The President of the United States is required to brief the
bipartisan Congress – and not just a couple of his Republican cronies – on classified
matters and issues of national importance…except, apparently, when he isn’t.
From the day he assumes the office, the president is sworn
to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution and he is not above the law
of the land…except, apparently, when he is.
This week alone, these tenets of American democracy have
been bent, broken or shattered four times by the Trump Administration, and it’s
only Thursday. Every time something like this happens, we scream, we cry, we complain
and we comment on various social media, but we’re preaching to the choir and to
ourselves. The real question is, when is somebody going to do something about this authoritarian president and his reality
show version of the world?
In chronological order:
Tuesday
Early in the day, Scott Pruitt, director of the
Environmental Protection Agency, banned three news organizations from attending
a national summit on harmful water contaminants by claiming that the meeting room
was full. Apparently, the safety of our nation’s water supply is not appropriate
subject matter for our free and unfettered press.
The Associated Press, CNN and E&E News were prevented
from attending the first half of the meeting, with security guards grabbing the
AP reporter by the shoulders and "forcibly" shoving her out of the building.
“The Environmental Protection Agency's selective barring of
news organizations, including the AP, from covering today's meeting is alarming
and a direct threat to the public's right to know about what is happening
inside their government,” said AP Executive Editor Sally Buzbee. “It is
particularly distressing that any journalist trying to cover an event in the
public interest would be forcibly removed.”
Later Tuesday
Faux-president Trump allowed reporters to ask questions in
the Oval Office during a press event following a meeting with South Korean
President Moon Jae-in, but Trump himself decided which questions the media was entitled
to present. When he was asked several questions about Deputy Attorney General
Rod Rosenstein, Trump said, “Excuse me. I have the president of South Korea
here. OK? He doesn't want to hear these
questions, if you don't mind.”
There’s that pesky press freedom thing getting in the way
once again.
Wednesday
The next day, the owners of the National Football League
gave in to the president’s forced patriotism policy by announcing that players
will no longer be allowed to kneel during the national anthem to peaceably protest
racial discrimination. Violators will be subject to punishment or their teams
will face financial penalties – or both. Something tells me that any owner who
has to pay a fine will take a chunk out of the players who cost him money.
For his part, Trump made the insanely stupid observation
that taking a knee during the national anthem should “maybe” be a deportable
offense. Deported to where, one has to wonder? Texas? Florida? Omaha, Nebraska?
Then he said this to his board of advisors, also known as
Fox and Friends: “You have to stand proudly for the national anthem, or you
shouldn’t be playing, you shouldn’t be there. Maybe you shouldn’t be in the
country.” Freedom of speech? We don’t have that, either. Not in Trump’s
America, unless of course you agree with the lies that fall out every time he
opens his mouth.
Thursday
Finally, on Thursday, the administration backed off a plan
to brief only a handful of Republican lapdogs on confidential intelligence involved
in the Russia investigation and agreed instead to hold back-to-back meetings –
one for House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes and Oversight Chairman Trey
Gowdy and another immediately after for a bipartisan gathering of House and Senate
members.
That compromise didn’t come about, however, until someone
pointed out that holding secret talks with one political party on highly
classified intelligence material is probably against the law. Damn that law,
anyway. That’s not the way they do things on Trump’s reality shows, that’s for
sure.
Checks and balances
So here’s the problem. In this country we’re supposed to
have a system of checks and balances so that one branch of the government – in this
case, the executive – cannot make unilateral decisions that violate the
Constitution while doing harm to one or more segments of the population.
Congress and the courts are supposed to check and balance the president, and
even the Attorney General is supposed to step in when the president skirts (or
tramples) the law.
In Trumplandia, however, the Republican Party controls the
federal courts and both houses of Congress, and leaders of both legislative
bodies lack the backbone to stand up to their rogue chief executive. And the
attorney general? Are you kidding? The last time Jeff Sessions stood up for anything
was when he took his oath of office. Since then, Trump has used him like his personal
attorney and not the attorney for the people.
So who’s going to do something about this, and when are they
going to do it? We’ve got Special Counsel Robert Mueller who is investigating
Trump, but his report may be months if not years away, and half the country won’t
believe it, whatever it should find. We don’t get to vote again until November,
and even a blue wave may not wash Trump out of Washington.
So right now, the answer is this: I don’t know who is going
to do something or what they’re going to do or when they’re going to do it…but
I sure hope something happens soon, because Donald Trump is damaging this
country a little bit every day, chipping away at all that is good and leaving
swamp muck behind him in his wake.
And who knows what tomorrow will bring? There is still one more "work day" left before weekend golfing begins.
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