Most Americans Like Pope Leo Better Than Trump (Or Vance)

The chart above is from the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between April 17th and 20th of a nationwide sample of 1,707 adults, with a 3.5 point margin of error.

 

Poll Numbers For Trump, Vance, And Musk Are Not Good

 

The charts above reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between April 13th and 15th of a nationwide sample of 1,512 adults (including 1,329 registered voters). The margin of error is 3.4 points for adults and 3.3 points for registered voters.

Denmark Is A Good Ally - Why Is Trump Treating Them Like An Enemy?

The following is part of an editorial by Ida Auken (a member of the David Parliament) in The New York Times:

There are moments in history that are difficult to forget, which change the course of events. Danes have experienced several such moments in the last few months, but to me, the most defining one occurred a few weeks ago, when Vice President JD Vance said Denmark is “not being a good ally” to the United States.

Danes were stunned and stung. Our country has been nothing less than a stalwart ally of America. Many of us felt as if we were losing a longtime friend — almost as if a brother were abandoning us: The United States has been Denmark’s closest ally for 80 years. We have followed American presidents into wars that many Danes felt were not ours to fight.

Since the end of World War II, the United States and Denmark have had a strong partnership — both countries are founding members of NATO. Since 1949, NATO’s Article 5 principle of collective defense has been at the heart of this partnership, creating a safer world for us all. The only time Article 5 has ever been invoked was on Sept. 12, 2001. Less than 24 hours after the terrorist attack on the United States, its European and Canadian allies stood up to assist Americans.

Thousands of Danish troops went on to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan after Sept. 11. More than 50 of them died. That is not a small number, especially in a country of only six million people. Denmark lost roughly as many service members per capita in Afghanistan as the United States did.

In 2011, Danish pilots flew missions in Libya alongside U.S. and other NATO forces. When America has called, Denmark has stepped up.

Anger and grief prevail when we think about what to say now to the Danish parents who lost their children in these wars. How are those who have sacrificed what is most dear to them supposed to interpret the notion that Denmark is not a good ally?

It hasn’t always been easy to explain to the Danish people why they should be involved in American-led wars, but overall, we understand the importance of alliances and cherish our partnership with the United States.

I understand that changes in American political leadership bring changes in policy — that is the right of any administration. If President Trump has concerns about security in the Arctic, of course, our countries should work together to address them. But that is not the same as suggesting that Denmark is failing to uphold its commitments in Greenland or anywhere else. And it is not a pretext for America acquiring Greenland, as the president has suggested. . . .

Danes hope that our partnership with Americans can continue. We want to maintain this friendship, but we will stand firm on our principles. I will leave the final word to our prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, who made a powerful statement during her visit to Greenland on April 3: “The U.S. is a big country, and Denmark is a small one. We have looked up to you, and you have inspired us.”

But, she added: “When you demand to take over a part of the Kingdom of Denmark’s territory — when we are met by pressure and by threats from our closest ally — what are we to believe in about the country that we have admired for so many years? The country that, if any, has stood up for others’ freedom. You know us, you know what we stand for, and you know that we don’t give in.” 

Trump/Vance/Musk Inhabitant And Promote A "Manosphere"

The following is part of an excellent post by Robert Reich:

Did anyone else see the horrific display in the Oval Office last Friday as a ritual exercise in male domination? I don’t want to insult great apes, but I’ve seen similar performances at the zoo. Trump and Vance sought to humiliate Zelensky, treating him with the same disrespect they treat .. well, women. 

Trump, Vance, and Musk inhabit what’s been termed the “manosphere” — a place where the main events are dominance and submission. The whole point is to humiliate weaker men — and to subjugate women. 

Women — especially women of color — have distinguished themselves in standing up to Trump, maybe because they’re less intimidated by him than are many men, and because Trump has shown himself particularly fearful of strong women.

Which if any Republicans have been strong opponents of Trump. Answer: In the Senate, Republicans Lisa Murkowski and (barely) Susan Collins. In the House, the prize still goes to Liz Cheney.

 

Who has looked Trump in the eye and told him to show mercy for LGBTQ+ and undocumented people in America? Mariann Edgar Budde, the Bishop of Washington, at the National Prayer Service in January.

 

Who repeatedly took Trump to court on defamation charges, and repeatedly won? E. Jean Carroll.

