The survey, which was conducted between December 14 and 15 and measured public opinion based upon the answers provided by 1,000 registered voters, found that if they had their pick between a progressive Democrat, MAGA Republican, moderate Democrat, and moderate Republican, American would most prefer the last, followed by a moderate Democrat, then a progressive Democrat, and then a MAGA Republican. New poll reveals what kind of president Americans want most
HIs aides seem to think that MORE exposure of Trump being Trump will help him, but I don't think his performance on prime time went over all that well with anyone outside the cult--and might have been a bit cringy to some cult members. I know Trump and Republican media have degenerated the tone of our public discourse and normalized behavior which should seem disgusting, but even with that, how many people like being shouted at by a red-faced, angry old man?
As an undergrad in Boulder, I used to make a trip to NCAR a handful of times a semester to collect signatures for grants for the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (I was a grant courier there for two year). They did a lot of grant work with NCAR, including a lot of grants I remember that were doing some of that important work on climate change that drew all that fire from He Who Slumbers' quid-pro-donors.
“This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.”
Michael's citation of this MAGAt justification for closing NCAR reminds me of the Homer Simpson solution to a Check Engine light: stick a piece of electrical tape over it. Morons rule. Even deMAGAfication may not save us.
possibly apropos, from LGM which links to this CNN article
Other presidents receive similarly politicized descriptions, such as former President Barack Obama. “Barack Hussein Obama was the first Black President, a community organizer, one term Senator from Illinois, and one of the most divisive political figures in American History,” the plaque reads. It dings him for passing what Trump calls “the highly ineffective ‘Unaffordable’ Care Act” and signing “the one-sided Paris Climate Accords.”
and
The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind. As a student of history, many were written directly by the President himself,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN in a statement when asked for more information about who’s paying for them.
My general rule is that everything that comes out of Leavitt's mouth, including and, but, and the, is a lie, so there must be a writer's room of monkeys churning out this shit.
Is He, Trump the world's most efficient thumb typist?
I have always assumed that, whatever else may be true, He does not produce his screeds by typing on a cellphone, complete with punctuation and CAPITALIZATION, while sitting on one of his golden toilets. But maybe I'm wrong, being unpracticed in phone typing myself.
Both marching and school band, when transported to Japan, became something that women could excel at. Instrumental stereotypes run deep (if you don't know about Abbie Conant, it's worth it to read about it. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about it in a chapter in Blink which brought a lot of attention. I would pass that on, but Gladwell wrote the chapter without ever contacting Conant or even giving her the courtesy of letting her know she was going to be the focus of a chapter in his book. I guess some people would argue that he brought attention to her case, I tend to think this is shitty on the part of Gladwell)
Unfortunately, because brass band is often for women, it is often viewed as a skill to raise a woman's marriagability. English functions in a similar way and I tell people that in some ways, my job is like teaching needlepoint in Victorian England.
Damn. I posted another link from the Atlantic (see Wiles thread) about the Trump Reiner quotes, but unbeknown to me the extract I also copied had too many links (5), so it's awaiting approval. So here, at least, is the full link:
Unfortunately, I no longer have a sub to Vanity Fair. But this is Jonathan Chait in the Atlantic on the subject. Here is his concluding paragraph:
In this way, the most remarkable revelation from these newly published interviews comes not from what Wiles did or didn’t say, but in how Trump and his enablers are spinning it. Comments that would have precipitated a crisis in any other presidency are now simply being dismissed—knowingly, cynically—as “fake news.”
I know that the age difference between these musicians and Drum Corps International (22 max age) is vast, but the marching band show had me thinking about how much fun I used to have watching the DCI championships on PBS with my late brother back in the '80s, and set me to looking for a modern show that could give me a sense of the current state of DCI showmanship:
https://youtu.be/8EktPlyf7Ok?si=CEO9hjqJqB4bRi5d
Bluecoats: Downside Up 2016 performance.
Their 2014 show - Tilt - is also pretty amazing from a technical standpoint as they are performing the whole thing at an angle to the field markings, which seems like it would take a ton of practice to pull off consistently. I liked the music for the 2016 show a little better, though, so that's what you get.
