The series, starring Craig Robinson and Adam Scott, is allegedly a sitcom -- file it under things in 2017 that weren't what they pretended to be.
Take CNN.
Last Friday, it had an explosive 'report' about how WIKILEAKS was providing the Trump campaign with Hillary Clinton's e-mails before it was publishing them!
This was so important that it was breathlessly and endlessly repeated as though it proved WIKILEAKS was working with the Trump campaign to defeat Hillary Clinton, that both were working with Russia, that Hillary Clinton was the 21st century answer to Mother Teresa, that President John A. Garfield was assassinated by a Mormon Elder and, most of all, that a better sexual orgasm was possible through a diet of angel food cake and frappuccinos.
Or something.
Only problem?
It was never true.
None of what CNN reported.
As Glenn Greenwald (THE INTERCEPT) explained:
This entire revelation was based on an email which CNN strongly implied it had exclusively obtained and had in its possession. The email was sent by someone named “Michael J. Erickson” — someone nobody had heard of previously and whom CNN could not identify — to Donald Trump, Jr., offering a decryption key and access to DNC emails that WikiLeaks had “uploaded.” The email was a smoking gun, in CNN’s extremely excited mind, because it was dated September 4 — 10 days before WikiLeaks began promoting access to those emails online — and thus proved that the Trump family was being offered special, unique access to the DNC archive: likely by WikiLeaks and the Kremlin.
[. . .]
The email was not dated September 4, as CNN claimed, but rather September 14 — which means it was sent after WikiLeaks had already published access to the DNC emails online. Thus, rather than offering some sort of special access to Trump, “Michael J. Erickson” was simply some random person from the public encouraging the Trump family to look at the publicly available DNC emails that WikiLeaks — as everyone by then already knew — had publicly promoted. In other words, the email was the exact opposite of what CNN presented it as being.
"Ava, C.I., you -- and even Glenn -- are obviously mistaken!" you say. "It wasn't CNN, it was ABC -- Brian Ross. That's what happened. It was Brian Ross, he said on air that Donald Trump, as candidate for president, told Michael Flynn to negotiate with Russia! That's the story and it blew up in ABC's face because it was all wrong!"
To which we respond, "Dear reader, you have a good memory. But we're not talking about that disaster. We're talking about the latest one."
And let's be very clear, this is far from the media's first, second, third, fourth . . . report in 2017 about Donald Trump that got it all wrong.
Glenn Greenwald noted one in September:
Last Friday,
most major media outlets touted a major story about Russian attempts to
hack into U.S. voting systems, based exclusively on claims made by the
Department of Homeland Security. “Russians attempted to hack elections
systems in 21 states in the run-up to last year’s presidential
election, officials said Friday,” began the USA Today story, similar to how most other outlets presented this extraordinary claim.
This official story was explosive for obvious reasons, and predictably triggered instant decrees – that of course went viral – declaring that the legitimacy of the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election is now in doubt.
Virginia’s Democratic Congressman Don Beyer, referring to the 21
targeted states, announced that this shows “Russia tried to hack their
election”:
This official story was explosive for obvious reasons, and predictably triggered instant decrees – that of course went viral – declaring that the legitimacy of the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election is now in doubt.
MSNBC’s Paul Revere for all matters relating to the Kremlin
take-over, Rachel Maddow, was indignant that this wasn’t told to us
earlier and that we still aren’t getting all the details. “What we have
now figured out,” Maddow gravely intoned as she showed the multi-colored
maps she made, is that “Homeland Security knew at least by June that 21
states had been targeted by Russian hackers during the election. .
.targeting their election infrastructure.”
They were one small step away from demanding that the election results be nullified, indulging the sentiment expressed by #Resistance icon Carl Reiner the other day: “Is there anything more exciting that [sic] the possibility of Trump’s election being invalidated & Hillary rightfully installed as our President?”
So what was wrong with this story? Just one small thing: it was false. The story began to fall apart yesterday when Associated Press reported that Wisconsin – one of the states included in the original report that, for obvious reasons, caused the most excitement – did not, in fact, have its election systems targeted by Russian hackers:
[. . .]
Good for Glenn, but we see something deeply troubling in the above.
"#Resistance icon Carl Reiner the other days: 'Is there anything more exciting that [sic] the possibiliyt of Trump's election being invalidated & Hillary rightfully installed as our President?"
Why are we tolerating this gross stupidity?
Carl Reiner knows nothing about presidential elections. He's not the only fool making a pest of himself.
