Networks shun Spicer due to "a lack of credibility." (cc: Hollywood) https://t.co/4XCXSSyJHp via @nbcnews
— Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) September 20, 2017
… Since Spicer exited the White House, his representatives have been holding individual conversations about the possibility of President Donald Trump’s former flack joining one of the major TV networks, which include CBS News, CNN, Fox News, ABC News and NBC News.
But “they won’t touch him,” said a media industry executive familiar with those conversations.
“The news organizations might use him on roundtables, but [a paid exclusive contributor job] is not happening,” the executive added.
A number of network insiders who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their business relationships said none of the networks were interested in hiring Spicer because of a “lack of credibility.” …
This guy, however…
CNN has hired @PreetBharara as senior legal analyst: https://t.co/Vf1dFLtWXz
— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) September 21, 2017
… Bharara was known for his media savvy on the job in Manhattan, and since leaving office in March has amassed nearly 440,000 Twitter followers. He also recently launched a podcast, “Stay Tuned With Preet.” On Wednesday’s episode, Bharara recalled how Trump initially requested he stay on as U.S. attorney shortly after the presidential election, and he also described his growing unease as the president-elect — and later president — broke with protocol by calling him directly on the phone.
“Had I not been fired, and had Donald Trump continued to cultivate a direct personal relationship with me, it’s my strong belief at some point, given the history, the president of the United States would’ve asked me to do something inappropriate,” Bharara said on the podcast. “And I would’ve resigned then. I don’t know for a fact, but that’s my strong belief.”
In addition to Bharara, CNN has also named Walter Shaub, the former director of the United States Office of Government Ethics, as a contributor. Upon resigning in July, Shaub said the U.S. government was now “pretty close to a laughingstock” when it came to ethics, a slide that could have global implications…
CNN will probably mine the expertise of both Bharara and Shaub to comment on major investigations and ethical concerns in the Trump administration.
.
Here’s hoping their professional expertise will be much in demand!
OzarkHillbilly
I would prefer their expertise not be needed at all.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: It is what it is.
BlueDWarrior
I dunno, the last couple of days have me feeling something sour; and a lot of it has to do with the fact that a lot of Republicans, from top to bottom, have basically said, without reservation, their motivating factor is the destruction of the last 90 years of legislation.
Some people talk about Neo-Confederates – the kinds of people who refuse to accept the outcome of the American Civil War. Equally dangerous, I think, are the Neo-Hooverites – the kinds of people who look back on what Herbert Hoover did and didn’t do during the Great Crash of 1929 and say “You know, we should just pretend everything that happened during and after FDR’s Presidency was just a mirage”
They are bound and determined to show that if you had just ‘let the market work’, we would be walking on streets paved with gold and manna would be raining from heaven. God forbid you call them (and rightfully) a bunch of sociopathic idiots for thinking such, that just means you are a deep-state liberal and need to be lashed to dungeon wall and MADE to see the glory of the unfettered free market.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Sadly true.
@BlueDWarrior: and MADE to see the glory of the unfettered rainbow farting unicorn that shits pots of gold.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
I can’t believe Rachel didn’t get MSNBC to hire Preet.
CNN will waste him. They’re too married with “both sides” and crossfire like foodfights. They won’t have him do analysis, instead they’ll pair him with with some with asshole like Dershowitz.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
TriassicSands
Good Morning, rikyrah…and everyone else.
Why would anyone want Spicey to be on a roundtable. Does the fact that he’s not getting a big check make him somehow credible?
ThresherK
I do not remember Preet Bharara at all. (That’s not a judgment on him, but on me.)
That said, I can’t recall the last time a Politico quote started “X is media savvy” and X wasn’t 1) a total Mike Allen / Chris Cillizza wannabe, or 2) a Republican who managed to not get caught on camera saying ni-CLANG.
