WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 2026
...said Cali's elections were rigged: Is it just our own (imperfect) first impression? Or have the sitting president's rambling statements at the G-7 today again suggested the possibility of an ongoing cognitive decline?
That would be a dangerous state of affairs, especially in a nation whose mainstream press seems disinclined to report or discuss such possibilities.
At this report from Mediaite, you can see MS NOW pull away from live coverage of “a rambling and incoherent president of the United States attempting to take a victory lap over his page-and-a-half Iran agreement.” Other reports at Mediaite include what seem to be peculiar presidential remarks.
As we await the chance to review the president's statements, we thought we'd cite some fascinating data from the new Economist / YouGov survey.
As we noted this morning, this survey suggests the possibility that Republicans may be gaining ground on Democrats as we look ahead to November's race for control of the House. Deep in the voluminous data the survey contains, we come upon a deeply instructive fact about the harm a dishonest or delusional president can create.
Sad! According to the survey, 30% of respondents who are registered voters answered this question in the affirmative:
Question 42: Do you think the 2020 presidential election was "rigged?"
Sad! Among respondents who are registered voters, 30% said yes. An addition 14% said they weren't sure.
Among the subgroups, it gets much worse. Fifty percent of Republicans said they believe the election was rigged. The number rose to 64% among "MAGA supporters."
We don't think we've ever seen a survey ask that question! In our view, those data teach a sobering anthropology lesson about us, "the rational animals."
The survey included a somewhat similar question about last week's California elections. That question went like this:
Question 43: President Trump has claimed this week that the primary elections in California are being rigged. Which of the following comes closest to your view:
Trump has concrete evidence to back up his claims of the election being rigged.
Trump is just trying to sow doubt in the legitimacy of the election.
Seventy-two percent of Republicans said they think he does have concrete evidence. Only 3% of Democrats joined them in that view.
What is the point of this post by Somerby? Republicans still believe stupid things. What exactly are we supposed to do about that? CA did not rig its election. Republicans are being told lies about that. The ones who stay Republican are believing the lies. There is no law against telling lies -- not even when Somerby does it here. Republicans have complete control of their media, and even some sites that pretend to be liberal while spewing right wing talking points, like Somerby's blog. They have a first amendment right to say what they want, true or not.
ReplyDeleteSo what exactly is Somerby's point?
The goal of this post is to repeat Mediaite's name once again so that people will be aware of it as a media source. That is why Somerby is being paid as an influencer these days.
DeleteOur Host's point today is the same as it is every day: Our political discourse is badly broken because we have a mainstream press that won't report plain facts.
DeleteYou're not new here, so why pretend you don't know?
No, it is that we Democrats are going to lose the election again because we think CA is capable of running fair elections.
DeleteI am willing to admit that Somerby's political discourse is broken, but I see nothing wrong with what you write here.
Yesterday, some asshole was here gloating that Hillary said Biden made a mistake running again, without telling us that she made brutal comments about Trump incompetence, his manipulation by Netanyahu into attacking Iran, his lack of a "deal" and his obvious health issues. She said a whole lot of stuff. Did Somerby mention any of it? Of course not, because he doesn't care what the press covers. His job is to attack Dems, not report plain facts. That is why Somerby attacks the press but never presents the info that voters need to correct their misimpressions.
Quaker, you can go back in Somerby's posts and find the exact date when he began referring to Mediaite, and then count how often he has linked to or sourced Mediaite after that (with zero times before that date).
DeleteMediaite is no different and no better than any number of other sources. The difference is that they have a publicity budget that includes influencers. So does Gutfeld. If this were not affecting Somerby's content, you would expect a wider variety of topics and sources to be appearing here, as occurred in the earlier days of Somerby's writing.
This kind of content analysis of what media critics do. Somerby never does it himself. Not even about stories in the NY Times affecting his favorite gripes.
DeleteIf anyone here wonders whether Somerby is left or right wing, just count how many times he has ever mentioned Epstein, the Epstein Files, the Epstein victims, the DOJ's suppression of Epstein investigations or anything similarly related to Epstein. Somerby attacked Stormy Daniels way more often than he has ever mentioned Epstein, calling her an extortionist, a con artist, a grifter, and taking Trump's lies as gospel instead of looking seriously at her claims. What liberal thinks that way?
DeleteMaybe Somerby is just anti-child or pro-pedophile, not political?
DeleteI doubt that Somerby’s posts about the VRA have anything to do with a “mainstream press that won't report plain facts.” He accepts a narrative about majority minority districts, misrepresents the law and the facts. My feeling is he wants liberals to believe that majority minority districts were the result of political machinations and harmed the Democratic Party and that we liberals should quit defending the idea that blacks should get such districts.
DeleteTrump endorses Iran having ballistic missiles: "I'm saying that if other countries have them, it's a little unfair for them not to have some"
ReplyDeleteWhy wouldn't this also apply to nuclear weapons or is he referring to ballistic missiles as a euphemism for "nukes"?
DeleteTom cotton and Lindsey Graham are unavailable for comment.
Delete"this survey suggests the possibility that Republicans may be gaining ground on Democrats as we look ahead to November's race for control of the House."
ReplyDeleteRepublicans, as a party, are not running against Democrats, as a party, on any November ballot. It is specific candidates who are Republican, Democrat, Independent, third party, who are running against those who also won in a runoff or primary. In CA, it is theoretically possible for two Democrats to be running against each other for Governor. That is what would likely have happened had Swalwell not left the race. Because candidates need not be one Democrat versus one Republican per race, Somerby's framing of this as a generic Republican/Democratic race is inaccurate (not perfectly accurate, as Somerby would say).
It matters who the actual candidates are. Tuberville, for example, is running in a very red state, but there is a lawsuit against him claiming that he does not live in the state where he is running. (He claims to live in AL but voted in FL.) That election is not going to be about politics but about honesty. You can say that the race of Paxton vs Talarico is not really about politics either, but about Trump's waning influence and whether Paxton's dishonesty matters to Texans or whether a Hispanic religious man might appeal more, especially to Hispanic and historically religious voters.
But we all realize that when Somerby claims that Democrats are going to lose no matter what the polls say, he is taking a swipe at Democrats (without evidence of any kind) and not actually discussing politics at all. Somerby is paid by someone to make sure Democrats are universally despised, so he pretends to be liberal while making non-specific claims that Democrats are too elitist, full of ourselves, complacent to campaign well enough to elect anyone, since Trump was able to use Elon's money to portray Kamala as too black and too female to win an election, no matter how good a job Biden did of fighting covid and fixing the economy. That worked because social media apparently is where Republicans dwell and those bots were ubiquitous, telling white men that real men vote Republican.
The polls should have asked "Would you like to see a permanent Claw cage match arena on the White House lawn, or are you willing to vote Democratic? Then the poll results would be only 16% in support of Trump.
What is the point of asking people who live in other states whether CA election results were rigged? It isn't like anyone is going to move to CA to make sure it is done right in Nov.
Perhaps Somerby's role here is to create a plausible scenario if Democrats are heavily favored to win and yet are defeated by Republican corruption of the election process (see Hartmann below). He is saying, in advance, that if we lose a predicted sure thing, it must be our fault for being complacent, not the machinations behind the scenes of Republicans who have rarely played fair.
DeleteThe Democratic Party has made so many mistakes though. Just yesterday, former first lady Clinton was coming to terms with some of the mistakes that have been made.
DeleteHer comment that merely half of Trump voters are deplorables showed her to be out of touch, and probably cost her the election.
DeleteShe doubled down on that during her interview. Of course now we know she was being perfectly accurate.
DeleteBiden had a tiny Creole press secretary who now says she wants nothing to do with the Democratic Party.
DeleteShe detailed their machinations in a book. It's just something to think about when trying to understand how the Democratic Party lost its way.
Democrats lost the white vote when they didn't support child rapists.
DeleteBy far Christians make up the largest demographic of child rapists.
DeleteWhite people aren't too far behind, though.
As I explained yesterday, she was upset by the way Democrats treated Biden. I feel the same way. I will never watch another George Clooney fil, but it doesn’t mean I will let Republicans win either. She became an Independent, not a Republican.
DeleteI doubt Jean-Pierre likes being called tiny.
DeleteShe exemplifies the growing and quite large group of people that would never be Republicans but can't bring themselves to be Democrats anymore because the Democratic Party has done so incredibly poorly on so many levels.
DeleteLol
Delete6:43,
DeleteThank you.
