Rampop II wrote:

Maybe he needs a reality TV show. 

And I thought I couldn't lose any more respect for MSNBC.  They'd love it.

Caught any of the Correspondants Dinner?  Trevor Noah was alright, but I just can't stand the pompous, self-absorbed ass-sniffery of the whole affair.  Now that Trump's out of office, I'm glad we can finally admit again that, yeah, actually the media is insufferably lame.

(Meanwhile, Jon Stewart is polishing his Mark Twain Humor Award.)

Last edited by Jinnistan (5/02/2022 10:21 pm)

I suppose there's some 'equal opportunity' justice in having Biden receive the contemptuous Janitor-In-Chief treatment that was inflicted on Obama.  Still, there is a familiar air to today's coverage to that of '09-'10 when people like Chuck Todd couldn't bear to point out to the American people that Obama was born in Hawaii without feeling compelled to both-sides with a "but why not release the birth certificate?" as if that were a reasonable expectation of the office (only to shrug over the more conventional disclosure of taxes not released by Trump).  In those days when the fugly mugs of Glenn Beck and Andrew Breitbart had an inordinate and disproportionate sway over the mainstream news cycle, and now today with Tucker Carlson telling us that the racist mass shootings are being caused by Biden declaring war on racism.  And no sane arbiter in sight, as the producers and editors are focused on likes and subscribes.

I admit, maybe the nadir of the "Blame Biden" currency is likely that doofus in Uvalde on Sunday, accosting the Bidens after leaving a church service commemorating the dead children of that city, yelling at Joe to "Do Something!" as if Biden wasn't responsible for the last assault weapon ban that someone or another refuses to bring up for a new vote.  Some other doofus in progressive media demanding that Biden issue an assault weapon ban by executive order, because, I assume, in addition to a generation's loss of proper civics education, some progressives are just hungry to eat another SCOTUS disappointment and lesson in futility.  And the irony to this is that this past week also saw Biden actually act on police reforms - why? - because Congress has drag-assed for two years to do what is constitutionally their responsibility to address.  So maybe it isn't too shocking that people also want Biden to unilaterally rewrite federal firearm legislation via executive fiat, because, lord knows, that could never blow up into ferocious right-wing propaganda going into the midterms.  Because a cowardly Congress (actually a very specific centrist slice) refuses to take the risks of that responsibility to do what's right and necessary.  Let Joe clean it up (and take the hits).

Another refrain that I've seen this week, specifically relating to voting on gun control legislation, is another "danger for Dems", suggesting that back in 2013, after the Sandy Hook shooting, that it was Dem's failure to pass meaningful gun control (with near universal Republican opposition) that led to voters making them "pay the price" in the disappointing 2014 midterms.  So....voters were so upset....at Dems...for overwhelmingly voting for but not passing gun control, due to Republican stonewalling on the bill....that the voters decided to then vote for these Republicans instead?  As payback?  We're expected to believe this?  This has been the prevailing mainstream narrative this week as Schumer is debating whether or not to force a vote on gun control that he already knows will fail?  Do you see the "why do you keep hitting yourself?" logic here?

I feel a little embarrassed now thinking that the baby formula thing was the worst attempt to blame Biden for something that is clearly outside of his control and authority.  What was I thinking?  I mean, it's still ridiculous, that Joe was going around formula factories spitting his old man bacteria into the vats to infect our most precious sucklings.  Maybe the FDA bureaucracy was too slow to act?  Absolutely the case, which was maybe also the case when the first reports of contamination occurred, in 2019, a year and a half before Biden took office.  Like the consolidated oligopoly of the formula market, this is a systemic problem that has been in the making for decades across administrations.

