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Comment by AnimalMuppet | Hacker News Reader

Happy to oblige with the downvote. The US isn't Belarus, even if Trump thinks it is. Shutting down everyone but Fox/OANN is beyond his power and authority, whether he knows it or not, and whether he likes it or not.

An attempt to shut down CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, and AP would result in an immediate court order prohibiting the shutdown.

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He has enough key people in every single government institution that are very happy to ignore the courts. And I agree that the US isn't Belarus - but the people in power are working very hard to make it more like Belarus every single day.

The government here simply doesn’t have the power to shut down the media/internet unless it wants to impose martial law and/or forcibly nationalize massive corporations like Comcast.

It's so weird to see people imagining bad things for Trump to do, then acting as if he actually did them.

Trump is annoying enough, you don't have to make up imaginary things about him.

TDS Sufferer: "Trump is a dictator!" [1]

Trump lets the States exercise their Constitutional authority[2]

TDS Sufferer: "Trump is a disappointingly-WEAK dictator!"[3]

It really is bizarre. As you say, there are things he's legitimately punting into the stands, such as his ham-fisted counter to the rise of China (great concept, abysmal execution).[4]

[1]https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-covid-19-coronavirus-di...

[2]https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2020/03/31/commentary/w...

[3]https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/yet-anothe...

[4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhMAt3BluAU

This would be more believable, but when Trump can’t do something simple like repeal DACA. How do you think he could shutdown the internet?

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