WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2025
Last night, AOC pushed back: As the stumblebums keep flooding the zone, there's no real way to keep up.
That said, we somehow think that we might have seen the original stumblebum statement. Could that possibly mean what it seems to mean? we think we may have wondered.
We did see the alleged situation railed against by Judge Jeanine on The Five last Thursday night. Her complaint had gone like this:
DANA PERINO (4/10/25): Judge, one of the reasons that Elon Musk's companies are in trouble is because he was willing to help the government.
JUDGE JEANINE: Yes. We found out where all the waste, fraud and abuse was. And we found out that, you know, not only DEI, and not only the USAID sending money for the, you know, all these crazy shows. But we found out that there are people who are between the ages of one and four are getting Social Security...
That was the complaint! Thanks to the self-sacrificial Musk, "we found out that there are people who are between the ages of one and four [who] are getting Social Security!"
At this point, we're not even sure if that complaint tracks back to Musk. As we noted on Monday, the fellow has made so many stumblebum statements that it has become extremely hard to keep track.
Still and all, there was the Judge! She was speaking to the largest audience in the whole sweep of our failing nation's "cable news"—and when she voiced this latest complaint, Jessica Tarlov said this:
JUDGE JEANINE: We found out where all the waste, fraud and abuse was. And we found out that, you know, not only DEI, and not only the USAID sending money for the, you know, all these crazy shows. But we found out that there are people who are between the ages of one and four are getting Social Security...
TARLOV: That's the benefit for kids whose parents are dead.
PIRRO: Okay. But let me just finish...
"Okay," this second stumblebum said. Without interruption, she continued her outraged oration.
(To watch all this folderol, you can just click here.)
So it goes on the stumblebum program, The Five. It's the most-watched show in "cable news"—and it's a daily tribute to our nation's frequently stumblebum "news" culture.
The sheer stupidity of the show is its defining characteristic. Five hours later, at 10 p.m., the astonishing Gutfeld! show may be even dumber.
Back to what the irate (former) judge irately said on The Five:
The former judge lodged an irate complaint in the form of a revelation. Thanks to Musk, she irately seemed to say, we've learned "that there are people who are between the ages of one and four [who] are getting Social Security."
Something popped into our heads when we saw her say it. We wondered if a certain well-known program could possibly be what the judge was talking about.
At any rate, just like that, the "lone pilgrim" on the five-member panel jumped in with a rebuttal:
Why might some very young children be receiving Social Security cash? "That's the benefit for kids whose parents are dead," the panel's lone liberal now said.
Given the rules of stumblebum culture, no attempt was ever made to clarify this point. "Okay," the irate judge how said, and then her oration rolled on.
In fact, it isn't hard to learn that children whose parent or parents have died may be eligible for survivor benefits within the Social Security program. It's been that way since the dawn of time. It isn't exactly a secret.
Could that be what Musk was talking about, if he really was the source of the judge's astonished complaint? Was that what Judge Jeanine had meant when she—possibly reading off the sheaf of papers the flyweights are handed by their producers—gave voice to her complaint about this latest finding by Musk?
To this day, we don't know if Elon Musk was really the source of that specific complaint. We don't know what Judge Jeanine had in mind that day on The Five.
In truth, we don't know if she had anything in mind at all, or if she was simply funneling one of the bullet points found on her daily sheaf of staff-prepared papers. As you can see by viewing the tape, she does seem to be looking down at her papers as she lodged this latest complaint.
That said, this looks like an instance of "cable news" clown car conduct at its stumblebum best. Viewers heard the latest statement about something which, at first encounter, may have seemed to be the latest crazy example of waste, fraud and abuse.
A brief rebuttal had been voiced, but it was shoved to the side. The judge continued along with the latest array of outrages, including an absurd, unsourced speculation about whether Tim Walz ever "paid taxes on money he earned when he was teaching in China."
As you can see by watching the tape, her performance ended with this:
JUDGE JEANINE: I hate it when they lie. (Slapping hands together) They just out and out lie, like it is the truth.
PERINO: You wrote a book about that too!
JUDGE JEANINE: "Liars, Leakers and Liberals."
TARLOV: Still available wherever books are sold!
Tarlov's statement may have been intended as mockery. Mercifully, the segment then came to an end.
Citizens, please! For reasons which may not be hard to grasp, children whose parent or parents have died may be eligible for Social Security payments out of the parent's account. (Click here, then scroll down to "Children's benefits.")
This fact has been known since the dawn of time. There was no need for the stumblebum Musk to help us the people "find out."
In fairness to the judge, she may have simply been reading off a sheaf of talking points prepared for the gang by some stumblebum producer. That said, our remaining questions would be these:
Did Elon Musk really advance some such startling alleged discovery? And if so, was Tarlov's rejoinder really the (bone-simple) explanation for what he was talking about?
Here within our flailing nation, the zone is currently being flooded by the hour, if not by the minute. There's no real way to keep up. We return to this example today because last night, at a rally in Folsom, CA, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) brought this incident up.
She cited last week's stumblebum offering from The Five. In this report, Mediaite quotes what AOC said, and it provides the tape:
AOC Gives Brutal Fact Check of Fox’s Jeanine Pirro: ‘Their Parents Died’
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) singled out Fox News’s Jeanine Pirro for a fact-check at a rally on Tuesday night.
Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) continued their Fighting Oligarchy Tour, appearing in Folsom, California. The progressive duo has been traveling the country trying to rally the Democratic base after bruising losses in November’s elections. At one point during her speech, Ocasio-Cortez referenced some recent comments by Pirro on The Five.
The report continues from there. At any rate, AOC cited the stumblebum moment. Where it began, no one knows!
In Monday morning's report, we quoted from the lengthy New York Times report about Elon Musk's endless array of groaning misstatements. In fairness, everyone makes mistakes—but his mistakes, if that's what they actually are, seem to be bizarre and virtually endless.
We raised a basic question that day. What sort of language should journalists use when they simply try to describe a problem like Elon Musk?
Also, when they describe a problem like President Trump? When they describe a problem like the Fox News Channel?
At some point, extraordinary problems call for the use of new types of language. For ourselves, we've used one word all through this report; we'll discuss that word choice tomorrow.
On that occasion, we'll mainly show you what happened when David Brooks apparently felt the time had come to use a new type of journalistic language. We're not sure we'd fully affirm his first attempt, but plainly, it's time for a change.
Tomorrow, we'll show you the language the columnist used as he tried to describe a type of problem we've rarely seen in the past.
Tomorrow: New language from David Brooks
ReplyDelete"We raised a basic question that day. What sort of language should journalists use when they simply try to describe a problem like Elon Musk?"
How about this: "idiot-Democrats hate Elon Musk for eliminating government waste, fraud, and abuse. Every time they hear "Elon Musk" they fly of the handle."
This language works, ain't it?
It seems bizarre to remember the days when Somerby himself refused to call Trump a liar because no one could crawl inside Trump's head to know whether he knew the truth but was deliberately saying something else, or whether he didn't know the truth and genuinely believed the content of his untrue statements.
ReplyDeleteNow Somerby has the gall to ask what kind of language should be used when people on Fox tell similar untruths, suggesting we need to invent a new kind of language to discuss these lying liars and their lies (yes, Al Franken had that one right).
Is this really the most important thing to worry about when Trump is busily collaborating with the dictator of El Salvador to build more prisons to contain deported American citizens? Or is this another distraction, a way for Somerby to help lull liberals into thinking we have nothing to worry about, as long as we can just find the right language to describe Judge Jeannine?
