Bill Moyers: Ask Yourself: Will Donald Trump EVER Become President?

Vital article by Bill Moyers. Also makes me heartsick. Truly and deeply heartsick. At the same time, I am grateful to have my eyes and mind and heart wide open and to know the truth, the larger picture, the horror of what's happening. The horror will not end until enough of us work to peel back the layers of our ignorance and indoctrination, and in our growing understanding, become empowered to come together to end this insanity. Our children and all children everywhere are counting on us. - Molly

As our institutions bend and buckle and approach the breaking point, the president bombs Syria and is hailed by an obeisant media.

by Bill Moyers

It’s been a week now since Donald Trump once again became our president.

Here’s how it happened.

After he unleashed missiles on a Syrian airfield, members of Washington’s national security establishment and elite pundits swooned. Top Democrats and Republicans led the way. Good soldiers all in the military-industrial-political complex, they stood smartly at attention and saluted the commander-in-chief for sending a message to the world, although exactly what the message meant remains far from clear.

The headline above Glenn Greenwald’s story at The Intercept summed up the response: “The Spoils of War — Trump Lavished with Media and Bipartisan Praise for Bombing Syria.” The hawkish Hillary Clinton, who long had been critical of Barack Obama for not bringing Bashar Assad to heel, “appeared at an event” — and this was before the bombing even happened! — “and offered her categorical support for what Trump was planning.”

Up in the choir loft, the media and pundits sang as one from the official hymnal, praising Trump’s “presidential moment” and transforming him from a pathetic dunderhead suffering from narcissistic personality disorder into the Lord of Hosts. It was CNN’s Fareed Zakaria who pronounced the decision to fire away as the “big moment” when “Donald Trump became president of the United States.”

The theatrics were perfect. The Pentagon shopped to the media a video of the missiles as they were lofted up and away. MSNBC’s Brian Williams was among those moved by the aesthetics of violence: “We see these beautiful pictures at night from the decks of these two Navy vessels in the Eastern Mediterranean. I am tempted to quote the great Leonard Cohen: ‘I’m guided by the beauty of our weapons.’”

When I heard those words, I thought back to that night in 2003 when another president lit up the skies over Baghdad with the “shock and awe” of his air attack on Iraq. Suddenly the press was talking about George W. Bush as if he were George Washington, George Marshall and George Patton rolled into one. A touch of George III came later, as our newly refurbished president donned a flight suit and strutted aboard the aircraft carrier with the banner behind him that read: “Mission Accomplished.” Not quite.

Please continue this article here: http://billmoyers.com/story/ask-yourself-will-donald-trump-ever-become-president/