Professionalism and the triumph of surrender

American journalism is in crisis, under attack and literally shutting down across the vast news deserts of a country where citizens are no longer getting coverage that is sufficient to sustain democracy. So DC journalists have rallied after the #WHCD to condemn... a comedian.
— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) April 29, 2018

So today the fallout from the mean comedy lady's stand up routine at the White House Correspondents Dinner finds unconditional surrender from spineless professionals masquerading as journalists. Brother Charlie Pierce laid it out: 

Faced with an administration* and a president* dedicated to poisoning both the spirit and the institutions of free government, and faced with an administration* and a president* dedicated only to looting those institutions that it cannot destroy, the representatives of the elite political media, through the woman at the head of their formal association, Margaret Talev, have determined that bowing to the fauxtrage aimed at a comedian on behalf of the administration*’s paid liar is the proper way to respond to the weekend’s festivities. The commitment to a free press is not common to this nation’s people any more, if it ever was, and it damn sure doesn’t have any fans in this administration*. Anyone who thinks that “a vigorous and free press” and “honoring civility” are equally desirable goals doesn’t love the former enough to deserve the latter.

One does not even have to look at alt-twitter and the troll feeds to know that thin-skinned MAGA hats were and are continuing to screech about how horrible, partisan, and completely one-sided Wolf's monologue was... without having watched more than a few seconds of it. Seriously, she went on for almost twenty minutes and Huckleberry Sandbag (h/t Stephanie Miller) was only the butt of a few jokes. Wolf went after Congress, Roy Moore, Pussy Hats, Reince Priebus, "liberal media" orgasms over Russia, the Clinton campaign for "not being in touch with Michigan", and many more before ever getting to SHB. I'll admit that the jokes about lies turned into something called a "smokey eye" fell with kind of a thud, and not simply because the crowd suddenly clutched their pearls for dear life. They weren't that good, but how do you knock one out of the park about a woman who is paid out of our tax dollars to lie... constantly? Wolf then immediately turned to CNN and kicked them square in the nuts. Ed from Gin and Tacos, whom I have yet to discover an adequate nickname for (God Professor perhaps?) did however knock it out of the park with this one:

"All these guns can't protect my feelings" pic.twitter.com/WFbolkaQlq

— Ed Burmila (@gin_and_tacos) April 30, 2018

And this one:

24 hours in pic.twitter.com/wEN1DZMxOX

— Ed Burmila (@gin_and_tacos) April 30, 2018

 Let's keep in mind who the offended people are:

At what point will the professional journalist class realize they are in danger? The re-programmable meat-bags that have been conditioned all these years by Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and the entire wingnut propaganda complex aren't kidding. Charlie Pierce alluded to an earlier time when journalists were not afraid to take a stand against evil by quoting the radical abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison in defense of the First Amendment. In another time of repression and conspiracy Edward R. Murrow had the courage to stand up to the bully Joe McCarthy. Walter Cronkite was unafraid to speak out on the quagmire of Vietnam. Woodward and Bernstein followed the money to unravel Nixon's corruption and abuse of power.

But in this time of darkness... we have professional detachment decrying anything that "divides" Americans. America stands as a one party state in 2018, and that party hates anything that does not serve or flatter it. Now is the time to speak truth to that kakistocracy, now cower behind some ephemeral concept of "civility". Look at those pictures above again. Now add 62 million more. Do you honestly think they give a damn about your principles? Has the MAGA hat mob ever shown anything approaching "civility"?

I have been wrong all these years on two counts. This is not a war. A war is when two sides fight. Unilateral disarmament doesn't cut it either. Brother Charlie calls the statement by WHCA president Margaret Talev to be articles of surrender. I am not one to quibble with Brother Charlie's judgment but this event leads me to a conclusion that I dread. This is the second count.

Thomas Frank was right. It is not easy to swallow what tiny amount of pride I possess and go back on what I once stated, but there it is. The most obvious supporting evidence of Dr. Frank's thesis in Listen Liberal. Professionalism has hijacked liberalism. The values he laid out that are shared by professionals and establishment liberals, the examples he gave, the repercussions it has led to, and especially his tale of how the DC press corps finger-wagged the Democratic Party into abandoning the New Deal. I was in denial, well maybe not but I wasn't exactly open to the thesis. My tone did not appreciably change about the book from before to after the election (was stolen). But this was my hero talking and I was far beyond the young radical I once was. The guy who couldn't stand Al Gore in 2000 couldn't wait to get Hillary Clinton in office and get back to the real work.

The real work involves deprogramming enough of the meatbag republicans to defuse the overwhelming authoritarianism driving the republican party. The "professionals" in the WHCA have set that back considerably. First with the supine obeisance to corrupt liars. Now with throwing the entertainer that they invited to their own event under the bus for... words. "Fuck your feelings" has really come of age hasn't it?

Keep on fighting

It has been so long since I actually finished writing a post here that I cannot remember where to begin. So maybe I just need to stream my thoughts out for practice. Bob Cesca refers to this steady deluge as "The Fire Hose of News" where it just keeps coming, the porn stars, the graft, the shameless corruption, the firings, the provocations of foreign powers, the malice, the gun massacres, the abject cruelty towards their fellow Americans, and HOW IN THE FUCK CAN THIS VULGAR TALKING YAM ENJOY A 40% APPROVAL RATING FROM THE AUTHORITARIAN FOLLOWER MOUTH-BREATHING HYPOCRITES!!! They do not deserve to be called Americans anymore. The best case scenario is they become so embarrassed by their outspoken support of such a vile excuse for a human being and the entire party and ideology he adheres to that they just go away.

That is the takeaway from this national nightmare, no liberal should ever give the benefit of the doubt to anyone calling themselves a conservative or libertarian or even independent. Nothing they say should ever be given any credence, no concern trolling or whataboutism should be listened to by anyone. There has to be some kind of shorthand to address their lies so we don't waste time bailing out the ocean of MAGA hat malice, that never ending cacophony of bullshit and bad faith arguing that heretofore derails every attempt at serious discussion on any social media platform. I DON'T OWE YOU A DEBATE could be a start.

How accurate these proportions are is open to honest debate but one of those thirds is certainly aware of it. Which third are you in?

It must be said as well that the elite seem to believe that when the time comes, they will be able to point the dangerous third away from themselves. Or at least hire enough of them as guards to fulfill Jay Gould's infamous anecdote. One by one the fascists residing within America's borders will realize that their god emperor was always in it for himself. Then what?

I doubt the "alt-right" meatheads or the bitter old boomers will realize how deeply they have been conned by Republican politicians all of these years to become Democrats. And I am specifically referring to the Republican base, that frothing mass of racist hatred who really though that Doughface Donny was the one to bring about the final solution in America. It would look different than in Nazi Germany, but extremists are nothing if not full of big plans for the rest of us.

Thankfully, as David Neiwert likes to point out, right-wing extremists have a pronounced weakness in their ability to organize and work together. However, like all good authoritarian followers, they will fall in line behind the next tyrant to come along and promise them the moon.

So until next time, give their pathetic mewling no credence. You do not owe any right winger who is wasting your time with bullshit and bad faith arguing a debate. You do not owe any right wing authority figure any deference. And most of their power lay in intimidation and knowing that their cruelty and bigotry will not be questioned. Time to shatter that myth. As the Parkland kids are consistently showing. As Stormy Daniels is showing. And as Democrats are showing in special elections all around this republic.

There's no moral high ground in war

We cannot depend on Democrats to do the right thing, stand up for anyone, stand up to anyone, or fight... anything... ever. I'm so sick to hear that Democratic senators circled around Al and sacrificed him to the gods of the greatest suckers game in town. Meanwhile, an admitted sexual predator remains in the White House over the objections of a majority of voters and he fervently endorsed a highly possible pedophile for the senate. All the objections to those morally repugnant fascists may as well be a fart in a windstorm for all the good it has done and will do. However, Democrats are still capable of screwing up shooting fish in a barrel. Not all of them, and I'm pinning the blame on elected Democrats and the odd Democrat who actually gets on TV, but anyone who sees the war presently being waged on our system of self-government and the rule of law cannot seem to penetrate the zeitgeist of unilateral disarmament and leading with their faces.

