Attack against press freedom is the first step to the end of democracy

Revised and updated: 11/30/17

A version of this was published in the Sky Hi News, 12/6/17   https://www.skyhinews.com/news/muftic-trumps-war-on-press-freedom/

Added January 17, 2018
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeff-flake-speech-trump-rebuke-senate-full-transcript/


Added: 12/9/17
Net neutrality is also an element of taking away medium freedom.  To understand why, https://www.yahoo.com/news/future-net-neutrality-repealed-creeping-203030801.html
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/internet-rules-set-vote-firestorm-wont-die-012310730.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/01/15/jeff-flake-isnt-just-comparing-trump-to-stalin-hes-comparing-republicans-to-stalins-enablers/?utm_term=.002bd19c8b3d


Everyday I am grateful for this country.  I know that if I lived in Putin’s Russia or Erdogan’s Turkey or any number of countries in the world ruled by “strong men” or  despots, I could could risk my life or freedom by writing  this column that often is in opposition to our country’s Leader’s  view of the world and issues. Fundamentally important first steps  enabling despots to  rise to power and their keeping it was their  destruction of the freedom of press by degrading,  killing,  or imprisoning  journalists and bankrupting opposition press through manipulation by various means.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeff-flake-speech-trump-rebuke-senate-full-transcript/

If citizens only hear one slant on the news, mind control follows. Having many outlets funded by a variety of owners permits those in a democracy to come to their own conclusions which may even be contrary to the interests of their dear Leader. As those who studied the methods of control of media by despots, know that it happens in steps and slowly until it is too late for any opposition to find a platform. For the sake of our democracy, any tendencies of political leaders to try to destroy press freedom must be recognized and nipped in the bud at the beginning before it is too late.

I lived in Berlin in the late 1950’s with a front row seat to the Stalinization of Eastern Germany and I married a refugee from dictator Tito’s Yugoslavia, visiting that Communist  country frequently for many years.  I spent my time in Berlin on a quest of understanding how Hitler rose to power in an educated, western cultural country. What I did learn was that the first step in consolidating power was  destruction of the free press . Our founders even in the 1700s understood that and wrote protections in the First Amendment of  our Constitution. For that reason, media  in the US was once  called the fourth estate, the fourth branch of government  checking each other’s power in addition to the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

In our  divided country thanks to the Trump campaign and administration,  we have begun questioning any “truth” or “facts” presented by the “other”  side . That is extremely dangerous to any democracy  that depends on open debate of issues  and consensus based on commonly agreed facts.  Claiming there are no credible facts except those presented by the Leader (Hitler called contrary press, the lying press..Lugenpresse) is a tool wannabe dictators  have used to destroy freedom of the press. In fact, at campaign rallies some of Trump supporters aggressively chanted "Lugenpresse" at reporters.

Especially alarming is Donald Trump’s recent attack on CNN and his stated embrace of  only one approved cable news network, FOX News.. Those media outlets who present facts contrary to his pronouncements  or criticize  him are often called “fake news” . Trump Thanksgiving weekend tweeted to  declare that Fox News “is MUCH more important in the United States than CNN,” adding that CNN represents the United States "poorly" to the world. At the same time his Justice Department  sued to block a media merger that critics claimed was a move  to force the sale of CNN, a frequent target of Trump as the conveyor of “fake news”. At the same time, Trump's appointed Federal Communications Commission enacted rules paving the way for the merger of a pro Trump group, Sinclair Media with Tribune Media . At the same time, his FCC approved rules permitting consolidation of local media outlets, including lifting the rule prohibiting print media to also own TV and radio stations, reducing the variety of news sources and interpretations available to viewers. This was overtly favoring and strengthening the media domination of major markets by his chosen media.

