WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1, 2025
Trump won by millions and millions: Absent this morning's event in New Orleans, it might have been the leading topic on this morning's Fox & Friends. It could have been a contender!
We're not even saying that would have been wrong! Even as we sit here typing, this is the start of the news report at the New York Times:
Man Is Arrested in Subway Shoving in Manhattan
A 23-year-old man was arrested and charged with attempted murder on Tuesday night, hours after a man waiting on a Manhattan subway platform was violently shoved into the path of an oncoming train.
The victim, whose name had not been released, was in critical but stable condition at Bellevue Hospital, the police said.
The man who was arrested in the shoving, Kamel Hawkins, was also charged with second-degree assault. He has a string of past arrests on charges of assault, harassment and weapons possession, according to police and court records.
That might have been the featured news event on today's Fox & Friends. As has been decreed by Caesar, everyone would have agreed with everything everyone said.
As everyone knows, the Fox News Channel presents certain established Storylines concerning events of this general type. By the way, can anyone say that the Fox News Channel's established framework is obviously "wrong?"
At this point, we offer a question:
Is it possible that those of us in Blue America have perhaps been dumbnified a tiny bit by the established approach to such events of our own tribal orgs? (We refer to an established approach in which we agree to glance away from the themes which are driving the discourse at Fox.) Is it possible that Red America is actually being exposed to the more intelligent approach to events of this type?
(Quickly, also this: Under established rules of the game, it's journalistically normal to discuss behaviors of this type in terms of mental illness and mental health. Such concepts are not allowed to appear within our failing nation's political reporting or discussions.)
This morning, also this:
Last evening, as the old year ended, the incoming president was asked about President Biden's reported belief that he would have won the election had he stayed iin the race.
The incoming president doesn't seem to agree. As he gave his response, he cleared up a lingering question about the November election:
TRUMP (12/31/24): Well, he was way behind. He would’ve really, I assume, not had a chance. He was way behind her, and we won in record numbers, as you know. in every swing state.
We won the popular vote by millions and millions of people, so—
Hey look, I wish him well. He had a chance to do it in the debate and that didn't work out too well for him. That was, I guess, the reason that really led to his downfall.
Interesting! The selling of message never stops on various sides of various aisles. That has perhaps never been more true than with the endless selling of message performed by the incoming president, pretty much all through his life.
According to the incoming president, he won the nationwide popular vote "by millions and millions of people." Also, he seems to have said that he won by "record numbers" in every swing state—even in Michigan, where he won by less than one point!
The messaging never stops, and not just from Donald J. Trump. Just last night, we saw the latest Stepford on the Fox News Channel describe November's election as "a landslide."
Needless to say, no numbers were cited. According to the Cook Political Report, here's where the numbers stand:
Nationwide popular vote, 2024
Donald J. Trump (R): 77,301,997 (49.80%)
Kamala Harris (D): 75,017,626 (48.33%)
Our question: Is fewer than 2.3 million votes actually "millions and millions?" Before you answer, remember what we showed you yesterday:
In certain precincts, 2.1 percentage points is less, while 1.47 percentage points is known to be much, much more.
Did Candidate Donald J. Trump actually win "by millions and millions of people?" At the New York Post, Douglas McEntyre has reported what the incoming president said. McEntyre was careful to avoid citing any actual numbers.
Within the world of modern journalism, statistics can be very hard. Storyline is understood to be easy and pleasing.
Numbers can be annoying and hard. Tribal dogma is easy. That said, riddle us this:
Is it possible that, on balance, the Fox News Channel has been more right than MSNBC about that event in New York? Is it possible that cable viewers in Red America have been dumbed down less, in this particular content area, than those of us who are Blue?
Well now I just ramble 'round to see what I can see.It's a wide, wicked world, sure a funny place to be.
ReplyDelete"Is it possible that those of us in Blue America have perhaps been dumbnified a tiny bit by the established approach to such events of our own tribal orgs?"
