SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2024
We decided to give it a look: Yesterday, we heard a throwaway comment about "megalomania"—a comment directed at Elon Musk.
That said, what the heck is megalomania? For example, is it an actual clinical term? We decided to give it a look.
Below, we'll start you on your search. First, though, some recent findings by the New York Times' Linda Qiu.
Qiu decided to fact-check Musk's claims about this past week's original budget bill—the bill which was voted down after Citizen Musk, and then Citizen Trump, complained about its contents.
She decided to fact-check Citizen Musk! Regarding this intervention, an earlier report in the New York Times had asked us to believe such improbable claims as these:
Elon Musk Flexes His Political Strength as Government Shutdown Looms
[...]
In more than 150 separate posts on X, starting before dawn on Wednesday, Mr. Musk demanded that Republicans back away from a bipartisan spending deal that was meant to avoid a government shutdown over Christmas. He vowed political retribution against anyone voting for the sprawling bill backed by House Speaker Mike Johnson, who called Mr. Musk on Wednesday to ask that he stop posting about the bill.
Mr. Musk also shared misinformation about the bill, including false claims that it contained new aid for Ukraine or $3 billion in funds for a new stadium in Washington. By the end of Wednesday, Mr. Trump issued a statement of his own, calling the bill “a betrayal of our country.”
It was a remarkable moment for Mr. Musk, who has never been elected to public office but now appears to be the largest megaphone for the man about to retake the Oval Office. Larger, in fact, than Mr. Trump himself, whose own vaunted social media presence is dwarfed by that of Mr. Musk. The president-elect has 96.2 million followers on X, while Mr. Musk has 207.9 million...
This week also marked the first time Mr. Musk has been able to use his website as a digital whip, driving lawmakers to support his desired outcome.
[...]
One of Mr. Musk’s first posts about the spending bill came at 4:15 Wednesday morning in Washington.
“This bill should not pass,” the billionaire wrote on his social platform.
Between posts about his own video game antics and SpaceX’s satellite internet service, he used his X account to call the bill “criminal,” spread misinformation about its contents and issue a rallying cry to “stop the steal of your tax dollars!”
His posts followed a similar pattern of past activity on X, where he can become hyper-fixated on a single issue that bothers him.
[...]
On Wednesday, narrative eclipsed truth. “The terrible bill is dead,” Mr. Musk posted just before 4 p.m. in Washington, closing his post with the Latin phrase “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” which translates to “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”
"More than 150 posts?" Does anyone believe such claims about this clear-headed industrial giant?
Does anyone really believe the claims according to which Musk "can become hyper-fixated on a single issue" as he allegedly "posts about his own video game antics" while reporting the voice of God?
Also, does anyone really believe that the man who knows the voice of God could or would traffic in misinformation? These claims seemed bogus on their face—until we perused Qiu's report.
Qiu's report took the form of a journalistic "fact check." Online, her report appears beneath this triple heading:
FACT CHECK
Assessing Elon Musk’s Criticisms of the Government Spending Deal
The world’s richest man posted or amplified inaccurate claims about the bill’s provisions for congressional salaries, a football stadium and biological research.
We'll simplify it for you. According to Qiu's report, Musk tweeted that the original bill contained a 40 percent pay increase for members of Congress.
According to Qiu, his claim was remarkably close to correct. The actual number was 3.8 percent.
(With this devotion to technical accuracy, it's no wonder his space flights work!)
Also according to Qiu's report, Musk had tweeted the claim that the original bill included a “$3 billion NFL stadium in Washington, D.C.” According to Qiu (and everyone else), that claim was just plain false.
According to Qiu, the industrial giant had also shared an earlier post which claimed that the bill contained "$60B to Ukraine" and "Mask/vaccine mandates." Those claims were also bogus, Qiu said, before moving on to Musk's inevitable but bogus claims about "bioweapons labs."
This, of course, is the Christmas season. It's a season of nutballs and fruitcakes, but also of broken toys.
That said, on what meat doth this particular nutball feed—this extremely high-end toy? With those questions dancing like sugarplums, we return to the terms of our search:
Is "megalomania" a clinical term? Or is it simply a colloquial term of derision?
These were the fruits of our search:
The leading authority on the term instantly clicked us ahead to its report on "narcissistic personality disorder." At its companion site, Simple English Wikipedia was willing to tell us this:
Megalomania
Megalomania is a mental illness. People with megalomania have delusional fantasies that they are more relevant (important) or powerful than they truly are. They have inflated self esteem and overestimate their powers and beliefs. People with megalomania tend to exhibit a disposition that is less inclined towards humbleness.
The word "megalomania" is no longer used in the mental health field, and is not mentioned in either the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) or the International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD). Instead, this condition is now called narcissistic personality disorder.
We take that to mean that "megalomania" is no longer regarded as a diagnostic clinical term. Regarding the apparent substitute diagnosis, the leading authority on the matter starts by telling us this:
Narcissistic personality disorder
Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a life-long pattern of exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a diminished ability to empathize with other people's feelings. Narcissistic personality disorder is one of the sub-types of the broader category known as personality disorders. It is often comorbid with other mental disorders and associated with significant functional impairment and psychosocial disability.
Personality disorders are a class of mental disorders characterized by enduring and inflexible maladaptive patterns of behavior, cognition, and inner experience, exhibited across many contexts and deviating from those accepted by any culture...Criteria for diagnosing personality disorders are listed in the sixth chapter of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
There is no standard treatment for NPD. Its high comorbidity with other mental disorders influences treatment choice and outcomes.
And so on, at length, from there. For the record, it isn't clear that Blue America's contemporary elites actually believe in this branch of modern medical science.
