Enemy of the People

In space travel it’s vitally important to maintain the proper trajectory. Let’s take for example a trip to the moon (disregarding mid-course corrections). If your rocket’s course is off one degree at the beginning of your journey you will miss your target by 4,169 miles, nearly twice the diameter of the moon. Fortunately, space travelers, or any travelers, are able to make course corrections during their journey. However, small influences, left unchecked, can lead to dire consequences over time. We are at a moment in our history that requires a severe course correction, lest we end up as a nation in a place that is entirely contrary to the values that we hold dear.

This moment is vividly illustrated in less than 140 characters, that was dashed off by none other than the President of the United States of America.

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017

Now would be good time to remember this small section of the U.S. Constitution.

 Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The authors thought a free press important enough to put it in the first amendment. A free and unfettered press is the hallmark and conscience of democracy, and is the very mechanism by which the government is held to account. When an administration in power seeks to undermine trust in the press, it severely alters the trajectory of said democracy.

In fact, we have examples through history which plainly illustrate the erosion of trust in the press by governments, and the parallels are ugly and may invite criticisms of hyperbole, but here it is nonetheless.

It is simply deplorable that this connection can be made, but the language and tactics used by Nazi Germany and the Trump administration are alarmingly similar. Donald Trump has now famously coined the term “Fake News” in an attempt to delegitimize stories with which he disagrees. During the Nazi regime, critics of Hitler were branded  to be members of the “Lügenpresse (lying press) apparatus.”

One would think that this alone would elicit a strong response from Congress, even the GOP, which has remained conspicuously silent. And indeed, many have expressed serious concern about the vilification of journalists and journalism in the past weeks and months. Even so, there is not enough push back on the rhetoric directed towards the press.

Trump supporters seem to be unduly influenced by it, as evidences by a recent Fox News poll which found that they believe Donald Trump over the press by a slight margin.This slaps reason in the mouth given the amount of lies and hypocritical statements uttered by him recently and over the course of the campaign (e.g., releasing taxes, Russia, etc.). He wants the nation to believe that he is the supreme voice when it comes to matters of the truth, which is laughable given the evidence, and terrifying given the implications.

Having the government be the sole provider of information is the definition of propaganda. Now, the question remains, is this simply his style or a concerted effort on the part of the administration?

His persona has always been bombastic and off-the-cuff, which works well on a reality show but it’s disconcerting in a President. So it may just be stream-of-consciousness Donald which, as we’ve seen in the past few weeks, is unlikely to mature and become “presidential” as some of his supporters hoped. If it’s a case of Donald simply being Donald, the situation is untenable and requires he be removed from office.

The other equally terrifying option is that his language and rhetoric is part of a systematic campaign of psychological influence and manipulation. Scott Adams on the Joe Rogan Podcast suggested that the use of seemingly simple nicknames like  “Low Energy Jeb”,”lying Ted” and “Crooked Hillary” are actually well crafted tactics.

The Trump campaign, to its credit and shame, used sophisticated big-data techniques to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. The force behind this is the company Cambridge Analytica, who claims to have data points on 230 million Americans. Fun fact, the man whom many attribute much of Trumps policy direction is also a board member of Cambridge Analytica. There is quite a bit of sophistication in the pushing of the Trump agenda.

“Today in the United States we have somewhere close to four or five thousand data points on every individual. … So we model the personality of every adult across the United States, some 230 million people.”

— Alexander Nix (Chief Executive, Cambridge Analytica), October 2016

Regardless if Trump is disparaging the press on an ad hoc basis, or if it’s a systemic promotion of the administration’s agenda, it is unacceptable. We can already see evidence of “soft” muzzling of the press, by selective access during press conferences by Trump only picking friendly outlets.

Clueless or nefarious, the arc of this administration needs a mid-course correction and quickly. It is simply unacceptable for our great nation to take such a drastic direction towards becoming the type of intolerant, tyrannical government that we fought against in several wars. It would be an egregious affront to those who fought and died for freedom, as well as those who currently put themselves in harms way to protect those freedoms.

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The “T” Word

At first it seemed merely curious, the man-crush that Donald Trump seemed to have for Vladimir Putin. Perhaps he simply admired the leadership ability of Russia’s shirtless horseback riding despot, or is it something more? Something a little more ominous?

Let’s take a quick dip in the conspiracy pool. Come on in, the water’s scary.

Some recently revealed information seems to suggest a relationship between the Trump administration and Russia that is considerably deeper than they will admit and possibly illegal. I’m not a constitutional scholar, but if I were I would be looking into the “T” word.

To begin with, let’s look at a baseline for the administration’s credibility when exploring the relationship. When I say administration, it begins with Donald. As he was running for president he claimed numerous times, trying to soften his admiration for Putin, that he had never met the President of Russia.

Just this month, he said in a tweet:

I don’t know Putin, have no deals in Russia, and the haters are going crazy – yet Obama can make a deal with Iran, #1 in terror, no problem!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 7, 2017

So bear this in mind when you take a minute to listen to him just few years ago:

So he is clearly, at a minimum, misrepresenting his relationship with the Russian leader. Clearly we cannot take anything he says at his word.

