S17.E23: Richard Engel, Terry McAuliffe, Anthony Scaramucci, Tom Nichols, and Catherine Rampell

[Guest]

Airs August 9, 2019

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Guests: Richard Engel, Terry McAuliffe, Anthony Scaramucci, Tom Nichols, and Catherine Rampell

[GHScorpiosRule]

Just now, Giant Misfit said:

Airs August 9, 2019

Just now, Giant Misfit said:

Guests: <snip>, Anthony Scaramucci, <snip>

WHYYYYYYYYYY???????!!!!

[The Solution]

Let's support Biden because he sucks less than (the presumptive Republican candidate). We don't deserve anything better than mediocrity.

Worthless. I gave up. Again.

[Caseysgirl]

The “Mooch” sounded like an idiot defending his good friend Donald Trump who he has probably not spoken to since the day he was unceremoniously kicked out of the White House.  No one thinks that Trump is listening to ANYTHING he has to say. Also, Bill, please stop wishing fora recession - we are not all single white males who are millionaires. It may not effect you disastrously but it will many others.

[Gemma Violet]

That woman was so annoying and loud.

[link417]

2 hours ago, Caseysgirl said:

The “Mooch” sounded like an idiot defending his good friend Donald Trump who he has probably not spoken to since the day he was unceremoniously kicked out of the White House.  No one thinks that Trump is listening to ANYTHING he has to say. Also, Bill, please stop wishing fora recession - we are not all single white males who are millionaires. It may not effect you disastrously but it will many others.

Thank you! Bill kept saying “we;” “we’ve” survived recessions before and “we” can survive another one. Maybe “we” can, the country as a whole, but me and my adorable little bank account can’t even handle a slight payroll mishap, let alone a damn recession. 

Scaramucci sounded like a total idiot babbling about how he can’t turn his back on his friends. I was waiting for him to shove his wrist in Bill’s face to reveal his hand-braided bracelet with the “BFFS 4EVER” beads on it, like, “SEE?! Where I’m from, this means something!”

And I can’t stand how Scaramucci had to get whatever he wanted to say out, no matter whether it messed up the flow of the show or not. Anytime Bill tried to move on, Scaramucci would just keep talking until he was heard. Way too much talking from him. I did enjoy the faces Rampell was making at him, though.

Where the hell has Engel been living that he only now sees/feels that America is an angry country? Maybe he meant angrier, because it’s been angry for as long as I can remember.

[wknt3]

4 hours ago, link417 said:

And I can’t stand how Scaramucci had to get whatever he wanted to say out, no matter whether it messed up the flow of the show or not. Anytime Bill tried to move on, Scaramucci would just keep talking until he was heard. Way too much talking from him. I did enjoy the faces Rampell was making at him, though.

Normally I would agree with you wholeheartedly and I have said many times before that one of Bill's worse tendencies is to let cable news blowhards filibuster their way through the panel even though he can be a good moderator, but this week I didn't mind so much since Bill had nothing to say and his scripted material was terrible - Bill getting pissed at him for interrupting was the funniest part.
 

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Thank you! Bill kept saying “we;” “we’ve” survived recessions before and “we” can survive another one. Maybe “we” can, the country as a whole, but me and my adorable little bank account can’t even handle a slight payroll mishap, let alone a damn recession.

Yes Bill was particularly tone deaf and lacking self-awareness this week. You would think that somebody who is always lecturing the audience about not playing into the hands of the opposition would realize that openly rooting for an economic downturn for partisan gain is much more alienating to "average Americans" than caring about progressive issues other than the environment and (some forms of) economic inequality and is exactly the right wing propaganda line that is pushed whenever critics point out the damage caused by reckless trade wars? Worse is that he couldn't come up with a clever or funny way to say it. I mean at least maybe a comment about how that at least the guy who screwed it up should be the one to get punished? Or a chemotherapy metaphor about how it will cause real damage, but is better than nuclear war or blocking action on climate change?
 

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Where the hell has Engel been living that he only now sees/feels that America is an angry country? Maybe he meant angrier, because it’s been angry for as long as I can remember.

Both Engel and Bill demonstrated a distressing lack of historical awareness. Especially for a journalist and a commentator whose central thesis this week was about not forgetting the past. Even if you want to ignore say the Civil War or the Progressive Era, you would think they would be aware of the Days of Rage and the 60s protest movements and reactionary violence which is a direct and obvious parallel.

[sistermagpie]

10 hours ago, link417 said:

Scaramucci sounded like a total idiot babbling about how he can’t turn his back on his friends. I was waiting for him to shove his wrist in Bill’s face to reveal his hand-braided bracelet with the “BFFS 4EVER” beads on it, like, “SEE?! Where I’m from, this means something!”

