I found this on Facebook. A friend of mine posted it giving credit to a man named Ray Roth. I don’t know Ray but I sure appreciate the insight of knowing the legal definition of bullying.
When I was a principal I had to deal with bullying. I worked with some of the foremost experts in the nation. To understand the issue, you have to clarify the problem by operationally defining what bullying is. At its core, bullying is the use of one’s POWER to shame, physically or mentally harm, or to cause others to exclude or harm others. When 2 people of equal status (physically, mentally, socially, economically, etc) get into a dispute, it is peer conflict, not bullying. But, when one of the 2 people clearly has power over the other (they are bigger, more powerful, has more money, or had social status), and they use that power to harm others, it meets the definition of bullying (at least in 37 states – not Ky. which adopted a terrible definition).
Now apply this to our our president. He clearly has power over most, if not everyone, that he meets. He has economic power and has a history of using that to cheat small business owners out of goods and services. He has a history of sexually harassing and assaulting (video evidence of him bragging about it) women as well as shaming women. Now as president (the most powerful position in the world) he claims that people in the media are bullying him. By definition, that’s not possible! As the most powerful person in the world, and an elected position, the media (historically referred to as the “fourth estate” for its role as watchdog of the government) is suppose to watch and critique everything a president does. Obama was mercilessly attacked by media and others (especially Trump and his birther conspiracies) while his beautiful wife and kids were called apes and threatened.
Our thin-skinned bully-in-chief is now doing what all bullies do when confronted. There are 4 responses when you confront a bully. Only 1 results in any resolution:
1 – Denial – “I didn’t do anything wrong.” We see this in Trump all the time. The only time I recall him ever finally owning up to one of his lies was during the campaign when he finally had to admit that Obama was a citizen of the US.
2 – Minimizing – “All I did was ….” He continually justifies his behaviors by minimizing his own culpability in any action and usually follows up by saying: “Why aren’t they looking at what crooked Hillary…” or “Well the Obama administration…”
3 – Shifting Blame – “Yeah but he/she…” like above, but rather than using Obama or Clinton to make his offenses look less than, he uses it to show that his offenses are justified. Like Megan Kelly or Mika Brezinski, he has the right to shame them because he’s just “fighting back.”
4 – Accepting Responsibility – This is something we rarely see him do. But like the Obama birther claims, he couldn’t move on until he was willing to accept responsibility.
So, there you go. This president is clearly a bully (by legal definition). He must NOT be able to get by with this. The press MUST be supported in their job to hold him accountable. This MUST STOP!!!
I’ve never seen any evidence tRUMP is capable of accepting responsibility. He starts another fight when anyone tries to pressure him on issues. He would rather the media ask him about his character flaws, his tweets, his latest episode of bullying than ask about the issues.
When the media does pressure on issues, he stops letting them record press conferences. Arghhhhh!
He is nothing more – and nothing less – than a reality t.v. celebrity who is obsessed with his own media coverage.
There’s an old saying about – negative press is better than no press.
In Trump’s world – the worst thing to happen to him would be if the media suddenly stopped talking about him.
I suspect – that would totally destroy Trump. And that is sad – IMHO
What is more sad is the fact Trump still has White Evangelical Kristians worshipping him and eating up every word he spews as if it is Jesus-flavored cotton candy.
My real fear is – with each passing Trump Twitter Tweet – there is this small time period where people are shocked – but that wears off. So then Trump pushes the line of common decency even further.
At what point do Americans finally have their fill? Or is our society so wrapped up in themselves and conditioned to expect bad news – that we don’t have a bottom to our cesspool?
But why apologize when his Wife #3 will do all the excusing of his bad behavior?
Melania excused her boy’s 2005 video of him bragging he groped women’s p_____ and got away with it. In fact – Melania even sent so far as to blame Billy Bush for egging her little boy into saying that dirty talk.
Just these past few days – the same Wife #3 defended her boy when she said that her boy punches back hard when he is attacked – so basically, Mika and Joe deserved what they got.
Why would Trump feel he needs to apologize? He’s got his peeps to do the excuses for him.
Trump supporters don’t care about what he does or says. They don’t care what he does to the Office of the Presidency or the country or our world standing. The serial lying, misogyny, narcissism, sweetheart deals with foreign enemies, the tax breaks for his buddies, weekly junkets to his golf club, wiping out health care for millions of Americans, the creepy fascination with his daughter, corruption and collusion on a scale we’ve never witnessed, destruction of the planet, destroying the social contract. They don’t care. As long as he craps on people they don’t like. Anyone not like them. Keep doing that and he’s OK. He’s “Making America Great”.
There you have it. When political pundits said he ‘tapped into some Americans’ fears’ I think what they meant to say is ‘he tapped into a river of prejudice and hate that is deeper and darker than we ever imagined.’
That river of prejudice and hate has been at the core of our country since it’s founding – correct?
It’s just been emboldened since President Obama was our first black president. But more than that – Obama was a SUCCESSFUL two-term president.
That is something racists just cannot tolerate. Trump is more than just the result of that prejudice and hate – Trump is a sign to any and all ‘other Americans’ who dare to contemplate their running for president.
The KKK used a burning Christian Cross as their symbol of their hate, prejudice and violence. Who are the core supporters of Trump? White Christians (led by Jerry Falwell Jr, Franklin Graham and Pat Robertson).
Maybe Trump is their version of their old burning Christian Cross symbol?
BTW – Obama is more popular today than he was during his two terms in office and he is admired around the world. Obama draws huge crowds when he has been out speaking publicly.
That has got to be the worst thing to hear – if you’re Trump. We all know how Trump obsesses about who is the most popular and the crowd size.
Trump is using his “gutter” tweets this morning to try to distract you from these major stories of the week:
1) The latest version of Trumpcare stalled in the Senate. The details of the bill were even too much for Republicans to stomach. When Mitch McConnell finally released his version of the bill from behind closed doors, many Republicans balked at the deep cuts to Medicaid. Estimates released on Monday by the Congressional Budget Office that 22 million Americans would lose coverage under the proposal only furthered doubts. Rallies on Capitol Hill and at congressional offices across the country put pressure on key senators. Remember, this is only a temporary victory. McConnell is currently revising the bill and will be back with something dangerous. We need to keep up the pressure when Senators head back home for recess this week. (http://bit.ly/2tYGoAv)
2) Trump’s commission to investigate his trumped-up claims of voter fraud in the 2016 election requested states turn over personal information about everyone who has voted since 2006 — names, addresses, birthdates, political party, criminal history, and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers. The request came from commission co-chair Kris Kobach, the secretary of state in Kansas and a fervent believer that voter fraud is widespread despite decades of evidence to the contrary. Democratic and Republican election officials in nearly 30 states have already pushed back, questioning the legality of the request. Trump’s real purpose is to legitimize more voter suppression in 2018 and 2020 — ID and other laws that will minimize turnout of likely Democrats. Let your Governor and Secretary of State know that you don’t want your information shared with Trump’s bogus commission. (http://cnn.it/2svOr63)
3) We seem to be getting closer to a smoking gun linking the Trump campaign to Russian operatives. Last fall, Republican financier Peter W. Smith assembled a team of computer experts to contact hackers connected with the Russian government, in order to get emails Smith believed had been hacked from Hillary Clinton’s private server, according to the Wall Street Journal. Smith told multiple people he was working with Trump campaign advisor Michael Flynn. He even offered to introduce potential backers to Flynn and Flynn’s son. (http://on.wsj.com/2trcaZk)
4) The Supreme Court has allowed Trump’s travel ban from 6 mostly Muslim countries to go into effect — until the Court considers in the fall the larger Constitutional questions of national security and religious discrimination. But the Court won’t allow the ban to be enforced against those who have family in the United States or who are admitted to a U.S. university or have similar connections. It’s a bad omen for the final decision that the Court is allowing the ban to go into effect now. It suggests 5 justices aren’t likely to be moved by what led the lower courts to reject the ban: (1) Trump’s statements revealing his bigoted intent to ban Muslims, and (2) the Trump administration’s failure to show a sufficient national security interest in banning travel from these 6 countries. Trump’s travel ban is religious discrimination, plain and simple. There’s no national security issue at all, since nobody in the United States has ever been killed by a terrorist from any of these 6 countries. The only thing these 6 countries have in common is they’re Muslim, and they don’t contain a Trump hotel. (http://wapo.st/2txXxUv)
5) In a two-part tweet early Thursday morning, Trump wrote that he “heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore).” He was referring to the MSNBC morning program, co-hosted by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. Trump’s second tweet: “how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came … to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!” The co-hosts have been critical of Trump. Democrats — and even many Republicans — rightfully condemned the tweets as inappropriate and beneath the office of the presidency. It’s bad enough that Trump dumps on media that criticize him, and even on specific journalists. But he’s also adding to the coarsening of America — the harsh personal attacks now poisoning how we talk to and about one another. Trump is President of the United States, a position we used to hope and expect would set the norm for civility. Instead, he’s dragging the nation into the gutter of his own crude, vindictive, acrid mind. http://politi.co/2t57ia0
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 
I found this on Facebook. A friend of mine posted it giving credit to a man named Ray Roth. I don’t know Ray but I sure appreciate the insight of knowing the legal definition of bullying.
