THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2024
Donald Trump's brilliant debate: We've mentioned this assessment more than once:
In our judgment, E. E. Cummings can now be seen as the greatest anthropologist of the twentieth century. In our view, he surpassed even Gene Brabender, whose great observational bromide went exactly like this:
Where I come from, we only talk so long. After that, we start to hit.
Admittedly, that was a brilliant portrait of our flawed human nature. But in our view, Cummings surpassed even the great Brabender in one part of his bitter anti-war poem, Humanity i love you.
We'll post the relevant text below. We raise this point because of what Kayleigh McEnany has now said.
For all we know, Kayleigh McEnany may be the world's most considerate next-door neighbor. Also, no one can say that she's dumb.
Among other things, she's a graduate of Harvard Law School (2016). With that in mind, we refer you to what she has now said.
She said what she said on Fox & Friends, where she was guest-hosting this morning. At one point, the friends began discussing next week's debate.
It's hard to believe, but at one point, McEnany said this:
MCENANY (9/5/24): The one thing I will say the Kamala Harris campaign is doing that is smart is they are really lowering expectations.
David Plouffe put out a tweet saying that President Trump has done more presidential debates than any candidate in history, they're not taking him lightly, and she's the underdog of this debate.
They're smart to set that expectation. And they're smart to remember that the guy you're looking at—President Donald Trump—ended a fifty-year political career when he debated Joe Biden.
So if that Donald Trump shows up, it's going to be tough.
We have no idea which Donald Trump will show up at next week's debate. We have no idea how next week's debate will turn out. We think it's a bad idea to hold just one debate this year instead of the traditional three.
That said:
We did watch the disastrous June 27 debate, and what we saw that night was fairly obvious.
In all likelihood, we saw the two (2) worst performances in the history of such debates. Trump's performance that night was astoundingly bad. Amazingly, though, for whatever reason, Biden's performance was even worse.
In recent weeks, Trump has begun to say and suggest, out on the trail, that Biden fell apart that night because Trump's own performance had been so brilliant. Plainly, McEnany was making some such suggestion when she said that the superbly experienced Candidate Trump ended Biden's long career with his performance that night.
There is no conceivable way that McEnany really believes that. That said, Fox & Friends is a four-hour daily program devoted to subjecting regular people to relentless four-way propaganda of that ridiculous type.
Of all the last century's anthropologists, Cummings understood this type of behavior best. In the caustic scientific analysis he stated in the form of a poem, he described what he saw people around him doing:
Humanity i love you
Humanity i love you
because you would rather black the boots of
success than enquire whose soul dangles from his
watch-chain which would be embarrassing for both
parties and because you
unflinchingly applaud all
songs containing the words country home and
mother when sung at the old howard
Humanity i love you because
when you’re hard up you pawn your
intelligence to buy a drink and when
you’re flush pride keeps
you from the pawn shop and
because you are continually committing
nuisances but more
especially in your own house
There's a bit more to the caustic analysis, but the basic analysis can be seen right there.. In the example under review, we'd be inclined to say that McEnany agreed to "pawn her intelligence to buy a drink." We'll guess that the substitute friend decided to "black the boots of success" through this ridiculous conduct.
Our own father spent his entire adult career at the Old Howard. (This was before our time.) The Marx Brothers played there when they were still known as The Nightingales. During the 1946 World Series, Abbott and Costello—giant movie stars of the era—stopped by the jampacked hall to see old friends at an old stomping ground, then agreed to be brought on stage to perform "Who's on First?"
(We have a beautiful photo of our mother and father and two of our older half-siblings cavorting with the boys in maybe 1942. Costello is pretending to make a play for our older half-sister, Shirley. As he does, she skillfully swats him aside.)
Cummings liked the jokes at the Howard. He didn't admire certain reactions from others in the crowd.
On Fox & Friends, the friends "unflinchingly applaud all [storylines] containing the" viewpoints of the bosses. There's nothing the various friends aren't willing to say and do.
you are continually committing
nuisances but moreespecially in your own house
Our admiration for Cummings grew as we watched McEnany today.
"In our view, he surpassed even Gene Brabender, whose great observational bromide went exactly like this:
ReplyDeleteWhere I come from, we only talk so long. After that, we start to hit."
