SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 2024
From the top of the online Washington Post: As we type at 2:15 p.m., the article sits at the very top of the front page of the Washington Post's online edition.
It runs beneath the funniest dual headline in political journalism today. The headlines in question say this:
Science is revealing why American politics are so intensely polarized
Social scientists say polarization is increasingly based on a visceral dislike for the opposition, rather than extremely divergent policy preferences.
Finally! According to the headlines, "science [and] social scientists" are finally "revealing" those facts!
Full disclosure! When blue elites can be so daft, that helps explain why Candidate Trump could (quite possibly) win in the fall.
ReplyDeleteSCIENTIFIC studies confirm: the Democrats are good, decent persons, while the Republicans crazy, blindingly stupid, and possibly (severely) mentally ill.
I am Corby.
Somerby is mocking this article, but I don't understand why. The two expanations being contrasted (visceral dislike vs policy difference) dictate different appraoches to solving the problem of polarization. It also explains why compromise has been so difficult.
ReplyDeleteI would take a step further and suggest that the uncivil, aggressive hostility of the right toward the left has helped deepen that visceral dislike.
For example, I dislike our right wing troll Cecelia more than any right winger I know in real life, and she has never expressed any policy differences. It is her behavior towards other commenters that makes me dislike "her". Similarly, the antics of MTG and Matt Gaetz towards their own party AND towards their peers in congress make them unlikeable and congress more polarized than it ever was when members disagreed over policy but liked and even socialized with each other. Now it is only about hate.
And the good news about this finding is that we know where the hate has come from and thus can demand change from those causing this polarization. And no, it is not the mainstream media. It is Fox News and a take-no-prisoners right wing attitude that goes back to Newt Gingrich, the tea party, and today's MAGAts.
When I was assigned to this blog, my boss told me to befriend Cecelia.
DeleteI’m aware of your initials.
DeleteSee, look how Ceceia tries to turn our objection to the paid trolls at this blog back against those of us who are actual commenters here. That is what the right does.
DeleteAnonymouse 5:59pm, you don’t comment as much as you harangue.
DeleteI’ll give you this; you likely troll out of political militancy, rather than for money.
I’m a paid troll, and I like Cecelia.
DeleteAnyone would say that if they were paid to like her.
DeleteThere is no 5:59 pm, so I assume you are talking about 4:49.
DeleteDefinitions of haranguer: a public speaker who delivers a loud or forceful or angry speech. type of: orator, public speaker, rhetorician, speechifier, speechmaker. a person who delivers a speech or oration.
DeleteI'll bet you thought you were saying something bad about 4:49.
Anonymouse 5:34pm, no, I was thinking that I described the anonymouse as someone who makes wrathful angry speeches/sermons, rather than exchanging ideas on a blog board.
DeleteTurns ouT I was.
I, too, like Cecelia. I am Corby.
DeleteThe center right democrats threw Michael Moore and Ralph Nader and Bernie under the bus, took millions from the private healthcare lobby and now want to pretend you're not on the right wing cause you watch a different TV show
DeleteMichael Moore, Ralph Nader, and Bernie are objectively Republicans.
DeleteI am Corby.
"I don't understand why"
DeleteBecause your head is stuck in your ass.
Somerby today betrays his ignorance about social science. When a social science study produces a research finding that corresponds to common sense, people call such research a waste of time and money. But MOST research findings in social science are contrary to common sense, what scientists call "counterintuitive," because people as individuals are not able to see human behavior clearly from their limited experiences and perspective and make mistakes about what people are like and what they do. That's why scientists TEST their intuitions, they don't just assume that whatever they consider to be likely must be true, as those relying on so-called common sense do.
ReplyDeleteThe Washington Post article is behind a paywall and I do not want to subscribe. It seems likely to me that there was more to the article than the part Somerby has chosen to mock. I would like to know what else the researchers found out, the part Somerby has disappeared by only quiting the headline. The useful info may be in the details that Somerby has chosen not to tell us. Why? So that he can call "blue elites" (whatever that means) "daft" thereby deepening the polarization. Unfair jabs are no way to bring us together. So, it seems to me that Somerby is the one trying to put Trump into office.
