TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 2025
Also, with this report it starts: With this report from CNN—with this report, it starts:
Trump administration concedes Maryland father from El Salvador was mistakenly deported and sent to mega prison
The Trump administration conceded in a court filing Monday that it mistakenly deported a Maryland father to El Salvador “because of an administrative error” and argued it could not return him because he’s now in Salvadoran custody.
The filing stems from a lawsuit over the removal of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who in 2019 was granted protected status by an immigration judge, prohibiting the federal government from sending him to El Salvador.
The filing, first reported by The Atlantic, appears to mark the first time the administration has admitted an error related to its recent deportation flights to El Salvador, which are now at the center of a fraught legal battle.
“On March 15, although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error,” the Trump administration filing states.
Abrego Garcia, who attorneys say fled gang violence in El Salvador more than a decade ago, had been identified by his wife in a photo of detainees entering intake at El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison CECOT.
[...]
The administration argued that it cannot bring back Abrego Garcia because he’s in Salvadoran custody and knocked down concerns that he’s likely to be tortured or killed in CECOT.
According to the administration, it isn't likely that Abrego Garcia will be tortured or killed!
With that report, it starts. It was first reported by The Atlantic—by the arch purveyor of fake news. Or so it was said by certain persons as recently as last week.
A wide array of persons—a wide array of types of persons—have been involved in the invention of the broken national discourse under which the American experiment, such as it was, now struggles to stay afloat. With that report from CNN, via The Atlantic, one part of this story now starts.
(During today's 6 o'clock hour, this report wasn't mentioned on Morning Joe, which seems to be turning into an offshoot of ESPN. From 6:30 to 7, it was nothing but sports. This afternoon, we'll offer more on this phenomenon.)
With that report, it starts! Yesterday, we mentioned some of the types of persons who have helped us reach our degraded state. We mentioned the persons you might see on the Fox News Channel. We also mentioned what you might call The Silence of the Logicians.
There's more to say about the persons in that latter group, and about their colleagues who serve as professors of ethics. For today, let's start with the kinds of persons you could have seen yesterday on the most-watched TV show in the entire "cable news" firmament.
What kinds of persons are hired by the Fox News Channel to perform on The Five, that most-watched "cable news" show? At one point during yesterday's sho, the children were pretending to discuss the return of the stranded astronauts.
Earlier yesterday, the astronauts had been interviewed by the Fox News Channel's Bill hemmer. During the pseudo-discussion on The Five, the person we've long described as the silliest child in the history of TV news chimed in with this typical numb-nut remark:
WATTERS (3/31/25): Hemmer’s a great interviewer, but he whiffed.
GUTFELD: Ha!
WATTERS: The main question that everybody wanted asked was, "Did they hook up?"—
PAVLICH: Oh my gosh.
WATTERS: —and he just left it hanging out there. I hope there’s a part two to this interview, Hemmer, because next time I see you I’m going to slap you silly.
GUTFELD: Mmmm.
In fairness, that's what ownership wants him to do on this TV program. Still, that's what the silliest child in the firmament said. He's 47 years old.
Needless to say, it didn't stop there. The persons on this corporate messaging channel will naturally move on to such comments as these. We'll offer full context below:
WATTERS (continuing directly): Also, the guy [the male astronaut] said he was "stranded but not forgotten?" Come on! Jessica, he was stranded. And now we have confirmation.
JUDGE JEANNINE: And you want to know why he was stranded?
TARLOV (sarcastically): Because Biden's terrible.
JUDGE JEANNINE: Because Biden declined to bring him back. And therein lies the difference between the Trump administration and the Biden administration. An innovator who's able to bring them back from space.
First, you get the silly stuff. After that, it's the propaganda.
At issue was a recurrent claim by President Trump and Elon Musk, in which President Biden had refused to bring the astronauts back last fall for pre-election political reasons.
By now, this claim has become an article of faith among the kinds of person who get hired to perform on Fox News Channel programs. For that reason, it was inevitable:
After the twaddle from the silliest child, the resident loudmouth stepped in, which liberal punching bag Jessica Tarlov unerringly calling her shot.
