FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2026
Not with a bang but a poser: "Nothing beside remains."
It's a famous line from "Ozymandias," a famous poem by the famous Shelley about what happens to fame.
Also, about what happens to societal power, and possibly just to societies.
By the end of the sonnet, nothing is left of the greatness enjoyed, long before, by the mighty Ozymandias (the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, 1303 BC – 1213 BC).
"Nothing beside remains," we're told at the end of the offering. "Round the decay / Of that colossal wreck"—in its day, it had been a free-standing statue of the mighty pharaoh—"...The lone and level sands stretch far away."
To our eye, it's a bit like that when we watch what happened last week on The Five. And then again, five hours later, on Gutfeld! (and elsewhere in Red America).
Also, it's a bit like that when we consider the fact that publications like The Atlantic have no plan to discuss the way the very possibility of the American project is being worn away, buried deep in sand.
The numbing stupidity we witnessed last week is (almost) all that remains of the American project (such as it has been). All that remains is that stupidity, enabled by the self-protective silence of Blue America's imitation of a journalistic elite.
Tomorrow, we'll show you something that's massively better—something involving President Clinton and one of Jeffrey Epstein's survivors. (She was 22 at the time.)
Tomorrow, something much better! Sadly, though, the mugs were clowning hard, and having big fun, on the Fox News Channel last week.
They were having major tribal fun as millions of misled people watched. They were having big fun about a pleasing event—about an event which never happened.
With that, we briefly return to what happened on The Five on Tuesday evening, March 3.
No, Tyrus—and Jesse and Emily! We're sorry, but no! There was no time in his deposition on Friday, February 27 when former president Clinton behaved in the way your corporate owners instructed you to pretend that he had behaved.
It's as we explained in Monday's report—as you can plainly see if you simply look at the line of questioning being pursued in the moments at issue. The questioning at that time actually went like this:
President Clinton and his attorney, Cheryl Mills, had been handed a New York Times article about the many celebrity photos found inside Jeffrey Epstein's squalid Gotham mansion.
As you can see by clicking here, there were many celebrity photos on display inside that broken-souled mansion. There was even a photo of Jeffrey Epstein with the former pope!
Also, there was one photo—let's repeat that rather small number—of Epstein with the former president. There was one such photo on display, among the many others.
During the deposition in question, the chief counsel for the House Oversight Committee had questioned Clinton about that one photo. His line of questioning had been quite inconsequential. It had basically taken things nowhere.
As the chief counsel considered his next line of questioning, Clinton and Mills perused the material they had been given during that line of questioning. They were perusing a copy of the New York Times report about all the celebrity photos—and at that point, the CEO of the Fox News Channel decided to let the mutts out.
In they rushed, tongues exposed, bushy tails a-waggin'! Four nights later, on the Gutfeld! program, the nutty host of that program teased the segment like this:
Up next! Bill's trip down memory lane!
After a commercial break, the strange man began pretending. We're sorry, but the very possibility of the American project can't survive moral and intellectual disorder this vast and this astounding.
"Bill really enjoys the deposition," he soon sang, introducing the segment. Then, as a brief bit of video played, he proceeded to pretend that this is what was happening as Clinton and Mills looked at the material in question.
He was doing a Clinton impression as he behaved this way:
GUTFELD (3/3/26): "I did that one. I did that one! I remember her! She was wild!"
The lid had been pried off the garbage can, as occurs on this primetime "cable news" program most nights.
As we've noted, someone has told this program's host that he had to stop comparing the women of The View to cows and pigs and horses and whales and to generic "livestock." But he's still encouraged to behave in the way he behaved this night—and as his studio audience laughed, the nutcase now turned to one of his panel's halfwits:
GUTFELD: So Mike, that was Clinton flipping through old Epstein pictures, smiling and nodding at the deposition last week. His attorney even had to pull the damn thing away from him! How can you not like him!
[LAUGHTER]
To whom was this disordered man speaking? Let the word go forth to the nations! This was the pig-pile that night:
Gutfeld!: Tuesday, 3/3/26
Tyrus: former professional "wrestler"
Kat Timpf: comedian
Greg Gutfeld: host
Dave Landau: comedian
Mike Benz: Foundation For Freedom Online
So read the list of the helpmates.
As Gutfeld turned to the hapless Benz, he was describing a pleasing event—an event which hadn't happened! Joining the assault on societal possibility, the panelist knew how to play it:
BENZ: Look, it's crazy, because Bill Clinton kind of is what— If Jeffrey Epstein became president, it would be Bill Clinton...They are kind of a perfect fit.
What are the odds that two people like this wouldn't [find each other]? You have like the perfect embodiment.
GUTFELD: He doesn't care, Kat, any more. Look at him! He doesn't care if you think he's an old horn dog. Look at that
AUDIENCE: Laughter
(Returning to his Clinton impression]
"Look at that! Let me see that again!"
Once again, it must be said—nothing like that was actually happening in the videotape that was playing on the Fox News Channel screen. Gutfeld and his gruesome guest were staging a remarkable slander—a remarkable slander which was being performed for millions of misled viewers.
Nothing like that had actually happened! It fell to the horrendous climber Timpf to take us all the way down Frost's "seven levels of the world."
"The lovely shall be choosers," Frost wrote. Horrendously, Timpf made her choice:
TIMPF: Honestly, he is probably the first person ever if the history of depositions who wishes he took a Cialis first.
GUTFELD (stage laughter): Ha ha ha ha ha haaaaa! He also is probably the only one at a deposition who wishes it had gone longer.
AUDIENCE: Laughter
TIMPF: Yeah. Yeah.
GUTFELD [performing Clinton impression]: "Do you have any more pictures?"
TIMPF: Yeah. He was like, "Can I take these home? Can I go to the bathroom for a few minutes? But with these?"
The children were happily playing. Moments later, Timpf even chose to say this:
TIMPF: You know, I'm not sure, but I'm starting to suspect that he might like to have sex with really young women.
GUTFELD: Not underage women, but—what did he say? Underage females! "I will not have sex with underage females." That's what he said.
Needless to say, that isn't something the former president actually said. Meanwhile, it's time for the poser Timpf to just go home and stay there.
Her posing has gone on and on. It's time for the roadshow to stop.
These corporate tools were describing a pleasing set of events—a tribally pleasing set of events which actually hadn't occurred. They were doing so on one of the most watched shows in American "cable news"—on a show whose audience is more than twice the size of the typical primetime MS NOW audience.
Gutfeld now turned to a former "wrestler"—to a news analyst who still had no earthly idea concerning the basics of what had happened four and five days earlier.
He was on the show to discuss news events. Monster truck blowhard that he is, he still didn't have the first f*cking idea concerning what had happened.
First on The Five, then on this show, it was clear that "Tyrus" thought that Bill and Hillary Clinton had been deposed during a single joint session. In fact, Hillary Clinton had been deposed on Thursday, February 26. Her husband was deposed one day later.
"Tyrus" didn't quite know that! Four and five days later, the giant blowhard began faking it hard after Gutfeld said this:
GUTFELD: Tyrus, that was a trip down memory lane.
At that point, the giant blowhard started faking it hard. He pictured a car ride home from a joint deposition—a car ride straight out of an earlier age, an age in which the shrewish wife is constantly banging the henpecked husband upside the poor guy's head.
"Tyrus" routinely paints such pictures on this throwback "cable news" program. At one point on this particular evening, he explained what Bill Clinton would do "if he has any brans in his head."
We're going to let that stupidity sit right there. Please don't ask us to comment.
