Jamelle Bouie's pundit malpractice!

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2024

But also, MVP Krugman's: It's very hard to avoid being angry at pundit malpractice like this.

More precisely, at what looks to be the latest case of scripted pundit malpractice. We've been commenting on such comment-by-the-numbers punditry going all the way back to the days when the standard bogus pundit recitations were aimed at Candidate Gore.

Let it be said that we agree with where Kevin Drum ended up in yesterday's post. The post appeared beneath this accurate headline:

Voters need to be more scared of Donald Trump

We agree with all those words. More on that post below.

For now, here's Jamelle Bouie, a very bright person, commenting by the numbers on the sayings of Donald J. Trump. Weirdly familiar headline included, the malpractice looks like this:

Trump Is Losing It

[...]

It is not just that Trump is ignorant on [NATO] and other vital questions; it is that he is incoherent.

Consider his remarks at a recent gathering of the National Rifle Association in Harrisburg, Pa. “We have to win in November, or we’re not going to have Pennsylvania. They’ll change the name. They’re going to change the name of Pennsylvania,” Trump said.

Who, exactly, is going to change the name of Pennsylvania? And to what? I don’t know. I doubt Trump does either.

Thus spake the New York Times columnist. In fact, thus spake the second New York Timers columnist! One day earlier, Paul Krugman had listed some of Joe Biden's legislative accomplishments, and then he'd offered this:

KRUGMAN (2/12/24): If you ask me, these achievements say a lot more about Biden’s capacity than his occasional verbal slips.

And what about his opponent, who is only four years younger? Maybe some people are impressed by the fact that Trump talks loud and mean. But what about what he’s actually saying in his speeches? They’re frequently rambling word salads, full of bizarre claims like his assertion on Friday that if he loses in November, “they’re going to change the name of Pennsylvania.”

Not to mention confusing Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi and mistaking E. Jean Carroll for one of his ex-wives.

Krugman didn't know what Trump was talking about. Neither did Bouie.

We did know what Trump was talking about. The upper-class journalists didn't know because they're locked inside a blue lagoon, a self-satisfied type of blue bayou.

Needless to say, Trump's comment was hyperbolic, semi-comedic and stupid. That's true of almost everything he says or has ever said since he came down the escalator back in 2015.

His statement was typical Trump. That said, many people in his Harrisburg audience did know what he was talking about. They would have known because they live in Pennsylvania, and because they watch the red tribe's "cable news" channel, as few blue poobahs do.

What was the Trumpster talking about? The basics are included in this January 8 AP news report, headline included:

Park Service retracts decision to take down William Penn statue at Philadelphia historical site

The National Park Service withdrew a proposal Monday to take down a statue of William Penn at a Philadelphia historical site as part of a renovation that touched off a torrent of criticism over the legacy of the man who founded the province of Pennsylvania.

In a brief statement, Independence National Historical Park said it has withdrawn the proposal it had announced quietly before the weekend about a wider renovation of Welcome Park, located just blocks from the Liberty Bell and the National Constitution Center.

The proposal, it said, was released “prematurely” and hadn’t undergone a complete internal review.

“No changes to the William Penn statue are planned,” it said. The park service never explained the reason for the impetus to remove the statue.

[..]

Pennsylvania’s top Republican state House member, Rep. Bryan Cutler, had accused President Joe Biden in a statement of trying to “cancel” William Penn. Cutler called it “another sad example of the left in this country scraping the bottom of the barrel of wokeism to advance an extreme ideology and a nonsensical view of history.”

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro took credit for the park service’s reversal, saying in a statement that “my team has been in contact with the Biden Administration throughout the day to correct this decision.”

That's what Trump was talking about. Upper-classmen Bouie and Krugman didn't know, and they didn't bother to ask around or check.

They simply plowed ahead with their blue tribe foofaw. It's very hard to avoid being angry about know-nothing conduct like this.

