SUNDAY, AUGUST 4, 2024
So says a Fox News report: We're not sure who's reviewing the work of Landon Mion, a youngish Fox News reporter.
Just how youngish is Mion? He's four years out of college (Kennesaw State, class of 2020).
He's been employed by Fox News since April 2022. He came over from Townhall Media at that point in time.
Mion seems to be a genuine conservative; in this country, such outlooks are permitted. That said, he has filed a lengthy report about Candidate Trump's bizarre speech at last evening's Atlanta rally.
Mion's report appears today on the website of Fox News. Remarkably, he goes ahead and says these things at one point:
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp snaps back at Trump after repeated attacks: 'Leave my family out of it'
[...]
During the rally on Saturday, Trump criticized Kemp in a 10-minute rant over baseless claims the governor was responsible for his loss to Biden and for not stopping Willis from prosecuting the Georgia election interference case. A state commission has powers to discipline and remove prosecutors for not following the law after Kemp signed a bill into law, but the governor does not have the ability to remove prosecutors.
"He's a bad guy. He’s a disloyal guy. And he's a very average governor. Little Brian, little Brian Kemp. Bad guy," Trump said.
The former president has continued to repeat false claims the 2020 election was stolen from him.
"The former president has continued to repeat false claims the 2020 election was stolen?" Also, last evening's "10-minute rant" involved a set of "baseless claims?"
Good God! That's exactly what it says, right there in Mion's report—right there in his news report at the Fox News website!
Our first question would be this: Who's supervising this kid?
We ask that for an obvious reason. First, a bit of background:
We watched the entirety of Candidate Trump's lengthy speech. As you can see on the C-Span tape, it ran a bit over 90 minutes.
About one hour into the speech, he did, in fact, direct "a 10-minute rant over baseless claims" at Governor Kemp. And yes, that "10-minute rant" was in fact a rant. No serious person would challenge Mion's use of that term.
That said, viewers of the Fox News Channel's TV programs will never be shown that 10-minute rant. On that channel—metaphorically, it has begun to strike us as a criminal enterprise—you aren't allowed to call attention to such phenomena, and you darn sure aren't allowed to say this:
"The former president has continued to repeat false claims the 2020 election was stolen from him."
For ourselves, we'd go with the word "unfounded" and then we'd elaborate. But as part of his 10-minute rant, Trump did continue to make such claims, becoming remarkably exercised as he did.
Mion's aim was true! But those claims went unmentioned by the three friends who peopled a certain TV show this morning. These were this morning's cast members:
Fox & Friends Weekend / Sunday, August 4
Rachel Campos-Duffy
Johnny Joey Jones
Will Cain
None of those like-minded friends mentioned the 10-minute rant. None of them mentioned Trump's unfounded claims about the stealing of Georgia's elections in 2020 and 2022.
They certainly didn't say that any claims the candidate made were either "baseless" or false." This is the way the game is played by these willing enablers within this (metaphorically) criminal enterprise.
Now, a point of personal privilege:
As noted, Candidate Trump's presentation at yesterday's rally ran well over an hour. During the rant which Mion describes, several thoughts actually entered our heads.
The candidate was ranting so hard that we actually thought this at one point:
This must be what it was like to watch a speech by that German chancellor.
This also occurred to us at one point:
It's almost like he's trying to get those two guys killed.
The candidate was ranting hard. Even now, almost four years later, he has never offered any serious evidence in support of the inflammatory claims which lay at the heart of this rant, or in support of his recent rant about the way the 2020 election was stolen in Minnesota.
Full disclosure! Viewers of the Fox News Channel will never see any such unsupported claims reported or addressed.
Sandra Smith isn't going to do it! She won't even read the words, "Democratic Party," when those words are sitting before her, right up there on the screen.
Sandra Smith isn't going to do that! Neither are the three well-paid, obedient friends who peopled this morning's program.
For the record, Mion's report included more information about the part of the address in question. Below, you see the way his report began:
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp snaps back at Trump after repeated attacks: 'Leave my family out of it'
Former President Donald Trump at a rally in Atlanta on Saturday again attacked Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and the state's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both of whom are Republicans, for their refusal to overturn the former president's 2020 election loss to Joe Biden in the Peach State.
The governor responded by suggesting Trump should focus on winning in November and refrain from "petty personal insults, attacking fellow Republicans, or dwelling on the past."
Before the rally, Trump criticized Kemp, a popular Republican governor in a must-win swing state for the Republican White House hopeful, and suggested the governor should be "fighting Crime, not fighting Unity and the Republican Party."
Trump also criticized Kemp's wife, Marty, for saying she would write in her husband's name for president in November instead of voting for the former president.
