Making some sort of hero of Pence (after his tete-a-tete with Dan Quayle) for not submitting to the Insurrection plan is sickmaking. And as you say, clearly subjected a historical revision and outright falsification.
But this weak reed of GOP Probity is about all they got...
Nov 29, 2023·edited Nov 29, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso
Roy's bullshit detector has a CASE! Mine's just some in a crappy faux-leather plastic bag with a seam coming apart. I bet Roy's also has the silent vibrate mode. No wonder he's charging this obscene...uhm, overly, uhm...well, shit, this joint's practically free! How does he do it??!!
There are more than a few Democrats and liberals who really need to break their addiction to the idea there are Good Republicans who are just itching to come to the fore once the MAGA fever breaks. They need to get that monkey off their backs – there are no good Republicans.
I will add that while there are no good Republicans, there is a “good” Republican, in the sense of being an entertaining one. I speak of none other than George Santos. This guy fascinates me in the most horrific way. It’s like all the vice, venality, hypocrisy, and malice of the Republican Party has been distilled down in concentrated form into one buffoonish guy. I honestly hope Netflix options an Anna Delvey-type series about him, I would watch the hell out of it.
Sure the Pence stuff pinged the bullshit detector but the damn thing exploded when presented with Kevin McCarthy’s claim that Trump was so depressed after the election he stopped eating.
But seriously, who is the audience for the tender tale of a friendship so cherished it pained the Vice President of the United States to do his fucking job?
Nov 29, 2023·edited Nov 29, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso
Looks like the piece where I pull out the old tropes...
First, "liberal media" is a term coined by conservatives as a slur and not an accurate characterization. To the extent there's a basis to it, it worked off of Vietnam and Watergate coverage, both of which actually started off conservative enough but, in the case of Nam, the facts became too overwhelming for bullshit and the reporters' kids didn't want to get drafted, at least for the shit show in southeast Asia. Similarly, Watergate coverage was mild and deferential to Tricky Dick. What I can't recollect is the timing of the shift, whether it was before or after McGovern got the nomination and the writing appeared on the wall. Meanwhile, someone who was mad that Nixon didn't choose him to replace J Edgar and therefore found a reporter willing to push the leaks of an anonymous source -- a reporter with an alleged relationship to the IC. (If so, maybe having removed JFK from office, they believed they could do the same with with Nixon once he appeared to be a liability. This is, of course, all speculation.)
Did I say a very brief golden age of responsible political reporting, anomalous yet always trotted out by the media for marketing, and still by wing nuts who want to play the liberal media card.
Back to now: The media are dealing with the fact that their audiences are literally dying out It's not just Fox that has an audience full of dotards, so, you now, more than ever they pander to the audience. And the owners are fascists* so of course political reporting skews to the right or, rather, these days, the far right. (*I'm using a definition of capitalists opposed to democracy and have no issue with the government corrupted by other capitalists. The OG definition -- pretty much just Mussolini, maybe the Bolsheviks -- is much too narrow to have any, uh, value.)
So put it together, of course you have to get the both sides bullshit.
That said, it seems that the Times was *displeased* (h/t P Noonan by way of R Edroso) with Fulton County (GA) Inmate No. P01135809's** use of the word vermin and therefore might be moving towards covering the fucker somewhere in the range of a threat to the nation. (**H/t Bro. CB Pierce.)
BTW, if I'm correct, "Anyone can spot these absurdities; the only reason to pretend you don’t is if your livelihood depends on pretending you don’t see them..." is pushing 100, coined by Sinclair Lewis IIRC (and this I would not bet on). Instant update; can confirm I'm correct: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/30/salary/
As for Pence, please. He's a Republican. 'Nuff said.
Wait, was it Dan Quayle who reminded Pence what the Constitution requires or his Marine son? Or did he need multiple reminders because he couldn’t make up his mind? Or maybe Pence’s guardian angel came down to show him what the country would be like if he didn’t exist and it was all boarding houses and floozies and poverty and Mr. Trump owned everything and it was all shit and...oh, never mind, he wouldn’t care.
Excellent newsletter Roy. As Napoleon once said, “history is a series of lies; agreed upon!”
Unfortunately, it’s not the victors revising history, it’s the MSN that continually legitimizes the indefensible and absurd.
As far as Pence is concerned; he’s always been a halfwit at best, and a nitwit, always! We didn’t need to hear about the recent revisionist history regarding J6th. Pence, tied himself into a pretzel playing political jujitsu trying to appease the tangerine terrorist.
He flirted with suspending the electoral count; knew about, and partook in many of the insurgent meetings, and only changed his mind, after America’s 21st century political Einstein; Dan Quayle set him straight. Only to later learn that his marine son, also played a role in dismantling the insurgency.
Not to mention, it took Pence two years, a presidential run, and a book tour to finally come clean about the Trump administration. And guess what? When asked if he’d vote for Trump again, the poor man’s Bobby Knight was the first to raise his hand.