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The only bright side of Trump's view of what is fake news and what is not is that it has become obvious that the chief conveyor of fake news is Trump himself via his tweets. So outrageous were his tweets in the past couple of weeks, he damaged his own credibility , contradicting his own prior declarations. A recent Trump tweet gave  the link and his accolades to a conspiracy theory media outlet, MAGAPILL.  The site  spouted White Nationalist, anti Semitic, and far fetched paranoia . The following week his tweets linked to a British web site promoting hate mongering anti Muslim propaganda containing a video already debunked by Dutch authorities and raising the ire of the UK Prime Minister and members of Parliament.
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An attempt by the right wing group Veritas to try to trap the Washington Post into demonstrating they were the source of fake news backfired last week as well. An undercover worker tried to sell Post reporters on a story that was fake as a way to bait them into reporting a fake news story to damage their credibility. The problem was that the reporters did their due diligence on the story and discovered the sting operation, only proving that the Post's skills and reporting were even more credible and respected, not less.

Do I think Trump read Hitler’s, Putin’s, Erdogan’s playbook about how to turn a democracy into their type of “strong man” governance?  He certainly has shown a nearly fawning admiration of their style, but he also has demonstrated  ignorance of the Constitutional provisions and  lack of interest in American history and seems angered when some judicial body or judge  reigns him in, calling an executive order he issued as  unconstitutional.  The concept of the  rule of law seems to be a puzzle to him. His answer: stack the courts with  appointees with ideologues favorable to his beliefs. He has already tamed all but of few of the GOP members of Congress, who fear meeting his true believers in their gerrymandered district’s primary.   No, I do not think he has read the despots and dictator’s playbook, though he tries to mimic some of their techniques.    He is an organic , impulsive wannabe strong man; it is a part of his nature and his soul.

http://time.com/4544562/donald-trump-supporters-lugenpresse/


http://brianpklaas.com/the-despots-apprentice/

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2017/11/fcc-sinclair-media-ownership-tribune-merger/

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/20/trump-lawsuit-att-time-warner-merger-250956

http://www.weeklystandard.com/trump-tweets-link-to-conspiracy-theory-website/article/2010606

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/361884-former-intel-chief-hayden-slams-trumps-cnn-tweet-ive-wasted-40-years

https://www.yahoo.com/news/birther-apos-back-trump-reportedly-040041686.html

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5026737/donald-trump-jayda-fransen-twitter-retweets-britain-first-piers-morgan/


https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/29/16713664/trump-obama-birth-certificate

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/womans-effort-to-infiltrate-the-washington-post-dates-back-months/2017/11/29/

Why I have refrained from calling Donald Trump a fascist.

Updated 2 25 2017
 I have refrained from calling the Trump administration fascist. It is not there yet.  It is too early to tell and the constraints of law and the Constitution may keep President Trump from putting some of his innate tendencies into practice. However, every day it seems Trump's actions resemble even more the examples of fascism as practiced in the 20th century.

The definition of fascism as a philosophy is complex, but actions can be the the definer, too.     Calling someone fascist brings to mind Hitler, the gas chambers, the hyper nationalism, the rallies and parades, and a goal of economic recovery based on ramping up the military/industrial complex,  blaming and scapegoating minorities, and feeding on the emotions of those who hate "others".   Hitler seems to personify it in many minds, though the 20th-century ideological roots are actually in Italy and Mussolini and not all authoritarian governments are fascist.

 While President Trump certainly does not fit the extreme Hitler mold, there are some similar elements to the rise of fascism in Europe found in Trump's tweets and orders and techniques,  such as holding rallies to whip up supporters' enthusiasm and hyper-nationalism, exaggerating potential external security threats and the weakness of our military,  and the failure of an economy,. He is ignoring the fact that the economy has the lowest unemployment rate since 2009 and had a pre-election robust Wall Street. True, the blue-collar middle class has been left behind. Whatever Trump advocates, the US in 2017 is nowhere like Germany in the early '30s that was decimated by reparations and the Depression.

