This article appears in the March 12, 2021 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
Double Standard Is the New Standard
[Print version of this article]
March 5—The Administration of Donald Trump, we were told so many times by Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and others, was completely non-transparent, a hostile enemy of the press, and used “police state” tactics against demonstrators.
Now we have President Joe Biden. He rarely allowed a journalist’s question when making one of his few campaign appearances; but he promised transparency and respectful White House press briefings, “bringing truth and transparency back to the briefing room,” as his representative Jen Psaki put it. It was bad news—but not a surprise—that one of Biden’s very early actions as President was to resume the attempt to extradite and prosecute Julian Assange for publishing intelligence community secrets in the press. And Biden himself has yet to hold a solo press conference.
But then there are things unexpected even from Biden: The White House does not post his daily schedule, nor that of Vice President Harris. There is no longer a way to post petitions on the White House website. The White House comment line is shut down. The White House says it will release visitor logs, but apparently doesn’t include as visitors, those who attend virtual White House meetings (as nearly all of them are). So in fact, it does not release visitor logs.
While the speech gates to the Administration are largely locked, and the portals one way—you hear them, they don’t hear you—Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s House leadership has decided, through the Capitol Police, to tell the National Guard forces which have been in Washington since January 6, to stay put until May, ringing the Capitol and deployed around the House and Senate office buildings. The barbed wire-topped fence which now surrounds the Capitol is not scheduled to be taken down. “The People’s House” no longer.
The media was able to report—after Pelosi cancelled one House session to avoid protests expected on March 4—that the House had passed H.R.1 and sent it to the Senate. With H.R.1 the House tells the 50 Federal states and their legislatures, “Forget the Constitution’s Articles I and II; you no longer run the elections which send us to Washington—we do.”
The steps to a police state are many; they are being taken.
