Is This Animal Farm?

Threat Against Democracy (TAD).  I just reread Animal Farm by George Orwell.  I know a lot of people are talking about his book 1984, but I thought I’d start with Animal Farm.  

If you’re not familiar with the story or have forgotten, here’s some of what happens.  The animals overthrow their human owner and take over the farm establishing total equality for all animals.  Two pigs, Napoleon and Snowball, become the thought leaders.  Using threats and thugs Napoleon runs Snowball off and becomes the totalitarian leader of the farm.  Pigs get special treatment and impose harsh conditions on the other animals.  Napoleon has another Pig, Squealer, who acts as his apologist, twisting the facts to try to hide the oppression of the other animals and the truth that the farm is failing.   Squealer makes up false crop reports and lies about Napoleon’s actions.  Dissent is dealt with brutally.  Snowball is blamed for all problems and lies are told about him trying to undermine Napoleon and the farm.  Life gets worse and worse for the animals while the pigs cozy up to their sworn enemies, the humans.  You get the idea.

Much of what we’re seeing today is frighteningly similar to the descriptions in Animal Farm.  To name just a few: Michael Flynn’s and Jeff Sessions’ attempts to deny the fact about their contacts with Russia and all the other Russia-Trump intrigue and cover-up.  Napoleon Trump blaming Obama, Hillary, Democrats in general, the judiciary, and the press for his problems. Trying to make it appear that Obama personally ordered wiretapping of the Trump Tower.  Squealer Spicer making demonstrably false statement after demonstrably false statement.  Administration officials contradicting one another.  Claims that vandalism of Jewish cemeteries could be false flag operations.

I was very concerned that the Nixon White House was a threat to the very foundations of our democracy.  I’m much more concerned about the Trump cabal.  Way more than just a TAD.

Animal Farm.  Read it.

Please share if you are concerned, too.

Buzzing Flies and Cow Patties

Threat Against Democracy (TAD).  I like to tell a story about the risks one takes when walking through a cow pasture.  There are at least two – buzzing flies are everywhere and there are cow patties on the ground.  If you don’t keep your priorities straight, you can get so engrossed batting the flies away that you don’t watch where you’re stepping and you find yourself standing in cow dung.

That’s kind of what it’s been like watching the Trump administration since the inauguration.  

Take, for example, Kellyanne Conway’s response when she was called out about the so-called Bowling Green Massacre.  “Honest mistakes abound” she said.  She didn’t say “I made a mistake” though.  

Or the disconnect between administration officials comments about our relationship with Mexico and the Trump’s own statements.  

The scary information that Reince Priebus attempted to influence the FBI, while still being debated, is a troubling part of the pattern.  

Watching Propaganda Secretary Spicer try to explain away Trump’s description of immigration actions as military wasn’t pretty either.  But his actions to keep mainstream media out of a press gaggle were worse.  

Steve Bannon’s statement about the deconstruction of the administrative state was additional evidence of the intentions of the administration. 

And there are so many more.  

Are these individual incidents cow dung or flies?  Whether you swat at them individually or take them all together, it’s clear what we’re standing in.

Are our form of government and our basic liberties at risk?  Yes, and more than just a TAD.

Please share if you are concerned, too.

State Sponsored Intimidation of the Press?

Threat Against Democracy (TAD). Fake news is an insidious and dangerous thing.  When a man takes a weapon to a pizza shop and fires because he believes a fake news story claiming there was a child sex ring operating there we should all be concerned.  But, when the president-elect attacks the main stream media with assertions of fake news over stories that depict him poorly, it is much more serious.  That begins to look like state-sponsored propaganda aimed at intimidating and undermining the press and even the right to free speech.  This should cause all of us to take notice.  More than just a TAD.