SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 2025
But who was he talking about? Were some people shipped off to the gulag last week—some people who weren't "gang members?"
In the absence of "due process," were all the people who got frog-marched away "killers, rapists, monsters, foreign terrorists?"
As we noted yesterday, that's what Karoline Leavitt told us.
That's what Leavitt said! But were some of the people who got shipped away misidentified, innocent parties? How many such people are now locked inside the gulag which our journalists politely describe as a "prison?"
It's amazing to see the way Blue America's leading tribunes can slide right past that obvious question. All in all, how smart are "we the [blue] American people?" Are we really equipped for this task?
Last night, on CNN, that obvious question--are some alleged gang members floated right on by.
We refer to the imitation discussion which took place on the programmed 10 p.m. shoutfest, CNN NewsNight with Abby Philip. At one point, one of the panelists on the little-watched actually raised this point:
KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR (3/21/25): The Trump administration continues to have this problem with this loose relationship with the truth. They don't seem to be able to present the judge with the data to say, "Here's who's on the plane. We can prove to you that these individuals are actually gang members."
We're now hearing stories that some of them may not have been at all. And I can't imagine the horror of being in one of these prisons if you're not. So you know, again, people want him to follow the law. That seems to be very difficult for Donald Trump.
Finney had raised an obvious question. Could some of those people be innocent people? How many such people are there?
Finney had raised an obvious question. In the poverty of the age, here's what happened next:
TIFFANY SMILEY (R), FORMER WASHINGTON U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE (continuing directly): I mean, I can't imagine the horror of American families who have their children murdered by these illegal criminals that are in our country.
And Donald Trump has a constitutional obligation to protect the American people. That's, what, over 77 million people voted to do.
That's what Tiffany Smiley said. Instantly, she'd moved past Finney's point of concern. Just like that, she had returned to a certain assumption:
She seemed to be assuming that the people who'd been frogmarched away really were "illegal criminals."
Smiley's mind hadn't quite permitted her to stick to the question at hand. Meanwhile, do we the (blue) American people have the skills to play this game?
Is our own Blue America up to this task? Here's what happened next:
JOEL PAYNE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST (continuing directly): But, Tiffany, wouldn't you say that I don't have to defend your behavior to defend your rights? I mean, your rights exist for a reason. They exist because—
SMILEY: So, the criminals have rights?
PAYNE: I think lots of the American—
PHILLIP: Why don't you answer your own question? Do criminals have rights?
Just like that, Phillip slid off the original question in the manner suggested by Smiley. Just like that, Phillip was now asking if criminals have rights.
Just like that, Phillip wasn't asking how we can know if the people who got shipped away really were criminals. Just like that, an obvious, very basic question had been left in the dust.
Phillip is a Harvard graduate (class of 2010). She isn't dumb, she isn't nasty, and she's very composed.
We're embarrassed to see her assigned the task of moderating this 10 p.m., overtalk-based "cable news" TV show. But that's the hand she's been dealt.
The "conversation" continued from there. But just like that, Finney's original question was gone, long gone:
SMILEY (continuing directly): Look, we have illegal criminals in our country that Donald Trump has a constitutional obligation to protect the American people.
PHILLIP: But you asked, "Do criminals have rights?" Do they have rights in this country?
SMILEY: Absolutely. And he's sending them back to their country to go through due process.
All concerned were now asking if criminals have rights. The answer, of course, is yes, they do—but that hadn't been Finney's question.
Meanwhile, there was Smiley, saying this:
"[President Trump] is sending them back to their country to go through due process."
Of course, the people in question haven't been sent back "to their country." Nor are they likely to encounter "due process" in the country to which they've been shipped.
The alleged Venezuelans in question have actually been sent to a different, third country—El Salvador. There's little chance that they'll encounter "due process" in the gulag they inhabit there.
As you can see by perusing the transcript, CNN's imitation of human discourse continued along from there. Question:
Are we humans up to the task of conducting the type of society we Blues refer to as "our democracy?" In our view, the answer far from clear.
Then too, there was Jeffrey Goldberg, at the end of the PBS program Washington Week on Friday, March 14.
Jeffrey Goldberg is plenty sharp. Somewhat oddly, he ended that night's program by saying this:
GOLDBERG (3/14/25): Unfortunately, we need to leave it there for now, but I'm sure we're going to be revisiting these questions again. I want to thank our panelists for joining us and our viewers as well.
For more on what ketamine does to the human brain, and I'm not saying whose brain, please visit theatlantic.com.
I'm Jeffrey Goldberg. Good night from Washington.
Ketamine hadn't been mentioned at any point during the program. We wondered what article at The Atlantic he might be talking about.
The next day, we clicked to magazine's site in an attempt to find out. After some further clicking around, we located the article Goldberg was talking about.
Somehow, we'd missed the article when it was posted back on March 5, and it seems to have triggered no wider journalistic discussion. The article had been written by Shayla Love. Dual headline included, it started by saying this:
What Ketamine Does to the Human Brain
Excessive use of the drug can make anyone feel like they rule the world.
Last month, during Elon Musk’s appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, as he hoisted a chain saw in the air, stumbled over some of his words, and questioned whether there was really gold stored in Fort Knox, people on his social-media platform, X, started posting about ketamine.
Musk has said he uses ketamine regularly, so for the past couple of years, public speculation has persisted about how much he takes, whether he’s currently high, or how it might affect his behavior. Last year, Musk told CNN’s Don Lemon that he has a ketamine prescription and uses the drug roughly every other week to help with depression symptoms. When Lemon asked if Musk ever abused ketamine, Musk replied, “I don’t think so. If you use too much ketamine you can’t really get work done,” then said that investors in his companies should want him to keep up his drug regimen. Not everyone is convinced. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Musk also takes the drug recreationally, and in 2023, Ronan Farrow reported in The New Yorker that Musk’s “associates” worried that ketamine, “alongside his isolation and his increasingly embattled relationship with the press, might contribute to his tendency to make chaotic and impulsive statements and decisions.” (Musk did not respond to my requests for comment. In a post on X responding to The New Yorker’s story, Musk wrote, “Tragic that Ronan Farrow is a puppet of the establishment and against the people.”)
We've linked several times to that January 2024 report by the Wall Street Journal. A cynic might say that Musk's comment about Ronan Farrow is exactly the sort of thing which has led some people to ask the sorts of questions Love cites in her report.
What does ketamine "do to the human brain?" As happenstance has it, we have a lifelong friend who's deep into ketamine culture. We continue to speak by phone. He's homeless on the west coast.
That said, what can ketamine "do to the brain?" It's a limited instrument to start with. Where can ketamine take it?
These are perfectly sensible questions to ask at this point in time. As a general matter, Blue America's leading tribunes have agreed to avoid such queries.
Our tribunes agree that we mustn't talk about Dr. Bandy X. Lee at all. For better or worse, they're also reluctant to discuss this second (related) topic.
At CNN, an obvious thread was quickly lost in the course of last evening's "discussion." That's the way our human brains tend to work, even in the absence of additional points of concern.
Jeffrey Goldberg is plenty sharp. Also, he's the person who was willing to publish the article by Love.
That said, the article has triggered zero discussion. At the end of last Friday's program, Goldberg cited it sotto voce.
Jeffrey Goldberg is perfectly sharp. He's also a good, decent person. That said:
As a species, are we the humans really equipped for the current task?
This morning, we watched the first hour of Fox & Friends Weekend, plus a little bit more. For that and for many other reasons, we're forced to say that the prospects may not be amazingly good.
ReplyDelete"Could some of those people be innocent people? How many such people are there?"
How many innocent people did Saint Obama, the 2009 Nobel peace prize laureate, murder with his drones, Bob? Somehow I don't remember you endlessly agonizing about it, at the time.
But now it's different. Why is that?
None.
DeleteObama is often dragged by Dems for his overuse/misuse of drones, but he did put some limits on it which Trump then removed and then killed many more people. In reality, we had more active military deaths under Trump than Biden.
DeleteElectoral politics is always about lesser evil/harm reduction.
This time is was about "democracy", small d.
DeleteDemocracy lost out to eggs.
ReplyDelete"But you asked, "Do criminals have rights?" Do they have rights in this country?"
And the simple answer is: it depends.
For example: back in 1942 Saint Roosevelt sent all the ethnic Japanese in America to concentration camps. And they weren't even criminals, imagine that.
Invoking Roosevelt doesn't’ justify what Trump is doing. We were actually at war with Japan. (Again, you can debate Roosevelt’s decision. Many found it unconscionable.) Trump is using the Alien Enemies act of 1798 against immigrants from a country (Venezuela) with which we are not at war. What country will be next on Trump’s list?
DeleteCanada is already on his list. He is deporting Canadians with legitimate tourist and work visas.
DeleteI don't see how Trump could possibly ignore the cries from 77 million snowflakes for Daddy Government to please save them from the scary outside world.
ReplyDeleteEveryone who gets or expects to get social security and Medicare paid into both programs over the course of their working life with the expectation that they will receive those benefits when they are eligible. They expect and demand that the government fulfill its side of the contract. It isn’t just 77 million, and they aren’t snowflakes for demanding the government abide by its agreements, even if, and perhaps especially when, the government is run by a man notorious for violating contracts he has entered into.
DeleteRepublican voters are miserable pieces of shit.
ReplyDeleteThat's why you never see one with a smile on their face.
A Neo-Nazi, a white supremacist, and a Republican voter walk into a bar. The bartender looks at him, and says, "have your one beer and get the hell out of my bar."
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"Jeffrey Goldberg is perfectly sharp. He's also a good, decent person. "
Oh? So, Zionist thugs are your good, decent persons now. Good to know. You are who you associate with.
Meh. Goldberg hasn't even raped a 13-year old because she reminded him of his daughter. He's probably a Soros-bot.
DeleteGoldberg is a pos neoliberal neocon.
DeleteYou are who you associate with? Does that apply to kindergarten teachers, psychiatrists, prison guards, how about male gynecologists?
Delete“ It's amazing to see the way Blue America's leading tribunes can slide right past that obvious question.”
ReplyDeleteBlue America has been louder than Somerby, publicizing, filing court cases, opposing these deliberate atrocities of Trump’s out-of-control govt. Somerby has some gall suggesting we are not fighting back, especially since Somerby helped elect Trump. Blue America isn’t malfuctioning. This is on Trump’s fascist regime.
Somerby asks whether we have the skills to play “this game”? This is not a game. The person avoiding the question (Smiley) is a Republican, of course. But we are to blame? Somerby is dishonest, as usual.
ReplyDeleteSomerby uses 'game' metaphorically. He does not literally think politics is a game.
DeleteYou have no idea if that’s true, 11:27.
DeleteSomerby is a good decent person.
DeleteHow is it that Somerby can complain that the press is not discussing ketamine, when he himself learned about it from several press sources which he cites today? Why does Somerby never say that Musk is batshit crazy? Yes, Bandy Lee too has been all over the media. The press cannot remove Trump and Musk. Congress must do that. Why does Somerby so rarely mention any member of Congress?
ReplyDeleteGoldberg’s tease of ketamine is exactly like Somerby’s teases — briefly promised but never discussed.
ReplyDeleteSame with Trump and Musk, full of empty promises that never come to fruition. Seems like a common trait among right wingers, it’s a lazy way to grift, but many Americans keep falling for it.
DeleteFox & Friends is the problem, not the solution. Why does Somerby keep watching it?
ReplyDeleteIt’s a media blog.
DeleteI read media blogs, and this, my friend, is no media blog.
Delete2:37 Fair enough.
Delete“ The president was then asked whether making Canada the 51st state would benefit conservatives electorally. Trump responded like a child encountering the concept of borders on maps for the very first time.
ReplyDelete“You have that artificial line that goes that straight out of it that looks like it was drawn by a ruler,” Trump said. “I don't mean a ruler like a king. I mean like a ruler like a ruler. It's just an artificial line that was drawn in the sand or in the ice.”
Everyday people understand that if Canada were to become a state (or two), it would add two more Democrats to the Senate and more Dem reps to the House. Trump missed the point and rambles like the senile old fart that he is. Our president has dementia. Why has Somerby never mentioned that obvious fact?
It's not on the list of Right-wing grievances.
DeleteThere are conservatives in Canada.
DeleteConservatives in Canada are not like American conservatives.
Delete
ReplyDelete"This morning, we watched the first hour of Fox & Friends Weekend, plus a little bit more."
Good, good. Without a doubt, you were getting smarter every second of that hour, plus a little bit more. And your poisonous lump of TDS was shrinking, shrinking, shrinking.
Keep watching, Bob Somerby.
And you keep reading, carping, moaning.
DeleteSo do you, apparently.
DeleteShould Blackstone’s Ratio apply in the case of Tren de Agua?
ReplyDelete“The phrase "it is better that ten guilty persons go free than that one innocent person be convicted" is a principle, often attributed to Sir William Blackstone”
Go troll somewhere else, you fascist freak.
DeletePer the Trump Administration, Tren de Agua doesn't want to de-fund the police.
DeleteDavid, these people you are referring to weren’t convicted of anything, they were simply deported without a hearing or without due process, so your comment is irrelevant.
DeleteLeast of Evil situations are thorny. It’s easy if you look at only one side. Trump rightly says it’s bad if Tren de Agua members stay in the US. His opponents rightly say it’s bad if innocent people are deported to El Salvador. But neither side is giving us what we need: a discussion that looks at both sides and analyses which is worse.
DeleteCouldn’t the government be required to make proper determinations of innocence or guilt before simply deporting someone? I though conservatives hated government overreach. And yes, tyranny begins with deporting the “bad” people, so you ought to stand against it now, even if some of the people deported are actually criminal gang members. Otherwise, I can’t see what principle you stand for, David, other than the President gets to remove whomever he chooses whenever he chooses.
Delete
Delete"Trump rightly says it’s bad if Tren de Agua members stay in the US. "
Trump and everyone else also rightly say that illegals should be deported. And those who can't produce a proof of citizenship or legal residence are illegals. So, what's the drama?
There is no drama.
DeleteNo one listens toTrump. He's a habitual liar, so it's a waste of time.
Frankly, it serves him right.
When you get triggered, Soros-bot, before replying with a word-salad, count to 10.
DeleteWhat kind of RINO is able to count to 10?
Delete“ So, what's the drama?” Who told you they were all “illegals”, 11:58? Tom Homan? The act that Trump has invoked gives him the pseudo-“right” to deport citizens.
Delete
DeleteYou're being ridiculous 12:47 PM. Anywho, their names have been released now, so go find someone who isn't illegal.
And if there is one, he's the luckiest sob in the world, who is getting millions in compensation.
People aren't just being "deported" but also detained in prison conditions incommunicado (so their relatives and lawyers don't know where they are and they cannot participate in their own defense). They are being physically and psychologically mistreated.
Delete
DeleteSounds like being an illegal migrant and gangbanger in the US has its negative sides.
@2:57
DeleteThere are identified cases where the people being mistreated were (1) citizens of the US with no gang involvement or other illegal activity, (2) permanent residents with green cards and permission to live in the US, often married to a US citizen, who have fulfilled all of the requirements and responsibilities of greencard holders, (3) people with legal work or student visas who have not violated any laws or requirements of their visas, (4) tourists attempting to enter the US legally at a point of entry who were not only denied entry to detained without evidence they had violated any law or requirement for entering as a tourist, (5) asylum seekers who had been granted legal entry while pending the outcome of their asylum applications, with no proven gang involvement or affiliation, (6) people granted the right to remain in the US under specific legislation or US policies (such as refugees from Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua) with no illegal activitie of gang involvement (prior to Trump revoking that status in the past day).
None of these people should have been harrassed the way they have been. There has been no due process and no attempt to determine the facts of anyone's case, even after people detained have presented documentation proving their statements.
Calling all of these categories of people "gangbangers or illegal migrants" is ridiculous. It is an affront to the freedoms guaranteed by our constitution and to the good faith efforts of our government to treat people fairly and considerately during interactions with the public. Mistreating categories of people because you are xenophobic, as Trump is, is no excuse for violating the rights of people who are here, doing nothing wrong, and should be permitted to continue living their lives without interference.
DeleteYes, you should think twice before crossing the US border without authorization. Better stay in Venezuela, or go to Colombia.
Yes, you are just a troll who keeps repeating the same garbage, but the point made by @3:42 is that people are being detained with authorization, with citizenship, with legal visas, and without doing anything wrong (much less illegal). You have not addressed that point at all.
DeleteShould Blackstone’s Ratio apply in the case of Tren de Agua?
DeleteThis is more like: it is better to throw 100 people to prison without trial, because some of them may turn out to be guilty of something or eventually to commit a crime of some kind.
The simple fact remains: no one knows anything about these people except for the abject liars have told us. You know, the same people who kept saying that Haitians in Springfield were eating cats and dogs.
@DiC: Blackstone also offered a few words on the need for an orderly and transparent process for assessing guilt or innocence of people charged with crimes.
DeleteYou skipped that part. How come?
3:47,
DeleteWhy is that?
Will you call a wasteful and corrupt government employee to do something bad to me?
LOL.
"The Trump administration has dismissed advisers to key statistical agencies behind major economic reports, sparking warnings that the cuts will jeopardize the quality of data critical to policymakers and Wall Street investors."
ReplyDeleteOceania has always been at war with Eurasia.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/21/labor-commerce-department-economy-data-doge-00241559
I knew this would happen. Government reports will now be lies.
DeleteMost of what the government does has some value (presumably). If resources were infinite, it could all could be continued. But if $2 trillion needs to be shaved, then some valuable programs will be curtailed. So, what should we cut? SS? Medicare? Welfare? IMO a huge amount of economic statistics are available. We have a lot more than we need. We can do fine with a reduced number of these statistics.
DeleteTrump is using 1984 as his operating manual.
DeleteDG — in “1984” the Government was all powerful. Trump is making the government less powerful.
DeleteDavid, he is making the government less honest and trustworthy. That is a separate issue from whether it’s smaller. And concurrently, he is enhancing his own power as an autocrat, something you seem perfectly fine with.
DeleteDiC - None are so blind as those who will not see.
Delete"But if $2 trillion needs to be shaved, then some valuable programs will be curtailed."
DeletePlease.
We're going to cut the salaries of economic statisticians to address the emergency of the deficit, at the same time as the extension of Trump's 2017 tax cut will grow the deficit by trillions?
Whatever motive is driving the current slashing of federal positions, it is not deficit reduction.
David in Cal,
DeleteDid they not teach actuaries what "revenue" is at Trump University?
Hector -- It's a combination of deficit reduction and leaving more money in your and my pockets. I did statistics for a living, so I naturally like statistics. But, I don't want to pay for statistics we can live without.
DeleteWhich statistics can we live without, David? Jobs numbers? Economic statistics? These are crucial to businesses and the financial markets. What convinces you that Trump won’t simply order government agencies to lie to make the economy look better?
DeleteI could also mention all the meteorologists fired at NOAA. Are weather statistics ones we can live without?
DeleteBiden Admin was definitely producing bullshit stats. It makes sense that government stats will generally be self-serving and politicized.
@1:10 - People who want to continue full existing funding commonly talk as if cutting some portion of a program is cutting the entire program. The questions should be "Are SOME weather statistics ones we can live without?" Which weather statistics will remain after firing some meteorologists? Are they adequate? Neither of us knows the answer.
DeleteWhen did both houses of Congress debate that question, Dickhead, you fucking fascist freak?
Delete1:10 asks the right question:
Delete"What convinces you Trump won’t simply order government agencies to lie to make the economy look better?"
"Are SOME weather statistics ones we can live without?" Which weather statistics will remain after firing some meteorologists? Are they adequate?."
DeleteBut these are the questions DOGE is not asking. They're slashing at whatever it gratifies them to slash.
International relations, defense, and regulating interstate commerce are federal government's tasks. Everything else can (and, arguably, should) be slashed.
DeleteHector— Government employees are overwhelmingly Democrats. They would resist an order from Trump to falsify their work.
DeleteDavid, the whole point of firing people randomly is to instill a sense of insecurity and terrorize govt employees so that they will do anything they are told out of fear of losing their jobs.
Delete“So if 2 trillion need to be saved….”
DeleteAnd you undoubtedly got that number from Musk who said that was Doge’s plan. Only he was told to say 1 trillion and went off script like a ketamine addled drug addict with a god complex.
@1:37 you’re right but I believe Musk is using the better of two alternatives
Delete1. Carefully analyze each government agency and cut only where there’s provable redundancy.
2. Cut a lot. Bring back functions later if we turn out to have needed them.
(1) would be better if it were practical. But it’s not. DOGE has neither the staff nor the expertise nor the time to do this.
David is hinting that it is OK if the govt cuts stats on global warming, for political reasons, because the people don't need to know what is happening to our planet and scientists don't need to know whether alternative energy and conservation efforts are helping. All that matters is whether the rich are getting richer, not how long our planet may be able to sustain agriculture and remain habitable.
Delete2. Cut a lot. Bring back functions later if we turn out to have needed them.
DeleteYou buy anything these nazis are selling, Dickhead, you fucking fascist freak.
“ Government employees are overwhelmingly Democrats. They would resist an order from Trump to falsify their work.”
DeleteSo, Republican government employees would be less likely to resist an order from Trump to falsify their work. Ok, noted. Not surprising. But this also tells you that we need Democrats working for the government, so that government work isn’t falsified. Are you truly satisfied with your line of reasoning, DiC?
“ 2. Cut a lot. Bring back functions later if we turn out to have needed them.”
DeleteBut the time you need them is … when you need them. For example, before a devastating hurricane hits, not after. Are you dense, DiC?
This is all part of Project 2025 which David strenuously denied was Trump's agenda before the election.
Delete1:58 “… government employees are overwhelmingly Democrats…”
DeleteI assume that you will show us those data. It may be true, but considering the amount of bullshit you pull out of your ass to post on this blog, we can assume it to be false until proven otherwise.
2:42. Yeah, well said.
Delete"Government employees are overwhelmingly Democrats. They would resist an order from Trump to falsify their work."
DeleteNot if they've been fired and replaced by MAGA types; or fear being fired and replaced by MAGA types; or been fired and not replaced at all.
David in Cal,
DeleteStatistically, what are the chances a random statement by Musk or Trump is bullshit?
Or did you give up mathematics, to join the Republican Party?
Some Jews have committed crimes. Therefore David belongs in prison.
ReplyDeleteHere is what an actual media blog might be discussing, from someone hugely more competent at media analysis than Somerby ever was:
ReplyDelete"MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow took to her show’s opening monologue on Friday to vent her frustrations with President Donald Trump’s claimed ignorance over reports that tech billionaire Elon Musk was to receive a Pentagon briefing on top-secret U.S.-China war plans.
The scuttled briefing was revealed by The New York Times Thursday night, which the primetime host pointed out was explained “in even more simple terms than you might expect from a regular newspaper on a regular story.”
“They spelled it out basically in crayon!” Maddow told viewers, seemingly exasperated by the latest development in the two-month-old administration. “They made it so painfully simple what was wrong with this plan, that maybe the White House even couldn't fail to understand it.”
She went on to read an excerpt from the Times’ “shocking report,” before adding: “And here's where they switch to crayon: ‘if a foreign country was to learn how the U.S. planned to fight a war against them, that country could reinforce its defenses and address its weaknesses, making U.S. war plans far less likely to succeed against that foreign adversary.’”
Sure enough, Maddow said, the president took notice of the planned briefing for his top campaign donor and head of the Department of Government Efficiency – “he didn’t know about it, he just heard about it in the New York Times,” Maddow proclaimed.
The primetime MSNBC host continued to blast both Trump and Musk, who she called “arguably more thoroughly and uncritically in bed with the Chinese government than any other businessperson who calls him or herself an American.”
The ordeal left Maddow with a closing message: “If you have a war plan with a foreign country, don't show that plan to the foreign country just in case you ever have to go to war with them,” she said sarcastically. “Because it will mean your war plan won't work. Get it? Do you guys get it? Do you want me to say it more slowly? I mean, the Times might as well have put it in all caps on a single page with a picture menu, right?”
She also used the opportunity to laud the journalists who broke the exclusive story that she credited with stopping Musk’s planned briefing.
“When journalists find out something is happening in the government and that thing is plainly indefensible, sometimes that makes the government stop trying to do that thing,” she concluded Friday. “That’s why it's a good thing to have journalism.”
Rachel Maddow incorrectly referred to "President Donald Trump’s claimed ignorance over reports that tech billionaire Elon Musk." In fact, Trump claimed to know all about those reports. Namely, that they were entirely false.
DeleteShe is claiming that Trump had no idea Musk was going to be brief on war plans for China by Hegseth. That is based on what Trump said about it when it was pointed out to him. What is your proof that the allegations that Hegseth was going to brief Musk was incorrect?
Delete"WASHINGTON -- Tech billionaire Elon Musk was slated to visit the Pentagon on Friday and attend a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that would touch on China, among other things, two United States officials confirmed to ABC News -- but that plan changed after The New York Times reported Musk would be briefed on potential China war plans.
Musk visited the Pentagon on Friday -- but instead of meeting with the Joint Chiefs, Musk met with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and staffers, a U.S. official said.
The meeting between Musk and the Joint Chiefs was to be at the unclassified level and attended virtually by Adm. Sam Paparo, the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, one official said. But some time between the publication of The New York Times story on Thursday and Musk's visit to the Pentagon Friday morning, the visit turned into just a meeting with Hegseth." [ABC Channel 7 News]
How dishonest is this:
ReplyDelete"notice anything weird about the Space Nazi’s ‘family’? that’s right, they’re not the flesh-and-blood kind — they’re the vomited-out-by-some-hellish-AI kind. by some miracle, the one hand we see in that pic has the correct number of fingers on it.
apparently there is an entire cottage industry of keyboard warriors churning out dozens of computer-generated images of the Space Nazi surrounded by imaginary families."
I suppose this is a version of the cult fan art that depicts Trump as Captain America or a knight in armor or Jesus. But fake kids generated by AI are creepy and it is pathetic that Musk has no actual pictures of himself with his real life kids (he is reported to have 11 to 13, but why is the number inexact?).
"DOGE has neither the staff nor the expertise nor the time to do this (make thoughtful cuts)."
ReplyDeleteHmmm. If DOGE has neither the staff nor the expertise nor the time to do a proper job, the question arises as to why they've been given the job in the first place.
Oh, that's right. The looming deficit simply must be addressed. Without delay. Though the net of DOGE reductions and tax cut extension will make the deficit infinitely worse.
Doesn't all quite hang together, does it?
Cutting spending will reduce the deficit. This is an undeniable fact. But "tax cut extension will make the deficit infinitely worse" is only an allegation. A tax cut that stimulates economic activity may also reduce the deficit.
DeleteThe amounts of the cuts by DOGE will hardly make a dent in the deficit. They certainly do not justify the disruption and chaos in the government.
Delete'"tax cut extension will make the deficit infinitely worse" is only an allegation.'
DeleteIt's an allegation based on the measured effects of the 2017 TCJA and the consensus of predictive models of the effect of an extension.
AI Summary:
"Added interest costs plus the revenue losses from TCJA extension result in a combined deficit increase of $5.4 trillion ($4.6 trillion dynamically) from 2025 through 2034."
Specific cites:
https://www.pgpf.org/article/national-debt-would-skyrocket-under-tcja-extension/
https://taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-did-tcja-affect-federal-budget-outlook
https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2024/5/22/effects-of-permanently-extending-tcja-expiring-provisions
@3:45 are Musk's cuts too big or too small. You assert that they're so small that they'll hardly make a dent, and they're also so big that they'll cause disruption and chaos.
Delete
DeleteIt's hard to predict the future. Especially when the foretellers are political actors.
But actually I was wrong saying that cutting spending will always reduce the deficit. I suppose simulative spending may reduce the deficit as well. Theoretically.
Hector, you need to get AI to teach you the difference between the deficit and the debt.
DeleteYou can cause disruption and chaos without making big cuts. It depends on who you cut and what they were doing. That's why failure to examine that before cutting people indiscriminately is doing great damage to our nation.
DeleteTake one simple example, how much disruption and chaos would be avoided by cutting just Musk, all by himself? What if the only person cut were Trump? I'd bet that the rest of Project 2025 would fall apart without their senile, look-the-other-way office holder. What if you removed just 3 house members, Republican ones? The remainder of the House might then impeach Trump and right the ship of state before more damage is done. That is what happens with "strategic cuts" not chainsaw massacres that involve no intelligence at all.
This idea that Musk and DOGE have done any good at all with their cuts is as wrongheaded as it gets and there is a lot of stupidity on the right.
Who cuts FEMA and weather forecasting in the midst of a warming climate that has already produced more natural disasters than in the past? Only the biggest idiots on earth -- Republicans, headed by a senile Trump and a drug-addled Musk.
"Hector, you need to get AI to teach you the difference between the deficit and the debt."
DeletePerhaps you'd like to explain how you concluded I was unaware of this difference.
Sure.
Delete3:26. “ A tax cut that stimulates economic activity may also reduce the deficit”. Perhaps in theory, but Reaganomics was such an abject failure that Bruce Bartlett, one of its architects along with Jack Kemp, abandoned it years ago, labeling it a failure. It is nonetheless the mainstay of Republican economic policy because although it has done extraordinarily poorly, trickle down favors their donor class. And that is all that matters to them.
DeleteI sure don’t understand why that shows Hector doesn’t get the difference between deficit and debt.
Delete@10:11 PM
Delete"trickle down" was a concept applicable to a domestic economy.
We now live in a global economy, with completely different characteristics. For example: every country in the world is trying to attract multinationals by lowering corporate tax rate. Lowering corporate tax rate leads to higher international investments and thus to stronger economy. It's 12.5% in Ireland, for example.
And this has nothing to do with any "trickle down".
3:16 We have lived in a global economy for decades. The tax rate in Ireland is nothing new. It's been low, likewise, many years. I mentioned Bruce Bartlett. He concluded that Reaganomics, "trickle down" or whatever you want to call the mainstay of Republican economics (as embodied in the Laffer curve) was a failed experiment back in 2008. As one of the architects of the concept it gave him no pleasure to do so. It is a tax policy that favors the rich and encourages the kind of wealth disparity we have now. It of course, also, adds to our national debt. Economists are currently concerned that Trump's slashing the IRS and tax enforcement will do so on an even more grotesque level.
Delete"We have lived in a global economy for decades."
DeleteI know, Soros-bot. Also, the sky is blue. What does any of this have to do with what 3:16 AM said? Absolutely nothing.
Kansas Provides Compelling Evidence of Failure of "Supply-Side" Tax Cuts
DeleteIn 2012 and 2013, at the urging of Governor Sam Brownback, lawmakers cut the top rate of the state’s income tax by almost 30 percent and the tax rate on certain business profits to zero. Under “supply-side” economic theory, these deep tax cuts should have acted — as Brownback then predicted — like “a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy,” stimulating strong growth in economic output, job creation, and new business formation. But in reality, Kansas underperformed most neighboring states and the nation on all of those measures after the tax cuts.
Moreover, Kansas revenues plunged, leading to cuts to education and other vital services and downgrades in the state’s bond rating. On June 6, 2017, the legislature terminated what Brownback had termed a “real live experiment” in supply-side tax policy, repealing the business profits exemption and moving income tax rates back toward where they had started.
https://www.cbpp.org/research/kansas-provides-compelling-evidence-of-failure-of-supply-side-tax-cuts
Who cuts FEMA and weather forecasting in the midst of a warming climate that has already produced more natural disasters than in the past?
DeleteCorrupt conman who has taken bribe from oil company. Next question.
DeleteOf course cbpp.org is an idiot-Democrat globalist propaganda entity. "The Atlantic Philanthropies is a major donor to CBPP, as is George Soros." What else are they supposed to say about cutting taxes?
But yes, Saint Obama presided over the most sluggish recovery in history.
7:05 Try reading for comprehension, dumbass.
Delete7:08 Well said.
7:58, what was Obama's economy recovering from? Oh, right, that was the Bush depression.
DeleteYes, Bush, the Democrat hero.
DeleteSo why did you pivot to attacking Obama if you thought Bush was my hero, shit-for-brains maggot breath? What is the difference between the Bush tax cuts and the Trump tax cuts? Same shit to me.
DeleteAnother day, another word-salad from the resident idiot-moonbat.
Delete"Woefully inadequate".
DeleteLOL. That judge made Trump cry like the tiny-handed, impotent, little piece of shit who has to rape pre-teens to have sex. that he is.
In order to look like he is keeping his promise, Trump is indiscriminately rounding people up without evidence or investigation. He is also diverting staff from other important work in order to make it look like he is delivering on deportation promises:
ReplyDelete"As President Trump aims to follow through on his pledge to carry out historic mass deportations across the country, “thousands of federal law enforcement officials from multiple agencies are being enlisted to take on new work as immigration enforcers, pulling crime-fighting resources away on other areas — from drug trafficking and terrorism to sexual abuse and fraud,” Reuters reports."
Needless to say, harrassing people who have the right to be here and who have done nothing wrong, is not fulfillment of Trump's promise to deport illegals and criminals. It is creating a police state that is running amok and doing no good for anyone.
This is what incompetence looks like.
DeleteThere was a time when Somerby might have mentioned something like the destruction of the Department of Education. Not now, apparently. Too busy watching Gutfeld.
ReplyDelete"Donald Trump has been criticized for a wide array of actions, but one stands out above the others, according to a Democratic lawmaker.
Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California, joined MSNBC on Saturday, where he was asked about Trump's bid to gut the Education Department.
That, according to Garcia, is "the most horrific thing that Donald Trump and Elon Musk have actually done."
"What people don't understand is that the Department of Education is the single largest supporter for families who have children with disabilities in America's classrooms," he said. "These are largely federally funded programs. These are not generally fully funded by states."
He continued, saying, "So to eliminate the Department of Education and for Trump to say, well, we're just going to send the money to the states, one is a flat out lie, and two, especially red states and conservative areas, they're going to send those resources to private schools that don't actually provide any classroom experience or support or inclusion programs for children with disabilities."
Finally, he said, "so this is an attack, yes, on families, on students, on teachers."
"But it is a horrifically shameful moment that the president wants to hurt children with distinct needs that they need also education to be included in our education system," he added. "They're the biggest losers in this, and I think we should all be protesting in the streets about this and be incredibly angry and letting Republicans know that they have enabled this kind of action against America's families." [Rawstory]
Good point about the red states sending funding to private schools. In Florida, DeSantis and his wrecking crew took public money and created a voucher system of $8k for students enrolled in private schools. Initially for families with less than $110 k income, they quickly got rid of that requirement so that the rich can continue to send their kids to private, often religious, schools at 20-30 k a year, now subtracting out the 8k voucher. Trump is looking at that as a model. Sucking money out of public school funds to help the rich out with their private tuition is classic republican playbook.
DeleteThis is what the people planning to loot Social Security think of those who depend on their checks:
ReplyDelete"Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law who is 94, she wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t. She’d think something got messed up and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining.
Like all the guys at Paypal, like Elon knows this by heart. Anybody who’s been in the payment system, in processing knows that the easiest way to find a fraudster is to stop payments and listen.
What???
Lutnick is a billionaire so I would guess his mother-in-law isn’t going to miss her cancer treatment because the Medicare premium wasn’t paid for and she’s run out of food. So sure, she won’t complain. He believes that anyone who does must be fraudulently collecting their social security because in Lutnick’s world nobody legitimately needs that check to live. (If they do, they’re losers anyway, amirite?)
