As an aside, I decided to take a look at the latest Quinnipiac poll. Their polling sample identified as 28% Republican, 27% Democratic, 35% Independent, and 10% Other/Don't Know; this was a telephone poll.

The Approve/Disapprove regarding Pres. Trump's job performance broke down as follows:

Republican: 89/9
Democratic: 2/96
Independent: 36/58

Total: 42/53

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 06:47 pm: Edit

For comparison, CNN in November 2024 had the then Presidents (Joe Biden),Approve/Disapprove numbers as 27/66.

Axios (a polling business) posted numbers very similar to what Orsini posed above, but included a statement that the 44/53 numbers were a all time high for President DJT.

Context is important.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 07:41 pm: Edit

Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia announced today that they plan to withdraw from the Ottawa convention banning anti-personnel landmines due to the military threat from their neighbor Russia.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 07:53 pm: Edit

Jswile: RealClearPolitics has an excellent poll tracker. No poll - in November or otherwise - had Pres. Biden as low as a 27% approval; his lowest in November was 36%.

That said, this isn't about Biden. It's about Trump, who is now President, and who has a kind of built-in party loyalty that simply doesn't exist for Democratic presidents (inasmuch as Democratic voters are quite willing to be highly critical of their own and regularly are such).

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 08:48 pm: Edit

The Quinnipiac numbers are laughably fake. I don't care who they SAY they are polling; the actual pool is very rigged. Go back through the weeks before the election. They were always the outlier and were proven spectacularly wrong.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 09:34 pm: Edit

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 10:24 pm: Edit

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 11:10 pm: Edit

You two need to not address each other. Neither of you can speak civilly to each other.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 11:43 pm: Edit

Understood.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Wednesday, March 19, 2025 - 02:17 pm: Edit

Polls are stupid and pointless.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, March 19, 2025 - 03:56 pm: Edit

Carl: I think we agree on that. In America, Republicans are frequently warned to hang up on pollsters or lie to them because we think they're all crooked.

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Wednesday, March 19, 2025 - 05:43 pm: Edit

Don't know what company or how large the poll was,
in the mid-90s, during the time of the NAMBLA issue, the Democrats had a 16% rating, while Pelosi's was 9%...
No one even seems to bother actually checking historical data anymore.....

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Wednesday, March 19, 2025 - 08:14 pm: Edit

For approval ratings, I think an average of polls is far better than an individual poll. It used to be there were two such -- 538 and RCP. They were generally close to each other, with RCP tending to be more Republican by amounts that ranged from 0-2%. Now 538 is gone, but RCP is still out there. As of right now, it shows Trump with 1% net disapproval.

By Georgepbk on Thursday, March 20, 2025 - 10:24 am: Edit

Authentication Error

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 - 12:10 pm: Edit

Sounds like the first part of cease fire has been agreed between Russia and the Ukraine.

Seems like both sides will cease attacking the other in the Black See (so it's purely martime based).

Grain and Fertiliser seem to the main two items both sides can safely export.

If true, I would guess, the US and the Saudi's will then extend this to cover Energy production and transmission...

.... and then no doubt a formal full ceasefire will be the next step?

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 - 04:50 pm: Edit

I think this partial ceasefire happened because Ukraine's attacks on Russian oil have cost Russia a lot of money. So Russia had to agree to a ceasefire that includes energy.

If Putin wanted a full ceasefire, he could have agreed to one when it was offered. He didn't. One should draw appropriate conclusions.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Saturday, March 29, 2025 - 01:14 pm: Edit

Having waited until we have something approaching all the facts, and seeing that nobody else is apparently going to bring it up....

A number of our cabinet-level and near-cabinet-level military and security folks (plus the Vice President) had themselves a chat group on Signal.

Now, this isn't entirely unusual. Signal has been used for a while now by .gov folks to arrange actual meetings and the like. It's not a .gov approved app for things that actually require secure channels, because while the app is reasonably secure (though Russia's been trying to hack their way into it for several years now), the phones it is used on are generally not.

Anyway, this particular chat group was to discuss resumption of attacks on the Houthi rebels, who resumed their attacks on Red Sea shipping when Israel resumed the war in Gaza. Not to discuss setting up a meeting to discuss it; no, to actually discuss it, right there on Signal. Not great, but it gets worse.

For reasons that still have not been explained, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz invited Jeff Goldberg to the chat...the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. Nobody noticed this. Nobody vetted this. And a few days later, there was an active discussion of the imminent resumption of attacks.

Said discussion had a bit of dissent on the attack by the V.P., who felt it would aid Europe more than the U.S., and stated his displeasure for "bailing out Europe", but was shut down by Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller. Said discussion had considerable back-and-forth over the need for messaging, but not so much the national security case for the attacks. Then, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted that the attack was imminent, that “we are currently clean on OPSEC”, and described aircraft and payloads. Said discussion named an agent who provided information on where one of the targets would be.

As scheduled, the attacks were carried out, and the various chat members deemed it a rousing success.

Several days later, after attempted contacts and queries were spurned, Goldberg published an article about the chat group.

There was much sound and fury and gnashing of teeth; Sec.Def. Hegseth was continuing to insist it had never happened after the National Security Council had publicly confirmed it had. Pres. Trump was blindsided when asked about it.

