After a welcome break from tutoring, I was back at for the first time in two weeks. I’m not sure why—maybe it was just that I’d gotten used to having my evenings back and under my own control—but I was exhausted when I rolled up on the cove around 9:45 Wednesday night.
When I get home after 2 ½ hours of trying to get 25 high school-age students to put down their cell phones and do some homework, I’ll often sit-up for an hour or so with a beer (sometimes a snack) and more often than not, I’ll watch The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC. Because I tune-in just prior to the 10:00 p.m. segue between hosts and shows, I’ve come to enjoy being there for the “hand-off” that takes place between the brilliant Rachel Maddow and O’Donnell, a savvy political veteran of DC’s internecine combat.
Wednesday night, though, for some odd reason, I switched on CNN. When I am home at night, I rarely miss Ms. Maddow’s special blend of research, commentary, and the way she weaves each evening’s storyline, coaxing viewers along for something other than the usual soundbite journalism that’s all-too-common in this post-factual era.
It’s unfortunate that the only two left-of-center news networks force us to choose: pitting Maddow against Chris Cuomo (over on CNN), and then, O’Donnell goes head-to-head against worthy rival, Don Lemon. What I often end up doing is channel-surfing between networks during commercials, which works at times.
Cuomo, in addition to being a journalist is also a licensed attorney. He draws on that legal background to “make his case” in whatever story he’s covering on a given night. Wednesday night, it was President Trump, and how the Orange Menace opts for feelings over facts, time-and-time-again. This is nothing new to anyone who doesn’t source their information solely from TrumpTV (better know as, Fox News). But for the Kool-Aid crowd of Trump toadies, this is an interesting flip-flop.
Do you have family members, friends, or coworkers who can’t be moved from Trump regardless of whatever batshit crazy things he comes up with? No matter what claims and falsehoods he pulls out of his ass, these very same people (the ones pompously decrying “feelings over facts” before) who found fault with every single thing President Obama did, now are oblivious to reality.
I thought Cuomo’s closing monologue, the segment his producers label as the “Closing Argument,” was especially fitting for this time between holidays. Days following sitting around and giving thanks that you have a roof over your head and aren’t forced to walk hundreds of miles to escape violence, and looking ahead to the birth of a figure that some call a “savior,” the CNN host’s indictment of the president’s lack of veracity, his employment of lies 24/7, and a sociopathic inability to feel anything for others—even gassing young mothers with children—was an indictment of our president, but also our country.
Watch the whole clip. Pay particular attention, starting at the 2:55 mark, and follow it to the end. “Safe” teargas? There’s no such thing! Please Mr. President, stop with the lies, misinformation and yes, propaganda that would have made Goebbels proud.
Addendum:
Oh, and so I don’t forget to mention it: if you are someone who has any historical perspective, do the events that fell between June 17, 1972 and August 8, 1974 and a man named Nixon (not to mention, Agnew) mean anything to you? I think we are about to experience similar parallels coming down the pike in the coming weeks and months, as the shit begins hitting the fan on the president and his ubiquitous lies and falsehoods.