¡Buenas noches, Juicers! Yeah, I was going to start things off with my usual elan and graciousness, but due to circumstances where I really wish I could slap the stupid out of people’s genes, I’m going to commence with rant and we’ll do the formal howdy doody and cat pics the minute we get images to work on the blog? Ok? Good talk, glad we’re on the same page.
Lo, the ultrafuckery. And it’s not even CNN?! I can’t tell if I’m marveling at CNN not delving into this level of commentary or disappointed at NBC News for grabbing a shovel and digging right to the Marianas Trench level of analysis. Deep Stupid, indeed.
Whenever I’ve said I was against impeachment, even to the point of don’t discuss impeach club, the media was why. We don’t have great journalism. We never had universally great journalism, but we had a standard that managed to keep mostly on target. Regular old journalism is boring statement of facts. Some obvious, some not, & some you have hunt them down because they’re hella elusive. Instead, we have a packs of styrofoam peanuts shoved into Hugo Boss suits always looking for a hot mic. The American press is always looking for the highest highs, the flashiest story. Much like watching McG’s cinematic oeuvere, they think everything should be the noisiest, most explosive drama, no matter how serious the issue is. When our media behaves like this, no wonder we’re pretty far gone into fascism. I can’t see a future where we survive this mess and the press stays the same. I’ve watched it locally and seen how it mirrors the national media. Reporters, pundits, analysts – they want flash & smoke. What they don’t get is that this teaches people who need to be told about the facts, that the issues aren’t really that important. …
It’s a good profession, journalism. Pity so few are actually working in it.
Maybe somewhere, a batch of good journos are trying to do something about this mess bourne of 24/7 news channels and the idea that news should be as glitzy as tv show. I bid them good luck. And I chuck a hefty twitter brick at this media analysis about impeachment hearings needing PIZZAZZ.
THAT’S PIZZAZ!
Dems shouldn’t be required to put on a carnival for members of the 4th estate to do their duty on reporting cleanly, smartly and accurately so we have an informed citizenry.
alright, I’m trying to finish 3 pages today, back to work.
Mary G
YES!
This WaPo subhead got me:
WTeverlovingF is a wooly diplomat?
ruemara
Apologies, I’m a touch sweary.
Origuy
My response to that tweet: Triumph of the Will had a lot of pizzazz.
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
NBC is not MSNBC NBC is very beholden to it’s right wing sponsors
NobodySpecial
In fairness, “Trump commits crimes” is basically “Dog bites man”. Hard for them to get all sweaty about the ordinary.
John Revolta
All you ever do is blabber ‘n’ smoke
There’s a big pain in your window
‘N all your water’s turned to rope
It’s gonna hang you all
Dangle you all
Dang you all
If you don’t hurry there will be no hope
Why don’t you quit acting like a dope
Time’s running out
‘N’ all you ever do is
Blabber ‘n’ smoke
Blabber ‘n’ smoke
-Captain Beefheart
Enhanced Voting Techniques
One must understand the word kayfabe, it’s all Big Time Wrestling theater to them.
Also keep in mind, Trump is an entertainer first and foremost so he is one of the boys with the press. His show was on MSNBC so no surprise NBC is doing a bro a solid.
Tony Jay
Like fuck you are. Positively restrained, I’d say, given the immense and persistent provocation provided by the professional pee-pee pullers of the Press. Happy Front Paging Day!
Tony Jay
Sure this will have been brought up, but why does it no longer do a highlighted @nym thing at the start of a comment to show who you’re replying to?
JWR
Just doing some Google image searches, and yes, I think Steve Castor is Cory Lewandowski’s brother.
JWR
@Tony Jay: If there’s no “reply to” nym, close the comment window reopen it and the nym should be there. You might have to delete a double nym. HTH! ;)
ETA: The new site seems to have to get used to you. Though in your case, that might take some doing! ;)
joejim
I get that they are diplomats, but since it didn’t register, I checked the dictionary for “wooly” and for all my effort I don’t have a clue what it is supposed to mean in this context, although I sense that it is muffled snide.
So many other adjectives like “experienced” would have worked, or if that was too much to ask how about leaving it with “diplomats?” Kinda accurate since that’s what they are.
@Mary G:
DeadlyShoe
zazz? zazz? youtube.com/watch?v=ecns_W9q_s0
Tony Jay
You sound just like my conjoined twin.
Tony Jay
Nope. No @nym.
