SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2024
As presented this morning on Fox: Last week, our reports appeared beneath this heading:
CAMPAIGN
The fateful campaign was underway. Tomorrow, we'll start our second week of campaign reports under this unfortunate rubric:
ARMIES
We expect to start with a very brief Iliad hook. We're sorry to see that our struggling nation has succumbed to a division of the type we'll have to describe.
On Friday night, the airstrikes began! Yesterday morning, we showed you the way the Fox News Channel responded.
We took you to the set of Fox & Friends Weekend, then to their first expert guest.
Under current arrangements, no one will ever ask the three friends what they think of their expert guest's long history of extremely peculiar public statements. Under current post-journalistic arrangements, such things simply aren't done.
Instead, we were told on yesterday's Fox & Friends that the strikes were "a psyop on the American people and the world, quite frankly." We were told, three separate times, that the strikes were just "a multimillion-dollar fireworks display."
As of this morning, a second wave of airstrikes had occurred. As you can see by clicking this link, this is the way the friends began their messaging program, starting at 6 a.m. sharp:
CAIN (2/4/24): We start this morning off with a Fox News Alert, the U.S. and U.K. carrying out a new wave of airstrikes yesterday, this time targeting sites in Yemen occupied by the Iranian-linked Houthi rebels.
HEGSETH: The Pentagon confirming strikes on at least 36 targets and more than a dozen different sites across Yemen, including Houthi weapon facilities, missile launchers and air defense systems.
That's what we're told. [pause] While the British military says it struck a ground control station near Yemen's capital.
That's what we're told? We were struck by the instant note from Hegseth, a Fox News friend who has been broadcasting attitude ever since he was subbed in to replace the too-silly-to-air Jesse Watters as the air strikes began Friday night.
More on Pete Hegseth below. But by 6:03 a.m., he was quoting an aggressive opinion column in the New York Post, while producers displayed its headline:
JOE BIDEN IS PLAYING WITH FIRE IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND RISKING WORLD WAR 3
Hegseth quoted the part of the column which accused Biden of "a form of appeasement that will end as appeasement always does." Turning again to his privileged musings, and once again addressing his friends, Hegseth then offered this:
HEGSETH: Guys, it does feel like escalation in search of de-escalation or deterrence. We just keep shooting—and I keep, I said this morning, we're told it hit because, I don't know, we can't confirm for you what buildings were hit, or how many were hit. This is what the Pentagon is telling us, and we're at some level having to trust their numbers on it. But what happens next, we have no idea.
By now, several analysts had begun to shout, "Traitor Pete!" They called it a play on Trader Joe. Swiftly, we told them to stop.
Who in the world is Pete Hegseth? As of 6:04 a.m., he had already signaled his viewers, two separate times, that they probably shouldn't believe what they were being told.
On this second day of the ongoing strikes, the blustery talk about fireworks displays had thankfully left the building. But even though everyone knows that these airstrikes really are occurring, the Fox News host was signaling hard to a legion of viewers in the red part of our struggling land.
Nothing stops the flood of messaging when these friends sit down. Inevitably, at 6:05 a.m., this mandated message was sent concerning President Biden:
CAMPOS-DUFFY: We don't know how much of what he's doing, or not doing, is right or not for America, and how much of this is about appeasing different groups and maybe even Barack Obama, who's running a lot of things out of his D.C. mansion in D.C.
We don't know what's going on, and I think that's what's so—I don't even want us to be in the Middle East any more.
We don't know what's going on! At last, a key admission! Meanwhile, the mandated message had finally arrived:
It may be Obama who's running this show! That may be who Biden's appeasing!
As we told you yesterday, this is a mandated talking about among the collection of players who pump the Murdoch message all day long, starting at 6 a.m. of a Sunday morning:
Joe Biden is mired in appeasement. Obama is running the show!
With regard to Hegseth's lament, there's never a reason to place perfect trust in anybody's numbers. That said, no one on the face of the earth doubts that these airstrikes are taking place—and as Campos-Duffy clumsily blurted, she and her trembling friends have no personal way to know what's going on.
The talk about fireworks was gone today, but Hegseth continued to signal hard. We have no doubt that his skepticism is real, or that he's sincere in his ardor.
That said, who is the weirdly entitled man who wants to message this way?
Pete Hegseth, age 43, is movie star handsome, He graduated from Princeton in 2003, then got a master's degree from the Kennedy School at Harvard ten year later.
Also this—he served. The leading authority on his career tells us this:
Following graduation from Princeton in 2003, Hegseth joined Bear Stearns as an equity capital markets analyst and was also commissioned as a reserve infantry officer into the U.S. Army National Guard. In 2004 his unit was called to Guantánamo Bay, where he served as an infantry platoon leader with the Minnesota National Guard. His unit was under the operational control of the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment 101st Airborne Division. He was awarded the Army Commendation Medal. Shortly after returning from Cuba, Hegseth volunteered to serve in Baghdad and Samarra, where he held the position of infantry platoon leader and, later in Samarra, as civil–military operations officer. During his time in Iraq, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, and a second Army Commendation Medal.
He returned to active duty in 2012 as a captain. He was deployed to Afghanistan with the Minnesota Army National Guard and acted as a senior counterinsurgency instructor at the Counterinsurgency Training Center in Kabul. Hegseth, a major, currently serves in the Individual Ready Reserve. He has been awarded two Bronze Stars for his service overseas.
Perhaps a year or two ago, we saw Hegseth discussing an education project during an hour on C-Span. He struck us as wholly sincere about the project in question. Plainly, he is fully equipped in the basic IQ / smarts department.
Hegseth says that he served on "small, remote bases" during his military service. We have nothing but respect for that dangerous service—but he's been a million miles over his skis as he has continued to signal and message and propagandize in the past 48 hours.
Biden is flirting with World War III! Obama is calling the shots!
At 7:04 a.m., we briefly flicked back to the world of the friends—just in time to see Campos-Duffy refer to the commander in chief as "Appeasement Joe."
In fairness, that may be better than "President Poopy Pants," the way the prepubescent Greg Gutfeld referred to Biden on Friday evening's Gutfeld! show, just after the first wave of attacks.
