WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2025
In search of the missing 36 percent: Is "something wrong" with President Trump? Also, was something wrong with President Biden over the past few years?
In each case, we'll guess that the answer is yes. We'll also guess that the two commanders were (and are) dealing with different medical syndromes.
That said, the one man is OUT and the other is IN—unless you're watching the Fox News Channel, where the tools avoid discussing some of Trump's recent behaviors through their endless focus on the pointless trashing of Biden.
That said, is "something wrong" with President Trump—with the person who's president now? As a bit of comic relief, we'll offer one of the lunatic statements he made in a recent address.
We aren't referring to his inaugural address; we're referring to the speech he gave the night before. Headline included, here's part of the New York Times report on that odd oration:
Trump Celebrates in Washington at Rally Laced With Exaggerations and Falsehoods
President-elect Donald J. Trump delivered a boastful, campaign-style rally at a downtown Washington arena on the eve of his second inaugural, celebrating his election victory and vowing to advance his agenda in spite of what he called a “failed and corrupt political establishment” in the nation’s capital.
[...]
His speech was filled with the kinds of misleading or exaggerated claims he often made on the campaign trail. At one point on Sunday, the president-elect claimed that he had won the youth vote by 36 points. In fact, exit polls showed that while young voters did shift toward Mr. Trump, he lost most categories of younger voters to Ms. Harris.
Did the boastful commander really win the youth vote by 36 points? The Times challenged that claim in a rather fuzzy manner. They did provide a link to Daniel Dale's fact-check at CNN.
Dale was less fuzzy, more direct:
Fact check: Trump makes false claims about his 2024 victory, the 2020 election, immigration and more at DC rally
At the dawn of a new Trump era, the same old Trump lies.
The day before his second inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump held a campaign-style rally at an arena in Washington, where he repeated some of the most frequent false claims from the campaign trail while also sprinkling in some new falsehoods.
[...]
The youth vote: Trump falsely claimed that “we won the youth vote by 36 points” in the 2024 election. He didn’t say how he was defining “the youth vote”—CNN has asked his transition team to clarify—but there’s no basis for his claim by any reasonable definition. While young voters, particularly young men, did shift toward Trump compared with the 2020 election, exit poll data published by CNN found that Vice President Kamala Harris beat Trump 54% to 43% among voters ages 18-24, 53% to 45% among voters ages 25-29, and 51% to 45% among voters ages 30-39. Even if Harris’ actual margins were smaller—exit poll data is often flawed—there is simply no sign that Trump dominated Harris with young voters.
Even Dale was too kind. Those exit poll data are the only data we have. According to the exit polls, Harris outpolled Trump among voters in every age group up through age 39.
She outpolled Trump in every group—but he claimed he won the youth vote by 36 points! Why exactly would a person make a weird statement like that?
(Note to the kids at the New York Times—the statement in question is neither "misleading" nor "exaggerated." It's something much worse than that.)
Why would a person make such a weird claim? We think again of the comically pitiful Joe McCarthy figure in the original Manchurian Candidate, who keeps going out and making up fanciful numbers—wholly invented numbers which change every time he speaks.
Still, that was fiction and this is real life. We'll leave you today with an obvious question:
Is Donald J. Trump insane?
Related topic: We've got to change our way of talking, Charlie Sykes has now said.
We'd say he's making an excellent point. More on that some other day.
Yes.
ReplyDeleteCeceliaJanuary 22, 2025 at 3:57 PM:
Delete"Anonymouse 3:42pm, no, that’s called a politician who has won office and is turning loose the people who don’t share the ideas that got him elected."
Gee, it all sounds so harmless. Unless you, you know, follow politics. In which case you know full well that Trump is a lawless authoritarian who wants to get rid of anyone who would exercise any independence in the discharge of their duties, anyone who would be loyal to anything (including duty, the law, or the country) over Trump. We've seen this over and over and over again. Trump has even said as much. He's said the Justice Department should just do whatever he asks. He's said he wants generals who are like Hitler's generals and will do whatever he says without question. But Trump supporters will continue to pretend that everything Trump does is perfectly fine. Is anyone else sick to death of these superficial, knee-jerk defenses of Trump's every move?
CeceliaJanuary 22, 2025 at 6:41 AM:
Delete"Mike L, it wouldn’t matter if they’re identical. The act of throwing your arm up and out is not so abnormal that it’s under a copyright by Nazis."
"it wouldn’t matter if they’re identical". Yes, it does matter that they were identical -- because of the unique peculiarities of how the salute is done.
"The act of throwing your arm up and out is not so abnormal." This description utterly fails to capture the very specific and absolutely abnormal way in which the Nazi salute is done. It's not just "throwing your arm up and out." It's the specific way in which it's done. The militaristic vigor and "snap" of it. The unnatural rigidness of the arm and wrist. And maybe the most telltale part: the specific way in which the hand is held out-- stiff, not waving or moving at all, flat, forming a perfect line with the wrist and arm, with fingers and thumb extended and pulled tightly together. If this was just "the act of throwing your arm up and out," it wouldn't have instantly created the buzz it did. The neo-Nazis wouldn't have instantly responded favorably and acknowledged it for what it obviously was.
And then there's the fact that it's not like this happened in a vacuum. There's all sorts of context which, when coupled with the peculiarities of the gesture, make it all the more likely that Musk made the gesture deliberately to imitate the Nazi salute. That context includes a burgeoning quasi-fascistic movement, Trump's flirtation with the neo-Nazi far right ("stand back and stand by" just as one of many examples), Musk's family history, Musk's flirtation with and boosting of far right extremists on Twitter, and his deliberately provocative trolling of the left. I don't know what exactly he intended by giving the gesture, but given his penchant for dickish trolling, I wouldn't be surprised if that's why he did it. Just to troll the left. (And about that "I throw my heart." That's to give him plausible deniability when the inevitable backlash occurred. It's part of the trolling.)
If anyone wants to see whose description (mine or Cecelia's) does better justice in capturing the nuances of Musk's gesture, I highly encourage you to go to the following blog post and scroll down to the split screen showing Hitler making the salute on the left, and Musk making the same gesture on the right:
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/what-the-fuck-is-this
Btw, I'll admit that neither one of us "knows" in any absolute sense whether Musk intended to imitate the Nazi salute. He's such a fucking weirdo socially/emotionally speaking (and he apparently takes ketamine), that it's possible he did it innocently. But I think the very specific way in which he made the gesture and that bizarre, creepy look on his face, plus the overall context/background, make it seem more likely than not that he was imitating the salute.
Delete"Do it in Germany and find out what happens." British commentator James O'Brien on Musk's gesture:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/shorts/C26ei5WVXEk
Just the fact that it's even in the realm of plausibility that Musk might have done a Nazi salute is disturbing enough. And it comes on the heels of Musk throwing his support behind a neo-Nazi party in Germany:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/shorts/2SmcGx0P3xs
DeleteTriggered idiot-Democrat is a beautiful sight.
Do we care whether Trump is still a liar and still focused on bragging? That really isn't the worst thing wrong with Trump, especially as president. His ignorance on every subect is more concerning, his corruption and theft, his treason and collusion with Russia. But Somerby only looks at his lying, which accusing Fox of distracting from his real problems. One could say the same about Somerby.
ReplyDeleteSome of the people Trump pardoned are already being arrested for new crimes. Isn't this what Trump himself complained about, when immigrants were being released pending asylum hearings, to commit crimes in our country? The J6 criminals were in jail but now they have been released and not all of them are good people who should be back in society:
ReplyDelete"If January 6th defendant Daniel Ball believed his legal woes were over after his case got dismissed in the wake of President Donald Trump's mass pardon, he would have been mistaken.
Politico's Kyle Cheney reports on BlueSky that Ball was arrested on Wednesday for pending federal gun charges, which Cheney notes is "the first arrest initiated by the Trump-led Washington Field Office."
According to the warrant issued for his arrest, Ball "is a two-time convicted felon with prior convictions for domestic violence battery by strangulation and resisting law enforcement with violence."
He sounds like a scary guy. Why was he released?
DeleteBecause he ran for president and was reelected, duh!
Delete"Is Donald J. Trump insane?"
ReplyDeleteLegally, it depends on whether he knew he was committing a crime, if he knew that his acts were illegal and wrong.
Is lying or exaggerating about one's accomplishments illegal or wrong? I don't think so. People do it all the time in everyday life.
Somerby needs to wade out into the deep end and talk about the actual crimes Trump has been committing, the ones that are illegal and that his actions suggest he may not realize are wrong. Are there any of those? I don't think so. Why? Because he tries to cover them up, which suggests guilty knowledge that what he was doing is wrong.
I am not a lawyer, but it seems to me that when Somerby focuses on non-criminal acts to suggest that Trump is insane, he is actually defending Trump because no one will consider such acts to be serious enough to suggest insanity. That includes his grifting and womanizing. People normalize that behavior because it is what is done on a smaller scale by non-insane people. When Somerby starts talking about Trump's actual crimes, I will believe he is sincere about suggesting Trump is insane.
"MADNESS: The silence was a part of the madness!"
DeleteSomerby then goes on to blame Biden and ultimately us for being silent about Trump's madness.
This is Somerby way of saying that because everyone, especially liberals, enabled Trump's madness, we are all complicit in it and it isn't really Trump's fault but ours that he is doing this extreme stuff.
That is, of course, total nonsense. None of us gave Trump permission to do any of these bad things. In fact, we were warning voters about Project 2025 and about what Trump would do if reelected. I don't know what more we could have done. Biden even issued a few more warnings on the way out the door, and has been chastised for it. So, no, we did not enable or condone or normalize or encourage Trump in any way, by silence or by being noisy. We have consistently opposed Trump, as we will continue to do.
But I have to ask -- is something seriously wrong with Somerby? Is Somerby insane? It sure sounds like it to me, and it would be a tragedy if we realized it and said nothing. So, Somerby, ask one of your family to take you to the doctor and let them decide whether what you are writing here is insane or merely disordered. (I say both.)
Good comment @4:06. It's hard to believe that Bob just realized that Trump wildly exaggerates. Non-Trump-haters long ago learned to interpret his comments. E.g., we understand that, "I won the youth vote by 36%" actually means "I did well with the youth vote."
DeleteI don't approve of Trump's wild exaggerations, but I can live with them because I understand what he really means. And, what he really means is generally true, even though the wild exaggerations are untrue.
Does Trump know that invading Denmark is wrong? If he doesn't know that, maybe he is insane. But he would have to actually try to do it, to convince anyone. And then what happens? Do we lock up insane people for being insane or for invading Denmark, or neither? Would his cabinet suggest his removal if he tried to invade Denmark? If they didn't, would that mean they too thought it was OK to invade Denmark. Are they then all crazy?
DeleteWhat Trump is really saying is, "I"ll rollback the Civil Rights Act of 1965, and put the blacks back in their place."
DeleteWhich David hears loud and clear.
Trump exaggerates, but he does it to make a point.
DeleteWhen he says we have a border crisis and immigrant problem, he's saying immigrants will be the scapegoat for all of white people's ills. From their drug addictions, to their lack of gainful employment, white people will have someone else to blame for their woes.
David, you fucking fascist whore, when orange chickenshit calls the FBI agents who worked on the Ross Ulbricht case "scum" after giving that arch criminal a full pardon, was he exaggerating or using mild hyperbole? I am really fucking curious, you lying treasonous bastard. What say you?
Delete@5:06 it's the exact opposite of your claim. "The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark legislation that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." Note that it outlaws discriminations against whites or against men. Democrats have long required affirmative action favoring blacks and women. This is illegal discrimination against men and whites. Today Trump thankfully ended this illegal discrimination and required that people obey the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Delete"I don't approve of Trump's wild exaggerations, but I can live with them because I understand what he really means. And, what he really means is generally true, even though the wild exaggerations are untrue."
DeletePro tip:
1. A simpler description of a wild exaggeration is a lie.
I like sizable fannies and I cannot lie.
DeleteIdiocracy is here. Thanks morans.
DeleteDan Diamond@ddiamond.bsky.social
New: Trump officials have paused all external communications at health agencies like CDC, FDA, NIH. No health alerts and the famed MMWRs; no updates to key websites or social media posts. And no indication how long the pause will last.
The agencies are charged with making decisions that touch the lives of every American and are the source of crucial information to health-care providers.
Make Polio Great Again.
DeleteDavid in Cal,
DeleteWhy is that Republicans are so against a merit-based society?
That's a question the media should be trying to get to the bottom of.
David in Cal,
DeleteWe've never heard a Republican say anything in support of the 100% Estate Tax rate, so we know merit isn't what they are looking for by dismantling DEI initiatives.
So, in your opinion, why do they want to get rid of DEI so badly?
David, there is really know way that you can "know what he really means" and to be perfectly honest, if he "really means" that he did well (or better) with young voters, he should say that. We have thrown away honesty and integrity in this country for political spin, hyperbole, and political points.
DeleteIt's political genius on Trump's part.
DeleteNo Republican voter will care if the price of a dozen eggs is $50 and billionaire elites call the countries shots, as long as white people still rule in the eyes of the law.
It's like Trump (and anyone else who wants to) can read the minds of Republican voters.
Don't ask whether there is something wrong with Trump. Ask whether there is something wrong with what he is doing. For example, was it wrong to pardon those J6 rioters:
ReplyDelete"U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan had some harsh words for the Jan. 6 rioters President Donald Trump just pardoned en masse.
"No pardon can change the tragic truth of what happened on January 6, 2021," Chutkan wrote in a new statement dismissing one of the cases, quoting from filings against several other defendants who are now being fully pardoned. "On that day, 'a mob professing support for then-President Trump violently attacked the Capitol' ... the dismissal of this case cannot undo the 'rampage [that] left multiple people dead, injured more than 140 people, and inflicted millions of dollars in damage' ... it cannot diminish the heroism of law enforcement who 'struggled, facing serious injury and even death, to control the mob that overwhelmed them' ... it cannot whitewash the blood, feces, and terror that the mob left in its wake."
Above all, she wrote, "It cannot repair the jagged breach in America's sacred tradition of peacefully transitioning power."
here here...
DeleteFew consider Trump a religious man, but the need to focus on Trump's actions and not his words was an important part of the National Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral before the inauguration.
ReplyDelete"[Bishop] Budde turned to deliver a message directly to Trump and other politicians by saying, "There isn't much to be gained by our prayers if we act in ways that further deepen the divisions among us. Our scriptures are quite clear about this, that God is never impressed with prayers when actions are not informed by them. Nor does God spare us from the consequences of our Deeds which always, in the end, matter more than the words we pray."
Yes, words can be damaging, but Trump's act of releasing incarcerated J6 rioters was worse than his lying about his vote count, something that is trivial and meaningless after the election.
Why is Somerby fixated on these voting stats? That is weird and makes no sense itself.
"President Donald Trump put former President Joe Biden on notice Wednesday that his failure to include himself as part of his flurry of last-minute pardons before departing from the White House could come back to haunt him."
ReplyDeleteWhy would the sitting president threaten the outgoing president with politically motivated prosecution? Biden can't do anything to Trump. This exhibits the cruelty and vindictiveness that are part of Trump's personality.
