FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2023
Which hours have we already seen? This very morning, Mark Leibovich appeared on Morning Joe to discuss his new essay in a special edition of The Atlantic.
How weak are the conceptual tools of our blue tribe's journalistic elites? Below, you see the pair of headlines which sit atop his piece:
THIS IS WHO WE ARE
If Trump wins again, perhaps we can all finally abandon the delusion that his supporters do not represent the true America.
Do Donald J. Trump's supporters "represent the true America?" Blue tribe journalist, please!
As has been widely reported, 74.2 million people voted to re-elect President Trump in November 2020. That was 46.8% of the total vote.
Who could have thought that so many people weren't a large part of "the real America?" Did someone out there, within our blue world, really maintain some such "delusion?"
Apparently, some headline writer at The Atlantic thinks the answer is yes! After reading the Leibovich essay, this editor chose to announce, in a headline, that we can now drop that delusion.
We're just splitting hairs with this observation, you might be inclined to say. We aren't being fair to the high-end journalistic stars found within our blue tribe.
We disagree with that assessment.
Stating the obvious, it has always been obvious that the 74 million Trump voters were and are a major part of "the true America." That fact has always been clear—except, perhaps, within our blue warrens, where many of us Biden voters have long since tried to wish such Others away.
We'll invite you to read the full Leibovich piece. In his essay, Leibovich quickly cherry-picks a comment in which Trump was described, on one occasion, as the red tribe's "murder weapon."
In such ways, the journalists who compose our "songs sung blue" continue to school us in mandated frameworks. In fairness, Leibovich offers an interesting comment about the events of January 6 at an early point in his piece:
LEIBOVICH (12/8/23): “This is not who we are,” Representative Nancy Mace, the newly elected Republican of South Carolina, said of the deadly riot. “We’re better than this.” There was a lot of that: thoughts and prayers from freaked-out Americans. “Let me be very clear,” President-elect Joe Biden tried to reassure the country that day. “The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect a true America, do not represent who we are.”
One hoped that Biden was correct, that we were in fact not a nation of vandals, cranks, and insurrectionists...
How about it? Are we "a nation of vandals, cranks, and insurrectionists? Might that be WHO WE ARE?
Did that day's assembly of vandals and cranks (and violent cop-beaters) "represent the true America?" Could that be who "we" are?
As Lawrence O'Donnell has often noted, a very small percentage of Trump voters appeared in Washington that day—and most of the people who turned out didn't take part in the violence.
Stating what is blindingly obvious, those violent offenders are a part of "the true America" too. But they represent a vastly smaller part of our struggling nation than do Trump supporters writ large.
Concerning the events of January 6, the brand-new Speaker of the House made a peculiar announcement last month.
The AP's report about his announcement appeared on November 17. Headline included, the AP started like this:
Speaker Johnson says he’ll make 44,000 hours of Jan. 6 footage available to the general public
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday he plans to publicly release thousands of hours of footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, making good on a promise he made to far-right members of his party when he was campaigning for the job.
“This decision will provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations, and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials,” Johnson said in a statement.
The newly elected speaker said the first tranche of security footage, around 90 hours, will be released on a public committee website Friday, with the rest of the 44,000 hours expected to be posted over the next several months. In the meantime, a public viewing room will also be set up in the Capitol for viewing the footage.
Finally! Millions of Americans would finally be provided with "an ability to see for themselves what happened that day!"
So said the brand-new Speaker. The sheer stupidity of his statement would be hard to top.
Depending on where you start and stop, the relevant events at the Capitol on January 6 lasted something like six (6) hours. According to the new Speaker, we Americans would now be able to "see what [really] happened that day."
We'd be able to "see what [really] happened" by going to a public website and sifting through 44,000 hours of videotape—44,000 hours of videotape, representing the events of those (roughly) six hours.
It would be hard to get dumber than that—unless you consider the way that videotape has already been treated by some of the battling news orgs which constitute our struggling nation's ongoing red and blue Babel.
