POSTCARDS FROM THE LEDGE: Follow me, star pundit says!

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

Part 2—Disordered upper-end thinking:
What makes Sammy run?

It was once a major question. In 1941, it formed the title of a Budd Schulberg novel about Hollywood and the ambitions within it. In 1964, the novel became a long-running Broadway musical.

Today, we have a different question: What made Sally kill? Unless Connie Schultz is delusional, and we're fairly sure she isn't, Quinn admits, in her brand-new memoir, that she and her mother may perhaps have killed five people through the ancient art of the hex.

This revelation comes from someone who has sat, for many years, at the very top of the Insider Washington press corps and social world. And by the way, as a general matter, we aren't a Quinn detractor.

As we've noted in the past, we think Quinn's lengthy report, in November 1998, about the loathing of President Clinton by D.C. elites was one of the most important pieces of journalism about this matter ever published.

If anyone ever wants to discuss the loathing of President Clinton and the subsequent War Against Gore, Quinn's lengthy report provides remarkable first-hand material. It also provides invauable material for anyone who wants to discuss the treatment of Candidate Hillary Clinton in the las tcampaign by a newspapers like the Post and the New York Times.

That said, no one will discuss these matters. As has been clear for many years, such discussions are forbidden by the press corps' code of silence, as was any possibility of turning Schulberg's novel about Hollywood into a Hollywood film.

(We'll quote the leading authority on the topic: "According to a 2001 article in Variety, DreamWorks paid $2.6 million to acquire the rights to the novel from Warner Brothers for a proposed movie version starring and/or directed by Ben Stiller, although production was never begun. Schulberg, who died in 2009, told The Jewish Daily Forward in 2006 that he doubted that a film would ever be made, saying 'I still think there's a sense that it's too anti-industry'. In a 2009 newspaper interview, Schulberg quoted Steven Spielberg as saying that the book was 'anti-Hollywood and should never be filmed.' ")

Whatever! Unless Connie Schultz has been gripped by some type of disordered thinking, Quinn's memoir exposes us to the peculiar thought processes which may be found at the very top of our mainstream journalistic world, even among the finer people, the ones with the $20 million summer cottages in the Hamptons.

How disordered does the thinking get at the top of our upper-end press corps? In a question which is only vaguely related, to what extent do our major journalists lack even the most basic intellectual and analytical skills?

Those are two different questions, but the time has come when sensible people have to ask them—and not just about our major journalists, but about our liberal icons as well, including the embarrassing gaggle of college professors who increasingly make such a joke of the liberal/progressive world. To what extent does our discourse in the hand of deeply incompetent actors?

To what extent are our intellectual leaders disordered? Let's recall an important fact:

Long ago and far away, Zeus played a joke on us mortals. He sent Aristotle down from Olympus with instructions to tell us history'e greatest lie.

"Man [sic] is the rational animal," Aristotle is widely said to have said. At least over here in the western world, we humans have tended to believe the claim, even as the gods on Olympus roar with laughter at our comically disordered ways.

Unless Schultz was hallucinating as she read it, Quinn's memoir seems to spill with extremely peculiar thinking. But then, weird behavior and disordered thinking are common within our mainstream press corps, mixed with a remarkable lack of basic intellectual skill.

The thinking's disordered; the skills are few! Just consider the three (3) memoirs by the top major TV star.

The person to whom we refer is Mika Brzezinski, the famous-name "co-host" of the influential TV show, Morning Joe. The program went on the air in April 2007. In the years which followed, Brzezinski penned these (3) memoirs:
2009: All Things At Once

2011: Knowing Your Value: Women, Money and Getting What You're Worth

2013: Obsessed: America’s Food Addiction and My Own
These book are fascinating easy-readers, especially if you're curious about the mental traits which may exist within the upper-end pundit corps. We'd summarize their contents thusly:
All Things At Once:
Up From Obloquy: How I re-emerged at the top after getting fired.

Knowing Your Value:
Up From Penury: How I finally received the millions of dollars I so richly deserve.

