Good morning everyone, welcome back from what I hope was a very happy Thanksgiving break, to your Sunday morning liveblog of the chattering simps that people point teevee cameras out, for reasons no one has ever fully explained or understood. My name is Jason, and we are pressing ahead to the exciting Series Finale of the Sunday Morning Liveblog on December 29th.


I get emails, by the way, that "Meet The Press" is the top rated "public affairs program." I am curious as to how they, or anyone, defines "public affairs?" Are they having affairs with the public? I do not get it. Shouldn't the category by "Beltway-based wanking?" I have been watching these shows for six years and have never seen any evidence that the public is part of their considerations.


Today, for example, I' will have to get very creative to avoid having to watch three solid hours of chit-chat on Really Deep Thinkers and their Really Deep Thoughts on Nelson Mandela. Some of which may be insightful, or well-expressed, mind you! But I mean, how long would you willingly spend in a room full of people having a competition to see who can best who in a game of televised thanatological one-upsmanship? I mean, could you even stand it for fifteen minutes? Oh well, I guess it limits the amount of time they can make hash out of contemporary politics, I guess.


Anyway, the usual stuff still applies. Mix it up in the comments if you like, hit me up if you need, follow me on Twitter if you want, and check out my Rebel Mouse page for this week's Sunday Reads if you can -- theoretically, you got two weeks' worth!


THE MCLAUGHLIN GROUP


Today, on the McLaughlin Group is our bureau chief, Ryan Grim, and the conventional wisdom of course, is that you should be a huge sell-out and go easy on your boss. But with Ryan, that's the sort of thing that would really disappoint him! So I should probably be comically hard on him. But that would be a bigger form of selling out, wouldn't it? I guess this means that since he's a guest on this show, he and I and the rest of you are just going to have to agree to gaslight one another, and just have fun doing so.


Also on the panel with Ryan is of course, host John McLaughlin -- who is wearing a pinstripe suit so bold that I have to imagine some small aircraft are going to attempt to land on him -- Pat Buchanan, Eleanor Clift, and Mort Zuckerman


The one thing that separates Ryan from the rest of the panel, here, is that Ryan is probably really, really high. At least I think that's what separates him from the rest of the panel!


McLaughling briefly eulogizes Nelson Mandela, speaking for the group when he wishes him the best possible parting from this plane, which is for the best because you don't want Pat Buchanan to have any ideas. In the meantime, he wants to talk about Joe Biden, his visit to China, and some of the recent upticks in tensions in the South China and East China seas. In the past few days, the U.S. have flown bombers over disputed open waters in flagrant trolling of China, and China has flown fighter pilots at the U.S. right back, and it's all fun and games until someone aims a missile at someone else.


Buchanan says that in all of this aerial trolling China took "two steps forward and one steps back" and a "victory for China" that sets up a "major confrontation" down the line. They are "pushing against the United States," and "down the road" China wants to move his country out into the Pacific "and push the Americans back."


Clift says that it was fortuitous that China was there -- maybe he showed China our top secret death robot prototypes and warned that today we were cancelling the apocalypse, and the Chinese officials he met with were all, "I wouldn't call slightly changing the order of things in the Pacific 'the apocalypse'" but then some other guys were like, "Forget it, it's Joe Biden and he's rolling."


She says that there will be "simmering tensions," but as "long as those tensions can be kept at a reasonable level" then we are going to be fine.


Ryan says that if U.S. airliners are presenting their flight plans to China as a matter of course, when before they didn't because of the fact that there was no reason to believe that China had any claim over the places they were flying, then China wins, agreeing with Buchanan's "two steps forward, one step back" construction.


McLaughlin doesn't understand the whole bit with civilian airliners, and the panel endeavors to explain. Zuckerman finally breaks through by pointing out that the change here is that we're even honoring the notion that the Chinese have claims to territories -- a notion we'd previously ignored. Zuckerman, ever the pecksniff, says that everyone knows that the U.S. is just going to "back off."


McLaughlin suggests that China could keep on making claims to turf that's currently known as "Korea" and "Vietnam" and "India" and "the Philippines." Buchanan says, "Huh, no?" and notes that Korea and Japan actually have similar disputes. The whole region is rife with "unresolved territorial claims" and it's resource rich and so the United States is embroiled in a lot of refereeing.


Clift and Buchanan yell about the Germans and Czechs. McLaughlin says that unresolved claims are bad. Zuckerman is also really concerned. Clift and Buchanan yell some more.


Ryan, man, you need to jump in and say something completely crazy while you have the opportunity! He's trying but he's not willing to interrupt Clift. Just do it, she gets to talk a lot!


Finally, Ryan breaks in by noting the fact that we are limited in what we can do, and what power we can project, because we wasted a lot of capital -- human and otherwise -- by invading Iraq and Afghanistan.


Buchanan yammers something I don't catch because I'm too busy admiring my boss for finally getting a word in edgewise and making a good point despite the fact that he is so stoned and obviously in need of some pizza right now? And then the conversation sort of peters out.


You know, producers of this show, you can actually edit things so that it doesn't look like everyone just lost interest in what was happening!


Anyway, the next topic is President Obama's speech on income inequality, and how populist he is getting, six years after it would have really mattered!


Obama wants a higher minimum wage, of course, and he's probably a few steps behind the bulk of American people, who have long wanted one, and who apparently want to push the envelope a bit further than even the Democrats want to do.


Clift says the bottom line is that below the top ten percent, wages have stagnated for decades, and that many businesses that are paying their workers so little are actually leeching off the taxpayer by driving up the need for subsidies like food stamps and housing assistance. Clift says that the Henry Ford philosophy -- "pay your people the amount it would take them to purchase the product you are selling" -- is the way to do here.


For some reason, McDonalds this year, on it's "McResource Line" website, posted "a tipping etiquette guide that suggests holiday bonuses for such common hired helpers as au pairs (one week's pay or a gift from the family), housekeepers (one day's pay), and pool cleaners (the cost of one cleaning)."


Do they think their employees own a lot of swimming pools?


McLaughlin sort of doesn't understand the concept -- pointing out that these people get food stamps and Obamaphones, calling them "additional cost benefits." Clift attempts to explain that this is the case -- these workers don't starve to death because of taxpayer subsidies -- because despite the record-setting profits, the private sector is unwilling or unable to pay them enough money so that they do not die of starvation and exposure in ditches and forests and gutters.


Zuckerman says that the real problem is that we are in a weak recovery, and that no one can afford to pay higher wages, which may be true, but this inequality was present in the pre-recession period as well.


Buchanan yells about test scores, and then complains that McDonalds will go out of business if they raise the minimum wage.


COME ON RYAN I KNOW YOU THINK THIS IS BULLSHIT!


Grim finally gets in and points out that there is just no material or statistical evidence that suggests there will be increased joblessness as a result of raising the minimum wage. Buchanan does the slippery slope thing, where you say, "Well, what if you raised the minimum wage to $20/hour" and Ryan says, "That's not going to happen." Buchanan is insistent. "WHAT IF WE DID RYAN WHAT IF THE MINIMUM WAGE WAS A PONY THAT POOPED BUFFALO NICKELS AND BEEF JERKY HUH WHAT THEN?" Ryan says that yes, if you tripled everyone's wages, you would lose a few jobs.


That was good enough trolling to get everyone yelling, and finally McLaughlin shouts at Buchanan that right now we are "robbing the poor to pay the rich"...which was the point Clift was trying to make? Either McLaughlin now finally understands that and agrees or was giving Clift a super-hard time a few minute ago despite agreeing.


Zuckerman says that the drop of unemployment says that we are having a "modest recovery" but it isn't good enough -- we need everyone to get a lot more educated and we need bigger infrastructure guys, get with it! (He should maybe go back and watch his previous appearances on this show!)


Everyone is yelling, and somehow Nelson Mandela is part of why everyone is yelling.


McLaughlin is like, "OBAMACARE" and bring up Obama trolling the GOP by saying, "YO IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, TELL US WHAT YOU WOULD DO." McLaughlin asks if Obama is trying to re-focus attention on the Republican's generic and constant state of not-having-a-plan-for-anything and Ryan is like, "DUH, DUDE, TOTES" and that the Obama administration is starting to get some of their swag back now that the website is working better and people are signing up.


Buchanan says everything is terrible and there's going to be a crash and that five million people have lost their insurance -- which is a talking point that we keep hearing that actually has no sourcing behind it, by the way. I mean it COULD be true? But there also could be a guy with a hook for a hand stalking teens in the park. At the moment, it's "urban legend" status.


Zuckerman also is worried about the guy with the hook for a hand! "THAT HOOK IS SUPER SHARP AND TOTALLY HOOKY, THANKS OBAMA!"


Oh, yay, they have time to do predictions! Buchanan says that Paul Ryan and Patty Murray will "cut a deal" on the budget but it will be "embattled in both houses of Congress." Clift says that the Obama administration is "pulling off" Obamacare and that as a result, Buchanan and Zuckerman will be able to get mental health coverage. Ryan predicts that there will never be another full Obamacare-repeal vote.


Zuckerman gets off the hook when he's asked to describe meeting Nelson Mandela, who he describes as "incandescent," like a light bulb.


FOX NEWS SUNDAY


[More liveblog is coming momentarily. In the meanwhile, feel free to check out my Rebel Mouse page for this Sunday's best reads from the interwebs.]