With crowd-pleasing rhetoric and tweets, Trump claims the only facts that are not fake are those considered true by the Trump administration. He verbally delegitimizes other centers of power,  courts, and their judges,   and media.  Stephen Bannon is the president's most trusted and closest adviser and is also an example of the hatred factor found in fascism. Bannon had been CEO  of Breitbart, the media public platform for white supremacists and ultra-nationalists.  Leading to Trump's own rise on the political scene was "Obama was born in Kenya" birtherism crusade, considered by many to be dog whistles to racists. Whether or not Bannon and he are racists and bigots themselves is the lesser issue.  Like Bannon  Trump tolerates and exploits racism for political gain, even being reluctant to condemn bigotry until forced to. His Muslim ban obviously appeals to religious bigots. Pressed for weeks to condemn Jewish cemetery vandalism and threats against religious centers, he finally made a statement last week condemning anti-Semitism.

These last couple of weeks of his media relations were particularly disturbing and brought him a step closer to qualifying as at least a wannabe fascist.  Looking at how the fascist movement got into power in the last century, we can see some similarities.  One is an attempt to bully and control the press and to take over the messaging. Trump is beginning the process by excluding "opposition" outlets.  CNN and the New York Times were kept from the press "gaggle"at a non-televised briefing at the White House and Trump and his spokespeople have refused to call on reporters who represented media promoting stories critical of him. These were obvious attempts at "punishing" CNN and the Times. Their sin: reporting on Trump's possible even closer relationship with Russians during the campaign.

The most serious media-related event raised the question of whether his administration had tried to influence the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's colluding with the Russians. One version reported by the media was that Reince Priebus, Trump's chief of staff, had approached the FBI director asking him to tamp down a report being leaked from the agency as flawed because there was no evidence any Russian contact involved Russian agents. The Trump administration did not deny the contact had been made with Russians, but said it was not their agents, and counterclaimed that the FBI director had approached Priebus. If the latter is true, then the FBI's impartiality and credibility in their Russian related investigations into Russian hacking and meddling in the 2016 elections are jeopardized. If the administration initiated the contact with the FBI, then they are verging on a Nixon-like cover-up and look guilty that there is a fire in the smoke. Adding to suspicions that there is something there there,  as many have noted, Trump has never flatly denied that contact with  Russians and his campaign staff occurred but instead has tried to deflect attention to "illegal leaks",  as a way to direct public attention and media focus elsewhere and a way to scotch deeper probes.

 Either way, the exchange with the FBI flap is not good news for the Trump administration. In that dust-up, what has been clear is that the Trump administration is fearful that the FBI or the other investigations being conducted by intelligence agencies will find the smoking gun of collusion with  Russian agents. If that collusion turns out to be sanctioned or conducted by Donald Trump himself or others in his campaign acting under his direction, that could lead to impeachment at worse or destroying the credibility, legitimacy,  and effectiveness of the administration at best.  The stakes are very high.

.Populism has also been an element in the rise of fascism.  Candidate Trump's appeal to the blue-collar working demographic was more populist than corporate.  Ironically, a  corporatist element has been added to  Trump's presidential administration with the appointment of the team of billionaires to the various cabinet posts. These cabinet officers have been charged to de-construct their departments, eliminating consumer and environmental protections that were designed to protect the middle class from corporate excesses.

The populist rationale Trump has pitched to the public is that this pro-business, anti-environment/consumer approach will lead to high paying job creation in the rust belt and national economic growth. Those most affected by economic struggles are without a college education and robotics have replaced many of those jobs once held by human beings. Some blame unions, too, for holding back efficiencies. Trump has not provided any plan to fix those problems but instead has blamed bad trade policies.  Whether protectionism will result in high paying jobs with a workforce ill-equipped to fill them or reduce robotics is doubtful. If proof of Russian collusion does not lead to his defeat in 2020, his failure to provide promised economic growth and high paying job creation will. As counties who voted for Obama in the past then went for  Trump in 2016 showed,  populism is a fickle beast.

Another parallel with the practice of German fascism is Trump's reliance on militarism to promote US leadership in the world. The current world order he is de-constructing is one based on mutual defense treaties  (NATO) and multinational economic and trade arrangements. Instead, Trump's vision of leadership is relying on military muscle power as a threat to deter attacks and as a "might makes right" bully power over the rest of the world.  Where it does differ from Hitler's rise is that Hitler used military buildup in manufacturing as an argument to the public, promoting it as a way to pull Germany out of the depression.

