Obama: “The principle of the free press is vital”

Developments on Day 324 of the Trump Administration:

Obama’s Remarks on Democracy and Presidential Responsibility

Footage is circulation of former President Barack Obama’s message to Americans to be vigilant about their political system, amid the activities and rhetoric of the Trump Administration.

Speaking at the North American Climate Summit in Chicago, Obama did not specifically refer to Donald Trump or his advisors, but was clear in his warning about the state of US politics as he invoked the historic example of the rise of Nazi Germany:

You have to tend to this garden of democracy, otherwise things can fall apart fairly quickly. And we’ve seen societies where that happens.

Now, presume there was a ballroom here in Vienna in the late 1920s or ’30s that looked and seemed as if it, filled with the music and art and literature that was emerging, would continue into perpetuity. And then 60 million people died. An entire world was plunged into chaos.

So you got to pay attention — and vote.

Obama also spoke of the responsibility of Presidents and the times when they have failed to uphold standards and values:

FDR [Franklin Roosevelt] is one of my political heroes. In my mind, the second greatest president after Lincoln….But he interned a bunch of loyal Japanese Americans during World War II. That was a threat to our institutions.

There have been periods in our history where censorship was considered OK. We had the McCarthy era [of the 1950s]. We had a President [Richard Nixon] who had to resign prior to impeachment because he was undermining rule of law. At every juncture, we’ve had to wrestle with big problems.

And, amid Donald Trump’s incessant attacks on journalists, Obama emphasized the importance of maintaining freedom of the press:

During my Presidency, the press often drove me nuts. There were times where I thought reporters were ill-informed. There were times where they didn’t actually get the story right.

But what I understood was that principle of the free press was vital, and that, as President, part of my job was to make sure that that was maintained.

In October, both Obama and former President George W. Bush expressed their concerns about the Trump era, with encouragement of bigotry, incitement to hatred, division, and spurious nationalism.

See Podcast: The Bush-Obama Statements on Trump and US Society

Sharply Cutting Back National Parks, Trump Administration & GOP Legislators Attack Private Company Patagonia

The Trump Administration and House Republicans have attacked the outdoor retailer Patagonia for daring to criticize Donald Trump’s sharp reduction of two national parks in Utha.

Patagonia said this week that it will sue the administration over the “illegal [and] unprecedented attempt to shut down our national monuments”.

The Bears Ears park will be slashed from almost 1.5 million acres to 228,784 acres, while Grand Staircase-Escalante will be halved from around 2 million acres to 1,006,341 acres.

Trump’s measure opens up the previously-protected land to corporations and mining companies. It followed an intensive lobbying campaign by a uranium mining firm Energy Fuels Resources.

Patagonia responded by posting the message “The President Stole Your Land” on its homepage.

The House Committee on Natural Resources, led by Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah, hit back by mimicking the graphic: “Patagonia Is Lying To You”, and calling the company’s customers “wealthy elitist urban dwellers”.

Walter Shaub, the director of the US Office of Government Ethics, noted that the attack appears to be a violation of House committee rules on social media communications and said, “Officially and publicly calling a company a liar for political reasons is a bizarre and dangerous departure from civic norms.”