How Did We Ever Get Here?
How did we ever get to where we are? Political views aside, one thing seems certain. We have a political neophyte in the White House who has surrounded himself with billionaire cabinet members, some brilliant business minds, but not one adept at or even experienced in the art of governing. His administration has, so far, managed to virtually bankrupt itself of the undersecretaries and knowledgeable career staff so necessary to maintain the basic, everyday function of the departments. Against the most sage advice of our armed forces’ top generals and admirals the most ignorant and ideologically misguided of the right wing extremists have somehow convinced a confused administration to completely dismantle the diplomatic or “soft power” aspect of our State Department. Meanwhile, this has left Rex Tillerson, like him or not, a man respected in all corners of the globe as a keen corporate and business mind, reduced to the role of a blathering idiot, barely able to tell reporters where he is destined to travel the next morning.
So far, through the promise of massive deregulation as well as equally massive tax cuts to the wealthiest, the stock market has taken off. However, in the absence of international trade agreements and this administration’s current lack of sincere commitment to our closest European and other international allies, who among us is not waiting for the inevitable crash? What is there of substance to back up the market in a country on a suicide mission toward isolationism? Apparently, with the unfortunate passing of the “greatest generation,” the survivors of WWII, not only in the U.S., but in Europe, so too have their values begun to die, and with those values their amazing optimism and concern for their fellow man.
Never mind the natural reluctance to welcome what may be perceived as “hordes” of immigrants, many political refugees from “other” cultures or the shocking realization that your job is being permanently replaced by a machine. With the dissolution of the EU, will Europe return to the petty squabbles and never ending, useless wars of previous centuries? Will the past 75 years with the absence of comprehensive world conflict really last? Abandoned by the U.S., will threatened countries turn to the Russians, the Chinese, or to some international corporate crime syndicate?
Just how did we get here? As far as I can see, the problem begins with too much secrecy, an arrogant lack of transparency that still permeates local, state, and especially our federal government and has gripped the media, right and left, like a severe case of macular degeneration or “tunnel vision.” Through precious tidbits of information doled out by members of government, reporters break news stories on this or that, but they invariably miss the forest for the trees. They seem to lose interest in the crux of the case, dazzled by the next shiny bauble.
What if I told you that the Don Siegelman case were in some way related to the failure of the TPP attempted trade agreement? Both issues are victims of secrecy. The TPP as well as NAFTA have only minor flaws, but negotiations were done in such relative secrecy because they were not sufficiently “exciting” to the left or the right until the uninformed public was bombarded with BS by politicians instead of information by the wider news media. The Siegelman case, the framing of Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, initiated by Karl Rove, William Canary and a bevy of crooked Alabama federal prosecutors, was duly abetted by Uncle Tom Holder and Aunt Elena Kagan and even John Conyers had to drop his congressional committee’s investigation after being blackmailed by Rove. Meanwhile, so many TV “news people,” even Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow, were distracted by the glitter of other gems so much easier to mine! Were they too lazy or were they abdicating responsibility to somehow protect themselves and their network from retaliation by political entities? In the Siegelman case, for instance, much of the heavy research was done by Roger Shuler of “The Legal Schnauzer,” apparently with significant potential financial retaliation at the hands of Alabama authorities. I believe that this is a fair question.
Meanwhile, except for a brief “news moment” I don’t remember the Obama Justice Department or many dedicated first line media figures investigating the apparent homicide of RNC IT expert, Michael Connell or the connection to the undeniable involvement of Karl Rove and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell in fixing the 2004 presidential election. Perhaps the discovery a few years after the election that the Secretary had used his own company’s special voting machines in the election, might have diverted Uncle Tom Holder’s Justice Department from its desperate mission to keep that horribly “dangerous” political prisoner, Don Siegelman in solitary confinement and in chains. I mean what is the urgency, anyway, of investigating an actually fixed presidential election or the supposedly “accidental” death of its most prominent witness? After all, it’s so much easier for our U.S.Justice Cartel to follow more important things like the new evening soap opera: “As The Trump Towers Phone Rings...a-ling.”
Allen Finkelstein 3/15/17