Showing posts with label press freedom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label press freedom. Show all posts

Monday, September 21, 2026

Dictator Trump? It appears his goal: ban unfriendly media....and a third term?

 The only power left to stop Trump’s march to become a dictator is us…vote Nov. 3 to turn Congress blue. A MAGA congressman has just introduced a bill to give him a third term by a constitutional amendment. Trump's ban of non-loyal (to him)press from the White House is also one more step toward the end of democracy to be replaced by rule of one. person..

.Trump.
Republican Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee introduced a House Joint Resolution (H.J.Res.29) proposing a constitutional amendment to alter the 22nd Amendment, which currently limits presidents to two terms (source: Google AI). This may go nowhere, but if it gains any support, it shows how far MAGA is willing to go and how important it is to nip this in the bud and to send a strong message.
The courts and process will be another route to stop this madness, but the Supreme Court seems mostly in his pocket, and the lower courts are too slow to act.
It is also time for Democrats to stop using the term "autocracy". It is too wishy-washy and intellectual. In plain English, and as Trump's actions indicate what his goal really is, the correct term is "dictatorship"...He wants obedience to what he rules is the law, instead of what the law books, the courts, the legislature, or the Constitution say. That goes for media, too; per Trump, it should report what he opines, with no unfriendly questions to challenge him. To Trump, all unfavorable news is fake news.
It is also time to refer to the GOP as MAGA, instead as the Republican Party: It is totally controlled by Trump and MAGA. There appears to be no room for Republicans who are "normies"...who are traditional, for small government, with responsible fiscal policies, and spreading support for freedom and democracy, and non-crony, non-corrupt capitalism worldwide. MAGA is none of that.
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Monday, June 11, 2018

A potential hammer against press freedom



So what will they use this data base for? Or will this become another Nixon enemies list. This is not an idle fear and the list can be used to protect us and it stands on the ready should some wannabe autocrat want to use it for his benefit. This calls for Congressional oversight, but that is a laugh given the GOP sucking up to Trump at every opportunity. It certainly will not be used to protect us from  Russian interference in elections since Trump sucks up to the Russians at all times. The U.S. ranks 43 of 180 countries based on press freedom, survey conducted by the non profit Reporters Without Borders.“ A media-bashing enthusiast, Trump has referred to reporters as ‘enemies of the people,’ ...has attempted to block White House access to multiple media outlets, routinely uses the term ‘fake news’in retaliation for critical reporting, and has called for revoking certain media outlets’ broadcasting licenses.”



FORBES.COM
Department Of Homeland Security Compiling Database Of Journalists And 'Media Influencers'
Homeland Security is seeking a contractor to compile a list of both professional journalists and "top media influencers," which would likely include bloggers and podcasters, and monitor the "sentiment" they're putting out in public.

https://rsf.org/en/united-states
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Saturday, May 19, 2018

Memorial Day is also a time to remember what those who died were defending

A version of this was published in the Sky Hi News, May 21-23, 2018
https://www.skyhinews.com/news/muftic-memorial-day-also-a-time-to-remember-what-those-who-died-were-defending/

 On Memorial Day  May 28 we will specially honor and remember the nearly million and a half in the military who died in wars to keep us from foreign control and the liberty  to pursue life and happiness. At the same time we should be asking ourselves do enough of us even care about protecting our freedoms anymore?
Our founders  put protections of our civil and human rights and freedoms  in the amendments to the Constitution. Not all of those freedoms are absolute and their meanings and limits  have been shaped by an independent judiciary, but they are still fundamental to the freedoms we enjoy for which so many have died.
Nonetheless, the U.S. ranks 45  of 180 countries based on press freedom, survey conducted by the non profit Reporters Without Borders.“ A media-bashing enthusiast, Trump has referred to reporters as ‘enemies of the people,’ ...has attempted to block White House access to multiple media outlets, routinely uses the term ‘fake news’in retaliation for critical reporting, and has called for revoking certain media outlets’ broadcasting licenses.” Update: June 10, 2018: Homeland Security is now compiling lists and data bases of journalists and influencers. To what use will that information be put is the question.