Obsessed:
Up From Selectivity: The start of the truth behind the BS I put in my first two books.
Whatever! Brzezinski's third book describes a terrible, life-long "addiction" which no one should have to experience. Her second book may imaginably help someone learn to negotiate salary better, though she never seems to realize that she's talking to a privileged band of high-income earners and pretty much nobody else.

It's imaginable that these last two books might do someone some good. That said, the books are most useful as windows into the disordered world of our upper-end upper-class press corps.

For today, consider Brzezinski's first memoir, the book called All Things At Once.

That book covers Brzezinski's life from childhood on through her triumphant return to power as "co-host" of Morning Joe. The title refers to advice Brzezinki's mother always gave her, according to which young women should go ahead and have their children right away, even as they're building their high-income careers.

That may or may not be good advice, depending on the person. What's amazing is Brzezinski's failure to see that the story she tells in the book reads like a heartfelt warning against her mother's advice.

Good lord! The book's first chapter is called Cold Open. It's the harrowing tale of the day in 1998 when Brzezinski, half-crazed from a lack of sleep, falls down a flight of stairs with her four-month-old baby in her arms, seriously injuring her child and coming close to killing her.

Why was Brzezinski half-crazed from lack of sleep on the horrible day in question? Because she's been trying to do "all things at once," raising a family as she pursued a high-powered career and kept moving into ever-bigger houses.

Brzezinski's husband was also pursuing a high-powered career. He was absent when this second daughter was born, forcing Brzezinki to ask a woman she barely knew to drive her to hospital.

Two weeks later, he was absent again when Brzezinski had to move the family into its latest big house, "a big, run-down Victorian in Yonkers...I slogged through the over with a newborn on my breast and a toddler at my feet." Despite these rather striking absences, Brzezinski insists through all three books that she had the greatest marriage and the most supportive husband ever. But four months after that second baby was born, her exhaustion sent her tumbling down a flight of stairs, then to the emergency room—and she chose to use this horrific event as the opening scene in her book.

(The baby was in a full-body cast for four months.)

By any conventional reading, this first memoir is a heartfelt cautionary tale—a plea to young women, advising them not to do it the way Brzezinski did. Somehow, though, Brzezinski thought the endless harrowing tales with which she fills this puzzling book go to prove the opposite point—that Mom was right all along when she said to do all things at once!

This reasoning would seem extremely peculiar, unless you'd seen this author on your TV machine, where her odd behavior helps define the disordered world of These Star TV Pundits Today.

Quinn has killed three people by hex. Brzezinski was apparently unable to see the obvious thrust of her harrowing book. Increasingly, this is the sort of of puzzling fuel on which our upper-end discourse runs.

Tomorrow, we'll look at a few other parts of Brzezinski's memoirs before moving on to the world of These Fiery Liberals Today. With respect to Mika's memoirs, it isn't until the third book that a reader starts getting a hint of the actual truth which lies behind the panoply of harrowing tales which fill the first two volumes. But even then, Brzezinski seems unable to see how weird her life story actually is.

For our money, Brzezinski has always been one of the weirdest TV pundits. That said, she's highly influential.

Increasingly, this is the type of fuel on which our disordered discourse runs. How long will we be willing to leave these disordered players in charge?

Tomorrow: She celebrates herself

10 comments:

  1. The state of liberal discourse sucks in 2017: that’s a TDH thesis. But the state of our any-kind-of discourse sucks in 2017.
    Celebrity culture and the 24-hour cable news networks have degraded our discourse. That, and the vast amount of money dumped into politics. Oh, and the calculated tribalism of the political parties.
    Oh, and oligarchical ownership of media entities. Etc.
    So, I continue to feel that assigning blame to our current state of affairs to only one group (Those Fiery Liberals!) does not fully illuminate the problem.
    Also, was there ever a ”golden age” when political discourse was high-minded, fair, and balanced? Perhaps the “gilded age” of J. Pulitzer and WR Hearst, those famous “yellow journalists”?
    And finally…is there a bloc of people who actually think Brzezinski is some sort of spokesperson for liberalism? Are her books symptoms of diseased liberalism, or diseased culture in general?

