SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 2024
It seemed like every program: We didn't exactly hate yesterday's Daily Howler. But it did leave us disquieted.
Partly, we were dealing with fatigue, based upon the loss of an hour last Saturday night. Thanks a lot, President Biden!
We're willing to call spade a spade! Mainly, though, the problem involved this disquieting fact:
In our view, the other tribe has been more right than wrong concerning one major topic.
Say what? The other tribe has been more right than wrong about something? So it has seemed to us:
In our view, the other tribe has seemed to be more right than wrong in the degree of emphasis it has placed on issues involving the southern border.
At times like these, it hurts to voice some such assessment. But so it has seemed to us as the other tribe has stressed an array of worries concerning the southern border, and as our own tribe has largely pretended that the border doesn't even exist.
So it went in recent years among our blue tribe's journalistic "thought leaders," but also among our major elected officials:
Biden officials kept insisting that the border was "secure" and "closed," even when it plainly wasn't. Our major blue pundits focused on the various trials of Donald J. Trump, and on little else.
As our blue tribe was adopting this stance, the red tribe plainly wasn't. They kept stressing a number of concerns about the border—concerns which seem valid to us.
The questions they've raised have gone unaddressed as our own floundering tribe has kept trying to send Trump to jail. Full disclosure:
In our view, our blue tribe's efforts reached the point of parody at 10 o'clock last night. At that time, MSNBC aired a one-hour special which carried this name:
The Trump Indictments
For the record, that's the title of a new book by Melissa Murray and Andrew Weissman, a pair of highly capable MSNBC legal analysts. Murray and Weissman served as co-hosts of last night's one-hour special. Their book is published by Norton.
Somewhat parodically, The Trump Indictments is also the name of a different new book! That new book was edited by Ali Velshi, another major figure at MSNBC.
At some point, it might be easier to list the names of MSNBC personnel who haven't published new books called The Trump Indictments. At any rate, Murray and Weissman served as co-hosts of last night's hourlong special. It was Velshi who brought them on, after serving as substitute host for last night's edition of Alex Wagner Tonight.
Nothing which follows is intended as a criticism of Murray, Weissman or Velshi. That said, last night's hourlong special opened with Murray saying this:
Good evening and welcome to a special hour devoted to the Trump indictments...
Donald Trump is charged with 88 felony counts in four different jurisdictions. In this hour, we will cover the latest developments in Donald Trump's criminal cases starting with Fulton County, Georgia today.
That's the way the program started. Our immediate question was this:
What primetime program on MSNBC within the last year hasn't been "devoted to the Trump indictments?" Within the last year, what hour hasn't "covered the latest developments in Donald Trump's criminal cases?"
The analysts yowled and tore at their hair as Murray offered that somewhat parodic introduction to last night's "special" hour. Briefly, though, let be clear:
The various indictments of Donald J. Trump do, in fact, constitute a set of major news events. There's no reason why they shouldn't be covered by major news orgs.
That said, the border has been a major news topic too, even as MSNBC has seemingly tried to ignore it.
Putting it mildly, the Fox News Channel hasn't ignored the southern border. In turn, the Fox News Channel has done its best to ignore or erase the events of January 6 and the role the former president played in those astounding events.
So it has gone as these two news orgs have stressed one major set of events while disappearing another. Here's our sad admission:
In our view, Fox has been more right than wrong in its focus on the border. Also, Fox has been more right than MSNBC in the amount of coverage it has given to border / immigration topics.
In our view, MSNBC has badly misfired in the massive amount of emphasis it has placed on the Trump indictments. In fairness, the channel has presumably pleased its target audience with this unyielding emphasis.
There were matters we didn't get to yesterday. We'll link you to several today.
We'll start with three posts in which Kevin Drum has attempted to explain some basic provisions of the proposed (and quickly discarded) border bill. All in all, this sort of thing is pretty much never done:
Kevin Drum on the border bill:
February 4, 2024: Senate immigration bill expands detention, increases asylum judges, and allows the president to shut the border
February 5, 2024: Here’s a quick look at objections to the Senate immigration bill
March 9, 2024: Why did Republicans vote down the immigration reform bill?
That sort of thing is rarely done. On cable, here's what happens instead:
On MSNBC, personnel repeat a talking-point about how great the border bill was. On Fox, personnel have tended to mumble imprecise claims about the bill's alleged flaws and limitations while saying that President Biden could fix the border all by himself, with no legislation needed.
Those are the dueling memorized claims. Depending on which channel you watch, you hear one claim or the other, with no disputation allowed.
We were also interested in Christopher Wray's testimony last week before a Senate committee. His testimony drew little press coverage. Headline included, here the start of a poorly-proofread report by ABC News:
ABC News: FBI director warns of 'dangerous individuals' coming across southern border
Amid a bitter election-year debate over illegal immigration, FBI Director Chris Wray told a Senate panel on Monday that dangerous individuals have entered the United States illegally at the southern border.
"We have had dangerous individuals entering the United States have a variety of sources," Wray said at the annual "Worldwide Threats" congressional hearings at which the heads of U.S. intelligence agencies testify.
"We are seeing a wide array of very dangerous threats that emanate from the border, " he said, citing drug trafficking in particular. "The FBI alone seized enough fentanyl in the last two years to kill 270 million people," he said.
[...]
"There is a particular network that has—some of the overseas facilitators of the smuggling network have—ISIS ties that we're very concerned about, and we've been spending enormous amount of effort with our partners investigating," Wray said.
Overall, he said, threats from various groups have reached a "whole other level."
"Even before October 7, I would have told this committee that we were at a heightened threat level from a terrorism perspective—in the sense that it's the first time I've seen in a long, long time," he said..."[S]ince October 7, though, that threat has gone to a whole other level. And so, this is a time I think for much greater vigilance, maybe been called upon us," he said.
On Fox, they talk about such alleged threats all the time. On MSNBC, rightly or wrongly, little of this gets mentioned.
We also would have liked to direct you to something Senator Katie Britt said on last weekend's Fox News Sunday.
Britt was doubling down on a grossly misleading anecdote she uncorked as part of the official GOP response to President Biden's State of the Union address. Here's part of The Hill's report about what Britt now said:
ROBERTSON (3/10/24): Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) defended herself on Sunday after she used a story of sexual violence from two decades ago in Mexico as an attack on President Biden in her State of the Union response.
[...]
The senator brushed off the criticism, claiming the story [she told] is emblematic of the president’s border policy.
“I’ve said, in [Biden’s] first 100 days he had 94 executive actions, and those executive actions didn’t just create the crisis. They invited it,” Britt said in a “Fox News Sunday” interview with Shannon Bream.
“The truth is, and the media knows that they’re not covering it, that human trafficking has gone up under President Biden,” she continued. “If you look back under 2018, it was a $500 million industry, human trafficking by the drug cartels. It is now a $13 billion dollar industry. Shannon, the drug cartels are winning under this. This is a story of what is happening now.”
Say what? Human trafficking by the drug cartels is now a $13 billion industry?
As it turns out, Britt was citing a pair of accurate dollar figures. Inevitably, she was doing so in a somewhat misleading / inaccurate way—though we tend to agree with her claim that "the media" tends not to cover this topic.
At any rate, they talk about "trafficking" all the time on the Fox News Channel! When it comes to topics like this, MSNBC tends to play Goofus to that channel's Gallant, broadcasting hourlong special programs designed to do the same thing they do during every primetime program.
Fox pleases red tribe viewers with its topic selection. MSNBC provides the same service to us blue tribe viewers.
This isn't the doing of Murray and Weissmann. It is a way to create a pair of warring populations, in much the way we read about on the wide plains outside Troy back in ancient times.
Last night, our blue channel offered a special broadcast. For better or worse, it seemed like every other broadcast—like the ones they don't call special!
Has the red channel been more right than wrong about this particular point?
Much of their work comes straight outta clown college, astoundingly and inexcusably so. But is it conceivable that the others have maybe been more right than wrong, if only this once, just when it comes to this?
Liberal are so used to controlling the media that they take it for granted. They don't notice this unusual situation.
ReplyDeleteBob compares coverage on MSNBC vs FoxNews. He's right, but MSNBC isn't alone. A more complete comparison would be
NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, NY Times, most local papers, Facebook on one side
vs
FoxNews, NY Post on the other side
Perhaps as much as 90% of the news we see follows the liberal slant.
You think most local papers are liberal?
DeleteFacebook?
DeleteDIC is correct, in a way: those outlets are more “liberal” whereas Fox News is more “conservative”; however, DIC points this out as a way to obfuscate the real issue, which is that most of those “liberal” outlets are on the right wing spectrum - most push a neoliberal agenda, but otherwise play the news straight, whereas Fox News is far right and routinely attempts to con and dupe their viewers. In that, Fox News does perhaps suffer under a misunderstanding of their viewers, who most likely do not actually believe the nonsense propaganda, but instead are getting an emotional “hit” off the lunacy, it feeds their need for dominance.
DeleteThe Left represents our more innate nature, but has little to no representation in corporate media.
@11:09 within my experience the local papers in NJ and Silicon Valley were liberal. I do not have a National survey
DeleteHave you read local newspapers in the South?
DeleteWhat about Sinclair? They own 193 local TV stations…
DeleteHow is Facebook a media outlet, much less a liberal one?
DeleteLike me, David in Ca grew up in a media culture that was anything but liberal. At the same time, the conservatives in that culture wined like little bitches anytime the conservative viewpoint was challenged, either by different viewpoints are simple facts. Walter told us the truth about Vietnam, and the right never forgave him. But network new was never "liberal" and ABC was not far from what Fox is now.
DeleteDavid wants to conflate “liberal” with a progressive or leftist stance, but both historically and currently, “liberal” is a right wing stance.
DeleteBy polls and surveys, a majority of Americans support progressive or leftist positions (which aligns with our innate human nature); however, those in power are almost exclusively right wing and therefore we live in a right wing dominant society, so it’s unsurprising that corporate media is right wing dominant.
"Biden officials kept insisting that the border was "secure" and "closed," even when it plainly wasn't."
Delete"The FBI alone seized enough fentanyl in the last two years to kill 270 million people,"
Sounds wide open, yup.
Define open and closed. Fentanyl comes across with the trucks and tourists at entry points, not with asylum seekers, legal immigrants or those avoiding entry points. Yes, it kills a lot of drug users. Tell them to stop doing that.
DeleteSomerby could correct these idiot right wing notions, but instead, he pushes them.
Delete2:45
DeleteWar is Peace.
Freedom is Slavery.
Ignorance is Strength.
Liberals are Conservatives.
8:01
DeleteYou are confused.
Liberals and conservatives are distinct.
However, they are both right wingers.
Leftists support egalitarianism, right wingers support hierarchy and dominance.
These definitions are based on both history and behavioral science, and are nothing new.
