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Open Thread - Thurs 7 Aug 2025 - Recent Gallup Poll

Recent Gallup Poll
So recent poll numbers are interesting. The Trumpster's favorable rating has declined. His net favorable rating is around negative 16 points, which is lower than former President Biden's is. Biden's net favorable rating is negative 11 points. The new pope, the American one, had the highest favorable net rating. And after him came Zelensky!?? at 18 positive points and then Sanders at 11 positive points. What the heck, Zelensky???? And btw, what's with the headline of the article (Trump trails Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders in favorable polling: Gallup), listing AOC before Sanders as coming higher than Trump. Yea, she did, but she's at negative 4 points net favorable rating, and Sanders is way above that and in the positive range!


From the NY Times. Doesn't that chair/head combo in the back between Trump and what's his name (Vance) look like a black skeleton? That's what I thought it was a first... I though the picture had been modified into a kind of joke! (Sorry, the link to the pic is in Spanish, I got it while working on my Spanish language learning)

I think Zelensky's rating shows the power of media, doesn't it, if it only runs positive stories about something/someone? But then there's Sander's rating, and I don't think there's been that much positive media about him - perhaps I've missed it?

Ohh and at the bottom of the list is Musk (surprise!) with a net favorable rating of negative 28 points. Which means nothing, since he just got $29 billion in stock given to him (the board should have let him go and refused to give him this 'bonus'... sheez). On the other hand, as the Lever mentioned a day or so ago in their daily round up , Musk and Tesla are being sued for securities fraud by shareholders over robotaxi claims. Who would have thought that the robotaxis weren't super safe? /* sarcasm */

And here's the open thread! What's up, whatcha doing? Reading? Thinking? Remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!

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Sima's picture

It's almost the weekend. Yay! How's everyone doing? We got some 'rain' yesterday. It was supposed to be about 1/4 inch or more of rain, but we got... wait for it... 0.03 inches. Heh. Still, it was something and maybe it rained more in other places to help with the fires and fire danger. Planted some roses and delphinium, just because. Making currant jelly and pickle relish and hamburger dill pickle slices today. Regular August chores Smile

What's up with everyone? Whatcha learning, reading, doing?

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8 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

QMS's picture

.
have never been polled by any galloping machine. Perhaps I do not exist in
their data base? Does not really matter. I almost always vote for the loser in
big elections. And have never owned a TV. So perhaps because I am not
programmable I don't count?

Thanks for the OT Sima.

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6 users have voted.

Zionism is a social disease

Sima's picture

@QMS
The questions are super frustrating, some times. Because they just don't seem to be direct. Or maybe I want them to be more simple. However, the question about if one supports or doesn't support a politician is pretty direct. I have to admit, I never have felt like my answers mean anything to anyone. Hah.

Never owned a TV? Kudos! I haven't had a TV since around 2001. And I didn't watch the TV before that, so I haven't actually watched TV since around 1995. Not programmable and not in touch with much of modern culture, I guess. And so we go! Smile

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1 user has voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

usefewersyllables's picture

only the agenda of whoever commissioned/paid for them- otherwise, they wouldn't exist. There is nothing concrete to be learned from polling at this point. They might as well come up with a prompt for some AI that will generate table after table of truthy-looking data, and save themselves the cost of actually asking people the slanted questions that are intended to engender the desired response.

I was polled once, but only once, in 2016- and the earfull I gave the dem-party-paid pollster pretty much guaranteed that I'll never be polled again.

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7 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Sima's picture

@usefewersyllables
So true! I got polled a few times but when I said I supported Sanders, heh, it all shut off. Just as well, no one liked to hear what I had to say, I bet.

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1 user has voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

QMS's picture

up
6 users have voted.

Zionism is a social disease

enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS

be well and have a good one

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3 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Sima's picture

@QMS
It's so applicable to so many things, isn't it?

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0 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

I used to get polled all the time, but not this past decade. Maybe word got out that do not go along to get along.
So, last week, just as I was closing the office for the day, I received a call from a Republican pollster. Do I support this guy or that guy? No. Do I support this policy or that policy? Neither. Do I lean left or lean right? Left. Are you a democrat? No.
I was asked for as final comment, to which I responded, "All politicians from Texas are corporate whores and they all belong in prison."
The young woman was totally unprepared for a non-sycophant.
Thanks for the OT, chica, and here's a video for us to view.

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7 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Sima's picture

@on the cusp
I bet that totally threw the pollster off guard. I have recently been getting email from some republican, right wing, maga email lists. Never signed up for them, ever. AND, if you hit the unsubscribe button, well, it goes nowhere. It's not a real link! All the links asking for money are real though, hah!

Good link too, thank you!

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0 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

enhydra lutris's picture

One of yesterday's tasks wasto thin the apples on one specific branch system. I decided to see if there was any cookery use for green apples. There are allegedly many, but mine might be still too green even for them, dunno but will find out. I have a recipe to make a cup of apple pie filling to eat with a spoon out of said cup. It's made in the nuker. I used one of the smaller of the apples I removed in thinning and it was a tad too tart, but it was also a smallish and ergo lesser developed one? Next up, sometime today, is a compote.

So, anybody out there have any recipes or suggestions for seriously green apples? Hint, we normally pick in December/January if they haven't already all fallen off of the tree like they did last year. I need to continue thinning a bit each week and already have a small basket of "keepers". (When I thin I try to lose the buggy ones as much as I can, and only then some of the good ones, which are, as this point, keepers.)

Also, Too, a notorious US millionaire trophy hunter was killed by a Cape Buffalo while hunting it on safari.

be well and have a good one.

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6 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Sima's picture

@enhydra lutris
But that's kinda good news about the trophy hunter, in a weird way. Or maybe not so weird.

