SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 2026
Let's call the whole thing off: According to the leading authority on the practice, the practice started like this:
State of the Union
The State of the Union address is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning of most calendar years on the current condition of the nation. The speech generally includes reports on the nation's budget, economy, news, agenda, progress, achievements and the president's priorities and legislative proposals.
The address fulfills the requirement in Article II, Section 3, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution that the president "shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." During most of the country's first century, the president primarily submitted only a written report to Congress. After 1913, Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S. president, began the regular practice of delivering the address to Congress in person as a way to rally support for the president's agenda, while also submitting a more detailed report. With the advent of radio and television, the address is now broadcast live in all United States time zones on many networks.
The speech is generally held in January or February, and an invitation to the president is extended to use the chamber of the House by the speaker of the House.
[...]
Because the address is made to a joint session of Congress, the House and Senate must each pass a resolution setting a date and time for the joint session. Then, a formal invitation is made by the speaker of the House to the president typically several weeks before the appointed date.
The practice dates to 1913. By tradition, an invitation is extended to the president.
The president is invited to come to the House. He's invited to deliver a speech to members of the House and the Senate.
This year, the war in Iran was three days away as the president spoke. Moments after he began his address, he brought in the men's hockey team.
What follows isn't a comment on the men's hockey team, which had recently vanquished Canada.
With respect to the players on that hockey team, we'll assume that they're good, decent people, though possibly still a bit short of perfect. We think of the words from the Hank Williams song:
I was just a lad, nearly twenty-two.
Neither good nor bad—just a kid like you.
Did Williams actually write those lyrics? The leading authority says no. To us, they're deeply insightful, sacred words—but, at any rate, this:
The president called the players in, as was apparently part of his right under terms of his invitation.
It wasn't the worst thing he could have done. But by the time the evening was done, Peggy Noonan—President Reagan's brilliant speechwriter—was discovered to have written this for the Wall Street Journal:
The Oprah State of the Union
The president’s State of the Union address came straight from the heart of Crazytown. It had everything—tears, cheers, spectacle. They handed out medals and honors like Oprah in the early 2000s: “You get a car! Everybody gets a car!” At one point I thought he was going to pull out a ceremonial sword and knight Kristi Noem. There was yelling and booing and people crying, it was big and rousing, boring and absurd. And important in some things it revealed.
Ten years in, and Democrats still don’t know how to handle Donald Trump. He used them as foils and they allowed it, sitting there snarling, at points screaming. Part of how to handle him is if he tries to manipulate you into doing the right thing—if, for instance, he challenges you to stand in respect for a mother mourning the murder of her daughter—you put aside that you’re being manipulated and stand. Because it is right to show human sympathy and regard. The thing to do is look better than Mr. Trump, not worse. You say: My base demands coldness. Then get a new base. If you can’t, leave before you are reduced to a soulless husk of the eager, happy person who walked into that chamber a decade ago.
It had everything—tears, cheers, spectacle, awards. Democrats still haven’t figured Trump out.
When the gallery doors swung open and the triumphant U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team marched in, it was vulgar and fabulous. They were wearing their medals and their Ralph Lauren sweaters and smiling and laughing like good young men. We all think we’re above theatrics. Perhaps you had a moment like this: You were home on the couch and you saw the guys bounding in and thought, “I am sophisticated, I know what they’re doing, they’re manipulating me, but I’m not some rube, I’ll watch clinically. Oh Jeez, Jack Hughes’s tooth is still broken, God bless him. The goalie’s chewing gum like some 1945 GI.” And your throat hitched up against your will and your eyes moistened and when they started with “USA! USA!” you gave up, gave in, and pumped your fist. It is a damnable fact of life that great propaganda works even when you know it’s propaganda.
Was it "vulgar" when the team came in? We wouldn't have used that word.
Did the event come to us the people "straight from the heart of Crazytown?" That's tough language too!
We'd avoid blaming Oprah Winfrey for any of this. If she once gave away fleets of cars, that was her prerogative. Meanwhile, let it be said, perhaps in search of basic fairness, that President Trump has basically handled the southern border, while possibly making a giant mess of other parts of his spectacularly muddled MASS DEPORTATION versus "Worst of The Worst" presidential campaign brief.
Noonan is a much better wordsmith than we are. That said, we almost might have gone with words like "bread and circuses"—and that seems to be, in substantial part, akin to some of what Noonan said.
She also referred in that passage to the president's gotcha games that night, though not in those exact words. More on that topic below.
Based on what happened that Tuesday night, we'd say that the State of the Union event has possibly run its course. With all the medals and honors and spectacle and of course with all the theatrics, we'd have to say that it might be time to say this:
Let's call the whole thing off.
A major war was three nights away. Perhaps in service to military strategy, that topic was barely mentioned.
Instead, we the people were asked to cheer the men's hockey team, which had recently defeated their Canadian teammates—in overtime, no less. Noonan, who's a good, decent person, seemed to say that she had reacted like this:
Despite her sophistication, her throat hitched up against her will and her eyes moistened, and when they started with “USA! USA!” she gave up and pumped her fist.
There's no reason why she shouldn't have reacted that way—large numbers of people did.
"Great propaganda works," she then said. There Noonan went again!
As we recently noted, we were lucky enough to have attended the so-called "Greatest Track Meet of All Time"—the spectacular U.S. / Soviet Union meet in July 1962. It was held at Stanford Stadium, maybe ten miles from our family's front door
We saw Bob Hayes win the men's 100. We saw Wilma Rudolph run away from the field in the corresponding women's event.
That event took place at the heart of the nuclear-tinged Cold War. Starting in the first grade, we kids had practiced hiding under our desks to defeat the possible bomb blast.
As the two-day meet took place, the Bay of Pigs had disastrously failed one year before. The so-called "Cuban Missile Crisis"—more on that event below—was now just three months off.
The U.S. men outpointed their Soviet rivals that weekend. The Soviet women won their half of the meet.
We saw Valery Brumel set a world record in the high jump. But the part of that meet which has lasted longest occurred when the athletic events were all done.
Many years later, Red Shannon chronicled the meet in fascinating detail for The Bleacher Report. We'll give you two bites of the apple:
USA vs. USSR, 1962: The Greatest Track Meet of All Time
[...]
While negotiations in Washington and Moscow intended to diffuse a ticking time bomb were falling apart, the few days in Palo Alto leading up to the competition were a demonstration of the very best humanity has to offer.
Private homes were opened up to the Soviets. Spontaneous cross-culture pickup games of basketball and baseball broke out in parking lots and streets. Host families organized informal tours of the many attractions in the San Francisco area. Banquets and press conferences were characterized by levity and mutual respect.
The charming Soviet world-record high jumper, Valery Brumel, entertained the press by doing his famous high-kick, touching a basketball rim with his toe, ten feet above ground.
Not one protest or demonstration marred the entire week.
On Saturday, July 21, 1962, 72,500 track fans filed through the gates of Stanford Stadium. The following day, another 81,000 filled the seats. It was the greatest two-day crowd to ever witness a non-Olympic track meet.
While the enthusiastic fans were indeed partisan, any superb effort was rewarded with cheers, regardless of nationality. The Americans were especially curious to get a look at Brumel and long jumper Igor Ter-ovanesyan who had recently eclipsed Ralph Boston's world record—and of course the famous Press sisters, Tamara and Irina.
In a manner typical of those days, the Americans dominated the sprints, middle distance, and pole vault. The Soviets ruled the longer distance races and jumping events.
The crowd got its money's worth. "Bullet" Bob Hayes, who went on to a second career with the Dallas Cowboys, won the men's 100 meters. His female counterpart, the great Wilma Rudolph, noted for her childhood battle with infantile paralysis, won the women's 100 meters and, through a gutsy anchor leg, secured a dramatic come-from-behind win in the 400-meter relay.
[...]
Perhaps the most symbolic and heart-gripping moment came as the athletes prepared to exit the stadium. The plan was to exit directly through the south end, in two columns. At the head of the columns, American [high jumper] John Thomas and Soviet javelinist Viktor Tsybulenko held a mini summit meeting of their own and decided instead to make a final victory lap.
All the athletes followed in unison, holding hands, embracing, waving their national colors. The fans stood and cheered as the entire formation of American and Soviet athletes completed their lap, then disappeared through the south gate.
The press would report that the American men won, 128-107 and the Soviet women prevailed, 66-41. No one really cared.
And no one wanted to leave. The Marine Corps Band continued to play for nearly an hour. Tears came easily for most of the record crowd as a cleansing torrent of emotion washed over them.
Ralph Boston would later recall, "I can't remember if the Cold War ever came into my mind at any time. All I was thinking was 'here was this super track and field team from the other side of the world...'"
In our view, the wordsmith Shannon got one word wrong. That word—see above—was "perhaps."
Citizen Shannon, please! Perhaps the most heart-gripping moment came as the athletes exited?
We were physically present that day, and emotion swallowed the stadium as the athletes themselves, but surely the spectators, entertained thoughts of "something higher. Something more enduring," to return to Shannon's words.
The Soviet athletes joined in that long, slow farewell march. They circled the stadium, arm in arm with their American counterparts.
It wasn't the worst thing to see that occur. Three months later, the thirteen days of the Cuban missile crisis took place.
We ourselves were just a lad, nearly 15—a mere high school sophomore. One day, the spirited junior who would later be Aragon High's head cheerleader approached us and said these words:
"I'm afraid I won't get the chance to grow up."
If film existed of what she said, we think those might be her exact words. And of course, a lot of kids, this very day, don't get the chance to grow up.
Will our political culture ever grow up? The president has handled the southern border, but at that State of the Union event, he responded to his invitation to speak by playing the usual games.
Noonan didn't use the word gotcha. We'll offer that word on our own.
Responding to an invitation, the president formed a gotcha game aimed at the chamber's Democrats. We'll spare you an extended discussion of his most vaunted gotcha game, but we will remind you of this:
Under terms of their oath to the Constitution, members have obligations to American citizens. But under terms of that same oath, they also have obligations to people who are "illegal immigrants"—to people who are in the country without authorization.
In theory, they're required to honor both sets of obligations. But the president, playing an increasingly familiar game, seemed to be working from this silly old football cheer that night:
Lean to the left, lean to the right.
Stand up, sit down—Fight fight fight!
