The most disconcerting element of the Sunday morning political talk shows was the persistent sound of sirens and shouting in the background of NBC's Meet The Press; I kept expecting police or soldiers or rioters to burst into the room, push Kristen Welker aside, make a hurried, largely incoherent announcement and fall back under fire. Didn't happen; moderator, guests and panelists alike all ignored it with the determination of the prospective heirs of a wealthy, elderly great-aunt pretending her dire flatulence isn't happening. I still don't know what the noise was about, though if I had to bet, I'd split my money between starvation in Gaza and general Presidential protests.
Kevin Hassett continues to toady and smirk; he behaves like a tween-age boy passing a set of silent-but-deadly farts and letting his rich great-aunt take the blame. Today, he thought he'd put one over by pointing at the normal review process for employment data as "evidence" of some sort of skullduggery. Nope, sorry, won't wash; it's routine, and the numbers come from scads of scribbling statisticians, not one (now-fired) appointee. It'll be interesting to see if they can find someone who can both understand the math and sugarcoat it for Presidential consumption. Hassett's glee is in part motivated by his sure and certain knowledge that he's playing to an audience of one, and he thinks he'll always be able to play that one like a cheap harmonica. ...It'll work until he blows it wrong.
Over on CBS, Doctor Oz showed up, trying to add a spoonful of sugar to the Medicaid cuts. It didn't go over nearly as well as any segment of his old TV show, and we know about the snake oil it peddled.
All of these people -- and many more, throughout the Trump administration -- got their jobs by coming across well on TV. Look, being on TV and not looking like a fool is a lot harder than it appears, but the only skill it proves is the skill of giving good television. A narcissist who can't find the off button for his TV -- and would not use it if he could -- in charge of Executive branch is filling it with people who have two main skills: A) Being on TV and B) Flattering the boss. And he's steadily dumping people who bring him inconvenient truths, especially if they're not telegenic. In the process, he's ascending a pyramid of fantasies, building it as he goes, a process that never ends well.
Update
8 months ago
12 comments:
I don't watch the morning shows, but these craven fools will see the quackish gaslighting EO's come back to bite them and theirs. Then watch them yip and yap Biden, Biden ,Biden, and demorats. The dead can't vote (yet) and red states stand to lose the most. The truth can be a harsh mistress and it will in a most painful way.
What I'm becoming uncomfortable with, is how fantasy is replacing reality and becoming not just a substitute but even what is comes first.. Fake it until you make it becomes just fake it, keep faking it and push that as real and marketable, proper and the only way to go. And plan on cashing out before the roof caves in. Worse, dream up some special cognoscenti moonbeam theory totally divorced from science that you are going to inflict on people
Musk with FSD/Autopilot, Kenneday with miasmic caused illness and swimming in raw sewage with your grandkids, Trump with his imaginary America with fiat job growth (no statistics and destroy the apparatus that used to tell you what was really happening), no emergency disaster response/management/forecasting (magic! disasters don't/can't happen), imaginary economic policies that are doing wonders, NOT. Gold leaf on everything, including reality. La-la-la, I can't hear you.
One must remember that Trump was philosophically spawned from various Toxic Positivism movements such as televangelist, ect.
To them, any criticism; any pointing out of potential problems is literally a temptation sent from Satan to get you to claim failure. One has to continue to claim success in the face of all evidence to show faith for it all to happen.
Hillary's "basket of deplorables" remark elected Trump.
Did it really?
I believe it gave the "deplorables" a rallying point that swung the election. They are now Trump's army.
So you’re saying “deplorables” are dumb enough to vote based on an out-of-context snippet and then look away while people like Dr. Oz and Jeanine Pirro get plum government gigs?
That’s pretty, um… well, deplorable.
I think the film "Network" provided a pretty plausible explanation for the observed behavior.
"That’s pretty, um… well, deplorable." Not so much as rather to be expected given the atmosphere at the time. Trump was a new, bright entrant and Hillary was part of the "old guard" trying to maintain power.
Is that horse not dead enough already? The smell is...well.
In politics, a lot of decisions have consequences long past the intended endpoint. The >perception< of a lot of voters is that the leadership of the Democratic Party is one of arrogance and contempt towards the interest of those not in defined boxes & categories with proscribed beliefs.
It is a perception that has spread to enough voters in the traditional Democratic base to give Trump a clear win in 2024.
And it's a perception that the Democratic Party has done a piss poor job of not only addressing, but even acknowledging. Insulting, demeaning, and shooting smug self-righteousness at those with that perception is a bit like trying to douse an oil fire with water.
Until the Democrats fix their own house and make themselves attractive to a majority of Americans, they are going to get razor thin margins of short termed victory at best. The strategy of Trump focus isn't going to work, and hasn't really worked for the past decade. Even General Haig got a clue after a couple of years.
"Is that horse not dead enough already?" It's your site. If you say it's dead, it's dead. ;-)
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