Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Most Voters Say Trump Is Doing A Worse Job In His 2nd Term Than In His 1st
This chart reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between September 25th and 28th of a nationwide sample of 1,429 registered voters, with a 3.4 point margin of error.
Democrats Increase Their Lead As Independents Break Strongly For Them
These charts are from the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between September 25th and 28th of a nationwide sample of 1,429 registered voters, with a 3.4 point margin of error.
The Promise Trump Made That He Never Intended To Keep
When Donald Trump was running for re-election in 2024, he made a promise to Americans - that he would immediately lower prices. It was that promise, more than any other, that allowed him to siphon off enough voters to win the election - because many millions of Americans were having trouble making ends meet financially.
Unfortunately, he had no intention of actually following through on that promise.
I say that because one of the first things he did after taking office was to place a tariff on goods imported from nearly every nation in the world. He tried to convince people that the tariff would be paid by the nations importing goods in this country. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that was not true.
The tariffs were paid by the businesses importing the goods. Those businesses than raised prices for consumers to account for the tariffs they paid. In other words, the tariffs had the opposite effect to his promise. It raised the prices on nearly everything imported - and many of those goods are not made or grown in the United States, so consumers had no choice but to pay higher prices.
Then Trump (and his GOP cohorts) passed their "big beautiful bill". That bill gave massive tax cuts to the rich and super-rich (and a pittance to many in the middle class). To partially pay for it, the bill kicked many off of SNAP (food stamps) and Medicaid, and made insurance unaffordable for millions more getting help through enhanced payments for private insurance (through Obamacare).
This made life much harder for millions of Americans - many of whom had voted for him because he promised to make things more affordable.
The bill also had another effect. It raised the national debt by trillions of dollars. That huge increase in national debt caused an increase in the rates for borrowing. That made everything Americans borrowed to buy (like auto and homes) to cost a lot more. It was just another move to increase inflation.
Those moves would have been bad enough for Americans having trouble affording to live in this country, but then Trump did something very stupid - he started a war with Iran without the proper planning or a plan to disengage. Iran retaliated by closing the Strait of Hormuz - causing oil prices to skyrocket around the world.
That war, now in its eighth month, caused gas prices to jump sharply. This negatively affected millions of Americans - making them spend significantly more for gas on their already tight budgets.
It also caused an even bigger increase in the price of diesel. This was disastrous for farmers who use diesel to plant, nurture, and harvest their crops - and it raised the prices on what they grow. Also, diesel is used to power the big trucks that deliver to market almost everything Americans need. The increase in cost to shipping is passed on to customers. Once again, Trump caused prices to rise instead of fall.
Trump promised to lower prices during his campaign, but his actions upon becoming president has just raised those prices.
It was a promise he never intended to keep.
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
Republicans Face A Far Worse Economy Than In Trump's Last Midterm Election (2018)
The chart above is from the CNN / SSRS Poll -- done on September 16th and 17th of a nationwide sample of 1,206 adults, with a 3.5 point margin of error.
Only 32% of Americans Like White Christian Nationalism (But That's Too Many!)
These charts are from the Public Religion Research Institute survey -- done between February 28th and December 8th of 2025 of a nationwide sample of 22,111 adults, with a 0.87 point margin of error.
Monday, September 28, 2026
Most Say The Cost Of Living Is Worse Than Ever Before
These charts are from the Politico Poll -- done done between August 8th and 12th of a nationwide sample of 2,004 adults, with a 2.2 point margin of error.
Trump Approval Is Lowest Of Any President Going Into A Midterm Election
The charts above are from the Wall Street Journal Poll -- done between September 16th and 21st of a nationwide sample of 1,500 registered voters, with a 2.5 point margin of error.
Sunday, September 27, 2026
New Poll Has Talarico With A 5-Point Lead Over Paxton In Texas Senate Race
These charts are from the Texas Public Opinion Research Poll -- done between September 19th and 22nd of a statewide sample of 1,007 likely Texas voters, with a 3.6 point margin of error.
