TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2025
Can anyone play this game? In the critically-acclaimed film of the same name, Joseph Cotten scoured post-war Vienna is search of "the third man."
In recent weeks, Blue America's tribunes have been scouring the countryside, looking for "the fourth vote." We've had a basic reaction to that search:
Can anyone here play this game?
We would have thought that everyone had agreed, long ago, on the fallacy which lies behind that search. This morning, we finally saw Jonathan Lemire say that it will almost surely take a fifth vote to defeat one of the commander's nominees.
Even he made an error along the way. Our prediction goes like this:
We've already seen a Trump nominee receive three NO votes. (There were three such votes against Nominee Hegseth, who of course got confirmed.)
Also, we may see some nominee get rejected by a group of five NO votes. We aren't predicting that that will occur, but it always could.
Our prediction, which could always be wrong:
You won't see a nominee rejected by four NO votes. Later today, we'll explain this deathless theory, hopefully with the aid of Lemire's full statement.
(We'll buttress our theory as we recall the peculiar timing of Mitch McConnell's NO vote with respect to Nominee Hegseth.)
Until the past few weeks, we would have thought that everyone had long since agreed on the logic behind this five-vote theory. Over here in Blue America, can anyone play this game?
Needless to say, our prediction could always be wrong! For ourselves, we'll be losing most of the day to the ongoing work of medical science. We'll post this afternoon.
I hope Bob goes to Heaven.
ReplyDeleteHow long is it going to take for doctors to remove Somerby's thumb from the scale?
ReplyDeleteHa!
DeleteThe first suit has been filed against the Trump Administration for ignoring grocery prices.
ReplyDeleteOn behalf of Elon Musk, Marko Elez has taken over the Treasury’s payment systems. Among other things, he controls your Social Security.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-associate-bfs-federal-payment-system/
This is exactly why maggots voted for Trump. Isn't that right, Dickhead in Cal?
DeleteThe President has the power to designate someone to audit operations in the Executive Branch. In fact it’s the President’s duty to be sure that all parts of the Executive Branch are functioning properly.
DeleteGo fuck yourself, Dickhead. He summarily fired the IG's who are responsible. Who the fuck do you think you're kidding, jackass. Who gave these kids the clearance?
DeleteThe President has the authority to give someone security clearance.
DeleteHanding the Treasury over to Musk violates various laws and norms.
DeleteEither Trump is out to lunch and being manipulated, or he is setting Musk up to get him out of his hair.
He's "auditing" the Treasury, Dickhead? Is that what you're claiming? Where the fuck did you learn that? Did President Musk post that announcement on Shitter?
DeleteDiC has no idea what musk is doing. He never bothered to answer the other day if musk is going to provide accountability and transparency to what he’s doing, or if it’s just fine to let it all happen in secrecy. I think the latter is anti-democratic, but apparently DiC is ok with it, being a Trump-musk propagandist.
DeleteWhy would you trust musk anyway?
DiC doesn't really give a shit. He's just happy it is making Dems angry. He just comes here to troll and pulls bullshit out of his ass.
DeleteEventually, it’s going to make a lot of people angry, including many who voted for trump.
DeleteThe difference between Trump and Musk, is that when Trump got his hair plugs he raped his wife, and when Musk got his hair plugs he sexually harassed his employees.
DeleteFor those who claim David in Cal would feel bad for those who might be negatively affected by the actions of Trump and Musk, if it weren't for Trump and Musk giving him the bigotry he craves, where's your proof?
DeleteDavid in Cal,
DeleteI ran into Elon Musk recently. He asked me to tell you he says, "Heil".
Jon Stewart showed orange chickenshit being crazy again last night:
ReplyDeleteTRUMP: “I look at some of the deals made, I say, ‘Who the hell made these deals? They’re so bad,'” says Trump in the clip.
STEWART: “Ladies and gentlemen, for your dining and dancing pleasure, come with me into the way back machine, to 2018. I give you the culprit of the terrible deal with Canada.”
“Oh! A deal done by Trump’s greatest nemesis: Trump,” joked the 62-year-old.
That's Trump being consistent.
DeleteTrump has contempt for those who voted for him, and he knows for a fact he voted for himself.
McConnell only voted no when he knew his vote was meaningless.
ReplyDeleteMcConnell is excrement.
DeleteWhy is this country run by old guys that poop their pants like Moscow Mitch and Putin's puppet Trump?
DeleteDon't you dare talk about Don Von Zhitzhizpantz like that. He is DiC's glorious Dear Leader.
DeleteDiC is happy to wipe Trump's butt AND give him a reach-around.
DeleteThe character played by Orson
ReplyDeleteWas a very very very bad person.
They call the man Wells,
DeleteBut he casts no spells.
Joseph Cotten searched zither and yon for the third man.
DeleteThat joke wasn't funny the first million times others told it, it's still not funny, but thanks for your typical copy/paste effort.
DeleteAnother great move by the Trump Administration https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-probes-cases-of-antisemitism-five-universities
ReplyDeleteI’m sure someday Trump will order investigations into other forms of bigotry.
DeleteDarren Beattie will get right on it.
DeleteIntimating that America needs to be made great again (as if it already isn't great) is anti-Americanism, but don't expect Trump to do anything about it, because he hates the USA, obviously.
DeleteWhat they won't find, they'll make up.
DeleteDavid not only hates black people, he wants to redefine antisemitism to mean anti Israeli apartheid.
DeleteIn reality, Palestinians are genetically closer to the Semitic people that originally inhabited that land than the "jews" that currently occupy the land, you know, the "jews" that don't actually follow their religion, but more resemble fascists/nazis.
Zionism, invented by Christians as a way to purge Jews from their countries and bring about the return of Jesus - a made up story, was always anti-semitic and a terrible mistake.
Jews in Israel live in constant fear and turmoil, whereas Jews in America and other countries live in relative peace and comfort.
Why? Because of notions like multiculturalism, whereas the Jews in Israel are far right lunatics hell bent on maintaining a racist ethnostate.
Convicted felon pretending to be President says Palestinians only have one choice, leaving Gaza; minutes before meeting with fellow criminal Bibi. Thankyou (the minority of) Muslims dumb enough to back this filthy lying-assprick.
DeleteTo bad for you Dave in Cal, the felon and President Musk will shut down the Department of Education before any action can be taken. Please do try to keep up with the self coup \ autogolpe.
DeleteFrom my personal experience with Musk dating back to the Paypal days, one of the most likely interests Musk has in infiltrating the Treasury is putting in place a way for him to skim off every transaction made, even half a cent would result in billions removed from taxpayers straight to Musk and his cronies.
ReplyDeleteThe Nazis were in it for the money, too.
Delete80% of businesses fail, the rate is hire in the tech industry.
ReplyDeleteTrump failed in all his business ventures, after being handed nearly half a billion from his dad, Trump wound up bankrupting his businesses, and was only saved by being hired to host a reality tv show.
Musk has also failed spectacularly, causing Twitter to lose 80% of it's value since he took over the social media company, it took Tesla 17 years to post a profit and only because it is propped up with government subsidies. Tesla sales are currently plummeting all over the world.
About one third of healthcare costs go to merely the administration of private healthcare insurance companies, whereas with government run health programs, the administration cost is 2%.
Private industry involves mostly failure, with a few lucky surviving, largely due to government handouts.
Government is more efficient and provides better services than private industry.
Two of the biggest frauds of all time in private industry are Trump and Musk. They are both leveraged to the hilt, and it is all based on a house of cards, with loans that comprise the majority of their wealth coming due in the next couple of years. Unfortunately a minority of Americans have handed these fools enough power, so that when they go down, they will bring the whole country down.
Racism is a helluva drug.
DeleteImagine how deeply envious one has to be to say either one of these men, the two most powerful men in the world and one the wealthiest, “failed.”
DeleteLoans … coming due? They aren’t going to pay.
DeleteI haven't seen that kind of envy, sense Haitian immigrants were so badly wiping the floor with white men on the job market, white men blamed them for eating their pets.
DeleteImagine how much of a cuck one has to be to bow down before corrupt criminals like Trump, Putin, and Musk.
DeleteProbably the same folks that bowed down to other authoritarians like Hitler, etc.
"Imagine how deeply envious one has to be..."
DeleteHunter Biden's penis has entered the chat.
3:19,
DeleteThe Right are the biggest bunch of coward's ever. Remember, these fools thought they were tough guys cosplaying as revolutionaries, but cried like babies when it looked like they might be held accountable for throwing their childish tantrums.
They shake in fear over the thought of drag queens. My six-year old niece has more bravery in her Trump-sized hands then the lot of them have in their whole bodies.
We care more about your six year old neice being abused than you do. That’s why we’re shutting down the “trans” industries dedicated to inflicting confusion, mental illness, drugs and mutilation on her and ruining her life.
DeleteHa! good one
Delete3:39 good one
Delete4:08 science shows that gender affirming care achieves the opposite of what you claim, most likely you suffer from latent homosexuality that makes you jealous of people that are open and out about their gender/sexuality. Indeed you are the one that has suffered from abuse, which is what has led to your warped views. I am sorry for the abuse you have suffered, but you'll be better off facing your issues rather than externalizing them onto innocent bystanders.
Imagine how deeply envious one has to be to say gender affirming care is "abuse".
DeleteMusk bought Twitter, and due to his business acumen, Twitter quickly tanked, losing 80% of its value. Now Musk is suing advertisers for leaving Twitter and not wanting to advertise on his sinking ship.
DeleteGot fascism?
