MONDAY, JUNE 22, 2026
Did he possibly get it right? This morning, we posted some of the lowlights of Saturday morning's three-headed review of the Obama Presidential Center.
We refer to the screeching, screaming, gong-show behavior of the three co-hosts of the Fox & Friends Weekend program. We're inclined to think that Griff Jenkins knows better. The other two, not so much.
In fairness, no one was pictured as an ape this day. No one said that Michelle Obama is a man, or that Barack Obama is gay.
One extremely strange star in the channel's prime time lineup toys with the latter two themes on a semi-regular basis, but no one did that on Fox & Friends Weekend this week.
On the other hand, the dim-witted messaging flowed like the waters of a mighty stream. As we showed you this morning, eternal teen-ager Charlie Hurt was soon dishing this:
JENKINS: ...President Obama's Presidential Center, which opened up on the South Side of Chicago, has been panned as a bit of an ugly structure.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: It would have been like a death star—
JENKINS: What do you call it?
CAMPOS-DUFFY: I call it the North Korean watchtower. Charlie likes to call it a garbage can.
HURT: It does, because it looks like a public park, and it's in a public park. So it looks like one of those trash cans in a public park. You just walk in and shove your entire, all your McDonald's garbage, like right through the panel and then you just drop it.
It looks like a place where you'd shove all your garbage! All in all, it can sometimes seem like it's "garbage in, garbage out" on this tribal messaging program.
As we noted, some or most architecture critics—not all—have panned the external design of the center's main building. But on Fox & Friends Weekend, when Barack Obama's name is mentioned, the Fox News Channel "conservative insult culture" is likely to take instant hold.
The new building looks like a trash can, Hurt later said.
Again—no one was called an ape, and no one was called a man! Also, is it possible that Charlie Hurt—screaming and yelling, as you can easily see—was actually noting a questionable part of the Blue American political playbook when he screamed and screeched in the manner shown below?
JENKINS (6/20/26): You know, it's interesting, by the way—the whole ceremony began with Valerie Jarrett, Obama's senior adviser, and she started the whole ceremony by recognizing stolen land.
Charlie?
HURT (shouting): Why'd they build it there, then, if it's on stolen land? Give it baaaack! [Briefly inaudible] the building is already there! And you can't tear the building down!
You literally built it on land that you're crying about being stolen! Give it baaaaaack!
And so on from there. It was quite a "journalistic" performance.
The co-host was unmistakably screeching. It ought to be a national emergency when news clowns behave like that on major "cable news" shows. On the other hand, is it possible that Hurt might be arguably possibly somewhat right?
We noticed several analysts cringe when Jarrett delivered the "land acknowledgement." They told us that "land acknowledgements" are empty gestures performed in bad faith from which there's only one result:
Every time we Blues deliver a land acknowledgement, these fiery young analysts cried, another ten thousand Trump voters are said to get their wings,
We'll admit that we were surprised to see Jarrfett deliver the acknowledgment. We'd like to see more attention paid to the histories and the present circumstances of indigenous / native / first people tribes.
That said, these gestures do strike us as blatantly phony, pretty much all the way down. "You can only imagine how these gestures look to Others," one young analyst cried.
The friends seemed to think that the youngster was right! Hurt screeched and screamed as he and Campos-Duffy mocked the gesture.
Could it be that we the Blues sometimes defeat ourselves?
The key for "the Blues" is to never say anything that might somehow be construed as an affront to the sensibilities of straight white people, who are presumably so empty-headed and easily triggered that they'll jump into Trump's lap to punish said affront.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, far-right parties are gaining traction throughout the Western world, even in places where they have no "indigenous populations" or "stolen lands" to use as an excuse.
The only people who would think twice about that comment are old fucking people in the Fox/Pantshitter cult. No minds are changed. Somerby is getting tired in his old age.
DeleteHere’s the incongruity of Somerby: if we “blues” fail to discuss Gutfeld’s latest misogynistic pronouncements, that means we “blues” tolerate said misogyny.* But if we note and call out the obvious racism going on, that’s bad and offends right wingers. It looks like some sort of double standard.
ReplyDelete*Talarico was all over MSNOW responding to charges he is “effeminate”; also, the “Michelle Obama is a man” comment was also dealt with by, among others, Warnock. But damn, he might have said something about “racism” during the course of that interview, so I guess he is or will be contributing to our election problems.
