Donald Trump-- Enemy Of The People

In a column published by The Guardian this morning, Robert Reich noted that In fighting all oversight, Trump has made his most dictatorial move. He worries that Trump has gone off the deep end to make sure there would be "no congressional oversight of this administration: no questioning officials who played a role in putting a citizenship question on the 2020 census. No questioning a former White House counsel about the Mueller report. No questioning a Trump adviser about immigration policy. No questioning a former White House security director about issuances of security clearances. No presidential tax returns to the ways and means committee, even though a 1920s law specifically authorizes the committee to get them. Such a blanket edict fits a dictator of a banana republic, not the president of a constitutional republic founded on separation of powers."

All true. And the twin crime here is Trump's jihad against a free press. Hobbling Congress and hobbling the media leads to just one thing: tyranny. Trump needs to be removed-- by the people of the United States in November of 2020. Congress may go down in history as cowards for not doing their duty, but what we need to focus on now, as citizens, is doing our own.

Last night Trump was in Green Bay Wisconsin last night, rallying his fans by spewing bile about Mueller (who he claims cleared him of treason), spewing bile Bernie, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden, and bile about the "fake news" media. "Can you imagine," this asshole babbled, "Sleepy Joe, Crazy Bernie. ... Can you imagine any of those people up here doing what I'm doing?" Frankly it's inconceivable that any American president, past or future, would "do what I do"-- stooping to the levels he stoops to when he addresses his low-IQ, predominantly racist fans around the country-- overwhelmingly men who hate their own lives and hate everything around them. Last night they chanted "CNN sucks" as their Hitlerian idol raged against them for daring to offer news independently of his own distorted vision.

Back in Washington, the "fake news" media was being enlightened and entertained by a decidedly higher-brow speaker, historian Ron Chernow, whose speech is embedded up top. Trump was too frightened to go-- or to even allow members of the Regime to attend.

Chernow broke the ice by quoting Will Rogers: "People are taking their comedians seriously and their politicians as a joke," adding "and that certainly describes our topsy turvy moment." But he talked more about journalists than about Trumpanzee. "We've seen past administrations threaten the press directly, whether it be Lincoln shutting down disloyal papers during the Civil War, or Woodrow Wilson stifling dissent with the Espionage Act in World War I. But what is happening today is perhaps even more insidious-- a relentless campaign against the very credibility of the news media. Even the smartest courtroom lawyers can't defend the press against such vague and sweeping attacks. You folks can only preserve that hard-won credibility in one way-- with solid, fair-minded, accurate, and energetic reporting... Now, you folks in the media write the early drafts of history and we historians the later ones. Your work gives freshener, and color, and immediacy to our sagas. I know how embattled you feel at this critical juncture as you combat the mistrust of a significant portion of the American electorate. I think you do noble work to preserve democracy at a time when a rising tide of misinformation masquerading as news threatens to make a mockery of the First Amendment... The press is a powerful weapon that must always be fired with reluctance and aimed with precision."

Samantha Bee's Not The White House Correspondents' Dinner was... less high brow: