Tag Archives: Twitter

Who’s POTUS calling a ‘so-called judge’?

Donald J. Trump, meet your newest nemesis, U.S. District Judge James L. Robart.

The president has called Robart a “so-called judge” because he had the nerve to halt the president’s ban on refugees entering the United States from Muslim-majority countries.

If I might be so brazen, my inclination is to wonder aloud — given Trump’s love of Twitter as his primary attack medium — whether he could be labeled a “so-called president.”

Nah … I won’t go there.

There’s not a damn thing “so-called” about Robart, who was appointed to the federal bench in western Washington state by President George W. Bush.

According to NBC News: “He (Robart) suggested in court that Trump’s 90-day entry ban on people from the countries of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen was not ‘rationally based,’ since no one from any those countries had been arrested in the U.S. on terrorism-related charges since 9/11.”

There’s more: “‘I’m sorry, there’s no other way to put it,’ Robarts said from the bench. ‘It’s Keystone Cops. It really is. And that’s not just me speaking, that’s Republican members of Congress.'”

The president doesn’t like being criticized by anyone. Not by the media, or political foes or by judges who disagree with his decisions. His mode of response? Twitter! He tweeted: “The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!”

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/who-is-the-so-called-judge-trump-rips-over-ruling/ar-AAmCbUO?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

Judge Robart is doing what he believes his oath requires him to do, which is to interpret federal law to see if it squares against the U.S. Constitution.

Robart is a Seattle native, he received his undergraduate degree in Walla Walla, Wash., got his law degree at Georgetown and practice law in Seattle from 1973 until 2004, when President Bush tapped for him for the federal bench; the Senate approved his nomination.

There’s nothing “so-called” about this fellow, Mr. President.

Pipe down and let the system play out.

Arnold vs. Donald: so ‘unpresidented’

Donald Trump has become tweeter in chief.

His latest foil is another former prominent politician, a guy named Arnold Schwarzenegger. The two men connected by a reality TV show, “Celebrity Apprentice,” have been tweeting back and forth for a couple of days now.

Honestly, it is so damn “unpresidented” — to borrow a term — that it’s driving me batty.

Trump is telling us how “Apprentice” ratings have tanked since he left the show to become, um, president of the United States of America. Arnold — the current host of the show — has responded with a seemingly tongue-in-cheek attack on the president, suggesting the two men switch jobs; if only the U.S. Constitution would allow the Austria-born Schwarzenegger to do the job that Trump now holds.

I know this plea will fall on deaf ears. My Trumpkin friends who read this blog will scoff at me; the anti-Trumpkins out there might express some sorrow for my persistence.

Still, this activity by the president of the United States is so unbecoming of his office. I get that Arnold bears some responsibility as well, given that he once was a consequential governor of the nation’s most populous, wealthiest state — and who once was married to a member of two of the nation’s most prominent political families: Maria Shriver.

Maybe I should just heed my own advice and ignore this ridiculous behavior. I should stop commenting on it with this blog.

I guess I have to acknowledge that I am doing Trump’s bidding by calling attention to it, no matter how negatively I feel about it.

There, I just did. I still don’t like it.

Put down the Twitter device, Mr. President. You’ve got many more infinitely more important matters to occupy your waking hours. This is no way to “make America great again.”

Chelsea stands tall in defense of Barron

Barron Trump has joined a club that is almost as exclusive as the one his parents have joined.

He becomes one of the kids who will grow up in the White House. Thus, he has become — to the shame of many — an easy target of ridicule.

Barron doesn’t deserve such treatment any more than one of his predecessors did. And she has come to Barron’s defense. Barron? Meet Chelsea Clinton … if you haven’t met her already.

Chelsea Clinton Mezvinsky sent out a tweet over the weekend urging the public to let Barron, who’s 10 years of age, to “be a kid.” If only the Internet trolls out there would back off.

His parents, Donald and Melania Trump, have assumed the highest profile possible as president and first lady of the United States. With that responsibility, though, a lot of attention gets riveted on their son.

It’s good to see Chelsea Clinton come to the youngster’s defense. She knows better than most White House kids about the hurtful things that foes of her parents can sling — not just at them, but at her as well.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/chelsea-clinton%e2%80%99s-years-in-the-spotlight-%e2%80%94-from-first-daughter-to-mother-of-two/ar-AAm93OJ?li=BBnbfcL

Indeed, I was privy once to a hideous comment from a local clergyman in Amarillo about Chelsea. I called him on it later in a note I wrote to him. He apologized to me several weeks later.

This social media craze has erupted over the past decade. Barron’s mother has made cyber bullying her main cause as first lady. Barron’s father has used Twitter to insult his opponents and assorted critics during the past year and a half. Clearly there needs to be some serious introspection within the Trump household as it relates to the use of certain social media — and as the first lady starts to ramp up her efforts to end this cyber scourge.

