Nancy Pelosi was calling Trump a fucking demon every day of 2016 while you and your friends gabbed about how he was outflanking Hillary. https://t.co/0WGM2ZTneW
— Let's not, Brandon (@agraybee) February 6, 2022
You know what I've never heard Nancy Pelosi say? "You have to admit, Trump is funny." The fact of the matter is the establishment gerontocracy saw this danger a mile away while the blue checks were praising Trump's pivots.
— Let's not, Brandon (@agraybee) February 6, 2022
Do I believe more can be and should be done – absolutely
Is it the medias fault that everything they do gets no attention and they cover every breath of republicans and parrot everything republicans say – yep
— Tyler Satchel Orden (@Tyorden) February 6, 2022
If you want a perfect example of why I cant stand the DO SOMETHING Brigade, here's Admiral Beutler cherry-picking a tweet of Pelosi as proof that the Dems are not taking the 'legitimate discourse' thing seriously, but here's 4 examples from before his tweet I found within a min. https://t.co/Xm4ls1sWcQ pic.twitter.com/6ZsJk5kOX0
— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) February 6, 2022
They all bleat on like they have the magic answer of the thing to do (SOMETHING!) but the Dems just won't do it because they're too old or out of touch, unlike us smart guys. It's just so obvious…to disagree with your genius means that you're a Dem bootlicker.
— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) February 6, 2022
democratic party leaders should write more tweets i will ignore and give more speeches i won’t listen to https://t.co/bP1776jeuj
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) February 6, 2022
if democrats want to stave off the republicans in the next two elections, they’re primarily going to have to convince people there’s a normal we will eventually get back to, and they have to keep the car sauce from getting too exponsive
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) February 6, 2022
also, this is like adam schiff’s whole, entire beat, and he’s not exactly a back bencher
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) February 6, 2022
Gin & Tonic
Cat got everybody’s tongue?
Chetan Murthy
I’m a little disappointed in Brian Beutler. He worked for Talking Points Memo: he knows the goddamn drill. Shouldn’t be pushing the Fascist line, the little worm.
West of the Rockies
Do the Peter Baker’s and Howard Kurtz’s of the world ever actually hear any of these complaints or are we all just singing to our own chorus here?
You see some move leftward (Rubin, Brooke, Frum), but I can’t think of any supposedly centrist, objective mainstreamer ever admit to their own incompetence.
geg6
I have not watched one minute of cable news since Biden finally got us out of Afghanistan. There are just less than a handful of faithful actors on all of the networks and even those minute few just squawk about the same shit with the same guests over and over and over and over. And the print press is only marginally better. It’s a bore. It doesn’t make one better informed. It’s all detrimental to the country. Our current media must die. It hasn’t been easy coming to this conclusion, being the daughter of a proud journalist, but I see no other option. Our Fourth Estate is broken beyond repair.
ETA: And we can’t fix the myriad of problems with our First, Second or Third Estates without a functioning Fourth Estate. So…in other words, we’re fucked.
mrmoshpotato
They all bleat on like they have the magic answer of the thing to do (SOMETHING!) but the Dems just won’t do it because they’re too old or out of touch, unlike us smart guys. It’s just so obvious…to disagree with your genius means that you’re a Dem bootlicker.— Centrism Fan Acct ? (@Wilson__Valdez) February 6, 2022
It would be nice if we could go back to 2016, throw all of the Dump-humping media into the Sun, and replace them with actual liberals.
But I doubt that’s the “do SOMETHING!” they had in mind.
Gin & Tonic
One would think the American media might take an interest in the government of a US state sponsoring the attempted overthrow of an ally’s government.
mrmoshpotato
@Gin & Tonic: Ken Paxton is a dumbfuck.
Say what? There is so much wrong with that sentence.
Can we throw Paxton and Shithead Ted over the 49th parallel and call it even?
ETA – and it’s great to see GoFundMe messing with Texas.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I was a Brian Beutler fan for a long time, but he’s gone full-metal Do Something! I’m glad people like the Grey Bee have long memories and can find all the history
Another Scott
@geg6: There are good people out there telling the real story. People that we would have had a terrible time finding 40 years ago.
Someone here pointed us to Folding Ideas a couple of weeks ago. His 2+ hour talk on NFTs (and Bitcoin and the housing bubble bursting and more) is absolutely brilliant. 4.4 million views and growing about 0.1 M/day.