Trump also seems to have some sort of cognitive deficit that prevents him from realizing that he is the president of all of the American people. He is stuck in oppositional aggressive political warfare against the Democrats and doesn't seem to realize that he won and is now the President. He should be focused on achieving his own goals (if he has any beyond acquiring more wealth) instead of kicking someone who is retiring from politics.
What is the point of doing things that further aggravates Democrats now that Trump will need Democratic help to pass legislation and get cooperation on projects he may want to accomplish? It is gratuitous and self-defeating to push Democrats away from his party, as if we do not matter to him. Any actual politician would understand that you do not go around senselessly aggravating people you may need later.
It is only two years until the midterms. Trump should be thinking about that and not making sure that no Dems anywhere will ever support him or his party in 2026 or in the House.
Trump is also forgetting that his pet Supremes ruled that a president can't be held criminally liable for official acts.
DeletePerhaps they meant for that to apply only to Republican presidents, of Trump specifically. This country is so fucked up.
DeleteDid Trump really put Biden on notice? I would like to see Trump's actual words, rather than sombody's interpretation.
DeleteLook them up.
Delete"This guy went around giving everybody pardons,” Trump told host Sean Hannity. “And you know the funny thing, maybe the sad thing is he didn't give himself a pardon.”
Deletehttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/didn-t-give-himself-a-pardon-trump-puts-biden-on-notice-over-potential-prosecution/ar-AA1xGls0
“This guy went around giving everybody pardons,” Trump told host Sean Hannity. “And you know the funny thing, maybe the sad thing is he didn't give himself a pardon. And if you look at it, it all had to do with him,” Trump added.
Delete"This guy went around giving everybody pardons,”
DeleteIs that legal, if you're a Democrat?
Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who ran Silk Road, an online black market that moved two hundred million dollars worth of illegal drugs, distributed fake passports, helped hackers collaborate, and laundered money. He was also prosecuted for allegedly soliciting six murders for hire, one against a former employee.
ReplyDeleteDavid and Cecelia support this pardon.
CNN: “There’s been a massive shift from when Trump was first getting into office 8 years ago… I think the American people are going to give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt to do what he wants to do.”
ReplyDeleteAmericans have shifted 20 points toward Trump on deporting all illegals because of the last 4 years of Democrat corruption, "sanctuary cities," mismanagement.
No one watches Fox News.
Delete"because of the last 4 years of Democrat corruption." You misspelled "because of the last 4 years of relentless propaganda by Trump and the right about undocumented immigrants"
DeleteSay what you will about Republican voters, but you can't say they aren't motivated by bigotry.
Delete"WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Calling the performance “jarring,” millions of Americans were emotionally unprepared on Tuesday for the bizarre spectacle of someone in Washington advocating kindness.
ReplyDeleteAfter a day filled with angry calls for exclusion, scapegoating, and random cruelty, the quiet two-minute plea for mercy left many Americans in a state of shock.
Harland Dorrinson, who watched the incongruous request for empathy at his home in Akron, Ohio, echoed the sentiments of many when he questioned whether he had heard the speaker’s words correctly.
“At first, I thought I was hearing things,” he said. “I’d been drinking since Monday morning.”
This is humor but it makes a good point. Trump responded to the Bishop's plea with a hostile diatribe on Truth Social where he said mean things about her. What must it be like to live in the skin of a man who displays such anger and hate toward the unfortunate of the world?
I don't agree with Somerby's formulation that a mean-spirited person like Trump must be insane. I think Trump embodies evil. We should have never allowed him anywhere near our government, much less elected him president. Now we will all suffer for that mistake.
"I don't agree with Somerby's formulation that a mean-spirited person like Trump must be insane. I think Trump embodies evil."
DeleteExactly. Which was part of my point the other day. These religious loonies who think it was God who spared Trump's life would be wrong EVEN IF CHRISTIANITY WERE TRUE. Even if we presume for the sake of argument that the (ludicrous) Christian belief system is true, it doesn't follow that it was likely God who spared Trump's life from that bullet. Given what an abominable human being he is and the many ways he will abuse his power, it would be much more likely that it was Satan who intervened.
