RIDICULOUS US: Heroic behavior produces an answer!

THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 2017

Part 3—Cable star praises herself:
Yay yay yay yay yay!

Last night, we received the latest tale of the heroism being performed by an unnamed cable news star.

The heroism was described by the cable star herself. The report came near the end of her cable news program.

Heroism is in short supply in these final days. For that reason, we'll post the full text of the star's report, her third on this silly faux topic.

As you may know, the star has been chasing some shifty behavior by Vice President Pence. Her work has been drenched in insinuation, innuendo and dissembling, all aimed at the diminishing brain cells of the group called Ridiculous Us.

By last night, the cable star had finally gotten some answers to her silly "questions." Liberal brain cells screamed in pain as she heaped praise on herself.

Mugging and clowning and working the grift, the cable star started as shown below. To watch this performance, click here:
MADDOW (6/21/17): We have an answer. We have an answer. We have an answer.

I told you we would eventually get an answer on this, and we have now got it! All right.

Since last week, we have been asking, What on earth is Vice President Mike Pence doing in this picture?

[PHOTOGRAPH OF PENCE AT A PODIUM, WITH HIS WIFE]

This single picture, which he tweeted, has been the only glimpse we had of a fund-raiser that he held in Indiana on Friday, a fund-raiser for his brand-new PAC!

Now, it's strange enough for a sitting vice president to have a political action committee of his own. That is very unusual.
But what does Mike Pence intend to do with the money his PAC has, the money that he's now raising for his PAC?
Yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay!

We finally had an answer to the cable star's question! We finally have an answer to this:

What does Pence intend to do with the money his PAC will raise?

In truth, the cable star was simplifying her story just a tad. In fact, when Pence's PAC was created last month, Pence announced that the money he raised would be used to support Republican candidates.

PAC money is routinely used in such ways. The excited star has persistently excluded these facts from her silly reports.

That said, you can probably see the insinuations floating in last night's report. "What on earth" was Pence doing in that photograph? So the star suspiciously asked.

In fact, Pence appeared to be speaking to a group, something that's commonly done. But the cable star won't stop suggesting that something nefarious was going on as Pence so strangely did this.

What was Pence doing in that photo? Finally, the cable star said, we finally have the answer! As her self-glorying story continued, so did her dumb remarks, aimed directly at the brain cells of Ridiculous Us:
MADDOW (continuing directly): The reason I've been asking is in part because of the timing. Because on Thursday last week, that's when Mike Pence announced that he had hired a top-shelf, A-list, private lawyer to personally represent him in the Trump/Russia investigation.

Then the very next day, on Friday, there he was, in Indiana, very quietly holding a top-dollar fund-raiser, not for the Republican Party or for any active candidates in the elections, but for his new PAC, with tickets going for $1000 to $5000 a plate.

What's that money for? Is the vice president conceivably going around the country quietly raising money to pay for his own legal bills? That's an expensive lawyer he just hired.

Nobody from the vice president's PAC would tell us. The vice president's own spokesperson would not say one way or the other. All we had was this one picture and a whole bunch of our unreturned e-mails.
Speculation is her! As she'd done in her first two reports (links below), she imagined that Pence might be "going around the country quietly raising money to pay for his own legal bills."

There would be nothing wrong with something like that, of course, but the cable star made it sound nefarious, slick and slippery. Was Pence "going around the country" doing some such thing? This speculation was based on one fundraiser, held in Pence's home town.

Meanwhile, the star killed brain cells with her comment about that suspicious timing. We were supposed to imagine—what?

Pence hired a lawyer on Thursday, then was magically staging a fundraiser the very next night? Is that how it seemed to the star?

(We remind you that Pence's intention of raising funds was announced last month, when his PAC came into being. We don't know why it would seem surprising to see the fundraising start.)

Meanwhile, tickets to the fundraiser had gone for as much as $5000! This is about as surprising as learning that water is wet, unless your brain cells have been destroyed by an array of slippery cable stars.

Mike Pence had hired an expensive lawyer! Would he use PAC money to pay his fees? For reasons she'd never quite explained, the cable star had been feigning interest in this utterly trivial question since last Friday night.

