National View: Two Trump actions echo warnings in Orwell's '1984'

National View: Two Trump actions echo warnings in Orwell's '1984'

George Orwell’s “1984” warns us that control over facts and history is the most potent tool of authoritarian power. Two recent events, the firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer and the Smithsonian’s removal of references to President Donald Trump’s impeachments, are alarm bells that echo the novel’s dystopian vision. On Aug. 1, Trump abruptly fired McEntarfer, the nonpartisan, Senate-confirmed head of the Bureau …