Trump and the Press

The "mainstream media" failed us in regards to Trump. His face has been on cable news programming most of the 24-hours-a-day time since Obama's second term. During the Republican primaries he was given free publicity, so much that he drowned out the other candidates. Jeb Bush could barely get a word in. How were they supposed to know he would win? you could ask. You couldn't. But you could also think that if the "mainstream media" continues to make strictly financially/ratings-based political coverage decisions we'll continue to get elected officials who do things like attack the freedom of the press.

On NATO

The President has been known as "The Leader of the Free World." NATO is a mutual defense pact between free Europe and America, and yes it is largely a pact against Russia, which is not free. If you criticize the government there you are likely to get killed or jailed. If we allow the Russian regime greater influence abroad the world will be less free. If we allow it to influence our government and the GOP stands by while the President does its bidding we will become less free. The GOP likes to talk about celebrating freedom but I don't know what kind of freedom they plan on celebrating if this goes on. Yes they've won their culture war victory and everything that will come with a Supreme Court majority. But I never expected them to be so cavalier about the costs. If the Soviet Union were officially christian instead of atheist would the right have even cared about the Cold War?

I don't expect that I'm changing anyone's mind. Or really changing anything. I'm using this soapbox to say my piece and get on with my day. To feel like I've done just a bit more than accept what appears to be happening in the at-least-somewhat-free-in-parts-world that I've known.

Learned Hand on the State of the Union

To me, much of the left and right are interested in abolishing heresy. This portion of the left has just enough power to make the Democrats lose a Presidential election despite popular vote totals every few cycles. They don't have much Congressional representation. This portion of the right has total power over their party now and they have strong Congressional representation. "In the end it is worse to suppress dissent than to run the risk of heresy," said Learned Hand. He also said “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it."

I stand by everything I've said on here in the past and I don't have much to add. If people want to get behind a fundamental cause they should support abolition of the electoral college. And they should be ready to raise hell if Mueller gets fired. (If you couldn't surmise that Trump was coordinating with Russia over the course of his campaign, when he was bending over backwards to disavow U.S. Foreign policy orthodoxies on Russia and just generally kiss Putin's ass, then I'll never convince you. What the hell else would a "domestic enemy" look like? The justice process should play out.) But all I can really hope is that *classic* liberal values somehow reappear as a foundation for principled political action. "The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right" said the Learned Hand.

A year or so later

2016: Trump brags about the size of his hands.

2018: Trump brags about the size and function of his nuclear button.

I stand by what I had to say about Trump and today's GOP before and after he took office. He has since delivered for Putin and trashed the American anti-authoritarian experiment.

If we make it through 2018 without the world blowing up (I can't imagine the most GOP members wouldn't prefer Mike Pence) then maybe he will be regarded as McCarthy like pariah whose example is to be avoided. The U.S.'s position in the world will be weakened. Much can be undone domestically, but his appointments to the federal judiciary cannot be. These appointments weaken the last line of defense of the American experiment, an independent judiciary. Judges have political preferences but they also have professional values. As the professional worth of nominated GOP judges declines and their loyalty to party increases, we can expect an increasingly politicized judiciary and an America that becomes less and less its true and best self.

Right and Left, Freedom and Tyranny

Viewing politics in terms of left wing and right wing is useless. By the time you get to Hitler on the right and Stalin on the left, it doesn't matter whether corporations or government controls the economy. It matters that a tyrant rules by fiat and fear and with disregard for the law. The legal backbone of this country was designed by people who believed in free speech, free press, free expression and free religion: that is, freedom. They aimed to design a government that would protect these things - freedom - by preventing tyranny via a government of checks and balances. I'm not saying the founders did a great job of this. But their intentions and values were clear enough. They favored freedom over tyranny, not right over left. Trump is not right nor left. He is an aspiring tyrant - however incompetent he may be - and he is thus unAmerican. I don't expect his supporters to ever admit this, but where he - and his supporters - stand in relation to fundamental American values does not depend on how they feel. They are opposed to them.

A Bit on Healthcare

Watergate vs. the Current Situation

Watergate: President's lackeys break into Democratic party office to gain an edge in an election. Wins election in a landslide. Bipartisan investigation ensues. President resigns.

Current situation, in all likelihood: Trump colludes with Russian Intelligence and officials via his lackeys to gain an edge in a Presidential election. Loses the popular vote but wins in the electoral college (with a timely thumb on the scale provided by James Comey). Bipartisan investigation has not yet ensued and may not at all.

The signs and symptoms of Trump's collusion with Russia were evident throughout Trump's campaign and the GOP continued to support him. Now, save for a few lone GOP voices, the party continues to obstruct an investigation into as pure, protracted and profound a potential case of treason as can be imagined: a foreign government gaining partial control over a President in exchange for aid in their election.

The reason for this is simple. The GOP's love of power has completely eclipsed any guiding principle, including loyalty to country. This reality was becoming evident during the Obama years with the GOP's willingness to put the international economy at risk through debt-ceiling hostage crises and invitations for foreign leaders to publicly rail against the President's foreign policy in our own Capitol. But these examples are trivial compared to the current situation.

We are facing a case of mass treason (at least accessory to it) on a party scale in exchange for power, with our intelligence agency (which is withholding intelligence from Trump because it is convinced that "Russia has ears in the Oval Office") slowly but surely seeking to dislodge the obstruction posed by the Congressional GOP (and potentially the FBI) towards revealing the truth on this matter.

But a goddamn ugly and sad truth is already out for all to see: