'We’re doing our jobs'

"We will have a new president soon. He was elected after waging an outright assault on the press. Animosity toward the media was a centerpiece of his campaign. He described the press as “disgusting,” 'scum,' 'lowlifes.' He called journalists the 'lowest form of humanity.' That apparently wasn’t enough. So he called us 'the lowest form of life.' In the final weeks of the campaign he labeled us 'the enemies.'

"It is no wonder that some members of our staff at The Washington Post and at other news organizations received vile insults and threats of personal harm so worrisome that extra security was required. It is no wonder that one Internet venue known for hate and misogyny and white nationalism posted the home addresses of media executives, clearly inviting vandalism or worse. Thankfully, nothing that I know of happened to anyone. Then there was the yearlong anti-Semitic targeting of journalists on Twitter."  - Marty Baron, Editor, Washington Post

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Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community (NSA and FBI?).Just like Russia

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2017

@realDonaldTrump what efficient tweeting! Attempting to delegitimize two major papers AND two intelligence agencies in 140 characters!

— Alex Zalben (@azalben) February 15, 2017

Trump took on the Washington Post, the New York Times and the intelligence community in one tweet this morning. Methinks this will not end well.

But as far as Washington Post editor Marty Baron is concerned, when dealing with Trump, it's strictly business, not personal....this despite the fact that Trump - in Baron's words - waged "an outright assault on the press" during his campaign. (See quote above)

“The way I view it is, we’re not at war with the administration, we’re at work. We’re doing our jobs,” [Baron] said at the Code Media conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, Calif.

The Intelligence Community is another matter altogether.

Now we go nuclear. IC war going to new levels. Just got an EM fm senior IC friend, it began: "He will die in jail."https://t.co/e6FxCclVqT

— John Schindler (@20committee) February 15, 2017

‘He will die in jail’: Intelligence community ready to ‘go nuclear’ on Trump, senior source says

'Nothing's riding on this except the, uh, First Amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country.'

“Lock her up, that's right! Damn right, exactly right. … And you know why we're saying that? We're saying that because, if I, a guy who knows this business, if I did a tenth of what [Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton] did, I would be in jail today.” -Michael Flynn, July 20, 2016 at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

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Hillary Clinton should have been prosecuted and should be in jail. Instead she is running for president in what looks like a rigged election

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 15, 2016

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Via the New York Times: The F.B.I. had been examining Mr. Flynn’s phone calls as he came under growing questions about his interactions with Russian officials and his management of the National Security Council. The blackmail risk envisioned by the Justice Department would have stemmed directly from Mr. Flynn’s attempt to cover his tracks with his bosses. The Russians knew what had been said on the call; thus, if they wanted Mr. Flynn to do something, they could have threatened to expose the lie if he refused.

The Justice Department’s warning to the White House was first reported on Monday night by The Washington Post.

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"You know the results of the latest Gallup Poll? Half the country never even heard of the word Watergate. Nobody gives a shit. You guys are probably pretty tired, right? Well, you should be. Go on home, get a nice hot bath. Rest up... 15 minutes. Then get your asses back in gear. We're under a lot of pressure, you know, and you put us there. Nothing's riding on this except the, uh, First Amendment of the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country. Not that any of that matters, but if you guys fuck up again, I'm going to get mad. Goodnight." - Jason Robards as Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee in "All the President's Men"

Former Miami Herald reporter Marty Merzer has emerged from retirement to track the Trump administration

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Marty Merzer

Journalist Marty Merzer joined the Miami Herald in 1979 and retired from the paper in 2008.

In his more than 29 years at One Herald Plaza, he covered hundreds of stories, including the unraveling of four Miami-based airlines, "the civil war in Beirut, the famine in Ethiopia and the Sudan, the Challenger disaster and the space shuttle’s return to flight, Hurricane Andrew, the Gulf War and the Scud missile attacks on Israel, the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the Mars Pathfinder mission, John Glenn’s return to flight, the entire 37-day impasse in Florida’s 2000 presidential election."

"In 1992, [Merzer's] work during Hurricane Andrew helped The Herald win the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. In 2000, his work during the Elian Gonzalez affair helped The Herald win another Pulitzer Prize."

Since retiring and moving to northern Florida, the past nine years or so for Merzer have been mostly uneventful.

That is, until Donald Trump arrived on the scene.

Six days after Trump was sworn in, Merzer emerged from retirement and began posting on his Facebook page, the first of what he calls "The Minority President update."

With his daily posts, Merzer began keeping track of the constant stream of insanity - there's no other way to phrase it - associated with the new Trump administration.

After about a week or so of sharing his thoughts with just his Facebook friends, someone convinced Merzer to go "bigly" with what he now calls the "Minority President Report."

The "MPR" is perfect for anyone who finds keeping up with the Trump administration to be a tad exhausting.

Today, via email, I asked Merzer a series of questions about the MPR.

His responses:

1) After a long and storied career as a journalist, what made you decide to start a blog focusing on the Trump administration, instead of just venting with an occasional Facebook post?

It started as a standard Facebook post or two on my personal page that rounded up three or four breaking news events that seemed beyond belief. A few people started lobbying for it to become a regular, daily thing, but I was reluctant to commit to that. Though I retired from the Herald eight years ago, I’m not really as retired as many people seem to think. I still take regular contract-writing work and I’m kept pretty busy with family and other obligations, and I wasn’t crazy about being saddled with another daily duty. But each day delivered rapid-fire bursts of new provocations and, almost despite myself, my fingers kept typing, and here I am, pretty much locked into a daily feature. I will say that it’s somewhat therapeutic. We each resist and protest in our own way, and I guess this is mine. If nothing else, maybe it’s helping others understand that they’re not alone. Maybe it’ll help, just a little.

Also, outside of New York and Washington, the media environment obviously is not what it used to be. In some places, it’s still somewhat adequate, but in a lot of places, it's just piss-poor, and that helped get us into this mess in the first place. So, a roundup like this of daily developments might actually have some news utility, even if mine contains some tone and snark.

1A: Why the dedicated page?

Within a week or so, I had upwards of 45 people asking to be tagged on each post, so they would see it right away. That took forever because you have to do it manually. So, our daughter, Allie Merzer Fleming, who's professionally active in political and media circles up here in Tallahassee, created the dedicated Facebook page and we advised readers how to set it up for instantaneous notifications of new posts.

2) You've covered just about everything in your 35 years as a journalist. But were you prepared for, or shocked by the campaign and specifically, the events that have taken place since January 20th?

Given the election results, I think we all expected something like this, but the speed and the incompetence and the ill-will and the sheer, overwhelming mendacity with which they've moved on so many simultaneous fronts — no one could have anticipated that.

3) You have two wonderful grandchildren, including an 8 year old grandson who is smart as a whip. Is he aware of of what's going on with our president? Do you discuss the current president with him, and if so, what are his thoughts? What's your advice for any parent trying to explain Trump to a child?

Sol is named after my dad and I think everyone who knows us will agree that he and I have a special relationship. He’s sharp. He picks stuff up, and he draws keen insights and conclusions. I’ve told this story before. On the day after the election, as we drove from gymnastics to Hebrew school, Sol asked: "Poppa, if Trump tries to do bad things, can anyone stop him?” I can sense moments when I know I better get the answer right, because it's going to be remembered. I said: "Well, yes, I think so. We have courts and judges and the Constitution..." Sol said: "And the Bill of Rights." Me: "Right, courts and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights." Sol: "So, Martin Luther King. If Trump tries to change the things Martin Luther King fought for, the courts can stop him?" Me: "Yes, we have very good judges, and they will stop him from violating the Constitution and the Bill of Rights." Sol, after thinking it through: "OK, can we listen to the Beatles?" Which we did.

Just last week, I asked Sol if he remembered that conversation and he did, virtually word for word. And then, I showed Sol a video clip of the federal judge in Seattle who told Trump where he could stick his travel ban. Solly got it. He found it reassuring.

4) Finally, given your almost 4 decades in the business, what does your gut tell you about how all this will end?

A helluva lot of damage already has been done — not only on the policy front, but to what we’ve understood to be the fundamental, civic, humane basis of our society and our republic. Before this is over, more damage will be inflicted, and it’s going to take some time to repair it. I am appalled that, already, we’ve managed to create so many mean, greedy, unprincipled, angry and, in some cases, utterly ignorant people in this country.

When and how do we repair it? Half the time, I’m certain that there is no line that can be crossed for congressional Republicans, that they have no principles, and that they’ll never act — they’re face-down in the Kool-Aid. But the other half of the time, I’m thinking that they’re just keeping him around long enough to pass and sign their Draconian agenda and then they’ll cut him loose through impeachment.

Bottom line: I think Trump gets impeached or resigns or invents a medical malady, and he gets out of there within two years, taking some of the worst players with him. That, of course, leaves us with Pence, who in some ways is worse because Pence actually has core beliefs, all of which are ugly. On the other hand, Pence may not be clinically insane, so that’s what passes these days as an upside.

I've embedded today's MPR below, but you can follow the page everyday by clicking here.

Trump and the art of the awkward creepy handshake

Abe: Ok, you can let go now
Trump: I own Japan now.
Abe: That's not how this works
Trump: I'm sorry I dont understand Chinese
Abe: Fuck you https://t.co/dnUinvxNh3

— Efren (@GsanchezEfren) February 10, 2017

Lt. Javier Ortiz, the Miami Police Department's biggest social media whore, has a mancrush on President Donald Trump

Miami Police Lt. Javier Ortiz's love for Donald Trump
is binding and unconditional.

