Thursday, October 24, 2013

Three kings


"In a segment on possible Tea Party contenders for the Republican Party's nomination in the 2016 presidential race, Hayes used a graphic (above) that portrayed Cruz, Paul, and Rubio as kings in a deck of cards--and that, rather conveniently, spelled out the initials "K K K." (Hayes did not say the word "kings" during the segment.) 
...There is a hazard, of course, in taking offense too quickly at bad jokes, and there is always the possibility that Hayes was unaware of the graphic, or even that the KKK reference was entirely coincidental. However, given Hayes's past record, and the constant obsession of fellow MSNBC anchors with making false accusations of racism against the Tea Party and the Republican Party, Hayes has arguably exhausted the benefit of the doubt."
If this was intentional, I hate to see this kind of thing in someone like Hayes. I enjoyed him very much the times he appeared on Bloggingheads. I had hopes for Maddow, back in the day, but she immediately  launched into a mini-me impression of Olbermann. I guess it's the way of the media world...if you sign with MSNBC, you are expected to play to the masses more than the average info-tainment outlet does. Was this a back-handed KKK reference or an innocent graphic? 

40 comments:

I'm Full of Soup said...

I think Hayes and Maddow are the same person just different wardrobes and hairstylists.

ndspinelli said...

MSNBC has a quota. The host must make 14 accusations of racism, homophobia, sexism, etc. per show.

If you had hopes for these people then you need to take some critical thinking classes. I think you're just hot on Maddow!

ndspinelli said...

I'd go w. Sharpton in a knife fight.

Matthews would just run and hide.

Revenant said...

If they wanted to spell "KKK", why use cars with four K's each?

Most decks have a single letter or number in the upper-left. Three of those in a row = KKK. Three of these in a row = "KKKKKK".

deborah said...

AJ, dude.

I haven't been to MSNBC since way before the election. Just can't take it.

deborah said...

Good eye, Rev. You'd think the Breitbart people would have picked up on that in the article.

Michael Haz said...

Is MSNBC even a thing? Their ratings are mostly parents, spouses and close friends of the on-air people.

bagoh20 said...

What does the Tea party have to do with the KKK? I know that the Democratic party was very involved with them, but the Tea Party? Maybe he just doesn't know his history. MSNBC are not the brightest letters in the alphabet. Let's reminisce, shall we?

Historian Eric Foner observed:

"In effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic party, the planter class, and all those who desired restoration of white supremacy. Its purposes were political, but political in the broadest sense, for it sought to affect power relations, both public and private, throughout Southern society. It aimed to reverse the interlocking changes sweeping over the South during Reconstruction: to destroy the Republican party's infrastructure, undermine the Reconstruction state, reestablish control of the black labor force, and restore racial subordination in every aspect of Southern life.

To that end they worked to curb the education, economic advancement, voting rights, and right to keep and bear arms of blacks. The Ku Klux Klan soon spread into nearly every southern state, launching a "reign of terror against Republican leaders both black and white. Those political leaders assassinated during the campaign included Arkansas Congressman James M. Hinds, three members of the South Carolina legislature, and several men who served in constitutional conventions."

Klan violence worked to suppress black voting. More than 2,000 persons were killed, wounded and otherwise injured in Louisiana within a few weeks prior to the Presidential election of November 1868. Although St. Landry Parish had a registered Republican majority of 1,071, after the murders, no Republicans voted in the fall elections. White Democrats cast the full vote of the parish for Grant's opponent. The KKK killed and wounded more than 200 black Republicans, hunting and chasing them through the woods. Thirteen captives were taken from jail and shot; a half-buried pile of 25 bodies was found in the woods. The KKK made people vote Democratic and gave them certificates of the fact."
~ Wikipedia

Ah yes, it's the Tea Party to blame.

Revenant said...

Judging from the ratings I'd say some of those parents, spouses and friends are fibbing to the on-air talent.

"Oh, sure, I *totally* watch your show every day!"

Revenant said...

What does the Tea party have to do with the KKK?

