THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2024
The disorder we all live with: This morning, C-Span's Washington Journal had its head near the clouds.
The C-Span program focused on ways to "bridge the political divide"—on ways to promote "civility in politics." Some callers seemed to grasp the idea. Some callers possibly didn't.
Then too, we have the former candidates, each of whom spoke this week. On Tuesday, former candidate Harris went first:
Former candidate Kamala Harris, 11/26/24:
As you heard we say many times, we like hard work. Hard work is good work. Hard work can be joyful work. And in doing our work, we will remain committed and intentional about building community—building coalitions, reminding people that we all have so much more in common that what separates us.
So said the one former candidate in a videotaped statement. To see the C-Span videotape, just click here, then move to the four-minute mark.
On Tuesday, so said former candidate Harris! Yesterday, former candidate Donald J. Trump offered his own remarks in this thoughtful Truth Social post:
Former candidate Donald J. Trump, 11/27/24:
Happy Thanksgiving to all, including to the Radical Left Lunatics who have worked so hard to destroy our Country, but who have miserably failed, and will always fail, because their ideas and policies are so hopelessly bad that the great people of our Nation just gave a landslide victory to those who want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
So it went on Truth Social, with holiday wishes to all. For the record, the margin in that "landslide victory" is now down to 1.5 points.
With respect to the Harris statement, reaction was swift, and was deranged, within many of Red America's enclaves. That included the Fox News Channel, where tribunes were quickly saying, working from established script, that former candidate Harris seemed to be drunk, or must have been drunk, when she taped her statement.
The so-called "democratization of media" has created this situation. Tomorrow, we'll give you more detail about these soul-draining, braindead reactions from within Red America's world.
Now, a bit of historical context:
Way back when, Norman Rockwell created a famous cover for the Saturday Evening Post. His illustration was called The Problem We All Live With.
You can see that painting here.
The so-called "democratization of media" has created a newer problem. In large measure, our nation's discourse, such as it is, belongs to the least of us now.
Increasingly, this is the problem we all currently live with. It isn't clear that here's an easy way to extricate ourselves from this disordered mess.
In fairness, we also had the recent statements by those two Hollywood stars. Their statements are part of this problem too, and they spoke from Blue America's part of the playing field.
One former candidate must have been drunk. Meanwhile, the other former candidate extended his holiday wishes even to the radical lunatics who have worked to destroy our country.
This is the problem we currently live with. The New York Times will maintain its silence. We'll give you more detail tomorrow.
Bob writes “we have the former candidates, each of whom spoke this week.” He then contrasts something Harris SAID vs something Trump WROTE on social media. But standards are not the same for these two methods of communication.
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving to all!
Really? You try to excuse Trump’s boorishness because he wrote it instead of saying it?
ReplyDeleteOne thing is obvious: Trump does not see himself as the President of ALL Americans.
DeleteFake news from PP.
DeleteClearly Trump wrote this, and I quote:
"Happy Thanksgiving to all"
Trump may have said some other provocative things, but he did in fact wish all of us a happy Thanksgiving.
The fact that people like PP read more into what Trump says is a disgrace and just sour grapes.
Don’t be silly @2:14. Trump doesn’t care about anyone but himself.
DeletePP - I agree that it was boorish. Political statements don't belong in Holiday greetings.
DeleteIt would be like Kamala saying, "Happy Thanksgiving to all, including to the to the White Supremacist Lunatics who have worked so hard to destroy our Country, but who have miserably failed, and will always fail, because their ideas and policies are so hopelessly bad." One might agree with this statement, it's inappropriate to include it in a Thanksgiving message.
2:14 is making a point about how stupid PP is with their defense of Somerby, and how stupid it is when Somerby defends Trump on the basis of selected snippets of what he says.
DeleteTrump’s boorishness is what Republicans love about Trump.
Delete4:29 - It’s sort of pitiful, don’t you think, that one mouse has to explain what the other mouse was trying to say? Particularly when the message is something so simple-minded as “PP is stupid!”
DeletePeople are not all one big mouse.
DeleteNo, just a pack of little mice following me around nipping at my heels.
DeleteThat was me, PP.
DeleteNo one follows you, you are nipping at the other commenters.
DeleteBack in your hole, little mouse!
DeleteI agree @4:33. Reps love Trump's boorishness, and I'll tell you why. For many decades Democrats have conducted boorish campaigns, calling their Republican opponents "racists" and "Fascists and sexists." Meanwhile, "Nice guy" Republicans like Romney just take it, and lose their elections.
DeleteTrump is responding to Dem boorishness with his own boorishness. When Dems call him a racist, he doesn't respond by trying to show he's not a racist. He responds with boorish insults against Dems. And he gets elected.
People are not rodents. Next you’ll be hinting at exterminating pests, because that’s what people who call other people vermin do. You may think this banter is cute but it has an ugly history.
DeleteBut David, those terms have meaning and they are accurate. Fighting labeling by doubling down on boorishness is not a thing. Trump is a criminal. How do Repubs like that word?