That's true—he even folded Kemp's wife into his 10-minute rant! He included manufactured anecdotes about her astounding lack of loyalty. We don't think we've ever seen the candidate so disordered.
That said, the candidate headed off in a new direction in yesterday's address:
He stopped discussing Kamala Harris' race and ethnicity. Instead, he began discussing the ways the vice president has "blood on her hands."
Harris is an accidental nominee. With respect to past positions on various issues, she has a lot of explaining to do—and she's only had two weeks to put her campaign together.
That said, Donald J. Trump strikes us as vastly disordered. Metaphorically, the Fox News Channel strikes us as a criminal enterprise, whose (metaphorical) frauds against the American public are driven along by a vast array of well-paid stooges.
Fox viewers won't hear a word about this. They don't know what they aren't being told. Only the Shadow knows—the Shadow and young Mion!
Go ahead—check out his report! Who's supervising this hombre?
Vote for Kamala.
ReplyDeletePart-time work has led me to earn more than $13,000 a month. After hearing about the potential online, I decided to investigate. It truly has transformed my life. Learn more by visiting the website provided below.
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I tried to click on Mion’s report, but access was denied.
ReplyDelete“ the Fox News Channel strikes us as a criminal enterprise, whose (metaphorical) frauds against the American public are driven along by a vast array of well-paid stooges.”
ReplyDeleteAmen, Bob.
Then Fox got sued and lost a bunch of money. That may be why they are occasionally telling the truth these days.
Delete11:12 — Don’t you know? This is Somerby’s sneaky way of promoting Fox News! He’s super-tricky!
DeleteIt is odd that Somerby quotes the right way more than the left, now that you mention it.
Delete
ReplyDeleteJudging by its triggering effects, one might conclude that the speech was perfect.
But then Democrats are easily triggered these days: too many sacred dogmas and canons. Too too easy.
"We watched the entirety of Candidate Trump's lengthy speech." Somerby said.
ReplyDeleteWhy?
It's a common S&M activity, in liberal circles. Great joy and delight, a tremendous pleasure.
DeleteFair enough, but Somerby is not a liberal.
DeleteWhat was more notable about Trump's rally was that the crowd size was much smaller than Harris', and that Trump repeatedly displayed signs of cognitive decline, with the now routine glitching and slurring.
ReplyDeleteAnd the media will get right on this, LOL.
DeleteI'm still waiting for the media to breathe a word about Egypt's $10 million bribe to Trump in 2016. Ya know, the 10 mil Trump bragged that he put up from his personal account.
Delete"For ourselves, we'd go with the word "unfounded" and then we'd elaborate."
ReplyDeleteThere is no need for this three years after the election was decided, after all the court cases and Trump's wrongdoing, all of which has been discussed in the press over and over, including in the context of the GA indictment of Trump and others who participated in fraudulently trying to overthrow those election results.
False definition: not according with truth or fact; incorrect
Unfounded definition: without foundation; not based on fact, realistic considerations, or the like
An assertion can be unfounded without also being false, as when someone does not supply the information upon which a conclusion is based but that conclusion happens to be in accord with facts, even though not presented.
Preferring to say "unfounded" instead of "false" leaves some wiggle room for the possibility that Trump's claims might possibly be true when they are not, when the foundation for Trump's claims has been analyzed and found to be untrue many times over.
Perhaps Somerby doesn't like to admit the existence of anything called "truth" in any context. If so, he is abusing language when he plays these games. Nearly all people not only admit the existence of reality against which truth of statements can be determined by comparison, but we all function as if that reality exists, as we make decisions and judgments and live our lives. Yes, there are gray areas, but there is also a real world that exists separate from our own conscious awareness and that functions separate from our desires, perceptions and beliefs about it. Congruence of our beliefs with that knowable external reality is part of the definition of mental health.
Why does Somerby persist in giving advantage to Trump's lies by saying they lack foundation instead of are false? He is doing this deliberately and must have some motive for choosing to prefer this distinction. He doesn't explain that, but it is unhelpful to collude with delusion, whether held by mentally ill people like Trump or his followers, who may or may not be themselves mentally ill. The better we know reality, the better our lives, whether conservative or liberal. So why does Somerby engage in this sophistry? He hasn't said, but possible explanations don't reflect well on him.
Somerby's backhand approach to smuggle in his right wing worldview can not find purchase, in part because of commenters like 11:47.
DeleteWell said 11:47, we appreciate and admire your efforts.
Thank you, Corby. And don't worry, I have an unlimited stockpile of word-salads.
DeleteI am Corby.
Corby did not write this comment (11:47), I did. I am not Corby. If I wanted to be called Corby, I would use that nym. It isn't always my comments that evoke this name-calling but there are others who are being called out as Corby too.
