User-Supported News Commentary Hosted by Craig Crawford
Tempers and Temperatures Rising ‘Round the World
Attribution: Political Climate Change by Christopher Weyant, The Boston Globe, MA
46 thoughts on “Tempers and Temperatures Rising ‘Round the World”
but in the meantime, here’s colbert
Noteworthy Catholic Stephen Colbert is headed to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis, President Biden’s poll numbers have ticked up amid his efforts to court young voters, and far-right anti-science Americans are rejecting pasteurization.
BTW, stephen, joe’s not the only prez that looked a bit awkward and frozen doing a line dance. remember this one?
back to the thread topic and those who are pouring fuel on the fires according to nicole and friends
NICOLLE WALLACE (HOST): Over the last week in this country, local news stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which actually controls nearly 200 local TV outlets all across the country, millions of viewers, probably lots of — all of our neighbors. So, those stations have been airing a story, a TV package, with nearly the exact same script about reporting from “The Wall Street Journal” that was highly criticized for being highly critical about President Joe Biden’s mental acuity.
[…]
ANGELO CARUSONE (GUEST): I do think though, as you guys noted in your monologue, what Sinclair’s doing is particularly insidious, and that won’t just be resolved by Joe Biden being out there more often because you have sort of a right-wing propaganda operation that is willing to go even further than Fox News, as they’ve done that in the past, and they’re doing it under imprepator of a lot of banners, trusted sources, CBS, NBC, ABC, that’s the way affiliates work. So, be realistic about the landscape. That doesn’t mean we should wring our hands about it. But to your question, we should be realistic. And that then gets into the bigger thing of how do you deal with a guy like Donald Trump? I do think as somebody who has watched, which is wild to say, 612 Donald Trump speeches since the 2016 election, they’re not the same as they were in 2016. They’re not the same as they were in 2020.
[watch whole segment including Donny Deutsch’s comments. later in the show but not in the video Donny urged reviving the whose-finger-on= the-nuke-button ads to point up the choice between an old but capable candidate to an old but dangerously incompentent one.]
I’m glad somebody’s finally noticed Sinclair—-after YEARS of their pollution of the airwaves.
I know Alito is white nationalist pond scum but I think even he wouldn’t do the upside down flag thing. I have to stick with A. That woman done beat the brows off his Nazi face. I bet she’s even a bigger Nazi than he is. Like that frau in the concentration camps. Has anyone checked the DNA of the Alito lampshades? Well, have they?
In a new campaign ad released in the final full week of the 2016 presidential election, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has released an inspired by the famous “Daisy” ad released by Lyndon Johnson in 1964. The ad seeks to portray Republican nominee as unstable and untrustworthy to trusted with nuclear weapons.
sturge, you’re not the only one who noticed. click here for
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell explores what Justice Alito’s wife possibly meant when she invoked being German “to inspire fear in the people who, in her mind, come after her.” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse joins to discuss how Senate Republicans had a “hard time” defending why they blocked a Supreme Court ethics bill to hold justices accountable to a code of conduct.
I’ve grown quite accustomed to not being the only one who has noticed something.
I was more saddened than I realized by the news of Howard Fineman’s passing. I can’t say why exactly, I guess I spent so much time in the past having my political and social formation influenced by folks like him on my channels. Somewhere I learned also my former rabbi was the rabbi at Howard’s son’s wedding and that made it feel like family.
Imus was always the best interviewer. He brought out the authentic personalities of his guests, or so it seemed to me.
I too was a fan of Fineman, got to know him fairly well. Deserves his last name, for sure. Angered me how Chris Matthews often insulted him but he kept going back for more. I never did another seg with Chris when he called me a racist. Howard benefitted from his years covering Kentucky politics, he well understood Democratic party vulnerabilities with rural voters.
Bad decision for republicans. Now their Taliban legislators will rev up bills to ban abortion pill because court did not address the merits, just standing
At the risk of sounding serious for a change, Howard Fineman was a pleasant, decent guy who wasn’t an overtly partisan twit. I always enjoyed his appearances on the various shows and am sorry to hear of his passing.