Six hours of relevant action—and 44,000 hours of tape! Which segments of that massive volume of videotape have American voters already seen?
We blue tribe voters may not fully grasp the significance of some such question. Let's think back to what Tucker Carlson did when he got his disordered hands on those thousands of hours of tape.
At the time, Carlson was still the highest-rated TV star at the Fox News Channel. He cherry-picked snippets of videotape in which nothing of significance was happening. As he did, he told viewers that they were thereby being exposed to "what [really] happened that day."
Over on MSNBC, blue tribe viewers had long been exposed to unmistakable chunks of tape in which violent offenders were savagely beating members of the Capitol Police.
Absent-mindedly, Carlson skipped past such footage as he showed his viewers "what really happened."
Judged by any rational standard, Carlson was staging his latest astonishing journalistic gong show. That said, we invite you to speculate about what had already been happening on the various "cable news" programs at his red tribe "cable news" channel.
Blue tribe programs like Morning Joe had long since shown pieces of videotape showing some of the violent attacks which were perpetrated on police officers that day.
These pieces of tape were played over and over, and over and over. Then they were played again.
Every viewer of blue tribe cable has seen such (relevant) footage a thousand times by now. This footage shows some of the conduct which has led to a large number of criminal prosecutions and convictions.
Blue tribe viewers may assume that we Americans have all seen that relevant videotape. But here's the simple question we'd ask you to contemplate today:
How often has such videotape ever been played on Fox?
How often has such videotape ever been played on Fox? We can't answer that question.
Journalistically, it would be a challenging task to try to provide an answer. But we think we have a fairly good idea of what some such effort would show.
In our reports this week, we've started advancing a basic idea. That basic idea goes like this:
Given current journalistic arrangements, different groups of American citizens are exposed to vastly different analyses of various news events. But those groups are often kept from knowing that certain events have even occurred at all!
So it has gone on our cable news channels over the past few years. With respect to the current topic, viewers of the blue tribe's channel have been exposed, again and again, to the relevant videotape showing the violent conduct which occurred at the Capitol that day.
Just a guess! By and large, viewers of this nation's red tribe channel have not been exposed to such tape. This helps explain the yawning chasm between the way these two groups of voters conceive of "what [actually] happened that day," and of what should happen now.
So it has gone for the past several years. And now, along comes Speaker Johnson, with the dumbest idea ever stated.
On Fox, certain events are heavily stressed. Other events disappear—may not be reported at all.
A similar pattern obtains on MSNBC. We'll discuss this unfortunate fact as our Red / Blue reporting continues.
We currently live in what we'd describe as a Red and Blue Babel. In large part, that's a function of what different groups of people are told about certain events. But it's also a function of which events our warring tribes have been told about at all.
In future weeks, we'll move ahead to reports on our "Red and Blue Bayous," but also to reports on "Songs Sung Red and Blue."
We'll also offer reports "In Search of the Color Purple." For today, we leave you with a guess:
Just a guess! Many members of our nation's red tribe have never seen the violent videotape you've seen again and again. They haven't seen the videotape of the violent conduct which occurred at the Capitol that day.
Blue viewers have seen it a million times. Have red viewers seen it at all?
A large modern nation can't function this way. If you doubt that, go ahead:
Go ahead! Take a good look around.
Mike Johnson's "I (Herat) Antifa" lapel pin has people asking questions already answered by his lapel pin.
ReplyDeleteHerat is a city in Afghanistan.
DeleteMike Johnson’s johnson wants to be Hunter Biden’s johnson when he grows up.
DeleteIf there weren’t a large cohort of aging white men with undersized penises in America, we wouldn’t have a Republican Party.
It is who they are and no, they are not better than this.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"Just a guess! By and large, viewers of this nation's red tribe channel have not been exposed to such tape."
That's one stupid guess, in my opinion. Your dumbass channels, dozens of them, are everywhere. In airports. Inside the department stores. Bars. Hospitals. Offices. Everywhere. No one can avoid being exposed to them.
Your dumbass channels are the systemic, normalized, standard official propaganda. There are no "both sides" in this.
