WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2024
Kilmeade is forever: In Book One of the western canon's first extant poem of war, Calchas, who reads the flight of birds, offers a sound assessment.
As we recorded yesterday, Agamemnon lord of men explodes in anger at the seer. With no explanation offered, Calchas largely disappears from the Iliad after that.
In Book Two, Calchas does return to the text, but only in a recollection offered by Odysseus, raider of cities. Speaking to a panicky council, Odysseus recalls the prophecy Calchas had offered nine years before, even before the siege of Troy had started.
This is Odysseus, in real time before the council, quoting what Calchas once said:
[W]hen those terrible, monstrous omens burst in
On the victims we were offering to the gods,
Calchas swiftly revealed the will of Zeus:
"Why struck dumb now, my long-hatred Achaeans?
Zeus who rules the world has shown us an awesome sign.
[...]
As the snake devoured the sparrow with her brood,
eight and the mother made the ninth, she'd borne them all,
so we will fight in Troy that many years and then,
then in the tenth we'll take her broad streets."
So that day the prophet revealed the future—
and now, look, by god, it all comes to pass!
A snake had devoured a brood of sparrows. Nine years later, Odysseus recalled the heartening assessment Calchas had offered in real time.
Odysseus rallied the troops with that speech, but it was a recollection. After Calchas is threatened by the furious Agamemnon, he never appears in the poem to report his assessments again.
So it went for the best of all the seers. Within our own modern-day "journalistic" context, practices at the Fox News Channel have been substantially different.
Consider the history of Brian Kilmeade, one of the "cable news" channel's longest-serving "presenters" and stars.
Tomorrow and Friday, we'll return to some of Kilmeade's recent presentations. For today, who in the world is Brian Kilmeade?
According to the leading authority, the overview looks like this:
Brian Kilmeade (born May 7, 1964) is an American television and radio presenter and political commentator for Fox News. On weekdays he co-hosts the morning show, Fox & Friends, and he hosts the Fox News Radio program The Brian Kilmeade Show. On weekends, he hosts One Nation with Brian Kilmeade, which premiered January 29, 2022.
He has authored or co-authored non-fiction and fiction books.
Kilmeade is a TV "presenter." On weekday mornings, he co-hosts the three-hour show, Fox & Friends. On Saturday nights, he hosts his own primetime show, One Nation with Brian Kilmeade.
He also hosts a daily Fox News Radio program, The Brian Kilmeade Show. It runs from 9 o'clock each weekday morning right on up to noon.
There's nothing wrong with such employment, until such time as there is. The leading authority offers this more detailed account of the talker's career after graduation from college in 1986:
He began his career as a correspondent on Channel One News, a daily national high school television news program. He later served as an anchor and host for KHSL-TV in Chico, California. He co-hosted The Jim Brown Show on KLSD, an all-sports radio network. In 1993, Kilmeade joined Jim Brown as part of the announcing team for the inaugural Ultimate Fighting Championship event, conducting post-fight interviews. He moved into the play-by-play role for UFC 2 and UFC 3 in 1994.
Kilmeade was a freelance sports anchor for WVIT (NBC) in Hartford, Connecticut, beginning in 1997. He was a sideline reporter for MSG's coverage of Major League Soccer, specifically for the MetroStars.
Later, he worked as a feature reporter and anchor for NewSport where he hosted NewSport Journal, a daily magazine show for the national sports network. He also anchored Scoreboard Central, a live half-hour general sports program. According to his website biography, he has 10 years' experience as a stand-up comedian.
Since 1998 he has co-hosted Fox's cable morning television show, Fox and Friends...He is a frequent panelist on The Five airing nightly at 5 p.m. eastern on FNC. He also hosts the Fox News Radio program The Brian Kilmeade Show and hosts "What Made America Great" on Fox Nation. As of 2022, he also hosts One Nation with Brian Kilmeade, weekends on Fox News.
Kilmeade emerged from the world of "general sports" and Ultimate Fighting Championships. Remarkably, he has been co-host of Fox & Friends for more than twenty-five years, dating back to the program's inception in 1998.
Also this:
According to his website biography, he also has ten years' experience as a stand-up comedian! Of course, that seems to be true of everyone at the new, reinvented Fox.
Full disclosure:
There's no reason why someone with a background in sports couldn't make a successful transition to the world of global news. Also, there's no reason why someone with ten years' experience as a comedian couldn't become a capable commentator, for six hours each weekday morning, on major world affairs.