Gotta love those lack of standing decisions. From Kavanaugh’s Opinion:
We recognize that many citizens, including the plaintiff doctors here, have sincere concerns about and objections to others using mifepristone and obtaining abortions, … But citizens and doctors do not have standing to sue simply because others are allowed to engage in certain activities – at least without the plaintiffs demonstrating how they would be injured by the government’s alleged under-regulation of others.
BTW, it was a unanimous decision. Roberts has apparently been working the guys and gals on the Court to stop the stupid shit. This does not bode well for the RWNJs’ (yes, Clarence, I’m talking about you) plan to ban birth control.
Lunatic on the loose. Trump to House GOP: “Nancy Pelosi’s daughter is a wacko, her daughter told me if things were different Nancy and I would be perfect together, there’s an age difference though”. Jake Sherman, who reported this, said “I don’t know what this means, really. But this is what he told a group of House Rs.”
Pelosi Daughters Respond
That was quick. Pelosi daughter Christine: “Speaking for all 4 Pelosi daughters — this is a LIE. His deceitful, deranged obsession with our mother is yet another reason Donald Trump is unwell, unhinged and unfit to step foot anywhere near her — or the White House.”
Apparently Mikey didn’t understand Trump was talking about Hannibal Lecter:
Mike Johnson says that during the House GOP meeting Trump “said very complementary things about all of us. We had sustained applause. he said I’m doing a very good job. We’re grateful for that.”
CNN: Trump again referred to Hannibal Lecter in speech to House GOP, said, “Nice guy, he even had a friend over for dinner”. Praise for the fictional cannibal has become a staple in Trump speeches.
In case anyone is wondering about the context, Trump brings up Hannibal Lecter in his speeches right after repeating one of his favorite lies — that Mexico is emptying insane asylums to U.S.
In other words Biden is letting crazy Mexicans come to America and eat our children.
They really need to keep him on the golf course away from microphones.
I enjoyed Fineman. Many of the early television people were similar. Think about television 1974, that was twenty years after Korea, not even thirty after WWII, and Vietnam was still fighting. 2024 is fifty years from those early days of television. What has happened is a lessening of what was and what could have been.
Not everything is going to hell. Unless your money is tied up in conservative media. This from the Atlantic:
This past February, readership of the 10 largest conservative websites was down 40 percent compared with the same month in 2020…
The Daily Caller lost 57 percent of its audience; Drudge Report, the granddaddy of conservative aggregation, was down 81 percent; and The Federalist, founded just over a decade ago, lost a staggering 91 percent.
According to the article a lot of the decline has to do with face book’s algo changes. It now promotes popular user and friends content and no longer pushes the clickbait news content that conservatives were overly dependent on. Left wing sites have also been effected but less so as they are more subscriber based.
btw, Fox is down 22%
Jack
It is now summer and a change in the weather patterns. May was rain, rain, and more rain. everything is growing, makes for good hay. Today is going to hit 90 with low humidity. A good day to put up hay. We haven’t had much warm weather so I’m not used to it yet. I need to get out and do a little work in the hot sun. Make my body adjust.
btw, I have work to do too, the lawn need cutting again.
Jack
“need to get out and do a little work in the hot sun.”
That’s heart attack logic, stay cool and hydrated, mad dogs and Englishman, you’re neither 🫡
Bink
Heart attacks happen when they happen but I’m in use it or lose territory. Set around too much and soon that is all I do. I don’t want to be one of those people.
A Hawk update, the last couple of weeks I watched the hawklets in the top of the tree jumping from limb to limb trying their wings, Last week end they were out of the tree and sitting on the fences and other lower perches. Yesterday they were flying together, 3 of them, from tree to tree. Practicing their flying techniques. (I think one of them may have been the mama hawk) There are no hawks in my back yard today. I did see one a few yards east of here. Their world is expanding and there are rodents to catch. Life goes on.
Jack
I had delicious authentic fish and chips today at an English-style pub near Greystone, Vestavia, AL. Add it to your foodie list, Pogo.
I say this is the reason WSJ is complicit in trashing Joe, they’re in effect being blackmailed by Felon and Putin. Trashing Joe for his age is part of the ransom.
Gershkovich, the US government and his employer, the Wall Street Journal, have vehemently denied the charges against him. Less than two weeks after his arrest, Gershkovich was designated as wrongfully detained by the US State Department, which called for his immediate release.
WSJ’s reporting and opinionating cannot be trusted because they are being held hostage.
Ivy, thanks for the recommendation. My former BIL lives in one of the McMansions in Greystone. Might run into him there.
Pogo, we’ve had another great run this week in the ‘ham. I love Alabama, it’s just the politicians I can’t stand. Everyone here also claims not to like them, how they stay in power is the mystery.
Since the boss of Newscorp is 93, I’m not sure complaints about an 82 year old from WSJ ring true.
Ivy, Baptists and racists outnumber democrats in AL. That’s how. And you’ll never go broke betting on the stupidity of the voters in Alabama.
Had a little flurp with someone who asked why Bidennus still running when he gave a talk at the G7 and started rambling about lawnmowers.
I said I didn’t hear the speech, but it had to make more sense than rambling about sharks and being electrocuted. They said they had no idea what that even meant.
As to why Biden stays in, I said to save democracy. They laughed. I mentioned Project 2025. They said they’d never heard of it.
I am very sorry I moved. The place is thick with MAGAts. Flags, hats, lies, idiocy.
Not watching news with anyone in order to avoid arguments hasn’t worked. They bring it up, or get ticked off about something when a vaguely-related something appears in a TV show. I’ve made a horrible decision. I’m sad or on edge all the time.
Blue
Just keep heading west. We live next to a very nice ocean. Just don’t stop on the east side of the state. That’s where we keep all our MAGAt types safely corralled.
Jamie – Thank You.
One could move to paradise and there’d still he an adjustment period, my advice is take up gardening and give up politics, and like my earlier advice to Jack, it is offered respectfully and once only 🫡
No matter where you go, there you are.
Pro Tip: Go to where the edibles are legal, and always remember to go placidly amid the noise and the haste.
Bid
You can’t change anybody’s mind when it requires a leap of faith. So arguing a counter argument is both a waste of time and irritating. Remember the old saw about wrestling with a pig. I ran into this problem a long time ago with racists. There are so many of them out there that arguing would take up all my time and since I had to work along side and get along with many of them. My strategy to survive is to say “I don’t think that is right (accurate)” So they would know I wasn’t a member of their club and go on about ,my business. It mostly worked.
You said somethng about living in a rural area yesterday. In those areas the first people you meet are either people nobody will talk to or people out to cheat you. Neither one is somebody to pay any attention to. Just practice being a neighbor, and see what you can find in common. You probably have more in common than you realize. But it is a slow process.
Jack
Blue, where did you move to? I’m sorry if I missed your sharing about it. I know the feeling of uprooting and then questioning, oh my, what have I done? (Ehem, birmingham cough cough). Moving is change, change is loss, loss must be mourned. There is a timetable but it varies for each person. Let yourself have the time you need to make the transition.
There are ways to manage with them and stay true to yourself. I have always managed to pick “orange areas” even when I lived in a blue state. In the red states, I am a blue dot. Keep hanging in there. Remember, they are going to lose in their state and even the country.
Mr. Ivy just reminded me Howard Fineman was on a discussion panel we heard at a conference in Seattle. Also on board were Donna Brazile, Michael Steele and the even-then-repugnant Tucker Carlson. They were all good and wise to see and hear and gracious to us the audience except the last one who bolted from the stage the second the bell rang.