Land recognition statements are not empty gestures performed in bad faith by those who care about getting along with indigenous people, which includes all of us who live in states with large Indian populations, tribes with recognized rights, and places with a history of past atrocities. For us, those statements are routine but they are also important to all of us.
ReplyDeleteThis is the inclusivity part of DEI. It recognizes that we wouldn't be able to build presidential libraries on Chicago land had there not been a sacrifice by the original occupants (residents) of that land. When I lived in Chicago, I lived in Uptown. There was a nearby urban Indian center for those members of the local tribes who were living in the city instead of on their reservation. They were part of the community in that neighborhood. The center helped relocating Indians find jobs and provided a support system for those who were away from their families.
Right wingers may not see indigenous people as real people, descendents of those killed in Indian wars by men like Sherman (the name of a street in Chicago), just as Obama represents black people descended from slaves brought from Africa to America to work on plantations, ultimately fleeing their enslavement and moving to Chicago to avoid Jim Crow laws and find jobs,. Chicago works as a major city because it respects and includes all people regardless of ethnicity and national origin (Polish, German, Greek, Irish, Hispanics settling out of the migrant farmworking stream).
Somerby's fatuous conceit that these land ceremonies are "performative" reflects the poverty of his own view of America as a land of many people, built by many hands. For some of us, that land ceremony is a reassurance by our local Indian tribes that we are forgiven and invited to participate upon the land as part of a collective. We don't sleep through such ceremonies, the way Trump sleeps through everything important to our nation these days. Somerby's vague attempt to mock the ceremony shows disrespect for Indians but also those who care about our history together. Not only do many Western states perform such ceremonies, but so does Canada.
Somerby has perhaps never been to South Dakota, where Lakota are an important constituency. Land ceremonies are not "phony" there.
DeleteTrump is trying to kill off the American bison by removing them from public lands, despite their being indigenous wildlife tied closely to Indian culture, so maybe he thinks indigenous people shouldn't live either, but that is just another reason why these right wingers are truly awful.
What I don't get is why Somerby sides with them. His attitude toward a sincere expression of gratitude to Indians for our use of the land, strikes me as selfish, ignorant, and piggish. Projecting that attitude onto the rest of us who experience these ceremonies routinely where we live, calling us phony, shows that Somerby is not much of a liberal and definitely more of an asshole.
Would Somerby walk into a Catholic church and call the people at that service a bunch of phonies, suggesting that they don't actually believe the liturgy? I get it that Somerby has no respect himself, but would that justify the kind of behavior he is showing here? This is wrong, the ugly side of right wing behavior. If they don't believe it, it is not worth believing, Somerby seems to be saying.
"You can only imagine how these gestures look to Others," one young analyst cried."
Delete@6:08 suggests how Somerby and his analysts look to real Democrats and liberals and progressives, not to mention indigenous people (who may be Republicans or Democrats).
The so-called Others show no empathy or understanding for other people. Somerby demands that we care about how we look to them, yet they never care how they look to us. Those Others are the ones the rest of us are going around apologizing for.
Look how Trump treated Meloni and the Italian people this past week. His behavior should have embarrassed The Others and they should have issued apologies for his lies and disparagement of their Prime Minister.
That land recognition ceremony is needed because of the past misbehavior like today's Others. The Others don't appreciate the use of the land and they don't appreciate that the rest of us must apologize for their mistakes either. So why does Somerby say we must worry even the slightest amount about how we look to them. They don't deserve such consideration.
I am going to take the commenters suggestions though and consider every real-life dumpster to be a symbolic representation of the right wing and its contribution to our society. I finally get it that Trump has been throwing away the silverware so that right wingers doing their dumpster diving don't have to eat with their fingers. But I say, fingers are good enough for Others. They wouldn't know what to do with plastic forks much less silver.
Is Somerby aware that Mary Peltola, running for Senate in Alaska after serving as U.S. Representative in Congress, is herself native American? She is highly likely to win and add to the senate Democrats. How do you suppose she feels about the land ceremony?
Delete"Born Mary Sattler, Peltola is Yup'ik from the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta in Western Alaska.[11][12] She was born in Anchorage on August 31, 1973.[13][14] Her Yup'ik name is Akalleq (transl. the one who rolled).[15][16] Peltola's father, Ward Sattler, a German-American from Nebraska, moved to Alaska to work as a pilot and teacher.[17][18] Her mother, Elizabeth "LizAnn" Piicigaq Williams, is Yup'ik from Kwethluk."
