The Morning Joe Rebuttal for July 14th, 2010
Observations:
1) I am unsure how I feel about the crew making a joke based on ‘crystal meth use by Midwestern housewives’. I mean, what do you think? On one hand, if it’s there to be a sobering challenge based on some known problem maybe there's merit. But if it’s a blind grenade toss by Mika, then isn’t it a ‘cling to your guns and religion’ type cast off?
Mika is known for sobering challenges on things like obesity and meaningless pop culture. It sort've fits, but I am just more convinced it was a blind toss, and that seems reckless.
Crystal Meth is an awful thing. People don’t understand that while Cocaine and Marijuana are significant components of the Mexican Drug war, Crystal Meth is the catalyst, and there likely would not have been a drug war if this particular drug had not been a destabilizing factor in the Mexican importer hierarchy. It’s as if we gave the drug lords something new that they could sell us, that they could make themselves.
If you want to make jokes about it, be sure you add it to your positive effect agenda and help fix the problems it’s causing us.
2) Am I the only person who thinks that Israel gets too much influence on the United States? I just can’t understand why the US falls into immediate groupthink whenever the subject comes up. Is it fear of seeming anti-semitic? There has to be a positive relationship with that country, but there does not have to be a normative relationship.
Israel is doing some awful stuff to people and running with the general expectation that they can partially hide behind their relationship with us when they need to get away with it. When we hold them accountable, suddenly it’s a game changer in elections. This concept that the Pennsylvania Senate race is affected is really troubling.
I would think that pro Israel voters in the US would want to see that country eventually stabilize in an equity based and sustainability based way, so they could visit more often. But if the agenda has to be a constant outward push and reconnaissance by fire, we have to have the ability to dissuade them from it.
3) It was a little embarrassing to watch every guest today remind the cast that the BP – Libya story was not some great expose', but something that was common knowledge when it happened 10 months ago.
The troubling thing about it is that it shows that the Morning Joe cast is seeking out things that they can influence. They had this bent to the pursuit of this story today that made the subscriber see they actually thought it was news they should be amplifying to see if they could elicit an effect.
I think Schumer was readdressing this because when he tried 10 months ago, no one listened, but now that BP owes us everything, he thought it a second opportunity to trot this request for remedy out again.
I agree with all the takes today that said this Libyan guy should be subject to rendition. But that Richard Haas is pretty sobering in his 'get over it, this too will pass' assessment, and that is the likely outcome.
4) Who still thinks Scarborough and Ratigan compliment each other? Doing the math, Ed Schulze, Chris Matthews, Dylan, and anyone else that has their own thing that didn’t come from Morning Joe (that excludes Lawrence and Chuck Todd), none of them can come on the show and not be mocked. Maybe we should add Mark Haines to that list.
It’s a problem. It was crazy watching the forced marriage of Joe and Chris on the election preview series last week. Matthews has something to prove whenever he get in a room with Scarborough. Scarborough doesn’t try very hard. Maybe he already knows the outcome and just plays under and checks his watch. He doesn’t need to interact with anyone if it’s not interesting to him.
He did that today with Dylan. Dylan does himself zero favors, it’s hard to listen to that guy. Don’t get me wrong, I would wear a “Ratigan” t-shirt if I could get away with it. I am completely in league with that guy’s sentiment. But his inability to get from point a to point b in the guest setting makes him an easy target. You know that guy is frustrated.
His detractors are thanking their lucky stars that he has yet to click in, because they know, one day Dylan will put it all together and be all those guys I mentioned yesterday, Warren, Taibbi, Taleb and all equipped with a Scarborough howitzer, making crooks duck everywhere.
I asked Scarborough politely 6 months ago to try and nurture that end result out of Dylan, he seems more pressed to keep him down, I wonder why that is?
That’s all for today, see you tomorrow.
Showing posts with label Chuck Schumer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chuck Schumer. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
We’re Number 1
The Morning Joe Rebuttal for June 7th, 2010
Observations:
1) Did Willie Geist get a new agent or something? Not only does he get 10 am to fly solo when America is actually out of bed, but on the Morning Joe show, apparently they let him ask questions and stuff. CAA, better known as the Goldman Sachs of the agency world, must somehow be involved.
