Trump Endangering National Security

President Trump's behavior grows increasingly. The Directors of the FBI and CIA and the Director of National Intelligence testified to congress and all laid out the threats the United States faces. They have electronic intercepts, spy satellites and human agents inside all the adversaries. They have experts fluent in the languages and people who have lived in these places or academically studied them for years analyzing the raw data. Then the President throws all this out and says he thinks something else. Based on what, any facts? Then he also denigrates their work and them as people. National security is at stake here. To me, this by itself is impeachable dereliction of duty. The commander in chief is refusing to fulfill his oath to "preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States."

Equality Not the Law of the Land for All Americans

On the day after we celebrated a national holiday commemorating a man who lived and died for the dream of equality, the current Supreme Court today let stand the Administration policy of discriminating against transgender people in the military. I wonder whether the five conservative justices paused to reflect on the irony of this juxtaposition.

Freedom of the Press: Vital to Democracy, and Under Attack Worldwide

The Time Magazine 2018 Person of the Year was awarded to "The Guardians," journalists doggedly working and fighting to report the truth around the world. They do this in the face of the resistance of the corrupt and the oppression of the powerful.

In 2018, 52 journalists were murdered or executed-that we know of. Another 260 were jailed for reporting what those in power did not wish to become public. According to Freedom House, only 13% of the world's people live in countries with a press that is fully free.

Beyond that, autocrats and demagogues are growing more and more adept at using modern media tools for surveillance, spreading disinformation and surreptitious propaganda, blurring the line between fact and fiction, and eroding public trust in the media by calling it unpatriotic or fake news when its reportage does not conform to what those in power would like people to believe.

Destroying the free press has always been high on any would-be dictator's agenda for consolidating absolute power, and the contemporary world is no different. We have watched in recent years as free speech and press principles and practices have been rolled back in country after country. Among these we can include such prominent examples as Russia, Poland, Venezuela, Hungary, the Philippines, India and now even Italy.

The actions of our own president, his flacks and congressional enablers is chilling in this regard. The danger was expressed most eloquently by Sen. John McCain in one of his last editorials, which you can find linked here. Entitled "Mr. President, Stop Attacking the Press," it is worth a read by thoughtful citizens everywhere who value the dream of human freedom anywhere.