SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2023
Red and blue far, far apart: At one time, it was aspirational:
Black and white together.
Today, the colors are slightly different. Within the realm of American news, our discourse is increasingly driven by this configuration:
Red and blue far, far apart.
For the latest example of what we mean, consider the gong show which occurred when the children at Fox & Friends First were asked to respond to The Nutcracker.
For the record, we would have advised Jill Biden to take a different approach. Inevitably, the children will respond this way, we would have skillfully told her.
Others would have disagreed with that advice; they could have made good points too. But according to the New York Times, here's what happened when the first lady decided to go with the version of The Nutcracker which she selected:
CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK
Who’s Afraid of a Tap Dance ‘Nutcracker’?
It’s December and the White House is alive with the sound of music—and the joyful sound of tapping feet. What could be more festive, more wholesome?
In a short video posted to Instagram by Jill Biden, a group of dancers perform a tap version of “The Nutcracker.” Shot at the White House for the holiday season, it’s an excerpt from “The Nutcracker Suite,” a production by the award-winning Dorrance Dance, led by Michelle Dorrance.
The clip drew heavy criticism on Fox News and in The New York Post. It was shocking to see something as innocuous as “The Nutcracker” stir up such outrage.
The report by Gia Kourlas continues on from there. For the record, Kourlas "is the dance critic of The New York Times."
This may explain why she was shocked by the way the children behaved.
How exactly did the children behave, even with Santa Claus taking names at this time of the year? Headline included, here's the way the youngsters' meltdown was described at The Wrap:
‘Fox & Friends’ Howls at Jill Biden’s ‘Bizarre’ White House Nutcracker Dance Video: ‘Willy Wonka Weed Dream’
“Fox & Friends First” wasn’t first to mock the jazzy, razzle-dazzle-y “Nutcracker Suite” tap-dance video shot in the White House and posted this week by Jill Biden. But the Fox News hosts certainly took their time stepping all over it.
And the early morning “Fox & Friends” spin-off didn’t just go off on the holiday kaleidoscope fever dream contents of the oddly metered performance—they started out taking shots at the politics of the dance troupe itself.
“There is more,” cohost Carley Shimkus said Friday morning. “The New York City dance company she hired to perform promotes defunding the police, prison abolition and the debunked ‘1619 Project.’”
Guest Jimmy Failla, comedian and host of “Fox Across America,” responded, “We learned a lot from this video. Mainly, it turns out it was Jill Biden’s cocaine in the White House. Who had any idea?”
“No, no!” Shimkus faux-protested.
“How would you approve of this if you were sober?” Failla continued. “Because it’s absurd! That video looks like the type of dream you would have if you dropped acid and went to bed. It’s bizarre … There is a dancing guy in a pig mask. There is an odd wooden soldier ballet. I don’t know what to make of it.”
"I don’t know what to make of it,” Failla confessed. Experts said that state of affairs was quickly apparent during the Fox & Friends segment.
For the record, Failla is the kind of comedian who is intrinsically funny. (Many comedians pretty much aren't. These are subjective assessments.)
We also get the impression that Shimkus is smarter than she's supposed to be in performing her duties on Fox. She offered a comment during yesterday's childish segment which brought this pre-existing impression back to mind.
At any rate, the children went on and on and on, critiquing the short White House video. Below, we'll provide the link which will let you see how stupid the whole thing was.
(For the record, blue thought leaders responded in somewhat similar ways concerning some of Melania Trump's unsettling Christmas decorations.)
Concerning the performance by the Fox & Friends kids, we would offer this:
This is the kind of brain cell death which results when a very large nation's news industry is split into red and blue segments. So it goes each morning on "cable news," with blue performers crowded together on the Morning Joe set and the reds repeating each other's assessments in the playpen at Fox & Friends First.
A large modern nation can't function this way. To see the way the children clowned on Fox & Friends First, you can just start here.
You'll be looking at red and blue far, far apart. You can't run a railroad this way.
It would be nice if Somerby had provided a direct link to the Nutcracker performance first, instead of making us go find it in the NY Times dance critic's article. We should have the chance to determine our own reaction to the dance video without having it filtered through Somerby's or anyone else's. But it is easy to find.
ReplyDeleteWhen you watch the video, it is obvious why the right wing has been reacting negative to it. It is full of smiling black young people dancing. What offends the right more than happy black people making noise and living large? You don't have to look any farther than that.
“ You don't have to look any farther than that.”
DeleteAnonymices should have that emblazoned on a sash to wear with their short pants uniform.
oh fuck off
DeleteThat racism is a fundamental and pernicious aspect of American society, one merely needs to peruse any and every metric that matters.