DeleteWord-salad is a derogatory term referring to the disjointed stream-of-consciousness speech of people who are schizophrenic or manic. It is wrong to use terms from mental illness to disparage others simply because you disagree with them (or hold different political goals). That's why Somerby's use of the word crazy and mentally ill to describe Trump is similarly wrong and hurts those who are genuinely suffering from mental disorders. Please stop doing this stuff.
Liberals tend not to want to hurt other people gratuitously. Their mantra of kindness discourages us from behaving badly toward people who are sick or unfortunate. That's why I suspect that this particular troll is right wing. Lack of empathy is more common among Republicans than liberals.
Anonymouse 12:38pm, you couldn’t make anonymices up. They’ll AI 12 paragraphs about their contrarians suffering from childhood trauma or from some brain changing circumstance which has resulted in skewed character, reasoning, and the total pathology of not harboring their opinions… and then they’ll pounce on Bob for calling Trump disordered or crazy.
DeleteIt’s a clown show. Daily.
@Cecelia 1:18 PM
DeleteYes, but they always admit that all their accusations are confessions. They are projecting. I don't know about you, but I empathize.
I can’t decide whether Merriam-Webster or Torquemada would be the most appropriate nym for our overly-verbose friend. I’m leaning toward the latter because of his/her penchant for excommunicating others from the communion of liberals.
DeleteMozart wrote too many notes.
DeleteMozart is an example of someone who’s doing an amazing job and is being recognized more and more.
DeletePP, who's the "we" you keep referring to? Is it the grandiose royal 'we' or are you speaking for the rest of us?
DeleteBizarre criticism. I don’t think you’ll find that I used “we” in any comment I made to Somerby’s entire post today. But I appreciate that you used a nym.
DeleteNot using a name, but am happy to remind everyone Trump used to call himself black when he used the names John Barron and Dennis Dennison.
DeleteOnce he decided he was going to run for President as a Republican, he started calling himself white. Smart move on his part. Republican voters hate black people, and would never vote for one.
Around here we call PP the “nym-meister”. It is not an affectionate nym.
DeleteEven more bizarre that I get criticized for using the royal “we” (when I didn’t) and then, just a few comments later, get criticized again by someone using the royal “we.”
Delete11:47 Why don’t you send Somerby a script he can write from so that he can get it exactly your way. Jeez. What don’t you get about the words “criminal enterprise “?
ReplyDeleteAre you suggesting that Somerby is part of a criminal enterprise too? 11:47 was addressing Somerby's choices not Fox.
DeleteMaybe Somerby is being blackmailed. Like the way Trump is being blackmailed by Putin.
DeleteI suggest that 11:47 has a very particular way that he/she would like Somerby to write his posts, even though he goes so far as to call Fox criminal.
DeleteIt seems clear that liberals here want Somerby to either get behind the nominee or stop claiming to be liberal. Somerby can’t do that because he needs the money.
DeleteFox & Friends is an opinion show, not news reporting. As such, they get to choose what they want to talk about, without those choices being as closely driven by current events as the news reporting is.
ReplyDeleteSomerby routinely glosses the difference between news reporting and opinion. Commentary by experts, editorials, speculation, analysis all fall under the heading of opinion. Details of unfolding events (who, what, where, when, why and how) are the substance of news reporting. The two are distinct in that the reporter does not comment upon the content he or she is describing, but sticks to the facts.
Mion describes what Trump said and did at his rally. When he says Trump lied about the election, he is reporting established facts, not indulging in commentary (opinion). It has been established that Trump lost the election and that is now a fact to everyone except extremists, so Mion is right to make that statement of fact about Trump's words.
The three people on a certain day's episode of Fox & Friends are not reporting fact or presenting anything more valid than opinion. That is obvious from the format of the show, but also from its content. It is wrong for Somerby to compare that show to Mion's reporting (because these are apples and oranges) and it is wrong to draw conclusions from one type of Fox content to another different type as if they were the same.
Somerby also does this when he refers to Gutfeld's nonsense as news programming. It is unclear what Somerby gains by doing this, but he is obviously doing it on purpose because he has been making this same conflation (category error) for decades now. The standards applied to news reporting do not apply to opinion, whether it is a legal expert discussing a trial or a comedian making jokes or a fatuous pretend TV-judge making specious claims.
There is no requirement for Fox & Friends to discuss anything that might embarrass their presidential candidate. Because opinion often differs from facts, especially when making predictions or speculating, there is no reason why the content of Fox & Friends should match the content of straight news reports. It would be nice if they more clearly labeled their shows as opinion, but no one is confused about which is which, including Somerby, despite his pretense. Deciding what to talk about is also encompassed by the first amendment rights.
