September 28, 2025
New Poll Has Trump Job Approval At Only 38%
The charts above reflect the results of the Quinnipiac University Poll -- done between September 18th and 21st of a nationwide sample of 1,276 registered voters, with a 3.3 point margin of error.
Voters Are Growing More Pessimistic About Protection Of Free Speech
Comey Responds To The Ridiculous DOJ Indictment
From ABC News:
"My heart is broken for the Department of Justice. I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I am innocent, so let's have a trial, and keep the faith. My family and I have known for years that there are costs for standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn't imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees and you shouldn't either. Somebody that I love dearly (his daughter) recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant and she is right. But I am not afraid, and I hope you are not either. I hope instead you are engaged, you are paying attention and you will vote like your beloved country depends upon it, which it does."
Saturday, September 27, 2025
Public Overwhelmingly Opposes Government Pressure Of Media
The chart above reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between September 19th and 22nd of a nationwide sample of 1,551 adults (including 1,392 registered voters). The margin of error is 3.4 points for adults and 3.1 points for registered voters.
The Department Of Retribution (Formerly The DOJ) Gets A Comey Indictment
Donald Trump took a giant step toward the furtherance of his authoritarian power yesterday with the indictment of James Comey. Here is how Alan Feuer, Jonah E. Bromwich, and Maggie Haberman describe it in The New York Times:
The clearest way to understand the extraordinary nature of the indictment on Thursday of James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, is to offer up a simple recitation of the facts.
An inexperienced prosecutor loyal to President Trump, in the job for less than a week, filed criminal charges against one of her boss’s most-reviled opponents. She did so not only at Mr. Trump’s direct command, but also against the urging of both her own subordinates and her predecessor, who had just been fired for raising concerns that there was insufficient evidence to indict.
The charges, which were filed around 7 p.m. in Federal District Court in Alexandria, Va., thrust the Justice Department into perilous new territory. The push for the indictment trampled over the agency’s long tradition of maintaining distance from the White House and resisting political pressure, and it raised the prospect of further arbitrary prosecutions pushed by Mr. Trump against his enemies.
Heightening the break-glass moment, the felony charges against Mr. Comey, who stands accused of making false statements and obstructing justice, were rushed into court as Mr. Trump’s handpicked prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, hurried to beat the quickly approaching statute of limitations on Mr. Comey’s purported crimes.
The rush to prosecute Mr. Comey was the clearest example yet of how the normal process of justice has been reversed under Mr. Trump, showing how the president came into his second term with targets already in mind and ultimately pressured the Justice Department, over a degree of internal resistance, into finding a way to charge a former director of the F.B.I.
Ms. Halligan, who had been working as a top official in the White House staff secretary’s office and had previously served as a personal lawyer for Mr. Trump, had until now never prosecuted a single case in her career.
Mr. Trump nevertheless appointed her as interim U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia on Monday afternoon, after publicly berating Attorney General Pam Bondi on Saturday night for not moving more aggressively to prosecute Mr. Comey and two other figures who are longtime targets of his retribution campaign, Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, and Senator Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California. . . .
In voting to indict, the grand jury judged that the evidence it heard indicated that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Comey might have committed a crime. But prosecutors have expansive sway over grand juries, and it remains unclear, given the secretive nature of such bodies, how much the grand jurors were aware of the broader circumstances of the case. . . .
That Mr. Trump could successfully initiate such a case also increases the potential costs of opposing him, an expansion of presidential power that could chill public dissent across the country.
Do You Really Want The Precedents Trump Is Setting For Future Presidents?
Donald Trump is riding high right now. Even though his approval in the polls is low, he is being successful in completing many of his actions. He is seizing much of the power over the government purse from Congress. He is using the Justice Department to punish his critics and political enemies. He is putting pressure on media outlets in an attempt to censor what they report. He is deporting immigrants without due process (including many who are here legally). He is imposing new taxes of American consumers in the form of tariffs.
In short, he is in the process of creating expanding the power of the presidency - approaching the point of authoritarianism. And his MAGA cult is loving it. But they are being very short-sighted.
Trump's actions are setting precedents. And future presidents will be able to follow those precedents.
We still have elections in this country. And it is very likely that the next president will be a Democrat (especially considering Trump extremely low approval numbers).
Now you might be thinking that a Democrat wouldn't act like Trump is doing. You might be wrong. Not all Democrats are as nice as Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden. We have had Democrats that pushed the envelope to accomplish things (like Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson). The things they did were good for the country, but would a future Democrat, willing to push the envelope with the new powers Trump has created, do good or get his own retribution against right-wingers?
It could go either way. Our Founding Fathers knew that men are fallible, and even good men can go astray. That's why they created a presidency with limited powers, who must be answerable to Congress and the Supreme Court.
Trump is breaking down our three-pronged government system and creating a powerful unitary presidency. Even his MAGA cult lovers need to ask themselves. Do you really want future presidents to have that kind of power?
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