When I was a principal I had to deal with bullying. I worked with some of the foremost experts in the nation. To understand the issue, you have to clarify the problem by operationally defining what bullying is. At its core, bullying is the use of one’s POWER to shame, physically or mentally harm, or to cause others to exclude or harm others. When 2 people of equal status (physically, mentally, socially, economically, etc) get into a dispute, it is peer conflict, not bullying. But, when one of the 2 people clearly has power over the other (they are bigger, more powerful, has more money, or had social status), and they use that power to harm others, it meets the definition of bullying (at least in 37 states – not Ky. which adopted a terrible definition).
Now apply this to our our president. He clearly has power over most, if not everyone, that he meets. He has economic power and has a history of using that to cheat small business owners out of goods and services. He has a history of sexually harassing and assaulting (video evidence of him bragging about it) women as well as shaming women. Now as president (the most powerful position in the world) he claims that people in the media are bullying him. By definition, that’s not possible! As the most powerful person in the world, and an elected position, the media (historically referred to as the “fourth estate” for its role as watchdog of the government) is suppose to watch and critique everything a president does. Obama was mercilessly attacked by media and others (especially Trump and his birther conspiracies) while his beautiful wife and kids were called apes and threatened.
Our thin-skinned bully-in-chief is now doing what all bullies do when confronted. There are 4 responses when you confront a bully. Only 1 results in any resolution:
1 – Denial – “I didn’t do anything wrong.” We see this in Trump all the time. The only time I recall him ever finally owning up to one of his lies was during the campaign when he finally had to admit that Obama was a citizen of the US.
2 – Minimizing – “All I did was ….” He continually justifies his behaviors by minimizing his own culpability in any action and usually follows up by saying: “Why aren’t they looking at what crooked Hillary…” or “Well the Obama administration…”
3 – Shifting Blame – “Yeah but he/she…” like above, but rather than using Obama or Clinton to make his offenses look less than, he uses it to show that his offenses are justified. Like Megan Kelly or Mika Brezinski, he has the right to shame them because he’s just “fighting back.”
4 – Accepting Responsibility – This is something we rarely see him do. But like the Obama birther claims, he couldn’t move on until he was willing to accept responsibility.
So, there you go. This president is clearly a bully (by legal definition). He must NOT be able to get by with this. The press MUST be supported in their job to hold him accountable. This MUST STOP!!!
I’ve never seen any evidence tRUMP is capable of accepting responsibility. He starts another fight when anyone tries to pressure him on issues. He would rather the media ask him about his character flaws, his tweets, his latest episode of bullying than ask about the issues.
When the media does pressure on issues, he stops letting them record press conferences. Arghhhhh!
Let’s not forget one bigly factor about Trump –
He is nothing more – and nothing less – than a reality t.v. celebrity who is obsessed with his own media coverage.
There’s an old saying about – negative press is better than no press.
In Trump’s world – the worst thing to happen to him would be if the media suddenly stopped talking about him.
I suspect – that would totally destroy Trump. And that is sad – IMHO
What is more sad is the fact Trump still has White Evangelical Kristians worshipping him and eating up every word he spews as if it is Jesus-flavored cotton candy.
My real fear is – with each passing Trump Twitter Tweet – there is this small time period where people are shocked – but that wears off. So then Trump pushes the line of common decency even further.
At what point do Americans finally have their fill? Or is our society so wrapped up in themselves and conditioned to expect bad news – that we don’t have a bottom to our cesspool?
Trump brags he never apologizes.
But why apologize when his Wife #3 will do all the excusing of his bad behavior?
Melania excused her boy’s 2005 video of him bragging he groped women’s p_____ and got away with it. In fact – Melania even sent so far as to blame Billy Bush for egging her little boy into saying that dirty talk.
Just these past few days – the same Wife #3 defended her boy when she said that her boy punches back hard when he is attacked – so basically, Mika and Joe deserved what they got.
Why would Trump feel he needs to apologize? He’s got his peeps to do the excuses for him.
This piece from none other than the conservative National Review agrees with you about how badly Trump needs the media!
Junkie Running Dry
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449145/donald-trump-media-mika-brzezinski-tweet
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449145/donald-trump-media-mika-brzezinski-tweet
Trump supporters don’t care about what he does or says. They don’t care what he does to the Office of the Presidency or the country or our world standing. The serial lying, misogyny, narcissism, sweetheart deals with foreign enemies, the tax breaks for his buddies, weekly junkets to his golf club, wiping out health care for millions of Americans, the creepy fascination with his daughter, corruption and collusion on a scale we’ve never witnessed, destruction of the planet, destroying the social contract. They don’t care. As long as he craps on people they don’t like. Anyone not like them. Keep doing that and he’s OK. He’s “Making America Great”.
There you have it. When political pundits said he ‘tapped into some Americans’ fears’ I think what they meant to say is ‘he tapped into a river of prejudice and hate that is deeper and darker than we ever imagined.’
