FRIDAY, MAY 24, 2024
We'll try again early next week: Sadly, we've been thinking, in the past few days, of something the later Wittgenstein said.
Don't ask yourself what he was talking about when he made the statement in question! The later Wittgenstein had a very hard time explaining the nature of his own explorations.
Below, you see the passage in question. It's paragraph #106 from the one book the later Wittgenstein actively assembled and authorized for publication.
We refer to the opaquely titled volume, Philosophical Investigations:
106. Here it is difficult as it were to keep our heads up—to see that we must stick to the subjects of our every-day thinking, and not go astray and imagine that we have to describe extreme subtleties, which in turn we are after all quite unable to describe with the means at our disposal. We feel as if we had to repair a torn spider's web with our fingers.
"We feel as if we had to repair a torn spider's web with our fingers!"
Sadly, that remark has been coming to mind as we've tried to record the various ways the mainstream press has failed to explain the nature of the "other crime" with which Donald J. Trump in some way stands charged.
As we noted earlier in the week, it's easy to explain why the prosecution needs to identify the presence of some "other crime." It's been explained a million times by now. Just this once, we're going to let Wikipedia tell us about this business:
Falsifying business records in the first degree is a felony under New York state law that requires that the "intent to defraud includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof." This is in contrast to falsifying business records in the second degree, which is a misdemeanor that does not have that requirement.
Easy peasy! If Trump is found guilty of falsifying business records (full stop), that's a mere misdemeanor. To convict him of the 34 felonies with which he stands charged, prosecutors have to show that he falsified business records with "an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof."
For that reason, prosecutors need the "other crime" to which Kevin Drum referred in the post we discussed this morning.
Journalists have had no trouble explaining this part of the deal. It's in their pursuit of the "other crime" that the confusion starts. To this day, we haven't seen a successful journalistic explanation of this complexified state of affairs.
Even as the case is about to go to the jury, Kevin said he wasn't sure what "other crime" the prosecutors will build their allegations around. That strikes us as a strange state of affairs, but we did a poor job attempting to finish our rumination in this morning's report.
With what crime does Trump stand charged? We'll try to do a better job early next week. Over the weekend, we want to review a couple of recent matters concerning the public schools.
With what other crime does Trump stand charged? What "other crime" did he allegedly attempt to commit or conceal?
We haven't yet seen a clear explanation! It's like repairing a spider's web with our bare hands when we try to follow our journalists down the various rabbit holes into which their explanations have disappeared.
With what offense does Trump stand charged? If we're living in a rational world, shouldn't we know by now? Shouldn't clear explanations exist right there in the upper-end press?
Trump is charged with falsifying business records related to a tryst with the star of Sex Door Neighbors. The "other crime" that elevates the falsifying of business records to a felony in Trump's case involves violations of election laws and campaign finance laws.
ReplyDeleteAMI paid a $187,500 fine to the Federal Election Commission for making an unlawful campaign contribution re McDougal. Trump knowingly conspired with Pecker and Cohen to orchestrate this contribution. (Others as well, including Stormy Daniels). Would Wittgenstein find this hard to comprehend?
ReplyDeleteHistorically, Hispanic voters have leaned towards the Democrats, but recent polls suggest that the Hispanic and Latino vote in the US is shifting towards Donald Trump as the election date looms and President Biden remains mistrusted and unpopular.
DeleteWe'll know this is true, when the Republican Party stops trying to suppress the votes of Hispanics.
DeleteIt's long past time we just open the borders and let everyone in.
DeleteThat would take care of our low fertility.
DeleteMorgan Spurlock has died.
ReplyDeleteSince Bob has not introduced a new topic, here’s one to discuss: Biden to sell off 1M barrels of gasoline held in reserve to keep prices low before election. IIRC Biden did the same thing before the last election. He said he would replace the oil that he took ouit of the reserve, but he didn’t.
ReplyDeleteOur President exchanged safety and security of the United States for an electoral advantage. IIRC he did the same thing before the last election. Other Presidents prudently set aside oil reserves for the country’s benefit in case of emergency. Biden took advantage their prudence for his own selfish benefit.
Trump may be personally disgusting, but Biden is presidentially disgusting.
Even Republicans have been finding Trump more presidentially disgusting than Biden. How can you even suggest supporting someone playing footsie with neo-Nazis, the way Trump does?
DeleteBy the way, Trump colluded with the Saudis to keep the price of oil high during his election campaign.
Yes, Saudi Arabia is leading a pack of several OPEC countries by intentionally cutting oil production, specifically with the intent of raising gas prices just in time for the election. I learned about this weeks ago listening to Thom Hartman on Sirius.
DeleteWhen gas prices are low then the elite are very wise to keep religious dictators in their company.
DeleteWhen gas prices go up then little discover suddenly the Saudis and Netanyahu are scheming underhanded devils.
Yeah, sounds very principled to me. Not scapegoating at all.
