WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 2025
But then, so does everyone else: We start with a report in today's print editions of the New York Times.
It isn't on the paper's front page. We offer this question:
Why not?
In fairness, the report is found on the front page of this morning's Business section. It shares space there with two other reports. In our view, that product placement is a form of journalistic deference.
It's a form of journalistic deference to undisguised tyrannical power. Principal headline included, today's report starts like this:
In His Second Term, Trump Fuels a ‘Machinery’ of Misinformation
In her first briefing as White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt said she was “committed to telling the truth from this podium every single day.” Moments later she announced that the new administration had blocked a $50 million contract for condoms in Gaza.
“That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money,” she said.
It was also a preposterous claim, improbable on its face and quickly debunked. There were millions in federal grants awarded to prevent sexually transmitted diseases in Gaza, but in the province in Mozambique, not the Palestinian territory.
The condoms claim went viral anyway, seeping into the political discourse that President Trump has used to justify his sweeping push to slash the federal government.
Myers and Thompson penned the report. Already, in those first four paragraphs, they've politely stepped aside and made way for a bit of a logical lapse. In our view, here's the way the evidence scans:
Given the fact that the claim "went viral," the claim was not "debunked!"
Sadly, the preposterous claim was not debunked in any way that actually matters. Needless to say, the silly child Leavitt—she's 27—was eager to spread the preposterous claim.
Preposterous claims of exactly this type now rule vast parts of the realm. On weekend mornings, before Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy bows her pious head to pray, she eagerly repeats such claims for her viewers in Red America.
Those viewers don't know that the claims are preposterous, nor will the Fox & Friends Weekend tools tell them. Also, they won't be told how many millions of dollars these tools are paid to repeat these preposterous claims.
The silly child Leavitt is always prepared to perform in the cult-approved manner. So too, in almost every case, with the pious Fox News Channel host.
For the record, we're using simple descriptive language here—language the Times will avoid.
In fairness to Myers and Thompson, they didn't decide the placement of their news report. To their credit, they made a presentation which was strikingly accurate as they continued directly from the passage we've posted above:
Mr. Trump’s first four years in the White House were filled with false or misleading statements—30,573 of them, or 21 a day on average, according to one tally. Back then, though, aides often tried to play down or contain the damage of egregious falsehoods.
This time, Mr. Trump is joined by a coterie of cabinet officials and advisers who have amplified them and even spread their own. Together, they are effectively institutionalizing disinformation.
While it is still early in his term, and many of his executive orders face legal challenges that could blunt the impact of any falsehoods driving them, Mr. Trump and his advisers have ushered the country into a new era of post-truth politics, where facts are contested and fictions used to pursue policy goals.
All of that is perfectly accurate. For that reason, we pose our basic question again:
Why in the world—why on earth—isn't this report on the New York Times' front page?
(Also this: Why aren't reports on this theme on the front page every morning?)
Full credit to Myers and Thompson! It's true—the sitting president is, in fact, assisted "by a coterie of cabinet officials and advisers who have amplified [his preposterous claims] and even spread their own."
"Together, they are effectively institutionalizing disinformation?" Stating the obvious, that also seems to be true.
(This afternoon, we'll look at the ugly claims one such official broadcast last night. Have we ever seen such a lowlife performance? He peddled his repetitive claims on The Ingraham Angle. Laura averted her gaze.)
That said, the problem doesn't end with the behavior of such officials. While the sitting president may be assisted "by [that] coterie," he's also joined in that mission by a never-ending assortment of Fox News Channel players.
One of them in Campos-Duffy, the very pious Catholic woman who slurred it up about "Tampon Tim" before piously offering this:
Fox News co-host prays:
All right. Well, with help from the Hallow app, we're going to continue our Sunday prayer series with a prayer from the Hallow app.
If you'd like to join me, you can just bow your head, and we'll start:
"Lord, thank you for the gift of life. You are a faithful father. You never abandon us in our time of need..."
As we've noted in the past two days, the text of the prayer appeared on the screen as Campos-Duffy read it. It appeared on the screen beneath this heading
PRAY EVERY DAY THIS LENT
on Hallow
No Jews need apply! The "cable news" program then cut to a commercial for the fee-for-service Hallow prayer app. (Subscribers can access the daily prayer for $69.99 per year,)
At 6:50, the prayer cut to a commercial for the Hallow app. Before the commercial ran, a moderator's voice said this:
Fox & Friends Prayer Series is brought to you by Hallow, the number 1 prayer app in the world.
For the record, it's an explicitly Catholic app. As we've noted, there's nothing innately "wrong" with any of that. But it's very unusual to see an American "news" broadcast engaging in such religious practices, especially in religious practices which are explicitly sectarian.
(Try to follow: We aren't saying it's necessarily wrong. We're saying it's very unusual, and therefore perhaps newsworthy—a window on one channel's soul.)
Shortly before she began to pray, Campos-Duffy surprised us by saying that she was "continuing" the Fox & Friends Prayer Series. Here's why we were surprised:
We've been sampling Fox & Friends Weekend every Saturday and Sunday morning for the past year or so. But we'd never heard of this highly unusual "cable news" series until last Sunday's program.
When did the prayer series begin? before returning to that question, let's look at another way the president's "preposterous claims" keep "going viral" despite having been "debunked."
Yesterday afternoon, the president sat in the Oval Office taking questions from people presenting as journalists. As recorded in this CNN transcript, at one point he offered this:
REPORTER (3/25/25): The secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, and JD Vance, the vice president, said that the Europeans were freeloading. Do you agree with that assessment?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Do you really want me to answer that? Yeah, I think they've been freeloading. The European Union has been absolutely terrible to us on trade. Terrible.
And as you know, NATO—I got them to pay hundreds of billions of dollars. They were way behind. And if you look, even—
If you look at Ukraine—so, we're in for $350 billion because of Biden. Should have never happened, this war shouldn't. All these dead people should not be dead...
Biden Biden Biden Biden! In our view, his presidency was a disaster, but his name rarely leaves the current president's lips. Regarding that (alleged) $350 billion, that figure was quickly cited again, with a second (alleged) figure thrown in:
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Look, NATO—and I don't blame NATO for this. I don't blame Europe for this. I blame Biden for the fact that he didn't make them equalize.
And to this day, I said to them, "You got to catch up, you got to equalize." But why are they in for 100 billion and we're in for possibly $350 billion? It shouldn't be. It shouldn't be...
The commander rattled on from there. But there you saw the claim again:
According to President Trump, we've provided $350 billion to Ukraine. The freeloaders in Europe have provided a mere $100 billion. Also, it's all Biden's fault!
Sad! Concerning those dollar amounts, he's made that (alleged) comparison a million times by now. Rigjhtly or wrongly, the clam has been debunked by fact-checkers again and again and again.
It's been "debunked" again and again—but he just continues to say it! In this way, the claim "goes viral." Inevitably, here's what happened yesterday after he said it again:
PRESIDENT TRUMP: ...But you'll be seeing tariffs. And I think I've been very fair. I've had—I have them set. But I think I've been very fair to countries that have really abused us economically for many, many decades.
(CROSSTALK)
REPORTER: Mr. President, (what part of) that information was not classified?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Another question, please? Go ahead.
REPORTER: Just following up on your comments on the economy, there is reporting that consumer confidence fell for the fourth straight month. What is your message to Americans who are concerned about tariffs?
Sad! None of the journalists asked him why he keeps making those claims. No one dared say this:
THE QUESTION WHICH WASN'T ASKED: Mr. President, your claim about the amounts of spending in Ukraine has been challenged again and again. Where do you get the figures you cite, in which we have spent more than three times as much as the Europeans?
Also, is it possible that your staff could prepare a white paper explaining the source of those claims? When could we see that material?
None of the reporters said that. None of them ever will. Nor will you ever see a report about what happened when some such request was made in written form.
Quite routinely, Campos-Duffy repeats the preposterous claims. She may make smutty, insulting remarks about one of the others—possibly one of the pagans.
