Why is Betsy McCaughey on MSNBC?

[drm604]

I thought she was yesterday's news. Why is anyone paying any attention to her? Who is she working for now?

[babylonsister]

1. To highlight her bozoness?

:shrug:

[madokie]

35. Too funny

:rofl:

[Captain Hilts]

2. Because MSNBC is strapped for cash and she'll come on cheap. nt

[ShortnFiery]

3. I don't turn on MSNBC until "The Ed Show" at 6:00 p.m. EDT. :-) eom

[valerief]

18. Dylan Ratigan discussing healthcare s/b an exception. This is great!!!! nt

[Kahuna]

23. You missed a great brow-beating. They made her holler, UNCLE!!!

:rofl:

[AuntPatsy]

38. Then you should rethink your scheduling because he holds no hostages....

he has put standards back in journalism as do Rachel and a few others on msnbc..in fact...no one besides msnbc has true journalistic integrity on such a consistant basis these days? I cannot think of any other news channel that has the like of dylan and rachel?

[Skidmore]

4. Weiner is handling her just fine. And so is Ratigan.

Are you listening to this at all?

[drm604]

7. Oh yeah.

They're tearing her a new one. But who's backing her now? I thought that she was gone after her Daily Show fiasco.

[HipChick]

8. OMG! she just called Weiner ignorant..

[Howler]

5. Getting her ass handed to her! LMAO!!!!! n/t

n/t

[Happyhippychick]

6. She is being eviscerated. They are making her look like an idiot.

[Howler]

11. Oh No she didn't!!!!!!!!

She just told wiener he was ignorant!!!!

[Happyhippychick]

14. I heard that. What a wench.

[Howler]

17. OMG!!!! This is GREAT T.V!!!!! n/t

n/t

[stanwyck]

37. Jon Stewart did the same to her on The Daily Show

she kept referring to doom and gloom in the healthcare legislation that simply wasn't there. When Stewart pressed her to cite, specifically, where she was getting her information for her scare tactics, she couldn't respond. She was totally exposed. Naked. And it wasn't pretty.

[Lucy Goosey]

39. She does a pretty good job of making herself look like an idiot...

She has no case at all - the facts are not on her side - so all she can do is resort to loud, rude demagoguery. She might as well hand her ass to herself.

[valerief]

9. "Corporate Communism!" Loved that line from Dylan.

It's a great interview!!!!!

[johnfunk]

19. Dylan started using that two-word description last week. START USING IT!

Do the math...

  Billionaire Wealthcare
+ Insurance Industry Collusion
  Corporate Communism

[riverwalker]

20. me too

catchy meme, I like it.

[kristopher]

31. It isn't great it is a misleading piece of propaganda

"Corporate Communism" is a way to rephrase "Fascism" in a way that disassociated the economic problems from the right and rebrand them as a product of the left.

Socialism and Communism is where control of resources and production are under government control in order for the benefits of those assets to be more equitably distributed to the people.

Fascism is where the government is under control of the corporations and the benefits of the government - corporate merger flow to the corporations.

Ratigan is a lying sneaking piece of propagandizing shit.

[Barack_America]

34. Google the term.

Ratigan is justified in using it.

He's using it for its shock value. He knows that tea baggers are so horrified by the word that it will get their attention. Our nation turned communist by the corporations? Whaa?

[kristopher]

40. And they wouldn't be shocked by the use of Corporate Fascism?

Use your brain. Ratigan is a right wing fruitcake trying to salvage a failed ideology.

[Barack_America]

41. No, they wouldn't. Tea baggers ARE fascists.

They are praying for a military coup to overthrow Obama. They envision an American utopia in which people are forced to live and worship according to their standards.

They love fascism, they fear communism.

Therefore, if you want to get their attention, call them communists.

I don't disagree with you regarding Ratigan's politics. He is a capitalist through and through, that doesn't discount that his crusade against corporate welfare is correct.

[kristopher]

42. That doesn't make sense.

First, you are limiting your perception to the rabid right - I'm talking about the entire public.

"They love fascism, they fear communism."


"They" don't know the difference between fascism/communism/socialism. They've been schooled by Limpballs that Fascism=National Socialism=Socialism=Communism. The broader public has a somewhat more informed view and it is their perceptions that Ratigan is targeting.
The Republicans lost because "people" broadly lost faith in the underlying principles that underpin Reagan Republicanism. Ratigan is trying to swing that middle of the road group that Reaganism captured after the loss in Vietnam and the shift in power to OPEC.

Most of them also have no idea of the actual difference and yet they do domestically associate the right with fascism and the left with communism and socialism.

[amacd]

47. Kris, it makes sense if you understand Lakoff (see below)

Kris, "Corporate Communism" is a perfect phrase to reverse (destroy) the hard right's winning streak on "contested concepts" like 'death tax'.

The left, with lefty George Lakoff's advice, is now going to bury the fascist right in word wars.

The more terms like Dylan's 'Corporate Communism', Christopher Hedges' "Empire of Illusions", Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire", and my favorite, "Corporatist Empire's 'Vichy' facade of democracy" get these terms into the public debate and discourse, the more the hidden corporatist empire is hard pressed to stay hidden and effective.

The ruling-elite corporate/financial Empire doesn't want any talk about Empire, Corporatism, Elitism, Economic Inequality, Injustice, 'Gaming' the system, Ponzi schemes, etc. etc. They would love a world in which the only terms people hear are George Bush's "Capitalist Democracy" (whatever that moron meant by that oxymoron).

We need to rock their boat until it capsizes!

Alan MacDonald

[valerief]

43. That's why I figured he used it. Just for the stupidness of it to ping the teabagger crowd. nt

[amacd]

46. Kris, you haven't researched Dylan --- here's a video

I loved Dylan since his November 08 post election interview with Austan Goolsbee (Obama economic adviser), who he excoriated and educated about this corporate/financial Empire that is raping US (both U.S. and us).

I strongly lobbied NBC (and others) for Dylan to have his own show on MSNBC (instead of buried on their sister economic 'happy talk' CNBC):

"For my money, Dylan was too good for CNBC --- he was a star, and a star for the people and democratization of our economy.

Dylan's interview of (tutorial to) Austan Goolsbee on MSNBC shortly after Obama's election (11/24) is a classic of progressive, hard-hitting TV that ranks with Edward R. Morrow taking on Joe McCarthy in my humble opinion:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27888374#27888374

I firmly believe that Dylan's pressure for the American people and against this looting Empire had direct influence on the new Obama administration to make some hard decisions about 'doing the right thing' in confronting this arrogant Empire, including the actions to 'claw back' ill-gotten loot being expropriated on UBS's 'Wealth Extraction Express', as well as stiffening their spine on essential regulations to protect our American 'commonwealth' and working class families." (MSNBC 3/09)



Now Dylan is exceeding my hopes (while Obama has turned out to be the useless, gutless 'empty-suit' that won't even whisper the word Empire --- and has done squat about Empire in domestic or foreign war policies)

Admission: I voted for Nader again, after talking with him in Portland Maine, and worked for him as the only candidate who committed to confronting EMPIRE.

Dylan now deserves credit for promulgating the dead-on-target phrase "Corporate Communism"!!!

I prefer 'ruling-elite corporate/financial EMPIRE' because this two-party, 'Vichy' facade of democracy IS an Empire --- but then, so was the Soviet Empire (although it was certainly not Trotskyite social revolution of the working-class ie. support for social revolution in the advanced capitalist countries through working class mass action)

Anyway, Dylan is the 'cats' on TV, being the only guy (like the fictional Howard Beale in "Network" shouting for real 'change' ---- as opposed to Obama's BS --- against this ruling-elite corporate/financial EMPIRE, which has conned and paid-off most media stooges to keep propagandizing Americans about this two-party 'Vichy' facade of democracy.

Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine

[amacd]

45. Keep using Dylan's Phrase -- "Corporate Communism"!!!

Dylan has been on a run since November '08 (with his excoriation of Obama's economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, see video
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27888374#27888374 ) and is the 'real deal' (like Howard Beale in "Network") for getting popular rage going against this disguised corporatist EMPIRE.

The more we keep using his term "Corporate Communism" the more difficult it is for the Empire to keep people in the dark.

As Berkeley's cognitive linguist and principled leftist George Lakoff notes in "The Political Mind" framing analogy thinking involves controlling 'contested concepts' and the word 'democracy' is a term that the Empire must control to control our country and people.

