To Know It Is to Hate It

In profoundly unsurprising news, a poll is showing that as people learn more about LLM artificial intelligence, the more they hate it.

This is not a surprise.  Except for some very limited edge cases (The Odysseus Google Maps video), there is little real benefit shown, and little benefit promised, by the technology.

For a time, it appeared as if AI would find broad acceptance among the American masses.

The peanut gallery on social media happily embraced early image generation models as researchers appeared to make significant breakthroughs with the aid of their newfound tools. On paper, surveys found public attitudes toward the tech continued to improve into 2025 — before sharply reversing.

In 2026, America’s honeymoon phase with AI seems to be quickly wearing off. According to a joint poll conducted by Bentley University and Gallup, the percentage of US adults who think AI does “more harm than good” is rising, from 31 percent in 2025 to 39 percent this year, while a piddling 9 percent still think the tech does “more good than harm.”

As outlooks sour, the Bentley-Gallup poll found that Americans’ familiarity with AI continues to grow. In 2026, 70 percent of those polled said they’re “somewhat or extremely knowledgeable” about AI, up 6 percent compared to 2024. The implication probably gives OpenAI Sam Altman a migraine: the more people learn about AI, the less they seem to want it in their lives.

The American public is smarter than most of our oligarchs think. 

It just takes them a while to examine complex issues like this, because they have bills to pay and lives to live. 

Still Sucks

I am, of course, referring to the consumer confidence numbers, which rose marginally but remain close to last month's all time low.

We are in a recession.

Consumer sentiment improved to begin June, according to the University of Michigan’s monthly survey, as a retreat in gasoline prices boosted Americans’ economic spirits.

The Michigan consumer-sentiment index bounced off its all-time low set in May to rise to 48.9 in the initial June reading, from 44.8 a month earlier. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had been expecting a reading of 46.

A final June figure will be published later this month, based on additional interviews.
“Lower-income consumers exhibited a particularly strong sentiment increase, consistent with the fact that gasoline comprises a larger share of their budgets,” said Joanne Hsu, the survey’s director. She said sentiment overall remains downbeat, with concerns focused on a recent pickup in inflation.

 

Gee, Ya Think?

Following reports of massive noise, an inexhaustible demand for water, and massive pollution, polling is now showing that data centers are about as popular as hemorrhoids.

Well, I am shocked by this. 

A silent war is playing out across rural America.

Residents are packing themselves into local county meetings in incredible numbers and calling on their representatives to oppose gargantuan data center projects, developments that could cause electricity prices to spike, drain water supplies, and generate copious amounts of noise.

Farmers are being hailed as heroes for rejecting millions of dollars to turn their land into data centers, while claims of the facilities bringing jobs to the area are being met with incredulity and frustration.

In short, the AI backlash has grown immensely over the past year or so — and the latest numbers put the trend in stark relief.

According to a new Heatmap poll, at least seven in ten Americans would oppose a data center being built near their home. That’s a seismic shift from last September, when a similar poll found only 42 percent of Americans were opposed.

By February, the same question resulted in just 51 percent saying they were against having a data center project near their home, indicating that the opposition grew substantially in a strikingly short period of time.

“The public has swung 49 points against data centers in just nine months, underscoring the heightened political salience of the facilities and the AI industry that they embody,” Heatmap noted in in its writeup.

Gee, why would the public object to projects that pollute their air, take their water, and throw them out of work?  I have no clue. 

My Bad, This is The Headline of the Day

Look How Much Canadians Hate the United States Now

—POLITICO, noting that a solid plurality of Canadians believe that the United States is the greatest threat to world peace.

When even Tiger Beat on the Potomac notices this, we are in very strange times.

It’s the world’s most awkward breakup.

More than a year after U.S. President Donald Trump casually joked about absorbing Canada and repeatedly threatened debilitating tariffs on its goods, many Canadians are convinced their former pals to the south have lost the plot.

New results from The POLITICO Poll suggest a lasting chill has settled over the world’s former bosom buddies. Americans are rosy as ever about their northern neighbors, but Canadians don’t share the love.

Their message to America: It’s not us, it’s you.

Canadians don’t see Trump’s America as merely an annoyance, the survey found. They consider the superpower next door the world’s greatest threat to peacetime.

 Considering facts over the past few decades, this is not an unreasonable conclusion.

Busy Day in Economics for a Wednesday

First, we had the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee holding their benchmark interest rate, which is not a surprise. for a couple of reasons, first, the numbers that they care about, and GDP both remain relatively strong, and second, they HAD to do this to show their independence from Donald Trump.

The Federal Reserve has kept interest rates on hold for the first time since July, as chair Jay Powell said the US central bank was in no rush to cut them despite Donald Trump’s relentless campaign to drastically lower borrowing costs.

The Fed on Wednesday left its main interest rate at a range of 3.5 to 3.75 per cent, following three straight quarter-point reductions. The decision matched Wall Street’s expectations.

Powell said after the meeting that with the economy growing at a robust rate, and the jobs market steadying in recent months, rates did not appear to be in “significantly restrictive” territory.

………

Official statistics released last week showed annualised GDP growth of 4.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2025. The Atlanta Fed has said that could jump as high as 5.4 per cent in the fourth quarter.

Rather unsurprisingly, the Trump toadies dissented, despite inflation being higher than what the Fed Targets.

However, governor Christopher Waller, one of four candidates left in the race to replace Powell as chair when his term ends in May, dissented, calling for a quarter-point cut. Stephen Miran, a staunch Trump ally who was appointed a governor last year, also called for a quarter-point cut.

The objections came as central bankers attempt to balance their dual mandate of price stability and full employment. The Fed’s preferred personal consumption expenditures inflation gauge registered 2.8 per cent in November, well above its 2 per cent target.

I'll not go into the Fed Kremlinology any more deeply here, you can find that from a variety of public sources, but I do want to note that US consumer confidence fell to its lowest level since May 2014, which ain't good.

US consumer confidence has collapsed to its weakest level in more than a decade, outstripping its pandemic lows and fuelling concerns about the health of the world’s biggest economy.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index fell to 84.5 in January, well below market expectations and the lowest since May 2014.

“Confidence collapsed in January, as consumer concerns about both the present situation and expectations for the future deepened,” said Dana Peterson, chief economist at the Conference Board, a think-tank.

The bleak consumer mood despite recent bumper GDP growth and strong spending data will stoke concerns that the spoils of America’s economic gains are not being evenly distributed.

Rather unsurprisingly, the obscenely wealthy have a better view of the economy than the rest of us. 

Now there's a shock. 

Snark of the Day

Poll-Driven Party Can't Read Polls

—Duncan "Atrios" Black

He is observing that immigration has the most positive polling ever recorded, and the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) are doing their level best to be as cruel and punitive as possible, because they are cowards.

First Friday of the Month ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So, we have the monthly unemployment numbers out, and they are not great. 

They are not awful, but it looks to me to be basically treading water:

The U.S. economy added 143,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate edged down to 4%, showing cooling but still solid gains for the labor market, the Labor Department said Friday.

The gain in jobs marked a drop from November and December and was less than the 169,000 jobs economists had expected for January, according to a Wall Street Journal survey. But the job counts for November and December were revised upward by a combined 100,000.

The unemployment rate was below the 4.1% that had been expected.
………
Sectors including healthcare and retail added jobs. Employment declined in mining and oil and gas extraction.

Gee, what happened to, "Drill Baby, Drill!"

In related news, rather than rising, as economists forecast, consumer sentiment fell in January

My guess is that President Musk's behavior is making people nervous:

The Trump bump in consumer confidence is already over. 

Tariff threats, stock market swings and rapidly reversing executive ordersare causing Americans across the political spectrum to feel considerably more pessimistic about the economy than they did before President Trump took office.

Consumer sentiment fell about 5% in the University of Michigan’s preliminary February survey of consumers to its lowest reading since July 2024. Expectations of inflation in the year ahead jumped from 3.3% in January to 4.3%, the second month in a row of large increases and highest reading since November 2023. 

“It’s very rare to see a full percentage point jump in inflation expectations,” said Joanne Hsu, who oversees the survey. Republicans have come off a postelection surge in confidence, she said, and Democrats and Independents also seem to believe that economic conditions have deteriorated since last month. 

Morning Consult’s recent index of consumer confidence, too, fell between Jan. 25 and Feb. 3, driven primarily by concern over the country’s economic future. 

………

Immediately after Trump’s November victory, consumer confidence surged, a move largely driven by new optimism among Republicans. The sentiment stayed elevated throughout the run-up to the inauguration. 

