BLACK
HISTORY
February 15, 2017
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MONTH
Page 9
O PINION
Alt-Right, Alt-Facts and Alternative Reality
Lies can have
monstrous,
mortal costs
t om l aurent
President Trump has ushered
in a new reality for America. His
campaign showed us this reality is
based on fake facts, untruths and
his constant demeaning any per-
son or group who challenges him.
Truth for him is based on what-
ever he says it is at that moment.
During his three debates with Hil-
lary Clinton, about 60 percent of
his facts were false as analyzed by
factcheck.org compared to 28 per-
cent for Clinton.
Trump is an ego-maniac—he
has a narcissistic personality, in-
by
tensely focused on himself as the
apex—everyone worth anything
follows him with utter loyalty or
they are thrown under the bus.
Trump’s ego demands that he ap-
pear better than everyone else in
everything he does.
His Electoral College win
couldn’t be average. It had to be
great, thus his fake landslide win.
Trump got 56.9 percent of the
Electoral College votes. This is
not a landslide. This ranks him
46th out of 58 campaign winners
dating back to George Washington
(factcheck.org). Trump claims he
won the popular vote if you de-
duct the millions of people who
voted illegally without showing
any supporting evidence.
His inauguration even becomes
a competition with past presidents.
Coming in second in anything he
does is unacceptable to him, so
he forces reality into his imagined
box and demands that we all see
the world through his lying eyes
rather than our own. Does he be-
lieve his own lies? Perhaps, which
if true, makes him insane. If not,
it means he is deceitful. What a
choice.
Trump’s narcissistic personal-
ity means that anyone question-
ing his statements and use of fake
facts are threats to his power and
dominance. He has to protect his
self-image that will probably be
“I am the greatest president ever.”
His speeches, his tweets, and, by
extension, his press secretary and
other Trump spokespeople, are
so blotted with these erroneous
claims that it’s overwhelming.
The press and other media are
the only ones he cannot control
and who have the power to de-
flate his image. His media strategy
is similar to Putin’s, which is to
make them irrelevant. He is try-
ing to convince his supporters that
you cannot trust the press and oth-
er media because they are biased
against him. This is why he has
been attacking the media calling
them “dishonest” and even calling
fact checkers “dishonest scum”
(factcheck.org). He believes the
media cannot accept his presiden-
cy and their goal is to delegitimize
his presidency just as Trump tried
to delegitimize Obama’s presiden-
cy by his birther scam.
Once Trump minimizes the influ-
ence the media has, he then controls
the truth. This is where alternative
facts play their role for Trump. This
is what dictators do—lie, bully,
name-call, and badger. We are go-
ing to experience a Trump-style dic-
tatorship where his alternative facts
are truth and real truths are lies for
the next four years.
Why should we be concerned
about this? Our invasion of Iraq
in 2003 and subsequent deaths
(4,497) and injuries (32,021) to
American soldiers and 100,000 to
600,000 Iraqis and costing $2 tril-
lion was the result of alternative
facts. Lies can have monstrous,
mortal costs. Can we face him
down and limit the potential dam-
ages? It is up to all of us.
Tom Laurent offers this com-
mentary via PeaceVoice. He is a
retired soil scientist of 33 years
with the U.S. Forest Service.
New Justice Must Bring Independence to the Court
A check on
executive and
legislative power
m arc h. m orial
“Looming over this
moment is the fact that
the current Supreme
Court vacancy is the
result of more than 300
days of tremendous po-
litical obstruction that
has undermined the
integrity of the Court as an in-
stitution. Thus, any new Justice
must be someone who will restore
the standing of the Court, while
bringing true independence to the
role.” -- Kristen Clarke, president
and executive director of the na-
tional Lawyers’ Committee for
Civil Rights Under Law.
The United States Supreme
Court has played an important role
in the progress of the Civil Rights
Movement. The executive and leg-
islative branches of government
have, at times, had to be prodded
toward active reform of racial jus-
tice. It is the most vulnerable in our
society who have the most to gain
or lose by any change in the direc-
tion of the Supreme Court. That’s
why when the new President re-
cently announced his nomination
of Neil Gorsuch to the court, I
vowed that the National Urban
League would conduct a thorough
review of Gorsuch’s judicial record
and public statements to determine
whether he is fit to serve on the na-
tion’s highest court.
How might he be expected to
decide in a case of such monu-
by
mental significance as Brown or
Loving? At first glance, I have
concerns about Gorsuch’s ap-
parent judicial extremism and
his criticism of those who have
sought advancement of individual
rights through the courts.
Gorsuch has consistent-
ly ruled against the rights
of workers and consumers
who were harmed by em-
ployers and corporations,
and against disabled stu-
dents pursuing their right
to a meaningful education.
He has ruled against the rights of
workers and consumers who were
harmed by employers and cor-
porations, and against disabled
students pursuing their right to a
meaningful education.
I was especially alarmed by
Gorsuch’s ruling in an excessive
force claim in which a police used
a stun gun to kill a young man
suspected of growing marijuana.
Gorsuch said the use of force was
justified even though “the crime of
which he was suspected was not
itself a violent one, he was likely
our Founding Fathers, said “There
is as yet no liberty if the power
of judging be not separated from
legislative power and the execu-
tive power.” To ensure liberty, we
It is the most vulnerable in our society who have the
most to gain or lose by any change in the direction of the
Supreme Court. That’s why when the new President recently
announced his nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the court, I
vowed that the National Urban League would conduct a
thorough review of Gorsuch’s judicial record and public
statements to determine whether he is fit to serve on the
nation’s highest court.
to be apprehended eventually and
he hadn’t harmed anyone yet.”
The Supreme Court’s function is
to serve as a check on the power of
Congress and the President. With
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the current President’s proclivity for
authoritarianism, this responsibility
is graver than at any time in mod-
ern history. Does Gorsuch have the
integrity to stand up to the man who
appointed him, as circumstances are
almost surely to require?
The Enlightenment Age po-
litical philosopher Montesquieu,
whose work heavily influenced
must determine whether Gorsuch
can be independent.
Marc H. Morial is president
and chief executive officer of the
National Urban League.
The Law Offices of
Patrick John Sweeney, P.C.
Patrick John Sweeney
Attorney at Law
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