My alarm clock wakes me at roughly 6:45am every morning. It’s an unpleasant experience, especially when Morning Edition gives the GOP a platform for nonsense. Like today.
So, Tuesday around here is trash day. At the moment, I have someone else in the house to go around and clean out the litter boxes, but I’m still the one to haul my butt downstairs to drag the stuff out the door. I’d do it at night, but we have racoons and my house backs to the woods. I learned that hard lesson within days of moving into this place, back in 2015.
Last night, I made the mistake of bingeing what was left of Strange New Worlds and then the first four episodes of The Orville, because sooner or later someone’s gonna spoil something for me, and that’s almost as unpleasant as the crap I had to listen to this morning.
See, here’s the thing. Last night I got back-to-back horror stories about bad things sneaking onboard ship and destroying crewmembers without mercy and in the bloodiest, ugliest ways. Getting up at 6:45am to haul out trash, after going to sleep sometime around 1am or so leads to a desire for just a little more sleep.
Big mistake. I had one of those classic chase dreams, but because this is how my brain functions, it all started with a duck.
That’s right, a duck. Pretty thing it was, too. Teal and black feathers, eyes that looked right through you to your soul. And then it got bigger. And it opened its mouth. And all of a sudden I remembered that ducks were dinosaurs, and at that point, it was time to run.
You know what woke me all the way up? This: Leila Fadel chatting up Scott Jennings, all cheerful and happy about the general reaction to Georgia’s probe of election interference and Trump. The whole interview is here. You can listen yourself: How are Republicans reacting to the Guiliani probe and the Mar-a-Lago search?
So, here I am, going up and down on the elevator, trying to find the right door to get out of this homicidal waterfowl’s path, and just as I make it to relative safety, the radio goes off and my foggy brain focuses in on this comment:
FADEL: And this search drew a lot of criticism and a lot of demands for the Department of Justice to show the documents. They unsealed the search warrant, the property receipt. And now there are demands from Republicans but also from the press for the affidavit. Will there ever be enough documentation? ‘Cause we’ve already seen that, in fact, there were top-secret and confidential documents in his home.
JENNINGS: Well, I think Republicans, and some in Congress and some involved with the Intelligence Committee, and some Democrats as well – I think they want to know what it was. What was so important that you had to go into the home of the former president and probable candidate, you know, here 90 days before an election? I mean, he’s obviously had these documents for a year and a half. What was so important that it had to be done right now? I think that’s a legitimate question for Republicans who are – sit on the relevant oversight committees, particularly the Intelligence Committee. But, yeah, for the average Republican voter, there is going to be a question about whether this was necessary or whether this was political harassment. [Emphasis mine.]
Political harassment.
So that’s what investigations are for, huh? Not for accountability or criminal liability, or treason, even, but for “political harassment.”
Says everything you ever needed to know about why the Republicans can’t be bothered to watch these hearings. I mean, Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election over an eleventh-hour investigation of her emails that proved to be NOTHING. It’s fine to put a Democrat on the hotseat, just because they want to make sure the Democrats lose, but that doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican, because they don’t value these investigations except as political theatre. None of it matters to them because they don’t have consequences that matter. And when Democrats DO hold our own accountable, they win anyway and it costs them nothing at all. (See Franken, Al.)
If it’s a Democrat, it’s all about blood in the water and sharks, but God forbid we should go after Republicans because that’s not cool, y’all. As my friend likes to say:
It’s OKAY if You’re A Republican (IOKIYAR)
So who is this political pundit anyway and what’s he doing on NPR?
Well, a five second search on DuckDuckGo brings this up:
Just the kind of thing we really need, Morning Edition. Slick weasel words and a glorious insight into the way Republicans think, without any of the investigative responsibility for accountability.
Way to go!
And people wonder why I don’t trust NPR the way I used to.
Maybe I’d be better off if ol’ Dinosaur Duck had caught me after all. Feels very much like being nibbled to death anyway.
Seriously, NPR. Scott Jennings and his crowd of spinmasters don’t deserve the airtime. Why give them a platform without holding them accountable for their actions?
What, exactly, is the point?
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