The William Penn statue was coming down. Perhaps through use of a ouija board, Governor Shapiro knew about the plan and took credit for reversing it. 

This whole thing was widely pimped within the realm of red tribe cable.

That's the incident to which Trump was referring in his silly statement. Bouie and Krugman didn't know.

They also didn't ask around and they didn't fact-check. Their lazy scribbling was close enough for mainstream press corps work.

This is the way this game has been played ever since mainstream pundits came up with Al Gore said he invented the Internet.(followed by its three thousand sequels). The basic credo has always been this:

If it feels good, repeat it! Always say what the last guy said!

Krugman was once on the side of the angels. He's become a bit of a blue silo man. Concerning Kevin's main point, his original 2/11 post had carried this headline:

The real Donald Trump is losing it

Two days later, there was Bouie, with the same tribe-pleasing line.

Yesterday, Kevin disagreed with our reaction to his initial post. That said, he ended yesterday's post with the passage shown below. We agree with the final highlighted statement, at least as far as it goes:

DRUM (2/12/14): There's not much to be done at this point about either Biden's appearance or the wilder precincts of liberal wokeness, so the only way to defeat Trump is to make center-right voters more scared of him than they are of Democrats. I'm not precisely sure how to do that, but one way is to keep banging on what he says until swing voters take it seriously and realize they really can't put the country in his hands again.

So that's what we need to do, even if it's not precisely accurate to say that Trump is only now losing it. One way or another, Trump's moderate fans need to start fearing him the way they should.

We agree with that final statement. Among other things, our blue tribe should be looking for ways to influence Trump's "moderate fans"—his more persuadable voters.

That's what we should be trying to do. The question we posed in our original post was this:

To date, why has our tribe been unable to accomplish that fairly obvious task?

We plan to explore that question in the days and weeks ahead. In our view, stumblebum punditry by people like Bouie and Krugman is one part of the reason Trump is ahead in the polls.

It's very hard to avoid being angry at high-end work of this type.  Krugman used to be our exalted MVP. Now he's sometimes just hacking it out, with Bouie square on his heels.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep. We've been getting eaten alive by the lazy script-reading of the mainstream pundit class dating all the way back to the 1990s and the wars against Clinton and Gore:

Fools For Scandal got thrown down a well. The press corps' war against Gore was ignored, even as it thundered ahead.

The Ben Johnson character put it best in The Last Picture Show. "I've been putting up with this [lazy] behavior my whole life," the character memorably said.

Donald Trump feeds on meat of this type. We keep tossing it to him.


119 comments:

  1. Of all the pundits who write dumb things, Krugman is the most annoying. He’s super smart. He should be above this ignorance.

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  2. This afternoon, let's not ridicule or insult David, even as we disagree with him.

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  3. “We did know what Trump was talking about. The upper-class journalists didn't know because they're locked inside a blue lagoon, a self-satisfied type of blue bayou.”

    No, the upper-class journalists did know what Trump meant.

    They’re coy and duplicitous.

    That’s is now the job description of the entire media industry.

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    Replies
    1. Now Cecelia pretends to mind-read the press, telling us what they knew and didn't know. Somerby has written essays himself decrying such mind-reading, asking how anyone can know when someone is lying. Apparently Cecelia was out sick on that day and didn't get the message.

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    2. Anonymouse 4:41pm, when the media isn’t actually ignorant of something, they’re feigning ignorance in order to gaslight.

      Just like you’re now feigning having an actual point about me and about TDH history.

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    3. The point is that you cannot know whether they are ignorant or not without climbing into their heads. Somerby is against that kind of mind-reading. He has said so before -- you have said that you have been reading Somerby forever, so you must have seen those essays where he defended Trump's lies by claiming he really believed what he was saying. And unless we could prove otherwise, we had to give him the benefit of the doubt about his ignorance and mistaken beliefs.

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    4. Anonymouse 4:56pm, why would something Somerby has said against “mind-reading” deter me from offering what I know to be the case?

