I simply can't watch the Sunday morning news shows anymore. The constant parade of Republicans appearing on these shows with no pushback from the hosts infuriates me and ruins the rest of my day. I get all the info I need from your Monday morning recaps that you have been doing for years. I decided several years ago that I needed one day of peace per week from this constant rape of our democracy by the right wing. I love your idea of quizzing Republicans regarding the reality of the president-elect but the major media, mostly owned by super wealthy conservatives, will never allow such a logical and democratic thing to do.
The Sunday hosts leave a road map to how to be played with every "we'll have to leave it there." Right now the balance between access and meaningful discussion is tilted toward the former so the guests are always in control. My Sundays are all about Premiere League these days so I have no reason to look in on the gasbags.
At this point, as trump as descended even more into idiocy, his flailings about the election and his lack of work on anything else, I don't understand what the Republican party writ large has to lose by quietly slipping away from him. Especially the ones who haven't been vocal supporters. I get that the likes of Graham are tied to that orange boat anchor, but the more back benchers can easily get away with not propping him up any more.
And, to your larger point, Negrin is right. The first question - if the booker doesn't want to ask it - is, "Who will be inaugurated on Jan 21?" And the control booth can be ready to go to commercial or play the old national anthem late night sign off to fill the time.
Of course, it's probably just a matter of weeks before Marjorie Taylor Greene has Chuck Todd bobbing his head on MTP as she spouts another loopy Qanon conspiracy.
Eric- an aside....I just want to say I watched The Brainwashing of My Dad documentary and was happy to see your appearance in the film. I don’t understand why that documentary has not gained better traction. For anyone wanting to understand the ‘brainwashing’ of their family members, this is a must watch.
I agree that the absurdity of Republicans not acknowledging President-Elect Joe Biden is just dumb. And, until they decide to return to the Democracy they took patches to uphold, news and journalists should cut them off!
An explanation of Mike Braun (tRump sycophant - Mississippi of the Midwest)...
Mike Braun won his senate seat not in November of 2018 when he stomped the rePuke-Lite Joe Donnelly, but when he won the primary against two much better known rePukes. He won the primary during their debates when his opponents promised to lick The Donald's @ss and Braun promised to stick his tongue further up The Donald's @ss than anyone ever!
Maintaining superficial "normality" while surrendering to the transformation of their party into an authoritarian personality cult is a hard needle to thread, and takes formidable skills in cognitive dissonance and compartmentalization. Fortunately these are skills the Republican party has been selecting for ever since making faith in the "Laffer" curve a condition of membership. You weren't to BELIEVE it, of course, no one cared about that; you were only supposed to ASCRIBE to it and never admit you knew it was crap. VP Bush led the way toward establishing cultic belief--aptly monikered "Voodoo" economics in his coinage before sacrificing his ethical soul on the altar of Baal: Just say it; you don't have to believe it. And thus a little black hole of untruth took up residence at the heart of Republican policy making and began its job of sucking all allegiance to consensual reality micron by micron into its event horizon. If that lie, then why not Scientific Creationism? Or any other comforting and convenient bit of b.s.? The idea of disprovability? Hey, even science calls their stuff "theory"--that means opinion amirite? And mine's as good as anyone's. All that is background to the epic moment of sacrifice and self-abnegation before the throne of the party's new Father of Lies, when at the nominating convention they abandoned all pretense of even HAVING a policy platform other than "What he says."
So it's sad, and funny, and nauseating in equal parts to see one lost soul after another, just like this boob, trying to maintain--for all we know inside his own head as well as in his public prevarications--that really it's all just politics as normal, no really, we're still a party with ideas 'n' stuff. All the while squirming and with that hollowed-out feeling they can't even identify any more as they try to deny the fact of their self-zombification. You can see it in that blank look as they surrender to the Great Lie the Leader now demands of them. "I know I still have a soul. It's in here somewhere. It's sure to turn up eventually. Isn't it? Isn't it?"
In other words, the Sunday shows have to ban republicans. Of course, if they did, they would air much, much, much, much, much less lying and treason. But no doubt the chief chucktodd of them all, madam of the DC political media brothel, would still find a way to indulge them.
I know I shouldn't get drawn into this depressive topic but I will indulge myself briefly. It's madness, but what's most maddening is this feeling that it's deliberate, orchestrated over years of gaslighting the American public. The gaslighting, of course, from the Republican side, but it's perpetrated on ALL of the unwashed masses, not just Democrats. Trump loyalists are now accusing not only Democrats, liberals, and the media, but now Republican officials, too. So--I believe that the Republicans have been trying to undermine Democracy for YEARS, but now the Trumpists say its the Democrats AND disloyal Republicans who have been doing this. Didn't we all cry foul in 2016, disbelieving Trump could actually be elected? Didn't we try to get investigations going into the voting machines, after reports that some actually had been hacked? Didn't Ivanka Trump have some Chinese patent granted around voting machines? I was terrified going into this election that THAT was what would cause the re-election of Trump. Now these Biden-denying Republicans are stealing that fear and turning it around, saying that's why we shouldn't trust these election results.