KKK = bad
Tea Party = bad
bad = bad

Therefore, KKK = Tea Party.

Also, Tea Party = cancer, Tea Party = rape, Tea Party = season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and so on. The logic is flawless(*)

(*) logic is that thing Spock used, right?

bagoh20 said...

The only King on the political scene is King Barry the Unwise.

deborah said...

I saw a thing the other day that said Tea Partiers were more versed in science than Dems. There is a lack of knowledge of what tea partiers are. IIRC the study expected to find the reverse.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

King Barry the Unwise. lol. (not so funny when ya live it.)

What the hell is wrong with that historically ignorant "news" station? Oh right - agenda over reality. check.

chickelit said...

What does the Tea party have to do with the KKK?

Have you never heard of the "New Confederacy" theory? It's practically accepted dogma among progressive Sullivanists.

Chip Ahoy said...

Nikon has a full frame camera for only 2,000 buckeroos. Aparalentamentay it's excelentay.
And now I want it. I feel an ember of desire burning and feeling also oxygen blown upon the ember of desire and nearby kindle, tumbleweeds passing through, ember, oxygen, tumbleweeds, kindling, I feel a firestorm coming, my storm, that should probably be immediately squelched because I know from experience how these things turn out. Might as well get it over with and spare myself the inner con flag ation.

I turned my D-90 alti meter over 3 times. That's over 300,000 photographs. It counts! So when I read on Craigslist something like [only 250 activations] I go, HA!

It could be true. These things are bought as gifts sometimes and turns out to be not that much fun after all. I see that a lot. Wife sells. That sort of thing.

Icepick said...

Fuck him. Alan Grayson was spelling Tea Party with a burning cross a few days ago. The Dem agitprop is meant to delegitimize anything other than worship of Obama. It's all part and parcel of the same campaign, and it's probably Obama himself coordinating this from the Oval Office. He certainly hasn't been doing anything else in recent months.

Chip Ahoy said...

Or maybe 30,000.

deborah said...

The reaction next year will be so interesting, with all the policy cancellations and people having to buy more expensive policies...if they can afford them or find them. The shit will hit the fan so badly, and what will they say about the tea party then?

deborah said...

lol Chip.

Yes, chick, I saw this the other day in NYRB:

"...Just as the Old South compelled the national party to shelter its extremism, today’s Tea Party leaders make Republicans toe their line. Most Republicans do not think laws invalid because the president is a foreign-born Muslim with a socialist agenda. But they do not renounce, or even criticize, their partners who think that. The rare Republican who dares criticize a Rush Limbaugh is quickly made to repent and apologize. John Boehner holds the nation hostage because the Tea Party holds him hostage. The problem with modern Republicans is not fanaticism in the few but cowardice in the many, who let their fellows live in virtual secession from laws they disagree with."

President-Mom-Jeans said...

Alan Grayson is a shitstain on the state of Florida. MSNBC is run by people who want to give people like Alan Grayson complete control of citizens lives.

chickelit said...

The problem with modern Republicans is not fanaticism in the few but cowardice in the many, who let their fellows live in virtual secession from laws they disagree with.

And yet, asked what "the many" should do instead, the answer is invariably "just be like us." This leads to the perception that the rank and file Democrat voter is disingenuous or worse "held hostage" to their leaders: Obama, Reid, Shumer, Wasserman-Schlutz.

deborah said...

The hornet's nest is going to break wide open next year. Post-poning the individual mandate won't help a bit when hundreds of thousands of people are left with no policies at all. And how will the media try to spin it to make the conservatives the bad guys?

deborah said...

Icepick, are the tea party leaders savvy enough to get ahead of this and prevent it? I think Nick turned out to be right that the shut-down was a diatraction from the totally crap roll-out of ACA.

chickelit said...

And how will the media try to spin it to make the conservatives the bad guys?

They will say "take your medicine and the reason you didn't get any sugar with it is because you're Tea-publican."

Seriously, I think the bubblicious economy of DC has given both sides of journalists a "don't rock our boat" philosophy/outlook.

Icepick said...

And how will the media try to spin it to make the conservatives the bad guys?

They'll say what they said at the hearings today. Instead of addressing the obvious failures of the executive branch, the Dems in the House were saying that the Republicans always wanted it to fail, have worked for it to fail, and are doing everything they can to make it fail. It's the same thing Stalin's people said in the 1930s, and that's no accident.

The Dems have the bulk of the media on their side. They have large voting blocks that will NOT abandon them, no matter what (blacks, Jews, gays) and the Republicans have nothing comparable. (People that vote Republican expect the party to actually do something for them, and will stay home if they don't.) The Dems are getting massive amounts of tech and finance money pouring into their coffers in an effort to open the borders and completely crush the wages of the middle class in this country.

But really, all I have to do is point to last year's election results. If Obama could win re-election in the middle of the worst recovery since we started keeping records, when employment was down in a big way, wages were down, expenses were all up, then that means the people, collectively, are just too fucking stupid to be anything other than sheep. If they haven't realized how they're getting screwed on jobs and income, are they going to notice they're getting fucked in the ass on HC?

deborah said...

Yeah. MSNBC and Fox both have their territory marked. Though MSNBC is way worse.

'Night.

deborah said...

lol, I guess not, Ice. So it's what it's always been? If you're conservative you just have to prepare for the worst and be ready to shoot your way out of Dodge when the everything goes to hell?

Does the left know they're Cloward-Pivening the US away?

Icepick said...

If you're conservative you just have to prepare for the worst and be ready to shoot your way out of Dodge when the everything goes to hell?

This is a relatively new phenomenon. It took decades of preparation with the education system and large numbers of immigrants who would not assimilate. But the time is ripe.

Does the left know they're Cloward-Pivening the US away?

Some do, many don't, and most wouldn't care if they did know. And there's a fair amount of it on the right, too. On the right, though, the welfare tends to go to the business class. And both sides feed the financial class, because how can they not, with ever growing amounts of debt needing financing.

JAL said...

@ Rev 10:16 pm

They are too stupid to count the Ks.

Icepick said...

Married white people are the most reliable voting block the Republicans have. And every year there are fewer white people (relatively), fewer married people (relatively, and moving towards absolutely, if we're not there yet), and fewer married white people in particular. The demographics are killing the American Right, and I don't see that changing any time soon. The idea that the Republicans are going to get demographically "healthy" by recruiting the "naturally conservative" Mexican peasantry is laughable.

chickelit said...

Does the left know they're Cloward-Pivening the US away?

The wealthy left and right do and they will offshore their wealth. Middle class wealth 401(k)s etc., are nominally kept afloat insofar as they're invested in stocks and bonds because the IRS has a future tax lien on their value. The hope is to get aging white boomers to divest them in an orderly fashion without a market run. The thinking is that that wealth really belongs to other people now. Watch for an undoing of intergenerational wealth transfer at many levels. The left hates inherited wealth even though the bulk of that inheritable wealth is middle class. The poor have no wealth to transfer and so once again will be exempt. The left is anti-family in so many ways this is just another example.

bagoh20 said...

" I think Nick turned out to be right that the shut-down was a distraction from the totally crap roll-out of ACA."

On Fox it has been Obamacare failure 24/7. On the other channels they will cover whatever they have to and however they have to to minimize the failure. The shut down was an excuse to not cover the Obamacare trainwreck, for a couple weeks, but nothing, absolutely nothing, will make them cover it as the failure it is. It will be unavoidable news because people will learn it for themselves as their own coverage is affected, ruined and lost. This will happen over a long slow burn, so the shut down had zero effect on the truth coming out. It will come out, and the Dems can only say wait for it to get better so long. Cruz made it more of an issue, by getting people's attention, and did the very important work of defining who is for it and who is a lap dog willing to let Dems do their usual rope-a-dope into ossified government overreach.

bagoh20 said...

In my opinion, you either support the Tea Party agenda or you participate in the fiscal failure of this nation. There is no longer a soft landing, so pick your villain: the Tea Party for forcing tough painful reforms or everyone else for letting it go to hell instead.

bagoh20 said...