    ReplyDelete
  2. According to a 2001 article in Variety, DreamWorks paid $2.6 million to acquire the rights to the novel from Warner Brothers for a proposed movie version starring and/or directed by Ben Stiller, although production was never begun. Schulberg, who died in 2009, told The Jewish Daily Forward in 2006 that he doubted that a film would ever be made, saying 'I still think there's a sense that it's too anti-industry'. In a 2009 newspaper interview, Schulberg quoted Steven Spielberg as saying that the book was 'anti-Hollywood and should never be filmed.

    Hmmm. Schulberg, Stiller, Speilberg. I'm noticing a lot of coincidences here. Something's gifilte fishy about that Spielberg quote, though. It seems far-fetched that Hollywood would be so sensitive about a negative portrayal. Just what is that book about anyways?

    What Makes Sammy Run? (1941) is a novel by Budd Schulberg inspired by the life of his father, early Hollywood mogul B. P. Schulberg. It is a rags to riches story chronicling the rise and fall of Sammy Glick, a Jewish boy born in New York's Lower East Side who, very early in his life, makes up his mind to escape the ghetto and climb the ladder of success by deception and betrayal.

    Ah, that makes a bit more sense now. Maybe they should just have the main character portrayed by a goy and never mention the jewish aspect of his crimes, like they did in "The Wolf of Wall Street."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kind of sad there are still antisemites like the commenter above still around. I wish Bob would moderate the comment section and/or end anonymous commenting.

      Delete
    2. Changing a Jew in the show to a goy in the movie was done in at least two cases I recall. One was "Same Time, Next Year." The Broadway play featured Charles Grodin and Ellen Burstyn. Grodin was a nervous, Jewish accountant and Burstyn a Roman Catholic. Some of the humor came from the religious difference (although nobody called the play anti-Semitic.) The movie kept Burstyn, but substituted Alan Alda for Grodin. Alan Alda was not Jewish. Of course, he was wonderful as he always is.

      In "Guys and Dolls", the character Nathan Detroit is Jewish. He even uses a Yiddish expression in one of his songs. But, Frank Sinatra in the movie was not Jewish.

      Delete
    3. The careful accounting of who is Jewish and who is not, in whatever industry, smells of anti-Semitism.

      Delete
  3. Hi everyone! URGENT SPELL TO GET BACK YOUR EX BOYFRIEND/GIRLFRIEND and i highly recommends this real spell caster Dr.Unity to anyone in need of help!..I'm so excited, I've gotten back with my ex boyfriend after he break up with me and left me for another girl he meant on social media, Thanks to Dr.Unity for bringing back Kelvin to me today.. Me and boyfriend have been together for 3 years, recently i found out my boyfriend was having an affair with another Girl, when i confronted him, it led to quarrels and he finally broke up with me, i tried all i could to get him back but all to no avail until i saw a post in a relationship forum about a spell caster who helps people get back their lost love through Love spell, at first i doubted it but decided to give it a try, when i contacted this spell via his email, and he told me what to do and i did it, Then he did a {urgent Love spell} for me. 28 hours later, my boyfriend really called me and told me that he miss me so much, So Amazing!! So that was how he came back that same day,with lots of love and joy,and he apologized for his mistake,and for the pain he caused me. Then from that day,our relationship was now stronger than how it were before, All thanks to Dr.Unity. he is so powerful and i decided to share my story on the internet that Dr.Unity is a real and powerful spell caster who i will always pray to live long to help his children in the time of trouble, if you are here and you need your Ex back, or your husband moved to another woman, do not cry anymore, contact this powerful spell caster now. Here’s his contact: Email him at: Unityspelltemple@gmail.com ,you can also call him or add him on Whats-app: +2348071622464 ,you can also visit his website:https://unitysspelltemple.blogspot.com,
    Sandra Erica from NY,USA..