A common refrain in coverage (usually two or three paragraphs into an article) is that, for all practical purposes, the US president has no real ability to affect things like baby formula, gas prices, inflation, etc.  And these same articles will then assure that Biden will "take a black eye" on these issues because of the overall perception.  A perception, incidentally, that is formed, framed and reinforced by news media cycle narratives.  The narrative of "bad for Joe/Dems" is more saturated than the narrative over their "limited options".  Have Joe's economic policies caused or exacerbated inflation?  We may never know because very few of these policies have been signed into law.  Or, as the business pages tell us, the very potential of these policies (higher upper-end taxes, pro-union/higher wages, expanded social spending, green energy transition) is what is causing the financial and corporate actors in our economy to assume a defensive posture, a bear stance, by throttling supplies, limiting investment and funnelling profits into stock buybacks.  Biden has placed advisors and officials with real teeth throughout the FTC, SEC, CFPB, and even at the Federal Reserve (Lael Brainard), and has stepped up investment in IRS enforcement.  Inflationary policy appears more and more like economic warfare, much as the financial/corporate sector hobbled their cooperation with Obama during the early recession recovery until the 2010 midterm "correction".  I could probably quote Bezos here.  Whatever.  It looks to me like Wall Street got spooked after realizing how serious Biden's progressive economic agenda actually was.  But Biden may still have a chance to be beloved once his congressional majority has been castrated.

And on top of all of the other problems that Biden has unleashed upon us, he also had the gall to hypnotize Putin into throwing the Ukraine into that briar patch of popular resistance.  The noive.

Last edited by Jinnistan (5/31/2022 3:20 am)

I checked into the Sunday morning news shows, to get a pulse on the shape of general corporate news framing of the major stories this week.  Pretty standard playlist: Jan 6 hearings (adequete coverage but nothing special), gun violence, gas prices.

Those last two are skewed.  "Guns in America" from ABC, but no mention of this week's revelations from that weasel police chief from Uvalde, Pete Arredondo, who's been in hiding and not cooperating with authorities.  He's now saying that he had no idea who was in charge (he's the chief) and that he decided to leave his radio in his car because it might slow him down (it slowed down his ability to hear about those 911 calls from the kids in the classroom), and he pined poetic about trying to find the right key to open the locked classroom door even though it was the Border Patrol, not Uvalde police, who finally got the door open.  It seems like all of these networks are going out of their way to avoid talking about the massive failure of courage from these otherwise highly armed and armored police who were too chickenshit to save children.

But this is a thread for Biden.  On that note, let's talk about the gas.  Or rather let's talk about what none of these shows talked about relevant to that.  Not a single mention of this week's rollout of the White House's plan to invest in expanded electric vehicle infrastructure, which is about as much coverage as all of the other billions of dollars that Biden has laid out in his ambitious EV plan.  Instead, Pubs have picked up the ball to suggest that this is evidence that the high gas prices are a deliberate ploy by Biden, which would actually be pretty noble since it involves sacrificing the midterms and pretty much the rest of his first term's agenda in the process.  But, no, not a single mention of electric vehicles at all from our network news flagships this morning.

Not a single mention of this week's Summit of the Americas, or of Biden's signature accomplishment there, the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, an agreement signed by the majority of the hemisphere to manage migration, increase asylum access, guarantee employment and provide investments throughout Central America especially.  Not a word.  Not a wisp.  Probably not surprising that there was also not a single mention of the counterprogramming news to this Summit, which is the news that Nicaragua announced that they will be allowing the Russian military to stage training exercises on its territory.  What used to be called a 'significant development'.

Not a single mention of the Port of Los Angeles speech that I cited above, no clips, no quotes, and clearly no reference to the math that Biden laid out about profits and stocks.  Plenty of discussion of gas prices, no talk about what Biden said about Exxon's stock buybacks.  Now, you may be thinking, gee, only so much time, you have to prioritize these stories.  OK.  Both ABC and NBC managed to feature segments on the topic "Should Biden run in 2024?"  Let's consider this their passive-aggressive way of saying "no".

Rock wrote:

I haven't been following too closely, but everything that's been coming out about the police's handling of the situation has been deeply infuriating.

Just the worst.

Well, Reuters just published a somewhat lengthy article about Biden's strong message to oil companies... criticizing him for it.
...I think the author pens a fine false equivalence.

That story pairs nicely with this one:
 U.S. Senate's no. 2 Republican says gas tax holiday 'dead on arrival'

...Shill, Baby, Shill.


From the senator's wiki: "Thune is a fan of the bands Styx, Journey, Boston, and the Doobie Brothers."



I mean, the Doobies are cool, but I get the drift and definitely wouldn't want Thune near any jukeboxes. Cuz you know it only gets worse as the night goes on. Only so many beers before he starts playing Foreigner. Gets you in one of those "merry tall guy" headlocks going "DANANT–DAA!!! DANANT–DAA!!! DANANT–DAA!!! FEEL LIKE MAKIN LOVE!!!""  