 

Which prosecutors and judges were toughest in trying to hold Trump legally accountable? New York Attorney General Letitia James, Atlanta-based District Attorney Fani Willis, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, and U.S. District Judge Lauren King.

Who most successfully pummeled Trump in a presidential debate? Kamala Harris.

Which journalists have been most aggressive in questioning Trump? Megyn Kelly, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, PBS’s Yamiche Alcindor, CNN’s Abby Phillip, The Grio’s April Ryan, NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman, CBS’s Weijia Jiang, and New York Magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi.

I could go on, but you get the point. 

If there was ever a president who represented unfettered male domination, it’s Trump. An implicit promise of the 2024 Trump campaign was to restore patriarchy to America. Trump voters were overwhelmingly male. 

As you recall, Trump was found liable for sexual abuse; he famously told “Access Hollywood” that if you’re a famous man “you can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy”; he asserted during the recent campaign that he’d “protect” women “whether the women like it or not”; and he was instrumental in ending abortion rights nationwide.

After Trump’s reelection, sexist and abusive attacks on women — such as “your body, my choice” and “get back to the kitchen” — surged across social media, according to an analysis from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

A remarkable number of Trump’s cronies are sexual harassers and predators. Trump was introduced at the Republican National Convention by Dana White, chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, who was once caught on tape slapping his wife in a nightclub. 

Trump’s pick for vice president, JD Vance, has said professional women “choose a path to misery” when they prioritize careers over having children. He has claimed men in America were “suppressed” in their masculinity. Vance has characterized Democratic leaders as “childless cat ladies.”

At a gathering of conservatives last month, Vance told young men: “Don’t allow this broken culture to send you a message that you’re a bad person because you’re a man, because you like to tell a joke, because you like to have a beer with your friends or because you’re competitive.”

Trump’s pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, paid off a woman who accused him of sexual assault (Hegseth’s own mother accused him of abusing women, though she later disavowed her words).

 

Trump’s HHS secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was accused of sexually harassing his family’s nanny and at one point kept a diary of his conquests, which his wife at the time found.

 

Elon Musk’s “bros” are notoriously misogynistic, as is Musk. One of Musk’s companies, SpaceX, reportedly paid $250,000 to a flight attendant who said Musk exposed himself to her. In a lawsuit filed last year, former employees accused him of “treating women as sexual objects to be evaluated on their bra size.” 

One of the most pathetic symbols of the new manosphere is Mark Zuckerberg. After kissing Trump’s derriere, the third-richest man in America called for more “masculine energy” because the corporate world was becoming “culturally neutered.” He told Joe Rogan that “having a culture that celebrates the aggression a bit more has its own merits that are really positive.”

Last Thursday, the Trump regime celebrated toxic masculinity by smoothing the way for Andrew and Tristan Tate to be extradited from Romania to the United States. The Tate bros had been accused of luring women to Romania and then forcing them to work as pornographic webcam performers. Britain is also investigating the Tate brothers for rape and human trafficking in Britain. . . .

As America slides toward neofascism, I think it important to understand that its roots draw from a deep distrust, bordering on hate, of people who seem weak or feminine — people who were born as, or have become, women.

Trump Seems To Think America First Means America Alone

Since World War II, the United States has been the preeminent power in the world - both militarily and economically. And every president (of both parties) has acted to defend other democracies and allies, while opposing authoritarian and rogue nations. It has resulted in U.S. presidents being universally acknowledged at the "leader of the free world".

Trump could have inherited that title, but he doesn't seem to want it. Since entering office the second time, he has attacked our allies. He has imposed tariffs on our good neighbors (Canada and Mexico) to start on March 4th. And he has said he will also impose tariffs on the European Union. He has demanded that NATO nations spend 5% of their GDP on defense (even though the U.S. only spends about 3%). And he has suggested that any nation that doesn't do his bidding will not get any help from the U.S.

At the same time, he has repeated Kremlin talking points - even to the point of Russia's invasion of Ukraine being the fault of Ukraine. He has even voted to support Russia in the United Nations. And he started "negotiations" with Russia to end the Russia/Ukraine war (without allowing Ukraine to participate).

Then, last week, he took the final step to complete the isolation of the United States from the rest of the world.

