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24 Aug, 5 tweets, 1 min read
During Obama's presidency, Rasmussen Polling created what they called a "Presidential approval index," which they calculated by taking the "strong approval" rating and subtracting the "strong disapproval" number. This was invariably a negative result. Haters gotta hate.

1/5
There are always more people who "strongly" disapprove of a president than who "strongly" approve. It is part of human nature for hate to be more of a motivator than happiness.

Hate > joy.

2/5
This method of generating an "approval" number didn't exist before President Obama. Rasmussen created it as a propaganda device to make President Obama look bad.

No one else--EVER--used this method for generating a "presidential approval index."

3/5
Nevertheless, it was quoted by all the media. As if it had always been thus. That created the false narrative that President Obama was somehow "historically unpopular", even though the arc of his approval rating closely paralleled that of Saint Ronaldus of Reagan.

4/5
And all know Ronaldus was "historically popular.:"

Rasmussen has not published their "Presidential approval index" since Trump became president.
I wonder why?

(No, I don't wonder. Not really. The actual "historically unpopular" president gets a pass.)

5/5

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More from @dcpetterson

DCPetterson Profile picture
24 Aug
I hope y'all have learned not to listen to the punditiots and editorializing "reporters" who insist the Biden presidency has problems, or that Madam Speaker can't count votes.

Watch what happens, not who pontificates on what's about to happen.

1/2
 cnbc.com/2021/08/24/hou…
Oh, and 60,000 people have been airlifted ALREADY out of Afghanistan. It's one of the greatest American military success stories in a decade.

It's not a "debacle". It's a victory, snatched from twenty years of defeat.

2/2
 cnn.com/2021/08/24/pol…
No president has accomplished anything like this.

It's great having a president again.

Read 4 tweets
DCPetterson Profile picture
11 Aug
The latest IPCC climate report has just been issued, and it is truly dire.

If we take drastic measures =now=, it is possible (not at all certain) we may be able to hold global temperature rise below 2 degrees C.

That doesn't sound like much. It is.

1/7
 ipcc.ch/report/sixth-a…
Let me scare you with how bad 2C is.

During the height of the last Ice Age maximum, the world was only about 2C =colder= than it was in the 1950s. A difference of 2C is the difference between half of the world covered under a mile of ice, and the climate we all grew up in.

2/7
What 2C =warmer= means is hard to understand, but it will inevitably be a difference on the same scale.

Humans have never lived in that world. Much bigger deserts, immense coastal flooding, wars over fresh water, literally billions of displaced climate refugees.

3/7
Read 7 tweets
DCPetterson Profile picture
11 Aug
One way the most extreme cults keep members in line is by demanding they commit some horrible atrocity simply to join.

In the Mob, it's called "making your bones." You might have to kill someone, for instance. Historically, some cults have demanded crimes up to cannibalism.

1/6
These initiation rites are designed not only to prove your loyalty and to give the cult heavy blackmail to threaten you with, but also to rob you of your humanity. To later renounce the cult would mean you have to admit (even to yourself) that you did an inhuman thing.

2/6
Few people have the moral courage to admit their own such crimes were unjustifiable, and yet they did them anyway. The only alternative is to double-down and insist the acts were not crimes, but were necessary, and perhaps even served a Greater Good.

3/6
Read 7 tweets
DCPetterson Profile picture
11 Aug
Senate Dems deliver.

The Senate passed a $3.5 trillion budget resolution along party lines 50-49. It's is a blueprint to be fleshed out in committees for a spending bill.

It's a massive investment in the future, and much-needed repairs for today.

1/
npr.org/2021/07/14/101…
I'll steal text from the linked article, so you can read it here.

Your taxes will NOT be increased, if you make less than $400,000/year, but it IS paid for, and the sources of revenue are spelled out.

2/
The article not only tells us what's in the package, but which committees have to write which peices.

It contains massive investment in education, including paid community college tuition, universal pre-K, and spending for HBCU's.

Also a commitment for immigration reform.

3/
Read 10 tweets
DCPetterson Profile picture
8 Aug
Let's all agree: Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos are terrible people.

They had some big ideas. Whether you like those ideas or not, whether you like those guys or not, they're putting their ideas into practice.

Contrast this with Bernie Sanders.

1/12
I've been told Sanders has big ideas. Many people like his big ideas. He's been unable to put any of them into practice.

Don't tell me about how "the establishment" doesn't like his ideas. That didn't bother Musk, Bezos or Branson.

2/12
Again, Musk, Bezos and Branson all suck. We're agreed on that. I'm not defending them. I'm saying the excuses for why Sanders is completely ineffectual don't impress me.

Also, Sanders is as "establishment" as it is possible to be.

3/12
Read 12 tweets
DCPetterson Profile picture
8 Aug
Scale comparison. On the left is Starship (earlier design--there's now another pair of fins toward the tip). Then Saturn V that brought three people at a time to the Moon. Then Statue of Liberty, then the Space Shuttle.

Starship will eventually seat over a hundred passengers.
Starship is designed to be reusable--not just the orbital part (as with the Shuttle), but even the booster stage, which will land back and the launch pad, be refueled and refurbished, and have another orbital stage set on top.

The orbital part is also, of course, reusable.
The Starship that was assembled yesterday is scheduled for a test flight within the next month or so. The orbital part will spashdown in the Pacific for this test run. The booster stage is meant to land on a SpaceX ocean barge.
spacelaunchnow.me/launch/starshi…
Read 4 tweets

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