We told you so.

By BERRY CRAIG

AFT Local 1360

Ready to say "We told you so?"

From The Daily Beast: "Vladimir Putin Lavishes Praise on ‘Real Man’ Donald Trump"

"Vladimir Putin says he’s ready for talks with 'real man' Donald Trump," wrote The Beast's David Gardner.

"The Russian leader congratulated Trump for his 2024 presidential election victory Thursday and made a point of praising the new U.S. president-elect for his courage when a gunman tried to assassinate him at a July campaign rally.

“He behaved, in my opinion, in a very correct way, courageously, like a real man. I take this opportunity to congratulate him on his election,” said Putin at the Valdai discussion club in Sochi’s Russian Black Sea resort."

Here's hoping the media will finally find out what Putin, the old KGB hand, has on his trained poodle. But the story might have to come from the free press abroad. 

Check out this from The Columbia Journalism Review: "Trump Wins, the Press Loses, A second Trump administration is poised to be devastating to journalism."

"Next year, Trump’s assault on the press will become a fusillade of discrete attempts to quash whatever reporting he views as antagonistic. Access to the West Wing will be limited, perhaps by aides only credentialing journalists from conservative outlets—or even closing the White House briefing room outright," wrote Kyle Paoletta. "More consequential are the plans of Trump and his allies to turn the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission against the media, which will entail a raft of leak investigations, the politicization of broadcast licenses and antitrust litigation, and the potential indictment of journalists for espionage. Reporters covering protests and immigration enforcement will face detention from not just local police, but the Department of Homeland Security. It’s possible that Trump may even seek congressional action to reform libel laws or otherwise criminalize dissent. 

"This onslaught against the press will be destabilizing. Rather than wilt under the pressure, the news media needs to use the next two months to prepare for all the potential challenges we will face in 2025." 

Meanwhile, Trump's well-heeled pals are already lining up to cash in on the new business-friendly administration. A HuffPost headline explained: "Private Prison Companies Call Trump’s Deportation Plans ‘Unprecedented Opportunity’" 

"On earnings calls Thursday, private prison groups expressed a nearly unrestrained glee over what one called the “unprecedented opportunity” that a second Trump administration brings," wrote Matt Shuham.

"Trump made mass deportation of undocumented immigrants ― and even some immigrants who are here legally ― a cornerstone of his 2024 campaign, building on years of racist and dehumanizing rhetoric about immigrants, speaking affectionately for President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s mass deportation program, and even invoking an 18th-century law that would give him broad powers to pursue deportations.

"Undocumented immigrants commit fewer crimes,  including violent crimes, than American citizens; massively contribute to the economy; and oftentimes have spent years or decades establishing lives, families and communities in the United States."

History instructs that other capitalists figured state-sponsored oppression was good for business. Bayer, BMW, Daimler-Benz, I.G. Farben, Krupp, Siemens, Volkswagen and dozens of other German companies-many still in business-made tidy profits under Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, according to the Jewish Virtual Library. In addition, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche made military vehicles for Hitler's war machine. Hitler rewarded the industrialists with a steady supply of slave labor.

When Trump was in the White House the first time, what was it he said about Hitler, who started World War II and orchestrated the mass murder of six million Jews? Forty-five and soon to be Forty-Seven suggested that "Hitler did some good things, too," according to Marine Gen. John Kelley, his longest-tenured chief-of-staff. Kelley said his boss “certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”

Jeff Bezos fits another "general definition" of Trump: union-buster. "Bezos Cancels 'Work from Home' for Washington Post" proclaimed a headline in the Pittsburgh-based Payday Report online.

"Last month, Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos created dissension in his newsroom when he blocked the publication from endorsing Kamala Harris, wrote publisher Mike Elk. "In response, many staffers leaked details and published stories criticizing Bezos. 

"Over 250,000 readers canceled their subscriptions to protest Bezos’s interference. 

"Now, The Washington Post is canceling its 'work from home' policy and demanding that people work 5 days a week in the newsroom. The Washington Post’s union the NewsGuild protested the move. 

"Guild leadership sees this for what it is: a change that stands to further disrupt our work rather than to improve our productivity or collaboration,” said the union in a statement. "

We'll have plenty more "We told you so's" in the days ahead. Stay tuned.