But think about that fraudster claim for a minute. They “always make the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining.”
Sound like anyone we know? Someone who has literally been held liable for fraud to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars? Yeah, it sounded very familiar to me too."
Digby Sez
"“I didn’t sign it!” Trump plays dumb and lies, says he didn’t invoke Alien Enemies Act, “other people handled it”. Then Erin Burnett busts him by holding up a copy of the order with his signature on it. Maybe he uses an autopen."
ReplyDelete"When are people going to ask the question? I mean, Joe Biden stumbled over his words in the natural way of aging in many 80 year olds. Trump’s issues are different. He’s delusional. Someone should look into it….
By the way, if he says that he didn’t sign it perhaps it was done without his knowledge by autopen?
Legal experts say there is nothing to President Donald Trump’s claims that several of former President Joe Biden’s pardons are “VOID” because they were signed via autopen.
White House lawyers during the George W. Bush administration said the use of an autopen is perfectly legal, and constitutional scholars say that nothing in the Constitution even requires pardons to be signed anyway. And, they note, pardons cannot simply be overturned by a subsequent president.
Trump is correct that pardons would be invalid if, in fact, as he has claimed, any pardons were signed by a staffer without Biden’s knowledge or consent. But Trump has offered no evidence of that.
Trump has repeatedly invoked the autopen issue in the last several days. As NPR explains, autopen is “a generic name for a machine that duplicates signatures using real ink, making it easy for public figures to autograph everything from correspondence to merchandise in bulk. They are printer-sized machines with an arm that can hold a standard pen or pencil, and use it to replicate the programmed signature on a piece of paper below.” Trump acknowledged that he himself uses an autopen, but “only for very unimportant papers.”
In a post to Truth Social on March 17, Trump claimed that some pardons issued by Biden were “hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen.”
As I said, delusional."
https://digbysblog.net/2025/03/22/he-doesnt-remember-signing-the-order/
Somerby was all over this when it was Biden being called old. Why does he not seem to care whether Trump is senile or not?
"Why does he (Somerby) not seem to care whether Trump is senile or not?
DeleteIt's not on Somerby's list of Right-wing grievances.
Here is a detailed rundown on why Khalil was targeted by ICE and the specifics of his case, including his right to remain in the US with a green card:
ReplyDeletehttps://yastreblyansky.blogspot.com/2025/03/free-mahmoud.html#more
This is what media analysis can be like. Yastreblansky routinely delves into details of media furors in order to provide clarity about what is going on. Somerby won't touch any of this, because it would be hard work to dig up this stuff and understand what the govt is doing, but also because his goal is to distract his readers from the seriousness of the assault on our freedom, not to help anyone understand anything.
The media targeted Biden with manufactured videos portraying him as old, the release of Ho's report calling his memory faulty, and a barrage of New York Times articles attacking Biden's age, before the debate and the coup that removed Biden from the Democratic ticket. Note the way a campaign to disparage Khalil preceded his arrest by ICE. Enemies of Trump and various others in power do not just assault someone -- they lay groundwork first, prepare public opinion to accept their violent move -- and yes, using agents of ICE to kidnap someone who has broken no laws and done nothing to invalidate his green card, is violence against those Trump and his minions are designating as enemies of the people. If Khalil is vulnerable, so are we all.
Somerby is fiddling while Rome burns (he loves these classical allusions). Is he doing it out of ignorance and foolishness or is he paid to distract? Does it even matter any more? Bottom line -- he is no media critic and this is not a media blog.
how did you do in the bridge tournament?
DeleteAnonymouse 11:00pm, hahaha!!
DeleteSomerby is running a bridge tournament blog.
DeleteIf Somerby were to learn bridge, he would do the world (and himself) a lot more good. Many old people play because it is preventative against dementia.
DeleteOperation 50:
ReplyDeleteEngage liaison Fanny Shagger
The obvious statement: all of these people were innocent, as they had not been convicted of any crime in the US. There was absolutely no jurisdiction of any kind to send them to El Salvador.
ReplyDelete“As Trump Broadens Crackdown, Focus Expands to Legal Immigrants and Tourists”
ReplyDeletehttps://gvwire.com/2025/03/21/as-trump-broadens-crackdown-focus-expands-to-legal-immigrants-and-tourists/
Just illegals and gang members, amirite?
"Putin prayed for Trump after assassination attempt, top envoy says"
ReplyDeleteIt's good to know in this crazy, mixed-up world that an actual autocrat can care about a mere wannabe.
Losing a top asset, like Trump, would be a loss for the former KGB boss.
DeleteThe Democratic Party is imploding. It’s doubtful that it will last but a few more years unless they drastically change. The approval ratings of congressional Democrats have plummeted. No political party can sustain this amount of dissatisfaction and rejection from their own supporters. If they don’t begin to address the concerns of their base, a new party will form to do it for them.
ReplyDeleteThe polling has been bad it’s plain to see. Trump‘s approval is at an all-time high while the Democratic Party favorables languish at an all-time low. Each day has more proof of their irrelevance and failure to connect. The question is starting to be not when they will come back, but how they could come back even if they wanted to. Gaslighting comes with a sizeable long-term cost. For the Democratic Party, the bill has come due and they ain’t got no money in the bank.
DeleteDemocratic party's approval ratings are low because they are not pushing against Trump hard enough. Soon enough people will be fed up with Trump and his drug-addled overseer, Musk, so that they will vote against them no matter who the opposing candidates are.
DeleteThe Democratic Party can where tri-cornered hats, and call themselves some silly name, like "Patriots for The USA", and the media will just type it up like they're a totally new political party.
Delete
Delete"...they will vote against them no matter who the opposing candidates are."
Lol. Yeah, that's the ticket. Thanks for the laughs.
The Democrats did not give us Musk and Trump. The Dems offered a reasonable candidate who polled better than anyone else in their party, but voters refused to support her (as the song goes, "we had one but they didn't want that lady in office"). That includes Somerby. The voters are fully responsible for what happened, not the Democratic Party (except folks like George Clooney and Nancy Pelosi).
DeleteBut this finger-pointing isn't going to stop Trump. For that, a meaningful opposition needs to rise up and protest what is happening. We need to help fund the organizations that are working to oppose tyranny (start with the ACLU and Immigrant Rights organizations).
When you see these discussions about how screwed up the Democratic Party is, you need to correctly recognize that this is coming from the right, in support of Trump/Musk and tyranny. We need to resist not only Trump but also the efforts to malign and portray Dems as ineffective when they too are victims of illegal acts meant to terrorize the populace into submission to fascism.
As B Real of Cypress Hill once so eloquently articulated in 'I Wanna Get High':
ReplyDelete"Yes I smoke shit, straight off the roach clip
I roach it for the blunted ones to approach it
Forward motion, make you sway like the ocean
The herb is more than just a powerful potion"
Quinnipiac’s annual polling shows that, for the first time in the poll’s history, Congressional Democrats are now underwater with their own voters in approval ratings…. while Congressional Republicans are nearing an all-time high.
ReplyDeleteAmerica loves Elon and is sickened by Democrat domestic terrorism.
The Democratic Party has done so poorly for so long now.