Lisa Boothe will then jump in to tell us who qualifies as "pure evil" in the Blue American camp. Within the same hour, these employees will bow their heads and they'll piously pray.
When did the prayer series begin on this "cable news" program? We still aren't sure that we can tell you—but would you be surprised to see Pete Hegseth in the mix?
Tomorrow, we'll return to that question. Pete Hegseth will be mentioned first.
On Friday, we'll show you what happened on Fox & Friends Weekend during Sunday's 7 o'clock hour. For now, we'll offer this spoiler alert:
Politically speaking, those of us in Blue America seem to insist on defeat.
Tomorrow: When the prayer series began
Friday: She hails from Presque Isle, Maine
So Bob wants Fox to warn their viewers that Fox is spreading false rumors? Or is he suggesting that Fox viewers need to be made to listen to other media outlets which report that Fox news is spreading false rumors?
ReplyDeleteHow does he suggest we do this? Take the Fox viewers by their dog collars and stick their faces in the mess they're watching, and sternly repeat the words "bad viewers" at them?
The obvious answer is that Bob thinks the rest of the media should push back against Fox in the same way anonymices thought that Bob should take-on Fox until he actually started doing it.
DeleteThe notion that media has ignored Fox News is so ignorant that one has to question Bob's real intent and motive.
DeleteAnonymous commenters have not urged Somerby to "take on" Fox. We have complained because Somerby urges liberals to watch Fox (saying they have the best facts) and repeats right wing talking points here while claiming to be liberal.
DeleteThere are other websites that monitor and take down Fox, such as Media Matters and rightwingwatch.org. I think ground.com is also doing this a bit. There is also fact-checking in the mainstream media and standalone sites such as Snopes.com and FactCheck.org. Somerby could easily rebut Fox instead of promoting it, and especially Gutfeld, by repeating their content every day.
Whatever Somerby actually thinks, Cecelia does not speak for him.
I do question Somerby's real intent and motive. Especially because he so obviously doesn't want to be pinned down about anything important.
Anonymouses, you are.., incorrect…to put it nicely… Anonymices routinely chided Bob for going after blue media and ignoring Fox News and routinely suggested he didn’t go after Fox News because he is ideologically compatible with Fox News. Just like the Russians... You’re not gaslighting when you deny this, you’re flat out lying.
DeleteYou made that up about Somerby just doing what anonymous commenters wanted him to. We suggested he is ideologically compatible with Fox because he kept repeating right wing memes here (on the same days as all the right wingers were saying the same thing). We ought to know what we said. I personally chided Somerby (I wouldn't presume to call a man I don't know "Bob") for going after black and female journalists and gay men (Anderson Cooper, Charles Blow). YOU reduced that to "why don't you pick on Fox" which is stupid and something none of us would need to say when he was so busy defending Roy Moore.
DeleteYou have no basis for putting words into any of our mouths. We can and do speak for ourselves, nor do we all agree with each other. We just disagree with you and Fox and Somerby's army of fanboys (most of which appear to have gone away after the election). You think you speak for Somerby but you don't. You don't speak for the rest of us either.
Anonymouse 6:32pm, I didn’t make it up that anonymices chided Bob for not going after Fox when he was focused on Blue media and now say he’s wasting his time by talking about Fox. That’s exactly what you have done. You are not regular commenters on a blogboard. You are here to throw mud at Somerby no matter what he says. There are no characteristic of normal commenters among you. If you were not a hit squad, you would occasionally give Bob a thumbs up for something. Go run your bullshite on someone else.
DeleteYes, you misconstrued what Somerby critics were saying.
Delete"Yes, but you put in a lot of hard work and effort to misconstrue what Somerby critics were saying."
DeleteFixed for accuracy.
Has anyone tried training Fox viewers, like they train their dogs? More importantly, did it work?
ReplyDeleteMy wife's relatives can't get it, they keep pissing on their floors.
DeleteIt is inconsistent for Republicans to have such fragility around transgender people, since most of their leaders have transitioned more than an average transgender person has.
ReplyDeleteRepublican leaders/heroes transitioning includes:
Hair implants
Lifts in shoes
Fake teeth
Penile implant (botched, in Musk's case)
Covering body in tanning spray
Caked on make up
Eyeliner
Hormone injections
Steroids
Various plastic surgeries
These are people who feel alienated, from how they internally perceive themselves vs how they actually present, both physically and mentally.
You forgot ball tanning.
DeleteYou also forgot to mention the ways Republican women transition from being as God made them into Republican icons of womanhood:
Big hair
Fake boobs
Caked on make up & eyeliner
Fake butt lifts
Body construction undergarments
Spike heels
Hormones to prevent menopause
Various plastic surgeries
Fake teeth
Artificial voices to stay sweet while yelling
Skirts and dresses at all times, never pants
Purse handgun
These women feel so unwomanly that they must drastically alter themselves to conform to stereotypes of femininity that don't exist in nature. Dolly Parton looks natural compared to these Republican women.
It makes some sense that people who swallow fake news would believe they must also be fake people.
Delete@11:07 "You forgot ball tanning."
DeleteHaw!
Republican women are so masculine in both appearance and attitude, it is off-putting, really kind of gross for straight men, but hey it is a free country...for them.
DeleteIt seems to work for Republican men though - "seems to" because they are often caught sneaking off to rendezvous with side women, or side men, or minors (minor girls can be relatively indistinguishable from males in certain aspects).
The latent homo/bi/trans sexuality so prevalent among Republicans is fueling their homo/bi/trans phobia, as well as their general bitterness.
Republican women are sad because they live in such a distorted reality and are making such fools of themselves. Republican men work very hard to keep psychology, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis out of schools and other venues because they don't want to know about their own psyches. But it is hard to see how they can be blind to the ways they break the law and hurt others while indulging their sexuality (latent or not). Matt Gaetz must know who he is. So must J.D. Vance. George Santos certainly did. How is it possible for these guys to not know themselves?
DeleteHaving trouble tanning the balls. When the pubic hair gets near the lamp they singe and smell like the devil. Should we try a new lamp, or now that it is spring tan them in the park. Thinking could we just shave? Asking for a friend.
DeleteAnonymices when you spend 100 words insulting people it loses the punch. It comes off as forced. When you add the fact that the insults are predicated on the sort of stuff you generally eschew and scold, then there’s the air of desperation.The anonymouse flying monkeys may be redundant and juvenile, but at least they’re pithy.
DeleteArty , just cut them off. Nobody will notice.
DeleteHaha so funny Cecelia. What an ugly person you are.
DeleteHahaha!
DeleteJust cut your parts off too. No one will miss them.
Delete"Full credit to Myers and Thompson! It's true—the sitting president is, in fact, assisted "by a coterie of cabinet officials and advisers who have amplified [his preposterous claims] and even spread their own."
ReplyDeleteHunter's laptop was Russian disinformation. 51 Democrat intelligence officials said so!
anon 10:55, the Hunter laptop thing and the 51 "Democrat" [sic] intelligence agents saying it was "disinformation" - I've heard about this brought up as an example to disinformation on the part of the "blue" side many times. What I don't hear is what was on the laptop that was damaging to Hunter or Joe Biden? If the 51 "democrat" intelligence officials claim was bogus - that the laptop wasn't Russian disinformation, it only makes a difference if there was something on the laptop that was damaging to the Bidens. I'm generally curious, and would be grateful if you could enlighten me.
DeleteAC/MA -- don't ask this. There is other disinformation about what was on the computer that is a rat's nest of lies lacking evidence or support. This was the substance of Comer's hearings. They were unable to demonstrate any wrongdoing, but there were a lot of specious accusations that don't deserve to be repeated here at your invitation.
DeleteWhatever was found on Hunter's laptop was bogus when the chain of custody was disrupted by the repair shop giving the laptop to Rudy Guiliani. At that point anything could have been placed onto it and nothing found on it could be traced to Hunter Biden. You can investigate this if you are curious by using Google, but why fill up these blog comments with more garbage?
Acma -you have researched it and couldn’t find any information about what kind of incriminating evidence was on the laptop that compelled Biden to squash the story as an October surprise?
Delete(Some of what was found on the laptop was used to convict Hunter Biden)
DeleteOf a gun charge that nobody is ever charged with as a stand alone charge.
Deleteit’s not hard to research and find information about potentially incriminating evidence found on the laptop that would make Biden want to have the story buried, especially as the October surprise for which the Trump campaign intended to use it.
Deleteit gives a lot of insight into the millions and millions Hunter was being paid by Chinese and Ukrainian companies, deals made at the same time Biden was in those countries on diplomatic business and how those funds were disbursed. Not that it was illegal, but that it may be viewed as unethical.
DeleteHunter was not paid "millions and millions", Hunter was paid a normal amount for his work, the kind of work he had been doing his entire career.
DeleteThis was investigated for years, spending taxpayer millions and millions, and no wrongdoing among the Bidens was ever found, it is a complete nothingburger. The only thing that came out of the investigation was that their star witness was in reality a Russian operative planted by Putin.
Eric Trump was just appointed to a board in Japan, in a move that seems way sketchier and more corrupt than anything to do with the Bidens (and of course during Trump's first reign, his family was making all kinds of deal with foreign entities adding up to BILLIONS), but nary a peep from these deranged people obsessed with the Bidens.
The letter signed by the Famous Fifty One did NOT say the laptop was "Russian disinformation." The letter characterized the sudden appearance of the laptop in the late days of a presidential election in a way that is frequently misstated by Republican partisans.
DeleteYou can look it up.
Hunter received through the many shell companies he set up over 20 million dollars! An audacious sum even for Washington DC. Here's an article about 5 million he and his uncle received over 14 months from a Chinese energy conglomerate (and proof Joe Biden lied about it) :
Deletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/30/hunter-biden-china-laptop/
Analysis of Hunter Biden's hard drive shows he, his firm took in about $11 million from 2013 to 2018, spent it fast
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/analysis-hunter-bidens-hard-drive-shows-firm-took-11-million-2013-2018-rcna29462
Not that any of it was illegal.
The quote in the letter by the intelligence officials that was used to prevent the press from reporting the story was that the laptop "has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation". They played the Russia card for the millionth time. But it turned out the laptop was indeed authentic. Not that any of it was illegal or Joe Biden did anything wrong.
Some bipartisan observers may feel like Intelligence officials should not be helping political campaigns fend off troublesome October Surprises even if it is against someone like Trump. And partisan observers? fuck them. They are boring and all say the same thing.
DeleteTrump's family was not receiving billions in payments. I realize that is a standard part of the propaganda though.
DeleteNary a peep about the billions from the Biden justice department either. That's because it's bullshit. Kushner had I think Saudi Arabia invest billions into a fund which he managed. You're so fucking dumb you probably don't even know the difference.
Deleteyeah, a fund that he just started up with zero experience and he collects a fat percentage every fucking year just for sitting on the "investment" which never got actually, you know, invested.
DeleteThat's not the point though, is it?
DeleteWhat happened to the money so many people contributed to pay for this year's inauguration? What happens to the money when Trump sells stuff while president?
DeleteYour obsession with partisanship makes you really, really boring.
DeleteThe Hunter "millions" has been debunked, with the laptop being processed by Russians before handing it off to Giuliani.
DeleteHunter did not receive "millions and millions", he got paid the normal amount for the work he did.
This is in sharp contrast to the BILLIONS that Trump and his family received from foreign entities (China, Saudis. etc) during his first term.
The Bidens were investigated but all they came up with was a Russian spy leaking false information about the Bidens.
Trump has been investigated, and he was impeached, adjudicated as a rapist and now owes the victim $100 million, liable for corruption and now owes NY $500 million, and convicted of a multiple felonies.
This is all part of the typical Republican/Russian playbook.
I'm kind of with 3:25. I will say that Hunter was a heavy stone around his father's neck, and, at least to me, it's murky. The ones who always emphasize the laptop - I'd have more respect for them if they'd acknowledge the bloody butchering of truth and beauty that by our current POTUS.
DeleteHunter had no impact on Biden's presidency, nor on the election.
DeleteThe Hunter "controversy" is clearly being pushed by Russians, but in this case, it was ineffective.
Imo it’s more than murky when Hunter is making 10 to 20 million from shady foreign sources while his father is vice president and that number drops to zero the day his father no longer holds the title. It’s definitely hard for some people to believe that the world is not a comic book where one powerful entity is dark and corrupt, and the other one is light and on the side of goodness. Politics at that level is all scumbaggary.
DeleteIt's a crying shame that no one who accused Hunter Biden of criminality was able to set aside their fear of perjury charges and testify to them under oath in a court of law.
DeleteOh well. Better luck next time.
Partisans who may have hoped for that probably don’t feel that bad. Biden couldn’t even make it through a campaign for a second term and returned to the public sector as the most unpopular president of modern times with the additional distinction of leaving his party in complete shambles and also historically unpopular and unliked.
DeleteOnce upon a time I posted a copy of Hunter Biden's bio (his work resume) here so that people could see what his qualifications were for the jobs he held. I also described the timing of Hunter's jobs compared to the jobs held by Joe Biden, showing that accusations of influence peddling concerned times when Joe Biden was out of office and the whole Burisma thing didn't happen when Joe Biden was in office either. It takes a lot of work to do that and it seems to do little to no good, since even AC/MA didn't seem to pay attention back then and is popping up with the same tired complaints despite previous debunking. When Hunter began painting, his attackers said he wasn't allowed to sell any of them, on the off chance that Joe Biden might receive money from his son (despite being President and owning three houses of his own).
DeleteThere is no way to satisfy Republican blood lust over Hunter. I can't wait for Barron to grow up a little more so that we can start attacking him as payback. AC/MA -- you claim to be a lawyer. Do some research before you express all of your confusion and doubts here, always at Hunter's expense.
Biden was VP during the Burisma grift. Hunter was appointed to the board of Directors three weeks after Biden was there on government business. (May 12, 2014)
DeleteJared received one billion dollars from Qatar to bail out his failed 666 Manhattan property. This was while he was the Mideast peace dude for then orange felon.Qatar was in a proxy war with KSA & UAE. Jared's FIL attacked Qatar in public statements. This in spite of 14,000 US troops stationed in Qatar. The billion flowed soon thereafter from Qatar. This was years before the $2B from KSA. He also collected about $300 million (peanuts) from UAE. Yes there should be laws against this sort of thing, Hunter was certainly not good, but better than others. To overlook that the hard drive was stomped all over is bogus . To overlook idiot Comer & Gym Jordan star witnesses turned out to be discredited Russian mules is weak on your part. Overlook the uniquely harsh DOJ prosecution from Trump holdovers is fine I guess. Than so is my overlooking the pardon, which does not apply by the way And the real miracle hear is Hunter is alive. Man how they tried to relapse that very ill man. Creeps.
DeleteBiden was not on the board while Joe Biden was VP. He joined the board after Biden's term ended. Joe Biden held no public office during that time.
Deletehttps://www.reuters.com/article/world/us-politics/what-hunter-biden-did-on-the-board-of-ukrainian-energy-company-burisma-idUSKBN1WX1P6/
This article does not back up the claim that Hunter only joined the board after Joe Biden left public office. In fact, it contradicts that claim. Hunter Biden did in fact join the Burisma board while Joe Biden was still Vice President. He remained on the board for five years, ending in April 2019.
DeleteNo, it says he negotiated the job after Biden’s visit but did not serve on the board while Biden was VP.
DeleteBiden was out of office from 2016 to 2020.
DeleteThe article does not say anything like: "He negotiated the job after Biden’s visit but did not serve on the board while Biden was VP." That specific claim does not appear in this Reuters piece. Instead, it clearly states: "Burisma then began adding high-profile names to its board, including Biden and a business associate of his called Devon Archer, in April 2014."
