The Gaetz situation just isn't complex...

THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 2021

...but it has Lithwick confused: This site was converted to a center for anthropological findings several years ago.

In essence, we pass on the work of top major experts. Their central anthropological finding is this:

We human beings don't even resemble the species we claim to be. The ways we function don't even resemble the ways we say we perform.

That doesn't make us bad people. Consider Dahlia Lithwick, who seems to be, and probably is, the nicest person there is.

Lithwick is more than just a nice person; as these things are computed, she's also "highly educated." She went to the finest schools, and yet she's confused. Today, she starts with this:

LITHWICK (4/1/21): I have been attempting to understand the Matt Gaetz sex trafficking/teen prostitute/deep state/DOJ extortion/Newsmax/Tucker Carlson interview scandal for many hours now. I confess that I am largely lost, beyond the fact that it has vaulted me back to an all-too-familiar recent past: One in which many scandalous things happen all at once, all the time, and one’s job is to Scooby-Doo the way to truth. A time in which the alleged perpetrator responds to serious allegations by flooding the zone with improbable counteraccusations, which in this case include incriminating and deeply specific inadvertent confessions about the lack of photographic evidence of himself with child prostitutes, and then also a predictable flood of bizarre QAnon gibberish claiming that all this proves some larger QAnon gibberish plan for eventual world dominion.

The part of me that must waste brain cells on elected officials who commit alleged criminal acts of grotesque predation, then turn around and throw around deranged counterclaims and distractions was legit hoping for a break in 2021. But while Donald Trump is no longer here to flood the zone with shit, as Steve Bannon famously characterized the totality of the era’s media strategy, it appears that we will be mucking out the stables for the rest of our journalistic lives. (For what it’s worth, and if you feel like braving the rabbit hole, the Washington Post’s Philip Bump explains the Gaetz mayhem here.)

Bump might help you figure it out. Otherwise, Lithwick will have you confused.

Lithwick went to the finest schools, then to Stanford Law School. But as you can see in that opening sentence, she finds herself badly confused by the current "Matt Gaetz...scandal."

Citizens, can we talk?

The Matt Gaetz scandal isn't confusing. It may not even be a scandal. The situation is amazingly simple. In fact, it's as simple as this:

It's been reported that Gaetz is being investigated for a possible crime. As of now, he hasn't been charged with a crime. It's possible that he'll never be charged with a crime. At present, there's no way to know if he's actually committed a crime.

It's hard to know why that's confusing, and everything else is something different. But the major experts with whom we consult offer this as one of their basic findings:

As a species, we humans just aren't especially sharp. Our reasoning skills are very few. "Education" doesn't seem to help.

The Matt Gaetz scandal just isn't confusing—unless you choose to "labor under a mistake." That mistake is quite common, these highly credentialed experts say. We're told the mistake is this:

We humans are inclined to try to settle situations we can't possibly hope to resolve. We're disinclined to wait for evidence. We want to decide right now.

Also, we tend to write things like this:

"The part of me that must waste brain cells on elected officials who commit alleged criminal acts of grotesque predation, then turn around and throw around deranged counterclaims and distractions, was legit hoping for a break in 2021."

Note to the highly educated: 

Elected officials can't "commit alleged criminal acts" in the way Lithwick seems to mean. Elected officials can "allegedly commit criminal acts," but the logic of that is quite different.

Matt Gaetz hasn't been charged with a crime. At this time, no one has made that allegation. There's no way to know, at this time, if he's even committed a crime.

We're going to have to wait to find out. It may be that we'll never know.

There's nothing "confusing" about that state of affairs, but we humans are disinclined to abide uncertainty. We want to finish our story right now. "Education" isn't likely to help, or so we're reliably told.

At present, no one knows if Gaetz has committed a crime. But Our Own Rhodes Scholar can't stop talking about it, and Yale/Stanford tells us she's lost.


31 comments:

  1. "Consider Dahlia Lithwick, who seems to be, and probably is, the nicest person there is."

    No, Rachel Maddow was voted "the nicest person there is" at the latest famous anthropologist meeting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "At present, there's no way to know if he's actually committed a crime."

    Actually, this statement of Somerby's isn't true. They are investigating. That is the way you figure out if he actually committed a crime.

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    Replies
    1. I’m starting to see why the much-missed deadrat used to focus many of his posts here on reading for comprehension. Is it really possible that you don’t understand how tense works in English? Somerby is saying that there’s no way of knowing right at this point in time, at the moment when he wrote the post above, whether or not Gaetz has committed a crime. Believe it or not, Somerby is fully aware of how investigations work, and of the reasons somebody might launch one.

      Delete
  3. "This site was converted to a center for anthropological findings several years ago."

