SATURDAY, MAY 18, 2024
Minnesota's new flag to follow: Yesterday, President Biden journeyed to the National Museum of African American History and Culture to offer an address.
He was commemorating a major event. Early on, his offered the passage shown below. For the full transcript, click here:
BIDEN (5/17/24): Seventy years ago, when the Supreme Court ruled on Brown v. the Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, a prayer was answered in a long struggle for freedom.
Yesterday, I welcomed the family of plaintiffs of that landmark case to the White House, to the Oval Office—their office.
Once upon a time, they were excluded from certain classrooms. But seventy years later, they’re inside the most important room of all, the Oval Office, where they belong.
(Applause.)
So said President Biden. On this morning's Fox & Friends, producers saw this as an opportunity to stage the latest of their endless cons.
It happened ay 7:04 a.m. We'll guess that it may not have been her fault, but reporter Madeleine Rivera offered this helping of comfort food to the Red American audience:
RIVERA (5/18/24): [Biden's trip to Georgia] is a continuation of the of the work to reach black voters. The Biden campaign will have events today and tomorrow, but the stakes are nowhere higher than at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where the president will be delivering the commencement speech tomorrow morning.
[...]
The president has been preparing all week to make sure his message meets the moment, but he did appear to briefly forget the name of the HBCU on Friday morning.
There followed a suspiciously edited, very brief bit of videotape. The suspiciously edited bit of tape came from Biden's address at the National Museum.
To watch the suspicious bit of tape, you can just click here. That said:
Based on the smiling and the laughter on the brief video clip, we suspected that we knew what we were watching. When we checked, sure enough!
Here's the transcript of the longer excerpt from which the corporate owners of the three friends had pulled their misleading bit of tape. This is the part of the speech where the senile commander in chief was supposed to have forgotten the name of Morehouse College—Dr. King's alma mater:
BIDEN: And something I’m really proud of: We’re making historic investments in Historic Black Colleges and Universities.
(Applause.)
Now, I’m from Delaware, so I go along with Delaware State being the best HBCU.
(Laughter.)
Kamala keeps saying it’s Howard.
(Laughter and applause.)
And I’m going now—I’m going on Sunday to make a speech at that other place, that—that men’s col- —
More-—Morehou- —
(Laughter)
Morehouse!
(Laughter and applause.)
I got more Morehouse men in my administration than Morehouse!
(Laughter.)
But regardless of loyalties, it’s clear HBCUs are vital to our nation’s progress.
(Applause.)
I mean it. That’s not hyperbole.
Duh! Biden had been joking about HBCU rivalries. For the trio of stooges at Fox & Friends, this became the latest chance to pretend that he had forgotten the name of a famous school.
(To see Biden's entire speech, you can just click here. For the brief, joking portion in question, click ahead to the 10:45 mark.)
For the record, this is what we humans are like. We humans have always been like this. The stars run fairly constant cons on Blue America's cable net too.
Tomorrow—for entertainment purposes only: "Trader Pete" can't stop dissembling—and bellyaching—about his home state's new flag
"The stars run fairly constant cons on Blue America's cable net too."
ReplyDeleteIn fairness, Somerby needs to post an example from a blue station that is as blatantly dishonest as this one of Biden.
Somerby repeats these casual libels of blue media almost daily without providing any evidence that supports the extreme claims he makes.
'Donald Trump sat down with oil executives and told them that if he wins, he’ll scrap a slew of President Biden’s clean energy and other environmental regulations they don’t like — as long as they raise $1 billion for him. The response? Crickets. Trump’s pay-for-play move was frequently described as “transactional.” The right word is “corrupt.” ...
DeleteThere could hardly be a clearer contrast between Trump and Biden, or their parties. You might think that the environment, and climate in particular, would be playing a large role in the 2024 debate. Yet for all the good work reporters are doing on these issues, there is a strange, substantive vacuum in this campaign.
Citizens are getting plenty of information concerning Trump’s latest polling numbers and, yes, lots of news on his hush money trial. About what he’d do if he wins again: not so much.
There’s a raging argument over whether journalists have a special obligation to defend democracy against Trump’s threat to it. For the record, I think they do. But that debate understates the challenge Trump presents to political coverage of all kinds. Let’s count the ways.
By violating so many norms simultaneously while throwing out so much chaff in any given week, he dodges accountability. He is the only public figure in memory who dodges one scandal by getting enmeshed in a new one. Before the first scandal sinks in, the second sucks up all the oxygen, and then along comes a third. His $1 billion ask of super-rich oil guys was barely a blip.