It is already too late, anything that could be called "the moral high ground" is lost for the duration. The children of light never stood a chance in this kind of asymmetric warfare. They just kept on as though these disasters were just disagreements between honorable, patriotic citizens who all want the best for our Republic and simply had differing ideas of how to get there. Historians will puzzle over the exact point of tipping into fascism, Nixon? Reagan? Gingrich? Bush II? exactly as scholars of the Third Reich debate the inevitability of dictatorship and repression in Weimar Germany. But whatever rules American politics operated under during the liberal ascendancy between 1933-1981 began fraying and cracking long before Doughface Donny stuck his stubby little fingers into it.

The point is; we're still at war. The war for America's soul rages on. It didn't end in November of last year; nor did it end on January 20 of this year; or even when the death cult of human suffering literally rammed through their $6 trillion giveaway to the wealthy with $4.5 trillion in tax hikes for regular Americans. It won't end if Robert Mueller manages to frogmarch every liar and con artist out of the White House and Congress in shackles. It won't end if Doughface Donny manages to fire Mueller. I hate to play into a favorite right wing talking point they used to love but if the Democrats who forced Al Franken out were in charge when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, then the man in the high castle wouldn't be fiction.

World War II was a just war, unbelievable evil was aggressively conquering Europe and Asia, and any means to destroy it were justified. We don't like to talk about it but far before the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the Western Allies used vicious means to combat the evils of Nazism and militarist Japan. The bombing campaigns in both theatres and the submarine war in the Pacific were incredibly violent and unfair. And that was exactly the point, if you read St. Augustine's treatise on just war theory, any means that can end the conflict are fair. The world could not exist half-fascist and half-not, just as the United States cannot continue half-authoritarian and half-democratic. The authoritarians will fight until there is no resistance left, and then will manufacture new deviance to condemn.

People actually believe that throwing Franken to the wolves will defuse the issue of sexual harassment for Democrats, when the opposite is almost certainly going to happen. We will hear nonstop of how Al Franken was a monster and whataboutism with his name will deflect and blunt the impact of any half-assed Democratic attempt to paint the GOP as a party of pedophiles and sex predators. The truth doesn't matter, whoever yells the loudest and longest wins by simply confusing the issue. How many times was Hillary Clinton exonerated for each and every so-called scandal? Did the pit bull death cultists every let it go? How about, for example, Terri Schiavo? The real death cultists danced a jig on her brain dead body for how long and painted the Democrats as the "party of death" while grandstanding from the floor of Congress. Then when she finally was allowed to rest and the autopsy revealed that her brain really was mush, did any of the death cultists apologize? Sure, it was one minor aspect of the midterm elections that finally knocked the death cultists out of control. For all of four years.

Brother Charlie Pierce already did an excellent job showing how republicans crapped their cages while shrieking about a non-existent political rally at Paul Wellstone's funeral. The very event that got Al Franken into electoral politics to begin with. And now the death cult gets to claim one more victim, they must be rubbing shit in their hair with a determined glee at the fact that Democrats did the hit for them. And if a few of them go down in the mid terms this time around, so what? Some nice rich guy will hold out a chair for them at a cushy think tank if they were sufficiently pious to the cause of robbing America blind and sabotaging any attempts to protect the environment or peoples' lives.

Forget reason, forget logic, forget moral or ethical considerations, and above all forget about any conventional weapon penetrating the shield of tribalism and money that protects the death cult formerly known as the Republican Party. People may not directly die from torpedoes or incendiary bombs in this war being waged on your life in this country, but anyone not in the death cult had better abandon their outdated sense of moral high ground. This war requires a guerrilla mindset.

(Tax) Cuts the Throat of America

The occupying plutocracy finally scored their big "win" Friday night while most of it's subjects slept. The wavering senators showed their true loyalty to party (donors) and fell in line, despite the unpopularity of raising taxes on the supposed middle class that hasn't quite been finished off yet by republican scorched earth policy. The Orwellian "tax cuts and jobs act" that doughface Donny wanted to call the cut, cut, cut act because he's a fucking child, is effectively a tax hike for most Americans that will lead to an imposed recession and massive job losses. It has to be assumed that a majority of the re-programmable meat socks who voted for Donny and the death cult of human suffering will see their taxes go up as a result. As it must also be assumed that most of those meat socks will suffer from the next economic collapse and recession inflicted on Americans by the republicans and predatory capitalism they worship. The script is always the same, deficits are horrible under a Democratic administration but just fine and dandy under the leader of the death cult. What happens now?

How much do you have to hate the poor and how much do you have to love the leaders who push policies that make you poor to never learn the lesson? It goes without saying that many of the meat socks who voted to make a game show host president are old, even the baby boomers are old now. That means that those old people who lived through the stagflation of the '70s, the jobless recoveries, the recessions, the collapse of 2007-9, and every other structural setback that republicans have inflicted on the lives of everyday Americans, voted for their own assassins in spite of every possible good sense they possess. If ever there was a time to shun the morons who vote republican, this is it. They have earned every opprobrium I have ever heaved upon them, re-programmable meat socks, nazi sympathizers, authoritarian followers, willfully stupid, and completely anti-American if that word can possibly mean anything.

But this "fuck you peasant, starve " bill was the end that justified every means. Bush at least held out a crumb or two for the middle class by dropping the marginal rates while setting up the massive deficits, speculative bubbles, and cuts to government spending. This latest giveaway actually raises taxes on the middle class while ladling out the filthy lucre to corporations. Every supposed value the republican party had was stomped on, every supposed crime that republicans accused Barack Obama of was perpetrated by they themselves in the pursuit of these fucking tax cuts for the rich. No matter how much this monstrosity was kept secret, no matter how roughshod the bare republican majority rode over the opposition, and no matter how fast it was jammed through, the media will never let go of how Obama did the same thing with the ACA even though he didn't happen. This was literally voted on in the middle of the night with fucking hand-scrawled notes in the margins.

We are well and truly fucked. It doesn't matter if the blue wave actually occurs in the mid terms. It doesn't matter if doughface Donny and every one of his slimy cronies are frogmarched out in handcuffs. This hack and slash job on federal revenue will finally finish the apotheosis of corporations, permanently enshrine a lawless plutocracy, and render the sovereignty of the people through their government as meaningless. Those angry, racist baby boomers who voted for the game show host may not have to live through the coming dark ages but the rest of us may as well kiss civilization goodbye.

No, Al Franken shouldn't resign

Last year seemed to be marked by a flood of celebrities passing away early, this year seems to be marked by a flood of sexual harassment and abuse accusations. A few other important things happened too. Right now though I am specifically angry with a writer and online publication that I had always previously supported, Ben Cohen and The Daily Banter. He just posted an article calling for Senator Al Franken of Minnesota to resign in light of a second accusation that he touched a woman inappropriately. An accusation. So Franken has to go "because he is a serious liability for Democrats." Upon reading the headline, I immediately imagined the corpse of Chez Pazienza clawing out of his grave, shambling to Cohen's house, and kicking him square in the nuts.

This is part of the problem, Chez was something of the anchor of The Daily Banter who refused to submit to the politically correct flavor of the moment. His influence served as a restraining force on the other Banter members, now that he has passed away that restraint is gone. I'll throw out my entire bias list and let you decide how much it influences my thoughts here. Ben Cohen started the banter as an independent progressive news and analysis source, his own writing tends to be shorter, less insightful, and more to the point than any other writers I regularly read. As such, his opinion is not as well reasoned or supported and in calling for Senator Franken to be thrown under the bus he is just falling for the bait. If the right wing authoritarian media complex stumbles on this attack campaign and the oxygen is sucked out of it, we'll all look pretty silly for giving it any attention.

By jumping in full force like this and leaving no possibility of saving face in the light of further information, Cohen has exposed himself and the credibility of his business on a possible scandal du jour. Before the banter, before podcasts, before the progressive blogosphere congealed into a source of comfort and strength for liberals during the dark, dark days of the bush crime syndicate, there was Al Franken. His book Lies: And the lying liars who tell them was one of the first audiobooks I ever bought and it got me through many a night at my boring, repetitive job at the time. Then I got some of Franken's other books and started listening to his radio show on Air America.

The rules do not apply to republicans... at all. And for some reason, liberals want to apply them double to Democrats. An elected or even appointed Democrat has to be as pure as new fallen snow or they get the Hillary Clinton treatment. And what does Team Blue gain from constantly giving in to republican whining? Let's recall the case of Van Jones and Shirley Sherrod, two scalps claimed early on by the powerless and utterly discredited right wing at the time. The Obama administration gained absolutely nothing by throwing those two qualified officials under the bus and republicans were empowered by the administration's weakness.

Say Cohen gets his wish and Senator Franken does resign, does anyone really think that will end the "controversy"? No, "Al Franken" will be the screech of choice for any right wing authoritarian follower who is even asked about the potential "problematic" nature of claiming to be so "pro-family values" while supporting the pussy grabber in chief or the possible Senator pedophile from Alabama no matter how far Franken may go from public life. Just as Rod Blagojevich is the first and last word from republicans about Illinois and political corruption. Just as "Chicago" is synonymous with lawless immigrants and African-American violence while simultaneously a knee-jerk deflection about gun safety laws. Just as the "tax cuts will unleash growth" myth never dies, neither will any of these myths. The right wing noise machine penetrates and permeates all truth, bending it to its will. Without Senator Al Franken (who also has several female staffers swearing that he treats them will utmost respect) and other Democrats standing up to lawless authoritarianism, these women coming forward to accuse anyone of misconduct will find it "problematic" to do so in the future. 

Shame on you Ben Cohen for taking this reckless stand.

Don't get it done

"My donors are basically saying 'get it done or don't ever call me again."'

It is odd to hear such a blunt statement of truth from a member of the death cult of human suffering still strangely referred to as the "conservative" Republican Party. But Representative Chris Collins of New York made it nice and obvious who his master really is. A year into selling their souls to the orange carnival barker and his entourage of Russians and Nazis, thus abrogating any claim to patriotism or protection by the Constitution, what do the billionaires have to show for it? A stolen Supreme Court seat, poo flinging monkeys running the executive departments, and a crackdown on the cheap labor supply most of them count on to fuel their profits. The attacks on healthcare, education, and overall security and well being are simply problems for us mortals. As is the utter embarrassment of having a game show host as president and white supremacy somehow considered a viable option for public support. 

Tax cuts; the end all be all of our self-proclaimed masters. And if they don't get them they will let the rogue's gallery of manics, sycophants, and religious nuts they put in Congress whither away on their own merits. Which means, without a huge stream of "campaign donations" to misdirect, confuse, deflect, and simply overwhelm rational public debate; Republican members of Congress might have to answer actual questions from real journalists and constituents. Sure, there would still be the fine work they have done stifling democracy through suppressing the vote and gerrymandering their districts but without the carpet bombing of money it might be a fairer fight than these fucking cowards can handle. And the loss of all that advertising revenue for the networks might finally force the executives there to rethink their commitment to the "both sides do it" narrative that lets liars get away with it on TV constantly.

Might. Hope is a poor substitute for actual strategy but those of us out in the hinterlands of America without any real leverage over network corporate news need something to hang onto in this crazy time. What actually compels the news executives to run the same script day in and day out, "sure the republicans are traitorous liars who are driving the entire country off the cliff but here's some Democrat somewhere who may have worn the wrong color suit so both sides are just as bad." Driftglass always says that it's an act, news shows are a play put on to distract and confuse people who have little time and energy to commit to understanding the labyrinth of American politics. Pundit A represents this tribe, pundit B represents the other, and the moderator referees their arguing and yelling. Nothing is solved, nothing advances, and no matter what the liars win. So maybe, just maybe, if the republicans can't get the giant tax giveaway through congress for doughfacedonny's tiny fingers to sign, the billionaires really will close their checkbooks.

And that would probably be the most patriotic thing they've ever done. 

