Well, all this is interesting to me, anyway, and that's what matters here. The Internet is a terrible thing for someone like me, who finds almost everything interesting.
Sunday, April 29, 2018
Michelle Wolf at the 2018 White House Correspondents' Dinner
I had to post this. But then, I always post these, don't I? Laugh or cringe - and you'll likely do both - these are the kinds of things powerful people should be hearing.
Oh, sure, afterwards we always hear how mean the comedian has been. These are some of the most powerful people in the country! And yes, I mean the media figures, too, not just the politicians. Michelle Wolf isn't punching down here.
When Donald Trump makes fun of a disabled reporter or attacks a Gold Star family, what makes him and his supporters off-limits? Wolf didn't just poke fun at Republicans, either - although since they control all three branches of our federal government, plus most states, do you really think that would even be an issue if she had?
Again, Michelle Wolf was punching up, not down, here. Like last year, Donald Trump was too much of a coward to even attend the event. Well, that's exactly why we need comedians like this. Powerful people - and again, I'm including the most powerful people in the media - need to have their feet held to the fire.
I'm actually impressed that the White House Correspondents' Association keeps doing this. So far, they don't seem to be chickening out and choosing 'safe' comedians, either. Stephen Colbert in 2006? Seth Meyers in 2011? (That's the one that really pissed off Trump.) Cecily Strong, Larry Wilmore, Hasan Minhaj, and now Michelle Wolf?
Donald Trump chickens out. Republican congressional leaders chicken out, too. I'm even... slightly impressed by Sarah HuckaSanders just for showing up, although it pains me to say that. Although, since she works for Trump, maybe she had no choice about it?
Never underestimate the power of the court jester.
And RIGHT ON CUE, Trump and the rest of the Republicans got all butt-hurt about Wolf's remarks. That's ALWAYS been their weakness; they can dish it out, but they can't take it (and they call US snowflakes?). It's exactly what she wanted. The goal of the heckler is to get a response. Once she got that response, she won.
Predictably, Trump just couldn't keep his mouth shut, rage-Tweeting that Wolf "bombed." Meanwhile, she's smiling gleefully and thinking "I'm in his head, I have real estate in there." :)
It's good publicity for Michelle Wolf, Jeff. Unfortunately, it's also good for Trump, don't you think? He needs that constant drumbeat of outrage, anger, and victimization to keep his supporters energized.
Right now, liberals seem to have an enthusiasm advantage, but Republicans have been playing this same card for a long, long time. They live or die on outrage, anger, and victimization - and on bigotry, of course - and they're very experienced at this.
And there is literally nothing they won't do to stay in power. I'm still very worried. Even a blowout election in November won't likely give Democrats control of the Senate, even if we can overcome gerrymandering and voter suppression to take back the House (which isn't guaranteed, itself).
Either way, Republicans will still control the White House and the Supreme Court, and we'll need another blowout election in 2020. Can Democrats maintain their enthusiasm? Can we keep from fighting among ourselves? Can we resist propaganda from the Russians and the Republican Party, both?
And it's not just the right-wing complaining about Wolf. Inevitably, we'll keep hearing from 'moderates' - and even some liberals - that we go too far, that we need to be nicer to the crazies who are destroying our country, that we need to 'compromise' (basically, by giving Republicans everything they want).
The media love people like that, which makes people like me get angry and frustrated. Admittedly, I seem to live in a permanent state of anger these days - justified anger, I'd say. But that's just because I pay attention. You, too, I know.
PS. I just saw today's tweet from Donald Trump complaining about the dinner, which includes this line: "The filthy “comedian” totally bombed (couldn’t even deliver her lines-much like the Seth Meyers weak performance)."
Heh, heh. He's still pissed about Seth Meyers' roasting him in 2011! Can you believe it?
The funniest part of that was seeing Trump's face (since he did attend the dinner that year), just steaming about the jokes told at his expense. But he's still furious about it!
A three-year-old would have grown up by now and gotten over his tantrum. Not Trump, though. Our president is a perpetual three-year-old.