(It may be better that the "Vegetable in Chief," another of that small broken boy's many designations for Biden during that evening's show. We'll have much more concerning that program when we resume tomorrow.)
Who in the world is Pete Hegseth? What's the source of the obvious anger he feels, anger he feels he must always display?
What is the source of his anger? In a world where our nation's news orgs weren't segregated by viewpoint, behavior like Hegseth's would be challenged, and he'd have a chance to explain. He might give a strong explanation. Then again, maybe not.
That's what would happen if we were functioning as one nation. Now, we run two separate news nations, red and blue, and never the twain shall meet.
Sadly, much of what's being said on Fox is hard to argue with at this particular time. That said, the channel is also a steaming cauldron of stunningly childish low-IQ embarrassments from an array of Gutfeld types who have as much business sifting the news as your pet beagle would have running the Bolshoi Ballet.
At 6:01, the signaling started. We shouldn't believe these people! Joe Biden is President Poopy Pants, the "cable news" clown had said.
At Fox, disorder like that goes right on the air, and major orgs like the New York Times know to avert their eyes. Our finer people don't tangle with Fox. It simply isn't done.
"Traitor Pete," the analysts cried, at 6:03 this morning. Our view?
The analysts are very young, and all of us, red and blue, still have a long way to go. We'll be walking you down that trail all during this fateful year.
Can a large modern nation really function this way? Neighbors and friends, must you ask?
Starting tomorrow: ARMIES
"Nothing stops the flood of messaging when these friends sit down."
ReplyDeleteNothing stops the flood of messaging here in these blog comments either. Yesterday we were inundated by pro-Palestinian, pro-Russian, anti-US and anti-Israel messages here, over and over and over. There are more kinds of attacks than military, and these seem to be aimed at portraying Biden as a war-monger. Who would send such attacks on this stupid little blog? Obviously, someone who wants to see Trump elected again.
This is not WWIII. The Houthis are not important enough to precipitate a war. This is an effort by Russia (via Iran) to embarrass Biden ahead of our presidential election. Russia's end goal is to win in Ukraine and then go on to the next former Soviet nation on Putin's list. Meanwhile, the Middle East continues its tiresome local terrorist attacks, harming themselves and their hostages (the civilians in the various countries where this conflict is being enacted).
Biden is working toward peace but he cannot allow shipping to be disrupted by terrorists. That would be true no matter who was president. But the clue that this is not about Houthis or even about Palestine, is that Russia is once again bombarding our social media on behalf of Trump. And Somerby doesn't care what role his own blog plays in this upcoming election. He is too busy pretending to have analysts with independent voices.
Generally you aren’t far off the mark, but where you stray is with Palestinians. Being pro-Palestinian does not mean one is pro Hamas, most Palestinians oppose Hamas, as do their supporters; what it means is that you are anti apartheid, anti ethnic cleansing, anti genocide. Russia supports Hamas and their attacks, as does the Netanyahu admin, because they are right wing authoritarians looking to create chaos.
DeleteI agree that Russia supports Hamas, but I disagree that "being pro-Palestinian does not mean one is pro Hamas". There is no separate Palestinian entity right now that is distinct from Hamas. When Israelis are attacked, it is by stone-throwing young people and others who are indistinguishable from everyday Palestinians. Hamas runs its operations from hospitals, using Palestinians as human shields. That gives Hamas and Palestinians no deniability. Further, the pro-Palestinian groups who recruit funds to help Palestinians enduring hardship do not separate themselves from the goals and activities of Hamas. Look at all the sweet anti-Israel hate messages being spread in these comments (especially yesterday). These are focused on making Israel leave, not helping Palestinians with their relief efforts. So-called apartheid measures were enacted because there is no way to tell peaceful Palestinians apart from terrorists whose goal is to kill Israelis.
DeleteYour framing of Palestinians is misleading and ahistorical. We will have to agree to disagree on this.
DeleteSuch a crybaby. Can't let your prescious ears hear about genocide if it's an American ally and nobody in the world respects you anymore
DeleteThe reason it's called a genocide is so that people talk about it, genius
DeleteYou guys have this belief that whatever the moderate white American opinion is on a topic that's normal and everything that makes you feel sad is dangerous propaganda.
DeleteMaybe if you stopped funding genocide with American taxes people would complain less about it.
Look at all of these "pro-Palestinian" trolls who come here to spread the Russian line. Somerby is platforming these guys. That's why it doesn't matter what he writes in his daily essay.
DeleteI'm an American from the Midwest. I learned that my country is capable of bad things during the Iraq war when I was a young teenager.
DeleteThe more I read about how my government treated people in central america, Latin America and the Middle East not to mention Vietnam, the more I saw that this so-called war on terrorism was really just war for its own sake and more for the power and prestige of a few people. It's anti-arab racism, it's anti-palestinian erasure, it's orientalism. These aren't words that I throw around lightly, it's words backed up by lots and lots of research.
If your biggest problem in your life is filling up your coffee mug everyday you're not going to empathize with people and understand history.
There's a kernel of Truth to the counter propaganda against America that you have to sift through intelligently, you can't just say it's all wrong.
Let's do a thought experiment.
DeleteWhat are the chances that Israel taking Palestinian land would require no lies at all? That they would tell the truth the entire way through it and also that America would tell the truth entirely all the way through it.
What is the statistical probability of that happening? That you were born at the right time at the right place for everyone in power to tell the truth to you at the same time, that there's two governments in the world that don't lie at all about the wars that they're in.
This American from the Midwest sounds more like a college freshman than an adult. War is not nice and no adult who has ever fought in one thinks so, so how did this Midwestern become old enough to have such opinions without having experienced war first hand? Beyond that, attempting to evade the complexities of life by painting everyone as evil or bad or corporatist, is juvenile black and white thinking.
DeleteThis person doesn't seem to understand who the Jews are, why they were settled to the Middle East after WWII's holocaust, why Arab nations attacked them immediately after Israel's formation by the United Nations, and have been attacking without mercy ever since 1948, and why Palestinians are now in a very bad position after having lost every single war they've picked with Israel.
Whatever empathy any of us feel for terrorists, someone from the Midwest (who likely doesn't know many Jews) is not going to consider Palestinians the good guys after hearing what they did on 10/7, to innocent people in their homes, including children and even babies. No amount of Gaza checkpoints can justify that horrible butchery. So all empathy flies out the window with that unjustifiable act, committed because Muslims don't seem to consider Jews to be actual people. When you learn that suicide bombers are doing their horrible acts because they are promised virgins in heaven, women in particular (Midwestern or not) will have no sympathy with men who think that women are prizes in some male vendetta.
I know a hell of a lot of history. I disagree totally with the goofs who are coming here and trying to portray Palestine as worthy of pity instead of anger. You guys need to go someplace else to spread your propaganda.
And no, I do not feel like I cannot find any truth in the libraries and universities and the many worldwide news sources people in my country can access.
So, you can fuck off and stop trying to meddle in our election.
Not only am I from the Midwest but my haftara portion is a healer Elisha, I was bar mitzvahed in a conservative Jewish synagogue after 8 years of Hebrew school under Israelis who said the Aeabs are funny when they blow up and they don't see that Israel is awesome
DeleteZionism more popular with the average white christans like you than any of my friends, who work for Palestinian awareness
Zionism is white supremacy that's leeching on the Jewish soul
DeleteEntire families of Palestine are gone now. Grandparents to grandkids all wiped out. The name of the family is dead
DeleteThat's the definition of genocide and nobody can say the actions of globalists terrorizing Israeli women will change that.
Your emphasis on the Islamic post-death fantasies of terrorist cults is dwarfed by the amount of pro-military Hollywood movies that make you think taking off the gloves on terrorists helps you end wars faster, rather than provoking lasting grievances.
DeleteFor example, Osama Bin Laden waited 13 years after the 1982 war with Lebanon before he took out his anger on New York. The Iraq war left lasting hatred of America. To you it's just "that was the Republicans fault not mine" but you have to remember the rest of the world kinda doesn't care that you can blame someone else for it. They want to see you educated.
Your fear of Muslims is misplaced. Most people do not want to join the war itself, most people are ready to live and let live. The religion has reformed itself in places to a more egalitarian kind several times in history, but it's frozen in place by the very colonial stigma and miscategorization as the "Backward Oriental versus the Modern White Man" supremacist narrative that runs through the worst history in the world.
From the earliest fights with Palestinians between Jewish grape orchards in the early period, illegal Jewish immigration into Palestine, followed by Plan Dalet, to conquer more land, Israel didn't just build muscle to hurt innocent people, but it worships its own muscles to the detriment of its control of its panic response.
The Israeli response to the Hamas / U.N. Worker attack on them, as Israel itself is reporting now, included killing its own people in friendly fire. There are millions of people now displaced by the war, and you evaluate it like you're watching a football match of who is running which direction with the reality of what's happening.
19 years *
DeleteYou would think that the elimination of family names in Gaza would give Palestinians some empathy for what the Holocaust did to Jewish families, but not so much.
Delete"You would think Palestinians experiencing genocide by Jews would give them some empathy for the history of Jews"
DeleteThe "Clash of civilizations" narrative is absurd, it paints entire swaths of the world as barbarism. Thats why you can be so judgemental about Muslim or United Nations contractor terrorism.
DeleteThe West interacts with Islamic fundamentalism. The British and Americans tolerate fundamentalism in Saudi Arabia. The winners of post-colonial Africa that are Islamic were operating under a history of gender and religious persecution of British laws against various stereotypes of people, and this colonialism infected the Muslim spirit and drove it into hyper-masculinity and politics of repressed conservative hyper -religiosity.
The Abrahamic faiths have to have a balance of peace and sacred feminine, and it's colonialism that leeches that holiness out, it's the wars themselves that are killing the religions. Zionism is turning Judaism into a brand rather than a practice. Islamism is turning Islamic knowledge and grace into a man lecturing people in a room. It dulls people to not have the sacred feminine balanced in the religion.
The US spends so much money on the military that it's easy to ignore the West supports massive violations against civilizations in contractor violence who were literally running torture cells from Cuba to West Africa and elsewhere. It's really sad when terrorists hit 2001 New York and it's also sad that Israeli women suffered, I don't deny that, but this system depends on complicity in a way that benefits the few against the many by design, the war itself funds the destruction of not just the sacred feminine, but real women.
We are so broken down by the binary of picking either the role of powerful or powerless, east or west, muslim or jew or this or that, that we can't see that it was not a good thing for Sarah to be jealous of Ishmael, it was not a good thing for Abram and Sarai to waste time annoying Pharaoh in Egypt, they had to "walk before me and be blameless." So by leaving the superstition of colonialist ego and fear, and letting your ego fall down you can see that there isn't as much to be afraid of except the war going on forever with bad leaders who want imperialism and colonialism to rule every aspect of your thought of another.
Regardless of what religion Palestinians are, they are still most likely descendants of Jews just as much as Europeans are, but even if they are not, we have to be honest that recent Zionist settlement is intentional population engineering. Before 1948, Jews would occasionally go to and from Israel to study and some lived, but it was not just every possible person who could go there at once taking over territory. The UN isn't a powerful enough instrument to solve the issue, it has to be done within Israel and US themselves taking away money from the lobbyists.
DeleteMental masturbation. Sophistry. Propaganda. Go away.
Delete"Get out of my white people comment section"
DeleteSo, now we have different message slightly but still s troll.
Deletewho is "we"? speak for your own opinions your highness
DeleteWe refers to these blog comments not any person.
Delete"In fairness, that may be better than "President Poopy Pants," the way the prepubescent Greg Gutfeld referred to Biden on Friday evening's Gutfeld! show, just after the first wave of attacks.
ReplyDelete(It may be better that the "Vegetable in Chief," another of that small broken boy's many designations for Biden during that evening's show. We'll have much more concerning that program when we resume tomorrow.)"
Nice the way Somerby repeats every insult without rebuttal.
