Ed O'Keefe put himself in contention for the 2021 "Chucky" (named in honor of Chuck Todd to commemorate the dumbest question ever asked in the White House) with his demand to know if Joe Biden would guarantee timely delivery of Christmas gifts. I'm sure Jen Psaki's thought bubble went like this: "And I thought Doocy was the biggest dope in the gaggle."
Hard to believe O'Keefe actually thought of that question ahead of time. It was so first-world moron of him. In the midst of a pandemic he asks a question that reflects the shallowness and narcissism of the richest country in the world, or at least of O'Keefe himself. What a faux pas that question was.
Using the ‘lack of goods on shelves’ fantasy as a crisis only goes to show how entitled msm makes out the America people to be. NO PRESENTS? Lord forbid if we currently lived through and had to sacrifice during WWII, or back in the Vietnam era when we had a DRAFT 😱. The triviality is a travesty, and the narrative this meme produces sticks in the public consciousness.
I thought it was good seeing the level of involvement on this site, from about 40 comments per post to routinely around 100 comments. In checking out some of the old stories, looking back, it's funny seeing the number of "crisis for Biden's presidency" stories pushed by the media, so many, lost track of about a dozen of those stories.
One funny story, remember the "Biden wears a Rolex, oh no, how can he bond with the middle class" crisis. The press has attacked this administration no matter how absurd the story.
Think the press in general has had a hard time keeping up with this administration, and how Biden's administration doesn't let the press dictate the timelines or policies. Some story will come out how Biden is unprepared for some crisis, then the administration releases a well thought out policy that was being set up to handle that crisis, that they had clearly been working on for some time. Problem solved or addressed Causing the press to move to the next crisis. This administration may be one of the most qualified that we've had in some time, and the press just can't deal with it.
It's exactly what everybody wanted, or at least the voters did. Competence, an experienced politician who knew the ropes instead of an idiot talk show host who couldn't even make a casino profitable. But the press got bored. They missed the tweets and the extremism.
Of the last 4 Republican presidents only George HW Bush had the experience and qualifications to be the leader of the free world. Reagan made it OK for actors; W Bush made it OK for "affable but incompetent," and Trump showed it was OK for a reality show grifter who had neither the temperament nor the intelligence to serve. What do the 3 boobs have in common: they were loved by the media.
Ironically, Bush I was the last one actually qualified for the job. Ronnie had been governor, and president of SAG. Bush II was a party boy who came from a life of privilege, hardly the realistic choice, and he was almost as dumb as Trump, who is the gold standard of stupid.
Of course it's easier and more fun to report on Bushisms and illiterate tweets, and the stories wrote themselves. Now we have a real president again, yet we don't get real coverage. And the misogyny towards Kamala Harris is so thick that you can cut it with a knife.
Please read this article from Eric Boehlert at Press Run and share it. Maybe we as just regular people can start a groundswell movement to make the press print the great news about what is happening in this country! Share all the good news you find!
Maybe you could do the same, and we could begin to make a difference...
Right! And where are all the inflation articles now? What about the Afghanistan debacle? Not in the news either. Don't forget the rising gas prices! Oh wait, those are coming down now. The press is like Wile. E. Coyote, constantly ordering a new booby trap from ACME only to have it foiled by Road Runner Joe Biden. If the MSM truly wanted a better nation, they would be touting the first year accomplishments of one of the most effective Presidents the country has ever had. Instead, they long for the insanity de jour of the Trump era for their selfish ratings and clicks. How friggin' sad it all is.
Oops. Wait a second; Richard Engel still reporting on miseries we left behind in Afghanistan and giving a parting shot at the administration for the way the evacuation was managed. Of course it’s awful and war is horrible and I get his advocacy as he he’s been reporting from there for 20 years, but CALL it advocacy, not news. It’s as tho the msm has run out of crises to write about, so they conjure up a new republican themed crisis of the day.
It's not only the MSM. Robert Reich has a blog here on Substack, and he seems to have bought into the doom and gloom narrative. His most recent column was about celebrating the holidays despite our "distress," and I gave him a small response. "I'm not distressed, I'm hopeful. Aren't you paying attention?" I sign up, I cancel and I sign up again. I dumped Michael Moore after a month - it's a cult of personality - the only blog I have read consistently is Eric's. He is a thinker.
His doom & gloom is usually focused on the possibility of the Dems losing the midterms next year if they don't pass important legislation like protecting voting rights & Build Back Better. I understand his fears & anxieties since the Republicans have become the anti-progress for all party.
Whether it's Reich or Dionne or Alter or any number of columnists/observers, the focus is almost exclusively on the Dems—what they are doing, what they aren't doing. Instead, they should turn the magnifying glass where it should be focused—on the GOP. I'm not saying gloss over issues on this side of the aisle, but when the focus is constantly on the Dems—and plural, generalized Dems rather than the problem few—it feeds into the whole "Dems disorganized/suck/stupid" theme.
One of the reasons the GOP is so successful is because they don't do circular firing squads. Ever. Worried about the midterms? Turn the focus from "if Dems don't pass" to focusing on what has already passed, what it means and how more legislation builds on this. Save the doom and gloom for the GOP where it rightly belongs—like stories on just what a GOP takeover means and hammer it over and over again instead of "if BBB or VRA don't pass we're doomed." We are our own worst enemies sometimes.
Another thing - the GOP never, ever turn on each other, which is why Liz Cheney will eventually be voted out of office. Trump demands loyalty and so does the party. On the other hand, both the press and the columnists seem to focus on the "Dems in Disarray" narrative, lamenting about how they fail and how they "squabble." Perhaps the Democrats should start listening more and "infighting" less.
