Is the American Democracy Doomed?

Democracy is under threat globally, a new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit warns.

Top 10 most democratic countries in the world:

1 Norway
2 Iceland
3 Sweden
4 New Zealand
5 Denmark
=6 Canada
=6 Ireland
8 Australia
=9 Switzerland
=9 Finland

The United States remained in the ‘flawed democracy’ threshold, to which it dropped in 2016 after a serious decline in public trust, the Economist said.

Link to map showing the level of democracy of all countries in the world.

https://www.indy100.com/article/democracy-index-economist-intelligence-unit-map-data-report-norway-democratic-united-states-8191501

Half of Americans think the United States is in “real danger of becoming a nondemocratic, authoritarian country.” A majority, 55 percent, see democracy as “weak” – and 68 percent believe it is “getting weaker.” Eight in 10 Americans say they are either “very” or “somewhat” concerned about the condition of democracy here. I am one of those people.

These are among the sobering results of a major bipartisan poll published Tuesday that was commissioned by the George W. Bush Institute, the University of Pennsylvania’s Biden Center and Freedom House, which tracks the vitality of democracies around the world. The three groups have partnered to create the Democracy Project, with the goal of monitoring the health of the American system.

“We hope this work can be a step toward restoring faith in democracy and democratic institutions,” Bush said in a statement.

The concern about the condition of democracy inside the United States transcends the tribal divide between Republicans and Democrats, with majorities across races, genders, age groups, levels of education and income brackets expressing fear.

Sadly I see current president as the person who could bring an end to this republic. His constant attacks on the media (the press), the courts, and the Republican Party’s willingness to support everything that Trump says and does should be a signal that our nation is in jeopardy.

Are Americans really willing to accept a dictatorship? If the GOP retains control of the congress after the November election I expect even more attacks on the constitution and the laws that have governed this nation since 1789.

I will not live under a dictatorship. Happily there are still some nations that do honor democratic principals.

President Trump Dressed as a King

The latest Time magazine cover features an illustration of President Donald Trump gazing at a reflection of himself in which he’s dressed up as a monarch, complete with jeweled crown and fur cape.

The Time cover gets Trump just right!

I have a file of Donald Trump photos and Donald Trump cartoons. The file is titled King Trump. Naturally I was delighted to see Time Magazine’s latest cover page. I look forward to reading “Visions of Absolute Power” and “Trump vs the Constitution.” This cover was just released this morning.

The wonder to me is that the G.O.P. is in support of someone who clearly defies the constitution and the functions of government that has made America the place everyone wants to live. Migration to America has been a hallmark of the United States. Supporting those nations that try to emulate American ideals has been a historic reality throughout the 20^th century.

One man wants to tear it all apart. When will our congress act to stop the destruction of our constitution and our ideals?

The President Is Not Above The Law

The President Is
Not Above The Law

New York Times THE EDITORIAL BOARD

APRIL 15, 2018

“This great nation can tolerate a president who makes mistakes,” declared Senator Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican. “But it cannot tolerate one who makes a mistake and then breaks the law to cover it up.”

No, Mr. Hatch wasn’t talking about Donald Trump. It was 1999, and he was talking about Bill Clinton.

At that time, the American system — and the flawed yet sometimes heroic people their fellow Americans choose to lead them — underwent, and passed, a hard test: The president, his financial dealings and his personal relationships were painstakingly investigated for years. Prosecutors ultimately accused Mr. Clinton of lying under oath, to cover up a sexual affair. The House of Representatives impeached him, but the Senate declined to convict, and Mr. Clinton stayed in office.

The public, which learned in detail about everything investigators believed Mr. Clinton had done wrong, overwhelmingly agreed with the judgment of the Senate. It was a sad and sordid and at times distracting business, but the system worked.

Now Mr. Hatch and his fellow lawmakers may be approaching a harsher and more consequential test. We quote his words not to level some sort of accusation of hypocrisy, but to remind us all of what is at stake.

News reports point to a growing possibility that President Trump may act to cripple or shut down an investigation by the nation’s top law-enforcement agencies into his campaign and administration. Lawmakers need to be preparing now for that possibility because if and when it comes to pass, they will suddenly find themselves on the edge of an abyss, with the Constitution in their hands.

[Keep up with the state of the national debate right in your inbox by subscribing to the Opinion Today newsletter.]

Make no mistake: If Mr. Trump takes such drastic action, he will be striking at the foundation of the American government, attempting to set a precedent that a president, alone among American citizens, is above the law. What can seem now like a political sideshow will instantly become a constitutional crisis, and history will come calling for Mr. Hatch and his colleagues.

For months, investigators have been examining whether Mr. Trump’s campaign conspired with the Russian government to undermine American democracy, and whether the president misused his power by obstructing justice in an effort to end that investigation.

Until the last few weeks, Mr. Trump had shown restraint, by his standards, anyway. He and his lawyers cooperated with investigators. Mr. Trump never tweeted directly about Robert Mueller, the special counsel, and spoke about him publicly only when asked.

Alas, that whiff of higher executive function is gone. Mr. Trump is openly attacking both Mr. Mueller and Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, appointed by Mr. Trump himself. Mr. Rosenstein is overseeing the Russia investigation and signing off on Mr. Mueller’s actions.

Of course, this president has been known to huff and puff, to bluff and bluster, and he may be doing no more than that now. He may choose not to fire either man. We know he has already twice told his aides he wanted Mr. Mueller fired, only to be talked out of such rash action.

But if the president does move against the investigators, it will be up to Congress to affirm the rule of law, the separation of powers and the American constitutional order. The miserable polarization and partisan anger that have been rising in American life for decades will hit a new crescendo, and that will present congressional Republicans with a heavy burden indeed.

Mr. Trump’s Tweets on the Rule of Law

“DOJ just issued the McCabe report – which is a total disaster. He LIED! LIED! LIED! McCabe was totally controlled by Comey – McCabe is Comey!! No collusion, all made up by this den of thieves and lowlifes!” — @realDonaldTrump, April 13 2018

“So sad that the Department of “Justice” and the FBI are slow walking, or even not giving, the unredacted documents requested by Congress. An embarrassment to our country!” — @realDonaldTrump, April 2 2018

“Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans? Another Dem recently added…does anyone think this is fair? And yet, there is NO COLLUSION!” — @realDonaldTrump, March 18 2018

“The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!” — @realDonaldTrump, March 17 2018

Many of them are not fans of this president. Republicans used to warn the nation about Mr. Trump openly, back when they thought they could still protect their party from him. Here’s a short sampling: “malignant clown,” “national disgrace,” “complete idiot,” “a sociopath, without a conscience or feelings of guilt, shame or remorse,” “graceless and divisive,” “predatory and reprehensible,” flawed “beyond mere moral shortcomings,” “unsound, uninformed, unhinged and unfit,” “a character and temperament unfit for the leader of the free world,” “A bigot. A misogynist. A fraud. A bully.” Some still say these sorts of things, albeit anonymously. Just last week, one of the president’s defenders in Congress told a conservative columnist, “It’s like Forrest Gump won the presidency, but an evil, really [expletive] stupid Forrest Gump.”

Yet if Mr. Trump goes after Mr. Mueller or Mr. Rosenstein, even Republicans who have misgivings about the president might be inclined to fall into line. They may resent what feels like an endless investigation, one that is endangering their agenda; or they may resent partisan attacks on Mr. Trump. Such frustrations — like ones Democrats vented when Mr. Clinton was in investigators’ sights — are certainly understandable. Republicans may also find themselves tempted by the political running room they would have with the investigation ended and the three branches of government under their control.

Maybe — and this is the scariest contingency to contemplate — Republican leaders would calculate that with their support, or mere acquiescence, Mr. Trump could get away with it. The overwhelming majority of Americans, including most Republicans, want Mr. Mueller to keep his job, and perhaps a groundswell of revulsion at unchecked presidential power would follow any action against the special counsel. But many Americans, weary of the shouting in Washington, might dismiss the whole thing as another food fight. We can be fairly certain that the pressure on Republican lawmakers from the minority of Americans who support Mr. Trump, as well as from the likes of Fox News and Sinclair, would be intense.