Trump’s party has been complicit in helping him obliterate ethical standards. Republicans, from House Speaker Mike Johnson on down, raced to New York to create a carnival of deflection. These advocates of “law and order,” “traditional values” and local control ignored the charges against Trump — rooted in sordid personal conduct joined with public corruption — by attacking the idea that a prosecutor might dare try to bring a former president to justice.
The routinization of lying has a dulling effect of its own. It no longer matters that responsible journalists of every political stripe report that Trump lost the election he falsely continues to claim he won. Here again, Republican elites play his game by either hedging on what happened in 2020 (“Well, there really were problems, you know …”) or supporting his lie outright.
The politics of spectacle that Trump excels at is the enemy of a politics of substance. Take that New Jersey rally where he pledged to block offshore wind farms (he also promised to go after electric cars). This didn’t get much attention because of Trump’s praise for “Hollywood’s most famous cannibal,” as a Post headline writer succinctly put it. “The late, great Hannibal Lecter is a wonderful man,” Trump declared. Try arguing that climate change should have been the lead of the story that day.
There is, finally, a problem that transcends Trump, on climate especially but on other issues as well: The best way to avoid a serious discussion is to transform a cause you oppose into yet another culture war skirmish.
The overwhelming scientific consensus is that global warming is real and poses a grave danger to humanity. Those trying to evade tough measures to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels dismiss technical expertise and invent hidden motives. The climate movement, they say, wants to enhance the power of big government. It hates cars, doesn’t care about people working the oil fields and despises the “American way of life.” Case closed.
Trump is thus both a cause and a symptom of the distemper in our national life. On the climate and so many other questions, the nation has about five months to realize that very big things are at stake in November’s choice. If we fail, Hannibal Lecter would be a fitting symbol for what happened to our democracy.' https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/19/trump-climate-change-wind-energy-corrupt/
I can give you one.
DeleteWhen Trump supposedly said on the Access Hollywood tape that he grabs women by the pussies and he can do it whenever he wants to because he's a big star..
He said no such thing. He said that when you're big star you can do anything, "Grab em by the pussies, anything," and that "they let you do it." That's quite a bit different, if he was even serious to begin with.
It sounded to me like “pussy,” not “pussies.”
Delete9:15,
DeleteSupposedly, Trump doesn't think Republican voters are morons, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Trump wasn't talking about himself (a rapist and failed real estate investor from Queens). He was talking about star's who are famous.
DeleteTrump's disdain for Republican voters is something Bob Somerby should emulate.
DeleteSpeaking of flags, Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog says:
ReplyDelete"According to the U.S. Code, the American flag "should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property." To the Alitos, the "extreme danger" was the impending inauguration of a Democratic president -- because only Republicans are full citizens with the right to run the government.
Alito himself is not biased because, in his view and in the view of millions of Republicans, Republicanism is Americanism. Liberals, progressives, and Democrats simply aren't American, and therefore they're entitled to only as many rights and as much consideration as Republicans feel like giving them. And that increasingly looks like America's future."
https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2024/05/republicans-were-americans-and-people.html
That is why Republicans are unwilling to allow the rule of law to apply to their 1/6 "political prisoners" or to Trump or to Perry (the murderer who Abbott just pardoned because he killed a BLM protester).
If you found Biden's quoted statement above strange or wondered how he could call the Oval Office "theirs," the office of those black plaintiff's families, perhaps you are still thinking of black students as "them," and not "us," not fully American in the same way as us. The Oval Office is the office of the people, all of the people. It is comforting to hear Biden say so.
Republicans are unwilling to accept Democrats, liberals, progressives, as any more legitimate Americans than immigrants or protesters or racial and ethnic minorities. And that is why we need to expand our view of what constitutes America and who is an American. A party that cannot or will not govern on behalf of ALL of the people, is not worty of elected office.
Speaking of HBCU's, Trump is talking about going after (ie. confiscating) the endowments of colleges and universities to punish them for teaching things he doesn't like, or for protests.
ReplyDelete"During a Wednesday morning interview with Hugh Hewitt, Trump was asked if universities that have pro-Palestinian student protesters should be financially punished. Hewitt displayed images on the campus protests during this segment.
Trump backed out of that question of punishing and targeted all universities and their endowment instead for teaching topics he doesn't like:
Hewitt: "You've seen the campuses. Your alma mater and my alma mater have failed terribly. Penn and Harvard. Should we cut off all federal funding to every college that has an endowment of more than a billion dollars or 5 billion dollars? Because I don't know why we're giving these places money."