DeleteIt doesn't matter. You're partisan. Nothing you say is original or interesting. You're stuck in groupthink. You say the exact same shit jack off idiots say every day on blogs, in the exact same way, using the exact same language. It has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with loneliness. You're in a group for psychological and companionship reasons and the context is this fictional dream world where the Democratic party is good and moral. There's not one single thing you have ever said or will ever say that is original. It's Doctrine. It's cult. There's no point in debating this issue. Believe whatever you want. It doesn't matter. Biden has left office and will go down in history as one of the most unpopular presidents in our history. And he also will go down in history as someone who stayed in the race too long and blew the election which could and should have been easily won but instead was lost and left the party in complete disarray and really universally despised. And a lot of it has to do with jack off cult fucks would can't think originally like yourself. It's just a sad part of our current culture. Don't be down about it or blame yourself. It's the best you can do I suppose.
Deletenonsense
Delete8:50,
DeleteDid I trigger you, bro?
Somerby just discovered that Trump and the right wing are liars? Alert the media!
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to the notion of blaming the lying liars for their lies? Why is Fox solely to blame when it is Trump and his cabinet lying? Leavitt is not a "silly child" but a grown up professional propagating misinformation at the command of her boss, Donald J. Trump. These untruths are not accidents, they are deliberate. We the readers need to hold Trump accountable, not Fox News or Leavitt but Trump himself.
Yes, Fox viewers are bad because they don't examine what they hear, but it isn't as if no one is debunking the lies. Somerby knows where to go to find out the truth but he doesn't bother with that. He thinks HIS responsibility ends with finger-pointing at women on Fox, such as Campos-Duffy and Trump's paid news-stooge, Leavitt. Because, if you follow Somerby daily, you will notice that it only seems to be women to blame at Fox. Childish women. Somerby's selective attention to who lies is embarrassing -- for Somerby.
The left's strategy for dealing with all these lies is to debunk them. Notice that Somerby doesn't even do that today. He says they are lies and lets them lie without correction. Replacing mistaken beliefs is important -- it is called defending the truth and asserting the importance of correct info. Somerby never does that. When you let the lies alone, it is too easy for the true believers to just say "Somerby is lying about the lies" but it is harder to do that when you juxtapose correct info with the lie, and give sources (credible ones) for the correction. Somerby doesn't ever do that. He says Trump is a liar (nudge nudge wink wink) while repeating lie not the truth, then he attacks the left, the peope who are NOT telling lies and says we are just as bad as whatever happens on Fox, which is a humongous lie told by Somerby, every day.
That makes this an exercise in bad faith. Somerby is at heart dishonest. No one who thinks Fox lies spends 24/7 watching them without caring about debunking the lies. The people who do that are called Trump supporters and Republicans and Red America. And Somerby is one of them, not one of us. Especially when he is busily blaming Harris for not addressing immigration concerns while claiming he will vote for her because Trump is insane (Bandy Lee said so). Never mind the facts of immigration and the facts of Harris's campaign and never mind that the right loves Trump's insanity and feels like it is owning the libs every time Somerby calls Trump insane, because Trump is the one in office and we are not.
If you believe Somerby is doing anything at all to oppose Trump, you are as gullible as the Fox viewers lapping up Catholic prayer apps, while Somerby tells you repeatedly that there is nothing wrong with such apps, except something is clearly wrong, but he won't say what it is.
ur a dum dum.
DeleteI would point out that ur illiterate but Somerby would accuse me of sounding elite because I can spell "d-u-m-b" and you can't.
DeleteSomerby's blog got noticed because it primarily functioned as push back against Republican misinformation and the corporate media that abetted the Republicans.
DeleteBut nothing further came from that, no tv deal, no book deal, nothing.
So Somerby became bitter and angry.
And that bitterness and anger was easily weaponized.
Now Somerby is a joke.
A joke, but not a comedian. Not the good kind of joke, the pathetic kind.
DeleteAnonymouse 11:45am, the elephant that you can’t see on your lap is that all your insults as to Somerby’s superfluousness are utterly belied by your actions.
DeleteCecelia all flustered, resulting in his ESL garbled comment.
DeleteSomerby is jealous of Gutfeld.
Delete"Somerby just discovered that Trump and the right wing are liars?"
DeleteLiars? Oh, no, no. Mustn't use THAT forbidden word.
anon 10:59, I spared myself the torture of reading your entire post, but skimming showed the same distortions and torturing of truth, reason and logic that is your modus operandi.. It's saddening that there can someone so idiotic as you. There are rational reasons one could disagree TDH, a case can well be made that he is misguided, wrong, foolish or whatever. People can disagree based on reasonable competing arguments. But you are a crackpot -
DeleteI read all of 10:59 and it all makes sense and seems reasonable.
DeleteSorry, 4:14, that it got you all bent out of shape, hopefully you will recover.
AC/MA, just because you disagree with someone doesn't make them lacking in truth, reason or logic. You are just doing some name-calling, not addressing anyone else's assertions. "Crackpot" is name-calling.
Delete
DeleteCorby is not a crackpot. She is retarded, that's all. Just leave her be.
"Corby" is name-calling, as is "retarded," a derogatory word that mental health professionals do not use. Name-calling is not discussion, it is trolling.
DeleteFrom the AI - Both "dum-dum" and "dumb-dumb" are slang terms meaning a stupid or foolish person, though "dumb-dumb" is more common and arguably less offensive.
DeleteAnonymouse 2:48pm, I’ll explain it to you. I'll handle it for you. When anonymices write 500-word rants criticizing Bob's relevance, it's evident that they view him as more compelling than they pretend.
DeleteCompelling = annoying
Delete"But it's very unusual to see an American "news" broadcast engaging in such religious practices, especially in religious practices which are explicitly sectarian."
ReplyDeleteCategorical error. Catholicism is not sectarian. It recognizes that the Church holds the fullness of choice and that there are those who have become members and those who should.
There have been explicitly religious shows on TV since TV became an appliance in every home.
DeleteNow that Trump is Dear Leader, the next step is to force everyone to become religious so that the US can become a Christian Nationalist nation, according to plan. What is Gilead without God?
DeleteForce? Prayers on TV isn't force.
DeleteReligions are only perpetuated via religious indoctrination, which usually occurs in childhood.
DeleteReligious indoctrination is like how you have to break a horse in order to ride a horse, it is a form of abuse, with the attendant trauma and wounds.
Threatening people and deporting them (even when here as citizens or permanent residents, legally) is force.
DeleteThe Floridian game plan of giving public money via private school vouchers to all comers regardless of income, that includes paying taxpayer money to religious private schools is a blueprint the administration is looking at.
DeleteEvery child is indoctrinated.
DeleteThose failing to indoctrinate their children with knowledge and worship of God are abusive.
There is a difference between indoctrination and education. The right doesn't acknowledge that and it creates confusion between the right and left.
DeleteAgree, religious indoctrination is abuse.
DeleteHow is anyone going to force the felon to be religious? It would be harder than teaching a megachurch attendee about the teachings of Christ.
Delete*fullness of truth
ReplyDeleteA nitpick is not a lie. Leavitt accurately pointed out that we had been giving millions of dollars of condoms to a country. She got the country wrong. It was Mozambique, not Gaza. Bob calls Leavitt’s statement “preposterous” and a lie. But it was actually a valid example of questionable spending.
ReplyDeleteThere isn't a single person who thinks oh it's Mozambique, OK then, let's steal taxpayers' hard earned money to buy them condoms.
DeleteIt is not accurate that the money was used for only condoms, nor that the condoms were used by Hamas to make incendiary devices (as the lie went). General health care is not "questionable" in places where healthcare is lacking. Calling it condoms makes it seem questionable but that is the lie. Africa has an AIDS problem and condoms are used to prevent spread of AIDS to wives, and for birth control, not for recreational sex, as Leavitt and the right have pretended. David, your ignorance doesn't rehabilitate the lies told by Leavitt and Trump and the rest of his administration.