Of course, it’s when overriding your principles is the easy thing to do that you have an urgent responsibility, and opportunity, to demonstrate that you have some.

Look at what’s happening in Missouri right now. The state’s Republican governor, Eric Greitens, has been accused of sexual assault and coercion, and is scheduled to face trial next month on a felony charge of invasion of privacy. It’s a scandal of Trumpian proportions, and Mr. Greitens is responding with Trumpian bravado, calling the investigation and prosecution a “political witch hunt.”

Other Republicans On The Rule Of Law

“In a country based on the system of laws, which is really the great gift given to us under the terms of our Constitution, there needs to be a consistency of application. The idea that all people are equal under the law is not a relative term.” — JUDD GREGG, 1999

“I have asked myself how men from an era when honor was valued above all other traits, men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison, might have viewed a President who committed perjury and obstruction of justice for personal and political gain.” — Phil Gramm, 1999

“What standard of conduct should we insist our President live up to? … Do not underestimate, my friends, the corrupting and cynical signal we will send if we fail to enforce the highest standards of conduct on the most powerful man in the nation.” — Pete Domenici, 1999

“Committing crimes of moral turpitude such as perjury and obstruction of justice go to the heart of qualification for public office.” — Orrin Hatch, 1999

Yet the legislative report detailing his misbehavior was bipartisan, and top state Republicans have spoken out forcefully. They recognize that Mr. Greitens is unfit. (They also see a threat to their political interests, but the two can go hand in hand.)

Or look at Watergate. We may think of it now as a two-year drama with an inevitable end, the takedown of a president who tried to cover up a criminal conspiracy. But many people forget how close President Richard Nixon came to surviving the affair. He was forced from office only because enough Republican leaders recognized the legitimacy of the investigation and stood up to him. And even then, it took the revelation of incriminating recordings. No recordings have come out this time — yet.

A few senior Republicans have been saying the right things — including Mr. Hatch. He tweeted that anyone telling the president to fire Mr. Mueller “does not have the President or the nation’s best interest at heart.” Senator Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, warned Mr. Trump that firing Mr. Mueller would be “the beginning of the end of his presidency.”

That’s all necessary and good. But it’s not enough. More Republicans need to make it clear that they won’t tolerate any action against either man, and that firing Mr. Mueller would be, as Senator Charles Grassley said, “suicide.”

Mr. Mueller’s investigation has already yielded great benefit to the country, including the indictments of 13 Russians and three companies for trying to undermine the presidential election. None of us can know if prosecutors will eventually point the finger at the president himself. But should Mr. Trump move to hobble or kill the investigation, he would darken rather than dispel the cloud of suspicion around him. Far worse, he would free future presidents to politicize American justice. That would be a danger to every American, of whatever political leaning.

The president is not a king but a citizen, deserving of the presumption of innocence and other protections, yet also vulnerable to lawful scrutiny. We hope Mr. Trump recognizes this. If he doesn’t, how Republican lawmakers respond will shape the future not only of this presidency and of one of the country’s great political parties, but of the American experiment itself.

Killing in America

I am tired of listening to the talk show guest congressman and senators who are calling for stronger protection for students in the wake of repeated mass shootings. None of these elected representatives that I have heard are willing to confront the fact that the killing is not just in schools. It is happening in malls, churches, and entertainment venues. Most of the killers were not 18, 19 or 20 years old. They were adults aged 25 to 64 years old and many with no prior criminal history.

The best example is the killing of 58 people at a concert in Las Vegas. Stephen Craig Paddock was an American mass murderer responsible for the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, during which he fired into a crowd of approximately 22,000 concertgoers attending a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. He was a graduate from California State University, Northridge (CSUN). He was 64 years old when he conducted the attack. He had no criminal record.

Killer in San Bernardino was 28 years old and his wife was 29.

Killer in Orlando night club shooting was 29.