"On Fox, certain events are heavily stressed. Other events disappear—may not be reported at all.
ReplyDeleteA similar pattern obtains on MSNBC. We'll discuss this unfortunate fact as our Red / Blue reporting continues."
This is how Somerby creates his false equivalency between red and blue cable news. He states and perhaps demonstrates something about Fox News, then he makes a casual and unsupported comment that the same thing is happening on blue cable news, entirely without evidence.
Yesterday, he said that Fox did not discuss the Tuberville hold release at all, except on an evening news show on Fox, but I guess that doesn't count. Then he said that MSNBC and CNN did not discuss the theft of a Christmas tree, as if the two stories were equivalent. Today, Somerby discusses the insurrection footage, claiming without evidence that Fox viewers have never seen it, and then states without any evidence whatsoever, that the same thing happens on blue cable.
This makes me think that Somerby doesn't know or care what constitutes evidence in support of anything. It is sufficient in his world to just make assertions -- no need to back them up. He did try to provide support for his statement yesterday, in his half-assed manner, simply ignoring the Fox show that DID present the Tuberville story on Fox News. Today, he assumes that the evidence provided yesterday is sufficient to make his case, and he goes on to consolidate his claims about Fox News viewers not seeing the rioting and attacks, which were not only all over blue cable, but also in the newspapers and on social media and on blogs and webpages and on local TV news and everywhere people congregate. The idea that no one on Fox knew about the attacks on police is laughable, one of the silliest things Somerby has ever said, among many silly claims over the years.
The problem with Fox is not that it leaves out certain stories. It is that it makes up shit out of whole cloth. It is that it vilifies people it considers enemies (such as Democrats) calling us satanists and communists and similar names. It tells its viewers that the country is being destroyed by the left, gives a platform to nuts and cranks, and calls our president a pedophile. Somerby has reduced this to a simple omission of important news, not the blatant lying and vilification of the left.
With all the hours and hours that Somerby spends watching Fox News lately, how did he miss this much larger problem of Fox disinformation? Did Fox not tell Somerby about the Dominion lawsuit they lost? Is that how Somerby can go on, day after day, pretending this is a communication gulf and not the deliberate propagandizing of that 46% of the population who went for Trump?
Today's essay is a joke. Is there anyone on the right who doesn't know about those fake convictions of 1/6 participants who are all false imprisioned using made up video and confessions? Of course they have heard about 1/6 on the right. With a different spin, that Somerby makes no effort to analyze.
You are rather sadly, completely correct. Let us also recall, Bob rejected the congressional inquiry into the riot, and its report, as being weak and lacking the Republican side of the story.
DeleteCarlson and Johnson, rather obviously, provided the Republican side of the story. Even before them, right wing talking heads like Megan Kelley were out with essentially the same twisted account of the events. Basic facts about the riot were twisted by Kellyanne Conway were characterized as “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” Did Bob have a problem with any of that? He never said so if he did.
Sure, there are intellectual shut ins who only expose themselves to Fox. Yet if Fox mildly flirts with the truth, they quickly move from the Nonsense Beer of Fox to the Venal Whisky of more loathsome MAGA vendors, those who trump Bob’s lizard brain insult to tales of liberals actually being lizards from outer space.
And thru it all, don’t you dare criticize Bob’s good friends and neighbors, the true source of this moral rot. You better sit back and let him explain how it’s all those lizard people’s fault.
"Finally! Millions of Americans would finally be provided with "an ability to see for themselves what happened that day!"
ReplyDeleteSo said the brand-new Speaker. The sheer stupidity of his statement would be hard to top. "
What a wired reaction to the release of all the videos, from an unwavering truth seeker like yourself. Yes, once it's all in the public domain, you will be able to see any of it. Or even all of it, if you're willing to dedicate your life to it.
With all the faces blurred out. Mike Johnson is truly a champion of transparency. LOL.
DeleteSomerby also never acknowledged how the make up committee evolved, how McCarthy squelched the deal for a balanced committee at the last minute, demanding the presence of flame throwers like Jim Jordon, who essentially helped plan the riot.
DeleteInteresting. And what does "balanced" mean in your lingo?
Delete
DeleteThe 2022 post by Somerby highlighted a significant point that remains relevant today:
"our community is confronted with a challenging political issue. It appears uncertain that such a problem can be resolved through legal channels."
1:09: that is a straw man. No one is trying to use legal means to “resolve a problem.” Trump was impeached for valid reasons, and he is now facing the legitimate legal consequences of his actions. Somerby’s statement basically says that Trump’s impeachments and prosecutions are just liberals trying to solve a problem. That’s a pernicious, right wing view.
DeleteDid you mean wired or weird? Maybe both? Tucker Carlson already did his truthful documentary on the riot with his alternative facts. In terms of “facts” it’s the equivalent of Holocaust denial.
DeleteHow does Tucker Carlson's truthful documentary negate the value of releasing 44,000 hours of videos into the public domain?
DeleteWhy waste time on impeachments and prosecutions when we have this enormous political issue sitting there unsolved? We are going to have to face the political issue of Trump and populism in general at some point.
DeleteTrump, the “populist”, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, was a “populist”, right up until he actually had the chance to fulfill his campaign promise of cheap, universal health care, which he promptly abandoned, and until he signed off on massive tax cuts for his billionaire friends and big corporations. Populism!
DeleteMaybe you feel the rise in populism is not a political issue we must face. Or maybe you don't think it's a political issue at all. I disagree.
DeleteThe suggestion that people are ignoring the political issue of Trump is ludicrous.
Delete"In large part, that's a function of what different groups of people are told about certain events."
ReplyDeleteLook at the passive construction of this sentence. Somerby sees people as just sitting around waiting to be given info about "certain events" (presumably carefully selected, as Somerby wants his shrinks to be before commenting on Trump's mental health). Somerby does not see people as choosing their news sources, as searching for information they want to know about, as participating in consumption of news by sifting, comparing, analyzing and deciding what to believe and what to disbelieve. Somerby sees audiences as vessels waiting for stories to be poured into their gaping ears, like baby birds being fed worms by their bird moms.
Anyone who has been here more than 30 seconds knows that you cannot convince Cecelia or Dogface or David of anything, no matter what you tell them. If Fox were to show its viewers those hours of cop-beating rioting, they would reject it as fake news in order to maintain their pristine view of Trump unsullied by reality. People seek out Fox and similar sources. They boo anyone who tells them what they don't want to hear. They stopped watching Fox when it seemed to be abandoning Trump. These are not passive recipients of Fox "news" but active participants in a populist movement created by the right wing to maintain political power. And now they cannot put the brakes on it if they wanted to, because Trumpies and MAGAs like the way they are behaving. And it has nothing at all to do with blue cable, which has been the way it always is and speaks to the remaining majority of the people consistent with journalistic norms that have existed prior to this right wing movement.
If the causes of right wing populism resided in journalism, it would not be a worldwide phenomenon, because journalism is not the same in the UK as it is here, nor in other countries who have elected far right leaders in the past several years. Somerby is barking up the wrong tree. But that's perhaps because he has no interest in solving the disinformation problem on the right. He just wants to come here and bash liberals and so-called blue cable.
Do you really think I have a "pristine view of Trump" and that I'm an "active participant in a populist movement created by the right wing"? You have a much worse reading comprehension problem than I could possibly have imagined. I'm died-in-the-wool labor/liberal/feminist. Calling me right-wing is fighting words.
Deletedyed
DeleteDogface you are a right winger. You prefer to have “nuanced” definitions of left and right, but that’s nothing more than self serving nonsense, as there are academic, historical, and behavioral foundations to defining those in terms in a clear and straightforward manner, which in fact place you on the spectrum of right wing.
DeleteYou’ll be triggered, you’ll stand by your incoherent definitions, but it’ll just be bluster.
There’s no persuading you, your values and stances are as unmoveable as Trump’s bowel movements.
