Fear And Loathing In America
It has been a while since the last time we had a president-elect Trumpelstiltskin. I can still remember the sick feelings of loss and disgust when he won the first time by a gnat’s eyelash. But the post-election malaise that is setting in right now is unprecedented as is every other damned thing this time.
I bear witness to the fear and loathing taking place from Lubec, Maine to Lebec, California, as we await the second term of His Shartfulness with two observations.
First, what is with the dipping viewership of broadband cable news channels MSNBC and CNN? I don’t recall that from before. Is the whole Left in such a state of loathing and disgust that watching it unfold again and again on TV is too much to bear? Yes. I can understand the spectacular crash and burn of Joe and Mika’s once-popular morning show on MSNBC (more on that later), but the whole liberal news genre seems to have to scrounge for a vanished audience. Yes, it’s hard to watch, but it’s time to wake up and taste the bitter dregs. America really screwed the pooch this time, but we still need to pay attention, more so because this time we really dug ourselves a hole by electing an a-hole.
The other thing that seems to be new is the desire to be fair and impartial, especially after being treated to such over-the-top rhetoric before 11/5. Joe and Mika went to Mar-A-Lago to make nice with the president-elect, and they lost 31% of their audience almost immediately. Could it be that, as Jon Stewart posited the week after their pilgrimage, they said he was Hitler?
But it didn’t stop there. Whoopi Goldberg is willing to “wait and see.”
Quoting her: “I’m not going to waste a lot of time on what he might do. I’m gonna wait because I need to see what he will do so that I know what I’m gonna do.”
Are you kidding me? Whoopi has the distinction of being compared to Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler’s filmographer, by an anti-abortion ad that was aired during a commercial break on The View. That really happened.
At least they didn’t call her Hitler.
Even Ana Navarro (who I remember as an evil Republican back in the good old days) said, “I spent weeks telling people he was apocalyptic. I’m not going to change now because it’s still the same man! I think that’s when we lose credibility.”
Ya think?
You can’t spend months proclaiming from the mountaintops that the apocalypse is nigh if Captain Bone Spurs gets elected, and then adopt a reasonable “can’t we all get along?” approach when it actually happens. That’s lazy. That’s disingenuous.
And it just isn’t who we are.
Dictator Trump says one thing, but means another thing .
1I think it’s more that people are saving their resources for a selected outrage rather than being worn down by the daily stream of dung being thrown. To date, we haven’t seen an effective counter strategy to the all out media portrayal of the Trump Show as entertainment rather than apocalypse.
2@RepubAnon
3Exactly my approach. Trump is very adept at flinging poo to keep attention distracted from what matters. Keeping both my head and blood pressure down until after the inauguration. Paraphrasing Dr. Maddow, “ignore what he says. watch what he does.”
Thanks Half Empty! I believe many people are being ‘overly cautious’ or going underground for fear of retaliation. We need courage (which I sadly lack these days) and a strong leader. I think Gov. Newsom fits the bill! Yet there is still a glimmer of hope in the looming Rapture Ready or Not days ahead.
4OK, CNN this morning online says that Biden’s pardoning of Hunter will give Trump an “opening.” When in hell did he ever need an “opening” to do anything that he wanted to do? He’s been talking about pardoning the J6 insurrectionists for months.
With all the cable channels it’s just been clickbait and horse races. That’s why people are fed up with them. Mika and Joe are prime examples. Kissing the ring of the Orange King.
5A lot of it could just be emotional exhaustion. I know that’s where I am right now.
6The money grubbers at NBC/msnbc and cnn are grasping at straws as they’ve lost their audience to trumpf exhaustion (as AKLynne says). They think somehow magats are going to start tuning in. That won’t happen except for msnbc when musk buys it. Then it will become state tevee.
7I’m just waiting for my super white evangelical neighbor to ask me how Thanksgiving was. I’ll say good except when I accidentally read the orange moron’s thanksgiving message. He might be sorry he asked. That’s how I feel.
Here are some thoughts you’ll likely not hear from msnbc, cnn or much of the msm-
8https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/opposing-the-president-elects-nominations
Media are whining that Biden told a lie after being deluged 24/7, 365 days a year with drumpf lies. drumpf calls Biden’s pardon of his own son a travesty of justice. That magat POS has zero self awareness. I thank the Great Spirit Biden finally showed the cojones to do the right thing for once in his life.
I only catch glimpses of CNN and MSNBC on the internet. I like Meidas Touch and Occupy Democrats way better.
9During Trump’s first term I used to wake up feeling sick dread for “what has he said or done today?”
His trashing NATO depressed me severely. Here is a brain that can not comprehend having an ally or friend. Every association is a mafia-style shake-down. If a NATO country doesn’t pay as much as Trump thinks (or some idiot aid tells him) they should, then “Hell yes! Let Russia invade and destroy! Good for Russia!”
This time around it won’t just be talk and bluster. Trump isn’t even in office and he’s already destroying countries and economic markets. Already picked a fight with our neighbors and allies, Mexico and Canada. Insulted & infuriated one of out biggest trading partners, China.
I need a new drug.
10A couple of years ago I read Timothy Snyder’s book The Road to Unfreedom — it’s exactly what is happening now and will after next January. You might want to take a cue from Warren Buffett and conserve cash.
11I’m one of the people who is trying to sit back and wait, rather than react to everything. I’m sure that Trump will do many of the horrible things he has talked about, but he won’t do all of them. Not because he’s not that bad, just because he’s never thorough enough to follow up on everything. Better to ignore the chaos circus and build emotional reserves for the actual battles.
12Those of us who depend on Medicare and Social Security can’t afford to ignore the billionaires who want every US dollar for themselves.
We have to fight back everyday and everyway.
13An interesting survival guide is available, from those who lived through it already, complete with action items:
“Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide”
https://verfassungsblog.de/the-authoritarian-regime-survival-guide/
14G. Foresight thanks for that. Definitely bookmarked.
15And while I agree to one degree or another with most everything said here, especially the exhaustion, I gotta say there’s one thing I don’t.
And it ain’t gonna be popular.
But whether or not we want to admit it, we live in a different world than we did a few weeks ago.
In a few weeks the media that has access to POTUS is very likely to be very different than it is now. And here’s the unpopular part.
I personally am glad Morning Joe has tried to retain whatever it has of that.
There I said it. Bend the knee? Kiss the ring?
Horseshit.
Y’all can all call em sellouts.
But I think you’re refusing to acknowledge reality.
Facebook is the source of reality for a slim enough majority
of Americans that we elected trump.
After the coronation Joe and Mika are likely to be the closest we’ve got to an actual inside view for as long as they can thread the needle.
But that’s just my opinion and I’m just as full of shit as anybody else.
Moar Pete Hogsbreath news….
https://www.salon.com/2024/12/03/pete-hegseths-mother-begged-him-to-get-some-help—he-joined-a-misogynist-church-instead/
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