There was some moron here last week saying both parties were the same.
I didn't say both parties were not the same.
DeleteObviously, they are much more the same than they are different.
DeleteSure, 6:59. One wants to raise the taxes on billionaires, the other wants to eliminate it. Virtually indistinguishable.
Delete6:56,
DeleteI didn't say you weren't a moron.
It's not an issue of "wanting to" or one or the other party saying they "want" something.
DeleteIt's about what each party has actually done. It's about their actions, not their words.
Judging by their actions, obviously they are much more the same than different.
"Biden had a tiny Creole press secretary ..."
DeleteThe true experts are the ones who say what I want said, and what I want to hear. They are the ones who have insight; they are the ones worth listening to; they are the ones who know The Truth.
This is also the thought system -- such as it is -- of the lumpen Trump base.
Democrats have lost significant support among working-class and minority voters.
DeleteDemocrats have overall gained support with white voters -- except working class white voters, who hug the Republicans closer the more ... we'll say "culturally exclusionary," since I wouldn't want to cause a Somerby coronary by using the "r" word, the Republicans become. It's that white working class vote where Democrats have lost tangible ground with the working class overall.
DeleteBut the real implosion for the Democratic Party began when they stopped listening to voters.
DeleteI can only hope this is irony.
DeleteThe Democratic Party promotes issues like climate change, abortion, and LGBTQ issues - all issues that interest voters much less than border security and crime.
DeleteMost voters are white and non-college-educated, the same voters Democrats like refer to as "racists".
DeleteDemocrats think most voters are racists. That alone explains why the party has become an embarrassing failure and one of the most unpopular political parties in modern history.
They think everything is racist.
DeleteRemember, they called the people who posted memes of Obama with a bone through his nose "racists" too.
Republican voters throwing a childish temper tantrum at the United States Capitol just because black people's votes were counted in the 2020 Presidential election, have entered the chat.
DeleteDemocrats should distance ourselves from the Biden administration, particularly by critiquing it's approach to border security and the cost of living.
DeleteDemocrats look past the content of genuine criticisms and instead call the people criticizing upset "because black people's votes were counted". In other words, any criticism gets the person making it labeled a racist.
DeleteThe message is clear.
No one is allowed to criticize the Democratic Party.
So it's no wonder why the party has become a gigantic failure.
Even Right-wingers admit Democrats are anti-fascists.
Deletecriticizing ....
DeleteNew word for violent insurrectionists attacking Capitol Police and wrecking the nation's Capitol.
Democrat who wants to win:
Delete"The Democratic Party promotes issues like climate change, abortion, and LGBTQ issues - all issues that interest voters much less than border security and crime."
Response from Democrat who is addicted to losing:
You're a racist.
The number of times Right-wingers threw a childish temper tantrum at the United States Capitol just because they were economically anxious and tired of an economy rigged for the rich:
DeleteZero.
8:37,
DeleteRight-wing snowflakes hate to be reminded they threw a childish temper tantrum at the United States Capitol just because black people's votes were counted in a Presidential election.
Which always makes me think of that time Right-wingers threw a childish temper tantrum at the United States Capitol just because black people's votes were counted in a Presidential election.
Say what you will about economically anxious Republican voters, but you can't say they won't throw a childish temper tantrum if black people's votes are counted in elections.
DeleteIf it wasn't for their addiction to raping children, the Republican Party would be nothing more than the Ku Klux Klan with worse hygiene.
Delete"Democrats should distance ourselves...
DeleteGood to know you don't look at children sexually.
Keep up the good work.
1. Democratic party candidates should take popular positions on issues that are important to voters and stray away from unpopular ones that are not as important to voters. So, you know, they can win important elections.
Delete2. You're racist.
Dems need to focus on the genitalia of children, like white voters want them to.
DeleteAny Dem that doesn't believe border security should be funded exclusively by the Trump tax cuts, isn't getting my vote.
Delete"The Democratic Party promotes issues like climate change, abortion, and LGBTQ issues..."
DeleteThe latter two are what the GOP uses to fire up its banjo-hillbilly base. The Democrats seldom talked about them until the GOP -- with an assists from the "liberal media" -- made them front-burner. It's a sign of how warped the national discourse has become that it's the DEMOCRATS who are accused of being obsessed with things like "DEI," when it's almost literally all the Republicans talk about.
