Whatever you think of Hunter Biden’s guilt or innocence, Donald Trump’s guilt or innocence, or what Joe Biden knew and when he knew it, I think some attention should be paid to Matt Taibbi’s lament at the conclusion of his most recent post:
I think a lot of people in the world I once inhabited, in center-left media and academia, don’t realize they’ve slipped into a deeply unattractive habit of substituting checklists of unquestioned assumptions for thought. In the blue bubble Trump’s limitless evil is an idea with such awesome gravitational pull that it makes nuanced discussion about almost anything impossible. It’s why no one in media could suggest even the possibility he hadn’t colluded with Russia. He’s become an anti-God, of a faith that requires constant worship. When do we get to go back to being atheists
Was it Alan Simpson who said that the Republicans were the stupid party and the Democrats the evil party? How did we arrive at our present situation? Now we have two stupid and evil parties, at daggers drawn, while there’s broad consensus among ordinary people on any number of issues. My belief has always been that it’s because opposing a stupid and evil party is a good way to get people to re-elect you so you can continue to do stupid and evil things.
The increased availability of information with everyone having a library in their pockets hasn’t helped. If anything it has hurt. Who has the time to do the meticulous research that the people paid to do the research won’t do? It is poised to get worse as “deep fakes” become increasingly difficult to distinguish from genuine videos.
Not only will you not be able to believe what you read in the New York Times, you won’t be able to believe what you see with your own eyes and hear with your own ears.
If you build the straw man it’s easy to shoot down. There were few among major media who said he definitely colluded. They did note that his team had secret meetings with Russian agents and that his campaign adviser was basically a paid Russian agent and Trump made references to the Russians while campaigning so there was reason for concern. They covered the investigation, done in 18 months instead of 5 years plus like Republican investigations. They faithfully reported the version Barr released and the actual release of the report got less coverage in comparison. These false claims are then used to justify more of the eternal investigations the GOP holds where they never find anything.
Read the whole thing. He criticizes Drezner for laughing when the claim is made that Trump was a good president. Lighten up. Dont be such a snowflake!
Steve
You mean other than CBS, NBC, ABC, NPR, and the New York Times?
I didn’t think that Trump was a good president. I thought he was a largely ineffectual president. As just one gauge of that look at the difficulty he had in assembling and maintaining a cabinet. Does anyone seriously believe he would be better able to do that with a second term?
As I said since before he was elected, I think you need to understand the nature of the job to be a good president. Trump didn’t and was too stubborn to learn. I think that since the end of World War II we’ve had several effective presidents but only one good president: Eisenhower. We’ve also had several ineffectual presidents. I would place Carter in that category. As president he made a good lay preacher. Was Carter a worse president than George W. Bush? That’s a hard call.
Effective presidents: LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Clinton
Too early to tell whether Biden is an effective president. He got the legislation he wanted passed which is one sign. What he wanted has created a crisis at our southern border and the highest inflation in 40 years. Those two alone rule him out as a good president.
“There were few among major media who said he definitely colluded.â€
You’re shit’n us, right?
I like Dave’s list of effective Presidents. But LBJ, Nixon and Clinton are hardly examples of morality. Tells you something about the job.
It’s hypothetical, but I suspect Trump, if elected, would not make the same mistakes in personnel. On that note. Who here is foolish enough to believe Biden is calling the shots?
Except that few in the list that Drew cites were actually making the claims. What really happens is that one person makes the claim, therefore that means they all say it. So it is an absolute fact that on Fox they claimed lesbians with pink pistols live in subways and kidnap kids to either kill them or turn them gay. Does that mean all conservatives believe that? Nope.
Nice piece on polarization to which Cowen links. Very long. What the author claims is that misperception of the other tribe is a leading cause of our polarization. I think a lot of that is people like Taibbi who get paid lots of money to make sure that happens.
https://carnegieendowment.org/2023/09/05/polarization-democracy-and-political-violence-in-united-states-what-research-says-pub-90457
“the highest inflation in 40 years.”
Inflation is a mortal sin. No other economic measures (or any others for that mater) seem to matter.
Steve
Yes, high inflation is. It hurts the poor. It hurts the elderly. It hurts savers.
The high interest rates being used to control it are landing on the housing sector now. They’ll land on other sectors in due course. You’re indifferent to it because you’re confident you will be able to demand that your reimbursement rate be increased commensurately.
I am retiring so will be living off of savings. It’s also kind of sad that after all these years you have no idea how insurance and payments work. Neither I nor any other doc with whom I work has the ability to demand that our reimbursement rate be increased.
Steve
What we do know is that:
• Russian interfered in the U.S. election, including by hacking the DNC, then releasing the hacked emails to cause maximum damage to Clinton;
• The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee found that Russia was attempting to help Trump in the presidential election, that the Trump campaign welcomed the interference, and that contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian agents constituted a grave intelligence threat;
• The Mueller report found multiple instances of obstruction by the Trump campaign;
• Trump called for the Russians to hack Clinton private server, then within hours, the Russians tried to hack Clinton’s private server;
• Trump’s campaign manager, who spent years working in a criminal enterprise with Kremlin-aligned oligarchs in Ukraine, was convicted of conspiracy against the United States and obstruction;
• Trump’s campaign manager provided details internal polling data which the Russias could use for targeting election trolling;
• Trump’s national security advisor pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Russian agents;
• Trump in under indictment for concealing national security documents after leaving the presidency.
No edit? Please ignore the typos.
All of those details have been reported by the places Drew lists. However, they generally stop short of calling it collusion. They admit that no evidence was found that Trump planned this all out with the Russians. So they were influenced by Russians, the Russians did help them but o formal collusions was proved. If you live int eh right wing bubble you largely wont know this. They sent Durham on a 4-5 year investigation to “prove” that there was collusion and conspiracy against Trump in making up the Russian stories. That totally failed. Which just means they will start another investigation. It’s what they do.
Steve
Steve
I take it you also have trouble understanding what the meaning if is, is.
And what the hell is wrong with you. Inflation is one of the cruelest economic phenomena. Dave hit the victims. And in addition you have bracket creep. And that’s not even considering how understated the public inflation rate is.
steve: However, they generally stop short of calling it collusion.
Mueller specifically decided against investigating collusion, because collusion is not a criminal offense. They investigated criminal conspiracy instead. What they found was obstruction.
The Trump campaign welcomed Russian interference. It would be reckless to directly conspire with Trump. However, their interests aligned, cutouts can take the place of direct contact, and Putin’s enemies have a habit of dying, even those outside Russia.
Drew: I take it you also have trouble understanding what the meaning if is, is.
The present tense third-person singular of be. The tense makes it matter. “There is absolutely no sex of any kind in any manner, shape or form with Monica Lewinsky.”
Z: “There is absolutely no sex of any kind in any manner, shape or form with Monica Lewinsky.â€
(The judge was not amused.)
Drew- Maybe we ought to authorize 8 investigations to determine the meaning of is. Maybe I can learn something from GOP methods.
I never said inflation is not important, I just think it’s weird to judge an economy by one metric. Maybe if that number was large and persistent but not the case here.
Steve