Has any evidence ever been offered in support of this mandated claim? The simple answer would be no, but we can link you to a pair of voluminous fact checks.
One fact-check comes from NPR, the other from FactCheck.org. Full disclosure:
According to persons on Fox News programs, each site is sunk in "fake news," like the site which first reported the "administrative error" to which the Trump administration has now copped.
That said, the detailed fact-check from NPR appeared on March 12. It appeared beneath this headline:
NASA's latest space launch: 'Stranded' astronauts and messy politics
The detailed report from FactCheck.org appeared on March 18. One passage includes a typical bit of behavior from one of the persons we cited in yesterday's report:
The Facts Behind the Delayed Return of U.S. Astronauts
[...]
In response to Musk’s claims, several astronauts took to X to refute the idea that the astronauts were purposefully abandoned. Andreas Mogensen, a former SpaceX astronaut from Denmark, posted: “What a lie. And from someone who complains about lack of honesty from the mainstream media.”
In response to Mogensen, Elon replied: “You are fully retarded. SpaceX could have brought them back several months ago. I OFFERED THIS DIRECTLY to the Biden administration and they refused. Return WAS pushed back for political reasons. Idiot.”
Mogensen responded by stating, “Elon, I have long admired you and what you have accomplished, especially at SpaceX and Tesla. You know as well as I do, that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9, as has been the plan since last September. Even now, you are not sending up a rescue ship to bring them home. They are returning on the Dragon capsule that has been on ISS since last September.”
When someone challenged what Musk had said, he replied in a typical way. The person in question was "fully retarded," the 53-year-old person said.
For the persons employed by the Fox News Channel, there will rarely be any doubt about such messaging matters. Silly piddle from persons like Watters will quickly be followed to mandated claims from the likes of Judge Jeannine Pirro.
Sadly, it gets worse. At least for those who watch CNN, we now have the first report of an acknowledged "administrative error," in which a person was shipped to a Central American gulag from which he can't be returned.
Of one thing you can be fairly certain. The persons who people Fox News Channel TV shows will not darken their viewers' spotless minds by focusing on this matter.
Below, we'll offer a gruesome example below of the way these persons do respond to matters of this general type. First, consider something else which happened yesterday on The Five.
Tarlov is cast as the liberal punching bag who presence on this TV show lends it a touch of frisson. Harold Ford, her counterpart, has almost become more pro-Trump than the four officially pro-Trump hosts. But when Tarlov appears on the program, viewers may occasionally be forced to to listen to such statements as this.
Tarlov was discussing a different possible error. We'll offer some context below:
TARLOV: You can't take away people's due process like that, and I—
Again, I don't trust the El Salvadorean government to be making sure that they are not torturing people—that they're vetting them properly. They need to be vetted on this side [in the United States, before they're shipped away].
We don't understand the logic of some of that. Once the people have been "vetted properly," is it OK if they get tortured?
Some of that didn't quite parse. But according to Tarlov, the people in question need to be vetted properly—should be afforded due process—before they're shipped away to a place from which they may never return.
That seems to make a fairly obvious type of sense. For that reason, group interruption was imminent.
In the course of this discussion, Tarlov was referring to a case we'd never heard of before—a case involving a gay barber. To watch the full discussion, you can start by clicking here.
But by the time of the remark by Tarlov posted above, the other four persons had heard enough. A classic group interruption occurred, as routinely occurs happens Tarlov has started to establish a blindingly obvious point:
JUDGE JEANNINE (continuing from above; interrupting): Why—why do the Democrats always say, "This could happen?"
TARLOV: It did happen! It was not— It's didn't "could happen." It did—
JUDGE JEANNINE: They were torturing him?
TARLOV: Did you watch the video?
JUDGE JEANNINE: Torturing?
TARLOV: Yeah. Do you, do you—
Time magazine was there when the gay barber from Venezuela, who had a crown tattoo which said "Mom," was being processed coming into the El—
"Did you watch the video?" The question answers itself! At any rate, by now, it was time to interrupt Tarlov again! Enter the silliest child:
WATTERS (continuing directly; interrupting): Jessica—
TARLOV: Oh, am I boring you again? I'm sorry.
