Gregory P,
The first thing that jumps out at me in the article is at the very beginning, when the author is saying, not just intimating, but directly stating, that Trump was making
"a clear provocation to commit murder, however he and his handlers may try to spin it."
This is exactly the kind of clear exaggeration that almost certainly falls into the defamation category, if you ask me, though I'm not in the legal profession.
Quote:
Trump said, “Nothing you can do, folks.”
Then his lack of impulse control kicked in:
“Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is,” he added.
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- from the article Gregory linked to.
First of all, "Second Amendment people" does not refer only to people who own guns, and it certainly doesn't strictly refer to nutters who would assassinate a presidential candidate! This is hysterical.
I don't own a gun, and in fact can't stand guns, but I firmly believe in the Second Amendment and in the right of a citizen to bear arms for personal protection. This is
not to say I don't believe in "gun control". I strongly believe in background checks, and I do think it's far too easy for a person to obtain a firearm, in my gun-happy state especially.
Anyway, I don't think this thread should get bogged down in too many side issues, so that's all I'll say about that, except to reiterate that it's hysterical to take Trump's remarks and spin them into an incitement for assassination.
As for torture. Before I say anything else, yes, Trump certainly is no politician and he sounds more like a high school soccer coach than a US president. Also, I believe I've mentioned how I feel about torture in this thread, or perhaps it was in private with Charlie, I honestly can't remember. I don't advocate torture for any reason. I
would argue for tough measures in high pressure situations where information necessary to national security can be gathered. I don't work in that area. I've got it easy, and I don't lay my very life on the line on a daily basis; and far be it for me to dictate what military and government personnel can or can't do in order to keep my tender little behind safe. That being said, I've seen photos and read articles that made my skin crawl, but this kind of thing has been going on for a long time, long before Trump took office.
Back to the comparisons to Hitler. It seems to me that Trump is aggressively interested in minimizing immigration, in sealing the borders, in being isolationist and self-contained as a national interest. Hitler had no compunction when it came to invading other nations and targeting innocents for systematic slaughter (this isn't to say that Trump won't get around to stretching his newfound military muscle - we shall see).
There is a huge difference between wanting to keep people away and wanting to methodically wipe certain races or types of people off the map. Hitler was obsessed with eugenics and what he dreamed of as the perfectibility of the human race. He wanted to rid the world of those pesky Jews, but he also had it in for people with disabilities, deformities, retardation, mental problems, what have you. Too bad he couldn't identify his own sickness in the process. He also didn't care for black people. Remember his shame when Jesse Owens beat his precious blonde supermen in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. I still like to watch that film just to see the disgruntled and embarrassed look on his silly little face.
But I've gone on too much, and I'm getting a bit exhausted trying to keep up a defense of someone I don't even like.
My main point is that I feel the comparisons to Hitler are premature. Who knows, in a few weeks, a few months, I may be singing a different tune. He does seem to want to get aggressive with foreign policy. But then again, America has been at war for a very long time, long before Trump was anywhere near the political scene.