5:04 - You're so full of shit. I wish you had a nym so I could avoid you completely.
DeleteYou don't have to be here at all, Dogface. Why don't you take your own advice and leave? You never contribute anything substantive to any discussion here. You only attack other commenters, illustrating the social dysfunction on the right. Discussion for you is a form of attack, a blood sport, not an exchange of information or ideas.
DeleteI'll bet Trump's right wing supporters never learn anything true or useful at his rallies, which explains why they are stupider than liberals. When they repeat what Trump has told them elsewhere, they get laughed at, like Cecelia does whenever she opens her mouth.
Delete“Why don’t you take your own advice and leave?”
DeleteWhen you’re right, which isn’t often, you’re right.
How can we miss you if you won't go away? You, not the people you attack here.
DeleteDo Trump supporters represent the true America? Yes, but.,,
ReplyDeleteReal Trump supporters are NOT the cartoon people portrayed by liberal opinion leaders like Hillary. Real Trump supporters are not ignorant and are not bigots. That is, not to a greater extent than liberals are. Real Trump supporters are no less nice than real liberals.
Real Trump supporters are much worse than the word "deplorable" used by Hillary. They are certainly more ignorant than blue voters -- surveys have established that repeatedly. They are also bigots, as measured by psychologists testing them, and by surveys of their statements when interviewed. You can make contrary claims, David, but only by ignoring the studies of Trump supporters that exist.
DeleteIn my personal experience, Trump supporters are way more likely to violate social norms for polite behavior, to break rules and engage in antisocial behavior. They beat up journalists and dissenters at Trump rallies. I've seen them vandalize hourses where I live, for having Biden signs on the lawn. They interrupt, shout down, harrass and otherwise behave badly toward people holding other views. I've seen them drive their trucks down a blocked street in order to threaten college students protesting. How do I know they were Trump supporters doing that? They had Trump signs plastered all over their trucks. They are the ones who roll coal on other drivers (often targeting EVs). They are the ones using foul language here in these blog comments toward those they disagree with. They are the ones participating in school book bans, sending death threats to poll workers, harrassing women in the bathroom over their appearance, in support of bigoted anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-black and anti-minority culture war issues. That is bigotry and claiming it isn't the Trumpies doing it makes you appear very foolish. They are much less nice than real liberals. Look at the way they shouted each other down and said mean-spirited thing at the debates. They do not know how to be civil and they apparently don't want to learn, given how they choose to behave in public. These are not nice people, David.
@11:02’s comment shows how motivated reasoning works. Starting with a belief, @11:02 searches out a handful of snippets that support her/his belief. @11:02 ignores other indicators that point in the opposite direction. E.g., Trump supporters probably commit fewer murders per capital than Democrats. I base this belief on the fact that the black murder rate is 7 times as high as the white murder rate.
DeleteOf course, murder rate is also a single cherry-picked statistic. The fact is, it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to do a fair comparison of which side is nicer.
Isn't the objective reality that is a cretinous magat racist?
Deleteanon 12:48 is the black murder rate 7 times higher than the white murder rate? If not, how do the rates between the two groups compare? if D in C is correct, why is he a "cretinous magat racist for saying it"? I would seem that per capita more murders are committed by blacks than whites - if that's true, would it be "cretinous magat racisim" to mention it?
DeleteAC: Somerby teaches us that “race” is a construct, so you have to put “black” and “white” in quotes.
DeleteExcept when he wants to talk about naep scores, or David wants to talk about murder rate.
As soon as you try to suggest reasons for these statistics outside of “blacks are lazy, violent thugs”, suddenly, race becomes a construct again.
"is the black murder rate 7 times higher than the white murder rate?"
DeleteIt's classified.
DIC is quite a useful here. For years he postured here as a sort of reasonable, George Will type right winger. Had you accused him then of signing off on the MAGA stuff he now backs, he would have accused you of slurring him, of making him a cartoon. Trump presented a test for conservative America, a test for Bob’s good friends and neighbors. Most earned an “F”, though perhaps not all with the crappy indecency of DIC. I have a longtime conservative friend, one of the best people I know, who simply looks away. It’s heartbreaking.,
DeleteAC/MA, yes it does make him a cretinous magat racist when he tries to wedge that one singular statistic into any topic totally unrelated to his pet statistic.
