THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2025
Transcribe O'Donnell Now! Now that a new person sits at its helm, MSNBC should start transcribing the programs of one of its talkers.
Years back, "The Lock Him Up Network" stopped transcribing its primetime cable news programs. We're still inclined to agree with what we said at the time:
Most likely, there was an obvious reason why they stopped making it easy to see what was being said.
At this point, Rashida Jones is gone; Rebecca Kutler is now in charge. With that in mind, we offer this plea:
Dear Rebecca Kutler, MSNBC:
Would you please start transcribing Lawrence O'Donnell's programs? Also, would you proofread the transcripts, please?
No transcripts of Lawrence, no peace!
We know of no one who is making better sense concerning the recent astounding behaviors of Messrs. Musk and Trump. We know of no one who is speaking more frankly—though still not frankly enough—concerning the disordered behavior in which Herr Musk is involved.
By way of contrast, Rachel Maddow, newly returned on a five-night basis, can't seem to stop laughing, chuckling, grinning and guffawing and hugely enjoying herself as she makes her way through her nightly discussions of the republic's onrushing end.
We can think of two possible explanations for all this merriment, only one of which involves the pleasures which may be produced by giant piles of cash. That said, we find the nightly pickin'-and-grinnin' amazingly hard to watch.
Lawrence has been pounding away in the 10 p.m. slot. He has also begun describing the extremely limited range of moral vision found within the White House press corps, though he still doesn't name any names.
His work is blowing the rest of the channel away. Rebecca Kutler, will you agree to make his work easier to read and to post?
As for Musk and Trump, is something wrong with these guys? Just to be clear, we're specifically asking if something is clinically wrong with this pair.
It seems like the world's most obvious possibility! At present, we're planning to address that topic—the possibility of a clinical issue—in our reports next week.
No, it won't make any difference. But what's a truth-teller to do?
For extra credit only: Whay do you think? Is Thomas Friedman flirting with clinical language at the start of his current New York Times column?
What’s Most Frightening About Trump’s Gaza Ravings
President Trump’s plan to take over Gaza, remove its two million Palestinians and turn the coastal desert strip into some sort of Club Med proves only one thing: how short a distance it is between out-of-the-box thinking and out-of-your-mind thinking.
I can say with confidence that Trump’s proposal is the single most idiotic and dangerous Middle East “peace” initiative ever put out by an American president.
Still, I’m not sure what is more frightening: Trump’s Gaza proposal, which seems to change by the day, or the speed with which his aides and cabinet members—almost none of whom were even briefed on it in advance—nodded their approval of the idea like a collection of bobblehead dolls.
[...]
President Trump, I repeat: There is a real case for you to make for fresh thinking about this problem. But your plan for Trump Gaza is not fresh thinking. It is fresh riffing. It is loopy concepts of a peace plan tossed out without vetting by aides or allies, the details of which you change every day, forcing your bobblehead aides to nod vigorously—without any regard for long-term U.S. interests or their own credibility. It is a plan that will love Israel to death, bring Iran back to life and destabilize every American friend.
That's how the column begins and ends. In Friedman's view, Trump's "ravings" make it seem like he's "out of his mind."
Is Friedman hinting at a clinical problem? In our view, it's time that he did.
Musk and Trump are straight outta Hans Christian Andersen. The rules say our scribes mustn't notice.
"Something we were withholding made us weak?" We believe Robert Frost said that!
Tomorrow: Four out of four Stepfords agree
Next week: Sociopathy and its discontents
ReplyDelete"Most likely, there was an obvious reason why they stopped making it easy to see what was being said."
Yeah, right. In reality, it's quite simple: they're not transcribing their "shows" because no one is watching their "shows".
"Is Thomas Friedman flirting with clinical language at the start of his current New York Times column?"
Thomas Friedman is a clinical idiot, of course. As long as Thomas Friedman is "frightened" etc., we know that everything goes well. Thank you, Thomas Friedman.
With Somerby, lack of transcripts is always personal, never a financial decision or lack of staff or a logistics problem. And he treats them as a right, not a service. Where is it written that TV shows must make transcripts available to vanity bloggers?
Delete"That said, we find the nightly pickin'-and-grinnin' amazingly hard to watch."
