Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This blog will pay for itself.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Everybody saw this coming.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The willow is too close to the house.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Lügenpresse Meets Hair Furor

Lügenpresse Meets Hair Furor

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From CNN Money (H/T to Kay):

Executives and anchors from the country’s five biggest television networks are meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower on Monday afternoon.

The meeting was organized by Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, who is now a senior adviser to Trump.

NBC’s Chuck Todd and Lester Holt; CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Erin Burnett; CBS’s Norah O’Donnell, Charlie Rose, John Dickerson, and Gayle King; and ABC’s George Stephanopoulos were some of the anchors who were seen entering Trump Tower shortly before 1 p.m.

A source said ABC’s David Muir and Martha Raddatz were expected to attend.

Sources said the meeting would involve Trump, Conway and representatives from ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and Fox News. (NBC’s cable news channel MSNBC is included in the NBC invitation, Conway noted.)

The substance of the meeting is intended to be off the record, meaning the participants will not divulge what is said.

President Obama and other government officials occasionally hold similar off the record sessions with reporters, anchors and other media bigwigs. (Obama talked off the record with the reporters traveling with him on the way home from Peru on Sunday night.)

Those last sentences sound like an attempt to normalize this. President Obama complained about the media like every president has, and lord knows, so do we.

But as far as I know, PBO didn’t confine media representatives at his campaign events to a pen, rain abuse on them and urge his supporters to pillory the campaign press to the extent the Secret Service had to protect them. I don’t recall PBO’s supporters reviving an explicitly Nazi pejorative, “lügenpresse,” or “lying press,” to screech at the media.

What will they discuss, do you think?

Reader Interactions

143Comments

  3. 3.

    The Moar You Know

    What will they be discussing? Their capitulation or preferred method of execution. Trump is reasonable after all, right?

  4. 4.

    tobie

    Okay…I’m now disconsolate. Can we think of some really clever things to put on posters for the planned marches on Jan 20 and 21? I’m not sure what else I can do to resist the tsunami of media control, retrograde policy, abolition of basic rights, cronyism, etc. that’s coming our way.

  5. 5.

    gogol's wife

    @The Moar You Know:

    From the great song by Jonathan Coulton, “Re: Your Brains”:
    “All we want to do is eat your brains
    We’re not unreasonable, I mean, no one’s gonna eat your eyes
    All we want to do is eat your brains
    We’re at an impasse here, maybe we should compromise
    If you open up the door
    We’ll all come inside and eat your brains”

  6. 6.

    SenyorDave

    @tobie: Is there anything actually planned for inauguration day in terms of protest? I live in MD and I am interested in seeing the options are?

  10. 10.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Gotta say, I think this is pretty much SOP. Obama has done these with a heavier dose of more liberal reporters/bloggers, and being Obama, I’m sure he did others with FoxNews people included.

  11. 11.

    Lizzy L

    This is disturbing. These guys are supposed to be a free press, the fourth estate, necessary to the functioning of a true democracy, and already they’ve agreed to not report on this meeting? Uh-huh.

  16. 16.

    artem1s

    Jeebus please let Cheeto Dick spend the entirety of this meeting bitching about Pence getting booed and what a horrible play Hamilton is. Preceded by a announcement about his newest Schlump Hotel. I want these assholes to get pwned over and over again.

  17. 17.

    tobie

    @SenyorDave: I’ll see what I can find out about the anti-inauguration on Jan 20 and get back to you. There’s of course the million women’s march on Jan 21.

  18. 18.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @trollhattan: Which ones were carrying a shine box?

    Chris Christie would gut-punch his own mother before he gave up his place as Bearer of the Shine Box

  21. 21.

    nominus

    What will they discuss, do you think?

    Mr Trump, would you like your balls gargled every morning, or twice a day?

  22. 22.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: @Major Major Major Major: It is normal-ish. President Obama did at least one dinner with conservative media – both reporters and pundits/commentators (George Will, Bill Kristol, people like that) – and several other events, usually coffees. He did far more with what is referred to as the mainstream media. Usually these are off the record. I think part of the issue is that after the past 18 months no one, from any side of American politics, trusts the news media at all. And almost everyone center-left to left (regardless of where the center in the US is in regards to anywhere else) doesn’t trust the President-elect. Put that together, add in social-media, and voila: pre-Thanksgiving freak out. Sometimes cigars are just cigars.

  23. 23.

    WarMunchkin

    No, it’s not the same as President Obama. Obama never threatened to cut off access to outlets for unfavorable coverage. If anything, he did the opposite – remember all the vapors over Nico Pitney? These guys are probably trying to make sure they’re not replaced by a press room full of Breitbart people.

  24. 24.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Talk me down — I’m not comfy on this ledge. Did PBO meet with the major network anchors and heads during the transition period? I do recall him having columnists and anchors over to the WH (I was hoping he wouldn’t listen too attentively to Tom Friedman or Bobo!). But, of course, PBO didn’t have an adversarial relationship with the press that bordered on the physically dangerous like Trump has. Maybe I’m being paranoid. I hope so.

  26. 26.

    laura

    I guess we won’t know what was discussed -orthe price they collectively settled on until we watch them report on tiny gloves, his family, his business associates, his enemies, his properties . . . .
    So we’ll wait and see and probably not be surprised as he’s deemed presidential and a VSP.

  27. 27.

    danielx

    At a wild guess :

    We (the royal version) Will Not Tolerate The (True) Lies Being Told About Us By The Media. And We Do Not Wish Any More Reports About Alleged Abuses By Our Passionate Supporters.

    There Are Detention Cells Waiting (And Worse) For Anyone Who Violates This Decree, As Well as Anyone Who Tries Our Royal Patience* or Otherwise Gets On Our Nerves.**

    *Especially on Sunday morning talk shows. George Will (for starters) has really been pulling the royal wienie of late.

    **And Most Especially The Entire Editorial Staff Of The Washington Post.

  28. 28.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Betty Cracker: I think that’s the difference here: the meeting with network heads. He did meet with some TV anchors and pundits, as well as print news media reporters and pundits, and if I recall, also some radio hosts. There was at least one full dinner with conservative press/media and several coffees. And many more with just the media/mainstream media (corporate owned/controlled media).

    The thing to watch for here is what, if anything leaks out about the meeting from the press side.

  30. 30.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: during the transition? I don’t know. But now that you mention Bobo…. I think he might have. I remember Bobo being surprised and excited that Obama cited Reinhold Niebuhr, in a way that was somehow less condescendingly racist (but a bit of that) than a reflection of Bobo’s infatuation, after all these decades, with his U of C great books education.

  31. 31.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Adam L Silverman: “That’s the real issue here: the transition as reality show. And the perception of chaos that results.”

    Yes. I suspect this is what was happening during the campaign as well. My guess is Bannon (maybe with Kushner) is the brains/schemer behind the curtains. Gaudy distractions upfront to distract from evil machinations behind.

    ETA: Oh foof, formatting fail. Top quote is from Adam, boxed quote is from me.

  33. 33.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    I am gross and perverted
    Im obsessed n deranged
    I have existed for years
    But very little had changed
    I am the tool of the government
    And industry too
    For I am destined to rule
    And regulate you

    I may be vile and pernicious
    But you can’t look away
    I make you think Im delicious
    With the stuff that I say
    I am the best you can get
    Have you guessed me yet?
    I am the slime oozin out
    From your tv set

    You will obey me while I lead you
    And eat the garbage that I feed you
    Until the day that we don’t need you
    Don’t got for help…no one will heed you
    Your mind is totally controlled
    It has been stuffed into my mold
    And you will do as you are told
    Until the rights to you are sold

    That’s right, folks..
    Don’t touch that dial

    Well, I am the slime from your video
    Oozin along on your living room floor

    I am the slime from your video
    Cant stop the slime, people, lookit me go

    1973. Frank Zappa. Smart guy. Dead now.

  34. 34.

    Brachiator

    The substance of the meeting is intended to be off the record, meaning the participants will not divulge what is said.

