SUNDAY, APRIL 7, 2024
...and saying the others are evil: As always, it didn't take long for Mark Levin to start shouting.
For reasons only its owners can explain, the Fox News Channel broadcasts Levin's hour-long program at 8 o'clock Eastern on Saturday and Sunday nights. Usually, he's shouting within a few minutes.
Last night, by our reckoning, the shouting began about four minutes in. But even before the shouting began, the Fox adjunct was telling us this:
LEVIN (4/6/24): I got to thinking—what is this election about? In fact, what is society about? It’s good versus evil, isn’t it?
Forces of good, forces of evil constantly clashing. And who’s going to win? This election is about good versus evil. And I’m going to make the case—just part of it—that electing Joe Biden is electing evil.
Evil! Not just a radical leftist. Not just a buffoon. Not just Obama staffers, but evil!
He couldn't simply be a buffoon. To Levin, he had to be evil.
For the record, Mark Levin hadn't started shouting yet. As you can see from the link we'll provide below, that part of Levin's opening monologue started exactly twenty seconds into last evening's performance.
He wasn't screaming or shouting yet. He wasn't name-calling Communists or Marxists. Nor had he named any pagans.
Instead, he went straight to the ancient "good versus evil" construct, the construct which has always driven our imperfect species' tribal and civilizational wars.
Soon, the fiery fellow was shouting about it. And as he continued, he advanced his general claim at substantial length.
To be clear, it wasn't just Biden who was said to be evil. At 7:06, clearly shouting now, "The Man Who Screams" (hat tip, the feature film In America) was now shouting this:
LEVIN: But I'm getting ahead of myself. This guy Blinken is not about politics. He's about ideology. He is an evil man. He has always been an evil man.
The nation's current secretary of state "has always been an evil man" too.
By our own subjective assessment, the shouting started at 8:04 p.m. That said, the atavistic diatribe continued from 8 o'clock right through to 8:17 p.m., with no let-up in the aggressive analysis.
"Forget about what the Democrat [sic] Party media tell you," this nutcase said at 8:17. "They're on the side of evil too. We'll be right back."
Then came the first commercial break.
When we awoke today, we saw that Mediaite's Caleb Howe had also been watching last evening's Fox News presentation. Making our job that much easier, he offers the following partial transcript of what this shouting man said.
Warning! Levin likes to stage public readings. Sometimes, he even reads lengthy passages from his own remarkably fatuous books. We won't discuss the childishness of Levin's instant assessment of where the truth lies in every factual matter under current review:
LEVIN (continuing directly from above): And we’re going to start with this.
Obviously, this week, as you’re well aware, as the whole world is aware, as Biden and Blinken and the rest have made aware, the Israelis, while defending themselves against an unprovoked terrorist horrendous attack, has been fighting like hell for six months in its longest war in history.
And the other day, they accidentally took out a convoy of trucks, seven trucks, which had civilians. Civilians who were bringing food and medicine into Gaza.
And Joe Biden, Anthony Blinken, and this guy Kirby, they immediately went to the microphones—I think, in fact, Blinken was in Europe for a NATO meeting—trashing Israel, trashing Israel for something that they didn’t mean to happen, and they apologized for, and are independently investigating.
Biden said, in part, this: “I’m outraged and heartbroken by the deaths of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen, including one American, in Gaza yesterday. They were providing food to hungry civilians in the middle of a war. They were brave and selfless. The deaths are a tragedy.”
He goes on later. “Even more tragically, this is not a stand-alone incident. This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed. This is a major reason why distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza has been so difficult, because Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians. Incidents like yesterday simply should not happen. Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians. The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to deconflict their military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations in order to avoid civilian casualties. The United States will continue to do all we can to deliver humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza through all available means. I will continue to press Israel to do more to facilitate that aid, and we’re pushing hard for an immediate cease fire as part of a hostage deal. I have a team in Cairo working on this right now.”
This is full of evil. Full of evil. First of all, he decoupled the release of the hostage from the cease fire in the UN Resolution in which he directed his U.N. ambassador to vote present or to abstain. So that’s a lie, Number one.
Number two, the only country in Gaza that is ensuring, or trying to, the delivery of food and medicine to Gaza civilians is Israel! Not Egypt! Not the United States! Not Jordan! Not Iran! Israel!
And I hate to tell Biden this, the IDF is not the Peace Corps. You want to send the Peace Corps over there? Go ahead! Hamas is stealing up to 70% of all food and fuel that’s coming into Gaza. He knows that! We all know it! Then they’re selling what they what they leave over at some exorbitant price to their own citizens! They’re firing artillery into their own hospitals, they’re killing their own citizens.
Biden doesn’t mention this once, and he continues to use, throughout the day, throughout the weeks, the lies from the Hamas terrorists about the number of civilians that are killed.
No matter how many statisticians and experts tell him he’s wrong, he doesn’t care. Because Biden is evil.
When Biden said that he was heartbroken, that helped us see that he's evil!
Full disclosure! That chunk of transcript only takes us up to 8:05 p.m. For the record, that passage finishes with Levin's ninth use of the term "evil."
This time, the term was directly applied to Biden. Before he broke for commercials at 8:17, Levin had employed the term (at least) nineteen times.
A note on Mark Levin, then a note on the basic structure of this conceptual framework.
Who the heck is Mark Levin? A month or so back, we showed you some of what the leading authority on the maximal shouter says. Today, we'll repeat one excerpt:
Political Views
A 2016 study which sought to measure incendiary discourse on talk radio and TV found that Levin scored highest on its measure of "outrage." The study looked at 10 prominent radio and television programs, known for incendiary discourse on political matters, and scored content on the basis of whether it used "emotional display," "misrepresentative exaggeration," "mockery," "conflagration," "slippery slope," "insulting" or "obscene language," and other factors, finding that Levin was the radio host who engaged in the most outrage.
The study found that he utilized "outrage speech or behavior at a rate of more than one instance per minute." In How Democracies Die, Harvard University political scientists Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky write that Mark Levin was among the popular right-wing talk radio hosts who "helped to legitimate the use of uncivil discourse" in American politics, and contribute to the erosion of democratic norms. According to Politico, Levin has a "penchant for hysteria."
We can't vouch for the perfect accuracy, or perfect fairness, of each of those assessments. That said, by clicking this link, you can watch the first seventeen minutes of last night's presentation, thanks to the invaluable (but useless) work of the Internet Archive.
Concerning the conceptual framework, we ourselves will offer this:
As noted above, the shouter started with this construct—with a construct which dates to the dawn of time in the sphere of "the rational animal:"
LEVIN: I got to thinking...What is society about? It’s good versus evil, isn’t it?
Forces of good, forces of evil constantly clashing. And who’s going to win? This election is about good versus evil.
Is society a constant clash between forces of good and forces of evil?
You can always parse it that way! But is it possible that society sometimes involves something different?
Is it possible that society sometimes involves differing assessments devised in good faith by people with different views of the world? Is there any such thing, in a world like our own, as simple disagreement?
Is there any such thing as good-faith difference of opinion, assessment, judgment? In the oldest corners of our flawed human brains, the answer has always been no.
In the oldest corners of our brains, the Others are always lurking. On occasion, they may be Communists and / or Marxists, or they may even be pagans.
Last night, the shouter promoted a simpler view. Last night, the others were simply evil.
According to Levin's latest commentary, President Biden was already evil in his first few years in the Senate (8:05 p.m.). Last night, The Man Who Screams was screaming extremely hard, possibly even for him.
There's no way to argue or reason with this atavistic construct. There's no way to maintain a modern nation, even an imperfect nation, when in thrall to this ancient rule of the clan.
By way of contrast, The Fox & Friends Weekend gang were on their best behavior in the 6 o'clock hour today. It was much as we told you yesterday:
We thought they argued several points which, quite plainly, could be said to be basically right. You might not agree with the views they expressed—but the views they expressed weren't transparently crazy, insane or nuts.
They worked from remarks made by Senator Fetterman—in an interview the Pennsylvania Democrat had given to Red America's New York Post!
They called no names. They staged no meltdowns. They didn't claim that anyone was "spitting in the faces of the people who are hurting the most in this country."
In fact, they were on even better behavior than that! They didn't say that the others were evil!
Starting tomorrow, our controlling term for the week will be the important term CRAZY.
The gods "entangled me in madness," Agamemnon lord of men once said, thousands of years ago, as dark tears streamed down his face in his tenth year of a war.
The lord of men briefly acknowledged that he had been crazy! Even today, in this best educated of all possible worlds, that ancient problem has not chosen to go away.
We close today with a pair of questions concerning our two Americas:
Why does Fox News put this guy on the air? Also, why do our own blue tribe's loftiest orgs all choose to avert their gaze?
The mordant comedy of Bob Somerby schooling others on looking away from Right Wing bad behavior is one for the irony hall of fame. Not much else need be said.
ReplyDeleteI can say what Bob probably can't: I've read a whole book by Mark Levin. He started with standard right wing ideology, he hated Trump at the outset. He's had to dumb down his act and turn up the volume.
A broader objective point is that we need some quality debate programing, and the stars need to come out of their bunkers and engage. Yes, this can be said of both sides.
Kate Coleman has died.
ReplyDeleteSomerby’s integrity has died.
DeleteThis week too, huh?
DeleteToday's essay has no other purpose than to call Biden evil using Levin as an excuse to repeat what was said on Fox News.
DeleteFor people who for have long demanded that Bob extend his media to red media Fox News, you’ve sure spent a lot time accusing Bob of promoting Fox News by doing it.
DeleteWhat a surprise…
extend his focus
DeleteEvil? No way Jose. Joe Biden was weighted and found to be a well-meaning elderly man with poor memory.
Delete@5:21 -- that was the lie, but the transcript showed that Biden is a well-meaning elderly man with a good memory.
DeleteNon compos mentis. Or he would've been indicted already.
DeleteBiden committed no crime, which is why he wasn't indicted. Unlike Trump, who deliberately stole classified documents and hid them, refusing to return them, in order to use them as bargaining chips with God knows which foreign country.
