I’m driving cross country, and Sirius XM plays the audio from CNN, MSNBC and Fox, so I was able to listen to the Sunday shows. I haven’t watched them for years: as I assume most of you agree, they’re pretty damn stupid as well as wired for Republicans. Today, though, with the Trump White House and the GOP Congressional Leadership ducking the shows, it didn’t sound good for Trump. The only Republican stupid enough to go on Meet the Press, RonJon, spun up his deep state theories to a pretty unsympathetic audience in Chuck Todd. I didn’t catch the whole RonJon interview but the clips I heard were brutal, with Johnson sounding like a crank, and Todd jumping down his throat.
CNN overall, and Jake Tapper in particular, are pretty much in open revolt from the hegemony of bothsides. Tapper ended his show with a discussion of how Republicans turned on McCarthy, and used the examples of Margaret Chase Smith, who was out early against McCarthy, and Republican Majority Leader Bob Taft, who kept his mouth shut because he felt McCarthy was good for his Presidential ambitions. Jake noted that Smith’s obit led with her anti-McCarthy position, and Taft dropped dead before he could clean up his reputation. It was pretty fucking brutal and might possibly have convinced a Republican or two if any of them really did care about their reputations.
Still a lot of stupid questions, especially the “gotcha” one asking Senators whether they would vote for conviction knowing what they know today. Warren’s answer – the only smart one to that dumb question as far as I’m concerned – was a simple “Yes”. Booker and Klobuchar hemmed, hawed and hedged, ultimately wanting to say “yes” but not wanting to sound like they’re pre-judging Trump. Look, the guy has been trumpeting his guilt all over town – holding back when he’s letting fly looks weak.
I also listened to some of Chris Wallace, who’s the perfect example of how desperate people are for a Fox Newser to be somewhat reasonable that they latch on to the tiniest bit of journalistic practice like he’s the next Murrow. Wallace spent a bunch of time on the Schiff nonsense, but I admit I didn’t listen to the whole thing to avoid a traffic accident.
Overall, I guess I’m surprised that the overall tone and tenor of the shows was very negative for Trump, that (by their standards) they focused on the main issues of his criminality without getting sidetracked too far, and that there were very few hacks who would step up to defend Trump.
Amir Khalid
Where was Chris Wallace’s dad on the political spectrum? I don’t remember much being said about Mike’s leanings, if any.
Mike in NC
The last hacks standing when everybody else is gone will be Hugh Hewitt and Marc Thiessen.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mike in NC:
They don’t call him Huge Nitwit for nothing!
Ken
I have to figure that, whatever their loyalty to party[*], it gets discouraging to give an interview and carefully recite talking point
ABCD – then a couple of hours later see Trump tweet out a denial of talking point D, a full confession, and a new talking point E that has been dredged from the weirdest cesspools on the internet.[*] I rule out any actual loyalty to Trump, except possibly from his relatives, and I suspect any “loyalty” they eventually show will be limited to getting Daddy a really nice room at the secure memory-care facility.
Mary G
Here’s an idea:
Villago Delenda Est
@Mike in NC: Those two are simply utter scum.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ken: And making damn sure they’re mentioned in six to eight figures in the will, depending on how thousandaire Donald actually is, as opposed to his fabricated from whole cloth estimates of wealth.
sdhays
@Villago Delenda Est: If there’s any justice (I know, I know) what’s in the will won’t matter – it will all be repossessed by creditors or the government.
lgerard
The real reason republicans turned against McCarthy was that he was now criticizing the Eisenhower administration instead of the Truman administration.
But Margaret Chase Smith was everything Susan Collins pretends to be and then some. She probably would have made a pretty good President.
Amir Khalid
@Villago Delenda Est:
Every timeI see this word, I silently thank Gail Collins for coining it. She drew blood from Trump with it.
NotMax
Sunday shows yet to come:
Q: “The President announced this week he’s diverting funds from the Pentagon in order to mount an expedition to Agartha to search for The Server. Comment?”
Repub A: “We have NO proof is it NOT there, so exploring every lead is vital.”
Jinchi
@Mike in NC:
I assume in this scenario Tucker Carlson has vanished after being swarmed by an angry mob and Sean Hannity is operating a pirate radio station somewhere in Argentina.
