BREAKING: American people now living in Babel!

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

Full services to resume:
We're hurrying back to our sprawling campus on this less-than-super Tuesday.

Full services will resume tomorrow. For today, we only have questions, most of which revolve around Charles Blow's recent New York Times column and Josh Marshall's reaction to same.

Some questions:

Does Marshall really think Blow's column was "a very good piece?" Does he really feel he has to apologize for "sounding like a middle-aged man lecturing the younger generation about not knowing how it was?"

Here's another question:

Does anyone think it really makes sense to do politics the way we seem to do now—by grabbing single comments from 1996 and using them as the basis for our evaluations of candidates?

Our political discourse has completely collapsed; we're living in a Babel. As Blow says, a generation of "leaders" has badly failed us. It just hasn't happened in the way Blow describes.

We'll return to full services tomorrow; we'll probably start with Marshall's response to Blow's column. But on this less-than-super Tuesday, we're living in a full-blown Babel, where very few statements make sense.

36 comments:

  1. Charles Blow thinks Hillary Clinton called him a superpredator? That's nonsense. He thinks the tough-on-crime movement in the 90's was created by Democrats? That's nonsense too.

    Josh Marshall seems to feel obliged to say nice things about Blow. Why? This is garbage.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Charles Blow thinks...? He thinks...?

      "Josh Marshall seems to feel obligated to say"

      You fear statements of simple fact when applied writers. You mislead through rhetorical device. Why?

      Delete
    2. Right, trolls don't do implication. Excessive literalism is a symptom of brain injury or mental illness. It impairs your ability to understand meaning in language.

      Delete
    3. And Bobbletrolls ONLY do implication.

      Delete
    4. I took the intiative in creating the internet.

      Delete
    5. My ex-boy dumped me 6 months ago after I accused him of seeing another woman and insulting him.I want him back in my life but he refused to have any contact with me.He changed his line,block me from sending him email and facebook.I was so confuse and don't know what to do. So I reach to the internet for help and I saw a testimonies of how this powerful spell caster help them to get their ex back. So I contact the spell caster whose name is Dr Shiva and explain my problem to him and he cast a spell for me and assure me of 2days that my ex will return to me, and to my greatest surprise the Second day my ex came knocking at my door and ask me to forgive him.I am so happy that my love is back again. Once again thank you Dr Shiva,you are truly talented and gifted. Email: reunitingexspell@yahoo.com . He is the only answer to your problems.He can be of great help and I will not stop publishing his name for the good work he did for me and people are still talking about him on the Internet. REUNITINGEXSPELL@YAHOO.COM

      Delete
  2. Blow doesn't like Clinton. He said so in his column on Feb 18.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/opinion/campaign-stops/politics-all-in-my-family.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fcharles-m-blow&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=4&pgtype=collection

      He says that Clinton must be dirty, despite the investigations always finding nothing, because where there is smoke, there is fire. What a guy!

      Delete
    2. Blow said:

      "Hillary Clinton often brags about surviving unending political attacks, but others see too much smoke for there to be no fire."

      I say: Others think @ 11:08/11:41 has a point.

      Now, you can contend Blow said "Clinton must be dirty." To do so you have to contend I said you have a point. I didn't. I said your comments are garbage and nonsense.

      BTW @ 11:08 I must agree with Somerby that some of Clinton's supporters are her biggest problem. You are the best example.

      FYI, I just returned from voting for Hillary Clinton in my Democratic primary.

      Delete
  3. The terrible job done by liberal media is why they can't stop Trump. First of all, as Bob keeps pointing out, the liberal media focus on trivia. Second, every conservative gets called horrible, racist, insane, Hitler, etc. The result is that when a truly unqualified Republican takes the lead, the liberal media have no special critcisms left to point out his inadequacy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trump is a conservative problem. It isn't up to the liberal media to vet conservative candidates for them.

      Just the horrible, racist, insane, Hitlerian conservatives get called such things. It isn't the liberals fault there are quite a few of them.

      You refer to Trump as truly unqualified and yet you are on record saying you will vote for him. What does that say about you?

      Can you please identify for me which media, specifically, you consider to be liberal? I would stipulate to Mother Jones and the Nation, and perhaps Atlantic, but not NY Times or MSNBC. Who did you have in mind?

