SUNDAY, JANUARY 25, 2026
We Blues don't know how to describe it: Almost surely Ezra Klein's latest column was written before the latest fatal shooting.
Below, you see the (insightful) way the column starts.
But let the word go forth to the nations. In the wake of the latest fatal shooting, one part of our national circumstance should now be abundantly clear:
Trump Just Proved Carney’s Point
“Dear Prime Minister Carney,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Everything Trump has done over the last week has made him look tawdry, addled and small. He began his latest play for Greenland by complaining about being passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize and ended it by disinviting Mark Carney from his “Board of Peace.” For Trump, nothing—not even peace—transcends his brutish transactionalism.
The president believes, or says he believes, that his cockamamie snd kooky "Board of Leaders" is destined to become "the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time!"
With that, let's be honest, just once:
Does any journalist need any further proof that, at the very least, that most powerful person is, at the very least suffering from some sort of cognitive shortfall? Perhaps from some ongoing cognitive decline? Perhaps from some such decline layered atop something potentially worse?
Cognitive decline is a human tragedy. So is the "lack of empathy" associated with several (clinically diagnosable) personality disorders, including antisocial personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder.
Just to be clear:
That "lack of empathy" is seen as a lack of empathy only when compared to the shortfalls of empathy which are more typical of everyone else. For the record, all of us are gifted with limited stores of empathy. Those of us who suffer from certain clinical disorders are even less inclined to empathy than that.
It's also true that those diagnosable medical disorders may have a physiological base. The leading authority on "sociopathy" starts its discussion of that matter like this:
Antisocial personality disorder
[...]
Causes
Personality disorders are generally believed to be caused by a combination and interaction of genetics and environmental influences.
[...]
Research into genetic associations in antisocial personality disorder suggests that ASPD has some or even a strong genetic basis. The prevalence of ASPD is higher in people related to someone with the disorder. Twin studies, which are designed to discern between genetic and environmental effects, have reported significant genetic influences on antisocial behavior and conduct disorder.
In the specific genes that may be involved, one gene that has shown particular promise in its correlation with ASPD is the gene that encodes for monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A), an enzyme that breaks down monoamine neurotransmitters such as serotonin and norepinephrine. Various studies examining the gene's relationship to behavior have suggested that variants of the gene resulting in less MAO-A being produced (such as the 2R and 3R alleles of the promoter region) have associations with aggressive behavior in men.
The discussion of possible physiological causes continues at length from there. Let's put it in slightly simpler terms:
Some unfortunate kids may be born with a wire hanging loose in their heads! In that sense, a diagnosis of ASPD would be the diagnosis of a disease (i.e., of a mental illness).
It would be a diagnosis of a physiological affliction which leads to certain kinds of behavior. It would be the diagnosis of an illness. It would not simply be a high falutin way of describing undesirable behavior.
Our nation is facing a world of hurt at the present time. That said:
In the presence of the president's ludicrous assessments of his own superior moral and intellectual greatness, is there any excuse for our major journalists to continue along as if they've spotted nothing to look at with respect to this powerful person's overall mental/medical makeup?
There are many problems to be examined in the wake of the latest fatal shooting. For one example, you need to see the way the fatal shooting was reported and described by all three co-hosts on this morning's Fox & Friends Weekend.
It was Charlie and Rachel and Griff oh my! The agitprop was general over the broadcast. The thumbs on the scale were endless.
That said:
Given our current state of tribal division, our nation is currently locked in a virtual civil war. But let the word go forth to the nations:
Some of the problems we currently face originate Over Here, within the warrens of our own Blue America.
Some of the problems are found Over Here! That said, a major circumstance driving all these matters is the president's apparent medical / cognitive circumstance. Journalists who still behave as if there's nothing to see there enable that tragic but dangerous syndrome.
Unfortunately, Blue America's leading journalists don't seem to have the slightest idea how to handle this problem. Long ago and far away, Bob Dylan sketched the outlines of this Blue American shortfall in his most famous song:
Like a Rolling Stone
[...]
You’ve gone to the finest schools, all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it.
Nobody ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you’re gonna have to get used to it...
Many went to the finest schools, but there seem to be things they weren't taught there. Being human like everyone else, they seem to be massively over their heads at this profoundly dangerous time.
As a general matter, we Blues don't see this lack of skill among our own elites as part of our national problem. Massively, though, it is.
Fox & Friends Weekend was awful today, but we Blues have our large shortfalls too.
The madness has been general from MAGA elites in the wake of the latest fatal shooting. (Kristi Noem: Astounding!) If the power stays on in Baltimore even after the snow and the ice stop descending, we'll struggle to begin sorting it out, starting tomorrow morning.
For now, in closing, this:
What will be the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled at any time!
The man from ICE, per law, neutralized the assassin.
ReplyDeleteman from ICE??????
DeleteWhat the fuck is wrong with you?
Gotcha , Trumptard, so it’s FAFO, just like Charlie Kirk. Time to get back on your computer and beat off to a loop you created of a Capitol Policeman wedged in a door by your felon’s mob.
Delete
ReplyDelete"The president believes, or says he believes, that his cockamamie snd [sic] kooky "Board of Leaders" is destined to become "the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time!" "
It's sad that you, Bob, and the Klein idiot are so horribly envious of not being invited. So envious that you can't even type straight.
Yes, sad, very sad. Try to get over yourself, Bob.
You can maybe take up one of the empty seats. It will take a while for them to invite the very lowest dregs to fill them, but keep an eye on your inbox.
DeleteI was able to join, lucky for me I had a spare billion to gift the aggrieved orange felon.
Delete"That "lack of empathy" is seen as a lack of empathy only when compared to the shortfalls of empathy which are more typical of everyone else. For the record, all of us are gifted with limited stores of empathy. Those of us who suffer from certain clinical disorders are even less inclined to empathy than that."
