TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 202
...up jumped the Fox News Channel: We've asked if the government will ever reopen—and we were being only semi-quixotic.
Has a secular form of the mysterium tremendum perhaps already arrived? Along the way, a question comes to mind:
Are we now locked in the situation Senator Schumer described way back at the start? We refer to a situation in which closing the government would let the sitting president accomplish many tasks he couldn't accomplish if the government stayed open.
Would it be easy to shut the government down, but hard to get it opened back up? Did Senator Schumer call his shot the first time around?
Frankly, we're just asking.
Back then, we the Blue American people screamed and yelled at Schumer, and so the shutdown came. Is it possible that our judgment at that juncture was poor? Because quite often if it weren't for all the imperfect judgment, there would be no human judgment at work in the world at all.
No one has perfect judgment, not even us Blues Over Here. The bizarre bad judgment of movement Reds has been a wonder to the world, a point we'll explore as the week proceeds. But this very Sunday afternoon, the analysts screamed and tore at their hair when they clicked over to Mediaite and found themselves looking at this:
Swalwell Calls On 2028 Democratic Nominees To Pledge To Destroy Trump’s ‘Monument To Corruption’ Ballroom
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) proposed a stiff litmus test for any Democrat who hopes to be elected president in 2028: pledge to destroy Donald Trump’s $300 million ballroom.
Swalwell posted to X on Sunday, “Don’t even think of seeking the Democratic nomination for president unless you pledge to take a wrecking ball to the Trump Ballroom on DAY ONE.”
In a follow-up tweet, he added, “Or, as @RubenGallego proposes, rename it the Barack Obama Ballroom. But a Trump monument to corruption will not stand.”
Trump demolished the East Wing of the White House over the period of a week to make way for the proposed 90,000 square-foot ballroom designed to accommodate some 1,000 seated guests.
And so on from there. Rep. Swalwell was now saying that a viable Democratic candidate has to take a sacred pledge to tear the new ballroom down.
We wish we could say that this isn't the way we tend to think of Rep. Swalwell. As you may recall, for reasons which made no obvious sense, he ran for president in the 2019-2020 Democratic primaries.
He was 38 when he announced for the race. Less than three months later, after participating in one Democratic debate, he was still 38 years old when he announced he was dropping out.
None of this means that he's a bad person, because—simply put—he isn't. But as of Sunday, there he was, calling for war on the still-unbuilt ballroom. That strikes us as amazingly bad political judgment, though then again others may differ.
Imperfect judgment afflicts us all. That said, imperfect judgment is a different critter from a (diagnosable clinical) "personality disorder," the kind of (clinical) disorder we discussed, once again, in yesterday morning's report.
In our view, we Blues have exercised a lot of imperfect judgment over the course of the past sixty years. In our view, that history of imperfect judgment helps explain how President Trump has ended up, two separate times, sitting inside the White House.
In our view, it was extremely strange when the president decided to demolish one part of that building in the extremely strange, though wholly typical, way he recently did. We'll return to that type of peculiar judgment before the week is over.
Alas! Over at Mediaite, the report about questionable Blue American judgment arrived in a set of three on Sunday—or at least, so it says here. We Blues have tended to be very slow to come to terms with our ongoing political errors, and so we thought this might be the week to contemplate such possible shortcomings in our tribe's political judgment.
First, though, consider the madness which emerges each day from inside Silo Red. Yesterday, shortly after noon Eastern time, there she went again!
We're speaking of the relentless Emily Compagno who, guest-hosting on the Fox News Channel program Outnumbered, actually hauled off and told Red America this:
Fox Co-Host Takes Offense at California Congressman Being From Iowa: ‘Pretends To Be From the Bay Area’
Fox News co-host Emily Compagno criticized Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) as someone who “pretends to be from the Bay Area.”
On Monday’s Outnumbered on Fox News, the hosts discussed Democrats’ opposition to President Donald Trump’s demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make room for a ballroom. On Sunday, Swalwell insisted that a must-have for any 2028 Democratic presidential hopeful is a pledge to tear down the structure upon taking office.
[...]
Compagno, who grew up in the Bay Area, then pivoted to attacking Swalwell’s backstory. The lawmaker was born in Sac City, Iowa, and was raised there and in Dublin, California after his family moved to the Bay Area. He represents the 14th congressional district, which is in Alameda County.
“But for some very small-minded and bitter people who come from, where does he come from? Iowa? And then he moved to Dublin, California, and pretends to be from the Bay Area?” she said. “For Eric Swalwell to now pretend to be hip and think that he has some weigh in about it, Americans care deeply about a lot of other things.”
It's hard to believe, but the persistently malaprop-afflicted Compagno actually said that! We suggest that you read the full report at Mediaite and look at the videotape.
How dumb does it get inside Silo Red when the CEO sends in the [stars]? Compagno was calling Swalwell a pretender because he was born in Iowa, not in her own Bay Area!
Given the basic nature of the American project, it would be hard to get much dumber than that. But this is the kind of intellectual judgment which is exercised, around the clock, on the Fox News Channel.
Is Rep. Swalwell working some sort of scam on his district's voters? We decided to conduct a background check. Starting with this report by leading authority, we were told this:
Eric Swalwell
Eric Michael Swalwell (born November 16, 1980) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative from California's 14th congressional district since 2023, having previously represented the 15th district from 2013 to 2023. His district covers most of eastern Alameda County and part of central Contra Costa County. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
[...]
Swalwell was born on November 16, 1980, in Sac City, Iowa. He is the oldest of four sons of Eric Nelson Swalwell and Vicky Joe Swalwell, both of whom are Republicans. During his early childhood, his father served as police chief in Algona, Iowa. After leaving Iowa, the family eventually settled in Dublin, California. He graduated from Wells Middle School and then from Dublin High School in 1999.
When his family moved to California, Swalwell decided to accompany them. Based upon his graduation from Wells Middle School, he was perhaps in sixth grade at the time.
For additional background, we give you this:
Eric Swalwell–Dublin High Class of ’99 Alumni and Alameda County Prosecutor
[...]
Eric started his Dublin education experience at Wells Middle School in 1992 where he developed both a love of soccer and what would later become his career choice—the law. Wells Middle School and later Dublin High School’s Mock Trial teams developed Eric’s passion for the law. Eric correctly predicted in his article for the Dublin High Class of ’99 Yearbook regarding the Mock Trial Team: “Some of the students on this team may even go on to a profession in law.”
In 1992, he would have been eleven years old—admittedly, going on twelve!
For viewers of the Fox News Channel, this makes him a pretender. This is the sort of reasoning which emerges from this, our nation's most-watched "cable news" channel (by far), on a round-the-clock basis pretty much every day of the week, and then on into the night.
Rep. Swalwell wants to tear the unbuilt ballroom down. Tribune Compagno was actively tearing down the simplest part of Americanism, in which a 11-year-old child is allowed to move from one state to another accompanied by his parents.
We're off this morning for a photo shoot down at the medical mission. For that reason, we're going to leave our rumination right here for the moment.
That said, a "personality disorder" is one thing. Imperfect intellectual judgment can also be said to be a disorder, though of a vastly different kind.
We Blues would be much better off if we could come to terms with our own possible errors in political judgment. And over the weekend, good God:
We looked in on a podcast where a Democratic strategist seemed to be suggesting that we do that very thing!
It struck us as a good idea. We'll post again this afternoon, and we'll continue with this examination of various types of human disorder(s) when we post tomorrow.
We're all afflicted with imperfect judgment. A (serious clinical) "personality disorder" is a tragic and a wholly different thing.
Tomorrow: Other possible misjudgments
The biggest difference between Democrats saying Republican gerrymandering is rigging elections, and Republicans saying the 2020 Presidential election was stolen from Trump, is that Democrats believe what they are saying.
ReplyDeleteAs the Bulwark pointed out today:
Delete“Il Duce ha sempre ragione”
(The Leader is always right).
Somerby is attacking Swalwell today, yay yay yay yay!
ReplyDeleteLots of indefinite and unexplained references this morning, to things that are perhaps clear in Somerby's head, but nowhere else:
ReplyDelete"up jumped the Fox News Channel" says Somerby, an obvious play on the phrase "up jumped the devil," but then Fox is not mentioned again until 21 paragraphs later when Compagno (on Fox) accuses Swalwell of being from Iowa, not CA.
"Has a secular form of the mysterium tremendum perhaps already arrived?"
What is it and why does Somerby mention it? No explanation but perhaps Somerby likes the similarity of the word "mysterium" to mystery. But what is the mystery? Crickets on that.
"Are we now locked in the situation Senator Schumer described way back at the start?"
Start of what? When? Crickets on that too. Somerby has not yet mentioned the shutdown, so we are left wondering. Then he says: "Did Senator Schumer call his shot the first time around? " Somerby says he is just asking, but offers no answer to any of the questions he raises.
This is not how you communicate with an audience. It is not how anyone wishing to inform instead of obfuscate writes an essay. This is how you piddle away column inches if you have a word-quota or want to pretend to write without actually saying anything. Most of all, this is how Somerby talks to himself without including anyone else in his conversations.
Somerby is wrong with Somerby. He is pretending to participate in political conversation but he cannot or will not bring himself to any point. He creates a word-collage that maligns Swalwell with negative references without any evidence of wrongdoing, then maligns we blues the same way. There is no point in trying to wade through this muck, but the bottom line is "we blues suck" and Somerby offers that conclusion without evidence. As usual.
Something is wrong with Somerby. This is how a schizophrenic writes, not a sane person with a purpose in mind. Does it amuse Somerby to pretend to be mentally ill while discussing Trump's supposed illness? Is this a big joke to him?
Delete"He creates a word-collage that maligns Swalwell with negative references without any evidence of wrongdoing"
DeleteYou're retarded. Your driver's license should be revoked because I doubt if you know how to read a Stop sign.
He objects to swalwell’s idea of a pledge to demolish Trump’s ballroom. He labels it imperfect intellectual judgment. Not sure why. He juxtaposes that with Trump’s grandiose “personality disorder.”
