March 23, 2019

"Pete Buttigieg is the antidote to the Endless Summer of Scam. He’s full of the elite qualifications that you might rightly suspect..."

"... but provides depth in real time before you. He went to Afghanistan, but hasn’t made himself out to be a war hero. He fluently draws parallels between Ulysses and American politics. He learned Norwegian to read a book. He learned Norwegian to read a book. He has a lot of sober, curveball theories about millennials and generational change.... This is a 37-year-old mayor. In any normal situation, we probably would not be talking about him in context of being president of the United States. But in the season of scam, the subtle appeal of Mayor Pete is that, maybe, at the very least, he’s done the work of being who he purports to be."

From "The Romance Of Mayor Pete In The Season Of Scam/Gotta keep an eye out for those scams, but isn't the appeal of Pete Buttigieg that he seems like the antidote to the season of scam?" by Katherine Miller (in Buzzfeed).

I'm fascinated by the conundrum. It's the "Summer of Scam"* and he seems like the antidote to scam.  But isn't that what a scam within a season of scam would look like? We're so hungry for authenticity that we fall for the biggest faker or all? Or did we already do that?

By the way, I watched the HBO documentary, "The Inventor," about that way over-the-top faker Elizabeth Holmes — the woman who was worth $5 billion one day and then $0 the next because her her blood-testing product, "Edison," didn't work and, apparently, couldn't possibly work. But people who should have smelled fakery hopped on board, mesmerized. Wouldn't it be wonderful if it were true.

AND: What I wondered was which author did Buttigieg want to read in the original so much. Here's a BBC article:
Writer Asne Seierstad was introduced to Pete Buttigieg, a presidential candidate and the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, at a music festival in Texas last week. Without missing a beat, he began to speak with her about literature - in Norwegian.

Mr Buttigieg has "a South Bend accent", she says, but otherwise his Norwegian was excellent. Still she felt confused and wondered: "Why would an American learn Norwegian?" As it turned out, he'd decided that he wanted to read the work of Norwegian novelist Erlend Loe in the original language.
Here's an Erland Loe book translated into English: "Naïve. Super."
I have two friends. A good one and a bad one. And then there's my brother. He might not be quite as friendly as I am, but he's OK.

I am borrowing my brother's flat while he is away.... My life has been strange lately. It came to a point where I lost interest in it all....
_____________

* Not to be confused with the Summer of Sam.

128 comments:

Charlie said...

If he's everything they are claiming, and if he's so smart he learned a foreign language just to read a single book, why is he only the Mayor of a shithole midwestern city? Seems he's underachieved.

SteveR said...

Not to be confused with the Summer of George

Shane said...

Not to be confused with "Sam Scam and the Pharaoahs"

tim in vermont said...

It’s good to know that there must be virtually millions of Americans who are highly qualified to be President of the United States. Apparently however; the ability to play Chopsticks on the piano is not yet been deemed enough to qualify in and of itself, so we have that going for us.

tim in vermont said...

Seems like “the mentioners” have developed a bad case of logorrhea.

Mark said...

It struck me how many major Conservative players were in on Theranos. Murdoch, DeVos, and Kraft all put in $100 million + and the board is a long list of Republican players (Kissinger, Schultz, Mattis, etc).

What an incredible story. Elizabeth Holmes must be quite something in a conference room to have snookered all those people.

Charlie Currie said...

Every time I read Elizabeth Holmes, I think Katie Holmes and then try to picture her face and what movie/tv show I've seen her in. Then I remember she's the mock turtle.

Lyle said...

He's seem like a character brainstormed up at that Iowa graduate writing program.

Ralph L said...

He went to Afghanistan, but hasn’t made himself out to be a war hero.

Yet somehow, his military service will come up whenever his name does, as it did for Kerry in 03-04 and McCain since 1981.

Hagar said...

Norwegian is a simple language, but not that simple.

Ambrose said...

Buttigieg may be a fine person and not my business if he runs or not - but no one would be talking about him if he were not the gay candidate.

Mad Bohemian said...

Professor, I see you’ve been highlighting potential democratic candidates for president. From more we’ll known ones like Harris, O’r,and Klobuchar. And some lesser known ones like the guy this thread is about.
So many, many candidates to choose from!!
I submit after hearing Barbra Streisand’s pearls of wisdom on Michael Jackson’s sex life, she too is qualified to run and I look forward to a possible thread like this for her too.

Ken B said...

This is ultimately why I remain a Trump skeptic. He is a symptom, Red America’s attempt at a cure. And in some ways he is a bit of a cure. But he is also part of the problem, which I will call the Twitterization of America. Reagan made a case. LBJ made a case. Obama not so much, and Trump not at all. I agree with Trump on some key issues, but I don’t want to just ram policies through a la Obamacare. I want the president to also make a case, and get agreement. Maybe no one can, the Democrats being so off the deep end, but Trump doesn’t try.

Michael K said...

He's gay. He could be beaten in the primaries by a black transsexual,though.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Positive media coverage of democrats in red states.

No oxygen or fair exchange of positive coverage for any R - anywhere-- by the democratic press.

stephen cooper said...

for the record "learning Norwegian just to read a book" is an actual thing.

People who have learned several languages but whose native language is English can learn to read basic Norwegian texts in a week (assuming they are willing to put the energy into it)

Norwegian is by far the most widely known language in the world which has a very high rate of reading like English in code - in other words, you see a word in Norwegian, and you translate to English using the closest word possible, almost always in the same order.

Frisian is closer - there exists, for example, a long sentence about bread and butter and morning effects that is almost the same in Frisian as it is in English - but Norwegian is so close that you can literally go pages and pages in a simple novel and just read it by looking up one word after the other.

The technical way of putting this is that the interlinear translation from Norwegian to English is almost word to word corresponding.

Sigrid Undset's novels are the right place to start.

rhhardin said...

Scott Adams for the last two periscopes has been indentifying conflators and (what was his opposite?) isolaters (or something).

The conflators tend to stick with TDS because there is so much other evidence. The isolators tend to go where the individual case takes them.

I think it's my abstracters (men) and complexifiers (women) in less provocative language. Abstract from details vs include more of them. Adams likes to stay out of feminist trouble.

Conflators are artist types, he says; and isolaters are science types.

He does not say that complexifiers are better for some things and worse for others; neighborhood stuff vs national policy, for instance, because he doesn't see the connection to abstraction and systems.

Drago said...

Try and find a love that speaks about you the way every MSMer/dem/lefty/LLR speaks about every single democrat candidate.

Dave Begley said...

"He fluently draws parallels between Ulysses and American politics. He learned Norwegian to read a book."

A white gay Obama who actually might be smart.

No amount of elite praise will get this guy nominated.

I want to see him campaign in Chicago or Sioux City, Iowa. Flop!

rhhardin said...

I credit Vicki Hearne (_Bandit_ chapter "Beastly Behaviors") for the observation that men abstract and women add details. I just point out its application in current events.

mccullough said...

South Bend did not get better or worse under Mayor Pete. So what record is he going to run on?

Christy said...

Prejudice is such a dirty word now that judgement is verboten. In any way! We wonder if it's us being racist when an obviously inappropriate person bangs on our door after dark wanting us to open up; decide we must be, because everyone says we southerners are racists no matter how many good friends are people of color and DON'T call the police; he gets in a few doors down and brutally attacks a person with a vagina.

We must believe all self-described victims, no matter what our experience tells us.

Never, ever, ever use judgement.

Big Mike said...

But people who should have smelled fakery hopped on board, mesmerized. Wouldn't it be wonderful if it were true.

The other day I wrote a comment to the effect that just because Holmes dressed in black turtle neck sweaters like Steve Jobs didn’t give her his reality distortion field. But maybe Mark is right, as long as she wasn’t dealing with engineers are microbiologists perhaps she could persuasively make defying the laws of physics seem perfectly plausible.

Of course Jobs never tried to defy the laws of physics; his reality distortion field merely convinced people to wok longer and harder than they ever thought they could. A lot of people burned out, but Jobs could always hire more engineers to replace them.

Bob Boyd said...

How's the crease in his pant legs?

madAsHell said...

"Sam Scam and the Pharaoahs"

....or Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs.

Wooly Bully!!

Charlie Currie said...

Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs - Wooly Bully

Maillard Reactionary said...

"They say that falling in love is wonderful" says the old song. That seems to be about the limit of Democrats' political thinking, although some will settle for free stuff and virtue-signalling at the expense of others-- if they can't find a candidate who makes them get all moist and doe-eyed.

Don't you want somebody to love?
Don't you need somebody to love?
Wouldn't you love somebody to love?
You gotta find somebody to love.

And who do they get? Trump!

The hunger, the longing, the aching, is palpable. Sad!

