SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2026
The president gay-baits Ossoff: We want to show you two bits of text from last night's Anderson Cooper program on CNN.
In this, the first of these clips, the president is gay-baiting Senator Ossoff. Cooper is speaking with Tim Pawlenty, the former (Republican) governor of Minnesota, a person who never engaged in this kind of conduct:
COOPER (10/16/26): Governor Pawlenty, I just want to play another part of the president's speech in Georgia today.
PRESIDENT TRUMP (videotape): I call him Pee-Wee Herman. Pee-Wee Herman, he looks like Pee-Wee. His name is Jon Ossoff, highly overrated.
Somebody said he's a good-looking man. I don't think he's a good-looking man. I actually think Mike Collins is a good-looking man. And he's all man. He's all man. I'm not sure about Ossoff.
If I am casting a movie for a senator, I like the white hair. I like the big, strong build, big, strong guy. But that's what I want. But he's a respected man.
COOPER: I'm not sure what he was insinuating about Ossoff, but why does he keep commenting on men's appearances? I mean, it's sort of fascinating to me.
PAWLENTY: You know, he says all kinds of things that are sort of entertaining. But you know what the voters want to hear is what's going on with my pocketbook, what's going on with affordability, what's going on in the economy...
Obviously, Cooper knew what the president was saying about Ossoff. (Pawlenty also avoided the obvious.) Next week, we expect to note the way this sort of thing is currently driving so much of MAGA (and Fox News Channel) politics.
In this, the second clip, the president is Muslim-baiting Abdul El-Sayed. Cooper is speaking with Lulu Garcia-Navarro of the New York Times:
COOPER: And Lulu, I want to play you something else the president said today about Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
PRESIDENT TRUMP (videotape): He's as bad almost as Mohamed Abdul El-Sayed.
You know, I took a lot of heat for calling him "Mohamed." And I said, I don't care, I'm the president of the United States. I can call you whatever the hell I want. I can call you whatever I want, Mohamed.
And then today, a guy sends me something. His name is actually "Abdullah bah-bah-bah-bah-bah"—Mohammed El-Sayed. So, his middle name is Mohamed. So, I was right, almost.
Oh, by the way, how about that guy? He's a Jihadist. He's a radical left person. He hates our country.
COOPER: How do you think? I mean, do you think that works for the people he wants to turn out?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: No, I mean, I think it's racist, obviously. He's using "Mohamed" as a sort of slur, when it's the name of the prophet and for Muslims. And then beyond that, it's just more of the same...
By any normal standard, that was astonishing conduct by the sitting president.
It was obvious Muslim-baiting. We were struck by the fact that Cooper was only willing to fashion a question as to whether this obvious baiting would "work."
(In response, we wouldn't have used the highly general term "racist" ourselves.)
By the way, here's a quick thumbnail of the man who was being baited by our sitting president—the man who hates our country:
Abdul El-Sayed
Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed (born October 31, 1984) is an American epidemiologist and politician who is the Democratic nominee in the 2026 United States Senate election in Michigan.
Born and raised in southeast Michigan, El-Sayed graduated from the University of Michigan and was a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, where he earned a doctorate in public health. He then earned his medical degree from Columbia University. He then became an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University School of Public Health. He was the executive director of the Detroit Health Department from 2015 to 2017. From 2023 to 2025, he served as director of the Wayne County Department of Health, Human & Veterans Services.
[...]
In 2003, El-Sayed graduated from Bloomfield Hills Andover High School, where he was a three-sport athlete and captain of the wrestling, football, and lacrosse teams. He then attended the University of Michigan...He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with highest distinction in 2007 with a bachelor's degree and gave that year's student commencement speech.
Once captain of his high school's football team, he hates the U.S. today! Along somewhat similar lines, here is some background on Ossoff, whose background is not widely known:
Jon Ossoff
Thomas Jonathan Ossoff (born February 16, 1987) is an American politician who has served as the senior United States senator from Georgia since 2021. He is the youngest incumbent U.S. senator, and a member of the Democratic Party.
[...]
He attended The Paideia School, a private school in Atlanta. While in high school, he interned for civil rights leader and U.S. representative John Lewis. Ossoff is a 2009 graduate of Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service with a Bachelor of Science degree in culture and politics. He earned a master of science degree in international political economy from the London School of Economics in 2013.
[...]
Ossoff is married to Alisha Kramer, an obstetrics and gynecology doctor at Emory University, where she completed her residency in 2023, and a graduate of Georgetown University and Emory University School of Medicine. Ossoff married Kramer in 2017 after 12 years of dating. On the night of Ossoff's election to the United States Senate in January 2021, Kramer was working an overnight shift in Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. They have two daughters, born in December 2021 and June 2025.
Just a guess: Those two girls got a very good deal when the gods selected their parents.
At any rate, despite the president's recent gay-bating, Ossoff doesn't seem to be gay. Of course, as (almost) everyone knows by now, many millions of good, decent people are. And we don't have a person to waste, as Bill Clinton used to say.
In recent weeks, the gay-baiting and the Muslim baiting have been general over MAGA elites and the Fox News Channel. With respect to that sad situation, we speak to this obvious question:
Shine on me, sunshine? Walk with me, world? What the heck's up with that?
