Quiet Man

Musings and comments.

[ourquietman]

The room, which had applauded The WSJ reporters just moments earlier, responded largely with hushed silence as Trump delivered one attack after another, culminating with him putting on a red “Trump 2028” hat and claiming that he would win a fourth term, effectively turning the dinner into a Trump rally, with his infamous torrent of unhinged trolling, grievances, and conspiracy theories.  The result was a public humiliation for the White House Correspondents’ Association. After months of insisting the dinner was worth reviving in the name of the First Amendment and civil discourse, the Weijia Jiang-led organization instead handed Trump a nationally televised platform to demean the very journalists it exists to represent. Far from showcasing the importance of a free press, the evening left the association looking naïve about its decision to invite the man who has spent years using both his personal and government means to wage war against the free press and its ability to report on his actions.  The address prompted CNN, which aired Trump’s remarks live, to run not one but two full-screen graphics afterward defending Collins and the network’s reporting against Trump’s outrageous broadsides. And while the room was largely silent as Trump rattled off his smears and meandered through tangents about his White House ballroom project and the Waldorf’s chandeliers, no one appeared to walk out in protest over his grotesque remarks.  In fact, as Trump concluded his vitriolic speech, he was met with applause from roughly half the room, reporters there said, before turning toward new WHCA president Jacqui Heinrich, who smiled, cheered, and embraced the man who had just spent more than an hour assailing the work of those seated before him.

Jon Passantino via Status

[ourquietman]

What unfolded Friday night inside that gaudy, former Trump hotel ballroom was a monstrosity. And it warranted a stout response from the Washington press corps that sadly never came. As just about everybody around the world fully expected, Trump delivered an unhinged, hateful speech that was written for the sole purpose of celebrating his undemocratic assault on news outlets in America and settling scores with his political enemies. He called people fat. He told racist and anti-gay jokes. He delighted in his oligarch friends taking over the networks. It was thoroughly disgraceful. And the maniacal cherry on top, for Trump and his crew, was his comment (kidding but maybe not) that he plans to run for a third term - complete with a bright red 2028 baseball cap. Totally unfunny, given that he has already incited a deadly insurrection. It was coup-coup for Cocoa Puffs and the horror in the room was palpable. Which was exactly what Trump wanted. This was payback time for when Obama and the press laughed at him for his birtherism back in 2011. Payback for all the times he was fact-checked and investigated and called out for his extremism and insanity. He soaked up the misery in the room like a balm on his blackened, broken soul. Hate is the only stimulant that keeps sir naps-a-lot awake these days. Yes, he bombed. And that was the point. He wasn’t trying to be funny. That would make people happy. Duh! That speech was nothing more than a heat-seeking missile aimed squarely at any joy that journalists take in their work. It was also a message. Things are about to get worse. Much, much worse.  Which is why all of this putrid garbage called for something, anything other than the meek and profoundly disappointing response from the press. Just imagine if the reporters gathered in that room had gotten out of their seats and walked out on that maddening address to the nation. Millions of Americans would have been cheering in their living rooms. Instead the wide shots and cutaways of the crowd on hand told a far more depressing story, revealing not just the stunned and tortured looks of some of the finest journalists in the world, who missed a golden opportunity to stand up for what is arguably our most precious right guaranteed under the Constitution. People sat in their seats, defeated and depressed. It was agonizing to watch from home. But it was also clarifying. The event itself was an indictment of our news media. Our system of delivering information to the American people is badly broken.  Jim Acosta via Substack

[ourquietman]

“The president’s speech will be a combination of unifying yet vicious, and serious yet hilarious, all at the same time, if you can imagine that. One thing I can assure you, it will be entertaining,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

From Reuters article on Take 2 of the White House Correspondents Dinner

[ourquietman]

The Remaking of Lindsey Graham — The New Yorker

Once a harsh critic of Donald Trump, the South Carolina senator became one of the President’s most dependable allies—a sign of what it takes

Ruth Marcus in THE NEW YORKER

[ourquietman]

Semiquincentennial TALKING BLUES

About America on the verge of its 250th birthday.

[ourquietman]

Why The New York Times Is Wholly Responsible for Bari Weiss’s Rise

She was at The Wall Street Journal and should have spent her career there. But the Times decided she was … interesting. Why do liberals do t

[ourquietman]

Rome Hartman, a longtime 60 Minutes producer who retired last year, praised Pelley as “among the all-time greats of CBS News and of 60 Minutes”. He also called out Weiss and Bilton for terminating Pelley because he pushed back aggressively during a staff meeting, despite the anti-cancel culture positioning of Weiss’s company the Free Press. “We SHOULD wrestle over important stuff,” he wrote in a text message. “The irony is flammable!”

Jeremy Barr in THE GUARDIAN

[ourquietman]

Last fall, David Ellison, the chairman and CEO of CBS’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, purchased Bari Weiss’s pro-Trump website, the Free Press, for $150 million. As part of the deal he put Weiss in charge of CBS News, where she quickly went to work making the division’s products more friendly to Donald Trump. We don’t need to recapitulate the entire history here; it is enough to note that, as a business matter, Weiss’s tenure has been an abject failure. Ratings are down across CBS News properties. But as a corporate matter, Weiss has been a success. First, as a way of greasing the skids of Ellison’s purchase of Paramount, he publicly signaled that he would give Weiss a prominent role at CBS News long before he bought her. Then, once she was put in charge and started breaking things, she made Ellison’s purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery all the more politically appealing to Trump. Trump publicly praised Weiss, and when Ellison and Netflix got into a bidding war for Warner-Discovery, the president stepped in to thumb the scales and make sure everyone knew that he would approve a sale to Ellison but not to Netflix. So under Weiss, CBS News has been a failure, both in terms of product and business. The journalism at CBS News is getting worse and the audience is leaving. But the particular manner in which CBS News has failed—by broadcasting its obeisance to Trump—has enabled tremendous success by the division’s corporate parent. This is what happens in a command economy when the head of the government picks winners and losers. CBS News no longer exists as a unit whose purpose is to create journalism that attracts an audience and drives revenue. Its purpose is to keep the president happy so that Ellison’s other businesses prosper. It’s not quite right to say that CBS News under Weiss is a charity. It’s more like an ongoing bribe.

Jonathan V. Last via Substack

[ourquietman]

Did Texas Republicans' Restive Runoffs Imperil Their November Ballot? 

In almost all cases, the most problematic, extremist, unqualified, and Trumpian candidate won the day.

[ourquietman]

In his earlier guise at “The Colbert Report,” Colbert coined the term “truthiness” to cheekily characterize lies of the Bush administration. Looking ahead to a post-“Late Show” era, whatever comes next for CBS—which was greeted Thursday by the chalk message “Thank you Stephen. And fuck you CBS and Donald Trump” outside the theater—the short term could become a case of truthiness and consequences.

Brian Lowry via Oliver Darcy’s STATUS

[ourquietman]

Watching the Wheels: Finding Meaning and Purpose in Paterson

https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2018/09/05/meaning-purpose-paterson/

[ourquietman]

The outcry from the White House on Monday was the latest instance of a president who has himself made inflammatory remarks about matters of life and death defining what sort of speech he deems acceptable in America. He recently gloated over the death of Robert S. Mueller III — “Good, I’m glad he’s dead!” — and seized on the murder of Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife, at the hands of their own son, to suggest that “Trump derangement syndrome” may have been responsible.

Shawn McCreesh of THE NEW YORK TIMES discussing Donald and Melanie’s retroactive anger over a Jimmy Kimmel joke from last week.

[citizenscreen]

Jackie Robinson made his Major League debut at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field on April 15, 1947. He was the first Black player in the #MLB in the modern era. #Baseball #JackieRobinsonDay #OnThisDay

[ourquietman]

I believe that a person who has changed or rehabilitated deserves a second chance, but Swalwell is showing that it would have been a mistake for House Democrats to fend off the expulsion vote. Swalwell hasn’t taken full responsibility and spent a statement that should be about apologizing to the people he hurt, including the alleged victims, who are never mentioned, raising a complaint about due process.  Eric Swalwell is an attorney. He knows that there is no right to due process in Congress. The fact that Swalwell brought up due process suggests that he is going to go the Donald Trump route and claim that he was politically targeted and denied his rights.  Women are the majority of the Democratic Party and the backbone of the party.  Eric Swalwell showed that he is still only thinking about himself as he resigns from Congress, which is why there should be no place for Swalwell in the Democratic Party now or in the future.

Jason Easley, from politics USA.com

[ourquietman]

PARENTAL PUNISHMENT

What happened when my mother hit me at the age of 17.

[ourquietman]

Ms. Bondi herself has been a terrible spokesperson and symbol of the department — disrespectful of its honorable traditions, dismissive of critics, intolerant of dissent — and this was demonstrated most clearly with her inept handling of the Jeffrey Epstein matter. After Ms. Bondi misled the country about her initial disclosures in the case, Congress responded by passing a law forcing the Justice Department to release its files on the pedophile and his allies. Ms. Bondi’s delayed, inconsistent and generally incompetent response to the law achieved the seemingly impossible goal of uniting congressional Democrats and Republicans — in disgust with her performance. (Evidently, Mr. Trump was unimpressed as well.) Still, the deeper problems with Ms. Bondi’s leadership rested at the level of policy. Under Ms. Bondi, the Justice Department had all but stopped doing its job of prosecuting crime. Case loads are way down, and so are the numbers of prosecutors — almost certainly a result of Ms. Bondi’s leadership. The main reason for these changes is that instead of charging actual criminals, Ms. Bondi’s Justice Department has remade itself as the legal auxiliary of President Trump’s disastrous immigration enforcement practices.

Jeffrey Toobin in THE NEW YORK TIMES

[ourquietman]

Trump repeats that former President Barack Obama “gave” Iran $1.7 billion in cash. It is a familiar line. The money belonged to the Iranian government and had been frozen for decades in the U.S. He then rips anew into the Obama-era nuclear deal, which he pulled out of in 2018. But he never mentioned that as part of the deal, Obama got 97 percent of Iran’s nuclear stockpile out of the country, something Trump has not yet accomplished.

David E. Sanger in THE NEW YORK TIMES