We have had  our civil wars, our slavery, our abuses of rights, but we have  had made progress to improve the implementation of our ideals. No longer.   Human Rights Watch, a non profit watchdog group, has released their 2018 report: “Across a range of issues in 2017, the US moved backward on human rights. Trump has targeted refugees and immigrants, calling them criminals and security threats; emboldened racist politics by equivocating on white nationalism; and consistently championed anti-Muslim ideas and policies…. and (undermining) police accountability for abuse…..”
Voter laws are being passed locally that make it more difficult  for minorities to vote by restricting voting times and motor voter registration laws, and  requiring extra effort and expenses to obtain photo IDs. These suppression measures were implemented  deceptively to protect us from virtually non-existent fraud.
The GOP dominated  Senate is fast tracking the process  to fill federal judicial seat vacancies  with ideologues passing litmus tests preferred over nominees who support judicial precedent and who pass peer professionals’ standards .  This will impact the current interpretation of the meaning of freedom for years, from Roe v Wade to the right refuse to serve certain customers on religious grounds to shrinking governmental protections of the environment, worker safety, and health care.
One freedom that our forefathers treasured was protection  from foreign control . Our founders never imagined the reach to millions on social media by Russian bots and advertising  to help Donald Trump win, as the bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee has concluded and reported May 16, 2018, and as our intelligence concluded in January 2017. Added May 23, 2018: Former director of national intelligence, James Clapper, concludes Russian meddling elected Donald Trump. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/05/23/james_clapper_in_new_book_of_course_the_russians_swung_the_election_to_a_trump_win.html

 The control the United States by bribery or personal gain by officials was so feared they put the emolument clause in the Constitution itself. There is a stench in the air that Trump has violated that clause. On May 16, we learned the Trump business organization from which Trump still benefits is  entangled in China financing a Trump Indonesian hotel just as US sanctions were lifted on a Chinese telecom already deemed a threat to US security. Another bombshell May 16 was learning Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer,  manages a consulting company account that appears to have millions coming into it, including foreign money. Suspicions are , that money could be seen as bribery to get access to the President on issues coming before the new administration, yet where finding the money went and who got it  is required to separate the crime from the slime.


https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/united-statesk


Lee Greenwood’s great lyric which  captures the meaning of Memorial Day the best:
“And I'm proud to be an American
Where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the ones who died who gave that right to me
And I'll gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today
Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land, God Bless the USA.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/wisconsins-voter-id-law-suppressed-200000-votes-trump-won-by-23000/

From https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf
"Russian efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential election represent the most recent expression of Moscow’s longstanding desire to undermine the US-led liberal democratic order, but these activities demonstrated a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort compared to previous operations. We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments.  We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him. All three agencies agree with this judgment. CIA and FBI have high confidence in this judgment; NSA has moderate confidence."
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Thursday, April 12, 2018

We were warned. What our founders feared is happening

A condensed and update version of this can be found in a later blog to be posted in late May or June:  Trump and the GOP congress are what Madison warned us about
From the Federalist papers:
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”


What we are witnessing now is the very thing  founding father Madison warned our new country about.  The separation of powers to protect us from tyrants is being corrupted now.
The writers of our constitution tried to establish a form of government that would make it difficult for a tyrant to take control of our country. They divided  the power centers of government into three, executive, legislative, and judicial, each with a check on the other. Madison knew there was a way to undermine their checks and balances. What was not yet on the horizon when he wrote this were political parties, but he described them above as “accumulation of all powers in ...the same hands”, " of many or a few." The "few" today is one party in control of all three branches of government with members unwilling to exercise their Constitutional power to check actions of one another.
There are various ways to define a tyrant using 20th and 21st century terms . Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State, called a form of it fascism in her recent book and op ed pieces.  She identifies a movement on many countries to embrace fascism. She sees President Trump as admiring them, aspiring, and instinctively using similar techniques to gain and to consolidate power, from attacking opposition media, promoting racial and ethnic scapegoats, and demanding a judiciary and law enforcers loyal to him instead of to the rule of law. Former FBI James Comey's bitter book that fires back at the President for firing him, compares Trump to a mob boss he once prosecuted, complete with using loyalty oaths.