Yet another Sunday morning gauge of the news.

Most outrageously, ABC reported on Friday's SCOTUS decision on rescinding the "Remain in Mexico" border policy but opening, with dramatic music, the Greg Abbott clip blaming Biden for the migrant deaths in San Antonio, tacitly legitimizing one of the more disgusting displays of political exploitation in our current era of Blame O'Biden.  What does one have to do with the other?  Simple, it burns hotter when you pour them together.  But rationally, it's complete nonsense to tie the tragedy as a result of Biden's policies.  This SCOTUS decision, unlike others, was a win for Biden, who's been trying to lift these restrictions since coming into office, only to be frustrated by Trump-appointed federal judges (just like Title 42).  Republicans like to blame Biden's "open borders" for encouraging human smuggling, but that's ludicrous.  If the borders were truly open, then migrants wouldn't be so desperate to get in bed with cartel smugglers in the first place.  Instead of blaming Trump's policies for enabling these smuggling networks, they'd rather blame Biden's inability (due to Trump judges) to reverse them, which is Gaslighting 101.  Good job, Martha Radditz.  You can tell by that tremor in her voice that she's scared to burn the dinner.  And this is all the more appalling to try to hold Biden's feet to the fire over the immigration issue when, as I mentioned earlier, ABC and Radditz completely ignored the Summit of the Americas a couple of weeks ago where Biden finalized an agreement on hemispheric cooperation on migration.  And for some reason all of that wasn't quite enough salt: "Why isn't Biden doing more about Uvalde?"  Pete Arredondo's name wasn't mentioned a single time. 

Interestingly, not a whole lot of in-depth discussion on the SCOTUS rulings themselves rather than the general air of anger that they've aroused.  Expectedly, the Dodds decision got the most attention, but even this was used against Biden, as Chuck Todd grilled Sec. Beccera over why Biden can't do anything about it.  More gaslighting, because Todd couldn't even mention the EPA decision which expressly places limits on sweeping executive action like exactly the kind of action Todd suggests Biden should do about protecting abortion acess.  Instead, as the Court said, it should be up to Congress to explicitly legislate these powers.  And instead of grilling Congresspeople about what actions they're prepared to take, Todd simply ran a reel of Congresspeople complaining about Biden not doing enough.  As much as I'd love to see one of these shows bring in Joe Manchin to force his hand on the filibuster, it looks like these shows are more interested in maintaining our current stalemate.  After all, they just paid for all of these fancy graphics for yet another whole 10 minute segment on "Should Biden Run In 2024", so you can't let that go to waste.

Jinnistan wrote:

Keeping tabs....

Monkeypox is Joe Biden's fault because he's not doing enough about it.  Brittany Griner is Joe Biden's fault because he's not doing enough to bring her home.  The Highland Park shooting is Joe Biden's fault because he hasn't done enough on gun control.  And obviously the abortion bans are Joe Biden's fault because he's not doing enough to stop them.

On the other hand, there's been a proportionate number of articles that seem to be saying something along the lines of "Will Hillary Clinton come to the rescue in 2024?"  Makes one stroke their chin.

Like some horrible movie hopefully no one would ever watch, we're going to end up with a Trump/Hilary rematch aren't we?


 

Jinnistan wrote:

Brittany Griner is Joe Biden's fault because he's not doing enough to bring her home.

I am really sick of this.  Not about having people raising awareness of Griner's plight, as she's clearly a victim of Putin's sick personal game of Stratego.  I'm getting sick of how people seem to be placing the onus of the blame onto Biden rather than, you know, the regime that's holding her hostage. 

Griner's coach, Vanessa Nygaard, puts it plainly, "If it was LeBron, he'd be home, right?  It’s a statement about the value of women. It’s a statement about the value of a black person. It’s a statement about the value of a gay person. All of those things. We know it, and so that’s what hurts a little more."  1st of all, there's probably a good reason why LeBron isn't moonlighting in a Russian summer league for extra cash.  (See Bill Burr's recent special for more on the WNBA double standard.)  And 2nd, I would agree that the Russian government doesn't place a lot of value on gay black women, except we all know that's not what Nygaard is saying here.  This is explictly an indictment of the values of the Biden administration, and this sentiment has been repeated by a number of those speaking on Griner's behalf.  Simply, Griner is not home yet because Biden, or the US government in general, does not care about gay black women.  Or as LeBron said, America does not "have her back" and maybe she's better off not coming home.  He apologized ($) but it's very telling that he would suggest that, like Snowden, Griner would be better off in a country that arrested her as a pawn of geopolitical leverage and which severely outlaws her homosexuality.  It's illustrative of a lot of the current political myopia of the Left.

