Matt Taibbi

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.

I have always believed that living forever with the dumb and failed things that you publish is how a writer apologizes. Ongoing embarrassment and loss of audience is the price of offensive work. You get readers back by growing and being better, not by apologizing. This merciless meritocratic system is a major incentive for literary restraint in most cases, especially in the Internet age.
So now, for instance, if people go back and look at the offensive things that I wrote 18 or 20 years ago, and decide never to read my columns in Rolling Stone or buy I Can’t Breathe, that is completely just. It’s how this business works.

Seven years ago he threw a coffee mug at a writer for criticizing eXile...

the marquis de sade’s on facebook?

― proton, neutron, electron and crouton (bizarro gazzara)

120 Clicks of Sodom

Frederik what's it like to be you? Hurt much?

Seven years ago he threw a coffee mug at a writer for criticizing eXile...

So what? Do you live in some kind of bubble where people never get angry?

It must be dizzying being that sanctimonious.

jfc don't throw mugs dipshits

Do you live in some kind of bubble where people never get angry?

It’s called Denmark.

*Rimshot* *canned laughter* *applause*

please don't make me be on fred's side by acting like throwing mugs at people is healthy behavior jfc

iirc they just talk to skulls

it’s completely unhealthy but how you hound people about their pasts, and when tends to cause emotional reactions

Do you live in some kind of bubble where people never get angry?

Near constant passive aggression is a good anger management technique.

it’s completely unhealthy but how you hound people about their pasts, and when tends to cause emotional reactions

― mh, Wednesday, November 1, 2017 10:36 PM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't know anything about this situation beyond what frederik posted but throwing mugs at people goes beyond 'emotional reaction' it's just being a violent person

ok after actually reading it he didn't throw a physical mug as fred wrote for some reason, he tossed his coffee

“Yes, the Exile book. I thought it was redundant and discursive and you guys left out a lot of the good stuff you did,” I said.

At this, Taibbi’s mouth turned down and his eyes narrowed.

“Fuck you,” he snarled, and then picked up his mug from the table, threw his coffee at me, and stormed out.

The restaurant was packed with customers, and they all turned to watch as I sat there, stunned, coffee dripping from my face. The waiter arrived with the milkshake Taibbi had ordered. After wiping myself off a bit, I went outside, where Taibbi was putting on his coat, and asked him to calm down and come back into the restaurant. He walked up to me, glaring, beside himself with rage.

“Fuck you!” he yelled. “Did you bring me here to insult me? Who are you? What have you ever written? Fuck you!” I tried to talk to him, but gave up when he walked away. I went back inside, paid the bill, left, and began walking up Sixth Avenue. Halfway up the block, I turned around, and Taibbi was behind me.

“Are you following me?,” I asked. He walked toward me, raising his arms as though preparing to throttle me or take a swing.

“I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do with you!” he said.

“Are you kidding?,” I asked.

either way that's still unhinged and absolutely goes against taibbi's zen-like self-portrayal in the passage he posted

well maybe reading about the situation and postulating about what was actually was said would be useful

I mean, I can think of two times in my life where I threw something in the general direction of a person and they were pretty much the lowest points of my life

do you feel he’s a reliable narrator here, and what was he asking about immediately prior

i have loved a lot of taibbi's writing but this is why it's so difficult to truly get excited about ~~LEFT ENERGRY~~ that's built around charismatic personalities, toxic and violent men always infiltrate the hierarchies that will have them

I would never throw shit at a person in a professional context but worked upstairs from dudes who would have middle aged man yelling grumpy matches and it was met with a shrug and people avoiding them for a day

like there are ostensibly middle of the road journalists laughing and enjoying the ennui of a congressman pulling a “ten inch knife” on Boehner and Boehner replying with “fuck you”on twitter as if this is a funny

that is, the reaction to the article on Twitter, the incident was in person

I'm on the record upthread as having a bunch of problems with some of Matt Taibbi's writing but I still don't feel good about this hitching of claims of "he was an asshole sometimes when he was younger" to the Weinstein train. I mean, people shouldn't be assholes, but this seems like an overly convenient attempt to neutralize a very popular left journalist.

i cut out what was said to taibbi which was literally just "i didn't like the book", and he supposedly couched it in language that praised taibbi's work overall ("you guys left out a lot of the good stuff you did")

also what's described there goes way beyond throwing coffee

"do you feel he’s a reliable narrator here" not sure what would make him any less reliable than the droves of accusers who have spoken up in the past month? weren't you literally just talking about how it's on the accused to prove innocence in the weinstein thread

i also don't think taibbi has to be assumed of any wrongdoing other than being a dumbass for allowing those things to be published, until an actual human comes out to say he did or said those things

but the coffee story is an actual accusation from an actual person on the record and that shit's beyond the pale

i'm never going to be surprised when a man turns out to be a violent pest and it doesn't matter who has it out for him