SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2025
Weekend Friends try to explain: The friends held off as long as they could. This morning, at 6:23 a.m., they finally confessed, if haltingly.
To its credit, Fox News Digital had reported the relevant fact yesterday. The report had appeared right around noon.
Headline included, here's what the Fox report says:
DC pipe bomb suspect admitted to planting the devices, expressed doubts about 2020 election outcome: source
The accused D.C. pipe bomber has been speaking with investigators for hours, admitting he planted the devices and expressing doubts about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, a source close to the investigation tells Fox News.
The explosive devices were placed near the Republican and Democratic National Committees' headquarters on Capitol Hill just hours before the Jan. 6, 2021 congressional certification that erupted into riots by demonstrators.
The suspect, Brian Cole Jr., is scheduled to make a federal court appearance later Friday for a first appearance before a magistrate as FBI interviews with him continue. He has not yet entered a plea.
And so on from there. That report appeared yesterday, right around noon—and right there, in the highlighted material, you see a major propaganda win for Blue America's side.
With that, let's state the obvious:
As soon as this arrest was announced, a major propaganda advantage was hanging in the balance. Assuming the actual bomber had been arrested—and reportedly, Coles Jr. has confessed—an obvious, long-standing question awaited resolution:
Had the bomb maker been a MAGA man? Or was he an agent of the Biden-era FBI, as the manifest nutcase Dan Bongino had blared and bruited and bellowed and claimed over the past several years.
Today, the nutcase Bongino is the #2 man inside the Trump-era FBI. To its credit, the FBI now seems to have arrested the person who assembled and then positioned the bombs. But if you work for the Fox News Channel, a messaging problem arises:
Awkwardly, the person in question turns out to be MAGA! He's one of the many millions of people who got conned into believing Donald J. Trump's nut-ball claims about the 2020 election.
Now for a bit of reality:
We Americans are living through a dangerous era which can be characterized in the following way:
Government by the mentally ill. National discourse increasingly shaped by corporate messaging agents.
So "our democracy" now goes, in the dangerous era into which we've all been thrown.
Within that structure, the Fox News Channel has, by far, the largest viewership of our three major "cable news" channels. Every day, and then on into the night, the channel drags out panels reminiscent of The Bar Scene from Star Wars to deliver the crackpot messaging the profit-seeking corporate channel wants this nation to hear.
Yesterday afternoon at 5, there sat a group of these defectives. On the nation's most-watched "cable news" show, a trio of messaging agents—Watters, Gutfeld and Compagno—laughed and clowned and gamboled and played as they generated conspiracy theories as to why the Biden-era FBI hadn't arrested this man.
(To watch this entire slapstick-adjacent segment, you can just click here. There was plenty of outright clowning around on our flailing nation's most-watched "cable news" program.)
In a less forgiving world, the three messenger stooges we've named would be marched off into the countryside for years of re-education activities. Yesterday afternoon, on this edition of The Five, Harold Ford stammered out a minor, halting reference to the fact which had already emerged at Fox itself, roughly five hours earlier:
The suspect was a MAGA man. He's told the FBI that he believed the 2020 election had been stolen.
Yesterday afternoon, on The Five, no one was willing to say it straight out. This morning, at 6:23 a.m., the unrecognizables on Fox & Friends Weekend finally blurted it out.
To its credit, Fox News Digital had been willing to publish the report. Somewhat surprisingly, producers now let the Fox & Friends Weekend Three voice a brief acknowledgment:
The arrested pipe bomb maker was one of theirs. He was one of the millions of people who got conned into a ruinously false belief by the never-ending tsunami of bullshit they themselves spew on the air.
Full disclosure:
If there had been the slightest sign that the bombmaker came from Blue America, that would have been seized upon as a major propaganda win by tribal messengers like these three:
Fox & Friends Weekend: Saturday, 12/6/25
Charlie Hurt: co-host, Fox & Friends Weekend
Rachel Campos-Duffy: co-host, Fox & Friends Weekend
Griff Jenkins: co-host, Fox & Friends Weekend
They would have blared it to the ends of the earth—but that propaganda victory had now been taken away. Tragically, the autistic man they had managed to con turned out to be one of their own.
In truth, there's nothing especially good about what seems to have happened. We can only tell you this—with the revelation in that news report, our flailing American nation (or nations) has been lucky enough to avoid something very bad.
The message mavens at this "cable news" channel had been robbed of an extremely large win. This morning, to someone's credit, they briefly informed their viewers about what the bomb-maker has said he believes.
After that, they began to thrash about, throwing gorilla dust all around with Charlie Hurt saying that this whole thing still seems to be "completely bonkers." (For link to tape, see below.)
Those friends! They then opened their 7 o'clock hour with a report on this same topic. By now, the news we've cited had apparently slipped their minds.
Viewers in the 7 A.M. hour didn't hear about the way this unfortunate young man had been conned. The friends didn't say that Coles was one of theirs—that he was on many millions who had been conned by a crackpot president's crackpot claims about the 2020 election.
To its credit, Fox News Digital reported what it was told. The weekend gang even told their viewers, if only fleetingly, and with several forms of misdirection quickly added.
America dodged a bullet with this. For those of us in Blue America, it's less a propaganda win than the avoidance of a big major loss.