WATTERS: No, but you've been talking about this gay barber from El Salvador with some stupid tattoo for weeks. [Jokingly] Weeks, Jessica!
GUTFELD: Yeah! Come on!
WATTERS: It's just a gay barber.
GUTFELD: He's not into you!
It's just a gay barber, the person said. Such comments are common from persons on Fox. And then, up jumped Greg Gutfeld.
With that, the towel-snapping began; the attempt at discussion ended. For the record, the other four persons on The Five routinely behave this way when Tarlov starts making a point.
On other programs on this "news channel," no such examples of WrongThink will ever occur in the first place.
These are among the array of persons who populate the Fox News Channel. The persons who people the news orgs of Blue America have agreed that this disordered behavior must never be reported or discussed.
The professors of logic stay tucked away, continuing their discussions of such topics as "the position that first-order logic is the only kind worthy of the name," but also of such topics as "the Quine–Putnam indispensability argument, an argument for the reality of mathematical entities."
In such ways, persons interact, or choose not to, thereby creating our imitation of a public discourse.
In closing, we'll show you what one more person did when he played tape of the recent "arrest" of a young woman at Tufts by six (6) men posing for the cameras in masks, with the help of their unamarked cars.
The person in question was Brian Kilmeade. Inevitably, we think of the arrest of Anne Frank when we see conduct like his.
You can see his conduct starting here as he plays sound-enhanced videotape of the "arrest" on last Sunday night's Fox News Channel show, One Nation with Brian Kilmeade. Inevitably, we think of the person(s) who arrested Anne Frank. Such persons are also among us.
Before the week is done, we'll discuss Kilmeade's enthusiasm about what he saw on that tape. For today, we'll simply invite you to watch it.
That said, what of the prominent person who said the Danish astronaut was "fully retarded?"
It's as we said in yesterday's report. Last Friday, he made a rather startling claim on the Fox News Channel. Tomorrow, we'll show you what happened, and what didn't happen, when CBS News did a fact-check of his remarkable claim.
These are the persons creating our imitation of a discourse. Can any nation so burdened expect to survive—expect to "long endure?"
In last night's report, it finally started! Mistakenly, a man has been shipped into the gulag. Relevant persons say he isn't likely to be tortured or killed, but also that there's no apparent way to get him back.
This morning, CNN was discussing the report. On MSNBC, the persons who people Morning Joe spent an entire half hour chatting instead about sports!
There's a new book about Tiger Woods. The persons burned time about that!
Tomorrow: CBS News fact-checks Musk
This makes no sense. The Administration could request his (person deported by mistake) return even if they can’t compel it. This is horrifying.
ReplyDelete“The Administration argued it could not return him because he’s now in Salvadoran custody.”
Cope, Soros-bot.
DeleteSorry. That accusation was a lie published by Atlantic magazine. The deported father was actually a member of MS 13
Deletehttps://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/04/01/the-atlantic-caught-pushing-another-anti-trump-hoax-story-n4938478
pjmedia. LOL!!
DeleteYet, the fact remains that the Trump administration admits his inclusion among those sent to El Salvador was a mistake, one they now claim is impossible to remedy
DeleteSorry Quaker. That’s a lie printed in the Atlantic Magazine. At today’s presser Leavitt specifically said this person was a convicted member of MS 13. She might be wrong, but it’s not the case that the Administration says he was sent to El Salvador by mistake.
DeleteIt was reported by CNN and the administration conceded this fact. What are you talking about, David?
DeleteIlya -- I just listened to Leavitt's presser. She said man was an MS 13 member who was rightfully deported. As I said, CNN might be right and Leavitt might be wrong about what happened, but the Administration's position is that he was rightfully deported.
DeleteHalf correcting above comment. Leavitt acknowledged an "administrative error", but she he was a convicted MS 13 member, a leader of MS 13, and listed some bad things he had done. I find her comment self-contradictory. If it was appropriate to deport him, what was the error?
