Town Square

Post a New Topic

Trump wants to follow despots by jailing political opposition - see: Putin. Mugabe. Castro. Burmese junta. Stalin. Lenin.

Original post made by Moving Day , Atherton: other, on Oct 10, 2016

Trump emulates NIXON on his way to turning America into a dictatorship.

See: Republic, Banana


“If I win,” he said, “I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation.”
“Yeah,” Trump interrupted, “because you’d be in jail.”

How Democratic.


Chicago Tribune:

"But threatening her to her face in a national debate with jail was an assault that went beyond his attacks on women, Muslims, Mexicans, the disabled, prisoners of war and Gold Star families to strike at the American democratic system itself.

We don’t jail our political foes here like in tin-pot, third-world banana republics or dictatorships. We attempt to succeed them via orderly transitions of power."

Comments (4)

Posted by Cold cuts Hot takes
a resident of Menlo Park: Sharon Heights
on Oct 10, 2016 at 3:13 pm

Trump has near zero knowledge of the law. And American history.

An enemies list to prosecute when you get into power? Nixonian indeed.

The short fingered one learns well from his boss in Moscow.


Posted by Foreign Desk
a resident of Menlo Park: other
on Oct 11, 2016 at 10:54 am

Foreign Policy Mag:

Trump’s apologists tried to claim that he wasn’t threatening to jail former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for being his political opponent but, rather, for supposed “felonies committed in office.” But this is exactly the kind of thing that dictators always say; no one ever admits to jailing the opposition for political reasons.

The essence of democracy is not to criminalize political differences. That’s something that Trump does not seem to understand.

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

The New York Times:

Political scientists who study troubled democracies abroad say this is a tactic typical of elected leaders who pull down their systems from within: former President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, the fascist leaders of 1930s Europe.

Mr. Trump’s comment was “a threat to the rule of law, a threat to the stability of our institutions, a threat to basic agreements that are necessary for democracy to function,” said Adrienne LeBas, a political scientist at American University.

“For those of us who work on authoritarian regimes and hybrid regimes,” she added, referring to a kind of government midway between democracy and dictatorship, such as Turkey, “this sort of thing is just eerily familiar.”


Posted by Foreign Desk
a resident of Menlo Park: other
on Feb 1, 2017 at 12:53 pm

Fascinating, as more pours out - President, er, speechwriter Steve Bannon, calls himself a Leninist.

‘The media should keep its mouth shut’

“Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal, too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.”

"I’m a nationalist"

"The New Republic, pointed out that, in the past few days, the Times, the Washington Post, and Politico have all published stories “sourced to the White House—portraying Trump as a fragile, erratic, television-obsessed snowflake."

All hail President Bannon, ummm, Trump. Web Link


Posted by Barrel Oil
a resident of Menlo Park: Belle Haven
on Feb 2, 2017 at 2:13 pm

Trump and his team turned off all their recording devices when he called Putin on Saturday. First time ever; they recorded all the other calls. Even the one after the putin call where Trump tempermentally hung up on the Australian.

Trump was "fatigued". At 4pm.

Putin must have ripped home a new one in the call.

Tough times when your blackmailer gets up in ya. Hope it was worth it in 2013, Donny.


Don't miss out on the discussion!
Sign up to be notified of new comments on this topic.

Email:


Post a comment

Sorry, but further commenting on this topic has been closed.

Stay informed.

Get the day's top headlines from Almanac Online sent to your inbox in the Express newsletter.

Boichik Bagels is opening its newest – and largest – location in Santa Clara this week
By The Peninsula Foodist | 0 comments | 2,407 views

I Do I Don't: How to build a better marriage Ch. 1, page 1
By Chandrama Anderson | 0 comments | 1,494 views

WATCH OUT – SUGAR AHEAD
By Laura Stec | 2 comments | 684 views

 

Support local families in need

Your contribution to the Holiday Fund will go directly to nonprofits supporting local families and children in need. Last year, Almanac readers and foundations contributed over $300,000.

DONATE