Facts from the Front – November 2015

by Moe White

Facts From the Front is a monthly column by copy editor Moe White in which America’s Constitutional democracy is defended against ongoing assaults by those who prefer less palatable alternatives: oligarchy, autocracy, theocracy, feudalism, fascism, and other nondemocratic methods of government. Among the qualifications for White’s interest are hypocrisy, dishonesty, corruption, unbridled greed, flat-out lies, and sheer idiocy on the part of public figures.

Is it good for the gander?

In an interview with the conservative website Politico, House Benghazi Investigation Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (TeaParty-SC), said, “I would say in some ways these have been among the worst weeks of my life. Attacks on your character, attacks on your motives, are 1,000 times worse than anything you can do to anybody physically – at least it is for me.”

Gowdy said this after spending 17 months and $4.5 million in taxpayer funds as chair of a committee whose only purpose is to make attacks on the character and attacks on the motives of Hillary Clinton, and thus destroy her bid for the presidency. This has been admitted by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and confirmed by Congressman Richard Hanna (R-NY), as well as a former Republican investigator for the committee (fired last summer for challenging the committee’s purpose).

Poor Mr. Gowdy. It was much better for the goose!

Proposed new gun law in Florida

Florida passed the nation’s first “stand Your Ground” law when “JEB!” Bush was governor. Now House bill 169 goes “stand your ground” one better regarding gun-related crimes. Think about it: if you knife somebody in the gut, or blow them up with dynamite, or beat them to a pulp, the state puts you on trial to prove you were at fault. But under 169, if you SHOOT him, the burden of proof will be on the victim – the guy who got shot – to prove that you did not shoot him in self-defense!

So, say somebody shoots you. The bill presumes that he did it in self-defense. You (or your surviving relatives) have to prove that the guy did not act in self-defense. If you try to prove that and fail, then Florida taxpayers would have to pay him up to $200,000 to reimburse him for the cost of defending himself!

Been there, done that

At the end of October I watched the film The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, screened at UNC Asheville by the campus branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, the UNCA Socialist Club, and Future Lawyers of America. Despite a good education, I was both ignorant about the Panthers and curious as to what the documentary would show. What I learned is that there is nothing new under the sun:

–      The Panthers’ activism was sparked by injustice –poverty, lack of jobs and affordable housing, abuse by law enforcement – and at first relied for justification on the U.S. Constitution, specifically the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms. Substitute Occupy and First Amendment and you have 2012.

–      J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI developed a widespread, illegal, highly secretive program called CoIntelPro to monitor, disrupt, infiltrate, and destroy the Panthers, including bringing bogus charges, forcing some leaders (Eldridge Cleaver) into exile, warrantless stop-and-frisk policies, wiretapping, and raids. Substitute NSA for FBI, “Boundless Informant” for CoIntelPro, Edward Snowden for Eldridge Cleaver, and you have 2013.

–      Working with the FBI, local police in LA, Chicago, NY, Baltimore, and other major cities targeted, harassed, arrested, strip-searched, and made unemployable (through felony charges) tens of thousands of young black men that they deemed enemies of the state and a threat to the existing order. Change nothing at all and you have 2015.

Ben Carson, opponent of the Bill of Rights

“I actually have something I would use the Department of Education to do,” Carson said. “It would be to monitor our institutions of higher education for extreme political bias and deny federal funding if it exists,” Carson said on the Glenn Beck Show.

Freedom of speech for Americans? Nah.

A short history of media bias

The media is as much at fault as political candidates and parties for the nastiness and blatant dishonesty of American politics, as well as the erosion of our civil liberties, and there’s nothing random about why.

It began circa 1983, when Ronald Reagan abolished the Fairness Doctrine and then allowed Rupert Murdoch to buy U.S. citizenship for a mere $5 million – without waiting five years. With that purchase, he also bought the president and other partisans, who quickly removed the caps on media consolidation. That allowed him and other Republican moguls to buy dozens, then hundreds, of radio and TV stations, then TV networks, along with all newspapers in a single market.

With that power and unlimited money, they have consolidated control over the American airwaves, cable, and print media (e.g., Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post). Freed from the Fairness Doctrine (which required equal time and access for all viewpoints), they instilled fear in the hearts of any reporter who dared to investigate their chosen candidates in depth, and bribed others with multi-million-dollar salaries to become “serious” anchors and hosts.

So no more Cronkites or Huntleys and Brinkleys, but thousands of actual and wannabe Chuck Todds and Kelly Ripas, who blandly and blindly accept the flat-out lies and more subtle distortions of politicians and corporate autocrats, just as they’re paid to do.

That’s why, when Ben Carson talks about his imaginary “scholarship” to West Point (there’s no record of his applying to the school, and no elected official put in a recommendation for him to attend; also, “scholarships” don’t exist, since America’s service academies are all free to anyone accepted); or when House Speaker Paul Ryan lies about the president’s budget; or when every Republican candidate lies about Planned Parenthood and their own budget figures and Benghazi and Senator Sanders’s positions and.…

Well, there’s no room to list all their falsehoods. But that’s why the media, for the most part, are oblivious to the lies and unwilling to challenge them and why Americans as a group are the most uninformed citizens of any democracy in the world. The reason for the destruction of our rights and freedoms reaches straight back to that great American “patriot” Ronald Reagan.