Everything in the universe is on a spectrum, but there will always be hacks that try to muddy definitions in order to push a personal agenda.
ReplyDelete"It is a way to create a pair of warring populations, in much the way we read about on the wide plains outside Troy back in ancient times."
Are you sure there really are "warring populations", Bob?
Outside of the internet, where DNC bots create an appearance of the ubiquity of idiot-moonbats, I don't think there are actually many of them out there, on the ground.
Perhaps what you're describing (and worrying about) is just online trolling.
Why don’t you use your nym (Mao)?
DeleteIs it you, Corby?
DeleteCorby was never a DNC bot.
DeleteCorby doesn’t live here any more.
DeleteI do live here. I play bridge and I spam Somerby's blog. That is my calling in life.
DeleteWhat an asshole Somerby is. My finger smells funny now.
I am Corby.
So, by extension, Somerby smells funny.
DeleteFake.
DeleteTrump Stench is real.
Delete"Much of their work comes straight outta clown college, astoundingly and inexcusably so. But is it conceivable that the others have maybe been more right than wrong, if only this once, just when it comes to this?"
ReplyDeleteCould be.
But to know, you first have to sort out which reports are clown college reports and which are based in fact. Most of us recall how Fox News reported breathlessly on the "caravans" of migrants that appeared conveniently near election time--only to be forgotten the day after.
Katie Britt went on national television to rebut President Biden's SOTU address. She told a lurid, spectacular tale. one which heavily implied that Biden had not only permitted, but invited a state of affairs that led to sex trafficking of a specific young woman. Why was that story included in her presentation? Because it was compelling and heartbreaking and hit a list of hot-button emotional triggers for listeners--and because it would play well on Fox and other conservative outlets. It was widely reported that this was her "tryout" as a potential VP candidate on the Trump ticket.
And, it was a fake story.
Nevertheless, Britt has doubled down and then tripled down on the validity of the story, even after it was shown to be baldly dishonest.
So, is it possible that Red Tribe media has been right more than wrong on this one issue? Sure, it's possible. The problem is, it would make a monumental amount of labor to find out.
"And, it was a fake story."
DeleteIt wasn't a fake story.
This Katie Britt idiotic "outrage" feels like you DNC bots can't actually find any fake stories on your opponents' side (which I find somewhat surprising), and are reduced to scraping the bottom.
Red Tribe pundits have a noticeable habit of muddling various issues together when they pertain to the border. Britt showed a bit of this habit herself. She told the nation all about a young woman who had been sex-trafficked by "the cartels."
DeleteWhich cartels was she talking about? Presumably, she was referring to the drug cartels, the ones who profit from smuggling illegal drugs into the country. However, there's no evidence in any of the reliable reports of Karla Jacinto Romero's tragic story that involve the drug cartels--that was just another added emotional trigger that Britt tossed in the make her story more shocking.
And so it often goes with Red Tribe media reports about the border. There is little effort to clearly define the problems that occur at the border. Instead, all the problems are muddled together until "the border" becomes a frightening code word that conjures up all of the scary stories rolled up into a unified threat.
Don't believe me? Just listen to candidate Trump:
"At this very moment, large, well-organized caravans of migrants are marching towards our southern border. Some people call it an “invasion.” It’s like an invasion. They have violently overrun the Mexican border. You saw that two days ago. These are tough people, in many cases. A lot of young men, strong men. And a lot of men that maybe we don’t want in our country. But again, we’ll find that out through the legal process."
The story was demonstrably fake.
DeleteEven most Republicans decried Britt’s performative speech.
@2:04
DeleteThe young woman Britt described had been held captive in Mexico during the Bush administration. Britt implied her story was an example of the harms caused by Biden's border policy.
What would you call it if not fake?
DeleteThe story is not fake, as you're admitting yourself. It illustrates the harm, tragedies arising from the open-border policies pursued by the current administration. I don't see what the problem is. At all.
The Dems' focus on Britt's anecdote about a particular young woman is a pathetic attempt to ignore the primary story. It isn't working. Trump did an exemplary job of controlling illegal immigration. (No thanks to Dems who did what they could to stymie his good efforts.) Rather than build on Trump's success, Biden undid it and caused the current wreck. That's clear for all to see, particularly since red border state Governors started shipping these illegal immigrants to blue states.
DeleteQuibbling over an single ambiguous reference regarding one particular illegal immigrant and one crime victim doesn't respond to the millions of illegal immigrants Biden's policies allowed into the country.
Your fact free screed is just another in a long line of right wing disinformation, David.
Delete@6:11 - I will repeat my number one fact: Biden’s policies allowed millions more illegal immigrants to enter the country than Trump’s policies.
DeleteMao the creep is out in force today, defending Britt’s BS. Evidence not forthcoming. Look, since the Hunter thing blew up, Bob is down to one issue.
DeleteI asked David to defend Katie Britt’s speech. It took him a while, but he came through.
DeleteThe story was unrelated to the border, and was presented in a misleading manner, so it is appropriate to call Britt out, and the response to Britt has effectively ended her hopes for advancement in politics.
DeleteHuman trafficking skyrocketed during Trump’s reign, he fumbled in immigration, just like with Covid and everything else.
When you can only make claims without offering any evidence, you’ve lost the argument.
@11:57 PM
DeleteI'm glad that even you, a DNC bot, dropped the "fake story" bs.
Otherwise, your comment consists of repeating "I am a DNC bot" several times. That's superfluous.
"exemplary" - with each new telling of the myth, DiC's buries his head further up Trump's corrupt ass.
