PCIntern
PCIntern's JournalKeith Olbermann made a good point this morning
in his daily podcast, which is terrific (you can skip the commercials and the dog segment easily if you wish and increase the speed of course. He sounds fine at 1.5x)
He said that when Biden says the word “fascist”, everyone in the media has to repeat the word when reporting it and it takes on a life of its own. Boy, is he mad as hell….and boy does he hate Trump. Wow.
His final segment daily is a usually-wonderful piece on how he interacted with people of note many years ago and how small a world it is.
I just woke up to take a leak and...
HOLY SHIT!
Now I’m afraid to go to sleep from now on. I’ll miss some huge news…😋
I am now going to tell you a story which may make you laugh or it may make you wince,
and then I’m going to tie it to the media…
So much for the preface: when I was in high school we had to take a typing test which we practiced and practiced for, and we had to type 25 words a minute “error free“ on manual typewriters. So the day of the test they sit us in front of these typewriters which have their covers on, the copy we are the type from is on our left and the typing teacher says all right take the covers off the machine. So upon lifting the cover, we realize that there are no letters on the keys because we are supposed to be able to touch-type.
We were all horrifyingly surprised, but one kid, a very strange guy, “whips it out“ and starts masturbating immediately right there in the classroom. I cannot begin to describe the teacher’s reaction, suffice it to say that she went berserk and started screaming at him which did not deter him from continuing. She made us leave the room and we are really aren’t sure what happened next but we didn’t see him in school for two weeks. He came back for graduation and I have not heard hide nor hair from him or about him since.
I liken the media’s reaction to the sudden turnaround in political fortunes to this poor guy’s. After screaming since January 20, 2021 that the Republicans were going to retake government, they have absolutely no idea how to handle this because they are not in the news business as they used to be, but are in the prediction/prognostication division of the fiction division of various media outlets. They determine in advance what is going to happen as in the film Minority Report, and thus it needs to come about or the ground shakes underneath them. Well, this is been quite the earthquake and we shall see what happens in November, but it serves them right. All of them. Particularly the soon-to-be-fired Chuck Todd. See, I’m in the prognostication business as well…
As an aside....if TFG were smart (which he is not) he would have
Stolen and copied the following classified documents. If threatened with indictments he could reveal them to the world and change everything:
1. A sheaf of documents attesting to the fact that UFO’s are often extraterrestrial in origin and we have spaceships and alien corpses in storage (see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and many others).
2. A sheaf of documents attesting to the fact that there existed government/private contractor plots to assassinate JFK, RFK, MLK, Malcolm X, George Lincoln Rockwell, and George Wallace.
3. A sheaf of documents attesting to the fact that there were excavations in the Middle East which unearthed objects which demonstratively prove that the foundations of the three major religions of the West were inspired by worship of a small, but technologically advanced race which inhabited Antarctica when it was more temperate and selectively imparted information which allowed the societies in Central and South America, Africa, and certain islands in the Pacific Ocean to progress.
I believe that might prevent an indictment from being handed down. Other than that, he’s toast.
A Sunday morning reflection...
I have posted here previously about former, now deceased, mayor Frank Rizzo of Philadelphia. My father used to call him a “tinhorn Mussolini”, and he was an exceedingly complex individual: uneducated but politically and charismatically brilliant in his own way. And I say “in his own way“ because he was one of a kind. I am not going to belabor this post with previous stories, but this aspect of him does come to mind given present issues with the former guy.
After Rizzo was mayor, he was addressed exclusively as Mr. Mayor, or Mayor Rizzo. In all the venues in which I attended in which he was introduced, as a speaker making brief remarks, or privately, he was referred to as “Mayor Frank Rizzo“. I once ran into him on the street talking to a couple gentlemen, I said “good morning Mr. Mayor”, he extended his hand and recognized me from 10 seconds 15 years before when I had been introduced to him in a barber shop. I had adopted one of his phrases when he remarked to a reporter who was an acquaintance of mine: “I love it when people think I’m stupid“ as an aside, I utilize that phrase when people speak to me in that condescending, pedantic fashion which is exceedingly annoying as almost all of you must know.
So the former guy has adopted the same routine: he refers to himself as the president as does anyone who works for him as well as the ever-complicit media, he uses a similar seal to the US President on his speaking podiums, he has never conceded the election so his fan club feels, no, KNOWS in their (black) hearts that he is still president and should be addressed that way.
But what I believe is truth is that it doesn’t matter whether there is a special master, reviews, whatever they manage to conjure up, because when the story breaks via the New York Times or the Washington Post or CNN or NBC that The secrets have been given/sold to a foreign power, then all hell is going to break loose and all of a sudden his name will not be mentioned by anyone who has ever defended him in the past. Donald who? I think this is coming, I think they know it’s coming, and that’s why none of them except for Senator Blunt showed up on the TV machine today defending this miscreant.
Methinks this shall be a busy week forthcoming.
