#MIKA BRZEZINSKI

[justinspoliticalcorner]

The Warning With Steve Schmidt:

Four years ago today, after losing a presidential election, Donald Trump incited an insurrection against the US Constitution. His mob stormed the Capitol, pissed on the walls and shat on the floors. They did $1.5 million in damage, caused injuries to at least 174 of Capitol police officers, and caused the deaths of five people. Trump will soon pardon the January 6 criminals, lionize them, and hang medals around their necks. Have no doubt about this. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has denounced Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Reform Party, saying that he is unfit to lead it. He has also stepped up his interference in the forthcoming German elections. He has also begun severely limiting criticism of himself and others on X with a social media scoring system that is straight out of China.

The Washington Post is in a state of collapse. The paper’s best political writers, journalists and commentators are like the first-class passengers on Titanic being lowered into half-filled life boats taking them to the Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic, but the truth is that there aren’t enough life boats for all. Everyone is going to want off a ship that is sinking into disgrace. Whatever private commitments were made between the Graham family and Bezos when he bought The Washington Post regarding its stewardship have been shattered. The most incredible part about the capitulations — which are not the least bit surprising — is how quickly they happened, and without so much as a soft whimper or scuffle.

By doing so, most editorial leaders of these institutions have demonstrated the only place they are truly fit to work is the Trump White House. There, they could combine the practice of moral appeasement, fecklessness, dishonesty, weakness and self-interest with being cheered, promoted and celebrated. Instead, these low men and women have to face the reality that the person staring back at them in the mirror is a different version of Lindsey Graham — only they call themselves journalists as opposed to senator. The farce is the same. The cowardice is the same. The record will show that when the starting gun sounded nobody came close to Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski with their Usain Bolt-like dash to Mar-a-Lago. Bezos must look at them through his capitulant lens as visionaries. Perhaps they will have the opportunity to summer aboard Koru, his yacht, with the Lady Sanchez in the south of France. Given that Bezos has green-lit a Melania documentary that explains her reemergence from witness protection, maybe she could be there as well, softly purring about her deep love of Donald and America.

[...] Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and all the rest of America’s oligarchs hold the American people in contempt. Because they do, they can’t see the character of the steelworker, trucker, nurse, teacher or cop. They only see one thing, and that in the end, is why this whole miserable MAGA project will crash and burn. They are locusts preparing to swarm to engorge themselves even though they feel no hunger and want for nothing. Donald Trump will keep pushing until someone, somewhere, some day, effectively pushes back again. I hope that day comes soon because until then they are going to be full speed ahead. By the time the inaugural address is over there will be perfect clarity around what must be fiercely opposed as indecent and un-American.

Steve Schmidt’s column is on the nose here. It’s insulting to see so many people and institutions obey in advance and capitulate to Trumpism, especially the Washington Post.

[porterdavis]

Kow-towing. Poor Mika. She and Joe are letting presumptive fear of Trump reprisals censor their speech, and the speech of all who come on their air.

Appeasement and anticipatory obedience is the fuel of tyrants.

[hayquetenerpatience]

"A few weeks ago ... somebody who was going to be voting for Kamala Harris came up to me and said, 'Oh my God, Trump's going to win. ... I go to the grocery store, [and] butter is over $3.'"

- Joe Scarborough, host of 'The Morning Joe.' At that point, Scarborough's wife and co-host, Mika Brzezinski, interrupted to tell him that the butter she buys is actually more than double that price.

"It's $7. ... I'm just saying it's 7,” she stated as they somewhat spoke over each other.

"What's that?" Scarborough asked.

Finally cluing in to what he heard, Scarborough looked shocked as he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Butter is $7?!" he asked.

"Yeah," Brzezinski calmly replied.

"What, is it framed in gold?" Scarborough said as his panel laughed.

"Yeah, it depends on where you go," his wife reiterated.

---

THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA DOESN'T KNOW BECAUSE THEY DON'T CARE! THEY LIVE IN ELISTIST BUBBLES POPULATED BY MOVIE ACTORS, TV SHOW ACTORS, CELEBRITY "JOURNALISTS," AND ASSORTED MEDIA FAVORITE GLITTERATI.

[randgugotur-6]

[tomorrowusa]

A serial sex offender who cheated on all three of his wives is claiming to be a protector of women.

[mylionheart2]

[msclaritea]

ENDEAVOR founder (the guy who is threatening to withhold money from the Dems) REPRESENTS ALL THE NEWS ANCHORS, through WME!

[madamspeaker]

[loveboatinsanity]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

“Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. Individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want and then offer themselves without being asked.” Those words written by Yale Professor Timothy Snyder in his book, “On Tyranny” came to mind twice recently. The first was last week when MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski headed to Mar-a-Lago to capitulate to Donald Trump. And then again on Monday, when we learned that Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice was surrendering to Trump by voluntarily dismissing criminal charges against Trump in both the attempted coup and Espionage cases. These two incidents actually share a great deal in common. Both involve visible people with power who are fully aware of the danger Trump poses to our Republic and who Trump has vowed retribution against. And both surrendered soon after Trump won, thus, emboldening the aspiring autocrat. In defense of Jack Smith, he did move swiftly after being appointed Special Counsel in November 2022. The failure has always been and continues to be Merrick Garland, a person I have been vocally criticizing since late 2021 for his failure to timely prosecute Trump--even causing Democratic legal pundits to attack me in 2022 for not understanding how the DOJ works.

True, while I am a lawyer, I never worked in DOJ. But I’m a student of history and understood where this could go if Garland did not move swiftly. That is why in Jan 2022--on the first anniversary of Jan. 6--I wrote an op-ed for MSNBC pressing Garland to charge Trump that concluded with the line that if Garland didn’t move swiftly to hold Trump accountable: “I believe historians will count it among the key mistakes that ultimately led to the end of the United States as a democratic republic.” To be clear, Special Counsel Smith’s dismissal was demanded by Garland’s DOJ as he noted in his six-page filing on Monday.  Smith wrote that, “It has long been the position of the Department of Justice that the United States Constitution forbids the federal indictment and subsequent criminal prosecution of a sitting President.” The basis for that DOJ view is NOT a specific line in the US Constitution nor a US Supreme Court decision. Rather it was two memos drafted by the DOJ’s Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC)—one in 1973 when there were questions about charging then President Richard Nixon in connection with Watergate and the second in 2000 when President Bill Clinton was embroiled in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

But as Smith notes in his filing, neither addressed the facts before us of: 1. A former president charged as a private citizen for committing crimes--as in Trump’s Espionage and obstruction case; and, 2. A former President charged after leaving office for crimes committed in office--as we have with Trump’s Jan. 6 attempted coup case. Smith—who has independence as a Special Counsel—is still required by way of DOJ regulations to “comply with the rules, regulations, procedures, practices and policies of the Department of Justice.” Thus, Smith ask Garland’s DOJ for guidance. And as you would imagine, Garland’s DOJ-- that has failed to charge even one GOP official for their role in helping Trump overturn the 2020 election--told Smith to stand down.   Smith wrote that Garland’s OLC “concluded that its 2000 Opinion’s ‘categorical’ prohibition on the federal indictment of a sitting President—even if the case were held in abeyance—applies to this situation, where a federal indictment was returned before the defendant takes office.”  In sum, as Smith noted, “Accordingly, the Department’s position is that the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated.”

Smith has done all he can to warn us of the threat Trump poses. When the Jan. 6 indictment versus Trump was first unsealed in Aug. 2023, Smith publicly declared, “The attack on our nation’s capital on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies.”  The Special Counsel then took direct aim at Trump, “Lies by the defendant [Trump] targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government, the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election.” And earlier this year in connection with the U.S. Supreme Court case where Trump argued he should be immune from prosecution for any crimes he committed in office, Smith again rang alarm bells about what Trump was seeking. The Special Counsel wrote in a passage prescient for where we are today: “The defendant’s claim that he cannot be held to answer for the charges that he engaged in an unprecedented effort to retain power through criminal means…threatens the democratic and constitutional foundation of our Republic.”

[...] Again, Garland and Scarborough have chosen to surrender to Trump—just as we can expect others will going forward. We must not. As Prof. Snyder tells us: “Do not obey in advance.”  Instead, we must take the fight to Trump. That is the way we protect our freedoms, our self-determination and our Republic.

Picking Merrick Garland to lead the DOJ was the biggest mistake President Biden ever made, and he helped Donald Trump escape his legal issues.

[bloghrexach]

"Morning Joe" continues to show how fearful they are of Trump's retaliation after their on-air apology following David Frum's comments. Steve Schmidt breaks down Frum's comments, the aftermath and what it means for the future of journalism.

[satireinfo]

Morning Joe’s Trip to Mar-a-Lago

Morning Joe’s Mar-a-Lago Pilgrimage: When “Loyal Opposition” Meets Lobster Thermidor Palm Beach, FL — In a twist that no one—least of all their loyal MSNBC viewers—saw coming, Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to “restart communications” with Donald Trump. Yes, the same Trump they spent seven years criticizing with the zeal of a vegan berating…

[tomorrowusa]

Republican Party leaders are physically fighting with each other in Michigan. 🍿

"He kicked me in my balls": Michigan Republicans brawl at local meeting GOP gone wild: "When you see me taking my glasses off, I’m ready to rock"

As reported by The Detroit News, Wayne County Republican James Chapman was trying to get into the state party's meeting room at the Doherty Hotel by jiggling the door handle when Clare County Republican Party Chair Mark DeYoung opened the door from inside.  "He kicked me in my balls as soon as I opened the door,"  DeYoung told the outlet while being interviewed in the ER, adding that he had suffered a broken rib and intended to press charges against Chapman.  Chapman, however, said DeYoung was the one who swung first after threatening to kick Chapman's ass. DeYoung denied that, though, claiming Chapman squared up first — rushing DeYoung and slamming him into a chair. One of the individuals involved in the fight gave Detroit News' Craig Mauger a warning for any would-be future Michigan brawlers:  "When you see me taking my glasses off, I'm ready to rock," Chapman said. 

It's easy to see why Republicans are no longer running Michigan.

Although the dust-up took place outside the actual meeting room, members inside got an eye full.   "From my clear vantage point a kerfuffle occurred outside our meeting room. We recessed for 5 minutes. It had nothing to do with the content of our meeting," said committee member Kristin Lee. 

Donald Trump says that he may not take part in the first GOP debate. That's a shame because it would be great fun to see him and DeSantis get into a ball kicking and face scratching melee on live TV.

[thekylemeredith]

Today's Rewind stretches back to 2017 when Joe Scarborough dropped by the series. The Morning Joe host had just officially released his debut EP after years of playing solo and in bands. The fact that this talk led to a friendship makes it even better.

Listen: https://link.chtbl.com/KyleMeredithW

[basedbushido]

Track day with my big brother, crazy to have someone so close growing up up never crossed paths untill a few years ago. Just glad at this point in my life to have a real brother/ friend. We’ve all grown out and past certain situations and friendships just to see we really never had a lot in common we were all just in the same space together, some longer than others…. 🛜