If average people realize that this is not a democracy but an Empire (like the Soviet Empire) but with 'Corporate Communism' then they can have the emotional and conceptual freedom to turn away from this 'Vichy' facade of democracy and revolt against the real (but currently hidden) Empire.

Broad and popular use of Dylan's term "Corporate Communism" will drive this hidden corporatist Empire crazy.

They can't defense against this catchy phrase, and the more they attack it the more leverage, credibility, and 'top of mind space' it gains, as Lakoff proves in his "Don't Think of an Elephant" (which you can't once you say the word 'elephant').

Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine

[blogslut]

10. Today, she is a clown

Ratigan and Weiner are showing her for the blithering, blustering idiot she is. Great television!

[Billy Burnett]

13. It is great TV

She refuses to gave a straight answer.

Weiner is handling it perfectly.

[johnfunk]

12. Simple: so Dylan Ratigan and Anthony Weiner can expose her as the wealthcare whore she is!

She's getting her smarmy ass handed to her -- and all she can come back with are bullet points (which Weiner and Ratigan are tearing to pieces) and name-calling.

McCaughey: "What kind of moderator are you?"

Here's your answer: a real one -- a moderator who won't let your slant, bias and lies slip by without perspective and correction.

[drm604]

15. LOL

McCaughey: You're not a good moderator.

Ratigan: Well you're not a very good answerer.

:rofl:

Ratigan is eviscerating her. I don't understand why anyone pays this obvious shill to represent the insurance industry. I'm glad that it's her that is representing him, since she's so bad, but I don't understand why.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

16. looks like she had a makeover since i saw her on TDS

[Subdivisions]

29. You'd-a-thunk she'd polish up her rhetoric after TDS. NOT! n/t

[drm604]

33. As long as the rhetoric is intended to mislead

all the polishing in the world amounts to polishing a turd. A good knowledgeable interviewer can counter it.

[Kahuna]

21. Getting her teeth kicked in by Ratigan and Weiner...Ahhhh

That was quite satisfying. :smoke:

[Skidmore]

22. I hope someone gets this on video to be seen. Weiner caught

her stating essentially that she supports eliminating Medicare for the 60-70? age group in the future. She wants to do away with Medicare. AND Ratigan tried to nail her down for calling for tort reform without supporting eliminating the antitrust exemption for the insurance industry.

THis is must-see teevee.

[valerief]

25. Well, now we know the Republican plan. Eviscerate Medicare, hope

the non-covered die quickly, and give more money to the insurance industry to piss away while they deny care to the 65 to 70 set.

[amacd]

48. Dylan's MSNBC "Morning Meeting' has the video (below)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31510813/

[Truthway]

24. why

who knows..

she's like an octopus

[Subdivisions]

26. McCaughey: 'This has to be the most contentious interview ever...'

or something to that effect. Dylan murdered her! lol.

[valerief]

27. We need more interviews like this! nt

[drm604]

30. I know.

When she can't win on the facts, she resorts to ad hominems and claims of mistreatment. All straight out of the right wing playbook.

They're trained in these tactics. What's happening is that the left is finally starting to understand those tactics and how to counter them.

[bertman]

28. So she can get the right-wing sympathy vote after being pummeled by mean libs???

[valerief]

44. Playing nice didn't help last time. Why try it again? nt

[kentuck]

32. She, probably more than anyone, was instrumental in killing Clinton health plan...

And the right-wingers want her to repeat her miraculous feat.

[Lucy Goosey]

36. Did you see her NY Post article ...

The 'kill granny' bill

She's really the only one still clinging to the "Dems kill the elderly" myth.

I do love seeing that woman get her ass handed to her!

[amacd]

49. Dylan plugs Engel's MSNBC Documentry "Tip of the Spear" also

MSNBC documentary "Tip of the Spear" by Richard Engel, will air on October 11th at 8pmET: (SEE IT, along with Mike Moore’s "Capitalism" to understand the hidden political-economic EMPIRE).

As Hannah Arendt presciently warned from her experience with the Nazi Empire (and all Empires), "Empire abroad (always) entails tyranny at home".

Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine

PS. Keep using Dylan's phrase "Corporate Communism"