Human, all too human!

THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019

The ways we help Trump survive:
Earlier, we suggested that the New York Times' treatment of Stuyvesant High helps explain why Donald J. Trump may win re-election next year.

For another example, consider the very first remark as the staff of New York magazine discusses why Elizabeth Warren hasn't caught on in the polls.

For ourselves, we don't know why Candidate Warren hasn't caught on in the polls. For ourselves, we tend to think that she's strong on policy, but we're also inclined to think that she's a terrible politician in several major ways.

Is that why she isn't catching on (as yet)? We have no way of knowing.

That said, the question was thrown to the magazine's staff: "Why do you think she hasn’t really caught on yet?"

Below, you see the very first sentence of the very first response. In our view, this is another example of the ways in which our professional liberals help Donald J. Trump survive:
QUESTION (4/4/19): Why do you think Elizabeth Warren hasn’t really caught on yet?

FIRST SENTENCE OF FIRST RESPONSE: It seems to me a preemptive panic about electability, mostly because of her screwup out of the gate of not getting buy-in from Native American leaders on how to handle Trump’s slurs, and not finding a good way to talk about affirmative action.
Note the assumptions there:

Warren's problem in the area of ancestry doesn't involve her false claim, over many years, to be "American Indian" by race, which she plainly isn't.

It doesn't result from the way it inevitably seems that she may have been trying to gain a career advantage by making this bogus claim. (We don't know if she actually was seeking advantage, but the appearance is blindingly obvious.)

Beyond that, her problem in this area doesn't involve her ridiculous reaction to the DNA test which showed that, by any sensible measure, she has virtually zero Native American ancestry at all. (She showed no sign of understanding that that's what the test seemed to show.)

Warren's problem in this area doesn't involve these awkward matters. By the rules of our tribal game, the problem here, by definition, can only involve "Trump's slurs."

The woods are lovely, dark and deep. That said, our tribe is human, all too human—all too human all the way down.

And now for the rest of the dogma: Here's the fuller initial statement. Note the highlighted second sentence:
STAFF MEMBER: It seems to me a preemptive panic about electability, mostly because of her screwup out of the gate of not getting buy-in from Native American leaders on how to handle Trump’s slurs, and not finding a good way to talk about affirmative action. (She pissed a lot of progressives off with protesting that she never benefited from affirmative action, with the implication that there’s something inherently wrong with that.) But on the undulating curve of shifting expectations, it feels like something is turning—the backlash to the backlash.
According to this achingly pure professional liberal, Warren "pissed a lot of progressives off with protesting that she never benefited from affirmative action, with the implication that there’s something inherently wrong with that."

According to this statement, it didn't piss progressives off that she may have been trying to benefit from affirmative action in a fraudulent manner. Instead, it pissed them off because—oh for God's sake, never mind!

Our tribe is often amazingly weak at knowing how things appear to others. Tucker Carlson jumps for joy whenever he comes across statements like this, which he does every day of the week.

43 comments:

  1. Somerby’s post is perfectly reasonable...as long as you accept the premise, for which there is no evidence, that Warren tried to benefit from affirmative action in a fraudulent manner.

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  2. "For ourselves, we tend to think that she's strong on policy"

    She's strong on talking policy, Bob.

    ...and so was Barry The Demigod, Bob. And then, as soon as he got himself elected, he turned into a puppet, establishment puppet. And in all likelihood exactly the same will happen with Pocahontas.

    "According to this statement, it didn't piss progressives off that she may have been trying to benefit from affirmative action in a fraudulent manner. Instead, it pissed them off because—oh for God's sake, never mind!"

    Zombies, Bob. Your tribe is a zombie cult, that's all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same thing happened with Trump. He turned the economy over to Wall Street, and put coal companies in charge of the EPA.
      Of course, Trump voters, who aren't at all turned on by his bigotry, dontchaknow, cheered him on.

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    2. ..talking policy..

      Please all take a moment to reflect on the poser here who postures as a populist attacking the woman responsible for the CFPB, while simultaneously pretending that Donald J Chickenshit, Acting President, who has installed someone someone actively hostile to the mission of the CFPB.

      ****
      In July 2010, Congress passed the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, during the 111th United States Congress in response to the Late-2000s recession and financial crisis.[2] The agency was originally proposed in 2007 by then Harvard Law School professor and current US senator Elizabeth Warren.[10] The proposed CFPB was actively supported by Americans for Financial Reform, a newly created umbrella organization of some 250 consumer, labor, civil rights and other activist organizations.[11]
      ****

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    3. Like the rest of his Conservative brethren, Mao runs interference to protect the Establishment Elite.

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    4. Your quote makes no sense, dembot. A lot of shit in 'encyclopedia anyone can edit' doesn't.

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    5. "talking policy", like Donald J Chickenshit making Mexico pay for his racist wall, versus Senator Warren actually doing something to create an agency with a mandate to push back against the powerful elite masters of the universe you so worship, eh dittohead?

