Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

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

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Let there be snark.

The willow is too close to the house.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Second rate reporter says what?

This really is a full service blog.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

I really should read my own blog.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

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

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

This fight is for everything.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night Open Thread: The GOP / Media Village Co-Dependency Problem

Late Night Open Thread: The GOP / Media Village Co-Dependency Problem

by | 97 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Saying NO to everything — refusing to negotiate, refusing to legislate, refusing to even meet with constituents — doesn’t take a whole lot of energy. Since at least the beginning of the Obama administration, most of the GOP has relied on passive obstruction, rather than active opposition. Their dependable minority of attention-seeking “Wild Guys”, the reliable trickle of grifters and ideologues looking for leverage, has been abetted by the subset of attention-seeking “Pundits” and related media, working together to keep the cable news channels busy 24/7/365.

Donald Trump, of course, was the epitome and probably the natural nadir of that mutual addiction. Joe Biden, as a campaigner and now as the President, heads an administration that’s the very opposite: He’s a happy tinkerer, surrounded by an administration of wonks and bureaucrats who actually enjoy doing the work.

It’s killing those members of the media who preferred MCing the clown parade to actual reporting. And I, for one, am here for it!

The perfect example, at the intersection of ‘political grifter’ and ‘media attention-seeker’:

Reader Interactions

97Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    It’s not so-called cancel culture, it’s that the R’s yearn to cancel the culture, to stamp it out from A to Z, en bloc.

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    re: Marianne Williamson, above.

    Why hasn’t Biden put everything on hold to perch on the roof and patch a leak during the height of a category 5 hurricane, hm?

    //

  5. 5.

    Baud

    taken no lessons from the Obama years.

    Mine is a minority view, but I think the main difference is that Dem normies are in a different place than they were in 2009, which allows leaders to act differently. It’s not “lessons” of Obama as much as the cultural experience since Obama that’s the difference.

  8. 8.

    HumboldtBlue

    Harry Truman lectured us on unity.

    Harry was succinct, direct and full of fuck you.

    The American people, in this critical year, are entitled to a full and open discussion of the issues. They are not getting it from the Republican candidate for President.

    It is no service to the country to refuse, in the name of unity, to discuss the issues. It is no service to democracy to conceal the difference between the major parties.

    Unity in a democracy cannot be produced by mealymouthed political speeches.

    Unity on great issues comes only when the voice of the people has been heard so clearly, so strongly, so unmistakably, that no one–not even the second guessers–can doubt what the people mean.

    Thomas Jefferson did not seek unity by concealing the real issues between himself and Alexander Hamilton. He made the issues clear, so that the people could reach a decision. And their decision determined that democracy rather than autocracy should prevail in this great country of ours.

    Andrew Jackson did not seek unity with the moneymakers in Philadelphia. He made the issues so clear that the people decided to place the control of the money in the Government of the United States, and not in a few private banks.

    Abraham Lincoln did not seek unity with Stephen A. Douglas. He made it clear that this Nation could not continue to exist half slave and half free.

    Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1933, did not seek unity with the economic royalists. He proposed the New Deal.

    And today, I do not seek unity by concealing the issues between me and the special privilege groups that control the Republican Party.

    I never will seek that sort of unity.

    Real unity is behind basic principles and concrete programs. Real unity cannot be achieved without a definition of the issues, and a decision by the American people.

  10. 10.

    Redshift

    As I remarked the other day, part of the reason negotiation and compromise with current Republicans is impossible is that they don’t want anything that government can do, they just want Democrats to not get the things they want (Cleek’s law writ large.) There’s no possibility of horse-trading with nihilists.

  12. 12.

    TS (the original)

    I am so pleased the Biden administration sends out information without depending on twitter, face book and the like. I feel so like my life is back to normal.

  13. 13.

    Redshift

    @Starboard Tack: I have to say, though, it is completely unsurprising that Williamson thinks an issue must be important if it’s all over the news for a day and people on Twitter are taking about it.

    I am much happier to be governed by people with more than two working brain cells.

  16. 16.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Redshift: Because arguing that the election was “stolen” and therefore his incitement is correct is a bold strategy. Let’s see how it plays out for them.

  17. 17.

    patrick II

    what congressional republicans really want, i honestly think, is to remain in the minority, phone it in at work, and use the culture war to fundraise trips to the bahamas or whatever.