"Conservatives think liberals are good people with wrong ideas. Liberals think conservatives are bad people with wrong ideas."
ReplyDeleteHillary illustrated this adage when she said half of Trump people were "deplorable."
Hillary made that comment privately. Her campaiogn was harmed when it came out. But, liberals today trumpet their belief that MAGA people are bad people.
This kind of thing only goes one way. Trump is outrageously rude and nasty to his political opponents, but her never slams Democrats in general.
"Conservatives think liberals are good people with wrong ideas."
DeleteBut that's in the past. Back when they actually were liberal.
David, how do you claim that conservatives think liberals are good people when they characterize liberals as communists and corrupted by satan?
DeleteI've heard conservatives call ALL liberals bad, not just the less than half that Hillary called deplorable (a word that refers to behavior not a person's being).
Clinton made the remark at a fundraiser surrounded by liberal donors. That IS public.
https://www.npr.org/2016/09/10/493427601/hillary-clintons-basket-of-deplorables-in-full-context-of-this-ugly-campaign
Yes, Trump does slam Democrats in general. He is outrageously rude and nasty to Democrats, not just specific opponents, because Democrats are ALL his political opponents.
But then, Trump also said that some white supremacists are good people, and even some of the immigrants crossing the border among all those rapists and drug dealers are good people too.
Trump is not your best example of right wing kindness and consideration. He recently called us vermin and claimed that we need to be exterminated. And look what he has been doing to E. Jean Carroll, whose main crime was being his victim and winning her court cases against him.
If you Trump voters don't want to be stereotyped as racists they could simply not vote for a racist
DeleteSlaves used to argue about whose master could beat up the other master. Now red and blue tribe argue about whose leader is less evil..
DeleteThey're both evil. Vote for the winner who is less evil then move on to other important things.
Your identity is more than which rich person you like.
Our Great Leader is double-plus-good. And his son is a double-plus-genius abstract painter. Their whole family is blessed. Your Horrible Leader is double-plus-bad.
DeleteExcuse me, I need to sniff my fingers now. I am Xorby.
If his son's penis could run for President, it'd win the Republican nomination, for sure.
DeleteEvery Left Wing confession is an accusation.
DeleteI am Corby.
How the radical right is using a definition of property from slavery to take power
Deletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/books/review/democracy-in-chains-nancy-maclean.html
Thanks for the link, @11:42. I might have missed that book review.
DeleteBuchanan was a man ahead of his time. The reviewer calls this a "sordid tale", but time has shown how right Buchanan was. Some quotes:
"governing institutions cannot be trusted, which is why governing should be left to the market."
"Buchanan was concerned that this would lead to overinvestment in public services"
“the problems of our times require attention to the rules rather than the rulers.”
"He therefore helped lead a push to undermine their trust in public institutions"
Yeah the book has slightly more to say than pleasing soundbytes, you should challenge yourself with opinions you disagree with to stay less stupid
DeleteDavid this idea that we all are in different teams and have to hate each other comes from geographic segregation in neighborhoods. The more is segregated the school system is the more segregated the neighborhoods are and the more people distrust each other and stereotype each other. You've said in the past comments on this blog you don't like being stereotyped.
DeleteRead the book David then open mouth to talk
Delete@2:59 Almost right. The segregated schools come from segregated neighborhoods, not vice versa.
DeleteThe ability to kick low income people out of neighborhoods is driving up class differences.
DeleteGovernment schools take every student and private schools kick out the ones who are low performers on standardized tests causing people to not experience seeing people who are different than them
This leads to elitism among the wealthy and hatred of Spanish speakers among the poor
"never slams Democrats in general."
DeleteVermin. Radical thugs. Communists. Sick. Enemies.
You can't see what you are determined not to see.
