… HEARD OF IT? NO?
Obviously that headline is tongue-in-cheek …
Southern Charm – the reality television show starring former S.C. Treasurer Thomas Ravenel (a.k.a. “T-Rav“) – is the talk of the Palmetto State this week after its official debut on Bravo Monday evening. Even this website’s founding editor Will Folks (a.k.a. “Sic Willie”) landed a brief appearance on the “docu-drama” – which tracks the lives of six wealthy socialites in Charleston, S.C.
According to its (many) haters, Southern Charm is the equivalent of a five megaton nuclear bomb being detonated over the Palmetto State’s historic Holy City – an “embarrassment” of epic proportions casting a cloud of negative fallout across South Carolina.
“Cannot wait … for this ‘charming reality’ to go south,” Charleston, S.C. blogger McKenzie Wild wrote. “If I were a betting person, I’d wage a bet that there will be nothing southern and/or charming about this show.”
Of course Wild admitted she watched …
“Yes, I realize that by watching I am not exactly helping the cause (aka ensuring the show flops and promptly descends to the graveyard of failed-reality-show abyss) but it is like driving by a car accident: You don’t want to slow down and look. But you just cannot help it,” she wrote.
Here’s the thing, though …
Last time we checked, South Carolina embarrassing itself on the national stage was par for the course. Except in most cases the causes of the embarrassment lacked a majority of their teeth – or the ability to walk and chew gum simultaneously. Or basic comprehension of the English language.
Or worse, they were (are) government officials embarrassing our state using our money.
Seriously … how can anybody recall photos of S.C. Lieutenant Gov. Glenn McConnell parading around a national Republican women’s event in his Confederate General’s uniform (with slaves in tow) and accuse Southern Charm of “embarrassing” Charleston?
And that guy – who has wasted millions of tax dollars on his Confederate obsession – is a finalist to become the next president of the College of Charleston.
And what about S.C. Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell – who is currently staring down a grand jury investigation over multiple corruption allegations. In addition to his crooked deals, this guy assassinated the character of one of the reporters investigating him and strong-armed her newspaper into backing down (by allegedly threatening to withhold an annual $12 million bribe given by the S.C. General Assembly to the newspaper industry).
But apparently he’s not “embarrassing” Charleston either …
Don’t get us wrong: Ravenel – whose life was the primary focus of the show’s first episode – certainly provided socially conservative viewers with plenty of “objectionable” behavior during the first episode. He bedded a socialite thirty years his junior – and later went skinny dipping with several other young ladies. He made a joke about his prior use of cocaine at a dinner party. He flaunted his wealth – including his South of Broad mansion and a Lowcountry plantation equipped with a $1 million polo field.
Here’s the thing, though: As Ravenel said repeatedly on the show, he’s just engaging in his own pursuit of happiness … which last time we checked was one of the three things at the heart of what this country used to stand for.
And speaking of things this country stands for, if the details of Thomas Ravenel’s personal life offend anyone – all they have to do is change the channel.
No one’s holding a gun to anyone’s head forcing them to watch …
Sadly, though, South Carolinians cannot “change the channel” of GOP corruption that’s playing in Columbia, S.C. They have no choice but to keep watching – and keep paying ever-escalating sums of money to keep those thieves “on the air.”
Anyway, while “T-Rav” certainly has his share of haters in the SCGOP – a party he’s officially disassociated himself with – not every Republican was offended by his show.
“I may not be as socially liberal, but I respect the hell out of him for staying true to himself,” GOP consultant David Carter told FITS. “The world is too scripted as it is. People like Thomas restore the balance.”
FIRST REACTIONS
@fitsnews Decency used to be something respected and aspired toward.
— Travis A. Butler (@TravisAButler) March 4, 2014
101 comments
FITS’ selective @$S-kissery for the so disgustingly pop-commercialized, while he is so otherwise brutal in his attacks in a highly political manner…completely discredits all he has to say…
Can’t we all agree on that?
Hahahaha yes … I’ve never once argued along the lines above … you busted me!
To renounce belief in one’s ego, to deny one’s own “reality” — what a triumph! not merely over the senses, over appearance, but a much higher kind of triumph, a violation and cruelty against reason — a voluptuous pleasure that reaches its height when the ascetic self-contempt and self-mockery of reason declares: “there is a realm of truth and being, but Tango is excluded from it!”
Is Tom Davis aware of the increasing man crush Sic Willie has on T-Rav? Little Mulvaney has apparently fallen off Sic Willie’s radar. Now carpetbagger Davis appears to be in danger of losing his love status with Sic Willie.
Tom Davis’ latest man crush is on Jean Toal. We in the low country have not figured out that vote yet. He got something out of it, but he lost some votes.
“… increasing man crush Sic Willie has on T-Rav”? I have a feeling the crush ended about the time it showed Rav climbing back into bed for another caffeine-fueled round with the main object of Willie’s desires. I can see it now: Sic Willie struggling to hold back tears as he scribbles a penis over a screenshot of Katherine Dennis’ face using MS Paint, while at the same time putting a pin in a VooDoo doll resembling Ravenel, complete with the powdered nose.
Sorry to tell you Will, looks like you’re about two decades too young for the object of your desires. Appears she has daddy… no, grand-daddy issues.
Oh, Sweet Jesus, don’t tell me he did the spotty-faced chick on the show? Yep. Myrtle Manor, but not on crack. More like primo blow done the old fashioned way: Nice long bumps off a spotty-faced chick’s thighs.
Or what about that guy with that blog that claimed to have an affair with a governor candidate? Did he embarrass South Carolina?
No, just himself.
Didn’t you read his book? It is all explained in there.
don’t forget I beat the shit out of women too. you guys are losing your touch!
I wouldn’t take it that far since she said you don’t hit that hard.
This sense of humor is why we love you Sic.
Yes, but you do it through support of Republicans… I see what you did there.
Southern Charm = Myrtle Manor on crack………Ravenel is just a pathetic old man trying to get attention and that redhead he was giving his Viagra a workout with looks like a young Tammy Faye.Anyone know if he won that lawsuit in NY, about getting the engagement ring back from the smart woman that dumped him ?
I see this show has some legs to it with its interesting mix of characters and inflow of (in future) sociopolitical issues to spice up the show when needed. Also, given the mystique setting of Charleston and its social life, this will be a hit…if the culture is handled well. Very very cool. Well done Will Folks…hope to see more of you and FITSnews blended into this show.
Signed: Welliam Shamelessplug, Chief Publicist, Southern Charm
LOL. Thanks for putting my first name back together. Delighted Charleston is on the national scene….about time for a great city.
I’d rather see the news reports of Duncan Proctor (our former serial rapist from 20 years ago) make Charleston appear on the national scene than “T-Rav”.
At bottom, every high degree of caution in making inferences and every skeptical tendency constitute a great danger for Tango. No living beings would have survived if the opposite tendency–to affirm rather than suspend judgement, to err and make up things rather than wait, to assent rather than negate, to pass judgement rather than be just– had not been bred to the point where it became extraordinarily strong.
It is exactly his failure to understand that preserves him.
T-Rav, the people are laughing at you, not with you.
Is that a picture of a deddy and his children? Or, what is that old man doing in that picture?
All kidding aside, it’s a bit of a sad display, no? I’m only a year or two younger that Ravenel, but I have an advantage in that my mid-life crisis (should I choose to have one in a couple of years) will not likely be televised.
At least Jimmi did his coke with acid! His imagery was millions of white fender Stratocasters smaller than crystals of salt, all piled up into a mound of shiny powder on a tiny spoon… it was about art.
This dude’s material world is as fragile and empty as an insipid, symmetrical plastic chandelier, hung over the heads of the truly vapid, at a party of absurd, self-effacing narcissists.
deddy
——
deady.
deddy
——
deady.
