WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2023
Our journos fear medical specialists: This past Sunday, Donald J. Trump gave a campaign speech in Iowa. Eventually, he started to share.
Over at New York magazine, Margaret Hartmann transcribed what the candidate said. Here's what he said about two different forms of death:
HARTMANN (10/2/23): During a campaign event in Ottumwa, Iowa, on Sunday, Trump filled the crowd in on his preferred method of death, should he ever find himself on a sinking boat in shark-infested waters.
“If I’m sitting down and that boat’s going down and I’m on top of a battery and the water starts flooding in, I’m getting concerned,” Trump explained. “But then I look ten yards to my left and there’s a shark over there. So I have a choice of electrocution or a shark. You know what I’m going to take? Electrocution. I will take electrocution every single time. Do we agree? Yeah, I will take electrocution.”
Hartmann provides the videotape. Also, a longer transcription, to provide reassurance concerning the context of those remarks.
We're not even saying that the standard journalistic practice is, on balance, "wrong." But, as if by rule of law, our press corps refuses to speak to medical specialists concerning the possible meaning of such bizarre public conduct.
Is there a way to get "back out of all this?" ("Back out of all this now too much for us?")
Is there a way to emerge from this mess? We can't say we're real sure that there is.
Capone, Hitler, Stalin— any of the great men of history would have known what to with a pest like Trump.
ReplyDelete"Is there a way to get "back out of all this?" ("Back out of all this now too much for us?")"
ReplyDeleteYes, don't vote for Trump or anyone like him ever again.
Don’t vote for any Republican.
DeleteTrump's musing about sharks vs electrocution is harmless. The more serious part of his speech is that (1) Trump doesn't know that we have had electric boats for years already, and (2) there is no likelihood of electrocution if a battery-powered boat takes on water. These are facts that Trump should know, suggesting that he isn't competent to do the job due to ignorance, not that he is crazy or needs to talk to a medical specialist because he doesn't want to be attacked by a shark. Who does?
ReplyDeleteBut what is Somerby's excuse? In the context of his speech, this particular musing wasn't bizarre to his audience. But Somerby doesn't do context.
And today, Somerby's goal is to deride the media for not suggesting that a major candidate for president is crazy and needs to have his head examined. It would be malpractice if any journalist followed Somerby's demands.
Stormin’ Norman Brown saw it coming . If only we had followed him!
ReplyDelete"But, as if by rule of law, our press corps refuses to speak to medical specialists concerning the possible meaning of such bizarre public conduct. "
ReplyDeleteWhat's so bizarre about it? This is how normal people chitchat. You may prefer politicians who behave like robots (Al Gore comes to mind), but that's just your own personal quirk.
Come to think of it, your current Great Leader (the Big Guy) does a lot of this sort of meaningless chitchat too. Why aren't your medical specialists checking him out?
Gore did not act like a robot. That was Republican media nonsense.
DeleteGore has always reminded me of Mr. Rogers.
DeleteThere’s something seriously wrong with you, Cecelia.
DeleteWell, there’s a surprising sentiment.
DeleteThere was nothing wrong with Mr. Rogers. Gore has his manner. Al should be flattered even by that small comparison.
Go watch An Inconvenient Truth again. Gore is nothing like Fred Rogers. You just thought the remark would be funny. But these quips are mostly annoying given that Republicans don’t consider Rogers’ warmth a presidential trait, so you are sliming someone who isn’t running for office, and Rogers, who never hurt a fly. What kind of person goes out of her way to do that — for a joke? An ugly piece of shit like you.
DeleteI wasn’t talking about what Republicans consider, I stated what I perceive regardless of how unpresidential you or Republicans find it.
DeleteAl Gore reminds me of Fred Rogers’ He speaks like Fred. He has the same vocal inflections as Fred. He has the same plain manner as Fred.
Deal with it.
Fuck off
DeleteIt’s curious that you think I’m slimming Fred Rogers by seeing in him similar traits of manner with Gore.
DeleteYou slimmed Fred down real good.
DeleteCecelia, you are such an imp. Doh!
DeleteGore is kind of effeminate with a hint of a patronizing tone, so I can see some resemblance to Rogers; likely both Gore and Rogers had gentle, good natured souls, and insights into human nature that made disingenuous small talk awkward.
Rogers was always slim, he was a vegetarian; he was also a devout Christian, and a registered Republican. Judging from the content of his show, he seemed woke (everyone remembers the episode where a football player practiced ballet), so he was probably, politically, a progressive.
I couldn’t stand his show as a kid - it was slow, and boring, and weird, but in college I found it calming - in fact it later became a trend among college students, to watch his show.
I met and spent some time with Rogers when I worked for WQED, he was the same off camera as on his show: an absolute genuine and sweet person.
Trump’s rants aren’t so much bizarre as:
on the good side - incoherent and irrelevant
on the bad side - mean spirited, hateful, part of a con.
His open mic night shtick could be amusing if the consequences weren’t so dangerous. Recall, he dismantled our pandemic preparedness before Covid, and then seemed to think he could just will it away. Trump’s gross incompetency in handling the pandemic led to the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans, that’s blood on his hands.
Trump will be convicted next year (in DC it’s a lock) and sentenced to some kind of confinement.
I would prefer sharks but if he wants electrocution, I'm fine with that too.
DeleteAnonymouse 11:53pm, I don’t find Gore effeminate. He’s low-key and plain-spoken, the sort of person you discount as not being particularly swift, until you suddenly realize he’s run a lap around you. He was a good-looking man. He can sound more than a little dad-ish.
DeleteFred Rogers was a great guy. You all should have run him for president. Or better yet, have run Tipper Gore. I admire her more than Al. She’s a mensch and has vigor and sparkle.
Rogers was a Republican.
DeleteWhat’s your point?
DeleteTipper Gore was a religious nut who tried to get rock songs banned for their lyrics.
DeleteGore championed the music labeling system like the one we have for motions pictures.
DeleteMy point is that there was no reason to expect Democrats to nominate Rogers. Republicans could have done so, because he was one of them.
DeleteAnd don't forget liberals and liberal press, whatever
ReplyDeletestrange, mean, or stupid things conservatives are doing,
it's your fault.
Trump is always at least half bad stand up. That
is all he is attempting here. Some people think he is
funny enough to vote for.
Biden is concerned about dogs. The ill-tempered Commander has been removed from the White House.
ReplyDeleteThe 12th bite was over the line. Plus the news report.
DeleteDogs are retarded.
Delete