@3:12 pm
DeleteSeveral studies have noted an increase in gentrification of neighborhoods with charter schools: "a predominantly non-white neighborhood’s chance of gentrification more than doubles, jumping from 18 percent to 40 percent when magnet and charter schools are available." (https://www.chalkbeat.org/platform/amp/2018/3/16/21104583/an-integration-dilemma-school-choice-is-pushing-wealthy-families-to-gentrify-neighborhoods-but-avoid).
Associated Press found charters effectively allow people to continue segregation. (https://apnews.com/article/d7a7337037714e6ea369acf0849a850a)
A study of seven pairs of cities found a connection between desegregated schools and desegregated housing. (https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED199309)
The causal connection between racism in school segregation and neighborhood is even documented by studies sympathetic to charter schools such as this one:
https://tcf.org/content/facts/the-benefits-of-socioeconomically-and-racially-integrated-schools-and-classrooms/
Fixing broken link:
Deletehttps://www.chalkbeat.org/2018/3/16/21104583/an-integration-dilemma-school-choice-is-pushing-wealthy-families-to-gentrify-neighborhoods-but-avoid/
Fixing second broken link
Deletehttps://web.archive.org/web/20220926022359/https://apnews.com/article/d7a7337037714e6ea369acf0849a850a
Quaker— can you show where Trump called all liberal “vermin” or any of those awful words?
DeleteYou can google it as easily as Quaker. We’ve all heard Trump say those things.
DeletePaul Campos, of Lawyers Guns and Money, has died.
ReplyDeleteSomerby -- please block this troll. He has been posting unfunny, obnoxious statements about deaths. This one is not for the Paul Campos of LGM but for a different Paul Campos. Jokes about people's deaths are not funny and do not belong here. They serve no function but to irritate your readers.
DeleteThe majority of Bob’s commenters claim he’s on Putin’s payroll.
DeleteGet right on that, Bob…
Yes, Cecelia, you serve no function except to irritate blog readers too.
DeleteAsk Putin’s Puppet to fix that for you too.
DeleteI am a troll, but Putin doesn't pay me. When I say someone has died, it's true. Some other trolls have mocked my by posting false statements that someone has died. They are bad.
DeleteTrump is Putin's puppet.
DeleteAnonymouse 10:15pm, nobody here cares about death announcements but Somerby-haters who call Bob a traitor to the US even as they simultaneously ask Bob to protect their feigned sensibilities against you.
DeleteThe internet has provided multitudinous jobs to anonymouse sociopaths.
I care about death announcements. I want them to be accurate. I don’t hate Somerby. I like David.
DeleteHelp me Daddy there's a troll on the internet please make him go bye bye I'm a grown up Democrat
Delete"Help me Daddy Government."
DeleteThose are the words of a free-market Libertarian after their business suffers 2 bad quarters in a row.
I’m the real Corby. My trolling keeps this blog alive.
Delete
DeleteI don't troll Somerby's blog, I spam it.
Somerby hates women. Somerby is funded by Russia via Iran and Qatar.
I am Corby.
What an asshole Somerby is.
ReplyDeleteI smell my fingers, and I spam Somerby's blog.
I am Corby.
David is older than Cecelia, but he’s more cognitive. Biden is older than Trump, but he’s more cognitive.
ReplyDeleteDavid is the most cognitive commenter here.
DeleteBut you're the cutest.
DeleteDavid is one of the most astute political observers commenting here. Remember, he was on the Ron Desanctimonious bandwagon long before most others.
DeleteThank God we renamed "global warming" into "climate change". It would've been awkward if we didn't. I am Xorby.
ReplyDeleteHunter Biden's penis is more cognitive than Donald Trump's brain. I am Corby -- the real Corby.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI ♥ Hunter Biden's cock. I dream of it day and night.
I am Corby.
You have good taste.
DeleteI smell my fingers and dream of Hunter's cock.
DeleteWhat an asshole Somerby is.
I am Corby.
American political opinion doesn't affect policy if you're poorer than middle class.
ReplyDeleteHere's a Vox article (rich conservative Democrats) admitting it:
https://www.vox.com/2016/5/9/11502464/gilens-page-oligarchy-study
Do you put your money where your mouth is?
DeleteYes
DeleteDo you use ad hominem attacks when new information threatens your assumptions about the Land Of The Free?
DeleteI'm a bit confused about how anyone can tell which votes are from rich people and which are from poor people in a general election.
DeletePromoting apathy and nihilism is a method of suppressing votes on the left, especially among inexperienced young voters. It worked especially well in WI, MI and PA when Hillary was running against Trump. Progressive young people believed that Hillary was a Crook because Bernie and the right were both saying so, but they didn't want to vote for Trump so they stayed home. Look where that got us!
DeleteIf you are poorer than middle class, should your policy ideas affect how the nation is run (more than your single vote dictates)? Please explain why.
Delete@12:57
DeleteYes, ideally a democratic government does more than ask you to apathetically push a button every four years.
The Democratic government is asking us to spam Somerby's blog every day. Unfortunately some people neglect to do their part.
DeleteHere we see the conservative Democrats in their true colors.
Delete"If you are poorer than middle class, should your policy ideas affect how the nation is run (more than your single vote dictates)? Please explain why."
I can't believe it's that easy to get conservative Democrats to admit they don't care about poor people's opinions
DeleteImagine running any large organization with feedback only once every four years and expecting it to function well.
DeleteAre you home schooled or something?
We live in the dumbest country in the world Jesus help me
DeleteI don't care about poor people's opinions. I try to avoid their habitats, the best I can. And I don't belong to any political organization.
DeleteWhat are my colors?
Anyone who thinks government only gets feedback once every four years was surely held back in school. What do you think an Inspector General does? What is that State of Union address for? Does Congress have ongoing oversight. You are a huge moron trying to influence gullible minds as ignorant as your own. Or a paid troll. You pick.
Delete@3:10
DeleteThe president giving a speech is not the same as people telling the government what they want, put down the coffee man
Communication is two-way. Look up transparency and accountability.
DeleteFrom Rawstory:
ReplyDelete"Outrage spread Friday after the story about a pastor in Ohio who was arrested and charged for opening his church to homeless people when extreme cold weather struck his town gained national attention.
Chris Avell, the pastor of an evangelical church called Dad's Place in Bryan, Ohio, pleaded not guilty last Thursday to charges that he broke 18 restrictions in zoning code when he gave shelter to people who might otherwise have frozen to death.
Avell garnered the attention of the Bryan City Zoning Commission last winter, when he invited unhoused people to stay in his church to avoid the cold and snow.
In November, officials told him Dad's Place could no longer house the homeless because it lacks bedrooms. The building is zoned as a central business, and Ohio law prohibits residential use, including sleeping and eating, in first-floor buildings within business districts.
According to James Causey, a columnist at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Avell ignored the commission's orders and again opened Dad's Place to the homeless earlier this winter, until police arrived at the church during a New Year's Eve service and issued the violations.
"Many of these people have been rejected by their families and cast aside by their communities. So, if the church isn't willing to lay down its life for them, then who will? This is what we're called to do," Avell toldFox News.
Dad's Place is located next to a homeless shelter, but overcrowding at the facility led Avell to begin offering space to unhoused people. "We have put in things people can use, like a shower and a small ability to do laundry," the pastor toldThe Village Reporter in Bryan. "Some who found this to be a home for them have stuck around."
Ashton Pittman, editor of the Mississippi Free Press, said Avell's story was a rare example in the U.S. of "actual religious persecution of a Christian by the state."
Avell's attorney, Jeremy Dys, called the city's prosecution of the pastor "unconscionable."
"The city would rather kick these folks to the curb in the cold outdoor months of December and early January than allow the church to remain open 24/7 to those who need it the most," Dys told the Journal Sentinel.
Avell's story garnered national attention as bitterly cold weather was expected across much of the country, including Ohio."