      You made your bed and now must sleep with the foul creature Trump, but you think the liberal media should have rescued you? Take responsibility for your own memes.

      Delete
    2. Yes, if only the "liberal media" would have taken on Trump, how could he possibly answer that?

      Why, his entire base would have left in droves!

      Delete
    3. David, look in the fucking mirror. You stand as Exhibit A as a perfect illustration of why you party is about to nominate a "vulgar talking yam"*.

      It's all the fault of the "liberal media".

      bwahahahahaha!!!!!

      Have some tea, dick head.

      *************
      "....fans at Andrean High School in Merrillville, Ind, who indulged their racist tendencies by holding up Trump signs, ESPN Deportes signs and chanting, "build a wall," to intimidate the Latino players from Bishop Noll Institute."
      **************

      *****************
      High school students in Des Moines, Iowa, this week chanted "Trump! Trump!" after a boys' basketball game. The chanters were from Dallas Center-Grimes High, which has a largely white population. Their school's team had just lost to Perry High School, which has a more diverse student population.

      Trump has made derogatory comments about illegal immigrants and has pledged to build a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border if he is elected.

      Perry student Kevin Lopez noted in a letter to the Perry Chief newspaper that the billionaire's name has been chanted at the team three other times this season.

      “It is a chant said to intimidate and discriminate our Latino/Hispanic students and it is a chant that is fueled by racism,” Lopez wrote.
      **********************
      He, Trump played by the rules established by the largely vestigial Republican establishment. He won in caucus states (Nevada), and he won in primary states (South Carolina, New Hampshire). He stands poised to win states on Tuesday night from Massachusetts to Alabama. There has been no hint of scandal in any of his victories. It is delusional to pretend that he is not the overwhelming choice of the people who are voting Republican in the year of Our Lord 2016. And it is intellectually dishonest to try to concoct strategies to deny the consensus choice of your party a nomination fairly won just because the consensus choice of your party is a vulgar talking yam. If your party happens to have concocted a constituency with a sweet tooth for authoritarian nonsense, then trying (again) to push that reckoning down the road is to guarantee something even worse comes along next time.LINK

      Delete
    4. Shorter David in Cal: I'm a butthurt poltroon, but I am persistent.

      Delete
    5. David in Cal, representing the party of personal responsibility.

      "The terrible job done by liberal media is why they can't stop Trump."

      You can't make this shit up.

      How about 30 years of wingnut welfare, David, and 30 years of non-stop extreme right wing hate radio. And Fucking Fox NOOZ. You think these might have had something to do with it?

      Delete
    6. It's become obvious that in casting Trump as the outlier, the GOP is, by implication, claiming that he does not reflect their policies when he does. If anything, many in the party view him as too squishy on social policies while they are mute, uncaring and uncritical of his obvious lies, prevarications, and personal attacks. The separation of the Trump candidacy from the Republican Party orthodoxy is yet another GOP false-flag operation that, unfortunately for all concerned, is succeeding.

      If anything is obvious, it is the fact that the "mainstream media" is far from liberal or progressive. The focus on all things Trump (and employment of the Clinton Rules on Hillary Clinton and her candidacy) has greatly benefitted the corporate media's bottom line. Therefore, the is nothing too trivial about Trump nor anything too far-fetched about Hillary Clinton for the corporate media to dial up for public consumption.

      Like the good tribal warrior that (perhaps) he thinks he is, the commenter at 11:11 AM is simply regurgitating GOP spin points, including the Trump-as-outsider narrative.

      Delete
    7. AnonymousMarch 1, 2016 at 11:47 AM --
      Trump is a conservative problem. It isn't up to the liberal media to vet conservative candidates for them.

      Fair enough. The Republicans deserve the blame for nominating this unqualified person. (Similarly, the Democrats will deserve the blame for nominating either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.) But, if Trump is elected President, he'll be a problem for every American, and for many non-Americans as well.

      You refer to Trump as truly unqualified and yet you are on record saying you will vote for him. What does that say about you?

      It says that I consider Hillary and Sanders unqualified as well. What a horrible choice.

      I consider the NY Times, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, and PBS to be liberal media. YMMV.

      Yes, a few conservatives say awful, bigoted things. But, those are outliers. BTW a few Democrats say awful, bigoted things about Clarence Thomas, Rubio, Dr. Carson, and Cruz.

      Delete
    8. You should troll somewhere else.

