AMERICA(S) THE BEAUTIFUL: When the president said she was garbage...

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2025

...Blue stars barely said a word: "And so it did happen like it could have been foreseen / The timeless explosion of fantasy's dream..."

The star of the program was back this morning, with a weak aside from his wife, the program's co-host. 

Where had he been for the past four days? "Glad you're feeling better," the spousal co-host weakly said.

The longer ad breaks remain in place, an apparent artefact of the new corporate structure. Not that any of this actually matters, but the longer discussions which were engineered under the MSNBC regime are apparently a thing of the past under MS NOW.

They were the smartest discussions in all of cable news. Now they'll be tightened and corporatized. 

As noted, those discussions were never going to save the failing discourse of our flailing nation(s). But at this site, the idealistic young analysts have wept and stared off into air as they've seen the imposition of these new restrictions on discourse.

By 7:05 a.m. today, the Morning Joe gang was involved in a bit of a dodge. They were talking about what the president said when he shlepped to the Poconos for an endless rally-style event this past Tuesday night.

Thanks to the invaluable Rev, a full transcript now exists of the president's endless remarks on Tuesday night. Full disclosure:

As we suggested yesterday, it seems the New York Times made a mistake when it said the president had described Rep. Omar as "garbage" once again.

There seems to be no record of President Trump referring to Rep. Omar (and "her friends") as "garbage" this past Tuesday night. He did insult her in every other possible way, engaging in the dangerous conduct of an extremely unusual person.

Rep. Omar (and "her friends") are "garbage," the president said on two occasions last week. As far as we know, those astounding insults from two (2) successive Oval Office pressers were never reported or discussed on Morning Joe.

This morning, the Morning Joe panel chose to discuss a different part of the president's Tuesday evening tirade. This is the part of his breakdown the panel briefly discussed:

PRESIDENT TRUMP (12/9/25): I've also announced a permanent pause on third world migration, including from hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia and many other countries.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Shithole.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I didn't say "shithole," you did.

Remember I said that to the senators, they came in, the Democrats, they wanted to be bipartisan. So they came in and they said, "This is totally off the record. Nothing mentioned here. We want to be honest." Because our country was going to hell.

And we had a meeting. And I said, "Why is it we only take people from shithole countries," right? Why can't we have some people from Norway, Sweden—just a few. Let us have a few.

From Denmark, do you mind sending us a few people? Send us some nice people. Do you mind? But we always take people from Somalia, places that are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.

In real time, back in 2018, the president swore that he'd said no such thing. This Tuesday, in an apparent bungle, he boasted that he actually had.

Those remarks are the obvious fruit of an American tragedy. A few weeks ago, the Ken Burns PBS film, The American Revolution, reminded us of where this tragedy started, though also perhaps of how far we have slowly managed to come:

NARRATOR: The Second Continental Congress had been meeting since May, and it was obvious from the first that 43-year-old George Washington would command its new army. He had led troops during the French and Indian War, and he was from Virginia, the wealthiest and most populated colony.

New England delegates, eager to ensure that colony's support for the war, favored naming a Virginian.

Washington was also one of America's richest men, the beneficiary of the work of scores of indentured servants and more than 100 enslaved people at his plantation on the Potomac River, Mount Vernon.

[...]

JANE KAMENSKY, HISTORIAN: I think we have to understand Washington as the figurehead without whom American liberty would not have survived. At the same time, he's an enslaver of 317 men, women, and children. He acted as an enslaver in the ways that enslavers did.

He bought and sold people. He broke up families. Do not look for gilded statues of marble men. They were not that, and neither are we and neither is anybody at all.

"Do not look for gilded statues," not even of us ourselves! Kamensky was giving good advice. We always tell the analysts this:

Just thank the gods that you weren't alive at that earlier time. Thank the gods that you weren't forced to see how you would have reacted to the moral norms, understandings and frameworks of that earlier age.

On Tuesday, the current president spoke about "shithole countries" when he went to the Poconos. On two successive days last week, he ranted about Rep. Omar, right there in the Oval Office.

On each occasion, he referred to her as "garbage." According to the sitting president, "her friends" are "garbage" too.

As the New York Times reported, he also said this:

Somalia “stinks and we don’t want them in our country...We could go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country."

So the sitting president said, right there in the Oval Office and right there on videotape.. 

Now for the rest of the story:

Viewers of the Fox News Channel haven't seen those comments discussed on its "cable news" TV shows. Comments like those are disappeared by that channel, as part of the sanitization which has helped create the America(s) in which we all currently live.

That said, viewers of the Fox News Channel have seen a certain topic discussed. In our view, the New York Times was doing its journalistic duty when it brought that topic to the front page of its print editions on Sunday, November 30:

How Fraud Swamped Minnesota’s Social Services System on Tim Walz’s Watch
Prosecutors say members of the Somali diaspora, a group with growing political power, were largely responsible. President Trump has drawn national attention to the scandal amid his crackdown on immigration.

Rightly or wrongly, Governor Walz appeared in the headlines of that front-page Sunday report. Within the precincts of Red America, viewers keep hearing about that massive fraud.

Viewers hear that topic cited on the Fox News Channel. Over here in Blue America, that topic has largely been disappeared. 

We Blues aren't going to hear much about it. Nor are we hearing much about the way the president ranted about Ilhan Omar. right there in the Oval Office.

Yesterday, former senator Claire McCaskill said this about our sitting president:

"That speech. He's not well. He's not well."

What did she mean by that remark? On yesterday's Deadline: White House, she elaborated a bit. This afternoon, we'll show you what she said. But with respect to Minnesota's giant fraud, the overpaid stars of MS NOW are taking a pass on that topic.

As a general matter, they serve us the product which makes us feel glad. Inside Silo Red, on the Fox News Channel, their counterparts play the same game,

When we continue—it might not be until Saturday—we'll show you what Rep. Omar said about that giant fraud when she appeared on Face the Nation. We'll show you what that front-page New York Times report actually said.

We'll also show you what Jesse Watters said about this same topic, right there on The Five. 

The Blue American stars of Morning Joe don't discuss what happens on those Fox News Channel programs. In that way, they keep refusing to serve. 

They and their predecessors have been playing the game in similar ways for three or four decades now. It's easy to be pleased by the things they say, harder to be aware of the topics they chose to disappear.

Concerning our Blue American stars, know this:

They don't know how to talk about "mental illness." They don't know how to talk about so-called race in a way that's likely to help.

They don't want to tell you about the massive amount of fraud which did take shape with Governor Walz in the State House. They're taking a total pass on that topic as the Fox News Channel—and the president himself—rant and rail about it.

The president ranted about that fraud when he went to the Poconos. In Silo Red, it's widely cited. In Silo Blue, it's disappeared.

More than anything else on earth, Blue America cable's corporate owners don't seem to want a tussle with Fox.  Joe and Mika and the rest of the toys are willing to let them rave on.

Tomorrow or Saturday: It emerged from Silo Red