DeleteBlack people really should reduce their murder rate.
DeleteHow is this topic "totally unrelated"? The topic was: "Real Trump supporters are no less nice than real liberals." According to David.
DeleteIf Biden supporters commit more murders than Trump supporters, are Biden supporters still nicer people?
In today's world, liberals are not supposed to refer to pathologies in the black underclass. E.g., media go out of their way to hide the race of black perps. And, look at the vituperation I get for mentioning one pathologically aspect.
DeleteIronically, this practice may hurt blacks more than it helps them. Innocent black Americans are the primary victims of black felonies. Hiding reality makes it harder to take effective action. Look at the harm done by BLM's "defund the police" campaign. Weaker police protection caused crime rates to soar in the inner cities. Thousands more Innocent blacks were murdered because of the this wrongheaded action.
Murder rates by race has fuck all to do with the topic at hand.
DeleteWhat states have the highest murder rates? Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico, Alabama and Illionois? You ever hear DiC mention that statistic and opine on the implications?
Are you implying all blacks who commit murder are Biden supporters? What the fuck are you saying?
I would wager my house that most murders are committed by people who are apolitical, and the statistic DiC has a hard-on for has fuck all to do with whether liberals or magats are nicer.
"What states have the highest murder rates?"
DeleteWhat difference does it make? Are you trying to change the topic to "what states are nicer"?
"Are you implying all blacks who commit murder are Biden supporters?"
I'm not implying anything. What David probably meant (I'm guessing here) is that: yes, urban underclass (including its many criminals) is one of the main Biden's constituencies and beneficiaries. Is it not?
And so, yes, one way or another, they are Biden supporters. Just as gun enthusiasts and abortion-opponents are Trump supporters, even if not everyone of them might actually be one.
OK, black murderers are Biden supporters,
Delete"one way or another"
Go fuck yourself.
I'm glad you agree with David, friend.
DeletePersonally, I don't need any black murderers to know that Trump supporters are nicer. These comment threads here are quite enough.
DeleteDavid is wrong both on the stats and that Blacks suffer from a pathology - a repugnant and racist claim.
DeleteWhat David is trying to say, while also trying to minimize having to take any responsibility for it, is that Blacks are inferior to Whites. Hey, Lincoln said the same thing.
In reality, the Black murder rate is dwarfed by the White suicide rate. One has to ask, why are Whites so sad?
David has never dealt with the racial bias in the justice system, one that incarcerates far more innocent black men than white, one that denies proper legal representation to black suspects, one that allows white perps to plead out of serious charges (reducing murder to manslaughter for example, which skews the stats David finds so compelling). Now that the Innocence Project is using DNA to reopen wrongly convicted cases, we have a measure of how bad our justice system has been when considering minority convictions. All a black man has to do to be a murderer is fit a description and be in the wrong place at the wrong time, without the money to hire a competent attorney. White people can get bail and legal help by mortgaging their house, an asset most black people do not have.
DeleteDavid has no idea what he is talking about. I agree with the commenter above who suggested that murderers are not likely to be registered voters, much less Biden supporters. On the other hand, white men are way overrepresented among mass shooters. Among politically motivated mass shooters, the overwhelming majority are white and male and from the right wing. The best predictor (most highly correlated fact about such shooters) is a prior record of violence against women and gun ownership.
From 1997 to 2016 the number of police officers nationally went from 242/10,000 to 217/100,00. During that same interval violent crime rates went down 19%. In NYC, as an urban example, a conscious effort at reducing the police force was accompanied by a decline in violent crime and homicide rates. This is a complex problem that cannot be summarized by simple minded right wing talking points. A comparison of post Floyd crime rates in cities that significantly reduced their police forces vs those that did not would to some extent get at the question , but as it stands the data hardly supports the cause and effect thesis stated above. This is likely because policing is generally a reactive activity, in which police are responders.
