Once this becomes the accepted norm then it will be a case of any journalist asking a difficult question will have their company banned from the press briefings. So there will be a pressure on them not to just accept what they are told or ask only questions that they know will be deemed acceptable. This then looks like implicit acceptance of what the government is doing and the administration will be able do avoid having to properly justify themselves. Of course critical newspapers and TV channels can still report what they like, but it will then be easier for the administration to describe them as a hostile media with a heavy bias and to ignore the valid points that they make.

(February 26, 2017 at 5:47 pm)Mathilda Wrote: Once this becomes the accepted norm then it will be a case of any journalist asking a difficult question will have their company banned from the press briefings. So there will be a pressure on them not to just accept what they are told or ask only questions that they know will be deemed acceptable. This then looks like implicit acceptance of what the government is doing and the administration will be able do avoid having to properly justify themselves. Of course critical newspapers and TV channels can still report what they like, but it will then be easier for the administration  to describe them as a hostile media with a heavy bias and to ignore the valid points that they make.

As long as it's only press briefings, it really doesn't matter much. What comical Ali says will be readily available within minutes.

What matters more is general access. If certain members of the press are excluded then it gets worrysome.

(February 24, 2017 at 7:37 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote:

(February 24, 2017 at 7:34 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: He's trying to legitimize BB and other junk news that he knows will parrot his talking points.

I don't think it will work.

I agree it probably won't work this time.  But I think people vastly overestimates the level of moral resistence one could expect from much of American electorate to creeping fascism when it is crudely wrapped in nativism, racism, and patriotism.

Indeed the US has been one bad choice away from a fourth Reich for a while now. They've had the ingredients. A group to demonize, ultra nationalist morons and a group of super religious zombies all easily led. They are one terrorist attack on US soil from concentration camps and mass deportations.

Remember in Germany under the Nazis life was pretty good for the people not on the naughty list until the world imploded.

That's were I see the US now.

If you can find it watch "the Nazis a warning from history" and tell me it doesn't remind you of present day America.

(February 26, 2017 at 6:43 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: Remember in Germany under the Nazis life was pretty good for the people not on the naughty list until the world imploded.

Actually it wasn't Germany under the nazis never returned to the economic levls of 1928, and for the ordinary Germans levels of prosperity pretty much stayed at Depression levels.

The nazis had fucked the German economy by 1937, at the very latest.

(February 26, 2017 at 8:28 pm)Tazzycorn Wrote:

(February 26, 2017 at 6:43 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: Remember in Germany under the Nazis life was pretty good for the people not on the naughty list until the world imploded.

Actually it wasn't Germany under the nazis never returned to the economic levls of 1928, and for the ordinary Germans levels of prosperity pretty much stayed at Depression levels.

The nazis had fucked the German economy by 1937, at the very latest.

Do you have any sources to back that up? I remember reading somewhere that life was actually quite good for those the government liked.

(February 26, 2017 at 8:33 pm)Bella Morte Wrote: Do you have any sources to back that up? I remember reading somewhere that life was actually quite good for those the government liked.

For contemporary sources you can look at Hjalmar Schacht, wo resigned for that exact reason. Other than that, it's pretty much common knowledge that Germany was broke in 1938 at the latest. They absolutely needed new occupations to keep going.

(February 26, 2017 at 8:36 pm)abaris Wrote:

(February 26, 2017 at 8:33 pm)Bella Morte Wrote: Do you have any sources to back that up? I remember reading somewhere that life was actually quite good for those the government liked.

For contemporary sources you can look at Hjalmar Schacht, wo resigned for that exact reason. Other than that, it's pretty much common knowledge that Germany was broke in 1938 at the latest. They absolutely needed new occupations to keep going.

My bad, looks like Tazzy and you are right.

(February 26, 2017 at 8:28 pm)Tazzycorn Wrote:

(February 26, 2017 at 6:43 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: Remember in Germany under the Nazis life was pretty good for the people not on the naughty list until the world imploded.

Actually it wasn't Germany under the nazis never returned to the economic levls of 1928, and for the ordinary Germans levels of prosperity pretty much stayed at Depression levels.

The nazis had fucked the German economy by 1937, at the very latest.

That's not entirely true.  The nazis used the arms build up as one vast and unending stimulus package to restore Germany to full employment.  They did succeed in returning Germany to near full employment by 1938.  So for those Germans who were out of a job during the depression, the standard of living certainly improved under the nazis.

But the problem is the unending stimulus package is vastly inflationary.  The illusion of things becoming better under the nazis can't be sustained much past 1940-1941 without a transition to war economy because all the inflationary things will catch up and Germany will again experience run-away inflation.  

Furthermore, arms build up is very inefficient in converting national resource into sustainable increase in productivity.  Combined with the nazi drive for autarchy, which is an implicitly inefficient and uneconomic allocation of national resources, Germany's overall economic efficient very likely significantly declined under the nazis, which in the long run means without the war, nazi Germany and the average German would become significantly poorer soon after 1938.

Btw, this looks suspiciously like trump's plan to tank the long term economic efficiency and productivity of the American economy through an autarchish effort to erect trade barriers, create wasteful jobs at home in areas where Americans are far less efficient than their foreign counterparts, while adding temporary boost to demand for economic activity by an inflationary arms buildup and Un-financed infrastructure program.  

Hitler was willing to trash the fundamental underpinning of German economic efficiency because he wanted to make Germany ready to fight a war of conquest at the earliest possible time, and if he wins that war he could simply pillage the rest of Europe afterwards to make up for the long term loss of German economic productivity.

What is trump's plan to make up for the long term damage to American economic efficiency resulting from making American economy reliant on those things which other countries do better and therefore Americans shouldn't do at all, while trashing the rationalizing and wealth generating trade?   Does he plan to invade and pillage Mexico?

Late to the party... Again...

I'll just leave this here:

It's not a statistic, but my dad was born in '38. They were basically starving until '47 or so