Out, Liar

Stupid

   That's a word I rarely use, yet it seems the only appropriate term to describe the actions and attitudes of He Who Should Not be Named, even as he sits in the Oval Office in Washington DC.
   As the twitter in chief, also known as Chief Twit, he ignores ordinary civil, moral and even legal conventions of  a modern society as he attacks those who annoy him in the smallest way.
   This is especially stupid when launching insult, abuse and vilification against those who buy ink by the barrel and newsprint by the ton, as well as those who host their own network TV shows.
   His latest attack came just this morning, against Mika Brzezinski, co-host with Joe Scarborough of a news and talk show on MSNBC, referring to them as "low IQ Crazy Mika, along with Crazy Joe," using other vulgar terms about her and claiming he saw her "bleeding badly from a facelift."
   This followed criticism of debate moderator Megyn Kelly, who was the target of his claim that she did a poor job because she was "bleeding from her wherever, " a clear reference to her menstrual cycle.
   Are such tactics the mark of a civilized, courteous person at any level of society, much less the president of the United States of America?
   His lies have been tracked and documented, so much so the that New York Times devoted an entire page listing each of them, beginning the day he was inaugurated. Moreover, the newspaper left out any untruths that could have been mistakes, a result of misspeaking or from a lack of full knowledge.
   This left only full-blown, flat-out lies, and the list still filled a full page.

   He has come under daily criticism from journalists and others for his tactics as he stretches the boundaries of acceptable claims and gone beyond the pale of veracity.
   The term "beyond the pale," by the way, goes back centuries to the days when foreigners invaded Ireland and built a wall, or palisade, to keep out the native Irish from their settlement in what is now Dublin.
   Add that to list of walls that don't work, including Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall that the Romans built in Britain to keep out the Scots, the Berlin Wall the Soviets built to keep unhappy Germans from leaving, and the partial fence and wall in America intended to keep out Hispanic migrants seeking a better life.

   The lesson here is that the more he assails as "fake news" any report that shows his policies are not working, or that disagrees with him in any way, the more the opposition builds and the sharper journalists' pencils get as they continue their criticism.
   Or as The Economist newspaper puts it in their upcoming July 4th issue, "He promised to fix America's politics, but it is more broken than ever. Badly needed reforms are failing. America's institutions are under attack and its political culture is poisonous. Sooner or later the harm will spread beyond the beltway and into the economy."

   Smart politicians know better than to attack reporters, even those who are clearly biased against them. Yet this new guy does so often, and praises those who are biased in his favor.
   A free press has a duty to hold government officials accountable for what they say and do. The appropriate response to criticism is for a politician to provide additional information to uphold and explain what he or she says and does.
   Like walls intended to keep out those you don't like, personal attacks and insults don't work, especially on journalists who, unlike some politicians, are very thick-skinned. They just sharpen their pencils, extend their vocabularies and hit the keyboards and airwaves even more.
   You can't fire them, Mr. President. They don't work for you. They work for the American people and a free society.
   But if you insist on a continuing barrage of insult and abuse in a weak attempt to get your own way ... bring it on. We have a large supply of pencils.