Donald Trump had wanted to display military weapons and missile launchers in his inauguration parade, but the US military declined that opportunity. Red Square type parades are not far from his mind. Whatever the reason for militarism, if diplomacy and treaties are not tried first, we can imagine where a crisis might lead. For some in history promoting military conflict was a way to make the  "pledge to the leader" a patriotic duty. To increase an autocrat's power, the exaggeration of threats to national interests and persecution of ethnic groups are familiar modus operandi.even in our current memories, from Milosevic's Balkan Wars in the 1990s to Russia's stealth invasions of the Crimea, Georgia, and Ukraine. It is no wonder a recent poll showed the majority of Americans fear involvement in another major war.  The danger is that we are living in a nuclear age where miscalculations and political ambitions could lead to disasters far greater than the world wars of the 1900s

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There is a very comprehensive discussion of this : https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/fascism-populism-presidential-election/510668/

http://thehill.com/homenews/news/320574-poll-majority-of-americans-fear-us-will-become-involved-in-another-major-war

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-inauguration-parade-tanks-missile-launchers-2017-1

http://www3.nd.edu/~salder/RB.pdf puts blame on the Rust Belt decline on unions
MIT looks at the impact of robotics and the need for greater worker education  https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602869/manufacturing-jobs-arent-coming-back/


Footnote:  while I usually do not use Wikipedia as a source, I did tap into their definition of fascism and its history.  It seemed comprehensive and well documented.  I did not rely on it alone, though, drawing on my undergraduate background in history and political science and first-hand encounter with the results of fascism in an academic year spent in post-war Berlin in 1957. It was a  grassroots attempt to find out how and why it happened there. My intellectual curiosity has not dimmed over the years.  I number among many life long friends and relatives by marriage the recounting of their personal experiences and memories of the rise of fascism and communism in their native countries.

Honey traps, Russian private banking: explosives or duds?