I don't know re authorship. I do know there really isn't an antidote to such a terrible comment. James Woods' heartfelt tribute to Rob Reiner is, however, a start.
Disclaimer: I know it's Fox News, something I don't watch. This was linked to on a blog I read and is well worth the listen, IMO. I do give credit to Watters getting out of the way (mostly) and letting Woods express himself.
The administration announced they will be dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research because "This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country." Last summer I toured NCAR's supercomputer center in Cheyenne, WY. The center provides free access to supercomputer resources to hundreds/thousands of university earth sciences researchers who would not otherwise have access to that sort of computing power. The center is jointly funded by the NSF and the State of Wyoming (U of Wyoming researchers get priority scheduling for time on the machines).
I found the data portion of the center as interesting as the processing part. The center includes curated content from the massive set of atmosphere and ocean observations collected by NOAA. On the tour, they would open one of the rack doors and let me stick my nose in with the processing blades. The data facility was inside two layers of bulletproof glass.
i've always assumed he writes his own social media junk. i doubt anyone else could really understand what's going on in his head and so would eventually end up contradicting what Trump actually thinks. and then Trump would have corrected it. but i don't think we've seen that.
i'm sure he posts things that were co-/written by other people now and then. but the rants are all him.
Trump has takento referring to himself in the third person, so the usage here doesn't indicate whether he wrote it or not.
TBH I'm not sure if it's better or worse if he did.
Speaking of Wiles, she has apparently gone on record sayingshe thinks that he has the mind of an alcoholic, only without the booze. Dry drunk would explain a lot. But then again, so would dementia plus flagrant narcissism.
The grammar checker is good at catching most errors. It did suggest that "An unfortunate" should replace "A very sad". But that's a style choice.
But who writes 62-word run-on sentences on a social media platform without grammatical errors? It gives the impression of premeditation, not off-the-cuff.
I have been assuming that he wrote his own posts on the assumption that even his core supporters in his top admin aren’t dumb enough to write that shit.
Seems like a bad assumption. At least based on the stuff they say in public on their own behalf.
Hegseth has proposed a plan to significantly reduce the number of four-star generals. The proposal appears to be consistent with the recently released National Security Strategy: increase the focus on the Americas and reduce attention to Europe.
Previously to this discussion, I assumed that Trump's posts were all his and expressed who he is. I wondered why some staffer person wasn't assigned the job of constantly checking and removing his posts. Then I read this excerpt from a a discussion about his top office manager: “There is this idea that people have that I think was very common in the first administration,” he told me, “that their objective was to control the president or influence the president, or even manipulate the president because they had to in order to serve the national interest. Susie just takes the diametrically opposite viewpoint, which is that she’s a facilitator, that the American people have elected Donald Trump. And her job is to actually facilitate his vision and to make his vision come to life.” So Trump unleashed and uncensored, served straight without a mixer, is her goal. And if he stays up all night broadcasting out his character deficiencies and mental issues, so be it.
Gemini says that there's no explicit evidence of AI being used in the past two weeks of Trump's Truth Social postings.
"Based on an analysis of Donald Trump's Truth Social timeline from December 2, 2025, to December 16, 2025, there is no evidence that the text of his posts is AI-generated. Conversely, the text exhibits strong markers of his established human writing style."
On “The Wiles Interview”
The survey, which was conducted between December 14 and 15 and measured public opinion based upon the answers provided by 1,000 registered voters, found that if they had their pick between a progressive Democrat, MAGA Republican, moderate Democrat, and moderate Republican, American would most prefer the last, followed by a moderate Democrat, then a progressive Democrat, and then a MAGA Republican. New poll reveals what kind of president Americans want most
On “Author, author?”
HIs aides seem to think that MORE exposure of Trump being Trump will help him, but I don't think his performance on prime time went over all that well with anyone outside the cult--and might have been a bit cringy to some cult members. I know Trump and Republican media have degenerated the tone of our public discourse and normalized behavior which should seem disgusting, but even with that, how many people like being shouted at by a red-faced, angry old man?
"
As an undergrad in Boulder, I used to make a trip to NCAR a handful of times a semester to collect signatures for grants for the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (I was a grant courier there for two year). They did a lot of grant work with NCAR, including a lot of grants I remember that were doing some of that important work on climate change that drew all that fire from He Who Slumbers' quid-pro-donors.
To quote Droopy Dog, "This makes me mad."
"
what a child
"
“This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.”
Michael's citation of this MAGAt justification for closing NCAR reminds me of the Homer Simpson solution to a Check Engine light: stick a piece of electrical tape over it. Morons rule. Even deMAGAfication may not save us.
--TP
"
possibly apropos, from LGM which links to this CNN article
Other presidents receive similarly politicized descriptions, such as former President Barack Obama.
“Barack Hussein Obama was the first Black President, a community organizer, one term Senator from Illinois, and one of the most divisive political figures in American History,” the plaque reads. It dings him for passing what Trump calls “the highly ineffective ‘Unaffordable’ Care Act” and signing “the one-sided Paris Climate Accords.”
and
The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind. As a student of history, many were written directly by the President himself,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN in a statement when asked for more information about who’s paying for them.
My general rule is that everything that comes out of Leavitt's mouth, including and, but, and the, is a lie, so there must be a writer's room of monkeys churning out this shit.
"
Is He, Trump the world's most efficient thumb typist?
I have always assumed that, whatever else may be true, He does not produce his screeds by typing on a cellphone, complete with punctuation and CAPITALIZATION, while sitting on one of his golden toilets. But maybe I'm wrong, being unpracticed in phone typing myself.
--TP
On “Weekend music thread #08 How do you get to Carnagie Hall?”
re: marching band as being for girls
Both marching and school band, when transported to Japan, became something that women could excel at. Instrumental stereotypes run deep (if you don't know about Abbie Conant, it's worth it to read about it. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about it in a chapter in Blink which brought a lot of attention. I would pass that on, but Gladwell wrote the chapter without ever contacting Conant or even giving her the courtesy of letting her know she was going to be the focus of a chapter in his book. I guess some people would argue that he brought attention to her case, I tend to think this is shitty on the part of Gladwell)
Unfortunately, because brass band is often for women, it is often viewed as a skill to raise a woman's marriagability. English functions in a similar way and I tell people that in some ways, my job is like teaching needlepoint in Victorian England.
On “The Wiles Interview”
Just read about Trump adding commemorative plaques to the set of photos of previous POTUS' in the White House.
And for "commemorative", please read rude and insulting, in the most puerile 7th grade bully style.
And a solid third of the country thinks this guy craps rainbows.
We're never coming back from this.
On “Author, author?”
Damn. I posted another link from the Atlantic (see Wiles thread) about the Trump Reiner quotes, but unbeknown to me the extract I also copied had too many links (5), so it's awaiting approval. So here, at least, is the full link:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2025/12/trump-rob-reiner/685280/?gift=cx0iluuWx4Cg7JjlT8ugCTLKSpntcAyNF4mSlC9MB3U&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
On “The Wiles Interview”
Unfortunately, I no longer have a sub to Vanity Fair. But this is Jonathan Chait in the Atlantic on the subject. Here is his concluding paragraph:
In this way, the most remarkable revelation from these newly published interviews comes not from what Wiles did or didn’t say, but in how Trump and his enablers are spinning it. Comments that would have precipitated a crisis in any other presidency are now simply being dismissed—knowingly, cynically—as “fake news.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2025/12/real-revelation-susie-wiles-interviews/685281/?gift=cx0iluuWx4Cg7JjlT8ugCSpEPvf5scYMPM_cnV1DeE8&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
On “Weekend music thread #08 How do you get to Carnagie Hall?”
I know that the age difference between these musicians and Drum Corps International (22 max age) is vast, but the marching band show had me thinking about how much fun I used to have watching the DCI championships on PBS with my late brother back in the '80s, and set me to looking for a modern show that could give me a sense of the current state of DCI showmanship:
https://youtu.be/8EktPlyf7Ok?si=CEO9hjqJqB4bRi5d
Bluecoats: Downside Up 2016 performance.
Their 2014 show - Tilt - is also pretty amazing from a technical standpoint as they are performing the whole thing at an angle to the field markings, which seems like it would take a ton of practice to pull off consistently. I liked the music for the 2016 show a little better, though, so that's what you get.