Baffled.
JWR
@Tony Jay:
Hmm. I don’t know. Maybe try it a 3rd time? More? Anybody else have a solution?
eta I guess everyone’s gone home.
Ruckus
ruemara
Welcome to the big top. Watch out for the elephant poop.
Television is supposed to be entertainment, just ask them. Serious news? Yeah, like that’s going to happen any time soon. We are so divided as a nation and it’s not “good” cops – “bad” cops either. It’s normal cops, murdering psychopaths. Some how we have to find a way to overcome that. That in no way means working across the aisle, it means that we have to find a way to overcome the last 50-70 yrs of republican dumbfuckery. They have been constantly digging deeper and deeper into shit and the hole they have been digging has caved in on them. We can not, not salvage the wreckage, it’s so bad it’s not just hurting them it’s hurting all of us. It’s been 2 steps forward 5 back. We at least need to be even. And this is coming from a really liberal point of view. How do we save at least ourselves and if at all possible the grown ass infants masquerading as 40+% of the country? The people in fly over country and elsewhere, who want to return to a time that never, ever existed, to be beholding to the robber barons of the modern world, the few who have managed to steal, and yes I said steal, the economy, the country and now a good portion of the government. There has to be something in it for them besides racism, what the hell do they expect from walking around with their heads up someone’s ass, a piece of the action? Between the nazis, the racists, the robber barons, and the republican politicians and yes even those who think that trump is a bridge too far but won’t see that the political party they refuse to quit has been like this most or all of their lives. And it isn’t making anything in any way better for the vast majority.
opiejeanne
His show was not on MSNBC. It was on NBC.
Ruckus
@Ruckus:
Maybe some of those rich cocksuckers could pay money for civics lessons for republicans. Instead of running for an office for which they have no skills, no business being in, and which is always going to be a scam for them. I wonder if they are thinking that if they run and win, maybe they can restore a bit of the luster, of the concept of billionaire. Cause the current deadbeat rich fucker certainly has tarnished the position of billionaire. And it was none too polished and positive to began with.
piratedan
I was so pissed off after reading that story by the NBC news guy that I actually clicked the envelope logo at the bottom of his story and sent him an e-mail asking just what exactly did he need? A car chase? A musical montage? You needed pizzazz? You mean treason, extortion and the blowing up of a 200 year plus Democracy isn’t riveting for you? Told him a simple reporting of the facts would do and if he wanted to manufacture drama, perhaps he could get off his bored ass and figure out how many times in the last half century of our political process had we witnessed the head of state actively admitting his crimes in public and think about how this isn’t being done to “entertain” us but rather for him to “inform” us. JFC I get angry at the GOP for being evil, stupid, and cruel but sometimes these guys in the media make me wonder why the fuck did you get into journalism, to be entertained? Perhaps you need to get the fuck back to school and perhaps take some classes on word comprehension. There have to be plenty of people out there who can do this journalism thing, how the fuck does this guy even have a fucking job if he can’t keep his precious fee-fees from getting in the way of the story?
Ruckus
When you reply to a comment does the site go to the top of the post, and your comment doesn’t appear until you refresh?
JWR
@Ruckus: Bravo! I was having a similar convo with a close relative, explaining how this country has gone in a negative direction for literally years, but she wasn’t having any of it. I don’t know how to reach these people.
opiejeanne
Lawrence O’Donnell was so excited about today’s hearing that he got up from what must have been his deathbed this evening to do his show. Really nasty-sounding cold, and he was too sick last night to be on tv. It was almost like a party tonight.
We haven’t watched Rachel yet, but she was pretty excited when she was saying hello to Lawrence at the end of her show.
There were other commentators who were fascinated by the hearing, including Nicolle Wallace, who made disparaging remarks about the idiocy of Gym Jordan and Devin Nunes.
Chuck Todd can go to hell.
opiejeanne
@Ruckus: Amen to everything you just said.
Mary G
JWR
Nicole Wallace on with Stephen Colbert. She says all the right things, but she admits she’s still a registered Republican. What’s up with that? I guess she’s just a true never-trumper, dreaming of those glorious days of yesteryear, when Ronald Reagan was our last great president. Damn. How does that even work?
