The Truth Is Knocking. Let It In

You might as well answer the door, my child, the truth is furiously knocking.

- Lucille Clifton

What does holding power to account mean?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, to make someone accept that they are responsible for something and explain their actions or decisions: Holding those in power to account is the essence of democracy.

Power and Corruption

Here are two examples of abuse of power and the result of two recent investigations that hold power to account. Both are from an article in Slate, 

The Matt Gaetz Report Is a Reminder That Investigations Actually Matter

By Dahlia Lithwick

When the long-awaited House Ethics committee report on Matt Gaetz came out Monday morning, it offered a stark reminder of how vital it is to continue to carry out thorough investigations, especially as investigators are being increasingly vilified. Today we know much that we did not previously know about Gaetz’s fitness to hold public office. That is to the benefit of absolutely everyone. And anyone who thinks differently should have to explain why we should have remained in the dark.

Matt Gaetz

The committee’s findings were horrific. The 42-page document, which Gaetz tried unsuccessfully to suppress, found the former congressman had “violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.” (Gaetz has denied all of the allegations). Their investigation found that Donald Trump’s first pick for the chief law enforcement officer of the United States had, among other things, purchased drugs including cocaine and ecstasy on multiple occasions; accepted gifts, including transportation and lodging in the Bahamas, in excess of permissible amounts; paid tens of thousands of dollars to women for sex; lied to the State Department about the identity of one of these women so that she could get an American passport; and paid a 17-year-old girl—a high school junior. 

Justice Clarence Thomas

All of this brought to mind another recent investigation: the brand new 93-page report released by Democratic staff members of the Judiciary Committee, detailing yet more ethics violations committed by Justice Clarence Thomas. Amid the new revelations were two additional trips paid for by Thomas’ billionaire patron Harlan Crow that had not been disclosed, even as Thomas has scrambled to amend his various filings to keep up with journalism. The new trips came to light only because the committee had subpoenaed Crow.

Is It A Moot Point?

No charges have been brought, Republicans deny accountability, and attack the investigators, but the word is now out, and that matters. It matters because the truth is a way forward. Acquiescence to power ends our democracy. 

We now have the emergence of the very powerful Tech Brotherhood within the MAGA alliance. They are pro tech, pro capitalism, anti-regulation, and pro H-1B visa. They are causing a split in MAGA world over their stand on allowing certain people of color into our country. I am not comfortable with the new tech oligarchy ruling America. Will they feed the hungry? Will they house the homeless, including 155,000 children sleeping in the streets tonight? Will they make sure our health care system is affordable, and includes empathy and compassion unlike the algorithms that deny coverage to millions? I'm not optimistic. They are condescending to the MAGA base and to the rest of us. 

Push back is essential from the free press and from everyday citizens. Hold our elected representatives to account, or in a very short while we will hardly recognize our country. 

I Am Only One Person

First, you are not alone. You've heard, "Where two or three gather...?" That's the beginning of something much larger. Small groups grew into the civil rights movement.

We have power over our elected officials. Even in gerrymandered districts, it is possible to affect change. Representatives are chosen by the public to decide on its behalf the policies and actions to be pursued by a Government and are charged with acting in the best interests of his and her constituents. In doing so representatives are accountable to their constituents for their actions. 

-gao

Getting to the point

Encouraging Signs

About halfway through my local NPR station's fundraiser, they shifted message points. They started talking about local coverage. They've done this before, but this time the message was much more that lip service. The messages focused on the type of coverage and the quality of the coverage, and how that coverage gives the broader perspective of events globally. The message was more about the unique value proposition of what they offer rather than, "We have local news!" The message made the fundrive easier for me to listen to.

They still mention the premiums, but the point of the drive is so much more than sox and mugs and wreaths. For a long time, this station relied heavily on premiums, but you gotta ask yourself, is that really why people listen? IMHO...it's the wrong path. It was chosen long ago by Public Television. Public TV is at a point, now, where they cannot raise funds around regular programming. Their fundrives are about pitching a product.

There's a lot at stake.

I was reading an article by Jim Wallis, "THE TRUTH QUESTION: HOW TO SEEK TRUTH WHEN THE PRESIDENT NORMALIZES LIES." Wallis points out that the president has lied over 13,000 times in 1,000 days. That's over 13 lies a day. His tactic is a common tactic.

AUTOCRATS AND STRONGMEN ALL OVER THE WORLD ATTACK THE FREE PRESS AND THE IDEA OF OBJECTIVE TRUTH BECAUSE THEY WANT YOU ONLY TO BE ABLE TO LISTEN TO THEIR TRUTH. (Sojourners)

The free press still exists, but it is under constant attack. Even here, where a free press is supposed to be guaranteed by The Constitution. There is no guarantee that it will be there for us without vigilance and active support. 

BTW- That's a call to action.

Legislating Facts

Newspeak is Here

A free and open press helps protect us in a democracy and prevents the takeover of our government by a totalitarian regime. If Donald Trump or Rudy Giuliani have their way, the free press won't be a problem. They're doing their best right now to undermine a free and unfettered press. Giuliani comments, "They will have their facts and we'll have ours" and "Truth isn't Truth," only scratch the surface of what the neo-conservatives have been saying for over a decade. These same arguments have been part of the political scene for a while. Newt Gingrich and Kellyanne Conway talk freely about alternative facts. They want to cast seeds of doubt. No matter the legal outcome, they want to cast its legitimacy in doubt.

Once the press is marginalized, they will be free to legislate the facts.

Nations Built on Lies

Earlier this year Poland made it illegal to speak about their collaboration with Nazi Germany in World War Two. The new law imposes a prison term of up to three years for anyone who asserts that the anyone from the Polish Republic is responsible or co-responsible for Nazi crimes.”  According to Robert Kinzer who wrote this piece published in the Boston Globe, "The purpose of this new law is entirely political. It wins cheers from chauvinistic nationalists, of whom there are evidently many in Poland. That provides votes to politicians who rail against the world and picture their nation as an innocent victim of history." Since Kinzer wrote the article, it looks as if the law will be watered down or reversed after international condemnation.

Not the First Time

Kinzer points out in his article that this is not the first time a country has tried this and it is easy to imagine what it would be like if other countries tried to change history by simply lying. His list includes:  

Austria: It is illegal to say that Hitler was born here, that most Austrians were thrilled when he absorbed Austria into the Third Reich, and that he was welcomed with delirious enthusiasm when he visited in 1938.

France: It is illegal to say that our troops supported Rwandans who carried out the 1994 genocide, and then, after their defeat, moved them into the Congo, where they have been rampaging ever since.

Great Britain: It is illegal to say that British imperialism was one of history’s most monstrous projects, brutally looting nations and sparking much of the chaos and hatred that now shakes the world.

Israel: It is illegal to say that our country sits on land that once belonged to Arabs, or that we chased them away in a campaign of ethnic cleansing in order to make room for victims of a crime that Arabs did not commit.

Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, and Ukraine: It is illegal to say that our citizens joined Nazi death squads and concentration camp detachments in extraordinary numbers.

.United States: It is illegal to say that our country was built on the bones of slaughtered Indians and enslaved Africans.

Rewriting History - Altering the Facts 

Altering the facts can happen subtly. Civil War history was rewritten with the help of a wave of nostalgia created by Hollywood through "Birth of a Nation" and "Gone With the Wind."

It can also be very unsubtle. The BBC recently published a report on the most dangerous places to be a journalist. These are places that do not allow a free press. The government wants to have total control over the flow of information. At his rallies Trump places the journalists in a pen in the middle of the crowd. He then singles out journalist in the pen encouraging violence against them. It is clearly an attempt to intimidate the press while inciting his base.

Most Dangerous Places for Journalists

North Korea is not on the list because they have complete control over the flow of information. It is interesting that Russia and the Philippines are in the top five. Two countries led by people Trump admires.  Murder isn't the only way silence journalists. Putting them in jail is another. According to the BBC 272 were put in jail in 2017. The BBC says, Countries with the highest numbers of journalists imprisoned for doing their jobs are: Turkey with 73 journalists, China with 41 and Egypt with 20.

Given the president,s propensity to lie, it does not seem far fetched that he is altering  the facts to suit his purposes. In fact, that is what he is doing now, and the pace of lies is increasing. The New Yorker reports, "In his first year as President, Trump made 2,140 false claims. According to the Washington Post, in just the last six months, he has nearly doubled that total to 4,229. In June and July, he averaged sixteen false claims a day. On July 5th, the Post found what appears to be Trump’s most untruthful day yet: seventy-six per cent of the ninety-eight factual assertions he made in a campaign-style rally in Great Falls, Montana, were “false, misleading or unsupported by evidence.” 

The founders of this country thought a free and unfettered press so important that they put it in the Constitution ahead of the right to bear arms.  They understood that information could provide a check and balance against the excesses of the powerful.  Think of it this way, There are facts and there are opinions. They are not the same thing. When people say they have differing facts, they actually mean they have a different opinion based on their perspective. It is not the same thing.