A Most Dangerous Time

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This is a most dangerous moment in the life of this nation. Organized groups, claiming that their cause of white supremacy  (embracing religious, racial and ethnic bigotry) has been empowered by the electorate, have moved out of the shadows and openly engage in Nazi rhetoric and symbolism including the straight-armed salute. The press is demonized and individual journalists are regularly threatened and harassed. History teaches that these signals are the precursors of escalating hatred, violence and ultimate atrocity on what was once believed to be an unimaginable scale. These stirrings are mirrored in other areas of the world.
Brave and forceful leadership is urgently required to counter this incipient catastrophe before it rages beyond control. Even if Donald Trump were so inclined, and he appears not to be, he has neither the moral standing nor ethical fiber to staunch the dark forces he has knowingly or inadvertently unleashed.
Others, including the out-going president, responsible members of both political parties, religious leaders of all faiths, labor unions, business heads, professional associations and governments worldwide must all address and condemn the emerging virulence before it becomes an unstoppable contagion. Only immediate awareness of the danger and a coordinated and determined resistance can preserve our country as it was conceived and governed and protect the rights and lives of all of its citizens.

Leaks from the FBI

Just days before FBI Director Comey informed senators that his agency would be investigating additional emails pertinent to Hillary Clinton's use of a private server, former mayor Rudy Giuliani told a Fox News interviewer that something big would break in a couple of days that would turn the election around. He refused to be specific, smiling slyly and saying, in substance, "you'll see, we have a couple of things up our sleeve."
Patently, he had been informed illegally of the investigators' progress and intended action. The only source of such information had to be a leak from the FBI. If Comey has any regard for the eroding reputation of his agency, and for the nonpolitical enforcement of the law, he has an obligation to immediately question Giuliani under oath about the sources of his ill-gotten information and to take action against those who betrayed their duty, and public trust, to act in a lawful and nonpartisan way in conducting a federal investigation.

Email Found By FBI

   The announcement by FBI director Comey, that his agency is resuming its investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails just eleven days before election, appears to be a serious blow to her campaign.  The question that needs a swift response is whether the newly discovered emails are different than those already reviewed and whether they are otherwise significant.  The expectation is that these questions cannot be answered in the short time remaining before the vote notwithstanding Clinton's demand that the FBI promptly disclose the relevant facts. In all fairness, the FBI owes it to the public, and the candidates, to put into perspective the significance of the renewed inquiry.  The FBI can do this by reviewing a statistically significant sampling of the emails to determine whether they are duplicative and whether they are classified and make that finding public as soon before election day as possible.


   Director Comey, in his memo to FBI staff, explained that it would be misleading the American people if he failed to advise that the investigation would be continued.  It would be equally misleading not to expeditiously determine and advise the public whether the emails are, in any respect, significant.

Trump's Tax Avoidance

Faced with disclosure that he fully exploited what he has termed a "rigged" system, to avoid paying a vast sum of personal taxes and to enrich himself, Trump and his A-list apologists have constructed a mocking defense; his avoidance of taxes, and his use of huge indebtedness, are marks of genius. Now he is prepared to remake that system so that others may not resort to such uncivic maneuvers. So at last we have the basic premise underlying Trump's presidential fitness; it takes a thief to catch a thief.

How to Cover A Charlatan

Of course, Nicholas Kristof is right when he asserts that the job of journalists is truth-telling, not stenography. He is properly worried that the Press fears being labelled partisan and so simply reports flagrant lies without adequately exposing their known falsity.
While this tendency of the media is troubling, what is more concerning is the conversion of some cable "news" programs into free advertising for a political candidate. Even though these programs concede that they deal in opinion rather than hard news, they surely run afoul of campaign financing regulations (what is left of them after Citizen's United) if they are , in effect, simply a continuing advertisement for a candidate. For example, Trump regularly appears on Hannity programs devoted exclusively to providing a platform for his nonfactual assertions and hate-filled messages. His interrogator acts as a cheerleader, supplying his own distorted data in support. These programs are then shown repeatedly just as though they were political ads, without cost to the Trump campaign.

Trump and the Press

Shockingly, the media has been cowered by Trump's daily assaults upon it and by right-wing radio's constant carping about the media's alleged anti-conservative bias. Thus, stories about Trump's obvious ignorance of policy, especially foreign, and his rambling, wholly inconsistent rants about immigration, race, and taxation are reported uncritically and, when read from teleprompters, treated as bordering on presidential.
On the other hand, reporters seem to feel pressured into regularly raising faux issues about Clinton's honesty, and judgment, fueling her low ratings for transparency, likability and truthfulness. The result is the  prospect of an unnervingly close election and the nightmarish possibility of a Trump presidency.
The duty of the press to be unbiased and fair does not override its essential obligation to report fully and accurately. When the emperor has no clothes, it should say so.

Donald Trump's Rant

Presumably, expecting Donald Trump to react in a newsworthy fashion to FBI Director Comey’s exoneration/condemnation of Hillary Clinton, the three major cable news channels showed nearly the entire 30 minutes of Trump’s speech in Cincinnati. (NY Times, July 7, P A16)

 What we got instead, was a chilling insight, in real time, into the unbalanced, obsessively self-centered mind of the presumed Republican nominee for the presidency. Trump’s rambling, unhinged vituperative rant was appalling and recalled nothing so much as the cringe worthy performance of Captain Queeg of the Caine Mutiny as he testified neurotically about the stolen strawberries.  Queeg was removed from command of his ship.  We must not put Trump in command of the nation.