      Delete
    9. "You should troll somewhere else."

      I suggest Uzbekistan or North Korea.

      Delete
    10. David - you are constantly playing the victim. Stand up and be a man. Stop your whining and blaming others for the woes of Republicans. Where are your guts man? Take personal responsibility and hold your party responsible for their actions instead of blaming others. You're party will never succeed if they continue to wallow in self pity and blame instead of concentrating on improving the party and eliminating the twisted, lying zealots that have left it on the ground in tatters.

      Delete
  4. Poor Bob. We've always "lived in a Babel." You know, that whole First Amendment thing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ". . . by grabbing single comments from 1996 and using them as the basis for our evaluations of candidates?"

    Far better to grab single comments from 1999 and use them as the basis for our evaluation of the "media" today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chris Hayes once used the word "blockbuster."

      Delete
    2. Oh, the humanity!

      Delete
  6. "Does Marshall really think Blow's column was 'a very good piece?'" Apparently. Otherwise, why would he say it was? Whether Blow's column is very good is a separate issue.

    "Does he [Marshall] really feel he has to apologize for 'sounding like a middle-aged man lecturing the younger generation about not knowing how it was?'" Apparently he really does. Whether he should or not is a different issue.

    "Does anyone think it really makes sense to do politics the way we seem to do now—by grabbing single comments from 1996 and using them as the basis for our evaluations of candidates?" Assuming that "doing politics" is the same as "political discourse", it depends on the circumstances. Most specifically to the circumstances described in Blow's column and Marshall's critique, Williams' use of the 1996 statement to confront Clinton at a fundraiser was unfair in a "political discourse" sense but made sense as an activist confronting a presidential candidate in order to create and direct attention to the overarching issue of the country's criminal-justice overreaction in the 1990s coming to roost and affecting the here-and-now.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi, I'm very excited sharing this amazing testimony about Dr Frank Ojo a spell caster who save my marriage and brought my husband back to me today.! A very big problem occurred in my Marriage seven months ago, between me and my husband . so terrible that he took the case to court for a divorce. he said that he never wanted to stay with me again,and that he didn't love me anymore.So he packed out of the house and made me and my children passed through severe pain. I tried all my possible means to get him back,after much begging,but all to no avail.and he confirmed it that he has made his decision,and he never wanted to see me again. So on one evening,as i was coming back from work,i met an old friend of mine who asked of my husband .So i explained every thing to him,so he told me that the only way i can get my husband back,is to visit a spell caster,because it has really worked for him too.So i never believed in spell,but i had no other choice,than to follow his advice. Then he gave me the email address of the spell caster whom he visited. TEMPLEOFLOVEANDPROSPERITY@GMAIL.COM. So the next morning,i sent a mail to the address he gave to me,and the spell caster assured me that i will get my husband back the next day. What an amazing statement!! I never believed,so he spoke with me, and told me everything that i need to do. Then the next morning, So surprisingly, my husband who didn't call me for the past 7 months, gave me a call to inform me that he was coming back. So Amazing!! So that was how he came back that same day,with lots of love and joy,and he apologized for his mistake,and for the pain he caused me and my children. Then from that day,our relationship was now stronger than how it were before,by the help of a spell caster. So, i will advice you out there if you have any problem contact Dr Frank Ojo, i give you 100% guarantee that he will help you.. Email him at: Templeofloveandprosperity@gmail.com .Name: Amanda Bryan, From: UK . Thanks for reading .

    ReplyDelete
  8. At Slate, an article on why young women vote for Sanders instead of Clinton says:

    "We have a hard time rallying behind Hillary because we see her as a part of a political elite that has done the utmost psychological, environmental, and economic damage to this country."

    In other words, younger women are low information voters. They don't have a clue what Clinton has done during her career. There is no excuse for that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They think HRC is an elite in a Democratic Party which runs interference for Wall Street crooks.
      That's not a "low information voter", that's reality- based.

      Delete
    2. 1. Hillary is not an elite in the Democratic Party. It was hell-bent to defeat her in 2008. She and Bill have always run as outsiders, opposed by the Democratic establishment. That's why Maureen Dowd hates her.
      2. Hillary Clinton is not a Wall Street crook, nor has she run any interference for them based on her actions as Senator, when she represented Wall Street as part of her NY constituency. Arguably Obama has.
      3. For these young women to have no familiarity with Clinton's actual votes while in office, her career opposing the Democratic Establishment, her difficulties with the DNC in 2008, makes these women, no matter how sincere, low information.

