Open Thread Jan. 8: Oprah Winfrey, Come On Down!

Filed in National by on January 8, 2018

We are well and truly fucked. Oprah Winfrey gave a moving speech at the Golden Globe award show last night, and it’s already fueling the “Oprah for President” chatter. This notion, by definition, assumes that our problem wasn’t choosing an unqualified celebrity for the presidency, it was choosing the wrong unqualified celebrity.

The gynocracy hasn’t won yet, though. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is learning that knifing a colleague for the publicity might not be the best way to distinguish yourself from the Democratic field. More people are starting to complain about the Franken ouster being a mob act, including a major Democratic Party donor who says she won’t support those who called for rushed justice. Sorry, Kirsten.

The Book is still consuming the chattering classes, and a fair amount of the coverage has been of the “Michael Wolff: Prevaricator or Dissembler?” variety. The Columbia Journalism Review does a good job of explaining why beat reporters can’t do what Michael Wolff did.

Not all environmental degradation comes about because of global warming. Some of it comes with the invasive species introduced by global trade, such as Delaware’s newest insect pest, the spotted lanternfly, which apparently has spread here from its initial outbreak point in southeastern Pennsylvania.

I have been asking this question for several years now: Why are our educational institutions, high schools in particular, investing tax dollars in a sport that has demonstrated a strong correlation to impaired cognitive functioning? I’m talking, of course, about football, which also has the drawback of its high cost — fielding a football team is the most expensive athletic undertaking for our educational institutions. UD associate prof Mark Serva doesn’t even bring up the cost angle in his News Journal op-ed calling for an end to high school football. IMHO, the cost angle is just as important as the brain-health objection, because so many of the grumpy old men who support football also like to complain about their taxes being too high.

If you’re following the Trump Show, White House aide and Bannon acolyte Stephen Miller got into a lather about The Book on CNN with Jake Tapper, and Bannon groveled in a public show of remorse for being the source of so much of its material. Trump is also taking crap for getting up at the crack of 11, a criticism to which I take personal offense.

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  1. bane says:

    No high school football???? Booo this man!!!

  2. JamesD says:

    I’ve seen people continue to beat the drums against Gillibrand over Franken, am I missing the part where Al Franken didn’t do something wrong? I mean, I haven’t taken nearly as many photographs as he has but mine have a 0% touching the ass of non-significant other streak going. Is the argument just that he was a progressive so it’s ok he copped a feel where he could?

  3. puck says:

    @JamesD: there are no photos of Al Franken touching anybody’s ass or groping anybody.

  4. JamesD says:

    @puck – if you expect there to be, every picture you’ve taken with a famous person was taken from a super weird angle

  5. Jim C says:

    Alby, props for defending the eleven am wakeup time. We’re up at least till one every night and my SO has always said, “I’m up at the crack of noon”.
    I dread having to get up with the masses for anything that is scheduled at, A.M.

  6. mediawatch says:

    Oprah for president, right.
    Dr. Phil to head the Centers for Disease Control.
    Dr. Oz for surgeon general.

  7. nathan arizona says:

    Re: Oprah as president. We don’t need another ego-driven celebrity with no political experience in the White House. But maybe that’s what life in the Idiocracy has come to.

  8. Joshua W says:

    One would assume that lack of obsequiousness to the donor class would be an endearing quality to some of the people on this site, but I guess not.

  9. Alby says:

    @JamesD: You’re missing the part where she called for setting aside an investigation and demanded instead immediate resignation. Even those who supported this call cited the political reasons and ramifications for doing so.

    In short, rather than hold the person to a standard of investigation and punishment, she demanded the emotionally charged and politically expedient course instead.

    No matter what Franken did wrong. We’ll never know now, will we? And even if you think he’s probably guilty of more than we’ve heard, why wouldn’t you want such hearings aired? If you’re interested in putting the #metoo movement in a prominent position, public hearings would have been the way to go. So calling out Gillibrand is calling out the obvious — she got caught with her eagerness showing.

    Shape-shifting politicians built for expediency are so 20th century. Remember the first part of the old political axiom: Once you learn to fake sincerity, the rest is easy. Faking sincerity isn’t so easy anymore. People are on the lookout for the real thing. In conservative circles that gets you Blake Farenthold. Let’s see what it gets in progressive circles. I certainly hope it’s better than Gillibrand.