Gene Brabender was a baseball player. How do we know this quote, lifted out of context, isn't about hitting the baseball (with a bat) and not about fighting (or arguing of any kind)? I wouldn't take Somerby's word for it. He would think such a misleading excerpt is cute or sly or funny.
We do know it is taken out of context, in reality Brabender was well known for being a gentle giant. It is distasteful the way Somerby misappropriates other people's work and maligns someone's character for his own benefit.
DeleteAmusingly, Somerby has reversed his early analysis of McEnany, demonstrating that he is a poor judge of character.
"David Plouffe put out a tweet saying that President Trump has done more presidential debates than any candidate in history, they're not taking him lightly, and she's the underdog of this debate."
ReplyDeleteThis isn't a lowering of expectations. It is a factual statement. We all still expect Kamala to do better than a guy with dementia, no platform, and nothing up his sleeve but a slew of shark anecdotes and gibberish. No one on our side expects Trump to do well against her. We expect him to embarrass himself, claim victory, and shed more voters.
"Of all the last century's anthropologists, Cummings understood this type of behavior best."
ReplyDeleteTalk about offensive nonsense! First Cummings (who did not like to capitalize his name because he considered it self-important) was not an anthropologist and would never have claimed to be one. He was a writer, a poet and an artist. He was not a student of humanity, and never claimed to be that either.
"An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values, and general behavior of societies. Wikipedia"
Somerby's ongoing misuse of the term is one of the ways he manufactures ignorance. Somerby doesn't appear to have taken many Harvard courses in social sciences (anthropology, sociology, psychology, history) or even human biology and neuroscience. He is one of the most ignorant people I've ever encountered when it comes to talking about human nature, how people think (cognitive science) and why we do what we do (psychology).
"There's a bit more to the caustic analysis, but the basic analysis can be seen right there..."
ReplyDeleteCummings himself said:
"EC: “As I was expressing my disappointment with humanity it was becoming so intense that I couldn’t lie to myself anymore, that I love humanity despite all of its flaws. The turning point was when I realized we as a humanity hold the secret to living a full life, but we would rather shove it away and forget about it instead of using it. For me, this was a sign of a dead society, and I couldn’t convince myself to love it anymore, I had to call it the way I really felt throughout the poem. That is where “Humanity i hate you” comes from. With this last sentence, even the most ignorant, selfish and inconsiderate reader, will understand the true meaning of the text in case they didn’t already understand it through the usage of language and tone in the poem.”
https://thefullviewblog.wordpress.com/2014/04/23/humanity-i-love-you-my-interview-with-e-e-cummings/
Because Cummings himself says at the end of the poem that he hates humanity (Somerby conceals that), he is not at all like the various people who study humanity in various fields. We tend tend to accept humanity in a less judgmental way than either Cummings or Somerby do. We see people across a variety of times, places and contexts and come to accept that people mostly do the best they can. We do not generalize the worst acts to the entire species, nor do we idealize people, and we recognize both the admirable and despicable traits in humanity and its creations. Society is a creation of humanity, along with culture (art, literature, poetry, philosophy), technology, traditions and beliefs (including religion).
Somerby oddly worships "sacred Homer" and quotes the first war poem endlessly here, and then he turns around and quotes Cummings, who was disappointed by war (although Somerby doesn't mention that either) to the point of hating humanity. It is almost as if Somerby selected this poem only because Cummings is caustic and expresses hatred of humanity, and not because of the poet's own expressed disappointments, his own meanings. There is no evidence that Somerby hates war (or any of the other failings that many Democrats attribute to human nature and then fight to control, such as bigotry, greed, and arrogance). Somerby mainly just hates people -- which puts him on the same side of the fence as Republicans, who hate everyone but themselves.
Today, Somerby is at his most offensive. I console myself by thinking that e.e. cummings would have had nothing to do with Somerby, declining to suffer fools gladly just as he had little time left for humanity in general. I think Somerby probably imagines he is an exception to such dislike of humanity, but cynical nihilistic misanthropes tend to be shunned by others.
I want to be respectful, but your ranting accomplishes nothing other than to show the depth of your bitter, irrational hatred of Somerby.