DeleteTrolls are described as having a combination of three personality disorders: Machiavellianism, sadism, narcissism and anti-social personality. This is called the "dark tetrad."
Deletehttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10004561/
Swalwell is correct that people will be voting in 2028 based on who has been able to stand up to Trump now. Biden did a good job of reversing Trump's mistakes when he took office. We will be expecting whoever is elected to do the same with Trump's worse actions now, if that is possible. There is no way to recover the lives of those innocent people in the fishing boats, or to undo those being harmed by measles or losing their jobs to DOGE, but a Democratic nominee is going to be expected to try.
DeleteTaking Swalwell too literally in order to mock him for a call to undo Trump's mistakes is not anything anyone supporting Democrats or the American people should be doing now. That's just another reason why Somerby's claim to be blue is bunk. Trump should be all good people's target, not Swalwell or Blue America.
I want that ballroom gone as soon as it is built. It symbolizes too much bad stuff, including Republican greed and grifting, and the desire to put women back in the home and remove them from public life.
Delete"He objects to swalwell’s idea of a pledge to demolish Trump’s ballroom. He labels it imperfect intellectual judgment. Not sure why."
DeleteBecause it would go over like a lead balloon. Because it would appear as what it would in fact be: the reflexive opposition to everything Trump says and does.
It would be self-defeating and for that reason, you support it.
11:46: Somerby didn’t explain his objection.
DeleteAlso, a majority of people oppose the demolition, so, no, Swalwell’s idea wouldn’t go over “like a lead balloon.”
DeleteThat may be how it would appear to the right, but we on the left think it is symbolic of undoing all of the chaos Trump has sown, all of his anti-climate acts, all of his corruption, putting people back in their jobs, restoring visibility to those removed from history by attacks on DEI, and so on.
DeleteIf a Democrat is unwilling to pledge to demolish the ballroom (an expensive unnecessary structure designed for graft) and restore sanity to the government, they are unfit to be elected. It will be enthusiastically received by the dismayed American people who never wanted the ballroom and ARE opposed to everything Trump says and does, because Trump supports nothing that is good for people and only that wish enriches himself financially. We MUST OPPOSE TRUMPISM, NOT JUST TRUMP. That means destroying the symbolic ballrooms as evidence of opposition. I expect that whoever is elected will also scrape the gold trim off the oval office walls. It is embarrassing to our nation. I expect a Democratic president to buy back the public lands sold off by Trump. I expect the new president to restore the title Department of Defense and bring back the diversity among generals. I expect DOGE to be dismantled, reporting to be restored, NOAA to report accurate weather again, and the Rose Garden replanted. I hate the things Trump has done to our nation, big and small. I want all of them gone and I will vote for someone with the guts to do that, not a wimp who thinks Swalwell is showing "imperfect intellectual judgment" instead of showing that he understands what the people want and need.
Given that nothing is perfect, what does it even mean to call judgment imperfect? You evaluate judgment against potential outcomes, not against some standard of perfection. If Somerby is saying Dems won't vote for Swalwell because of this, I think Somerby is the one with the imperfect political judgment. Republicans won't respond to the promise but Somerby is overly concerned with attracting Republicans, who are not blue and are responsible for our current trauma, not the people we expect to save us from Trump's dementia.
DeleteWe're not going to have a nation in 3 more years of this insanity. This is all academic talk. The Republic has been toppled. Congress has been dissolved. The Supreme Court will be in the hands of reactionary Christian nationalists generations. What are you people talking about the next election smoking?
DeleteThis sounds like imperfect political judgment to me.
DeleteThe end of the republic is not the end of the nation.
DeleteSomerby expects Dems to always capitulate to Rebumkins, as they have for much of the past 40 years, so when they do not - a relatively new and powerful trend - Somerby tries to shoot it down.
DeleteSchumer has not grown a spine, he is responding to his increasing lack of popularity among Dems, and to a much smaller extent to his earlier argument that a shutdown would allow Rebumkins to wreak more havoc being proven to be completely false - Trump and his cronies were doing just fine in dismantling our country before the shutdown. In fact if anything the shutdown may diminish Trump and his cronies' ability to fulfill their goal of destroying our country (that is why they were squealing about it so much), and will likely increase the motivation of Dems to be politically active and vote in higher numbers.
"a majority of people oppose the demolition, so, no, Swalwell’s idea wouldn’t go over “like a lead balloon.”'
DeleteYou have to be able to distinguish two things:
1) opposing the demolition of the East Wing, to be replaced with a giant, ugly ballroom, and;
2) demolishing the ballroom once it is constructed.
Different things which would be differently perceived.
"The end of the republic is not the end of the nation."
DeleteUnless they get rid of the 2nd Amendment.
The second amendment is eternal.
Delete2:35: we were talking here about the upcoming campaign, not the actions potentially taken by a Democratic President. Right now, many would be in favor of swalwell’s pledge. I imagine many would favor it even after the election, after Trump lied, accepted corporate cash, went around congress and made it a fait accompli to his tyranny. Do you suppose President swalwell would ask congress for approval to tear it down?
