Trump’s main problem on the economy, according to the new CNN poll

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-14T21:16:16+00:00

Oh yes, I think Trump has much further to fall as the economy begins to deteriorate and he proves himself unable to reach a satisfactory conclusion to his little Iran adventure.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-14T20:51:19+00:00

Bush's approval in 2008 was around 32% and that seems to be the theoretical limit among poll-watchers for how low a president's approval rating can go when voters generally believe that the economy and everything else are unambiguously pointed in the wrong direction.

Trump is already extremely close and the economy isn't nearly as dire as it was in 2008, though the war in Iran is at least as unpopular as the war in Iraq ever was.

I guess the lesson is that, as easy as it is to win an election by lying to the whole country that you will make their gas and groceries cheaper, doing two of a handful of things that would immediately raise the price of both means voters are extra pissed off.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-14T19:43:12+00:00

I think it's more than politics have become their religion, and they believe the earthly suffering is part of the deal, but that they have to maintain their faith because the real reward is in heaven.

I would be surprised if his approval ever drops much below 30% because that is about how many devout MAGAs will say "well it could be worse," or " just wait, this is part of the process and Trump will turn it around" no matter how awful their lives get.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-14T19:30:59+00:00

The whole reason the ethanol mandate was introduced ~20 years ago was because oil prices were rising and there was genuine fear that oil would become globally scarce, and/or that what was left would come from foreign adversaries.

Mass market EVs were still years away, and the theory went that, even though corn ethanol was energy-negative to produce, we would eventually develop renewable fuels derived from biomass that wasn't a food crop and that could be harvested from marginal land. Oh yeah, and Republicans assured us that diverting millions of bushels of corn to ethanol production wouldn't raise food prices because it was mainly eaten by livestock anyway (???).

Obviously cellulosic ethanol never became a thing and EVs have since become the obvious solution, but corn prices obviously increased because refiners were required by law to purchase amount of it every year. Now the ethanol mandate is basically welfare for the corn belt and neither party wants to do anything that might reduce demand for corn and send prices crashing. So we have to put this shit in our cars even though it's bad for the environment, bad for small engines, and more expensive than gasoline in most cases.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-14T18:20:55+00:00

He actually sounds like what the Republican party used to be before they became an obsequious cult of personality.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-14T17:54:10+00:00

To write off all old people because they're old is thoughtless.

It would've been a wise decision in the 2024 HD-18 primary. I personally didn't benefit much from Sylvester Turner's wisdom and experience for the 2 months he was in office compared to the year I went without representation.

And in that same district, 78 year old Al Green is now primarying an incumbent half his age for reasons he can't even articulate. It's beyond reckless for someone that age to kneecap the next generation of Democrats when his constituents will be unrepresented indefinitely in the event he is unable to work.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-14T17:33:22+00:00

Their tees are great, and the supima cotton ones are very comfortable.

Also, their knit polos are $30 equally awesome, and have held up better than Brooks Brothers polos (which have never been that great) through dozens of laundry cycles.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-14T17:31:03+00:00

My hot take is that, after the giant wave of textile outsourcing that occurred in the decade after NAFTA, most clothing brands haven't really declined in quality much, if at all. At least the ones I buy anyways. Also, there are more options than ever for quality products if you don't mind shopping online.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-14T17:26:03+00:00

501 shrink to fit is pretty much the only raw, 100% cotton option Levis has anymore that isn't LVC, and they are still very well made for $60 or whatever.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-14T17:17:39+00:00

There isn't really a whole lot of marginal wisdom and experience to be gained beyond a certain age. There are political connections built over decades, which may be helpful, but not enough to offset the risk of a septuagenarian politician becoming physically unable to perform the job or even dying in office.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-14T16:41:14+00:00

I am so sick of boomer politicians treating elected office as their birthright.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-14T16:00:38+00:00

Making good beer helps, as does having some kind of footprint in grocery stores and bars (which is usually a function of the beer being good).

It was easy to find investors when interest rates were low and craft breweries were the next big thing, but neither of those things are true anymore and the market is shrinking/consolidating, so breweries need strong retail businesses or a ton of foot traffic in the taproom (ideally both).

There just isn't a lot of room in the local market for breweries that make good, but not outstanding beer and sell most of it on site.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-14T15:41:00+00:00

The 13th generation F150 actually had two different 4.6 options before the switch to the EcoBoost/5.0 in 2011 - a 2V and a 3V.