Heard whining about SCOTUS ruling on mifepristone by finding lack of standing for docs and others who didn’t like or agree with its use, remote prescribing and mail distribution under the guise of sloppy FDA approval. Well, basic to bringing a lawsuit is the ability to show actual harm to the party bringing the lawsuit. These folks couldn’t. So while there wasn’t a decision on the merits, the pool of potential plaintiffs got narrowed significantly and any case will have to go through the district court, appeals court process to get to the Supreme Court. I think it was the correct ruling, and so did Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson. I’d have a tough time arguing that they got it wrong.
but in the meantime, here’s colbert
Noteworthy Catholic Stephen Colbert is headed to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis, President Biden’s poll numbers have ticked up amid his efforts to court young voters, and far-right anti-science Americans are rejecting pasteurization.
BTW, stephen, joe’s not the only prez that looked a bit awkward and frozen doing a line dance. remember this one?
back to the thread topic and those who are pouring fuel on the fires according to nicole and friends
Watch Nicolle Wallace and Angelo Carusone explain the “particularly insidious” way Sinclair spreads conservative talking points | Media Matters for America
I’m glad somebody’s finally noticed Sinclair—-after YEARS of their pollution of the airwaves.
I know Alito is white nationalist pond scum but I think even he wouldn’t do the upside down flag thing. I have to stick with A. That woman done beat the brows off his Nazi face. I bet she’s even a bigger Nazi than he is. Like that frau in the concentration camps. Has anyone checked the DNA of the Alito lampshades? Well, have they?
Joey Chestnut…..the brat had it coming.
as to reviving the “finger on the button” ads that donny deutsch wants, biden ad might want to mention (or have the general himself speak about) when Top general Mark Milley tried to keep ‘unstable’ Trump from nuclear button (thetimes.com) .
other coverage from that time:
Woodward/Costa book: Worried Trump could ‘go rogue,’ Milley took secret action to protect nuclear weapons | CNN Politics
Milley acted to prevent Trump from misusing nuclear weapons, war with China, book says (nbcnews.com)
the ad also had a revival in the 2016 campaign
In a new campaign ad released in the final full week of the 2016 presidential election, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has released an inspired by the famous “Daisy” ad released by Lyndon Johnson in 1964. The ad seeks to portray Republican nominee as unstable and untrustworthy to trusted with nuclear weapons.
sturge, you’re not the only one who noticed. click here for
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell explores what Justice Alito’s wife possibly meant when she invoked being German “to inspire fear in the people who, in her mind, come after her.” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse joins to discuss how Senate Republicans had a “hard time” defending why they blocked a Supreme Court ethics bill to hold justices accountable to a code of conduct.
I’ve grown quite accustomed to not being the only one who has noticed something.
Joey Chestnut….he mustard done something wrong.
—George Conway.
I was more saddened than I realized by the news of Howard Fineman’s passing. I can’t say why exactly, I guess I spent so much time in the past having my political and social formation influenced by folks like him on my channels. Somewhere I learned also my former rabbi was the rabbi at Howard’s son’s wedding and that made it feel like family.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/12/obituaries/howard-fineman-dead.html
Fireman was always fun on Imus…..
Imus was always the best interviewer. He brought out the authentic personalities of his guests, or so it seemed to me.
I too was a fan of Fineman, got to know him fairly well. Deserves his last name, for sure. Angered me how Chris Matthews often insulted him but he kept going back for more. I never did another seg with Chris when he called me a racist. Howard benefitted from his years covering Kentucky politics, he well understood Democratic party vulnerabilities with rural voters.
Trump down six points in Florida since conviction.. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4719588-trump-lead-in-florida-narrows-survey/
Supreme Court decisions in ten minutes
SCOTUS: Abortion pill saved, on standing issue
Bad decision for republicans. Now their Taliban legislators will rev up bills to ban abortion pill because court did not address the merits, just standing
At the risk of sounding serious for a change, Howard Fineman was a pleasant, decent guy who wasn’t an overtly partisan twit. I always enjoyed his appearances on the various shows and am sorry to hear of his passing.
Gotta love those lack of standing decisions. From Kavanaugh’s Opinion:
BTW, it was a unanimous decision. Roberts has apparently been working the guys and gals on the Court to stop the stupid shit. This does not bode well for the RWNJs’ (yes, Clarence, I’m talking about you) plan to ban birth control.
Lunatic on the loose. Trump to House GOP: “Nancy Pelosi’s daughter is a wacko, her daughter told me if things were different Nancy and I would be perfect together, there’s an age difference though”. Jake Sherman, who reported this, said “I don’t know what this means, really. But this is what he told a group of House Rs.”
Pelosi Daughters Respond
That was quick. Pelosi daughter Christine: “Speaking for all 4 Pelosi daughters — this is a LIE. His deceitful, deranged obsession with our mother is yet another reason Donald Trump is unwell, unhinged and unfit to step foot anywhere near her — or the White House.”
Apparently Mikey didn’t understand Trump was talking about Hannibal Lecter:
Mike Johnson says that during the House GOP meeting Trump “said very complementary things about all of us. We had sustained applause. he said I’m doing a very good job. We’re grateful for that.”
CNN: Trump again referred to Hannibal Lecter in speech to House GOP, said, “Nice guy, he even had a friend over for dinner”. Praise for the fictional cannibal has become a staple in Trump speeches.
In case anyone is wondering about the context, Trump brings up Hannibal Lecter in his speeches right after repeating one of his favorite lies — that Mexico is emptying insane asylums to U.S.
In other words Biden is letting crazy Mexicans come to America and eat our children.
They really need to keep him on the golf course away from microphones.
I enjoyed Fineman. Many of the early television people were similar. Think about television 1974, that was twenty years after Korea, not even thirty after WWII, and Vietnam was still fighting. 2024 is fifty years from those early days of television. What has happened is a lessening of what was and what could have been.
Not everything is going to hell. Unless your money is tied up in conservative media.
This from the Atlantic:
According to the article a lot of the decline has to do with face book’s algo changes. It now promotes popular user and friends content and no longer pushes the clickbait news content that conservatives were overly dependent on. Left wing sites have also been effected but less so as they are more subscriber based.
btw, Fox is down 22%
Jack
It is now summer and a change in the weather patterns. May was rain, rain, and more rain. everything is growing, makes for good hay. Today is going to hit 90 with low humidity. A good day to put up hay. We haven’t had much warm weather so I’m not used to it yet. I need to get out and do a little work in the hot sun. Make my body adjust.
btw, I have work to do too, the lawn need cutting again.
Jack
“need to get out and do a little work in the hot sun.”
That’s heart attack logic, stay cool and hydrated, mad dogs and Englishman, you’re neither 🫡
Bink
Heart attacks happen when they happen but I’m in use it or lose territory. Set around too much and soon that is all I do. I don’t want to be one of those people.
A Hawk update, the last couple of weeks I watched the hawklets in the top of the tree jumping from limb to limb trying their wings, Last week end they were out of the tree and sitting on the fences and other lower perches. Yesterday they were flying together, 3 of them, from tree to tree. Practicing their flying techniques. (I think one of them may have been the mama hawk) There are no hawks in my back yard today. I did see one a few yards east of here. Their world is expanding and there are rodents to catch. Life goes on.
Jack
I had delicious authentic fish and chips today at an English-style pub near Greystone, Vestavia, AL. Add it to your foodie list, Pogo.
https://www.theanvilpub.com/
here’s today’s meme…
I say this is the reason WSJ is complicit in trashing Joe, they’re in effect being blackmailed by Felon and Putin. Trashing Joe for his age is part of the ransom.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/13/europe/russia-evan-gershkovich-court-trial-intl/index.html?utm_term=1718291136947293e3f07844a&utm_source=cnn_Breaking+News&utm_medium=email&bt_ee=49bcXdnFwpv%2FaY98XtMFFTwyX%2BgzOiX%2FvW5aG2gpElfbkQpdrcBpEzuk1V4C8Lm2&bt_ts=1718291136949
WSJ’s reporting and opinionating cannot be trusted because they are being held hostage.
Ivy, thanks for the recommendation. My former BIL lives in one of the McMansions in Greystone. Might run into him there.
Pogo, we’ve had another great run this week in the ‘ham. I love Alabama, it’s just the politicians I can’t stand. Everyone here also claims not to like them, how they stay in power is the mystery.
Since the boss of Newscorp is 93, I’m not sure complaints about an 82 year old from WSJ ring true.
Ivy, Baptists and racists outnumber democrats in AL. That’s how. And you’ll never go broke betting on the stupidity of the voters in Alabama.
Had a little flurp with someone who asked why Bidennus still running when he gave a talk at the G7 and started rambling about lawnmowers.
I said I didn’t hear the speech, but it had to make more sense than rambling about sharks and being electrocuted. They said they had no idea what that even meant.
As to why Biden stays in, I said to save democracy. They laughed. I mentioned Project 2025. They said they’d never heard of it.
I am very sorry I moved. The place is thick with MAGAts. Flags, hats, lies, idiocy.
Not watching news with anyone in order to avoid arguments hasn’t worked. They bring it up, or get ticked off about something when a vaguely-related something appears in a TV show. I’ve made a horrible decision. I’m sad or on edge all the time.
Blue
Just keep heading west. We live next to a very nice ocean. Just don’t stop on the east side of the state. That’s where we keep all our MAGAt types safely corralled.
Jamie – Thank You.
One could move to paradise and there’d still he an adjustment period, my advice is take up gardening and give up politics, and like my earlier advice to Jack, it is offered respectfully and once only 🫡
No matter where you go, there you are.
Pro Tip: Go to where the edibles are legal, and always remember to go placidly amid the noise and the haste.
Bid
You can’t change anybody’s mind when it requires a leap of faith. So arguing a counter argument is both a waste of time and irritating. Remember the old saw about wrestling with a pig. I ran into this problem a long time ago with racists. There are so many of them out there that arguing would take up all my time and since I had to work along side and get along with many of them. My strategy to survive is to say “I don’t think that is right (accurate)” So they would know I wasn’t a member of their club and go on about ,my business. It mostly worked.
You said somethng about living in a rural area yesterday. In those areas the first people you meet are either people nobody will talk to or people out to cheat you. Neither one is somebody to pay any attention to. Just practice being a neighbor, and see what you can find in common. You probably have more in common than you realize. But it is a slow process.
Jack
Blue, where did you move to? I’m sorry if I missed your sharing about it. I know the feeling of uprooting and then questioning, oh my, what have I done? (Ehem, birmingham cough cough). Moving is change, change is loss, loss must be mourned. There is a timetable but it varies for each person. Let yourself have the time you need to make the transition.
There are ways to manage with them and stay true to yourself. I have always managed to pick “orange areas” even when I lived in a blue state. In the red states, I am a blue dot. Keep hanging in there. Remember, they are going to lose in their state and even the country.
Mr. Ivy just reminded me Howard Fineman was on a discussion panel we heard at a conference in Seattle. Also on board were Donna Brazile, Michael Steele and the even-then-repugnant Tucker Carlson. They were all good and wise to see and hear and gracious to us the audience except the last one who bolted from the stage the second the bell rang.
Heard whining about SCOTUS ruling on mifepristone by finding lack of standing for docs and others who didn’t like or agree with its use, remote prescribing and mail distribution under the guise of sloppy FDA approval. Well, basic to bringing a lawsuit is the ability to show actual harm to the party bringing the lawsuit. These folks couldn’t. So while there wasn’t a decision on the merits, the pool of potential plaintiffs got narrowed significantly and any case will have to go through the district court, appeals court process to get to the Supreme Court. I think it was the correct ruling, and so did Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson. I’d have a tough time arguing that they got it wrong.
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