This is not, repeat not, creative speculation, it is the Macguffin Assertion
The Macguffin as described by Alfred Hitchcock, is that which is in jeopardy and which must needs be recovered by the hero from the villain. According to Hitchcock, it doesn’t really matter exactly what the nature of it is but we have been told that it is important and that is sufficient.
I want to preface this by saying that no matter what insanity, what maniacal, what absolutely unbelievable thought you may have concerning the undermining and profiteering off the government of the United States, this group has you beat. As I’ve said before, there is no bottom…
It would not surprise me in the least if the contents of the documents were not so much about nuclear deterrence, nuclear war games, or anything along those lines, but can you imagine if there were intelligence assays to the nature of the foci of the power grid, or Internet servers, or codes to satellites which control our communication and defense capabilities?
Or perhaps they were classified studies performed concerning our transportation weaknesses, or lengths of major oil and water and natural gas pipelines which are vulnerable, or even emergency frequencies for broadcasting for the military during times of war.
Or perhaps detailed plans of water filtration plants, desalinization locations and their susceptibility to sabotage, or perhaps even Television and radio transmitters themselves which transmit microwave signals from which cable news and programming originates. Or even companies which produce pesticides and other lethal chemicals which if exploded, (think Bhopal India), would cause wide devastation to the human and animal (think herds of cows, sheep, and poultry farms) population downwind.
Or the algorithm for the location of tanker cars pulled by locomotives on the freight lines of America, the contents of which if released possibly could decimate whole regions and possibly ruin the agriculture surrounding them or of course cause cities to have mandatory evacuations and panics/riots.
There are many ways to paralyze and even destroy whole populations which do not involve nuclear weapons, and we know that the country is ill prepared for complete shut down. One need only remember Rod Serling‘s The Monsters on Maple Street episode of the Twilight Zone, that civilization as we know it would break down very quickly. On 9/11 in New York City two buildings were destroyed and the entire metropolitan area was thrown into complete disarray because we are not prepared for catastrophic events in the way that perhaps we should be, or quite frankly it may be impossible to quickly assess the true severity of situations and act for a variety of reasons including the limitations as human beings organizedthe way we are in this society.
My point is that we can speculate all we want but the fact is that we are an extremely vulnerable society and if those in charge say that something is of dire importance we have no choice but to take their word for it. Those who read me know that I am a cynic for the most part but there are times when we have to accede to the powers that be and respect their competence . Guessing the nature of what is top-secret and compartmentalized is really the Macguffin of the story. It doesn’t really matter what he stole, it’s just that he did it and he held them and he needs to pay for that. Dearly. And quickly.
Of course this sociopath likes and employs a guy whose first name is Kash...
You can’t make this shit up… It is as though his Chief of Staff is named Bill Melater and his son would be named Rufus Leaking Trump.
Nobody, but nobody including James Joyce, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jules Verne, Tom Clancy, Stephen King, or William Faulkner could possibly come up with this whole scenario.
This is going to have to be a 25 part miniseries someday…
Et tu, Anderson?
Kerist, I was just watching Anderson Cooper interview James Carville and Anderson asked him if the Democrats wouldn’t be in trouble due to overconfidence. Carville just started laughing at him and said the one thing that did not worry his bald head was Democratic overconfidence.
So we go from losing abjectly four weeks ago to being so far ahead in some Senate races, win a special election, have Kansas vote to allow abortion in many cases, and now we are exhibiting overconfidence. You can already see the new leadership at CNN exerting its weight and the blast radius from its farts.
I, somewhat inappropriately, burst out laughing yesterday....
So since it was Wednesday, and I was off from work, I attended the Atlantic City, New Jersey air show. This is held annually just off the beach in Atlantic City and is the largest gathering annually within the state by far. There are usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 400,000 attendees who crowd the boardwalk and the beaches to watch displays of air power and private individuals who fly stunts and older planes. It is very much a military exercise and originates from the NAFEC base nearby.
I was honored by an invitation to join a VIP group which had a large tent on the beach in front of Boardwalk Hall wherein foods and beverages were served, and rather than having to sit on the hot sand for five hours was treated to a table with an umbrella, comfortable chairs, and music playing in the background.
At one point in the long program of displaying military might, three gigantic helicopters appeared flying left to right, circled, and came around for another pass. Shortly thereafter F-16s and F-18s flew like bullets over the beach at a speed of well over 700 miles an hour, the deafening roar almost inconceivably loud, and at that moment I just started to laugh. My companions asked me what I thought was so funny, and I replied: “All these assholes who say that they are going to take on the federal government and see themselves as armed to the teeth with their rifles and their AK-47s and whatever else they happen to possess, and all they would have to happen is one of these helicopter gunships would show up to their compound with 100 fully armed troops and within a few minutes all that would be left would be a thin film on the ground and a big puff of smoke rising into the clouds.” They all agreed with me of course, since were all of like minds.
