THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2023
Also, Stephens and Brooks jump ship: Joe Biden had always been known as a bit of a gaffe machine. (That was before we started to learn about the various ways he failed to rein in his drug-addicted son.)
This latest gaffe—the error involving the classified documents—is one of the most unfortunate.
We just looked in on the first segment of this afternoon's Deadline: White House. Needless to say, the reporters and friends were busy reciting the differences between what Biden and Trump did.
This morning, on Morning Joe, they were still using an obsolete graphic based on Karl Rove's recitation, a few days ago, about those seemingly major differences.
Rove's commentary only involved the first set of Biden documents. As of this morning, the data Rove had cited were obsolete.
On Morning Joe, nobody noticed or cared! They just kept propagandizing viewers with the graphic which said that Biden's gaffe involved fewer than a dozen documents.
This gaffe was a gift to the GOP. Looking ahead to the rest of the year, and given the drift of the GOP House, we may all need to get ready for worse—for big-time substantially worse.
Stephens and Brooks jump ship: In this morning's New York Times, David Brooks and Bret Stephens describe the way they abandoned the Republican Party.
Brooks described his exit first:
BROOKS (1/12/23): In the 2000 Republican primaries I enthusiastically supported John McCain. I believed in his approach to governance and I admired him enormously. But by 2008, when he got the nomination, the party had shifted and McCain had shifted along with it. I walked into the polling booth that November genuinely not knowing if I would vote for McCain or Barack Obama. Then an optical illusion flashed across my brain. McCain and Obama’s names appeared to be written on the ballot in 12-point type. But Sarah Palin’s name looked like it was written in red in 24-point type. I don’t think I’ve ever said this publicly before, but I voted for Obama.
Brooks broke bad in 2008. Later in the same conversation, Stephens offered this:
STEPHENS: I wouldn’t have had trouble calling myself a Republican till 2012, when I started to write pretty critically about the direction the party was taking on social issues, immigration and foreign policy. In 2016 I voted for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time in my life, did it again in 2020, and I think of myself as a conservative-minded independent. If I haven’t finalized my divorce from the G.O.P., we’re definitely separated and living apart.
Stephens took his leave from the GOP in 2016.
We're a bit surprised to see the two discussing the possibility that the GOP can somehow still get itself straightened out.
Given the rise of talk radio, "cable news," the internet and social media, disinformation (tribally pleasing true belief) is major big business now. Given the way we fallible humans tend to believe the things we hear, it's hard to see an obvious way out of this ongoing mess.
“Given the rise of talk radio, "cable news," the internet and social media, disinformation (tribally pleasing true belief) is major big business now. Given the way we fallible humans tend to believe the things we hear, it's hard to see an obvious way out of this ongoing mess.”
ReplyDelete1) "Press freedom"
2) "The level of trust in society"
3) Public school scores in reading, science and math (on the PISA)
So who’s the problem here, Bob?
Try some complete sentences. You'll be glad you did.
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Meanwhile another nail in the Russiagate coffin. It was reported today that Democratic leadership and corporate media disseminated fake news in 2018 about the 'release the memo' hashtag on Twitter by claiming it was all due to Russian bots. None of the people making the claim ever called Twitter to verify this claim. It was revealed today with evidence that Twitter knew from the start use of the hashtag didn't include any Russian bots at all! Yet these powerful Democrats and their cabal of media courtesans continue to spread the lie
ReplyDeleteYet not one word from Somerby about this damning story of propaganda and lies coming from the very top levels of power within the Democratic Party
You’re stupid.
DeleteTwitter is only a small part of social media. This says nothing about Russian activities on Facebook, for example.
DeleteJanuary 9, 2023 at 7:26 a.m. EST
Delete"Russian influence operations on Twitter in the 2016 presidential election reached relatively few users, most of whom were highly partisan Republicans, and the Russian accounts had no measurable impact in changing minds or influencing voter behavior, according to a study out this morning.
The study, which the New York University Center for Social Media and Politics helmed, explores the limits of what Russian disinformation and misinformation was able to achieve on one major social media platform in the 2016 elections."
