A poll today by the Associated Press (AP) and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) shows that President Joe Biden’s administration is gaining positive traction. Sixty-three percent of Americans approve of how he is handling his job as president. Seventy-one percent approve of how he is handling the coronavirus pandemic; 62% percent approve of how he is handling health care. Fifty-seven percent approve of how he is handling the economy; 54% approve of how he is handling foreign affairs.
Well I expect total craziness to simply expand among the ghastly old party members. In the meantime, I would like to point out a real milestone: the Lutheran Church just appointed the first openly trans woman as bishop in the San Diego region diocese. This is huge. I might not be a. Christian and I might be unenthusiastic about religion in general but this step means something.
Thank you, Dr. Heather, for another easy to digest summary! I feel encouraged by the statistics of support for Biden. But one of your sentences jumped out at me, sadly:
"We have had an average of ten mass shootings a week in 2021, 194 in all. (A mass shooting is one in which four people were killed or wounded.)"
After the Sandy Hook shootings of very young children, I had a brief surge of hope that something would finally happen to change this country's gun laws, but instead it just seems like the situation has gotten worse since then.
I really hope the Biden administration can make a difference going forward.
On the matter of voter restriction laws I am not particularly worried. What worries me is that Republicans seem determined to install vote counters who are committed to calling elections for Republican candidates regardless of the vote count. Why would party leaders and party members exchange the honest vote counters from the last election, those who would not succumb to pressure to change the vote count, for new officials? The most dangerous movement today is that one in the Republican Party which is committed to one party rule in the service of one man. Their vehicle to power is to destroy faith in the voting system and thus destroy faith in our Constitutional Democracy. If they are successful we will be living in a totalitarian state, perhaps even a theocratic totalitarian state.
I did a little experiment tonight. I keep thinking I'm still hearing DTs name too much in the news and do not hear President Biden's name enough. So, I counted how many times DTs name was used and how many times President Biden's name was used in a couple of hour long programs on MSNBC. And, yes, this is not very scientific because it does depend on what is making news each day. However, program one said DTs name 34 times and showed his picture 4 times; President Biden name was mentioned 9 times and his picture shown 3 times. The second program I only tallied for about 15 minutes. 16 DTs, 1 picture with Voice (which was obnoxious) ; Biden 7 and 1 picture. Basically it was much better than I expected and I was pleasantly surprised how many stories mentioned neither man. Maybe the media has learned its lesson not to give too much oxygen to the former president. Using former president without mentioning the name was also popular. Just to compare HCR's Letter tonight Biden is mentioned by name 8 times and Trump 14. What I liked was she led with the President and covered a wide breadth of substantive activities Biden was doing.
It is heartening to see that a majority of citizens appear to be relieved the adults are back in charge, though it is disheartening that the former president has any approval at all, or ever had any for that matter.
One is glad to see Liz Cheney have her Elizabeth Warren "yet still the woman persisted" moment. Do not go quietly.
And, we are all waiting for something of substance to come out of the SDNY offices regarding the former president, his immediate family, and the former mayor of New York. Please, if indictments are forthcoming, let us know about it before the 2022 elections.
Orwellian times indeed. The Republicans appear to be lost at sea, grasping at their oars of voter suppression to pull against the rising tide of women voters an POC voting for Democrats. May they eat crow for their hubris in supporting their iDJT when they squandered two opportunities to kick him to the curb. “Greedy fools.”
I appreciate all the stats substantiating approval for the Biden administration agenda. Go Team Joe!
I'm also pleased to see cited the WaPo article about how tales of election fraud proliferated without any proof. Wholesale lies. Revealing to read how many people named in the story refused to comment when contacted. Roaches scatter when the lights shines.
Such factual reporting confirms what many [of us] already knew. Sadly, the truth won't matter to too many ....
Good letter, but one correction to avoid bias: Orwell wrote, repeatedly, that both fascists AND communists distort language to rewrite history (and the present as well). Orwell devoted a good part of his life to making the point that there is no difference between the Left and Right extremes -- both are mad for power and ruthless is seeking it.
"Biden’s weak spots are in immigration, where 43% approve..."
