Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Welcome to the first Monday in November: November 3, 2025 and National Sandwich Day. Here’s a pastrami/corned beef sandwich at Katz’s Deli in NYC, along with the only proper accompaniment to this item: a Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray Tonic, celery-flavored soda that cuts through the grease of the sandwich.
It’s also World Jellyfish Day. You can see a peanut butter and jellyfish sandwich here (no real jellyfish in it):
*The Washington Post reports on a new poll that shows broad disapproval of Trump and the way he handles important issues. But those polled aren’t so keen on the Democrats, either.
Americans broadly disapprove of how President Donald Trump is handling his job, and a majority say he has gone too far in exercising the powers of his office, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll. But a year out from the 2026 midterm elections, there is little evidence that negative impressions of Trump’s performance have accrued to the benefit of the Democratic Party, with voters split almost evenly in their support for Democrats and Republicans.
Overall, 41 percent of Americans say they approve of the job Trump is doing, while 59 percent disapprove. That level of disapproval is the highest in a Post-ABC poll since January 2021, a week after the attack on the Capitol. Trump’s support among self-identified Republicans remains strong at 86 percent, while 95 percent of Democrats disapprove. Among independents, Trump’s approval rating is 30 percent, while his disapproval mark is 69 percent.
Across eight issues that include the economy, immigration, tariffs, managing the federal government, crime, and conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, most Americans say they disapprove of how he is handling each of them. The narrowest disapproval among these is on the situation with Israel and Gaza, but still a 52 percent majority say they disapprove.
Trump has governed primarily through executive orders, setting out controversial policies affecting the federal government, the nation’s electoral system, the private sector and academia, among others. These orders have drawn multiple lawsuits challenging his authority. Many of the suits are still being adjudicated, with the Supreme Court destined to be the final arbiter in setting the boundaries for executive power.
Meanwhile, the public is rendering its own judgment and mostly in opposition to the president. The poll finds that 64 percent say he is going too far in “trying to expand the power of the presidency,” and majorities say he is going too far in laying off government employees to cut the size of the federal workforce, in deploying the National Guard to patrol U.S. cities and trying to make changes in how U.S. colleges and universities operate.
Here are two of the results of those polls. First, the overall approval rating and ratings on several issues, none of which show approval of above 46%. (Israel/Gaza disapproval is close to approval.) The public hasn’t been gulled on tariffs, either, with 65% disapproving. (People know what it will do to their pocketbooks.)
Data on specific Trumpian actions, again with more Americans saying Trup has gone too far on issues like preventing immigrants from remaining here legally or even in ending DEI programs:
I wouldn’t necessarily agree with the DEI issue, but I would with most of the other stuff.
Note the headline on this one, which shows that despite the above, the Democrats are still less in touch with most Americans than are either Trump or Republicans. That’s the problem Klein outlines below..
*I’m a sucker for posts like this, as I’m always looking to see how the Democrats can recapture lost ground. This one, by Ezra Klein in the NYT, is called “This is the way you beat Trump—and Trumpism.” (The article is archived here, and there’s a podcast on the original.) Klein begins by noting that the Democrats, even in blue areas, have lost ground, and Republicans are busy redistricting states to get more GOP seats in Congress. Here’s Klein’s solution:
Any enduring majority — any real power — will require Democrats to solve a problem they do not yet know how to solve: The number of places in which the Democratic Party is competitive has shrunk. When the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, Democrats held Senate seats in Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and West Virginia. How many of those states remain in reach for Democrats today?
In American politics, power is not decided by a popular vote. In the Electoral College, in the House of Representatives, and particularly in the Senate, it is apportioned by place. Democrats don’t just need to win more people. They also need to win more places. That will require a more pluralistic approach to politics. It will require the Democratic Party to see internal difference as a strength that requires cultivation rather than a flaw that demands purification.
Think of it this way: If Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayor’s race running as a democratic socialist in New York City and Rob Sand wins the Iowa governor’s race next year running as a moderate who hates political parties, did the Democratic Party move left or right? Neither: It got bigger. It found a way to represent more kinds of people in more kinds of places.
That is the spirit it needs to embrace. Not moderation. Not progressivism. But, in the older political sense of the term, representation.
. . .The endless fantasy in politics is persuasion without representation: You elect us to represent you, and where we disagree, we will explain to you why you are wrong. The result of that politics tends to be neither persuasion nor representation: People know when you are not listening to them. And they know how to respond: They stop listening to you. They vote for people who they feel do listen to them.
