While I've been working on a couple new posts for this blog over the last month, they still don't seem as relevant as the last one that I wrote about a month ago. Wow.
Sure, the investigation is not the only thing going on in the world, and Congress has been pretty busy, actually, while the news media obsesses on the Trump Administration flailing through blunder after blunder (buh bye Dodd-Frank, grrr...), but, for now? Well.
So, it's not that I've been neglecting this site, it's just that I don't think I have anything to say worth saying right now that is more important than my The President's Crash Dive Towards Removal from Office post.
Oh, and really? He's on the TV announcing the roll back of President Obama's Cuba policy reforms. It's sad and pathetic. He only gets the "wins" when he can act unilaterally, and most of those actions have been awful. We won the Cold War with blue jeans and Beatles records (over simplified, of course, but a huge factor), and we need to do the same in Cuba.
China is as bad if not worse than Cuba. But, you know? They have the money and power, and, well, fuck you, Cuba.
By my count, there are now four grounds to impeach Trump, and the fifth appears to be on its way. Our latest video explains: pic.twitter.com/K08kTMj9wj
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich's video outlining four or five grounds to impeach the president is interesting, and even more now, more than a month after it was first released. And what a month it has been... But even at this point, most of these points are pretty weak tea. However, Reich's list keeps getting longer since he first suggested the possibility of impeachment based on the emoluments clause at the time of the inauguration, and his arguments supporting each point tend to be getting stronger as more and more evidence accumulates...
It really is starting to feel like it is just a matter of time before something happens to really put President Trump's job in jeopardy, especially as the president continues to flail, wilder and wilder, with each passing week.
If the administration is brought down, it is likely that it will not be for something that's already happened, for acts already committed, but for something that may happen very soon if the the president, his staff, and his cabinet continue on their current trajectory.
It is not the time right now, yet, to be discussing impeachment, but the current investigations need to be thorough. The nation needs these concerns to be addressed and this is a very different situation than the calls for the impeachment of the last two presidents and the actual impeachment of President Clinton before that.
Since the impeachment of President Clinton, too much time has been spent dwelling on removing the opposing party's chief executive from office.
The proceedings against President Clinton were far more motivated by politics than by any true harm he did to the office or the country. This is not to say that he did no wrong, lying to Congress is a serious infraction, one that should still be taken very seriously, and a reprimand was clearly in order, but to move towards actual removal from office over lying about an extramarital affair is a bit like firing a RPG at a housefly. It does more damage than good.
Under President Bush, when the Democrats took control of Congress, there was a lot of speculation that they would follow in the GOP's footsteps and that the House would vote on Articles of Impeachment. Again, though, this would have been motivated by politics, and any charges against the president would have been pretty well trumped up to justify such an action.
Not liking the policies and practices of the president is not grounds for impeachment or removal.
In a way, that was a very scary moment for our democracy. If the cooler heads did not prevail with the Democrats under President Bush, after what happened with President Clinton, a precedent and tradition could have been established where impeaching the president became a basic political move when power shifted in Congress.
Such a development would have been devastating for our nation.
It is almost certain that, if the House Democrats even held a vote on impeaching President Bush, the House Republicans would have voted on impeaching President Obama. Large sections of the base of both parties cried out for such actions towards the other party's presidents through both administrations, and such moves would have been easy red meat to throw at these constituents, but the costs to our nation would have been terrible.
It would be simple to dismiss the current calls for the impeachment of President Trump as being little more than the latest incarnation of these misguided political urges, but this is a very different situation. True, there has been politically motivated noise about impeachment since the election, but over the last few weeks, evidence is mounting that requires investigation.
This time, there may be true "high crimes and misdemeanors" in play.
As I mentioned earlier, I really do feel that the focus of our nation, for the moment, needs to not be on the scandalous possibilities of a potential impeachment trial, but rather on ensuring that a very thorough investigation takes place into the concerns about the Trump campaign, transition, and current administration, and yes, this includes the president himself, if the evidence demands it.
The White House needs to support these investigations. To do otherwise would tarnish their administration, undermine foreign policy, and, in the worst case scenario, if a cover up or obstruction of justice occurs, their fight against the investigations might the very thing that brings down the president, not whatever may or may not have happened during the campaign and transition.
Unfortunately for our country, we have a president who, in the shaky leg days of his first time ever holding public office, seems too focused on ego and paranoia, and if he continues on the course he is on, it seems very likely that he will overreach at some point in a way that will transcend partisan party politics and lead to a bi-partisan vote on Articles of Impeachment.
The White House needs to bring in some experienced grown-ups to help them through this, someone needs to get the president off of Twitter, and the administration's political opponents need to calm down and focus on pushing for impartial investigations, including a Special Prosecutor, rather than getting lost in partisan hot flashes about throwing their nemesis out of office.
