Kenosha Would Be Better Served With Visit From President Calvin Coolidge

Our national history shows that the larger interests have been best served when a president played to the higher ideals of the nation, and the ‘better angels’ of our nature. This year the cultural reckoning about racism has erupted loud and clear with what Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough reported this morning on his broadcast brought 15-26 million peaceful protesters out to the streets around the nation since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

For the past week, the center of the headlines and protests about police brutality has brought a focus on Kenosha, Wisconsin.  It is reported Donald Trump will visit Tuesday with local officials and tour the areas impacted by violence following the shooting of Jacob Blake.  Governor Tony Evers along with other state and local officials have requested  Trump postpone his trip, as they fear his desire to use ‘law and order’ rhetoric will only inflame an already tense situation.  Given past performances by Trump on Twitter and in other venues the concerns have merit.

Evers and other elected officials understand what is needed now are words from a national leader about why we should have hope in the midst of the justified anger.  They know there needs to be a message megaphoned about plans, ideas, and legislation that reverses the trend of the deadly headlines and replaces them with ones about justice and policing reforms.

But no one believes that Trump has the desire or capacity to speak to that need, or that higher national ideal that literally is screaming out for a president to address.

Which takes us to President Calvin Coolidge.  Many recall his nickname ‘Silent Cal’ but it was his inner desire to speak time and again about the racial issues of his time that brings him to mind.  Kenosha and the nation now await someone to offer powerful words to demonstrate who we are as Americans at this juncture, and what a path forward to achieve our aims should look like.

Republican Coolidge proved how such presidential behavior takes place.  One just stands up and leads.

It was obvious in his first State of the Union Address when he spoke in favor of the civil rights of African-Americans, telling Congress that the rights of these citizens were “just as sacred as those of any other citizen” according to the Constitution. He called it a “public and a private duty to protect those rights.”

At Howard University in 1924 he spoke how the nation “has need of all that can be contributed to it through the best efforts of all its citizens”.  He talked about how African-Americans “have repeatedly proved their devotion to the high ideals of our country.”

What Coolidge repeatedly achieved during his time in the White House with his many remarks about including more people into the national community was his sense of civic patriotism. He rejected the nationalist pull that so many would have preferred he take, and instead spoke of values and foundations that have made this nation stronger.  Leaders with moral strength have always found it easy to speak to the nation’s higher ideals.

What Kenosha needs this week is a Calvin Coolidge type message.  What this nation yearns for this summer are words and plans that bind us together, and point us upwards and not at each other.

Sadly, Kenosha and the rest of the nation will not get that from a president this year.

Conservative Newspaper Editorializes Trump “Is Debasing His Office”

Today’s edition of the Wall Street Journal has a most interesting, timely, and correctly-toned editorial. It goes without saying that Donald Trump has misused his office and lowered the regard we should have for the one holding the title of president. He has been a national embarrassment and as I have stated on this blog he is a stain on the nation.

Today the editorial writers for the newspaper took off after Trump as he again tweeted that a former Republican congressman from Florida, and a current host on MSNBC, committed murder. The depths to which Trump plummets has no bounds.  But that is the way with sewer rats.  I applaud the conservative newspaper for calling out his bizarre behavior.  Republicans across the country need to follow suit.

Donald Trump Is Skid Mark On America, Causing Pain To Bereaved Husband

For everyone who read The New York Times today, whether the printed copy that arrived on your doorstep, or online, there was no missing the weight of a column written by Kara Swisher. When it comes to being perfectly toned with facts and perspective this column, which underscored the rot that is Donald  Trump, is exceptional.

Namely, because the writing was so in touch with the emotional angst of a husband who wrote powerful words about his deceased wife, and spoke candidly about a deplorable president who again proved he has not an ounce of empathy or any ability to contain his worst instincts as a human being.

I read my copy in the sunshine today with the breeze making for a comfortable afternoon.  The weather was the only thing that tempered my mood while reading another truly despicable action of Donald Trump.

“Please delete those tweets,” the widower begged in a letter last week to Twitter’s chief executive, Jack Dorsey. “My wife deserves better.”

These paragraphs from that letter.

The frequency, intensity, ugliness, and promulgation of these horrifying lies ever increases on the internet. These conspiracy theorists, including most recently the President of the United States, continue to spread their bile and misinformation on your platform disparaging the memory of my wife and our marriage. President Trump on Tuesday tweeted to his nearly 80 million followers alluding to the repeatedly debunked falsehood that my wife was murdered by her boss, former U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough. The son of the president followed and more directly attacked my wife by tweeting to his followers as the means of spreading this vicious lie.