Or do only Christians count? Is Somerby ready to say that?
Bob, you're barely scraping the surface of the mockery that the Obama Presidential Liberal is generating for us Reds. Here's a couple of headlines from the Babylon Bee that are worth a chuckle:
ReplyDeleteObama Library Cruelly Disenfranchises Millions Of Black Americans By Requiring Photo ID For Entry
'Now Witness The Firepower Of This Fully Armed And Operational Battle Station,' Cackles Obama
Next time you visit Chicago, take the Architectural Boat Tour. They will fill you in on the history of the buildings along the Chicago river and explain the innovations and changes in styles across time.
DeleteI have friends who walk through a Modern Art museum and comment that they could have made the exhibits themselves, with no sense of what the artists are expressing or the skill involved in a work that only seems odd to them. That is a sign of ignorance, not taste. The same is true of Obama's new library. If those on the right do not appreciate the architect's intentions and vision, that is on them.
Who else called modern art degenerate? Hitler. So you right wingers are marching in goose-step formation with these jabs at Obama's building.
This idea that the building looks like a Death Star ignores that it is not round, has writing on the outside, is building-colored not gray, is not in outer space, has no weapons, and is not symmetrical in shape. So, you guys don't really care about any similarities or lack of them, but just engage in name-calling. Trump doesn't even know who the good guys and the bad guys are in Star Wars, given that he created a meme of himself with the wrong colored light sabre.
Morons laughing at each other's moronic jokes are about the speed on the right. You guys probably think Obama's library is full of books.
You "Reds" mock everything. Harris' "cackle." Hillary's "cackle" (see a pattern?) Biden's age. Obama's name. His wife's alleged true gender. If it's not there, your media masters invent something and you "Reds" go along with it. Because most of your movement, such as it is, is purely negative, and offers no positive agenda the majority can see is in its best interests. So you substitute mockery for substance.
DeleteShouldn't Somerby be providing a better education for his analysts, or is he selecting them for their ignorance?
ReplyDeleteI am making a good salary from home $4580-$5240/week , which is amazing under a year ago I was jobless in a horrible economy. I thank God every day I was blessed with these instructions and now its my duty to pay it forward and share it with Everyone,
ReplyDeleteHere is I started_______ Homeprofit1.site
Somerby needs to moderate his blog properly to remove this kind of spam.
DeleteThere is a very large Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota, carve out of a mountain like Mt. Rushmore. It is not yet finished but attracts many tourists.
ReplyDeletehttps://crazyhorsememorial.org/
If Trump were not senile, he would recognize that it is more powerful to be the only face on a mountain, like Crazy Horse, than to be crammed together into a limited space, like the four American presidents that Trump is itching to join. Crazy Horse was a great warrior and leader of his people. That's why he gets his own mountain. Trump can't even get the algae out of reflecting pond, after spending half the national treasury to do so.
There is no workable rock for dumbos' face on Rushmore. Also too, many people don't know there is a "b" in dumb, because they are dummy Repukkklicans.
DeleteThe stringy majestic glory of his combover alone would require half a mountain to capture.
DeleteBob is right: land acknowledgements are performative and phony. However, most of them are delivered at events where few potential Red/MAGA voters are to be found, so the analysts should take that to heart.
ReplyDeleteYes, history should be taught without whitewashing any transgressions by the early US governments. Improving the lives of native American population should be part of the umbrella of policies to improve everyone's lives.
Phony to you because you don’t care. I think UFC and World Cup is phony because I don’t follow sports. But I don’t rain on others’ parades. Why must you?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteWorld cup is a multi-team soccer (football) competition. There's nothing phony about it; teams actually compete. I don't understand your comparison.
DeleteIt's phony because there's zero impact behind the words. They drive no initiative. They are not directed at anyone to whom they would be meaningful.
It's a minor annoyance that I have to listen to this recitation every time I go to see a play. It's fine. Let's just no kid ourselves that there's any substance behind these words.
Holocaust remembrances are performative and phony.
DeleteDiscuss.
Obviously none for you but you are not everyone else.
DeleteResponding to @8:22
DeleteThere is nothing more performative than playing that silly National Anthem at sporting events.
DeleteThat's right. Democrats should only make public statements that Republicans can't mock in any way, ever.