Those of you in "Blue America" are dumb as a rock.
This has been another installment of obvious answers to simple questions.
How dumb is it rock? Are all rocks equally dumb? Are there no smart rocks? How can you be sure?
Delete10:32 Look up Trump vs Harris voters and educational attainment and get back to us. Hint : the red states aren’t the brightest. You can’t fix stupid.
DeleteThree are three main categories of rocks: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary.
DeleteIgneous rocks are more foundational, in a sense, they form from the cooling of magma and lava. As igneous rocks slowly cool, they form mineral crystals, but when they cool quickly there is less time for crystals to form, so they are more glass-like.
Right wingers/Republicans tend to be hotheads, quickly getting worked up, therefore their brains are unable to form complex structures, resulting in a glassy smooth brain.
Well done, @12;42.
Delete@11:52 You can't fix stupid but you can fix ignorance.
DeleteTrump was obviously joking, like when he says he's a smart businessman. Some people hate Trump so much, they purposefully forget his brilliant sense of humor.
ReplyDeleteI laughed so hard, I almost cried when Trump said he was for the working man.
Delete"Is it possible that, on balance, the Fox News Channel has been more right than MSNBC about that event in New York? Is it possible that cable viewers in Red America have been dumbed down less, in this particular content area, than those of us who are Blue?
ReplyDeleteWe're asking you if that is possible. "
As Somerby has repeatedly said over the years, anything is possible. But why is he asking what is possible instead of what is true?
People do not function on the basis of what is possible. We function on the basis of what is likely (when the truth cannot be known, either because it is in the future or cannot be figured out from the facts at hand). Possibility gives us too little info to work with, to base our decisions upon. Likelihood helps us choose the best path going forward under uncertainty.
Why does Somerby present the worst way of figuring out what to do, over and over? I think it is because using possibility as the basis for decision-making allows him to use his preferred guess without considering whether it is right or not. But if he is just going to go forward with whatever he prefers, why bother pretending it is the best choice? He has the right to use whatever consideration he wants -- should just go forward with his favorite approach and forget trying to justify it.
I heard this quote from Dolly Parton on TV last night: "Don't rent it, don't borrow it, don't lease it -- own it baby!
Somerby tends to own nothing. He is unwilling to state any definitive conclusion. But he wants to go forward with confidence, so he pulls the wool over everyone's eyes with his "anything is possible" mantra. It is unhelpful and lends no credibility to anything Somerby says. And that is true in this case too.
There was a mass killing yesterday in New Orleans. Did Somerby not read today's papers this morning? Apparently not, or he decided not to mention it. Anything is possible. And if I say that anything is possible, then I don't have to provide evidence of a single goddamned thing, but I can speculate all I want.
"Also, is it possible that, on the rare occasion, our messaging here in Blue America may have tended to dumb us down?"
I suppose that is possible, there may be that rare occasion, but how rare is it and how much are we dumbed down on such occasions, if they occur at all? Somerby doesn't say. And in the process, he dumbs us all down way more than anything or anyone else does, because we learn absolutely nothing from such speculation. And if we think we have learned anything, then we have truly become dumber.
How many of the unfortunate people celebrating New Year's Eve in New Orleans are still alive? Somerby doesn't seem to know or care, but the rest of us might like to know. That means we need to leave the realm of possibility and enter the world of facts, which is what any press should be providing. Fox does that poorly while other media do much better. How do we know that? Again, facts provide answers while "anything is possible" dumbs us down, as Somerby unhelpfully noted.
Here is a much better essay on this subject:
ReplyDeletehttps://hartmannreport.com/p/the-war-on-wisdom-how-the-gop-made
It is a short step from keeping kids ignorant to keeping their parents just as ignorant, via vehicles like Fox News. Somerby doesn't need ignorance. He prefers to be fatuous.