Lawlessness, incompetence, and arrogance are a toxic mix.

Today in Journalistic Enshittification

A Draft of the Cartoon in Question
Long time Washington Post editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes has resigned from the paper following their spiking her cartoon because it was too mean to oligarchs.

Shown is Bezos, (Amazon) Zuckerberg, (Facebook)Altman, (OpenAI), Patrick Soon-Shiong, (LA Tiumes) and Mickey Mouse.

My guess is that it was NOT Mickey that the WaPo editorial board objected to.

Ann Telnaes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for The Washington Post, said on Friday evening that she was resigning after the newspaper’s opinions section rejected a cartoon depicting The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos, genuflecting toward a statue of President-elect Donald J. Trump.

In a brief statement posted to Substack, Ms. Telnaes — who has worked at The Post since 2008 — called the newspaper’s decision to kill her cartoon a “game changer" that was “dangerous for a free press.”

“In all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at,” she wrote. “Until now.”

Ms. Telnaes included a draft of her cartoon in her Substack post. In addition to Mr. Bezos, the founder of Amazon, the cartoon depicted Meta’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg; Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive; Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of The Los Angeles Times; and Mickey Mouse, the corporate mascot of the Walt Disney Company.

The Washington Post OP/ED department, even with the absence of the late and unlamented Fred Hiatt, remains the 2nd worst editorial page in the nation.

Cancel your subscription.

Can You Say Jury Nullification? I Knew You Could.

For all of the outrage from the "Very Serious People" it does appear that the American public understands the significance of the murder of UnitedHealthcare's CEO, and that the vast majority of Americans understand that the underlying issue is not one of violence, but of the complete dysfunction of healthcare in the United States.

Believing the health insurance industry is at least partly responsible for the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO is not some fringe position. 69 percent of Americans say health insurance claim denials had “a great deal” or  “moderate amount” of responsibility for the killing of CEO Brian Thompson, according to a new poll conducted by NORC at University of Chicago. Nearly as many (67 percent) blamed health insurance company profits.

The poll also captures a nuance that’s sorely lacking in major media coverage, which tends to collapse the issue into two camps: those who condemn the murder vs. those who support it. That kind of two-sizes-fits-all framing leaves no room for the view that both the shooter and the healthcare industry share responsibility for the CEO’s death. NORC’s poll suggests this more nuanced attitude is in fact quite mainstream. The number of respondents who blamed the shooter wasn’t much higher (78 percent) than those who blamed health insurance claim denials (69 percent).

Now compare that with the tsunami of corporate media op-eds and pundits expressing the sparkling insight that murder is wrong. Yeah, we know. Episodes like these really show you how much contempt these elite media organs have for the public, which they apparently see as helpless children in need of a preschool level moral lesson. This is the exact same media paternalism that prevented them from publishing Mangione “manifesto,” thinking the zombie-like masses would have no choice but to obey the writings and carry out similar acts of violence.

The response of the authorities, and of the pundit class, has been, "Let them eat cake."*

It should be noted that such attitudes when juxtaposed with completely justified outrage of the general populace have not generally been particularly harmonious.

^*A bit of a correction here. First, the quote is actually, "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche," let them eat brioche, a French egg bread, and this term was coined by Jean-Jacques Rousseau decades before Marie Antoinette became queen.

Not a Shock

It's been less than 2 months, but already Keir Starmer is less popular than his predecessor Rishi Sunak.

This is not a surprising development.  He was elected not to be the Tories, and his governing to this point is to be the slightly less insane Tories:

Keir Starmer has suffered a precipitous fall in his personal ratings since winning the election, according to a new poll for the Observer that comes before his first Labour conference as prime minister.

The latest Opinium poll reveals that Starmer’s approval rating has plunged below that of the Tory leader Rishi Sunak, suffering a huge 45-point drop since July. While 24% of voters approve of the job he is doing, 50% disapprove, giving him a net rating of -26%. Sunak’s net rating is one point better.

The prime minister is not alone in suffering from a major drop in personal support since the election. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, who has cut winter fuel payments for all but the poorest pensioners and promised tough decisions on welfare and tax in the forthcoming budget, has seen a 36-point drop in her net approval since July.

While Labour continues to lead on most issues, it has almost lost its lead on the economy. It is ahead by only one point on the issue, down from a 10-point lead in July. A third see the government as being open about the challenges facing the country, but more than half think the government has been bad at providing optimism or rebuilding trust in politics.

This is not a messaging problem, this is a policy problem.

Keir Starmer thinks that the Tories are the opposition, but that the left is the enemy, much in the same way that Tony Blair did. 

………

James Crouch, head of policy and public affairs at Opinium said: “While the prime minister might have a world-beating new wardrobe, voters are refusing to wear his government’s austerity drive.

A quick aside here, top labor figures have received gifts of designer clothes from rich supporters worth many thousands of pounds, because they are corrupt hypocrites.

I expect to see the Tories, or heaven help the UK, Nigel Farage's Reform Party, winning the next election.

If Labour is determined to be a pale copy of the Tories, the voters will select the real Tories.

Kinda Counts as a Declaration Against Interest

+972 Magazine, an Israeli publication describes itself as an, "Independent, online, nonprofit magazine run by a group of Palestinian and Israeli journalists," which frequently uses the term "Apartheid" to describe Israel's policies.

One of its writers, Mahmoud Mushtaha, has an interesting report which appears to indicate that Gazans are increasingly angry at Hamas for the October 7 attacks, not because they felt that they were somehow  unjustified, but because they were completely ineffective in achieving an independent Palestinian state, or even increased autonomy.

As I have noted earlier, Hamas' goal is the destruction of the state of Israel, and prior to the October 7 attacks, they had actually gone so far as to assign draw up plans for administrative districts and ministries after they had conquered Israel.

The Palestinian community is not monolithic, with some wanting an independent state in a close relationship with Israel, some wanting an independent state largely separate from Israel, and the crazies who think that they can overthrow Israel and replace it with an Islamic republic.

In Gaza at least, the first two groups are rather sick and tired of the 3rd group:

For 10 long and grueling months, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been left alone to face a genocide. We Gazans have had to endure the consequences of decisions we had no hand in, bearing severe hardships that the world has grown accustomed to and largely forgotten.

Undoubtedly, the primary source of our misery is Israel — an occupying, apartheid state, whose soldiers kill with brutal indifference, and which has sought to erase Palestinians since 1948. But we must also consider the role that Palestinian factions are playing in our ongoing suffering.

What has become clear over the past 10 months is that the Palestinian leadership — both Fatah and Hamas — has abandoned the people without any forethought or a coherent plan. While Gazans face relentless Israeli bombardment with no safe place to turn to, Hamas evades its responsibility to protect the population and Fatah is nowhere to be found.

As the war has dragged on, displays of public opposition to or criticism of Hamas have grown among Palestinians in Gaza. Many accuse Hamas of failing to anticipate the ferocity of Israel’s response to the October 7 attacks, and hold the group partially accountable for the dire consequences they are now facing. For Palestinian journalist Ahmed Hadi (whose name has been changed for his safety, along with everyone interviewed in this article), October 7 was “a crazy decision for us as Gazans.” The attack, he argued, and particularly “the killing and capturing of Israelis, some of whom were civilians and not soldiers, unfortunately had a counterproductive effect on us. It granted Israel global sympathy and provided it with a justification to launch a brutal war on Gaza.”

This is a paraphrase of the (not) Tallyrand quote, "It is worse than a crime, it is a mistake."

………

Adel Sultan is a 62-year-old from the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City. He spoke to +972 Magazine about his utter desperation for the war to come to an end. “Save those of us who are still alive, end the war, and give us a chance to recover,” he exclaimed. “We no longer recognize ourselves; our faces have changed from this ongoing war consuming us.”

Sultan voiced his frustration with the Palestinian leadership, calling on them to agree to a ceasefire with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government as a matter of urgency. “Those who started it should end it. Where are our leaders? Let them sit with the occupation government and end the war before it ends us, as Netanyahu wants.” 

………

Many Palestinians in Gaza understand the Hamas-led October 7 attack as the outcome of decades of Israeli occupation and prolonged siege of the Strip. They fully comprehend the concept of personal sacrifice for the goal of national liberation. Yet they fault Hamas for its lack of preparation in the aftermath of its attack, and reject having to suffer for no apparent gain.

Here is an interesting data point, though I would say that it is unreliable, not because of the source, but because polling in a war zone is inherently unreliable, something that the pollster acknowledges:

………

These sentiments are reflected in a recent poll by the Institute for Social and Economic Progress, an independent Palestinian research organization. According to the study, less than 5 percent of Palestinians in Gaza want Hamas to rule in a post-war transition government, and a majority expects the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority to take over the Strip. Nearly 85 percent of Gazans oppose Sinwar, and only slightly fewer opposed Hamas’ political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated by Israel last week in Tehran.

It's interesting, and were it translated into action, perhaps a group that wasn't batsh%$ insane like Hamas, and wasn't incompetent and corrupt like Fatah might become a factor in the Palestinian polity, this would be good.

But I am not holding my breath..

There is Unpopular, There is Hated, and Then There is..........

Andrew Cuomo would trounce you primary for Mayor.

Hizonner Eric Adams, God's anointed Mayor of New York City, (At least according to Eric Adams) may have a bit of a problem.

Fallen ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo is getting much more support than Mayor Eric Adams in a hypothetical head-to-head Democratic primary race for City Hall in 2025, a stunning new poll released Tuesday claims.

Of those Democrats with an opinion, 44% favored Cuomo to 24% for Adams with one-third undecided, according to the survey conducted by American Pulse & Research Polling.

......

“Our American Pulse survey revealed what I found to be a big surprise: If Andrew Cuomo ran as a Democrat for mayor, he would decisively trounce Mayor Adams in a primary,” said Dustin Olson of American Pulse Research & Polling.


“While surprising, it does make sense, as New Yorkers also gave Mayor Adams the distinction of being the most unfavorably viewed politician among all those we tested in the city.”

......

The poll — which was paid for by a group headed by Adams’ 2021 GOP opponent, Curtis Sliwa — also found that 57% of all voters had a favorable impression of lefty Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the highest of elected officials mentioned in the poll, while Adams had the worst unfavorable rating of 58%.

Ah, yes.  Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Anglos, right-wing radio host, and fascist.

It might be advisable then to take people numbers with a grain of salt

But the exiled ex-governor — who resigned from office in 2021 amid accusations of sexual misconduct — would lose were he to challenge Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in a Democratic primary the next year, the survey said.

Well, there is that.

I am not a big fan of Kirsten Gillibrand, but she is orders of magnitude better than "Rat faced Andy" Cuomo.

......

A group called Save the Senate, chaired by Sliwa and aimed at bolstering the GOP in the US Senate, helped finance the poll.

Because, of course they did. 

My condolences to the people of the great City of New York.  If I had to choose between Adams and Cuomo, I might write in Ed Koch, and he's been dead for a decade.

Posted via mobile.

I Got Push Polled On Friday

My phone rings, and they ask me to respond to a poll about the primary race to replace retiring US Senator Ben Cardin.

It started with a listing of all three candidates, Prince George's County executive Angela Alsobrooks, Montgomery County councilman Will Jawando, and US Congressman David Trone.

After quickly dismissing Alsobrooks and Jawando, the poll went on to suggest that David Trone, because he was a successful businessman (strike 1) who has extensively self funded his campaign, (Foul tip) and who worked across the aisle (strike 2).

I ended up looking at Trone's Wiki page while on the line, and found that he was a member of the New Democrat Coalition, the caucus dedicated to protecting billionaires and Wall Street. (Strike 3)

I told the pollster that, and when she asked at the end if I was a liberal, a progressive, or a moderate, I replied, "Socialist."

As to my assessment of the candidates in order of decreasing preference:

• Angela Alsobrooks: Best of a scurvy lot.  Seems decent enough, but she is the former I hate voting for former prosecutors, and she was former PG County states attorney.
• Will Jawando: Former Obama administration member (Strike 1), who, "Served in the Obama White House as associate director of the Office of Public Engagement and for the Education Department as deputy director for strategic partnerships." (Strike 2)  Working for Obama's charter school crazy Department of Education is NOT a good thing.
• David Trone:  A corporate sellout and a squish. 

Just in case you are wondering, I am not considering Jerome Segal, who seems closest to me politically, but he's a protest candidate.  He's the founder of the Socialist "Bread and Roses" party.

It's more important to keep Trone out than to vote for Segal.

This is Not a Surprise

A study at Political Research Quarterly shows that the political right is far more antisemitic than the political left.

This is not a surprise, particularly when one considers that the strident support of Israel exhibited by the Christian fundamentalism is all about the Jews dying in fire.  (It's a "The Rapture" thing)

To be fair, right wing support of Israel is also being driven by hatred of Arabs and Muslims as well:

A new study is casting doubt on the idea, held by some but not most American Jews, that antisemitism is just as prevalent on the far left as it is on the far right. Though far more American Jews consider the far right as the greater antisemitic threat, some academics and Jewish leaders have embraced horseshoe theory — the idea the opposite ends of an ideological spectrum are similar — and applied it to antisemitism.

………

A paper published in June in the journal Political Research Quarterly found that anti-Jewish beliefs are far more popular in right-wing circles, particularly among young people.

The results show that “there’s a problem on the young right,” said study author Eitan Hersh, an associate professor of political science at Tufts University. “It’s very interesting and, I think, concerning that we have this rare form of prejudice that is more common among young people and old people. It’s kind of shocking because if you look at other forms of prejudice, like racism, sexism, anti-gay attitudes, they’re just way higher among older people than younger people.”

For the study, a survey was sent to 3,500 American adults, 2,500 of them between the ages of 18 and 30. Respondents were asked to reply to a series of questions, such as whether they believe Jews are more loyal to Israel than the U.S.; if it’s appropriate to boycott Jewish-owned businesses to protest Israeli policies, and whether Jews have too much power. They were also asked questions to test for a double standard. For instance, one question would ask whether Jews who want to participate in activism must first denounce Israeli actions against Palestinians, and then a similar question was posed about Muslims denouncing a Muslim country’s actions.

………

He noted that antisemitic attitudes in young people were more prevalent in those who identify as Catholic, which could be a reflection of the growing “tradcath” or traditionalist Catholic movement, which openly condemns liberal reforms adopted by the Catholic Church and contains splinter groups that are often antisemitic.

………

Hersh said his hope is that this new data can be used to construct better, more efficient strategies for combating antisemitism.

Yeah, more efficient strategies.

How about going after the right wing to prevent terrorism.

 

Hack Media in Action

Following the lead of the New York Times, the Washington Post has misrepresented the results of a poll to trash transgender people.

Specifically, they claim in the hed that a majority of Americans favor the GOP's genocidal policies toward the transgender when the poll shows the opposite:

………

As many of you know, I’m [Parker Molloy] transgender. As such, the way trans issues are covered in the mainstream press was/is/will continue to be extremely important and personal to me. Why? Well, most people don’t actually know any trans people, so their opinion on the issues that affect our lives tends to be shaped (more or less) entirely by what people see in the media. For that reason, I think it’s really important that these issues be framed in ways that acknowledge the humanity of trans people and our right to participate in society.

You have to start from that premise. I’m sorry, but yes, you have to.

You can have specific discussions about what hoops trans people need to jump through in order to do things like updating identifying documents, participating in elite-level sports, and so on, but you have to establish that the continued existence of trans people as part of society is not a question up for debate. I want to talk about something that really set me off this morning.

“Most in U.S. back GOP’s anti-trans policies,” reads the headline of a piece by the Post’s Laura Meckler and Scott Clement. “Poll bolsters those seeking restrictions in schools, sports and health care,” continues the subheadline.

Yep. The front page. I was shocked to see this, as there hasn’t been a single poll I’ve seen that shows that “clear majorities of Americans support restrictions” on trans people’s lives. Here’s how it begins:

Clear majorities of Americans support restrictions affecting transgender children, a Washington Post-KFF poll finds, offering political jet fuel for Republicans in state legislatures and Congress who are pushing measures restricting curriculum, sports participation and medical care.

This frames the GOP’s anti-trans policies as being about “children,” but that’s just not the reality of what’s happening, and it’s worth being very clear about this: the “GOP’s anti-trans policies” are not just about trans minors. Many are, and they’re horrible policies, but that is by no means an accurate description of what the GOP is trying to do. Just look at Florida, which just last week passed a bill that effectively banned trans people from using public restrooms that match their gender identity at any building owned/leased/funded by the state government. Stadiums, airports, hospitals, schools, etc.

………


Let’s look at what the poll actually found. Question 30: “Do you (support) or (oppose) laws prohibiting discrimination against trans people (INSERT TERMS)?”

Here’s what they found:

• 71% of adults support laws banning discrimination against trans people by medical professionals.
• 72% of adults support laws banning discrimination against trans people from getting health insurance.
• 69% of adults support laws banning discrimination against transgender people in K-12 schools.
• 73% of adults support laws banning discrimination against transgender people at colleges and universities.
• 73% of adults support laws banning discrimination against transgender people at their jobs and workplaces.
• 74% of adults support laws banning discrimination against transgender people in housing.
• 65% of adults support laws banning discrimination against transgender people in the U.S. military.

………

There are a handful of questions framed around personal beliefs, sure. “Do you think it is (appropriate) or (inappropriate) for teachers to discuss trans identity in public schools with students in (INSERT ITEM)?”

(77% said inappropriate in K-3, 70% said inappropriate in grades 4-5, 52% said inappropriate in grades 6-8, but just 36% said inappropriate for grades 9-12)

Note that this question didn’t ask if it should be the law to ban teachers from discussing “trans identity,” but just whether or not they personally believe it’s appropriate or inappropriate.

And let’s look at another question: “Do you (support) or (oppose) trans children between the ages of 10 and 14 having access to (ITEM) under medical supervision?”

While 68% of adults responded that they oppose access to puberty-blocking medication for trans youth between 10 and 14, only 37% of adults oppose access to “gender-affirming counseling or therapy.” 62% of adults support trans kids between the ages of 10 and 14 being able to access gender-affirming counseling/therapy, which is something that the GOP is trying to make illegal.

For that same question, but with ages 15-17 and “hormonal treatments” in place of “puberty-blocking medication,” just 33% of adults oppose allowing those teens to access gender-affirming counseling/therapy, and a slim majority (58%) oppose access to hormonal treatments.

The framing of these questions didn’t ask if the government should enact laws imposing their beliefs on the public. To frame it as such (which the piece and the headline did) is a lie, and a willful lie, at that.

The authors of that Washington Post piece — a piece that gleefully described their own poll (which, again, found that the majority of adults support legal protections for trans people in all areas of life) as “offering political jet fuel for Republicans in state legislatures and Congress” — have blood on their hands. The same is true for the many people who saw this before it went to print and decided to slap it on the front page of the paper: blood on their hands. Their goal is clear: to increase anti-trans sentiment among the public and to advance anti-trans policies. This isn’t new, but it’s time people started pushing back against this obvious anti-trans propaganda.

Bad and dishonest reporting, and they put it on the front page no less.

I almost wish that I had a subscription so that I could cancel it.

(Why yes, I have been looking for an excuse to use this image for a while) 

Looking for Proof of a Supreme Being is an Exercise in Futility, but

The fact that Kyrsten Sinema's most recent poling has her at -23% certainly does reinforce one's faith in the divine.

-23% puts her well behind any potential Republican or Democratic candidate in Arizona.

Hell, -23% puts her behind hemorrhoids and French kissing Ted Cruz

A new poll out of Arizona by a well-trusted national pollster, Public Policy Polling, shows that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I) stands to lose re-election badly in virtually any potential matchup this November and is deeply unpopular among voters.

The survey results, first obtained by Jezebel via an internal Ruben Gallego campaign memo, show that just 27 percent of voters in the state view Sinema favorably and want her to run again, compared to 50 percent of Arizonans who view her unfavorably and 54 percent who say she shouldn’t run again. Rep. Gallego (D-Ariz.), her likely Democratic challenger, has a net positive favorability, with 39 percent of voters approving of him and 28 percent disapproving.

In any likely three-way matchup among Sinema, Gallego and whatever Republican candidate wins their primary, Sinema appears to have virtually no chance of winning. If the GOP candidate is election denier Kari Lake, for example, the new PPP survey shows that Gallego would pull in 42 percent of the vote, Lake 35 percent, and Sinema just 14 percent. The numbers are similar if you plug Jim Lamon or Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb in as the Republican candidate.

About the only political figure in Arizona I could see her beating in a statewide campaign would be impeached AZ Governor Evan Mecham, and he has been dead since 2008.  

I am pretty sure that zombie Barry Goldwater would beat Sinema by double digits.

This Is My Shocked Face

I am not surprised that ¼ of hiring managers and recruiters are less likely to hire Jews than they are gentiles.

In a survey of 1,131 HR professionals, here are the bullet points:

………

Key findings include:

• 26% of hiring managers say they are less likely to move forward with Jewish applicants; top reason for negative bias is belief Jews have too much power and control
• 26% make assumptions about whether a candidate is Jewish based on their appearance
  
• 23% say they want fewer Jews in their industry
• 17% say leadership has told them to not hire Jews
• 33% say antisemitism is common in their workplace; 29% say antisemitism is acceptable in their company

So, this is what it means when some people call for a, "Return to traditional values."

Color me unimpressed with the latest nostalgia craze.

H/t Mike the Mad Biologist

Of Course She Opposed Abortion Rights Legislation

Susan Collins so called "Moderation" is an act she does for electoral advantage, which is why, with the ink still wet on the Supreme Court leak revealing that they will overturn Roe v. Wade, she came out against putting the right to abortion into federal law.

She's not a moderate, she just plays one on TV:

Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), one of two prominent Republican senators who support abortion rights, said Thursday that she does not support a Democratic measure that would create statutory right to the procedure, arguing that the legislation does not provide sufficient protection to antiabortion health providers.

The statement from Collins comes as the Senate is preparing to vote next week on the legislation, known as the Women’s Health Protection Act, and as the Supreme Court appears poised to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, which established a woman’s right to an abortion.

“It supersedes all other federal and state laws, including the conscience protections that are in the Affordable Care Act,” Collins told reporters at the Capitol on Thursday when asked whether she supports the bill authored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). She added: “It doesn’t protect the right of a Catholic hospital to not perform abortions. That right has been enshrined in law for a long time.”

She has lied about being lied to by Supreme Court nominees on Roe, and now she's finding a lame excuse to subvert abortion rights.

F%$# her with Cheney's dick.

People Believe This Because It Is True

The most recent Gallup Poll finds that the percentage of people who believe that their employer gives a sh%$ about their well-being is falling back to previous low levels.

This is because their employer doesn't give a sh%$ about their employee's well-being:

Fewer than one in four U.S. employees feel strongly that their organization cares about their wellbeing -- the lowest percentage in nearly a decade.

This finding has significant implications, as work and life have never been more blended and employee wellbeing matters more than ever-- to employees and the resiliency of organizations. The discovery is based on a random sample of 15,001 full and part-time U.S. employees who were surveyed in February 2022.

Prior to COVID-19, in 2014, about the same percentage (25%) of employees strongly agreed that their employer cares about their overall wellbeing. Then at the onset of the pandemic in 2020, employers responded quickly with a plan, communication, and what many employees believed was genuine concern for them, their work, and their lives. The percentage who felt cared about nearly doubled, reaching a high of 49% in May of that year. Since 2020, the perception has plummeted to the previous low levels.

This is just an acknowledgement of reality.

I So Wish that Sanders Were the Nominee

Elon Musk, welfare queen and libertarian, decided to go after Bernie Sanders' proposal for a wealth tax, Sanders notes that most of Musk's wealth is from government subsidies. (Literally, Tesla would not have generated a penny of profit without the various subsidies that it has benefited from and resold)

Elon Musk believes that everyone should have the initiative that he had, and inherit an emerald mine:

Bernie Sanders showed Friday he isn’t afraid to call out hypocrisy – particularly when it comes from someone like Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Musk on Friday tweeted out a meme critical of Sanders and his brand of socialism. The tweet was in response to an article about a bill Sanders introduced Thursday that would place a 60% tax on the wealth gained by billionaires such as Musk during the coronavirus pandemic. The meme, dubbed the “Official Bernie Sanders drinking game!” showed a picture of Sanders along with the text: “Every time the Bernster mentions a free government program, chug somebody else’s beer.”

Sanders, who’s no neophyte when it comes to defending his leftist views and programs, wasn’t about to back down from such criticism. In a tweeted response, he called out Musk for benefiting to the tune of billions of dollars from government subsidies and linked to an article from The Los Angeles Times that detailed the assistance Musk and his companies have received.

“Every time Elon Musk pokes fun at government assistance for the 99%, remember that he would be worth nothing without $US4.9 billion in corporate welfare,” Sanders wrote. “Oh, Elon just l-o-v-e-s corporate socialism for himself, rugged capitalism for everyone else.”

Elon Musk is one disfiguring accident away from being a super-villain.