Our record-shattering answer:
We Americans can't fact-check or name-call our way back out of our current national mess—"back out of all this now too much for us," as Frost confusingly had it.
Instead, we'll need to emerge into a world of deepened American values—some of them seeming to be a bit Reddish, some of them tilting toward Blue.
We need a deeper connection to happiness. More on that to follow.
I, for one, appreciate Trump taking time away from his busy schedule raping pre-teens to remind people he is also a gigantic bigot.
ReplyDeletePlease, no reddish values. Never.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"Once captain of his high school's football team, he hates the U.S. today!"
Hey, you reap what you sow. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
You should've voiced all this this righteous anger back in 2016 and later, when your retarded Dumbocrat comrades started doing it.
But no, back then they were all good decent persons to you. Still are. So, don't complain now.
Criticizing ObamaCare is how performatives show they are anti-American.
DeleteSarcasm doesn't come across in print because there is no tone of voice to signal that the sentence is sarcastic.
DeleteWhen Somerby repeats that "he hates the U.S. today!" he is trying to show the stupidity of saying that, but others will read it literally and think the candidate has truly become a traitor after an auspicious all-American beginning. It is better for Somerby to be direct and say that the person they are trying to portray as hating America has shown no evidence he hates his country, but worked to improve voters' lives in several capacities.
It is obviously silly to believe that football has anything to do with being a good American. But this troll manages to jumble up Somerby's intended message, which suggests others may too. Why cannot Somerby come out and say directly that Ossoff is not gay, El-Sayed is not a jihadist, and the Republicans are trying to slime good people to win the election, using slurs they do not deserve.
We on the left have been complaining about Trump since he promoted birtherism, attempting to hurt Obama's campaign. Somerby found birtherism ridiculous and said so back then. But then he converted to supporting Trump and hasn't looked back. He probably won't even call Trump's hatred of Obama racist either, but it is.
"Why cannot Somerby come out and say directly that Ossoff is not gay, El-Sayed is not a jihadist, and the Republicans are trying to slime good people to win the election, using slurs they do not deserve."
DeleteTell me you don't understand what Somerby is doing with TDH, without using the words, "I don't understand what Somerby is doing with TDH."
Somerby's words are not congruent with his actions. Psychologists call that inauthenticity. I call it dishonest. I think it is intentional.
Delete"Sarcasm doesn't come across in print because there is no tone of voice to signal that the sentence is sarcastic."
DeleteYeah, right.
"But this troll manages to jumble up Somerby's intended message, which suggests others may too."
DeleteNo. This troll is uniquely stupid. No one would read a blog that was written down to the level of a trumptard.
I think we can and should fact-check our way out of this stuff. If we lose our grasp on reality, we wind up like Trump, pursuing only self-interest and what feels good in the moment. Trump is again playing golf this morning in Palm Beach. Do you suppose he has nothing better to do as president? We won't find our way out of trouble that way.
ReplyDeleteI am happy to see Somerby fact-checking the slurs against two accomplished, intelligent, hard-working Democratic candidates for office. Bravo! It is about time he did this. And yes, it can make a difference for voters to know that El-Sayed, despite his name, was born here, is very smart, and knows how to address public health issues, as he did in public service management roles prior to running for office.
It is also worthwhile for everyday people in both parties to understand that someone is not gay by virtue of looking gay, like PeeWee Herman for example. Someday perhaps Somerby will admire Paul Reubens' accomplishments as a comedian. Reubens did way more than Bill Maher, creating his hilarious, long-running live theater show first, then broadening that to a character (PeeWee) who appeared in several movies, then reestablishing his career in character roles after being persecuted by police for an inoffensive act (watching porn in a gay theater, alone) that represents society's gay-baiting. He harmed no one with what he did. In life, Reubens was a good decent man, unlike Trump. And PeeWee Herman (Reubens) had way more fans than Bill Maher, with Maher's Muslim-hating schtick, snide assholery and sexist, racist jokes about women and Asian drivers.
I consider the Muslim-hating attacks on El-Sayed and Ilhan Omar to be a form of racism. Somerby says:
"(In response, we wouldn't have used the highly general term "racist" ourselves.)"
Maher may hate the religion, but Trump only knows that El-Sayed has brownish skin, just as he only knows that Ossoff isn't buff like that moron Hegseth. These Republicans are confused about the meanings of the slurs they toss around, but they are mainly pointing out to followers who they are supposed to hate, so any label will do. Somerby is wrong when he says that hating brown-skinned people is not racist and tells us that public servants hate America.
There is no point in quibbling about whether being Muslim is a race, when it is so obvious El-Sayed is being singled out for his skin color. Trump is saying that brown people don't belong in America. Somerby should address that message, not some esoteric discussion of whether American muslims are terrorists when they have lived fully American lives and done nothing "jihadist". Trump, on the other hand, fomented an insurrection that no one calls him on. When Somerby addresses that fact, his fact checking will be greatly improved.
President Trump was able to lose a war with Iran on Day One.
DeleteThat couldn't have been easy.