It’s an attempt to cause voters to forget about Trump being the one with the incontinence issue, often pooping his pants and not cleaning up properly, leaving a wake of stench wherever he walks.
DeleteShould Pete Hegstreth be called a traitor? Somerby invents a set of analysts (calling them young and foolish), attributes the remark to them, then tells them to shut up and argues against them in his own voice. That is how Somerby tries to have things both ways -- to appear liberal (but foolish) while also presenting Hegstreth as a hero who has earned the right to call Biden a puppet of Obama and call the news all lies.
ReplyDeleteSomerby's fanboys will pick the message they prefer and then pretend Somerby isn't also saying the other message, talking out of both sides of his mouth to appear as all things to all readers here.
This isn't cute or funny. It is annoying and propagandistic. It is how Somerby evades taking responsibility for anything he says, while repeating Fox's message loud and clear and giving the Fox mouthpiece credibility by detailing his military history (as if that could make Hegstreth or Tata less nuts).
This is certainly not how someone conveys information, and it is not how anyone conveys opinion either. This is how Somerby muddies the water, spreads disinformation, encourages Russian meddling in our upcoming election, and makes it clear he has no concern for our country or anyone trying to understand current events. It is despicable in Somerby's unique craven way, and it makes me angry that he dissembles this way over military attacks, which are serious and affect other people's lives.
Well said
DeleteYou think Somerby is presenting Hegsteth as someone "who has earned the right to call Biden a puppet of Obama and call the news all lies"?
DeleteI think you are someone who does not comprehend what they read.
Yes, I think the only purpose of recounting someone's extensive military experience is provide credibility when they comment on whether Biden is going to start WWIII or not. It doesn't take much "reading ability" to see that this is why Somerby did that.
Delete1. Hegseth did not call Biden a puppet of Obama.
Delete2. Hegseth did not call the news all lies.
3. Somerby never presented Hegsteth as saying (1) or (2).
So - work on your reading comprehension skills before posting, please!
Piper, you are being excessively literal. Here is what Somerby said about Hegseth:
Delete"As we told you yesterday, this is a mandated talking about among the collection of players who pump the Murdoch message all day long, starting at 6 a.m. of a Sunday morning:
Joe Biden is mired in appeasement. Obama is running the show!
With regard to Hegseth's lament, there's never a reason to place perfect trust in anybody's numbers. That said, no one on the face of the earth doubts that these airstrikes are taking place—and as Campos-Duffy clumsily blurted, she and her trembling friends have no personal way to know what's going on.
The talk about fireworks was gone today, but Hegseth continued to signal hard. We have no doubt that his skepticism is real, or that he's sincere in his ardor.
That said, who is the weirdly entitled man who wants to message this way?"
Somerby DID present Hegseth as being skeptical of the news reports and Somerby DID present Hegseth, along with Campos Duffy as someone saying the weird stuff about Obama puppeting Biden. He does this by juxtaposition (mentioning Hegseth immediately after Campos Duffy's weirdness) and then by referring back to Hegseth, asking who he is to signal that way. Somerby lumps them all together in their weirdness.
I haven't watched any of the Fox programming. Somerby refers back and forth to statements across two days, which he has not quoted in full. It may be that Hegseth said such things explicitly at times that Somerby didn't quote for you explicitly, but there is no doubt that he is calling Hegseth someone who is "messaging hard" and being excessively skeptical (in Somerby's view) which amounts to calling news all lies (in Somerby's words). Somerby includes Hegseth in Campos-Duffy's theorizing (calling Biden a puppet), not mine.
You owe me an apology.
OK. I’m sorry you don’t know how to read very well.
DeleteBTW, what “disinformation” do you claim that Somerby is spreading in this post?
Delete"Tucker Carlson Spotted in Moscow
ReplyDeleteFebruary 3, 2024 at 10:57 pm EST By Taegan Goddard
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson was reportedly spotted in Moscow over the weekend, leading fans to speculate he plans on interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mediaite reports."
Yes, that's what he's doing. That's the ticket!
Trump compared his looks to Elvis on Saturday...
ReplyDelete"The former president said earlier in the day [Saturday] that people throughout his life have compared his looks to those of the King of Rock and Roll. Even on Truth Social, the ex-president's own social media network, the comments were negative in some instances.
But beyond Truth Social, political onlookers were even more interested in pointing out the failed comparison." Rawstory.
My husband's reaction was: "Well, he doesn't look quite as dead."
This most likely reflects the kind of flattery Trump has received throughout his life. Apparently, he believes it.
DeleteElvis does not have a good reputation these days, so it’s a misguided comparison even putting aside the lack of resemblance.
DeleteTrump's main appeal is to older age groups who still like Elvis.
DeleteMelinda Ledbetter died five days ago.
ReplyDeleteDid Pete Hegseth sustain a head injury while deployed?
ReplyDeleteThe isolation didn't help him much, apparently.
DeleteSomberly swoons that Hegseth is movie star handsome.
DeleteIs Somerby purposefully trying to turn himself into a joke?
No, he doesn’t understand that he’s a joke. It’s sad, really.
DeleteI doubt that Wikipedia is the "leading authority" on Hegseth's career. Why does Somerby go out of his way to add a remark like this:
ReplyDelete"The leading authority on his career tells us this:"
It would be more accurate and clearer to say:
"Wikipedia tells us this about his career:"
I have long thought I detected an edge whenever Somerby quotes something from Wikipedia, a form of sarcasm when he calls them a leading authority, but that seems unwarranted. Wikipedia is a collective effort of many experts, but so are all encyclopedias. Wikipedia is supervised by editors who resolve disputes over content via discussion among experts. It isn't as though anyone can say anything they want there. Further, the constant process of editing keeps articles more current than in many published encyclopedias.
Maligning Wikipedia with no justification and no evidence doesn't make Somerby a more discerning blogger. It shows that he doesn't understand how Wikipedia is put together.
DeleteHere is Tata's X bio:
"Paratrooper. Public Servant. Combat Veteran. Surfer. Businessman. Bestselling author of 15 novels."
Ron DeSantis hates free enterprise.
ReplyDeletehttps://floridaphoenix.com/blog/desantis-has-no-appetite-for-lab-grown-meat/
"On Friday night, the airstrikes began!"
ReplyDeleteSomerby has not been paying attention. Those airstrikes are a continuation of airstrikes that actually began on Jan 11, as a retaliation for Houthi strikes:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/11/politics/us-strikes-houthis-yemen/index.html
The DOD said in 2023:
"Since mid-November, Iran-backed Houthi rebels have launched more than two dozen attacks against merchant vessels operating in the Red Sea. Such attacks against the vital international shipping lane posed a vital concern and impacted international commerce across the globe.
In response, Austin announced the Dec. 18 launch of Operation Prosperity Guardian, an international maritime task force designed to defend against the attacks.
The operation brought together forces from 22 nations to address the challenges in the region and ensure freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The forces operate under the umbrella of the Combined Maritime Forces and the leadership of Task Force 153, a U.S. Navy-led initiative focused on maritime security in the Red Sea. Earlier this week, the rebel group launched nearly 20 drones and several missiles targeting U.S. ships underway in the region. That attack was defeated by U.S. and U.K. forces operating in the region as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian. "
https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3644027/us-partners-forces-strike-houthi-military-targets-in-yemen/#:~:text=The%20USS%20Carney%20defeats%20a,19%2C%202023.
Earlier this week [December 2023], the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution demanding that the rebel group cease all attacks against ships in the Red Sea.
Somerby and other propagandists are portraying this as some sort of unilateral war-lust on Biden's part, but this is an international action, ongoing since the Iran-backed Houthis began their terrorist attacks on shipping right after the 10/7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Biden did not initiate this activity, he is not acting alone in his resistance but working with allies, and this Houthi activity (from Yemen) is against international law. Biden is defending US Troops and protecting commerce and shipping, together with other threatened nations in the Red Sea.
Somerby's inability to clarify any of this, while repeating what Fox News has said, suggests he is either asleep at the wheel or trying to join Republicans who want to portray Biden as acting inappropriately while he protects the US.
This is why Hegseth might be called a traitor, but also why the Republicans and their Putin-loving presidential nominee are working with Russia and against the interests of our nation.
Roll out the bombs when Yemen attacks money.
DeleteRoll out the excuses when Israel attacks indigenous
What about when Hamas kills babies?
DeleteHamas wouldnt exist without Zionism asking for it to exist
DeleteThe US and Israel encouraged Palestinians to be overwhelmed by a concentration of power in Hamas. It's a Sun Tzu tactic of overcoming an adversary.
DeleteSo the Western-aligned Israel is really dividing and conquering indigenous people with a controlled opposition. In fact, Qatar and Netanayhu had a lasting agreement to fund Hamas in the background, which he denies now, flatly lying to everyone's faces.
Zionism is anti-American.
ReplyDeleteFuck off
DeleteFucking off is pro-American.
DeleteSaying things are pro or anti american is dumb
Deletezionism is also dumb
islamism is dumb
just be a regular person with regular ideas
A NBC poll shows Trump holding a 16-point advantage over Biden on being competent and effective. But there's nothing to worry about.
ReplyDeleteThis shows the power of disinformation and propaganda. Trump is entirely incompetent but too many people don't understand that, yet. George W. Bush was incompetent too and many Republicans never got the message about him.
DeleteWhat has Somerby done here to convince his readers that Biden is more competent than Trump? If you answer that honestly, you'll see what the problem is.
Thank you for offering your unique interpretation of the poll results.
DeleteThere is nothing to worry about. These hypothetical polls make certain questions salient before asking people who they will vote for. They deliberately sample equal numbers of voters in each party. What will happen in real life is that Trump will continue having major legal problems and deteriorating cognitively, while behaving in a ridiculous manner. On election day, there will be undecideds and Independents and they will both swing for Biden because (1) they are not crazy, and (2) they do not approve of electing felons, and (3) many of them are women who dislike Trump intensely and support abortion rights. As a result, Biden will win with a much higher margin than predicted by such polls and the pollsters will be bemused, again.
DeleteThere are no Democratic strategists these days who believe Trump has a chance in hell of winning. They are mostly worrying about unknowns, such as current events, candidate health, and third parties. It is widely believed that any third party candidate will hurt Trump more than Biden. Meanwhile, we are all enjoying Nikki Haley's campaign.
4:21 PM - I would prepare yourself for things not playing out in the way you fantasize here.
DeleteLike in 2020?
DeleteMore like in 2016.
DeleteComey and Russia threw the 2016 election for Trump. That isn't going to happen again, as 2020 illustrates.
DeleteHerman Cain and his army of anti-vaxers, are going to vote for Trump from beyond the grave.
DeleteListen to how Center-right Liberals are so proud they were unable to educate their own impoverished red state citizens.
DeleteWtf?
Delete7:14,
DeleteAll, I hear is that red state citizens are helpless children, who need to be coddled.
Also, they call the Left "snowflakes", before they whine about how a pop star is famous.
The model for previous pandemics was 1 dollar for 1 dollar, education and cure.
DeleteWith coronavirus they went almost all in on the cure, and spent very little on educating people, therefore more people died.
The fact that this hurt Americans more than others across education levels is elitism and basically eugenics but you're not ready to hear that.
1:36,
DeleteI remember the CDC releasing information on the regular.
I do agree, however, that explaining why Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, the Murdoch kids, etc jumped the line to get the vaccine before those who were more health compromised, would have gone a long way in getting more people to seek out the vaccine.
"Now, we run two separate news nations, red and blue,"
ReplyDeleteNo, there's Fox and not-Fox. Fox is deeply red and deeply dishonest and points to the entire rest of the world and declares that it's all rigged in favor of blue.
That doesn't make it true.
Throughout this posting, Our Host longs for a better world in which the behavior of Fox pundits is questioned and challenged. What's not clear is when and where these challenges are supposed to happen. Are we imagining that Fox would invite someone on its morning show to push back against Campos-Duffy's identification of the president as "Appeasement Joe"? That some informed voice would provide Hegseth with convincing data that the Pentagon's reports are true?
