Bill Maher Dares To Dream Of Mediocrity

[UTUSN]

14. Speaking for my insignificant self, my cherry-picking is not to be mixed with "admiration".

And my cherry-picking applies across the board - i.e., SNL, where I only look at most of the cold opens and the Weekend Updates. I'm looking at the tablet while the sketches and music are going on. I love the BOROWITZ titles/headlines but have never read a single column, all or part. Never The Onion, or any of the other humor/satirical pieces on "our side" not to mention anything not on our side.

I cut the cable yakkers at least since 2012, but in the erstwhile MSNBC that was my main thing since its inception in its Ashleigh BANFIELD days, I was heavy into Ari MELBER, Nicole WALLACE, have never looked at Jen PSAKI (though loved her as Press Secretary). Sampled heavily these that I absolutely *loved* - Joy REID, MADDOW, O'DONNELL - and heavily, these that I definitely didn't love, on a love-to-hate-basis - Tweety, Joe SCABS. Yet Keith gave me a creepy vibe, and Rachel's every-gory-detail delivery grated me down.

There are some who are definitely on our side whom I just can't take: Stephanie MILLER (I like), and Chris HAYES (barf, gag). HAYES on our side, telling us what we already know and want to hear, is our version of the Faux Propaganda Network for the Nazis.

Speaking of Faux Nazis, if I monitored anybody almost as much as I did Tweety it was LIMBOsevich. And Tweety *still* has *true admirerers* right here. Why LIMBO, because of the love-to-hate thing, plus the keep-enemies-closer thing, plus the Opposition Research thing, plus studying their arguments and excuses and tactics to know what to expect and answer any Wingnut Nazi I might run across at a Happy Hour. Will furnish a link to my Profile of Tweety I wrote 25 years ago or so.

So, in the Faux heyday, I sampled some of the menu enough to discard DOOCY pere, KILMEADE, BAIER. I frequently watched with horror HUME whipping Juan WILLIAMS. Some were useless and frustrating: Geraldo, VAN SUSTEREN, CAVUTO, COLMES.

But Faux's totally insufferably *detestables/Deplorables* are: Meegan KELLY and the medieval Catholics O'LOOFAH and HANNITY. The first and third I would never watch. O'LOOFAH is the one in the Tweety category, whom I monitored since he went syndicated in my radio area in the '80s.

**** But to the point: There are some I will never look/hear. There are some Enemies that need close vigilence. But beyond all that, I am a Third Gen, lifelong Dem in the FDR, HST, LBJ strain and have the DNA of the Dem agenda, one free thinking. As said, there are some philosophies I won't listen to at all, but I cast a wide net to keep Watch (Navy term for "guard duty" ) on the enemy intel. Some key Lib concepts are: Looking *within* for root causes to fix faults in our own strategies. I don't subscribe to the idea that one's brain will be washed by studying enemy thoughts.

So, MAHER sometimes has a point about flaws in our strategy. It's called constructive criticism. I don't get my thoughts from him. I have long thought that some of our messaging has an elitist tinge, that we need what Adlai called "talking sense to the American people," the common touch. B. CLINTON had it; GORE didn't. I detested RAYGUN and never credited him as "communicator," more like trained by the Hollywood machine in elocution, delivery, faking sincerity. I also was serious thinking Jerry SPRINGER would have been great as a candidate. What parts of MAHER I watch are the monolog and the comedic features of New Rules, and occasional panels and interviews. I also sample selected guests on the Random thing. I really liked his Religulous movie. In the past few years my main impression of him is less about politics, more about how static he's gotten in his aging, the rigidity and repetition and griping and stagnation of his thought processes. And I love it when people like Sam HARRIS and Seth MacFARLANE take him down. The classiest ones to do it were Jane FONDA and - yes, I stoop to cherry-pick: - Kris JENNER.

*** AND saluts to you/Orrex, have long liked and Recc'd your posts. Not needed for us, but this makes our point for both of us: