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"You gotta keep your ethics intact because ‘good and bad’ is a compass. It helps you find the way. And a person that only does what’s 'better or worse' is the easiest type of person to control. They are a mouse in a maze that just finds the cheese. But the one that knows about ‘good and bad’ will realize that he’s in a maze."
- Dave Chappelle
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On Sam Harris’ “Waking Up” podcast, General Michael Hayden reiterates the sad truth about Russian influence on the election through hacking, cyber-trolls and propaganda. “The Russians did it...It’s the most successful covert influence campaign in the history of covert influence campaigns.” Hayden also goes on to say that "covert influence campaigns do not create fractures in a society. They exploit fractures in a society and make it worse.” (See SamHarris.org)
The Russians plan to weaken our fragile democracy, by making people question our political system to the point of absolutely losing trust. Europe recognizes what Trump really is. They know what modern Russian propaganda & hacking looks like because they’ve been dealing with it for +10 years in their elections. Few people could have guessed though that the Russian propaganda & “fake news” would actually take hold in America & work to elect the President of the United States. We all assumed that the Fourth Estate (the American press) would help us at this confusing moment in American politics and clearly sort out the facts from the fictions. Instead the corporatist media seemed complicit in Trump’s agenda, for example, over-hyping Trump’s support and under-hyping Americans’ support for other populists like Bernie Sanders. (Later in this article, I'll discuss Trump's tactics to diminish trust and confidence in the TV & press media.)
It isn’t smart to assume that because America is a democracy that we are always safeguarded against authoritarian leaders. Certainly, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the electoral college were all designed by the Founding Fathers to safeguard against dictatorship but the system is not foolproof. And I mean that quite literally because if fools are electing fools to govern, that’s a disastrous recipe for a systems collapse.
The “America First” slogan (which now litters the WhiteHouse.gov website) was originally created by Sputnik, the Russian “news agency” (a.k.a. propaganda machine). In my understanding, former campaign manager Paul Manafort most likely knows this (if not engineered it), having previously worked as campaign manager for former president of Ukraine, Yanukovich, propping up another one of Putin’s "puppet presidents.” Manafort is paid $10 million a year (since 2006) by a Russian aluminum tycoon to promote pro-Russian agenda in the U.S. politics (a.k.a. straight up Bolshevik-style propaganda paid for by Russian oligarchs & Putin’s allies). The slogan now adorns the "America First Energy Plan” which aims to end all the “burdensome” regulations on big producers of carbon & methane emissions (the two most dangerous greenhouse gases which are contributing to global warming, ocean temperature rise, sea level rise, and the exponential rate at which glaciers in the arctic and ice in Antarctica).
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"It’s not all slogans from the far-right [like 'American First'], there are also slogans from the far-left. When Mr. Trump refers to journalists as enemies of the people, he is quoting none other than Joseph Stalin. And yes, of course, Steve Bannon’s idea that we should de-construct the administrative state does recall Leninism. So we’re in a dangerous & confusing place."
- Timothy Snyder
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The White House has cut 31% of Environmental Protection Agency funding & eliminated Obama’s initiatives to reduce carbon emissions. This is obviously corporate interest, plain and simple. Trump & Scott Pruitt (head of the EPA) have killed the Clean Power Plan because they claim it’s "killing jobs,” when in actuality the energy industries like coal companies claim that they can't create more jobs in those sectors. This makes it apparent to me that this removal of regulations is solely motivated by these corporatists who want to make more profit for themselves. They could care less about the health of our environment. It’s sickening. Scott Pruitt, now head of the EPA, sued the EPA 13 times as governor of Oklahoma (4 of the 13 times were to fight the regulations which prevented a company from dumping toxic mercury thus contaminating water for generations). Rex Tillerson clearly does not represent the people of America either. He only represents the interests of those profiting from the oil & gas industry. We know that Rex Tillerson has financial ties with Russian oil oligarchs. I think that’s un-patriotic and it’s un-American for Trump to have Tillerson as an adviser. They have basically eliminated all of Obama’s initiatives to reduce carbon emissions solely so that the energy companies can make more profit than they already do, at the expense of a clean & safe environment for us & our kids. I just don’t see how any of the citizens of America (or the world) are benefiting from this. The oil & gas companies already make enough money. In addition, this is not wealth that the American people will ever see in their pockets.
Just because someone becomes the President doesn’t mean that they receive a “get out of jail free” card. And just because someone becomes the President does not mean that they have the necessary competency for the job. These are two very big misconceptions.
