TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2026
Then too, there's President Trump: What was the sitting president talking about? If anything, what did he actually mean by what he said?
It starts with the way you might decide to transcribe his remarks.
In this report at Mediaite, we'd say the transcription is somewhat inaccurate, in that a word is missing. As best we can tell from the (slightly garbled) videotape, the president came out with this:
PRESIDENT TRUMP (10/5/26): I want to see a tremendous victory [in the midterms]. You want to see a tremendous victory. Because it verifies all the things we did [with his tax cuts and the like].
And again, remember--with the war, it's just artificial. It's a little bit high. It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe.
They could take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego. That's--
This is a very small price to pay, and it's going to be over very soon. It's essentially almost over with.
And they might keep going a little long, you know? They always say they have a big threshold for pian. They need it, let me tell you. They need it. But it's going to end very soon, and it will end one way or the other. And your gas, and your gasoline, and all of the things--
At that point, he switched to standard remarks about the conquest of Venezuela. For video from CBS San Diego, you can just click here.
In that passage, the president seemed to be threatening a major military assault on Iran after the midterm elections. (A third aircraft carrier is currently on its way to that region.) But attention has focused on what he said about San Diego and Los Angeles.
What was the president saying or trying to say? In our view, the New York Times got it right when it offered this assessment:
It was not immediately clear what Mr. Trump meant.
We agree with that. Elsewhere, varying paraphrase has flourished.
We're sorry, Blues, but no. We don't think the sitting president, who's routinely quite inarticulate, was actually saying this, as the BBC rather wildly reported:
Speaking about higher gas prices as a result of the US-Israel war with Iran, Trump said Tehran "taking out" Los Angeles or San Diego would be a "small price to pay for keeping the world safe."
We're sorry, but in our view, the BBC was showing that we Blues can sometimes go overboard too.
In our view, the ugly conduct is easier to spot in this second event. Others will surely say that the commander was jut being funny.
Trump uses anti-transgender slur to attack South Carolina Senate nominee
President Donald Trump on Monday used an anti-transgender slur to attack Democratic South Carolina Senate nominee Dr. Annie Andrews, as he tries to push his handpicked GOP candidate, Sen. Darline Graham, over the finish line in the midterm election.
“Annie ‘Trannie’ Andrews is running against our wonderful Darline Graham for the Senate in South Carolina,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. He used a version of the slur three times in the post.
Andrews did not reference Trump’s comments in a statement responding to his post, instead saying, “I’m in this race to fight for my patients, my three kids, and South Carolina.”
So the commander said.
Values! In yesterday's brief report, we started the week with the opening sentence of Jennifer Weiner's guest essay for the New York Times. Given the gruesome reporting from Cornell, did anything more need to be said?
I Thought Things Had Gotten Better. The Cornell Case Shows How Bad They Really Are.
Four weeks ago, I dropped off my younger daughter to start her freshman year at college...
Given the reporting from Cornell, a reader would surely know where this essay was going. Later in her excellent piece, Weiner described her younger daughter in the following way:
My kind, smart, big-hearted daughter...
Her daughter is kind, plus she's smart and big-hearted.
We've known so many girls and young women who were exactly like that! They might also be described, more simply, as "good, decent, very good people."
Tomorrow, let's try to return to this topic, and to the challenge Cornell may pose to the way we Blue Americans sometimes pursue our professed values.
Update: At CNN, Daniel Dale largely agrees with our view:
CNN Fact Checker Daniel Dale Defends Trump Over ‘Let ‘Em Take Out’ Los Angeles, San Diego Clip
Somerby wants Blues to apply their values carefully rather than tribally.
ReplyDeleteWhat an asshole.
Good values are good values, whether employed tribally or whatever is meant by "carefully." Good values should be widely applied (not selectively) and will tend to be the same whether arising from tribalism or individualism. Too bad the right doesn't have better values, but they just don't, and that is the problem with Somerby's approach here. You get respect after you behave in admirable ways, not before, but Somerby is unwilling to hold the right to any standards when it comes to adhering to values.