DeleteHe was accused during Trump's first term of being MS 13, received due process and was proven to be innocent. This fucking lying cretin Leavitt is spreading misinformation.
Delete"That’s a lie printed in the Atlantic Magazine."
DeleteThe liar calls out a fake lie.
David, you've been caught out, caught peddling misinformation. Will you apologize?
DeleteAnon@1:19 -- Thank you!
Delete"Will you apologize?"
DeleteYou'll get crickets or an OT instead.
David's spreading of misinformation has been Somerby's agenda for years, perniciously normalizing excessively literal readings, taking things at face value when they are screaming for obvious skepticism.
DeleteConventional wisdom held that lying was usually a bad thing, particularly if you want people to believe you when you’re telling the truth. If and when this administration ever doesn’t lie about something, no one will believe them.
DeleteHe is MS-13. Get him back and then deport him again in mid-air, just for fun.
DeleteBig truths are more important than small lies.
DeleteOne virtue that Trump has is that he tells important truths that others aren't willing to say. E.g.
-- the US is a sucker in terms of international financial stuff
-- Among the illegal immigrants are a large number of dangerous criminals.
-- Inadequate oversight led to a lot of inappropriate spending among federal agencies.
-- ICE could do a much better job of keeping illegal immigrants out.
Dems couldn't start attacking these problems, because they didn't even acknowledge them. Trump is attacking them and having a great deal of success.
...international financial stuff...
DeleteWow, Dickhead, that is a little too technical for me. To King Orange Chickenshit, dead soldiers and people who don't cheat on their taxes are suckers.
Go fuck yourself, Dickhead.
Big truths are more important than small lies.. The complete absence of self-awareness that it takes to make this statement is staggering.
Delete"Small lies" are fact. Big truths are fucking pink unicorns; it's utter bullshit.
David refuses to apologize for spreading misinformation.
DeleteWho knew?
Don't let David's gullible act distract you from the fact that everything he does is in service to his bigotry.
DeleteMusk based his conclusion on the unusual jump in new non-citizen SS numbers. (from DiC in previous article comments.)
DeleteBig fucking LIE by musk and his company of cyber-goons.
Big truth: Donald J Chickenshit is going back on his pledge to protect social security but is trying to pretend he's catching fraud in the system.
What is musk's accusation, David? Or does he just want to float this unvetted bullshit out there right before the election to stir up the ignorant racist rubes that are his base?
Unusual jump, David? Comparing the year 2021 to the year 2024? I wonder what was going on in 2020-2021 that might have had an impact on these numbers of non-citizens getting SS numbers so they can pay taxes while working here. Did you notice they cut the graph off at the year 2021? Take a fucking look at the 4 trump presidency years before 2021, Dickhead.
Any idea why Musk and his cyber goon buddy were hiding from their gullible sucker audience the data from the previous 4 trump years, Dickhead?
Sam Seder did a great job exposing these fucking deliberate liars today on Majority Report.
Notice how Dickhead in Cal runs away when caught spreading lies and disinformation.
DeleteIf there were a large number of dangerous criminals, the govt wouldn't be deporting innocent students on visas to study in the US, surgeons and skilled workers on H1 visas, people who have been in the US for many years living as permanent residents with green cards, and legal asylum seekers fleeing oppressive regimes and gang violence (like this guy from El Salvadar sent back into the tiger's mouth).
DeleteToo many people who haven't committed any crimes anywhere are being deported, including ones who are legal immigrants and thus not even here illegally (as right wingers claim all deported people are). The thinness of concocted reasons for cancelling visas should be embarrassing to Trump's regime because it shows how difficult it is for them to find immigrants who actually are criminals. With the crime rate for immigrants lower than for US citizens, it is not surprising there aren't a whole lot of immigrant sitting in jails waiting for Trump to send them away.