Have we really rarely seen this kind of problem before, or is it just that we've seen it in other countries and times, such as Hitler's Germany? The every day people who collaborated with Hitler to exterminate over 6 million scapegoated individuals were called "Hitler's willing executioners." In our own time of incipient dictatorship, is Somerby one of Trump's willing executioners? He certainly isn't one of the people calling out the abuses and trying to resist autocracy, no matter what he says about Musk. Compare what Somerby writes here daily to what appears at actual liberal blogs or substacks. Somerby never mentions resistance efforts, never criticizes right wing politicians, never tells people how to join the throngs at rallies in the streets or at town halls, how to call your legislators about the demise of social security, and so on. Somerby thinks he is doing a man's work by calling Pirro names and mocking Tarlov. When the roll is called up yonder, Somerby will surely be missing.
Bob's tossing insults at fascists. What more would you have him do to save the Republic?
DeleteExcept he doesn’t call them fascists. Musk is just “making mistakes” and “misstatements” in Bob’s world. “If that’s what they are…” he adds.
Delete(yes, Al Franken had that one right)
DeleteOne must be a very old student on the TDH campus to recall that it was Our Host who helped advance Franken's trajectory in the world of political commentary. Way, way back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, TDH frequently recounted Franken's "victory lap" after forcing a Republican congressman to admit the party's dishonesty over Medicare cuts.
Golden days, they were!
@10:26 -- Here are a few suggestions for Somerby:
Delete1. Admit he is working for the Republicans and stop calling himself a liberal.
2. Help readers find ways to resist the coming tyranny, as listed by @10:18 (did you have to ask when the answer to your question is right there?)
3. Stop wasting time on this blog and go do some real activism that makes the world a better place, even in some small way
4. Start using the same vocabulary as the left is using to call Trump and Musk what they are. Manipulating language to control thought is what dictators do, not media critics.
5. Apologize to his readers for being a non-mensch all this time (at least since 2015).
6. Explore media beyond the confines of cable (Fox or MSNBC/CNN or CSpan).
7. Stop disparaging experts, expertise, professors, higher education, and sources of valid info so that trust in knowledge can be restored. (With NOAA gone, the weather will be whatever Trump says it is -- no more hurricanes!!! Yay yay yay).
8. Stop name-dropping people just because they were nice to you. Roseanne Barr is not a good decent person.
9. Actually vote Democratic, instead of just claiming to do it.
10. Get a cat or dog and learn empathy.
Cecelia should try some of these too.
DeleteAnonymouse 2:42pm, if Bob would just admit to being the phony that you accuse him of being. What could be more reasonable than that?
DeleteIs there a difference between "being a phony" and taking on a persona as part of a contract (aka acting a part)?
DeleteHere is some news Somerby might have discussed:
ReplyDeletehttps://hartmannreport.com/p/the-department-of-government-efficiency-fbd
"And thanks to the bravery of a whistleblower named Daniel Berulis, we now have a window into what may well be one of the most brazen and dangerous power grabs in American history.
This isn’t cheap or even ordinary corruption: this is the sort of thing that happens in Third World countries, like when Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines used cronies and spies to infiltrate government agencies and neutralize political opponents, or when Vladimir Putin installed former KGB allies into key Russian institutions to crush whistleblowers and rig judicial outcomes, or when Guatemala’s President Jimmy Morales dismantled anti-corruption agencies and handed sensitive state information to business elites.
It’s the sort of corruption that destroys democracies from the inside out.
Berulis risked his career, his safety, even his life to reveal what’s happening inside Elon Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE — a name that sounds innocuous enough, until you understand what they’re actually doing.
DOGE, according to Berulis’ bombshell disclosure, managed to breach the National Labor Relations Board’s computer systems and extract what he described as “the equivalent to a section of the New York Public Library” in sensitive data. This isn’t just bureaucratic overreach — it’s a digital smash-and-grab, right out of the authoritarian playbook.
And make no mistake: this is not some crackpot theory. Shortly after DOGE operatives created accounts inside the NLRB system, a login attempt came from a Russian IP address using one of those accounts — with the correct credentials. Within minutes of the breach, the data may have already been in the hands of the Putin government.
That’s the same Vladimir Putin who press reports say has been in regular telephone contact with both Donald Trump and Elon Musk for the past two years.
What’s being looted here isn’t just random bureaucratic files. We’re talking about the private information of whistleblowers, union organizers, witnesses in federal cases, proprietary corporate data, and labor rights enforcement strategies. Including complaints and complainants against Elon Musk’s companies.
In other words, the raw materials for dismantling organized labor in America — and for targeting, harassing, or discrediting anyone trying to stand up to corporate power, including Elon Musk’s multiple efforts to stop or break unionization attempts in his own companies.
This isn’t a conspiracy theory. It’s the naked truth, verified by a growing number of insiders and corroborated by NPR, which reports that at least eleven government officials and staffers have confirmed their fears about DOGE’s data exfiltration campaign."
Cont.
Delete"Here’s the conflict of interest that should make every American’s hair stand on end: Elon Musk’s companies — Tesla, SpaceX, and X — were themselves under investigation by the NLRB for alleged labor violations. At least until Musk’s underlings fired the people investigating him and his companies.
Musk now has his own handpicked operatives inside the very agency tasked with holding him accountable. It’s like giving the bank robber a master key to the bank and letting him wander the halls at night. It’s a grotesque perversion of the rule of law, a corruption of the most fundamental principle of American justice that no one is above the law.
And if the information DOGE extracted gets used in court — or even leaked selectively — it could permanently tilt the scales of justice in favor of Musk and his corporate cronies. Labor law experts are already sounding the alarm, warning that even the possibility of access will have a chilling effect on union organizing and whistleblowing.
Just imagine you’re a worker trying to form a union. Would you still speak out, knowing your employer might now know your name, your address, your testimony, and your strategy — thanks to a government program run by that very employer’s billionaire CEO?
But it gets worse. Much worse. According to longtime employees within the Department of Labor and other agencies, the DOGE teams aren’t seasoned experts or trained cybersecurity professionals. They’re “new arrivals,” many of them with no vetting, no security clearance, and no relevant experience. Some have even worked with criminal hackers, and another reportedly runs a website based in Russia.
Yet they were granted sweeping access to some of the most sensitive data systems in the federal government. It’s a digital coup executed not by hackers, but by political loyalists and tech-bro mercenaries handed the keys to the kingdom by billionaire benefactors.
When Berulis tried to do the right thing — when he and his colleagues reached out to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to report the breach — they were stonewalled. Their alert was “disrupted by higher-ups without explanation.” And Berulis himself received a specific threat reminiscent of KGB strategies."
This is real and this is what Somerby could have been discussing when he focused instead on Fox piffle.
David in Cal voted for this kind of thuggery.
DeleteJust kidding. David in Cal voted for the bigotry, of course.
Normal people trust Elon Musk.
DeleteRead the rest at the link provided. Somerby keeps calling the mainstream legacy media "Blue America" or the blue press. It is not. Those sources are owned by corporations and do not report what is actually happening among liberals, what we are thinking and doing. People like Thom Hartmann do, yet I doubt Somerby has ever mentioned him, or Heather Cox Richardson, or Robert Reich or Meidas Touch (now with more podcast listeners than Joe Rogan) or any of the other important liberal sources. Just Gutfeld and Fox -- and what kind of media analysis is that? Somerby has never mentioned Russia or Putin's hold over Trump. Somerby might as well be broadcasting from Russia TV himself.
Delete10:28,
DeleteA nation awash in 450,000,000 guns is the definition of trusting.
"Normal people trust Elon Musk."
DeleteTotally. Democrats are dreading the day when Musk's DOGE report is made public because....oh right, DOGE isn't writing one.
Because that would subject their findings to scrutiny. So trustworthy.
10:31
DeleteThere is always a chance leftists could return to power.
"Somerby keeps calling the mainstream legacy media "Blue America" or the blue press."
DeleteHe's correct to do so. While the legacy media may not meet your definition of liberal, they are entirely Democratic in their orientation.
10;34,
DeleteAgree.
