The Destructiveness of Rumor

It doesn't matter if Lori Klausutis's widower desperately wants Twitter to take down the despicable lies that have been swirling around her death since 2001,  when she died hitting her head in a fall thanks to an undiagnosed heart issue. It doesn't matter what former congressman and now talking head Joe Scarborough wants. It is only about what the malignant narcissist Donald Trump wants. In Trump's twisted imagination, Scarborough has displayed total disloyalty to him, and therefore it is payback time.

Those rumors about Lori and Scarborough came about because some idiots on the political left of the spectrum thought the right and the media were covering the "mystery" up all the while the media were making big political hay out of the tragic disappearance and ultimate murder of intern Chandra Levy.  Because of Levy's reported affair with Congressman Gary Condit, supposedly he was somehow involved in her disappearance and murder.  It was all debunked, all bullshit, but Condit paid the ultimate political price for it and went into obscurity.  Scarborough had to endure the same innuendo, the same lies, but in his case,  he voluntarily decided to retire from Congress.  He also didn't have any kind of inappropriate relationship with Lori Klausutis.  Her husband and the rest of her family took her untimely death very hard, and it got worse because of the lies.  Those lies even made it to Wikipedia, which elicited a response from Scarborough himself requesting either the removal or drastic changes to the entry.

Trump, however, doesn't give a shit.  Neither apparently does Twitter.  People have been kicked off the platform for stating such horrible things as men can't become women and vice versa, but somebody like Donald Trump is allowed to continue to post delusional screeds and outright lies.  That is because he is hugely popular on the site, probably bringing in tons of money in revenue and making Twitter bigshot Jack Dorsey even richer.

More:

The social media giant has a series of rules regulating content on the platform, including policies barring the promotion of violence and "targeted harassment".

The outlined "enforcement options" include requiring the removal of tweets and the permanent suspension of offending accounts.

Last week, Mr Scarborough's wife and co-anchor Mika Brzezinksi furiously rebuked Mr Trump for his tweets on the matter, calling the president "sick". She also asked Twitter to remove the incendiary tweets.

In a first on Tuesday, Twitter added a "get the facts" tab to another of Mr Trump's tweets about absentee ballots that are sent to voters through the mail.

Trump says he has seen Timothy Klausutis's letter, but he still doesn't give a shit. It's anything to drum up his dwindling supporters' ire:

President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that while he had seen the letter Lori Klausutis' widower wrote to Twitter calling for the removal of Trump's baseless conspiracy theories about her accidental death, he was going to keep talking about it anyway.

"I'm sure that, ultimately, they want to get to the bottom of it and it's a very serious situation," he argued while taking questions at an unrelated Rose Garden event.

Who cares about Lori's family, right? Not when there is some mileage to come out of it politically.

No longer can people sit back and not saying anything when Trumps Sr. and Jr. have so many Twitter followers who devour every lie imaginable.

Conspiracy theories have long been evidence of Trump’s twisted psychology. He has always traveled quite easily from the real world to the twilight zone, depending on which reality suits his needs at the moment. And when someone holds him accountable—when someone calls him out for his incompetence and ethical wrongdoing—conspiracy theories often become his weapon of choice. At such moments, conspiracy theories are fine, but conspiracy theories with the added element of cruelty are even better. Which brings us back to the heartbreaking letter from Timothy Klausutis.


Donald Trump doesn’t merely want to criticize his opponents; he takes a depraved delight in inflicting pain on others, even if there’s collateral damage in the process, as is the case with the Klausutis family. There’s something quite sick about it all.

Straight from the malignant narcissist's mouth:




Edited to add:  Craig Pittman of the Washington Post a few days ago had a long and very good article about the Klausutis smear.

Now, nearly 20 years later, Klausutis’s death has captured the attention of the country’s most prominent purveyor of conspiracy theories — the president of the United States — who has without evidence speculated that she might have been murdered and that the case should be reopened.

The reason for President Trump’s fixation: At the time of her death, Klausutis was working for a Republican congressman from Pensacola named Joe Scarborough — the same Scarborough who today, as host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” is a fierce critic of Trump and has in recent weeks decried the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as a failure.

Miscellaneous Commentary

Did you ever wonder why MSNBC squawking head Joe Scarborough has been strangely silent about the Tiller murder?

Wonder no more:

Every other major MSNBC show has devoted major segments to the killing of abortion doctor George Tiller. Keith Olbermann devoted most of an hour to it on Monday, and then returned to it for extended, moving coverage on Tuesday. Rachel Maddow, who led with the photo of the first abortion-doctor killer Michael Griffin on Monday, came back to the case last night.

But Joe Scarborough, who has three times as much of an opportunity each day than either of them (6 to 9 a.m.), has yet to discuss it (other than as a news headline routinely reported during the show). And, as we pointed out yesterday, Scarborough was Michael Griffin's lawyer. Scarborough began representing Griffin shortly after he was arrested for shooting Dr. David Gunn three times in the back on his way to his abortion clinic. The family later replaced the then 29-year-old attorney with no trial experience, but Scarborough made appearances on Griffin's behalf for three months and told the court he was ready to try the case. Scarborough did the work pro bono, as "a favor to a friend," he told the Voice.

It's a bitch when you get caught.

Paul Krugman Interview

On Joe Scarborough's program this morning, economist Paul Krugman talked about the stimulus proposals the GOP desperately wants to gut:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Morning Joe and the Loudmouth

Naturally Chris Matthews tries to put his best spin on Obama's boring speech in Berlin yesterday:




Frankly Disney is more of a comparison; however, I don't like the "Obambi" nickname, for it is an insult to the memory of the great children's author Felix Salten (real name: Siegmund Salzmann).

Speaking of Bambi, I didn't know Whittaker Chambers actually did the translation of the 1923 novel from German to English.

And no, I will not make a comparison of Chambers and Salten to Ayers and Obama.

Matthews is a puke, but he has a point or two in this interview. I don't agree the election is close, but he is right about the Clinton crowd being pissed off and the Democratic Party being divided. I suppose you can say he is right McCain is playing the tortoise while Obama is playing the hare.

Elizabeth Edwards

got a chance to sound off on health care reform:




She notes Clinton's plan provides universal coverage while Obama's does not. His requires children be covered. Either one's plan is better than John McCain's.

Campaign Notes.

The Mouth really needs to step down as DNC chair and shut up.
_____

Speaking of which, he was on Joe Scarborough's show:



The Republicans may screw up the country, but Democrats can't get their shit together.

And MANY will leave the party this cycle if Obama gets it. It won't do a bit of good if Obama gets the nomination and picks Bloomberg for his running mate. And picking somebody like that tells the entire story; nobody else reputable will touch him.

You KNOW

Obama is in trouble when the media steps up the demand Hillary step down:




Ed Schultz joins in the pile on against Hillary Clinton. What a dope. At least Scarborough is trying to present the other side. Schultz can't even argue in favor of Obama staying in the race. If Clinton can't do win enough delegates, Obama can't, either.

It is SO transparent the media want Obama. He is toast. Rev. Wright pretty much ended Obama's quest. But both candidates are damaged for the fall campaign.

As Blogger

Taylor Marsh notes so well, Joe Scarborough made a lot of sense when he let Newsweek's Richard Wolffe, who, like the same magazine's Jonathan Alter and Howard Fineman, is an anti-Clinton hack, have it regarding the delegate count:





I do hand it Scarborough. He may be a Republican, a former representative, but he often makes more sense than many people in the Democratic Party talking about this campaign. His remarks are around 5:30 into the video.

The WHOLE POINT OF THE SUPERDELEGATE SYSTEM is to prevent a McGovern-like disaster for the Democratic Party. That doesn't mean Hillary Clinton would have this election in the bag, and most likely she has been badly damaged by the filth of the Obama campaign, but it does provide vetting of a candidate should there be something going on later on after the bulk of the voting that would hurt this candidate in the fall.

Obama's tainted beyond repair. But Clinton may not be the alternative, either. The superdelegates have a big decision on their hands.

Old Wright

has certainly been making the rounds of the squawk talk shows:





The question might be asked is why Fox and company decided to bring this story out now and not until the general election, if Obama won the nomination.

Well, my theory is they and the GOP figure the Democrats are hopelessly divided and damaged and will lose to McCain, and so it doesn't really matter at this point what comes out. This story merely divides them even further.

The GOP might actually think there could be a brokered convention, and they don't want the possibility of another person being the standardbearer. That would be their biggest nightmare. A damaged Clinton or a damaged Obama is a far better outcome than an Edwards, a Gore, a Biden, or somebody else being the nominee.

Joe Scarborough

is being awfully stupid asking Hillary Clinton a stupid question:




The most interesting part of this interview is when Scarborough mentioned his Republican mother and Republican wife both are pulling for Hillary because they don't think she has gotten a fair shake.

It's true, and it's for truly mendacious reasons.

Meanwhile, Obama says any talk of a joint ticket is premature.

Talk about a death wish for the party if that were to happen.