Perhaps this is Somerby pretense at doing media analysis? If so, he is failing miserably. He repeats the same old complaints over and over, while ignoring egregious media failures. Real media analysts are talking about the lack of focus on age by the media, now that Biden is not running. They noticed when the media uncritically reported Trump's slant on debate negotiations, that there will be a debate on Fox, instead of pointing out that Harris has not agreed to debate Trump on Fox.
Then Somerby says:
"Fox viewers won't hear a word about this. They don't know what they aren't being told. Only the Shadow knows—the Shadow and young Mion!"
But Mion works for Fox and he made his true report on Fox. How then are Fox viewers not able to hear the truth? How are they not being told? Mion knew, told the truth, on Fox News, where any Fox viewer could have watched him. Clearly, it is Somerby who is lying about this, and his apparent view that the same news should be echoed everywhere, at all times, on Fox network, even during opinion and entertainment shows, makes no sense at all.
There are real criticisms to be made of Fox. This one just isn't valid. But hey, Somerby gets to pretend to engage in media "musing", even when his criticisms are unfounded.
This is the way self-professed liberal Bob Somerby supports the Democratic nominee for president:
ReplyDelete"He stopped discussing Kamala Harris' race and ethnicity. Instead, he began discussing the ways the vice president has "blood on her hands."
Harris is an accidental nominee. With respect to past positions on various issues, she has a lot of explaining to do—and she's only had two weeks to put her campaign together."
1. He doesn't refute the idea that Harris has blood on her hands, stated by Trump. Instead he focuses on what was said about Kemp and the 2020 election.
2. He calls Harris "accidental" even though over 90% of Democrats voted for her as VP on the Democratic ticket. That sounds pretty deliberate to me.
3. The outpouring of financial support and the increase in polling favorability and willingness to vote for her against Trump shown in polls suggest she is preferred to Biden, who was deliberate too and won enough primaries for nomination.
4. A right wing meme being circulated says that Harris did not earn the nomination, that voters didn't get the chance to vote for her, that she has not had enough public exposure for voters to know what she stands for. Somerby advances that meme, which is yesterday's talking point of the day. To see this, compare the content of anti-Harris troll comments with the ideas being advanced by Somerby. Also compare Somerby's statements with the discussion on places like Fox & Friends, an obvious right wing media source.
5. Somerby implies that Harris has not been making speeches and holding press conferences regularly during Biden's term. He also implies that she has not been energetically campaigning since becoming the putative nominee. In fact, she has been way more visible than Trump.
6. Somerby is perhaps echoing Drum's view yesterday that Harris owes the public a bunch of position papers so that they can know her views. It seems more likely that this is his way of showing lukewarm support for a highly qualified candidate who is clearly the preferred choice of Democrats. News reports have been about the enthusiasm she is generating, except for guys like Somerby, whose first and only reaction to Harris so far has been negative and aligned with Republican complaints about her. Commenters on Drum's blog strongly disagreed with his call for more position papers, as if Harris were an unknown quantity after serving as VP for 3+ years now.
6. We typically use the phrase "a lot of explaining to do" when someone has done something wrong. Harris has not done anything wrong that she needs to explain to the public.
Next, I expect to hear all about the negative sexy-time rumors the right has been spreading to portray Harris as a "ho" and her husband as unfit because he got divorced in favor of his family's babysitter. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robin Williams did the same thing. It happens. I don't find it admirable, but neither is it immoral or illegal, and it is most of all private, personal, and it all happened long before Harris met and married her husband. Slut shaming a presidential nominee is new but no different than the massive attacks on Hillary based on lies, filth, and made-up accusations, with the collusion of the media and guys like Comey, not to mention Russians, the National Enquirer, Wikileaks and Somerby himself. Trump does this stuff, we all know it after his hush-money trial, and we should be suspicious of such attacks against Harris, not join in them as Somerby does today.
Sorry, should be 7 numbered points, not 6.
DeleteDon’t forget the big one — For months Somerby promoted the “right-wing meme” that Biden no longer possessed the ability to wage a vigorous presidential campaign! He was so good at that, in fact, that he convinced Pelosi, Obama, the Clintons, Schumer, and Jeffries!
DeleteA right wing meme being circulated says;
Deletea) "Harris did not earn the nomination. " She certainly didn't 'earn' it the way most candidates do. She 'earned' it in virtue of being Biden's VP.
b) "voters didn't get the chance to vote for her." This is true. Party delegates got this chance, but not voters.
c) "that she has not had enough public exposure for voters to know what she stands for." Also, largely, true.
