Jeffrey M. Jones, PhD and Megan Brenan, Senior Editor | Senior Editor - The Gallup Organization
Stephan:
What amazes me is how the percentage of MAGAt monarch Trump’s approval rating remains so high. I see this not only as a political issue but, even more, as a cultural issue. It reflects the weakness, resentment, and insecurity of American men of all ages. It is such a powerful trend in America that it overpowers even issues of race, as shown by the number of black and Hispanic men who continue to support Trump in spite of his blatant racism and anti-immigrant attitudes and actions.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Key members of President Donald Trump’s political base — Republicans, conservatives and men — show higher approval of his job performance at the beginning of his second term compared with the start of his first. His ratings have also improved among Hispanic, Black and young adults, although approval remains relatively low among these traditionally Democratic groups.
Increases in approval of Trump among these groups have more than offset decreased support from Democrats, liberals and seniors. Political independents and women show no change in their support for Trump between the initial months of his first versus second term.
Overall, Trump has averaged 45% approval in Gallup polls conducted between January and March of this year, slightly better than the 42% average during the same months in 2017.
These results are based on combined data from Gallup’s first three polls during Trump’s second term, conducted in January, February and March. The latest March 3-16 survey finds 43% of Americans approving of Trump, similar to the 45% from February but down from his 47% post-inauguration rating.
Trump’s average approval rating across the three readings is five […]
Sofia Moutinho , Contributing Writer - Nature Medicine
Stephan:
If you are a woman, or married to a woman, or with female older relatives, please read this fact-based research report on Alzheimer’s disease. Notice three things: First, the extreme gender disparity. Second, the racial disparity. Third, the hormonal factor.
Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease have collectively been the number one cause of death for women in the UK since 2011. Data shown are for England and Wales in 2023. Source: Office for National Statistics, UK.
Changes to the female brain during menopause, together with social and cultural factors, might affect disease risk.
Globally, two thirds of people with Alzheimer’s disease are female. Although women generally outlive men, and thus face greater risks of aging-related diseases, a growing group of scientists have not been satisfied with this explanation and therefore have pioneered research on sex and gender differences in dementia to tackle this — and other unanswered questions.
One of these scientists is Roberta Brinton. In the 1980s, Brinton engaged in a conversation that would redefine her career. At that time, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Rockefeller Hospital in New York City, investigating molecular and cellular mechanisms of learning and memory. It was there that she met Rowena Ansbacher, a retired psychologist. The two women strolled for hours along the Rockefeller University campus esplanade, delving into the rivalries among influential psychologists such as Freud, Jung and Adler. Ansbacher lived in the hospital as a participant […]
As MAGAt dictator Trump’s regime continues its coup, although I am beginning to see ordinary Americans turning out in opposition, I still don’t see media or ordinary Americans acknowledging that this devastation of the country’s democracy is disordering the entire world and endangering the matrix of life on Earth, and that it is going to take years to repair this damage. John Alexander, however, outlines it very well.
It is not just America that is endangered by Donald J. Trump, but the entire human species. While these are worst case scenarios, they are real and his global threats come through in three specific areas:
– Nuclear weapons proliferation
– Global pandemics
– Climate change
Each of the threats could take years to develop. However, it is the policies of Trump that established and either set in motion new existential circumstances or greatly exacerbate existing ones. The biggest issue is that the consequences of his incompetence may be irreversible.
The Nuclear Weapons Proliferation Problem
The United States undisputedly has the most capable, technologically developed military in the modern world. However, do not confuse capability with credibility. Both are equally important. As POTUS, Donald J. Trump has irrevocably destroyed the credibility of our nation. His capricious and ignorant comments have eviscerated many decades of carefully cultivated trusting relationships. Through multilateral treaties, since World War II those relationships directly resulted in mitigating direct wars between major powers. At the heart of that security understanding was the North […]
Kristina Fiore, Director of Enterprise & Investigative Reporting - MedPage Today
Stephan:
The United States already has the lowest-ranked and most expensive healthcare system in the developed world. Now, as the fascists continue their coup, it is going to get worse. The vast majority of Americans have no idea what good healthcare is actually like.
HHS employees demonstrate against job cuts.Credit: MedPage Today
HHS will slash 10,000 full-time employees, which combined with its previous buyout and early retirement initiatives, will take the agency down from 82,000 to 62,000 workers.
It will also create a new “Administration for a Healthy America,” or AHA, that will combine five independent agencies into one.
Shedding 10,000 employees will save the government $1.8 billion per year, the agency said. It announced the changes in a press release and a fact sheet on Thursday morning, and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. simultaneously posted a video to X
“We’re going to do more with less,” Kennedy said in the video, adding that “this will be a painful period for HHS as we downsize.”
HHS provided numbers on how many employees would be removed from its key sub-agencies, but offered few specifics:
FDA will lose 3,500 workers, though this won’t affect drug, medical device, and food reviewers, or inspectors
CDC will lose 2,400 employees, and will focus on preparing for and responding to epidemics and outbreaks
As the United States transitions into a fascist oligarchic autocracy, quite predictably, changes are being made to the tax laws so that they favor MAGAt monarch Trump, his family, and his oligarch funders. This article describes the federal estate tax, something you may never have even heard of. This is the only media report I have seen on this. Part of the fascist game is to create so much chaos that all kinds of important governmental changes don’t even get covered. This is an example of what I mean.
Elon Musk stands on stage with Donald Trump during a rally at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. Credit: Tom Brenner / The Washington Post / Getty
Americans for Tax Fairness has crunched the numbers and found that a Republican push to do away with the federal estate tax—a measure that’s been described as an “aristocracy prevention act”—could yield billions for the families of U.S. President Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk, according to a report from the advocacy group published Thursday.
Abolishing the estate tax, a tax on the wealth of the richest Americans when they die, could save Musk’s family up to roughly $132 billion, and could save Trump’s heirs up to around $2 billion, according to ATF, which made its calculation using recent estimates of each man’s net worth. The top federal estate tax rate is 40%.
The group noted that “both the Trump and Musk families have undoubtedly set up elaborate estate-tax-avoidance schemes, as most superwealthy families do. Since we do not know what tax-avoidance schemes they have undertaken, we have calculated […]