Paul Ryan is  leaving Congress.  He is the leader of  the House, one of the legislative branches, the House of Representatives. His leaving  demonstrates if anything is that a legislative check on a president who is a wannabe "strong leader" demanding personal loyalty to him instead of the rule of law has not happened . That the  only party in control of both Houses of Congress and the White House, and working to control the judicial branch, is one, the Republican Party. The GOP is now the Trump party, with adherents willing to excuse any of the President's shortcomings so long as he supports their agenda. Polls show 80% of Republican voters approve of him, unshaken by any reports of immoral behavior in his private life or questionable character traits, or they agree the Mueller probe is just a witch hunt in spite of indictments to date and before a tight lipped Mueller releases his reports of his findings.

Respect of the rule of law is jeopardized. GOP House members believe that law enforcement, the FBI, Justice or the Mueller special counsel, should be staffed by only those loyal to the president to be credible, and that party affiliation of FBI or the Department of Justice leaders and key staff (all Republicans) is not enough. They demand the Department of Justice investigate investigators investigating Trump. Recently they forced the Department of Justice to turn over fired FBI Director James Comey's notes of his meeting with Donald Trump, key to an obstruction of justice case. That is an unprecedented interference by Congress to out evidence of an on-going criminal investigation.

 The Senate is a profile in cowardice, like House members afraid of being primaried for being disloyal to the President. With few exceptions, voices raised against Trump by GOP Senators are those who are not standing for election soon or ever. The Senate is currently engaged in fast track approving appointments to the federal judiciary loyal to the president. The suspicion is they are so far refusing to pass legislation to protect  Special Counsel Mueller from the president firing him because they do not want their names to go on record. Their rationale, Trump would veto their bills anyway and they could not imagine Trump would fire Mueller or his boss Rod Rosenstein. Oh really?


There are two other checks to prevent  a breakdown of our form of government. Voters have a chance to do that in November 2018 electing others to Congress.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-proclaims-may-1-2018-loyalty-day/

 The other check is a free press with a wide varieties of opinions and presenting facts as they discover and present evidence of  them. Trump's bias in favor of Fox News, Breitbart, and Sinclair Media , who often convey his message and support him, is hardly a secret. Trump calls reports that paint him in a bad light as "fake news" from "failing" media. Mueller’s investigation will be issuing a report on the Trump campaign’s coordination with the Russians in the 2016 race, followed by reports on financial crimes. Trump is acting like he fears the report will hurt him and has been vigorously attacking the credibility of the Russian connection DOJ investigators and threatening he will fire them. It appears Trump is taking  preemptive measures to destroy the credibility of the FBI as a "deep state" full of partisans against him so that supporters do not take Mueller’s findings as fact. Recently, he tried to punish the owner of the “opposition press”, the Washington Post, by attacking the other business the paper owner has, Amazon , using easily disproved lies.

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-promotes-hannity-episode-describes-mueller-mob-boss-deep-state-crime-883075
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-apos-retail-website-only-031557195.html

 http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/paul-ryan-warns-if-dems-win-theyll-hold-trump-accountable?cid=sm_fb_maddow




https://www.vox.com/2017/12/29/16830128/amazon-trump-twitter-postal-service-feud
https://nypost.com/2018/04/12/comey-says-trump-reminded-him-of-gambino-mob-boss/

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Monday, November 27, 2017

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.

__________________________________________________________
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.
____________________________________________________________

 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/
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