There's no reason why someone couldn't do that—but how has it turned out in this case? In the next two days, we'll report and let you decide.
At issue will be recent presentations and proclamation concerning the runaway state of urban crime. As we showed you yesterday, Kilmeade introduced a segment last Saturday night by saying this:
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?
[BEGIN VIDEOTAPE]
NEWSOM: As we're checking out, the woman says, "Oh, he's just walking out. He didn't pay for that."
I said, "Why didn't you stop him?"
She goes, "The governor lowered the threshold. There's no accountability."
I said, "That's just not true." I said, "We have the tenth toughest—$950, the tenth toughest in America. Go look it up."
No one gives a damn about that.
[END VIDEOTAPE]
KILMEADE: See, he slipped that in! He allows you to take $950, the tenth toughest.
Is that OK? Maybe if it's your store it's not OK!
So Kilmeade said, while playing some videotape, concerning the Golden State governor.
According to Kilmeade, people like Newsom think it's OK when shoplifters "take whatever they want." In fact, he allows them to take $950 worth of merchandise! Newsom just slipped that in!
Tomorrow, we'll look at that specific claim—a claim which is transparently bogus, and quite typically so. On Friday, we'll go back and look at the gonzo claims about urban crime Kilmeade offered on his February 3 primetime program, partnering with John Walsh.
The woods are lovely, but also dark and deep—and that is nowhere more true than on the Fox News Channel. On that reinvented "news" channel, a parade of low-grade comedians now offer pleasing arrays of bogus facts and mandated bogus claims.
Kilmeade has labored at this task for the past twenty-five years! Calchas disappears from the first war poem, but Kilmeade and his trademark dissembling seem to be forever.
He's part of a crew of former wrestlers and low-grade comedians who now deliver the "news" at this new version of Fox. The misstatements go on, day after day and night after night, and few people at our finer blue tribe orgs say as much as a single word about it.
Calchas read the flight of birds. Kilmeade works from script.
Pretty much nobody says a word! As current journalistic arrangements show, our current journalistic culture—our culture of massive separation—tends to be very much like that.
Tomorrow: $950, he said
Friday: An unfortunate side of John Walsh
"So it went for the best of all the seers. Within our own modern-day "journalistic" context, practices at the Fox News Channel have been substantially different. "
ReplyDeleteCalchas was a prophet, a fortune teller. ALL such people are frauds and con artists in our time, because today we know that no one can foresee the future (which is different than predicting the future).
Kilmeade and others at Fox News are NOT seers, although Somerby equates them with this quoted sentence. They are not even news reporters (people who describe events that have already happened). They are propagandists for the right wing.
Somerby may be blaming poetry for his boosting of Fox celebrity hosts, but it is Somerby and not Homer who claims seer status for Kilmeade. And nothing Somerby says after that excuses romanticizing the creeps and jerks at that channel.
According to Somerby: “On that reinvented ‘news’ channel, a parade of low-grade comedians now offer pleasing arrays of bogus facts and mandated bogus claims.”
DeleteThis is your idea of “boosting Fox hosts” and “romanticizing the creeps and jerks at that channel”?
He has given Kilmeade pride of place two days now. Actions speak louder than words. Does anyone think Kilmeade cares whether Somerby calls him a low-grade comedian? And that isn't any kind of media criticism.
DeleteWhere is Somerby's debunking? It is irresponsible to repeat a "mandated bogus claim" (as Somerby did again today) without debunking it.
Do you think Kilmeade doesn't know his own history and isn't proud of his sports reporting accomplishments? Somerby boosts Kilmeade by repeating his "real guy" credentials. What matters is that Kilmeade is telling lies and Somerby ignores the truth in favor of repeating this guy's bio!
12:32 - OK. I'll boost you. You're a low-grade comedian offering an array of bogus facts and bogus claims.
DeleteYou're welcome.
DeleteI explained how Somerby boosts Fox and Kilmeade. If you do not understand or wish to pretend to misunderstand, that is on you. I do hope other here see that you are evading my criticism, not addressing it.
DeleteOK, I'll boost you some more. Your "gonzo claims" are "transparently bogus, and quite typically so."
DeleteHappy?
But yes, I understand your point: Calling these claims "bogus" is Somerby's clever way of persuading us that these claims are, in fact, true! How diabolical of him, and how astute you are in sussing out his true intent!
DeleteThe remainder of his essay does that. Did you only read one line of it?
DeleteOh, you want more boosting? OK. Your "misstatements go on, day after day and night after night!"
DeletePied, it’s a technique Somerby has used for years, giving performative lip service to provide plausible deniability before giving exposure to whatever the right wing talking point of the day is; sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven, don’t blame the commenter because you’ve supposedly been suckered by Somerby. It should make you wonder, but clearly it does not. Can you hear the wind blow? There’s still time to change the [Somerby fanboy] road you’re on.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:11pm, I can’t think of anything that doesn’t involve sexual kinks or gasoline, that I don’t wish to know about.
DeleteYet here you are being sorely abused by Bob Somerby. You lily-livered liar.
And yet it drives you nuts. You have my pity.
DeleteAnonymouse 7;26pm, if I ever write something like this, you’ll have a real point.
Delete“ Pied, it’s a technique Somerby has used for years, giving performative lip service to provide plausible deniability before giving exposure to whatever the right wing talking point of the day is; sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven, don’t blame the commenter because you’ve supposedly been suckered by Somerby.”
Were you to write something as salient as that, you would be applauded here. Instead, you use this blog as an outlet to soothe the wounds of your trauma; however, this is misguided, your trauma can not be resolved by your petty actions here.
DeleteThis is why I pity you and hope you find healing in a more appropriate and effective manner.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Deletewhat they say. I’ve yet to see any reason to pity them over some trauma or to hate them for being them on the internet. .
DeleteI leave such contrivances to you.
To be fair, Somerby often instructs us to pity such people.
DeleteAnonymouse 8:21pm, well, you don’t pity “such people”. You absolutely buck from pitying them. So why then would you contradict me for doubting the Anonymouse 7:46pm for claiming to pity anyone?
DeleteDamo Suzuki has died.
ReplyDeleteCalchas is watching you...
DeleteCalchas watches birds.
DeleteThis guy is a vulture.
DeleteIf I’m remembering correctly, Agamemnon didn’t merely tell Calchas that he was keeping the seer’s daughter, he told the him that she would be on his couch that evening.
DeleteCalchas let him off easy.
See, Odysseus tells the one eyed giant (euphemism anyone?) that his name is “Nobody”, so as to aid in his escape. Clever! Har har har.
DeleteAh, Three’s Company but in Ancient Greece, back when men were men and could freely molest underage boys.
Yeah those Homer epics are real compelling.
Oh, Anonymouse 6:23pm, how can that fiction be compelling? What have current day people to learn at all?
Delete6:45 you may be genuinely unaware, and no disrespect intended, but your comment makes no sense.
DeleteHow can fiction be compelling and what can current day people learn from Homer?
Delete"According to Kilmeade, people like Newsom think it's OK when shoplifters "take whatever they want." In fact, he allows them to take $950 worth of merchandise! Newsom just slipped that in!
ReplyDeleteTomorrow, we'll look at that specific claim—a claim which is transparently bogus, and quite typically so. "
Somerby has a bad habit of delaying the debunking of outrageous statements, putting it off until some future essay. Meanwhile, the bogus statements stands in the minds of those reading Kilmeade's words TODAY. Fairly often, Somerby never gets around to doing that debunking. It has now been two days since Kilmeade's presentation, with debunking promised for today but now postponed again.
This is unfair to Newsom, who did not say what Kilmeade accuses him of saying. It is also unfair to Democrats, who are being attacked in Kilmeade's segment. Somerby has now aided Kilmeade by repeating his point twice beyond his original show. And that is not debunking, nor is it media criticism. It is repetition of disinformation from a right wing hack.
Somerby is promising a different discussion for Friday. So when will he get around to telling us that Kilmeade has slimed Newsom? There is only one day left, and you can bet dollars to donuts he may not say anything tomorrow either. Because that isn't why Somerby is here. He is here to make sure that liberals get to hear what Newsom didn't say, Kilmeade's version of CA's policy on shoplifting.
None of us would bother watching Kilmeade's show or Fox & Friends. This is the only way the right can get this stuff in front of more eyes -- "helpers" who amplify right wing talking points. Don't be fooled by the tales of old Troy.
Too bad you’re a mouse and can’t be held responsible for your predictions.
DeleteAnonymices have spent years typing “Now do Fox” at Bob and now that Bob has been doing Fox, anonymices are accusing him of hyping the channel.
DeleteThey're also dissing Homer on Somerby’s behalf.
It’s a splendiferous two-fer!
I have never asked Somerby to "do" Fox. I have asked for real media criticism and I have asked him to stop pretending to be liberal while knocking the Democratic candidates.
DeleteNo one who is liberal needs Somerby to "do" Fox. We need him to stop spreading Fox garbage beyond the Fox News platform. Somerby is definitely hyping the channel, much as he explicitly told his readers that they should be watching Fox because they have the best facts over there.
Fox is the right wing disinformation dissemination network, in lock step again with Trump and the Republicans. No one on a liberal blog needs to see Somerby repeat their content here. We know they are liars (and worse).
What Somerby did today and yesterday is not a criticism of Fox because there was no debunking.
Somerby could have criticized Kilmeade without repeating so much of his show attacking Newsom. He could have instead quoted Newsom's actual words (all of them) and then pointed out where Kilmeade stopped. Instead he repeats the vitriol along with the truncated quote, giving Kilmeade the exposure, not Newsom.
DeleteThat is how Somerby pretends to "do" Fox while actually knocking Newsom and making Newsom appear foolish when he was doing exactly what David in Cal asked for -- addressing the problem of shoplifting. David apparently doesn't want to consider that it is the businesses themselves who are not enforcing the law by letting shoplifters walk out with merchandise, not the law that is lenient.
Meanwhile David and fellow Republicans think Trump should walk on all of his crimes, petty and major, all the way up to treason and insurrection.
Anonymouse 12:37pm, you have a way with “asking” this blogger for things. Oh, sure. Just simple requests for the good of all.
DeleteThese things tend to boil down to asking Bob to be a patriotic American, rather than an employee of a foreign dictator. You ask him not to a liar and a plagiarist. You ask him to focus on right wing media and then ask him to quit shilling for right wing media.
Poor dear. After all, this is all you ask…
I was accused of asking Somerby to "do" Fox News. I didn't do that.
Delete12:37 - "Somerby is definitely hyping the [Fox news] channel"
DeleteHere's the "hype": "A parade of low-grade comedians now offer pleasing arrays of bogus facts and mandated bogus claims."
It's hard for me not to conclude that you've lost all touch with reality.
1:15 - "I was accused of asking Somerby to 'do' Fox News. I didn't do that."
DeleteHow do we know if this is true? You're a mouse. You can hit and hide.
Anonymouse 1:15pm, yes, you did. Anonymous did it.
DeleteCecelia accused anonymouses of wanting Somerby to criticize Fox and then she accused anonymouses of being ungrateful when Somerby supposedly did that. Yes, Somerby shifted to discussing Fox more, but what he says and how he does it cannot be called media criticism, much less criticism of Fox, especially when he couples it with denigration of mainstream media figures and Democratic politicians. No anonymous commenter here called for Somerby to pretend harder to attack Fox. Somerby is laughing up his sleeve at the thought that he has given us what we want.
DeletePied Piper, no anonymous commenter here is hitting and hiding. We are here every day.
If you still think the retired school teacher Bob is part of the Koch network because he's critical of corporate packaged media both liberal and conservative by now, please unglue your eyeballs from your majority excretory orfice
DeleteI like Homer.
Delete1:49 - "Pied Piper, no anonymous commenter here is hitting and hiding. We are here every day."
DeleteYou're here, hiding, every day, because nobody can tell Mouse 1 from Mouse 2. You can disavow what you write with impunity.
No one can tell you from Adam either.
Delete"A parade of low-grade comedians now offer pleasing arrays of bogus facts and mandated bogus claims."
DeleteBob, soft-selling treasonous propaganda, again.
May as well call Trump "old (or "disordered"), rather than the felonious, grifting, rapist, he actually is.
"No one can tell you from Adam either."
DeleteBut you can tell what I said yesterday, and the day before. And if it conflicts with what I say today, you can point it out.
3:19 - Somerby writes that Fox is telling us bogus facts and claims, and this means, to you, that Somerby is selling us "treasonous propaganda"? You are detached from reality.
DeleteAnonymouse 1:48pm, how is it possible that you think you can gaslight others as to the ridiculousness of the anonymouse jihad against TDH while you sound utterly unhinged.
DeleteI'll say this as simply as I know how. Somerby does not debunk the right wing lies. Ever. He repeats them here so liberals are duped into reading them.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:08pn, you’re here every day. If Somerby dupes you into reading his blog, it’s because you’re here every day.
DeleteIt’s a daily blog that rose to prominence by debunking Republican talking points being uncritically stenographed by corporate media, something Somerby stopped doing years ago, which he is appropriately criticized for by the readers that played a significant role in his initial success.
DeleteYou’re not being serious by your claim of Somerby duping his readers, but that is in fact what he is attempting to do, his clear goal is to manufacture ignorance.
Anonymouse 7:54pm, but debunking Brian Kilmeade on a three hour per day Fox News show doesn’t count?
DeleteWho are you kidding , clown?
Anonymouse 1:49pm, I get your argument that Bob hasn’t legitimately criticized Fox because it’s ALMOST the same stuff he says about the rest of the main stream media.
DeleteI’d get you better if I didn’t understand that he’s right about both.
Pied Piper,
DeleteI didn't accuse Bob of selling us treasonous propaganda. I accused Fox of selling us treasonous propaganda, and Bob of soft-selling the fact that Fox is selling us treasonous propaganda, by calling treasonous propaganda mere "bogus facts".
Pro tip: Reading comprehension is your friend.
11:17 - Somerby explained the $950 today, as promised. Are you going to give me the dollar and admit you were wrong, or are you going to hide like a mouse?
DeleteThe contrast between Newsom and DeSantis is striking. DeSantis talks about the problem. He has already made some law changes and has proposed a program of more law changes to attack the problem. That shows that he cares. (See my comment yesterday for details.)
ReplyDeleteNewsom has proposed nothing. He doesn't give speeches pointing out the magnitude of the problem and pointing out specific instances. He doesn't promise to fix the problem. He just presents an argument to claim that California is doing a better than average job, but the argument is bogus. It falsely assumes that the only thing that matters is the monetary definition of a misdemeanor. Newsom's lack of action and lack of words show that he doesn't care.
IANAL. Are there any lawyers here who can explain conspiracy laws. I thought a conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor could be a felony. If so, could the flash mob robberies of stores might be felonies, even if each thief steals less than $950 worth of stuff?
IANAL either, but if the total is over $950, it’s a felony.
DeleteLet me get this correct. Newsom and the Democrats are against law and order, despite being accused of holding Trump accountable for his crimes?
DeleteWhat next, accusing the Democratic Party being a floor wax AND a dessert topping?
That’s the “Democrat” party.
DeleteAnonymouse 11:52am, no, just a dessert topping.
Delete
Delete"Newsom has proposed nothing. He doesn't give speeches pointing out the magnitude of the problem and pointing out specific instances. He doesn't promise to fix the problem. He just presents an argument to claim that California is doing a better than average job, but the argument is bogus. "
Who wastes govt time and money to fix something that isn't broken?
Newsom's statement (excerpted by Kilmeade and Somerby) was made by Newsom at a press briefing. Newsom complained that the store was not prosecuting shoplifting. How is that "not doing anything" on Newsom's part? Don't you wonder what else he said at that briefing, that Fox cut out and Somerby doesn't bother telling us about?
Policing happens in police forces at the local level. If Newsom were not supporting the local police, that might be a valid complaint, but where has anyone said he doesn't do that? It is surely not the Gov's job to haunt Target stores and nab those shoplifters himself. So what exactly is Newsom being accused of not doing? There is already one of the strictest felony definitions in the country, giving police the tools they need to charge those stealing.
The contrast between Newsom and DeSantis is striking.
DeleteYou're damn right, Newsom is a human being.
The work on this stuff is not TV talking heads but published research.
DeleteThe dismantling of the safety net created during corona virus sent temporary waves of crime though the country, not liberal policies. That was because of wall street demands to weaken bargaining power at our jobs and keep us on the hamster wheel. The economy running hot with more unemployment is also giving people a foot in the door into the legitimate economy.
"Paradoxically, as an aggressive respiratory pathogen ravaged the country, a lot of people felt they could suddenly breathe easier for the first time in a long time, perhaps ever, as the relentless weight of financial uncertainty was unexpectedly lifted. We have plenty of evidence around the positive impacts of some of these policies. To take one example, research into the expansion of the child tax credit alone showed, as the Brookings Institution put it in a recent analysis, that “child poverty fell immediately and substantially."
It's rank partisanship "cherry picking" to say this is emblematic of all Democratic policies. No serious sociological study would start from that assumption when the trend across the county is crime going down. A real conservative should applaud that rather than look for exceptions to exploit for ideology.
