THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2025
We'll suggest that you listen to Reason: “What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died?”
We apologize for repeating the opening line of the 1970 Erich Segal blockbuster novel, Love Story. That opening line popped into our heads as we pondered a similar question.
Our own question goes like this:
What can you say about a 78-year-old man who keeps making blatantly ludicrous statements?
What can you say about a person like that? (We're thinking of Donald J. Trump!)
What can you say about a person like Donald J. Trump? We still owe you our reaction to the fact-checks which appeared concerning his ludicrous claim about the way our own United States has been "ripped off" by the World Health Organization.
(For our initial report on that topic, you can just click here.)
That report dealt with the commander's ludicrous claim about the way we were being ripped off by the WHO. We assume his recent statement about the number of Chinese-language signs in Panama is also an absurd misstatement—but when we tried to consult the fact-checks of that statement, we found that no one had bothered to try.
In fairness, Trump says so many crazy things that it's very hard to keep up. Many orgs have simply abandoned the task of fact-checking his endless string of absurd misstatements. As a general matter, those same orgs have never been willing to ask what the existence of so many crazy statements may perhaps or possibly say about the person who makes them.
With those facts in mind, we'll update our question:
What can you say about a 78-year-old man who keeps making crazy statements? If a person keeps making crazy statements, what might that say or suggest about him?
Our trigger today is a report by Joe Lancaster for the web site over at Reason. Below, you see the headline atop the piece, and you see the crazy statements which have now, at long last, been thoroughly debunked:
Transcript Proves the 60 Minutes Scandal Was Always Fake
An issue that came to define the closing days of the 2024 presidential election, oddly, was a single televised interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate. Republican candidate Donald Trump claimed the interview was misleadingly edited to Harris' benefit and demanded investigations—which he, as the newly elected president, could potentially order.
This week, CBS released the transcript and raw footage of the interview, demonstrating how pointless the controversy always was but also potentially setting a dangerous precedent for the future of news media.
[...]
"[Harris] gave an answer that was from a loony bin," Trump claimed two weeks later at a campaign rally. "[CBS News] said, 'We can't have that.' They took the answer out in its entirety, threw it away, and they put another answer in. And I think it's the biggest scandal in broadcasting history."
According to the crazy statement in question, the way CBS edited Candidate Harris' statement constituted "the biggest scandal in broadcasting history."
Also, it constituted "election interference," this person weirdly said.
Now, the full videotape and transcript of the interview has been released. As Lancaster notes, the material shows how clownish the commander's statements actually were.
We'll recommend that you peruse Lancaster's full report, which demonstrates the craziness of this famous person's claims. We close with another version of our own question:
What can you say about a commander who keeps saying the darnedest things? What might a specialist say about a person who just keeps behaving like that?
"What can you say about a 78-year-old man who keeps making blatantly ludicrous statements?"
ReplyDeleteHow old is Somerby?
"Also, it constituted "election interference," this person weirdly said."
ReplyDeleteAnother Trump projection.
What can you say about Trump's crazy comments? You can say Trump is exaggerating and lying. These lies are reprehensible, but they're not insane. I think Trump doesn't actually believe the crazy things he says. Trump says anything he thinks will promote his issues.
ReplyDeleteWhen Trump starts doing insane things, I will worry about his sanity.
The issue of whether Trump does or does not believe the things he says is irrelevant. Truth exists independent of Trump's thoughts. Trump's motives are important and should have been part of voter decision-making, but apparently it wasn't, since his motives are blatantly obvious.
DeleteWill you worry about Trump doing criminal things now that he has been convicted of them by impartial juries and judges? Why not?
It was an exaggeration, like there being one Republican voter who isn’t a bigot.
DeleteTrump could have made his exaggeration seem reasonable, but instead he totally over exaggerated the number of Republican voters who aren’t bigots as one.
DeleteHe might have fooled someone if he hadn’t picked some totally inflated number no one could possibly believe.
That’s probably the reason he was such a failure as a real estate developer.
One is way too big of an exaggeration by Trump. He may as well have said 70 trillion zillion, if he didn't care about fooling anyone with his exaggerating.