      The removal of the Penn statute had been reported and even if that HAD not been the case, any sentient person would have immediately surmised the state’s evil white male namesake and put it together.

      Quit being coy and duplicitous.

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    5. You don't know what was in their minds. You barely know your own mind.

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    6. Anonymouse 5:26pm, oh, I’m absolutely giving you more credit than you give me.

      I know both you and Krugman knew immediately what was meant.

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    7. Actually, I didn't. I don't live in Harrisburg or PA. I don't watch Fox News. When I first heard the statement it sounded like it was coming from outer space. Now that I know what he meant, it is still wrong and stupid, much like the Congressman who was talking about litter boxes in school hallways. Crazy.

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    8. Bob and Cecelia take refuge here in their self satisfied hatred, singling out a group they have a good time hating. Cheap insults, as usual, abound.

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    9. Anonymous 6:29pm, when did either of us call someone a pedophile?

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    10. The right has called both Biden and Hillary pedos. It is routine. But you have defended actual pedos.

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    11. Biden was caught licking his niece's neck.

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    12. Anonymouse 7:07pm, I would never defend anyone who I knew to be a pedophile and I’ve never called anyone that unless there was proof of the charge.

      Your excuse for calling someone that is that other people throw such terms about so you will too? That is terrible thinking.

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    13. I’ve never called Somerby a pedoophile either. I’ve noted his defense of Roy Moore, April-December romances, and his fawning and sometimes bizarre remarks about various 12-14 year old girls over time. You can do the math. There is no evidence Somerby has ever behaved inappropriately with a young girl, but as Somerby likes to say, anything is possible.

      The smears of Biden and Clinton are much worse and likely way more undeserved. I’ve never heard Somerby defend either good decent politician from such right wing slurs.

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    14. Anonymouse 9:26pm, you obnoxious dissembling coward.

      It never fails to amaze me the things anonymices will say about people based upon the preface that this person failed to say all the things that anonymices want them to say.

      Delete
    15. How’s your world, Cecelia? Do you get a little relaxation in your busy schedule of defending Bob Somerby’s honor 24/7?

      Delete
    16. Anonymouse 10:33pm, yes, relaxation. A sense of justice.

      Nothing like your pay rate for incredibly inflammatory accusations.


      Delete
    17. 10:33,
      Cecelia is offering you career advice. You're wasting your time here, when Fox is paying top dollar for incredibly inflammatory accusations against immigrants.

      Delete
  4. Somerby offers the William Penn statue take-down (not renaming) as evidence of what Trump was talking about. But, there is nothing in his excerpt that refers to any renaming of anything, not the statue, not the park. So why would Trump generalize that to an entire state being renamed?

    This probably goes back to conservatives calling any attempts to rename schools or parks or to remove offensive words from location signs (Squaw Pass) as part of wokeness. Conservatives use this kind of shorthand on Fox and amongst themselves, and they know what it means whether it is true or not. In fact, it doesn't have to make any sense or be true at all, as this example from Pennsylvania illustrates. Nothing was being renamed in Pennsylvania. You have to reach to a different incident somewhere else to know what exaggerated B.S. remark Trump was making.

    And Somerby defends this. He says we liberals need to watch Fox in order to know without being told what the right's shorthand anti-left remarks mean. Well, that isn't going to happen. So Trump can go on preaching to the converted, or he can try to find some additional votes, but he won't do it by expected the left to understand right-wing in-jokes at their expense. Fuck that.

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    1. Anonymouse 4:47pm, yes, the only indication of what Trump meant by renaming Pennsylvania was the planned removal of a William Penn statute which caused controversy and so was in the news.

      Everyone in Trump’s audience knew what Trump was referring to and the media knew it too.

      You likely didn’t know squat. The media count on that.

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    2. If I didn't know squat, it was because Trump didn't tell me what he was talking about. If Trump spoke clearly, Bouie and Krugman would have nothing to complain about.