DeleteBiden is compos, and he is cognitive.
Delete
ReplyDelete"Also, why do our own blue tribe's loftiest orgs all choose to avert their gaze?"
Haven't your loftiest orgs been far crazier than that, for years now? And what's so surprising in Others learning from your loftiest orgs? What goes around come around.
Somerby wants others to think everything just comes down to good faith opinions, ignoring logic, rationality, and science.
ReplyDeleteSomerby wants to obscure context and all we have learned about human nature, and then weirdly take the red tribe’s nonsense at face value and in good faith while being skeptical of the blue tribe since the blue tribe’s rhetoric is generally performative.
Somerby says my side, right wingers, is good, and your side is bad.
Sure, sure, Somerby.
Hilarious stuff!
That would be our government officials like nasty Nancy Pelosi sending money to Ukraine and getting kickbacks for laundering money and her human trafficking/drug trade with the Clinton Bush & Obama family
DeleteThey also killed Osama bin Laden, because of his freedom of speech rights.
DeleteBob usually criticizes unfair paraphrase, but Levin said
ReplyDelete“And I hate to tell Biden this, the IDF is not the Peace Corps. You want to send the Peace Corps over there? Go ahead! Hamas is stealing up to 70% of all food and fuel that’s coming into Gaza. He knows that! We all know it! Then they’re selling what they what they leave over at some exorbitant price to their own citizens! They’re firing artillery into their own hospitals, they’re killing their own citizens.
“Biden doesn’t mention this once, and he continues to use, throughout the day, throughout the weeks, the lies from the Hamas terrorists about the number of civilians that are killed….’”
And Bob wrote
“When Biden said that he was heartbroken, that helped us see that he's evil!”
BTW Levin supports his accusation. Hamas IS evil if Levin's right that, "Hamas is stealing up to 70% of all food and fuel that’s coming into Gaza....Then they’re selling what they what they leave over at some exorbitant price to their own citizens! They’re firing artillery into their own hospitals, they’re killing their own citizens."
DeleteIf Hamas is evil, then isn't is correct to describe as evil such actions as
-- quoting Hamas's fake statistics,
-- supporting their efforts to not be destroyed,
-- Harshly criticizing the one party that trying to destroy the evil Hamas
-- Undermining the leadership of the party that's opposing Hamas
"The top US diplomat involved in humanitarian assistance for Gaza denied allegations that Hamas has stolen aid and commercial shipments into the enclave, saying that no Israeli official has presented him or the Biden administration with “specific evidence of diversion or theft of assistance.”
Deletehttps://www.timesofisrael.com/us-envoy-israel-hasnt-provided-specific-evidence-hamas-is-stealing-aid-shipments/#:~:text=The%20top%20US%20diplomat%20involved,diversion%20or%20theft%20of%20assistance.%E2%80%9D
I wouldn't believe anything Levin says, given that he is spreading disinformation on Fox News for a living.
@2:19 Watch out for weasel words. What is “specific” evidence? That weasel word suggests that there IS evidence, but it’s not “specific”, whatever this means.
DeleteEvidence that Hamas specifically stole anything. Using weasel words to preserve your faith in a liar is a bad idea, David.
DeleteThere is plenty of evidence that Hamas is stealing food including photographic evidence
DeleteSee, e.g. https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-basis-of-the-accusations-that-HAMAS-are-stealing-a-lot-of-the-aid-agencies-food-going-into-Gaza-and-then-selling-it-to-their-starving-population-to-fund-further-terrorism-Is-there-any-evidence-or-is-it
And plenty of other sources.Use a search engine.
Where are the guys in Hamas uniforms?
DeleteIsrael steals land.
Delete@4:09 "As a general rule, most of the terrorists in Gaza do not wear a uniform to feign civilian status."
Deletehttps://jcpa.org/frequently-asked-questions-about-the-2023-war-with-hamas/
@5:08 Suggest you put "hamas steals food" into google and then look at a bunch of the hits that come up. I gave you one, and there are plenty more.
DeleteUnsurprisingly, given Dick in CA's track record, this is a bunch of ugly lies and distortions -- the type of thing Somerby calls out in today's post:
Delete"If Hamas is evil, then isn't is correct to describe as evil such actions as
-- quoting Hamas's fake statistics,
-- supporting their efforts to not be destroyed,
-- Harshly criticizing the one party that trying to destroy the evil Hamas
-- Undermining the leadership of the party that's opposing Hamas"
1) It would only be wrong of the Biden administration to cite statistics if they KNEW them to be false. They don't: https://time.com/6909636/gaza-death-toll/
2) The Biden admin is not supporting Hamas' efforts. This kind of bullshit is why people dislike you and don't take you seriously on here.
3) "Harshly criticizing the one party..." Are you joking? So Netanyahu and his party should be beyond criticism? Does this mean all of the Jews who criticize Netanyahu and his party are evil, too? And the way this is worded ("the one party") is clearly trying to suggest that the far-right party in Israel is the only party who opposes Hamas, which is an absurd suggestion. It's also suggestive of the idea that the Biden admin is criticizing Netanyahu because they're on Hamas' side. As if it has nothing to do with civilian, aid worker, and journalist deaths and the global outcry about them.
4) "Undermining the leadership of the party..." You mean by supplying them with weapons? And once again, this is suggesting that only Netanyahu and his extremist right-wing party are interested in defeating Hamas. The Biden admin (and everyone else, including you) knows that whoever would replace Netanyahu would continue the war against Hamas, but would likely be more careful with regard to civilian deaths. Just as everyone knows that the U.S. would continue to be Israel's closest ally and support Israel's efforts to destroy Hamas.
By David's logic above, any of our ALLIES in our fight against terrorism would be just as evil as the terrorists if they had harshly criticized some of the Bush administration's tactics (invading Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, etc.) and had called for new U.S. leadership.
DeleteMike L,
DeleteEveryone already knows Right-wingers are worse than terrorists. Who is pretending that isn't true?
Biden seems a little too old. All my friends are voting for Kennedy.
ReplyDeleteKennedy is 71.
DeleteKennedy/youngest candidate on the ballot
DeleteNikki Haley is 52.
DeleteAnd she looks good in a bathing suit.
DeleteI was wondering what Mark Levin has been up to these days and along comes Somerby to tell us. It isn’t Somerby calling Biden evil because of Gaza, no, it is Levin. And what a nice touch about the screaming man!
ReplyDeleteI like Mark Levin. He’s very smart and experienced. However, there’s no doubt that he gets worked up. I’ve heard him get very loud on radio, The times I’ve watched his tv show he has always been measured.
ReplyDeleteMark is Jewish and that could explain the level of his outrage.
I don’t watch or listen to Levin, but I’ve been a member of his organization for a long time. Levin is smart and clever.
DeleteWhat explains his lying?
DeleteAnonymouse 2:34pm, it’s explained by the moto on your political tribal crest:
Delete“All the Democrats a Sage and all the rest a liar.”
moto is actually spelled motto
DeleteThe rest of your comment is gibberish, as usual. Mark Levin is the one caught in a lie above, not Democrats. I get it that the world is a confusing place for you, but there is no need to comment when you cannot keep up and have nothing to say.
Anonymouse 2:52pm, what in particular are you calling a lie?
DeleteAh yes. Being Jewish excuses him calling Biden evil. Because we must always find ways of justifying the hateful things that right wingers say. JFC.
DeleteAnonymouse 3:24pm, as a conservative Levin would be in opposition to Biden, let alone when deploring the politics of the aftermath of the massacre..
DeleteYou say worse about people here every day and we have no political power other than our vote.
I personally have never said any such thing about anyone, Cecelia. There are different anonymous commenters.
DeleteBut what is worse than calling someone evil? And why excuse it because Levin is a conservative, and Biden is politically powerful? Levin has power, a significant platform to spread hateful messages about Biden and the Democrats. He has a whole media infrastructure. This influences the poor powerless rubes who vote. Isn’t that a prime concern of this blog, that powerful “thought leaders” lead their followers astray?
Experienced in shoveling bullshit, you can only mean. Again, why are these right wing super intellects always so fearful of coming out of their bunkers to debate?
DeleteAnonymouse 4:01pm, I don’t condemn Levin for calling Biden and his approach to Israel evil and I don’t necessarily agree with it either.
DeleteI do the same for pro-Palestians folks who post that Israel needs to get out of Israel and that Netanyahu is evil. Though I heartily disagree, I give nod to the dilemma.
I’m not going to condemn Levin for calling your god evil either.
Stick to demanding that Bob dance for you while you call he and conservative commenters awful things every day.
Shorter Cecelia: she doesn't think anything about anything but anonymous commenters need to stop saying bad things about Somerby.
DeleteAnonymouse 5:06pm, you should stop saying bad things about Bob.
DeleteParticularly since you’ve revealed yourselves as being utter frauds by continuing to go after him for…of all things…critiquing Fox News.
Today I criticized Somerby for gratuitously repeating Mark Levin's anti-Biden remarks. Did you not understand that?
DeleteLong before he admitted it, I accused Bob of only going after Fox because he couldn't stand here the truthful things MSNBC was saying about Trump's attempt to overthrow the our Government through
Deleteforce and violence. So Context, Cecelia. I have never
disagreed with any negative thing that Bob has said
about Fox, only that he started addressing the drivel
people like you bought into decades after the fact.
"Swimming nude in front of female Secret Service!!" The Cad!! Yeah, I'm sure that's probably true.
My favorite Right-wing Mark (as opposed to Right-wing marks, i.e. Right-wing voters) is Mark Steyn. He's the one who said anyone wrong about the Iraq War should be ignored. That was exactly at the point I stopped listening to Mark Steyn, because he was wrong about the Iraq War.
Delete"Experienced in shoveling **!!, you can only mean. Again, why are these right wing super intellects always so fearful of coming out of their bunkers to debate" Could it have anything to do with the namecalling?
