Dylan Ratigan’s epic meltdown on the state of American politics

They’re calling this Dylan Ratigan’s “Network” moment, so I thought that I’d present the two scenes together and let you decide how appropriate the comparison is.

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[note: Ratigan is good for at least one quality rant a year.]

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21 Comments

  1. james
    Posted August 10, 2011 at 12:26 am | Permalink

    heh- someone just posted this on google+, so I decided to check your blog.

  2. Edward
    Posted August 10, 2011 at 7:44 am | Permalink

    I preferred when Ratigan did the Marcellus Washington piece from Pulp Fiction about a pair of pliers and a blow torch.

  3. Edward
    Posted August 10, 2011 at 7:46 am | Permalink

    And I do like how things are streamlined now, with posts being crowsourced at Google+. It’s quite elegant.

  4. Meta
    Posted August 10, 2011 at 7:57 am | Permalink

    Something else to be “mad as hell about”. There are charges of vote tampering in yesterday’s Wisconsin recall election.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwMFpl1KLb8

  5. Kim
    Posted August 10, 2011 at 11:07 am | Permalink

    The cynic in me thinks outbursts like these are nothing more than attempts to attract this kind of attention. I don’t think that’s the case here though. I think everyone who pays attention to this stuff is frustrated, if not just pissed off. I’m surprised we aren’t seeing more people lose it.

  6. Maria
    Posted August 10, 2011 at 1:10 pm | Permalink

    good rant

  7. Mr. X
    Posted August 10, 2011 at 6:55 pm | Permalink

    He needed to smash something. Smash it with a hammer.

  8. Mr. X
    Posted August 10, 2011 at 6:55 pm | Permalink

    That was a Deacon Dark reference.

  9. Jiminy Trickle
    Posted August 10, 2011 at 11:07 pm | Permalink

    Who here would really open up the window and shout, and who would keep glued to the TV to watch inspirational footage a man ranting and people shouting?

    Part of me would want to shout. But most of me would want to watch the shouting. Even if there was a TV news crew outside my window, I’d hesitate to shout and risk missing footage of myself shouting.

    TV is made for watching. Despite all the PBS PSAs telling kids to go outside and explore, Curious George is up next and he’s a monkey. He can do things you can’t do.

    “Network” gave a call to people to act. Ratigan has rightly given up on us to get off our couches. He wants a TV superhero to motivate us. Problem is, if Obama starts shouting it’ll be such fantastic TV that we’ll all be glued to the set.

  10. someone
    Posted August 10, 2011 at 11:33 pm | Permalink

    Who?

  11. Meta
    Posted August 11, 2011 at 8:26 am | Permalink

    Jiminy, Ratigan is trying in his way to get people to translate the anger into action. The following is from his website:

    So what can you do? Well here are some action items, for starters.

    1) Understand our situation, and make sure that your friends and family do as well. Our politicians and bankers play on our ignorance, since they think we won’t know what they are doing. That ends now. Watch our Jobs Wanted series on rigged Trade, Taxes and Banking, and forward it to your friends and family.

    2) Use your twitter or Facebook account to be mad as hell. I’ve started the hashtag #ImMadAsHellBecause so people can be mad as hell in their own words. If you don’t know twitter is or what this means, don’t worry! Just go here and read what your fellow citizens are saying: #ImMadAsHellBecause

    3) Call Congress and tell them NOT to pass NAFTA-style corporate trade deals with Panama, South Korea, and Colombia. The phone # for Congress is (202) 224-3121. If you are not sure who is your Representative, tell the operator you want to talk to “your House member” and give your zip code. You can find a script on what to say here: Speak Up! Take Action!

    Granted, it’s still all stuff that can be done on the couch, but at least it’s something.

    http://www.dylanratigan.com/2011/08/10/americas-mad-as-hell-moment/

  12. Glen S.
    Posted August 11, 2011 at 9:10 am | Permalink

    The revolution will not be Tweeted.

  13. Mr. X
    Posted August 11, 2011 at 10:08 am | Permalink

    James, are you suggesting that because you saw this Ratigan rant in your Google+ feed that it shouldn’t have been shared here? I’d like to know the rules. Is it uncool to share something, regardless of how noteworthy it might be, if someone else has done so?

  14. Posted August 11, 2011 at 11:01 am | Permalink

    South Korea is exactly the kind of country we should be signing NAFTA style trade deals with. I don’t see how South Korea can be in the least bit compared with Panama and Colombia.

  15. james
    Posted August 11, 2011 at 11:14 am | Permalink

    Mr. X:

    Sorry- I was just commenting on how quickly this kind of thing tends to spread. There is nothing wrong or against etiquette on resharing links like this.

  16. Edward
    Posted August 11, 2011 at 12:10 pm | Permalink

    International trade is going to stop anyway, as fuel prices rise. Manufacturing will return to the U.S. The only reason to have things made in Asia is because of the cheap labor, and, in the post-labor union United States that won’t be an issue.

  17. Posted August 11, 2011 at 12:45 pm | Permalink

    I don’t agree that “international trade will stop” any time soon, but that’s ok. I’m sure that you won’t waste any time posting a few doomsday style links, and that’s ok.

    To me, that’s a pretty simplistic view of not only global economics, but of Asia. South Korea is important, not only as an exporter and manufacturer of goods, but also as a large importer of American products.

  18. Posted August 11, 2011 at 12:46 pm | Permalink

    Honestly, I have no idea who this Ratigan guy is.

  19. Maria
    Posted August 11, 2011 at 1:01 pm | Permalink

    He was on CNBC and spoke out against the policies that led to the financial collapse of 2008, and ended up at MSNBC. He’s seems to believe in integrity and the purpose of the Fifth Estate.

  20. Mr. X
    Posted August 11, 2011 at 3:02 pm | Permalink

    Pete,

    The following is from Wikipedia:

    Ratigan served as the Global Managing Editor for Corporate Finance at Bloomberg News Service, and before that had covered Mergers and Acquisitions, the U.S. Stock Market and IPOs. At Bloomberg, he co-created and hosted Morning Call for Bloomberg’s cable network and the USA Network. He has served as a contributor to ABC News and his articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Miami Herald and Chicago Tribune.

    Ratigan was the host of Fast Money (co-created with Susan Krakower and launching on June 21, 2006). Previously, he was the first anchor of CNBC’s On the Money. He also anchored the CNBC TV program Bullseye for about a year and a half. In addition to his former duties as co-anchor on Closing Bell, Ratigan was a rotating co-anchor of The Call.

    Ratigan left CNBC on March 27, 2009 when his contract ended. The New York Times reported he was considering all options but quoted him as saying he was dedicated to covering the economy, “the story that is affecting every American in every setting.”

    Morning Meeting launched June 29, 2009. Ratigan also contributes to other NBC News programs. Ratigan described the show’s imperative as “to discuss any and all political issues with no directive other than to provide compelling content.” The show was the second ever on the network to air in HD, as the network launched their programming in that format.

    MSNBC announced in December 2009 that, beginning in January 2010, Ratigan would no longer host Morning Meeting and would instead host a new program, The Dylan Ratigan Show which debuted on January 11 and airs weekday afternoons.

    On May 27, 2010, Ratigan appeared as a guest host on the daily internet news and opinion show, The Young Turks. Cenk Uygur, regular host of The Young Turks is a frequent guest on The Dylan Ratigan Show.

  21. Boner
    Posted August 12, 2011 at 11:59 pm | Permalink

    I got a good laugh out of that. That Ratigan guy does that about once a week. He’s great. He reminds me of Mel Gibson.

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