DDD EXECUTIVE SUMMARY JAN/09/2017

THE MAIN EVENT

• Get ready for the biggest shit-show since election night as a whole bunch of Trump's cabinet picks are about to be subjected to some degree of scrutiny during Senate confirmation hearings. More details about this sickening confederacy of kleptocrats, coming soon!
• Meanwhile, in the UK, the ongoing Brexit debacle continues to wreak havoc, and how are the right-wingers over there reacting to the unavoidable consequences of their own little Trump Lite race-based mini-tantrum? Why, by BLAMING THE MEDIA, of course! Because of course they would.

A DEEPER DIVE

• At the Golden Globes award show on Sunday, a handful of entertainment industry professionals decided to use the media attention afforded them as a platform to express their thoughts about the ongoing state of the union, thus triggering a near endless supply of tantrums from the whiny, reactionary crybullies of the Far Right Mediasphere. You know, I always find it ironic when self-described "conservative" pundits--people whose entire job consists of having and expressing an opinion--try to say that everyone else should keep their opinions to themselves. 

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SUGGESTED READINGS

1. This Politico feature article, sub-titled "How an 89-year-old Cold Warrior became America's Nuclear Conscience", is absolutely hair-raising, beginning as it does:

At this naked moment in the American experiment, when many people perceive civilization on the verge of blowing up in some metaphorical sense, there is an elderly man in California hoping to seize your attention about another possibility. 

It is that civilization is on the verge of blowing up in a non-metaphorical sense.

William J. Perry is 89 now, at the tail end of one of his generation’s most illustrious careers in national security. By all rights, the former U.S. secretary of Defense, a trained mathematician who served or advised nearly every administration since Eisenhower, should be filling out the remainder of his years in quiet reflection on his achievements. 

Instead, he has set out on an urgent pilgrimage. Bill Perry has become, he says with a rueful smile, “a prophet of doom.”

Read it. Just do it. And pass it along to people whom you deem worthy.

2. Within the very title of his righteously indignant and meticulously argued Mother Jones essay, Kevin Drum rips apart a recent Los Angeles Times editorial. He goes through the article, line by line, and mercilessly dissects it, simultaneously asking, then answering, the following question: "Did Putin Swing the Election to Trump?" His answer? "Of Course He Did." I love this kind of thing, where someone rebuts another person's writing in a thorough and methodical way, taking apart flawed or misleading arguments, piece by piece, exposing the bullshit. I think my own most successful attempt at writing something like Drum's piece was my response to the Washington Post's Richard Cohen's ridiculous attack on Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, which I called "Requiem for a Self-Loathing Liberal". It is still among my favorite pieces of my own writing. 

3. The band Shytegeist has released its first video, It's called "I am Waiting." Words are by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and is read by Matt Aston. There's a lot of hard-hitting celebrity talent joining in. Enjoy.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

"I suppose I'll be able to say that I won at the last ever Golden Globes. I don't mean to be gloomy, it's just that it has the words Hollywood, foreign and press in the title."

- Meryl Streep got all the media attention, but the funniest comment of last night's Golden Globes, in yer old pal Jerky's opinion, came from international treasure Hugh Laurie, who put his British wit to good use while accepting the trophy for Best Supporting Actor in a TV Movie or Limited Series for "The Night Manager", which I hear is pretty good.

DDD EXTRAS

1. If you want to learn about some cool and/or weird things that happened on the 9th day of January, check out our sister-site, Useless Eater Blog.
2. A "hilarious" misunderstanding involving a conservative who fought tooth and nail against Obamacare because he thought it was messing with his beloved Affordable Care Act. Beautiful irony, man... just beautiful.
3. A guest editorial by Daily Dirt veteran contributor A.C. Doyle serves as a fitting farewell and a nice tribute to the One Democrat Who's Got a Reason to Look Forward to the Inauguration.

THE TAKEAWAY

The credibility crisis has reached critical mass. Solutions?