SATURDAY: Fun and games on Fox & Friends!

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2024

The death of a 12-year-old girl: If there were some such thing as very bad people, these would be very bad people.

Starting in today's 6 o'clock hour, they got busy proselytizing viewers of Fox & Friends Weekend, a gruesome propaganda vehicle on the Fox News Channel.

Viewers of this morning's show heard Barack Obama described as "our shadow president." They heard a chuckling discussion of an amusing sign in Florida—signs which direct this slogan at new arrivals from blue states:

DON'T FAUCI MY FLORIDA

You can't get dumber than these people are. On the other hand, you can be fairly sure that they're going to try. 

DON'T FAUCI MY FLORIDA, the alleged signs allegedly say. Insanely, it turns out that the clever slogan in question dates to merchandize produced by Florida's governor in 2021, back before his White House campaign crashed and burned.

Don't Fauci their Florida! In prime time shows this past week, Fox News colleagues like Watters and Gutfeld staged performative acts in which they seem to encourage physical violence against this killer of millions. So it goes on this insane "cable news" channel, as more elegant orgs like the New York Times reuse to comment or judge.

Back to this morning's performance:

You can't get dumber than these people are, but they're going to try. More than anything else, this morning's performers continued to pound away at an Associated Press news report which appeared late Thursday afternoon.

In the past two days, this short, initial AP report has been widely pseudo-discussed on Fox News Channel programs. So has the vicious crime the AP was starting to report, with special attention devoted to the AP's initial headline, which only referred to "men:"

2 men arrested in strangulation of 12-year-old Houston girl whose body was found in a creek

HOUSTON—Two men who were seen on surveillance footage with a 12-year-old girl before her body was found in a Houston creek earlier this week were arrested Thursday in her death, police said.

Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, each face a charge of capital murder in the killing of Jocelyn Nungaray, police said. The medical examiner has determined that her cause of death was strangulation.

It was unclear if the two suspects had attorneys yet to speak on their behalf. Their names were not listed in jail or court records as of Thursday afternoon.

Jocelyn’s body was found in the shallow water of a creek early Monday morning. Police have said that she sneaked out of her nearby home the night before.

Police said that surveillance footage showed the men meeting up with Jocelyn before walking to a convenience store with her.

There wasn't much more than that to that initial AP report. As of the time the report was filed, the two suspects had just been arrested. As you can see in the report, little more was known about the two men at the time.

There's no reason why this vicious crime shouldn't have been reported and discussed. It's been widely discussed on the Fox News Channel because, as it turns out, the two suspects are, in fact, "Venezuelan nationals who entered the United States illegally in March." 

Who are we quoting in that passage? We're quoting the Associated Press, which filed a second, more informative news report yesterday afternoon, more informative headline included:

Capital murder charges filed against 2 Venezuelan men in the death of a 12-year-old girl in Houston

[...]

The two men are Venezuelan nationals who entered the United States illegally in March, according to a statement Friday from the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Martinez was arrested March 14 and Pena on March 28, both by U.S. Border Patrol near El Paso, Texas, about 670 miles from Houston, the statement said. Both were then released with orders to appear in court at a later date. How they traveled to Houston has not been revealed.

According to court documents filed Friday, the suspects allegedly lured the girl under a bridge and remained with her there for more than two hours. They allegedly took off her pants, tied her up and killed her before throwing her body in the bayou, a Harris County prosecutor wrote in a court filing.

The ugliness of this crime has become more clear. Meanwhile:

As of yesterday afternoon, the legal status of the two suspects had been reported by the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Accordingly, it had also been reported by the Associated Press.

Back to the other very bad people, the ones we watched on the Fox News Channel this morning:

This morning, the very bad people in question were still clucking and wailing about that original AP report. The AP is refusing to tell its readers that the two suspects were here illegally, these clucking corporate idiots continued to claim

Yesterday, a wide array of performers on this channel had engaged in this keening and wailing. By this morning, the keening and wailing were completely bogus—but so what?

The keening and wailing continued this morning at a high-decibel level. Yesterday's second news report went unmentioned as the friends continued to assail the AP for refusing to report the men's legal status.

Briefly, let's be fair:

As of this morning, it's entirely possible that the three friends in question didn't know anything about this second AP report. No serious person can seriously claim that people like these typically know what they're talking about when they go on the air and start their aggressive promulgation of pre-approved corporate script.

It's entirely possible that Rachel, Charlie and Will didn't know about yesterday's AP report. That said, they're part of a deeply destructive "journalistic" arrangement which has helped create two Americas out of what used to more closely resemble one.

At any rate, Rachel, Charlie and Will outdid themselves this morning. They did so with their keening and wailing about the way the AP refuses to reveal the suspects' legal status—long after the AP had done that very thing.

Please don't make us transcribe their clowning behavior! But to see a minor first example at 6:26, you can just click here. At 7:00, Brother Cain started the program's second hour with this gong-show effort:

CAIN (6/22/24): It's the 7 a.m. hour of Fox & Friends Weekend, starting with this:

Houston residents, holding a vigil to honor a 12-year-old girl allegedly murdered by illegal immigrants. But the Associated Press? They won't mention those details.

As Cain declaimed, up on the screen went a photo of the original AP headline—the original AP headline from that first, brief news report. 

To see where the clowning went from there, you can click this link to see the hapless Charlie Hurt screen that original headline again, as he complains about the way the AP refuses to tell you the truth.

Knowingly or otherwise, MSNBC's Joy Reid played a similar game with a similar story earlier this week. For a partial report from Mediaite, you can just click here.

 Needless to say, Reid's grossly misleading report has been widely discussed on the Fox News Channel in the past few days. Reid may not have known how bogus her presentation was at the time she aired it. Whether she knew what she was doing or not, her bogus report has been widely discussed on Fox.

Just a guess: This morning's misstatements by the channel's three friends won't be discussed there at all.

Given the basic shape of our vastly imperfect human nature, there's no way to avoid behavior like this. Rather, there's no way to avoid such behavior once you've accepted "segregation by viewpoint" as the basic organizing principle of your nation's journalism.

Once that structure has been normalized, corporate entities will pay large salaries to willing enablers, Red and Blue alike. We can always say that The Others are worse than Us. But at this time, each of our leading "cable news" entities have spun out of control.

Over there in Red America, there they were, this very morning, still pimping the headline from Thursday's initial AP report. The trio of friends gamboled and played, and played the fool, in line with their employer's basic business model.

 We'll have more on this matter next week. For today, we'll close with this point:

As of this morning, we find no sign that the vicious murder of this 12-year-old girl has ever been mentioned by the New York Times. 

Most likely, it's better to say nothing at all than to say the soul-draining things the three Fox friends have now said. That said, Red America has been pushing this broader topic very hard in the past week. 

Over here in Blue America, is the broader topic being disappeared? Also, is it a serious topic—an important topic which actually should be reported and discussed?

Is a serious topic possibly being disappeared? Inevitably, so it will go when "the new segregation" reinvents us as Two Different Worlds.


158 comments:

  1. A history of the Republican party, part one:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNUuenXL83Q

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    1. "Online work has been a blessing! I've been able to earn a steady income, all while working from home. It's not a myth—it's my reality!"

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    2. If Somerby were taking his blog seriously, he would moderate it to remove spam like this.

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    3. If Somerby were to moderate his blog, we wouldn't be treated to the troubled anons incessantly insisting that Somerby is a senile, racist, creepy, right-wing, Putin-paid propagandist promoting sexual sadism against women. And then where would we be?

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    4. You assume he would remove us instead of you, but at least we would see where Somerby actually stands. He can't moderate because he won't identify which are the trolls because that would out him as a conservative instead of the liberal he is pretending to be.

      It would be nice not to have to deal with folks like you and Cecelia, who exist for no reason except to name-call those you disagree with, like the trolls you are. It is always nice when you are gone, because then the remaining commenters actually have discussion about topics, instead of people trying to refute David's stupid right wing talking points. Real people learn from each other. David comes back every day with the same repetitive disinformation. But you and Cecelia are worse, because you don't ever say anything, except ugly attempted put-downs of other people. Although the link to the article about Igbo masks was interesting, even if Cecelia had nothing to cogent to say about it.

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    5. Anonymouse 7:41pm, Bob could certainly boot people off for saying that he is an agent of a foreign government. That bogus charge could be made by anyone of any political persuasion. The same holds true for people who issue highly personal insults toward him.

      Bob takes it because he’s better than anonymices.

      It’s always hilarious to hear anonymices talk about how wonderful Somerby’s comment board would be without any dissent from their objections to every statement Bob utters. A veritable heaven on earth and their goal as to every discussion waged on the entire planet.

      It would solely be a matter of getting a few “zionists” in the DNC on board, or else…

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    6. Pied, does it ever occur to you that to discredit Bob’s critics you must go to the most overwrought and extreme, instead of answering for Bob’s obvious, ridiculous, repetitive nonsense? (Equating Fox and MSNBC, habitual inaccuracies, MAGA apologia, and irrelevant jaunts into tales of the Trojan Horse? To name a few))

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    7. Cecelia, why aren’t you better yhan anonymous commenters? You sound like you just flippedout.

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    8. 9:57 - I'm not trying to discredit all of Somerby's critics, just "the most overwrought and extreme," who irritate me with their hatefulness.

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    9. Cecelia. I’ve attempted to make you address your daily “oh so clever” insult of people who don’t use a specific handle several times, and reviewed how I was often insulted and harassed when I DID use a handle by typical MAGA style/dumb white guy harassment when I did. You response was “you deserved it.” NOW, in typical right style bullshit, you claim that everyone who doesn’t use a handle is “doctrinal.” Man, are you stupid. You can’t form a coherent argument, now you demonstrate you can’t much read one either.

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    10. Well, I guess you have no answer, Pied. Speaking for myself, I have been one of Bob’s harshest critics but of the things you mention I would say only that on the subject of race I have accused Bob of ignoring and rationalizing stuff that does not pass the smell test when it comes to white racism, and to such an extent that he becomes guilty of that thing himself. I would never accuse him of being an agent of Putin, but I would say in this general “what me worry?” approach to Trump he has ignored Trumps asinine kinship with this horrible dictator. And that’s a goddamn stupid thing to do.

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    11. I guess calling someone "stupid" is your view of "forming a coherent argument."

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    12. 7:41 - "It would be nice not to have to deal with folks like you and Cecelia, who exist for no reason except to name-call those you disagree with, like the trolls you are."

      Simply classic!

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    13. BTW - You don't have to deal with CC or me. We put our nyms right at the top, as a favor to you, so that you can easily skip over our comments if you want. If would be nice if you would return the favor so we could skip your comments.

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    14. Anonymouse at 1:35pm, that doesn't make any sense.

      If you had a verified username like "Stone Cold Einstein," no one could falsely attribute statements to you that you never made. They would have to provide evidence.

      And why are you so easily offended by insults like "typical MAGA style/dumb white guy"? This is an online forum. Anonymices insult Bob constantly, yet here you are complaining about being mocked by someone who couldn’t pick you out in a police lineup.

      I often wonder how anonymice can write fifteen scolding and berating paragraphs and then go on and on about their experiences with hateful and/or misogynistic people.

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    15. CC - It's puzzling, isn't it? Some anons say the most unbelievably hateful things - Somerby is a Putin stooge promoting sexual sadism against women! - but then bawl and whimper whenever mildly challenged.

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    16. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    17. PP, and the endless chiding, shaming, accusing posts as to the suffering and mistreatment of women. I wonder where they live and why they haven’t moved away from the place or “transitioned”.

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    18. 1:35 - "I was often insulted and harassed when I DID use a handle by typical MAGA style/dumb white guy harassment when I did."

      My guess - tell me if I'm wrong - is that you were harassed BY ANONS, right? (And BTW, saying "typical dumb white guy harassment" is both racist and sexist.)

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    19. When you use a nym, you get more abuse. Why should any of us want that, especially when the only folks here demanding nyms are you guys who hand out the abuse?

      There are several of us here who are critical of Somerby but we make different arguments. Because you want to attack people instead of their statements or ideas, you wind up attacking the wrong people, for things they did not say. If you were to focus instead of rebutting arguments, it wouldn't matter what nym anyone was using.

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    20. on rebutting, not "instead of"

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    21. Cecelia sometimes comments without using a nym.

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    22. Anonymouse 3:54pm, we get it. You won’t take a nym because that means you are accountable as to the truth, tone, and consistency of what you state from one day to the next. You like to do drive-bys.

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    23. 3:54 - If there are three anon comments in a row, how am I to know whether these represent three different ideas or one exposition of an overall theme?

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    24. Anonymouse 3:59pm, that has rarely happened and I’ve come behind the comment and identified it. .

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    25. 3:54 - And, BTW, nobody is "demanding" that you use a nym. We're saying it would be a courtesy, that is all. For example, when I talk to you I don't know if you're the anon who said that Somerby promotes the sexual sadism of women. If I knew that's who you were, I could make my personal judgment that it's not worth my time to talk with you and move on.

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    26. Anonymouse 3:54pm, you don’t care about abuse. You hand out abuse to anyone who counters you.

      It’s about your avoidance of any sort of blogboard accountability and it’s an understanding that a board full of “Anonymous” is unfriendly and off putting to the general public and to the formation of any sense of community.

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    27. And, I would add, my request to commenters that they use nyms is an appeal to decency. If you want to accuse someone of treason, or of promoting sexual sadism, it seems to me that common decency demands that you use a nym to stand behind such accusations of heinous behavior.

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    28. There is nothing decent about abusing commenters who use nyms.

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    29. Those of us who have used nyms are unhappy with how we were treated, so we havr chosen not to, as is our right. You are implying that we are the uncivil ones, but I disagree.

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    30. @4:12. Try reading each of the comments. Why would the same person say the same thing in 3 adjacent comments?

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    31. Anonymouse 5:22pm, why have you written three posts saying the same thing?

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  2. Is sexual assault wrong?

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    1. It used to be, before it became a way to clinch the Republican Presidential nomination.

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  3. "If there were some such thing as very bad people, these would be very bad people."

    Of course there is some such thing. That Somerby hints there may not be (by raising the question), indicates he is not serious about discussing anything.

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  4. What was wrong with Reid's report?

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    1. Yes. Bob could be correct here (Reid has had very bad moments) but his not going into this justifies suspicion.

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  5. This is the birthday of Elizabeth Warren and Meryl Streep. They are seventy-five years old.

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  6. Those two men did not murder the 12 year old because they were Venezuelan or because they were illegal (undocumented). And the 12 year old girl did not sneak out of her house because she was a citizen. There is no reason to use such a sex crime to emphasize extraneous info to score political points on the immigration issue. That minimizes the seriousness of the sex crime itself, as does Somerby when he focuses on the reporting of the crime while suggesting there may be no such thing as a very bad person.

    Venezuelans are being admitted as asylum seekers in a special category under a program announced early in Biden's term. That makes them not here illegally but seeking asylum. Conservatives confuse asylum seekers awaiting adjudication of their applications with illegals. Somerby might mention that but he is too busy chortling over something Joy Reid said (which he doesn't actually explain and isn't clear from the link provided).

    It is no better for Somerby to use this sex crime involving a child to count coup against journalists, than it is for Fox to use this crime to demand an end to immigration. But we already know that Somerby doesn't consider sexual advances toward young teens to be necessarily criminal (see his Roy Moore defense). He might admit that murdering a girl after raping her might be a very bad crime, if such crimes exist (which is how he would phrase it). Or he might try to excuse what these allegedly did, assuming he could get past their being immigrants.

    The murder is not being mentioned by the NY Times because the NY Times does not report local crimes. I am absolutely certain it was mentioned in the local papers where the crime took place, which is how crime reporting works. Neither Fox nor MSNBC would have mentioned the crime if it hadn't involved two Venezuelan immigrants. Somerby's performative concern is noted.

    Is it a serious topic that should be discussed when our president enacts a program allowing people from certain countries to apply for asylum and reside in the US while their applications are being processed? Somerby does not seriously discuss that topic. He instead implies that the existence of very bad people may be in doubt, and then he minimizes the rape and strangulation of a 12 year old girl.

    I am willing to say that this is not Somerby's shining moment and he may be every bit as bad a person as I have speculated based on his recent essays. Who cares more about immigration status than sexual abuse of children. Apparently, Somerby and his colleagues at Fox.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Anonymouse 12:07pm, you’ve accused Bob of doing what he expressly decried.

      We should remember this false, nasty, and disingenuous take on Bob’s priorities the next time you blame a crime on a political position of your contrarians

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    3. 12:39: “Bob”’s main complaint was that Fox was “making false statements” (please don’t call it lying), claiming mainstream reports failed to mention the immigration status of the suspects. Beyond that, coupled with previous posts, plus his claim that this story wasn’t reported in the NYT, he is mainly concerned with berating “blue media” with (in his narrative) not discussing the issue of immigration. It’s clear he believes Fox has a point in general, even if in this specific case he latched onto a journalistic critique.

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    4. Cecelia -- bingo! Yes, Somerby today does what he criticizes others for doing. That is called being a hypocrite.

      That's kind of a weird threat. Not sure what it means but I hope you will remember my criticism of Somerby next time he writes something this stupid.

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    5. My second comment, where I discussed how mistreatment of women in general (via prostitution and sex trafficking) may have contributed to this specific crime, has been disappeared.

      Somerby's promise to discuss "sexual politics" has not materialized, unless he thinks equating Helen with Stormy Daniels is a serious discussion of how women are treated in our respective societies. There are aspects of this crime that are relevant to such a discussion.

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    6. I think Trump is a perfect example of a very bad person.

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    7. Anonymouse 1:00pm, oh, is that why Bob said that if very bad people exist, these are the folks that fit the bill?

      Wouldn’t that point be revealed in the fact that these hosts were working their audience up over the false take that the larger media wasn’t reporting on the assailants immigration status? How is it not germane to report that aside from the NYT, the media HAD been reporting on that status?

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    8. Anonymouse 1:00pm, no, what Bob did today was to critique the reporting of some Fox News hosts who were engaged in informing their audience that the rest of the media was t reporting on the immigration status of the assailants.

      On your behalf, aI do realize that it’s that sort of action by Bob that could possibly make your job annd thus your livihood irrelevant.

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    9. Joy Reid is part of Fox News now?

      Did you hurt your fingers? You don't seem to be able to punch the keys right today.

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    10. Why would anyone question whether there exist very bad people?

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    11. Anonymouse 1:15pm, why would Bob delve into your claim that sex crimes aren’t reported upon when he was challenging that supposition from the Fox News hosts.

      After years of assailing Bob over not criticizing Fox, you now claim that by criticizing Fox, Bob is making the issue about journos and immigration, rather than sexual violence against women. That’s what Fox was doing and Bob went after them for their inaccuracy and their polemics. .

      You’re a clown and a fraud.

      ,

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    12. I didn't say sex crimes weren't being reported. I asked why Somerby didn't discuss sexual politics as promised.

      I wrote a comment that was deleted (by Somerby or perhaps by some Blogspot censor?), in which I pointed out the relevance of certain women's issues to this crime.

      You like to blame individual commenters for "years of assailing Bob" but you would do better to stick to the content of individual comments and address that, which you don't even do now.

      Somerby has said previously that he thinks the left (i.e., MSNBC) is not talking about immigration enough and that Fox News has a point about those awful people coming into our country. That echoes right wing talking points. Immigration is a complicated and nuanced topic about which you apparently know nothing. Same with Somerby, based on his essays. But talking about immigration to ME, when I raised women's issues, is changing the subject.

      I find it ridiculous whenever a Republican calls someone else a fraud, given the worship of crime embodied by your support for Trump. And it is doubly so for you to pretend revulsion over this sex crime, when you are willing to overlook Trump's history of repeated sexual assault on various women, from his own wife to strangers to celebrities. The biggest hypocrite on the planet is Trump, when he "supports" the 10 Commandments after breaking most of them.

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    13. Cecelia, your comments are hard to parse, since they are largely incoherent, and English seems to be your second language, or third, or fourth, or...

      That aside, your defense of Somerby seems to be based on a non-contextual, literal reading of his posts, and therefore are irrelevant.

      12:07 is right on target, Somerby is weaponizing this issue, using weak and barely existent criticism of Fox News to hide behind, he is fear-mongering immigration, just like all Republicans do every election cycle, after which, they drop the issue as if it never was.

      In reality, immigrants are: the backbone to our society/economy, come here because we in the US make lives in their native land untenable, and have a much lower crime rate than native born Americans.

      On the day that 12yo was murdered, there were at least 100 other heinous murders and 1000s of other heinous crimes primarily committed by Whites. The hypocrisy is startling.

      One thing is clear from your lunatic rants, Cecelia - your insults, which are the main thrust of your comments, are just projections.

      Because you are "a clown and a fraud" does not mean you should be thrown into the ash heap of history; you are a wounded lost soul, you lash out here because you are attempting to soothe your emotional discomfort with some feeling of dominance, but that will never work, as it stands now, as Dr Bandy Lee describes it, you are stuck in a death spiral. Slim chance, sure, but perhaps you will gain some sliver of self awareness and knowledge to nudge you along to a better path, where one day you may be able to break the cyclical chain of trauma that shackles you.

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    14. I think she is being paid to troll this blog, in support of Somerby's ongoing efforts to undermine Biden.

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    15. Anonymouse 2:15pm, my comments may be hard to parse, but yours certainly aren’t.

      Somerby criticizes Fox News for their treatment of this awful story and you reply by assigning spurious motives as to Bob’s true reasons for broaching the subject.

      Why? Because that's what you are here to do. Only that. Then you insist that your accusations are unassailable because you have always said these things.

      Some of the othrr anonymices are clowns. You’re Pennywise.

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    16. Why? Because Somerby doesn't disclose much about himself and we are left to guess in the absence of info.

      I didn't say anything about having always said anything. You are making that part up. I objected to you treating every anonymous commenter as the same person, and also to your failure to deal with the content of my actual comment. I do object to the way you are reviling clowns -- it is an honorable profession (performance art) having nothing to do with cheap horror films. Rodeo clowns save lives too.

      I don't think it is viable for you to try to defend Somerby when you have no clue what he is saying or what anyone's comments here mean. You should ask for an easier troll assignment, IMHO.

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    17. Anonymouse 6:33pm, you are not in the dark as to what Bob says. You cannot accuse him of being “hard to parse”. The headline is in no way obscure or a suggestion that it’s Bob’s intention to say that the whole story isn’t worth covering. That bullshite is then contrasted with the even more ridiculous accusation that Bob, himself, is only talking about it in order to blame Biden.

      You can run your distortions up the flagpole all you wish, there’s no honest person on the planet, Bob critic or Bob fan, who would salute them.

      BTW: Get a verified nym and I’ll attribute what you say to you and to no one else. Just as you are able to do with me.

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    18. I suggested that referring to the murder of a 12 year old girl by two men who first raped her, is not appropriately called "fun and games."

      You could agree with me but instead you try to mind-read Somerby (without any basis for it) and revise what he may have meant. If anything, I suggested that Joy Reid was being maligned in an obscure way (not explained) and that excerpting Fox was a way to spread Fox's message while Reid was not excerpted or even explained.

      You always distort whatever you try to summarize. You would do better to quote people, but then you would be forced to deal with what they actually say. I said nothing about Biden, except that Somerby purpose here is to undermine Biden's campaign. I didn't say Somerby said anything about Biden today, but equating Joy Reid with Fox is ridiculous.

      Somerby is often crass. Today's heading was inappropriate given the death of that child. Any empathetic person would know that. It doesn't surprise me that you defend Somerby when you both lack empathy, like many of the people on the right.

      You are now beating a dead horse (no disrespect intended to actual dead horses anywhere, including Africa). Give this up and spend more time actually looking at the keys while you type.

      Use the posting as a nym, like everyone else does.

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    19. 6:33 - "I objected to you treating every anonymous commenter as the same person"

      You know, luckily there's an extremely simple solution to that problem.

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    20. Look how easy it was for you to reference 6:33, which identifies a specific speaker and a unique comment. What nym could be better than that?

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    21. Really, 7:22, you have to be pretending, right? Are you the one who wrote the post at 6:33, or at 7:08, etc? Who knows? For an anon to complain that we don't properly correlate anonymous comments with the proper anonymous commenters is even more ridiculous than usual.

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    22. Why can’t you deal with ideas instead of people?

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    23. I was just responding to an Anon (maybe you - who knows?) who was complaining that comments that she hadn’t made were nevertheless attributed to her. And I was suggesting a solution. That’s all.

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    24. Anonymouse 7:08pm, you’re merely repeating the lie that Bob suggested or claimed, that rape and murder are fun and games. Your argument is that he was using that expression in a superficial and callous way that trivialized the crime. That’s bunk. Bob bluntly denoted FNC’s approach towards this story.

      It’s more than crass of you to make such pronouncement as to Bob being careless or maniacal by that headline. Anyone (including the parents of this girl) would know by reading that Bob was describing Fox’s attitude.

      You’ve gone to whining. Go to bed, you’ll look better.

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    25. I didn't call murder and rape "fun and games". Somerby put that title on his own essay. I think it was inappropriate and an affront to the real people involved in that tragedy, no matter what Fox or Reid said. If he wanted to talk about whether the immigration status was reported properly, that could have been his headline, but it wasn't. I do not understand Somerby's callousness about the murder of a child.

      I never called Somerby careless or "maniacal". I consider him to be unfeeling, callous (a different word than careless), offensive, and that is what I said. It is unhelpful when you change what people said and substitute your own, often mistaken, words.

      If Somerby felt that Fox was not taking the child's death seriously, he should say so directly. His coyness may cause him to be misunderstood, but it is his choice to hint instead of directly say what he means. It is not my fault if he is unclear about who considers murder to be fun and games. Those are not words that anyone should associate with a death.

      I have repeated myself several times because you never seem to get the point. That is not the same as whining:

      whining definition: "the making of a long, high-pitched cry or sound"

      I have been patient with you and yet you refer to me in this derogatory way.

      I continue to think you are either a very undereducated person or a non-native speaker of English, most likely on a troll farm. Your continual use of inappropriate words that don't mean what they should is a sign. Either way, YOU are causing more problems than you resolve when you try to defend Somerby. Why not express your own ideas here instead of working so hard to redeem someone who frankly does not deserve the attention?

      Delete
    26. Anonymouse 9:22pm, callous, unfeeling, coy, obscure… throw all those references to Bob at me, he was NONE of those things in his blogging on how Fox handled the crime story.

      I’ll keep what I do here as long as anonymices keep doing what you are doing. If Bob doesn’t deserve the attention then why are you detractors of TDH here?

      Yes, you’re in full whining mode now. Your next move will be to bemoan the treatment of women on blogs and then call me a man.

      Delete
    27. I’m calling you a non-native speaker.

      Delete
  7. I expect that Somerby may get around to noticing that the 12 year old snuck out of her house before she met the two men. She may have encountered them earlier, at which point they may have set up a meeting. Or perhaps she met them for the first time while out that evening. The men may have confused her with a prostitute, she may have threatened to have them deported and they may have killed her out of desperation. Or they could have killed her because that's who they were -- another pair of men who use women like kleenex, to be thrown away after sex. (Not unlike Trump's treatment of Stormy Daniels.)

    That is not a crime sufficiently worth discussing by Somerby or Fox, apparently. For example, Somerby might have mentioned that most prostitutes are runaway girls who encounter pimps who force them into prostitution. Another large number are sex slaves in sexual trafficking crime rings, sometimes operated by those preying on illegal immigrants. The two arrested men may have mistaken the 12 year old for such a prostitute. Such crimes are not prosecuted as vigorously as they might be and that is an issue Somerby might have discussed. But Somerby shows next to no interest in sex crimes against women and girls. He instead identifies with the men who enable and commit such crimes.

    We can expect more of such mistreatment when women's rights are further eroded in a Trump presidency. Girls without effective protectors will be regarded as fair game. And women's ability to move about in the wider society will be curtailed because "good girls" do not leave their husbands, fathers, brothers or male guardians without permission. That is what a patriarchal society is like -- men are either protectors or predators and women have no right to autonomy without being raped (as occurs to independent women in some other countries, including India and Muslim countries).

    Somerby is more concerned about undiscussed immigration issues. Does that make him a bad person, a very bad person, or a typical misogynist Republican?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, anonymouse 12:22pm, Bob is talking about the handling of the story by Fox News, in that THEY were rendering it into a political weapon against Biden and democrats.

      You would agree with that assessment had it not been said by Bob. Therefore you had to morph the discussion into Bob’s lapse in not making it an issue of women migrants, and/or of sexual violence against women in general, or how Republicans feel about women of all circumstances.

      Delete
    2. Why then is he accusing Joy Reid of something?

      I think women's issues are more important than trivial digs at journalists and Gutfeld crass humor. Republicans, and Somerby in particular, have a poor record on women's issues. But it wasn't me -- it was Somerby who said he was going to discuss sexual politics and then didn't follow through. You act as if I brought this up out of nowhere when Somerby promised to talk about sexual politics.

      Delete
  8. From Yesterday discussion of the Fiscal Year 2021 deficit

    Thanks for the clarification, unamused. Let's follow up with your correction of my assumptions. We don't know how much of Trump's $2.2 trillion was spent before Oct 1, 2020 in FY 2020 and how much was spent in FY 2021. Let's assume half in each fiscal year. Then Trump committed FY 2021 spending to $1.1 trillion plus Trump's $2.3 trillion budget passed in Dec 2020 -- a total of $3.4 trillion.

    However, far more than this amount was spent in FY 2021
    Actual spending for FY 2021 was $6.810 trillion and receipts were $4.046 trillion.. https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57539/html

    The numbers appear to show that Biden spent an additional $3.4 trillion beyond the amount committed by Trump. If Biden hadn't added so much new spending to the original budget. then there would not have been a big deficit.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Relax, David.
      The deficit is nothing a return to the 90% top income tax can't handle.
      Whether looked at historically, or in comparison to other industrialized nations, tax rates are currently very low.

      Delete
    2. D.C. doesn't have a spending problem. It has a revenue problem.

      Delete
    3. @12:41 PM - crickets from this "concerned" lunatic when Trump and Bush infested the WH.

      Delete
    4. Trump blew up the deficit with his tax cuts for the wealthy, Biden has deficits due to having to fix the mess Trump left by being a Putin puppet and by being incompetent in handling the pandemic.

      That something so trivially obvious as this differential is missing from DIC's rhetoric is why he is ineffective in engaging in discourse; when you openly operate in bad faith like DIC, you are only making yourself irrelevant.

      Delete
    5. From Simon Rosenberg (Hopium Chronicles):

      "The Good Economic News Just Keeps Coming - We’ve continued to have really good economic news in recent weeks. Inflation was ZERO in May. Prices did not rise and the price of many goods fell. The May jobs report was 50% higher than expected. The World Bank upped it global growth forecast because of the strength of the American economy. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow tracker has q2 GDP coming in at a very robust 3% Wage growth remains very strong. The stock market keeps breaking records. New data found that crime and murder rates have plummeted, and flows to the border are way down from where they were last year……"

      https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/bidens-polling-gains-matter-a-very

      Delete
    6. "According to an analysis from Moody's Analytics, Trump's MAGAnomics economic plan ⎯ slash taxes for the rich, spike import tariffs, and institute mass deportations of immigrant workers ⎯ would trigger a recession by mid-2025, with an economy that would slow to an average 1.3% annual growth, vs. 2.1% under Biden.

      "Biden’s policies are better for the economy," said Mark Zandi, Chief Economist of Moody’s Analytics.

      Trump's plan to fund the government through higher import tariffs would cause companies to pass their increased costs onto consumers: reaccelerating inflation that has been steadily cooling during Biden's term.

      According to Moody's, next year under a Trump administration inflation would rise from the current 3.3% to 3.6%, well above the 2.4% forecast for next year under Biden. The U.S. would have 3.2 million fewer jobs and a 4.5% unemployment rate at the end Trump's term, compared to Biden's 26-straight months of unemployment under 4%.

      U.S. economic growth in 2023 under Biden surpassed China for the first time in 40 years.

      Increased tariffs on imports and the resulting higher inflation would also dramatically increase the value of the dollar, leading to fewer exports of U.S products, harming manufacturers and their employees.

      "I think it would be bad for workers and bad for consumers," said Michael Strain, Director of Economic Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. Trump's tariff plan also likely won't fully offset his planned tax cuts, adding trillions to the national debt.

      "Trump just received a report card for his extreme MAGAnomics plan, and Moody’s gave him a failing grade. The latest report by Moody’s details how a second round of Trump’s MAGAnomics agenda would tank the economy, and trigger a recession by 2025," DNC National Press Secretary ⁨Emilia Rowland said in a statement.

      By contrast, if Biden wins the Presidency and maintains a divided Congress, the most heavily-predicted scenario, economists predict cooling inflation trends will continue, reaching the target 2% sometime around summer 2025."

      Delete
    7. "The numbers appear to show that Biden spent an additional $3.4 trillion beyond the amount committed by Trump."

      Let me make sure I understand you. As you describe the world, the president can just show up in his office one afternoon and declare "I'm going to spend a trillion dollars that's not in the federal budget and has never been authorized by any legislation. Bring me the checkbook!"

