And Bill Maher — possibly still digesting that dinner he had with Trump — tells him how wrong he is.
"The Democrats always say message. Who hears a message?"
Trump's "message," according to Maher is "I'm me, I'm strong and I'm daddy." To Maher, the people are "like an animal, they're instinctive, like, I smell fear, or I smell alpha... and Democrats have to come up with an alpha, and it's not Tim Walz, and it's not Tim, the other Tim who ran... You know that you gotta appeal to people at a sort of post-civilization stage where we're kind of on a primal level. You just do. And Trump does it better than anybody."
Cuomo takes the cue. But he doesn't go with the idea that Trump is who he is. He says Trump figured out who the people hate and essentially said: "I know who you hate, and I know what you hate... and I hate them too, and I will make them pay." And Democrats hate Trump: "They just hate him. They do. So he can't even get shot and get compassion."
If Maher is right and Cuomo is wrong and Trump just is who he is and what he is is daddy, alpha, and the people respond by instinct, then what are the Democrats to do? Wait to be taken over and rearranged by some left-wing father figure? Or maybe a true Mother? If Cuomo is right, Democrats need only absorb something of the people's emotions and reflect them back convincingly enough. Neither man believes the people can become educated and rational. We're out here stewing in the "sort of post-civilization stage."
Muted mics were only supposed to be used if things went off the rails. But this was a civil policy back and forth about what voters say is the most or second most important issue in this election! We can't have debating in a debate! Shut up now! https://t.co/aC69URTs9O
"What matters is, the entire medical community knew that Ivermectin couldn’t hurt you. They knew it … I know they knew it. How do I know? Because now I’m doing nothing but talking to these clinicians, who at the time were overwhelmed by COVID, and they weren’t saying anything!... My doctor was using it during COVID on her family and on her patients, and it was working for them. So. They were wrong to play scared on that. Didn’t know that at the time. Know it now, admit it now, reporting on it now."
"You have my kids repeating your lines, so that it's almost become cool — and not because it's raunchy — but because you're being real, and you're living your truth, and they love it. They love the bravery of it."
“We have to be morally consistent” about calling out war crimes, West said. “We can’t lose sight of the larger structural institutional realities in which people are being killed every day in the occupation beginning 1948. That’s like zeroing in on Nat Turner because he’s killing some white children and he’s wrong, but Black people were enslaved for 240 years.”
Cuomo weakly noted, “Palestinians have had a much better shot than Blacks in America have had,” and pointed to the "deals" that have been offered to Palestinians.
The "weather bitch" he wanted to discredited Fox News, meteorologist Janice Dean, had criticized Governor Cuomo for his policy of putting Covid patients in nursing homes. Her husband's elderly parents had died of Covid in March and April of 2020, and she said this in March 2021 on "Fox and Friends":
“We knew he was covering up the numbers and now we are getting more and more information and facts to prove this is true. And the fact that his top aide Melissa de Rosa was in on it to help cover up the numbers, to downplay them.... They have never apologized to the families, 15,000 that deserve an apology. The only thing the governor is going to be sorry about is that he got caught. You know what — he needs to go to jail and all of those around him.... Promoting that book and making money off of COVID and the deaths of our loved ones is disgusting, corrupt and it needs to be investigated."
"... who was fired Saturday for misleading the cable network about the extent of the role he played trying to mitigate the sexual harassment accusations that took down his brother, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.... The disclosure came as an outside law firm was probing new documents released by by New York’s top prosecutor Monday that suggested the younger Cuomo was more involved trying to control damage to his brother’s political career than he previously said.
The woman who leveled the unknown accusations against Chris Cuomo, 51, was a former 'junior colleague' at another news network, according to Debra Katz, the accuser’s lawyer, the paper said.... Katz... told the paper her client 'came forward because she was disgusted by Chris Cuomo’s on-air statements in response to the allegations made against his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo.' Specifically, Katz reportedly cited a March 1 broadcast where the anchor said 'I have always cared very deeply about these issues, and profoundly so. I just wanted to tell you that.'"
