SEPARATION: Calchas could read the flight of birds!

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2024

Kilmeade works for Fox: The European world's first poem of war gets off to a blistering start.

With apologies, Agamemnon, lord of men, has stolen the daughter of a priest to Apollo to serve as his sexual servant. Soon thereafter, the elderly priest arrives at the Achaeans' camp and offers an array of gifts—"a priceless ransom." 

The elderly priest was named Chryses. "He begged the whole Achaean army but most of all the two supreme commanders, Atreus' two sons." 

Agamemnon was one of those commanders. Chryses begs him "to set my daughter free, my dear one."

 "All ranks of Achaeans cried out their assent," but Agamemnon explodes in anger, and the "terrified" priest departs.  But as Chryses "trails away in silence down the shore where the breakers crash and drag," he offers a prayer to Apollo, and Apollo visits a plague upon the Achaeans' camp.

Within the Robert Fagles translation, this plague is pictured as a hailstorm of arrows from Apollo's terrible swift sword:

First he went for the mules and circling dogs but then,
launching a piercing shaft at the men themselves,
he cut them down in droves—
and the corpse-fires burned on, night and day, no end in sight.

We're barely sixty lines into the text as those corpse-fires burn. The poem is off to a very fast start, at which point Calchas, who's skilled at reading the flight of birds, is introduced in the narrative.

Achilles has risen to speak to a gathering of the troops. He suggests that they "question a holy man" about the plague—"someone to tell us why Apollo rages so."

So the swift runner proposed, and Calchas rose among them:

So he proposed
and down he sat again as Calchas rose among them,
Thestor's son, the clearest by far of all the seers
who scan the flight of birds.
He knew all things that are,
all things that are past and all that are to come,
the seer who had led the Argive ships to Troy... 

Of all who scanned the flight of birds, Calchas was the most knowing by far. So it was, in the Late Bronze Age, as warriors outside the walls of Troy sought information and guidance. 

Calchas could read the flight of birds! Here today, within our severely divided nation, our neighbors and friends in Red America may occasionally turn to less reliable sources.

To cite one example, they may turn to Brian Kilmeade of the Fox News Channel, from whom they repeatedly hear such remarks as the ones he authored on his primetime Fox program this weekend.

Somewhat ironically, the program is called One Nation with Brian Kilmeade. The program airs at 9 p.m. Eastern every Saturday night. Below, we show you how one segment began on last Saturday's show. 

Kilmeade interviewed Ron DeSantis during the segment in question. Returning from a commercial break, an excited Kilmeade introduced the segment in the manner shown:

KILMEADE (2/17/24): Major cities, liberal cities, are overrun with crime. Everywhere you look. Think about it. You've got carjackings, robberies, thefts, smash-and-grabs. Every city! You don't even know where it is, you just recognize the criminals...

You've got places like New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. Thieves walk right out the front door and take whatever they want. And people like California governor Gavin Newsom think that's OK?

If you want to watch the entire segment, you can start by clicking here.

Every city, the excited star said. In fact, it was every liberal city. His introduction to the segment ran above this chyron:

LAWLESSNESS IN LIBERAL CITIES

Every such city is overrun with crime! And people like Governor Newsom think the whole thing's OK!

(In homes across the fruited plain, red tribe viewers had no idea that they were being misled.)

Kilmeade then played a piece of videotape recording the aftermath of an actual shoplifting incident. By happenstance, Governor Newsom had been present to witness the act of shoplifting—and the immediate problem is this:

Based on the videotape which Kilmeade played, it's clear that Newsom doesn't think it's OK when people "take whatever they want." As such, Kilmeade's use of the videotape was one version of a demagogic practice we mentioned last week, the apparent theory being this:

Once you tell millions of viewers what it is they're going to see, they won't notice when the "evidence" you present actually shows something completely different. 

So it goes on red tribe cable, and sometimes even on blue.

As it turns out, Calchas gives an accurate report to the Achaean council at the start of The Iliad. Again and again, then again and again, the fight of birds is a more reliable source of information than the inaccurate or misleading claims heard on the Fox News Channel.

Red tribe voters are routinely deceived by Fox News—by the likes of Kilmeade.

Over here in the blue tribe's world, we have a set of problems too. But we'll be focused on the Fox News Channel at the start of this week.