At the recent ESPYs, most of the commentary on Griner was supportive of her first and foremost, but even then, occasionally, you might get some flaccid equivacation as with Megan Rapinoe's "Every time we say her name, it puts pressure on everyone, puts pressure on the administration, puts pressure on Russia."  Does she imagine that the Biden administration and Russia have an equal responsibility to respond to this pressure?  And what kind of pressure does she think she or ESPN have with Russia anyway?  Did they even show the ESPYs on Russian television?  It's stiking that people are complaining that Biden is being too accommodating to these regimes which are holding our citizens in prison, not aggressively utilizing his tools to get them home fast enough, but then offer such a useless, egregiously accommodating puff of bothsidesism ("everyone needs a timeout to think about what they've done").

I have to assume that folks like this aren't avid news consumers, or, like a lot of Americans, just consumers of the thinnest veneer of news.  I assume that they missed stories on how Biden has the most diverse administration in history, as well as the most diverse set of judicial nominees.  And they may have missed that Biden also has the first gay black woman as Press Secretary.  So let's end this bullshit about who he "values".

Also, I'm not sure if they've noticed, but Russia had just launched the only land invasion war in Europe since WWII at the time when they apprehended Giner.  Maybe not a coincidence.  Or at least I assume that this wasn't the first time that she flew on Russian planes with her vape pen.  She was targeted as an American who could be used as leverage in the ensuing massive sanctions being directed onto them for this international crime.  Russia is not going to give her up for cheap.  Try to understand that before barking about Biden's 'weakness'.  There's a lot of far less famous and far less useful unlawfully detained Americans in places like China, Venezuela, Iran, Myanmar, etc who aren't being given up for cheap either.  I don't know if that comes as a surprise to them or not.  Specifically, in Griner's case, she's fairly candidly being dangled for the release of Viktor Bout, a Russian arms trafficker convicted on terrorism charges.  The likely swap would not be anywhere close to proportionate for the respective crimes committed (considering the 'crime' of less than an ounce of cannabis oil in the first place).  Eventually, the swap (which I support) would have consequences far beyond Brittany Griner's career and personal safety, and I think that should be appreciated by anyone eager to weigh in on the subject.

Meanwhile, we also have Kai Li, a 60 year old American citizen and solar cell distributor who's not famous enough to get his name raised at gala awards shows, and who's been wrongfully imprisoned in China for 6 years (far past the point of counting 'nights') on trumped up charges which have been condemned by the UN as a violation of international law.  HIs detainment allows for one hour per week for exercise, and during his captivity he has suffered everything from the shingles to a stroke.  His family is understandably frustrated at the stalled progress of diplomacy, and continue to push the State Department for action and progress, but they refrained from exploiting his case for the sake of domestic identity politics.  Probably because the family is intimately familiar with exactly who they're dealing with.

And also meanwhile, LeBron James has made it clear that he's unwilling to criticize the government which forces children to involuntarily make his shoes.

On Meet The Press yesterday, Chuck Todd asked Nancy Mace, congresswoman from South Carolina, about Repubican plans to impeach Joe Biden after the midterms.  Mace said, yes, there's "pressure" on Republicans to support that action.  Chuck's follow-up question?  "Wow."  Nothing about why or how could there be.  Other than savage political gamesmanship.  But I suppose a network that has been broadly promoting Biden not to run in 2024 wouldn't be too interested in the inconvenient fact that there's no rational basis for his impeachment (other than "his son's a crackhead!"), just pop that corn and let's set the stage for the drama.  Nancy Mace did not, to her mild credit, say whether or not she would support the inevitable impeachment of Joe Biden, only to equivocate by saying that she had also not supported impeaching Trump for the more specific offences like extorting foreign allies and trying to overturn a democratic election.  So..., you know.  She's fair.