SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2024
The Post's fact-checking is slight: For the record, the Washington Post's Michael Kranish has had a very substantial, high-end journalistic career.
That said, he may have had a certain "narrative" in mind when he wrote a long and fascinating profile of Candidate Walz's early years. Dual headline included, the profile started as shown:
Tim Walz’s upbringing in rural Nebraska seemed idyllic. Then came tragedy.
Uprooted from a small city, Walz and his family moved to a remote town of a few hundred to deal with his father’s cancer.
VALENTINE, Neb.—Beyond the Badlands, deep within the undulating landscape of the Sandhills, this speck of a city where Tim Walz spent a decade of his childhood rises abruptly out of the vastness.
It is as remote as anywhere in the Midwest, an island of civilization in a Rhode Island-size county with just 6,000 people and 184,000 beef cows. But as Walz entered his freshman year of high school, his life seemed storybook large.
Walz played football, basketball and golf, sometimes riding in a bus hundreds of miles to compete against other schools, classmates said. He enjoyed a life of stability and privilege as a child of James Walz, who had one of the most important jobs in town as school superintendent...
Tim Walz grew up "enjoying a life of privilege" in Cherry County, Nebraska—and yes, that county is very large.
As we will explain below, we were already struck at this point by the apparent absence of fact-checking. We'll explain that statement below, but the fact-checking seemed to be slender.
Soon, though, we came to the apparent promulgation of narrative. We thought we saw such an effort lurking within this part of the Kranish profile:
As Walz has told it, he spent summers working at a ranch outside town.
“I grew up summers working on Everett Brown’s Hereford ranch about 60 miles from anywhere, working cattle, building fence, putting up hay,” Walz said earlier this year. At the end of the day when he was “a young 14-year-old,” he said, he retired to a bunkhouse where other ranch hands were playing cards and cursing, while he would read National Geographic magazines and “really started to understand how big the world is.”
Everett Brown’s son, Greg Brown, said in an interview that he recalled Walz working at the ranch and he confirmed that they kept National Geographics in the bunkhouse. But he said that Walz only worked at the ranch for one summer, and then only for a few weeks.
“He got tired of it and he left,” Greg Brown said. “My dad hauled him to town,” about 20 miles to Valentine. “My dad was pretty good at taking in high school kids from Omaha and Valentine. He made them work and if they didn’t, then he took them to town.”
Walz declined an interview request.
Whose recollection is more accurate? There's no sign that Kranish knows.
Greg Brown sounds a little bit sour. All these years later, is his account of this matter correct?
Also, does some such difference in recollection actually matter? If you're pushing a BIG FAT LIAR narrative, well yes, it certainly can!
Is Candidate Walz a BIG FAT LIAR? That narrative is floating around, and it's a time-honored framework. Saturday night, on The Big Weekend Show, the reinvented, tougher Lisa Boothe told Fox News Channel viewers this:
SHILLUE (8/24/24): [Candidate Harris] thought this guy added a kind of—you know, the orange vest and the hinting hat. And she thought she needed that element to her campaign. Right, Jason?
CHAFFETZ: Yeah, that's a big lie, like, you know—John Kerry's a big hunter out there...
BOOTHE: Also, he was an assistant coach. He was never a head coach. He's such a liar. He lies about everything. It's very strange.
SHILLUE: Yeah. Can't help it. OK, stick around...
Tom Shillue is a D-list comedian. Jason Chaffetz is a former congressman (R-Utah). They were appearing on a show where everyone agrees with everyone else as they present their employer's various pre-packaged dogmas—dogma straight out of the can!
In this case, the dogma says that it's all a big lie over there in the Harris campaign. Up jumped Boothe with the dumbest presentation imaginable:
Walz was just an assistant coach. He's just "such a liar!"
No. you can't get dumber than that. But on Fox, they're going to try.
Our impression could be wrong, but it seems to us that Lisa Boothe used to be kinder and gentler. That said, it would be hard to make a dumber comment than the one Boothe threw in, after Chaffetz said it's just "a big lie" that—
He said it's just "a big lie" that what? That Walz owns an orange vest?
No, you can't get dumber! Also, it would be hard to produce a phonier brand of journalism. But there's a time-honored narrative floating around, and these hirelings are eager to push it.
It's hard to get much dumber. To our eye and ear, Kranish seemed to be working that same BIG LIAR beat at several points in his profile.
