TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2025
...none of the friends said a word: Is there a type of "paralysis" infesting come significant portion of our failing nation's population? Could some of the people so infested be thought of as "The Dead?"
We took the crazy gamble this morning of flirting with such questions.
We're starting our new narrative year with the speculative possibility that we Americans are trapped in some sort of "collective paralysis." That certain segments of the society are, metaphorically, among the spiritual dead.
Who might we have in mind? It's hard to attempt an analysis of the American discourse without citing the endless profusion of events such as this:
Trump WH Roasted For Wild $8 Trillion Whopper: ‘Amazing–And Insanely Wrong!’
The Trump White House sparked a wave of condemnation after Labor Day Weekend with a social media post boasting it had taken in a whopping “$8 trillion in tariff revenue.”
The White House posted an image of Trump and the caption, “President Trump’s protectionist trade policies have helped drive more than $8 trillion in new U.S. investment, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs.” The image also included the caption, “$8 TRILLION IN TARIFF REVENUE, HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF NEW JOBS.”
Critics were quick to point out obvious, glaring errors in the post—and others made over the weekend. The conservative Manhattan Institute’s Jessica Reidl shared the post and added...
You can click to see what Riedl said. Reason's Nick Gillespie offered this:
“Amazing–and insanely wrong! Trump claims ‘$8 trillion in tariff revenue.’ In all of 2024, total imports came to $3.7 trillion.”
There our tribunes went again, using the language of mental health—but using it only in a colloquial manner.
For whatever reason, the White House seems to have issued an astonishing howler. Because its presentation dealt with tariff revenue, we thought back to the early moments of Monday's Fox & Friends program—to the magic moments we briefly mentioned, then passed over, in this morning's report.
Yesterday morning, in real time, we were struck by how quickly the propaganda starts on Fox News Channel programs where everyone on the panel will agree, by force of law, with everything that everyone else has said. You may remember who the three friends were this day:
Fox & Friends: Monday, September 1, 2025
Lawrence Jones: co-host, Fox & Friends
Emily Compagno: co-host, Outnumbered
Johnny Joey Jones: Fox News contributor
There they sat at 6 a.m., ready to advance the various mandated messaging points. At 6:03, Compagno enthusiastically offered this about the amazing economy:
COMPAGNO (9/1/25): The president himself is weighing in, putting this on Truth Social...
With that, she read the president's post. It involved the miracle of tariffs. Here's the text of what she read:
"Prices are ‘WAY DOWN' in the USA, with virtually no inflation. With the exception of ridiculous, corrupt politician-approved ‘Windmills,' which are killing every State and Country that uses them, Energy prices are falling, ‘big time.' Gasoline is at many-year lows. All of this despite magnificent Tariffs, which are bringing in Trillions of Dollars from Countries that took total advantage of us, for decades, and are making America STRONG and RESPECTED AGAIN!!!"
There the fellow went again! Try to ignore the other claims, including the claims about windmills. But with respect to the magic of tariffs, there he went again!
Once again, there he went, seeming to say that tariff revenues are submitted to the treasury by foreign governments or other foreign entities. Tariff revenues are free money! The president said it again!
Nothing seems to stop him from making this groaning misstatement. Presumably, Jones or Jones or Compagno herself must have known that the president's representation was bogus.
Did Jones and Jones and Compagno know? We'll assume that at least one of them did! But Compagno politely read the text of the president's post—and none of the friends said a word.
Has a paralysis affected these players? Could they possibly be thought of as the (metaphorical) dead?
At this site, we think of them as messenger children, but also as "Unrecognizables." We'll have more on this type of conduct as the week proceeds, but we're thinking of a different group when we encounter Joyce's language—his language from Dubliners, culminating with The Dead.
There the president went again! Meanwhile, how odd:
Red America's corporate "friends" refuse to talk about President Trump. Meanwhile, Blue America's progressional journalists refuse to talk about them!
We regard the friends as "Unrecognizables." What can we say about the people who refuse to report or discuss the various things they say and do?
It was 6:03 on Monday morning. Compagno tread the text of the howler and she and her friends moved on!
I am spiritually dead.
ReplyDeleteI am paralyzed.
DeleteI am a progressional journalist.
DeleteI too am progressional.
DeleteI’m not a journalist, but I try to be progressional.
DeleteBob attracts the internet’s dumbest commenters.
ReplyDeleteTotally.
DeleteA major victory for all Americans
ReplyDeleteA federal appellate court on Tuesday sided with the Environmental Protection Agency in the pitched legal battle over Administrator Lee Zeldin’s termination of $20 billion in Biden-era climate grants
This twenty billion dollar grant was just a way of parking the money, as I understand it.
How is canceling green/clean energy projects and being opposed to fighting climate change a win for the American people?
DeleteUmm...yeah, I am unclear why you are including me in that "win".
DeleteMajor victory for who. What is the total cost of dirty energy vs. clean Dickhead? Do you own research. The cost of burning carbon fuels dwarfs green energy costs. You are a dolt.
DeleteI believe the following statements are correct. Who agrees?
ReplyDelete1. Tariffs are a tax on businesses, which businesses pass on to consumers in form of higher prices.
2. Corporate Income Tax is a tax on businesses, which businesses pass on to consumers in the form of higher prices.
3. Tariffs tend to promote American jobs. Corporate income tax tends to reduce American jobs.
You left one out:
Delete4. Tariffs tend to be regressive, disproportionately affecting lower income groups.
5. David in Cal is a brainwashed cult member.
Delete6. David in Cal is a racist.
Delete7. David in Cal is a fascist prick.
Delete8. David in Cal can only repurpose right wing BS talking points and has no ability to think for himself. David has lost his bullshit detector.
DeleteCorporate income taxes are debated in congress and must pass both houses of Congress to be levied on businesses, you fucking fascist freak.
DeleteTwo fucking courts have now ruled that Prince Orange Chickenshit's ridiculous and irrational and arbitrary tariffs are in violation of the Constitution of my country, and yet Orange Chickenshit keeps doing it, you fucking fascist freak.
There is a reason we have a Constitution that gives the power to levy taxes and tariffs to a Congress and not a King, you fucking fascist freak.
Go away, Dickhead, Go play with your fellow maggot friends who might think you're clever.
9. But this is no excuse for being a rotten human being who only punches down.
Delete10. In addition, the business-enhancing effects of tariffs are completely undermined when products are imported to be used as inputs for another business.
DeleteAnd planning, either for relocation of businesses to the US or domestic startups, can only be tentative until businesses are certain the tariffs will stay in effect and at what level.
Good point, Hector.
Delete(2) Corporate tax is a tax on profits. It's not like, say, the Value Added Tax (VAT) that is levied during the production stages. So, it is not a tax on business.
DeleteIlya - you're right that corporate income tax is quite different form VAT. VAT really works out like a sales tax, so it's directly added to the price of items. When I buy something with a 9% sales tax, that amount is directly added to the sales price, so it's totally clear that the customer is paying it. Corporate income tax certainly is a tax and is certainly paid by businesses, so it is a tax on business. But, it's relation to the price of items is less clear.
DeleteI would argue that they're both a tax that's generally added to on sales. Faced with a rise in sales tax, a business could choose to pass it on to customers, or to eat the cost of sales tax and not pass it on to customers. A business faced with a rise in corporate income tax could choose to eat it or to raise prices so that their profit after income taxes isn't reduced.
Corporate profit tax is a tax on the business owner's profits; it's not a tax on business. I will be happy to illustrate the distinction.
DeleteFaced with a rise in sales tax, a business could choose to pass it on to customers,...
DeleteWhat the hell are you talking about?
Ilya, Democrats are still trying to define a woman and decide which bathroom to use. Trump is winning every day,
DeleteThe wisest course is to leave women undefined.
DeleteAny given person only needs one toulet.
DeleteDespite the ridiculous narrative of the mainstream, Right-wing media, Republican voters never cared about grocery prices. They care about keeping minorities down.
DeleteAnon@8:09 -- Yes, the nihilistic cult headed by a nearly dead, mostly demented Trump is winning. Can't argue with that.
DeleteWhy was Trump hidden for ten days?
ReplyDeleteA more proper question: why couldn't he be hidden for much longer?
DeleteHeard it was one of those unruly erections.
DeleteDemocrats are defending Venezuelan drug dealers killing Americans including the children of Democrats.
ReplyDeleteDemocrats would rather have high crime and homicides than accept Trump's assistance because it would prove he is right.
DeleteDemocrats need to start shooing Right-wingers in the head, or they will lose voters.
DeleteRepublicans would rather rape children, before they give another tax break to woke Disney.
DeleteThey'll do both, but they'd still rather rape children more.
Trump's only bombing ships from other countries, because he's anti-war.
DeleteNow, pull Trump's other finger,
Jill Biden has contracted gonorrhea..
DeleteThe NY Mets contracted Juan Soto last Winter...
DeleteWhen Melania heard the rumor that two Russian whores had urinated on The Donald, she somberly confided “Why didn’t I think of that?”.
DeleteIt is already in the prenup.