ReplyDeleteThe phrase "pickin'-and-grinnin' is a race reference to the kind of performances black people were limited to in the bad old days. But Maddow is not black. Is it appropriate to refer to her using such a term? I don't think so -- it trivializes the demeaning stereotypes of African Americans and it applies them to a gay woman, someone who has been stereotyped herself but not in the same way.
Women are expected to smile way more than men. If they don't, they are called ugly, unpleasant, scolding, like Termagants (why did Somerby stop using that term for Gutfeld?). Women are expected to be eye candy, to fawn and suck up to men.
Why does it offend Somerby when Maddow appears to be having a good time on TV? Does she do any more smiling than the big haired women on Fox? No, but she does get more credit for being smart, an authority with expertise, someone with credibility. She has earned the right to make jokes and hers are arguably way better than Gutfeld's. Is she not simpering enough, not deferring to others perhaps? Does she have too much self-confidence? Or is it because she is gay? It isn't anything she is saying these days, because Somerby has always had this reaction to her. She does break norms for female behavior, but that is something most women and liberals applaud not disparage, as Somerby does. Is she any worse in her behavior than Bill Maher, for example? He grins and jokes around way more than Maddow does but that has never bothered Somerby, even when Bill Maher made his own hard right turn.
The whole point of Somerby's "report" today is that the press should be adopting his own clinical language, although what that would help is never explained. A crazy person breaking the law is still doing something illegal. A crazy person hurting others is still doing damage to those other people. Saying that Trump or Musk are crazy gives us no additional insight into their motives, goals, future actions or what we can expect for our nation. We need people who can talk about what these guys are doing to us, not people who will name-call them crazy, which provides no relief to anyone.
The phrase "pickin'-and-grinnin' is a race reference to the kind of performances black people were limited to in the bad old days.
DeleteThen shame on Buck Owens!
Think "pickin and grinnin" is racially fine based on its use at all white bluegrass festivals I have attended. But "blues and barbeques" is entirely different / s
DeleteDo you really think Somerby is making a music reference?
DeleteOh yeah, there is that cotton pickin cotton pickers pickin and grinnin racist thingy.
DeleteHe's talking about Rachel Maddow's body language. The pickin' and grinnin' has nothing to do with music but is about the stereotypes of black performers in minstrel shows, who also shuck and jive. Their smiling and laughing, shuffling and dancing, and whatever else Somerby accuses Maddow of doing, was required behavior on stage or film conforming to racial stereotypes of black people. Maddow doesn't play the banjo. So, what do you think he meant?
DeleteHe seems to find Maddow too animated. Who is he to specify that she must be restrained or sedate or inhibited or whatever he thinks she should be doing instead of her own efforts on her show?
Somerby doesn't use nice terms to refer to Maddow. He hates her. Of course he has grabbed a negative racial characterization to make he seem low-class or substandard or whatever being black means to Somerby, who is racist from head to foot. If she weren't gay, he might suggest she is behaving like a slut or whore. Why is the sight of a confident woman smiling and laughing so offensive to him?
What do right wingers have against people with disabilities? Look what is happening now as the right attacks measures ensuring the civil rights of those with all kinds of disabilities:
ReplyDelete"The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in September of 1973. Section 504 of that act codified the civil rights of persons with disabilities. “No otherwise qualified individual” can be, simply because of their disability, “denied the benefits of, or subjected to discrimination" in any program or activity that receives federal funds.
That law has turned out to be hugely important in education, offering an even broader definition of students with special needs than the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Now sixteen states have joined Texas in a lawsuit asking the court to declare Section 504 unconstitutional.
On the surface, the lawsuit appears to be one more battle over the rights of transgender citizens. Under the Biden administration, the Section 504 definition of disability was expanded to recognize that “gender dysphoria . . . may be considered a physical or mental impairment.” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration in September, 2024, saying that the Biden administration was “abusing executive action” to sidestep the law. The state was suing, he said, "because HHS has no authority to unilaterally rewrite statutory definitions and classify 'gender dysphoria' as a disability."
The suit spends over thirty pages attacking the addition of gender dysphoria to the Section 504 definition. It argues against the rule’s understanding of gender dysphoria. It argues against the characterization of Olmstead, a 1999 case that found persons with mental disabilities have the right to live outside of institutions. It argues that the new definition conflicts with the Americans with Disabilities Act. It asserts many negative impacts for each of the states that have joined the suit, including, in many cases, challenges with Medicaid compliance.