ReplyDeleteThis is bunk. Humans have empathy because it provides survival value to a species that has depended on group cohesion to stay alive during the very long period of human evolution. Having empathy is normal. Lacking empathy is a deviation. When Somerby proposed that lack of empathy is normal, he is wrong and contradicts the knowledge of most experts who study humanity.
When Somerby claims that it is normal to lack empathy or to have limited empathy, he is trying to justify Trump's failings and the failings of those in power now -- the people who are pursuing only their own self interest and who don't give a damn about the people they are supposed to be governing. But that is not the normal human condition -- it is an aberration.
The NIH (National Institutes of Health) have conducted many studies showing that empathy is an innate, inborn human trait that appears in early childhood, as when one baby's crying sets off another baby to cry. It is instantiated in the brain via mirror neurons. As children develop empathy is nurtured by prosocial teaching. Somerby's contention that failures of empathy are normal and that humans fall short when it comes to empathy is self-serving nonsense that serves his own purposes of excusing the aberrant behavior of our president and his appointees, notably Kristi Noem, Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth, and others who reveal themselves to be sociopathic and emotionally disabled as human beings.
Nancy Eisenberg studies empathy and prosocial emotion. Her work is a good place to start understanding the role of empathy, sympathy, and social learning:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10751984/
Bob Dylan doesn't excuse Kristi Noem or Trump (who attended military school).
ReplyDeleteSomerby's idea that these people have ASPD and thus are allowed to deviate from social norms because of loose wiring is ridiculous. First, those with ASPD largely learn to obey cultural via other types of learning, even if they lack an empathetic response to the distress of others. Most grow up to be useful and productive members of society, form relationships and live their lives because they are taught how to behave and benefit from that teaching.
It is only when ASPD is combined with severe abuse in early childhood that such people become deviant enough to break the law, hurt others and become criminals of one sort or another (Bernie Madoff is a different kind of criminal than Hannibal Lecter or Donald Trump). Our laws are sufficient to remove deviants from society, and that system fails only when combined with great wealth, so it is the combination of control system failure that produces someone like Trump or Ted Bundy. But the deviance and rareness of such people is a hallmark -- it is not the case that these people are widespread in our culture because we all lack sufficient empathy, as Somerby claims today. That is a major insult to both humanity and to the many kind and good people who have built inter-dependent communities in which people help each other to improve their lives.
The fact that there is a special category in psychiatry for anti-social personality disorder is itself an indicator that this condition is abnormal, not typical of us all.
It seems clear that some cultures value empathy more than others, as a value held by a self-aware society. The right wing seems to be emphasizing cruelty these days. That doesn't make every person on the right a cruel person, but it places value on ignoring kindness as a weakness and emphasizing cruelty as a strength. That may attract those with less empathy (or a desire to be hard) to the right wing. It doesn't change humanity as a whole. The left has similarly emphasized the capacity for caring about others. There are lawn signs in CO urging kindness, and t-shirts with such slogans in the Denver airport. That may attract those who are kind or who want to be more kind to blue culture and community. That doesn't change humanity as a whole either -- as witnessed by the existence of ICE agents.
Somerby's lengthy excuse for the actions of ICE is despicable, on the wrong track, and it excuses wrongdoing that is destructive to our society. But his continuing attempts to blame blue America for Trump and Noem is ridiculous. Somerby has never presented any evidence that these people are in power because of we blues. Today he blames us for lack of courage, which is adding insult to the injury committed in Minneapolis by ICE. If we were the majority in Congress there would be more action to use the law to control miscreants in our govt. We follow the law because we believe in it, while Noem and her crew are destroying evidence of the shooting to the point where the DCI has sued to force them to retain it pending investigation.
Somerby's attempt to blame blue America for ICE shows how shitty a person he is. He should be ashamed, but he perhaps lacks the social emotion of shame, as Trump does. Today, he comes here on a Sunday (when he usually does not write) to rub this shooting in our faces. Who does that? Bad people who our neanderthal ancestors would have left out in the snow for lack of community feeling, thus cleansing the species of cold-hearted evil. Too bad that isn't an option today.
Zzzzz...
DeleteWho let the bees out...bzzz bzzz bzzz bzzz bzzz bzzz
DeleteWell said, 10:48.
DeleteSomerby's dismissal of blues for not rising to the moment is particularly offensive while discussing a circumstance where blues are literally putting their lives at risk to resist authoritarianism.
Jeff Bezos’ Underlings Are Ordered to Prop Up Melania’s Struggling ‘Doc’
ReplyDeleteIs that the same guy who bought the Washington Post and turned it into a rightwing rag? Why yes, I think it is.
What's wild is that even Republicans are aware that Trump and Melania can not stand each other and live separate lives, and Republicans do not care. Heck, Republicans are now fine even if Trump is implicated in the Epstein files (which he is).
DeleteBezos is just trying to buy from Trump some protection, and he's worried it won't work; it was a poor effort in that endeavor, which speaks to Bezos lacking savvy and cleverness.
I'm reading your post while standing in line to be the first to watch the "Melania!" movie. It will be so full of awesome. But do we get to see her old boobies?, cause the young ones were on the small side for a model.
DeleteGreat point.
DeleteRepublicans show disgust at trans people, but trans people's transitioning pales in comparison to how Republicans transition themselves, with the hair implants, penile implants (botched in Musk's case), tanning spray, fake teeth, fake boobs, fake chins, fake noses, tons of makeup caked on, lifts for their shoes, steroids, human growth hormones, a menagerie of supplements, etc.
These are people who are deeply uncomfortable with themselves, and suffer from the accompanying inauthenticity.
It could be argued that every action Trump has taken in his life has been to ward off the experience of shame (a social emotion that teaches children about controlling their impulses and bodily functions). He lives in a fantasy world to ward off such feelings as failure and social awkwardness. The futility of his gilding his world is more apparent the older her gets and the more clumsy his seeking of approval.
