Due to a nap on the couch after dinner, I was awake way too early this morning, and on MSNBC was Morning Joe.
You may remember that when questioned, Trump said he watched it. It comes on at something like 3 AM California time, so during a 6 AM breakfast for Trump.
Well, Joe was talking with a set of guests, and the general theme was “Get Bannon” via “guilt by innuendo association”. It was the usual Slur Slime Line. But with an interesting twist. It was largely Concern Trolling about “white racist anti-Semites”. Now they did learn that attempting to directly slime Trump with that didn’t work, so they had a new angle. Failure to deny.
So it was the old story of somewhere some white supremacist or anti-Semite was pro Trump, and they were questioning why Bannon (and Trump) didn’t disavow the guy(s). Then Joe had this slightly sly glance at the camera and said something like “It is that old saying ‘He that does not deny, affirms’.” Well I did a web search and could find no such “old saying” in the top layer of searches. Confirm / Deny pulls up a lot of “I can neither confirm nor deny”, but Affirm / Deny just gets junk.
They then spent a while tisk-tisking about how unfortunate it was that Trump and Bannon were not out there denying and rejecting these folks. So in a way “picking a fight” for Trump and Bannon to start and get sucked into… or to be implied endorsers if they didn’t start the fight.
So that got me wondering:
Is that “old saying” just made up crap to attempt to maneuver Trump into more “Have you stopped beating your wife?” responses? ( You can’t answer with either yes, or no, without being slimed). Knowing Trump watches, have they started trying to exploit that to game him?
Now it is clearly the case that the only ways you can deal with that kind of trap question (or trap concern trolling) is to either just ignore it and get on with your own agenda, or to directly attack the question and questioner. Shine the light of truth on the nature of the question and request the motivation of a person who would ask it. (And no, a positive affirmation of the negative of the question doesn’t work well. “Have you stopped beating your wife?” then “I love my wife.” comes off lame, with the vague odor of dodge about it.)
Trump is a bright guy, so I’m pretty sure he wont be manipulated this way. Yet there was a clear “play” being made. The unclear part being a play for or against whom. Trump, or the audience?
For my part, it left me very unimpressed with the host (and thus the show). Just more slime and innuendo crap. I can only hope that Trump watches this as Opposition Research and with a large bucket of salt near by… or just doesn’t watch it any more:
Aide: Trump stopped morning tweets because he’s not watching ‘Morning Joe’
By Paulina Firozi – 02/27/17 07:52 PM ESTPresident Trump made the decision to cut back on his early morning tweets as part of an effort to regain focus following the first month of his administration, according to a new report.
According to the Associated Press, Trump has decreased his use of Twitter in the past few days, ahead of Tuesday’s address to Congress, especially in the early morning.
One adviser told the AP the change is a result of Trump no longer watching MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
[…]
Gee… Ignoring Joe and getting on with his own agenda.
Which oddly is what I’m about to do… and what millions of others are doing.
Insult me. Insult my beliefs. Do trap and slime. Just why should I watch your show?
Well, that’s interesting, I just jumped over to Fox & Friends, and there is Trump being interviewed and talking about costs in the government, getting them down, implementing successes in government. Ah, much better.
Musings from the Chiefio 
Forget the slime molds at MSN. Trump’s real enemies are the enemies of the people at NAS.
A new paper is planned for publication by 1 April 2017, the Centennial Celebration of the birth of PAUL KAZUO KURODA, the nuclear geochemist who finessed combined efforts of the UN and UNAS (United National Academies of Sciences) to hide reality from the public with blatantly false and illogical Standard Nuclear, Solar and Cosmic Models.
Reversible transformations of alpha and omega forms of atoms, stars and the cosmos,
1. Compacted electron-proton pairs (neutrons) with Z/A =0, and
2. Expanded electron-proton pairs (hydrogen atoms) with Z/A = 1
will hopefully be freely available for everyone to see and understand.
“Have you stopped beating your wife?”
No, she’s a masochist.
By divine coincidence, 1 April 2017 will be an appropriate time to celebrate:
1. An end to seven decades of deceit disguised as “97% consensus science“;
2. Birth of the scientist who finessed efforts by the UN and the UNAS to hide reality; &
3. The beginning of a new scientific revolution and a new stage of human evolution based on appreciation, rather than fear, of the power that creates and sustains atoms, lives and planets.
I believe Trump’s tactic of always hitting back and never letting the lie find a home, is the correct path forward.
I agree, Glenn999. President Trump will need great courage and wisdom to reverse more than seven decades (24 OCT 1945 – 28 FEB 2017) of blatantly false and illogical Standard Models of the Nucleus, the Sun & the Cosmos, disguised by the UN and the UNAS as “97% consensus science.”
@Oliver:
I see you are being a bit OCD again… We’ve all heard that message a hundred times now… You probably don’t want to tire your audience… just sayin’…
@E.M. 12:37
Since September of 2008 (got DSL) I’ve tried that bit of advice with at least 3 folks. Even, I think, Oliver. All of the others have been banned from the regular web sites I read. They were, however, obnoxious.
We quit watching TV about 10 years ago, so “Morning Joe” is an unknown. Sat in a medical office reception room this week — looked at People Magazine — knew almost none of the fancy people therein. Strange.
In Australia they used: “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept”. What’s good for the goose, is good for the gander. Attack is sometimes the best form of defence.
The standard you walk past
https://lovefreedomtruth.com/2016/09/the-standard-you-walk-past/
@John F.:
I’ve not watched it before (mostly due to it being “on” when I’m most likely to be asleep). I’m not impressed with what I saw. Bunch of political chowder heads nattering at each other. I can do that myself ;-)
Yeah, the spouse and I now regularly see somebody on some Glory-To-Them thing somewhere and ask “Who’s that?” to which the other responds “I don’t know either”… I pretty much only “watch” the news (in that it is running in the background and I look at it if something big happens, like quakes, volcanoes, Yet Another War…). The spouse watches a very few cop / mystery shows. All the rest is a vacuum… Yet sometimes you can’t avoid things like the Golden Glob or the O-scares glitterati being put on display somewhere. Then the “who?” moment comes. Often at the checkout stand.
Some lumpkin face is wrapped in a dress costing more than the checker makes in a year and trying to look important for being a pretty face that can parrot lines they don’t understand. I’m supposed to be impressed, or even interested, in them; or who they are having conjugal visits with this week. I’m not.
@Robert:
Interesting phrase. Thanks for teaching it.
That article doesn’t pull any punches either. Quite the indictment I’d say…
When I want to influence Trump I’ll leave comments in the appropriate places on Breitbart. Two or three versions of the same at different places so if they are censoring (they do) who ever is doing the job is more likely to remember me. And I keep at it for days on similar articles.
I can’t be sure I having an effect. But maybe.
News versus opinion. I prefer knowledge to stupidity. I guess that is why I do not watch Morning Joe or his ilk.
How about a President intentionally trolling the Media (ie two can play this game fellas)
He is going to teach them to check sources and validate stories or they are going to continue to destroy their own credibility as reliable outlets for news.
Maybe they will learn not to just run to the broadcast booth as soon as they hear something they want to be true.
http://www.dailywire.com/news/14026/trump-trolled-media-hard-and-theyre-furious-joseph-curl