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    6. "to create an agency" - lol. Thanks for the laugh, dembot.

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    7. ...has she, by chance, also helped create a subcommittee? That would impress me for sure...

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    8. eat shit, dittohead. I know it must really piss you off to see an intelligent dedicated woman working to help the exploited rather than the masters of the universe like Donald J Chickenshit, Acting President, does every day.

      WASHINGTON – The Trump administration plans to let the pork industry take over inspections of meat from industrial-scale hog farms, including all tests for deadly pathogens that sicken half a million Americans a year, according to The Washington Post.

      As Esquire columnist Charles P. Pierce asks, “What could go wrong?”



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    9. How awful. But I'm more horrified by the fact that "during the Obama administration, poultry plant owners were given more power over safety inspections".

      How many more must die?

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    10. Unlike DavidinCal, who loves Trump's bigotry, Mao is all about punching down at the working classes while always fluffing up the Establishment.
      Always.

      Delete
  3. “Tucker Carlson jumps for joy whenever he comes across statements like this”

    Tucker Carlson jumps for joy when Chris Hayes acts like a feminized sissy-boy by talking to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about climate change. At least, that was Tucker’s take on it. Those Fox viewers...highly informed.

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  4. So when Carlson “jumps for joy”, that would seem to be clown-like behavior. His joy comes from his desire to foist a narrative on his audience. Many of them buy it. The narrative is bad faith, and frequently dishonest. That should be of concern. But instead, Somerby criticizes liberals/progressives for being the subject of Carlson’s bad faith and his audience’s willingness to swallow it.

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    Replies
    1. "Stay tuned for more of Tucker Carlson's White Power Hour! And advertisers, please stop fleeing. Up next, we have Bob Somerby to tell us why liberals are the WORST!".

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    2. Liberals are worse that conservatives but they are both ridiculous. Liberals are SO clueless. Like many of you here, no offense. I know you are just doing the best with what you have.

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  5. It's black people's fault. If there weren't so many black people around to hate, Trump never would have been elected. It's just rational.

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  6. It's an article of faith among some Trump critics that his "Pocahontas" gibe insults Native Americans. Of course, it's actually intending to criticize Warren for falsely pretending to be a Native American.

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    Replies
    1. And it is an article of faith among conservatives that Warren falsely pretended to be a Native American. Thanks for bringing the tribal conservative narrative to the discussion.

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    2. Well, she did represent herself as Native American and the DNA test did show that wasn't so. So, this particular conservative narrative is accurate.

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    3. So you change “falsely pretend” to “represent.” Are those supposed to be equivalent?

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    4. Yes, @7:03, they are equivalent because of the words "the DNA test did show that wasn't so."

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    5. mm - you know that minorities get special preferences in some situations.

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    6. David,
      You know Warren didn't get any special preferences.

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    7. Her whole career is made of it, dembot.

      If she wasn't a "woman of color" ('the first woman of color in Harvard law school') we would've never ever known of her existence.

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    8. Lol. David's a fat racist and Mao is a genuine moron, scientists have discovered. They spend every day posting their crap at this tiny pathetic blog. What to make of that? Their personal lives must be very sad and lacking indeed.

      According to them, being a Native American makes you a superstar and an elite. That would come as a surprise to most Natives! Elizabeth Warren's silly DNA test actually does back up her claims, she really does have some distant Native ancestry, from very long ago. So what? is a reasonable reaction.

      The reason why it's an issue is because it's a bone that Republican right wing assholes and racists will never let go of. So, racist white supremacists like David and Mao will never shut up about it. (Though it's unclear if Mao is "white" really, he's possibly an Asian in service to the former USSR in his cosmically pathetic troll operation. It's actually possible that Mao is in Siberia, and he thinks this tiny pathetic blog is some great influencer. Hilarious when he finds out only 12 people read Somerby's crap! What a waste of life.)

      Seriously, what's the advantage in American life being a Native American? There isn't any, but white dumbfucks like to pretend there is.

      Delete
    9. Yeah, dembot, we Siberian Asians appreciate you pretending to know nothing about 'affirmative action' and the titanic struggle for 'diversity' in elite universities -- and acting outraged.

      It's a good show, but we would like to see more feeling. More feeling, dembot, please.

      Delete
    10. 'affirmative action'

      Now, your job is to explain with facts and evidence what that has to do with Senator Warren, ok dittohead?

      Delete
    11. Sure, psycho-dembot. Here are the facts:

      1. "Senator Warren" peddled herself as an Indian, "minority", "woman of color" to elite universities.

      2. The universities bought what she was selling, and indeed touted her as, for example in Harvard: "the first woman of color" in Harvard law school. And

      3. "Senator Warren" prospered, became a celebrity, and then a US senator.

      What more do you need, dembot?

      Delete
    12. I need you to show how "affirmative action" in any way influenced her academic or professional career, Rush "anal cyst" Dittohead.



      Several people involved in hiring her at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania lent their weight to that claim.

      Harvard Law School professor Charles Fried, who served as U.S. Solicitor General under President Ronald Reagan and was part of the committee that put Warren in a tenure position, said in a written statement that her ethnicity never came up during the process.

      Fried, who donated $250 to Warren's campaign, told the Republican, a Springfield, Mass., newspaper, in 2012, "This stuff I hear that she was an affirmative action hire, got some kind of a boost, it is so ludicrous and so desperately stupid and ignorant, it just boggles the mind."

      Asked about Warren’s minority status, Robert H. Mundheim, the dean who hired Warren at the University of Pennsylvania, told the Boston Globe that summer, "‘I don't think I ever knew that she had those attributes and that would not have made much of a difference."

      A number of news organizations interviewed dozens of faculty and students from the three law schools where Warren taught, and no evidence emerged that any claim about her ethnic roots played a role in the hiring process.
      https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/dec/01/facts-behind-elizabeth-warren-and-her-native-ameri/

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    13. Dembot quoting dembots, how quaint.

      I gave you the facts, psycho-dembot. In the academic world especially, "women of color" (let alone "the first woman of color") benefit from "affirmative action" by definition.

      Delete
    14. Wow. Mao disregarding facts, so he can fluff the Establishment.
      That practically never happens all the time.

      Delete
  7. You make a significant error in this having to do with math. Most of the discussion of her results referenced the mean amount of Native American DNA instead of the median. She has significantly more Native American DNA than the median person in the US which actually backs up her story. She basically claimed that a great grandparent was Native American (the results show her off by a generation or two) but that small amount of DNA was considerably more than the median and likely put her fairly high percentile wise. The distribution of Native American DNA is a great example of a skewed distribution. A few people have a very large percentage of Native American DNA (those who are full blooded or nearly so) while most have virtually none (those who have no or very few distant Native American ancestors). In short, Warren apparently accurately described her family and apparently has considerably more Native American DNA than the average person.

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  8. “we're also inclined to think that she's a terrible politician in several major ways.”

    She is the recipient of Republican talking points dredged up from oppo research back in 2012 which have now taken hold in the media. The media critic would focus on that.

    On the other hand, Al Gore (not a terrible candidate, right?!) was totally the victim of the media, whose narratives helped sink his candidacy.

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    Replies
    1. Where is deadrat to tell us we're just imagining that Somerby repeats Right-wing talking points on a regular basis? I assume he's in the "flyover country" all of us coastal elites look down on. LOL

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    2. Speak my name and I appear. Is TDH's opinion that Warren is "a terrible politician in several major ways" a right-wing talking point? I'm not sure what he means, but I take it he means that's she's not adept enough as a candidate. I don't how he comes to his opinion. After all, in 2012 Warren beat the hell out of Scott Brown, the Republican Great White Hope by 54% to 46%. And you can't even tell me the name of the Republican clown she sent back to well-deserved obscurity with a 60% clobbering in 2018. As far as I can tell, the only right-wing talking point about Warren is that she's lying about being a full-blood Cherokee.

      I think the "coastal elites" do look down on where I live, but it's not "flyover country." What prompted that comment?

      And LOL? How old are you, twelve?

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    3. @deadrat
      Judging from his post, Somerby criticizes her for taking that DNA test, (he has made this same criticism before). That must be one of his reasons. Aside from her policy chops, which he seems to admire, the only other thing he mentions here is the flap about the Native American stuff. He mentions some liberal media person defending her and/or defending affirmative action, which he says Tucker Carlson will joyfully use on his show to mock liberals, and presumably his viewers will nod in agreement. By inference, one has to conclude that Somerby feels that this is another thing that makes Warren a bad candidate.

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    4. @5:12P, Those are reasonable inferences. If that's TDH's position, I'm not sure why he thinks the "Native American stuff" is disqualifying. In 2016, Scott Brown spent $35M to dwell on this theme, and she still beat him like a red-headed stepchild. Maybe TDH thinks Warren can't scale up her campaign to the national level. In any case, "she's a bad politician" doesn't sound to me like a right-wing talking point. "She's a hypocrite-affirmative action-Pocahontas" does, and you'll have a hard time finding TDH writing anything like that.

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    5. Thanks deadrat.....for adding nothing to the discussion, as usual.

      Delete
    6. The bar here is set by that moral and intellectual idiot David in Cal, an abusive self-admitted troll calling himself Mao, and a crowd of Anonymous posters whining that TDH doesn't write the blog they'd like to read, but I'm the one who's adding nothing to the discussion? Oh, well. At least my comments are worth what you paid for them.

      If you think I'm wrong, gather your wits and correct my error; if you can't understand what I've written, have the intellectual integrity to admit it; if you think I'm incoherent, simply say so.

      I've checked this blog's by-laws, and if you don't like my contributions then your recourse is stop reading them.

      Or you can just piss off.

      Delete
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