So, I’ll be following him now.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Baud
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: They blew all their money on Peggy.
rikyrah
@BlueDWarrior:
They have been wanting to undo the New Deal well…. always
Mary G
@ThresherK: I follow him on Twitter and can recommend him. Not too many tweets, well written and often wryly funny.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Baud:
Of all the gin joints in all the towns
in all the world…
…she walks into mine.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G:
So kind of Baud-like.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I don’t tweet anymore.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: So Trump ruined it for you too? That’s what the kid said about Twitter.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: “It’s for fascists now.”
bystander
@ThresherK:
He was the US Attorney whose jurisdiction includes Manhattan, so the entire banking industry. Bharara was pretty familiar to New Yorkers because he was fearless in going after white collar crimes like insider trading.
I never watch CNN but I would be interested if Preet had his own program like Ari Melber.
oatler.
Spicer will probably end co-hosting Meet the Press. “Coming up next it’s Spicer & Todd…all the issues, all the Republicans!”
BlueDWarrior
@Baud: It seems like every mode of online communication has been or is being poisoned by noxious right-wing users/bots.
It makes it feel like you are outnumbered 1,000:1 and you’re just an island of crazy in a sea of… something?
Baud
@BlueDWarrior: Everything unregulated (whether privately or publicly) gets corrupted, no matter what the libertarians want you to believe.
Mustang Bobby
@rikyrah: Good morning.
I got the internet back at home last night after ten days off line and spent an hour watching my laptop update while I went through and deleted enough spam to feed the 82nd Airborne. But compared to what others went through in the Keys, the Caribbean, and Puerto Rico, I have no right to complain except to say that AT&T could learn a lot about customer service from TiVo.
L’SHANA TOVA! (That’s “Happy New Year” from right to left.)
debbie
Spicey will start up his own think tank. The kind where not much thinking goes on.
debbie
@Mustang Bobby:
Good Yontov and Mazel Tov!
Baud
Speaking of corruption, I’ve noticed than when people say that companies aren’t held accountable, they attribute it to corruption instead of conservativism or libertarianism, even though they have at war with corporate accountability for decades.
Baud
@Mustang Bobby: Congratulations on the loss of productivity.
Kay
I didn’t know Kellyanne Conway was part of the private plane scandal. Well, in any other administration it would be a scandal. In this one it’s “Monday”.
Lower ethical standards for the sleazy Trumpsters. Across the board.
Mustang Bobby
@Baud: In a sense, you’re right. I read a couple of books I’ve been wanting to get to, and I did some good work on my latest unfinished novel. So yeah, thanks.
Baud
@Kay: Not a cloud in the hurricane.
MomSense
@Kay:
I’ve been picturing Price in a Marie Antoinette gown. If I had the time or ability, I’d photoshop him into one with full makeup, too.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: No “free market” lasts very long, they all become captured.
BlueDWarrior
@MomSense: Though I wonder, if your typical Trump voter even recognizes how little regard that their political heroes hold them in, and if they actually understand that and just hope that the libs get it worse than they will; or if they honestly believe the Prices and the rest of them are truly, in their heart of hearts fighting the good fight however that is defined with them.
Steeplejack (phone)
@MomSense:
No need. Just picture him as Jonathan Winters’s Maude Frickert.
MJS
Cynical me says, CNN will probably “mine the expertise of both Bharara and Shaub” to comment on invented major investigations involving Hillary Clinton, not “ethical concerns in the Trump administration.”
Less cynical me is hopeful that this scooping up of Trump detractors means CNN expects something big to come down the pike soon. Or that they recognize that reporting and commenting accurately on the Trump administration is a rating winner.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Bad always drives out good if it’s allowed to.
BlueDWarrior
@Baud: And that is why I call Libertarians the biggest practicioners of Peter-Pan magical thinking (aka Clap if You Believe) that there are.
They really do believe that things will eventually work out to a generally amicable solution if there are no guard-rails and rules in place to help manage behavior among the group.
At least the selfish faux-libertarians get it, and they are just in it to reduce the rule set to one they can easily scam and put themselves on top of the proverbial mountain; it’s the real true believers that get me.
MomSense
@BlueDWarrior:
I don’t care about trump voters at all anymore. I’ve become a really bad person and I fully acknowledge this. The typical trump voter is stupid and cruel and they are dragging the whole country down.
@Steeplejack (phone):
Ha! Maude needs more hoops and corsets.
Baud
@BlueDWarrior: Their entire philosophy depends on it not being implemented for it’s credibility.
Kay
@MomSense:
You can tell how super-important they all think they are from the ridiculous levels of security they demand.
Betsy DeVos’ security detail alone has cost 8 million over 8 months.
It was essential to national security that Kellyanne Conway get to some health care industry event.
I knew the Obama Administration was better than most on both ethics and discipline on spending but boy the contrast is more jarring than even I imagined. Obama is a better “conservative” than any of these self-indulgent, wasteful phonies.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Hideously, I first read that as “Baud always drives out good….”
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne: That’s a topic for another day.
ETA: But you know me so well.
Kay
In any other administration Price would have already had to resign. Not this one- they get a pass.
Manafort was offering Russians private briefings on Trump. Imagine that with ANY other President.
satby
@Baud: and if implemented, it’s supposed to be on other people.
@rikyrah: good morning ?
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
I’m getting autoplay ads and since I’m trying to listen to Rachel Maddow from last night, I can’t turn the sound off. So I’m having to close BJ instead. Sad!
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: The bad are relentless in their hatred.
Baud
@Kay: GOP voters are tribally supportive of their party in a way a Democrat can only dream of.
MomSense
@Kay:
Let’s photoshop them all into Marie Antoinette gowns and bad makeup. I know Villago Delenda Est will approve.
Kay
Blue Cross Blue Shield say President Trump, Graham, and Cassidy are lying:
This seems unprecedented, right? I mean they all spin but Trump, Graham and Cassidy are just flat-out lying.
satby
@BlueDWarrior: The people who voted for this band of looters fit this:
They woulda, coulda, shoulda been rich if it wasn’t for all the unfair breaks given to everyone else. And rich people should take whatever perks they can, because when they’re finally rich too they don’t want any pesky “ethics” constraints on themselves. Ethics are for losers.
satby
Moderation? One reply link? Oh, the ism word in the quote. That spam filter needs to be fixed.
Baud
@Kay: The student had learned from the master.
Kay
@MomSense:
It’s hard to take because of the scolding they do. DeVos is particularly sanctimonious and insufferable lecturing on “values”.
8 MILLION dollars on her special US Marshal security detail. When maybe 1% of people would recognize her on the street.
Cheryl Rofer
@satby: Comment released.
satby
@Cheryl Rofer: thanks! I keep forgetting that the S word is verboten!
oldgold
@satby:
Testing: Wasms
oldgold
@satby:
Passed, so obviously you were in the wrong tense.
satby
@oldgold: ? thanks ?
And on that note, I have to get to the farmer’s market. See y’all later!
MomSense
@Kay:
This is just one more example of the fallacy that government should be run like a business. The W administration ran the government like a business and it broke the world. The trump administration is running the government like goldman sachs executives cosplaying Viking pillage and plunder fantasies. It never works because big businesses are run to make a few people fabulously wealthy while ignoring the rest. The idiot bankers who brought down the world economy in 2008 had convinced themselves that they were smarter, more important, and completely deserving of earning obscene amounts of money. Of course that also meant that if they were obviously far superior to the rest of us then exploitation of the rest of us was perfectly justified.
And now the worst of these people are running our government. They were actually hired for their desire to destroy the bureaus they were chosen to run (except Carson who literally knows nothing about his department). They are soooooo important because they are soooooooo superior and they will do exactly the same kinds of arrogant and horrible things to our country that they did to the world economy in 2008 because it works well for them and the rest of us are so pathetic and deserving of whatever misfortune they will impose on us.
MomSense
@Kay:
She’s terrified that some PTA/band booster mom will hit her with her hobo bag after the zillionth cut to special ed funding. Maybe she should be.
Jeffro
@Kay: J-Rubs on the private plane scandal: What Is It With Trump’s Cabinet and Airplanes? Yeah, what is it, Jen, tell us…
Or, in short: riding with the plebes is beneath them and/or they feel entitled to it.
“Private-Jet Republicans” sure has a nice campaign-style ring to it, doesn’t it?
Another Scott
@rikyrah: Yup.