PP,
DeleteWe need to Somerby to discuss Trump's cognitive decline. Maybe the corporate-owned media will catch-on and finally start discussing the cognitive abilities of Presidential candidates. (A guy can dream, can't he?)
@1:59, everyone who voted in a primary for Biden also voted for Harris. There is no split ticket voting allowed for that office. Harris earned the presidential nomination by taking over for the president, who declared himself unable to continue running and endorsed her as his replacement.
DeleteIn that sense, Harris got way more votes than Trump did, since Trump was plagued by first DeSantis and then Nikki Haley as competitors. Haley drew away 20-24% of Trumps support even after she had withdrawn from the race.
If Harris didn't have enough "public exposure" while being VP, neither did Al Gore. I don't recall any Republican or Democrat saying that they didn't know what Gore stood for, that he had too little public exposure to be the Democratic nominee for President, or any of the silly stuff now being said about Harris.
That is called moving the goalposts. News and more stringent requirements for Harris, the black female candidate, than existed for any of the numerous white men who ran to succeed their presidents (or ascended to the presidency when the president was shot, died of pneumonia or another illness, or resigned in shame after being a crook). None of those guys were challenged like this. But then, none of them were called ho's either.
Democracy has failed.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Yarvin
Atnonymouse 12:11pm, Bob said that Mion's report appeared only on the FNC website.
ReplyDeleteIt is generally believed that news organizations provide reliable and accurate information, and even their opinion pieces are rational and not nonsensical drivel or falsehoods.
“…a criminal enterprise”…
Liberals, man…
"It is generally believed that news organizations provide reliable and accurate information, and even their opinion pieces are rational and not nonsensical drivel or falsehoods."
DeleteMSNBC, CNN, NYTimes, WaPo, ABC, CBS, NBC and others put an end to this "general belief" years ago.
Anonymouse 12:47pm, I get it. In fact, I believe we are in an era where we could not get an unbiased and accurate news report or well-reasoned analysis if the fate of the West depended upon it. And it does.
DeleteSure you can, just not in the state-run media. In the democratized media you can. To my taste, Matt Taibbi does accurate news reports and well-reasoned analysis, for example. And many others.
DeleteThere is no state run media here. The big media are run by corporations and by tycoons like Murdoch.
Delete12:56,
DeleteThose corporate tax breaks aren't going to pass themselves.
"That said, the candidate headed off in a new direction in yesterday's address:
ReplyDeleteHe stopped discussing Kamala Harris' race and ethnicity. Instead, he began discussing the ways the vice president has "blood on her hands."
Harris is an accidental nominee. With respect to past positions on various issues, she has a lot of explaining to do—and she's only had two weeks to put her campaign together."
This is the main message of Somerby's essay today. The rest is window dressing to allow him to insert this attack on Harris, which is consistent with the right wing talking points of the past few days. This is Somerby's reason for posting today.
Damaging Harris by being a pretend-liberal who is opposed to his own party's candidate, is intended to encourage other Democrats to switch to a third party candidate or to stay home. It is intended to encourage doubts among men who might otherwise feel guilty about considering a female candidate mediocre (out of sexism) by giving them a socially acceptable reason for slagging her. If Somerby is a liberal and he doesn't like his own party's candidate, maybe it is OK for other "liberals" to switch to RFK Jr. or not work their butts off to elect her instead of Trump. Or maybe clueless readers might switch to Trump, since Somerby apparently agrees with Trump's criticisms of Harris and doesn't seem to be strongly behind her either.
Social media runs on peer pressure. Somerby calls himself a liberal to declare his peer group, but then he models anti-Harris behavior, enabling those who identify liberal to slack off in their support too. It works, or the Russians wouldn't have spent so much money on this kind of social media campaigning on behalf of Trump, and the Democrats wouldn't have lost those 70,000 votes among Democrats and black voters in WI, MI and PA, that put Trump into office.
We need to be alert to this kind of social media manipulation and call it out when we see it, so that its impact will be weakened and less likely to harm this year's candidate, Kamala Harris (who name is not weird and who is not hiding any policies from public view in the two weeks she's been the nominee).
Somerby may have been liberal before 2015, but he changed noticeably around the time Trump's campaign subverted other comedians and media figures. It worked in 2015, but not in 2020. We need to make sure it doesn't work again, by holding Somerby accountable for his right wing memes, and by enthusiastically supporting Harris over Trump. Our future depends on keeping that demented madman out of office. And no, Somerby's repetition that Trump is crazy does not negate the damage done by his lukewarm support for Harris. Most liberals are not going to switch to Trump, so it is safe to denigrate Trump here to build liberal cred, but if they stay home instead of voting for Harris, Trump can and will win because failure to vote for Harris will put Trump into office. Every vote matters.