Then liberals discover
Delete@10:07 Hamas are essentially Nazis. They purposely murder, kidnap, torture and rape innocent civilians. They train their children in bigotry'; hatred and murder of others. They openly call for another Holocaust. They kill as many Jews as they can. .They have intentionally killed thousands of Jewish civilians. No gay or trans person in Gaza is allowed to live.
DeleteTo his credit, Biden provided considerable military support in the battle against these monsters. To his discredit, he's now withholding weapons. Arrogantly, he's, trying to micro-manage the war against Hamas. What makes him think he knows better than the Israelis how do deal with Hamas?
And, foolishly, Biden spent hundreds of millions of dollars building a floating dock, supposedly to deliver food and medicine to needy Palestinians civilians. In fact, the first shipment was entirely stolen, mostly likely by Hamas. Hamas will use the supplies for their own evil purposes.
FDR has been criticized for not doing enough to save Jews in concentration camps. But, FDR didn't spend hundreds of millions of dollars of US money to conveniently donate supplies to the Nazis in the middle of WW2.
FDR didn’t help the refugee Jews either.
DeleteAlso @ DiC:
DeleteOh, and the SPR thing? You're wrong about that too:
"WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Petroleum Reserves announced a solicitation for approximately 3 million barrels of oil for delivery to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in August 2024. This is a continuation of DOE’s strategy of consistent solicitations aimed at purchasing oil when it can purchase at a good deal for taxpayers: a price of $79 dollars per barrel or below, far less than the average of about $95 per barrel DOE received for 2022 emergency SPR sales. "
https://www.energy.gov/ceser/articles/us-department-energy-announces-solicitation-purchase-oil-strategic-petroleum-5#:~:text=WASHINGTON%2C%20D.C.%20%E2%80%94%20Today%2C%20the,(SPR)%20in%20August%202024.
The Biden administration canceled a single round of purchases when the price of oil briefly spiked about the target price.
Like I said: Poorly researched or vastly distorted.
"Our President exchanged safety and security of the United States for an electoral advantage."
DeleteThere are currently 369 million barrels of petroleum in the SPR. Selling off 1 million barrels is not a threat to the "safety and security of the United States."
And the sale of the gasoline from the Northeast Strategic Gasoline Reserve is required by an act of Congress. The reserve was established after Hurricane Sandy about 10 years ago. Now Congress has ended funding for it. The only decision made by the Biden team was the timing of the sale--between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, not "just before the election."
Deletehttps://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-close-northeast-gasoline-reserve-with-1-million-barrel-sale-2024-05-21/
"There are currently 369 million barrels of petroleum in the SPR"
DeleteEl Presidente Biden started his term with 638 barrels of petroleum in the SPR. Maybe you know why. I'm not sure why he would drain over 40 percent of it without a major emergency. There may be a reasonable explanation.
5:19 The document above says the significant sell-off is to "address the significant global supply disruption caused by Putin’s war on Ukraine and help keep the domestic market well supplied, ultimately helping to bring down prices for American consumers and businesses." An admission he is using it politically and not for the intended purposes.
Delete5:19 The SPR reserves were tapped at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine to stabilize the price of oil. They is now being replenished. If this had not been done the rising world market prices from the war would have contributed to the likelihood of a recession, which, of course your right wing media outlets would have excoriated the administration for. At the time, you may recall, many pundits were predicting a recession. If the Republican Congress were concerned about this number why did they mandate the sale of the NSGR oil reserves before July 4? You may wish to ask the Republican congressperson you voted for why they think it is a good idea to mandate the sale of US oil reserves in this time frame, locking in the sale irrespective of oil price fluctuations that the Biden administration takes into account when buying or selling the commodity.
Delete"...they are..."
DeleteThe one thing FDR should have done for the refugees but didn’t: he should told them to stay away from Palestine.
DeleteAnd, foolishly, Biden spent hundreds of millions of dollars building a floating dock, supposedly to deliver food and medicine to needy Palestinians civilians.
DeleteHey, David, Israel was supposed to be providing security for the floating dock.
The Jerusalem Post said the maritime corridor plan was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s idea, citing an unnamed “senior diplomatic source.”
Netanyahu had reportedly first proposed the plan to Biden in October, and pressed the issue again with the US president in January.
“This source, close to the prime minister, insinuated that Biden was simply implementing a plan by Netanyahu, not actually initiating anything new,” the Post reported.
While touring Gaza’s coast in a naval vessel on Sunday, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant expressed enthusiasm about the plans of a maritime corridor.
“The process is designed to bring aid directly to the residents and thus continue the collapse of Hamas’s rule in Gaza,” he said.
Gallant was reportedly briefed alongside the Israeli navy commander and the head of COGAT, Israel’s bureaucratic arm of the military occupation, on Sunday about the logistics of building the port.
"5:19 The SPR reserves were tapped at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine to stabilize the price of oil. They is now being replenished. "
DeleteThey are not being replenished significantly.