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is my testimony about the good work of a man who helped me..My name is CAROLINE WAYNE. and I am based in NEW YORK , USA. My life is back!!! After 8 years of marriage, my husband left me with our three children. I felt like my life was about to end,and was falling apart. Thanks to a spell caster called papa Justus who i met online. On one faithful day, as I was browsing through the internet, I was searching for a good spell caster that can solve my problems. I came across series of testimonies about this particular spell caster. Some people testified that he brought their Ex lover back, some testified that he restores womb, some testified that he can cast a spell to stop divorce and so on. There was one particular testimony I saw, it was about a woman called Grace,she testified about how papa Justus brought back her Ex lover in less than 72 hours and at the end of her testimony she drop papa Justus e-mail address. After reading all these,I decided to give papa a try.

    I contacted him via email and explained my problems to him. In just 3 days, my husband came back to me. We solved our issues, and we are even happier than before. papa Justus is really a talented and gifted man and i will not stop publishing him because he is a wonderful man…If you have a problem and you are looking for a real and genuine spell caster to solve that problem for you. Try the great papa Justus today, he might be the answer to your problems. Here’s his contact: drabeljustustemple@gmail.com
    www.justushealinghome.com
    Thank you great Justus. Contact him for the following:
    (1)If you want your ex back.
    (2) if you always have bad dreams.
    (3)You want to be promoted in your office.
    (4)You want women/men to run after you.
    (5)If you want a child.
    (6)[You want to be rich.
    (7)You want to tie your husband/wife to be yours forever.
    (8)If you need financial assistance.
    (9)Herbal care
    10)Help bringing people out of prison
    (11)Marriage Spells
    (12)Miracle Spells
    (13)Beauty Spells
    (14)PROPHECY CHARM
    (15)Attraction Spells
    (16)Evil Eye Spells
    (17)Kissing Spell
    (18)Remove Sickness Spells
    (19)ELECTION WINNING SPELLS
    (20)SUCCESS IN EXAMS SPELLS
    (21) Charm to get who to love you.
    (22)Business spell.
    (23) Find your long lost family.

    Email him at: drabeljustustemple@gmail.com
    Whats-app him at: +2347033354868
    http://www.justushealinghome.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. The problem with using these books to examine the intellectual capacities of pundits is problematic, because there is no reason to believe there is any truth in them. I suppose the event of Brzezinski falling down the stairs probably actually happened, but why should I believe it was caused by exhaustion? Why should I believe any of the reasons she gives for any event she describes. She is selling a product, carefully crafted to appeal to a particular audience. She wants to sell books, not reveal anything to the world. Now Sally Quinn is probably old-fashioned enough that she wants to give us her true opinion, so we can conclude she's about as sharp as a sack full of wet mice, but beyond that? I mean, what kind of person would say, "He trashed the village, and it was not his village to trash."?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good day everybody,
    I'm from United Kingdom (GB). This is my testimony on how I won 53,193,914 million pounds on Mega millions lottery. I want to use this opportunity to thank Dr IyaryI, for casting winning spell for me to win the lottery of 53,193,194 million pounds,lottery ticket. I have been playing lotteries for the past 5 years now and i have never won any. Ever since then i have not been able to win any lotto and i was so upset and i needed help to win this mega million lottery. so i decided to go online and search for help, there i saw so many good testimony about this man called Dr Iyaryi,of how he has cast lucky spell lotto for people to win the lottery. I contacted him also and tell him i want to win the Mega millions lottery, he cast a spell for me which i use to play and won 53.193,914 million pounds in mega millions lottery. I am so grateful to this man, just in-case you also need him to help you win, you can contact him through his Email: driayaryi2012@hotmail.com, and he will surely help you just the way he has helped me. i will forever be grateful to him and always testify the good work of him to the hole world. contact him via Email: driayaryi2012@hotmail.com, or you can also contact him through his email and he will surely help you to win any kind of lottery And also Reach him on WhatsApp Number: +2349057915709 Thanks Dr. Iyaryi

    ReplyDelete

  7. ارخص شركة تنظيف سجاد بمكة ارخص شركة تنظيف سجاد بمكة
    ارخص شركة تنظيف سجاد بالمدينة المنورة ارخص شركة تنظيف سجاد بالمدينة المنورة
    ارخص شركة تنظيف سجاد بالدمام ارخص شركة تنظيف سجاد بالدمام
    شركة تنظيف بجدة بالبخار

    ReplyDelete