Somerby presumably knows this. He has been following politics longer than I have. He knows what happened to Hillary. Don't be fooled by his self-serving attempts to manipulate his readers on Trump's behalf. We are better than that.
“6. Somerby is perhaps echoing Drum's view yesterday that Harris owes the public a bunch of position papers so that they can know her views. It seems more likely that this is his way of showing lukewarm support for a highly qualified candidate who is clearly the preferred choice of Democrats.”
ReplyDeleteSomerby and Drum would like Harris to start talking about her political positions. That is an utterly reasonable expectation of a candidate. Trump should do that too instead of wailing on Gov. Kemp, whose support Trump should welcome and cultivate. .
The mainstream media, paralyzed with fear of the fascist right wing and begging them to stop beating them up, have allowed Donny J Chickenshit to bluff his way through substantive policy ever since the racist fraud rode down the golden escalator. I have had top anchors at major cable news networks tell me straight up that asking him generic questions about our Constitution and how our government is structured would be seen as "gotcha questions". I don't expect that changing anytime soon.
DeleteI thought Trump was doing it, actually. No tax on the social security income was the latest.
DeleteHe does that, and he does trolling. It's your choice what you pay attention to.
I am not referring to the position papers (which generally take months not weeks to create), but to the negative tone of Somerby's criticism of Harris, ripped right from Trump's speech. It is not reasonable to expect a full blown campaign platform on her webpage unless she had been planning for a long time to push Biden aside. She did not do that. She supported Biden up to his stepping aside, which was Biden's choice as to timing or even occurring at all. If she had a series of position papers ready, it would signal disloyalty to Biden and to the Democratic party. That would be a valid criticism, not some specious remark that she has no position papers ready. She will have them soon, especially given how quickly her team has stepped up to run, but right now this is a manufactured concern intended to damage her with potential supporters. You, of course, would not bother reading them, since Trump is your guy and you've already said you wouldn't vote for Harris (isn't it a bit soon to decide that, when you haven't even read her position papers no doubt coming out soon).
DeleteThe phrase in your second paragraph is "whaling on Kemp" not "wailing."
""Whaling on something" is a verb phrase that means to hit something repeatedly and forcefully."
Why do you never look up the things you are unsure about?
Trump's positions make no sense. No one, right or left, can figure out what benefit there would be to removing a tax on social security or why seniors should be encouraged to work longer when it has no impact on their ultimate payments. Treating these as serious positions makes fools out of us all.
DeleteDid the RNC even have a platform in 2020?
DeleteGov. Kemp should vote for Kamala, and so should you.
DeleteNo, the RNC decided Trump’s statements were its platform.
Delete@1:06 PM
DeleteIt may make a fool out of you. As for me, it would save me quite a few bucks.
Is it verbosity, or pendanticism, or mendacity, or intolerance that is the most distinguishing characteristic of the numerous comments left by 1:04?
Delete"the negative tone of Somerby's criticism of Harris"
DeleteMost criticism has a negative tone so thank you for your verbosity.
Bob's 'criticism' of Harris consists of saying she has a lot of explaining to do for past positions, which he immediately softens by saying her campaign is only two weeks old.
Is it verboten to disagree with some of Harris' past positions? Or must we think in lockstep?
According to Torquemada, yes, all liberals must agree. Heresy must be exposed and eliminated.
Delete1:32,
DeleteEliminating federal tax on SS benefits is a perfect example of how the media allows trump to spit out his half-baked bullshit without forcing him to explain.
Most states already don't tax SS benefits. Lower income persons pay very little tax. The benefit would mostly accrue to in the higher income tax bracket who are collecting SS. And eliminating the tax now would negatively impact the actuarial status of the SS Trust Fund which is really the end goal, isn't it?
By the way it was sainted Ronald Reagan who first imposed federal taxation of SS benefits.
Eliminating the tax on SS payments would not affect the SS Trust Fund.
Delete3:01, I stand corrected. It will negatively impact the budget deficit thought, correct?
DeleteHarris should release her talking points about the economy, just to fuck with Republican voters who don't understand how it works.
DeleteLiterary criticism is analysis not fault-finding. The idea that criticism is always negative comes from colloquial use of the word.
DeletePP says: "Is it verbosity, or pendanticism, or mendacity, or intolerance that is the most distinguishing characteristic of the numerous comments left by 1:04?"
DeleteI looked very hard but only found ONE comment left by 1:04. Coincidentally, it appeared at 1:04.
Pedanticism probably. There are still teachers and former teachers who read Somerby's blog. It used to talk about education occasionally.
DeleteI don't think PP knows what the word mendacity means.
