My job is to read signs. We all do it constantly. The signs I read are mostly what others reveal in their written words. I have just now read one of the most astounding things in weeks.
Backstory: The writer Mike Allen is among the major figures at Axios which purports to be an objective news voice with an emphasis on what I used to call short form content.
Axios delivers a ton of reasonably reliable news in a format that makes itself almost embarrassingly easy to use. You can tweet any element of the content and it becomes the source of your story.
I've done that with the text I will discuss in this article.
Shock
Why was Mike Allen's note this morning shocking? Because he is an allegedly objective reporter if anything slanted a bit toward the corporatocracy. But he wants everyone to know how shocking he finds what is Unfolding at the White House to be. What he describes is a slavish form of idolatry, demeaning worship of the president.
I shall enumerate the precise things Allen says and you can be the judge.
Unfolding
The occasion of Allen's outburst was yesterday's trump cabinet meeting which he notes can be accessed at CNN. Allen says in 18 years covering presidents, yesterday was a first. He then quotes directy from Chief of Staff Reince Priebus who said: "On behalf of the entire senior staff around you, Mr.
President, we thank you for the opportunity and the blessing that you've given us to serve your agenda and the American people."
The New York Times memorialized this in a story about flatterers whose slavish words were followed by Trump praising himself.
Why is Allen so alarmed?
He says he has never seen a presidential family work so hard to appear on shows like Fox and Friends which become essentially trumpets for Trump. It is not that we do not know these things, but that a seasoned reporter is waking up to behavior that is distinctly alarming and abnormal.
He quotes Ivanka on the FOX morning show.: "I join you almost every morning, just not on the couch!" Here is the piece:
1 big thing: This isn't normal https://t.co/QQpWYZRaXM #axiosam
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) June 13, 2017
Allen observes what has never been done by any president -- firing the highest investigator, allowing a special prosecutor to be appointed then musing about firing him.
He says the barrage of attacks by the president against Comey are unprecedented -- essentially recalling the same smears candidate Trump leveled at his election opponents
Warning
The warning is simple and again I will quote: "We should never lose sight that we are experiencing a daily display of unprecedented actions and behaviors."
