As previously referenced, this was Jiffy Pop chuckle-worthy last week. This week it isn't.
Now that the SCOTUS has reinstated both Texas' voter ID laws and its gerrymandered Congressional and statehouse districts, prospects are bleaker for Democrats here than a flamingo in the Florida Keys. And while the bandwagon for Bernie Sanders' Medicare For All is finally starting to fill up, there are way too many Donkeys that still aren't getting on board. *That list needs updating; Tammy Baldwin and Al Franken and perhaps one or two more have lined up behind Bernie.
In contrast to the toon above, smart Dems are heading for the exits away from Her Book Tour, but I see too many standing in line to buy it, quoting passages from it, and otherwise driving the wedge in their party deeper. This is such a fool's errand at this point that there's almost no use in continuing to point it out. Jackasses are gonna bray, after all.
I red-lined many years ago on Hillary Clinton and her privileged, entitled bullshit. The most unwoke person in the entire US of A. If you must read a book about the 2016 election, start and stop with "Shattered", okay? That tells the story that Democrats need to take heed of. Or you can just read Matt Taibbi's take on it, which served my purpose.
This week's scapegoat is the press, and yes, there is plenty of evidence that the liberal media -- like Joe and Mika Scarborough, for one example -- was deep in the tank for Trump from the jump. I can buy that premise because I watched it happen, just like you: CNN cut to every single campaign event of his every single day from January to November. And his Tweets; Dear Jeebus. No other candidate, Republican or Democrat, got nearly as much free media.
But blaming teevee coverage for her defeat is akin to criticizing the refs for a bad call when your team loses. Your team is not supposed to make the game close enough to be decided by an official's error, and there are no replay challenges. We also should be well past the point of believing that our corporate media is either unbiased or interested in anything except ratings and clicks. The press is many years and mergers away from being an honest umpire; they're not calling balls and strikes any more than John Roberts is. Les Moonves reminded us in February of 2016, you know.
"It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS," Moonves said at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco, according to The Hollywood Reporter — perfectly distilling what media critics have long suspected was motivating the round-the-clock coverage of Trump's presidential bid.
"Most of the ads are not about issues. They're sort of like the debates," Moonves said, noting, "[t]here's a lot of money in the marketplace."
The 2016 campaign is a "circus," he remarked, but "Donald's place in this election is a good thing."
"Man, who would have expected the ride we're all having right now? ... The money's rolling in and this is fun," Moonves went on. "I've never seen anything like this, and this going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It's a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going.”
So, as with the rest of the misplaced excuses for Her losing an election she should have won ... what can Democrats, Democratic candidates in 2018, and -- most importantly for some, people who get paid to consult and advise them -- actually do about it if in fact the media is stacked against them?
That is not a rhetorical question, by the way. If you think the media got Trump elected, more so than Clinton's unforced errors, or James Comey's ill-timed decisions and announcements, or the Russians, or Bernie Sanders, or even FFS Jill Stein and the Green Party ... what precisely is within the Donkeys' power to fix that in 2018 and 2020?
I'll wait for your answer in the comments.
-- Sylvester Turner's past few weeks have enabled him a star turn; despite some ridiculous national second-guessing, his and Judge Emmett's decision to buck Governor "Houston Should Evacuate" was quickly and strongly defended by everybody local. (We know better after Rita than to put six million people all at once on the freeways out of town.) The mayor managed the crises wrought by Harvey quite well, to my eye; yes, there will be some lawsuits and lots of angry homeowners over aggravated flooding when water went over -- and was let through -- the seventy-year-old Addicks and Barker dams west of town, and the Red Cross bungled some shelter logistics and caught shit for it, including a red-faced rant from conservo-freak CM Dave Martin.
But a lot of these reactions are a bit theatrical (sorry, Alley) and the fault lies not (sorry, Mr. Shakespeare) with Mayor Turner exclusively; the county, the respective county agencies, etc., own it, though he'll catch a bit of heat from some uncareful thinkers and overly emotional victims. Turner is feeling so strong of late that he is going to ask property owners to help pay for recovery, to the tune of an 8.9% tax hike for a year. While I doubt he would make such a move if he were standing for re-election in two months, and it may still get turned down by the DINOs on city council joining Martin and the rest of the GOP, a tax increase is very much the right (and the left) thing to do.
So hats off to Sylvester Turner for showing up since Harvey came to town. Keep it going forward, Mr. Mayor, and spare the wrath for the homeless and the first responders. You'll need some extra to browbeat these conservatives into raising and spending money to rebuild this city. Remind them that we can't just depend on the generosity of Les Alexander and JJ Watt and Kieu Hoang; the other Houston billionaires and multi-millionaires need to cough up some coin as well, along with all of the rest of us. Not the evacuees at Joel Osteen's church, though. Talk about clueless.
-- Ted Cruz likes voyeur porn, which makes complete sense in the context of having his lawyers argue ten years ago that Americans have no constitutional right to pleasure themselves. The irony is as thick as a brick, but the hypocrisy is off the chain.
That's about all I have time to hit this morning. More Russian crap is on the way (Facebook, I'm looking at YOU).
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