260 Comments
User's avatar
DiLoreto's avatar

Man if all you ever did here at Racket was 1-2 ATW shows per week I still would not call it “bare in the cupboard.” Feel better!

Kurt's avatar

Matt, get well soon. The world is going down the tubes fast and we love your commentary as it happens. We are all pulling for you in the comment section, as the world circles the drain.

Outis's avatar

The Ruth Buzzi reference alone was worth it!

grove674's avatar

Now my mind is stuck with a picture of Walter, as ArteJohnson, alongside Ruth on a park bench repeatedly getting whacked by her purse.

zg100's avatar

I’d never heard of her but I’m loving these clips. That’s the kinda name drop that keeps so many of us coming back lol

Outis's avatar
Feb 6Edited

The first couple seasons of "Laugh-In" were the best. It was a great time to be eight years old. :-)

Btw, as regards the name "Laugh In": as Dan Rowan explained, there were "love ins", "sit ins" and similar "gatherings"...so they created a "laugh in".

Outis's avatar

Absolute classic.

Nixon won overwhelmingly in 1968 and it increasingly appears that (oh, what a surprise) he was taken down by the "deep state" though no-one called it by that name back then.

Kelly C.'s avatar

I remember my dad and my step mom wiping tears away at that news. They knew in their bones something was off. I thank God they aren't around now to witness the mess we see everyday.

zg100's avatar

That's a great bit about the name! Love it ty for sharing

Outis's avatar

Had to check the dates and update my comment! I was eight!

I must have been thinking about "Batman" and "The Green Hornet" TV shows which began when I was six.

Amazingly...by contemporary standards...Batman had TWO new episodes a week!

Julie Spike's avatar

You must be young. Ruth Buzzi was a regular on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In in the late 60s and early 70s. She was very funny.

Mrs. McFarland's avatar

The best was when she clobbered Arte Johnson, the “ dirty old man” with her handbag!!

zg100's avatar

She was a little before my time but I have at least heard of the Laugh-In, and she has been really terrific in the handful of clips I just watched. From time to time I will put Tubi's Johnny Carson channel on and just let it run all day, so I have been developing a fondness for TV from that (approximate) time period.

Chuck Campbell's avatar

Pointing and pooping your pants about emoluments grift in the wake of Epstein posthumously exposing your program as “Zionist Lies This Week “ was a really difficult one to predict. Mental gymnastics impress your brain dead subscribers. I’m just here to rub your pious fucking nose in your absurd lies. Even Michael Tracey had the decency to fuck right off in apparent shame. Insane clown journalist and gypsy faux common man should join him.

Maybe they have?

Val's avatar

You sound rather angry. Maybe take a walk outside. Might help you feel better.

A.'s avatar

I do not recall you being here before, Val. New?

A.'s avatar

Chuck...I think Epstein was more a Rasputin-like fixer for top Globalists. The sexual activities were both lures for the big boys, and distractions for the public.

Outis's avatar

This is exactly why I'm largely uninterested in the topic.

Namely, Epstein appears to have been embedded very deep in the international-arms-trade/money-laundering world -- and that's a world that I suspect has been, in various forms and flavors, around as long as human society and is not likely going to go anywhere.

That is, I suspect that that world -- certainly one of the most shady and hidden from public scrutiny -- will almost certainly never be "brought to trial".

It's something that exists. It will exist and we'll likely never find out what's going on right now. We only learn of these people once they've died (or were "zonked" as seems to be the case with Epstein).

So there's some salacious "entertainment" that will keep the news media busy but there's essentially zero likelihood that anything substantive will ever be learned or done.

If it causes embarrassment for parties who engaged with Epstein and shared his proclivities, well, fine, but there's little one will really learn.

Epstein was too deep and playing with the hottest of fires. When he became a liability, he was terminated (at least that's how it seems to me).

P.S.'s avatar

Maybe or taken back home where he is untouchable.

A.'s avatar

He seems to me to have been a SUPER-Useful Idiot to the type of powers you describe. Which have existed as long as mankind has walked the earth They tend to be the Machiavellian and Psychopathic sorts who are running these shows.

Oddly, Lord Peter Mendelson, now exposed as being at the right hand of Epstein even while a British govt. minister, was described in the conservative press for years as "Machiavellian".

Epstein liked to take serious risks for serious pay-offs. This game of musical chairs stopped in the end, when the music ceased and he found himself without a chair.

Mrs. McFarland's avatar

Honeypot of all honeypots…

Mrs. McFarland's avatar

Another self anointed “smartest person in the room”……

Running Burning Man's avatar

The guy shows up to Taibbi's column comments page weekly. He seems to be a halfwit with a bad attitude. Plus a bad take on Israel. I ignore but app[arently others do not. But Taibbi does so that's good.

Alvie Johnson's avatar

Chuck Campbell; ATW's own resident Grinch. Always so boring and predictably malicious. The same felicitations to you, Chuckie boy. May the fleas of a thousand camels rest in your beard.

A.'s avatar
Feb 6Edited

I have asked myself why Walter felt the need to take two undergrad degrees, both in English lit, at two different universities -- both prestigious. I asked him, but he never answers. His Keasbey Scholarship is not the Deep State Rhodes, but it was financed from the Keasbey & Mattison Asbestos Mining.

A.'s avatar

If I am going to allow myself to be influenced by someone, I like to know who they are.

Ann Robinson's avatar

I don't think of Walter as an influencer. He's smart and inventive, thoroughly entertaining, a story teller.

A.'s avatar

So was the Pied Piper of Hamelin. It is a very predictable method of luring the unwitting audience if luring is what you are after. Bread and circuses frequently work to influence minds.

And I am careful of mine. Therefore I want to know the background of those offering bread and circuses. You should too.

Walter may be entirely genuine, though I have a few questions for him.

Ann Robinson's avatar

It honestly never occurred to me that Walter is trying to lure the witless. Do you really think so? He just doesn,t strike me as the sort of person whose primary focus is political reality. I think he’s much more interested in the cause and effect of narrative plotting. He weaves tales. I really like that. It's how my brain works too. I can see why it might drive a more politically serious person nuts…

Ann Robinson's avatar

I wouldn't take Walter,s word as gospel, ever. Recovered addicts are hardly reliable. I do enjoy his parsing of the world, for what it's worth, and am happy to leave it at that.

Ann Robinson's avatar

Sounds to me like a totally enjoyable way to spend time.

Sweatpants's avatar

No. I’m here for Matt’s writing, not Walter’s incoherent rambling

NagsHeadLocal's avatar

Take the relevant meds. Camp on the couch with a big glass of citrus juice. Watch some old movies and nap as needed. Rest the brain and body. We’ll be here when you get back.

Sam Horton's avatar

Ruth voice may have been perfect for a very short episode. “I’m Ruth Taibbi. And this is Chevy Kirn”

Outis's avatar

Neatly combining "Laugh In" and the best season of "Saturday Night Live"!

Sam Horton's avatar

Walter just republished a 2022 story about being on opioids on Fox late night. He’d be a good Chevy.

ChatterW's avatar

Oh feel better Matt! Hot, fresh ginger tea is comforting. Also the flu bomb: grated ginger and garlic, honey, juice of one lemon, cayenne pepper and rosemary. Add one cup boiling water, let it stew and bottoms up.

Anne McKinney's avatar

Zinc, C, D3 & Quercetin w Bromelain ... rest your brain & body! Thanks for all your hard work! 🙏

RN retired's avatar

While you’re at it pick up some Cofix throat spray and Cofix nasal spray

Spray and gargle three times a day

It’s a great way to shorten the agony

Frances Taylor's avatar

Zinc, vitamins C & D, and quercetin always help me feel better quicker.

Mrs. McFarland's avatar

BINGO! My daily intake and effective flu shot alternative!

Libertarian Overwatch's avatar

Feel better Matt! Unfortunately when you return there will be approximately 2,500 new stories to cover lol

pundette's avatar

Dude! You've been burning the candle at both ends for way too long! Take it easy. My father was a hospital corpsman in the Navy, a medic, and his advice was always to drink as much water as you possibly can until you absolutely-positively cannot drink any more... and then drink one more glass and go to bed! Take care, Matt!

Biff's avatar

What about that slacker Kirn. He could talk solo for a couple of hours 👍🤓

Dianne Butler's avatar

Rest up, and Relax your mind (if possible, in these contentious times), Matt. Don't worry, your audience isn't going anywhere, as legitimately TRUTHFUL and Unbiased Media voices are as "Scarce as Hen's Teeth"!! Praying for you and yours,🙏❤️🙏

SJB's avatar

The bug circulating now is a strong one — take good care. We all know you’re working whether you’re streaming or not.

Ted Lubbe's avatar

I finally feel 100% after getting the flu (type-B) three weeks ago. Yes, its a strong one this year.

SJB's avatar

Glad you’re feeling better! It sure takes a while, eh?

Ted Lubbe's avatar

Thank you for caring! I was shocked how long it took. Did you get it? Im even thinking of getting the shot next year - Im on the fence, I dont care for getting injected but this was bad.

SJB's avatar

Yes, my husband and I both had a head cold only, starting three weeks ago. He had the lite version and I’m still coughing. We felt awful for two days; thereafter it was tolerable but the congestion continues — unlike any virus I’ve experienced. We haven’t had covid shots in several years but did have the flu shot.

Ted Lubbe's avatar

Get better! I feel your pain, its so uncomfortable. Last year my wife had something like you have, just a long lingering thing but I was OK. This year I had the flu and she managed to avoid it even though we spent 12 hours in a car together.

Mick's avatar

No reason to be sorry. Rest up and we'll see you next week.

Anne Hallock's avatar

Just rest Matt and feel better. We'll see you next week.

Rob Bird's avatar

Rest up, or you may be smacking Dean Martin with your purse soon.

TheJaneLane's avatar

Take care and Go PATRIOTS!

Carolann's avatar

In no way is the cupboard bare, Matt.

Get better soon!

Peter Reebs's avatar

When I got busted for senior-skip-day in H.S., I had to have a little talk with the vice principle. I could have told him the truth . . . that the cops had discovered us and confiscated our shitty keg of Blitz Weinhard and ruined our party! I glanced down instead and told him that I thought I had VD and was instead down at the health department being tested. It worked and he gave me an exception. I imagine that Walter obtained Trump's Superbowl tickets and they are going to the game in disguise, dressed in green wigs and painted faces with old Seahawks jerseys bearing the number 14! I'll be looking for them!