I could tell from his heavy accent and dark skin that my cab driver in Washington, DC, a few weeks back was an immigrant. I could also tell he was a hard-working guy and eager to please, when I explained that I was in a hurry to get to Reagan Airport, and we assessed the best routes for beating rush-hour traffic.
“Where you from?” I asked after we had settled on the best route.
“Kenya.”
“How long you been here?”
“Five years.”
“How do you like it here?”
“I like it. There is lots of opportunity if you are willing to work hard.”
I couldn’t resist detouring into politics. “Are you worried that our president seems to dislike immigrants, is having many immigrants deported?”
He hesitated, and peered into his rear-view mirror as if he was looking me over more closely. “Not so much,” he began. “Where I come from, there aren’t clear rules. The president can rule for many years. Here, you have a constitution. You know the president will only be in office four years or eight years. Then he is finished.”
I decided against pouring out my fears that our president was pushing mightily against the American Constitution’s rules on separation of powers and checks and balances, and thereby against the rule of law. That he would love to bring us much closer to the Kenya model.
I didn’t want to destroy the cab driver’s rosy view of his new country. Nor did I want to let him know how deeply the threat of fascism has disturbed my own clarity of thought. How I’ve been having a difficult time writing, either this blog or other things I’ve had in process. It’s as if my mind is obsessing on politics more than ever before in my life.
While many other Americans share my fears, there seemed no need to dump them on this innocent sincere man.
But I realized in my hesitation to “educate” the cab driver that I have been obsessing not just about Trump, but that America’s long-standing rule of law could be coming to an end. I can handle policy differences over Obama Care and tax cuts and even the climate change treaty. I obsess that if Trump sabotages Robert Mueller’s investigation—such as by firing Mueller or by undermining its credibility via conspiracy theories about the investigators—then the rule of law, which has distinguished America from much of the rest of the world for nearly 250 years, would be called into question.
The rule of law is what attracts not only immigrants like my Kenyan cab driver, but deep-pocketed foreign investors to the U.S., and allows us to avoid financial crises like those now wracking Turkey, Venezuela, and Argentina. Not that we don’t have cracks in the rule of law, such as via racial abuse and criminal convictions of innocent individuals, but invariably there are law enforcement and regulator investigations to make sense of the injustices. And where possible, violators of the law are prosecuted, sometimes years after the event.
Once the rule of law is directly and publicly undermined at the highest levels, it becomes like Humpty Dumpty–very difficult to put back together again. Instead, we nearly inevitably move down a slippery slope where the rule of men/women substitute for the rule of law—a situation we had in this country prior to our Declaration of Independence in 1776.
The problem for us today is that the rule of law goes against everything fascism is about. Fascism is about one-person rule through the cult of personality. It depends on diversion, fantasy, conspiracy theories and, above all, humiliation and even cruelty by those in power toward scapegoats. It is the exact opposite of fairness and objectivity and humanity.
It is positioned by the would-be dictator to champion the underdog, and thus captivates many people. A literary agent recently bemoaned all the badly done would-be novels he is seeing about Trump, writing on his blog: “It is one of fascism’s goals to monopolize our attention. It would like to shrink our imagination; it would like for us to peer wide-eyed at its harsh restrictions and be able to think of nothing else. And it is tempting to stare like this, because fascism and its precursors are rife with contradictions that seem to beg to be pointed out by Reasonable People. But that’s one of its tricks. Fascism welcomes our attempts to play logical ‘gotcha’ with its inconsistencies because it knows we will lose—not because we won’t find a fallacy but because the fallacy won’t matter.”
Can the rule of law prevail in such an atmosphere? We may find out not only via the Mueller investigation, but also via a series of unlikely legal cases filed by the families of students murdered in Newtown, CT, more than five years ago. They have filed three defamation suits against one of Trump’s main propaganda lieutenants, Alex Jones, of InfoWars fame.
In reporting the suits, the NY Times said that “the families are seeking society’s verdict on ‘post truth’ culture in which widely disseminated lies damage lives and destroy reputations, yet those who spread them are seldom held accountable. The suits filed on Wednesday emphasizes Mr. Jones’s reach and connection to Mr. Trump. On his show last year, Mr. Jones called himself and his listeners ‘the operating system of Trump.’ Later he said, ‘I’m making it safe for everybody else to speak out just like Trump’s doing, on a much bigger scale.’ “
Since the first lawsuit by Sandy Hook parents was filed in April, Jones has backtracked from his contention the massacre was “fake” to saying it actually did happen. It is clear that the only thing convincing him to change his tune has been the legal action, and the threat it might cost him millions in damages as well as undermine his business interests, which include millions in annual sales of nutritional supplements.
Jones isn’t alone in such fascist activities. Other conspiracy theorists have taken to harassing parents of victims in similar massacres elsewhere, including the Florida school shooting and Texas church massacre.
The rule of law is key to fighting back against the hypnotic trances spun by charismatic fascist leaders. Because once the rule of law is gone, fair elections are eliminated, political opponents jailed, the media muzzled, and the legal system obliterated. Fascism flourishes.
Fascist regimes nearly always end badly. Germany had to be nearly flattened by Allied soldiers and bombers before the Germans finally let go of the hypnotic trance Hitler held them in for a dozen years; similar with Italy and Mussolini. World War II was a war fought by the U.S., Britain, and others against fascism, It was a war fought on behalf of the rule of law.
But fascist regimes also tend to cause huge amounts of damage in pursuit of the demagogue’s craziness. It’s especially appropriate on this Memorial Day to remember the millions killed and murdered during World War II because of the horrors of fascism.
Well said David, lest I say more. Thank you for this Memorial Day thought. It is a timely reminder of what it is to be an American for the long term.
In the words of reverend Curry. Love will transform the world if we love one another. The royal wedding was a very refectful ceremony at a time where this world needs to really consider how small and unique our little space ship is.
Give love, share love, receive love and this world will transcend all of the lesser less human behaviors.
The Mass Psychology of Fascism
http://www.wilhelmreichtrust.org/mass_psychology_of_fascism.pdf
I share your fears, David. Thank you for these thoughtful musings on the despairing state of American society today. Brave journalists like you, who speak truth to power, will help get us back on the right track.
David,
You state, “Fascism is about one-person rule through the cult of personality.”
This definition could equally apply to any political/economic/religious ideology that ends with “ism” or “cracy”.
Then you ask, “Can the rule of law prevail in such an atmosphere?”
In short… no!
The rule of law (man’s law that is) is not the answer because it is not infallible, nor does it prevent corruption from infiltrating ruling systems. The Roman, Charlemagne, or Byzantine Empires are well-documented examples just to name a few. As demonstrated, throughout the course of history, human beings coupled with their obsession for control use and manipulate “the rule of law” for whatever suites their purpose. Inevitably we end up going from one extreme to the next…
That being said and as Leo Tolstoy stated, “The true meaning of Christ’s teaching consists in the recognition of love as the supreme law of life, and therefore not admitting any exceptions.” The difficulty however, that humans are faced with as Tolstoy again stated is that, “The law of loving others could not be discovered by reason, because it is unreasonable.”
Ken, when I talk about “the rule of law,” I mean it in contrast to “the rule of men” (or women). In other words, no one is above the law (including the top rulers). The law is applied equally to all. There is a system of due process. In that spirit, we’ve had senators and representatives charged and sentenced to prison. We had a vice president (Spiro Agnew) forced to resign (in 1973) and sentenced to three years probation and fined thousands. President Richard Nixon was forced to resign the presidency because of the findings of a special prosecutor that he obstructed justice, and he might have been sentenced criminally to prison had his successor not pardoned him (in a controversial decision).
No one (myself included) would suggest the rule of law is infallible or without corruption. There is no system that is infallible for the reason you mention–such systems are devised by human beings.
But the American system has remained committed to this concept of no one above the law. Because Nixon didn’t respect the concept, the special prosecutor system was tightened by Congress. Now, our current president seems determined to sabotage that system, by poisoning and undermining the independent law enforcement agencies. This article provides a pretty good assessment of how he’s going about his sabotage:
“The confrontation has no precedent in the modern era and holds great stakes not just for the president but for the relative autonomy for law enforcement investigations established after Watergate. Mr. Trump’s allies argue that he has every right to manage the executive branch and every reason to be outraged at possible misconduct aimed at his campaign. But many law enforcement veterans say he is wreaking untold damage on institutions that form the bulwark of a democratic society.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/26/us/politics/trump-justice-fbi-russia-spy.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fpolitics&action=click&contentCollection=politics®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront
The rule of law is being treated with contempt by the Left as well, David. Border control is a universal rule of law. Free speech for Nazis is a rule of law established in the U. S. by liberalism, now abandoned by the alt left. Contempt and derision on both sides. The illusion, very pleasing to our ruling elite, is that the Dems or the Reupubs, or the blacks or the whites, or the rich or the poor, are responsible. We are irrevocably screwed. Check out John Lukacs, The End of the Modern Age.