I am not a pessimist on the possibility of persuasion. But I believe it is rare outside a context of mutual respect. And if I were to say where the Democratic Party went wrong over the last decade, it’s there. In too many places Democrats sought persuasion without representation, and so they got neither.
A Democratic strategist who has conducted countless focus groups told me that when he asks people to describe the two parties, they often describe Republicans as “crazy” and Democrats as “preachy.” One woman said to him, “I’ll take crazy over preachy. At least crazy doesn’t look down on me.”
Well, we have a gazillion articles prescribing what the Democrats need, and some of them, like this one, overlap considerably with others. I’d take preachy over crazy so long as the preachy are right, but then again I’m in the “privileged” class, and so am unable to detect and resent patronizing politicians as keenly as those who are more disadvantaged. But I just looked at my Facebook page, and was struck by how preachy it was: full of the same damnations of Trump I’ve seen a million times or more, and I’m suspicious that this continued harping is really a way of virtual signaling: that is, preachy. But Klein is right that the Dems need to listen to people rather than assume a priori that they (people like, for example AOC or Bernie Sanders) have all the answers. Give me a politician that can change his or her mind once in a while—thoughtful people who examine their views. Do we have any? Well, yes, Fetterman, but he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of being anything but a Senator—if he even gets reelected. (Watch him here, for example.)
*I forgot to put up my theft from Nellie Bowles yesterday, but here are a few items from her latest news-and-snark column at the Free Press: “TGIF: Nothing but the truth“:
→ More stats confirming what I always tell you: If they want to win again, Dems need to drop their wildest, most esoteric takes on culture issues, according to a new report called Deciding to Win by the great moderate libs of Welcome. Moderates do a study that finds in favor of moderation? I also love research that confirms all my priors. Here’s what the principal author told Semafor, which got a copy ahead of publication: “A lot of what we’re arguing for is a return to Obama-era positioning on issues like immigration and crime, and prioritization of the economy over cultural issues.” It’s true: If your politics are 2008 Obama, you’re actually now considered far-right (Year 2012 Romney? You’re a skinhead. Year 2000 Bush? Grand Wizard. Year 2004 Bush? Netanyahu.) Obama was tough on the border and tough on crime. He was anti–gay marriage, for heaven’s sake! Now, if a Dem candidate isn’t pro-choice up to the exact moment when contractions start, they’re considered wildly reactionary—and frankly, a danger to democracy. But especially with the expected gutting of the Voting Rights Act, Dems have to radically reinvent themselves if they want to prevent a one-party nation. Read Noah Smith’s “Bring Back Liberal Nationalism” for a great take in this vein.
→ Updates on my new mayor: Zohran Mamdani, who is poised to become the mayor of New York City—and for those reasons, everything I’m saying is sort of a hypothesis, nothing too serious, Z. But I just find it notable that he deflects questions about Israel and Jewish issues by saying things like, I’m in New York, I’m not sure why you’re bringing up Israel. Which is totally fair! And which is why it’s super weird because being anti-Israel is his whole thing. Here’s Mamdani in 2023: “We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF.” Ok, ok, cool. The Adidas limited-edition Zionist 12s are out? And things such as this, from 2021: “How much of your money is going over there, and how much of your needs are unmet over here. . . . We need to connect the struggles against austerity with the struggle against the funding of Israeli apartheid.” Kind of feels like he’s the one making it about Israel? And I hate to say it, but clearly, that’s working. Clearly, the population is primed for a villain, and the world’s oldest scapegoats are just wandering around New York for the taking.
Mamdani’s dad has a new book out this month about Idi Amin—the Ugandan dictator responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths—stating that he was not the villain but instead an anti-colonial hero. Fascinating.
The Dems have all fallen in line behind Zohran “burn the IDF boots’ house down” Mamdani, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries endorsing him. And even my moderate hero Pete Buttigieg is praising him. It’s so over.
→ An incident: What a shame it is to have “sadly died” during “an incident.”
The Metropolitan Police are laser-focused. On an “incident in Uxbridge.” Of “the man who sadly died.”
What was the incident? An older man who works as a garbage collector was walking his dog when, according to authorities, an Afghani immigrant named Safi Dawood walked up and stabbed him to death. As the dog walker lay on the ground, the assailant stabbed him more than a dozen times. London’s Metropolitan Police don’t want people to see the video. Sometimes people get violently “sadly died” by immigrants during “incidents.” Hurt people hurt people, and sometimes people become unalive in that process.