And dear God! "Nobody from the vice president's PAC would tell us," the cable star now confessed.

Could it be they wouldn't tell her last week because no decision had yet been reached? Could it be they simply had enough sense to avoid this horrible star?

There's no way to answer those questions. But finally, yay! Showering herself with praise, letting us enjoy her snark, the giant star let us know what the answer to her pointless question had "finally" turned out to be.

For the record, the first statement we highlight below is an example of cable gong-show culture at its magnificent dumbest. You're being told that the cable star believes your IQ is 9:
MADDOW (continuing directly): Today, we tried again. At 1:18 p.m. Eastern Time, we wrote to Mike Pence's personal lawyer, explaining that we really would like an answer to this question.

Then, at 3:45 p.m., a couple hours later, the Wall Street Journal published an answer to our question. No, Mike Pence will not be paying his legal bills with money from his PAC. That sort of seemed to be the plan as of last week, but it is apparently officially not the plan anymore.

So now we've got an answer. It still leaves the question of how Mike Pence, who is not Mr. Money Bags, how he is going to pay for the powerhouse new lawyer he just hired, who's got experience incidentally in Watergate [CHUCKLING] and Iran-Contra.

That lawyer, Richard Cullen, told us very politely today that he doesn't like getting into the details about how his clients are going to pay his firm. Nobody else will say.
The cable star sent her question "to Pence's personal lawyer?" As if he was going to answer the question about how he would get paid!

Reading that silly confession, you finally know what it is to be thoroughly played by a cable news clown! In fairness, though, the cable star finally had the answer she'd sought:

Pence won't be using money from his PAC to pay his legal fees! At last, we finally knew!

Even here, the slippery star couldn't leave simple facts alone. "That sort of seemed to be the plan as of last week," she disingenuously said. Can you feel your brain cells dying as you get talked to that way?

The cable star kept snarking at Pence as she continued. Pence "is not Mr. Money Bags," she said, forgetting to tell us that she herself does belong to that class, thanks to her corporate clowning.

Once again, she reminded us of how "expensive" that "top-shelf, A-list, powerhouse" lawyer is. And she added the requisite reference:

Hint hint hint hint hit hint hint! The expensive lawyer "got experience incidentally in Watergate and Iran-Contra!"

As she finished her report, the corporate star of whom we speak ever-so-briefly cited some real information. Then, she quickly went back on the clown:
MADDOW (continuing directly): We also heard from an expert in these matters, Craig Holman, at Public Citizen. He says the vice president has a couple of clear choices for getting the money he's going to need to pay for his expensive lawyer. He could start a legal defense fund, the way Bill Clinton did, or he could ask permission from the FEC to use Trump/Pence campaign money.

It may be worth noting here that the president not only funded much of his campaign last year, though not to the extent he promised, he also re-upped the campaign on Inauguration Day. Donald J. Trump for President Inc. is open for business. The president's re-election campaign already exists, and that campaign did announce a new fund-raiser this afternoon at the president's own Trump hotel in D.C. That's set for Wednesday, a week from tonight, a high-dollar donor fund-raiser.

If anybody happens to notice a tip jar at that fund-raiser for Mike Pence's legal fees—

[CLAPS HANDS AND CHUCKLES]

Please let us know.
In one brief shining moment, the cable clown mentioned the fact that politicians have various ways to pay legal fees of this type, especially if the fees become extremely large. (At this point, there is no reason to assume that this will be the case with Pence.)

Who knew! Politicians can start a legal defense fund, or perhaps use campaign money! The star had done two previous reports on this invented topic without stooping to mention such facts.

Wonderfully, though, she ended with snark. Yay yay yay, we dumbly said, as she snarked at Pence with her wonderful "tip jar" jibe.

The cable star who delivered this nonsense is a multimillionaire corporate employee. Your brain cells die, she gets a raise. This is the gong show she's chosen!

Today, she sits at the head of a deeply ridiculous "cable news" prime time lineup. With the exception of Chris Hayes, her colleagues' past behaviors identify them as a rogues' gallery of journalistic misconduct.