ReplyDeleteThe irony is that Somerby is trying to hint that Trump may have ASPD, an inability to feel empathy for others, but he himself definitely feels small, inadequate, excluded, deviant, incapable of success, etc., or he wouldn't be doing so much, so continually, to cover up those feelings and puff himself up in the ways where he feels lacking.
It is easy to tell what Trump considers to be his own deficiencies, the ones he is guarding against acknowledging, by his coping efforts. The womanizing and sexual abuse of girls and women, including rape, show his sexual inadequacy. No real man has to buy an Eastern European wife. The things he lies about show what he considers his weaknesses, from his height to his achievements (business success, golf scores, compliments from Putin et al.). Now he brags about his Montreal test scores as a sign of his high IQ. He has to tell so many lies because he has so many vulnerabilities that he cannot face. That suggests too much awareness of how far short of norms he falls, not too little sensitivity to his failures. He wants others to appreciate him so he builds a gaudy gilded facade over his whole life. That is not ASPD. Those people don't care what others think of them. Trump clearly does.
No real man has to buy an Eastern European wife - his were supplied by the KBG.
DeleteKGB
DeleteZ.. *SNORT* Zzzz...
ReplyDeleteThere are treatments for sleep apnea.
DeleteHaven't seen that one by Costa-Gavras, but I liked Missing, great movie, I particularly liked the acting and the dynamic between the father (Jack Lemmon) and the wife (Sissy Spacek) of the "missing" journalist.
DeleteI was sad when Costa-Gavras signed onto the petition to release Polanski.
Polanski was also a great filmmaker, but a terrible person.
It is hard to ignore how many of our top storytellers are garbage human beings.
Z was good, worth finding.
DeleteEvery time we are hurt by something Trump does, Somerby comes around to kick us while we are down, claiming that we did it to ourselves by putting Trump in office.
ReplyDeleteThe people who put Trump in office are the ones who voted for him. We blues didn't do that. We are the ones running around trying to fix the damage Trump is doing to our country. That is what Alex Pretti was doing when ICE shot him.
Somerby aligns himself with Trump, Noem and ICE today. His essay is unkind because it name calls we blue voters, but also the entire human race, pretending that we are all like ICE to one degree or another. That is false, but it is worse that Somerby would tell grieving people that we brought this on ourselves by not kicking Trump to the curb, when that is what we blues tried to do, back when Somerby was telling us (falsely) that Biden was too old and Harris's smile was too sweet, and lying about the border.
Somerby and red America own this situation in Minnesota. Maybe it will be the downfall of Trump because people will identify with Pretti and realize this evil could happen to them too, and do something about it. That is a form of empathy -- recognizing that we too can be oppressed because we are no different than illegals in the eyes of Noem and ICE.
It is the message of the holocaust in Germany. No one is safe from tyrants, so we cannot look on from a safe distance and say "those people are not like me, so I will be fine" because that is not how dictators think about you and I. They only care about themselves and that is too small a circle for anyone else to be safe from their violence, especially when they feel threatened.
Somerby perhaps thinks that aligning with red assholes will keep him safe. Perhaps he is identifying with what he considers strength, or the winners. In the long run, there are more of us blues and more good decent people than there are self-serving assholes like Somerby and his would-be protectors (who will abandon him without a thought), so sacred Troy will rise again and those mugs on the beach with their backs to the waves will be soaked and shivering without anyone to hand them a towel.
You made us vote for him and have every intention of keeping you out of power. Thank the core of your party, the rapists, murderers, abortionists, perverts and child mutilators who define you now.
DeleteFucking weirdo, get help.
Delete
DeleteYes, we Democrats are retarded. That is not a secret.
“I have seen how the rule of law can erode,” Smith said. “My fear is that we have seen the rule of law function in this country for so long that many of us have come to take it for granted. But, the rule of law is not self-executing — it depends on our collective commitment to apply it. It requires dedicated service on behalf of others, especially when that service is difficult and comes with costs. Our willingness to pay those costs is what tests and defines our commitment to the rule of law and to this wonderful country.”
DeleteYou jagoffs suck so hard
The ICE agent was probably wrong to shoot Alex Prett. Pretti could have been subdued without killing him. Having acknowledged that, what should be done to prevent this sort of thing?
ReplyDelete1. Better training and selection of ICE agents
2. People stop interfering with ICE agents
3. Walz and Frey stop encouraging people to interfere with ICE agents
There were 7+ ICE agents swarming Pretti and 14 or more shots, some to his back. This isn't about one ICE agent.
DeleteYou forgot #4:
Elimination of ICE and firing of all ICE agents.
Laws mean nothing unless they're enforced. If we eliminate ICE agents, we are eliminating laws against illegal immigration. Is that what you want, @11:24?
DeleteBy your logic, we should enforce tax laws by shooting all tax evaders in a firing squad. Pretti was a citizen. Which immigration law was being enforced against him?
DeleteI would add that Noem was wrong to misdescribe the event. But, that still leaves my three suggestions as the only reasonable options to solve the problem.
DeleteI think the 4th option is the best solution -- abolish ICE.
Deleteabolish ICE? Do you mean citizens should just lynch illegal aliens?
DeleteGet the fuck out of here you dumbness ducking g troll.
DeleteNo ICE before Jr. Shrub. Yes, eliminate it, don't give the jagoffs $200 million to kill innocent folks.
DeleteSorry, such a big fucking number, bigger than most countries armed forces, $200 BILLION not million.
DeleteYou don't know what "could have" happened when you're in the middle of a violent armed agitator resisting arrest with a split second to act. That's a dumb take.
DeleteICE and CBP are relatively new, only dating back to the Homeland Security Act of 2002.
DeleteAmerica did just fine without ICE/CBP.
A plurality of Americans now support abolishing ICE.
Pretti was executed by a CBP agent.
Good's shooter was also a former CBP agent.