When Trump runs out of innocent grad students to deport, he will come for legal US citizens, born here (as he is already doing with child citizens whose parents are undocumented), except he will focus on US citizens with foreign sounding names or who speak Spanish, or who have been involved with anti-Elon protesting or helping immigrants via non-profit orgs, or just people who didn't vote for him. He is showing that he is not fastidious about deporting the right people, so he will do nothing to correct "errors" when he starts going after citizens and makes a "mistake" or two in the process.
That is an abuse of power akin to the one he is now refusing to correct. And he will get away with it, if no one stands up for the deportees and holds Trump's goons accountable for what they are doing, even for Maryland fathers who were granted asylum by a judge and have done nothing wrong to deserve to be sent back into danger now, except that Trump's goons have quotas and if Trump can't find a danger he will look sillier than he already does.
"CNN might be right and Leavitt might be wrong about what happened"
DeleteGosh, call me crazy, but what if we had some impartial process for examining the facts and determining how the law applies to them?
FYI: David goes 0-for-4 on his "large truths" @2:30. Exactly none of those are large or true.
DeleteSickness David, nothing but the best sources, "Overall, we rate PJ Media to be Questionable based on extreme right-wing bias, promotion of propaganda and conspiracies, as well as numerous failed fact checks."
DeleteDirect quote from the DOJ's court filing:
Delete"On March 15, although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error. Cerna Decl. ¶¶ 12–15. "
Verify. Always verify.
"Inadequate oversight led to a lot of inappropriate spending among federal agencies."
DeleteWhat's the basis for this claim?
"the US is a sucker in terms of international financial stuff"
DeleteAnd we know this is true because....Trump said so?
Somerby:
ReplyDelete"a case we'd never heard of before—a case involving a gay barber."
"TARLOV: Oh, am I boring you again? I'm sorry.
WATTERS: No, but you've been talking about this gay barber from El Salvador with some stupid tattoo for weeks."
The gay barber is indeed old news to even casual followers of news media. Somerby is slipping.
Somerby's weaselly and coy rhetoric betrays his ugly right wing agenda.
Delete
ReplyDeleteI love illegal gangbangers so much. So-so much.
Damn you, Donald Trump administration! You and your useless electric cars!
"Maryland father"
ReplyDeleteIn 2019, an Immigration Judge (under the first Trump administration) determined that the deported man was, in fact, a member of the MS-13 gang. He also apparently had multiple traffic violations for which he failed to appear in court. A real winner.
It is telling that the entire American media is going to run a propaganda operation today making you think an innocent "father of 3" was apprehended by a gulag. Here are the relevant facts:
1) The man is an illegal immigrant with no right to be in our country.
2) An immigration judge determined he was a member of the MS-13 gang.
3) Because he is not a citizen, he does not get a full jury trial by peers. In other words, whatever "due process" he was entitled to, he received.
Misinformation.
Delete"We the people", not "We the citizens".
DeleteAre you a moron? Gulag's are places where people are kept. Gulags don't do any apprehending. That is like saying that a house apprehends people. You neglect the part where the immigration judge granted his asylum petition making him a legal immigrant. Trump violated the judge's order by deporting him. You are right that he had due process during his asylum review, but the govt then failed to respect the court's decision and deported him anyway.
Delete1. People awaiting an asylum decision are not illegal immigrants and they are granted the right to remain in the US pending the asylum decision.
2. The immigration judge granted his asylum petition and gave him the right to remain in the US as a refugee, most likely because of threats against him by the MS-13 gang.
3. No one is saying he needed a full jury by peers. If his official status as a refugee granted asylum was being revoked, that required due process (i.e., a judge making that decision following a court hearing, followed by notification of the change in his status). He did not receive that.
4. Trump admits a mistake was made. That contradicts your contention that the man received due process. Govt mistakes should be corrected. Shrugging it off and saying that he was an immigrant so he probably deserved to be deported is unacceptable in a nation of laws. Because of his prior status as a refugee fleeing gang violence, he is more at risk than some grad student who has never been to El Salvador and was deported for protesting events in Gaza. That makes this mistake even more concerning.
Why do you Republicans think it is OK to post a bunch of lies about these situations?
There was no determination that he was a gang member (which is not a crime anyway).