Take this bottom feeder:
- We have a SOLID case with 14 plaintiffs, including all 5 swing states, led by brilliant attorney
@marksmall1973 to#NullifyNow the#StolenElection About to hit MSM. All we need is $500,000 to cover expenses & sustain case and we will get it done. Please get in touch. We will win - We have a SOLID case with 14 plaintiffs, including all 5 swing states, led by brilliant attorney
@marksmall1973 to#NullifyNow the#StolenElection About to hit MSM. All we need is $500,000 to cover expenses & sustain case and we will get it done. Please get in touch. We will win - We have a SOLID case with 14 plaintiffs, including all 5 swing states, led by brilliant attorney
@marksmall1973 to#NullifyNow the#StolenElection About to hit MSM. All we need is $500,000 to cover expenses & sustain case and we will get it done. Please get in touch. We will win - We have a SOLID case with 14 plaintiffs, including all 5 swing states, led by brilliant attorney
@marksmall1973 to#NullifyNow the#StolenElection About to hit MSM. All we need is $500,000 to cover expenses & sustain case and we will get it done. Please get in touch. We will win
What the hell is Kirstin Elaine talking about?
She may be fluent in five languages but electoral politics is not one of them.
The electoral college has voted.
It's over.
Get it through your uneducated and weak minds.
Hillary cannot be installed as president.
If the popular vote was hacked (it wasn't), it wouldn't matter.
The electoral college voted. End of story.
If Donald Trump's impeached, Hillary does not become president.
It is over, the 2016 election is over.
Grasp that reality.
There is an order of succession should a president be impeached -- handing it to a political rival in the most recent presidential election does not factor in.
We have no problem with the presidential election being determined by popular vote and think it is past time that happened. But up to and until that happens, the US remains glued to the electoral college and, once it votes, that's it.
If we had an amendment to the Constitution changing it to the popular vote, then, yes, Hillary could still be president from the 2016 election. But such an amendment does not exist.
So stop the fantasies and lies.
And maybe if the reality of the electoral college was known, there would be less of an impulse to embrace fake news?
That's what CNN, Brian Ross and so many others are producing.
The weekend before Thanksgiving, we caught up with a comedic actress and thought it would be a nice visit. We hadn't had time since last summer to be face-to-face.
After we'd discussed family, romantic liasons, and assorted other topics including the Iraq War, she brought up Donald Trump and began listing one scandal after another.
We tried to explain that the various 'scandals' were all ones that imploded.
We said that as a rule of thumb, when the media reports some pleasing item about how Donald Trump did wrong, we usually wait two days to see if it implodes first.
"Why are you supporting these nuts and their gun rights!" she screamed with so much intensity that was lacking in her one time Emmy nominated performance on a recently cancelled sitcom.
Gun rights?
We hadn't mentioned one word about guns.
And "these nuts"?
The only thing we were supporting was the truth. We've always called out the media.
But that's how it was to this actress.
You were either embracing every false lie about Donald and going along with the media swamp or you were supporting "nuts and gun rights."
The world has come unhinged.
Strange times in Portland, Maine
Lobsters dancing on the dock
Switzerland's been weird since they unplugged the clocks
Man and a woman living in Brooklyn Heights
Each convinced that the other is in the wrong
Last year the divorce rate tripled in Hong Kong
If through all the madness
We can stick together
We're safe and sound
The world's just inside out and upside down
-- "Safe and Sound," written by Carly Simon and Jacob Brackman, first appears on Carly's HOTCAKES
We're seeing it with Al Franken, for example.
They focus on the first woman to come forward, Leeann Tweedem. They ignore the other seven. They try to tear Tweedem apart. They're in denial. They resort to lies to tear her apart.
When did we become what we used to oppose?
Probably around the time that so many on the left were playing red-rover-red-rover-let-David-Brock-come-over.
David Brock represented everything that was wrong with the right-wing in the 90s.
And he did not have a transformation.
He lost his friends on the right -- due to his sexuality -- and decided he'd move over to the left.
He brought the same gutter tactics over to the left with him.
To be clear, David is not the root of all evil.
The so-called "bimbo explosions" is a term he had no part in. James Carville and other centrist-Democrats used them. And ripped women apart with them.
And some went along -- some actively joined in the attacks.
But if you missed it, 2016 and 2017 has seen serious self-reflection on the part of many on the left.
But as we attempt to grapple with our mistakes and self-correct, you'll note David Brock's not a part of that process.
He has become the cancer on the left.
We're better than that.
The centrist Democrats may not be, but the left is.
Or used to be.
But look around and notice how many people use lies to win.
We're not talking about opinions.
We're talking about embracing lies -- stories that turned out not to be true, claims that cannot be verified.
We're losing our way and it's not Donald Trump that's causing that.
It's amazing how much power we've given to him.
He's a president and very inconsequential.
We can fight back against anything if we unite.
But we're too busy embracing lies that Hillary can be president right away if we can just toppled Donald!
It's not happening.
And it's getting ridiculous.
Sadly, GHOSTED is ridiculous as well.
Craig and Adam deserved a funny comedy.
GHOSTED isn't even mildly amusing -- in fact, it makes THE COURTSHIP OF EDDIE'S FATHER look like a laugh riot.
TV comedies should be better, the news should be better, the country must be better.