DeleteDavid and Cecelia have not endorsed President Trump’s poop video.
ReplyDeleteI get a kick out of anonymices who chide Bob for wanting the media to discuss Trump’s psychological health, even as these anonymices engage in psychoanalysis (Hasbro™) on Bob.
DeleteNot the same people.
DeleteIt’s precisely the same anonymices.
DeleteI'm with CC on this: All Anons are One.
DeleteAnd that’s why you are a troll.
DeleteSays the Anon who's too afraid to even use a nym.
DeleteAnonymouse 1:01pm, no, being unaccountable from one post to the next is why you stay anonymouse.
DeleteWhy should anyone pay any attention to those who are telling us how they're at the vanguard fighting the excesses of the evil administration when they lack even the minimal courage necessary to use a nym?
DeleteI get a lot more interesting and useful, thought provoking information from the comments of “ those who are telling us how they're at the vanguard fighting the excesses of the evil administration” than I do from your complaints about their lack of nyms, “Dogface”, or is it “DG”.
DeleteEither one works. And thanks for using a nym.
DeleteI’m an anonymouse. My name is Legion.
DeleteAnonymouse 2:45pm, “anonymous” is not how “Legion” is spelled.
DeleteGo with the correct spelling of Legion and if that nym is already taken, go with “Legion6” or “Legion666” depending the the number of your alternate personalities.
Speaking of which, every reason given at TDH that you shouldn't say "all Republican voters are bigots" is unnamed.
Delete“ When his family moved to California, Swalwell decided to accompany them. Based upon his graduation from Wells Middle School, he was perhaps in sixth grade at the time. ”
ReplyDeleteOk, I laughed out loud at this one.
"We're all afflicted with imperfect judgment. A (serious clinical) "personality disorder" is a tragic and a wholly different thing."
ReplyDeleteWe all have personalities of various types. Any of us can be put in a category or multiple overlapping categories using a classification tool like the DSM (which is intended to identify disorders only for insurance reimbursement or when communicating with other professionals in a research study or when supplying data for other purposes).
There is a difference between a personality type and a disorder. A personality becomes a disorder only when it causes a patient distress that motivates him to seek therapy or treatment, or causes that person to be referred for treatment by a court of law. Sometimes a person will seek treatment because their personality is causing others (spouse, employer) distress, even if it is not bothering the patient himself or herself.
Somerby's use of the words "serious clinical" applied to personality disorder implies that there are degrees of personality disorder or clinical levels at which personality becomes serious. That isn't how this works. Everyone has personality characteristics which can be measured, but whether they constitute a disorder depends on how that person interacts with others in the real world. No clinician goes around "fixing" people's personalities without a reason dictated by the context in which someone lives. No personality is inherently a disorder without circumstances that are causing problems and distress for the patient or those around him.
Somerby seems to think you can apply a label to a person's personality, like you do a medical diagnosis to an illness or disease such as measles or pneumonia. It doesn't work like that, even if you grab words like serious clinical and try to affix them to a person using labels.
Everyone has a personality of one type or another. That doesn't mean they are mentally ill. Somerby has no training in the use of the DSM. He has no idea even what the DSM is for and he clearly doesn't understand why people are not rushing to apply labels to Trump.
Trump's behavior is bad enough. It adds nothing to the situation to say that Trump has a combination of narcissistic and anti-social personality. Is it a disorder? Neither Trump nor anyone else has sent him to therapy. Trump seems fine with himself and hasn't sought help adjusting to society. No court has referred him for treatment. How then is this a disorder? He may be an asshole, but that is not a psychiatric term. Why put a label on him? Normally, it would explain what a shrink is asking for payment for, services to help Trump struggle with his grandiosity in a world that won't let him be king. But that isn't happening, is it? So, this is an inappropriate and meaningless conversation.
There is nothing tragic about having a personality of one type or another. There is nothing tragic about Trump or his life. There is something tragic about the mistreatment of young girls at Mar a Lago and in Trump and Epstein's club for men. That is between the victims and the courts. There is something tragic about the millions of people who have too little food and now their foodstamps have been cut off by Trump because he lacks empathy and is too greedy to care about, even though it is his job to do so. That is tragic. Somerby doesn't care about that -- at least he never mentions it. Some might think it is tragic that Trump cannot keep a wife, cannot have a normal relationship with his grown children. But if Trump isn't complaining and his kids don't care, and Melania has moved on in her life, where is the tragedy?
DeleteSomerby seems unable to recognize who the true victims are of Trump's misbehavior. He has broken laws and he has committed crimes. He needs to be held accountable for that, and it is a tragedy that our society cannot do that, but that makes Trump happy and not a tragic figure himself. It is the rest of us who are suffering at Trump's hands. Trump is raking in money, his primary goal in life, and couldn't be bothered to worry about others. Where is his tragedy?
Spot on.
DeleteThe concern over finding Trump's precise diagnosis for his mental impairments is a distraction, a way to deflect from the more pertinent issues of Trump's corruption and criminality.
I have no personality, for I am a bot.