And I can’t stand how Scaramucci had to get whatever he wanted to say out, no matter whether it messed up the flow of the show or not. Anytime Bill tried to move on, Scaramucci would just keep talking until he was heard. Way too much talking from him. I did enjoy the faces Rampell was making at him, though. 

It was driving me crazy listening to his non-stop murmuring. I was grateful for anytime Catherine Rampell jumped in on his nonsense - though of course he was ready for that with his "she wants to fight" thing as if that proved his "both sides" thesis. I don't think she did want to fight--we should be beyond having to fight with a guy who's just there to push a fictionalized version of what's going on in the world, where Trump can behave even for 5 minutes like a person actually doing the job of president, like he's ever given a thought to "policy" beyond what he's saying in that moment, how he's anybody's friend. Oh, and I guess he's a "blue collar" president since that seems to be the title of a book he's written and Bill brought him on to discuss.

But Bill probably likes him because he loves conservatives explaining to progressives how if they want to win they need to elect the person who's as close to a Republican as possible. Somebody who'll put the respectable mask back on the same policies. Like Mooch sadly shaking his head and murmuring about how if the Democrats run Elizabeth Warren it will cause a 70% landslide for Trump.

[Gemma Violet]

10 hours ago, link417 said:

Where the hell has Engel been living that he only now sees/feels that America is an angry country? Maybe he meant angrier, because it’s been angry for as long as I can remember.

I'm pretty old and I can remember other angry divisive times like the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, the Women's movement, etc., but Richard Engel is in his mid-forties and he was probably referring to what he's seen in his lifetime, not what has happened throughout history.

[DoctorAtomic]

I liked that the woman brought up TPP. It was for exactly to deal with what is going on with China now. 

[link417]

2 hours ago, Gemma Violet said:

I'm pretty old and I can remember other angry divisive times like the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, the Women's movement, etc., but Richard Engel is in his mid-forties and he was probably referring to what he's seen in his lifetime, not what has happened throughout history.

I think there is a slight misunderstanding: When I said “for as long as I can remember,” I was also referring specifically to my lifetime, as opposed to the entire history of the country. Obviously, the perspective will be different from a mid-forties white male and an early-thirties black female, but he said it so matter-of-fairly that I felt compelled to ask that rhetorical question as a rebuttal to him.

[Duke Silver]

Mooch was ready for a fight with Rampell?  In a just world where such a debate could be had based on facts and more than 15 second sound bytes, she would eviscerate him.  Alas, RT is not such a world.  For my money, Rampell writes some of the smartest stuff for WaPo lately, almost up there with David Fahrenthold, who I respect greatly for his journalistic abilities.

Tom Nichols is one of the few #nevertrump'ers I take seriously.  I'm not sure the format worked for him, but he got in some good shots.

[meowmommy]

WTF with "You don't give up on your friends," and "It's the toughest job in the world."  First of all, yes, if your friend is acting like a complete shithead despite your best efforts, you do tell them to go fuck themselves and you find a new friend, and second, as Bill said, it's not the toughest job in the world if you don't actually do any work.  Unless your idea of work is rolling out of bed at noon, looking at your press clippings instead of your briefing books, spending your waking moments watching TV like Chance the Gardener in Being There, and working your thumbs in the Twitterverse. 

If this is the kind of drivel Scaramucci is still putting out, can only imagine how he would have performed if he had been allowed to stay as WH Communication Director.  He relies far too much on "Look at me, I'm a nice guy," and not enough on anything of substance. And he flat out admits the tariffs are bullshit and that there are no industrial or infrastructure plans, but still makes excuses.

36 minutes ago, Duke Silver said:

For my money, Rampell writes some of the smartest stuff for WaPo lately, almost up there with David Fahrenthold, who I respect greatly for his journalistic abilities.

She's an expert on economics, although it's not the only thing she writes about, and her cutting observations in WaPo, IMO, contributed to skewering the recent really bad Fed nominations.  

5 hours ago, Gemma Violet said:

I'm pretty old and I can remember other angry divisive times like the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, the Women's movement, etc., but Richard Engel is in his mid-forties and he was probably referring to what he's seen in his lifetime, not what has happened throughout history.

I'm old, too, but we didn't have social media and 24/7 opinion shows and internet and a blog or a podcast or a YouTube channel for every left or right wingnut out there who wants to share and spread their anger.

I liked New Rules and Bill's epilogue.  Probably because I'm a boomer.

Edited August 10, 2019 by meowmommy

[sistermagpie]

39 minutes ago, meowmommy said:

WTF with "You don't give up on your friends," and "It's the toughest job in the world."  First of all, yes, if your friend is acting like a complete shithead despite your best efforts, you do tell them to go fuck themselves and you find a new friend,

Or in Trump's case you give up on your friends the minute you've sucked them dry and they have no more use for them. Or just if somebody else is more attractive to you in that second. Or if you need somebody to pin one of your crimes on.  One of the oddest corners of the Trump sphere is these guys who talk about being loyal to Trump personally as a friend when, as with so many other things, he's an almost cartoonish example of the opposite.

I liked it when the guy cut through the tariff talk by just reminding everyone that the president does not actually know what a tariff is. You can't get sucked into talking about the stuff he does as if he's actually doing that thing as it would normally be understood. It's like posting a video of an animal that seems to be reacting to a sporting event. He's not really cheering for the team, he's  meowing at something that means something to him as a cat that's coincidentally at the same moment a sports thing is happening. That's Trump and whatever policy he's talking about.

[wknt3]

Well it seems like the nation's leading TV critic agrees with us that this week's show was lacking although I can't quite agree with his reasoning. Guess we know one of next week's topics Bill will cover.

[DoctorAtomic]

2 hours ago, Duke Silver said:

Mooch was ready for a fight with Rampell?  In a just world where such a debate could be had based on facts and more than 15 second sound bytes, she would eviscerate him.

She kind of did though. She wasn't buying his constant low talking nonstop.

1 hour ago, meowmommy said:

And he flat out admits the tariffs are bullshit and that there are no industrial or infrastructure plans, but still makes excuses.

I found his appearance on the panel kind of weird because of that. There was a decent amount of stuff he said that wasn't actually wrong, but yeah, then he pulls the 'but he's my friend.' Ok, so Bill asks him if he actually said these things to Trump and me kind of bumbles through it. I don't get what his angle is - trying to claw back to the WH? Trying to brand himself as a unique insider? Bill chided him as to whether Trump ever listened to him.

1 hour ago, meowmommy said:

I liked New Rules and Bill's epilogue.  Probably because I'm a boomer.

I'm not a boomer, but he does have a point though. You go back long enough for anyone, you're going to find something.

[Pippin]

Can someone help me out? Is it just me? I seem to remember Bill being a vocal supporter of single payer healthcare, and not that long ago. What happened?  Did I cross into an alternative universe? Another timeline? When did Bill start supporting the GOP line of everyone loves private insurance?

Of course, as a Canadian, I find all the hysteria over "socialism" regarding universal healthcare funny to start with.

[Pete Martell]

7 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I found his appearance on the panel kind of weird because of that. There was a decent amount of stuff he said that wasn't actually wrong, but yeah, then he pulls the 'but he's my friend.' Ok, so Bill asks him if he actually said these things to Trump and me kind of bumbles through it. I don't get what his angle is - trying to claw back to the WH? Trying to brand himself as a unique insider? Bill chided him as to whether Trump ever listened to him.

His career depends on the fantasy that he is pals with Trump or has respect with Trump. I think he lost some gigs when he was critical of Trump's racist screeds several weeks back. If he just becomes anti-Trump, then he is like a million other people out there who are already booked, and many of the people who are anti-Trump will never want to go near him anyway.

[Victor the Crab]

On ‎8‎/‎9‎/‎2019 at 11:08 PM, Caseysgirl said:

 Also, Bill, please stop wishing fora recession - we are not all single white males who are millionaires. It may not effect you disastrously but it will many others.

^^THIS!!! Bill keeps coming off as an archetypical limousine liberal everytime he opens his mouth about wishing for a recession to destroy this president. He's not going to suffer the way millions of people will in an economic downturn. I wish more liberals would point that out to him.

If Bill wants to showcase opposing views on his panel, he'd do well to avoid booking people like Anthony Scaramucci who do nothing but steal oxygen away from other people.

I would agree 100% with the New Rules sermon if it was delivered by someone who didn't make their career out of being an insensitive asshole who loves getting off on offending people with their racially tinged stereotypical viewpoints and then gets easily offended when they're called out on their behavior, the way Bill has. Having those words come out of his mouth makes him look like a fucking hypocrite.

[msrachelj]

Yes. Fuck you Bill. Of course you don't care if there is a recession. You are rich. It would affect me negatively though. You are a moron on that count.

[sistermagpie]

19 hours ago, Pippin said:

Can someone help me out? Is it just me? I seem to remember Bill being a vocal supporter of single payer healthcare, and not that long ago. What happened?  Did I cross into an alternative universe? Another timeline? When did Bill start supporting the GOP line of everyone loves private insurance?

It's weird--he points out that he was the one who saw Trump coming but then thinks the best thing to do is run somebody pretty close to Clinton.

I think the general thing is just that he can't imagine there being any reason to court any voters except the Trump people while taking everyone else for granted. He doesn't believe in turning out the base, just not frightening these mythical centrists who vote for Donald Trump as if he's not radical.

Strangely, he doesn't see any problem these people might have with a rich Hollywood guy hoping for a recession.

11 hours ago, Pete Martell said:

His career depends on the fantasy that he is pals with Trump or has respect with Trump. I think he lost some gigs when he was critical of Trump's racist screeds several weeks back. If he just becomes anti-Trump, then he is like a million other people out there who are already booked, and many of the people who are anti-Trump will never want to go near him anyway.

LOL. And since Trump watched the show last night he called him out on Twitter and said that he barely knew him. Because of course he did. Now Mooch is claiming that eventually he turns on everyone and "eventually" he will turn on the country. Eventually.

Edited August 11, 2019 by sistermagpie

[Caseysgirl]

Ha! Ha! Ha!  So sorry, Mooch, hope this doesn’t interrupt your 15 minutes!

[deirdra]

Bill did like single payer healthcare, but someone must have pointed out to him that successful countries have a mix of public and private healthcare where everyone is covered for the basics on public healthcare, but individuals or employers can pay for private insurance to cover a few extras or any extravagant amount of healthcare that they may want.

Bill's point is that candidates who run on killing off the choice of additional private insurance will lose the election.

Edited August 11, 2019 by deirdra

[izabella]

Bill sounds like a moron when he says people love their private insurance.  The only other option at the moment is no insurance, so yeah, of course they love their private insurance.  Maybe if there were other options, they'd love them because they are better.   Saying people love their private insurance is a tool to shut down the discussion about what could be better.

[GoldenGirl90]

On 8/10/2019 at 7:51 PM, wknt3 said:

Well it seems like the nation's leading TV critic agrees with us that this week's show was lacking although I can't quite agree with his reasoning. Guess we know one of next week's topics Bill will cover.

Bill responded: 

Edited August 11, 2019 by Alexis2291

[deirdra]

When normal people turn on the TV and see someone they don't like, they turn the channel.  I thought DT's TV was permanently tuned to Fox, so how did he "accidentally" watch Bill tell multiple "lies"?

Edited August 12, 2019 by deirdra

[monakane]

On 8/9/2019 at 11:08 PM, Caseysgirl said:

Bill, please stop wishing fora recession - we are not all single white males who are millionaires. It may not effect you disastrously but it will many others.

This!  It infuriates me when he says this.  A recession will hurt everyone.  Of course, he doesn't care because he is financially secure and will continue to be paid by HBO.  Jackass!

[One Imaginary Girl]

There was a strange moment when Catherine Rampell was saying that even if someone was your friend, you shouldn't overlook their racism, and Bill snapped at her, "We get it."  Did he think it was about him?  She clearly meant the Mooch and Mr. Soul Cycle and their relationships with Trump.

Edited August 12, 2019 by One Imaginary Girl

[sistermagpie]

18 minutes ago, One Imaginary Girl said:

There was a strange moment when Catherine Rampell was saying that even if someone was your friend, you shouldn't overlook their racism, and Bill snapped at her, "We get it."  Did he think it was about him?  She clearly meant the Mooch and Mr. Soul Cycle and their relationships with Trump.

I think he was angry because she was derailing what Bill wanted to talk about. I can't remember what it was, but as soon as she started arguing against something in the premise he got annoyed because he wanted to stay focused on his thing. Can't remember what the point he wanted to make, though.

[DXD526]

That happened another time, when Mooch refused to stop muttering about something and Bill finally cut him off with "I'm doing a bit!" to shut him up. I didn't mind in that particular instance, as Mooch is insufferable, but how many times have things come to a screeching halt because of those in-show bits? Bill has many times derailed an interesting discussion to introduce an unfunny bit and the episode never recovers. 

[DoctorAtomic]

To be fair, I would think it's hard on a live show as to whether to forgo the in show bit. 

3 hours ago, DXD526 said:

Mooch refused to stop muttering about something and Bill finally cut him off with "I'm doing a bit!" to shut him up.

Mooch has the weird tactic of slowly lowering his voice and continuing talking. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

Just reading that Scaramucci was going to be on was enough for me to delete this right off of my dvr. asskissing sycophantic motor mouth asshole.

[Mystery Author]

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I don't get what his angle is - trying to claw back to the WH? Trying to brand himself as a unique insider?

Simple. He's a fame whore.

[DoctorAtomic]

In the panel introduction iirc Bill said he also had a book out.