Noam Chomsky on Language, Left Libertarianism, and Progress (Ep. 182) Noam Chomsky Interviewed on Conversations with Tyler June 14, 2023. Conversations with Tyler. Noam Chomsky joins Tyler to discuss why Noam and Wilhelm von Humboldt have similar views on language and liberty, good and bad evolutionary approaches to language, what he thinks Stephen Wolfram gets wrong about […]
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Churning in the Donald Trump multiverse Judge Tanya S. Chutkan is set to consider a trial date for Donald Trump’s trial on federal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith in the Jan. 6 indictment. CNN reports, “Smith wants the trial to begin January 2 – two weeks before Trump’s first big test in the 2024 primary race in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. The ex-president’s team has asked for much more time, and is proposing a date of April 2026. Trump is not expected to be at the hearing.” Watch Brandi Buchman’s live feed from the Prettyman courthouse in Washington, D.C. beginning at 10 a.m. In Atlanta, meanwhile, in a hearing this morning, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will present arguments in the case against Mark Meadows who seeks to move his case to federal court. Politico explains why Meadows (and others) might want their cases heard in federal court: If moved to federal court, the charges — all of which are under Georgia law — would remain the same, and Willis’ team could continue to handle the prosecution. But federal procedural rules, not state court rules, would apply.
But you knew that “Again, bear in mind that Fox is not a news organization,” semi-retired journalist, Sam Litzinger, reminds Mastodon readers. Litzinger refers to this Saturday evening story at CNN Business: Fox News apologized Saturday to a Gold Star family for publishing a false story last month claiming that the family had to pay $60,000 to ship the remains of their fallen relative back from Afghanistan because the Pentagon refused to pay. “The now unpublished story has been addressed internally and we sincerely apologize to the Gee family,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement, referencing the family of fallen Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, who was one of 13 service members killed in a terror attack at the Kabul airport in 2021 while assisting with US withdrawal efforts. The apology came after a Military.com report this week drew attention to the issue and indicated that the right-wing outlet’s top executives had repeatedly been notified by senior members of the Marine Corps that it was pushing a false story. Fox applied a bandaid to its false story by changing the headline to attribute the claim to Rep.
Vivek Ranmaswwamy is the future of the GOP There is a lot of talk these days about what is to become of the Republican Party once Trump is gone. It seems a bit premature considering that Trump is still very much present and whether he wins or loses, he’s not going anywhere until he’s six feet under. Still, the man is 77 years old so it’s natural to consider what’s going to be left of the hulking wreck of the GOP once he leaves this mortal coil. The fact that Trump is the runaway favorite to win the 2024 Republican nomination despite the 91 felony charges he faces in four different cases really says it all about where the party is today. Polling over the past couple of weeks confirms that most Republicans still believe The Big Lie and are convinced that his legal troubles are trumped up charges by a Democratic Party Deep State conspiracy. Whether they actually buy this is debatable, but it’s clear that they are sticking with their man regardless. Criminal or not, they like what he’s selling. No, actually they love what he’s selling. And what that comes down to is transgressivism.
At the point that picture was taken, 200,000 people had died of COVID in the previous three months and Trump was telling everyone to drink bleach. Good times for sure. He self-soothes by re-posting memes like that over and over again. He seems to be having a particularly tough day and it’s not surprising. His DC trial is set for March 4th, one day before Super Tuesday. Gentle reminder: that man is the front runner for the Republican nomination for president.
Governor Ron DeSantis was heckled and booed at a Sunday vigil held to honor victims of the racist mass shooting at a Jacksonville store the previous day. The boos began from the moment the Florida governor was introduced and continued as he tried to deliver his remarks. DeSantis acknowledged Ju’Coby Pittman, the city councilwoman who organized the prayer vigil, and promised assistance from the state government to go toward security for Edward Waters University, a historically Black university that the gunman initially visited prior to the shooting. “We’re not going to allow these institutions to be targeted by people,” he said, stopping as the noise from the crowd grew even louder. At that moment, Pittman got up and grabbed the microphone from the stand and addressed the hundreds of people gathered, telling them to let DeSantis continue. “It ain’t about parties today. A bullet don’t know a party,” she said. The BBC reports that DeSantis was ultimately able to finish his speech, reiterating comments he had made the day of the shooting.
Trump couldn’t pass a job interview MSNBC’s Chris Hayes (IIRC) last week observed that Republicans are seriously considering nominating for president a man facing four federal and state indictments on 91 felony counts who, the last time he held office, tried to end the republic as we know it and sent a mob to sack the U.S. Capitol. Ben Rhodes, former Obama deputy national security advisor, commented Thursday night on “the steady radicalization of the Republican Party and the trivialization of politics.” Regarding Donald Trump’s interview last week with fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Rhodes wrote that “the GOP frontrunner talked at length on this platform about vicious mosquitos, conspiracy theories, and general nonsense. A man who said those things in a job interview for just about any other position in the world wouldn’t get hired.” Trump is also, you may have heard, 6′-3″ and 215 pounds of rippling muscle. BTW, Trump this week declared himself the winner of another golf tournament (at a club he owns) in which he totally did not cheat.
Is it too much to ask? Heather Cox Richardson posts, “Reading a paper today and it gave me a crazy idea: how about interviewing some Democratic voters for a change? Maybe that’s just too out there to be on the table, though….” Other than mocking lefties for eating avocado toast, the press doesn’t view them as newsworthy subjects of inquiry unless they occupy Nancy Pelosi’s office, that is, when they show up where political reporters normally do their jobs. There are few political reporting safaris to where Democrat-leaning voters hang out in cities large and small unless they are on college campuses or represent the lunatic fringe. But angry right-wingers at school board meetings? That bleeds. Even when it doesn’t. Are there no coffee shops? No book stores? Marianne Williamson visited one in little Aiken, SC recently (in a county that went 61-38 for Trump in 2020). Local papers reported the press release. Nothing on the rarities who showed up with opinions.
Here’s the latest from the man tens of millions of Americans worship like a god. I just thought you ought to know even if you don’t want to. In case you were wondering, Trump always cheats at golf. Here’s an excerpt of one of many, many stories about it: Jack O’Donnell worked with Donald Trump for four years as vice president of Trump Plaza Casino in Atlantic City. O’Donnell’s dad was one of the founders of Sawgrass, the iconic Pete Dye golf course near Jacksonville, Fla. “My dad always told us to respect the game,” O’Donnell says. “That’s the one part of the game that tells me what kind of person you are. You play the ball where it lies.” So when O’Donnell’s office colleague, the late Mark Eddis, came back after his first round with Trump, O’Donnell couldn’t resist asking. “So, does he improve his lie?” Eddis looked at him and threw his head back in laughter. “Every shot but the tee shot.” Trump doesn’t just cheat at golf. He cheats like a three-card Monte dealer. He throws it, boots it, and moves it. He lies about his lies.
Yesterday there was another horrific hate crime perpetrated down in Florida when a racist walked into a Dollar Store and gunned down 3 people because they were Black: “This shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people,” Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said at a news conference early Saturday evening. Waters said the shooter, who he described as a White man in his 20s, shot and killed himself after the attack. The suspect left behind what the sheriff described as three manifestos outlining his “disgusting ideology of hate” and his motive in the attack. All three victims, two men and one woman, were Black. Waters said the shooter lived in Clay County, Florida, south of Jacksonville, with his parents. Jacksonville is located in northeast Florida, about 35 miles south of the Georgia border. Waters said the shooter told his father by text to “check his computer.” The father found documents described by Waters as manifestos and called authorities. But Waters said by the time authorities were alerted about the manifestos, the gunman had already started the attack in the Dollar General.