      Is that how you think our government works?

      Delete
    8. QiB - good point. Two responses
      1. The President all by himself forgave $132 billion of student loans. In effect, he gave $132 billion of government money to certain debtors without Congressional approval. The CBO incorporated half of this amount into the budget because that huge giveaway might not stand up. https://ijr.com/foreign-aid-and-student-loan-forgiveness-behind-massive-increase-in-deficit-estimate-congressional-budget-office-says/

      2. As you point out, most government spending must be approved by Congress. Nevertheless, Presidents are given credit or blame for good or bad things that happen during their terms. We talk about the "Trump deficits" or the "Clinton budget surplus", even though Congress had a major role in those results.

      Delete
  9. Easy for you to say. You're not invested in the commercial real estate industry.

    ReplyDelete
  10. 3 points
    1. Legal immigrants are vetted for contagious diseases and gang connections, etc. That's why we don't see so many reports of horrible crimes committed by legal immigrants. OTOH migrants are not vetted for disease, etc.

    2. One mistake that Fauci and Deborah Birx made was to recommend more lockdowns than were needed, particularly closing schools. My granddaughter was one of the children harmed by this policy. I don't blame Birx and Fauci for this mistake. We were all guessing at that point.

    For some reason, Fauci became the public face of the two of them. I suspect that the slogan "Don't Fauci my Florida" was an anti-lockdown message at a time when Florida was keeping schools open -- a good decision as it turned out.

    3. Bob's segue is offensive: "Back to the other very bad people, the ones we watched on the Fox News." There's no comparison between murdering children and bad punditry.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bad punditry, by making bad policy more likely, and by making the election of bad politicians more likely, can do more harm than one horrific crime.

      Delete
    2. It is inaccurate for Somerby and the right wing to mix together those who are residing in the US awaiting an asylum adjudication and those who entered without any permission at all. Venezuela is one of the countries admitting aliens seeking asylum, allowing them to live legally in the US until a judgment is made about their application. These are not illegals and they ARE vetted.

      Why would someone from Venezuela choose to enter illegally when they could be admitted legally as an asylum seeker? The last time a Venezuelan immigrant killed someone, there was at first an incorrect description of his asylum status, later corrected. It seems likely that will be true in this case too.

      David, continuing to conflate asylum seekers (who are legal) with those who sneak into the country, spreads disinformation about immigration and prevents rational discussion on the topic.

      It may be that these two men killed the 12 year old girl because they at first mistook her for a working girl and then feared she might complain to the police and get them deported. If so, then our draconian immigration system would be partially responsible for her death, by making desperate people more desperate about being returned to their country of origin. The lack of empathy arising in discussions of immigration astonishes me, because those discussing it fail to understand why someone would leave their country in the first place and how extreme the factors driving them toward our border are. It may cause someone to do things they would never do under normal circumstances. That does not excuse murder, obviously, but it does explain it. Meanwhile, Trump portrays immigrants as insane or criminal, much like Somerby does, without recognizing that behavior is also situational.

      Delete
    3. Sexual killers do not commonly work in pairs.

      Delete
    4. DiC, because anonymices are so doctrinaire, the Sacred Cow Alert meter has to be turned down or it’s blasting night and day.

      With Bob it’s subtle, so it’s good to keep your ears cocked.

      Delete
    5. What the fuck are you talking about?

      Delete
    6. @1:50 It is appropriate to mix together those who are residing in the US awaiting an asylum adjudication and those who entered without any permission at all, because
      1. Almost all of those "awaiting asylum adjudication" will never have such an adjudication. They will simply live in the US.
      2. Most of them would not qualify if they had that adjudication. Once they're in Mexico, they're no longer in a country that mistreats them.
      3. The migrants who are asking for asylum are not vetted with the same care as normal legal immigrants. So, they bring communicable diseases and may be criminals,

      Delete
    7. DIC your first two points are factually inaccurate.

      You provide no evidence to support your claims, and a few seconds on Google reveals your claims as false.

      You seem to be a very troubled person, struggling with a lack of integrity and good moral character, one hopes you someday find some peace of mind from your ugly and misguided notions.

      Delete
    8. Asylum seekers are vetted, including screening for disease. The vetting for asylum is more rigorous, not less than for legal immigrants. They may not be criminals.

      https://citizenpath.com/asylum-process-how-it-works/

      Delete
    9. David was a good person until he let zionism poison his soul.

      Delete
    10. Please do not hijack this discussion to talk about Gaza.

      Delete
    11. It’s not just Gaza.

      Delete
  11. What does Donald Trump propose to do if elected?

    https://jabberwocking.com/donald-trumps-2025-agenda/

    ReplyDelete
  12. "SATURDAY: Fun and games on Fox & Friends!"

    It is offensive to put this kind of header on a story about how journalists covered the rape and murder of a 12 year old girl.

    How might that girl's family feel about this kind of treatment of their daughter's death?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymouse 2:33pm, they’d understand Bob’s point since the girl’s parents have no other focus than the loss of their child rather than political animus.

      Delete
    2. Or animus toward a blogger

      Delete
    3. I don't believe any grieving parent would appreciate Somerby calling their daughter's death "fun and games".

      Delete
    4. He didn’t. He says that’s what the FNC hosts made of it.

      You are using it as just one more of your scolding,/shaming/chiding maneuvers.

      Delete
    5. Somerby chose the words that appear at the top of today's post.

      Delete
    6. Anonymouse 5:56pm, in the context of the tragedy being only that to Fox News.

      Just as you endeavor to it about Bob’s character.

      Delete
    7. He doesn't explain what he meant by it, and it is ugly and hurtful.

      You are less facile with English and with using your keyboard today. Did they replace you with a new troll? Your phrase "in the context of the tragedy being only that to Fox News" makes no sense at all. Neither does "Just as you endeavor to it about..." I did find your flying comma amusing if ungrammatical.

      Fess up and tell us where your troll farm is located...

      Delete
    8. Cecelia, you have no more insight into somerby’s motives than the commenters you attack.

      Delete
    9. Anonymouse 6:27pm, if insight consisted of assigning the worst possible motives to Bob Somerby. you’d be Athena. However, you are not. You’re just a political operative.

      Delete
    10. If I am, then so are you.

      Delete
    11. Anonymouse 6:26pm, he’s calling the Fox team treatment of the story ugly and distasteful. We BOTH know that and that fact is why it is reasonable of me to call you ugly and distasteful.

      Delete
    12. He calls the crime ugly. His complaint about Fox is a technical point…whether the AP reported the immigration status.

      Delete
    13. And yet it isn't Somerby saying that, but you. Your interpretations of what Somerby means come from your imagination. If he feels that way, why would he write such an offensive title to his post today?

      Delete
    14. Anonymouse 6:42pm, if it’s a mere “technical point” for Bob to make the subjective claim that Fox News was using the story as an ugly weapon against Democrats AND also for Bob to say that FNC was OBJECTIVELY wrong as to what they claimed about the reporting in the larger media, then your quibbling are worse than bullshite. They’re Anonymouse shite.

      Delete
    15. He didn't do that. But you still haven't explained why Somerby would refer to the murder of a 12 year old as "fun and games".

      Delete
    16. Anonymouse 7:31pm, yes, I have . Bob ascribed that outlook to Fox personalities as to their new show treatment of the tragedy', whereas you incongruously ascribe that sentiment to Bob based upon the brilliant rejoiner of “I know you are, but what am I”.

      Delete
    17. Please quote where Somerby said Fox was calling the murder or its reporting fun and games.

      Delete
    18. Anonymouse 8:03pm, Bob called it Fun and Games on Fox.& Friends.

      In the spirit of your ever so honest request to me, please quote me where Bob expressly said that the murder of this girl was “fun and games”?

      Delete
    19. The topic of the post was the murder of that girl and how Fox and MSNBC discussed it. Why would he put such an unfeeling headline on an article with that topic?

      Delete
    20. Anonymouse 9:13pm, yes, it’s such a puzzle as to why Bob would issue the headline that expressly referenced Fox News in a blog that immediately detailed the treatment of a crime as reported by Fox News.

      Delete
    21. Why does he say fun and games to talk about the murder of a 12 year old who was raped and murdered? You don’t seem to have an answer.

      Delete
    22. Bob believes that when Fox was pretending to discuss the crime, Fox was really indulging in their idea of polemical fun and games.

      YOU should quit your fun and games of pretending you haven’t gotten an answer to this question.

      Delete
    23. Fox complained because the accused perpetrators of the crime were not labeled as illegal immigrants. Somerby calls this fun and games, not Fox.

      Delete
    24. Anonymouse 9:33 am, I’ve never claimed or even suggested that Fox News used the phrase "fun and games". That is Bob’s description of how Fox News presents serious and tragic stories.

      Delete
    25. Do you find that an appropriate way to describe reporting of a young girl’s rape and murder? I don’t.

      Delete
    26. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    27. Anonymouse 5:16pm, I’m sure Fox News is grateful and relieved that you don’t find it an appropriate way to describe Fox’s coverage and response to the story. Other people’s mileage differs.

      Delete
  13. It is also possible those two guys didn't do it, but got picked up because they are immigrants.

    ReplyDelete
  14. This is one reason why I am voting for Biden in November:

    "By Mark Sumner — June 21, 2024

    In the last two years, President Joe Biden grabbed the oil markets by the throat and shook them. He’s not just lowered the price that Americans are paying for gas as they head out on summer vacation, he has sent a shockwave of fear through OPEC leaders like Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    It’s something that everyone thought was impossible. Biden lifted a threat that loomed over the nation for over 50 years, severely weakened America’s enemies, revealed a new realm in which the U.S. holds unprecedented strength, benefited the average consumer, and turned a profit all at the same time.

    And that achievement is getting next to no attention."

    https://crooksandliars.com/2024/06/have-you-heard-about-joe-bidens-greatest

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @3:25 If Biden did all these good things to the oil market, why am I paying so much more for gasoline?

      Delete
    2. Because you think in terms of nominal dollars. If you adjusted for inflation, you'd realize that you're paying a little less today than you have for most of the last 30 years.

      Delete
    3. Afraid not, QiB. See https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emm_epm0_pte_nus_dpg&f=m
      In 2020, the average price of gasoline hit $1.94. During Trump's term, the price ranged between $1.94 and 2.90. During Biden's Presidency, gasoline was a high as $5.03. The latest price on the chart is 3.725

      BTW going back to 1994 - 2000, the average price was around $1.25. Drivers are paying more than double what they did back then, and they know it.

      Delete
    4. Gas prices fell during covid because demand fell as people stayed home and drove less. Trump benefitted from that decline. A comparison with 2000 is meaningless without adjusting for inflation. Biden’s efforts to control gas prices is still outstanding because demand for oil is up now that the economy, work commuting and travel are all up.

      Delete
    5. The current national average is $3.70 down .67% from last week. That is not bad compared to $2.90 you quote, given conditions in the middle east and our economy.

      Delete
    6. "In 2020, the average price of gasoline hit $1.94. During Trump's term, the price ranged between $1.94 and 2.90."

      Oh, we're not excluding the pandemic this time?

      https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/gasoline-prices-adjusted-for-inflation/

      Delete
    7. And once again, David, the link you provide deals in nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation. A gallon at $1.17 in 1994 would cost $3.84 today.

      Delete
    8. US oil production is higher than under Trump and has broken records, but I am glad to see that the price of oil is controlled by the president of the United States. Someone should let the OPEC members know that they can fold up their tents now and disband. While we are at assigning blame, what about that civilian death toll in 2020?

      Delete
    9. If all it takes to lower gas prices is dramatically lowered demand and the deaths of millions of US citizens, Trump’s pandemic mismanagement was pure genius.

      Delete
  15. This is what the upcoming election is about:

    https://x.com/blueatlgeorgia/status/1802904289783767542?s=46&t=38dkbiTLOtgXqtUehWpnZg&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

    Fauci is the poster child for Schedule F. They think that any expert who cannot be ordered around for political purposes must be sent death threats. We should all be saying about Fauci, "Never Again" because our nation's experts need to be supported and encouraged to do their best work in the challenging times to come, not living in fear.

    Trump caused excess deaths due to covid. Another Trump term could result in excess deaths due to hurricanes, fires, extreme heat, flooding, and tornados, because there is no way in hell Trump and the right will do a goddamned thing about global warming, and they won't do anything about mitigating effects either, and they don't care how many of us die preventable deaths while Trump "funs" about sharks.

    Watch this clip and then vote for Biden. And tell your friends you are doing it, so they will follow your lead. Our lives depend on it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From The Hartmann Report (6/22):

      "— In Red states, TV weather is getting way too political. When award-winning TV weatherman Chris Gloninger was lured away from the East Coast to take a gig as chief meteorologist at KCCI, the Des Moines, Iowa CBS affiliate, he was told by management that they wanted him to not only tell the weather but also explain why it’s become so extreme. Big mistake, apparently, in a state as Red as Iowa: Clonginger has now moved back to Massachusetts because of all the death threats and harassment he was getting from local Republicans every time he mentioned global warming. Fossil fuel industry donors control the GOP, which lies to its base that global warming isn’t real, and then they get hit with massive tornadoes and storms that destroy their homes and farms and have no idea how they’re the victims of this incredible, 50-year-long grift.

