SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 2025
But also, Pete Hegseth's pastor: Stephen Moore has been around forever, ridiculed as perhaps a bit of an ersatz economist.
It's been said that he isn't a real economist—that he can instead be hired to play one on TV.
To his credit, he doesn't normally traffic in insults. That said, the problem began with his role at a high-minded organization which chose an unfortunate name:
Stephen Moore (writer)
Stephen Moore (born February 16, 1960) is an American economist, writer, and conservative television commentator. He co-founded and served as president of the Club for Growth from 1999 to 2004. Moore is a former member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board. He worked at The Heritage Foundation from 1983 to 1987 and again since 2014. Moore advised Herman Cain's 2012 presidential campaign and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
Moore advocates tax cuts and other supply-side policies...
And so on, at length, from there.
The problem emerged with his role at The Club for Growth, the org which Moore co-founded. Due to Moore's choice of a name for the organization, it was persistently confused with The Hair Club for Men, producing an endless array of problems.
With that unfortunate choice of a name, Moore's ineptitude became obvious. For that very reason, there he was last Thursday, in the Oval with Trump, unveiling his Numbers from Nowhere.
We'll let the AP set the scene (no paywall):
Trump defends the US economy with charts after job reports showed warning signs
President Donald Trump unexpectedly summoned reporters to the Oval Office on Thursday to present them with charts that he says show the U.S. economy is solid following a jobs report last week that raised red flags and led to the Republican firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Joining Trump to talk about the economy was Stephen Moore, a senior visiting fellow in economics at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and the co-author of the 2018 book “ Trumponomics.”
Flipping through a series of charts on an easel, Moore sought to elevate Trump’s performance as president and diminish the economic track record of former President Joe Biden. Trump stood next to Moore and interjected with approvals.
The moment in the Oval Office spoke to the president’s hopes to reset the narrative of the U.S. economy. While the stock market has been solid, job growth has turned sluggish and inflationary pressures have risen in the wake of Trump imposing a vast set of new tariffs, which are taxes on imports.
Also, BLS numbers had said that job growth was poor! First, you fire the head of the BLS. Then you send for Moore!
Moore presented a series of charts showing that job growth, and everything else, is really amazingly good. But where did these new numbers come from? Along the way, Stephen Moore explained:
MOORE (8/7/25): What has happened month by month with median household income—this is based on unpublished Census Bureau data. It will be released sometime in the next six months, but we get an advanced look at it.
And so on from there. As to where Moore's amazing new numbers came from, we're told they came from the Census Bureau. If we're willing to wait six months, we're told that will be confirmed!
On the one hand, this was an utterly comical performance—a clown show of cosmic proportions.
On the other hand, this gonzo presentation comes straight out of The Autocracy Handbook, with the strongman letting his favorite inform us about the actual shape of reality.
The show was engineered by a would-be strongman; it was performed by a clown. If you're willing to wait six months, someone will have constructed a bridge all the way to The Numbers from Nowhere!
This clown show took place right there in the Oval, with Trump "interjecting approvals." The very next day, on Morning Joe, Scott Bessent was asked to answer a broadly related question:
Where do tariff payments come from?
Given his current role under President Trump, Bessent has a somewhat puzzling background. The leading authority explains:
Scott Bessent
Scott Kenneth Homer Bessent (born August 21, 1962) is an American government official and former hedge fund manager serving since 2025 as the 79th United States secretary of the treasury. He was formerly a partner at Soros Fund Management (SFM) and founded Key Square Group, a global macro investment firm.
Bessent graduated from Yale College in 1984. In 1991, he was hired by Soros Fund Management, eventually becoming the head of its London office.
[...]
In 2000, Bessent hosted a fundraiser for Al Gore at his home in East Hampton, New York. That year, he also donated $1,000 to John McCain. In 2007, he donated $2,300 to Barack Obama and in 2013, he donated $25,000 to Hillary Clinton's campaign. At that time, he was described as a Democrat who supported liberal causes.
After Trump was elected president in 2016, Bessent donated $1 million to Trump's 2017 presidential inaugural committee. In 2023 and 2024, he donated more than $1 million to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.
Go figure! He started out with Soros and Gore (and Hillary Clinton), suddenly switched to Trump.
Today, he's Secretary of the Treasury. Friday morning, on Morning Joe, Gene Robinson asked him this:
ROBINSON (8/8/25): Mr. Secretary, there's one question I've got to ask you because there has been some confusion.
So we've got a tariff of, what, 50 percent on Brazil now. And so if someone here, an importer, wants to buy Brazilian products today or tomorrow and import them, they're going to pay 50 percent to the Treasury.
And so, who writes that check?
Who writes the check to the Treasury when a tariff has been charged? President Trump has spent the past several years claiming and suggesting that some foreign entity submits that payment, thereby swelling federal coffers with free money from a foreign land.
That isn't the way it actually works, but Trump and everyone close to Trump keeps pimping that phony impression. Now, Bessent would finally get the chance to explain!
Finally, Bessent could straighten things out! This is what he said:
BESSENT (continuing directly): Well, a couple of things. First, we could have substitutions. So there's very little that only comes from Brazil. It could come from Argentina...
No one has to write the check! Whatever it is that we're talking about, it could be imported from somewhere else!
That was this billionaire's first attempt at refusing to answer the question. We humans are built for such acts of deception—but Robinson asked him again:
ROBINSON: But assuming it does come from Brazil, say—or it comes from any country with a tariff. Who writes the check to the Treasury?
Breaking every rule in the book, Robinson asked the question again! The question couldn't have been more clear—but with this, Bessent's full reply, the analysts came out of their chairs:
BESSENT (continuing directly): Well, the check is written to the person who receives it at the dock in the U.S.
Perhaps it was a slip of the tongue. But yes, that's what he said!
The check is written to the person who receives the imported product? Was Bessent trying to extend the deception—trying to further the mistaken impression that the money which ends up in the Treasury actually comes the foreign supplier?
Bessent isn't a clumsy speaker. Was he still trying, even here, to keep misimpression alive?
Heroically, Robinson proceeded to ask his question yet again—for the third time! Bessent was finally forced to report what actually happens. But first with Stephen Moore's monkeyshines, then with Bessent's attempts at flight, we continue to see the gauze of misimpression and misinformation being spread across the land.
Where is all this coming from? We'll also direct you to the CNN interview with Pete Hegseth's pastor which aired Thursday night. This report at Mediaite touches on the basics:
Hegseth Promotes His Pastor’s CNN Spot–and His Call for ‘Christian Domination’
President Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth openly touted his alignment with self-described Christian nationalist Doug Wilson, sharing a new interview that the pastor did with CNN.
[...]
“My views on a number of things have become steadily more mainstream and have done that without me moving at all,” Wilson told the network.
Those views, he told CNN, include a belief in patriarchal society and in repealing the 19th Amendment, which grants women the right to vote. He believes in criminalizing homosexuality and, ultimately, replacing secular democracy with a government ruled by “Christ the King.”
[...]
Wilson denied he was “misogynist” or a “White nationalist” and in the interview defended his embrace of the label Christian nationalist: “I’m not a White nationalist. I’m not a fascist. I’m not a racist. I’m not a misogynist, and those are the names that usually get thrown at me. And then when someone says, well, that’s Christian nationalism, I can–well, I can work with that.”
For the CNN transcript, click here. As Mediaite's David Gilmour noted, Hegseth posted a link to the complete interview, appending this brief affirmation:
All of Christ for All of Life.
That was Hegseth's comment. Now for some full disclosure:
Some people hold views which we'd call "religionist." That said, people are allowed to hold such beliefs. People are free to believe that society would function better structured in the sort of way Wilson described in that interview.
That said, mainstream journalism has seemed to be reluctant to report the fact that Hegseth shares that general world view. Reports about his pastor have been few and far between. CNN should be complimented for producing this report.
Many battalions are fighting the war which is currently being waged against our hapless Blue America. The silly people you see on Fox News Channel programs are hired to move this cause forward.
Some of those people seem to display a certain hostility to the people thought of as women. They perform that anger night after night in remarkable ways.
Wilson doesn't think women should vote. Fox stars think women are just too f*cking fat but are also too old and too ugly.
As Fox stars behave in such repulsive ways, our Blue stars avert their gaze.
ReplyDelete"That was this billionaire's first attempt at refusing to answer the question."
Huh? That was a perfectly good answer. When high tariffs are imposed specifically on Brazilian shit, that same shit will come from somewhere else.
What else do you want from him? What's the matter with you, Bob Somerby? You used to be smarter than this.
Also, firing an idiot-Democrat official (the head of the BLS) is a perfectly sensible undertaking. I find it surprising (and frankly a bit disappointing) that she still had that job till now.
Kick her out Mr. President, keep draining the swamp.
Squeal louder, Mao.
DeleteBut Trumptard, did you not notice that when you defend Bessent, you are defending an actual, real-life Soros-bot?
Delete"He (Bessent) was formerly a partner at Soros Fund Management (SFM)"
So you see Soros-bots everywhere except where they actually are!
anon 10:17, I think you accidentally wound up on the Daily Howler when trying for the Daily Caller. There is a good song from the 50's - with the line "there ain't no cure for the summertime blues." in your case, "there ain't no cure for the Trump Lickspittle Syndrome"
DeleteTriggered, Soros-bot?
DeleteJeez, next time don't try so hard to be funny, you poor thing. It's really sad how idiot-Democrat TV "comedians" annihilated any and all remnants of their audiences' sense of humor.
"Some of those people seem to display a certain hostility to the people thought of as women. They perform that anger night after night in remarkable ways.
ReplyDeleteWilson doesn't think women should vote. Fox stars think women are just too f*cking fat but are also too old and too ugly.
As Fox stars behave in such repulsive ways, our Blue stars avert their gaze."
As feminist Kate Manne explains, it makes more sense to think of misogyny as support for patriarchy rather than hatred of women. Hegseth, Trump and this pastor are not hating on women. They are advocating a return to a previous legal status for women that is based on a system of control over women's behavior called patriarchy.
The men who advocate that women be confined to home and deprived of the right to vote are not doing that out of hatred of women but because they believe that women should hold a distinct role in society confined to homemaking and child-bearing and rearing. They believe they are doing that for women's own good, that women will be happier in such roles, that it is better for children and the functioning of society to divide labor that way.
With lack of access to contraception, abortion or any kind of family planning, women will be forced to bear child after child. It seems pretty obvious that such a structure for society will also enhance men's control over women and their behavior because women will have no means of support for themselves and their children beyond men's largesse, no standing in courts or before the law, and no power to address grievances, especially related to men's behavior. So, rape will become legal again, women can be confined to their homes by men, not permitted to own or drive cars, stay in hotels unaccompanied, travel without a chaperone, and women will be unable to make health decisions, own property or accumulate wealth. This is as it was before the women's movement made progress and this is what these men envision when they urge women to become tradwives.
Somerby reduces this to Gutfeld jokes about whales.
When Somerby presents this as a matter of men holding hostility or hating women, it exempts the men who support partriarchy from criticism, because these men do not think of themselves as haters and consider themselves protectors of women, men who are working to help women, who love and cherish women. It makes no sense to them or to anyone listening to them to call them women-haters because they think their actions will benefit women.
Feminism has been around long enough for Somerby to know better than to reduce this to a simplistic hatred of women, as he routinely does here. There are certainly men who have little use for women, who do dislike them, but this is not what feminists are talking about when they discuss misogyny or "benign sexism".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_Girl:_The_Logic_of_Misogyny
"the people thought of as women"
ReplyDeleteWhat does Somerby mean by this jab? When someone who has little interest in wokeness and blames it for losing votes to Trump deliberately uses a phrase like this, one that is not routinely used by anyone except in certain limited contexts where they are trying to be inclusive of all variants of gender, does this phrase signfiy hostility itself? I think it does.
When someone signals hostility toward progressive attitudes towards women in his first sentence, does it poison the sincerity of everythig that is said next? I think it does.
Somerby only defends women when Gutfeld tells a joke. Otherwise, he is right there attacking women himself.
The AP again dings Trump for something that didn’t happen:
ReplyDelete“Trump defends the US economy with charts after job reports showed warning signs.” In other words, actual economic figures are fine, but Trump is blamed for hypothetical future economic results.
Furthermore economists have been wrong time and again in predicting economic disaster under Trump’s policies. E.g., inflation didn’t rise after the tariffs.
Your paraphrase about economic figures being fine is incorrect.
DeleteGiven that the tariffs have only just gone into effect, how are you concluding that inflation has not risen?
"Consumer prices rose 2.7% in June compared to a year ago, marking a notable surge of price increases as President Donald Trump's tariff policy took hold and some retailers warned they may pass some of the tax burden onto shoppers."
Blaming Trump for raising taxes to reduce spending and lower inflation is just plain wrong.
DeleteFirst of all, Trump's a Republican, so he doesn't care about inflation.
Secondly, Trump didn't raise taxes to reduce spending, which lowers inflation. Instead, he lowered taxes which put more money into the hands of the people, which increased spending and drove up inflation.
@11:06 - inflation has been bouncing between 2 an 3 percent for several months. 2.7 percent is in that range.
DeleteCore inflation is better than just a few months ago.
Delete2.7% is a "notable surge"? What kind of clown wrote this nonsense?
Core inflation https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/core-inflation-rate
DeleteUnder Trump, there are way more unemployed people, which should lower spending, and reduce inflation.
DeleteDoesn't matter if you do it by decimating the economy to the point millions of people are unemployed or by raising taxes, the way to fight inflation is by reducing the people's purchasing power.
Here is what your cited source says:
Delete"The annual core consumer price inflation rate in the United States, which excludes volatile items like food and energy, ticked up to 2.9% in June 2025, from a four-year low of 2.8% previously, just below market estimates of 3%. The shelter index increased 3.8% over the last year, down from a 3.9% rise in May. Other indexes with notable increases over the last year include medical care (+2.8%), motor vehicle insurance (+6.1%), household furnishings and operations (+3.3%), and recreation (+2.1%). On a monthly basis, core consumer prices rose by 0.2%, following the 0.1% increase in May and compared with market expectations of a 0.3% gain. source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics"
These are all up since Trump took office. They are trending up more sharply since the tariffs, which have only just started to take effect.
ABC wrote about the "notable surge" which is evident in these figures.
Sure, keep being idiots idiot-Democrats. No one cares, anyway.
DeleteNo one on the Right ever cared about grocery prices.
DeleteIt was just an excuse to vote for a bigot.
Here we have a perfect example of an authoritarian leader attempting to convince the people that up is down, by using fake charts, firing the real statistics collectors and dismantling reporting agencies, and by repeating misinformation everywhere. Now that more tariffs are taking effect, any ambiguity should disappear from the real data, while Trump will continue to claim victory over the economy.
DeleteHeather Cox Richardson connected the dots yesterday between Putin's support for Trump's candidacy in 2016 and 2024 and his desire to annex parts of Ukraine. She points out that Trump is allowing Putin into the USA (Alaska) when he cannot travel anywhere outside Russia without fear of arrest because of his violation of international law by invading Ukraine. Trump seems oblivious that he symbolism of this meeting condones Putin's aggression. It is capitulation to Putin's demands.
ReplyDeletehttps://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-8-2025-friday
DeleteSimon Rosenberg is a Blue star. Here is a portion of his comment about Trump's upcoming meeting with Putin:
Delete"Next Friday, August 15th, Trump and Putin will meet, in Alaska, in the United States of America. Press reports suggest that Trump will in essence take Putin’s side in the war against Ukraine, Europe and what was the West. It will not be “peace.” It will be appeasement, another extraordinary gift from Trump to Putin, the selling out of our allies (again) and another monumental step in Trump’s ferocious sabotaging of our great nation and the tearing down of the American-led liberal order that our party imagined and built after WWII, an order that has ushered in an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity for America and the people of the world.
