Landsnark

But, "optics," Dagny. "Optics." Joe started a sentence saying it doesn't matter that the President plays golf and Reagan did it the day after Beirut, but condemned Obama at the end of that sentence. T'was odd. Because "optics." So, if a President played golf in a course and no one was there to chronicle it, does it make a sound (or sight, because "optics)? No, it doesn't. It takes Joe Sanctimonybrough to whip up this non-issue into a judgment of Obama's character. Meaning... it's JOE who provides the optics and provides meaning to a meaningless act. He's the media platform interpreting phenomena and disseminating his own definitions of that phenomena. HE is the producer of the optics, not Obama. I think Joe is trying to improve ratings by playing at being moderate, but his natural dislike of Obama is irrepressible.

WTF is wrong with Mika? (Should be the name of Thomas' tell-all book about life on the set of MJ) In the same week she makes the empty gesture of having water sort of poured on her in the guise of charity and faux goodwill, she dismisses smaller acts of actual charity? Her pouring water on herself is sooo important to her image as a celebrity, but helping her fellow man/woman in an actual sense in a manner that is supposed to become habit or repeatable is beneath her? WTF indeed, Mika. You unlikeable cow.

FWIW... the officer did not have a broken orbital socket - http://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/8/21/6054237/source-to-cnn-darren-wilson-didnt-have-a-fractured-eye-socket All eyewitness accounts corroborate each other and Brown's friend Dorian Johnson's account.

I flipped over to MJ and saw him ranting about how he wouldn't have played golf while in Congress (drink) and how President Obama was Spock in that the President has no emotions. Mika was looking at him adoringly. Changed the channel and didn't return. It's such faux outrage. Such horse shit. If they complain about "how it looks," because in and of itself they know that the 4hrs the President spent outside with aides and phones is irrelevant, then they are complaining that the President should do a better job of telling them what to talk to us about. Joe forgets he's the interpreter and disseminator of the Obama Golf Narrative, not Obama. Joe knows golfing is innocuous - a non-issue, yet condemns the President because now Joe must tell everyone how bad it is that the President played golf. It's a surreal, self-referential parlor game that the President refuses to play, and it enrages Joe, so he explicates meaningless acts in media, thereby giving them weight. "Optics" of phenomena only matter if Joe focuses on the meaningless phenomena and gives it meaning. It's like Joe believes the President is forcing him to condemn the President for going to have lunch. "I wouldn't do it. Not at a time like this," Sanctimony Joe. Also, it's odd Sanctimony Joe doesn't blame GWB for the Rodney King Riots. Odd. That was orders of magnitude more violent and out of control than Ferguson, but, oh well. Obama is black and golfs, I suppose. Lazy and indifferent. When zero handicap Ike golfed, that was Presidential. Odd that Joe ignored that one time when His Angelic Holiness Ronnie Reagan ordered CHP, local police and the National Guard to attack peaceful protesters of the Vietnam war at Berkeley while Reagan was Gov of California. So odd that this has gone unmentioned. 'Reagan called the Berkeley campus "a haven for communist sympathizers, protesters, and sex deviants."' Some fun reading re: Reagan http://www.thenation.com/article/158506/remembering-reagans-record-civil-rights-and-south-african-freedom-struggle

jenkait, don't you think after 5 days a week for like 8 years, you might backhand Mika? I wouldn't judge you if you did. I cannot believe Joe and the regular guests don't slam their own faces into the shared desk daily. I would.

I like Chuck Todd! But I DO NOT like that fucking douchebag dark haired kid who does the "hollywood" segment. He needs a neck punch.

Where is the Libertarian furor about Ferguson? Odd. Rand Paul and the Tea Party political movement have been entirely quiet on this. A hyper-militarized governmental body shot a young man for walking to his grandmother's house. That ticks every single tenet that underpins Libertarian philosophies... especially today's Tea Party rhetoric. Awfully, awfully quiet, save for the hypocrisy, which is deafening. If the kid had been wealthy and white (actually, wealthy wouldn't matter), there would be militias in Ferguson and O'Reilly and Hannity would be broadcasting live from helicopters above the protests, praising them. But he wasn't white, was he? Ergo, his murder is his own fault.

LOL. Being Mika's understudy has got to be the worst situation in show business. I presume Mika wants to catch an Orioles game because her daughter is at Johns Hopkins, which is about 1 mile up a single street from the Inner Harbor. Has Scarborough mellowed? Is he detoxed? Re-toxed? On meds? Off meds? In love again? Finally free of a relationship? Just relaxed from vacation? He seems more genial. And I hate it. I like disliking him.

Well... Lauren Bacall just passed away. RIP. Drink when Mika giggles and says, "Who??"

You all have missed Fox News anchor Shepard Smith calling Williams a coward. And Fox News "contributor" on some show "Outnumbered" called FLOTUS Michelle Obama fat. Big day on their network.

"The Birdcage" seems to be the one that's always lost when discussing Robin Williams. He's so easily hiliarious in it for so many reasons. The site didn't work for me today until now (a virus?) and I'd have commented like 9hrs ago when Mika B was acting like a fucking idiot about the sad news. What is WRONG WITH HER???? How is this person a chat show host? Why does she talk over people and divert the flow of conversation for no purpose?

The show is pretty good when OctoPursey is not around and Joe is being clear-eyed about politics and is non-partisan for the most part.

Who is the 2nd blondie on the set this morning next to Cattie (Katty? Kat E? Katy? Catty?) Kay with the EXACT SAME HAIRCUT AND COLOR? Their hair is identical. She got the Junior Newswoman Starter Cut, and it looks terrific, but it was odd seeing they had literally the exact same haircut. She was also wearing the Standard Newswoman Sheath. She was earnest, bright eyed, curious, and had on the uniform... she's got a shot.

The umpteenth reconvened bi-partisan (Republican driven) House Intelligence Committee investigation into Benghazi is complete and reports are written. Was this on the show today? 100% buy-in and bipartisan agreement... all right wing accusations have been proven AGAIN to be incorrect. Any word from Scarborough and his merry team of conservative guests? Where's the "impeach Issa" rhetoric?

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/08/01/morning-joes-republican-apologists-blame-both-sides-house-gops-border-bill-failure.html

I like how she has motherly instincts today, but started yesterday's show bitching about how miserable life is with teenagers. Because, you see, she's the first human on earth to have teenaged children, and her problems are unprecedented in that regard. Stephen A. Smith's comment: That's right, battered housewife. Read the part in bold. Do your part, you idiot, to stop getting yourself hit so much. It's YOUR fault you get hit. So straighten up, or you'll just get more of the same. I should hit you right now for not doing more. This enrages me. I don't think that yammering fools whose job it is to yammer foolishly should necessarily always be fired when their yammering bleeds outside of the lines of propriety. The show he's on with that eel Skip Bayliss on ESPN, is a foul, evil, lower-than-lowest-common-denominator, warped take on male gossip and hate speech wrapped in the merest facade of sports talk. The show does well. People like that pandering filth. But I don't see how he can continue to be employed by ESPN with his misogynistic perspectives. Apologies or no.

So it would appear that the new head of NBC (or NBC News?) said in August 2013 that Joe and Mika won't host MTP after Gregory is canned, reversing his predecessor's earlier decision. As a group, do we remember Joe & Mika as being smug up to August of last year, and angry afterwards? I would like to watch them host MTP. The slow-motion-crashedness of it would be AWESOME TV. It'd ruin NBC's news division forever, and end the show, obviously. And Morning Joe would likely be changed and programmed differently. Joe and Mika hosting MTP would be the worst high-profile political journalist panel discussion show ever. Joe's not a journalist. He's a self-important bloviating salesman. Mika's a twit.

That article from Spectator.org made me laugh out loud.

Mika just admitted that she had the lowest SATs and terrible grades when she was searching for colleges. No shit, Mika. No shit. I'm sure your early admissions to Johns Hopkins kids appreciate that story.

Seriously Morning Joe? I try you once in the past 2 weeks, and you come out of commercial with the author of the insipid, commercial, vapid, simplistic, "Eat, Pray, Love." Clip of the book as a movie with Julia Roberts starring. Cut to Mika. She coos and fawns... literally cooed, then tilted her head to the side and said, "awwww..." I think she then began to introduce the author, because I clicked away. They used to be better on off-political topics.

Who's the smug conservative douche bag who got into a near-shouting match with Heilemann yesterday? Krystol? His perspective was that the US should be in Iraq fighting both the Sunnis and the Shia. WTF, MSNBC? What's he doing on the show?

I watched about 5 seconds of the show today before I was disgusted. Joe interrupted Donnie to comment on "the stupidest way to promote a book" in order to slam Hillary Clinton I presume. I didn't even stick around to see what they were talking about. I presume it was Clinton. I presume Joe was working himself into a full bloviation about how all molehills are the most crucial mountains and how he is an expert engineer of both molehills and mountains, and has spoken with all the leading engineers in that field and they all agree with him.

Thanks for throwing yourself on the grenades, Oakville. Much appreciated. You clearly use relaxation techniques to maintain your sanity and health as you watch this fascinatingly infuriating disaster of newsotainment. What are those techniques so we can all be more patient?

Re: the Triple Crown... there is no "Triple Crown." It's a media thing bestowed upon a horse that wins the big three races. That's all. It's not a business. It's not a single race. It's not what horses train for. It's not what owners and businesses look to to make their money or run their day to day. Also, the Belmont, the Preakness and Churchill Downs are non-affiliated businesses who stage the best horse races they are able. They aren't in the business of pandering to this one horse's owner. Each field of horses is its own field of horses for that race, to make that race the best race possible. What if California Chrome lost at the Preakness? Then the Belmont as a race has 0 interest in general. Also these rules have applied since ever. Only truly incredible horses have won all three races. The reason it's a big deal is because it's nearly impossible. And... People want jobs, not triple crown winners. :p

Soooo grateful for your return to recaps and health, Oakville. I cannot even watch the show anymore. I loathe Joe and Mika.