Offered an invitation to speak, he responded by playing games with one set of his hosts. We're living in two (2) Americas now, and some of us seem to want to keep pushing farther on.
For ourselves, we didn't care all that much about that U.S. / Canada hockey match. We watched the third period and the overtime, but we didn't much care who won.
Other people very much did—and there was no reason why they shouldn't have! Unless you were watching the agitprop on "cable news," there was also no reason why anyone should feel they had to.
We rooted for the Yanks at that 1962 track meet, but it ended with something larger. We were lucky that we got to attend. As the current war in Iran drew near, the gotcha game the president almost might perhaps have staged was part of the cultural surroundings.
We can still see Wilma Rudolph as she pulled away from the field. Also, we're still able to recall what that high school junior said.
Somerby says let's call the whole thing off. He focuses on the circus and ignores the duty of the president to report the status of the nation to Congress and the American People. Trump entirely neglected the latter in favor of a propaganda opportunity, without telling people the truth about our nation's successes and failures over the past year.
ReplyDeleteGiven that this took place three days before the bombing of Iran, there should have been some mention of foreign policy in Trump's speech, not a blindsiding of our nation's leaders as well as Iran, in an atttack comparable to Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor during diplomatic negotiations. That is referred to as "A Day that will Live in Infamy," for good reason. Now we are as bad as Japan's emperor was, for our sneak attack on Iran. Trump showed his disregard for the American people by doing nothing to prepare us for what he did, and by ignoring his duty to inform and seek consent of Congress. Somerby, like Trump, ignores Trump's duties during the talk, in favor of discussing his own feelings about ice hockey.
Somerby says we are two people now. That is incorrect. We were two people for a while but Trump's rational supporters have deserted him and we are now one main people with a minority that gained power in dubious ways, not least lying to the people about everything that matters to us. Every day a few more Republicans change parties or decide not to seek reelection. Every day the polls show opinion shifting to strongly oppose Trump. That is the state of our union.
Somerby's nostalgia is cloying. He claims to be a liberal but his memories are corrupted by his shift rightward.
And who writes like this: "the gotcha game the president ALMOST MIGHT PERHAPS have staged was part of the cultural surroundings." NO. It was performative, Trump's manipulation, designed to confuse and mislead, and outside the so-called CULTURAL SURROUNDINGS that we the people experience daily. That is what makes Trump an abomination. This State of the Union address met none of the expectations for such an important report to the people. It is astounding that Somerby cannot see that and that he frames it the way he does today, to the point of suggesting it be discontinued. Somerby has no idea what it means to be a democracy. He is no longer a callow youth, so he has no excuse for that, other than his fealty to the right wing authoritarians trying to describe our govt like a Roman dictatorship.
Jesus, shut the fuck up already
DeleteNo thank you.
DeleteJealous Leroy rears his unappealing head.
DeleteAnd he is very upset!
Why did Somerby throw Wilma Rudolph into today's essay, at the very end? And nary a mention of the women's hockey team, which also won but showed integrity by refusing to be Trump's pawn.
ReplyDeleteSomerby might have used that phrase about not getting to grow up to discuss others who are fearful these days. Immigrant children and protesters come to mind, which Somerby describes as a "complete mess," a massive understatement.
There is a Newsweek article about the young woman in San Diego who was here on a student visa, then married a US citizen and was following the rules to obtain permanent residency, arrested at her hearing. She is important as a symbol of ICE excess because she is a Type I diabetic who was denied insulin and medical treatment for infections she developed in detention until she was hyperglycemic and couldn't maintain consciousness, and was finally hospitalized. She no doubt wondered whether she would survive a situation that violated all of the rules and court orders, broke laws and mistreated someone who was not a criminal in any respect. Somerby never discusses those cases, and there are deaths he might mention here.
That is not an example of Trump doing a good job of controlling the border. It is tyranny and a violation of international laws, by our president, who is not supposed to do such things. Somerby's praise of Trump's border control is unearned and causes me to wonder about Somerby's sanity.
https://www.newsweek.com/diabetic-woman-arrested-by-ice-almost-died-after-being-refused-insulin-11611498
DeleteYou’re wondering about Somerby’s sanity? You’re the one obsessively stalking Somerby with your endless rants and screeds.
Delete"Stalking Somerby" by criticizing his nonsense diatribes is the new "cancel culture".
DeleteYou only say that because you agree with Somerby. Somerby and DG sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g.
DeleteDo you really think it is OK for Somerby to ignore ICE failures while praising Trump's handling of the border? What kind of asshole are you?
Reading a blog is not stalking. Criticizing a blog is an exercise of First Amendment rights, something all citizens and non-citizens are entitled to do. Use it or lose it, assholes. Cancel culture is getting someone kicked off the air because you disagree with their statements. There is no protection against disagreement.
DeleteSomerby has the ability to turn off commenting at his blog, if he decides he is tired of being criticized. It is a feature of Blogspot. Instead, Somerby apparently (by his own self-report) doesn't read his comment section. He has that right too, as does DG or anyone else who objects to opinions different than their own.
DeleteGiven that DG so rarely expresses any kind of opinion here, it is hard to see why he cares so much what others say about Somerby's ideas. I've only ever seen him comment on the economy and to "defend" Somerby. Somerby is a big boy. If he cared, he would respond to criticisms, but he clearly doesn't care about what we say.
"Jesus fucking Christ, DG, do you ever fucking stop your incessant whining?" FTFY
DeleteI guess I hit a nerve.
DeleteFuck off
Delete2:48 what you are trying to do with your little comment is deflect from the fact that nobody appreciates you here; you got called out for your silly White Knight defense of Somerby when really you are the Black Knight here - defeated but pathetically still claiming you're in the fight, apparently unaware of your own ignorance and lack of rhetorical abilities.
DeleteI really wonder about the psychology of these losers who spend their days religiously reading a blogger, a blogger they hate with a passion, just so they can spill their bile all over his comment section.
DeleteI wonder about the psychology of people who play pickleball. So what?
DeleteSomerby keeps repeating that Trump has "handled the border" (a phrase that could mean anything), repeating right wing propaganda against Biden/Harris, when Trump has done nothing different than they did. Further, Obama deported more illegal immigrants than Trump did, without committing massive human rights violations, breaking American laws about citizen rights, ignoring actual criminals to deport law-abiding immigrants following all the rules, and allowing American troops to run amok in large cities as punishment for voting Democratic, violating more laws in the process. This is what Somerby calls a "mess" while praising Trump's border control. Somerby is not only ignorant about border concerns (choosing instead of parrot right wing talking points) but doesn't seem to care how much citizens and legal immigrants are abused in the process.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Somerby is aware that the only refugees being admitted ot America under Trump are white South African bigots, despite Congress having passed asylum laws and an immigration policy that includes refugee status for the very people Trump has been targeting and removing or holding in detention (under illegal conditions). Haitian rights were again supported by the courts as Trump has violated their legal right to reside in the US.
Somerby reveals his own xenophobia and bigotry when he ignores the legal rights of immigrants, legal procedures violated by Trump and ICE but upheld repeatedly by our courts, to the point where Trump is being threatened with contempt by judges. Trump's lies during the State of the Union speech should have been Somerby's focus, as a supposed liberal, but instead he brays like a Republican asshole. Guys like him are becoming an endangered species as more people become fed up with Trump and his Nazi enablers.
Where is Somerby's outrage? He discusses hockey not impeachment. That makes Somerby a huge asshole. If Somerby himself had worried about not growing up, back in the day, someone today might actually believe he was once a liberal or a Democrat. Today, he once again shows that he is just David in Cal with his own blog.
Somerby's blather today had one agenda, which was to express this bit of misinformation: "The president has handled the southern border".
DeleteAnd he repeated it in case anyone missed it.
Somerby does not like Trump's boorishness but he loves Trump's actions - it comforts Somerby's emotional discomfort with having a diverse society.
I didn't see the State of the Union as anything other than a demonstration of just how far gone to shit Trump is, not to mention how toxic he is. His polls get no rally behind the flag war bump as most everyone has figured he is just a nasty lying stupid shit.
ReplyDeleteWho praises Peggy Noonan as a writer without examining the content of what she writes?
ReplyDeleteThe SOTU was a desperate attempt by Trump to get something positive about him on TV. This one-shot circus won't do much for Trump's popularity. It will be forgotten. Meanwhile day after day the media are reporting negatives about the war: travelers stranded, stock market down, oil prices up, looming disastrous land invasion etc.
ReplyDeleteThe media should be focused on the main story: the war's incredible success. Iran's military capability 90% destroyed in a week with only 6 US casualties. Has their ever been a war against a well-armed adversary that was won with only 6 casualties? But. this war will continued to be reported as a failure regardless of what happens.
There is never anything positive about Trump on Fox TV? Get real. Trump even has Bill Maher shilling for him, in their fake feud where Maher has been praising Trump's bombing of Iran.
DeleteIf Iran's military capacity was 90% destroyed how has it been bombing neighboring countries and widening the war?
Notice how David only counts the American casualties, not the 120 school girls and uncounted Iranians killed, beyond the leadership gathered in a meeting to discuss the ongoing peace negotiations -- oblivious to Trump's sneak attack.
How can any military action conducted by the US be considered a success when it has broken international law and rules of combat? The disregard for our own 6 deaths show the callousness of our leadership, another failure.
Reminds me of the old non-joke:
DeleteQ. What do you call the 6 dead American soldiers, who were killed in Trump's latest war?
A. "Suckers" if you're a Republican Party member.
Jesus fucking Christ, dickhead, do you ever fucking stop your incessant whining?
DeleteNo.
Delete"Has their ever been a war against a well-armed adversary that was won with only 6 casualties?"
DeleteCasualties tend to be limited for the side that launches a sneak attack against an enemy they were ostensibly negotiating with.
The only thing sneaky about our attack was the exact date and time. Everyone knew that the US had moved half our military to the outskirts of Iran.
DeleteSo we were ostensibly negotiating, though our attack would inevitably come.
DeleteSo we agree Trump was just pretending to negotiate. And that this pretense served as cover for his sneak attack.
So you agree with me.
Oh, we won the war. Mission accomplished. But what? They are readying special forces ground troops? I guess that’s for security at the victory parade.
