404 Comments
User's avatar
Connor Charchuk's avatar

Matt, I think I speak for mostly everyone here when I say, if you want to take a few weeks or months to work on a single big story that you feel is worth it, then you should. I’d rather get the stories you feel are most important if it means not having something to read from you for a while.

Madjack's avatar

Agreed. Investigative journalism. How is Pelosi worth 315 million??

Bob Newby's avatar

that’s how it be when you pass all your laws in a massive omnibus at the end of the year, with no transparency into any of it ahead of time, leading to the majority of it going directly into your own pocketbook. that, and being able to continue this unabated for decades

rtj's avatar

As a lowly gig worker who takes public transportation,I for one am looking forward to a $12,500 subsidy for buying a Tesla. Elon Musk just took a beating on stock so he could use the sales. Also looking forward to having my SALT tax deduction reinstated. Oh, wait...

rtj's avatar

Actually, that's simplified a bit, Teslas aren't eligible for the full credit.

Nobody's avatar

It's been covered before and nothing happens. Congress is exempt from insider trading rules.

Bengü's avatar

Yes to this 👆 you don't owe subscribers an amount each month. Quality over quantity, you will be supported!

norstadt's avatar

I would rather read a few good investigative stories then a lot of media insider stuff.

Skeptic's avatar

Part of the reason we're here is we've noticed Matt has good instincts on what matters and where the light needs to be shone.

Jon Eastman's avatar

I’ve commented maybe twice in the land of the interwebs, but I’d come to echo this sentiment. Screw the (self-imposed) pressure of producing daily content, just work on whatever you want to work on.

rtj's avatar

Yeah, the investigative pieces he used to do for RS apparently took a lot of time to do.

Arianna's avatar

Yes of course because they were actually true and verified lol

rtj's avatar

And it seemed that RS gave him the time and funding that he needed. There wasn't the pressure of a regular column or schedule of articles, they came out when they were ready.

bobD111's avatar

Here-here. Loved the interview btw. Rogan's show allows time for people to express themselves fully and Matt took full advantage.

Curling Iron's avatar

While appreciate your editorials….you’re quite good at deep dive investigations. Looking forward to it.

El Dingo Digital's avatar

+1 for deep pieces. I would sprinkle in more regular short updates on those as you put them together plus any updates on old stories or news. Alex B does a good job of this - he wrote a book while also putting out related content and book news

The Upright Man.'s avatar

"White Supremacy/racist/whatever" is the only card the left really has anymore. Covid fear is falling, people are starting to look closely at a lot of the so-called plans that have been animating the left for decades; the Democrat Jenga is starting to get really shakey.

Stop Being Lied To's avatar

meh..the whole race thing is played out too. It's actually sad to see them flailing so desperately. Ok, maybe not sad, maybe richly rewarding. It couldn't happen to a more deserving cabal of fucknuts!

Gadabout's avatar

For one thing, minorities are starting to realize how insulting the whole premise is

Stxbuck's avatar

There is a new poll out saying something like 40-50% of Latinos were actively offended/opposed to the term LatinX and only something like 4% supported it’s usage.

Oregoncharles's avatar

The Democrats are not the left. There's a whole world over here, that the Dems exist to pre-empt.

The Upright Man.'s avatar

Well, then the "whole world" over there has run out of steam, and is long past believing their own BS. And it's THEIR Jenga that is shaky like falling down buildings.

(PS, that is the world I came from)

michael t nola's avatar

Correct. The role of the Dem party is to exclude from the left, to be the gatekeeper for anything actually progressive, and to offer empty lefty sounding jargon and platitudes(which are supremely annoying) in lieu of anything substantive. Amazingly, this seems to satisfy many liberals and fool people like Jolly as to what a real left is.

Even though I'm a lefty, I don't fool myself into what this country is; fundamentally, we are center right, militaristic and convinced of our exceptional nature, despite all evidence to the contrary. After all, this is a country which views Marion Morrison as an actual hero, conflating the screen image with the real life man who deserted his wife and two sons for lefty bisexual Marlene Dietrich before and during WWII, until she dumped him for George Raft, and somehow never got round to actually fighting the enemy he so readily dispatched in movie after movie.

Gadabout's avatar

Good golly, I thought you were sane and was going to offer to start an actual dialogue about how this country really isn’t center right or militaristic until you veered off into that obscure meaningless film no one has seen reference

michael t nola's avatar

No. My post said this country is center right. I'm definitely left, but I don't fool myself into thinking I'm representative, because I know I'm not. One obvious thing that cancels the left in this country is that the Dem party, not left at all, stands in for it and positively bores people to death and irritates them with their contrived woke jargon and offers little substantive policy to help the working class, preferring the triangulating of Bubba Clinton and Obama as a way of advancing their big money agenda. The Repubs, meanwhile, speak plainly and don't overthink or bother explaining themselves; they just continue their same policies, knowing full well the Dems will "fold" because both are there to serve big money, the Repubs openly, the Dems surreptitiously.

The comment about Marion Morrison was there to show that people are less concerned with reality than with image. The fact that he was a big man and played the tough guy in movies is what sticks in people's minds, not his actions during WWII, which were either cowardly or purely selfish, probably some of both. People tend to be impressed by the visible and ascribe qualities to it that may not be there. After all, who looks the part of the All American hero, 6'4" Marion, or 5'5", Audie Murphy?

Jared's avatar

Marion Morrison is better known as John Wayne. Not exactly an obscure reference even if most are not familiar with his real name.

Skeptic's avatar

Maybe wishful thinking, but it feels that way to me too.

Mrs. McFarland's avatar

Another diversion creating crisis. Stay tuned.

CDUB's avatar

And certainly the crisis will be … dividing

Starry Gordon's avatar

There is always the good old class war, but that would require the Democrats to leave their new-found PMC friends and go back home, which they are not likely to do given the money.,

Gnomon Pillar's avatar

Is this "jenga" thing a new right wing meme? Or just a small enhancement to the work-a-day substack vocabulary? I'm trying to stay current.

bot_483's avatar

Because there is so much Democrat BS, you have to come up with metaphors to keep it sounding fresh. If we simply did "Dem BS example #56,214,240,010" that would be a bit cumbersome.

Gnomon Pillar's avatar

I understand. Thanks. On the other hand, tracking them numerically would streamline future scholarship and research.

Mrs. McFarland's avatar

It’s “house of cards” 2.0 and far more descriptive.

User's avatar
Comment deleted
Dec 9, 2021
Comment deleted
Fig Newton's avatar

And award for the best line ever dropped on Jeffrey Tobin:

'Noted Zoom onanist and sometime legal expert'

Put some ice on that Jeffrey or it will swell up ... in a bad way!

Another years membership paid for Taibbi!

Blimbax's avatar

What a lot of people missed is the context. The lead in to the Toobin segment was, "And now, for some legal commentary on this matter, is our legal expert, Jeffrey Toobin, who has matters well in hand."

By the way, I think "toobin" has become a verb in some circles.

rtj's avatar

Kinda like santorum became a noun.

Phisto Sobanii's avatar

I forgot about that.

Thank you, kind soul, for brightening my otherwise dreary day.

William Hunter Duncan's avatar

Wait a minute. Didn't Toobin lose his job at fancy magazine for jerking off on an office zoom call? You can get on the freaking sex offenders list for pissing in a freaking alley. Now he is on CNN? Is that like, like hires like? We need to close the circle, jerk?

This **** is getting too bizarre for fiction.

Matt330's avatar

Reality killed parody.

Phisto Sobanii's avatar

On the bright side, have confirmation life imitates art.

Starry Gordon's avatar

You must know the rule: 'If anything exists, however bizarre, someone has made porn out of it, and it's on the Internet.' Maybe Zoom, Jitsi, Citrix, etc., should consider promoting group-sex enhancements more overtly.

Mitch Barrie's avatar

Matt includes a priceless zinger like that in almost every column.

Jack Clancy's avatar

Yup, that was a knee slapper for me too!

Pat Fahy's avatar

It's cool, Matt. You the man. Write WTF you want to write.We're here for the long term...............

Leeroy's avatar

Matt I agree with Joe. I would be willing to put up $$ to a point if you crowdfunded for investigative work. The caveat that these things can turn up nothing is understood by most rational people

PLG's avatar

Matt talked a lot about how the next generation entering the journalism industry hasn't been trained how to do real Journalism.

Note to any early twenties folks out there that are unclear on their career path and interested enough in this stuff to subscribe to this newsletter: Come up with a good pitch for Matt and offer to work for him for laughably low wages as an intern/research assistant. Getting good on-the-job training and mentorship from someone like Matt is a way better idea than getting some grad degree because you don't know what else to do with your life.

Gnomon Pillar's avatar

Hobo-hitching on our nation's great freight rail lines is the next big thing career-wise.

Leeroy's avatar

Great comment PLG - really positive thoughts

The Upright Man.'s avatar

Wait, don't we all put $5 a month into that? I mean, that is what I am doing...

But to your point about nothing turning up, we all know that happens, but as long as it is noted (and a good journalist will) make a story out of the chase.

Leeroy's avatar

Thank you for the comment Mr Swagman, I respect the challenge. I've heard from a view journalists that real investigative reporting (see Spotlight) takes time mate and is expensive. And that Matt had earned enough capital in my opinion, to ask for investment in pursuing deeper stories. How else would we find out who stole that Jumbuck?

Arianna's avatar

$5 dollars. A month. Speechless.

Skeptic's avatar

"there clearly is something deeply wrong with this country; there clearly is white domestic terrorism" --Matt Taibbi

Matt, in a country of more than 330 million, we can find examples of literally anything, so I'm sure we could find examples of violent white supremacists. But what evidence is there that this is more than incidental, or that it shows "something deeply wrong with this country"?

SimulationCommander's avatar

It is weird that a large portion of the really terrible stories are 100% fake.

SimulationCommander's avatar

But regardless, is anything going on in a basement as racist as continuing the war on drugs? Why does Biden get a pass for literally passing the laws that created this racist hellscape to begin with? Harris, too, for that matter.

Gnomon Pillar's avatar

Never seen a goalpost get moved that far that quickly.

SimulationCommander's avatar

The goalposts have been planted in the ground the entire time, you just ignore them when your team has the ball.

The Dandy Highwayman's avatar

Don't forget expanding on the Trump administration's use of the title 42.

Denies most people at the border the right to petition for asylum and instead either makes them stay in Mexico or flies them "home" immediately.

Also, kids in cages.

It's worse now than under Trump at the border.

Phisto Sobanii's avatar

I have some questions about the UChicago stuff.

How can they claim violence is at the core of people who believe that force is justified to restore Trump to the White House and/or Biden stole the election when the vast majority of these people, as far as we know, haven't actually done anything?

Doesn't the punishment come after the crime?

The whole presentation smacks of greasing the wheels for Thoughtcrime. Even the Qanon stuff... like, people have the right to think dumb shit.

This isn't to say white supremacy isn't present in the US or a potential problem, but I don't think this report calms anyone (like myself) who believe white supremacy is being used a straw man to justify Global War on Terror-like measures.

Gnomon Pillar's avatar

It's not "white supremacy" per se. They're linked, to be sure, but the sups are the fringe of the movement, the ones who garner the ink and video time. Did you read the Atlantic piece? The research methods, parameters, the subjects studied, and conclusions are rather straightforward.

The piece or the research project profiled therein did not address the notion that "white supremacy" is being "used a straw man to justify Global War on Terror-like measures." It wasn't about that at all. I can't even speak to this. Do you have evidence that the gov is gearing up for this? Maybe they are. I should think that the government would keep any formal plans that have been drawn up for this type of campaign under wraps.

If I were you, I'd worry more about "Global War on Terror-like measures" that might be executed if the entire global economy crashes. And I don't know about you, but if I'm hungry and homeless, I'll be taking to the streets regardless of whose in the oval office.

Gadabout's avatar

Curious where you found any research in the Atlantic piece. The conclusions were hysterical and unsupported by facts in evidence. How could Jan 6 be coherently labeled as a practice for the real insurrection when the FBI has already stated that they found no coordination? Aren’t you tired of reading pieces for the last 5 years that urged you to resist the imminent destruction of our democracy? Ho, hum. Boring. There’s more evidence that this is #13 “Doomsday thinking” in the list of “traits of extremists” than that it describes an real and present danger to democracy.

The Dandy Highwayman's avatar

I guess you missed the priming of the War Machine's pump when they were bleating about the "Domestic War on Terror" for the past 8 months.

Phisto Sobanii's avatar

I have not read the Atlantic piece. Perhaps I will.

