Landsnark

Sorry to thread-bomb. I've had a gallon of coffee this morning. Did the panel say anything about "She's such a nasty woman?" Also, at what point will MSNBC begin to cover itself as part of the role media plays in modern politics?

Remember that time John Kerry made a huge deal about not conceding the race in Nov 2004? Remember how he refused to legitimize Bush Jr's victory and did not give a concession speech the night of the election? Because I don't. And why would Gore concede defeat BEFORE the Supreme Court ruled on the Florida recount????? AND it's widely considered by politicians, pundits, and historians of all stripes that Gore's conciliatory concession, (which wasn't necessary, he could have pursued other legal avenues and disrupted the process as a protest and/or rightfully) preserved the stable, democratic, traditional transition of American power. Why is Joe willfully misrepresenting all this? I think I know. I think he HATES Rachel Maddow. He watched her last night and thinks she's (and all "elites," a word he's used all morning, like her) a precious snowflake who is ginning up anti-Trump propaganda and manufacturing drama and friction in the Republican party. He thinks she's trolling Republicans by causing them to react to this, and causing them to take stands against Trump. I guarantee you all that's at the bottom of his ridiculous outrage this morning.

The Bill Kristol segment is the very definition of a shit show. Mika apparently feels like an alpha to Kristol, he didn't say anything without her trying to aggressively talk over him. She's learning from her boyfriend. I have no idea what he was trying to say... and for the first time in my life, I was hoping to understand what Bill Kristol was thinking. Mika is shocked, SHOCKED, that Kristol holds MJ responsible for carrying Trump's water. And Joe explodes. (FYI, Joe, you did and do carry Trump's water.) Changed the channel. I'm not big on 7am drama. Joe contends that Trump's inability to admit defeat is a non-issue, and thinks Richard Haas is precious for worrying about how Trump's refusal to observe Clinton as a legitimate President could split our country (not to mention forever split the Republican party). "... and Democrats called Bush Jr a Nazi..." Is his "proof" there is always contention between parties, and Trump's refusal to accept defeat is just part of a proud tradition of American Presidents. I have no memory of anyone calling Bush a Nazi.

Welcome, Scoobie. Please don't strangle us all! :P You don't like Andrea Mitchell? How do you even notice her? She seems so vanilla to me. FWIW, I've had friends meet her, and she's like 4ft nothing. Like TINY. And Willie is like 6'3" or so, and when they were together, they said it was super odd. Funhouse mirror stuff. He had to bend over to talk to her.

I like Steve Schmidt. He says what he says and isn't a slimeball flack who plays disgusting rhetorical games. Also, his having brought Sarah Palin to the ticket locked in 12 years of liberal Presidents, which has been crucial in balancing a partisan right wing Congress. OTOH, why can't Bernie have a vacation home? Schmidt should've said it was an off-the-grid yurt. big laughs. And on this topic, Cackles has REAAAAALLY softened her nasty edges. Remember what a rancid piece of work she used to be? A loathsome true believer who couldn't be told an objective fact without refuting it with ridiculously partisan nonsense. I think she was really humbled by her stint on "The View," and she learned moderation. If she wants a career speaking on the TeeVee, she can't be a shrill harpy constantly, she has to find humor and appear reasonable. And it's working. Know who are an interesting duo? Rachel and Cackles. They crack each other up, and it's fun. Perhaps it's because Trump is such a fun and easy punching bag. Perspective. Let's compare Trump's staff with Schmidt and Cackles. One the one hand you've got the really scary people from "Penny Dreadful." Truly evil. Dead eyes. No wit. On the other, Schmidt and Cackles are pleasant wonks being wonky.

"It's a matter of showing up, to want to get into their rally, in a Planned Parenthood T-shirt. Or 'Trump is a Nazi,' you know. You can message to draw them out, and draw them out to punch you." Yeh. That's some devastating smoking gun. The election is indeed rigged. What can Republicans do when faced with a woman in a Planned Parenthood t-shirt? It's SO unfair. Rigged. It's all rigged. Surreptitious, edited video implicates a guy spitballing ideas that actually never happened. Yeh. It's rigged. Proof again that Hillary is a liar and has dirty hands. There you go. We are through the looking glass, living now in a violent, scary world where propaganda spins off of propaganda as settled news, where lies are settled fact, where objective reality is met with virulent hate and absolute disbelief. Where self-proclaimed American Patriots hate America and all other Americans. The culture is off the rails. The left wing needs to pander to uneducated white men in the coming election cycles to get those fucking rednecks to calm the fuck down. They couldn't do anything with 400 years of cultural advantages, and now it's staring them in the face. "I'm no better than that [racial/ethnic slur.] I'm mad." There needs to be a TVA-type project where these ignorant mouth breathers are put to work and learn a 21st century trade. Why not put solar farms on the mountains of West Virginia, and turn it into America's power station? Do it on credit, get them working and not watching Fox News. Teach them how to hack. Teach them how to program. Even if they fail and can't do shit, it'll keep them busy. That will let some steam out of the boiler and hopefully temperatures will drop.

Bewilderingly, Joe was reasonable this morning and generally acceded the election to Clinton, and claimed they need to stop with these constant investigations into minutia. He didn't want to talk about the FBI and State and the email and fake quid pro quo. He said he hoped taht the right wing would unfreeze the gears of governance and just let Clinton do her job as President. Still, love how he equates ("because both sides do it," no they don't, asshole) the right wing's literal non-stop investigation into the Clintons from the 80s to today, to... uh... something or other he describes as "the left calling Bush evil." Barnicle said that in the past 8 years, all the right wing has done is investigate Obama and block his every step,and Joe erroneously corrected Barnicle to make some claim that the left wing did the identical thing in the early 0s. Didn't happen, Joe. Even though Biden probably won the election. Nice try.

How come they make it to TV to be interviewed in every different 10 minute segment on every cable news channel? Turn on any network and wait 9 minutes. You'll see a moron explaining how the election is rigged because Hillary doesn't have as large rallies as Trump. Or a moron explaining how being PC must be done away with at all costs. Or a moron explaining how Trump "tells it like it is." And so forth.

That's hilarious. It's a direct quote from his son, Voldemort.

Eliot, it was reported yesterday that the damage was estimated to be $10k, and the local Democrats had raised $12k within a day. The attack is outrageous, but it's good to hear that there are still some sane Americans who are willing to be fair and help no matter the team jersey.

Does Joe realize he's "the media?" Lee Atwater is looking up at this from Hell and is loving it. BTW, when he says "the media" is unfair, I'm watching hours of coverage on ONE FUCKING EMAIL of a staff member of Hillary's that was proven to have not been intentionally mischaracterized. Oh, it was hacked by the KGB and fed through Assange, and the assertions related to it are demonstrably false. Not only did the email achieve nothing. The language in it referred to a different topic. The "quid pro quo" was related to something else, but.. what different does it make? Invent things about Hillary, observe Trump's lies... and "the media" is in the tank against Trump. Did anybody push back against Joe?

Alex Wagner and Alec Baldwin.

Well, since the KGB hacked into the DNC's files, and caused the firing of the DNC's leadership and erosion of structure, I'd say they are in disarray. Now the DNC must necessarily either talk sitting in disguise on park benches, or use emails that are being read by everybody on earth. And since apparently a bulk of Democrats are precious naifs who don't understand that politics involves heavy measures of aggression, compromise, and plotting... the DNC no longer has the stomach for Machiavellian maneuvers, such as, predict Donald Trump is an easy mark who needs to be set up, and prep every down ballot candidate to tie their opponent to any negative issue involving Trump. Also the DNC should have been raising a fortune off of Trump's misogyny alone.

That's the fella.

I find it odd that nobody is making a bigger deal of Wikileaks and Trump's ties to Russian espionage during a Presidential election. Or that he won't show his taxes. Or that this could be an elaborate presentation to investors to begin a hard right wing media empire. Is it just me, or is one side of the race to be President relying upon exposing stolen private communications via the intelligence arm of an enemy of the state? "This election's rigged." Indeed.

Who was the conservative flack who spoke to Mika, and Mika let every panelist ask him 1 question? He's smart, he's clever, he's glib. I found him to be detestable, which probably means he's an excellent flack. His ultimate point is that he, Trump, and all Trump supporters want to watch Washington burn. He said numerous times, "break it down and start again." That media and government are actively working against them in numerous nefarious ways. Nobody on the panel called bullshit on this fake platform. It's factually inaccurate. For starters, he was on MSNBC giving his side of things... so... he's complaining about the system being rigged against him, as he's openly using "the system" to the fullest of his abilities. Not only do Conservatives hold the Congress, they also own an admittedly biased news network, the largest one on TV. It makes me so so angry when the laziest spin isn't called out by seasoned politicos who are in a position to squash nonsense. Nobody asked him what their plan is for after when everything is "burned down." Specifically which Obama policies are ruining America? Again, Donnie was the voice of reason, and so was Sam Stein. At least Stein asked the flack if he understood that "the media" was simply using Donald's own words and actions as the story. Also, the conservative spokesperson said the right wing are openly complaining about being morally judged. The rest of the world are sluts and homos and lazy blacks and criminals and elite and snowflakes and minorities and on and on and on and on... but it should be ok for the right wing to support an openly racist misogynist, and to question that is beyond the pale.

Yeh. That's why I'm voting for her. That's like using "liberal" as a pejorative. Why wouldn't you want a career professional being productive in their field? I simply do not understand Trumpsters.

"He's never claimed to be a choir boy, he never claimed to be a saint" Some Presidents were choir boys. Jimmy Carter has the resume to be a (Baptist) saint. :P That all aside, he's running for PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, not to be a cocktail waitress wrangler at an Atlantic City casino. Details matter.

His rhetoric is now past the point of volatile. If I was a journalist, I would stop showing up at his rallies. I think. I think it's about to get dangerous and ugly. I think he has these fucking lowest-common-denominator zombies worked into a frenzy and we're going to look back at the warning signs with regret. His supporters are ASKING HIM TO MOLEST THEM. This is happening, as he claims that the United States of America and all institutions are conspiring against him, and through him, them. He is teetering on the edge of sedition. Cool non-sequitor, Jordan! Thank you for your input!

I watched the Ben Carson debacle in real time at the gym. I swear I've never seen anything like that before. He made Sarah Palin look like Ben Franklin or Mark Twain. "Moron" doesn't fully address his awesomely stupid inadequacies. He just made Katrina Pierson seem like William F. Buckley. He set a standard for stupidity that will never, can never, be matched. Biased surrogate accuses TV host of being responsible for all media bias. Because... the media observed Trump's OWN claims of sexual assault, and observed purported victims claiming they were abused. Bible thumping Christian Patriot claims election cycles are no place for religion, morality, or ethics. Twice. Demands that a co-host's microphone is turned off because she'd like for him to actually answer his question. Claims that asking if "Do you think they lied?" is a gotcha question and proves media bias. Or something. Just amazing. (to add... just in case you were never clear, THAT RIGHT THERE is the reason women don't tend to come forward with accusations of sexual assault. And he's a doctor. He's fucking disgusting, said Captain Obvious.)

The piece on Aleppo is the reason I began watching this show. Nice shot at redemption, modulated (and probably drugged) Joe.

I've never seen anything like that. I am blown away.

Ben Carson is a fucking idiot. Perhaps the stupidest person in American public life. Maybe ever.

The thing is, the numbers prove without a doubt that viewers don't care about the facts. They're reality TV show people who aren't interested in nuanced debate. They want to hear, "Yeah, you'll be in jail." They chose a team and are rooting for their team to win the news cycle. It's a daily bit of entertainment, and Trump's genius is he knows this. He knew that he'd get free air time and the ad revenue he produced would be a drug the networks couldn't quit. Ask Trump Junky Joe Scarborough and his foul, cowardly bosses. This game was probably born w/Palin and the Tea Party's anger. Certainly given rise from Fox News. The lower the level of discourse, the more eyeballs are drawn. Dumb it down, dumb it down, dumb it down, and if anybody objects, they are part of the problem and your enemy. Us vs them. More and more audience members avail themselves to this sort of discourse, because you don't have to have much invested in punditry or complex facts to enjoy Trump saying the "establishment is lying to you," and believe it. There is no money in producing dry news, or straddling the line. Internet or cable TV. Citizens have to be curious and work to find perspective. Walter Cronkite is gone, folks.

There are 3 major news networks that deal mainly with politics. There needs to be content. TV Politics (which has no bearing on journalists covering politics) is no longer about policy or statesmanship or news stories... and least of all about sober, measured discussion about finding a middle ground. It's a big money earner through ad revenue, and hyping "scandals" and reporting something every 6 hours with breathless energy. It's irresponsible hype, and part of the hype machine are PR flaks who are necessary to produce content, to deflect, to further, to accuse, to muddy, etc... And that's why there are so many surrogates on TV these days. My favorite is that Texan maniac who is Trumps surrogate... she's fucking CRAZY. This current climate plays a role in why people don't like Hillary. There is TV Politics which is a reality show that airs constantly on 3 networks. And there is politics where adult professionals adjudicate the laws of the land, the policies of the people, and try to find the best way forward. One is gangbusters TV, the other is not interesting to reality TV show fans.