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    3. Anonymouse 5:10pm, I’ll take you at your word that you didn’t know about the Penn statute controversy, but you do know Pennsylvania's namesake and you are aware that historical statutes have been removed. Recently a Thomas Jefferson statute was removed.

      This may be the only time I’ll say that you’re merely playing dumb.

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    4. Removing statues is not the same as renaming entire states. Trump equated the two in his mind without telling anyone else he was doing that.

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    5. Anonymouse 5:33pm, so now you’re going to play completely clueless as to ironical statements.

      You’d feign a brain injury if you thought it was detrimental to a political opponent.

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    6. What do you think was "ironical"? Trump? In your dreams. He thinks in stream-of-consciousness with ideas loosely connected by personal meanings (not accessible to listeners). Many mentally ill people do that, including schizophrenics, those in manic phase with bipolar disorder, people with frontal lobe problems including dementia, young children, people on drugs such as pot, alcoholics with Korsakoff's syndrome, anyone psychotic for whatever reason.

      That's why sounding like this is not a good look for Trump. It is also why conservatives fear educated people -- those are the ones who will notice how messed up Trump's thought processes are. The same goes for Somerby.

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    7. Cecelia, you’ve said statute instead of statue twice now. You just ain’t cognitive no more.

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    8. Anonymouse 6:11pm, a spell checker can’t make anyone more cognitive.

      If that’s what it took, you’d be David.

      Delete
    9. Anonymouse 5:54pm, Trump is ironic, satirical, and also loutish.

      An inability to discern humor or abstract concepts can be a sign of mental illness.

      You might want to get that checked out.



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    10. He is too stupid to be satirical or ironic. You may be reading things into his speeches that aren’t there.

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    11. If there are organizations led by morons running your country, and you know they're lying, then why the hell wouldn't it be your responsibility to do something about that?

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    12. When someone accuses you of trying to destroy America it's better to say "I'm trying to protect the parts you are trying to destroy."

      Taking down monuments to slavery is a thing some Americans want because they want to be part of the country too not because they want white people to feel guilty.


      Oftentimes it's seen as an attack to take down a statue of a slave owner but this is actually relevant to your daily life whether you're white or black or brown.

      Slave holding economy is based on the politics of not liberating people and keeping them down. That means that the government taxing you is oppressing slaveowners because it's going to use that money to spend it on the former slaves who deserve no freedom.

      This philosophy of taxes carries through to the modern conservative mindset. So because race is such an inflammatory issue they're able to have incredibly totalitarian philosophies of economy based on slavery politics of hundreds of years ago and if you try to call them on it you're trying to make white people feel guilty etc etc and you can't even talk about the politics.

      The author Nancy MacLean tried to call attention to this and she was smeared by people from the Federalist society as a stupid dumb commie.
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_Chains

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  5. It's quite obvious that Donald Trump is a great speaker. Great populist speaker. All you need is to see the crowds he draws. People coming from all over and standing in line for hours hoping to get in and listen to him.

    And it's not surprising at all that shape-shifting alien reptiloids of the DNC perceive him as incoherent. After all, they are ...well... alien reptiloids.

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    1. Those crowds haven't been as large as previously.

      Are you coming out as a Q-Anon believer @4:48?

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    2. Are you coming out as an alien reptiloid, 4:54 PM? Or only a servant of alien reptiloids?

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    3. If I, (I’m not 4:48), were to assert that Trump’s inaugural crowd was not as big as Obama’s, or that Trump really lost in 2020, would that make me a reptile, or a DNC bot, 5:03?

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    4. You just sound stupid, 5:13 PM, not reptiloid. Why would anyone care about inaugural crowds? And everyone knows Trump lost, otherwise he would've lived in WH now.

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    5. Anonymouse 5:13pm, neither of those assertions have made you those things.