DeleteThe most amazing thing about Wilma Rudolph is the way she came back from having polio as a child, wearing a leg brace until she was 12. She played basketball at her all-black high school, to strengthen her muscles, was spotted by a university coach and recruited to compete in track and field, ultimately reaching the Olympics. Later, she was a role model and an advocate for civil rights and women's sports.
ReplyDeleteWe who admire her didn't need Somerby's mention of her to bring her to our attention. I recall reading a book about her when I was a child myself. She wouldn't have let herself be a prop for Trump.
Like Trump, Somerby defiles the people, quotes and films that he grabs to advance his own themes. Ben Stiller's film Tropic Thunder is a satire on war movies, now being used without permission in right wing memes and recruiting videos. Stiller has objected. Copyright violations are just another law for Trump to break. Somerby mimics that behavior when he grabs Wilma Rudolph's name to advance positions she would likely not support.
I'm sure Somerby has watched plenty of track and field and other athletics in his life, especially given his own participation as a basketball player. Why would he grab Rudolph's name today, after writing this kind of essay? No one imagines Somerby is a huge fan of black female athletes -- I doubt he can even name another one. Somerby's attempt to use her memory is as offensive as Trump's use of Olympic hockey teams, because Rudolph is more like the victims of Trump's regime, and not an example of anyone's success but her own.
Ask RFK Jr. what he thinks about the polio vaccine that Rudolph never received (she was born 10 years too early). How about the scarlet fever and pneumonia treatments using penicillin? She had those diseases too, in childhood, before such treatment was available to the public, especially poor black families in the rural South. Trump's HHS is cutting back on medical research, failing to approve new drugs for specific diseases, recommending against vaccinations that would protect children from consequences and death. And Trump's education policies are also undermining support for universities like the one that gave Rudolph her training in track and field, and her degree and subsequent career. Somerby once complained that black female track athletes shouldn't be recruited to such schools from all-black high schools, because they would fail academically. The hypocrisy of his touting Rudolph today after arguing that position in response to an article about a talented female athlete attending an open-entry university, is staggering. Somerby was so impressed by Rudolph that he apparently formed an opinion that black women shouldn't be encouraged to attend college on sports scholarships! But today it suits his purposes to pretend he never said such a thing. I find myself wondering why. No one here is ever going to think he is actually liberal, no matter how many token black names he throws out. I'm surprised he didn't mention Jesse Owens, but perhaps he didn't want to offend his Nazi bros readership.
You'd have to be one of those "attention payers" to think Somerby is a Right-winger.
DeleteHow many lefties agree with Somerby that Biden did a bad job controlling the border?
DeleteHow many people who see reality -- whether left or right -- know that there was a major surge of illegal immigration during Biden's term?
DeleteAs Somerby points out, we lefties may not know this because we live in a silo that tends to dissappear this fact.
DeleteAre you fucking kidding me? CNN literally moved their evening news to a tent on the border. There was no fucking way to avoid the post Covid surge on the news. Wtf is wrong with you? Biden didn’t invite them in
DeleteDogface should speak for himself.
DeleteThe surge was dealt with by sending Harris to the donor nations to effect changes that would prevent people from leaving those countries, which worked with time. Biden also asked Mexico to place more troops near the border to prevent people from massing there. They had more troops there under Biden than Trump demanded when he began his term. By the end of his term, Biden's numbers were nearly the same as Trump's at the end of his first term, before covid produced the big surge in border crossing attempts. And then Biden negotiated a bi-partisan immigration bill to address border control, which Trump demanded that Republicans torpedo so that he could campaign on border issues. Biden also corrected the inhumane detention policies enacted by Trump.
DeleteSomerby's idea that Biden did nothing and that the border was not being addressed is a Republican talking point and untrue. If people do not know what Biden did, it is because they watch Fox and do not listen to Democrats or the government agency websites concerning immigration or the advocacy organizations dealing with immigrants. Trump destroyed govt websites so that citizens could not look up stats, enabling him to tell whatever lies he wants.
Somerby used the Laken Riley murder to argue that Biden's policies were bad. He neglected the facts of that case, including that Riley's killer was a legal, not illegal immigrant, admitted under a program for Venezuelans enacted during Trump's first term. The murdered was bussed by Abbott from TX to New York, where he worked his way to Georgia, where he spotted and killed Riley. He was not a murderer prior to coming to the US, and not illegal. He was not admitted by Biden. He was prosecuted for the murder. How then was Biden responsible for Laken Riley's death and why were Republicans shouting at him during Biden's SOTU?
So I guess we all can agree on this: There was a major surge in illegal immigration during Biden's term.
DeleteYou feel, however, that this surge was well-publicized in media that Blues consume, but I think you are mistaken, and I think that we Blues were mostly taken by surprise that immigration was such a huge issue that led toTrump's election.
To be fair, DG, we were all taken aback by the surge in Haitians eating our pets, until the orange abomination brought it to our attention, you fucking asshole
DeleteI remember arguing about it right here in the comments section in real time, when Somerby was telling us that the surge in illegal immigrtion was a big problem, and all you usual suspects were tellling us that Somerby was not only wrong but that the fact that he would even bring up illegal immigration proved that he was paid by Putin to promote right-wing talking points.
DeleteAnd instead of adjusting your priors when proven wrong, you folks just double down.
Same way with Biden's cognitive decline. Somerby warned us -- but the usual suspects here said that Somerby was wrong and that even bringing up the subject proved he was promoting right-wing views.
DeleteInstead of reconsidering after everyone in the Dem leadership agreed that Biden has lost it, you dead-enders still argue that Biden was sharp as a tack.
Go figure.
Wrong. We are all painfully aware that the Republican Party is chock full of racist bigots and was using the issue every time elections came up. Not much we can do about it. I grew up living in the greatest city on this planet where at any given time half the population were not native born.
DeleteRepubs always run on immigration, but what made the issue especially salient in the last election was that Biden presided over a huge surge in illegal immigration during his term. We Blues were (and remain) generally unaware that this huge surge occurred because we live in a silo and only hear our own echoes.
DeleteSomerby tries to tell us, but you folks then like to say he's a pedo Nazi sexist racist bigot, because that's what you do. (And then whine if someone pushes back.)
DeleteBiden's supposed cognitive decline has never been proven or substantiated by those who worked closely with him, foreign leaders, members of congress, or by his doctors (who examined him every day during his term and surely would have noticed a problem). It was a campaign by the NY Times, Republicans, Nancy Pelosi and George Clooney and Pod Save America (Jon Favreau), and other Democrats, who were either genuinely afraid of losing to Trump (which they accomplished anyway), or acting on behalf of Democratic donors who were afraid of Biden's proposed wealth tax (38%). It is also likely the Russians again aided the "Biden is too old" campaign with their media bots and propagandizing. We know Russia created the deep fake videos of doddering Biden that the Washington Post published.
DeleteThere has never been any evidence of an actual Biden cognitive decline beyond normal aging. The whole autopen farce is more right wing nonsense. That DG raises this to prove his case shows where DG is coming from too.
Arguing that those of us who supported Biden were deluded and therefore wrong about his immigration too is not how people reason about facts. I have several times posted Biden's immigration figures here. That should have corrected DG's misconceptions, but like David in Cal, he ignores refutations and goes back to repeating his own preferred narratives as if nothing had ever been said. That makes it a waste of time to respond to him, except that he is a nasty creature, worse than David in Cal in terms of civility.
These guys think they can fool others just by being repetitious as Somerby. They are all a bunch of assholes and they are NOT liberal or Democrats no matter what stories they make up about themselves.
You’re a fucking broken record, DG. And President Biden is still more mentally balanced than Orange chickenshit
DeleteSomerby is pedo adjacent, at the very least. Look what he wrote in defense of Roy Moore. Why would anyone defend that piece of shit?
Delete"There has never been any evidence of an actual Biden cognitive decline"
DeleteHow about the fact that he had the worst debate performance ever seen in the history of the world? (It even eclipsed Trump's performance, which was the second-worst.)
And could it be that you think that calling me a "nasty" "asshole" enhances your credibility in lecturing us about "civility"?
DG, typical of right wingers, hasn't got a leg to stand on.
DeleteThe wave of immigration started under Trump, driven by his disastrous foreign policies. But this wave was halted by Covid, which drove even more pent up demand to enter the US.
Biden addressed this issue immediately, receiving extensive negative coverage for it from Fox News in his first 100 days. By the end of Biden's term, his policies had reduced border crossings to historic low levels.
Unsurprisingly, Trump once again took credit for Biden's work.
Republicans have been using immigration as a wedge issue for decades. In reality, according to the data, in 2024 immigration was not a top priority and was even less of a priority than it usually is.
So Somerby was wrong about the issue immigration, in every way.
And if Somerby made a post calling DG a pos moron, DG would wholeheartedly agree with a big lapdog grin on his mug, his tail thumping in agreement.
At least you don't prattle on about divility, although your numbers are all wrong, I would guess from living in a silo:
DeleteTotal CBP Enforcement actions (FY)
2017 - 527K
2018 - 683K
2019 - 1,148K
2020 - 646K
2021 - 1,956K
2022 - 2,766K
2023 - 3,201K
2924 - 2,901 K
2025 - 691K
DG, I have explained several times that Biden's debate performance had reasonable explanations and that his subsequent speech and interviews showed none of the same problems, including extemporaneous speaking. Obama had a bad debate but he was allowed to recover from it. Trump cancelled all further debates against Biden, so he did not have another chance. Further, the main problems were with delivery, not content. Those who read transcripts of Biden's answers found them coherent and not problematic. Biden has always had stuttering and fluency problems (from childhood) and those are not symptoms of cognitive decline. I've explained all of this before but you keep repeating your same stubborn mantra. That shows you are trolling, not discussing in good faith.
DeleteNotice the way they tried to blame Kamala Harris for being bad at interviews during the beginning of her campaign. It was the same card from the same playbook. This kind of attack is called swiftboating and it is a Republican specialty, going back to John Kerry's campaign where accusations of cowardice derailed his campaign when he was a decorated war hero.
Dogface, please cite a source for your stats. If they came from a current govt website (such as CBP) they are suspect.
DeleteDG, did you not consider it relevant that the method for collecting the stats changed in 2020, based on these footnotes to the CBP Enforcement stats:
Delete"1 Beginning in March FY20, OFO Encounters statistics include both Title 8 Inadmissibles and Title 42 Expulsions. To learn more, visit Title-8-and-Title-42-Statistics. Inadmissibles refers to individuals encountered at ports of entry who are seeking lawful admission into the United States but are determined to be inadmissible, individuals presenting themselves to seek humanitarian protection under our laws, and individuals who withdraw an application for admission and return to their countries of origin within a short timeframe.