    I always have qualms when a “free and open press” has off the record meetings. I know that it is part of how things have always been done, but I still don’t like it.

    No PBS or NPR, no non-US representatives.

  37. 37.

    trollhattan

    I’ll give Trump his due: he has enough inner Goebbels to grock the optics here and frankly, it’s both cunning and effective. The media rabble have to come to him, in a building plastered with his yuuge name, and do so very publicly. He’s about to make it completely clear that access comes at a price. If you’re really, really good to him you get an elevator keycard that stops at the bunga-bunga floor.

    And yeah, I’m prepared for four years of all Godwin, all the time. This is DEFCON Max for our republic.

  38. 38.

    hovercraft

    You people here need to stop bitching about the results of the election, your candidate lost. First the press and then Bernie, and now “progressive” hero Tulsi Gabbard, are all jumping on the Shitgibbon bandwagon.

    Gabbard, who backed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, is being considered for jobs at the Defense Department, State Department and the United Nations, a source told CNN.

    It takes a true champion of “progressive” values to be willing to yourself out there as the face of just how progressive the Shitgibbon and it’s administration are.

  41. 41.

    mai naem mobile

    Can somebody fucking well mention that the ATT/Time Warner merger will need to be approved by Kleptrumpy’s administration? Total fucking conflict of interest.

  42. 42.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @hovercraft:

    You people here need to stop bitching about the results of the election, your candidate lost.

    “Us” people? “Our” candidate? Did you have a different one?

    ETA: Also, please to explain the juxtaposition between first sentence and your comment about the rabble running to join the Voldemort administration? Non sequitur, much?

  43. 43.

    SenyorDave

    @hovercraft: My understanding is that progressive hero Tulsi Gabbard is not very progressive when it comes to the rights of Muslims. Maybe she will be in charge of issuing the crescent moon patches that they will have to wear.

  45. 45.

    mai naem mobile

    Tulsa Gabbana totally gives off a Joe Lieberman/Joe Manchin/Phil Gramm whiff of douchiness to me. Cannot stand her. BTW,so does Corey Booker.

  48. 48.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gin & Tonic: The closest I get to watching any shows like that are the ones where they’re looking for Bigfoot. So I don’t have any idea whether they should be classified like we do for sit-coms, procedural dramas (medical or police), or soap operas, etc.

  50. 50.

    Brachiator

    @hovercraft:

    It takes a true champion of “progressive” values to be willing to yourself out there as the face of just how progressive the Shitgibbon and it’s administration are.

    Did you leave out “put?” or maybe “putsch?”

  52. 52.

    nominus

    Read this whole thread and then please get busy calling and writing. This is the first solid advice I’ve seen since November 9th. Fuck fact-checking, fuck whining, fuck the press, get off your ass and act like a god damned Tea Party titty baby. It worked for them, it can work for us.

  53. 53.

    Brachiator

    @mai naem mobile:

    Tulsa Gabbana totally gives off a Joe Lieberman/Joe Manchin/Phil Gramm whiff of douchiness to me. Cannot stand her. BTW,so does Corey Booker.

    I think that Gabbard surfs. I give her bonus points for that alone.

  55. 55.

    Brachiator

    @Timurid:

    More seriously, did any recent Presidents do anything like this during transition?

    I don’t think that anybody paid attention to the transition before this.

  58. 58.

    laura

    And another damn thing -hitler’s Reichspartetag or Nuremberg Rallies were for the most part an annual event.
    Cheeto’s “Thank America” rallies will be completely unprecedented both preinagural and who the hell knows how frequent post election.
    My guess is that due to the amount of ego stroking he needs, very frequent.
    Which amongst the press will deign to point out that this is not normal?
    I’m going with none. It will be normalized faster than you can say Bengahzi.

  59. 59.

    hovercraft

    @O. Felix Culpa:
    I’m sorry that batteries are not included here at BJ.
    @Brachiator:
    I’m thinking more like f**k yourself, and the party, and the country. But then again she’s been a pretty useless POS for a while. They glommed onto her because she endorsed Bernie.

    Gabbard has been a favorite of Fox News, where she diverged from the typical Democratic Party line on the term “Islamic extremism.” Democrats such as Bernie Sanders—whom Gabbard endorsed—have stayed away from such phrases because, they argue, it suggests that the United States is at war with the Muslim religion itself.
    “It is crazy,” Gabbard said on an HBO talk show, of Democratic refusals to use the term. “They do matter, words mean things, and this is what we need to look at as we look at how do we identify our enemies so that we can defeat them?”…..

    ……In March, Gabbard was the only Democrat and one of just three members of Congress to vote against a resolution condemning violence by the Assad regime against civilian populations.
    “Bad enough US has not been bombing al-Qaeda/al-Nusra in Syria. But it’s mind-boggling that we protest Russia’s bombing of these terrorists,” Gabbard wrote in September, on the first day of the Russian intervention in Syria.

    via GOS
    This is the one of the young new “progressive talents” who will lead the revival of the the democratic party.
    People keep telling me that we need to listen to these brave new voices who will lead us in a new direction.

  65. 65.

    Gindy51

    I’very been getting a real V for Vendetta vibe about this whole thing without the V to save us…

  68. 68.

    Chip Daniels

    @trollhattan:

    And yeah, I’m prepared for four years of all Godwin, all the time. This is DEFCON Max for our republic.

    This is where I’m at.
    I’m past the soothing words of “lets not overreact” bullshit.

    This is it, the real thing, fascism staring us in the face, daring us to say its name aloud.

  70. 70.

    SenyorDave

    @hovercraft: In March, Gabbard was the only Democrat and one of just three members of Congress to vote against a resolution condemning violence by the Assad regime against civilian populations.

    Because nothing says progressive like supporting someone who is responsible for a civil war that has killed over 400,000 civilians. I’m done equivocating with people like this. I don’t care about her military background. People like this seem to be able to support ANY actions. I’ll go out on limb and guess that some civilians being bombed would bother her, but maybe not so much when its Muslim civilians.

  72. 72.

    bobbo

    I guarantee you that whatever they discuss, their vague reports of the meeting (since it’s off the record) will all focus on what a surprisingly kind, focused, warm, intelligent, and engaging man Trump is.

  74. 74.

    Cain

    I think we need to insist that when Trump is out there, that we have our people hitting the sunday talk shows and talking about medicare and all that other stuff. Ask what happened to the wall, keep bringing shit up. Keep pivoting back to the same topics and hammering them. We need to stop being nice people.

  76. 76.

    The Truffle

    Ya know, Buzzfeed is doing a decent job of covering Il Douche and his various business conflicts of interest.

    If the networks roll over while BUZZFEED keeps the pressure on, you know network news is screwed.

  77. 77.

    trollhattan

    This is front-paged at LGM. Worth a cut-n-paste here.

    You may have done this already! If not: Paul Ryan is conducting a survey to measure support for Obamacare via an automated telephone poll. Call Ryan’s office at 202-225-3031. I had to call twice, and the system behaved inconsistently. Both times I was told the mailbox was full, but only the second time did I get the option to take the survey. You press 2 for the survey, you listen to some anti-Obamacare propaganda, and then you press 1 to say you support the ACA. If the voicemail box is not full when you call, you can also leave a message for Ryan.

  78. 78.

    Cain

    @sukabi:

    Drumpfs meeting sounds more like a “How can we best service you?” press capitulation event.

    Yes, something like that. Basically, he’s going to tell them that he is going to sue the fuck out of all of em they say anything negative. Welcome to the world of fascism, ladies and gentleman.

  79. 79.

    gene108

    @hovercraft:

    Gabbard is pretty conservative on a lot of issue. I think maybe being from Hawaii and practicing Hinduism, maybe, got people to think she’s a lefty liberal. IDK

    She’s not nor has ever been that truly liberal, on a number of issues.

  80. 80.

    trollhattan

    @The Truffle: It’s not bragging but rather, depressing that I now never watch network news and am not sure what it even comprises. They are simply not doing even a passable job and I have better time-wasters.

  83. 83.

    The Moar You Know

    Fuck fact-checking, fuck whining, fuck the press, get off your ass and act like a god damned Tea Party titty baby. It worked for them, it can work for us.

    @nominus: Both he and you are quite correct. Odds that Dems will do even one of the things he cites are, as you and I and he well know, zero.

    Since I was a child back in the 1980s, the Democratic party has been playing chess in a kickboxing match. Generally, save for the not-so-rare occasion when a GOP admin REALLY shits the bed, we lose. But we keep doing the same shit, convinced next time it will work.

    Well, we deserve to lose and hopefully, keep losing until we get our shit together and realize that American politics are a game that requires participants to play dirty and mean. The GOP understands this. I don’t know if Dems ever will.

  84. 84.

    Brachiator

    @hovercraft:

    This is the one of the young new “progressive talents” who will lead the revival of the the democratic party.
    People keep telling me that we need to listen to these brave new voices who will lead us in a new direction.

    I will tell you that as well, The Democrats have got to find, develop, appeal to new blood, even as I note that Gabbard is very wrong about many things.

  85. 85.

    Chip Daniels

    @The Moar You Know:

    One of the traits I brought with me when I transitioned from conservative to liberal was framing things as moral battles of good versus evil.

    Sometimes it gets too easy and carries with it its own risk, but for the most part, the battles we are seeing can and should be framed that way.

    Ryan’s assault on Medicare is an assault on the bedrock values of civilization, where the young care for the elderly.

    Trump’s racism is an attack on the Christian values of brotherhood and solidarity.

    And so on.

    Charts-n-graphs-n-studies from the Brookings Institution are fine, when you are in a dorm room.
    In a street fight, you sharpen the divide and galvanize the troops with a clash of values.

  87. 87.

    Turgidson

    Oh joy, Chucklehead Todd is in the mix. I’m sure he’ll explain to Trump that filthy lies are permissible on Meet the Press and other NBC political programming so long as they can be described as “messaging successfully.”

  88. 88.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Chip Daniels: this is something the left should be able to be good at, and something the religious left (such as it remains) has been historically. Douthat actually had a halfway decent column this week talking about how liberals have lost track of meaning and belonging that I fairly agree with, though obviously not in so many words (people from architects to AI researchers philosophize about this.)

    His proposed remedy is patriarchal Catholicism, of course, but his critique is well stated.

  89. 89.

    gene108

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I live in NJ. Booker’s an upper-middle class NJ kid, who went Stanford and earned a Rhodes Scholarship.

    He’s bright and all, but by the end of his tenure in Newark, there were some cracks in Booker narrative. He was a big champion of charter schools, which irked the locals, who just wanted better public schools.

    He got some investment into downtown Newark. But the neighborhoods are still bad.

    As a Senator he’s been O.K. He’s done nothing terribly bad, but has jumped out, like say Elizabeth Warren.

    Unless he really screws up, he has a safe Senate seat.

    But I don’t know, if he has the ability to become President.

    There are some people you hear and you think, he’s got “it”. I think Booker sort of has “it”, but not quite enough to get over the top.

  97. 97.

    Brachiator

    @Major Major Major Major:

    weird how the brave new progressive voices that we must follow overlaps so well with the people who have endorsed sanders, regardless of their actual beliefs.

    I don’t understand why some Democrats insist on re-fighting the last battle. Sanders dutifully came out and campaigned for Clinton. But that did not change who he was or what he believed.

    Nobody says that you or anyone else must follow Sanders or the “brave new progressive voices.” But it will take all of them, and more, to deal with the challenges posed by the GOP and Trump.

  102. 102.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Brachiator:

    I don’t understand why some Democrats insist on re-fighting the last battle. Sanders dutifully came out and campaigned for Clinton. But that did not change who he was or what he believed.

    And then he came out and said

    It is not good enough for somebody to say, ‘I’m a woman, vote for me.’ That is not good enough… What we need is a woman who has the guts to stand up to Wall Street, to the insurance companies, to the drug companies, to the fossil fuel industries.

    There’s your Democrat (sort of) who’s re-fighting the last battle, right there. I didn’t take the first swing. Or who did you think he was talking about?

  103. 103.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Very much off topic, but there’s been an(other) earthquake, 7.3, and probable tsunami off Fukushima.

  105. 105.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Major Major Major Major:

    What we need is a woman who has the guts to stand up to Wall Street, to the insurance companies, to the drug companies, to the fossil fuel industries.

    Maybe someone like Zephyr Teachout! Who won overwhelmingly, I assume!

  106. 106.

    Kay

    They better push the giant baby President out of the nest. He’s not going to be able to hide in Trump Tower forever.

    The bar is REALLY low. If he’s standing upright and not drooling he’ll get an A++++. How cowardly IS this bully anyway?

  108. 108.

    JPL

    When will MSM mention that it is costing taxpayers 1 million a day to secure Trump Towers. I have no idea how much it will cost when it’s just Melania and Barron, but I assume it’s a chunk. When will he apologize to the President for spending to much money on vacations?

  109. 109.

    CaseyL

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, I saw that. Tsunami warning in effect, with 3-meter waves expected.

    This is a little scary, because New Zealand was hit with a quake and has been wracked with almost continuous aftershocks ever since (maybe settled down by now). A friend who lives there says estimates are the North Island moved about 3 meters north. That’s a pretty dramatic plate shift.

    Earthquakes aren’t supposed to be triggered by other earthquakes, are they? Natural ones, I mean – not the ones caused by fracking.

  111. 111.

    gene108

    @Brachiator:

    Sanders dutifully came out and campaigned for Clinton.

    After spending months trashing Hillary and the Democrats as being corrupt stooges of the 1%, who want nothing more than to get into office and shit all over the 99%.

    He did a lot of damage to the Democratic Party, with the way he campaigned in the last few months of the primary.

    His supporters, who made to Philadelphia, for the DNC Convention were booing actual Democrats. That’s how riled up he got his supporters on the way out, during the primaries.

  112. 112.

    Chris

    @Chip Daniels:

    This is where I’m at.
    I’m past the soothing words of “lets not overreact” bullshit.
    …
    This is it, the real thing, fascism staring us in the face, daring us to say its name aloud.

    QFT.

  113. 113.

    Brachiator

    @schrodinger’s cat: re: How does one practice Hinduism?

    As an aside, reminds me of a couple of references to ancient languages in the new movie “The Arrival.”

    The character played by Amy Adams is a linguist who claims that the Sanskrit word for “war” literally means “a desire for more cows.”

  114. 114.

    Hoodie

    @FlipYrWhig: Maybe we just needed a woman who the GOP hasn’t had three decades to demonize, with an assist from Bernie. The problem is that the time it takes to completely smear someone has been dramatically reduced with the advent of fake news and other malignancies of right wing messaging. I imagine that, had these features been in full effect in 2008, it would have been nonstop Jeremiah Wright and whitey tapes on grandma’s facebook page. In the future, we’ll have to keep the nominee under wraps until November 1.

  115. 115.

    Calouste

    @CaseyL: Earthquakes can be triggered by other earthquakes. Either the recent New Zealand one or the one a few years back at Christchurch (can’t remember which one), was basically a double earthquake, on two separate faults IIRC.

  116. 116.

    CaseyL

    @Calouste: I didn’t know that. But those separate faults were in direct proximity, weren’t they? I was thinking more of a possible chain reaction all along the Ring of Fire. Is that possible, do you know?

  117. 117.

    Brachiator

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Even if they join the Trump administration?

    Good question. Has she joined the Trump Administration, yet?

    And I would probably say, yeah, join the Administration if asked. And be prepared to resign if necessary. A resignation might have more impact than a refusal.

  118. 118.

    bulletin 1147

    @efgoldman:

    I wonder how they lined up to kiss his ass and fondle his tiny balls. Alphabetically? By height? Age? Previous year’s earnings? Lottery?

    One go-round each way, lottery first.

  121. 121.

    Brachiator

    @Major Major Major Major: RE: It is not good enough for somebody to say, ‘I’m a woman, vote for me.’ That is not good enough… What we need is a woman who has the guts to stand up to Wall Street, to the insurance companies, to the drug companies, to the fossil fuel industries.

    There’s your Democrat (sort of) who’s re-fighting the last battle, right there. I didn’t take the first swing. Or who did you think he was talking about?

    It wasn’t good enough for somebody to say, “I’m a woman, vote for me.” But this was not the essence of Clinton’s campaign, and Sanders is wrong about it. Otherwise, he falls back on his same old, tired, message.

    Guess what? You need to work with him anyway.

    @gene108:

    After spending months trashing Hillary and the Democrats as being corrupt stooges of the 1%, who want nothing more than to get into office and shit all over the 99%.

    He did a lot of damage to the Democratic Party, with the way he campaigned in the last few months of the primary.

    And the Wikileaks show that the Democrats were working hard to sink Sanders. That’s politics. And he still came out and campaigned for Clinton. And I dispute that he did a lot of damage to the Democrats. You know what did damage to the Democrats? Trump kicking their ass.

    His supporters, who made to Philadelphia, for the DNC Convention were booing actual Democrats. That’s how riled up he got his supporters on the way out, during the primaries.

    I don’t give a shit.

    If you think that Trump will be a danger to the country, then you need to find a way to work with anyone who is close to your ideology.

    I was recently reminding my sister of how the British Lib Dems rebuffed their natural allies, the Labour Party, and instead elected to form a coalition with the Conservatives. The Lib Dems immediately became irrelevant and both parties have been struggling to regain any appeal to the voters.

    keep whining about how Uncle Bernie was mean to you. See what it gets you.

  122. 122.

    RaflW

    @Cain: I would agree, but the bookers for the Sunday shows make that damnably difficult. Their 3:1 ratio (or more often 4:0) make the odds of anyone actually speaking from a left/progressive critique of the Trumpenfuhrer or even Der Kongress very low.

  123. 123.

    Brachiator

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    That’s BS. The 2 most common words for war in Sanskrit and languages derived from Sanskrit are Yudh and Ran (its a hard N sound, that’s alien to English), neither has anything to do with cows.

    You mean I can’t rely on the movies for realistic linguistic analysis?

    Actually, I didn’t buy it, but it made for good drama.

    Do the words you cite have any figurative or metaphorical significance?

    ETA: A Reddit thread on the topic includes the following: “The honorific wars that are talked about in the Ramayana and Mahabharata use the words based off the root yudh- to fight. If anything the word you are referring to is used with negative connotations; war that is fought for wealth and not honour/dharma.”

  124. 124.

    dww44

    @The Truffle: Maddow and Hayes and Lawrence O’Donnell have all been good and entirely worth watching since the election. Rachel has been better, imo, than she’s been in a long long time. Sometimes LOD is a bit over the top but he has consistently good shows. That prime time lineup, plus Joy Reid A.M. on the weekend mornings at 10 a.m. are the only truly liberal shows on MSNBC.

  125. 125.

    Keith G

    What will they discuss, do you think?

    I am beginning not to care. There seems to be a drum beat of fetal position worry mongering. Everyday more, “Did you see that!!!!”, and “How terrible!!”. It’s not very inspiring and that inspiration thing is a bit of what beat us.

    Instead of hyperventilating about their leadership, we need to start measuring for ours. We need a small number of non negotiables, 3-5, that we will fight to the bitter end for. “Fight ’em until hell freezes over. Then fight ’em on the ice!” And then we need to support those leaders who want & can lead such a fight. I believe Trump’s support is static – it is what it is. But I also believe that there is an endless number of people whom Trump will piss off and push toward opposition. It is up to the opposition to be organized enough to take advantage of those opportunities.

    Any good athlete and/or coach, I have been both, knows that worrying about the competitor more than fixing your own skillset and game plan is a sure way to lose. As far as the press….Trump is doing what he should vis a vis the press. Big deal. We need to get a leadership team in place that can do the same.

  127. 127.

    NMgal

    @trollhattan: I did this earlier, and I’m wondering if anyone had the same issue as I did: I called from my landline and got the survey fine. A friend called from a cellphone and was shunted to “if you want to leave a voicemail for Speaker Ryan…” Tried it three times, same result. My spousal unit got the survey from his cellphone, but we note that its phone number had been ported from a landline. Anyone else have trouble getting to the survey from a cellphone with a cell-only number?

  128. 128.

    Another Scott

    @Brachiator: Eichenwald’s recent piece in Newsweek about various things says that all the infamous Wikileaks stuff from the DNC was e-mails that were written after Bernie had no mathematically possible way to win the nomination. They were intentionally leaked to trash the DNC and Hillary and conveniently left out the bit about the chronological context of the messages.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  131. 131.

    Brachiator

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I am not talking religion or metaphysics here, just what is used in every day language. Since when is reddit the go to site for Sanskrit scholarship.

    That’s why I asked you first.

    Reddit is only as good as its contributors. Lots of crap, occasional gold nuggets.

  132. 132.

    ruemara

    @Brachiator: How am I supposed to unite with someone who hates Muslims to achieve the progressive vision? If we need bigots to win, maybe we don’t deserve to win.

  133. 133.

    SgrAstar

    NY Post reports that today’s meeting with media moguls “was a firing squad.” Anyone else see this? Reported on HuffPo.

  135. 135.

    Applejinx

    @hovercraft:

    You people here need to stop bitching about the results of the election, your candidate lost. First the press and then Bernie, and now “progressive” hero Tulsi Gabbard, are all jumping on the Shitgibbon bandwagon.

    Unnamed source? Then it’s total crap to serve one purpose and do it well:

    Tell the Republicans to fuck themselves, they’re not in charge here.

    That’s the only possible reason to be courting Gabbard. She’s an obvious target in that she went against the DNC, but she’s an absolute red flag for the Republicans. Trump doesn’t have to do anything they want. He can go on a shopping spree wherever he can find people who’ll pledge fealty to him alone, and he doesn’t have to stick to turning Republicans. This is a trial balloon specifically to make Republicans insecure. Chances of actually getting Gabbard are slim, unless she’s deluded or actively evil.

  137. 137.

    Applejinx

    @hovercraft:

    “Bad enough US has not been bombing al-Qaeda/al-Nusra in Syria. But it’s mind-boggling that we protest Russia’s bombing of these terrorists,” Gabbard wrote in September, on the first day of the Russian intervention in Syria.

    Yeah, if she goes for this, she’s with Putin, full stop. Still a overt slap in the face to Republicans, regardless… but now we learn if she’s actually Trump/Putin aligned or not. I suspect Bernie is telling her, ‘no fucking way’ but we shall see.

  138. 138.

    Raven Onthill

    Gabbard probably always was a Republican.

    The NY Post (a Murdoch rag, so treat as suspect) has this report of the meeting:

    Donald Trump scolded media big shots during an off-the-record Trump Tower sitdown on Monday, sources told The Post. / “It was like a f–ing firing squad,” one source said of the encounter. / “Trump started with [CNN chief] Jeff Zucker and said ‘I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar and you should be ashamed,’ ” the source said. / “The meeting was a total disaster. The TV execs and anchors went in there thinking they would be discussing the access they would get to the Trump administration, but instead they got a Trump-style dressing down,” the source added.

    We are probably going to end up going to Breitbart for Trump Administration press releases, and the rest of the media will be reduced to doing … actual reporting. Oh, the horror!

  140. 140.

    AnotherBruce

    I know I’m not the first to say this… but.. Jesus, we’ve got them all in one place. One well designed meteor could take care of the whole thing!

  141. 141.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Applejinx: I suspect Bernie Sanders is looking at nothing and seeing nothing and complimenting himself for his brilliance all the while, because that’s what he’s done for 55 years.

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