Thursday, February 13, 2020

Donald Trump Is The Most Transparent President In History, Hands Down

Several times a day Trump makes public pronouncements via Twitter of what he thinks, what he intends to do, what he wants to do, bluntly expressed, no mealy-mouthed opaque political rhetoric or bureaucratese. And he says it directly to the global public, unmediated and uncensored by media gatekeepers.

He even ISSUES ORDERS to government departments and officials by Twitter, allowing everyone else on earth to have knowledge of those orders in real time, at the same time the government officials being addressed do.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, was extremely secretive, sneaky, deceptive, and dishonest- after bragging he'd be the most transparent president! Worse than Nixon by far, he didn't merely seek the identity of leakers, as Nixon did, but ordered all Federal employees to spy on their co-workers and report on their attitudes. He allowed the NSA to spy on every single person in America and collect all their communications. He savagely persecuted honest whistleblowers, to create terror among Federal employees. He threatened to jail journalists, and engaged in wholesale wiretapping of their phones, such as at the AP.

But the corporate propaganda system ("the media") merely muttered about all this, while they screech that Trump is a threat to "the free press" and "the First Amendment" because he verbally insults them. 

That's all they care about- their own image.

As horrible as Trump is, in terms of transparency, and in terms of how he treats the press, he is miles above Barack Obama, and superior to any other president. And remember, the second U.S. president, John Adams, imprisoned publishers who criticized him, under the Alien and Sedition Acts. (Obama's favorite tool of repression was the Espionage Act, brought to us by another Democratic president, the Southern racist Woodrow Wilson.)

Saturday, February 08, 2020

Media Indignation Over Trump Staff Firings Shows Breathtaking Hypocrisy

President Trump has canned some personnel who contributed to his impeachment. He could hardly have done otherwise. The individuals are the imperialist zealot Lt. Colonel Vindman, who is being described in U.S. corporate propagamda as "the top Ukraine expert" (during his impeachment hearing testimony in the House of Representatives he revealed himself as a militaristic, anti-Russian zealot, as indeed most of the Democrats' "star" witnesses were), dismissed from his job at the National Security Council, which is a White House agency; his twin brother, another officer, and Gordon Sondland, the guy who gave a million bucks to Trump's inauguration shindig so he could play diplomat. (Trump made him ambassador to the European Union, then unmade him as ambassador.) Sondland testified to the House Intelligence Committee, run by the Democrats' Torquemada, Adam Schiff, that "everyone knew" Trump had a quid pro quo out on Ukraine- do an investigation, or just announce one, into the infamous Hunter Biden appointment to the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma, a no-show job for which he was paid $50,000 a month for five years, and for which he had zero qualifications (nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if your Daddy's the vice president of the U.S.A. at the time). Actually he had just one all-important qualification, being the son of vice president Joseph Biden.

In return for announcing an investigation, Trump would release a bunch of weapons to the Kiev regime to use to kill Ukrainians in the eastern part of the country who seceded after the U.S. coup overthrew the government. (This is translated in U.S. propaganda as "fighting a Russian invasion.")
 And the new Ukrainian president, professional comedian Volodymyr Zelensky, wanted a White House meeting with Trump. (Which he got, and no investigation was ever announced or conducted.)

But under questioning by Republican Congressmen, Sondland admitted that he merely "presumed" this, and the only thing Trump ever said to him was "no quid pro quo." Of course Trump was probably lying.

U.S. media is portraying these guys who lost their jobs as a grave injustice, they're "being punished for telling the truth." Whatever. But here's the hypocrisy, indeed the blatant, cynical double standard.

Do you remember- you probably don't- when Bush II fired a bunch of U.S. Attorneys for refusing to bring bogus election fraud charges against Democrats? You may not recall it because it's one of those things that "the" media has consigned to oblivion, thrown down their Orwellian memory hole, where inconvenient facts are disposed of. Now that Bush the Younger has been rehabilitated (illegal war? institutionalized torture? That's so yesterday!) all is forgiven. (And virtually mo one in America ever cared about a million dead Iraqis anyway.)

Several U.S.Attorneys were told to "investigate" election fraud by Democrats. (The irony is rich, as the GOP has been systematically stealing elections for over twenty years now, most infamously the presidential election of 2000, which they brazenly did right out in the open, ultimately by 5 Republicans on the Supreme Court doing the deed. But the Democrats, craven cowards that they are, feckless and dishonest, prefer to blame for Gore's loss- get this- Ralph Nader!) For example, then GOP Senator and loathsome reactionary "Pete" Domenici of Arizona referred a "case" to the U.S. Attorney for that state for "investigation." When that U.S. Attorney reported back to Domenici that there was no basis to bring charges, Domenici was mightily displeased, and let the U.S. Attorney know it. Subsequently Bush fired a group of U.S. Attorneys who failed to bring bogus criminal charges of election fraud against Democrats.

"The" media did report this at the time- rather, some of the media did- but there was no outrage. Not like the outrage over every thing that Trump does, even when justified.

Look, Trump is a loathsome creature, but he'd have to be a masochist not to fire these internal enemies. He may be totally out of his depth as president, but his aggressiveness prevents him from being rendered impotent. Thus the paradox of a man who doesn't understand power on the national and international level, who is a bumbler and incompetent, still can survive. Indeed, odds are he will be reelected, unfortunately.