Murder, He Wrote
Episode 1: “Journalists Beware!”
Recent news stories about Washington Post columnist and controversial Saudi media star Jamal Khashoggi possibly being murdered has created a Waterloo of sorts within the worldwide news media community. It’s starting to look like an episode of the famous 1980‘s murder mystery television drama starring Angela Landsbury. Was this apparent political assassination ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman? Is President Trump using this episode to send our media a message? Are we to believe this was all just an honest mistake ...an interrogation gone “horribly” wrong ...mysterious rogue killers ...a Saudi general out of control ...? Com’on man!
Perhaps it was Colonel Mustard in the Conservatory. Is Anderson Copper next?!
President Trump’s well established contempt for the media is a fact. Granted, our media has been hard on him, but he’s been asking for it. He asks for it every day.
What’s disturbing about this is how willing and compliant Trump is to proffer whatever story of plausible deniability MBS comes up with. Waiting for them to come up with the ruse and get their stories straight is a painful and disappointing exercise in political corruption at its worst and with its deadliest consequence. Trump’s capacity for decency and social conscience is negligible as we have seen in the past and as he continues to prove time and again. It’s not surprising that he would side with the Saudis on this issue of criminal conspiracy and moral code, not to mention the burgeoning financial investment in Saudi Arabia regarding military arms sales and reciprocal oil imports to the U.S.
Apparently, it doesn’t matter that these are the guys, the Saudis, that gave us Osama bin Laden and 9/11. Not a small thing to overlook.
I can’t help from feeling that in Trump’s mind he’s thinking, ‘What’s one rouge journalist media star compared to the financial investment and friendship I have with the Saudis? I did the sword dance with them, and we all fondled the magic glowing orb! Khashoggi probably deserved it anyway ...and let this be a lesson to the American media and journalists on my back!‘
We’re getting so close to an autocracy in this country it’s frightening. For just writing this oped I can imaging being shipped off to some gulag in North Dakota for civil dissidence and sharing a can of beans with Lester Holt over an open fire half frozen with holes in my sox.
Why is it that Trump buddies up with the world’s despots, and seems to reject America’s traditional allies? Could it be that Trump is a tyrant also? He seems to have all the mannerisms and the personality for it. Freud may have asked about his relationship with his mother. Hitler, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Bashar al-Assad, Mohammad bin Salman, Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin, would not be the class of ’45 photo I’d want to be in, but our American president is vigorously working his way to infamy all while he may be kidding himself, and many of us, that he’s making America great again.
The Trump family history is one of uninspired fraud, conspiracy, business failure, marital infidelity, bravado, gross sexual misconduct, tax evasion and negligence. Trump shoots himself in the foot every time he opens his mouth or tweets out an idiotic, sophomoric rant about some non-issue most men and a savvy tyrant would ignore. He’s not a skillful tyrant. He’s a wannabe tyrant disguised as the president of the United States. Is it any surprise America has become a worldwide curiosity and laughingstock?
This latest episode regarding the probable murder of Jamal Khashoggi should be a wake-up call for all Americans, especially the ones who voted Trump in as president, to take a closer look at both the national and international playing field being manipulated by Trump and his tyrant mentors. And if you’re a journalist or news media star, take a cue from this Khashoggi incident and pay attention to where you are on the court. You could be next.
The only thing standing between Trump’s America and infamy right now is the Mueller investigation. Let’s hope Robert Mueller and his team did the work and present congress with the airtight facts that will contain our home grown tyrant and put America back on track again as the leader and the hope of the world.
In the meantime, let's change that 'Murder, He Wrote' Episode 1 to: "Bring Me the Head of Jamal Khashoggi!"
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