DeleteNon citizens do have the right of due process and a jury trial, as well as most rights guaranteed to all "persons" by the Constitution.
2:20 is ignorant.
To be clear, asylum decisions are made at hearings before a judge. A determination that someone has committed a crime in the US requires due process to convict the person, which may be a jury trial or a bench trial, according to the same laws as anyone else accused of a crime. It is not OK for Trump to arbitrarily revoke the status of immigrants and people on visas. Trump's EOs do not have the status of law and affect only govt employees, not the immigration status of those in the US according to our laws. This is why Trump's various declarations via Executive Order are being stayed and overturned by the courts. He doesn't have the authority to do what he is doing, such as changing our immigration laws to deport people who are here legally under laws passed by congress.
Delete1} NOT in the country illegally
Delete2) immigration judge made the determination on the basis of "informant testimony"
3) non-citizens can't be denied due process
Go peddle your papers somewhere else.
Funny how Repubes are ganging together to justify breaking the law like gang bangers do.
DeleteBoth astronauts were interviewed yesterday and expressed deep gratitude and admiration for Elon Musk, who rescued them after the Biden administration left them languishing in space, damaging their bodies, for political reasons.
ReplyDeleteMisinformation.
DeleteAs has been repeatedly pointed out, the astronauts had a vehicle that they could have used to return to earth anytime they wished. They were no languishing or stranded. They were continuing their mission until a vehicle that could allow both teams to return at the same time was able to visit the space station. Musk didn't do anything beyond what was already in progress under Biden.
DeleteThe degeneracy of various administrations is typically quantitive and not qualitative. Yes, they all inflict damage and destruction to various degrees on the far-flung countries. Some engage in wars for whatever geopolitical purpose. More recently, drone attacks against various "terrorist" groups has been in vogue.
ReplyDeleteThe Bush administration took a fairly significant step when it declared that some "combatants" are neither covered by Geneva convention; nor can they be detained in the countries where they reside; nor are they subject to US laws. Thus, they grabbed people from Afghanistan and Pakistan, based on anonymous, unsubstantiated accusations. They imprisoned them in Gitmo and said that no charges against them can be disclosed, because it was all so secret. Kafka had nothing on this administration. So, hundreds of prisoners languished in Gitmo, probably a good half of them with no Al Qaeda ties; or very marginal ties. I mean, if you operated a dry-cleaning service and helped someone who was in Al Qaeda, you qualified as "the worst of the worst". Obama, of course, after promising to shut down Gitmo because it was a "stain on America", lost his balls and things went merrily along.
Now, the Trump administration has upped the stakes on lawlessness and degeneracy. This administration, in violation of the US court order, is snatching people off the streets in the US. They are snatching them based on such incontrovertible evidence as: their tattoos; the clothes that they have on; and the way they scratch their nose or other "hand gestures". It's a modern version of: if she floats, she's a witch.
As usual, you have a bunch of faux intellectual apologists scratching their heads, and opining how we were all in mortal danger from these people.
It's interesting how Al Qaeda, ISIS, and all these groups who are an immediate and existential danger to our survival have been forgotten. Of course, infectious diseases and pandemics are all hoaxes. There's really no evidence that germs and viruses cause diseases.
The degeneracy of this administration is a quantum leap.
Trump - well his admin, Trump appears to be 'out to lunch' - bombed Yemen, killing five children.
DeleteThen Trump and his admin whooped and hollered and declared Mission Accomplished, yet the Houthi attacks have not diminished.
Oops.
So sorry about those five children.
No loss to Trump, politically, because the pro-lifers who support Trump never cared about children.
DeleteChildren are precious say the anti-aborters, until the little shits exit the womb. Then they should suffer if in the wrong caste.
Delete"We also mentioned The Silence of the Logicians..."
ReplyDeleteQuine died in 2000. It is difficult for him to be anything but silent these days.
It isn't the job of logicians to speak out about anything, especially not mistaken deportations occurring 5 years after their own death. It is Trump's job to retrieve the people he deports by mistake, violating a court order. It is Somerby's job to speak out about such "mistakes" by Trump's administration, not to deflect and divert by attacking Morning Joe for being interested in sports. Somerby is the one shirking.
