Showing posts with label Bill Maher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bill Maher. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Another Broken Reed ~ Rachel Maddow


She ain't kidding - and in more ways than one!

From investigative journalist Robert Parry's excellent piece:
When ‘Disinformation’ Is Truth, yesterday. It begins:
The anti-Russian McCarthyism that has spread out from the United States to encompass the European Union, Canada and Australia has at its core an implicit recognition that neoliberal economics and neoconservative foreign policy have failed.

Later in the piece, under section heading New McCarthyism and Maddow:
But it appears now that many liberals and even progressives are so blinded by their hatred of Trump that they haven’t thought through the wisdom of their new alliance with the neocons — or the fairness of smearing fellow Americans as “Putin apologists.”

Meanwhile, mainstream news organizations have abandoned even the pretense of professional objectivity in their propagandistic approach toward anything related to Russia or Trump. For instance, I would defy anyone reading The New York Times’ coverage of Russia to assess it as fair and balanced when it is clearly snarky and sneering.

It also turns out that this New McCarthyism has become profitable for its leading practitioners. The New York Times reported on Monday that the ratings for MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow are soaring with her frequent anti-Russian rants.

“Now, rattled liberals are surging back [to network television], seeking catharsis, solidarity and relief,” the Times wrote, citing a Kentucky woman explaining why she has become a devotee of Maddow: “She’s always talking about the Russians!”

Frankly, for the past dozen years, I’ve wondered about Maddow. I first heard her on the radio in August 2005 when she was a summer fill-in at Air America reporting on President George W. Bush’s Katrina fiasco, which she partly blamed on the deployment of Louisiana National Guard units to Iraq, so they couldn’t help evacuate flooded New Orleans.

It was clear that Maddow was talented and her excoriation of the Iraq War was on point, although – by summer 2005 – it didn’t require a huge amount of journalistic courage to slam Bush over the Iraq War. As I watched her career rise through a regular Air America gig to her show on MSNBC and then to stardom as an anchor on the network’s election coverage, I always wondered whether she would put her lucrative corporate acceptance at risk and go against the grain at a tough journalistic moment.

Now, Maddow’s behavior in becoming a modern-day mainstream-media Joe McCarthy has put my doubts to rest. She is riding high in the ratings by keeping her whip hand coming down hard on the bash-Russia steed. She is putting her career or her politics ahead of journalism.

Like so many other Democrat/liberal/neocon activists, Maddow not only ignores the evidentiary gaps in the Russia-did-it conspiracy theory but she seems oblivious to the dangers of her opportunism. By stirring up this McCarthyistic frenzy, she and her “never-Trump” allies make a rational policy toward nuclear-armed Russia nearly impossible. Thus, she is contributing to the real risk of a hot war with Russia that could lead to the annihilation of life on the planet.

So Ms Maddow, in my estimation too, has traced a downward spiral since 2008, when I wrote, still somewhat starry eyed:

Rachel Maddow: One For The Future? (9 Sep. 2008)

I wonder who'll be on the political scene in the USA around 10 years from now, say for the elections in 2016 and 2020? One name in the future's political headlines which wouldn't surprise me a bit would be Rachel Maddow. She's 35 now, in ten years she'll be just about the right age to run as a presidential candidate, or be chosen as VP, having perhaps done a stint in the House or Senate in intervening years.

Rachel's new TV show, which has all the hallmarks of being "the one to watch" for those keen on politics, was aired for the first time last night. She has been seen fairly regularly on MSNBC all year, doing pundit duty along with Olbermann, Matthews, Buchanan and the rest, as well as presenting a regular radio show on Air America. She strikes me as the type of person for whom US politics is crying out. She oozes confidence, speaks and debates with a no nonsense clarity, clear grasp of issues, but never loses her calm, friendly approach.
After astrological meanderings on her natal chart:
It'll be interesting to watch Rachel Maddow's progress from here on.