Penn appears to have experienced a cybersecurity breach on Friday after a series of mass emails were sent to students, faculty, alumni, and parents from accounts linked to the Graduate School of Education.
The messages — sent from multiple University-affiliated email addresses — were addressed to the Penn community and contained criticisms of the University’s security practices and institutional purpose, according to copies of the messages reviewed by The Daily Pennsylvanian. Penn’s Information Systems & Computing office wrote in a statement that it is “working with our campus partners to resolve the issue.”
“We hire and admit morons because we love legacies, donors, and unqualified affirmative action admits,” the email — which contains profane language and a slur — read in part.
In an email to the Penn GSE community, a spokesperson for the school described the emails as “highly offensive,” adding that they “are in no way reflective of Penn or Penn GSE’s mission or actions.”
“Please know that we are actively and quickly investigating and taking immediate steps to stop these emails from being sent,” the spokesperson wrote. “Our IT team at Penn GSE and the University’s IT team and Crisis Response Teams are working as quickly as they can.”
A University spokesperson wrote that the emails were “obviously a fake” in a statement to the DP. The spokesperson reiterated that the University’s Office of Information Security is “actively addressing” the situation.
“All of the emails are incredibly offensive and in no way reflective of Penn or Penn GSE’s mission or values. We sincerely apologize for the harm this has caused and is causing,” a message to the Penn community read. “Over and above the inconvenience of getting your inboxes spammed, these emails are hurtful and upsetting.”
Of course Penn said what it had to, but was it simply a joker who did this, or perhaps a disaffected and conservative Penn student. And is not a grain of truth in the email, like it trying to circumvent the Supreme Court decision in the Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard case? After all, universities all over America are doing just that.
*The AP’s reliable “oddities” section reports that a bird common in Eurasia but never found in North America has just been seen—on Long Island. Only Ceiling Cat knows how it got here (could it be a release), but birders are going nuts to see it. It is the common cuckoo (Cuculus canoris):
A bird sighting on New York’s Long Island has avian enthusiasts flocking to the region in hopes of spotting a feathered friend that has never been seen before in the state.
The common cuckoo is typically found from Europe to Japan, with the majority of the population wintering in Africa. But one was recently spotted in Riverhead — a town on the north shore of Long Island about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from New York City — by a golfer who snapped a photo and sent it to his nephew, a birding enthusiast.
The information eventually was shared with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York. Once the bird was confirmed as a common cuckoo, birders quickly shared the news in their communities.
The bird has since been spotted more than 200 times by enthusiasts who have noted their sightings on the birding site ebird.org and various social media sites, including the American Birding Association. Many people in other parts of the U.S. also have reported making special treks to the region in hopes of seeing it for themselves. The last confirmed sightings came late Sunday afternoon.
It’s not clear how or why the bird ended up in southern New York, or if it’s even still in the region. Experts say it’s a juvenile — meaning it hatched this spring or summer — so it’s reasonable to conclude it was trying to migrate for the winter but somehow got lost or blown off course.
The common cuckoo has been found only three other times in the eastern U.S. and Canada, experts said.
Jay McGowan, a curator at the Cornell Lab’s Macaulay Library, said Thursday that the bird may still be in the area, but if it has relocated, it may be unlikely anyone will happen across it again. He urged anyone who does see it to report their sightings to the birder community.
“This is definitely a major event for anyone birding in New York state, and unusual enough for the broader region,” McGowan said, adding that he’s not surprised to see many people are willing to make long trips to the area for a chance to see a bird they would otherwise be unlikely to see unless they went to Europe or Asia.
”If people see it, they shouldn’t approach too closely for photos, but otherwise it’s fairly tolerant of people and traffic,” McGowan said. “It looks a lot like a small hawk, like the common Cooper’s hawk, so don’t be fooled if you see one of those.”
Here’s a photo of one snapped in Surrey, England. Actually, it does look a bit hawk-like:
Andy Morffew from Itchen Abbas, Hampshire, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
They really should catch it and somehow return it to Europe where it can live normally and find a mate. But that would deprive birders of seeing it on Long Island, for birders who wouldn’t look twice at a cuckoo in Europe will flock from miles away to see it on Long Island! Also, where would you put it, not knowing where it came from?
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has an unanswerable question:
Hili: Where are the limits of deceit?
Andrzej: I wonder about that too.
In Polish:
Hili: Gdzie są granice zakłamania?
Ja: Też się nad tym zastanawiam.