Then, on page 37, as it reached its third of four counts, the lawsuit switches gears, arguing not for an excision of the new language, but the elimination of Section 504 entirely. The suit argues that Section 504 is “coercive, untethered to the federal interest in disability, and unfairly retroactive” and therefor unconstitutional."
https://curmudgucation.substack.com/p/17-states-sue-to-end-protections
Read more at Peter Greene's substack Curmudgucation.
The same thing they had against them during WWII.
DeleteThose with disabilities are useless at putting more profit into the hands of Nazis.
Attacks on those with disabilities are part of the broader effort to roll back all civil rights advances:
Delete"A War on Civil Rights
February 13, 2025 at 10:43 am EST By Taegan Goddard
Jamelle Bouie: “Trump’s war on DEI is a war on the civil rights era itself, an attempt to turn back the clock on equal rights. Working under the guise of fairness and meritocracy, Trump and his allies want to restore a world where the first and most important qualification for any job of note was whether you were white and male, where merit is a product of your identity and not of your ability.”
“As is true in so many other areas, the right’s accusation that diversity means unfair preferences masks a confession of its own intentions.” [Political Wire]
Democrats defend the legality of killing children with disabilities for their disabilities. They are a hate group against the disabled.
Delete
DeleteDemocrats are also quite fond of eugenics.
They encourage killing the poor, elderly, and disabled and call it empowerment and compassion.
Delete
DeleteWhat was that story recently in Canada?
Ah, yes, here: "I went for a mastectomy and they offered me assisted dying, Canadian cancer patient reveals "
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/10/14/disabled-woman-canada-assisted-suicide-cancer-surgery/
Name one Dem in a leadership position that has advocated for eugenics.
DeleteName one Dem in a leadership position that has advocated for killing children with dissabilities.
DeleteThe Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed two bills this week that could restrict access to abortion. House Bill 1500, known as the Down Syndrome Protection Act, prohibits abortions following a Down syndrome diagnosis, and House Bill 118, known as the Unborn Child Dignity Act, would require providers to offer the option for burial or cremation after a loss of a pregnancy.
DeleteThis marks the third time in four years that the House approved a Down syndrome abortion restriction, and the second year in a row it passed the Unborn Child Dignity Act. While the two bills may be agreed upon by the Senate, Gov. Tom Wolf has promised to veto them if they reach his desk.
HB 1500 passed by a vote of 120-83 following more than an hour of debate on Tuesday. The lengthy floor debate included stories shared by Republicans of accomplishments achieved by people with Down syndrome.
"This bill is for all of those individuals living with Down syndrome here in Pennsylvania and their friends, and the family members who support and love them," said state Rep. Kate Klunk, the bill's prime sponsor. "The lives of those with Down syndrome are lives worth living."
They do not want to pay for wheelchair ramps is all.
DeleteThat's self-defeating because research shows that the physical modifications made to help those with disabilities usually wind up being useful to everyone, especially things like curb-cuts, elevator and street signals. So, it boils down to them wanting to do everything as cheaply and shoddily as possible, which is a bit un-American.
DeleteAn undeveloped clump of cells is not a child. Because Down's syndrome can be diagnosed from its genetic material, it can be aborted long before it comes anywhere near being a fetus, much less a viable one. There is no reason to inflict hardship on parent and child when it can be prevented long before there is any question that this is a child.
DeletePeople with disabilities who have been born and acquired an injury or medical condition that can be helped to live a fuller life with assistance should be helped. No one is suggesting that any Down's Syndrome child near-term or already born should be killed. Other situations where a birth defect or developmental abnormality would not allow a baby to live beyond infancy may choose abortion to spare the mother the risks of childbirth and the child a very early and certain death after painful suffering. People who think that abortion should not be an option in such cases are not thinking about the needs of either the child or parents.
Representing this as a situation in which "children" are being killed is despicable.
Wolf vetoing a law designed to restrict abortion rights in a free to choose an abortion State is not the same as forcing people to kill their Down Syndrome baby. Try again.
Delete(About 2/3rds of Down Syndrome babies are aborted by their parents. It is a tough choice for most, but some people just don't want to deal with it. Others can't afford chancing the cost of a severely impaired DS child. Now if we had universal health care that could turn a lot of those abortion decisions around, but that will never happen due to racists not wanting the blahs to have coverage.
"Tomorrow: Four out of four Stepfords agree"
ReplyDeleteStepford had nothing to do with conformity of opinion. The Stepford wives didn't speak at all, unless spoken to. Suppressing opinions is different than requiring them to agree with each other.
