FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2025:
In the meantime, Lewis in Saudi: We don't expect to be posting until mid-afternoon. On this, the third Friday in the cycle, it's just another medical Monday!
In the meantime, this:
We're fortunate that we get to read Helen Lewis because we subscribe to The Atlantic. In her most recent essay, Lewis was off in Saudi at the recent comedy festival there.
The highlighted comment posted below brought us right out of our chairs. Leis is commenting on one of the curiosities of the so-called "democratization of media"—the democratization under which our society's most basic functioning finds itself under attack:
I Watched Stand-Up in Saudi Arabia
[...]Louis C.K. was once the titan of thoughtful American comedy—evidence of a strange recent trend of treating comics as public intellectuals, even philosopher kings, rather than entertainers whose success is measured in laughs per minute. He had a sitcom, Louie, that was loosely based on his life, and he had the admiration and envy of his peers. Then, in 2017, The New York Times published one of the most consequential stories of the #MeToo era...
Lewis continues from there. But what a long, strange "recent trend" it has been, in which the spread of platforms like "cable news," talk radio and podcasts have created a world in which we the people look to a bunch of stand-up comedians as the preferred source of insight and wisdom.
We thought the New York Times had made a mistake when it began treating stand-up comedians as "artists." However many years later, we now have the daily spectacle of such Fox News Channel programs as The Five and Gutfeld!, with some of the least-informed people on the planet messaging one of our two major tribes.
There's much more to say about the role of comedy (and of comedy's various beards and "stylings") in the creation of our failing nation's current intellectual squalor. For right now, we'll leave it right here, with Lewis getting it right.
ReplyDeleteThe New York Times had made a mistake turning into the biggest bullshit generator in both human and shape-shifting reptiloid histories.
All their other mistakes are nothing, compared to this one.
Republicans are incapable of governing: Day 17
Delete7:31,
DeleteSqueal louder, snowflake.
Republicans are incapable of governing: Day 17
Delete***************
Washington (Reuters) -The two-week-old federal government shutdown is costing the U.S. economy about $15 billion a day in lost output, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday, putting an estimate on its economic toll and urging Democrats to "be heroes" and side with Republicans to end it.
Bessent told a news conference that the shutdown was starting to "cut into muscle" of the U.S. economy.
"We believe that the shutdown may start costing the U.S. economy up to $15 billion a day," he said.
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Stand-up comedians, unlike the corporate-owned, Right-wing media (AKA the MSM) aren't being paid to whitewash the perfidy of the Republican Party.
ReplyDeleteTrump tripled the federal deficit in 10 months.
ReplyDeleteThank you Mr. President.
False.
DeleteVery false.
DeleteBREAKING: The U.S. posted a massive $198 BILLION surplus in September — the largest September surplus on record, according to Scott Bessent.
“September’s monthly surplus of $198 billion was the largest surplus of any September on record and 147% higher than last year.”
Fake news, David.
Delete"according to Scott Bessent."
DeleteLOL
DiC - With your concerns about unsustainable debt, what is your take on shipping $40B to Argentina?
DeleteDavid in Cal NEVER cared about the deficit.
DeleteHe's a fucking bigot, who will say ANYTHING if he thinks it will keep black people down.
how much of that came from the beautiful tariffs (import taxes) levied against the working class people, Dickhead
DeleteSeptember saw $30 billion in tariff payments, up 295% from the same period a year ago.
DeletePaid by U.S. consumers.
DeleteThe American people will never pay $30 Billion to assure black people will be kept in their place, said no smart person, ever.
Deleteuh, Earth to Republicans, this Trump admin has been outspending the Biden admin since day one.
DeleteHere is a recent headline from FOX NEWS outlining the difference between fiscal year '24 and '25:
-----------
Federal budget deficit grows $92B to nearly $2T even as Trump tariffs increase revenue
----------
womp womp
Paid by U.S. consumers.
DeleteThat is the part the Dickhead in Cal will ignore.
Yup, even though income tax revenues are up (although corporate tax revenues are down) the deficit under Trump is increasing at an alarming rate, and will be worsened by tax revenues dropping with Trump's tax cuts for the rich, even as tariff taxes increase.
DeleteThis is what happens when you put a failed businessman in office.
You can check out this graph, that clearly indicates where the debt dramatically increased, and as it happens it was under Trump's first term, singlehandedly Trump accounts for about 25% of our entire national debt that we have been accruing for nearly 250 years, Trump is truly amazingly bad at governing:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD/
crickets.....
DeleteDiC - With your concerns about unsustainable debt, what is your take on shipping $40B to Argentina?
Deletecrickets.......
$30B pays for 15% of the cost of Trump's Brown shirt fascist army.
DeleteGiving $40 Billion to Argentina is a small price to pay for Argentina ordering soybeans from China.
Delete"September saw $30 billion in tariff payments, up 295% from the same period a year ago."
DeleteDiC - So, you agree that raising taxes is a good way to address the debt problem?
Raising taxes when you're running a deficit, makes as much sense as getting a second job when your kids go to bed hungry.
DeleteThe Politico story about Young Republicans reminds me of the Dennis Green quote:
ReplyDelete"They are who we thought they were."
JD Vance accidentally admitted the Republican Party are mentally adolescents.
DeleteIt's not exactly "news", but it was nice of him to admit it, anyway.
Unlike JD Vance, most Americans do not think of Black people as "monkeys".
DeleteYou remember the good old days when we referred to idiots like DIChead as "ditto monkeys"? Still the same fucking assholes squealing about everything except what really matters.
DeleteNo human being is a monkey. Humans are apes.
DeleteMay John Bolton get what he deserves.
ReplyDeleteHere, here!
DeleteUnfortunately Bolton has been indicted by the wrong people (keystone cops) for the wrong reasons (writing a book that trashes/embarrasses Trump) and the charges will go nowhere.
That aside, Bolton is vile.
It's "hear", Soros-monkey, not "here".
DeleteHow many Argentine pesos are you buying, trumptard?
DeleteWe can't allow Bessent's billionaire friends to lose their investments, so pony up, fuckface.
DeleteWe Soros-monkeys are trained to envy imaginary Bessent's billionaire friends, not George Our Lord Soros.
tumptard, how many Argentine pesos are you buying? You want to answer the question, fuckface?
DeleteThe reason we Soros-monkeys are so dumb is that we're hired by Open Society's DEI department.
DeleteI don't like people using my hear! hear!, so I'm done with you bastids.
Delete
DeleteWe DEI-hired Soros-monkeys get stuck on repeat all the time.
trumptards are fucking chickenshit punks, just like their leader, King Orange Chickenshit.
Delete
DeleteMost of us DEI Soros-monkeys were fired after USAID closure. But I'm still here, because I'm the cheapest one. And I'm the cheapest one because I'm the dumbest one.
That makes as much sense as a Republican who doesn't rape children.
DeleteNow Somerby is running ads: "We're fortunate that we get to read Helen Lewis because we subscribe to The Atlantic."
ReplyDeleteJust because Lewis says we Americans are turning to comedians for philosophy and truth doesn't make that true. We turn to comedians for entertainment. Nor are they the "preferred source" of wisdom and insight. Does Somerby really have no idea where we get our news?
For one thing, if we did not already have some understanding of the day's news, the "jokes" on late night would make no sense. It isn't as if they are providing details or backstory on the news. They serve up brief quips. That isn't being "informed". Yes, they are funny sometimes, if they are good comedians. Being amused is not the same as becoming wiser about anything.
Somerby's own lack of insight about his life and his times is the best example that Helen Lewis is full of shit.
I get the news from comments on The Daily Howler.
DeleteStand-up is just a form of storytelling.
DeleteStorytelling in many ways is just providing a way for people to escape the realities of human nature, a way to be comforted from their own failings and the failings of society. Storytelling can be brilliant, but overall it is a net negative for society, since it is so easily weaponized towards the endeavor to dominate others, from myths to religion to advertising.
Somerby is so close to getting it correct, but his poor traumatized brain keeps getting in the way.
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ReplyDeleteHere is I started........ Www.Paycash1.site