DeleteNo condoms should be sent to Mozambique. When they overpopulate their country, we'll welcome them here to do the jobs Americans won't.
DeleteTrump doesn't wear condoms because his penis is so small, they fall off.
DeleteThis is not unique to Trump, it is a wide spread issue among Republicans, and not just with under-sizing but also with lacking functionality (see Musk).
That Dem men do not suffer from lacking in this area, drives Republicans loony with jealousy, fueling their insane antics.
The Education of Elon Musk (cont.)
ReplyDeleteMusk said it’s “insane” the U.S. government has 'magic' computers that can just “make money out of thin air.”
However, since America fully abandoned the gold standard in 1971, international finance has depended on doing exactly that.
Banks effectively do the same when they lend out deposits, or when a corporation like Musk’s Tesla issues more shares, diluting the value of existing holdings.
Bigot cos-playing as a moron, in order to distract from his bigotry. David in Cal has the same "go to" move.
DeleteSo why doesn’t the government just create enough money to make us all billionaires?
Delete(Answer: Because we’d still have exactly the same amount of real stuff.)
DeleteAs I remember, Elon Musk said it’s insane that certain government agencies have "magic computers", that are operating without any apparent coordination, rules, or bookkeeping.
Is it your opinion that because the gold standard was abandoned, it's perfectly fine?
Money supply can be necessary in some cases as a cause for inflation, but it is not sufficient.
DeleteInflation is primarily the result of corporations gaining enough power to raise prices at will.
Studies show that giving money directly to those in need actually works and benefits society, and studies also show that "trickle down" does not work.
11:50,
DeleteI'm not arguing for or against the gold standard.
I'm pointing out how disingenuous it is to act as if you've made a brilliant discovery that the US government is creating what's known as fiat money, when this is common knowledge.
To use words like 'insane' and 'magic' to describe an ordinary, everyday event is deceptive.
On the podcast with Ted Cruz where Musk made these statements, Cruz played along, acting as if he'd never heard of such a thing as Musk was describing and seeming almost dumbfounded at Musk's brilliance.
It is amazing how much contempt people like Cruz and Musk have for their audience.
Delete@12:06 PM
DeleteLook, if you want to reply to 11:50, you may want to try to understand what it says, and reply accordingly.
Again: if indeed certain government agencies have "magic computers", that are operating without any apparent coordination, rules, or bookkeeping, is it perfectly fine, perfectly normal?
Comprende? Not the fact that the government has computers. Not the fact that the government can increase the money supply. But the fact that it's done by several unconnected agencies without any apparent coordination, rules, or bookkeeping.
Musk is quoted above. He is the one talking about magic computers manufacturing money, not Hector. Hector is critical of Musk and stated why. @12:51, you seem to have added words to Musk's statement that change the meaning. It reminds me of the way Cecelia mindreads people to explain what they really meant, when she doesn't know them or what they are thinking. How do we know Musk meant what you are saying about coordination etc. when that is not what he said. He referred to "magic" computers and that is not what lack of coordination means.
DeleteHector is right. Musk is deliberately spreading disinformation. This is becoming absurd. We have a senior US Senator interviewing Musk like he just returned from an exploration of Mars and is telling us all about these mysteries of the federal government. And everyone is playing along.
DeleteI would like to see Musk sit his fat lying ass in front of a congressional oversight committee and try to misrepresent the facts to sow confusion the way he gets away with it in front of Joe Rogan or Ted Cruz. Fuck, this is so infuriating.
If Ted Cruz wants to know how money is printed, ask the fucking Secretary of the Treasury.
DeleteHere, Corby:
“Okay, so, you may think like the government computers all talk to each other, they synchronize, they add up what funds are going somewhere and that they're coherent and that the numbers, for example, that you’re presented as a senator are actually the real numbers,” he [Elon Musk] said. “They're not. "
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/weve-found-14-magic-money-180236974.html
"Unchecked Spending and Massive Waste
Musk also said nearly every federal agency is overspending on software licenses, media subscriptions, and credit cards. Some departments pay for software no one has ever logged into, while others have double the number of government credit cards compared to actual staff members. “I still don't have a good explanation for why this is the case,” Musk admitted.
The billionaire estimated that 80% of the problem is waste, with 20% being outright fraud."
"if indeed certain government agencies have "magic computers", that are operating without any apparent coordination, rules, or bookkeeping, is it perfectly fine, perfectly normal?"
DeleteNeither fine nor normal. Luckily, it isn't happening.
Because if it was, some detail would be provided. Names would be named, incidents cited, specific examples where books didn't balance, where payments weren't approved. There's none of that.
There's just the world's richest liar, pandering to the MAGA base with fact-free accusations to reinforce the age-old populist belief in the ineptitude of pointy-headed experts.
Musk isn't saving millions on unused software.
Delete@2:42 PM
DeleteIf your brain wasn't completely destroyed by TDS, and assuming you weren't a total idiot before that, you would've found the idea of the government waste, fraud, and general FUBAR, completely unremarkable.
Personally, I have no doubt whatsoever that it's actually much worse than what's been described by Elon Musk. What he's describing that's just the most obvious, easily detected shit.
Musk is interested in learning how the government functions so he can exploit it for his personal benefit.
DeleteMusk has been doing this for years, he is a con man running a grift.
2:54,
Deletebut the details. Where are the details?
2:54,
DeleteHave you got down on your hands and knees and begged Colin Kaepernick for forgiveness, yet?
If not, what are you waiting for?
2:54, this is fucking absurd. Get the experts in front of the incoherent Musk mumbling vague undefined accusations and let's see if they can't set him straight. Or let him sit his fat ass in front of a congressional oversight committee and put it out on the table properly. Not this slapdash, sloppy bullshit. Who the fuck do you think you're kidding?
DeleteMao @ 2:54 is suffering from CKS. He's never going to apologize to Kaepernick for disrespecting the National Anthem of a country riddled with obvious government waste, fraud, and general FUBAR.
DeleteAccusations of TDS are frequently made by those that perpetrate crimes against children. Just sayin'.
DeleteSeeing Trump and Musk as saviors is not necessarily a mental impairment, it is more often a personality trait centered on an obsession with dominance.
The largest waste/fraud/abuse reversed by the Trump admin, has been when they dropped their own corrupt plan to buy $400 million worth of worthless Cybertrucks.
Cybertrucks are great if you are into sniffing glue while stranded on the side of the road, but if you want to get from point A to B, avoid it at all cost.
DeleteIt was Ted Cruz’s podcast, and was exactly as detailed as Ted Cruz’s podcast needed to be.
But let's not pretend any kind/amount of "details" would satisfy you and other soros-bots. What do you need, a list of seral numbers of those magic computers? We both know you're not serious.
"It was Ted Cruz’s podcast, and was exactly as detailed as Ted Cruz’s podcast needed to be"
DeleteOr as Ted Cruz's audience wants it to be.
But let's try another approach. By his own accounting, Musk has uncovered "hundreds of billions" of dollars of fraud.
Has there been a single referral to law enforcement for prosecution?. Isn't this the kind of thing the Trump DOJ would slurp up? Or to a congressional committee for further investigation?
Is that the sound of crickets I hear?
An interesting revelation of how far gone and sunk in conspiracy thinking Musk is comes at about the 19 minute mark in his interview with Cruz:
Delete“I do have this theory that the most entertaining outcome is the most likely,” that this “often” is true, and that ”if this were a tv show, what twist or turn of fate would generate the highest ratings? There’s a good chance that will happen.”
No wonder DOGE is making such sensational discoveries.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=622163070642965
DeleteThey said that they expect to uncover hundreds of billions in waste, fraud, and abuse.
They started two months ago, and they already killed a massive amount of wasteful spending.
Every normal citizen is happy. And you are unhappy because you don't see referrals to law enforcement? Okay, whatever turns you on.
There is no proof they have "killed" any wasteful spending but a great deal of evidence that they are harming citizens by disrupting government services and firing people without due process or cause.
DeleteIf there were referrals for prosecution, that would constitute proof of fraud uncovered. That there have been none is suspicious, suggesting Musk and Trump are lying about their accomplishments. Since they lie all the time, that absence of evidence makes the possibility that this too is a lie much more likely.
I am normal and I am not happy. I am worried about whether I will receive my social security check, which I depend on to live. I definitely want to see actual proof of waste and fraud before Musk harms me in ways it would be difficult for me to cope with, ways I do not deserve. That is how most normal people feel, especially those who are not Republican billionaires and grifters.
They have yet to uncover any significant waste, fraud, or abuse.
DeleteThey keep making claims and then walking them back.
It'd be great if they could properly audit government agencies and uncover waste, but that is not what they have done; everything they have done is to personally benefit Trump and Musk and no one else.
In reality, we already had a robust system for uncovering waste, fraud, and abuse, and Trump/Musk got rid of all that. (not too dissimilar to how Trump dismantled our pandemic preparedness, and we saw how that worked out)
As someone noted, the biggest fraud they uncovered was their own fraud of buying $400 million of useless Tesla vehicles.
...they already killed a massive amount of wasteful spending....
Delete"wasteful" is a subjective term, not an objective one. One man does not get to decide what he deems wasteful spending in a democracy. One's man's waste may be another man's career, or the lives of children dying of malnutrition and disease.
What you mean is they illegally stopped funding congressionally approved appropriations and have been slapped down innumerable times by Federal Judges around the country.
you musk fanboys make me sick to death. you'd follow him off a cliff, no questions
I would really like to know how this country survived for 250 years and grew into the greatest nation in the history of the world without the benefit of the brilliant sir Elon looking over shoulders and checking our work. Absolutely fucking embarrassing the credulity of the maga band.
Delete
DeleteFunctions of the federal government are enumerated in the constitution. Everything else is fair to categorize as waste, fraud, and abuse.
As for "one man's - other man's" shit, Donald Trump has won the election, and he is fulfilling his campaign promises, as he should. It's that simple.
"you are unhappy because you don't see referrals to law enforcement?"
DeleteI'm unhappy because I never dated Jennifer Lawrence.
About the question I asked, I'm simply curious.
I don't know what to tell you. It may be too early for law enforcement. It may be that they concentrate on something else, on waste for example, now. It could be that they're going wide, not deep, at this stage, trying to recover low hanging fruit worth billions, rather than going for more complicated/less rewarding fraud incidents. Could be all of the above, or something completely different.
DeleteIt could be that they have no idea what they are doing except to slash and burn everything because it will make grifting easier and Trump wants to tear down the govt and replace it with his dictatorship.
DeleteCould all be a bad dream.
DeleteAnything is possible*.
* except for there being a Republican voter who isn't a bigot, obviously.
DeleteThey're draining the swamp, as promised. The greatest American heroes. Don't stop, Donald, Elon.
Biden policy just "show(ed) that giving money directly to those in need actually works and benefits society, and studies also show that" Republican ""trickle down"" does not work."
DeleteDonald Trump has won the election, and he is fulfilling his campaign promises
DeleteApparently, you skipped school the day they taught about our Constitution and the structure of our federal government. King Orange Chickenshit is only leader of one of three branches of the Federal Government. Ketamine Nazi does not get to decide unilaterally to delete government agencies he doesn't like, just like President Biden was prevented from fulfilling his campaign promise to relieve student loan debt.
DeleteDonald Trump has won the election, and he is fulfilling his campaign promises.
Which is already fanfuckingtastic. Watching idiot-Democrats brains turn into mush is a bonus.
Watching Republicans get on their hands and knees to beg forgiveness from Colin Kaepernick (a person of color, no less) is fantastic.
DeleteI especially love when they tell Kaep that they were completely wrong to give him shit for not respecting a country with a wasteful and corrupt government.
The only thing that could be better, is if Kaep tells them all to fuck off and die.
"AOC: I want to live in an America that guarantees healthcare to every person.
ReplyDeleteI want to live in an America that has a living wage for every person
I want to live in an America where you have free speech to express yourself and not be afraid of being put on a list or deported."
From NBCNews.com:
"By Patrick Smith and Doha Madani
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a Columbia University student who took part in campus protests against Israel's military offensive in Gaza cannot be detained as she fights orders for her deportation.
Lawyers for Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old permanent U.S. resident, say their client was a victim of "shocking overreach" by the government, which is seeking to deport her because of her political views and constitutionally protected protest activities.
The attorneys filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to stop the deportation and the "pattern and practice of targeting individuals associated with protests for Palestinian rights for immigration enforcement," adding that Chung's detainment came around the time Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil was arrested this month.
"The government’s actions are an unprecedented and unjustifiable assault on First Amendment and other rights, one that cannot stand basic legal scrutiny," the lawsuit says."
Deport this Hamas supporter who is glad October 7 happened.
DeleteIn the USA, the First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, even for those holding unpopular opinions about Hamas. We safeguard the rights of people with disagreeable opinions in order to safeguard the rights of all.
DeleteIf you think it is OK to deport people for engaging in a peaceful protest, then the next thing you know Republicans will be deporting people for being Democrats or working for Harris or opposing Trump's desire for a third term in office.
@12:00 It was not a peaceful protest. They took over a campus building by force. They intimidated Jewish students and prevented them from going to class.
DeleteThat does not mean that this particular student did anything illegal. The govt has a burden to demonstrate that she violated the terms of her permanent residency or committed a crime. That is what due process means. Deporting her without a hearing is illegal on the part of the government. That is why the judge decided to stop her deportation.
DeleteThey took over a campus building by force.
DeleteGosh, that never happened.
"Activists at the university in New York City seized Hamilton Hall early on Tuesday, barricading themselves inside."
DeleteThe students occupied Hamilton Hall and were joined by additional protesters outside the building. They refused to dismantle a two-week encampment by a specified deadline. Is that really force?
Many of the protestors were Jewish, actual Jewish students, whereas many of the complaints of harassment were from outside agitators.
DeleteSomebody call DiC a Whhaaaaaambulance
Delete
ReplyDelete"Sad! None of the journalists asked him why he keeps making those claims."
He keeps making those claims because they are facts. Unlike your "blue" Reptiloid politicians and your "blue" Reptiloid media, he doesn't lie.
And this has been another installment of simple answers to simple questions.
Did you get that information from the drunken rapists texts?
DeleteCan you put us all in the group?
Get help.
DeleteTrump wants to normalize rape and other sexual assaults.
ReplyDeleteIs that so wrong?
Sexual predators flock together.
DeleteStill not a peep from Somerby about the order Trump gave his Sec of Education to dismantle the Dept of Education. Somerby always claimed to care about the education of black kids, way more than anyone else, but now he has nothing to say about this topic? Does Somerby realize that one mandate of the Dept of Education has been to implement civil rights in education for black kids, disabled kids and other minorities? That is all going away but Somerby is silent. Why?
ReplyDeleteMusk Discovers Government Employees Use Computers
ReplyDeleteSen. Cruz (reverently): “what you saw immediately is, to understand what’s going on, why is getting to the computers essential to understanding what’s actually happening?”
Musk: “The government is run by computers. You’ve got essentially several hundred computers that effectively run the government…If the President issues an executive order, that’s got to go through a whole bunch of people until it eventually comes out of a computer somewhere.”
Editorial comment: This is equivalent to saying, in the 1940’s, “the government is run by typewriters. If the President issues an executive order, that’s got to go through a whole bunch of people until it eventually comes out of a typewriter somewhere.”
"Bring back the scribes!"
DeleteI prefer not to.
DeleteBad handwriting @4:09?
DeleteCan't be helped, left handed.
Delete"PYONGYANG (The Borowitz Report)—Stung by his omission from the Trump administration’s recent war-planning chat, on Wednesday Kim Jong Un demanded to be included in all such group chats in the future.
