Crisis Time in the US?
As we’ve seen, the Trump administration and the media (outside of Fox News) are not exactly buddies. Trump himself is in the 16th month of a blistering tirade, largely via Twitter, to convince America that virtually everything we read discussing his policies, his actions, and his words is Fake News, that the Deep State is out to get him, and that he and his ever-changing set of loyalists are the only ones who can be trusted to tell the truth. Meanwhile, the tally of his lies and other misleading statements since taking office topped 3000 earlier this month.
EPA administrator Scott Pruitt takes a totally different tack to control the press: denying journalists access to information. Details on this can be found in my piece yesterday: If You’re in the Planet-Wrecking Business, Do It In the Dark. Another good example was yesterday’s summit on contaminants, from which Pruitt barred the AP and CNN, and had guards push a reporter out of a building.
As we can see, there is a variety of tools that are being brought to bear to prevent the media from doing its job, but they have one thing in common: authoritarianism, i.e., strong, central government with limited accountability. Here we have people smart enough to know how difficult it is to hold government accountable when they won’t tell you what they’re doing.
But here’s the twist: given all the news about Flynn, Manafort, Gates, Papadoupolos, the raid on Cohen and his payments from Russian oligarchs, and the potential firing of Rosenstein so as to remove Mueller, the legally driven removal of Trump from office looks more likely with each passing day, and this will create quite a ruckus given the nature of his supporters, many of whom will take to the streets. As Trump’s friend Roger Stone has asserted, this will result in a civil war.
Something for which we should all be thankful, however, is that there is an airtight reason that a civil war is impossible: rule of law and modern weaponry. Yes, these people are armed to the teeth, but what they will do having “taken to the streets” isn’t clear, since violence will be met with as much firepower as necessary from 1.1 million law members of enforcement, backed up as required by 1.3 million active-duty military personnel armed with all the goodies that a $600 billion defense budget will buy and another 800,000 reservists.
Of course, you could ask yourself: Isn’t it possible that some local sheriffs in Buzzard’s Breath, Alabama will forsake rule of law and join forces with the rebels? Maybe a few, but in the main, no. In the first place, the handwriting in terms of strength will be on the wall. But more to the point, these people have all sworn to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. (Of course, so has Trump, but when most people take an oath, they stand by it.)
The U.S. Civil War cost 620,000 lives and extended across five horrible years. An uprising here will be over in about 20 minutes.
Let’s hope it doesn’t come to a head, and that the United States can handle this as quickly, effectively, and peacefully as we did Nixon and Watergate.
Craig,
My goodness, you’ve worked yourself into a real lather of hysteria, haven’t you ?
With the passage of time, certain media outlets and the more rabid anti-trump crowd grow increasingly desperate and lose touch with reality.
In reality, the world is adjusting quite well to a new era of American policy direction, while America is adjusts to a new era of political dynamics.
The old media oligarchs like Democrat ‘grandee’ Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.
(Owner and great grandson of the founder) of The New York Times and his odious President and CEO, Mark Thompson ( disgraced editor unemployable in his native UK as a result of revelations during the Press inquiry) , are horrified to discover their once unassailable power to cow and bully elected officials has dissipated.
All of eftist media outlets are finding their power and credibility severely damaged by social media. The advent of a new US President who isn’t afraid to stand up to the old media and plead his case to directly to his constituents, must be devastating.
The era of ‘government’ by media is fast disappearing. The era when powerful media barons, (even if they’re now forced to rely on financing from dubious Mexican investors etc)could demand administrations behave according to the dictates of the press, not the electors, is drawing to a close.
With the advent of social media, the major outlets panicked and lost all pretense at unbiased reporting in and effort to keep a core of subscribers. In doing so, thy not only lost subscribers but credibility.
Calm down, the sky isn’t really falling, the President will not, ” be legally removed from office”. Such conjecture is just fevered imaginings by someone who reads too much from only those outlets who pander to such delusions.
The administration is only responsible to the Constitution, Congress,US Supreme Court and the voters at election time. There is no mention in the Constitution about the administration or officials being required to act at the behest of the media. There’s no obligation for any official to make themselves available for press interviews, or make their schedule available for the benefit of certain media outlets.
Salivating at the exciting fantasy of an imminent US civil war, is a waste of your time. The hyperbole created by the “dump Trump at any cost” crowd, has shot itself in the foot by raising unrealistic expectations. As the months have passed into years, the Mueller Russia investigation has degenerated into a bit of a farce. Mueller labours forth mightily, but is producing a mouse, not an Elephant.
In fact, the more interesting story emerging is the peculiar behavior of the FBI-Intelligence communities improper activities in the 2016 campaign and the involvement of Obama-Clinton.
In the wake of Clomey and his deputy’s outbursts, the President’s popularity has steadily increased. A new CBS News poll showed fewer than 44% of Americans believed Mueller’s investigation to be legitimate while more than 54% believed Mueller was politically motivated.
The President says ,
“I want total transparency” on documents Republican members of Congress have demanded” All records, including the identity of informants used by the FBI to open a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign in 2016 “.
The FBI and Democrats have been fiercely resisting this probe, and lamenting the DOJ investigation into the activities during the campaign.
When the Mueller inquiry just fizzles out and the President gains a successful outcome with North Korea, it’s the President’s credibility which will rise, while the media plunges even lower.
So,….lets look at those 3000 “lies”, shall we ? Media outlets lie all the time in a cunning way. The publish a lurid headline, hoping to create a belief, knowing most people only remember the headline, while somewhere embedded in the following article the headline claim is modified.
Take one example:-
The Washington Post’s Fact-Checker claimed Trump lied when he tweeted, “The Mueller investigation must have already cost $20 million !”
A Lie ? Really ? No ordinary person would consider such an opinion as a “lie” , it’s obviously an estimate and illustrating the cost of the high costs involved in such an investigation. After much checking the Washington Post’s Fact-Checker, estimated the “official” cost to be between $6.5 and $11 million so far.
The Post didn’t explain how or from what source by which it came to this conclusion,so it’s also just an opinion.
It would be fair to say the overwhelming number of these so called 3000 “lies” would be of the same nature. Not really lies at all, just a media desperate for a story.
Craig, but I’m forgetting, you have your own “Trump’ moment’s also, don’t you ?