Back in early June 2020, things were a little crazy in our United States. We had a full-blown pandemic. We had Donald Trump as president. And, we had protests over the police murder of George Floyd.

As has happened too often in this country, our institutionalized form of racism led to the death of another black person, which in turn led to protests that in some cases (but far from all cases) included violence. Republicans, who cannot help being both anti-democratic and racist, of course had many, many awful opinions about Floyd’s murder and the protests. One managed to make it onto the venerable pages of The Old Gray Lady, the Paper of Record – The New York Times.

There was a guest editorial published in the Times on June 3, 2020 by Fungus-Like Senator Tom Cotton, titled “Send in the Troops.” As in, using the military to put down protests, invoking the Insurrection Act. It was a shocking moment for a lot of people, and the Times was roasted online for running an opinion piece by a far-right politician who was calling for the First Amendment to be suspended.

The following day, the Times ran a story titled “New York Times Says Senator’s Op-Ed Did Not Meet Standards.” In it, the now former editorial page editor for the Times, James Bennet, told staff that HE HAD NOT READ IT BEFORE IT WAS PUBLISHED. This is a stunning admission for an editorial page editor receiving a submission from a person known to be rather radical. Especially with a title like that.

And then on June 5, 2020, Bennet finally admitted that they had “invited” the op-ed. This was, in mine and others opinion, one of the most shameful moments for the Paper of Record in its history, right up there with beating the war drums in the lead-up to Iraq and running with whatever bullshit the Dubya administration fed them. On June 7, the Times announced Bennet’s resignation, although it was clear is was a Quote UnQuote Resignation that was not really Bennet’s choice.

So, any job hunt expert would tell you that if a version of this happens to you, what you do not do is seek some sort of revenge, give ’em a “kiss my ass” speech, nor attack your former employer on a public platform. But Bennet, given he is a media elite, does not have to take this advice, apparently. Because this week, The Economist published a screed by Bennet trashing his former employer.

It is almost hilarious that Bennet’s piece is around 17,000 words, which is pretty long even by The Economist standards. Guy must still be pretty pissed. Generally, they recommend therapy to help you get over such grudges.

It is truly the tl;dr of tl;dr opinion pieces, so I can sum it up here so you don’t have to trudge through the words. Basically, Bennet is saying the Times caved to the minorities who dare question my wisdom of having an avowed authoritarian with power write a piece about how the military needs to come in to kill the Black people to get them in line, although the paper has redeemed themselves somewhat by not caving to the weirdos who are telling them to stop publishing transphobic stories and opinions. No, really, that’s pretty much it.

Plus they all suck in how they do things and instead of a liberal bias they have an illiberal bias, which when you read between the many, many lines of this thing, means that they should have never made me leave. Of course, the usual suspects on the right like The National Review, Fox News, and The New York Post are all over this, baby.

I have no idea if these elite media types understand how much oxygen this stuff gives the terrible people on the right who are supporting their obvious nominee, The Angry Bulbous Pumpkin. Perhaps they don’t, perhaps they do. Either option is not good.

Beyond that, it is yet another example of how there really are two strata in America: one where if you get canned, you have so grin and take it and keep your “go to hell” thoughts to yourself, and another where you can get The Economist to run a 17,000-word version of “kiss my ass, former employer.” Bennet is in the latter, because any attempt by him to burn bridges is like an arsonist trying to burn a real one in a driving rainstorm.

The last word goes to Canibus and Biz Markie.