ReplyDelete“Why was this Goldberg person, who doesn’t even have nuclear weapons, included?” the North Korean dictator asked. “This should never be allowed to happen in this country.”
Kim said that he had downloaded the latest version of the Signal app and was waiting for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to ping him.
Calling his exclusion from the Houthi bombing chat “hurtful,” he said, “I shouldn’t have to read about it in The Atlantic.”
Goldberg may be praised for his current actions, revealing the incompetence and lies of the Trump admin, but let's not forget that Goldberg carried water for the Bush admin, cheerleading for the Iraq War, a few years after serving as an IDF prison guard where Palestinians where detained and tortured.
DeleteRemember that it was a Republican who had his number in their contacts and added him to the chat. Someone deserving praise would not hang out with those guys in the first place. It is to Goldberg's credit that he removed himself from a conversation he realized he shouldn't be part of. His previous politics gave him access in the first place.
DeleteGoldberg waited 11 days before he publicly shared the info that he had been linked in the Signal Group. He didn’t tell the story until the day before the previously scheduled Senate Intelligence meeting that Radcliffe attended.
DeleteAnonymouse 3:09pm, Goldberg was privy to the chat for two days before he left.
DeleteCuriously, Somerby started out of the blue mentioning Goldberg prior to this disastrous revelation, when Goldberg is not in Somerby's rotation of usual suspects.
DeleteGoldberg shared the actual contents of the texts, hours after was called a liar by the Trump Administration. He has the patience of Job. I'd have shared them within minutes.
DeleteAnonymouse 3:36pm, would you have waited the 11 days?
Delete3:42,
DeleteI don't have that kind of patience.
Anonymouse 3:26pm, that was about Goldberg making some sort of subtle gibe as to *someone* and ketamine, but without expressly naming Musk.
DeleteAnonymouse 3:43pm, exactly.
DeleteWhat about doing what is right under the circumstances. Why should texts be released only because someone called Goldberg a liar? Isn't there a larger issue involved?
DeleteIt wasn't that they called Goldberg a liar, it was that they were lying themselves, trying to cover up their blunder.
DeleteIt is strange that Bob mentioned Goldberg just before this broke, he could have used a number of other journalists to bring up the ketamine issue.
Where is Perry Mason when you need him?
Anonymouse 4:13, my guess is that Bob very much wants to label Musk as a ketamine kook and Goldberg made a veiled (lest he face legal repercussions) gibe about it on tv. You’ll see more of that sort of thing in the media.
DeleteMusk is not a "ketamine kook," he is a drug addict.
DeleteSame difference.
DeleteActually no. A kook is a crazy or eccentric person. A drug addict is someone who is addicted to an illegal drug. Ketamine is for use only under medical supervision, which he is not doing. Ketamine is a controlled substance. Specifically, it is a Schedule III substance under the Controlled Substances Act.
DeleteKetamine produces effects similar to drunkenness, it affects memory and judgment. It can make mental illness worse, which is why it requires supervised use. Ketamine may cause unwanted side effects such as: agitation, depression, cognitive difficulties, unconsciousness, and amnesia.
All that is just what anyone would want in a co-president who is in charge of destroying government agencies and dismantling departments.
Cecelia, stop blaming the messenger for exposing illegal actions. How is it his fault these smug idiots included him? And don't say he was planted. More stupid. How the heck was he planted on a secure conversation? Don't defend Idiocracy. Demand good governance. Say hi to Boris.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:14pm, in other words, Bob’s going for the ketamine kook track for Musk.
DeleteI’d suggest that Musk is lucky in his detractors, but Musk is already way beyond lucky.
Anonymouse 6:28pm, get your panties out of your crack and your brain out of the old USSR. Can you at least come up with some accusations of treason that your mama wasn't using on hippies back in the day? I haven’t claimed that what happen with Signal Chat was intentional. It certainly could be. It could be a lot of things.
DeleteMusk is an addict.
DeleteAnonymouse 8:23pm, I’ll take that under advisement. Meanwhile. I’ll have what he’s having.
DeleteThere are tragic consequences to what Musk is doing but you think it is funny.
Delete"SHALL LONG ENDURE? Fox News hosts assist President Trump!"
ReplyDeleteWho doesn't already know that Fox news is a propaganda arm of the Republicans and Trump?
From Heather Cox Richardson:
ReplyDelete"In 1933, after the people had rejected Hoover’s plan to let the Depression burn itself out, President-elect Roosevelt asked [Frances] Perkins to serve as Secretary of Labor in his administration. She accepted only on the condition that he back her goals: unemployment insurance, health insurance, old-age insurance, a 40-hour work week, a minimum wage, and abolition of child labor. She later recalled: “I remember he looked so startled, and he said, ‘Well, do you think it can be done?’”
She promised to find out.
Once in office, Perkins was a driving force behind the administration’s massive investment in public works projects to get people back to work. She urged the government to spend $3.3 billion on schools, roads, housing, and post offices. Those projects employed more than a million people in 1934.
In 1935, FDR signed the Social Security Act, providing ordinary Americans with unemployment insurance; aid to homeless, dependent, and neglected children; funds to promote maternal and child welfare; and public health services.
In 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established a minimum wage and maximum hours. It banned child labor.
Frances Perkins, and all those who worked with her, transformed the horror of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire into the heart of our nation’s basic social safety net.
“There is always a large horizon…. There is much to be done,” Perkins said. “It is up to you to contribute some small part to a program of human betterment for all time.”
Her efforts are relevant today because Republicans are not only trying to remove immigrant labor but trying to bring back child labor by repealing child labor laws in various states. That the use of children as workers goes hand in hand with mistreatment of labor, unsafe working conditions and lower wages should be obvious to parents and adult workers, but the threat to overall working conditions and wages may not be obvious. This plan, which enriches only the wealthy, is a step toward making the US into a third-world nation in which a wealthy few prosper at the expense of the large mass of people struggling to get by. Enslaving children by reviving child labor while eliminating education may benefit the rich today, but it is the way to undermine the innovation and general prosperity that America has been known for. It cuts off not just the future of our kids, but of our nation as well, because the overworked and undereducated do not develop the future advances upon which our economy rests.
Trump and Musk don't care. Trump will be dead by then and Musk is the wealthiest man in the world, who can live wherever he wants should America become inhospitable to him. Where does that leave the rest of us? It is time to resist Trump and his tyranny. And Somerby is on the wrong side in this fight. Perhaps Somerby doesn't care either.
Perkins is a hero.
DeleteNow Arkansas is making gender non-conforming haircuts illegal. Next there will be dress codes for men and women.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans are truly trying to revive the culture wars that they lost back in the 1960s with the youth movement and counter-culture. This is pathetic, petty authoritarianism. It makes it easy to rebel, simply by how you wear your hair. And don't think they won't be coming for tattoos and piercings next, except ones that say Mom or pictures of Jesus suffering with a crown of thorns. They are already deporting people for having tattoos (a rose, their baby's birthdate) by calling them suspected gang-members. What will they suspect you of, if your hair doesn't measure up (or down)?
I think they already got the dress codes covered:
DeleteArkansas Republicans have proposed a bill that would allow lawsuits against people who support transgender youth's social transitions, including by using their preferred name and pronouns or by giving them a gender nonconforming haircut.
H.B. 1668, the so-called "Vulnerable Youth Protection Act," would allow minors or their parents to sue anyone who even acknowledges a minor's gender identity, including "without limitation changes in clothing, pronouns, hairstyle, and name." Lawsuits are permitted up to 15 years after the alleged conduct, with damages of $10,000, or up to $10 million if they have received gender-affirming care.
Gender affirming care is reinforcing male gender on males and female gender on females.
DeleteEvery other use of the term is mental illness.
Relax, we are not coming for your tattoos, but we are not also not going to let you mutilate and psychology abuse children.