Regarding my comments on a Domestic War on Terror, in my view that's one of the major reasons people think the threat of white supremacy is overblown. Did you see my joke about the UChicago map, showing where all these dangerous people live? It's straight up fear mongering.

Besides that? "Holding the line for Democracy" my asshole. Anyone with basic skepticism knows the person telling you that (especially when it's attached to sure a foreboding picture of the Capitol) is feeding you a line of bullshit.

In any case, as far as any evidence it's hard to say. But I was around for 9/11 and saw what happened after. Like they say, game recognize game. Just look at how easy it is to call people white supremacists. It's the new terrorist, just with less towels on our heads.

bot_483's avatar

Do you actually believe that crap or the crap gellman, applebaum, and goldberg wrote in Atlantic? I think you are not seeing the forest through the trees. That cpost stuff is fascinating, besides being mostly white men, the demographics are pretty much in line with the nation. Remind me again, what those people achieved (for their side, not yours).

Phisto Sobanii's avatar

Did you like the big, scary map with all the mushroom cloud looking dots?

bot_483's avatar

*Note: Points are placed at the city centroids, and not specific addresses of those arrested

604!!! Argh... It's funny that with 5,000+ blacks actually murdered every year by other blacks (hundreds in Chicago alone and some UC white students), 604 protestors have got tens of millions of blacks, hispanics, and one must presume all other non-striaght-white-christians, running for the hills.

Notyours's avatar

Gellman was just on PBS and concluded the segment by criticizing the fireman highlighted in the article as being woefully misinformed despite following news because he’s “not watching PBS and not reading the Atlantic”…

Gnomon Pillar's avatar

That's a foolish take on Gellman's part. The latter supposition is superfluous insofar that the fireman is in all probability not woefully misinformed but willingly misinformed.

Notyours's avatar

And it’s coincidental that your post ends with my nom de plume.

Gadabout's avatar

Aren’t all of our counties becoming more Hispanic? Saying there is a correlation between the browning of the country and the places the insurrections hailed from has to also mean that the counties that didn’t supply insurrectionists *arent* more BIPOC and that hasn’t been proven by this study nor is it anywhere to be found in the raw data

Gnomon Pillar's avatar

My personal conclusion of the findings: The insurrectionists aren't necessarily white supremacists or even racists, as many would posit. I conclude they're merely fellow honkies who can't handle the heat and, having demonstrated that they're also a minority of poltroonish candy-asses, are making the rest of us honkies look bad. What's your assessment?

Gnomon Pillar's avatar

No, not all of our counties are becoming more hispanic. At any rate, the study DOES NOT say that.

From the study: I will use ALL-CAPS to highlight the salient data points which hopefully will serve as helpful study and comprehension aids.

"...Only one meaningful correlation emerged":

"...Other things being equal, insurgents were much more likely to come from a county where the WHITE SHARE OF THE POPULATION WAS IN DECLINE..."

*Note: A county where the white share of the population is in decline is not the same as a county that, in your words, is "becoming more hispanic."

"...For every one-point drop in a county’s percentage of non-Hispanic whites from 2015 to 2019, the likelihood of an insurgent hailing from that county INCREASED BY 25 PERCENT. This was a strong link, and it held up in every state..."

*What is being measured is the declining ratio of non-hispanic whites relative to relative to the population as a whole.

Either you're once again turning in a poorly diagrammed job of gaslighting, or demonstrating an irritating admixture of laziness, stupidity, and ignorance.

Regardless: you need to be smarter. Much smarter.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/january-6-insurrection-trump-coup-2024-election/620843/

"...Only one meaningful correlation emerged. Other things being equal, insurgents were much more likely to come from a county where the white share of the population was in decline. For every one-point drop in a county’s percentage of non-Hispanic whites from 2015 to 2019, the likelihood of an insurgent hailing from that county increased by 25 percent. This was a strong link, and it held up in every state..."

Gnomon Pillar's avatar

Love to answer this, but you're not making yourself clear. If it's helpful, I don't read applebaum or goldberg. What demographics?

The Dandy Highwayman's avatar

"The prospect of this democratic collapse is not remote."

HAHAHAHAHA

Good one, but that horse left the barn in a mail bag during the COVID Wars.

One of the casualties was the 2020 election.

Skeptic's avatar

Highly credible stuff.

Gnomon Pillar's avatar

Right, that was just a rhetorical question. Forgive me. Question: What body of evidence would satisfy you? Still interested? Idea: Get off of both your ass and substack and gather the evidence yourself. It's out there.

Skeptic's avatar

If there's so much white supremacy out there, why does your side have to fake incidents of it so often? Why did the media present Jacob Blake as a victim of white supremacy, and why did Biden, Harris, and the media immediately seize on the transparently ludicrous story of Jussie? Because the demand for white supremacy exceeds the supply.

It's a nation of 330 million, so you can find instances of just about anything, including violent white supremacists, violent black supremacists, and all kinds of other nasty stuff.

Patrick's avatar

Evidence, or conclusory platitudinous party-line poop? Gellman’s last story was hateful and incendiary. What happened to rational exchange of ideas or fair debate?

Arianna's avatar

Oh Oklahoma? Charleston?

Skeptic's avatar

Does the existence of Dylan Klebold say something about a nation of 330 million? And if it does, what does the existence of Darrell Brooks say? Or maybe those are a couple of messed up dudes.

Stxbuck's avatar

As someone who teaches in Eric Harris’ former school district pre-Columbine, it freaks me the hell out!!!!

Arianna's avatar

Idk How many jihadists - 12? Population of all Muslim countries? Angels on the head of a pin?

Running Burning Man's avatar

Where are you quoting MT from? just wanna know where/when. Thx.

Skeptic's avatar

It's in the Joe Rogan clip that he includes above.

Kathleen McCook's avatar

No, you do not sound like EH at all.

I saw a lot about Loudon in ed. journals so was aware of the issue of gifted students and Asian parents. The general coverage of the Va Election did not mention this at all. I was perplexed that it was ignored and glad you will address.

David Caruso's avatar

As a 25 year resident of Loudoun with 4 kids either in or through the school system, I can’t wait.

Michael's avatar

Turns out in real life, Matt sounds like a cheery Mormon missionary. The "I'm baked all the time" inflection is a desperate gambit for journalistic credibility.

Seriously though, can't wait for the Loudoun pieces. If there is justice in the world, someday there will be a Matt Taibbi School of Journalism.

rtj's avatar

I absolutely don't think you sound like Elizabeth Holmes. I saw a youtube video with her once, and she was spouting the biggest bunch of bullshit i've ever heard. How did it take so long for people to catch on to the fact that she was so totally full of shit?

Spartacus's avatar

My PhD thesis was in that area and failure modes for Luminex. I tried to contact them, because all she had to do to have a great business is to let go of her own stuff and license one of the several that are out there which work. Roche has one, Prolume/Blind Pig has one, Luminex has one. Etc.. Here's an old quora where I warned people in a very diplomatic way. https://www.quora.com/Did-Theranos-get-a-high-evaluation-because-Elizabeth-Holmes-went-to-Stanford

She's a tragedy too. 19 and Draper dumped $15 million on her head. She thought she was a genius then. She wasn't. She was just an ordinary girl with ordinary brains. 4 years after that diplomatic quora post above, I wrote this. https://www.quora.com/Could-Theranoss-technology-work-if-the-technology-was-more-advanced (No, and her CTO committed suicide.)

rtj's avatar

It never occurred to me that she got it because she went to Stanford. I figured it was looks and confidence and marketing flimflam, and that some people wanted a girlboss story.

The Upright Man.'s avatar

Those are the reasons people go to Stanford now.

Sevender's avatar

George Schutz was a family friend. That’s really all it took.

rtj's avatar

That may explain how she got started and got investors and PR. Still doesn't explain why so many people swallowed it whole.

Spiderbaby's avatar

I just have a few questions. When you say that no one tells MSM journalists to do shoddy & misleading journalism, why is no one ever fired for it? Do they not have bosses? Do their bosses not care about shoddy & misleading journalism?

Since you say that their choices are "strategic" in what way are they strategic? Strategically placed to mislead? Strategically placed to garner clicks?

Rachel Maddow, as just one example, seems to practice nothing else but shoddy & misleading journalism yet she is being amply rewarded for it. It doesn't appear that will end any time soon. If she was outed as a confabulator by a source her audience would actually believe wouldn't that negatively effect her employer's bottom line?

Excuse my paranoia but the idea that the copious amount of shoddy & misleading journalism that's spewed out of every MSM orifice on a daily basis is just laziness & click hunger seems a trifle thin.

But, like I said, I'm paranoid.

Phisto Sobanii's avatar

At this stage I think it’s safe to presume such behavior is a feature, not a bug.

bahhummingbug IV substack's avatar

MSM? Fox trot news has 13 of the top 15 cable news shows and more viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined.

I think it's a feature, not a bug.

*https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/09/italian-who-presented-fake-arm-for-covid-jab-has-since-been-vaccinated

Stxbuck's avatar

Their editors are running scared. If they tell the candy-ass snowflakes to start doing their job, said snowflakes will dig up something from 15 years ago and accuse their bosses of being cos-gendered white supremacists and get them fired. The inmates are running the asylum at many legacy media outfits.

Memo From Turner's avatar

You actually sound like my college English Professor who we affectionately called Dr. Droopy cuz HE sounded like the 3rd tier cartoon afterthought/sidekick Droopy Dog. He taught a great course on Twain that I highly recommend. He also wrote a book on Nabokov. Who cares what you sound like? As one of only a handful of actual journalists left in the US, bask in the knowledge that your “voice” is not a vibration emanating from your mouth, rather the truth emanating from your pen.

Patrick's avatar

Respectfully disagree Re: Droopy. Our crew growing up thought that Droopy was hilarious. Including the antagonists, like Butch. (Bulldog with 5 o clock shadow and Irish brogue).

Memo From Turner's avatar

lmao. You've got me all wrong. I love Droopy and his slacker ways. And yes, Butch was the perfect stereo type of a potato-loving angry dockworker. I'm a fan of the 2nd and 3rd tier cartoon characters that never got the fame and fortune of a Bugs Bunny or Pink Panther. In fact my youthful interest in politics and social studies came from watching and reading stuff like Yogi Bear, Underdog, Fractured Fairy Tales Mad Magazine and later of course Twain, Salinger and Kafka etc

About a Goy's avatar

"There is a heightened responsibility to get it right when people are amped up."

And yet, nobody in the mainstream media seems to feel the slightest obligation to do so.

Tell me, why the hell haven't we given this a name yet?

"These are uncomfortable things to talk about..."

Not for me, they're not. It's called sociopathy.

About a Goy's avatar

Or perhaps, religious zealotry.

Gadabout's avatar

Or a flimflam. I just like that word so much

rtj's avatar

I like voodoo better. As in "voodoo economics". But i'd probably get in trouble for using it nowadays.

Gadabout's avatar

I like voodoo too. I will work it in to conversation at work tomorrow and come back to report!

Gadabout's avatar

I just think of the Clintons when I hear or see “flimflam”. I forgot how much I like that word. Must use it more IRL

S Jacob Stern's avatar

One wonders if the press' wrongful use of isolationist to describe non-interventionist actions is similarly distorted intentionally or just sheer stupidity; when the real journalists like Matt and Glenn expose this shit in an undeniable fashion, slowly the signal grows

SimulationCommander's avatar

"Calling Ron Paul an isolationist is like calling your neighbor a hermit because he doesn't come over and smash your windows once a month."

Minsky's avatar

Ironically, with the way the dollar payments system currently works, one (non-interventionism) naturally entails the other. (isolationism). The dollar’s reserve currency status can only be sustained by massive military spending and low trade barriers. Otherwise the US can’t run the vast balance-of-payments deficits needed to emit enough dollars into the world economy to finance global trade. Granted, we could theoretically replace that military spending with non-military investment in other countries, a la China’s belt-and-road initiative, but that would still be a form of interventionism. (and we’re America, we don’t really know much about building roads in other countries, having spent the last century building military bases and not much more)

Gnomon Pillar's avatar

Calling Ron Paul anything but a retrograde loon is a waste of both breath and time.

SimulationCommander's avatar

Ug if I would have read this comment first I could have realized that reading all your other comments was a waste of time.

The Dandy Highwayman's avatar

Yeah, she's probably paid to come here, or worse: she volunteers her time and energy to trolling any pages that don't toe their party line.

Hot_Lettuce's avatar

"noted Zoom onanist"!

Branson Edwards's avatar

I thought the podcast with Rogan was great. I loved listening to you passionately describe, at some length, how awesome a job being a journalist could be, vs. what it is now. I listened to the whole thing, and may run through it again.