MBunge said...

How can anyone talk about the 37-year-old Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, as a legitimate candidate for President? Even at this point in the process? Trump really has broken these people.

Mike

Achilles said...

He learned Norwegian to read a book.

A first world intellectual then.

Extremely smart people who haven’t done walways fuck things up. He will be as good a president as carter.

And if the media likes him that is strike two.

I am willing to guess his Afghanistan deployment will be strike three. He was probably a fobbit. 90 percent of the people deployed to Afghanistan sat in the fob and bought everything at the PX while we were out and it was empty when we got back.

A primer on fobbits.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-Oq2LdbSIu0

Warning about unPC and bad language. We hate everyone. It’s how we show our love.

Gay people are not treated differently. We love them too. It is really hard to explain how people that are willing to shoot people for you love you.

But we do.

Hari said...

'Elite qualifications' are a both a scam and a tell.

Tomcc said...

"He learned Norwegian to read a book"; can one assume that Ms. Miller interviewed him in Norwegian? You know, to verify, that he's done the work...

Bob Boyd said...

I learned pig Latin when I was supposed to be reading a book.
I learned pig latin when I was supposed to be reading.

Tomcc said...

Sorry, I forgot to mention when I see the words "elite qualifications" I get a little tingle.
(and it tastes like vomit)

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Or did we already do that?”

Yes.

Fernandinande said...

isn't the appeal of Pete Buttigieg ...

No.

"Look, it’s no secret that this president came to power largely by turning people against one another and by taking advantage of the use of white nationalism blah blah blah"

Paul Zrimsek said...

The days when being governor of Alaska was insufficient qualification seem very long ago now.

Anonymous said...

Interesting comments by independent Catholic historian E. Michael Jones on Mayor Buttigieg in interview with Owen Benjamin. Begins about 33:18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3X4LDPU40E

MadisonMan said...

Elizabeth Holmes must be quite something in a conference room to have snookered all those people.

The book about it talks about Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) in Silicon Valley, and wanting to be on the ground floor of the Next Big Thing. Ya snooze, ya lose, that kind of thing.

A combination of that, and the people thinking they're so smart to be along for the ride. Much of the Media was completely snookered as well. I would not call the media Republicans.

Quayle said...

Remember that many silicon valley investors are basically floor traders. They are only trying to buy at the “bid” and later sell as the “ask” and go their merry way pocketing the spread.

A far worse scam than Holmes was the green energy “pump and dump” scheme that Al Gore got rich on. Obama did his part by pouring in taxpayer money to firms like solindra, giving the early investors an easy exit before the jig was up. At lease Holmes played only with private funds. Gore and Obama got rich playing with house-government money.

Bob_R said...

"It's the "Summer of Scam"* and he seems like the antidote to scam. But isn't that what a scam within a season of scam would look like? We're so hungry for authenticity that we fall for the biggest faker or all? Or did we already do that?"

If you are going to start a feedback loop like that, there is no better place to publish it than Buzzfeed.

robother said...

Hey! I've done the work of being who I purport to be, without even realizing that it was work. Can I get paid? Can I put it on my resume? Talk about scams, if I'd only known about this "work" when I was 16, it would've saved me from the Summertime Blues.

Trumpit said...

The burning question is will Pete Buttigieg be able to defeat President Mike Pence in 2020. The irony of a gay war hero going up against a Christian conservative, who opposes gay rights, will be interesting.

Meade said...

"will Pete Buttigieg be able to defeat President Mike Pence in 2020."

I think you mean 2024, don't you?

Quayle said...

“Gore and Obama got rich playing with house-government money.”

I should be more accurate. Should have written “Obama helped get Gore get rich by playing with taxpayer money.”

Obama got rich selling words and the hope of influence.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“The burning question is will Pete Buttigieg be able to defeat President Mike Pence in 2020. The irony of a gay war hero going up against a Christian conservative, who opposes gay rights, will be interesting.”

That it would be interesting is an understatement! An even better show than the Trump Show for all those who live for reality shows.

Trumpit said...

Is it a foregone conclusion that Trump will be the Republican candidate in 2020?

James Sarver said...

The Elizabeth Holmes debacle reminds me of a similar personal experience a quarter of a century back. I was a lowly contractor/consultant for a major technology firm that had a hot young female exec pushing the adoption of wireless technology that could not possibly function as she proposed.

I stated this to anyone who would listen (along with a fairly simple technical explanation) which was met with universal derision. I dropped the subject, even assisting in the deployment (which was a miserable failure). She ended up resigning.

My point is that there were plenty of folks in that organization who knew better and just rode it out. There were no consequences for ducking it. So much for expertise.

Nothing matters but the narrative until it crashes hard. We will ride it right over the cliff.

Francisco D said...

Pete Buttplug is obviously running for the name recognition needed to run for Indiana Governor or Senator.

A pretty significant portion of the Democrat challengers are also running for name recognition.

Of course, it has been surmised that Trump's ran for the Republican nomination for the same reason.

tim in vermont said...

Norwegian is by far the most widely known language in the world which has a very high rate of reading like English in code - in other words, you see a word in Norwegian, and you translate to English using the closest word possible, almost always in the same order.

You know what? I learned Middle English just to read the Canterbury Tales, and it was worth it. I wish I could still read it.

Big Mike said...

@Meade he meant 2028

Amexpat said...

He learned Norwegian to read a book

They don't say which book. That's more relevant to me in judging his character. James Joyce learned Norwegian to read Ibsen. I was a big Knut Hamsun fan before I moved to Norway. I bought his collective works in Norwegian shortly after I was fluent.

@Stephen Cooper: I agree that Norwegian is an easy to read for English speakers compared to other languages. But there are a lot of difficult dialects and two different official Norwegian languages that have distinctions comparable to those between the Scandinavian languages. The grammar and word order is fairly similar to English, but there are some things that can trip you up, like the verb goes before the subject in a subordinate clause and they use the same word for "it" and "there" in many contexts. There are also many "false friends", which are words that look like English but have different meanings. This is usually due the meaning of ancestral common word that changed in one of the languages over the course of time.

tim in vermont said...

Beto married into an incredibly rich family. So of course he’s qualified! Haven’t you guys seen Succession?

Kevin said...

Arthur and Ariadne sit at a table across the lobby. They spot Cobb moving across the lobby towards Fischer.

ARTHUR
And there goes Mr. Buttigieg.

ARIADNE
Who or what, exactly, is Mr.Buttigieg?

ARTHUR
It’s a gambit designed to turn Democrats against their own subconscious.

ARIADNE
And why don’t you approve?

ARTHUR
Because it involves telling the marks that they're dreaming. Which involves attracting a lot of attention to us.

ARIADNE
Didn’t the NYT say never to do that?

ARTHUR
You must’ve noticed by now how much time the NYT spends doing things it says it never does.

Kevin said...

The irony of a gay war hero going up against a Christian conservative, who opposes gay rights, will be interesting.

Put Proposition 8 to a vote, they said.

The people will never pass it, they said.

bonkti said...

The 2010 census for South Bend is about 101,000. It is the fourth largest in the state. If it were in California, it would be the 72nd largest city in the state, between the urban complexities of Rialto and Vista. Would the mayor be in serious contention for national news coverage if he were the executive of slightly larger Rialto, California?

How does competent management of a minor burg lend an imprimatur to Presidential aspiration? Is the proximity of Notre Dame what gives South Bend elevated status?

I don't get it.

cubanbob said...

So far I haven't seen one Democrat in the running that isn't a joke or isn't a nut or isn't a grifter. At this point it's starting to look like Trump can't lose even if he tries. Perhaps the 2020 elections will break the febrile progressive insanity of the Democrats and in 2024 they may actually run serious and sensible people who advocate serious and sensible policies. At this point I doubt it so it looks like 2024 will also be a Republican year. It took 12 years from Carter's defeat to Bill Clinton's election. I starting to see a pattern.

MayBee said...

Melania Trump would like to know why some people who learn another language are so praiseworthy, and some are written off as jumped up escorts.

effinayright said...

Stephen Cooper said...
Norwegian is by far the most widely known language in the world which has a very high rate of reading like English in code - in other words, you see a word in Norwegian, and you translate to English using the closest word possible, almost always in the same order.
********************

Which is odd, given that Old Norse, the language modern Icelandic is based on, is virtually impossible to stumble through. When I came back from a visit there, I couldn't tell my friends where I had been: how do you pronounce Eyjafjallajökull? Theistareykjarbunga?

How do you remember how to pronounce them?


MayBee said...

"The Inventor" is so good. I got a kick out of the female professor of medicine from Stanford who had no tolerance for Holmes and her wrong headed ideas.
It was interesting to see her and the Fyre Festival guy. Somehow these people have gotten the idea that failing at something is proof it is going to work if you just push hard enough. If people tell you it won't work, it's because they just don't believe hard enough.
The quote from Ghandi...."First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win" is the cruelest quote at all. It has somehow managed to convince people that if someone laughs at them, it is evidence that they will eventually win.

MayBee said...

We should ask every Democrat(ic) candidate if they would like the FBI to get a FISA warrant on one or two of their advisors and not tell them.

ken in tx said...

House, wife, and milk, makes good cheese.
Makes good English, and makes good Fries(ian).
The words are spelled differently in each language but sound very much alike.
Guess what 'Cuppa coppy' in Friesian means in English.

tim in vermont said...

Is it a foregone conclusion that Trump will be the Republican candidate in 2020?

You sound like so many of my liberal friends. “Even Republicans hate Trump! Just wait for the Mueller report!” But whatever you do, keep your faith alive, never question it! Did you know that Moses was denied entry into the Promised Land for a momentary lapse of faith! Don’t let that happen to you!

Amexpat said...

Which is odd, given that Old Norse, the language modern Icelandic is based on, is virtually impossible to stumble through. When I came back from a visit there, I couldn't tell my friends where I had been: how do you pronounce Eyjafjallajökull? Theistareykjarbunga?

Norwegians, Danes and Swedes don't understand Old Norse. Just like the English don't understand old English. Iceland is a special case. Being an isolated island their language didn't change nearly as much as the Scandinavian languages.

Jim at said...

a gay war hero

So, serving seven months in Afghanistan as a member of the Naval Reserve now qualifies as a war hero?

Good gawd.

n.n said...

Put Proposition 8 to a vote, they said. The people will never pass it, they said.

And they didn't. It required a transgender judge to override the vote.

Anonymous said...

"Authentic quality" in politics is a fantasy. One or two details are selected to make it seem like a politician has some intellectual or moral or spiritual substance. It's like selecting one or two qualities from a consumer product and pretending that it's something more than a consumer product.

Maybe that's not fair. Maybe Lincoln or Truman had some authentic substance that politicians don't have today. Maybe Reagan or Mondale was less of a phony than their successors. But just as one can pick a detail or two to establish a politicians authenticity. It's not so hard to pick out one or two to confirm the fakeness or phoniness of even the most respected politicians.

robother said...

Mika says that Republicans who reach out to her love Buttigieg. it seems a rather oblique way of referring to Joe.

wildswan said...

I went to Pete's website. There were three tabs. The first was STORE, the second was EVENTS, the third was MEET PETE. The store has T-shirts designed to help you remember how to pronounce his last name. EVENTS I skipped. I read MEET PETE and it was all about how he was elite (Harvard, Rhodes scholar) yet a popular mayor of a Mid-Western city. Nothing showed how he got these incompatibles to mesh. I read further on the web (official source for the news media and the FBI, why not me?) Pete's father also specialized in heterogenous ideas yoked by violence together. He was Gramsci's official translator into English while teaching at a Catholic University and he introduced Foucault to the Notre Dame University English department. Gramsci is about subverting culture on behalf of communism; Foucault about reading in such a way that John Donne and Hallmark cards are equally interesting texts.

Mayor Pete gentrified downtown South Bend, relying on the presence of Notre Dame University to attract gentry. His critics in the black community which is large, did not like his project to tear down 1000 houses in 1000 days mostly in their area. They received grants to run gentrifying projects along lines they approved of. Pete has no foreign policy qualifications or opinions. Pete has a T-shirt showing how to pronounce his Maltese name; Pete went to Afghanistan but: was that a good thing to be doing or a bad? Pete doesn't say.

wildswan said...

Hus, kone og melk gjør god ost.

Sounds the same as English?

House, wife, and milk, makes good cheese.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

"Guess what 'Cuppa coppy' in Friesian means in English."

Covfefe?

traditionalguy said...

Buttigeig is a young sophisticated intelligent Marxist murderer...like a well educated Stalin. What more could a millennial want. Kill in style.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Learning Norwegian seems like a waste of time, effort, and brains. It must take a lot of time, and then you end up with only a handful of people you can talk to, or whose books you can read, and most of them are fluent in English.

Bilwick said...

"But whatever you do, keep your faith alive, never question it! Did you know that Moses was denied entry into the Promised Land for a momentary lapse of faith! Don’t let that happen to you!" Indeed. The witches' brew of voodoo economics, State-cultism and sheer irrationalism that has hijacked the once-honorable name of "liberalism" is a secular religion.

Bilwick said...

Still haevn't mastered the art of posting links on this blog; but if any of you want to be entertained, check out the Washington Free Beacon's video (available on YouTube), "2020 Dems as Michael Scott Quotes." Buttigieg gets the Michael Scott treatment as well, although the funniest are Biden, Warren and Booker.

Bilwick said...

Buttigieg may be smart enough to learn a foreign language to read a book, but if he really buys into "liberalism" and thinks the State is our best friend, he ain't that smart. Maybe someone should send him Von Mises' HUMAN ACTION in Norwegian. Or at least Hazlitt's ECONOMICS IN ONE LESSON.

Kevin said...

He learned Norwegian to read a book.

This is really the heart of the problem -- the elites are always looking for the most elite person to tell the rest of us what to do.

If they could just find this one person, with all the answers, that we'd all do as they say, our problems would be over.

Conservatives find this notion not only nonsensical, but the path to ruin.

Kevin said...

What is elite to the elites?

First it's someone just like them, who believes as they believe, but just a bit better.

You went to college, but they have a Master's degree? They're more elite.

You have a Master's Degree, but they have two and a PhD? They're more highly qualified.

You speak two languages, but they speak three? They're the better person.

You don't know how to change your oil and spark plugs, but someone else does? Who would want to do that?

Kevin said...

But the second part is just as important -- the people must follow directions.

This is why people like Beto jump to the front. They are elite enough to know when others are more elite, but their charisma makes the elites want to follow their instructions.

Send in money? Done.

Attend a rally? Yes please.

Send in more taxes? Here you go.

Kevin said...

If they can find a candidate with the right credentials, and who the people want to follow, that's the golden ticket to the Democrat nomination.

But they're usually stuck with some of one and some of the other.

That's why Kamala, Corey, and host of others are going nowhere right now. They're all elite enough, so it's all coming down to charisma. And no one's looking at them saying "I'd like to do their bidding."

tcrosse said...

He learned Norwegian to read a book.

Give that boy a Nobel Prize.

Yancey Ward said...

Francisco D wrote:

"Pete Buttplug is obviously running for the name recognition needed to run for Indiana Governor or Senator."

Yes, this. Definitely planning a Senate run is my guess. And, yes, that will be his nickname.

Yancey Ward said...

The Democrats often have these shiny new candidates that "catch fire" early, but they usually fade out. Think Howard Dean 2004 for the prime example.

Trumpit said...

[Buttigeig is a young sophisticated intelligent Marxist murderer...like a well educated Stalin. What more could a millennial want. Kill in style.]

That's extremely mean spirited, and ridiculous.

Michael K said...

the elites are always looking for the most elite person to tell the rest of us what to do.

Remember that TV aeries "The American President" which was about Bill Clinton with a PhD. Hillary had mercifully vanished.

Three Blogger fails.

narciso said...

in other news:


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47677657

narciso said...


they are stalking horses for Russian and Chinese customers

https://twitter.com/PoliticalShort/status/1109544014200623104

Ralph L said...

It came to a point where I lost interest in it all....

Does it still count if that's as far as Pete read?
Maybe his goal was to learn Norwegian all along. Either that, or he's as bright as Obama.

narciso said...


https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/03/elite-liberal-journalist-aoc-and-me-have-never-experienced-american-prosperity-in-our-adult-lives/

narciso said...

nothing special really:


https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2019/03/23/new-york-post-rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-still-hasnt-paid-a-six-year-old-tax-bill/

Drago said...

Jim at: "So, serving seven months in Afghanistan as a member of the Naval Reserve now qualifies as a war hero?
Good gawd."

He was a Navy Intel guy who sat in a shack and read reports and prepared other reports.

But hey, I guess thats all it takes now on the left...

.....the same left that told us deserter and Taliban helper Bowe Bergdahl was a hero.

Sam L. said...

I had a summer?????

Paco Wové said...

"He learned Norwegian to read a book."

Oooo! So dreamy! The sort of achievements that comprise catnip to pseudo-intellectuals like, say, Katharine Miller.

Henry said...

No mention of surfing?

Henry said...

Theme to Endless Summer

There's some stuff to really like in that article. Miller elaborates that the scam isn't political, it's cultural. It's the unscrupulous pursuit of status by people on a jet bridge of status.

A really rigorous analysis would pull in the status of being a victim, the neurotic pursuit of status by butterflies with cocoon envy. The bonfire of the Christakises.

Henry said...

I'll vote for Buttigeig.

Maillard Reactionary said...

Have to partly agree with you there, Trumpit @5:12 PM. It can be properly criticized in its use of the words "sophisticated" (should have been "sophistic"), "intelligent" (should have been "nonthreatening to pajama boys"), and "murderer" (should have been "useful idiot"), but is otherwise spot on.

His great merit (such as it is) is having a passel of credentials and the upper-class lefty gloss of a knee-jerk talking head from the media. Humans are programmed to feel comfortable with those who look and act like them, so accordingly, Petey Buttplug gets a pass from everyone except the Deplorables and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Gerbils.

Thus clarified, the OP's comment is neither ridiculous nor mean-spirited.

Sebastian said...

"Pete's father also specialized in heterogenous ideas yoked by violence together. He was Gramsci's official translator into English while teaching at a Catholic University and he introduced Foucault to the Notre Dame University English department"

Uh, oh.

I'll take NYC developer dad over Gramsci translator dad.

But Norwegian is easy. Now Finnish . . .

Anyway, if it comes down to which candidate is most himself, without having to fake authenticity, Trump will win in a landslide.

Henry said...

Aunty Trump said...
It’s good to know that there must be virtually millions of Americans who are highly qualified to be President of the United States.

There are. That's one of the great things about this country.

n.n said...

Democrats often have these shiny new candidates that "catch fire" early

They believe and find comfort in spontaneous conception, so why not spontaneous combustion, too.

Crimso said...

"He learned Norwegian to read a book."

Big deal. I taught myself tensor calculus and some differential geometry to understand the General Theory of Relativity. Headline reads: "Literate people use their literacy."

Trumpit said...

Any soldier that volunteered to serve in Afghanistan is a hero to me. Trump got out service by complaining about bone spurs. He's no hero of mine.

tim in vermont said...

Is his wife not in his league looks wise, but from an extremely wealthy family? That's what he's up against. Beto/Buttplug, that would be a ticket!

madAsHell said...

He learned Norwegian to read a book

Everyone else would borrow the translated book from the library.

He put how much effort into learning a language to read one book?? What a fuck-up!!

Narayanan said...

Friend showed me this few years ago. Sounds like English not a single word you can recognize!!?? Except ... All right ...

https://youtu.be/-VsmF9m_Nt8

mtrobertslaw said...

Buttigieg says he does not like VP Pence's views on the Universe. Does anyone know what Buttgieg's views are of the Universe?

Paco Wové said...

It's as if being the President of the United States was like the SAT, ACT, and GRE all rolled into one. My guy can totally be President! He has, like, the best study skills evar!!!

Narayanan said...

Are fobbitt in FOB really out of harm's way?

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Why are people calling him “buttplug”? Because he’s gay? You think your slurs based on his sexual preference reflect your maturity and intelligence?

liza moon said...

the best way to understand how mayor pete has gotten this far is to get within 10 feet of him, which is where his charisma somehow becomes your focal point. i think i mumbled something like "i hope you do this well because it is plain to see you can do this" after spending a few minutes waiting in line to shake his hand. i had no intention of saying any such thing 11 feet out.

why? because in preparation for his run, his new hires fired the accountant who won an accounting award for the city. who does that?

and, does not FLOTUS speak 5 or so languages? no mention of such anywhere we are counting tongues.

Drago said...

Inga: "Why are people calling him “buttplug”? Because he’s gay? You think your slurs based on his sexual preference reflect your maturity and intelligence?"

Team Left, which laughed uproariously over the gay term "teabagger" over and over again as well as making continuous sly slurs against Lindsay Graham and who laughed and joked across the lefty plain about Manafort and Stone being gang-raped in prison would like to lecture us about slurs.

Lets be sure to give these moronic leftists all the "respect" their hypocritical admonitions deserve.

Quaestor said...

Are fobbitt in FOB really out of harm's way?

No one is "out of harm's way". But you're not a hero if you defy the agents of random mayhem by going out for pizza.

Naval reservists have been mostly used in logistical tasks, which in civilian-type lingo means warehouse work.

tim maguire said...

Buttigeig may be the best thing thing that ever happened to Erland Loe’s publishing career.

Drago said...

Here's a "funny" clip of Jon Stewart taking Rachel Maddow and other lefties to task for running with the "teabagger" slur against conservatives:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqZGdpFTapE

Number of posts by lefties on Althouse blog complaining about lefties using gay slurs against their opponents? ZERO

stephen cooper said...

wholelottasplainin - remembering long names in foreign languages comes easy to some people (not to me), for the rest of us I guess it is just practice - for example I have Spanish speaking friends and it always amuses them when I can roll off the full name of the city of Los Angeles in Spanish even though I hardly speak the language ..... but I have practiced it dozens or hundreds of times (and may be practicing it wrong but I can say it fast) *

auntytrump - Chaucer at his best is really good, I worked on Middle English for a while it is still fun to look at the Middle English on a facing page in a bilingual edition although It is hard to read the Middle English by itself except in the real familiar passages

amexpat - "false friends" are a huge problem with close languages, that is why I often read bilingual editions ....and thanks for the info on Norwegian ... my take was a little too simplified

****Los Angeles in Spanish sounds like "The City of Our Señora the Queen of Angels of the River Portiuncula" - or something like that

Henry said...

When invective is all you have, invective is all you see.

Narayanan said...

***He fluently draws parallels between Ulysses and American politics.***

Is it Homer or Joyce we're trying to get to impress into voting?

Appealing to department of Classics or English

Drago said...

Quaestor: "Naval reservists have been mostly used in logistical tasks, which in civilian-type lingo means warehouse work."

Key exceptions: special forces reservists called back to active duty, EOD personnel recalled, certain security personnel placed in the direct line of fire, transportation reservists who were placed in dangerous cargo transit roles, etc.

Ken B said...

I had missed the Masturbation Hoax. It has shot its wad. https://kenblogic.blogspot.com/2019/03/masturbation-hoax-exposed.html

Michael K said...


Inga: "Why are people calling him “buttplug”? Because he’s gay? You think your slurs based on his sexual preference reflect your maturity and intelligence?"

Team Left, which laughed uproariously over the gay term "teabagger" over and over again.


It always amused me when the lefties were the only ones who knew what it meant, Wondered why.

bgates said...

Why on earth would it be right to suspect elite qualifications? We just enjoyed eight years of the most elite, highly qualified administration in the nation's history - just ask them, or the elite, highly qualified historians who rank such things. Thanks to legislation crafted at the direction of elite, highly qualified health care experts, concerns about insurance costs are as obsolete as the notion that a woman can't have a penis. Thanks to the leadership of elite, highly qualified economic experts, America has adapted to the "new normal" of sub-3% GDP growth and unemployment of 6% or higher (though lately both of those numbers have been moving steadily in the direction of a decidedly abnormal 4% for some reason). Thanks to perhaps the finest foreign policy and national security mind to ever come out of NYU's creative writing program, the most-traveled and therefore most qualified Secretary of State this or any other country has ever had, and their supremely qualified and elite boss, who patiently explained to all the nations of the world where their true interests lie, the notion of such fears as an Iranian nuclear weapon are as much an anachronism as concern over Russia as a power capable of interfering with American interests in any material way.

I'm sure Buttigieg is an elite in that tradition too.

bgates said...

Why are people calling him “buttplug”?

She's right. We should stick to jibes that all the best people have informed us are in no way homophobic.

"Cockholster" Buttigieg, then.

madAsHell said...

He learned Norwegian to read a book.

He's riffin' on Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson learned Hebrew to read the old Testament.

madAsHell said...

Buttgig?!?!?!

Is this guy for real??....or are we living in The Onion?

Elect Buttgig!!

Narayanan said...

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win"

How about Trump?
He's no Gandhi,
Gandhi was cruel to his wife and suppressed his randiness.

All elements are there in but not in that order!?

Narayanan said...

***Conservatives find this notion not only nonsensical, but the path to ruin***

I wish you had chosen independent minded over conservative, I raise my hat to you.

GRW3 said...

Ann, I’m kind of surprised that you didn’t mention Rush Limbaugh’s favorable comments about Pete Buttigieg. He’s mentioned him a couple of times, including once when he had to humor a guest and watch the town hall in which he was featured. He seems to think Buttigieg has more potential than the MSM thinks.

Quaestor said...

He fluently draws parallels between Ulysses and American politics.

Unlike most Americans, Buttigieg may enjoy things which give to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine.

Unknown said...

has the Magical Gay Guy replaced the Magical Negro?

Personally, I'd rather vote for Buttafuoco

Joey is no scam, it comes from his DNA!