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    6. It was a historical reference, much like Trump's, to the way Trump tended to exaggerate his crowd sizes and refused to believe the reality that they were not that big. If you were a member of the blue tribe bubble you would know immediately what it meant, but since you are an Eastern European on a troll farm, it went over your head. If 5:13 were running for president, he would have provided background about Trump insisting that his crowds were bigger when they weren't in 2016. But we all know what 5:13 meant, even if you didn't.

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    7. Anonymouse 5:32pm, I do remember the inaugural crowd size controversy and the 2020 election controversy.

      Go back and reread my statement.

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    8. I don’t think 5:32 was referring to your comment, Cecelia.

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    9. Referring to 5:26

      Delete

    10. @5:32 PM
      Back in 2016 Donald Trump said, in his usual adorable style, that his inaugural crowd was UGE!!! And forgot about it the next second. That was a totally insignificant, inconsequential, trivial episode, 8 years ago. But it burned a UGE hole inside you. Somehow it made you angry and agitated forever, till the rest of your life.

      That's why I say that TDS is a serious mental illness.

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    11. Trump literally humiliated and undermined his first press secretary, Sean Spicer, by forcing him to attack the press continually over the crowd size issue. Hey MaoMao, you should check out CDS, if you think TDS is bad.

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    12. Trump is your God, 6:09 AM.

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    13. 6:32, Crazy maomao, Rush Limpdick is still dead.

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    14. Pray harder 7:32 AM, and he will cure your speech defects. But your being an idiot moonbat is probably beyond repair.

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    15. This week marks the 3-year Anniversary of Rush Limbaugh finally kicking his decades-long drug addiction problem.

      Delete
  6. Pennsylvania should be renamed in honor of its most brilliant son: Chomskysylvania.

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  7. DiC - CPI comes in at 3.1% YoY. Coming down, but not quite as quickly as expected.

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    1. George -- people see this as bad news. That's why the Dow Jones dropped over 500 points.

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    2. After reaching an all-time high yesterday, you mean, David?

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    3. The elites take a beating on Wall Street and David in Cal sheds them some tears.
      If Biden cures cancer, will David bitch that it hurts the chemo industry?

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    4. These Wall Street bozos are fundamentally irrational. There is no justification for these wild daily price swings. They make a lot of money to rationally evaluate the state of the economy and the performance of business sectors. This should not change overnight because one metric came in slightly higher than anticipated.

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    5. I was around in 2007-2010. Tell me, again , that the stock market is a real thing, based on economics.
      LOL.

      Delete
  8. "They also didn't ask around and they didn't fact-check. Their lazy scribbling was close enough for mainstream press corps work."

    Here Somerby is demanding that the press ask a red tribe translator to explain Trump's incoherent remarks before the press assumes he is babbling again. This is like the proud parent who understands their toddler when he lisps ba ba doo doo, and tells baffled onlookers, "oh that means he wants his bottle now," as if her child could talk.

    Why should the sane world have to accommodate Trump's incoherencies, as if they had their own special language, and then treat Trump as if he had something meaningful? I would do it for a toddler but Trump is not only a grown man but seeking election to our highest office. I sincerely believe that a president should be able to speak to his own people, ALL of them, not just the ones who share some insider knowledge about "changing a state name" referring to wokeness run amok at a rally where red tribe locals (not sure the blue ones would recognize this reference) may know what he means but no one else does.

    It is not our responsibility to follow Trump around so that we can experience his world as our own. He needs to reach out and make sure he is being clear whenever he speaks to a crowd of potential voters. It is called politics. And no, Trump doesn't get a bye on communication. It is part of the president's job description. Nor is it up to the press to engage in problem-solving to figure out what Trump really meant. Their job is to quote him correctly. Which they did, and it was incoherent to most people not residing within Trump's MAGA bubble.

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    1. "oh that means he wants his bottle now,"
      That's the translation of every Republican politician's speech, since Newt Gingrich came on the scene.

