UNCONSTITUTIONAL ATTACKS ON A FREE PRESS

"...the sure way to destroy freedom of speech and the free expression of ideas and views is to attach to that freedom the penalty of abuse and vilification...It is only from a diversity of views freely expressed and strongly advocated that sound policy is distilled. He who contributes to the destruction of this process is either a fool or an enemy of his country." Owen Lattimore in Senate testimony before the McCarthy Committee in 1950.

The quote above was delivered by Owen Lattimore during his testimony before a US Senate committee after he was labeled by the late Senator Joseph McCarthy as the number one communist operative in the federal government at the beginning of McCarthy's Communist Witch Hunt.  Although Lattimore had never been employed in the government, he had, at times, been a consultant since he was recognized as the leading expert on China in the world.  Lattimore was eventually indicted by a federal grand jury and eventually had all his charges dismissed as baseless.  He went on to write what is considered to be the best first person book about the McCarthy disaster, "Ordeal By Slander".  For several years, Lattimore teetered on the edge of having his life and career destroyed by McCarthy as actually happened to many other patriotic and innocent Americans.  Lattimore's quote above fits just as well today for TRAITOR Donald Trump as it originally fit Joseph McCarthy.  

On January 21, 2017, at CIA Headquarters, in a speech which has been negatively reviewed by nearly every writer who has said a word about it, TRAITOR Trump stated "As you know, I have a running war with the media. They are among the most dishonest human beings on Earth." Never has any legitimate occupant of the White House, not even Richard Nixon, taken the bizarre step of declaring a war with the legitimate press of the country.  Let me state for the record that I do not now, nor do I ever expect to, consider the TRAITOR Donald Trump to be a legitimate occupant of the White House, With the assistance and under the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he illegally seized an American election.  Now he is engaged in a plan to destroy constitutional freedoms which is based on Adolph Hitler's seizure of total power in Germany.  His "war with the media" is a key part of that plan and is being carried out on a daily basis by both TRAITOR Trump and his criminal minions.  

At least six members of the media were arrested on felony rioting charges during the Women's March On Washington as the first salvo in this felonious effort to restrict constitutional rights to a free press.  All these journalists were doing their job at the time they were arrested. They were covering the biggest news story of the day.  It was a story which had the power to negatively affect public perception of TRAITOR Trump and that is the primary reason for their arrest.  The other reason was to intimidate all other legitimate members of the media and prevent them from doing their job by bringing the truth to the American public on a daily basis.  

At least seven journalists have been arrested during their coverage of the Dakota Pipeline Protest on the Standing Rock Reservation.  Their arrests have also been perpetrated for the same reasons, to prevent their doing their jobs and to further intimidate the other members of the media community nationwide.  Once again, these arrests are part of a structured plan to destroy constitutional freedoms as originally carried out by Adolph Hitler in Germany.  

"When Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, the Nazis controlled less than three percent of Germany’s 4,700 papers.

The elimination of the German multi-party political system not only brought about the demise of hundreds of newspapers produced by outlawed political parties; it also allowed the state to seize the printing plants and equipment of the Communist and Social Democratic Parties, which were often turned over directly to the Nazi Party. In the following months, the Nazis established control or exerted influence over independent press organs." The Holocaust Encyclopedia. Downloaded February 26, 2017, at 4:49pm

I do not necessarily believe that TRAITOR Trump will attempt to literally seize control of all the organs of the media, primarily because very few people are working and assisting TRAITOR Trump who would be capable of competently running a newspaper.  But I do not doubt that he would  be willing to seize organs of the press if he believed the American citizenry would allow it.  He has a well established record of denying access to otherwise public events to members of the media which insist on telling the truth in their reporting.  As early as June 14, 2016, CNN Media reported a list of media organs which had been denied access to TRAITOR Trump's events over the previous year.  Just two days ago, on February 24, 2017, the Washington Post and several other media outlets were denied access to what was billed as an open press conference.  TRAITOR Trump has also announced in the same time frame that he will not attend the White House Correspondents Association Dinner as every legitimate president has for the past thirty or more years. He is obviously unwilling to face interactions with members of the press he has abused and denied access over the past several months. He also does not wish to be questioned about his failure to release his taxes, his inability to assemble an honest and qualified cabinet, and he unconstitutional attacks on Muslims and immigrants.

The US Constitution states that " Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." These actions by TRAITOR Trump which attempt to prevent the legitimate media from doing their constitutionally guaranteed job are part of a structured plan to deny, impair, and obstruct all the freedoms listed in the Bill of Rights.  The so-called Muslim Ban, which has been declared unconstitutional by several federal district courts and is highly likely to be considered unconstitutional by the Supreme Court even in its newly reconfigured text which is alleged to now remove Iraq from the list of seven countries in what appears to be an attempt to look less discriminatory.  

George W. Bush, the last Republican to legitimately be elected President, spoke out in an interview on February 27, 2017, in words that addressed TRAITOR Trump's recent actions without naming and directly confronting him as Mr. Bush should have.  

“I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy,” Bush said. “We need an independent media to hold people like me to account.  Power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive and it's important for the media to call to account people who abuse power, whether it be here or elsewhere,” he added. Bush noted that during his presidency, he sought to persuade people like Russian President Vladimir Putin to respect a free press." Washington Post February 27, 2017--Downloaded on March 1, 2017, at 1:52pm.

Former President Bush should be thanked for speaking out which is an uncommon act for former presidents during the early days of a new administration.  But he actually said far less than he should have and failed to directly name TRAITOR Trump.  It is now time for all the former living presidents to jointly and publicly stand up and speak from their collective bully pulpit to address these attacks against civil liberties and freedom of the press coming from the illegitimate administration in the White House.   As Bush said, "Power can be very addictive" and a megalomaniac such as TRAITOR Trump is the worst person on earth to be imbued with power.  He is mentally unstable and unfit to successfully manage even relatively innocuous levels of power.  With the help of Vladimir Putin, he has managed to seize a great deal of power and his misuse of it can only increase over time if he is not confronted and held responsible for his crimes, past, present, and future.  Just as Professor Owen Lattimore said in 1950, "...he is a fool or an enemy of his country".  I would declare that he is both.