Having established that his credibility in regards to the Russian leader is suspect, we can also look to his affection for Putin. As early as 2007, in an interview with Larry King, Trump professes his fanboy status:

“Look at Putin—what he’s doing with Russia—I mean, you know, what’s going on over there. I mean this guy has done—whether you like him or don’t like him—he’s doing a great job in rebuilding the image of Russia and also rebuilding Russia period.”

Now that we’ve established that the Donald is indeed acquainted with the Russian leader, we can take into consideration the sometimes salacious and recently corroborated Steele Dossier. Information on the first page of the dossier claims that “…Russian authorities had been cultivating and supporting US Republican presidential candidate, Donald TRUMP for at least 5 years.”

The dossier continues, detailing cooperation between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russian leadership. In exchange for releasing damaging information on his opponent Hillary Clinton, the Trump team agreed to “…sideline Russian intervention in Ukraine as a campaign issue and to raise US/NATO defense commitments in the Baltics and Eastern Europe to deflect attention away from Ukraine…”

Pretty explosive stuff, that is usually reserved for le Carré novels. Couldn’t possibly be real, could it?

Maybe. Take into account the recent revelations that Trump’s National Security Adviser Michael Flynn spoke with the Russian ambassador the day President Obama announced sanctions against Russia in response to hacking the DNC (and the RNC,  but no info released). Russia’s non-response to Obama’s sanctions raised eyebrows all across the beltway. At first Flynn denied the call with the ambassador included any conversations about sanctions, but then he backtracked once it was revealed that US intelligence had a transcript of the conversation. Flynn (through a spokesperson) “…indicated that while he had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up.”

I call shenanigans.

I not only call shenanigans, I also call on Congress to initiate a full investigation into the relationship between Russia, Donald Trump, and the entire administration (which I suspect is occurring behind the scenes at the US intelligence agencies). Take into account a recent remark by a top Pentagon official quoted in an article in  Observer when he says,”…since January 20, we’ve assumed that the Kremlin has ears inside the SITROOM.” The SITROOM, of course, being the Situation Room, the intelligence management center in the west wing of the White House. The Pentagon is going with the assumption that the Russians have “ears” inside of the White House itself. Ponder that for a moment.

The evidence of impropriety is overwhelming, and only one of many ethical, legal, and unconstitutional aspects of the Trump presidency. The dysfunction and danger of this presidency is, well, unprecedented and requires an immediate response . While there isn’t a smoking gun as of yet, the smell of gunpowder hangs over Washington D.C.

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I Spent a Year in America Last Week

If the strategy of the Trump administration is to baffle me with a dizzying array of half-cocked Executive Orders, more scandals than the entire Obama tenure, and a flurry of lies while they subvert the Constitution of the United States of America then I say, mission accomplished.

 

So, in the interest of focus, let’s take a peek at just a few of the more consequential (impeachable?) curiosities of this past two weeks.

1. Top of the list in my mind is the easement of sanctions on the Russian secret service. I’m leaving this one up in the interest of full disclosure, but on further examination I don’t think this is as egregious as I once thought. Reading further on the subject in a Reuters’ article, it seems it’s adjusting an unforeseen situation when the sanctions were instituted. Nonetheless, I still suspect that Trump is compromised by Putin.
2. A disastrous raid in Yemen left a Navy Seal dead along with multiple civilian casualties, including a young American girl. The raid was green-lit by Trump “…without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations.” Sean Spicer also confirmed that Donald Trump wasn’t in The Situation Room during the raid.
3. Two weeks into his presidency Donald Trump is taking a “working” vacation to Mar-A-Logo resort in Florida. Let’s review this tweet from Trump in 2012 and savor the irony and hypocrisy for a moment.
   

   President @BarackObama‘s vacation is costing taxpayers millions of dollars—-Unbelievable!

   — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2012

   The so called “Winter White House”, owned by Donald Trump, still puts money in his pockets since he is unwilling to divest in his businesses. Of course the President is responsible for picking up his own tab, which would be zero since it’s his hotel, but the American Taxpayer (you) foots the bill for his entourage. Which also wouldn’t be unusual, except for the President owns the hotel, so in effect he is profiting from the trip. Also, make no mistake that the inner circle will be the ones doing any work while Trump tweets. Again, I have to repeat this: TRUMP IS MAKING A PROFIT FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE EVERY TIME HE STAYS AT MAR-A-LAGO. (Breaking News – A business trip Eric Trump took to recently to Uruguay cost US Taxpayers nearly $100,000)

4. Speaking of conflict-of-interest, Trump’s pick for Secretary of the Army, Vincent Viola, excused himself from nomination. He cited the difficulty of disengaging himself with his business interests. Another billionaire nomination from Trump, who perhaps didn’t want to expose himself to the scrutiny required for the job.
5. Betsy DeVos. Good lord. Plagiarism, outright lies (ahem, clerical errors), and a demonstrable lack of experience for the job. Just no.
6. And the big one, breaking news as of the night of this writing, a big fat no from a federal judge in Washington state. The pen of Donald Trump flung into existence the infamous not-a-Muslim-ban Muslim Ban which Judge James Robart halted with a temporary restraining order.

This is only a fortnight into his presidency, and now transcends any traditional clash of political parties or policy-based clash. These are manifest corruption and incompetence of the highest order, the likes of which we’ve never seen.