DeleteDavid, why is Trump forcing republicans to continue allowing inhuman vermin to continue poisoning our blood? You never answered that question.
I liked David better when he supported women's right to make their own healthcare choices. Now, he's just another standard-issue Right-winger who champions a rapist as our next President.
DeleteHere we go again: The premise that MSNBC all but ignores immigration is BS, they just cover it in a way that Bob doesn't like. They often have done shows humanizing Hispanic and Latino populations, and have attempted to explain Obama's dreamer program, which was meant to balance his actually pretty tough policies on deportation.
ReplyDeleteHas human trafficking actually gone up under Biden? Should the fair person accept such a conclusion from Britt given her miserable lies and demagoguery? Bob does not seem interested, that it is being sold to Fox News views seems to make it good enough for him. Are there any dimensions to the right's dogging of the issue, and their dropping the bipartisan work on a bill to try and improve things ON TRUMP'S COMMAND? Bob doesn't want to hear about it.
The we have: "The various indictments of Donald J Trump do, in fact, constitute a set of major news events."
Could anyone who has read Bob Somerby since Jan 6th, were violent traitors hit cops in the face with bear spray in the Nations Capitol and dragged a Confederate flag through the entrance (did Bob cheer?) not note it is Bob who is the one who has tried to suppress the story of Donald Trump's nearly successful destruction of our way of life? Legitimate political discourse anyone?
Why Bob hated his post yesterday is a little confusing, It seemed like the same old garbage. Immigration seems to be there for Bob since he has lost interest in the Hunt for Hunter, which is just another illustration of the politics of sadism championed by Trump right.
Glad to see you're not still falsely claiming cops were "killed and maimed." Thanks.
DeleteCops died and were seriously injured.
Delete4:11: cops were killed and maimed, you are a liar and creep.
DeleteCops died as a result of the Jan 6 insurrection, but it should be noted that being a cop is not a particularly dangerous job, not even in the top ten.
DeleteThe general level of danger in being a cop is not relevant to Jan 6. They were brutalized horribly by Mao’s “hostages.”
Delete
DeleteSome imaginary cops living inside moonbat's skulls died. Their imaginary corpses have been rotting inside moonbat's skulls for years now. It's tragic.
@11:49 Stop lying about what happened. We all saw the cop who was being squeezed between the door jamb by the crowd pressing against the door. We could hear his screams in the video. We heard the testimony in the 1/6 Hearing of the woman cop who watched another cop being beaten by the crowd and who was herself injured when they attacked her too. Then there was the man who suffered a heart attack due to the riot, and the officer who committed suicide right afterward. And the cops who were sprayed in the face with bear spray by rioters. These are not imaginary people. They are the reason why so many insurrectionists have gotten sentences of many years.
Delete8:16 PM Being squeezed between a door jamb in not being killed. None of us saw cops "killed and maimed" by the protesters. This was a false claim the OP made before to juice up their narrative. No cops were killed by the protesters.
DeleteEveryone saw a bunch of Right-wing snowflakes throw a childish temper tantrum on January 6th, 2021, just because black people's votes were counted in the 2020 Presidential election. Anyone who denies it is a liar.
DeleteSomerby says that on the border issue, the red tribe has been more right than wrong.
ReplyDeleteHuh!
Somerby provides almost no evidence to back up his startling claim.
Somerby points to the Trump appointed Republican FBI Director testifying before congress, but Wray’s agenda was to increase his budget, and misleads right in the quote Somerby highlights, attempting to scaremonger about fentanyl, however the majority of fentanyl is smuggled through legal ports of entry, so it has nothing to do with the border issues being pushed by the red tribe. Wray further tries to scaremonger with talk of terrorists, yet there have been no recent terrorist attacks from undocumented immigrants, in fact the FBI says our biggest terrorist threat is from far right extremists in our own country. There are studies that indicate that immigration actually lowers terror risks.
Somerby points to Britt’s speech where she pointed out the increase in human trafficking, but Somerby fails to adequately apply critical thinking to Britt’s misleading claim: Britt points to a report that indicates an increase in profits, not from “human trafficking” but from “human smuggling” which is vastly different. It turns out the report covers the years from 2018-2021! This means that most, if not all, of the increase occurred under the Trump administration. In fact, trafficking increased dramatically during the Trump years, although 2018 was an aberrantly low year, which makes the case even more misleading by cherry picking data (comparing an aberrant low to a high).
Somerby repeats Britt’s false claim that Biden signed 94 executive actions related to the border in his first 100 days, but in reality Biden only signed 12 orders which were border related, and none contributed to an increase in trafficking or smuggling.
Somerby himself has pointed out the red tribe is wrong about immigrant crime, with their crime rate being vastly lower than native born Americans, which is to speak nothing of the important ways in which immigrants enrich our country.
This debunking information is readily accessible from corporate media, within a few minutes on Google.
Somerby fails to make the case on his nonsensical claim.
Agreed. For Bob to make such a broad-sweeping, reductive claim about such a complex topic (involving not just the underlying issue but also the politics of the issue and what the appropriate amount and type of coverage of the issue should be), and then provide no support for it . . . irresponsible, careless, lazy . . . pick your adjective. I think in an attempt to be openminded and evenhanded, Bob has opened himself up to being propagandized by the constant drumbeat of "we're being invaded" on Fox.
DeleteThank you for this rebuttal. This is what the fake liberals on NBC are supposed to be doing rather than patting their audience on the back for consuming the correct media channel.
Delete1:22,
DeleteNBC is still owned by a corporation, which wants more tax breaks for corporations, correct?
On Robert Ray: it may be arguable his testimony was not given enough coverage. He has often seemed the straight shooter, though he is a long member of the reactionary Federalist Society, who is pubic knowledge set out to bribe Clarence Thomas, and got their money's worth. But it's also true Ray had every reason to know what very well might happen on Jan 6th, and looked the other way. Did he not want to anger the political right, or the conservative factions at the FBI? In any event, his status as an politically objective player must at least be considered.
ReplyDeleteSomerby was never concerned about border issues in this blog until the right wing made it their focus in this year's election.
ReplyDeleteWhy would an elderly standup comedian living in Baltimore, who is supposedly a liberal, all of the sudden become so concerned about border issues that he would say a foolish junior senator with a fundie baby voice is right about her main point, which seems to have been to repeat a bogus story about sex trafficking from George W. Bush's administration? It makes no sense that this would be on Somerby's radar at all, except that he confesses to watching Fox News 24/7 now that he is older than dirt.
Somerby has no credibility on the topic of the border and his endorsement of Katie Britt suggests he has lost his marbles.
Pretending something doesn’t exist may be poor strategy. The border problem is real. If Dems ignore it, it might cost them the election.
DeleteNo one has ignored the border, including Biden.
DeleteNo one is ignoring the border problem, in fact Biden was willing to sign fairly regressive border legislation written by Republicans, before Trump had his minions squash it so he could run a fear mongering campaign.
DeleteThe problem is the red tribe abuses the border issue to impose their worldview of racism and xenophobia on others, when in reality immigrants are good for the country and the only real issue with the border is treating those people more humanly and making sure they are processed more efficiently and effectively.
Bob has to go hard on immigration. The Hunt for Hunter fell apart, taking away his other issue.
DeleteDiC: There's quite a lot of daylight between "ignoring the border issue" and "discounting GOP propaganda."
Delete"Partly, we were dealing with fatigue, based upon the loss of an hour last Saturday night. Thanks a lot, President Biden!"
ReplyDeleteBiden didn't cause Daylight Savings Time. Why is Somerby gratuitously knocking Biden, the candidate he supposedly supports?
Why shouldn't there be a lot of shows and a lot of books about Trump's indictments. There are a lot of crimes he has committed, a lot of grand juries handing down lots of charges. There have even been several convictions. It is no wonder this may be confusing to everyday people, requiring explanation by news sources.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Somerby avoids that confusion by just never mentioning Trump's legal troubles. Luckily there are people trying to figure out what the former president did, who he did it too, and whether it was legal or not. And judges who are holding Trump accountable, even when there is a lot of evidence to consider and some pretty huge consequences for the election and our nation.
But Somerby is too lazy to deal with it all, so he just shrugs and says "let's talk about the border instead."
At bottom, it was just about how the American Right wing was nearly able to seize control of the U.S. for pleasure of a lunatic. No big deal.
DeleteWe are supposed to think that Somerby is unaware that Republicans/Fox News drag out the border issue every election cycle, and they have been doing it for decades. They try to create a panic over a phony issue to motivate their voters, they do it every time, but apparently Somerby was born yesterday.
ReplyDeleteBrother, please.
The George Floyd protests were supposed to be Biden’s undoing in 2020. Then it was “crime” that was going to usher in the red tidal wave in 2022. Rinse and repeat.
Delete
ReplyDelete"Say what? Human trafficking by the drug cartels is now a $13 billion industry?"
Inflation, Bob. Inflation. Everything is extremely expensive now, including trafficking humans.
Actually they are charging more while putting less humans in the package.
DeleteBritt misrepresented what those amounts were for and who was responsible (Trump).
Good point. Or they're trafficking smaller humans for the same price. This is outrageous. They must be decisively confronted by our president. The can't be tolerated.
DeleteWhen your country is ravaged by imperialism, you’re not going to be able to fully meet your nutritional needs and thus are likely to be smaller in size.
DeleteOur president should be addressing this inhumanity, much of it propagated by our former president.
Thanks for using humor to point out the joke this blog has become.
DeleteGood old Kevin. Debunking Britt and Somerby simultaneously:
ReplyDeletehttps://jabberwocking.com/human-trafficking-has-barely-changed-at-all-since-2018/
“But is it conceivable that the others have maybe been more right than wrong, if only this once, just when it comes to this?”
DeletePiper? Dogface? AC?
Ha. Major embarrassing moment for Bob that reveals what he was up to from square one. Keep this handy to link to throughout the campaign, every time Bob tries to pull a fast one…
DeleteDrum annoyingly looks up actual, you know, data.
DeleteYour Republican Party:
ReplyDeleteOhio congressional candidate J.R. Majewski (R): “Shout out to all the Democrats living in Mom's basement, that like to talk shit on the internet.”
“It's like being in the Special Olympics. No matter how good you perform, you're still a fucking retard.“
Poor guy exited the race. Somerby probably pities him.
Oof.
DeleteAt least he’s being honest and upfront with his bigotry.
Bill Maher would wring his hands over the horrors of cancel culture.
DeleteThey are reporting that Trump is cutting back on rallies because he is out of campaign money, but I think it is to avoid exposure of his deteriorating cognitive state.
ReplyDeleteThe rally today was pretty bad, Trump slurring and glitching continually.
Delete"Donald Trump on Saturday came under fire for how he glorifies people convicted of crimes amid the insurrection following his speech on Jan. 6, 2021.