This is what religion should be about, in my opinion, especially given the below freezing temperatures over the past few weeks (with more cold expected). There was a story yesterday about an experienced New England hiker who died of cold on a familiar trail; rescuers could not get to him soon enough. In Texas, they are still arguing about how many people died when their electrical grid failed during a cold snap a few years ago. The tally is upwards of 200. So this is not just something that affects the homeless, but the homeless have fewer resources for coping with extreme climate changes.
This is what compassion and empathy look like -- for you Republicans who think zoning is necessary to protect property values and place that above human life.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-dads-place?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_content=facebook_cta_control&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook
DeleteTrump confusing Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi wasn't the only problem with his speech in New Hampshire. Heather Cox Richardson says it all:
ReplyDeletehttps://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-20-2024
"Last night at a rally in New Hampshire, former president Trump repeatedly confused former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who is running against him for the Republican presidential nomination, with Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the former speaker of the House.
“By the way, they never report the crowd on January 6th,” Trump told the audience. “You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, you know they, do you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it because of lots of things, like Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people. Soldiers, National Guards, whatever they want. They turned it down.”
Observers have been saying for a while now that once Trump had to start appearing in public, his apparent cognitive decline would surprise those who haven’t been paying attention.
That certainly seemed to be true on Wednesday, January 17, when he told a New Hampshire audience: “We’re…going to place strong protections to stop banks and regulators from trying to debank you from your—you know, your political beliefs, what they do. They want to debank you, and we’re going to debank—think of this. They want to take away your rights. They want to take away your country. The things they’re doing. All electric cars.”
His statement looks like word salad if you’re not steeped in MAGA world, but there are two stories behind Trump’s torrent of words. The first is that Trump always blurts out whatever is uppermost in his mind, suggesting he is worried by the fact that large banks will no longer lend to him. The Trump Organization’s auditor said during a fraud trial in 2022 that the past 10 years of the company’s financial statements could not be relied on, and Trump was forced to turn to smaller banks, likely on much worse terms. Now the legal case currently underway in Manhattan will likely make that financial problem larger. The judge has already decided that the Trump Organization, Trump, his two older sons, and two employees committed fraud, for which the judge is currently deciding appropriate penalties.
The second story behind his statement, though, is much larger than Trump."
She goes on to describe Trump's ongoing problems with banks and the conspiracy theory he has been pushing about them. Then she explains the wider attack on American institutions mounted by Trump and the right, including the attack on the news media, the rule of law, the judiciary and the military. Somerby has been an ongoing part of that right-wing campaign against institutions important to defending democracy. That is part of why I believe he is a conservative in sheep's clothing and not a liberal as claimed.
I highly recommend subscribing to Cox's substack Letters From an American. She regularly relates current events to history and has an unusually clear understanding of what has been happening over the past Trump-corrupted decade.
There is also no telling what a demented Trump would give to Puten behind closed doors. There will be a barrage of crazy statements over the next 10 months that will disqualify him. Biden’s best chance is running against this progressively demented candidate. The MAGAs will have given away the election.
DeleteThis is how to get started in trolling. Eastern European residence not required.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI dream of Hunter's cock, and I am scared of Donald Trump.
I am Corby.
A Trump appointed judge is forgiving pollution that causes asthma in lower income neighborhoods, attempting to create internal climate refugees. Biden is sitting on his hands watching it happen.
ReplyDeleteBut tell me again how we can sing kumbaya and get along with them.
https://theintercept.com/2024/01/19/epa-environmental-justice-lawsuits/
Difficult to believe you know what Biden is or is not doing about such cases, since I doubt he tells you the details of his efforts.
DeleteWho are we supposed to be singing kumbaya with? Trump and his judges?
DeleteDifficult to see reality with Bidens saintly glow dripping off your face
DeleteYou can't have it both ways. Either the president has power over the EPA or it's time for a new one. He can't be in charge and a victim at the same time.
DeletePresidents set policy but they don't micromanage cases. I can see you want to blame Biden for things but this seems like reaching pretty far to manufacture an outrage.
DeletePresidents don't control the courts. They do appoint judges.