The giant blowhard went on and on about the shrewish wife of his own inner torments. Finally, let the word go forth to the nations! At long last, the time had come for the male comedian to explain what had occurred!
When Gutfeld threw to the fellow in question, this is what Gutfeld said:
GUTFELD: You know, Dave, this could actually—this is my theory—prove his innocence!
He's looking at these pictures and he's like, "How did I miss this?" He's like looking like, "This wasn't here when I was there! Wait a minute! I never had that! That wasn't even on the menu!"
By "this" and "that," this woman-loathing older man was referring to the various underage females whose enticing photos Clinton was supposedly ogling.
They could have been "on the menu" when Clinton took his trips on Epstein's plane! Regrettably, though, they weren't! That's the way this underdeveloped guy still pictures this realm of two genders.
That was the "theory" this monster threw out. When the comedian took his turn, this is the garbage which started to seep from the Fox News garbage can:
LANDAU: I think he's looking at it like the first time you see a Playboy. He's just so excited he doesn't know what to do.
This world-class numbskull continued from there. Soon he was offering this. Could someone give him a Cialis?
LANDAU: This is actually quite an admission of guilt, if I'm being honest...I don't blame him for going to a sex island. I'm not saying you should go with underage—I'm saying, Hillary!
GUTFELD: Yeah!
LANDAU: I mean, he's been crawling into bed with—I don't think they even share a bed. I'm pretty sure she sleeps in a coffin.
AUDIENCE: Laughter, applause
TYRUS: After that testimony, that coffin was built for him.
This is who, and this is what, these underfed fellows are. We know that they could do much better—but at Fox, they're paid to do this.
By the eternal rules of the game, the time had come to pity Bill Clinton for being married to Hillary Clinton. On this gruesome show, the host never tired of insulting liberal women in their 80s for not being sexy enough.
We've entered the realm of the throwback brigade—the angry men who, for whatever reason, haven't been willing or able to keep up. Now, the comedian had trashed Hillary Clinton—and he had explicitly said that her husband had, in fact, gone to Jeffrey Epstein's "sex island!"
From the start, that claim has been flatly denied. These children are paid not to quit it.
Soon, the children were saying this:
LANDAU: It's bad that he's mouthing their names.
GUTFELD: Yes! Ha ha haaaaa! Oh, that's my favorite video. I could watch this for days—and I will!
We don't doubt that he'll do that! In fairness, we've said many times that he could certainly do much better, and that his employer should be getting him some much-needed help.
At any rate, this is the garbage this "cable news" channel sends out every night. Over at The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg isn't willing to report the fact that this occurs.
The New York Times is also committed to the act of averting its gaze. I our own view, it's hard to believe that a large modern nation can expect to function, to survive, in this way.
With great tribal joy, the island of misfit cable news messenger children had described a tribally pleasing event—an event which hadn't occurred.
Over here in Blue America, this is the dangerous garbage our cowardly lions have chosen to avoid. As with Ozymandias, so too here:
This is the downfall they've chosen
Tomorrow: The Epstein survivor's (beautifully heartfelt) tale.
Though also, a word about lizards
Today Somerby indulges in innuendo, hinting but not saying things directly about Clinton, so the reader must guess:
ReplyDelete"Tomorrow, we'll show you something that's massively better—something involving President Clinton and one of Jeffrey Epstein's survivors. (She was 22 at the time.) "
Clinton was not part of Epstein's sex trafficking ring. But today Somerby hints he was involved with a 22 year old who was one of Epstein's victims. The implication is that Clinton victimized her too, while giving a deposition that denied such acts. Somerby is scum when he implies that Clinton behaved like Epstein, without giving any support for this statement. This is why I hate Somerby and consider him a bad person. This kind of coy, flirting with truth, ugly shit that he writes for his own amusement and to advance right wing talking points against Bill Clinton (who does not deserve this political disparagement for the rest of his life).
Today, Somerby repeats for the third time, the supposed leering "enjoyment" of Clinton as he was questioned about Epstein's photos. Somerby does say that this leering never happened, but he also repeats the entire Gutfeld segment so that anyone who missed it yesterday or the day before can enjoy the ugly disparagement of Clinton by Gutfeld. No one defending Clinton would do that. There is no reason to do it that way. That makes Somerby's supposed defense when he says the event never happened, hollow and empty because he is harming Clinton himself in the same way Gutfeld did, using Gutfeld's own words.
Somerby is not helping Clinton when he does this.
Somerby does not tell us who the survivor is, with her "beautifully heartfelt" tale. He just links her to Clinton, without evidence, contradicting his own assertion that Clinton was not connected to Epstein's activities (by his own testimony). Somerby implies that something did happen between that woman and Clinton, after saying that Gutfeld's version did not. We are left with a confused picture of Clinton's testimony -- did he lie or was he not involved, despite Gutfeld's make up scenario? And was the survivor telling a tale (as in a "tall tale" or a fictional story) or recounting her experiences? Words matter.
ReplyDeleteSomerby inserts his stiletto and twists it in Clinton's gut. Gutfeld is not Somerby's target. His jokes are faithfully transcribed. Somerby is aiming for Clinton, which is what right wingers still do, just as they return over and over to Biden who is now out of office. And Rosie, who has a private life and a family she is protecting.
Slappityslappityslap.
DeleteThis has no more content than when a troll calls someone a dolt. I object to the simulated violence but what can I expect from someone like you? If you cared about the things I am talking about, you wouldn't think this was so funny. It really isn't. Men have been slapping women for millenia. Somerby glories in it when he quotes those parts of the Illiad.
DeleteOof, bad look for Quaker, as he for some reason decides to throw any credibility he had out the window.
DeleteBob
ReplyDeleteGiven your avid viewership of the Five, I hope you are, at least, sticking around for the only political news show worth watching Special Report w/Bret Bairer.
“Avid viewership?” That’s one way to describe what Somerby views as “numbing stupidity” and “ moral and intellectual disorder.” That’s a hell of a lead in to the “ only political news show worth watching.” Bret Bairer [sic] must be proud AF to work for an organization that airs such garbage.
DeleteAnd yet Somerby watches Gutfeld avidly. Go figure!
DeleteArticles where Somerby talked about his pear tree:
ReplyDeleteSATURDAY, MAY 16, 2020
SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 2020:
" It was such a beautiful morning that the pear tree just off our deck made us think of Thoreau.
Our neighbor, who's a very nice person, wants the tree taken down; it sheds leaves into her yard. By way of contrast, we love and admire the way this particular fairly young tree insists on living and growing.
It has virtually consumed our deck, turning it into a tree house. Each morning this week, it has presented more flowers and more leaves."
SATURDAY, JULY 3, 2021
"Early on this July 3 morning, we sat beneath our mighty pear tree. As we did, a squirrel who was breaking the fast showered pear shards down on our heads."
He goes on to describe the squirrel as energy lacking mass. I doubt the squirrel considered his own energy wasted though. Somerby again imposes his own interpretations on someone else's meaning.
Generally it does violate local laws or codes to have plants/trees from your yard impinging on others' property.
DeleteHardly surprising that Somerby seems to almost take glee in how he is irritating his neighbor.
Depending on the law of the state where they live, the neighbor may be able to cut down any part of the tree that crosses the property line.
DeleteBack when Chanel Miller's book about her rape and the trial appeared, Somerby said that if she didn't want to be raped, she shouldn't have been drunk at a frat party. He criticized the press for not mentioning the number of drinks she had drunk and suggested that the university was at fault for not restricting alcohol on campus. He defended Brock Turner, convicted by a jury of rape, as being drunk himself, although not to drunk to be witnessed raping Miller and caught in the act by two Swedish grad students passing by.
