The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson –
If you don’t like a reality show on television you can change the channel.
The problem with the reality show starring Donald Trump as president of the United States is that it dominates all the channels. There’s no turning it off, unless you just turn off the TV and shut down the computer and head for the hills.
This is not your average block buster reality show, however. The president is the so-called “leader of the free world” or the “most powerful man in the world,” etc.
There is a huge difference between popular public entertainment and real world public affairs. The programmers constructing the Facebook algorithm have not figured this out yet and probably never will. Artificial intelligence is not going to save us either.
The actions of a president have consequences, and not just economic consequences. The future of American democracy itself is at stake here, and it’s not looking good.
That is unless some of the people in charge of the institutions we have built over the past couple of centuries stand up and do the right thing, and fast.
I could turn out to be wrong. But this reality show looks like a house of cards to me, and not the one on Netflix. “House of cards” is an expression that dates back to 1645 meaning a structure or argument built on a shaky foundation or one that will collapse if a necessary (but possibly overlooked or unappreciated) element is removed.
Perhaps I’m just impatient by nature and don’t see the fun or profit in renewing the contract for this reality show for another two or six years. It is really worth the risk of watching this house of cards collapse?
I’m digging around on the web to see if I can find one news writer or lawyer who can make this case.
The Associated Press can’t do it.
The answer seems to be “no,” meaning the mainstream media will continue profiting from this Trump reality show for the foreseeable future.
The New York Times made the case last year, but appears to have forgotten all about that now.
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The Washington Post, the paper that is legendary for bringing down Nixon, appears to be trying to figure it out, all while promoting its paywall, hedging its bets and profiting from the Trump reality show.
They quote John Dean, a White House counsel under President Richard M. Nixon convicted for his role in the Watergate scandal, who said Friday that allegations against President Trump detailed in new court filings give Congress “little choice” other than to begin impeachment proceedings.
“I don’t know that this will forever disappear into some dark hole of unprosecutable presidents,” Dean said. “I think it will resurface in the Congress. I think what this totality of today’s filings show that the House is going to have little choice, the way this is going, other than to start impeachment proceedings.”
Dean, who was a star witness of the 1973 congressional hearings on the Watergate scandal, has been critical of Trump in the past. In a November tweet, he compared Trump and Nixon, stating simply, “Trump=evil.”
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In another story in the Sunday paper, the Post begins to make the case that Republicans will have to abandon Trump for him to be removed from power. While the House could pass articles of impeachment against Trump in the new year now that they hold a majority, it would still take a two-thirds vote in the Senate for Trump to be convicted and removed from office.
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While Democrats and some of the people seem content to wait it out and expect Special Counsel Robert Mueller to rescue us from Trump, there is little evidence that Mueller will either recommend impeachment or take the extraordinary step of issuing either a subpoena to force the president to testify under oath, much less get a grand jury to indict him and have him arrested by the FBI.
Mueller is plodding forward with the investigation and putting together the case, periodically feeding the reality show with new drama, like he did this week.
But his entire team lives under the cloud of risk on a daily basis that Trump could fire them all, end the investigation, and pardon all the key players.
Democrats think this would be political suicide. But that is not supported by the facts in front of us.
As long as the economy saved by President Barack Obama’s administration continues to grow and not falter disastrously, Wall Street and Main Street will continue to go along with Trump’s balderdash. Unless the trade war crashes the economy, a third of the people will remain loyal to Trump and continue to support his reality show.
This is another option.
The “people” have always been a critical institution in our government of, by and for the people, albeit an often unreliable element in our democratic republic. Poor and middle class working people have voted against their own self-interest for so long now that Trump knows he can continue to manipulate their feelings in his favor.
What if more than half the people looked to the French for inspiration, and took to the streets?
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I have long advocated that protesters surround the White House and demand Trump’s resignation. Instead, the protests that have taken place in Washington have been peaceful affairs with marchers having fun walking down the street with funny signs.
That’s not going to cut it this time.
But go ahead and do your Christmas shopping and hope someone else handles this problem and saves you from this house of cards. I will still be here impatiently waiting on people to do the right thing and working to tell the truth as I see it.
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I have been doing a great amount of reading on 1930s Germany and Italy and find remarkable similarities. Immigrants and Jews were legislated against in both countries; after “the church” (in Italy) accepted and endorsed fascism -for political and financial gain- Italian institutions, regardless of many warnings, were joined at the hip with German institutions with the “blessings” of “the church.” Italian Fascists were compared with Jesus-only after the collapse of Italy was this position reexamined and revisionist history (real fake news) written. Today, this is what is happening here.