DeleteTo appoint liberal judges you need to elect a liberal president. Even one 80 years old.
DeleteThe EPA is backing down nation wide against a fear of judges that haven't even ruled yet
DeleteBiden is breaking his own executive order, chickening out before a single trump judge on every case
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/04/21/fact-sheet-president-biden-signs-executive-order-to-revitalize-our-nations-commitment-to-environmental-justice-for-all/
Pluto Shervington and Romuald Twardowski have died.
ReplyDeleteRon DeSantis has ended his campaign and endorsed Donald Trump.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteSomerby is no liberal. Hunter's cock is.
I am Corby.
Hunter’s cock is more cognitive than Trump’s noggin.
DeleteThe recent pro-Trump ad "God made Trump" is a blatant steal (without acknowledgement of an old Paul Harvey speech to the Future Farmers of America, "God made a Farmer":
ReplyDelete"And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker"
-- so God made a Farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper, then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board"
-- so God made a Farmer.
"I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild; somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife’s done feeding visiting ladies, then tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it"
-- so God made a Farmer." And it goes on...
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/paulharveysogodmadeafarmer.htm
Yastreblansky at Rectification of Names blog has created his own parody:
"And on the 8th Day, God looked down on his planned paradise, and said, "Paradise needs a parasite."
So God made a Former.
God said, "I need somebody ready to rise before dawn to watch Fox & Friends, grab a cheeseburger and post some tweets, wander into the Oval Office around 11:00 for more TV, call in some of his yes-men to tell him how great he is, post some more tweets, watch some more TV, post some more tweets, and still be ready after midnight to waddle down to the bar in the hotel he owns to enjoy the sound of the bribe money tinkling into the cash register."
So God made a Former.
"I need somebody strong enough to play 36 holes of golf every weekend day yet tender enough to put on his own makeup and style his unique hair;* somebody who screams at his subordinates and then threatens the press, and gets back to the East Wing hungry enough for two cheeseburgers and a fishwich before he settles down to compose a few more tweets and maybe a little leering or snatch-and-grab with the ladies in what Alyssa Farah Griffin described as 'countless pieces of what [she] considered impropriety in the White House that [she] brought to the chief of staff because [she] thought the way he engaged with women was dangerous,' and afterwards maybe ask for one of them to be brought back so he can look at her ass again."
And it goes on from there too. Very enjoyable and based on truth that gets ignored over on Fox News.
https://yastreblyansky.blogspot.com/2024/01/literary-corner-god-made-former.html
From Political Wire:
ReplyDelete"“The oil-rich Gulf state of Qatar hired a former CIA agent’s company to discredit Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and other lawmakers who oppose Hamas and its parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood,” Fox News reports."
Plagiarism is wrong, but making up fake quotes is worse. Republicans only care about these wrongs when Democrats do them. Today, DeSantis made the latest blunder of his campaign in his speech abandoning his run for president:
ReplyDelete"The Ron DeSantis large language model appeared to hallucinate on Sunday, with the campaign running an apparently fake Winston Churchill quote as the title of the candidate’s drop-out announcement video.
It was a fitting touch for a campaign whose launch was a glitchy mess on Twitter, ending with another farce on the same site now called X.
“Defeat is never fatal. Victory is never final: it is the courage to continue that counts,” the quote attributed to Churchill by the DeSantis campaign read.
Unfortunately, Churchill not only never said that, but he didn’t even say the next closest quote that’s more commonly falsely attributed to him—amounting to what the International Churchill Society once referred to as “a double misquote” in a blog post on the same set of words.
According to the Churchill remembrance outfit, the former British prime minister and military leader never said anything close to the phrase that the DeSantis campaign attributed to him.
“We base this on careful research in the canon of fifty million words by and about Churchill, including all of his books, articles, speeches and papers,” the society says on its website.
The closest real Churchill quote falling within the wheelhouse DeSantis went for ends up being a less clear-cut option to slap over a resignation video.