This brings us back the first two grafs in Kranish's profile of Walz. As noted above, he instantly says this:
VALENTINE, Neb.—Beyond the Badlands, deep within the undulating landscape of the Sandhills, this speck of a city where Tim Walz spent a decade of his childhood rises abruptly out of the vastness.
It is as remote as anywhere in the Midwest, an island of civilization in a Rhode Island-size county with just 6,000 people and 184,000 beef cows. But as Walz entered his freshman year of high school, his life seemed storybook large.
Really? Did Tim Walz really grow up "in a Rhode Island-size county?"
The county in question is Cherry County, Nebraska. With a tiny bit of fact-checking, someone at the Washington Post might have learned this:
Area in square miles, four jurisdictions
Cherry County, Nebraska: 6,009 square miles
State of Rhode Island: 1,545 sq. mi.
State of Delaware: 2,489 sq. mi.
State of Connecticut: 5,543 sq. mi.
Sad! In fact, Cherry County is four times the size of Rhode Island! It's even larger than Connecticut. It's larger than three different states.
Does anybody bother to check the most basic facts at this point? Or has our nation's high-end journalism simply become the application of narrative?
We wondered about the fact-checking again when Kranish's profile—once again, early on—peculiarly offered this:
In some ways, Walz’s small-town childhood offers a contrast from that of his Republican counterpart, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. In his best-selling book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance wrote about the decline of the Ohio industrial town where he grew up, a heroin-using mother and an absent father, and finding refuge by visiting his grandmother in a small Kentucky town where his dysfunctional and often-violent family had roots.
In his widely-discussed, best-selling book, did Candidate Vance say he found refuge by visiting his grandmother "in a small Kentucky town?"
Journalists, please!
Apparently, someone at NPR actually read Vance's book, or perhaps just listened to his convention speech.
You can read the NPR report right here. Making a well-known long story short, the grandmother in question moved to Middletown, Ohio with her husband when she was 13 (and he was 16).
Decades later, when Vance found refuge with that grandmother, she was living right there in Middletown, Ohio, just like Vance and his deeply challenged mother. He didn't have to go back to Kentucky to find her!
The fact-checking seemed to be non-existent about this well-known matter. The pursuit of happiness through narrative seemed somewhat apparent.
As we read about that massive Nebraska county, we thought again of President-elect Lincoln's visit back to Coles County, Illinois to say good-bye to his beloved stepmother before heading off to Washington and, of course, to his death.
We thought again of the ongoing vastness of the United States. We thought of the wide array of our fellow citizens' experiences.
Cherry County, Nebraska is larger than the whole state of Connecticut! In the 2020 census, a mere 5,455 people lived there—and yes, that was county-wide!
For Wikipedia's overview, you can click this. Its first paragraph says this:
Cherry County, Nebraska
Cherry County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 5,455. Its county seat is Valentine. The county was named for Lt. Samuel A. Cherry, an Army officer who was stationed at Fort Niobrara and who had been killed in South Dakota in 1881. Cherry County is in the Nebraska Sandhills. It is the largest county in the state at nearly [sic] 6,000 square miles, larger than the state of Connecticut.
(The Prairie Club Lodge is found in the county. For a somewhat surprising website, click this.)
The United States goes on and on; it gets even bigger out west. Meanwhile, the following has occasionally seemed to be true over the course of the past thirty years:
Fact-checking seems to be very hard. Promulgation of narrative nay at times seem to be more fun—easier, more rewarding.
The most important fact to check to Somerby was … the size of the county?
ReplyDeleteMost important? Maybe not.
DeleteWhat this post calls out is that it's a very simple fact, one that involves a specific, fixed, easily verified number. But the outlet that published the article couldn't be bothered to check. Can we trust such an outlet to verify anything?
Our Host has opinions.
The size of the county is a fact, but whether it is large or small or medium is a comparative judgment, somewhat subjective and dependent on the counties being compared. For example, the county would be small next to San Bernardino County, the largest county in the nation and my former residence before covid. So Somerby's "fact check" is kind of meaningless except to examine the purposes of the writer, which Somerby does not discuss much, except to repeat the right wing noise about Walz being a big fat liar. That right's disinformation campaign against Walz is the important point, not whether some perhaps time-limited journalist checked every fact as Somerby believes he should have in order to label a county as large or not.
Delete"The size of the county is a fact, but whether it is large or small or medium is a comparative judgment, somewhat subjective and dependent on the counties being compared."
