MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18. 2024
...comes to us from prehistory: The sexual politics of Donald Trump's world comes to us straight from prehistory.
It starts with Trump himself, then moves on from there. Based on reporting, we're talking about Gaetz and Hegseth and Musk oh my! After that, you can throw in the apparent history of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Trump and Hegseth and Gaetz oh my, but also Musk and Kennedy! Based on reporting, the sexual politics of Donald Trump's cadre comes to us straight outta Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.
Then too, there's the endless, undisguised apparent misogyny of the Fox News Channel's Gutfeld! program. It's astounding that this garbage can gets opened in primetime every night and nobody says a word.
We'll speak about this in coming days, throwing in what the friends were saying on Sunday morning's Fox & Friends Weekend about the modern-day UFC gladiator named Jon Jones. But this is the sexual culture of human prehistory demanding a reinstatement. These impulses seem to be bred in the bone, in a way which doesn't want to relent.
The sexual politics come from the day when the Achaeans laid siege to Troy ten years, demanding to get Helen back. And then, just like that, along came Bill Maher and William Shatner, saying on a Club Random podcast that Candidate Trump "won big."
We agree with one major thing Bill said, but we can't say we agree with that. You can see the videotape of this excerpt at Mediaite, mistranscribed to a fairly substantial extent:
MAHER: You know, I feel like, for some people, it’s very reminiscent of 2016. I certainly was much more apoplectic then. Perhaps I should be again.
SHATNER: Did you see it coming?
MAHER: No, I picked her. I stuck with my prediction right to the end. I thought she was going to win. I thought America generally moves forward and that they had enough of Trump. You know, just, just drama. And I mean, I won’t go into—
First of all, Bill, it’s depressing to me mostly because I don’t want to do it again because I’m bored. The worst thing you can do to me is bore me. I’ve done all the jokes. I’ve—I did all of them first.
I did "Trump the con man" editorial. I did "Trump the Mafia boss." I did it all, before anybody. I’m the one who said he wasn’t going to concede when nobody was on that page.
I’ve been there, done that. I don’t want this series. I’ve seen this series. I want a new show with new characters.
So that bugs me the most, is that there’s nothing left to say, you know? I’ve said it all. You can’t get me to think more than I already do that Trump shouldn’t be president. But he is!
SHATNER: Well, what we now have to think about is how to mitigate some of the—what some of us think are the worst things. Like.
MAHER: Well, I think first off—first is, "Congratulations! You not only won—you won big."
SHATNER: He won big.
MAHER: That’s—everybody should get props just for success despite the, you know, the vulgarities and the, you know—
SHATNER: Maybe because of the vulgarities.
MAHER: Maybe because. But also my mantra: "Losers, look in the mirror."
SHATNER: Well, I think—I think that’s what everybody has to do.
We strongly agree with Bill's suggestion that we Blues should "look in the mirror." Like any other aggregation, we in Blue America can directly change the way we ourselves do business. We can't automatically change anyone else! Not even by calling them names!
On the other hand, there they go again! Did Candidate Trump really "win big" this year? For ourselves, we'd be reluctant to offer that as our lone, unexplained assessment of what happened.
It's certainly true that Candidate Trump won—but how "big" was his win? Over at the Cook Report, his share of the nationwide vote has now dropped a smidge below 50 percent, and votes continue to be counted and recorded California.
Nationwide popular vote (to date), 2024
Candidate Trump: 76,520,189 (49.96%)
Candidate Harris: 73,893,571 (48.24%)
It's true! Plainly, Candidate Trump did win—but his victory margin now stands at 1.7 points and dropping. That how "big" his victory was against an accidental candidate who was forced to organize and start her campaign with a bit more than three months to go.
How "big" was the gentleman's win? Here's what figure filbert Harry Enten said on CNN this morning:
ENTEN (11/18/24): Yeah, the case is that Trump’s mandate isn’t all that. Look, if you look historically speaking, Donald Trump is now under 50 percent in the national popular vote—barely under 50 percent, but he is under 50 percent.
I want to take a look and compare it. Compare his popular vote victory to those, historically speaking, over the last 200 years. His popular vote victory ranks 44th out of 51.
Plainly, the gentleman won. But why do people keep insisting that he "won big," full stop?
We're big fans of Brother Maher—have been for many years. We don't think people understand how hard it is to do what he's done for all these many years.
That said, we'll offer one last thought about Bill's comments to Shatner. The comment in question is this:
I thought [Harris] was going to win. I thought America generally moves forward and that they had enough of Trump.
To fellow denizens of Blue America, we'll offer this one suggestion, and yes it deals with pronouns:
When we speak about America or about Americans, it's probably better politics to say the word "us," not "them."
An ancient revolt is coming from below. In the face of this onrushing revolt, we agree with Bill:
We Blues do need to look in the mirror and figure out where, improbable as it seems, even We Blues may perhaps have gone a tiny bit wrong.
How many times have I seen the comment “I don’t understand how this guy could have won.” IMO that comment alone suggests that Dems should look in the mirror.