DeleteAs Musk and Trump tank the economy, Republicans revel in the state of the Democratic party.
DeleteHere is what Sen Dog of Cypress Hill proposed in the song 'Cock the Hammer'
Delete"I can make you famous like Amos
Same as the last punk, when I stuck the gat up his anus."
No one like a political party that doesn't stop fascism.
DeleteNo one likes a fascist that stops political parties. FIFY
Deletereturn and rise of the skulls elongated
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"Greg Gutfeld on Attacks on Teslas: Democrats Don’t Realize the Only Thing They’re Burning Down is ‘Their F**ked Up Party’"
What do you think, Bob Somerby? Is this on of those "morally vacuous" jokes you're always ranting and raving about? Or is this one different?
Thanks in advance.
It's legal to burn Teslas, if you spend money to get to reach them.
DeleteIf you have a problem with that, take it up with the Supreme Court of the United States. They're the ones who ruled that money is free speech.
Speaking of which, looks like Sir Elon of the Nazis is fixing to buy a judge in WI. And why not? Who's going to stop him.
DeleteFrom The New York Times:
Musk Offers $100 to Wisconsin Voters, Bringing Back a Controversial Tactic
By offering cash to voters who sign a petition opposing “activist judges,” Elon Musk’s super PAC can help identify conservative voters in a race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
I would have wondered if the writer of this article -- Theodore Schleifer -- had fallen victim to the Times' notoriously craven headline writers and editors, were it not for the fact that he used the "C" word in the first fucking paragraph.
Elon Musk is bringing back his most controversial gambit from the 2024 presidential election: paying voters as part of a plan to identify and turn out conservative-leaning ones.
Sorry, the above was from https://driftglass.blogspot.com/
DeleteNote the way the "liberal" NYTimes evades taking a legal position on the blatant corruption.
The Times didn’t take a legal position, because what Musk is doing is legal. “Controversial” means something that helps Republicans.
DeleteIt’s not controversial because it helps Republicans, DiC. It’s controversial because people are being paid to sign a petition. How many people would sign something knowing they would be paid $100 for signing? It’s a way of manufacturing support by buying it. Musk can do this endlessly. Again, you don’t have the principle that democracy shouldn’t be purchased; you’re perfectly ok with it, as long as it helps Republicans. It isn’t 100% clear this is legal, but even if it is, it’s unethical. I guess Democrats need to get busy buying signees to petitions.
DeleteNote that paying the signees is not the same as paying someone to circulate a petition because the person standing around soliciting the signatures is being paid for their time, not those signing (and thus being coerced into a specific position).
DeleteTrump issues legal memorandum. Instructs Justice Department to seek sanctions against lawyers’ misconduct.
ReplyDelete“ Lawyers and law firms that engage in actions that violate the laws of the United States or rules governing attorney conduct must be efficiently and effectively held accountable. Accountability is especially important when misconduct by lawyers and law firms threatens our national security,”
go fuck yourself, you fascist freak. He has turned the DOJ into his personal lawfare department.
DeleteOh David would no doubt have applauded Biden or Obama had they done this, because he believes in the principle of the federal government, at the behest of the president, going after law firms that piss him off.
DeleteJust kidding. DiC couldn’t be happier.
Gee, sounds awful. What is an example of the misconduct? Oh, you can't provide any? Oh, I see, you're just parroting something you heard on Fox, posting it here because...because...why did you post this?
DeleteI posted this because the President’s statement is news.
DeleteThis is designed to curtail dubious TROs. IMO
it won’t work. I do not doubt that some anti Trump lawyers are violating these canons as written. But I kinda think that these canons have been routinely violated for a long long time by some lawyers with no sanctions applied.
It’s hard to object to investigation lawyers who are behaving illegally or unethically. What is questionable is giving priority to anti Trump lawyers who are misbehaving.
DeleteIMO the judges’ behavior is worse than the lawyer’ behavior. But judges cannot be sanctioned no matter how legally dubious their decisions are.
Judges have opinions overturned on appeal. That is the check and balance. That’s what Chief Justice Roberts also said.
DeleteWhat examples of misbehavior can you provide DiC?
DeleteReally DiC, you've made 3 posts on this subject and we frankly have little idea what you're talking about.
DeleteDavid in Cal,
DeleteWhat did you expect from a government employee?
Have you learned nothing from the President who is habitual liar and can't ever be believed?
When a lawyer is unethical or misbehaves, you report them to their bar, the people who grant their license to practice. The legal bar associations in each state (or federal) have committees of peers who investigate such complaints and make rulings about the behavior. They can fine people or revoke their license to practice, or refer them for prosecution by appropriate authorities.
DeleteDavid pretends that this structure for monitoring professional behavior does not exist, but even accountants and actuaries have such oversight.
"While not formally licensed in the same way as professions like medicine or law, actuaries in the U.S. pursue professional certifications from organizations like the Society of Actuaries (SOA) and the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS). Pension actuaries also require licensing from the Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries. "
These pseudo-professional organizations cannot yank licenses the way the bar can, but they can perhaps keep someone from being hired again.
We in Denver care about what is happening to our country:
ReplyDelete"On the heels of record-breaking attendance at a "Fighting Oligarchy" event in Tempe, Arizona earlier this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York held a rally in Denver, Colorado on Friday evening that drew more than 34,000 people—making it largest event that Sanders or Ocasio-Cortez have ever held.
Sanders, an Independent, wrote on social media on Friday that the turnout is a sign that "the American people will not allow Trump to move us into oligarchy and authoritarianism. We will fight back. We will win."
Somerby keeps suggesting that Trump is insane, but Somerby has never mentioned the possibility that Trump has dementia. Meanwhile the press IS raising that possibility:
ReplyDelete"With reports that the Kennedy Center is reeling since Trump took over as Kennedy Center Board Chair, it was pointed out that the president has made noise about taking over as host of the Kennedy Center Honors, which led MSNBC's Michale Steele to eventually exclaim, "He's got a frigging country to run!"
"He mused about how great it would be if he hosted the Kennedy Center Honors, and he floated the idea of giving awards to dead figures in culture and sports, including Luciano Pavarotti, Elvis Presley and Babe Ruth," co-host Alicia Menendez reported.
"I mean, the guy is living in his mind in a different time and so he wants to elevate those figures that he enjoyed," Steele responded. " And, you know, he himself once dreamed of being a Broadway producer. So now he gets to produce and, mind you, he's got a frigging country to run, right? He's the president of the United States, but I'm going to waste my time sitting in a board meeting at the Kennedy Center?"
"Honey, if Joe Biden –– this is what I'm just like the triple standards that exist in the world –– if Joe Biden spent his afternoon at the freakin' Kennedy Center and then sat down and conducted the board meeting, I just can't tell you how many mainstream journalists in the White House briefing room would, 'Who is really running the country here? Is this the best use of the president's time?'" Symone Sanders Townsend offered.
Co-host Alicia Menendez added, "I just think if Joe Biden had been asking for a bunch of dead figures to receive awards, that we also would have asked for a cognitive test." [Rawstory]
Why are Trump’s health records not released to the public?
DeleteBecause Trump and his party have contempt for their voters and this country.