ReplyDeleteKate Manne describes an event at Cornell University where frat and sorority members were required to attend a talk given by Miller about her rape and the trial. Manne describes the inattention of the audience, playing on phones instead of listening to Miller:
"I wondered if I was being too harsh, or if these students were merely outliers. I am, after all, the founder of the concept of himpathy—originally in response to all the handwringing about the loss of Turner’s bright future rather than the way his raping Miller derailed her life and changed its course irrevocably. I am hence likely to be sensitive to young men’s inattention to a rape victim telling her story for the benefit of the sorority and fraternity members who comprised the bulk of last night’s audience (while the event was open to the entire Cornell community, 15% of each chapter’s attendance was compulsory). But eventually even Miller, striking in her honesty as well as her composure, said something to the moderator: “You know, this has been my hardest gig, because they didn’t turn down the house lights. I’m not sure how you professors do it, because it’s so hard looking out at this sea of mildly disgruntled faces. I mean, I’m sure you’re all very moved, but…”* Miller smiled. The implication being, it didn’t seem like it, from her perspective.
And not from mine, either. I felt a sense of shame and solidarity and missed opportunity. It’s not necessarily, to be clear, that Cornell students behaved much differently or worse than any other comparable student body. Maybe it’s simply that, due to the vagaries of that auditorium, Miller could see all of the students scrolling on their phones inattentively. But that so many did this is a reminder of a very basic point that I will never get tired of making: we need to listen to women when they offer deeply counter-patriarchal testimony. All the more so when they are as brilliant, wise, and creative as Miller, who described her feeling that the universe assigns us all difficult tasks: hers being, in part, to teach us what it is like to be a rape victim. She described imagining herself as a pair of eyes who had seen terrible things and could now report back on them. Miller spoke movingly too of the way those who were indifferent and unmoved in the aftermath of her assault ultimately caused her even more pain than the assault itself. She was confiding in us the pain of being unheld in the face of severe trauma and simultaneously experiencing yet another instance.
We may know her name. But last night we failed, as a community, to hear her story properly. So often, the problem isn’t not believing women. It’s failing to care about what they have to tell us."
Similarly, Somerby pays no attention to the pain of the victims of Epstein, struggling to tell others what he did to them and why it still hurts years later. Gutfeld thinks it is a joke and Somerby repeats Gutfeld's lack of empathy, while both try to skewer Bill Clinton. Somerby never had any enpathy for Miller. He thinks she should have remained sober if she didn't want to be attacked. That kind of logic can be applied to any crime -- Laken Riley shouldn't have been out jogging if she didn't want to be killed. Etc. Somerby misses that the ongoing failure to listen to Epstein's victims constitutes the revictimization of those girls, now women. That is Somerby's failure and another reason why I dislike him enough to point out his flaws, shared among men like Gutfeld and the right generally. This is not how human beings should behave.
Women should be taught not to be drunk at frat parties. Not teaching them that is not how human beings should behave.
DeleteDoes anybody else wonder whether this Bobslapper’s constant stalking of Somerby is a byproduct of some psychopathology?
DeleteCase in point. Do you believe the men at that party remained sober? They should not be drinking either. But why aren't boys taught not to rape women? Trump was obviously not taught that by his parents or anyone else. Why do we let boys get away with such things? And why do we maintain a "rape culture" that portrays molesting and hurting women as manly behavior when it is so wrong? Why do we sexualize young girls and teens as if they were targets of sexual behavior by men? Men should be taught and our society should portray women as human beings, not Mar a Lago sex objects.
DeleteYou must be aware of Pete Hegseth's attack on his girlfriend? Trump's rape of Ivana? The 27+ other women who have accused Trump of rape? This is the problem, not women who drink alcohol along with men at parties serving alcohol.
The point of Miller's speech to frat and sorority members was exactly the one you make, that women and men should be taught about the dangers of alcoholic abuse at their parties. Why do you think this applies only to women? And why did you miss the point that the men are the ones doing the raping when they drink. Why shouldn't they be the ones who limit their drinking?
Look how DG deflects from the points being earnestly made by the commenter.
DeleteThis commenter has never mentioned violence toward Somerby or anyone else. Yet DG and Quaker introduce the word "slapper" into their defense. No one is slapping anyone else, but it is distasteful to use such a term in a comment thread about abuse of women by men. Is this perhaps a window into how certain men think? Is criticism the same as slapping to them? Do they think this is funny too?
DeleteMen aren't going to be raped at frat parties so can get drunk at frat parties. There is a subset of men who will rape drunk women at frat parties and everywhere else and there always will be a subset of men who will rape women. Drunk women get raped because people tell them they should have a right to get drunk at frat parties.
DeleteI think "Bobslapper" is a funnier and kinder term to describe the cadre of commenters who appear here every day to write multiple long rants telling us that Somerby is "evil" than the ones I would otherwise use, such as "Somerby-hater" or perhaps "Somerby-stalker." Perhaps your view differs.
DeleteThe main question about Somerby is why he would expose himself here day after day when his essays reflect so badly on himself. I think he doesn't care, and that is another reason why I think he is being paid to spread right wing propaganda. A person writing for self expression would not only have real things to say, but would care about how they are being received by others. Somerby doesn't.
DeleteDG is a stalker.
DeleteIf men were sexualized the way women are, they would be raped too. It isn't as if men cannot be raped. Look what happens in prisons.
DeleteThere is a subset of men who rape women, and they are called rapists. We have laws against it and such men go to prison (except for Brock Turner who served only 3 months after a jury convicted him of raping Chanel Miller). Rape is not OK regardless of whether women are drunk, alone, children, drugged, smaller and defenseless, wearing the wrong clothes, riding in an Uber, incarcerated in prison, disabled, poor, unable to protest, etc.
Yes, there are men who are criminals. Instead of defending them, other men should focus on preventing crime by teaching boys that rape is wrong no matter what the circumstances.
I imagined some of these anti Bob screeds take an hour or more to type and thought what the ever loving fuck is wrong with these clowns? Then realized they are just using chatbox, cut, and paste. But even then, what is the point?
Delete@12:49, people read and write at different speeds. You shouldn't assume everyone else is as slow as you might be, if you tried to write something lengthy with ideas in it. It is in your interest to learn to tell the difference between a chatbot (not chatbox) and a person.
DeleteWhat is the point? Truth is worth defending, especially when confusion is being deliberately sown to undermine public faith in our institutions. The right engages in way more propaganda than the left, especially if you count Russian interference on social media. The point is to help people find their way through the garbage that Somerby and Gutfeld both spew so freely. You should think about that. If you don't already see the point of opposing propaganda, then you are yourself in need of help.
ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
DeleteSomeone who asks a question and then doesn't listen to the answer is not going to learn much. Or maybe you are just infested with flies. Hard to know in cyberspace.
Delete"The point is to help people find their way through the garbage that Somerby and Gutfeld both spew so freely."
DeleteI love how the Bobslappers tell themselves that they are virtuously and voluntarily performing a patriotic public service.
DG, as to whether the "bobslapper"" term that you use is too mild. They are either, in layman's terms, clinically "nuts" or obsessive trolls. Since "they" are always anons, there is no way to tell how many of them there are. I think there only one or two.
DeleteThey're doing their bit to save the Republic by sounding the alarm that Somerby is an evil Nazi pedophile racist sexist tool of Putin.
DeleteAC - "Bobslapper" is Quaker's term. I'm not clever enough to have thought of it myself.