My father, about whom I posted over the years, was a four year veteran of the Pacific Theatre during World War II, lucky to survive, and he once said to me that if the military of America shows up with an objective, it will complete that mission without question. Unless someone has been witness or participated in the military, they do not understand the magnitude of the force and capabilities which exist. Watching movies on TV about lone heroes taking on whole squadrons of the military it’s just that: watching a movie. When the Thunderbirds showed up yesterday for the demonstration, they have one skit so to speak wherein you’re watching four of their number in formation and the fifth and sixth comes screaming over your head at a low altitude from behind and from a Blindspot. The Noise is deafening, the shock to the system due to the surprise is enormous and you realize your vulnerability if you were an enemy combatant, you’d be finished instantaneously.
We live the fantasy of television wherein for example James Garner in the Rockford Files got hit on the head every week and knocked out, would arise a few minutes later rub the back of his head, grimace, get in his car and drive, seemingly unfazed by his experience. We know in fact, that if this had this happened to one just a couple of times in a lifetime , one would require years of all types of therapy and possibly permanent disability from severe concussions to say nothing of headaches which would rage incessantly and possible blindness. People live in a media-driven fantasy world in which the hero is unflappable, unshakable, and essentially invulnerable. That is not how it works.
I include this dialogue from the film Die Hard:
Hans Gruber:
This time John Wayne does not walk off into the sunset with Grace Kelly.
John McClane:
That was Gary Cooper, a**hole.
This self-referential film inside joke was of course just one of the terrific lines in the film, but the essence of what the villain is trying to say is generally true… Except of course, for this film.😁
When you take on a military force Which possesses vest resources, you were going to lose if their mission is simply to destroy you. (Yes I know all about Vietnam, but there is a more intricate story involving that debacle). I will leave you with one more example.
For those of you who are younger, many years ago there was a group who called themselves the Symbionese liberation army who became notorious because they kidnapped Patty Hearst and broke into a courthouse and horribly assassinated the judge having taken him prisoner as a hostage. I remember Being informed that we were about to see the full might and power of the law enforcement of the United States and that these people for the most part would be eradicated like the medfly was in California. And that is exactly what happened, these criminals broke the rules and killed a judge just outside of his courtroom. No expense or resources were spared in destroying this group permanently, cutting off its head and burning a whole mess to the ground figuratively. They are but a footnote in political science history.
These right wingers who make these statements about sending FBI agents home in body bags had best better understand that should that occur, rather than body bags, scooping up their remains will require a dustpan and brush.
I am good and goddamn sick and tired...
First, of the media referring to Trump as President Trump. After President Obama left office, he was constantly referred to as “former President Obama”, or howzabout “former president Clinton”, or “former President Carter”. Note that when a Republican either finishes his term or is “retired” from his office (Nixon) it remains “President”. As Gerald Ford found out after his talks of a co-presidency with Reagan, there’s only one president at a time, like it or not. I understand the use of the term as a term of respect in addressing or referring to that person, but the duplicity of the media coupled with the incessant use of and by Trump calling himself the 45th President of the United States, implying that there is no 46th president yet, is and has devalued the nature of the term of respect.
Second, the media has been talking about the coming “red wave“ since the day President Biden was inaugurated. They have staked their reputations on it and their predictive powers. If you notice, so-called policy Wonks like Jonathan Lemire and Steve Kornacki incessantly preface every discussion about any election with the “fact“ that the party in power in the White House does poorly in general in the midterm election. Every. Goddamn. Time. As though those people watching this Network have not heard it 15,000 times in the last 18 months. Oh, and did I mention that the party in power in the White House tends to have problems in the midterm elections? I’m surprised that every fourth sentence is not “do remember to flush the toilet after you use it.“ And of course, last nights elections did not go the way in some respects that these people predicted, so they have an almost cartoonish surprised look. How could this be? Dumbasses.
Third, and what does it take for these jerkoffs to realize that with Trump and his minions there is no limit to their perfidy, and no bottom to their amorality? Those of us old enough to remember the Gulf War certainly recalled the coverage we are in the reporters would make the statement preceding their report “Saddam Hussein today said XYZ…“. And then they would report what he said as though it was factual and would wait for it to be overturned by Obvious video footage, or the state department or the defense department explaining exactly why what he said was not true. When I was a kid and news reporters reported news only, the networks, particularly NBC with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, would report a story which occurred say in the Soviet Union and then at the end of their report would state what Pravda or Tass had reported which was generally A minimization or denial of the story’s existence. Now, we have not only Fox News doing that, but it seems our own media is complicit in attempting to minimize the absolute criminality of the previous administration. The way this is taught in high school classes is that you substitute a positive person in the narrative and say what would happen to him or her if he or she did that? For example, suppose President Obama took 400 sheets/folios of highly classified paper home? One can only imagine the repercussions both by the Republicans and by our media. This guy Trump lied 100,000 times at least, stole highly sensitive material, performed giveaways of secrets from the day he was inaugurated, worked out a deal with the Saudis so his son-in-law could collect $2 billion which I’m certain will be funneled somehow to Senior, and untold crimes of which we as yet know nothing. It is revolting and some days I almost can’t stop throwing up.
These are a few of my “favorite” things…
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Gender: MaleHometown: Philly
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Current location: Jersey Shore
Member since: Sun Feb 22, 2004, 09:01 AM
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