THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2024
A review of what happened last night: We'd planned to show you what we meant when we referred to the "doctored-adjacent" videotape of What Trump Was Asked and Said.
We refer to something Trump was asked when he appeared with Maria Bartiromo last Sunday on Fox. Sadly, the bulk of our day was eaten up as we battled with an online financial scam.
For that reason, we can't show you the full transcript of last Sunday's exchange. Instead, we'll leave you with some basic points about What Happened Last Night:
Bret Baier's behavior: In our view, Baier disgraced himself with his appalling behavior last night. At the New York Times, Michael Grynbaum isn't real far behind, given the mush-mouthed, "both sidesy" way he has now described last evening's events.
In our view, Baier's behavior was a disgrace. Last evening, in the 6 o'clock hour, he spent the first half hour attacking Harris. He then spent the second half hour attempting to justify the three hundred things he had done.
The other hirelings said he'd been great. Harold Ford played along.
Bret Baier's Palm Beach lodgings: Did you know that the fair-and-balanced anchor in question recently purchased a $37 million Palm Breach mansion? We didn't know that either!
As a bit of professional courtesy, the mainstream press corps agrees that such matters must never be discussed. But it's just as we told you a long time ago:
You can't run a middle-class democracy with a multimillionaire press corps.
We're sorry, but no—it can't be done! Meanwhile, also this:
Who's being naive [now], Kay?
This is a problem within Blue America's multimillionaire pundit corps, as well over there in the land of the Red. This has been a problem in Blue America dating back to the days when Jack Welch ran NBC News.
What's up with those polling figures? Has anyone ever produced a set of polling figures like the ones Fox News has now offered? According to those new polling results, Trump is ahead by two points nationwide—but Harris is ahead by six points across the seven key battleground states!
Do those numbers make any kind of sense? We spent the day entangled in a scam, so we haven't had a chance to see what anyone may have said.
Concerning the southern border: As Bill Whitaker did on 60 Minutes, Baier asked an obvious question about policy at the southern border from 2021 right on through early 2024.
Candidate Harris failed to answer this obvious question again.
Tomorrow, we'll walk you through that disappointing aspect of her performance. You can also look forward to this:
Before the week is through, we'll discuss an emerging theory in which we try to explain why the Biden Administration—not "the Harris Administration"—may have decided to do what it did.
For the record, our theory predates this recent post by Kevin Drum—and our theory may be laughably wrong. But people have asked and asked and asked about why the border was handled the way it was for those first three years, and no one has ever tried to explain, even when they're directly asked.
This year's election may well be decided by these (almost) four years of silence—years of silence which rolled by as the millionaire stars of Blue America's cable news acted like there was nothing to look at there. Instead, the stars stayed focused on the sacred task of getting Trump locked up, a type of focus the Harris campaign seems to have cast aside as a political loser.
(As of last night on All In, Rachel Maddow was still obsessing about Stormy Daniels! Reportedly, Maddow is paid $30 million per year.)
On balance, we've been badly served by those massively-paid giant TV stars. The giant sums our stars get paid are a Baier-style problem too.
You can't run a middle-class democracy with a millionaire press corps?
We thought we'd just say it again.
Here is an interesting article about the fall of densely populated cities, such as sacred Troy. It may have had nothing to do with the myths about Greeks and more to do with pandemics, like the one we went through in 2020. The author says:
ReplyDelete"In my research focused on early farmers of Europe, I have often wondered about a curious pattern through time: Farmers lived in large dense villages, then dispersed for centuries, then later formed cities again, only to abandon those as well. Why?
Archaeologists often explain what we call urban collapse in terms of climate change, overpopulation, social pressures or some combination of these. Each likely has been true at different points in time.
But scientists have added a new hypothesis to the mix: disease. Living closely with animals led to zoonotic diseases that came to also infect humans. Outbreaks could have led dense settlements to be abandoned, at least until later generations found a way to organize their settlement layout to be more resilient to disease. "
https://theconversation.com/socially-distanced-layout-of-the-worlds-oldest-cities-helped-early-civilization-evade-diseases-239586
This election is NOT going to be decided by Somerby's theories about the border. It is being decided by Trump's obvious deterioration, the ugliness of the fascist promises Trump and Vance have been making, and by the subjugation of women by the recent Supreme Court decisions -- women are not going back to 2nd class citizenship. Those are the main factors affecting people's choices -- not how many immigrants crossed our border during covid, compared to when Trump was president. For one thing, the majority of voters do not believe the lies being told by Trump, especially not the ones about migrants. We all know migrants in our daily lives and the idea of them eating pets, or attacking us in our sleep, is ludicrous. Trump (and perhaps Somerby) and the only ones who don't see migrants as human beings, working hard (like we do) to create a better life.