DeleteAgree with 7:28.
DeleteDIC, in usual right wing form takes a particular pleasure in punching down on, in this case, a group of people with which he unlikely had any contact from the confines of his insurance company office. These people are numbers to him. During BLM protests and violence, some of which was perpetrated by white extremists, my Trump supporting sibling complained that looters of Neimann Marcus in Chicago who were loading clothing into vans were not getting enough airplay in the media. To which I noted that the company had been bought up by private equity, who then sucked the money out of it, subsequently putting it up for sale, and getting no buyers, declared bankruptcy. So yeah, it was looted, and that wasn't covered by the media. White collar malfeasance and pure crime disproportionately affects the largest population in this country (as in 2008) but are completely ignored by those favoring the more convenient racial scapegoating.
DeleteImprisoning white collar criminals will lead to Prison Reform.
DeleteThis is what David and all the other nasty magats vote for.
DeleteAUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court on Friday night put on hold a judge's ruling that approved an abortion for a pregnant woman whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis, throwing into limbo an unprecedented challenge to one of the most restrictive bans in the U.S.
The order by the all-Republican court came more than 30 hours after Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two from the Dallas area, received a temporary restraining order from a lower court judge that prevents Texas from enforcing the state's ban in her case.
In a one-page order, the court said it was temporarily staying Thursday's ruling "without regard to the merits." The case is still pending.
What an asshole Somerby is. My finger smells funny now. I am Corby.
ReplyDeleteDavid, do you imagine a liberal commenter wrote this @11:11?
DeleteYou are Boris. I am Corby.
Delete"We currently live in what we'd describe as a Red and Blue Babel."
ReplyDeleteSomerby keeps pretending this is a communication problem, based on what people "are told" by cable news stations. It is not. It is a difference of opinion over values, attitudes and beliefs, not information.
People are increasingly isolating themselves into communities where they can interact mostly with people who believe as they do. That is because of the hostility and misbehavior toward others displayed by right wingers. Why would anyone want to hang out with people who so obviously dislike (hate) their political opponents to the point of engaging in politically motivated violence. Recall that it is the right wing who owns the guns and wants to bring them into public places, making everyone else feel unsafe around them. THESE sorts of behaviors are why there is a gulf, a divide, not what people know from cable news. Fox News encourages its viewers to behave badly and it survives financially by whipping up hate. But it didn't create the right wing disorder now infecting our country. The right did that.
Bob’s contention that the divide between the two sides creates insular thinking and limits dialogue is true, the contention he draws from it (both sides are the same, or even a lot alike) is bullshit. This garbage goes back way before Trump. Bob inadvertently argues this today. Liberal viewpoints can be challenged and are challengeable, but is there a left equivalent of the rights account of January 6th? The constant, ridiculous lies about the Trump’s first Impeachment (which now go far too often unchallenged) are no less mendacious as the Jan 6 Gerbelsfest, the right’s program of pounding an untruth until it is allowed to stand is nothing new. Bob’s good friends and neighbors demand lies. They always have, they have just grow uglier over the years, and the fate of the Nation now hangs in the balance. Bob would let the Democracy fail rather than admit he’s been wrong.
DeleteHere are some examples of right wing misbehavior.
ReplyDelete1. Marjorie Taylor Greene screaming into the face of teenage David Hogg, who was demonstrating in favor of gun control after being a survivor himself of a school shooting.
2. Lauren Boebert attempting to impeach Biden over and over, as retaliation for the impeachment of Trump by Congress. Appearing at the Denver Performing Arts Center with a male friend and breaking nearly every rule (explicitly stated, not normative) by vaping and photographing the actors on stage, but also violating norms by speaking loudly and engaging in sexual crotch rubbing in public (at a performance also attended by children). She obviously didn't give a damn about rules or other people.
3. The various House members who have attempted to bring guns into the House of Representatives and who were repeatedly fined for not going through the metal detectors. Gaetz did the same by trying to take a gun on an airplane.