Masih is celebrating and JKR isn’t posting much new, but here’s one from Luana about enforcement of gender rules in the entire UC system
BREAKING: California’s UC system now requires students through an online TEST to affirm transgender ideology to stay enrolled. Under the SHAPE program, refusing to use trans pronouns or objecting to males in women’s restrooms is labeled “harassment.” Fail the quiz, and you’re… pic.twitter.com/ZUtRB8QNiX
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The sons of torture victims make good terrorists. -Andre Malraux, novelist, adventurer, art historian, and statesman (3 Nov 1901-1976)
Pandas can help themselves by doing a better job of making more Pandas. I don’t know if they should. I don’t like telling other people to have more babies. A bit of privacy helped Ying Ying and Le Le: https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-52204078
If I may chime in about our next mayor’s IDF boots comment:
Here’s something: Pretty much ALL large city police forces do little “exchanges” with other big city P.D.s NYPD have had trainings, usually less than a dozen cops, to and from Israel, Qatar, (from memory) UAE, and UK. Many others I forget. They are joint trainings – some city is good at explosives, another – drug interdiction, another (our) “CompStat”, etc. This is how efficient law enforcement WORKS.
Idiot Comrade Zoran. My ballot is for Cuomo (and I don’t like him!).
I wrote about this in my column (syndicated, w/o paywall at this site)
I generally remain disengaged from the races in which I cannot vote: Let Mississippi be Mississippi, and Massachusetts be Massachusetts. But with the Mamdani candidacy, I alternate between “Let the damned New Yorkers f@ck themselves!” and “How did we get to this point not 25 years removed from 9/11?”
Trying hard to feel your pain, David! Vote early, vote often. And get the minors and invalids out. It has long worked in Chicago.
My woke wife was just listening to an angry man of color screaming and ranting on the you tube just five feet from where I was trying to quietly read WEIT. I suggested that normalizing to a continual diet of this vitriol and angry screaming cannot be healthy for anyone. She yelled at me and moved to another room to continue her viewing…. It’s a damn cult I tell you!
Not kosher – I see you peeking out below the untoasted rye, you little slice of swiss – but looks great! Had a wonderful real nyc style deli in neighboring city of Va Beach for years. Called “Route 58 Deli” on VA Beach Blvd (route 58). Started and run by a Jewish New Jersey boy who saw the need and filled it. This picture could have come off his menu….and that was the regular. He died a few years ago and nobody picked up the theme though it appeared to be very successful. I do not understand how a proven business strategy dies like this in a competitive capitalist environment.
The sandwich from Katz’s is truly something to admire, with pickles, of course. As Jim says, above, the Swiss cheese is verboten. When I was a kid, our local kosher market had pickles in a giant barrel. They were the best. The market, sadly, is long gone.
The Washington Post poll is interesting. The big message seems to be that the decline of approval for Trump does not translate into an increase of approval for the Democrats. It will be interesting to see if the Trump administration responds to the poll by moderating some of its more radical tendencies. As for the Democrats, they seem still to be lost in space.
60-Minutes aired a recent long interview with Trump, and the interviewer asked quite a lot of challenging questions over a wide range of issues. Here we got to see our prez. as a meandering lunatic, flinging out all manner of lies and exaggerations. The interviewer (Norah O’Donnell) did ask pressing questions, but wisely chose to not call him out on his fabrications since that would have ended it. But he was at least very alert and ‘present’ for the interview, and that would have been quite different if Biden was interviewed instead.
I would be concerned if a non-native population of cuckoo birds became established in the US. This is a beautiful species, but our native birds might not be adapted to manage the pressure of a new kleptoparasitic species.
A lad from Newfoundland, a charming but sometimes backward province of Canada, was in the final round on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”
“For a million dollars, which of these [four, one of which was the cuckoo] birds does not build its own nest?”
“Jeez, I ain’t got a fockin’ clue. I need my lifeline. Lemme call my cousin back home. He’s smart, got his Grade 12, he knows all that shit.”
The cousin didn’t miss a beat, immediately picked the cuckoo for the win.
Back home in Newfoundland, Buddy took his cousin out for drinks. “So how’d you know the cuckoo doesn’t build a nest?”
In my local (North Carolina) area, residents are not hesitant to kvetch about the presences of invasive species. (Some of them don’t like the presence of bamboo in their neighbors’ yards.) They don’t seem to kvetch about the American gray squirrel in Europe, which seems to do well enough at the expense of the red squirrel.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The sons of torture victims make good terrorists. -Andre Malraux, novelist, adventurer, art historian, and statesman (3 Nov 1901-1976)
Pandas can help themselves by doing a better job of making more Pandas. I don’t know if they should. I don’t like telling other people to have more babies. A bit of privacy helped Ying Ying and Le Le: https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-52204078
Mass-murder is never a sin if you are an anti-colonialist.