ReplyDeleteHow many comments have you seen that blame Trump's victory on everyone but Trump voters?
DeleteIs it because Trump voters are children who have no agency?
Forgive them Lord, they know not how much of a bigot he really is.
I've looked in the mirror and have seen someone who would never vote for an asshole who tried to overthrow an election and watched for hours as the mob he incited injured over 140 capital police. Because to vote for that white trash would label me morally bankrupt, putting me in your category.
DeleteAccepting your premise @5:13 Republican were just as bigoted in 2016 and 2020, when Trump lost the popular vote. What changed in 2024?
DeleteBrendan Carr wrote the FCC chapter in ‘Project 2025.’ Now he’s Trump’s pick for the agency
DeleteRemember when Trump looked the American people in the eye and repeatedly denied Project 2025 had anything to do with his policy agenda?
Remember when Dickhead in Cal believed it and came here to accuse us of lying about it? I remember.
What changed? Empowerment of bigotry. Somerby should have said this is a throwback to Jim Crow, not “prehistory” and bred-in-the-bone racism and sexism. Somerby suggests nature is producing bigots when it is Trump doing it.
DeleteNone of this comes from Eyes Wide Shut, which was about consensual sex games, not rape or assault or sex trafficking of underage girls. That Somerby would say this suggests he is trying to whitewash or normalize sex crimes by confusing it with deviant but legal sex. Is Somerby confused or does he have some reason to excuse such crimes?
ReplyDelete“Is Somerby confused or does he have some reason to excuse such crimes?”
DeleteWeasel question.
You’re right. Somerby is too smart to be confused, so why is he pretending that sex crimes are equivalent to deviant but legal sex acts? If there is a weasel here, it is Somerby. The difference between assault and S&M is consent, just like the difference between missionary style sex and rape is consent. Trump isn’t going to change that.
DeleteAnonymouse 7:01pm, no, I’m right that you’re a weasel.
DeleteLet me get this straight, you’re arguing that sex crimes (such as rape ) are the only way that women can be in relationships in which they are objectified, dominated, under the bondage of psychological duress via men who are more powerful than theyvarez?
I did’t say anything like that.
DeleteAnonymouse 8:17pm, yeah, you did. Bob is talking about sexual dominance and exploitation and your reply is that kinky sex is just fine if it’s consensual. As though women and men have to have a gun pointed at them in order to be sexually exploited.
DeleteCecelia is saying the only way a woman has sex with a Right-wing man is by being raped by them.
DeleteThe question now is why is Cecelia posting hard truths all of the sudden?
If it was because of Bob, we all owe him our thanks.
Anonymouse 9:44pm, who denied the “hard truths”? Answer- an anonymouse who framed up dominance as being determined by consent.
DeleteI didn’t feign an idiotic opinion in service to countering a day’s essay from Bob. You did. That’s the anonymouse line of work.
Say what you will about Republican voters electing a rapist to be President, who then wants a pedophile to be his Attorney General, but you can't say it isn't "on-brand".
DeleteThanks, Bob.
DeleteWe couldn't have gotten Cecelia to admit rape is the only way for a Right-wing man to have sex with a woman, without you.
Anonymouse flying monkey, don’t forget Kennedy and Clinton.
DeleteDon't kid yourself.
DeleteCecelia is only defending all the raping by Republican politicians, because those politicians are bigots.
If one of them was found to have patted a black boy on the head, she'd be hugely anti-rape.
Agree. The only reason Cecelia is okay with the 24/7 raping by Republican politicians, is because they are bigots, too.
DeleteAnonymouse 10:19 am, anonymices think of standards as solely being political cudgels. They’re amazed and flabbergasted when they’re asked to live up to them.
DeleteTrue that.
DeleteThe only reason she puts up with the non-stop raping of women by Republican politicians is she's turned-on by their bigotry.
The non-stop raping of women by Republican politicians is NOT the reason Cecelia loves them.
DeleteAnonymouse 10:32am, congratulations. You’re at a point now where your opinions are only as heartfelt and honest as pertaining to what Bob Somerby blogs from day-to-day.
Delete10:37,
DeleteThanks. I love me, too.
Anonymouse 10:42am, I’m sure that you’re glad that one person does.
DeleteSomerby’s idea of sexual prehistory is wrong. Some cultures dominated women, but in some women dominated men and many others were egalitarian. Somerby is not aware of current anthropology. This is why men need to take Women’s Studies classes in school.
ReplyDeleteHomer’s Iliad is the source of Somerby’s notion of prehistory but that is fiction, not even history (The Acheans were 500 earlier and left no records for Homer).
ReplyDeleteBiden missed the picture of the participants in the G20 Summit because he wandered off.
ReplyDeletehttps://nypost.com/2024/11/18/us-news/biden-misses-g20-group-photo-in-latest-embarrassment-hes-behind-the-palm-tree/
New York Post?
DeleteBwahahaha!
He's senile.
DeleteYou’re senile.
DeleteOf course, Biden is senile. That’s why they forced him to bow out.