"The SPR reserves were tapped at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine to stabilize the price of oil."
DeleteThis gives Biden's opponents more ammunition to criticize his complete lack of diplomatic effort in preventing and stopping that war.
David, like most of the Right, are suckers for these QAnon stories about Biden.
Delete8:37,
DeleteBiden only managed to assemble the entire Nato alliance to oppose the naked aggression by the Putin the punk. To be fair, when it comes to sucking Putin's cock in public, Trump is the man.
10:09 What diplomacy did Biden perform before the naked aggression by the Putin the punk?
DeleteAssembling the entire Nato alliance to oppose the naked aggression by the Putin the punk after he commits it is not a notable diplomatic feat.
"Assembling the entire Nato alliance to oppose the naked aggression by the Putin the punk after he commits it is not a notable diplomatic feat."
DeleteWell, unless that was "Biden's" plan in the first place.
But then, it's not over yet.
""We feel as if we had to repair a torn spider's web with our fingers!" "
ReplyDeleteParagraphs in a book are meant to be read in the context of the other paragraphs in that book. They are not intended to be ripped from that context and used to serve Somerby's purposes. Whatever Somerby means to say, it is NOT what Wittgenstein was talking about. Even when Wittgenstein is describing the problems with language and meaning, he is not talking about this trial and not talking about the charges aimed at Trump.
This tendency of Somerby to corrupt other people's work because he is too lazy to write his own text, is not only annoying but undermines the pragmatics of conversations in appropriate ways. If Wittgenstein were alive, he might object to this, but he is dead. Many, if not all, of the people Somerby steals from are deceased and cannot complain about the misuse of their creative work. Actual writers might consider this habit of Somerby's unethical.
typo: appropriate should say inappropriate
DeleteBob posted essentially the same comment 3 or 4 times now, with different literary intros.
DeleteBob is old. But you and I are old, too, David. Do we repeat ourselves?
DeleteHere is Trump, trying to suppress women's statements about how he has treated them, again:
ReplyDelete"Attorneys representing former President Donald Trump have sent a cease-and-desist letter to the producers of the fictionalized biopic The Apprentice, which depicts a younger Trump in an unflattering manner.
Variety reported Friday that the independently produced film, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, drew the attention of the Trump legal team due to one scene in particular. That scene reportedly shows Trump sexually assaulting his first wife, Ivana, based on an account she gave in a 1990 divorce deposition that she later retracted in 2015. The cease-and-desist letter warned filmmakers to not seek theatrical distribution in the U.S."
Ivana has the right to speak her truth. The filmmakers have the right to portray her version in a film about Trump's life. Trump apparently thinks no one has first ammendment rights except himself. And notice how he is using the courts to suppress other people's stories. On the right they are calling such trials "lawfare" and complaining when Trump must answer for his crimes. But Trump is not shy about using the courts himself to interfere with other people's activities.
Yes, when you divorce someone, they say negative things about you, Donald. And yes, secrets of the marriage are often revealed by divorce. Maybe Trump should have treated his first wife better, if he didn't want her to talk about him after he dumped her for the woman he was cheating on her with, Marla Maples.
Trump, the rapist, seems like the perfect politician for people who the media let call themselves the "moral majority".
DeleteThanks Anon for the bbl down on the emergency petroleum reserve. From 638 m bbls all the way down to 369 m bbls!
ReplyDeleteWhere is the media? That should be big story.
Bigger story than a fucking rapist, business tax fraud who owes NY state a cool half a billion $, under felony indictment in 4 different jurisdictions with delusions of grandeur and fascist leanings, and currently sitting his fat treasonous corrupt ass in a NY courtroom in a trial about to go to the jury, who fucking lies to the American people every time he opens his foul mouth, currently the default nominee for your corrupt political party?
DeleteBigger than that, fuckface?
Biden uses the reserve strategically. I’m a lifelong Republican, but this year I’m voting for the brilliant strategist, Joe Biden.
DeleteIdiot-moonbat skipped her meds again. Another failure of Obamacare.
DeleteYou put those goals posts right back where you found them young man, and don't try moving them again.
DeleteIn your initial post, you claimed that the Biden administration was selling off a million barrels of gasoline to influence the November election. You went on to claim that the Biden team did the same thing before the 2022 elections.
The SPR was tapped a couple of years ago to counter the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on world oil prices. You might recall that as pump prices rose, Republicans everywhere demanded that Biden Do Something Now to stop gas prices from climbing.
Right here is where I messed up. I trusted you. You conflated Biden's response to a worldwide oil price shock by releasing oil from the SPR with a more recent decision to sell gasoline from an entirely different reserve.
I fell for it.
The gasoline sales are not from the SPR. They're intended to close out the inventory of a regional gasoline reserve--as ordered by an act of Congress!
You were wrong both in your premise and in the details. Own it.
The US Treasury reaped a $20 billion+ windfall from the sales.