The New Yorker‘s Andrea DenHoed explains:
… The clip is part of “Nixon’s the One,” a television series created by [Harry] Shearer and the Nixon scholar Stanley Kutler. It was first broadcast in Britain earlier this year—a savvy choice for a show whose humor depends upon a taut sense of discomfort—and is slated to début in the United States this fall. The script is taken entirely from the Nixon tapes—the audio captured by the voice-activated recorders that Nixon had installed in the White House— and from notes from Nixon’s associates. The selected scenes are reproduced as faithfully as possible—“every word, every pause, to the best of our ability, every inflection,” Shearer told me. It’s hard to think of a more apt way to revisit the tenure of a President whose rise and fall was bound, at every juncture, to recordings of one kind or another…
Along with Kutler, Shearer (who is a font of Nixon anecdotes) listened to hundreds of hours of the Nixon tapes, many of which have not been transcribed, to select scenes to feature on the show. Shearer has spent so much time listening to and analyzing Nixon that he very tentatively admits that he might be in better touch with Nixon’s emotions that Nixon himself was. (“I’d be pretentious and arrogant to say yes, but I’d be lying to say no.”)…
Most amazing thing may be that Nixon, weird as he was, never sank to the Weirdness Singularity level that his minions were already preparing to achieve with Ronald Reagan…
rikyrah
My heart is heavy and broken a little bit more by the gunning down of an unarmed Black youth by the police in Missouri.
He had his hands up.
He was unarmed.
The police had M16’s.
What the phuck is wrong with this picture.
It’s open season on Black people by Law Enforcement in this country.
TooManyJens
@rikyrah: When I saw “Saturday Night Horror Show” in the thread title, I honestly thought it might be referring to this case.
Reading what the witnesses are saying is absolutely sickening.
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
It is heartbreaking. I don’t know a thing about this young man or the circumstances, but I just can’t envision any scenario, ANY scenario, that could possibly justify this.
I’m about as white as a person can get, but please know (and rikyrah, I know you do) that we are not all like this. It makes me weep and it makes me enraged.
srv
Reagan was the logical result of Nixon’s fall. Wonder what would have happened had the world given him a break.
jenn
Damn. Heartbreaking and enraging. He was evidently starting college on Monday.
Amir Khalid
Reagan presented as superficially appealing. Nixon, on the other hand, was a little too obviously creepy to inspire a cult of personality.
Little Boots
still needs more omnes
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
The police have been pretty thoroughly militarized in this country and militaries need enemies. Even if they have to invent them. Given how many of our citizens are racists, given our war on drugs which pinned the cause on blacks all out of proportion to reality, given the war on poverty(which quickly turned into a war on poor people), given the militarization of police, I can actually not picture any other way this would have turned out. That it has effectively if not legally continued the lynchings and beatings of blacks is unquestionable. Different methods but same results. That it is a shame does not even come within a million miles of an apt description of the situation. And even worse, I see no way to change this, given our political climate. We elected a damn fine man to be president(best in my lifetime and I’m on SS) but a shit load of white people are pissed because he is black. Our only hope is to out vote the racists(and religious nuts) and elect people who know better.
Little Boots
damn, I miss omnes. everyone else is so sensitive.
cept, steeplejack.
miss steeplejack.
Fred
It is my understanding that the recorders were installed by Kennedy.
BillinGlendaleCA
Two of my fellow alums gracing the front page of Balloon Juice tonight, Carol Burnett and Harry Shearer. Then again I’d rather see them talked about than two other alums who served in high positions in Tricky Dick’s admin(Haldeman and Ehrlichman).
Amir Khalid
@Little Boots:
You and Steeplejack.
Little Boots
@Amir Khalid:
I cannot believe you would drag a children’s movie into this.
although it’s true. I do love omnes, and steelejack.
still.
Fred
And how about the black man (of course) who was shot by police in an Ohio Wallmart, I think yesterday. Seems he was in the toy aisle and picked up a toy gun. Two cops popped up and shot him dead. His ex was talking with the man on the phone and heard the whole thing. Not much to hear. Cops said something. Man said, “It’s not real.” Boom. Man is dead.
No doubt it will be a justified shooting ’cause gosh, what else could they do? He was black!
BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: To Little Boots, I’m the red headed step-child.
Little Boots
@BillinGlendaleCA:
or not.
Little Boots
you know what? I seriously, miss omnes.
Ruckus
@Little Boots:
Get yourself a room already will ya?
Little Boots
@Ruckus:
no, he is not gay. just miss him.
what is with your bigotry?
aangus
Well, there’s always this.
Amir Khalid
@Little Boots:
It’s just that the characters singing those songs are so you.
Little Boots
@Amir Khalid:
yes, I’m sure that’s it.
Yatsuno
Things got interesting in the NotMax neck of the woods. I wonder if Abercrombie will cry foul because of the hurricane.
Yatsuno
@Amir Khalid: I’m also a hair insulted at Frozen being labeled a children’s movie just because it’s animated.
Little Boots
cause, all ya all, are sugars:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9nE2spOw_o
askew
@Yatsuno:
I doubt it. He got thoroughly skunked by his primary opponent. It wasn’t even close.
Looks like Hanabusa is going to win the Senate primary which is good news since I think she should have gotten the appointment in the first place.
Amir Khalid
@Yatsuno:
You’re right, it isn’t just a children’s movie. And Andersen’s original story isn’t just a children’s story either, once you look beyond the plot.
Suffern ACE
The only connection to anything here is that the oldest eel in Scandinavia, if not the world, was born before Nixon and outlived him. Cause of death, tbd.
Amir Khalid
@Little Boots:
This version might be more to Omnes’ liking.
Little Boots
@Amir Khalid:
you’re a bitch. I think I like you.
mai naem
I’ve always thought of Hawaii as having racial harmony. Is there a racial overtone to the gov and senate primaries or is it just coincidence that Schatz and Abercrombie are caucasian and their opponents are ethnically asian/pacific islander? Also did Tulsi Gabbard endorse anybody?
askew
@mai naem:
Abercrombie was horribly unpopular as governor. He had raised taxes and made some brutal cuts to get the budget in-line and he appointed Schatz to the Senate seat when it was the dying Senator’s wish to have Hanabusa appointed instead. Schatz was pretty unknown while Hanabusa is well-known. That’s what I have taken from reading posts by Hawaiian’s at DK Elections site.
mai naem
The driver who Tony Stewart hit died. I don’t know crap about racing so I don’t know much beyond recognizing the name but this sounds fucked up.
Keith P
@mai naem: FYI, here’s the video. The kid was being REALLY stupid by doing that – he aggressively walked on the track towards Stewart while the race was still going on.
Hal
@Keith P: I was just reading about this story. Some people were saying it’s common to get out of your car and gesture to the other driver. I don’t fallow racing, so I wouldn’t know, but Stewart reportedly hit the throttle when driving towards the kid and hit him. Other drivers went right past.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Keith P: That may be the case, however I see many lawyers in Tony Stewart’s immediate future.
Glocksman
@Amir Khalid:
I’m not so sure about that.
In his autobiography Will, Gordon Liddy details a meeting where he made it clear that he was willing to be killed in order to protect the Nixon administration as long as his family was taken care of.
At the time I first read about this my reaction was ‘Damn. Hardcore’. Given the benefit of time, my reaction today is ‘fucking nutcase’.
NotMax
@Yatsuno
Most (though few) polls pre-primary showed Abercrombie trailing Ige. Abercrombie really, really pissed off the teachers (among other very unpopular missteps), and one does not screw over unions here.
As for Hanabusa and Schatz, too close to call, and may even come down to the voting in the handful of precincts closed due to the storm, that voting probably not to take place for a few weeks yet, what with ongoing road closures and power still out over parts of the Big Island.
A sixth printout is to be released early Sunday, which will add in mailed ballots, but even after that, any tight lad will still be up in the air pending the final voting.
@askew
The whole ‘Inouye’s dying wish’ story is complete bullpuckey. Senators do not get to crown their replacements, and the entire thing was an insult to the electorate
Between the two, Schatz is light years more liberal and progressive.
Hanabusa is completely in the pocket of the old boy network, and a slimy machine politician. Period, End of story.
Frankensteinbeck
@mai naem:
I dated a Hawaiian. If she was to be believed (always a question), the answer to that is ‘HELL, no.’ Although it was supposedly more about different strains of Pacific Islanders hating each other than the classic white/black American conflict.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
If anyone is really interested, like Botsplainer, in babies dying of herpes in NYC due to preventable circumstances, please head on over to the Failed Messiah blog. Shmarya has been blogging on this issue for years without much credit or recognition but now the issue is hitting the mainstream with the NY dailies picking it up. If you dig deeper there are some issues with elected DAs and block voting that explain why this very tiny community which engages in this practice continues to get away with risking the lives of babies and why MBP has taken on this “act of faith” kind of significance to certain parents in the community despite the very real risk of death to their child.
I was kind of disgusted with the Rawstory comments, lots of anti-Semitism there, and then about an equal number calling it a conspiracy to bring this story out now. No, it’s been years and years of escapees from the Ultra-Orthodox community (OTD or “off the derech”, the path) screaming about this and other issues going on on the inside but only an election that kicked out a crooked DA in Brooklyn is giving activists hope that something might change. The bad thing about a local story like this hitting national news is that it really gives insiders in the community even more motivation to defend MBP as if it’s the most singular expression of faith when it’s an artifact of out of date medical understanding.
Note there are some mohels who engage in MBP with a tube (like a straw) to draw blood off. It’s not as good a proper wound treatment, but it reduces the risk of infection. But the nuttier factions (again, maybe a few thousand people in the whole of the USA) insist on MBP directly by mouth and that is what is causing the infections. Two babies have died since 2000 and the NY authorities have been aware of this issue for at least as long.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@Frankensteinbeck: I’ve heard if you’re a white continental USAmerican with a big white supremacist attitude (note: most white supremacists, like players, will deny that they are one, in this case because they associate open white supremacy with being a lower class slack-jawed yokel with rotting teeth, not because they disagree with its aims), you will get called “haole” and it will be meant pejoratively.
I think it gets its rep because the racial dynamics are different enough from the mainland that it rattles mainlanders’ expectations.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@Yatsuno: Just ignore all the children going ABSOLUTELY APESHIT OVER IT.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@SiubhanDuinne: Howcum it’s always harmless seeming little white people calling these “incidents” in to the police and then the police respond as they always do with overwhelming force.
I know of a case that never hit the news because nobody got shot but the police were in full military mode, staged a secret operation, closed a road, blocked in a bus, pulled everyone off and searched all their backpacks because two very silly boys made a joke about blowing the bus up and a tiny little white college student surreptitiously called 911.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr got hauled into jail because a little old white lady thought something looked suspicious on that Cambridge street and pressed a young white non-witness into make the 911 call. Shanesha Taylor got hauled off to jail and spent a couple of weeks there and nearly lost her kids due to “well-meaning” white people. Or that lady whose 9 year old kid was playing in the park while she was at work (jeez, I used to play in the woods when I was 9, guess my parents should be in prison).
Whites are the GeStaPo informant arm of the racial police bringing the pre-1865 authoritarian regime back to life.
rikyrah
@mai naem:
Tulsa Gabbard is for Tulsi Gabbard.
Gildwrith
@Another Holocene Human (now with new computer): I will third the racial component. I have a co- worker that got her degree there. There were jokes about holding her under until no bubbles came up. However, she said later that one of the locals, who was black, took her under her wing and the harassment stopped.
I also understand very careful genealogical records are kept for who counts as an islander. They played a direct role in who was allowed to vote when the time came to decide if Hawa’ii would remain a state in the Union.
Gildwrith
Halp! I iz moderated! What did I say?
Soonergrunt
New commenter? That typically triggers the moderation. Anyway, I cleared it.
Amir Khalid
@Glocksman:
Remember, this is Gordon Liddy, himself not the most well-balanced of people.
different-church-lady
I saw the Shearer clip without knowing the concept of the show, and thought, “Wow, that’s a great spoof of Nixon. Wonder how they came up with that stuff.” And, as YouTube does, at the end it put up a bunch of tiles of related content, and one of the tiles is for the authentic footage. “Great,” I think, “I wonder how it went in reality.”
The Shearer “spoof” is how it went in reality — Nixon really was that weird. Do a verbatim imitation of the man and people will think you’re exaggerating for comic effect.
Cephalus Max
@different-church-lady: Yeah, I just finished watching the actual clip too. That dude was one deeply strange individual.
I’m just a little too young to remember him in office. It’s hard for me to imagine how anybody that obviously just…odd…ever got elected to national office.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: That is beyond horrible, and it makes me feel so helpless. This has gone well beyond a few bad apples; it’s clearly a pattern and I want to know what the department of justice is doing about it. Anything?
rikyrah, why don’t you start one of those Obama petitions where the administration commits to a direct response if 100,000 people sign on? I would sign in a heartbeat, and I’m willing to be that there are a lot more than100k other people who would, too.
What the fuck is wrong with these people. Do they do ANY screening before they let people become police officers these days? How about some testing once they are police officers?
If you’re a cop and you’re that angry/scared/hateful, you have no business being a cop.
What happened to the long-standing idea that “if you’re a cop and you have to pull your gun, you have already lost control of the situation” ?
Bob In Portland
A lot like Ukraine.
drkrick
@Cephalus Max:
1968 was a deeply weird year. Given how closely Humphrey stuck to LBJ, Nixon seemed like the peace candidate to a lot of voters.
Bob In Portland
Look what the NY Times finally noticed, at the end of its article about a phantom Russian invasion into Ukraine!
Must make some of you BJers happy to be supporting uncontrollable militias that march under the Swastika.
Bob In Portland
From The Nation.
Think of how many of you spent the last five months diagnosing what you think is Putin’s mental illness while the US aids the rise of fascism in eastern Europe. Well, enjoy it. You didn’t get fooled again this time, did you?
James E. Powell
@Glocksman:
Never forget that Liddy is an inveterate liar. He very deliberately crafted his own legend. Enough writers bought it & re-sold it that some people believe it to be true. He is, like nearly every other right-wing blowhard, a fraud.
Dog On Porch
“..he very tentatively admits that he might be in better touch with Nixon’s emotions that Nixon himself”.
Time for a long vacation, Harry. And I mean a world cruise on a slow boat.
Dog On Porch
“Nixon, weird as he was, never sank to the Weirdness Singularity level that his minions were already preparing to achieve with Ronald Reagan”.
My understanding has it that Haldeman, Erlichman, and Mitchell were all a tad bit miffed at Nixon for not returning their calls concerning a presidential pardon. Their subsequent prison sentences just might account for their later reluctance to lionize the man.
Cervantes
@Dog On Porch: Haldeman tried calling Nixon in the last hour of his presidency, between 11a and 12 noon on August 9. Nixon and family (and parrot) were aboard Air Force One high-tailing it out of Dodge. Without asking Nixon, Ziegler told Haldeman that a conversation with Nixon was out of the question at that point.
Cervantes
Anne Laurie:
What does this mean?
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid:
Not sure. Maybe it depends on what you mean by “cult of personality.”
What I can tell you is that, even after months and months of revelations re what Nixon had done, and had allowed to happen, and had tried to cover up, many of his staffers were still much angrier at his critics than at him.
You’d expect this, maybe, in his stewards, personal attendants, and so on, who saw him close-up as human rather than as the political cancer he was — but I’m talking about higher-ups who, as political professionals, ought to have had a little more distance from the person.
Cervantes
@James E. Powell: Exactly.
Cervantes
@drkrick: Nixon was sold to the voters like a product. It was a new kind of campaign, master-minded by none other than a young Roger Ailes. People were not allowed to actually see Nixon; his whole campaign was a simulacrum. Humphrey, clumsy and earnest, did not stand a chance.
NotMax
Fox Business Network?
Bwah-hahahahaha.
Watched by a barely perceptible number of people. In the key 25 – 54 age demographic, the total audience is particularly abysmal.
NotMax
Dang. Wrong thread for #64.
JimV
1968 was my first year eligible to vote in a presidential election. LBJ could have run for another term, but didn’t want to face all the Viet Namh protesters (I guess). I didn’t think much of Hubert Humphrey, and couldn’t decide whom to vote for, so I didn’t vote for either. That taught me, and I hope a lot of people like me, to always vote, from then on. Our belated apologies for letting Nixon get elected. In every speech he gave, it was clear to me that he was only playing a role (badly) with a gleam in his beady eyes as if he relished how he was able to fool us. In other words, he lied – a lot – and didn’t hide it as well as he thought he did.
Harry Truman was known to swear when he lost his temper, and for some reason that was an issue that JFK and Nixon were asked to comment on in their famous debate. JFK passed it off with a joke (“If Mrs. Truman can’t control his language I’m sure I can’t” – something like that); after which Nixon gave a sanctimonious speech about how he would never sully the presidency that way, nor allow it to be so sullied by any members of his administration. Some of us remembered that after transcripts of the Nixon tapes were published, with an “explicative deleted” in most sentences. That’s one, very minor example of his modus operandi. Having an enemies list, trying to get the IRS to audit them, the Watergate operation and cover-up, sabotaging the VN peace talks in Paris so the war would be a big on-going issue during the election – none of those things were big surprises to me after my instinctive reaction to him in his first term.
Cervantes
@JimV: “Expletive deleted.”
Cervantes
@JimV:
The interference in those peace talks happened in 1968, before his first term, before he was elected to the Presidency.
mclaren
@Another Holocene Human (now with new computer):
Yeah, I’ve heard that offensively white overly entitled pricks get treated like haoles in Hawai’i and it ain’t pleasant. Well, it used to be the Hawaiians’ islands. I’m surprised they’re not more pissed off.
mclaren
@Cervantes:
It means:
Reagan’s Secretary of the Interior, James Watt, declaring in a public interview that wilderness conservation wasn’t important because the Rapture was likely to occur before we ran out of wilderness.
Ronald Reagan proclaiming in an interview four months before the 1970 Ken State massacre, when referring to vietnam war protestors, “If it takes a bloodbath, let’s get it over with.” Then, when asked by horrified reporters if he’d really said that, he replied that he was “only joking.”
The Reagan administration staffer who said that in the event of a nuclear exchange, people who wore “light-colored clothing” would be “just fine.”
Ronald Reagan giving a speech in which he asserted that the run-raping Contras were “the moral equivalent of America’s founding fathers.”
Reagan’s assertion that “forest fires have caused more pollution than all the smokestacks in history.”
I could go on, but you get the idea. The Reagan administration was a Bizarro World of lunatic self-delusion, far-right dementia, and general unreality gussied up with dulcet-toned earnest-sounding narration by the co-star of Bedtime For Bonzo, AKA the president of the United States.
Cervantes
@mclaren: And how does any of that relate to the following?
Nixon was not as weird as Reagan? Maybe, but if that’s all it means, what does it have to do with whose “minions”?