If I may chime in about our next mayor’s IDF boots comment:
Here’s something: Pretty much ALL large city police forces do little “exchanges” with other big city P.D.s NYPD have had trainings, usually less than a dozen cops, to and from Israel, Qatar, (from memory) UAE, and UK. Many others I forget. They are joint trainings – some city is good at explosives, another – drug interdiction, another (our) “CompStat”, etc. This is how efficient law enforcement WORKS.
Idiot Comrade Zoran. My ballot is for Cuomo (and I don’t like him!).
I wrote about this in my column (syndicated, w/o paywall at this site)
https://democracychronicles.org/forgetabaht-it/
D.A.
NYC
I generally remain disengaged from the races in which I cannot vote: Let Mississippi be Mississippi, and Massachusetts be Massachusetts. But with the Mamdani candidacy, I alternate between “Let the damned New Yorkers f@ck themselves!” and “How did we get to this point not 25 years removed from 9/11?”
Trying hard to feel your pain, David! Vote early, vote often. And get the minors and invalids out. It has long worked in Chicago.
My woke wife was just listening to an angry man of color screaming and ranting on the you tube just five feet from where I was trying to quietly read WEIT. I suggested that normalizing to a continual diet of this vitriol and angry screaming cannot be healthy for anyone. She yelled at me and moved to another room to continue her viewing…. It’s a damn cult I tell you!
Takes me weeks to get used to DST.
Not kosher – I see you peeking out below the untoasted rye, you little slice of swiss – but looks great! Had a wonderful real nyc style deli in neighboring city of Va Beach for years. Called “Route 58 Deli” on VA Beach Blvd (route 58). Started and run by a Jewish New Jersey boy who saw the need and filled it. This picture could have come off his menu….and that was the regular. He died a few years ago and nobody picked up the theme though it appeared to be very successful. I do not understand how a proven business strategy dies like this in a competitive capitalist environment.
The sandwich from Katz’s is truly something to admire, with pickles, of course. As Jim says, above, the Swiss cheese is verboten. When I was a kid, our local kosher market had pickles in a giant barrel. They were the best. The market, sadly, is long gone.
The Washington Post poll is interesting. The big message seems to be that the decline of approval for Trump does not translate into an increase of approval for the Democrats. It will be interesting to see if the Trump administration responds to the poll by moderating some of its more radical tendencies. As for the Democrats, they seem still to be lost in space.
60-Minutes aired a recent long interview with Trump, and the interviewer asked quite a lot of challenging questions over a wide range of issues. Here we got to see our prez. as a meandering lunatic, flinging out all manner of lies and exaggerations. The interviewer (Norah O’Donnell) did ask pressing questions, but wisely chose to not call him out on his fabrications since that would have ended it. But he was at least very alert and ‘present’ for the interview, and that would have been quite different if Biden was interviewed instead.
I would be concerned if a non-native population of cuckoo birds became established in the US. This is a beautiful species, but our native birds might not be adapted to manage the pressure of a new kleptoparasitic species.
Yes, for sure, Mark. The cowbirds are bad enough.
A lad from Newfoundland, a charming but sometimes backward province of Canada, was in the final round on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”
“For a million dollars, which of these [four, one of which was the cuckoo] birds does not build its own nest?”
“Jeez, I ain’t got a fockin’ clue. I need my lifeline. Lemme call my cousin back home. He’s smart, got his Grade 12, he knows all that shit.”
The cousin didn’t miss a beat, immediately picked the cuckoo for the win.
Back home in Newfoundland, Buddy took his cousin out for drinks. “So how’d you know the cuckoo doesn’t build a nest?”
“Because he lives in a friggin’ clock!”
The cuckoo should be sent back.
In my local (North Carolina) area, residents are not hesitant to kvetch about the presences of invasive species. (Some of them don’t like the presence of bamboo in their neighbors’ yards.) They don’t seem to kvetch about the American gray squirrel in Europe, which seems to do well enough at the expense of the red squirrel.
Love the joke about the duck in the restaurant! 🦆🦆🦆
Sandra Bullock rapping made my morning.
Yes! I scrolled past it this morning. But I just saw your comment and looked. I like it.
Her name is Sandra Bullock? I thought it was Sandra Quadriceps. All that was missing was her engaging snorting laughter from “Miss Congeniality.”