As for the youngster — and I won’t repeat some of the crap I’ve heard said about him — he doesn’t deserve any of the kind of abuse that’s being flung in his direction.

He is a boy, for crying out loud! As for Chelsea, she’s grown into a successful woman — who happens to be a friend of Barron’s half-sister Ivanka, who grew from a child of privilege into a woman who’s carved out her own successful life.

I now will doff my proverbial hat to Chelsea Clinton for speaking out nicely on behalf of a youngster who’s now faced with growing up under the brightest glare imaginable.

Trump’s anti-CIA tweets are media’s fault

Let me see if I have this correct.

Donald J. Trump sends out dozens of tweets questioning the CIA’s intelligence-gathering ability while dismissing the agency’s conclusions about alleged Russian hacking during the 2016 election.

Then he blames the media for it.

It’s the media’s fault that it reported the president’s tweets.

Is that he said today while meeting at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-visits-cia-blames-tensions-with-intelligence-community-on-the-media-213121618.html

I admit to being slow on the uptake at times. This one, though, muddles my cognitive ability.

Here’s the thing that’s even nuttier. There will be those among us who will agree with Trump. The media have somehow made up something that the president himself stated about the CIA. Didn’t he criticize the spooks for sending out false intelligence about Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction?

The media deserve criticism for reporting it?

Trump said this today while meeting with CIA operatives:

“I have a running war with the media. They are among the most dishonest human beings on earth, right? And they sort of made it sound like I had a feud with the intelligence community. And I just want you to know that there’s a reason you’re the No. 1 stop: It is exactly the opposite,” he said.

“I love you,” Trump concluded. “There’s nobody I respect more.”

Which is it, Mr. President?

Tweeter in chief doesn’t appreciate majesty of his office

In just a couple of days, Donald J. Trump is going to become the 45th president of the United States of America.

He’ll be head of state of the greatest nation on Earth. And, yes, it’s still the greatest nation, Mr. President-elect.

It’s fair to ask, given this fellow’s use of Twitter as his primary mode of communication: Does he truly understand the majesty attached to the office he is about to assume?

Trump has tossed countless conventional norms into the dumper on his way to become president. He has gotten away with countless insults, boorish stunts and profoundly bizarre statements. All of them — or any one of them — would have disqualified him in the eyes of voters.

Instead, his supporters stiffened their spines. They stood behind him. They cheered him on for “telling it like it is.” Good grief!

They also are cheering on his Twitter taunts and tirades. They, like their man, are giving raspberries to the very office that Trump is about to inherit.

He uses Twitter, in the words of some pundits, to “punch down” at critics. Presidents of the United States are supposed to be better than that; they’re supposed to hold themselves above the petty bickering that erupts all around them.

Twitter is supposed to be a tool reserved for schmucks — like, oh, yours truly — to fire off barbs or share others’ barbs.

Not so with the president-elect of the United States of America.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that he doesn’t appreciate the grandeur of the office he sought — and won! He has had zero dealings with any of its previous occupants.

He acknowledged meeting President Obama for the first time after the election. And this comes after he spent years questioning out loud whether Barack Obama was qualified to hold the office. You know … the birther baloney.

You know, there at least is the remote possibility that after he takes the oath, bids good bye to the Obama family and then settles in behind the Oval Office desk he might appreciate the immense power and tradition of the presidency.

He might

I am not holding my breath.

 

Criticism should keep us all humble … not make us angry

This is going to sound presumptuous and for that I apologize up front.

Donald J. Trump’s knee-jerk reaction to criticism via Twitter got me thinking about how most folks who say or write provocative statements react to comments from those who disagree with them.

I want to count myself in that category. I write this blog and it draws its share of negative reaction. I take all of it seriously. I choose not to respond to all of it directly.

If only the president-elect would show just a little more reticence when someone delivers a barb. I mean, c’mon! You’re about to become president of the United States of America, dude!

I pulled a blog post I wrote nearly seven years ago, back when I was working for a living at the Amarillo Globe-News. Here it is:

https://highplainsblogger.com/2010/01/damnation-to-the-max/

I used to keep a “Praise and Damnation” file full of notes that, um, praised and damned me. I regret that I have destroyed that file. I did so when I got into a file-cleaning frenzy about a year or so ago. My thought was, “What’s the point?” The bulging folder was taking up room in my filing cabinet and I rarely, if ever, looked at the submissions in it.

I recall what I said in 2010 about that folder and about a particular letter that caught my attention back then. Now, as it was then, I believe criticism keeps me humble. It kept me grounded while I was writing opinion pieces for newspapers and it does so today now that I am writing strictly for myself.

I was unaware of Twitter seven years ago, if memory serves. Heck, I don’t know if it even existed then.

The world is full of know-it-all smart alecks like me who think they know better than those in the public eye. However, we smart alecks have something in common with celebrities such as, oh, the president-elect: We get our share of criticism in return for our comments.

The difference, though, lies in our reaction to that criticism. Grown-ups just let it ride and not fire back angrily. The more childish response is to do what Donald J. Trump has been doing.

In the words of Vice President Biden: “Grow up, Donald. Grow up.”

Now, about the new first lady …

With all this chatter and clatter about Russian hackers, conflicts of interest, White House nepotism and controversial Cabinet picks, I want to look briefly at an individual who stands near all this commotion.

Melania Trump, I’m waiting to hear more from you.

The incoming first lady put forward an interesting and provocative goal for her first ladyship: cyber bullying.

She made her statement, drawing some rather mixed responses across the land.

Why not start with your husband, Mrs. Trump, who campaigned as a primo cyber bully through his use of Twitter as an insult machine? Many of us thought and said as much in reaction to Melania’s initiative.

But there’s another reality to consider. She’s actually picked a legitimate and noble issue to pursue as first lady.

Young people are victimized by Internet bullies, she said. It must stop. We must educate our young people about how destructive such conduct can become and the consequences of bullying.

To that extent, I stand 100 percent in support of what Melania Trump wants to accomplish.

She’ll assume her place on the national stage on Jan. 20, when her husband takes the oath office to become the 45th president. It will be time for the new first lady to turn up the volume on her worthwhile effort on behalf of young people — around the world!

But … first things first. Tell your husband, Mrs. Trump, to knock off his ridiculous and potentially dangerous Twitter tirades.

Ex-CIA boss offers warning: Stop the tweets as president

James Woolsey isn’t advising Donald J. Trump’s presidential transition team any longer after quitting his post the other day.

The former CIA director, though, didn’t surrender his expertise on national security issues. His advice, then, to the commander in chief-elect? Cool it with the tweets after you become president.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ex-cia-chief-warns-trump-to-beware-of-tweeting-after-inauguration-day/ar-BBy50QR?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

Woolsey makes a cogent point. According to CNBC: Trump should re-evaluate his use of Twitter (TWTR) with “fresh eyes” after the inauguration, because “governing in 140 character transmissions is a lot harder,” Woolsey said on “Squawk Box.”

Indeed. This idea of making policy proclamations via Twitter gives some of us the heebie-jeebies. He declared, for instance, that he might reconsider the nation’s decades-long One China Policy as it relates to our relationship with the People’s Republic of China.

He uses Twitter to criticize the media, his political foes and also uses the social medium to praise the likes of Vladimir Putin.

I am going to hold out a glimmer — a sliver, perhaps — of hope that Trump is going to wise up once he becomes president. Man, it’s all most of have … hope that he’ll listen — finally! — to someone who knows a thing or two about national security.

Trump tweets … about this?

I simply cannot believe I’m seeing this.

Donald J. Trump — the next president of the United States of America, the commander in chief and leader of the free world — is actually using social media to comment on a “reality” TV show’s ratings. Oh, yeah. It’s a show he hosted before running for the first political office he’s ever sought.

For the ever-lovin’ life of me, it is all I can do to muster up the resistance to writing a blog post full of four-letter words, profane epithets. I want to blurt out every foul curse word I can think of.

What is this clown — Trump — doing here?

It’s been said by others that people in high places need to avoid “arguing down.” They should save their criticism for those on their level.

Trump is about to assume the highest profile imaginable. He is about to become head of state of the greatest nation on Earth.

And he’s wasting his time with this nonsense?

Good … grief!

Welcome to a rocky start, Congress

That didn’t take long.

Congressional Republicans decided to gut an ethics watchdog group, prompting the president-elect to send out a tweet that said they should focus on other matters first; then the House GOP caucus decided to scrap the watchdog-gutting, apparently cowed by Donald Trump’s Twitter tirade.

I’m glad the House GOP thought better of the cockamamie idea to place ethics investigations solely within the House Ethics Committee, which is run by Republicans.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/312496-house-gop-scraps-plan-to-gut-ethics-watchdog-after-emergency-meeting

What’s next? The bipartisan independent group will continue to refer complaints to Congress if they deem them legitimate. They’ll be able to accept anonymous complaints.

Does this mean Donald Trump has found some ethical “religion”? Probably not. He’s got a slew of problems himself to resolve.

It does mean, though, that he seems to have put the fear of social media into the minds of his fellow Republicans.

Still, it’s a clumsy start to the next congressional session.