Monster See, Monster Do

This weekend is my 20th blogging anniversary, so I'm putting the tip jar right up-top should any of you feel inclined.

Burn The Lifeboats

Hurricane Katrina wasn’t enough.  

Terri Schiavo wasn’t enough.  

Torture revelations were definitely not enough.  Hell, scum like Hannity and Limbaugh celebrated it, and torture architect John Yoo is now the Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.

Even Iraq falling apart in a welter of lies, corruption and incompetence probably wasn’t enough.  

It took all of that plus the collapse of the world economy under MBA president George W. Bush to finally break the brains of the Republican base. Because, finally there was no place left for them to hide.  Finally, there it was, right in front of them, every day: the irrefutable proof that everything they believed was bullshit, and everyone they had trusted had lied to them because they’re such gullible chumps.  

And right then, in that awful revelation, they could have had a moment of clarity.  

They could have repented.  They could have atoned.  At the very least they could have done the grown-up thing and apologized to those of us who tried to warn them, and whom they had spat upon and called traitors.

They could have tried to figure out where they had been led astray.  

But they didn’t do any of that, because a Republican would rather die a thousand painful deaths than ever admit they had been wrong, and that we America-hating, terrorist loving Libtards had been right.

Instead, as I wrote 16 years ago, all the way back in 2009, like German soldiers after the fall of Berlin, they have stopped running away from the catastrophe they created only long enough to burn their uniforms.

 

Instead of changing their ways and waking the fuck up, they got themselves some stupid hats and little flags, stepped through the Fabulous, Tea-Baggulous Bush-Off Machine, and voila!  Just like *that* they were no longer Republicans.

No siree!  Now they were  the Tea Party!  Independents!   Independent Constitutional Conservative Originalists.  Or whatever.   And instead of learning from the catastrophe they had created, they threw themselves into the arms of any crackpot who would tell them that none of this had been their fault.  And that everyone should just forget the entire Bush administration anyway, because this new scary black guy named Obama was a million times worse than any president ever.  

So they embraced still-living sleazy con men like Glenn Beck:

And the very-dead sleazy con man Andrew Breitbart, speaking here at CPAC in 2012:

And, of course, they fell madly in love with the snarling, racist King of the Birthers:

So deeply in love with him that they nominated him for president and put him on the debate stage next to Hillary Clinton:

If you watched those debates you know that Hillary Clinton absolutely wiped the floor with him, but you also know that it absolutely didn’t matter, because during the Clinton years and the Dubya years and the Obama years, the Republican base had learned the most important lesson of all.  They learned that if they all locked arms and screamed loud enough through their Hate Radio and Fox News megaphones, they could make a craven legacy media drunk on Both Siderism go along with them in pretending the Bush administration sorta kinda never happened, and that Republican base voters weren’t really responsible for anything they said and did, and that the Republican lies about Obama being churned out a mile a minute by Fox News and Hate Radio were all legitimate news stories, and that lockstep Republican congressional obstruction and sabotage were actually Obama’s fault.

And that is the power of lying en masse.  

And an ignorant, racist mob that demands to be lied draws con men, grifters and demagogues like shit draws flies.  

And the King of Shit Mountain is now the president of the United States.  

Again.  

So now we have a genuine scandal that ticks every box of every issue Republicans were swearing five minutes ago that they cared about.  National security.  Handling classified material.  Transparency.  Competence.  Freedom of speech. And the reaction from MAGA-land has been uniform and entirely predictable.

From MAGA Twitter, this is a small representative sample from the literally thousands of nearly identical reactions:

Karoline Leavitt, the actual White House Press Secretary:  The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT “war plans.” This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin.

This was followed by some mope named CECE who got hundreds of enthusiastic responses:   Why isn’t anyone calling out Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic for not announcing himself when he landed on a private Signal call he wasn’t meant to join? Journalistic ethics demand transparency, but he stayed quiet, copied the texts, and published them, to the world all to make the Trump administration look bad.  Where’s the outrage over a reporter exploiting it for a hit piece?  The focus stays on the mistake, not his ethical lapse. Why? 

Katagaruma: He should be hauled in for questioning and his devices seized for analysis. 

Gary D:   Was it just a set up to create a MEDIA fire storm? Asking for a friend. 

SweetPeaBelle: He is unethical and out for the BIG story.

Janet1489534061: It was Planned  

realredsd: He should be facing punishment.

EJGSH: They were counting on him being a piece of garbage. 

jnottah  He's a Radical douchebag and The Atlantic is a PROPAGANDA RAG .

HJ4719125173895:  Maybe he is a spy guilty of treason ! 

SSgt Mark USMC:   I really think he should be charged with sedition or espionage. He knew he was going to be on that. He did unexpectedly land on it. It was arranged. We need to find who arranged it. Charge them for treason and charge him for sedition. 

They're all speaking the same language.  They're all goose-stepping in the same direction.  Deny.  Deny.  Deny.  Except at this point the base doesn’t know which lie to tell, and Conservative media hasn’t reached a consensus on which lie to tell them to tell, so they're putting out a buffet table of a dozen different, contradictory lies and letting the base play Choose Your Own Lying Adventure until they figure out which one(s) works best.  

From Axios:  

The MAGA media ecosystem "has splintered into a series of competing theories to try to explain away the scandal." 

But at the end of the day it really doesn’t matter which lie or lies they settle on, as long as it accomplishes two objectives:   First, their Dear Leader and his people must be blameless, and second, somehow, some Liberal somewhere is pulling the strings.  

However I can tell you this.  I did not have “Quoting Friedrich Hegel” on my bingo card as part of this mad scramble for the perfect lie, but guess what?  It has happened.  

But for that story I have to back up just a bit and check in to see how poor ‘ol Jeff Bezos is doing with that little newsletter of his.   And right off the bat we find that three headlines at three different media outlets are all telling the same story.  

From Fox News :

Trump claims Bezos fretted to him about 'out of control' people at Washington Post

President Donald Trump said in a new interview he was optimistic about his working relationship with Jeff Bezos as well as the future of the Washington Post, claiming Bezos had even disparaged the newspaper's staffers to him.

"They actually did a couple of bad articles on him (Bezos)," Trump said in an interview with OutKick's Clay Travis. "He said, 'This is crazy, I lose my fortune running this thing and they (Post newsroom employees), you know, they're out of control.' These people are crazy. They're crazy people. They're out of control."  

From The Hill : 

Trump: Bezos a ‘good guy,’ trying to be ‘more fair’ with Washington Post coverage.

“I think it’s great,” Trump told conservative commentator Clay Travis of Outkick during an interview aboard Air Force One over the weekend. “At length, I talked to him about it. He’s a good guy. I didn’t really know him in the first term. I mean, it’s such a difference between now and the first time.” 

And from the New York Post :  

Trump claims Jeff Bezos complained to him about ‘out of control’ Washington Post staffers: ‘They’re crazy people’

“They actually did a couple of bad articles on him (Bezos),” Trump said in an interview with OutKick’s Clay Travis. 

All three headline stories, but none of those media outlets did the original reporting.  They’re all citing the same source:  Trump talking to Clay Travis of Outkick during an interview aboard Air Force One

So let’s go there.  

This is the OutKick blurb at OutKick:

Clay Travis is the founder of the fastest growing national multimedia platform, OutKick, that produces and distributes engaging content across sports and pop culture to millions of fans across the country. OutKick was created by Travis in 2011 and sold to the Fox Corporation in 2021. One of the most electrifying and outspoken personalities in the industry, Travis hosts OutKick The Show where he provides his unfiltered opinion on the most compelling headlines throughout sports, culture, and politics. He also makes regular appearances on FOX News Media as a contributor providing analysis on a variety of subjects ranging from sports news to the cultural landscape.

And here’s more about them.  

He and Buck Sexton host The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, a three-hour weekday conservative talk show which debuted on June 21, 2021 as the replacement of The Rush Limbaugh Show on many radio stations. 

Ah!  Ideological continuity!  So important in keeping the reprogrammable meatbags from getting all confused and cranky.

And sure enough, for decades, from 11AM - 2 PM every day, you could find Rush Limbaugh or one of his lackeys on local radio station WMAY right here in Springfield, Illinois.  But Limbaugh is dead now.  Dead and buried in what I believe may have become the largest impromptu public urinal in St. Louis, Missouri.  