It's awkward to read about this particular clinical disorder. That's especially true for people who remember what the niece of the incoming president wrote about her uncle in a best-selling book whose specific assessments were almost wholly disappeared:
MARY TRUMP (pages 12-13): None of the Trump siblings emerged unscathed from my grandfather's sociopathy and my grandmother's illnesses, both physical and psychological, but my uncle Donald and my father, Freddy, suffered more than the rest. In order to get a complete picture of Donald, his psychopathologies, and the meaning of his dysfunctional behavior, we need a thorough family history.
In the last three years, I’ve watched as countless pundits, armchair psychologists and journalists have kept missing the mark, using phrases such as "malignant narcissism" and "narcissistic personality disorder" in an attempt to make sense of Donald’s often bizarre and self-defeating behavior. I have no problem calling Donald a narcissist—he meets all nine criteria as outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)—but the label only gets us so far.
Mary Trump is a clinical psychologist. That doesn't mean that her assessments are necessarily correct.
Her assessments could always be bogus! That's even true when she goes on to offer this:
...A case could be made that he also meets the criteria for antisocial personality disorder, which in its most severe forms is generally considered sociopathy but can also refer to chronic criminality, arrogance, and disregard for the rights of others...
The fact is, Donald’s pathologies are so complex and his behaviors so often inexplicable that coming up with an accurate and comprehensive diagnosis would require a full battery of psychological and neuropsychological tests that he’ll never sit for.
So the observer alleged. Full disclosure:
According to current rules of the game, you can't be exposed to such ruminations within the mainstream press corps. Within their pixels or pages or endless broadcast hours, issues of mental health and mental illness can and will be applied in a wide array of contexts, but not in a context like this.
Again, this is the season of discarded fruitcakes, but also of broken toys. At present, a large assortment of such toys can be found beneath one public figure's tree.
As happenstance has it, these broken toys emerged from a remarkable array of early childhood experiences. This seems to include membership in a father's apparent cult; abandonment at an early age by a mother who was never seen by the broken toy again; and lifelong devotion to a grandmother who (literally) set a drunken grandfather on fire one night while he slept.
For the record, the collection of highly unusual stories doesn't end there. According to prevailing rules of the game, you aren't allowed to contemplate these matters under prevailing arrangements.
Under prevailing arrangements, Citizen Musk can be derided for his megalomania, but only in passing, colloquially. He sits beneath the other citizen's tree in what may be a broken state.
The anthropologist Cummings once wrote of these seasonal trees, inhabiting a child's perspective as he did. He penned his account in the form of a poem—a poem which starts like this:
little tree
little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower
who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly
i will kiss your cool bark
and hug you safe and tight
just as your mother would,
only don't be afraid...
What the heck is "megalomania?" Breaking every rule in the book, we decided to conduct a search. We decided to take a quick look!
ReplyDeleteSo, Elon Musk is now your Great Satan and Donald Trump is you little Satan now? Or is Donald Trump still the Great Satan?
I bet your anti-Musk smear campaign will fail even more spectacularly than your 8-year long anti-Trump smear campaign. Clearly, you idiots know how to pick them; I'll give you that.
Are the 40% pay raise, 60B to Ukraine and football stadium claims accurate?
DeleteIf you want to convince me that Mr. Musk made some mistakes somewhere, you need to prove it to me, Soros-bots.
DeleteAnd I'm not going to be doing any research myself, to prove that you're lying. I know that all you do is pushing lies. Okay? If, by some miracle, you're not lying in this particular case (which is highly unlikely), please present your undeniable and easily verifiable proof. Thanks.
I'm not holding my breath.
made some mistakes somewhere,...
DeleteBwahahahahaha!!! You Muskaswamy-bots really crack me up. Very entertaining.
As far as we all know here, Musk's claims about a congressional 40% pay raise, 60B to Ukraine and football stadium in the bill are unsubstantiated - so we should all remain skeptical of them until someone offers evidence to support them.
Delete
DeleteAll I can see here is Soros-bots' claims.
And, from experience, whatever Soros-bots claim, it's always a lie. Lying is Soros-bots' only purpose.
The New York Times article shows with source that all of those claims are inaccurate, some based on misreadings:
Deletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/19/us/politics/elon-musk-spending-bill-fact-check.html
Eg
Mr. Musk reposted a misinterpretation of an article from Punchbowl News, a publication based in Washington that covers congressional news. The article noted that members have not received a raise since 2009 and that their annual salary over the past 15 years has been $174,000. Had members received a cost-of-living increase every year since 2009, their salary would now be about 40 percent higher or $243,000, the article said, citing a report from the Congressional Research Service.
A 1989 law set a formula for annual cost-of-living adjustments for congressional salaries, but since 2009, Congress has passed laws — generally tucked into broader spending packages — every year freezing the pay of its own members. The maximum potential pay increase under the formula for January 2025 is 3.8 percent, or $6,600, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The spending deal allows for that 3.8 increase by removing language in a previous spending law that blocked the pay adjustment.
So 9:50 we need to be careful with what Musk claims and make sure it doesn't play to our own confirmation bias and ignorant smugness.
11:07 Thank you for sharing you simplistic, antagonistic and boring feelings.
Delete
Delete11:08 AM is a lying Soros-bot claiming that the lying nytimes.com is claiming something.
In other words: it's nothing, with credibility less than zero.
11:14 Opinionated, unobjective claims are boring. They won't get you anywhere.
DeleteThe whole angry. ad hominem thing? That is probably mostly psychological - a way to deal with your pain without having to face it directly - that's cool. I do it too.
Delete
DeleteYes, Corby, whatever you say.
Sniffing your finger much?
Name calling is name calling, whether the name is Corby or Soros-bot. It is what trolls do inplace of “discourse”.
DeleteMao feels bad. He wants others to feel bad too. That is typical of political commentators online. The issues are a proxy for negotiating internal and external tyrannies.
DeleteCall it “powerlessness”. Not that Mao is constantly wrong about these issues. She’s not.
DeleteWe're done with Elon "Great Satan" Musk, then?
DeleteCorby on the other hand is basically constantly wrong on the issues, if they are even coherent, which is extremely rare.
DeleteMao, unless you would like to present some sort of evidence that contradicts the New York Times reporte’rs claims about the 40% pay increase, which anyone would have to be really gullible to swallow, even with no evidence. Right? After reflecting on that claim, it’s a pretty stupid claim just on its face isn’t it?
DeleteAnd Trump supporters are clucking about it online like it’s real, exhibiting the same ignorance and gullibility as the left, they criticize, accurately, for the same behavior regarding Russia or very fine people, etc.
DeleteFrom experience, all Soros-bots' and New York Times' claims are extremely stupid and without any evidence. So nothing new here.
DeleteWell, here was one with Musk as the source instead of the New York Times.
DeleteAre you gonna get angry and lodge and insult? 😂
DeleteYou got played just like they get played. So maybe get off your high horse, Mr. Lonely heart.
DeleteDo you have anything to say other than boring cynicism? I didn’t think so.
DeletePresident Musk: disaster relief? Fuck that
DeletePresident Musk: children with cancer? Fuck ‘em
President Musk: coercing employees to offer sexual favors, promise a pony in return? Heck yeah, that’s my whole M.O. What, you think a normal woman wants to sleep with my pale fat mess of a body? Coercion is the name of my game.
VP Trump: Fore!
Musk is your typical low iq right winger, but uniquely appealing to billionaires with certain eccentricities like Thiel, grifting us tax payers out of billions to “invent” things that already exist, at a higher cost for a crappier version.
12:55
DeleteThere is no need to further prove your imbecility but thanks for doing so yet again.
This blog is dead.
DeleteActually 12:55 is accurate.
DeleteEven a famous anthropologist like ee cummings would think twice about hugging a pine tree of any size. It may smell sweetly but it feels prickly.
ReplyDeleteNo good parent would deliberately give their children broken toys under the tree, as Somerby suggests. It deprives kids of the pleasure of breaking the toys themselves. Perhaps this is the source of Somerby’s pathology.
ReplyDeleteThen what's the source of yours?
DeleteTrolls.
DeleteSomerby hedges his statements to the point where he says nothing at all. Then he demands that the press cover psychiatric remote diagnoses of Trump while himself saying he isn’t sure Mary Trump is right. The press should deal in facts not speculation (even attributed).
ReplyDeleteSomerby does say that the left doesn’t believe in psychology or psychiatry as science. In my experience as a psychologist, the opposite is true. The right runs from psychological science with views that are directly contradicted by research, refusing to incorporate research-based findings. The right calls them called woke (or worse). Meanwhile psychology is taught in both high school and college courses which right wingers avoid, including Somerby.
Somerby repeatedly refers to Musk as “Citizen Musk”. Perhas that is meant sarcastically or perhaps Somerby is trying to implant the idea that Musk is a citizen in readers’ minds. Somerby doesn’t make his intention clear (as usual). Musk is s naturalized citizen of the US now, via Canada from South Africa, but like Melania, Musk appears to have worked illegally before gaining the right to work here:
ReplyDelete“ He has said in the past that after leaving Penn he had planned to pursue graduate studies at Stanford, but dropped out to work on founding his first company.
That’s significant, experts say, because there are strict rules about the kind of work allowed when someone is in the US on a student visa, and work authorizations tied to student visas generally require someone to be actively studying or for the sponsoring institution to allow the student to get academic or practical training after graduation.
Immigration attorney Greg Siskind, who’s co-authored multiple editions of a guide to J-1 visas, says transitioning from a J-1 visa to an H-1B visa is a possible path. But he says a J-1 visa wouldn’t provide work authorization to someone who dropped out of a degree program. The moment Musk dropped out, he would have lost his status and been unauthorized to work, Siskind says.”
This raises a problem when Musk and Trump call for mass deportations of even legal immigrants, as they have done. Perhaps we would all benefit if Musk were to self-deport, preferably via his own Space-x vehicles.
Trump may be alluding to Citizen Kane
Delete"perhaps Somerby is trying to implant the idea that Musk is a citizen in readers’ minds."
DeleteMusk is a citizen. Why would Somerby try to implant an idea that is already there?
He’s probably alluding to the fact that Musk is an immigrant, and at one time was an illegal immigrant, who is now attempting to dictate how the government will be run.
DeletePerhaps Republicans think Musk can run our government into the ground, like he’s done with his personal endeavors, for example, all his failed relationships including his children that despise him, and causing Twitter to lose 80% of its value in a short amount of time.
"Trump may be alluding to Citizen Kane"
DeleteAnything is possible. But that is much less possible than many other explanations.
There is no rule against looking things up, as Somerby proclaims there is, while quoting from a fact-checking article.
ReplyDelete“… and lifelong devotion to a grandmother who (literally) set a drunken grandfather on fire one night while he slept.”
ReplyDeleteJD Vance’s book was debunked as full of lies yet Somerby believes every word.
Why has JD Vance become invisible after the election? A psychologist might suspect a nervous breakdown (not a technical term) after all that childhood abuse. If childhood trauma is determinative, how did Vance escape and wind up at Yale?
DeleteIf he did become invisible, surely it wouldn't stop (or even pause) Soros-bot scumbaggery, right?
DeleteRepublicans didn't vote for Trump because he raped a 13-year old that reminded him of his daughter. They voted for Trump because they crave his bigotry like a child craves candy.
DeleteUnresolved childhood trauma is determinative, it tends to make those suffering from that circumstance obsessed with hierarchy and dominance, the very traits that elitist schools like Yale are looking to boost.
DeleteThis is simplistic. Most 8 year old boys who have experienced what happened to Tucker Carlson do not present his pathology That means the trauma alone was not determinative. Perhaps “unresolved” is the key to how a boy copes with trauma.