He invited Zelensky (Ukraine's president) to the White House to sign an agreement giving the U.S. half of Ukraine's valuable minerals (which he forced them to do in hopes of getting a security pledge from the United States). Then in an Oval Office showdown, witnessed by the press and television cameras, Trump started to tell a bunch of lies about the war (like how much the U.S. has given Ukraine and how they don't need security because he trusts Putin to keep his word).

Zelensky, an ethical leader, could not go along with the lies. And he would not agree to a peace plan that did not insure Ukraine's future security. He knew that Putin cannot be trusted (even though Trump trusts him). When Zelensky disagreed, Trump blew his stack.

He began to berated and threaten Zelensky. Then Vance joined in, demanding he thank Donald Trump for U.S. support (even though he's publicly thanked the U.S. dozens of times). Both tried to humiliate the Ukrainian president, and when he would give in, they kicked him out of the White House.

The temper tantrum Trump and Vance threw was a black mark on U.S. foreign policy. It was a turning point in U.S. history. And it effective ended the U.S. president being the leader of the free world. 

Most other democratic nations were quick to back Ukraine after the Oval Office fiasco. And it brought them to a realization. They had hoped they could nudge Trump into keeping the treaties, agreements, and economic cooperation that exists. They now realize that is hopeless. Trump is a bully whose not interested in real negotiations with anyone, but only trying to force others to agree with what he wants. They cannot trust him or depend on him for help.

Trump has turned "America First" into "America Alone" - a rogue nation with no friends. That makes the future much more dangerous for the United States - and for the World!

Vance Says The Courts Cannot Overturn Executive Actions (He's Wrong!)

Vance has hit the trail to try and justify Trump's massive number of executive orders. He's saying "Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power." He is both right and wrong.

The operative word is "legitimate". No judge should/can overturn an executive order that is legitimate (does not violate the law or the Constitution). An example would be Trump's overturning of Biden's executive orders. It may not be good policy, but any executive order can be overturned by another executive order. That's just common sense - and it's legal.

But Trump has issued some (perhaps many) executive orders that are not legal and/or constitutional. One example is the order to ban birthright citizenship. The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution clearly states that anyone born in the United States (and subject to its laws) is a citizen. Denying that citizenship is a clear violation of the Constitution - and any judge doing his duty must negate that executive order.

Another example is Trump trying to freeze funds that Congress authorized or doing away with organizations created by Congress. The Constitution gives Congress the power to create needed organizations and fund them. In fact, all funding for the government must come from Congress. A president can negotiate funding with Congress or refuse to sign a funding bill. But he cannot refuse to fund anything authorized by Congress after a funding bill becomes law. That's another clear violation of the Constitution - and it's just Trump trying to grab the power of Congress for himself.

When writing the Constitution, our Founding Fathers feared that someday a president might try to grab dictatorial powers (maybe even with the acceptance of Congress). That why they didn't create a government with only one, or two power centers, but created three separate and equal branches of government. The judiciary was created not just to administer the law, but also to make sure the other two branches did not violate the Constitution.

Trump's legal executive orders should survive judicial scrutiny (even if they create bad policy - like his tariffs). But his illegal and/or unconstitutional executive orders should be overturned.Not doing so would seriously damage our constitutional democracy.

Vance Lied About Trump's Stand On The ACA During The Debate

 

Donald Trump has never liked the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). He tried to overturn it during his term in office, but was blocked by the vote of Senator John McCain. Now, in the current campaign, he has again said that he would overturn the ACA if elected.

J.D. Vance knows this is an unpopular opinion, so when asked about it during the debate he lied. Here is what Politifact had to say about his lie:

As president, Trump worked to undermine and repeal the Affordable Care Act. He cut millions of dollars in federal funding for ACA outreach and navigators who help people sign up for health coverage. He enabled the sale of short-term health plans that don’t comply with the ACA consumer protections and allowed them to be sold for longer durations, which siphoned people away from the health law’s marketplaces.

Trump's administration also backed state Medicaid waivers that imposed first-ever work requirements, reducing enrollment. He also ended insurance company subsidies that helped offset costs for low-income enrollees, he backed an unsuccessful repeal of the landmark 2010 health law and he backed the demise of a penalty imposed for failing to purchase health insurance.

Affordable Care Act enrollment declined by more than 2 million people during Trump’s presidency, and the number of uninsured Americans rose by 2.3 million, including 726,000 children, from 2016 to 2019, the U.S. Census Bureau reported; that includes three years of Trump’s presidency.