For partial videotape: We can't yet link you to full videotape of what the three friends said. The invaluable Internet Archive hasn't done any such posting yet.
To watch part of the report which started at 6:23 a.m., you can just click here. "Completely bonkers," a chuckling Charlie Hurt says. In essence:
Please look over here!
ReplyDelete"Had the bomb maker been a MAGA man?"
Judging by the fact that Autopen's administration decided against arresting him, he's definitely NOT MAGA.
As for his knowing that the 2020 election was stolen, that's neither here nor there: everyone knows it, and everyone always has.
...and yes, Bob, BlueAnons like yourself, sad creatures in a desperate search for the "white paper", know it too, and always knew it. Yes, Bob. Live with it.
talk about mental illness
Delete"As for his knowing that the 2020 election was stolen, that's neither here nor there: everyone knows it, and everyone always has."
DeleteTrumptard, stop. I'm busting my britches. Can't stop laughing. All the fraud they found. All the suits they won. All the convictions they got. Oh, it's priceless, trumptard, priceless. You're a treasure.
Idiot-Democrats are so retarded, even their "sarcasm" is utterly idiotic.
DeleteYes, idiot-Democrat, everyone knows it, and everyone always has. Everyone with two brain cells to rub together, which probably excludes you and your friends.
Mercy, trumptard, mercy. I'm still remembering last time we had this discussion and I asked for a single piece of evidence and you shit your pants.
Delete'Everyone knows it.' Except Fox News when they paid Dominion Voting Systems 787 million dollars.
I've got to stop. I'm rolling on the floor, I've got tears in my eyes. You should take your act to Vegas. This is comedic gold.
Get help Mao.
ReplyDeleteMao is a performance artist. Let it ply its trade.
DeleteWait 'til Mao-troll finds out the Trump admin is way more neoliberal and neoconservative than the Biden admin.
DeleteCognitive dissonance apocalypse!
So like ya know, how'd Rethugs win down ballot and Biden on top? That be some shitty cheating wouldn't? Also too, the fucking law and order President pardoned 1500 assholes who were working with him to overthrow American Democracy and two notorious drug peddlers so fuck off already weirdo cult fool.
ReplyDelete"...and right there, in the highlighted material, you see a major propaganda win for Blue America's side."
ReplyDeleteA propaganda win? No sir, it's just a fact. Propaganda has no part in it.
Excellent point, the framing indicates right wing values.
DeleteBob is a temporarily embarrassed right winger/Republican.
Perhaps, Bob is suggesting that factoids like this one could be used as propaganda.
DeleteQiB, Ilya - Of course, you’re both right. If the pipe bomber had been left-wing that fact would have been blasted out non-stop from Fox and related propaganda outlets for the next year. The fact that Fox can’t do this is what passes as a propaganda “win” for us Blues.
DeleteAnd 2:42, I just don’t understand your “logic.” Somerby tells us that the fact that the bomber is MAGA is beneficial for Blues in the discourse wars. And you think by saying this Somerby exposes his right-wing orientation? I just don’t get it.
As Quaker noted, Bob's phrasing is the "tell": "a major propaganda win for Blue America's side."
DeleteWhen in reality is not a "major propaganda win", it is merely the actual circumstance. Sure it exposes Republican hypocrisy, but Bob ignores this and instead his framing treats this fact as if its primary meaning is a propaganda instrument, not merely news, as if the main significance of the bomber's political slant is how it benefits a political side instead of being reality breaking through disinformation.
And look at how soft Fox framed it: "expressing doubts about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election". That is a comical understatement that Bob just ignores.
Bob makes it sound like the important thing isn’t the truth finally surfacing, but whether “Blue America” gets to score points in a propaganda war.
Bob often frames things in a way that mirrors Fox’s own cynical framework, reducing truth to messaging - truth isn't truth, it's just ammo.
Yes, that Somerby is subtle and wily! I especially like how he surreptitiously promotes Fox by pointing out that it gives us panels drawn from the “Bar Scene from Star Wars” to deliver “crackpot messaging.” Very sly!
DeleteDG: our resident excessively literal dolt, and proud of it.
Deletewomp womp
Personally, I have a problem with the red-blue binary model of the world.
DeleteIt's a difficult problem to analogize, but try this: Imagine a society with a range of attitudes about hats. (Yeah, hats. It's a stupid analogy, but hear me out.) People wear all kinds of different hats depending on their personal preferences. Some people wear them all the time. Some occasionally. Some never.
Now imagine that a faction forms in this society that insists that the only acceptable hats are those that include ear flaps. They are solidly pro-earflap.
They demand the elimination of other styles. They shout at people who wear other kinds of hats. They declare that anyone who isn't in alignment is against ear flaps, and by extension, against ears themselves.
The rest of society thinks this is all very silly and mostly ignores the Flapists. But the activism of the faction requires the opponents of the Flapists to speak or act sometimes to defend those who choose to go flapless.
The Flapists exist as a self-identified faction. They call everyone who doesn't go along with them anti-Flaps.
Does that make anti-Flaps a real thing?
Good effort, Quaker, but what is missing that could help clarify the fundamental struggles in society, is gaining some knowledge about behavioral science, that way you wouldn't have to think up goofy analogies.
DeleteIn reality, the fundamental struggle in society for the past 10-12k years is indeed right vs left, emergent hierarchy and dominance vs our innate egalitarianism.
To my knowledge, no one here and no one in American society is calling for the elimination of our two-party system or of the opposite party either. We are arguing for and against policies and actions that will have a direct impact on our lives and our well-being.
DeleteMeanwhile, Somerby is playing some sort of game, and has been for quite a while. Whatever he is doing has nothing to do with anything real, anything that people care about in real life.
The beknighted souls who engage in political violence may have right wing motives but they are at heart as mentally ill as our president. That makes them not representative of either side and thus useless as political propaganda.
Somerby's obsession with Fox reflects his own pathology. He is a sad, sick fuck.
4:53 - Since your sole means of argumentation is to chant “womp womp” over and over again, you are safe from any accusation of being excessively literal.
DeleteWhoa whoever 4:53 is has really gotten under DG's skin.
DeleteInteresting.
Somerby exposes Fox as a propaganda garbage can. This proves he’s a “sick fuck.” That’s some special kind of reasoning you got there, 5:24!
DeleteWomp womp.
DeleteSqueak, squeak!
DeleteQiB: I think Jonathan Swift discussed something along those lines in Gulliver's Travels: Gulliver in the Land of Lilliputians.
Delete"DG: our resident excessively literal dolt, and proud of it."
DeleteBut DG's critics are moles who burrow through the plain meaning of what Bob says to uncover his 'real' intentions. Not excessively literal, in a lot of cases they're not even literate.
It is fair to ask why Somerby doesn't say what he means more directly.
DeleteThat’s one of Bob’s more annoying flaws.
Delete10:25,
DeleteAnd not let the Cecelias and the Dogface Georges of the world look into his mind to figure out what he means?
Actually, Somerby tries pretty hard to say exactly what he means. For example, when he says Fox is propaganda, that’s what he means.
DeleteHis critics are the ones who like to make up shit about what he “seems” to say.
Delete@5:07
DeleteBut I like goofy analogies.
Republicans reveling in cruelty is so on-brand.
ReplyDelete"I'd really like to see them suffer...so they lose a limb and bleed out."
Concern over their mental health is relatively irrelevant - particularly since it is not very actionable; no, the pertinent issue is that they are corrupt and criminal, which is actionable.
Somerby, whatever his real perspective is, is a poor thinker.
2:49 - You tell me that Somerby is stupid, yet you read him religiously. Does that suggest subpar judgment on your part?
DeleteYes.
DeleteSubpar judgement is an anonymouse dominant gene, like long skinny tails and whiskers.
Delete2:49 is suggesting that readers that take Somerby seriously and buy into his narratives are being duped.
DeleteDuh.
Oh, so 2:49 is yet one more of the hordes who devote their lives to the thankless but necessary task of saving gullible liberals from being seduced into supporting Trump through Somerby’s wily charms. I see.
DeleteOn behalf of all gullible liberals, let me give my heartfelt thanks to 2:49! I once was blind, but now I see!
DeleteDG, you are right, Somerby is not influential, but your consternation and defensiveness seem to come from criticism of Somerby that is effective enough to trigger you.
DeleteYou defend Somerby reflexively, usually with zero substantive engagement, by attacking "liberal" commenters - this is classic right wing posturing, not engaging with the argument, only attacking motives.
Right wing rhetorical style always tries to flatten asymmetry, saying both sides!, tribal! - this mirrors Somerby's framings and you are just amplifying it while pretending to be a neutral observer.
Right wingers often employ a denial of being right wing because acknowledging it would undermine the posture they want to maintain: as neutral, rational arbiters just trying to correct irrational "liberals".
This issue with you is not however you self identify here, it is the pattern of you primarily commenting to defend Somerby, never really engaging in the actual arguments, restricting your comments primarily to attacking Somerby's critics as irrational or hysterical.
That is a recognizable rhetorical style, it mirrors how right wing commentators handle criticism, by not focusing on the substance but by portraying the critics as sill or overwrought - you function exactly as a right wing defender would.
Look, when you can screw up enough courage to use a nym, then you can psychoanalyze the motives that you infer from reading my comments over time. Until then, you’re no one of account.
DeleteDG, aw sweety, it is so obvious that you are bothered by being exposed this way, just take your lumps, we all see it.
DeleteNo one needs a nym to comment on DGs annoying defense of Somerby by attacking other commenters. There is no law requiring nyms here.
DeleteOMG, the mice are nipping at my heels again!
DeleteLol, sure DG, try to laugh it off, but you got got my friend, and bad. I am loving your transparent reactions though.
DeleteShooo!
DeleteDG,
DeleteI have to read Somerby, at least until David in Cal insists the Holocaust was a hoax. I'd hate to waste all this time, without the obvious payoff.
Interesting week, we've learned that Compagno likely, and severely, embellished her resume, that the fraud case in MN was masterminded by a White Christian woman and was caught by the Walz admin, who then passed it on to the feds, and that Republicans are gleefully laughing at the notion of their enemies suffering.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bob for posting such ridiculous and misleading nonsense that sparked others to look into those subjects to clarify them.
You don’t know that she was Christian.
DeleteAnonymouse 2:59pm, don’t leave out the part where you learned that Peter Hegseth is bombing choirboys and baby seals.
DeleteElon Musk was fined Euro 120M by the Fourth Reich, for refusing to censor.
DeleteYou must be as happy as a clam, Corby.
We do know that she is Christian, which is hardly surprising since most people in America are Christian. She accepted a commendation from a Christian charity for being an "influential Christian leader", so yes, she is a Christian.
DeleteHegseth raped a woman, a Republican woman to boot, and is now busy using our military to kill innocent random people, some are mere fishermen, off the coast of Venezuela - a country that does not produce fentanyl nor cocaine.
DeleteIf Republicans were really concerned about drugs, they would work to reduce the conditions that lead to Americans using drugs at such a high rate - poverty, precariousness, unemployment, lack of safety nets, lack of healthcare and mental healthcare, etc.
What's a "woman"?
DeleteAnonymouse 4:16pm, you mean a story via “one white woman”?.. There wasn't enough evidence to prosecute the case and she took money to quit accusing him. As for drug-running, I understand that Biden wasn’t functioning in office, but you had four years to address the issue.
DeleteBiden was functioning well in office. It is Republican propaganda that he wasn't.
DeleteWhen a man abuses a woman and then offers her money to make the crimes go away, her taking money doesn't make him innocent. He is still an abuser.
When someone commits murder, you do not determine the seriousness of the crime by the worth of the victim. Murder is murder, no matter who you kill.
DeleteGender is a social construct, a woman is whoever identifies as a woman. You only care about gender to the extent you can weaponize it, but polls show that most Republican voters do not care about the issue, so you are just wasting your time - more power to you.
DeleteYes Hegseth raped a White woman, yes these are difficult cases to prosecute, yes the victim settled to avoid pressure from Republicans. Trump also assiduously avoided assaulting women/girls of color, such is White Supremacy in modern times (back in the slave times people like Hegseth and Trump raped Blacks routinely). Trump has applied pretty heavy pressure to silence his victims, it is their modus operandi.
Biden did address the issue, you are just out of touch.
“ you had four years to address the issue.”
DeleteAnd what are you doing to address the issue of Trump’s very obvious physical and mental decline?
“White” is a social construct.
DeleteAnonymouse 5:22pm, Trump does pressers and impromptu talks with reporters. Occasionally, he reminds them that Biden went 78 days without a press conference.
DeleteAnonymouse 5:16pm, sexual assault is a social construct. There are men and women who enjoy rough sex.
DeleteTrump keeps falling asleep in meetings. He has had mysterious MRI’s, he has bandages and bruising on his hands. Bob Somerby thinks he is mentally ill. I ask you again: what are you doing to confront this issue, other than making excuses? His press conferences are a stream of incoherence, lies, and butthurt vituperation.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:17pm, what am doing to address the claim that an MRI and bruising on the hands of a 78-year-old is indication that he can’t function as president? Nothing Let me know when Trump’s minions use the auto pen, when he avoids jawing with the press, and when his people start calling a lid” at 3:30pm.
DeletePress conferences are a social construct.
DeleteThere is zero evidence that Trump had an MRI , dearie.
DeleteAnonymouse 7:07pm, a “mysterious MRI” was referenced in a question to me. That sounded as though you were seeking to find out why he had one, not why he has claimed to have had one.
DeleteEver had an MRI? The machine is loud. It sounds like Womp! Womp! Womp!
DeleteTrump was asked by a White House reporter whether he had had an MRI. That was the prompt to which he responded yes, later stating that he didn't know why it was ordered nor what body part was imaged. How fucked up is that. How mentally impaired does one have to be to not be able to answer these questions. Later, the president's physician referenced an "imaging study". Not an MRI. If it ad been a magnetic scan, the physician could have referenced it specifically as such. Instead he chose deliberately to be vague, highly likely to avoid contradicting Trump. It was likely a CT. In which case Trump's statements about the test were bizarre on three counts, that he got the name of the study wrong, that he didn't know why he had the study done, and he didn't even know what parts of his body were the subject of the study. You cannot be this clueless about facts surrounding your medical care without being very cognitively impaired.
DeleteThe physician noted that the heart was one organ interrogated by the study , which would make a CT far more likely than an MRI.
Delete"a woman is whoever identifies as a woman."
DeleteThe king of France is whoever identifies as the King of France.
"the fraud case in MN was...caught by the Walz admin, who then passed it on to the feds"
DeleteHowever:
A probe last year by the state's Office of the Legislative Auditor found the Minnesota Department of Education "created opportunities for fraud" by failing to act on warning signs with Feeding Our Future or investigate complaints about the group.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-to-know-about-minnesota-fraud-allegations-as-trump-levels-attacks-on-walz/
No one has been arguing that the King of France is not anointed by God and born to be king. That's what makes this such a stupid comparison with the definition of woman.
DeleteCategories are difficult to define using rules, such as specific DNA or birth certificate classifications, because there are always exceptions that violate such rules. Many categories with such difficulties define membership by extension, offering examples of members of the category, or allowing fuzzy boundaries where inclusions is harder to judge.
Republicans want there to be no fuzziness, but that is not realistic given that (1) childbearing status cannot be used due to medical gray areas and age (post-menopausal women are still women even though they cannot have children), (2) social definitions depend on roles and normative behavior that is unenforceable, (3) genetics has exceptions due to nature, (4) hormones also vary due to nature and can be changed by medicine, (5) denying that a person cannot declare their own status as a member of a category is harsh, restrictive, coercive, and also unenforceable, (6) there is no social necessity for such strict categorization and in practice people will violate category boundaries.
Republicans/conservatives who want to impose womanhood on those they designate are ignorant and do not understand how categorization works, how genetics works, how medicine works, how physiology works, much less how fashion and social norms work. They think that throwing a tantrum and insisting that women are whoever they define them to be doesn't work without making our country a totalitarian dictatorship (like Gilead in the Handmaid's Tale). We don't need that, especially when those who exist at the boundaries of the category of woman (such as spinsters, barren would-be mothers, post-menopausal women, tomboys, intrasex individuals, and so on) cannot be forced to be more womanly than they are, by edict or decree of some asshole like Trump (or worse). It is time to let people be themselves and not worry about the fringes. They aren't bothering you, so leave them alone.
And don't get me started on the category of "men". The guys trying to define manhood today are some of the worst specimens I've ever seen.
Well, you could define asshole, and note that many assholes do not identify as assholes.
DeleteNote that Cecelia dodges the question, always bringing up Biden, but ignoring the clear problems Trump is having. And this at a blog where the blogger has for years speculated that Trump is mentally ill. And CC and DiC voted for this disaster, the rest of us didn’t.
DeletePeter Hegseth is fucking choirboys and baby seals. Not bombing them.
Delete"No one has been arguing that the King of France is not anointed by God and born to be king."
DeleteI identify as the King of France. I ask only that you respect my pronouns and call me 'Sire' on bended knee.
If not, then you're king-phobic.
So what if Trump is in cognitive decline?
DeleteNo one who doesn't like bigotry and/or corporate tax breaks, cares one iota about such trifles.
"I identify as the King of France. I ask only that you respect my pronouns and call me 'Sire' on bended knee."
DeleteThat's as stupid as asking people to respect your religious beliefs.
Anonymices, you were the only holdouts as to Biden’s fitness for office. You were still waging war in the Philippine brush while your own DNC leadership was telling Biden that he HAD to step aside. Now, you’re rambling on about Pres. Trump saying something about having an MRI. Are any of you ladies… married? This is why wives go with their men when they go the doctor’s. They couldn’t get a straight account from the old man, at gunpoint. Including the meds they may take daily. Trump probably had a screening CT.
DeleteHere’s AI:
Yes, a U.S. president generally undergoes a more in-depth physical examination than an average person, primarily due to the high stakes of the office and public interest in their fitness to serve.
While the basic components of the exam are similar to standard age-appropriate screenings, the presidential physical is typically more extensive and thorough in several key ways:
"Better Safe Than Sorry" Approach: Doctors for the president often perform extra work-ups and advanced tests (like EKGs or specific imaging) proactively to rule out potential problems, rather than waiting for symptoms or risk factors to appear, as might happen with a regular patient.
Advanced Imaging and Screenings: The presidential exam may include tests not typically part of a standard preventive physical, such as:
Electrocardiograms (EKG).
Chest X-rays or low-dose chest CT scans.
Advanced imaging like MRIs or CT scans of the heart and abdomen, sometimes described as "executive physical" components.
A comprehensive battery of over 70 routine blood and urine lab tests.
The DNC does not tell candidates to run or not run. It was the donors who told Biden they wouldn't support his campaign, forcing him to step aside. This is why we need a better way to fund campaigns.
DeleteTrump is highly likely to die before his term ends. People on the left and right are very conscious of that fact.
DeleteBiden said that the White House doctor gave him a mental status exam every single day of his term
DeleteTDH has completely ignored a major story that this year Israeli authorities arrested an American teen visiting his Palestinian family in the West Bank, for supposedly throwing a single rock at a car. The American teen (born and raised in Florida) denied the allegation so the Israelis beat him until he signed a confession, and then they kept him imprisoned with no outside contact with family or legal assistance, and kept on beating him and then starved him so that he now has scabies and looks like a Holocaust survivor.
ReplyDeleteThis news was ignored by corporate media, but independent media (via the democratization of media) broke the story and kept on the story so that it put pressure on elected leaders - Ilhan Omar, Chris Van Hollen - to then pressure Israel, and eventually about a week ago the American teen was unceremoniously released, and is now back with his family and is not facing any charges from Israel.
Israel essentially kidnapped an American native born citizen, a teenager, on trumped up charges and then horribly tortured him, and corporate media took a pass, as well as Republican Florida elected leaders, as well as the Trump administration - none of them cared, but independent media did, and some elected Dems did.
“TDH has completely ignored a major story that this year Israeli…”
DeleteAnonymouse 3:37pm, oh, my goodness! Have you demanded that Bob give you a refund?!
(No one is so stupid not to know that you just read this info and came running...)
3:37 makes a good point about how Somerby's focus on attacking the democratization of media is nonsensical and potentially harmful. Good enough point to trigger a troll, triggered to say such cutting insults like "refund" and "stupid", it is nearly a laugh.
DeleteAnonymouse 5:20pm: “Somerby's focus on attacking the democratization of media is nonsensical and potentially harmful.”
DeleteBut here she is day by day, That’s absolutely a laugh.
Media have been "democratized" for the better part of our country's history aside from the latter half of the 20th century.
Delete"TDH has completely ignored a major story that this year Israeli authorities arrested an American teen visiting"
DeleteDuh. There are tons of stories Bob doesn't cover, he's not a news aggregator.
If accurate, that accounting is completely unsurprising. And not Bob's job to report on.
DeleteSomerby is pretending to have a blog that muses about the media, so he can repeat Right-wing grievances daily.. You can't expect him to be interested in how the media is reports things.
Delete
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to your idiot-Democrat comrades' recent Epstein-mania, Bob? It suddenly -- poof... -- disappeared. Like it never was.
What gives, Bob?
Epstein continues to be a top story in the media every day, particularly in media that is not operating as a propaganda wing for Republicans, you are just out of touch. It is the Republicans that were all gung ho about Epstein until they got in power and realized their Dear Leader was implicated. Whoopsie!
DeleteThe whole Epstein Files story always seemed fishy.
DeleteIn what universe do Right-wingers have a problem with the raping of children?
That's not a rhetorical question. I really do want to know where that universe is, because it sounds better than this one, where the Republican Party is running a global pedophile ring.
You can’t go from one universe to another.
DeleteGoing from one universe to another is impossible.
DeleteLike identifying a Republican voter who isn't a bigot.
Womp womp.
ReplyDeleteTriggered, Hillary?
DeleteTrump's new National Security Strategy document is a travesty. I just don't understand why Somerby writes this piffle when major negative changes are occurring in our country.
ReplyDelete"With these numbers, we can calculate a resonant frequency of 320 Hz, which is reasonably close to the average peak fart frequency of 272.1 Hz in our database. The source of the small discrepancy remains unclear."
ReplyDelete"This observation is generally consistent with the notion contained in Dante’s Inferno, that farts obey the same physics as musical instruments:
'Along the left-hand dike they wheeled about;
But first had each one thrust his tongue between
His teeth towards their leader for a signal;
And he had made a trumpet of his ass.'”
https://flatology.com/malacoda/
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/obama-targeted-killing-white-paper-drone-strikes/
ReplyDeleteMother Jones
Obama Targeted Killing Document: If We Do It, It’s Not Illegal
Obama committed crimes with impunity. Therefore Trump can commit crimes with impunity.
DeleteTherefore consider the argument Obama launched and the fact that these things aren’t straightforward.
DeleteLock all the war criminals the fuck up
DeleteCecelia,
DeleteWhy would any football game attendee stand and respect the National Anthem of a corrupt shit-hole nation, whose Presidents commit crimes with immunity?
Is it Day One yet?
ReplyDeleteI identify as idiot-Democrat.
ReplyDeleteAutopen is my God, Mr. Soros is Autopen's Prophet, testifying of Its divinity.
Kneel before me, you sinful Christian women, who identify as women! I am Corby.
I identify as Corby.
DeleteDoes Corby identify as you? I don't think that's likely.
DeleteRight-wingers whining about immigrants out-classing them on the job market, is what gave us Corby.
DeleteMINNESOTA TO LOSE MEDICAID FUNDING?
ReplyDeleteOn X, Dr. Oz, who administers the Medicare and Medicaid programs for the federal government, threatened to cut off all Medicaid funding for Minnesota:
https://x.com/DrOzCMS/status/1997029306233434396?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1997029306233434396%7Ctwgr%5E138789c019113de5a2017054e36e6027a8ae988d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.powerlineblog.com%2Farchives%2F2025%2F12%2Fminnesota-to-lose-medicaid-funding.php
DeleteState-administered, federally funded programs can be problematic:
DeleteWhat is the federal government’s remedy if the state allows massive theft of the federal money which they are responsible for? They can threaten stop funding. But, if the federal government’s ends the funding, that hurts all the needy people, so that’s not realistically possible IMO.
P.S. I wonder how many federal programs in how many other states are being plundered? And are we electing people with the ABILITY to fix this problem?
Helping "needy people" is not a responsibility of the federal government. Defense, international affairs, regulating interstate commerce. Nothing there about any "needy people", as far as I remember.
DeleteGood point, @12:01. The tenth amendment used to mean imitating federal government actions to those responsibilities specifically assigned to the federal government. But, that understanding died many decades ago.
DeleteWant to know the purpose of the federal government? Read the preamble to the constitution.
DeleteUnion
Justice
Domestic tranquility
Welfare
Liberty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preamble_to_the_United_States_Constitution
You talking about almost every red State David: "What is the federal government’s remedy if the state allows massive theft of the federal money which they are responsible for?"
Delete@David:
Delete"P.S. I wonder how many federal programs in how many other states are being plundered? And are we electing people with the ABILITY to fix this problem?"
Why do you think the GOP wants to make so many federal programs into "block grants"? It's a way for red state legislatures to redirect federal funds from their intended recipients to white conservatives.
Good point, Quaker. As you know, the block grant approach is supposed to reduce federal micro-managing. But, as you point out, block grants may be even harder to keep clean.
Delete@1:37 - Some people have argued that those words permit the federal government to do anything at all to achieve those general goal. That couldn't be more wrong IMO.
