THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2022
American systems break down: On this most glorious Bloomsday, we're headed off for our latest look inside the American health care system.
We won't post further until this afternoon, if then. Before we leave, though, this:
Yesterday, we linked to this report in the Washington Post about the ongoing claim that Rep. Barry Loudermilk (D-Ga.) had led a "reconnaissance tour" of the Capitol on January 5, 2021.
The report quoted the Capitol Police saying they had found no problem with what Loudermilk did that day.
Later yesterday, the January 6 committee pushed back against this finding. The committee offered videotape evidence which seems to call the judgement by the Capitol Police into question.
In this morning's print editions, the New York Times offers this report. We link to the Times because the increasingly odd Washington Post features nothing on its web site this morning about the committee's rebuttal.
(If you enter "Loudermilk" in the Post's search engine, you could find this analysis piece by Aaron Blake. As of this morning, there was no way to find this piece except through use of the search engine.)
At this point, it's hard to know why the Capitol Police offered the judgment they did. In our view, it's amazing to think that, seventeen months after the fact, this important question still seems to be a matter of unresolved and poorly-explored conjecture.
Our American systems are falling apart; as usual, this includes our journalistic systems. On this morning's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough went off his meds again in his comments on this topic. Needless to say, Willie and Mika eager to repeat every unfounded statement.
Is it true? Was some sort of reconnaissance being conducted on the tour which Loudermilk conducted on January 5? If so, did Loudermilk know that this was happening?
At this point, we can't answer those questions. We can tell you this:
As best we can tell at this point, creative paraphrase is being widely employed within our news organs as our tribunes report what Loudermilk has said about this matter in the past.
As we noted several decades ago, the power to paraphrase is the power to spin. You shouldn't assume the accuracy of every account you're handed.
(A rule of thumb: If ten straight pundits say the same thing, you can assume it's wrong.)
Also this:
When you hear our tribunes saying that no tours of the Capitol complex were allowed as of January 2021, we'll advise you that you should possibly check your wallets. More on that to come.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but our nation's systems are coming undone. This has been going on for a long time, and the people handed to us as our blue tribe's tribunes have long been a part of this problem.
We humans just aren't "the rational animal," and we never were. Our scribes are inclined to prove this fact with their daily groaners.
Also this, RE Pence: We expect to watch today's committee hearing. Before we're done, we'll comment on the way our own blue tribunes have dissembled about Mike Pence's role in what happened on January 6.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep. Under the ministrations of Donald J. Trump, the red tribe has largely lost its mind, but our own highly self-impressed tribe has long been failing us too.
ReplyDelete"In our view, it's amazing to think that, seventeen months after the fact, this important question still seems to be a matter of unresolved and poorly-explored conjecture."
Ha-ha. Can you really be this naïve, dear Bob? Nah, we refuse to believe it.
We mean, obviously, your scummy tribal shamans keep throwing mud against the wall hoping that some of it will stick and help them maintain a chokehold on the US government.
And of course most of that shit they come up with as they go. "Seventeen months after the fact" - what fact? Are you kidding, dear?
Liz Cheney is such a RINO, she doesn’t support treason against the United States.
DeleteIf you think Trump thought the courts would throw out the election results without the threat of violence you’re the one who belongs in a mental ward. Not Trump.
ReplyDeleteLoudermilk is a Republican, not Democrat, as Somerby calls him. That is a Fox News trick, but I will assume it is a typo and not a ruse to help Loudermilk appear innocent of helping the coup.
ReplyDeleteIt's a ruse.
DeleteThe 1/6 committe doesn’t have to rebut anyone. It is the source of facts via sworn testmony and video.
ReplyDeleteMeh. The only source of facts is a letter signed by 51 former "intelligence" officials.
DeleteCan you provide a cite for this claim?
DeleteAt this late of a date, who doesn’t understand intelligence is kryptonite to Right-wingers?
DeleteThe 1/6 committee is led by a right winger.
DeleteMao, are you saying that the letter signed by 51 former "intelligence" officers (suggesting that emails found on Hunter's computer were fake) proves that Trump's "victory" in the 2020 election was stolen? is that what you have been saying?
DeleteWhat (if anything) do you think it illustrates, dear AC/MA?
DeleteRepublicans are fascists.
DeleteYou didn't answer my question Mao - so why should I answer yours? But I don't know what it represents, I asked you, you are the one who keeps mentioning it. Maybe even give a straight answer, if that's not too much to ask for.
DeleteYou didn't ask any questions, dear AC/MA. You made an assertion and asked me to confirm or deny it.
Delete...there was a piece in Time Magazine (of all places), where the author describes the "history of the 2020 election" as "a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information." With all the best intentions, of course.
Deletehttps://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/
How do you feel about well-funded cabals of powerful people working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information -- in general and vis-a-vis the 2020 election?
Obviously, Right-wingers think Trump is being wrongly accused of crimes. Trump isn’t even black.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell is this supposed to mean?
DeleteSo bummed about Bob not telling us which of Loudermilk’s many stories about the Capitol tour is the one we’re supposed to believe today.