DeleteHere is more Trump blathering. When the news doesn't report these tangents that Trump goes off on, people get the impression that he isn't deteriorating, but he is:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/04/gobbledygook
This one comes from Trump's GA speech responding to Biden's SOTU. It started out about Biden at the beach:
"“Somebody said he looks great in a bathing suit, right? And you know, when he was in the sand and he was having a hard time lifting his feet through the sand, because you know sand is heavy, they figured three solid ounces per foot, but sand is a little heavy, and he’s sitting in a bathing suit. Look, at 81, do you remember Cary Grant? How good was Cary Grant, right? I don’t think Cary Grant, he was good. I don’t know what happened to movie stars today. We used to have Cary Grant and Clark Gable and all these people. Today we have, I won’t say names, because I don’t need enemies. I don’t need enemies. I got enough enemies. But Cary Grant was, like – Michael Jackson once told me, ‘The most handsome man, Trump, in the world.’ ‘Who?’ ‘Cary Grant.’ Well, we don’t have that any more, but Cary Grant at 81 or 82, going on 100. This guy, he’s 81, going on 100. Cary Grant wouldn’t look too good in a bathing suit, either. And he was pretty good-looking, right?”
This is a presidential candidate responding to a SOTU speech by his opposition! That boy ain't right, as they say in Texas.
From Paul Campos at Lawyers Guns & Money blog"
Delete"He still claims to have “done more for Black people than any president other than Abraham Lincoln” and also now says he’s being persecuted more than Lincoln and Andrew Jackson:
“All my life you’ve heard of Andrew Jackson, he was actually a great general and a very good president. They say that he was persecuted as president more than anybody else, second was Abraham Lincoln. This is just what they said. This is in the history books. They were brutal, Andrew Jackson’s wife actually died over it.”
It’s difficult to describe the level of political and cultural dysfunction that has resulted in this man winning the GOP presidential nomination practically unopposed.
It’s also difficult to describe the level of reflexive normalization engaged in by the media to avoid as much as possible reporting on what is actually going on in this country at the moment.
What’s going on, in regard to the presidential race, is total insanity.
I’m old enough to remember when this film was a satire instead of a documentary. [ clip from Being There in which Peter Sellars plays a retarded man who is considered wise and profound instead of a simpleton, while understanding nothing of what goes on around him]
Why doesn't Somerby talk about this stuff?
DeleteAnonymouse 2:49pm, p.m.—call it Trump's New York way of issuing an insult while letting you know he is wryly feigning a sense of delicacy, compassion, and reserve in expressing his thoughts.
DeleteTrump is suggesting that if marvelously handsome Carey Grant couldn’t look good in a bathing suit at 81, Biden sure as hell can't and does not.
Two things: does anyone imagine Trump looks good in a bathing suit? Lol. Also, who cares?
DeleteAnonymouse 2:49pm, Pres. Andrew Jackson was embroiled in the Petticoat Affair. Jackson believed that attacks on his wife led to her death. He said that he hoped that God would forgive the people involved (his own VP and the wives of other politicians), because he sure wouldn’t. .
DeleteJackson was a character. He referred to Pres. Buchanan ( a lifelong bachelor) and his longtime roommate William King (VP under Pres. Pierce) as Aunt Nancy and Miss Fancy.
Anonymouse 3:21pm, no one does. That’s why he’s not out being photographed in one.
DeleteAnd too, Anonymous 3:21pm, the charge was that Trump was rambling and incoherent. Actually, he was being wry and sly.
DeleteWry and sly. Makes no sense. No one ever claimed Biden would look like Cary Grant in a swimsuit, so the joke is nonsense, especially since Trump is an obese monstrosity as opposed to Biden, who is in quite good shape for an 80 year old man. On the other hand, it was certainly wry, sly, and just darn good fun when Trump says that immigrants are poisoning our blood. What a card.
DeleteAnonymouse 3:51pm, the point is that Biden was on the beach in swim trunks. Does it occur to you that the president and his handlers know his picture will be taken wherever he appears? The joke was “what were they thinking”. The point to you was that Trump was not rambling. That does not mean that Trump never rambles.
DeleteI never defended Trump’s comment about blood poisoning . Why can’t anonymices have a modicum of proportion in their thinking?
The point is that none of this belongs in a speech.
DeleteAndrew Jackson looked good in a bathing suit.
DeleteCecelia looks good in her birthday suit.
DeleteCecelia seems to be suggesting that Biden shouldn't wear a bathing suit at the beach. Why not?
DeleteAnonymouse 5:05pm, you’re ridiculous.
DeleteHowever, I think the country should just be glad that Biden isn’t swimming au naturel as he did in front of female Secret Service.
The President should be able to swim in his own pool however he wants, with or without approval by secret service, whose job is to keep him from being attacked. If those secret service women objected to their assignments, I'm sure they could have requested other duty, perhaps guarding Jill Biden. It is, however, an honor to guard the president, no matter how he chooses to spend his day.
DeleteI'm sure the secret service loved being in the room when Trump threw his daily tantrum by heaving a hamburger at the wall.
Talk about ridiculous, Cecelia, you have no idea how the world works. Your implication that Biden was wagging his dong at female secret service agents, when they were the ones invading his privacy, tells me you will go to any extreme to knock the president -- while ungratefully benefitting from our new and improved economy and other benefits.
Why are you even here?
Anonymouse 5:47pm, the reports were that the female Secret Service agents had complained. Do you know why? Because they are not intruding on Biden’s privacy. They are protecting him from possibly lethal consequences of his job which requires his cooperation and facilitation of their needs as well as his.
DeleteBut perhaps your insane mindset is shared by Biden. After all, the 1st family did let their dog bite agency members reportedly over 20 times. After all, it’s the Biden family's right to have a dog and if agents can’t take dog bites and the president exposing himself in the course of their protecting him then get another job.
It was a right wing click bait story that any female secret service agent complained about Biden's swimming. We have no evidence it was ever true.
DeleteWhen someone is in the water, you cannot see anything about them, making this a very silly complaint.
Anonymouse 6:32am, you must not have ever been swimming before to say that crap. The old man and I do swim often although he ‘s been recuperating from surgery he had on Good Friday.
DeleteYou can see everything about everybody who is skinny dipping in a regular swimming pool.
Speaking of female Secret Service agents, I believe Hunter Biden to be scum of the earth, not only for failing to pay his taxes in a timely manner for a period of several years, but because he tried to trade on his father’s name, and most of all because he denied paternity of one of his daughters until he was proven to be the father. Notice, by the way, Joe Biden also refused to acknowledge her existence, finally relenting only when forced by the press. Whatever Trump’s flaws, at least he doesn’t try to hide them. Joe Biden is a total fake, and too far gone into dementia to even run for a second term, which he promised, remember, that he would not do. His supreme arrogance in doing so is reason enough not to believe anything he says.
DeleteAdmitting your flaws means you get to have worse flaws? Not on this planet. Trump is a rapist. That’s still worse than staying out of your adult children’s romantic entanglements.
DeleteNo one has surgery on Good Friday.
DeleteI hope Cecelia’s husband is doing well. If he and she want to get naked, it doesn’t bother me at all.
DeleteIf secret service agents complained about Biden getting naked, I don’t respect them. If he let his dog bite them, as I guess he did, I don’t respect him.
But I’m planning to vote for Trump anyway, because I’m against misogyny.
As long as Biden didn’t bite anyone.
DeleteThank you, anonymouse 8:32pm. He is doing very well.
DeleteSay what you will about Cecelia, but at least he knows Republican voters are snowflakes who threw a childish temper tantrum at the U.S. Capitol, just because black people's votes counted in the 2020 Presidential election.
DeleteWhich is more than you could say about the rapist fan, Bob Somerby.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOff Topic
ReplyDeleteThe other day, someone asked why Biden isn't getting credit for the current low inflation. Here's an explanation
Suppose you do the regular food marketing. A week's food has normally cost around $100 for a number of years. Then, in just three years, the cost goes up to $186. (This the real food inflation rate from 1999 to 2002. https://www.in2013dollars.com/Food/price-inflation/1999-to-2022?amount=100 )
Now suppose in the latest year, the weekly cost is $188. Would most people be happy that the cost only went up $2 in the latest year? No, most people want food prices to move down toward the "normal" cost of $100.
Where does covid figure into this?
DeleteYes, where are the good old days under Drumpf, where I couldn't even find toilet paper to wipe my ass. go fuck yourself, David, you're depraved
DeleteAnonymouse 5:20pm, I could have sent you some. I ordered two giant 40 roll boxes from Amazon in February of 2020. I haven’t bought TP in years.
DeleteWow, you really are full of shit, literally, Cec.
DeleteAnonymouse 5:55pm, yeah, but not enough. I’ve still got at least a year’s worth in storage.
Delete"...most people want food prices to move down toward the "normal" cost..."
DeleteWhen has that ever happened?
Ronald Reagan started his first term with unemployment rate at 7%. He induced a recession and unemployment shot up to 11% in 1982. At no point in his 8 years did fall below 5%. The rate of inflation was 10% in 1980. At no point in his 8 years did inflation fall below 4%.
DeleteDick in Cal has waxed poetic about the virtues of reagonomics. You don't have to take him seriously.
Quaker -- I agree with you that prices that have gone up seldom go back down. However, that doesn't mean people don't WANT them to to go back down.
DeleteBTW I was shocked at the enormous 88% rise in food costs from 2019 to 2022. I would have guessed around 40%. No wonder the public is unhappy about inflation.
7:31 Bruce Bartlett, who together with Jack Kemp constructed Reaganomics, ultimately abandoned the concept after years of failed policy proved the concept wrong. In 2005 he was jettisoned from a conservative think for criticizing the economic policies of G W Bush. In 2009 he abandoned Reaganomics for Keynesian economics arguing that the latter was more appropriate for the time. He wrote a book " The new American economy: the failure of Reaganomics and a new way forward" at the time. So Reaganomics has been rejected as a concept by one of its inventors. Unfortunately, the Republican party did not get that memo.
