Daily Awesome

Paul Ryan, Trump have record low approval ratings - PPP

Atheinostic — Sun, 02 Apr 2017 23:06:23 +0000

According to a new PPP poll, Paul Ryan is now the most unpopular politician in the country:

This issue has made Paul Ryan into the most unpopular politician in the country. At the start of the Trump administration he had a 33% approval rating, with 43% of voters disapproving of him. Now his approval has plunged to 21%, with his disapproval spiking all the way up to 61%. Ryan's particularly seen his image crater with Trump voters- what was a 53/23 approval rating with them in mid-January is now negative at 35/41.

Trump stands at 40%, the lowest yet polled by PPP.

Is it time for a Bluexit?

Atheinostic — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 14:37:26 +0000

The Democratic Party has been decimated. Is it time for liberals to stop subsidizing Red State America?

Can Democrats take back the House in 2018?

Atheinostic — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 12:28:13 +0000

Trump has to be stopped, for the sake of our democracy. But the Democratic Party has virtually no institutional power, having been decimated during the midterms of 2010 and 2014. What little power remains is with the filibuster in the Senate, which will be removed should it prove effective.

When the Republicans won control of state governments around the country in 2010, they used them to gerrymander their districts, making it very difficult to beat them even when a substantial majority votes for the Democrat. Supposedly, Democrats would have to win the nationwide popular vote by over 7% just to win a bare majority in the House (a majority very hard to defend). Additionally, Democratic voters have a well-known habit of not showing up on midterm elections. And so, to win a majority, there must be a massive wave election to sweep out the GOP, big enough to turn at least 24 seats over. Can it be done?

Nate Silver thinks so.

Donald Trump is unpopular. More unpopular now (40% approval rating) than Obama was during the 2010 and 2014 elections (45% approval rating). If he remains this unpopular then, going by previous trends, that should net Democrats 40 seats – with a huge 33 seat margin of error.

I think he is likely to remain at least this unpopular, given that he has always had a very high disapproval rating and was the most unpopular person to ever win the presidency. I'm not sure he could go much lower, though. His support is pretty baked in; after all, if someone still supports Trump now after all that has happened and all that we know about him, what could possibly change their minds?

Perhaps only justifying sex with young boys.

Is Donald Trump a fascist?

Atheinostic — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 12:23:45 +0000

Taking it slow

Atheinostic — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 12:22:27 +0000

Trump has made some of the most disastrous nominations in history. Many of his nominees are extremists that are ideologically opposed to the purpose of the agency they have been nominated to represent. For example, Betsy DeVos is the Secretary of Education even though she has fought to privatize the public school system. Scott Pruitt is perhaps the worst. He's an avowed climate change denier supported by the fossil fuel industry who has spent his career fighting against the EPA - and now he's leading the agency. Some have complained that Senate Democrats have not done anything to fight back against this; however, they are actually setting records in fighting presidential nominees and delaying their nominations. The filibuster is gone, thanks to Harry Reid, but they can still bring the Senate to a crawl:

Under the new Senate rules a determined minority can still require 30 hours of debate even after a cloture vote, which closes the discussion. Using this procedure on every nomination would actually require more time than the Senate works in an average presidential term.

Delaying nominations that will ultimately succeed may not sound like much, but it's making a big difference where it counts: stopping the radical far-right Republican majority from enacting Paul Ryan's conservative granny-starving utopia:

As Trump’s personnel are delayed, he is losing ground on policy. That’s in part because when the Senate is consumed with every nomination fight, it is not debating Republican legislative priorities. Time is the most precious commodity in the Senate. Every new administration is inevitably judged by the accomplishments or lack therein of the first 100 days.

Every moment spent on confirming Cabinet nominees is a moment not spent on the Republican agenda. Every ounce of executive and legislative energy spent on a Cabinet nomination is effort taken from other priorities.

Faced with an authoritarian president enabling a radical right-wing agenda, after 8 years of scorched earth opposition to Obama even during a national crisis, these kinds of techniques are justified. It's more important to preserve our democracy than to play nice with the likes of Mitch McConnell, who quipped during the chaos and human suffering of the Great Recession that the biggest priority for Republicans was to make Obama a one-term president.