I didn’t write the post with a political agenda in mind–left vs right. We have judges to interpret challenges to immigration law or free speech rights. I was talking about one of the most difficult legal tests any nation can face: an independent investigation of the executive branch. Because if a country is truly committed to the rule of law, with no one above the law, the chief executive must be held accountable to following the law. I did a little searching, and I was amazed to find there have been 20 special or independent counsel investigations of presidents or their high-level aides of presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush 1 and Clinton. (Seems to cover both parties.) Bill Clinton was investigated by two different independent counsels over a period of four years (1994-98). (Interesting that Trump was moaning and groaning that special counsel Mueller’s probe has gone on for one year, as if that had never happened before.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_prosecutor
https://www.theguardian.com/world/1998/nov/18/clinton.usa
None of these presidents liked the investigations, but none challenged either the legitimacy of the investigations or the professionalism of the law enforcement agencies carrying them out, as this president has. I have to assume they accepted the investigations as an important part of the rule of law.
I read this article and thought , “Wow, is this satire”?
I am completely bewildered with how out of touch you are to the point of amusement!
Let me break this down for you…
How many times do you have to wrap your head around the fact that Donald Trump reportedly had a NINE PERCENT chance of winning the presidency the night of the election.
Firstly, you can deduce the following from this win:
– Modern day journalists and media outlets who reported this are COMPLETELY out of touch, and also heavily pedal this “post” truth you speak of
– Donald Trump represents a PARADIGM SHIFT away from traditional party politics and brain-dependency on mainstream media outlets.
Secondly,
These limousine liberals, who feel “sorry” for “uneducated” cabbies with their illegitimate opinions because they don’t care about identity politics or meme scandals, need to understand that this presidency has nothing to do with fascism.
Our country still has checks and balances, three branches of government, and a roaring economy. If you really want an example of a broken rule of law, you should probably look into Sanders losing the nomination at the DNC. That’s a nice little example of in-party fascism for you.
To conclude, the hysteria you speak of is in your own head! The hysteria you speak of is watching talking heads on TV and pretending everyone agrees still!
Get out of your limousine (or cab), and realize the world is changing away from traditional politics and talking heads on corrupt, branded, bought, agenda- driven TV stations and digital media outlets.
It’s not fascism you’re afraid of, you just can’t see a revolution when you wear dusty rose colored glasses in the back of a cab, watching twitter feeds and sound bites from your smartphone.
“It’s not fascism you’re afraid of, you just can’t see a revolution….”
Two points, Abigail:
1. It is fascism I am afraid of, because I know the horrors of fascism first-hand: my grandmother and other members of my family were murdered by rulers of a fascist state.
2. “Revolutions” mark drastic changes in governance. The U.S. was founded in revolution, based on overthrowing the rule of a king in exchange for democratic principles and the rule of law. If we’re having another “revolution,” it must be based on something other than democratic principles and the rule of law. Which is precisely what I fear.
Hahahaha! Sorry David. I think Abigail got you!
WELL SAID ABIGAIL THEY SHOULD STICK TO RAW MILK INSTEAD OF KOOL AID
“democratic principles” ? where-ever did you get that notion? you must be one of those babyboomers indoctrinated by the Public Fool System. IN FACT ; The united States of America was founded as a Republic. (you could look it up)
the Republic which was created by white Christians, as an ethno-state for “our Posterity”. What’s going on before your very eyes, is : “democracy” imploding into mob-ocracy, as it always does. Confer with what went on, in Chicago, over the Memorial Day weekend. After which … IN-EVITABLY … the Strong Man rides in (on a white horse) and the citizenry hails him with open arms as their Savior from the barbarians. Not Trump, he’s only the warm-up act. The pitch of the next President will be “you want law+Order? I’ll give you law+ Order.” The 3rd Reich was only a dress rehearsal for what looms here and now. For a fuller explanation = See the website of Dr Henry Makow today “Los Angeles Native Describes Civic Decline”
you tell ’em gordon!
David,
Not sure if you have listened to this interview with Sharyl Attkision?
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/07/17/sharyl_attkisson_journalists_are_so_afraid_of_president_trump_they_have_suspended_normal_rules_and_standards.html
Good or bad, the ubiquitous engrained corruption that currently exist within government law enforcement agencies throughput the world, in particular, the CIA, FBI and NSA in your country is scandalous and needs to be promptly dealt with. Edward Snowden did your country a favor by actually exposing the above agencies shenanigans and Donald Trump is the only viable individual of all the candidates in the last election campaign (despite his lack of charisma) with the cahoonas to deal with those responsible for the secret dishonest political maneuvering within those agencies in Washington. John F Kennedy and his brother Bobby were the only individuals in political office in Washington in the last 60 years that made an attempt to resist, and look what happened to them.
