Bizarre, Politics

Mumpsimus: Merriam-Webster Taunts Trump With Definition Of Obsessional Stubborn Person

Merriam-Webster seems to have found the bizarre controversy over President Donald Trump’s insistence that he was right that Hurricane Dorian was on a path to hit Alabama on September 1st. Trump continues to tweet about being right while the Washington Post is reporting that, despite Trump’s denial, he was the person who altered the hurricane path map with a Sharpie. So Merriam-Webster tweeted the definition of mumpsimus, or “A stubborn person who insists on making an error in spite of being shown that it is wrong.”

It appears that the term originated with an illiterate priest who accidentally said “mumpsimus” rather than “sumpsimus.” The stubborn priest refused to be corrected and continued to use the word to mean “we have taken” in Latin.

As if to prove the point, Trump continued to issue tweet after tweet saying that he was right after all. The Weather Service was forced to correct its own forecast information that contradicted Trump and a national security official was pushed forward to support Trump’s account as part of six-days of effort by the White House.

Trump also called in Fox News White House reporter John Roberts to convince him that Trump was right all along. Roberts later wrote a memo to Fox to describe the scene.

It is all . . . well. just too mumpsimus.

169 thoughts on “Mumpsimus: Merriam-Webster Taunts Trump With Definition Of Obsessional Stubborn Person”

  1. and now we read that at the time he made the comment and the projected landfall… he was correct. One thing about hurricanes and weather in the desert they all come at you with a very broad brush and a miss, as we learned again last night is as good as kilometer.

  2. “WASHINGTON — The Secretary of Commerce threatened to fire top employees at NOAA on Friday after the agency’s Birmingham office contradicted President Trump’s claim that Hurricane Dorian might hit Alabama, according to three people familiar with the discussion.

    That threat led to an unusual, unsigned statement later that Friday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration disavowing the office’s own position that Alabama was not at risk. The reversal caused widespread anger within the agency and drew criticism from the scientific community that NOAA, a division of the Commerce Department, had been bent to political purposes.

    Officials at the White House and the Commerce Department declined to comment on administration involvement in the NOAA statement…..

    Mr. Ross, the commerce secretary, intervened two days later, early last Friday, according to the three people familiar with his actions. Mr. Ross phoned Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator of NOAA, from Greece where the secretary was traveling for meetings and instructed Dr. Jacobs to fix the agency’s perceived contradiction of the president.

    Dr. Jacobs objected to the demand and was told that the political staff at NOAA would be fired if the situation was not fixed, according to the three individuals, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the episode. Unlike career government employees, political staff are appointed by the administration. They usually include a handful of top officials, such as Dr. Jacobs, and their aides…..”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/climate/hurrican-dorian-trump-tweet.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytclimate

    1. “The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s acting chief scientist said in an email to colleagues Sunday that he is investigating whether the agency’s response to President Trump’s Hurricane Dorian tweets constituted a violation of NOAA policies and ethics. Also on Monday, the director of the National Weather Service broke with NOAA leadership over its handling of Trump’s Dorian tweets and statements.

      In an email to NOAA staff that was obtained by The Washington Post, NOAA’s Craig McLean, called the agency’s response “political” and a “danger to public health and safety.”…

      In his email to employees Sunday, McLean criticized his agency’s public statement, saying it prioritized politics over NOAA’s mission.

      “The NWS Forecaster(s) corrected any public misunderstanding in an expert and timely way, as they should,” McLean wrote. “There followed, last Friday, an unsigned news release from ‘NOAA’ that inappropriately and incorrectly contradicted the NWS forecaster. My understanding is that this intervention to contradict the forecaster was not based on science but on external factors including reputation and appearance, or simply put, political.”

      He also wrote that “the content of this news release is very concerning as it compromises the ability of NOAA to convey life-saving information necessary to avoid substantial and specific danger to public health and safety.”

      “If the public cannot trust our information, or we debase our forecaster’s warnings and products, that specific danger arises,” McLean wrote.

      As a result, McLean told his staff that “I am pursuing the potential violations of our NOAA Administrative Order on Scientific Integrity.”

      “I have a responsibility to pursue these truths,” he added. “I will.” McLean has extensive experience in NOAA’s ocean programs and is also an attorney who has practiced marine resource law. He has been awarded the Department of Commerce Silver and Bronze medals, among other accolades…”

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/09/09/noaas-chief-scientist-will-investigate-why-agency-backed-trump-over-its-experts-dorian-email-shows/?wpisrc=al_politics__alert-politics&wpmk=1

  3. But when Barack Obama talked about visiting “all 57 states” and “Austrian” as a national language (no, they still speak German, and don’t even have their own national dialect of it as the Swiss do), no one commented on it in the “mainstream press”. But a few spurious lines on a weather chart are a big deal even when the home office of our national weather agency says it’s not.

    Massive ignorance is only remarkable in Republicans. When a Democrat throws crap against the wall, the press ignores it. I’m surprised that Professor Turley’s baying in the mob demanding Trump commit an auto da fé for a marked-up weather map..

    1. The joke’s on ‘you’, Mespo. Anyone who takes Trump’s word over The Washington Post has been in a cave these past 3 years.

      1. Peter – WaPo has been lying to everybody about Trump and Russia. Why, in God’s name, should we believe them about anything?

        1. Paul, Peter Hill uses only circular reasoning. He says the Washington Post is the definitive source of news. They write an article that is a lie. They deny it so because in Peter’s mind they are the definitive source they didn’t lie.

          He doesn’t bother to analyze what anyone says rather he draws his conclusions solely based on what the Washington Post says on that day. You taught children. What did you do with children that used circular reasoning to the extreme like Peter does?

      2. yes well with reason and clear perception we can stand in plato’s cave and look at the fire. but you are outside of it blindly listening to the WAPO interpret the figures of shadows flung on the wall by the truth of reality. according to the WAPO editorial policy set by its billionaire owner Jeff Bezos destroyer of a hundred thousand bricks and mortar businesses with a hundred thousand more in his sights every day.

        Now a guy like that wouldn’t have any reason to slant the news, would he?

  5. I think that some of you were wondering if the hurricane was going to head into Greenland. If if did would you have blamed Trump? CNN would.

    1. Another useful word is ignorati. This is not necessarily an insult, being descriptive. The definition is found in the Urban Dictionary but it hasn’t made it to the OED yet.

    2. David Benson is the God Emperor of Making Stuff Up and owes me twenty-five citations (one from the OED, one from the town ordinances and two from the Old Testament), an equation and the source of a quotation, after forty-two weeks, and needs to cite all his work from now on. – David, you are no one to throw stones.

        1. David Benson is the God Emperor of Making Stuff Up and owes me twenty-five citations (one from the OED, one from the town ordinances and two from the Old Testament), an equation and the source of a quotation, after forty-two weeks, and needs to cite all his work from now on.

            1. “Yet, we have had a few people who simply want to foul the cyber footpath with personal name-calling, insults, and threatening behavior.”

              Yes, a lot of your side have been guilty of violating that rule Benson

              Some of them are back here on a regular basis too. Dont worry too much about Paul

          2. The Comrades never cite their work because it isn’t their work. Even so if they did it would mean nothing and that ‘nothing’ is only good a day.

        1. Trump is the guy who said it, nobody can gainsay him on this, can they? Can you? Show me your authority Benson.

      2. David Benson is the God Emperor of Making Stuff Up and owes me twenty-five citations (one from the OED, one from the town ordinances and two from the Old Testament), an equation and the source of a quotation, after forty-two weeks, and needs to cite all his work from now on. – David, shouldn’t the fact that no one will confirm it, a tip-off that it might not have happened?

    2. TNYT has more details. Still I doubt that The Taliban would venture to go to Camp David.

      1. why would they not? if they get what they want. they’re not going to get whacked on a diplomatic visit.

        it worked for the arabs why not the pashtuns

        this is another unreal faux criticism of Trump courtesy of the FAKE NEWS

        let the talks continue whenever the time is ripe. soon would be good. of course they are going to keep popping off in their usual fashion until a deal is struck. that’s how war works

    3. there have been low level talks with Taliban going back to Obama for sure. you can bet one of the items on the agenda is always “When will we meet and talk again next”

      that is how wars get ended. if you want an end to the war, then don’t beat up Trump for throwing it out there that a meeting was scheduled and then cancelled. sometimes negotiations are advanced just by telling peopel they are happening however unsuccessfully

      and if you can’t prove it didn’t happen, why would we take your word over the guy who would have authority to make the statement in the first place? hmmmm Benson at the helm, not Trump?

  8. On again, on 2 threads this time, we see that this is the common room in Bedlam.

  9. In radar parlence a chirp is a signal of ever increasing frequency until it reaches the upper limit of the receiving amplifier.

    Replys to replys to replys to replys … do that here on this site on my little mobile device with its 2.25 inch wide screen. Such replys become too narrow to read, then too narrow to render and finally too narrow for even locating.

    So don’t expect me to be able to respond to anything after depth 3.

    1. Oh well, for all too many here I am overly subtle so that it is in one ear and out the other anyway.

      With all due respect of course.

      1. your comments display your arrogance benson. your assertion that nobody would confirm it ignores itself the authority vested in the POTUS to entertain such a possibility which is vested in HIM not YOU

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