DeleteAnonymouse 1:04pm, I’m certainly not voting on Harris and I still think Trump should spend his time pressuring her to start talking about her political views rather than harpooning on the past.
ReplyDeleteI will continue in this opinion even as you simultaneously argue that we should already be aware of her viewpoints and that she will reveal them very soon.
In the meantime, keep wailing on her.
DeleteAnonymouse 1:47pm, I’ll keep wailing on the fact that she and Trump need to start talking issues.
DeleteI haven’t insulted VP Harris’ character or her or personal history or her appearance.
I’ve insulted anonymices here. but not Democrats in general who will vote for her. I told you should be jumping at the chance to run her when anonymices were acting like she was merely stage dressing for the president. Wail on that.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete@Cecelia 1:33 PM
DeleteIn this brave new world, starting, I'd say, with Bush II, elected reps need not have any viewpoints. They are but PR figureheads. In fact, I suspect the whole reason for inciting the TDS madness is that he has viewpoints and agency.
Anonymouse 2:11pm, who are the PR figureheads representing?
DeleteThey represent the rootless cosmopolitans.
Delete@2:20 PM
DeleteThe permanent professional state apparatus. Modern state politics and economics (the same thing, really) are too complex, too involved, and too long-term to be left to the whims of a series of random individuals (with "viewpoints") elected by the unwashed masses every few years.
I’m a mass, but I wash.
DeleteAnonymouse 2:11pm, I agree. However, I prefer a modicum of circumspection along with agency.
DeleteCecelia,
DeleteGive Trump some time, he's a little busy right now backing the bus over the Heritage folks and the Project 25 something something that he knows nothing about.
They needed it.
Delete@Cecelia 3:32 PM
DeleteAll things considered, it was a miracle that he got himself elected in 2016. If he manages to do it again this year and stay alive, it will be an absolutely incredible, heroic feat. So, I'd cut him some slack. I have to assume he knows what he's doing. And if he loses, we will never know if he made mistakes or it was simply impossible.
"I have to assume he knows what he's doing."
DeleteGo listen to yesterday's speech.
@4:14 PM
DeleteI don't care much for speeches. Anything specific in it, that you find counterproductive?
@4:02 -- It wasn't a miracle, Trump was put into office by Russian meddling in our election, combined with a heaping dose of sexism and media animosity (perhaps because they expected she would tax the rich, much like Biden threatened to do, before being shoved aside by the NY Times).
DeleteTrump could get elected dogcatcher on his own merits.
Most people in America vote FOR candidates, not ON them. More evidence that Cecelia is a non-native speaking troll on an Eastern European troll farm. Prepositions are hard for foreigners.
Delete"I’m certainly not voting on Harris and I still think Trump should spend his time pressuring her to start talking about her political views rather than harpooning on the past."
Language mistakes aren't funny, they are sad, because the person making them is marked as someone who will have more trouble in their life due to their lack of education and pride about being dumb.
Also, “harpooning on the past” is a strange idiom.
DeleteRight, harpoons are for whales and Cecelia refuses to use the word whale, so she has to say something less comprehensible, while she thumbs her nose at education, much the way Somerby used to. Spelling is elitist among Republicans, pedantic, even mendacious (???). So is word choice. Remember when woke educators called the overconcern about math "elitist"? You'd think those folks and Cecelia could find common ground, but she wouldn't be caught dead learning anything about anything. They'd rip up her Republican Party/MAGA card and take away her Fuck Your Feelings t-shirt.
DeleteTeachers don't consider her schtick very funny. It is like the way Trump mocks the disabled.
Cope, Corby.
DeleteBeing triggered brings back your childhood trauma and amplifies your psycho-sociopathic tendencies.
Kamala’s most important initiative can’t be announced just yet. After the Inauguration, she’ll issue executive orders establishing a network of re-education centers.
ReplyDeleteGod bless Harris.
DeleteI look forward to living in a world where Republican voters some day understand basic mathematics.
I used to think (and still do) that this comment section would be immeasurably improved by requiring commenters to use nyms. An even bigger improvement, in my view, would obtain if comments were limited to ten lines.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your second proposal. I ignore long comments.
DeleteAnonymouse 2:44pm. I’ll read no further than the first couple of paragraphs. From there you know if they’re self-referential non-arguments arguments.
DeleteI think Corby should be able to post her word-salads and her copy-pastes from other bots. But it would be nice if blogspot.com only displayed a few lines, and an "expand" button.
DeleteIf there were a limit, it would cut down on the Gish Gallop comments.
DeleteIn anonymouse world, every blog Bob writes and every comment that readers make is tantamount to holding a gun to their heads and forcing them to read it all aloud. Twice.