DeleteAlmost any government act could be said to be promoting "justice" or "general welfare." So, that argument leads to the conclusion that the federal government can do just about anything. But. that's backwards. One of the main purposes of the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights, was to LIMIT the power of the federal government.
Block grants are just a different level of govt administration. Local versus federal. It doesn't mean there is less oversight.
DeleteWe need a federal government so small, the Supreme Court of the United States will rule the President is immune from being charged for any crimes he commits.
DeleteRight-wing logic, appropriately enough, in a nutshell.
How so-called anti racism becomes racist
ReplyDelete“ Loyola University Maryland's English department asserts that literary canons support 'white supremacy' and is considering renaming the department while committing to anti-racist education”
Loyola is going to “help” minorities by depriving them of the greatest literature.
What’s the greatest literature? The Iliad?
DeleteI find Hindu and Muslim authors much more compelling than Xtian/Anglo crap. And nobody there is banning books you nitwit, that is on your side.
DeleteNobody’s banning books in India or the Muslim world? Good to know. Let’s emigrate there.
Delete@3:25 are you not aware that Muslims murder people who write things they don't like? Look up Charlie Hebdo and the Satanic Verses?
DeleteJews and Christians never do that. The ancient Greeks and Romans never did, either.
DeleteI hear there are some Christian countries that blow up boats even when they aren't sure what's on them and don't know where they're going.
DeleteThe pipe bomber believes the 2020 election was stolen. Will Trump pardon him?
ReplyDeleteFor which act? Planting a bomb at the DNC or the RNC?
DeleteAnything he's ever done. He's a believer. He's a trumptard.
DeleteHe’s not a “believer”, he’s a nutjob.
DeleteYou think that matters to Trump?
DeleteYa know CC, a gift to one nutjob from a demented nutjob.
DeleteAnonymices 3:20pm, unless you’re including yourself, there was only one nutjob. The guy who wanted to blow up two parties.
DeleteCecelia, you’re a nutjob. But I still love you.
DeleteAnonymouse 5:04pm, I love you like a brother, even though my real brothers are extremely smart (but not as much as they think they are) and are gainfully engaged. You’re alright.
DeleteI was gainfully engaged as a troll, until I got fired. I was saving for my college education. Now I don’t know what I’ll do, maybe some conventional job.
DeleteGreetings to your brothers.
I hear George Soros is always hiring. Although he's a micro-manager.
Deletegainfully engaged? no one says that in the USA you filthy foreign troll
DeleteAnonymouse 8:30pm, goodness. You must have really pissed off Corby. You know there’s always DoorDash.
DeleteGainfully engaged in not anything anyone in America says. You trolls can decide among yourselves which shithole countries you represent.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteIt’s not an expression used in shitehole grifting Minnesota.
DeleteGainfully engaged" means being busy with an activity, usually work, that provides a useful benefit, most often a stable income or financial support, rather than being idle or unemployed, implying productive and financially rewarding occupation, common in legal or insurance contexts to define work that provides self-sufficiency.
Key meanings:
Productive & Profitable: Doing something that produces a useful result or income.
Financially Supportive: Holding a job that provides enough money for self-sufficiency.
Not Idle: Occupying oneself in a meaningful way, contrasting with being unemployed or unproductive.
Common uses:
Legal/Insurance: Used in disability claims to define work that is substantial enough to potentially disqualify someone from benefits, often meaning earning a certain percentage (e.g., 60%) of pre-disability wages.
General Context: Describes someone who has steady, beneficial employment, such as "He's been gainfully employed since graduating".
Positive Psychology: Can refer to being deeply involved in work that brings personal fulfillment and energy, not just money.
Cecelia,
DeleteIn your opinion, what's so nutty about thinking Trump won the 2020 Presidential election.
Be specific. Or just make an unfunny joke using a non-sequitur, like you usually do.
Minnesota is doing well. It’s one of the best places to live.
DeleteAnonymouse 9:31am, yes, Minnesota tax payers are lucky to have a billion dollars grifted. .
DeleteObviously fraud isn’t good, but Minnesota is thriving. Its economy is so successful that this problem won’t derail it.
DeleteIt's Called Doubling Down
ReplyDeleteWELKER: Is there any hard evidence showing this particular boat was headed to the US?
TOM COTTON: That didn't come up in my briefing.
WELKER: Are you comfortable having the US target a boat that you're not sure is heading to the US?
COTTON: I'm not just comfortable with it -- I want to continue it.
From Heather Cox Richardson, on Pearl Harbor Day (which Somerby does not mention):
ReplyDelete"America fought World War II to defend democracy from fascism. And while fascism preserved hierarchies in society, democracy called on all men as equals. Of the more than 16 million Americans who served in the war, more than 1.2 million were Black American men and women, 500,000 were Latinos, and more than 550,000 Jews were part of the military. Among the many ethnic groups who fought, Indigenous Americans served at a higher percentage than any other ethnic group—more than a third of able-bodied Indigenous men between the ages of 18 and 50 joined the service—and among those 25,000 soldiers were the men who developed the famous “Code Talk,” based in tribal languages, that codebreakers never cracked.
