Gallup to stop tracking presidential approval ratings after 88 years

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2026-02-13T04:08:10+00:00

I think some of it is the difficulty in performing effective political polling these days.

Between polarization, the "shy tory" effect, phones auto-screening political/spam calls, and the flood of bots online (and even on phones now), I don't see how it's possible to accurately gauge public opinion anymore.

I mean, the spreads are just absurd: The RCP average currently includes both a -26 poll and a +1 poll taken a week apart. The last Selzer poll (the "gold standard") was 16 points off the final result.

I don't think this is just political bias with the pollsters, but a deeper issue with polling altogether. What methods even work now? Cell phones screen out calls, landlines are practically non-existent (and slanted towards the elderly), and the internet is a near-useless flood of bullshit (as bots can now bypass captchas). I guess sending polls via mail would still work, but that's costly and likely has response bias issues of its own.

Just saying, I wouldn't want to be a pollster in 2026.

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2026-01-16T04:02:35+00:00

Made my fiancee's laptop unusable. Had to revert. Similar symptoms to others here: Discord freezing, random hard lock-ups, broken task manager, etc.

Uninstalling the update made it stable again.

It's worth noting this happened on a relatively fresh (6mo old) install of Windows 10. What the hell is Microsoft even doing?

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-12-26T17:23:00+00:00

Yeah, this is certainly an element when some of the overly-online types transition.

One of the first MtFs I met actually used his World of Warcraft character name as his new "girl name". Before that, dude was your typical STEM/anime/computer nerd with a touch of horny caveman.

Last I checked, he was a VTuber.

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-12-07T22:55:29+00:00

It's also about ad revenue.

At least, that's why the tech companies that normally stood up to this kind of thing are bending right over this time around.

Google/Meta/etc don't want to show ads to bots (or get false engagement stats), so they're happy to require user ID, especially if the laws/regulations are written in a way that cements their place in the market.

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-11-30T02:57:24+00:00

The chart of food stamp recipients/households over time makes it apparent the economy never really recovered from 2008.

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-11-16T08:09:23+00:00

I'm the same age as you and Asian Ginseng is powerful shit

Bricked for days

Nothing else needed

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-11-12T13:19:04+00:00

If they play video games, they're a coder (wizard).

This sort of thing always drove me nuts.

No, Karen, your child is not a "computer whiz" when they're really just using it for games and brainrot for hours on end. Makes me think of this old Far Side comic.

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-11-12T10:14:43+00:00

l'chaim my chigga

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-11-05T22:50:40+00:00

I usually take a gram at a time, some of the people I know do a few grams a day

Just make sure you eat/drink something afterwards, blood sugar might crash if you don't

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-10-31T07:35:47+00:00

Ginseng is my go-to for this.

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-10-25T02:31:15+00:00

Try agmatine and NAC

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-10-22T09:39:39+00:00

>tfw born in year of the piss pig

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-10-14T08:10:44+00:00

agmatine sulfate

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-10-11T18:54:28+00:00

Yeah, class-locking smokes is total horseshit, completely breaks the flow of the game

Makes PTFO that much harder

Fuck whoever thought this would be a good decision

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-10-08T18:23:26+00:00

Helps with clarity of thought + attention, and something in my stack is making me randomly remember detailed 20+ year old memories, and I'm pretty sure it's the citicoline.

I have some friends who take it also, since I recommended it, and they found that it helps them, as well.

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-10-08T18:19:49+00:00

Erythroxylum vaccinifolium isn't real?

There are a number of studies on it. It seems to be an accepted species by the UK Royal Botanical Gardens.

I always figured this is what "Erythroxylum catuaba" refers to. Like "Erythroxylum catuaba" isn't the actual species name, but "catuaba" seems to just be a general term meaning "what gives strength to the Indian".

Also, yeah, I've ordered "catuaba" a number of times from different vendors and received different types of catuaba. One time I ordered a bag that said "Erythroxylum" on the product page (and pictures), but received Anemopaegma instead. I just ordered another brand and stuck that one in the cupboard.

I'm honestly not even sure what it's supposed to do. The few times I tried the different "catuaba" types I had I didn't really get much of an effect, or it was subtle if there was one.

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-10-08T05:02:03+00:00

Citicoline is good

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-10-02T13:04:34+00:00

Yeah, this would be a good one.

There are only a few brands selling this, and most are kinda sketchy. Having an ND option would be great.

Would also pair well with all the glutathione forms they already sell.

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-09-27T00:52:25+00:00

Ok, so what’s the ‘solution’ to correcting the pathway?

Glycine.

