It’s hilarious how the quotes by CBS veterans paint Weiss as some sort of MAGA puppet of the Trump administration when in reality she’s a New York Times veteran who’s also a liberal lesbian leftist. But she is at least trying to imitate impartiality in the newsroom and that’s better than nothing. Worth a read if you’re interested in how the dinosaur media is being dragged into the twenty first century kicking and screaming.
If ten years ago you had told me that the most interesting television presidential interview would be Greg Gutfeld and Donald Trump, I would have said, “Greg who?” followed by, “You mean the guy from The Apprentice?”
But Gutfeld provides Trump with one of the only television spaces where he’s not fending off attacks from so-called journalists. Now I don’t count the Hannity type infomercial. It’s too phony for anyone to take seriously. And surprisingly, Trump doesn’t seem at ease when he sits down with Tucker Carlson for whatever reason.
With Gutfeld and his panel of goofballs Trump seems jovial and loose which is when he’s at his best. And Gutfeld has a decent sized audience for cable tv. I’ve been watching Gutfeld on and off since his “Red Eye” days. He’s basically a libertarian but he doesn’t attack the Right much anymore so he’s relatively benign. Good to see Trump getting a platform.
Today’s screed will be at least slightly incoherent. Had a long day and so now it’s late in the evening and my brain cells are firing haphazardly like a failing neon sign. I think I’ll just work with the vague impression that reading the editorial page gives me. I’ll be like the Monet of Right-Wing Vitriol. I like the word vitriol. Sulfuric acid was called oil of vitriol in the olden days and it is a powerful substance for dissolving supposedly strong metals like iron. And I always liked copper sulfate or blue vitriol because it’s a deep blue crystalline material. Basically, I’m a fan of vitriol in all its manifestations. So, let’s see what’s out there.
The striking thing about the headlines lately is that wisps of the truth are beginning to appear all over the place. Not in just right-wing blogs but in mainline “conservative websites and even in cable news on Fox and CNN and, heaven help us, MSNBC. Taboo things are leaking out. And because they’ve leaked into the world, they’re causing panic. When Hunter Biden’s legal troubles are talked about on PBS or MSNBC, we get a whole song and dance about how the evil House Republicans are trying to tie Joe Biden to Hunter’s legal problems. I think the approved boilerplate that has to be prefaced to any discussion of Hunter is that the House allegations “haven’t got a single shred of evidence linking Joe Biden to anything illegal.” I think I heard the same exact wording on several different platforms.
Another impression I got was that the “inflation is falling and the economy is booming” narrative has finally slammed into reality so hard that even some of the cheerleaders are discussing damage control. One lefty pundit was saying that maybe, just maybe, the slightly higher cost of living might be impacting some undetermined proportion of the population in a negative way. Now that was a brave thing to admit while riding on the Biden Express. Of course, it was a data point that was being used to suggest ever so delicately that maybe Joe should step aside for some “younger.”
I take the rumblings that show up in the lefty press much more seriously than the stuff on the right. Right-wing happy talk is background noise. But when the Left starts foaming at the mouth, or even better when they start to sweat, I get interested. And they seem to be sweating profusely. Now it’s a long, long way to November. And the sheer breadth of dirty tricks and lawfare that the Deep State has up its sleeves is impressive. Hauling Donald Trump off to prison is the least shocking thing they might do in the next eleven months. But I get the distinct impression that things are very “ungood” in lefty world. Maybe a big part of it is Ukraine. Even the Washington Post has publicly stated that the Ukrainians aren’t going to beat the Russians. Now it looks like the Republicans have realized that just saying no to another sixty billion dollars in aid is the smart way to go.
Now, nobody ever got rich betting that the Stupid Party would stop acting stupid. So sure, they can screw it up. But it looks like things are not going well for Team Biden in every facet of their agenda. And as an impressionist that makes my canvass resemble one of those crazy Van Gough sunflower paintings or maybe his starry night. It’s an image that makes me smile. Sure, it’s just an impression. And tomorrow reality will be back in focus. But right now, in the blur of my fuzzy brain it looks pretty good.
Some Swiss guy named Urs Gehriger interviewed Tucker Carlson. There’s a change of pace! Being a Carlson fanboy of sorts I found the interview fairly interesting. There were no big surprises but the questions and answers were fairly satisfying.
One of my favorite quotes is toward the very end of the interview:
Weltwoche: In general, what gives you hope in a rather worrisome time, looking into the future?
Carlson: That the stakes have suddenly gotten so high that smart people are rethinking their assumptions. I see it all around me. I see people all around me asking themselves, “I used to believe this. Is it still true? Was it ever true? What is the truth?” People are focused on questions of truth and falsehood, I think, much more deeply than they ever have been, and that’s a good thing.
I also see an awakening of spiritual awareness and religious faith in the United States that I think is great. Not everyone is reaching the same conclusions that I’m reaching, but that’s okay. It’s better than thinking that Amazon’s going to make you happy, because Amazon is not going to make you happy, actually. That’s not true. That’s a lie. And more and more people seem to be concluding that it’s a lie, and I think that’s a great thing.
That Tucker Carlson thinks there are “smart people” who are rethinking their positions on important issues might give me some cause for hope. He has access to some of the movers and shakers and maybe there really is a change going on among the elites. I haven’t seen any proof of that. In fact, the exact opposite seems to be the case. The term “doubling down” seems to be the order of the decade. But maybe he can see that starting to happen. At least it leaves a sliver of hope.