Ravenel and Will are correct- Ravenel enjoys the right to pursue his life as he sees fit. When he does so in the public sphere (a choice he’s obviously made) that likewise gives the public the right to comment. I find it ironic that Ravenel hurls insults at “buttoned-down” pols from up on his high horse, when (before he began to unravel) he was one of them. His miraculous transformation into some kind of Don Quixote of drug legalization and isolationism was really more a mechanism of convenience, I believe. Or, he was just bullshitting us before. Either one is OK, but he’s opted to unravel in public, so we get to comment in public. Dems da rules.
Unbeliever! Cut-throat dog,
I spit upon your antediluvian philosophies,
and all the purposes for which you use them!
where the heck is the dictionary?
Damned Tango has it – he’s changing it.
Shakespeare! Nicely done! My response to you (also as Shylock, naturally)…
With bated breath and whispering humbleness, Say this; ‘Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last; You spurn’d me such a day; another
time you call’d me dog; and for these courtesies shall I give Ravenel a pass on his unbridled hubris and narcissistic passions? I think not.
Thanks- you help us keep the average IQ in this joint at least a little above that which would qualify one for SSI. On your game as always EM.
From the New Heritage Dictionary
Re·pub·li·can
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English Political Slang
1. sometimes offensive: a male servant
2 a: of or relating to a philosophy of hate-based unilateralism
b: of or constituting a political party professing the principles of Dick Cheney:
as
(1): of or constituting a party of the United States advocating Middle East Domination
(2): PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE
a militant ideologist servile to a group of intellectuals whose background was formerly with the left, like Irving Krystol and Daniel Bell.
However, in time, this ideology, calling for a violent campaign of US/Israeli partnership for world domination for the “good” of all, has
been adopted by a number of people, such as Damned Tango, who have no previous association with the left, but are attracted to
neo-conservatism by the prospect of killing and stealing and blowing things up on a grand scale.
Since the world-view of people like him is now identical with that of the neo-conservatives narrowly defined, it is a convenience to refer to
people like him as part of the “neo-conservative” water boys.
It is also supremely irritating to Republicans to be reminded of it, since it reminds them of uncomfortable similarities between his world view, and Hitler’s (with the one notable exception that ‘radical Muslims’ are their Jews this time around).
I hear you, and if I was Big-R Republican that would leave a mark! As it would happen, I think both mainstream parties suck pretty hard these days, although I freely admit that I think the Dems suck just a tad more. Besides, one need not subscribe to Republican ideology to be supremely annoyed by Ravenel’s antics. I know because because my really lib friends don’t like his shtick either. He’s a clown in the most bipartisan sense of the word, sir.
I freely admit that I think the Dems suck just a tad more.
———-
I’m the anti-Tango. :)
Good Lord in Heaven, man! Never mention yourself in the same sentence with he-whose-name-should-not-be-spoken! If you will permit, let me say that you no more represent the “average” Democrat than you-know-who represents the “average” Republican. From my reading of you (in the FITS context, anyway) your positions are a bit hard to pigeonhole at times. I pride myself on the same trait, so I recognize it when I see it. Our mutual lack of party orthodoxy just “leans” in opposite directions, that’s all.
If they put you in the re-education camps after the revolution, just mention my name.
I will, thanks. If the “other” side wins the day, don’t mention my name, though. I have a lot of enemies on both sides, so I don’t think I’d be much help…
If the other side wins, Bez and I will be on every wanted poster from the Balinese to Anchorage…
You’ll feel the earth – move – under your feet
You’ll feel the sky tum-b-ling down – tum-b-ling down
You’ll feel your heart start to trem-b-ling
Whenever we’re around
Any reasonably rational human being is the anti-Tango. You set a low bar.
I’m an underachiever. I figure, today, with the tea party and all the civil war re-enactors, being sane is winning.
In the land of the Damned Tango, the one-brained is king!
To continue with this theme
By what license do these loathsome, little dung maggots claim their usefulness? Common medicinal maggots may cleanse the dead flesh from our wounds, but hating such beneficial utility, these feed instead upon the sweet, youthful blush from the cheeks of the innocent.
Oh sweet Republican. The praise of idiots could not rob your prose of the fetid, festering scent of bloated rotting fish afloat in the filmy scum of your hypocrisy. For any name you choose would smell as sweet.
Ah. There’s the tonic to ease the torture of the hour! The Republican does turn our minds away from their sins! Obama is the scoundrel!
Natural fools are prone to self conceit, while fools of brilliant disguise, with their wits lay waste. How cleverly Republicans disguise themselves as fools, to sway the dull mind and fill the empty headed gazer’s eyes.
But the fools hurt themselves, and though being well, cannot flee, but crippled by their own barbs must bear wounds even by the stones of passing children, who jeer at their folly.
Reduced willingly to ignorance and its perils, until, finally, sitting alone, and damaged on the curb, even the passing beagle does leave his opinion.
Welcome, fair Republicans – to my scorn.
Again I say to you- nicely played. Again I say to you, my scorn for Ravenel isn’t Republican scorn, it’s grownup normal person scorn.
My scorn for T-Rav isn’t Republican scorn either…
My grownup normal person scorn is reserved for Republicans.
I don’t count you among their number, but I watch you with skinny eyes…
Lots of Dem scum out there to scorn, too. Maybe your eyes are a bit too skinny. And are you SURE you are not a woman?
Let me check… just to make sure..
cock…check
balls… check
tits.. man-tits.
yep! I’m a man.
I hear that. Sumbitch makes even me feel like a grown-up, normal person.
Right on; it’s not schadenfreude, just a little harmless self-affirmation of normalcy via spectatorship.
…your gracious and humble host at the theater of the absurd.
Shakespeare makes outhouse construction engineers, shit shovelers and steel-toed cowboy-boot-wearing spiked, blue-haired muscle-shirt wearing drunks feel queer… I get it. City slickers and all that jazz.. book learning, new fangled things like logic and reason… all that shit confuses your manhood.
I understand the selection criteria in the Southern states is how far you can spit and how long you can sustain a loud fart.
Never thought I would see a show where Sic Willie was one of the most mature, reasonable and main stream personalities there. What is this world coming to?
That one will get you a free beer
Yeah, but it will be an O’Doul’s. Why bother.
When one is considering South Carolina’s national embarrassments, the list must include the outburst by Joe “You Lie!” Wilson, the apologists who defended the outburst afterwards, Mark “Appalachian Trail” Sanford explaining his “dear, dear, friend” in a press conference, and Thomas Ravenel’s self undoing as the “cocaine dealing” newly elected state Treasurer.
Well, Obama has proven Joe right every year since his outburst.
0bama has also proven GWB right.
On Iraq, on Afghanistan or Bush’s 2008 bailouts or the decision not to fund Medicare Part D’s expansion/implementation?
The scar left on America by 8 years of Republicans doesn’t contribute to a “distinguished look,” but an enduring disfigurement.
Instead of bemoaning what started 14 years ago and ended 6 years ago, why don’t you focus on the current abysmal administration?
Not to stretch the metaphor to breaking, but the same beasts await us as the alternative to “the current abysmal administration”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s290jKf9cq0
No doubt there are always people who disagree with the monsters that lead them… if you don’t remember what the previous guy did, you might think the current guy is worse.
I so thought that link was going to be to a clip of Hillary, with the beast reference and all.
I thought the concentration camps would be more humorous.
This is a much more interesting clip… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FH2KEjLcjs
Something a lot of people don’t know… Clinton had Falwell killed for publishing a DVD of all the people Clinton had killed.
I thought Larry Flynt published that?
I thought Larry Flynt published that?
—–
Nah, Larry Flynt had scruples, unlike Falwell… and he had an excuse for being a fat pig.
Interesting that you would elude to the notion that I’m some sort of tin hat wearer because I find this coverup, under Clinton’s watch, to be alarming.
——
I didn’t allude to that notion. I don’t think you’re a tin hat wearer. You’ve just been convinced that liberals are the bad guys. I blame your parents.
Have you given any thought to my offer? I’m willing to drop the price to $50, seeing as how you’re less a victim of propaganda than I previously thought.
I’ll be sure to tell them, although they will deny it and I quite agree. I wish my view of liberalism came that easy. I got it honest through working in broadcast news, with academia at major universities/ text book publishers and having two children in public school. You don’t have to be a genius to realize that there is evil all around, heck just look at what those white republican devils do out there in bohemian grove. Why do you think Slick Willy gets some chapped when probed about hanging out there… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8y-FPQlNfI
They all hang out together, just some of them can’t fess up to it.
The prisoner’s paradox.
Wow: From The WaPo:
Republicans are favorites to maintain their House majority and the GOP has a legitimate opportunity to gain the six seats it needs to take control of the Senate.
Uh-Oh!!!!…How’s that Obamacare workin’ out for ya…I’d say it’s working wonders…Hahahaha…
How did Damned Tango’s logic come into existence in his head? Certainly out of illogic, whose realm originally must have been immense. Innumerable voices, internal and external, making inferences in a way different from his expectations perished first; for all that, their ways might have been truer, but for his objectivity.
Those, for example, who did not know how to find often enough what is “equal” –those, in other words, who subsumed things too slowly and cautiously–were favored with a lesser probability of survival than those who guessed immediately upon encountering similar instances that they must be equal.
His haste allowed this dominant tendency to remain – to treat as equal what is merely similar–an illogical tendency, for nothing is really equal–which is what at first created any doubt that he had actually achieved logical thought.
Coke head T-Rav is South Carolina’s SNOOKI!
Is there going to be any episodes about the biggest SC scandal that a former governor created?
I never thought Ravenel could look like a bigger and more pompous prick than in times past, but my early morning viewing of this show has changed my mind. And that was before I changed the channel to an old Forensic Files episode 8 minutes later.
damn it took you 8 minutes??
TRav = DBag
Lots of locals are laughing at T Rav pretending to sleep with a woman. His preferences tend to be more similar to those of a certain US Senator from Seneca.
Yeah, I didn’t watch the show but was interested to see the person he supposedly slept with was a female.
He seems like too much of a douchebag to be gay. Only a straight guy can usually be that big of a douchebag. Unless douchbaggery is his “beard.”
Good God Will looks Fat on TV.
Putin Receives Strong Words of Support in Ninety-Minute Conversation with Self
MOSCOW (The Borowitz Report) — Russian President Vladimir Putin received “strong, unqualified words of support” last night in a ninety-minute conversation with himself, Mr. Putin confirmed today.
The invasion of Crimea was the main topic of the conversation, which Mr. Putin described as “extremely collegial and enthusiastic.”
“We discussed a wide range of issues, including how everyone in Ukraine had invited us to come to Ukraine, and also how the soldiers reported to be in Crimea were not actually Russian soldiers but, in fact, local volunteers who looked a lot like Russian soldiers,” he said. “There was strong agreement on all of these matters.”
Mr. Putin pronounced the ninety-minute conversation “exceedingly helpful.” He added: “It was exhilarating to be able to talk at length with someone for whom I have such boundless love and respect.”
Buoyed by last night’s positive dialogue, Mr. Putin said that he planned to have many such conversations in the days and weeks ahead. “It was good to hear how splendidly everything was going,” he said.
They are not desperate housewives and husbands. They are desperate snobs from Charleston!
Only one of them is actually from Charleston. One is trident tech alum trying hard to be what she isn’t, and another is a reality show pro from The Real World.
So does T Rav. run as a Libertarian or petition candidate against Graham and who pays for that? Polo is dangerious and parties get boring. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/04/1282006/-Ron-Paul-Polo-Ponies
Didn’t T-Rav give up his US citizenship a few years ago?
https://www.fitsnews.com/2011/10/28/thomas-ravenel-renounces-his-citizenship/
Good catch! He did not, however, give up his citizenship (which is absolutely, 100% legal and possible to do). He only SAID that he would:
“I’ve decided to renounce my American citizenship and live where I can be free.”
Thomas Ravenel, October 2011
It’s easy to pitch a hissy fit at your press conference, but when the harsh reality sinks in and you realize how good you really have it, you have to slink back to your mid-life crisis and hope no one calls you on your silliness. This asshat, who I don’t believe has ever lived in (or even spent considerable time in) another country thinks he can go elsewhere on this globe and somehow be free to play with personally owned guns, snort coke as he wishes, make millions in real estate as a derivative of his family name, and cavort with similarly moneyed and narcissistic ho’s half his age. Good luck with that! I’ve lived in a few other places- some pretty nice, some not so much. For all of our warts and issues, there are a raft of reasons the world beats a path to our door, and not the other way around. Fuck this guy, seriously.
Your take on this show is interesting. I watched it earlier, feel no need to ever watch it again, but I do not think anyone is really “offended” by Ravenel’s train wreck life being played out on Television. In fact I am sure most people who know his history feel sorry for the guy. Unless you are a total slim ball deep down you have to know it is hard for him to get up every morning knowing he has let down so many people. But I do believe strongly in the concept of “to whom much is given, much is expected,” and this guy was given a lot. So I can’t really cut him any slack.
In the end, he is perhaps what he always was. An aging, playboy who embarrassed his state and his family and is now pulling on the only thing he has left to make a living other than money earned by others. His sullied reputation. I doubt it will work, but if it does so be it. After two decades of Republican rule, there is really little left that anyone can do to damage SC’s reputation..
“After two decades of Republican rule, there is really little left that anyone can do to damage SC’s reputation.” Yep. Jean Toal, Steve Benjamin and the Richland County Legislative Delegation are all really something the Democrats should be proud of.
That’s right..bring back Jim Hodges..now HE was a governor!
Geeze, we get it. The only real reason you bring this stupid show up is because your buddy T-Rav is in it.
House of Cards is at least entertaining, this crap however has less appeal than the soaps that play in the early afternoon.
You must’ve missed the part where Will Folks is in it as TRav’s “political consultant” trying to convince him to marry some well-connected ditz so she can be TRav’s beard.
FITS strident cheap marketing reeks of a desperate attempt to acquire that which Rav won’t/can’t earn: Respect from self and others.
Wah!! MY friend Rav’s better than the other unethical/lawbreaking politicians! He was unethical/criminal on purpose! He’s rich, on a reality show and I’m more important because I got to be on the show!!
Do ya get – Rav’s conduct in his private life wouldn’t be a subject of contempt – what FITS/Rav/groupies call ‘hating’ if Folks and Rav didn’t use convoluted ridiculous posturing and nonsensical ‘arguments’ to ‘sell’ Ravs deeds as something else.
Do ya get – simply being on a reality show; having wealth and living accordingly, aren’t deeds worthy of respect (weak minded groupies excepted)? Show/wealth can be had by cretinous weak minded imbeciles, with daddy’s help/blow jobs to directors, etc. REAL respect earning deeds using strength of character,heart,will/integrity, not applicable.
Oh. Never mind. I see, you don’t.
The money part would be pretty nice.
I’m thinking Sonny Corleone, banging some bimbo against the bathroom wall, with someone knocking on the door.
Lavender is not that old guy’s color.
when is FITS going to cover the self-monickered T-Rav knocking up FITS’ favorite red-headed PR client?
And therein lies the reason for all the hate being cast toward the show: the media/review clowns and their hatred of anything right of Castro..
Now Southern Charm was entertaining! Like the upper-class version of “Hey, y’all! Lookit this!”
Thin, rich Honey Boo Boo.
I liked the show. They all dress so nice.Thomas is not the first person to make a stupid choice, he wont be the last.
I like the show. it’s entertaining. I love Charleston and I’ve always known it’s full of cocky SOB’s so why not have at it.
Seriously..you think all of Charleston is made of people like this?
*Nowhere* is made of people like this.
The Charleston population is now 90% carpetbaggers.