ReplyDeleteOn a scale of 1 to 10 on believing absolute nonsense, with 1 being Russiagate and 10 being the economic anxiousness of Trump voters, where does thinking Gianni Thomas wasn’t a major player in the attempted overthrow of democracy rate?
ReplyDeleteBob plays anyone silly enough to still respect him for suckers today. He has zero examples to back up what he is kinda sorta saying.
DeleteAs promised, here is another excerpt from my memoirs.
Delete"And it was at this very time that a rare and peculiar butt wind was hereby produced, which summoned the often mercurial sage named Big Fanny Clapper. She advised me to examine my own mind's contents and intentions before proceeding to the proximal corollary. I had no choice but to concur with her sound reasoning and intuition. She then mentioned that she would quietly slip out the back door, like a silent fart."
Stay tuned for more excerpts in the coming weeks!
Loudermilk’s lied about what he did Jan
ReplyDelete5 go way beyond paraphrasing. Like Trump,
when caught at something, his response
was to attack others.
So what defines a “tour?” Bob will
ask.
In other news the National Public Radio, New York Times and Chicago Tribune are encouraging the Federal Reserve to throw people out of their jobs by slowing the economy. These latest reports make no mention of Saudi and corporate causes of inflation. In fact, Jeffery Goldberg took some time off scaring people about abortion to print some fluff about how their dictator is a loving family man.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Biden can confirm or deny this.
Not even a good try.
DeleteWhere is the lie Cheryl sorry that daddy Biden was insulted
DeleteThe power to paraphrase is the ability to extract meaning and express the same semantic content in different words. If there is spin, the meaning has not been preserved, and it is thus not actually a paraphrase.
ReplyDeleteThere is no reason why the original words cannot also consist of "spin." Spin has nothing to do with paraphrase, for these reasons.
Somerby doesn't know what he is talking about when it comes to language use, which is a severe handicap for a media critic.
"Yesterday, we linked to this report in the Washington Post about the ongoing claim that Rep. Barry Loudermilk (D-Ga.) had led a "reconnaissance tour" of the Capitol on January 5, 2021."
ReplyDeleteSomerby is the first one to complain when the media fails to correct an error -- but Loudermilk is still being identified as a Democrat from Georgia, when is actually a Republican. If Somerby read his comments, this kind of embarrassing error wouldn't hang around so long, but he is more concerned about protecting his ego than getting things right in his essays.
The videos are damning: pictures taken of staircases and exits.
ReplyDelete"Here’s some (more) bad news for Rep. Loudermilk: Included [in the Proud Boys' 1776 Returns plan] is a list of “Targeted Buildings,” which – you guessed it- include three of the Capitol complex buildings the Georgia Republican gave a tour of the day before, in which “tourists” are seen photographing entrances to the tunnel to the Capitol and the stairs where members were eventually evacuated. Additionally, the plan instructs the attackers to “set up meetings with reps in target buildings.”
DeleteOf what value are pictures of stairwells and hallways to rioters?
DeleteYou're describing a guilt by association logical fallacy.Some people toured a building.
DeleteThe proud boys planned to target that building.
Therefore, the people that toured the building were planning to target it.
You have gone ... completely insane.
Over this Loudermilk thing, people have completely lost their minds and lost touch with reality. But the even more interesting thing than that is that the commission itself released it as misleading propaganda. Which is incredible! I wonder if they did that in order to take people's mind's off the reality that they cannot tie Trump to something criminal. This can be canard. Like polling data is for Russiagate. Something dead enders can cling on to even though it completely lacks evidence and even a logical premise.
DeleteNothing about Loudermilk’s economic anxiousness?
DeleteThe corporate media is slipping.
10:44,
DeleteWhich of Loudermilk’s many, many stories about the Capitol tour is your favorite, and why?
@10:41 -- Those same people who were on the tour were among the group who broke in on 1/6 and were videoed shouting threats at Pelosi and others. This is not guilt by association, just guilt.
DeleteTrolls who insist that the tours had nothing to do with the riot are just shouting a Republican line intended to blur the connection between elected officials (Republicans) and Trump's coup. That's why it is important to deny Loudermilk's complicity. But these guys are going down.
guilt by association
DeleteHey, Clarence Darrow, no, it is reasonable suspicion based on inference of his behavior. i can't wait until he agrees to testify under oath. LOL I wonder why he lied about receiving a letter from the committee.
Suspicion, perhaps. Reasonable, perhaps not. But regardless it doesn't matter. It is still just suspicion with no evidence that ties the man to planners of the insurrection and no evidence the planners use some sort of dossier of pictures of stairways and halls. So call it what you want, it's a non-story without that evidence. It's all just more bullshit innuendo. Hammers looking for a nail.
DeleteThese guys are not going down you stupid idiot.
DeleteMy favorite Loudermilk story/ lie is the one about there being no tour of the Capitol on January 5th (if you don’t count the one in the video and photos released by the January 6th Commitee).
DeleteThank you for sharing this interesting, poorly written fascist rant.
DeleteGood morning. It’s Friday, June 17yh.
ReplyDeleteAny bets on what Loudermilk’s new Capitol tour story will be today?
Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the entire reason for the January 6th insurrection was because black peoples votes counted in the 2020 Presidential election.
ReplyDelete