Landsnark

I am at a conference, having traveled to get here, and it appears I forgot to pack socks. I gotta go w/out. Bare feet in shoes. I immediately thought of you all and your distaste for Joe and Donnie going sans socks.

Joe Manchin just said that he doesn't know anyone who has committed a crime with an AR 15 and so he can't vote to block sales. Willie was making "WTF?" faces the whole time Manchin was talking, and Manchin looked super uncomfortable. He's from West Virginia, ya see. He'll be voted out of office in a land slide. Cuz god, guns, merica.

"Wikkuh licks?" What's wrong with her? And at the same time, that wine colored dress looks good on her. If they think Trump is going to remove Kushner, they're out of their minds. Trump has no idea how to run a bureaucracy, nor does he care. Niceties like security clearance and access to top secret documents don't need rules (but her emails, amiright?). And it doesn't matter. Nothing matters. If China or Israel had actual footage of Kushner making a blatantly illegal deal, 35% of the United States wouldn't believe it, or would contort their logic to approve of it, or would simply say how fun it is to make liberals mad. SHS would mock the media at a press briefing the next day, and it will blow over. Congress wouldn't investigate, and any law enforcement investigation would be called fake. And this is where we are.

It was Mika smugly deriding Trump and his many failed marriages, and then realizing in slow motion that SHE is Joe's number 3.

I remember the show when Joe said, "Paul Manafort? Who the hell is this guy? Why would he be running a presidential campaign? What's going on over there?"

Perhaps the funniest arrangement of words in the history of words.

Joe and Mika were full blown assholes [shocker, I know] regarding the security guard. He's got a pea shooter and inside is a maniac killer with 1,000s of rounds of ammo, and, he's totally unprepared to sacrifice his life that sunny morning. If it's his job to fend off automatic weaponry, then give him a bunker with a turret. The lady in the fuschia shirt was good. Her commentary on fake memes, propaganda imagery, and trolling was fascinating. Mika and Joe did a good job getting out of her way, until they ruined it by mocking it all.

Whenever Joe is seated at a restaurant and is handed a menu, that's what he's thinking. "How much do I want this Reuben sandwich? Would I stand in the rain for it? Like a Northern Virginia mom?"

Sam Donaldson Mika agreeing with Joe about Trump being a great leader, and Rubio going the extra mile was disorienting. I was looking at the TV with my head cocked to the side like a dog. I was trying to understand if there was some subtext I was missing. There was. The subtext is she's stupid.

When Joe was on with Steele and Kasie (who is great) and the other guy, the other guy sat next to Joe while Joe was in full blown rant mode. He kept his head down and wouldn't make eye contact with anyone and just fidgeted with a pen. Mika kept her head down too and just made faces. Christ, they are belaboring the gun control talking points. Joe has run out of things to talk about, so he's turned to praising Trump for sitting in a room.

He's a near alt-right, fundamentalist who is politically active. It's the one of the more dangerous cracks in American liberty that ideological assholes can exploit.

I grew up in the south and remain here. Billy Graham played approximately 0 role in my life. I only know him because his shows would interfere with my weekend morning cartoons. In what way was that ghoul positive? He helped create "the moral majority," a puerile notion. He launched a million scumbag evangelical TV shows and created a reprehensible industry. He panders to the worst and stupidest, and his son is filth... the worst, most dangerous aspect of America. So Joe's breathy heartfelt remembrances of this guy are a total fucking puzzlement to me. Chris and Joe talking over each other is Just. The. Worst. It sounded like we were in a hen house and they're all clucking. bawk bawk bawk bawk

I opened my eyes this morning to see Joe explain how the real villains in all of this were the Democrats when he was in office. Because they hurt Ken Starr's feelings as he pursued a GOP backed witch hunt. And that is exactly the same as Mueller. Or something. He suffers from Clinton Derangement Syndrome.

Joe ought to simply be up front with his stance on guns when he was in office. He ought to describe the pressure he felt, if any, to toe the NRA line. He ought to explain his prior beliefs. It's valid that he thought one way once, and changed his mind later. His perspective could be instructive in how he changed over time. He'd never do it, though.

Mika rolled her eyes at Joe at one point when she tried to kick it to Donnie. Joe interrupted for like 45 seconds. He tried to be polite, but... he's Joe Scarborough. What's weird is that in these rants he never covers new ground. Also, has Joe not been in studio for weeks. Montel had great energy while still articulate and seemingly heartfelt.

One thing Joe said that I was pleased to hear, and won't mind if it becomes one of his repetitive talking points - fund the CDC to thoroughly investigate gun violence

Holy shit. Mika just asked Marco Rubio to "step up and be a man." BE A MAN?????!!!!! Know your value, you fucking twit. Stephanie Ruhle slapped down Mika immediately. "Step up and be a man?? No. Step up and be a human."

Joe's bloviating sanctimony and Mika's faux solemn quiet talking are the stars of the show, not the news or the guests. Joe's rants are too long. He's Rantsy Pants. He touches upon great points, but he belabors them so thoroughly. Editing the sound of his own voice is not one of his strong suits.

This picture is gratuitously sexist, and casts Mika, "The-Feminist-Who-Knows-Her-Value," in a bad light. She's literally being objectified as Joe's sexual possession. Bizarrely tone deaf. But, she looks great. She was born to wear that outfit. It's fun to like bimbo sex kittens being bimbo sex kittens, and you don't need to remark on their hypocrisy. I wouldn't judge y'all if you like a promo pic of Thomas Roberts posing in between weightlifting reps in a sweaty tank top, or in a tuxedo lifting a tumbler of Scotch giving the camera a "hey baby" look. But with all that said, Mika's blatant hypocrisy is just... it's a head scratcher. I never knew that she would slide digs in on Savannah, and given that context, yeah, I do think she's bullying Kasie Hunt. I bet Joe either admires Savannah and Kasie, or has said something flattering. Like Mika even knows one AC/DC song.

I do not like JudyMichiganMom. We would not be friends in real life. Actually hashtagging bot tags, claiming there's no such thing. Wow.

"I'm sorry, but ohmigod, I don't feel sorry that Hillary's emails were on a kid's laptop that Weiner picked up." Yes, we get it, you hate Hillary Clinton, and every minute mistake others made is actually a volcano of evidence that something, for which there is no penalty large enough to punish Hillary years later. Also, Huma Abedin is now "a kid?" Know your value, Mika.

Mika just said "Please for the love of God, stop talking," to Joe. Was that a repeat, or did this just happen live? Their relationship friction is NOT fun to watch. That's not fun banter. They're not Kate Hepburn and Cary Grant. This is one million miles from "Philadelphia Story."

Could you imagine being on set during that... that whatever it was? I couldn't watch it or listen to it from my couch at home. Imagine the tension, the insanely awkward energy, at the desk, in the control room, and in the news offices off set. The wrong desk guests to be on air, too. Eugene, Ratner, Andrea Mitchell. So adult, gentle, thoughtful, reserved. Better to have Heilemann and Donnie and Willie and Barnicle, who'd have cut the tension by backhandedly insulting Joe, and by also giving him an out so he didn't drown in his own ego on air. YECH! Roger Bennett from "Men in Blazers" is so great. And he's right about the refs screwing Liverpool on Sunday. Can we talk about Mika's make up and terry cloth top? The blue flatters her, but the shape and texture is odd. And her lipstick? I like it, but to be fair, it's full on bimbo and that's probably why I like it.

"Um, excuse me. Excuse me. Mika was trying to say something. What did you have to say, Mika?" YIKES And there was one of the most awkward and uncomfortable 4 or 5 minutes I've ever seen on TV. I had to mute it. Shame, because that was a fascinating conversation with the historian/author about Russians manipulating Facebook, and Facebook and the government doing absolutely nothing about it.

That's her move. She does this to keep her head and eyes down. It's her move to excuse herself from the conversation, and the pretense is she's looking through the author's work.