TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2025
Can that really be what he said? To our ear, Gail Collins is flirting with (conceptual) danger in this week's Conversation with Bret Stephens.
To our ear, Collins is skating out onto very thin ice. By the established rules of the game, she's not supposed to skate there.
Briefly, let's set the scene! As the center-left Collins begins her dangerous skate, the center-right Stephens has already offered these thoughts about where Trump seems to be going:
Trump Is On the Move
[...]
Stephens: He scares me. There are days when I wake up and think: If this goes on like this for four years, or even four months, we’re going to be living in an unrecognizable republic—one in which lickspittle Republican legislators and cabinet members rubber-stamp every crazy Trump idea, federal court decisions are simply ignored by the executive branch, Elon Musk creates a Department of Personal Efficiency (DOPE) that tracks and scores your every move and a booming economy keeps a majority of voters indifferent to the collapse of civic and constitutional norms. We saw that model play out in the early years of Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship in Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rule in Turkey.
Oof! As the colloquy continued, Stephens offered some nuance. Eventually, Collins laced up her skates:
Bret: The federal government isn’t some tech start-up where you move fast and break things.
Gail: You know I never argue foreign policy, Bret, but when Trump announced that he thought the United States should take over Gaza and “own it,” that struck me less as an issue of international affairs than another deeply scary sign that our president is … just nuts. [Collins' punctuation]
At this site, sirens started to blare.
To our ear, Collins was tiptoeing toward a spot on the ice where she knows she mustn't go. With all deliberate tentativeness, she seemed to be wondering if the commander could possibly be clinically disordered—if he might be "nuts" in a way which isn't simply colloquial.
That's how it almost sounded to us. Also, it sounded like Collins knew that she was skating onto a dangerous part of the lake—that she knew she had to carefully couch her words.
Is something "wrong" with Donald J. Trump? No really—could something be wrong with this person?
As we noted all last week, we sometimes speak of mental illness—of "mental disorder"—in colloquial, metaphorical ways. Then too, there are the clinical uses of such terms—and the rules of this game are quite clear:
Our journalists are allowed to speak of literal "mental illness" when discussing types of street crime. By long tradition, they are not allowed to speak in such ways when discussing political figures.
This rule has been in place since (at least) the 1960s. To our ear, Collins was skating toward a place where the ice starts to get rather thin.
This brings us to the astonishing case of a strangely disordered "cable news" star. Twice nightly, on a pair of heavily watched "cable news" shows, he serves as a messaging agent for the corporate entity known as the Fox News Channel.
He's sixty years old—but he's stunningly juvenile, and he's stupendously scripted. In fairness to him, it should also be said that he's extremely well paid.
Is something "wrong" with this person? We speak, of course, of the Fox News Channel's Greg Gutfeld, star of the nightly, primetime TV show, Gutfeld! and co-host of The Five. For today, we'll be ignoring the astonishing coarseness of his nightly presentations. Instead, let's consider the journalistic madness in which he engaged last week.
We return to last Friday night's messaging program. More specifically, we return to his messaging that night about USAID.
Gutfeld started out as a bit of a NeverTrumper. As of today, he performs as Donald J. Trump's most long-winded and fervent supporter.
Was Suzanne Scott forced to give him the word at one point? We hope to return to that question this week. For today, we want to show you the full extent of the "monologue" with which he opened last Friday night's Gutfeld! program.
Yes, he actually said the things you see transcribed below! We include the opening part of the monologue—the part of the presentation we included in yesterday's report.
We showed you part of what he said. Below, you see the full transcript:
GUTFELD (2/7/25): All right! To the monologue!
So the Trump administration laid off nearly all of the USAID agency staff, reducing the number from 10,000 worldwide to just under 300.
I know!
[SCATTERED APPLAUSE]
You're welcome!
But oddly, the USAID beneficiaries abroad don't seem to be the ones complaining. The foreign heads of state are so quiet. And yet it's the NGOs crying over the fact that their yearslong scams might be toast.
And all of this is happening because DOGE has exposed a pile of programs funded by USAID to foster gender and trans propaganda in foreign countries—countries where such things don't seem to benefit stability. Because nothing will bring a Muslim country together like drag queens reading the Koran to kids.
[AUDIENCE LAUGHTER]
But that's the point. You have to destroy the world to build a new one where men can watch girls pee in locker rooms.
Now, I've said before that the racial and gender conflict incited in America was designed to keep a unified population from focusing on the bigger problems, like crime, immigration, economy and, of course, corruption. But it wasn't to overthrow a government. It was designed to preserve the government—building a moat around its power.
And so as we learn that USAID was creating instability abroad, we see these same dirty tricks coming home. Because once you find yourself with a populist president who wasn't the elite choice, instability must be created artificially. Which means introducing the endless combustion of identity politics.
Elevate one's identity among others and you create conflict among groups, and there goes populist unity. People turn on themselves. What seemed to be an exported strategy to handicapped third world nations returned to where it started, like a sexually confused boomerang.
So imagine if we looked at America as a foreign country when Trump won. USAID did! You had a populist president, not an establishment puppet. What followed? Organized and immediate protests—race gender, climate, the three horsemen of funded, organized dissent.
It was a color revolution, funded by people who pay taxes. Suddenly, you had trained agitators in the street with fresh signs and robust crowds and fueling the media that pushes incendiary hoaxes.
Add to that a crusade against so-called misinformation to empower censorship. Sound familiar? Sounds like everything USAID did in other countries.
Now maybe we didn't mind USAID before. Sure, they toppled governments overseas, but that wouldn't happen here. Now, by shining a light on what they and our government is doing, we find that they did try to destroy a populist movement for being a challenge to their power, with identity politics as a weapon. It was divide and conquer.
No wonder the left is freaking out. They weren't just exporting chaos to the world. They were growing it here and forcing us to smoke it.
Yes, the fellow actually said those things--and the quartet of stooges gathered around him rushed to agree with every word he had said. To watch the fellow make those remarks, you can just click here.
Is something "wrong" with this man-—with a 60-year-old man who mocks 80-year-old women, every single night of the week, for being too fat, or for being sexually unattractive, or for having used too much Botox down through the many years?
(Who asked, at least three separate times, if Hunter Biden had started "banging" or [BLEEP]ing" first lady Jill Biden yet? And yes, he actually did that, on at least three separate programs.)
Is something wrong this undisguised imitation of (journalistic) life? For today, let's get clear on what this corporate messaging agent actually seems to have said on last Friday night's program.
Were we simply hearing things, or did this nutcase actually say it? Did he actually say these things about the work of USAID?
Things this nutcase seems to have said:
USAID has been "toppling governments overseas." (No specific example was cited.)
Here at home, USAID also tried to destroy the MAGA movement. ("Did try to destroy a populist movement for being a challenge to their power.")
Inevitably, USAID had been doing these things "to build a new [world] where men can watch girls pee in locker rooms."
Did this nutcase corporate messaging agent actually say those things? Yes, we know—it does seem hard to believe!
But you can watch the videotape yourself. To our ear, it's hard to deny that those are the actual things this corporate nutcase seems to have said, as a quartet of corporate Stepfords awaited their chance to agree.
Full disclosure! We've edited out a few of the coarser remarks with which he littered his manifesto. Time permitting, we'll transcribe those edited remarks before the week is done.
For today, we simply wanted you to see what this fellow actually said. You may assume that we've invented those transcribed remarks. For that reason, we again provide the link by which you can watch him making his presentation.
If you choose to click that link and watch, you'll be watching an "imitation of life." You'll be seeing an imitation of journalism, of human discourse itself. And when the four Stepfords start praising this nutcase for his torrent of strange remarks, you'll weep about the endless potential within our species for disordered if well-paid behavior.
Is something "wrong" with this messaging agent? This week, we're staying within the colloquial realm. We aren't attempting to ask about the possibility of clinical disorder.
That said, is something wrong with this angry, coarse person? Colloquially, we'd say the answer is yes. As the week proceeds, we'll show you the "sources" for this fellow's astounding remarks—and we'll being you to your knees as we transcribe the remarks which followed as the four Stepfords joined in.
This sort of thing transpires around the clock on the Fox News Channel. As it does, the major stars of our own Blue America agree to avert their gaze.
Rachel Maddow won't talk about this. The New York Times won't report this behavior. The children at Mediaite somehow manage to look away, even as they record the nightly fights on CNN's 10 p.m. program.
This too is a type of mental disorder. And no—a very large, major modern nation can't expect to survive this way.
To our ear, Collins is flirting with a clinical suggestion about the current commander. Concerning the Fox News Channel's messaging agent, we'll simply suggest that he's deeply engaged in journalistic madness.
Rather, he's engaged in a rather obvious form of pseudo-journalistic madness. It's met by total silence from our elites in Blue America as a "night assault" proceeds—an assault we've already lost.
USAID was trying to topple Trump! Let us quote from the glorious Hawthorne:
“Rappaccini! Rappaccini! and is this the upshot of your experiment!”
Tomorrow: Stepfords, come on down!
Nancy Grace speaks:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.eschatonblog.com/2025/02/well.html?m=1
Something is clearly wrong with Somerby. He ignores the import of what Collins said about the president to focus on whether Gutfeld is nuts. Republicans are enabling our President's behavior. Some are acting in crazy ways on his behalf. Collins points to the possibility of dictatorship BECAUSE she thinks Trump is crazy. The craziness isn't the damaging part -- it is the illegal dictator behavior that hurts us, not whatever is happening inside Trump or Gutfeld's head. Behavior hurts people, not thoughts.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter whether Trump is crazy or not. It matters what he does as president. It doesn't matter what Gutfeld thinks about 80 year old women. It matters what he says on his show. Somerby seems to believe that once he points out craziness, his job is done. Not so. The real work involves keeping these wrong behaviors from tearing down our government, undermining our democracy, making this country unlivable for its people. Somerby routinely says nothing about the things Trump DOES.
Collins is right. Somerby should be listening to her, not talking about thin ice. And if Trump is crazy, it is because of what he says (which is behavior) and does (also behavior). Trump is DOING crazy, illegal, destructive things. We need to all see that and DO SOMETHING to stop him.
We elected him to do exactly what he is doing. Democrats are corrupt and mentally disordered.
Delete“People say he’s crazy and maybe he is, but you do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump. You just don’t.”
Delete“Rappaccini! Rappaccini! and is this the upshot of your experiment!”
ReplyDeleteThat particular short story has nothing whatsoever to do with our current situation with Trump. But it does appear that Somerby is trying to pretend to say something important using code so dense that no one can understand him, much less pin him down to any opinion. What a brave guy Somerby is, to attempt to speak while saying nothing intelligible at all. Somerby's paralysis is a better example of insanity than Trump wanting to develop the Gaza strip with hotels and casinos. That is all Trump knows how to do. Meanwhile Somerby is here doing his impression of a schizophrenic asshole.
I agree that “Rappaccini’s Daughter” has little to do with Musk, It’s about a scientific experiment with unexpected adverse consequences. This theme relates better to the gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute.
DeleteScience gone wrong is to blame for Trump? I don’t think so.
DeleteIf anything, it's the tired, repetitive cant from retired actuaries.
DeleteMUSK IS A NAZI.
DeleteWAKE UP.
Trump is not the target of USAID. Our democratic system is the target of Trump and his cronies. No more free elections for us:
ReplyDelete"Secretaries of state and election officials from across the nation gathered at separate conferences this past week in Washington, where the new administration has been moving quickly to slash the federal workforce and dismantle certain agencies.
One pressing question at the gatherings of the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors was how the shift in power will affect collaborations with federal agencies that help safeguard elections, including the FBI, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
So far, it’s hard to tell.
Commissioners and staff members from the EAC — a small agency that serves as a clearinghouse for best practices, federal grants, and data, and assesses whether voting machines meet federal standards — were visible at both conferences, and said their work continues.
A representative of the FBI’s cybersecurity division appeared at NASS, where she spoke on a panel about cybersecurity threats. An FBI representative who was expected to join a panel at NASED didn’t show.
The most glaring absence was CISA, whose reserved table at the NASED conference remained empty.
“CISA was telling us that in light of the new administration, they were reevaluating their conference attendance,” said Amy Cohen, executive director for NASED.