DeleteBut we do have the cult of Bob-haters who populate this comment thread with interminable screeds, and I do think it is helpful to have a name for them, and "Bobslapper" sounds like a relatively kind and gentle way of referring to them.
And I do feel kindly toward them, because they're earnest, because most of the things they believe I believe, and because I fear that they have been horribly traumatized in their past lives. But the horrible, vicious shit they say and make up about Somerby is beyond the pale.
Exactly. Readers might not be aware of Somerby's views if they believe his lies, when he says he is a liberal who voted for Harris, Biden and Hillary (after spending months trashing them here).
DeleteHere is an AI overview of the Nazi obsession with The Iliad, shared by Somerby:
"The Nazi obsession with the Iliad and classical Greek antiquity was rooted in their racial ideology, which sought to frame the German people as the rightful, superior heirs to Western civilization. Nazis viewed Homeric heroes not as ancient Greeks, but as "Nordic" or "Aryan" ancestors, using the text to validate their claims to martial supremacy and cultural dominance.
Here is why Nazis were obsessed with the Iliad and similar classical narratives:
Aryan Myth-Making: Nazis believed that all great civilizations—including ancient Greece—were founded by wandering Nordic/Aryan bands. They interpreted the heroic actions in the Iliad as evidence of this ancestral Aryan blood.
The "Nordic" Trojan Theory: Nazi ideology frequently portrayed the Greeks of the Iliad (specifically the Spartans and Achaians) as Nordic, while sometimes re-interpreting historical figures to fit their racial narrative. They considered the ancient Greek "blood" to have been superior to the contemporary Greek population, viewing only the distant, mythical past as "redeemable".
Pro-Greek, Anti-Trojan Bias: Nazi ideologues often manipulated the text to highlight a "pro-Greek" (interpreted as pro-Aryan) perspective. They focused on the heroism, strength, and martial prowess of characters like Achilles, turning the poem into a "bible for the Aryan race" that justified their own ideology of supremacy and violence.
Idealization of War and Discipline: The Iliad portrayed a world dominated by battle, sacrifice, and strict hierarchy. Nazis deemed this "exemplary beauty" and a model for educating German youth in militaristic virtue, viewing it as a foundation for a "culture" fighting for its existence.
Distancing from Christianity: The search for a "pure" German heritage led to the adoption of pagan and classical narratives (like the Iliad and the German equivalent, Nibelungenlied) to replace Christian narratives, which were seen as weak or foreign.
In essence, the Nazis did not appreciate the Iliad for its literary merit, but rather misappropriated its characters and themes to create a historical justification for their racial, authoritarian regime."
Not flies, fleas. I still have no idea how you think you are accomplishing anything at all with long shit posts where nobody pays any attention to short shit posts either. Just get in the game proper and simply tell people to fuck off. Saves time and effort.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteNote that Somerby's focus is always on the Greeks on the Beach and not with Troy, even though he says Troy represents the blue tribe, Democrats in his analogy to today's politics. Unless you know something about bro culture and the manosphere and its overlap with neo-Nazis on the right (Fuentes and the Groypers) you may not recognize Somerby's ongoing shout-out to those guys in his frequent return to using the Iliad to dismiss blue success and tell us our society on the left is doomed as Troy was.
Delete@1:32 My essays are no longer than Somerby's, but hopefully more coherent. If you don't want to read anything, there are lots of other blogs with memes and cartoons that may be your speed.
DeleteDemocrats are the party of immigrants and people with brown skin, the mud people (in Nazi terms). When Somerby makes Dems the Trojans, he aligns with the neo-Nazis, who equate the Greeks on the beach with Aryans, their superior people equated with the white race and embodying their own aspirations. Troy disappeared according to Somerby. He says more explicitly that democracy is dead because we cannot hang onto it, and because we humans aren't built to participate in it. He is not telling us that the Greeks are a threat, but identifying with the Greeks and telling us the Trojans are inadequate to preserve themselves (or our society). That is neo-Nazi ideology.
DeleteSo it is not a reach to find these views in what Somerby has himself written about the Iliad, which he returns to so frequently that it means something and is not simple nostalgia. The bros are getting his message even if other readers here do not see it.
ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Delete1:40 - An alternative reading of what Somerby says is the message that Blues should take from the Iliad is that a cultivated society may be overrun unless force is met with equal or superior foce. He fears that our Blue elites are not up to the task; they won't even call out the poisonous propaganda spread daily, around-the-clock, by the Fox propaganda machine.
DeleteOr maybe, after being a liberal hero for decades, Somerby took a turn and has a swastika tatooed on his forehead. Anything is possible.
And, according to your summary, the Nazis identified themselves with the Achaians. Somerby identifies Blues with the Trojans. Doesn't that blow your theory to pieces?
DeleteSomerby admires noble Hector, not Agamemnon and Achilles, right? The Nazis wouldn't admire a loser who got himself dragged around his city.
DeleteHere's the pedophile part. Epstein was told by Larry Summers' wife (who is a professor of literature) to read My Antonia, which is akin to Lolita, a book by Nabokov about a pedophile's lust for the 12 year old daughter of his landlord. It was controversial when published because the protagonist was a pedophile and because the author portrayed him sympathetically. My Antonia, which I read because Somerby mentioned it so frequently, quoting from it, is about a young boy (age 10) who befriends Antonia, an older teen girl who works on a farm in the midwest. The descriptions of the way the 10 year old sees Antonia are sensual and portray how the youth sees her. They are also idealized. They are so realistic that a pedophile might underline those passages for his own later pleasure in re-reading them. That is why the book was suggested to Epstein, who made no secret of delighting in sexual response to young teens. That is why he went to jail, because he acted on those urges in a sex-trafficking and blackmail ring.
DeleteThe stuff about Epstein is more recent than Somerby's quotes of those passages in the book My Antonia. There is also overlap between the book and neo-Nazi admiration for it, because of the vivid descriptions of Aryan young women. Nazi believe they are fighting to preserve white womanhood, of the type portrayed by Cather in that particular book. Cather herself was not a Nazi, but she was gay and perhaps reported her own responses to beautiful women like Antonia, her book character. So, Nazis don't just like Greeks on the Beach but also Antonia.
Is it just a big coincidence that Somerby would display these same obsessions, so frequently, returning to them over and over across decades? Anything is possible, but it is hardly likely that Somerby would flaunt these obsessions without the rest of the package of beliefs held by these sorts of men. If you throw in his obsession with Anne Frank, who is the right age to be slavered over (her picture on the cover was worth the price of the book, Somerby said), the likelihood of coincidence becomes more remote. Somerby has never married, he defended Roy Moore (and Brock Turner) and extolled the relationship between Bogey and Bacall, explaining that child marriages were once more frequent and thus should be OK now. There is a lot of evidence supporting my beliefs about Somerby's views. I have no idea whether he was ever a pedophile or not. It would be libel to say he was. But his pattern of obsessions overlap those of some very unsavory people. I am not making any of this up. It is all there in his archives. Perhaps Somerby enjoys portraying himself in a questionable way while giggling at misleading his readers. I don't know. But I do know what he has written.
DG, you are working overtime to preserve Somerby's intentions when you don't know what they are. Somerby never said that blues should meet force with greater force, although lots of right wingers believe that. He said we were doomed. A city does not combat a siege by using overwhelming force -- that is the tactic for the beach. A city outlasts the siege by being prepared to feed itself and hold off attackers who try to breach the walls via impenetrable defenses. Somerby has made his disdain for us blues very clear.