Yes, our immigration policy is a real mess, and it shows up in the low approval rating of American voters. So now, Kamala is going to talk with some U.S.-installed dictators about improving economic conditions for the masses who flee their countries in a desperate attempt to reach the U.S. Well, our country has to go deeper than that to find the real reasons for the mass exodus of their residents. We have to find out why the U.S. has overthrown democracies in Central and South America and then installed and supported military dictators ruling the countries. Both U.S. political parties are involved in the illegal overthrow of democracies, mostly using the CIA to instigate the troubles.
Three glaring examples of that overthrow policy would be the 1954 U.S. overthrow of the Guatemalan government. That one involved the United Fruit Company. As I recall, Bush Sr. benefitted greatly in financial gains from his new business interests there. A second example would be the Nixon/Kissinger 1973 overthrow of President Salvador Allende in Chile. The Chilean military was traditionally and proudly apolitical. But Nixon/Kissinger tossed some golden carrots to the military leaders and corrupted them. What resulted was a military dictatorship with General Pinochet in charge, and immense suffering by the Chilean people as thousands of people were murdered and severely tortured by that government. In his memoirs, Kissinger later tried to deny his involvement and put the blame on the U.S. Ambassador to Chile. Unfortunately for Kissinger, that Ambassador was still alive and said Kissinger was lying. Kissinger has so much blood on his hands. More recently, Hillary/Obama's State Dept. contributed to the overthrow in Honduras of another democracy.
There seems to be no end to this inhuman foreign policy. When are we going to start living by the ideals on which our country was founded? I hope Joe studies this matter deeply and commits the U.S. to true justice for these countries. At this point, there's no indication that will happen.
Ok sure. Let’s not tax corporations and the mega rich because then how could they purchase all their yachts? Witness Jeff Bezos and his yacht with yacht accessory. Insanity. While his employees lives are just another expense in the ledger.
Liz Cheney can object all she wants, but it's not going to work. I see no sign that the R's are going to turn away from Trump. It's his party now, which is the dangerous reality we have to prepare for.
Perhaps Biden's numbers regarding immigration would improve if our political media gave the same attention to the successes of the last two months that they gave to Republican bleating about the "Border Crisis" during February and early March. Not holding my breath that they'll get over their addiction to the headlines generated by Republican lies as opposed to publishing reality-based information.
I appreciate your timely and encouraging account. I am holding out for theTrump Republicans to collapse upon themselves soon! That said, I am not a Liz C fan, by any means.
Well I expect total craziness to simply expand among the ghastly old party members. In the meantime, I would like to point out a real milestone: the Lutheran Church just appointed the first openly trans woman as bishop in the San Diego region diocese. This is huge. I might not be a. Christian and I might be unenthusiastic about religion in general but this step means something.
Thank you, Dr. Heather, for another easy to digest summary! I feel encouraged by the statistics of support for Biden. But one of your sentences jumped out at me, sadly:
"We have had an average of ten mass shootings a week in 2021, 194 in all. (A mass shooting is one in which four people were killed or wounded.)"
After the Sandy Hook shootings of very young children, I had a brief surge of hope that something would finally happen to change this country's gun laws, but instead it just seems like the situation has gotten worse since then.
I really hope the Biden administration can make a difference going forward.
LOL that AZ state Senator Paul Boyer who voted for the recount thinks it makes them look like idiots … they are idiots. Sheesh!!!
On the matter of voter restriction laws I am not particularly worried. What worries me is that Republicans seem determined to install vote counters who are committed to calling elections for Republican candidates regardless of the vote count. Why would party leaders and party members exchange the honest vote counters from the last election, those who would not succumb to pressure to change the vote count, for new officials? The most dangerous movement today is that one in the Republican Party which is committed to one party rule in the service of one man. Their vehicle to power is to destroy faith in the voting system and thus destroy faith in our Constitutional Democracy. If they are successful we will be living in a totalitarian state, perhaps even a theocratic totalitarian state.
I did a little experiment tonight. I keep thinking I'm still hearing DTs name too much in the news and do not hear President Biden's name enough. So, I counted how many times DTs name was used and how many times President Biden's name was used in a couple of hour long programs on MSNBC. And, yes, this is not very scientific because it does depend on what is making news each day. However, program one said DTs name 34 times and showed his picture 4 times; President Biden name was mentioned 9 times and his picture shown 3 times. The second program I only tallied for about 15 minutes. 16 DTs, 1 picture with Voice (which was obnoxious) ; Biden 7 and 1 picture. Basically it was much better than I expected and I was pleasantly surprised how many stories mentioned neither man. Maybe the media has learned its lesson not to give too much oxygen to the former president. Using former president without mentioning the name was also popular. Just to compare HCR's Letter tonight Biden is mentioned by name 8 times and Trump 14. What I liked was she led with the President and covered a wide breadth of substantive activities Biden was doing.