The Return of the Clean-Up Crew

Don't get me wrong, I'm ecstatic that Democrats won lots of seats and offices on Tuesday. I won't go so far as to claim that Democratic victories in New Jersey, Virginia, Washington, and elsewhere proves that the authoritarians do not have elections sewn up so tight with their anti-democratic restrictions and gerrymandering. Or that this means Russia has stopped monkeying with our elections. Or that republican ratfckers were unable to hack the system and rig the totals. For all we know this is part of the traitors' plan, letting the marlin run a bit before yanking it back in during the midterms. But now that the voters in those states have hired Democrats to run their governments it will be more difficult for the authoritarians to manipulate them. The coming months will be an interesting test case as to whether Democrats can actually make anything out of their wins.

Let's be honest, for the next generation at least, we will be digging out of the hole that the republicans dug and then pushed us into. The last three Democratic presidents were nothing but caretakers of tradition, attempting to hold up the banner of good government and trying to clean up the mess left behind by their republican predecessors. Jimmy Carter had to whether the storm of distrust in government left be Watergate and Nixon's crimes. Bill Clinton seemed like a new beginning as he was the first president elected after the Cold War supposedly ended, but he had to deal with the incredible abuses of power by the Reagan/Bush regime and by corporate America's smash and grab job done to the average citizen. In retrospect the Clinton administration, with its deal-making and appeasement of republican monsters and the monied elite didn't actually do that well. The go-go Nineties left out enough people that the professional ratfckers in the "conservative" movement were able get away with incredible cruelty while cheered on by the re-programmable meatbags who are just too fucking stupid to realize how much they were played for suckers. The republican party, reformed into a vicious machine loyal only to itself and the right-wing billionaires they work for, has no interest in what's best for America. They are the definition of Niebuhr's children of darkness, for they recognize no law that is not in their self-interest and the rest of us be damned.

After the lying and thievery was propelled to new heights along with the national debt during the George W. Bush years, with anyone who stood up for the constitution being attacked as disloyal traitors, you would think the next turn at bat would have found Democrats finally willing to lead with their chins and unilaterally disarm. But then Nancy Pelosi said impeachment was off the table when people mobilized enough to finally push Democrats into the majority and Democrats did nothing to counteract the brazen sedition and vandalism of the public sphere by right wing media and elected officials. Dubya left office, the only good thing he ever did, and left the country in ruins. Did republicans show any remorse for what they did? Of course not, they committed to obstructing Barack Obama's agenda at all costs. An agenda which basically consisted of cleaning up the mess their guy left and trying to help all the people who got run over by authoritarian cruelty and corporate abuse.

Was Tuesday the turning point? Where the people finally wake up that republicans are ruining their lives and they have to get involved, stay involved, and show up to vote each and every time? If we the people push enough Democrats into office, even if they won't fight for us, at least the bleeding could finally slow. It has to be us, the average citizens, who educate and help each other to push back. Authoritarianism and right wing extremism will never go away, even at the accelerated rate that boomer republicans are dying off, American citizens who believe in democracy and the rule of law have to show up and keep pushing it back into the shadows. If Tuesday was the turning point, I will be the first one to cheer and congratulate all of the hard-working volunteers who put in the time and effort to get republicans out of office. But what if it was just a psyche-out? If the authoritarian elite just let this one slip by so they can dash our hopes in the mid term elections with all of their voter suppression, gerrymandering, and gobs of money? Similarly, what if activists rest on their laurels and decide the average voters are stirred up enough to keep going? Or if those voters figure it's in the bag and they can stay home, "somebody else will take care of it."

Hillary Clinton's administration was supposed to be the one that finally allowed Democrats to stop being janitors and start making progress. It would have been the first time a Democratic administration succeeded another one since before the Civil War. We would finally see if all those horrible things Thomas Frank said about Democrats in Listen, Liberal were really true or if they would have the courage and confidence to tackle the big problems. The basic objective that Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. set out over seventy years ago still holds, liberalism must become and maintain itself as a "fighting faith". If we the voters show up and push Democrats to embrace that faith, find their backbones and challenge the right wing myth of submission, then it will be clean up crews no more. Eat my dust you authoritarian vandals!