On teleporting

The Warning does not take a back seat when it comes to criticizing the rot of America’s corporate media, which has done terrible damage done to the country.

Journalism ethics is an oxymoron. Too many mastheads have seen their reputations disintegrated in a MAGA acid bath that was the poisonous product of collaborations that started with the embrace of an access model that subordinated the needs of the reader below the opportunities for partnership with the reporting subjects.

The result has been a devastating collapse of trust between the American people and the people who lead them and those who inform them. Many Americans now live in a world where the truth and the lie stand equal in the town square, and they have no idea how to distinguish between the two.

The media of this era has been defined by the type of access journalism most famously practiced by Maggie Haberman, the Walter Duranty of the Trump era, who was once called “my psychiatrist” by Trump, with whom she has numerous conflicts and family entanglements that should have recused her from covering him in the first place. None of that happened.

Instead the historical record will one day show that the American media, led by The New York Times, alternately fluffed Trump, minimized his danger, exaggerated his opponents foibles, and plainly colluded with his insanity for profit, ratings and political capital. A high watermark of the disintegration of ethics at the time was the occasion when CNN president Chris Licht told Trump to “have fun” before ushering him on to the stage for a town hall with all the integrity of a fascist rally married to a propaganda clinic.

The result has been a catastrophe for the United States. It has produced a crisis that is perfectly captured by a paragraph in The New York Times, detailing its investigation over whether Gregg Phillips, a senior FEMA official, was transported via teleportation by “the hand of God” to a Waffle House in Rome, Georgia.

Indeed, among roughly two dozen workers and regulars interviewed this week at Rome’s three Waffle House locations, none said they were aware of anyone traveling to the 24-hour restaurants by paranormal means, despite their reputation as powerful magnets for the sort of idiosyncratic characters who tend to surf the psychic fringes of the American South.

Here is Mr. Phillips, who leads FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery, speaking about teleportation:

He seems believable. Doesn’t he?

I wonder if Pete Hegseth plans to deploy him in Iran as a secret weapon.

Perhaps it’s why the US Army chief of staff resigned this week. Maybe he’s a teleportation skeptic.

I do wonder if history will be able to properly capture the vibe of this long era during which Donald Trump reigned over American culture and politics like a spreading pestilence. He is a living boil of indecency and malice coming for us all like a lava that — while slow — spread ever forward, while We the People stared and laughed at it.

How did government of, by and for the people in a nation governed by We the People become a regime governed by, of and for every penny ante whack job with a broken child inside?

It seems the most powerful government in world history has fallen to the audience of midnight AM conspiracy radio.

Here is Pam Bondi attacking Harvard Law graduate Jamie Raskin from a few weeks back:

Here is Bryon Noem mugging for the camera:

Up and down and all around — from Melania to Barron and all the way to Tulsi, Pete, Howard and Kash — the US government is run by whack jobs.

Corrupt whack jobs.

Corrupt whack jobs elected by the American people.

Here is Lindsey Graham with his Little Mermaid bubble wand at the Magic Kingdom:

Here is a casket coming back from Iran:

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/File

Here is the shattered White House:

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Here is Melania’s $600 necklace for sale:

Here is Tiger Woods from the side of the road calling Donald Trump from his latest rollover while impaired:

TMZ

Can you imagine the sense of entitlement?

The arrogance?

The sense of privilege?

I bet he wished that he could teleport back to a Waffle House.

Personally, I don’t know if Gregg Phillips of FEMA was teleported by God to a Waffle House in Rome, Georgia.

I wasn’t there.

I didn’t see him suddenly arrive or depart.

Personally, I have never teleported.

Do you think it sounds crazy?

Remember that Mike Johnson believes that people and dinosaurs lived together, and Pete Hegseth believes that the rapture is at hand.

Think about it.

Maybe the teleporting FEMA official is the sane one of the bunch.

One thing is true for sure: there is an American pilot missing in Iran, and there is no teleporter available.