That river of prejudice and hate has been at the core of our country since it’s founding – correct?
It’s just been emboldened since President Obama was our first black president. But more than that – Obama was a SUCCESSFUL two-term president.
That is something racists just cannot tolerate. Trump is more than just the result of that prejudice and hate – Trump is a sign to any and all ‘other Americans’ who dare to contemplate their running for president.
The KKK used a burning Christian Cross as their symbol of their hate, prejudice and violence. Who are the core supporters of Trump? White Christians (led by Jerry Falwell Jr, Franklin Graham and Pat Robertson).
Maybe Trump is their version of their old burning Christian Cross symbol?
BTW – Obama is more popular today than he was during his two terms in office and he is admired around the world. Obama draws huge crowds when he has been out speaking publicly.
That has got to be the worst thing to hear – if you’re Trump. We all know how Trump obsesses about who is the most popular and the crowd size.
Robert Reich on Facebook:
Trump is using his “gutter” tweets this morning to try to distract you from these major stories of the week:
1) The latest version of Trumpcare stalled in the Senate. The details of the bill were even too much for Republicans to stomach. When Mitch McConnell finally released his version of the bill from behind closed doors, many Republicans balked at the deep cuts to Medicaid. Estimates released on Monday by the Congressional Budget Office that 22 million Americans would lose coverage under the proposal only furthered doubts. Rallies on Capitol Hill and at congressional offices across the country put pressure on key senators. Remember, this is only a temporary victory. McConnell is currently revising the bill and will be back with something dangerous. We need to keep up the pressure when Senators head back home for recess this week. (http://bit.ly/2tYGoAv)
2) Trump’s commission to investigate his trumped-up claims of voter fraud in the 2016 election requested states turn over personal information about everyone who has voted since 2006 — names, addresses, birthdates, political party, criminal history, and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers. The request came from commission co-chair Kris Kobach, the secretary of state in Kansas and a fervent believer that voter fraud is widespread despite decades of evidence to the contrary. Democratic and Republican election officials in nearly 30 states have already pushed back, questioning the legality of the request. Trump’s real purpose is to legitimize more voter suppression in 2018 and 2020 — ID and other laws that will minimize turnout of likely Democrats. Let your Governor and Secretary of State know that you don’t want your information shared with Trump’s bogus commission. (http://cnn.it/2svOr63)
3) We seem to be getting closer to a smoking gun linking the Trump campaign to Russian operatives. Last fall, Republican financier Peter W. Smith assembled a team of computer experts to contact hackers connected with the Russian government, in order to get emails Smith believed had been hacked from Hillary Clinton’s private server, according to the Wall Street Journal. Smith told multiple people he was working with Trump campaign advisor Michael Flynn. He even offered to introduce potential backers to Flynn and Flynn’s son. (http://on.wsj.com/2trcaZk)
4) The Supreme Court has allowed Trump’s travel ban from 6 mostly Muslim countries to go into effect — until the Court considers in the fall the larger Constitutional questions of national security and religious discrimination. But the Court won’t allow the ban to be enforced against those who have family in the United States or who are admitted to a U.S. university or have similar connections. It’s a bad omen for the final decision that the Court is allowing the ban to go into effect now. It suggests 5 justices aren’t likely to be moved by what led the lower courts to reject the ban: (1) Trump’s statements revealing his bigoted intent to ban Muslims, and (2) the Trump administration’s failure to show a sufficient national security interest in banning travel from these 6 countries. Trump’s travel ban is religious discrimination, plain and simple. There’s no national security issue at all, since nobody in the United States has ever been killed by a terrorist from any of these 6 countries. The only thing these 6 countries have in common is they’re Muslim, and they don’t contain a Trump hotel. (http://wapo.st/2txXxUv)
5) In a two-part tweet early Thursday morning, Trump wrote that he “heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore).” He was referring to the MSNBC morning program, co-hosted by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. Trump’s second tweet: “how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came … to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!” The co-hosts have been critical of Trump. Democrats — and even many Republicans — rightfully condemned the tweets as inappropriate and beneath the office of the presidency. It’s bad enough that Trump dumps on media that criticize him, and even on specific journalists. But he’s also adding to the coarsening of America — the harsh personal attacks now poisoning how we talk to and about one another. Trump is President of the United States, a position we used to hope and expect would set the norm for civility. Instead, he’s dragging the nation into the gutter of his own crude, vindictive, acrid mind. http://politi.co/2t57ia0
I suspect Trump’s Tweet going after Mika and Joe on MSNBC have more to do with their bosses at NBC – than Mika and Joe.
Let’s not forget – NBC fired Donald Trump from his own Celebrity Apprentice show in 2015.
Could this be what is really behind all the venom for NBC and any other media that dares to confront the bigly Trump?