Media censorship is a harbinger of "media fear" about dangerous Trumpziism

Echo essay by Steve Schmidt published in The Warning: 

The brilliant David Frum (Atlantic magazine), a voice of reason, restraint and wisdom appeared on “Morning Joe” and discussed the travesty of Fox (Fake❗) News morning host Pete Hegseth’s nomination to lead the Pentagon.

He wrote about the experience for The Atlantic where he is a writer.

NBC News reported a story written by three superb journalists, Chloe Melas, Courtney Kube and Sarah Fitzpatrick that detailed Pete Hegseth’s abuse of alcohol. It was confirmed by an astonishing 10 different Fox (Fake❗)News colleagues and former colleagues around his struggles.

The New York Times reported that the man Donald Trump proposes to lead the $1 trillion Pentagon budget, an active force of 1,300,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, coast guardsmen, a reserve component of 800,000, a civilian force of 800,000 and a nuclear arsenal of 5,044 warheads was rebuked by his mother. She has since changed her mind about his abuse of women.

The castigation of her wayward son included the following:

On behalf of all the women (and I know there are many) you have abused in some way, I say … get some help and take an honest look at yourself.

I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.

Jane Mayer, the best investigative journalist in America, reported for New York magazine that a completely hammered Pete Hegseth jumped up onto a hotel table in Cleveland, and yelled, “Kill all Muslims!”

Here was what Frum said when asked about the nomination of Pete Hegseth, the incompetent nominee as secretary of defense, with reference to the above NBC News report.

If you’re too drunk for Fox (fake❗) News, you’re very, very drunk indeed.

In 1989, President George H. W. Bush nominated John Tower, senator from Texas, for secretary of defense. Tower was a very considerable person, a real defense intellectual, someone who deeply understood defense, unlike the current nominee. It emerged that Tower had a drinking problem, and when he was drinking too much he would make himself a nuisance or worse to women around him. And for that reason, his nomination collapsed in 1989. You don’t want to think that our moral standards have declined so much that you can say: Let’s take all the drinking, all the sex-pesting, subtract any knowledge of defense, subtract any leadership, and there is your next secretary of defense for the 21st century.

According to David Frum, he was immediately rebuked twice by a producer twice during a commercial break.

Shortly after being dismissed from the set, Mika Brzezinski looked into the camera and apologized to Fox (Fake❗) News:

The comment was a little too flippant for this moment that we’re in.

We have differences in coverage with Fox (Fake❗ ) News, and that’s a good debate that we should have often. But, right now, I just want to say there’s a lot of good people who work at Fox (Fake❗) News who care about Pete Hegseth, and we want to leave it at that.

This is what she said.

Why did Mika Brzezinski feel the need to apologize to Fox News❓

Was there an agreement between Fox (Fake ❗ ) News and “Morning Joe” that was made since the Mar-a-Lago (kiss-ass) agreement that Fox would ease off of the ridicule over the “Morning Joe” capitulant act towards Hitler, er, Trump, if “Morning Joe” eased off criticism of Fox?  HELLO? Did David Frum break the truce — or, is it worse?

What does Mika mean by these words: “It’s not the time?”

Why does Mika think that she should be an arbiter of what “time” it is in the first place, and decide from her bearing what can and cannot be said on an American television network?

What “time” does Mika think it is beyond apology hour❓

Can we laugh❓😩 😏

Cry?

Make jokes?

Mika Brzezinski is worried about how Pete Hegseth is coping? Really?

What about the 20-year-old Marine private who has to be ready to fight tonight?

Don’t they deserve a secretary of defense who isn’t face down or allegedly raping someone?

Maybe it isn’t time to talk about Fox News because they are giving their “Patriot of the Year” award to Donald Trump — the man she and Joe called Hitler just weeks ago — tonight?

David Frum is correct. He will not be asked back on “Morning Joe.” There is no room there for people who don’t bend at the knee.

The reason this happened is because of fear.

Mika Brzezinski is terrified. Joe Scarborough is terrified.

Now is a moment when truth-telling will be required.

Chief Joseph said this about the truth:


It does not require many words to speak the truth.

When Mika Brzezinski apologized it was another appeasement. It was awful.

On today’s episode, Joe Scarborough responded to David Frum’s criticism by declaring the issue was “civility,” not appeasement driven by fear.

Here’s the deal. Here’s some straight talk.

The dressing-up of appeasement and capitulant acts as necessary and virtuous is the only justification available to the appeaser.

The most disingenuous aspect of Scarborough’s reaction is his imitation of the ingenue who after talking to The Atlantic editor expresses shock that suck a thing could be said out loud about the cancerous lie machine that has wreaked havoc on civility, decency and truth in America.

There is a big difference between a paragraph in the venerable publication founded in 1857 and live television, particularly a show built around extemporaneous reactions.

The most dishonest part of Scarborough’s defense of his and Mika’s obvious fear is when he dresses up Fox as just any other news organization as opposed to what it really is — and what he knows it is: unique, singular and exceptional.

Again, is ABC News hosting an awards gala tonight for Donald Trump naming him “Patriot of the Year?” Of course not.

What David Frum said wasn’t just funny, it was appropriate towards a “news” organization that routinely defends itself in courts of law with an argument that says, “We’re not a news organization and we’re not credible,” and employs a bevy of nut jobs and liars who poison the country with nonsense all day, every day. Tucker Carlson, their most famous detritus is currently in Russia, parroting Putin propaganda about how World War III will start. It is obscene.

Once again, Scarborough moved to defend power at the expense of doing what he is supposed to be doing, which is anchoring a show that will tell the truth to people about what is happening in the world. The omissions will reach a farcical level before very long. Trump is still 46 days from taking power.

The practice of journalism is going to take a lot of guts. What a pathetic and disposable moment. There will be many more ahead, but never here.

Nominee Pete Hegseth for defense secretary is dangerous and evidence of his drinking problem is disqualifying

The Sound of Fear on Air:  It is an ominous sign that Morning Joe felt it had to apologize for something I said. By David Frum

David Frum Says MSNBC’s ‘Efforts to Appease’ Trump by Apologizing for His Joke About Pete Hegsesth’s Drinking Are ‘Very Ominous’

I had an unsettling experience with the hosts of Morning Joe.

I was invited onto MSNBC’s Morning Joe to talk from a studio in Washington, D.C., about an article I’d written on Trump’s approach to foreign policy. Before getting to the article, I was asked about the nomination of Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense—specifically about an NBC News report that his heavy drinking worried colleagues at Fox News and at the veterans organizations he’d headed. (A spokesman for the Trump transition told NBC, “These disgusting allegations are completely unfounded and false, and anyone peddling these defamatory lies to score political cheap shots is sickening.”)

Political commentator David Frum joined MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday to discuss allegations of heavy drinking against Donald Trump’s defense secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth. Frum introduced the story with a joke about Fox News, which then prompted MSNBC to issue an apology. In a written response in the Atlantic, Frum warned such an act is “a very ominous thing” ahead of Trump’s return to the White House.

NBC published a report Tuesday that revealed former colleagues of Hegseth’s at Fox News were deeply concerned about his drinking habits. Two people interviewed said they smelled alcohol on Hegseth before he went on the air, with one person noting that they noticed the smell as recently as November.

The report was a follow-up to a New Yorker magazine piece published Sunday that revealed there were similar concerns about Hegseth when he was head of Concerned Veterans for America from 2013-2016.

When Frum began the segment Wednesday, he joked, “If you’re too drunk for Fox News, you’re very, very drunk indeed.” During the commercial break that followed, he wrote in the Atlantic, a producer “objected to my comments about Fox and warned me not to repeat them.” The topic didn’t come back up and Frum departed the set.

“Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski then read an apology for Frum’s comments. Brzezinski and her husband co-host Joe Scarborough came under fire in November after a visit the pair paid to Trump at Mar-a-Lago was made public.

“A little bit earlier in this block there was a comment made about Fox News, in our coverage about Pete Hegseth and the growing number of allegations about his behavior over the years and possible addiction to alcohol or issues with alcohol,” Brzezinski said on “Morning Joe.”

“The comment was a little too flippant for this moment that we’re in. We just want to make that comment as well. We want to make that clear. We have differences in coverage with Fox News, and that’s a good debate that we should have often, but right now I just want to say there’s a lot of good people who work at Fox News who care about Pete Hegseth, and we will want to leave it at that.”

In his follow-up piece, Frum agreed “there are good people at Fox News” but added that if the report from NBC is to be believed, “many of those same good people have failed to report publicly that their former colleague, appointed to lead the armed forces of the United States, was notorious in their own building for his drinking.”

Frum also expressed empathy for the fact that the popularity of “Morning Joe” has in turn “exposed the hosts and producers to extraordinary pressures and threats in the Trump era,” especially due to the President-elect’s own claims that he will retaliate against those in the media he feels have spoken badly about him.

He took responsibility for the comment (“my face was on the screen, my name was on the chyron, and anyone who took offense knows whom to blame,” Frum writes) but added a chill warning: “It is a very ominous thing if our leading forums for discussion of public affairs are already feeling the chill of intimidation and responding with efforts to appease.”

“I do not write to scold anyone; I write because fear is infectious. Let it spread, and it will paralyze us all,” Frum continued. “The only antidote is courage. And that’s infectious, too.”

Joe Scarborouogh and Mika have consistently expressed their strong reservations and perspectives regarding Pete Hegseth’s nomination from the very beginning, and that stance remains unchanged.

We would have responded in the same manner regardless of when these comments were made or what news…

— Richard Hudock (@richardhudock) December 4, 2024

Frum was invited back to “Morning Joe” Thursday morning by NBC’s VP of communications, Richard Hudock. He wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “We would have responded in the same manner regardless of when these comments were made or what news organization was referenced.”  (Hmmmmm❓.....Maine Writer is not convinced about Hudock's point of view....too defensive.)

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's incompetent pick for defense secretary, drank in ways that concerned his Fox News colleagues while he was a host at the network, according to an NBC News report.

Oscar Host Jimmy Kimmel responded to inappropriate Trump. He was the "host with the most!"

Kimmel's comeback to Trump is worthy of an encore!

Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel on Sunday called out former President Donald Trump after Trump took to social media to insult Kimmel.

"Trump just keeps walking into traps": Morning Joe buries Trump for latest humiliation. Kimmel read out Trump’s Truth Social post live from the Oscars stage just before the last award of the night was presented for best picture.

After sharing clips of "kitchen lady" Senator Katie Britt's widely mocked State of the Union response and the corresponding parody of the Alabama Republican's speech on Saturday Night Live, the hosts of "Morning Joe" focused on Donald Trump's latest humiliation when he went to war with comedian Jimmy Kimmel late Sunday night.

According to co-host Joe Scarborough, the former president's old tricks are blowing up in his face these days, after he used his Truth Social platform to attack Kimmel's hosting performance during the Oscars ceremony.

After Trump sneered at Kimmel by writing, "His opening was that of a less than average person trying to be something that he is not and never can be. Get rid of Kimmel and perhaps replace him with another washed-up but cheap ABC talent, George Slopanopoulos," Kimmel returned fire by reading the post live on-air and then adding, "Well, thank you, President Trump. Thank you for watching, I'm surprised you're still — isn't it past your jail time?"

Jimmy Kimmel to Trump, "Isn't it past your jail time?"

That in turn led to uproarious laughter from the Hollywood crowd and immediately made headlines, with Trump having no way to quickly respond with the same kind of reach.

As Joe Scarborough pointed out, the former president set himself up to fail. 😜😒😏 

"That's the thing, he just doesn't — I guess he doesn't understand," the MSNBC host explained. "He just keeps walking into traps. 

Trump acts old, he keeps — again, you know, it's like an old fighter that's past his prime. The things that may have worked, that may have been disruptive six, seven, you know, 2016, everybody knows what's coming."

"He's the butt of the joke for millions of people last night," he added.

The former guy is detached from reality. He can never be trusted to tell the truth or to protect our government secrets

"I'm telling you, no matter what he says, no matter how he's bragging, [Trump] goes to bed every night thinking about the sound of the jail cell door closing behind him...When push comes to shove, I'm not so sure he won't take the plea." -- (Morning Joe -
@govchristie)

Donald Trump Should Never Again Be Trusted With the Nation’s Secrets!  (37❗ crimes, 'ya-think? 😡😠😕)  Echo editorial opinion published in The New York Times:

It is hard to overstate the gravity of the criminal indictment issued against Donald Trump late Thursday by a federal grand jury. For the first time, a former president has been charged with violating federal laws, laws that he swore to uphold just over six years ago. It is the first time a former leader of the executive branch has been charged with obstructing the very agencies he led, and the first time a former commander in chief has been charged with endangering national security by violating the Espionage Act.

The indictment, unsealed on Friday, accuses Mr. Trump of 37 crimes. The majority of them — 31 of the counts — are for willful retention of national defense information, each a violation of the Espionage Act. There is one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, in which Mr. Trump is accused of conspiring with his personal aide, Walt Nauta, to hide classified documents from the F.B.I. and the grand jury investigating the case. The other charges involve withholding documents, corruptly concealing documents and making false statements to law enforcement authorities.

The potential prison sentences for Trump adds up to as much as 420 years, even though conviction almost never results in the maximum sentence. But this indictment confronts the country with the harrowing prospect of a former president facing years behind bars, even as he runs to regain the White House.

Trump and his Republican allies are already trying to politicize the indictment, insisting that the charges issued by 23 randomly chosen residents of South Florida were an attempt by President Biden to demolish his rival. But the evidence compiled by the government is so substantial that it is clear the Justice Department had no choice but to indict.

The indictment says that Trump not only took from the White House classified documents that he was not authorized to possess but also that he showed them to visitors and political cronies at his country club. One of the documents involved a potential attack on another country, which The New York Times has reported was Iran. “Isn’t it amazing?” he asked one visitor, brandishing the document. 

During that conversation, Trump acknowledged that he knew the document was “a secret,” the indictment said.

The details in the indictment make it clear that Trump knew that he was not authorized to keep national security secrets in his possession and that he played a cat-and-mouse game to conceal them from the F.B.I. and other federal officials. At one point he suggested his lawyer take some documents to his hotel room and “pluck” out anything really bad, the indictment says. “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?” he asked his lawyers. He added, “Well, look, isn’t it better if there are no documents?” Meanwhile, he instructed his lawyers to falsely inform federal investigators that they had cooperated fully.

With these actions, the former president demonstrated once again his contempt for the rule of law, his disregard for America’s national security and his mockery of the oath he took to support and defend the Constitution.

In fact, Trump walked out of the White House with details of the nuclear capabilities of the United States and a foreign government, descriptions of support for terrorist activities by a foreign country and communications with the leader of a foreign country. It is the willful retention of this material that led to the 31 charges of violating the Espionage Act, which makes it a crime if someone deliberately retains national defense material “and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it.”

Trump’s recklessness in retaining and showing off military secrets is both arrogant and breathtaking. It put the lives of American soldiers at risk. These are some of the United States’ most closely guarded secrets — so sensitive that many top national-security officials can’t see them — and Trump treated them like a prize he had won at a carnival. These actions underscore, yet again, why he is unfit for public office.

What makes the spectacle all the more stunning is that it was entirely unnecessary. Had Mr. Trump responded to the many formal requests to return the wrongfully taken documents by apologizing and handing them over immediately, he would have avoided any confrontation with federal law enforcement. That’s what responsible public servants like Mr. Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence did when classified material was found among their papers.

The former president’s defenders rushed in to call it political persecution. “It is unconscionable for a President to indict the leading candidate opposing him,” wrote the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, in a tweet before the indictment was unsealed, as if Mr. Biden had any involvement in these charges.

To make an accusation that a prosecution is a purely political act — one that will undermine the public’s faith in an independent judiciary — is a serious charge and requires at least some basis in fact before it is irresponsibly broadcast to the world. There is no support for that charge, because it requires ignoring two years of evidence painstakingly collected by nonpolitical law enforcement investigators. The Justice Department appears to have followed the basic processes and rules already in place to reach this decision. The public is now able to judge for itself whether the government has a serious case and whether it is actually the Republican critics who are the ones doing the instant politicizing.

And Trump will be afforded due process, including a trial by a jury of one’s peers and the right to appeal a guilty verdict — all the protections the Constitution guarantees.

The Justice Department’s role is to apply the law equally, without regard to the status or political affiliation of the accused lawbreaker. That’s what makes this indictment so necessary: Federal prosecutors have sought and won convictions in dozens of classified-document cases involving behavior less egregious than Trump’s. And that’s why the claims of a witch hunt are lamentable. Don’t take it from us; listen to Trump’s own former attorney general, Bill Barr.

“This says more about Trump than it does the Department of Justice,” Mr. Barr said on “CBS Mornings” on Tuesday. “He’s so egotistical that he has this penchant for conducting risky, reckless acts to show that he can sort of get away with it.” He added, “There’s no excuse for what he did here.”

It’s become common during the past eight tumultuous years to invoke the term “unprecedented” — a useful shorthand for Trump’s compulsion to upend established norms and blow past crucial democratic guardrails. But his unprecedented behavior should not obscure an equally important point, which is that the response to it has many precedents.

The United States has prosecuted dozens of former governors, cabinet members and lawmakers. These prosecutions are essential in reaffirming the principle that no one — and especially no political leader — is above the law. To fail to bring such a case is to make it more likely that other abuses of power will occur.

Hypocrisy at National Religious Broadcasters - NRB needs to focus on its mission

Evangelicals who wrongly support anti-vaxxers, even though they may be reticent in the discussion about the COVID vaccine, are contributing to the preventable deaths of thousands of their own followers, who all claim to be Christians! #WWWTP? Hypocrisy cubed!

“I believe in this vaccine because I don’t want to see anyone else die of COVID," said Dan Darling. 

NRB spokesman Dan Darling fired after pro-vaccine statements on MSNBC, ‘Morning Joe’.

Daniel Darling, senior vice president of communications for the National Religious Broadcasters, was fired Friday (Aug. 27) after refusing to say his pro-vaccine statements, made on Morning Joe, were mistaken.

Echo report published in RNS by Bob Smietana

(Religion News Service: RNS) — The spokesman for a major evangelical nonprofit was fired for promoting vaccines on the MSNBC “Morning Joe” cable news show, Religion News Service has learned.

Daniel Darling, senior vice president of communications for the National Religious Broadcasters, was fired Friday (Aug. 27) after refusing to admit his pro-vaccine statements were mistaken, according to a source authorized to speak for Darling.

His firing comes at a time when Americans face a new surge of COVID-19 infections due to the highly contagious Delta variant even as protesters and politicians resist mask mandates or other preventive measures.

During a broadcast on Aug. 2, Darling, an evangelical pastor and author, told host Joe Scarborough about how his faith motivated him to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Darling described the vaccines as an amazing feat of discovery by scientists, some of whom share his Christian faith.

Darling said he was proud to be vaccinated.

“I believe in this vaccine because I don’t want to see anyone else die of COVID. Our family has lost too many close friends and relatives to COVID, including an uncle, a beloved church member and our piano teacher,” Darling told Joe Scarborough.

He expressed similar views in a recent USA Today opinion piece.

Earlier this week, leaders at NRB, an international association of Christian communicators with 1,100 member organizations, told Darling his statements violated the organization’s policy of remaining neutral about COVID-19 vaccines. According to the source, Darling was given two options — sign a statement admitting he had been insubordinate or be fired.

When he refused to sign a statement, Darling was fired and given no severance, the source told RNS.

Troy Miller, CEO of NRB, confirmed Darling was no longer with the organization. He did not respond to a question about the role Darling’s statements about vaccines played in his departure.

“Dan is an excellent communicator and a great friend. I wish him God’s best in all his future endeavors,” Miller told RNS in an email.

In a statement reported by Ruth Graham of the New York Times, Darling said that he was “sad and disappointed that my time at NRB has come to a close.”

“I am grieved that the issues that divide our country are dividing Christians,” he said in the statement, adding that he intended to devote himself to “unifying believers around the truth of the Gospel.”