That said, our own blue tribe may soon be forced to come to terms with the need for a serious reckoning. Tomorrow, we'll start to show you what was wrong with the various things Kilmeade said—but we'll also be asking, all this week, why the major organs of our own blue tribe have tolerated this type of misconduct down through the many long years.

A key point:

Red tribe viewers watching Fox shows don't know that they're being misled! In fairness, we blue tribe viewers may have a somewhat similar problem at times—and we may be steeped in denial concerning the way our own tribal culture has been.

Can we blue tribe denizens come to see ourselves more clearly through the medium of great literature? Can The Iliad help us see ourselves as we actually are? How about Plato's Seventh Letter? How about I, Claudius?

Tomorrow, we'll continue with the effort by Calchas to develop information based on the flight of birds. The Iliad gets off to a blistering start as Calchas divines the truth of the matter and Agamemnon explodes.

Also, we'll wonder when the tribunes of our own blue world will finally rise in protest against the round the clock dissembling of seers who are less reliable than Calchas was—less reliable by far.

Final point:

We'll be filing this week's reports under the rubric of SEPARATION. What role does "separation" play here? What do we mean by that?

Tomorrow: Almost everything Kilmeade said in that segment was bogus. 

The same is true of the segment he'd staged, two weeks before, with John Walsh of the newly revived America's Most Wanted.


98 comments:

  1. From Kevin:

    https://jabberwocking.com/why-does-anyone-take-the-charges-against-fani-willis-seriously/

    https://jabberwocking.com/alabama-puts-the-ivf-business-out-of-business/

    https://jabberwocking.com/donald-trump-is-mentally-impaired-part-457/

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  2. Charles Hamilton has died.

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  3. Cause and Effect is hard I guess.

    Densely populated areas tend to being more liberal and voting blue.

    Densely populated areas tend to have more crime.

    People tie symptoms incorrectly together as cause and effect all the time. Sometimes even when they know better.

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    Replies
    1. This is called a spurious correlation.

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    2. Except California rural crime is up to. Maybe it's just hard to live in a really expensive state and people are going crazy?

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    3. Randolph Roth wrote a book called American homicide which predicted new studies coming out now that food stamps and jobs programs lower crime better than cops. I'll bet off you look, Newsom is not focusing on macro stability.

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    4. The cause of increased rural crime may be right wing agitation since Trump has a lot of MAGA warriors in rural areas of CA. Some rural crime has been linked to marijuana growing.

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    5. Spurious correlation means that just because two variability vary together (both go up or down at the same time), doesn't mean they are causally related.

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    6. variability = variables. typo

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  4. Did anyone catch the irony of the show being named One Nation? It is because they are peddling false narratives that are more likely to divide our nation into two camps.

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  5. Ancient people placed a lot of credence in omens. Sometimes large plans, like whether to engage the enemy or not, were simply left up to how the birds flew or what the organs looked like when they disembowled an animal.

    I guess today we are supposed to be more advanced and logical. In some ways we are, but in other ways we really haven't progressed at all.

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  6. Saying “Newsome thinks it’s OK” may be a figurative way of saying.that the Governor is not passing laws and taking other steps that would deal with the problem. Of we cannot literally know what he thinks.

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    Replies
    1. Maybe Newsom doesn’t want to increase the size of government.

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    2. Why doesn't he say it then? You're trying to put a spin on the obvious bullshit that Kilmeade is flinging.

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    3. Starting with a comment that at best mischaracterizes information and at worst, turns it on its head and is false... well, it's not going to lead to a very productive discussion. And I think that's a big problem with the MSM especially on the right.

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    4. It's almost like they don't want us discussing and working the nuances of things out for ourselves.

      Then the fear mongering and kool-aid deliveries would have to be replaced with substantive journalism.

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    5. Ilya - what a politician says may or may not be what he thinks. No doubt Newsome deplores the theft. The more important question is what he will do about it.

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    6. Yes David. In other words, it was a poor way for the FOX "journalist" to characterize the situation, and has resulted in this unnecessary discussion about something that is unknowable.

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    7. Quaker in a BadementFebruary 19, 2024 at 3:39 PM

      Do I understand correctly? DiC thinks we need new laws to cope with a visibly worsening problem? That seems contrary to conservative views on, day, gun violence.

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    8. Touché Quaker.

      Yes, some jurisdictions have almost de-criminalized shoplifting. Those laws should be changed IMO

      Some laws make it legally risky to use violence against shoplifters. Those laws should be chsnged.

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    9. The way David cries for Daddy Government to save him, makes me think he's a fee-market Libertarian.

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    10. "Once upon a time, American conservatives praised the United States' organic communities, rooted in freedom and choice, built bottom-up not top down. But the new populist right despises these cities, and that disgust is in part a rejection of modern, pluralistic democracy itself. Increasingly, they are dazzled by the clean and orderly ways of dictatorships, populist authoritarians and absolute monarchies. After all, say what you will about Putin, he makes the subways run on time." Fareed Zakaria

      DiC craves a strongman daddy figure.

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    11. Newsom’s name is spelled N E W S O M. No E.

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    12. The logical fallacy here is cherry picking. California is the exception not the norm.

      https://www.ppic.org/blog/californias-violent-crime-rate-is-diverging-from-the-national-trend/

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    13. The District of Columbia is currently undergoing a crime wave.

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    14. Fareed Zakaria is very clever, but there is a hidden flaw in his statement: Namely, failing to distinguish between dealing with criminals vs. regulating the behavior of law-abiding people.

      Libertarian style conservatives believe that controlling crime is a valid governmental function. We don't see policing and punishment of criminals as undemocratic or fascistic or as a longing for a strong man. We do not think that having a pluralistic democracy requires allowing criminals to go free and unpunished. In fact, we find that idea bizarre and unrealistic. No society in history has operated that way AFAIK.

      We do think that the government should tend to leave honest people alone as much as is feasible. E.g., we don't like taking guns away from non-criminals as a supposed cure to criminals using guns to commit crimes.

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    15. American Libertarians are a cutout movement of Republican aristocrats. The rest of the world calls socialism a libertarian movement. In America it just means you're unable to get a date with a woman so you create an edgelord persona on the internet and read Sam Harris essays.

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    16. David -- there are no laws against theft in California? More of a question here is: what is Kilmeade saying.

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    17. The fucking gall of someone who handed us a Supreme Court packed with religious fascists ripping women of their right to make their own health decisions claiming to be "libertarian" is just too much.

      Zakaria has got your number, David. Own it with pride.

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    18. Anonymouse 5:45pm, the SOTUS left abortion to state legislatures. You know, the people we elect to office.

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    19. "Libertarian style conservatives believe that controlling crime is a valid governmental function. "
      This is a substance-free statement, as it punts the definition what should be considered a crime.

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    20. “ the SOTUS left abortion to state legislatures.”

      Congressional republicans are itching to pass a national abortion ban. And it would be passed by “elected representatives.” We leave it as an exercise to imagine how the Supreme Court might rule.

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    21. You can “control crime” through prevention but what police do is punishing criminals after crimes have occurred. That’s why looking at arrests tells you nothing about how well crime has been controlled.

      Crime decreases when literacy rates increase, when education increases (grad rates are higher, dropouts & absentees decrease), unemployment rates are lower. So other social indicators are better for deciding how well crime is being “controlled.”

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    22. "Yes, some jurisdictions have almost de-criminalized shoplifting. Those laws should be changed IMO"

      By "almost decriminalizing" I suspect you're referring to modifying the threshold for what constitutes felony theft. In Gave n Newsom's state, he threshold is $950--42nd highest among all states. Theost lenient state is ruby red law and order Texas where any theft less than _2,500 is a misdemeanor offense.

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    23. Quaker in a BasementFebruary 19, 2024 at 7:28 PM

      Q in a B at 7:27

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    24. @5:45 You know very well that the SC did not ban abortion. Even thought the majority Roman Catholic Justices are no doubt anti-abortion, they made a correct legal ruling that the Constitution does not address the issue, so the Court has no basis for ruling on abortion, one way or the other.

      Speaking as pro-choice person, I am relieved that the anti-abortion Justices are honorable enough to not overstep their powers. Otherwise, they could have found some excuse for ruling that the Constitution bans abortion so that no state may legalize it.

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    25. And yet abortion is banned. Go figure!

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    26. David, DeSantis, among other Republicans, wanted/wants to enact a federal abortion ban at 15 weeks. How does that square with states rights to regulate it? And how do you imagine the Supreme Court might react?

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    27. And shall we see how scotus rules on the mifepristone case, or their views on the recent IVF ruling in Alabama, once it gets to them?

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    28. Yes, don't worry David, we know very well what Trump did when he surrendered his supreme court selections to the Federalist Society, who then proceeded to give false testimony in their confirmation hearings.

      It is your unqualified opinion that it was a correct legal ruling. For purposes of reproductive rights, the supreme court decided we are a confederacy of dunces. Each separate state can choose to strip women of their rights to control their own body as they wish. And we can see how the red states are in a race to see who can humiliate women more cruelly. We can see the consequences of Trump's idiocy and we won't forget.

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    29. David,
      Can you explain why women's health care choices shouldn't be protected by the United States Constitution?

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  7. "Calchas could read the flight of birds! Here today, within our severely divided nation, our neighbors and friends in Red America may occasionally turn to less reliable sources." Lol.

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  8. Kevin again:

    https://jabberwocking.com/violence-is-at-the-core-of-maga-nation/

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    1. This sort of exaggeration is harmful, @3:19. He says violence is "at the core" but admits that there hasn't been much right-wing violence at all. The "violent core" is in someone's imagination.

      BTW the analysis ignores all the threats and violence from the far left, which has probably exceeded that from the far right. E.g., Antifa doesn't get as much news coverage from the mainstream media, but they have done a lot of violent acts, including arson and attempted murder.

      IMO the biggest problem in talking about (imagined) right-wing violence is that it downplays the truly violent groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis. These groups are strangely popular with a non-trivial segment of America's left. In a reasonable world, left and right-wing Americans would unanimously agree that these truly violent groups are bad.

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    2. You forgot the most violent group: IDF.

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    3. If the IDF were truly violent, they would have wiped out the Gaza population years ago. They have the ability to do it.

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    4. The Palestinians started off fighting Israel with conventional warfare against Jewish terrorism, the Irgun movement, and (some Palestinian radicals) only got more into terrorism as they started to see the old crumbling could armies around them fail to save their land from being taken every day and the world ignore women and families violated by Jewish generals. Israel is a warping of Jewish culture for the imperialist supremacy of Western ego, diamond theft, organ theft and land theft. That's a recent and abnormal issue for Jews, the people who love the matriarch Sarah!

      But there has always been non violent education as well. Yet when people put on suits and go to the UN they're being told by the right wing in America and Israel they're racist as well. A groundswell of younger people including Jews reject this.

      It's precisely the ongoing occupation that is escalating and bringing out the worst in people in power and under power. This is cover now for the occupiers to enact "Plan Dalet"and Jabotinsky's "Iron Wall" of ethnic cleansing.

      It's also a useful way to attack the left wing across the world. Simply accuse someone of "hating Israel" and they're persona non grata. It works well in England and Germany with chilling on political speech.

      It is not an accident that some legal theory considers the crimes of the occupied people to fall on the heads of the occupiers.

      It's the kind of mind games that Franz Fanon talked about that affects imperialism and fundamentalist religion morphing into violence with each other that we have to understand and disentangle to bring peace and justice. They're hearing voices in their heads they're so enraged.

      Take off the rose colored glasses and see the pain of the vulnerable

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    5. All of this is negated by the atrocities if 10/7.

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    6. @7:51 Events in Gaza disprove your claim that "It's precisely the ongoing occupation that is escalating and bringing out the worst in people in power and under power." Here's why that's not correct:

      For most practical purposes, Gaza has not been occupied for the last 18 years. In 2005 Israel withdrew all troops and forced any Israelis living in Gaza to leave. Gaza received regular substantial financial aid from Europe, from the US, and from the UN. With a location on the Mediterranean, Gaza had access to world trade and shipping. The Palestinians in Gaza selected their own government, which was Hamas.

      The Gaza government could have built a strong economy. Instead they chose to build a war machine. If the Palestinians are given their own state, would they not do the same thing again?

      Hatred of Israel and hatred of Jews serves the purpose of whichever group leads Gaza. These leaders became wealthy by stealing much of the foreign aid. IMO that's one reason the leaders of Gaza promote hatred.

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    7. The phrase "regular substantial aid" is a euphemism for having extreme poverty causing measurable stunted physiology in the size of malnourished people living there. It's the very rose colored glasses that my previous comment mentioned.

      Hamas was basically half created by Israel with the approval of the US. Netanyahu fostered Hamas as much as he could. Just because the US media doesn't report much on Israeli crimes doesn't mean they don't occur.

      It would be strange if Palestinians had perfect leadership. No government is perfect.
      Indeed it would also be unusual if not one person in the Israeli government ever told a lie. That would be astonishing. Same for dear old Uncle Sam.

      The fact is that Israelis were terrorists before 1947 when they formulated Plan Dalet.

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    8. I read the flight of birds. I found that erecting a Jewish state in the Levant was a mistake.

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    9. Israel's actions in Gaza are inhuman and disgusting. As American's we have to demand our government stop supporting them.

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    10. The Hamas/Palestinian actions are inhuman and disgusting. That’s why none of you trolls address the specifics of what happened. They are indefensible. You need to take this shit somewhere else.

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    11. David, who or what is antifa? It has no central organization. It isn’t a supporter of the Democratic Party. How many people really belong to it? Not that many. On the other hand, what drum and David French are talking about is the large scale increase in violent threats to politicians, judges, election officials, etc, coming from the MAGA world, in other words, from rabid supporters of Trump, who encourages it daily. Your dismissal of these threats is troubling, yet telling. They erode our systems. You need to condemn it, instead of engaging in sophistry.

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    12. First step is demanding the resignation of Benjamin Netanyahu. His gross negligence and corruption disqualifies him and it is hard to believe that a no confidence vote has not already taken place.

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    13. David, how many mass shootings would you attribute to Trump's reckless rhetoric?

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    14. Netanyahu and Hamas both must go. No question.

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    15. David,
      I, too, refuse to shake in fear just because a bunch of Right-wing snowflakes threw a childish temper tantrum at the U.S. Capitol, because black people's votes counted in the 2020 Presidential Election.
      The Right are much more prone to cry-babying and playing the victim, then they are to violence.

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  9. Fear mongering about crime creates a self fulfilling prophecy where budgets to long term, macro, anti crime policies like food stamps and housing and jobs protections are cut to buy new SUVs for cops.

    When people protect those policies, and resist the paranoia aimed at middle class voters, crime statistically goes down. And it's generally doing so right now.

    If Trump comes in and destroys the last of the social safety net, allying with Amazon to get rid of the NLRB maybe, the country could lose faith in itself and collapse into anarchy. Indeed, hate crimes went up under Trump. And letting the corona virus safety net lapse did cause temporary increases in some property crimes of desperation already.

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  10. Let's get rid of all this hate.

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  11. Bob’s often repeated ( beyond tedium) point that poor little lambs watching Fox are blameless in the way they are mislead is always dubious. More likely, the con man’s axiom that you can’t cheat an honest man is more to the point.

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    1. anon 5:47, he never said they were "blameless>" He never addressed b\"blame" one way of the other. His point is that the reds and the blues are each in their own bubble. Like you seem to be.

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    2. Blame goes along with agency. When someone can choose what to watch, then they are responsible for their choices. Somerby pretends red viewers cannot watch anything but Fox. That is false.

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    3. Ac, he has frequently referred to Fox News viewers (or conservatives generally) as “victims.” Look it up. That sort of implies they are “blameless” as the original commenter says.

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    4. For the record, AC/MA: this bubble phenomenon that you refer to. Do you suggest here that it applies in equal measure to both conservatives and liberals? Just curious.

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    5. Unamused - how is the war in Ukraine going? Your answer will answer your question.

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    6. 6:05: How is that funding bill going in the House?

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    7. 8:25 Stalled. How is the war in Ukraine going? Does Ukraine's success depend entirely on our funding?

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    8. Our funding is extremely important.

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    9. What are they going to do with that money? (What is the military industrial complex going to do with the money, it goes to them not to Ukraine.)

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    10. But tell us how is the war in Ukraine going right now?

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    11. Putin has a large military industrial complex that he pours money into, so that he can attack and attempt to take over weaker sovereign countries. Should that go unanswered?

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    12. How is the war in Ukraine going right now?

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    13. 10:07,
      Over ten years, if you count when Russia annexed Crimea.

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    14. 6:05 first look up non sequitur.

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    15. No answers. Makes sense. At least you're not still saying Ukraine is winning.

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    16. Unamused answering 6:05. I don’t know who is winning. Your litmus test is rubbish. If you think you can prognosticate about the war, have at it.

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    17. Incidentally 6:05, if you think you know the answer to your question you are delusional.

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    18. No I'm saying the answer to the question if this bubble phenomenon applies in equal measure to both conservatives and liberals. The liberals who don't know that Ukraine is losing the war badly are in a deep media bubble like the right is on other topics. It answers the question - yes, this bubble phenomenon applies in equal measure to both conservatives and liberals.

      Actually liberals are probably in a deeper media bubble than even conservatives are right now. Liberals have become conservatives: religious zealots in a bubble, totally misinformed and used by power to advocate for war, war and more war. You're one of them.

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    19. 10:28 when you are done with your masturbatory behavior we will stop laughing at you

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    20. Conversation ending cliche over substance - makes sense.

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    21. "Hundreds of Ukrainian Troops Feared Captured or Missing in Chaotic Retreat

      The fall of Avdiivka to Russia may be more significant than it initially seemed as Ukraine struggles with morale and recruitment."

      Posting this here since LGM won't be posting a word about it so you can continue to cheer for war and support neocons just like the right did 20 years ago.

      This war is over. It was over a year ago. But you, misinformed in your bubble, cheer and cheer for more war there - jut like the right 20 years ago. Sleep tight.

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    22. 2:39 Idiot. I asked MA/AC a simple question which you used to launch into a diatribe about the war in Ukraine, not knowing anything about me or my thoughts on it. Then proceeded to tell me that I am religious and warmongering. You don’t know me. You’re a belligerent asshole. Go ahead and take a place in Putin’s army, I hear they’re hiring. Dumbass.

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    23. AC just got this one dead wrong. He needs to work thru his own blind spots.

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  12. "Can The Iliad help us see ourselves as we actually are? "

    No, it cannot do that. It is a dubious work of fiction. When we start confusing fiction and reality, our problems get worse, not better.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymouse 5:51pm, so we can learn nothing about ourselves or the human condition from great works of fiction?

      This is the most witless take I’ve ever seen here.

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    2. Somerby says “as we actually are” which implies knowing reality. Reading fiction is useless for that because there is no way of identifying what may be real in fiction. We use our imagination to read fiction, which gives us a sense that it is real (we create a fictional reality along with the author as ee read) but we have no way of assessing the actual reality of fiction.

      We have other ways of determining what is real in the world, including science. Subjective experience by reading fiction can generate theories about reality but not test them.

      Many people are limited in their ability to experience fiction. Individuals experience fiction differently. Whose experience is what we really are? Somerby has his ideas about that but I doubt his picture came from the Iliad. It is being superimposed on it. And if it weren’t happening that way, how could we know.

      A field of literary criticism exists because there are many ways to interpret works of fiction. You need to already know what is real in order to evaluate how close a work comes to it.

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    3. If you can point to specifics, Cecelia, or perhaps Somerby can, since he’s the one referencing the Iliad, about exactly how the Iliad relates to the present day US, that would be helpful. At the moment, it’s just so much gibberish.

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    4. Anonymouse 7:05pm, the anonymouse thinks works of fiction, in general, offer little insight into “real life” and thinking otherwise is confusing invention with reality. That take is beyond any of the usual anonymous business of arguing “Bob should be talking about this…rather than talking about that…”

      There is no convincing answer that will change this anonymouse’s way of thinking.

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    5. You have to admit, it is hilarious for a conman like Trump, notorious for multiple bankruptcies not paying his subs and lawyers, to wag his finger and lecture NATO countries about paying their bills.
      It's fucking better than fiction.

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    6. 9:06,
      And Right-wingers fall for it every time.
      The Right really is ruberiffic.

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    7. 9:06 Good point. Haha.

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    8. The point Bob is making here is the newspapers are not telling everyone America is going to end tomorrow for scare stories the same way the TV media are, technologically advanced entertainment is making people dumber. Bob is trying to come at this problem from a more literate point of view, saying that we should try to reason with each other as mature beings rather than at each other's throats. He's using an example from myth to illustrate the temptation to hate each other, a fairly sophisticated and dressed up version of basic liberal democratic principles of common decency toward resolving conflicts with other people.

      However, Bob's liberalism, and liberalism in general is weakest when we need drastic change, when we need big changes in budgets, because they upset so many interests that it nukes the arguments before they happen. So sometimes Bob looks a bit conservative, but really he's a "liberal to a fault." He doesn't want to clear his throat against capitalists too much not because he doesn't think it's a rotten system at its core, but because it would upset too many middle class voters and chase them into Trump. So I call him a left-liberal, and I think he does a fairly good job of his task.

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  13. Scary!

    "School system announced three additional cases ... bringing the current reported total to four cases.".

    Thanks for this frightening and damning indictment of Republicans. That brilliant blogger is on the shit!

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  14. It's a good thing that blogger doesn't prompt you to say really stupid shit.

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  15. Make Polio Great Again.

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