Tag Archives: Rachel Maddow

Breaking News, Observation, Politics

Observation: Media Alarm Off the Charts over Rule of Law & Constitutional Emergency

Montage / Various

The Press Responds with Extreme Concern as Last Line of Public Defense Against Trump’s Lawlessness

Media reporters have frequently panned Donald Trump ever since he announced his presidential campaign way back in 2015, and oftentimes for good reason. While many in the public like to play coy, find loopholes, and forgive the controversial President for his past and present wrongs, the objective press have done their job from day one, covering the Trump campaign and administration in nonpartisan print, for the most part, mirroring the facts on the ground.

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All throughout the sexual allegations, the Mueller Report debacle, tax evasion accusations, and more, Trump has managed to weasel his way out of facing consequences and the press has dutifully reported on each occasion with measured impartiality. Bending over backwards, as it were, even as he attacked with cries of “fake news” and even singled out individual reports for his ire.

By 2017 the word “lie” in describing the, well, lies of Trumps tweets and speeches became commonplace. There was little alternative language that would suffice.

Recently, however, ever since the Senate acquitted Trump during the impeachment trial, there has been a second change in the press’ language and a shift in the media zeitgeist.

Because all evidence pointed to Trump’s guilt in soliciting election interference from Ukraine, yet he still got off scot free, many reporters are taking on a new, quasi-apocalyptic tone. According to several journalists, academics, writers, and theorists, Trump’s recent acquittal is the final straw, placing the United States in an unprecedented state of post-law politics that demands a call-to-action.

In “How far will you go to save our democracy from Donald Trump?” in Daily Kos the spectre of Tump refusing to accept the outcome of an election he loses is explored:

So then what? What if Trump loses the election, refuses to leave, and the GOP doesn’t make him? Can you imagine a scenario where Trump loses the popular vote AND the Electoral College, yet is still in office after a 5-4 vote in the Supreme Court? What would you do in this case? I am seriously asking YOU: Then what?

Trump has the GOP in his back pocket it seems, as all Republican Senators except Utah’s Mitt Romney defended him at the impeachment. Afraid to side with Democrats or damage their political careers, Republicans are essentially making Trump untouchable, prioritizing politics over morals and placing the President above the law.

Due to Trump’s political record of successfully bypassing legal boundaries, reporters are starting to question where the buck stops. If Republicans won’t reprimand Trump even when the evidence is glaring, then how far is the he able to go? If the Senate and House will protect Trump at all odds, then checks and balances become futile and American Democracy gets deformed.

Even well known outlets such as Salon.com are weighing in at this critical juncture in a way that goes beyond any previous level of alarm – and, bear in mind, Salon has been publishing since 1994 and was named by Time magazine one of the Best Web Sites of 1996.

In the recent Salon.com article “This isn’t an election: It’s a civil war, and our side isn’t necessarily winning” the venerated digital media outlet’s Lucian K. Truscott IV did not mince words:

…Trump also learned from Roy Cohn that you can steal stuff in plain sight and get away with it if you just say “Fuck you” loudly and often enough. I think that’s what Trump is doing to the whole country. He’s saying, “Fuck you. I never believed in your democracy, I never believed in your capitalism, I never believed in your establishment, and look what I did! I got elected president! Fuck you! I’m going to take everything I want! I’m going to fly Air Force One anywhere I want, and I’m going to play golf more often than Arnie Palmer, and I’m going to bellow racism and lies at my rallies, and I’m going to jack up the Secret Service for rooms at my resorts, and I’m not going to pay a fucking cent and what are you going to do about it? I’m going to call Vladimir Putin on the phone and I’m going to get him to help me steal another election, and fuck you.”

That’s Trump’s philosophy in a nutshell: do whatever you want and say “Fuck you.” He’s getting away with it the same way he got away with stiffing contractors and welching on bank loans and going into bankruptcy and taking out more loans and when they come due saying “Fuck you.”

-LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTT IV

Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He has covered stories such as Watergate, the Stonewall riots and wars in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels and several unsuccessful motion pictures. He has three children, lives on the East End of Long Island and spends his time Worrying About the State of Our Nation and madly scribbling in a so-far fruitless attempt to Make Things Better. He can be followed on Facebook at The Rabbit Hole and on Twitter @LucianKTruscott.

Many now fear a Trump dictatorship built from chaos and lawlessness. Especially with the 2020 Election on the horizon, Trump has been quipping about the prospect of never leaving office—something that is obviously illegal in America and more fit for a monarchy. He is likely just saying this to enliven his followers and ruffle the media’s feathers. However, democracies have crumbled many times in the past and Trump has defied the Constitution enough times already, so who’s to say he won’t do it again?

Here’s an excerpt from “The Atlantic”:

One of Trump’s former confidants, Michael Cohen, has suggested that Trump won’t leave. In his congressional testimony before heading to prison, Trump’s former attorney said, “Given my experience working for Mr. Trump, I fear that if he loses the election in 2020, there will never be a peaceful transition of power.”

Likewise, with the high turnover of people within Trump’s cabinet, the media is picking up on yet another domineering trend in the current presidency—whenever someone even hints at betraying the Commander in Chief, he or she ends up fired.

This manifested itself most recently with Trump’s removal of Joseph Maguire form the Director of National Intelligence position. On February 13th, Maguire found evidence that Russia planned to interfere with the 2020 election and briefed his findings to the president. All this was part of Maguire’s job, but Trump threw an enraged fit in response and ended up kicking Maguire out for good.