"Approximately 10,000 people were fired or laid off from the Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday — and, if those affected had any discrimination complaints, they were told to contact a woman who died last year.
Delete“If you believe this personnel action is based in whole or in part on discrimination based on your race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age or disability, or in retaliation for prior protected activity, you may file an EEO complaint with your designated HHS EEO representative," the email to employees said.
It then listed Anita Pinder's contact information at the Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
Vaughn Green Funeral Services announced Pinder's passing on its website last year and held services the first week of December." [Rawstory]
Michael Waltz has been caught with his pants down, so to speak. He has been caught following the social media of a gay porn star.
ReplyDeleteOops.
The latent homo/bi/trans sexuality so prevalent among Republicans is fueling their homo/bi/trans phobia, and general bitterness.
Waltz can follow whoever he wants on social media. This has nothing to do with his reckless disregard for protecting sensitive information and American lives.
DeleteOr deleting conversations that are required by law to be archived. The ongoing big ass crime not being addressed.
DeleteProfessors of Ethics at top universities inspire their students to act upon their own beliefs. Some of them did that during the Gaza crisis. The ones with student visas are now being deported.
ReplyDeleteWhen professors spoke out under Hitler's reich, some were deported, some self-deported, but others were put in concentration camps where they experienced harsh conditions and some died.
It is becoming dangerous in the US to speak out against Trump or to speak up on certain issues. It is not the special responsibility of ethics professors to express their consciences. It is the responsibility of everyone who cares to speak out, lest we all forfeit the ability to hold divergent opinions, despite out constitution.
Somerby does an especially poor job of speaking out because he can only criticize others for vague flaws, but never seems to be able to directly state his own views on anything controversial. (No, it is not controversial to hate on Joe Scarborough or to say that Anne Frank was a noble teen.) And when he does express a view, such as that we should listen to Fox more, it seems to be on the wrong side of liberal values and not at all helpful toward resolving whatever crisis we are all experincing. What, then, does Somerby have to teach us?
Quine was a conservative. What does Somerby think he would have said about Trump in 2024? Does being a logician endow anyone with any special virtue? I doubt it. Even Gavin Newsom is now "bending the knee" to Trump. If Somerby is looking for moral courage, he might be better off trying to demonstrate it himself with what he says in this blog, since it appears very few people with something to lose are willing to risk it these days. Not even to defend the unfortunates now being caught up in Trump's meatgrinder, people who have done nothing more than be in the wrong place at the wrong time (and no, that is not their fault).
Somerby has the backbone of a cooked strand of spaghetti. He hints at things. Trump and MAGA are too dumb to perceive hints, so I guess Somerby is safe. That is, after all, his strongest held value -- protecting himself from visibility while pretending to be a lib. We can all see what he is not from what he does today. He stands on the sidelines accusing dead logicians of having no moral courage, while demonstrating none himself in the face of a real crisis in our nation, requiring all of us to step up. Whatta guy!
"First, you get the silly stuff. After that, it's the propaganda."
ReplyDeleteThe same pattern occurs here on Somerby's blog. A bunch of silly stuff coupled with the propaganda occurring on Fox, lovingly reproduced for public consumption here (for anyone who might have missed watching Gutfeld, even on purpose). Why are the rebuttals not as lovingly reproduced? Yes, Somerby reports an argument between Musk and a Danish astronaut (to complain about using the word "retarded" which psychologists consider as bad as the words "crazy" and "insane"), but Somerby does not find out the truth about the situation of the astronauts and does not summarize the actual situation for readers who may have become confused. Why should Somerby do that? Because people who are confused by conflicting sides of an argument tend to decide which to believe along partisan lines. If Somerby presented a more objective third version, people could recognize that their own side is mistaken and perhaps even be persuaded to believe something different than the propaganda spewed by Gutfeld et al. That Somerby never does this is one main reason why I suspect that informing people of truth is not Somerby's purpose here. Somerby perhaps thinks that attacking the libs without examples, towards the end of each essay, makes him seem "objective" but debunking lies would take him further if that were really his goal. (I don't believe it is, since Somerby doesn't appear to believe in the idea of objective truth but instead adopts a nihilistic view that truth is not knowable, anything is possible, there is no way to decide who has got things right with 100% accuracy, and so on.)