The American president at the time, Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt, hammered home that the war was about the survival of democracy. Fascists insisted that they were moving their country forward fast and efficiently—claiming the trains ran on time, for example, although in reality they didn’t—but FDR constantly noted that the people in Italy and Germany were begging for food and shelter from the soldiers of democratic countries.
Ultimately, the struggle between fascism and democracy was the question of equality. Were all men really created equal as the Declaration of Independence said, or were some born to lead the rest, whom they held subservient to their will?
Democracy, FDR reminded Americans again and again, was the best possible government. Thanks to armies made up of men and women from all races and ethnicities, the Allies won the war against fascism, and it seemed that democracy would dominate the world forever.
But as the impulse of WWII pushed Americans toward a more just and inclusive society after it, those determined not to share power warned their supporters that including people of color and women as equals in society would threaten their own liberty. Those reactionary leaders rode that fear into control of our government, and gradually they chipped away the laws that protected equality. Now, once again, democracy is under attack by those who believe some people are better than others.
President Donald J. Trump and his cronies have abandoned the principles of democracy and openly embraced the hierarchical society the U.S. fought against in World War II. They have fired women, Black Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ+ Americans from positions in the government and the military and erased them from official histories. They have seized, incarcerated and deported immigrants— or rendered them to third countries to be tortured— and have sent federal agents and federal troops into Democratic-led cities to terrorize the people living there.
They have traded the rule of law for the rule of Trump, weaponizing the Department of Justice against those they perceive as enemies, pardoning loyalists convicted of crimes, and now, executing those they declare are members of drug cartels without evidence, charges, or trials. They have openly rejected the world based on shared values of equality and democracy for which Americans fought in World War II. In its place, they are building a world dominated by a small group of elites close to Trump, who are raking in vast amounts of money from their machinations.
Will we permit the destruction of American democracy on our watch?"
Is Richardson a liar or just ignorant? She writes, "President Donald J. Trump... fired women, Black Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ+. Is she not aware that Trump also fired a lot of Caucasian men? Trump follows the democratic principles she advocates. He wields an equal opportunity axe.
DeleteBTW democracy implies that public officials obey democratically enacted laws. One such law requires that illegal immigrants be deported. So, deporting illegal immigrants supports democracy; it doesn't undermine it.
BTW - nobody likes your cruel weird shit. Take it to Hungary or Russia where folks will appreciate it.
DeleteAnonymouse 11:52pm, anonymices always find laws cruel when they get in the way of their political goals. They only appreciate boundaries when they are established in the private sector in order to curb opinions/speech.
Delete“In my work with the defendants (at the Nuremberg Trials 1945-1949) I was searching for the nature of evil and I now think I have come close to defining it. A lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants, a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men.
DeleteEvil, I think, is the absence of empathy.”
-Captain G. M. Gilbert, the Army psychologist assigned to watching the defendants at the Nuremberg trials
Sounds like bullshit.
Delete4:27,
DeleteSounds akin to Republicans and fascists, who only believe in freedom of speech, when they are out of power.
Somerby feeds us nonsense while there are real questions to be considered. Like this one from Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog:
ReplyDelete"Linkins comes to the familiar conclusion:
The president is fully checked out because he’s old, enfeebled, and his brain is slowly turning into pasta e fagioli.
But he adds a twist: The administration is lawless and brutal because Trump is in decline.
At least I think that's what Linkins is saying. Quoting a recent Atlantic article about Trump's increasing disengagement, Linkins writes:
The vacuum Trump is leaving in the White House needs to be filled, and it’s being filled by “enablers” rather than people who might “[moderate] some of his more extreme impulses.” Or, as someone less committed to euphemism euthanasia might put it, it’s being filled by utter ghouls: a Pentagon head who’s in over his head and spiraling out as he commits war crimes, a Health and Human Services secretary who’s bringing Lysenkoism back, an FBI director crashing out because no one brought him a cool jacket to wear—and all the rest hopped up on völkisch nationalism, pulling Black people out of their cars in Minneapolis and warring with Sabrina Carpenter.
Comparing this administration to the previous one, which was led by a president whose aging process got far more attention, Linkins writes:
Those who served in Biden’s inner circle aren’t going to be remembered fondly, but no matter how enfeebled the president was, the country did not have the same problem we do now. The Biden White House wasn’t packed stem to stern with people dedicated to looting the country, terrorizing children, turning masked goons out onto the streets of American cities, or using the Department of Homeland Security’s social media presence to—as administration sources told Zeteo—“intentionally use popular music from vocally anti-Trump performing artists in order to trigger a negative response from a famous liberal and provide further amplification of neo-Confederate memes.”
Linkins seems to be suggesting that all this is happening because Trump is in decline. But is it? I'm not certain that's what he's saying because, quoting The Atlantic, he refers to these people as "enablers." If they're Trump's enablers, that means they aren't running wild because a feeble president can't stop them -- it means they're doing precisely what he wants them to do. Which is it?
I think it's the latter. I don't know the precise extent of Trump's mental and physical impairments, but I think if they could be magically cured, his White House would be doing exactly what it's doing now."
That is too much cut and paste dude. Have some respect. Chrissakes.
ReplyDeleteShouldn't DG be posting about how 11:49 wants to be 10:07's unpaid editor?
DeleteI am compos mentis. I am Corby.
ReplyDelete