CNN's Jim Acosta has press pass suspended by White House

Except the state of our Republic in 2018 in no way resembles the conditions that have led to these totalitarian regimes.

If you think Trump is early stages Putin or Hitler or something that's just *facepalm*.

 

The early stage that I see comparable is the person, and a small group of cultist follower.

 

On a side note.

Can you imagine a black or female President acting like Donald Trump does?

......................................

You can't, because there is no way in HELL we would tolerate it.

The double standard is so unbelievably glaring.

I always thought the phrase "white entitlement" was weird, that it is was something used when someone that was white got away with something.... that it wasn't necessarily applicable. After seeing the last 3 years, I have no damn doubt it exists.

 

Ok, we can revisit this in 2 - 6 years when power is peacefully transferred or sooner after the Trump coup and take over if our new overlord still allows us to use the internetz. (you might be in the gulag though)

I'm just of the opinion that the idea Trump wants to destroy the Republic and establish some sort of Totalitarian regime is just the most bat-sh*t crazy stuff I've come across lately.

 

"Lessons for us today:

• Bad economic policies and foreign policies can cause crises that have dangerous political consequences.
• Politicians commonly demand arbitrary power to deal with a national emergency and restore order, even though underlying problems are commonly caused by bad government policies.
• In hard times, many people are often willing to go along with and support terrible things that would be unthinkable in good times.
• Those who dismiss the possibility of a dictatorial regime in America need to consider possible developments that could make our circumstances worse and politically more volatile than they are now – like runaway government spending, soaring taxes, more wars, inflation and economic collapse.
• Aspiring dictators sometimes give away their intentions by their evident desire to destroy opponents.
• There’s no reliable way to prevent bad or incompetent people from gaining power.
• A political system with a separation of powers and checks & balances – like the U.S. Constitution – does make it more difficult for one branch of government to dominate the others.
• Ultimately, liberty can be protected only if people care enough to fight for it, because everywhere governments push for more power, and they never give it up willingly."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimpow...rs-come-to-power-in-a-democracy/#4dae86a37ff7

I am not saying that the USA is headed towards a dictatorship like those that exist in Russia or China. However, the reality is that there is more than one way for the citizenry to lose power and control over their government. Many of the conditions that lead to a dictatorship are already present in the USA, from the massive power grab post 9/11, to the incredible increase in executive power over the last 3 Presidencies.

We shouldn't assume it will happen or believe it is even likely, but it isn't completely absurd and it shouldn't be completely written off as impossible either.

 

Sure, all citizens have a duty to safe-guard the Republic. I have no problem with that. The Republic should be safe-guarded.

The actual belief the Republic, as of November 2018, is particularly vulnerable to destruction is asinine.

 

Interesting you bring this up.

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/us/politics/23fox.html

First, he was excluded from a pool scheduled to meet with a cabinet member. Not one of the rare press conferences with the president. And Obama's WH didn't remove the reporters press credentials. So your whataboutism is weak at best and no, it wasn't a precedent.

And second, note that CNN led a press objection that had the SH reverse its decision. Odd Fox News hasn't spoken out against trump's action.

 

HTM, you indicate you read history, but your words suggest that while you are keenly aware of past events, you aren't learning from their trends. You are so close, man. You need but to see the path of development.

Surely you recall Donald's statement referencing China's Xi that president-for-life sounds like a good thing and we may get that here. Pretty clear what he is saying.

Observe his actions. Closely. And consider what the logical intent is for them. He has been following Hitler's blueprint. A parallel course. Maybe at some point he will diverge. Or be redirected.

 

I pay fairly decent attention to the news and current events.

I also have a fairly decent grasp of various totalitarians rise to power (Franco, Putin, Hitler, Stalin) though not all totalitarians.

I don't want to write a dissertation on various totalitarians rise to power and how they compare with the United States in 2018/Trump.

Suffice it to say, even if you truly believe (which I don't, I don't think he even really wanted to be President) Trump wants to take over the country and destroy or erode the Republic. You can sleep well, knowing our Republic is far too strong.

Trump is obviously a sensitive and prideful man, his petty squabbles with various members of the press are born of that sensitivity and pride, not of a desire to erode the institutions of the Republic for an eventual takeover.

 

I fully expect that thanks goodness to our system (even though it's taken a severe beaten in the past year). But I don't rule out other things, that I would normally not ever consider. Don't assume someone who is seeing early sign as someone thinking late stage will happen.

Trump wanting to be a dictator isn't a crazy idea given his admiration for those powers. What kept that in check, so far, is because of the system we have. But system are run by people and isn't bullet proof.

 

Jim Acosta was defiantly out of line without a doubt. The guy is just as idiotic and rude as anyone.