DeleteThat may be true but that was decidedly not Somerby's point.
The article stated Cherry County was 'Rhode-Island sized' when in fact it is almost 4 times as big as Rhode Island. A simple statement of fact was bungled.
And it matters why?
DeleteIf you are quoting someone else’s statement, you do not modify their quote to make it factually correct. You can only add a sentence about the actual size of the county, but that takes up added space and may distract from the point at hand. Academic sources use footnotes to be as accurate as possible. News sources do not do that, largely due to space limitations but also because most people don’t like and don’t read footnotes. This makes Somerby’s demand impractical, against journalistic tradition (except for corrections of major mistakes), and fatuous.
Delete@2:22 is critiquing the media. Somerby is picking on a journalist and repeating slurs of Walz. See the difference?
Delete2:22,
DeleteNo idea what you're trying to say.
2:06,
It matters because the article screwed up what most 3rd graders could do.
Anonymouse 2:25pm, Bob is laying open some contrivances as to some stories about Walz and Vance.
DeleteGood for him. He usually is a sucker and a half for this sort folksy zhuzhing of public people.
It is very important to know the actual sizes of all of the counties in the country. That info is probably listed someplace. No one in their right mind would read the newspaper to find out such a fact.
DeleteThey might not read a paper for that express purpose, but they would expect the paper--when reporting a county's size--to do so accurately.
DeleteA phrase like “the size of Rhode Island” is not a fact. It is poetic language, which is figurative not exact. If we talk about the elephant in the room, there is no reason to measure whether the room is large enough to hold one. Look at the context. Were counties being listed in order of size? If so, you might have a complaint.
DeleteWith a population for the entire county of less than 6000 people, does it matter how many sq miles it was? Being larger makes it even more sparsely populated (ie unpopulated) than claimed. Does Somerby imagine anyone was talking about the amount of farmland involved?
DeleteWhat is zhuzhing?
DeleteAnonymouse 5:25pm, you don’t have google?
Delete"the article screwed up what most 3rd graders could do."
DeleteSpeaking of facts, there is no Right-winger who knows as much about economics as an average 3rd grader.
The average third-grader knows what "zhuzh" means and doesn't have to ask random blog commenters.
DeleteThe Republicans, running the biggest liar in the history of the United States, have to turn everyone else into a liar. They are sick.
ReplyDeleteFact check if Kamala Harris is “working tirelessly to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and bringing the hostages home,”
ReplyDeleteI did. She is.
DeleteCheck to see why Harris told the country that Trump wants to pass a national ban on “reproductive rights,”
ReplyDeleteI did. Her reasons are sound.
DeleteNot the question that was asked.
DeleteTrump has repeatedly said he is happy with the abortion issue being handled at the state level. So when Harris said he wanted a nationwide ban she was not telling the truth.
Trump has said different things to different people about abortion. A nationwide ban is part of Project 2025.
Delete2:08,
DeleteNow pull Trump's other finger.
Kavanaugh, Alito, and Barrett said Roe was settled law.
DeleteThat's why the Supreme Court was unable to overturn it.
“ Trump has repeatedly said”
DeleteThe man is a fucking pathological liar. He will say anything for some momentary advantage. You’re playing a fool’s game to accept what he says unquestioningly.
“Trump has repeatedly said”
DeleteThe man is a fucking pathological liar. He will say anything for some momentary advantage. You’re playing a fool’s game to accept what he says unquestioningly.
Not accepting it unquestioningly. All I'm pointing out is Harris can't truthfully accuse him of taking a position he's not taking.
DeleteHe takes no position and every position. Harris is correct.
DeleteUnder your own terms, if he takes both no position and every position, then he can't be rightly accused of taking a single position. QED.
DeleteIf he takes every position, he takes the position of a national ban on abortion. He doesn’t get a pass because half the time he denies what he says the other half. He will allow the zealots to enact project 2025, just as he promised to nominate hardline anti-abortion Supreme Court judges. Harris is correct.
DeleteSomerby barely considers motives when doing his own supposed fact-checking. Kranish has no idea when or how much Walz worked on that ranch. Vance is a known liar which puts anything he says in question until checked.
ReplyDeletePretending that being the son of the local school superintendent is "privilege" is ridiculous compared to the wealth Trump grew up with or the privilege of RFK Jr. or even Al Gore.
This strikes me as an excuse for Somerby to revisit the claims of the right wing, which has been accusing Walz of dishonesty of various trivial kinds. If Somerby were not trying to smear Walz today, he would have mentioned Drum's column about the manufactured complaints. Even Somerby should have realized the silliness of worrying about how big Cherry County is, to the point of quoting Wikipedia on the subject.
The right is grasping at straws, but instead of saying so, Somerby writes about fact checking. This is nonsense.
It’s not nonsense if you understand that Somerby is critiquing the press, not hyping a presidential campaign like you seem to want him to.
DeleteSomerby is not "critiquing the press". He is nitpicking occasional journalists (mostly female, black or gay) in order to claim that the entire press is incompetent. There are blogs that do critique the press. They are nothiing like what Somerby does here.
DeleteFor example, here is a critique of the NY Times that is NOT a silly rant about fact-checking what is obviously manufactured right wing propaganda (without identifying it as such) while repeating the right wing garbage for anyone who was trying to avoid it.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/8/24/2265485/-NYT-back-with-not-so-subtle-misogyny?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web
"This NYT opinion piece, written by Patrick Healy proclaims that “Joy is not a strategy” accompanied by a picture of Vice President Kamala Harris taken during her DNC nomination acceptance speech.
Clearly, the title leads readers to believe that the piece is an indictment of Harris’s platform and it implies that she is only offering vacuous, fuzzy promises about “Joy”.
If you read the column, however, it actually tells a somewhat different story. It first notes that if the message of the RNC was that “Trump is God”, the DNC’s could be summarized as “Harris is Joy.” And here is the kicker, Healy also acknowledges that “God is not a strategy.”
So, we have the NYT’s classic rhetorical ploy of using a title that connotes negative meanings about the Democratic candidate whereas the actual story (or opinion piece in this case) actually says something different.
But to the “Joy is not a Strategy” framing, if Healy believes that both candidates are trafficking in platitudes, then why only highlight Harris’s supposed lack of substance?"
“Somerby is not ‘critiquing the press.’”
DeleteI guess you need a fact check. Somerby has been critiquing the press for well over 20 years now.
He says he has, but that isn't what he actually does.
Delete“ hyping a presidential campaign”
DeleteWhen Gore was running, Somerby didn’t write posts about inconsequential errors in the press. He critiqued and debunked the bs being hurled at Gore. He doesn’t seem to be inclined to do that for Harris or Walz. He did say recently he thought Walz was strange, so there’s that decidedly non-critique of the press. Oh, and he asked Harris “please please please” don’t call Trump a coward.
Here is some actual media criticism:
Deletehttps://digbysblog.net/2024/08/25/wtf-is-happening-to-the-ny-times/
"That’s just a smattering of the commentary on this. Something very strange is going on and you have to assume it comes from the editors who earlier made it clear that they were unhappy with the Democrats for failing to give them the proper respect to which they believe they are entitled. (That would be, at the very least, adapting their electoral strategy to run to the Times whenever they are beckoned.) Combined with the “Both Sides” journalism which leads them to have to whitewash Trump’s outrages in order to balance their coverage, we have a serious problem. Donald Trump’s pathological lying and his party’s scorched earth tactics are not even on the same planet as the Democrats’.
Sadly, it’s not just them.
I guess the Democrats have no choice but to simply accept the asymmetry of the press coverage which is made many times worse by the fact that the right already has an extremely effective partisan media dedicated to pushing Trump’s lies. We’ll just have to maintain a critical eye through the campaign and beyond."
Crickets from Somerby about the very obvious imbalance at the NY Times.
If Somerby critiques blue media, that’s proof that he’s promoting right-wing talking points. If he critiques red media, that’s proof that he’s promoting right-wing talking points. No matter who he critiques, it’s proof that he’s promoting right-wing talking points. Oh, and he’s racist, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic.
DeleteDo I have that right?
And you’re here, day after day after day after day, to bravely warn Somerby’s gullible readers about Somerby’s sneaky intentions. We gullible liberals give you thanks for your selfless and devoted service!
Somerby critiques magenta media.
DeletePP lives in a black and white world.
DeleteWhy doesn’t Ssomerby critique the most obvious flaws of the media?
DeleteTrump sometimes says dumb or false things when he's rambling. Sadly, his opponent does the same. I invite brave Harris supporters to watch this brief video and see what you're voting for. https://instapundit.com/668843/
ReplyDeleteMade sense to me. What's your beef?
DeleteDickhead in Cal, is there something you can show me that will make me forget Jan 6? Otherwise, go fuck yourself.
