The "press" and the postal service: Two days ago, on Wednesday afternoon, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made their first joint appearance.
Covid-19 was still a big deal at that point in time. Later that day, American commander in chief Donald Trump held one of his daily "convention speech"/press events.
As always, his stumbling, bumbling, irrational effort was a strange thing to behold. Many claims were flatly false. Others were grossly misleading, At the 33-minute mark of his opening speech, the commander even said this:
TRUMP (8/12/20): As we move forward, the number of cases is not by any means the most important metric to focus on, because the fact is we have more cases because we have far more testing than any country in the world. There’s no country that’s even close.For now, ignore the commander's remark about those "massive outbreaks" in those other, unnamed countries—the countries the press likes to praise.
We’ve done more testing and better testing than any country. And many of these countries that the media was putting up as a shining example of success, they’re right now in massive outbreaks.
You see what’s going on in many of the countries that you constantly mention. Far more important is who the virus is infecting. That’s why our strategy and attention are focused on preventing the cases that are most likely to require hospitalization or result in death. Those that afflict the elderly and those with certain underlying health conditions all the while acting to prevent hospital overcrowding.
If you look at some of the states that had a flare up recently, they’re all doing very well. Florida is going down rapidly. I want to give a lot of credit to the governors. Florida is going down, and Arizona is going down, way down. They’ve done a fantastic job. California, as you know, is going down, and many other locations. It’s doing very well, and many locations are really in fantastic shape, some with very little, if any, problem. Large portions of the United States.
As for this country, large portions of the United States are doing very well, the commander reassuringly said.
So the commander said. But on that very day, as the Washington Post reported, the United States recorded the most coronavirus deaths recorded on any one day since mid-May—since May 14.
So it goes at these strange events, with "journalists" in attendance. Before we think about November's election, consider two questions those journalists asked this day.
After the commander's 36-minute opening statement, he entertained twelve questions. Several questions were utterly pointless. The commander explicitly called on the crackpot site, OAN, for the second question.
Eventually, a masked man who seemed to Ryan Lizza got a chance for an ask. But given a chance to address the commander, why in the world—why on earth—would you ask an open-ended question like this?
REPORTER: Mr. President, since you didn’t see Kamala Harris’s remarks today, I wonder if we could just get you to respond to one thing that she said.What did the commander think of that!
TRUMP: Sure.
REPORTER: She said that your refusal to get testing up and running, you are—I’m paraphrasing—your flip-flopping on social distancing and masks and your delusional belief that you know better than the experts. All of that, in her words, are reasons that "one American dies of COVID-19 every minute.” What do you think of that?
The commander started with a short criticism of Harris. ("I think that's probably one of the reasons she was a terrible candidate and was forced to leave the race, because she got her facts wrong. She's very bad on facts, she's very weak on facts.")
From there, the obvious happened. The commander launched another monologue about all the great testing we've done.
He'd already given this monologue twice in the course of his endless opening statement. Now, he gave it again.
He rambled on for over two minutes, offering exactly the type of pointless non-answer an open-ended "question" like that will elicit.
Perhaps the reporter had hoped to occasion a rank denigration of Harris. On this occasion, he didn't get it—and moments later, a different reporter actually asked Trump this:
JOURNALIST: You had graphs about economics of COVID, but deaths in America are still going up, whereas in Europe right now, zero deaths in UK, zero deaths in France.Just for starters, bless his heart! This "journalist" seems to have tried!
At long last, a journalist seemed to know how crazy Trump's statements have been—his statements about our vast success with the coronavirus.
This unidentified journalist seemed to know that the United States is, in fact, experiencing a very large number of deaths, while "these countries that the media have been putting up as a shining example of success" have been recording very few.
Finally, a reporter actually tried to challenge the commander's standard riff of self-praise! But alas! Essentially, the journalist presented no useful statistics. Indeed, the statistics he had were just wrong.
The deranged commander had said, once again, that we are doing amazingly well, while the countries the press corps likes to praise were experiencing "massive outbreaks." Using the available data from August 12, a reporter with even minimal competence could have fashioned a question like this:
IMAGINARY REPORTER: I'm wondering if you'll ever be willing to come to terms with the number of deaths in this country from covid-19. In the past week, the United States has experienced just over 8000 coronavirus deaths. Germany and Japan have experienced fewer than 40 such deaths. South Korea has experienced 2.You'd think that someone in that ragtag band would ask some such question at some point, but none of these Potemkins will. On this occasion, the reporter who tried to fashion a challenging question plainly tried and failed:
Eight thousand deaths per week in this country, versus 40 deaths or less! Why do you keep telling the public that the United States is doing so well and that these other countries are now suffering "massive outbreaks?" Is this not a massive deception of the public on your part?
In fact, the U.K. is the covid-19 basket case of Europe, though it's nowhere near as bad as the U.S.
Meanwhile, "zero deaths in UK, zero deaths in France?" In each case, that fuzzy claim is also a fantasy. Where do they find these guys?
At any rate, this is the way these stumblebums snored through Wednesday's convention speech/press event. And uh-oh:
Now we're engaged in a great civil war about a possible war on the post office.
How many people will actually vote this November? Will a whole lot of ballots and votes get lost in the mail, whether coming or going?
Will the lost and disappeared ballots and votes largely come from anti-Trump voters? To what extent is the commander's team trying to make such things happen?
These difficult questions stand between us and our impending status as a new Belarus. The press corps can't control the behaviors in question, but in theory, they do play a role.
Are these stumblebums and propagandists actually up to such a task? Anthropologists say they aren't really sure that the answer is yes.
The guild's script-readers are very strong on the obviously racist and sexist mispronunciation of names. But are these pitiful tribal script-readers actually up to this task?
The press should call the Republican Party the criminal enterprise it is.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the worse thing that can happen. Republicans will deny it, and cry about not being treated fairly.
How is that reaction any different than not rightfully calling the Republican Party a criminal enterprise?
It's even worse than that. Herman Cain died for Trump of Coronavirus after he went to the Tulsa rally to advocate against mask-wearing. He was a Kamikaze for Trump. What if we’ve got a large chunk of the population (the 46% that voted for Trump) that is similarly suicidally psychopathic? How does a country overcome such a huge ball-and-chain of well-organized and suicidal irrationality?
DeleteGloucon, you could also call smoking and driving while drunk and refusing to wear a seatbelt and speeding examples of suicidal irrationality. We deal with those public health issues by making laws and enforcing them. We could do the same thing about mask wearing and social gatherings and some states have already done so, enforced by police. Some of the idiots refusing to wear masks in stores on those viral videos have been arrested after making their scene. It may come to national intervention instead of state and local ordinances.
DeleteAt some point I expect social pressure to get stronger too, as it did with smoking and drunk driving.
"What if we’ve got a large chunk of the population (the 46% that voted for Trump) that is similarly suicidally psychopathic?"
DeleteTell 'em to hurry up and get to the suicide part.
Yeah but what if they what to take everyone with them? What if their attitudes and policies demonstrate that they want to suicide your country, your civilization, and even your entire species?
DeleteThe plan is to keep Tucker Carlson and Jessica Simpson alive for a do-over.
Delete
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Reporter: Do you regret all of the lying that you have done to the American people?
ReplyDeletePresident Trump: What?
Reporter: Do you regret all of the lying that you have done to the American people?
*silence*
Then, President Trump doesn't answer and moves on to the next reporter.
Mandate everyone wears a mask in public.
ReplyDeleteIgnore the cries about totalitarianism from the party of forced birthers.
Retweeted by Don Jr. today:
ReplyDelete“Raise your hand if you think Harris was a whorendous pick. May have misspelled.”
Obviously gendered.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Kevin Drum argues that the postal service should be privatized, ignoring any consequences for the upcoming election.
ReplyDeleteBefore anything is privatized, the corporate charter of the business needs to be changed to show providing service, not making a profit, is the number one priority of the business.
DeleteWithout that, they'll kill the services that lose them money. That's not privatization, that's abandonment.
I get the strong feeling that Kevin Drum wants to abandon the whole problem of the postal service. But the postal service isn't the problem -- Trump's attempts to stay in office without being duly elected are the ultimate problem. The postal service is the current means of doing that. Congress needs to stop this nonsense and fund the postal service, to stop Trump's current plot. Existential questions about the postal service's role in society can wait. I wonder if Drum realizes that Trump is also trying to harm Amazon. I would imagine he buys as much stuff from Amazon as any middle class suburban guy.
DeleteI believe Drum was talking about making it For Profit. Of course they will kill those services and make the rest prohibitively expensive and there will be a greater distance between wealthy and poor.
DeleteI have been reading about postal service in England when mailing a letter required the receiver to pay a franking fee. Nobility had franking privileges and their seal on a letter exempted the receiver from paying for it. There were many people too poor to receive a letter from loved ones and people used to enclose shillings to pay for the delivery.
The government has franking privileges for public business, but that may go away, costing the government a great deal of money to carry out its business, all going into private hands. Do we want this and is it really cost-effective for the government?
I went back and checked and Drum didn't say anything one way or the other about being profit making, but he did say 99% private enterprise.
Delete"Covid-19 was still a big deal at that point in time."
ReplyDeleteCovid-19 is still a big deal. This kind of remark is unhelpful.