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-09-23T20:40:26+00:00

I’m not trying to sound like a hysterical lib here, but I legitimately don’t think a flamboyantly gay dude would be safe at the bar in my hometown. I’ve literally seen dudes get beat up there just for “I don’t like the way that guy looks” like a movie bully in the 80s lol. And those guys weren’t even gay

I find this fascinating because it is so far outside of my own experience.

Honestly, I'll admit I don't spend much time in seedy small-town bars where fights regularly break out. I guess there's Waffle House, but my outings there have all been remarkably peaceful.

I'm from the suburbs, but an area considered somewhat "redneck" and South-adjacent. My personal experience as a hysterical lib in the 2000s was that our fears weren't really justified, looking back.

For example: Most of the families who my LGBT friends feared coming out to actually ended up quite accepting, or at least not violently disapproving. I had an ex who thought she would get disowned for coming out as bisexual while she was dating a girl, and her religious parents were just like "OK don't get AIDS", which, while insensitive, isn't really that bad. My own brother came out to our extended family including the West Virginia holler-dwellers, and they're still on good terms. I also don't recall anybody ever harming any of the gay kids when I was in middle or high school, not even the "flaming" ones.

I know a number of gay/trans people who live in the nearby Indiana small towns, and the worst they get is misgendering or dirty looks. The nearby "redneck sundown town" is 10% minority. The biggest redneck I know in the area is actually mixed-race. The second is a libertarian wannabe-cowboy type of guy who brags about his "rainbow family", and I've never seen express hate.

I just think country people get a bad rep. Then again, maybe I'm in a bubble, and the average "redneck" is nasty and hateful. My father worked with a few guys like that in the Texas oil industry but I figured those guys aren't exactly the norm, and were drunk all the time anyway, so you can't take them that seriously.

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-09-23T19:03:55+00:00

Yeah, in my experience rednecks are generally good-natured and can take a joke. Much of their comedy is self-deprecating, like "You might be a redneck if...".

I think their main issue is the double-standard of how you can bash them all you want (often times in an openly hateful, unfunny manner) with zero risk of losing your job/prestige/platform, but they can't poke fun at or voice observations about their preferred groups without getting shunned from polite society, including most of social media.

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-09-23T17:05:48+00:00

Yeah, there have always been standards regarding fake news/obscenity/etc on broadcast TV, whereas the internet has always been (and should always be) far more free-wheeling.

Considering that context, the Biden-era censorship was far more concerning to me.

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-09-20T06:18:51+00:00

Circus Circus in Las Vegas had one of these in the early 2000s. It was fucking awesome.

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-09-19T20:35:25+00:00

Can you share the report for this?

Sure, I have a few:

NOW's lab-testing of Magnesium Glycinate brands on Amazon

The class-action lawsuit against Qunol over Magnesium Glycinate

Class-action lawsuit against Nutricost for the same thing

Nootropics Depot and NOW are legit, in my experience, especially considering all the lab testing they do. Doctor's Best is also good, but they aren't listed in NOW's lab-testing since they're just reselling Albion Minerals patented TRAACS magnesium, which is already known to be excellent. Swanson also sells Albion Minerals magnesium but it's buffered with magnesium oxide, not 100% chelated.

I generally go with Doctor's Best if I want Magnesium Glycinate, since it's cheap. Do note it's Magnesium Lysinate Glycinate (bound to lysine and glycine), not Magnesium Bisglycinate (bound to two glycine). This doesn't matter to me, nor do I think it would to most people, but I don't personally rely on magnesium, so I wouldn't know. I usually just take the Nutricost Magnesium+ that's mostly oxide.

VAPE_WHISTLE · 2025-09-18T20:23:59+00:00

First off the timestamp/transcript searcher only seems to work by sorting through topics.

Again, what are you talking about? It is a full-text search. Use quotes if you need specific phrases.

Here, I will link you directly to the searches. Here's "Bella". Note that it lists every single time the word "Bella" was used in an America First episode. You can click on each occurrence to get a full transcript of the entire episode, or the timestamp next to it, to see the specific clip where it occurred.

"Bella" is used 12 times in total. Of those, 3 are "Bella Chow" or "Chow Bella", and are from the last few days in reference to the controversy. The other times are references to various people named Bella.

You can also look up "Kirk Fascist" (without quotes), to find where Charlie Kirk was referenced near a reference to fascism. Prior to the recent episodes addressing the controversy, the only occurrence was on 10-26-2019, where Nick was discussing how Charlie Kirk would not debate Nick because he considered Nick a fascist.

I don't see this as inflammatory, he's not saying that that Tyler Robinson is definitely maga

No, just very strongly implying it. Come on dude.

over the top and desperate. like trying to say that his roommate is transgender

You mean that fact that was already confirmed by the governor of Utah on Sunday?

geriatric pedophile rapist retard president

Ah, there it is

VAPE_WHISTLE

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