2/27/2025 The Associated Press has been barred from White House pressers; CBS was forced to settle a lawsuit over an interview with Kamala Harris; the owner of the Washington Post, billionaire Jeff Bezos, has taken over the Washington Post editorial page and will permit no dissent.
The free press is the last line of defense of democracy threatened by a president who now boasts he is a king. The free press is key to America becoming aware of the danger and the fallout that will also harm the very lives of American citizens. Without a free press, voters will not even know that they have been hurt by whom, much less be able to mount a resistance. Trump thinks he can lie, and he can get away with it because his loyal followers will believe any thing he says. Grisham: Trump ‘knows he can basically say anything and his base will believe’ That is what it is like to live in a dictatorahip.
: "Modern-day dictators have gained the power they seek because they have used modern technology to spin and mind-control their way to their position. .They spin the news to engineer their support" "The central goal remains the same: to monopolize political power. But today’s strongmen realize that in current conditions, violence is not always necessary or even helpful. Instead of terrorizing citizens, a skillful ruler can control them by reshaping their beliefs about the world. He can fool people into compliance and even enthusiastic approval. In place of harsh repression, the new dictators manipulate information. Like spin doctors in a democracy, they spin the news to support. They are spin dictators." How Do Dictatorships Survive in the 21st Century? | Andrew Carnegie Fellows | Carnegie Corporation of New York
https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2025/01/whoever-controls-and-owns-media.html
I picked up a disturbing line in last Monday's Rachel Maddow show: " We have already lost our democracy. ". My follow-up question is: Can we get it back, and how can we? My own thoughts are that on November 5, 2024, 49.9 of voters handed over governance in this country to an autocracy, fed and influenced by oligarchs, and enabled by his Supreme Court to give Trump immunity from prosecution for criminal acts while performing his official duties. Trump is freed from winning the next presidential election because he is a lame-duck. January 21, 2025, Trump will finalize the takeover by signing 100 executive orders, mostly concerning the implementation of Project 2025, including "Schedule F", an attempt to place all power in the hands of the executive branch and reduce the influence of the two other branches by appointees and threats, including violence. The business community is already falling all over themselves, bending their knees, ending DEI, and ending fact-checking, mostly out of fear of the abuse of Trump's power over the DOJ and regulatory agencies.
The 100 orders Trump plans to sign, says John Barrasso, will be "shock and awe" and enable him to bypass Congress.'There is going to be shock and awe with executive orders' - POLITICO My observation: Trump plans to emasculate the role of Congress to represent the public will in shaping laws in our democracy, as he has virtually done with the Supreme Court.
Key to the implementation of Project 2025 is Schedule F, which would replace civil service employees with Trump loyalists and Project 2025 devotees...lists of replacements having been prepared and interviews made over the past 6 months by Project 2025. This executive order will be in the stack Trump said he plans to sign on day one.https://apnews.com/article/trump-day-one-border-executive-actions-30f78c3c983ae74555f281446fe22710
Replacing civil servants pledged to support the Constitution with political appointees pledging allegiance to the Project 2025 agenda will have severe consequences, impacting judgment calls on regulatory and administrative actions with what the boss wants instead of what the intent of the law requires. The fallout: 1. The intent of the laws can be subverted and twisted to suit the ideology and support the boss. 2.It is the most corrupt system of government ever devised as bribery and fear of retaliation will keep the political appointees in line. Their jobs depend on keeping the boss happy, not the voters nor the courts.. 3. It is a restoration of the spoils system, overturning years of good government reforms that had been enacted to counter 1 and 2.
So can we get it back? It is going to be hard, especially if Trump controls media through the FCC, and there will be no fact-checking by independent experts on social media. It will be even harder if the DOJ is weaponized to subvert the election process and suppress those who they deem enemies of Trump, minorities and young people.
https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/how-project-2025-could-turn-us-into.html
No comments:
Post a Comment