2 Beginning in March FY20, USBP Encounters statistics include both Title 8 Apprehensions and Title 42 Expulsions. To learn more, visit Title-8-and-Title-42-Statistics. Apprehensions refers to the physical control or temporary detainment of a person who is not lawfully in the U.S. which may or may not result in an arrest."
That makes the comparison between Trump's first term and Biden's term inappropriate because the totals are based on different data.
You call me a "pos moron," a "lapdog," and an "asshole," yet you want me to do some research for you? Look it up yourself, and post better numbers if you can find them. Anything you find will tell the same story - a huge surge under Biden.
Delete4:35 - So I guess you're admitting that 3M/yr in 2023 and 2024 dropping to 700K/yr in 2025 reflects a huge drop during the Trump 2 admin, right? Or are you going to split hairs about FY with me?
DeleteThere are several of us here reacting to you DG. If you won't identify your source, your numbers don't count. No one is disputing the surge after covid. The dispute is about the status of immigration after Biden dealt with it, by the end of his term. Your numbers don't address that because they changed the method of compiling the figures. You would know that if you had read the footnotes at the CBP webpage. (Hard to know how valid those figures are anyway, due to the change in all the .gov webpages under Trump, which is why he messed with them.)
DeleteTrump makes things up. None of his figures for 2025 are valid because he lies. DOGE went in and dismantled the reliable agencies and reporting so we have no idea where anything stands any more, except through private sources, such as the head-hunting firms that report on job searches, and orgs not under Trump's control or Republican influence.
DeleteWhen Trump lies about things like this, it prevents Dems from making any kind of case, but it also prevents you from being taken seriously when you try to brag about Trump.
"DG, I have explained several times that Biden's debate performance had reasonable explanations"
DeleteI agree that you've told us innumerable times, and at excessive length, that Biden's performance had "explanations." I just don't believe that they are "reasonable" explanations. I believe you are a dead-ender who just won't look at an unpleasant reality. Instead, you find it psychologically comforting to make up a nice fantasy that you can believe in.
Nancy Pelosi is a stone-cold liberal killer. She saw reality and acted. I'm with her.
5:10 - You think I'm bragging about Trump? What the hell is wrong with you people? Here's a clue: You can live in reality and still be life-long, dyed-in-the-wool liberal. In fact, it helps.
Delete"The dispute is about the status of immigration after Biden dealt with it, by the end of his term."
DeleteNo, it's not. In real time, while it was happening, Somerby told us the surge was happening, and folks like you denied it and said the fact that he would bring it up proved his right-wing orientation. In fact, he was correct; folks like you were wrong; yet you refuse to admit it and update your priors.
Attacking Biden over immigration is equivalent to supporting Trump, especially when you don't know the positives about Biden's response. Republicans have party discipline in which they keep their mouths shut if they have nothing nice to say about their candidates. Democrats don't go around attacking their own candidates if they want them to win an election. That goes for Nancy Pelosi too. She considered it so important to derail Biden that she put Trump back into office. You do the same thing when you repeat Republican propaganda about Biden, just to support Somerby. Somerby does it too but he is more blatant about it, advancing right wing talking points regularly and never saying anything nice about Democrats, ever. You can't call yourself a Democrat while working against the interests of your party and its candidates, never supporting the issues important to Democrats, and not holding values consistent with what most Democrats believe.
DeleteA cat can believe it is a dog, but it can't actually be one if it cannot bark, bury bones and fetch the newspaper. It is just a deluded cat.
No Democrat I know refers to one of its own party members as "a stone cold liberal killer". I don't know why she did what she did, but it wasn't because of any reality about Biden's cognitive abilities. I believe it was about money and power, which is what her career has always been about. That doesn't make her a killer of any kind. It makes her a power broker.
No, Somerby did not discuss the surge during Biden's term. He described it as Biden's failure to deal with immigration when Biden had announced he was going to run again. When immigration became a campaign issue. Then he started repeating Republican talking points about Democrats loving an open border, he discussed Laken Riley's killing and Democrats letting the worst of the worst in, he supported Vance's nonsense about Haitians eating pets. He gave Biden no credit for the bi-partisan bill he negotiated with Republicans, which Trump had killed by telling Republicans not to vote for it, after they cooperated to draft it.
DeleteSomerby recently endorsed Colby Hall's Republican talking points about Biden's immigration failures, even though they are factually incorrect. Somerby is capable of looking stuff up but he never has. He repeats what he hears on Fox News.
We know Somerby's goal was to defeat Biden because he jumped on the Biden-is-too-old bandwagon from the beginning, ignored the debunking of deep fake videos created by Russian firms, promoted the Washington Post video article suggesting Biden was sitting on air and wandering around, when the original video showed he was not, and then attacked Harris with the "she can't do interviews" complaint, she is hiding from the press meme, she smiles but got her start in politics as a ho meme, and denigrated her work addressing immigration by saying she never visited the border, when she was actually visiting the donor nations and asking Mexico for more border troops (both successful efforts that reduced border crossing attempts). Somerby did absolutely nothing to promote either Democrat's candidacy and did a great deal to advance right wing talking points, daily. And I pointed that out as it occurred, so you have no excuse for not noticing it.
5:39 - Nancy Pelosi was the greatest liberal leader of our generation, a giant of the House. I'm sure you cheered when she tore up Trump's State of the Union speech. And now you're reduced to denigrating and impugning her character. F you.
DeleteI didn't call her a stone cold killer. You did that. I don't consider that a compliment.
DeleteNo, you casually slimed her by saying she was all about about power and money. So f you again.
DeleteShe thanked Biden for the excellent job he did as president by shoving him to the curb and ensuring that Trump would win in 2024. Fuck Nancy Pelosi.
DeleteThe anti-Biden Democrats had to explain why they were getting rid of him, so they made up stories about his lack of border control, borrowing from the right. That includes Somerby, not just DG, assuming they are not the same person,.
DeleteAgain - Nobody “made up” the surge of illegal immigration during Biden’s term; it was a real event that occurred in history. The fact that you seem unaware of this event is testament to Somerby’s theory that you live in a solo.
Deletesilo
DeleteThe Repubs kept hammering away relentlessly about how Biden had lost all control over the border and people like you would look on with blank puzzlement because you had no idea what they were talking about. That’s one of the reasons we lost and Trump now has uncontrolled power to command the world’s most powerful military machine to do any damn thing that crosses his fevered mind.
DeletePeople like me posted stats here to contradict what the Republicans (and Somerby, not coincidentally) were saying. We lost because Nancy Pelosi convinced donors to abandon Biden, forcing Dems to shift to Harris with too little time to campaign (3 months). People can accuse me of a lot of things, but not "blank puzzlement" and especially not with respect to immigration. I've done community work with immigrants since my early 20s. I know what is going on and what isn't -- the lies told by Republicans and assholes like Somerby.
DeleteYou keep returning to the covid-caused surge as if anyone has been denying it -- no one has. But Biden addressed the surge and border events returned to low levels by the end of his term. I have repeatedly explained how he did that, and I did so back when he was running too. Biden did not cause covid or the associated problems that came with it. He DID address those problems and did a fine job of mitigating the harm done by covid, which Trump fucked up by first denying then delaying response to the pandemic.
Your generalization that Democrats don't know anything about what is going on with immigration is laughable given that Democrats are the ones who fund and staff immigrant programs, the ones protesting ICE today, and the ones who have always welcomed and supported immigration against the xenophobes on the right. Portraying us as ignorant is a cheap stunt, more propaganda. That makes me and others here suspicious of your intentions, DG. You don't sound like any Democrat I know, but you sound a lot like pretend Dems, such as Somerby and David in Cal (who says he switched parties and that his wife is a liberal). I think you are a fraud.
When cornered, question motives.
DeleteSomerby indulges in a bunch of cold-war nostalgia, but this war with Iran is not cold but hot, a shooting and killing war using weapons against civilians, leaders, and even children without warning in Iran. It has widened and is now regional, involving Qatar, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the UAE. It is a shooting war, not a cold war.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Somerby point is that Americans can be patriotic at sporting events, but that isn't what is happening either. The Olympics are over. So is the SOTU. Trump did attempt to steal some of the valor from our hockey team, but their bout against Canada to win the Gold was not against a cold war enemy or threat, but against an ally and neighbor. So what is up with Somerby's comparisons? They make no sense.
This is a war against Iran on behalf of big oil billionaires and Russia. Trump will use the rise in gas prices to justify removing sanctions from Russian oil.
ReplyDeleteThis war is very bad for the US economy and the American people. The people (represented by Congress) didn't get any input into Trump's decision-making and did not vote on whether to authorize Trump to conduct this war. That makes it illegal. It is also a violation of international law. It is being badly conducted -- a girls school in Iran was obliterated while students were in attendance. The cost of the war is going to devastate our national budget and weaken our ability to fight elsewhere (such as in defense of Taiwan, after Trump invades Cuba and gives China the go-ahead to invade). The stock market has tanked and prices are going up, not just for oil but for everything we need to live.
Trump has no choice but to engage in this war because of his debt to Putin. Putin controls Trump via kompromat and wealth. This war benefits Putin, Trump and his billionaires and Israel, but not us Americans. Don't let Somerby's pseudo-patriotic reveries lull you into believing this is in any way similar to the Cuban Missile Crisis. That is just Somerby's assignment today, which is why he is so out-of-touch with anything really happening in our society today.
Trump: "I'm not learning your damn language -- I don't have time."
ReplyDeleteTrump said this to his Shield of the Americas gathering of Latin American countries this morning. Such a statement might play well with his xenophobic followers, but there is no need to address a gathering of Spanish-speaking nations so disrespectfully.
The obvious reason for the formation of this new body is to extort payments, the way Trump did with his phony Board of Peace. Mexico, Colombia and Brazil were absent.
The second largest population of Spanish speakers in the world is in the USA. Mexico is first. When Trump calls Spanish "your damn language" he shows his ignorance that the US was part of Spain before it became a nation, that many who live in the Southwest and Florida spoke Spanish from the beginning, not as a foreign or acquired language, and that many of us take pride in our heritage. This kind of attitude is not only ignorant but a slap in the face of Trump voters in TX, FL, CA, NM, AZ, CO and scattered throughout the other states of our nation.
DeleteCalling it a "damn language" is unnecessary but reflects Trump's attitude toward people who are not himself. He then went on to mock Marco Rubio for being of Cuban heritage and liking to visit Latin America. (So does Ted Cruz.) Any politician would know better but Trump thinks he can continue to insult and demean his own voters with impunity, not realizing how low his popularity has sunk and that it can go lower.
Lordy, Bob is a racist xenophobe.
ReplyDeleteGet help Bob, you're going to die a miserable man with all your hate and bitterness.
I am the same age as Somerby and grew up under similar circumstances, largely in CA as he did during high school. I never heard any student ever express any doubts or concerns about the world blowing up or not being able to grow up. I think today's high schoolers have greater fears given the frequency of school shootings, than we had as teens during the much ballyhooed cold war.
ReplyDeleteThe internet says this anxiety about cold war was a phenomenon for Gen X, not boomers (Somerby is a boomer). I think it emerged from the media and not kids themselves, but who am I to argue with studies of teen angst. Movies like Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe came later, during gen X. We saw "On the Beach," if our parents let us, but weren't impressed.
I recall the Cuban missile crisis. It wasn't as depicted in films. I recall my father mocking the fools who were pulling toilet paper off the shelves in preparation for the apocalypse. (After living on the East Coast, I now realize that happens in preparation for any largish snow storm.) I do not recall it the way Spielberg depicted it in Fabulous Fabermans or the way it was shown in A Complete Unknown.
That's why Somerby's essay today comes across as manufactured in order to produce a false equivalence with cold war times and today's shooting war -- Iran is being bombed, not being threatened with bombing. Trump is calling for unconditional surrender, not disarmament.
The camaraderie among athletes after games is part of good sportsmanship. It is taught along with athletic skills, by any decent coach. There are rituals at the ends of each game, especially among amateurs and in non-professional games. Somerby wants to say he felt kinship with Russians. Good for him, but that isn't the impulse for most of us. There is a reason why they count up how many medals are won by each country. There were members from pro hockey teams spread across the various nationalities from which the skaters were originally recruited to become pro players in the USA. These are multi-national teams that go back to their native countries to play in the Olympics, not some miraculous coming together where nationality doesn't matter. Whatever happened back in the day is not what happens now because the players are different and the times are different. That makes Somerby's point moot because these are not the same Surroundings (why is he using that term?).
When you think about it, how would Iran feel about coming together in sports after being bombed to hell in a sneak attack by the USA? How did soldiers feel about the Japanese in WWII after a similar attack? I knew men in my youth who continued to hate Japanese people long after the War in the Pacific ended.
So, I really do not see Somerby's point, if he has one. And no, I do not believe we should do away with the State of the Union address simply because Trump is a clown. We need to elect better presidents instead. Not being Gen X, I believe that is not only possible to do, but likely in 2028.
While we're at it, take a moment to notice that the world did not blow itself up during the cold war.
"I am the same age as Somerby and grew up under similar circumstances, largely in CA as he did during high school. I never heard any student ever express any doubts or concerns about the world blowing up"
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me? If you grew up in California at that time you had to learn to duck and cover under your desk because of the threat of being blown to smithereens by a nuclear bomb.
I think we did that drill once during my entire elementary school years. I was more frightened by a film they showed in class of a child being run over because he ran into the street without looking both ways. I had nightmares about that. Just because some adult thinks something is scary doesn't mean kids understand anything about it. The kids in the 80s had to grow up being warned about "stranger danger" and not taking candy from adults you didn't know. Because of those milk carton photos of missing children.
DeleteDuck and cover drills in California are also about earthquakes, which I did grow up with, including the Sylmar 6+ quake that closed Cal State Northridge. Our midterms at UCLA went on as scheduled. Nuclear bombs were not on our radar. JFK's assassination was jarring and RFK's shooting was even more upsetting. It seemed like our hopes were being eliminated along with our leaders. That was way more upsetting. Then we lived through the riots. Some of us tried to exert control by joining civil rights actions. Recall that the 70s (after those disillusionments) were when the extremist left groups who did bombings and kidnapped Patty Hearst happened. That was about social issues, not atom bombs.
I don't think Somerby really understands that stuff because by then he was at Harvard mocking the cafeteria workers and skipping classes on Wittgenstein, trying to figure out how to avoid the draft.
All these "liberals" criticizing Somerby for avoiding the draft surprise me. I don't know if he tried to avoid the draft or not, but if he did -- good for him! The "liberal" position back then was, and still is, that the war was unjust and any effort to stall an unjust war was admirable. You've got to put your body on the gears of the machine and make it stop! Get a deferment, flee to Canada, go to jail, whatever, but don't do anything to help the war machine!
DeleteDG, Somerby himself said that he joined Teach for America in order to escape the draft during the Vietnam War. I don't believe that anyone should be exposed to war, but someone who evades it sends another young man in his place and there is nothing admirable about not serving your country like a standup person. We protested the war. The draft-age men I knew who didn't go applied as conscientious objectors. They did alternative service in place of the military. One was an orderly in a hospital for 6 years after college. His father was a minister and he held religious views that exempted him. He wasn't claiming imaginary bone spurs to evade his duty as a citizen. Each person made their own decision about what they would do if called up. Protesting and working to end the war were legitimate in my opinion. Committing violence, buying one's way out via fraudulent medical claims were not. I know men who went when called and served their enlistments despite opposing the war. I admire them. I do not admire the glib assholes like Somerby who worked the system to stay out. He did not prepare himself to teach well and he did not serve the inner city kids well in his job. That is a kind of fraud in my opinion. If he were serious about being a teacher he would not be a philosophy major, he would have taken teacher prep classes or at least math or English to prepare himself. Instead he cheated poor black kids.
DeleteTo me, anyone who avoided that war is a hero. But then, I'm a liberal.
DeleteMoreover, in my day anyone who impugned anyone who was avoiding the draft was considered a warmongering reactionary.
DeleteI am surprised that growing up in a military family didn't give you a different attitude. To me, there is nothing liberal about evading responsibility and accountability, whether you are president or a young person. What is heroic about making someone else go to war in your place?
DeleteIt is a lot like the person who believes taxation is illegal and thus withholds his own taxes in protest, thereby making everyone else pay for necessary govt functions. Or the guy down the street who says, I don't have any kids in school, why should I pay for a school bond. There is a concept of common good that liberals believe in. It means that we all pitch in to help maintain our communities and help those in need. If our country needs defending from Hitler, it is a shared duty to go to war (when it has been declared by the people jointly, Congress) and fight to protect us all, regardless of risk or inconvenience.
The war in Vietnam was bad, but it was declared by our country. Opposing it for reasons of conscience is fine but help some other way so it is not a matter of shifting the burden onto others without doing one's share. No one thinks war is good except Pete Hegseth and similar idiots. Most experienced military understand that war is bad and to be avoided if possible. Guys like Somerby who gloat over the Iliad and manly war-fighting movies do not understand war at all. But avoiding war because it is bad is not a viable philosophical position because it is bad for everyone and there are worse evils being opposed with the fighting.
There are a variety of views about the Vietnam war, both during that time and now. Calling your opinions liberal while others are not neglects the diversity of views at the time. Democrats went to war -- look at John Kerry. I don't consider anyone a hero for staying home. They risked nothing, suffered nothing, did nothing to shorten the war or help end war in general. They just had a more pleasant life of their own. What is heroic about that?
And I'm saying that the people who slurred those who refused to participate in this war by calling them "draft dodgers" were the most reactionary people imaginable -- the John Birchers, for example. So it's a surprise to me that a "liberal" would do so now. You obviously were't there in real time.
DeletePerhaps, dogface, but Somerby showed disdain for those who protested the war, saying liberals went off the rails in 1965, or whatever year, while avoiding the draft himself.
DeleteMore pure shit made up about Somerby. What is with you folks?
DeleteSo now he’s a draft-dodging pedo Nazi sexist racist Russian-asset traitor. Do you folks realize how nutty you are?
DeleteNo one has to make up shit about Somerby. He tells us about himself in his essays. He also deplored the desegregation of Boston schools back in the civil rights decades because parents had the right to be angry about their kids going to school with black kids. Then he had the nerve to pretend to be liberal.
DeleteTrump is a traitor. Somerby supports Trump by attacking Democrats and excusing Trump (pity the child, he says). Along the way, he defends rapists like Brock Turner, pedos like Roy Moore, and assholes like Brett Kavanaugh. He tells us that Ketanji Brown Jackson shouldn't have been appointed because there were more qualified white men who could have had her job. He says Tucker Carlson was warped because his parents divorced and left him a poor little rich boy. He calls rape and sex trafficking (as depicted in The Iliad) "sexual politics" and he himself said he joined Teach for America to avoid going to Vietnam. This all comes straight from Somerby's own pen to our eyes via this blog.
DG calls it nutty to believe Somerby when he tells us who he is.
What else do you call someone who worked the system to evade the draft but a draft dodger? It is the term for what that guy did. Country Joe and the Fish called their anti-war song "The Draft Dodger Rag" and they were not John Birchers.
DeleteDFG - My mom called me into the kitchen and with tears in her eyes told me if drafted, I was going to Canada. She was a pretty mean mom, but I always admired the "I'm gonna ship the asshole kid off to Canada" ploy. Nixon finally got around to pulling the plug so no Canada for me.
Delete3:01 - I admire your mom, too.
DeleteThese kids with their false purity don't understand that the very real possibility of getting shipped to Vietnam and getting your leg blown off complicates your moral decisions.
Delete(Oh, and 10:45, that song was by Phil Ochs, not Country Joe, and it ridiculed the choice to avoid the draft by someone who SUPPORTED the war. If you OPPOSED the war, the moral calculus was how best to undermine the war effort. And Country Joe was mocking moms - unlike 3:01's mom - who packed their sons off to Vietnam and were waiting to be the first one on the block to see him come home in a box.)
I had friends who went to Vietnam and friends who did not. One went back to Glasgow, the place his family had emigrated from. Some were drafted, went to their physical exams and found out they were not eligible due to physical problems (eczema, psoriasis, celiac). Some enlisted in their preferred service in order to prevent becoming infantry. Many went to grad school or got married and had kids. Living your life under the best possible terms is not the same as committing fraud to escape service, which I consider to be morally equivalent to crossing the border illegally or lying on your resume to get a job. The justness of the war is irrelevant because our duty is to our country, unless you are a genuine religious conscientious objector who has lived a life consistent with principles.
DeleteIf you admire someone who went to Canada, you must admire the folks who crossed our own border illegally, fleeing unacceptable danger in their home lands too. I don't see much of that admiration around here. Those who fled to Canada were illegals showing cowardice and why would Canada want them there?
I grew up in Sacramento, right near a major air force base, and we kids all figured that the blast radius would incinerate us whether or not we ducked under our desk.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know what a blast radius was back then. Why would anyone inflict that info on children? This is like when Somerby claimed he showed the film Forgotten Village to fourth graders, who were upset by it. Judgment is required and frightening kids about things way beyond their control isn't good teaching or parenting, in my opinion.
DeleteThe drills related to atomic blasts involved going out into the hallway and lining up along the walls, then kneeling and covering our heads. Those are similar to tornado drills where kids avoid windows and go an interior space that might still be standing after a storm. Earthquake drills consist of getting under the desk and cover one's head with hands. That is to provide cover from falling objects (particle board from suspended ceilings) and broken glass, not explosions. It was called a drop drill and they didn't explain anything beyond saying it was "in case of emergency". Fire drills consisted of lining up by the door and walking out of the building to a designated area. We had a similar plan the entire years I taught college, and no one ever mentioned atomic blasts the entire duration of my career. We did have plans for shooters and our earthquake disaster survival plan was to use the on-campus restaurant's facilities to slaughter and cook the Agriculture Department's cattle, given that roads become impassable after a major quake in CA. Other areas no doubt had their own natural disasters and plans. That doesn't make the disasters sufficiently likely to obsess over.
DeleteNone of these drills would be any help against an actual nuclear bomb.
DeleteIs back then in the early 60's for you? Cause it was for me and we sure as shit knew putting our head between our knees would not help one fucking bit in a nuclear blast.
DeleteIt is in the mid 50s. People were worrying about Rachel Carson and silent spring in the 60s.
DeleteI remember riding my bike on my paper route during the Cuban Missile Crisis and wondering whether I would be alive in 24 hours' time.
ReplyDeleteDid it not occur to you that your parents wouldn't send you out to deliver papers if there were an imminent danger of an atomic blast? Mine would have shown me where Cuba was on a map, and then explained that missiles cannot reach from there to CA, or something similarly reassuring, perhaps telling me that the adults in the room would work things out before there was any danger of that happening. Who deliberately frightens kids? Republican parents? Histrionic parents? Military parents? Who?
DeleteMaybe it depends on whether your family had a TV or not, and how often it was tuned to a news station?
DeleteI remember the Cuban Missile Crisis. Profs at the u of Chicago who knew a lot more than me were pretty frightened. The fear was that the crisis could precipitate a nuclear war between us and the USSR.
Delete5:19 - The missiles we were worried about were coming from Russia and Russian planes. And we figured the entire city of Sacramento would be reduced to radioactive glass.
DeleteAnd it wasn't just my parents. Everybody felt the same way. It was common knowledge that in a nuclear war, the air force base would be a prime target and the entire city would be incinerated.
That may be so, but it doesn't mean you can generalize your experience beyond that base. Most people in CA do not live near air force or any military bases.
DeleteDavid seems to have been older during the missile crisis, if he was in college. Not a child.
Covid was very scary too. There are people who are still afraid of dying in a pandemic. Covid had much more impact on every day people, who were actually dying, not just threatened. My husband and my next door neighbor both died in 2020. That is a realistic fear. The fear of atomic war is unrealistic because (1) there were strong efforts being made to prevent it, (2) the weapons themselves were localized not global and thus depended on where you were, (3) the idea of the whole world blowing up if one bomb went off accidentally was contradicted by the bomb tests, which produced neither consequence despite setting off bombs in both the US desert and on remote islands, (4) arguably, the threat posed by the weapons motivated greater diplomatic efforts and a decrease in hostilities, preventing world wars for a long time, (5) those world wars were considerably more destructive than the threats of atomic war ever were.
People tend to maximize their fears of events like nuclear war while minimizes other threats that people lived with daily and that were both more likely and more devastating. Look at Wilma Rudolph's scarlet fever, pneumonia and polio in a time when there were no cures for childhood illnesses and much higher child mortality. Our current longevity is the result of technological changes in medicine and health and nutrition. We were kept in during the summer, not allowed to swim in public pools because of fear of polio. Fear of syphillis was real before penicillin was available to treat it. Starvation used to be widespread in our economy before the War on Poverty and the safety net for poor people. Men feared being unable to provide for their families by being fired or injured on a job. It prevented them from marrying until they were financially secure. Cars were more dangerous, another real fear, as were fires. We are on the brink now of curing cancer (or were until Trump intervened), something all people my age fear, with good reason.
If people displaced the uncertainties and anxieties of their lives onto atomic catastrophe that may have been a coping mechanism in a time period full of more likely dangers. Somerby romanticization of nuclear threat strikes me as silly because we didn't experience it growing up. Maybe he did, but that wouldn't make a memory a hockey game significant and I don't understand why he raised that in this time when there are real things to talk about. He makes about as much sense as when Trump talks about Hannibal Lecter or megnets that don't work under water (neither of those is real).
I don’t know what the hell you are talking about. Thermonuclear war was and remains the biggest threat to humanity. Einstein said , "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones"
DeleteWWIII if you want to call it that, is currently being fought with missiles, not nuclear weapons. Don't forget, Chernobyl exploded and did limited damage. Just because Einstein knew physics doesn't mean he understood how bombs work, much less how diplomacy and politics work. Histrionic statements do nobody any good.
DeleteThe biggest threat to humanity is global warming. It is already affecting people's lives. It is not hypothetical like WWIII or WWIV. If you want to worry about something, chose something you can do something about. Donate to environmental causes, stop wasting resources and buy an EV. Support politicians who will vote in favor of solar and wind. Get busy saving our planet from real threats.
"Somerby romanticization of nuclear threat"
DeleteBelieve me, he wasn't "romantizing" the threat. We had regular drills, signaled by a loud horn, teaching us to duck and cover. Many people where I lived built "bomb shelters" underneath their houses. I guess you youngsters have no idea, and thank god for that.
Chernobyl meltdown was not equivalent to a nuclear war.
DeleteYes, it was. It was just not delivered via a missile. Early nuclear bomb tests exploded from platforms, not delivered from the air. The idea that if one bomb goes off, then bombs will explode all over the world, all at once, is movie fiction. The supervolcano in Yellowstone is more likely to explode than any nuclear weapon anywhere in the world, much less all of them.
DeleteThe threat of nuclear war did not end. Those weapons remain in place. We have a madman with his finger on the button.
DeleteThe fear is a nuclear exchange - major cities all targeted simultaneously. What the hell is the matter with you? Nothing like Chernobyl which was certainly bad enough
DeleteOf course Somerby is romanticizing nuclear threat. He has conflated it with a 15 year old girl and a memorable hockey match and Wilma Rudolph winning a race. None of that has anything to do with bombs. Somerby is composing a yellowed photo of his past and using it to argue some vague point about doing away with the State of the Union address because Trump is sneak-attacking Iran and pretending it is OK.
DeleteWhen some guy, even an asshole like Somerby, suggests doing away with democratic institutions designed to protect the people from acts like Trump's, I sit up and take notice. Guff about Wilma Rudolph does not disguise Somerby's intent.
I want Congress to impeach Trump for disregarding the checks and balances of our Constitution. I don't care whether Somerby cheered for the US hockey team over Canada. I care that Congress has let Trump put us into a war we shouldn't have started and is doing nothing about it. It is their job to control their monster.
7:35, sorry, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Chernobyl was not a thermonuclear explosion
DeleteIt was a meltdown of the radioactive core that released radiation into the surrounding environment, much as a thermonuclear explosion would do if a limited nuclear weapon were deployed. What's your point? Mine is that such an event did not destroy the planet.
DeleteAnother guy on the autism spectrum who wants all the details to be exact or he can't think about something.
DeleteSorry, but nobody ever claimed a meltdown at one power plant would destroy the planet. All out thermonuclear war would cause billions of deaths and casualties. What the fuck is wrong with you? The events are not comparable, jackass.
Delete10:29, to be honest, you are really scaring the fuck out of me. It makes me think the younger generation is totally ignorant of the danger to the planet from these weapons. Elections throughout the latter 20th century were always concerned with controlling and reducing nuclear arms race. You talk like it was all a fucking game.
DeleteStart here:
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Atomic-Bomb-Richard-Rhodes/dp/1451677618/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1VX5LY1ME8Z1U&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.zhLg7ZOzrBZs0FaOc_98319C_iXOJtudvBg1wP99vDasmJ7Nq6JuM90X6Z2i_XPX5eUK8-hNvNd48DOCJ-I6zvL1MK_lb1gnh0E5oYE8stqni1I5rSk6EEZ7RXpn5QfRMgMO7QH5BuhnHWU26Q4Fn4Za-UpLII6iNBJlv_Y6ZsYHZTTlnoRYPVxK_txaBEP_Qabx86CD-2KjCLgWAzWnFlgTaWMe6AmaKLnZ1pAGiB-r8R-ZNY02JrKlQQye8C2JtH2GhGDth5Fv6JbI-wsUEvXZRsrd8klKfHa4RnuHvDc.vyfiX28OqDfDSP29qReUwqFow9Yz6kt6SQLpa9ZT0M8&dib_tag=se&keywords=richard+rhodes+books&qid=1772982044&sprefix=richard+rhodes%2Caps%2C1866&sr=8-3
Covid did more damage to the planet than nuclear weapons have ever done. That is because no one is stupid enough to use them. That is true of many kinds of weapons today, and of many other stupid choices that could be made by our leaders. It is better to elect good leaders than to try to eliminate all possible weapons from the world.
DeleteSomeday the sun will go out, or our planet will change orbit to be too close to the sun to sustain life as we know it. Shall I worry about that eventuality too? There are many more problems already occurring that need our attention. Doomsaying is self-indulgent hysteria that distracts from the real practical things that can be done to improve life on our planet. I grew up with assholes screeching about doom and I have seen us move away from war and force and toward diplomacy and rationality. Trump is an aberration who will grow old and die without blowing up the planet.
Scaring people is generally unhelpful in any situation.
DeleteTrump is an aberration with his finger on nuclear Armageddon. Nuclear stockpiles remain. They form the basis for M.A.D. Policy- mutual assured destruction. Your cavalier attitude towards this matter is really fucked up
DeleteDoomsaying is fucked up. It robs people of their confidence in the future and hope. Trump is not going to blow up the world. It is not cavalier to say so -- it is realistic. He has dementia but he is not self-destructive. Wallowing in the possibility of nuclear holocaust is a cheap thrill.
DeleteDid I say Trump was going to blow up the world? Fuck you
DeleteWho else would do it? Not us.
DeleteHe isn't planning on blowing up the world, but you know that the creep is itching to drop just one, maybe a baby tactical nuke just to show who is boss. And that will lead us all to our deaths. Remember, everything that creep touches goes to shit. Every fucking thing.
DeleteYour idea that there will be a cascade of nukes used, despite everyone's fear of that possibility is surely wrong. No one has dropped a nuke up until now because of that respect for their destructive capabilities. Trump is crazy. That doesn't mean the rest of the world is and would retaliate in kind.
DeleteThe dignified transfer of the remains of the six dead US servicemen today was made a little less dignified by the presence of Trump wearing a ball cap.
ReplyDeleteTrump is the opposite of dignified.
DeleteThank you!
DeleteBut Hector, you can buy that same cap - the one Trump wore while saluting those fallen heroes - for only $55.00 at the Trump Store! Hurry! Get your patriotic merch now - while supplies last - and prove to the entire world that you love Trump and the USA!
DeleteDG, don't you believe that the sacrifice made by military men and women deserves honor? It is part of the president's job to treat that sacrifice with respect, contact the families of the fallen and thank them for their service. This is another way in which Trump neglects his job and shows his incompetence. I don't get why you think sarcasm is an appropriate response in this situation.
DeleteI apologize that my bitter sarcasm offends your tender sensibilities.
DeleteIf have something to say, say it directly so that you don't confuse your readers. That is how real people talk. Teens use sarcasm because they are powerless and must disguise their intentions. Adults speak directly and don't hide behind ambiguity.
DeleteIf you have something to say -- word omitted, sorry.
DeleteOK, I'll be direct: Both teens and adults frequently use satire and sarcasm for the purpose of mocking. If you were confused and thought I was seriously shilling Trump merch, then I fear that you may have a reading comprehension problem.
DeleteTeens use sarcasm because, developmentally, they have just discovered that meaning can be conveyed by tone of voice and body language not just words. It is called monitoring multiple channels of meaning at the same time. Then they grow up.
DeleteAs I have explained here before, the tone of voice and body language channels are not present in words on a page, as they are in face-to-face communication. That means the author must signal in some way that they are present in his intended language. When you don't do that, there is ambiguity, especially when you intend sarcasm but don't tell readers so.
I thought you were defending Trump's actions by suggesting it is OK to wear such merch to a funeral, much less one in which the president is respecting fallen military. It is not a "reading comprehension problem" when you leave out the clues that would suggest you meant the opposite. YOU assume we consider you anti-Trump. That isn't obvious in much of what you write here, so WE do not have that assumption about you. It is better if you just tell people your intentions instead of leaving everyone to guess based on some external assumption not present in what you wrote.
Satire, like sarcasm, needs to be signaled by the author. I was taught that in English Composition 101 because young people just out of high school so frequently make the mistake of thinking everyone knows that you are snarking when internet readers don't know you from Adam.
It is easy enough to use something like /s (end sarcasm) to show your intentions, or snark off, or a phrase like "seriously" or "not to be snarky" to indicate when you are switching to your actual opinion. When you exaggerate in a sarcastic or satirical manner, there is currently no amount of exaggeration that will be beyond what is being written seriously at right wing websites. If there were never any right wing trolls here, then the contrast might signal your intent, but we have some very ridiculous people writing seriously here, including Somerby.
DG, I know you won't read what I just wrote and take it to heart, but I have to try. Take it or leave it. You make a fool of yourself when you expect people to understand things that you have not said.
DeleteFurther up thread , DG suggests that the blue tribe ignored aspects of Biden and his presidency and that this led to Trump’s win. That is a Somerby adjacent narrative. Many members of that tribe would argue that they were not represented by the selection process and thus cannot be held accountable for a democratic loss. I and many of my friends were not happy with Biden running and were not happy with the last minute decisions regarding replacing him. We are not represented well by the upper hierarchy of the Democratic Party. I am not a registered democrat for that reason. Infusions of new, younger blood into the democratic party, who pay better attention is necessary. That appears likely to happen.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, asshole. Steven Miller, RFK Jr., Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, King Orange Chickenshit, and the soon to be named next two Supreme Court justices replacing Alito and Thomas, thank you from the bottom of the depraved souls.
DeleteIf you are not a registered Democrat, you are not a Democrat.
DeleteAge, young or old, is not a qualification or disqualification for office (assuming adulthood). If you do not enthusiastically support the candidates, they are less likely to win.
The people who voted for Trump put him into office and they own what is happening now. The people who badmouthed Biden/Harris or didn't vote for Harris also put Trump into office and own what Trump has done. This isn't rocket science. People who voted for Harris tried to prevent Trump from taking office. If that wasn't you, then you are partly to blame for all of today's tragedies.
8:42 Dumbass. Reading for comprehension is not your thing apparently. I voted for the democratic candidate. Harris’s loss was on the democratic decision makers, not the liberals DG was blaming upstream was my point.
Delete10:27, congratulations, if you voted for Harris while whining like a baby about the selection process, you effectively suppressed support for the only alternative to electing a fascist and indirectly helped that fascist. We know trump won because of appalling low dem turnout for Harris. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what was responsible for the low turnout.
Delete10:23 Biden has stage 4 prostate cancer and undoubtedly had advanced cancer when he wanted to be president again despite prior reassurances that he was a one term president. Trump is cognitively impaired and going downhill mentally and physically. If you think age shouldn’t be a significant factor, you are part of the problem both parties ignored last election.
Delete10:27. Nice try dumbass. I voted for Harris and was vocal about her superiority. The selection process was flawed. If you want to ignore that you are part of the problem.
Deletegood for you, there were many who weren't so vocal and depressed the vote. everyone knows this
DeleteProstate cancer is common in old men, so common that it is not tested for or treated. And no, he didn't necessarily have it or know about it when he decided to head off Trump by running for another term, a year before being diagnosed. It does not affect cognition or any other aspect of performance as president, except peeing.
DeleteBiden was an old man the entire time he was president. He did an excellent job. There is no evidence that would have changed, nor any evidence Harris wouldn't do an excellent job had she been required to step in. That's why this concern about his age was manufactured to oppose one of our best presidents in modern history. Note that a year has passed and Biden is still giving speeches and living a normal life, not withering away in a hospital or assisted living or nursing home.
I would have preferred that Biden be younger too, as no doubt would he himself. But I put competence ahead of age when deciding who to support. Biden was extremely competent and did a good job. He deserved our thanks for how he helped us all during covid, not to be shoved aside the way things happened. That is an embarrassment to all of us, aided by Republicans and the Russians.
Biden won the primaries and the nomination fair and square. We don't interfere with the democratic process without undermining our system. It was wrong to do what some Democrats did by pushing him off his own ticket. If Biden got sick in office, so be it. We have a process for dealing with that. Instead, Pelosi and her bunch interfered and conducted a coup, and that encourages others such as Trump to do the same on a larger scale.
Biden stepped aside because his donors abandoned him. Donors have the right to pull their support, but this is another example of why campaigns shouldn't be dictated by monied interests.
DeleteUncle Vlad thanks you for your imbecility
DeleteBiden, just like Trump, is too physically diminished to be President. The fact based science and reason party replaced Biden. On the other hand the corrupt gangster party not so much. Pretty sure Trump is going to get us all killed. If he is dying, we all go with him. Sad.
DeleteThere have been several presidents who have died in office. That is about as physically diminished as you can get. One was FDR. Should he have been prevented from running because of his physically diminished health? Another was JFK, who had several serious health issues that were never disclosed to the public. That isn't what he died of, but should he have been prevented from running?
DeleteThe "Biden is too old" campaign is what diminished Biden, not his performance in office. We Democrats should learn to fight back against right wing dirty tricks, not agree with an succumb to them. There would be no war with Iran now, no tarrifs and economic catastrophe, no massive corruption, if Biden had been reelected, with or without prostate cancer.
Part of the difference today is that the media influences people's perceptions of our leaders. They must all be young and photogenic now, just like TV talk show hosts. That is how Trump gained office and look at the disaster he has been. I don't know how this media problem gets solved, but I do know that people need a better basis for choosing leaders. Trump chose Hegseth for his looks, same with Bondi and Noem. That is no basis for assessing who will be competent in office.
The world would have better off if Truman had has been President a little earlier instead of FDR. In his diminished state, FDR allowed the Soviet Union to gobble up half of Europe. That consigned several generations of people to live under communism.
Delete“Allowed”????, fuckface?
DeleteIt’s my opinion, for what it’s worth, that Biden was a very good president, but that he was a very bad candidate in 2024.
DeleteAnd Somerby warned us very early on that Biden was incapable of effectively campaigning for reelection. For that, Somerby got slimed by the usual suspects here as a tool of Putin.
DeleteBiden didn't get a chance to campaign in 2024, after winning the nomination via primaries. That makes Somerby's "prediction" worthless.
DeleteBiden did campaign. He was so awful at it that he convinced donors and leaders that the party would suffer an electoral apocalypse unless he stepped down.
DeleteBut, please, tell us again about how he had the sniffles.
I said that he had (1) jetlag, (2) a cold, (3) side effects from cold medication, (4) exhaustion, (5) limited debate prep time due to the demands of his office. Beyond that, he did not cope well with Trump's gish gallop and Trump's failure to address the questions asked. He did make coherent statements of his own, but did so with pauses to think and some of his usual stuttering and word-finding delays (common to all extemporaneous speakers who have not memorized responses).
DeleteAs I said before, those who read transcripts of his debate responses did not find them terrible and he made more sense than Trump. He should have canceled the debate, under the circumstances, but there are costs to doing that too, as people would conclude he was sick. So it was a lose-lose choice.
None of that was indicative of "cognitive decline" or dementia or inability to campaign. It was a bad debate and that's all. Biden subsequently showed on numerous occasions that he could function in giving speeches (such as the SOTU shortly thereafter) and speaking off the cuff. If he were "unable to campaign" those follow-on appearances would not have been possible, but they were.
Following the debate, Republicans and Democrats piled on and made it clear they didn't want him to run. Their reasons for doing that had very little to do with whether Biden could campaign or whether he was doing his job well. His trip was to negotiate a ceasefire with Israel, which Trump asked Netanyahu to blow up.
Many politicians have the welfare of our nation at heart and care about the well-being of people, especially those struggling or in need. Trump is not such a person. He didn't care about prolonging conflicts as long as he benefitted from hobbling Biden's success. The same applies to the border legislation negotiated with Congress by Biden, that Trump demanded that Republicans not pass even after it was negotiated to their satisfaction. Trump hurt people affected in order to advance his own self-interest. This is closely similar to the way Reagan negotiated with Iran to prevent them from releasing the hostages during Jimmy Carter's term. In contrast, Biden did things to help people, not hurt them, as Trump has done.
Reducing Biden's overwork to "the sniffles" is demeaning to his effort. It is not something actual Democrats would be likely to say about someone they like and support. But you are derogatory even now toward one of our best presidents. That makes you either an asshole, or a liar about your affiliation, or both.
Too bad your facts about Biden's health didn't mean shit. The billionaire control!ed press was not going to allow him to win under any circumstances. But I agree with you. I went on a barnstorming European sales trip, six countries in four days. The last meeting one of our crew lost his shit, and he was around 45 y.o. Just random mumbling of talking points in no order, half inaudible. Nobody knew what to do as he was the big boss man, so we let him go on.
Delete"Reducing Biden's overwork to 'the sniffles' is demeaning to his effort."
DeleteNo, you obviously miss my point. I'm not demeaning Biden's effort because he can't help his age-related cognitive decline. What I was demeaning was your sorry effort to rationalize away his decline.
But look - you think I'm an asshole and a fraud, I think you're a nutball, so I don't see any prospect for any meaningful exchange here.
You have provided no evidence of any cognitive decline. Obama had a bad debate and he was young. Same with Richard Nixon. You have no proven your case with evidence, just assertions.
DeleteThis is science. You don't get to accept your preferred conclusion when there is an alternative explanation you have not addressed.
Delete"here are your heroes of the day: the activists who put up signs along a Rt. 4 overpass in Paramus, NJ, that read ‘WAR CRIMES DON’T HIDE SEX CRIMES.’"
ReplyDeleteSo king Orange chickenshit lit up Iran fuel depot like a Roman candle last night because fuck you, what are you going to do about it
ReplyDelete@11:34 - Please don't pretend that the US and Israeli attacks are for no reason. Are you not aware that Iran and its proxies have been attacking and killing Israelis and the Americans ever since 1979? Did you somehow miss the atrocities of Oct 7? Did it bother you when the evil Iranian regime murdered 3200 of their people a few weeks ago?
DeleteKing Orange Chickenshit campaigned explicitly on not doing precisely what he is doing now. Go fuck yourself Zionist bastard.
Delete@12:47 - Can you supply a link showing that candidate Trump promised not to attack Iran? My memory is that candidate Trump pledged that Iran would never have nuclear weapons.
DeleteAI supports my memory
DeleteTrump has asserted "Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon" no fewer than 40 times during his public addresses and campaign events leading up to and during 2024.
For example, he stated, “Nuclear weapons are the greatest single threat to our country, but to the entire world” on November 3, 2024, reinforcing his condemnation of Iran's nuclear ambitions.
And fuckface, who the fuck is claiming without any evidence that they were close to developing a nuclear weapon?
DeleteAre we supposed to believe Jared the Saudi billionaire?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteUh @1:03 the Iranian negotiators are the ones who claimed that they were close to developing a nuclear weapon. They said that Iran possesses about 460 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium, which they claimed could potentially be utilized to produce 11 nuclear bombs. Both Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner confirmed this statement.
DeleteThat is a fu king lie, dickface
DeleteAh, so we are supposed to believe the son-in-law slumlord nuclear negotiator? You are a fu king riot, dickface
DeleteIf you don't believe two respected diplomats, then what to you believe? Do you simply believe whatever makes you feel good?
DeleteWhen was Jared the Saudi billionaire ever confirmed as a diplomat, fuckface?
DeleteThis is where the problem that Trump is a lying sack of shit comes to play, dickface
Deletenegotiator
Deletenoun
-- One who negotiates; a person who treats with others, either as principal or agent, in respect to purchase and sale, or public or private compacts.
-- One who negotiates.
Apologize for repeating, but @1:45, how do you decide what to believe?
DeleteYou’re an asshole, dickhead. The son-in-law who promised never to involve himself in nation’s foreign affairs after he took $2 billion from the Saudis? And you give me a fucking definition?
DeleteApologize for repeating, but @1:57, how do you decide what to believe?
DeleteNeither Witkoff nor Kushner has any training or experience as a diplomat. That is a job title, a position in the foreign service. Watch the TV show "The Diplomat" to see the nuances involved, well captured even though the show is fiction. Trump routinely appoints unqualified people to real jobs because he doesn't understand what is involved and because his main criteria are loyalty and lack of scruples, since he uses such positions to "negotiate" corrupt deals and extort money via threats. These men are not actually performing the roles of diplomat but acting as Trump's bagmen while skimming off money for themselves. They may also be communicating messages from Trump to those they visit with.
DeleteTrump is a lying sack of shit. Any "deal" negotiated on Trump's behalf or by Trump will not be honored by Trump. He routinely stiffs his contractors and abrogates treaties and changes previously negotiated tariffs at will. No one can trust him and by extension no one can trust Witkoff or Kushner either.
My memory is that President Trump pledged that Iran's nuclear weapons programs were "obliterated" seven months ago you duplicitous lying sack of puss David. Go fuck yourself u Nazi bitch.
DeleteWhat a creep David is, "could potentially" is your proof of concept you dumb Nazi bitch.
DeleteSomething Does Smell Bad
ReplyDelete“War is ugly. It smells bad. And if anybody has ever been there and been able to smell the war that’s happening around you and taste it, and feel it in your nostrils, and hear it, it’s something that you’ll never forget. And it’s ugly.”
- Sen. Markwayne Mullin, to Fox News 3/2/26.
Mullin has never served in the armed forces.
"In the last 24 hours the US-Israeli campaign has begun attacking the energy infrastructure in Iran - as Putin has done in Ukraine - endangering the health of tens of millions of Iranians [via inhalation of poisonous gases].
DeleteI guess that may "smell bad."
Bad as Mullin may be, he can't be as bad as Noem. I thought she would be incompetent, but she was actually harmful
DeleteIMO Bush made a mistake when he created the Department of Homeland Security. There were coordination problems, but adding yet another level of management was not the best way to fix them.
What is the Secretary of Homeland Security going to add? Ideally the person should be an expert in all the areas under his/her responsibility. But, Noem, like others in that position, was expert in none of them.
'Pocahontas' for Thee, but not for Me?
Delete"Mullin is a member of the Cherokee Nation, according to his Senate biography..."
"WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Since being nominated to replace Kristi Noem as head of DHS on Thursday, Senator Markwayne Mullin has suddenly found himself romantically linked to her former chief of staff, Corey Lewandowski.
DeleteAfter receiving a barrage of late-night texts from Lewandowski, a flustered Mullin reportedly told associates, “This isn’t what I signed up for.”
At the White House, Donald J. Trump said that Mullin needs to give the relationship with Lewandowski “some time,” adding, “Corey can be a little rough around the edges, but Markwayne will learn to love him.”
Borowitz Report
Why is this funny?
DeleteBecause the married Noem was banging the married Lewandowski in a special plan equipped with a bed on the taxpayers' dime. The joke is that Mullin will also have to bang the married Lewandowski in a special plan equipped with a bed on the taxpayers' dime.
DeleteNow do you get it?
plane not plan
DeleteNoem incompetence
DeleteA former Trump administration official wasted millions of taxpayer dollars given to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to purchase thousands of employee vehicles that the agency cannot use to arrest illegal immigrants, according to three sources.
ICE’s top brass are quietly searching for a way to amend the remainder of a massive order of pick-up trucks and SUVs that were ordered last year and slated to be wrapped with the agency’s name, logo, and motto, as well as storing away many vehicles that have been delivered to ICE facilities across the country, the Washington Examiner has learned.
Why can't they be used?
DeleteDon't waste your time explaining, the idiot bloodthirsty Nazi David has no sense of humor whatsoever.
DeleteFinally found something in agreement with Trump (from US Today):
ReplyDelete" ... Without comment, the president shared multiple news articles covering his previous remarks slamming [Bill] Maher as a jerk...."
https://katemanne.substack.com/p/the-story-trumps-war-is-meant-to
ReplyDeleteFrom Manne: "The allegations that Jeffrey Epstein drugged, abused, and raped a thirteen-year-old girl, before trafficking her to Trump, are explosive enough that Trump had to declare war to distract us from her testimony. And, unfortunately, it’s working. Don’t let it, by reading, sharing, restacking, and retweeting this story. I know it is incredibly hard material, but we need to bear witness. And Trump needs to be subpoenaed about this matter—and others—without delay."
It is astonishing that any president should be allowed to continue in office after being accused of the crimes against women and girls that Trump has been said to have committed. In two cases, that of E.J. Carroll and Stormy Daniels, Trump has been convicted by juries and adjudged to be a sexual abuser. Why are these FBI files containing allegations of sexual assault being ignored by Congress? Why has Trump not been deposed, much less impeached.
The president does not have immunity for crimes committed before he took office. He does not have the right to remain as president after treating women and girls in this way. His relationship to Epstein is clear and there is overwhelming evidence of his collusions with Epstein and Maxwell. Trump must be held accountable. That means he must be impeached by Congress and removed from office.
And where is Somerby's outrage? Why does he allow himself to be distracted, not by war but by memories of track meets and hockey games? This is a man who says he cares about children, ignoring the acts of a serial sexual abuser who is pretending to be president. This must stop!
Cancel your subscription.
Delete