The United Nations Has Problems - But The World Needs It
The following is just a small part of an excellent article by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times:
Sure, bash the United Nations; it often deserves it. But my guess is that millions more children would die every year if it weren’t for UNICEF, the World Food Program, the U.N. Refugee Agency and the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. On balance, that seems a defensible record, no?
Understand also that the U.N. is a crumbling pillar of what is left of this geopolitical global order that the United States helped create after World War II and that has so benefited us and the world. And note that one reason for the infuriating U.N. paralysis and timorousness is that great powers throw their weight around, often vetoing constructive action and, in the case of the United States, slashing budgets as well.
I fear that the paralysis may get worse.
The United Nations is supposed to choose a new secretary general this year, and this is a moment when the world needs a charismatic, outspoken leader who could use the bully pulpit and tackle the globe’s security and humanitarian crises. Sadly, that seems exactly what the United States, China and Russia are determined to avoid.
There is growing concern that Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin may be unable to agree on any of the current candidates for secretary general, and that they will settle on some innocuous dark horse nonentity so mild and inoffensive that the United Nations will be further marginalized and weakened.
The result would very likely be more Ebola outbreaks, more war, more paralysis in confronting the common threats to humanity — and more darkness descending on our planet.
Pennsylvania Democrats Strongly Dislike Fetterman
The charts above are from the Philadelphia Inquirer / New York Times / Siena College Poll -- done between September 15th and 21st of a sample of 615 Pennsylvania voters. The margin of error is 4.4 points.
Saturday, September 26, 2026
Marist Poll Has Talarico With A Six Point Lead Over Paxton In Texas
The chart above is from the Marist Poll -- done between September 17th and 20th of a statewide sample of 1,139 registered Texas voters, with a 4.4 point margin of error.
The poll also has Hinojosa (D) with a 3 point lead over Abbott (R) in the governor's race, but that is well within the poll's margin of error.
Corruption Has Become An Important Issue In This Election
The charts above are from the Change Research Poll -- done between August 8th and 13th of a nationwide sample of 2,045 registered voters, with a 2.3 point margin of error.
What Many In Other Countries Think About The U.S. Post-Election Future
From Robert Reich:
I spent much of this week talking with foreign officials who are in the U.S. for United Nations meetings. I was curious to know how they’re strategizing about the United States in the future — assuming Democrats do well in the midterm elections and Trump becomes a lame-duck president. (None of my nine sources were heads of state; my stature doesn’t reach that high. But they were high enough to give me some useful insights.)
Here’s what I learned:
1. Most are thinking past Trump. They believe his influence is already waning, and his bellicose rantings show that he knows it. He’s still dangerous, they say, but not nearly as dangerous as he was, and he’s no longer capable of plunging the world into war. Every one of them told me he’s deeply unpopular in their countries.
2. They’re thinking in a timeframe of five to 10 years. They see Trump as a temporary phenomenon and assume the United States will “return to its senses.”
3. But — and here’s the part that concerned me — they’re unsure they can ever again rely on the United States for world leadership. Several pointed out that the fact Americans elected Trump for a second time reveals, in the words of one of them, “there’s something troublesome about your nation that transcends Trump.”
4. Even post-Trump, they see the United States as unstable and unpredictable. They don’t believe the country will fall into civil war, but they worry that policymaking will cycle between extremes because, in the words of another, “your extreme inequality will make it difficult to achieve any longer-term consensus.”
5. As a result, they’re looking ahead to a world where another nation, or group of nations, will take leadership on global issues that need to be addressed, such as climate change, AI, migration, widening inequalities, Putin’s aggression, and disease prevention.
6. Which nation or group? Another official put it to me this way: “We don’t trust China, the U.N. doesn’t work because of its security council, but the EU isn’t strong enough yet. Several of us are hoping that over the next decade the EU will be joined by Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, and that this new EU — really, a World Union — will devise a structure that enables it to work collaboratively and forcefully for the good of the world.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)