      — The climate crisis is also an insurance crisis. Housing prices are going up all across the country — particularly rental prices — in part because insurance prices are exploding. And that’s happening because the weather across America has become so extreme that it’s driving insurance providers out of business. Weirdly, the state hardest hit in the US is Florida, where last week Governor DeSantis ordered the words “climate change” and “global warming” excised from all state documents and policy papers. What’s it going to take for Republican voters to wake up to how badly they’re being screwed by these hustlers in the oil industry and the Republican politicians they own?"

      Delete
    2. Here’s another one. We are now being shielded from the works of non-woke African tribesmen.

      https://www.removepaywall.com/https:/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/17/pitt-rivers-museum-oxford-university-africa-igbo-mask-women

      Delete
    3. You object to a museum respecting the tribal customs of the people who made a mask? I might not approve of the sex-based rituals, but I don't belong to that group and it isn't my place to tell them how to conduct their religion. I wouldn't bust into a Catholic church either and ask where the female priest is. Would you?

      It isn't like the Igbo are foisting their 10 Commandments off on school children in public schools.

      So, what exactly is your point? That American sexual roles are as arbitrary as those in Africa? Or what? There is nothing in the excerpt relevant to American "wokeness," which is a term used by African Americans to describe knowledege of their own racial history and the realities of being black in America. Being woke in Africa probably means something different, but I find the museum curator to be considerate and I don't understand why you find that wrong.

      Delete
    4. Fortunately, organizations like the ACLU and the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) are preparing a lawsuit to oppose the posting of the Protestant (not Catholic) 10 Commandments in public schools in Louisiana, as part of a move to introduce and propagate religious belief via the schools. From FFRF:

      "We responded as part of a civil society coalition to the Louisiana governor’s signing of a new Ten Commandments law (on Juneteenth itself!) with the promise of a lawsuit. “The law violates the separation of church and state and is blatantly unconstitutional,” the joint statement says.

      The new law — and our [FFRF] response — generated a huge amount of media coverage. “The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation said that the law violates longstanding Supreme Court precedent and the First Amendment and would result in ‘unconstitutional religious coercion of students,’” CNN reported... "

      I would also object if Igbo masks were being present or hidden from girls in public schools, but respecting other people's rights to worship as they see fit, is part of freedom of religion in our Constitution.

      The article Cecelia posted comes from African, not the US. I don't see how someone telling someone else they are prohibited from looking at a mask, is an example of wokeness or non-wokeness. Museums have lots of stuff in their back rooms that are not put on display. Is that woke or anti-woke? Or did Cecelia even read the article, much less think about it?

      Delete
    5. Anonymouse 6:41pm, yes, I do.

      “Ruth Millington, an art critic and author, whose book Musetackles the female subject, has raised concerns about the push for synergy creating a dangerous precedent.

      She said: “To deny all women, of all cultures, sight of something because that is a taboo in one particular culture seems an extreme stance, particularly given that this country is a modern, liberal and enlightened society.

      “Surely women should be given the right to decide, after reading about any cultural sensitivities, if they wish to look upon the artefact or not. When it comes to art, we should all have equal rights, regardless of sex, to view what we would like to.

      “Does this position also imply that only male curators in the museum can handle, care for and interpret this object? This stance seems to imply that no woman has ever seen the mask, which I think is highly unlikely.

      “As a feminist art historian, I now want to see it all the more.”‘

      What she said!

      Delete
    6. The solution is to keep such religious objects out of museums, not restrict women from the art world nor restrict how tribes practice their religious beliefs. I prefer religious freedom and freedom for women to pursue the arts. I would not like to see tribal religion erased nor a state religion imposed, as China attempted during its cultural revolution. There is no right to compel others to show their art just because someone wants to see it, for whatever reason.

      A complex issue worthy of supreme court consideration.

      Delete
    7. Anonymouse 8:00pm, the museum has the art in their possession. If the museum acquired it under the agreement that it not be shown, they should never have accepted those terms.

      If the goal of the museum is to safely store the art until the descendants of the artwork agree to the display of it, the museum should say so.

      If there is litigation as to the museum’s right of possession, the museum should not exhibit the pieces until that is resolved.

      Otherwise, display it to everyone who I wants to see it.

      Delete
    8. It's possible that the museum is choosing to not show the masks as an act of virtue-signaling.

      Delete
    9. To whom? This took place in Africa.

      Delete
    10. The museum in question is in the UK.

      Delete
    11. The mask is from the Igbo tribe in Africa. Did they give permission to the museum to display it? Probably not.

      Delete
  16. Digby gives us a helpful list of all the people who have been threatened with reprisals by Trump, so far:

    https://digbysblog.net/2024/06/22/the-enemies-list-2/

    ReplyDelete
  17. Why do you waste your time watching Fox?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Robert Reich remembers the three young men who were killed in Mississippi while registering black voters. One was a friend of his:

    https://robertreich.substack.com/p/60-years-ago-today-they-murdered

    It is perhaps easy to forget why we care so much and are working so hard to re-elect President Biden. His Republican opposition spoke this last week in front of a White Supremacist banner proclaiming "White Boy Summer," without shame giving a thumb's up to neo-Nazis and White Supremacists advocating political violence. Because that is who Trump is -- the latest in a line of men willing to kill to preserve their white privilege and suppress black votes. And it isn't over.

    That's why I am voting for Biden. I hope you will too, because it matters who we put back in office. And please tell your friends and relatives about your choice, because we need to make absolutely sure Trump doesn't crawl back into office with his list of targets for reprisal and his minions willing to swat opponents, inspire gunmen, and make death threats against officials. That isn't how a democracy functions and we Americans should never let that happen again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The three young men were murdered by Democrats.

      Delete
    2. That old canard doesn’t fool anyone. Why do you try it here?

      Delete
  19. Kevin says:

    https://jabberwocking.com/trump-yet-again-accuses-biden-of-drug-use/

    ReplyDelete
  20. ...and it was at this time, my friends, that a rare and peculiar butt wind was hereby produced.

    Now, this wasn't just any ordinary slip of the fanny. The noxious odor served to transport my mind, body, and soul to an alternate dimension!

    Stay tuned for the next installment...

    ReplyDelete
  21. Trying to paint a moral equivalence betwee Fox and Msnbc is a waste of time.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Off Topic:
    Snopes just debunked the "Fine People" hoax -- seven years late
    No, Trump Did Not Call Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists 'Very Fine People'
    https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-very-fine-people/

    I wonder why Snopes made this debunking now?

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    1. He said there were fine people who were there just to protest the removal of the statue. He ignored the fact that those so-called "fine people" were white supremecists.

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    2. The people who Trump believes were in Charlottesville just to protest the removal of a statue are imaginary, just like the supposed patriots and "hostages" from January 6. Unite the Right was a neo-Nazi, white supremecist rally where torch wielding marchers chanted "Jews will not replace us."

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