The unpopularity of the Democratic Party is an exaggeration made by Right-wingers, for effect.
10:41,
DeleteWhat makes you think the legacy media wants their corporate taxes raised?
How was the legacy media liberal or Democratic in their orientation when they conducted a campaign to portray Biden as too old in advance of the last presidential election? Then they relentlessly hounded Harris for not giving enough interviews or having no policy statements or not visiting the border. That is right wing stuff. Much the way they focused entirely on Hillary's e-mails when she ran against Trump, never talking about her policy position or accomplishments. Calling the legacy press "blue" is Somerby's lie.
DeleteThe MSM did not hound Biden over his age. In fact, they're now pretending that the WH duped THEM and THEY are writing books and making money on that subject in the way that isn’t the case for people who were right about Biden at the time.
DeleteThe Washington Post accepted the doctored videos of Biden supposedly wandering as real. The New York Times ran many articles and op-ed pieces every day about Biden's supposed frailty and cognitive declines, and printed all the various people critical of Biden running again. They started doing that when the DOJ investigator claimed he had memory problems, in advance of the doctored videos and before Biden's speech debacle. This didn't come from the White House and they did not defend Biden in any way, not even by publishing anyone defending Biden.
DeleteTo date, there is no evidence that Biden is not still cognitively functioning well for his age. Assuming that there was a coverup when none has been proven shows your bias.
While the campaign to push Biden off the ticket was taking place, I counted and listed the anti-Biden articles daily appearing in the NY Times online. I put that in these comments. I did the same when the number of Trump stories greatly outweighed the number of Harris stories after Biden left the ticket, to demonstrate the bias in the NY Times. I posted that here in comments too.
DeleteThat constitutes evidence of bias in the press, as I claimed was occurring. Anyone could have verified the info I posted, which was why I put it here. For you to claim a revisionist version of events ignores that effort and is dishonest.
There is no longer anything called "mainstream media", there is corporate media and independent media.
DeleteCorporate media pushes a neoliberal agenda, to the extent they support Dems at all they support neoliberal Dems, the establishment old guard of Dems that is slowly fading away (not fast enough).
Having said that, the worst Dem is still miles better than the best Repub. Elections are always about lesser evil/harm reduction.
There is a major problem in our discourse, an inability to properly define "right" and "left" and the historical context of both. Without this, our discourse is just people noodling and grifting.
Well, you got see Biden today shouting and meandering on about “colored kids”.
DeleteTrump's rhetoric AND actions are deeply racist against Blacks, so focusing on Biden's old timey but benign language is not a good look for Repubs.
DeleteAs far as action goes, under Biden, Blacks did better than under Trump: better unemployment, better labor participation, better wages, better household income, lower poverty rate, more Black owned businesses, higher home ownership, more Blacks covered by health insurance, etc.
Pointing out this nothing burger about Biden's language only accentuates Trump's racism and how bad he was for Blacks.
Cecelia takes self owning to new heights!
Anonymouse 3:52pm, speaking of self-own, you should just go ahead and say that it doesn’t matter what Biden calls black children as long as they’re fat and happy.
DeleteIn Trump's defense, he wouldn't have come close to getting a Republican voter to pull the lever for him, if he didn't.
DeleteAnonymouse 4:23pm, not to mention those racist Hispanic and black men.
DeleteTiny numbers of minority voters who increased slightly (attributed to Trump's embrace of bro culture).
DeleteBiden said he remembered the time when children were referred to that way. Don't pretend he was referring to them now. This is why people don't like you, Cecelia. (A real woman would care about being disliked, so if you say so what, it will be one more stick to add to that pile.)
4:30,
DeleteImagine the votes from Hispanic and black men Trump would have got, if the Republican Party wasn't actively suppressing their votes?
Anonymouse 5:21pm, no real woman or man with a modicum of sense would ever give a hoot as to what you and your lot thought about them. Any more than they’d care about the opinion of a flimflam artist.
DeleteYes, this is why the "likes" in social media hurt feelings and why people work so hard to get them, huh? You are working out hostility here -- it is obvious. It makes this a less pleasant place to comment and interferes with discussion among those who really want to talk about things. But that's what trolls do. And they are nearly always male, no matter what your nym. And then you have the nerve to insist that others add nyms so that you can abuse them more readily. You are not a good decent person and you should go find a different blog to work it off at.
DeleteAll Democrats are corrupt.
ReplyDeleteA criminal referral has been sent to the Department of Justice, accusing New York AG Letitia James of mortgage fraud.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency has sent a criminal referral to Attorney General Pam Bondi against James.
James falsified records to receive more favorable loan terms including for a property in Virginia that she allegedly claimed would be her primary residence.
bwahahaha!!!
DeleteYes, the right is now seeking revenge against all those who tried to hold Trump accountable. Unlike James, who obtained a conviction against Trump, the right is manufacturing complaints as it tries to make as much trouble as possible for those who did their jobs by prosecuting Trump's crimes.
DeleteTrump said: "I'm no puppet, you're the puppet" when Hillary called him out as Putin's bitch during their debate. Now it is aimed at James. Trump pretends "I'm not corrupt, you're corrupt" except the court already showed us who the corrupt assholes are. The people Republicans put into office in the last election.
The same people who risked perjury to convict Hillary Clinton and the Biden family for their crimes, will put Letitia James behind bars for her crimes, too.
DeleteBet on it.
Trump squealed: "I'm no puppet, you're the puppet" when Hillary called him out as Putin's bitch during their debate.
DeleteCorrected for accuracy.
I'm reminded that Mao never told us how his conjugal visits with Hillary Clinton in prison went.
DeleteInquiring minds want to know.
Rachel Maddow presented another Pulitzer worthy bit of journalism last night, highlighted by live interview with whistleblower from NLRB reporting suspicious data breeches by DOGE cyberpunks under the guidance of head cyberpunk conman Elon Musk. NPR broke the story:
ReplyDeleteBut according to an official whistleblower disclosure shared with Congress and other federal overseers that was obtained by NPR, subsequent interviews with the whistleblower and records of internal communications, technical staff members were alarmed about what DOGE engineers did when they were granted access, particularly when those staffers noticed a spike in data leaving the agency. It's possible that the data included sensitive information on unions, ongoing legal cases and corporate secrets — data that four labor law experts tell NPR should almost never leave the NLRB and that has nothing to do with making the government more efficient or cutting spending.https://www.npr.org/2025/04/15/nx-s1-5355896/doge-nlrb-elon-musk-spacex-security
"Rachel Maddow presented another Pulitzer worthy bit of journalism last night"
DeleteShe presented a story that NPR broke. Why would she get a Pulitzer?
She interviewed the whistleblower with his lawyer and asked very penetrating questions. I think she moved the ball significantly. Maybe I was being a little hyperbolic though.
DeleteBecause she had the guts to put this stuff on her show, unlike Somerby who never talks about anything important. "Pulitzer worthy" means she was doing actual journalism -- you are reading a bit too literally. When someone says a person is stunningly attractive, it doesn't mean anyone was physically knocked out. If you want to be strictly literal, Maddow did present the bit of journalism, and it is Pulitzer worthy, even if she isn't the one nominated for a Pulitzer for it.
DeleteHave you read that bit of journalism? Do you think we should only be worried about what Musk says about 4 year olds on social security, after reading it? Or might there be more to what Musk has been doing?
Somerby respects Maddow.
Deleteso much that he leaves the significant commentary to her. The Musk bros that did this should be perp walked out of the building and charged with their national security crimes
We need a lot more journalists like Maddow showing the guts she shows every day. Jeff Bezos is more worried about his next world record setting yacht.
DeleteI admire Maddow even more because she knows what fascists are capable of, from her historical research, and can have no illusions about the viciousness aimed at suppressing dissent in fascist regimes.
DeleteMurderous thug and Democrat hero Karmelo Anthony is now renting $900K home in gated community, and has bought a new car after release on bond in Austin Metcalf murder case.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tall glass of jealous tears, Soros-bot.
Delete"Democrat hero?"
DeleteIs that you, trumptard?
10:33,
DeleteExcellent reporting. Now we know why Musk is so jealous of him.
Karmelo Anthony is lucky the GOP is in charge. Democrats would want to punish him for his success.
DeleteHow is this relevant to Somerby's essay?
DeleteElon Musk is jealous because he had to start 6 successful, giant companies and all Karmelo had to do for Democrats to make him their rich hero is murder an innocent, decent white kid.
DeleteAnonymouse 10:47am, are you kidding? Scroll up and read you and your friends’ posts haranguing Bob as to what topics he should be opining upon.
DeleteSomerby brought up Musk and we said he wasn't focusing on Musk's activities on behalf of Russia, when he focused so exclusively on 4 year olds receiving social security.
DeleteThis Karmelo stuff is racist bullshit.
10:33 brings us the latest right wing outrage, the next thing to try to slime “Democrats” with.
DeleteHa ha ha, Karmelo Anthony. This is classic Republican fodder. Look up Ross Ulbricht. It was such a miscarriage of justice that the criminal who set up the dark web drug trading site Silk Road and took out contracts on 6 people was found guilty of multiple counts, serving 2 life sentences, that Donald J. Trump took time out of his busy day after the inauguration to call his mother with the great news that he was pardoning him. With tens of millions of dollars in bitcoin, Ulbricht is living the life.
DeleteAnonymouse 11:10am, no, you’re doing what you do every day and that’s to tell Bob what he really should be writing about. You do that to Bob and to commenters because you’re here to wrest control.
DeleteWhy would I want to "wrest control" when anyone can become a substack writer for free? I am trying to defend truth and support our free press (to the extent it still exists), by calling out Somerby's dissembling and rebutting/refuting the lies he himself refuses to address. I hated it when Somerby repeated right wing talking point criticisms of Harris, pretending they were coming from someone who was a Harris supporter. It has been shown in studies of persuasion and influence that a statement made by somone who is liberal criticizing a liberal candidate will carry more weight than the same statement made by someone who is right wing, obviously an opponent of that candidate. That is perhaps why anyone would pretend to be liberal while spouting right wing talking points here. This started in 2015, when Trump decided to run for president.
DeleteSomerby doesn't control anything, except perhaps Cecelia's feeble mind. I wouldn't want to touch that. But it is revealing that about the time when Somerby made his hard right turn, a cadre of fanboy trolls showed up here, displacing the often interesting discussion on a variety of topics with troll garbage, drive-by potshots, name-calling, and some really ugly attacks on long-time commenters. Somerby treats his readers like hecklers and ignores all comments, but it was pretty obvious that he allowed his blog to become part of the Trump campaign back then and has not changed since, except to let his bigot flag fly. Cecelia doesn't understand why anyone would defend truth on the internet, given that she and her fellow trolls regard lies as a tool, not truth as something to be valued because it supports democratic participation.
Anonymouse 11:37am, you’ve been calling Bob a rightwinger and a pal of Putin for years. You’ve been steadfastly demanding that Bob morph into the sort of political bot that even you would roll your eyes over if he ever transform into that “entity”.
DeleteYour grudge is personal. There wouldn’t be a liberal here regularly if you and the temp people you recruit (until you piss them off) were gone.
Like Trump's tariffs, it's nothing business. It's strictly personal.
Delete“ There wouldn’t be a liberal here regularly if you and the temp people you recruit (until you piss them off) were gone.”
DeleteCecelia, you have this fixed and wrong beliefs about liberals, that results in irrational anger that you spew here, labeling them “totalitarians”, and this idea that all the anonymous commenters are “recruited”. It’s silly. It isn’t useful commentary.
Law of political transitivity:
DeleteTrump is a "friend" of Putin
Somerby is a "friend" of Trump
Somerby is a "friend" of Putin
Putin gives money to Trump
Trump spends Russian money to get elected
Somerby takes money to support Trump
No one is saying that Somerby ever met Putin or that Russia mails him a check. Just that there is a connection based on observable behavior. For some people the connection ran through the NRA or the RNC, not from Trump or Putin directly. That is a kind of money laundering. When someone repeatedly says things that benefit Trump does it matter whether they were paid or just stupid?
Anonymouse 12:33pm, no, I don’t have the wrong belief about liberals. There are liberals on this board that I respect. Anonymices are in different class.
DeleteYou called them totalitarians below, Cecelia.
DeleteAnonymouse 12:59pm, you must be new. Anonymices have routinely linked Somerby to Putin.
DeleteAnonymouses 1:07pm, because that’s what you are. Liberals don’t come off an assembly line any more than conservatives do and God knows conservatives-globalists are the devil.
DeleteEven when doubling or tripling down, every conservative commenter's accusation is a confession.
DeleteAnonymouse 1:15pm, confess what? I never was a globalist, party toady, or anonymouse flying monkey. That’s your gig.
DeleteSure, Cecelia, I'll bet you were a big Mondale supporter.
DeleteI don't think Cecelia knows what any of these labels mean.
DeleteThe liberals that Cecelia respects and the liberals that other liberals respect are probably not the same people.
DeleteCecelia goes mask off, in a hilarious self own:
Delete"There wouldn’t be a liberal here regularly if you and the temp people you recruit (until you piss them off) were gone."
That is pretty much on the nose, Somerby now runs a right wing blog, so yes it is true, there would/should be no liberals here, except for legacy readers that can recall back when Somerby did not traffic in nonsense and instead called out corporate media for being little more than stenographers for the Republican party.
I think a grateful nation should thank Providence for patriots like 11:37, who modestly admits to courageously defending truth and a free press by reading a blog daily for at least the past decade and then posting multiple and lengthy screeds exposing the blog's author as someone who pretends to be liberal in order to seduce other liberals into supporting Trump. God bless America!
DeleteSee, when Somerby criticizes Fox as being garbage-can, corporate propaganda, or when he wonders whether Trump is pathologically disturbed, these are simply the tricky tricks that he employs as part of his affinity fraud scheme.
DeleteIt's a dirty job but someone's got to do it.
Delete"Fox News is ultimately owned by the Murdoch family through their control of Fox Corporation. Rupert Murdoch himself, although he is no longer chairman, holds a significant ownership share and influences the company. "
DeleteDG @3:34, I don't think Somerby ever called Fox "corporate" propaganda. It has been Rupert Murdoch's labor of love and the propaganda is on behalf of the right wing, Trump and Putin, not to serve corporate interests (Murdoch has $11.5 billion). Yes, Fox tried to quit Trump briefly during Trump's trial and the Dominion lawsuit, but came back when it was obvious Trump would win the presidency again. Corporate is MSNBC and CNN, which are not family-owned.
Dogface really did believe that Trump was two weeks away from presenting a beautiful new health care plan, that's the level of Dogface's thinking, so cut him a little slack, he is the mark/sucker Somerby and the Repubs are looking for.
Delete3:15 nails it.
DeleteEmbarrassing slip of the mask/tongue for Cecelia:
"There wouldn’t be a liberal here regularly if you and the temp people you recruit (until you piss them off) were gone."
OMG, too fucking funny!!!!!!!
"Somerby takes money to support Trump"
DeleteHow about:
"Commenter pulls comment out of their butt"?
How about "exaggerating for effect, isn't only for Right-wingers". Or, if you'd like, "what's good for the goose, is good for the gander".
DeleteWe have seen in this new Trump regime how willing anyone is to kowtow to Trump if they think there is something to gain (or something to fear) in sucking up to Trump.