The "Rom-Com" That J.D. Vance Would Write

Alexandra Petri pokes fun at J.D. Vance's attitude about women in this satire. She writes her version of a rom-com that Vance would write:

The man was out at a business establishment with his peers and associates, imbibing liquid refreshment and debating which comestibles were best to ingest.

Then he saw the female. Even from across the room, he could see that it looked fertile. It had hair protruding on top of its scalp, the appropriate location, and was binocular and ambulatory. It looked as though it contained many fertilizable eggs. Seeing it, he had one immediate thought: He had better tell it about the Great Replacement Theory so that it would understand how imperative it was to combine their genetic material. He also would be sure to state that it reminded him of a beauty pageant contestant (it would understand that this was not demeaning, but the only meaningful compliment it was possible to bestow on a woman).

Its eyes were difficult to read, unlike Project 2025, which unwisely had been made available online, but he thought he saw sexual receptivity there.

“Now that one looks as though it contains many high-quality eggs,” he observed to one of his associates, who said “Yes!” enthusiastically, as though someone had just proposed a national abortion ban to him. “Like a carton of Eggland’s Best,” the man added, to show that he was one of the people.

“With that female’s assistance, in a just system, you could acquire many more votes,” another of his associates observed.

“After you reproduce together,” a further associate chimed in, “it will be appropriate for it to enter the teaching profession.”

They all nodded. “Not before,” they agreed.

The man had recently visited a purveyor of sweet comestibles where he had made lifelike conversation for several full minutes. Now he produced one of the nourishing spheroids that he had purchased there and contemplated it lovingly, as though it were a book arguing that progressives were Unhumans that he had been asked to blurb.

“Those are popular in Boston,” one of his associates observed, “almost a secular religion there.”

“Secular religion? An appalling contradiction in terms!” the man rebuked him. “If you think religion should be secular, you can go to hell!” (This was the best response to things that other people had not said.)

“They dunk them,” the associate muttered into his beverage.

“Great, great,” the man said, cutting him off. “I will partially ingest this glazed torus,” he said, ”and then I will go and address the female.”

He strode over, taking steps with the bony protrusions that extended from his ankle joints and were encompassed by the tanned carcasses of two deceased mammals.

“It is best for society if I reproduce with you,” he informed the female. “But in your case, in addition to being a duty, it will be a pleasure.”

“Thank you,” said the female of childbearing age. Its epidermis glistened faintly, like the exterior of a fresh can of Diet Mountain Dew. “That’s a very normal compliment, and receiving it has made me feel happy, not threatened.” It is possible that the female looked at him with its face but he was not looking there, because he was carefully evaluating its physical form to develop a keener sense of its level of fertility, a behavior that he knew it would understand if it were a rational being — often more than could be expected of such creatures.

“I excel at compliments,” he said. “My online friends and associates say so to me often.”

“You must have a very high IQ,” the female said, with its mouth. Its teeth looked healthy!

“Almost as high as Peter Thiel’s net worth,” he said. “Before I proceed further with my courtship behaviors, I must inquire: Is a feline a member of your household?” He lowered his voice. “That is, do you now possess, or have you ever possessed, a cat?”

“A witch’s familiar?” said the female, aghast. “No!”

The man exhaled some extra air to demonstrate relief. “That is excellent,” he said, “and I am relieved to hear it. Are there postmenopausal females in your life who can assist in the supervision of offspring, should you produce any?”

The female nodded.

“Splendid!” the man said. “Splendid. Would you care to engage in holy matrimony and then, perhaps, retire to my abode to copulate and increase our household’s number of votes two- or three- or fivefold?”

“Who could say no to such an appealing offer?” the female said.

“Would you care to celebrate this informal commitment by ingesting some of my glazed carbohydrate torus?” the man said, bisecting it, breaking off a segment and holding it out so that the female could seize it.

“Thank you,” said the female. “Chivalry is not dead.”

The man nodded enthusiastically.

“I look forward to copulating with you,” he said to the female. “Family is everything.”

Walz Helps Harris More Than Vance Helps Trump

 

From Axios.com.

Public Approves Of Walz More Than Vance

 

These charts show the results of a Washington Post / ABC News / Ipsos Poll -- done between August 9th and 13th of a nationwide sample of 2,336 adults, with a 2 point margin of error.