Desantis is also doing what's called "concern trolling." He doesn't really care if people are are happy and thriving, in fact his agenda stands to benefit if nobody talks about the real causes and simply blames the blue tribe. Remember the guy who chopped his dad's head off? Buried in student loan debt.
If Desantis wanted to bring down crime why isn't he championing a stronger safety net which does that, maybe he needs permission from the ideological elite to say that? But he's just a clown.
"Each additional year of Food Stamp Program availability in early childhood reduces the likelihood of a criminal conviction in young adulthood by 2.5 percent, with stronger effects for violent and felony convictions."
http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2021/04/05/jhr.58.3.0619-10276R2.abstract
https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/concern-troll/
https://www.amazon.com/American-Homicide-Randolph-Roth/dp/0674064119
https://epicenter-nyc.com/the-end-of-the-covid-safety-net-has-arrived/
https://www.ppic.org/blog/californias-violent-crime-rate-is-diverging-from-the-national-trend/
The economy running hot with lower unemployment*
DeleteWage theft is higher than all other forms of theft combined but nobody talks about it like it's a crime. That's just the free market baby. If you are being exploited just get another job I guess.
DeleteIAAL. Think about it, David. If two people conspire to steal a pack of gum, do you think they should be locked up for a year? Probably half the high school seniors would be sent up the river if that were so.
ReplyDeleteMichael Brown was shot and killed for stealing a pack of cigarillos.
DeleteMichael Brown was shot and killed for stealing a pack of cigarillos, while black.
DeleteFixed for accuracy.
While America sleeps China prepares.
ReplyDeletehttps://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/02/21/business/china-corporate-militias-resurgence-int-hnk/index.html
While Americans strike for better wages at home, the nationalists need an enemy to feel important. Some pick Arabs, Mexicans, others pick China.
DeleteI think your Sherlock Holmes bubble pipe you won in a kraft macaroni box is dripping liquid. Not sure if you're supposed to use your own xenophobic fear piss to fill it.
Some pick Iran and Russia. Real jerks pick Qatar.
DeleteDavid must have gotten a promotion. He seems to be the major troll around here these days.
ReplyDeleteI will be too busy traveling during the next couple of weeks. So I won’t post as much. Good luck solving the world’s problems.
DeleteDavid, I hope you enjoy your travels. If you see Lizzie, say hi. Even when I disagree with you, I learn from your comments.
DeleteBring us something back, David!
DeleteShe means pick her up a few bottles from the duty free.
DeleteFor the record, David is not related to Lizzie.
DeleteAbsolutely!
DeleteAt least David gives his nym so he can be held accountable. That's something, in my book.
ReplyDeleteHow exactly does anyone here hold David accountable for anything?
DeleteIn the same manner anonymices hold David accountable for what he writes here every day.
DeleteAnonymices do it by challenging him on things they deem inconsistent with past remarks or stances.
Anonymices do by summing up David’s known positions and attitudes on various things while in discussion with him or with other posters.
Anonymices do it by describing David as always being such-and-such or by conflating one or another of his views as being that of all conservatives.
That’s how you hold people with nyms accountable in the way that isn’t the case for you.
No anonymous commenters are ever challenged? Don't be silly. But there is no consequence to the real life person who pretends to be David here daily of anything another commenter says.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:06pm , tell me again how the person that David says is his cousin, is not his cousin.
DeleteA commenter here actually knows that person, knows that David is not her cousin. He’s also not the former classmate of the many well known people he claims to have gone to school with, etc. David is a strange liar, in the manner of Zelig. When one is so obsessed with dominating others, yet is incapable of making substantive and coherent arguments, this is the type of behavior they turn to.
Delete“But there is no consequence to the real life person who pretends to be David here daily of anything another commenter says.”
DeleteLiar.
"Calchas read the flight of birds. Kilmeade works from script."
ReplyDeleteThis is how Somerby "both sides" two entities, one a fictional character from an ancient book, the other a pretend journalist on Fox News. We cannot even say that Calchas and Kilmeade are both men, since Calchas is a fictional character with supernatural powers and Kilmeade is real.
Why on earth would anyone juxtapose these two creatures? Is there any harm in doing so? Well, Calchas is exalted for having accurately predicted the future from bird flight. He got it right, according to Homer. Kilmeade is the opposite, he tells untruths and gets things wrong while spreading propaganda and disinformation. The problem is that linking Kilmeade with a truth-teller tends to imply that Kilmeade himself may be telling truths or corretly foretelling the future. This kind of association is why presidents kiss babies. Associating the pure innocence of the baby with a politician does tend to transfer the warm fuzzy feelings we have about babies to the man running for office. (This is an example of classical conditioning.) Associating one thing with positive traits with another who lacks those traits, in the hopes that the positive will rub off, is a well-known tactic of advertising and publicity.
