General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDid you guys see Rachel tonight?
Oh my! First, I love her first seventeen minutes of every show. I usually learn something. Man, the detail requested in the letters to AG's across the country turned my blood cold. That was about an hour after I learned there is now a Russian radio station in D.C. A situation that wouldn't have been allowed in February. Oh yeah... that disgusting childish waste of air is meeting with putin. What do you think, putin says he's smart and the next week... Lenin is on Mt. Rushmore.
At least Honorable people are looking into the Russian thing.
What are we going to do about our vote. County by county, state by state we need to secure our ballots. Time is running short. It's a two prong approach. In this country they are making sure only the 'right' people can vote. From that country they are making sure they vote the 'right' way. Help, we need a plan.
JHan
(10,173 posts)gopiscrap
(23,756 posts)pnwest
(3,266 posts)Dangerous shit is afoot.
NYETNYET
(212 posts)I know I look like a deer in headlights
flamingdem
(39,313 posts)perspective wise. Don't play requests plus the attempt to destroy the election protection commissi plus the truly overlooked upcoming meeting with Putin - she's got it by George!
Doreen
(11,686 posts)Rachel is so spot on it sometimes keeps me up at night.
Hamlette
(15,411 posts)I HATE her first 15 minutes (the most I've been able to get through). It is so condescending. I need to take you back to 1st grade history to explain my point tonight. She's not for me.
OTOH, Chris Hayes treats me like an adult.
Maybe I'll try and tune in after 17 minutes. . .
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)else while you are watching. Or captive audience in an airplane . But I just love how she has a fresh approach. She doesn't just rehash. She must have a team of analytical types working for her.
pablo_marmol
(2,375 posts)Sometimes I just give up on her. The repetition drives me to slam my head into a wall. Tonight was a great example. As per the usual, she circled around a point endlessly. Sometimes after doing so, she ends up returning to the point some time later and repeating it a couple more times.
She's getting great ratings, so I suppose it's working. Have we really become such a felony-stupid society that it's a better strategy to sacrifice content for repetition? I shudder to think.........
UCmeNdc
(9,600 posts)She is trying to explain to the 'Trump' voter why this or that happened plus why it is important to know about it. She understands that the average viewer has no political background. If she just came out and reported some event half of the United States would say it is a lie and she made it up.
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)are very different. Rachel makes what she is saying plain and logical. Everyone can understand her, and everyone can go out and check the validity of the facts she cites. So I, for one, am more than willing to breathe deeply and patiently while the case for wholesale republican* treason is set out clearly.
* spearheaded by republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief, Comrade Casino.
Tatiana
(14,167 posts)I try to keep in mind that her show isn't just for people like us, but also for the idiots who voted for Trump that might be tuning in.
They need it explained as if the audience were in the third grade. Because they are literally THAT DUMB.
I try to catch the replays and fast forward through the repetition. She is a very brilliant woman.
Awsi Dooger
(14,565 posts)I'm among the group who can't tolerate her and don't understand the popularity. She is anything but brilliant. Once in a while I decide to give her another chance but then she forfeits it within minutes...nothing has changed. It's like a soap opera in which you can click away for minutes at a time and not miss anything, other than some forced facial expressions and gestures.
It doesn't take special skill or insight to forge daily pieces on someone like Donald Trump and his administration, given all the illegalities and atrocities.
During election years and leading into them Rachel is terrible. She has no concept of situational variables and foundational variables, which are only the aspects that decide elections. Rachel instead overreacts to all the little stories and places absurd emphasis on them, and then has no clue what went wrong.
I've mentioned this many times but when someone inherits a state poll and takes it at face value with no logical scrutiny whatsoever and no concept of the ideological breakdown of the state, that person has no chance with me. It is difficult not to laugh. Rachel Maddow has me laughing dependably in that scenario literally every cycle, and multiple times. She abuses wish, not wisdom. The condescending smirk is even more pathetic than normal because it should be self-aimed. She is the clown. Rachel also never displays any type of insight toward shifting voting trends among various demographics. She finds her story of the day and ruthlessly inflates it.
Lawrence O'Donnell is generally fairly good in grasping polling validity but last year he really blew it when he touted that guy who had the absurd lopsided Florida projection (7 points or thereabouts) in Hillary's favor, based on early voting (anal)ysis. Florida always has slight red tilt. So you take that slight tilt and then apply it given the national landscape. Not exactly complicated. Rick Scott would have lost both times other than the considerable red tilt narrowly saving him both times. If he had run in what figures to be at least a somewhat blue slant in 2018, Rick Scott would have very little chance unless our nominee imploded.
Chris Hayes is superior. He has excellent scope and flexibility, not married to one robotic style. He also adapts his show wonderfully based on late developments during the day, and adjusts his questioning and summaries depending on what the guest says. I can tune in not knowing what to expect other than to be impressed virtually every time.
Hamlette
(15,411 posts)and I love it that occasionally I have to look up a word or issue or event that he discusses. I save him for by stationary bike time (boo) because I don't want to be distracted (as is my want) by some other screen.
DeminPennswoods
(15,278 posts)Years ago on PBS, there was a series called "Connections" hosted by James Burke and based on his book. It took the same kind of roundabout approach to getting from point A to point B to point C and so on.
If you get through the repetition, it's often an interesting history lesson. But it can be a trying experience and she badly need an editor to tighten up her monologue.
Squinch
(50,949 posts)elected Trump(R).
You are probably much smarter than I am, but I am NOT stupid and I learn a lot from her. And when she's going more slowly than my knowledge base requires, I am still grateful, because clearly we Americans need to have things spelled out for us at a very basic level.
She's the one who is making America understand how all these coincidences add up to a conspiracy. She's the one who is making it so that every time the Republicans point and shout, "Squirrel!" we don't lose our focus.
If we make it through the Trump(R) presidency, she will be a big part of the reason why.
CakeGrrl
(10,611 posts)For me personally, the delivery often SEEMS too cutesy, but I remember a Trump voter who explained why he appealed to her: "He's the first one who says things in a way I can understand."
So.
sandensea
(21,624 posts)when people who happen to be in the know (and how!) start dying.