DeleteHas there ever been a more corrupt administration? Not in our nation's history. The people supporting the Trump wrongdoing are as responsible as Trump and his cronies. That means every red voter has shown bad values simply by voting for and excusing Trump. That includes Somerby. So, yes, he is an asshole.
“Blue” media and audiences should try to not automatically choose the most horrifying interpretation of an incoherent Trump statement when its meaning cannot actually be established. We all should. Everyone agrees with that. But yes, he is an asshole.
Delete@12:13 suggests that Trump deserves the benefit of the doubt when he says something unintelligible. Instead, readers are trying to use context and Trump's prior statements to figure out his meaning. When those are horrible, I don't see why any reader should assume he is trying to saying something better this time around. Same goes for Somerby.
DeleteSo, Somerby is implying people interpreted Trump's statement in a bad way because journalists are blue and Trump is red? That might be true if there were no other info about Trump available to journalists, but that is not the case. Trump is being interpreted in the context of his own prior statements, not to put the worst possible light on his remarks because he is Republican. He is being slagged because he is Trump and because he usually means the worst possible thing.
DeleteTrump sent his own troops to LA. Why wouldn't he be calling for Iran to do the same?
It's about the long-term drawbacks of claiming greater certainty than evidence permits.
Delete12:25 if you think Trump is cool with Tehran "taking out" Los Angeles or San Diego and decided to state that publicly, it's your business and your right.
DeleteIsn’t it great great we we have a president who is so incoherent that nobody knows what the fuck he’s saying? That we all have to make sure that we give the most reasonable possible take? It’s called sanewashing. Somerby is doing it here.
DeleteIran isn't going to take out Los Angeles or San Diego, because they aren't Iran's type.
Delete
ReplyDelete"Trannie" is a slur word, then? But Corby, our resident retarded Dumbocrat, uses it all the time here. Odd.
"... the BBC was showing that we Blues..."
So, you associate your fellow Dumbocrats with the British government controlled news agency? Interesting. What are you doing in America, then?
"Her daughter is kind, plus she's smart and big-hearted."
No, Bob, that's what she said about her daughter. In reality, her daughter may very well be a stinking asshole.
Mao + Dementia = Dumber than usual. Sad.
DeleteIf there is anyone here using the word trannie, it isn't Corby.
DeleteWho knows Weiner's daughter better? Her mom, or some rancid anus-mouthed troll on Somerby's blog?
Delete
DeleteYes, Dumbocrat, her mother knows her better than you do, that's a given.
But that's not the issue. The issue is that Bob's taking what mother says about her daughters, as God's truth. And if you weren't (in addition to your own description of yourself) a retard, you'd be able to understand the difference.
Bob is repeating what she said about her daughter, not stating it as objective truth.
DeleteBob and the NY Times complain that Trump's threat to Iran was not clear. So what? A threat doesn't have to be clear to be effective.
ReplyDeleteWhen someone with power to harm you says, "Do what I say, or else," that threat is intentionally not clear. But, it's a threat that often works. In fact, "or else" is a traditional threat.
Trump's threat to LA and SD was clear.
DeleteHow can we in CA feel like our president will protect us when he is eager to sacrifice our cities to Iran as part of his war effort? No wonder Canada and Greenland do not want to accept Trump's offer to protect them.
DeleteIt is ignorant the way David in Cal conflates having a Nuke with having the means to deliver a nuclear warhead to the West Coast of the US. Nuclear technology has peaceful uses too. Iran might be able to nuke Rome or Berlin, maybe Paris, but no the US, much less the West Coast. Iran would need proven orbital capability, which they do not have.
DeleteSo, who is being threatened when Trump talks about bombing LA and SD? Trump does have the capability to bomb those blue cities and he certainly hates them. That is why it is urgent we get this crazy fucker out of the presidency ASAP.