James Powell
My twitter feed is telling me that Chuck Todd has transformed into Edward R Murrow because he diverged from his usual Republican boot licking behavior. No doubt he will be back to the old routine next Sunday, just for balance, you understand.
piratedan
the part I found incredulous was Johnson’s response to Chuck Todd after he confronted Trump about the delay in releasing military aid funds in return for an investigation and accepting Trump’s “vehement denial”…. and with the background of lies about anything and everything over these last three years Johnson taking that at face value and believing his President.. I understand that Johnson is being paid to be obtuse but I find it harder and harder to give any GOP politician any kind of doubt about anything, they have to be comprised of the terminally ignorant, eminently gullible or hopelessly corrupt, and if there’s hardly any overlap in those Venn circles, I wouldn’t be surprised either.
.
Mary G
Nonpolitical pretty:
NotMax
@James Powelll
“We hope our viewers enjoyed his portrayal of Chuck Todd from the mirror universe. Now back to our regular programming.”
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
These guys must be beside themselves. We joke about how awful it must be to be working in the White House right now–and rightly so. I can’t begin to think how soul-killing it must be to wake up every morning and head into that shithole. But the people who staff Republican congressmen and senators must be almost as woebegone, to say nothing of the shitbag congressmen and senators themselves.
But my sympathy only goes so far. Any or all of these clowns and dickweeds could walk out of there any old time they wanted. They choose to stay, which makes their misery fitting.
Raoul
Speaking of RonJon, we should be hammering him for the July 4, 2018 trip to Moscow. He and other Repubs met with Lavrov. WTH happened in that meeting? RonJon said after that Russian meddling in 2016 was no big deal. And that makes him tainted, IMO.
There is a reason that these types of trips are more typically bipartisan, so that folks won’t get super suspicious of what took place. This was a who’s who of trashball GOPers, so I’m … suspicious.
notjonathon
You know if you’ve lost Chuck Todd, you’ve lost Middle America.
feebog
@piratedan:
Nope, He really is that stupid/
Fair Economist
Johnson is stupid. But he’s not *that* stupid. Nobody is outside of an institution. Anybody singing the Trump tune at this point is complicit.
Raoul
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks: Absolutely.
Plenty of folks have been advising that people jump ship. Yesterday would have been a good moment. Tomorrow is still sort of OK. The week after next might be rather bad. Don’t wait, WH staffers. The jail time avoided might be your own.
The Dangerman
@Villago Delenda Est:
Hopefully, Melania will take most of it, leaving crumbs for the kids.
Mary G
Every Democrat needs to run on this:
hueyplong
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): I have no sympathy whatsoever. They went to work for Trump because they’re Trump fans. They’re only having a sad now because his SOP isn’t working at the moment.
We can’t have people like them in positions of responsibility. Look at the damage the Nixonites went on to inflict on the country. The only correct move is to hound every last one of them out of anything in the neighborhood of public service.
Villago Delenda Est
@hueyplong: Nixonite scum who haunt us to this day: Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, and Roger Stone.
jl
Some evidence coming out that the Trumpster Unkrainian shake down was about cash money as well as political favors. That is where Rick Perry enters the story in a major way. Apparently both Perry and Giuliani were homing in on a cut from Ukrainian state gas company, Not clear from story whether they were cooperating or competing, but Perry seemed to be in the lead.
@AP
When two Rudy Giuliani associates met with an executive from Ukraine’s state-owned natural gas company, their lawyer says it was “an attempt to do legitimate business.” That’s not how the Ukrainian saw it, people with knowledge of the meeting tell @AP.
https://twitter.com/AP/status/1181019842582847493
I posted in an early thread with a link to the story. Anyway, figures that there would be a corrupt dash for cash someplace in this story.
burnspbesq
@Mary G:
Sales and use taxes, which Leonhardt doesn’t mention, make the overall system even more regressive.
Jay
HumboldtBlue
Pretty sure this sums up every decent person’s opinion of the GOP.
HumboldtBlue
Well shit, forgot the link
jl
Also, there is an angle to this mess that I’ve been wondering about. Seems like the whole Ukrainian shakedown scheme was blown apart and a lot of smoking gun evidence put down when Trump actually withheld the military aid after it was authorized and was supposed to be delivered to Ukraine, as opposed to, before the money was authorized to be sent, the Trumpsters hinting that there might be problems with the aid unless Ukraine played ball.
My impression from reading the texts and the commentary is that the actual withholding of the funds after they were authorized to be sent was something Trump went off did on his own, and it startled and bag men Sondland and Volker, both of whom suspected Trump’s instability would result in disaster. And it gave Taylor the grounds to say, basically, ‘so,,,, this is an extortion plot, a crime, isn’t it?’. It spooked the Ukrainians, who were trying to deliver something ambiguous that would satisfy the Trumpsters, but not really say anything (though maybe that circle couldn’t have been squared in any event).
If so, another example of Trump destroying himself do to his infantile lack of discipline and zero impulse control.
Jay
Another Scott
In other news, Twitter:
Fethullah Gülen better watch his back as well – I’m sure Donnie is trying to find ways to hand him over as more tribute to his buddy Erdogan.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Jay
mrmoshpotato
@James Powell: C’mon! Everyone knows Chuckles has become a hybrid of Murrow, Woodward and Bernstein.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need a stiff drink to forget I wrote that even sarcastically.
Jay
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Amir Khalid: he was honestly complicated. He grew up rich in a tony Boston suburb and was a liberal republican who really liked Nixon, even after Watergate. But he was open minded and promoted Malcom X and MLK when no one else would and exposed Westmoreland as a fraud and My Lai war criminals
Jay
@mrmoshpotato:
Have a couple Glenlivit pods,…….
mrmoshpotato
@Villago Delenda Est:
And those three aren’t even ghosts yet!
mrmoshpotato
@Jay: Only if they’re filled with laundry detergent.
Jay
jl
@Jay: Saw a youtube of an ad for them. The the whisky pods looked like, and had all the design finesse, of laundry soap pods. Left me thinking it was a hoax, but I guess it’s real?
I thought you were supposed to sip that crud. My theory on why little sips is the preferred method is that after a couple of sips of nasty kerosene tasting crap, you get a little tipsy and don’t notice the drink has the feel of some aromatic scum evaporating off the top of a pool of crude oil. But, I am biased about it, as you can probably tell.
Amir Khalid
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Thanks.
mrmoshpotato
Finns launching trees
dww44
@Amir Khalid: @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): And then there’s my GOP congressman whose just received news letter is titled: “Democrats Impeachment Obsession Reaches New Low”.
I’ve not the energy to open this this evening, but I’ll read it tomorrow when I’ve an opportunity to pick up the phone and call that utter coward’s Washington Office, or maybe his office down the road aways.
Mike in NC
Mike Wallace grew up in Brookline, as did JFK.
jl
@mrmoshpotato: at least it is in, how you say in fancy words…. utility forest to be cut down soon anyway, and not hurting the nature… I clicked through some of it. Reality TV is dumb all around the world.
joel hanes
@Jay:
Poor Justin Amash.
He thought that his fellow members of the “Freedom Caucus” actually meant the things they said. Had principles. Ethics. Standards.
Slow on the uptake, or underinformed, or misinformed?
joel hanes
@Jay:
toe rag
I’m so old I remember when this was the standard internet-liberal epithet for Victoria Toensing.
“Victoria Toe-rag”
mrmoshpotato
@jl: I wouldn’t classify this as reality TV. No shit-talking for “drama”, flipping of tables or calling each other whores.
jl
@joel hanes: A lot of the GOP Senators, including Johnson, who were very upset and made a stink about Trump actually withholding the authorized funds, at the eve of delivery, just can’t remember anything at all about that now. Or, they realized sometime later it was just one of Trump’s pranks. The crazy ol’ Trump’s a real jokester and he loves the pranks. Trump didn’t mean nothing by it. People should lighten up.
jl
@mrmoshpotato: Didn’t watch the whole thing. But from what I saw, all that dynamite got the tree about five feet off the ground. Maybe they used more later for something bigger, but didn’t look at the last half much.
Ken
@jl: I don’t see any bias…
Ken
@jl: Yeah, like that time the Joker shot Barbara Gordon through the spine then kidnapped her father and tried to drive him mad. What’s the matter, people can’t take a little joke?
Ken
@mrmoshpotato: Well, this is Finland. We had a discussion a few days ago about how their national epic is mostly people solving their differences by talking, plus beer recipes. Saying “ha, our team did better than yours” is trash-talking and flipping the table by those standards.
Roger Moore
@joel hanes:
Willfully blind. Willful blindness explains so much.
Jay
@jl:
Scottish, of an age, used to drink Single Malt in the bath, with a cigar.
Peat bog bottom swill.
Switched to a good red instead.
It’s kinda like the hot sauce thing.
Some people, of a age, lose taste. So seek to amp it up.
I didn’t.
Cacti
@Jay:
Sorry to hear about your low testosterone.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken: Haha
We have the president of Finland. Ask him a question!
Roger Moore
@jl:
I would say more as “redneck” is a worldwide phenomenon.
Cacti
@jl:
Trump’s going to torch the cult compound with everyone inside, a la the Branch Davidians.
We should thank him in advance for that.
joel hanes
@Roger Moore:
Willful blindness explains so much.
Still a man sees what he wants to see
And disregards the rest
mrmoshpotato
@Cacti:
Fuck ’em.
joel hanes
@Jay:
Red
Scotch
Not mutually exclusive tastes.
Cacti
@mrmoshpotato:
Yep.
Sister Golden Bear
For those needing a little relief… Political commentary set to Eric Clapton.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=677JJQokTqQ
Sister Golden Bear
@Roger Moore: Obligatory Upton Sinclair quote: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
joel hanes
@Sister Golden Bear:
Clapton/Cream explains Republicanism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOPDzD_P9gg
NotMax
@Jay
Diff’rent strokes.
To some, a swig o’ scotch is sublime (personally, the smokier the better). Sad to say the really good stuff has grown beyond my reach financially aside from a very special occasion splurge.
As for hot sauce, been a fan for at least 60 years. Food fashion seems to have caught up.
Mary G
Great:
Terrible, horrendous war crime:
Jay
@NotMax:
Nantes carrots.
Me, wipe the dirt off.
Others, cook, add flavours.
Some people in their late 30’s start to lose their taste buds.
I didn’t.
I did try “fashion food”,
Meh.
Jay
@joel hanes:
@NotMax:
Back in the day, bought over a dozen single maults, pedigree.
Learned wnhy my brother stuck to ginger ale and scotch.
Why my Dad, ( Scottish) stuck to rye.
Wine and beer for drinking pleasure, Tequila and Rye for getting hammered.
Mohito’s when you are suckering someone in the sunshine.
mrmoshpotato
@Jay: The meat dress wasn’t your style?
Yutsano
@Jay: I have Laphroaig. I’m good.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: First We Feast’s Hot Ones YouTube series might interest you at least for the hot sauce lineup.
NotMax
@Jay
Bourbon glazed carrots.
HumboldtBlue
Just astonishing.
U.S. Women’s 4×400 relay team is simply astonishing.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: I saw the words and knew where that link was going.
“Chef John from Foooooood Wishes dot com with…. That’s right.”
Jay
@NotMax:
Yeah, Nantes, some dirts okay.
SWIMBO bugged me one day, for eating nothing but Nantes out of the garden, so to appease her, ate a mesquite grilled steak.
Villago Delenda Est
@joel hanes: Glibertarian. Inherently stupid.
Amir Khalid
@mrmoshpotato:
It figures that NotMax would be a Chef John fan: “You are, after all. the Disco Stu of your poulet glue.”
joel hanes
@Jay:
I like rye.
Rye IPAs are interesting too.
And I like rye bread with breakfast, and a good Reuben
Still think Scotch is a good thing.
I won’t try to convince you to drink it.
Mary G
I am just horrified that the president is pulling out of Syria, leaving ISIS prisoners and a dreadful refugee camp to the Turks to handle, and getting out of the way of the Turks slaughtering our Kurdish allies through all these stupid Middle East wars. Putin probably made him do it. I wish I thought Congress would do anything about it. And to announce it by email from the press secretary late Sunday. UGH.
Mary G
Hateful man:
Mary G
Mary G
Now off to try to sleep. I wrote DiFi, Kamala & Mike Levin, and did some rage tweeting. Nothing else to do right now.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Mary G: but her emails.
Uncle Cosmo
@jl: Tree launch was restaging** Vanguard 1 launch. Flopnik! Kaputnik!
(** You see what I did there, no?)
Shana
Long dead thread at this point but… C-SPAN radio runs all the Sunday shows starting at noon on Sunday as repeats without the commercials. I know you can get it online if it’s not available in your area.