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't Somerby mention what is happening at his hometown Baltimore Sun?
ReplyDeleteWe don't need more dark money in national politics. Unlimited amounts can be directed to specific campaigns via PACs made legal under the Citizens United court decision. The money is being directed based on what benefits Open AI, Anthropic, and data centers, not along traditional partisan lines. That makes it more difficult to predict the impact of this flood of high tech money:
ReplyDelete"“In congressional races across the country, a new crop of super PACs is taking to the air with millions of dollars’ worth of advertisements to sway voters,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“The super PACs have nondescript names — such as Jobs and Democracy PAC and American Mission — and the text is so generic that it almost seems to have been created by artificial intelligence.”
“That isn’t so far off the mark. The AI industry has funded the ads.”
Somerby is such a putz.
ReplyDeleteDigby lists the top 5 American Icons listed by a poll: 1) Abraham Lincoln, 2) Martin Luther King Jr., 3) John F. Kennedy, 4) George Washington, 5) Barack Obama.
ReplyDeleteWhat does this say about the importance of civil rights in American history? Nothing consistent with Somerby's message here.
The top 5 moments that make Americans proud are: (1) the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights; (2) the abolition of slavery; (3) the expansion of voting rights to include women and Americans of color; (4) the civil rights movement; (5) firefighters and first responders on 9/11.
https://digbysblog.net/2026/06/22/its-not-all-about-money/
1/6 does not appear on the list at all.
All these people are safely out of power. MLK was despised by the majority of the public (something like a 75% disapproval rating at the time of his assassination), and it took several years for him to become widely accepted as a hero. It's easy to look back on what has been done and say "That was pretty good," but people are frightened by and resistant to the prospect of change when it's staring them in the face. Obamacare lost the Democrats a lot of votes; now it's popular enough that even the kleptoGOP is careful about how much they screw it up. Human nature is a short-sighted and dangerous thing.
DeleteBy what logic does a land acknowledgment cause anyone to vote for Trump, much less tens of thousands? Do people despise native Americans? Do conservatives despise them? If so, why? Is honoring native Americans solely a liberal thing? How is it offensive to anyone? Somerby is being abjectly ridiculous.
ReplyDelete“You can only imagine how these gestures look to Others”
ReplyDeleteDon’t need to imagine it. The Others share their hateful outlook quite publicly.
I can guess how my support for gay and trans people must look to Others. Actually, I don’t need to guess because they loudly and viciously attack gay and trans people. But so what? fuck that. Should I give up my support? I don’t think so.
"Could it be that we blues sometimes defeat ourselves?"
ReplyDeleteI don't know, why don't you tell us, Bob? Maybe you need to give it a little more thought before you can issue a declarative statement about it. You're not part of my clan, so I won't speak for you, but I for one do not give a flying shit whether some Trump loving knuckle dragging nimrod likes the architecture or the ceremony or the prevailing weather in Chicago on the day of its unveiling. Maybe you should be less sensitive to these clowns and their demands that you conform to their sensibilities. Maybe take note of this: those who you posit will take offense to this event and run to their calendars to circle the next day that they can vote Republican do not exist. They are about as likely to turn their TV dial to anything with the name Obama attached to it as I am to watch a cage fight on the White House lawn. If they are watching Fox for their daily dose of disparagement towards anything acknowledging the legitimacy of muliculturalism, their so called minds were made up before they turned on the tube. Try to get that. There will never be a day in which something "we blues" do or say is not found to be offensive to them. So there will be no apologies and no silly thoughts about how to appease them. None.
After much deliberation, the decision was made to release the fanny burp.
ReplyDeleteHowever, right as I was going to release it, I was verbally challenged by the lady to a fanny duel.
My fanny howls daily...
ReplyDeleteMy Fanny's in Miami.
DeleteOne can only imagine how The Others react to seeing an 80-year-old liberal woman on their teevee screens.
ReplyDeleteOne can only imagine how The Others react to "us Blues" nominating a Harvard-educated black man to stand for president.
One can only imagine how The Others might perceive a statement that women and their doctors should make decisions about women's bodies--without any input at all from Bible-thumping red state elected officials.
One can only imagine how the voting public might respond if "us Blues" show some fortitude and stand up for what we believe.
We don't hold the Right accountable for the things they say and do, anymore than we hold any other two-year olds accountable for what they say and do.
ReplyDelete