Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

We are aware of all internet traditions.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

In my day, never was longer.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

The National Guard is not Batman.

How stupid are these people?

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

I really should read my own blog.

You are here: Home / Masters of their domain

Masters of their domain

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This illustrates the decline of our so-called civlization (h/t commenter Waingro) better than any other short passage I have ever read (though the whole piece rambles a bit):

Then suddenly it was over, and The Atlantic’s own godfather, David G. Bradley, was marching toward David Weigel, a young and prolific journalist specializing in Republican politics who had recently made a name for himself getting fired and rehired by the same media company within several weeks. For Bradley, this shift in nameplates apparently constituted a Chalabi-caliber show of resilience:

“DAVID! So good to see you!”

“Hello, David.”

“David, you really came back swinging, didn’t you? You were out for all of, what, a week? But now you’re back!”

“Well, I mean, it was actually a few weeks, and it really screwed up my health insurance . . .”

“David, I just want you to know I’ve been scheming ways to deploy you here for quite some time now! Now, of course I realize you may be enjoying your present . . . deployment!”

“Well I mean, heh, I did just start . . .”

“But David, let me tell you this. David, I know you think your mastery is politics. But I think . . . I think your mastery . . . ”

Dramatic pause.

“. . . may be . . . mastery.”

“Oh uh, thanks . . .”

“Do you know what I mean, David?” Bradley finished, gliding out the door. “It’s the same thing with David Brooks. He thought his mastery was politics, but his mastery was actually, whatever he put his mind to. Think about it, David!”

Reader Interactions

46Comments

  1. 1.

    schrodinger's cat

    I bet David Weigel can’t solve a second order partial differential equation.
    The Washingtonian punditubbies are not journalists they are the courtiers on the Potomac. David Weigel is just another Villager in training.

  2. 2.

    TooManyJens

    Sweet Jesus. We live in a Shallowocracy. Rule by people who can’t be arsed to think about anything except how magnificent is the sound of the output of their own pieholes.

    Well. That and how much less they’d like to be paying in taxes on their 1%-er incomes, of course.

  3. 3.

    Warren Terra

    Jesus, Doug, warn a fellow. Put it behind a cut, after a disclaimer about the suicide risk of reading the passage.

  6. 6.

    schrodinger's cat

    BTW does any one know what happened to Dan Froomkin, a journalist who tried to do his job and was not a sycophant.

  7. 7.

    Villago Delenda Est

    You know, the French figured out a way to deal with this sort of thing a couple centuries back.

  10. 10.

    schrodinger's cat

    To paraphrase Krugman, Bobo is an idiot’s idea of what a smart person sounds like.

  13. 13.

    Egg Berry

    I see the nominees are already piling up for the Wanker of Atrios’ Second Decade.

  14. 14.

    PeakVT

    He thought his mastery was politics, but his mastery was actually, whatever he put his mind to.

    But Bradley couldn’t afford Brooks so he hired Clive Crook instead.

  16. 16.

    schrodinger's cat

    If Brooks is a master of anything, it is lying with a straight face. I would take Rush Limbaugh and Fox News bots spewing bile than umble Mr Brooks any day.

  18. 18.

    ChristianPinko

    This is like the 21st-century version of that scene in The Graduate where the old guy says to Dustin Hoffman, “PLASTICS.”

  20. 20.

    jl

    I think the message is that a certain type of person can master one thing and only one thing (‘spin’) and then apply it to everything.

    Being able to do ‘Spin’ is even more versatile than math, since a certain type of math is not useful for everything.

  21. 21.

    Punchy

    Dont understand a single point in this post, but since its from DougJ, I gotta believe its about Sullivan.

  23. 23.

    the Conster (f/k/a Cat Lady)

    David Bradley wooed Jeffrey Goldberg with a pony. Yes, the wanker Jeffrey Goldberg got a pony. David Bradley’s just not right in the head.

  24. 24.

    Warren Terra

    Other “gems” from the article:

    As part of what he claims is a research project, he mails surveys to editors soliciting intel on local talent supplies, requesting that the editors rank on a scale of one to ten, or distinguish between “exceptional talent” and mere “talent,” lists of names he has culled in prior efforts. He also scouts for career changers: one sad intern spent a summer in the mid-aughts compiling a spreadsheet indicating the location and employment status for every president and vice president of every extracurricular club to have graduated from any of the eight Ivy League schools in the previous decade.

    And in a story that boggles the mind, Bradley claims that his father inspected mass graves in a WWII Nazi Concentration Camp … and then didn’t really think about it until he saw Schindler’s List almost 50 years later. Given that my Grandfather liberated a couple of camps and occasionally woke screaming for decades, I’m skeptical. Also note that Bradley’s father apparently spent those fifty years dedicated to Hippie-Bashing, and worse.

  25. 25.

    jl

    Off topic:

    ‘ Ryan says questions whether bishops’ letter on poverty and GOP budget is real opinion of consensus of bishops.

    Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) dismissed the concerns of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, after the powerful advocacy group criticized his budget for “failing to meet [the] moral criteria,” of protecting human dignity, prioritizing the needs of the hungry and homeless and promoting the common good. He also suggested that the criticism itself might not represent the Bishops’ consensus view — an insinuation the group directly rejects.

    “These are not all the Catholic bishops, and we respectfully disagree,” Ryan said.

    USCCB spokesman Don Clemmer cleared the air in an email to TPM. “Bishops who chair USCCB committees are elected by their fellow bishops to represent all of the U.S. bishops on key issues at the national level,” he said. “The letters on the federal budget were written by bishops serving in this capacity.” ‘

    Paul Ryan Questions Catholic Bishops’ Opposition To His Budget

    tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/04/paul-ryan-questions-catholic-bishop-opposition-to-his-budget.php…

    I guess probably Donohue doesn’t agree?

    The shifty sleazy Ryan would be a good VP choice, maybe. Get along great with Mitt and would repel some voters who can put up with Romney.

  28. 28.

    Mickey

    So it’s kind of like Seinfeld? Where you write about nothing week after week and make it sound important?

  32. 32.

    Vixen Strangely

    My brain re-wrote this as, “Has anyone ever told you you’re stunning? Ever do any acting?

    “Ever hear of this movie, The Devil in Miss Jones? It might have been before your time…

    “With the right connections, you could be a real star!”

  33. 33.

    David Koch

    David Weigel, a young and prolific journalist specializing in Republican politics who had recently made a name for himself getting fired and rehired by the same media company within several weeks.

    I don’t understand. Weigel was fired from WaPo and hired by Slate.

    Is Slate owned by WaPo?

  36. 36.

    joeyess

    Reminds me of that scene in Broadcast News when, after William Hurt’s character had to do a breaking story with Holly Hunter in his head for the entire piece and after the broadcast, the smarmy news division head is giving a pep talk to all the control room geeks about how this was “so good for Tom and how great Tom was and how they all did such a marvelous job in making Tom great because Tom is sooooo great……”

    Shoot me in the face, please.

  37. 37.

    Warren Terra

    @David Koch:
    No, the sucking of Slate is a far more longstanding, even foundational thing, and existed long before the WaPo bought it. It all comes out from the shallow contrarianism and utter cynicism that was so very treasured by Slate‘s founding editor Michael Kinsley, and his thoroughly sympathetic successors.

    … of course, the shallow contrarian suckiness of Slate doubtless made it seem a good purchase for the WaPo …

  38. 38.

    Suffern ACE

    @David Koch: Yep. Its why its noted “contrarianism” ends up sounding like the things 80% of the mainstream press establishment believes at any given time.

  39. 39.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Spaghetti Lee:

    Well, David Brinkley wasn’t bad, at all, but he’s gone now.

    “Good night, David”

    “Good night, Chet”

    Just a notch below Uncle Walter.

  40. 40.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Warren Terra:

    Slate is also the home of wanker runner up Lord Salatan, who can’t grok why the anti-abortion folks can’t get behind preventing abortions with birth control, which is his masterly “solution” to the entire issue.

  41. 41.

    Sad_Dem

    That excerpt reminds me of the Heller novel Good as Gold. There’s a villager character in that who keeps having really stupid conversations with the main character that he seems to think are quite deep, because, you know, he works as an important somebody in Washington. Needless to say, that character is a complete sociopath.

  42. 42.

    Joseph Nobles

    I see your example of the decline of civilization, and raise you Vince Vaughn starring in a feature adaptation of The Rockford Files.

  45. 45.

    Rogers

    Villagers Ahoy! Just when you think you’ve achieved the appropriate level of cynicism regarding these careerist swine you get blindsided by a little reality update, like a whole new freezer full of bodyparts. New&Improved!-Now with twice the Evil!

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