But what made me laugh is when trump said he was a rude mean man. I’m thinking does trump even hear himself on a daily basis? Lmao.

 

...but I think the larger point is that Donald Trump has succeeded, in a number of ways, in eroding the Republic, whether intentionally, willingly or neither.

The man himself is not in any way capable of leading a country like this one that has been, more or less, a progressive society, where debate outweighs dictation. He is out of his element in the political theater precisely because he is not at all inclined to work cooperatively (or even civilly) with anyone that does not share his ultimate goal of inflating his own ego or enriching his own coffers.

Trump's personal failings were never as serious a threat to the nation itself as many have believed, to me...but not because he himself could not ultimately be contained. In spite of what he thinks, or anyone particularly supportive of him thinks (under whatever guise such a position takes), Donald Trump's presidency was never going to be about Donald Trump.

It was always going to be about the forces that allowed him to attain not just the power of the office, but the gravitas of it across the nation and the world, and sought to confirm that no price was too high to pay in order to amass power...or at least in Trump's case, to line one's pockets...which is for all intents and purposes the same thing.

The ends justifying the means is what Donald Trump's presidency is about. And on a very small, personal and petty scale, Donald Trump recognizes this. His only hindrance is not being able to see beyond himself, and that is the only reason the "republic" has been able to check his social and political avarice...

...because the only reason that Donald Trump is where he is right now...whatever tertiary or adjacent factors facilitated the outcome...

...is because the "republic" put him there.

And if the "republic" can find nothing in Donald Trump's odious personage to deny him that which he does not deserve, and does not respect, and cannot defend or honor in either word or deed or even premise...

...then the next person, who will surely learn from this what we will permit as a society (and even encourage and celebrate) from such a shallow human being given such weighty responsibility...will hardly hesitate to weaponize that callous disregard for his own ends...

...because too many of us see Donald Trump as an answer.

No.

Donald Trump is not the answer to what ails our "republic". Not at its core.

Donald Trump is a blueprint. A blueprint waiting for an architect to complete the structure which will be built on America's bones.

...and there are several volunteers even now at the ready to aid in its construction.

Donald Trump metastasizes the poisonous dichotomy of our present state as a nation. A dichotomy wishing to reconcile self-indulgence with self-sacrifice...to equate selfishness with selflessness...to measure ignorance as equal to curiosity.

We have lost our way, for we have revealed in the selection of this man to this office we demand (at select times and arbitrary circumstance) be held sacred...that what we not only lack, but desire, is someone to lead us where we have said for a long time now in whispers and grumblings that we wish to go.

And I have no doubt since very few of us, even from this lofty perch, are hardly stewards of human history, that those are wishes that are not so far from being fulfilled as the glib and gleeful at the burning of the city would like to believe.

We will correct (or better yet, eradicate) what championed a buffoon to lead this chaos...or one will rise and orchestrate that chaos, and all of us, into oblivion.

...and from the looks of things, we may not any of us deserve any better fate than that...

 

What DID you say? Take you at word that Drumpf has no ambitions for taking over the government? How do you know? Are you Drumpf?

On the other hand, I SEE him undermining the justice system. I SEE him suppressing freedom of speech. I SEE him showering adulation on dictators around the world. I SEE him wistfully commenting on lifetime appointments. He's a cancerous growth on the republic, and you want to argue that cancer has no malignant intent?!!

*facepalm* indeed

 

Without Tiberius Graccus there is no Gaius Marius.

Without Gaius Marius there is no Julius Caesar, dictator for life.

Even if Trumps complete distain for the finer points of democratic institutions doesn't hide any darker motives, damaging those rules and institutions opens the door for someone who wants to take it a step further.

I dont think Trump has some secret agenda to become Hitler, but I do think he couldn't give a rat's ass about democracy or the Constitution. He has no time for dusty old George Washington or Thomas Jefferson or Continental Congresses or Bills of Rights.

His only concern is what is most expedient for him. But the damage he does those institutions occurs whether the damage is done by malace or neglect.

 

To be fair, there is verifiable evidence to just about everything that calurker said.

 

There's verifiable evidence Trump is a cancerous growth on the Republic with a malignant intent to [destroy the Republic]?

I mean, if you believe Trumps intent is to destroy the Republic and place himself in charge, you're unhinged.

Feel free to believe whatever you want though.

 

What an astounding outlook to possess. That anyone could conceivably perceive beyond the visual range of HTM is an intolerable, a forbidden concept. Dude, you're saying all there is to see in the world, you see. That you are the acme of observation and comprehension of all machinations of the entire range of social activity.

 

What about the parts you intentionally ignored?

 

And that is different than most of us posters? Most folks express their opinions as facts on here. A minority are pretty dismissive or disdainful of other viewpoints. HTM's posts.seem pretty civil to me.