However, by June 2012 I wrote in a post HERE:
I no longer watch MSNBC (bad for my BP!) In the days when I did watch, when Rachel Maddow's show first aired, in 2008, I wrote a post about her and her natal chart. That was before the political scales dropped from my eyes. I still enjoy hearing Rachel speak when interviewed outside of her show, but feel now much as Nick Gillespie indicated. He accused Maddow and Maher of being partisan. Well DUH!! They are. Maher gave President Obama's campaign fund $1 million cheque recently. In Maddow's professional eyes Democrats and President Obama can do no wrong. We have no means of knowing how she really feels....................................................Talking heads - all of them, including Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert as well as the MSNBC and Fox crowd are there to serve a single purpose - support for the two political establishments in the USA, to keep the controversy going, keep the country divided.

Broken reeds - so many of 'em to left and to right, so many I used to admire, but now see the error of my starry-eyed ways!

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Ageism Makes Me Mad as..........!

Bill Maher, for me, hit a new low last Friday evening.

"In the battle for government giveaways," he said, "we have to stop thinking in terms of rich versus poor, or black versus white, and admit it's really a war between the young and the old. And the old are winning."
(See LA Times)
Transcript HERE


Maher structured his comments around some unfunny jokes and offensive generalisations at the expense of seniors, "jokes" which, if something as generalised and offensive had been made against other sections of the populations - say gays or African Americans, would have brought wave upon wave of criticism crashing down on him. Elderly members of the population continue to be easy targets. Nobody seems to care about ageism here in the USA. It's sad, and it makes me mad!

I'm not personally fully involved in the issue he brought up. I have two pensions coming from the UK, for which I paid and worked my whole life, but I feel for my fellow seniors here in the US. I've ranted a bit about ageism in the past, on more than one occasion (one 2009 example here). It doesn't go away, pathetic faux-comedians like Maher have to have a target don't they? After they run out of jokes about Hillary Clinton's trouser suits, or Sarah Palin, or some other Republican, or that strange Ford person in Canada, etc etc ..... it's, "Oh yes...let's have a go at seniors again!"

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Eris & Sedna or Eric & Sid ?

I've been remembering. Pondering on astrologers' comments two years ago when Eris was officially given its name after being initially nicknamed Xena (Warrior Princess). Recalling also that some years before, Sedna had arrived on the astrological scene. Two recently discovered celestial bodies both given names of mythological goddesses. Some saw this as an indication that, at last, women or at least "the feminine" would come more to the fore in world events.

Setting aside the mythology attached to both names for the moment and simply considering the female aspect, things ain't working out so well up to now.

Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives proved a dire disappointment to most US Democrats due to her timidity when confronted by opposition. Senator Hillary Clinton, candidate for US presidency is treated with contempt in many parts of the media and the political blogosphere. While she's not yet quite down and out, she appears to be losing ground rapidly even among women supporters.

There might be an argument that Senator Obama embodies "the feminine" as a concept, accounting for his ability to stir up such enthusiasm. For me it's too weak an argument as yet. We'll see how strong is his feminine side if he becomes president.

I'm certainly no feminist, but I can't help but notice that here in the USA sexism and misogyny go largely unchallenged, while even the slightest hint of perceived racism is pounced on. This was clearly and painfully apparent in Bill Maher's "Real Time" on Friday night. His guests included Christopher Hitchens and Harry Shearer It's hard to say who was worst of the three. The other guest was Indian diplomat Shashi Tharoor, who was by far the most civilised. Bill Maher and "Real time" lost a devoted fan (me) after that show. Even genial David Letterman delights in ridiculing Senator Clinton while never saying a wrong word about Senator Obama. I'm all for taking politicians down a peg or two, but it ought to be done in an even-handed way. Jay Leno and Craig Ferguson are also guilty.

Returning to to mythology, Eris was Greek goddess of strife and discord. Sedna goddess of the Inuit underworld and sea creatures, she went through all kinds of tribulations before being killed and sinking to the bottom of the sea. Neither goddess has a happy story.

Eris and Sedna ? I'd almost rather they'd been named Eric and Sid.