    We do appreciate your zombiepological research, dear Bob, and all the pain and hardship you endure in the process.

    There's no need to bring humyn beings into it, however.

    Humyns, ordinary working people, they are fine, just fine, thank you very much. They won't give a shit about 'race', or 'Gaetz scandal', or any other liberal-goebbelsian talking points.

    You need to get out more often, dear Bob.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I ate so many baked beans last night, it looked like the Republican National Convention was taking place in my toilet this morning.

      Delete
    2. Gaetz turns out to be another "tough on drugs" junkie.

      Humyn garbage just like mao, Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell Jr & sr.

      Delete
  4. "We humans are inclined to try to settle situations we can't possibly hope to resolve. We're disinclined to wait for evidence."

    The people Somerby is criticizing are reporters. It is there job to tell the public what is currently known about a situation. We will not know whether Gaetz is guilty until after there has been a trial. In the meantime, there are numerous facts that are known and reporters are supposed to tell readers about those facts.

    Somerby says he doesn't want to know anything until the end, and then he cares only about the bottom line. No one else has to follow his preferred path. We can try to figure out what happened and who is who and what is what, if we want, because this is a free democratic republic in which the public is deemed to have a right to know what their elected officials are doing, even the creepy ones like Gaetz.

    Somerby wants to shove his fingers in his ears and sing la la la I can't hear you. That is his right. It doesn't make him noble, and it is the opposite of what any decent anthropologist does with human behavior.

    But we know that Somerby is not an anthropologist and I'd wager he doesn't even know ANY anthropologists (judging by what he thinks they say and do). Somerby is a shill for Putin whose job is to confuse the American voter and support Trump (our deposed autocrat in waiting) until Putin decides he's wasted enough money trying to subvert our country. Either that, or Somerby is a fancy doorstop. He is unfit to serve any other purpose.

    ReplyDelete
  5. "Matt Gaetz hasn't been charged with a crime. At this time, no one has made that allegation. There's no way to know, at this time, if he's even committed a crime."

    Here is some weirdness. Gaetz was given four pinocchios by the Washington Post for his statements about his own actions, so we know he isn't coming clean with us. Also, he claims to have a black 19-year-old son who is not a blood relation and was never formally adopted, but came to live with Gaetz (a much older bachelor) when he was 12 years old. When asked about it, Gaetz said that their relationship was defined by love for each other, not legal documents. This kid Nestor has an actual father who says that he never gave up his parental rights. I might find that story touching except that no one likes, much less loves, Matt Gaetz. So what is up with that?

    ReplyDelete
  6. "There's nothing "confusing" about that state of affairs, but we humans are disinclined to abide uncertainty. We want to finish our story right now. "Education" isn't likely to help, or so we're reliably told."

    Whoever is telling Somerby stuff like this is certainly NOT reliable.

    Delayed gratification can certainly be taught:

    https://everfi.com/blog/k-12/activities-for-teaching-self-control/

    ReplyDelete
  7. "Matt Gaetz hasn't been charged with a crime. At this time, no one has made that allegation. There's no way to know, at this time, if he's even committed a crime."

    I'll bet Somerby would say the same thing about Officer Chauvin, despite the evidence of bystanders and bodycam video.

    There is evidence related to Gaetz too. Investigators will find it. They may work out a plea deal involving his resignation from Congress, or they may decide to charge him, but saying there is no way to know what he did is just flat wrong.

    No one moves through this world without leaving a ripple and that ripple is evidence. Official investigators are looking and they will find that evidence and we will know about Gaetz. Rachel will tell us. Why else does Somerby think Gaetz is freaking out?

    ReplyDelete
  8. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politics/os-ne-who-is-joel-greenberg-matt-gaetz-20210331-kfebgrmiezal7j6jx5s7vzky7e-story.html

    ReplyDelete
  9. Atrios says:

    [If] "He flew a minor(s) across state lines from a state where she was not legally able to consent to a state where she was. Still a federal crime!"

    Also a crime if he used campaign funds to pay the travel expenses.

    ReplyDelete
  10. “It's been reported that Gaetz is being investigated for a possible crime. As of now, he hasn't been charged with a crime. It's possible that he'll never be charged with a crime. At present, there's no way to know if he's actually committed a crime.”

    Almost as concise as Matt Gaetz’ own version of events.

    Almost, if “concise” meant verbose, loony, self-owning nonsense.

    And this makes two Somerby posts about Gaetz in one day, three total.

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  11. Somerby, always demanding we wait for evidence dammit:

    ‘News flash! "Ukrainegate" is going to look that way [like Nixonian levels of corruption] to a lot of people:

    They'll wonder why an all-around "Fredo" like Hunter Biden was ever offered "a lucrative seat on the board of a company called Burisma, which is a major energy company in Ukraine."
    ...
    They'll assume that some slippery motives were involved somewhere in the mix. It's hard to assume that such an assumption is wrong.’
    http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2019/09/impeachment-is-right-around-corner-again.html

    ReplyDelete
  12. This essay is perhaps an elaborate April 1 hoax by Somerby!

    What a sense of humor!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Here is the rest of what Dahlia Lithwick said. It applies especially to the bilge that Somerby has been posting lately:

    "Part of the joy in being free of Donald Trump’s near-hourly reminders that nothing was true unless he sanctioned it, and that everything was a plot to entrap and ensnare him by shadowy enemies who were forever plotting his demise, lay in the hope that things might become concrete again. Science is back. Candor is back. Facts are rallying back. Maybe journalism could return to reporting truth as opposed to adjudicating it. And yet it’s now clear that the morally bankrupt and the legitimately awful will still always find ways to fight truth with derangement, and that the crazier their claims prove, the more likely they will be to find a receptive audience on both right-wing media and the national umbrage industrial complex. As long as such people hold political office, the press will be forced to engage with their farcical fever dreams, and the public will be made to pour out their mornings wondering who Matt Gaetz is, and why he matters, and whether indeed shadowy Justice Department officials are going around extorting the entire Gaetz clan for $25 million.

    Don’t shoot the messenger, America. We hate this shit as much as you do. There’s a simple solution—never electing another professional fabricator again—but that train may have left the station. In the meantime, you are not alone. And the best thing to do when prevaricating fraudsters lie to you is not to doubt your sanity or to slide under the torpor of “who can know” hopelessness. Instead, recall that this is the plan, muck out the shit. Reorient, sigh, rinse, and repeat."

    Note the phrase "slide under the torpor of 'who can know hopelessness'. That is exactly what Somerby is peddling here. On purpose.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you look a little closer my friend, you might be pleasantly surprised.

      Delete
  14. Mao cheng goebbelsApril 1, 2021 at 8:29 PM

    Gaetz is a piece of human garbage just like Mao.
    Let him twist in the wind as his depravity is brought to light.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Somerby defended Roy Moore, Ron Johnson, Devin Nunes. Now he seems terribly concerned about defending Matt Gaetz. Not surprising, Somerby is a Trumptard, and will defend other Trumptards.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nunez just got dinged for cnn's legal fees over his nuisance law suits.

      Delete
    2. Bob never defended Roy Moore. He punched big holes in the case against Moore, such as the idea (horror of horrors!) that teenage girls and women in their early 20s back then actually WILLINGLY dated older guys.

      Which -- I can barely type this out -- they did. Damn me to hell, yes!

      Delete
  16. “At present, there’s no way to know if he’s actually committed a crime.” I am with Bob on this one. As far as I am concerned, from his other activities, Gaetz is human sewage. That will not change for me, irrespective of whether he is criminal here. Writing columns when the story is half baked makes for criticism from the likes of Bob. It gives him easy fodder, and he too has space that needs to be to filled on his blog. So it all works out.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Meanwhile, the latest online ABC news story on Gaetz suggests that he is likely screwed. So sad!

    ReplyDelete
  18. If any substantial part of the allegations are not completely debunked, Gaetz is likely to be publicly discredited long before he is indicted for any actual crime, let alone convicted. It has never been the practice of the media to withhold discussion of such allegations until the matter has gone completely through the legal system and there is no real reason why they should. Journalists and citizens are also entitled to their own opinions about guilt, whether in a strictly legal sense or just according to their own morality, regardless of what a jury may eventually decide.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Gaetz is going away for years.
    He was pimping out minors (young ladies to somerby) and looks to have been involved or at least aware an identity fraud scam run by his American Psycho buddy.
    Wonder how his 40 yr old fratboy MAGA troll act will play with the real gangsters?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bob never defended Roy Moore. He punched big holes in the case against Moore, such as the idea (horror of horrors!) that teenage girls and women in their early 20s actually WILLINGLY dated older guys.

      Which -- I can barely type this out -- they did. Damn me to hell, yes!

      Pay for your girlfriend's plane ticket? You're a trafficker!

      Delete
  20. Biden riding high governing for "we the people" and not the oligarchs and takers.

    Hahahahaha

    ReplyDelete
  21. Career centrist DC insider has no more fucks to give and becomes wildly successful doing right by the people.

    I doubted the guy, I was wrong.

    Just by ignoring 40 years of GQP lies and all their bullshit "rules" the country is reborn and given back to the people.

    ReplyDelete
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