I'm a skeptic. I think it makes sense to have reasons for what I believe, so I apportion my belief to the evidence. You're welcome to disagree. Please, tell me I'm wrong. I probably don't agree with anyone about everything. Why should disagreement be a problem? Check the Pages section below for series posts and links to book reviews and game posts, as well as contact info. Unfortunately, I rarely blog at all, anymore. So don't expect new posts. - Bill
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The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss, and commit to memory the one, and pass over the other. - Sir Francis Bacon
When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there you've only founded a superstition. If you test it, you've started a science. - Hal Clement
No matter how many times a theory meets its tests successfully, there can be no certainty that it will not be overthrown by the next observation. This, then, is a cornerstone of modern natural philosophy. It makes no claim of attaining ultimate truth. In fact, the phrase "ultimate truth" becomes meaningless, because there is no way in which enough observations can be made to make truth certain and, therefore, "ultimate". - Isaac Asimov
The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion. - Treaty of Tripoli, passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and signed by President John Adams (1797)
I don't doubt the sincerity of dowsers, but even after we've demonstrated that they can't produce results that are any better than chance they'll still go away believing in their abilities... It is like the mother whose son is caught shoplifting on tape. She wonders why someone would want to frame her child by producing a fake video. - James Randi
During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church ... imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood. Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. - Mark Twain
Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths. - Bertrand Russell
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. - Friedrich Nietzsche
I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. - Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.
This is not about proof. Science does not use proof. We favor evidence, and the work consists largely of the slow accumulation of evidence in support of ideas, not magically potent proofs that establish an idea as unassailable. - PZ Myers
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The formula was very simple: build this really flexible, really open economy, tolerate creative destruction so dead capital is quickly redeployed to better ideas and companies, pour into it the most diverse, smart and energetic immigrants from every corner of the world and then stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat. - Shekhar Gupta
We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing alternative explanations, encouraging heresy. We give our highest rewards to those who convincingly disprove established beliefs. - Carl Sagan
We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. - Richard Dawkins
120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer. - Sam Harris
To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man. - Michael Servetus, burned at the stake in 1553
Democracy is not about majority rule; it is about minority rights. If there is no culture of not simply tolerating minorities, but actually treating them with equal rights, real democracy can't take root. - Thomas L. Friedman
We cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point, that we have seen our best days. But so said all who came before us and with just as much apparent reason. - Thomas Macauley, 1830
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men. - Edward R. Murrow
The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence. Science is simply common sense at its best - that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic. - Thomas Huxley
There is no absurdity so obvious that it cannot be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to impose it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity. - Arthur Schopenhauer
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To be elected in America, no matter from what party, the candidates have no choice but to year after year pledge to lower taxes further and further. We have become the nation of Ken and Barbie, looking good but very poor at the math. - Rack Jite
Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. We know this because they are capable of being invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them. - Steve Eley
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3 comments:
Never underestimate the power of the court jester.
And RIGHT ON CUE, Trump and the rest of the Republicans got all butt-hurt about Wolf's remarks. That's ALWAYS been their weakness; they can dish it out, but they can't take it (and they call US snowflakes?). It's exactly what she wanted. The goal of the heckler is to get a response. Once she got that response, she won.
Predictably, Trump just couldn't keep his mouth shut, rage-Tweeting that Wolf "bombed." Meanwhile, she's smiling gleefully and thinking "I'm in his head, I have real estate in there." :)
It's good publicity for Michelle Wolf, Jeff. Unfortunately, it's also good for Trump, don't you think? He needs that constant drumbeat of outrage, anger, and victimization to keep his supporters energized.
Right now, liberals seem to have an enthusiasm advantage, but Republicans have been playing this same card for a long, long time. They live or die on outrage, anger, and victimization - and on bigotry, of course - and they're very experienced at this.
And there is literally nothing they won't do to stay in power. I'm still very worried. Even a blowout election in November won't likely give Democrats control of the Senate, even if we can overcome gerrymandering and voter suppression to take back the House (which isn't guaranteed, itself).
Either way, Republicans will still control the White House and the Supreme Court, and we'll need another blowout election in 2020. Can Democrats maintain their enthusiasm? Can we keep from fighting among ourselves? Can we resist propaganda from the Russians and the Republican Party, both?
And it's not just the right-wing complaining about Wolf. Inevitably, we'll keep hearing from 'moderates' - and even some liberals - that we go too far, that we need to be nicer to the crazies who are destroying our country, that we need to 'compromise' (basically, by giving Republicans everything they want).
The media love people like that, which makes people like me get angry and frustrated. Admittedly, I seem to live in a permanent state of anger these days - justified anger, I'd say. But that's just because I pay attention. You, too, I know.
PS. I just saw today's tweet from Donald Trump complaining about the dinner, which includes this line: "The filthy “comedian” totally bombed (couldn’t even deliver her lines-much like the Seth Meyers weak performance)."
Heh, heh. He's still pissed about Seth Meyers' roasting him in 2011! Can you believe it?
The funniest part of that was seeing Trump's face (since he did attend the dinner that year), just steaming about the jokes told at his expense. But he's still furious about it!
A three-year-old would have grown up by now and gotten over his tantrum. Not Trump, though. Our president is a perpetual three-year-old.
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