“No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it,” is one suggestion offered by the Churchill society—“Success always demands a greater effort,” being the other.
The DeSantis campaign did not respond to a request for comment about the origin of the quote."
https://www.thedailybeast.com/desantis-campaign-posts-fake-churchill-quote-in-final-message
It wasn’t Winston Churchill. It was Yorby Churchill.
DeleteSteve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog website has been defending Trump against charges of dementia, but he has changed his mind. In addition to the recent clips, he notes this confusion from Trump's defamation trial and has apparently changed his mind about Trump's dementia symptoms:
ReplyDelete"From yesterday's trial coverage:
Former President Donald Trump’s legal team requested a mistrial in writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him because she “actively deleted evidence”—despite the judge denying Trump’s mistrial request for the same reason earlier this week....
On Wednesday when Carroll was cross-examined, she admitted to deleting emails containing death threats, saying she believed it “was the smartest, best, quickest way to get it out of my life,” Reuters reported.
If Trump is mixing up Pelosi, Haley, and the fair-haired, fair-skinned Carroll, he's losing it.
Many people have believed for years that Trump is showing signs of significant dementia, but I've been a skeptic for a long time. I've written posts expressing my skepticism since 2017. I stand by those earlier posts -- to hear a lot of people talk back then, it was a matter of weeks or months before Trump would have to be shuffled off to a locked memory-care ward. During his presidential term, I felt -- and still feel -- that many observers were blaming dementia for utterances that were clearly the result of ignorance, or a penchant for provocation. (For instance, saying that Jews who vote Democratic are disloyal to Israel isn't a sign of cognitive impairment, as one pundit argued in 2019 -- it's a sign that you're willing to say as president what Fox News commentators say routinely.) As recently as last October, I argued that Trump's brain is still functioning about as well as usual. On the campaign trail, Trump had recently confused Sioux City, Iowa, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota -- but Barack Obama also confused the two cities during his 2008 campaign. No one thinks Obama has dementia.
But this is different. In my family, I've seen both full-blown dementia and mild cognitive impairment. I've thought for years that Trump has the latter. It doesn't always progress to full dementia. (My mother was diagnosed with it and died without further mental deterioration.)
Now I think dementia is creeping up on Trump. When I watch this clip, I'm reminded of the way my grandmother called me by my uncle's name in her last years, or the way an octogenarian boss struggled to remember my name when I had meetings with her shortly before her retirement, even though she'd worked with me for years. ("And you are ..." "Steve.")
Trump might be able to conceal this for quite a while. Ronald Reagan's mental decline was visible in his first debate with Walter Mondale in 1984, but he managed to complete his second term and didn't publicly ackowledge his dementia until nearly six years after he left office. He delivered quite a few speeches in the interim.
We'll see how Trump does. But I'm no longer a dementia skeptic."
https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2024/01/that-new-trump-dementia-clip-is-worse.html
Digby rubs it in as DeSantis calls it quits:
ReplyDelete"The lesson? Never assume that the next GOP Great Whitebread Hope is as fantastic as the press corps thinks he is.
The other lesson? If you’re going to run as the biggest asshole in politics you’d better have a lot of money and celebrity that makes people think you must be really great anyway. Ron is just an asshole.
I am so happy to see the end of him. It’s been a real horror covering his disgusting campaign. Let’s hope we never see him on the national stage again. This massive flame-out argues for him joining Scott Walker and Tim Pawlenty in the Loser Hall of Fame."
Her review (with pictures) of the fuss the media made about him is very fun now that he has quit:
https://digbysblog.net/2024/01/21/remember-when/
The proper, non-lizard brain attitude is (apparently), according to Bob: I’m going to vote for Biden, but he is a terrible, old candidate who will probably lose, and I will do nothing to counter mainstream, much less conservative, attacks against him. Any positive words about Biden just prove how stupid and clueless and tribal you are, and yet, Trump’s win would be a disaster. This is the ‘woke’ attitude for non-woke liberals, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI am a lizard and I am cognitive.
ReplyDelete