CISA was created in 2018, the year after federal officials designated elections as critical infrastructure. Since then, the agency has been an important partner for election officials, providing security assessments, training, and resources aimed at “protect(ing) America’s election infrastructure against new and evolving threats.”
But the agency angered President Donald Trump after it declared the November 2020 election “ the most secure in American history,” disputing the false claims by Trump and his allies that fraud cost him victory. Trump responded by firing Chris Krebs, the agency’s first director, before he left office in 2021.
More recently, CISA has drawn the ire of Kristi Noem, Trump’s pick to run the Homeland Security Department, which oversees the cybersecurity agency. During her Senate confirmation hearing in January, she called for shrinking the agency.
Election officials noticed the agency’s absence.
“I note the incongruity with the fact that many of you, maybe all of you, mentioned cybersecurity … and the empty table out front that says CISA on it," Judd Choate, elections director for Colorado, told a panel of congressional staffers, an absence that he said he could “only interpret as: They were told not to attend.”
A CISA spokesperson told Votebeat that because of funding uncertainties — Congress passed a short-term funding bill that expires in March — the agency is “reevaluating all conferences and engagements until a resolution.” The agency did not say whether it had been directed not to send representatives to the conferences, or whether it would continue providing services to election officials." [Rawstory]
I don’t like Gutfeld, but Bob’s silliness is forcing me to defend him. Bob wrote, “USAID has been "toppling governments overseas." (No specific example was cited.) “
ReplyDeleteGive me a break. Gutfeld is a comedian. He’s not writing a formal dissertation. Does Bob expect footnotes and a glossary?
Telling us which govt was toppled is not the same as citing a source or even saying how you know something.
DeleteSo, "toppling government overseas" is humor? It's not to be taken as something connected to reality in any way, shape, or form? Good to know.
DeleteDavid, you don’t have to defend Gutfeld from Bob. The anonymices will always do that for you.
DeleteSaying that Gutfeld is a marginal figure, a paid lackey of the Murdochs, spouting the approved corporate line, and that Somerby’s time would be better spent elsewhere is a very imaginative definition of a “defense.”
DeleteAnonymouse 1:05pm, so why are you here commenting on a blog that, to put it mildly, is not a hit show that usually beats the major network offerings.
DeleteYou see why your anonymouse critic thinks you’re wasting time, you’re playing around, you’re waging personal wars, and you’re full of it?
1:24: So you deflect rather than acknowledge the point 1:05 is making, that no one here is defending Gutfeld.
DeleteAnonymouse 1:24pm, no. Bob wants blue media and bloggers to take on the prurient Gutfeld. That show routinely beats out network offerings. When you minimize Gutfeld you’re essentially defending him. You do that * solely to counter Bob. It’s obvious even to you why one of your own would say you’re worthless.
DeleteSure, let’s just keep taking advice from our enemies, like Cecelia. Sure, that makes sense.
DeleteHilarious!
The idea that anyone should interfere with Gutfeld's right to be an asshole involves challenging his 1st Amendment right to free speech. Why would those of us who value freedom of speech do that? I would never watch him because he is tasteless and ridiculous, but does that mean I must try to suppress him?
DeleteSomerby was fine with parents demanding that books be banned from their kids' school, even after the kids were exempted from reading them. He was fine with controlling what other people's kids could read, not just parental control over their own kids. Most liberals are tolerant to the point of letting others consume what they themselves disapprove of. That was the essence of the Larry Flynt Hustler lawsuit. Liberals didn't like Hustler but supported his right to publish even what they considered tasteless, crass, sexist, unnecessary, etc. Freedom for the boors as well as for Salman Rushdie is a liberal value.
Somerby never seems like much of a liberal despite his self-labeling as such, because he doesn't support values like freedom of speech even for right wing assholes like Gutfeld. Cecelia doesn't seem to understand this issue either. But she is right that some of us would defend Gutfeld's right to speak his crap without interference. And it is obvious why Somerby does not -- he is as right wing as Cecelia and they all support Gutfeld because they agree with what he says while attacking the rights of others they disagree with.
Anonymouse 3:20pm I didn’t give you any advice. Your liberal anonymouse critic did that.I pointed out that your arguments as to priorities have proved her right. Completely.
DeleteAnonymouse 3:37pm, it’s not a challenge to free speech to bring attention to the fact that a highly popular nightly tv show on a highly popular cable news channel is joking that the First Lady is “f-ing” her step-son. A media discussion as to the appropriateness of that is entirely in order. This isn’t some yahoo on YouTube, it’s a weeknight program on a mainstream channel. Whether Mrs. Biden or Mrs. Trump, yeah, some media professionals whose job description is the coverage media culture ought to be posing some questions to Fox execs over that one. Anonymices are so deep in their foxhole taking shots at Bob Somerby that they’d defend Roy Cohn’s “free speech” if he was alive and guesting on Gutfeld,
Delete"This isn’t some yahoo on YouTube, it’s a weeknight program on a mainstream channel."
DeleteWe don't have different rights for different people in our country.
"...some media professionals whose job description is the coverage [of] media culture ought to be posing some questions to Fox execs..."
This is censorship. It is an attempt to suppress the free speech by putting pressure on an exec. This is what liberals do not do but it is exactly what Trump and the right want to do.
I don't think Cecelia knows who Roy Cohn was or why liberals dislike him, but few liberals would object to him appearing on TV and speaking his mind. It was the illegal stuff that we disagreed with.
There were some among the founding fathers who thought it should be made illegal for people to say mean things about George Washington. They thought that should be sedition and made a crime. But we had the example set by England as they attempted to suppress colonial propaganda against the British, to learn from. We instead built freedom of speech into our Constitution. I don't believe they taught you that in troll school, Cecelia, but our high schools used to teach it.
This is why the ACLU (a liberal-funded organization) defended the right of the Nazi Party to march and give speeches and hand out literature in Skokie IL. Of course we would defend modern day Nazis, unless they move from speech to violence and start running down people in their trucks.
Anonymouse 4:39pm, you’re favorite response is to accuse someone of not knowing about someone or thing that they have referenced. That is Soros School for Anonymices 101 stuff. No, it’s not censorship to question sordid and uncouth remarks via tv personalities or anyone else. .Or to directly challenge it.Not that you care one iota about censorship. You’ll see your post again and very soon.
Delete"[I]t’s not a challenge to free speech to bring attention to the fact that a highly popular nightly tv show on a highly popular cable news channel is joking that the First Lady is “f-ing” her step-son."
DeleteIt isn't?
Bret and Gail and Bob are studiously ignoring the elephant in the room. Just how big a problem is government waste and fraud? All three of them know that a great many examples have been offered that claim to illustrate big-time waste and fraud. (Bob says he likes examples.) Let’s have a real discussion about the magnitude of the problem before discussing whether Trump is another Putin or another Hannibal Lector.
ReplyDeleteLet's hire 60,000 new IRS and SEC agents, before we start talking about funding cuts.
DeleteWhy is it that Trump and Musk don't want the American people to know who is cheating on their taxes and manipulating stock prices with inside information? Are they afraid it's all white people?
Delete“ A great many examples have been offered“
DeleteBy whom? Trump? Musk? The problem is that these two lie all the time. Why would you trust their examples?
Musk and Trump are exaggerating to make a bigger point: Republican voters are a shit pile of bigots.
Delete@12:17 - I don't want to trust or distrust the allegations of fraud and waste. I want somebody to check the allegations and let us know what the truth is. There used to be Investigative journalism, a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest. We need it back again.
DeleteDavid, Trump and musk are simply slashing things, without letting anyone check the truth of their assertions, and It’s being done in secret. That’s exactly the point of the complaints against what they are doing.
DeleteThe best thing to do if you're looking for fraud and waste is to illegally fire all the IGs and then let a bunch of cyber programmers with no accounting experience rummage thru my personal data. I am sure David believes this.
DeleteSeriously folks, this has been explained to David numerous times. He is not arguing in good faith.
Trump and Musk know where the fraud and waste are. Waterboard them, and we'll get the information a lot faster.
Delete#efficientgovernment
I agree with you, @12:54, in theory. Experienced IGs should do a better job than the inexperienced kids who more or less replaced them. But, it isn't working out that way in practice. The inexperienced kids have already identified tens of Billions of dollars of waste and fraud that the experienced IGs missed.
DeleteDiC, why do you trust musk’s “team”? Musk lies all the time, and so does Trump. It isn’t a good look for you to simply buy into their assertions without demanding proof.
DeleteDiC - There are three buckets with most all the money, defense and related off the books stuff - CIA, Social Security, and Healthcare. One of those three can't pass an audit. One of those three is not being looked at by the fake DOGE. Why is that DiC? And I really don't know where your tens of billions of savings comes from, or where the cost savings vs. benefit studies are. Is defunding medical research worth the savings, or would you rather die for the PreXidents tax cuts to himself? By law that is the job of Congress to decide, not a jaggoff who paid less than 1% of his wealth to purchase the PreXidency. A guy with no security clearance with business ties with the Communist Chinese Party. A guy that fucked over Ukrainian troops with Starlink to advantage Putin's troops. An unelected jaggoff and weirdo who has not been appointed to a Government position.What the ever loving fck has happened to Republican values? Unhinged.
Delete"The inexperienced kids have already identified tens of Billions of dollars of waste and fraud that the experienced IGs missed."
DeleteIf you believe this, don't you also have to believe the fires in California were started by globalists who want to deindustrialilze the West?
Both come from the same source.
Musk: "Shockingly, many government transactions are processed without any explanation in the comment field."
DeleteThink about this for a minute. If the billions in Medicare claims that are reimbursed each year had a comment on the Medicare ledger next to them that said, "Medicare payment", how much more efficient would government be? How much $ would we save?
"The inexperienced kids have already identified tens of Billions of dollars of waste and fraud that the experienced IGs missed."
DeleteActually, no. The inexperienced kids haven't identified so much as a dollar of "waste and fraud." They've cobbled together a quick book-report level anaylsis that Elon Musk waves around like Joe McCarthy waved his lists of commies.
David: "I don't want to trust or distrust the allegations of fraud and waste. I want somebody to check the allegations and let us know what the truth is."
DeleteAlso David: "The inexperienced kids have already identified tens of Billions of dollars of waste and fraud."
Try to make sense.
You got me, Quaker. Modify my comment to "...kids have already identified tens of Billions of dollars of apparent waste and fraud."
DeleteBut the false waste/fraud allegations will be viewed/seen by millions; the report back that little of it was true will be viewed/seen by thousands.
DeleteAnd is it even true they've 'identified' billions of apparent waste and fraud.'
DeleteThey've stated there is this much fraud, as a general matter. But have they 'identified', in the sense of stating with more precision where/how this fraud is happening?
In other words, Musk and his band of Musk Youth are not credible in any way.
DeleteMusk may have recruited those youth because, being young and inexperienced, they may be easier to direct to do illegal things and know less about what their professional ethics are. It won't be the first time a gang has used under-age wannabes to commit crimes because they don't know any better, want to be accepted, and are told they won't be prosecuted as harshly if they get caught.
DeleteUsing children to do the dirty work is not admirable for guys like Musk or Trump. It is the little people in Trump's schemes who wind up paying a price for their actions.
"Let Mikey taste it. He'll eat anything."
Delete"Modify my comment to "'..kids have already identified tens of Billions of dollars of apparent waste and fraud.'"
DeleteHow about this instead: "Musk says the kids have identified waste and fraud...but he hasn't shown us the goods. I'll take him at his word."
We are past the point of responding to fascist cunt trolls like Dickhead in Cal. We are in a fight for our Constitutional democratic republic and Dickhead is only here to deflect, distract and divert our attention. Don't ever expect an honest good faith response from that fascist. It is just a waste of precious time and energy. Fuck him straight to hell.
ReplyDelete"We are in a fight for our Constitutional democratic republic."
DeleteWhat are you going to do about it?
Answer: Nothing.
In other words: sit around, read blogs and post neurotic comments that are of no consequence. (When you are not watching t.v. or porn.)
We are in a fight for our Constitutional democratic republic and you will not lift one finger to do anything about it nor will the idiot bloggers you read. So how threatening of a situation is it really?
