Man, What I’d Give For a Good Case of Writer’s Block!
Finding a story in Donald Trump's Washington, DC isn't the writer's challenge these days. Outrages, corruption and bad policy choices are everywhere. Selecting just one to cover is the real challenge.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) —- Barry Piatt, above, takes readers “behind the curtains” this week to explore the dilemma a political writer faces today in Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C. Stories about graft, corruption, and bad policy choices come at journalists every day at the speed of water jetting out of a fireman’s water hose, come at political writers every day. Selectiing just one to write about each week is the special challenge.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — This week I’m going to pull the curtain back a bit and share with you what it’s like to be a Washington, DC based political correspondent who writes a once a week column in Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C.
It goes without saying: there is never a dull moment.
Life here is filled with dozens of moments every day, most of them maddening, some of them infuriating, and many simply unimaginable in normal times.
The challenge for a writer of political analysis and opinion commentary here isn’t finding a story - it’s sorting through the avalanche of outrages that bubble up from Trump’s own special swamp EACH WEEK, to select just one to write about.
In normal times, many of these stories would be career ending for a president, and for those - like Iowa’s “Silent Six” congressional delegation - who enable that president with their acquiescence, silence and even unquestioning support.
Many stories reporters uncover each week are vitally important to our democracy. But the sheer number of them ensures that some of them go unreported, or under reported. Certainly under-read, too, once reported.
Which of course is the strategy behind it all.
Slipping scandals, outrages and abysmally bad policy by - under the rapid-fire radar - is not a by product of the Trump/MAGA/Republican strategy.
It is their strategy.
The aim of that strategy is to avoid coverage, attention, and comprehension of any given scandal or outrage. It’s a strategy designed to ensure that if a scandal or outrage does get covered, its time in the news cycle is short, that any particular story will get lost in the flood of stories about other scandals and outrages, minimizing the impact of any - and all - particular scandals.
Stories about the following bubble up EVERY WEEK here in Trump’s Washington, DC. (By using the term “bubble up” I don’t mean to imply, these stories are just lying around for the picking. Many come to light, in most cases, only after hard work and a lot of digging by. reporters.)
graft;
corruption;
gross incompetence;
stupidity;
the deliberate destruction of our democracy;
the arrogant and deliberate alienation of our allies;
federal departments and agencies deliberately set up for failure;
deliberately wrecking the institutions that safeguard democracy and make it work;
policy choices that abandon decades of successful work and protections that strengthen our country, build a stronger democracy, and a better, more equitable economy;
misuse and abuse of the military;
attacks on the rule of law;
and the deliberate concentration of even more wealth in the hands of a very, very wealthy few - especially the president himself and his family.
Most maddening of all are
the complete abandonment of their constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the executive branch by many judges - particularly Republicans on the Supreme Court - and by most Republicans in Congress, who control both the House and Senate.
Iowa’s “Silent Six” in Congress stand out in this area. None of them have met a Trump outrage, fraud, grift or crime they haven’t been willing to excuse, ignore, or support - no matter how absurd.
Even Sen. Charles Grassley - especially Sen. Charles Grassley - who at least used to claim to take his oversight role seriously.
No more.
For the last several years he’s been among the very first to turn a very partisan, blind eye to Trump’s graft and fraud, and especiallly Trump’s corruption of the nation’s system of justice.
Grassley has even shown himself willing and eager to push blatant and false partisan conspiracy theories manufactured by, and fed to him by Putin’s Russia.
Donald Trump will go down in history as the most incompetent, ignorant and destructive president in US history.
Right behind Trump in those “bottom of the barrel” ratings will be Iowa’s current congressional delegation - the “Silent Six.”
Reps. Miller-Meeks, Hinson, Nunn, and Feenstra in the House; and Senators Grassley and Ernst in the Senate, will similarly be remembered as Iowa’s worst delegation in history.
They prove it every week. Multiple times .
Trump’s record at this point in his second term, is largely their record. They have done little to nothing to put any daylight between themselves and Trump. They own his record now, too. All of it. Every last corrupt ounce of it. They had a constitutional obligation to try to stop Tump’s graft, corruption and to try to steer federal policy in more rational directions.
They chose not to do so at every turn.
So in addition to all the stories about Trump’s ill advised talk and actions, graft and corruption, there are now also stories about what Iowa’s “Silent Six” choose not do not say in response.
Their silence in the face of graft, corruption and atrocious policy for Iowa - becomes their position on important issues, every bit as much as their votes for Trump’s outrages.
As I said, the challenge for a writer in. Washington, DC isn’t finding a story.
The real challenge is to decide which story from the massive smorgasbord of lies, frauds, corruption, and bad policy to write about when that smorgasbord is coming at you with the speed and intensity of a fireman’s high pressure water hose.
Take for starters, just the month of June which still has one third of it left to go..