"Apparently no such conflict arose when Chris constantly hosted his brother during the height of the pandemic, tastelessly turning his nightly news show into 'The Cuomo Brothers Variety Hour.'
The governor took time out of his busy schedule — consisting of daily ego baths dressed up as press conferences and writing a book about leadership while allegedly sexually harassing at least one young employee and eugenically shunting old people with COVID into nursing homes and certain death — to answer hard-hitting questions and accusations such as these, posed by little brother Chris: 'No matter how hard you’re working, there’s always time to call Mom. She wants to hear from you.'
“'ou know that what people are saying about how you look really can’t be accurate, so it must be hard for you to make sense of what is real and what is true now. I feel for you.' 'Now I’ve seen you referred to a little bit recently as the LuvGuv and I’m wondering if that’s bleeding into your demeanor at all and making you a little soft on the president?' 'Do you think you are an attractive person now because you’re single and ready to mingle?'"
Said Governor Andrew Cuomo, expressing empathy for his brother and sister-in-law, quoted in "'It just breaks my heart': Chris Cuomo says his wife, Cristina, has coronavirus, too," published in The Washington Post, which makes no mention of the incident over the weekend in which Chris Cuomo and his family were enjoying the outdoors together on beachfront real estate that did not even include a house — let alone a room where Chris could have been doing the kind of quarantine Andrew was talking about.
I can't believe Governor Cuomo is not aware of that news, published prominently in multiplearticles in the New York Post. Why is Andrew risking his credibility to cover for his brother?!
Families all over know the reality our family faces: few are one case and done. Sure enough, Cristina has covid now. Kids are still healthy but this shook us at our literal core. All are stepping up. Can't wait to shake this fever so I can help her as she helped me. Sucks. pic.twitter.com/ncyoQ3saWc
"I said to him, 'Your brother is the coronavirus czar, and you’re not even following his rules — unnecessary travel'... He just began to boil more. He said, "This is not the end of this. You’ll deal with this later. We will meet again." If that’s not a threat, I don’t know what is... I hate bullies."
David is a resident of the town, and he was able to accuse Cuomo of "unnecessary travel," because there is no residence built on the property Cuomo owns there, just a steel frame. And Cuomo was — according to David — hanging out with his wife, another woman and 3 kids. That's not following the rules!
“Have you ever seen a biker bar completely surrounded by bicycles? Bikers ride motorcycles, cyclists ride road bicycles, and mountain bikers ride mountain bikes,” said Instagram user @sdotdrisc.
Hm. So he used the word "bikers" for mountain bikers, but seems to insist that the word "mountain" stay attached to it. No shortening.
“Bikers are more rad, cyclists are more fast,” replied Instagram user @b._.stutts....
“A cyclist is what anyone who rides a bike calls themselves and someone else. A biker is what anyone who doesn’t bike calls someone who does bike,” said pro cyclist Ellen Noble, who goes by the handle @ellenlikesbikes.
At the end of the day, Rich Sieck (@rsieck44) might’ve said it best: “A cyclist logs many miles mostly on pavement. A biker flies up and down mountains in the dirt. Either way you do it, you’re awesome!”
The topic came up in the context of my post about Chris Cuomo railing about his encounter with a "jackass, loser, fat tire biker." The comma after "loser" was in the New York Post's transcription, and it's confusing, making it seem as though Chris Cuomo's sins included fat shaming. A better transcription would be: "jackass, loser fat-tire biker." There's a lot of discussion about fat-tire bikes over there, and I assume Cuomo was irked by the fat-tiredness because the "jackass" in question was biking on the sand of the beach where he was rich enough to own a house.
All because a biker confronted him when he was out of his house while infected with the coronavirus!
When the biker confronted him, Cuomo said he’d wanted to respond, getting heated when he detailed how the guy “didn’t know the rules” and how he’d made sure to take social-distancing measures.
NO! Social distancing isn't enough when you actually have the virus! Cuomo was endangering everyone, perhaps thinking the rules don't apply to him because he's a celebrity.
