More bad polling for Trump today. A Gallup poll has his approval rating on the economy at just 42%. More than 10 points lower than Biden, Obama, and Bush after 30 days and lower than Clinton's 45% after 30 days.

Seeing the GA Rep getting booed at a town hall and people calling him on the carpet for Trump's King BS is heartening. I'm sure most of those people didn't vote for Trunp or aren't even from that district but a viral video's a viral video. Worked for Trump!

Not hard to find people to pay to show up.

Nor was that location a particularly difficult trip for idiots from relatively nearby villages. At this point Ga-7 is essentially as close to a 50/50 district as you could get (he only just reclaimed it after 4 years lost, having been moved out of his previous GA-6 seat) and the meeting was in the southernmost part of the district (i.e. closest to (D) strongholds)

This is not particular to Jon -- but I never understand how Tea Party protesters, etc. are natural, but anyone who demonstrates on the left is paid to show up and that this sentiment is just astroturfed.

Or.....hear me out.....people don't like the president to compare himself to a king nor do they like their elected reps to not condemn that behavior.

It is literally everything that goes against what this country was founded on. But I'm sure you're right, probably paid protesters.

Trump was historically unpopular his first term. Hes started his 2nd term off by doing unpopular stuff. It's not a shock that people are pissed.

CPAC feels like a perfect encapsulation of the conservative movement. A conference run by a closeted man who has spent must of his adult life groping unwilling men and then turning the show over to adulterers and freaks.

I do wonder what kind of support Elon has with traditional conservatives. I work with people who are conservative, but mostly in the church going nuclear family style of conservative. They despise Elon.

So will there be a rift if he continues to be the leader in the movement? You have a guy who mails his cum to random women on Twitter. Guys funded by Peter Thiel who has a harem of young boys he keeps. Like I don't think a lot of traditional conservative voters know what kind of freaks they have leading them now (or maybe they do and that's why you'll see some pushback).

There is so much "I don't care as long as black and brown people suffer" in the conservative movement that it is hard to say.

I don't fit that description BUT I also am not an Elon fan by history. But thus far? He's been (at least the front man for) the greatest thing I've seen happen to/with government probably in my entire lifetime. Makes it hard to complain even if I don't like (nor even trust much) the guy.

Congressman allegedly beat his spouse and police tried to cover it up.


US rep. investigated for alleged DC assault; police probe handling – NBC4 Washington

Really no sense if there really is significant upswelling of discontent from Republican voters, but good to see it wasn't just GA.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...ree-rcna193164
Oregon is probably no big deal to GOP but hopefully early warning signs in GA, WI and OK.

And have no doubt, he is not doing this out of the goodness of his heart, there is some payoff for him because he never does anything if that is not the case. Not to mention the fact that half the stuff he us saying is complete BS, like the SSA 80% fraud and 150 year olds getting benefits.

The payoff is billions and billions in corporate welfare he receives from taxpayers.

I would watch a new season of Justified every year for the rest of my life and die happy.

I literally named my cat Raylan and my dog Boyd.

(Edit to add bronkonick's original quote for context, since we've moved to a new page since I refreshed the browser.)

Another Buh Bye.

Don't know enough if this is good, okay, bad. In general, if a new President wants a new Chairman, I'd think that is okay. But replacing him with a "retired 3-star general" seems weird to me.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/u...-pentagon.html

Or we could say the dog whistling to racists, blames everything on DEI, felon, fired a decorated African-American, 4-star General and it had absolutely nothing to do with job performance.

Fired the woman and the black guy and kept all the white guys. Pretty clear message there.

Well the racism is alive and well. RFK Jr. claims black kids need to be "reparented" onto "wellness farms" to work as free labor.


“...every Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall. SSRIS. Benzos. Which are known to induce violence and those kids are gonna have a chance to go somewhere and get reared to live in a community…”

https://www.salon.com/2025/02/19/rfk...ions-in-camps/

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?time\_...e_path=Mjg2NjY)

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I long ago had to give up caring why somebody did the right thing IF they did the right thing.

Hell, I don't believe there's a conservative bone in Trump's body -- never have -- but as long as he keeps doing good to great stuff, I don't have the luxury of giving a damn WHY.

Lotta true believers out there ain't never accomplished jack shit.

I’m amazed anyone wants to turn into a 2nd world country. Why did the US prosper in the 20th c? Strong government. Why do all of the “shithole” countries stay/become that way? Weak and/or corrupt governments. Solution for US? Tear down the government. Brilliant!

(I mean, Mexico, Central America, etc. Are RIGHT THERE. Just move a little south, get perfectly what you want.)

Too many brown people. Too scary for some to cope with any sort of diversity.

