TV Host CAUGHT in Web of Deception!
Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies. Tell me lies, tell me, tell me lies. Oh no-no, you can't disguise. You can't disguise. No, you can't disguise
Joe Scarborough wants you to believe he’s always understood that there are certain things individuals, non-profits and (God help us!) corporations can’t do. Items that have no profit incentive, and simply require government investment.
The Morning Joe host recently claimed that the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles were a result of—get this—not enough government funding of the infrastructure to prevent it. This would be like Harvey Weinstein giving us lectures on the essential nature of chastity.
While what Scarborough’s saying *now* is correct—coming from Joe-Joe, I trust it like I would a gas-station-sushi endorsement. You see, this guy spent his actual political career—Scarborough was once a Congressman who interrupted anyone and everyone trying to get in a word as opposed to a tv host who interrupted anyone and everyone trying to get in a word—doing everything in his power to gut government programs, including the very ones that could help prevent and respond to disasters like this.
Scarborough wasn’t always the cardigan-wearing, faux-earnest MSNBC talking head he is today. Way back in the 90s, when we were listening to Pearl Jam and going through the terror of peace & prosperity—Scarborough was angry at our government. He was a proud Newt Gingrich (yeah, that fascism-embracing, red-faced, potato head) disciple, riding shotgun on his warpath against ALL government spending.
Scarborough fought tooth and nail to slash federal budgets, gut environmental regulations and weaken disaster preparedness programs. The same Joe Scarborough now handwringing about government underinvestment? Yeah, that’s the same guy who cheered on austerity like he was a NFL ref watching Mahomes.
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When Scarborough was elected, he became the leader of a group called “The New Federalists,” which, as you can guess, like later iterations such as The Tea Party, Republican Study Group and Freedom Caucus, thought more with a part of their body they need a mirror to see than their actual (theoretical) cerebrums. Next to his BFF Gingrich, he supported the first figure in American history—yep, that’d be Newt—to tie disaster relief to spending cuts. No spending cuts, oh well, vaya con dios, American people.
But wait, there’s more! "The New Federalists’ wished to “privatize, localize, consolidate, or eliminate” the Departments of Commerce, Education, Energy and Housing and Urban Development. How very Little-House-On-The-Prairie America! So, ya see, Joe clearly had nothing in common back then with our current perpetually jilted Jabberwocky, Donald Trump, who just tried to freeze every program including cancer research grants, and wants to eliminate the Department of Education. When/if he he successfully does this, presumably it’ll come in a speech that is some combination of crayon scribblings and mono-syllabic words.
Want specifics? As a House Republican, Scarborough championed cuts to FEMA, public infrastructure and climate initiatives that could’ve mitigated the very destruction we’re seeing today. He was part of a GOP revolution that treated any government spending like an existential threat—unless, of course, it was going to defense contractors or tax cuts for billionaires. The idea that this guy, of all people, is suddenly mourning a lack of government investment is like RFK Jr. doing ads for pasteurized milk or cooked meat.
And let’s not pretend Scarborough’s actually learned anything. His whole shtick now is pretending he was always a principled moderate, as if we don’t have receipts on his time in Congress and his early days as a “pundit.” He didn’t leave the GOP because he had a moral awakening—he left because he got into a public spat with Trump who made the brand toxic among Joe’s cheese & crackers crowd in New York.
Remember, Joe was one of Trump’s biggest promotors early on when he announced he was running for President in 2015, descending that golden escalator like a Hell’s Angel. Scarborough saw an opening to rebrand himself as a “reasonable” voice. But his fingerprints are all over the decades of Far-Right Republican—a precursor to MAGA—sabotage that left the government weaker, more dysfunctional and less equipped to handle the very crises he’s now whining about.
So no, Joe. You don’t get to lecture us about the failures of government investment when you spent years gleefully dismantling it. You don’t get to position yourself as a champion for the public good when you were on the front lines of a crusade in favor of tossing it for the private good (see: large donors). Maybe if you had spent less time cutting budgets and more time thinking about the consequences, we wouldn’t be here in the first place.
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Over The Edge:
Trump rescinded a memo to “pause all federal grants,” likely not b/c he realized it was ridiculously broad/stupid. The kinda stupid that finds a way to lose money in the casino biz, where people hand you money for chips to sit in oxygen-pumped rooms w/out windows or clocks to get plied with free booze & hand the chips back.
Trump repeated a claim as ridiculous as “they’re eating the pets!” today. He said former President Biden spent $50 million sending condoms to Gaza, which “they turned into bombs.” No condoms were sent to Gaza & no, they haven’t discovered, at least as of yet, how to create a condom-to-bomb production pipeline.
Philadelphia Eagles vs Kansas City Chiefs—who do you like? I’m gonna be honest, I get tired of seeing the same team win unless it’s mine. And I lived in Philly for college and loved it. Go Eagles!
I refuse to watch Morning Joe or any cable shows since the 2024 election. Only watch/listen to podcasts and read Substack!
Only Lawrence O'Donnell for me.