Or are we imagining that some other news entity, one NOT tainted with blue bias, is supposed to step forward and demand explanations from Fox? What entity would that be?
Our Host longs for a better world, but it's damned hard to understand build a clear picture of it.
Fox News employs a highly effective advocate for the Democratic Party, and she is regularly clipped which gets wide distribution among progressive independent media. The loons on Fox News are no less effective at motivating blue tribe voters via outrage at their rhetoric, than motivating red tribe voters. Nuts like Comer, MTG, Gaetz, etc. are a boon for the blue tribe, making the blue tribe seem reasonable compared to the ravings of these crazies.
DeleteAll cable news is owned and operated by corporations pushing a neoliberal agenda, Fox News is different in that they more heavily put their thumb on the scale, but CNN and MSNBC are fairly anti Trump.
There is a cottage industry of media outlets that do little more than criticize Fox News and they get significant viewership.
Cable news is not significantly influential but it plays a role; independent media is a burgeoning source of influence, primarily found on YouTube.
What Democratic advocate are you talking about on Fox news?
DeleteOne way to make things seems the same is to over-generalize traits. For example, you can say that all men have two legs, and thus make Biden and Trump seem very alike because they are both bipedal. But you haven't said anything very distinctive about either of them.
Using the word neoliberal is meaningless given that you have refused to define it. I disagree that Fox and CNN/MSNBC are alike in their agenda at all. Simply calling them both neoliberal says nothing.
It is Somerby's strawman that cable news has any influence on viewers, much less sufficient to sway an election. But viewers who watch Fox News are not like those who watch MSNBC/CNN. Those who watch Fox do not watch anything else, whereas those who do not watch Fox do frequent a variety of other sources. Because Fox viewers watch Fox 24/7, Fox is the main disseminator of the right wing party line, spreader of memes and disinformation, reinforcer of party loyalty and means of evoking the outrage that motivates right wing voters (via its endless culture war stories). That makes Fox VERY different from MSNBC/CNN and all of the independent media. The subset of MAGA viewers on Fox who are also Q-Anon and conspiracy theorists also visit websites and media where they are part of a community that reinforces their craziness and directs their paranoia. Again, that is NOT the same as MSNBC/CNN on the left.
Neoliberalism is a style of politics that imposes capitalist individualism on social issues, and replaces lost momentum of social politics with cults of personality. In other words, it limits corporate responsibility to listening to complaints and then deciding what to do about it later, rather than being obligated to act. If actions do happen it's through powerful CEOs and investors and not labor. If poverty exists, maybe some people like to be poor or should be poor who knows?
DeleteThis has never been the platform of the Democratic party.
DeleteThere's been Neoliberalism in the Democratic Party since virtually the entire cabinet of Carter was from a single capitalist think-tank. They don't do any movement building and just sit and collect corporate donations.
DeleteNeoliberalism is really just another word for the financial hegemony of the world that undermines democracy and sovereignty to benefit a few people on the stock market. It is an economics of far-right Koch and Utah's Mormons, to center-right "means-testing" of welfare benefits to only the most deserving.
DeleteNeoliberalism is a really ugly outgrowth of the pure nihilism of capitalism set loose from traditions.
Capitalism doesn't really have a soul, so it uses cults of center-right personality, and this practice turned into an ideology is basically neoliberalism. Capitalism will fix every social issue. Ron Paul and Bill Clinton are both varieties of neoliberal.
Delete"the way to reduce inequality … is not by the misleading palliative of sharing the wealth but by improving the workings of the market"
Deletehttps://plato.stanford.edu/entries/neoliberalism/#Demo
This is a distraction from actual issues of this election.
DeleteThe Israeli Palestine conflict would be solved if AIPAC weren't helping prolong it. So America's brand of "capitalist democracy" where money for political speech is sacred, means that to run for American office on helping Palestinians return is mostly impossible.
DeleteThe very idea that you can always use the Palestine issue to punch left, is a great and perfect way to see colonialism of the hidden white power of the American English speaking middle class man or woman. You're gatekeeping white moderates in alliance with white supremacy under the pretense that helping Israel is supporting all Jews, when really it's just making Jews benefit from white supremacy against Arabs in the media and Congress.
DeleteWhy is it American poor people need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and Palestinians need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and you should ignore cornovirus and go back to work etc?
DeleteThis is capitalism itself, this is the Big Spenders of the world demanding people run on hamster wheels for them. The ideology called neoliberalism is just them enforcing this arrangement in politics.
Jews are nice. Israel stinks.
ReplyDeleteIsrael exists and it has the right to defend itself. You stink.
DeleteIf Jerusalem is a metaphor for a beautiful inner soul then you don't have to travel there to have a holy war
DeleteIsrael is the name of a country in the Middle East with real people living in it. They have the right to defend themselves.
DeletePalestinians are indigenous people defending themselves from viscous white supremacy. They likely all have Jewish ancestry at some point, and yet are being expelled as non-voters by a state calling for their throats.
DeleteViscous is not the word you want -- you want vicious.
DeletePalestinians are not "indigenous" people in any sense of how the word is used in English. Your inflammatory way of discussing the non-voting status of some Palestinians (not all, since there are many Palestinians who are citizens of Israel and do vote) shows that you are writing propaganda, not discussing an issue. If they have Jewish ancestry that they can prove and are willing to claim, why are they calling themselves Palestinians instead of Israelis or Jews? Clearly, they do not have that status.
I am both indigenous and viscous. No state has a “right to exist”.
DeleteCriticizing Israel and Netanyahu is anti-semitic, just as criticizing the ACA and Biden is anti-American.
DeleteDo you know of any political parties who spend an inordinate amount of time criticizing the ACA and Biden?
If no state has a "right to exist" then every state has even more of a right to defend itself. Palestine is not now and has never been a state in any sense of that word.
DeleteWhite supremacy uses studies about Jewish genetics to make claims that people should stick to their own kind. There are people who work for academia still studying the various "Ashkenazi gene hypothesis" data for all this.
DeleteI reject all this, I reject the taking of land of the indigenous Palestinians.