DeleteThe Democratic Party’s elitism has eroded its connection with ordinary people,.
ReplyDeleteThe Republican Party's defense of child rape has made their voting base super-reliable.
DeleteMister Fanny? Miss Fanny Titus?
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"We're starting our new narrative year with the speculative possibility that we Americans are trapped in some sort of "collective paralysis.""
Unsurprisingly, this is the most idiotic idea I've heard for a long time, Bob.
I'll just repeat what I said here recently:
American politics hasn't been as lively, as vigorous, as dynamic since at least the the Vietnam war, the 60s; probably even since the 1930s.
This is the greatest time, greatest things are happening, swamp gets drained, America is made great again.
To call this "paralysis" you'd have to be a retard or mentally ill. Or a Democrat, but I repeat myself. Which of course you are, my friend. All three. But sure, do whatever you want, by all means. This is your blog.
Haha it is so funny when Republicans call political opponents “retards.”
Delete6:42,
DeleteAgree.
Bob's theory that the Right can be convinced to stop supporting child rape, if the Left just asks them kindly, might be the stupidest thing you can read on the internet today.
The future dead unvaccinated children would like to thank DJT and the 50 Republicans senators who confirmed RFK Jr. for their role in removing the dye from their Fruit Loops. Oh, yeah, and the retards that elected tem.
DeleteDon't forget to thank all the DiCkheads who made it possible for DJT to give that power to a lunatic like RFK Jr.
DeleteDavid in Cal,
DeleteCall me when Trump kills 6 million Jews.
Until then, he's a wannabe.
Have you all called your Congressperson to tell them to impeach RFK Jr. If not, why not? The future of the world depends on it.
Delete“ WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump ordered members of his Cabinet on Wednesday to start wearing three pairs of tube socks to make his ankles appear normal.
ReplyDeleteAt the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt attempted to downplay Trump’s demand, as well as his order that Cabinet members use a hammer to create bruises on the back of their hands.
“The press has been trafficking in stories about the President’s health which are entirely malicious and false,” said Leavitt, black sweat socks protruding from her Ann Taylor slingbacks.
According to sources, Trump has also mandated that Cabinet members periodically babble incoherently and fall down, a directive immediately embraced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.”
I saw her bouncing bunnies in a bikini on the intertubes. Clearly the only reason the demented old fool keeps her in tow. Also those lips.
DeleteAt this early stage of the proceedings, the Court must determine whether the President followed the congressionally mandated procedure for his actions. He did not. His actions were illegal—both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
ReplyDeleteI am old enough to remember when conservatives pretended to believe in the Posse Comitatus Act.
The Republican Party has been THE party for child rape, going on almost 45 years.
DeleteDon't be coy. That means you're old enough to remember when Democrats blew it off to use those Bradley tanks to gas all those children to death in Texas. Good times.
DeleteDon’t lie about who gassed children.
DeleteDemocrats signed off on using Bradley tanks to gas multiple children to death. Do you dispute that?
DeleteDemocrats "ordered the brutal assault by dozens of federal agents on the Branch Davidian complex in Waco. The attack ended a 51-day siege that began in February, when an earlier raid had led to the deaths of six Branch Davidians and four federal agents.
DeleteThe April 19 assault triggered a massive fire in which almost all of the victims met horrific deaths. The lives of scores of innocent people, including defenseless children, were considered collateral damage as the administration, through Attorney General Reno, sent a message that any defiance of the ruling class would meet with a ruthless and bloody response."
Democrats ordered that government forces use Bradley tanks to murder scores of innocent children. That is not disputable.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/11/08/jane-n08.html
Rhetorically, I would shy away from trying to pin any violation of the posse comitatus act on Republicans as if it is unique to them alone.
DeleteThe Branch Davidians started the fire and killed the children.
DeleteWas that before or after the Bradley tanks that the Democrats ordered began destroying the building the children were in?
DeleteDon't even think for a second you can win this argument. Don't even try.
DeleteScratch a child burnt to death by a Democrat, find one less Republican rape victim.
DeleteIf I remember correctly, David Koresh was a maniacal child molester. Maggots support for him is all starting to make sense now.
DeleteYes, Republicans showed what they were when they supported Koresh.
DeleteAs an idiot-Democrat I love child-murderers. They are the best.
DeleteDemocrats were trying to save the children from the child rapist. Republicans supported the child rapist. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Where are the fucking Epstein files?
DeleteGood to know you understand the inherent danger of ordering the military to handle domestic policing duties. Have you called your Congressperson demanding Trump demobilize the troops deployed on our soil?
Delete