What did Somerby just say today about news coverage on the right and the left? Who knows? His essay is so devoid of meaning as to have been written by a Chat bot with the instruction "write 1000 words without saying anything concrete at all" except that a guy who was pushed in front of a train is still alive. And yes, we get the impression that he thinks Fox is bad, and that the rest of the press is just as bad, especially blue media (still undefined). How has our blue media (whatever that is) dumbed us down? Somerby doesn't say. He doesn't have to. He only has to say it is a possibility. That is not the standard of truth at any blue newspaper or cable news station. That's how we know that at least they are not dumbing us down as much as Somerby does, with his daily nonsense.
I thought it was possible that Somerby might decide to turn over a new leaf. Today, I see the confirmation that my hope was wrong. It is not possible that he has changed his ways this year, given this poor start today. The fact of today's essay rules out the possibility that he has changed anything about his propaganda efforts in the new year (which started today). Facts rule out possibilities and narrow down the remaining guesses to those that can be true and those that are obviously false. That's why we deal in facts, not possibilities.
When you go to school, they teach you how to do that, unless you are attending one of the dream factories the right wing prefers, where fantasies are given equal status and no one minds whether what you learn is true or not. Fox is such a factory, for adults. An adult who cares about their children shouldn't support the right wing's idea of education or Somerby's heaping pile of shit, served with pseudo-philosophical mumbling. We should all want to know what is true, not what is possible (or more likely, impossible in a world bound by facts and truth).
Hartmann quotes Reagan’s Sec of Education Bennett:
Delete“If you wanted to reduce crime you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every Black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.”
While technically accurate, it is obviously racist and unreasonable. This is the sort of thing Somerby used to rail against, but he has now flipped and defends and endorses such efforts.
“ Is it possible that, on balance, the Fox News Channel has been more right than MSNBC about that event in New York?”
ReplyDeleteI have no idea, because Somerby says nothing about either one’s coverage of the event.
Same here. If he's not going to give us any idea what he's referring to, why even ask that question?
DeleteA young man with a criminal history pushed someone onto the subway tracks into the path of an oncoming train. The assailant was ientified and arrested. This neatly fits Fox's narrative that cities populated with ethic minorities and led by Democrats are all crime-ridden hellholes in which respectable citizens are under constant threat of random violence.
DeleteMSNBC, on the other hand, probably fails to mention a local crime story on a national newscast. Our Host objects.
At the same time, Fox probably chooses not to mention that the man who drove his truck through a crowd of New Orleans revelers was a Texas-born, Republican registered US citizen. They'll focus instead on his Arabic name.
DeleteTake a look at the Fox website. The main page for US news is practically all crime-related stories.
DeleteThanks. It amazes me that Bob wants to do anything but condemn propaganda of this sort. The only way a random "local" crime like this would be worthy of national news coverage is if there were a substantial spike in the numbers of such crimes that could be clearly and directly traced back to federal government policy. There's been no such spike, and so there can be no such tracing. When you regularly tune in to sources of mis- and disinformation like Fox, you make yourself vulnerable to being caught up in it. Somerby isn't immune to this.
Delete"Looking across homicide trends from 2018 to June 2024, the homicide levels in the summer of 2020 far exceeded previous peaks during the study period (Figure A1), amid COVID lockdowns and widespread protests against police violence after George Floyd’s murder in May by Minneapolis police. By the end of 2020, homicide in the United States had climbed 30%, an historic single-year increase. The upward trend continued in 2021, as murders rose another 7% across the entire city sample, but then reversed as homicide dropped 6% from 2021 to 2022. The homicide rate fell further, by 13%, from 2022 to 2023. But it remained 8% higher at the end of 2023 than the rate in 2019.
DeleteFigure 2 displays the average homicide rate by half-year in the 29 cities for which homicide incident data were available through June 2024 (see Appendix). The homicide rate during the first half of 2024 was 13% lower, on average, than during the same period in 2023—representing 319 fewer homicides in the cities that reported data. (Figure 3). Across the sample cities, the homicide rate in the first half of 2024 was about 2% lower than the first half of 2019."
https://counciloncj.org/crime-trends-in-u-s-cities-mid-year-2024-update/#:~:text=Homicide%20is%20the%20unlawful%20killing,than%20the%20rate%20in%202019.
Mike L: Despite the massive influx of rapists and other violent criminals that skyrocketed during the Biden administration, crime in Texas went down annually during that time period. Per the crime statistics compiled by Texas Law Enforcement. Facts do not matter to the Trump cult.
DeleteQiB : Time and again this is the strategy: An event occurs. Fox puts out an erroneous report that favors a certain false narrative. Trump, after watching Fox misinformation, makes a public statement that amplifies this misinformation and solidifies the false narrative. Fox later "clarifies" its reporting. We see this as standard right wing strategy at this point whether Trump does it or Elon Musk, who on multiple occasions during the weeks prior to the election, amplified fake right wing reports about Harris. It's a feature, not a flaw.
Delete“ The selling of message never stops on various sides of various aisles. ”
ReplyDeleteThe selling of message helped Trump win. Whether it is true or not is clearly of secondary importance to his voting public.
Whether it’s true is of NO importance.
DeleteRepublicans want to sell a narrative that America is in the midst of a never ending chaotic crime wave, and they use tools like Fox News and local news outlets (Sinclair).
ReplyDeleteStudies show that corporate media increase stories about crime as crime rates drop.
Crime rates are currently near a 50 year low.
Red America is pushing a false narrative to justify their power grabs.
You will never hear that GDP grew 12.6% during Biden's term on Fox NOOZ. It is not my fault that red America marinates their brains 24/7 in RW propagandal.
DeleteIgnorance ain’t going to manufacture itself.
ReplyDeleteSomerby should spend a little less time putting his thumb on the scale, and a little more time sucking his thumb.
ReplyDeleteMight soothe his addled emotions.
Regarding the Dave Barry quote that Quaker presented yesterday:
ReplyDeleteComics typically get a laugh by exaggerating some aspect of what happened or making it sound ridiculous by some other means. In this case Dave Barry got humor by merely providing a straightforward description of what happened.
We live in a comedy skit world.
And you’re the top banana, Dave.
DeleteSpeak for yourself, David. I live in the real world.
DeleteDoes David live in a skit, or a sketch?
DeleteDavid seems a little too scripted and performative, a little too directed, to be a skit.
Apparently, David lives in a sketch and doesn’t know it. Or does he?
Does the distinction even matter, when it’s all a false narrative?
The skit called “They’re Eating Our Pets” was hilarious, and probably the fault of liberals.
DeleteRight wingers feel more comfortable blaming victims than taking responsibility, thus Somerby’s never ending endeavor to blame Dems/liberals/Blue America for everything.
DeleteDavid and Anon@2:27 are both correct. Barry further writes:
Delete... when suddenly, with no advance warning, the biggest issue in the presidential election is the question of whether Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating people’s pets. They are not, but this fact does not prevent Trump from raising the issue in a televised debate with Harris, during which Trump gives the impression that his debate prep consisted entirely of getting his hair dyed a slightly more believable color.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” he states, “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
It still amazes me that stuff like Trump's ramble about Haitians eating pets wasn't immediately disqualifying.
DeleteI mean, Howard Dean was run out of an election for just going, "Yeeearrgh!"
"The American voter is a selfish pig." That's what a pollster said to group I belonged to 57 years ago. IMO it was true then and it's true now.
DeleteThey just voted for a rapist to be their President, because his bigotry tickles their funny bone. I wouldn't blame the pig people's selfishness.
DeleteWhen Trump made the Haitian statement at the debate, he either believed it or he didn't. If he believed it, it is testimony to his inability to think and uncritical acceptance of the garbage he views on right wing media outlets. If he didn't, it was a lie intended to gain votes and stir up his base.
DeleteSo which one of these possibilities did you find comical, DiC?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/fox-news-fact-checks-trump-233011055.html
DeleteWow, Trump is hilarious!
DiC @ 6:30 PM - you voted for George Wallace?
Delete8:03, both are hilarious.
Delete"When Trump made the Haitian statement at the debate, he either believed it or he didn't."
DeleteHe could have simply not cared about whether it was true or not.
I think a lot of Trump's statements that riled up the base of his opposition, like this pet's thing or the allusion to Arnold Palmer's giant, golden cock, were intentional political maneuvers on his part. He knew his statements would flummox and distract his opposition and lead them to waste time discussing it and being outraged by it instead of spending time on substantive Democratic policies that may sway voters or effectively countering his promises. His supporters didn't care about these controversies. So the time these Democratic voters and their advocates spent being outraged and amazed by them were totally wasted. It didn't sway any votes either way. It's like a ball Trump throws that lazy, low quality "journalists" - the Jeff Tiedrich's of the world - would run after and excitably chew on for days that would not get them one ounce of political benefit in the end. Zero. Some of Trump's supporters may have been vaguely aware of that he was using this tactic and enjoyed watching the outrage machine spinning its wheels on its way to defeat.
It was another brilliantly played Trump joke, like the one about lowering the price of groceries. LOL. That was one of Trump's best. I laughed for almost five straight minutes, at Lori Mosura.
DeletePerceptive comment, @10:19. I agree that Trump's comments about Haitians eating pets were intentional political maneuvers on his part. I suspect that his thoughts were that his comment would keep the issue on the front page, AND the issue of Haitian migrants was good for him.
Delete10:19,
DeleteTrump lost exactly zero Republican votes because the size of Arnold Palmer's cock or the price of groceries (unlike bigotry and white supremacy) means absolutely nothing to them.
So DiC has gone from “it’s a comedy skit world” to “Trump’s lies help him win elections, and that makes him a master strategist.” Is the latter part of some comedy skit as well, DiC,? It’s very sad if you think this means Trump deserved your vote.
DeleteDavid in Cal,
DeleteCan you explain exactly how accusing Haitian immigrants of eating pet cats and dogs would help Trump solidify his base of Republican voters?
Why are you communists so sure Haitians don’t eat pets?
DeleteNo incidents of missing pets were reported, for one thing. If the pets were eaten, they would be missing.
DeleteAh, yes, 11:13. 10:19 asserts that Democrats wasted time being amazed and outraged, otherwise known as trying to correct the record and call out a lie, and here you are insinuating that it’s possibly true. From Wikipedia:
Delete“Springfield's police department issued a statement that said "there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community". Springfield mayor Rob Rue said that there was no evidence to support claims that geese or ducks from parks were being killed and eaten. He told an interviewer, "All these federal politicians that have negatively spun our city, they need to know they're hurting our city, and it was their words that did it."[56] City manager Bryan Heck called the rumor "disinformation". Ohio governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, rebuked the rumors, saying, "This is a piece of garbage that is simply not true. There's no evidence of this at all." He also emphasized that these "people are here legally."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_pet-eating_hoax
Facts, and the truth, matter.
And here is where we reach the point where we ask, "How the hell did this guy win?" Saying absolutely crazy things on national TV didn't disqualify him. In fact, as DiC points out, it probably helped him. (Anon@10:52 asks the question that occurs to me as well: How?
DeleteJerzy Kosinski might have been onto something when he wrote Being There.
Dave in Cal is a very unserious person pretending to have cogent ideas. Like his dementia heros, ronnie raygun and the convicted felon.
DeleteWho are you calling a communist, you Disney-loving Soros-bot?
Delete@10:51 asked me, "Can you explain exactly how accusing Haitian immigrants of eating pet cats and dogs would help Trump solidify his base of Republican voters?"
DeleteI'll try. Bringing a large number of Haitians into a small city have been the moral thing to do, but it didn't help the American voter, who IMO is selfish. It was a burden on schools and other institutions. So, that policy was bad for Dem candidates to the degree that voters were aware of it. Trump that kept that policy front and center therefore helped Trump.
