Landsnark

He's 6'3" and 230lbs? https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2018/01/16/donald-trump-height-weight-tim-tebow-mike-trout Bullshit. He's over 250lbs easily.

Mika's comments were sooo tedious and facile. I was listening in the gym, and she was mourning for the lost days of courtship. She was trying to put words into the mouth of the dummy who went to Aziz Ansari's apartment, as if that event was the ideal microcosm of "what's wrong with kids these days." Because I was listening, and what was being said registered to me as being bonkers, I whipped my head around to see which of the guests was saying it, and yep, it's Old Fashioned Mika.

Perhaps he was in his Hawaiian bunker this morning?

This morning Katty's botox was visibly wearing off. Typically her forehead is smooth as.. I dunno. Something really taut and smooth. This morning it was moderately wrinkly. Botox wears off, and she hasn't gone back for another treatment recently.

I was wrong, I think she nails Mika's on screen nature very well. I watched more of it and the only thing that didn't ring true was their open flirtations. That doesn't happen, or, I've never seen it. Joe seems very serious today. There's a lot to be very serious about. Trump wasn't prepared for a nuclear situation in Hawaii, he probably shit his adult diapers when he heard there were ICBMs inbound to Hawaii... via his shithole ofc. I don't get why we have to tip-toe around the D students? Their feelings are soo precious. Fuck 'em. I live in the south in 2018, and racism is woven into the culture as a modern facet of daily life. Joe is so full of it.

I only saw a few moments of the impressions but McKinnon played Mika too smart. Mika never knows what she's doing, and has never overtly flirted on set. Mika is a dolt. Kate nails how squirmy Mika is though.

Perfect metaphor. That extended series of mockery towards the President wasn't funny. I wonder if yesterday they connected with a new source in the WH who let them know that the President absolutely watches MJ, and what is said causes a reaction. I didn't understand what Rand Paul was defending or attacking. Isn't the vote on being able to spy on foreign nationals abroad? Why would he want to end that??

I fell back asleep, but did they cover North Carolina changing their illegal gerrymandering practices? I know they did, because it was in what I was dreaming, but I couldn't make any sense of it. What was discussed?

Wow, Joe was embarrassing this morning in his support of Trump "pivoting." Even Mika scoffed at Joe's enthusiasm and clearly identified Trump's eagerness to make a terrible deal for the GOP as him just pretending to be engaged during a meeting. She correctly identified that if he really is cool with DACA being passed without any negotiations, then he truly has no interest in policy and has no core beliefs. The entire set agreed on these points, and Joe had to walk back his initial burst of optimism towards Trump and the holy grail: "The Pivot" Also, I oppose the deification of Bannon and the schadenfreude in celebrating his fall. This isn't a reality show, and he's not a character with a narrative. Please observe what his role was, and what comes next. This isn't entertainment.

She WAS condescending to that jerk, Rothman. And she did it well, too. Kudos to Mika for being fully dismissive and slightly abusive in her condescension to that weenie, and not apologizing.

Preach. I'd have written that in Oprah's style of sing songing the final syllable of some word she wants to give weight to. But didn't know how. "Puh Ree EEEEEEEEEEEEECH!"? How about we have experts in policy and bureaucracy run government, and Oprah can do whatever the hell she does. Oprah should campaign tirelessly and speak, fund raise, support, and be out in the front, but she should not be the Dem's Donald Trump. Absurd beyond description. Joe's right.

While I love Stephanie Ruhle, like, real romantic love, I don't think she'd pair well with Joe. Their pairing would only create friction. Sometimes there'd be awesome zingers, but they would never complement each other. I think Nicole Wallace would be a good option. But, both Nicole and Stephanie are great on their own shows, and those seem to work well for them. Katie Tur would take NO shit from Joe, and may break his jaw one day.

That Janice Min spot was RIVETING. I was walking through the room when she came on, and I think I just froze in place and didn't move a muscle until she was done... then I ran to my wife to blab about what I'd just heard. They're wrong about Bannon being an impotent figure in right wing politics in the future. Trump is. Bannon can position himself as the avatar for the populist movement and stand on the neck of Trump to raise himself up. He'll fail, but that's his path and it'd work if he did it well.

Through the winter into the early spring, Joe would try to talk through the TV to Trump, knowing he was watching. And he'd obliquely mention his other contacts in the WH, which apparently was Jared. Then Joe was overtly critical of Bannon and some of Trump's more incompetent advisors (probably because Joe was trying to signal to the WH that he knows better than Trump's team), and Trump cut off access. Then Joe got angry and lashed out, and apparently Jared cut off access. And when that happened and Joe had no more privileged opportunities to connect with the administration, he went full opposition.

I wish I hadn't gone to Twitter to see that picture and read the comments beneath it. So so acidic and vile and ugly and foul. Most of those accounts should be banned, and some are obviously bots. Disgusting. So disgusting, I feel like protecting Mika.

This morning either on Stephanie's show after MJ, or on MJ, someone was saying that career hard-news journos don't necessarily respect Wolff, because he'll report conversations as fact. For instance, Bannon may very well have been standing on the table at dinner screaming that Donald Trump wants to make sweet love to Putin's oil money, but Bannon's assertion may not be true. That's hearsay in court, and in journalism you'd need a 2nd source to verify Bannon's claim as fact. I believe Bannon, ofc. I ordered that book first thing this morning. I'd have paid 5x more for it.

Ideally you'd grow in a greenhouse in a temperate environment. Uses a fraction of the energy and expenses. If you've ever been to the California desert areas, you'd see that the desert there is blazing hot and the air is completely dry. The plants need to be in warehouses to be protected and the climate can be conditioned to perfect conditions. This doesn't work for tomatoes or watermelons, obviously, but because the warehouse space is cheap and marijuana has high profit margins, farming it this way works. It's weird the news industry is surprised that these businesses are racing like miners to gold mines, as all of this has been planned for a very long time. Money, blueprints, materials, distribution channels, etc... has all been in place and just waiting. "Happy new year. We're all doomed." Pretty funny. This Steve Bannon tumult makes for great TV, I'll say that.

What article? I missed that segment.

That little writer from The Atlantic and her silly article about the rise of Trump on campus was very politely smacked down by the panel. Poor thing was out of her depth. She couldn't back up anything she observed and couldn't define what her piece was meant to be about. Noah Rothman, after the author was bid farewell, said that from what he's seen, Trump's popularity on campus is just from those who like how Trump is aggressive and bullying and how he incites "the other side." He's a favorite of pricks on campus who like to make liberals angry, and that's it. Prof. Eddie agreed. It's not a movement, it's all emotional. I think Katty's face-work actually looks better in 2018 than in the latter part of 2017. She looks less artificial this morning. She also looks like she had a really relaxing, restful holiday. She seems fresher and younger and way way less stressed out. I hate her dress, though. But love the panel, so that's a trade off I'm cool with.

Joe's documentary on Manchester soccer (football) is on now. Not bad. Thin on content and way too overproduced. Far too focused on music and not soccer which is sorta weird.

Her job is in broadcast entertainment. She's not a wonk. She's not a newsie, even acknowledging her background. She's a net negative on a morning entertainment show posing as a political chat show. But the entertainment industry is beneath her. This aspect of her personality is what irredeemably tips the scales against her in my opinion.

Joe was RANTING this morning. He was so angry he was up out of his seat, screaming across the desk. I was too sleepy to know what he was talking about, but it had to do with McCarthyism and smearing the FBI. I always feel sorry for his guests when he gets like that.

Who the fuck is this guy claiming that Obama is a bigger liar than Trump? His evidence is "We got rid of lobbyists being appointed," and "you can keep your doctor." Both of those statements are mostly true, the lobbyist one being less true. 90% to 95% of insured DID keep their doctors. If you had shitty health insurance you may have had to move to a new doctor in-network. In a better network with lower costs and more coverage, but hey, Obama's a liar and that's all that matters. What a smug prick. He laughed at the WaPo journalist on as a guest. I'd punch the smug out the back of his head, and take him to his ObamaCare doctor where he has terrific coverage. (wrote too soon. Peggy Noonan, fuck you too, idiot. )

I was walking into and out of the room and only caught Roger's bit on this weekend's soccer matches in England. What was that about Joe producing a Premier League documentary? Was he trying to be breathlessly loving and weighty in his description of the Premier League? This is going to be snarkily terrific.

Joe wanted thoughts from around the table to close the hour. Barnicle's pearl of wisdom was that Alabamians got to show America that they are not the stereotype they've been accused of being for so long. Uh.. no, idiot. They are absolutely that stereotype. They spent the past 2 months reinforcing it hourly. ("We have Jewish friends, our lawyer's a Jew") If not for the "liberal media" and "northeast liberals" and immense pressure from outside of Alabama, they would have elected to the United States Senate a literal pedophile, a practicing racist, a xenophobe, and a vocally religiously biased disgrace who also apparently can't ride a horse (#FreeSassy).