So now, where once you would find Limbaugh, you can listen to the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show right here in Springfield, Illinois on WMAY.  And on any of hundreds of other radio stations across the country, because the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show is part of a national syndication package, so that hundreds of thousands of Republican base voters are all hearing the same message at the same time.

As part of that syndication package, Before them on WMAY, from 9 AM to 11 AM,  you’ll find Fox News' very own Brian Kilmeade.

After them, from 2 - 4 PM, comes The Dana Show.  That's Dana Loesch.  And after her, for three more hours, The Erick Erickson Show.

But wait!  There's more!  

Within the OutKick platform you'll find the OutKick Show with Clay Travis.  No surprise.  But you'll also find 13 other shows.  There are gambling tips.  Sports news.  Politics and culture with Tomi Lahren!  

Dan Dakich has a show called "Don't @ Me" and he is billed as "an American basketball sportscaster. He is a former player, assistant coach, interim head coach for the Indiana University Hoosiers 

American basketball player".  But here he was on Twitter yesterday. "NPR's Katherine Maher admits outlet failed to cover Hunter Biden laptop"

Then there's the Ricky Cobb show.  Here's that blurb:  "Ricky Cobb show will offer fans that magical blend of insight and humor into current sports topics along with his deep passion for sports, culture and humor from the 70’s and 80’s."  Recent topics were, let's see, "Tesla terrorists attempt to go mainstream,” and "Tim Walz Fans The Tesla and Elon Hate", "DEI officially done at Disney, are there any masculine Democrats?" 

There's Gaines for Girls With Riley Gaines.  From the blurb:  "Riley Gaines has emerged as one of the most powerful voices in the fight to save women's sports and spaces, but the fight is far from over!"

Three episodes from last year:  "She Was FAILED For Using 'Biological Woman", "Protecting the integrity of women's sports with Tommy Tuberville" and "Josh Hawley Confronts NCAA About Trans Athletes In Women's Sports"

FOX59 Sports anchor/reporter Charly Arnolt now has her own show.  Recent episodes include  "DOGE Superstar", "Have Any Woke Companies Actually Bounced Back?". "The Woke Push To Keep Men In Women’s Sports". "Canadian Sports Fans Continue To Boo The US National Anthem!", "Can Men In Women's Sports Have Enough Impact To Flip Democrats"

The latest episode of Hot Mic w/ Hutton & Withrow is "No Woke Basketball"

Fox News' Tyrus has his own place there.  Recent episode asks "Can Wrestling SAVE America From DIVISIVE Politics?!"

Then there is the Will Cain Show.  That's Fox News' Will Cain.

Are you noticing the pattern here yet? 

The lead sentence coming out of Will Cain's mouth on his show yesterday was literally, "Why are women so woke?"  

After that it was on to the "so called" war plans with lots of scowling and air quotes around everything.  Then he brought on some obscure visiting professor named Gad Saad from Northwood University who blathered on about two French philosophers who wrote books about how human reasoning didn't evolve to find the truth, but just to win arguments.  And that somehow proves that Jeffrey Goldberg clearly wrote his Atlantic article just to hurt Republicans.  

Gad Saad:

"He's not a true journalist.  He's not pursuing objective truth.  He simply wants his team to win an argument by making the other team look bad.”

For the record, Northwood University is "a private university focused on business education".  Its most popular undergraduate majors according to 2021 records were things like Business Administration and Management, Marketing/Marketing Management, Vehicle & Vehicle Parts & Accessories Marketing Operations and Sport & Fitness Administration/Management, so I have no idea what a visiting philosophy professor has to do there, except that whatever he does leaves him with enough spare time show up on The Will Cain Show when summoned.

Late breaking news from Gad Saad on Twitter -- 11:40 AM · Mar 27, 2025 "My appearance tonight on Jesse Watters is going to be rescheduled to another date."

Oh.  He's that guy!

And then we're off to, as promised and no kidding, Hegelianism.  You know, sweeping, big-word musings on what even is knowledge?  How can anyone really know anything?  All of which amounted to nothing but a job-lot of big smarty pants words from a Real Philosopher to reassure the MAGA meatheads that they’re really the smart ones and the Signal scandal is really some kinda Liberal plot against the Dear Leader.