As Sharyl Attkisson pointed out in her book “Stonewalled: One Reporter’s Fight for Truth in Obama’s Washington”, “THE POLITICAL-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX Big corporations rule the world. You may choose not to believe it. That’s exactly what they’re counting on. They influence vast amounts of information we receive. They control some facets of government so effectively that the government has all but given up trying to resist it. And it’s the same whether we’re talking about Democrats or Republicans”… of which, Donald Trump is neither. If anything, he is a maverick politician dealing with an authoritarian (fascist) establishment that has effectively manipulated the democratic process in its favor.
And again with respect to some journalists in the media Attkisson states in the same book, “After Watergate, few
would have predicted today’s dynamic in which some journalists view their job not as questioning the powers that be, but undermining those who report on the powers that be.”
This short interview by Sharyl Attkison with University of Texas professor Alberto Martinez paints a revealing picture of the media’s biased and contrived false reporting on Donald Trump.
In her introduction to the interview Attkison states, “We in the news media are targets of a harsh critique for our treatment of Donald Trump— from an unlikely source. He’s a University of Texas professor named Alberto Martinez. An ardent supporter of Bernie Sanders, Martinez is no Trump advocate, but he’s writing a new book dissecting news reporting on the President and says—fair is fair.
http://fullmeasure.news/news/politics/the-media-and-trump-12-18-2017
Glyphosate and Roundup administered at human-equivalent dose to Sprague Dawley rats: effects on the microbiome
https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-018-0394-x
Niche A2 milk from Guernseys gains popularity
http://www.capitalpress.com/SpecialSections/Dairy/20180531/niche-a2-milk-from-guernseys-gains-popularity
May 31, 2018 – Press Release:
Release: Resounding victory for freedom of association of private bodies from the Supreme Court of Canada
https://mailchi.mp/theccf/release-resounding-victory-for-freedom-of-association-of-private-bodies-from-the-supreme-court-of-canada
Perhaps raw milk consumers will benefit from this Supreme Court of Canada ruling “if” the legislated privileges of marketing boards in Canada are not used as a tool to reinforce so-called food health and safety guidelines and as such override and usurp the freedom of association of private cowshare bodies.
This interview with UKIP (United Kingdom Independent Party) leader Gerard Batten is well worth listening to, and Just goes to show how much control the established political elite has in politics worldwide. Democracy is favorable to the establishment as long as it caters to their cause!!!
What’s happening in North America and the mainstream media’s reporting of it parallels that which is going on in the United Kingdom…
https://www.therebel.media/ezra_levant_show_may_31_2018
In High Demand, Organic Soy and Corn Farmers Stand to Win
https://civileats.com/2018/06/01/in-high-demand-small-organic-soy-and-corn-farmers-stand-to-win/
“he would also have to consider bringing cows back into his operation, something his grandfather had as a dairy farmer, to provide a natural fertilizer.”
Yes, here is the link: Securing fresh food from fertile soil, challenges to the organic and raw milk movements
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/renewable-agriculture-and-food-systems/article/securing-fresh-food-from-fertile-soil-challenges-to-the-organic-and-raw-milk-movements/18325E375E068A538E07EF4E6F6ABA22
David, I really appreciated this blog post. I do understand your family history and how you have a completely different perspective than others who have treated your column with derision.
As someone who sees herself as a left leaning libertarian, I agree that there is far too much government interference in the private matters of individuals.
However, if anyone thinks that life would be better under fascist dictator trump is delusional. Right now, he is giving more and more power to big corporations and less to the little guy, in spite of his campaign promises. Does anyone really think that the little farmer who is trying to sell his raw milk is going to have an easier time when Big Ag and Big Pharma are going to have even more power? Congress is bought and paid for by the guys that support trump and trump is supporting. (And lets not forget him suddenly supporting job creation in China a week ago!) Come on. He promised to negotiate drug costs for Medicare and within a couple weeks of taking office changed his mind because it would negatively affect drug research and development. Yeah. Right. No one ever changes his mind unless he gets something out of it. trump is all about trump. He’s not for the little fellers, he is for the Rockefellers. (Credit to the late Senator Paul Wellstone for that line.)
Keep writing these blogs from the heart! I truly enjoy them!
