Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

I really should read my own blog.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

People are weird.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Giving up is unforgivable. ~Joe Biden

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

You are here: Home / Politics / Media / Obama should share the prize with Jesus and Reagan Ronaldus Magnus

Reader Interactions

47Comments

  1. 1.

    Napoleon

    As I saw elsewhere, I wonder how many people Brokaw invited up on stage to share his Emmy moment with?

  2. 2.

    Warren Terra

    Now hold on with the retirement age crap. Where is the evidence that these walking, talking strong jawlines were ever any good? Bill Moyers has got to be as old as any of them, and he’s fantastic.

  3. 3.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    As much of a tool as Brian Williams is, he was an upgrade from Tom Brokaw.

    Much like a solid dump is better than the runs, right?

    OT (gotta start the morning out right!):

    Up early baking cinnamon rolls for the wife. She used her illness to pull the ‘honey can you make some of those great cinnamon rolls you used to make when we first met?’, and it just happens she had me write the recipe down over twenty years ago.

    I do have to admit that the house sure smells great this morning! First batch just came out of the oven and are now cooling for icing.

  5. 5.

    ellaesther

    Oh, my friend, I must disagree with you here.

    Brokaw uses the word “share” after he has already clarified that what he means is “share the limelight”: “The president should invite a high-profile and wide-ranging delegation of interests to accompany him…. He could describe himself as the conspicuous symbol of their enduring efforts to win the peace or heal the wounds of war…. If, as we’re led to believe, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wanted to honor President Obama’s determination to put a new face on America’s efforts to shape a more peaceful world, what better way for him to respond than to share this distinguished prize with those who have been doing just that without sufficient recognition?”

    I will agree that using the phrase “share the prize” was unfortunate and, I think, misrepresented Brokaw’s point, but dude. We don’t need to make a point of missing the spirit of what someone meant to say.

    (Full disclosure: I may feel this way because I agree with the notion. I don’t think Obama deserves the Peace Prize [though I am willing to add “yet”], but since he was awarded it, it makes a lot of sense to me that he use the opportunity to highlight all of the wonderful accomplishments that have already been made. It would also be very much in keeping with what we’ve seen of his character [and speeches] to date).

  6. 6.

    toujoursdan

    I’d like him to flip Brokaw the bird and share it with one who really ended the Cold War, Gorbechev. He was the one who managed the transition with the Soviet Union out of Breshnev era stagnating, but hardline Communism into the post Soviet era with no international conflict and surprisingly little domestic conflict.

    I know Gorbechev already received a NPP, but it wasn’t Raygan and Bush I who ended the Cold War. The USSR would have collapsed without the 1980s arms race. Gorbechev’s genius is that he pulled off a transition without any nukes going off.

    (And anyone who thinks the Silent Generation is the Greatest Generation is an asshat. They are the ones that bankrupted this country.)

  7. 7.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    The corporations that run the networks can’t afford to hire people who are too smart to parrot the company line.

  10. 10.

    DougJ

    I will agree that using the phrase “share the prize” was unfortunate and, I think, misrepresented Brokaw’s point, but dude. We don’t need to make a point of missing the spirit of what someone meant to say.

    You know what, though? Enough with the fucking “what Obama should do is Oslo” stuff. But as long as we’re on it, I’ll give mine: load up on Aquavit at the duty free.

  11. 11.

    Clifton

    I have a lot I want to say and get into the whole psychoanalysis of an old white guy telling the young black guy how he should be honored (not saying racism). It just sucks that the people we hold up to be beacons of intelligence or wisdom are idiots.

  12. 12.

    Tbone

    DougL, how about writing down that cinnamon roll recipie again now, for those of us thinking a hot batch of cinnamon goodness would be great this weekend?

  14. 14.

    Bootlegger

    @DougJ: I think he should go for a swim in the fjord. You know, just to prove he’s man enough to take Levin, Hannity and Limbaugh 2 out of 3 falls.

  15. 15.

    gnomedad

    Obama might think of inviting former president George H.W. Bush and praising the work done during the Reagan-Bush years in managing the collapse of the Soviet Union and, for example, the reunification of Germany in such an impressive fashion.

    Actually, the Nobel committee might have thought of it if that was the actual point they were trying to make.

  16. 16.

    The Bearded Blogger

    “past normal retirement age”… the only way a brownosing dumb dickwad pundit such as is required by the powerd that be can seem at least a little respectabe is if he is very old. Imagine if John McCain were young, he’d look as foolish as he is.

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: Spot on. The more you are willing to please your masters, the more you rise… in this mediocracy, servility is the cream that rises to the top

  18. 18.

    ellaesther

    @DougJ: Ok, well, yes.

    But then you do realize that you’re asking this of a nation/media-blogosphere that wasn’t able to let go of the fact that Candidate Obama said the word “bitter” and sometimes calls women “sweetie.” Who talked about Michael Jackson’s death for two solid weeks. Who have turned David Letterman’s (apparently literally) worldwide pants into a National Crisis. Who felt they must weigh in on issues such as whether or not Bristol and Levi should get married, and are now weighing in on whether Levi should appear in the nude. Who couldn’t let go of the fact that Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi choked up — the tiniest bit — on-air.

    I mean, really, if we’re going to go on and on about anything, the POTUS’s Nobel Peace Prize actually seems like a fairly reasonable thing to go on and on about — particularly in comparison!

  19. 19.

    dmsilev

    Speaking of Reagan and Roman-era people, TPM had a great catch yesterday. GOP.com, aka the latest source of amusement for all of us, had a page extolling Reagan, and referred to him as ‘Ronaldus Magnus’.

    Really.

    -dms

  20. 20.

    mistermix

    Where DougJ sees an Alzheimer’s victim, I just see a hack crapping out another dull, formulaic piece. So much of journalism, especially opinion page journalism, is just boring and stupid, a relic of the days when the great lords of the fourth estate would tell us little people how we should think about some current event or other.

  21. 21.

    raptusregaliter

    Wow. Brokaw had that majestic Kaplan forum and he didn’t flog his “Greatest Generation” book?

    That’s all he did the last 2 years he was on Nightly News.

  22. 22.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @Bootlegger:

    I think he should go for a swim in the fjord.

    He’s pining for the fjords!

    @ellaesther:

    I mean, really, if we’re going to go on and on about anything, the POTUS’s Nobel Peace Prize actually seems like a fairly reasonable thing to go on and on about—particularly in comparison!

    Thanks for taking a reality dump on my day, and early in the morning to boot. Can we get back to talking about something cheery and uplifting, like say the politics of the death penalty in Texas?

  23. 23.

    gbear

    Why is our discourse dominated by men of diminished mental faculties who are past any normal retirement age?

    Because they’re not dead yet.

  24. 24.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    @Persia:

    Sure, it’s no secret but it is one I developed to fit my taste (totally decadent). I had forgotten all about it since the wife took over the kitchen after we got married. Turns out she had me write a bunch of my recipes (I kept them in my brain file) shortly after we got hitched and I forgot all about it.

    I haven’t been in a kitchen in many moons but I picked right up where I left off, they turned out perfect and am now brewing a pot of coffee to go with them. Yum!

    I would send you one ellaesther but teh intertoobs would be clogged with the rich sticky goodness.

  26. 26.

    SenyorDave

    This was a comment from the Posts’ website, and I think it was very well put, especially the part about Brokaw sharing his award:

    I long for the days of Peter Jennings and those who knew what they were talking about. Perhaps Mr. Brokaw should have shared his Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award, the Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement with other journalists who really did the work while he simply read the news from a prompter.Why should Obama take anybody with him? It was given to him, not to Bush or any of the others who touted America’s arrogance as a superpower. For once can someone just be happy that Obama won the award, and by transference so did America?

  27. 27.

    ellaesther

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Hey, no problem, I live to serve!

    But I do actually also have the antidote, right here, if you’re interested, as I have been taking a reality dump on myself for days now and needed something a smidge bit cheery. (On the other hand, I am probably going to post about prison rape over there later today, so get your cheer while you can!)

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): Oh now, that’s just cruel! There’s nary a rich sticky good cinnamon roll within miles of where I currently sit…!

    Please post the recipe — maybe I’ll actually just make my own damn cinnamon joy!

  28. 28.

    chiggins

    Why is our discourse dominated by men of diminished mental faculties

    I blame the medium in which they succeed.

  30. 30.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @Cat Lady:

    A-yup!

    I missed the threads last night and there’s no time to get caught up. Did anybody point out that Michael “I am cow, hear me moo!” Steele’s declaration that he is going to stand athwart the railroad tracks of history and get run over is a bit of a climb down from the days of William F. Buckley? Or that if Thomas Nast were alive today the GOP mascot might have to be changed from an elephant to a downer cow?

  31. 31.

    Chad N Freude

    Why is our discourse dominated by men … who are past any normal retirement age

    The Universal Law of Tribal Wisdom. As a leader ages, he or she attains wisdom through life experience and thus is able to guide the tribe through perilous times, make difficult decisions, etc., etc., and so forth. Thus we respect and take seriously the words of John McCain, Tom Brokaw, Charles Grassley, Ted Stevens … The list of village elders (and Village elders) is endless. Unfortunately.

  33. 33.

    Chad N Freude

    I read somewhere on the Intertubes (so it must be true) that “Ronaldus Magnus” was coined by Rushus Limbus.

  34. 34.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @Chad N Freude:

    The Universal Law of Tribal Wisdom. As a leader ages, he or she attains wisdom through life experience and thus is able to guide the tribe through perilous times, make difficult decisions, etc., etc., and so forth.

    Ahhh so! That explains why Jimmy Carter is always on my TV dispensing wisdom for the ages to us young-uns.

  35. 35.

    catclub

    Ellaesther@5:
    “(Full disclosure: I may feel this way because I agree with the notion. I don’t think Obama deserves the Peace Prize”

    Anyone who keeps John McWars McCain from the nuclear codes should win the prize. For keeping Sarah Palin from them, …give him two.

  36. 36.

    Martin

    Now hold on with the retirement age crap

    Sorry, teaparties, town hall rants. QED.

    The only thing people over 60 are good at now are screaming about the hafrican man getting on their lawn. Turn them into kitteh chow, save the entitlement programs, and move the country forward. (Almost) everybody wins.

    I’ll miss my parents, but what can you do?

  37. 37.

    Chad N Freude

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ: See? You have attained a bit of wisdom through the experience of reading BJ comments. That’s how it works. As you grow older, you will become so laden with wisdom you will fall and be unable to get up.

  38. 38.

    Chad N Freude

    @Martin:

    The only thing people over 60 are good at now are is screaming about

    people under 60 lumping them all together, generalizing about them, and widening the roads to the Soylent Green factory.

  39. 39.

    Mike in NC

    John McCain, Tom Brokaw, Charles Grassley, Ted Stevens … The list of village elders (and Village elders idiots) is endless.

    Fixed

  40. 40.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    Thank you ThatLeftTurnInABQ for recognizing the 40th anniversary of MPFC @ comment 22.

    I will now think of the list of village elders idiots as Hell’s Grannies.

  41. 41.

    Crusty Dem

    Tom Brokaw didn’t just become an idiot, he was always an idiot. The man failed out of the Communications Department at the University of Iowa in a single semester. That’s nothing but F’s. I don’t think most of us are completely incapable of that level of stupid.

    My disdain for TB peaked when he crawled so far up the rectum of WWII veterans that some died from an impacted esophagus.

  43. 43.

    Thoughtcrime

    Personally, I think Obama should share the Nobel Peace Prize with Ronald McDonald. After all, no one has done more to spread American Freedom (Fries) and Values (Meals).

  45. 45.

    mellowjohn

    alas, the two guys most responsible for laying the groundwork to end the cold war — harry truman and george f. kennan — are both long dead.

  46. 46.

    SixStringFanatic

    Obama might think of inviting former president George H.W. Bush and praising the work done during the Reagan-Bush years in managing the collapse of the Soviet Union and, for example, the reunification of Germany in such an impressive fashion.

    Pardon me, but WHAT THE FUCK did George H W Bush do to MANAGE the collapse of the Soviet Union or the reunification of Germany?? He stood the fuck back and let it happen is ALL that he COULD do. The CIA found out about the end of the Soviet Union the same way I did; they saw it on CNN!

    Jesus Fucking Christ. Help beat the Nazis and you get to spend the rest of your fucking life thinking anything good that happens anywhere in the world just HAS to have been “managed” by a ‘Murican, right? Brokaw and the rest of his generation can’t die off soon enough.

  47. 47.

    Batocchio

    That’s an idiotic column, but Williams is pretty slimy. I give him credit for some of his work on Hurricane Katrina. But he’s awfully smug. Back in 2004, on Conan O’Brien’s show, Williams asserted that obviously, Bush had won the first debate over Kerry (!), he’s a big fan of Rush Limbaugh, and he was an absolute corporate tool on the Pentagon propaganda story, to the extent of ignoring the Pulitzer win covering it. Oh, and his debate questions were biased crap. Bob Somerby’s 4-parter on him was quite good.

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