It is a day, if it goes as it appears it will go, that will surely live in infamy."
This is how the left feels about what Trump is doing. Somerby looks to journalists for leadership but they must, by profession, remain neutral. There is some resistance on cable opinion shows, such as Rachel Maddow (who Somerby only mentions to malign), but our Blue stars are not on TV because they can be controlled by corporate media (witness what happened to Colbert). Somerby is looking in the wrong place for Blue stars. I suspect he wouldn't recognize one if he stumbled onto substack. He doesn't have to watch cable news. There are many fine liberal podcasts over on Youtube and Spotify. If Somerby can find Emmy Lou Harris singing old-timey songs, he can surely find the real liberal voices in Blue America.
our Blue stars avert their gaze
ReplyDeleteour Blue stars avert their gaze
our Blue stars avert their gaze
our Blue stars avert their gaze
our Blue stars avert their gaze
our Blue stars avert their gaze
Etc.
Pro-tip:
DeleteIf you're a pre-teen, don't make eye contact with Republicans, lest they add you to their global pedophile ring.
When Somerby claims that "our Blue stars" are averting their gazes, it makes him seem like a hero for courageously calling out a moron like Gutfeld. Meanwhile, all of the examples of stupidity by people like Bessent and Moore and Hegseth are culled from news reports, written by whom?
DeleteOur Blue stars are the Democratic politicians and pundits and opinion writers, who are regularly calling out all of the misbehavior on the right, including a lot that Somerby ignores. Robert Reich is not averting his gaze -- he has a new book out this week about Trump as bully. Thom Hartmann is certainly not averting his gaze, nor is Heather Cox Richardson, nor Jeff Teidrich nor Digby nor Marcy Wheeler, and don't ignore Driftglass!
Somerby never mentions, much less cites, any of the Blue stars who are daily contesting the right and especially Trump's efforts to assert unconstitutional powers and grift in illegal ways. Somerby should be quoting them but he never does. That makes it clear that Somerby is the one averting his eyes from our Blue stars, not vice versa. But the right is about projection of its own flaws onto its opponents -- that is their main tactic, one that Somerby demonstrates here today and every day.
Gavin Newsom is a Blue star with his resistance to right wing redistricting by threatening to redistrict CA to exclude all Republican seats, if TX and other states try to cheat in the midterms. He has put his own job on the line with that threat. That makes him a star, in my view.
DeleteSomerby can't even spell his name right. Whatta guy our Somerby is! He can't seem to avert his gaze from Gutfeld, who shouldn't be watched by anyone over 10 or less than 90 yo.
AOC, Bernie, and Jasmine Crockett are Blue stars but Somerby never quotes any of them, or even seems to notice what they are doing and saying. Why is that, given that Somerby is supposedly a liberal? Too busy averting his eyes from resistance.
DeleteTiedrich is a Blue star, pointing out the stupidity on the right in daily messages called "this week in stupid" or "today in stupid". This morning he shows a DHS recruiting tweet that says:
Delete"“Serve your country! Defend your culture! No undergraduate degree required!”
“defend your culture.” racism doesn’t get much more racist than that.
exactly what ‘culture’ are we defending here? is it throwing green dildos at women? is that the precious culture we need to preserve from the influence of swarthy foreigners?
you know who else was really big on defending their pure-white culture from the influence of swarthy foreigners, don’t you? of course you do."
[pictures of Nazi youth recruiting posters from Hitler's reich]"
This is more useful nostalgia than Somerby's "Hello stranger" bullshit.
Yes, we should defend our culture, including tolerance. Thankfully Trump is doing just that when others ignore antisemitism on some campuses.
DeleteOur culture looks down on murder, kidnapping, rape and torture. Trump is supporting those aspects of our culture when he supports Israel against Hamas.
Trump is promoting tolerance? Get a grip on reality, DiC.