Certainly the mouthpieces of both parties condemning the Iran MOU for the war Trump lost on Day One shows at least one way they are the same.
Deleteif you want to persuade voters you care about crime you need to get 34 count felons as candidates who promise to pardon convicted insurrectionists and then use the presidency to steal from taxpayers,
Deleteamirite?
Democrats: raise taxes on the rich, improve access to healthcare, improve public services, do something about climate change, and leave peoples' personal lives personal, between them and their healthcare provider."
DeleteMedia: "The Democrats need to talk about the economy."
Republicans: "Woke DEI. Woke DEI. Woke DEI. Woke DEI."
Smart guy on the internet: "The Democrats turned their back on the voters."
We live in absolutely s--t times, dominated by the corrupt and the stupid.
We would never support Kamala because she would get us involved in foreign wars.
DeleteRepublicans: "Immigration is bad! They are destroying the blood of our country. Especially the ones from sh-thole countries."
DeleteTrump gives special treatment to white South African immigrants, and complains that people from Scandinavian countries don't immigrate here.
Republican internet fanboys: "Why do you keep saying we're racist?"
9:13 - it's all they know.
DeleteThom Hartmann reviews previous historical Republican dirty tricks that swung elections. He concludes:
ReplyDelete"If it’s true that Trump became president in 2016, as Robert Mueller’s investigation found, because of major help from Putin, then the last legitimately elected Republican president who didn’t commit or at least flirt with treason was Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961).
By coincidence, he was also the last Republican president to reject the influence of America’s oligarchs and instead kept the top 90% income tax rate on oligarchs and actually worked to increase union membership and expand Social Security.
So, get ready. We know in advance at least some of the dirty tricks they’re going to try to pull. Musk and Zuck spinning their social media outlets; Fox, CBS, and CNN under oligarch’s thumbs; ICE disruption; seized ballots; corrupted mail; and now realistic, highly deceptive AI-generated Republican deepfakes are already appearing in the Texas senatorial election.
It’s going to get worse — these guys are now legitimately afraid of suffering the same fate as Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell (who went to prison) — but, once again, this time we can see it coming.
Forewarned is forearmed."
https://hartmannreport.com/p/for-decades-americans-learned-the-c4d
Somerby persists in calling California "Cali" when no one who lives there uses that name. More tone deafness. It is only polite to call people by the names (or pronouns) they prefer, unless you are an old man trying to emulate Southern disrespect for those who don't hold the same beliefs.
ReplyDeleteAI agrees:
Delete"People from outside of California, tourists, and pop culture artists most commonly use the nickname "Cali". Native Californians typically do not use the term, and many consider it a dead giveaway that someone is a non-native or a tourist.The divide over the nickname comes down to a few key groups and regional habits:Tourists & Non-Natives: People visiting or living outside the state frequently use the nickname because it is casual and easy to say.Pop Culture & Hip-Hop: The term was popularized in the 1980s and 90s by East Coast artists like LL Cool J and Notorious B.I.G., largely because "Cali" was easy to rhyme in rap lyrics.Native Californians: Locals almost universally avoid the word "Cali." Instead, they refer to the state by its full name or by regional abbreviations like SoCal (Southern California), NorCal (Northern California), or the specific name of their city or region."
Perhaps he was talking about the city in Colombia.
DeleteRiddle me this:
ReplyDeleteWhat time is it on 6/19/2026?
A:: It's TACO Time!
https://fanny.com/#/news
ReplyDeleteThere are some new trolls here.
ReplyDeleteOne of them tried to say all Republican voters aren't bigots.
DeleteThey are truly shameless in their trolling.
They aren't all bigots. Some of them just care about tax cuts and being allowed to pollute for profit. But if you're a bigot, the odds are overwhelming you're a Republican.
Delete9:18,
DeleteWhat makes you think Republican voters who care about tax cuts and the ability to legally pollute for profit aren't also bigots?
Other than the fact that I know several of them, what makes you think they are?
Deletesure you do
DeleteGood non answer. I can see you've invested a lot into this topic.
DeleteWhat do you expect me to say to a claim you can read minds
DeleteWrite coherent sentences, as a start.
Deleteguess what, maggot, I know people too
Delete