It's not just the columnists; it's some of the politicians and many of the voters on this side of the aisle. HRC lost in 16 because of the stay at homes and third party voters. We lose the midterms and off year elections, with few exceptions, because voters on our side can't get off their butts and vote. Hearing progressives on social media claim Biden "has done nothing" and threaten to stay home again in 22 is maddening.
I like him, but I wish he would read Eric Boehlert and some other stuff that would give him a more realistic perspective because he relies too much on the media. As for the midterms, I'm not thinking about them. I have stopped doing the political junkie thing. I feel burned out.
Well, four years of a chaotic Trump administration will dothat to lot of people.
Honestly, if the corporate & mainstream media coverage of general politics & elections in the U.S of A wasn't framed like the Super Bowl, NBA Championship, World Series or any other big sports event, would politicians be less focused on overacting for the cameras and instead get down to business of legislating rather than finding ways to grab the media's attention?
Agree. And Michael sincerely cares, but jumps on the ‘we haven’t done ENOUGH!!!’ bandwagon pretty quickly - uh - Joe STILL has not been in office a full YEAR yet... Yeesh.
Would like to see a CR-P ton of articles on how hard Joe is working… building back that PR erosion… and also would like to see D’s start laughing off or BRUSHING off 2/3 of the negative statements aimed at them… Like the Rs did when the ‘tax cuts’ got a crappy CBO score (they just said it was a faulty projection, and they weren’t going to pay any attention to it!😳) What the HECK.
Oh, but the Democrats are too busy "infighting," and Joe is "worried" and "struggling," while "insiders" say everybody on Harris' staff is planning on walking out because she's such a bitch, blah blah blah. Nobody walked out, Joe is doing a spectacular job, and Trump is so "powerful" that his followers don't even use his website.
Moore is a showboat, and his blog is nauseating because his readers are always telling him how magnificent he is - which he certainly is not. He just got rich selling his liberal views and really doesn't do much more than tell his readers what they want to hear.
He was a huge part of the problem in 2016. HRC talked about all the issues he claimed she was ignoring, and instead of pointing that out, took both barrels to her and the Dems and then crowed about it when she lost. "See, I TOLD YOU SO!" He is insufferable.
As I predicted when the data on inflation and the supply chain turned positive most of the media would just move on to the next hyped crisis they can blame on Biden. Sure enough they have been badgering Biden about the shortage of tests — as if he controls the companies that make them or could have foreseen the unbelievably rapid spread of Omicron. I even heard one reporter say this will be the defining issue of Biden’s presidency!
I have a feeling this crisis will ease off as soon as the holidays are over and fewer people are traveling. Then the media will move on to the next “crisis”.
Omicron cases are plummeting in South Africa. It could be true here as well, in about a month. I have never seen so much scaremongering and misinformation coming out of this pandemic as I do about omicron.
CDC is the one weak spot in the Administration, I think. Walensky may have been an excellent choice to head the organization at some other point, but she seems to fold so easily and we need someone forceful right now. What gets me mad is that the Admin says it is following the science and the CDC's recommendations, so when CDC screws up, Biden gets assailed for it.
I disagree that the media is overhyping omicron. Our demographics are different from South Africa and there is still much we don't know. So much of the reporting reflects the uncertainty and changing nature of Covid, but unfortunately people want black and white and are desperate for "normal" even though what's normal changes all the time in life. There is overhyping of the "testing" (or lack of it).
Americans just need to be sensible. Get vaxxed, wear a good mask (even doctors are worried about surgical masks this go round), keep some distance between you and others when you're outside—it is okay to go outside—and wash/sanitize your hands. Imagine today's Americans going through the Depression or WWII. We have become a nation of selfish children desperate for instant gratification. FDR certainly would have been a one-term president for not ending the Depression in his first year/term in office.
What I've noticed again and again is how we jump the gun every time things start looking up - we reopen everything, we stop being cautious, And this as well as anything else is why this pandemic drags on and on. We want and we want and we want, but we will not give a damn thing in return. Next week I'll get my booster at last, and I'll still be staying home most of the time because I am terrified of this virus. When I retired I never thought I would be living like this, sitting on my ass and reading books for literally years. I just don't understand this country. In other parts of the world, people would give anything to be vaccinated.
Make no mistake, the press has indeed overhyped omicron - they did it before they knew a damn thing about it. We are not South Africa, but we are a country with a majority of vaccinated people and much better medical facilities. South Africa has a majority of naturally immunized people, so it's pretty even.
I had planned on flying to NJ pre Xmas and knew I’d need home testing, so I easily bought 2 home tests kits online just as omicron was hitting; lots seemed available. (Canceled plans when all was said and done 😷). Either I’m an entitled brat or a plan ahead person, but don’t we bear some personal responsibility re: self care? I’ve heard no one make that point. Hardworking folks w/no time nor resources to get what they need earn a pass in my book, but I’m not sure about the rest of us. The timing of the holidays and omicron overlapping complicated everything the feds have been doing covidwise and sent everyone scrambling, bitching and moaning having to wait in long lines for tests. Not fun, for sure. But get over yourselves, people. My nerves are frayed from all the brickbats being used against the administration.