ReplyDeleteTrump over the weekend spoke at a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Dayton, Ohio, where he flubbed his words several times and was accused of "glitching" on stage. In that same speech, he also warned of an impending "bloodbath" if he loses the election.
But before the former president's talk even began, the announcer was already referring to convicts from Jan. 6 as "hostages." The J6 Prison Choir also sang the opening song before Trump spoke.
"Well thank you very much, and you see the spirit from the hostages, and that's what they are. Hostages. We’re going to work with the people to treat those unbelievable patriots, and they were unbelievable patriots," Trump said at the rally on Saturday.
David Corn, D.C. bureau chief of Mother Jones and MSNBC analyst, had this to say:
"This guy calls the rioters who beat up cops in an attempt to overturn a legitimate election 'unbelievable patriots.' That this doesn’t disqualify him within the GOP or among the tens of millions of voters who have voted for him shows how deep the rot goes."
Trump was also called out for saluting as the J6 Prison Choir continued singing.
@MeidasTouch introduced salute rally clip to its readers:
"Here is the part of Trump’s speech where he plays a song he sings with the most violent terrorists who tried to kill lawmakers and police officers on January 6th while footage of the attack plays. Trump replaces the National Anthem with the January 6th Anthem at every rally."
In reference to Trump calling the prisoners hostages, a popular account called Spiro’s Ghost said this: "In a sane America not overrun by millions of lunatic cult members who worship a completely deranged conman, this single insane utterance would be TOTALLY disqualifying."
From Rawstory: https://www.rawstory.com/trump-eruption-jan-6-glorification/
DeleteSurreal. The U.S. is on the brink, and our legal system is failing us -- allowing Trump to repeatedly delay his trials. I so badly want to get the fuck out of this madhouse.
DeleteThe Real Donald Trump by Those Who Know Him Best
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFgn1wx29pU
Infuriating example of legal system corruption/failure:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahFYhwQr3ds
"Rather than calling for a small federal government that stays out of the way of market forces, as Republicans have advocated since 1980, the new Trump Party calls for a strong government that enforces religious rules and bans abortion, books, diversity, equity, inclusion programs, and so on. In 2022, thanks to the three extremists Trump put on the Supreme Court, the government ceased to recognize a constitutional right that Americans had enjoyed since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision: the right to abortion.
DeleteLast week, Trump formally took over the apparatus of the Republican Party, installing loyalists—including his daughter-in-law—at the head of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and purging the organization of all but his own people. Indicating its priorities, the RNC has hired Trump lawyer Christina Bobb, former correspondent at the right-wing media outlet One American News Network and promoter of the lie that the 2020 election was stolen, as senior counsel for election integrity.
In Congress, far-right Trump supporters are paralyzing the House of Representatives. The Republicans took power after the midterm elections of 2022 and have run one of the least effective congresses in history. Far-right members have refused to agree to anything that didn’t meet their extremist positions, while first Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and then Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) refused to reach out to Democrats to pass legislation except for must-pass laws like appropriations, when Democrats provide the majority of the votes that keep the government functioning.
The result has been a Congress that can get virtually nothing done and instead has focused on investigations of administration officials—including the president—which have failed spectacularly. Republican members who actually want to pass laws are either leaving or declining to run for reelection. The conference has become so toxic that fewer than 100 members agreed to attend their annual retreat that began today. "I'd rather sit down with Hannibal Lecter and eat my own liver," a Republican member of Congress told Juliegrace Brufke of Axios.
Meanwhile, Trump has promised that if he returns to office, he will purge the nonpartisan civil service we have had since 1883, replacing career employees with his own loyalists. He has called for weaponizing the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense, and his advisors say he will round up and put into camps 10 million people currently living in the U.S., not just undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers but also those with birthright citizenship, tossing away a right that has been enshrined in the Constitution since 1868.
Internationally, he has aligned with dictators like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and has threatened to abandon the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a security pact that has protected the U.S. and like-minded nations since 1949....
"If Trump has descended into authoritarianism since 2020, Biden has also changed. For all his many decades of public service, it was unclear in 2020 what he could actually accomplish as president, especially since Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had weaponized the filibuster to stop Congress from passing anything on the Democrats’ wish list. But on January 5, 2021, in a special election, Georgia voters elected Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, and the Democrats took control of the Senate as well as of the House.
DeleteIn Biden’s first two years—with the help of then–House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who managed a squeaky-small House majority—Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic majority, and on occasion, a few Republicans set out to demonstrate that the government could work for ordinary Americans. They passed a series of laws that rivaled President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Great Society of the 1960s.
The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan rebuilt the economy after the worst of the coronavirus pandemic; the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act) is rebuilding the nation’s roads and bridges; the $280 billion Chips and Science Act invests in semiconductor manufacture and scientific research; the $739 billion Inflation Reduction Act enables the government to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies and invests in programs to combat climate change. Projects funded by these measures are so popular that Republicans who voted against them are trying to claim credit.
Biden, Harris, and the Democrats have diversified the government service, defended abortion rights, reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act, relieved debt by enforcing the terms of student loans, passed a gun safety law, and reinforced NATO.
They set out to overturn supply-side economics, restoring the system on which the nation had been based between 1933 and 1981, in which the government regulated business, maintained a basic social safety net, promoted infrastructure, and protected civil rights. The result was the strongest economic recovery from the pandemic of any country in the world.