The first 100 days of Trump aren’t over yet & it’s already getting crazy. Every day it looks like things are getting worse & the bad news hits us faster every day. News saturation bombards us with more information than our limited brains can compute. Just when everyone thinks it could not get worse, we wake up to news about airstrikes in Syria and talk about a pre-emptive strike against North Korea.
But it might be worth trying to dissect the chaos. We know that Micheal Flynn was paid $45,000 by Russia Today (RT) for a speech in 2015 (and he did not disclose it as is mandatory for a national security advisor ([which is a felony]). He was warned by the Pentagon in 2014 not to receive payments from foreign powers before he left the Defense Intelligence Agency. He's seeking immunity to testify in front of the House Intelligence Committee. And as of April 28th, 2017, it looks like the White House administration is attempting a "coverup" by withholding key documents which Elijah Cummings says are pertinent to the investigation.
The Russian connections keep adding up. And with Trump's actions clearly violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, impeachment seems plausible within the next four years. We will have to wait for the FBI investigations to unfold.
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“What possible reason other than spite could they have for killing the agreement Obama made with the car companies to get all cars up to an average of 55 miles a gallon in eight years. This was a done deal! An industry that we taxpayers bailed out and is now making record profits already agreed to it. It makes the air cleaner, it makes us more energy independent, it saves people money that they can spend on other things… it was a win, win, win, win!...
That’s called a no-brainer, which would lead you to believe even Republicans could get it right! All they had to do was nothing, their specialty. But no! No, no, no! It goes against the prime directive of… let’s say it together, ‘being a dick.'"
-Bill Maher
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I resist the mandatory nationalism which people disguise as “patriotism.” That’s not what I understand as true liberty. What is one to do when the people in power do not represent the true will of the masses (yet the majority of the masses elected the people in power through the electoral college system)? The people must never become complacent about the government's actions. “Freedom ain’t free.” Democracy requires much work when freedoms are in danger. Citizens must speak up against the people in power who want to limit our liberties, our freedoms & our right to live a free and healthy life. If we don’t stay vigilant, rights won’t mean anything. To me, access to clean air & water is the most valuable right. Without a safe & healthy environment, we are dooming ourselves as a society.
I hope that people wake up and recognize what’s going on. I hope people don’t feel too fearful to speak out. Tyranny can only exist if the people lose the courage to speak out because of fear of backlash from friends & people in their community. I wish we could all lay back and watch the newest TV drama thinking “It will all work itself out,” but I’m afraid that it won’t work itself out unless we work it out together.
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"With great power comes great responsibility."
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In Trump’s worldview, there are "winners and losers,” and this is how he thinks about business deals, and now political negotiations. In this view, there can’t be two winners at once in a deal. If one side “wins” the other side by default has to “lose.” There is no mutual benefiting between sides or else it’s a “bad deal.” This is a dangerous philosophy when it comes to working out international trade deals with our neighbors & allies. Trump has already shown that he’s incapable of maintaining positive foreign affairs with our biggest allies because of this worldview. Trump has already managed to tick off the Australian prime minister, the chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel by not shaking hands with her, and Britain by falsely claiming that British intelligence hacked his phones.
He even questioned America’s support for Israel in a number of speeches along the election campaign trail (which surprised some people like Kasich and Cruz who expressed their “100%" support for Israel during the debates). In a speech Trump said, “A lot will have to do with Israel and whether or not Israel wants to make the deal – whether or not Israel’s willing to sacrifice certain things,” like him & Kushner are single-handedly going to broker peace between Israel & Palestine. But this is his view on deals. Of course his views on Israel did a swift 180 degrees once he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. Then Trump flip-flopped on policy with China, saying that they're "not currency manipulators." And he instantaneously changed his mind about terminating NAFTA after the Canadian prime minister Trudeau & Mexican president Nieto asked him to re-negotiate instead.
Trump says “I think we’re weak.” America spends more on military than the next 8 nations combined and America still looks weak. In the same sentence, Trump said that we should use torture against terrorists and later said we should even torture the family members of ISIS terrorists (both of which are against the Geneva conventions). This is the irony because much of the world perceives America as “weak" because of its recent human rights track record, especially on torture and indefinite detainment (Abu Ghraib prison, Guantanamo Bay, etc.). The international community holds a higher standard for America when it comes to upholding international law for reasons which are fundamental to our history but for which many people have taken for granted. America sets an example for the rest of the world to follow. Trump & his cabinet are already setting a bad example which will damage our reputation even more. So when Trump proposes to “strengthen the laws,” most people understand that this will only backfire on our country and we’ll see the repercussions in violent ways abroad if not on American soil. We’ve seen it time and time again. ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.’ This is “tough guy” talk and it’s the kind of talk that could get us into a wrong fight (like North Korea) and that’s what I’m worried about as an American for my fellow American citizens.