We'll know its a real threat, when gun owners stop selling guns to criminals on the black market, and instead fight government tyranny.
DeleteWhat are you doing, 12:13, aside from making blog comments yourself and attacking people without evidence?
DeleteWe are in a fight for our Constitutional democratic republic and that's what you want to talk about? Someone else's schedule?
DeleteNo, you brought it up, here, 12:41. Do you have any suggestions, other than your example of making blog comments, that might help us take back our republic, since you think others here do nothing but comment?
DeleteFrom where I am sitting, it is pretty threatening. Perhaps you don't mind losing our constitution to a lifelong conman and his enablers who don't believe in democracy (small d)?
Delete“I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible,” Peter Thiel, sponsor of the sitting VP who doesn't believe the President has to follow SC rulings if he doesn't agree.
Yarvin says that the U.S. government itself “must be deleted” and that what the country needs is not a president but a dictator, which is what a CEO of any successful corporation actually is. Yarvin said that the American people “must get over their ‘dictator phobia’”
Yarvin is one of the people JD Vance cites as an inspiration for his philosophy of governing.
I am not ever going to get over my phobia of a dictator, especially an orange lying sack of shit criminal who couldn't recite 3 of the original Bill of Rights provisions if you spotted him 2.
The issue here is not what I am doing, it’s that you claim we are in an existential fight but show no evidence of treating it as such. If you truly believed the republic was at risk, wouldn’t you be doing more than commenting on a blog? Or is that more sitting on your ass and blog commenting is the most serious reaction you can conjure?
DeleteLoose lips, sink ships.
DeleteKeep the Deep State actor posing as anonymous at 12:13 guessing.
You use politics and blog commenting as a substitute for addressing real challenges and issues in your own life.
DeleteWell, thanks for the suggestions, 1:03, who seem to be doing nothing yourself other than sitting on your ass. Why are you wasting your time here when you should be out taking back our republic?
Delete1:03, If your argument is that I can't really believe it is an existential crisis if I am still slugging along working my ass off 10 hours a day, as I have been doing for the past 50+ years, rather than going out and (what, I don't know), then I think you're not really here to debate.
DeleteRight at the beginning, I posted a list of ways for people to resist Trump. Reviewing that list, there is no way @1:03 could know which of the items anyone here is doing in real life. The assumption that people here only comment and do nothing else is unlikely and unverifiable.
DeleteSome of the folks here are retired and have plenty of time to write a few comments AND have a life. Others are likely to be paid or extremist trolls, as Cecelia notes. But the time spent here does not prevent people from: (1) sending money to the orgs bringing the lawsuits against Trump's illegal acts; (2) calling and writing their elected representatives to urge them to action and pressure them to in turn pressure Congress members; (3) participate in local demonstrations; (4) talk to friends and family, coworkers and random strangers about the truth of what is happening, to counteract right wing propaganda; (5) writing letters to the Editor; (6) supporting the people and businesses that are not caving to Trump, such as Taylor Swift and Costco.
I hope people are also engaging in some self-protective measures, such as closely monitoring their investment decisions, continuing environmental protection measures (paper straws), and reducing their vulnerability to the changes Trump is instigating today (chickens are going away, prices and interest rates are going up, the surveillance state will be reading our email).
Because corporations have a stranglehold on America, we lack much agency, which should not be conflated with lacking concern.
DeleteRhetoric is one of the few remaining tools we can all use.
Hector, my guess is because the fires could set even more strict environmental policies tthat would place more power in the hands of the government. Globalists are political donors.
ReplyDeleteThat’s very likely the “logic” or lack of it.
Alex Jones shot-up a Kindergarten class as a false flag program.
ReplyDeletedon't be shy, Cecelia, is it logical or not? since apparently you inhabit the conspiratorial fever swamps, help us understand the bullshit
ReplyDeleteAnonymouse 11:14am, lots of moves are logical as to particular motives. Do we really know everyone’s motive?
ReplyDeleteAnonymices 11:14am, Anonymices always know everyone’s motive. I’m not sure. I waver.
ReplyDeleteIn the real world we know for a fact that Alex Jones is a grifting lying motherfucker. Musk is a fucking nazi so of course anything to do with the globalist (Jewish) conspiracy to rule the world sounds good to him and you too apparently.
ReplyDeleteAnonymouse 11:29pm, you do know that and from Musk to the Republican next door, you pronounce the same as to all your contrarians.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, there's an argument that the anti-Trumpers are the ones undermining democracy and the Constitution. They want unelected bureaucrats and unelected judges to assume the authority of the elected President.
ReplyDeletesophistry
DeleteWhite people overwhelmingly cheat on their taxes and break the law buying and selling stocks with inside information.
DeleteUnfortunately, coastal elitists, like David in Cal, are too busy scoffing at parents struggling to put food on the table for their families to be concerned about it.
DiC: Ironic that “the authority of the elected President” must always be questioned when the president is a Democrat. Or did we hear your defense of Biden’s purported near absolute authority while he was President?
DeleteThe question never arose in your mind that congress and the courts are supposed to serve as a check on the presidency, whether they are “anti trumpers” or not? The founding fathers specifically rejected a monarch.
You have yet to offer a single criticism of anything Trump is doing. In fact, you proclaimed recently that “trump will not be thwarted.” That sounds very much like authoritarianism.
Democrats are a party of governmental and moral corruption that hates democracy. They will be rooted out like vermin.
DeleteYes, 12:30, forget about all those voters who prefer Democrats, voters who, in a democracy, would get to vote for Democrats.
DeleteImagine how many votes Trump would have got from black people, if the Republican Party hadn't passed voter suppression laws to keep them from voting.
Delete"They want unelected bureaucrats and unelected judges to assume the authority of the elected President."
DeleteNo, They want courts to uphold the law instead of allowing a ketamine-addled tech billionaire to make it all up on a whim.
Hey 12:30, read the memo. Ixnay on the Nazi speak until the Fascists are firmly positioned, in about two weeks. Heil Drumph!
DeleteNOT.
DeleteSo David glad you agree that the unelected judges that transferred standard setting from Congressionally mandated scientific experts to unelected judges (Chevron) was a tragic injustice. Glad you see the light, man.