If there is any lesson to be learned; it’s that the Mango Mafia is bigger than any one man, including Trump himself. It’s a network of facetious fascists and authoritarian kleptocrats who will stop at nothing to inflict their parochial viewpoints on the rest of us.
You weren't the only one whose bullshit detector went wild. Evan Hurst at Wonkette said Pence's testimony was the worst Hallmark Christmas movie, and I just wanted to pay tribute to that. https://www.wonkette.com/p/mike-pence-testimony-to-jack-smith
I'm gonna stick up for lying as means of moral instruction (and a proud American tradition too!). See, this is like a fable, we learn that violently overthrowing the United States Government is wrong, through the words of fictional character Marine Son. Of course it's bullshit. but it's like those stories about Washington chopping down the cherry tree, or Lincoln walking five miles through the snow to return a borrowed book, why quibble about details like what's true or not when there are kids (and their parents too!) who have got an important moral lesson to learn?
For some reason I cannot explain my life has put in the company of an unfair number of folks who still support Trump. Not just at work. My bother-in-law told me the day after Thanksgiving as I was making breakfast for the family, he voted for Trump and will probably do so again, even though he does not believe, as some of my coworkers, the man is "anointed by God."
This is how far the swing from reality, largely because of the framing in the media, has taken us in our consideration of political norms. Now, I'm not saying I could not imagine these extremes. Certainly as parody and humor, these are no stretch. It's the fact I know persons who are dead serious about it.
And why have we arrived at this comedy sketch situation in our state of disunion? Because lots of people are alienated from our world, from their own lives, plain and simple. They don't know what's going on inside or outside themselves. Their identities are fabrications as faulty as the beliefs and truths they hold to be fragile but still hang onto firmly.
They have nothing else. They are truly lost souls. What they valued has betrayed them and proves every day more worthless, but they find no alternatives. They are like base runners caught in a pickle but they have chosen to run off into the outfield. There are no rules where survival is concerned!
Maybe it's time to put a big focus onto these professional whataboutismers and give THEM a drubbing. Could shaming an individual's (nonexistent) journalistic standards scare others straight? If it gets enough people's attention , maybe it could act as a deterrent to more of this kind of "reporting."
While it's important to not take the heat off the REAL nazis and autocrats, holding to account those who aid them through sheer ambition, laziness, and /or desire for clicks is a way to cut off one the main publicity tools the trumptards have.
Making some sort of hero of Pence (after his tete-a-tete with Dan Quayle) for not submitting to the Insurrection plan is sickmaking. And as you say, clearly subjected a historical revision and outright falsification.
But this weak reed of GOP Probity is about all they got...
Roy's bullshit detector has a CASE! Mine's just some in a crappy faux-leather plastic bag with a seam coming apart. I bet Roy's also has the silent vibrate mode. No wonder he's charging this obscene...uhm, overly, uhm...well, shit, this joint's practically free! How does he do it??!!
There are more than a few Democrats and liberals who really need to break their addiction to the idea there are Good Republicans who are just itching to come to the fore once the MAGA fever breaks. They need to get that monkey off their backs – there are no good Republicans.
I will add that while there are no good Republicans, there is a “good” Republican, in the sense of being an entertaining one. I speak of none other than George Santos. This guy fascinates me in the most horrific way. It’s like all the vice, venality, hypocrisy, and malice of the Republican Party has been distilled down in concentrated form into one buffoonish guy. I honestly hope Netflix options an Anna Delvey-type series about him, I would watch the hell out of it.
Sure the Pence stuff pinged the bullshit detector but the damn thing exploded when presented with Kevin McCarthy’s claim that Trump was so depressed after the election he stopped eating.
But seriously, who is the audience for the tender tale of a friendship so cherished it pained the Vice President of the United States to do his fucking job?
Looks like the piece where I pull out the old tropes...
First, "liberal media" is a term coined by conservatives as a slur and not an accurate characterization. To the extent there's a basis to it, it worked off of Vietnam and Watergate coverage, both of which actually started off conservative enough but, in the case of Nam, the facts became too overwhelming for bullshit and the reporters' kids didn't want to get drafted, at least for the shit show in southeast Asia. Similarly, Watergate coverage was mild and deferential to Tricky Dick. What I can't recollect is the timing of the shift, whether it was before or after McGovern got the nomination and the writing appeared on the wall. Meanwhile, someone who was mad that Nixon didn't choose him to replace J Edgar and therefore found a reporter willing to push the leaks of an anonymous source -- a reporter with an alleged relationship to the IC. (If so, maybe having removed JFK from office, they believed they could do the same with with Nixon once he appeared to be a liability. This is, of course, all speculation.)
Did I say a very brief golden age of responsible political reporting, anomalous yet always trotted out by the media for marketing, and still by wing nuts who want to play the liberal media card.
Back to now: The media are dealing with the fact that their audiences are literally dying out It's not just Fox that has an audience full of dotards, so, you now, more than ever they pander to the audience. And the owners are fascists* so of course political reporting skews to the right or, rather, these days, the far right. (*I'm using a definition of capitalists opposed to democracy and have no issue with the government corrupted by other capitalists. The OG definition -- pretty much just Mussolini, maybe the Bolsheviks -- is much too narrow to have any, uh, value.)
So put it together, of course you have to get the both sides bullshit.
That said, it seems that the Times was *displeased* (h/t P Noonan by way of R Edroso) with Fulton County (GA) Inmate No. P01135809's** use of the word vermin and therefore might be moving towards covering the fucker somewhere in the range of a threat to the nation. (**H/t Bro. CB Pierce.)
BTW, if I'm correct, "Anyone can spot these absurdities; the only reason to pretend you don’t is if your livelihood depends on pretending you don’t see them..." is pushing 100, coined by Sinclair Lewis IIRC (and this I would not bet on). Instant update; can confirm I'm correct: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/30/salary/
As for Pence, please. He's a Republican. 'Nuff said.
Wait, was it Dan Quayle who reminded Pence what the Constitution requires or his Marine son? Or did he need multiple reminders because he couldn’t make up his mind? Or maybe Pence’s guardian angel came down to show him what the country would be like if he didn’t exist and it was all boarding houses and floozies and poverty and Mr. Trump owned everything and it was all shit and...oh, never mind, he wouldn’t care.
Excellent newsletter Roy. As Napoleon once said, “history is a series of lies; agreed upon!”
Unfortunately, it’s not the victors revising history, it’s the MSN that continually legitimizes the indefensible and absurd.
As far as Pence is concerned; he’s always been a halfwit at best, and a nitwit, always! We didn’t need to hear about the recent revisionist history regarding J6th. Pence, tied himself into a pretzel playing political jujitsu trying to appease the tangerine terrorist.
He flirted with suspending the electoral count; knew about, and partook in many of the insurgent meetings, and only changed his mind, after America’s 21st century political Einstein; Dan Quayle set him straight. Only to later learn that his marine son, also played a role in dismantling the insurgency.
Not to mention, it took Pence two years, a presidential run, and a book tour to finally come clean about the Trump administration. And guess what? When asked if he’d vote for Trump again, the poor man’s Bobby Knight was the first to raise his hand.
If there is any lesson to be learned; it’s that the Mango Mafia is bigger than any one man, including Trump himself. It’s a network of facetious fascists and authoritarian kleptocrats who will stop at nothing to inflict their parochial viewpoints on the rest of us.
"fancy-pants J-school dipshits who have been trained to overcome the gag reflex a normal person would experience when dealing with them;"
That's the good stuff right there!
It's not just the fancy pants J - schools.
It's the unpaid internships that guarantee Big Media is Nepo Baby Central.
Good article!
You weren't the only one whose bullshit detector went wild. Evan Hurst at Wonkette said Pence's testimony was the worst Hallmark Christmas movie, and I just wanted to pay tribute to that. https://www.wonkette.com/p/mike-pence-testimony-to-jack-smith
I'm gonna stick up for lying as means of moral instruction (and a proud American tradition too!). See, this is like a fable, we learn that violently overthrowing the United States Government is wrong, through the words of fictional character Marine Son. Of course it's bullshit. but it's like those stories about Washington chopping down the cherry tree, or Lincoln walking five miles through the snow to return a borrowed book, why quibble about details like what's true or not when there are kids (and their parents too!) who have got an important moral lesson to learn?
For some reason I cannot explain my life has put in the company of an unfair number of folks who still support Trump. Not just at work. My bother-in-law told me the day after Thanksgiving as I was making breakfast for the family, he voted for Trump and will probably do so again, even though he does not believe, as some of my coworkers, the man is "anointed by God."
This is how far the swing from reality, largely because of the framing in the media, has taken us in our consideration of political norms. Now, I'm not saying I could not imagine these extremes. Certainly as parody and humor, these are no stretch. It's the fact I know persons who are dead serious about it.
And why have we arrived at this comedy sketch situation in our state of disunion? Because lots of people are alienated from our world, from their own lives, plain and simple. They don't know what's going on inside or outside themselves. Their identities are fabrications as faulty as the beliefs and truths they hold to be fragile but still hang onto firmly.
They have nothing else. They are truly lost souls. What they valued has betrayed them and proves every day more worthless, but they find no alternatives. They are like base runners caught in a pickle but they have chosen to run off into the outfield. There are no rules where survival is concerned!
But who's covering the bases anyway?
American Snipe Hunt.
BTW, A.R. Moxon has a parody out of that WaPo editorial you mentioned, and it's freakin' hilarious.
If it'll make the MAGA guys feel any better, I can attest that I won't sleep with liberal guys either. That's just how being a lesbian works 🤣
Maybe it's time to put a big focus onto these professional whataboutismers and give THEM a drubbing. Could shaming an individual's (nonexistent) journalistic standards scare others straight? If it gets enough people's attention , maybe it could act as a deterrent to more of this kind of "reporting."
While it's important to not take the heat off the REAL nazis and autocrats, holding to account those who aid them through sheer ambition, laziness, and /or desire for clicks is a way to cut off one the main publicity tools the trumptards have.