Trump wants to bomb American cities and very well might do it, but Iran doesn’t have the capability to bomb the U.S., evidently because it could only be successful via an orbital launch. That’s crap and you get sillier every day.
DeleteIt’s a good thing that Iran’s nuclear program was obliterated in 2025.
DeleteAccording to Bob, Trump isn’t just mentally ill. He is dangerously mentally ill. So with a mind like that, who’s to say he wouldn’t order an atomic bomb strike on a US city? Are you that sanguine and that much of a mind reader into a mentally ill mind?
DeleteIran would sooner nuke South Carolina than California.
DeleteAnonymouse 3:23pm, no, that scenario is no defense for your silliness. When Bob makes the argument that Trump might nuke Sacramento, then I’ll pronounce him as having virulent TDS. I pronounce YOU as being a disingenuous blogboard insurgent capable of using Bob as a shield even as you call him an impostor.
DeleteWhen Bob makes the argument Trump's open criminality and corruption are worse than any other standard-issue businessman, then I'll pronounce him as having virulent TDS.
DeleteCecelia thinks Trump’s insanity is no biggie. In that case, It isn’t clear what “dangerously mentally ill” means if you believe Trump to be rational and predictable when he mentions the thought of LA being nuked “by Iran”, (despite the US having obliterated their nuclear program back in 2025) , even if, and hear me out, he intended it as a “joke” to get the applause that he did get. Which is insane. Why not Omaha?
Delete"As best we can tell from the (slightly garbled) videotape..."
ReplyDeleteIt isn't the videotape that is garbled, but Trump himself. He can no longer speak clearly or fluently. Several physicians are speculating that he had a stroke or may have a brain lesion that is affecting his ability to produce speech. It isn't just the content of his speech that is being affected by his neurological problems and likely dementia.
The stuff Somerby puts in square brackets [ ] are words that had to be added to make what Trump actually said make sense.
DeleteSomerby says, about the BBC paraphrase of Trump's reference to Iran taking out US cities:
Delete"We're sorry, but in our view, the BBC was showing that we Blues can sometimes go overboard too."
If Somerby is attacking Trump's "ugly conduct," why is he complaining about "we Blues"?
Then Somerby quotes Trump's name-calling of the Democratic candidate Annie Andrews as "Annie Trannie." Aside from her not being trans and not supporting trans surgery for children (she is a pediatrician), it is just a lie to call her "trannie," as Trump did. A lie. Does truth no longer matter to Somerby? He quotes the paragraph, says nothing about her actual views on transgender children, and doesn't even bother explaining why Trump's remark is ugly, much less telling us what she believes and has done in her own practice. Letting the slur stand without any fact check or rebuttal.
This kind of shit, advancing Trump's ugly name-calling, is why Somerby is not any kind of blue voter but is an asshole repeating right wing talking points.
And if Trump didn't really mean that sacrificing SD or LA would be a small price to pay for peace, what did he mean? What plausible explanation for his remark is possible? Somerby suggests none, perhaps because there isn't one. Trump meant that it was OK with him if Iran retaliated against LA or SD (cities he has reviled many times), just as Trump apparently didn't care when Hegseth blew up a girls' school, girls included. A small price to pay for punishing Iran, except he hasn't even accomplished that.
Good, decent people do not reason about loss of human life that way, then pretend that crimes are actually tragedies and that we must pity Trump for being insane. Good lord, what is wrong with Somerby!
First, BBC stands for British Broadcasting Corporation. It is not "we Blues" because those guys are in a foreign country and are a public service of the UK. Second, I think it is a reasonable paraphrase that links together several ideas Trump explicitly said. It is what Trump might have said, had he been coherent. I do not see this as in any way "overboard," as Somerby says.
Not sure how two separate comments got merged like that.
DeleteCrimes ARE tragedies.
DeleteIt was a crime to harbor escaped slaves.
DeleteBoth the mayors of Los Angeles and San Diego ripped Trump for suggesting he was joking about Iran taking out either of their cities. 'The President of the United States suggested that a foreign government attack Los Angeles. His statements against our city are dangerous and could potentially compromise our safety,' Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told The Daily Mail.