Agree. Also - if omicron is spreading seven times faster- that’s enough to make the epidemiologists get white knuckles. It’s spreading across a partially / under-vaxxed population - classic example of ‘building the plane as its flying’ - to get actual data reads. (Another conversation)✔️
I've been closely following the pandemic since the first reports out of China and started making plans on 2/25/20 (thank you Nancy Messonnier). I follow and listen to the doctors, especially those who specialize in infectious diseases—get those N95 or KN95 masks asap! In my house we are fully vaxxed (3 Moderna shots) and never stopped masking—I mean come on. Covid is airborne, easily spread, and too many people still aren't fully vaxxed or even vaxxed at all. I don't want Covid no matter what, not with being of a certain age and having vulnerable people around me. Even "mild" cases can lead to long Covid and have shown long-term detrimental health affects.
Unfortunately, Omicron won't be the last variant; as long as so many people here in the US and worldwide aren't vaxxed, the virus will continue to infect and mutate. That's nature. I DO have concern that future variants will be vaxx resistant, but have much faith in the mRNA science.
All the current furor over testing and the long lines in NYC—Europe and the UK have lots of tests widely available and yet still are seeing serious spikes. And tests only reveal if you are positive; another must be done to determine the strain.
It will last until demand drops and then they will find another crisis, real or imagined, to report on. I have recently seen criticism that he isn’t doing enough interviews. You can tell Biden is having trouble controlling his infamous temper over idiotic things like the media implying he should guarantee all gifts arrive on time. No wonder he doesn’t do a lot of interviews!
At least with Trump, you know how much almost everyone hates him with the passion of a thousand burning suns due to the number of colorful & creative nicknames people keep making up.
Sometimes I notice what ‘appears’ to be a dumb thing - can REALLY resonate with people… like the reaction one might have seeing someone slip on a banana peel - (stay with me)… it’s a visceral reaction. It just taps into something deeper than intellect, not to be underestimated, IMO. For example, the Brandon insult made a helluva lot of people feel like they ‘had the code’ (AND WERE PART OF SOMETHING) - a LOT of people. That’s a powerful unifier. Also, I often wonder if the argument can be made that TFG KNEW he was in 2020 electoral trouble BECAUSE he could not come up with a really hard-hitting /mean middle school nickname for Joe. ‘Sleepy Joe’ just didn’t cut it - just sayin’
It's such a stupid "insult." Best thing is to lean into it like with "Obamacare" which was meant as a derogatory term to put all the blame on Obama but has become common parlance for a very popular law.
Our take: "Brandon won by 7 million votes—let's go Brandon!"
Sometimes they are just such idiots tripping over their own d—. (Sorry for the vulgarity.)
For the first time ever, my wife and I ordered the majority of our Christmas gifts online. Every single item we ordered arrived before Christmas, often the next day, including one item we ordered last-minute for a grandchild that was not guaranteed to deliver, but still got here on Christmas Eve day. The times we did venture out to the brick-and-mortar stores, we never noticed any shortage of products and certainly not any "empty shelves". We actually laughed out loud at one news report that showed all the cargo ships supposedly loaded down with consumer goods for Christmas marooned somewhere off the coast, saying the supply-chain debacle was going to destroy the Biden Presidency. Americans have become so gullible and dumbed-down by the high-emotion click-bait media that we are now the laughing stock of the world.
I have been ordering most of my gifts for my grandkids online for a few years because there are no longer toy stores here. I was pleasantly surprised that I ran into only a couple items that could not be delivered until after Christmas — fewer than in the previous years!
I used to believe that happened in third world countries like mine (Philippines).
However, the last five to six years have proven that even people in first world countries like the United States of America aren't immune to being easily manipulated by the narrative setting & dishonest reporting in the mainstream & corporate-owned media outlets.
Blame the GOP politicos for years of cutting down the quality of public education because they don't want a well-educated, well-informed & critical thinking electorate.
They just want supporters who are easily riled up over any cultural war issue being spread by the propagandists at Faux, Not NewsMax, OANN, and right-wing talk radio. Although, some of the culture war freak outs make it to mainstream media.
The people of England were bamboozled in similar fashion over Brexit. They were riled up over immigrants and lied to about the supposed benefits. In reality Brexit has badly damaged their economy.
Well, my country got bamboozled too in that many people decided an incompetent, foul-mouthed & bloodthirsty mayor of a provincial city would make a great president.
He's a lot like Trump. And in the aftermath of Egypt's failed 2011 revolution, the people thought a religious guy would be the ticket, until he turned out to be an incompetent and a closet fascist. Then there was a coup, and the people fell in love with the new fascist, who turned out to be much better at it and more ruthless than Mubarak. People are willing to be lied to. That's the common tragedy here.
Indeed, good to know some Americans are still keeping tabs on what's happening in other countries.
I've mentioned before that my country will be having its general elections May next year. The scary part is that leading contender for the presidency is the son of the previous dictator who's an entitled spoiled brat with an alleged cocaine habit (sound familiar?)
What's surprising and frustrating is the high poll numbers he's getting despite the terrible things his family has done. This is partly because many people here weren't properly educated on the dictatorship.
Aside from that, his family has invested the ill-gotten wealth stolen from the people here into a massive social media disinformation campaign to clean up their reputation despite a lot of evidence to the contrary.
Right now, his presidential campaign is run by a professional advertising & marketing team which created a false image of him as a "hope & change" candidate.
I lived there from the time of the revolution until Christmas 2016. I learned more about politics and human nature there than in all the rest of my life put together. Here in the US we have 30% of the country that doesn't understand how dangerous Trump and the GOP have become.
At what point does the viewing and/or reading public catch on that what their hearing and reading isn’t the truth? I’ve stopping watching and I’ve cancelled subscriptions but are there concrete numbers to prove people are tuning out? Is a marked difference in revenue the only way awful reporting stops being the status quo?
Yes, sadly the press has become a profit center instead of the original intent by the founders to keep the public informed. That's an extremely important ingredient for a healthy democracy which we are not.
Actually tried watching the local news in Los Angeles. When the main story is Kanye West buying a mansion across the street from Kim Kardashian...yeah I shut the TV off again...
Laughed out loud at the "Good Stuff" section, today. It's almost like when news outlets cease to provide news people lose interest in them. Funny how that works. 🙄 If news rooms could get back to their job of informing the public instead of trying to be profit centers for major media companies, we might start paying attention to them again.
I want to know what basis the media had for claims that people were so upset by inflation. The consumer confidence index was up in November and December which would be really odd if people thought inflation was such a big threat to the economy and would continue indefinitely. The media clearly believed that but I seriously doubt the public did.
Gas prices are now back to normal levels, though higher than they were when people were staying home as any rational or honest person would expect.
Interesting is that the dishonest reporting that the mainstream keeps spewing is failing to attract an audience — correction: fails to retain their audiences.
My take is that there’s a broad sense among the people that something’s wrong but the media are refusing to explain what the problems really are so bad choices are made, specially but not only electorally.
Anyway - I want to wish you, Eric, the best New Year, and thank you for a year of invaluable blogging, thereby preventing me from losing my marbles. And to the wonderful folks who comment here, a big thanks, a Happy New Year, and a virtual hug. It's great to be a part of a conversation among intelligent and informed people. Thanks again!
John Stewart was dead on when he compared the press to the dog from "UP," constantly distracted by "squirrel." Beltway journalists reel from one "crisis" to another, always positioning whatever is happening—supply chain snarls, a massive military and diplomatic draw down, the normal (messy) legislative process—as a major calamity and citing Joe Biden as the root cause of every "problem" whether the federal government has any control or not. Even when the president solves problems (or acknowledges mistakes and course corrects), they refuse to give him credit, as Eric has cited.
Unfortunately, it's only going to get worse in a few days because media's ONLY focus after the holidays will be the midterms. Every story will be filtered and framed through the lens of "what this means for the Dems' defeat." They've already been doing that, you say? True, but 2021 coverage was just a dress rehearsal. The intensity and focus we are going to see will be unprecedented because of what is at stake. I don't have faith in the media to actually make those stakes clear—most of the coverage will be the usual horse race bullshit, but on steroids (or meth)—though there are some (a very few) positive signs.
Luckily we have people like Eric B. to help keep us sane. Happy New Year all and stay healthy.
In a market economy, scarcity moves money into the pockets of the wealthy manufacturers. Induced scarcity increases demand and prices (and we read during the inflation news that manufacturers in fact increased prices just because they could).
It doesn’t take actual scarcity, just the perception of scarcity (as we saw at the beginning of the pandemic) to make people hoard, buy more than they need or earlier than they need it.
Inducing a scarcity panic for Christmas was a boon fall for retailer as Eric reports above. It feels totally manufactured to me. Now, the real question is will the Business Press report on this? They seem to have more integrity than Our Failed Political Press ™ but I am not sanguine.
I bought groceries yesterday. The prices of some items had gone up, but nothing I couldn't handle. Hardly the disaster the media has been yapping about.
As for Christmas, I gave gift cards and bought a new microwave and air fryer/toaster oven for myself, both of which came earlier than the store projected. The only problem I had was with the delivery person from Amazon who claimed he'd delivered an order but didn't.
I have encountered people who have bought into the rubbish media narrative that Biden is a "failed" president and that the economy is "worse than it was under Carter." Asking for specific examples, I usually get some silliness about gas prices, and then the responder will launch into the "supply chain" narrative. What I'm getting at here is that the public is gullible to the anti-Biden nonsense the press spews, and this is going to impact the midterms next year because, let's face it, it's only going to get worse.
Some people are but the fact that the consumer confidence index was up in December (and had to be revised up in November) makes me think most of the public isn’t buying the hype.
Holiday shopping was out of this world. My hope is shoppers believe what’s right in front of them, ie shelves loaded with goodies, gas prices going down and the ability to shop as they choose.
Ed O'Keefe put himself in contention for the 2021 "Chucky" (named in honor of Chuck Todd to commemorate the dumbest question ever asked in the White House) with his demand to know if Joe Biden would guarantee timely delivery of Christmas gifts. I'm sure Jen Psaki's thought bubble went like this: "And I thought Doocy was the biggest dope in the gaggle."
it was def a low point for WH press corps
You can always count on the DC Press Corpse to go lower.
Hard to believe O'Keefe actually thought of that question ahead of time. It was so first-world moron of him. In the midst of a pandemic he asks a question that reflects the shallowness and narcissism of the richest country in the world, or at least of O'Keefe himself. What a faux pas that question was.
The Gotcha Olympics…😒
Doocy still wins. He's a dope every day.
Wish he wasn’t allowed to get a ‘performance’ in every time… So obvious - yet it STILL works :/
Using the ‘lack of goods on shelves’ fantasy as a crisis only goes to show how entitled msm makes out the America people to be. NO PRESENTS? Lord forbid if we currently lived through and had to sacrifice during WWII, or back in the Vietnam era when we had a DRAFT 😱. The triviality is a travesty, and the narrative this meme produces sticks in the public consciousness.
I thought it was good seeing the level of involvement on this site, from about 40 comments per post to routinely around 100 comments. In checking out some of the old stories, looking back, it's funny seeing the number of "crisis for Biden's presidency" stories pushed by the media, so many, lost track of about a dozen of those stories.
One funny story, remember the "Biden wears a Rolex, oh no, how can he bond with the middle class" crisis. The press has attacked this administration no matter how absurd the story.