DeleteThere are very few lives untouched by trauma of one sort or another. Other factors are clearly important, such as resilience and coping skills, social support, context & meaning assigned to the event, health & intelligence of the child & adults in his life. This is more complicated than you and Somerby make it, but most children do cope, survive and thrive after trauma. Some need (and get) more help than others. If trauma turned someone Republican, there would be no Democrats, but people respond differently.
Yes, duh. It’s the unresolved aspect.
DeleteNo this is not “simplistic” this is actually what the science indicates, particularly when considering society, not just individuals.
Furthermore, it’s not Democratic vs Republican that these traits are determinative of, it’s left vs right, and yes we do live in a right wing dominated society, and yes many Dems are in fact right wing.
Your points certainly are pertinent towards individual care, but they’re largely irrelevant when considering aspects of a society, like political movements, and the broader scale of human behavior over time.
“ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (The Borowitz Report)—A nationwide search has begun to locate even one person who voted for Elon Musk, the leader of the manhunt announced on Friday.
ReplyDeleteThe leader, Harland Dorrinson, said that searchers had fanned out across all fifty states but had yet to turn up a single Musk voter.
“Given that Mr. Musk is the most powerful person in the U.S. government, you would think it would be easy to find someone who voted for him,” he said. “Something weird is going on.”
Meanwhile, in Washington, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced that billions of dollars could be saved by eliminating empathy.”
Musk and Ramaswamy had less than a day to read this1,550 page monstrosity, and to analyze it, and to evaluate it, and to widely communicate their conclusions. And, for those who disapproved of the bill to understand it and for them to contact their Congresspersons and for their Congresspersons to decide to go against their leader and risk a government shutdown. Given this extreme time pressure, It’s nitpicking to focus on a few inaccuracies.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great victory for the Department of government efficiency!
What were the significant differences between the original bill and the one that passed?
DeleteThe art of the deal indeed!
DeleteTrump failed in his negotiations, Congress passed the original bill with none of what Trump/Musk wanted.
Trump fucked around and found out.
@3:32 The difference between the two bills was 1400 pages of pork and waste. Details at https://fortune.com/2024/12/21/spending-bill-government-shutdown-pages-pbm-congress-pay-raise-musk-trump/
DeleteOne side benefit of this great victory for Trump, Musk, Ramaswamy, and the American people is that Congress knows that the public is being informed about what they're doing before it's done. When there's still time to make their wishes known. This is a change from recent Congressional and media tradition of not reporting the contents of the bill until after it's passed.
Subsequent Congressional action will automatically be less wasteful. We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.
Did you read the paywalled article, David, or did you just rely on the headline? The vast majority of those "1400 pages of pork and waste" involved a reauthorization for childhood cancer research spending--which passed easily earlier this year in the House and even more easily in the Senate following Musk's power play.
DeleteSorry, but your fanboy wet dream is just that--a dream.
The bill that passed actually includes more spending than the original deal Johnson struck with Dems.
DeleteGood work, Elon!
Oof! David’s ignorance is striking.
DeleteWhy is David gloating when Trump/Musk were resoundingly defeated in their efforts with respect to the CR?
DeleteIt comes across as desperate copium, I hope he’s ok.
White male Americans have the highest rate of suicide in the world. As Freddie Mercury sang:
Don't try suicide, nobody's worth it
Don't try suicide, nobody cares
Don't try suicide, you're just gonna hate it
Don't try suicide, nobody gives a damn
Who the fuck elevates unelected foriegn billionaires (one who paid $250M to your campaign) to a bullshit made up "Department" and acts like they have relevance DIC? If these assholes want to fix the budget they could recommend undoing Reagan, Bush Jr., and Grump's tax cuts for the oligarchs. They could also recommend eliminating the payroll tax cap so folks pay for SS and Medicare while rich at the same rate as poor folks Dic. Sweet Jesus how many tens of billions are enough for those horrid ghouls? Paid for on the backs of middle class, poor, and immigrants.
DeleteDavid in Cal,
DeleteAre you going to go fuck yourself, like Trump invited all the other people who complained about the deficit to do?
ReplyDeleteI've been a bad girl. Bad, bad girl. I sniffed my fingers. My finger smelled funny.
I am a very good bridge player. I am, I am, yes I am.
Joe Biden is the goodest president evah. Sharp as a tack! And I am sharp as a tack! Somerby is an ass!
I am Corby.
Musk's power is fundamentally different from the government's power. If you don't obey the government, they can put you in prison, take all your belongings or even execute you. Musk's only source of power is that a lot of people trust him more than they trust the government
ReplyDeleteHe certainly won't be taking bribes, like the Biden Family.
DeleteHe doesn't need to. He pumped $250M into backing Trump; the value of his holdings in Tesla doubled.
DeleteHe’ll just be steering government money his way.
DeleteDo you think Libertarians will start begging Musk to save their businesses, instead of Daddy Government, every time they have a bad quarter?
DeleteOne can hope.
Musk’s power comes from being wealthy enough to, for example, threaten to “primary” elected members of Congress.
DeleteThis has nothing to do with trust, it’s pure oligarchy.
To be fair, like Trump, Musk is actually leveraged to the hilt, and to some bad people that do not mess around - Russians, Saudis - so Musk is in reality not just a megalomaniac but also a security threat to our country.
DeleteAn informed view of Musk and the reasons people voted for Trump:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbb12rX0ofE
" If you don't obey the government blah blah blah" WTF are you talking about? Give one example of a person being found guilty and penalized for not " obeying the government" in this country.
DeletePresident Musk fucked over Ukraine in its war with Putin. Is he acting in the best interest of all Americans, to rich fucks, to Putin? Who completed his security check? Why do you trust this weirdo drug addict over people elected to run the Government? You are an ininformed ass Dic.