DeleteIt isn't my idea that Nazis love the Illiad. Your disagreement does not change what is actually true of neo-Nazis. Classic and medievalist professors have written articles about dealing with the neo-Nazi students taking their courses -- since they are not interested in the truth about those cultures but tend to idealize them and use them to justify their own views.
DeleteYou're a sad, strange little woman, and you have my pity. Farewell.
DeleteNo explanation for the obvious.
DeleteDG and others: I am not sad because I have my sense of outrage about what is happening and I am working to achieve a Democratic victory at the polls in 2026. Somerby wants his readers to be sad and feel hopeless because that would contribute to a Democratic defeat.
DeleteLook up Seligman's "Learned Optimism" (the opposite of Learned Helplessness). It describes the thinking that underlies persistent striving and the thoughts that contribute to depression and apathy. We may not have control over our circumstances but we can control our own thoughts to emphasize the possible and avoid being mired in doom and gloom (the triad that is the foundation of depression (1) things are bad, (2) there is nothing I can do about it, and (3) it is always going to be this way. Disputing these thoughts keeps optimism alive and that motivates continued action. Somerby wants us to believe that nothing can be done and we are doomed. That is not true as long as we don't give in to pessimism and nihilism. Who benefits from Democrats giving up? Only the right. We Democrats need to look at the low turnout in 2024 and vow that this will not happen again, no matter who runs on the left. I will be voting and I will vote blue, up and down the ticket. I will not listen to naysaying assholes like Somerby who see nothing possible on the left. And I am glad that DG is going away. He has never been positive about anything here except Somerby, and that isn't how Democrats will win in 2026. As Gavin Newsom says, the next elections are only about winning.
DeleteDG, 1:27 I don't believe the haters are "earnest." You're too kind. "They" are pure trolls. Either that, stupid beyond what one would have thought was possible.
DeleteLike that's an intelligent response, AC/MA. More name-calling.
DeleteAgree with these criticisms of Somerby (of course, since most of them are rehashing of my criticisms) these trolls like DG and AC/MA who are obviously right wing, yet come here and pretend they are not, are just mirroring what Somerby is doing.
DeleteIn fact, the Right has a long history of adopting leftist rhetoric and aesthetics to mask their darker notions. And DG, AC/MA, and the rest are using the same playbook. It is nothing new, but here it is not effective, the consensus is Somerby has a right wing agenda, and these trolls are mad about that and desperate to try to change the narrative, but their methods are so weak, it goes nowhere.
"I have no idea whether [Somerby] was ever a pedophile or not. It would be libel to say he was."
DeleteAll you slappers out there -- Are you behind this? The lead slapper tells us she's too chickenshit to accuse Somerby of being a pedophile directly, so instead she deliberately implies that he is. Are you slappers on board for this, or do you have some shred of human decency?
Just like how Somerby describes Bill Clinton.
DeleteAs a young-ish female adult, I have had personal interactions with Bob Somerby, and not pleasant ones.
DeleteLots of customers flirt, but few are as creepy as Bob Somerby.
Commenters here say Bob is well known for his sexism, that aligns with my experience.
This would not count as pedo behavior to be clear, just creepy.
But more broadly, Republicans do seem to have quite a few in their ranks.
6:15 - Don't be coy - tell us more. What was the creepiest thing he did?
DeleteAnne Frank was beautiful at age 14. Her picture was worth the price of the book about her life. Who says that about a child murdered during the Holocaust? (For the record, she looked like any average 14 year old, not particularly beautiful.)
DeleteI watched a video interview once with Bob Somerby while he was in the green room preparing for his set. He introduced the men also gathered there but he ignored the female comedians in the room. That is creepy but probably not the way @6:15 means. To me, the video showed the way a man behaves who dislikes women.
DeleteHere's what Somerby said about Frank:
Delete"The original contents of the journal had been rewritten at lightning speed. Eventually, the very young person who rewrote her text died of typhus, at age 15, mere weeks before the camp in which she was imprisoned would be liberated—exposed to the world.
That said, every person wrongly taken away is, of course, the very same person seen in the beautiful, instructive photographs we linked you to yesterday morning. Accidents of literary precocity to the side, every person wrongly taken is, of course, that same person, the person with that human face."
If this leads you to conclude that Somerby is a pedophile, then you are one sick fuck.
Her journal was translated then edited again by her father before it was published. That’s why claims of her precocity, especially Somerby’s embarrassing gushing, are specious. You didn’t quote the part where he talks about her beauty in a less abstract way. His repeated focus on her, in unrelated contexts, was also creepy, as was the way he discussed Malala, another young teen. Somerby sounds like a schoolboy with a crush on a long dead child killed by the Nazis in a camp where typhus was rampant due to camp conditions (and that is murder whether done by Hitler or ICE).
DeleteI don’t care whether Somerby is a pedophile or an asshole — he is abusing that poor child’s memory for his own purposes. It is very creepy.
Who finds the faces of dead Holocaust victims beautiful? That is sick.
DeleteIn case you think I'm cherry-picking, here's the passage in which he says the picture is worth the price of the book:
Delete"Anne Frank's family was unable to gain admittance to the United States when they were living in Amsterdam. For that reason, Anne Frank—a brilliant child who would later be regarded as a sacred figure around the world—died in Bergen-Belsen at the age of 15 years, along with her older sister, Margot Frank.
"We well remember the first time we learned about Anne Frank. We were maybe 9 or 10. We read about her in a full-length spread in Look or Life, or one of those mid-50s magazine monoliths.
"It's estimated that the sisters died in February or early March of 1945. Bergen-Belsen was liberated on April 15 of that same year. They came that close to survival.
"Once again, we recommend Francine Prose's 2009 book, Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife. Back in 2009, NPR published its interview with Prose under this headline:
"Francine Prose Explores Anne Frank's Literary Genius
"Along with the interview, an excerpt is posted. Prose begins her book with a quote from John Berryman, all the way back in real time:
"'I would call the subject of Anne Frank's Diary even more mysterious and fundamental than St. Augustine's, and describe it as: the conversion of a child into a person...'
"We can't recommend Prose's book strongly enough. For us, it came as a revelation, in several different ways.
"Our view? Its beautiful cover, a tribute to life, pays the price of admission alone."
If you think this is whack-off material, you are wacko yourself.
If Somerby talked the way he writes of course he was creepy. Imagine a sarcastic tone but a string of words making no sense combined with either no eye contact or an inappropriately intense gaze. Then a weird laugh or giggle as he appreciates his own allusion or wit, while others respond with blank looks. I suspect bitterness emerged frequently too. Telling a waitress, “If it’s not too much trouble to come over to this side of the table, I’ll have a Campari, but don’t put yourself out, honey.” Based on his essays, I’ll bet he did a lot of namedropping.
DeleteSomerby used to criticize Maddow using the word “I” but he stopped when Trump came on the scene. Perhaps he refers to himself in 3rd person or includes his analysts and says “we” so no one knows who he is referring to “we’ll have a Campari, sweetie.”
DG, the glorification of a child’s death is sickening. Her death was tragic enough without conferring sainthood on a little girl. (He is just as icky when he refers to sacred Homer.) A grown man who calls the picture of a dead girl beautiful is way beyond sentimentalizing to fetishizing her. That he does this to other girls of the same age is support for his having a screw loose. Comparing Anne Frank to St Augustine is ridiculous. I say this having read her diary and a book about the struggle over publication of the diary and rights to a play about her hiding. Her memory has been exploited enough. Somerby’s over-the-top feelings about her are more than the context can explain without more explanation, such as the death of a sibling at that age. Somerby clearly has a thing about 12-14 year old girls. Only he knows why. His undisguised mooning over them looks like a shout out to others with the same interests to me. It isn’t normal and it is creepy.
DeleteAnne Frank was not pretty. She was gawky and average looking. It is weird to call the photo of a murdered girl “a tribute to life” when she didn’t survive.
DeleteShe was also not a literary genius. Prose is the latest person riding the Anne Frank gravy train.
DeleteWell, this has been illuminating. I had no idea that you folks were as batshit as you are.
DeleteHow could anyone read Somerby and see him as "evil", and not just another dime a dozen Right-wing rat-fucker?
DeleteDG - it's useless to try to reason with trolls like this. again, it's not clear how many are commenting - since they are anons. It is probably between 1 and 3. He/she/they are repulsive. How do people get so twisted?
DeleteI came to neither praise nor criticize Somerby.
DeleteI came to see if he's going to finally get around to making a point.
AC - When you’re right, you’re right. You’d think I’d have learned by now.
DeleteOnly an asshole like Somerby juxtaposes these two sentences and finds it amusing:
ReplyDelete"Tomorrow: The Epstein survivor's (beautifully heartfelt) tale.
Though also, a word about lizards"
Epstein survivors are not lizards. Neither is Bill Clinton or anyone else. There are no lizard people in reality. There is no reason to have written this. This kind of sly disparagement is why I dislike Somerby, who won't say what he thinks out loud because he knows it is unacceptable to decent people.
That kind of stupidity is why I dislike you. There is no necessary connection being made by Somerby between the two sentences you quote. You're a dope.
DeleteIf you think that, you are an idiot. Somerby gets off on deniability, hinting outrageous things that he denies because he didn't directly say them.
DeleteHow do I know those two sentences are linked? Because of the word "also" when he says "Though also" and then mentios lizards.
mentions -- typo
Delete11:31, goddamn you're stupid. At least you have the courage to display your stupidity with a name.
DeleteThat's right, I'm being mean. Nothing to add but that.
Leroy
I've been reading Somerby for years.
DeleteEvery now and then he almost gets close to making a point, which can be praised or criticized.
"Top Trump officials acknowledged to lawmakers during recent classified briefings that they did not plan for the possibility of Iran closing the strait in response to strikes."
ReplyDeleteToo improbable to be true? Not under King Dumb Don.
Not improbable. The US believed that attacking Iran was urgent, to prevent a situation where nuclear weapons were certain. US believed we would surely win this war. Both beliefs were right imo. The US did not have to plan for each possible contingency.
DeleteDavid, you have no idea what anyone was thinking. Why say you do?
Delete@1136 I had every reason to conclude that the government believed that this was the last chance to prevent Irani nukes and that we would easily defeat Iran. The Administration repeatedly said they believed these things.
DeleteBecause the Administration SAID they believed these things.
Delete“The US did not have to plan for each possible contingency.”
DeleteMy high school kid thought there was the possibility that Iran would close the strait of Hormuz.
How fucking stupid is Trump and his assembled team? Instead of war they told the dolt to say incursion. So the dumb fuck starts boasting about his excursion, and nobody corrects the moron so on he goes. Timelines and worst and stupid and such.
DeleteEven a child knows that someone can be thinking one thing while saying something different.
DeleteGiven Iran's size, terrain, and preparation for an Israeli/American attack over the past 45 years; I have never read any attack would be quick, and have read that Iran would shut down the straight to make us stop it. I also read that David in Cal was very happy we obliterated Iran's nuke program 8 months ago. I have every reason to conclude he is an unrelenting fucking jagoff troll.
DeleteAre you claiming that the Iranian government is suicidal and would preemptively use a nuclear weapon (presumably a uranium fission bomb) on the United States of America and Israel, both of whom can blow Iran back to the stone age? Are you fucking really saying that, dickhead?
DeleteThe right wing has been saying that to justify attacking Iran preemptively.
DeleteAgreed 12:36, Trump is a diminished dolt who speaks like a child.
DeleteTLDR David in Cal: I believe the folks who have lied to me for ten fucking years!
Delete@12:43 - Are the leaders of Iran suicidal? They're clearly suicidal for their countrymen. They clearly don't care how many Iranis get killed.
DeleteTheir conduct in the last couple of weeks suggests that they may also suicidal for themselves. The leaders knew that many of them would be killed if they didn't agree to stop pursuing nuclear weapons, but they we nt ahead anyway.
Try this question: Suppose Iran was in a position where had totally lost the war and Americans were closing in for the final capture of the Ayatollah. Would the Ayatollah under those circumstances detonate whatever weapons he had? He certainly might .That's a question I don't want to have to worry about.
In a negotiation, the most irrational side has an advantage. In a negotiation with other nations, a nuclear Iran would have this advantage. What policies they would use that advantage to impose on the rest of us? Require women to wear burqa's? Require Infidels to be inferior to Muslims? I do not to risk a world where these are possibilities.
Time to flip and flop, David. Ms. Leavitt today insisted that Trump had too considered the possibility that Iran would close the strait and had planned for it for years and years and any reporting to the contrary is fake, fake news.
DeleteI denounce you for doubting the wisdom of Dear Leader.
D in C - I don't know what the outcome of this war of choice will be - and you don't either. I'm not optimistic that it will go well. You are such an obsequious sycophant with respect to the present administration.
DeleteI really don't see where the irrational leadership of the United States and Israel have the advantage you speak of David.
DeleteTrump is going to end this war on day one, just like he ended the war in Ukraine. Once he eases sanctions on Russian oil, that is.
Delete"I do not (want) to risk a world where these are possibilities."
DeleteBut don't you, every night, risk the possibility there's an ayatollah hiding under your bed who will jump up and shout, "Ooga booga booga!"?
to prevent a situation where nuclear weapons were certain.
DeleteIs it the same certainty, with which they declared last June, that Iran's nuclear program was set back years and years? A more likely possibility: they got drawn in into this war by the Israelis and the Saudis.
AC/MA - Your comment is fine, but you left out the other half. You might have added, "I don't know what the outcome of NOT making this war of choice would have been - and you don't either. I'm not optimistic that it would have gone well."
DeleteYou called me an obsequious sycophant. I suppose that's fair, given that my side started the name-calling with phrase TDS.
Putin is helping Iran kill Americans. Naturally, Orange Clusterfuck is relieving the sanctions on Russia. This is all going perfectly according to plan.
DeleteFucking unrelenting flip-flopping troll. Slimy bitch to boot.
DeleteHow many countries is currently Israel bombing, dickface?
Delete1:40 was for David, not 1:39.
DeleteDavid has Trump DCS, Deranged Cult Syndrome. Keep drinking the kool-aid weirdo.It tastes like it did in 2001.
DeleteHahaha. In the imaginary world of DiC and the deplorables he represents, Iraq was an urgent threat to the United States. The beauty of being a Republican is that you get to live in a world of your own making.
Delete1:12, if we had ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had eggs
DeleteGo fuck yourself, dickhead.
I can understand people opposed to the war for various legitimate reasons. But, I cannot understand people who claim that a nuclear Iran is DEFINITELY not a threat to us. Their slogan, "Death to America." Their beginning with an act of war against the US, namely the kidnapping of our diplomats. The many Americans they and their proxies have killed in unjustified attacks. These may not be conclusive reasons to attack, but don't you think they at least should engender concern?
DeleteYou know small nations want nukes as a shield from asshole imperialist big nations that have conducted regime change operations for centuries (USA! USA! USA!). Look how well it works for creepy fucking North Korea. You lying piece of shit.