Think the press in general has had a hard time keeping up with this administration, and how Biden's administration doesn't let the press dictate the timelines or policies. Some story will come out how Biden is unprepared for some crisis, then the administration releases a well thought out policy that was being set up to handle that crisis, that they had clearly been working on for some time. Problem solved or addressed Causing the press to move to the next crisis. This administration may be one of the most qualified that we've had in some time, and the press just can't deal with it.
It's exactly what everybody wanted, or at least the voters did. Competence, an experienced politician who knew the ropes instead of an idiot talk show host who couldn't even make a casino profitable. But the press got bored. They missed the tweets and the extremism.
Of the last 4 Republican presidents only George HW Bush had the experience and qualifications to be the leader of the free world. Reagan made it OK for actors; W Bush made it OK for "affable but incompetent," and Trump showed it was OK for a reality show grifter who had neither the temperament nor the intelligence to serve. What do the 3 boobs have in common: they were loved by the media.
Ironically, Bush I was the last one actually qualified for the job. Ronnie had been governor, and president of SAG. Bush II was a party boy who came from a life of privilege, hardly the realistic choice, and he was almost as dumb as Trump, who is the gold standard of stupid.
Of course it's easier and more fun to report on Bushisms and illiterate tweets, and the stories wrote themselves. Now we have a real president again, yet we don't get real coverage. And the misogyny towards Kamala Harris is so thick that you can cut it with a knife.
I share today's Press Run column on my facebook feed this morning with the following comment:
Again an article that shows the press is not giving Biden his due. https://pressrun.media/p/how-bidens-christmas-nightmare-turned?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyMTg4NTEwNSwicG9zdF9pZCI6NDYyMTU3MjIsIl8iOiJGY2hRKyIsImlhdCI6MTY0MDcwMDc4OCwiZXhwIjoxNjQwNzA0Mzg4LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMzMxOCIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.pzJ5sM8vJE69-x1_M1_J3ZYq_OtuBIfz9uHZNZe8USU
Please read this article from Eric Boehlert at Press Run and share it. Maybe we as just regular people can start a groundswell movement to make the press print the great news about what is happening in this country! Share all the good news you find!
Maybe you could do the same, and we could begin to make a difference...
thanks for sharing column!
Right! And where are all the inflation articles now? What about the Afghanistan debacle? Not in the news either. Don't forget the rising gas prices! Oh wait, those are coming down now. The press is like Wile. E. Coyote, constantly ordering a new booby trap from ACME only to have it foiled by Road Runner Joe Biden. If the MSM truly wanted a better nation, they would be touting the first year accomplishments of one of the most effective Presidents the country has ever had. Instead, they long for the insanity de jour of the Trump era for their selfish ratings and clicks. How friggin' sad it all is.
Oops. Wait a second; Richard Engel still reporting on miseries we left behind in Afghanistan and giving a parting shot at the administration for the way the evacuation was managed. Of course it’s awful and war is horrible and I get his advocacy as he he’s been reporting from there for 20 years, but CALL it advocacy, not news. It’s as tho the msm has run out of crises to write about, so they conjure up a new republican themed crisis of the day.
It's not only the MSM. Robert Reich has a blog here on Substack, and he seems to have bought into the doom and gloom narrative. His most recent column was about celebrating the holidays despite our "distress," and I gave him a small response. "I'm not distressed, I'm hopeful. Aren't you paying attention?" I sign up, I cancel and I sign up again. I dumped Michael Moore after a month - it's a cult of personality - the only blog I have read consistently is Eric's. He is a thinker.
I actually follow Reich on Facebook & Instagram.
His doom & gloom is usually focused on the possibility of the Dems losing the midterms next year if they don't pass important legislation like protecting voting rights & Build Back Better. I understand his fears & anxieties since the Republicans have become the anti-progress for all party.
Whether it's Reich or Dionne or Alter or any number of columnists/observers, the focus is almost exclusively on the Dems—what they are doing, what they aren't doing. Instead, they should turn the magnifying glass where it should be focused—on the GOP. I'm not saying gloss over issues on this side of the aisle, but when the focus is constantly on the Dems—and plural, generalized Dems rather than the problem few—it feeds into the whole "Dems disorganized/suck/stupid" theme.
One of the reasons the GOP is so successful is because they don't do circular firing squads. Ever. Worried about the midterms? Turn the focus from "if Dems don't pass" to focusing on what has already passed, what it means and how more legislation builds on this. Save the doom and gloom for the GOP where it rightly belongs—like stories on just what a GOP takeover means and hammer it over and over again instead of "if BBB or VRA don't pass we're doomed." We are our own worst enemies sometimes.
Another thing - the GOP never, ever turn on each other, which is why Liz Cheney will eventually be voted out of office. Trump demands loyalty and so does the party. On the other hand, both the press and the columnists seem to focus on the "Dems in Disarray" narrative, lamenting about how they fail and how they "squabble." Perhaps the Democrats should start listening more and "infighting" less.
It's not just the columnists; it's some of the politicians and many of the voters on this side of the aisle. HRC lost in 16 because of the stay at homes and third party voters. We lose the midterms and off year elections, with few exceptions, because voters on our side can't get off their butts and vote. Hearing progressives on social media claim Biden "has done nothing" and threaten to stay home again in 22 is maddening.
Or brushing those comments OFF
I like him, but I wish he would read Eric Boehlert and some other stuff that would give him a more realistic perspective because he relies too much on the media. As for the midterms, I'm not thinking about them. I have stopped doing the political junkie thing. I feel burned out.