4. The disrespect shown by Republican congress members toward the office of the president during Biden's state of the union speeches.
5. 1/6 -- need I say more about that one? Trump supporters from all over the country behaved badly (to different degrees) at the invitation of Trump. Some smeared feces on Capitol building walls and floor. Some played with or stole items from Democratic member offices. All were disrespectful toward our country's place of legislative business. Many hurt other people and police, some fatally. These were 100% Trump supporters and there is no equivalent action by Democrats in our nation's history, ever.
44,000 hours is five years.
ReplyDeleteProbably what Trump’s sentence will be after his conviction in the DC case. That DC jury pool ain’t messing around.
DeleteThe right wing disorder now infected me and my bridge partners. Somerby keeps pretending this is a communication problem, but it burns and smells funny. I am Corby.
ReplyDeleteRed and blue combined are magenta.
ReplyDelete“we can all finally abandon the delusion that his supporters do not represent the true America.”
ReplyDeleteThis is a standard pundit trope, which accomplishes two things: it insinuates that liberals are “deluded”, and it implies that Trump supporters are “the” true America. Given that Biden got 7 million more votes than Trump, I’d say trump voters don’t represent “the” true America, but rather form a substantial part, but one that is numerically smaller than that of Biden voters.
I am deluded.
DeleteThere is no such thing as "true America", obviously, but imo the coalition of the urban underclass with professional-managerial plankton is much less qualified to be called "true America" than the coalition of the working class and business owners. Regardless of the (questionable) numbers.
DeleteThen you and all Mark Leibovich’s mainstream journalistic friends who are also deluded will surely benefit from his new article in the Atlantic.
DeleteCorrect Mh, and it is a bit disheartening to hear liberal commentators sound the alarm that Trump is now somehow worse, or advocating things that he hasn’t before.
Delete12:47 that is rarefied demographic gibberish
DeleteRonald Reagan is still the worst POTUS ever.
Delete“a very small percentage of Trump voters appeared in Washington that day—and most of the people who turned out didn't take part in the violence.”
ReplyDeleteThe events of Jan 6 were directed and coordinated by top Trump operatives, including Trump himself. It doesn’t take a large number of people to violently overthrow the government.
Also, Somerby’s statement ignores the coordinated, nationwide efforts by congressional republicans, Trump lawyers and operatives, and operatives in swing states to overturn the 2020 election. Jan 6 was a last ditch effort, and was the violent and most publicly visible and blatant culmination of attempts to subvert the vote. It’s irresponsible to omit the larger context in which it occurred. The Republican Party had and continues to have a large share of the culpability in all of this, and its voters still by a majority believe 2020 was rigged.
DiC - 199,000 jobs added in November! Unemployment rate down to 3.7%! Wow!
ReplyDeleteYes, Biden is doing very well on unemployment. OTOH wage increases are lagging behind inflation, so Americans are getting poorer.
DeleteIt’s hard to have a fact based discussion when one side doesn’t have the facts.
Delete“In October 2023, inflation amounted to 3.2 percent, while wages grew by 5.2 percent.”
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/#:~:text=U.S.%20inflation%20rate%20versus%20wage%20growth%202020%2D2023&text=The%20rate%20of%20inflation%20exceeded,wages%20grew%20by%205.2%20percent.
Or you can try Somerby’s favorite blogger:
Charts of the day: Wages have beaten inflation over the past year
(10/4/2023)
https://jabberwocking.com/charts-of-the-day-wages-have-beaten-inflation-over-the-past-year/
thanks for the link, mh. The data you present is convincing.
DeleteDoes that mean you will stop telling people that wages are lagging inflation in Biden's economy? Just asking.
DeleteDogface- how did Ukraine do this week?
Delete"Unemployment rate down to 3.7%! Wow!"
DeleteSeems kinda high, considering that their goal is 2%.
And is it, by chance, the "excluding food and energy" number?
Hey asshole, the target is 2% for inflation.
DeleteDid some Right-winger have a problem with simple math?
DeleteThat practically never happens 24/7.