DeleteAnonymouse 1:36pm, anonymices have stayed up last night writing long- winded character- assaulting screeds on Trump’s personality and upon Bob for advocating that the media take up that line of analysis. You do 5000 words on the mental pathologies of both men in pretense of resisting that line of attack.
DeleteI don’t know how you can get more ridiculous with this without being a Monty Python skit, but you’ll figure it out.
Actually, I didn’t think Monty Python was all that funny.
DeleteAnonymouses amateurishly judging the mental states of Trump and Somerby: Tired.
DeleteSomerby amateurishly judging the mental state of Trump and "us Blues: Wired.
Cecelia debunking anonymous comments: inspired.
DeleteDemocrats must learn to speak to present economic realities with honesty and authenticity in order to rebuild their beleaguered brand.
ReplyDeleteWe have done that all along. Why do you feel our brand is "beleaguered"? Present economic realities are those created by Trump. Biden did good and we can say that with honesty and authenticity because it is true.
DeleteThat would involve unrelenting attacks on Trump and the GOP who have destroyed the livelihoods of farmers, small business owners, Union workers, and people on health care, and the GOP wants and has always wanted to destroy Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA and social security. Trump-supporting farmers know it’s Trump’s idiocy that is ruining them, but surveys show they are not inclined to change their vote.
DeleteAgree. Persuasion plays no role in electoral politics, it all comes down to who can motivate their voters the most. Due to the personality traits of right wingers, they are easy to motivate, and the way they cling to their obsession with hierarchy and dominance can not be undone.
DeleteThat's right. Right-wingers have a masochistic desire to be subjugated, so it's useless for us Left-wingers to try to persuade them.
DeleteTHAT is the logic that will lead us Blues to electoral victory!
You have that wrong, DG. They don’t desire to be subjugated; they want to do the subjugating.
DeleteOK. Right-wingers have a sadistic desire to subjugate, so it's useless for us Left-wingers to try to persuade them.
DeleteTHAT is the logic that will lead us Blues to electoral victory!
Dogface George,
DeleteTell us how you were able to persuade David in Cal that he's wrong to believe everything he reads, and to stop posting bullshit.
I want to use that to persuade the other Republican assholes who vote for Trump to stop getting horned-up by Trump's bigotry.
I think it's virtually hopeless to get a closed-minded partisan like DiC to change his mind. But - we only need to persuade 1-2% of Trump voters, and not all are as closed-minded as DiC. Some even voted for Obama and Clinton and Biden!
DeleteTrump voters are a waste of time.
Delete"The United States has announced its 10th missile strike on a maritime vessel accused of trafficking illegal narcotics, killing all six people on board."
ReplyDeleteYet the Nobel Committee Still Refuses to Act
War is Peace, isn’t it? I think I read that somewhere.
DeletePerhaps, a few photos from, say, Chicago, with ICE brutalizing city residents should cinch the deal.
DeleteEnjoying the shit out of Trump's second term. Democrats must have taken Trump's warning about getting tired of winning and deployed it as a strategy. Might as well, nothing else is working for them but not being perpetually unhinged and depraved might be a better one.
ReplyDeleteDemocrats have been winning elections lately.
DeleteAlso court cases.
Delete"“Plato once described the dog as friendly to its owner and hostile to strangers. Tucker is friendly to guys like Nick Fuentes and hostile to guys like Ted Cruz. Tucker poses as a dog ‘asking questions’ but we know what kind of a dog he is based on whose rear end he likes to sniff,” submitted right-wing activist Dinesh D’Souza."
ReplyDeleteWhy would anyone support people who think and talk like this, yes, including D'Souza as well as the two Nazis? These are ugly people expressing ugly thoughts in public, without appearing to know how they come across to actual decent human beings.
Elsewhere, E. Jean Carroll suggested that Trump lost his defamation case because he smelled bad, couldn't sit still, walked out during the plaintiff's closing argument and appeared guilty. The ugliness of that behavior didn't help his defense at all.
Republicans seem to have no notion of how to behave. Somerby muses about personality disorders but perhaps it is just the sense of entitlement and lack of civility that comes across as disdain for other people. Fuentes and Carlson have no mooring to real life society. Trump never did. But why doesn't Somerby see that what is missing is empathy and consideration for others, and that is not any kind of personality disorder. It is what makes a person decent or self-absorbed monsters.
A personality disorder is when you have to go back and check to make sure you locked your front door. It isn't bombing fishing boats and claiming they were all drug dealers aboard. The latter is a crime. Writing a letter to the NY Times to correct the spelling in an article is a foible, a personality quirk that makes someone eccentric, not evil.
DeleteImagine Somerby seriously suggesting that the main thing wrong with Hitler was that he had a serious personality disorder! Why is it any different with Trump?
Delete"Why is Trump any different from Hitler?" Are you serious?
Delete“Why is it any different with Trump?”
DeleteIt refers to blaming a personality disorder for evil behavior. You changed what @12:30 said.
Anonymouse 12:53pm, “evil” or explosive, homicidal, dysfunctional, aggressive, antisocial, destructive, predatory?… Those traits can stem from a personality disorder.