The big star praises each one. The prime enabler of Trump's birtherism turns out to be her drinking buddy! Please please please watch her wonderful show, the cable news star once implored.

Tomorrow, we'll run through the truly ridiculous prime time lineup aimed at Ridiculous Us. Your nation's culture is coming apart. These people have been among the architects of our disastrous decline.

Tomorrow: Past work by the star's pals

Completing the rule of three: The cable star has aired three reports on this invented topic. The first report was especially slimy. Why not watch all three?

For last Friday's segment, just click here.

On Monday night, we got a second dose of this bullshit.

Last night completed the rule of three. The nonsense can be seen here.

All three "reports" were wonderfully faux. This helps explain the haplessness of the group called Ridiculous Us.

11 comments:

  1. Bob, it would be nice if you could steer us liberals towards something positive, someone, a journalist, an author, a politician, maybe just someone in your local area making a difference, whose work you admire, rather than constantly focussing on the negative examples out there. For a start, why not stop watching Rachel Maddow if she is so terrible and quit posting hundreds of blogs about her work? I don't watch her.
    I would love to know how liberals/progressives/Democrats can move forward in this hugely toxic environment, which, I would point out, is not entirely of their own making. You telling us how "ridiculous" and "terrible", etc, we are, doesn't help matters. As a matter of fact, it's a little demoralizing. So, how about you refrain from watching Maddow, and give us some positivity, some help going forward, for a change?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I, myself, pay no attention to Maddow. Therefore, providing a detailed debunking of her manifest nonsense is of no value to me, personally, residing, as I do, at the center of my universe.

    Instead of doing what you do, do what I tell you to do. Do something for me. How does Google work, for example? Is it a good way for me to find pictures of puppies, and rainbows, and mainstream liberal celebrity spokespeople who aren't self-absorbed performing clowns reassuring me that I'm right, of course, right again?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mr Somerby posts a detailed criticism of Rachel Maddow, and then in the same post says that "We" (meaning we liberals) are "ridiculous" and "terrible" etc, as if Maddow's badness proves or implies the truth of the second statement. I contend that it does not. She is a single person, and does not represent all liberals. His "horrible us" meme is not proven by citing individual examples of poor "liberal" punditry.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unfortunately Maddow's exposure is increasing, and I understand that she has been gaining viewers to her show. Therefore, more people are being exposed to her unprofessional, clownish brand of "journalism." That is why Bob is so repetitive on the subject. She does not serve liberal or progressive interests.
      Many reading here are perhaps too young to have viewed more responsible journalism on tv, but I remember a time when there was stimulating discussion of the issues with serious journalists discussing serious issues (e.g., I. F. Stone, et alia), not the clownish behavior on display by Maddow.

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  4. I'm so sorry that parody hit too close to home for you. Don't be so goddamn precious.

    Complaining "not all liberals" as a response to Somerby is quite mockably close to the oft-heard "not all men" and "not all white people" responses to critiques of sexism and racism.

    If it's not about you, don't try to center yourself, as they say.

    The critiques (in this case of liberalism) are true.

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  5. How Republican politicians pay their legal defense bills strikes me as a legitimate question.

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  6. So Maddow has covered this three times. Bob has said the first report, on June 16, was particularly slimy.

    But buried in this, Bob's fourth post on the three Maddow segments on this topic, we learn Maddow was not alone in her interest in this topic.

    The Wall Street Jounal was covering the same subject.

    Guess when their first report was made? June 16th.

    Before Maddow. Remember in that slimy "first" report Maddow mentioned Pence was not as wealthy as Trumps, Kuchners & Manaforts? Here is the way the Wall Street Jounal broached that delicate topic:

    "Vice President Mike Pence’s move this week to retain a personal attorney to represent him in the special counsel probe of Trump associates’ ties to Russia prompted one immediate question in Washington: How does the former governor, whose financial disclosure last year appeared to show a negative net worth, plan to pay him?"

    https://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2017/06/16/heres-how-pence-could-pay-for-a-personal-lawyer-in-special-counsel-russia-probe/

    ReplyDelete
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