Hilarious!
4:14 - Science shows you are misinformed.
Delete4:40 I suppose you invented the question mark too, huh.
DeleteYou are wrong. Fake news. The science in fact shows that gender affirming care increases the physical and mental health of the recipients.
4:38 has you nailed, you are jealous of those that can be their authentic self, while you internally rot away.
Call me crazy but chopping off your balls doesn’t in any universe equate with being one’s authentic self.
Delete4:08 We care more about your six year old niece being abused than you do. That's why we are shutting down Southern Baptist summer camps and the Catholic Church. Your welcome.
DeleteI want to take you higher, not hire you.
DeleteTurns out, most of the few thousand detained by ICE have been released.
ReplyDeleteTurns out Trump makes empty threats, then walks them back, and everyone is wise to it.
This is very bad for small businesses like mine, it is very hard to make deals in this chaotic environment.
Hate to say it but Harris would have been better for business, or pretty much anybody.
Three of the people arrested in the past day or two were visiting from Puerto Rico, a grandmother and her grandkids. They were picked up because they were speaking Spanish to each other. Hopefully they are now among the released, since they were here legally, as citizens.
DeleteWe voted for Trump and we voted for Elon. We want them cleaning house and the squeals from Democrats only make it better.
ReplyDeleteAll of their cabinet noms will be confirmed.
RFK Jr will make disease great again. Tulsi Gabbard will destroy the intelligence community, which may be for the best.
DeleteEveryone who voted for Trump has something they need or rely on from the government at some point. Hope that’s still there when your time comes to ask for it. If not, at the very least you made people you hate cry a little. Good for you.
DeleteRepublican Senators approving a Putin asset to be the Director of National Intelligence is one of the more predictable results of November's Presidential election.
DeleteThe only things more predictable:
Delete1) Trump would do nothing about grocery prices.
2) Republican voters wouldn't care at all about prediction number one.
You notice these trump trolls don't deny they are fascists anymore.
DeleteTook a while but Democrat labels have no potency or credibility. People just meme about them.
Delete2:43 - "we" being you and all the other basement dwellers who've never been out on a date.
DeleteI voted for Trump before J6 and the crazy Supreme Court and Trump's nonsense harming my business, woke me up.
DeleteTrump only got 30% of the electorate, he couldn't even get 50% of those that voted, and more people voted for someone other than Trump.
Trump's support is weak, made weaker by his supporters being fragile snowflakes who cower before a buffoon serial sexual predator.
4:05,
DeleteI find the lack of pushback from those who deny all Republican voters are bigots very refreshing.
Nobody voted for Musk. He didn't run.
Delete$2 million for sex changes in Guatemala
ReplyDelete$6 million to fund “tourism” in Egypt
Millions to the EcoHealth Alliance (Wuhan Lab Leak)
$20 million on an Iraq Sesame Street show
And this is just the tip of the iceberg on the USAID scam.
Meh.
DeleteSoon, you won't be able to get a good meal for $2 million with Trump's mitts on the economy.
Speaking of scams, which troll farm are you working for 3:32?
DeleteAnonymouse 3:32pm, I doubt Miss Piggy would have gone over even in a burka.
Delete3:32 - The scam is $61% of USAID is going to Ukraine for very good reasons, and if you think otherwise suggest you move home to mother Russia. Putin's puppets, the felon and the Nazi, are following orders. Very simple. Do the maths!!!
Delete3:32 Ok Dr Evil.
DeleteWhat a hilarious self own!
Kamala so BRAT
ReplyDeleteRecent polling (registered/likely voters) shows that after a few weeks of Trump being president, a majority of Americans feel that the country is on the WRONG TRACK.
ReplyDeleteHuh! Who knew?
"Can anyone play this game? In the critically-acclaimed film of the same name, Joseph Cotten scoured post-war Vienna is search of "the third man."
ReplyDeleteA reasonable person might believe that the name of the film is "Can anyone play this game?" That's because Somerby is a horrible writer with no concern for his readers. The actual film name he is referring to is "The Third Man." When Somerby puts the film name at the end of his sentence but the reference at the beginning, he makes it difficult for a sincere reader to follow what the hell he is babbling about. Somerby knows better. He taught third graders reading and writing, after all.
The subject of the dependent clause beginning with the word "In..." should appear right after the comma. Instead the name Joseph appears there. Joseph isn't the name of the film. It is the name of an actor appearing in the film. The easiest way for Somerby to fix this is to move the clause beginning with the word "In..." (found at the beginning of the sentence) to the very end, so it reads "Joseph Cotten scoured post-war Vienna in search of "the third man," in the critically-acclaimed film of the same name. Help to capitalize "the third man" too, since it IS the name of the film.
DeleteBut Somerby clearly doesn't care about communicating with anyone, much less communicating well.
Cry me a zither.
Delete