This distinction is noteworthy because CBP agents only have a jurisdiction of 100-200 miles from a border (the range is dependent on the region), their training is focused on apprehending smugglers, and they have a history of excessive uses of force.
Neither Good nor Pretti were interfering or obstructing ICE/CBP from conducting their official duties.
The Republicans that are doubling down on all this, which would include the original commenter, are shooting themselves in the foot, which is wild to observe.
Get the fuck out of here with your bullshit 1:22. We can watch the snuff murder videos and so can you.
Delete"Laws mean nothing unless they're enforced."
DeleteBut not those laws that say a person seeking asylum is entitled to a hearing before they're deported. Right? I recall that you previously wrote that those laws are too burdensome to enforce.
Asking flip flopping maga trolls to be accountable is kinda dumb Quaker.
DeleteTrolls are not the only ones who read comments. Quaker may be addressing his remarks to the others here, who are interested in discussion and not trolls.
DeleteLook how Somerby tries to discuss this shooting but cannot even say the victim's name. What is wrong with Somerby?
ReplyDeleteWhy isn't it sufficient to refer to red and blue as two different sets of political values/beliefs/attitudes instead of layering the term "tribal" over the differences, especially when there are no actual tribalisms that correlate?
ReplyDeleteI do not see how Somerby's continual efforts to diminish human nature and humanity will solve our current disputes. Does he think that devaluing our values will lessen our willingness to fight for our freedoms, democracy, and the things we care about (fairness, equality under the law, civil rights)? Does he want to see us all as apes groveling in the mud -- let the biggest ape win? That is Noem's level, even if her weapons are louder than neanderthal clubs.
Bottom line for Somerby is that we should all give up trying to defend democracy and other lefty values because we are all just craven cave men cowering in caves, with nothing to gain and no claim to be better than desperate creatures, some with a wire hanging loose.
Well written@11:42. Here's a paradox: Both sides think they're supporting fairness, equality under the law, civil rights, civil liberties. Both tribes believe that the other side is undermining these values.
DeleteThe right wing is not supporting civil rights for all, just for white people.
DeleteBlacks in Chicago and other Democratic cities don't have good civil liberties. Go read the book "Crook County" and find out how badly blacks are treated in Chicago.
DeleteThat is why I've moved to the Democratic Republic of the Congo! It's a beautiful place! Come, come over, Democrat cat-ladies!
DeleteGet the fuck out of here you stupid troll.
DeleteI was wrong. I thought the problems of ICE in MN were due in part to the unusually large ICE activity in MN. It turns out that Texas, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Arizona, etc. have had more ICE arrests than Minnesota. Those states didn't have problems like Minneapolis. https://x.com/Geiger_Capital/status/2015313021208330636?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2015381195128009211%7Ctwgr%5E1fc79ddedac4e384fb19e7d9ccf89daff9692809%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Finstapundit.com%2F771820%2F
ReplyDeleteOf course they have had problems in those other states too. Your ignorance of them doesn't mean they haven't been happening.
Deletehttps://www.npr.org/2026/01/22/nx-s1-5685017/death-of-a-detainee-at-an-ice-detention-center-in-texas-is-ruled-a-homicide
Deletehttps://abcnews.go.com/US/dont-life-family-nicaraguan-man-seeks-answers-after/story?id=129497484
Fuck David the crunt troll. Get the fuck out of here you piece of shit. Everybody hates your brand of stupid.
DeleteTo be fair those states don't have billions of dollars of corruption and theft to cover up by Tampon Tim Walz and Somalis.
DeleteThe fraud in MN involved 250 million dollars, it was masterminded and implemented by an American White Christian woman, Aimee Bock - the woman who founded and operated the organization that ran the fraud, and investigators are continuing to find more money that she squirreled away for her personal benefit.
DeleteThe fraud was discovered by the Walz administration who then tipped off the Feds, and it was later prosecuted by the Biden administration.
David the idiot troll does not care about facts. Don't waste your time with the jagoff.
DeletePeople act like the Minnesota chaos is just about generic enforcement of immigration law, when it's actually about a specific (and specifically aggressive) ICE operation that was only launched in December 2025 -- pompously called "Operation Metro Surge" -- following a series of unrelated political controversies involving Minnesota.
DeleteNamely the issue of Somali public services fraud, which has nothing in particular to do with "illegal immigration," as in the type of thing that ICE agents are typically charged with investigating, because whatever you may think of the Somalis, nothing about their apparent fraud is rectified by the ongoing ICE street "surge" -- the Somalis, by and large, have proper legal status, whether you like it or not.
So the operation, and its seemingly arbitrary focus on Minnesota, appears openly punitive in nature, rather than rationally targeted against an area with an especially outsized prevalence of "illegal immigrants," of the kind that ICE has a mandate to investigate.
By all available evidence, it's principally motivated by Trump not liking Tim Walz and Ilhan Omar, et al.
DHS openly brags it's the "largest DHS operation ever." Why else would this be taking place in Minnesota, which has a relatively low population of illegal immigrants, and relatively low violent crime, compared to other states?
Michael Tracey
@mtracey
Trump has been open about how his tactics in MN are directly related to his dislike of Walz and how MN reliably votes blue. Trump's larger strategy is to disrupt the 2026 elections and any other efforts to curb his power grab.
DeleteAs was noted by someone earlier, the ringleader of the "Somali fraud" was actually an American White person, and she was caught several years ago, so it has no contemporary relevance.
The Somali fraud of which you speak is only one aspect of the Somali fraud that has taken place in Minnesota. The white woman was only a part of that small aspect of the Somali fraud, which has been undertaken primarily by legal Americans of Somalian descent.
Delete“I was wrong.” Says Dickhead in Cal
DeleteThose words are going to be prominent on your tombstone, you fucking fascist freak motherfucking lying sack of shit.
No, the only significant identified/prosecuted fraud has been the one perpetrated by the Feeding Our Future organization, which was founded and run by Aimee Bock, who was the mastermind behind the fraud. And she is an American White Christian woman.