DeleteDigby offers some very specific details about the ways DOGE has been undermining the efficiency and productivity of government workers. A fascinating read that someone like David in Cal should think about:
ReplyDeletehttps://digbysblog.net/2025/03/23/the-doge-bureaucracy/
Link doesn’t work
Deletehttps://digbysblog.net/2025/03/23/the-doge-bureaucracy/
DeleteI don't see how Digby can be correct that "At the IRS, employees spend Mondays queued up at shared computers to submit their DOGE-mandated “five things I did last week” emails"' for two reasons
Delete1. All or almost all IRS employees have a computer on their desk. Every office I worked in for the last 30+ years, everyone had a computer.
2. If there really are a few IRS employees who don't have computers, it only takes 5 or 10 minutes to type in 5 items.
David, you are questioning first person accounts of people working for those agencies, without any evidence of your own that they are not correct. Every office you worked in for the last 30+ years was normal, not dealing with a massive layoff of people followed by rehiring of some but not all. The office spaces and equipment of the fired workers were most likely not kept around for old time's sake. Remember too that DOGE ordered all home workers back into the office where there was most likely no space for them (given that covid was nearly 5 years ago). But your objections are all imaginary, whereas Digby's article is based on actual employee experiences.
DeleteDavid in Cal,
DeleteFYI, I'm told by the most reliable Republican voters that you will not replace them.
@6:22 Not first person accounts to me. . Digby was not the person allegedly waiting on line in the IRS office.
DeleteShe quoted the first person accounts. Are you an idiot? Do you not know what quote marks are?
DeleteNobody ever said that Digby worked for the IRS. She works as a blogger and opinion writer (for Salon). David is trying to distract us from his absence of evidence.
DeleteI was audited once and the auditor I visited at the IRS office did not have a computer on his desk. I doubt field workers do either. It seems remotely possible that IRS workers were ordered back into the office to send their weekly reports in order to prove they exist and show up in person to work, which may mean they are being ordered to use a specific office-located computer for that purpose. Musk and others have said that the purpose of the exercise is to ferret out imaginary people on the payroll, not because anyone is interested in the productivity or activities of such workers. Most of the people who were fired were let go without anyone knowing exactly what their function was.
So David is making shit up, just to justify what was done, much the way Somerby does when he speculates about the contents of Trump's mind or his terrible abuse as a child, when he was his daddy's favorite child (according to Mary Trump).
@6:29 are you referring to the quotation marks around five things I did last week? Those quotes are to show that the phrase is being used as a adjective to modify "e-mails".
DeleteWe do not know what person or people gave Digby the info. Nor do we know exactly what they told her or how she paraphrased what shew was told. She would not be allowed to testify to her point in a legal trial.
She quotes Catharine Rampell at the Wash Post with links. Stop lying.
DeleteSorry I missed the reference to Catherine Rampell. Of course the same problems exist with what Rampell wrote in her opinion column
Delete1. I'm not a subscriber so I couldn't read Rampell's column. I will accept your comment that Digby's statement about the queues is an accurate quote of what Rampell wrote.is not a quote of Rampell.
2. Rampell doesn't work for the IRS, so she's relying on some other person or persons.
3. Rampell doesn't identify her sources, so we don't know how credible Rampell's sources are or just what they told her. We don't even know that Rampell's sources were first hand -- people who saw the queues or stood in the queues.
4. Another problem is how vague Rampell's statement is. How many employees wait on line? How long are the lines? How long does it take to reach the front of the line? How common are these queues?
6:35 I cannot believe that any IRS auditors don't have a computer. Do they write up their audit reports in longhand?
DeleteI suspect that the auditor you met with may have two desks -- one desk for interviews and another for writing reports.
From the article cited by 2:14:
ReplyDelete“They (DOGE) are like a kid in a nuclear power plant running around hitting buttons,” said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service (which actually focuses on government efficiency), when asked about DOGE’s measures. “They have no sense of the cascade of consequences they’re causing.”
You Can't Make Up This Kind of Stupidity
ReplyDeleteHoward Luttnick, Secretary of Commerce, on consequences of SS not sending out checks:
'Anybody who’s been in the payment system and the processes, who knows the easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen, because whoever screams is the one stealing,” he said.'
Boy, those fraudsters sure are dumb, calling attention to themselves by their loud complaining. Whereas honest recipients won't complain, even if they need the money to live on because.. because... something something deficit.
One problem the Democrats are having is that they are ineffective. It may be one of the reasons they’ve become one of the most unpopular political parties in memory. They certainly don’t have any political authority to criticize Trump. They had a chance to beat him fair and square but ran a lightweight DEI hire who got her butt kicked.
ReplyDeleteTrump is either incredibly lucky, or he's a genius for knowing there is no such thing as a good guy with a gun in the UJSA
DeleteIMO Democrats are pretty effective at campaigning. What they're ineffective at is governing
Delete"They had a chance to beat him fair and square..."
DeleteEveryone knows there is no cheating in elections. That's just something bigots say to own the libs.
David in Cal,
DeleteDo you despise low unemployment rates, because it gives workers more leverage?
Haitian immigrants ate David in Cal's sense of shame.
DeleteAll I know is that social security was running fine before Trump was elected and now they are talking about skipping payments. How is that more effective than the Democrats at governing?
Delete@6:16 Nobody connected with Trump is talking about skipping SS payments. On the contrary, they steadily reiterate that there will be no cuts in SS.
DeleteAnnndd, DiC, the question you need to ask yourself yet again: can trump be believed on this topic or any other? Should trump be believed on this topic or any other?
DeleteLuttnik is talking about it. He talked all about how his 94 year old mother-in-law would not complain if her payment didn't come, because she is not a fraud.
Delete6:29 Thanks for reminding DiC that he is perpetually full of shit, a trait he shares with Trump, Musk and their Republican enablers.
DeleteThe Republican Party has boxed in the Democrats, so the only thing Democrats can do, is hire illegal immigrants, like they are Fortune 1000 HR departments.
ReplyDeleteCan someone list what Trump is saying so I can ignore it?
ReplyDeleteThanks in advance.
What's David in Cal's reason to de-fund the police, today?
ReplyDeleteThey are usually, nothing, if not creative.
Is Somerby trying to suggest an excuse for Musk's awfulness by referring us to an article about his Ketamine use? The Ketamine is just another bad thing that Musk does, not a reason for his misbehavior and awfulness as a human being. The heart of Musk's pathology is his utter indifference to the suffering of others, whether his own children or those he deliberately hurts.
ReplyDeleteImagine being so fucked-up on drugs, you think Republicans are human beings.
DeleteMusk does not think anyone is a human being except himself.
DeleteHe disinherited his oldest child for being trans. Musk himself is autistic, a condition with 90% heritability and a high association with being trans, asexual or non-binary, but he blames his daughter and punishes her for what he likely passed along to her genetically. It is hard to excuse a man who abuses his own children by pretending they are dead, for the crime of being themselves.
Trump is disbanding the Department of Education, because they were showing First Graders the 10+ minute video of George Floyd being choked to death by a pig, and having the kids count all the good guys with guns.
ReplyDeleteDemocrats think it's okay, because they believe First Graders should be able to count all the way to zero.
Don’t waste your time defending politicians that don’t care about you. Life is too short. To them, you are suckers … which is accurate. You are.
ReplyDelete