Willie put his brand of “everyman wants to know” inquisition towards every single guest today, and while results were varied, I have to say Kurt Loder would’ve been proud. Geist may actually have a niche on the hard news side after all, asking the questions that the 18-30 demo needs to know, that get skipped over or sneered at by the main two chairs. I remember the old days with absolute remorse where Geist tried to drag Maxine Waters, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, and even Elizabeth Warren into his cesspool of features coverage, and am beyond thankful that those streams may never cross again.
2) Where is Red Adair? For those of you who don’t recall, we used to have a John Wayne-esque hero on oil disasters named Red Adair. Platform fires used to call this guy to come in like the cavalry and cap oil wells, even when they were generating 100 foot plumes of flame. It was this same conquering force that took to the fields of Kuwait subsequent to the first Iraq war.
Come to think of it, where are the Bush’s? George, W., and Jeb are all significant stakeholders and prizeholders from the Gulf and Texas oil riches.
Last week, Apple passed Microsoft for number 1, wait, that was for number 2. Who is number 1? Exxon Mobil is the largest company in the United States.
Ok, so BP is chairing our disaster and may be nationalized in the end. They are likely somewhere in the UK shredding documents and sending money to Switzerland and India as we speak. Their stock is plummeting, the truth about the scope of the disaster is now plain to see.
But there is something remarkably fishy about the lack of nationalization of the disaster. It appears to the viewer in an equally plain way that the Houston domestic oil technology mafia, the large domestic oil companies, and the well known oil barons of our time are letting this disaster stay contained with BP and Obama for each of their singular gains.
And yes, Obama is letting this happen. I mean its great to get to scapegoat a competitor for the disaster, great business move, only 11 men died and our entire eastern saltwater coast will be oil saturated. But hey, number 1 ain’t easy.
3) Senator Schumer came on the Morning Joe show today and willfully mislead a nation. Granted, this thought is not entirely my own, but the fact that we continue to get sold on “hopes and dreams” level legislation like derivatives reform, while we know the whisper plan is to declaw the financial reform package in conference is an apocalyptic omen for America.
All this doublespeak while appearing to speak lucidly is further to the process of ultimate disenfranchisement.
Joe Scarborough, who appears to be drifting microscopically left in time lapse, is generally credited for teaching the world the method where a Senator just wants to appear to have tried hard, but will make his ultimate transaction at the end, letting special interest prevail, for money. But Chuck Schumer takes this to a whole new level. He is a hit at parties, a wink and nod to be the next majority leader, got a 1600 on his SAT and is two pom-pom’s and a skirt short of making America believe their team is about to win.
Mika couldn’t get a question out, but I think her question was how is financial reform relevant if it doesn’t break up too big to fail, so it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. A journalist, a guy who knows he is watching a sleight of hand, an ad exec, and a rising star in the day talk field all conspired to let Chuck chuck the truth a safe distance down the road.
That’s all for today, see you tomorrow. No, really.
Observations:
1) Did Willie Geist get a new agent or something? Not only does he get 10 am to fly solo when America is actually out of bed, but on the Morning Joe show, apparently they let him ask questions and stuff. CAA, better known as the Goldman Sachs of the agency world, must somehow be involved.
Willie put his brand of “everyman wants to know” inquisition towards every single guest today, and while results were varied, I have to say Kurt Loder would’ve been proud. Geist may actually have a niche on the hard news side after all, asking the questions that the 18-30 demo needs to know, that get skipped over or sneered at by the main two chairs. I remember the old days with absolute remorse where Geist tried to drag Maxine Waters, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, and even Elizabeth Warren into his cesspool of features coverage, and am beyond thankful that those streams may never cross again.
2) Where is Red Adair? For those of you who don’t recall, we used to have a John Wayne-esque hero on oil disasters named Red Adair. Platform fires used to call this guy to come in like the cavalry and cap oil wells, even when they were generating 100 foot plumes of flame. It was this same conquering force that took to the fields of Kuwait subsequent to the first Iraq war.
Come to think of it, where are the Bush’s? George, W., and Jeb are all significant stakeholders and prizeholders from the Gulf and Texas oil riches.
Last week, Apple passed Microsoft for number 1, wait, that was for number 2. Who is number 1? Exxon Mobil is the largest company in the United States.
Ok, so BP is chairing our disaster and may be nationalized in the end. They are likely somewhere in the UK shredding documents and sending money to Switzerland and India as we speak. Their stock is plummeting, the truth about the scope of the disaster is now plain to see.
But there is something remarkably fishy about the lack of nationalization of the disaster. It appears to the viewer in an equally plain way that the Houston domestic oil technology mafia, the large domestic oil companies, and the well known oil barons of our time are letting this disaster stay contained with BP and Obama for each of their singular gains.
And yes, Obama is letting this happen. I mean its great to get to scapegoat a competitor for the disaster, great business move, only 11 men died and our entire eastern saltwater coast will be oil saturated. But hey, number 1 ain’t easy.
3) Senator Schumer came on the Morning Joe show today and willfully mislead a nation. Granted, this thought is not entirely my own, but the fact that we continue to get sold on “hopes and dreams” level legislation like derivatives reform, while we know the whisper plan is to declaw the financial reform package in conference is an apocalyptic omen for America.
All this doublespeak while appearing to speak lucidly is further to the process of ultimate disenfranchisement.
Joe Scarborough, who appears to be drifting microscopically left in time lapse, is generally credited for teaching the world the method where a Senator just wants to appear to have tried hard, but will make his ultimate transaction at the end, letting special interest prevail, for money. But Chuck Schumer takes this to a whole new level. He is a hit at parties, a wink and nod to be the next majority leader, got a 1600 on his SAT and is two pom-pom’s and a skirt short of making America believe their team is about to win.
Mika couldn’t get a question out, but I think her question was how is financial reform relevant if it doesn’t break up too big to fail, so it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. A journalist, a guy who knows he is watching a sleight of hand, an ad exec, and a rising star in the day talk field all conspired to let Chuck chuck the truth a safe distance down the road.
That’s all for today, see you tomorrow. No, really.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Morning Low
The Morning Joe Rebuttal for January 11th, 2010
Observations:
1) This is the very worst showing for Joe Scarborough since the show began. I agree often with the intellectual basis and strategy musings of Mr. Scarborough on Morning Joe and that continued even today. I was completely disappointed by his inability to control his petty glee. The quote “Negro Dialect” was uttered by JS 36 times. Again, I made that number up but stand by the larger point that his repetition was damaging to his long term credibility. Further, if you’re going to make a point of how destructive it is to give a peek at back room insight with a single contextually unclear quote…
… then you may not want to have a mock back room agreement with yourself, Andy Card, and Pat Buchanan where you wave an African-American genius like Jonathan Capehart off in a “let the men talk” manner, and then have a judge, jury, and executioner passage of judgment regardless of any of the other viewpoints that resultantly favors your minority standing as to what needs to prevail.
This is tantamount to protesting the murder of a single victim by murdering 36 more victims to show how bad murder is, then going to Simi Valley to find a jury of your peers.
2) But look, in that 36 repeat coda, the repeats fell off just enough in the second ninety minutes as the credible guests began lining up to try and repair context on your show. The shift moved to the book that appears to be a nuclear news generator. As a fan of what goes on behind the scenes, I’m riveted by all the stuff flying off of this phenomenon. John Heilemann and Mark Halperin make it clear that there is still a legion of background to learn as to how President Barack Obama happened. Is this a positively ending version of the Oliver Stone JFK style of event reading by either bugging or pretending to know what happened in the back room along the way?
I think the insinuation that Bill Clinton has a mistress while his wife is running for President, that he still thinks Barack Obama is an intern (the coffee quote has zero race in it, despite the shows mistaken consensus) is a news item that will have more legs going forward than anything else I've heard. The back room of the Democratic party definitely believed it, and thus shoved Hillary aside and made Barack president for the sake of the party’s survival. Wow.
3) We are going to have to examine the vacuum effect when a story like this grabs 99% of your three hours on the air. Howard Dean’s frustration was correct of intent but was useless in the face of the gravity of the Reid story. We saw Erin Burnett bumped, we saw health care shut out, we saw drone attacks uncovered, we saw the biggest story of the day, the bonus handout commencement, unmentioned. This country needs to hand out pitchforks and head to New York, yet the show followed the Harry Reid story exclusively like a trout after a spinner.
The bonus situation is so frustrating, because we are already saying a clawback 4-5 years in retroactive duration needs to occur, but we are allowing the another round of illegitimate redistribution of the nation’s wealth. The Wall Street firms are not just unapologetic, they are running around saying “get used to it”.
4) There is another darker examination of the Reid story that turns the Morning Joe show into a dupe. What if this is a Democratic back room strategy to make Harry Reid’s swan song be the health care vote, followed by a retirement, followed by Chuck Schumer as leader, followed by a healthier candidate showing themselves in Nevada that, like JS alluded to, had a Chris Dodd 'bad news on the singular issue made good news on five others' result. If Harry Reid’s goose is cooked prior to the story, what does the story accomplish that already wasn’t baked in? Mister X says follow the money.
This possibility means we are going to need Lawrence O’Donnell going forward, and without taking sides, if it's even questionable where Joe Scarborough’s work wound up today on the credibility map, shooting critics would be a major setback.
It’s just Monday people, take a breath and focus.
That’s all for today, see you tomorrow.
Observations:
1) This is the very worst showing for Joe Scarborough since the show began. I agree often with the intellectual basis and strategy musings of Mr. Scarborough on Morning Joe and that continued even today. I was completely disappointed by his inability to control his petty glee. The quote “Negro Dialect” was uttered by JS 36 times. Again, I made that number up but stand by the larger point that his repetition was damaging to his long term credibility. Further, if you’re going to make a point of how destructive it is to give a peek at back room insight with a single contextually unclear quote…
… then you may not want to have a mock back room agreement with yourself, Andy Card, and Pat Buchanan where you wave an African-American genius like Jonathan Capehart off in a “let the men talk” manner, and then have a judge, jury, and executioner passage of judgment regardless of any of the other viewpoints that resultantly favors your minority standing as to what needs to prevail.
This is tantamount to protesting the murder of a single victim by murdering 36 more victims to show how bad murder is, then going to Simi Valley to find a jury of your peers.
2) But look, in that 36 repeat coda, the repeats fell off just enough in the second ninety minutes as the credible guests began lining up to try and repair context on your show. The shift moved to the book that appears to be a nuclear news generator. As a fan of what goes on behind the scenes, I’m riveted by all the stuff flying off of this phenomenon. John Heilemann and Mark Halperin make it clear that there is still a legion of background to learn as to how President Barack Obama happened. Is this a positively ending version of the Oliver Stone JFK style of event reading by either bugging or pretending to know what happened in the back room along the way?
I think the insinuation that Bill Clinton has a mistress while his wife is running for President, that he still thinks Barack Obama is an intern (the coffee quote has zero race in it, despite the shows mistaken consensus) is a news item that will have more legs going forward than anything else I've heard. The back room of the Democratic party definitely believed it, and thus shoved Hillary aside and made Barack president for the sake of the party’s survival. Wow.
3) We are going to have to examine the vacuum effect when a story like this grabs 99% of your three hours on the air. Howard Dean’s frustration was correct of intent but was useless in the face of the gravity of the Reid story. We saw Erin Burnett bumped, we saw health care shut out, we saw drone attacks uncovered, we saw the biggest story of the day, the bonus handout commencement, unmentioned. This country needs to hand out pitchforks and head to New York, yet the show followed the Harry Reid story exclusively like a trout after a spinner.
The bonus situation is so frustrating, because we are already saying a clawback 4-5 years in retroactive duration needs to occur, but we are allowing the another round of illegitimate redistribution of the nation’s wealth. The Wall Street firms are not just unapologetic, they are running around saying “get used to it”.
4) There is another darker examination of the Reid story that turns the Morning Joe show into a dupe. What if this is a Democratic back room strategy to make Harry Reid’s swan song be the health care vote, followed by a retirement, followed by Chuck Schumer as leader, followed by a healthier candidate showing themselves in Nevada that, like JS alluded to, had a Chris Dodd 'bad news on the singular issue made good news on five others' result. If Harry Reid’s goose is cooked prior to the story, what does the story accomplish that already wasn’t baked in? Mister X says follow the money.
This possibility means we are going to need Lawrence O’Donnell going forward, and without taking sides, if it's even questionable where Joe Scarborough’s work wound up today on the credibility map, shooting critics would be a major setback.
It’s just Monday people, take a breath and focus.
That’s all for today, see you tomorrow.
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