ReplyDeleteSo, this is going to be a sweep for Harris, because people are not idiots and anyone can see a grifter coming a mile away. A few may be taken in, but not enough to give Trump another chance. Trump is weaker now than in 2020, when he couldn't even beat Biden.
So somerby is wasting a huge amount of time here trying to convince people to fear and loathe immigrants when it is Trump we fear and loathe. But everyone needs a hobby, right?
Maddow is a treasure, worth every penny because she is good at her work.
ReplyDeleteMaddow is a corporate shill in the same way Brett Baier is. No more, no less.
Deleteher work is way different
DeleteI’d do almost anything for my fellow Americans, but there is no way in hell I’m going to stop reminding them that Right-wing snowflakes threw a childish temper tantrum just because black people’s votes counted in the 2020 Presidential election
ReplyDelete"Baier asked an obvious question about policy at the southern border from 2021 right on through early 2024.
ReplyDeleteCandidate Harris failed to answer this obvious question again.
Tomorrow, we'll walk you through that disappointing aspect of her performance."
Here Somerby states his disappointment with Harris again. Again, he isn't clear what he expected her to say that was different than what she did say. SHE is the candidate, not Somerby, so SHE gets to decide how to answer each of the questions put to her. Somerby then gets to decide whether to vote for her, based on her answers. Instead, he is engaged in disparaging her daily, without clearly stating why, but apparently because he doesn't like her answer about immigration.
I again wonder why Somerby cares so much about the Southern border, given that he doesn't live anywhere near it, has nothing at all to do with migrants (in Baltimore) and is neither a migrant himself, nor related to any (based on his own past statements about his family). So what is his beef with migrants and why has he chosen to pillory Harris over something she has, in my opinion, explained fully. And I am not only related to migrants and Hispanic, but I worked with the Illinois Migrant Council in my youth, back when migrants were settling out of the migrant stream into city jobs. I know migrants and I like migrants and I have serious complaints about hysterical assholes like Somerby who want to manufacture this into a huge issue so that he can torpedo Harris and sound like he isn't a racist doing it. I've studied the history of immigration, lived in Los Angeles where immigrants are the backbone of the city and diversity is welcomed, and I know the difference between city planning and bigotry.
If this country were not as diverse as it is, Trump might have a chance of riding nativism to office, but he has worn that horse out with his obvious grifting, lying, cheating and corruption, and now we see that he doesn't even care about migrants -- he cares only about himself and making money. Whereas Harris took the issue seriously when she visited donor countries to help reduce sources of migration (which worked to reduce the inflow), and Harris knows what she is doing about that issue. And she isn't using immigration to scare people but to help us all recognize the strengths of our neighbors and our nation, which include our workforce as both workers and consumers of the goods we produce.
Somerby is doing his bit to put Trump into office. He cannot be planning to vote for Harris while sabotaging her, as he does today. I believe he is as shameless a liar as Trump. The rest of you readers can believe what you want, but I hope you will not be so gullible as to let Trump back into office, for the sake of our nation and the people who live here, who don't deserve another failed term with such a person in office.
"SHE is the candidate, not Somerby, so SHE gets to decide how to answer each of the questions put to her."
DeleteI think WE know SHE's the candidate and I think HE knows SHE's the candidate so maybe putting SHE in all caps doesn't do anything.
Somerby seems to genuinely believe that if a person, such as a candidate for office, doesn't answer a questions exactly the way he would, then she is a piece of crap.
DeleteHe plays this same game with female reporters. If they don't ask questions exactly the way he would phrase them, then they are incompetent at their jobs (and he says so).
This is a stupid game. Harris is way more qualified than Somerby to decide how best to answer a question so that her audience can figure out where she stands. Somerby's game of gotcha is clearly intended to denigrate women in responsible positions.
I am sick of it. But more importantly, I am concerned that others may not recognize the sexism at the heart of Somerby presuming he knows what the "right" answer might be to ANY question an interviewer asks Harris.
There are reasons why Somerby never became a politician and never became a journalist. One is that he is unqualified for those jobs. He can insist he really really needs the right answers to certain questions, but he cannot call these women bad at their jobs because they don't meet HIS demands.
Somerby doesn't seem to know that when women are more qualified than he is at some job, they deserve respect and he is not qualified to determine whether their financial policy or their border efforts or their skill at playing the piano is up to snuff. He is just an asshole with a blog.
I’d do almost anything for my fellow Americans, but there is no way I’m going to stop reminding them about Right-wing snowflakes throwing a childish temper tantrum at the U.S. Capitol just because black people’s votes were counted in the 2020 Presidential election.
ReplyDeleteImmigrants have historically enrolled in the military at much higher rates than native-born citizens. They have fought in our world wars and are veterans, as well as numerous among the fallen dead, following each war. For generations, immigrants were also consumers of American-made cars in high percentages than native Americans. This is because of the pride immigrants feel about becoming Americans. They usually bring a strong work ethic, a dedication to education as a means of advancement, and lower levels of crime. Some may not be able to learn to speak English without an accent, but they insist that their children learn to do so. The organized crime that exists in Mexico should not be confused with the people fleeing such crime, who want to find a fresh start in a country where corruption is not coexistent with government. I cringe every time Donald Trump betrays that promise, inherent in the hopes of those coming to America for a new life. The people trafficking in drugs and people (sex workers, slaves, children) are not immigrants but criminals from both the US and other countries. The immigrants are their victims.
ReplyDeleteWe should be ashamed to believe the lies Trump tells for his own gain. It makes us seem stupid to those who understand the issues. Somerby is right at the top of that list of stupid people. Please vote for Harris. At least she has experience with the problem and the motivation to help deal with the real issues. Trump does not. So, if you want something to be done about immigration (beyond persecuting brown skinned people), vote for Harris because she knows what to do.
No one can seriously argue that immigrants aren't harder workers and better people than native-born Americans.
DeleteThat's just the Right making bad faith arguments, again.
No one said Americans aren't also hard working. There is a selection factor when someone decides to start over in a new country. The people who choose to do so are morely to have those positive qualities. The existing American population has all sorts of people. It even has the fentanyl smugglers who are American citizens bringing contraband across the border in order to get rich quick, since they dislike actual hard work. Harris prosecuted such people and she knows that it is they, not immigrants, who bring the drugs in and sell them in our communities. Pretending that immigrants can be scapegoated for our problems prevents us from solving them. Harris did more to reduce fentanyl use than Trump in his 4 years. Why does Somerby not insist that Trump be questioned about that daily?
DeleteThe Right makes a whole lot of bad faith arguments. I'm glad you are thinking about which they might be.
"morely" = more likely (typo)
DeleteThis is sort of like the siblings who think that if their parent praises their sister, then they themselves are diminished, not loved. Why can't both immigrants and Americans be hard working, without thinking that the diligence of immigrants must be a dig at Americans?
DeleteSome people cannot stand to hear anything positive being said about immigrants.
Delete"Somerby is right at the top of that list of stupid people."
DeleteJust below you.
Somerby is here promoting Trump. I'm not. How does that put me on the list?
DeleteBecause Somerby doesn't believe the lies Trump tells for his own gain, as you strongly implied. That was a stupid thing to say.
DeleteI see Somerby excusing Trump's lies, way more than I see Somerby believing them.
DeleteHe seems to be believing Trump’s border lies.
DeleteSomerby describes an hour's worth of Baier's show but Harris was only interviewed for 27 minutes (and the right complained that it wasn't longer, portraying her as ducking and avoiding the interview and only speaking 15 min when she participated for nearly a half hour. Another lie I guess, but what is one more among so many others?
ReplyDeleteIf anyone's goal is to completely stop all immigration, as seems to be the case with Trump, then it will hobble our economy and do us all financial damage. That was the point of the question asked by the migrant at Trump's Univision Town Hall.
ReplyDeleteDoes Somerby expect a get-tough type answer from Harris, promising that all those "undesirables" will be sent back, including the remigrated Citizens who came in past generations, and the legal migrants (like those supposedly eating pets in Springfield, who are here legally)?
Trump is dangerously close to promoting ethnic and racial cleansing. Do voters understand that not only did Hitler kill people in gas chambers, but he used German trains to redistribute people back to supposed countries of origin and out of Germany, even those who had lived there for many generations, because Austrians should all stay in Austria, French in France, Poles in Poland? There was enormous disruption at the end of WWII as the United Nations and other agencies tried to help people return to their homes after being forcibly relocated.
It sounds like Trump is planning something similar. And if Hitler couldn't do it, I doubt the buffoonish Trump can either, but he will cause a lot of harm trying. This is why it is essential that we all vote for Harris. Please vote early and tell your friends, family and neighbors that a lot is at stake and we MUST defeat Trump if we care about maintaining our current well-being. This will affect all of us, not just people you don't know who are far away at some border. All of us!
Imagine that you work at an important job, along with others who are necessary to get the work done. What if a bunch of your coworkers don't show up to work on a Monday morning. Will that disrupt your business? Can you do your job without the others?
ReplyDeleteNow understand that if Trump mobilizes national guard and MAGA militias (in larger numbers than the military), as he has promised to do, and he uses them to round up people in restaurants and stores and other places they live their home lives (even going door to door, as Trump has promised), and those people are put into detention camps preparatory to putting them on planes, back to countries they have never lived and perhaps do not speak the language, then those people will not be coming in to work on Monday or any day. How will your supervisor fill their spots? The temps will be gone too, so that resource won't rescue your firm. If your employer cannot function, will you still have a paycheck? Perhaps but perhaps not. And if it is your child care worker who doesn't show up, will it matter about your job? You won't have anyone to take care of your kids.
Has Trump really thought his plan through, or is he telling bigots what they want to hear? If the latter, do you want a government that is run by bigots with empty promises?
Harris is honest, focused on making our economy and our society better for all of us (not just herself) and she knows how to make the country run smoothly, as it has under Biden (you know, the guy who stopped covid in its tracks and kept us all solvent through that crisis). Don't take a chance on a bigot who thinks that appealing to other people's bigotry is a substitute for knowing how to run the country. Vote for Harris. I beg you for myself and for all of us. Don't be fooled by Trump.
People don't think Trump will actually do the stuff he talks about. They thought that about Hitler too. Like Hitler, Trump is surrounded by "willing executioners" who would be more than happy to carry out his plans. Some of them have swastikas on their boats. Some are like Steve Miller who writes speeches for Trump about how people from other countries poison our nation's life blood (cribbing from Hitler himself).
ReplyDeleteIt is beyond comprehension how anyone can not take Trump seriously, after the history lesson of Hitler's reich. Only a fool doesn't learn from experience. Hitler was in some of our lifetimes, so he is not a figure in a book for us. Some of us had relatives with tattoos on their arms, mementos of their pasts, and we have sworn never to forget. The rest of you should be taking our words for it that Trump is dangerous.
If your state has early voting, please vote for Kamala Harris. If you must wait until Nov 5, don't let anything get in the way of casting your ballot for Harris.
I don't see the problem with Right-wingers feelings being hurt by being called "racists". After all, that's what the "Fuck Your Feelings" t-shirts are for.
ReplyDeleteRight Wingers are sad because they don't have many feelings. At least, not positive ones.
DeleteSomerby says he was dealing with an online financial scam. The internet offers the following advice to those in a similar situation:
ReplyDeleteTo avoid online financial scams, you can:
Be wary of requests for your money or details.
Don't respond to phone calls asking for remote access to your computer.
Use strong passwords that are a combination of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and special characters.
Review your privacy and security settings on social media.
Resist the pressure to act immediately.
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
"Findings from a new USC Dornsife study suggest that when older adults fall for financial scams, it could be an early warning sign of Alzheimer's disease."
"Older adults who are less likely to detect scams may be at an increased risk for developing dementia, finds a new study from researchers supported by the National Institute on Aging. The study, led by Patricia Boyle at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center in Chicago, was published April 16 in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Older woman on the phone looking at her credit cardScam awareness is a complex behavior that requires a variety of social cognitive abilities, including recognition that other people may have different intentions from yours, as well as awareness of others’ personality traits. The complexity of this behavior—particularly the need to integrate multiple abilities while managing a challenging social situation—may be the reason for its apparent status as an early harbinger of Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment (MCI)."
https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/scam-susceptibility-may-signal-risk-cognitive-decline
Somerby's overconcern about the threat posed by immigrants may be another symptom of cognitive decline.
"Older woman on the phone looking at her credit card" picture caption that should have been omitted
DeleteCasting one's vote appropriately may be another complex behavior. It may be that Somerby's difficulties with online scams and his inability to cast his vote for the better candidate both arise from the same underlying deficits. That said, Jimmy Carter is 100 and he had no trouble figuring out that Harris is the better candidate, no matter what her answers about the Southern border. Somerby seems to be struggling with questions he is unable to fully articulate.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:38pm, I suggest that you read this. It may lead you to getting the treatment that you so desperately need.
DeleteNo, it’s not about a personality transplant, but it may still give you some modicum of insight.
https://effectiviology.com/jumping-to-conclusions/#Factors_affecting_the_tendency_to_jump_to_conclusions