Sunday, August 14, 2016

TV: Charlie's Pose

Bonnie Raitt is click bait.

Not many other people could induce us to watch THE CHARLIE ROSE SHOW by choice.

 abtv



We quickly regretted we watched.

Bonnie was her usual intriguing self.

But has there been a more boring interview?

Was Rose asleep?

If he wanted anecdotes, he sure didn't pursue them.

And he clearly wasn't interested in having a conversation.

Explaining the background on her new album DIG IN DEEP, Bonnie was willing and able to discuss the deaths of her parents and brother but Charlie didn't seem interested.

In fact, the only time he seemed to snap out of his stupor was when he interrupted her to state that her father used to watch his show.

If only he felt the need to interrupt male guests.

Nicholas Burns "There's a political crisis where Prime Minister Abadi has actually not been able to form a cabinet."

That was last April (and it's been replayed since), Nicholas Burns -- Condi Rice's right hand during the Bully Boy Bush years.

Charlie could have stopped him.

Charlie should have stopped him.

US President Barack Obama installed Haider al-Abadi in the fall of 2014.  At that point, Haider put forward cabinet nominees to Parliament which voted them into office.

Haider's decided all on his own -- with no Constitutional authority -- that he can strip his current Cabinet of their positions (he can't -- per the Iraqi Constitution, only the Parliament can) and replace them.


Charlie didn't address that.

He couldn't even handle minor errors.


"You'll remember Colin Powell citing the Pottery Barn rule if you break it, you own it?" Nicholas Burns pompously intoned.


This despite the fact that the 'rule' was "If you break it, you bought it."


This despite the fact that Senator Al Franken was on AIR AMERICA RADIO -- not in the US Senate -- all those years ago when he exposed that the Pottery Barn had no such rule.


And that's before we get into the larger picture:  The US cannot and never will own Iraq.

Iraq is a foreign country.

It's neither a state of the United States nor a colony.

Hubris, the large elephant in the room no one ever wants to notice.

Charlie had on Burns and Michael O'Hanlon (Brookings Institution) and Jonathan Tepperman (Council on Foreign Relations) and we were repeatedly aware of how all three guests were calling for more US troops in Iraq and longer war in Iraq.

"Broad consensus" was a word the three guests and Charlie fell back on often.

Whose broad consensus?

Not the American people.

The American people are tired of endless war.

They were offered no spot on Charlie's program.

They were offered no representation.

The discussion had the premise of how do we continue the war.

In 2016, the same crap ass media that sold the illegal war on Iraq is still doing that.

And that's before you factor in last week when Charlie brought on gutter trash Mike Morell.

Morell, former CIA Director, insisted on air that it was time to make Iran pay.

Rose asked, "We make them pay the price by killing Russians?"

Morell grunted, "Yeah."

Rose than asked, "And killing Iranians?"

Morell grunted affirmative, the plan was to arm Syrians with so they would kill Russians and Iranians and "You don't tell the world about it. You don’t stand up at the Pentagon and say ‘we did this.’ But you make sure they know it in Moscow and Tehran."


So you do this and you lie to everyone -- including the Pentagon.


Mr. Covert Criminal may have left the CIA but he never left his disregard for the US Constitution.



And Rose was okay with it.


Apparently, so is Hillary Clinton who's made no effort to distance herself from his remarks.





As Morell -- whose presented himself as a voice of maturity and ethics as he rushes to endorse War Criminal Hillary Clinton -- called for extrajudicial killings -- murder -- on air, Rose was okay with it.



We wonder why people are okay with THE CHARLIE ROSE SHOW?


It moves further and further from reality and, despite airing on so-called public television, it alternates between flat out ignoring We The People and reviling them.

In fact, the Bonnie Raitt episode featured David Brooks, gas bag for THE NEW YORK TIMES.

And David Brooks was calling a segment of America's youth sanctimonious.

That's right, David Brooks, of all people, was calling other people sanctimonious.

 And Charlie just nodded along.