As for apples, we pick ours in September and into October, after the weather cools and they get a few nights (or more) of cold temps. I really love tart apples, although I'm not sure how tart your unripe apples might be? I use mine to make apple crisps and things like that. Here's one I use from King Arthur Flour https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/classic-apple-crisp-recipe . And this one, I love, love, because CRUST! https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/crusty-apple-pie-recipe .

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0 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

enhydra lutris's picture

hired by the Ukies to kill a Rus soldier by putting poison on parts of his car. Routine ukie terrorism attempt, kids recruited by online ad for quick easy money. BUT,, a poison that works by contact with dar parts, like door handles and such, sounds like the legendary Novichok, don't it? Did the ukies just let the cat out of the bag?

be well and have a good one

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5 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

QMS's picture

@enhydra lutris
.
and wandering nukes
sounds like a recipe for disaster

up
6 users have voted.

Zionism is a social disease

Sima's picture

@enhydra lutris
I bet they didn't mean to, but cat's out of the bag.

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0 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

soryang's picture

There is a viral social media meme going around promoting civil unrest in Jiangyou, Sichuan, China as the next Tiananmen Square episode. This unrest was ignited by videos of teenage girls in Jiangyou, Sichuan, abusing a smaller weaker female student in terribly injurious and violent ways. I didn't save the video that presented these scenes of violence and the photos of injuries to the victim because it is shocking and unpleasant. The sadistic violence of the young girls involved is repulsive.

The natural reaction is to be sickened and angered by this kind of thing. But the idea that China is going to collapse as a result is wishful thinking promoted by internet trolls. The public reaction is being compared to the Tiananmen uprising in political significance. It's kind of amazing really that the wikipedia almost immediately updated the barebones site on Jiangyou, with a paragraph on this incident.

Jiangyou

I looked at the links sources on wikipedia.

The Global Times story on this incident and the public response reports the story as alleged, pertaining to the parents of the offenders is simply not true. According to their story, reports that the offenders were children of high government officials and therefore received soft treatment is false.

Upon verification, the parents of the three offenders were found to include two unemployed individuals, two working outside the province, one local shop assistant, and one local food delivery worker. The alleged information about their parents' professional identities was found to be fabricated, police of Mianyang, which governs Jiangyou city, said on its WeChat account on Tuesday.

An investigation revealed that on Tuesday, two internet users surnamed Ding (female, 41-year-old) and Yang (female, 27-year-old) fabricated these rumors after seeing the viral assault video, posting them in chat groups and on social media platforms to attract attention. The false information spread widely, severely disrupting public order and causing a negative social impact, according to the police investigation results.

14-year-old girl in SW China’s Jiangyou violently beaten; all suspects apprehended, rumormongers punished: police

Rare protest in China over schoolgirl beaten by teens

From the AFP report-

And later yesterday, people gathered outside the city hall in Jiangyou, in Sichuan province, with large crowds stretching around the block, footage showed.

Video confirmed by AFP to have been taken outside the city hall showed at least two people forcibly pulled aside by a group of blue-shirted and plainclothes police as well as a woman in a black dress dragged away by her limbs.

"They're sweeping away citizens everywhere," a person can be heard saying as the woman is dragged away.

More footage taken after dark showed police wearing black SWAT uniforms subduing at least three people at an intersection with hundreds of bystanders.

In the Korean youtuber video I saw yesterday, you could see people obviously angry, excited, and unruly, assaulting a government official trying to listen to their complaints, and various other assaults and confrontations taking place between an angry crowd and police outside.

These incidents are being misrepresented and exploited online. The "socially privileged" paradigm is easy to exploit, because people are familiar with it. How this reflects on the stability of the Chinese society or political system in general is a mystery to me. South Korea has the same serious bullying problem.

More from the Malay Mail/AFP report-

Yesterday, local authorities said on WeChat that police had punished two people for fabricating information about the school bullying case, warning the public against spreading rumours.

Last year Chinese authorities vowed to crack down on school bullying after a high-profile murder case.

In December, a court sentenced a teenage boy to life in prison for murdering his classmate.

From BBC-

Protests in China over viral school bullying case

A lawyer based in Shanghai said in an online post that this incident has highlighted an ongoing legal dilemma for Chinese officials.

"The penalty for causing minor injuries is too mild, while the physical and mental trauma suffered by victims is overlooked by the law, which leads to a significant imbalance in the protection of their rights," he wrote on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.

His credentials have been verified by the BBC, but he is unwilling to be named.

Bullying has become a highly sensitive topic in China in recent years, and student deaths over alleged bullying have triggered protests in the past.

I wouldn't characterize the injuries as mild but I'm not a doctor. I doubt they are mild. The swelling on her right eye looks like an orbital fracture. The way she was repeatedly kicked in the back with great force, I have little doubt caused an overextension injury. Then there is the emotional impact of the trauma.

The wiki Jiangyue entry says its Li Bai's hometown. Li Bai is regarded as one of China's greatest Tang Dynasty poets.

The Glory is a Kdrama about a young school girl abused by bully classmates in a similar manner who grows to maturity plotting her revenge on her childhood tormentors. Didn't like the program at all. Only watched a couple of episodes. The violent revenge thing does nothing for me.

Thanks for the OT Sima!

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5 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直

Sima's picture

@soryang
indeed scary. I have to admit, I am currently on a thing where I watch dascam and bodycam videos from US cops. And there is too much, too much, violence amongst the young here. I wonder if it's a worldwide thing?

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0 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

the head/chair combo did, indeed, look like a damn skeleton!

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1 user has voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Sima's picture

@on the cusp
Thank you. Thought I was seeing things, at first Smile Have a great weekend!

up
0 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so