“Now, the general election truly begins, and the contrast could not be clearer,” Harris wrote after Biden secured the nomination. “Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy and our fundamental freedoms. He is proud of his role in overturning Roe, and has talked openly about plans for a nationwide abortion ban. He routinely praises authoritarian leaders and has himself vowed to be a dictator on Day One. Just this week, he said that cuts to Social Security and Medicare would be on the table if he receives a second term. Each of these stances ought to be considered disqualifying by itself; taken together, they reveal the former President to be an existential danger to our country.
“With his State of the Union speech last week, President Biden passionately presented our alternative vision. We will reduce costs for families, make housing more affordable, and raise the minimum wage. We will restore Roe, protect voting rights, and finally address our gun violence epidemic. The American people overwhelmingly support this agenda over Donald Trump’s extreme ideas, and that will propel our campaign in the months ahead.” Heather Cox Richardson https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/posts/pfbid02uNnRqg987ZSwj9UbRQze2rN93pD1UcwbN27EQ4VW3JJA2NcjQPKe7ZphymoVFkcTl
Anyone who isn't a bigot, or isn't perfectly fine with bigotry, left the Republican Party more than two dozen years ago.
DeleteMike pence will not endorse trump.
ReplyDeleteCecelia, now that David has defended Katie Britt’s speech, where are you?
ReplyDeleteHe’s too gobsmacked to pretend to be a woman today, let him rest and recover.
DeleteBurp…scratch…
DeleteThat’s it? Burp scratch is your defense of Katie Britt?
DeleteWell, burp scratch is better than what David wrote.
DeleteHmm maybe comments threads are getting better in general after all.
Delete"Trump Says Some Undocumented Are ‘Not People’
ReplyDeleteMarch 16, 2024 at 9:25 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 523 Comments
Donald Trump ratcheted up his dehumanizing rhetoric against immigrants Saturday by saying that some who are accused of crimes are “not people,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Trump: “I don’t know if you call them people. In some cases they’re not people, in my opinion. But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say.”
-----------------------
Yes, this is a terrible thing to say. Someone who divides folks into categories of people and not-people should not be president. That is what Hitler did, then he killed those he found mentally or physically defective in hospitals, before moving on to round-up and kill gays, Roma, Jews, communists and people who he just disliked. Trump says he will be dictator on day 1. We don't want a guy like that in office, especially one who is sliding into dementia.
Hitler didn’t say they weren’t people. He said they were inferior people or bad people.
DeleteSo Trump is worse than Hitler. Huh. Whatta ya know.
Delete@8:51 Are you trying to defend Hitler? Someone who committed such heinous crimes does not deserve to be treated as a human being. He should be put to death. Ditto for those today who commit heinous crimes. That’s what Trump was saying.
DeleteShould George W Bush be put to death for attacking Iraq?
DeleteShould Bibi Netanyahu be put to death for killing thousands of innocent people in Gaza? I assume Gazans are people.
DeleteTrump’s right wing Christian (or “Christian”) base will be the first to agree with him, David.
Delete@1:00 war is horrible, but it is not morally equivalent to the unprovoked murders, rapes, and kidnapping of Oct. 7. FDR is not morally equivalent to Hamas.
DeleteEnemy leaders should be put to death. Our leaders should not be put to death.
DeletePeople should not be persecuted for traits they cannot help, such as were they were born, their ethnicity, gender, disabilities, skin color, etc. The Nazis shouldn't have done it and Trump shouldn't be doing it.
DeleteIt is a huge lie that other countries are emptying their prisons and mental institutions and sending their inmates here. No country is doing that. Nor are the asylum seekers and immigrants coming here "terrorists" of any kind. There are, however, domestic terrorists among Trump's followers. They are the ones making death threats against people in govt or politicians, and harrassing people just doing their jobs as election workers or school board members, librarians or treachers. They are the ones who attacked Nancy Pelosi's husband with a hammer. Loose talk like Trump engages in, encourages lunatics in his own party to attack innocent people. He is going to get someone killed just for speaking Spanish, if he keeps this stuff up.
He already has.
DeleteAugust 3, 2019 – 22 people at a Wal-Mart in El Paso, Texas, were fatally shot by a man who called the attack “a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”
Britt was citing an event that happened 20 years ago. So why would wnyone believe anything she said?
ReplyDeleteAnd why would Bob try to sneak Britt’s claims about “human trafficking” in the back door? Kevin Drum has destroyed them.
DeleteIf we're just taking government testimony at face value then we should really be looking into extraterrestrial visitation theories.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nbcnews.com/video/ufo-whistleblower-admits-to-the-existence-of-non-human-biologics-189331013801
I am a non-human biologic. I come in peace. Take me to your leader.
DeleteThe American businessman who want seasonal labor and the American consumer wants illegal drugs. Then when Americans get these things that they want for the prices that they want it's considered an attack on the country.
ReplyDeleteWhat's next, is ordering a pizza an attack on your front doorstep?
Off Topic -- A liberal finally acknowledged that Trump is extremely funny, and his sense of humor is part of his appeal. Being liberal, the columnist goes on to compare Trump with funny fascists, even though plenty of mainstream politicians have also been funny. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/03/17/how-donald-trump-uses-humor-to-make-the-outrageous-sound-normal-00146119
ReplyDeleteStill, I give the columnist credit for accurately describing some of the ways in which Trump's excellent sense of humor adds to his appeal.
This is on topic. Using humor to disguise anti-democratic sentiments is bad for our country. It doesn't matter whether the "reframing" involves using humor or pretending Trump was referring to economic or other forms of disaster. This rhetoric is wrong and signals a serious problem for our nation.