Logcially, Somerby has no standing to call Fox's jibes propaganda or identify anything as facts or lies. He has abandoned all methods for deciding what is accurate and what is not. I consider that a deliberate act in order to promote propaganda while appearing to care about truth, but Somerby's behavior reveals he doesn't care about knowledge and instead just wants to knock the people he detests. And that makes him no better than Gutfeld or any other right wing meme-advancing spreading of bullshit.
So in summary, what you're saying is: Blah, blah, blah. Blah di blah, blah blah. Do I have that right?
DeleteNo
DeleteThe precious Maryland father and his MS-13 comrades are very busy in America. Won’t you pity them?
ReplyDelete- Raped and strangled an autistic woman to death in Maryland
- hacked four people to death in Long Island
- kidnapped, sexually abused, and shot a girl in Texas
- killed the mutilated a teenager in Virginia
- beheaded and cut the heart out of a man in DC
- Raped and murdered a teenager in California
- sex trafficked multiple young girls
- raped an 11-year-old in Brooklyn
That guy gets around...
DeleteAnd yet the DOJ admits it was an error to send him to El Salvador. No matter how much you try to deflect, the simple facts don't change.
Delete4:01 all those crimes arelikewise committed by Caucasian males in the United States. That means you should be locked up according to your twisted bullshit logic as it applies in the case under discussion.
DeleteAnon@4:01 -- are these actual cases? Or have you come with a list of crimes that could have been perpetuated by someone from Venezuela or El Salvador...or maybe a white person?
Delete4:01,
DeleteNice list of Trump Administration "accomplishments".
"PERSONS: The kinds of persons who people Fox News!"
ReplyDeleteGiven all this, why would anyone watch Fox, much less 24/7, as Somerby admits to doing?
Musings on the mainstream press corps. It's at the top of the page.
DeleteOh, Fox is “mainstream” now? Even Somerby doesn’t call them that.
DeleteThat doesn’t answer the question.
DeleteVance was caught in a lie by Jon Favreau:
ReplyDelete"Vice President JD Vance is being criticized for falsely claiming the Maryland man accidentally deported to El Savador by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was a “convicted MS-3 gang member.”
In an X post Tuesday, Vance said the court filing declared him a convicted member of the MS-3 gang. However, the court filing of the case does not say he was a convict.
The man was denied bond by an immigration court in 2019 over an informant’s allegation he was in MS-13, but he was not convicted.
“My comment is that according to the court document you apparently didn’t read he was a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here,” Vance wrote in response to a post from Democratic strategist and former Obama advisor Jon Favreau.
“My further comment is that it’s gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they victimize,” he added.
Vance’s critics, including political commentators and journalists, were quick to point out the court filing disputes his claim.
On Monday, a court filing revealed that the United States government mistakenly deported Kilmar Arbrego Garcia to El Salvador because of an "administrative error," resulting in his placement in an infamous mega-jail.
Garcia moved to the U.S. from El Salvador in 2011 and is a legal resident shielded by a 2019 court ruling that protected him from deportation.
However, in the legal documents, the government acknowledged that on March 15, Garcia was sent to El Salvador “because of an administrative error” — despite ICE being aware of the court order that protected him from removal to his home country.
Reacting to the vice president’s claim, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a fellow with the American Immigration Council, said, “Vance is badly wrong here.”
“In 2019, a police informant alleged the guy was in MS-13. He spent a year in ICE detention as a result, then won his case. He’s been out for the last five years, married to a U.S. citizen, has two kids, and STILL has no criminal record at all,” Melnick wrote on X."
Vance is showing his willingness to "create stories" again. I'm surprised he didn't have Garcia eating someone's pets.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Vance didn't have Garcia humping a couch.
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