Indivisible has a great article on the power of every Senator to stall Trump's agenda by withholding consent and filibustering

Republicans don't want to repeal Obamacare anymore.

Atheinostic — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 12:20:32 +0000

According to a new poll more Republicans want to fix Obamacare than repeal it.

Four Democrats vote for Putin-buddy Exxon CEO to lead the entire State department

Atheinostic — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 18:26:54 +0000

Four sellouts apparently want to be challenged in the next primary election by real Democrats.

Tag:

Politics

Democrats

Sellout

Too overwhelmed, where do I begin?

Atheinostic — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 12:52:24 +0000

Trump = bad

how's that?

Here's just a partial list of what he did... yesterday:

Attachment	Size
yesterday.jpg	136.79 KB

Tag:

Republicans

The propaganda worked... now what?

Noxton — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 18:56:11 +0000

This post is not for hard facts and details. This is an intentionally fuzzy view of things from my perspective. I won't be trying to change your mind or convince you of anything. I have nothing to sell, and I am not trying to sway you to my way of thinking. OK, let's move on.

I think of myself as a pretty ordinary guy. I identify as Democrat, though I hardly believe that most people in political power are really out for anyone other than themselves and their pet projects. I believe that power begets power, and you have to be willing to play the game to enter into politics. I believe that the President doesn't have much actual power and that the handful of mega conglomerates/banks/etc truly make the decisions that affect the world at large.

How did I get to this point? Well, I grew up listening to George Carlin. The first album I heard as a young adult was "Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics." I loved it, and it showed me a world I scarcely understood as a kid. I saw that there were other sides to what was presented to me daily. I saw a different side to the narratives I was fed by school, my parents, the media, and society at large. (Transcript for the interested.)

He lambasted things I was scarcely aware of.. People, government, rape, feminism, language, and a litany of other things. At the age I began listening to this stuff, it was timely in that it provided a unique perspective on the constant flow of bullshit I felt was forced at me. I am hesitant to believe anyone talking political talk or whitewashed corporate bullshit talk. Carlin showed me how words were used to mask intent, to hide the truth, to scare me, to make me feel safe, and again - more than I can even list here. Words were powerful, and he taught me to be skeptical of people who don't speak in plain language. He taught me to be concerned with what's happening around me, and to try to stay awake.

I wish I could say that I did, but my life (as I assume everyone else's) is a series of hypnotization (I'll talk more about this in later posts) mixed with wakefulness. I can look back at moments where I was easily led, and moments where I truly broke free of the mold and saw things as they truly were.

Fast forward two and a half decades and here we are. So let's talk about the propaganda that was inflicted upon the entire world during one country's election cycle. I'm not here to defend this post, but here's a very interesting summary of modern propaganda that popped up on Reddit.

If you weren't aware that propaganda was being used during this election cycle, then congratulations! You fell victim to it, too. The real problem is that I can't even tell you what pieces were and weren't propaganda, but what I can tell you that if the above link is true, I fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

The propaganda that got me might not be the propaganda that got you. For me, it was that distrust in my government and media button. They hammered that button hard and often. I already didn't trust my government (I'd recommend you brush up on Carlin if you don't understand why - maybe I'll make a future post detailing the things that really caught my attention when I was younger), so it wasn't really that hard to twist the knife, so to speak, and bleed me out on trust for this election cycle. Most people picked a side. I picked no side. I wrote in "No Vote" on the presidential ballot though I voted for all other offices.

There was willful sliding of people at all walks. There was propaganda for democrats, propaganda for republicans, and propaganda for Hillary-haters, and propaganda for Trump-haters, and propaganda for Julian Assange watchers. I trust no media outlet (especially any that point out what is fake and what is real), I trust almost no government officials, and I trust almost none of my peers. It worked wonderfully. I'm completely at odds with everything. It wasn't hard, because my beliefs were already so close to what was pushed in certain circles over the last year.