DeleteFrom Rawstory:
"Those high-profile Republicans who are twisting Donald Trump's "bloodbath" comments to be more palatable are part of the problem, a democracy expert said on Sunday.
Trygve Olson, the author of the Lincoln Democracy Institute's research project, the "Democracy Index," responded to ex-GOP governor Scott Walker's attempt to paint Trump's use of "bloodbath" as using an alternative definition about "economic disasters."
"Clearly, [Trump] was talking about a major economic disaster," Walker said on Sunday.
In response, Olson said the "current political discourse, inflamed by Donald Trump's ominous hints at a 'bloodbath,' signals a critical juncture for the United States."
"High-profile conservatives, such as [Walker], are attempting to dilute the gravity of Trump's words by framing them within industrial contexts. Yet, considering Wisconsin's pivotal role in the upcoming 2024 electoral cycle, alongside its tumultuous history of protests and civil unrest—much of which can be traced back to Walker's tenure—this state exemplifies the broader national crisis," he said. "In April 2023, my extensive survey work for [Lincoln Democracy Institute] unveiled alarming levels of political extremism and radicalization across the U.S., echoing methodologies from my post-9/11 research in the Middle East."
Olson continued:
"The data showed that over a quarter of Americans are on the brink of political extremism, with another 30% teetering on the edge. The stark division in America was further highlighted by responses to a seemingly simple question: 'Do you view those who don't share your political views as trustworthy opponents or untrustworthy enemies?' By April, nearly half of the respondents nationwide viewed their political opposites as enemies—a sentiment alarmingly pronounced in key states like Wisconsin. In April 2023, 37% of Wisconsin respondents viewed those with differing political views as enemies. Of these, 51% supported Donald Trump, 35% backed Biden, and the rest were undecided. By December 2023, a subsequent Wisconsin survey for [the Lincoln Project] revealed a chilling reversal: 62% now regarded the opposing side as enemies."
According to Olson, "this surge in animosity was particularly marked among Trump and Biden supporters, with respective increases of 42% and 107%."
"This dramatic rise in division is more than just concerning—it is a red flag signaling the imminent danger of political violence and extremism," he added. "Trump's relentless insinuations of violence, especially post-January 6th, have irrevocably polarized the electorate. The use of incendiary language, such as 'bloodbath,' regardless of its intended context, exacerbates this volatile situation. The conspicuous silence and, worse, the justification of such rhetoric by right-wing leadership, betray a fundamental betrayal of democratic principles. This complicity in the face of Trump's provocations poses an existential threat to the 2024 elections and, by extension, to American democracy itself."
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/trump-campaigns-in-georgia-and-responds-to-the-sotu-address
DeleteHumor, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Fans of Trump may very well find terms like "lying Ted", " low energy Jeb" and "DeSanctimonious" endearingly funny. But at no point in the Politico article did the author characterize his opinion of Trump's verbal stylings as funny to him, let alone "extremely funny". So no, DIC, you have misread the article, the gist of which is that Trump's followers, like yourself (and certainly not the author), find his verbal jousting funny, which serves the dual purpose of belittling his adversaries and trivializing his misdeeds. That authors are cited who compare his comical rhetoric to Goebbels and Mussolini appears to have escaped your notice. Describing the sort of bonding that Trump's brand of humor engenders with his pro- Trump audiences at rallies is not the author's endorsement that he is funny, any more than interviewing fans of Carrot-Top would be the author's endorsement of that brand of humor. When an audience member at a Trump rally gets laughter for shouting "fuck Biden" followed by an endorsement by Trump, you may find that funny, and the author documents that the audience did. But it is very unlikely that the author found this and other excerpts of humor cited "extremely funny". You are projecting here.
DeleteNow this is funny:
Deletehttps://www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-trump-telling-completely-170118316.html
"This complicity in the face of Trump's provocations poses an existential threat to the 2024 elections and, by extension, to American democracy itself."
DeleteWho swallows this crap? Over the use of the word bloodbath?
5:08 I take it that you find offense with the hyperbole in the quoted sentence. But have no problem when the word bloodbath is used by a politician whose words instigated a violent and bloody riot on January 6th.
Delete"Who swallows this crap?"
DeleteNo one. It's a signal that they are scared. Like skunks, you know?
Ben Shapiro read the same article cited by DiC:
DeleteHe posted on "X" last night: "Jokes must be outlawed in order to preserve democracy."
He was trying to be sarcastic of course.
DiC is senile.
Not only jokes. In this case, idiomatic expressions must be outlawed to preserve democracy.
DeleteTrump's jokes are not actually jokes. That's the problem.
DeleteUnamused 6:15 It's not sure that Trump's words instigated January 6th. But I wouldn't have a problem if he used the word bloodbath even if he was found guilty of that. I try not to waste my time with trivial subjectivities. It seems like there's more important real things that are worth addressing instead.
Delete9:22,
DeleteAgree that Trump's criminality, and the amount of Republican Congresspeople currently under Putin's kompromat are much more important things worth addressing than Trump using a word he doesn't understand.
Anon 9:22 If you have a lesson to teach us about not commenting on trivialities, you will have to start by learning it yourself.
DeleteThe Democrats are going to lose because they abandoned the working class.
ReplyDeleteWith Trump’s daughter in law doling out all the RNC money to him, which is low to begin with because of him, Republicans are sunk this election cycle. The gift that keeps on giving.
Deletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/opinion/hispanic-immigrants-economic-progress.html
ReplyDelete