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  9. Somerby has said, over and over, that Trump is mentally ill. And yet, Somerby fails to show any examples. Here, it’s just Trump being his comedic self, carefully tailoring his speech to his audience, who knew exactly what he meant. That … doesn’t sound like mental illness (if Somerby is correct here).

    So, what indicates that he is mentally ill?

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  10. Two year old telling the plot of a movie: A big dog was sad because it couldn't go home.

    Six year old telling the plot of the same movie: It was about Snoopy the dog. He followed a girl home and then she locked him in her house and he couldn't go home to see Charlie Brown.

    Twelve year old telling the plot of the same movie: I watched this old Charlie Brown movie where Snoopy was kidnapped accidentally and tried to get home but couldn't. It seemed kind of upsetting for little kids but the music was good. I like jazz.

    Trump telling the plot of the same movie: People should lock up their dogs. Yes, build a bigger fence, so they don't follow women they've never met before into department stores and get sued by a totally corrupt prosecutor. I don't like dogs, never had one.

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  11. "In our view, stumblebum punditry by people like Bouie and Krugman is one part of the reason Trump is ahead in the polls."

    In my view, verbal stumblebummery by Trump is one part of the reason sane listeners will shake their heads at Trump's incoherent remarks and say "what is wrong with that guy?"

    Next, Somerby will be saying that when Trump confuses Nancy Pelosi with Nikki Haley, it is because women with names starting in N stand for all the women who have wronged him politically, and that everyone in the audience knew what he meant, so what does it matter that Nikki Haley didn't have anything to do with 1/6.

    When a speaker makes an incomprehensible gaffe, the listeners will work very hard to makes sense of the statement, if they like the person and care about what he is saying. This is called linguistic charity. It happens when people interpret errors in order to fit what they think the speaker intends, to preserve an overall meaning during communication. The audience no doubt helps Trump out a lot during his speakers, by figuring out what he means or laughing along even when a joke is unclear.

    There is no reason why people who dislike Trump and don't want to see him reelected, should want to give him that same charity. Somerby is demanding that Bouie and Krugman do so, but it isn't their job to interpret Trump, it is Trump's job to communicate clearly. We don't owe Trump anything here on the blue side. We certainly don't owe him the effort to become red in order to get his allusions.

    To see this, understand that Trump cannot force anyone to understand his speech statements. People would have to want to find out what he means. But why would anyone want to? As shown, Bouie and Krugman didn't try, and it hurts Trump, not them as opinion writers. Somerby whining that Krugman and Bouie should have made extra effort on Trump's behalf begs the question, why? They aren't his supporters and they aren't interested in understanding him better. It is in Trump's interest to be better understood. That's why Trump needs to be the one to speak more clearly, not the audience doing research about what he means when he has given them no reason to do that.

    I learned a long time ago never to loan a book to someone who hasn't asked to borrow it. They have no motive to ever read it and typically won't, so you have lost your book. When someone wants to read a book, they will ASK to borrow it. This is Trump's situation, he is only reaching the folks who want to understand and losing everyone else because the effort required to connect with him is too great (and people may not know where to start in figuring out what the hell he means by so much of what he says).

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    1. “There is no reason why people who dislike Trump and don't want to see him reelected, should want to give him that same charity. Somerby is demanding that Bouie and Krugman do so, but it isn't their job to interpret Trump, it is Trump's job to communicate clearly. We don't owe Trump anything here on the blue side. We certainly don't owe him the effort to become red in order to get his allusions.”

      No, it is the job of both Bouie and Krugman to “interpret” Trump. Especially if they think what he’s saying is obvious to a particular audience, but not to theirs.

      Doing that is not a charitable action, it’s their professional obligation.

      As far as the “blue side” goes, if you’re saying it’s your job as a blue tribesman to obscure the truth if it helps an opponent, thanks for that admission.

      You would have saved some time if you had made that admission an hour or so ago.

      Delete
    2. Repeat, they are opinion columnists not reporters. That dictates their obligation.

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    3. Read my comment at 6:37pm.