C’mon Elder Dem Statesmen/Stateswomen - … time to STEP UP🇺🇸
Fair comment
Well, four years of a chaotic Trump administration will dothat to lot of people.
Honestly, if the corporate & mainstream media coverage of general politics & elections in the U.S of A wasn't framed like the Super Bowl, NBA Championship, World Series or any other big sports event, would politicians be less focused on overacting for the cameras and instead get down to business of legislating rather than finding ways to grab the media's attention?
Agree. And Michael sincerely cares, but jumps on the ‘we haven’t done ENOUGH!!!’ bandwagon pretty quickly - uh - Joe STILL has not been in office a full YEAR yet... Yeesh.
Would like to see a CR-P ton of articles on how hard Joe is working… building back that PR erosion… and also would like to see D’s start laughing off or BRUSHING off 2/3 of the negative statements aimed at them… Like the Rs did when the ‘tax cuts’ got a crappy CBO score (they just said it was a faulty projection, and they weren’t going to pay any attention to it!😳) What the HECK.
Oh, but the Democrats are too busy "infighting," and Joe is "worried" and "struggling," while "insiders" say everybody on Harris' staff is planning on walking out because she's such a bitch, blah blah blah. Nobody walked out, Joe is doing a spectacular job, and Trump is so "powerful" that his followers don't even use his website.
Moore is a showboat, and his blog is nauseating because his readers are always telling him how magnificent he is - which he certainly is not. He just got rich selling his liberal views and really doesn't do much more than tell his readers what they want to hear.
He was a huge part of the problem in 2016. HRC talked about all the issues he claimed she was ignoring, and instead of pointing that out, took both barrels to her and the Dems and then crowed about it when she lost. "See, I TOLD YOU SO!" He is insufferable.
I was never a fan. Don’t quite get the appeal other than his shtick cheerleadering for the little guy.
Isn't that the truth!
This👆
As I predicted when the data on inflation and the supply chain turned positive most of the media would just move on to the next hyped crisis they can blame on Biden. Sure enough they have been badgering Biden about the shortage of tests — as if he controls the companies that make them or could have foreseen the unbelievably rapid spread of Omicron. I even heard one reporter say this will be the defining issue of Biden’s presidency!
I have a feeling this crisis will ease off as soon as the holidays are over and fewer people are traveling. Then the media will move on to the next “crisis”.
Omicron cases are plummeting in South Africa. It could be true here as well, in about a month. I have never seen so much scaremongering and misinformation coming out of this pandemic as I do about omicron.
But the testing…..
And the CDC reducing quarantine time to 5 days to please the airline industry and the Republican party. I'm in shock.
CDC is the one weak spot in the Administration, I think. Walensky may have been an excellent choice to head the organization at some other point, but she seems to fold so easily and we need someone forceful right now. What gets me mad is that the Admin says it is following the science and the CDC's recommendations, so when CDC screws up, Biden gets assailed for it.
I disagree that the media is overhyping omicron. Our demographics are different from South Africa and there is still much we don't know. So much of the reporting reflects the uncertainty and changing nature of Covid, but unfortunately people want black and white and are desperate for "normal" even though what's normal changes all the time in life. There is overhyping of the "testing" (or lack of it).
Americans just need to be sensible. Get vaxxed, wear a good mask (even doctors are worried about surgical masks this go round), keep some distance between you and others when you're outside—it is okay to go outside—and wash/sanitize your hands. Imagine today's Americans going through the Depression or WWII. We have become a nation of selfish children desperate for instant gratification. FDR certainly would have been a one-term president for not ending the Depression in his first year/term in office.
What I've noticed again and again is how we jump the gun every time things start looking up - we reopen everything, we stop being cautious, And this as well as anything else is why this pandemic drags on and on. We want and we want and we want, but we will not give a damn thing in return. Next week I'll get my booster at last, and I'll still be staying home most of the time because I am terrified of this virus. When I retired I never thought I would be living like this, sitting on my ass and reading books for literally years. I just don't understand this country. In other parts of the world, people would give anything to be vaccinated.
Make no mistake, the press has indeed overhyped omicron - they did it before they knew a damn thing about it. We are not South Africa, but we are a country with a majority of vaccinated people and much better medical facilities. South Africa has a majority of naturally immunized people, so it's pretty even.
I had planned on flying to NJ pre Xmas and knew I’d need home testing, so I easily bought 2 home tests kits online just as omicron was hitting; lots seemed available. (Canceled plans when all was said and done 😷). Either I’m an entitled brat or a plan ahead person, but don’t we bear some personal responsibility re: self care? I’ve heard no one make that point. Hardworking folks w/no time nor resources to get what they need earn a pass in my book, but I’m not sure about the rest of us. The timing of the holidays and omicron overlapping complicated everything the feds have been doing covidwise and sent everyone scrambling, bitching and moaning having to wait in long lines for tests. Not fun, for sure. But get over yourselves, people. My nerves are frayed from all the brickbats being used against the administration.
Yet we only have…30% BOOSTED? That’s just bizarre…
Where I live, our D Governor is under constant pressure from Rs in the legislature to STAY OPEN for commerce. Period.
Agree. Also - if omicron is spreading seven times faster- that’s enough to make the epidemiologists get white knuckles. It’s spreading across a partially / under-vaxxed population - classic example of ‘building the plane as its flying’ - to get actual data reads. (Another conversation)✔️
Covid map in NYT today shows the greatest increase in Covid deaths since the vaccines became available has been in WV.
Excellent point about data reads.