DeleteDavid in Cal,
DeleteDo you think you would you feel bad for American citizens who are dealing with grocery inflation if you weren't an out of touch coastal elite?
@11:51 - Trump is doing so well that his enemies have to make up stuff to criticize him. One such story is that Trump's policies will cause food prices to rise in the future. Of course, nobody knows the future, so this story isn't real.
DeleteD in C - nobody knows what goes on inside someone's head. It seems Trump's already super-bloated ego has been fed by the bizarre acceptance of his adherents, including you, who accept his constant reprehensible lying. There something very destructive about this. because of all the undeserved adulation from his lame-brained admirers and cowardly GOP pols, Trump's ego has exploded, he's like the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Trump apparently believes that his simply saying something makes it true.
DeleteAC\MA - I agree that Trump has a bloated ego.
Delete"...make up stuff to criticize him."
DeleteTrump made it very clear that his administration would employ tariffs , stating that the US would be collecting revenue from them. Tariff: his stated favorite word.
When 22 Nobel prize laureates signed a position statement indicating that Trump's economic plan was, among other things, inflationary (this also, of course included jettisoning undocumented farm workers which would raise food prices). Exactly what were they "making up..."?
When Trump's repeatedly stated intentions are to enact an economic plan that is inflationary, and the brightest scholars in economics state the obviously not now that tariffs are inflationary, you are in no position to argue that based upon Trump's track record of lying, that they are "... making stuff up". You are not now, nor have ever been a good faith commented here.
@6:12 - Trump's regulatory reform and reduction of government spending will be anti-inflationary. Will they offset the inflationary effect of his new tariffs? I don't know and neither do you and neither do some economists.
DeleteI’m not sure you would ever label anything Trump did as insane, DiC. He seems to be able to do no wrong in your eyes.
DeleteInflation is already under control, DiC. At this point, Trump’s destruction of government will affect people’s buying power.
DeleteNeuroscientists and psychologists know what goes on inside people's heads. They just don't know what that feels like to the person whose head they're examining.
Delete6:33 Sorry, dude, that's a fail. You stated that people MADE THINGS UP, such as stating that Trump's policies would be inflationary for grocery prices. "Some economists" as you denigrate them, happen to be the majority of living Nobel laureate economists. It is difficult to get various factions of economists to agree on very much of anything but it is widely accepted among economists of all stripes that tariffs raise prices. But more to the point, their joint statement about the deleterious effects of Trump economic policy as outlined during the election run up was not based on his tariff proposals alone. Predicting that the proposed activities of the Trump administration will raise prices is not "making stuff up". It is a prediction based on policy outlined by Trump. So far, the performative activities of Musk and his bros in attacking an agency that comprises less than 1%of the budget is hardly substantial. Trump has shown no proclivity to reduce spending whatsoever. The idea that substantial reduction in government spending will take place at all is your little fantasy that you conveniently " make up" to offset clearly inflationary plans of hIs.
Delete"What can you say about a 78-year-old man who keeps making blatantly ludicrous statements?"
ReplyDeleteHe's wrong.
He hasn't earned his pulpit.
No one should listen to him.
Those who voted for him were morons.
He is going to do irreparable damage to our country and must be stopped (using legal means).
Everyone has a right to their opinion, even folks who are as misguided as this guy.
You can refute his ludicrous statements, or just the subset that affect important things (not the ones about sharks or Hannibal Lecter).
You can support the opposition to such a guy, and there is a considerable resistance in this country to him.
You can contribute money to the organizations working to limit the harm he is capable of doing.
You can become a forum for sanity and make statements that are true and helpful.
You can promote those who are speaking the truth.
You can stop watching Fox News, where those statements are routinely sanewashed, ditto for any other sources, such as the NY Times and David Brooks.
You can stop echoing and amplifying those statements and instead find a new hobby, such as stamp collecting.
You can resign from the alt right white supremacist militia you belong to and become a force for good in the world.
So many things that it makes me wonder why Somerby has not thought of these alternatives himself. That, itself, suggests something about his actual motives here.