    And to let the Supreme Court do the hard work of legislation for them.

  18. 18.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: I think it’s not just the normie Democrats, the President and the folk around him seem to understand that if they don’t get a lot done quickly, there’ll be a repeat of the 2010 shellacking.

     

  19. 19.

    Joey Maloney

    @Redshift: Great, now we’re going to have to sit through Trump representing himself in the Senate. I thought we were done with his particular anus-mouth batshittery.

    OTOH I’d be pretty awesome if the Dems kept him on the stand for 11 hours straight.

  20. 20.

    Anne Laurie

    @Baud: Mine is a minority view, but I think the main difference is that Dem normies are in a different place than they were in 2009, which allows leaders to act differently. It’s not “lessons” of Obama as much as the cultural experience since Obama that’s the difference.

    I, for one, agree with you!

    (With the addendum that Biden, as an older White man, can say & do things that a Black man like President Obama… could not.)

  22. 22.

    Amir Khalid

    @Redshift:

    Mind you, the legal team’s idea — arguing that trying an ex-President is unconstitutional — isn’t all that great. The Senate has already decided otherwise by majority vote.

    The impeachment trial is not really about whether Trump is guilty. It’s already known that he is. His incitements were livestreamed on YouTube; and video of the ensuing carnage, gleefully shot by the insurrectionists themselves, has been shown on social media and TV. It’s going to come down to whether Senate Republicans care to have their fingerprints on the sanction they know damn well he deserves — a ban on holding federal office.

    For what it’s worth, I think Trump must face criminal prosecution for the incitement, no matter the outcome of the impeachment trial.

  32. 32.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @Amir Khalid: It said if the UK joined the CPTPP, tariffs would be cut for UK industries including food and drink, and cars. For example, there would be no tariffs to export whisky to Malaysia and cars to Canada.

    When I was last in Malaysia, whiskey was not exactly priced to encourage consumption. I don’t see why they think removing tariffs is on the cards.

    The UK Tories are desperate for a deal, any deal, with anybody. However, there are limits, they’ve promised no chlorinated chicken. So I fully expect the next deal will be with the US for as much chlorinated chicken as they can spare, in exchange for the Crown jewels.

    The CPTPP was designed to be an anti-China trade bloc. Ask Australia how well that has worked out.

  33. 33.

    topclimber

    @Anne Laurie: You and the Venerable Baud have that right. And you have to wonder why Joe ran on the record of the Obama-Biden years if they were such a bust.

  35. 35.

    MagdaInBlack

    @OzarkHillbilly: Listening to the music of the spheres, no doubt. She’s an odd duck.

    Up since 2 nosing around the intertubes and watching it snow. We got a wee bit, here in Chicagoland.

  37. 37.

    Geminid

    @MagdaInBlack: A couple inches of snow have fallen here. The Shenandoah Valley is supposed to get 8-12″. On the east side of the Blue  Ridge we’re supposed to get 6-10. But it sounds like a lot more in the Northeast.

  38. 38.

    matt the somewhat reasonable

    Williamson is more interested in her portfolio than dead people is what I get from that one.

  39. 39.

    Dog Mom

    So what happens if Trump’s response is to stay down at Mar-a-lago, surround the place with supporters and spout his ‘defense’ to whatever media that will post his noise?

  40. 40.

    Spanky

    One wonders if Marianne put all her money in a hedge fund that’s now getting squeezed.

    Sad to think that “the most snow in two years” is 3″, but here we are. Only a dusting so far in Southern MD.

  41. 41.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Viva BrisVegas: According to the BBC, the short term benefits are minimal at best, but President  Biden has made noises that the US is interested in joining (It was originally an Obama admin idea).

    The British government is betting that the US do join, giving the UK tariff free access to the US.

  42. 42.

    Geminid

    @Dog Mom: trump could present no defense whatsover and still not be convicted. The required 17 Republican votes to convict are not there. The House prosecutors will lay out a good case, as they should, but Republican Senators will be listening with one ear while reviewing their five minute acquittal speeches.

  44. 44.

    prostratedragon

    @Sloane Ranger:  That’s the only rationale that might have something to say for it, but even with tariff-free prices  would we really take that much more than we do already? And with either that or import substitution there would be transport costs to figure in, unless they’re counting mostly on intangibles. (NB: We already get lotta tv over here and far as I know there are no content restrictions to be set aside.)

