Sunday Morning Comin' Down

Shuck Todd's Show Band and Revue gathered once again in what appeared to be the waiting room of a very successful dental practice from the Not Too Distant Future.

There they met to talk a little Ebola.

First there was fading former child-star Reince Shortbus (who, given how successfully he had vanished from sight over the last several months, I had assumed had been killed in drug cartel shootout or awarded to the former Mrs. Davis Brooks in a custody fight) who was brought on to brag about Republican Accomplishments (zero, unless you count taking more vacation time than any Congress in history), Republican Policy Initiatives (endless, meaningless votes on abortion and Obamacare plus occasional breaks to sabotage the federal government) Republican Unity (of the Snitches get Stitched variety) and to whine about EbolaTheSecretServiceTheIRS and for because Barack Obama something something Leadership

I confess that I could not quite make out much of what he said since when Reince starts to whiiiiiiine -- which is always -- his voice goes to a place that normal humans cannot perceive.

But I can say that as he said --

We call for a balanced budget amendment, that's policy. We call for school choice, that's policy. We call for the president adhering to the constitution and not violating the law and not abiding by what we call the Separation of Powers Act in the constitution. I think if you go back and look at the Contract with America, you'll see it'll say welfare reform. 

-- an entire murder of crows was stunned out of the sky over my house.

He also told a whole passel of lies, but really, what does it matter? We no longer live in a political/media universe where lying is punished -- or even noticed-- by anyone but Liberal pedants.

Maybe that'll change someday.

That'd sure be nice.

But here and now, we have "panels".

Just like the one Shuck Todd assembled.

Just like the one they have on All The Other Sunday Shows.

And just like All The Other Sunday Shows, the panel was pretty much the same, uninspired mix of waxwork figurines which have been sitting in the back of the Mouse Circus toy box for years and years.

On the panel there was a Republican teevee entity and fading 1970s cartoon character named Joe Scarborough, who gibbered out something about EbolaTheVATheIRSandISIS because there ain't no gallop like a Gish Gallop.

Named for the debate tactic created by creationist shill Duane Gish, a Gish Gallop involves spewing so much bullshit in such a short span on that your opponent can’t address let alone counter all of it. To make matters worse a Gish Gallop will often have one or more 'talking points' that has a tiny core of truth to it, making the person rebutting it spend even more time debunking it in order to explain that, yes, it's not totally false but the Galloper is distorting/misusing/misstating the actual situation. A true Gish Gallop generally has two traits.

1) The factual and logical content of the Gish Gallop is pure bullshit and anybody knowledgeable and informed on the subject would recognize it as such almost instantly. That is, the Gish Gallop is designed to appeal to and deceive precisely those sorts of people who are most in need of honest factual education.

2) The points are all ones that the Galloper either knows, or damn well should know, are totally bullshit. With the slimier users of the Gish Gallop, like Gish himself, its a near certainty that the points are chosen not just because the Galloper knows that they're bullshit, but because the Galloper is deliberately trying to shovel as much bullshit into as small a space as possible in order to overwhelm his opponent with sheer volume and bamboozle any audience members with a facade of scholarly acumen and factual knowledge.

And nobody stampedes more bullshit by viewers faster than Conservatives:

Very nice dental office, though.  I'll be their copies of  Highlights are crisp and current.

Down the dial, Peggy Noonan expressed her fluttery, merlot-glazed concern that something untoward may be happening to her friend's maid's health insurance --

VANDEN HEUVEL: -- what's the Republican plan?

Vote for me and I won't give you health care.

(CROSSTALK)

VANDEN HEUVEL: Now, that's compelling.

NOONAN: The Republican plan, just a few months ago, was, look, this isn't going to work, let's delay this part, let's delay this part, work with us, Mr. President. He said, we can't change this law, he'll veto any change that you put through.

Now he, through executive fiat, is making the changes.

He's not changing his own program because it's a great success. He is changing it because he knows it is surrounded by failure.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Lisa, there has been...

NOONAN: Hikes -- hikes in costs...

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- he's working...

NOONAN: -- the deductibles...

VANDEN HEUVEL: He's working to fix it.

NOONAN: Oh, my goodness.

Oh my goodness indeed.

But who wants to hear about that?