Politically, removing the president would accomplish very little for the Democrats and the Left. The next two men in succession are actually further to the right than President Trump is, and will be devastatingly more effective at pursuing their agendas than the current White House has been through the first 100-plus days of his term.
For the Democrats and the Left, the best result here they could ever dream of would be the president remaining in office after potentially burning almost all of the support from the rest of his party, support which was, at best, tenuous from the start. It's the Lame Duck result. Even if the president was able to re-build his support over time, it would disable and disarm him for a significant chunk of his first term, and it would invite strong primary challenges against his nomination for a second term.
With the current polarity in our nation, the lack of trust towards the press, and the rise of "alternative facts," asking either side to set aside politics right now is probably an exercise in futility, but it is what is truly needed over the coming weeks. The Left needs to quit screaming for the president's head, the Right needs to quit screaming that it is all "fake news," and all sides, including the White House, need to work together to put these concerns behind us.
At this point, the need for a Special Prosecutor seems evident. Before the firing of FBI Director Comey, maybe not, but after, it is probably the only way to start restoring trust.
When the results of these investigations are in, then it will be up to everyone to determine whether or not President Trump should remain in office. Both the House and the Trump Cabinet will need to look at those results, because, depending on the president's behavior between now and then, it may fall upon his own administration to seek his removal from office through Section IV of the 25th Amendment.
By my count, there are now four grounds to impeach Trump, and the fifth appears to be on its way. Our latest video explains: pic.twitter.com/K08kTMj9wj
Time to start posting again... Probably not too often, but I feel like my long hiatus on this blog is somewhat coming to an end...
An interesting White House Correspondents Dinner this year, reflecting the current state of the American press corps. Here is an incomplete rundown of my takeaways:
First, the President not attending this year's event, to me, makes this one not to overlook, but one to pay closer attention to. The whys of this idea are complex and would take a whole essay to explain in detail. Not that speakers have pulled punches with the President in the room in the past, but that is a small piece of it. However, without the distraction of the President being present, it felt like this year's event was a bit more self-reflexive, a bit more introspective, focusing a little more on the successes and failures of the press itself over recent past.
The other day, on CNN, a talking head was saying that President Trump, through the campaign, the transition, and the first 100 days, did more damage to the press than anyone or anything else in modern history.
This is just simply not true.
The damage has come from the 24 hour networks trying to maintain ratings through the endless, Sisyphusian loops of the modern 24 hour news cycle. It comes from the blending of news reporting and infotainment that is confusing to many viewers. It has come from the decline of print journalism and a whole segment of the press that is understaffed and panicked by their own quest for survival...
Back in the day of the newspaper, we had separate sections for news and opinion and clear editorial rules for how to write and present those very different articles. However, these days, on the news networks, on the internet, the line is blurred, and in the case of shows like Fox and Friends, the line is almost entirely eliminated.
So, instead of the viewer being presented with news and, perhaps, some unbiased analysis, they are presented only with the facts that present the host's views, and then are spoon fed what these facts "mean" through the narrow lens of the host's political agenda.
This doesn't mean that we should ignore the facts, but we need to be very careful about and aware of who is presenting these facts to us when watching, or reading, anything. We need to be sure that we are getting all the facts, and we need to make up our own minds and not fall into an intellectually lazy zone where we let the writer, the presenter, or the talking heads (more on that next), tell us what we should feel about them.
We need to make our own interpretations. We need to make up our own minds and make our own decisions.
And perhaps even worse than those blurred lines between news and opinion reporting are those talking heads inevitably brought in to tell us what the facts are supposed to mean.
In the not too distant past, the standard format on most television news broadcasts was to present the story, just the facts, and then to bring in a subject matter expert to add context and analysis to the story just presented. This expert would not be representing a political viewpoint, but in depth knowledge and experience on the issue being discussed.
However, what we see these days, hitting its low point with CNN's coverage of the 2016 election, is bringing in a paid right wing pundit and a paid left wing pundit to argue the politics and views of their side in response to the facts. This is done in the name of being "fair," but it is not.
Some stories are good and bad, some stories are pretty clear cut. If Senator Jim Jim is caught robbing from old ladies and killing their kittens, we do not need a talking head from the other party arguing that he was justified in his actions or that the actions, in the light of clear evidence to the contrary, never even actually happened and are, instead, falsely, just a creation of biased media.
Such tactics are not representative of a "fair and balanced" approach to reporting (sure, a Fox slogan, but one I am applying to everyone), but instead these tactics are actually unbalancing the true weight of the facts themselves.
Instead of news, what we get are arguments. Crossfire, years back on CNN, was a pioneer of this format and could be entertaining and even, slightly, informative in a one hour a day dose. Sure, let's hear what both sides have to say on the issues of the day. Why not? But not all the time on all of everything. There is a time and place for that, and always, every time, through most of the hours of the day, is not that time or place.