DeleteSilly me, to care about knowledge and truth, getting things right, after a career as an academic.
DeleteSince you’re such a lover of knowledge and truth, perhaps you can let us know the basis for your claim that Republicans, all 100 million plus, “hate everyone but themselves.” As an academic, I’m sure you must have a scholarly citation to support this “truth.”
DeleteObviously, there are plenty of Republicans who care about something other than bigotry and white supremacy. It's no one's fault they all want to remain anonymous.
DeleteThey don’t care about mass shootings of school kids.
DeleteFrom AP:
DeleteIt [the Georgia shooting] was the 30th mass killing in the U.S. so far this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. At least 127 people have died in those killings, which are defined as events in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer — the same definition used by the FBI.
https://apnews.com/article/georgia-high-school-shooting-c3c97267a4dfff64a59e1605e515c2f9
From CBS News:
DeleteAdults in Georgia are not required to have a permit to buy rifles, shotguns or handguns, nor do they need to register their firearms with the government. Additionally, no permit is needed to carry rifles and shotguns, according to the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action.
In 2022, Georgia passed a law allowing permitless carry, which eliminated the need for a license, fingerprinting and a background check to carry concealed weapons in public.
According to a CBS News analysis, Georgia's laws are among the least strict in the nation.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/georgia-school-shooting-gun/
6:21 - So now you’re saying that every single Republican who cares about something other than bigotry and white supremacy wants to be anonymous? You must know that’s false, of course, but you, a self-proclaimed lover of truth, say it anyway? Sounds to me like it’s you who is the “cynical nihilistic misanthrope.”
DeleteThe mass shooter, who is 14, was given the gun for Christmas 2023 by his father, a few months after being interviewed by the FBI because someone told them the boy was talking about shooting up the school. The father is now being held on murder charges. Parents in similar shootings have been convicted.
DeleteWhat is your position on children shooting other children with automatic weapons, PP?
DeletePP,
DeleteName them.
"Our admiration for Cummings grew as we watched McEnany today."
DeleteSomerby is counting on no one looking up who cummings was.
PP you misguidedly think being Republican/right wing supports some ideology, but this is not borne out; it is a personality trait.
Delete4:05 pens some of the most interesting and insightful comments. I do quibble with them being overly concerned about generalization, understandable coming from their academic background, but is a bit at odds with producing effective rhetoric.
"It is almost as if Somerby selected this poem only because Cummings is caustic and expresses hatred of humanity..."
DeleteMaybe in your pea-brain, but Somerby made it quite clear why he chose the poem when he wrote:
'In the example under review, we'd be inclined to say that McEnany agreed to "pawn her intelligence to buy a drink."'
But please, tell us more of what "almost seems" to be true.
"Cummings liked the jokes at the Howard. He didn't admire certain reactions from others in the crowd."
ReplyDeleteCummings says in the poem that the people who were applauding home, mother and country were hypocritical given their worship of money and failure to address social issues (which Somerby never mentions here either). Cummings is not saying that it is wrong to care about home, mother or country. Somerby seems to think he is though, when he says Cummings only liked the jokes. I doubt very much that is true, but I can see how Somerby might mistakenly believe Cummings denigrates motherhood, given Somerby's own attitudes toward his mother.
e.e. cummings received funding from his mother throughout her life. It may have led to ambivalent feelings about her. Somerby also lost his father earlier in life. Cummings says that he did not hate the Germans during the war. Like Somerby, cummings was rebellious toward Harvard. Perhaps these are reasons why Somerby likes to quote cummings, without seeming to understand him well.
Dragging Somerby’s mother into your vile screeds is a new low for you.
DeleteSomerby dragged his own mother into public view by talking about her here and in his one-man stage show where she was a main topic (after her death).
DeleteHe dragged Tucker Carlson’s mother into things..
DeleteInteresting that Somerby identifies with Cummings (and quotes him regularly here). Cummings was a Republican:
ReplyDelete"According to his testimony in EIMI, Cummings had little interest in politics until his trip to the Soviet Union in 1931.[35] He subsequently shifted rightward on many political and social issues.[36] Despite his radical and bohemian public image, he was a Republican and later an ardent supporter of Joseph McCarthy.[37]"
"EIMI /eɪˈmiː/ (from the Greek εἰμί, "I am") is a 1933 travelogue by American poet E. E. Cummings about a visit to the Soviet Union in the spring of 1931. The book is written in abstract prose verse."
This is consistent with Somerby's quoting of other conservative poets such as W.B. Yeats.
Cummings also seems to have been racist, based on one of his unpublished poems:
DeleteNoted McCarthyite e.e. cummings Also Apparently Racist
When unearthed poems go wrong
By Ray Gustini
The Atlantic magazine (behind paywall)
From Heather Cox Richardson:
ReplyDelete"
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September 3, 2024
Heather Cox Richardson
Sep 4
READ IN APP
Last night the Boston Globe published a leaked email from a top volunteer with the Trump campaign, former Massachusetts Republican Party vice chair Tom Mountain, telling volunteers that the Trump campaign “no longer thinks New Hampshire is winnable” and is “pulling back” from that important swing state. He urged volunteers to turn their attention instead to Pennsylvania. After the story dropped, the Trump campaign cut ties with Mountain.
Stephen Collinson of CNN and Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey, and Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post reported today that Trump’s team has given up on trying to get Trump to talk about the economy and other issues voters care about. The former president has decided to spend the rest of the campaign attacking Vice President Harris to destroy her popularity and drive voters away from her, rather than trying to attract them to himself. The Washington Post reporters noted that likely voters view Trump unfavorably and his team has concluded that while he can’t improve his own standing, he can damage hers.
Collinson dubbed Trump’s plans a “feral political offensive.”
It is not clear that this will work. As Collinson notes, Harris has refused to get dragged into the gutter with Trump, and Sarah Longwell of The Bulwark, who studies focus groups, notes that voters appear to want to put the nastiness of the past several years behind them. Still, the media-tracking company AdImpact reported that between August 23 and August 29, 57% of the total television spending for political ads was on Republican attacks on Harris.
Trump also continues to demand that Republicans support his attempt to suppress voting. Having failed to pass any of the necessary appropriations bills before going on August recess, Congress will be in a rush when it comes back into session next week. It needs to fund the government before the end of the fiscal year on September 30 in order to prevent a partial shutdown. Last Thursday, Trump told right-wing podcast host Monica Crowley that he would “shut down the government in a heartbeat” unless the government funding package includes the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act—which would give credence to the idea that noncitizens are voting in national elections despite the fact it is already illegal—and a bill restricting legal immigration."
This is what the campaign is deteriorating into on the right. Somerby says nothing about it. He instead focuses on the left and says disparaging things about Democrats, as if we were the ones introducing negativity and not Trump's people. The left has chosen to focus on positivity, hope for change in the future, turning a page and going forward to help ALL people become successful and prosperous by attaining their goals.
Somerby, like Trump, emphasizes doom and gloom, says humanity is all bad, and is relentlessly critical of Harris (and today's reporter for trying to lower expectations?). It is actually hard to see what McEnany has done wrong exactly.
This is another day when I believe Somerby needs to find a therapist. If I knew any of his relatives, I would call and suggest they look in on him, because he sounds more depressed than usual.
Bright young Kayleigh told viewters something she can't conceivably believe?
ReplyDeleteThat's puzzling. Our Host routinely tells us we can't possibly know what people believe or don't. That's why representatives of Our Blue Tribe are regularly scolded for using the dreaded L-word or the even more egregiously awful R-word.
Is it at all possible that Ms. McEnany believes what she said? We can't possibly know!
I agree that Trump's overall performance in his debate with Biden wasn't that great. But, he did get some effective zingers. I am thinking of the masterfully delivered comment saying that he (Trump) didn't understand Biden's last comment and Biden didn't understand it either.
ReplyDeleteOnly a zinger if it’s true, which it wasn’t.
DeleteThe Truth is a dangerous thing (for Trump), when it emerges from the mouth of Trump. Ask Nick Fuentes and his far right followers, now that the Donald has stated on 3 recent occasions that he lost the 2020 election. Trump cannot afford to lose the racist and antisemitic crowd.
DeleteAnyone who isn't a bigot, or isn't perfectly fine with bigotry, left the Republican Party in the last millennium.