On “Author, author?”
at least some of the GOP are not happy with Trump's Reiner reaction.
but, Jim Geraghty is impure enough in his Republicanism to be a regular at WaPo. so we shouldn't take him as a representative sample of the base.
"
I don't know re authorship. I do know there really isn't an antidote to such a terrible comment. James Woods' heartfelt tribute to Rob Reiner is, however, a start.
https://x.com/JesseBWatters/status/2000754643865891146?s=20
Disclaimer: I know it's Fox News, something I don't watch. This was linked to on a blog I read and is well worth the listen, IMO. I do give credit to Watters getting out of the way (mostly) and letting Woods express himself.
"
The administration announced they will be dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research because "This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country." Last summer I toured NCAR's supercomputer center in Cheyenne, WY. The center provides free access to supercomputer resources to hundreds/thousands of university earth sciences researchers who would not otherwise have access to that sort of computing power. The center is jointly funded by the NSF and the State of Wyoming (U of Wyoming researchers get priority scheduling for time on the machines).
I found the data portion of the center as interesting as the processing part. The center includes curated content from the massive set of atmosphere and ocean observations collected by NOAA. On the tour, they would open one of the rack doors and let me stick my nose in with the processing blades. The data facility was inside two layers of bulletproof glass.
"
i've always assumed he writes his own social media junk. i doubt anyone else could really understand what's going on in his head and so would eventually end up contradicting what Trump actually thinks. and then Trump would have corrected it. but i don't think we've seen that.
i'm sure he posts things that were co-/written by other people now and then. but the rants are all him.
"
A tidbit: Michele Reiner photographed Trump for the cover of The Art of the Deal.
"
Trump has takento referring to himself in the third person, so the usage here doesn't indicate whether he wrote it or not.
TBH I'm not sure if it's better or worse if he did.
Speaking of Wiles, she has apparently gone on record sayingshe thinks that he has the mind of an alcoholic, only without the booze. Dry drunk would explain a lot. But then again, so would dementia plus flagrant narcissism.
The man is not well.
"
The grammar checker is good at catching most errors. It did suggest that "An unfortunate" should replace "A very sad". But that's a style choice.
But who writes 62-word run-on sentences on a social media platform without grammatical errors? It gives the impression of premeditation, not off-the-cuff.
"
I have been assuming that he wrote his own posts on the assumption that even his core supporters in his top admin aren’t dumb enough to write that shit.
Seems like a bad assumption. At least based on the stuff they say in public on their own behalf.
"
Charles, I think you need a better grammar checker!
"
Hegseth has proposed a plan to significantly reduce the number of four-star generals. The proposal appears to be consistent with the recently released National Security Strategy: increase the focus on the Americas and reduce attention to Europe.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pete-hegseth-to-slash-4-star-generals-in-pentagon-shake-up/ar-AA1St2RB
"
CharlesWT - there's AI content, and there's AI generated autofill suggestions. He would not use the forer out of pride, but the latter is a fair game.
"
Previously to this discussion, I assumed that Trump's posts were all his and expressed who he is. I wondered why some staffer person wasn't assigned the job of constantly checking and removing his posts. Then I read this excerpt from a a discussion about his top office manager: “There is this idea that people have that I think was very common in the first administration,” he told me, “that their objective was to control the president or influence the president, or even manipulate the president because they had to in order to serve the national interest. Susie just takes the diametrically opposite viewpoint, which is that she’s a facilitator, that the American people have elected Donald Trump. And her job is to actually facilitate his vision and to make his vision come to life.”
So Trump unleashed and uncensored, served straight without a mixer, is her goal. And if he stays up all night broadcasting out his character deficiencies and mental issues, so be it.
"
Gemini says that there's no explicit evidence of AI being used in the past two weeks of Trump's Truth Social postings.
"Based on an analysis of Donald Trump's Truth Social timeline from December 2, 2025, to December 16, 2025, there is no evidence that the text of his posts is AI-generated. Conversely, the text exhibits strong markers of his established human writing style."
No AI Text, Some AI Media
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.