Let’s be really clear. This is not about mental illness. This is about dysfunctional thinking, this is about “ME FIRST” and damn everyone else — kill them, jail them, deport them. This is about our country’s normalization of these attitudes, vocally and aggressively led by our Twit-in-Chief.
I-N-C-I-T-E, this is what Herr Drumpf does. How many times has he ordered his supporters to remove people from rallies, to inflict bodily harm on them and state that he’d cover their legal expenses? (would the check clear?) Ranting about “FAKE NEWS” whenever he’s challenged with REAL NEWS about his administration, and his declaration that the press is the “Enemy of the American People” less than a month after taking office. On and on, over and over, whipping people into a frenzy — he must be held accountable.
President Trump, in an extraordinary rebuke of the nation’s press organizations, wrote on Twitter on Friday that the nation’s news media “is the enemy of the American people.”
Even by the standards of a president who routinely castigates journalists — and who on Thursday devoted much of a 77-minute news conference to criticizing his press coverage — Mr. Trump’s tweet was a striking escalation in his attacks.
At 4:32 p.m., shortly after arriving at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Fla., Mr. Trump took to Twitter to write:
The message was swiftly deleted, but 16 minutes later Mr. Trump posted a revised version. Restricted to 140 characters, he removed the word “sick,” and added two other television networks — ABC and CBS — to his list of offending organizations.
The president has referred to the media as the “opposition party” to his administration, and he has blamed news organizations for stymieing his agenda. But the language that Mr. Trump deployed on Friday is more typically used by leaders to refer to hostile foreign governments or subversive organizations. It also echoed the language of autocrats who seek to minimize dissent.
“Oh boy,” Carl Bernstein, the journalist who helped to uncover the Watergate scandal, said on Friday, after a reporter read him Mr. Trump’s tweet.
“Donald Trump is demonstrating an authoritarian attitude and inclination that shows no understanding of the role of the free press,” he added.
Historians pointed out similarities between Mr. Trump and Richard M. Nixon, who in 1972 told his national security adviser, Henry A. Kissinger, “The press is the enemy.
Mr. Bernstein said the president’s language “may be more insidious and dangerous than Richard Nixon’s attacks on the press.”
“But there is a similarity in trying to divide the country, and make the conduct of the press the issue, instead of the conduct of the president,” he said.
Mr. Trump and his top advisers strongly believe that an elitist news media lost its credibility by failing to anticipate his political rise.
Still, the notion of the news media as an enemy of the public — especially when voiced by a sitting president — went a step beyond Mr. Trump’s usual rhetorical turns.
Mr. Trump’s tactic of pitting the press against the public was mirrored in a survey distributed by the president’s team on Thursday, which urged Trump supporters “to do your part to fight back against the media’s attacks and deceptions.”
Survey questions included, “Do you believe that the mainstream media has reported unfairly on our movement?” and “On which issues does the mainstream media do the worst job of representing Republicans? (Select as many that apply.)”
Mr. Trump has deleted tweets in the past, sometimes to correct for typos or to refine his message, and publications are keeping track of these fleeting missives.
On Thursday, Mr. Trump expressed his distaste for journalists in more populist terms, saying, “much of the media in Washington, D.C., along with New York, Los Angeles in particular, speaks not for the people, but for the special interests.”
“The public doesn’t believe you people anymore,” Mr. Trump added. “Now, maybe I had something to do with that. I don’t know. But they don’t believe you.”
Correction:
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of the headline with this article misquoted the tweet President Trump wrote. He described the nation’s news media as the “enemy of the American people,” not the “enemy of the people.”
We’re in another day of Enbridge Line 3, today no oral argument or comments, it’s deliberation only. In the intro, Commissioner Sieben introduced a lot of modifications, laid out on a sheet of paper which was passed around to Commissioners, and then Commissioner Tuma did the same with I believe a couple of sheets (he seems to introduce something at every meeting, spring it on people, with no time to review). Now they seem to be negotiating how they’re going to approve the Certificate of Need. ?? I have no idea what they’re talking about, there are no copies for the public, and the documents Commissioners Sieben and Tuma have not been eFiled. ???
Sierra Club and other intervenors have filed a Motion objecting to entry of new information that has not been subject to review, and that the information should be subject to a contested case proceeding before the Administrative Law Judge.
As they’re going now, it’s as if they are negotiating a settlement with Enbridge, but hey, what about the intervenors, who are parties with equal standing in this?