While on “Morning Joe,” Darling said his Christian faith played a key role in his decision to be vaccinated — saying the Bible’s command to love our neighbors informed that decision. The vaccine, he said, helps protect our neighbors from the spread of COVID-19.

Darling also expressed sympathy for those who are hesitant to be vaccinated, seeing it as part of a larger breakdown of trust in American culture.

“When trust goes down,” he said on the show, “belief in conspiracies goes up.”

White evangelical Christians and Hispanic Protestants are among the faith groups most likely to be hesitant or refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccines, according to a recent survey from the Public Religion Research Institute. That study found vaccine hesitancy dropped among many faith groups from March 2021 to June 2021.

Still, 1 in 4 white evangelicals said they refuse to get a vaccine, while an additional 1 in 5 was hesitant, according to PRRI.

Darling criticized those who try to shame people who are vaccine-hesitant or who rejoice when someone who was unvaccinated becomes ill with COVID. Neither of those approaches is helpful, he said on the show.

He also encouraged his fellow evangelicals to consider following his example.

“I do encourage folks to talk to their doctor and really consider it, just because we just don’t want to see anyone else unnecessarily die of this lethal virus,” he said.

In a statement posted on social media, Miller stated that no employee at NRB had ever been terminated for their views on COVID-19 vaccines and that staff had been directed that NRB “stays neutral” about vaccines.

Miller also denied Darling had been fired. Instead, Miller said in his statement that Darling had been offered “a path to another position that would have provided a significant salary and full benefits.”

“He turned that offer down and chose to depart NRB,” Miller said the statement.

However, RNS has confirmed that the letter detailing Darling’s firing specifically cited his appearance on “Morning Joe” and Darling’s statements about vaccines as violations of the “stay neutral” directive.

“The employee is being terminated for willful insubordination,” the letter stated.

Founded in 1944, the NRB “works to protect the free speech rights of our members by advocating those rights in governmental, corporate, and media sectors, and works to foster excellence, integrity, and accountability in our membership by providing networking, educational, ministry, and relational opportunities,” according to its website.

The organization recently emerged from a period of fiscal distress, after operating with a series of significant budget deficits from 2012, to 2018, according to financial disclosures filed with the Internal Revenue Service. In the fiscal year 2018, the NRB had nearly $300,000 more in liabilities than assets. In 2019 and 2020, the organization had more revenue than expenses.

In the past, NRB’s CEO Miller has touted the benefits of vaccines in emails promoting the NRB’s annual convention, which draws thousands of attendees and features a massive exhibition space.

In December 2020, Miller announced that the dates for the convention, originally set for March 2020 in Grapevine, Texas, had been pushed back three months due to the ongoing pandemic. The change in dates, he said, was prompted in part by vaccines, which would help make it possible for the convention to be a “valuable and safe experience for all who attend.

“With the additional time, increased effectiveness of treatments, and widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines, June will be much closer to a full return to normal,” he wrote.

Then in May, he announced that vaccines would allow the conference to be held with fewer restrictions, again mentioning the benefit of vaccines.

“Today, I’m excited to share that the Gaylord Texan has updated their mask policy in line with CDC guidelines — vaccinated guests no longer need to wear masks during NRB 2021!” he wrote.

News of Darling’s firing was met with anger and disappointment on social media.

“Words fail,” tweeted author and attorney David French of the Dispatch. “Dan was abruptly fired by a large Evangelical ministry for going on television and sharing why he got vaccinated in the midst of a deadly pandemic.”

“This is insanity,” tweeted ethicist and theologian Russell Moore, Darling’s former boss at the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Convention (ERLC).

Darling, an ordained minister and author of a number of books, including “A Way with Words” and “The Dignity Revolution,” joined the NRB in April of 2020, following six years at the ERLC.

Darling still believes in the mission of the NRB and his statements about vaccines, his authorized source told RNS.

In his August USA Today editorial, Darling said vaccines save lives and encouraged his fellow Christians to consider being vaccinated before more lives are lost.

“There are not many things in the world today that are worthy of our trust, but I sincerely believe the COVID-19 vaccine is one of them,” he wrote. “As a Christian and an American, I was proud to get it.”

A previous version of the story reported that a source said Darling was asked to recant his statements. After publication, the source told RNS that Darling refused to sign a document saying his pro-vaccine statements were insubordinate. The story has been updated with a statement from Darling.

Former guy Trump is ho-hum low energy #QPAC at the CPAC2021

#QPAC: With His CPAC2021, speech, did former guy Donald Trump send a signal we might finally be done with him?

Former guy at #QPAC the CPAC2021 Munich style domestic terrorist rally in Orlando, FL

Echo report by Stuart Emmrich published in VOGUE:

There was something very strange about the former guy Donald Trump’s speech at CPAC (aka #QPAC) on Sunday (Feb. 28), his first public outing since departing the White House on the morning of January 20, just hours before President Joe Biden was inaugurated: 

It was boring.

The former president is never comfortable speaking from a teleprompter, often reacting like this is the first time he has seen the words he is speaking. But, Sunday’s performance at the Conservative Political Action Conference seemed even more stilted than usual—Trump’s red-meat lines delivered without the usual ferocity, his lies feeling both familiar and tired, his tried-and-true applause lines only occasionally rousing the crowd to its feet. He seemed to want nothing more than to be back on the golf course, where he had reportedly been earlier that day, making him more than a hour late for his scheduled keynote speech at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando.

Yes, Trump did tease the audience with a predictable reference to running again in 2024—“Who knows? I may even decide to beat them for the third time,” he said, repeating his false claim that he won in 2020,—but then he returned again to the dutiful, wooden delivery of his prepared remarks.

On Twitter, the Washington Post columnist Karen Tumulty was among the many who were struck by a difference in the president’s demeanor. “Does anyone else think Trump sounds like his heart really isn’t in this? The energy is ... low,” she tweeted, and then added a postscript: "Does anyone else think Trump sounds like his heart really isn't in this? The energy is ... low."

Others noticed a change as well from the Trump who, less than three months ago, was barnstorming the country falsely charging that the election was stolen, emboldened by the enthusiastic crowds that showed up.

Even when the crowd began to chant, “We love you,” it had less the feeling of a general being buoyed by his troops as they prepared to head back into battle than an elderly, retiring commander being serenaded farewell by his loyal soldiers. Trump’s reaction was almost wistful, as he welcomed the chant and recalled the “56 unbelievable packed rallies” of his last (looser!) campaign, despite the fact that he was defeated in November, 2020, and left office last month, in compliance with the U.S. Constitution, on January 20, 2021. 

And despite the standing-room-only crowd for Trump’s speech (with very few of them wearing masks, of course), there were definite signs this weekend that the Republican party might be ready to move on. Most notably there were the curious outcomes of several polls held of CPAC (#QPAC) attendees.

In one poll, 95% of the respondents said they wanted the Republican Party to advance Trump’s policies and agenda in the next election. But, when asked if Trump himself should run again in 2024, only 68% said yes. Even more striking, in a straw poll of potential 2024, candidates, Trump came in first, but with barely a majority of the vote, not a great sign for or someone who continues to insist he actually won a second term: If trump can only get 55 percent of Cpac (#QPAC), he’s in trouble. (So, is the former guy trying to create and lead a permanent minority party?)

So what’s next for Trump?

Ironically, on the day after Trump was speaking at CPAC (#QPAC), another former world leader, one whose own political comeback—fueled by xenophobia and hardline anti-immigration policies—was rebuffed by the voters four years ago, seemed headed to jail.

On Monday, the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty by a court in Paris on charges of corruption and influence peddling. It was only the second time in modern French history that a former president had been convicted of a crime.

Sarkozy, France’s president from 2007, to 2012, received a three-year prison sentence, with two of the years suspended, pending a planned appeal by the former president’s lawyers.

According to the French judge overseeing the case, Sarkozy had played an “active role” in forging a corruption pact with his lawyer and a senior magistrate to obtain information on an investigation into political donations, and there was “serious and concurring evidence” of collaboration by Sarkozy and the two other defendants to break the law.

Could Trump suffer a similar fate?

Ever since leaving the White House, the threat of legal jeopardy has hovered over the former president, as New York prosecutors have been looking into Trump’s tax returns and the accusations that he defrauded the government, as well as participated in money laundering and the payment of hush money to two women who alleged they had an affair with Trump before he was elected president.

That investigation was given an important boost a week ago, when a United States Supreme Court order cleared the way for Manhattan district attorney’s criminal investigation unit to obtain eight years worth of Trump’s tax returns and other financial records. In addition, Georgia prosecutors are looking into Trump’s efforts to tamper with the election returns in that state, and whether criminal charges can be brought.

When Trump left the White House, he lost the legal immunity that comes with the presidency.

No matter what happens with those two investigations, an increasing number of Republicans, particularly those who condemned Trump’s role in the January 6, (domestic white supremacist's terrorist) attack on the U.S. Capitol, seem to be signaling that it’s time for the party to move on.

On Sunday, appearing on CNN, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, one of seven Republican senators who voted for the impeachment of Donald Trump, not only predicted that Trump would not be the party’s nominee in 2024, but also said that the #GQP party itself would go down in defeat if it did not reject the deification of the former president.

“If we idolize one person, we will lose. And that’s kind of clear from the last election,” Cassidy told State of the Union host Dana Bash. “If we plan to win in 2022, and 2024, we have to listen to the voters. Not just those who really like the former guy, but perhaps those who are less sure,” he said. “If we speak to the voters who are less sure that went from Trump to President Joe Biden, we win. If we don’t, we lose. That is a reality that we have to confront.”

And on Monday morning, Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger, one of 10 House Republicans who voted for impeachment (and the one who had the day before had called Trump’s CPAC (#QPAC) speech “boring,” and “low energy”), was back on TV saying it was time for the party to move on and start looking for a new generation of leaders.

“I think, you know, what you could see at that speech yesterday was recycling old talking points,” the 43-year-old congressman said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “I think it’s obvious there is no vision from (former guy) Donald Trump; there’s no desire to paint a vision. All he really desires is to stand in front of a crowd, and be adored and he got that in ample amounts at #QPAC, on Sunday.”

Added Kinzinger: “This president has done nothing but reflect people’s darkness back to them, reflect their fears back to them. It was sad, but I’m still hopeful that, you know, 45% of people at this Trump rally didn’t want Donald Trump again and I think there’s a growing number of people out there that see he’s a has-been.”

Republicans and the fraudulent election

What bothers me most is wondering why the media didn't demand to see the email search warrant? USAToday reports.

Legal experts who have examined the FBI search warrant determined not enough evidence to warrant the Clinton laptop investigation.

Republicans must examine their wrong minded support for the Republican Donald Trump, in light of evidence about how the Russian government interfered with the pre-election information by hacking the Democratic National Committee (DNC) email and releasing damaging confidential data of no importance to the campaign. Moreover, there is more reason to declare the 2016 election as fraudulent, evident in that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Director James Comey had no reason to issue a search warrant for Hillary Clinton's personal laptop. Most important, now that we have been informed about how President Obama in fact used the highly sensitive "red phone" to warn the Russians not to interfere in the American elections, the fact is that Americans were not told about this high level communication. We should have been told. Ironically, President Obama goes into history as being the first US president to use the so called "red phone". It's a legacy he can now own; but Americans weren't told, at the time. Finally, it turns out, Hillary Clinton won the election's popular vote by a significant margin. In fact, the Electoral College numbers don't correlate positively with the math in the final vote tallies.

There's absolutely a lot of screwiness about the 2016 election.  

WASHINGTON — The FBI warrant that shook Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign in its final two weeks has been unsealed, and the lawyer who requested it says it offers "nothing at all" to merit the agency's actions leading up to the Nov. 8, election.

The warrant was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Los Angeles lawyer Randy Schoenberg, who wants to determine what probable cause the agency provided to suspect material on disgraced congressman Anthony Weiner’s computer might be incriminating to Clinton. Weiner is the estranged husband of Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin. Under the Fourth Amendment, search and seizure can only be granted when proof of probable cause of criminal findings has been documented.

The letter confirms news reports in late October that the FBI had detected “non-content header information” suggesting correspondence with accounts involved in its already-completed investigation of Clinton's private email server. The FBI request concludes there is “probable cause to believe” that the laptop contained “evidence, contraband, fruits and/or items illegally possessed."

Yet the documents show the FBI request was based on the presence of classified information on previous emails chains between Clinton and Abedin and no new evidence on the laptop at issue.

"I see nothing at all in the search warrant application that would give rise to probable cause, nothing that would make anyone suspect that there was anything on the laptop beyond what the FBI had already searched and determined not to be evidence of a crime, nothing to suggest that there would be anything other than routine correspondence between" Clinton and Abedin, Schoenberg said in an email to USA TODAY. It remains unknown "why they thought they might find evidence of a crime, why they felt it necessary to inform Congress, and why they even sought this search warrant," he said. "I am appalled." The FBI's Manhattan office did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Clinton campaign officials echoed Schoenberg's complaints Tuesday. Campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said on Twitter that the "unsealed filings regarding Huma's emails reveals Comey's intrusion on the election was as utterly unjustified as we suspected at time."

Just two days before the November 8 election, Director James Comey "covered his ass" by releasing a statement to end the investigation into the Clinton email "Where's Waldo" search.

WASHINGTON — In a stunning last-minute announcement, FBI director James Comey said Sunday the agency is still not recommending charges against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton after reviewing newly discovered emails.

In a letter to lawmakers, Comey said the FBI is standing by its original findings, made in July, that Clinton should not be prosecuted for her handling of classified information over email as secretary of State.

"The FBI investigative team has been working around the clock to process and review a large volume of emails from a device obtained in connection with an unrelated criminal investigation," Comey said in the letter. "During that process we reviewed all of the communications that were to or from Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of State," Comey wrote. "Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton."

In other words, the Republican campaign to defeat Secretary Hillary Clinton in 2016, was based on lies, fake news, illegal interference in the Democratic National Committee communications and a bogus "witch hunt" led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation into a "non-issue" with Hillary Clinton's email server.  Nevertheless, Republicans wrongly continue to claim an election victory they never legitimately earned. This is a horrible time for America and proves, in my mind, that Republicans have no interest in protecting and defending our US Constitution.  Unfortunately, many in the news media, particularly the ratings hungry "Morning Joe", "Mitchell Reports" (aka "Andrea Mitchell") and "FoxNews", are more interested in creating news than in reporting about the facts. Otherwise, they would have demanded to see the FBI search warrant before the election.

Marco Rubio always comes up short on leadership

The Atlantic reports: Let's say you're 42 years old—a spring chicken, and yet already a high-profile member of Congress. You've got a seat in the Senate that seems fairly secure. Meanwhile, the Republican presidential field is jam-packed, one of the strongest groups in recent memory, and running for president would mean surrendering your Senate seat. Your whole career is ahead of you. Why run for president?

Well, as a matter of fact, Senator Marco Rubio has the grand idea that he can do just that. Yet, Rubio lost another leadership moment following the February 25th GOP primary debate. An inability to seize the spotlight and keep it is the only consistency in the Rubio communication campaign.

Senator Marco Rubio is an attractive politician with a Hispanic heritage rooted in Cuba. As a result, he fits in Florida's political system, where he rose through the Republian political ranks. Nevertheless, Rubio consistently comes up short when he's been given the nationnal spotlight and opportunity to seize leadership. Now, Rubio wants to be president of the United States, but he comes up short at moments when he's given undivided attention to close the political deal.  

For example, when Republicans gave Rubio a debutante party following President Obama's February 12, 2013, State of the Union speech, the result was his visual dependence on a ridiculous water battle. Now, Rubio is describing his political adversary Donald Trump as being insecure during breaks in Republican debate arguments. Honestly, I think Rubio's "blinky bottle" incident was a sign of insecurity, more visual than anything I've seen in Donald Trump's response to intense criticism

In another incident, today on the MSNBC "Morning Joe", Senator Rubio was given a leadership chance. He should've been highlighting the success he had attacking Donald Trump in the GOP political debate, prior to Tuesday's primary elections. Unfortunately, instead of showing leadership in this interview, Rubio went on a rant about how the media picked on his juvenile offense, when he was apparantly arrested for underage drinking a beer in a Florida park. Oh paaaaleeeze! What Rubio should've said was something statesman like, "I want the American people to know how Donald Trump is a con artist, as a matter of fact, he's telling us he's a Republican, but we don't know what he represents. Certainly, Donald Trump isn't a conservative, like me." Instead, Senator Rubio talked about being arrested as a juvenile and he asked why the media isn't picking on Trump the way he was vetted?  

Time after time, Rubio comes up short when he should sieze the leaderhsip spotlight. He doesn't even routinely show up to vote in the US Senate, where he was elected to serve his Florida constituents.

In fact, the Florida newspaper "Sun Sentinel" reports that after five years in the U.S. Senate, Marco Rubio does not like his job. A long-time friend told The Washington Post "he hates it." Rubio says hate might be too strong a word, but he sure acts like he hates his job.

Rubio has missed more votes than any other senator this year. His seat is regularly empty for floor votes, committee meetings and intelligence briefings. He says he's MIA from his J-O-B because he finds it frustrating and wants to be president, instead. (Well, if really Rubio wants to be president, the first rule is to show leadership.) "Your job is to represent Floridians in the Senate.

Senator  Marco Rubio misses the political leadership he needs to be president.  He knows how to criticize but he has no politcal positions I can articulate.

Either do your job, Sen. Rubio, or resign it," write the Sun Sentinel editorial board.

As matter of fact, Senator Rubio should resign from the Republican presidential campain because, frankly, he simply doesn't have the leadership skills American needs. As Governor Christie said, "We're not electing a student council president." 

Republicans are branded by Trumponianism

McCarthyism, a label coined in 1950, was created in reference to demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents. Soon, Americans will have yet another Republican inspired "ism", labeled Trumponianism.

Senator Joe McCarthy, Republican- 1908-1957

McCarthyism was a label rooted in extremism, led by former Senator Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957), who was an American Republican politician. 

McCarthy served as a Republican U.S. Senator from Wisconsin from 1947, until his death in 1957. 

Beginning in 1950, McCarthy was the most visible public face of a period in which Cold War tensions between the Western nations and Russia, fueled fears of widespread Communist subversion. 

McCarthy was noted for making claims about large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the United States federal government and elsewhere. Ultimately, his tactics and inability to substantiate his claims led him to be censured by the United States Senate.

The term McCarthyism, coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today the term is used more generally in reference to demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.,

So, now Americans are confronted with Trumponiasm, a reinvention of right wing McCarthyism.  

Of course, right wing extremism never disappears. Even when Senator McCarthy died, his dangerous movement changed into unwarrented suspicions associated with racism and the anti-immigration movement.  

Not surprisingly, Trumponian paranoia is casting a dark political shadow on the entire Republican party. Instead of the "Grand Old Party", Trumponiainisms are creating a Grotesque Old Party. This branding will serve no purpose except to act like a "wrecking ball" for the entier Republican party, said Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican presidential candidate, when he was telephone- interviewed on the MSNBC- TV, "Morning Joe". 

If Americans embraced Muslim groups, the people currently being unjustly marginalized by Trumponianisms, it's entirely possible the effect would be to assimilate the religious groups in the culture, so they would, possibly, be indistiguishable from other citizens.  

Unfortunately, the Republican establishment allowed the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump to go on for too long.  Most candidates expected the self funded Trump to crash and burn by now. In fact, Jeb Bush made a terrible mistake when he didn't attack Donald Trump for taking such a caustic stand against Mexican immigrants, because his wife is Mexican-American and he met her in Mexico. Bush didn't stand up to Trump, when he made those disparaging ethnic remarks about Mexicans. In my opinion, if "Jeb!" had challenged Trump, the Bush campaign would be competitive, instead of on "life support".  

In some respects, the rise of Trumponianism is the Republican party "reaping what it has sown".  

Now, the Republican establishment has waited too long to put the evil genie back into the political cauldron.  

Therefore, it's time to create another conservative political party, before American voters find an alernative.