Trump: "Maybe you should do it anyway. You wanna know the truth because what they're teaching and the way they're teaching is ridiculous, but I'd probably recommend doing something. I think we should do something with endowments anyway. It's ridiculous, and then we subsidize schools on top of the endowments.
The whole thing is ridiculous when you look and see some of these things with 25 billion dollars and then they are coming to us for aid. Ok, the whole thing is ridiculous, and I'm going to look at the whole situation. It's one of the great, it's actually a tax scam in a very sophisticated way, and I think that whole thing should be looked at anyway."
Trump: "Maybe you should do it anyway. ...because what they're teaching ... I think we should do something with endowments anyway. It's ridiculous..."
Trump is planning on going after college and university endowments, calling then a tax scam. Trump also suggested cutting aid to schools. This isn't the first time Trump has suggested punishing universities by going after their endowments.
Trump: "It's actually a tax scam in a very sophisticated way, and I think that whole thing should be looked at..."
As part of his "Agenda 47" proposal, Trump stated he wants to seize university endowments if he believes they are communist, which pretty much at this point just means anything that MAGA Republicans don't like.
Post-secondary education systems, students, staff, and alumni should take note. The Republican presumptive nominee wants to defund your schools. "
https://meidasnews.com/news/its-actually-a-tax-scam-trump-plans-to-defund-universities-target-endowments
DeleteGood example of a reason to not watch Fox News. IMO no TV news is worth watching. For all I know, FoxNews might the worst. But the simple answer is to avoid them all and find more reliable sources of news.
ReplyDeleteThese college students are having POTUS as the speaker at their graduation ceremony and they’re crying like little babies and complaining about the loss of focus on them. It’s unbelievable.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.yahoo.com/news/just-want-graduate-morehouse-seniors-211713537.html
Everyone knows the ficus should always and everywhere be on Donald Trump, most martyred President since Lincoln, maybe more than Lincoln. And the students must be hauled off and silenced by the police at the behest of Republican solons in Congress. But it’s the students who must be mocked.
DeleteAnonymouse flying monkey 6:38pm, get someone to check your temperature. You are outright delirious, rather merely asinine and goofy.
DeleteYou’re the one who found their attitude “unbelievable.” You seem distraught about them.
DeleteThe students didn't invite Biden. The university administration invited him.
DeleteAnd don't you agree with them, Cecelia? Biden was a bad choice of speaker. He's demented and corrupt. Right?
The attitude of the graduates is unbelievable. He’s the president the United States, nincompoops. You can tell your grandchildren about this.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:55am, no, I don’t agree with them, Einstein. Quit trying to lay your anonymouse craziness and fanaticism on me.
DeleteA demented, corrupt usurper stole the election. And now Cecelia supports him.
DeleteCecelia, always immediately resorts to insult and ad hominem, when no one intuited her/him/it. And we’re the ones who are triggered?
DeleteFrom digby:
Delete"Today Biden spoke at the Morehouse graduation. Everyone was worried there would be a massive protest or walkout. The Morehouse president had said that they were prepared to shut down the ceremony if such a thing happened (rather than call security or police) so everyone was on high alert.
There were a couple of awkward moments but no huge protest. The valedictorian ended his address by calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Biden applauded and then later endorsed in his speech.There was no mass protest but a handful of graduates turned their backs on him. His speech seemed to be well received."
Apparently, the students were well behaved, Biden found the right tone to speak about Gaza, and he gave a good speech. Not what Cecelia was expecting but a plus for Democrats.
I hope that doesn’t reverse Cecelia’s improving attitude toward Biden.
DeleteWho expected the students to boo Biden when their complaints weren’t about any of his policies, just that his POTUS presence would distract from their selfie moments.
DeleteI don’t have an “improving” attitude toward Biden. I don’t particularly like him, but I’ve never verbally roughed him up. I’m a normal person, not a Soros suckup anonymouse.
I'm absolutely normal. George Soros does not hire abnormal trolls.
DeleteAnyone who isn't a bigot, or isn't perfectly fine with bigotry, left the Republican Party over two decades ago.
DeleteAnonymouse 8:10pm, with your logic, you must be attributing those same sentiments to the whiningand complaining self-involved students. I can attribute youth and less than assiduous parenting for their attitude. On the other hand, you’re just a kook.
ReplyDeleteNo ad hominem there, nope, none.
DeleteAnonymouse 8:48pm, let her attribute to you all the stuff that she just laid on me. That’s where it belongs and that’s why you don’t see it as ad hominem. You wear it proudly.
ReplyDeleteBiden is neither demented nor corrupt, but he really should stop arming Israel.
ReplyDeleteAnonymouse 9:02pm, yeah, and it’s not like he needs the Jewish vote.
Delete
ReplyDelete"...a prayer was answered in a long struggle for freedom."
A prayer was answered? Or was it the 14s amendment?
If you ask me, the well-meaning elderly man's speechwriters sound dumb. Or pandering to the churchgoing voter segment?
Meanwhile:
ReplyDelete"All three co-hosts of MSNBC's "The Weekend," along with former Donald Trump White House aide Sarah Matthews, pounced on Donald Trump for telling a raucous NRA crowd on Saturday that President Joe Biden deserves to be executed.
During his speech before the gun owners in Texas, the former president told the crowd that "Manchurian candidate" Biden has accepted money from Russia, China and Ukraine before claiming, "If that were a Republican, he would have been given the electric chair, they would have brought back the death penalty."
That led "The Weekend" co-host Alicia Menendez to begin the segment with, "A reminder, in case you needed one, a political candidate alluding to the execution of a sitting president in front of the most prominent organization of gun owners — definitely not normal."
And Cecelia condemns Morehouse students for objecting to Joe Biden as their commencement speaker.
DeleteAnonymouse 9:35am, your thinking is a bit skewed, Einstein. I didn’t vote for Biden, but I think college students should be thrilled to have a POTUS speaking at their graduation rather than complaining that it will take the attention away from THEM.
DeleteYet you’re feigning the vapors that I somehow should have known what Trump said to the NRA and gone after him rather than criticizing the whiney babies.
I understand that it’s your life’s work to push such nonsense on this board that you infest, but could you try to make it have some sense?
Ooh that felt good, Buck. Do it to me one more time, just like that.
DeleteThe American people see right through this horseshit. The MSNBC hosts are mischaracterizing what Trump said. When are the MSNBC types going to realize this shit doesn't work? You can't strip away the conditional and hypothetical context of his quote and present it as a straightforward statement of belief. That only gets traction with drop dead dumb gullible true believers. It's works on low-IQ partisan blogs but that is it.
DeleteI know they want this horseshit to work the way it does with their gullible audiences but it doesn't work outside of that. They have to start realizing it doesn't work and actually probably helps Trump if they want to have a chance of winning this election.
This is the best they could say about that ethically:
"Trump criticized what he perceives as a double standard, suggesting that if Biden were in his party, he would face severe consequences, even implying the death penalty."
Blowing it up into something it is not like a 7 year old would is such a dumb and bad idea. And it's flatly unethical. What is up, ya'll?
You think Trump isn't hinting at violence when he praises Hannibal Lecter, calls Democrats traitors and then says that the punishment for treason is death? This was at an NRA event and these are the guys who buy lots of guns and are just itching to use them (or fantasize about it). Like Perry. There is no deniability when Trump says this stuff.
DeleteGood. Keep doing it then. You'll see how it works out.
DeleteGee, maggot, I remember you maggots saying the same thing in 2020, 2021, 2022. What the fuck is wrong with you treasonous bastards? You want more of that insane motherfucking megalomaniac waddling his fat corrupt ass around his golf courses, stealing Public Documents, inciting violence and blowing off the first actual challenge he had as president, the Covid epidemic? You enjoyed those four years of chaos. His fucking VP isn't even endorsing him. There are about 20 former members of his cabinet and administration that are telling the country this abomination can never again hold the levers of power, and you fucking maggots laugh like it's a big fucking joke.
DeleteYes dick, I don't want more of Trump, that's why it's a bad idea to blatantly mischaracterize what he says.
DeleteTrump did not tell a raucous NRA crowd on Saturday that President Joe Biden deserved to be executed.
I guess that is exciting for low IQ dumb dick heads like yourself to say he did... which is great. As an idiot and a dick, you have the right to do whatever you want. You should have fun with it. But you should also realize people outside your bubble see right through it and in doing so, it helps Trump. That's the point, dick.
We know what the corrupt bastard with the orange makeup said. And whatever the fuck he said it was plain straight up Ignorant and dangerous. Just like the fucking big mouth lying sack of shit implied Ruby Freeman his fat loser ass in Georgia and she ended up having to move because of death threats. It is fucking over the top beyond irresponsible and reckless and we all have had to endure this kind of shit from that fucking ignorant tax cheat and rapist for the past fucking 8 years and pretend he is being clever. Like when the fucking big baby implied that the "second amendment people" might have an answer for Hillary Clinton. Who the fuck do you think you're kidding, warning me about being perfectly precise and accurate about what he says. I just saw a bunch of yahoo cops down in Texas on taxpayer money pose as props in his fucking campaign, apparently unaware that he is fucking campaigning to pardon Jan 6 convicts who attacked cops guarding the National Capitol. I guess those were the wrong color cops. I learned recently that nearly 30 percent of poll respondents blame President Biden for the overturning of Roe, so please, don't get your panties in a wad about what we say about don Shitzinpantz over here. Fuck off.
Delete@1:12 PM
Delete"I know they want this horseshit to work the way it does with their gullible audiences but it doesn't work outside of that."
They hope this idiotic faux outrage might motivate a few idiots to hold their noses and vote their way. It doesn't cost much, so if it only adds a tenth of a percent it's still money well spent.
The question is: does it, at this point, create enough backlash to actually make it counterproductive? Who knows.
I wouldn't worry about the backlash. The people who want to vote for the rapist already made-up their minds before this.
DeleteI was planning to vote for good jobs, higher wages, peace, and no stupid virus panics. But now, as I learned that Trump might have fucked Stormy 20 years ago, I changed my mind. I will be voting for Joe Biden.
ReplyDeleteI was planning to vote for a lying sack of shit, incompetent boob, hoping for a reprise of 4 years of empty promises and watching him waddle his fat corrupt ass around his cheesy golf properties, while he hands foreign policy to an idiot daughter and son-in-law, -----
DeleteActually, no, I never was going to do that. Fuck off, trollboy Boris.
Most Americans can plainly see Democrats are falsely prosecuting their political opponent. Their efforts would be better spent devising policies and programs that Americans will like and support. Instead they tell them that the way they feel about the economy, immigration, crime and jobs is wrong! It's losing them the election.
DeleteYou sound upset, Boris. Did I upset you?
DeleteI'm so sorry. Take your meds and lay down, please.
How would you have upset anyone?
DeleteI'd let black people vote in elections to upset Republican voters.
DeleteIt worked last time. Remember the childish temper tantrum they threw at the U.S Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Say what you will, but the Republican Governor of Texas pardoning a racist pedophile is certainly on-brand.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, Kevin tells the truth about the economy:
ReplyDeletehttps://jabberwocking.com/the-washington-post-is-very-very-wrong-about-the-economy/
Drum commits a base rate fallacy. He must adjust consumer expenditures for population growth. The population also increases. An increase in overall spending might rise even if individual spending does not. Who is this idiot Drum? He's feeding you shit.
DeleteHere is the relevant chart. Drum is dishonest or an idiot.
Deletehttps://prnt.sc/Wt4LoBnAMdZ4
Why not both?
DeleteGood point.
DeleteI would like to agree with you @1:42. However, the US population is growing at only 0.5% per years. Real consumer spending is growling at 2% per year.
DeleteWhat Drum ignores is the growth of debt, both governmental and personal debt. We cannot sustain growth based on borrowing more and more money. Again quoting Stein's law: If something can't go on forever, it will end. IMO the end will not be pretty.
In any question not involving Israel, David is honest. Here he rejects a conclusion he’d like to reach, because it’s wrong. I respect David.
DeleteAnd don’t worry about staying on topic, David. Your comments are informative and insightful.
Delete@1:42 "He must adjust consumer expenditures for population growth."
DeleteOh? Please explain what you think "per capita" means.
"Per capita" is Latin for "through the heads."
Delete2:07 cannot interpret the chart he presents as his evidence. At no point in time does the quarterly percent change in per capita consumption register in the negative realm. So much for Drum being dishonest or an idiot. As far as the hand wringing over deficits and the national debt is concerned, the history of Republican management of the economy should not produce a sense of superiority for those attached to the fiction that Republican presidents are more successful at economic prosperity, be it job growth, GDP growth, unemployment, or management of the national debt. Adherence to Reaganomics and the tenets of the Laffer curve places Republicans at odds with the empiric data here. In fact, data going back to FDR supports the argument that Republican administrations have been comparatively less capable of managing any of the above parameters than their Democratic counterparts. With regard to debt, of course, Trump was particularly inept, and there is no reason to assume that a second Trump term would be any different.
DeleteOperation 37:
ReplyDeleteDebrief liaison Fanny van der Faart
American fashion embraces nostalgia with the 90s Eagles Letterman Jacket. This iconic garment blends vintage charm with athletic flair, symbolizing a passion for sports and retro aesthetics. Whether worn to a game or as a fashion statement, it epitomizes the enduring appeal of Americana and timeless style.
ReplyDelete