Just as Cruz's ideas from weeks ago will now become the policy to avoid disaster, the Tea Party will by necessity get much of what it's calling for, and neither will get the credit for being right, but will be martyred to save our asses, fed to the lions as crowds cheer.

Chip Ahoy said...

ot a bit.

I am seeing the link to the Palin satire thing, something about Jesus practicing Easter, in the most bizarre remote places as if it were real. With long threads following.

Did I mention this already? Stop me if I did.

So I'm linking ridiculous things that Democrat leaders actually said, not satire of them. The real dealio.

I've been doing a lot of that.

And brooking no repost. I just drop my turdsxxxx correctives and move on.

Then I received an email that I glanced "access denied" and "now you're" and "really getting weird" in a blur on the way to the trash.

I thought I was being banned from something, and I didn't care from where. I'd find out if I tried to return.

Went about my bees wax and came back to it out of curiosity. Who would be obsessed enough to email me? Turned out to be a reply in agreement, an automatically generated notification to follow-up remark. Turned out "Access Denied" is the title of the post I read with a video I did not watch, And the remark added to mine was:

"Man the world is really getting weird when I find myself agreeing with the U.N." ha ha ha ha ha, and I felt better somehow. Oh and look, here's another one.

rhhardin said...

Foreigner media notice the moron

"The German magazine Spiegel does not characterize the espionage as a continuation of the “failed policies” of the Bush years, but as what you can expect of a a poorly bred, uncouth and lying man who happens to occupy the White House."

Belmont Club

deborah said...

chick:
"The hope is to get aging white boomers to divest them in an orderly fashion without a market run."

Will you please give examples of what this means?

deborah said...

bago, I get what you are saying. This is about the tea party being the last stopgap between progress and the dissolution of the American Dream. Once a certain point is reached, and the time is ripe for the legislative process to take hold by means of voting the bastards out, or even actual revolution, it will have been the tea party that brought the message. But it's a long shot.

In the interest of honesty, I am nothing if not a pragmatic realist. I see the wheels of of the industrial revolution grinding on to a possibly dystopic future. I see the golden age of America as having peaked in the Sixties. I see the tide washing over developing countries as their standard of living is slowly raised, until there's a kind of equilibrium over the globe, though certain parts may remain relative backwaters for ages to come. Which will be useful for those who may wish for a frontier to escape to.

The neoliberals of the left and right are now just picking over the carcass of America's wealth. But I sincerely hope that this does not mean we cannot enjoy a sort of Age of Bucolic Splendor. There is plenty of fat left on the land. As the old man in The Good Earth insisted, land is the true wealth.

We speak of capitalism and rule of law, but the rule of law is basically elastic. Yes it was quite obvious that the GM stockholders were screwed over big time, but the line becomes fuzzier when you consider lobbyists in DC. Lobbying is a necessity, otherwise interests could never request rule/law changes to benefit private business. But the rub is how the boundaries of fairness expand and contract. What is mutual back scratching? How wrong is it? Who decides? It's all a glorious mess.

chickelit said...

@deborah: Suppose you've accrued a modest nest egg in a 401(k) through thrift and restraint and further suppose it's something you've tended in order to see it grow. The Federal Government allowed you to grow that, knowing full well that a quarter or so of it was theirs at some future date. You and the Feds are invested to the tune of 25% of the nominal value of the account or so. I will leave it to an accountant to describe details. The Fed has a vested interest in propping the markets to maximize its return.

The "aging white boomer" is a broad brush picture, not meant to be exclusive of other cohorts.

deborah said...

So it's a good thing that there's shared interest in propping up the 401K?

"The hope is to get aging white boomers to divest them in an orderly fashion without a market run."

You mean avoiding a panic, and having the boomers spend their money as they naturally would as they live out their lives. And then take the left-overs from their heirs.

Is their any movement afoot for people to take their money out at a loss and make a 'deal' with their kids? Or is the govt on the lookout for that kind of thing?