It was quite a shock to my political sensibilities when I learned that Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough (MSNBC's Morning Joe) revealed that they had been to visit Trump at Mar-A-Lago. What? Wait a minute - you mean the two morning show hosts who spent the past few years sounding alarm bells about the tyrannical tendencies in Trump now visit to make nice? What? Has Trump changed? No? Still spewing attacks on everyone who questions him? Still threatening Main Stream Media who "don't cover him fairly" ? (https://www.npr.org/2024/10/22/nx-s1-5161480/trump-media-threats-abc-cbs-60-minutes-journalists) Still calling anyone who disagrees with him "Fake News!" ? Still a twice impeached POTUS? Still fomenting violence? Still a silly name-calling bully? Still a convicted felon? Still grifting? If nothing about Trump has changed, why would two cable news hosts, who for years opposed and exposed the maliciousness of Trump, suddenly rush off to make nice with guy who personally attacked both of them?
One thought is that the media and cable tv hosts are actually afraid that Trump will follow through on is not-so-subtle threats to punish them - perhaps by rounding them up in the night, and putting them behind bars. (https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/18/media/morning-joe-msnbc-trump-mar-a-lago/index.htmlTrump ). Trump has threatened to do a lot of things, in retribution, to a lot of people he feels have wronged him. And if his cabinet appointments that we know of, so far, are any indication, there is a real possibility that it won't be just millions of illegal aliens who will be rounded up: it could be the owners, hosts, anchors and reporters of major news outlets, too. And that may be the scary reason Mika and Joe may be but the first to bend their knees to the likes of Trump.
Retribution and vengeance seem to be the operating principles behind the Trump 2.0 Administration. How else can we explain the bizarre and scary nominees thus far? An alleged sex trafficker and rapist for the AG? A Russian apologist for DNI? RFK Jr as head of Health and Human Services? What gives? It couldn't be clearer that Trump wants to wreak havoc on the US institutions of government, downsizing them into irrelevance, controlling them with appointments of his own loyalists, making all the branches and departments of government serve him, and answer to him alone. Forget the Pledge of Allegiance to the Constitution. Whether all of this happens to the extent those on the left fear is for time to reveal. The thought is terrifying, nonetheless! Perhaps a little effective resistance is in order to check and backstop the terrifying abnormalities of the new Trump 2.0 term. Maybe the US Senate will actually NOT recess and instead will vet the Trump nominees? Maybe the Congressional Ethics Committee's report on Matt Gaetz will be released to the public? Maybe the Senate will move to pass legislation that ALL nominees must be FBI vetted before becoming nominees? There are lots of ways to increase the guard-rails on this second Trump administration, but the real question is why no other president required these unusual processes? As Trump's victory margin slips below 50%, it is time to place limits on his presidential authority. The people spoke and it was NOT a clear mandate. At best, it was a squeaker. But that doesn't matter to Trump. He will declare the "biggest" electoral victory ever, and he will attack and disprage any voice of dissent.
So, in that context, where Trump is the mob boss and has complete control through threats and intimidation, it is reasonable to wonder what those in Trump's cross-hairs need to do, proactively, to protect themselves from Trump's worst inclinations. Perhaps Mika and Joe saw the writing on the wall, just like Nebuchadnezzar? I hope this is not a trend with real fears based on Trump's utterances and Truth Social posts. Perhaps Mika and Joe making the pilgrimage to Mar-A-Lago was encouraged by their MSNBC corporate ownership, Comcast, who fear retribution? Perhaps we'll never know the level of fear in the media about Trump's plan for retribution. What we do know is that normalizing Trump's narcissism, and worst possible inclinations toward violence and vengeance, may not end well. And the very least we can do, at this point, is to STOP NORMALIZING his behaviour. It is anything but normal for a president to be a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist, a Russian asset, and a selfish grifter. Yet here we are.
note: the "huge victory" that Trump and the GOP claimed on election night, and the claim that the voice of the majority of Americans has spoken for Trump, has now become less than 50%, and a difference from Harris of a less than 2% in the popular vote, one of the slimmest margins in Us electoral history. (Trump’s popular-vote advantage has declined steadily since election night. As of Monday afternoon, Trump was at 49.94 percent, while Harris was at 48.26, according to the authoritative Cook Political Report’s tracking of results from official sources in states across the country.)
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