DeletePeter Greene (Curmudgucation) says:
Delete"The bill holds anyone who "knowingly causes or contributes to the social transitioning of a minor or the castration, sterilization, or mutilation of a minor" liable to the minor or their parents. The surgical part is no shocker-- I'm not sure you could find many doctors who would perform that surgery without parental consent, and certainly not in Arkansas (see 2023 law). But social transitioning? How does the bill define that?
"Social transitioning" means any act by which a minor adopts or espouses a gender identity that differs from the minor’s biological sex as determined by the sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous profiles of the minor, including without limitation changes in clothing, pronouns, hairstyle, and name.
So a girl who wears "boy" jeans? A boy who wears his hair long? Is there an article of clothing that is so "male" that it's notably unusual to see a girl wearing it? I suppose that matters less because trans panic is more heavily weighted against male-to-female transition. But boy would I love to see a school's rules on what hair styles qualify as male or female.
Also, parental consent doesn't make any difference. Rep. Nicole Clowney keyed on that, as reported by the Arkansas Times:
“Is there anything in the bill that addresses the parental consent piece?” Clowney asked. “Even if a parent says, ‘Please call my child by this pronoun or this name,’ it appears to me that anybody who follows the wishes of that parent … that they would be subject to the civil liability you propose here. Is that correct?”
“That is correct,” Bentley said. “I think that we’re just stating that social transitioning is excessively harmful to children and we want to change that in our state. We want to make sure that our children are no longer exposed to that danger.”
In other words, this is not a "parental rights" issue, but a "let's not have any Trans Stuff in our state" issue.
In hearing, an attorney from the Arkansas Attorney General's office observed that this was pretty much an indefensible violation of student's First Amendment rights, and the AF [sic] office wouldn't be able to defend it. According to the Times, Bentley agreed to tweak the bill a bit, but we can already see where she wants to go with this."
When I was in high school before the Summer of Love (1967), the rule was that a boy's hair could not touch his shirt collar and a girl's skirt must touch the ground while kneeling. No pants for girls, just skirts and dresses. No jeans for boys, just khakis and slacks. No t-shirts without shirts for boys, no bare arms for girls. It seemed like the point was as much to keep kids looking upscale and less casual not to differentiate the sexes. The whole Pretty in Pink era was 10 years later and gender-bending was part of Punk Rock, although the song Lola (by the Kinks) was written in 1970. Stonewall was in 1969, led by trans people not just gays. The 1970s seem to mark women's lib too. This is all the stuff the right wants to roll back.
Gender-affirming care does not consist of imposing a prescribed gender on an individual against their will.
DeleteIn Communist China, after the People's Revolution in 1949, clothing was the same for all. Men and women wore the same clothing in order to emphasize equality and a shared identity, erase class and cultural differences of the past, eschew Western influences, which were considered corrupt. The act of telling people what they can and cannot wear or how they must express their identity, is a political act designed to subjugate and tyrannize people in a totalitarian state. We are not there yet, but states like Arkansas who do this to children (who are more powerless to object) are headed that direction. Next they will be like Puritan communities in which wearing one's cap or apron askew showed allegiance to the devil.
Slippery slope
DeleteThey have already deported people for having tattoos, on the pretext that they are gang members.
DeleteWhen the Arkansas legislature convenes, a global decrease in IQ occurs.
DeleteThere are more than two sexes, and there are innumerable genders; sex is biological, gender is a social construct.
DeleteForcing people, including children, to adhere to someone else's notion of their gender is abusive and immoral.
Let’s surgically mutilate people to “affirm” that they’re the sex they’ll never be. They will never be the sex with the organs they try to replicate with mutilations because they are the other sex permanently.
DeleteIt is not "sex" affirming care, it is gender affirming care.
DeleteIt is a choice to have cosmetic surgery; cosmetic surgery to affirm one's gender, such as breast augmentation, is routine - especially among Republicans. Republicans are free to mutilate their bodies and transition in all kinds of weird ways, and nobody says a word. Sex change operations, while rare, are routinely successful. It is illegal to perform gender affirming surgery on minors, except for top surgery, and only after going through a thorough protocol of consultations with doctors and psychologists (whereas minors getting top surgery for breast reduction or enhancement is common and nobody bats an eye).
That means that all this consternation about gender affirming care is disingenuous, and therefore, irrelevant.
People surgically mutilate themselves all the time in order to "affirm" that they're the sex they were born. Big boobs do not occur in nature. No one blinks at plastic surgery done to enhance men's responses to women's appearance. Plump lips are not natural. Wide eyes for Asian women are not natural. Small button noses are not natural. In Africa, women and young girls are mutilated to prevent sexual enjoyment by women. I never hear any conservatives complaining about any of these practices. Why not? Because they don't care what women must do to themselves in the name of male approval or religious practice (yes, I know men are circumcised for the same reasons). This uproar over what a very small number of people are choosing to do to themselves to feel more comfortable in their own bodies is ridiculous in the face of the many things they apparently approve of (based on the absence of protest) in 16 year old girls given rhinoplasty for their birthdays. Ivanka Trump does not look her natural self and she received sex-affirming surgery from her daddy before she was of age. The hypocrisy of this is mind-boggling.
DeleteI am in favor of restricting plastic surgery to burn victims and those born with deformities that might result in stigma by others, not children taught that they are worth nothing to romantic partners unless they look like pole dancers or Barbies, caricatures of women that do not occur in real life.
Some here are saying there are only two sexes. That is false. There are real women and then there are surgically modified women who look nothing like their sisters, convinced by men that they are worthless without changing their bodies to seek male approval. That is child abuse and sexist male abuse of women they should care about.
Bentley sounds like a moronic, bigoted Republican voter who has been played by the GOP for the rube she is. The fool doesn't even know she's the mark.
DeleteFirst they came for the transwomen -- and I did not speak out because I was not trans...
DeleteThen they came for the drag queens -- and I did not speak out because I was not a drag queen...
Then they came for the legal residents and citizens with foreign names -- and I did not speak out because I am not the least bit foreign...
Then they came for the rest of us, including Democrats, Uber drivers, librarians and teachers, university professors and scientists -- and I did not speak out because I am not like any of them...
Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me, but plenty of people left to speak against me. Unfortunately, they were all Republicans.
Mutilation to make someone look different is not the same as mutilation to destroy functioning organs to pretend it makes you something you can never be.
Delete“Top surgery” even the language invented for this mental illness is grotesque
DeleteAre you unaware that women have top surgery when they modify their breasts and bottom surgery when they enhance their butts? And yes, the language is grotesque, but your ignorance about how people modify themselves is not the problem of anyone else here, certainly not trans people.
DeleteMutilation to make someone look different is vain and sexist, no matter what "organs" are involved. Skin is an organ, by the way. Breasts are considered glandular organs. Freaking out over what OTHER PEOPLE do to their bodies makes you ridiculous because you don't seem to be able to mind your own business. Calling modification of the body to change its appearance "aesthetic surgery" doesn't obscure the fact that it is not being done for functional reasons but to please others. You cannot call surgery to please oneself, the inhabitant of one's body, grotesque when the motive is stronger and more valid than doing it to get a job in the sex industry or entertainment, or to be a better trophy wife. You people are ridiculous.
What does one do when God mutilates a child? Born with the wrong chromosomes? Born with what will become a penis capable of erection and a woman's breasts? Why is trans a hated presence throughout human history? Why are people so hung up on 1% of the population with no power? I assume trans curious.
DeleteGod made transpeople in His own likeness and being.
Delete"For the record, we're using simple descriptive language here—language the Times will avoid."
ReplyDeleteYet, there's an even simpler word that accurately describes the behavior we're witnessing. It's a very short word that begins with the letter L. But we shouldn't use it, I'm told, because we can't actually know what's in the minds of these people who keep repeating debunked misinformation again and again.
Why are you such a pussy?
Delete8:39,
DeleteCertainly, you've heard the saying, "You are, what you eat."
No?
Good day for short selling TSLA!
ReplyDelete