GELFAND’S WORLD - It was at a meeting involving local volunteers who work for a student science initiative. There were also officials from the home office in Washington, D.C. I was chatting with a couple of folks from the home office and, although we were all being circumspect, I chose to break the ice politically just a bit. Referring to their home town, I casually suggested, “What I’m surprised about is that there are any buildings left in your city.” I thought that this might inspire some return joke about the loss of the East Wing of the White House, but instead, I got something direct and quite a bit more emotional.
“What I’m upset about is the Kennedy Center.”
He was of course referring to the attempt to paste Donald Trump’s name on it, and more recently the threat to tear it all down if the country doesn’t allow the renaming to occur.
There was an immediate silence from the rest of us. I finally got out that those of us of a certain generation remember the assassination as if it were yesterday, and we all share that feeling of loss with him. There was the unspoken set of memories – that Kennedy, whatever other personality quirks he may have had, was a veteran who had served honorably in combat in the South Pacific, that he and his PT boat crew had been sunk by an enemy destroyer, that he started the process that led to the major civil rights laws of the 1960s, and that he had himself honored culture and thought.
And that we continue to mourn his loss.
But this quick exchange provoked another sequence of thoughts which ultimately overlap with thoughts about the presidencies of Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Ronald Reagan, and likely Joe Biden. It’s got to do with accumulating presidential disabilities and the way that presidential insiders keep secrets from the public about the true condition of the chief executive.
I won’t go into those older stories because they have been covered by many journalists over the years. (Read about Woodrow Wilson’s last days if you are willing to be shocked and appalled.) But we are currently looking at a series of behavioral changes in the current president that are being actively denied by not only administration insiders but the rest of the Republican establishment. And all of a sudden, the behavioral changes are piling up at an increasing tempo.
They are manifesting themselves in all sorts of different ways, but with one or two core attributes. Those are, not surprisingly, the need to punish the objects of his jealousy. This obviously includes the memory of John F. Kennedy.
The other attribute is the need to punish any person or organization that criticizes him.
The latest attack is the order that CNN, Politico, and MS NOW be banned from the White House so that they won’t be able to cover this administration (and this president) directly. News agencies have now responded by saying that television pool coverage will not be offered to the administration while this continues. The interesting thing is that Fox News is a part of this boycott. What is chilling is how Trump defends his action:
“In a social media post, the president said -- quote -- "Media outlets shouldn't be able to constantly write or report fiction and lies." And he suggested other news organizations could face similar action.
“Later in the Oval Office today, Mr. Trump said this:
They purposely write negative news. And they do that because they want to try and diminish the Republicans and a Republican administration.”
Now it seems to me that this is the very essence of what a careful and critical journalism is supposed to do. You point out what the administration is doing, and you criticize its actions which violate the Constitution or which threaten our democracy. As others have pointed out, attacking the existence and functioning of the press are among the first things that wannabe dictators do. The serious and central question that was raised when Trump came into office was not whether he was engaging in such attacks – he clearly was, from the very beginning – but whether our system could withstand such attacks and thereby maintain freedom of the press. (It is for this reason that the presence of late-night comedians willing to criticize the president has been so important.)
The second attribute of the Trump presidencies is that – for whatever reason – this president continues to engage in actions which weaken the U.S. both politically and economically and which simultaneously serve the interests of Vladimir Putin. The attempts to disrupt NATO and to reduce support to Ukraine are consistent with this assertion. It’s not a new idea, but the data continue to accumulate and the mass media don’t spend newsprint or television time on the pertinent facts.
Everything coming out of this administration is nuts. Have you seen the latest on the triumphal arch, where it is now being proposed as some sort of military fort?
Perhaps the wackiest story of the week is what came out of the FBI director’s mouth while he was being challenged by senators. It seems that the FBI is easing up on rules regarding hiring people who have engaged in bestiality or prostitution. To borrow the words of one famous writer, “I’m not making this up.” Here are a few words taken from the above quoted article:
“For prostitution, job candidates can still be hired as long as they have not hired sex workers or engaged in acts of prostitution three or more times and the conduct took place more than 10 years ago.
“For employment theft, a person can be considered if the theft took place more than three years ago, and for bestiality, a job candidate can still be eligible as long as the acts occurred before the age of 18, multiple sources familiar with the changes previously told CBS News.
“Sources previously told CBS News that the new eligibility requirements do not distinguish between candidates who were coerced into sexual activity with animals, as opposed to those who engaged in such acts willingly.”
It would be interesting to know why this is such an issue all of a sudden. We can guess that there is or was somebody who Trump wants to hire, but who has a “problem,” shall we say, in one or more of these categories. As a colleague reminds me, you can no longer get promoted to high rank in the U.S. military if you are Black or female, but apparently a history of sex with animals is now OK.
(Bob Gelfand writes on science, culture, and politics for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected])