DeleteBTW- if you had listened to Bob about Biden in 2019, instead of going into your usual faux histrionics, you very likely would not be facing Trump II - the sequel.
Yes, it was that one commenter here that should have listened and changed the course of history.
DeleteCould Bob have maybe emailed his concerns to some democratic official, cause they probably have never heard of his blog.
8:56 When your inner voice tells you these things it is not a mandate to embarrass yourself by spouting them off in public. If you had been listening to Bob about Trump we would almost certainly not be dealing with Trump II and his entourage of sycophants and sex offenders at this time. Except for one thing. Bob has a very limited audience and will not be influencing anything of significance now nor in the future. No doubt he is a dedicated blogger and great guy but I doubt that he has the clout to convince his immediate family to leave the building if it's on fire. Sorry honey, but the election didn't turn on what a handful of his readers did or did not do with his advice.
DeleteAnonymouse 11:44pm, oh please. It wasn’t one commenter. It was the usual anonymouse pile on with fatuous 1000 word posts, wrath, recrimination, insults, and references to Putin. In other words, it’s was your brain dead hired-gun business as usual. It was all of you.
DeleteTake a bow anonymices.As is always the case, you were wrong, and since Bob isn't a Soros apparatchik, he was able to see that Biden was waning. Welcome to Trump 2.0. You earned it.
Anonymouse 11:46pm, but Bob has clout enough to have a band of ridiculous hired hoodlums after him night and day. For years. You’ve accused him of terrible things such as being on the payroll of a foreign enemy and of terrible personal traits and opinions.
DeleteDon’t sell yourselves short, anonymices. You’ve earned this bit of history. You earn it every day of the week.
Bob Somerby couldn't even convince one Republican voter to not elect a President who is a rapist, and stole money from children's cancer charity*.
DeleteHow would he be able to force Biden out of the election?
*No one possibly could.
Anonymouse 9;48am, like anonymices weren't here every day accusing Bob of working to re-elect Trump, and now your arguing that Bob and Vlad would have zero voter influence in a Democratic primary.
DeleteIt’s a given that anonymices are the most malign and dishonest form of life on the internet, but you’re also the dumbest sons-of-bitches on the planet.
10:18.
DeleteLet's just accept Bob's win in getting you to admit Right-wing men can only have sex with women by raping them, and move on.
Anonymouse 10:21am, quote where I either said or suggested that.
Delete6:37 Whoa, the slings and arrows! Methinks thow doth protest too much , dude.
DeleteAnonymices, that all the proof you need is what you can dig out of your butt is a given.
DeleteThanks!
Anonymices, I will be quoting your denials of Bob’s ability to effect voter sentiment and thus an election.
DeleteYOU said it, so I CAN quote it.
thou
Deletethou
Deleteanon what's your beef about republican's caring about bigotry and white supremacy? these are bad things. We all should care about them. Are you saying republicans shouldn't? How else can these sins be banished? would it be right not to care about murder, for example? Certainly not. I would say though that caring about nothing else but bigotry and white supremacy to the exclusion of anything else limits one from caring about other important things, such as global warming, or Covid.
DeleteTrump's Treasury Secretary?
ReplyDeleteHow 'bout this guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVzE5HRHyC8
People don't want their son's balls cut off or a black woman selected for a job he's twice as qualified for by objective standards.
ReplyDeleteThat's why Trump won.
He's twice as qualified for by objective standards. Yeah, he did such a bang up job during COVID that at the singular mandate he signed on for, first and foremost, protecting the American people, he was an abject failure. Excess deaths from COVID during his tenure have been estimated in the hundreds of thousands. Far worse than the death toll from 9/11. It turns out that touting ineffective treatments based upon the advice of Laura Ingraham, and delaying the response to the pandemic, including by lying to the American public about it, was not a great thing for the health and welfare of this country. So no, he sucked at his job and was so poorly functional at one point that his people carted him off to the hospital for an unscheduled visit on a Saturday to undergo a dementia test. It's roughly six years later now and he hasn't miraculously improved his cognition. In fact, it is so bad that he had to make up a term for his meandering and often unintelligible discourse at rallies. So no. It turns out that well over 30,000 lies to the American public and counting every time he opens his mouth is not a good thing. It doesn't qualify an asshole like your Orange Jesus for much of anything, except apparently obtaining your vote.
DeleteThis reminds me of the time Trump was caught with Putin's balls in his mouth.
Delete10:50,
DeleteThat's what the deep state wants you to believe.
Have some respect for yourself, if you can, and ignore their lies.
“ We Blues do need to look in the mirror and figure out where, improbable as it seems, even We Blues may perhaps have gone a tiny bit wrong.”
ReplyDeleteThere have been endless opinion pieces about why the “Blues” lost this time. Apparently, Somerby hasn’t read a single one. If he were to read them, perhaps he could give an opinion on them.
Has anyone seen J. D. Vance since the election?
ReplyDeleteYes.
DeleteHe's in mourning. Found out his sofa was cheating on him with a table leg.
Delete