So, instead of spending time with a subject matter expert who can help to explain what the possible legal ramification of Senator Jim Jim's actions are, what the fallout politically for the parties are, we hear biased spin doctors on the left and right trying to tilt Jim Jim's horrific actions to their side's own political benefit.
No new insight is gained. Our time is wasted. Or we become numb, and our own biases (we all have them) let the spin seep in and we adopt, knowingly or unknowingly, even with some resistance, the stance of the spin doctor we sympathize with the most. Our views on the issue are being manipulated and defined by our political camaraderie with the talking head who speaks the most towards our own political biases...
These sins, two out of many, are the reason for the crisis in American journalism these days.
President Trump did not create this, he did not strike the first blow, he is merely capitalizing on the media's self inflicted wounds. Wounds they've been inflicting on themselves for a long time, well before the President ever jumped into the Birther debate, let alone before he announced his candidacy for President...
The press itself has opened up the gaps in trust that the President is charging through. They let the roof get leaky, and then too many underneath started blaming the rain for making them wet.
At this year's dinner, Hasan Minhaj called the media out on many of these issues. There were many uncomfortable chuckles, too polite applause points, and awkward silences as he spoke. He did not eviscerate them, but rather put a calm and loving hand on their shoulder and said, "Really, you know this isn't all good; you can do better."
He called them out in a fairly soft, but still firm, manner and asked them to rise up, to fix the leaky roof, to take responsibility for the health of their own industry, and to help the rest of America to navigate and survive the reality of the President Trump Administration.
While Minhaj was both sharp and entertaining, the speeches by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward that preceded Minhaj were intriguing, fascinating, and chillingly relevant considering the heavy duty scandals already looming over this embryonic administration. Check out the link to the full event at the bottom of this post to view what these two titans had to share with the crowd this year.
To be fair, I've seen change since Inauguration Day. I've seen a certain sense of sobering in the press and media. The Trump Presidency is not a result of the failure of the media, far from it, there are many factors that led to his Electoral College victory. Yet, the press' failings did play a role here, creating an environment where Candidate Trump's weaknesses became strengths and muddying the waters enough to make it just that more difficult for voters to make a well informed choice with their ballots. I believe that this has led to some self examination that is creating a sense of greater responsibility to their consumers.
The role of the press is not about sales or clicks or ratings, it is about being the Fourth Estate, the final check in our government's system of checks and balances, and the press is our safety valve when the three branches of our government fail to hold each other to account. Watergate is, of course, the obvious example, but this role has been acknowledged by everyone since the writing of our Constitution, and this role is established and verified by that very document.
The first 100 days of this presidency have brought the traditional print and broadcast news organizations to a stark junction where they find their own legitimacy, and even basic survival, in doubt and jeopardy. There is a lot at stake for our nation right now. Still, I am encouraged by the slow turn back towards traditional journalistic principles that this ship seems to be making. I do see some slow change. I think the last year has spooked them, and they are slowly, cautiously, trying to correct their course. But is it enough? And will this last?
They've seen the iceberg. But is the course correction too little, too late, to avoid sinking the whole ship?
No President
To be fair, I fully understand why President Trump chose to be the first president since Nixon to completely shun the dinner... This was a no win situation for him.
If the president made jokes, he'd be torn to shreds... They'd sound too much like his bizarre tweets and statements over the last 100 days. Where is the line between reality and satire? How do you roast anyone or anything when your "serious" communications already sound like a stranger than true parody sketch on a late night comedy show?
But that is just the political consideration... Ego was a factor, I am sure, as well. This is not a guy who currently has a thick enough skin to sit through an evening like this at this point in his life. Sure, he was the target of a Comedy Central roast late in his old career, on the cusp of his new career as a politician, but that was a different time in his life. It was a time of letting go of what came before while not being invested deeply yet in the new life he has now.
To be honest, I have not seen the Comedy Central roast. Maybe he didn't take it well? I don't know.
But something seems to have happened since then, an internal change seems to have occurred, and he can no longer seem to accept any perceived challenges to his "winning," either from facts, commentary, or satire.
Sitting there looking uncomfortable, or even upset, all night would have been damaging. His own speech at the end of the night, juxtaposed with those images, likely would have come across as too angry or too bitter, even if he was trying to be a good sport about everything.
The margin of political victory for him on this night would have been tiny and difficult to achieve. The White House, politically, made a sensible choice in not taking the risk.
Not (the full) Truth!
Mrs. Clinton did accept the primary blame for her 2016 election loss in today's interview, while clearly pointing these factors out as elements that weighted the scales against her, especially, in a crippling way, during the final days of the campaign. Whatever the truth is on the election, why she lost or why President Trump won, this is a misleading headline regarding her actual comments today. She did infer that she would have won the election if it was held on October 27, 2016.
Links
The Washington Post:
A different sort of White House correspondents’ dinner