Here is one of the most important things Somerby can do -- something I suggested the first time he got on this horse. Contact these guys:
"The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is a national organization that provides support and education for people with mental health conditions. NAMI also has a free helpline that offers information and resources. "
I doubt the helpline and informational webpages are still functional, since this is part of the NIH and all of these useful government web sources have been taken down as Trump/Musk's effort to destroy the government.
Mental illness is not a joke. The people who are mentally ill suffer and are in pain. Helping them is a good thing to do. Using them to pretend to attack Trump is a bad thing to do because it stigmatizes people who do not need any additional problems. It is worse than the jokes Gutfeld makes about aging.
Hate to break it to you but the less stigmatizing mental health diagnoses have always gone to the upper classes. It's not an objective system.
Delete“What can you say about a 78-year-old man who keeps making blatantly ludicrous.
DeleteYou say what you want to say. You can say what you think is true and pertinent. . Remember, Bob, you’re going after Pres. Trump. Your critics are merely going after you.
Bob's history as a schoolteacher unfortunately imprinted on him this idea that there is this normative psychology you can punish irrationality out of existence with. He's likely seen many students told to be more normal.
DeleteBut what if normativity is not the same as health, and it is closer to correlate it with power?
When you see far right rituals like transvestigations and calling people crazy foreigners, it fits so well into stigmatized mental illness rhetoric because psychology already holds power using normative ideas. Higher status people are less likely to be called intellectually disabled, and power is further protected the hyper individual focus of your brain being the issue and not how society understands you.
There's nothing necessary sick about Trump being an illiterate clown for hire. What's being fought over is the social typecasting that liberal humanitarians have already laid the groundwork for.
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL27371187M/The_Color_of_Mind
https://columbialawreview.org/content/the-neurodiversity-paradigm-and-abolition-of-psychiatric-incarceration/
Anonymouse 5:19pm, we can only hope that you and yours are the next generation of democratic campaign advisors. No party is more deserving of that.
DeleteThere is no pill or treatment Trump can receive that would cure him of being what (and who) he is. That is not true for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder or OCD, which are real illnesses. This idea that all of psychiatry is socially constructed to maintain hierarchies or norms has some validity but doesn't apply to people who are really suffering because of real illnesses that do have medical explanations and treatments that work (for most if not all people). The idea that a schizophrenic person may be simply called eccentric if they are rich is incorrect when you are talking about full-blown psychosis.
DeleteTrump doesn't deserve to be treated like a harmless wealthy crank when he is committing Hitler level atrocities affecting people's lives. People died during covid due to Trump's behavior. He needs to be taken seriously and his proposals and actions need to be addressed, not dismissed as Somerby keeps doing every time he wants to explain away Trump as a crazy nutcase. It is insulting to the real world where events matter, every time Somerby comes here trying to call Trump a "madman" (Somerby's new favorite word) instead of a fascist criminal who is breaking the law and needs to be controlled to prevent more harm to our nation and its people.
Anonymouse 7:48pm, medications don’t “cure” mental illnesses, they manage the various symptoms of these conditions. You’re saying that mental illness should be taken seriously while simultaneously arguing that labeling Trump as being mentally ill is trivializing of psychiatric illnesses. Oh, it’s not like Trump is evil, he’s merely crazy…. You think that formulation is exculpating of Trump? Again, who are you really battling here? It ain’t Trump.
DeletePity is most definitely not the appropriate attitude to take with Trump, as Somerby keeps urging his readers.
DeleteTrump does not meet diagnostic criteria for any mental illness. He may have dementia. He does seem to have a combination of personality types (narcissistic, anti-social, machiavellian). These only become disorders when they cause distress or conflicts with society (such as arrests or inability to hold a job or form relationships). Because of his wealth he has been shielded from consequences of his actions.
DeleteMental health professionals do not go around slapping labels on people to stigmatize them. They try to help people conform their behavior to the demands of society so they can achieve their own goals. None of that applies to Trump.
A “cure” in psychiatry occurs when people can live a satisfying life, whether through medication, behavioral change, or treatment. A medical analogy is imperfect even when the cause of a person’s difficulties is organic. Somerby has been on the wrong track and often offensive about this obsession with Trump’s sanity for years now, despite explanations.