DeleteOn the other hand, King Orange Chickenshit does now have his own para-military that apparently can operate wherever the fuck they want with total legal immunity according the Herr Stephen Miller, Chief of Nazi Operations
DeleteAnonymouse 1:07pm, you and Trump.
DeleteOur lovable show-and- tells.
Really, 1:44? You and DiC are quite the show-and-tells here.
DeleteAnonymouse 1:46pm, you can make that claim solely because we have nyms.
DeleteYou just made the claim against anon 1:07, Cecelia.
DeleteAnonymouse 12:27pm, So you’re calling out D’Souza for a coarse formulation that includes dogs sniffing each other’s butt, but you’ll stay completely quiet when anonymous flying monkeys accuse all your political contrarians of being child molesters, …among other things. In actuality, it’s likely you who types that stuff.
DeleteYou’re not a good or fair minded person. You’re a political operative and a highly laughable one.
Anonymouse 1:51pm, we had this discussion two days ago.I can ID King Orange Chickenshit lady because she uses that appellation consistently. Invariably. Otherwise, she’s a faceless anonhmouse, like you.
DeleteI don’t believe that David and Cecelia molest children.
DeleteYou can say shit like this because you know nobody will know who you are the next time you post.
DeleteNo one is going to stop posting anonymously here, but you and Cecelia feel free to keep wasting everyone’s time on this.
DeleteCecelia, how can you seriously say that accusations against Republican politicians are defamatory when all of the Republicans are working so hard to conceal the contents of the Epstein Files, which are about molesting children? Republicans are defaming themselves by not siding with the victims and releasing info so that the perps can be held accountable for their actions against young girls.
DeleteSomerby defended Roy Moore, claiming that the press was unfair by calling him a pedophile (instead of the very special name men who lust over preteens prefer). He said that if the mama thought Moore was a catch, who was the teen in question to complain? He said Bacall was only 17, so the movies supported teens being married young to men, he said it was a matter of local custom when a man who first raped a teen then offered to settle the scandal by marrying a young girl before she was even in high school, and so on. What do you call a man who won't stick up for the rights of young teens but defends a 32 year old who follows 14 year olds around the mall until they have to ask the security guards to get rid of the pervert? Somerby.
Does it really help anything that I put a fake name on this comment? This all comes from what Somerby said in his essays defending Roy Moore. He thought the accusations by those 14 year olds were made up to embarrass him. One of them claimed he sexually assaulted her in his car, after offering to drive her home. Who would think an Asst. D.A. would do that? Girls find out such things the hard way.
When Somerby gets an MRI he is just as murky about it as Trump. I’ll bet he aces his pictures too, 100%.
ReplyDeleteAnon who insists on keeping his own identity confidential criticizes Somerby for not sharing private medical diagnoses.
DeleteIf I described my MRI, that would be tantamount to doxing myself.
DeleteThat's must be why hospitals put patient names and numbers on their image files.
DeleteEven Cecelia guesses about Somerby's health issues. He wouldn't write anything about them if he didn't want sympathy. Same with his depressed mood today. This is a cry for help. A person who wants to keep their health private says nothing. I seriously suggest that anyone who cares about Somerby take his depressed musings seriously and try to get him to a professional. Depression is not a normal part of aging. It is a symptom that needs treatment, and yes it can be fatal when someone decides to commit suicide. Also, it complicates healing from other illnesses and injuries.
DiC accuses Somerby of having TDS.
DeleteVoters don’t need to agree with a politician on every issue. But they want candidates to share their priorities and show a backbone to prove they can beat the establishment where it counts.
ReplyDeleteAnon too scared to use a nym urges candidates to "show a backbone."
DeleteSays the commenter too scared to post his/her real name. Come on, you can do it, Dogface.
DeleteI already gave out that info. Go look.
DeleteI’d be happy to show you my frontbone.
DeleteDogface has no ideas so he just attacks the commenters instead. What a bundle of hostility he is. Talk about people who need therapy!
DeleteDogpaw - And you can say that because you've formed an opinion of my personality from the multiple posts of mine that you have read. (And thanks for using a nym!)
DeleteDogpaw - Did you see where Anon suggested DiC and CC were child molesters? That seems just a tad hostile, don't you think?
DeleteIt puts you on shaky ground when you align with the people protecting those named in the Epstein Files. Democrats want those files released. DiC and CC are fictional. Who knows what they do with children. I see more hostility from the right than the left. You trolls are horrible people.
DeleteI don’t believe that David and Cecelia molest children.
DeleteNo way to know. But we do know they support hiding those who are listed in the Epstein Files, people who did molest the child victims. The shutdown is about not voting to release those names.
DeleteLook at all the street-fighting Anons here. What a pitiful sight.
ReplyDeleteSomerby could turn off anonymous commenting, you know. It’s a function of blogspot.
DeleteSo what? Somerby could keep you from commenting (and insulting him) entirely, that he doesn’t is not a recommendation of your arguments of your tactics.