It is heartening to see that a majority of citizens appear to be relieved the adults are back in charge, though it is disheartening that the former president has any approval at all, or ever had any for that matter.
One is glad to see Liz Cheney have her Elizabeth Warren "yet still the woman persisted" moment. Do not go quietly.
And, we are all waiting for something of substance to come out of the SDNY offices regarding the former president, his immediate family, and the former mayor of New York. Please, if indictments are forthcoming, let us know about it before the 2022 elections.
Orwellian times indeed. The Republicans appear to be lost at sea, grasping at their oars of voter suppression to pull against the rising tide of women voters an POC voting for Democrats. May they eat crow for their hubris in supporting their iDJT when they squandered two opportunities to kick him to the curb. “Greedy fools.”
I appreciate all the stats substantiating approval for the Biden administration agenda. Go Team Joe!
I'm also pleased to see cited the WaPo article about how tales of election fraud proliferated without any proof. Wholesale lies. Revealing to read how many people named in the story refused to comment when contacted. Roaches scatter when the lights shines.
Such factual reporting confirms what many [of us] already knew. Sadly, the truth won't matter to too many ....
How is this going to end?
Good letter, but one correction to avoid bias: Orwell wrote, repeatedly, that both fascists AND communists distort language to rewrite history (and the present as well). Orwell devoted a good part of his life to making the point that there is no difference between the Left and Right extremes -- both are mad for power and ruthless is seeking it.
The word 'audit' is a misnomer for AZ activity. 100% has never been an audit sample size.
"Biden’s weak spots are in immigration, where 43% approve..."
Yes, our immigration policy is a real mess, and it shows up in the low approval rating of American voters. So now, Kamala is going to talk with some U.S.-installed dictators about improving economic conditions for the masses who flee their countries in a desperate attempt to reach the U.S. Well, our country has to go deeper than that to find the real reasons for the mass exodus of their residents. We have to find out why the U.S. has overthrown democracies in Central and South America and then installed and supported military dictators ruling the countries. Both U.S. political parties are involved in the illegal overthrow of democracies, mostly using the CIA to instigate the troubles.
Three glaring examples of that overthrow policy would be the 1954 U.S. overthrow of the Guatemalan government. That one involved the United Fruit Company. As I recall, Bush Sr. benefitted greatly in financial gains from his new business interests there. A second example would be the Nixon/Kissinger 1973 overthrow of President Salvador Allende in Chile. The Chilean military was traditionally and proudly apolitical. But Nixon/Kissinger tossed some golden carrots to the military leaders and corrupted them. What resulted was a military dictatorship with General Pinochet in charge, and immense suffering by the Chilean people as thousands of people were murdered and severely tortured by that government. In his memoirs, Kissinger later tried to deny his involvement and put the blame on the U.S. Ambassador to Chile. Unfortunately for Kissinger, that Ambassador was still alive and said Kissinger was lying. Kissinger has so much blood on his hands. More recently, Hillary/Obama's State Dept. contributed to the overthrow in Honduras of another democracy.
There seems to be no end to this inhuman foreign policy. When are we going to start living by the ideals on which our country was founded? I hope Joe studies this matter deeply and commits the U.S. to true justice for these countries. At this point, there's no indication that will happen.
Ok sure. Let’s not tax corporations and the mega rich because then how could they purchase all their yachts? Witness Jeff Bezos and his yacht with yacht accessory. Insanity. While his employees lives are just another expense in the ledger.
Liz Cheney can object all she wants, but it's not going to work. I see no sign that the R's are going to turn away from Trump. It's his party now, which is the dangerous reality we have to prepare for.
These are positive metrics. Looks like things are beginning to move in the right direction. Let us keep it up.
Perhaps Biden's numbers regarding immigration would improve if our political media gave the same attention to the successes of the last two months that they gave to Republican bleating about the "Border Crisis" during February and early March. Not holding my breath that they'll get over their addiction to the headlines generated by Republican lies as opposed to publishing reality-based information.
I appreciate your timely and encouraging account. I am holding out for theTrump Republicans to collapse upon themselves soon! That said, I am not a Liz C fan, by any means.