Bob, who do these people think they’re fooling?

Loved this piece of blowback “The smartest thing for Biden to do is to pardon Trump, put all this wasted energy behind us, and move forward with trying to unify the people.

Reminded me of George Carlin’s “I just want to put this thing behind me and get on with my life”

Start at 11:00

https://youtu.be/H0YSlxUaESg?t=660

Keep on kicking

Anthony Gimel

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Seems it’s time for your readers to again contemplate the Paradox of tolerance, as posed by Karl Popper in 1945 in The Open Society and Its Enemies,

“Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. — In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant”

Stu Walker

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Thanks for the master class on whataboutism, deflection, and denial. And when a private company decides who can use its services it’s not censorship. As one wit put it, think of Twitter as a Christian baker and Trump as a gay wedding cake. America the beautiful.

George Laugelli

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It’s pretty simple – do you care about others in society beyond your loved ones or not? Be honest with yourself. All this defensiveness, and denial. We know the history here. There are only two sides to decency. We must stop listening to the people who don’t care and are too much up in their ego to ever admit they were wrong.

My aunt was a German girl living outside Bergen Belsen. She knew, but she never admitted she was sorry. She always said she couldn’t do anything because her family was hungry. We don’t know what we would have done in her position, but we know what we can do now. There is a line. We all have to stop listening to those who won’t even acknowledge the line.

Thanks for enduring the slings.

Johanna

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As a concert promoter, I learned the ticket price wasn’t high enough if nobody complained about it.

Before I promoted shows, I spent 25 years in the newspaper business. As a sports editor, the overwhelming majority of letters I got were from those complaining about coverage.

The point is – I was amazed to see that you have 3 or 4 responses supporting you here. The others are predictable negative responses. People, by nature, don’t bother to write about it unless they disagree or object. For every pissed off reader, you probably have a dozen or more who agree with you and don’t feel compelled to write about it.

Brian Martin

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This is what we have become, a bunch of uneducated people who make big pronouncements without any facts to back them up. Your complainers prove they are not interested in the truth if it contradicts their beliefs.

 

Maggie Curran- “There’s absolutely no scientific evidence, using the scientific method, that masks prevent infection. None.”  Did not know Maggie was a scientist and practicing physician ? If you go into any operating room in America everyone is wearing a mask. A simple google search will give you numerous medical studies that prove otherwise.

 

Thaddeus Graham- “No, it was not a coup attempt. 1% of the people were armed, at most?  Did not know that Thaddeus works for the FBI/Secret Service or was at the capitol and did a weapon check of everyone who was involved. Let’s just say he is right, 1% of 3000 people is 30, does he know how many people can be killed by 30 weapons, some assault weapons, pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails.

 

Just because you can yell the loudest does not make you right. Stop talking shit that you know nothing about!

 

Hang in Bob, the truth wins, it can just take time!

 

Regards,

 

Scott Welch

Scott Welch Management

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Couldn’t agree with you more. The Benghazi Hearings went on for four years, four years! This guy has crossed every boundary- every line including sedition, defacing our capital, making money off of Covid, killing 365,000 people, blowing the vaccine roll out. He is buried the economy. And of course the republicans want us to MoveOn. And what ? Forget the most corrupt, worst president ever? In 2008 we moved on from the corporations burying the economy. No one went to jail. That gave us Trump.

I want to put your stuff out everywhere. I am locked and loaded. Figuratively, and literally. I cannot believe how angry I am and how much they have debased our country. Fuck em . As I said to one of  my Trump friends, if Obama had done this, I would be just as angry and want to do all I could to make sure he was prosecuted. Why the hell don’t you feel that way? If it was Obama -you would be calling for his head. His answer; that’s different. They are two-faced liars. Thanks for your inspiration- you’re right on -let’s all stay strong. Next time you’re in the store and someone’s not wearing a mask, let’s all get on them and yell at them . We all grumble to ourselves as one or two assholes walks in proudly without a mask. We need to turn on all of them. There are more of us-  they have awakened the sleeping giant.

Peter O’Fallon

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Here’s a pop quiz… Of the last 20 appointments to the Supreme Court, how many have been made by Republican Presidents and how many by Democrats?     If you guessed 16 by Republicans, you’d be correct!  So the question is, how could the Pubs possibly justify whining about not getting enough appointments?   Because facts are irrelevant!
Nixon – 4
Carter – 0
Ford – 1
Reagan – 4
George H Bush – 2
Clinton – 2
George W Bush – 2
Obama – 2
Trump – 3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_justices_of_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States

rkirkbright

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It can’t be said enough:

Free speech doctrine does not legally apply to privately-owned platforms. (Read it again, dummies on the right. Or ask an adult to read it to you.)

You can write “You’re commies! Whatever that means! I’ve heard it said elsewhere!” to the New York Times all you want. Write them 100 letters. Send them 1,000 emails. They are not legally mandated to publish it. Same goes for Twitter and Facebook.

Public comment at your local town hall? They (by law) have to give you time for your say. (For an entertaining example, YouTube “The Party Bros.”)

May we never forget both big tech platforms waited until there was a body count at the Capitol to make a move against the ad-money-faucet of misinformation, sexism, and racism that Donkey Trump reveled in. Big Tech knows that even with the gameshow host gone, that hydra has plenty of other profitable heads.

S. Roads
Boston MA

PS. Big tech still has all of our data and will continue to print money selling it.

PSS. If you think for whatever reason they don’t have YOUR data, you’re wrong. They do.

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In Australia, our left have a long term view and that is controlled through the union movement which is the primary funding mechanism for the labour Party ( our democrats). Our right may have a long term view but it’s hard to see.

Its fascinating to watch the US from here. It’s a complex very divided society.
How you get to the middle.
1) Pay wages that allow people to live.
2) Fix your medical system – easy – we pay 1.75% of our incomes to “Medicare” our socially provided healthcare system- and that provides comprehensive basic health cover for all – independent of incomes/wealth. Many have private cover in addition which is to ensure the top private doctors/private hospitals etc (what wealth can buy)
3) Provide paid sick and Carers leave – people can afford to stay at home when not well
4) Provide proper holiday pay – allow people to live like humans.
5) Free education for all children.

Many more suggestions, but this is what we have in “socialist Australia”
We have no violence, not guns no murders low violent crime.

Good luck for the next few weeks – it will be interesting.

Mark Michalowsky

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I lost my mother in Iowa in early September. And then I lost my relationship with my sister who – in defiance of my mother’s wishes – demanded a service at the funeral home, which of course refused to require masks in their building. The vitriol I experienced while back “home” tending to my mother in her last days was staggering and entirely inexplicable.  My mother was incredibly proud of my work (for the WA Atty Gen) but was too afraid to tell people that we were suing Dejoy for intentionally crippling the usps in advance of the election (back in the day – 2017 – my friend and WA state solicitor general Noah Purcell argued the travel ban in the 9th circuit.  It was his work shut down the ban nationwide – go Noah)   Silly me I thought, regardless of party, who could possibly oppose defending the postal service against these attacks? Well, it became clear that it absolutely did not matter what I said or what positions I took – I was merely the liberal enemy from Seattle. It was confusing. It was disorienting.  People responded to simple questions with such hatred – and you could tell that they themselves were unable to explain why they were reacting the way they were. They were just as confused by their responses as I was.  It sucks.  It all just sucks.

And I’ve been told I need to listen to those folks because they’re hurting.  And that’s exactly what I did for nearly four years – patiently listening to my family spew unhinged nonsense, hoping to draw out their underlying concerns and interests. As you know – It’s foolish; that is an entirely foolish “strategy”.  The just want to hate and blame someone for their problems.  That’s it.  That’s all of it.  Fuck Hillbilly Elegy.  It’s just simple spite and hatred. Nothing more.

So thank you, Bob, for keeping the lights of hope on for me this year, especially.  It has helped me persevere knowing that not everyone has been fiendishly deluded.

Sincerely,

Mark Melroy
Seattle, WA

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My opinion is: The issue with Taylor Swift, Trump and many others (Ed Sheeran, Travis Scott, Ellen, Bieber, Elon Musk) is, they are not grounded as individuals, and they don’t know how the middle class or the lower class people live; they don’t care, and they are not raising a family of their own (or never had to in Trump/Elon case).

They’ve never put themselves second or third, they’ve never set their egos aside. When you’re successful, when you don’t have to work a job (or multiple) at minimum wage to make ends meet, when you’ve never been oppressed as an individual, or lived in a poor or war ridden country, you lose touch of reality, of why you’re doing what you do in the first place.

To the successful whiners; Be happy that you get to do what you love everyday, be thankful that you have an audience (and money that comes with it), and stop whining about your problems; we all have them, but we don’t all get to cry in our mansions when we have a bad day.

tepnomusic

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At least you have the balls to post under your own name. Anonymity on the internet is a scourge and disease. As the former CEO of a large message board network who has had his share of death threats (FBI involved, solved) for simple things like having the courage to make minor rule changes to the platform, I can’t imagine what is happening to Twitter and other platform staff right now. At least they are WFH these days. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be doxed or swatted.

What needs to and probably will never happen is real ID for all online activity. Remove anonymity, improve the world. Without any impact on free speech – if you want to talk you can, you just can’t do it from behind a pseudonym. Kind of like speakers corner, Hyde Park, London. Imagine how much better we’d all be if everyone had to use their real name online. THAT would bring back the good ‘ole small town days of the internet where, as they say on Cheers, ‘Everyone Knows Your Name’.

Keep up the great work and don’t let the bastards get you down.

Rob Labatt

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Always thrilling to discover how many assholes read you.

I found out this AM… maybe some grist for you here..

Nobody joins a cult. They just forget to leave. How do you get them to leave?

Nobody joins a cult. They just forget to leave. How do you get them to leave?

Jesse Kornbluth

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It’s interesting to see the blowback against your almost uniformly intelligent rants.

After all, you told us months ago EXACTLY how far Trump would take it if he lost (including inciting violence) and people criticized you for exaggerating.

Mostly, what I read here are 3 kinds of forces in motion.

First, the false equivalency. This sleight of hand confuses a lot of people. You can see it in a lot of the comments.

Second, ignorance of history. People minimize the danger because they have no context for events and they underestimate just how bad things can get – fast. They think that even if they are (literally) ignorant ( not stupid), they are still entitled to a point of view on a topic. Which is ridiculous. If you don’t know enough, you can’t speak intelligently about an event. You can only react emotionally and then rationalize that somehow your feeling makes you right.

Third, excuse-me thinking. The fact that the rioters and seditionists think they did the right thing doesn’t make it right! It stuns me how often I hear this. This is actually crazy. Not one of the people who agree with this would say that it was OK if someone tried to murder them, because the murderer thought they were doing the right thing.

That’s what you’re up against.

John Parikhal

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Is it only lawyers that understand the “screaming fire in a crowded theater” “exception” to the First Amendment?

The broadcasters have to adhere to “standards and practices” under FCC guidelines.

Perhaps Rupert has given so much $ to both parties that he and FOX News have gotten a free pass from the FCC for airing an almost constant and unchecked stream of lies since the network’s inception.  The other three have been called on the carpet for the slightest infraction -ie -  Dan Rather and the Westmoreland libel suit in the mid 1980’s; the The Killian documents/George W. Bush 60 Minutes controversy…

What if Fox News was forced to adhere to the same standards and practices as CBS/NBC and ABC?

What if all of the cable channels had to (with the sex exception for cable since THAT would definitely cause a revolution)?

And what of those same “standards and practices” were applied to the ISP’s (who ultimately have more power than FB, Twitter, Google combined) so that the ISP’s would be the gatekeepers preventing child porno, extreme violence, propaganda from all political persuasions, terrorist recruitment sites, lies, insanity, etc, etc?

IS that TOO “BIG BROTHER” or is it just the most effective modern tech way of preventing the endless screaming of “Fire in a crowded theater”?

George Gilbert

Attorney At Law

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You don’t know me but ask around, I’ve still got cred and a rep- what did you expect to happen when you spoke the truth? That suddenly the willfully ignorant would see the light? truth terrifies people because it demands that they examine and measure. Critical thinking is dead and has been replaced by propaganda of which the right wing is the biggest consumer and purveyor of.

After a lifetime in the biz both on radio and as an A&R exec at a handful of majors, I am now a high school teacher in a small Indiana town- go figure. What I have painfully observed is that there is ignorance which can be remedied with knowledge. Then there is willful ignorance for which there is no remedy. I have now concluded that there is a third state- defiant ignorance which is very dangerous and upon us…keep writing…keep shining the light.

Jovan (John) Mrvos

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Not a big leap to see how 70+ million people came to idolize an illiterate conman. Millions of Americans graduate high school and college without mastering the most elementary basics, as evidenced here in these letters to you. Literacy is crucial to critical thinking — both in very short supply the last five years.

Deb Wilker