DeleteThe Harris campaign has so far done a terrific job of lowering expectations. After her one and only unscripted interview, I saw people on this site say, she did fine because she didn't embarrass herself.
ReplyDeleteBTW if you want to see a truly masterful interview -- one that leaves Trump and Harris far behind -- watch this Netanyahu press conference. https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/09/netanyahu-meets-the-foreign-press.php
Like him or hate him, he is truly excellent at making a meaty presentation and handling hostile questions.
The zinger about Israel's treatment of Palestinians as a mirror of Germany's Holocaust was very effective.
DeleteYou have it totally backwards, @6:27. Hamas is committed to killing all the Jews in Israel and Jews throughout the world. Hamas goes out of its way to murder innocent Jewish civilians. Fortunately, Hamas is not as effective as the Nazis were at killing Jews.
DeleteMeanwhile, Israel is prosecuting its war against Hamas in a way that goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid killing civilians. E.g., they give up the value of surprise because they warn civilian to leave before they attack a particular area. The ratio of civilians killed to Hamas low is extraordinarily low for urban warfare.
Agree there is a difference between Hamas and Palestinians.
DeleteThe element of surprise is remarkably intact in the eyes of schoolchildren being bombarded with many hundreds of 2,000 lb bombs.
DeleteRe: Palestinians
DeleteIn the words of the Right when confronted by BLM, "All lives matter".
@2:21 - Was it immoral for the US to go to war with all of Germany, when only a minority of Germans were Nazis?
DeleteDoes it matter that the Palestinians selected Hamas to be their government?
@9:38 The way to save the most lives is for Israel to win the war quickly, so the carnage ends. Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel. As long as Hamas continues to exist, the war cannot end.
Unconditional surrender by Germany and by Japan was the best thing for the German and Japanese people, in the long run. Similarly, unconditional surrender would be the the best thing for the Palestinian people in the long run. That's why it's wrong to encourage Hamas to keep fighting
10:22 to the extent that civilians in Germany were targeted, without question that was immoral, and the US knew that which is why it tried to minimize civilian deaths and minimize the influence of those that sought otherwise.
DeleteIsrael only allowed a single vote in Gaza 20 years ago, where Hamas only garnered 40% of the vote in an election highly manipulated by Netanyahu who was instrumental in creating and maintaining Hamas, as he had no interest in peace. To this day, Hamas only has minority support among Palestinians.
Notably there is a stark asymmetry to the deaths, with Netanyahu's body count dwarfing anything done by Hamas.
You may be a good and decent person, but your comments suggest you are more likely suffering from something that would put you on the spectrum of being psychotic, which points to a very wounded and troubled soul, hopefully with less ignorance you can find some inner peace.
"The ratio of civilians killed to Hamas low is extraordinarily low for urban warfare."
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Israel%E2%80%93Hamas_war
"In early December, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor estimated that 90% of the casualties were civilians.[63] In December, Israel's military said it estimated two out of three (66%) of those killed to be civilians.
Even the conservative figure of 61% is higher than the average civilian death rate in all world conflicts "from the Second World War to the 1990s", according to Yigal Levy."
She has the strategy of not engaging in the stupid. The felon said you only recently became black. Same old tired shit playbook from the demented donnie. Move on bitches. Why play in the rapist or the media's arena. Screw the idiot agenda. Make DiC sad.
ReplyDeleteHere is media commentary:
ReplyDeletehttps://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2024/09/if-youre-certain-that-gops-election.html?m=1
Steve M points out that non-citizens are found voting to the tune of 3 here and 14 there, not the many thousands needed to affect even a very close election result. He asks why journalists are not making that clearer. Republicans are setting up this kind of voter fraud as the next excuse to set aside valid election results. Crickets from Somerby, of course.
https://newrepublic.com/article/185622/finally-top-journo-erupts-media-ignoring-trumps-mental-state
ReplyDeleteThis is what Somerby has been demanding!
WAR ON GORE was REAL...Texas has a city ...Kilgore... just a name Texas. I am concerned with the couple ANGLEA LUSTER PAXTON and ken the cute nude DOLL ...
ReplyDeletenext TEXAS
ReplyDeletetek sys ok iam
ReplyDeleteWhat's with all these American citizens not crossing the border to kill our school-aged children?
ReplyDelete