They’re talking about “beneficiary,” but what they’re searching for is “additional insured.” And they’re talking about unavailability of insurance for this, well, this is right along the lines of Price-Anderson for nuclear, where we subsidize the industry with no-fault coverage with nominal recovery allowed!
I have tried to get copies eFiled of the Sieben and Tuma sheets that have been passed around, struck out. Ain’t happening.
They’re talking about a “landowner choice” program where landowners have the option of removal of the old Line 3 from their land. Schuerger is raising issue of need for informed consent. YES! So can we hear from intervenors about all this? Big issue — all of this is proposed to be handled in a Compliance Filing, and there’s no procedural option for anyone to comment on compliance filngs, unless people just jump in and take it upon themselves to file comments — but there’s no suggestion or guarantee that any comments on what Enbridge comes up with, that it will even be considered.
What a mess… Certificate of Need approved, with directive to adopt the Recommendation of the Administrative Law Judge to the extent that it is consistent with their decision — that’s backwards, putting the cart before the horse. Are they making such a mess of this so that on appeal the court will throw it out?
It’s pretty disturbing. Today started out with the Commission asking Intervenors to pick their least awful route option. WHAT?!?! That is NOT how a line is chosen. I think they’re using that to build a “record” (NOT!) for whatever decision they may make.
As the Commission was reminded, the Commission is to choose a route, only AFTER a Certificate of Need is granted, based on the criteria in the statutes and rules. Commissioner Sieben turned to a pretty manipulative attempt at burden of proof shift, looking for a statement to get them off the hook. NO!
NO? That’s correct. This is the Commission’s job, and if there’s no need, deny the application. If there’s no acceptable route, deny the application. The ALJ made a Recommendation, and the Commission has to deal with that.
Then there’s the push about System Alternative SA-04. That route would go right through my Association of Freeborn County Landowners’ community, and AFCL filed an Exception regarding that SA-04 route:
We’re BAAAAAAAAAACK! Went up for the Wooden Boat Show in Grand Marais, and stayed in Tettegouche, got the LAST site way back in February! Yes, here’s the classic intro photo, looking into the driveway. The site was huge, but backwards, electric on wrong side, and table and space was directly behind. Oh well, turn the trailer around, no problem! The view from the other side was better:
The first day was pretty dreary… but the sun came out Friday – Monday, and it was a touch warm in the day so we hauled out the emergency blankets and snapped them over the bunks. Makes a huge difference, and just $14 a pop. At night it was cool, just perfect, and no rain, despite a pretty strong chance for Sunday.
Last week, I ordered a new toy, because cooking is a big part of this for me, and the three burner stove that comes with the camper doesn’t work with a griddle, and it gets really crowded for a meal for guests, soooooooo…
It’s a Camp Chef Ranger III, and the two burners fit the griddle just right, and have one open for whatever. Gotta have corncakes! Tomorrow or so, the table for this will arrive, and then I’ll have the white table for prep, need that room to roam. Everything I could ask for! Sadie was pretty happy with the results, as was Alan.
No bears!
In addition to going up to Grand Marais, we went to see Aaron Brown‘s Great Northern Radio Show, which brought back a lot of memories of doing live radio, every week, for how long, over at the New Riverside Cafe.
As we walked in to the auditorium at Reif, I heard, “That’s Carol!!! Carol Overland!!!” And it was Ron Gustafson and Linda Castagneri! It’s got to have been 8 years since we’ve seen them, what a treat! They were the foundation of the Excelsior Energy Mesaba Project resistance, and a joy to work with, so motivating, fired up. The were “the face of Mesaba.”
What a pleasant shock — they’ve moved out of state, and aren’t here all that often. Thank you, Linda and Ron, for a good time of catching up, and remembering that this was one time where “the people” prevailed! And Enchiladas Suiza to die for!
Spending another almost week in the camper… I could easily live like this… maybe a camp host next year? Trouble is, work is so unpredictable, and have to be able to be wherever, whenever! Phone signal at Tettegouche was just right, and there was ZERO before, so this trip, it was possible to put in a good day’s work in the woods. Is that cool or what!
Alan Muller followed up on the report of an ICE detention facility near us in Elk Run, part of Pine Island. Pine Island is one of several sites being considered for an ICE detention facility, a jail, a fenced and guarded holding place for asylum seekers, and others grabbed by ICE. On June 19, 2018, the Pine Island City Council approved a resolution of support of “Management & Training Corporation” and “it’s partners,” unidentified, to build and operate an ICE detention facility HERE!
MTC’s Imperial detention center