DeleteDIC: the price of goods and services, with few exceptions, are set by the market, because we are not living in a communist country. The Fed and policies of the administration can guide the economy. They cannot set prices. For three years starting with this administration, economic pundits had routinely predicted a recession, which did not occur, not even a soft landing. Jobs, wage growth, inflation, and the stock market have all outperformed their expectations. Biden has criticized the persistent up charging of food items that cannot be explained apart from greed. Not a peep about this that I have heard from Republicans. If you are suggesting that pricing a candy bar at $2.39 is somehow the fault of our government, you are living in the wrong country. It is entirely within the right of the seller to fleece the buyer and is to be expected until that time in which competition kicks in, which may not happen.
DeleteAh, economics. One more thing:
DeleteAlso, because we are not living in a communist country, our corrupt politicians occasionally throw hundreds of billions of dollars into the market, to bribe a few voters. Which affects the price of goods and services.
@Unamused 3:48 AM
Delete"...he abandoned Reaganomics for Keynesian economics"
Funny. In fact Reaganomics were a species of the Keynesian economics. At least according to liberal super-genius Krug:
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/opinion/krugman-reagan-was-a-keynesian.html
4:22 , 4:30. Show the data or some evidence that corrupt politicians are responsible for the price of groceries. Of course, Trump's tariffs might have been, if he hadn't subsidized the farmers with taxpayer money for their losses.Could not read past the NYT firewall but in what I could, Krugman stated that the major source of increased government spending was at the state and local level during Reagan's third year. Thus contradicting the title of his column. To be fair, Bartlett stated that Reaganomics worked for awhile but that changed and was no longer tenable especially after 2008. There was a lot of hand ringing about how wrongheaded Keynes was on right wing outlets and by Republican politicians during the 2008 recession, in order to argue that the government should not increase spending at the time. Krugman's column was an answer to that. But increased state and local spending is not part of Reaganomics.
DeleteEvidence? Evidence that the sky is blue, that would satisfy a moonbat, really? Sorry, friend, not possible.
DeleteNot possible? Well said, ironically. But since you can't furnish an example and I can, for the remark about Trump, this from that left cleaning rag, Forbes, as much for the edification of DIC:
Deletehttps://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2021/05/20/trumps-tariffs-were-much-more-damaging-than-thought/?sh=7e8cd9b765bd
So sorry that Reaganomics has been reputed by one of its inventors, and Trump's tariff policies were a resounding success at hurting American companies. As a republican thought leader once said, the economy does better under democratic administrations, not at the time knowing that he would later enact policy to demonstrate that.
"...leaning rag..."
DeleteIn my opinion, Trump tariffs are the greatest US economic policy, since the 70s. Incidentally, after 4 years of the Biden regime, most of them are still in effect.
DeleteGoogle Trump's tariffs, educate yourself, and count the number of economists that agree with you. The Republican thought process is often difficult to reconcile with facts, however entitled you are to your opinion.
DeleteCount the number of economists? Why would I do that? Are you an idiot?
DeleteWhat's wrong with looking the result: the highest real household income in history, the lowest unemployment in 60 years, the highest, in recorded history, percent of population happy about the economy.
Yes, I am an idiot.
DeleteDavid,
DeleteSo what's the deal? You aren't going to vote for Biden because he didn't nationalize the agriculture industry? Or are you mad about Biden's immigration policy that is reducing the number of immigrants who pick our food, which is sending inflation through the roof?
Don Lemon married long time beau Tim Malone in Manhattan today. If Somerby were a nice person, he would congratulate them. Bet it's just crickets. Lemon has been on Somerby's shit list for years.
ReplyDeleteAnonymouse 5:17pm, Lemon got on the shite of his female CNN collesgues for referring to 51-year-old Nikki Haley as being past her prime.
ReplyDeleteYes, women care so much about gay guys' opinions of them.
DeleteAnonymouse5:42pm, I think his colleagues cared about what they considered to be misogyny no matter who Lemon sleeps with.
DeleteIf you care about misgyny, you cannot vote for Trump.
DeleteRecall what happened during his first campaign, the subject of a trial soon to start:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_Access_Hollywood_tape#:~:text=He%20added%2C%20%22I%20don',Grab%20'em%20by%20the%20pussy.
"In the video, Trump tells Bush about a failed attempt to seduce Nancy O'Dell, who was Bush's co-host at the time (circa 2005) of the recording:[16]
I moved on her, and I failed. I'll admit it.
I did try and fuck her. She was married.
And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, "I'll show you where they have some nice furniture." I took her out furniture—I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn't get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she's now got the big phony tits and everything. She's totally changed her look.[11]
Later, referring to Arianne Zucker (whom they were waiting to meet), Trump says:
I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I'm automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything.[11]"
Nancy O'Dell, the married woman of whom Trump spoke, said:
Politics aside, I'm saddened that these comments still exist in our society at all. When I heard the comments yesterday, it was disappointing to hear such objectification of women. The conversation needs to change because no female, no person, should be the subject of such crass comments, whether or not cameras are rolling. Everyone deserves respect no matter the setting or gender. As a woman who has worked very hard to establish her career, and as a mom, I feel I must speak out with the hope that as a society we will always strive to be better.[16]
In response to having their product referenced by Trump on the tape, Tic Tac issued a statement on Twitter stating, "Tic Tac respects all women. We find the recent statements and behavior completely inappropriate and unacceptable."[53]
This was not an isolated incident, nor was it just locker room talk, given the accusations by dozens of women who claim they too were assaulted by Trump, including Stormy Daniels and E. Jean Carroll, whose trial was decided in her favor, ruling that Trump raped and defamed her and now owes her over $90 million in damages.
