Well*that*was embarrassing!1 The whole JoeScabs/MikaMouse thing. DRUMPFis bygone for shower inducing

[UTUSN]

* First, that pre-hour when their panel went through its paces of praising/defending them, EXACTLY the way DRUMPF did at his fake cabinet meeting. DRUMPF got this directly from Roy COHN, who would throw these fabulous parties (“If you’re indicted, you’re invited”) and the guests/politicians/mobsters would sycophantically toast him to the skies.

* Then they made their really big debut as a full fledged couple. Being such a UNIT, so unified in agreement, so above it all. Like they were presenting themselves in society, making all of us complicit.

* It was clear that they were THRILLED to get this level of attention, like “We’re in the Big Time of the Megyn and the Rest.”

* Least of all, they made DRUMPF look like a pro, like they were out of the league they were trying to play in. While it’s a good thing not to be in DRUMPF’s league, they made even this look suspect.

* The context behind it all is that Joe Scabs has been emotionally and verbally abusing Mika Mouse all these years in plain sight, only slightly less in the recent period of the courtship. So it’s like we’re complicit in this other level of things, too.


**********The thing is that nothing new (yes, the specific blackmail story, but not the behavior) was added to what everybody has always known about DRUMPF, including his Deplorables. If the Happy Couple turn out to be the final straw, fantastic, but what we’ve seen is that nothing matters with the MYRIAD of his horrendous words and deeds.

[virtualobserver]

1. you are really missing the significance of this

Trump could have written your post

[boston bean]

8. for a brief few seconds, i thought it was the rump who wrote it and it was being quoted.

[virtualobserver]

10. the post-morning-joe twitter exchange between Scarborough and Trump was even more jaw-dropping....

than the blackmail revelation on the show.

I'm actually optimistic for the first time since the election.

[UTUSN]

11. Really, the two of you? I guess calling a fellow DUer "DRUMPF" is O.K. here.

I'll just say that if you two (and doubtless more to come very soon) are seeing my post as a defense of DRUMPF, you have seriously mis-read.

Joe Scabs and Mika Mouse are hardly innocent victims. They were political collaborators and they really looked like they were enjoying the STATUS of being in the club of DRUMPF's targets.

I don't mind your disagreeing, but deeply resent the personal attacks.

[Happyhippychick]

14. I saw it as a defense as well, perhaps if (doubtless more) or us do then it's not us.

[UTUSN]

35. I'll take this as a momentary glitch in the *years* when I have never had disagreements with you.

(signed: ) A Fringe Hippy from the Past.

[Happyhippychick]

37. I'll take it as a glitch too!

[boston bean]

15. It sounded like something trump would spout out... sorry, but it did. and for a few moments I

thought it was cut and paste. No biggie...

[UTUSN]

19. Well, "No biggie" TO YOU if you're not being flayed!1 Not to mention, on wrong reading grounds.

[boston bean]

28. I read it fine. It sounds like something Trump would say. Sorry! I don't think you are a

trump supporter or defender. ok.. again no biggie.

[UTUSN]

12. See post #11.

[virtualobserver]

18. I didn't see your post as a defense of Trump

I just think that your negative feelings about Joe and Mika are so strong that you are missing their sincere and positive motives and actions in this situation.

[boston bean]

29. yes

[emulatorloo]

2. Trump attempted to blackmail members of the press for criticizing him.

That's the bottom line.

[oberliner]

3. Joe and Mika are close personal friends of Trump

And have been for over ten years.

During the campaign, Trump thanked them for their support.

[bigtree]

4. thus, we can see the degree to which this is a biased assault, a pattern of attacking women

...rather than a personal one.

[emulatorloo]

5. Did you watch the interview? Apparently not.

- they were friends but Trump has changed in the last few years.
- trump's been attacking Morning joe and Mika on twitter for the last year.

There's more to the story as well.

-------------------------------------------
Now once again, bottom line:

The President attempted to blackmail members of the free press for criticizing him. That is a serious problem.

Mika's children were harassed by the National Enquirer on behalf of Trump.

And the best y'all can do is 'victim blame' and act as if what Trump did was a-ok.

[oberliner]

6. Did you watch the WWE match the other day?

Those wrestlers sure do seem to hate each other.

1. Joe and Mika were at Mara Lago last New Years Eve.

2. This article is from a month before election day:

Mika Brzezinski snaps at Clinton: Get off your high horse because Trump is brilliant on taxes

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/10/mika-brzezinski-snaps-at-clinton-get-off-your-high-horse-because-trump-is-brilliant-on-taxes/

[emulatorloo]

20. Joe and Mika were not at Mara Lago at New Years Eve. Another Trump Lie.

You should know by now that Trump lies about everything. And yet here you are accepting everything he tweeted as the gospel truth.

- Joe met with Trump for 15 minutes on June 30th (I don't remember the reason, perhaps to set up an interview)
- Trump was sad Mika was not with him
- Trump asked Joe to come on New Years Eve, and bring Mika
- joe said no, and they did not go

I don't think we should continue this. IMHO your need to blame journalists whose viewpoint you don't like prevents you from seeing the seriousness of what the President did.

[oberliner]

26. Yes, they were

The personal relationship between Mr. Trump and the two hosts warmed up again after the election. As Mr. Trump said on Thursday, the pair did spend New Year’s Eve at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s Florida estate, although Mr. Scarborough initially said they had gone there to arrange an interview.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/29/business/trump-tweets-mika-brzezinski-joe-scarborough.html

Here's a photo for good measure:

[emulatorloo]

39. "As Mr Trump said"

Here's an excerpt from the Morning Joe interview

[oberliner]

42. They were at Mara Lago on New Years Eve

There are photos of them there.

Joe said, in tweets at the time, that he and Mika was there to try to arrange an interview.

He even spoke to CNN about it the day after:

BYERS: Obviously you feel like there have been a great deal of assumptions made about what's going on in the New Year's Eve photograph. I'd like to hear your version of what's going on in that photograph.

SCARBOROUGH: Well, by this point there really shouldn't be any assumptions. I stated very clearly last night in my Twitter feed, in numerous tweets, that we had asked to meet with the President-elect to discuss an interview around the time of the inauguration and were told to be there at seven o'clock on the 31st. So we showed up at 7'o clock in street clothes. At Mar-A-Lago there are usually several entrances. The Secret Service had shut down all other entrances, so there was only one gate where they screen your car. We went through that gate then were told by the security guards to meet the President-elect up the stairs at the hotel.

So we walked in and did our best to walk around the group that was hanging outside the ball room where the party was going to be later that night. We walked around, walked through the crowd, were guided through the crowd by a security person, and then got to the foot of the stairs and the security person called for Donald Trump to come over and he waved us over and introduced us to a 10-year-old boy who he said was the best 10-year-old golfer he's ever seen. We sat there and talked to the young man for about 30 seconds, shook hands with his mother, and then we went up the stairs. The picture that somebody must have taken on the iPhone shows us right at the foot of the stairs while we're talking to Trump and the young boy. Then we headed up the stairs, had about a 10 to 15 minute meeting, and then left.

[emulatorloo]

45. So essentially your're confirming what I just said

Except I had the date wrong.

Trump's tweet is a full blown lie:

Link to tweet

[oberliner]

46. I am correcting the incorrect statement that you made

You wrote:

"Joe and Mika were not at Mara Lago at New Years Eve"

That is not true. They were.

[emulatorloo]

48. For 15 fucking minutes. I got the date wrong because I misremembered it.

Are you going to continue to defend Trump's lies about three days in order to nitpick and score points against me or what?

I apologize if I am misunderstanding your apparent need to discredit me.

You and I have always had cordial exchanges, so I don't get it.

[oberliner]

52. I despise Joe and Mika and I despise Trump

They deserve each other. That's my broad take on all this.

I did not mean to be un-cordial.

[emulatorloo]

54. Fair enough.

I appreciate the clarification.

[Squinch]

21. Last few years? Well, no.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/29/business/trump-tweets-mika-brzezinski-joe-scarborough.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

No one is saying what Trump(R) did was OK. What Trump(R) did was unprecedented and unconscionable, the kind of attack on our Democratic values that we have never seen before and that Trump(R) does all the time. That Trump(R) has always done, that Trump(R) did while Joe and Mika were praising him to the skies and being floated to join his government.

I think what the poster is trying to keep in our minds is that yes, Trump(R) is disgusting. Yes, what he did was disgusting. But let's not forget that he is in our faces every day partly because of the support of these two. If they are victims, they are victims of the President that they helped put into office.

[emulatorloo]

22. Not a fan of Morning Joe. Really not a fan of Presidents trying to silence the free press

So let's be clear. OP's attack imho plays into the hands of Trump spin: It's ok to blackmail, harass, and stalk people we don't like.

[Squinch]

24. The poster never said anything of the sort. Not even remotely close.

It should be possible for us to keep two thoughts in our head at the same time.

1)Trump(R) is disgusting. Has always been disgusting. What he said about Mika was disgusting. He's sick and he's ruining our country.

AND

2)Mika and Joe had a hand in putting Trump(R) in the oval office and should be ashamed of themselves for that and that needs to be acknowledged as we all eat our popcorn and watch this trashy infantile nonsense being played out on a national scale.

[emulatorloo]

27. Most every bullet point is victim blaming.

[Squinch]

38. There's a lot of comparisons of this situation to rape scenarios. People are saying that if someone

says Joe and Mika have had a hand in Trump's(R) election and are not blameless it is the same as saying a raped woman was asking for it.

EDITED AT YOUR REQUEST: YOU HAVE NOT EQUATED THE TWO but I have seen that comparison in other posts on this topic.

First, can we acknowledge how ridiculous that is? Raped women do not bring rape upon themselves. But sometimes people ARE in fact responsible for the shit that comes their way.

EDITED AGAIN: I bring up the subject of others' comparisons to blaming rape victims because I do not believe at all that this is a situation in which blameless victims are being blamed.

Joe and Mika have been riding the ratings of their friendship, then frenemy relationship, then friendship again, then enemy relationship with Trump(R) since the day he announced. They were instrumental in giving him a positive image outside of New York where we all know that he's nothing but a creepy crook who thinks nothing of committing crimes including the rape of one of his wives.

That positive image that THEY gave him is part of how he got normalized.

They have been complicit. They normalized him when it counted. They bear some responsibility for all the shit that is coming down now on all our heads. And they knew the fire they were playing with. You can't have spent any time in Trump(R)s company or even in New York City for the past few decades without knowing that Trump(R) is evil and unstable and unsuited to any office much less the Presidency. So they played with that fire for their ratings and their insider status. And now that fire is burning them.

What Trump(R) has done is disgusting. But they are not blameless victims.

[emulatorloo]

43. I am going to ask you to self delete something in yr reply.

Please self delete that section about blaming rape victims for being raped.

Even though you say I am not doing that, there are enough folks around who just skim posts or don't have great reading comprehension skills.

There is nothing viler in my opinion than rapists and their apologists who blame their victims. It disgusts me.

Thanks in advance.

[Squinch]

44. I think I was clear that you were not doing that. I was simply saying that I have seen

that comparison in other posts throughout the discussion of this issue.

[emulatorloo]

50. Ok (and many thanks for the edit)

[UTUSN]

40. Totally wrong. I monitored the show from its beginning until 2012 when they were horrendous

on us. So I have put in my time in knowing the two of them. There is NO way for anybody to read my post as blaming them in a defense of DRUMPF. I'm not going to get into the futile game of having to QUOTE MYSELF to correct your impressions.

[emulatorloo]

47. Good for you. IMHO for whatever reason you can't see the forest for the trees.

Big take away is the President attempted to shut down criticism from the free press through blackmail, harrasment of family members.

Will once again state I'm not a morning joe fan. But if I were to write an OP settling scores w a conservative journalist I don't like while basically ignoring the probably illegal actions of the President = not seeing the forest for the trees.

I'm not "attacking" you. I certainly understand your point of view. I'm just saying yr focus is way off.

[UTUSN]

25. TyvVm

[LanternWaste]

32. Thankfully, acquaintances have never before in the history of the world

Thankfully, acquaintances, colleagues or friends have never before in the history of the world, blackmailed the other...

[oberliner]

33. They certainly have

But there is no evidence of any blackmail here. And this little twitter spat has been great for Morning Joe's ratings today.

[Gothmog]

7. I have not watched morning joe for years but today I watched

[oberliner]

17. Best thing that ever happened to Morning Joe is Trump

Probably why they pimped him during the campaign.

That, and the fact that they are close personal friends and have been for a decade.

[lillypaddle]

9. Pretty cynical

I have to disagree with your take on things. If friends and co-workers had been attacked, would you not defend? Anyway, I won't get into a tit for tat, but I believe you are being very unfair. YMMV.

[UTUSN]

16. I'm glad that you disagreed without joining the flamers above.

[maxsolomon]

13. i have no idea what this post is about

something happened on TV?

[Squinch]

23. I want to be YOU!

[Corvo Bianco]

34. Honey that's where it all happens is on the TV!

Good for you!

[smirkymonkey]

30. Do we really need another post on this?

[UTUSN]

41. You could have skipped right past without prolonging it, no?

[Eliot Rosewater]

31. America is at war, we are being invaded by the Russians, right now.

GOP is assisting them, we better get fucking serious and soon.

[Watchfoxheadexplodes]

36. Seems to be a trend of "don't look here" posts??

No matter how bad you dislike morning Joe stop trying to dismiss this.

[NastyRiffraff]

49. I'm far from a fan of Morning Joe

or of Joe or Mika. But Mika didn't deserve that tweet. What was she supposed to do, shut up like a good little woman? If a WOMAN speaks up to defend herself she's "THRILLED" to get attention? Got it. (Okay, I'll wait for the "stop treating everything as an attack on women" bit)

DRumpf definitely didn't look like a "pro" as you put it, before or after this morning's show. Quite the opposite.

[jberryhill]

51. I'll take a stab at this....

Joe and Mika's relationship, whatever it may be or have been, is beside the point.

We are not "complicit" in whatever Joe & Mika's relationship might be about, by observing that it appears that the White House was at some point interested in obtaining influence over them by suggesting the White House could stop the Enquirer from publishing about it.

Let me put this another way....

Let's say that Bob Broadcaster likes to drown kittens and kick puppies, but maintains a shining public image.

The Enquirer finds out that BB does these things, and informs the White House that they have this dirt on Bob which the White House could use as leverage against Bob.

The White House contacts Bob and suggests the WH could "help" Bob by not having the dirt published.

It doesn't make me a supporter of kitten drowning and puppy kicking for me to recognize immediately that the WH is involved in blackmail here.

[Gothmog]

53. From the DNC

:large