DeleteAll of the other claims of fraud are either relatively insignificant or unsupported claims by the Trump admin, they are not credible and lack evidence.
"A conservative who served as the top lawyer for the Department of Homeland Security under president Trump, and who helped create the DHS in 2002, is furiously calling for the president to be impeached after the latest killing by agents.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Conway, a fellow conservative who has opposed Trump for years, noted about the killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti that, "The deadly shooting in Minneapolis today was a straight-up execution of a protester by Trump's federal brownshirts."
"The thugs wrestled him to the ground. They pistol-whipped him, then shot him multiple times. They murdered him. The videos don't lie. A man is dead, killed in cold blood," Conway wrote. "There is no conceivable justification for this intentional homicide. And make no mistake, that intentional, unjustified homicide was committed on behalf of Donald J. Trump."
Conway further added, "Trump's militarization of Minneapolis and other parts of our nation isn't about illegal immigration."
"It's not about enhancing public safety. It's about destroying any sense of that safety—to intimidate political opponents, and to punish dissent," he said on Saturday. "It's about a corrupt, out-of-control regime's effort to provoke citizens in order to justify the violence it desires to commit against them so that it can expand and retain its power. That is fascism. It is tyranny. It is governmental criminality."
Conway's post appears to have struck a chord with former George W. Bush appointee John Mitnick, who also served in Trump's DHS. He shared it on social media.
"I helped to establish DHS in 2002 and 2003 and later had the homeland security portfolio as a White House Counsel and served as General Counsel of the Department," he added Saturday. "I am enraged and embarrassed by DHS’s lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty. Impeach and remove Trump—now." [Rawstory]
Somerby's suggestion that this is tribal is contradicted by the various conservatives and Republicans who are expressing outrage over Trump's actions.
Delete
DeleteWell said12:07, indeed Democrats are retarded.
It's nice of Democrats to obstruct law enforcement operations and violently resist arrest while armed, to give Republicans the pretext for militarization of Minnesota. Other states aren't cooperating as well with us so we're stuck just doing the boring removal of criminal illegals, but we can count on Minnesota to help with our grand scheme of retaining power.
DeleteRemember when you bravely defended Texas from Obama's attempted military takeover code named 'Jade Helm' you ridiculous piece of shit?
DeleteHypocrisy is a hallmark of fascists.
DeleteThere is an assumption that Pretti is a Democrat, and he probably is, but no one asked him his voting habits before they shot him. And David (and others) are assuming that it is only Democrats who oppose Trump and ICE when there are quite a few Republicans now who are upset about what is happening to our freedoms. This is why Trump and his supporters are going to lose the midterms -- they have lost support of many people in their own party. Some are becoming Independents, but many are not bothering to change their affiliation, just their votes.
DeleteYou can look it up. According to a branch of psychology called Behaviorism, a person's behavior is determined through a process called OPERANT CONDITIONING. Simply put, if a person's behavior has positive results, that behavior it is likely to be repeated. Notwithstanding dementia, with no checks on Trump, and his life history Trump’s behavior may not be that surprising.
ReplyDeleteOver Trump’s past year, what originally looked like an effort to make the government his personal plaything has drifted distinctly toward doctrinal and operational fascism. Trump’s appetite for lebensraum, his claim of unlimited power, his support for the global far right, his politicization of the justice system, his deployment of performative brutality, his ostentatious violation of rights, his creation of a national paramilitary police—all of those developments bespeak something more purposeful and sinister than run-of-the-mill greed or gangsterism.
DeleteWhen the facts change, I change my mind. Recent events have brought Trump’s governing style into sharper focus. Fascist best describes it, and reluctance to use the term has now become perverse.
The fucking corrupt Supreme Court gave him unlimited power
DeleteSomerby again suggests that there is some genetic inevitability behind a disorder like ASPD, but this has been debunked here numerous times.
DeleteResearch only can point to genetic correlations, not causes, and even the research that points to correlations are problematic.
Somerby's "bred in the bone" theory is nonsense.
Two ways of showing something is bred in the bone: (1) the phenomena can be seen in babies before experiential learning, (2) the phenomena is observed in distinct, geographically separate cultures that have not been influenced.
DeleteAnyone really knows me gets this. I’m an immigrant and so is my spouse. We come from two different continents. The second we speak, our heavy accents give us away. No way to hide it.
ReplyDeleteWe’ve been in NYC for over 30 years, married more than 20. This is the capital of liberalism, full of Democrats, leftists, and socialists everywhere you look.
And here’s the hard truth we’ve lived, the people shouting loudest about “protecting immigrants” and hating on ICE don’t actually care about immigrants like us. They care about looking morally superior. That’s it.
During Covid, when I volunteered at food pantries, unfortunately mostly serving immigrants in my area, you couldn’t spot one single Karen helping out. But they were the ones crying on social media that people were going hungry because of job losses and city shutdowns.
We’ve talked openly about our so-called liberal friends here. Most of them treated us like outsiders at best, like trash at worst. Americans who, outside our tennis club, never once hung out with immigrants on purpose. The only people of color they ever spent real time with were the ones they met at parties in our house.
These are the same people who post nonstop about diversity and inclusion. Yet in their real lives? Almost no immigrants, almost no people who look or sound different from them.
Then we voted for Trump. Overnight they called us racists, cut us off completely, and even stopped our kids from playing with theirs. Kids who grew up together, shared everything, all gone just like that.
This isn’t me playing victim. It’s what happened.
They don’t care about actual immigrants, the ones who came legally, worked hard, paid taxes, and built lives here with thick accents and all. They care about the idea of immigrants as a symbol that makes them feel good and righteous.
Right now the anti-ICE rage and pro-immigrant talk are the same thing. It costs them nothing. It lets them feel noble while the real pressure hits schools, housing, and neighborhoods. Their hands stay clean because the mess lands on someone else.