This is the misogyny women care about. I will be voting for Biden because he is not a misogynist and did an outstanding job as president (unlike Trump) and deserves another term.
You can stick with your senile old rapist. You two deserve each other.
Anonymouse 6:06pm, no, I think Lemon’s CNN coworkers have the energy and focus to care about what they thought was misogynistic of Trump and about a colleague’s misogyny too. They’re that multi-faceted…
DeleteIve long been aware of the anonymouse mindset that the reason misogyny matters is because it’s politically useful, but I don’t attribute that thinking to everyone and you shouldn’t either.
You are the one who suggested that Lemon was fired because misogyny is politically useful, Cecelia. I find it odd that you would tolerate Trump's misogyny but not Lemon's, which makes it seem pretty obvious that a black gay man doesn't get the same tolerance as Trump does (for Trump's much worse behavior). Lemon said some stupid stuff, but Trump physically attacked women, raping them, and expressed a sense of entitlement when called to account for his actions.
DeleteLemon is a cable news host. Trump wants to be president again. Can any woman tolerate a rapist as president? I don't see how, but you seem to have found a way. Yet another suggestion that perhaps you are not a woman, but only pretending to be one for trolling purposes. Trump is repugnant to women, which is why there is such a huge gender gap in Trump's polling and voting stats, compared to Biden, who women prefer by huge numbers.
Republicans think it's unnecessary for women to be educated, but a truly good woman finds it extremely useful. She uses her knowledge not just for her own personal growth but also for running her household, engaging with her neighbors, raising children and dealing with many aspects of life.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:32pm, you left out that Republicans don’t think women should be educated because they want them busy fetching kindling for cross burning.
DeleteYou’re welcome, dolt.
Anonymouse 6:30pm, I replied to your comment that Bob should have sent congratulations to Lemon and his new husband. The inane suggestion is that this is what a real liberal blogger would invariably do.
DeleteNo, it’s not. Liberals have no reason to send Lemon a shout out on his wedding day than they do with anyone
else.. Liberals may not like Lemon and not wish to reference him regardless of his same-sex marriage - a not unusual thing nowadays.
To this bogus anonymouse concern about Bob and Don, I stated that Lemon doesn’t always measure up to liberal standards and his comments about Haley pissed off other women in general, his colleagues in particular. To that I get the amazing remark that women don’t give a shite about what gay men think anyway.
You said it. You own it.
Somerby doesn’t like Lemon. It was a facetious comment.
DeleteCecelia: Democrats believe it's not enough for women to just be told what they can and can not do with their bodies, they must understand the reasons behind these rules, since just knowing the rules is unlikely to motivate them to follow them.
DeleteWomen have an innate desire for abortion that resists commands that are only backed by authority. And although it is supported by strong reasons and driven by powerful motivations, if women are not aware of them, it's as if they don't exist.
Lemmon asked a woman why she had didn't bite Bill Cosby's penis when he was raping her.
DeleteWhy can’t trolls spell or use English?
DeleteBecause we’re Russkies.
DeleteWhat's the problem with reminding Cecelia and David that they want a self-admitted sexual predator to be the next President of the United States?
DeleteReminding them about this, daily, is the least we can do.
Shouting does not make anything true.
ReplyDeleteShouting makes everything true, even explicit contradictions.
DeleteWhen talking with people who know no English at all, shouting helps them understand you.
DeleteEverybody should be fluent in English.
DeleteQ1: Why does Fox News put this guy on the air?
ReplyDeleteFor ratings so they can charge higher prices to advertisers.
Q2: Also, why do our own blue tribe's loftiest orgs all choose to avert their gaze?
They have their own work today and they don't waste their time opining on their competitors' presentations.
Anything else?
Why do anonymices think that women don’t listen to gay guys?
ReplyDeleteYou don't.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:30pm, don’t project YOUR words onto me.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteNo one cares what buggars say, love. 'cause they're buggars.
DeleteNikki Haley is past her prime. Cecelia is not and never will be past her prime. I’m against misogyny, so I’m voting for Trump.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Jackson kicked people off their land so his followers could take it. Bibi Netanyahu is a modern Andy Jackson.
ReplyDeleteGetting back to the subject, specifically about Levin calling Biden wicked. I see nothing appropriate about applying that term for any US government official, an incendiary word that invites violence, especially among the religiously indoctrinated. A Catholic nun on Instagram called Biden wicked, ironically, given that she is wedded to a church, by her own volition, that has facilitated pedophilia. Likewise Trump supporters have the same issue with the concept of irony if they want to throw around that term.
ReplyDeleteIt's Trump and his supporters who are truly evil. Why you bother to make posts about them when they all say the same stupid ignorant things is beyond me. We should not pay attention to crazy and stupid. We can't change them, we have to outvote them.
ReplyDelete