Ruckus
Think about who owns the media. Especially the big players, TV, major papers. They are part of the problem, in that they make a lot of money playing things the exact way you are pissed about. This concept that journalism is anything but entertainment is a huge part of the problem. The concept that the owners/controllers of the “news” are journalists, whatever the hell that means, and not wealthy and getting wealthier by exactly what they are doing, I can’t be the only person who understands that. Maybe it’s because I’ve owned my own businesses and understand that money is what makes what you do possible, skill is how well you do it. And if the sole purpose of your business is profit rather than profiting from making/servicing/creating something then your business is money and getting all of it that you can. Profit in and of itself isn’t bad, it’s when it is the sole purpose for the business, that it’s bad.
Kathleen
Most owners/employees of the broadcast (and good portion of print media) are fascists. It’s that simple.
Kathleen
That was supposed to be reply to Ruckus. I hope all is well, Ruckus.
oatler.
Coincidentally, the Movies! channel has been showing “Cabaret” for the past week.
Ruckus
Kathleen
Yes. Yes they are. And even if they aren’t/weren’t, the problem is that we expect them to do something that they have no intention of doing. Which is the type of reporting that is truthful, and factual, not bullshit to further a divide of the country, but just to further profits.
JWR
Did someone mention Fascists?
Kathleen
@ Ruckus To further profits and push their agenda. And I can’t get the Reply to work but I’m sure I’m doing something wrong.
Sloane Ranger
The idea that the hearings were like so boring and these were the Dems star witnesses so you might as well switch off from now o n folks seems to be a tactic for brighter Republicans. The Repub guy on CNN was saying the same thing. Surprisingly he got a lot of push back from the professional pundits.
Could be CNN are royally pissed that the plan was for Ukraine to announce the Biden investigation on the Fareed Zakaria show.
Tony Jay
Ruckus Yes, it is
Except that time it went to the bottom of the page and the comment, just without any @nym
Odd
JWR
@Sloane Ranger:
Personally, I found yesterday’s hearings riveting, far more so than the Watergate hearings our groovy 8th grade history teacher made us watch. He’d wheel in a portable set, and that was our history lesson for the day! On the other hand, I was wondering how Fox would carry them:
TS (the original)
@opiejeanne:
Rachel did a great show – she was super excited.
JWR
@Tony Jay: Maybe you have to click anywhere in the comment text box before closing it, and then clicking on Reply again?
rikyrah
Welcome rue!??
Great post.
The MSM is trash..when they can’t both sides something, they come up with this garbage??
Dorothy A. Winsor
Oh wow. It’s the new site! It’s so pretty.
I’m in Barcelona where it’s drizzling and I’m blissfully unaware of minute to minute coverage of the hearings. And yet, I really want to know what’s happening.
Mike J
Antispam seems to be working. I keep seeing a spammer in the latest comments hitting old threads with a link to some religious nonsense from their ever changing nym. Every time I follow the link to see the old thread, the spam isn’t visible.
WhatsMyNym
@Tony Jay: The nym showed up the second time I tried reply. I’m using Firefox on a Android phone.
JWR
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Boy, have we got some stories for you! Basically, Schiff and the Dems presented things clearly, just as you would expect from a former federal prosecutor. The Republicans, on the other hand, dealt in conspiracy theories.
And that’s the rest of the story. It was frickin’ bizarre.
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
JWR:
“If I had any capacity for sympathy for my old party it would be so sad, it would be embarrassing,” the MSNBC host said. “But I don’t.” She may not change her registration, but she’s never going back.
Betty Cracker
Late to the party, just wanted to say HOORAY Ruemara!
BobS
I was listening to the first couple hours on NPR while making a long drive- listening, I could only picture Jordan jacketless, because that’s the only way I’ve seen the asshole. Even so, I was a little incredulous when I turned on the tv and saw he didn’t have the sense to dress properly for the occasion (by the way, on the radio, he sounds like a hobbit on speed).
satby
Good morning after, and what a great first post ruemara! Mainly because I agree with every single syllable. Especially the swears!
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m so sorry I’m missing it! OTOH, I’m about to leave for a tour of Barcelona, so you know, compensations.
Baud
No pet picture? Didn’t Cole give you the manual?
Chief Oshkosh
Thanks for heads-up on “pizzaz.” I emailed my disgust to them. No doubt it just adds to the pile that tells them that their cunning plan is working.
As for: “Whenever I’ve said I was against impeachment, even to the point of don’t discuss impeach club, the media was why.”
I don’t agree that concern about a deficient media should’ve driven this decision too much. I agree that it should be a factor in how the timing was decided, but it’s not a deciding factor for whether the Constitution is followed.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Tony Jay:
Commenting mostly to lock in my nym on the phone.
As others have mentioned, if you mash the Reply button and don’t get the @Person thing, close the comment box and then mash Reply again. Then you should get the @Person thing. You don’t just reopen a generic comment box.
And, yes, the post-comment behavior is a little random right now. I have ended up at the top of the thread, and I’ve also had times when I couldn’t see my comment until I manually refreshed the page.
I’m sure this stuff is being worked on.
debbie
First, welcome!
Second, hey dicks, you know who else had no pizzazz? Alexander Butterfield. If you weren’t paying close attention, you might have missed his statement that Nixon had taped all of his conversations. Idiots.
Matt
We’ve got a rapey conman armed with nukes running the government like a B-movie mobster operation; what exactly isn’t flashy about that.
It’s worse than just “OOOH SHINY” – it’s a deliberate distraction. The people running news organizations have gotten so scared of the “liberal media” skree that they’ve either hired total cowards or actual fascists to run the newsroom.
chopper
i was gonna fuckin’ say, given everything ruemara’s remarkably restrained. if i were a FPer i’d have broken the blog with ten pound cusses at this point.
laura
Great first post Ruemara. You’ve knocked it out of the park tapping a rich vein of MSM reporting this boring little scam of an impeachment bothsides dems in disarray coverage.
I’d sure like to see the return to restrictions on ownership of radio newspapers and tv stations. Hell, I’d settle for a local newspaper that is at least 10 pages daily and 20 on Sunday.
And a pony.
Glidwrith
Delurking long enough to say: welcome, welcome, welcome. Post reads like a long-time front pager, more swears are always accepted currency, though kitty pix are better.
Off to work.
Ruckus
@JWR:
They only have conspiracy theories because their concept of government is “Get out of the way of our bullshit.” They don’t want a government, it gets in their way of their fascism and robbery. Global warming gets in their way, environmental restrictions get in their way, healthy people well fed get in their way, etc, etc – and all of it takes money out of the pockets of people who pay them to get all of it out of the way. They are trying to conserve the way of life of robber barons. And trump is their hero, because he was born unto a man whose mission in life was to be a robber baron. And he was. His son is useless at it because he’s inept in the extreme, even though he has the lying part down pat.
Ben Cisco
Great first post. Congratulations ruemara, this is incredible to see and you’re most deserving.
J R in WV
I’m replying to Ruckus to see what happens. It seemed to be ordinary when I did it yesterday. We’re going to town soon to have lunch with friends coming to WV to visit friends and family, so that should be nice!
EDIT: No mention that this comment was a reply to Ruckus’s comment about replying, up above. #20 or so… Lessee what happens with an ETA to a comment that should show up as a reply.
ALSO” The left and right next page/last page tabs need to be transparent, as they obstruct the text in some cases!
ETA the second edit:
Furthermore, the Edit seems to have removed a paragraph marking, when I typed my comment there were two paragraphs, each on a different topic, and it merged them into one paragraph with two topics.
J R in WV
@Steeplejack (phone):
OK, this time the first time I pressed the reply button I got your Nym as a link, presumably to your comment. I posted several reply comments without getting that, was going to close the comment window and press the button again as Steep recommended, but didn’t need to, Go Figure.
J R in WV
OK, I was totally consumed by the operational factors of the new B-J system, and completely forgot that I need to be welcoming ruemara to her first front page post on the ‘Juice. And a frabjous post it is, with a mix of media criticism, Republican equation to fascism, all it’s missing is a puppy picture, or a kitten pic, or perhaps an ancient building in Europe.
Welcome ruemara, please don’t take offense if I accidentlly Upper-Case your name, I know that’s not your style, but my fingers have 55 years of shifting for the first letter of names. And don’t let the trolls grind you down!!!
Felanius Kootea
Yay ruemara! Great first post.
Steeplejack
@J R in WV:
Said to be fixed upstairs, but it didn’t work on this one. Had to double up on Reply.
stinger
Every word, but this especially.
Wolvesvalley
Testingacommentinvisualmode.Editing.Editworks.
Damn. Went into text mode to edit and all spaces lost.
Wolvesvalley
Testing yet another comment in text mode.
Editing.
Wolvesvalley
Another text-mode comment.
Wolvesvalley
@stinger: Testing a reply to stinger: @nym showed up on first click.