Deletehttps://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-antisemitic-slur-shylocks-iowa-big-beautiful-bill-rcna216904
DeleteD in C, "Trump is defending tolerance" - you're sounding ever more Orwellian. You're a parody.
DeleteBlue star Jeff Tiedrich quotes RFK Jr.:
ReplyDelete"“we have full support from the president. he wants this done. he wants — he promised to make American healthy again, and he’s gonna do that. he called me last night. he calls me three or four times a week and says, ‘where are you? why aren’t people healthier yet?’ so he’s keeping me under pressure.”
really? the porcine twatwaffle who believes exercise is bad for you is phoning up the whale-chainsawing crackpot who doesn’t understand how germs work and hectoring him about ‘it’s been ten minutes, where’s all the health you promised?’"
"
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this week in stupid: August 9 edition
buffalo: 1, hunter: 0, and so much more...
Jeff Tiedrich
Aug 9
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as another stupid week comes to a close here in America, let’s look back at the dumbest fucking shit that happened.
Subscribed
monday: look who he’s asking
pour one out for bear cub carcass aficionado Bobby Brainworms Jr., he’s learning that being a jester in the Mad King’s court is hard.
“we have full support from the president. he wants this done. he wants — he promised to make American healthy again, and he’s gonna do that. he called me last night. he calls me three or four times a week and says, ‘where are you? why aren’t people healthier yet?’ so he’s keeping me under pressure.”
really? the porcine twatwaffle who believes exercise is bad for you is phoning up the whale-chainsawing crackpot who doesn’t understand how germs work and hectoring him about ‘it’s been ten minutes, where’s all the health you promised?’
"...I have a suggestion. why don’t you buffoons just get some Heritage Foundation nitwit to make a chart that says “HEALTHY!” with a line going up, and announce to reporters that health is solved."
Sorry, thought I had edited that misc stuff out of the excerpt, but you get the idea.
Delete@11:33 Do you have a cite showing RFK Jr believes exercise is bad for you?
DeleteAs Tiedrich points out, Don Jr. is circulating a meme showing Trump on the roof of the White House throwing a green sex toy onto a WNBA game in progress. Here is a perfect example of misogyny by the president's son but Somerby goes looking Kevin-Bacon-degrees-style for it in Hegseth's preacher, not the White House where it is exuded every time Trump opens his mouth. Gutfeld is not the misogynist-in-chief, Trump is. What does Somerby think all that Epstein stuff is about, anyway? But Gutfeld called some woman fat! Look over here, Gutfeld, Gutfeld, nothing to see in those nasty Epstein files.
ReplyDeleteSomerby is musing about the media, and is pointing out the Republican Party being a global pedophile ring, isn't actually "news".
DeleteSomerby hasn't committed media analysis in decades. He did help get Trump elected, twice.
DeleteTrump's tariffs apparently have ulterior motives, as described by this new report at Rawstory:
ReplyDelete"President Donald Trump’s tariff policy has been described by the president as a tool to address the United States’ trade deficits with countries the world over, however, according to leaked government documents obtained by The Washington Post, the policy had a series of other high-priority objectives that has left experts shocked.
As reported by The Washington Post Saturday, the internal government documents reveal pages of “supplemental negotiating objectives,” among which include using tariffs to pressure countries to offer concessions for companies like the oil giant Chevron or Elon Musk’s Starlink."
"Just days after President Donald Trump's first election victory in 2016, he reportedly called his longtime friend, convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and offered him a job in his administration.
ReplyDeleteThat's according to Epstein's former butler, Valdson Vieira Cotrin, who gave a wide-ranging interview to the UK-based Telegraph about his 18 years working for Epstein. Cotrin — who managed Epstein's Paris estate — recalled a conversation the two had while he was picking up Epstein at the airport upon his arrival in France." [Rawstory]
“ As Fox stars behave in such repulsive ways, our Blue stars avert their gaze.”
ReplyDeleteI mean, there are some slightly more important things to cover, like the destruction of our democracy, the rigging of elections, corruption, Trump’s mendacity, etc. I wouldn’t classify it as “averting their gaze”.
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