Category Archives: Etiquette

Turns Out Comey Looks Down At Trump In Every Way

Donald Trump, Ethics, Etiquette, Federalism, Government, Intelligence

At 6’8”, 2.03m, James Comey towers over other mortals. Slender and clean cut, Comey cuts quite a figure. He carries himself and conducts himself like a patrician. But he’s also a snob who looks down at others, and certainly at the president.

A friend says James Comey “felt it was his job to protect the FBI from Trump,” and that Comey was “‘disgusted’ by the Trump hug.”

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You described Comey’s concerns as — quote — “improper contacts and interferences from a group of people he, Comey, didn’t regard as honorable.”

What gave you that sense that he didn’t view these people as honorable people?

BENJAMIN WITTES: It was written on every line in his face. It was evident in the disapproving tone that he took when he described them.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Including the president?

BENJAMIN WITTES: Oh, very much so. The color of wallpaper was that these were not honorable people, and that protecting the FBI from them was his day job.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You write about the famous hug, when Comey was asked to come with a bunch of different law enforcement agents to the White House soon after the inauguration.

BENJAMIN WITTES: Yes. So, Comey really didn’t want to go that meeting. And there were a lot of Democrats who kind of blame him for Trump. So, he was particularly sensitive to the idea of a sort of show of intimacy or closeness with Trump. That said, he didn’t feel that he could say no to an invitation from the president, particularly one that went generally to law enforcement senior officials. He really wanted to kind of blend in and not be singled out. And he’s 6’8”. So, when you’re…

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Kind of tough to do that.

BENJAMIN WITTES: And when you’re 6’8”, it’s really hard to blend in. And he stands in the part of the room that is as far from Trump as is physically possible to be, and also against blue drapes.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: He chose that spot?

BENJAMIN WITTES: He chose that spot because it was — almost like a chameleon. And then, at the end, right at the end, Trump singles him out in a fashion that he regarded as sort of calculated to maximally drive home this sensitivity of Democratic voters.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: He’s become more famous than me.

BENJAMIN WITTES: And he extends his hand kind of preemptively, and Trump grabs the hand and kind of pulls him into a hug, but the hug is entirely one-sided. And Comey was just completely disgusted by the episode. He thought it was an intentional attempt to compromise him in public, in a way that would sow and emphasize concerns that half of the electorate had about him and the bureau.

MORE at PBS.

UPDATED (1/27): Tornado Trump

Donald Trump, Etiquette, Government, Homeland Security, IMMIGRATION, Islam

He takes no salary, because he views his work as a labor of love for his country and countrymen. His work ethic is as wicked as his co-worker kids promised it would be. And he is keeping his promises to the voters, so far. Is President Donald Trump for real?

Here are the presidential actions taken by President Trump in the first days of his presidency.

UPDATE (1/27): “President Donald Trump signed a sweeping new executive order Friday to suspend refugee arrivals and impose tough new controls on travelers from seven Muslim countries.” Amen. Full text.

Presidential Actions

Executive Order on January 25, 2017

Executive Order: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements

Executive Order on January 25, 2017

Executive Order: Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States

Presidential Memorandum on January 24, 2017

Presidential Memorandum Streamlining Permitting and Reducing Regulatory Burdens for Domestic Manufacturing

Presidential Memorandum on January 24, 2017

Presidential Memorandum Regarding Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline

Presidential Memorandum on January 24, 2017

Presidential Memorandum Regarding Construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline

Executive Order on January 24, 2017

Executive Order Expediting Environmental Reviews and Approvals For High Priority Infrastructure Projects

Presidential Memorandum on January 24, 2017

Presidential Memorandum Regarding Construction of American Pipelines

Presidential Memorandum on January 23, 2017

Presidential Memorandum Regarding the Hiring Freeze

Presidential Memorandum on January 23, 2017

Presidential Memorandum Regarding Withdrawal of the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations and Agreement

Presidential Memorandum on January 23, 2017

Presidential Memorandum Regarding the Mexico City Policy

Presidential Memorandum on January 20, 2017

Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies

Executive Order on January 20, 2017

Executive Order Minimizing the Economic Burden of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Pending Repeal

Ta-ta TPP:

The time is ripe to say the same to the UN:

Fake News Media think that because they lie about crucial issues, everyone else does:

Trump has unintended, wonderful consequences:

Raising the possibility of voter fraud: Fake News try to stigmatize it:

Making America’s Kids Great Again

Conservatism, Critique, Ethics, Etiquette, Family, Gender

A change of pace for a change is “Making America’s Kids Great Again,” now on The Daily Caller. An excerpt:

… True-blue cultural traditionalism doesn’t deify kids. Deification of The Child is the hallmark of an infantile—perhaps even an immoral—society, because inverting the natural order will often result in great social ill.

“In America,” observed Oscar Wilde, “the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience.”

In China, on the other hand, they’re inclined to consider a youth-obsessed society such as ours a silly society. The standard inquiry, I am told, made by Taiwanese engineers about their American counterparts in hardware engineering is, “How many grey hairs and no-hairs are in the group?” Unlike their youth-worshiping American colleagues, these wise Confucians reason that the presence of “grey hairs and no-hairs” in the collaborating high-tech team bodes better for the project. …

… Read the rest. “Making America’s Kids Great Again” is now on The Daily Caller. Share and Like.

And consider this familiar vignette, by way of an example: Today at Costco (that place would be perfect if it banned women), a mother and her young son straddled a counter I wanted to access. I waited patiently, my cart parked out of the way to allow others easy access. But there Miss Mom stood, oblivious to every other shopper, focused on teaching her brat consumerism. When I used to take my little girl to the local supermarket in South Africa, I taught her awareness not of the products, although there was some of that (and a lot of calculating the change we were owned from a note). But mainly, my daughter learned civility, social skills. If an elderly lady dropped something, the little girl was to pick it up. She was not to yell her demands out loud, although we’d always have a treat. She was to learn to make way, allow others access, say “excuse me,” if she bumped somebody or wanted a person to give way, and generally show awareness of her social milieu. Today, moms impart nothing but that the kid is the center of the universe, there to satisfy his contrived curiosity, his insatiable wants; do his label reading and list making at deafening decibels; get in everybody’s way, and generally impose himself on other shoppers.

UPDATED (11/20): Boycott Hamilton. Brandon Dixon: ‘Shut-Up And Sing’

Art, Etiquette, Politics, Pop-Culture, Propaganda

Everybody’s a preacher and a scold these days; nobody is professional. Nobody sings well, tells a good joke, writes proficiently or acts well anymore. It’s all polluted. It all bleeds into A Giant Finger Wagging and Lecturing.

Brandon Dixon is pathetic and insufferably pompous, not “powerful,” as Rolling Stone called the actor, who saw fit to lecture VP Mike Pence, who was naive enough attend the crappy Broadway show, “Hamilton.”

I won’t repeat the trite stupidities and cliches that tumbled from Dixon’s mouth. Read them if you like:

The cast of Hamilton addressed Mike Pence with a powerful speech after the Vice President-elect attended the Friday night performance of the Tony-winning hip-hop musical.

Pence had initially received an icy reception from the New York audience, with video of the Indiana governor being roundly booed upon entering the Richard Rodgers Theater quickly circulating on social media.

However, upon the show’s curtain call, the cast and crew of Hamilton, led by actor Brandon Victor Dixon, had a strong message to deliver to the VP-elect. “There’s nothing to boo here, we’re all here sharing a story of love,” Dixon said. “We have a message for you, sir.”

UPDATE (11/20): It’s all about etiquette; that and professionalism.