DeleteThe American Dream has always been about placating White working class folks that while they will just have crumbs compared to the wealthy, they will always have more than people of color.
Since right wingers, of which Republicans are a subset, are definitionally folks obsessed with hierarchy and dominance, it’s the Right that is manifesting that obsession through various oppressions, such as racism, such as keeping their boot on the necks of Blacks.
Anonymouse 1:03pm, that’s already on your knapsack.
DeleteWhat part of fuck off did you not understand?
DeleteThe part where your order makes any sense.
DeleteI’ll have fries with that, does my order make sense?
DeleteSomerby appears to be part of a phenomenon that has affected other former left wing media participants. Kevin Drum notices:
ReplyDeletehttps://jabberwocking.com/are-progressives-really-turning-to-the-right/
Drum blames it on all the issues lefties must care about, but that is handled fine by having consistent values. Beyond that, Drum doesn't speculate about why this happens, but the first commenter (Brett) does and I think he captures it well:
"They suffered some kind of indignity from lefties and then turned on them.
They also often had some regressive views on social issues, that got overlooked at the time because they had left-wing economic views and sounded like Bernie Sanders supporters (and sometimes were). IIRC the "Red Scare" women were always kind of homophobic and such. Taibbi had some gross misogynistic stuff from his days in Russia.
There's also a surprisingly large amount of money available for contrarians who defect from the left. I imagine the money really helped the Taibbis and Greenwalds of the world - money not just from ample substack followers, but from right-wing rich patrons and organizations."
In Somerby's case, he has always held problematic attitudes toward women, a chip on his shoulder about Harvard and academic "elites" and an affinity for the South (based on a story about him in the Harvard Crimson student publication about his college years with Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones). He began expressing that Southern chip on his shoulder first, defended a series of men accused of wrongdoing by women, then let it all hang out with racist reactions to shootings of unarmed black men, although he disguised his dislike of Hillary by supporting Bernie. In 2015 he found his champion and went full-on against the left, like the others mentioned by Drum.
I agree with Brett that money may have had a lot to do with it. Others here speculated at the time that some ego indignity may also have provided the spite motivation. But Somerby belongs on that list.
Well said, and good on Drum, if he’s showing some self awareness.
DeleteThis poor guy spends years of his life concocting his evidence-free, batshit conspiracy theory that in 2015 Putin began paying Somerby to lead dumb liberals astray. And he repeats this ridiculous theory incessantly.
DeleteHas this blog ever changed anyone’s mind about anything? Has any blog ever managed to do that?
DeleteIt seems to me that people come here because they already agree (to some extent) with Bob’s view of the culture or they’re here because they don’t agree and want to counter/disparage him.
CC - This blog has changed my mind. I have much less respect for the competence of media than I had before I began reading Somerby.
DeleteWhat initially brought you here?
DeleteDG,
DeleteIf you were the media, you'd skew Right for the corporate tax breaks, too.
CC - I started reading when Paul Krugman gave some shout-outs to Somerby a couple of decades or more ago. What brought you here?
DeleteThe evidence is Somerby himself, but Doggie face won’t consider it. If folks like Taibbi and Greenwald have obviously shifted right and there is solid evidence other blogger comedians have been paid (previously posted here in comments), why not Somerby?
DeleteI googled something and TDH was in the results and I followed the link.
DeleteIt’s more akin to awareness than a mind change. Whatever.
DeleteAs others have noted, the stark contrast with Somerby started around the same time other media figures were receiving payments to do Putin’s bidding. Somebody has to pay for those bagels.
Defending right wingers for their right wing stances is not a compelling narrative to convince others you’re not a right winger, whether you are a blogger or a commenter with a stupid nym.
One specific thing I changed: I used to write “Cecilia,” but after reading TDH, I write “Cecelia.”
DeleteAnonymouse 2:15am, how many commenters would there be here without the presence of dogmatic whackos who think Bob’s a Russian agent?
DeleteHow much weird fascination and traffic do you think you nut-cases engender from people who read, but never comment?
You’re here because you’re in thrall with someone who is your very own dictator. If she and you lost interest, it would be we “fanboys” and a coterie of Bob’s friends who address him privately.
No, the anonymouse anger and personal angst dynamic doesn’t make sense. You’re being paid, even if it’s just in the sense of helping a mama figure.
Mama figure? Like Madonna? What the heck are you talking about?
DeleteWho pays Cecelia? She has no clear reason to be here ever, given that she never makes substantive comments and exists only to stroke Somerby's ego while complaining about nyms and calling people rodents (a type of vermin dontcha know).
Anonymouse 10:20am, other than enjoying the blogger, I have no reason to be here.