The hypocrisy runs deep. They preach compassion but practice exclusion. We’ve seen it up close for decades in the middle of the most “progressive” city in America.
So when they lecture about empathy and kindness, remember, they only love the concept of immigrants, never the reality of people like us. We’ve lived behind the curtain. The whole performance is about them feeling better about themselves. Nothing more.
So spare me the lectures on empathy from people who only love the idea of immigrants, never the reality.
We’ve seen behind the curtain. The emperor has no clothes. It’s just a megaphone and a mirror.
Go enjoy a nice glass of we don't give a fuck about your wine. Go back to your shit hole countries and leave us the fuck alone, America hater.
DeleteI agree with 1:16, the only ones who care about immigrants are those to the left of Republicans.
DeleteRepublicans hate immigrants.
As immigrants we have always known this, but now the rest of America can see it plainly: Republicans hate immigrants.
Capitol of liberalism, not capital.
DeleteKarens didn't help during covid? As an immigrant perhaps you missed the advice to stay home and not mingle with other people, to avoid spreading the virus? Those Karens perhaps didn't want to infect their families by mingling with strangers.
Your liberal friends didn't like you as well after you voted for Trump? And that means they don't really like immigrants? If I thought you were really an immigrant, I would feel sad that you never learned to reason well, but I wouldn't give you all my money and that would make me a hypocrite in your book, because we are supposed to do things for you in order to prove our dedication. Talk about a sense of entitlement -- it is written all over your essay.
The "concept of immigration" is something many of us grew up with because our parents or grandparents were immigrants too. Some of us speak another language learned in our homes and had to learn English in kindergarten. Some of us practice customs at dinnertime and holidays derived from our homelands and we still live in ethnic neighborhoods in diverse cities like Los Angeles and Chicago. We don't expect hand-outs from anyone except family and we don't have the sense of entitlement and bitterness you display. But we vote for things that benefit immigrants and we donate to charities serving immigrants and we are not "Karen". My charity is United We Dream. As a professor I mentored immigrant students and wrote letters to help undocumented Dreamer students stay in the US despite their uncertain status. I had immigrant friends. One grew up to be Horatio Gutierrez, a Cuban concert pianist. I married a non-immigrant from East LA, Spanish speaking through several generations of citizens but still treated like a "Mexican." I know, just as you do, that the US is not heaven for immigrants or brown people or anyone with a foreign-sounding name, especially these days.
You have sold out, because you think aligning with power will get you better treatment than you got from people you assumed were liberals in your ghetto. Your Republican friends don't like you any better than your Liberal friends did. Because who you are as a person hasn't changed. Watch how they will drop you too, because you don't have a clue what friendship is and no one will see why they should give you anything, just because you think you are owed some special treatment.
I'll bet you were helped by liberal activism even when you didn't realize it. Liberals work to improve lives for groups, at a systemic level, not just by giving handouts in food kitchens (although some do that too). It is no coincidence that unemployment insurance and other family and human services are better in Los Angeles than in red states. That's because of liberals.
Some of us liberals have remained friends and are civil to Republicans who voted for Trump, but I think few of us are tolerating the company of assholes who are in-your-face about their right wing disdain for civility and crassness. This behavior is the main reason many of us don't spend time with Trumpies any more.
DeleteI lived in a deep red neighborhood for 17 years. I watched the Trump supporters ignore the rules for canvassing outside the market. I saw them plaster hundreds of Trump stickers on the front porch and windows of a house with a Biden lawn sign (that is vandalism due to the difficulty removing them). I saw them roll coal and behave belligerantly in their trucks plastered with Trump flags and gun signs. I saw one drive such a truck up the main street during a protest by students from the nearby community college, endangering lives to disrupt their free speech rights. I heard them take any opportunity to say something mean about local democrats, using language and crudity they perhaps thought was clever but merely disruptive. They were the ones who wouldn't sit down and yield the mic to others at school board meetings. They were drunk and scary in bars and at the neighborhood farmer's market.
I see no reason why any liberal is required to remain friends with someone who disrespects the views of others and behaves badly like this. People separated into two groups in my town for good reasons. The Trump supporters were unbearable.
There was a rule in my local bridge club against talking politics. It was designed to make the game comfortable and welcoming for all. The Trump supporters ignored the rule and were loud about their politics, rude to the game director when he asked them to stop doing it. None of us would have minded if they went away entirely. This was at a club that had succeeded for decades with a mix of players from the local military base and professors from the nearby college. This only fell apart when Trump gave right wingers permission to be their worst selves, damn the feelings of anyone else. That is what was new, not political conservativism or differences of opinion. Our immigrant friend above exemplifies this difference by calling people hypocrites because they didn't like his offensive Trump-inspired behavior.
Somerby would say that this dislike of red activists is how we "earned our way out" of whatever he was talking about (he didn't say), but there is no rule that says we owe ongoing civility to those who abuse us in social settings. We have self-respect and do not have to sacrifice that to get red America to stop vilifying us, when we know that won't happen. Calling Dems bad names is how they achieve their political goals. We don't have to apologize to them for that.
DeleteAgreed, the Democrats are retarded.
And here is an example of the disagreeable behavior that makes liberals dislike red voters. It has nothing to do with immigrants and everything to do with their attitudes.
DeleteNote that this has become a Republican mantra because Trump said it was OK to attack wokeness and calling people with developmental disabilities is too woke for red America. So they use the word "retard" proudly because Trump mocked the disabled from his podium, giving permission to every right wing goon to use the word everywhere in an in-your-face whattaya gonna do aboud it manner.
When has Somerby ever said that the right has earned its way out of civil society? It wasn't just Noem shooting a puppy in the face, but ugly stuff like what appears here daily from trolls.
Delete
DeleteYes, we Democrats are retards. I am proud to be retarded. And I sniff my fingers.