Of course Trump paid a price for repeating a falsehood.
Of course,
Deletethe people of Springfield, when interviewed, refuted Trump's and your false narrative:
https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/the-true-story-about-why-and-how-haitian-immigrants-came-to-springfield/VOJOZYVU6REMZOFXZOEQQ5RNNU/
Making false statements about immigrants, in this case, and FEMA workers, as another example, during the efforts in the Asheville area, placed human lives at risk. DiC is a textbook case of a deplorable.
And about DiC's billionaire:
Deletehttps://www.yahoo.com/news/top-election-official-says-colleagues-071100515.html
12:00 Winning is what matters in elections and politics. Facts and the truth do not matter. (This has always been the case.) It may have been possibly true or a lie by Trump or many things but it doesn't matter. It matters if Democratic voters, egged on by the Jeff Tiedrich's of the world, spent any time at all being amazed, outraged or engaging in any way with these diversionary, non issues. They yielded no benefit. All of that time was wasted. It could have been spent on issues that could have defeated Trump. Trump may have been saying these things on purpose, knowing they would divert Democratic voters and their media advocates - and even the highest level of the DNC and Harris campaign - who may have also wasted time on them, quixotically hoping it would bring him won Dean Scream style, not knowing, as he did, those days are long gone. Trump was controlling the narrative and the news cycle with diversionary non-issues. He's probably doesn't care too much if you sit now in the loser box pointing out how it was a lie and how much facts and the truth matter. In politics, they never did and they never will.
DeleteQuaker: How?. By empathizing with the powerlessness of voters and their disenchantment with entrenched institutions like the government and media. With a particular emphasis on trade, class issues and international military overreach.
DeleteIt was bait. The word is bait. The pets and Arnold Palmer's gloriously enormous shaft were bait that Trump used to lure Democrats off of important issues and to confuse and excite them. And to David's point, to sometimes keep the focus on the issues that were winning him support. Ie. they may not be eating pets but people were learning the degree to which immigrants had moved to those areas.
DeleteThe highest levels of leadership of the DNC and Democrats HAVE GOT TO GO. They were played so hard. We need people in there that are politically smart and not living in the nineties and 2008.
DeleteI had a couple of pet Democrats, and Haitians ate them.
Just like they are my uncle.
I am Corby.
@3:20 -- You are right to castigate Trump for his lies about Haitians eating pets. OTOH from everything I read, FEMA did completely drop the ball in North Carolina.
Delete6:53’s analysis has some merit, but it erroneously assumes Dem voters are dumb as shit, which is pretty weak analysis in the end.
DeleteHarris lost because there are too many mechanical impediments to voting, too much sexism and racism among Dem voters, and increasingly sophisticated Republican dirty tricks/voter suppression.
@8:47 AM,
Deletehow do you know those were lies? Do you have Donald's confession on a video?
Or have you been following every pet, every duck, and every Haitian in the city? But even if you have, and saw no pet-eating, that still wouldn't prove your accusation of 'lies'.
Trump lied about Haitian immigrants eating pet cats and dogs, because he was amping-up Republican voters, who are all bigots.
DeleteThis has been another installment of obvious answers to simple questions.
David in Cal,
DeleteI don't think FEMA should be doing anything for the people of Asheville, just because they were the victims of a climate change hoax.
Also, why would anyone want the Federal government spending more to help the hoax victims? Have you seen our deficit?
Finally, FEMA is a collectivist (i.e. socialist style) program, while the Bill of Rights of Rights is pro-individual, as the Founding Fathers wished for.
Don't let them calling their new country "The United States of America" fool you. In their wisdom, they've always supported the individualism of the people.
Did Ronald Reagan teach you nothing?
Who has the time to follow every pet, every duck, and every Haitian in the city?
DeleteWe're all too busy searching for the elusive (non-existent) Republican voter, who cares about something other than bigotry and white supremacy so we can own the libs at TDH.
