Landsnark

“I mean, I can’t even,” co-host Mika Brzezinski said — reacting to the video. Sigh

They covered a whole lot this morning. I like Podhoretz' avuncular nature, but I hate his politics and excuses for Trump's corruption. Joe's face when it became clear that the 3 captives were coming home was rich. He had to GRUDGINGLY approve and then walk the tightrope where he admitted he hated Obama's enthusiasm for the Iranian deal but also hates how Trump pulled out of it, and how he's happy that the captives are coming home but hates that Trump did it. But he's probably right, what on earth did Trump promise NK to get them to capitulate to so many terms? What did Trump offer so that he can simply win a news cycle?

Drink. Joe just said that Bill Clinton invented lying. It's really the only way to view Trump's lies today.

Drink. Joe just conflated Democratic NY AG Schneiderman's behavior with Bill Clinton's. Out of nowhere after a long rant on Trump being a dirt bag and the GOP hypocrites: "Let's be honest let's be blunt. It was the Democratic party in the 1990s that enabled Bill Clinton. They would say behind the scenes that yes, Bill Clinton physically abused women. He treated them terribly." Everybody knew this but Ken Starr, I guess. Clinton invented infidelity. And the Democrats were to blame. OK. I am liking how they have had on so many authors recently.

Joe is in fine bloviating form this morning. He introduced Steve Schmidt with a 2+ minute question and later did he try to convince that former mayor of London with the crazy hair, one of the key backers of Brexit, that Brexit is not a good idea? The TV was turned down and I didn't turn it up because I was relatively certain Joe wasn't going to make a good point and have the guy agree.

Traveling in Europe, and you guys' coverage of the Michelle Wolf brouhaha has been entertaining us this week. Thanks! I can't tell from afar, what is the current official position of the MJ Squad on Ms Wolf's humor? They've seemingly whipsawed in all directions. Are they now sanguine about being mocked by her, or were they never that put out? Did they ever directly mention the "Me Too" joke. We've listened to her routine every night since it occurred to much laughter. We're not quite understanding how offended everyone is. I understand why SHS is offended, but not others.

They answered. I had my back to the TV but the several people who answered said that Trump has already rolled back more policy and enacted more policy in favor of evangelicals than Reagan and the Bushes combined. This is fun... when she is pretending to be a "serious journalist," she holds her chin with her thumb and forefinger and nods in assent and may grunt "mmhhmm" sagely. Watch for it.

Hm... Mika really fills out that dress, and Avenatti is on set today. Gotta be a coincidence, right?

Her "physical violence" question got her 3 days of sound bytes and secondary coverage weeks ago. So know she's a mad woman throwing everything at the wall in the hopes of asking the right question again. This...

In the segment before Avenatti, an author came on and said she wasn't surprised by the Trump election because of this reason and that reason... and Mika grumbled approval, and then said, "but mainly the complicity of the political infotainment industry giving Trump air time to generate revenue and not asking him serious questions..." and Mika squeals, "Oh we know. We've known that here for a long time. The records show we were tough on him. Others let him slide." [all that's paraphrased] I rolled my eyes so hard I was blind for a moment. She has no idea, does she? She's not a liar, she's just oblivious.

At around 14 weeks so far this year, that's 1.7 days off a work week. That extrapolates to 85 days off in a year, and 1/3 of all available work days.

Podhoretz makes me laugh, but his avuncular charm is deceptive. He and Joe just road graded and "whatabouted" Heidi's big scoop on what Harry Reid knew about Russia hacking and what GOP officials knew. Joe: "Bbbut but but but Harry Reid. Harry Reid? Come on. All of the problems on earth can be traced back to him using the nuclear option in the Senate."

I can't with Scarborough and the cute bald raconteur (who is a resolute ideological conservative activist, lest we forget) about Harry Reid being the actual true evil in all of politics. Jesus. OUT!

Yeah, except for those times when he spills it accidentally (not accidentally), or brings up an empty mug then pretends to throw it on her. And when she comes downstairs and he's sitting sprawled out in the kitchen listening to sports radio in his gym shorts and t shirt, eating a doughnut with his mouth open and a fresh doughnut in his hand. She says you shouldn't eat doughnuts and he laughs spitting crumbs everywhere and says something unintelligible and puts the whole next doughnut into his mouth.

Jonah Greenberg was great. He made a self deprecating joke about being intimidated by all the wonky heavy hitters at the desk, and that put Joe on edge. Joe had like a, "Hey, you makin' fun of me?" look on his face. I bought the book off my Amazon app while at the gym. I'll do that repeatedly if they have thoughtful guests on. I love how he claimed part of the issue with polarization and populism and nationalism had to do with viewing politics as entertainment (something I've been saying for years), delicately laying partial blame at all their feet. I'm fairly certain nobody there thought that pertained to them - they've blocked out Trump as a daily guest from early summer 2016 to winter of 2016. Perfect example of Greenberg's point: Shania Twain said 2 days ago that if she were American she'd have voted for Trump. Because it's refreshing that a politician will say what's on his mind and it's time for more of that, and she was tired of politicians being careful with their words. FWIW, her gay fan based revolted and now her career is in jeopardy.

I've really come a long way regarding what I think of Nicole Wallace. I am a huge fan now. They had a great panel at one point. I don't know the names of many of them, but the guy with the difficult name and incredibly high hair (which he has since tamed) was on the set during this period. There was: dude, Elise (no arms visible), Nicole, Willie, some dude, a conservative dude, and high hair guy. They were measured and thorough and smart. Great panel. The guy on the left described how the state of political division and the collapse of the GOP into populism started with Sarah Palin. My eyes were too sleepy to watch Nicole's face as he indirectly laid responsibility at Nicole's feet. Clint Watts has lost a lot of weight, and has loosened up a LOT from his first appearances. He's on MSNBC right now. I think he's more comfortable on TV now than previously. It turns out this new relaxed, centered Clint is, um... "fashionable," something I hadn't expected. https://www.fpri.org/contributor/clint-watts/

I was unaware of what a hateful woman Barbara Bush was. Kasie's outfit is kind of a rookie mistake. It added nothing to her, and it was too noticeable somehow. The only thing I recall from the show is that she and Willie hosted and she wore a distracting top. I also just don't like severe black and white.

My wife and I said at the same time, "oh, she's CUTE. Her hair is great." Was super weird. The TV loves some Kasie. Barbara Bush was a strong, decent person. But, let's not white wash things, shall we? Her commencement speech at Wellesley is horrifying, not admirable. "Stay in your lane, women," isn't terrific advice to young graduates about to hit the work force. Would she tell young men graduating from Harvard to not go kill it on Wall Street, but instead stay home and appreciate being a husband and father instead of defending the US, starting a company, making your mark in the world? Zoiks. Peggy Noonan is a GD chameleon, isn't she? Her stylist this morning deserves a gigantic raise and an extra story about how erotic it can be sitting on Reagan's lap. Most of the time I want to karate chop Noonan in the neck, but this morning she looks really good. (Meh, never mind. She just spoke too much and now i want to karate chop her)

I have to disagree with y'all. While I do think Mika thinks there is some electricity between the two, I honestly doubt he's ever once considered her a viably sexual human in any regard. I think he looks at her as an annoying means to an end. After this comes to a close, I could see him and Stephanie Ruehl taking over Joe and Mika's spot. And Joe and Mika sitting in their grumpy morning bed with chickens everywhere, both watching The Stephanie and Avenatti Show, both lusting over the hosts, regretting their decisions.

Avenatti said that Joe took some shots at him, and understood why Joe did it... and then Avenatti stated why he did what he did for an extended uninterrupted period. They just glided past their beef. I didn't see any jostling or hurt feelings or any shots at all. The only weird part was Mika. She interrupted to double down on the CD "excuse me, DVD" in such an odd manner, I let the weights drop at the gym to turn around to see what the f was going on. Avenatti was born to do legal work in public unlike almost anyone else I've ever seen. Fictional attorneys don't have his 360' vision and wits. He is not only the smartest person in that room, he's the smartest person in NYC. Joe's first question to Avenatti, which probably clocks in at around 30 seconds, asks Avenatti what happened that caused Hannity to be named, and then realized he asked Avenatti a question without seeming like he already knew the answer, so then Joe answered his own question to "prove" he's as smart at Avenatti, and then asked Avenatti, "What do you think?" I laughed to myself.

Imagine if there was breaking news that Joe was Cohen's secret client. Do you think the peals of laughter from Rachel Maddow's section of the floor would be deafening, or merely just incredibly loud? Love Heilemann's cynicism this morning. He said "either Cohen or Hannity are liars. One of them is lying."

omg that is so funny. Tweet it to Bill Hader and offer it to him. Trump is funneling money to Hannity for propaganda support? The world is crazy, and also, of course he is. Who is Pierre? We have a Pierre and I don't like the idea of Mika sharing the same affinity for pet names.

I cannot wait!!

I've thought about this and I do think they were offered juicy bits at the new Trump TV network. And, it's almost a certainty that they had hoped to be offered appointments (that they would turn down because this TV gig is sweet), but expected to remain Trump's on air advisors. Joe presumably grew increasingly resentful when he realized he and his lover had been used and sold a bill of goods, and he'll be the tail trying to wag the dog. And that's when he began attacking Trump's advisors, and when that closed all routes to Trump, he went full on oppositional. Also it's worth remembering that besides Joe's flirtations with and admiration of Trump the candidate that worked to legitimize that clown as a candidate through so much air time, they have spent the past 4 or 5 years attacking Hillary Clinton, providing weight to the long list of baseless accusations against her. Joe certainly worked to prevent Clinton from being President. Mika helped by normalizing, "... but emails, sigh." Comey surely had a greater immediate effect, but our two dummies had their fingers weighing down on Hillary's side of the scale and were pushing upward on Trump's side.

I've got a land line. It's such a luxury because I work from home. I'm always the person on conference calls who you can hear clearly and who can hear you. I get polled quite a bit, and much of those questions are by and large horse shit. There will be 4 "normal" questions about political/economic/cultural things that are rationally constructed and not too biased. Then there will be two others that are like, "Do Democrats hate our troops? A lot, or a little?" "Is MSNBC a little evil, or very evil?" Sometimes they are more subtly phrased but are very very leading and are meant to hit Fox News as "truth."