A lot of self-proclaimed ‘patriotic' Americans have parroted these false insinuations about America’s weakness internationally but this is dangerous rhetoric.
Will we show the world that we’re "strong" by ramping up our military? Anyone who studies history knows that ramping up the military of a state is not a sign of strength; it’s usually a sign of the state falling apart (one only needs to read about the fall of Greek democracy, the Roman Republic, the Weimar Republic, etc.) (See Timothy Snyder).
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"Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty"
"Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty"
- Plato
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We’ve all heard it or probably said it ourselves at one time. "Politics is corrupt. All politicians are liars. The system is broken. We must destroy the system.” “We’re going to drain the swamp.” In 2016, America’s reaction to this feeling was to vote for Trump who literally promised them ‘everything’ and told people what they wanted to hear, despite what most of Trump says is not grounded in any evidence and he has only shown to embolden the money interests which most people innocently thought that he promised to eliminate. And oh, he "drained the swamp" alright. He killed everything that breathed in the swamp & replaced a living ecosystem with mechanistic money-making monsters that don’t mind ripping out the guts of the government at the expense of Americans’ suffering all to replace it with a profit margin.
That’s anarcho-fascism. And it’s even easier for them to get away with this because they already have a political enemy (Obama & the Democrats) who they can wrongly blame for everything that they become responsible for.
Republicans (especially Paul Ryan) whined the past 8 years about how Obama increased our debt (even though he was saddled with most of that debt from ongoing wars initiated in the Bush era). But then they don’t say anything in opposition when Trump & Pence propose to cut the entire budget in order to appropriate another half trillion dollars for the military budget (which will help kill terrorists overseas but not make America a safer place to live in Hillary Clinton’s opinion). This is important because the second largest expense that the military has is interest on debt from defense-related activities (and it appears to be increasing every year). In 2016, debt surpassed spending in the federal budget. This is more evidence to me that the Republicans have no principles. They claim to have principles but whenever it’s time to make a choice between their principles and corporate interests, it appears that “dark money” & lobbyist interests win every time. “Why is that?” you may ask. “Isn’t congress supposed to represent the people?" What people don’t seem to understand is that the system does work. America’s representative democratic system works, but only if there exists an informed & participatory populace. I think we’re simply not electing the right people. We’ve let it become overrun by corporate interests, and Trump’s cabinet is the newest evidence of us.
Like Rep. Seth Moulton points out on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, the military was opposed to Trump's cuts on the State Department because it makes it harder for them to keep America safe.
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"A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction...
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together."
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Don’t take what you hear for granted; search for the truth for yourself. Tyranny only happens when the people unwillingly give up their power to someone who wants take their power away. Don’t be fooled by people who want to erode your trust in facts & reality. "Reality is that which continues to exist whether you believe in it or not." Be weary of people who peddle mis- and dis-information in order to sow mistrust in the public & warp people’s worldview into fear. People will distort reality (or create “alternate realities”) in order to sell you false hopes. An apathetic, distrustful & disgruntled & therefore disinterested public is the easiest to manipulative + take advantage of. Apathy kills democracy. Doing nothing in a time of crisis only seals our fate. Now is the time to speak out against injustice. The system works, we’re just not working with the system; we let it get hijacked by con-artists & corporations with special interests. The Presidents tax cuts for the top 1% will not help the rural poor people in America that voted for him. Trickle-down economics is a hoax perpetuated by the Republicans to make the rich richer & the poor poorer. Republicans seem eerily content about the wealth divide….probably because their proposed policies pad their pockets too.
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"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every humanbeing. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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If these first 100 days of Trump is what he means by “winning” then I’m already "sick of winning"…
Trump fired the attorney general Sally Yates in the first 10 days in office. Trump’s presidency has set a bad precedent on so many levels when it comes to upholding the constitution. Trump's administration is actively trying to diminish the checks and balances on the presidential powers.