One of the tools of the espionage trade is termed a honey trap, where agents of a foreign spy organization provide sexual services to the target they want to compromise and control, film it , and use it as a tool of blackmail to force the subject to do their will.. Another tool is to trace individual’s obligations in financial dealings to use the target’s personal financial interests that could be used as a hammer over their targets that would be harmful to their political standings. The release by Buzzfeed of a “report” by a former British intelligence agent paid by opponents of Donald Trump alleging there were personal and financial knowledge held by Russian agents could have been used now or in the future to “compromise” Trump. For sometime the rumor has been circulating that Trump had $300 million in loans, debts he owed to the Russian private bank, Alfa, and that the Russians had evidence which was termed “salacious” (with conspiracy theorists thinking there may had been a honey trap involved). That these rumors and allegations made in the agent’s “report “were taken seriously was most likely because many of both sides of the aisle were puzzled why Donald Trump was constantly apologizing or was in sympathy with the policies of Russia. They were trying to find a reason why Donald Trump had made comments supportive of Russia’s territory grabbing in the Ukraine,Crimea, and Georgia, letting Russia finish and dominate the Syrian civil war, weakening NATO’s mutual defense responsibility and endangering the Baltics by failure to be protected from Russian expansionism, or denying of Russian interfering is US elections and hacking.. Sometimes Trump’s Putin bromance was owed to Trump’s vulnerability to flattery, and especially from the Russian president , whose leadership Trump openly admired. It was also owed to political connections and friendship of his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, with the deposed president of the Ukraine and an associate of Putin. The “report’ was called trash by Trump’s surrogates and spokespeople. All media, even the reporting Buzzfeed and CNN , referred to the report as unproven. Trump went even farther to accuse US intelligence agencies of leaking the “report” as was done in Nazi Germany, and to call CNN “fake news” .Trump himself claimed he had not read the report. However, the credentials of the "former" MI6 agent are sterling as more information about him has come to light. So far as any films that could be released, their degree of impact in "compromising Trump" has been greatly diminished by 46.1% of the November electorate having voted for him while willing to overlook his marital history and victim testimony about being a grabber of women’s private parts, The content of such films may not have much of an impact because it would be of little surprise since his supporters had already taken into consideration his amorality . The real problem no matter how Trump denies or attacks the allegations, his policies and actions regarding any policy involving Russia will come under close scrutiny by Congressional hearings and media. Whether such evidence validating the “report’s” findings would surface later will always be a possibility because there will be forces trying to expose it, forces especially motivated by his warfare with US intelligence agencies and the media. Their motivation was only heightened by Trump's accusations of Nazi like behavior of US intelligence agencies and calling middle of the road CNN "fake news". __________________________________________________________________________ Additional comment: (The “report’ was called trash by Trump’s surrogates and spokespeople. All media, even the reporting Buzzfeed and CNN , referred to the report as unproven. Trump went even farther to accuse US intelligence agencies of leaking the “report” as was done in Nazi Germany, and to call CNN “fake news” .Trump himself claimed he had not read the report,.) This is a pattern of his political response whenever attacked . His vintage modus has been to turn the tables, accusing the accusers of what he himself or Breitbart or RT News had been accused of doing , or that he had used some of Hitler’s techniques to discredit all opposition press, or to claim he was unaware of his supporters and association's background (as in David Duke of the KKK or mob related associates such as Joey No Socks Cinque or that he really didn't know Putin personally ). In his Wednesday, January 11, 2017 press conference he was adamant that he owed nothing or had any financial interests in or with Russia. It is of course not in Russia’s interest to provide that proof to the public since it would be a confession of their actions of which they were being accused. That he ever owed money in the past to any Russian oligarchs or the Alfa bank they control may never be known since he refuses to release his tax returns.
Alfa It is a private bank not subject to public reporting with many, many affiliates and branches, making it difficult to trace its records.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/21/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-popular-vote-final-count/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_trapping

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/12/intelligence-sources-vouch-credibility-donald-trump-russia-dossier-author
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/politics/trump-russia-associates-investigation.html?emc=edit_th_20170120&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=33304952&_r=0

https://mediamatters.org/blog/2017/01/19/new-york-times-trump-ally-roger-stone-under-investigation-possible-russia-ties/215068

Comments on comments from the right, left and middle

My head is spinning watching Republicans on TV recently.  The first Republican candidate debate was memorable for many reasons, mostly watching a very skilled Michele Bachmann in action. I disagree profoundly with her viewpoints, but she was impressive as a candidate, making news, slipping in her resume, and soundbiting her political points. Bye Bye Palin; Bachmann is Palin with an education.

Howard Cain backing down on some anti Muslim comments, said that he would hire a Muslim on staff if he/she swore allegiance to the constitution.  That was still a backhanded anti Muslim comment that he does not trust  Muslims to be loyal Americans.  Rick Perry of Texas did not appear at the debate because he is still mulling over announcements.  However, one of his most famous recent remarks was made at a Tea Party rally this Spring in which he threatened Texas secession from the United States if the Obama administration would  not quit  trampling states rights.  Perhaps Cain should have Perry swear allegiance to the Constitution as a condition of being a candidate for President since secession would be unconstitutional.  Didn't we fight a civil war over that?
This morning on Fareed Zakaris' CNN GPS program featured a debate between two extremes:  Robert Reich, former Clinton Labor Secretary on the left vs.David Stockman , former Reagan Budget Director  on the right.  Reich was attempting to make a case that we needed a FDR style WPA or CCC works program    to pay the unemployed to work on publicly needed projects to deal with the unemployment problem even though the US would have to borrow money to afford it.  Stockman, countering it,  made the case  for austerity...severe cuts in defense and entitlements such as social security and medicare though
it would lead to 15% unemployment over the next decade.  His solution to unemployment: something we will
justg have to get used to....meaning solving the debt problem in the long term was far more important. I doubt theRepublicans would adopt his platform; they are too busy claiming 9.1% unemployment means Obama has failed the American people.
 Republicans are fond of saying that the US situation is worse than Greece.  . That the US is worse off than Greece is very debatable. Both of us lack the will to pay for what services we demand from government, but at least the US has the means within its economy to afford it and can print money and the US does a better job of tax collection.   As Reich pointed out our debt load in the past has been 125% of GDP but we had the capacity to get out of it and actually flourish.  However...living with 15% unemployment is better than some  debt? As a Financial Times columnist wrote (and I cited in previous blog postings), even the GOP Ryan plan is a political fantasy. At least it  would not be as unsettling to civil order as ten years of 15% unemployment  would be. Ye gads, Stockman. Get a grip on yourself.