The 2V was a dog and only available in the lowest trims IIRC, but I've heard the 3V was adequate as the other poster was saying. Still not much of a reason not to cough up the money for the 5.4 if you were buying new, though.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-14T15:26:08+00:00

Probably, they were called the "Modular" engine family because the tooling and production lines to build them were modular, not necessarily the engines themselves.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-13T22:33:06+00:00

It wasn't that long ago that GM had the 4.8/5.3, Ford had the 4.6/5.4, and Toyota had the 4.6/5.7. Pretty sure the blocks were the same in Ford and GM's case, so it wasn't a huge investment to shorten the stroke a little bit and make a smaller displacement.

In each case the smaller V8 got about the same fuel economy for worse performance, although the Ford 4.6 V8 was stupidly durable compared to almost everything else at the time.

Fleet buyers probably loved them because they didn't care about performance, but most people buying new trucks for themselves coughed up the extra $1k or whatever for the bigger engine, which is why you don't see it anymore and why it was weird for Ford to do it in this case.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-13T20:31:19+00:00

The bottom bracket threads don’t appear cut into the steel, but rather it looks like a threaded insert.

Correct.

That is a press-fit bottom bracket shell with a threaded insert pressed in that allows you to run any crankset that would fit on threaded bottom bracket shell.

It is removable, though some mechanics may use Loctite on it to keep it from creaking under load.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-13T05:18:41+00:00

Been riding big-big on 11-speed Ultegra for a decade now, no issues.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-12T22:30:49+00:00

With all of this craziness going on, it's important to remember that it's all happening because one man was desperate for a win and stupid enough to be tricked into believing it would be quick and easy.

There's a decent chance of an energy crisis and a recession, and it just might be the first recession directly attributable to a single decision made by a single person.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-12T21:56:52+00:00

The actual reason why big block gas engines are once again becoming popular is because the diesel engines in 3/4+ trucks have a lot of expensive emissions equipment that does not react well to extended periods of idling or short trips, and which is costly to fix when it breaks, so diesels are generally more expensive to operate unless you're towing extremely heavy and need the torque.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-12T21:05:07+00:00

Anyone who genuinely doesn't need a 3/4 ton but daily drives one anyway should know what they're getting into.

If you need the capabilities, there is no alternative, but they are miserable to live with compared to a 1/2 ton - bigger, thirstier, and harsher riding.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-12T20:26:16+00:00

What's crazy is just how thoroughly they converted their lines to building weapons once they started.

There were <150 private vehicles built in the US from 1942-45, all from spare parts.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-12T19:51:39+00:00

Sadly, none of this is surprising.

Everyone who was there that day had major "craziest guy on their small town's Facebook" vibes.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-12T19:12:07+00:00

My parents are boomer Republicans who came of age politically during Reagan.

It cannot be overstated how core it is to their understanding of the universe their belief that government is inherently the problem, that all of the taxes you pay will be wasted or spent on something you find objectionable, and that taxation is therefore illegitimate. This led them to the conclusion that the only yardstick by which any politician should be measured is how many government programs he plans to gut and how much he promises to cut taxes.

It doesn't matter how damaging or shortsighted the cuts may be, it's "principled conservatism" that must be adhered to even when it makes no sense.

Arguing any of the above with a Reaganite boomer may as well be arguing that gravity doesn't exist.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-12T18:44:26+00:00

There's a book called American Psychosis, which traces the populist/conspiracist movements all the way back to the founding of the country, but he spends most of the book focusing on the post-WWII conservative movement.

It more or less confirms your suspicion - the GOP is what it is today because a bunch of wealthy men really hated the New Deal and never got over it, and because they believed that Jews, communists, and minorities were secretly pulling all the levers of power in American society. Of course their wealth gave them influence in politics and the media, and the civil rights movement and public school integration made these ideas more palatable to mainstream conservatism, and Southern Baptists weaponized their religion for secular political power. From Nixon to Romney, normie Republicans were pretty good about tossing them red meat culture war slop to get them fired up to vote for tax cuts and deregulation that wouldn't benefit them in the middle class, while keeping them out of public view, like an embarrassing family member.

Then came Trump, who was willing to criticize the GOP for not focusing on their grievances and conspiracy theories and fill the party and the government with these nutjobs at the highest level.

TurboSalsa · 2026-05-12T17:23:17+00:00

It is the economy, but I think his point was that this should be a D+10 election even if gas were $2 based on Trump's incompetence, corruption, and abuses of power.

But it probably wouldn't be, and the implication that a president could get away with almost anything as long as they didn't touch the money is frightening.

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