DeleteThe fact that he allows and tolerates it should perhaps suggest that you should do so as well and quit going on and on about it.
DeleteAnonymouse 1:58pm, no, it doesn’t bode that I should tolerate your slimming a decent man because he doesn't defend himself from you. That’s such an illustration of your abandonment of logic and morality when it comes to your contrarians.
DeleteCecelia, why is language so hard for you? Are you really a non-native speaker from Eastern Europe, trying to pretend to be American? You misuse bode, contrarians and slimming. It is unclear whether you are upset about Somerby or Trump, although no one would call the latter a decent man, not even a troll.
DeleteIn The Original Kings of Comedy, there is an interesting discussion about how comics deal with criticism, including hecklers at their standup shows. Some never read their reviews and ignore all criticism. Others say they try to find helpful feedback to improve their work. Many considered heckling the hecklers to be part of their show, part of being a professional. Somerby has no doubt dealt with all of this in is career.
Given that one approach is to ignore criticism, it is entirely believable that Somerby may not read his comments, as he as stated. There are quite a few actors who never watch their own movies, not even once.
If Somerby doesn't read his comments, nothing anyone says here about him will hurt his feelings. If he does read them but doesn't acknowledge it, then he has no responsibility to reply to anyone.As a professional entertainer, accepting and using criticism to improve one's work is part of the process. Someone who does that would not want anyone to pull their punches or lie about their response. If this is not performance art but instead self-expression for Somerby, the worst outcome would be to speak into a void in which no one hears what you says, or no one cares about it. In that sense, the commenters are affirming Somerby's participation in the political sphere. For many of us, that is enough. We don't need others to agree but appreciate thoughtful responses that may illuminate ideas we did not think of ourselves. That may be Somerby's gig, for all we know.
I do know that back when there was a debate about reading scores and Kevin Drum followed Somerby's lead and said something inaccurate, Drum corrected his mistake based on feedback in his comments. Somerby never did. He is still making that same factual mistake. That suggests he does not read his comments, or he doesn't give a damn about getting things right. (This is not comedy after all, but a journalist would feel an obligation to correct an error.)
I’m a comedian. I deal with criticism by exposing myself backstage.
DeleteAnonymouse 3:07pm, no, you aren’t doing Somerby a service by issuing personal insults and no, Bob’s lack of response is not an indication that your ugly charges and insults should be ignored . One indication of your extremism is that anonymices never compliment Bob. In fact, you challenge any complimentary remark that OTHER people make about Bob. What are the odds that this total lack of tolerance towards ANY appreciation of Bob or his blog is something other than an ill-will and obsessiveness that’ is completely targeted in a way that makes comedy show hecklers look like Girl Scouts? You mention Kevin Drum. Drjm managed to refute Bob without ever once saying that he is political double agent, a pedophile, a misogynist, and a guy who hates his mother. Anonymices not only say this sort of stuff, they…you…also rush to upbraid anyone who disagrees with you. You don’t seem to understand that your war on Bob is not something that everyone should ignore because he has tolerated it. You don’t seem to understand that Bob clinging to his opinion as to what went down in Mississippi schools is reason enough for everyone else to stay silent as anonymices insult him in the sleaziest manner possible. Stuff that, dear heart.
DeleteHow do you propose to stop other commenters here from exercising their free speech rights?
DeleteHere are the people Somerby insulted: Mississippi teachers, legislators, parents, black students, the guy on cable news who commended their progress, the education experts who lauded their success who he explicitly said were dishonest. He also harmed Michael Hiltzik (a Los Angeles Times reporter who followed him down his rabbit hole and wrote a few wrong columns, just as Drum did). Quaker found the study that refuted Somerby's idea that retention was the full and only explanation for the reading improvements, not the hard work of people in Mississippi.
You have no choice about whether I comment here or not. You don't own this blog. If you bothered me as much as I seem to bother you, I would be ignoring you.
Somerby himself said that he has had a troubled relationship with his mother, who once disinherited him. Somerby is the source of nearly all of the stuff I have ever said about him. I don't believe I ever said Somerby was a pedophile but I did say his remarks about Anne Frank are creepy.
Somerby is at war on the wrong side of many things that I feel strongly about. Upbraiding people who disagree with you (and vice versa) is what people do in political discussions. You may be too fragile to participate. If so, you know where the door is.
"I don't believe I ever said Somerby was a pedophile but I did say his remarks about Anne Frank are creepy."
DeleteClassic!
Hey, I never said you enjoy carnal realtions with goats, did I?
DeleteA man who isn’t attracted to young girls would find that photo of Anne Frank (age 14) sad, not “beautiful” and “worth the price of the book” which is about her death in the Holocaust. If you think that’s about goats, you’re an asshole like Somerby.
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DeleteFourteen year old girls are beautiful. Anne Frank was beautiful. Her death was an unspeakable horror.
We all have our opinions. You think Somerby is a pedophile. I’m going to keep my goats corralled when you’re around.
DeleteI’m sorry, that was directed at 7:10.
DeleteAnd 7:18, that was a lovely comment, and I’m sorry to step on it with my bile about 7:10.
DeleteFourteen year old girls are children. Men who look at them sexually are creepy. The girls are awkward, their limbs are disproportionate, they are undeveloped, often pimply. Men who call this “beautiful” are not fooling anyone. Anne Frank was a child. There was no beauty in her death. Somerby’s romanticization of her death is repellant. The idea of him buying that book to moon over her photo turns my stomach.
DeleteFourteen year old girls are not awkward, and there’s nothing wrong with their limbs. Their stage of development differs from one individual to another. As to pimples, the science is not settled. I can just tell you my personal experience: the less milk and cheese I ate, the fewer pimples I had.
Delete14 year old girls are not sex objects. Calling them beautiful sexualizes them. They are children.
DeleteYou hate young girls because you envy them.
Delete"How dumb does it get inside Silo Red when the CEO sends in the [stars]? Compagno was calling Swalwell a pretender because he was born in Iowa, not in her own Bay Area!"
ReplyDeleteThis morning, the New York Post labels Zohran Mamdani a big liar because he told a story about his "aunt" who stopped riding the subway after 9/11 was actually his father's cousin, not his sibling.
My guess is that the gist of that story is the questionable usage of 9/11 as an example for anti-Muslim persecution.
DeleteDavid refers to Lizzy as his cousin, but she’s actually his first cousin once removed.
DeleteDon't guess, Cecelia. Read it:
Deletehttps://nypost.com/2025/10/27/us-news/zohran-mamdanis-hijab-wearing-aunt-who-feared-for-her-safety-post-9-11-revealed-as-his-dads-second-cousin/
QiB, the NYP has done two stories on Mamdani’s relative. In my opinion, the first piece shares my take on Mamdani’s use of 911 and the second piece reports that Mamdani has clarified his connection to this lady.
DeleteCecelia, you offered your guess about the gist of the story I wrote about. Your guess was wrong. The Post wrote a whole story about how the woman in Mamdani's story was a cousin and not an aunt.
DeleteBack when Trump was calling Covid the Asian Flu, Somerby wrote an essay criticizing an Asian Female judge in NYC who said her mother was frightened by the anti-Asian bigotry encountered on the streets as she went about her daily errands. There were stories in the news about elderly Asians being punched, threatened and verbally abused by New Yorkers who were following the President's lead and blaming Asians for the pandemic. Somerby said that her claims were unsubstantiated, exaggerated, not real and said the judge had no reason to be concerned for her mother.
DeleteI think Somerby was wrong about that reaction, just as people are wrong to suggest that Mamdami has exaggerated his female relative's concerns about the hostility toward Muslims following 9/11. People who were not Muslim but had dark skin were similarly threatened after 9/11. Recall that there were attacks on Sikhs, who are not Muslim but wear turbans at that time.
Now, with ICE out of control, people like Mamdami have every right to be worried about being incorrectly detained, even when they are born here and have a passport. Because that is what ICE is doing. This is an extension of the periodic racism inherent to our society that arises in the context of specific accusations and circumstances. Calling those who are the victims of such attacks "mistaken" or "exaggerating" or using their fear for political purposes, lacks empathy and is a factual error. Somerby made such an error and so did whoever has been attacking Mamdani for being unclear about whether it was his aunt or cousin or a neighbor or an acquaintance who expressed fear to him. It happened and we all know it -- except for the bigots like Somerby and presumably Cecelia.
Following the NYP's lead, the conservative mediaverse is ablaze with stories calling Mamdani a liar, including sensationalist takes at Fox, the Daily Mail, Breitbart, Townhall, RedState, Western Journal, twitchy, OANN, Legal Insurrection, The Commune, The Post Millennial, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, the Washington Free Beacon, and the Federalist.
DeleteThe headlines range from "forced to clarify," to "caught in HUGE lie." All because the woman in question was his father's cousin, not his sister.
QiB, you linked to the story that you referenced. Since I don’t directly follow links in the message board, I googled the NYP and got two recent links to Mamdani. However, you only spoke about that one story.
DeleteI see your point. You’re right. Sorry.
Believe in yourself, Cecelia.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:14pm, I’m not sure what you mean, but I did reply to QiB by addressing a story that he didn’t link. That’s worth a “sorry”.
DeleteDogpaw Giorgio and anonymouse, you shouldn’t have to link the post 911 fears of Mamdani’s relative to the current context of ICE going after undocumented people. There wasn’t a spate of attacks against Muslims after 911. Why would Mamdani have to pretend otherwise? Frankly, Mamdani could have gone directly to the 2025 ICE deportations. He didn’t. He went to 9/11 and his cousin. Who may now be deceased. He did this in order to make it personal as to HIM. Are there no Middle Eastern undocumented people being deported by ICE right now? I would assume that are some, but they aren’t as compelling a story as to a boy’s aunt fearing for her life… The least you two should be able to do is to ascertain what’s going on above and below the decks. Then you can move on to righteous indignation.
DeleteDiC is all about righteous indignation when he perceives the slightest criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu, so tell us about righteous indignation, Cecelia.
DeleteGiorgia not Giorgio.
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