Ira Levin, a libertarian, wrote works of social consciousness set in dystopian worlds. The Stepford Wives was described in his lifetime as a "feminist horror story." He wouldn't agree with Somerby's use of his work.
He also wrote Rosemary’s Baby.
DeleteHe also wrote "One Perfect Day" about authoritarianism.
Delete"This Perfect Day is set in the year 141 of the Unification, a time when a global government controls people's work, residence, and consumption. The Unification also controls whether people marry and reproduce."
Are people generally aware that this is being planned?
ReplyDelete"One of X owner Elon Musk's proposed initiatives at the Department of Government Efficiency has been to sell off buildings used by government workers for a quick injection of cash into federal coffers.
However, as The American Prospect's David Dayen explains, the timing of such a sale could be bad at the moment given the current precarious state of the commercial real estate market.
In his latest analysis, Dayen talks to experts who believe that a mass selloff of government real estate at the moment is like "playing with fire" and could be a domino that sends the market for commercial real estate into a downward spiral."
It has been noted that Musk's approach to the government is like the way a vulture capitalist acquires a company and then dismantles it for profit. This is looting property that belongs to the American People, without oversight or due process or even an explanation of why it is necessary to dump federal property onto the real estate market.
When the right realizes that it needs the people it is firing in order to maintain a functioning government, will it be possible to reacquire the buildings needed for them to do their work, at the same cost? Or is this an ill-considered expensive boondoggle to make a political point? When we miss the things these employees used to do and they are brought back to do them, where will they sit?
That sounds like an economic issue.
DeleteWhy would the Right suddenly start understanding how economics works?
They’ve gotten pretty far with zero understanding so far.
Counterargument: if the sales are channeled through shell companies that are owned by our beloved leader, he will collect tens of millions of dollars. Furthermore, if the building are then branded with the Trump logo, that's more millions for the dear leader. That is good, no?
Delete
DeleteI am sniffing my fingers and I am drooling and I am imagining shell companies.
I am Ilya.
This is a pretty good Friedman column. Alas. we've watched Friedman more than 6 months and know perfectly well that to the extent it means he's catching on, it's misleading. His next 6 missives will be clueless.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI sniff my fingers. And I badly need another booster. Where can I get a booster?
Somerby is an ass.
I am Corby.
I would like DiC to explain this Government Efficiency:
ReplyDelete"The US Department of State is planning to spend $400m buying new Tesla armored vehicles, even as the carmaker’s boss, Elon Musk, leads efforts to slash government spending under Donald Trump."
Yes, this pile of ugly-ass crap vehicle that can't sell to consumers will be bailed out by USAID dollars. Fcking thieves, right out in the open. But the cyberwreck is rugged. Remember the bulletproof demonstration where the weirdos on stage proved it was bulletproof by lobbing a steel shot that went right thru the driver window? Good times. Anyone still humping the felon is a now certified fool. Or certifiable.
Knowing DiC he will say this was a necessary expense because of a bullsht mountain of reasons, sad.
Cope, Soros-bot. Cope.
DeleteA fool and his money are soon parted, MuXkersucker.
DeleteI think that contract has been cancelled or postponed at any rate. There's little doubt that Musk and Trump will unite in their grifting efforts to syphon federal money into their accounts.
DeleteIn a sense, Musk has already accomplished that by dismantling the agencies that would be doing oversight of his companies.
The internets says the only person denying it is Musk, who we can all totally trust.
DeleteAccusing the people who are ending decades of government grift of doing so in order to grift is a special kind of stupid. What causes Democrats to want to sacrifice every shred of critical reasoning to huge, corrupt, incompetent government bureaucracies? It's their religion.
DeleteThis is how inculcated from reality you folks are:
Delete"Trump Fired Inspectors General Who Identified $183.5 Billion in Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
40 Comments/February 12, 2025/emptywheel
The lawsuit by eight of the Inspectors General Trump fired on his fourth day on the job -- who claim they've identified $183.5 billion in potential waste, fraud, and abuse during their tenure as IGs -- will contrast their proven efforts with DOGE's"
Keep being stupid, it's all you got beside racism, anger, and grievance. Also too the stoopid.