So, I guess you thing they had a huge success at Facebook instead?
They only examined Twitter.
Delete"Testimony by tech company executives at a hearing before the Senate Intelligence
DeleteCommittee suggested that as many as 126 million Americans might have come into web
contact with various ads on Facebook while another 20 million people may have been
reached via Instagram.
These numbers, however, need to be put in context: They represent a tiny fraction of the “33 trillion posts Americans saw in their Facebook news feeds between 2015 and 2017…Facebook reported that a quarter of the ads were never seen by anyone. And — with the average Facebook user sifting through 220 news-feed
posts a day — many of the rest were simply glanced at, scrolled past and forgotten”
The Russia story was made up by Democrats and intelligence agencies to lie to and fool they very people who support them. It is indisputable.
But Bob doesn't even mention it - showing us all where his loyalties lay.
DeleteAnonymouse 8:40pm. the term “gaffe” showed us that.
DeleteThe Russia story was made up by Democrats and intelligence agencies to lie to and fool they very people who support them. It is indisputable
DeleteWhy would they do that?
Because it damaged Trump and his ability to get anything done, it took attention away from the shortcomings of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic party in general and because it was a simple, sensationalistic story for the media to tell that was also spectacularly profitable.
DeleteLook at Somerby gloat over. Biden’s predicament. Any doubt now where he stands politically?
ReplyDeleteAnonymouse 8:01pm, what predicament is that?
DeleteGo read a newspaper.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteAnonymouse 8:36pm, what’s he gloating over?
DeleteEmbarrassment of Biden.
DeleteBiden continues to be cancel cultured (i.e, criticized) by the Right.
DeleteWhat's embarrassing? This exchange.
DeleteThis situation is not a gaffe by Biden. A staff member goofed. It isn’t the president’s job to make sure classified documents are returned to storage after use. Staff does that. That’s why Trump’s actions were so shocking when he stole documents.
ReplyDeleteDid Biden declassify the documents as to their publication?
DeleteNo.
DeleteNeither did Trump
DeleteIt doesn't matter if Biden is impeached because we have the wickedly brilliant and singularly politically charismatic Kamala Harris waiting in the wings to lead our country into a new era where working people get their fair share.
ReplyDeleteLet me tell you how this works, doll face. The President can only be removed by a conviction in the senate. Impeachment is what the House does.
DeleteI was just making fun of what a hapless and mediocre politician she is and how the choice of her as vice president was cynical and stupid.
DeleteMediocre, yes. Hapless, no.
DeleteA person of color and a woman, yes.
DeleteA fascist, no.
Maybe we could ramp up prosecution of marijuana smokers nation-wide and use the monies to fund... I don't know, more prosecution.
DeleteAs one of the above posters indicates, nobody could read this and miss Bob was probably always a hard core Republican, and has been engaging in a long game fraud that makes me a little ashamed I ever fell for it at all.
ReplyDeleteHe jumps on the corporate media talking points,
much like Bill Maher does (Bob may be cribbing from
him here) that Biden is or was a "Gaff machine." Yes,
and he stumbles so badly when he speaks you can
hardly understand him! Except that he speaks
just fine and you can always understand him unless
you are pretending you can't.
The supposed "gift" Biden has given the right is
the standard "time to sell some products to Republicans"
bullshit" that we are about due for. Some are saying there
was one "Top Secret" document (a handful of low level
classified Docs is meaningless, as the one found on
some email Hillary Clinton had was), I will wait and see
on that, it is a serious infraction if true.
But the attitude is of course crucial, Donald Trump
claims he was welcome to take whatever he wanted.
This needs to be litigated. No evidence suggests
Biden and his people did anything but turn the
documents in. Biden is obviously a good man who
loves America. Donald Trump is obviously a twisted
hood who cares only for himself. And no Bob, the
fact that many people for different reasons dispute
that two and two make four changes nothing.
Here Bob joins Fox in propagandizing for
Trump. F you, Bob.
Bob is a Lincoln republican.
DeleteI’m not sure what that means, 12:03, but Bob likes to idolize Lincoln and romanticize his commitment to reconciliation, “the better angels of our nature”, etc, but conveniently ignores the fact that Lincoln took sides with the Union to crush the South, and ordered the freeing of the slaves in Southern states. If Somerby had been writing in 1860, he would have stood with the confederacy, chiding Lincoln for not listening to the “others.”
DeleteRe. the criminal investigation into Joe Biden's storage of top secret classified documents in multiple locations - documents -
ReplyDeleteFrom Rude Pundit:
It’s been leading the coverage on CNN, MSNBC, the Times, and the Post.
Delete"the Times".
DeleteReally darling? It's leading the coverage at "the Times"?
DeleteYes, uh, the “New York Times” and “Washington Post.” I didn’t realize you needed that elementary clarification. It’s getting a huge amount of press right now.
DeleteWhy would it be getting a huge amount of press? It wasn't his fault and is not at all comparable to Trump's storage of top secret documents. Any suggestion it is is whataboutism.
DeleteAre you saying it's a whataburger?
DeleteRe. the criminal investigation into Joe Biden's storage of top secret classified documents in multiple locations -
ReplyDeleteFrom Lawyers Guns and Money:
Does the egg on your face taste good, 11:02:
Delete“THE ULTIMATE BOTHSIDES STORY”
Published 1/12/2023, 12:13pm
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2023/01/the-ultimate-bothsides-story
Garland Appoints Special Counsel To Investigate Biden Handling Of Classified Documents
Deletehttps://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/garland-biden-documents
And it has 817 comments as of now.
I guess you’re right. Liberal sites just are completely silent about this.
What a maroon you are.
The problem is Biden sounds slow and halting in his press conference. He has considerable difficulty simply reading a prepared statement without numerous verbal stumbles.
DeleteTrump is bad. Biden is good. End of story.
DeleteLook at Trump and Biden! Racism! Gas ovens! etc.
DeleteMeanwhile the magician's other hand is stuffing the issues of the wealth gap, wars for profit, corrupt lobbyism and campaign reform into his other pocket.
The audience appluads.
Re. the criminal investigation into Joe Biden's storage of top secret classified documents in multiple locations -
ReplyDeleteFrom Digby:
BUUTTT TRUUUUMP!!!!
If you're a straight ticket voter, If you drink either brand of kool-aid, if you treat politics like a football match, if you enjoy gloating over the other party's suffering more than you enjoy rooting for your own team...
DeleteThese are all indicators you don't matter, you're a commodity.
Petraeus and Sandy Berger always returned the classified documents, but they were both prosecuted.
ReplyDeleteSupposedly, if you listened to NPR and other outlets last year, classified documents have to be signed out, so no one can just walk off with them. How any of these documents could have ended up in someone's garage for 5 years seems to suggest something wrong somewhere.
It may be a marginal improvement to return the classified items and then try to hush it up--at least as compared to Trump's behavior, but if there is anything in the federal law that makes that distinction I would like to see it quoted.
Don’t worry. The attorney general has appointed a special counsel.
DeleteWell, President Trump’s view is that he can decide to take whatever he wants. I would indeed like to see that litigated.
DeletePlease. From ABC News to Z, a prestigious amount of manpower is putting this to bed.
DeleteThe Republican party started going crazy years before Trump. Just research the 1964 Goldwater campaign.
ReplyDeleteEvery host and guest on Morning Joe yesterday morning was white.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"We're a bit surprised to see the two discussing the possibility that the GOP can somehow still get itself straightened out."
The GOP, dear Bob, appears to be okay. It has different competing views, political struggles, as we observed recently.
It's your brain-dead cult's political wing that appears to be acting as a single-minded brain-dead entity.
Yes one tribe is fine and the other not. A nuanced take? No. Go team!
DeleteThe purpose of these laws is to keep these documents safe. Yet an unknown person was able to take them and put them in a garage for five years. We don't know who put them there; we don't know why there is no record of the documents going missing; we don't know who may have seen them in the five years they were missing.
ReplyDeleteAll I'm seeing now is a celebration of how harmonious the process was of shutting the barn doors five years after horses got out.