Mark Ames On MSNBC Talking About Obama’s Visit To Russia, And America’s Oligarchy

eXile TV / July 9, 2009

By Team eXiled

[Interview with Ames starts at 2:00 mark]

Mark Ames appeared on MSNBC earlier this week as a guest on Dylan Ratigan‘s new “Morning Meeting” show. Ames squared off against Jack Matlock, ex-American ambassador to the Soviet Union, now known as perhaps the last true “Grumpy Old Man” kickin’ it grump-skewl.

Mark Ames is the author of Going Postal: Rage, Murder and Rebellion from Reagan’s Workplaces to Clinton’s Columbine. You can reach him at ames@exiledonline.com.

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38 Comments

Add your own

1. Jesse | July 9th, 2009 at 9:23 am
molodets! can’t believe he actually let you speak – he usually won’t let his guests get a word in. btw, liked how they put the dictionary entry for ‘oligarchy’ on his magic table.
2. hydrogen bomb | July 9th, 2009 at 9:35 am
first!
3. motorfirebox | July 9th, 2009 at 9:52 am
wow. “do you think of Darth Vader when you look at Putin?” way to focus on the hard-hitting questions.
4. Jack Reynolds | July 9th, 2009 at 10:20 am
I can’t find the 2006 FPM article about the missile defense shield and first strike implications.
Also, did you smoke out the news anchor before taping started?
5. rick | July 9th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Way to steamroll over the oldfella with agitprop!
6. FSB Agent 008 | July 9th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Ames looked like a fucking star (as compared say to me) now that he’s back in the USA. I guess the fact that Russian men die at age 58, younger than in most African countries, is no joke.
7. rob | July 9th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
I can’t believe you let Matlock get away with the “cooperate” busllshit. “Cooperation” is the meme people push when they are weak. You’d never had heard that pansy-shit from Matlock when the ruskies were in the hole.
8. steve | July 9th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
wow andy griffith looks old
9. Hannu | July 9th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Great comments! Wish you´d write a book about contemporary politics in Russia and / or U.S.
10. Mark | July 9th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Good, succinct points!
11. doctor k | July 9th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
cnbc is softball central. they ask shady billionaires how awesome it is being rich instead of pointing fingers at the shady terrible ways in which they make their money
12. Tony | July 9th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Parasiting is our new word for the day. I think Ames is far better at presenting his ideas with writing than he does with extemporaneous speaking. Other than that good interview.
13. Toba | July 9th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
FUCKING MORON! “When you see Putin do you think of Darth Vader”!!!!!!!!!!! What a dick….
14. Gaucho | July 9th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
They probably do think of Darth Vader when they see him, because Darth Vader was a badass.
15. T. Hallman | July 9th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Re: Jack Reynolds’ question. The title of the article is “The Rise of US Nuclear Primacy.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16160.htm
Foreign Affairs has it behind a $$$ firewall for now. Same as Atlantic Monthly put “Russia is Finished” (Zaire with permafrost) behind a $$$ firewall for awhile. But now that one’s back out.
16. T. Hallman | July 9th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Atlantic Monthly article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200105/tayler
17. British Consul | July 9th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
@Jack Reynolds:
Here’s the link to the FPM article that Ames cites:
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/61508/keir-a-lieber-and-daryl-g-press/the-rise-of-us-nuclear-primacy
18. aleke | July 10th, 2009 at 3:12 am
hahahahah i figured it out! both America and Russia are heading towards corporatist fascism. hell, we are already there!
19. captain america | July 10th, 2009 at 5:05 am
@4: if “smoke out” means “have sex with” then he probably didn’t…she doesn’t appear to be reduced to sex slavery.
20. az | July 10th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
You look “wired” by your own standards, Mark.
21. Evan Arnold | July 10th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Wonder if someday someone will invite me onto something even a public access show. Damn. You know once I had a blog but no one read it.
22. milan | July 10th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
I am retarded. No wander people in US think slavs like me are untermenschen.
23. Nelly | July 11th, 2009 at 6:59 am
Very true and interesting point, this commonality between the small US & Russian power/money-hungry elite at the top. Any thoughts about who that oligarchic clique might be?…
24. milan | July 11th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Ha,ha,ha ohh man I was going to call you a fat American and then i realized the reason I’m skinny is that I’m a poor Third World east european. Some day we’ll have enough food to be fat, but for now, we’ll, we’d just like Bob Geldoff and Bono to help us.
25. Eren | July 11th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
You’ve got alot of balls Mark, to expose the oligarcy on the news. Very admirable, I just hope people wake up to the reality of what you’re saying rather than merely dismissing you as a deluded leftist.
26. Starvid | July 11th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Damn, Ames looks like a fucking thug, in a good way.
27. Czechnik | July 12th, 2009 at 4:36 am
Well done, Ames. I’m shocked that they let you talk about the American oligarchy. Has that ever happened on a major news network before?
BTW, how about writing an article on this American oligarchy, listing the specific members? Its time these greedhounds got outed.
28. james | July 12th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
I know this will get censored or deleted like when I posted a comment on Sean’s Russia Blog without repudiating what I said (so much for free speech) but I’ll try anyway.
When I look at Obama I think of [NOTE FROM MOSSAD: WE CANNOT ALLOW THIS INFORMATION TO REACH THE PUBLIC, OR OUR PLANS TO ENGULF AND DEVOUR THE WORLD WILL BY STYMIED. DAMN YOU, JACKFROST! HOW DID YOU FIGURE US OUT? YOU’VE ESCAPED OUR HAIRY CLUTCHES, BUT WE’LL GET YOU YET! AS SOON AS WE CAN STOP HACKING UP AND STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT OUR BAD BACKS AND OUR SORE KNEES…OY VEY!]
29. Epicman | July 13th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Ames – Russia doesn’t want Americans to be dumb, they hated Palin, remember? Remember? You should’ve also explained why Putin is loved in Russia.
The rest of it – great job Ames!
30. Orthodoxy | July 14th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I keep seeing the name Michael McFaul in articles about Obama’s visit to Russia. We need an article on how big a role he plays in current Russia policy and how much damage he could do.
31. james | July 14th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Well, well, well surprise, surprise my comment is so incredibly stupid that I’m sure I’ve hit on the central problem with the world: too many people like me breed.
If I had any balls I would get a life, but that would mean facing the reality that I have no clue about the world.
32. james | July 15th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Facts are unpleasent aren’t they.
33. WE | July 16th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Speaking and writing are incredibly different skills, all of the rhetorical tactics of Bill O’Reily are worthless in print form, I’ve seen O’Reily hold his weight with intellectuals like Krugman and Dawkins but if he had to talk economics or God in an academic journal or even an online forum he would come off like an idiot, well, he usually comes off like an idiot anyways, but actually read the transcripts to O’Reily or Hannity, it is often nonsensical and at times borderline retarded. The shock and awe of his debating style seems to disarm academics, kind of like when a cop has got that control presence thing going, figures like this are your eternal, disappointed father, all you want to do is crawl back into your bedroom and masturbate into a sock to numb the pain.
I was going to make a chin-scratching observation about Ames on TV, and I was even going to use the cliched expression “at the end of the day” in my observation, but then I realized, shit, I’m the guy in the comments section. I’m actually that guy. Kind of embarrassing.
34. WE | July 16th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Just like everyone else, you get the keys to the gate and you censor, snark and nihilism are only marketing strategies, at the end of the day you react just like the other establishment hacks protecting themselves from relevant criticism. Keep doing the media circuit, the kind of whores that cost 100 dollars in America are missing teeth but the exploitation is the same if it’s the apathy posing as enlightenment thing that gets you off.
35. caroline | July 19th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
nice interview ames, but you need decent stage make-up! looking a touch blotchy. it’s a bit distracting in this tiny youtube clip and probably more so in HD.
hope you do more of these tv interviews. american oligarchy indeed.
36. WE | July 20th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
At the end of the day Ames, the first time I was sitting in the shitty Albian and I came across your paper (the don’t do it Ivan one back in 06), The Exiled became something I actually cherished over the 4 years I was in Moscow, and I’m glad to see that you doing well. to tell you the truth, i’m a bit of a closet case and i’ve always had a crush on you and seeing you on tv just sends a quiver through my pants! that’s why i keep coming back and make sure to write at least one comment a day. i imagine we’re having a conversation…it’s as if you cared enough about losers like me.
37. WE | July 22nd, 2009 at 2:10 pm
I’d pay anything to fuck Mark Ames, though I seem to be resentful of this fact.
38. anderskali | July 27th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
a comment from old Europe. Mark and the ex-Ambassador were talking sense. the show host was on, not vodka it seems, something worse… Can’t you guys in the US control your media freeks? Please…