Delete2:19 remember that asshole from the Shrub regime who said we create our own reality? So true. They created the endless pursuit of regime change thru war and kidnapping in the two biggest oil reserves in the world. And His Fucking Dickness is here to cheer all of it on.
DeleteI'm so old I remember when Shrub told us Iraq was chock full of weapons of mass destruction and then Iraq gave us a giant book explaining they had none. Then the UN Weapons inspection team reviewed all the sites the US admin said intelligence knew they likely had them. The UN inspection team went to all these sites and said isotopes leave radioactive markers, and we are certain there is no nuke bomb program. They said no chemical weapons found anywhere, and no production found anywhere, but that did not rule out they had something well hidden. Right after that we invade Iraq for Saudi Arabia's 911 attack.
DeleteAnd a year or so later it's confirmed absolutely no WMD. What is clear David is Republican administration repeatedly lie about our safety to get this nation involved in un-winnable wars that help achieve our enemies goals. Also clear that you are a Nazi warmonger.
Odd, my slogans are, "Death to David in Cal," and "Leave the Rest of us Alone."
DeleteIran is a signatory to the Non Proliferation Treaty, Israel is not.
DeleteIran does not have nukes, Israel does.
Iran has no real plan for nukes, but they have engaged in head feints as an attempt to have leverage.
But no one takes this attempt seriously, because Iran does not take it seriously either: they joined the Non Proliferation Treaty, and they have had a literal fatwa against developing nukes for decades.
People like David are either ignorant or arguing in bad faith.
Since David is a foreign troll, it is more likely the latter.
Responding to David or the other trolls is a waste of time, pure folly, a fool's errand.
David has no core values. A self hating Jew/ Zionist atheist who votes religiously for Christian nationalists who are dedicated to turn our country into a theocracy. It’s all the same to David as long as he gets the unfiltered bigotry.
DeleteWhen agreeing with Right-wingers to make them go away, remember not to agree with them on bigotry.
DeleteThat's the thing they actually believe that they say.
Tiedrich says today:
ReplyDelete"yesterday, in recognition of Women’s History Month, the White House released the following statement from Preznit Fuckwit.
“I recognized immediately when I came into the room, I looked down, I said— ’cause I didn’t— read, heh heh, I can’t prepa— if I prepare my speeches, I won’t time to get things done. you know, you ever hear that? yeah, I cannot prepare. so I didn't know who the hell I was speaking to, but I walked in and I saw this beautiful woman with the blonde hair.”
oh my god, you saw a beautiful woman ‘with the blonde hair’? what did you do next, bro? did you have your Tic Tacs ready?
for fuck’s sake, Donny was speaking at an official White House event commemorating Women’s History Month. why is it that this malignant toad can’t go thirty seconds without sounding like the adjudicated rapist he is?"
To think, the world wouldn't be in this deplorable state, if Ivanka had just let her old man fuck her when she was twelve.
DeleteTo be fair, she did give him a few lap dances at least
DeletePathologizing the victim is one way men (who have been the doctors until very recently) respond to victims who are complaining about their treatment. Women who were feminists in the 19th and early 20th century (recall Frances Farmer) were committed to insane asylums by men for things such as trying to leave abusive husbands, having affairs, refusing to take on their wifely roles, claiming access to their own money, speaking on feminist topics in public and wanting to participate in suffragette activities, taking on men's activities such as studying science or writing books. In other words, opposing the patriarchy and rejecting women's limited roles.
ReplyDeleteWe all have psychological motivations and personalities that are revealed in our behavior. Whether these are pathological or not depends on who is being inconvenience or upset by them. These particular trolls know too little about psychology to do an effective job of analyzing the people they dislike here. Same goes for Somerby who has read next to nothing on the subject and apparently never studied it at Harvard. It is hard to imagine a teacher without any exposure to developmental psychology, but that is why Somerby shouldn't have been a teacher without preparation. Reading the DSM doesn't qualify him to diagnose Trump either, just as these trolls have no idea what they should say to malign others here. Saying that someone has their own psychopathology when that is true of every single person on earth, misses the mark by a mile.
Well said.
DeleteWASHINGTON (AP) — The US economy advanced at a sluggish 0.7% pace in Q4 of 2025, the government says in a big downgrade of first estimate.
ReplyDelete2024 GDP: +2.8%
Delete2025 GDP: +2.1%
What do you think happened between 2024 and 2025?
More senseless tax cuts for the folks that need to pay more taxes.
DeleteMore importantly, most of the GDP growth we have been having in recent times goes to corporate profits, not to citizens or their wages.
DeleteAnd remember, Trump and his admin are putting their thumbs on the scale, the numbers can not be trusted, they are cooking the books, so it is actually worse than they say.
“The U.S. borrowed $50 billion a week for the past five months, the CBO says
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. Treasury’s borrowing showed no signs of slowing as the U.S. headed deeper into fiscal year 2026, with the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reporting that another $1 trillion was added to the federal deficit in the first five months of the year.”
Historically ramping up wars and spending outrageously equals end of the empire. But we have the most billionaires so we are winning.
DeleteYes, and those billionaires must have their tax cuts.
DeleteWe don't know anything about the billionaires in other countries, so we think we have the most. I doubt that is true.
DeleteThere is this magazine called "Forbes" you dolt.
DeleteDo you really believe Forbes has accurate information about foreign billionaires?
DeleteNo, I believe you are a dolt.
Delete"A team of [Forbes] reporters, including those from international editions (e.g., Mexico, Brazil, Poland), uses public data and on-the-ground research, though they may miss individuals with hidden assets or illicitly obtained wealth."
DeleteFor example, Forbes apparently missed Jeffrey Epstein and his connections to Russia, same for Trump and his families intertwined assets in the Middle East now. I doubt Forbes knows all of the assets of the British Royal Family, or Musk's wealth, especially now that he has stolen from the govt using Doge. If you only go by what is public and recorded, you do not know anything about wealth. The absence of info about illegal activities limits Forbes from identifying wealth of cartels, for example. Forbes does not know what the ratio of hidden to public assets might be.
So? Still a dolt.
DeleteHow does the exact number of global billionaires have any impact on how they have taken over American policy?
DeleteAmericans don't think about foreign billionaires. That's why they were so unreceptive to the idea that Russia meddled in the 2016 election on behalf of Trump. Voters don't think about the longstanding ties between Trump and Russian oligarchs and thus didn't understand that Russia was manipulating our election, not just collaborating with Epstein in sex trafficking.
Delete? Putin has long been recognized as the richest person in the world. Reason anyone does not recognize Trump's financial ties to Putin, and Putin's meddling for him is because they prefer plutocratic lies and can't handle the truth.
DeleteWhy then did Hillary get no support when she tried to raise the issue of Russian collusion BEFORE the 2016 election took place? No media would consider it except as self-serving of her. Even Obama would not investigate, again for fear of seeming biased against Trump.
Deletefuck Obama, he allowed her to twist in the wind dealing with 20 fucking Benghazi show trials, and didn't lift a finger to tell the fucking treasonous republicans to fuck off'
DeleteNot totally fair to Obama, as if he ate the wrong mustard he was an angry Negra Modelo who didn't know his place. Unlike Trump always being rewarded for his abject vulgarity, Obama couldn't sneeze without someone complaining he sneezes like an angry black muslim.
DeleteFuck him. He also never lifted a finger to defend her over the phony email “scandal” in search of something scandalous
DeleteSure Obama felt he was a bit pinned in, as the first Black president, but this was cowardice combined with his actual values leaning towards neoliberalism.
DeleteSo agree, fuck Obama.
He could have not bent the knee to the banks and corporations and insurance companies. But he did.