DeleteWe've seen your confessions a million times, Soros-trained monkey. You can take a day off now.
Jeff Tiedrich is an idiot. He thinks he can shame Republican voters for blindly following someone who says bigoted things. LOL.
DeleteEarth to Jeff Tiedrich (and the rest of our media). Bigotry is the only thing Republican voters care about.
I see the Soros-bots want Trump to take away our 2nd Amendment Rights, just because some reliably Republican voter went to New Orleans to fight the tyranny of the government (i.e. shoot police officers).
Delete"From everything I read....." You can stop there. Mayors and governors repeatedly refuted Trump's claims about FEMA, stating that their counties were getting the help they needed promptly. Did you not see that? You are consistently a conduit of misinformation in these comment sections. Deplorable.
DeleteSomerby: I got nothing.
ReplyDeleteEveryone else with more than two brain cells: We know!
Somerby leaning into his groomer vibes with his weird sly coyness.
ReplyDeleteCreepy!
Somerby has perhaps been focusing on the wrong Greeks.
ReplyDelete"How about Epictetus? Basic premise:
There are only two things in life that matter:
First: Figure out in any situation what is the best thing to do.
Second: Do it."
The Borowitz Report is trying to figure out the best way to cope with Trump. He has some good suggestions, in my opinion.
Epictetus also said:
"There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will."
What can we do about Trump? Borowitz suggests:
"I'd only add to your serenity recipe some of the prescriptions from Timothy Snyder in his pocket-sized book, On Tyranny: "Stand Out. Be Careful With Language & Listen for Dangerous Words. Investigate. Get Outside. Make New Friends and March With Them. Be As Courageous as You Can." And—support institutions that count, whether they be journalistic, non-profits, local government or whatever makes sense. We can't afford to sit back. Ever."
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/how-to-survive-25
I find this comforting because (1) it doesn't advocate giving up, and (2) it seems likely some of our efforts may help, and (3) we won't be selling out, and (4) such efforts are achievable, manageable, possible on an individual level.
Commenting here at Somerby's blog is one of those small efforts to improve our environment that may do some good and can't hurt, while fighting for the things I care about. And I feel better when I see other liberals doing the same here.
I watch the film The Great Escape a few weeks ago. Their small effort at escape was unsuccessful, but their goal of creating confusion behind the lines and requiring the use of resources to round them up (which were then diverted from the war itself), worked. If my commenting here keeps Cecelia from doing damage somewhere else, I will have done my small part to fight the forces of evil.
We appreciate your efforts, even though this blog is pretty much dead.
DeleteThis blog is a clown car.
DeleteWhat was Fox’s initial reporting on the New Orleans incident? Pro tip: it was false. There have been many other instances of Fox pushing false narratives like this. Why does Somerby keep saying things like “ the Fox News Channel has been more right”? I would be wary of saying they are “right”, even if they aren’t busy getting it completely wrong, because anytime an actual fact manages to slip through there, it’s always in service of propaganda.
ReplyDeleteLet me guess: they said it was ANTIFA.
DeleteOr funded by Soros.
DeleteIllegal immigrant.
DeleteInterestingly, President Musk was once an illegal immigrant who now funds fascism.
DeleteNew Orleans attacker was a Texas-born US citizen and a military veteran. And a registered Republican.
DeleteSo, you know, a "lone wolf."
Sometimes Somerby’s masquerading as being part of Blue America becomes so tedious, untenable, and cringe-y, that even Somerby grows weary of it, and drops the mask.
ReplyDeleteIs fewer than 2.3 million votes actually "millions and millions?"
ReplyDeleteIt could accurately be described as "millions." But not "millions AND millions." More accurately, it would be "million upon million."
At least Trump uncharacteristically skipped an opportunity to be insulting and vengeful to his erstwhile opponent. Is Elon sharing his ketamine?
Trump voters can’t stop whining that minorities are too coddled, yet Trump voters are a minority that have now taken control of everything, seeking to impose their warped vision on everyone else.
Delete