Anonymouse 9:25pm, reciting the lyric “pity the poor immigrant” is not an attempt to excuse Pres. Trump. I pity people who must make brain-dead arguments that “pity” for a Commander-in-Chief would somehow be helpful to him or abetting of him..Yeah, the public (and congress critters..) just love weakness in an a leader. It makes them want to take Pres. Trump out and buy him a popsicle. .
DeleteYou can’t even fool yourself with this crap.
Somerby recommends pity. I do not. I have no idea if Somerby thinks it would be “helpful” to Trump. What the fuck are you talking about? You don’t pity a sociopath.
DeleteAnonymouse 9:52pm, so Bob is actually offensive in agitating for a public discussion of Trump’s mental health? Well, your fairness to Pres. Trump is exemplary. You’ll call Bob everything in the book, including a pedophile, but you’re far too above board to fight dirty about Trump.
DeleteI don’t know what Bob ever did to Digby, but it’s turned the last ten years into nothing but an internecine fistfight for anonymices.
Somerby is offensive for using terms like crazy and madman, which he admits are not appropriate. Somerby has always defended Trump from investigation (J6 Committe), prosecution (hush money & libel trials), and impeachments, instead of supporting those trying to hold Trump accountable.
DeleteWhere did@9:52 call Somerby a pedophile? Digby is a great political blogger who has won awards. Why are you dragging her into this?
DeleteIt doesn’t seem to me like anonymous commenters are fighting each other. They don’t like you, or the various right wing trolls.
Is Cecelia seriously complaining because an anonymous is refusing to fight dirty against Trump? Too much wine already?
DeleteAnonymouse 10:44pm, no, I’m seriously saying that you don’t get paid to discuss Trump. You’re here to go after Bob.
DeleteIt's a dirty job but someone's got to do it.
DeleteFun with numbers:
ReplyDeleteTake the number of illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. during the Biden Administration and add the number of illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. during the Trump Administrations, then multiply that sum by the number of Republican voters who care about grocery prices.
The total always equals zero.
Neat, huh?
DOGE staffer resigns over racist social-media posts.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.wsj.com/tech/doge-staffer-resigns-over-racist-posts-d9f11a93
The only people who have a problem with Musk and DOGE are Democrats, and they lost.
DeleteThe Pentagon said that @SpaceX has saved the government over $40B. One SLS launch costs billions. One SpaceX launch costs less than $75M.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell on SpaceX's $22B in gov contracts: "We earned that. We bid it, we were the lowest price, best bidder, we won and we execute. It's not a bad thing to serve the U.S. government with great capability and products."
The people complaining that SpaceX's gov contracts were "wasteful" really have no clue what they are talking about.
How the hell did Musk know Republicans are fine with any corruption as long as black people suffer?
DeleteDid he pay attention?
4:09, what the fuck does SpaceX have to do with the illegal and unconstitutional acts of Musk and his band of boy toys in a phony non-governmental gang called DOGE?
DeleteMuch of the criticism insinuates Musk will self-deal with his powers which is absurd.
Delete5:35, that is nonsense. The WH has assured us the Mush will police himself. If he finds any conflicts he'll avert his gaze.
DeleteWhite House Says Musk Will Decide His Own Conflicts of Interest.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-says-musk-decide
Bwahahahaha!!!!
Trump says a lot of outrageous things. The tactic is called whack a mole. It’s the way to keep the pesky Democrat children busy chasing his latest remarks while he gets things done.
ReplyDeleteTrump tripled the number of Republican voters who know something about economics to zero.
DeleteAnonymouse 4:49pm, I think you just perpetrated what the kids call a “self-own”.
Delete3 x 0 = 0 is a self-own?
DeleteAnonymouse 6:09pm, whether it’s Repubs who know economics or don’t know economics if you triple anything by zero it’s zero. You could say the same as three economists.
DeleteWhat has he gotten done? Destroying things is not any kind of "getting something done".
Delete@7:36 — Last week Dr Miller destroyed my skin cancer.
DeleteDid Dr Miller bill Medicare, DiC?
DeleteShe billed United Healthcare, who is partially reimbursed by Medicare.
Delete"...is partially reimbursed by Medicare."
DeleteSo, you're a Libertarian. Got it.
Republican voters are anti-America,
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile Antifa is anti-Right-wing. They even put it in their name.
ReplyDeleteA Neo-Nazi, a white supremacist and one of the fine people on the Right walk into a bar.
ReplyDeleteDavid in Cal looks at them, and says "I can't tell these people apart. They all look alike. to me."
Anonymouse 5:17pm, true for antifa as well sans their hoods and tattoos.
DeleteNo one in Antifa is going to hang around with those guys. What do you think "antifa" means?
DeleteAnonymouse 7:35pm, you’ve missed the point, but you’re right Antifa doesn’t hang out, they bust up property and people’s heads.
DeleteBust up property and people’s heads? You seem to be describing the Trump mob on Jan 6.
DeleteAnonymouse 9:23pm, actually, I was thinking about the violence that went on from mid 2020 to 2021, if you can recount that ancient history.
DeleteYes, Jan 6, 2021.
DeleteAnonymouse 10:07pm, there’s that anonymouse memory-hole.
DeleteYour memory hole is so big it doesn’t contain a memory of Jan 6 at all. A day that will live in infamy, one of the worst attacks on our government. I won’t let you forget it. You’re welcome.
DeleteAnonymouse 10:41pm, no, 1/6 was merely something you used as a deflection from my responses to an anonymouse who brought up Antifa.
DeleteYOU brought up Antifa, dingbat.
DeleteAnonymouse 10:54pm, no, I didn’t. Scroll up.
DeleteThat’s a different thread. YOU brought it up in this one.
Delete“AnonymousFebruary 6, 2025 at 5:14 PM
DeleteMeanwhile Antifa is anti-Right-wing. They even put it in their name.”
Welcome to reality, 11:13. Let me give you a warm blanket.
DeleteJanuary 6th was a mere perfect representation of how Right-wingers react when black people are treated like equals.
DeleteUSAID to be reduced from 10,000 to 300 employees tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteIn 2010 its budget was 1.65 billion yr and it has ballooned to 70 billion.
The grift is over.
The sure mark of a grifter is giving food to starving people.
DeleteAnonymouse 9:14pm, what do you think front organizations are about?
DeleteAsk Donald trump, Cecelia.
DeleteAnonymouse 10:10pm, I’m asking you.
DeleteThere was a time when taking office and immediately cutting charity funding would have been committing political suicide. What is wrong with Republicans?
DeleteAnonymouse 10:29pm, we know the difference between charities and money funneling ops. USAID will go on as a tighter and smaller org with more oversight.
DeleteI … really don’t think you know the difference between charities and money funneling ops. You voted for Trump after all.
DeleteAnonymouse 10:44pm, I don’t think you care about the differences one way or another.
DeleteYou sure as hell don’t.
DeleteAnonymices 10:51pm, I don’t have to care now. It’s being dealt with. We can both move on.
DeleteHow would you know what’s “being dealt with?” There is zero transparency. Trump and musk routinely lie. I say again you don’t care, otherwise you would not trust these people to not engage in money funneling ops of their own. Trump’s whole career was based on it.
DeleteAnonymouse 11:04pm, no, what you’re saying is since I don’t harbor your political views, I’m incapable of caring about corruption. Duly noted as routine anonymouse reasoning. Carry on.
DeleteYou just said you don’t have to care now, because you trust it’s being dealt with. I pointed out why that’s not a stance that comports with actual caring about corruption.
DeleteCecila,
Deletedo you have any idea what USAID does? At all?
Hector, no, and there’s no way that I could have ever googled it or have seen it referenced on other blog boards, X, or news articles.
DeleteI trust Cecelia's judgement, because she trusts a guy who has a long history of stiffing the people who work for him.
DeleteJust kidding. I trust Cecelia's judgement because I'm a bigot, just like every other Republican voter. You silly goose.