Is Trump insane?
ReplyDeleteOh, hell yes.
Nutty as a squirrel turd.
David and Cecelia support Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense.
ReplyDeleteAll decent people do.
DeleteWhat bigot wouldn't?
DeleteThis morning’s post has two hundred comments.
ReplyDeleteHalf are by Cecelia.
DeleteCecelia must be in her manic phase.
DeleteCecelia is to be commended. She's "here" instead of getting behind the wheel of a vehicle.
DeleteThe Democrat fake bishop who beclowned and disgraced herself on the national stage is straight out of Central Casting down to the lesbian haircut. You can't believe these people are real.
ReplyDeleteFunny. We feel the same way about you.
DeleteRight. No one ever should dare to ask Trump not to be an ass.
DeleteFake?
Delete"Lesbian haircut?"
DeleteHey small-dicked, gun-toting, white supremicist, religious looney, I bet that bishop has more of the spirit of Christ in her than you do with your incessant hatred.
DeleteTriggered bigot-Republican at 9:26 is a beautiful sight.
DeleteNot fake. Lesbyterianism is a real religion.
DeleteOverall, men voted for Trump by 11 points (43 percent Harris – 54 percent Trump), a 9 point swing from 2020 when Trump won by 2 points. Women voted for Harris by 6 points (51 percent Harris – 45 percent Trump), a 4 point swing from 2020, when Biden won these voters by 10 points. Americans under the age of 45 voted for Harris by a 2-point margin (49 percent Harris – 47 percent Trump), a 17 point swing from 2020 when Biden won these voters by 19 points (58 percent Biden – 39 percent Trump). Men under the age of 45 voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 election by an 8-point margin (44 percent Harris – 52 percent Trump), a 16-point shift from 2020, where the group voted for Biden by an 8-point margin. Women under 45 also shifted 5 points, voting for Harris by a margin of 10-points (52 percent Harris – 42 percent Trump), where they voted for Biden by a 15-point margin.
ReplyDeleteAmericans under the age of 30 voted for Harris by 4 points (50 percent Harris – 46 percent Trump), though young men and women diverged dramatically, with men under 30 voting for Trump by 16 points (41 percent Harris – 57 percent Trump), and women under 30 voting for Harris by 24 points (59 percent Harris – 35 percent Trump).
Majorities of young men rated Trump favorably going into Election Day, with 52 percent of men under the age of 45 and 52 percent of men between the ages of 45 and 64 rating him favorably. These same groups were deeply unfavorable of Harris, with majorities of men across age groups rating her unfavorably by double digit margins (men 18-44; net -12, men 45-64; net -16, men 65+; net -21).
A majority of white men and white women voted for Trump. College educated men swung 16 points to vote for Trump.
Over 60% of every age group except for those over age 65 responded that they view the future under Trump favorably and optimistically.
What is your point?
DeleteMen are the problem in this country.
DeletePro-tip: Don't let the anti-immigrants paint with such a small-width brush.
If it weren't for men women would still be living in grass huts. They know this is true, which accounts for the perpetual rage of feminists.
DeleteLakin Riley was killed by a man.
DeletePutin's still mad about Biden pulling us out of the Republican's Afghanistan quagmire, so he's making Trump block the Afghanis who helped the U.S. in the war from re-settling here.
ReplyDeleteTough break for them that Putin runs the White House now.
If the media wants to know what Trump will gain by taking these actions, they should ask Putin directly.
ReplyDeleteAmericans aged 18-29 approve of President Donald Trump by a whopping 27 points - new poll
ReplyDeleteApprove: 58% (+27)
Disapprove: 31%
Socal Strategies
Percentage of Republican voters that are bigots: 100%.
ReplyDeletePercentage of Republican voters who aren't bigots: 0%.
Paying Attention
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