DeleteFancy that.
Yastreblansky (at Rectification of Names blog) says this (discussing a National Review discussion of All in the Family):
Delete“… the mythology conservatives have constructed to account for the Trumpery, that it was brought on by the haughty college-educated élites who rule the world, with their contempt for poor (white) working class folk, forcing them to lash out in response with their intemperate voting behavior.”
This is exactly what Somerby was saying in 2015-16. It is the conservative line about Trump supporters. Why would a supposedly liberal blogger write that, almost verbatim? We are not imagining Somerby’s rightward shift.
https://yastreblyansky.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-soros-of-comedy.html?m=1
DeleteRunning a railroad does not require that everyone agree. In fact, having a diversity of opinions guarantees that all perspectives will be reviewed and the result will be based on a wider understanding of any problem. That is a good thing. But what is needed is some way to resolve differences and make decisions. That is what has been subverted, largely by the right wing judging by the dysfunction in the House on the Republican side. Somerby is complaining about the wrong things here. He needs to be chiding the right about their theatrics, unwillingness to compromise by considering the needs of others, their corruption by billionaire funding, their grandstanding, and so on. But Somerby seems to think the problem is that too few lefties are like the right wing.
ReplyDeleteYou would think today's essay about animosity toward tap dancing would show Somerby that he is supporting the wrong guys over there. But he is instead still telling us we are the problem.
Somerby clowns: if Blacks and Whites are supposed to get along, why can’t the blues and the reds get along?
ReplyDeleteSomerby, here’s a starting point: there’s no difference of significance or importance between Blacks and Whites (unless you’re a racist); there are very meaningful differences between the blues and the reds. Duh.
Look at it from the White's perspective.
DeleteThe perspective you refer to is accommodated parenthetically.
DeleteThink about their contributions.
DeleteThey nearly accomplished having all their work done by Blacks and getting rid of all Jews. So close, if only they’d listen better to Somerby.
DeleteThe myriad solutions.
DeleteThere’s no solution for Somerby’s dumb takes, best one can do is offer counterpoints.
DeleteEveryone is aware of the White perspective and contribution.
Somerby wants to be colorblind so he can deny racism.
Off topic:
ReplyDeleteThis depressing article gives vital background IMO.
We Were Taught to Hate Jews
‘It’s like asking me how often I drink water. Antisemitism was everywhere.’
The following five ex-Muslims grew up in Canada, Europe, and the Middle East, but they were all indoctrinated, they say, with the same views on Jews and Israel. They remember a childhood shot through with antisemitic moments ranging from the mundane (one woman recalls her aunt claiming Jews put cancer in her vegetables at the market) to the deadly (a former extremist went as far as to pick a location in London for a terrorist attack he planned to carry out at 17).
These hateful ideas, repeated by their family members, religious leaders, and teachers, are part and parcel of the same animus, they say, that fueled Hamas’s attacks on October 7.
Some of the people you will hear from below have received death threats for speaking out on issues like antisemitism and sexism in the Muslim world. One uses a pen name to protect herself and her daughter from her terrorist ex-husband, who is currently jailed in Egypt. All of them came to reject their loathing for Jewish people and the West, and have rebuilt their lives in the wake of their realizations. Here are their stories, which you can read or click to listen to each author recite in the audio recordings below.
“To enter our classroom, we had to step on a painting of the Israeli flag on the ground.”
link is https://www.thefp.com/p/we-were-taught-to-hate-jews
DeleteThe majority of Jews live in the US, in relative peace and comfort, and they tend to vote blue and support efforts to end Israeli oppression of Palestinians; only a minority of Jews live in Israel, they live in constant turmoil, and they tend to be right wing and fanatical in their hatred of Palestinians.
DeleteHere is a taste of how Israel’s current right wing administration views Palestinians and are openly expressing a desire to engage in genocide and ethnic cleansing; it’s disturbing:
https://youtu.be/uxzcKiSuJQw?si=X1rHSZbCzGKimLOz
Try to consider how the other side feels.
DeleteJewish people in the US with relative in Israel have a legitimate concern when Palestinians engage in acts of terror.
DeleteContemplate the contrary viewpoint.
DeleteIf they were truly concerned, they’d have their relatives immigrate to the US.
DeleteHamas is a terrorist organization that does not represent most Palestinians. It’s like bombing Dallas because of the nutty religious cult in Texas.