Let's consider the word of the former Administrator of USAID under the George W Bush administration:
DeleteAndrew Natsios:
Well, the people I talk to are appalled by what's happening. And I'm talking about people in the developing world and people certainly within the agency. The agency is shut down.
We can't field DART teams, Disaster Assistance Response Teams, which we created 35 years ago, and I was the director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, which go to disasters all over the world in civil wars, in famines, in refugee emergencies, and earthquakes. We can't field those DART teams anymore.
Our anti-polio eradication program is not functioning right now because the missions are shut down. They're going to close all 80 missions? That's the stupidest idea I have ever heard. The most powerful thing we have going for us in the developing world are the USAID missions, two-thirds of whom are local people.
They're people with advanced degrees who work for AID for many years who help run our programs. Two-thirds of the AID work force aren't even Americans. And they don't work for very high wages, I have to tell you. And they do important work, and shutting this whole system down makes no sense at all.
The notion that people have been — who's been complaining about AID? The Defense Department, career military does not complain about AID. They complain about the State Department, if you talk to them. And I have great respect for our diplomats. I was a diplomat for a while, but the reality is, AID is far more like the Pentagon, because it is an operational agency that gets stuff done.
State Department is a policymaking body. If you put AID into State, there will be no development program and no emergency programs, because we will no longer be operational. It will be a disaster for the United States and a disaster for people in the Global South.
That's it Cecilia. Bury yourself in irony. Like all the other ketamine clowns.
Delete“ The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency under the Trump administration has been pushing old press releases into Google searches by updating their timestamps in order to “game” Google’s search results to create the appearance of a wave of mass deportations, reported The Guardian on Thursday.”
ReplyDeleteRacism is a helluva drug.
Delete12:19 Got that. The firing of one of Musk's Doge minions for publicly advocating eugenics, after Reddit blew up over it, is a hint of what they would like kept secret. We are watching a handful of Silicon valley billionaire assholes wage a war against our government, advocating cryptocurrency and an alliance that is transcendent over it. Trump is an easily manipulated old man that serves their purposes.
DeleteThese are the assholes that are trying to subvert our country:
DeleteThiel explained in a 2009 essay that he had come to "no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible", due in large part to welfare beneficiaries and women in general being "notoriously tough for libertarians" constituencies, and that he had focused efforts on new technologies (namely cyberspace, space colonization and seasteading) that could create "a new space for freedom" beyond current politics.[95] Said essay has been referenced by Curtis Yarvin and Nick Land, the main theorists of the neo-reactionary movement, in their writings.[96]
Trump is the demented old man they got to give them the Keys. It's no accident that Vance is bought by Theil.
DeleteSenate Votes to Confirm Project 2025 Architect Russell Vought as White House Budget Chief
DeleteThis man has openly testified that trump can impound any congressionally approved appropriations if they don't conform to trump's agenda. That is some hot shit right there. Every fucking rat faced republican voted to confirm this gruesome anti-democratic fascist.
Last year, Vought told undercover reporters his plans for mass deportations, restricting abortion, gutting independent government bureaucracies and using the military against racial justice protesters. Vought also said he would work to paint federal workers as “villains” and “put them in trauma” in order to drastically reduce the size of the federal civilian workforce.
Remember when Trump looked the American people in the eye and denied he knew anything about Project 2025? I do.
Everyone should recall that Russell Vought was intimately involved in the first impeachment of Donald J Chickenshit, by impounding the military aid designated for Ukraine while little Donny Chickenshit extorted the President of Ukraine trying to get him to smear Biden.
DeleteTrump is basically committing at least one impeachable offense every day. There are no institutions left standing that will check him.
DeleteWe can have hope in the lower courts.
DeleteThe lower courts don't have the last word.
DeleteUnfortunately, gun owners are too busy selling their guns to criminals on the black market to use the 2nd Amendment to fight government tyranny.
DeleteHello greeting to you, fruxmonte8. Here I have to ask questin of money $4$ system. Can I make real $ with manifest? And maybe it help manifest schwantz. I have now small schwantz.
ReplyDeleteLooks like the Republican Party is clearing the runway for genocide against transpeople.
ReplyDeleteThe media pretended Republican voters cared about grocery prices for this.