DeleteHere's how medical insurance works--according to the stable genius.
DeleteQ: Sir, you’ve accused President Obama of “the biggest political crime in American history, by far”. What crime exactly are you accusing him of committing?
DeleteTrump: Obamagate. It’s been going on for a long time. It’s been going on from before I even got elected, and it’s a disgrace that it happened, and if you look at what’s gone on, and if you look at now--all this information that’s being released--and from what I understand, that’s only the beginning, some terrible things happened, and it should never be allowed to happen in our country again. And you’ll be seeing what’s going on over the next, over the coming weeks but I, and I wish you’d write honestly about it but unfortunately you choose not to do so.
Q: What is the crime, exactly, that you’re accusing him of?
Trump: You know what the crime is. The crime is very obvious to everyone. All you have to do is read the newspapers, except yours.
Quaker and @12:22 - You have a good case that Trump often says ignorant and false things. It's reasonable to argue that Trump is so bad that you should vote against him, no matter how bad Harris is.
DeleteNevertheless, it's worth looking at how bad Harris is. I, for one, expect her be elected. I expect her to be a weak leader. I expect the country to be substantially run by various assistants and appointees.
For me, that's a best case. If she has the strength to run the country based on her ideas, I think we're in more trouble. I think she's strongly in favor of a very powerful government, which IMO will be bad for the economy.
Harris is not bad at all. She is experienced, has a strong career behind her, was VP in a highly successful administration with many accomplishments, had no scandals and has a strong endorsement from everyone in her party, and presents herself well as a campaigner. What's not to like (unless you are a partisan supporter of the other party come hell or high water)?
DeleteExpecting Harris to be a weak leader sounds pretty sexist to me. There is no basis for saying that about her given that she has never been "weak" in any previous position (as DA in San Francisco, Attorney General of the State of California, CA Senator or VP). And if she were a "weak leader" would she be in favor of "a very powerful government"? And hasn't Trump been the one to call for a dictatorship on day 1 and Project 2025, which will strengthen the govt in ways never seen before? Harris, in contrast, is promising to help working people and families live better lives. That doesn't sound like a strong government but rather a compassionate one that uses its resources to help its people.
ALL governments are run by assistants and appointees who implement the policies, programs and laws that come from the President and Congress. In Trump's case, the country was also plundered by his various grifting cabinet members and appointees, many of whom went to jail for it.
Rude Pundit boils down the theme of the Harris campaign:
Delete"To put it another way, the message was "Don't you want the crazy shit over with? Don't you just wanna go back to normal?" And that's a damn fine message."
https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2024/08/some-perspective-after-dnc-hangover.html
I think both candidates are bad and our country is sold out to corporations. Trump is outside of that set of ultra elites, which is why they have demonized him and will not let him become president again. Harris is weak and a puppet and doesn’t care about ordinary people. If she did, she couldn’t do anything about it. I think she’s probably an alcoholic or a drug addict. It doesn’t matter. She’s controlled by other people who will continue to run roughshod over our constitution and our people. We don’t have a real democracy.
DeleteTrump is worse than elites because he is a crook who is stealing to enrich himself. He is also a traitor who sells our country to enemies. Harris is none of the things you claim about her.
Delete“ Trump is outside of that set of ultra elites”
DeleteThe self-proclaimed billionaire who gives tax breaks to his rich friends is “outside that set of elites”?
"Trump is outside of that set of ultra elites"
DeleteHaw.
@1:36 -- Harris's political career began with a scandal. As a young woman, she was the mistress of Willie Brown, a much older and married man. Brown had a lot of political power. He used his power to help Harris get preferred political positions.
DeletePosition, not positions.
DeleteOn the state's Unemployment Insurance Board, which seems to have had little to do with her subsequent career as SF DA, State Attorney General, Senator.
Mistress is an odd word, even for that time period when it was common to have live-in significant others without marriage. It is even more common now and shouldn't be a shock to anyone, although Harris has been married to her husband Doug Emhoff since 2014.
DeleteWhile Harris was romantically involved with Willie Brown, she held her own full-time job as Assistant District Attorney in San Francisco. Her appointment to the CA Medical Board when Willie Brown left the California Assembly did not affect her career, much less jumpstart it. Brown and Harris broke up in 1995 and she did not win public office until 2003. Brown and his wife separated in the 1970s, long before Brown met Harris.
So this is empty scandal-mongering about a dating relationship and nothing more. Harris worked her way to the top in her political career and as a prosecutor. People like myself, who watched her do it in CA, admire her ability and no one I know has ever expected her to be a nun before her marriage in 2014.
Dating isn't a scandal in the big city, but it might be in small counties wherever David lives. Oh, wait, David claims to live in Northern CA himself! What an asshole.
Delete"While Harris was romantically involved with Willie Brown, she held her own full-time job as Assistant District Attorney in San Francisco."
DeleteNo, she was an Assistant DA at Alameda County until 1998, the year she joined SF DA's office. As you yourself say, she and Brown broke off in 1995.
Ok, but she didn’t get a job from Brown, which was the point.
DeleteAnonymouse 2:01pm, Comma La and Joe have been in power for four years.
DeleteI understand our Southern border security will be exclusively funded by the money the IRS doesn't collect from the rich and corporations, thanks to Trump's HUGE tax break. Every last dime of it.
Delete“ very powerful government, which IMO will be bad for the economy.”
DeleteDemocratic administrations do better with the economy.
Cecelia, that’s right. Trump brings the crazy.
Delete"I think both candidates are bad and our country is sold out to corporations."
DeleteShows what you know.
Our country is sold out to ultra elite college professors and illegal immigrants, who have our politicians in their pockets. The poor multi-billionaire dollar corporation owner, is struggling, due to communist Lefties forcing DEI down their throats.
Trump knows the struggle. That's why he gave them that HUGE cost of living tax break.
BTW, you need to get out more. You're spending too much time in your bubble.
"Harris's political career began with a scandal."
DeleteNo, that's plainly wrong. There was no "scandal" at the start of her career. Her relationship with Brown didn't become a "scandal" until very recently when Fox News and other partisan outlets began revising history.
Trump isn't an ultra elite and both, the ultra elite and Trump, hate that about him.
DeleteOn what planet is a billionaire* not an ultra-elite?
Delete"On what planet is a billionaire not an ultra-elite?"
DeleteO.K. So this explains a lot. There's thousands of billionaires in the world. About 750 in America. In a group of that size, you have insiders and outsiders.
Were you the one who didn't understand the New York Times and all major media has pretended like Substack hasn't existed for years? I ask because that showed such naiveté about how the media and power works and I'm sensing the same sort of naiveté here about billionaires and power.
So, let's be quick about it. On this planet some billionaires are not a part of the ultra-elite. Right now on this planet some billionaires are not a part of the ultra-elite. For most of the postindustrial age, a small group of elites—made up of business, military, and political leaders— have held significant power and influence over the direction of the country, often in ways that serve their interests over the rest of ours. Trump is outside of that set of ultra elites.
These ultra elites have power in Washington that stays in Washington and doesn't come and go with administrations
To you, all that sounds crazy. That is by design. You believe all the Pledge of Allegiance bullshit. I do too. But when you become a barely-billionaire and hang around New York your whole life, you begin to understand that elite ruling set really does exist. You even now who they are. And when you become a barely- billionaire and barely survive on the lower margins of billionaires for years, you begin to see the ruling elite billionaires don't really like or respect you. Especially if you are a classless piece of shit, big mouth like Donald Trump. And that makes classless piece of shit, big mouth, barely-billionaires like Donald Trump really resentful. Because these billionaires, who disrespect the Trumps of the world have something Trump will never have .. true power. And it makes classless, barely-billionaires like Trump want to get enough power to fuck with the true billionaires.
And somehow, by drawing an inside straight as Somerby said, Trump got in there and got the power to fuck with them. It happened once as a fluke. He ran against a horrible, arrogant candidate who had an utter dunce of a campaign manager and they fucked it up.
It happened once but it won't happen again. Which is why our current situation is so interesting. The people who run the country will not let Trump win again. They tried getting him kicked off ballots, they tried to convict him through bullshit lawfare, they tried to bankrupt him and when all that didn't work, they tried to kill him. But even that fucked up. So now all the cards are on this mediocre nobody Kamala Harris and it's a full court press getting people to think she's something she is not. If it looks like she is going to lose you can be sure they will kill Trump and not miss this time. I predict it will be a plane crash. There are many more interesting complications in the story. I made it as simple as I could. But that's the the current reality about our planet where some billionaires are not a part of ultra-elite and some are.
A question, if I may: when 'they' tried to kill him, who were they?
DeleteThey won’t let Trump in the X-Men or League of Justice either.