DeleteI don't know if TDH takes into account that Mary Trump might be biased. She had a legal dispute with uncle Trump relating to her father's (trump's brother's) estate and lost. that could color her views. (Even so, it seems that Ms. Trump more or less only speculates about her uncle's diagnosis). TDH keeps flogging his amateur psychiatry views. There are thousands of shrinks. I doubt they all agree on Mary's and the Yale instructor's views. Even if the media suddenly decided to pursue this angle, that Trump might be clinically mentally "disordered", what does TDH expect would happen? That Trump would be toppled? that it would have had an effect on the election? TDH should let this go - or at least expand his investigation of this issue in order to get a broader perspective.
ReplyDeleteThe lawsuit loss was after she wrote her Trump book.
DeleteEveryone agrees that Trump is a narcissist.
DeleteAgree, Mary Trump’s assessment is redundant, Trump doesn’t bother to hide his pathology, it’s as plain as day for everyone to see.
DeleteIf anything, Somerby could explore the science that explains why Republicans don’t care about Trump’s lunacy, but that would cut against his agenda, so it won’t happen.
Somerby doesn’t have the education to read technical psychological reports much less the medical literature in psychiatry.
DeleteI’m just an ordinary person, and I don’t trust the lamestream media. But I trust Trump and ramalamadingdong and their billionaire friends. They wouldn’t lie to me, therefore I know the hashuns were eating our pets. I also know that these billionaires will always have the interests of us, the ordinary people, in mind at all times. Cope!
ReplyDeleteHa! Funny comment, in part because it reveals the truth about Republicans, they’re ruled by wealthy elitists.
DeleteThat's why Democrats telling people that American democracy itself will end if you don’t vote them back into power after they've steadily lost purchasing power on their watch was such a misguided tactic.
Delete6:31 What we really have is media balkanization with overarching partisan divisions, and almost everybody, including bloggers, takes their cues either from some party or party-related apparatus.
DeleteThe threat to democracy tactic was fine (we’re already seeing it come to fruition), it was not well executed, and there was a lack of offering to meet the material needs of Americans, but the main issues were: impediments to voting are too prevalent, and many Dems are still not ready to vote for a woman.
DeleteThere is a troll here that expresses glee that the Dems were defeated, yet their very complaints about Dems apply even moreso to Republicans. It’s almost a laugh, but it’s really a cry.
Most elections are about harm reduction/lesser evil, to think otherwise is the height of naïveté.
Doesn't voter suppression and misogyny sound like convenient narratives that a Democratic party operative might want people to believe are the main issues? I think people had endured so many blatant lies from the Biden Administration and the Democratic party that they just had enough. They learned the hard way you can fool all the people some of the time, some of the people all the time but you can't fool all the people all the time. All the people were supposed to believe that Joe Biden was sharp as a tack and they were living in a miracle economy he had built with worker's wages and salaries rising? He “created” 15 million new jobs? Hunter's laptop was Russian disinformation? Ukraine was winning? It was just non stop bullshit. Voters had to throw the whole party out on its ass for lying in their faces so egregiously for so long.
DeleteAnd making claims like Trump said he was going to be a dictator. It was such obvious bullshit coming out of their mouths every single day. Even life-long Dems would stay home or vote for Jill Stein based in the party's insane preoccupation with telling blatant lies.
Delete"We’re already seeing the threat to democracy come to fruition." That another bullshit lie. You may able to believe that but it's such obvious bullshit, respectfully. People can't cope with that much bullshit. If the Dems keep it up they will never have any significant political power again. Their operation and obsession with lying is a gift their enemies.
DeleteThere are far more lies and bullshit on the right compared to the left.
Delete@9:12 The budget extension bill involved many citizens contacting their representatives, so that the final vote could reflect the preferences of the public. That's more democracy, not less
DeleteYes, DiC, “many” citizens contacted their reps in the 24 hours after the first bill failed, and those citizens surely advocated for less money for children’s cancer. I personally requested the department of defense be abolished, but alas, the many citizens who agree with me were ignored. It’s also likely that “many citizens”, ordinary people I dare say, requested tax cuts for billionaires that blew up the deficit under Trump’s first term. N’est-ce pas?
DeleteYes, I'm taking your money, but it's for children’s cancer, idiot-moonbat. It's for the children. Gimme more, idiot-moonbat.
DeleteDemocrats became the party of smug white people which was alienating to, well ... everyone who wasn't one.
DeleteDIC, LMFAO if that is the way you imagined it happened. More likely, it is more of your incessant bullshit, however. Just like, further upstream you suggest that "If you don't obey government blah blah blah", a bizarre fabrication about how our laws work.
Delete2;42 you’re white, right?
Delete2:11. There are 53 black democrats in congress and 5 black republicans, but thanks for your invaluable opinion.
DeleteThe Blacks of which you speak are token Blacks. Whites ruined the Democratic Party. You probably think you like black people and are an advocate for thier rights, don't you?
DeleteBut you are white and don't have any black friends, right? And you never had any black friends. You may even adopt a black voice around them. These are the type of whites who took over and ruined the Democratic Party.
DeleteSorry dude. When you use the words "token blacks" you give away your game. So sad. And what do you mean "think like black people"? Go ahead and try to explain yourself. I have a black friend whose daughter was pro Trump until his comments about black jobs. Maybe you need to tell us all how it is that blacks think, starting with why a very large majority of them still vote for democrats. Are they " token voters"? You seem to be an expert on what is a "token black" and how blacks think. Go ahead and tell us all about that.
Delete"think you like black people"
Deleteanother misreading.
DeleteYou are responsible for Trump being elected.
DeleteIt's not exactly your fault for getting Trump elected. I'm sure it is out of ignorance, not malice. What are you to do? We're saddled with sheep who get caught up in groupthink in this life.
DeleteBut ya, you don't know anything about black people. You pretend you like them. You tell yourself you like them. But you don't care about them at all. Like kids with cancer. You just pretend like you care about them. You never do anything meaningful for them. You're a hypocritical white Democrat. Everyone knows this.
DeleteTell us all about "Trump's comments about black jobs". Did he say that before or after he said he wanted to become a dictator and execute Liz Cheney? You're playing up a Trump comment out of context to get political mileage. You faking like it's real and it's meaningful. But doing so is so transparent. Everyone knows you're full of fucking shit. That is a a problem for Democrats. Are you simply too stupid to realize this?
DeleteYou're like the French plantation owners in Apocalypse Now. You don't realize they way you have been thinking is over and past. You're like someone wanting to disco all night long in 1985. You don't realize the world has moved on. Moved on from bullshit like twisting a quote to try to scare people. Didn't you notice how that just backfired spectacularly? Trump is Hitler. He hates Puerto Ricans? The fake outrage game is fucking over, bro. Are you going to realize it on your own or are you going to wait for the fucking idiot bloggers you read to acknowledge it first? Stop being a fucking sheep.
DeleteStop embarrassing yourself every day with your fucking dated rhetoric. Those days are. not coming back. Playing the race card doesn't work anymore. Learn to think for yourself, All you do is help Trump, fucking sheep.
Delete
Delete"Democrats became the party of smug white people which was alienating to, well ... everyone who wasn't one."
Well, there's the party apparatus, they are serving the global finance and the multinationals.
And then there's the rank-and-file, the moonbats. Most of those are just retards.
And you're talking to a bot. Bots could be simply automated scripts. Or some cheap labor in Albania or India, operating according to simple instructions.
"The budget extension bill involved many citizens contacting their representatives"
DeleteIncluding one "citizen" who happens to own a major social media platform. His influence seems to have been central to the last-minute collapse of Republican support for the proposed extension.
All it takes to get your head firmly planted up grumps stinking ass is $250M. Man of the fucking people libtards. Deal with it.
DeleteI must have hit a nerve for you to blather on like that. Hey I've got an idea. Next time you see a gathering of black people why don't you muster up a little of that venom and harangue them as you have done here. You can start by telling them that their representatives in congress are all token.Then follow up by telling them that if they voted for Kamala Harris they are responsible for electing the clown you serve. Ask them how they like their black jobs, that as Trump inferred in a debate, are at risk of being lost to immigrants who cannot speak English. Ask them how they liked birtherism and the treatment of the central park five by your idol. That should work out real well for you. But there is a way out of the problem you will have created. Explain, finally that you are full of shit and realize that you are out of your lane in discussing anything other than your bigotry, having no business assuming anything about how they vote or how their representatives got into congress. Hopefully that won't work out for you, but it will be nice to have you embarrass yourself with that admission before getting your fat white ass beaten.
ReplyDeleteNo one gives a fuck about your idiotic bullshit, Soros-bot. Go sniff your fingers.
Delete8:05 Trump is not my idol. Your comments don't mean anything. More accusations of racism in 2024. They don't have any effect or impact. It's not 2012. The bloggers you read are all fed information directly from the DNC, wittingly sometimes, unwittingly others. That's why you reflect DNC talking points almost word for word and point by point. It's not about Trump. It's about you. You are stuck in the past, pretending you care abut Black people and children with cancer but the whole world knows you don't. The world knows that is a front. That shit has been exposed for a long time but you never got the memo. The only interesting issue is when and if you catch up to the rest of the world. You are right that Republicans are horrible. But you make a mistake thinking that means Democrats are good. They're not. They world has moved way past 2012. The last election was a huge turning point. You're ravings have no effect. Reading them is just watching a poor guy who is a relic of past times, running on fumes, totally out of touch.
DeleteEg. this is something you are out of touch about:
Delete'There are far more lies and bullshit on the right compared to the left.'
That's 2012 talking.
@9:36 AM
DeleteHorrible? I know one decent Republican: Rand Paul. Can you name one decent Democrat? You can't. Every time one gets, by accident, elected, they immediately get rid of them. It's telling that Sanders, one (if phoney) socialist in the system, is not a Democrat.
You don’t know anything about me but you have disclosed a few things about yourself. You think Rand Paul is a good Republican. As in Ayn Rand libertarian Republican. You think black members of congress are token. You think Democrats are smug white phonies. That is quite enough to make you laughable. Anything more is icing on the cake. The single demographic that most well separated Harris from Trump voters was a college education, with Harris winning by very wide margins among the college educated and Trump by very wide margins among those with high school or less education. The smug white phonies in your fake world are college educated voters of any race in the real world. All you have is your bullshit speculation about your contrived world.
Delete
DeleteWe know everything about you, Corby. You're a Soros bot and a passionate Somerby hater; 'nuff said.
The truth triggers these transparent right wing trolls.
DeleteHarris lost in a low turnout election primarily due to voter suppression and sexism.
Establishment/insider Dem operatives are not focusing on these reasons, they take issue with things like wokeism and Biden’s perceived frailty.
What’s bemusing about this spastic troll, is his complaints about Dems are ten times worse with Trump and the Republicans. This troll’s incoherency reveals that they have no adherence to any actual stance other than an attempt to stoke chaos.
None of your insults has any effect or impact. It's just watching an out of touch old man not realizing the world has past him by. You don't care about Blacks. You are a DNC dead ender still playing the race card. It would be pitying in a way if you weren't such a dick and a hypocrite.
DeleteYou can't see the world has past you by. Maybe that happened because you were too busy acting like a dick and issuing extreme accusations to anyone who didn't swallow the same propaganda you did. You're a fucking sheep.
Rand Paul, your one favorite politician, is a physician. An ophthalmologist by training. After completing training, it is standard practice to become board certified. Board certification is a measurement of competency, much like the bar exam, except a physician can open a practice having failed or not taken the test. If your doctor is not board certified it almost always means he could not pass the test. Good practices generally hire only board certified physicians (or board eligible, those having not yet taken the test). Rand Paul decided not to adhere to this standard. Instead he constructed his own certification agency, giving himself a piece of paper to hang on his wall, declaring himself to have become certified (by an agency of his own making). Of course a patient not reading the fine print would think that Rand Paul was certified by a legitimate licensing agency and found to have achieved the level of competency that this entails. This is the level of honesty to be expected from a career hack like Rand Paul. Your guy.
DeleteYou're confusing me with someone else. But thanks for the information about Rand Paul.
DeleteYour rhetorical framework became extinct a month and a half ago. That war is over but you're still in the bushes fighting as if no one told you. It makes sense. A lot of people are followers. And as I've said before politics is not your strong suit. You're realllly bad at it. That's why you misunderstand Somerby who has been pretty much dead on correct for 20 year straight.
DeleteBut watching that rhetorical framework crash and burn from an objective perspective has been really interesting. I would feel sorry for you if you didn't act like such a dick every day.
They didn't get any new scripts yet. Have to utilize the old ones that don't make any sense anymore.
DeleteAnd occasionally reuse some old smears, as in the Rand Paul episode above.
2:04: Exactly.
Delete1:48-2:11. Demographics would have it that your substanceless fodder is generated from undereducated minds of Trump cultists. Most adults grow out of Ayn Rand libertarianism. Very few would call black congressmen tokens. But you’re special. Keep up the good work. Your comments identify you as inconsequential.
DeleteWhat is exactly is the problem with Trump‘s black jobs quote?
Delete(Watch. He won’t say because it’s an insinuation.)
Yes, tell us exactly the problem we are supposed to have with that comment.
(Standby for the non-response.)
This may come as a surprise to you but suggesting that immigrants with English as a second language pose a threat to a particular racial demographic is racist. There will always be a subset of the workforce whose educational qualifications place them in jobs that are at risk for replacement with uneducated cheaper labor. The workers doing such jobs are not defined by a specific racial group. If you happen to be a Black business executive or physician the term Black jobs is a stereotypical racial smear.
DeleteIf you happen to be the commenter whose only favored politician is the so-called libertarian Rand Paul, consider this: whatever Rand Paul may think he represents in terms of fiscal responsibility, he happens to represent a state dependent on the federal tax receipts from more well educated and higher grossing Northern states to provide for the welfare of his constituents. Kentucky, like many other red states, is on the dole, sucking at the teat of the federal budget, so any pontificating about fiscal responsibility by Rand Paul and other red state politicians is ludicrous as he lobbies for more federal dollars than his state contributes. Admiring Rand Paul the libertarian is to buy in to a fallacious misrepresentation of who he is as defined by what he does. It's quite fine that his job involves lobbying for more federal dollars going to his state than it contributes. Just don't equate his activities with anything a libertarian would engage in.
Why would that be racial slur to these business executives? Or anyone else? You’re making claims but you’re not providing any basis for them. No, I’m not any kind of advocates of Paul. I don’t know why you keep bringing him up. It’s not relevant either. So you’ve deflected. We should’ve been offended by trumps black jobs comment because. It’s a racial stereotype?? How is it a racial stereotype? Isn’t he saying or illegal immigrants take away jobs from Black people? Your embarrassing. I’m trying to tell you that the days of these types of insinuations are over. You can feel free to keep doing them, but they only help Trump And the Rand Paul’s of the world. Whoever the hell that is.
DeleteLet’s hear your reasoning. Why would that be a racial stereotype?
Delete(He won’t answer because it is full of shit obviously.)
It doesn’t really matter how you define it. It matters that you are still making those types of claims. It matters for your own political cause. A Trump supporter would welcome that you continue to be so daft as to make them. Playing the race card with insinuations is, at this point, giving them a huge gift with a bow on it.
DeleteSo sorry you don't do math, dumbass. 15% of the population in this country is black. When a politician who has trafficked in birtherism, claimed 5 black males were guilty of rape after they were exonerated, and questioned the race of his last presidential opponent- a woman who identifies as black and went to Howard University- uses the term "black jobs" to describe those at the very lowest rung of the employment ladder, when 85% of the workforce is not black, that is stereotyping that form of labor by race. You would never hear a black person describe careers in banking, science or medicine as "white jobs". I can't help it that you are mentally incompetent to understand this, and have zero interest in debating it with you. That you don't know who Rand Paul is, irrespective of whether my comment was to you or some other loser, is testimony to how challenged you are by simple facts. But go ahead and keep embarrassing your sorry, undereducated white ass with your substanceless comments.
Delete
Delete"You would never hear a black person describe careers in banking, science or medicine as "white jobs"."
Would those be "Jew jobs", by chance? I need to check with Al Sharpton.
Thank you for explaining your reasoning about why the black jobs comment is racial stereotyping. Which is basically, you want it to be looked at as racial stereotyping, you wish that it could be looked at as racial stereotyping. You will call it racial stereotyping, even though you don’t have any logical reason to do so. What I’m trying to tell you is that rhetorical technique doesn’t work anymore. Broadbrush insinuations, in case you didn’t notice, completely failed your party last time. So it’s seems kind of stupid to continue to do them. They help Trump. So maybe you’re working for Trump and like Trump. Why do you like him so much? Why do you continue to help him?
DeleteHere is how the Haris campaign described the black jobs comment: "Donald Trump’s comment about “Black jobs” is yet another example of how he continues to spread lies and racist rhetoric to divide us for his own gain. Trump doesn’t care about communities of color. He only cares about himself."
DeleteDemocrats should evaluate the effectiveness of this type of messaging and its persuasive power given their historic loss and the overwhelming and historic unpopularity of Biden. People might become desensitized or start questioning whether Democrats have anything substantial to offer when they issue illogical, emotional claims like these. They could generate sympathy for Trump and alienate undecided voters. It seems reckless to issue illogical accusations that involve such a serious topic.
Giving advice to the opposing party seems to be the order of the day here. So based on the single demographic that separated Trump from Harris voters most effectively, the best chance for the republican party now, in the recent past and going forward is to lower high school graduation rates and avoid any talk of college altogether. Continuing to work toward that goal should continue to spell success for your party. It's the future for the party and no matter how much mommy wants you to make her proud and pass your GED it's your job to resist. Good luck with that and don't let any of those illegals take your jobs away.
DeleteStand your ground gun laws are Affirmative Action for white people.
DeleteI don't know if ad hominem hurts or helps, but it is certainly the order of the day here, and with more sadness than rancor, it is impossible to escape the fact I just feel that Democrats shouldn’t make accusations of racism unless they have a lot of meat on the bone. Because if they don’t, people not only see-through them, but begin to look at the accuser as being desperate which results in the exact opposite of their intended result. I can see that you don’t feel the tactic is worth examining at this point and in this venue. I understand how you may feel that way this morning and may prefer to turn your attention to other things and other ideas that involve less introspection. I am certainly amenable if that would make you feel better.
DeleteI'm a Democrat by the way. Not a member of the opposing party. Unlike a lot of other Democrats it seems, I hate losing and want to examine every single possible aspect of a gigantic loss.
DeleteI'm still waiting for someone to find that Republican voter who cares about something other than bigotry and white supremacy, obviously.
Delete@9:51 Sanders has never once self identified as a socialist you right wing news addled dolt. Do some real research before exposing how much you have been dumbed down by your teams annoying repitition of lies.
DeleteI myself heard him self-identifying as socialist, you stupid Soros-bot. On cspan or some such. He's done it a million times.
DeleteEvery Republican voter is a bigot.
DeleteYou all are being awful ugly.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/Jd009xnTHQ0?si=PFK4GJJzSB7GwXkT
I am an excellent bridge player. Excellent bridge player.
ReplyDeleteDiscussion of the original budget extension generally includes he casual assumption that the government has enough money to cover the additional spending. But, it doesn't. That new spending would come from borrowing.
ReplyDeleteJust to say that some bill does something good isn't enough. Can the government afford the cost? Would that money be better spent on something else? Is there a way that goal could be achieved at a lower price? These questions should all be evaluated. But, a proper evaluation can't be done in half a day.
How long did the GOP deliberate when they gave massive tax cuts to the wealthy, thereby creating one of the largest deficits in US history, at the expense of ordinary people, during Trump’s first term?
DeleteThe GOP has no intention of dealing with the revenue side of the budget. Their ideas are tired and have failed at every turn. They praise Arthur Laffer, whose failed theory of tax cuts generating revenue is used as a front to protect the assets of undertaxed billionaires. It’s that simple.
DeleteCan the Government return to tax rates for rich people like they were when Eisenhower was President Dickhead? Why do u have faith in a foreign shithead who wants to stuff his pockets with your retirement funds. How is this a thing?
DeleteIt's not just the original extension, David. The same applies to the Trump/Musk proposed version and the final version that actually passed. All three authorize spending in excess of federal revenues. The grandstanding by Trump and Musk won nothing.
Delete@9:08 - do you realize how bigoted your comment was? Like Musk, my father was an immigrant who became a US citizen, so I take your insult of foreign-born Americans personally.
DeleteI am sure that there is some easy explanation that involves fiscal responsibility for Trump's advising congress to raise the debt ceiling. What would that be, DIC? Or should we hold off on any concerns about the deficit until Democrats are back in power?
DeleteDavid in Cal,
DeleteDid your Father totally outclass white people on the job market, like all the other immigrants did?
All you have to do to get the Right to support political correctness, is to tell the truth about them.
Delete@9:08 here DIC. I assume your dad didn't spend $250 M to become defacto President of America. I also assume your dad wasn't the richest man in the world.That he wasn't an unsecured Putin asset heading dozens of projects impacting NATO security. Also assume he did not work the levers of power to stuff more money in his pockets at the expense of the commons. I don't get how close minded you are. I think all immigrants, the improperly documented like Musk, or the properly documented like your dad, are needed here. White people just aren't making enough babies. Undocumented immigrants don't come in large numbers unless the job market is doing well. And with the greatest economy in the world, people under duress will flood the zone. I have consulted at many nasty ass factories and the nastiest positions are always filled with Spanish speaking folks. If die Herren Miller and Drumph move even 250,000 out, a lot of industry will go sideways. Native born Americans won't touch these jobs for twice the pay. They are also a net deficit reducer as measured by both they and their employer paying sales tax and they not being eligible for SS or Medicare. Immigrants also have a tremendous positive impact on the GDP helping tax revenue. Immigrants have a low crime rate. They do not self identify as being here illegally while registering to vote, which would be simultaneously registering to be arrested. Come on man, get real. But what about drivers permits says dumb ass DIC.
DeleteSimon Rosenberg (Hopium Chronicles) says that 5 polls are now showing movement in Biden's direction, following Trump's conviction:
ReplyDelete"Biden Gains In Five Polls Now - As I wrote on Tuesday we’ve started seeing meaningful movement to Biden in new polling. 4 polls - CBS, NYT, Morning Consult, Yahoo/YouGov - have shown movement to Biden of 2 points or more. Today we got a fifth. Echelon, a Republican pollster, found Biden gaining 4 points since their last poll, going from 46-49 to 48-47. A highly credible Democratic polling consortium, Navigator, found Biden ahead nationally this week, 48-44 (4 pts).
I think it would be reasonable for Trump’s 34 felony convictions to shift the election 2-3 points toward Biden, and that is what many polls are showing now. It’s why assertions that Trump leads or is favored can no longer be backed up by data."
Here is another perspective, from Yastreblansky:
ReplyDelete"John Ganz:
Still, there’s a lot of time before the election. Maybe Biden will spring miraculously back to life and thrash Trump in a later debate. Maybe one day we will all laugh about how everyone pissed their pants. But then again, maybe not. God does have a sense of humor, but it often seems at our expense. [end Ganz quote]
He sprang back to life the minute it was over, at least if your TV was tuned to MSNBC, which showed him glad-handing the entourage and giving a brief improvised speech. Even his voice was back. He was a happy warrior. He looked positively joyous.