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Right Now
Author: Raine    Date: 02/18/2019 13:58:02

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter,”

George Washington, addressing officers of the Army, prior to being elected the first President of the United States of America.
Even the founding fathers had a complicated relationship with the early reporters George Washington called “infamous scribblers.” While James Madison believed that “to the press alone, checkered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression,” the primary author of the Constitution spoke from personal knowledge on both sides of the equation. He and Thomas Jefferson surreptitiously started one of the first partisan newspapers, the National Gazette, to attack their rival Alexander Hamilton and the policies of the Washington administration. Jefferson exhorted Madison to attack Hamilton under an assumed-name in the paper, saying, “For god’s sake, my dear sir, take up your pen, select the most striking heresies, and cut him to pieces in the face of the public.”

(snip)

“The President was much inflamed,” recounted Jefferson with a degree of detached amusement, “[and he] got into one of those passions when he cannot command himself; ran on much on the personal abuse which had been bestowed on him; defied any man on earth to produce one single act of his since he had been in the government which was not done on the purest motives . . . that by God he had rather be in his grave than in the present situation; that he would rather be on his farm than to be made Emperor of the world.”

However infuriated Washington was, the notoriously self-monitoring first president took care not to display his anger in public. The first president understood the power of precedent and was determined to maintain the dignity of the office. It’s an example that most of his successors have tried to follow.


“if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That's how dictators get started.” John McCain, Meet the Press, February 18, 2017

On this Presidents day, celebrate our Free Press and consider supporting a publication or two. We need it now more than ever.



and

Raine
 
 

10 comments (Latest Comment: 02/18/2019 20:14:25 by TriSec)
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Comments:

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Comment by Raine on 02/18/2019 14:30:37
Good Morning!

Comment by wickedpam on 02/18/2019 14:36:24
Morning

Comment by trojanrabbit on 02/18/2019 15:06:55
Good snowy mornin’

Comment by wickedpam on 02/18/2019 16:36:56
Do you just love the willfully ignorant.

Comment by Raine on 02/18/2019 17:18:00
Quote by wickedpam:
Do you just love the willfully ignorant.

Uh oh... wassup over there in Virginia?

Comment by wickedpam on 02/18/2019 17:30:19
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
Do you just love the willfully ignorant.

Uh oh... wassup over there in Virginia?



Just stupid people including one of my neighbors (JUlie) being willfully ignorant of facts in her TL . I was actually told government stats were fake.

Comment by Raine on 02/18/2019 18:28:37
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
Do you just love the willfully ignorant.

Uh oh... wassup over there in Virginia?



Just stupid people including one of my neighbors (JUlie) being willfully ignorant of facts in her TL . I was actually told government stats were fake.
JEbus.

I mean what the hell, people?!?



Comment by wickedpam on 02/18/2019 18:46:17
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
Do you just love the willfully ignorant.

Uh oh... wassup over there in Virginia?



Just stupid people including one of my neighbors (JUlie) being willfully ignorant of facts in her TL . I was actually told government stats were fake.
JEbus.

I mean what the hell, people?!?



They are tRumpers who are dedicated to Fox and try to use right wing youtube clips to back up their argument. Then thought they were smart in asking me if I would leave all my doors and windows open to the homeless and drug dealers. Like WTF kind of argument is that? Yes, someone comes to my home needing help they are welcome, they are there to break the law the cops. How is that a real way to back up their point for a "wall"?

Comment by livingonli on 02/18/2019 19:12:15
I have heard there were a shitload of tweets from the Trump cult attacking Chris Wallace which went way into anti-Semitism because he dared to question Rush Limbaugh and Stephen Miller.

Comment by TriSec on 02/18/2019 20:14:25
Hi all - TriSec survived the hike, and Javi too. A fine 2 degrees atop Cannon Mountain yesterday afternoon, neither night above 10 degrees at the hut, but with 48 people indoors, it stayed warm.