I simply can't watch the Sunday morning news shows anymore. The constant parade of Republicans appearing on these shows with no pushback from the hosts infuriates me and ruins the rest of my day. I get all the info I need from your Monday morning recaps that you have been doing for years. I decided several years ago that I needed one day of peace per week from this constant rape of our democracy by the right wing. I love your idea of quizzing Republicans regarding the reality of the president-elect but the major media, mostly owned by super wealthy conservatives, will never allow such a logical and democratic thing to do.
The Sunday hosts leave a road map to how to be played with every "we'll have to leave it there." Right now the balance between access and meaningful discussion is tilted toward the former so the guests are always in control. My Sundays are all about Premiere League these days so I have no reason to look in on the gasbags.
At this point, as trump as descended even more into idiocy, his flailings about the election and his lack of work on anything else, I don't understand what the Republican party writ large has to lose by quietly slipping away from him. Especially the ones who haven't been vocal supporters. I get that the likes of Graham are tied to that orange boat anchor, but the more back benchers can easily get away with not propping him up any more.
And, to your larger point, Negrin is right. The first question - if the booker doesn't want to ask it - is, "Who will be inaugurated on Jan 21?" And the control booth can be ready to go to commercial or play the old national anthem late night sign off to fill the time.
Of course, it's probably just a matter of weeks before Marjorie Taylor Greene has Chuck Todd bobbing his head on MTP as she spouts another loopy Qanon conspiracy.
Eric- an aside....I just want to say I watched The Brainwashing of My Dad documentary and was happy to see your appearance in the film. I don’t understand why that documentary has not gained better traction. For anyone wanting to understand the ‘brainwashing’ of their family members, this is a must watch.
I agree that the absurdity of Republicans not acknowledging President-Elect Joe Biden is just dumb. And, until they decide to return to the Democracy they took patches to uphold, news and journalists should cut them off!
An explanation of Mike Braun (tRump sycophant - Mississippi of the Midwest)...
Mike Braun won his senate seat not in November of 2018 when he stomped the rePuke-Lite Joe Donnelly, but when he won the primary against two much better known rePukes. He won the primary during their debates when his opponents promised to lick The Donald's @ss and Braun promised to stick his tongue further up The Donald's @ss than anyone ever!
I do agree with the initial premise in @eric's post--the press should definitely NOT give these cultists further amplification.
Great article! Glad you are calling the main stream press out on this. Hopefully thay will wake up and realize how absurd these interviews are.
Maintaining superficial "normality" while surrendering to the transformation of their party into an authoritarian personality cult is a hard needle to thread, and takes formidable skills in cognitive dissonance and compartmentalization. Fortunately these are skills the Republican party has been selecting for ever since making faith in the "Laffer" curve a condition of membership. You weren't to BELIEVE it, of course, no one cared about that; you were only supposed to ASCRIBE to it and never admit you knew it was crap. VP Bush led the way toward establishing cultic belief--aptly monikered "Voodoo" economics in his coinage before sacrificing his ethical soul on the altar of Baal: Just say it; you don't have to believe it. And thus a little black hole of untruth took up residence at the heart of Republican policy making and began its job of sucking all allegiance to consensual reality micron by micron into its event horizon. If that lie, then why not Scientific Creationism? Or any other comforting and convenient bit of b.s.? The idea of disprovability? Hey, even science calls their stuff "theory"--that means opinion amirite? And mine's as good as anyone's. All that is background to the epic moment of sacrifice and self-abnegation before the throne of the party's new Father of Lies, when at the nominating convention they abandoned all pretense of even HAVING a policy platform other than "What he says."
So it's sad, and funny, and nauseating in equal parts to see one lost soul after another, just like this boob, trying to maintain--for all we know inside his own head as well as in his public prevarications--that really it's all just politics as normal, no really, we're still a party with ideas 'n' stuff. All the while squirming and with that hollowed-out feeling they can't even identify any more as they try to deny the fact of their self-zombification. You can see it in that blank look as they surrender to the Great Lie the Leader now demands of them. "I know I still have a soul. It's in here somewhere. It's sure to turn up eventually. Isn't it? Isn't it?"
Why will major MSM networks cut away from Trump lying, but not his sycophants? Seems paradoxical?
In other words, the Sunday shows have to ban republicans. Of course, if they did, they would air much, much, much, much, much less lying and treason. But no doubt the chief chucktodd of them all, madam of the DC political media brothel, would still find a way to indulge them.
I know I shouldn't get drawn into this depressive topic but I will indulge myself briefly. It's madness, but what's most maddening is this feeling that it's deliberate, orchestrated over years of gaslighting the American public. The gaslighting, of course, from the Republican side, but it's perpetrated on ALL of the unwashed masses, not just Democrats. Trump loyalists are now accusing not only Democrats, liberals, and the media, but now Republican officials, too. So--I believe that the Republicans have been trying to undermine Democracy for YEARS, but now the Trumpists say its the Democrats AND disloyal Republicans who have been doing this. Didn't we all cry foul in 2016, disbelieving Trump could actually be elected? Didn't we try to get investigations going into the voting machines, after reports that some actually had been hacked? Didn't Ivanka Trump have some Chinese patent granted around voting machines? I was terrified going into this election that THAT was what would cause the re-election of Trump. Now these Biden-denying Republicans are stealing that fear and turning it around, saying that's why we shouldn't trust these election results.