      Repeating Sanders propaganda doesn't make you reality based either since his campaign is fantasy, his programs and policies have no substance, he has no chance of being elected, and he is a fart-faced moron making promises to young people that he has no way to keep. Fantasy and ego from top to bottom. And he has to malign Clinton to stay in a race where he does not belong.

      It is true that Sanders is not part of the Democratic elite either, but that's because he is not a Democrat at all. For example, he has raised $1000 total to help other Democratic candidates. Clinton has raised $26 MILLION. There is no virtue in being that kind of outsider. It means he is not a team player and does not represent Democratic values and he would have no support behind his efforts from Democrats were he ever to be elected. That is reality.

      Delete
    3. "he is a fart-faced moron"

      Thank God for the refreshing civility of the Clinton supporter.

      Delete
    4. @ 2:37 PM - how about responding to the other points @ 11:30 AM made, or would that make your head hurt too much?

      Delete
  9. NEW! Now You Can Stop Your Break Up, Divorce or Lovers Rejection…Even If Your Situation Seems Hopeless! My husband said he no longer loved me at the end of January this year and i was hurt and heart broken i felt like my life was about to end and I almost committed suicide, I was emotionally down for a very long time. Thanks to a spell caster called Dr Frank Ojo, which I meet online, on one faithful day, as I was browsing through the internet and I came across a lot of testimonies about this particular spell caster. Some people testified that he brought their Ex lover back, some testified that he restores womb, cure cancer and other sickness, some testified that he can cast a spell to stop divorce and so on. I also come across one particular testimony and it was about a woman called Sonia, she testified about how he brought back her Ex lover in less than 2 days and at the end of her testimony she dropped Dr Frank Ojo mail address. After reading all these,I decided to give it a try and I contacted him via email and explained my problem to him. In just 48 hours, my husband came back to me and we solved our issues, we are even happier than before. Dr Frank Ojo is really a gifted man and I will not stop testifying about him because he is a wonderful man and so powerful... If you have any problem and you are looking for solution to solve all your problems. Great Dr Frank Ojo can also offer any types of help like Reuniting of marriage and relationship, Curing of all types of Diseases, Court Cases, Pregnancy Spell, Spiritual protection,winning of lottery and lot's more. you can contact him on his Email address: Templeofloveandprosperity@gmail.com ,or call his mobile number: +2348072370762, if you have any problem contact him, I give you 100% guarantee that he will help you. Name: Clare Burrow, From:UK.

    ReplyDelete

  10. My ex-boy dumped me 6 months ago after I accused him of seeing another woman and insulting him.I want him back in my life but he refused to have any contact with me.He changed his line,block me from sending him email and facebook.I was so confuse and don't know what to do. So I reach to the internet for help and I saw a testimonies of how this powerful spell caster help them to get their ex back. So I contact the spell caster whose name is Dr Shiva and explain my problem to him and he cast a spell for me and assure me of 2days that my ex will return to me, and to my greatest surprise the Second day my ex came knocking at my door and ask me to forgive him.I am so happy that my love is back again. Once again thank you Dr Shiva,you are truly talented and gifted. Email: reunitingexspell@yahoo.com . He is the only answer to your problems.He can be of great help and I will not stop publishing his name for the good work he did for me and people are still talking about him on the Internet. REUNITINGEXSPELL@YAHOO.COM

    ReplyDelete
  11. In our simple life, love plays a very specific role.Now we are able to make your love life healthy and it has no space for any type trouble. These all are possible with the help of AGBAZARA TEMPLE OF SOLUTION. He helped me cast a spell that brought my long lost lover back withing 48hours who left me for another woman. you can also contact him on ( agbazara@gmail.com ) or call him on +2348104102662 and be happy forever like am now with his experience.

    BETTY from USA

    ReplyDelete
  12. I just want to give a quick advise to any one out there that is having difficulty in his or her relationship to contact Dr.Agbazara because he is the only one that is capable to bring back broken relationship or broken marriages within time limit of 48 hours. You can contact Dr.Agbazara by calling him on his mobile +2348104102662 or write him through his email at ( agbazara@gmail.com )

    ReplyDelete