But “here I am in an almost powerless position against this asshole because I’m a celebrity and he’s allowed to say whatever he wants to me. And I have to take it or he’s gonna call the New York Post and lie about something and then I’m going to have to deal with it,” Cuomo continued.
The anchor then alluded to a caught-on-tape incident last August, when he launched into a profanity-laced rant against a man who called him “Fredo.” “I have to tolerate people’s opinion about me because I’m a public figure,” Cuomo said. “I don’t want to do that, I don’t think its worth it to me.”
He's arguing that he can't have the freedom a non-celebrity has — the freedom to get into an angry confrontation with a stranger. Out of fear that the biker guy — that "jackass, loser, fat tire biker" — would go to the press and report the shockingly bad behavior, Cuomo chose to rant about the entire experience on the air and to go on about how he hates his job:
It was the LGBTQ town hall with Kamala Harris last night in Los Angeles. Compare it to that other event last night — Trump's rally in Minneapolis. Trump took many comic leaps and the crowd laughed a lot. But in the entertainment capital of the world, God forbid you should have a little fun — especially with such a sacrosanct topic as how to talk about gender.
So Cuomo apologized. But what about Harris? Wasn't she having fun with the subject too?
"But Fredo is more of a complex, tragic figure than political mudslinging would allow.... In 'The Godfather,' [John] Cazale gave Fredo that sense of well-meaning haplessness.... The second 'Godfather' film brought Fredo into the foreground (not his natural place in the family portrait) and deepened him. Fredo’s involvement in a bungled attempt on Michael’s life ('I know it was you'), which leads Michael to succumb to his darkest instincts and commit fratricide, is at the movie’s tragic core, and it gives Cazale the most beautifully acted scenes of his career. The most iconic is the brothers’ conversation in the boathouse, when Fredo pitifully pleads for respect: 'Send Fredo off to do this. Send Fredo off to do that. Let Fredo take care of some Mickey Mouse night club somewhere. . . . I can handle things! I’m smart! Not like everybody says!' Cazale delivers this feckless rant with wide-eyed rage and self-pity, flopping up and down in his lounge chair like a beached guppy."
"But my favorite moment comes just before he’s whacked, as he sits with his young nephew Anthony by the lake with their fishing gear...."
"It’s probably the only time Fredo ever outshone his brothers.... Fredo’s death is as wrenching as it is only because we care so deeply about him—he’s pathetic, sure, but he has reserves of humanity that he never got to express, holding himself to an impossible yardstick of power and violence when all he wanted to do was go fishing.... More than four decades later, Fredo’s still not getting any respect, but at least he’s getting noticed."
Lots of people have been asking whether it's true — as Chris Cuomo asserted — that "Fredo" is the equivalent of the n-word. I think a big difference is that Fredo is a specific character. To call an Italian "Fredo" is more like calling a black person "Uncle Tom." With that kind of insult, we could go back to the origin of the character, as Schulman is doing with Fredo. But that's not what we usually do. The character takes on a meaning of his own within the insult. You won't be able to get away with calling someone "Uncle Tom" by detailing what's in "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
The Wikipedia article, "Uncle Tom," is broken into sections, with "Original characterization" ("a rejection of the existing stereotypes of minstrel shows... a Jesus-like figure") separate from "Epithet" ("an excessively subservient person, particularly when that person perceives their own lower-class status based on race... [or] who betrays their own group by participating in its oppression, whether or not they do so willingly").
It's interesting to go back to the original meaning of a term, but it won't and shouldn't get you off the hook when you use an epithet here and now.
According to the NY Post, this clip, in which Cuomo strongly objects to the epithet "Fredo," is said to have been "filmed Sunday on Shelter Island and sent to a right-wing website and blog, before being shared on Twitter."
A man in NY yesterday approached CNN's Chris Cuomo and called him "Fredo"
Cuomo: "You're going to have a problem"
Man: "What are you going to do about it?"
Cuomo: "I'll fuckin ruin your shit. I'll fucking throw you down these stairs"
I've got to say — and I have only watched the clip and not read any of the commentary about it — I have no problem with what Cuomo did here. He returned words for words, he defended himself, and he acquired complete submission from the man who provoked him. Maybe some people think the guy who said "Fredo" won because he got his video and Cuomo lost his temper. But I don't think Cuomo is out of control. I think he knew what he was doing and chose to do it. It's quite similar to what Trump does, and I don't think Trump is raging and having melt downs when people who hate him are saying he is. Same thing with Cuomo.
“Don’t f–ing insult me like that,” the Queens native fumes. “You call me ‘Fredo’ it’s like I call you punk b–ch, you like that?”
Oh, Queens! See? Like Trump. It's how they talk in Queens. Don't be prejudiced against the Queensman.
The little man who made the video asserts that he believed Cuomo's name actually was Fredo. Cuomo won't let him back down: "You did not think that… stand up like a man. Own what you said." Manhood is at stake. A hypothetical fight is discussed: "I’ll f–ing throw you down these stairs like a f–ing punk… you’re gonna call me Fredo, take a f–ing swing? I’ll f–ing wreck your shit."
Cuomo doesn't hit the guy. It's macho posturing. Notice the theory, propounded by Cuomo, that the guy is trying to get Cuomo to hit him so he can bring a lawsuit against the deep-pocketed son of a gov.
This made me think of the way George W. Bush was treated for how he reacted on 9/11 when he was told that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center. Interestingly, it's very hard to get to video clips and mockery of the ex-President (by Googling). The top hit on my search was "Bush explains slow reaction to September 11 attacks" (Reuters)("Former President George W. Bush says his apparent lack of reaction to the first news of the September 11 2001 attacks was a conscious decision to project an aura of calm in a crisis").
But for many years, an extremely negative interpretation of his silence prevailed. Eventually, I found this clip from the Michael Moore documentary:
One of the most striking things about watching Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2019 is realizing just how deeply, uncomfortably resonant it is with our current state of the union. Within the first half hour, it depicts a venal, intellectually bankrupt administration led by a preening dimwit as he spends most of his time in the White House golfing and avoiding responsibility....
But even without the striking parallels to our current fiasco of an administration, Fahrenheit 9/11 remains a potent and stirring work, cinema with the ability to boil the blood and activate righteous indignation in the viewer. True, Moore’s reputation has diminished somewhat in recent years. ... A lot of this has to do with his self-aggrandizing persona, a loudmouthed man-on-the-street type...
He means Moore.... though it sounds like Trump. Isn't that Moore's problem now?! George W. Bush had the dullness off which the exuberantly expressive Moore could bounce. That's the style Trump himself displays. Ask the other Bush, Jeb.
ALSO: Is Michael Moore shadow banned on Twitter? I've followed him for a long time, but I never see his tweets in my timeline. When I go to his Twitter page, I see that he has been putting things up, maybe not every day, but a few things each week.
Mediaite headline. It's not that crazy, but Drudge linked to this so I clicked. The headline is click bait, and I couldn't watch much of the clips. In real life, I avoid watching any of the TV commentary shows, so I'm not the audience for this anxious roiling. It's theater — put on for the money and for the power. It's not crazy at all, let alone "absolutely crazy."
I was motivated to look up the word "crazy" in the OED. One of the meanings — going back to 1927 — is: "slang (orig. U.S.). (a) Of music, esp. jazz: unrestrained, wild; exciting. (b) Hence as a term of approbation: excellent, admirable, satisfying. Cf. cool adj. 8b."
1935 Hot News Apr. 13/1 Where musicians are concerned..if I say a man is crazy you may be sure that I think he is very, very good.
1953 Time 14 Sept. 68/3 The latest Tin Pan Alley argot, where ‘cool’ means good, ‘crazy’ means wonderful.
1959 Punch 14 Oct. 319 The swing-cats sway, the hipsters tap their feet As Victor pounds his low-down crazy beat.
I guess I'd accept the Mediaite headline if I thought it was mean in the sense of "unrestrained, wild; exciting." But I do find that sort of present-day political excitement quite boring.
An emailer connected these 2 expressions of Comey's, and I subsequently noticed this comment in last night's post about Comey's "just completely disgusted" remark, from hombre:
July 5, 2016. That was the day that anyone with integrity and associated with, or knowledgeable about, law enforcement understood that Comey was a lapdog for his Democrat masters.
His sanctimonious posturing makes me a lot more than "mildly nauseous."
The "mildly nauseous" phrase came from Comey's May 5, 2017 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. (He said "It makes me mildly nauseous to think that we might have had some impact on the election." July 5, 2016 was the date Comey determined that "no reasonable prosecutor" would proceed against Hillary Clinton over the email matter.)
And I found this from CNN last night connecting the recent "just completely disgusted" with "mildly nauseous." They played a clip of Comey's friend Benjamin Witte saying:
Comey really did not want to go to that meeting. He just really doesn't believe that the president and the FBI director should, you know, have any kind of social relationship or, you know, shows of warmth…. And so if you watch the video, he extends his hand and Comey's arms are really long and he extends his hand kind of preemptively and Trump grabs the hand and kind of pulls him into a hug but the hug is entirely one-sided. Comey was just completely disgusted by [OTHER VOICE: Disgusted?] disgusted by the episode. He thought it was an intentional attempt to compromise him in public.
After some discussion, the host Chris Cuomo said: "[L]et's not forget who James Comey is in our political context. He said was -- felt, you know, nauseated by it. He was also seen nauseous -- as inducing nausea -- by Democrats for what he did."
Disgust and nausea are synonymous. I think it's interesting — but what exactly does it mean? — that Comey expresses himself with the metaphor of an aversion to or a revulsion after eating. I don't know how enlightening that might be about his psychology. As you think about it, you might want to factor in the vivid, horrible experience Comey had when he was 16.
And he does hit back — here, talking to Chris Cuomo — and questions Ben Carson's faith.
Cuomo takes it on faith that religion is a "cornerstone" of Ben Carson's "existence," but Trump points out, quite correctly, that we don't know that.
Why is it the norm to accept that people sincerely hold the religious beliefs they assert? I like that Trump is challenging that where it really should be challenged: When someone (like Carson) is using religion to leverage a bid for political power. Why does Cuomo accept assertions of religion from Carson when Carson doesn't accept it for Trump and where Trump isn't forefronting religion as a reason why we should want Trump to have power?
Cuomo bolsters his belief in Carson with: "He's a 7th Day Adventist, I mean, it's something he talks about a lot." That's quite silly. What does affiliation with a particular sect prove about the depth or substance of one's faith? And what does talking about it a lot prove?
Trump refers to Carson's quoting the Bible about humility the other day "And it looked like he had just memorized it about 2 minutes before the quote." That's a pretty accurate observation! Check it out:
The quoted verse is: "By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life."
Hey, I'm glad I looked that up, because I kept reading Proverbs 22 and found: "The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein."
"They see the pope as a Supreme Court justice they can't intimidate. The Supreme Court scares the heck out of the left because to them it's infallible. Now, they succeeded. Obama and the left somehow succeeded in turning John Roberts when it came to the constitutionality of Obamacare, but they can't turn the pope."
Said Rush Limbaugh, yesterday, after playing a hilarious audio montage of media characters — Chris Cuomo of CNN, Shannon Bream of Fox, Erin Burnett, Juan Carlos Lopez of CNN Español, Gwen Ifill, Allen Pizzey of CBS — reacting to the new Pope.
CUOMO: Where is Pope Francis on the issues that matter most, issues about contraception, women priests?
BREAM: Pope Francis is staunchly orthodox on the issues of abortion, contraception, and same-sex marriage.
BURNETT: He opposed same-sex marriage in Argentina. He opposed free contraception.
LOPEZ: He follows a conservative line. He opposes, uh, same-sex marriages. He is conservative on birth control.
PIERS MORGAN: He is known to be, duh, anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage.
MARIA TERESA KUMAR: He has been against contraception. He's been against marriage equality.
PIZZEY: ...a conservative and opposes abortion!
IFILL: So this is not a pope or a papacy we were gonna see any kind of change when it comes to things like abortion or gay marriage.
They don't seem like they are clowning, though Piers Morgan has the wit to say "duh."
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