Trump clearly lost his arrogant and unconstitutional war against Iran. It was unauthorized by Congress, of course, and remained so with the help of Iowa’s delegation in Congress who voted - several times - to let him continue it unchecked by the War Powers Act.
Trump clearly lost that war despite telling us months ago that he “completely obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capability and claiming several times this moth alone that he had won the war, that Iran’s military capability had been “completely destroyed” and that Iran was “begging” for an agreement to end it.
The Strait of Hormuz, by the way, as of this writing, still remains closed, despite Trump’s false claim to the contrary.
If you doubt whether Trump lost the war, read his “Memorandum of Understanding” - which is not the formal end to the war Trump falsely claimed, but rather a promise to talk more later about a final agreement to end the war.
It reads like a document of pure surrender by the United States, and promises that future talks will produce a final agreement that is exponentially much worse than the actual agreement President Obama negated with Iran and which Trump inexplicably tore up.
Trump’s name was forcibly removed from the Kennedy Center, by court order. Not one member of Iowa’s “Silent Six” spoke out against the Trump vandalism of putting his own name on - and above - the name of the president the institution memorializes. None of Iowa’s “Silent Six” have asked that the tarp that now covers Kennedy’s name on the building be removed to make clear that the institution is a formal memorial to Kennedy, as Congress and the American people intended.
The National Mall’s reflecting pool turned green with algae after Trump’s multi-million dollar, unnecessary, over priced, no bid contract, blue paint job;
Then the blue paint started peeling off the bottom.
The $13.1 million rush, no bid paint job was money down a rat hole. And Trump is now suggesting he may need to re-do the whole thing.
Trump’s Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fight on the White House lawn? That turned out to be a $60 million hot mess, a massive grift-a-palooza and celebration of misogyny that disgraced everybody associated with it. It will cost more millions to restore the White House lawn from the damage the event did to it.
By the way, not one member of Iowa’s “Silent Six” congressional delegation has bothered to call out the hateful, false, racist, sexist, and misogynistic statement about former First Lady Michelle Obama delivered by UFC wrestler Josh Hokit on the White House lawn, as President Trump looked on, smiling and saying nothing on June 14.
That was a full week ago.
Nothing from Reps. Miller-Meeks, Hinson, Nunn or Feenstra. Silence.
Nothing from Senators Grassley or Ernst. Silence.
Does their silence on this blatant racism and misogynyy delivered on the White House lawn, with the president standing nearby and saying nothing, advance “Iowa values” in Washington, DC?
No.
I sure hope not anyway.
The very next day, on June 15, Dana White, CEO of the UFC and a Trump supporter, denounced Hotkit’s slur and said Trump should have immediately condemned it, too.
So, yes, I’d welcome a good case of writer’s block these days.
Almost as much as most Americans would welcome an end to Trump’s daily and weekly outrages and the deafening silence with which Iowa’s worthless congressional delegation “responds “to them.
OVERDUE FARM BILL NEARS DAY 1,000 OF FAILURE: CLOCKS 994th DAY SINCE EXPIRATION WITHOUT A NEW FARM BILL BEING ENACTED
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — The Farm Bill, which sets the nation’s basic federal farm policy, was last written in 2018. It expired after five years on September 30, 2023.
Nearly 1,000 days have passed since then - 994 to be exact.
No new Farm Bill has been enacted since then by Congress. Basic farm policy has been operating on “auto-pilot” since then, despite the urgent need for a new one to reflect changes in farm markets and the farm economy since 2018 - eight years ago.
Two thirds of Iowa’s congressional delegation serve on either the US House or US Senate Agriculture Committees. As members of those committees they have a special responsibility to move the major farm legislation to enactment, but have failed.
They are: Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Joni Ernst (R-IA); and Reps. Zach Nunn (R-3rd IA) and Randy Feestra (R-4th IA).
Reps. Miller-Meeks (R-1st IA) and Hinson (R-2nd IA) also have a special responsibility to move the bill to enactment, but have not done so. As members of Congress from a major farm state, thousands of their constituents count on them to put in place a modern Farm Bill that reflects today’s realities, not the realities of nearly ten years ago.
They too have failed.
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Thanks for doing your part to help keep us from going crazy during these crazy times, Barry.
Regime change is necessary, and the mid-terms must provide the start to it! However, Trump's rapid fire ability to undermine anything connected to democracy, no matter how insane it might seem, often works enough to cast doubt, end, or simply turn an election on its head, you can be sure if he isn't challenged, he will find a way to do it. Iowan's have to stand up and push these "yes men and women" to grow a backbone at this late date, and end this travesty of a narcissist in charge and put the people first! Trumps idea of how to handle waste fraud and abuse, is simply let him show you how it is done by a real "Deal Maker" who acts like a MAFIA BOSS! Enough. is ENOUGH!