ReplyDeleteTo me, it seems clear that Trump, in his usual garbled way, is warning that if Iran gets nuclear weapons, they might drop one on LA. This is his justification for the attacks on Iran. One might think that emphasizing this danger would help Trump.
But, maybe it helps the Dems. Maybe California voters believe that a threat can be avoided by never talking about it, by ignoring it, by pretending it doesn't exist.
Saying something outrageous (and hostile) and then saying "just kidding, can't you take a joke" is a tactic used to put across reprehensible remarks meant seriously. No one is fooled by this tactic.
DeleteTrump didn't predicate his remark on Iran getting Nukes. He said it might happen in the context of this war, before it is finished, but don't worry it will end soon and be worth the sacrifice. Anyone can read Trump's words. David is misreading him.
Then David accuses LA of ignoring the threat, pretending it doesn't exist. LA is not a single entity but no one has ignored Iran. LA has a very large number of Iranian immigrants (calling themselves Persians) who care deeply about the war. CA politicians are aware of that, even if David is clearly not -- another reason why he may not be from Cal as he claims. If CA voters disagree with Trump's approach, that isn't the same as ignoring or pretending anything about this unnecessary war that should never have been started by Trump. We had an existing agreement with Iran that was being followed, as confirmed by monitoring, that Trump tore up for no reason, increasing everyone's peril. Trump is to blame for the war and he will be to blame if Iran attacks LA or SD, as Trump clearly invites them too, almost egging Iran on with his remarks.
Terrorism by delivering a nuclear weapon via ship is possible. We had NCIS-LA for that, before Hegseth fired Heddy.
DeleteLinda Hunt won a Best Actress Oscar for The Year of Living Dangerously, playing a cis-gender male journalist who was also short. That was when our society was more sane, free, and tolerant, in 1982 (just before Reagan ruined our country).
DeleteTo me, it seems clear that Trump, in his usual garbled way, is warning that if Iran gets nuclear weapons, they might drop one on LA.
DeleteWhich is pure rancid bullshit, spewed by the world champion bullshit artist. Fuck you, david.
you might also notice, dickface in cal, his maggot crowd cheered when orange felon suggested Iran might nuke LA or San Diego.
Deletebecause trump's maggoty base are deplorable scum
DeleteTrump’s rhetoric is specifically aimed at rubes like DiC who have no clue about what it would take for Iran to “drop” a nuclear warhead on Southern California. Fearmongering the elderly. Works every time.
DeleteThen again, maybe not.
ReplyDelete"Her daughter is kind, plus she's smart and big-hearted.
ReplyDeleteWe've known so many girls and young women who were exactly like that! They might also be described, more simply, as "good, decent, very good people."
Look at the way Somerby fails to clarify that Weiner is talking about her daughter, not the girl raped at Cornell. Weiner is asking why parents cannot assume that such universities will protect their daughters from crimes such as rape.
Somerby, with his teased focus on character, is warning us that he is going to blame the victim (when he gets around to actually discussing the case), by attacking her character in defense of the lads who answered an email promising free sex, sent by fraternity bros. It would be nice if Somerby would read the statement of the lawsuit itself, but he will probably rehash the right wing talking points instead, failing entirely to clarify what facts have been established and what is being alleged by the manosphere. You will be able to tell by whether he uses the words slut and whore, being tossed around on the right to malign Jane Doe's character already. Most likely, Somerby will repeat that he cannot know any facts and thus will leave the determination to the court, but...and here is where he will get nasty about what women are allowed to do (how many drinks they can have) before men are allowed to rape them for being bad girls. Somerby, as a grown man of Trump's age (80 or so) still categorizes women as madonnas and whores, good girls and bad girls, and the bad ones deserve what men do to them, like Stormy did, and Chanel Miller, who was assaulted while lying unconscious beside a dumpster outside a frat party. But she deserved that for drinking instead of staying home and knitting or baking pies. That's character for Somerby. Doing what men say.