Two days ago basically means now in a pandemic in which two weeks is the mean time from infection to symptoms.
DeleteYa think TDH might be ironic here?
Maybe if you ask nicely, he'll mark the parts that are obviously not to be taken seriously.
If he writes "us liberals" it's a good sign he's being sarcastic.
DeleteYou cannot call every stupid thing that Somerby says intentional sarcasm. That is mindreading since he never signals his intent with anything.
DeleteOf course not. TDH writes a lot of stupid things, particularly about science and mathematics, things he seems to present quite seriously. But it doesn't take a mind reader in this case. You just have to be clueless and humorless.
Delete"the United States recorded the most coronavirus deaths recorded on any one day since mid-May—since May 14"
ReplyDeleteOMG! ...wait, what of it? What's so special about May 14, dear Bob?
Meanwhile, FL still has 415 deaths per mil (far fewer than the UK and Italy), and NJ 1,798 deaths per mil; the highest in the world, I presume.
Which is remarkable, I must say, because FL is full of old sick people. As well as AZ.
And where were your tears for NY, NJ, CT, dear Bob? I don't recall any.
"IMAGINARY REPORTER"
Your imaginary reporter is an idiot, dear Bob. There are multiple reasons why "Germany and Japan have experienced fewer than 40 such deaths". Some we can guess, others we don't know yet.
Only an idiot would expect to hear a meaningful analysis of specifics of a world-wide pandemic from a politician.
But of course your imaginary reporter (that's you, dear Bob, you), doesn't really care about the death rates in Japan.
You're only asking about Japan to feed your zombie Orange Man Bad obsession, to scratch your Orange Man Bad itch.
Oh well. And so it goes.
Hey, hey, Donald J. (Trump)
DeleteHow many Americans will you kill today?
"In the first seven months of 2020, the Trump administration conducted more air strikes in Somalia than were carried out during the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, combined.'
Deletehttps://time.com/5879354/civilian-deaths-airstrikes-somalia/
Poor Glenn Greenwald must be exhausted from working so hard to ignore this.
DeleteOur death rate is 34 times higher than Australia despite a roughly equal amount of testing.
DeleteTRUMP: We have far more testing than any country in the world. There’s no country that’s even close.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries This site shows the USA is 19th in testing per 1 million population. All but one (UK) of the countries that have done most testing per population than we have has a lower death rate than us. We are a very close match with Australia, which has a testing rate of 202k per Million compared to our 207k. But our death rate is 516 per million, and theirs is 15 per million. Our death rate is 34 times higher than Australia despite a roughly equal amount of testing. An intelligence citizenry would want to know how the hell that happened.
Mao, don't be discouraged by the negative reactions by these George Soros acolytes. Keep posting every day, day in and day out, over and over, with your wise observations. A suggestion, though - it might help your efforts to disabuse the dembot zombies of their illusions by pointing out that Trump, unlike Biden, is apparently not an "Enemy of God."
DeleteSee, now, I don't know whether this is humor or just a sadly ridiculous comment. On the internet, there is no way to tell.
Delete@4:03 was a response to AC/MA not the dick guy.
DeleteMao - Orange Man IS Bad. The deaths in Florida and Arizona were preventable. He encouraged those states to reopen far too soon. People died because he is "bad" at leading a country in a pandemic. You're in the midst of vast self-deception re. Trump and Covid.
DeleteWe used to be the greatest country. For you and Trump, we are at the "Hey we're not as bas as Italy country."
BTW I'll let you know here when the Florida numbers surpass Italy's which will be in three months.
Smooches,
I encourage you to stay unopened for the rest of this whole decade, dear dembot.
DeleteAm I leading you alright, my dear?
Change the subject all you want. It avoids the truth and therefore puts you "in the congregation of the dead" yourself. The deaths in Florida and Arizona were preventable. He encouraged those states to reopen far too soon. People died because he is "bad" at leading a country in a pandemic. Changing the subject fits you not to break the green damp mould with unfathomably wondrous Solomon, sweet young virgin Mao.
DeleteLet's compromise. Orange Man not as bad as Italy!
DeleteAustralia, despite a roughly equal amount of testing, has a 34 times lower death rate than America does. If we had Australia's death rate we’d have 5,000 instead of 171,000 dead.
DeleteThis American carnage stops right here and stops right now.
-- Trump Inaugural Address January 20, 2017
What, you didn't like my leadership either, dear dembot? Not fuhrer-y enough for you, I guess. How disappointing.
DeleteAnd you, dear dembot @6:35 PM, you need to direct your fake righteous anger at the governors of NY, NJ, Ct, and other zombie-inhabited enclaves.