DeleteI don't know why so many formerly lefty standup comedians and other entertainment figures were attracted to Trump. I wouldn't have thought Joe Rogan would be and I don't understand Bill Maher's rightward drift either. So, why not Somerby? I think they probably do get something out of it, and if not money perhaps increased audience or invitations to better parties, or something tangible. Somerby isn't a deep thinker so maybe it is just a tinge of dementia.
If I knew why right wingers were right wing, I might be able to talk a few out of it, but that hasn't worked even with people I know locally and have been friendly with. Not any more. I won't hang out with anyone who voted for Trump or thinks he is doing anything right these days.
I'm looking forward to knocking the Right-wing out of them.
DeleteJust waiting for the signal.
3:56 -- It seems weird that you just make shit up about me. Does it make you feel better somehow?
DeleteIt makes all of us anons feel better. Does that make you feel better somehow?
DeleteThe Supreme Court in the UK has ruled that transwomen are not legally women. Perhaps their authorities will now stop sending police officers to the homes of people who voice that same position on Twitter or FB.
ReplyDeleteFor purposes of equal rights. You left out that part of their decision. They said transwomen cannot sue for equal rights under laws protecting women. It does not give bigots the right to harrass transwomen under British law.
DeletePerhaps the 112% rise in hate crimes on the basis of sexual identity can go even higher now.
DeleteAnonumouse 1:00am, duh.
DeleteAnonymouse 11:04pm, that’s via people with xy chromosomes- with or without eye makeup.
DeleteWhat about:
DeleteKlinefelter Syndrome -- XXY
Turner Syndrome -- X
Trisomy X -- XXX
XYY Syndrome -- XYY
Other X or Y variations such as XXXY, XXXXY
Not to mention deletions, duplications, inversions and translocations within a chromosome.
These anomalies are rare but they do occur in nature, some not survivable but others survivable. Your insistence that everyone must be exactly alike places a hardship on people who are born different. Your sly remark about eye makeup trivializing something that people must live with that has been made into a political issue in order stigmatize others. You are not only ignorant but, as I have said before, lacking in even a shred of empathy.
DeleteI am an idiot-Democrats, and all of my fellow freaks are too.
AOC, a democrat, is getting crowds in the tens of thousands in Utah and Idaho. If they are freaks, then good for them.
DeleteAnonymouse 11:20am, all sorts of anomalies exist in nature, but that doesn’t prevent us, the UK high court, *you, from calling them anomalies.
DeleteYou don’t have empathy, you have the drive to create grievance groups as political weapons and you have the desire to tell us what is real or not real whether we like it or not. You’re the opposite of empathetic, you’re a tyrant.
“ the drive to create grievance groups as political weapons”
DeleteYou’re trying to tell us that this isn’t what politics is about? That the right wing never does this?
Of course it is, and of course they do.
To rephrase you, a political party stands up for the rights of various groups. You call this “creating grievance groups.” So be it, but don’t pretend that only liberals do this. That would be a foolish thing to say.
DeleteIt's what "identity politics" is all about, Soros-bot.
Currently, the preferred capitalist tool for splitting the working class into warring factions.
“Identity politics”..,you mean, identity groups like Christians, Jews, the “white working class”, straight white men, etc?
DeleteCecelia,
DeleteYour calls to fuck the white working class, are always welcome here.
Anonymouse 11:32am, no, you’re doing what go beyond championing groups, you groom them. Cross dressers have always been around. They can be tolerated or not tolerated in the workplace depending upon their employer. That’s not enough for you. We must all agree they are women. There are no black people who have ever been slaves in the U.S., however, you still demand policies via equity ideology that can be tantamount to reverse racism. You don’t champion groups, you use them to wage cultural war.
DeleteAnonymouse 11:46am, you haven’t experienced anything remotely similar to that analogy and there’s no doubt you’re whiter than white.
Delete“ You don’t champion groups, you use them to wage cultural war.”
DeleteThe GOP is very big on culture wars, and creates grievance groups based upon skin color and religion all the time. I’m not sure what you call the militant support for Jews by some in the GOP, other than a form of identity politics. It’s being used as a pretext to take over private universities.
Second, “there are no black people who have ever been slaves” is hardly a criterion for ignoring the specific issues of black people. Slavery left a legacy, and that legacy is poverty above the rate for whites and poorer performance in schools. Blacks have always been an out group as have gays and transgender. Standing up for them is important, and it is appropriate for a political party to do this. You always equate this with tyranny, but it is in fact the opposite.
Anonymouse 12:00pm, no, you’re not anything like the people who marched with King in the 60’s. You are not those people. You sold them out for the promise of playing God a long time ago. You’re more akin to Dr. Frankenstein as financed by globalists who throw you a bone because they know a handy totalitarian when they see one.
DeleteA handy totalitarian? This description fits Trump to a tee. The GOP uses gay and trans bashing to actually enact totalitarianism, and conducts an ongoing effort to delete references to blacks, women, native Americans, etc, from government websites, and you have the lack of awareness to accuse liberals of being totalitarians.
DeleteAnonymouse 12:24pm, in other words they refer to Americans collectively, instead of opportunistically exploiting groups.
Delete“ they refer to Americans collectively, instead of opportunistically exploiting groups.”
DeleteReally? You think this is what the GOP does? They bashed trans people as a prominent campaign tactic. They use “anti Semitism” as a pretext to take over and/or threaten private universities. The routine misogyny on Gutfeld is in service of a pro-white man mindset. An old and continuing gop tactic is to call rural people “real Americans” as opposed to city dwellers. It goes on and on. Your tribalist mindset isn’t doing you any favors.
Anonymouse 12:46, ignoring antisemitism is a darn good reason to withhold federal funding to universities.
DeleteNow Gutfeld’s mindset is MY mindset, but anonymices daily bemoaning Bob’s focus on Fox.
Go get them, Bob. They’re the conservative stooge version of the liberal stooge media. You couldn’t get an accurate take from the media at gunpoint.
But you’re not here to talk about such things. You’re here to shut down that convo.
Cecelia, I started commenting at 11:32, in response to your statement “ the drive to create grievance groups as political weapons”. You notice that nowhere after that did I refer to Somerby in any way. On the other hand, you were the one who called Democrats totalitarians in an attempt to end the discussion. I was simply trying to push back against that notion, but your sense of grievance prevents you from having any kind of good faith discussion, even about purely political matters. So yeah, this conversation is done.
DeleteEvery conservative commenter's accusation is a confession.
DeleteAnonymouse 1:03pm, I specifically distinguished you from the sort of liberals who marched with King. Again, you are not those people. I’m not sure why I should bother arguing against your charge that I was de facto calling all liberals the same, when you sure as hell would spray paint all Republicans. We’re going to leave it at that.
DeleteCecelia and Somerby both present the media as only the Red and Blue when there is a burgeoning independent media that is never discussed here. It includes substack essays and podcasts, many well researched and very detailed, analyzing and presenting info about the range of current events taking place in our country these days. That is where the action is, not on Fox or cable and certainly not in the legacy mainstream press (NY Times, LA Times, Washington Post). There is also some interesting action in the financial press these days that Somerby ignores and I assume Cecelia does not read. The anxiety in the financial press over tariffs is instructive and there are several economists saying intelligent things about it. All of that is invisible to Somerby.
DeleteAnonhmouse 2:17pm, oh, it’s YOU now. Welcome to your mid- afternoon shift.
DeleteDow loses 600 points, Nasdaq falls 3% on big tech drop and tariff fears: Live updates
Deletei wonder where the fat motherfucker will be golfing this weekend.
Anonymouse 3:21pm, as dull-witted as you are, even you know better than that. Call me out. I love it.
DeleteAnonymouse 4:33pm, abortions with a rusty saw would be right up your back-alley.
DeleteCecelia, since you are dumb as a box of rocks, I will explain that @4:33 is pointing out that the totalitarians are in TX where they make laws controlling women's bodies, not in the blue states where abortion is still legal. That means it is Republicans who are totalitarians, not Democrats as you dumbly stated. Your response shows that the point went whoosh right over your head.
DeleteAnonymouse 5:10pm, let me explain to you that I handed your props ( rusty saw, abortion) right back to you. You’re welcome.
DeleteGood one Cecelia.
DeleteNot as good as your quip about the Republican voter who isn't a bigot (a veritable laughfest from the set-up alone), but I can certainly tell you worked long and hard on it.
Keep up the good work.
Cecelia, since you are not a native speaker, I will explain that when someone refers to another comment using the time stamp, instead of saying "I said" it means they are referring to another person's comment and not their own. So whoever you handed those props (rusty saw, abortion) to, it wasn't the person who originally used them. And you did not respond at all to me.
DeleteBy the way, most women do not talk about abortion the way you do, whether they support it or oppose it. That's because women share an experience of birth-related physiology that gives them some empathy for the situation of a woman needing an abortion, no matter how they might resolve things for themselves. Your callousness around the topic is a big red flag that you seem to be unaware of, with your stupid props rejoinder.
“Stumblebum”, “mistakes” , “misstatements”, “stupid”, “clown car”.. that’s one way of describing people like Jeanine or Musk. Alternatively, one could say it’s part of a deliberate, connected propaganda effort, which includes outright lies, to solidify authoritarian Republican/Trumpist dominance.
ReplyDeleteWhen Somerby pretends that Musk is making trivial mistakes (clownishly) and Trump is a little bit crazy or something, instead of calling out his corruption, collusion with Russia, treasonous mishandling of classified documents, attacks on women (rape, assault, not verbal), then Somerby is obviously part of a "deliberate, connected propaganda effort...to solidfy authoritarian Republican/Trumpist dominance" as you suggest.
DeleteAgree, and this is not hard to discern, Somerby is not even good at his own grift, typical right winger, lazy af.
Delete3:23,
DeleteWhite men, am I right?
Maryland court documents reveal that deported Salvadoran illegal immigrant MS-13 gangbanger Kilmar Abrego Garcia's wife, Jennifer Vasquez, filed for an order of protection against him in May 2021.
ReplyDeleteWhy would the Trump Administration deport a guy who has all the qualifications needed to be a part of Trump's Cabinet, Soros-bot?
DeleteAccording to our current AG, that man should have a license to buy guns.
DeleteFirst, he was not an illegal immigrant but had an approved asylum petition. Second, there is also no evidence he belonged to MS-13, something his wife denies. Third, his wife now says (7 days ago):
Delete""Everything they are saying is wrong," she said. "My husband is a loving father and what I know is that he's an amazing husband, an amazing father. That's who he truly is."
The timing of the protection order is around the birth of their child, now 5 years old. His children have various disorders, including epilepsy and autism. That is stressful for parents. If they argued and reconciled, that makes them no different than many other couples and it is largely irrelevant to what the government did in violation of his rights. Note that there are no arrests for domestic violence, no convictions or arrests for any crime.
This accusation comes from a guy named Bill Melugin on X, who posts the copy of the court document. It shows an interim protective order and hearing date which was held, but does not show that a final protective order was issued. The document states the case is closed. If there were a final protective order issued by the judge, the info would appear on the document, but it does not. That makes Bill Melugin an idiot or someone trying to imply more than occurred.
The aggressiveness with which the govt has been trying to smear Garcia suggests they are using specious claims and misinformation to justify their own error. The more they beat up on this guy's reputation, the more I believe his wife.
Sounds like Pete Hegseth should be in El Salvadoran gulag.
DeleteHegseth should be in prison, but his victim settled instead, probably out of fear of right wing retribution.
DeleteHegseth is not just a rapist, but a serial abuser of women, that is even according to his own mother.
Bob blames Musk for someone’s false statement even though Musk wasn’t the source. Bob’s “evidence” is that Musk said other false things. This reminds me of blaming the Jews for any problem.
ReplyDeleteEverything reminds you of anti Semitism, DiC. It’s the only form of bigotry you seem to care about.
DeleteBlaming the Jews for every problem is wrong, but it isn't anti Semitism.
DeleteAnti Semitism is criticizing deeply held religious beliefs of Jews, like bombing schools and hospitals to ethnically cleanse whole populations.
Nowadays you blame immigrants and "DEI" for everything, Dickhead in Cal.
DeleteTHIS.
DeleteFake David hits the nail on the head.
Yes, exactly.
All those moronic Somerby defender fanboys, here you see Somerby's agenda playing out.
FWIW I suspect that the source of the error is that certain other benefits were inappropriately paid to young children, according to the data base. It might have been unemployment during covid.
ReplyDeleteIMO this claim was uncertain. We don’t know whether infants got money or whether age was entered incorrectly. I think the latter is more likely.
Why won’t you ask for hard evidence, rather than assuming things?
DeleteThis kind of speculation is called "making shit up."
Delete12:10 nails it.
Delete"Children may be eligible for benefits if their parent is receiving retirement or disability benefits, or if the parent has passed away."
The only "source of the error" is in Pirro's brain.
"LANGUAGE: Judge Jeanine made her latest stumblebum statement!"
ReplyDeleteSomerby loves his boxing references. Lately he has been calling his targets flyweights, and now he has stumbled upon "stumblebum" to describe people who obviously are not inept or athletes.
stumblebum definition: a clumsy or inept person; especially : an inept boxer
It seems to me that the various people who appear on Fox News are doing a fine job of performing their assigned roles. They forward Republican propaganda and repeat right wing memes, attack Democrats and Democratic targets, and provide entertainment while doing so. On what basis then does Somerby criticize them? What does he expect? They are doing exactly what they were hired to do.
Somerby seems to think that attacking Fox for not being what they don't pretend to be, makes him a liberal by default. Not so. Picking a right wing target and blaming them for not being lefties is not media analysis and it is not advocacy for liberal views either. It is just a stupid waste of everyone's time.
But what I don't get is why Somerby must malign boxers while doing his name-calling? There are so many more apt terms he could apply to Pirro and this one doesn't even fit. She is doing a fine job of being what she was hired to be. As a right wing operative, she is hardly a stumblebum. Calling her that instead of addressing what is wrong with right wing views is a fraud Somerby is perpetrating on his readers, Potemkin criticism (to use Somerby's term). That red herring about kids on social security is trivial beyond belief and has nothing to do with Musk's actual wrongdoing, the real lies perpetrated by Doge, and the danger Musk poses to our nation.
Anonymouse 12:09pm, how is countering the biggest purveyor of righting talking points NOT media criticism? How is it not useful? How does the argument that Fox is only doing what a conservative tv channel does… make any sense as to addressing political issues and the culture? That’s some logic there… Bob shouldn’t waste time taking on Fox (or MSNBC, CNN, Doge, or movies…) however you’ll carry out a decades long jihad upon his vast and influential enterprise. You’re a clown.
DeleteYou did not summarize 12:09’s argument correctly, Cecelia.
DeleteAnonymouse 12:35pm, she’s only written that disingenuous nonsense almost daily for years.
Delete12:09’s comment is pertinent to today’s post.
Delete"Picking a right wing target and blaming them for not being lefties is not media analysis"
DeleteSomerby does not criticize Fox folks for not being lefties; he criticizes them for talking nonsense.
Today he criticizes Pirro for complaining about 1-4 year olds getting SS $, then continuing her bluster without pause when it was pointed out to her why they get SS $.
That's media criticism.
Every conservative accusation is a confession.
DeleteAnonymouse 1:12pm, there’s an oldie, but goodie too, huh?
DeleteMedia criticism is what is done by actual media critics, such as the Columbia School of Journalism's study showing that Trump received far more press coverage than Clinton and Harris. It is what Ground News does when it shows that certain stories on Fox never appear in mainstream sources. It is noticing that Somerby disproportionately attacks female journalists. It is not disagreeing with a specific trivial statement made by a right wing source. There is no analysis to that. That simply points out an error, not a trend. If you think Somerby blows the roof off media musing by pointing out that Fox is a Republican propaganda outlet, you are easily conned.
DeleteThe right tells lies and constantly spreads propaganda in support of Trump. That is what it does. It doesn't take "analysis" to figure that out. Of course Pirro spreads nonsense. This time, Somerby actually explained the truth. He doesn't usually do that. He teased some "language" related point he plans to make later -- there is a good chance he will never get around to it. But his complaint about language is going to focus on how we lefties talk about the problem of Trump (he promises) and not how the right talks about anything.
Somerby doesn't have the chops to do actual media criticism. Picking on Pirro is as far as he can go, when as he himself notes, she is just reading what they put into her hands.
Anonymouse 1:54pm, you’re not here because I’m easily conned or anyone else is easily conned. You here because you’ve been recruited.
DeleteProve it.
Delete12:09 is on the nose.
DeleteSomerby does not do media criticism.
Somerby runs a right wing vanity blog, in the twilight of his years - a sad legacy to someone who held better potential.
No one other than Republicans are influenced by Fox News.
One of Somerby's main theses is that we should try to recruit some of those Republicans, but there is no evidence to support this silly view, and the evidence suggests just the opposite.
"If you think Somerby blows the roof off media musing by pointing out that Fox is a Republican propaganda outlet, you are easily conned."
DeleteYou made this identical claim at 12:09 and I refuted it (flawlessly). Yet you repeat it at 1:54. It's like debating a coffee table.
2:08's jealousy of Hunter Biden's penis size, is hilarious.
DeleteHector, maybe what you said as refutation was unconvincing. What else did @1:54 say, anything addressing your refutation? Do you think people are going to just accept whatever you say because you said it?
Delete@1:54 did say a lot more than Hector addressed.
DeleteI pretty much accept whatever Hector says, because he has been commenting for a while and his comments always make a ton of sense. I can't accept what an Anon says, because there's no way to separate the Anon chaff from the Anon wheat.
DeleteIn short, Hector has built credibility; Anons haven't.
Delete5:21,
DeleteGood point.
Keep it up, and you might one day build credibility, as well.
Good for you Dogface. You separate the anon wheat from the anon chaff by reading the comments. If you are not interested in reading anything longer than 10 lines, that explains why you cannot separate anything from anyone. Hard to know why you read anything here under your constraints, but it is your time and your choice.
DeleteI hope you and Hector will be very happy together.
This has been said before, but even the people using nyms are anonymous.
DeletePeople should accept what I say or not based on my evidence and reasoning.
DeleteI called out 1:54 because, in apparently responding to my 1:12 post, they didn't address my argument in the slightest.
To repeat: Somerby does not criticize Fox for not being leftists, he criticizes them for talking nonsense.
Somerby’s essays are not about Fox.
DeleteAnti-Musk people (Muskists?) focus on incorrect estimates while ignoring all the waste. E.g. Rubio just announced
ReplyDeleteUnder my direction, the State Dept has canceled another 139 grants worth $214 million.
The American taxpayers should not be funding misguided programs like “Building the Migrant Domestic Worker-Led Movement” in Lebanon or “Get the Trolls Out!” in the United Kingdom.
Trump just announced he won in 2020. Guess it’s a fact.
DeleteRight, Dickhead. Der Fuhrer and his henchmen should be deciding all funding issues. Go fuck yourself, you fascist freak.
DeleteAnti-Musk people (Muskists?)
DeleteTry anti-fascists, Dickhead.
Technically speaking, a person who opposes Musk would not be called a Muskist but an anti-Muskist. The "ist" is attached to those support not oppose.
DeleteWhen the incorrect estimate is about the waste, then technically, the focus is on both -- waste and incorrectness.
Using Google provides the following info about one of those programs:
Delete"The initiative "Building the Migrant Domestic Worker-Led Movement" in Lebanon aims to empower migrant domestic workers through community-building, advocacy, and activism to end exploitation and achieve greater racial equity. This movement focuses on abolishing the kafala system, which is a visa sponsorship system that ties workers' legal status to their employers, often leading to abuse. It also advocates for reforms, including including domestic workers in labor laws and ensuring they have the right to form unions. "
The money from the grant went to a series of organizations fighting slavery and abuse of migrant domestic workers including Amnesty International, a legitimate organization that readers here might have heard of. The kafala system is used in other countries beyond Lebanon. In the US, it would be called human trafficking.
It doesn't surprise me that Rubio doesn't care about slavery enacted upon women who are held captive by their employers. Did David bother looking up the program or did he just assume Rubio was right in his judgment that this is a waste of money?
...or did he just assume Rubio was right in his judgment that this is a waste of money?
DeleteYes. Dickhead in Cal comes here every day, reliably, to label anything they cut as "waste", sight unseen.
Nice work, by the way.
"Get The Trolls Out! is a project and campaign to combat discrimination and intolerance based on religious grounds in Europe."
DeleteWhy would Rubio consider this a waste of money? Religious intolerance leads to religious violence, including mass shootings and attacks on individuals (hate crimes). In Europe, this has been exacerbated by migrants fleeing Muslim areas and settling in European countries where there are tensions among existing residents. Does Rubio think it is a bad idea for the UK and other European countries to address such tensions and reduce hate-crimes related to differences of religion? Why would he think that? Does he not see the connection between anti-Muslim, anti-Jewish, and Christian violence underlying national conflicts? The conflict in Serbia-Croatia was over religious differences. So is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Does Rubio think it helps to let intolerance against religions spread into other nations in Europe? The internet is a primary source of spread of hate and intolerance.
Ooof!
DeleteAnother classic self own by both DiC and Rubio.
To Rubio's credit, check out his exasperation with RFK jr (claiming he will identify the cause of autism by Sept, sure buddy) at that recent cabinet meeting.
"Two Hundred and Fourteen Million Dollars"???
DeleteThat's so cute. Check this:
The Trump administration proposed cutting the budget of the State Department and what remains of the U.S. Agency for International Development by almost half, according to an internal memo circulated last week, with funds for humanitarian assistance, global health and international organizations facing dramatic reductions.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/04/14/state-department-budget-cuts-trump-rubio/
None of this would’ve happened if Black people’s votes didn’t count in the 2024 election.
DeleteWait, none of this would have happened if more black people's votes had counted in the 2024 election. Trump would never have been elected.
Delete"Also, when they describe a problem like President Trump?"
ReplyDeleteWhat liberal describes Trump as "a problem"? Somerby is talking about language here, but how can he possibly use such a mild, lightweight, trivial word as "problem" to describe what Trump is doing to our country and to individual people. He has ruined lives and caused deaths. That is not "a problem." A Rubik's cube is a problem. Getting a last minute babysitter is a problem. Trump has created tragedies, and he isn't done yet.
I find Somerby's language today extremely offensive. And given that he is talking explicitly about language, it appears to be deliberate. It suggests that his motive today is to calm down the masses and refocus public attention on trivialities to reduce protests while Trump entrenches himself as The Commander (as Somerby has repeatedly referred to Trump).
Move on, there's nothing to see here, just go about your business. Never mind those guys with masks and that unmarked van they're shoving that woman into.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteAnonymouse 1:08pm, so it’s not enough that Bob says that Trump, Musk, and company have created an ”extraordinary problem” to the extent that it has engendered a need for an entire new language in which to express the gravity of the situation. That’s too meager a description. That’s letting them off the hook…huh? You ridiculous fraud.
DeleteHe hasn't made his case about the need for new language yet. He DID use minimizing language himself to refer to Trump. That makes me wonder whether he is the right person to suggest anything about the left's supposed new language.
Delete"Problem" is the word that minimizes Trump's crimes, not the adjectives with it.
Problem definition: "a matter or situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome"
Unwelcome or harmful do not mean the same things as tragic, devastating, catastrophic. Look it up. No one in their right mind would refer to hurricane Helene as harmful or unwelcome. Those would be such understatements that they would sound inappropriately humorous. That's why calling Trump "a problem" when he has created chaos and destroyed people's lives is so wrong.
Stop defending Somerby when he is wrong. It makes you look like a blind fool. I get it that you may be a troll with English as a second language, but if so, you shouldn't wade into semantic arguments. If you are merely undereducated with a poor vocabulary and little sense of word fit, you should still stay out of such discussions. Until you start using a dictionary and looking up the words involved, you are just going to make yourself seem like more of an idiot. The saying is that educated people know how much they don't know. You don't.
“That makes me wonder whether he is the right person to suggest anything about the left's supposed new language…”
DeleteOh, does it make you wonder that?” Why that’s such a shocker… As is your problem with the word “problem”. Perhaps you need a course on your extraordinary problem of being as laughably disingenuous as used car salesman.
What did I say that was disingenuous? I meant every word.
DeleteDisingenuous definition: "not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does"
You, on the other hand, do not need to pretend to know less. You don't know shit!
See the comment below about MAGA intelligence.
Cecelia, a man pretending to be a man, has the gall to call someone else "disingenuous"?
DeleteToo funny!
"a man pretending to be a man" using a woman's nym? Would it be disingenuous to say I'm confused?
Deletelikely a typo
Deleteget a life
old news, everyone here already knows Cecelia is a man pretending to be a woman, but 3:39 keeps reminding us from time to time
we know we know
jeez
I wonder how I’m “pretending” to be a woman. I’m not exactly launching into monologues about menstruation and childbirth. If you don’t like the nym call me Cecil and use male pronouns. I don’t care.
Delete"everyone here already knows Cecelia is a man"
DeleteThe "everyone knows" formulation is how Trump argues: "Everyone knows the 2020 election was stolen!" This formulation has the advantage of being OBVIOUSLY untrue on its face, so it signals that it is not to be taken literally, but it also signals that there will be no evidence presented to substantiate the claim.
4:34,
DeleteYou remind me of Somerby, pulling out the Marquis de Queensbury rulebook, every time the Democrats fight back.
You remind me of someone arguing with yourelf.
DeleteWe cannot know whether Cecelia is male or female, not even if she says so. The person known as Cecelia has chosen a female nym. Who knows why? Women attract more abuse on the internet, so perhaps he is a masochist. Many women adopt androgynous or ambiguous nyms to avoid the abuse. Cecelia displays a few masculine traits, notably aggressiveness and hostility and a lack of empathy, a callous sense of humor and crudeness unlike most female behavior. There is also an absence of some typical female behaviors. The alcohol references could be either sex. Cecelia's fear of transwomen is not just right wing but more typically male -- women aren't as threatened by them psychologically because women aren't going to respond to transwomen physically or make a mistake by coming on to a woman and finding out she is trans. So I would guess that Cecelia is male, if I didn't have anything else to go on.
DeleteI would say that it doesn't matter except that dishonestly trying to fool other commenters is a breach of trust among humans that typically isn't taken well. There was a woman who posed as a man for a year, joined a bowling team and was surprised at the end of her "experiment" to find that her bowling friends were angry at her for deceiving them. Cecelia shouldn't be fooling people here if she really wants to convince anyone of anything. But I think she really does have some aggressive tendencies that make fooling people part of her antisocial fun and I doubt she cares how others feel about being fooled.
Those are my good points.
DeleteA "crudeness unlike most female behavior"
DeleteHas this person ever actually talked to a woman?
BTW -- Why aren't all the ardent, left-wing feminists on this blog screaming about all the misogynistic stereotyping we see here?
Dogface, are you claiming to know anything about women's behavior? On what basis?
DeleteFrom a feminist viewpoint, what is the point of complaining about Cecelia's impersonation when there is no way to prove who she is?
This is the argument that feminists should complain about drag queens because they are caricatures of women, but feminists also believe that women should be whatever they want to be, as should men. And no individual representation of woman or man is being generalized beyond the individual. Somerby often complains that feminists should be saying whatever he thinks they should say (never mind that different feminists have different opinions), as if feminist viewpoints were his to command and use at will. Why should any woman consent to being used that way?
So, you go right ahead and state your own opinions and rest assured that if anyone else wants to state theirs, they will.
5:10,
DeleteAnd be called a Soros-bot?
No thank you.
Anonymouse 5:42pm, so your answer is that sexism is just a matter of personal opinion.
DeleteOk. You’ll those words of yours again.
Sexism applies to the mistreatment of women, not men. Men receive favorable treatment via patriarchy, not women. Your aggressive nastiness, hiding behind a female nym, is most likely cowardly.
DeleteSomerby may not be the best judge of whether someone else is a stumblebum or not.
ReplyDeleteFrom Jeff Tiedrich:
"here’s a quick self-test anyone can do to check their own intelligence.
take a look at Donny Convict. do you see a deteriorating carnival clown with radioactive tangerine skin and cotton candy hair, spewing the most batshit nonsense to ever ooze from a rancid anus-mouth?
or do you see God’s Own Perfect Avatar On Earth?
if you answered the latter, congratulations. you’re a fucking idiot."
More examples of Republican stupidity here:
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/whats-dumber-than-a-maga-nothing
How is it that Somerby can only find one trivial example of Republican/MAGA stupidity when there are so many around? These examples of funny, yes, but also so sad because some of these people have the ability to hurt others.
A nation will have bad teeth because RFK Jr. is claiming that fluoride causes autism and apparently no one in Trump's administration knows how scientists test hypotheses. But Somerby thinks Pirro is the problem. Lord Help Us!
"Arizona State University researcher Dr. Joshua Anbar, who helped gather autism data for the CDC, called Kennedy's claims "ridiculous," and said, “Autism is not an infectious disease. So there aren’t preventive measures that we can take.”
DeleteMeanwhile, University of Wisconsin-Madison Dr. Maureen Durkin, a pediatric and population science professor, said contrary to Kennedy's denials, screening and better recognition played a large role in the uptick, and “The more you look for it, the more you find.”
Outside of screening, genetics is known to play a factor, as shown in fraternal twin studies, and the age of the parents also seems to play a role.
Meanwhile, other experts pointed out Kennedy's push for environmental cause research could divert funding away from initiatives to support people with autism in schools and the workplace.
“We are being set up to look up in the wrong place, to put our money in the wrong place,” said psychiatry professor Dr. David Mandell of the University of Pennsylvania."
Heritability of autism in twin studies is much higher than for IQ.
"How is it that Somerby can only find one trivial example of Republican/MAGA stupidity when there are so many around?"
DeleteThis question assumes Somerby set out to find as many examples of Republican/MAGA stupidity as he could.
But there's no evidence for this assumption; judging by the column he wrote, he chose to focus on a specific instance of Republican/MAGA stupidity.
A trivial one.
DeleteThe good news, and this is very good news indeed, is that Kennedy has set a timeline for discovering the cause of autism and that is by September of this year. My niece, an ardent Trump supporter with a 3 year old autistic son, is, I assume, doing cartwheels about this. What better time for such good news, after Trump gutted the department of education, which would have provided funding to help her son, in days gone by. But ya gotta take the bad with the good....And today is a day for celebrating, while watching her son struggle can wait.
Delete6:08 Heritability of autism in twin studies is not "much higher" than for IQ. They are similar.
Delete11:02,
Deletewhat's paticularly reassuring about Kennedy's announcement is it shows how well he understands the scientific process: you start your studies already knowing by when you'll have the answer.