I’m asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong to him — the memory of my dead wife — and perverted it for perceived political gain. I would also ask that you consider Lori’s niece and two nephews who will eventually come across this filth in the future. They have never met their Aunt and it pains me to think they would ever have to “learn” about her this way.

My wife deserves better.

 

Yes, Twitter, Lori Klausutis certainly does deserve better, nearly two decades after she died in a tragic accident that has morphed into a macabre and continuing nightmare for her husband, Timothy Klausutis.

The boogeyman plunging him and the family of his late wife into the very worst of memory holes is a conspiracy-theory-loving, twitchy-fingered and often shameless tweeter who also happens to be the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

“President Trump on Tuesday tweeted to his nearly 80 million followers alluding to the repeatedly debunked falsehood that my wife was murdered by her boss, former U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough. The son of the president followed and more directly attacked my wife by tweeting to his followers as the means of spreading this vicious lie,” wrote Mr. Klausutis, in a letter sent to Mr. Dorsey on Thursday that I obtained over the weekend.

###

Another solution being discussed inside Twitter is to label the tweets as false and link to myriad high-quality information and reporting that refute the tweets’ sinister insinuations. Sources told me that after initial hesitance in dealing with Mr. Trump’s tweets about Ms. Klausutis, the company has accelerated work on a more robust rubric around labeling and dealing with such falsehoods.

Again, top company executives hope that this placement of truth against lies will serve to cleanse the stain. I think this is both naïve and will be ineffective — most people’s experience tracks with that old axiom: A lie can travel halfway around the world while truth is still getting its shoes on.

In the digital age, that would be to the moon and back 347 times, of course, which is why I am supportive of the suggestion Mr. Klausutis makes in his letter to simply remove the offending tweets.

While the always thoughtful Mr. Dorsey has said previously that he has to hew to Twitter’s principles and rules, and that the company cannot spend all of its time reacting, its approach up until now results only in Twitter’s governance getting gamed by players like Mr. Trump, in ways that are both shameless and totally expected.

Donald Trump is the skid mark on this nation.  He remains an affront to decency and common sense.  He must be removed from office.

Elvis Presley And Donald Trump Should Not Be Used In Same Sentence–Generosity Of Spirit As To Why

Let me start by stating my headline is not a sentence.  And now onward.

This morning, as each weekday, I eat breakfast while watching Morning Joe.  I continually find the show insightful, filled with good vocabulary,  spots of humor, while the meat of news stories are examined.  I always walk away feeling either a bit more educated or heartened that a conviction of mine has been confirmed by someone I respect.  Additionally, I very much admire the hosts, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.  (I was a fan of Zbigniew Brzezinski going back to the presidency of Jimmy Carter.)

Long-time readers to this blog know I am honest in how I write, and never mince words about the views being shared.  So it does not please me now to need to take Scarborough to task  about his views of Donald Trump’s campaign rally last night.  He compared the rally to the final concerts of Elvis Presley.

The morning host spoke about what Trump did on stage with his old rhetoric from the 2016 campaign, the same use of stagecraft, along with the fervent applause for the familiar.  Then Scarborough linked it to the final months of concerts by the King of Rock and Roll.

Scarborough said that Trump’s “greatest hits” reminded him of the the half-hearted manner in which the singer, in late-career, overweight and the drug-addled played to his crowds.  I was not amused.

It’s Elvis in ‘77 sweating, trying to sing the old hits but his heart is just not in it. They know what he’s going to sing before he sings it. They know all the words and the guy who was once so exciting is now just dull.

Elvis, the gentlemen and consummate Southerner, being compared to a grifter was truly hard to stomach in the morning.  More so, because Scarborough thought it ‘cute enough’ to use in more than one throw-away line.  He really felt he had an analogy which worked.  It truly did not.

The main reason I differ with Scarborough is that Elvis was told to slow down on the hectic touring schedule but said there were so many parts to his musical entourage counting on him for a paycheck he felt a need to continue.  Elvis loved being Elvis, but he also knew how much others counted on him to perform.

Contrast that with Trump who showcases himself on a daily basis as only looking out for himself, at the exclusion to everyone and everything else.

We can also contrast the two regarding how they treated people they encountered.  Elvis was known to go car shopping and buy autos for strangers and have keys handed to them.  In July of 1975, two years before his death, Elvis was shopping for friends and family at Memphis’ Madison Cadillac, his preferred dealer. A bank teller, Mennie L. Person, was admiring Elvis’ limo, parked outside, when the man himself wandered over. He took her into the showroom, said “pick one out”.

Manners is another way that Elvis outclassed the one who held a rally last night.  With the values of ‘Yes ma’am’ and ‘No sir’ Elvis was always a product of his roots and solid upbringing.  Elvis was born in a shotgun shack but knew what style and decency meant when dealing with people who were not rich.  When we think of the word character and Elvis we have a list of words which come to mind.

When we think of word character and Trump we also have a list of words which come to mind. 

The two lists are vastly different. 

Finally  it would not be in the style of this blogger to not make my case with Elvis himself.  In the final weeks of his life came this performance below. This underscores why Joe Scarborough is most definitely wrong when he chose to use Elvis this morning in his analogy.  This was, at the time, a newly recorded song on Moody Blue–an album printed in see-through blue vinyl which I own–and proves the incredible vocal range and performing prowess of Elvis.  Today Elton John and Paul McCartney sing the oldies in concert , and Elvis did the same for his adoring crowds.  But he also was always venturing forward as this video clearly demonstrates.

I trust Scarborough will allow his audience an apology Thursday morning for his rudeness today.

Elvis Presley showed, time and again, what generosity of spirit looks like.  And he wore it with a smile and humble heart.

Joe Scarborough is wrong.  Period.

Good News About Morning Joe

Morning Joe is a weekday staple for many Americans.  We never miss the team in our home, and from the ratings, neither do you.

Joe, Mika, Willie, Mike, and the countless other faces which provide insight and institutional memory start off our days with conversation that matters.  Without pandering to any political party the dialogue is smart, peppered with facts and logic thus making it the perfect place for reasonable viewers to gain information.

It was announced today that Morning Joe just received the highest ratings in MSNBC’s 21-year history from 6-9 A.M.   Morning Joe’s audience was the only among their competitors to grow in 2018.

Awesome!  We will see them back on the air Monday.

 

Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough Married In Speculator Location!

I love these two and wish them the very best.

At 5:40 p.m. on Saturday evening, Mika Brzezinski hurried out of a black S.U.V. a few dozen yards from the back entrance of the National Archives. An umbrella was popped open for her, and she walked into the historic library in order to get married to her longtime Morning Joe colleague and partner, Joe Scarborough, in front of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights.

Part of the popularity of the Scarzinski relationship derives from the fact that, despite their prominent roles as hosts of perhaps the most influential news program in American politics, their romance has been handled with militant discretion. The couple, who got engaged last spring at the Hotel Du Cap in Antibes, France, never talk about their relationship on air, are seldom photographed together at social events, or spotted at restaurants, on vacation, at parties. This discipline has lent the duo an unexpected celebrity air, rendering them a sort of Branjelina of the political-media in-crowd—a credential more or less certified when Donald Trump offered to have them married at the White House during a visit in 2017. They declined the offer.

Brzezinski wore a stark-white, tea-length Milly dress, with delicate, polka-dotted lace sleeves that swept into a sweetheart neckline, created by her friend, designer Michelle Smith. Her shoes were custom-made by designer Layla-Joy Williams, who flew to her factory in Brazil with fabric from the dress to make sure the pointy-toed stilettos were just right. Scarborough, for his part, wore a black Zegna suit from his on-air rotation, what he called a Robert Mueller-approved white shirt, and a traditional black wedding tie. He affixed a boutonniere with a white orchid and green sprigs to his lapel.

Funniest Line Today About Donald Trump

It was Mika Brzezinski who made the remark during a long segment on Morning Joe about trade tariffs.  The line was perfectly delivered in an understated fashion.  A line, though subtle, which was perfectly aimed at the under-educated rube in the White House.  A line, so short, and yet so like a precision missile aimed for the larger truth.

“You think he (Trump) is thinking about Milton Friedman?”

 

Seriously Chilling Words From Morning Joe About President Trump’s Dictatorial Aims

What President Trump has proven in his months in the White House is his disdain for the Constitution, his desire to undermine our political institutions, and his continued assault on the free press.  His contempt for our democratic institutions can not be questioned.

Now with military confrontation against North Korea becoming ever more certain there is a beleif being raised which once was only voiced in homes and small dinner parties but now is being stated openly and plainly by the most important morning news show in the nation.

This morning Joe Scarborough stated it at the end of the first segment.  He was speaking about the war on the Korean peninsula and then continued with this comment.

“…be on guard after that since he is contemptuous of the Constitution that if a war does begin we have to be very careful about what steps he takes at home domestically if he does start that war.”

Mika Brezezinski then stated what millions feel by saying “Well, we agree with that.”

It is a chilling and awful time in this nation with President Trump sitting in the Oval Office and too many of his voters are not capable of understanding why that is so.