Perhaps MSNBC reporter Rachel Maddow summarized the state of the nation best in saying “The dark days are not coming, the dark days are here.”

Excerpt form her MSNBC show:

“This is not a warning. The dark days are not coming. The dark days are here, And so those of us who have imagined times like this for our country. You know, who might have thought that heroic thing for us to do as citizens if our country ever took these turns would be to sound the alarm, to articulate what’s wrong with the direction our country is taking and to warn people about where it’s heading.

For those of us who thought that would be the kind of heroism called for, we were wrong. Because at least now that’s no longer the form of heroism that we need. That time is past. These guys are not sneaking around trying to get away with stuff, and the heroism is catching them and telling people what they’re doing. They are proclaiming openly that the rules gone, they will do what they want, the government will be turned against you if you stand against this president. That is not a warning. That is where we are. And so what do we do?”

Waiting idly as Trump’s dangerous behavior and actions are framed as mere potential is no longer an option for the press. Reporters have an obligation to remain impartial, but they also have an obligation to tell the truth, and when America’s democracy is in jeopardy, the truth can often come off as more theatrical and incredible than any dodgy, downplayed professional omission ever could.

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Books, Climate Solutions, Entertainment, Politics

’Blowout’ by Rachel Maddow: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth

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A Preview of Coming Conflicts that will Determine if Our Planet will Survive

Blowout is Rachel Maddow’s 3rd book and features a journey of intertwined stories that shine a light on the rise of Oil, Power and Corruption. Only after absorbing these fascinating fragments comes the realization that this history is either moving inexorably toward the brink of extinction, or, if somehow other forces intervene, an almost utopian potential.

A New York Times Bestseller upon release, its true weight and import is likely only to be recognized over the decades to come.

The narrative is built as a series of naturally staged and clearly factual anecdotes tracing the genesis and roots of the fossil fuel industry, followed up through the past two decades. Ultimately the story takes us to the moment (now) that represents a final crossroads leading to total world destruction, carbon burning suicide, or to a chance at redemption by replacing the corrupt empire of prettified organic matter with clean, renewable alternatives.

Maddow chooses to omit, for the most part, any discussion of climate change or the crisis that it is already unleashing on the planet, and focuses instead on the corrupt power, money and environmentally destructive nature of all the forces that led to is. As a result, the impact of the book is made all the more potent.

Please click on photo to buy “Blowout” and at the same time you can help Lynxotic and All Independent Local Bookstores. Also available on Amazon

Perhaps a Film or Docudrama could be in the Works?

Cinematically told from various POVs, almost sympathetic to even the least admirable characters, and by featuring the minutiae of the lives of individual actors in the drama, there’s a great feeling, as if the reader is privy to the inner workings of this almost infinitely powerful yet secretive society. It’s a wild ride and dramatic twists abound, but in the end the facts and seriousness of the subject matter inspires deeper reflection… and thoughts toward action.

As the narrator bounces from Oklahoma City to New York to Alaska to Moscow, there is a sense that these wildly disparate fates will eventually intertwine into the story’s climax. Meanwhile, the detail and texture of the players and locales is engrossing and even entertaining, like a sometimes shocking virtual tour in the shoes of her heroes and villains.

It’s a wild ride, dramatic twists abound, but in the end the facts and seriousness of the subject matter inspires deeper reflection…

D.L.

Putin’s rise to power and his decision to use oil and natural gas spoils as a way to rebuild Russia into a personal empire of crime is one fascinating thread deftly woven into the narrative. The enormous impact and bizarre facts of the fracking industry is another. And where this all comes together is in twisted links between US industry and politics, International corruption and, yes, the current administration in Washington.

Ultimately, without so much as hinting at this idea, at least until the final chapters, the underlying message is that the events, actions and characters portrayed in this tale are what stands between the survival of all the humans on this planet (not to mention life itself) and extinction. And, that these are the last people on earth that should ever be allowed to have innocent lives in their hands (although, in essence, they already do).

While the timing might be coincidental, the fact is that the book has appeared on the scene at precisely the moment when a showdown is emerging between those that are working to undo the damage of the past 100 years, and those that are hell-bent on continuing down a suicidal path of greed and destruction. A turning point in sustainable transportation, solar and other renewable sources and even computer assisted breakthroughs from mass-transit to agriculture are threatening to leave carbon burning technology in the dust. But, as the book so skillfully points out, the carbon Barrons will not relinquish power without a fight.

As the book comes to a close, the reader is left with a stark realization that the current occupant of the White House is little more than a tiny, powerless pawn when compared with the virtually infinite resources and greed of this cabal consisting of history’s most destructive beings.

Further, that the awesome power and hidden conspiracies are fighting, not just for a continuation of their own reign, but for an increase in all the destructive and dangerous plundering and daemonic infrastructure that they have been building and exploiting for the past century.

The hope, and there is hope, is only in the entire corrupt, dying system somehow being replaced with not only a sustainable clean energy infrastructure, but also a system of cooperating democratic organizations free of the rapacious greed and murderous evil that continue to push the failed agenda of the past. That only the complete eradication of the soon to be redundant fossil fuel industrial complex can lead to a world without the dangers and crimes as detailed so meticulously in “Blowout”.

Find books on Big Tech, Sustainable Energy, Economics and many other topics at our sister site: Cherrybooks on Bookshop.org

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