Never forget the fucking goat that sick bitch blasted after she killed her sons sweet puppy.
Deletedarthputinkgb.bsky.social
DeleteApparently people are surprised that a man whose only friends on the world stage are a KGB agent & a North Korean Stalinist planned to unleash a murderous secret police on his population.
Looking back, there were signs.
Squeal harder, Democrats.
DeleteRepublicans lick the shit out of Trump's diaper.
DeleteThey lick the shit and call it honey.
DeleteI missed the part where Somerby shows that we blues don't know how to talk about what is happening to our country. He does quote Ezra Klein, but says he wrote his essay before the shooting. He doesn't get around to telling us what is wrong with what Klein said. Where is Somerby's evidence; where are his arguments? Does he just get to say stuff like that and assume it is true because he said it?
ReplyDeleteYes. He can say whatever he wants.
DeleteNot without sacrificing his credibility and sounding like a fool. At some point Trump will declare blogs by liberals verboten. Then Somerby will have to stop and fold up his tent.
DeleteSomerby lost any credibility years ago.
DeleteAlso any relevancy, which he is clearly bitter about.
Trump does this, that, and the other thing, so Trump has some Personality Disorder. And because he has a Personality Disorder, Trump does this, that, and the other thing.
ReplyDeleteNah, the felon is toast, its his handlers now who are steering the demented old fool.
DeleteThis would be circular except that the diagnostic criteria applied to call Trump disordered does not come from Trump's behavior but from that of other disordered people (a study of antisocial PD symptoms, for example).
Delete"Someone has itchy sores so they have chicken pox. And because they have chicken pox they have itchy sores."
DeleteA statement like this isn't really saying anything; it adds no information or insight and simply restates the relationship without depth.
Linking behavior to diagnosis is not circular reasoning; it is a fundamental aspect of psychology. In fact, Bob himself agrees that an accurate diagnosis must rely on various criteria and careful observation.
The main issue is that Bob seems to hyperfocus on identifying a precise diagnosis while ignoring more relevant matters, such as Trump's corruption and criminality. These are concerns that are more actionable than pinning down a psychological label.
Moreover, while it’s essential to discuss root causes, Bob largely overlooks this critical aspect and, when he does address it, his points are often misleading or false.
Root cause?, everything the felon touches dies.
Delete“One dominant problem sits right there before us! Despite our widely ballyhooed brilliance, we Blues don't seem to have the courage, or perhaps just the smarts, to stand up and say what it is.”
ReplyDeleteIn the context of “blue” citizens risking their freedom and their lives standing up to authoritarianism, I agree that Somerby’s statement is particularly obnoxious.
Who the hell are “we Blues” here, in the context of a supposed media blog? David Brooks, whom Somerby “seemed” to chastise the other day for, I don’t know, not venturing a “medical diagnosis”? BROOKS IS A REPUBLICAN. Brooks was calling Trump’s mental fitness into question, but didn’t use just the right word or phrase to satisfy Somerby. And what “medical diagnosis” is Somerby referring to? According to Mary Trump:
‘The fact is, Donald’s pathologies are so complex and his behaviors so often inexplicable that coming up with an accurate and comprehensive diagnosis would require a full battery of psychological and neuropsychological tests that he’ll never sit for.”’
Say it with me: There is no accurate diagnosis possible.
So why focus on this so much?
Does Somerby want to also label Noem, Miller, Bovino, Bondi, Leavitt, et al “mentally disordered”, look into their childhoods, and urge us to pity them?
If you watched the video of Pretti, who was shot yesterday, there is plenty of courage being displayed. He is seen using his cell phone to document ICE activities and helping a woman cross the street. He returns to the curb and is swarmed by a group of ICE agents who wrestle him to the ground, or try to. Pretti keeps sitting up and trying to gain his feet, giving the ICE agents a struggle. That surely shows courage. Then his still holstered weapon is discovered and removed (as is clearly seen on the video) and Pretti himself is shot in the back multiple times. People are shouting "Oh my God!" "Look what they did!" and "Is he dead?" Some say "Call 911". The ICE agents turn to face the growing crowd with their weapons drawn.
DeleteSomerby's focus on journalistic courage without ever mentioning the courage of these protesters is offensive. The ICE agents showed no courage whatsoever. Pretti was out-numbered and was being forced to lie face down, yet he never reached for his weapon. ICE agents shot him in cold blood.
But we blues lack courage, Somerby says? Somerby pretends to be blue. Maybe he thinks he is an elite himself. Clearly he has no personal courage. He evades saying anything concrete but hints and slurs and smirks and slyly dissembles, like the coward he has always been here. Dishonesty like Somerby's is a form of literary cowardice. Noem and Trump and other Republicans immediately generated a smokescreen of lies to hide behind, showing absolutely no courage with their failure to accept responsibility for the murder we all saw on video. And now we see why it takes courage to produce these videos of ICE abuse of power.
Why is ICE shooting people for taking pictures of their activities? Because they are going to break laws and abuse people and they want to do that in secret. If the populace figures out that they are oppressing everyone, regardless of immigration status, for doing nothing but legally videoing them, then public outrage may put a stop to what they are doing. We can only hope that is true.
Thanks for your fine thoughts.
Delete"As a general matter, we Blues don't see this lack of skill among our own elites as part of our national problem. Massively, though, it is."
ReplyDeleteSomerby keeps saying stuff like this, but lately he has been forgetting to tell us who he is talking about specifically. Is it Ezra Klein, and on what basis is he considered a "blue elite"? Is it Bob Dylan? He is neither an elite nor much of a Democrat any more. So who and what is Somerby talking about?
Somerby is not liberal and not an elite and he makes increasingly less sense. Carney is not a blue elite -- he is Canadian. Trump is certainly not a blue elite. Who is Somerby complaining about then?
If there is a civil war in our country, why does Somerby want to disarm only the blue elite side? Is that fair? Bob Dylan wouldn't have thought so, back when he wrote the quoted song.
"Does any journalist need any further proof that, at the very least, that most powerful person is, at the very least suffering from some sort of cognitive shortfall? Perhaps from some ongoing cognitive decline?"
ReplyDeleteMaybe he's just an asshole.
When someone commits a horrific act, your first move is to stop them. Then you can figure out why they did it later, at leisure, when he is no longer a danger.
DeleteYou're right, 2:36. As Our Host reminds us regularly, "anything is possible." Best not to overthink the reasons why Trump does what he does.
DeleteWe can and should think about the reasons why Somerby does what he does.
DeleteSomerby does say that "anything is possible" but that is untrue. There are physics laws, for example, that rule in some outcomes and rule out others as impossibilities. Somerby uses that phrase to make unsupported claims without evidence. That is dirty pool.
An "anything is possible" perspective has been found, in sociology and philosophy, to correlate with far right worldviews interested in establishing and enforcing hierarchies.
DeleteSomerby's "anything is possible" aligns well with his right wing agenda.
This should not be conflated with Hendrix's great song Power of Soul, with the catchy chorus: With the power of soul, anything is possible/With the power of you, anything you want to do. That song was about living a grounded and authentic life; nothing about hierarchies.
It is important to focus on the lies being told by federal officials in Trump's administration. Yes, Trump lies all the time, but we should not widen that to include all of his minions. Bondi, Vance, Bovino, Patel, Hegseth have all been lying to the public and that is not part of their job description, nor is it acceptable behavior in a public official.
ReplyDeleteAfter Pretti was shot, a string of blatant federal lies appeared. That is malfeasance in office and should not be ignored. Bovino, who is the head of ICE, told several lies:
"Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino has made several startling statements in the wake of the deadly Border Patrol shooting of Alex Pretti Saturday, though one in particular was singled over the weekend by the Minnesota Department of Corrections as being blatantly untrue.
Speaking to NewsNation, Bovino said that ahead of the fatal shooting of Pretti – who was pepper sprayed, beaten and shot several times – Border Patrol officers were conducting an operation to arrest Jose Huerta-Chuma, who Bovino said had a criminal history including domestic assault, The Hill reported Sunday.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections, however, soon released a statement refuting Bovino’s claim, citing its own records that showed Huerta-Chuma had no criminal history in the state. Furthermore, the agency revealed that Huerta-Chuma had been apprehended by federal immigration officials during President Donald Trump’s first administration, and was subsequently released."
Trump admin lies, people die.
DeleteI doubt it would faze people like David in cal, but suppose he innocently drove down a street where ICE or CBP were present, they smashed his window and dragged him out of his car, accusing him of interfering with law enforcement, then shot him to death after he begged them not to. They now, according to Trump and Vance, have an absolute license to do this with impunity. They wouldn’t check his voting record ahead of time. We are all now, every one of us, in danger of being shot and killed by a lawless federal law enforcement agency. It’s exactly what conservatives claimed they feared during the Obama administration and now mindlessly cheer on.
ReplyDeleteOn X, @kyledcheney reports this:
ReplyDeleteSince July, I've tracked at least 2,300 cases in which federal judges have ruled ICE has illegally detained people without bond or due process.
This is one that stands out:
https://
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco
urts.cacd.1000677/gov.uscourts.cacd.1000677.8.0.pdf
A tiny percentage of the hundreds of thousands properly deported
DeleteI’m sure we’re all glad that you or your loved ones weren’t treated this way, as mistakes on the Altar of Trump Deportations by an Agency with Absolute Immunity.
DeleteOf course, it’s possible, possibly probable, that not all that of these are mistakes. Did you read the document at the link, DiC?
DeleteI don’t trust the numbers of people deported. The govt makes up stats.
DeleteA fundamental principle behind American society is that the justice system should prioritize protecting the innocent and ensuring due process over the risk of convicting the wrong person; ie, better to let 100 people go free than wrongly convict one person.
DeleteThere's a famous quote from Benjamin Franklin about that.
David being a foreign troll is unfamiliar with our system and our history.
Our legal system has evolved into a state where a troublemaker can interfere with a lawman in the course of arresting a bad person, but then the lawman is expected to treat the troublemaker with kid gloves. I'm OK with that. But, I am disgusted by trouble-makers who take advantage of this principle -- who go out of their way to provoke misbehavior by lawmen.
DeleteGo take a flying fuck, dickhead, you fucking fascist freak. I am disgusted with you and the whole fucking pack of ignorant maggots who have destroyed my country
Deletekid gloves = not shooting a guy in the back
DeleteDavid is crazy. I have the courage to say it.
“ provoke misbehavior by lawmen”
DeleteThat’s rich, David. Renee Good and Alex Pretti weren’t doing anything to provoke them being murdered. You engage in fascist enabling.
In the past year there of been numerous cases of Trump and people in his administration not complying with the law.
ReplyDeleteAnd all those cases are significantly more egregious than the civil violation of being an undocumented immigrant.
If Republicans were consistent, they would endorse brutal detention of these lawbreakers too.
The days of staying alive due to white privilege are over, with Trump in charge.
ReplyDeleteSorry crackers.
Any thoughts, DiC, on Trump’s daily pardoning of convicted fraudsters and drug traffickers in exchange for donations to his personal bank account?
ReplyDeleteThis is where dickhead heads for the tall grass.
DeleteBorder Patrol Favorables (1/25 poll)
ReplyDeleteFavorable: 45%
Unfavorable: 42%
Not sure: 13%
——
Net Favs
🟢 GOP: (+73)
🟤 Dem: (-56)
🟤 Indie: (-15)
🟢 White: (+11)
🟤 Black: (-28)
🟤 Hispanic: (-9)
🟢 Men: (+10)
🟤 Women: (-6)
YouGov l 1/25 l 3,834 U.S. Adults
I stand with ICE
You are a fascist.
Delete