Nobody here knows shit about Calchas. That makes him a blank slate that Somerby can portray any way he wants to. Somerby says his predictions were accurate, but we cannot know whether that is true or not, because he is a made up character in a book attributed to someone else who may or may not have ever lived. And seeing the future is not a thing, although people endlessly try to make their predictions. That's what polls are, but they can't see the future either, so pretending they have the authority of Calchas is another form of bogosity.
Why is Somerby wasting so much time talking about a fictional character like that? Does he identify with the fictional? Is he perhaps one or more of the trolls here who comment under their own fictional names? Maybe one of them is the real Somerby while the Somerby persona tells lies about being liberal. We can't know any more about that than we know about Homer or Calchas.
"The problem is that linking Kilmeade with a truth-teller tends to imply that Kilmeade himself may be telling truths or corretly foretelling the future."
ReplyDeleteBut calling Kilmeade's claims "gonzo" and "bogus" is not implying anything; instead, it is stating directly that Kilmeade is not telling us the truth.
Why can you not see that?
David trusts Kilmeade implicitly. Why won’t Somerby debunk him?
DeletePied Piper, Somerby always calls someone good and decent before trashing them and gonzo and bogus before boosting him. You can’t take him at face value.
DeletePeople often vote based on impressions not facts or logic. Manipulating those impressions is part of propaganda.
DeleteCalling an argument stupid and dumb, like Somerby does here, is a violation of debate 101 rules. It has zero content.
DeleteIt’s funny that if I were to say that Bob’s insults to Kilmeade mean precisely what he said, anonymices will then say that I believe that I’m the Somerby Whisperer. However, anonymices then tie themselves into knots telling the rest of us what Bob really means when he insults Kilmeade.
DeleteSomerby is a giant ass.
DeleteNow, have I debunked him?
"Calling an argument stupid and dumb, like Somerby does here, is a violation of debate 101 rules. It has zero content."
DeleteAgain, a deflection. The issue: Did Somerby imply that Kilmeade was speaking the truth?
Somerby notes that even a seer who checks the flights of birds did better than Kilmeade, who produces "gonzo" and "transparently bogus" claims and "misstatements" through his "trademark dissembling."
My conclusion: Somerby did not imply that Kilmeade is speaking the truth. My further conclusion: Anyone who thinks that Somerby did so is a nutcase.
Anonymouse 4:16pm, no, I think this one is a pre-bunking for tomorrow’s essay.
DeleteI want to be the Cecelia whisperer when I grow up.
DeleteWhy does Somerby even mention the seer? It is irrelevant to everything else in his essay, unless it serves a rhetorical purpose? Why wouldn't Somerby remove all doubt about Kilmeade's truth and debunk the lies? He preserves the beliefs of right wingers by saying nothing to disillusion them. Is that how a liberal deals with right wing "gonzo" and "bogus" misstatesments during a campaign? Of course not.
DeleteSomerby’s only defenders are right wingers, a noteworthy circumstance.
DeleteFor those that defend Somerby while claiming to be “liberal”, a) nobody is buying that nonsense, and b) you don’t have a clue what “right wing” means.
Pied Piper? Deadrat? ACMA?
DeleteI’ll give you Dogfaced George.
Call me a moron. Call me an idiot. I'm ok with that.
DeleteCall me a right-winger - I'll meet you outside and eff you up.
DG, no one does.
DeleteExcept the people who pretend to.
Delete"Why does Somerby even mention the seer?"
DeleteI guess we'll have to do some remedial reading classes here. Thousands of years ago, people relied on seers who thought they gleaned knowledge from the flights of birds. That's crazy, of course, but Calchas happened to be right on two important occasions.
"So it went for the best of all the seers. Within our own modern-day 'journalistic' context, practices at the Fox News Channel have been substantially different."
Get it? Substantially different. Fox News isn't even as good as a primitive, superstitious seer of old. Fox's practices are "substantially different" - they don't get it right, like Calchas did.
CC - I understand and agree completely. 6:31 was saying only conservatives defend Somerby, and you were saying I am a liberal and I defend Somerby. Which is true.