  46. 46.

    JoyceH

    @Arclite:

    Jesus, someone get Biden an N95 mask already.

    Was thinking something similar myself. His masks are too loose! (“Geez, there’s no pleasing you people, first you wanted a president who wore a mask, and now you’re complaining about the masks the president is wearing!”) Since I doubt he has a WH medical team that mainly gushes about how strong and fit and manly the president is, I wish the WH doc would give him a little guidance on mask wear.

    Of course, it’s not just Biden – all over the news I see people with masks that are WAY too loose, big old air gap at the top and always sliding down. Come on, people, we’re supposed to be upping our masking game – the variants are coming!

  48. 48.

    JoyceH

    @Geminid:

    trump could present no defense whatsover and still not be convicted. The required 17 Republican votes to convict are not there.

    Yeah, but we need to get those votes on the record so we can use it against them later.

  49. 49.

    Sloane Ranger

    @prostratedragon:

     

    That’s the only rationale that might have something to say for it, but even with tariff-free prices would we really take that much more than we do already?

    I don’t know how US consumers will react, but it’s an article of faith in some areas of business and government here in the UK that navigating US customs is time consuming and costly and tariffs increase prices leading to reduced demand.

  51. 51.

    Geminid

    @JoyceH: Yes, this trial is neccessary.The Democrats will present a powerful case, and Republican Senators will have to go on record as ignoring it.

  52. 52.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Jen Psaki saying at press conference yesterday that Biden economic team not addressing Robin Hood issue

    I watched the presser (Jen is must see tee vee), she never said that. She repeatedly referred to the SEC statement which signaled it’s going to investigate Robinhood.

    Moreover, normies don’t follow short selling or even hold significant stocks. 84% of the market is owned by the top 10%.

  53. 53.

    topclimber

    @Sloane Ranger: Is the Obama idea you refer to the Trans Pacific Partnership? With the arctic melting, Britain might actually have a shorter sea route to Asia now, so welcome aboard Boris!

  54. 54.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Dog Mom:

     

    So what happens if Trump’s response is to stay down at Mar-a-lago, surround the place with supporters and spout his ‘defense’ to whatever media that will post his noise?

    1.Republican Senators call for a further delay to the trial to allow Trump time to find replacement lawyers.

    2. Republican Senators go on talk shows, raise objections during the trial and vote to acquit on the basis that the trial was a sham because the accused was denied an opportunity to defend themselves.

  55. 55.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    lessons from the Obama years.

    The problem is there was only 56 Dems at the time (Franken was tied up in recounts, Kennedy and Byrd were sick, Arlen Spector hadn’t switched) The 56 included a bunch who were to the right of Manchin (Bayh, Landrieu, Lieberman, Baucus, Lincoln, Pryor, Ben Nelson, Conrad) to the point that there wasn’t 50 votes for a multi trillion dollar stimulus. Plus, because of “resentment” of Obama’s melanin and meteoric rise he wasn’t given the slack that Uncle Joe enjoys. I mean I saw Bernie on CNN on Thursday and he bent over backwards in praise of Joe, which he never did for Obama.

  56. 56.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Speaker 9: (27:11)
    On a lighter note, will he keep Donald Trump’s Air Force One color scheme change?

    Jen Psaki: (27:16)
    This is such a good question. I have not had the opportunity to dig into that today. Given the number of executive actions, orders, the inauguration, a few things happening. I will venture to get you an answer on that and maybe we can talk about it in here tomorrow.

    Justin: (39:19)
    I had a question on COVID, but I want to start with just some housekeeping from questions you had earlier in the week that you said you might circle back on. So I was wondering if-

    Jen Psaki: (39:27)
    The plane?

    Justin: (39:28)
    Sure. We can start there.

    Jen Psaki: (39:30)
    Oh, I was… Okay. On the plane, we are certainly aware of the White House Military unit’s proposal that has been submitted to them about reconsidering the color scheme of Air Force 1. I can confirm for you here, the president has not spent a moment thinking about the color scheme of Air Force 1 or anything in the House or any article of anything and no one is going to submit a decision memo to him on that particular topic, but certainly we’re aware of the proposal. And as there any updates, we’re happy to provide them to you.

    Speaker 13: (55:16)
    Can I ask what happened to the Churchill bust and what should be read about its removal from the oval office?

    Jen Psaki: (55:21)
    Oh, such an important question. It’s the plane of today. I will follow up on that. I don’t have… It is something that may certainly be existing in the complex, of course, I’m very familiar with the bust, but we will circle back with you if there’s more to update you on that.

    They’re more interested in petty gossip then actual issues.

  57. 57.

    Geminid

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: In 2011 Sanders appeared on Thom Hartman’s radio show and called for a primary challenge to Obama. Sanders himself was up for reelection the next year, so he wanted someone else to do the job. Nine years later this statement came flying around like a boomerang in the days before the 2020 South Carolina primary, when it was used to good effect in anti-Sanders radio ads.

  58. 58.

    Amir Khalid

    @Viva BrisVegas: ​
     

    For example, there would be no tariffs to export whisky to Malaysia and cars to Canada.

    Poorly chosen random examples. Like you say, Malaysia taxes the hell out of alcoholic beverages. And Britain’s carmaking industry is a shadow of what it was decades ago.

  59. 59.

    Baud

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    . I can confirm for you here, the president has not spent a moment thinking about the color scheme of Air Force 1 or anything in the House or any article of anything and no one is going to submit a decision memo to him on that particular topic, but certainly we’re aware of the proposal

     

    Hahahaha.

  66. 66.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Geminid: I am in coastal Connecticut, they keep upping the possible snowfall amounts. The local TV weather just hedged their bets and said between 3 and 12.. in n other words Who Knows??

  67. 67.

    Van Buren

    @SiubhanDuinne: I have a good friend who is a Public Defender. More specifically, he is a Law Guardian, which means he only represents juveniles. I think he may be the most qualified attorney in the nation to represent Trump.

  68. 68.

    Nicole

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    “Oh, such an important question; it’s the plane of today.”

    This is the advantage to having a Gen-Xer in the Press Secretary job.  We are the snark generation.   Well done, Ms. Psaki, handling some mind-bogglingly stupid questions with the respect they deserve.

  69. 69.

    satby

    @Baud: You might, possibly a fair chunk of America might, but I would alienate quite a few with my incivility while I ripped the deliberately stupid questioners new assholes.

  70. 70.

    PST

    When lawyers resign at the last minute like Trump”s have, my assumption is that the client insists that they take a position that includes false statements of fact or wants to testify falsely. You can lay down the law and tell the client that you won’t be a party to perjury, but that can be tough if the client is delusional and believes the lie or is a sociopath for whom truth has no meaning.

  71. 71.

    SFAW

    @Redshift:

    As I remarked the other day, part of the reason negotiation and compromise with current Republicans is impossible is that they don’t want anything that government can do, they just want Democrats to not get the things they want (Cleek’s law writ large.)

    I’d modify that slightly: they just want Democrats to not be able to do things the electorate wants done. [Because voters will eventually — in theory, at least — reward the Dems, and the Partei of Traitors will be swept aside. As I said, “in theory”; Rethug voters/supporters are staggeringly divorced from logic and cause-and-effect.]

    There’s no possibility of horse-trading with nihilists.

    Many years ago, a friend and I were watching some commercial, which started out with “The pessimist sees the glass as half-empty, the optimist sees the glass as half-full …” whereupon my friend chimed in “… and the nihilist wants to smash the fucking glass.” Seems spot-on for the Rethugs, and especially the Trumpists.

  72. 72.

    Geminid

    @geg6: Yesterday the Washington Post had a good article on the upcoming Senate trial. The expectation was that this trial would proceed more quickly than last year’s. This time the case against trump is straightforward, and lacks the many moving parts of the Ukraine affair. And the thinking is that neither side is interested in dragging it out this time.                                                                     I remember that last year, when Democratic efforts to call witnesses fell short, the Republicans hoped to finish with a final vote on a Saturday. Schumer and company used procedural roadblocks to delay the vote until the following Wednesday, the day after trump’s state of the union address. This time the parties may want to score their points and then wrap it up.

  74. 74.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: This is extra funny to me because Psaki was on NPR’s “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me!” show on Saturday (she was delightful), they asked her to demonstrate handling stupid questions, and the answer was just like that with the “I’ll circle back to you on that”.

    But she did say she actually does try to circle back later.

  76. 76.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Nicole: I applaud Ms. Psaki for not flat out calling the press corpse a bunch of idiots.

    Seriously?  Asking about the Air Force One color scheme?  I mean, really at any time, but now?

  78. 78.

    Geminid

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: 4″ of snow now in Amicus Va. The forecast is for snow on and off for two days, then clear,  cold and windy  on Tuesday. Fortunately my house is warm enough and I don’t need to go anywhere.

  79. 79.

    Ken

    @Geminid: I’m still hoping they call some witnesses.  Every one of the Capitol police that was injured, for starters, assuming they’ve been released from the hospital, and perhaps relatives of the murdered officer.

  80. 80.

    Ken

    @Sloane Ranger:I don’t know how US consumers will react, but it’s an article of faith in some areas of business and government here in the UK that navigating US customs is time consuming and costly and tariffs increase prices leading to reduced demand.

    So they’re hoping that reducing tariffs with a country 4000 miles away will offset the decision to opt-in to them for ones just 25 miles away?

  81. 81.

    wvng

    @Baud: yep. The “lessons from the Obama years” assumes facts not in evidence – that Obama and Biden didn’t fully understand what Republicans were doing back then. Of course they knew. They are very smart people. The political conditions were different then.

  83. 83.

    Ken

    Dead thread, but this from Cracked.com seems a good metaphor for the press / WH relationship:

    Suppose a month ago someone were to tap you on the shoulder and tell you that stock in Gamestop might change how America’s financial institutions operate forever….

    In that case, you’d probably tell that person to get the fuck away from you because “don’t you know we’re still in a pandemic, dammit!”

  84. 84.

    WaterGirl

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Exactly.  There is no guarantee that we will have the House and the Senate after Nov 2022.  With any luck, and hard work, we will.  But he basically has 2 years to things done, and it’s clear that Biden plans to do just that.

  85. 85.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I think it’s a mix of both.  Biden learned from watching the obstruction to Obama, and so did we.  Plus, as an older white male Biden has a lot more options than Obama did. Not to mention that if we let the Rs tie our hands, we lose the next elections and we lose our democracy.

    All are motivating, but none more motivating than the last.

  86. 86.

    Geminid

    @Ken: There will be good witnesses. And a top law firm is preparing video of the attack for the prosecution. Congressman Raskin and company will present a powerful case.

  87. 87.

    Anya

    @Baud: Exactly. I just hate this prevalent view that Obama years were wasted and ineffectual. Can we get a reality check on that? It’s okay to learn from past missteps but to paint the whole experience, unjustly,  as failed is unfair to Obama and his admin.  I feel like we’ve learned the wrong lesson from Trump’s belligerence and crude focus on ‘his supporters’. This is not something we want our side doing and I feel like that’s the stick some measure things now.

  89. 89.

    Anya

    @lgerard: That’s a name I haven’t heard in many years. I forgot about that train-wreck. I just googled her and she might be a good lawyer for Trump, although she doesn’t fully agree with him on the stolen election claim but apparently she’s suing to stop the second impeachment. Here’s a headline from News Week: Obama ‘Birther’ Conspiracy Theorist Orly Taitz Sues To Stop Second Impeachment Trial.

  90. 90.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @SFAW: The pessimist sees the glass as half-empty. The optimist sees the glass as half-full. The nihilist wants to smash the glass.

    And the engineer sees the glass as twice as big as it needs to be… :^p

  92. 92.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Ken:

     

    So they’re hoping that reducing tariffs with a country 4000 miles away will offset the decision to opt-in to them for ones just 25 miles away?

    They’d love to have tariff-free access to the EU but won’t sign up to the rules required to get it because it means, to quote the Brexiteer mantra, “giving up our national sovereignty.”

    The US is a large market, you speak English and there are already some UK companies who have outlets there.

  93. 93.

    Geminid

     

     

    @Anya: President Obama’s administration did important work combating climate change, from rooftop solar installations on military bases to it’s Clean Power Plan. In his March 2019 interview in the Journal of the Atomic Scientists, U. Mass. economist Robert Pollin  described Obama’s efforts as “Green New Deal 1.0.”

  94. 94.

    OldDave

    @Geminid: And a top law firm is preparing video of the attack for the prosecution.

    May the video include clips of Cruz and others egging them on.

  97. 97.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Their dependable minority of attention-seeking “Wild Guys”,

    Ya Ann, that really sums up the Right these days “look at me! look at me!”

Comments are closed.