I'm not saying that this is a bad place to be, per se. Since I was slid from non-believer to anti-believer, I have had to do something new. I have to start from scratch. I have to do this myself, because I don't trust anyone. I have to read more if I want to stay informed. I have to understand what all sides are saying. Only then can I form my own opinion of what is true and what isn't. I have to check sources. I have to source my own material. This is a very daunting prospect that makes me feel like saying "fuck it all."

I'm still trying to figure out what all this means, and this is only a revelation I've come to in the past few days. I'm still very confused and hurt and unsure how to proceed. How do you feel about it? I know I'm not alone in my lack of trust for anyone pushing any kind of agenda, but I hope that I'm not alone in realizing how hard I fell for this round of nonsense.

Every single solitary person on this Earth is manipulable on some level. We all have our likes/dislikes, our hot buttons, our beliefs, and our worries to name only a few. Those are used and abused against us to make us feel a certain way.

I'm trying to figure out where I am and how to get out, but the most important thing I learned is that I'm just as easily manipulated as everyone else. I am not superior. No one is. That's the whole point of propaganda - the right set of information is slated to reach the right set of people to make them feel a certain way. We're all susceptible and we're all manipulable. Every last one of us.

Now I know that, but what comes next? I'm open to suggestions, but staying awake is high on my to-do list.

Tag:

Activism

Blog

USA

findingassange.com Potentially Halting Release

Noxton — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 21:16:28 +0000

At Finding Assange, they were promising to release a huge dump of new Podesta emails. They just added a header to note that they will NOT release if Julian goes on the radio.

Tag:

Activism

Julian Assange interview with Sean Hannity

Noxton — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 21:01:00 +0000

Sean Hannity will be interviewing Julian Assange today at 4pm EST (that's 9pm GMT).

Click here to listen.

Source:
https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/809491196783587329

Tag:

Activism

#FeelTheBern

Atheinostic — Sun, 24 Jan 2016 06:36:57 +0000

Bernie Sanders 2016!

Tag:

Politics

The close race that was never close

Atheinostic — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 23:55:59 +0000

For just about the entire race, the pundits said this was and would end up an extremely close race. With the exception of the couple of weeks following the first debate, they were wrong.

But that never discouraged them from continuing to insist that it was.

"Anybody that thinks that this race is anything but a tossup right now is such an ideologue, they should be kept away from typewriters, computers, laptops and microphones for the next 10 days, because they’re jokes."

Welcome to wrong.

BYE BYE SPAM

Atheinostic — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 22:13:52 +0000

I pwnt all the spam with one fell swoop of SQL

Can Democrats win back the house?

Atheinostic — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 22:55:43 +0000

It would be a tall order, but the odds at Intrade are at 25% right now...

Tag:

Democrats

Election

This race has never been close

Atheinostic — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 05:02:37 +0000

Just take a look at how consistent the electoral college projections have been, regardless of fluctuations in the national polls:

Winning!

Atheinostic — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:36:26 +0000

Obama is a 2:1 favorite to win re-election on InTrade right now:

Tag:

Barack Obama

Super Tuesday

Atheinostic — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:19:41 +0000

So, Mitt Romney won enough last night to probably let him coast through to eventual nomination, barring some crazy turn of events.

Intrade has him at a 89% chance to win the nomination as of today (3/7/12):

I was sort of hoping Santorum would do better, because I think Obama could crush Santorum much easier in an election than Romney... but who knows.

One thing is for sure, though. They're all awful candidates.

Also, Newt.

Tag:

Election

Derpapedia strikes again!

Atheinostic — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 19:10:37 +0000

The Arab Spring according to Conservapedia.

President Obama trumps Trump

Atheinostic — Sun, 01 May 2011 11:14:17 +0000

Owned much?

Tag:

Humor

Video

Barack Obama

Republicans To Shut Down Government To Block Cancer Screenings For Women

Atheinostic — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 18:47:29 +0000

When women can get screened for cancer, the terrorists win.

Tag:

Republicans

Glenn Beck has Nazi Tourette's

Noxton — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 13:47:13 +0000

Lewis Black on Glenn Beck's penchant for crying Nazi.

Tag:

US Senate passes panel anti-piracy bill unanimously.