DeleteAs the commenter that ran off deadrat, I’m happy to clarify that many liberals are right wingers. George you can claim any political stance you want, but the substance of your comments indict you as a right winger - someone who supports societal hierarchy, which typically involves supporting notions like social reproduction, meritocracy, and competition.
DeleteAnonymouse 7:38pm, deadrat ate your lunch. The biggest thing deadrat aspired to was eating someone’s lunch.
DeleteSomerby gave deadrat the pretext and the opportunity to broaden his playing field and eat your lunch.
That’s all you need know about deadrat.
Dogface I'll call you wrong about the Ukraine war. I told you Ukraine lost the war 6 months ago. Are you getting it yet?
Delete7:38 - You're an idiot. Although I like your idea that I support "social reproduction," whatever the hell that's supposed to mean.
Delete7:54 - I don't believe anything a mouse says about what they said before. There's no way to check. But if you said it, you're wrong - the wheel is still in spin in Ukraine.
DeleteDeadrat attempted to eat my lunch (not something to have pride in, but that’s for another day), but in reality he kept getting embarrassed when I repeatedly debunked his nonsense. We eventually got into a long back and forth over the Zimmerman murder, and I so thoroughly clocked him on that, he was left with no coherent retort or rejoinder and he immediately proceeded to announce he was “retiring” from commenting here, as if anyone cared.
DeleteGood riddance; I’m still here, offering encounterance and edification for the misguided and wounded lost souls, whereas deadrat was just here to feed his ego and obsession with dominance.
8:06 - And, of course, there's no way to check if anything you say comes within a quarter-mile of being true.
DeleteAnonymouse 8;06pm, no, Deadrat ate your lunch and spanked your butt till it bled.
DeleteThat’s not difficult, but Deadrat still found satisfaction in it.
He would.
Ukraine has been relatively successful in fending off Russia/Putin and exposing them as a paper tiger, but that success is in no small part dependent on resources provided by the US, which Republicans are now reneging on providing, since their loyalty is to Trump, a known Putin puppet.
DeleteGeorge, that you don’t know what social reproduction means, but that you endorse it at any rate, makes it unsurprising that you are ignorant of other common terms related to politics and other fields that study society and human behavior.
I won’t argue that you find me an idiot, and I’m not offended - if anything, your take is mildly amusing, but you demonstrate a level of ignorance that should spur you towards getting educated instead of getting angry at those who happen to currently know more. I look forward to you gaining some useful knowledge, we are all capable of such an endeavor, and nearly equally so, although sometimes the circumstances of our individual experiences can interfere.
Actually you can dig in the comments and find it.
DeleteDeadrat lost every encounter with me because he was more interested in winning than in substance; I take little pride in that, he was troubled person, but I did run him off.
Anonymouse 8:28pm, Deadrat is/was a consummate bully. You were no match for him and it’s good that you ( at least) understand that you didn’t run him off.
DeleteOK Dogface - I am saying it now. The war is lost now, it was lost 6 months ago. Ukraine has no chance of winning and they never had a chance. Nothing is in play. Nothing is spinning. Ukraine is out of solders and out of artillery. We can give them money but we don't have the means to produce the soldiers or artillery they need. It was a war Biden could have prevented. You are wrong about it and you will be wrong forever about it and I will point that out to you as it plays out. Half a million dead and over hundred billion of our money down the drain for nothing.
DeleteIt’s in the archives, he lost every time, and getting “murdered” on the Zimmerman issue was his last straw. He tucked his tail between his legs and ran off; sure I did it, but it’s not something I take pride in, I’d rather he’d have grown as a person and was open to his wrongheaded notions being corrected.
DeleteWe do now know that people like deadrat become the way they are due to external forces, he was a tortured man and had little facility for rationality with regard to certain issues. In all likelihood his brain mapped like a typical right winger, and the related psychology is well studied in academic fields, for example, Somerby favorite Dr Bandy Lee discusses it frequently in public interviews.
Anonymouse 8:44pm, everything you’ve said in the above post is revealing as to why Deadrat might leave due to his utter boredom. I suppose we should thank you for that, but it’s not like you’ve had to make an effort.
DeleteIn reality, Deadrat left because of Bob’s reluctance in calling half his countrymen racists.
Deadrat left when he realizd Somerby is racist. He declined to defend him after that. Calling Somerby racist was one of the last things he said here.
Delete8:19 - You are pretension personified.
Delete