Tell your liberal priests that deliberately infecting residents of nursing homes -- even if it does seem politically expedient at the moment -- might eventually turn to a disadvantage.
I will do that. I will tell my priests in other zombie-inhabited enclaves that deliberately infecting residents of nursing homes might eventually turn to a disadvantage. I was just planning to meet some enclave dwelling priests so the timing of your advice is great! You sound totally sane and reasonable. Thanks.
DeleteNew cases yesterday Florida: 6,148
DeleteNew cases yesterday Italy (3 x the population of Florida): 520
What is the great leader's plan? Blame, deflect and make excuses as he has always done? I hope he can muster the courage to do something bold. There is no other choice except bold action.
@8:58 AM
DeleteMay I ask: are you one of the voices in Gloucon's head?
Orange man not bad because he's orange. Orange man bad, because all Right-wingers are.
Delete10:50 No.
DeleteNotice how Somerby is making a big deal out of the fact that masks obscure the face and conceal identity. However, he doesn't note that each reporter identifies himself at the beginning of his question, by protocol.
ReplyDeleteThen Somerby says this:
"He rambled on for over two minutes, offering exactly the type of pointless non-answer an open-ended "question" like that will elicit."
An open-ended question is the only way that a reporter can elicit something he doesn't already know. A yes-no question already contains all of the information that a reporter will ever get. Trump isn't going to admit that he lies. He isn't going to admit that he screwed up. He isn't going to answer "yes" to any of those gotcha questions. So it is a massive waste of time. When you ask an open-ended question, yes Trump goes into his rehearsed spiel, as does any politician in response to any question, but with Trump, his impulse control is so weak that he may also say something newsworthy.
But Somerby thinks that he can teach reporters how to do their job. And if Trump admits that our deaths are too high, what will happen? Will the clouds part and a beam come down from the sky bathing us all in light? Will doves fly up to heaven while Trump magically becomes a better man? Of course not. And we will have no new information either.
"Will the lost and disappeared ballots and votes largely come from anti-Trump voters? To what extent is the commander's team trying to make such things happen?"
ReplyDeleteIt was a reporter who got Trump to admit that he is meddling with the postal service in order to affect the election.
"The guild's script-readers are very strong on the obviously racist and sexist mispronunciation of names. But are these pitiful tribal script-readers actually up to this task?"
ReplyDeleteSo, we aren't allowed to talk about sexism or racism until the post office is properly funded? And after that, there will no doubt be some other more urgent problem to solve. This is the way a white man says he never wants to talk about racism or sexism.
Somerby may have been present during the 60s, but he clearly didn't learn anything from them. Those chants: What do we want? [fill in social problem], When do we want it? NOW! (not after world hunger has been solved and the Dodgers have won the pennant).
Still don't get it, eh? No, talk about sexism and racism all you want, but try to talk about it in relationship to actual sexist and racist behavior.
DeleteUnlike Tucker Carlson's stressing the wrong syllable in Harris' first name. There's plenty of real sexism and racism to pin on Carlson.
And who gets to define what “actual” sexist and racist behavior is? Bob Somerby?
DeleteThe last time it was discussed, the talk was about whether the mispronunciation was deliberate or not, not whether it was racist or sexist. I don't see any reason why we cannot talk about racism and sexism concurrent with any such discussion. And I agree with mh. I personally don't consider it sexist or racist, but definitely hostile and deliberate.
Deletemh, it's getting defined an awful lot these days.
Delete@AC
DeleteWell, it’s being discussed a lot. Because it occurs a lot.
I suggest the possibility that Somerby’s definition is either unclear or too limited. He says that calling Hillary Clinton “Nurse Ratched” is sexist, but he pushes back against other, less blatant examples of sexism. His clear implication the other day was the Tucker Carlson accusation that any criticism of Kamala Harris is viewed by liberals as sexist (and/or racist.) (The screen during Carlson’s show said “Criticism of Harris is off-limits.”) Somerby underscored this idea when he said, ironically, “No one criticized JFK!”, by which he meant, JFK was criticized just like Kamala Harris, so that criticism can’t be sexist.
The real purpose of Carlson’s accusation is to deny that there can be any sexism. He knows full well that Trump will use sexist attacks. Carlson wants his viewers to think Trump’s attacks are merely critical (and not sexist) comments, and that liberals want to silence them by falsely labeling them sexist in order to take away their freedoms, like the Nurse Ratcheds that all liberals are.
Amh, I don't think there's much disagreement about the definition. The disagreement is about whether a particular behavior qualifies.
Delete@2:23, The claim of sexism over the pronunciation is the basis for TDH's blog entry "PROPAGANDA, INCOMPETENCE, ERROR: Could Donald J. Trump win re-election?" from Thursday, August 13, 2020.
Talk about anything you want. How could anyone stop you?
How did you decide that the mispronunciation was deliberate? It's a common mistake -- even Biden has done it -- Carlson says it wasn't deliberate, and it hardly rises to a pejorative.
mh again, There's no implication going on here. It's all stated clearly. Carlson attempted to inoculate himself against the criticism that his charges against Harris were bogus by pre-emptively stating that anything he said would viewed by liberals as sexist and racist. TDH laments that liberals played right into that by complaining about something trivial.
@deadrat
DeleteWhat “liberals” played into Carlson’s hands? Did Somerby actually cite any specific liberal reaction? He mentioned the guy on Carlson’s show, but never quoted him. Anyone else, or is this an idle accusation?
How about Margaret Sullivan of WaPo on 8/12? Liberal enough for you? How about on script enough?
Delete@deadrat
DeleteFirst of all, Somerby didn’t cite that. I asked you if Somerby cited any liberal pundit.
The article by her I saw on 8/12 talked about the mispronunciation being disrespectful, not sexist.
Any others?
Oh, sorry, you want TDH and me to do your homework for you. TDH complains about the liberal media. There's evidence for that or not whether TDH cites such or not.
DeleteAnd OK, disrespectful of a woman candidate. Not sexist at all. You win the hairsplitting contest. But you can do the same web searches I can. I'll give you a head start. Begin with thehill.com.
The onus is on TDH because he is the one making the accusations, not mh.
DeleteTDH repeating wrong-headed Right-wing accusations? Must be another day of the week.
DeleteCorby, sure. In a debate. And if you want to claim that TDH hasn't made his case, that's fine. But this isn't a debate, and TDH is either right or wrong, depending on the evidence, which itself stands or fails independent of whether TDH cites it.
DeleteTDH says "our pundits" are failing, but he only cites the one appearing on Carlson's show. (And as another commenter pointed out, Fox isn't going to find the strongest opposition voice.) So is TDH right when he uses the plural?
I'd say so.
Trump is now calling Harris an angry black woman. Anger is an emotion that is assigned to men, not women. It is role incongruent and thus a gendered criticism. (Sadness and fear are assigned to women.)
ReplyDeleteThey tried this with Michelle Obama too, but look how far it got them. Kamala Harris smiles too much and has too much charisma for this one to stick.
Did he actually call her "an angry black woman?"
DeleteHe called her a "mad woman" and "angry" and "nasty" in a recent tweet referring back to her conduct asking questions during the Kavanaugh hearing. It was clear from context that he meant angry and not insane.
DeleteThere is a cultural stereotype of the angry black woman that his reference taps into.
"We Have Her Back, a group of prominent women in politics including former Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards and former Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett, called on media outlets last week to avoid “stereotypes and tropes” that have been “weaponized for Black and Brown women” in the past. Trump’s characterizations of Harris as “nasty,” “angry” and a “mad woman,” fall well into one of those. Focusing on a woman or Black woman’s “show of anger at injustice or any other kind of passion in communication perpetuates racist tropes,” the group argued, adding that the tropes “suggest unfairly that women are too emotional or irrational in their leadership or worse ‘hate America.’” -- Forbes
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/08/13/trump-calls-harris-mad-woman-as-top-campaign-advisor-questions-her-vp-eligibility/#7fec2bd15043
That’s a “no” from Anonymouse 4:01pm, AC/MA.
DeleteSince she is a black woman, calling her “angry” is equivalent to calling her an angry black woman. Just because the other two words are missing doesn’t mean it magically becomes non-racist. That why it’s called a “dog whistle.”
Deletemm, why didn’t I think of that?!
DeleteI could have told you that Palin was called dumb and that this is sexist because “dumb woman” is a sexist trope.
But then you would have said that some people, even women, truly are dumb and.... Hey! Wait a minute!...
I’m flattered to be confused with mm (although, sadly, I suspect it was just a typo.)
DeleteI was thinking of next going with ms.
DeleteMost of the women I know, including myself, didn't like it when Palin was attacked in sexist ways. It seemed to me that Palin welcomed the ditsy female role, but that didn't make it OK for anyone else to attack her on it, and that includes Tina Fey's portrayal of her on SNL. If women want things to change in terms of sexism, that change must be accomplished on behalf of all women, including the ones who may not seek it, such as yourself and Palin.
DeleteYes, that would follow, Anonymouse 7:10pm,
DeleteIt would be hard to change things for women without making them change for cave women such as Palin and me.
Good thinking.
Trump would attack anyone who was chosen by Biden as his Veep, male, female, black, white, whatever, whether what he says has shred of validity or not. It's a logical fallacy that calling her 'angry' or 'nasty' given that she is 'black' (and also 'asian') means that he is calling her that because she's black. she might be left-handed, and a lot of other things - by the above logic, he's calling her nasty/angry because of that.
DeleteI think Tina Fey's portrayal of Palin was fine. But maybe Lisa Ann Corpora's was just over the line.
DeleteTrump knows how to play to his racist audience. That's what he is doing when he calls Harris an angry woman.
DeleteYou can disagree with this analysis, but your opinion doesn't change racial history in this country.
@7:45 PM
Delete"It's a logical fallacy that calling her 'angry' or 'nasty' given that she is 'black' (and also 'asian') means that he is calling her that because she's black."
So, you can't even translate from Humyn to Zombie, dear dembot?
What are you, the unfrozen caveman lawyer?
AC/MA likes the term "logical fallacy" but he doesn't know what one is.
DeleteTrump was pissed at Harris for her questions during the Kavanaugh hearing.
DeleteTrump knows sexual predators need to have each others backs, even if one is an Adderall addict, and the other is a drunk.
From Politicus:
ReplyDelete"Progressive PAC VoteVets has released a new ad repudiating President Donald Trump for his attacks against the United States Postal Service (USPS).
The video features narration highlighting the military deferments Trump received when he was younger (he crafted the now-infamous “bone spurs” excuse to get out of serving in Vietnam. The narrator also points out how much veterans depend on the Postal Service for prescription deliveries and for receiving their ballots. An estimated 100,000 veterans also currently work for the Postal Service, according to its official website."
"Lt. General Russel Honore called for a march on Washington to stop Trump's from hurting the troops and veterans by slowing down the mail delivery."
DeleteFrom The Hill:
ReplyDelete"President Trump plans to give his re-nomination acceptance speech either at the White House or what he calls the “great battlefield” at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Both locations are federal property whose use for political activities may violate the law. "
This is a national cemetary and should be treated with the dignity and respect of any burial ground. Trump is incapable of showing respect to anything, much less to places that are important to others.
From Political Wire:
ReplyDelete"A federal judge appointed by Donald Trump gave the president’s campaign one day to turn over evidence to support its claims of widespread mail-in voting fraud or admit that it doesn’t exist,” Bloomberg reports.
Trump’s lawyers claimed Pennsylvania’s mail voting plan “provides fraudsters an easy opportunity to engage in ballot harvesting, manipulate or destroy ballots, manufacture duplicitous votes, and sow chaos.”
Somerby says:
ReplyDelete"The commander started with a short criticism of Harris. ("I think that's probably one of the reasons she was a terrible candidate and was forced to leave the race, because she got her facts wrong. She's very bad on facts, she's very weak on facts.")"
It would have been sufficient to have stated that Trump started with a criticism of Harris, but Somerby has to repeat the criticism, even though he does not talk about it below in his essay.
He does this kind of thing so often, that it is plausible to think one of his purposes here is repeating and spreading these conservative talking points, in this case the criticism of Harris. Of course, the right hasn't made much of this particular criticism of her, since their base doesn't care about facts and wouldn't consider it a bad thing if a candidate were "weak on facts". Calling Harris an unnatural woman for being too angry is more their style, but Somerby doesn't believe in racism or sexism, so he emphasizes this attack on Harris's factual acumen by giving it pride of place in his own essay.
He did this sort of thing many times, inventing a reason to chastise the press while repeating verbatim lengthy criticisms and attacks on Hillary Clinton. This is like saying to someone "I guess you don't want anyone to know that you were accused of abusing your dog," but I want you to know that I consider that an underhanded attack. Yes, the person is nominally complaining about the attack, but also spreading a filthy untruth that the person would no doubt wish to have kept quiet. Somerby never misses an opportunity to pile on a conservative attack on a female candidate, as he did to Harris during the debates as well.
His protestations against the press are no doubt sufficient cover to appease deadrat, but I believe his larger purpose is to spread the criticisms themselves, not to reform the press. His choice of press behavior to focus upon makes that pretty clear to me, if not to Somerby's fellow travelers.
Anonymouse 1:24 PM:
Delete“He does this kind of thing so often, that it is plausible to think one of his purposes here is repeating and spreading these conservative talking points...”
That..,OR the obvious.., That having criticized Trump’s veracity and his analytical abilities, Somerby is highlighting the irony of Trump claiming that Harris is known for not having a firm grasp on the facts.
Cecelia, your suggestion would be plausible except that Somerby himself, not too long ago, raked Harris over the coals for her own use of facts. Her offense was quoting the same statistic that nearly ALL public women use about the wage gap. Somerby disputes it, so he called out Harris for her grasp of facts.
DeleteAlso, there is the fact that Somerby spends very little time disputing the facts presented by Trump. He instead focuses on the so-called liberal media and various public liberals, female professors and those victims of sexual assault who he feels are overstating their cases. That makes your theory about Somerby's intentions less likely to be true, in my opinion.
It would be nice if Somerby were actually writing humor here, but any jokes here are either unintentional or irritating.
Standup comedy is ritualized and occurs in a specific venue. When a writer is writing satire or using irony or telling a joke, there needs to be some contextual clue or signal that what he says is not to be taken seriously. Many of Somerby's remarks are too ridiculous to be true (his anthropologists in caves, his analysts who weep), but he leaves the rest for us to decide about, which is inappropriate if he is trying to be a humorist. It is not OK for him to say offensive or foolish things, then claim he is just kidding and can't you take a joke? And it is not OK for his supporters to claim that about him, either. He has self-presented as a serious political blogger for years going on decades. These are his opinions, not jokes or irony or satire (unless tagged as such).
Anonymouse 3.35pm, almost the entirety of the blog today is about the “deranged” commander and what Somerby describes as his inability to give a coherent, let alone cogent answer to questions, and about the media’s inability to deftly counter this via their follow ups.
DeleteSince Somerby has had a bee up his bonnet about a particular statistic, he was hardly singling Harris out when bemoaning her use of that statistic.
This is marsh ground for an accusation that TDH is engaged in a stealth-undermining of Harris for Putin.
Sorry you need to be signaled of impending humorous remarks. That can’t be fixed. Not even with an ear horn.
Oh, so you’re saying that because your feelings are hurt it’s okay for you to prove Somerby’s point by being determinedly tone deaf.
DeleteGood way to cut off your nose to spite your face.
What a deflection. You didn’t answer the question. Is that statement supposed to be serious analysis? Is it a joke? What? It seems an absurd statement to me, if you look at the actual facts.
Deletemh, define "Liberal." It would be fascinating to hear what the definition is supposed to be.
DeleteIn 2016, I voted for a self-declared "democratic socialist." Is he a Liberal? I want to know.
Or were you talking about Clinton? I didn't bother to parse your one number to understand who it was you were referring to.
If she's Liberal, then perhaps we should examine the idea of "Liberalism" as a dead letter in practice.
And anyway, nobody reads this blog.
Leroy
mh, I answered the question. I answered the one on Somerby’s seriousness concerning his description of you.
DeleteI even pointed out that you (and the anonymices) prove him right in your inability to not turn this comment board into a daily tone-deaf freak-out zone because of this view.
That’s why you think my comments are absurd.
Cecelia, I said Somerby’s comment was absurd, not yours. Can you read?
DeleteLeroy, if you don’t think Clinton is a liberal, then you are operating under some definition of liberal that you would need to explain. Do you think your definition matches Somerby’s? If so, how do you know?
DeleteMost people viewed Hillary as the liberal candidate.
I have stated previously that it would be helpful if Somerby would define what he means by “liberal”, since he uses it all the time. Otherwise, it’s almost impossible to know how to have a discussion.
Bob criticizes Trump for boasting and for not criticizing himself. What a joke! Every candidate boasts. No candidate criticizes him/her self.
ReplyDeleteE.g., Biden claimed credit for the peace agreement between Israel and the UAE -- an agreement brokered by President Trump.
“I personally spent time with leaders of both Israel and the UAE during our administration building the case for cooperation and broader engagement and the benefits it could deliver to both nations, and I am gratified by today’s announcement,”
Boasting about his deal with UAE and Israel, his tremendous perspicacity with the virus, grabbing the pussies unsuspecting women.
DeleteTrump is awesome!
I love him so much it just makes me want to grab his piggly wiggly little dick. How about you David? Have you ever wanted to grab Trump's dick? Just out of admiration for his contributions to humanity?
Btw, how many dead is it now? Is it Easter yet?
"Every candidate boasts."
DeleteWhen Al Gore did it, they ridiculed him and called him a liar, and he wasn't even boasting in the way they accused him of. Now, all of a sudden, it is OK to boast, and tell lies about yourself to boot?
No sir.
"they"?
DeleteIt was the corporate-owned, (not at all) liberal media (AKA the media) who unfairly ridiculed Gore during a national election.
"REPORTER: Mr. President, since you didn’t see Kamala Harris’s remarks today, I wonder if we could just get you to respond to one thing that she said."
ReplyDeleteIn 2016, Hillary would make statements about the other candidate's policy and no reporter would ask her about it, nor would they ask Trump. Her statements vanished into thin air.
