Posted on 06/05/2020 5:10:49 PM PDT by Ennis85
In my life, I have seen several dictators rise and fall. Today, I’m remembering those earlier incarnations of this unlovely breed.
In India in 1975, Indira Gandhi, found guilty of electoral malpractice, declared a state of emergency that granted her despotic powers. The “emergency,” as it became known, ended only when she called an election, believing she would win, and was annihilated at the polls. Her arrogance was her downfall. This cautionary tale formed a part of my novel “Midnight’s Children.”
In Pakistan in 1977, Gen. Mohammed Zia ul-Haq staged a coup against Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and executed him in 1979. This dark story was the inspiration for my novel “Shame.” The circumstances of my life have given me some understanding of the dictatorial cast of mind.
Extreme narcissism, detachment from reality, a fondness for sycophants and a distrust of truth-tellers, an obsession with how one is publicly portrayed, a hatred of journalists and the temperament of an out-of-control bulldozer: These are some of the characteristics.
President Trump is, temperamentally, a tinpot despot of this type. But he finds himself in charge of a country that has historically thought of itself — by no means always correctly — as being on the side of liberty. So far, with the collusion of the Republican Party, he has ruled more or less unchecked. Now an election looms, and he is unpopular, and flails about looking for a winning strategy. And if that means trampling over American freedoms, then so be it.
I have lived in the United States for 20 years and been a citizen for the past four. One of the most important reasons for becoming a citizen was my admiration for the ideas of freedom embodied in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Trump,
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I don’t know why you post this crap. And you don’t even comment on it.
If Donald Trump was a tinpot despot, he sure is a bad one. Most despots don’t let their political opponents breathe free air...or breathe at all, for that matter.
The only tinpot dictators these days are the Democrat governors in New York Michigan and California.
Talk about satanic verses.
Maybe the Ayatollah was right about this guy.
My thoughts exactly...hmmm...they don’t let women drive cars...hmmm. Stopped clock ya know!;-)
I remember when Cat Stevens got in some hot water for saying he agreed with the Fatwa on Rushdie.
Women may drive in Iran
also Saudi is letting up
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/24/world/middleeast/saudi-driving-ban-anniversary.html
I agree. I think it should be a policy that a thread poster comment substantively on the thread they just posted. Doesn’t have to be a long comment. A descriptive sentence about why it’s thread-worthy might do. But more than “Have at it.”
It would be to curtail the posting of material just to watch the ensuing fireworks and eat popcorn. You can still do that. You just have to introduce it before it starts.
Yeah. More or less. Take away the demonicRAT controlled House of Representatives, State Governors, The Supreme Court, Circuit Courts, Mayors and entrenched bureaucRATS and, yeah, he's pretty much unchecked.
Moron.
Definitely.
Don’t worry Salmon, Biden won’t win in November.
At this point, is every a-hole going to crawl out from under a rock?
Wait, Salman Rushdie is not dead?
Same question I had, how is this deranged rat still around?
We should give the Iranians his exact location.
Another idiot bites into the media’s poison apple.
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