For those who pay attention to polls, this recent one contains an interesting phenomenon, noted on BlueSky by Adam Bonin, a lawyer from Philadelphia.
For months I’ve banged the drum that “not sure” has become the safe harbor answer for “Republicans who know Trump’s probably wrong, but don’t want to admit it.”
Today’s Economist/YouGov Poll: Is Donald Trump racist? 41% of Republicans have No Opinion.
There’s more:
Is Trump dangerous? 43% of Republicans have no opinion.
Honest? 44% have no opinion.
Corrupt? 43% have no opinion.
Out-of-touch? 49% have no opinion.They know who he is. They just don’t want to admit it.
As Cheryl Rofer pointed out at LGM, “Show me another poll where almost half the respondents have no opinion. People having opinions, often misguided, is the definition of polls.”
David Dayen at the American Prospect singles out what he calls the “perfect Jeffrey Epstein email.”
On June 5, 2015, Kathy Ruemmler, then a corporate lawyer for Latham & Watkins but just one year removed from her stint as White House counsel for Barack Obama, emailed her good friend Jeffrey Epstein. Ruemmler, who was once under consideration to become Obama’s attorney general, wrote, “I am working on a PR strategy for MJ White v. Elizabeth Warren.” Epstein responded, “Good[.] mj is good.” And Ruemmler followed on in a response, “Yes, and EW is the worst.”
This is the perfect Jeffrey Epstein email, with as much explanatory power about this man, and more important the world he associated with and cultivated, than anything to do with child sex abuse. It shows that there is in fact an Epstein class, which not only believes in their own personal impunity, but seeks to protect their fellow travelers as well. And that ultimately lines up with a political and economic vision that favors corporate domination over the public interest.
But you have to unravel all the backstory to best understand it.
Bad news for those in Generation X: As a group, you’re physically weaker and more depressed than Boomers were at the same age.
If you grew up in the United States during the 1970s or so, you were promised a specific kind of trajectory. You’d get a degree, get a job, and eventually, settle into a midlife that might be boring, but at least it would be stable. Maybe you’d have a crisis like your old man, buy a convertible, or dye your hair.
But a massive new study suggests that the “midlife crisis” has mutated into something far more dangerous — and uniquely American.
According to research led by psychologist Frank J. Infurna of Arizona State University, Americans currently in their 40s and 50s are suffering from a profound deterioration in health and well-being that is virtually unseen in other wealthy nations. This cohort is lonelier, more depressed, and physically weaker than the generations that came before them. They are also experiencing alarming declines in memory.
What makes this data so damning is that it isolates the United States as a global outlier. In comparable peer nations, particularly in Nordic Europe, midlife health is actually improving.
“The real midlife crisis in America isn’t about lifestyle choices or sports cars. It’s about juggling work, finances, family, and health amid weakening social supports,” Infurna said. “The data make this clear.”
The authors of the study note that rising out-of-pocket medical expenses are a uniquely American stressor. These costs don’t just drain bank accounts; they deter preventive care, leading to a population that is sicker, more anxious, and burdened by medical debt that simply doesn’t exist in places like Finland or Germany.
Finally, on a lighter note, a federal judge in Chicago has dismissed a false advertising suit against the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant chain that complained its “boneless wings” were, in fact, not wings.
The decision, issued on Tuesday, was in response to a 2023 lawsuit filed in Illinois against Buffalo Wild Wings by customer Aimen Halim, who argued that the restaurant chain was violating the Illinois consumer fraud act and was misleading customers by marketing chicken breast pieces as “boneless wings”. He sought roughly $10m in damages.
“Halim does not plausibly allege that reasonable consumers are deceived by boneless wings, so he has failed to state a plausible claim for relief,” the judge John Tharp wrote. He noted that “boneless wings” are “not a niche product for which a consumer would need to do extensive research to figure out the truth” but said that instead, “‘boneless wings’ was a common term that had existed for over two decades.
Tharp described boneless wings as “essentially chicken nuggets: pieces of chicken breast meat, deep-fried and tossed in whatever sauce or dry seasoning the customer wants.” … He wrote later in the order that “a reasonable consumer would not think that BWW’s boneless wings were truly deboned chicken wings, reconstituted into some sort of Franken-wing.”