They don't want to turn into a second world country, they don't at all agree with you on the positives of government. The whole 'government is often the problem for which it pretends to the be the solution' thing. People just see the world differently.

And I would also say for pretty much any serious student of history, the general comparison being made is way, way more nuanced than you are making it out to be and there are a lot more factors involved.

I get what you are saying, but the "why" shouldn't be so I can line my pockets down the road, or get out of investigations into my business dealings.

If we can get four years that are as overall great as the opening month has been, I really don't much care if he fucks baby goats while standing on a pentagram.

Newsom asking for $40B.

That's a lot of moola for a state that has a bunch of really, rich people & businesses they can tax. I'm sure some of the request is totally legit, but yeah, I'd like them to come up with a "state disaster fund" and increase CA state-county-local taxes to pay for some-much of it. For context

Quote:

In the fiscal year of 2023, the state of California collected a total of 220.59 billion U.S. dollars in tax revenue, the highest of any state.

And, I'm sure Trump will bring up sanctuary cities thing as part of the negotiations.

Just a moment...

California is one of the biggest donors to the federal government in the union. The receive 10s of billions less than they put in.

This is gross. California has helped many other states recover from natural disasters. It's their turn to receive help from the rest of us.

Means testing states for disaster recovery aid? Of all the ideas out there that is one.

I assume you expect the state of Georgia and every other state to do the same?

EDIT: I forgot to add using the money California sends to D.C. that is redistributed other states when they have to deal with their own disasters.

Thanks for the pushback. I appreciate the opportunity to dig deeper

Below is a link that documents "balance of payments", essentially by state "Federal Spending - Federal Receipts" from 2015 to 2022

Balance of Payments Portal | Rockefeller Institute of Government

California's per capita stats are below, which does confirm that CA has consistently contributed more to Fed tax receipts than taken.


I don't personally like it. But I can see your point on fairness & equity.

So, I concede I was wrong

Even if you were right, you think it's a good idea to treat state requests for disaster aid/rebuilding funds as if they were independent country-states, dependent on their political affinities (or lack thereof) with whomever happens to be in the Oval Office? Really?

10 bucks says she was getting fingered at a Kid Rock concert 25 years ago. Possibly by Kid Rock...

Kid Rock reportedly splits from fiancée after being seen with Lauren Boebert | The Independent

Er, no?

I think where you may have gotten that impression is my statement below? If I agreed with it, I would have said "Trump should bring up ...". Instead, it was just something I read in another article that predicted it and, IMO, pretty likely.

Elon sends out an email this afternoon to every federal worker saying to summarize what they did last week by the end of Monday. He said in his tweet, but not the email, if they don't respond it's their resignation. How is this legal? This isn't one of his stupid corporations. Who is running the country? This shit just has to stop.

This is dumb for a guy who's going to spend a lot of time in front of federal judges.

With Elon’s “tell us what you accomplished last week or you’re fired” emails: I can confirm that he didn’t limit himself to the executive branch. He sent them to employees of the judicial branch as well.

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) February 23, 2025

Trump gets away with more than anyone but I still think Elon is going to wear out his welcome with most everyone before too long even on the right.

Wife got a call about an hour ago from a girlfriend. She is on her way to pick up a third friend and take her out for drinks and wanted my wife to join them, which she is. Friend 3 was supposed to start a government job Monday and they told her today offer was rescinded.

I mean this to my core, I hope every person who voted for him suffers exponentially more than those who didn't and are having their lives ruined by this maddness.

We have 2 offers out to really strong candidates. They haven't been rescinded but they are on hold indefinitely. It sucks.

I haven't received the email yet but my boss says we're expecting it. DHA has said further guidance will come Monday morning. No one knows what the hell is going on. Are they going to fire our doctors if they don't respond? We're not at will employees.

The "what I did last week' email is insane. Why would anyone with halfway marketable skills put up with that?

That's what they want though. Whether they get away with firing or push people out by making their jobs unbearable, the goal is to destabilize the government and make it shitty so people lose confidence in it. Just like the game plan with public education.

I still do not believe there’ll be elections for president next time. With the emergency at the moment they’ll have to be suspended indefinitely.


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I'm a year short of 20 years federal service.

Kash Patel sent out an email instructing FBI folks to ignore Elon's email.

How fucked are we when Kash Patel is the voice of reason?

By the end of the 4 years, it will be a 3rd world country.

Our union had a response that's in line with how I feel. Elon doesn't have the authority to effectively act as anyone's supervisor nor can he direct the work of any federal employee. The union is asking OPM to rescind the email.

Looks like Elon borked the National Sex Offender Registry website.

This lady got kidnapped at an Idaho town hall by off duty police while the speaker mocked her.

Yeah, both sides.

Blocked

Disgusting how many people stood by and watched it happen.