Sunday Morning Comin' Down

If it's Sunday, it must be time for another National Conversation About Race ™.  And since it is American political teevee, that conversation will come stocked with far too much leftover stupid that's still plopping out of the Bush Administration Pinata long after that party ended and everyone at it agreed to never mention it again.

On Meet the Press, White Soul Brother Number One -- David Brooks -- was joined by the profoundly crazy Ben Carson to have a National Conversation About Race ™ because who better...

...but first let me catch you up on what has happened to the once proud "Up with..." MSNBC franchise now that Steve Kornacki has been tasked with driving its ratings into the ground and getting rid of its last, few viewers (presumably because Obvious Merit Hire Luke Russert [h/t Charlie Pierce] did not want to get up early on Saturdays):

Steve Kornacki: I'm having Hillary, Hillary, Hillary, Hillary, Hillary, Hillary, Hillary, baked beans, Hillary, Hillary, Hillary, and Hillary!

(Panel: Hillary! Hillary! Hillary! Hillary! Lovely Hillary! Wonderful Hillary!)

Waitress: Shut Up!! baked beans are off.

Steve Kornacki: Well, could I have Hillary instead of the baked beans then?

Also in keeping with Phil Griffin's policy of festooning the place with enough Heritage Foundation goofs to placate their nine Conservative twitter trolls, Heritage Foundation goof Stephen Moore was on my Liberal teevee in other hi-larious attempt fizz up interest in the potential candidacy of Destroyer of Companies and Demon Sheep Herder, Carly Fiorina.

Kornacki:  Up next, a woman who is Not!Hillary!who may be thinking about running for President! 

Heritage Foundation Goof:  Carly?  Why yes, now that you mention it, she can haz sex appeal! Also she has an impressive resume, having worked her way from secretary all the way up to a place where she could curb stomp the company to death. And that was before she burned a mountain of her own money to lose disastrously running for the Senate, after which she pitched in and did her part to help Mitt Romney self-immolate.  Is Murrica may ready for a Sexy Political Outsider who is Not A Politician to be president?  Maybe!  Also sex appeal!

Yes it really is that bad.

Back on network teevee one might say there were enough unkillable Bush Era zombies to put the Walking Dead mid-season finale to shame.

And one would be right.

For example. on ABC, unreconstructed war criminals were on-hand to tell you what all "Serious" people should think about Ferguson:





While over on Meet the Press, Chuck Todd continued David Gregory's long tradition of lending what is left of that program's threadbare credibility to undeserving douchbags to use as ass paper.  This week the largess was extended to lots of people who have no business being anywhere near a national audience, including Rich Lowry, the editor of America's White Supremacist newsrag of record, who had some surprisingly calm and nuanced words about Ferguson.

Watch as Rich urges cooler heads to prevail and points out that taking on the police when you feel they are fucking you over is in the finest ‘American Tradition of Civil Disobedience’

Oh...wait.  I'm sorry.

My bad.

That was Rich Lowry talking about Fox News Hero Cliven Bundy in April, 2014.  You remember ol' Cliven, right? Cranky old  bigot?  Mooched off the Evil Gummint for 20 years?  And when the Evil Gummint got sick of him blowing them off and came to collect the debt,  ol' Klavern Bundy and a bunch of his Teabagger pals decided to come to the party armed to the teeth, raving about the Blood of Tyrants?

It was in all the papers, and Fox News practically gave him his own show.

No, this was Rich Lowry talking about Ferguson:

But what I really object to is you can discuss all of these problems, but let's not pretend that this particular incident was something it wasn't. It you look at the most credible evidence, the lessons are really basic. Don't rob a convenience store. Don't fight a policeman when he's stopped you and try to take his gun and when he yells at you to stop with is gun drawn, just stop and none of this would have happened.

America apparently just can't get enough Rudy Giuliani, and there he was once again making the rounds to share his insights into the worst possible locations on Earth to build police command centers the Negro Problem.

And speaking of Bush Era monsters who Will.  Not.  Die. I spy with my little eye something that begins with the word..."Disgraced".

That's right, it's disgraced former NYPD police commissioner, Giuliani bag man, Ground Zero stabbin' cabin douchbag, damn-near head of the Department of Homeland Security and federal prisoner number 84888-054...Bernie Kerik on "State of the Union".

But the winner of the "Bea Arthur Singing in the Star Wars Holiday Special" WTF Incongruity Award --

-- has to go to David Brooks, who for no reason comprehensible to the mind of man, was plugged into the middle of our latest National Conversation About Race ™.

There, presumably, to share with America that wealth of the hard-bitten, life wisdom he picked up ridin' those Acela Corridor rails:

Because it is so very rare to hear a prominent Conservative say anything about race other than a lot of lightly coded bilge about welfare queens and their Obama phones and "Liberals are the real racists" Teh Internets got all gooey over Mr. Brooks' acknowledging some tiny fraction of reality:

Listen, we all have to have a new social compact on this. Whites especially have to acknowledge the legacy of racism and have to go the extra yard to show respect, understand how differently whites and blacks see some of these police issues.

Teh Internets did not apparently notice the very next thing Mr. Brooks did, which was pour a whole tanker truck of "No one is really to blame" absolvent (which isn't a word but should be) over our latest National Conversation About Race ™.:

...This is not a question of good versus evil, right versus wrong. Racial inequality has become entangled in all sorts of domestic problems of disappearing jobs, family structure, and this is mostly a question of good-intentioned people trying to do the best they can with very naughty social problems, which now overlap with racial problems.

First of all, I'm pretty sure the NBC transcription algorithm meant to say "very knotty social problems" but kudos to you, NBC transcription algorithm, for the best fucking typo this year.  

Second, no...no...and no.  

Certainly " disappearing jobs" and "family structure" are problems, but a much deeper and more dangerous problem is that one of our two major political parties has gone violently insane,  And as a result of relentlessly and successfully using racism and the welfare queen and "young buck" boogiemen to literally scare up votes and money and ratings ans stockpiling weapons for the Big Race War that their leaders are always implying is just around the corner, Mr. Brooks' Republican Party is definitely not run by "good-intentioned people trying to do the best they can".

It is run by very, very bad people who firmly adhere to a "Rule or Ruin" view of America, and have a long and ridiculously well-documented history of playing to the lowest and ugliest instincts of its angry, paranoid base as their truest path to prosperity and power.

Of course, if Mr. Brooks was being interviewed by, say, a journalist on, say, a news show, this subject might have been pursued further.  But as luck would have it he was, instead, interviewed by Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press".

So there you go.