"inculcated from reality" is not an English phrase. Maybe Arty means "insulated from reality" which would make sense. This mistake would leap out at any native English speaker. That it didn't get corrected suggests to me that Arty is either not a person or not a native speaker of English. How many of our daily trolls are like that?
DeleteWatching OAN inculcates you from reality.
DeleteI think Bob seems to overvalue clinical diagnoses in regards to Trump and Musk. As far as Musk, between his drug experimentation and his bizarre lifestyle, he has succumbed to some delusion of grandeur.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, Trump and Musk are destroying the social construct; the framework of our society. It matters less -- not at all, I would say -- that in the case of Trump it comes by the way of old age dementia or some other mental illness. His drive to become a unitary executive, not answerable to anyone, is not, in and of itself, a sign of mental illness.
In these days of AI everywhere, you could produce your own transcript in a nonce. Who knows the copyright implications.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Friedman to some degree, but I disagree with his analysis. I agree that Trump's peace plan i just riffing. It's loopy, tossed out without vetting by aides or allies, the details of which change every day. However, that's OK with me, because
ReplyDelete-- Trump proposal is just a basis for discussion. It could lead to something workable. Or, it turns out to be just talk, if it's never implemented, then it does no damage.
-- No other Gaza proposal makes sense. A "permanent" cease fire will eventually lead to Hamas re-arming, followed by another atrocity like 9/7 and ongoing permanent horrific war. Recall that the 9/7 atrocity took place during a formal cease fire.
-- Trump's proposal widens the Overton Window. It encourages thinking outside the box. No plan anyone can think of today makes sense. Maybe broader thinking will lead to someone thinking of a new approach that actually works.
This is a classic DiC rationalization. He agrees that trump has done something completely loopy, but concludes that it is a brilliant move and proves once again what a mastermind orange chickenshit is.
DeleteGo take a flying fuck, dickhead.
@5:48 -- I agreed that Trump has said something loopy.
Delete"Or, it turns out to be just talk, if it's never implemented, then it does no damage."
DeleteI disagree. The statements of the US president are consequential, especially statements in regard to long-running regional conflicts.
Today, the Trump White House took retaliatory measures--punishment, in plain English--against the Associated Press and its reporters. Why? Because the AP stylebook won't adopt Trump's "Gulf of America" designation for the Gulf of Mexico. Press secretary Levitt said not using Trump's preferred label amounts to "telling lies."
ReplyDeleteRight, Quaker. She said not using the proper name is not honest reporting. She also pointed out that it's a privilege, not a right, to be invited into the Oval Office and ask the President questions. Most news organizations have not been offered this privilege.
DeleteI personally think "Gulf of America" is a stupid name. I don't approve of the change. Nevertheless, it is now the officially correct name.
The U.S. Board on Geographic Names, under the purview of the Department of the Interior, is working expeditiously to update the official federal nomenclature in the Geographic Names Information System to reflect these changes, effective immediately for federal use. https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-department-advances-restoration-historic-names-honoring-american-greatness
BTW why in the world did AP choose not to use the correct name?
It's an asinine edict, totally dumb, but we love it and will punish you if don't. We are not fascists.
Delete"Luis Alberto Castillo, a father of one from Venezuela, entered the United States on Jan. 19, one day before Donald Trump became president for a second term — swept into office on a promise to treat undocumented migrants with a heavy hand.
ReplyDeleteBy Feb. 4, Mr. Castillo was on a plane to a U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, best known for a detention center that has long held terrorism suspects accused of launching the deadliest attack on American soil.
That day, the Department of Homeland Security declared that those who had been transferred to the island represented “the worst of the worst” and were all members of a Venezuelan criminal group, the Tren de Aragua.
But in an interview from her home in Colombia, Mr. Castillo’s sister Yajaira Castillo said her brother was not a gang member to be feared, but rather an everyday Venezuelan who had fled his country because of its economic crisis.
He was targeted because he had a Michael Jordan Tattoo on his back which is apparently something that some gang members have — as well as many non-gang members in Venezuela because basketball is very popular there and Michael Jordan is an icon. I’m not kidding.
The NY Times checked and this man has no criminal record in Venezuela. He didn’t sneak across the border but presented himself and obtained an appointment as the law allowed. He is now in a concentration camp being treated like a terrorist.
The only way the sister found out about it was by happening to see a picture of his shared by Kristi Noem on social media. "
https://digbysblog.net/2025/02/12/he-had-a-michael-jordan-tattoo/