Nobody did that.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Dalet
Delete" In the event of resistance, the armed force must be destroyed and the population must be expelled outside the borders of the state".
" The villages which are emptied in the manner described above must be included in the fixed defensive system and must be fortified as necessary."
What's another word for when land is empty of people who used to live there? Genocide.
DeleteThe UN found that Israel is not guilty of genocide.
DeleteThe UN is just an extension of American imperialism, otherwise the US wouldn't have joined it.
DeleteLet's look at what was said to the UN in 2009, that was ignored by American discourse:
"Israel continues to arrogantly ignore the more than 600 resolutions and decisions adopted by the United Nations and its agencies and bodies, which call for the withdrawal of Israel from occupied Arab territories....West Bank and Gaza are in effect two enormous prison camps, where the most elementary human rights and standards of human dignity are non-existent. "
https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-204180/
The United Nations routinely outvotes Israel and the US on the Palestine Issue, and it's now becoming clear Israel has always been ready to be genocidal, from 1923, 1948, and now 2023, making full throated declarations to slaughter animals.
Delete
ReplyDelete"Biden is flirting with World War III! Obama is calling the shots!"
I have no idea who is calling the shots (certainly neither Obama nor Biden), but whoever that is, they've been flirting with World War III since December 2021, when they summarily rejected the Russian proposal for establishing collective security: no further NATO expansion and dismantling all military installations on the post-1996 NATO territories.
How much do they pay per comment at your troll farm?
Delete3:57 - the one avoiding substance and issuing thought terminating cliches is the troll.
Delete"Since 1991, the U.S. has seemingly stood alone as the global superpower. But today, after a fraught two-decade period shaped by American-led military interventions and direct engagement in regional wars, the Ukraine war highlights the decline of the United States itself. This decline is relative economically and militarily, but serious in terms of U.S. moral authority. "
Deletehttps://news.err.ee/1608977948/fiona-hill-ukraine-in-the-new-world-disorder
@4:22 There are too many of them and they are too stupid to talk to. Look at yesterday -- more than 110 comments and none of them any form of discussion. Mostly from these guys, who are not part of the community here, have nothing to say about Somerby's essay, and are only here because they are paid to troll for Putin and Trump. Even the Palestinians are here to mess up the election, not to solicit donations for those starving in Gaza. Don't kid yourself about these guys. Their repetitiveness tells you they are not here to talk about Gaza. If you give them even the barest argument, they retreat to telling you that you are ahistorical. And that is trolling by your definition.
Delete@4:27 PM
DeleteShe is full of shit. There's been no "moral authority" since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nor is it (assuming it's a real thing) necessary, as long as one is strong economically and militarily. It's exactly the economic and military decline that's worrisome.
4:21 PM I'm very sorry to say but your accusations sound like a confession. Your comment sounds like total horseshit. It doesn't sound remotely sincere.
Delete4:39 PM I'm very sorry to say but your accusations sound like a confession. Your comment sounds like total horseshit. It doesn't sound remotely sincere.
DeleteThe Ukraine war is occurring because Russia invaded Ukraine, not because of any American action. During Trump's term in office, Trump gave Putin the Crimea and emboldened him to attack Ukraine. Trump, at Putin's command, attempted to pull US troops out of all of its foreign deployments. Trump's military leaders would not do it, so only the troops in Afghanistan were actually removed. Trump also attempted to withdraw the US from NATO and then tried to reduce NATO's effectiveness, again at Putin's command. A sane person would consider those actions treasonous. The right is still in league with Putin, supporting Russia's agenda for the Ukraine, and it is employing trolls who write stuff like @4:27. And Somerby supports this work by giving them a comment space unmoderated, so that Russia's latest media campaign can go forward, much as it did in 2016 (also here at this blog).
DeleteSomerby is pretending Biden and the US are war-mongering, echoing Fox News fears of WWIII, when the actual war is the one these trolls are fighting here, for votes that will put Trump back in office so he can complete Putin's bidding and continue looting US resources.
We need to stand up for our country by complaining about these trolls, who are most likely not even Americans but workers in some Eastern European troll farm.
4:46 -you don't sound sincere at all. You don't offer any evidence. You're making McCarthyite accusations. And the comment itself is reductive and stupid.
DeleteOnly Republicans call others here "McCarthyite" and it proves they know nothing whatsoever about McCarthy.
Delete4:46,
DeleteIn Trump's defense, he's compromised by Putin's Kompromat on him.
What the excuse for the Republican Congress to be Putin's bitches, is anyone's guess.
Already up to 54 comments with about 10 of them actually discussing the essay.
ReplyDeleteThe essay is bunk.
Delete"Primarily, Mashkoor says, AI-generated disinformation is being used by activists to solicit support—or give the impression of wider support—for a particular side. Examples include an AI-generated billboard in Tel Aviv championing Israel Defense Forces, an Israeli account sharing fake images of people cheering for the IDF, an Israeli influencer using AI to generate condemnations of Hamas, and AI images portraying victims of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.wired.com/story/israel-hamas-war-generative-artificial-intelligence-disinformation/
And yet all the disinformation here is pro-Palestinian.
DeleteLet's quote directly from the Israeli government, Moshe Feiglin so there is no possible misinformation of any Palestinian:
Delete"Do not leave a stone upon stone in Gaza. Gaza needs to turn to Dresden. Complete incineration. Annihiliate Gaza now." Let's quote Arnon Soffer, "kill if we want to exist."
Israeli president Isaac Herzog brazenly claimed that there are “no innocent civilians in Gaza” while Netanyahu’s defense minister Yoav Gallant said Palestinians were “human animals” when he promised to cut off food and water to 2 million Palestnians in Gaza after the horrific October 7 Hamas attacks. Israel’s Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu was suspended indefinitely after he said in an interview that dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip was “one of the possibilities.” Additionally, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman blithely called the Palestinian people “horrible, inhuman animals” as a whole during a TV interview and former head of Israel’s National Security Council (Major General Giora Eiland) publicly said that “Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist.”
https://bridge.georgetown.edu/research/report-anti-palestinian-racism-islamophobia-in-gaza-war-coverage/
I might feel this way too, after the horrific attack on 10/7. But this excerpt comes from a pro-Palestinian propaganda site, not any government source. How is this not an example of AI-generated propaganda against Israel?