      Again, thanks for coming clean.

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    4. The park service thought about removing a statue of William Penn suggests the name of Pennsylvania will be changed…is this supposed to be conservative humor/logic? It doesn’t make sense, even as a joke. One has to assume that’s what Trump is referring to. It isn’t transparently obvious.

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    5. I assumed Trump's babbling was the secret code he used to get onto Epstein Island.

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    6. Anonymouse 7:15pm, anonymices argue that the championing of young females by a former teacher is tantamount to pedophilia.

      Trump quips that people who want to remove a William Penn statue would also change the name of the state that is named after Penn.

      Quit being trying to convince everyone that you're even more obtuse than you obviously are.



      Delete
  12. Neither Krugman nor Bouie say they didn't know what Trump, in this specific instance, was talking about. That's Bob's straw man. Though as Bob admits, it is often difficult to be sure what Trump is talking about.
    Though, as in this weeks ghastly NATO comments, sometimes it is all too horribly easy to know.

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  13. To correct historic injustice we must repeal the Penn statute.

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    Replies
    1. And that has what to do with changing the name of Pennsylvania? And since Trump's audiences cheer at anything, how does Bob know that's what his audiences knew he was talking about. They cheer when he says he will encourage Putin to attack NATO countries.

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  14. Speaking of not know what someone is talking about: "Scripted" is one of Bob's favorite put downs, but it is pretty vague and meaningless. it suggests a writer is following a SCRIPT based on... what? group think? what he senses without prompting he knows the commercial dictates of his editors in a way that sidelines the truth?
    We hadve all probably sensed that at times with political journalism, but it does assume a kind of mind reading on Bob's part often associated with shoddy liberalism. Who is dictating to him this script?
    When the Republicans, long ago, deciding their script would be that Biden is too old, often making accusations of absent mindedness seemingly grounded in nothing, Bob has been the guy completely willing to write that script, again and again.

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  15. Is Robert Hur a good, decent person?

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    1. What he did was disqualifying.

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    2. He should be disbarred.

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  16. It is a bit strong for Somerby to call this Bouie’s “malpractice”. Once again Somerby forgets that these are opinion writers not journalists.

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  17. Opinion writers have obligations in seeking the truth, in the crafting of their views, and in straightforwardly informing the public of their conclusions.

    Otherwise, they’re called hacks and political lackeys.

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    Replies
    1. Like Tucker Carlson, I suppose?

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    2. Anonymouse 7:07pm, “I know you are, but what am I?” Isn’t a good look either.

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    3. You claimed at some point to like him. You can’t admire hacks and lackeys and then come here and complain about “our” hacks and lackeys.

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    4. Anonymouse 7:20pm, no, the blogger made observations about Krugman and Bouie and I agreed with him.

      That’s only considered to be outrageous by anonymices.

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    5. BTW- I never said Krugman and Bouie are hacks, I said that an Anonymouse description of how columnists should function would be that of a hack.

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    6. You were arguing above that krugman and bouie, as opinion writers and members of the media, should have figured out what trump meant and told their readers, but they did not, thus meeting your above stated definition of hacks and lackeys. Your dishonesty is breathtaking. (not really)

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    7. Anonymouse 7:45pm, no, I said that they were being coy and duplicitous in this. They were in this instance.

      Unlike the anonymouse, I didn’t assign to their profession behavior that would render them and their colleagues into utter hacks.

      Krugman and Bouie messed up with this. The knew what they were doing. Tucker has messed up more than once in his career.

      I’ve not called any of these men hacks.


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    8. I don’t know, Cecelia. Somerby called it malpractice, which still seems to meet your definition of a hack.

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    9. Anonymouse 8:00pm, Somerby has made it abundantly clear that he admires Krugman.

      Your confusion lies in the fact that Bob isn’t a complete partisan hack.

      Delete
    10. What kind of hack is he?

      Delete
    11. He’s hacked into more of your brain space than the Chinese have Microsoft.

