Matt Taibbi

me, but i have a job already

Alfred, they could have you on if they wanted someone who sounds like George Sanders

only if I get to wave a cigarette holder while talking

https://legendofhistory.com/resources/fdr-cigarette%20jaunty%20hat.jpg

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/taibbi-what-does-russiagate-look-like-to-russians-w493462

After Boris Yeltsin won re-election in 1996, Time magazine ran a gloating cover story – YANKS TO THE RESCUE! – about three American advisers sent to help the pickling autocrat Yeltsin devise campaign strategy. Picture Putin sending envoys to work out of the White House to help coordinate Trump's re-election campaign, and you can imagine how this played in Russia.

about half of russian voters were okay with it?

heh

the thing that drives me nuts about the "russia interfered in the election" or "Trump has russia ties" or "Trump is in debt to russians" is the conflation of all russian interest

I mean, my image of it is that there's an oligarchy of billionaires who benefited from the post-Soviet kleptocracy in Russia who do hold some political power.

It's completely possible state-sponsored actors interfered in the US election (they were working for someone). It's true that Trump has a lot of loans and investment from Russian banks and billionaires. It's true that his son and advisers met with several Russians who were marketed (by a weird agent for celebs) as having Russian government ties and possible dirt that could be used in the campaign.

But there's no grand unified Russian theory here.

nothing to see here, either

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/07/paul-manafort-reportedly-owed-millions-to-russian-oligarch-before-joining-trump-campaign

that Taibbi Yeltsin bit is some lazy tu quoque shit. yep, pretty much the same thing as happened in the 2016 election.

I'm starting to wonder if I should cultivate some russian investor friends to buy some property! Sounds lucrative.

TARFU Report is a bit insufferable, although the addition of David Rees (sadly, a guest, not a new host) made it a million times better. That guy is the best.

more sufferable than mssg boards

Yeah, as a podcast it's a bit of a tough slough

I enjoyed them having David Rees on there

Yeah Rees was great especially during the Brooks segment.

TARFU pod now on WFMU radio. Live beginning in 3 weeks, w/ phone calls.

http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/TV

a little surprised alex didn't know about GGL eating rat haunches tbqh

His latest: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/taibbi-madness-of-donald-trump-removal-25th-amendment-w504149

All of the remove-Trump options seem pretty far-fetched. I guess if Mueller uncovers something truly explosive, maybe impeachment could be possible. 25th amendment stuff seems like a total pipe dream.

bad diet could do the trick

then we get Mike & Mother

who we rootin' for here

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/taibbi-steve-bannon-splits-from-trump-hilarity-ensues-w504732

coronary heart disease

Does kim jong un have a missile that can reach Alabama?

As delicious as it was to watch the mainstream Republican Party crushed under the weight of its own internal contradictions during the 2016 campaign season, a new horror show could be even better

http://i64.tinypic.com/nl4kyr.jpg

there it is

oh fuck that a thousand times to hell and back

what a GOTCHA

god knows the politILXors get no schadenfreude/entertainment from GOP vaudeville

you didn't finish, sleepingbag

Of course, the price of this chaotic spectacle is high. Roy Moore is an awful human being, and it will be a bummer to see him decorating a Senate office with a stone relief of the Ten Commandments. Moreover, the likely endgame here is Trump running back into Bannon's arms behind the scenes, resulting in even worse White House behavior.

Tarfu Report this week had the ideal setup: David Rees in studio, Taibbi phoning in (which makes his tendency to vocal-frying "ahhhhh"s less irritating).

I'm wondering if they record this in Sam Seder's studio. At one point in the last episode the Majority Report producer Matt Leck starts talking out of nowhere.

also David Brooks use of "moral joy"

the Hitler/Tony Robbins quote game last week was incredible

Yeah that was amazing and a bit unsettling.

OK the Mao poetry segment this week was pretty good too.

http://pareene.kinja.com/on-the-tarfu-report-1820029536

Taibbi on FB:

"I have decided to discontinue the TARFU report. I like and respect Alex Pareene too much, and too genuinely wish him every success in life, to ask him to continue answering questions about his association with me. This I do despite my continued insistence that I have never made advances or sexually suggestive comments to any employee in any office, here or in Russia, nor have I ever been accused of anything remotely like that, anywhere, by anyone. I apologize sincerely to listeners of the show and to its behind-the-scenes contributors."

$1 a month richer now. phew

let me just thank the "evidence? who needs it" folx for making my life a little less entertaining

you need a DNA test or something

who could have foreseen that writing an allegedly nonfiction account of disgusting savagery would come back to bite you years later

yeah, it didn't used to when ppl had less time on their hands

tell it to the marquis de sade

He's posted a long piece on Facebook that's worth a read.

the marquis de sade’s on facebook?

over/under on whether RS cans him by the end of business on friday?

I don't think so

actually I shouldn't say that, aren't they changing ownership soon or something? you never know how such things will shake out

they joked on the podcast about the new owners casting him off

That facebook essay is good, and rings accurate to my experience of Taibbi as an occasional reader.

yep, pretty sure he's grown up in the way he's conveyed there.