This morning began with what has become a Washington ritual. We all wake by the chirp of a morning presidential tweet and brace ourselves for what follows. Even with past tweet controversies, this morning’s missive was breathtaking. President Donald Trump attacked the hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe show in a pair of tweets that included a highly disturbing attack on co-host Mika Brzezinski. The tweet was not simply unpresidential, it was unhinged and inexcusable.
Notably, about a half hour before Trump’s tweets, White House Director of Social Media Dan Scavino tweeted: “#DumbAsARockMika and lover #JealousJoe are lost, confused & saddened since @POTUS @realDonaldTrump stopped returning their calls! Unhinged.”
Then, while the show was on the air, Trump attacked the show for being “poorly rated” and called the hosts names. The first tweet was posted at 8:52 am”
I heard poorly rated
@Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came..
Just for the record, Morning Joe recently hit an all-time high in viewership.
As many of you know, I am a regular on the show. Notably, I have been one of those commentators who have been questioning the basis for criminal allegations against Trump as well as the calls for impeachment. I further have argued that the law is on Trump’s side on the immigration order. Yet, I have been regularly asked to appear on the show by Joe and Mika. Indeed, Joe has also questioned the basis for the lower court orders against the Trump Administration. It is certainly true that there is much criticism of Trump on the show, but that is hardly a distinguishing characteristic from other shows on other networks. Moreover, I have never met anyone who questioned the intelligence or stability of Mika. Indeed, even to write that line seems perfectly bizarre.
Yet, this is not about refuting allegations that the respected hosts are “crazy” or “psycho.” It is about the standards that are expected of not just a president but an adult in a civil society. This falls considerably short of that standard.
It then (as is often the case) went from bad to worse with the second tweet on the face lift.
Once again, I fail to understand the motivation or even the meaning behind these tweets. While they may thrill the lowest common denominator of our country, most of us recoil from such attacks. I have raised four children that they must remain civil and respectful in their dealings with other people, including those who criticize you. Indeed, I tell them what my father taught me: you have only one unbreakable commitment in this family, you must pass along the family name in as good or better shape than you received it. That means maintaining your dignity and civility in any circumstance, particularly when others might yield to the temptation of personal or petty attacks. That is why I do not find White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders response very compelling: “This is a president who fights fire with fire.” There are no excuses for name calling or petty attacks. That is the test of every adult — to maintain decorum and civility regardless of the circumstance (even when others may call you names or insult you).
Republican leaders to their credit have already denounced the tweets as have Fox anchors and conservative commentators on publications like the National Review. Sen. Lindsey Graham is quoted as saying “Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America.” Others including Speaker Paul Ryan have followed suit and said that this is not acceptable for any president:
The President’s tweets are beneath the dignity of his office. It needs to stop. #StopTheTwitterTantrums
Stop it! The Presidential platform should be used for more than bringing people down.
Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America.
Susan Collins on Trump’s tweets to @mitchellreports: “There is no need for such uncivil language.”
✔@BenSassePlease just stop. This isn’t normal and it’s beneath the dignity of your office.
This is not okay. As a female in politics I am often criticized for my looks. We should be working to empower women. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/880410114456465411 …
MCCAIN on Trump’s Tweets this morning: “It’s hard to understand, and not presidential…”
At a time when the White House needs every Republican vote to achieve meaningful reforms, these shocking tweets are causing considerable damage below the waterline of the Administration. As with the tweets during the litigation, Trump has become the main witness against himself. What is particularly interesting is that this has been a difficult week for CNN after retracting a story and having both a producer and a host taped privately questioning the Russian investigation stories. This will succeed in reducing that pressure as everyone covers the latest personal attack on Twitter. Each of these tweets unnerves Republican allies about the work ahead and trusting the White House to lead them into the mid-term elections. That should not, however, be the criteria. These tweets are deeply troubling and beneath the office of the President of the United States.
Having read through the comments here, it is clear that the logical fallacy, “tu quoque”, is alive and well in American political discourse. In fact, it may be the only thing that is alive and well in American political discourse.
There is a difference between a “logical fallacy” and a perfectly good response to someone’s position.
You see a tu quoque response is like this:
Person A: The Earth is warming, and we should reduce our fossil fuel use!
Person B: But you fly around willy nilly in a private jet, and live by yourself in 15,000 square foot house.
Technically, and logically, the response has nothing to do with what Person A said.
But, Person B’s response does provide relevant information to some one trying to assess the credibility of Person A’s position.
Because it is most realistic, and “logical” to question the sincerity of another person’s position. And the fact that Person A’s own actions are in contrast to their stated belief provide some evidence for an assessment of that sincerity. Even in Court, character and reputation evidence is sometimes admissible.
This is not even to mention the unclean hands doctrine. To wit:
Joe and Mika: Trump has small hands, looks like a goon, and is crazy.
Trump: Mika has had a face lift, and Joe and Mika are crazy and psycho’s!
Joe and Mika: Waaaaah! Crazy old Trump called us names! That’s wrong!
Judge: But you called him names first! I am estopping you from complaining about a spat that you started! You two have small, and unclean, hands!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Good points, Squeeky. Another way to look at this: “Deranged Leftists who live in glass houses (which all of them do), shouldn’t throw bricks at a non-Leftist passerby.”
The fact if the matter is that Trump’s little Tweet nailing two Leftist fakenews propagandists has sparked more outrage from the deranged Left (including JT) than any terrorist attack in recent years. That tells you everything you need to know about the Left’s priorities.
Joe & Mika also attack Trump & Melania everyday…Where is your outrage???
Yes, all the Fake News Network are getting low ratings…
https://static.infowars.com/politicalsidebarimage/elmo-ban_large.jpg
MSNBC,CNN and FOX have seen their ratings gone up this year. The WAPOand NYT have also seen growth in readership.
Thanks to Trump making all their ratings great again. Before Trump they were all tanking.
true enough
My take on this: ignore Trump tweets. Don’t respond, argue, beg him to stop. Just no interaction via tweet at all. And you, whomever you are, let it go!
http://www.jsmineset.com/wp-content/uploads/images/In-The-News-Today_9F41/image.png
fake
The Donald belongs in Bedlam.
And another thing! Carping about Trump not acting “dignified” because he tweeted out Joe and Mika are crazy and psycho. . . this is such an upper-middle-classy-White cultural thing!
I think it is a holdover from the days of monarchy, where peasants weren’t supposed to say bad things about the upper classes. Except on certain special holidays. If you are a white person, think back to when you were a little kid, and your parents told you not to use the word, “stupid.”
I also think this is one of the major problems that official Washington and New York have with Trump. He calls their actions “stupid,” Trump calls trade deals that are grossly one-sided “stupid.” Trump called Jeb Bush “slow” and others “incompetent.” And that is just a big taboo no-no for the Courtier Class.
The fairy-tale about the Emperor’s New Clothes backs this up. The little boy wasn’t attacked because he was wrong. Heck, the Emperor was naked, and the Courtiers knew it as well as anybody. They didn’t really see the fine and magical material either. But you just aren’t supposed to come right out and say it. No, one is supposed to be respectful, and reserved.
Now ask yourself, what if Trump was a black Democrat and said this— My GUESS is that the same people who are swooning over today’s tweets, and passing out from the vapors, would be in there saying, “Right on Trump! Keep it real, Brother!”
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
How do the racial element in your posts even come into play. What is the relevance of white kids being raised not to call people stupid? Are you implying that civility is limited to white people? If a black Democrat was as crude as Trump he never could have become the Nominee let alone President.
That is your opinion. IIRC, folks were calling for Obama to become more “black.”
As far as how white kids are raised vis a vis black kids, yes I think there is a great big huge difference. That is why you see mobs of savage black youths attacking malls and trains. Which, because their single black moms are the worst stewards of women in the universe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDYJVDDntQo&t=717s
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Here’s you an even better one!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHsWks6RQks
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
I’m happy for you that you have YouTube to provide you the black experience. Your posts are obviously representative of black life and child rearing. If I were to suggest what might be a more universal theme of black parenting it would be “the talk.” With your vast experience there is no need for me to attempt to explain it as you know far better than I. There is no need for me to label you as anything as you’re so busy proclaiming it from rooftops.
No, I have experience in my real life. The youtube videos are for you. I work part time for an attorney, and she has many black criminal clients. Sooo, I get to see real live low class blacks in action. It is sad, and unnecessary. And no, their children are not raised well. Plus, I live in a city that is 55% black, and about 40% white. There are plenty of decent black people here, mainly because this is still a very religious city. Three black guys have come to my house over the past 3 weeks to hook up various services. They were all very nice, articulate, and knowledgeable, I did not feel the need to stick my 5 shot 38 in my pants. I am however buying a Nikita knife or two tomorrow, to keep in my boots just to be on the safe side in the future.
But, there are areas of town where it is best for white people to stay out of. Older people here say they were once very nice neighborhoods, although not “high class” by any means. Now, they are jungles. And the various black tribes there manage to shoot and kill each other on a regular basis. I suspect that one day I will have to move out of my white enclave, and I think maybe I will go to a state/city that is much less black. Because I am not sure the decent black people here will ever confront the others. Plus, the black unwed birth rate is over 75%, so that is not going to end well. The bad blacks are going to win as the older blacks die off.
Most whites here are well armed, and feisty, and that keeps a lot of the black thugs from breaking into our homes, and our neighborhoods safe. But if there is a major downturn in the economy, those barriers may break down. I am already cautious where I go, and when. I go to the mall during school hours, and stay away from large crowds of blacks, like at the State Fair, or various holidays. The house has a burglar alarm system, and I keep a 357 in my recliner. If me and Penelope go out, I am packing heat (my 5 shot 38), and going to pack more heat once my knives gets here.
Many whites have already fled to the bedroom communities, but I think maybe when the time comes, I will just pack up the cats and just go someplace without all the potential for disaster. And, a place with strong 2nd amendment laws.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
No, there’s a lot more difference between Chump and Obama. First, other than Fox, NO news outlet speaks favorably about Chump, because there isn’t anything good to say. It is far from just MSNBC. Fox selectively reports, omits negative news and spins the negatives as “liberal media bias”. Are all of the media liberal and biased? Chump’s approval ratings are in the toilet because that’s where they deserve to be, and this is driven by people, not the media. He’s petty, immature, vindictive, racist, misogynist and doesn’t understand basic civics. He thinks he’s the CEO of the US and that agency heads owe him a personal duty of loyalty. He doesn’t understand what’s wrong with firing the Director of the FBI for declining to give a personal oath of loyalty while the FBI was investigating him. He doesn’t understand what’s wrong with the Russians interfering with our elections. He won’t criticize Putin. He won’t release his tax returns, and that’s likely because they would show: conflicts of interest and that he’s really so much in debt that he is nowhere near as wealthy as he would have people believe. The issue isn’t “coarseness”–it’s an extreme case of narcissism, which prevents him from maintaining the basic decorum demanded by the Presidency. He feeds on personal adulation because his approval ratings are historically low. It’s sad, really, but nowhere near comparable to President Obama.
Natacha – why don’t you sic your daddy on Trump? That will teach him a severe lesson.
He didn’t try to grab me, but if he did, he’d draw back a bloody stump. That’s assuming I got close enough to him without vomiting.
There’s a bloody stump in your lady parts??? Ewwww!
Quit using tree branches and just go buy a dang vibrator! I hear you can even buy them online, and they will come in a plain brown wrapper.
My Goodness! No wonder you’re sooo grouchy all the time!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Natatcha – talk is cheap.
@NickS
OK, so I hammered out two verses of poetry, based on Sweeney Among The Nightingales. But this kind of stuff requires a lot of classical knowledge, and I didn’t want to have to write 20 pages of footnotes, so I will probably not go any further:
Trump Among The Talking Heads
A Brief TSE Parody by Squeeky Fromm
Orange haired Trump sent out a tweet,
Grinning, at his sharp ripostes. . .
Knowing soon the “murmur-dons”
Would circle round the batty hosts.
Above the world, Nirburu hangs
And twenty thirteen G M three,
Meanwhile, the Main Stream Press’es on
Straight thru a Gate of Ivory.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Notes: OK,
I like the word “riposte” because while it is a sword thrust, the sound also alludes to “posting” something on the Net.
murmur-dons” is a word play on the Myrmidons, who as defined by Dictionary,com:
1. Classical Mythology. one of the warlike people of ancient Thessaly who accompanied Achilles to the Trojan War.
2. (lowercase) a person who executes without question or scruple a master’s commands.
I used this term to tie in the classical allusions in the original poem. I used lower case. Plus, a murmur is “indistinct” which that ties into the poem, “The host with someone indinstinct, converses at the door apart.”
The batty hosts are Joe and Mika, but also is a word play since they are the “hosts” of the show.
Nirburu is the imaginary planet which some say will end us. 2013GM3 is a near Earth object which pass close in either 2024 or 2026, I forget which.
The MSM pressing on thru a gate of ivory: There were two gates in classical literature, one of horn and one of ivory. While Sweeney guarded the “horne’d gate” of truth, the ivory gate is the gate of lies and delusions. From wiki:
I wanted go deeper, and bring in Trump’s orange hair, and Thor, who had orange hair, and some chess moves, and Mika tearing at Trump with really small hands, but criminy, probably only 3 or 4 people are going to read this anyway, sooo I just lazied out.
Squeek, You are one of the most talented, eclectic and interesting people I have ever encountered, in the virtual and real world. You are the William Safire wordsmith of this blog. Desperate is very good w/ words as well, but too curmudgeonly for me. I mean, I can handle some curmudgeons, but not the know-it-all ones.
Don’t sell yourself short. For every person who comments about your poems, w/ the readership here, there are thousands who read and enjoy, or not enjoy, sans commenting.
Thank you!!! I am glad you liked it!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
http://imgur.com/DfqO3gx
Trump is obsessed with women bleeding from wherever. Mika is not the first woman he attacked for bleeding from somewhere. He is a creeper for sure.
JT, why do you hang out with such American Hating Trash like msnbc, morning Joe & other such Scum?
From me family with both sides that fought with Patrick Henry, Give Me or Give Me Death, Note: Not a Damn Word about Fed Controlled Health Care- Health Care Insur, that gave you & others these privileges, Giv’em Hell Trump. Drain the Swamp!
Get out of your little blue bubble JT as there’s a real world out here that you clear have no understanding of.
Paul Joseph Watson
https://www.prisonplanet.com/the-truth-about-cnn.html
And when you’re done with that research the work Alex Jones @ infowars, Michael Savage, Mark Levin, Breitbart & many others have been doing for many years now.
about time president trump went after these two and their trump hating puppets from msnbc.
JT is defending Trump on several fronts including the Russia investigation and with respect to the travel ban. Why don’t you research first and post second? Also, in case you hadn’t heard, Alex Jones has been summarily discredited by the mainstream left and right.
Trump should stop concerning himself with personal quarrels with journalists. Yes, they are biased. Yes, that is unfair. Yes, the mainstream media is a propaganda machine for the DNC. That is incredibly frustrating. He should defend his policy, not get personal. But past predicts future, so he never will.
Let the political pundits get into pissing matches.
All Trump had to do was defend his policies and actions on the merits. Let the audience compare the facts with the biased coverage. But when he goes personal, then it becomes about personality rather than policy.
I remember when Obama was warring with Fox News. So this is not a new phenomenon. But I didn’t like it then, and I don’t like it now. Trump can refute the points of a story, but he should not get personal.
The main stream media controls too much of the distribution of the news and one can easily see how their bias has made it difficult for the people to know what Trump has done. Instead the MSN focuses on fictional attacks directed at the President to make it seem he can be impeached.
His tweets create a lot of media coverage and permit more information to be released into the public conscience than would have been without them.
I recall listening to a lecture on marketing. He was talking about annoying telemarketers. They achieved name brand recognition alright…a name brand to be avoided at all costs. These intrusive telemarketers piss off potential customers so badly that they will never, ever, buy their brand.
I’ve thought about that lecture from time to time regarding Trump’s Tweets. Rather than leaving an indelible message in people’s minds that the mainstream media is wrong, all they come away with is the language of his personal attacks. He fails to get his message across effectively, and just solidifies his detractors’ opinion that he is unkind. They have no information at all on any positive results of his actions whatsoever; they just hear him fighting again and are turned off. His base learns about his policies and their outcomes. But he needs to reach people outside his base to become more effective. The strategy he is using does not do that.
Besides making lots of work for lawyers and proving fodder for comedians, what “positive results of his actions” are you talking about? Chump brags about non-actions, like a record number of legislative achievements, because he doesn’t know the difference between a unilateral Executive Order and actual legislation. He’s done nothing worth bragging about, but plenty to be ashamed of.
Let’s see now: you believe that the media are all biased and nothing more than a propaganda machine for the Democrats? How can this be, since Republicans have more money? Why would the media do this–what would be their motivation–cash? Republicans have more and would pay more. How about intellectual honesty? What “policies and actions” does he have to defend? Unilateral Executive Orders that he doesn’t understand aren’t “legislation”? The travel ban, reversed by multiple courts, that made work for lawyers? What happened to the wall and why hasn’t Mexico sent us the $20 Billion Chump promised? According to last night’s news, the “1100 Carrier jobs–minimum ” Chump claimed would be saved was a lie, just like the Union President said at the time, and for which Chump publicly called him a liar: it was 730 jobs, just like the Union President said, and it cost Indiana taxpayers $7 million. The rest of the jobs went to Mexico, and the serious consequences for exporting jobs that Chump promised haven’t materialized. Does reporting these facts indicate media bias?
Speaking of promises, what happened to the promises of better health care at lower cost, everyone will be covered, we’re going to love it? Can’t deliver. Just more rhetoric. What does Fox have to say about this?
Reality is irrelevant to the right wing so-called “news” Right wing news is a parallel institution armed with its own set of facts that insists on its own reality. And the fellow travelers and comrades of Trump are in for a yuge wake-up call. Comrades wake up, you have a mentally unstable narcissist with no experience running anything of worth that he was not all ready born into.
You watch too much Fox News.
MSM have no real b@lls
It’s a new paradigm. The Presidency will continue w/o much damage. The MSM is imploding before our eyes. Their days of dominance are over.
Just a contrived fight for the plebes
Poetically, I posit that JT thinks Trump should act like a “J. Alfred Prufrock”, while Trump is more of a Sweeney type.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeek, You are our T.S. Eliot. How about a poem?
Thank you NickS! I am trying to do a Sweeney Among the Nightingales parody, but I can not get past the first line:
Orange haired Trump sent out a tweet
Maybe I need more morning joe???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
The Shortenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government analyzed how the media covered Trump in his first 100 days. They found that the media has given Trump 3x more media coverage than other presidents, and that 80% of it has a negative tone.
https://shorensteincenter.org/news-coverage-donald-trumps-first-100-days/
Saturating the public with almost universally negative coverage seems to have two goals: Drive Trump’s approval ratings down and their ratings up.
This worked well for MSNBC when GWB was president. Crazy Keith Ogremann attacked GWB almost daily in order to push Ogremann’s ratings up and GWB’s approval ratings down.
When Obama was elected, Hannity adopt the Ogremann playbook. He attacked Obama on Fox almost daily to drive his ratings up and Obama’s ratings down.
Obama saw that GWB never said a peep when Ogremann viciously attacked him. So when Hannity attacked Obama, Obama decided to attack the Fox News network. It had the added benefit of energizing his kooky base who have an irrational visceral hatred for Fox.
Now MSNBC attacks Trump and he responds back, just as Obama did with Fox. And he’s doing it to energize his base, just as Obama attacking Fox energized his base. The difference is that Obama attacked the whole network while Trump is attacking specific entertainers. The ones who are using him as a punching bag to drive up their ratings. Trump is not an effete liberal like Obama, so he’s doing it with more coarseness that drives other effete liberals nuts.