Deletedon't fucking read my mind, Cecelia. You're not that smart.
ReplyDeleteAnonymices have been speaking your minds here for years.
ReplyDelete"contrarians"
ReplyDeleteTen-cent word from a half-penny mind.
Anonymouse 11:44pm, ten cent word, you say, but yiu don’t value any contrarian that highly.
ReplyDeleteCecelia is my favorite contrarian. It was Micah X. Johnson, but he was killed by gang members for exercising his 2nd Amendment rights.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible Jones and Musk, even Trump with his extended monologue on Arnold Palmer, are saying to us from the depths of their souls, "I'm deeply disturbed. Stop me now while you can"?
ReplyDeleteThe entire gop are co-dependent enablers.
ReplyDeleteHere is Jeff Tiedrich’s evaluation of Trump’s motives. I think he nails it.
ReplyDelete“ Donny Convict isn’t that hard to figure out.
there’s nothing much going on upstairs. he’s a rudimentary lizard-brain stem hard-wired to a rancid anus-mouth. that’s the whole ball of wax. Donny’s motivated by the belief that he should have all the power, all the money and all the attention, all the time.
everything Donny does can be filtered through that maxim. the constant threats to invade sovereign nations? power. the non-stop grifting of his worshipers? money. the near-daily press conferences and interviews since his inauguration? the bottomless need for attention.
oh wait — there’s a fourth motivation at work. Donny also does things just to be a dick — just because he can, because who’s going to stop him?
Donny does what he does because fuck you, that’s why.”
I agree with Tiedrich that Trump has an enormous craving for attention. But, as regards press conferences, this craving leads Trump to do something good for the country.
DeleteThe President is supposed to be transparent. S/he's supposed to let the public know what's going. It's OUR government. So, frequent press conferences benefit the public.
Hoo boy. It isn’t really the frequency of press conferences, but the quality, now isn’t it?. TRUMP LIES all the time at every press conference when he isn’t making some deranged comment. This is the opposite of transparent.
DeleteAn efficient government would waterboard Trump to find the truth.
DeleteJust sayin'.
Anonymouse 1:13pm, you really do want to set him up for a third term.
DeleteSsshh. Lower your voices. DiC's in the next room watching Fox.
Delete" this craving leads Trump to do something good for the country."
DeleteOh?
"Buy Greenland!"
"We'll OWN Gaza! Riviera of the middle East!"
"Tariffs! No, wait!"
"Take back the canal!"
"Shut down DOE! Shut down CFPB! Shut down USAID!"
"Cancel the 14th Amendment!"
"Mars, bitches!"
"Continent-wide iron dome!"
"Yahh! Yah! Diet Coke!"
I'd say Gail Collins is on track.
Quaker - IMO most of these wild statement are leading to actual results that are good for the country. Trump's threats about Greenland will lead to a better relationship with them and the US. His Gaza comment may seems to be leading to more cooperation from neighboring countries. At least, it widens the Overton Window. The tariff threat resulted in more help from Canada and Mexico is deterring illegal immigration. The Canal threat seems to leading to US ships not being charged for going through the canal. Shutting down the three rogue agencies you mention is good for the US IMO. It will need Congressional approval, which I hope is forthcoming.
DeleteOTOH building a defensive missile system is probably a waste of money, because such a system could be overwhelmed by drones. But, if Trump's wild rants result in all the good results mentioned above, then the words "crazy like a fox" would be appropriate.
3:13 one problem is, your examples are all fake.
DeleteFor example, Mexico played Trump, Trump backed down from the tariffs and Mexico agreed to REDUCE their troops at the border. Doh!
Canada got Trump to walk back his “tough” tariff threats by agreeing to an agreement they made BACK DURING THE BIDEN ADMIN.
On and on, just bad faith garbage from David.
If Trump negotiates directly with Greenland, can we still get passports to the USA?
Delete"The tariff threat resulted in more help from Canada and Mexico is (sic) deterring illegal immigration. The Canal threat seems to leading to US ships not being charged for going through the canal."
DeleteLet's say you're Claudia Sheinbaum and you get a call from Donald Trump about increasing your troops at the border. Now Trump is what political scientists call a 'powerful asshole'.
So you release a statement saying you will be sending 10,000 troops to the border. Is this moretroops than were already planned to be sent. Will there even be any additional troops sent to the border and if so, what will they be doing?
None of this matters so long as it gets the powerful asshole out of your face and you can go on running your country.
Hector- you can question the effectiveness of any particular action taken by Trump to deter illegal immigration. But AFAIK it is uncontradicted that illegal immigration is down 90 per cent. Trump must be doing something right.
Delete"AFAIK" is David's double-secret asterisk that allows him to repeat things he can't verify.
Delete1) Trump's threats about Greenland will lead to a better relationship with them and the US.
DeleteNo.
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/denmark-citizens-respond-to-donald-trumps-greenland-bid-with-campaign-to-buy-california-7685790
His Gaza comment may seems to be leading to more cooperation from neighboring countries.
No.
https://carnegieendowment.org/posts/2025/02/trump-gaza-plan-displacement-egypt-jordan-saudi-response?lang=en
The tariff threat resulted in more help from Canada and Mexico is deterring illegal immigration.
Not really.
https://carnegieendowment.org/posts/2025/02/trump-gaza-plan-displacement-egypt-jordan-saudi-response?lang=en
The Canal threat seems to leading to US ships not being charged for going through the canal.
No.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyep7e070wo
Shutting down the three rogue agencies you mention is good for the US IMO. It will need Congressional approval, which I hope is forthcoming.
No.
The agencies aren't rogue, there has been no Congressional action and none sought.
Read more widely.
Anonymices, you’re making the same ole flying monkey comments, except it’s now from a different vantage point. It’s all good.
ReplyDeletePreventing more and more serious fires, arguably a real threat given climate change, with the help of the government seems like a useful thing. But to Jones, that idea must stem from globalist fascists who really want to control the people. I don’t really see the logic.
ReplyDelete"But to Jones, that idea must stem from globalist fascists who really want to control the people."
ReplyDeleteBut not globalist fascists, who wants to control the people, Musk-Trump-Putin.
Every Right-wing accusation is really a confession.
Trump will stop minting cents.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"Stephens: He scares me."
And That. Is. Beautiful. Thank God for Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the rest of the team.
Thank you, God. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Hallelujah!
Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the rest of the team figured out you can get Republicans voters to overthrow their own government if you give them bigotry.
DeleteWhich just goes to show you, how important it is to pay attention.
AMEN
DeleteAOC advised that presidents ignore the courts. That is good advice. Trump won't have to because the courts will vindicate his actions but in the event they don't at any point, he should do exactly as Biden did and AOC advised, and IGNORE them.
ReplyDeleteContext. Ever hear of it?
DeleteA Trump-appointed judge in Texas, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, issued a ruling that halted the Federal Drug Administration from approving mifepristone, potentially blocking access to medication abortion across the country, the most common method of abortion in the U.S.
At the same time, an Obama-appointed judge in Washington, U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice, issued a ruling that blocked the FDA from limiting the “availability of mifepristone” in several states involved a separate lawsuit.
The two contradictory rulings mean the issue will almost certainly be heard before the Supreme Court, making it the first major abortion case heard before the high court after it overturned the constitutional right to an abortion last summer.
Anyone want to defend these thieves?
ReplyDeleteTrump has fired FEMA's CFO Mary Comans after she allegedly paid $59 million to hotels in New York City housing illegal immigrants, according to the Daily Mail.
Three others involved were also fired.
"That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high-end hotels for illegals," Elon Musk said on X, promising to issue a clawback demand.
"Effective immediately, FEMA is terminating the employment of four individuals for circumventing leadership to unilaterally make egregious payments for luxury NYC hotels for migrants," said Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
"Firings include FEMA's Chief Financial Officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist."
I can see four possible reactions to the misappropriation of the $59 million
DeleteIt's a crime. It's a firing offense. It's OK because it's business as usual. Hey! Look, a squirrel!
I expect the media and Dems to use the last of these 4 approaches.
Here's a fifth and more likely possibility: Musk is wrong on the facts but he doesn't care.
DeleteWhere can I bet on #5?
DeleteThis, for example, is a straight-up lie: "That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high-end hotels for illegals," Elon Musk said on X,
DeleteQuaker, you may be right for all I know. I look forward to the media or the Dems showing that FEMA didn't spend money for illegal immigrants to live in hotels.
DeleteHow about calling your fucking congressman who authorizes appropriations for FEMA, you fucking fascist jackass.
DeleteThat is a lie DIC, you take EVERYTHING the President and the orange felon say at face value, no matter how stoopid.
DeleteTrump and Musk are going after unelected bureaucrats, because those who register for elections can't be charged with crimes. Everyone knows that.
DeleteIf I'm an unelected bureaucrat, I'd register as an electoral candidate ASAP, so I could never be charged with a crime.
DeleteDiC - "I can see four possible reactions to the misappropriation"
DeleteDiC - "Quaker, you may be right for all I know"
Which is it DiC? My goodness you are a weirdo.
The burden is on Musk, and he has no proof for his false assertion.
DeleteMeanwhile phony lost souls like 1:40 are all up in arms about a fake $59 million story, while in reality what’s been happening since 1981 is Republicans committing the largest transfer of wealth, $50+ TRILLION from the bottom 90% to the top 1%, and nary a peep from David or the other trolls.
The silence reveals their lack of integrity, relegating their irrelevant comments to the ash heap of history.
To avoid any suggestion that I'm relying on "liberal fake news outlets," let's look at how Fox News is reporting on this:
DeleteA New York City Hall spokesperson confirmed to Fox News that the city had received funds "through the past week" that were allocated by the Biden administration for the purpose of housing and supporting illegal immigrants.
Of the $59.3 million, $19 million was for direct hotel costs, while the balance funded other services such as food and security. According to NY City Hall, the funds were not part of a disaster relief grant.
Note: FEMA did not send $59 million to "luxury hotels." It sent that amount to the city of New York. Of that amount, $19 million was used to cover hotel costs (and nothing here mentions "luxury" or "five-star" hotels.) The remainder was used for food and other costs.
One might be curious enough to ask, "Why does New York City have all these migrants who need to be taken care of?" Those of us with an atom of short-term memory can recall: the governor of Texas sent them there!
And while we're at it, did the state of Texas receive any FEMA money to reimburse it for migrant-related costs? Are those payments equally "fraudulant" according to Mr. Musk?
Or does any of that even matter?
https://www.fema.gov/grants/shelter-services-program/ssp-a/fy-24-nofo#b
DeleteIn this round of funding, various charitible organizations and municipalities in Texas received $60 million.
Fraudulent? I anyone being fired for honoring those commitements?
Today:
DeleteWhen asked about the Trump administration’s false claims that the United States spent $50 million to buy condoms in Gaza, Elon Musk told reporters in the Oval Office Tuesday: “Some of the things that I say will be incorrect.”
Also, David, the money was not, as you say, "misappropriated." It was paid exactly as appropriated.
DeleteTrump having the Army Corp of Engineers dump billions of gallons of water meant for spring and summer irrigation into a dry desert lake bed will stop the globalist plot to deindustrialize the United States dead in their dirty foreign tracks. Also too, we are not weird, you're the weirdos.
ReplyDeleteThese actions by Trump and Musk are not about rooting out fraud but about testing theories about presidential power. Innocent people are being caught in the crossfire between Trump, Congress, and the courts:
ReplyDelete"As soon as President Donald Trump took office, his administration froze great swaths of government funding, apparently to test the theory popular with Project 2025 authors that the 1974 law forbidding the president from “impounding” money Congress had appropriated was unconstitutional. The loss of funding has hurt Americans across the country. Today, Daniel Wu, Gaya Gupta, and Anumita Kaur of the Washington Post reported that farmers who had signed contracts with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to improve infrastructure and who had paid up front to put in fences, plant different crops, and install renewable energy systems with the promise the government would provide financial assistance are now left holding the bag.