Israel has killed exponentially more Palestinians than what they have suffered. Israelis in the Netanyahu admin are openly calling for a genocide of Palestinians. More journalists have been killed in Gaza than in WWII or Vietnam…
This kind of math where you try to equate killings is ridiculous. Hamas should never have attacked Israel. The Palestinian people in Gaza should not be sheltering, encouraging, tolerating or joining Hamas. Instead, they are directing their anger at Israel. It is time for this war to stop but that can only happen when the Palestinians accept the need to live as peaceful neighbors with Israelis.
DeleteThose nutty cults in Texas are not using innocent people as human shields, the way Hamas does. Stop making false equivalencies and accept responsibility for what the Palestinian people have brought upon themselves by attacking Israel, over and over and over again. Even during the ceasefire, Hamas was firing rockets into Israel. If Palestinians do not support Hamas, they need to say so to the world and start peace negotiations.
"Those nutty cults in Texas are not using innocent people as human shields, the way Hamas does."
DeleteThey do it. But they do it differently than Hamas.
Red and blue.
ReplyDeletehttps://jabberwocking.com/republicans-angry-about-removing-huge-confederate-memorial/
Democrats focus on symbols. Republicans focus on policies that actually help blacks.
DeleteDemocrats need to focus on Biden.
DeleteDavid,
DeleteHow does suppressing their votes help blacks?
How does cutting taxes on wealthy people help black people?
DeleteBefore his departure, George Santos introduced forty pieces of legislation, which went nowhere. In addition, he voted for 153 pieces of legislation. Of these, one was enacted. Naming a commemorative coin. Rick Scott, the esteemed Republican senator from Florida, you know, the one whose company defrauded Medicare of hundreds of millions of dollars, has now proposed investigating the NCAA college football selection committee for failing to place FSU in the final four. So let's not hear about the remarkable competency of the Republican party at getting meaningful legislation attended to. LOL.
DeleteThe overwhelming number of registered Black voters are Democrats. In order to promote the notion that Republicans enact legislation that favor them more than Democrats, it is necessary to argue that Blacks vote in opposition to their own interests. Granted that some say the same about middle class citizens who vote for wealthy tax cuts that raise the debt. It takes a special kind of mindset to make such claims of superiority: that they know better than the affected group, who are presumed to be either manipulated or ignorant or both. When directed at a racial subset, there is a word for that.
DeleteHispanics are leaving the party as well.
DeleteThe Republican Party was suppressing their votes, anyway.
DeleteUnamused — Groups vote against their own interest all the time. IMO Jews who vote Democrat ic are voting against their interest. Does that make me an antisemite?
DeleteLook at the policies. What do blacks need the most? Education. Jobs. Stable 2-parent families. Democrats keep blacks in failing schools by opposing school choice. Dems oppose cuts in corporate income tax, cuts that create jobs for blacks. Dems support welfare plan structures that discourage 2-parent families.
Consider the benefits of voting Republican.
DeleteHow's the black unemployment rate doing, David?
DeleteBlack unemployment is doing well, but not quite as low as President Trump had it before covid https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS14000006
DeleteTrump did a terrible job with covid.
DeleteNow how the fuck did Trump do that, when record black unemployment rate was set in April 2023?
DeleteFigures don't lie, but liars do figure, eh David.
Inside the US jobs report: Record-low Black unemployment
DeleteBy Dan Burns and Howard Schneider
April 7, 20231:43 PM EDTUpdated 8 months ago
April 7 (Reuters) - The Black unemployment rate hit a record low in March, a milestone for a U.S. labor market that most policymakers and economists expect to begin cooling in the face of higher interest rates, jeopardizing those historic gains.
@6:57 PM - the answer to your question is that black unemployment has gotten worse since April. You can see this at the link I provided above.
DeleteWhat was it when your Hitler quoting hero slinked out of town, David?
DeleteDavid,
DeleteDo you support defense choice? Or do you think the government bureaucrats know more about defending the children of the USA better than their own hard-working parents?
#vouchersfordefense
The Axis Powers should not have attacked the Allies.
ReplyDeleteYou need to get a job or a hobby.
DeleteKetchup is good on beef, and mustard is good on pork.
Deletehttps://themessenger.com/news/penn-harvard-liz-magill-claudine-gay-antisemitism-wilmerhale-robert-mueller-law-firm
ReplyDeleteGay and Magill were both prepped by Robert Mueller’s law firm and that firm spoke with Kornblum.
Not according to Papadopoulos.
DeleteCecelia, do you mean Kornbluth?
DeleteAnonymouse 12:56pm, yes, thanks.
DeleteAmen.
ReplyDeleteDavid in Cal was sent by God to lead Black people.
ReplyDeleteHe’s a modern Moses.
DeleteDavid selflessly bears the white man's burden.
DeleteWomen need to spend more time cleaning.
ReplyDelete