Sutherland Springs, Texas at the First Baptist Church killing was committed by a gunman clad in all black, with a ballistic vest strapped to his chest and a military-style rifle in his hands. The killing was done on a Sunday morning. Of the 26 fatalities, 23 people were found dead inside the church, two were found outside, and one died later at a hospital. The killer was 26 years old. He did have a criminal past but was still able to obtain a weapon.

So while killings at schools is an utterly horrible thing there have been many other killings at many other places.

The answer is a prohibition placed on the ownership of assault weapons. I do not care whether they are identified as automatic or semi-automatic. These weapons are meant for killing people.

When do the words “never again” apply? Why are we tied to an amendment to the constitution that was written in 1789?

This is Code Red!

When I post an opinion to this blog it receives modest response of usually 30 to 40 views. My recent post on gun violence was viewed over 70 times on the first day it appeared. New York Times’ Thomas Friedman most recent post has had 2,700 comments so far. Now that the column received attention from CNN that number will probably explode to a really phenomenal number. Here is the Friedman column.

Whatever Trump Is Hiding Is Hurting All of Us Now

Thomas L. Friedman FEB. 18, 2018

Our democracy is in serious danger.

President Trump is either totally compromised by the Russians or is a towering fool, or both, but either way he has shown himself unwilling or unable to defend America against a Russian campaign to divide and undermine our democracy.

That is, either Trump’s real estate empire has taken large amounts of money from shady oligarchs linked to the Kremlin — so much that they literally own him; or rumors are true that he engaged in sexual misbehavior while he was in Moscow running the Miss Universe contest, which Russian intelligence has on tape and he doesn’t want released; or Trump actually believes Russian President Vladimir Putin when he says he is innocent of intervening in our elections — over the explicit findings of Trump’s own C.I.A., N.S.A. and F.B.I. chiefs.

In sum, Trump is either hiding something so threatening to himself, or he’s criminally incompetent to be commander in chief. It is impossible yet to say which explanation for his behavior is true, but it seems highly likely that one of these scenarios explains Trump’s refusal to respond to Russia’s direct attack on our system — a quiescence that is simply unprecedented for any U.S. president in history. Russia is not our friend. It has acted in a hostile manner. And Trump keeps ignoring it all.

Up to now, Trump has been flouting the norms of the presidency. Now Trump’s behavior amounts to a refusal to carry out his oath of office — to protect and defend the Constitution. Here’s an imperfect but close analogy: It’s as if George W. Bush had said after 9/11: “No big deal. I am going golfing over the weekend in Florida and blogging about how it’s all the Democrats’ fault — no need to hold a National Security Council meeting.”

At a time when the special prosecutor Robert Mueller — leveraging several years of intelligence gathering by the F.B.I., C.I.A. and N.S.A. — has brought indictments against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian groups — all linked in some way to the Kremlin — for interfering with the 2016 U.S. elections, America needs a president who will lead our nation’s defense against this attack on the integrity of our electoral democracy.

What would that look like? He would educate the public on the scale of the problem; he would bring together all the stakeholders — state and local election authorities, the federal government, both parties and all the owners of social networks that the Russians used to carry out their interference — to mount an effective defense; and he would bring together our intelligence and military experts to mount an effective offense against Putin — the best defense of all.

What we have instead is a president vulgarly tweeting that the Russians are “laughing their asses off in Moscow” for how we’ve been investigating their interventions — and exploiting the terrible school shooting in Florida — and the failure of the F.B.I. to properly forward to its Miami field office a tip on the killer — to throw the entire F.B.I. under the bus and create a new excuse to shut down the Mueller investigation.

Think for a moment how demented was Trump’s Saturday night tweet: “Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign — there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!”

To the contrary. Our F.B.I., C.I.A. and N.S.A., working with the special counsel, have done us amazingly proud. They’ve uncovered a Russian program to divide Americans and tilt our last election toward Trump — i.e., to undermine the very core of our democracy — and Trump is telling them to get back to important things like tracking would-be school shooters. Yes, the F.B.I. made a mistake in Florida. But it acted heroically on Russia. What is more basic than protecting American democracy?