With Republicans in Congress largely mum about this and other power grabs by the administration, the courts are holding the line. Chief Judge John McConnell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island today found that the Trump administration has refused to disburse federal funding despite the court’s “clear and unambiguous” temporary restraining order saying it must do so. McConnell said the administration “must immediately restore frozen funding” and clear any hurdles to that funding until the court hears arguments about the case. This includes the monies withheld from the farmers.
This evening, Massachusetts U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley blocked the Trump appointees at the National Institutes of Health from implementing the rate change they wanted to apply to NIH grants. But, as legal analyst Joyce White Vance notes, the only relief sought is for the twenty-two Democratic-led states that have sued, keeping Republican-dominated states from freeloading on their Democratic counterparts. As Josh Marshall noted today in Talking Points Memo, it appears a pattern is emerging in which Democratic-led states are suing the administration while officials from Republican-led states, which are even harder hit by Trump’s cuts than their Democratic-led counterparts, are asking Trump directly for help or exceptions."
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-10-2025
How do we know this is not about corruption? Because it happened so quickly and without the access to inside info that Trump's people would have needed to take any justifiable action, and because this has all been happening outside of the proper channels for oversight and addressing corruption. AND because it is hurting faithful red voters and supporters, not just Democrats, in its indiscriminate (untargeted) application across the board. This is a blatant challenge to the rule of law as it currently exists -- it is what dictators do, not how any legitimate government works, even if fraud were suspected.
Trump looked the American people in the eye, with the sincerity of a used car salesman, on multiple occasions to deny he had anything to do with Project 2025. Everything they are doing since day 1 comes directly from that document.
DeleteTrump wants to stay out of jail, and a steady supply of Big Macs; Musk wants to skim a cut off of every government transaction, since his business ventures are all scams and plummeting as people wake up.
DeleteRichardson's piece assumes bad faith on Trump’s part.
DeletePretty good assumption, 7:31. Bullet proof I would say. You?
DeleteProviding shelter to "legal" migrants released into the US at the border is an authorized function of FEMA enacted by Congress. It is not fraud or abuse of FEMA disaster funds.
ReplyDelete"When local communities receive new immigrants who have been released at the border by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), they often provide necessary support to ensure that people have their immediate and short-term emergency needs (such as food and temporary shelter) met. Over the last decade, as large numbers of asylum seekers began arriving at the border and were released by DHS to await court hearings inside the country, local communities have stepped up to ensure that migrants are not forced to sleep on the streets after arriving.
Since 2019, Congress has provided a limited pool of funding that local and state governments, as well as nonprofits, can apply for to reimburse some costs of emergency sheltering needs. This funding is currently provided through the Shelter and Services Program, which is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Authority (FEMA). The Shelter and Services Program is one of many such programs administered by FEMA, which carries out numerous functions beyond its core mission of disaster relief. Throughout its existence, the program has received bipartisan support from members of Congress and from local leaders who have called on the federal government to provide more financial assistance to communities both at the border and around the country that receive new immigrants."
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/shelter-services-program
Note that this program was authorized in 2019, which was before Biden took office, during Trump's first term. Note also that migrant housing in NYC is being targeted by Musk. These are people who were put on buses by Texas Gov Abbott and send to NYC and similar blue cities, without proper winter clothing and with false promises of job help etc, in order to embarrass Democrats. This claim that these payments are fraud is a continuation of that attack on blue states by Trump and his MAGA cronies.
DeleteI found this out using Google. David in Cal could have done the same, by typing in: Does FEMA pay for migrant hotel rooms? He apparently didn't bother to do that but simply accepts Musk's propaganda justifying freezing FEMA activities. You don't have to look very far beneath the surface to find these lies.
Yes, once again, DiC is not dealing in good faith here. I can't fucking wait until his and his wife's SS checks don't show up and he goes looking for the 19-year-old kid named "big Balls".
DeleteThanks very much @3:08 for the info. You’re terrific! I learned something here that nobody else told me. When Press Secy KJP was asked she said no such payments were made by FEMA and did not mention the law you cited. Chuck Schumer, CNN, and the NY Times have not mentioned this law.
DeleteWhen Musk took down govt websites he made it harder to find info about the legitimate and authorized use of funds and the legislation authorizing various programs. That impedes the efforts to debunk lies and propaganda.
DeleteDickhead: If you want to assure the skeptical public of the legality and constitutionality of what you are doing, the best thing to do is summarily remove the head of the Office of Government Ethics from his post, the latest example of Trump acting against a government watchdog.
DeleteWouldn't you agree, Dickhead?
"When Press Secy KJP was asked she said no such payments were made by FEMA and did not mention the law you cited. Chuck Schumer, CNN, and the NY Times have not mentioned this law."
DeleteReally? I think they mentioned it but you weren't paying attention. Biden explained several times that the FEMA allocation for the migrant shelter was not taken from disaster relief.
ReplyDeleteWhine, whine, liberal morons. And this is only the beginning!
I hear Canada is a nice country. And by moving there from the US you will raise the average IQ in both countries!
Finally we get to hear from Musk’s cold sore!
DeletePlus in Canada the windmills don't cause cancer.
DeleteFirst they will stop minting cents. Then they will say it is too difficult making change using physical money, so they will stop minting and printing all money. It will be much easier to skim or grift of simply steal people's money once all transactions are digital and DOGE is on the job checking for fraud.
ReplyDeleteAs pointed out on one of the podcasts (sorry, forgotten which one), Trump's return to plastic drinking straws only affects straws provided in government buildings. It has no impact on the straws provided by restaurants and bars nationwide, many of which are governed by state laws on businesses. The podcaster envisioned irate MAGAs yelling at diner proprietors because they are still using paper straws, not realizing the limited scope of Trump's decree. I wonder if Trump understands how limited his Executive Order is?
ReplyDeleteI wonder why anybody gives a crap about this nonsense.
DeleteNot minting cents makes sense. Otherwise the demented rapist is an idiot about everything.
ReplyDeleteThe inspector general at the U.S. Agency for International Development was fired Tuesday, a day after his office released a report detailing the negative impact of the Trump administration’s dramatic downsizing of the agency, according to a letter obtained by NBC News.
ReplyDeleteThis is a scary time to be living in this country.
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/donald-trump-delusional-fox-news-interview-lies-gaza-tariffs-canada-usaid
ReplyDelete