      Delete
    12. He certainly rules your world, Cecelia. You are obsessed with him.

      Delete
    13. Anonymouse 10:20pm, no. On the contrary, you’re obsessed with Bob.

      I’m obsessed with you.

      Delete
    14. Somerby rubes Cecelia's world.

      Delete
  18. This is great, Bob.

    Now do Trump's rant asking where Nikki Haley's husband is. I have a pretty good notion that the media completely misinterpreted that crazy rant, as Nikki Haley did also. He definitely was not mocking her husband's military service. Tell us, Bob, what was that lunatic getting at?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. By the time Somerby is done explaining how each utterance of Trump really makes sense, he will have disproven his contention that Trump is mentally ill.

      Delete
  19. Krugman and Bouie said the same things but notice that Bouie gets Somerby’s headline with the word malpractice. That’s how subtle racism can be.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymouse 8:20om, this post of yours is how unsubtle and ill-intentioned anonymices can be.

      Delete
    2. But why does the black guy get accused of malpractice in a headline but not the white guy who did the same thing. And now Jon Stewart did it too. Racism is real.

      Delete
    3. Anonymouse 9:17pm, you are your worst enemy.

      Imagine accusing people of being racists over this tripe. Rather than considering that Bouie is significant due to heretofore not having the notoriety and controversy of Krugman.

      Delete
    4. Is your job as Somerby hall monitor rewarding, Cecelia? Must you accost every comment?

      Delete
    5. Anonymouse 10:17pm, nope. Just yours.

      Delete
  20. Cecelia, when Trump spoke of grabbing women by their private parts, did he mean that metaphorically or literally?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think Trump meant literally. He was talking about the affect that power, money, and fame have on some women.

      That’s is likely to be an observation made by many MANY women and men who work in tv and movies.

      It was not meant to be made public. Every person on earth makes private statements that are accurate, but not for public broadcast.

      Delete
    2. David, Cecelia thinks Trump meant what he said. I agree with her.

      Delete
    3. Anonymouse 9:03pm, that’s going to break his heart.

      Delete
    4. Of course Trump meant HE grabbed ‘em. It’s ludicrous to think otherwise.

      Delete
    5. Yes.

      Nobody complained until he ran against Clinton.

      Delete
    6. Well, that excuses it then.

      Delete
  21. Kevin watches the border:

    https://jabberwocking.com/illegal-immigration-plummets-in-january/

    ReplyDelete
  22. Tom Suozzi will replace George Santos.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh no. The Democrat wins. But Somerby told us no one liked us…

      Delete
  23. Nikki Haley won’t say that she’ll refuse to support Trump if he’s nominated.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Celia, you were in fine form above. Another marked tendency of the Anonymice, to borrow your term, is their magical thinking-based ability to at least seemingly never even notice just how deeply simpleminded you so effortlessly, albeit redundantly, reveal them to be. ("Redundantly" because, for most of us who are not part of their group, their inability to just choose a nym alone, not to mention the many idiotic and/or sad rationalizations they offer for why they "choose" not to do so, firmly establishes their simplicity, all by itself.)

    ReplyDelete
  25. Trump might win, because Biden is old. We get it, Bob. It doesn’t take a genius or thousands of words to say that.

    Now, write another post about how old Biden is, and be sure and include some more Gutfeld poopypants jokes.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Bob, if that's what Trump was talking about, he coulod have said what he was talking about. Instead, he lies and lies and lies, and his fools believe him.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Jon Stewart is back. His wit was sharp. His observations scathing. He rallied that crowd. He is basically the antithesis to what we see from the left in this comment section. And boy do they hate him for it. But bad news for them, he was well-received and seems to have awakened something in the slumbering populace. What a great time for him to come back.

    I like Bill Maher too. Now say something nasty about 'em, I know you want to.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Trump says Mazi Melesa Pilip is a very foolish woman.

    ReplyDelete