U.S. President Donald Trump receives a football from Russian President Vladimir Putin as they hold a joint news conference after their meeting in Helsinki, Finland July 16, 2018: REUTERS/Grigory Dukor
SUNDAY READER –
By Glynn Wilson –
In the absence of inside anonymous sources to inform press reporting on President Donald J. Trump’s private telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Mueller report, the media is left with no choice but to report what Trump and Putin say — knowing full well they are both lying and spinning.
So in the interest of informed commentary, what is an opinion columnist to do?
Maybe use some common sense and a knowledge of science, logic, politics, literature and history to put forward a thesis and a hypothesis?
This is not rocket science. Trump’s track record of lying is clear, if perhaps not provably criminal, at least not yet according to official sources.
Before we get to that, however, let’s look at a couple of press reports, which are typical of what’s out there.
First there is this deadline report from the wire service Reuters — not just published in the U.S. news media but also in Moscow — that totally takes Trump at his word when he says he and Putin discussed a new nuclear arms treaty to include China.
On the face of it this makes no sense at all, since there is not a shred of evidence that either Trump or Putin are interested in the least in nuclear disarmament. They are both proud as papas of their big, shiny bombs. No way are they going to give any of them up.
There is a hint at how the conversation must have gone in Trump’s first reaction to a question about the phone call, like those psychological tests where you are tasked with blurting out your first reaction without giving it time for thought.
On Putin, Trump said, “He sort of smiled when he said something to the effect that it started off as a mountain and it ended up being a mouse.”
This echos what Putin said back in April, when he first spoke about the Mueller report’s conclusions.
“It was clear for us from the start that it would end like this,” the Russian leader said of the Trump-Russia investigation. “A mountain gave birth to a mouse.”
This is his official line on the subject. Not the truth.
In a report that is similar to most of the reporting in the U.S. news media, a young writer for The Atlantic called the conversation “surreal” and chastises Trump for once again failing to press the Russian president on electoral interference, about the only definitive conclusion of the Mueller report.
On the Sunday morning talk shows, this charade continued, with Democrats wondering aloud why Trump would not chastise Putin — for helping him win the election?
One of the late night comics made light of this, I think it was on Weekend Update on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” by saying that “you can’t smile through the phone.”
That is unless you are using FaceTime or Skype.
Even the comics can’t figure this one out.
Here’s what I think actually happened. It makes way more sense.
I have no doubt Putin was not just smiling when he talked to Trump on the phone. I think they were both LAUGHING OUT LOUD at the amazing gullibility of the American people and celebrating how they got away with the political and financial scam of the century.
I mean why on earth would any Democrat or any reporter think that Trump would give Putin grief for helping him win the election? Stop and think about it. They probably spent a half hour talking about how Russia could help keep the Democrats divided again in 2020 — and help him win again!
I mean why not? It worked.
I think everyone has the wrong angle on this. Trump asked for the help, got it, and wants it again. Why is that so hard for the media to grasp?
They don’t have sources to quote saying something else. Maybe they made a mistake by making a big, public show of foregoing the use of anonymous sources, and allowing conservatives to get away with saying such a thing is unethical? Clearly the real leaks have stopped coming out of this White House. Only the leaks designed for spin get through now, and the press dutifully falls for them, time and time again.
You could search the world over to try to find better reporting or opinion writing on this. Maybe the Moscow Times?
What the Mueller Report Tells Us About How Russia Works
Or, you could believe the only editorial writer in the land who called Trump a traitor for even meeting with Putin in Helsinki. That would be me.
Crossing the Rubicon
As I wrote earlier this week, we may have crossed the Rubicon with Trump in the aftermath of the Mueller report. The reference is to Julius Caesar crossing of the Rubicon river in 49 BC, the event that precipitated the Roman Civil War and ultimately led to Caesar becoming dictator for life — and the rise of the imperial monarchy of Rome.
That’s clearly what Trump is after. He hangs out with and studies dictators — because he wants to be one!
This is not speculation. He has actually said as much in public.
After meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping at his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago in March, 2018, Trump said:
“”He’s now president for life. President for life. No, he’s great. And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot some day.”
According to CNN: This may be the scariest thing Donald Trump has said as president.
The question now is, what does Attorney General Bill Barr want?
According to all the official reporting, Barr didn’t really need this job.
So why did he take it and what does he plan to do with his power?
I can’t prove it yet, but I plan to visit his office in the Department of Justice this summer to see what books Barr has on his shelves.
I would be willing to bet he has read Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and especially Niall Ferguson, a British historian who works as a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution who once called himself “a fully paid-up member of the neo-imperialist gang.”
I suspect Barr is a closet American imperialist, who fully believes in an American empire, just like former Vice President Dick Cheney. Apparently knowing something of history, Barr probably sees himself as a modern day Mark Antony, Ceasar’s Master of the Horse — or second in command.
Make no mistake about it. No matter what their rhetoric about “democracy,” they no more believe in democracy than Putin. They believe in imperial monarchies fighting for world dominance.
Without even really understanding why, this is why American Christian conservatives continue to stand with Trump. They also believe in a church-run monarchy that dominates the world from the point of view of their race and religion.
This is the wide open philosophy of former judge Roy Moore of Alabama, who will tell you in no uncertain terms that we “must” put the word of his interpretation of a Christian god above the laws of the secular state.
We allow this point of view to flourish at the peril of our experiment in forming an egalitarian democratic republic.
Here’s why we must avoid that way of thinking, or the Chinese will eclipse us.
Even the Chinese leadership and people embraced tolerance for different points of view from other people from around the world, especially on religion — during the height of their own world dominating empire that lasted a thousand years.
I really encourage people who want to be in the know to watch this six part documentary on public television, keeping in mind what I’ve written here.
Michael Wood explores the history of the world’s newest superpower…
How can we combat a corrupt president and a disastrous trend if the press and media don’t know the truth to tell you?
We must now turn to The Art of War by Master Sun or Sun Tzu, the ancient Chinese military strategist. I’m sure Trump adviser Steve Bannon keeps a copy in his pocket like some American politicians carry around a copy of the U.S. Constitution, along with Carl von Clausewitz’s On War.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
It seems to me at this juncture that the American people — especially the new Democrats now vying for power to counter Trump — don’t know this enemy and barely know themselves. They know some of what they want. But not much about how to get it.
That’s why I fear for the future, and why I continue to try to educate people about what’s really going on.
“All warfare is based on deception,” Master Sun taught.
And according to Clausewitz, “War is the continuation of politics by other means.”
The choice is yours. Make no mistake about it. This IS a war, and almost no one is safe. Either join the political war — or your point of view will inevitably lose.
Well done! If truth doesn’t comfort, it brings a sense of purpose…of resolve.