Trump's Unpopularity Is, So Far, Overstated, Plus
You're a terrorist and you're a terrorist and ..., plus some reading, plus music
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Trump’s Unpopularity Is, So Far, Overstated
The guy has been underwater with his approval/disapproval polling numbers for all but a few months of his first term and this one, and his current ratings typify that. Despite (because of?) all the bullshit, the spread in the period from August 1 through October 2 was only a bit more than 9 points, at 44.1% favorable and 53.2% unfavorable according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.
That’s not great, and it’s been considerably worse at times already this year, but it compares reasonably well with Joe Biden, whose approval rating according to Gallup was under 50% from August of 2021 onward and dipped under 40% toward the end of his term. So despite everything Trump has done so far to mess with his base, they’re holding steady-ish.
That could change once the regime’s assault on our pathetic social welfare system begins in earnest, with draconian cuts to Medicaid, Obamacare, SNAP, housing subsidies and other vital programs from which a substantial number of the most devout cultists benefit, but there’s been plenty of damage done already and for the most part, the result among the faithful has consisted not of renunciation but of plaintive cries for help—which may, for some, be forthcoming.
I mean, farmers, in a profession already suffering a higher than average suicide rate, are killing themselves at a heightened pace as their markets collapse, earnings fall and expenses rise—just as they did during Trump’s first term trade wars—but many of the survivors still support Trump. One suspects that when the cuts to health care and other programs kick in in earnest, the majority of his affected supporters will be happy to blame Democrats.
I mention this stuff mostly because I see a lot of regime opponents celebrating the lack of support for Trump personally and for many of the regime’s policies, but by his standards it’s just not that bad; even less so if one expects the potential electoral impact to be negated by some manner of midterm shenanigans, whether through the gerrymandering offensive, traditional voter suppression tactics or something more sinister.
And one must remember that the Roberts court views voting rights similarly to how vampires view the sun. There’s no relief to be had from that quarter should things go south in the midterms. And I was just reminded today that a genuinely originalist interpretation on voting issues would exclude everybody who isn’t a property owner—although not, surprisingly, all Black and women voters. You only have to ignore a few constitutional amendments to get there.
The court probably couldn’t whittle down eligible voters to fewer than 10% of the population as in the early days, but they could and surely will continue their assault on the notion that every citizen of age has the right to vote without interference. No matter how popular or not Donald Trump is.
You’re a terrorist and you’re a terrorist and ...
Ken Klippenstein, who was among the first if not the first to report on the regime’s new, all-encompassing national security memo designating just about everybody you know as a potential terrorist, spoke yesterday with an FBI official who described what kind of changes the memo, known as NSPM-7, would be bringing to the agency.
“Is Ken Klippenstein, or any other American dissenter on the watchlist?” the official asks rhetorically. “No, and there really is no legal way for such a person to even be surveilled, let alone watchlisted, without legal predicate” — that is, without evidence that that the person has committed, or is about to commit, a crime.
“You might think that ‘about to commit’ is a loophole, but up until NSPM-7, it wasn’t,” the intelligence official said. He went on to explain that a combination of post-Watergate reforms, Congressional actions after mass-surveillance and Snowden revelations, and the FBI’s own rules, had created a web of limits.
“Until now,” he said.
Unfortunately the official continued, changes made under President Obama and Biden paved the way for the Trump expansion. First was the addition of transnational organized crime to the watchlist and second was an affirmation that the terrorist watchlist wasn’t just about terrorists anymore.
If “transnational organized crime” rings a bell, it’s because that’s the designation the regime have used to declare murder season on (so far) Venezuelans at sea. They’re simply adding domestic thoughtcrime to the list of punishable offenses, and we can expect to see them go after organizations and individuals, including press outfits, reporters and a raft of non-profit groups, who think bad thoughts.
If you’re reading this, you’re thinking bad thoughts. Off to the cornfield with ye.
Some reading
NPR did a 50-year followup on the 1960 Fred Friendly-Edward R Murrow Harvest of Shame documentary about poverty among farm laborers broadcast on CBS, now the network of Bari Weiss, in 1960. Among the nuggets in the NPR piece is that in 2010, the average annual farm worker wage was about $10,000, the equivalent of about $1350 in 1960; in 1960, it was somewhere in the vicinity of $3,000, the equivalent of about $22,000 in 2010 dollars. The story exudes quite a strong odor of disapproval for Murrow’s and Friendly’s open advocacy on behalf of the workers, which is of course Just Not Done in the universe of “objective” news.
The Intercept reported a few days ago on a regime program essentially bribing young immigrants to self-deport.
The government memo stipulated that children who elected to take the payment, must arrange to meet with an ICE officer. In order to waive their right to a removal hearing so that they can receive the payment, the child themself would have to sign a form to change their status with the U.S. government.
In a statement to The Intercept that was subsequently posted online, an ICE spokesperson confirmed that the agency would begin to target unaccompanied minors for deportation, calling the plan “voluntary.”
“The idea that immigration enforcement agents can coerce children into waiving their rights and protections under this memo to meet President Trump’s political goals is cruel,” said Bilal Askaryar, director of communications at Acacia Center for Justice, which represents and advocates for unaccompanied immigrant children. “Americans have been shocked by the tactics that ICE is using in communities across the country, and the idea that masked men would now go to 14-year-olds and ask them to waive their rights to return to the countries that they fled is shocking.”
It’s terrible but not shocking.
This is from back in March, but it’s worth revisiting.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters last week that the State Department has revoked 300 or more student visas — including ones which belonged to students who participated in pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses.
“It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa,” Rubio said at a March 27 news conference in Georgetown, Guyana. “At some point, I hope we run out because we’ve gotten rid of all of them.”
A federal judge ruled last week in no uncertain terms that deporting activists for their speech alone is unconstitutional, but that may not do students who already had their visas yanked—and who may number at least in the hundreds if Rubio was not being hyperbolic in March—any good.
Anne Irfan has a bit in the London Review of Books on 100 years of British fuckery in Palestine, inspired by the current plan to install former British PM and current war criminal Tony Blair at the head of an “apolitical” governing board for Gaza. Blair is a perfect match in corruption and soullessness for the other principals involved in the proposal. In the same issue, and also on the topic of soullessness and fuckery, Malin Hay looks at the UK and American comics, free speech warriors mostly, taking Saudi money to tell sanitized jokes on the anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder at the hands of their hosts.
Music
Just a little today as I am once again running way late.
Honeyglaze, Real Deal, “Cold Caller”
Panic Shack, Panic Shack, “Girl Band Starter Kit”
That, comrades in some kind of crime, is all I got. Consider subscribing if you’ve not. Love you all; be well; take care.
Re your comments on Trump's popularity or lack of it, and the subsequent probable reaction of red state types like farmers, as I've previously asserted, the basic problem in this country is its voters. They give these assholes their power. And I don't think it's entirely ignorance. Much of it is racism, misogyny, and greed. As my Dad used to say, "Farmers don't believe in welfare . . . except for farmers.".