Martin Bashir resigns; MSNBC host suggested Sarah Palin's mouth be shat in

This man should have his own show. Please give him his own show, pretty please?

This actually happens now, as was’ve got nee pits th’noo, how.

Of course that’s true now, but China plays the long game. American idea of a ‘long game’ is looking two quarters in the future.

Honestly, screw Bashir on this.

Public debt is a problem. Slavery? Well, not in the ‘blacks on plantations’ sense. But look at the history of 20th century neo-colonialism: IMF and nefarious allies prop up a shitty dictator, loan him massive billions to buy guns to oppress his citizenry and invest in ‘public works’ that funnel back to Western corporations, and then, when they finally depose him…say ‘The Bill is Now Due.’ and start taking over real assets, imposing austerity, destroying the sovereignty of the country. This has happened to literally dozens of countries in the last 50 years.

The fact that the exact same strategy seems to be in effect in America is a real problem.

I’m not sure that Sarah Palin is the best person to preach about it, as she is too closely tied to the GOP mainstream who is a chief vector of this strategy. But it’s worth talking about.

Ignoring it entirely to take pot shots at an unpopular politician is just braindead, ‘red meat for the base’, bullshit.

On a broader point, anyone who uses their rare and great power of a national TV broadcast to take pot shots at divisive political personalities on ‘the other side’ is part of the problem. The problem in America goes far beyond a handful of mediagenic, divisive, ‘love-them-or-hate-them’ political stooges. All such focus on personalities instead of deeper patterns and systemic problems is just a distraction and a sideshow that accomplishes exactly nothing and informs nobody.

It’s pure entertainment as much as ‘Dancing with the Stars’ is. There is no informational content here, there is nothing to be learned from the segment for anyone who has graduated elementary school.

I’ve never watched his show, but if this was par for the course, fuck Martin Bashir.

4 Likes

Thanks! I can add "straw man’ to my fallacious argument bingo card. Bashir wasn’t calling her out about her politics, her race, her sex or her profession. He was calling her out over the crude, insensitive way she expressed her opinion.

2 Likes

Exactly. When I post a link, I explain exactly what site it’s going to and what will show up on the screen if you click on it. Never had a problem posting Amazon or YouTube links here, as a result.

2 Likes

This could be an interesting discussion. We already know that speaking in full sentences and explaining facts doesn’t work. As you say, stooping to their level disrespects our own characters. So where’s the middle ground that will work? How to get through to citizens who are mesmerized by people like Palin?

ie - The US laughs in their faces and their economy stagnates for 10-20 years.

Nuke from orbit. It’s the only way.

Give me an “asshole” journalist anyday over the fawning courtiers to power we get instead. Bashir was right on as I recall.

Treasury debt is basically a fiction. The US government doesn’t have to sell debt to offset printing money, its just a holdover from the days of a gold-backed currency. The primary reason we still do so is that it keeps the government economically subservient to very powerful, very wealthy interests. We could exchange every treasury bond in existence for cash tomorrow if we wanted to.

Plus, assuming the current debt kabuki continues, which is a solid assumption, the last thing the Chinese need is for the US currency to drop in value given they hold so much of it in the form of treasury bonds. That “talking point” is pure fear-mongering ridiculousness.

2 Likes

I’d rather have a Paxman or a Humphreys.

Next time somebody complains about being a wage-slave, do they deserve an Olberman-style ‘how dare you!’ and a lecture on the journals of Thistlewood?

No, I don’t think so, because wage-slavery is a description of a system whereby people are kept in a state that is effectively serf-dom even though the work is paid. Whereas throwing the term ‘OMG TEH SLAVURY’ into the middle of a ramble about debt doesn’t really mean anything at all. Reductio ad redneck.

1 Like

You won’t, because they don’t want to be gotten through TO. You just keep speaking the truth, keep being honest, and they will see the error of their ways in time. They’ll never admit it, but they’ll silently vanish and Sarah’s “pull” will go with it. In fact, you already HAVE seen the tea party losing its power, and nowadays, the only time Sarah’s in the media is when idiots like Brashir suggest shitting in her mouth, or neoliberal sites like BoingBoing or TV stations like NBC bring up something from 2008 to mock her.

And I say this AS a neoliberal/socialist.

I’m not even really sure what “progressive” means at this point. Huffington post blabs about it constantly, but it is often guilty of the same thing MSNBC is.

‘a dose of…punishment’
It doesn’t even directly imply he means for her mouth to be shat in.
That’s just one of the possible outcomes.

1 Like

On a related note, I think Sean Hannity should be waterboarded. I don’t mean that ironically, and I’m not engaging in hyperbole; I think he should literally be strapped down and waterboarded, like he promised. He says it’s no big deal and not torture, so let’s see him demonstrate.

Drones.

Say what, now?

2 Likes

The first question then is why are they so mesmerized by people like Palin?

I personally think the Palins of the world are a symptom, not a cause. There’s no point fighting the woman if you leave the actual cause unaddressed. But I have no clue what that cause may be…