DeleteEach one of the quotes are sourced in the link
Delete
ReplyDeleteI smell my fingers and I spam Somerby's blog. Spamming Somerby's blog is my purpose in life.
What an asshole Somerby is.
My finger smells funny now.
I am Corby.
Fake. But your finger does smell funny.
DeleteI have become Troll, destroyer of blogs.
ReplyDeleteFacebook's algorithm is a better troll than you.
DeleteThere are most likely no Palestinians reading this blog. There are Jews but most likely no Israelis. The rest of us are not interested in any of the complaints being expressed here against Israel. We do not want war but we also do not want to surrender our shipping to attack and we do not support the attacks on Jews made by Iran-supported terrorist groups. We want a ceasefire and a negotiated settlement that will not be broken by the Arabs/Muslims/Palestinians in the short term. But that is not what these spammed troll coments are about.
ReplyDeleteTrump is supporting Russia and the Republican party, following Trump, is supporting Russia too. Russia is working through Iran to destablize the Middle East in order to sabotage Biden's election campaign and get Trump reelected. That is ALL these troll comments are about. They are anti-Biden and they hope that by threatening readers with WWIII, we will vote for Trump instead. Trump, of course, is promising peace through appeasement of Putin, Russia, and indirectly Iran and the Palestinians (despite their claim to support Israel's right to exist). Fundamentalist Christians are not pro-Jewish (who they consider nasty globalists who fund Democrats), they are pro-turmoil in the Middle East because that presages the second coming of Jesus, who will send the Jews to hell for not being Christian.
Somerby's role is to give these rancid trolls a place to spew their filth in favor of Trump's reelection campaign. Somerby does not support Biden, or he would moderate his blog comments. If Somerby supported Biden, he would not be supporting the pro-Palestinian groups calling for the heads of college presidents. He would not be pretending that Jews want genocide. He would not be taking any definite side, evading a stand, as he does with most issues, but especially things that Democrats (liberals) support. So why does Somerby become a pro-Palestinian only when the trolls for Russia are here pushing Trump? You tell me.
This is politics at its ugliest. It was bad enough when the trolls were only calling Hillary crooked. But now they are aiming their vitriol at Jews as a people. Somerby doesn't care about civil rights, but Democrats do. It offends me as a liberal Democrat when Somerby tolerates the ugly Jew-hating that these trolls are spewing in his blog. Obviously, it doesn't trouble Somerby at all. And that goes on my list of despicable stuff Somerby says here that proves he is not a Biden supporter, not a liberal, and not a particularly good or decent person. YMMV but I don't want to hear about it.
I beg all TDH readers to please, please not hate Jews.
DeleteSave your hatred for those who deserve it. Like Israel.
Israel doesn't deserve hatred either. Save it for trolls, like the ones who have now filled this blog with 96 comments about nothing anyone here cares to read.
DeleteThe whole world is watching Biden slap Israel on the wrist for 25,000 civilians coldly murdered.
DeleteLike those murdered on 10/7?
DeleteFuck Israel. And Fuck Netanyahu.
DeleteAlso, God bless the Jewish people.
10:37 has the right idea.
DeleteThe only solution for Israel/Palestine is a one-state solution.
ReplyDeleteMuslims need to stop hating Jews.
DeleteA Jewish state in the middle of the Muslim world was a bad idea. Solving this problem will require some creative thinking.
DeleteIt doesn't matter what state should exist as long as the debate is fueled by lobbyists with unlimited money to explain it for us.
DeleteOnce the lobbyists leave the room then people can talk what should exist.
Somerby needs to moderate these comments.
ReplyDeleteApparently he doesn’t intend to.
DeleteWhat comments do you two want Bob to nuke?
DeleteIt’s interesting that we can have a board full of asinine and incongruent Flying Monkey Anonymouse comments about Republicans and “black folks” and no one says a word (nor should they), but anonymices want Bob to police comments that pique them.
ReplyDeleteI do not have a comment to this article. I would wish that Somersby would read and comment on the article from Salon "Either "malpractice" or "criminal": Dr. Justin Frank on power, drugs and Trump's White House" by Chauncey Devega. He does not cite his sources, which makes his claims assertive and not established fact. But, it adds to Somerby's wish that the pundits of our time would invite psychiatrists/psychologists on to break down the mind of Trump. George Conway calls Trump a malignant narcissist all the time on TV. Conway is not a trained physician. The pundits allow him and others say this without any comeback as to his ability to properly diagnose Trump. Conway is a lawyer.
More evidence that these people are morons.
ReplyDeleteThese people are OK. Those people are the morons.
DeleteThis is for David in Cal and anyone else who wants to know how campaigns work at the grassroots level:
ReplyDeletehttps://digbysblog.net/2024/02/05/yall-got-the-secret-sauce/
Those who care about Palestinians should be anti-Trump and yet that is not the position of the trolls inhabiting this blog.
ReplyDeleteFrom Digby:
"In case you needed more evidence that Netanyahu and his boys are holding out for a Trump restoration, here it is:
Criticism of President Joe Biden by a far-right minister in Israel’s government who said Donald Trump would allow more freedom to fight Hamas sparked outrage there on Sunday, highlighting the sensitivity of relations as Washington provides key support for the offensive against the militants in Gaza.
The Biden administration has skirted Congress to rush weapons to Israel and shielded its ally from international calls for a cease-fire in the four months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war. But the White House has also urged Israel to take greater measures to avoid harming civilians and to facilitate the delivery of more aid to besieged Gaza.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal said Biden was hindering Israel’s war effort.
“Instead of giving us his full backing, Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel (to Gaza), which goes to Hamas,” Ben-Gvir said. “If Trump was in power, the U.S. conduct would be completely different.”
Does it mean that you're a Trump voter now, Corby?
Delete"" hey arab lovers be happy with medium speed genocide cause we can always make it faster"
Delete