Flake’s Law: The longer a #NeverTrump Republican keeps talking, the probability of a comparison of Trump to Stalin approaches one
#JustLikeStalin Trump frequently holds contentious interviews and press conferences with a hostile media … oh, wait.
You probably have heard of Godwin’s Law:
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
We now have Flake’s Law:
The longer a #NeverTrump Republican keeps talking, the probability of a comparison of Trump to Stalin approaches one.
Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake hates Donald Trump. He considers Trump unfit, unkempt, and uncouth. We get it. Like many #NeverTrump Republicans, particularly those with who appear on cable news, Flake’s uncontrollable rage at the betrayal of him by voters results in frequent rhetorical excesses.
Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake also is so unpopular in Arizona that he is not running for reelection, because he would lose to any number of Republican challengers, and in a general election.
Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake is a very frustrated man, betrayed by the voters he apparently holds in such low regard.
Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake this morning in an interview on ABC News compared Donald Trump to Stalin.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You’ve also said you’re going to be giving a series of speeches on President Trump and his relationship with the truth and his relationship with the press, including one that I believe is coming this week. We’ve gotten some excerpts of what you’re planning to say, taking on the president’s comments about calling the press the enemy of the people. And I just want to read a portion of what we’ve had.
It’s a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies. It bears noting that so fraught with malice was the phrase enemy of the people that even Nikita Khrushchev forbade it’s use. And of course, the president has it precisely backward. Despotism is the enemy of the people, the free press is the despot’s enemy.
What are you trying to do with these speeches?
FLAKE: Well, I — what I’m trying to say is, you know, you — you can talk about crowd size and this is pretty innocuous if there’s a falsehood. But when you reflexively refer to the press as the enemy of the people or fake news, that has real damage. It has real damage to our standing in the world. And I noted how — how bad it is for a president to — to take what was popularized by Joseph Stalin, the enemy of the people, to refer to the press.
And then now, today, you have authoritarians across the world using the term fake news to justify cracking down on their opposition or — or staunch legitimate debate. That’s nothing we should be proud of. And so I’m going to talk about how damaging that is. It’ll be I think on the same day, probably, Wednesday, that the president is giving out some fake news awards. And I — I just want — want the president to know that this has real consequences.
Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake also plans on giving a speech on the Senate floor this week in which he will again compare Trump to Stalin:
Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, one of President Donald Trump’s harshest critics from within his own party, plans to give a speech on the Senate floor this week slamming the White House for its “unrelenting daily assault on the constitutionally-protected free press,” according to an excerpt of the speech provided to ABC News by Flake’s office.
Flake will go so far as to compare the president to former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin for his use of the phrase “enemy of the people.”
“It is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies,” Flake’s written speech says.
“It bears noting that so fraught with malice was the phrase ‘enemy of the people,’ that even [subsequent Soviet leader] Nikita Khrushchev forbad its use, telling the Soviet Communist Party that the phrase had been introduced by Stalin for the purpose of ‘annihilating such individuals’ who disagreed with the supreme leader,” the senator’s speech says.
The senator’s speech is referring to a tweet by Trump less than a month after he took office slamming the “FAKE NEWS media” as “the enemy of the American People!”
Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake apparently believes that Donald Trump responding to a press that issues an unprecedented volume false news reports, considers its job to be to elect Democrats, and openly cheers for Trump to be removed from office, is just like Stalin, even though not a single reporter has been arrested or a single newspaper or media outlet shut, and Trump frequently has sit-down interviews and holds press conferences with the media.
Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake apparently believes that freedom of the press means freedom for the press from criticism.
In other news, tens of millions of victims of Stalinism could not be reached for comment on Republican Senator Jeff Flake’s comparison of Trump to Stalin. Because they were killed in the forced collectivization of the Ukraine, the forced deportation of entire nationalities like the Crimean Tatars, the enslavement of captive nations, the Gulag Archipelago system of prison camps, the Stalinist secret police purges of intellectuals, academics and anyone who criticized the regime, and other acts of repression that went far beyond calling the press names.
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Comments
It’s rather sad and pathetic.
To them he’s worse than Stalin.
The fact is that the press gets to say anything it wants, even if it’s fake.
Thankfully, Trump’s enemies only speak well of others in private.
As mentioned in the LI post, if Trump was anything like Stalin or Hitler, Flakie would have already have disappeared.