I saw an article a few weeks ago that really brought that home. It was a discussion of the ideological leaning of the SCOTUS. Basically there has only been a left-of-center SCOTUS for about 40 years in the history of the USA – from the mid-1930s to the mid-1970s. Every other time the the Court has been a reactionary force preventing progress.
Progress has almost always been a struggle. But we have to keep working and fighting for it. We can’t ever rest.
Cheers,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jeffro: Linky no go-ee to Rubin-ee
rikyrah
@MomSense:
You’re just fine. Come sit by me, and we’ll toast to our contempt of them.
Another Scott
@oatler.: Yup. He’ll land on his feet somewhere.
Jerry Springer was rehabilitated, after all.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
On another note, my former Gov had a little time on his hands: Let’s Stop Government Giveaways to Corporations
Helping states and localities avoid the temptation to bankrupt themselves in a race to the bottom:
Yes…I’m sure I can see this 100% tax getting passed…no possibility of the GOP demagoguing this issue…sigh…
The “work force development” loophole alone just about ensures this would be pretty useless. They’ll ALWAYS claim they are ‘developing the work force’.
Jeffro
@OzarkHillbilly: Whoopsie…:)
Here’s the correct link folks, really, I swear: What Is It With Trump’s Administration and Airplanes
Baud
@Another Scott: Well, we could have had that again this year. I saw too many stories of people supposedly on our side dismissing the importance of the Supreme Court.
Another Scott
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): You need to install an ad-blocker. There are many:
uBlock Origin (my favorite)
Adblock Plus (beware of fake copies)
and many others
Do a Google search on either of them, install the appropriate one for your browser. It’s easy. You might still have to do some manual blocking of those videos that jump around on your screen, but you will at least have the tool to do so.
Then send the blog some money occasionally to make up for the lack of ad revenue.
Your sanity and your computer will thank you!
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
(“Who has read that Google is going to block auto-play videos, but who figures some other annoying thing will take their place.”)
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Scott: Jerry Springer Didn’t need rehabilitating. He was mayor of Cincinnati before his time in clown time entertainment, and by all accounts he was a very good mayor because unlike the GOP, he took governing seriously, but he never took his show serious.
Elizabelle
Good morning, all. Happy first day of fall.
I’m feeling stronger and more positive this morning; gonna call and write some letters to the suggested GOP Senators. (Murkowski, Collins and McCain, for sure, but Capito of WV and whoever else is suggested….)
The news is out on what an abomination and slew of lies Graham-Cassidy (the repeal bill) is, and it’s gonna be an uphill climb for the Senate. But we need to hammer them, and make them more afraid of us.
Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue, from last night, if you missed it. (Mediaite link).
MomSense
@Baud:
We could have had that in 2000, too. Some of the same people “on our side” also dismissed it then.
Baud
@MomSense: 2004 was actually the more consequential election.
Another Scott
@OzarkHillbilly: I lived in Cincy in grad school.
The mayor is a figurehead there. The city council (or whatever) has all the power and they rotate among themselves whoever the mayor is every year or so (at least that used to be the case when I was three). It’s a way for them to puff up their resumes. Cincy had some weird political party called the “Charterites”, also too. It’s a strange place, politically.
His show was a cynical manipulation of the audience and of the saps who willingly appeared on it. Someone who ran such a thing is not someone who should be pointed to as someone who has anything at all to say about politics (or much of anything else, really).
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
JPL
@Baud: All of them are!
MomSense
@Baud:
Yes, but I remember getting into bizarro world arguments with Naderites who were fixated on their idea that there is no difference between the two parties. I kept trying to explain that the Supreme Court is one of the most important differences and that even the most “corporatist” dem is going to nominate justices who respect civil rights. I think 2004 was decided in 2000.
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Scott: Thanx for the education on Cincy politics. As for his show, it was a top to the bottom joke and if you didn’t get it, the joke was on you. Kinda like the trump admin.
ETA: as for the people who were on his show, they were in on the joke and if they weren’t then they were too stupid to breathe.
rikyrah
Will one of the Frontpagers post the article about the GOP having to pass Trumpcare or LOSE KOCH MONEY?
Koch network ‘piggy banks’ closed until Republicans pass health and tax reform
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/26/koch-network-piggy-banks-closed-republicans-healthcare-tax-reform
Tazj
@Jeffro: Many people think being a fiscal conservative is admirable. I know, they’ve told me. “Well, I’m not crazy, I don’t care if gay people get married.” They’re just not like those wasteful, spendthrift Democrats. However, in practice being a fiscally conservative politician usually means making a priority out of cutting aid to poor people, and gutting those crazy science, environmental and cultural programs.
OMB director Mulvaney supposedly knows the value of a dollar because his grandmother used to save ketchup packets when she was poor, so it’s perfectly fine for him to disparage and ignore the CBO and yell at poor people to get off government assistance.
rikyrah
@Kay:
You have brought this up before, and thanks Kay.
Yes….they are self-important azzholes.
and, you didn’t even bring up the piece of garbage heading the EPA.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Hayes did a segment where he priced out commercial airline, train prices, and just the plain old ride in a car.
Of course, all were less than the $25, 000 that it cost for the private jet.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Another Scott: You’re right. I finally broke down and installed an ad blocker. It was just impossible to use the site otherwise.
rikyrah
Trump praises health care system in non-existent African country
09/21/17 09:20 AM—UPDATED 09/21/17 09:36 AM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump attended a United Nations luncheon with African leaders yesterday, and reading from a prepared text, he offered praise for health care progress in some of the continent’s countries.
“We cannot have prosperity if we’re not healthy,” the American president said. “We will continue our partnership on critical health initiatives. Uganda has made incredible strides in the battle against HIV/AIDS. In Guinea and Nigeria, you fought a horrifying Ebola outbreak. Nambia’s health system is increasingly self-sufficient.”
That, of course, struck many as odd, since there is no such country as Nambia. There’s a Zambia, a Gambia, and a Namibia, but no Nambia. (The official White House transcript suggests he was going for Namibia.)
rikyrah
In Russia scandal, Trump’s actions are under Mueller’s microscope
09/21/17 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
There was a point in the not-too-distant past at which the Russia scandal focused on events that unfolded during the 2016 election cycle. As Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation moves forward, it’s increasingly obvious that the probe’s focus includes examining all kinds of things Donald Trump has done since taking office.
As Rachel explained on last night’s show, reporting from the New York Times and the Washington Post has moved the ball forward significantly, just over the last 12 hours.
Jeffro
@Tazj: Good point (about what it means in practice). I do love the term “fiscal conservative” – who doesn’t hate wasteful spending, right? Aren’t we all fiscal conservatives in that sense? (Dem politicians, please incorporate this into your stump speech). The problem is what we mean by ‘wasteful’ and unfortunately for today’s GOP, ‘wasteful’ means ‘anything spent on someone other than me and my tribe’.
Jeffro
@rikyrah: Apparently Putin is convening a meeting of his oligarch buddies, including Deripaska, the guy Manafort offered to “report” to, today.
Jeffro
@rikyrah:
And here we are with 9 days still to go before my “late September indictments” prediction reaches its sell-by date, how about that? =)
Money laundering, racketeering, obstruction of justice, conspiracy, (whatever hacking is properly called), bribery, election tampering, espionage, violations of foreign financing of campaigns…good luck trying to hang all that on “excuses for losing an election”.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
The New Deal was one of the only things that prevented a national slide into complete fascism or communism.
Because people were that desperate when cat food was literally the only thing keeping some of them alive.
Republicans have no fucking idea of the demons they are trying to unseal by blowing up every pillar of modern peaceful life.
TenguPhule
@Jeffro:
Don’t count those chickens until they actually hatch.
Celebrate after the fuckers get what’s coming to them.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
You think that’s bad, the EPA’s asshole is worse.
Balconesfault
@Another Scott: This would not include investments in public infrastructure,
Pro sports team owners rejoice!
Balconesfault
@rikyrah: Uganda has made incredible strides in the battle against HIV/AIDS.
Props to the Clinton Foundation.
Balconesfault
@Jeffro:
This would not include investments in public infrastructure,
Pro sports team owners rejoice!