DeleteAnonymouse 7;01pm, anonymices call their contrarians fascist, racists, liars, criminals, bigots, haters, misogynists, authoritarians… every day. When you really get going you call contrarians homosexuals and transsexuals.
DeleteI think we can survive as a free nation even though some of us call you mices (pronunciation- meeces). After all, that’s what you are.
If someone is convicted of a crime, but that conviction is still under review, is that person a "criminal"?
DeleteYes.
Delete5:21 no PP, it highlights the inanity of your excessively literal defense of Somerby. Duh.
DeleteIf you don’t want to be a mouse, screw up the courage to get a nym.
Delete7:31 - You have to explain your gratuitous and excessively simple-minded insult again?
Delete“ Democrats have conducted boorish campaigns”
DeleteGive us some specific examples, DiC. And if you’d like to learn some history, check out newt gingrich’s approach to politics that became the Republican playbook. Spare us this characterization of Democrats. Did Tester in Montana or Sherrod Brown in Ohio engage in the kind of rhetoric that Trump and the GOP have engaged in for years? No they didn’t.
You’re full of it.
No PP, it’s because you engage in moronic insults and nothing else. It’s you that attacked Trump on the same basis that Somerby gets challenged on. That someone couldn’t tell the real you from a satire of you, only confirms the validity of it.
DeleteAccording to Cecelia, we should not call a spade a spade, we should instead just allow people the freedom to engage in any kind of oppression they want.
DeleteCecelia is straight outta Trump University, graduated summa cum imbecillus.
Wasn't Trump University a scam college, used to sucker people who thought "The Apprentice" was a documentary, out of their money?
DeleteI'm so old, I can remember when folks promised us that Trump was "about to pivot" and start acting more presidential. No one says that anymore.
ReplyDeleteAh, so this is what a dead blog looks like.
ReplyDeleteHarris was not drunk. Trump may have been. Somerby is still repeating the right wing accusations against Harris without refuting them. Is it drunk to say nice things and hope for unity?
ReplyDeleteSomerby doesn’t say, but perhaps the problem is democratization of the presidency — the lack of experience and qualifications specified by our parties for top jobs. Boebert didn’t have a high school diploma before Ted Cruz encouraged her to run for the House. MTG ran an exercise studio. JD Vance has no experience preparing him to be VP. Yet Somerby mocks the idea of expertise (while today complaining about democratization), calling educated people smug. Which is it?
Yes, @2:16, lack of experience doesn't seem to count for much in today's political world. People like Vance and Obama are very smart and good-looking and speak well. They come across well on TV
DeleteFacts don't seem to count as much as feelings, when it comes to elections.
DeleteTrump is filling his admin with neocons, neoliberals, unqualified clowns, corrupt cronies, and sexual predators.
DeleteFor a real leader, check out how the Mexican president responded to Trump’s petulance recently. She exposes what a fraud Trump is and also later exposed his lying about their phone call too.
“Dear President-elect Donald Trump,
I am writing to you regarding your statement on Monday, November 25, concerning migration, fentanyl trafficking, and tariffs.
You may not be aware that Mexico has developed a comprehensive policy to assist migrants from different parts of the world who cross our territory en route to the southern border of the United States. As a result, and according to data from your country’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP), encounters at the Mexico–United States border have decreased by 75% between December 2023 and November 2024. Moreover, half of those who arrive do so through a legally scheduled appointment under the United States’ CBP One program. For these reasons, migrant caravans no longer arrive at the border.
Even so, it is clear that we must work together to create a new labor mobility model that is necessary for your country, as well as address the root causes that compel families to leave their homes out of necessity. If even a small percentage of what the United States allocates to war were instead dedicated to building peace and fostering development, it would address the underlying causes of human mobility.
On another note, and for humanitarian reasons, Mexico has consistently expressed its willingness to help prevent the fentanyl epidemic in the United States from continuing. This is, after all, a public health and consumption problem within your society. So far this year, Mexican armed forces and prosecutors have seized tons of various types of drugs, 10,340 firearms, and have detained 15,640 individuals for violence related to drug trafficking.
Furthermore, the Mexican Congress is in the process of approving a constitutional reform to classify the production, distribution, and commercialization of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs as a serious crime without bail. However, it is publicly known that the chemical precursors used to produce this and other synthetic drugs are illegally entering Canada, the United States, and Mexico from Asian countries. This underscores the urgent need for international collaboration.
You must also be aware of the illegal trafficking of firearms into my country from the United States.
Seventy percent of the illegal weapons seized from criminals in Mexico come from your country. We do not produce these weapons, nor do we consume synthetic drugs. Tragically, it is in our country that lives are lost to the violence resulting from meeting the drug demand in yours.
President Trump, migration and drug consumption in the United States cannot be addressed through threats or tariffs. What is needed is cooperation and mutual understanding to tackle these significant challenges.
For every tariff, there will be a response in kind, until we put at risk our shared enterprises. Yes, shared. For instance, among Mexico’s main exporters to the United States are General Motors, Stellantis, and Ford Motor Company, which arrived in Mexico 80 years ago. Why impose a tariff that would jeopardize them? Such a measure would be unacceptable and would lead to inflation and job losses in both the United States and Mexico.
I am convinced that North America’s economic strength lies in maintaining our trade partnership. This allows us to remain competitive against other economic blocs. For this reason, I believe that dialogue is the best path to understanding, peace, and prosperity for our nations. I hope our teams can meet soon to continue building joint solutions.”
Brutal takedown of Trump and his nonsense.
Obama had way more experience compared to Vance. Don’t you check the bio of whoever you vote for?
DeleteTalking to David.
DeleteThe president of Mexico didn’t mention it but 90% of the fentanyl is brought in through legal ports of entry via American citizens.
DeleteTrump’s cult will never hear Sheinbaum’s actual response. They will be told that “Trump is already winning.”
DeleteThe spike in immigration started under Trump, due to his disastrous foreign affairs policies.
DeleteThe spike in inflation was a direct result of Trump mishandling the pandemic.
Biden cleaned up these messes during his term.
Back in the day, Somerby would explain this kind of stuff on his blog, it’s why it became popular, but now all he has on offer is slick and sly endorsements of Republican misinformation.
@4:36 thank for posting those comments bu Claudia Scheinbaum. I don't know what to make of the two different versions of her call with Trump. My first thought is that Trump is lying, because Donald Trjmp i Donald Trump. However, Trump's lies are usually for a purpose or to gain an advantage. I don't see how it benefits Trump to pretend that Scheinbaum had accepted his ultimatum. The actual facts are bound to come oiut.
DeleteIMO it might benefit Scheinbaum to pretend that she's resisting pressure from the US, even though she's yielding to that pressure. But, bottom line is that one of them is misrepresenting that phone call, and I don't know which.
I was surprised that Schein basted that "Mexico has developed a comprehensive policy to assist migrants from different parts of the world who cross our territory en route to the southern border of the United States." I suspect that President Trump will not want this kind of help. I suspect he will want Mexico to do whatever they can to keep migrants away from their border with the US
DeleteI suspect Trump will keep the border open, like he did last time because his real constituents, the corporate elites, like cheap labor and what it does for their bottom lines.
Delete"suspect Trump"
DeleteI see what you did there.
Did you hear the one about the Republican voter who wasn't a sucker?
DeleteNeither did I.
ReplyDelete"Hard work is good work"
This must be the dumbest speech evah.
Or was she addressing a group of 5-year-olds?
"What about the geese? What happened there? They've gone missing."
DeleteOne aspect of Kamala's platitudes that annoys me is that she usually doesn't include examples. As a result, she seems to be just mouthing words without really meaning it.
DeleteYes, she needs to give examples like “ they’re eating the pets” or “ We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country,". At least Trump gave examples of pet eating, Haitians, who weren’t eating the pets.
DeleteHard work is good work, soros-bot. Write it 50 times before the dinner, or no dinner for you.
Delete3:47 you’re such a snowflake.
DeleteExamples are passe. Nowadays we create stories.
DeleteDIC is correct. When she debated Trump and gave the example of what you would experience at a Trump rally, it was effective. She, in fact, mopped the floor with him at that moment, and it was then that Trump realized that a second debate with her would be suicide to his campaign. So yeah, she needed more example moments, like the Reagan story of the welfare mother driving a Cadillac. OK maybe not like that one. Come to think of it, otherising people with denigrating fictitious stories as examples didn't start with Trump's eating the pets lie. It goes all the way back to St. Ronnie.
DeleteOr maybe her loss has more to do with this:
Deletehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VUxeRLXaCIk
3:47,
DeleteSupport the 100% Estate Tax rate. Let your lazy, good-for-nothing, free-loading kids get a job. Like I did.
Trump is a disaster.
ReplyDeleteSomerby has no answers.
Somerby complaining that Dems are arrogant and smug about being educated is mirrored by various others discussing the right language to express respect and humility. That sounds a lot like the discussions on the left about how to respect transpeople or indigenous people. The idea that Dems trample on red voter feelings by being insensitive is ludicrous when it is the right who has that “fuck your feelings” mantra. I am not going to start apologizing for being right or knowing things while the right laughs up its sleeve at us for being so easy to bully simply by making a new PC demand. It is not arrogant or smug to have gone to school.
ReplyDeleteCecelia has an actual profile on blogspot. So does Somerby but neither provides any details. PP just types a couple of letters as a nym, but has no profile, so he can be spoofed. None of yhis is any better or any different than using the generic nym “anonymous” provided by bogspot. PP’s attacks on those who use that convenience is mainly to discourage other commenters here.
ReplyDelete“ our nation's discourse, such as it is, belongs to the least of us now. ”
ReplyDeleteTalk about condescending…
Context matters.
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ReplyDelete