Noxton — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 11:59:20 +0000

Slipping under the radar, in a 19-0 vote, Internet Censorship passes swimmingly.

No one is talking about this. Is it because no one knows, or because no one cares?

US Agencies and officials can file court orders for domain registrars to pull domains, and web hosts to shut down any websites that are considered to have pirate content. This isn't just going to affect US websites, this bill allows them to shut down any website anywhere in the world. As you can imagine, some other countries aren't quite OK with this.

My question is: Why are we?

This is literally only the beginning. Internet Censorship is now allowed, and don't think that it won't get worse before it gets better. Corporations such as Disney have backed this bill (no wonder it passed), and now can go after these pirate web sites.

I'm very interested to see reactions on this (because I've heard NOTHING from ANYONE yet), and I'm scared to see where this will go.

Tag:

A Sinking Ship: The Music Industry

Noxton — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 14:04:29 +0000

Once in a while, we here at the Daily Awesome have mentioned the RIAA or MPAA and their inability to find an appropriate party to point their fingers toward (because apparently they don't have mirrors). So we end up with grandma's sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars for downloading music... when they don't even own a computer.

How did we get to this point? Why is the music industry choking on its own bile as it desperately tries to climb up the greasy slide back toward the top?

I think the main reasons are a failure to adapt, greed, and believing that those at the top always know what's best... always thinking the top is infallible. Oh, and please don't forget the biggest reason: they put out shitty music.

Also, their business model is quite literally extortion. They force bands (at this point, I should really just call them entertainers) into these ridiculous contracts that rape them of their music and out of the mega money that comes from selling music. They also forced fans of a particular song or three to buy an entire shitty album just to own those few good songs.

It's also the bands' faults, though. I mean, as a band, you want to have your own CD, right? It's the dream! To have a CD with your band's name on it, to have a booklet with lyrics, liner notes, and thank yous.

I think we need to stop thinking of music in terms of albums. That's the first step. The entire market needs to shift. But that hurts the great money making. It's much easier to complain and whine that people downloading music are killing the industry when in truth, it's shitty business practices (and shitty music) that's killing the industry.

Maynard James Keenan of Tool has said that he's no longer thinking in terms of albums, but instead in terms of releasing a couple songs at a time. I think that he understands the current climate far better than most. Really, this is what all bands should adopt. If you write a few really good songs, release them and sell them yourself. Then, you won't have to worry about all the nonsense that comes with record companies.

Unfortunately, this model works best for bands who already have a lot of money, because... obviously, you wouldn't make nearly as much from selling those songs as you do entire CD's. Still, if you think about it, the bands aren't making their money from CD sales anyway. It's touring that makes them all the money. It's touring that really makes or breaks a band.

So until we're ready to let go of what a band is, or how music should be released, we're just going to have to sift through the shit.

I suppose... at least there's iTunes.

Tag:

The TSA: Pervert's Paradise?

Noxton — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:42:31 +0000

Honestly, I've tried to wait this one out. I've tried to avoid saying anything about this TSA nonsense. At first, it was hard to disseminate the truth from the nonsense stories of standard Internet whack jobs.

This, however, is insanity. That whole "rights" thing... apparently, it's OK for it to get totally fucked. I don't even know where to start.

I'll just start with this: A CBS poll shows that eighty-one percent of respondents are OK with the airport scanners.

So in summary: No, we have not learned that trading our freedoms away for supposed safety is a bad idea. We're just so fragile. Please protect us, Mr. Government, but don't you DARE TRY TO GIVE US HEALTHCARE! (Yeah, I had to slip that in there, sorry.)

Well, what's the big deal anyway? Scanners sound good, right? I mean, we'd be able to stop people trying to blow some shit up. That's awesome.

Apparently not. There are so many front page stories right now about groping, sexual harassment (such as one woman being mocked as her breasts were exposed), three year olds being patted down... I could go on, but if I do, I'm afraid the bile won't stay down.

The good news is that people are fighting back. Lawsuits are pouring in as people's rights are decimated by the TSA. Inappropriate conduct should be punished, and the excuse "we're told to do it" will not fly. It's bullshit and it's unconstitutional. They are pushing their supposed power around and getting away with it. Images have surfaced here and there, and it's obvious that the TSA employees are posting theses images on the Internet with no regard to anyone's safety.

Did you know that a full body scan photo can easily be manipulated (by inverting the color) thereby rendering an actual image of the person in question? So basically, they can easily grab nude images of people. It's already been done, and can be found on the seedier and less seedy places around the web.

By the way, did I mention that the TSA will not allow you to fly if you decline the security proceedings?

So if you're flying, either enjoy being manhandled, or stfu and move on.

It's only a matter of time before the revolt against the TSA hits full swing.

Tag:

Tina Fey's Mark Twain Award Acceptance Speech Edited by PBS

Noxton — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 15:51:35 +0000

Sunday night, the broadcast of Tina Fey's Mark Twain Award ceremony was shown on PBS. At the end, Tina gave an acceptance speech which contained some things that PBS decided it didn't want to air.

It's really kind of silly. The article referenced makes it sound like PBS censored anti-Palin remarks, but really, I think they just didn't want words such as "Rape Kit" or "Lesbian" or a remark about evolution to be broadcast. I don't think it's because PBS supports Palin, but moreso because PBS wants to tread carefully on waters that are slightly choppy; they just want to take no position at all.

In any event, I think it's ridiculous. Like when George Carlin posthumasly received the Mark Twain Award and they played the "7 words you can't say on TV", but bleeped them out.

Silliness.

Tag:

Facebook + Email = ??

Noxton — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 15:27:47 +0000

Not to make today Facebook Day or anything, but I just read another interesting article regarding Facebook's new email integration.

It looks like there are quite a few things to not like about Facebook's new email integration.

First of all, it's not email. It's an integration to email, but it is not email. Basically, if I sent you an email, it would start a conversation in your messages box with me. Then if I send you a second email with a different subject, it would still combine that with the already created conversation. Subjects become meaningless.

But that's not all. Worse is that Facebook doesn't care about your privacy (see my previous post). So go ahead, throw all your emails to your Facebook account and watch them gather and sell your information.

Facebook sucks.

Tag:

George Bush : Black people :: Facebook : Privacy

Noxton — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 15:18:15 +0000

I'm sure you're not surprised. I know I'm not. Facebook doesn't care about privacy. I know people who've been affected by Facebook's notorious updates that change all of the privacy settings in place. I'm one of them.

At this point, I figure that I've had the account for so long, I might as well keep it. I know better than to share truly private information. I refuse to play any (and I mean ANY) of the stupid games such as Steal-Your-Information-Ville (aka Farmville) or Mafia nonsense or whatever bullshit the kids these days are playing.

Still, the article's speculation on whether Zuckerman is misguided or is operating out of malice is interesting. Is it that he doesn't care, or that he cares and is invigorated by the power?

Honestly, it doesn't matter. Facebook, because of its popularity, seems to garner a certain amount of trust from its users. I remember recently the phone number sharing fiasco.

The only safety is to either not use it, or to be extremely judicious about what you share. However, the problem arises in other people.

Anyone can post an image of you pulling a huge bong load. Is it fair? No. Other people are in control of your privacy. It's unsettling, but it's the world we live in. Make good choices, be careful, and keep the bong and the camera in separate rooms.

Tag:

Raise taxes on the top 1%

Atheinostic — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 04:36:44 +0000

The idea that we should even consider cutting taxes on the richest 1% is absurd. In a saner world, we would be discussing how much to raise taxes on them.

Unfortunately we live in crazy town where we borrow money from China to spend on tax cuts for the super rich while we destroy Social Security to reduce borrowing and spending.

Tag:

Politics

The Economic Crisis is Over!

Noxton — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:59:39 +0000

Apparently, the GOP is planning on spending around five-hundred million dollars (that's $500,000,000.00) on attack ads to counter Obama's reelection run for 2012.

And the Dems are prepared to set up outside groups to counter that by spending more money.

So the only obvious answer is that we're no longer having an economic meltdown, right? I mean, to spend that kind of money, we have to be out of the hole!

Let's celebrate!

Tag: