Showing posts with label Washington Post. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Washington Post. Show all posts

Monday, June 04, 2018

It's dangerous to have courage in an age of cowards

Click to enlarge
 
Trumpism is an apocalypse, an unveiling and a revelation in the original Greek sense of the word.

What previously was hidden from many now is visible to all -- and the choice we face as Americans is crystal clear.

"Which side are you on, boys? Which side are you on?"

One of the vanishingly few pluses to this apocalypse is the revelation of true backbone, conviction and integrity among some Republicans and conservatives who previously were just seen as partisan warriors in the right-wing tribe. Michael Gerson is among this number.
 

'When the king is a liar, truth becomes treason.'
HE'S BEEN anti-Trump from the start, has been clear about why he's opposed Donald Trump and has, on principled grounds, cast himself out of his tribe because his tribe has shown itself to be massively intellectually and morally corrupt. And in this age where tribalism is all -- and you don't have to look far to see this; you're on social media, after all -- it is no small thing to stand alone, reviled to some extent by all sides.

If this all goes even more sideways than it already has, folks like Gerson will be among the first to be rounded up and thrown into the gulag. Remember that as you read this.

Friday, February 24, 2017

Sunday, October 09, 2016

The end of the GOP, explained in 2:03


In 1968, a certain experimenter -- let's call him Dr. Nixonstein -- began his efforts toward building a bigger and better Republican Party.

Nixonstein had early success in his project, which came to be known as the Southern Strategy after the main target for exponential growth, as he cobbled together a new party from what, at the time, seemed to be promising components.

But 48 years later, something happened. Let's call it The Disillusionment of Nixonstein's Monster.

And for the shocking play-by-play from Bumf***, Wisconsin, we take you to BuzzFeed News correspondent McKay Coppins:
ELKHORN, Wisconsin — In a jarring illustration of the chaos now engulfing the Republican Party, supporters of Donald Trump clashed bitterly with GOP leaders at a rally here Saturday — booing elected officials, heckling Paul Ryan, and angrily demanding greater establishment support for their beleaguered presidential nominee. 
The confrontations took place at Fall Fest, an annual party fundraising event held in Ryan’s Wisconsin congressional district. Trump had been scheduled to appear at the event in a show of GOP unity, but Ryan abruptly disinvited him Friday night after the Washington Post published a leaked 11-year-old video of the businessman lewdly bragging about groping women. Over the next 24 hours, a parade of high-profile Republicans condemned Trump, and several retracted their endorsements altogether, calling on the candidate to drop out of the race. 
As the program proceeded Saturday afternoon with politicians giving pro forma pep talks about the importance of voting in November, the audience in attendance — split between mainstream Republicans and rowdy Trump fans — shouted at the stage, and at each other.


OH, MY. We return you now to Bumf***, Wisconsin, for this breaking-news update and McKay Coppins:
When, early in the event’s program, Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel tried to address the recently leaked video that has sent Trump’s campaign into a tailspin, the crowd erupted in angry protest. 
“Get over it!” one heckler yelled. 
“Trump! Trump! Trump!” others chanted. 
Appearing taken aback by the reaction, Schimel made a brief nod toward support for the nominee — “Donald Trump will appoint judges that will defend our Constitution” — and then quickly changed the subject. 
Other elected officials became more combative with the audience. When Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner talked about how voters had been coming to the Fall Fest for years to support Ryan and other local Republicans, hecklers shouted, “Not anymore!” and, “I’m for Donald Trump!” 
“Why don’t you listen to what I have to say instead of interrupting me?” Sensenbrenner snapped. Soon, the 73-year-old congressman was in a shouting match with the Trump supporters in the crowd. “Listen to me, please,” he kept repeating, before ordering the audience to “clean up your act." 
By the time it was Ryan’s turn to speak, the mood had grown indisputably hostile. He took the stage to scattered boos, and shouts of, “What about Donald Trump?” and, “Shame on you!” 
“Look, let me just start out by saying: There’s a bit of an elephant in the room,” Ryan told the crowd. “And it’s a troubling situation … but that is not what we are here to talk about today. You know what we do here at Fall Fest? We talk about our ideas, we talk about our solutions, we talk about our conservative principles.” 
Trump supporters greeted the message with a chorus of boos and abuse. 
“Trump for president!” 
“Mention Trump!” 
“You turned your back on him!”

NOTE: Extremely NSFW. That's why the Donald is in such a jam
 
TAKING ITS LEAD from its brand-new lord and savior, Donald Trump, it would appear that the now-rogue Nixonstein's monster knows exactly where to grab the political party that gave it life.

Indeed. Sounds like a hell of a reality-TV series, doesn't it?

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Taking OWNership of exploitation


Oh, Lord, won't you find me a sibling to hawk?

A secret one is better, 'cause ratings do talk.

Worked hard all my lifetime to be a billionaire.

So Lord, won't you find me a sibling to hawk?


THAT'S ALL, everybody -- apart from the requisite apologies to the late Janis Joplin, et al -- because Lisa de Moraes pretty much has said all that needs to be said about Oprah Winfrey's "big secret" in The Washington Post:
Lest ratings lag this week, Oprah announced on her show Monday - after her triumphant visit to Australia - that she has a half sister she never knew about.

Modestly billing it as "the miracle of all miracles," Oprah Winfrey said that she learned last fall about Patricia, her half sister who was given up for adoption by their mother shortly after she was born in 1963. Oprah and Patricia met on Thanksgiving Day.

Winfrey was just 9 and living with her father when her mother gave birth to Patricia and gave her up for adoption. Oprah told her studio audience this on the show in its final season of making her queen of syndicated daytime talk TV.

Oprah said she never even knew her mother was pregnant.

Winfrey made "home video" of her first meeting with her half sister; she and partner Stedman Graham drove to Milwaukee to finally meet Patricia, she explained.

Well, that could not have worked out more neatly if one of the pair had been some kind of queen of daytime TV.

And speaking thereof, Winfrey told her audience that she chose to make the announcement herself - so that the media would not exploit it.

We'll give you a minute to savor that one.


(snip)


The "new" Patricia looked so much like Oprah's other, deceased half sister named Patricia that "it was 'a "Beloved" moment, if you know what that means - a daughter who comes back from the dead in the movie 'Beloved,' " Oprah explained.

A move that stars: Oprah Winfrey.

And which was produced by: Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah got choked up when she began to tell her studio audience about how this Patricia differs from the other Patricia, who, Oprah reminded the crowd, sold Oprah's teen-pregnancy story to a tabloid.

Oprah also got choked up as she told her studio audience how so many people have betrayed her since she became a celebrity, and that it really moved her that this Patricia kept the secret of her relationship to Oprah quiet all this time - until it best suited Oprah's final-season scheduling plans.
LISA DE MORAES, I bow down before thy truth-telling abilities. American TV viewers, meantime, are bowing down before something else entirely.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Giving the printer's devil his due


Yesterday, I noted the general lameness of Dana Milbank's Washington Post videos and the newspaper universe in general.

NONE OF THAT has changed. But to show that I'm not a total a****** -- a half-a******, perhaps, but not a total a****** -- I would like to point out something Milbank and the WaPo did right.

In fact, what they did was craft a funny response to the Internet tizzy touched off by his and Chris Cillizza's unfunny "Mad Bitch" episode of Mouthpiece Theater. Really . . . it made me chuckle.

But this is the newspaper industry we're talking about, so you know there's a "but" just around the corner. Or a "butt," as the case may be.

Well, the "butts" in charge of things at The Washington Post had this "but" in store (and, really, it was no surprise): They spiked Mouthpiece Theater just when it was starting to shows signs -- maybe -- of hitting its stride. Sigh.

It's too bad Rupert Murdoch isn't in charge there. He could have ordered up a couple of topless babes for the show and put the whole damn thing behind a for-pay firewall.

Oh, what a pity it is that nobody can figure out how to sell panicked flailing. That's the only going concern newspapers have left.

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

What makes dinosaurs laugh


This is choice.

Here's Dana Milbank of The Washington Freakin' Post -- you know, the guy who has a recurring role as The Washington Post's Dana Milbank on the cable-news "infotainment" lineup -- making fun of a well-to-do politician's attempts to act the part of The Regular Guy.

I am told this is supposed to be witty and amusing, not ironic and hypocritical.

Naturally, if you told the ever-so-in-touch people at the Post that Milbank's Washington Sketch videos were overbearingly self-conscious, lame and not amusing at all, they'd interrupt congratulating themselves for being so hip and "new media-y" to be quite shocked at your impertinence.

NOW, IF WITTY
and amusing it what you want, try this takedown of Milbank and the Post instead:



THAT WAS FUNNY. What it was sending up, on the other hand, was not:



I'VE WATCHED this twice now. I can see what they were going for, but . . . no. Does nothing for me.

This is the best the high-priced "talent" at The Washington Freakin' Post could come up with?

What?

Sorry. With which the high-priced "talent" at The Dratted Washington Post could come up.

Trust me on this one: If you're gonna get yourselves in trouble for something like this, make sure it's funny. Now imagine the allegedly lesser lights at (insert local rag here) trying to "do a Milbank" and get his or her own spot on CNN.

Oh, don't get me wrong. The talent is out there to pull it off. Increasingly, however, it doesn't reside in traditional media.

Some of it does, though. And by the time some ink-stained Steve Martin comes up with a killer script and rounds up a killer production crew to shoot it . . . they will send the concept and script into the Newspaper Bureaucracy Dull Machine, and it will emerge as
Two Mopes Doing an Impression of Mr. French Reading a Bedtime Story to Mrs. Beasley.

Which is about where newspapers are today -- 1967. Forty-something years out of date and flailing about in a failing bid for relevance.

Ask Dana Milbank.