BREAKING NEWS. [Insert Drudge siren here] Donald Trump said something to get everyone’s knickers in a knot. I know… I know… first time for everything, right? This particular round of outrage caught my attention when Katty Kay joined the Morning Joe panel this morning just in time for The Donald to call in and chat with Scarborough. Given the chance to put her journalistic skills to the test, Ms. Kay decided to ask – more like accuse – Trump over the fact that he called Hillary Clinton “shrill” during a speech he gave this week. Donald seemed rather “meh” about the subject, but fielded the question anyway, pointing out that it’s not exactly a gender specific term. (Washington Post)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is dismissing yet another accusation of sexism after calling Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton “shrill,” a term he said Tuesday does not exclusively apply to women.

“I know men that are shrill and it’s just an expression that I thought of as I was speaking. I thought it was a very accurate expression,” Trump said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Tuesday morning. “I would call Rand Paul shrill. I think he’s shrill. I don’t think that’s a term that applies exclusively to women at all.”

Trump added that he believes his characterization of Hillary Clinton was accurate, saying that Clinton has “gotten very loud and obnoxious.”

Katty (which seems a particularly appropriate name at this point) didn’t seem to be having any of it. The conversation devolved pretty quickly from there.

Look… I get that everyone is trying to cash in on the “Let’s Bash Trump” market segment in political coverage. It’s a sure fire ratings grabber and the rest of your media colleague will all applaud you for being so “brave” as to take on the frontrunner and “call him out” for this, that or the other thing. But there’s got to be a point where the referees start handing out yellow cards here. First of all, shrill is a pretty old word in the English language and it applies to many, many things. It covers both voices and other sounds and is frequently applied to things like whistles and sirens. When we’re talking about people I will certainly grant that it’s more often assigned to women but that’s only because the fairer sex tends to have higher pitched voices, but I can think of a few men I’ve applied it to as well. (Richard Simmons comes to mind.)

We go through this exercise every election cycle and it never ceases to be simply tiring. In 2008 there were plenty of ruffled feathers and resentment when both opponents and media figures (including CNN) called John McCain “spry.” It’s a word that we commonly apply to the elderly but it’s certainly not exclusive.

But more to the point, does anyone really think they are damaging Trump’s street cred with these sorts of petty (or should I say “catty”) attacks? The fact is that we do frequently apply the word “shrill” to women or the occasional man and that’s because they have become annoying and shrill. I find Hillary to be shrill every time she gets prickly when people ask her annoying questions about her emails, so I suppose I’m a bad person now. But I’m not in some offbeat minority on this one. We’ve seen The Donald say over and over again that he’s sick and tired of all this politically correct crap. And guess what, folks… America agrees with him. More and more people actually are fed up with this nonsense and they also seem to agree with Trump when he says that we need to put that behind us and make America great again. (Bloomberg)

Americans are “fed up” with politics, suspect the wealthy are getting an unfair edge, and think the country is going in the wrong direction, according to a new Bloomberg Politics poll that lays bare the depth and breadth of the discontents propelling outsider candidates in the Republican presidential field.

The survey shows that 72 percent of Americans think their country isn’t as great as it once was—a central theme of front-runner Donald Trump’s campaign. More than a third prefer a presidential candidate without experience in public office.

We can sit here all day and debate whether Trump’s tax plan is conservative or if his wall on the southern border will cost too much or where he stands on gun control. Have a field day! But that’s not the space that Trump lives in. He’s loud and obnoxious and wades into discussions without any prepared notes or talking points. And if he thinks Hillary is getting shrill he calls her shrill. Here’s a quick liner note for the media and those waiting to dig his grave:

It’s not a minority opinion.