  10. Alby says:

    @Josh: By nominating one of the donor class instead? Even if you find that a viable solution, why a celebrity? All a celebrity brings to the table is an ability to win based on name recognition.

    Her ego is a match for Trump’s, her skill set unrelated to the demands of the job of the presidency. No thanks.

  11. chris says:

    Hey, if Oprah doesn’t run, we know Velda will run— for something, anything ! LOL
    She just can’t resist!

  12. JamesD says:

    @Alby – as far as I know, Gillibrand is not God-Emperor of Dune and this is still America. She called on Franken to step down because she believes women (she has done a lot of work trying to help women in the Armed Services who get assaulted, a huge issue that doesn’t get nearly the press it deserves). If you believe the women who have accused him, you don’t need the investigation.

    However, since, as we have established, she isn’t God-Emperor but just a fellow Senator, Franken then had to decide what he wanted to do. I do enjoy that we still found a woman to blame for a story where a male senator has to resign after accusations that he enjoyed committing sex crimes (groping and kissing the unwilling are crimes). Gillibrand calling on Franken to resign + ????? = it is all Gillibrand’s fault.

  13. CinqueB says:

    @Alby you better check yourself, this conservative libertarain agrees with you.

  14. Bill Clinton says:

    We lived through Obama so we can make it with Oprah..

  15. RE Vanella says:

    Bill… Did this comment come to you all of a sudden or did you fuss over it. I mean the screen-name is so clever. Did you soil you pants with glee glue when you hit Post Comment? I bet you did you witty little sicko.

    For the semiliterate set stop this stupid shit about Oprah, or go over to the safe space. Go troll them. An ultra wealthy talk-show host who’s best known for peddling self-help nonsense makes some nice remarks on a film award show and Joshua is scratching his head about why we don’t care and why it’s not “endearing.”

    Come on, you know why. Don’t be daft.

  16. Alby says:

    “If you believe the women who have accused him, you don’t need the investigation.”

    If you believe that is how the rule of law works, you are not a progressive. You’re an authoritarian. You are quite free to your opinion, but please realize it for the noxious view it is.

    “We” didn’t find “a woman to blame.” I, along with millions of others, know a show pony when we see one. Tits or balls, it’s all the same to me. Weave your little narrative of brave Kirsten over at That Other Site. They lap up abject male groveling over there.

  17. Jim C says:

    Guess which DE senator backed the Congressional Review proposal to restore net neutrality? It’s a trick question, neither of our Senators gave a crap!
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DSz_UZ4W4AEQ-J3.jpg

  18. I knew that 30 senators had signed on. Kinda figured that neither Carper nor Coons had been among them.

    What a crappy congressional delegation we have.

  19. Rusty Dils says:

    Sorry guys and gals, there is no person eligible to be U.S. President, who would run as a Democrat, and beat Trump in 2020. Any discussion about who that ficticious person would be is either for entertainment purposes only, or a total waste of everyone’s time.

  20. Liberal Elite says:

    @JC “…neither of our Senators gave a crap!”

    Sure they did. They probably got a large wad of cash to fumble the ball.

    …and soon we’ll have an internet just like the one in Portugal. Just think of all the website bundles you’ll be able to order… Wow! Sign me up for all of them!!

    http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5a1471fa3dbef4a7748b711a-1400/screen%20shot%202017-11-21%20at%20103429.png

  21. puck says:

    I was always amazed at how little money it takes to purchase a Senator. It’s not the money corporations give to Carper or Coons that ensures their DINO ways – it’s the money they DON’T give to their potential opponents. Why do you think they always run against tomato cans? If any of our delegation started voting in a way that annoyed our corporations, in the next cycle they would find themselves with well-funded and credible opponents.

  22. mouse says:

    There lies the problem. People don’t participate or demand things their own interests. It’s all around sexual issues and wedge issues. There’s no successful organized lobby for average people and their kids.

  23. RE Vanella says:

    http://www.dsausa.org/

    Success depends on us.

  24. RSE says:

    “they would find themselves with well-funded and credible opponents.”

    What, are you saying that Christine O’Donnell wasn’t a credible opponent ?

    She’s going to fly here from New Jersey, with an army of human brain mice, and put a ladybug hurtin on your ass….And BTW, mice do have human brains now…So, watch out….Seriously.

    https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/609354/tiny-human-brains-inside-rats-are-sparking-ethical-concern/

  25. mouse says:

    Witch!