Two of the chat group participants were asked in an open Senate committee hearing about it. DNI Tulsi Gabbard refused to confirm that she was even in the chat (she was), but insisted that nothing classified was discussed. CIA Director John Ratcliffe admitted that he was in the chat, but asserted as well that nothing classified was discussed.

Based on declarations by all involved that the contents of the chat group were unclassified, The Atlantic went ahead and published them in full, omitting only the reference to the intelligence agent (because Goldberg wasn't willing to reveal the identity of an active agent).

More gnashing of teeth, more sound and fury, but so far, no heads on platters. In my own humble opinion as a former ComSec person, there should absolutely be heads on platters, starting with Waltz for inviting a reporter into the group and continuing with Hegseth for posting details of the strike plan and the intel agent in a group not approved for such, and adding for good measure special envoy Steve Witkoff for participating in the chat while he was in Russia.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Saturday, March 29, 2025 - 05:05 pm: Edit

The Sun, (a United Kingdom media paper. Some call it a tabloid), reported today (and posted video of the event) that there was an assassination attempt on Putin.

An incendiary device placed in the engine compartment of one of Putins Limousines.

The report included the statement that a number of Putins aides and guards have been detained pending investigation.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Saturday, March 29, 2025 - 08:26 pm: Edit

Syria's president had appointed a transitional gov't, and by the standards of the region, it's unusual. It includes an Alawite as transportation minister, a member of the Druze community as agriculture minister, and a Christian woman as labor minister.

For the first time in...well, forever, I'm cautiously hopeful for Syria.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, March 30, 2025 - 05:06 am: Edit

Signal 'Chat'.

Jessica - I agree - It seems as soon as Goldberg mentioned 'should I have been invited to this chat group' - someone senior should have said 'ooops, and error has been made.... person fired and it will never happen again'...

.....rather than claiming it never happened.

End result was obvious - Atlantic publishes it in full (with 1 ommission - the agents name) and someone needs to now explain why they said it never happened.

Incompetent or stupid (being polite)?


On Syria, other than the 'attacks*' - it has gone very quiet media wise in the UK - that does sound good - fingers crossed.

* - Former Syrian Military I think it said??

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, March 30, 2025 - 07:19 pm: Edit

To be frank, this should not have happened but wasn't anything near as bad as the media makes out, and nobody denied what was blindingly obvious. The actual transcript does not match the original media reports or any of the subsequent hysteria. The press reports repeated above are not consistent with the facts now known. The article wasn't published until after the fact, there was no classified information released, and no American military people were killed. Embarrassing, sure, given the press pounce syndrome. Should somebody be fired? Yes, the culprit is now known to have been a low-level staffer who had been in place for several years, and an old mailing list somebody should have vetted. Nobody thinks he did it as part of a secret anti-Trump agenda. It was just a screw up. Signal was approved for exactly this kind of meeting by the previous administration. Goldberg should have spoken up during the meeting and excused himself, but he did not, because he smelled a good story that would get him a round of talk show appearances. Can't blame a guy for that. Nobody got fired for the Afghan screw up that left 13 Americans dead. Nobody now calling for Hegseth to resign called for resignations then. Move on.
NO MORE POSTS ON THIS UBER POLITICAL STORY.

By John M. Williams (Jay) on Tuesday, April 01, 2025 - 09:00 am: Edit

BREAKING NEWS!

At dawn this morning, U.S. tanks and infantry stormed across the northern border to conquer Canada and transform it into the 51st state.

However, unbeknownst to the U.S. military, Canada had surreptitiously tapped into their Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve, spreading the contents all along the border. As soon as the tank treads and infantry boots touched the sticky mess, they were held fast and all forward progress stopped. A few brave soldiers removed their boots and attempted to proceed barefoot, but the density of pine needles on the ground soon forced them back. The war in the air fared no better as the attacking F-35s were overwhelmed by echelon after echelon of geese.

Sensing that the time was ripe, the Canadians launched a counterattack. Soon, waves of Zambonis were crashing into the American lines, forcing the invaders back across the border. Thus, the invasion attempt was defeated. Adding insult to injury, the U.S. was also assessed a two-minute penalty for Interference and a Game Misconduct.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, April 01, 2025 - 12:28 pm: Edit

In the after action report phase, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police deployed to the site of the incident and began cataloguing damaged and destroyed Zambonis’ .

Insurance claims were filed, where upon the insurance companies, noting that the alleged incident was officially disallowed by the United States State Department, determined that the person responsible for ordering the attack, was a MSNBC producer who was accidentally added to the Department of Defense chain of command between the actual Commander in Chief, and the Secretary of Defense.

The Insurance legal department, reasoning that the MSNBC producer, while exceeding their authority, was still an Agent of the MSNBC organization and therefore, obligated MNSBC responsibility for all expenses related to the MNSBC ordered failed invasion of Canada.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Wednesday, April 02, 2025 - 07:50 am: Edit

The US Administration denied any knowledge of the incident; they state they were on vacation. They "didn't get briefed" and ""take no responsibility..."

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Wednesday, April 02, 2025 - 09:01 am: Edit

...and thus I'm reminded to pick up more maple syrup when I'm back visiting western NY state this summer.