It is so obvious what Trump is up to: Again, he is either a total sucker for Putin or, more likely, he is hiding something that he knows the Russians have on him, and he knows that the longer Mueller’s investigation goes on, the more likely he will be to find and expose it.

Donald, if you are so innocent, why do you go to such extraordinary lengths to try to shut Mueller down? And if you are really the president — not still head of the Trump Organization, who moonlights as president, which is how you so often behave — why don’t you actually lead — lead not only a proper cyber defense of our elections, but also an offense against Putin.

Putin used cyberwarfare to poison American politics, to spread fake news, to help elect a chaos candidate, all in order to weaken our democracy. We should be using our cyber-capabilities to spread the truth about Putin — just how much money he has stolen, just how many lies he has spread, just how many rivals he has jailed or made disappear — all to weaken his autocracy. That is what a real president would be doing right now.

My guess is what Trump is hiding has to do with money. It’s something about his financial ties to business elites tied to the Kremlin. They may own a big stake in him. Who can forget that quote from his son Donald Trump Jr. from back in 2008: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets.” They may own our president.

But whatever it is, Trump is either trying so hard to hide it or is so naïve about Russia that he is ready to not only resist mounting a proper defense of our democracy, he’s actually ready to undermine some of our most important institutions, the F.B.I. and Justice Department, to keep his compromised status hidden.

That must not be tolerated. This is code red. The biggest threat to the integrity of our democracy today is in the Oval Office.

Self Aggrandizement

The first 20 minutes of Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech was all about telling us what a great job he has done.

Happily Trump did not digress from his planned speech.

It is not difficult to find words that describe Donald Trump. He is the super promoter of himself. He is the P.T. Barnum of the early 21^st century who emphasized with extreme exaggeration his place in American history. Braggadocio, glorification, and boasting are the words that best describe his State of the Union speech. He clearly reveled in the attention and honor he received both entering and leaving Capitol Hill. He was in his glory with every moment of applause during his speech.

If you heard his speech or read the transcript you know that other than calling on the Congress to produce “a bill that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment” and an “administrative fix for high drug prices” there were no other plans proposed.

This speech will go down in history as a boring and an utterly uninspiring waste of time.

A Dream of Absolute Power

Donald Trump is taking the steps necessary to destroy the American democracy. His objective is a government similar to Turkey, Russia, and other nations ruled by despots.

Trump has attacked the most treasured parts of this country.
1. The court system
2. The press and freedom of speech
3. Libel laws
4. The electoral system
5. The Congress

The courts:
Trump has made a series of tweets and public statements attacking the deciding judges personally, questioning the authority of federal courts to review his orders, suggesting the court is biased, and suggesting that the judges and court system would be to blame for future terrorist attacks.

February 4, 2017 Trump tweet: The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!

In response to U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo O. Curiel’s orders in a class action lawsuit against Trump University, then-presidential candidate Trump made a number of statements attacking Judge Curiel as biased because of his “Mexican heritage” and appointment by a Democratic president.

Trump tweet: I should have easily won the Trump University case on summary judgement but have a judge, Gonzalo Curiel, who is totally biased against me.

The Press, freedom of speech and Libel laws:
Senator John McCain (Republican senator from Arizona, writing in the Washington Post
wrote the 45th president’s assault on American media provides cover for oppressive global regimes to “follow suit.”
“He [Trump] has threatened to continue his attempt to discredit the free press by bestowing ‘fake news awards’ upon reporters and news outlets whose coverage he disagrees with,” McCain writes. “Whether Trump knows it or not, these efforts are being closely watched by foreign leaders who are already using his words as cover as they silence and shutter one of the key pillars of democracy.”

John McCain continued, “For decades, dissidents and human rights advocates have relied on independent investigations into government corruption to further their fight for freedom. But constant cries of ‘fake news’ undercut this type of reporting and strip activists of one of their most powerful tools of dissent.”

Reported by ABC News on January 10, 2018: Pres. Donald J. Trump says he plans to “take a strong look” at libel laws: “You can’t say things that are knowingly false, knowingly false, and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account.”

Perhaps Mr. Trump has not read the constitution. The first amendment guarantees a Free Press. That means the press has the right to publish articles or books that criticize the president and anyone else. The book “Fire and Fury” tells stories of people who think Trump is child-like. Trump wants to stop those kinds of stories about him.

The electoral system:
From nytimes.com
Trump Disbands Commission on Voter Fraud
JAN. 3, 2018
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday abruptly shut down a White House commission he had charged with investigating voter fraud, ending a brief quest for evidence of election theft that generated lawsuits, outrage and some scholarly testimony, but no real evidence that American elections are corrupt.

On Thursday, Mr. Trump called for requiring voter identification in a pair of Twitter posts because the voting system “is rigged.” “Push hard for Voter Identification!” Mr. Trump wrote.

Mr. Trump did not acknowledge the commission’s inability to find evidence of fraud, but cast the closing as a result of continuing legal challenges.

The question of voter fraud and rigged elections is not and has not been an issue ever. Dictators don’t like honest elections. Trump’s dream is to pre-determine the outcome of all elections. His recent motivation is the fact that he won the electoral college vote but lost the popular vote. Vladimir Putin ( president of Russia) and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (president of Turkey) are the two government leaders that Trump admires because they have shut down any opposition to their re-election by putting them in jail.

The Congress:
America’s system of government demands compromise. When there is no compromise poor legislation is passed and government shutdowns can occur.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing back against President Donald Trump’s calls to end Senate filibusters.

When filibusters of legislation are underway, it takes 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to halt them.
Republicans now control the chamber 51-49. But strong Democratic opposition and some defecting GOP senators have kept Republicans from getting the votes needed to end the shutdown — now in its second day.

McConnell has long defended the filibuster. He says Republicans will welcome it whenever they are returned to the Senate minority.
As the Senate began a rare Sunday session, the Kentucky Republican said: “I support that right from an institutional point of view.” But he also said, “The question is, when do you use it?”

Trump has made repeated calls this year to end that rule, and did it again Sunday in a tweet.

It is my contention that Donald Trump is working at destroying the American democracy that was created in 1789. I believe he dreams of being a president who has absolute power as many presidents of other nations retain. Everyone should be on guard against Trump’s objective. It was German complacency that gave Hitler absolute power. Marches and demonstrations, like the women’s marches, are the antidote to the Trump dream.

Obsequious

Our language skills have improved thanks to “fake news.”

The viewership spike for cable news shows no signs of slowing down. Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC all saw double-digit ratings growth.

It has been reported that thanks to Donald Trump more people are watching the news. Mr. Trump himself watches Jake Tapper’s “State of the Union” on CNN. We know that because he tweeted: Jake Tapper of Fake News CNN just got destroyed in his interview with Stephen Miller of the Trump Administration. Watch the hatred and unfairness of this CNN flunky!

Here is what brought on the above tweet. On Sunday, White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller dropped by Jake Tapper’s CNN studio to appear on State of the Union and defend his boss, President Donald Trump, from allegations made in the hottest new political book in the country — Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.

The interview was contentious from the very beginning. During the interview Miller repeatedly accused Tapper of being condescending. Miller attacked CNN of being the peddler of fake news. It should go without saying that Miller’s performance was aimed squarely at Trump, but Tapper said it anyway. “There’s one viewer that you care about right now and you’re being obsequious,” Tapper said near the end of the segment. Tapper finally cut Miller off. “You’re being a factotum in order to please him,” Tapper said. “I think I’ve wasted enough of my viewers’ time. Thank you, Stephen.”

That CNN flunky is one smart dude. Using the words obsequious and factotum.

So what do they mean? I asked merriam-webster.com

Obsequious – An obsequious person is more likely to be a follower than a leader. Use that fact to help you remember the meaning of “obsequious.” All you need to do is bear in mind that the word comes from the Latin root sequi, meaning “to follow.”

Factotum – 1 : a person having many diverse activities or responsibilities. 2 : a general servant.

Jake Tapper is a Dartmouth College graduate earning Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude with a B.A. in history modified by visual studies. He has also joined the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television.

This is not fake news!