TUESDAY, MAY 11, 2021
Kevin Drum gets it right: We may discuss Kevin Drum's new post in more detail at some point, but we especially recommend this one observation:
"As near as I can tell, progressives are willing to support any idea that's completely hopeless."
In Drum's post, examples follow. Taken literally, that assessment isn't completely fair, but it comes somewhat close.
Progressives will support any idea that's completely hopeless? To the extent that Drum's claim has merit, we'll recommend that you ask yourself this:
How is it that we keep telling ourselves—and everyone else—that we're the ones who are bright? Might it possibly make some sense to scale back our loud self-regard?
The goal isn't to win at any cost but to govern effectively and help people have better lives.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans are busy imploding and Kevin Drum suggests we follow their lead. In comments, people are suggesting that his centrist approach won't work for problems such as the climate change, the pandemic and immigration, which require immediate solutions that will appear drastic to many people.
Democrats have moved to the left because it increasingly obvious that bigger, bolder programs are needed to address urgent needs. Those leftist programs are proving more popular than Somerby or Drum would have admitted (a year ago), witness the huge support for the pandemic stimulus bill, the infrastructure bill, to be paid for by reducing wealth inequities. Other initiatives will be as popular because the fears Drum and Somerby express about taxing the rich won't be echoed in the polls.
Somerby borrows Drum's credibility as a moderate "liberal" to advance his own pro-conservative ideas. There is a huge difference between Drum and Somerby these days. For one thing, Drum is not a bigot. For another, Drum didn't support Trump and isn't always excusing Republican wrongdoers. Drum doesn't waste his time criticizing liberals for trivialities. Drum has even said positive things about Biden, something you've never heard from Somerby. So, don't get the two confused, just because Somerby says Drum is on the right track (note that most of Drum's commenters disagree).
"Progressives will support any idea that's completely hopeless?"
ReplyDeleteMeh. Pwogwessives will endlessly parrot every talking point broadcasted by the liberal cult. And that's pretty much all pwogwessives do, dear Bob. End of story.
Here is another example of the kind of racism that Somerby thinks doesn't exist any more. He will no doubt side with the officers, but notice that the District Attorney does not.
ReplyDelete"Such is the case with Juanisha C. Brooks, a Black Department of Defense employee with top secret security clearance, who was driving home March 6, when a Virginia State Police trooper (think regular cop but with that wide hat and more of an asshole), stopped her for her taillights being out. When Brooks asked Trooper Robert G. Hindenlang why he had pulled her over, he refused to tell her. The dashcam shows that instead of answering Brooks’ question, he tells her she can get outside and he’d show her. When Brooks said she didn’t want to get out, the trooper unlocked her door and dragged her out. Brooks can be heard screaming loudly for the trooper to stop.
The trooper spun her against the car and handcuffed her. When Brooks refused to take a sobriety test, after telling the trooper she had had one drink, Hindenlang told her, “You’re under arrest for driving under the influence.”
From the Washington Post:
The trooper spun her against the car and handcuffed her. When Brooks refused to take a sobriety test, after telling the trooper she had had one drink, Hindenlang told her, “You’re under arrest for driving under the influence.”
“Why were your eyes so watery when I pulled up?” Hindenlang asked her.
“Why were my eyes watering?” Brooks answered the trooper. “Because people are being shot by the police, I’m freaking nervous.”
At the Fairfax County jail, Brooks and her attorney said, she twice took a breathalyzer test. The results: a 0.0 blood alcohol level. So Hindenlang charged her with resisting arrest, eluding police, failing to have headlights on and reckless driving.
Brooks said she had forgotten to turn her headlights on that night and hadn’t noticed on the brightly lit Beltway. The Virginia General Assembly banned pulling people over for dark taillights, effective March 1, because it led to the type of pretextual traffic stops that can cause unnecessary conflict and consequences for otherwise law-abiding citizens.
Brooks’ attorney Patrick M. Blanch got video of the arrest and gave that to Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, who dismissed all charges and called for state police to conduct an internal investigation. In a letter to police, he said “the stop was without proper legal basis,” given the recent change in the law, and the “dashcam footage does not provide a factual basis to support the warrants.”
But of course, Corinne Geller, the spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police, defended the arrest, claiming that Brooks was driving “without any headlights or taillights, tailgating other vehicles and making unsafe lane changes, which are indicators of an impaired driver and provided reasonable suspicion for the trooper to initiate a traffic stop.” Geller told the Post that Brooks was taken into custody “due to her persistent refusal to comply with the trooper’s requests” and because the trooper believed that she was driving impaired.
She wasn’t. Didn’t matter because, racism."
From The Root
Whoa, liberals for drunk driving, eh?
DeleteNice. Riots, crime, and drunk driving, that's the ticket!
Did you miss the part where it says her blood alcohol was 0.0%? That means she had NO alcohol in her system. She couldn't have been driving drunk and had that % after being tested at the station.
DeleteOh yeah, right, "Brooks and her attorney said".
DeleteHigh on crack, then?
No, Mao, the police administer the test. It is part of the police report, their record-keeping. They didn't charge her because they had no reason to stop her (e.g., no basis in law) and no reason to hold her.
DeleteDid Patrick M. Blanch tell you all that?
DeleteIf he hadn’t have pulled her over for the recently banned taillight infraction, the arrest probably would have held up.
DeleteSounds like they both got high-handed which is how these things usually go down. There’s no indication that the cop wouldn’t have stopped someone white on the same basis.
Based on what? She did nothing wrong except forget to turn on her headlights, something we have all done at some point in our lives.
DeleteThe cop might have stopped someone white, but he wouldn't have arrested them on a pretext and towed their car. I've been stopped for traffic infractions several times over my lifetime, twice let off with a warning and NEVER arrested or even asked to step out of the car. I have always asked what I was stopped for, and the officer told me. No playing around with "I'll show you".
You and Somerby work so damned hard to make these obviously racist stops sound normal, but they aren't.
Her taillights were out, she didn’t have her headlights on, she failed to comply with the officer’s command, and then refused a breathalyzer.
DeleteDid you do all that when stopped?
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But wait, there's more:
ReplyDelete"And here is the inconvenience of being Black and dealing with racism when you’ve done nothing wrong:
A bondsman tried to help her contact friends, and eventually the magistrate in the jail sympathized with Brooks and drove her to the Vienna Metro station and gave her $20, Brooks said. The station wasn’t yet open, so she stood outside in the frigid darkness for an hour. It took a train ride, two bus trips and a cab ride for Brooks to reach the tow lot, where she said she was charged $240 to extricate her car. She arrived home around noon, almost 10 hours after Hindenlang stopped her.
I know...I know...why do I have to make everything about race when this could’ve just been a misunderstanding that played out on a bad day? But let’s just let Brooks have the last word.
“Would he have done that to a white woman? No,” Brooks said. “He didn’t see me as a human being. … This has to stop. It’s racism at its core, and it should be seen as such.”
Somerby calls this script and narrative. He is entirely unwilling to consider these situations from the perspective of those being harassed. That's why he is a bigot. Even if Brooks is released without charges, she still has to undergo the inconvenience and no one is going to refund the tow fees unless she files a lawsuit. Somerby is an asshole to think this kind of thing is OK and doesn't need reform.
I doubt he drinks. His weight is probably a side effect of his anti-cancer meds. If you are wondering whether this is an ad hominem attack, it is.
ReplyDeleteHow many of your smart folks are you going to jettison for not being the type of people who scan The Iliad for politically incorrect sentiments or inconvenient ones.
ReplyDeleteThe old man was home for the day at lunch and we strolled down to a diner to have a burger.
Along the way there were two gas stations backed up with cars to the point of impeding all traffic. The diner owner told us it was happening everywhere.
I don’t know if it’s because of silly panic from a rumor. I hope so. Is it okay to be concerned or is that white privilege?
What does this comment have to do with anything?
ReplyDeleteYou didn’t read the Drum link.
ReplyDeleteAre you talking about this one?
ReplyDeletehttps://jabberwocking.com/i-have-a-question-for-capitalism/
Somerby linked to this one, which is not about gas:
https://jabberwocking.com/how-alarmed-are-you-about-the-trumpized-republican-party/
You’re right, Corby. Drum never mentioned gasoline.
ReplyDeleteSomerby says that Kevin Drum is right. Notably Somerby never say that Kevin is right when Kevin criticizes Trump. The difference is that Kevin is not a Trumptard like Somerby and does not spend his time defending Donald Trump, Roy Moore, Ron Johnson, Devin Nunes and Matt Gaetz.
ReplyDeleteBob, you and Kevin are delightfully ancient guys. It’s not 1992 any more and the world and people who vote for the Democratic Party have moved on. All of the journalists who you’ve decided won’t have lunch at The Palm again have retired, been bought out, teach in graduate j-schools, or have gone on to their great rewards.
ReplyDeleteSam and Cokie aren’t on the Sunday chat shows, Al Gore has found something else to do, and the Murdoch’s own your Others. Sub stack pundits and social media have blown past the media you’re still yelling at. No one gives a good Goddamn about MoDo. The Sun is about to be bought by a hedge fund. Follow Baltimore Twitter. That’s where change is going.
No one here watches Tucker Carlson, much less believes him, except you and Somerby.
ReplyDeleteYou float this nonsequitur after asking me what Drum’s piece on political concerns has to do with fuel availability?
ReplyDeleteDon't be coy, you know that Tucker Carlson went on a diatribe yesterday about Biden liking the gas shortage and higher prices. Drum said nothing about gas. You are here pushing conservative talking points, just like David in Cal and Somerby himself.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t watch Carlson last night, I read a book to my husband.
ReplyDeleteBut thanks, I’ll check it out. Good for Tucker.
If a terrorist orchestrated gas shortage, effecting an entire region, is merely a Republican talking point, what is a news article averting that a woman was stopped by a cop because she’s black when there’s no evidence of that other than that is is black, and the same scenario could have happened to anyone?
If you’ll take note too, Einstein, Tucker is not on till 8pm. I wrote my post at 6:07pm.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised you missed an episode of Tucker. He's just the kind of racist piece of shit you'd make plenty of time to enjoy.
ReplyDeleteI’ll try to catch him tonight.
ReplyDeleteIsiyku Abdulahi
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ReplyDeleteHello all my viewers, I am very happy for sharing this great testimonies,The best thing that has ever happened in my life is how I win the lottery euro million mega jackpot. I am a Woman who believe that one day I will win the lottery. finally my dreams came through when I email believelovespelltemple@gmail.com and tell him I need the lottery numbers. I have spend so much money on ticket just to make sure I win. But I never know that winning was so easy until the day I meant the spell caster online which so many people has talked about that he is very great in casting lottery spell, . so I decide to give it a try.I contacted this great Dr Believe and he did a spell and he gave me the winning lottery numbers. But believe me when the draws were out I was among winners. I win 30,000 million Dollar. Dr Believe truly you are the best, all thanks to you forever