Acres USA magazine arrived in the mailbox today. I was interviewed about Raw Milk by Chris Walters in this June 2018 issue. See pages 62-72.
If you are not a subscriber to Acres you may look for the magazine on the news stand at Tractor Supply.
https://www.acresusa.com/
Interesting note on the science of A2. A polish study ( published and peer reviewed ) looked at the differences between A2 and A1 digestibility and other consumer reactions. In raw form there was vertically no differences. In pasteurized form, the heat somehow brought out and expressed distinct differences in the proteins.
The lesson here is that raw has always been fine. The A2 discovery only pertains to the last 70 years when processing started to cause its own set of consumer problems. A funny story goes with this. A cow share that I know about bought several cows. Because they were jerseys the assumption was that they were all A2. They sold raw milk for two years with consumers raving about how they could digest the A2 milk.
The cows were tested later and it was found that 4 of the 5 were A1. Not A2 as assumed.
There are 2500 proteins found in raw milk…. Heat denatures or changes everyone of them to some extent. What a mess.
Mark,
Sounds interesting. Can you provide full reference to the new A2 A1 publication. Or email me a copy if you can.
“Stumped”
Five dead, nearly 200 sick in E. coli outbreak from lettuce. And investigators are stumped.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/06/02/five-dead-nearly-200-sick-in-e-coli-outbreak-from-lettuce-and-investigators-are-stumped/?utm_term=.81b7f6f7f4e9
May be they should look at factors (like glyphosate) that impact health of the microbiome
Here is another angle on the ecoli potential for illness. As first world diet consumers we eat and are exposed to plenty of emulsifiers and other ingredients in our foods that make fats go into suspension and play other games with fats, bacteria, our biome etc….roundup being a huge violator. Perhaps it is the missing mucus lining in our intestines. Pathogens require an opportunity to create a biofilm on the surface of the intimate lining of the gut in order for shigatoxin infections to develop. When the mucus layer is missing or very thin, pathogens can easily colonize directly on the tissue of the intimal lining itself. The insulating and proactive layer of the mucus is not present. Pathogens do not infect or act until they reach a quorum sensing critical mass level and then they act with a collaborative effort. Pathogens and other bacteria comunicste between each other using chemical languages ( dr. Bonnie Bassler MIT ) Until that growth and biofilm has been achieved virulence can not occur. Virulence is partly created by quorum sensing activity and biofilm creation. That mucus layer plays a critical part in mediating the ability for bio films to start in the first place.
Perhaps this is why some consumers have little or no effect from pathogens and others become ill or worse.
That intimal mucosal lining is critical and it is missing in so many of our consumers guts.
By the way, Raw Kefir helps regenerate that mucus boundry layer. Have some raw kefir with your organic lettuce and stop eating Roundup-SAD.
The tragedy in all of this is that our scientists know all of this, but it does not make money to teach it….so it sits on shelves and goes unappreciated by society.
http://bcherdshare.org/the-health-benefits-of-raw-milk/
As I proudly read through the work done by Phd researchers in British Columbia Canada I also reflect on some resent quotes I saw from the FDA regarding infant formula, breast feeding and raw milk.
The advice was to never give your baby milk before one year of age because the high protein levels would or could hurt the babies know kidneys.
I am really taken back by these comments. The comments were made about pasteurized milk and not raw milk but the FDA did not clarify this important difference. Breast milk contains plenty of protein just like cows milk, yet the FDA recommends breast feeding.
Does the FDA believe that Breast milk protein will be easier on the kidneys than cows milk proteins ?
The missing and gaping hole in this statement is that the FDA is referring to pasteurized cows milk proteins and clearly ( although secretly ) stating that pasteurized milk proteins are missing their enzymes and biodiversity of beneficial bacteria are they are hard to digest.
All of that is probably true, what is horrible untrue is that raw cows milk shares that same inability to digest as pasteurized milk. That would mean that some how moms breast milk is different than raw cows milk when they are nearly identical under all important parameters. FDA says breast milk is great and it contains pathogenic bacteria ? But would never even speak of tested safe raw milk that can not contain pathogens because it has been tested to be free of them.
Oh the power of big money. How the power of politics and corporate influence suppresses science and corrupts any sort of truth.
Oh… I forgot the FDA does not speak of raw milk, lest they be struck by infant formula corporate lightening strikes or other career damning derailments.
Meanwhile, children thrive on raw milk which nearly and perfectly matches mothers breast milk!!
I am so proud of our friends in Canada. Their work speaking truth and science to power is awesome!!