To be clear, rape is an enforcement tool of the patriarchy, which is why it is so difficult to prosecute and the rapists usually either get off or are not prosecuted at all. That is why Cornell did nothing to investigate the rape and then withheld info from the police and prosecutor so that the rape was never prosecuted. Meanwhile, the woman who was raped was further stigmatized by being called a slut and whore, especially by the members of the fraternity system at Cornell, and now their parents and the other members of the Epstein class (rich white men who feel entitled to rape young girls).
DeleteIt’s very clear that Weiner is referring to her daughter. You’re misreading Somerby willfully, as usual.
DeleteSpeaking of patriarchs, Jim Bakker has died.
DeleteIt isn’t clear SOMERBY knows that. Read what he wrote.
DeleteCould Somerby not know that?
DeleteAnything is possible.
Meet the new tone, same as the old tone.
ReplyDeleteHoping for a tonectomy but they didn't even fix his hemorrhoids.
DeleteRemember, Trump is mentally ill, saying all kinds of unhinged shit, but his statement about LA, well, we’re inclined to make it seem reasonable, says Somerby.
ReplyDeleteThe scary part is that Trump is thinking about bombing at all, which he clearly is, perhaps not LA.
DeleteThe White House has issued statements claiming Trump “clearly meant…”, when it was anything but clear. It seems appropriate for people to freak out a bit when the president fucks around with incoherent language about nuclear attacks like this and his handlers claim his meaning is obvious.
ReplyDeleteA nuclear danger to Los Angeles and San Diego is usually discussed as coming from North Korea, not Iran.
ReplyDeleteYes, because it's an insane bit of bullshit spewed by orange maniac to his adoring crowd of deplorables.
DeleteSometimes a raped woman is a slut. That doesn’t excuse the offenders. It’s still a horrible crime.
ReplyDeleteTrump speaks different.
ReplyDeleteNo one believes Trump literally thinks there is a Republican voter who isn't a bigot. Contextually, he was trying to make a different point.
If Trump believed there was a Republican voter who isn't a bigot, that would be enough to invoke the 25th Amendment.
Delete“the way we Blue Americans sometimes pursue our professed values.”
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of incoherence, Somerby will use the Cornell situation to make accusations about “Blue Americans”, but possibly not all, or possibly all, but sometimes (not always!) not pursuing our professed values properly. At any rate. Somerby likes to make an example of various events like this to imply that liberals have only performative values, but not always and not all of us! Why write about it as representative of liberal behavior if only some liberals sometimes engage in actions that Somerby construes as attack-worthy? No group consisting of millions and millions of people will fail to contain at least one person worthy of criticism.
In other words, despite his Millie mouth, weasel words, he wants to indict all liberals for the behavior of some in this case. It’s not clear what he’s going to say about it, but that’s clear that that is his strategy here.
*mealymouth
DeleteNeither the rapists nor the slut are liberals.
DeleteTrump called Natalie harp on stage, called her a perfect person, and asked the crowd to look at her legs. I guess he likes traveling “with Natalie.”
ReplyDeleteIt seems the crowd was salivating a bit at the prospect of Los Angeles and San Diego being nuked. Can’t sanewash that away.
ReplyDeleteHere is how ridiculous Magats are, approximately 6M voters in California vote Republican. Weirdos and jaggoffs the whole lot of them.
DeleteSan Diego has major Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard bases.
DeleteDo you think his audience knew that when they applauded the thought of nuking those cities?
DeleteThey’re against endless war.
Delete"Southern California is home to several critical Air Force, Space Force, and Army installations. While the region features a heavy concentration of Navy and Marine Corps presence (particularly around San Diego), the active Air Force and Army installations span vital space operations, aerospace testing, and large-scale combat maneuvers." Fucking idiots be MAGA. Nasty too.
DeleteOne bad debate and Biden was forced off the ticket. Reoubs just laugh when trump routinely does this stuff.
ReplyDelete