When Big Eddie essentially suspended himself for ten days from MSNBC to satisfy the sluts at NBC corporate for his referring to wingnut hate radio host Laura Ingraham as a "slut" and a "media slut"— which is a variation on the venerable "media whore" used to describe the media cancer, which has metastasized from a once healthy watchdog for the people to shilling for corporations and special interests — I personally felt what Ed said was quite offensive to all the decent sluts of good character I've known in my day. And I must say, they would most likely take offense at being compared to the revolting Laura Ingraham, with that nasal whine of hers that sounds like the plaintive tones of a sea lion in heat. (Can you imagine living with your own personal air raid siren?)
Of course, the wingnut media worked itself into a lather over this, digging for "a pattern of invective" on Big Eddie's part. To be a wingnut is to be cluelessly unironic and genuinely surprised and confused when a liberal slides off the rope-a-dope and strikes back with a combination body blow and left hook to their glass jaws. They crumple and whine a lot. It's really unseemly when guttersnipes dish out the invective 24/7 but can't take a hit. Unmacho too, which explains the "manly man" braggadocio from Laura's misogynistic pals. But these are the same folks, like our bud Poor Jeff over at the DC frat house, who consider BIG infrastructure projects such as Hoover Dam — featured in one of Rachel's promos for a return to "can-do" American greatness — as so much "Americana" relegated to the yard sales of the American spirit, a relic of a once great past. But thinking conservatives (they do exist) are appalled by the wingnut "meme" to sell off our assets to pay off our debt.
David Frum offers us a tortured
defense of nonprivatization based on practicalities, with a complicated discussion of what constitutes "value." For liberals, it's very simple: Selling off to the highest bidder (China?) what defines our greatness and our history, what must be nurtured and preserved, is tantamount to treason. Part of the American ethos is, when times are tough, we hold on to those things that define us as a people. One is our history. Another is the vast expanse of public lands set aside by act of Teddy Roosevelt, one of our greatest and most visionary presidents, as America's patrimony for future infinite generations of Americans to enjoy. Our history and our land are bound together in the greatness of what America is.
They are not for sale.
Meanwhile, countries like Brazil and China are cleaning our clocks when it comes to infrastructure projects that will maximize their economic growth potential. Recently, Brazil moved to
limit sales of its farmlands to foreign interests, China in particular. In fact, Brazil's leftist government has "edged closer to the United States" in its growing unease over China's neo-colonialist designs on its farmlands and the increasingly dependent economic relationship this has wrought:
While visiting China last month, Brazil’s new president, Dilma Rousseff, emphasized the need to sell higher-value products to China, and she has edged closer to the United States. “It is not by accident that there is a sort of effort to revalue the relationship with the United States,” said Paulo Sotero, director of the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “China exposes Brazil’s vulnerabilities more than any other country in the world.”
No, I haven't strayed off-topic; only expanded the definition of "slut" to include examples of
capitalist sluts — Chinese speculators — who own large portions of America's debt and hustle Brazil's economy with a quickie fix in exchange for its long-term assets and wealth. The ruling right wing elites who own much of our wealth and now seek total control of the government(s) —states, too — of the United States are more closely aligned to these Chinese speculators than to our own people and government. They would like nothing better than to sell off our national assets to the highest bidder — China, Russia whatever — as long as they make a buck. They have already devastated our industrial base, and would have allowed the Detroit Big Three automakers to go under, if not for the forceful intervention of the Obama administration. Today, our troubled automakers are resurgent and Chrysler has paid off its debt to the American government years ahead of schedule.
The taxpayers actually made money on interest earned. And the partnership between business and unions was key to Detroit's rise like the Phoenix from the ashes of annihilation.
The Republican Party has been overrun by a radical, right wing element, the transnational
capitalist sluts who would sell our patrimony to the highest bidder. Some thoughtful conservatives recognize the threat but are incapable of stopping it. Otherwise "reasonable" Republicans in government have become zombies of a sort — terrified of being "primaried" by Teabagger zealots — which lands them in the
Crazies Zone and pretzel-twist contradictions on everything from the debt ceiling to governing rather than posturing for their money masters.
The
radio media sluts Big Eddie spoke about, which includes Ms Ingraham, are the very well paid shills for this right wing element, whose ultimate loyalty is not to America but to the unencumbered movement of billions in investment funds overseas, with the warp speed of a gazillion electronic Bytes. These are the monuments the Right pays homage to, not the idyllic "Americana" concrete and steel monuments built during the FDR administration, when large government projects contributed not only to lifting us out of the Great Depression but to an unparalleled age of prosperity and growth for the Middle Class, one whose downward spiral fault line is traced to the election of Ronald Reagan.
Not surprisingly, Ingraham's reply to Big Eddie's heartfelt apology was a snarky rejoinder plugging the latest of her worthless books:
“Re. the crude comments made about me by Ed Schultz on his radio program: First, I was surprised to learn that Ed Schultz actually hosted a radio show. Is it only available online? Second, I have to get back to recording the audio edition of my new book “Of Thee I Zing.” Now I’m tempted to insert one additional zing–about men who preach civility but practice misogyny.”
First of all, Laura, you must be familiar with the old adage "sticks and stones may break my bones (but words will never hurt me)." It's your stock-in-trade: the "zinger." I don't recall you protesting the misogyny — i.e.,
hatred of women — of your colleagues, Beck and Linbaugh and Levin and Hannity and O'Reilly and, etc.
(Oh, I get it now: As long as men don't "preach civility" it's okay to be hateful misogynists ... boys will be boys, right Laura? By this nonstandard, your colleagues are exempt.) But even worse, you've been woefully silent, along with most women on the right, on the
GOP's war on women — from raising taxes to make women's access to health services more difficult, including abortion, to cutting programs that impact poor women and children in particular. This is real, legislative misogyny — not simply a well-meant insult hurled in a radio show. Where are you on this, Laura? Silence is consent. Considering your recent bout with breast cancer, you would deny less fortunate women the life-saving cancer screenings that saved yours.
Big Eddie, a mysogynist? Please. He's a happily married dude with six kids. So he made a mistake and let his mouth get ahead of his brain. It's a common affliction of wingnuts. Rachel will school you on the facts of life, Laura, you S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-hit for brains!
of you have sat, and perhaps thought, with us!