HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICIALLY BECOMES THE MINISTRY OF PROPAGANDA AND PUBLIC ENLIGHTENMENT

"The Department of Homeland Security posted a contract request this week for "Media Monitoring Services," which will compile a database of hundreds of thousands of journalists, bloggers and "media influencers" for the federal government. After an outcry on social media, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman tweeted "this is nothing more than the standard practice of monitoring current events in the media." -CBS News

Be afraid, be very afraid.



Okay, I've officially been put on notice that Mr. Trump and his thugs are going to be monitoring me for being a 'media influencer'. Gee, Mr. Trump, why don't you just call it for what it really is: "The Ministry of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment". Your Homeland Security spin is making Josef Goebbel's memory proud. But I get it, somehow I might be a menacing threat by frequently blogging about your Fascist style of governing. By monitoring me, you can rest assured that my words won't incite anyone to protest in the Women's March, support gun control, and challenge any of your sexist, racist, homophobic, and environmentally damaging policies. 

"Editors and journalists were expected to follow the mandates and instructions handed down by the ministry and had to be registered with the Reich Press Chamber to work in this field. Clause 14 of the law ordered editors to omit anything “calculated to weaken the strength of the Reich abroad or at home.” The Propaganda Ministry aimed further to control the content of news and editorial pages through directives distributed in daily conferences in Berlin and transmitted through the party propaganda offices to regional or local papers. Detailed guidelines stated what stories could or could not be reported and how to report the news." -from the United States Holocaust Museum website

But I already know I've been checked out by some governmental agency. How? Because I frequently email Mr. Trump grousing to him about his political ineptitude, one day I noticed 162 hits on my blogs. Though I would like to think this is an acknowledgement of my blogging skills, in the four years I have blogged, never have I had more than 25 hits around the world in a day. What, me paranoid? It's not paranoia when the object of your fear is real. I find it no accident that on the day in question, those 162 blogs were accessed mainly from the US and Russia. This spike in my readership has not happened since. It's not my style to be paranoid, but it was a resounding wake up call how words and ideas are more threatening than weapons and bombs. 

Once again I see Mr. Trump has no huevos for attending the White House Correspondence dinner. The free press, who has been his biggest adversary, is more dangerous than Putin, the Democrats, and Stormy combined. Even Shepard Smith from Fox News is critical of him. Maybe next year when Homeland Security reigns in the press (and other 'media influencers' like me) with muzzles, can he be safe from the comic and not so comic criticisms of his swamp-like administration.