Anyone who isn't a bigot, or isn't perfectly fine with bigotry, left the Republican Party over a quarter of a century ago.
DeleteReubens didn’t just watch the film. He exposed his penis and masturbated. Are you sure that’s OK in a theater?
DeleteHe had his lap covered by a paper bag. The cops sought him out to arrest. Hollywood used to have porn theaters dedicated to showing porn films. He was in one of those, doing what everyone does there. It was dark, so he didn't expose himself to anyone who wasn't seeking him out.
DeleteThis is the kind of entrapment of gays that was routine before the gay rights movement. Reubens has a lot of sympathy in Los Angeles.
I don’t have a problem with it. I’m just wondering how 10:58 feels about it.
DeleteYounger people do not remember when there were no VCRs, no DVDs, no internet. Both heterosexual and homosexual men use porn widely across our society. As a woman, I believe that heterosexual porn teaches men unrealistic attitudes toward women, but I wouldn't ban its use, especially for men not in a relationship. I am not gay, but I do not see why gay men should be denied porn either. Putting it in clearly marked theaters where like-minded men can share an experience shouldn't be illegal. It isn't now, on the internet, where men can have far greater privacy.
DeleteNon-gay people do not understand the criminalization of gay sex, the police raids of bars and clubs and other meeting places used by gay men to do what hetersexual people do without problems. Fern Dell in Griffith Park was one such meeting place. There were several porn theaters in Hollywood. They had XXX on their marquis and were adults only. Some showed gay porn, others heterosexual porn. There were also well-known major boulevards where men could go to find underage hookers, male and female, run by sex traffickers. That was illegal but not enforced. The lack of enforcement of heterosexual prostitution makes the targeting of Reubens more aggregious. Yes, Reubens was guilty, but of what? A harmless, victimless act that was not similarly enforced for heterosexual men in those theaters.
Referring to Ossoff as PeeWee Herman, making it clear he was targeting the gayness, as Trump did, brings with it the shame of his arrest and the end of his career, which he rebuilt with the help of those who thought he got a raw deal. Trump is bringing all that baggage with his ugly remark, not just a knock on Ossoff supposed slight build (which seems pretty average to men). To do that during a campaign is more than wrong. It marks Trump as an especially ugly human being, but what else would you expect from the President accused of raping 13 year olds as part of Epstein's sex trafficking ring. Trump himself lives in the sewer. Somerby soft-peddles that, while furthering Trump's remark about Ossoff. I have no idea whether Somerby knows the details himself, but he is not helping Ossoff today, and that is no different than any other day. But Somerby says fact checking is useless, so we now know why he doesn't do much of it himself.
Pointing out that a specific guy is not himself gay, does nothing to attack the ugly homophobia at the heart of Trump's remark and what happened to PeeWee Herman.
egregious
DeletePeeWee was arrested in 1991, when there were VCRs, but he was in an adult theater in Sarasota FL, not Hollywood (where there are similar theaters). Sarasota was his hometown, which he was visiting, but he lived in Los Feliz/Hollywood.
DeleteI knew a guy who knew a guy who, after the arrest, graffiti’d the theatre with the words “Pee Wee’s Playhouse”.
Deletetoo obvious to be funny
DeleteI liked “aggregious”. It creatively combined “aggressive” with “egregious”.
DeleteI enjoyed pornography before I had relationships with women. It was helpful. When the time for intimacy arrived, I was less naïf than I would otherwise have been.
DeleteWhat does it mean that Trump has been so focused on men's bodies in these latest speeches? Is Trump trying to attract the gay vote? Is this part of an appeal to the manosphere -- the idea that if men don't behave in a prescribed manly way, they are not men?
ReplyDeletePoems about character used to define manhood, such as Kipling's poem "If". It says that if you can display character in the variety of ways described in the poem, then finally,
"If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!"
Any man can buy a set of weights and bulk up with supplements and T shots. But any man can also try to develop the traits, values, and conscience to do the right thing too, with effort. The latter are blue values. The emphasis on looking manly, without being manly, are red values. Trump has no idea what it means to be a man.
Republicans have no idea what it means to be anti-big government.
DeleteMen’s bodies aren’t beautiful like women’s, but they are interesting in their own way.
DeleteBeauty is in the eye of the beholder.
DeleteBeauty is in the body of the beheld.
Delete12:41 - Best comment.
DeleteThis is the difference between right and left. DG has outed himself.
Delete"If"
DeleteThat was actually an answer on “Jeopardy!” the other day. So now I know a fact about a poem that I’ve never read, though I think now that it would behoove me to do so.
I did read “Riki-Tiki -Tavi” as a young boy, perhaps I can look that up too, and revisit a mostly-forgotten story, maybe at the Library. Of course, if I recall correctly, Kipling was, at heart, an English Imperialist with all that such entails, but that shouldn’t disqualify him from being read.
Same with Hemingway. My father said once that he used to love Hemingway, but now he knew what kind of a man he was and sort of blacklisted him. I never did pinpoint what he meant. But he turned me on to “The Old Man and the Sea”, which is just a fuckin’ classic, as well as the only Hemingway I recall reading.
Blah blah blah
Leroy
Bottom line, all novels are just words, but that doesn't detract from the pleasure of reading them. Why say blah? I liked Kim and The Jungle Book. I dislike Hemingway -- too much of a downer. If you like Reacher on TV, the Lee Childs books are better because you find out his back story and what he is thinking about. It is hard to portray that via action and Reacher doesn't talk much in the films.
DeleteBlah was, I thought, my way of saying I was blathering. I'm more of a sci-fi guy myself, although I did just order "American Socialist" by Shawn Gude, a biography of Eugene Debs. I've always wanted to know more about Debs.
DeleteLeroy
One of my favorites is a short, poetic treatise on the behavior of various avifauna of Indiana on a gloomy day. I very much believe the author is a good guy. I have just recently returned here after a five-year absence (with nary a peek) but have thought of the images evoked by that piece whenever the dark-eyed junco in my backyard winked at me.
DeleteBirds can wink?
Delete"We need a deeper connection to happiness."
ReplyDeleteSpeak for yourself, Somerby.
Happiness is linked to optimism. Somerby is a doomsayer. The two are incompatible. Remember Obama's "Hope and Change" campaign? People responded because that is how people feel better, are happier, in an imperfect world.
Somerby really shouldn't be talking to anyone about happiness, when he hasn't figured it out for himself.
Actually, 11:37, you have absolutely no idea about Somerby's level of happiness or the psychological drivers of his happiness.
DeleteI have what Somerby has been saying the last several days about happiness. And I have his doom and gloom maundering for the past several years. Some days he sounds just like Eyore. It is fair to say that sometimes he sounds depressed.
DeleteI also have a large literature in the field of psychology about what happiness is and what contributes to it to draw upon. Somerby doesn't have that, so I expect him to say a bunch of ignorant things, if he ever gets around to talking about Happiness instead of just teasing it. He already said a stupid thing about there not being many songs about happiness.
For example, I know that people tend to select songs to listen to that match their current mood, not songs that will change their mood. It is one of the ways depressed people ruminate and prolong their depression -- selecting moody depressed music instead of upbeat songs to change how they feel.
Just as no one has assessed Trump's cognitive functioning, no one has assessed Somerby either, that he has reported here. He does say things about himself and he reveals other things by what he says on other topics. That is all fair game, the kind of prompts that any therapist would use to help Somerby see his own problems differently. I don't think Somerby has much insight and he clearly has not read much about psychology. Too much re-reading My Antonia and not enough reading self-help.
Conservatives are anti-psychology because they don't like what the field has discovered about how people think and feel and such applications as how to raise children, find a relationship, tolerate others, build strong communities and live happily. Just as conservatives are currently rejecting modern science, they have consistently rejected such things as alcoholism is not genetic, beating kids turns them into bullies, addiction is a matter of physiology not character (will power), manliness has nothing to do with muscles or sexual orientation, owning a dog is good for you and promotes longer life, being a musician or artist doesn't make a child gay.
Some of these discoveries have happened so recently that older people are resistant to accepting them, such as that women can do everything men can do, plus make babies.
Somerby reveals his "psychological drivers" regularly. He would be much happier if he were to stop writing this blog and instead read a few psychology books about happiness. Then go out and walk around his neighborhood and have coffee at a nearby cafe, while speaking to his neighbors. Some people need to stop reading The Iliad and swear off following politics while engaging in volunteer work that helps the poor. Somerby is most likely in that group.
If I were to psychoanalyze based on your voluminous oeuvre I'd say you're not very happy.
DeleteDogs bring unhappiness. They bark and bite, the males claim territory by peeing. Who needs any of that?
DeleteLidia Doce was going to give Che Guevara a puppy, but Batista’s forces killed her. Che would have been much happier with that puppy.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidia_Doce
DG, this is why you need a license to diagnose. You don’t know shit.
DeleteIf Che had received the puppy, he wouldn’t have been so violent.
Delete7:37, I said “if” I were to psychoanalyze. That means I’m NOT doing it, because I’m not licensed to do so.
DeleteAnd guess what? Neither is 4:46.
But for some reason it’s OK with you if she makes unlicensed diagnoses.
If 4:46 were licensed, she would be violating her code of ethics by diagnosing without a proper examination and evaluation..
DeleteIn short, she’s just blowing smoke.
Delete4:46 is a bot.
DeleteI have a license but I’m not doing the diagnosing.
Delete4:46 might be a bot, but 10:16 et al. is a triggered pedant.
Delete
DeleteI touch my asshole, I sniff the finger, and I diagnose.
What an ass Somerby is!
I am Corby.
10:53 - You lose! You’re reduced to namecalling!
DeleteWhat about @8:09? Don't you have something to say to him DG? Isn't he name-calling? Doesn't he lose?
DeleteCorby is performing art.
DeleteShine on me sunshine? This is what makes me happy. We are living in an idiocracy in which the right eats its own (from Tiedrich):
ReplyDelete"Loyal MAGA patriots, please stand by for a message of the utmost importance from Brandon Beach, the Actual Goddamned Treasurer of the United States.
[video of Beach, transcribed as follows]
“This is the Trump dollar coin. It will be in the banks next month, and I want to challenge you to go get a roll of Trump dollar coins next month. And then I want you to go to your favorite liberal coffee shop with your Trump dollar coins, buy a cup of coffee, and watch their heads explode. They will not like it, but I love it, and I love this president. I love this coin.”
Now hold on there one minute, Mister Actual Goddamned Treasurer of the United States, if that really is your name. Are you telling me to spend $2.50 on a ‘dollar’ coin with Dear Leader’s big, dumb pumpkin face on it, and then turn right around and buy a cup of coffee with the ‘dollar’ coin that I just spent $2.50 to acquire, in order to make some commie have a big sad?
Shut the fuck up and take my fucking money.
Listen up, you cultist dipshits. If I’m next to you in line at my local coffeehouse, and you pull out a bunch of fake-gold Donnymoney to pay for your cuppa joe, I’m not going to be triggered. I’m going to be laughing in your face at what a credulous nitwit you are. You just spent $12.50 on your five-dollar cup of coffee.
Can you believe that MAGA wastes so much time an energy doing stupid shit simply because they imagine they’re triggering the libs? No one cares, you fucking dunderheads.
Please, I beg of you, trigger me all day long with that kind of stupidity.
Oh, and can someone explain to me: why is the Actual Goddamned Treasurer of the United States shilling for Dear Leader’s vanity money in such a blatantly partisan way? Isn’t that some kind of ethics violation? It should be."
Actually, the treasury selling money at a 150% profit might help our deficit, very slightly.
What are the reddish values of doing this?
They don't like liberals telling them what they can and can't do.
DeleteThat's why we need to make ingesting Drano illegal on Day One.
Someone has to guide them. The world is a complex and dangerous place for the unwary.
DeleteSurveys report that conservatives consider themselves happier than liberals. The problem is that surveys rely on self-report, not observations or external measures. Stats on deaths of despair (suicide, drug overdose deaths) are higher for conservatives, also alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, divorce.
ReplyDeleteCan Somerby consider himself happy without ever having had a long-lasting intimate relationship with a life partner? Social relationships are listed as a main contributor to happiness. Can Somerby consider his life's achievements worthwhile? Productivity in work is another contributor to happiness. Health and financial prosperity also contribute, which is one reason why Democrats self-report less happiness. They include more poor and marginalized people whose objective circumstances are less prosperous than right wingers.
Some websites suggest that happiness results from adjusting one's mind to one's circumstances and accepting the imperfections of the world. I wonder whether Somerby will suggest we all learn to admire Trump and love Putin next week? Somerby doesn't seem to be very psychologically minded, so I expect he will tell us to sit under the equivalent of our backyard pear trees and bask in the sunshine. Focusing on happy moments does add to overall happiness, but that is a trivial suggestion having nothing to do with removing the obstacles to happy lives for those who do not have pear trees, or backyards. Looking forward to Somerby's "insights."
People who live in fear of children being read to by drag queens seem happier.
DeleteLOL.
Robert Reich says this about the midterm election:
ReplyDelete"The Democrats’ focus on affordability seems to be a winning strategy (we’ll know for sure in a little over two weeks). But we mustn’t lose sight of the moral squalor at the core of the Trump regime.
It’s that moral squalor — the utter disregard for the opinions, norms, and ideals of the nation or, for that matter, of humanity — that uniquely marks Trump and the reprobates he has attracted to Washington. It has also poisoned much of the Republican Party, including the billionaires and tech bros who finance it.
To put this despicable era behind us, we’ll need to renounce and reverse this squalor."
If Somerby isn't talking about this, he is not one of us on the left. Given how much time Somerby spends chiding blue America, I just don't see a focus on combatting the moral squalor of Trump and his people, including the red Americans who support MAGA and vote for Trump and the wife-beaters, cheaters and pen-stealing assholes running as Republicans. The squalor is at the top but also at the bottom, exemplified by people like Brandon Herrera.
Somerby says we cannot fact-check our way out of this mess. He is wrong about that. You fact check lies. Exposing those lies is how we defend truth and doing that enables more people to live in the real world, the one with that sunshine Somerby finds so important.
To put this despicable era behind us, half this country is going to need an exorcism
DeleteAffordability and the rooting out of corruption in our rigged economy.
DeleteOnly a deplorable would vote against that.
“If Somerby isn’t talking about this, he is not one of us on the left.”
ReplyDeleteI find these self- appointed guardians of the criteria for inclusion in “the left” to be particularly annoying. A movement focused on exclusion rather than inclusion is doomed to shrink.
That's why we welcome all reasons for Trump and the Republican Party's open criminality and corruption, and not just his mental state or upbringing.
DeleteProve us all wrong about your Democratic affiliation and vote for all of the Democrats on your ballot, ASAP. Really, the only definition of Democrat that matters is "someone who votes for Democratic candidates and ballot issues".
Delete"Really, the only definition of Democrat that matters is 'someone who votes for Democratic candidates and ballot issues'."
DeleteYes, Yes, Yes Yes!!
So, go do it already and leave the rest of us alone.
DeleteI'm so sorry for offending your delicate and tender sensibilities.
DeleteYou forgot "wasting your time with silliness" in your apology.
DeleteYes, you're right. I'm truly sorry I wasted my time with your silliness.
DeleteNow, finally, go away.
DeleteAnother Somerby Hater who feels entitled to tell those who like Somerby to leave the comment section provided by Somerby. The gall.
DeleteThe problem isn’t that you like Somerby but that you cannot get along with anyone else here.
DeleteWell, some people don’t like it when I ask them to substantiate their false assertions and justify their faulty logic.
DeleteTell me about it.
DeleteTen plus years and the "not every Republican voter is a bigot" crowd still can't show a lick of proof of that assertion.
For DG: "A History of Fake Things on the Internet"
DeleteWalter J. Scheirer, 2023
DG's approach:
Step 1. Claim that some other commenter has said something false and ask for evidence.
Step 2: When the evidence is provided, claim that the evidence doesn't show what it clearly does show, while restating and distorting what was said by others.
Step 3: Ignore the rebuttals of the commenters he has attacked and repeat his accusations, as he is doing today.
Step 4: Insist that he knows what Somerby thinks without providing any quotes to support his interpretations.,
Step 5: Whine about the other commenters here.
DG rarely provides any substantive contribution to discussion on any topic but mainly attacks other commenters.
This process has made DG disliked by most who have engaged with him in good faith. He is a troll.
You’re reduced to namecalling! I win.
DeleteEvidence is for losers.
DeleteWhat does DG think he has won? He is the butt.
Delete12:27's approach:
Delete1. Make shit up.
2. When challenged, gish gallop irrelevant bullshit.
3. When all else fails, start calling names.
You really put them in their place, DG.
DeleteSomeone who cannot follow a narrative or a line of reasoning calls it a gish gallop.
DeleteTrump followers like his speeches because none of the sentences are connected, so they don't have to follow anything. That is DG's speed.
Just because DG sees no connection between ideas, doesn't mean there is no connection. Stupidity is the main attraction of the right wing. How can a troll come here and seriously blame others for name-calling when he calls himself Dogface George? Then he makes a stolen valor claim over a reference to soldiers in WWI. No one who fought in that war is still alive. Talk about making shit up!
“How can a troll come here and seriously blame others for namecalling when he calls himself Dogface George.”
DeleteYou got me — I am unable to follow your “line of reasoning.”
You might as well call yourself Sgt Preston of the Yukon. Less ridiculous.
DeleteIs that your idea of a “substantive contribution to the discussion” rather than an “attack on a commenter”?
DeleteObviously not. What is wrong with you?
DeleteThat Robert Frost poem has nothing to do with anything being discussed in Somerby's essay today. It also has nothing to do with our situation with Trump, the need to heal the country or anything Democrats are discussing.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a secret coded message to DG, telling him to give up and leave this blog alone because he has nothing to say to anyone here. But I could be wrong.
The coded message is “This blog became irrelevant many years ago.”
DeleteSince you confess that you cannot decode the message, let me help you out. Somerby thinks our society is too far gone down the drain of tribal warfare for simple measures (e.g., fact-checking or shaming by namecalling) to solve our problem. We'll need a fundamental reshaping of our values so that we all can find common ground as Americans. What those values might be may (or may not) be elucidated in future posts.
DeleteYou're welcome.
Fact checking is always important because failure to live in the real world leads to mental illness. It also causes people to make bad decisions that do not take into account truths that may interfere with effective living. Fact checking has nothing to do with values, other than valuing such things as competence in navigating one's environment and having positive outcomes instead of failures due to mistaken assumptions about the world.
DeleteYou, DG, have no idea what Somerby thinks. No one has appointed you to interpret what he does not clearly state himself.
Somerby has been using the idea of tribal polarization to beat up on blue America. That doesn't mean he believe the rest of the stuff you just made up. We know he does not believe human beings are capable of participating in a democracy and he has said we are living in a failed state. I think that is an empirical matter that can be tested with reference to facts in hand, not a matter of belief or religion or ideology. History gives us facts we can reason from, so fact-checking Somerby is important to keep these nihilistic views from being accepted by dumbasses like you.
"dumbasses like you"
DeleteNew game: First person who is reduced to namecalling loses.
No thank you. Fact checking requires that facts be identified and not mistaken for goo. So the ability to tell one from the other is essential. It is wrong to politely tolerate nonsense for fear of hurting someone's feelings by calling them out on it.
DeleteSomerby did not say fact-checking is unimportant; he said it is not sufficient to heal the country's ills.
DeleteSince by your own account you're not a dumbass, certainly you can appreciate the distinction, right?
DeleteYou don’t refuse to do fact-checking, as Somerby habitually does, because it doesn’t solve everything.
DeleteIt might be enough if everyone agrees to do fact checking
DeleteMamdani's behavior makes me suspicious of any Muslim.
ReplyDeletehttps://nypost.com/2026/10/07/opinion/mamdanis-oct-7-statement-is-clear-and-rooted-in-jew-hatred/
David, your comments don’t make me suspicious of other Jews, because I’m not a bigot.
DeleteFamous Muslims who should not be suspected of anything nefarious by David:
Delete"Ibn Sina / Avicenna (c. 980–1037 CE): A pioneering physician and philosopher who wrote The Canon of Medicine, a standard medical text in Europe and the Islamic world for centuries.
Al-Zahrawi / Albucasis (936–1013 CE): A physician and surgeon known as the father of modern surgery, who developed numerous surgical instruments.
Al-Razi / Rhazes (865–925 CE): A polymath who made fundamental contributions to medicine, including distinguishing smallpox from measles.
Ibn al-Haytham / Alhazen (965–1040 CE): A physicist and mathematician regarded as the father of modern optics for his work on the perception of light.
Al-Khwarizmi (c. 780–850 CE): A mathematician whose work introduced foundational concepts in algebra and the decimal system."
Our own modern science rests on their discoveries. El-Sayed is also a scientist and physician who directed Public Health in Detroit and the State of Michigan before running for office. What on earth gives anyone any reason to be suspicious of him? Only ignorance and stupidity.
David in Cal,
DeleteYour behavior makes me suspicious of all Californians.
In the Middle Ages, Muslims were far ahead of the West. Then they slowed down, and it overtook them. Mamdani has his brilliant career here, in the West.
DeleteThis is David’s reddish values coming thru.
DeleteActually, his inane fatuousness coming thru.
DeleteBoth inane and fatuous? Really? Why, yes. David is inane and fatuous. He’s senile, too.
DeleteGod bless the Jewish people.
DeleteAlso, fuck Israel.
Criticizing ObamaCare is to anti-American as criticizing Israel's genocide of Palestinians is to anti-Semitism.
Delete"Shine on me sunshine, walk with me world" reflects an attitude that one is the center of the universe. It is charming in a song about a happy girl who is feeling joyful. It is less charming is you imagine Trump saying it, since he clearly believes himself the center of the universe in all things, and orders everyone to make it so. That makes the lyrics sound demanding coming from his mouth, as he pushes to the front of every line and grabs other people's awards simply because he wants them. The world is not walking with him and his sun is going behind a cloud, rightfully so. You need some rain to keep narcissists from thinking they deserve all the marbles. Trump can never be happy while having to share anything.
ReplyDelete"Shine On Me" / "Let Your Light Shine on Me": A classic spiritual/gospel hymn based on biblical light and lighthouse imagery." Its origins are African American spirituals. Walking with Jesus is another religious lyric.
ReplyDeleteDonna Fargo may have borrowed such images to create a secular song, but the ecstatic emotion of religious revival services is not anything like being happy in the world as one lives their life. That fervor may be what Trump used to evoke at his rallies, but not so much any more. That is more like drug-induced ecstasy, a manipulation of emotion, not a state of happiness with life either.
Chemical happiness takes no effort. It doesn't last and it leaves one out of touch with reality. Often the cost of such means to achieve happiness requires sacrifice of the very things that would result in a more lasting happiness. That is the tragedy of altered states attained using drugs, alcohol, cult membership, religious immersion, etc.
Reddish values today seem to be all negative, hate, cultish devotion to a corrupt insane megalomaniac, flagrant lies, embarrassing incompetence.
ReplyDelete"The core belief of the MAGA movement is we won the 2020 election,” Steve Bannon, the right-wing influencer and former Trump adviser, said in a recent interview with “CBS News Sunday Morning.”
ReplyDeleteNothing like a party of fascist nutbags.
When is the corporate media going to ask every Republican politician to defend or criticize Steve Bannon?
DeleteThe over under is never, because the corporate media is a Right-wing rat-fucking operation.
When are they going to ask every Republican to defend or criticize Elon Musk?
DeleteA guy who dances to the Village People, has a Liberace flair for decorating, wears make-up and professes his attraction to big strong men at rallies? No wonder Lindsey loved him so much.
ReplyDeleteThom Hartmann reports this, which applies to Somerby's doom and gloom pronouncements and nihilism:
ReplyDelete"Geeky Science Alert! Cynics aren’t the smartest people in the room: they just sound like it. The Washington Post reports on research into what psychologists call the “cynical genius illusion,” the near-universal assumption that the guy who speaks with the most authoritative — and cynical — voice and throws in a few numbers must be an expert. When Olga Stavrova and Daniel Ehlebracht ran seven studies, four of them probing what people believe about cynics and three testing those beliefs against data from roughly 200,000 people across 30 countries, they found that people reliably assume that the fast-talking cynics were deemed credible. Interestingly, other studies found that the more cynical a person is, the more likely they are to have a lower IQ and cognitive ability, while the more educated people become the less cynical they end up. While very chic comments like “They’re all crooks, nothing changes, why bother voting” sounds worldly, it’s actually the single most useful sentence an authoritarian can plant in a citizen’s head."
Even a "demented" Donald Trump is smarter than then Dems. Why are Dems not noticing this?
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump said immigration had “shattered” France after protesters and looters ransacked Paris.
The US president blamed Saturday’s violence, which saw shops raided and government buildings set ablaze, on the country’s immigration policy.
In a Truth Social Post, Mr Trump said: “France is burning! The immigration of people from an entirely different world, people with hatred in their hearts, has shattered that once great country.
“Close your Borders and take control, before it is too late!”
Earlier, JD Vance, the US vice-president, wrote on X: “Western liberals imported the Third World into France and other countries in the name of diversity and compassion. They ignored fundamental questions of assimilation and compatibility.”
Fuck you, David, you racist bastard
DeleteThe French protests are about education, not immigration:
Delete"• High school students launched the movement in September 2026 to protest crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, broken furniture, poor ventilation, teacher shortages, and strict university admissions platforms like Parcoursup.
• Rising Cost of Living: As the school strikes spread, the movement absorbed wider public anger over high fuel prices, inflation, and soaring costs of everyday goods.
Trump cannot be called smart when he doesn't know why the French riots are happening.
Donald Trump is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.
DeleteEchoing 1;22:
Delete"Riots and mass protests in France were triggered by a combination of student anger over public school conditions and a wider national backlash against the high cost of living, fuel prices, and government belt-tightening."
What does this have to do with immigration? DiC, what is wrong with you?
Here are the sources of David’s “evidence”:
Delete“In a Truth Social Post, Mr Trump said…”
“JD Vance, the US vice-president, wrote on X…”
Two inveterate liars giving political spin on right-wing platforms. David is just trolling.
What do a country's frustrations about the high cost of living, fuel prices, and government belt-tightening have to do with immigration?
DeleteHector, seriously?
You're seriously confused about what frustrations with the cost of living, fuel prices and government belt tightening would have to do with immigration?
Sometimes the stupidity and credulity of the comments here have to be seen to be believed.
Nonsense
DeleteAs you know, France has been suffering under an enormous immigration problem and doesn't yet have an answer. And it affects the cost of living and government services etc. We all know that. That's not in dispute.
Delete5:25,
Deleteyou've completely changed my mind with your substantive, well-argued, fact-filled rejoinder.
Kudos to you!
Yes, of course. Do your own research and draw your own conclusions about what in the world frustrations about the high cost of living, fuel prices, and government belt-tightening could have to do with immigration in a country suffering under a notoriously massive and unsolvable immigration problem.
DeleteYou're only arguing against it because Trump said it. If Trump had said there wasn't an immigration problem in France, you would be here arguing that there was. That's all you're interested in - going online and playing a game everyday where you and all your friends are the good guys and you are all fighting the bad guys who are on the verge of destroying the whole world. Isn't it fun getting up everyday and playing this game??!! It doesn't have anything to do with reality, but it's still fun for you.
DeleteOr it must be, I guess,
Scapegoating minorities, such as immigrants, is a favorite ploy of fascists used to deflect complaints about their mistreatment of the people. Immigrants do not have the power to increase or decrease inflation but the government does, but rather than be accountable to the governed, they displace blame onto innocent people such as immigrants. If you are sucker enough to fall for this, you need to educate yourself about how this works.
DeleteLol. Thanks for the advice . Is that supposed to be an argument that immigration in France has nothing to do with anger about high cost of living, rising gas prices and government belt tightening?
DeleteIt’s funny how David and his two role models that he quotes pretend to be disturbed by violence, thuggery and destruction of property. Maybe just in France it’s a problem? When it happens here, criminals like these are given a get-out-of-jail-free card and David’s heroes even try to pay them a retroactive salary for their criminal efforts with taxpayer money. Not a problem worth mentioning to David, the world’s biggest hypocrite.
DeleteOh. I'm sorry. I get it. You're saying that people frustrated with immigration in France are all bigots. That makes sense.
DeleteNone of the protesters' demands I've come across even mention the word immigration. So are the protesters as deluded as I am, or are you just an ass?
DeleteDonald Trump is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.
DeleteAs he’s told us many many times, he’s a genius. It’s in his genes.
6:13,
DeleteYou seem to know a lot about France's immigration situation.
Do businesses in France hire immigrants because they are harder workers and more honest than native French people, the way corporations in the U.S. hire illegal immigrants because they are harder workers and more honest than white people?
Immigrants strengthen an economy, they are a benefit.
DeleteFrance has problems.
DeleteFrance has immigrants.
Therefore the immigrants cause the problems.
Hey DiChead, why does your President dream about gay sex with hot men's asses and why is he fucking over Ukraine if he does not like Putin more than America?
Delete“In a truth social post…..”
DeleteDid he say anything this time around about French immigrants eating their poodles?
Geez, you are a gullible old geezer.
The destabilization of the Middle East is exactly what a Zionist like DiC and his hero Netanyahu have been seeking for decades, aided and abetted first by Bush Jr. and now, in disastrous fashion, by Trump. But go ahead and blame the riots in France on the left.
DeleteDonald Trump said immigration had “shattered” France after protesters and looters ransacked Paris.
DeleteHitler said the same thing about the Jews, DiChead.
David is Bob ten years from now.
ReplyDeleteOne pressing issue for the Democratic party is confronting how poorly they've done in elections.
ReplyDeleteNonsense.
DeleteThe Democrats are running Communist candidates who are in the pocket of elite corporations.
DeleteNonsense
DeleteYou think Commie Dems in cahoots with corporations makes no sense? What are you, crazy?
DeleteEverything I don't like is Communism.
DeleteDa, that's why we must destroy Putin comrade.
Delete