Sorry, nothing earthshaking scientifically to write about, so here are 3 leads from today’s New York Times for your enjoyment
l. Page 1 top left — “The Failing Inside Mission to stop Hillary from Lying”
2. Page 1 top right — “How Trump plans to use Obama’s Embrace of Executive power”
3. Sunday review –Page 1 bottom “Hillary is making America more comfortable with pay to play”
Fair and balanced as Fox would say if they wrote them.
But they didn’t. It was the Times masquerading two opinion pieces as news on page 1, and an actual opinion piece in the Review.
Well, the titles were a bit different.
1. Page 1 top left — “The Failing Inside Mission to Tame Trump’s Tongue”
2. Page 1 top right — “How the President Came to Embrace Executive Power”
3. Sunday Review — page 1 bottom “Trump is Making America Meaner”
#2 is particularly interesting, as it is basically an excuse for ruling by decree, the dream of the left. The apologia comes in the third paragraph — “Blocked for most of his presidency by Congress, Mr. Obama has sought to act however he could.” So much for the constitution.
Ruling by decree has always been a goal of left utopians and pragmatists. Go back to the great Serge Eisenstein movie about Ivan the Terrible (part I 1944). It was commissioned by Stalin, and it’s all wonderful propaganda for the leader to do what he wishes unimpeded. Smash the Boyars. Let Ivan be Ivan. Only he truly loves the country. The second part wasn’t released until 1958 as Stalin didn’t like it. It’s really handy to rule by decree.
Well Maduro in Venezuela is currently ruling by decree, as has Fidel for years.
Comments
Well, the Republicans publicly avowed to block Obama and try to make him a one term president on day one of his presidency. If he hadn’t used executive power they would probably be calling him the biggest lame duck president in history. Seems to be a damned if you do, damned if you don’t kind of situation.
While you may agree with his goals and the way he achieved them, the system was set up to have exactly these checks and balances on the 3 branches of government, and Obama has largely destroyed one of them (Congress on presidential authority). Eventually someone whose goals and methods you don’t like will be President and use the tools Obama has left for him/her.