Despite all the hoopla about that one outlier poll showing that Joe Biden is loathed by just about everybody, other polls aren’t showing that. That’s from one of the latest. His approval rating isn’t great but it’s about par for the course in our polarized electorate these days. Here are some other findings: It looks like status quo on the Biden vs Trump rematch: And then there’s Ron DiSaster: It’s not like a huge number say they don’t know, either. He just isn’t popular. Anyway, all these polls are basically just for entertainment. It’s way too early to take any of it seriously. But it’s important not to feed into the Democratic Party panic over Biden that rose up a couple of weeks ago from that one poll. They love to freak out and it’s not good for anyone.
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What kind of a country are we living in? The man stood in a red Make America Great Again baseball cap pointing his AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle toward the sidewalk. An elementary school student ran home crying. Parents were terrified. Neighbors called the police. While he had not explicitly threatened people in this suburban neighborhood, just the sight of him walking near school bus stops was enough for the nearby elementary school in Anne Arundel Countyto delay bus drop-off this week. “The presence of someone with a weapon at or near a bus stop raises fear and anxiety for students and parents, especially in a day and age where we’ve had a number of school shootings across our country,” said Bob Mosier, the spokesman for the school district of more than 83,000 students. The man, J’Den McAdory, said in an interview with The Washington Post that he is protesting recent state legislation regarding guns by open carrying his weapon around the neighborhood and that he was not singling out school bus stops.
Here’s something to make your blood run cold. From Semafor (sub. req.) Think tanks often act as an administration-in-waiting for presidents — a place to stash future appointees, generate policy plans, and flag promising young staffers. This year their role on the right is taking on outsized importance, however, as the 2024 Republican field has made overhauling the bureaucracy with more reliable allies one of their top stated goals. That’s where the Heritage Foundation, alongside 50-plus conservative organizations in partner roles, hopes to come in. In April, the conservative nonprofit unveiled the start of a new $22 million project intended to staff the next Republican presidential administration from day one — a “private LinkedIn for conservatives,” as Paul Dans, the lead of “Project 2025,” described it. Their work dovetails with the goals expressed in Donald Trump’s calls to “destroy the deep state,” for example, and his plans to fire and replace federal workers en masse.
Which side will the cops be on? On January 6th the police did their jobs fighting against the rabid mob threatening to kill members of congress and Vice President Pence. But I still wonder what police around the country might do in the face of an organized right wing rebellion. So many of them are MAGA. Here’s the story of one who was in cahoots with the Proud Boys leading up to January 6th: It’s good to have friends in high places. Federal prosecutors on Friday highlighted a nexus between a top intelligence official in D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department and Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, a relationship which continued from July 2019 through the Jan. 6 insurrection. Former Metropolitan Police Department officer Shane Lamond, who supervised the intelligence branch of the department’s homeland security bureau, faces four counts stemming from allegations that he fed information to Tarrio about law enforcement investigations into him and then lied about it to federal agents. An attorney for Lamond didn’t immediately return our request for comment.
The bigots won, but it’s not enough. Ted is such a worm: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) this week opened a Senate investigation into his allegations that Anheuser-Busch markets Bud Light to underage consumers in its ad featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. In a letter to Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth, Cruz and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) also asked the beer industry trade group Beer Institute, which Whitworth chairs, to conduct its own investigation. Or the company could say it’s sorry for any infraction and publicly disassociate from Mulvaney to avoid further inquiry, the senators wrote, making their actions appear more like a publicity stunt.
Not bloody likely The Freedom Caucus belated realizes that negotiations mean they won’t get everything they want: The House Freedom Caucus is calling for “no further discussion” on legislation to raise the debt ceiling until the Senate passes the bill House Republicans approved last month that would pair an increase in the borrowing limit with steep spending cuts. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has called the bill “dead on arrival.” The hard-liner conservative caucus said it adopted its official position on Thursday as debt limit negotiations continued behind closed doors between representatives for Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and the White House. “The U.S. House of Representatives has done its job in passing the Limit, Save, Grow Act to provide a mechanism to raise the debt ceiling. This legislation is the official position of the House Freedom Caucus and, by its passage with 217 votes, the entire House Republican Conference,” the caucus wrote.
Baby foxes! We are so excited to feature the two newest members of the Cincinnati Zoo fam…bat-eared fox kits! These 2 little boys were born on April 6th to first-time parents Frankie and Otis. While Otis prefers to live out of the public eye, you may have seen their mom, Frankie, during a program at the zoo! Through ultrasounds, radiographs and even thermal imaging, we were able to stay on top of how the babies and mom were doing during the entirety of her pregnancy and beyond. The kits are strong and full of personality already. These kits are not yet available to be viewed by the public.
Who offers more spectacle, DeSantis or Trump? I studied Chinese history at the tail end of the Cultural Revolution. Somewhere I have some artifacts from the period’s inescapable propaganda. Even without that background, it was clear without squinting where this column on “Red Memory: The Afterlives of China’s Cultural Revolution” by Tania Branigan would go by about one and a half sentences in (New York Times): It would seem impossible to forget or minimize the Cultural Revolution in China, which lasted from 1966 to 1976, resulted in an estimated 1.6 million to two million deaths and scarred a generation and its descendants. The movement, which under Mao Zedong’s leadership sought to purge Chinese society of all remaining non-Communist elements, upended nearly every hallowed institution and custom. Teachers and schools long held in esteem were denounced. Books were burned and banned, museums ransacked, private art collections destroyed. Intellectuals were tortured. Subtle. Or maybe not.
Gotta keep the Irresponsibles in line If you ever changed your name … ↑ think of the doors it would open ↑. Think of the insurance bullshit you could avoid: Tallie Rose follows up with, “I called and they can’t even find the claim and had to kick it up to a manager because they can’t figure out WHAT they’re denying. Good stuff.” This thread by Amy Faith Ho may be unrelated. But it’s related.* When Tallie Rose’s kid ends up in the ER with peritonitis, voila, no pre-authorization required.** B/c not a shift goes by where a patient doesn’t land in the ER as a last resort when #priorauth denied or delayed them the outpatient care they needed. Need your gallbladder taken out electively? Too late (waiting for auth), now you’re in the ED with cholecystitis. Had a “nodule” seen on a CT, but couldn’t get a repeat scan authorized…ever? Now it’s metastatic and you’re in the ED for crippling pain. DVT? No problem, started you on blood thinners. Oh, but your insurance wouldn’t cover it? Wait for it…now you’re hypoxic with submassive PEs.