For the record, today’s top essays at OutKick are

Some Environmentalists Could Give A Rip About The Environment by Tomi Lahren

Trump Pokes Fun At Reporter For Still Wearing A Mask by Ian Miller

Yes, Red State Voters Helped Tank 'Snow White' Box Office by Ian Miller

And do you know who advertises on OutKick?  Everybody.  In fact, I might have missed the crucial 99th Lifetime teevee episode, about Gypsy Rose, Life After Lockup if I hadn't been tooling around over there.  And this was Season 2, Episode 99:  The Unseen Footage!!!

This is the universe in which MAGA Republicans live all day, every day now.  It’s safe there.  Reassuring.  And the bargain they’ve made with their media is their eternal financial and electoral loyalty in exchange for protecting them from ever feeling stupid or wrong.  And for that reason, those people are now permanently lost to reason and unreachable, and it is a waste of time and energy to continue to try. 

From Greg Sargent at The New Republic: 

In Signalgate, Trumpworld is demonstrating exactly what's wrong with authoritarian populism: Refusal to admit error, walling out of constructive criticism and the cult-like defense of the leader at all costs.  

And it is a very profitable business.  Which is why, just down the street, yet another for-profit MAGA propaganda shop is opening for business, with some depressingly familiar faces.

From The Hollywood Reporter:  

Former Fox News primetime star Megyn Kelly says that she is launching MK Media, a video and audio podcast network that will work with creators and journalists in the news and entertainment space. The first three shows will be hosted by journalist and 2Way founder Mark Halperin, Daily Mail culture columnist Maureen Callahan, and influencer and political commentator Link Lauren, and others will follow.

Media Matters has the larger picture:

The right dominates the online media ecosystem, seeping into sports, comedy, and other supposedly nonpolitical spaces

A new Media Matters analysis found 9 out of the 10 top online shows assessed are right-leaning,

...This analysis was based on 320 online shows with a right-leaning or left-leaning ideological bent. We found that right-leaning online shows dominate the ecosystem, with substantially larger audiences on both politics/news shows and supposedly nonpolitical shows that we determined often platformed ideological content or guests.  

And it works.  From CNN:

The biggest scandal of Trump 2.0 is no scandal at all on MAGA media 

So, as legacy media is slowly dying, and the Conservative media ecosystem continues to expand exponentially, the Liberal media, such as it is, is stuck where blogging was in 2007.  

Back then, blogging was exciting and vital; some of us are still at it.  In fact, this Monday will be my 20th anniversary of blogging, which is part of the reason I have the tip jar out at the top this time.  But back in 2007,  just as we seemed to be coming together, a number of A-List bloggers decided that the internet was full.  That there wasn’t room for all of us noobs, and if you hadn’t started blogging in 2003 and weren’t part of their crew, you should just give up and do something else.  

And since blog traffic was the lifeblood of blogging (and later revenue), this was also right around the time of the infamous Blogroll Amnesty Day!  That day when, a handful of A-List Liberal bloggers finally got tired of us smelly little lesser blogging monkeys amongst whom they had been trapped.  So they purged their blogrolls of anyone who wasn’t them, and made sure that they only linked to each other and drove traffic among themselves.

And now, as we look at the podcast world that we’ve been a part of for more than 15 years, it sure looks like that’s what’s happening with what’s left of Liberal media.  Increasingly the Centrist/Center-Right Bulwark that has grown thanks to MSNBC relentless sponsorship, and the Centrist/Center-Left Pod Save crew who made it big on the strength of their inside contacts with Barack Obama and Democratic leadership, are only talking to themselves and each other.  

The Signal Scandal (or Whiskey-Leaks as some wags have called it) may be so bad and have such sprawling implications that the one-third of the country that is completely oblivious to politics might actually hear about it as it is spread by word-of-mouth.

Of course, no one is going to go to jail for this, and given the wall-to-wall corruption and incompetence of the Republican-controlled government, it's likely there will be no serious investigations, which is a tragedy.

But just imagine if we had a Liberal media anywhere near the size, scope and level of message discipline as the Right has. 

Imagine if we had the depth and reach to compel the legacy media to make this the story for months on-end.  To compel them to go after this actual scandal like a dog worrying a bone, just like the Right intimidated the legacy media into pounding non-scandals like "Her emails..." and Benghazi and Whitewater and on and on and on into the ground