…along with all the Democrats and their evil slaves known a the MSM……
jeff flake and bob corker – just 2 examples that prove that “the worlds most deliberative body” has become infected with the ignoramus disease !
Sen. Flake, when we see Trump throwing journalists in a gulag or simply “disappearing” them, then we can talk about Stalin. Criticism is not oppression.
In contrast, President Obama WAS like Stalin!
He frequently expressed his frustration with the freedom of the internet, calling for it to be regulated.
“Part of ways changed in politics is social media and how people are receiving information,” he griped during a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel after Donald Trump was elected president. “It’s easier to make negative attacks and simplistic slogans than it is to communicate complex policies.”
In October 2016, Obama proposed “truthiness tests” for media companies online.
“We are going to have to rebuild within this wild-wild-west-of-information flow some sort of curating function that people agree to,” he said.
Using the rhetoric in ” “1984”, (“War is Peace”, “Freedom is Slavery”), he initiated “Net Neutrality”. Fortunately, that monstrosity was repealed recently before any harm could be done.
It was President Obama’s administration that locked up a Christian Copt, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, for exercising his first amendment right to post an anti-Muslim video. Federal Prosecuters in the Obama administration found his use of the Internet to post the video violated his terms of probation.
It was President Obama’s administration that arrested Dinesh D’Souzafor violating campaign finance laws after D’Souza released 2016: Obama’s America, a movie that was critical of Obama.
In other words, the Obama Administration criminalized free speech.
The first amendment is to protect political speech, which was suppressed by the fascist Obama administration.The war on media is only dangerous when the first amendment is violated, as under President Obama.
I had to laugh last week when Obama dropped a train-load of hair pins by talking about the internet “chat rooms.”
LOL
“Tiny Barry” was basically complaining that
“There’s mean girls in those online Chat Rooms!”
MEOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There’s just something about Trump that causes Flake’s nose to get all out of joint.
Jeff FAKE – like a RINO!
Flake has been a tremendous disappointment.
He is practically my neighbor, and I do see him in the neighborhood occasionally, but haven’t spoken to him.
His association with McCain ruined him.
If he can be “ruined” by the likes of John McCain, he wasn’t much to begin with. /just saying
Prior to running for Congress, Flake ran the Goldwater Institute, where he helped it gain national attention and grow to prominence (disclosure: I am a member).
His behavior since Trump’s election has become pure opposition and political showmanship in the worst possible ways.
When McCain voted against Obamacare repeal, it sealed Flake’s fate – pure guilt by association.
in the primaries i was a Cruz supporter but over the past year, i have become an ardent fan of DJT.
there is a Jewish blessing
May he go from strength to strength.
IN other words Flake is just an Opportunist, cut from the same clothe as Obama and Warren……
Flake is a most pathetic, nauseating public figure – dwarfs even obama.
While the likes of racists like sheila jackson lee and maxine waters, odius bigots like keith ellison, and corrupt psychos like pelosi and schumer abound on the left, none of them turned traitor on their voters.
Flake is the Bradley Manning of republicans. (However, unlike flake, manning is believed to still possess his testicles. Flakes have been long gone, along with any integrity he might have possessed.)
I don’t think that John McCain had any particular influence on Jeff Flake. Jeff Flake has been going downhill ever since he was elected.
When Flake was a member of the House, he had one of the highest ACU lifetime rankings. I haven’t looked to see where ACU ranks his votes as a Senator, but it sure “feels” like he has moderated. I’ve wondered if that is due to the fact that he now represents the whole state, and the demographics of the state are changing rapidly.
Last night my wife told me politicians run for office because they are narcisists who want access to the spoils system. Their motivation is to get s seat at the Cool Kids table and take everyone’s stuff. And I’m foolish for expecting them to serve the public.
You know what’s ironic? I tried to come up with someone since Reagan who actually did what the voters sent him there to do. There was only one.
Donald Trump
Remember all those things the HOP promised us and later recanted with “gosh we just couldn’t whip the votes” ? Well, Trump is getting them done, and in the process is making the GOP look like corrupt incompetent liars.
Ted Cruz never betrayed his voters, but he was only one Senator so there was a limit to what he could accomplish by himself.
Rand Paul is another good guy. You may not agree with every position he takes, but the guy is someone you can trust.
I like your wife. She’s an astute woman.
the phrase enemy of the people that even Nikita Khrushchev forbade it’s use
So … President Trump isn’t taking his marching orders from Tovarish Khrushchev.
And Flake [“Well he deserves that name!” —Macbeth] thinks that’s a bad thing.
I’d say the voters of Arizona owe an apology to the Republic. A big one.
This scab resigned because Kelli Ward drove him from office. When we needed someone to represent the people of AZ, she was the only one who showed up.
Jeff Flake has not resigned. He has announced that he is not going to run for re-election.
Even now there are people that believe that Flake will run for re-election. Not many but non-zero.
“Will Jeff Flake be re-elected to the U.S. Senate in Arizona in 2018?”
https://www.predictit.org/Contract/7345/Will-Jeff-Flake-be-re-elected-to-the-US-Senate-in-Arizona-in-2018#data
With an 18% approval rating, flake ran for his life. Kind of like pleading nolo contentre to a felony.
His new career at as a shill for MSNBC is awaiting.
Baskets of rotten tomatoes as well.
“Flakes Law”
Good one Professor!
The man is properly named at least.
Jeffy is auditioning for his career after the senate.
MSNBC.
That paid rat scarborough isn’t going to live forever, ya know.
If Flake was living in Stalin’s Russia, right about now Josef would be erasing Jeffie Boy from any photos that existed of him.
I can see Flake running as an independent with the sole aim of splitting off enough Republicans so as to make the job easier for his Democrat colleague.
Flake is aptly named.
This guy wants to be the Marshal Pétain but McCain already has that job. Flake gets away with this by twerking for the blue hairs in God’s waiting rooms in Phoenix and Tucson who probably think that Trump is just an awful man compared to that nice Mr Flake. Arizona is in trouble.
What I find noteworthy is that it is to goofballs like this Senator that the mainstream media turns when they want to pretend to present “the Republican side.” I think that the rise of the partisan media has fundamentally damaged our democracy.
Re: Anonamom:
With due respect, I’ve been reading news magazines since the early 70s, and the twisted hatred towards republicans existed then.
I wasn’t a democrat or republican, but who the press like and who they disliked, was exceedingly clear on every page.
Flake has one aspect of being a liberal down pat, the appearance of perpetual victimhood. He always looks like he just got in a car accident.
The man was born with a most appropriate last name, Flake.
Godwin’s law subset.
The probability also approaches one that his supporters will be called raaaaacists, pedophiles, etc.
For a comparison with Stalin, you should note the number of deaths of associates under suspicious circumstances (sudden suicides, unsolved crimes, etc.).
Trump does not even come close to the Clintons in the number of friends and associates who have committed suicide or had car accidents after agreeing to testify.
As I remember those days. Pravda was the main news source in Russia and believe me Stalin did not have an adversarial relationship with the press. If he got mad at them he simply exiled them to Siberia or worse. Flake truly lives up to his name. Trump is the only POTUS in my life time that had to battle the press, the opposition party, and his own party. I.thank the Good Lord every night that Trump won.
President Trump just keeps on TRUMPING!
ProfJ: You also could have noted that according to a study by a group affiliated with Harvard, press freedom has been so restricted by Trump that in his first 100 days he received 3x the press coverage of other presidents, and 80% of it was negative.
Not a single organization it analyzed had positive coverage of Trump exceeding 50%, including Fox News who the left wing media say is Trump’s propaganda network.
https://shorensteincenter.org/news-coverage-donald-trumps-first-100-days/
If Trump were Stalin those organizations would not be free to report so much negative stuff (I am cynical enough that I believe the goal of the massive negative coverage was to define him negatively in the public’s mind from the get-go. Once the public forms a negative impression, it is hard to change. That negative impression will translate into low presidential approval ratings and low presidential approval ratings correlate strongly with a loss of seats for that party in the House.)
For two years, this oppressed press has been portraying Trump as: The Second Coming of Adolph Hitler; a secret Russian agent who helped Vladimir Putin steal the election from Her Highness; the supposed leader of white supremacists (none of whom there is any evidence he has ever actually met); and someone so bananas they want to take the truly extraordinary step of using the 25th Amendment or impeachment to remove him from office.
Flake is living in a fantasyland.
Trump ain’t the crazy one.