Some police officers spend entire careers without ever showing up on the media's radar screen or being mentioned in a newspaper story.

But Miami police Lt. Javier Ortiz is not one of those cops.

Ortiz who joined the department about a dozen years ago as just another cop just doing his job, was first mentioned in a 2005 Miami Herald story that noted Ortiz had the mug shot of a wanted rapist on his cell phone's home screen.

But in the past few years, hardly a month has passed that Ortiz doesn't make news.

A 2013 Miami New Times story said that Ortiz - who was president of Miami's Fraternal Order of Police - "has officially now become one of the oddest characters in Miami."

In the past month he's been accused of abusing his power by NFL player Jonathon Vilma. He blamed teenager Israel Hernandez for his own death. News of a controversy in which he allegedly illegally beat and Tasered a tourist during Ultra Music Festival in 2011 and filed a false police report after the fact has reemerged. (And that's just the recent controversial things this guy is connected to.)

Well, now through his power as police union prez, he's openly telling potential recruits to stay away from the Miami Police Department.

Early last year, muckraking blogger Al Crespo reported that some were calling Ortiz "little more than a media whore looking to enhance his personal image through his use of incendiary comments [on social media.]"

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Dec 21, 2016: Miami Police Union Chief Javier Ortiz Reprimanded for Doxxing Private Citizen

Nov 16, 2016: Miami's Police Union Chief, Who Has Led Cop Protests, Slams Anti-Trump Demonstrators

 Sept 2, 2016: Miami Police Union Chief Javier Ortiz Sued for Allegedly Beating Man During Miami Heat Championship Celebration

Aug 18, 2016: Banned From Ultra After $400,000 Brutality Lawsuit, Miami Police Union President Javier Ortiz Fights for Back Pay

April 25, 2016: Miami Police Union's Threatened Boycott of Beyoncé's Concert Didn't Work Out

Aug 14, 2015: Police Union Smears Woman Who Posted Video of Police Beating on Facebook

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Had you visited Ortiz's Twitter page last year, you might have seen this....

...here is @JavierOrtizFOP, supposedly a public servant, calling the President a violent Muslim. pic.twitter.com/or7YusQfM8

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) February 5, 2016

But since Donald Trump's election last November, Ortiz has redefined social media whoredom.

Ortiz's Twitter feed - which has been renamed to @MiamiFOP20 - at one time a hot mess of disconnected thoughts - is now a place for adoring tributes to our mentally unstable commander-in-chief, Donald Trump.

You'd think that a career law enforcement officer like Ortiz who's trained to spot criminal behavior, would steer clear of a draft-dodging, self-professed sexual predator.

But with Trump's election, Javi's Twitter feed is all Donald, all the time.

Click all images to enlarge.

Occasionally, Ortiz's Twitter feed takes a bizarre, religious turn when he re-tweets stuff like this written about a President who, despite there being little evidence of him ever having read the Bible or stepping inside a church.

Ortiz, it seems is perfectly fine with religion....just as long as it's his religion.

Last June, in a Facebook post, Ortiz clumsily tried to connect President Obama to terrorist acts.

After Facebook removed the post, Ortiz re-posted it on Twitter.

In July, he re-tweeted a tweet that appeared to make a connection between President Obama and Islam.

The year before, in 2015, Ortiz attacked an assistant Miami police chief because of her Muslim faith.

At the time, Ortiz wrote that “Religious and political views have no business being reflected when wearing a police uniform.”

But because Ortiz tweets and posts on Facebook as a union official,  he's not held to the same standard as other police officers.

Which means he gets away with re-tweeting garbage like this.....

Today, Donald Trump proved, once again, that he has an 'inability to think for an extended time about anybody but himself'

In a March 16, 2016 column, New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks wrote, "....major Republicans are raising their heads and highlighting [Donald] Trump’s actual vulnerability: his inability to think for an extended time about anybody but himself."

We saw that today when Trump turned a White House event marking Black History Month into an attack on the media.

In a post on the Toronto Star's website headlined "Donald Trump just gave a Black History Month speech about the persecution of Donald Trump," Washington correspondent Daniel Dale wrote:

WASHINGTON—Happy Black History Month, everyone. Have you heard about the greatness and persecution of Donald J. Trump?

The president of the United States held an “African-American History Month listening session” in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Wednesday. He began with a five-minute monologue that was more about himself — his campaign, his alleged mistreatment by the media, his popularity — than it was about African-Americans.

Trump’s third paragraph, for example, started with a single sentence about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It was followed by 10 sentences of grievance about his alleged mistreatment by the media.

Note that in the video above, Trump calls the media "very dishonest people."

At another point during the event Trump calls CNN "fake news."

This from a man who for years perpetuated the lie that America's first African-American president was not born in the United States.