Although he did solve the Iran problem; Iran became a "problem" again because Trump tore up the deal.
Obama did some good things but overall was a real disappointment.
Domestically Biden was much better.
Societies are created by people. That means they don't end until people do. So what the fuck is Somerby talking about:
ReplyDelete"SOCIETAL REMAINS: This is the way a society ends!"
Shelley wrote a sonnet about Ozymandias (the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, 1303 BC – 1213 BC). He described the decay of a monument to a long dead Egyptian king. Does that mean Egyptian society no longer exists? Of course not. Does it mean that if a statue crumbles the society of the people who built it no longer remains? Not necessarily.
Somerby wants to suggest that our own society is crumbling when it is actually just changing, largely due to advances in technology, not sands of time. This vague tone of doom and gloom is a favorite of Somerby's, but it doesn't make much sense because he never relates it to specifics. Today he uses Gutfeld as an example of our society's decay. But haven't the lower classes, the unwashed and uneducated, always had their own forms of entertainment, just as low as the people who watch?
DeleteIt would be nice if Somerby thought about things occasionally instead of just stringing together random quotes and images that have no relation to each other and pretending to be profound, while kicking Dems for ignoring what the right is doing wrong (as if that were true -- we didn't vote for Trump).
society definition: "the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community"
"A society is a group of people who agree to live together and work together. The most important priority to this group is the survival of the individuals in the group. As societies change, the other goals, and the tactics used to accomplish the goal of survival, also change."
How does Somerby imagine the mass of people in our country, much less the planet, is going to disappear? Has he bought the right wing idea that Iran was going to set off all of its nukes at once and destroy the planet? How stupid is he?
Somerby is afraid to contemplate his own mortality so he obsesses over the mortality of civilizations instead. Pity the poor old man. Gutfeld no doubt takes his mind off his own health issues.
DeleteTo be fair, death is scary as fuck.
DeleteTo sleep, perchance to dream; aye, there's the rub! For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come
DeleteJust because Somerby quotes without attribution does not mean you should do it too. Yes, we all recognize Shakespeare but he didn't write so that assholes could steal his work.
Delete“Yes we all recognize Shakespeare….” Then what exactly is your point? Talk about assholes.
DeleteIt is intellectual theft to borrow others people's writing without attribution, just like it is theft to use a musician's hit song at your campaign rally without permission and theft to copy a painting and claim you invented the technique used in it, or theft to steal a method of manufacture and make money off it, violating a patent. Intellectual theft matters to those who create new works. Obviously that isn't DG, which is why he should respect what others do, even Shakespeare.
DeleteLawrence O’Donnell calls Fox News the Fox propaganda network.
ReplyDeleteSounds about right.
Delete“as millions of misled people watched.”
ReplyDeleteThey are not being misled; they are being lied to.
Somerby keeps pretending the mainstream or legacy press is left, part of blue America, when it is not. Today Hegseth made it clear that these legacy mainstream organizations have been acquired by supporters of Trump:
ReplyDelete"“More fake news from CNN, reports that the Trump administration ‘underestimated’ the Iran war’s impact on the Strait of Hormuz. Patently ridiculous, of course!” Hegseth said. “It’s a fundamentally unserious report. The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”
Hegseth’s reference to Ellison – a staunch ally to President Donald Trump and billionaire who runs Paramount Skydance, which is poised to acquire CNN in a proposed merger – was particularly telling, several critics noted.
“Really shouting the quiet part out loud that Trump’s billionaire allies are buying up news publishers and controlling social media and AI platforms to push Trump’s lies and propaganda,” wrote Melanie D’Arrigo, executive director for the Campaign for New York Health, in a social media post Friday on X to her nearly 85,000 followers.
“An administration, openly acknowledging they are looking forward to more favorable coverage from CNN’s future owner: Trump linked oligarch, David Ellison,” wrote X user “The Maine Wonk,” a prominent political commentator and self-described “radical centrist" to their nearly 115,000 followers. “Unnerving and embarrassing.”
Veteran CNN reporter Barbara Starr also took aim at Hegseth over his remarks, reminding the Defense Secretary of both his 'legal and moral obligation' to defend a free press and that CNN war correspondents have died in their efforts to cover global conflicts.
“Listen up Mr. Defense Secretary,” Starr wrote in a social media post on X in response to Hegseth’s remarks. “CNN has had personnel in combat zones for decades. CNN has had [personnel] killed and wounded and all with lives changed forever. You have a legal and moral obligation to defend the free press, even the ones you don’t personally like." [Rawstory]
Unfortunately they have no qualms about saying the quiet part out loud. They know there’s nothing we can do about it.
DeleteThey might let us have an election this year maybe, so maybe we can do something.
DeleteWith the current DOJ and corrupt Supreme Court? Have you seen what they are doing with ballots in GA and AZ? The SAVE act? I am not optimistic.
DeleteThe SAVE Act will not pass.
DeleteBut otherwise, yes it is pretty bleak.
This will make drive-by poltard troll Cecelia wet herself:
ReplyDelete" ... a famous poem by the famous Shelley about what happens to fame."
Wet himself. Or wet themselves.
DeleteFame seems like the wrong word. You cannot compare the monument to Rameses to the celebrity of an internet influencer who has done nothing and is not the leader of a geographically limited civilization.
DeleteThe protesters against ICE started to see results from their resistance because they kept using video to contradict the administration's lies. They defended the truth, gained momentum, and were able to show that Bovino and Noem were lying, until they were finally removed.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rawstory.com/george-orwell-trump/?utm_source=opinion
Using facts to contest other lies, wherever they appear, can achieve the same effect. It is to Somerby's credit that he pointed out the way Gutfeld was manufacturing Clinton behavior that did not occur. It would have been better not to repeat the lies over and over (three times so far, verbatim), but he did tell his readers that Clinton was not leering. I suspect it was not Somerby's purpose to exonerate Clinton or he would have done it more effectively. But any little bit of truth-telling helps.
What would a Somerby essay be like if it were actually written to advance blue American interests? Much different than these essays. What is Somerby's actual purpose in writing here? Somerby's defenders don't offer any answers to that question. I wish they would.
This is Somerby's right wing vanity blog where he pushes his right wing agenda.
Delete"Over here in Blue America, this is the dangerous garbage our cowardly lions have chosen to avoid. As with Ozymandias, so too here:
ReplyDeleteThis is the downfall they've chosen"
Gutfeld behaves like a lying propagandist but we blues are at fault? We are the cowardly lions because Gutfeld is a lying piece of shit? We have bigger fish to fry but Somerby thinks we should focus on Gutfeld because why? It would weaken our response to major issues if we were distracted by the likes of Gutfeld. Why can't Somerby see that?
Two mistaken premises by Somerby:
1. Gutfeld can cause the downfall of anything.
2. Ignoring Gutfeld is a matter of cowardice.
Somerby's premise that our society is declining, doomed like Ozymandias, has no support. Blue candidates have been winning nearly all special elections, are leading in projected races and are predicted to sweep the House and most likely the Senate in the 2026 midterms.
What on earth is Somerby moaning about? He is a sad strange little man but I do not pity him because he is trying to drag down blue America with his weird essays, and our country cannot afford for that to happen.
Somerby has spent so much of his time telling the blues, of which he claims membership, that they do not respect the DiCs of this country enough. Or empathize with them enough. We should really try to understand them better. Then when we do, we will better grasp the thought processes of those who are trying to dismantle this democracy.
DeleteSomerby stopped telling us to listen to the Right, when we did so and reported back that they're all racist as fuck.
Delete