Write A Caption: Morning Joe

Via Daily Kos: the team of Morning Joe are sad because they are forced out of denial on Chris Christie's role in the BridgeGate scandal. Daily Kos blogger Billionaires for Wealthcare notes how painful it is for Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough to come out of their conventional wisdom bubble and face reality.

Reading the headline that Christie never read the statement attacking Wildstein's high school record, Brzezinski asked incredulously, and with dejection in her voice, "how is the possible".

Scarborough jumped in, "there's no way he didn't see it". He went further, saying he didn't believe Christie's claims that he didn't know about the traffic nightmare when it was occurring. He twisted himself into a pretzel saying Christie wasn't behind the traffic jam, but Christie had to know the world's busiest bridge had turned into a parking lot.

Scarborough is still trying to defend Christie but his heart just doesn't seem to be in it. The good news is Christie still has the gang at Fox and Friends backing him.

Joe Scarborough Dismisses Early Voting Suppression

Joe Scarborough is one of the most insufferable people on the planet. Which is why Scarborough is has a morning show. That same morning show gets its ass kicked in the ratings by the dreadful Fox & Friends, but that is another story. Scarborough comes off so condescendingly to his co-host Mika Brzezinski. Scarborough attempted to stop Brzezinski from talking about early voting problems in Miami-Dade county. Scarborough then rants on about how attempts to suppress votes are nothing but conspiracy theories. Fellow Republican Christine Todd Whitman knows much more about voting than the uninformed Scarborough. Whitman has harsh words for the way early voting has been handled in Florida.

"I don't know what went on in Florida, but I do have to say that in this day and age, it's inexcusable that in this country, we have anything like this going on." she said. "I've led delegations around the world to watch voting and this is the kind of thing you expect in a third-world country, not in the United States of America."

Whitman is a trained election monitor. I wonder if Scarborough thinks she is a conspiracy theorist. More likely, Scarborough would just put fingers in his ears and keep screaming "Benghazi." I have questions about Benghazi myself. However, I rarely get paid to be a journalist. Scarborough does. I don't expect Scarborough has the intellectual tools to do investigative journalism. It will never occur to Scarborough to travel to Egypt or spend hours trying to get documents leaked to him. Scarborough will just shout "Benghazi" like a little boy throwing a temper tantrum.

Side note: why does Mika Brzezinski put up with Scarborough?

Update: People outside the Miami-Dade county polling station chanting, "Let us vote." Perhaps their minds would have changed if Scarborough lectured them on how their votes weren't being suppressed. Never mind that the polling station temporarily shut its doors.

How FDR Saved the Economy

Mika Brzezinski claimed, "The new deal did not work." I was not shocked that Jim Johnson agreed.

She's right. The New Deal did not end the Great Depression, but World War II did.

Some may claim the War caused massive government spending, it did, but it also sent millions of men into the armed forces to fight the war.

That's not to say New Deal programs (SEC, FDIC, etc) weren't needed. But no one should be under the impression that the New Deal did anything to bring an end to the worst economic crisis in history.

The country was living on rations. Until 2009, America borrowed at it's most during WWII. FDR signed the GI bill into law. That helped veterans get homes and college educations.

Short answer: the economy sucked during WWII. Imagine what the deficit would have been if FDR approved Bush-level tax cuts. Lincoln signed the Revenue Act of 1861 to pay for the civil war. Tax cuts during war are a bad idea.

Obama's middle and lower class tax cuts are intended to make people start spending. The problem is consumer confidence.



Obama has his work cut out for him. The progressive version of trickle down economics is not enough. Americans need to feel confident about where the country is heading. The President needs to make Americans feel the country is on the right path. Only then will consumors spend and lending institutions will give out loans.

Off topic: Congratulations to Jim. He will be blogging at Creative Loafing.

Quote of the Day

"The new deal did not work."

Mika Brzezinski

Think Progress has highlights of Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough make out hysterical economic remarks.

"Would we not be better off being a country that's scrapped with 10 percent, 11 percent unemployment," Joe Scarborough said. The former Congressman actually used "better off" and "11 percent unemployment" in the same sentence. Scarborough's rhetorical incompetence is making the case for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.