The most calming bit Sunday was Defense Secretary Roberts Gates on Candy Crowley's CNN interview. Not  only did he make news confirming negotiations  were underway with the Taliban, but he made a very good case for the Obama policy of responsible withdrawal from Afghanistan vs. an immediate draw down. He also supported the Libyan action, acknowledging that the conflict did not affect the US's interest so much as it did our NATO  allies.  We owed one to NATO allies for helping us out in Afghanistan.

The leap of the faithless-Muslimphobia in the US

Muslimphobia in the US is at an all time high, if one is to believe the polls. CNN will air a program Sunday regarding anti Muslim attitudes,"The Muslims Next Door". Here is a question I hope they will answer and explain to me: How would an act of terror committed in the US perpetrated by a young Muslim, who is either a sleeper planted some time ago, influenced by members of a local mosque  or one recruited over the Internet, cause the US  to embrace the Koran instead of the Bible and adopt Sharia law?

It certainly did not happen after 9/11 and instead, public opinion hardened and  cable talkers boosted their ratings and income to exploit irrational fears of their already skittish audiences. Jihadists became the new villains  of fiction writers, and politicians revelled in passing useless laws outlawing consideration of Sharia  in trials, condemning the building of mosques, holding hearings to gin up fear, and even trying to ban the practice of the Muslim religion.

 Here is what I do not get: some of the practices of Islam are due to interpretations of the Koran to which not even most Muslims subscribe and certainly most  in the US do not. Even then, Muslims in the US have little clout, constituting .6% of the population. They are very far from being a political force.  Some parts of the Koran indeed are not in our US Judeo-Christian cultural or religious traditions. Have  those subscribing  to Christianity have no faith that their religion would triumph if Americans were given a choice? Oh ye men and women of little faith,  I just do not get it.

Also not getting it, are those who do not understand the basic concepts of US law and our Constitution. For them fear overrides the protection of religion guaranteed in the Constitution, the understanding that secular laws in the US trump any contradictory religious practice.While the Koran permits beating a wife, it is assault and  battery in the US. While some interpret the Koran to permit killing a spouse for infidelity, it is murder in the US and has been so prosecuted here.

We do not need to just look at examples of  Muslims  to understand the concept of  superiority of US secular laws over religious practices: While some religions do not believe in medical treatment for their children, and the children die or nearly do, it is child abuse and neglect in the US.  While some Mormons interpret their religion to practice polygamy and marry underage children, it is considered rape by our laws. The old testament exhorts taking an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, yet if you  try to take some one's eye or tooth seeking revenge,  see where that gets you in the criminal justice system.  Some think their Christian belief gives someone the right to take a life to stop abortions. That gets them charged with murder. Some once  believed that they are  doing their Christian duty by donning white robes and hanging Negro offenders. Law enforcement may once have looked the other way , but today murder is murder and hate crimes are subject to special, more severe penalties.

  It is no wonder the courts put a hold on the Oklahoma law banning Sharia law as being  unnecessary.  Clearly, legislative anti Muslim  initiatives elsewhere ran into opposition because they were clearly unconstitutional.  Nonetheless,  anti-Muslims soldier on, ignoring these technicalities in their fear and hate driven zeal, fertilizing  the fields of xenophobia, paranoia, and ignorance.