DeleteMy opinion is that they can write ‘em and I can decide if I want to plow thru them. I usually don’t.
I agree with Cecelia.
DeleteBob doesn't write his blog for liberals, so he doesn't need to hold a gun to liberal readers heads.
He writes his blog for right-wingers. Hence his repeating of right-wing grievances on a daily basis.
@4:47 PM
DeleteWas that a grievance, your comment? It sounds like a grievance.
4:54,
DeleteIt's not my comment anymore.
Illegal immigrants crossed the border and got it by working the jobs Americans are too lazy to perform.
@5:06 PM
DeleteSounds like they also caused you a bit of brain damage. Or were you always like this?
Anonymouse 4:47pm, how can you “agree” with me that Bob doesn’t write for liberals, when I never even hinted at that?
DeleteYou can’t accurately restate what I write in a post, let alone follow a blog from Bob.
I agree with Cecelia. Kamala is great.
DeleteIf Cecelia and PP apply these self-described reading habits to everything, it would account for their ignorance. Learning takes effort.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:07pm, Harris is ok, but look at you!
DeleteSuch a huge change from when you said that Harris sucks, was ridiculous, and couldn’t lead her way out of a paper bag.
The liberals here were not saying that about Harris.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:07pm, has done a complete turn around on Harris. I guess he’s just getting himself some of that Iran cash
DeleteFuck you asshole.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:52pm, go in pieces anonymouse flying monkey.
DeleteThe cash goes from Iran to Russia, then to me. (Note that Qatar is not involved.)
DeleteCecelia,
DeleteHarris has been winning over tens of millions of Americans in the past few weeks.
Come to the USA, and see for yourself that it isn't just 6:07pm.
Harris has been fortunate that so many people want to hear what she has to say, because they are looking for an alternative to voting for a rapist.
DeleteWhile you are at it, why not confine all comments to 4 letter words. You can giggle at the profanity. What is it like being people who cannot do even one Wordle in a row?
DeleteI’ve never even tried Wordle.
DeleteJosh Marshall thinks Kamala's doing pretty well:
ReplyDeletehttps://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/campaign-status-check-two-weeks-in
So do the people who bet their hard earned $ on the election.
DeleteThat’s what he gets paid to do. When Hur report was released, he claimed it was politically motivated and questioned whether the investigator was biased. He has never deviated one single time from the party line. So who the fuck cares what Josh Marshall says?
DeleteThe Hur report release was politically motivated, and the investigator was biased.
DeleteOf course, Biden beat Trump in the 2020 Presidential election fair and square, too. So what are you going to do?
Me? I’m gonna fuck your mother.
Delete9:48: classic right winger.
DeletePretending to have consensual sex with a woman is a classic Right-wing move. That's for sure.
DeleteJosh Marshall's site, metaphorically, has begun to strike us as a criminal enterprise.
DeleteDon’t confuse it with the Trump organization,7:32.
DeleteNo woman has ever had consensual sex with me.
DeleteConsensual sex is rape.
DeleteI dunno. What the heck is a "metaphorical" fraud?
ReplyDeleteSomething that is deceitful in a figurative sense rather than literal, legal one.
DeleteExcept Fox was found to be liable and no Gina metaphorical sense.
DeleteI will try this again. Fox was found liable for close to a billion dollars, and not in a “metaphorical” sense.
DeleteAdd pizza to the list of things that Bob wants white viewers to think that black viewers disagree with. Who hasn’t tried to wiggle out of the onion farm
DeleteHurricane Debby reminds me that no matter how hard you try, you can't gaslight climate change.
ReplyDeleteWe went to see the film Twisters yesterday, and climate change was not mentioned at all.
DeleteIt was funded by Russia via Iran and Qatar.
DeleteDid climate change really tell deniers to fuck their feelings?
DeleteThat's harsh.
The climate is not changing. The globe is not warming. The glaciers are not melting.
DeleteQatar has nothing to do with it.
Trump makes false claims! Surprise. Here's another nugger. I predict that Trump will lose no votes from disparaging the Republican Governor of Georgia. The Governoer has no balls and will continue to support Trump.
ReplyDeleteHere's another nugget: According to the CBS/You gove poll, only 3% of Republicans are voting for Kamala Harria. So for all the bluster on the cable shows of Republicans claiming to be against Trump, these people obviously have no influence on the party. They do, however, draw handsome salaries from the anti-Trump Republican organizations. Here's another good one from the same poll: 45% of women are voting for Trump, a sexual abuser and a man who took away their reproductive freedoms. So, if women don't care about their reproductive freedoms and sexual harassment, why should I?
We shouldn't protect anyone's rights, until 100% of the people care about it.
Delete