We'll start today with a vocabulary lesson, ably illustrated by Jim Morin.
There has been a lot of negative response to the one-two punch of Sean Spicer blatantly lying to the press and then Kellyanne Conway explaining that he was using "alternative facts," and we'll get to that in a minute, but what stunned me was that, during Spicer's fake press conference, there was applause at some points and groans at others.
A studio audience at a press conference?
Apparently, yes, and not only there but at the announcement of his candidacy and at the speech at CIA Headquarters, where Dear Leader filled the first three rows with fans in order to create the impression that the intelligence community was applauding him.
So here's our Word of the Day:
Better get used to this.
Secondary Vocabulary Lesson: Some years ago, copy editors decided that these gatherings of reporters and sources should not be called "press conferences" but, rather, "news conferences," because it's about the news, not about the press.
This being how the people who never go out onto the street spend their time while the reporters are dealing with reality.
And, now, with claques and claquers.
Juxtaposition of the Day
As noted yesterday, we took a lot of the edge off the Orwell and Hitler analogies by using them on less astonishingly appropriate targets in past years.
At which point, the Nobel Prize winning lyrics should have been "Take the rag away from your face; Now ain't the time for your tears."
Well, bury the rag deep in your face now, because here we are and the difference between Big Brother's "Two Minutes Hate" and Dear Leader's carefully staged, claquer-filled "Press Conferences" is largely irrelevant on an operational level.
Though I do note that there remain a lot of people on social media still squealing their hatred not just of Hillary Clinton but of Bill, which I think is reaching back towards Emmanuel Goldstein a bit, or at least is a case of blaming Snowball for the collapse of the windmill.
The Whole World Is Still Watching
Well, at least South Africa still is.
Mind you, when a South African speaks of popular visions being perverted by political greed and ego at the top, it's best to listen.
Brandan made me laugh more, but Dr. Jack & Curtis keep us on the "Vocabulary Lesson" track, since several American commentators have decided the important thing right now is to parse the difference between "lies" and "falsehoods" and to do away entirely with the term "fake news" on the grounds that, if it's fake, it's not news.
Their approach being one of "I smell smoke; hand me my fiddle."
Four legs good, two legs better
Jen Sorensen scores with this analysis of the plain folks our plain folks president has put into power, with, of course, the advice and consent of his party, and it's not surprising, by the way, that someone who brags about grabbing women by their vaginas would also subscribe to the political maxim, "Once you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow."
Though, if the GOP leadership had metaphorical, rather than merely anatomical balls, none of these people would even get through committee, never mind be approved by the Senate.
I did have to give a rueful, gallows-humor chuckle at the idea that Steve Mnuchin "forgot" he had millions stashed away, plus directorship payments from a variety of off-shore hedge funds.
It's hard for me to even forget that I have a ten dollar bill stashed in my other jacket.
Here's to the Women, God Bless'em
(Watson)
The women's march continues to reverberate, and I would note that it shows the potential truth in Obama's farewell suggestion that this is not a period, but only a comma.
You may notice that three of the four cartoons here are by men. I asked one of my sons about the balance at the march in his city, and he said he did feel the men stood out as a distinct minority, but, he added, not as much as he had felt alone in a sea of women at an Indigo Girls concert a few weeks ago.
So there's your yardstick.
Both of my sons -- the avid athlete and the Gulf veteran -- attended the march, along with my grandson, proving the adage from the Seventies that "Men of quality are not threatened by women of equality."
Meanwhile, I'm hearing that organizers are thinking of holding another march, which brings me back to Moratorium days, and remembering that, just as there never really was another Woodstock, the first Moratorium (and, for that matter, the first Earth Day) were more dynamic than anything that followed.
And I kind of hope we don't need to "organize" specific events so much as we need to maintain the mood and the message that a very, very large number of people -- both women and men -- are not behind Dear Leader, whether he performs in front of a hand-picked studio audience or simply pipes canned laughter and applause into his speeches.
The challenge, as I've said before, and as Peter Yarrow said before me, is not to raise hell but to raise consciousness.
And to drown out the claquers with the power of persistence.
And to remember that this is not just a show. It's not just up to "them." It's up to you:
"Claque" is a swell word whose real meaning I didn't know (I knew the word but, from context, always thought it meant something like "friendly group"), but which I will use at every opportunity. Always grateful to pick up good new words.
In our little local march I guessed our crowd was about two-thirds women. Plenty of men, enough to not make me feel at all misplaced being there. The guys did seem to be disproportionately bearded. Not sure what to make of that: just a fashion trend? Old hippies?
The unspoken punchline to Sorensen's comic is that, after everyone's had their opportunity to praise or condemn for the cameras and score whatever points they can for the folks back home ("Boy, Franken really nailed that weasel, didn't he?!"), the Cabinet nominees will be quietly approved and begin their various demolition projects. It's going to be a tiring slog.
Posted by: Brian Fies | 01/24/2017 at 11:21 AM
I wouldn't have predicted that I'd come upon *two* discussions of "claque" in my surfing today, but here we are:
http://crookedtimber.org/2017/01/24/clackity-claque/
I think the march here in Rochester was closer to 80/20. Great turnout, great event.
Posted by: Mark Jackson | 01/24/2017 at 11:45 AM