They are asking Trump to respond to Kamala Harris in order to needle him, but this IS another example of sexism. Somerby is critical of the question, supposedly because of the "open-ended" question, but he clearly doesn't recognize that it is a good thing that the female VP candidate is getting exposure at all. Her comment is exactly the kind of thing that Somerby used to claim reporters should be confronting Trump with. But now it is no longer good? His crap about "open-ended" questions strikes me as cover for objecting to Harris's remark.
Challenges to male privilege and sexism often feel like vague discomfort to men. Something is wrong but they are not necessarily consciously aware of what. Somerby knows he has a gripe about the reporter quoting Harris, but he has hung his objection on a very thin straw.
The very thin straw of what TDH has been complaining about the media and its ability to facilitate germane information since long before Harris was a household name?
DeleteWouldn’t it have been of more help to Kamala Harris if the question had been one that didn’t foster Trump into doing a lounge act?
Perhaps, from a reporter who understood how to do a more professional version of the man Trump pointedly ignored earlier?
“Facilitate germane information?” From Trump???? You must be joking.
DeleteAnd every single question Trump has been, will be, or might be asked will foster his lounge act.
He’s nuts, remember?
So who cares what the media do as to engaging Trump vs how they engage the not crazy Harris, huh?
DeleteWhy be concerned with such pointless matters when you can worry about what Bob Somerby blogs.
Cecelia, Are you addressing me specifically? I care what the media does. The matters aren’t pointless. I don’t “worry” about what Somerby blogs. I frequently disagree and express that. That is not = “worrying.” I am able to disagree with Somerby AND pay attention to the media.
DeleteAnd wasn’t it Somerby who thought the press conferences shouldn’t be televised at all? I don’t agree.
I’m glad, mh.
DeleteI’m guilty of a bit of tone deafness in reading your 6:24pm post.
"Why be concerned with such pointless matters when you can worry about what Bob Somerby blogs."
DeleteCecelia, those "pointless matters" are what Bob Somerby is blogging about.
"Trump cut off a reporter and refused to answer when he was asked at the White House Press Briefing if he supports the QAnon conspiracy theory."
ReplyDeleteThis is how Trump behaves when a reporter asks him a question that pins him down.
Somerby's complaint that reporters just aren't asking their questions the right way is ridiculous with someone who behaves like Trump does.
From Political Wire:
ReplyDelete"The International Association of Chiefs of Police “asked for each candidate’s views on nine specific areas of crime or other issues that impact law enforcement, and the solutions they planned to provide. The chiefs asked how they would address violent crime, violence against women, hate crimes, homegrown violent extremism, opioid abuse and traffic safety,” the Washington Post reports.
“Biden’s response on the nine issues stretched over four pages, calling for assault weapons bans, massive investment in drug treatment programs and investing $300 million in the COPS program to hire more officers and deputies.”
“Trump did not respond to the nine issues and provided no explanation.”
“Trump did not respond to the nine issues and provided no explanation.”
DeleteAnd the NYPD Union promptly endorsed him.
‘We need your strong voice across the country’
The president at one point informally polled the cops in attendance on the best disrespectful nickname for Democratic nominee Joe Bide: “Sleepy Joe” or “Slow Joe.”
The cops cheered louder for Sleepy Joe.
“That’s what I thought!” Trump responded.
LOL
From Lawyers, Guns & Money blog:
ReplyDelete"On Monday, Iowa was leveled by what amounted to a level-two hurricane. But you wouldn’t know that from reading, listening to or watching the news.
While the storm did garner some coverage, mostly via wire stories, its impact remains underreported days later. The dispatches, focused on crop damage and electrical outages, have been shouted down by the coverage of the veepstakes and the fate of college football. Conservatives’ consternation over the new Cardi B single has gotten more attention than the Iowans left without power or food for what may be weeks. And all this, as the pandemic continues to wreak havoc throughout the state.
Iowa’s last disaster, breathlessly covered by the media, was the caucuses. After that, everyone moved out. The dearth of coverage means we are struggling here, and no one knows"
Meanwhile Somerby whines about meaningless nonsense while the NY press ignores what is happening to real people.
From Rubber Hose blog:
ReplyDelete"Trump is forcing all wage earners to take out a no-interest payday loan
Suspending enforcement of the payroll tax deduction, just means a small amount no longer gets deducted from employees' pay and then the entire undeducted amount will all become due at one at the beginning of 2021. That's not a tax cut--the tax is never cut, you still owe it, just later--it's a payday loan.
You know what, I wouldn't want a payday loan, even an interest-free one. The deduction is too small for me to notice on a biweekly basis, but I sure as hell will notice getting couple of thousand dollar tax bill later on. I'd rather pay it a little at a time when it seems painless. I'm sure others feel the same way, and that's not even considering the fact that this tax funds Social Security and Medicare, something the public has no interest in defunding."
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