About:
The information is out there. Like you, I don’t watch TV news (haven’t for years). Being active consumers of news is good for us, just like we’re better food shoppers when we do the work, and have friends that point us to good new sources.
Cheers,
Scott.
Sister Golden Bear
@Gin & Tonic: They haven’t bothered to take interest in U.S. states attempting the overthrow of our government, so why would they start now?
jackmac
Since it’s an open thread, allow me to heap praise on medical professionals in my suburban Chicago area who treated me for an extremely painful kidney stone twice in the same week. I had an episode on Monday and it subsided, leaving me hopeful that the stone had passed. No such luck. Pain roared back on Thursday and I went back to the ER for help and was admitted to a fairly crowded local hospital late Thursday night/early Friday morning. By 6:30 a.m. a urologist was in my room and amazingly scheduled same-day surgery. The procedure went without a hitch the stone was removed. I had to spend an extra night due to a complication but returned home on Saturday feeling relieved and pain-free. Throughout the experience — and all in the middle of still elevated COVID-19 case loads — physicians, nurses, caregivers and staffers all performed above and beyond the call of duty. They exhibited professionalism, courtesy and cheerfulness throughout and helped ease the worries of a patient (me) and my family. The hospital was essentially locked down except for patients and staff and no one moved anywhere without a mask and I felt well-protected from any COVID exposure (plus I’m triple-vaxxed). This is but a small example of the work of medical professionals have performed over the past two years throughout my region, state and the country. They are heroes.
Suzanne
See also in the Spotify thread: the Joe Rogan cohort is a slice of dudes who think they’re too smart to align fully with either major political party.
UGHHHHH.
The Democratic Party disappoints me on the regular, but I still give them time and money because I’m not a dumbass.
Another Scott
@jackmac: Thanks for the report.
You’re right – they are heroes.
Recovery quickly!
Cheers,
Scott.
zhena gogolia
@jackmac: I’m glad you’re doing so well! Kidney stones are horrible.
prostratedragon
Earlier this week I realized that “messaging” is my newest “slowly I turn” trigger word.
kindness
I have to believe that the MSM out there knows what is what but feels for the most part that they are being paid to lick their master’s boots just right. And they sure do a fine job licking those boots.
debbie
@Sister Golden Bear:
It was jarring to see the Confederate flag being waved in Ottawa. ?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
the weird thing about Do Something Twitter is the fantasy that The American People are simple but virtuous yeoman, just waiting for the Democrats to awaken their inner civics nerd! How can anyone believe that after the six plus years? Is it because they all grew up watching that Jimmy Smits (I think it was) speech from the Sorkin show that was supposed to make Bush-era Republicans collapse in a weeping heap of guilt and shame when their older bros posted it on their blogs?
Benw
@Sister Golden Bear: LOL
The (political) media really broke during the TFG years, but I was willing to cut them some slack assuming they were generally just people not able to cope with the sudden escalation of the open fascism and alterna-crazy from the Republican party. But, man, they have showed us their WHOLE ASS during Biden’s presidency.
Gin & Tonic
First headline on my Google News feed comes from NPR: “A Russian invasion of Ukraine could lead to mass causalities, officials say.”
Are there no proofreaders any more?
Benw
@jackmac: oh man, glad it went well. Kidney stones are the worst!
Scout211
@Gin & Tonic:
That’s an example of a very sad media trend: Headlines and “news” stories that are based on what “could” or “might” happen. How is speculation about things that could or might happen actually news? Sigh.
ETA: and no, there are no proofreaders. Spellcheck is the best they can do these days.
John Revolta
@geg6:
I try not to be surprised by any stupid thing that happens in America, esp. since TFG got elected, but last year I got caught again, twice………….once by the GOooPers going full vaccine denial and again by the entire MSM, including people presumably on our side turning en masse against Biden- first with his getting us out of Afghanistan and then by consistently refusing to report anything good at all that he was doing and basically ignoring the ratfucking the Repubs are working so hard at.
I ain’t saying we’re fucked, yet, but damn. We got our work cut out for us for real.
rikyrah
@jackmac:
??????
Lyrebird
Thank you AL for doing what you do!
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
All Democrats say this, though. All Democrats complain about how Democrats present/approach GOP scandals and they have complained about it for decades. It’s not “do something Twitter”. It is the most frequent complaint I hear, by a mile.
John Revolta
@Gin & Tonic: What annoys you more: the bad spelling or the mind-bending stupidity of the headline itself? I’m going with B).
Xantar
@Chetan Murthy:
I was about to say I remember his time at TPM and he was pretty solid. What happened to him?
Mai Naem mobile
Until last year when a coworker mentioned him, i just thought Joe Rogan was a 2020s version of Howard Stern. Just doing and saying stupid stuff to invite outrage etc. Today, I see RWingers on Twitter have decided the Joe Rogan takedown is not organic! Its planned by the Democrat establishment to thought police. These are the same fuckers who claimed teabaggers, death panels, Vince Foster, the Brooks Brothers riots and the death tax were organic. Let’s not forget the current school anti masking, anti vax garbage. Honestly, these guys can GFOADIAF.
sdhays
I think that a large percentage of what is considered “great messaging” on the part of Republicans is actually just the ability to get whatever they want repeated in all of the media. They have their shit-funnel megaphones which drive coverage in the “mainstream media”, and the mainstream media is pretty wired for Republicans anyway.
When you have all that infrastructure set up for you, your “messaging” can seem “brilliant” when it’s actually just in front of everybody all the time.
Messaging for Democrats is more “what can we put out there that might cut through the bullshit?” compared to the Republicans’ “what bullshit is everyone going to be subjected to this week?”.
Ksmiami
Shortcut- the GOP is the party of death. If you want to live, vote Democratic. Simple, deadpan and true
Aziz, light!
@Scout211: All future news copy will be written by auto correct.
Brachiator
@Ksmiami:
Paraphrasing Terminator 2, “Come with us Democrats if you want to live.”
dm
I think this collection of tweets just goes to show how stupid the hot takes are among the twits. A bunch of people who don’t know what they’re talking about, taking the worst possible mis-interpretation of what someone says.
Brian Beutler is an editor for Crooked Media for heaven’s sake. That first tweet “while you and your friends gabbed about how he was outflanking Hillary” — Beutler, or at least “his friends”, were working for the Obama Administration in 2016.
When Beutler says “hold daily press conferences”, etc., etc., it’s not empty “do something” — he’s talking about how to break through the media’s Republican-talking-points centric bubble. “If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.”
The media talk about the arm-wrestling about Build Back Better, but they don’t talk about what’s in it and what it will do for people and why voters should care about it — therefore, the Democrats have to.
I appreciate the work you put into this Anne, but Twitter punditry is a fucking waste of time.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
If your voters- not just “voters” but sort of your Party Faithful- say for 30 years that they think Democrats don’t effectively take advantage of existing GOP scandals Democrats can either completely dismiss that or ask “I wonder if we don’t effectively take advantage of existing GOP scandals to the extent that we perhaps could if we changed how we do that?” It’s not unimaginable, right, that that could actually be something that could be improved?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: really? meatspace normies tell you they’re outraged about trump scandals but Democrats don’t talk about them enough? We talk to very different people. Good news for Tim Ryan, I suppose.
@dm: “Crooked Media” didn’t exist in 2016, and I believe none of the founding O’Bros were still working for the White House by then, either. When people talk about Beutler’s friends, they’re talking about people like Ryan Lizza and Chris Hayes. All the lefties who, to varying degrees, could never quite reconcile themselves to That Woman.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
If Biden followed Beulter’s advice Buelter would start complaining about Biden was holding to many press conferences. These guys are just wannbe theater critics.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
No, not “Trump scandals”. It’s gone on much, much longer than “Trump scandals”. They don’t think Democrats are as effective as Republicans at both advancing Party positions and highlighting the failures of the other party. They’re not “normies” either. They’re really politically engaged. They’re just not constantly online. They watch cable news and broadcast news.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: I really have no idea what voters you’re talking about. Not the fucking foggiest. I see and hear people mad about Covid, gas prices, the failure of voting rights legislation, a few who apparently think Joe Biden ran on Warren’s platform (he didn’t, and that’s why he won, but that’s another discussion). I don’t hear a lot of people still insisting that if the Democrats had called witnesses in the second impeachment of Donald Trump– the second. fucking. impeachment. of Donald Trump, then… something. Mitch McConnell is an evil, soulless, unpatriotic fuck, but he’s very good at reading political landscapes, and he’s decided that January 6 is a second tier issue. He and Lindsey Graham and a bunch of the rest of them thought it was going to be politically toxic. You know who changed their minds: Voters. I hope those voters eventually prove them wrong, I really and most sincerely from the bottom of my black and shrunken fucking heart hope they do, but from Barack Obama to Hillary Clinton to Nancy Pelosi to Adam Schiff to Jamie Raskin to Bennie Thompson, I don’t blame Democrats if they don’t.
also: 30 years? Poppy’s pardon of Cap Weinberger? nobody gave a fuck. Newt Gingrich? had to literally screw himself out of office. Tom Delay and the Northern Marianas? Al Franken was outraged, me too. Don’t think it shifted many votes. Bitter and obsessive an old crank as I am, even I can’t summon the details of Ralph Reed and Jack Abramoff
Kay
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
But it’s not just “Biden” is it? The complaint isn’t “Joe Biden should do all this himself”. That’s how it’s sometimes portrayed, IMO in an effort to make it sound dumb and unreasonable, but that’s not actually what they’re saying.
Brian Beutler @brianbeutler
I so want a Democratic Party whose leaders will signal a five alarm fire, hold serial press conferences, stage a Biden appearance, etc to draw attention to and express disgust at this.
They’re not demanding a specific outcome– which really would be unreasonable- they’re demanding a specific effort. It could not work, obviously. It could not work 3 times and then work the 4th.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay:
two impeachments and a currently on-going investigation that has provided some (should-be) eye-popping scandals. The horses have been led to many different streams.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Democrats actually ran a very good campaign around Abramoff and the “culture of corruption” – they cleaned up on it.
2007, January after the 2006 election:
So they can do it. I’ve seen it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: I could swear there were one or two issues that loomed larger in the collective national imagination of 2006 than Jack Abramoff. Give me a few days, maybe they’ll come to me…
/Sarcasm off/ You genuinely believe that “serial press conferences” would do what two impeachment trials– two. fucking. impeachment. trials– did not? What the (I think) skilled leaking and media management of the 1/6 committee is not?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
as indicated above, Brian Beutler has a fairly significant media platform. He ought to be part of the solution to the problem his (mis)diagnoses. Granted, the reason his platform is prominent is his colleagues’ association with a (highly successful) politician whose strengths and skills are often ignored by those same colleagues, who in a sort of collective political/personal mid-life crisis got very distracted by the shiny-object politicians and policies that got crushed in actual elections by the one candidate who understood the strengths and skills of their mutual former boss, and sometimes seemed not even to notice those shiny objects.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think it’s a bad idea for a political party (the leaders therein) to insist that words and efforts at persuasion don’t matter, since that’s a good 75- 80% of what they do.
“None of it matters! It’s impossible!”
“Okay. You have this whole organization for what, again? To…draft legislation and executive orders?”
What’s the harm? They hold the press conferences and go out to shows or whatever and Biden makes an appearance. If nothing else it reaches the Democratic base, a group they absolutely need in a midterm. If it has any upside past that it’s all gravy.
It’s a huge part of the job.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: as usual, you and I are talking past each other. I look at everything the Democrats have done (repeating myself: two impeachments– there’s more, but that will do as shorthand) and are doing (the 1/6 commission), and marvel that it’s not more effective.
You, and Beutler, look at the same and say: Why don’t they do something!
Eyes of the beholders and all that
dm
Maybe he is. Just not on Twitter.
I think the post: “Hey, Brian, you complained, but it took me a minute to find four tweets that show you’re wrong.”
Tweets? Really? That’s how you organize?
And you know what, maybe those tweets said exactly what Beutler is calling for in a not-just-on-twitter context. One of those tweets was from Adam Schiff, who was talking to the Obama Bros just last week about this very issue.
Twitter is full of “read the headline but skip the story” hot takes.
Off twitter, I see suggestions like, “When they ask you a Republican-framed question, answer with a description of what’s in the bill for people.”
When Jen Psaki leaves the White House, I hope she holds seminars for Democratic politicians about how to answer stupid media questions in a way that helps get the message heard.
different-church-lady
“Here’s how I’d beat Tom Brady if I could play professional football” is a hell of a take.
sab
@Scout211: Spellcheck is so great because it accepts real words out of context. It might even have changed “casualties” to “causalities” just because.
dave319
@Gin & Tonic: “Does this real-life-state-AG-currently-under-indictment Ken Paxton’s latest fascist flail make Joe Biden look bad? No? Okay then. Nothing to see here. OON–Out Of Narrative.”
J R in WV
@John Revolta:
Guys, the word is spelled correctly, and is a tricky word. In this case it’s just the wrong word. Also no story hanging on a conditional like might, may, could, etc should even be considered for publication.
Little purple flying things MIGHT fly out of Trump at his next speech, unfortunately this is not likely enough to be a cutting edge news story until the film exists.