DeleteTrump isn't a billionaire, you morons.
DeleteWhen you count both assets and liabilities, Trump has less wealth than your average homeless person.
The elites made Trump file his many, many bankruptcies, and they'll make him do it again, if he wins the Presidency. Trump's weakness is no match for elites, which is why he gave that HUGE tax break to the rich and corporations last time.
DeleteThat's why you have to vote for Harris. Trump is a weakling.
The people who run the country will not let Trump win again. They tried getting him to put religious kooks on the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade (and it worked), they tried to force him to give them a HUGE tax break (and it worked), they tried to get him to file a bunch of bankruptcies even though he's a super successful businessman (and it worked), they tried to get him to make a career out of stiffing his contractors (and it worked), they tried to get him to ignore COVID and let hundreds of thousand Americans die from it (and it worked), they tried to get him to fuck a pornstar even though he believes in the sanctity of marriage as much as he does in the spirit of the American people (and it worked).
DeleteLet's face it. The ultra wealthy can get Trump to do anything they want, because Trump has no spine.
Trump is a 300-pound weakling, who gets sand kicked in his face by the ultra elites.
Best to vote for someone who isn't a big pushover as the next President.
Is Putin blackmailing Trump, or did he just promise Trump he knew how he could score his daughter?
DeleteAnonymouse 6:28pm, the democrats and the media have come down on Trump in every way possible. They’ve stood front of camera, brought investigations, leaked all and sundry, and gone after everyone around him, camera running and comments blazing.
DeleteWhy? Trump said he was running for president. Take a bow. Liberal “crazy” has given Trump an endless audience and platform.
If Kamala is tired ogmf the crazy, then she should start talking about specific ways she going to restore sanity.
9:34,
DeleteNone of those things worked, because the media didn't harp on them 24/7, like they did Biden's age.
She is, Cecelia.
DeleteDavid, Harris’s assistants and appointees are going to frogmarch you to a re-education camp.
ReplyDeleteTwo friends of mine started insurance-related companies. J and S were both smart, knowledgeable and hard-working. Both seemed to have good business plans. S's company failed. J's company was phenomenally successful The money I invested in S's company was entirely lost. The money I invested in J's company made me wealthy. The stock is now selling for about 30 times what I paid for it.
ReplyDeleteHere's my point: Some people have the knack of succeeding at getting things accomplished. Some look the same, but they don't succeed in getting things accomplished. The difference is in subtleties and small aspects. J got most of these right. Steve missed some key ones. From the outside, one couldn't see the difference. AFt er the fact, one can tell the difference by looking at their accomplishments or lack thereof.
I don't know of any Kamala Harris accomplishments -- certainly none on the level of the challenges of the Presidency. BTW the same was true of Obama, but a least his academic record showed that he was very smart. Harris doesn't even have that. It's not awful to fail the California Bar Exam on the first try. But, that doesn't show unusual mental abilities.
You mean Fox News hasn't informed you of Kamala's accomplishments? You are in a pickle!
DeleteMaybe J was lucky and Steve wasn’t.
DeleteThis is why experience matters. Harris has a lot of it. Trump had none and he did a horrible job. Being president shouldn’t depend on luck. Neither is it predicted by roles like making a fool of oneself as a clown on a fake reality show.
DeleteThe average lawyer took 4 tries to pass the CA bar exam. It wasnotoriously difficult at that time, perhaps to limit competition. Harris is plenty smart.
DeleteIf someone gets a job at a top law firm, they have bar-prep courses paid for them and full time to study.
DeleteSpeaking of luck, today with the Biden-Harris team in charge, Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah are killing each other with no end in sight. When Trump was President, Israel and its neighbors were at peace. Was Trump just lucky?
DeleteIs Trump a genius, or lucky, to be running for President in a country where the media has zero concerns regarding the age and cognitive decline of Presidential candidates?
DeleteObviously Biden-Harris are not in charge of Israel, Netanyahu is.
DeleteDavid, what is it you imagine Trump did--or didn't--that prevented war in the middle east?
Delete"...that doesn't show unusual mental abilities."
DeleteI haven't heard of Harris declaring herself a genius--like another candidate.
Quaker— Trump made it clear that he would 100 per cent support Israel if Israel were attacked by a terrorist group that was a proxy for Iran. Biden’s approach of supporting both sides encourages Israel’s enemies to keep on attacking Israel.
DeleteAlso Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan reduced the degree that enemies would fear the United States
DeletePresident of the United States is said to be the hardest job in the world. I am looking for any evidence that Kamala can handle the hardest job in the world.
DeleteIf the presidency is the hardest job in the world, how did Trump last four years?
DeleteHow does Biden's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan match up against Trump's withdrawal from Afghanistan? Oh, that's right, Trump let that problem fester.
Delete" I am looking for any evidence that Kamala can handle the hardest job in the world."
DeleteTry looking in your ass.
Speaking of luck, Republicans like reminding us these days of how fortunate we were when Trump was president. Remarkably good times economically. For a party with an elephant as its symbol, they have a remarkably selective memory. I find it disrespectful to the hundreds of thousands of dead Americans to compare the Biden years with Trump's complete mismanagement of Covid that was unnecessarily deadly to scores of Americans. That is the number one legacy of the fabulous Trump years. But let's, for the sake of ignoring all those dead Americans, focus on that remarkably successful Trump economy. Adding 8 trillion to the deficit resulting in a 50% increase in debt held by the public, a trade deficit that increased by 36%, increased homicide and crime rates, 2.7 million jobs lost, a negative economic growth rate of -2.2%, and an S&P 500 gain that was half that of Biden's. And despite all the noise about Trump's border security focus, increased illegal border crossings compared with Obama. Something for Republicans to look back on fondly, apparently.
DeleteThe idea that that October 6 would not have occurred if Trump had been in power is interesting, if only from the standpoint of gauging how mentally unfit his supporters, who would concoct such nonsense are. What rubbish. But go ahead and furnish us with your brilliantly formulated explanation for this bizarre fantasy, DIC.
If spending almost 20% of one's time in office at golf resorts is any indication of how difficult the job is, Trump's presidency was a calkwalk. Imagine applying for a job and telling your future employer that you have no intention of a nearly 1 in 5 day absentee rate, at a job considered complicated and for which you have zero experience. Then disappearing from the office nearly 20% of the time. And over 90% of your hand picked assistants ultimately claim that you are unfit for the job. And getting a favorability rating after leaving the job of 31%.
Delete"Biden's approach of supporting both sides encourages Israel's enemies..." Oh, right, nothing says "keep it up!" better than supplying Israel with hundreds of 2,000 lb bombs.
DeleteWas it Trump Wine or Trump University that provided the most solid evidence that Trump was qualified to be president?
DeleteOr was it the financial fraud? The bankruptcies? The bone spurs? The comments denigrating the genuine war hero John McCain? The in-your-face narcissim? The starry-eyed look he'd get when he talked about Putin? The hiring of good and able personnel like Michael Cohen?
Damn, I'd forgotten how qualified Trump was!
6:48 All of the above, and whatever it is that attracts white supremacists and antisemites to his support. But it's certainly not, as republicans propagandize, his management of the economy. Economists now forecast an additional 4 trillion dollars of debt if his stated plans for taxing and tariffs are enacted. Republicans have no shred of credibility regarding their claims of superiority in managing the economy as historical data show that in virtually every parameter, democratic administrations have outperformed them, dating over 60 years. The 50:1 job growth statistic cited by Clinton at the convention is no accident. There are sharp philosophical differences between the parties about what is best for this country economically, and it turns out that shoveling money to the rich does not work, never has. But much in the same way that republican lawmakers have consistently block voted against any effort at controlling the cost of pharmaceuticals, they are whores to whoever opens their wallets for them.
DeletePresident of the United States is said to be the hardest job in the world. I am looking for any evidence that Donald J Chickenshit can be trusted not to lie to us.
Delete"Biden’s approach of supporting both sides"
DeleteAssumes facts without evidence. Fail.
Cecelia, let’s shower. I’ll zhuzh you up.
ReplyDeleteZhuzh up her arse.
DeleteAnonymouse 4:57am, go zhuzh yourself. Nobody else will.
DeleteAfter we frogmarch to the re-education camp, we’ll enjoy a communal shower, and we’ll all zhuzh each other.
DeleteAnonymices constantly zhuzh each other. It makes everyone else queasy.
DeleteDon't say I didn't invite you to join us.
DeleteI learned how big Cherry county was from this post, compared to Rhode Island, Delaware, and Connecticut. Sadly, I did not learn how it compares to the other 47 states.
ReplyDeleteAnonymouse 3:56pm, better still, you learned that politicians zhush their personal stories and the media unquestioningly passes this on.
Delete