I've been closely following the pandemic since the first reports out of China and started making plans on 2/25/20 (thank you Nancy Messonnier). I follow and listen to the doctors, especially those who specialize in infectious diseases—get those N95 or KN95 masks asap! In my house we are fully vaxxed (3 Moderna shots) and never stopped masking—I mean come on. Covid is airborne, easily spread, and too many people still aren't fully vaxxed or even vaxxed at all. I don't want Covid no matter what, not with being of a certain age and having vulnerable people around me. Even "mild" cases can lead to long Covid and have shown long-term detrimental health affects.
Unfortunately, Omicron won't be the last variant; as long as so many people here in the US and worldwide aren't vaxxed, the virus will continue to infect and mutate. That's nature. I DO have concern that future variants will be vaxx resistant, but have much faith in the mRNA science.
All the current furor over testing and the long lines in NYC—Europe and the UK have lots of tests widely available and yet still are seeing serious spikes. And tests only reveal if you are positive; another must be done to determine the strain.
Ditto!
Move them in, move them out. Next crisis please.
Media's definition of "better nation" is much different than ours. Their idea of better nation is fascism.
Crisis du jour, failure to get testing kits out soon enough. Let’s see how long that drumbeat lasts.
It will last until demand drops and then they will find another crisis, real or imagined, to report on. I have recently seen criticism that he isn’t doing enough interviews. You can tell Biden is having trouble controlling his infamous temper over idiotic things like the media implying he should guarantee all gifts arrive on time. No wonder he doesn’t do a lot of interviews!
And that "Brandon" crap. Why does the press keep that alive?
That's the dumbest insult I've ever heard.
At least with Trump, you know how much almost everyone hates him with the passion of a thousand burning suns due to the number of colorful & creative nicknames people keep making up.
Sometimes I notice what ‘appears’ to be a dumb thing - can REALLY resonate with people… like the reaction one might have seeing someone slip on a banana peel - (stay with me)… it’s a visceral reaction. It just taps into something deeper than intellect, not to be underestimated, IMO. For example, the Brandon insult made a helluva lot of people feel like they ‘had the code’ (AND WERE PART OF SOMETHING) - a LOT of people. That’s a powerful unifier. Also, I often wonder if the argument can be made that TFG KNEW he was in 2020 electoral trouble BECAUSE he could not come up with a really hard-hitting /mean middle school nickname for Joe. ‘Sleepy Joe’ just didn’t cut it - just sayin’
Middle school bullying tactic - (does work in certain areas though)… people had it printed on gift wrap- Merch opportunity😖 anything that undermines…
It's such a stupid "insult." Best thing is to lean into it like with "Obamacare" which was meant as a derogatory term to put all the blame on Obama but has become common parlance for a very popular law.
Our take: "Brandon won by 7 million votes—let's go Brandon!"
Sometimes they are just such idiots tripping over their own d—. (Sorry for the vulgarity.)
For the first time ever, my wife and I ordered the majority of our Christmas gifts online. Every single item we ordered arrived before Christmas, often the next day, including one item we ordered last-minute for a grandchild that was not guaranteed to deliver, but still got here on Christmas Eve day. The times we did venture out to the brick-and-mortar stores, we never noticed any shortage of products and certainly not any "empty shelves". We actually laughed out loud at one news report that showed all the cargo ships supposedly loaded down with consumer goods for Christmas marooned somewhere off the coast, saying the supply-chain debacle was going to destroy the Biden Presidency. Americans have become so gullible and dumbed-down by the high-emotion click-bait media that we are now the laughing stock of the world.
Me too! everything arrived in plenty of time this yr. also I didn’t see any empty shelves at my grocery store
My local grocery store had empty shelves - when they opened on the 26th.
I have been ordering most of my gifts for my grandkids online for a few years because there are no longer toy stores here. I was pleasantly surprised that I ran into only a couple items that could not be delivered until after Christmas — fewer than in the previous years!
I used to believe that happened in third world countries like mine (Philippines).
However, the last five to six years have proven that even people in first world countries like the United States of America aren't immune to being easily manipulated by the narrative setting & dishonest reporting in the mainstream & corporate-owned media outlets.
Blame the GOP politicos for years of cutting down the quality of public education because they don't want a well-educated, well-informed & critical thinking electorate.
They just want supporters who are easily riled up over any cultural war issue being spread by the propagandists at Faux, Not NewsMax, OANN, and right-wing talk radio. Although, some of the culture war freak outs make it to mainstream media.
The people of England were bamboozled in similar fashion over Brexit. They were riled up over immigrants and lied to about the supposed benefits. In reality Brexit has badly damaged their economy.
Well, my country got bamboozled too in that many people decided an incompetent, foul-mouthed & bloodthirsty mayor of a provincial city would make a great president.
He's a lot like Trump. And in the aftermath of Egypt's failed 2011 revolution, the people thought a religious guy would be the ticket, until he turned out to be an incompetent and a closet fascist. Then there was a coup, and the people fell in love with the new fascist, who turned out to be much better at it and more ruthless than Mubarak. People are willing to be lied to. That's the common tragedy here.
Indeed, good to know some Americans are still keeping tabs on what's happening in other countries.
I've mentioned before that my country will be having its general elections May next year. The scary part is that leading contender for the presidency is the son of the previous dictator who's an entitled spoiled brat with an alleged cocaine habit (sound familiar?)
What's surprising and frustrating is the high poll numbers he's getting despite the terrible things his family has done. This is partly because many people here weren't properly educated on the dictatorship.
Aside from that, his family has invested the ill-gotten wealth stolen from the people here into a massive social media disinformation campaign to clean up their reputation despite a lot of evidence to the contrary.
Right now, his presidential campaign is run by a professional advertising & marketing team which created a false image of him as a "hope & change" candidate.
I lived there from the time of the revolution until Christmas 2016. I learned more about politics and human nature there than in all the rest of my life put together. Here in the US we have 30% of the country that doesn't understand how dangerous Trump and the GOP have become.
At what point does the viewing and/or reading public catch on that what their hearing and reading isn’t the truth? I’ve stopping watching and I’ve cancelled subscriptions but are there concrete numbers to prove people are tuning out? Is a marked difference in revenue the only way awful reporting stops being the status quo?
Yes, sadly the press has become a profit center instead of the original intent by the founders to keep the public informed. That's an extremely important ingredient for a healthy democracy which we are not.
Actually tried watching the local news in Los Angeles. When the main story is Kanye West buying a mansion across the street from Kim Kardashian...yeah I shut the TV off again...
Laughed out loud at the "Good Stuff" section, today. It's almost like when news outlets cease to provide news people lose interest in them. Funny how that works. 🙄 If news rooms could get back to their job of informing the public instead of trying to be profit centers for major media companies, we might start paying attention to them again.
Bingo!
I am one of those who is waiting to see my demo included in those polls: people who decline to be polled.
Ha yep!
Miraculously I’m a quasi regular Gallup interviewee. At least I’m in there being counted. I have no idea how I got on their list.
Well-played😳…!
I want to know what basis the media had for claims that people were so upset by inflation. The consumer confidence index was up in November and December which would be really odd if people thought inflation was such a big threat to the economy and would continue indefinitely. The media clearly believed that but I seriously doubt the public did.
Gas prices are now back to normal levels, though higher than they were when people were staying home as any rational or honest person would expect.
Did the media ‘clearly believe it’ - or did they just choose to promote that idea…?
Or frame it that way?
Just the DC Press Corpse whining over the price increase of their beloved Cristal and caviar.
Interesting is that the dishonest reporting that the mainstream keeps spewing is failing to attract an audience — correction: fails to retain their audiences.
My take is that there’s a broad sense among the people that something’s wrong but the media are refusing to explain what the problems really are so bad choices are made, specially but not only electorally.
Reading Eric today reminds me that this year the MSM is actually the fire-breathing Grinch who tried (and failed) to steal Christmas.
Anyway - I want to wish you, Eric, the best New Year, and thank you for a year of invaluable blogging, thereby preventing me from losing my marbles. And to the wonderful folks who comment here, a big thanks, a Happy New Year, and a virtual hug. It's great to be a part of a conversation among intelligent and informed people. Thanks again!
John Stewart was dead on when he compared the press to the dog from "UP," constantly distracted by "squirrel." Beltway journalists reel from one "crisis" to another, always positioning whatever is happening—supply chain snarls, a massive military and diplomatic draw down, the normal (messy) legislative process—as a major calamity and citing Joe Biden as the root cause of every "problem" whether the federal government has any control or not. Even when the president solves problems (or acknowledges mistakes and course corrects), they refuse to give him credit, as Eric has cited.
Unfortunately, it's only going to get worse in a few days because media's ONLY focus after the holidays will be the midterms. Every story will be filtered and framed through the lens of "what this means for the Dems' defeat." They've already been doing that, you say? True, but 2021 coverage was just a dress rehearsal. The intensity and focus we are going to see will be unprecedented because of what is at stake. I don't have faith in the media to actually make those stakes clear—most of the coverage will be the usual horse race bullshit, but on steroids (or meth)—though there are some (a very few) positive signs.
Luckily we have people like Eric B. to help keep us sane. Happy New Year all and stay healthy.
In a market economy, scarcity moves money into the pockets of the wealthy manufacturers. Induced scarcity increases demand and prices (and we read during the inflation news that manufacturers in fact increased prices just because they could).
It doesn’t take actual scarcity, just the perception of scarcity (as we saw at the beginning of the pandemic) to make people hoard, buy more than they need or earlier than they need it.
Inducing a scarcity panic for Christmas was a boon fall for retailer as Eric reports above. It feels totally manufactured to me. Now, the real question is will the Business Press report on this? They seem to have more integrity than Our Failed Political Press ™ but I am not sanguine.
I bought groceries yesterday. The prices of some items had gone up, but nothing I couldn't handle. Hardly the disaster the media has been yapping about.
As for Christmas, I gave gift cards and bought a new microwave and air fryer/toaster oven for myself, both of which came earlier than the store projected. The only problem I had was with the delivery person from Amazon who claimed he'd delivered an order but didn't.
I have encountered people who have bought into the rubbish media narrative that Biden is a "failed" president and that the economy is "worse than it was under Carter." Asking for specific examples, I usually get some silliness about gas prices, and then the responder will launch into the "supply chain" narrative. What I'm getting at here is that the public is gullible to the anti-Biden nonsense the press spews, and this is going to impact the midterms next year because, let's face it, it's only going to get worse.
Some people are but the fact that the consumer confidence index was up in December (and had to be revised up in November) makes me think most of the public isn’t buying the hype.
Holiday shopping was out of this world. My hope is shoppers believe what’s right in front of them, ie shelves loaded with goodies, gas prices going down and the ability to shop as they choose.
And they had the cash in hand to buy stuff. Let's not forget that for a lot of kids, they probably had one of the best Christmases ever.
1. Has tech (specifically phones) messed with our attention spans? Srsly.
2. Rs UNDERSTAND- if you repeat it enough - it will gain credibility among ENOUGH people (ex: Afgh. Exit ‘fail’)…