Conversations between the Trump team (Flynn, Kushner…) and Russian intelligence operatives were under surveillance because the NSA records phone calls between the U.S. and foreign enemies. As we’ve seen, the White House administrations' way of trying to sneak out of it is to claim that 'mass surveillance is wrong,' pointing the finger at Obama and his administration. If 'mass surveillance is wrong,' how was it OK when Bush signed the PATRIOT act and conducted the largest mass surveillance program in history on its own citizens? If 'mass surveillance is wrong,' then why did Congress just pass a law that allows internet providers to store your browsing history data? (It’s O.K. when corporations do it, but not when the CIA listens to phone calls with foreign leaders?)
I don’t believe in mass surveillance in principle, but I can understand how limited surveillance of Americans might be necessary, but only in extreme cases with a warrant provided there is sufficient proof of evidence of probable cause. I’m amazed at how moral philosophers like Jeremy Bentham predicted the rise of a surveillance society with his Panopticon.
The Republicans (like Devin Nunes and Rand Paul) are on a "mole hunt" for the people in Washington who leaked the information to the media about Mike Flynn’s contacts with Russian diplomats, which led to his resignation. This is just ridiculous because Flynn's name was unmasked because he was most likely doing illegal activity. Is it not possible for two things to be illegal at the same time? The Russian contacts and the leaks?
But the Republicans (like Matt Schlapp) want to pretend that somehow "two wrongs makes a right,” or that somehow the “illegal” surveillance overshadows or puts into jeopardy the finding that numerous officials on Trump’s team had contacts, meetings and financial ties with Russian oligarchs (a.k.a. allies of Putin and the Russian government). Trump says the leaks are “un-American,” but are they? I argue that the American people deserve the right to know whether these allegations are true, which would settle the question of unwarranted influence by Russian intelligence in the Trump campaign. It's evident that Russia wants to weaken our democracy so that they can emerge as a world superpower and I believe that bribery and blackmail are a possibility, or even more malignant is the possibility that Trump’s team is involved with political deals in exchange for business deals with Russia.
To me it appears that the only time mass surveillance is wrong to the Republicans is coincidentally when the Trump team is implicated in possible Russian collusion and/or Russia's significant influence on the elections. The only time when surveillance is “un-American” is when the Republicans are doing shady things (like secret million dollar deals with Russian oligarchs) and they get caught red-handed. Of course Jeff Sessions had to recuse himself from the investigations after revelations that he had met with Sergey Kislyak, Russian ambassador (aka the #1 spy recruiter for Putin's government, which of course Russia denies but of course they deny everything). I predict that this FBI investigation will not end quickly.
In addition, here’s my theory about Ivanka Trump’s recent inclusion into the White House. Ivanka Trump was given clearance since she is married to Kushner (and of course daughter to Trump) so there must be classified information that they spill over the dinner table. So the White House administration is probably legally forced at this point to give Ivanka government clearance to justify her new knowledge. Because they’re probably all talking about classified information and it would be illegal if they were talking about classified information without being cleared, even if it’s your spouse.
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"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way..."
- Charles Dickens
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The biggest problem in America is wealth inequality. I think people are suffering and the easiest way for people to explain their suffering is to find something or someone to blame it on. They see the gridlock in Congress and they become apathetic. It appears as if the government isn’t helping them but only taking their tax dollars. We live in a divided nation. I think that this partially is a consequence of the Republican party being a "party of obstruction" the past 8 years under the Obama administration. The discord & gridlock in Congress sowed a seed of distrust & apathy in people and created an anti-government sentiment in the country which Trump used to his advantage in order to win the election.
Most people vote for the Republican who vows to cut taxes, even though they don’t themselves belong to the higher tax bracket who would receive the tax breaks. But they vote on the principle that the government shouldn’t tell us what to do with our money. And they vote on the hope that we live in an utopian “land of opportunity” and that we all have the possibility of becoming a millionaire one day. Meanwhile the Republicans are removing the rungs of the economic ladder to make it impossible for social mobility.
In times of uncertainty like this it is easier for a "strong man”-type leader to take power, claiming that he will fix all of the problems (fix healthcare, defeat ISIS, jobs for everyone, etc.). The people wanted someone to stand up to the 'elitists' in Washington and that's what Trump vowed to do, although the disturbing irony is the fact that Trump is part of that business elite and he is only giving the corporatist Republicans more of a reign on American life. He's a millionaire businessman who knows next to nothing about what’s best for the American working class, let alone international affairs and foreign policy.
Most people vote for the Republican who vows to cut taxes, even though they don’t themselves belong to the higher tax bracket who would receive the tax breaks. But they vote on the principle that the government shouldn’t tell us what to do with our money. And they vote on the hope that we live in an utopian “land of opportunity” and that we all have the possibility of becoming a millionaire one day. Meanwhile the Republicans are removing the rungs of the economic ladder to make it impossible for social mobility.
In times of uncertainty like this it is easier for a "strong man”-type leader to take power, claiming that he will fix all of the problems (fix healthcare, defeat ISIS, jobs for everyone, etc.). The people wanted someone to stand up to the 'elitists' in Washington and that's what Trump vowed to do, although the disturbing irony is the fact that Trump is part of that business elite and he is only giving the corporatist Republicans more of a reign on American life. He's a millionaire businessman who knows next to nothing about what’s best for the American working class, let alone international affairs and foreign policy.
I fear that our democracy became susceptible to an authoritarian leader who validates and magnifies false perceptions about external threats and/or internal threats to our country. Perceived external threats may include minorities (like Mexicans and Muslims) which spawns ideas like building a wall and led to Trump's "Muslim ban." Perceived internal threats lead to de-construction of the government and consequentially a strengthening of the police/military state (especially in poor neighborhoods).
Trump's scapegoat rhetoric is a persuasion tactic of making people feel like their problems are not their own but rather the doing of a (demonized) group of people- or the "government"- the "status quo" politicians and "the establishment." The Republicans have perpetuated a myth about "illegal immigrants" being "rapists" and criminals. People have become fearful of terror attacks inspired by radical Islam and groups such as ISIS & Al Qaeda (after a number of attacks such as in Paris, Nice, San Bernardino, Orlando, and many others). People have become suspicious of the government after Wikileaks and the Snowden leaks about the NSA spying programs. Trump became the spokesperson for the culture of fear (and conspiratorial mindset) in America.
Of course all of the solutions that Trump has for these threats are costly, impractical and they're an idiotic attempt to attack the symptoms of the nation's problems instead of addressing the root causes of the world's problems. But of course Trump doesn't use logic & reason. And he certainly doesn't use observable truths or facts to form his opinions or inform his actions. Trump relies solely on emotion & 'gut' feeling. That's primarily why the people who did voted for him in the first place. Trump "tells it like it is." He says and does what feels good.
Trump's main message in his inauguration speech was that he would bring 'law and order' back to America. This is a frightening thing to hear when you know that there's less violent crime in America than ever before. This is classic fearmongering. But scare tactics are not surprising after all the other negative campaigning Trump did during the election like the attack ads & smear campaign against his opponents.
Trump's demagoguery is reminiscent of the early 20th century dictators because he speaks the same rhetoric of fear and mistrust. One way in which Trump did this was by attacking his critics in the media, calling various news channels "fake news." This is also a tactic used by Putin in Russia: to disseminate so many lies that the public has no idea what to believe so that they eventually succumb to the sole authority of the state. Trump won the election in an environment where lying became a sport (See the Election Debates). Trump lies constantly and there is consistently no consequence to his lying.
Trump and the White House administration have created their own version of reality. And of course he didn't do it alone; the Republicans over the past couple decade have helped to author this "alternative" version of reality (comically coined by Kelly-Anne Conway with her "alternative facts" remark). This is also Trump's way of ignoring criticism by shunning news outlets like CNN which arguably have a civic obligation to question Trump and his policies. But like an authoritarian leader, Trump doesn't tolerate criticism and questioning, something he showed by disregarding the conventional rules of how a free press operates during a presidential election while actively trying to undermine the press' ability to function properly. In Putin's Russia they kill dissenters. In Trump's America they just ban or limit your media access and violently expel dissenters from their rallies.
Trump managed to delegitimize the press and people's lost confidence in traditional media left them to gravitate towards fake conspiracy theories promulgated by Russian trolls on social media. This is a symptom in many ways of the death of American journalism. People don't read newspapers anymore. Most people get their news from their Facebook feed which we discovered after the election is filled with fabricated news stories from Russian propaganda engines.
The anarcho-fascist ideology is simple. The state is failing, so we must dismantle the state. And as we know throughout history, in order to exhibit “power” and “domination," the leader often chooses a scapegoat to destroy, symbolically and then literally. Trump & the Republicans will never accept the blame for anything. If they encounter a problem, they blame something or someone else. That’s the Republican strategy.
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As a high school kid in history class, we were taught that we had learned the lessons of Hitler’s rise to power in Germany & Mussolini's in Italy. We were told in 1989 after the fall of the Berlin Wall that we could close our textbooks because we wouldn’t have to think about those forms of authoritarianism & totalitarianism ever again.
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To Be Continued...
