president Maduro captured after US strikes

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

This is what communists call free market capitalism.

Donald Trump is a free market capitalist?  

FREE. GRATIS.  Its not a f*cking "FREE MARKET" when you put tariffs on it, genius. 

It's actually called: 

 Donald Trump promotes a form of "state capitalism" or "crony capitalism," characterized by significant government intervention, using national security and economic competition (especially with China) as justifications to direct private companies, pick winners and losers, take equity stakes, and demand loyalty, blurring traditional free-market boundaries for strategic national goals. This involves government shaping economic outcomes through direct deals, subsidies, tariffs, and mandates, moving away from pure laissez-faire towards government-guided capitalism with an emphasis on "American" strategic industries and companies that align with his agenda. 

Laissez-faire he is not. He may be shrinking the government, but control over it's economy is getting less free and more China-like by the day.

Reads: Its actually closer to Chinese state-capitalism then its is to neoliberalism and a pure free market, a la Milton Friedman's wet dream. 

Basically, the person calling someone a communist doesn't even understand how Trump's capitalism is drifting closer to China and other authoritarian states.

[DBCowboy]

Donald Trump is a free market capitalist?  

FREE. GRATIS.  Its not a f*cking "FREE MARKET" when you put tariffs on it, genius. 

It's actually called: 

Laissez-faire he is not. He may be shrinking the government, but control over it's economy is getting less free and more China-like by the day.

Reads: Its actually closer to Chinese state-capitalism then its is to neoliberalism and a pure free market, a la Milton Friedman's wet dream. 

Basically, the person calling someone a communist doesn't even understand how Trump's capitalism is drifting closer to China and other authoritarian states.

Then tell every other country on the planet to stop tariffs.

lol

[UltraBudgie]

Nuh-huh!

Marx-Engels Collected Works, volume 1, pg 286:



Oh that is comedy gold.

[RazorV66]

Then tell every other country on the planet to stop tariffs.

lol

Do they really think Trump's USA is the only country with tariffs?

[DBCowboy]

Do they really think Trump's USA is the only country with tariffs?


[Image: https://denyignorance.com/uploader/image...6aa986.gif]

Yes.

lol

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

Tariffs alone is not what makes Trump a crony/state capitalist. It's a very minimal part of what makes him a state or crony capitalist, actually. I am somewhat sorry I led with it, it was just the most easy example.

So here's some skynet instead. 

How does Trump's capitalism compare to other authoritarian capitalist systems? 

Donald Trump's approach to capitalism, often described as a form of "state capitalism" or "crony capitalism," shares similarities with other authoritarian capitalist systems by concentrating economic power within the executive and prioritizing political loyalty and personal relationships over free-market principles. 

Key similarities include:

• Political Intervention in Private Enterprise: Like other authoritarian systems, Trump's approach involves the government taking an unprecedented active role in directing private business decisions and capital flows. This includes using the power of the state to influence private companies, such as taking ownership stakes in strategically important industries (e.g., semiconductors and rare-earth minerals).

• Picking "Winners and Losers": The government, rather than market competition, shapes the economy by favoring businesses that align with the administration's goals or personal interests, a hallmark of "crony capitalism". This can involve rewarding allies with government contracts and seeking retribution against those who do not "fall in line".

• Attacks on Business Freedom of Expression: Trump has a history of targeting individual business leaders and corporations (e.g., AT&T, Amazon, Harley-Davidson) for perceived offenses or unfavorable media coverage, a tactic that resembles the suppression of business freedom of expression seen in systems like Maoist China.

• Weaponization of Government Powers: The use of government powers, such as antitrust suits, tariffs, and regulatory actions, as political leverage against perceived adversaries or to pressure favorable outcomes, mirrors the behavior of other authoritarian leaders who use the state apparatus to consolidate power.

• Personalism and Lack of Independent Institutions: The focus on personal loyalty and a disregard for the independence of institutions, such as the Federal Reserve and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, aligns with authoritarian models where power is concentrated in a single leader rather than dispersed through established rules and norms.

• Economic Nationalism and Protectionism: Trump's "America First" economic nationalism, which advocates for high tariffs and views trade as a zero-sum game, resembles the protectionist policies often seen in state-guided or authoritarian capitalist countries seeking to bolster domestic industries and reduce reliance on global trade partners.

And how his capitalism compares to China.

Both Trump's economic approach and China's system exhibit elements of state capitalism, where the government plays a significant, directive role in ostensibly private enterprises, blurring the lines between the public and private sectors. 

Key similarities include:

• Government Intervention and Control: In both systems, the state actively intervenes in the economy and exerts control over businesses. This contrasts sharply with traditional free-market capitalism where the market primarily dictates economic outcomes.

• Use of Companies as State Instruments: Both models treat key companies or sectors as "national champions" and instruments of state power to achieve geopolitical and national strategic goals.

• Transactional Approach to Business: The government uses a transactional or "pay-to-play" approach, where access to markets, regulatory approvals, or government contracts may require alignment with the administration's political agenda or even sharing revenue/equity with the state.

• Political Influence and Pressure: Both systems involve a high degree of political pressure on business leaders and government agencies. This can include rewarding aligned executives and pressuring or sidelining those who disagree with government policies.

• Strategic Industrial Policy: Both Trump's administration (using tools like tariffs and "golden shares" in U.S. companies) and China (through plans like "Made in China 2025") utilize industrial policies to protect and foster growth in strategic industries, such as semiconductors and rare-earth minerals, often using national security as a justification.

• Skepticism of Pure Free Markets: Both models demonstrate a departure from the traditional U.S. ethos of free-market capitalism, prioritizing national control and intervention over market-oriented principles.

So yeah..  be simple-minded and pick off the easiest comparison to discredit, because i was oblivious enough to lead with tariffs.  But if you cant even respond to the REST OF THE above, reposted at length, then why bother?

I win the internet through your ignorance, or unwillingness to face reality.. Especially what you're supporting under Trump, and the mindless head-in-a-hole way you're doing it.

And how ABSOLUTELY REMINISCENT OF AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES that all is.

[quintessentone]

Tariffs alone is not what makes Trump a crony/state capitalist. It's a very minimal part of what makes him a state or crony capitalist, actually. I am somewhat sorry I led with it, it was just the most easy example.

So here's some skynet instead. 

How does Trump's capitalism compare to other authoritarian capitalist systems? 

And how his capitalism compares to China.

So yeah..  be simple-minded and pick off the easiest comparison to discredit, because i was oblivious enough to lead with tariffs.  But if you cant even respond to the REST OF THE above, reposted at length, then why bother?

I win the internet through your ignorance, or unwillingness to face reality.. Especially what you're supporting under Trump, and the mindless head-in-a-hole way you're doing it.

And how ABSOLUTELY REMINISCENT OF AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES that all is.

Will they be using those models, tactics in stealing oil in Venezuela or will the Venezuelan people set bombs around the refineries?

[chr0naut]

This is what communists call free market capitalism.

Free market capitalism means that the people who have a lot of money are unrestricted in earning more. Just that, nothing more.

The US is something else, where those who control everything are, without exception, the rich.

You don't have median income politicians with just one car, and just one TV, and just one house, earning just enough to keep the family from going hungry, like most of the rest of the people of the USA.

In the not too distant past, politicial candidates in the US have had to sell their businesses and their house and car, just to fund their campaigns. And they did it because they believed in doing good for their communities. (These are the ones you want - not greedy self-centred billionaires).

But it's not like it used to be. It's all become about the money, and the status, and the power, and, to a certain extent, the competitiveness. These are exactly the people you do not want as alleged 'representative of the people'.

Your political pre-electoral circuses are unable to select the better representatives and they favour the liars, the manipulators and the showmen. Thus, all the good ones get cycled out quickly and replaced. And you end up with tyranny behind a 'smiley' mask.

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

Will they be using those models, tactics in stealing oil in Venezuela or will the Venezuelan people set bombs around the refineries?

I'm gonna guess...  "Yes, an ass-to-mouth industry/government centipede will latch on to Venezuela and start siphoning crude into our national reserve. For me and Merica!"

We have huge state investments in oil, REEs, and semiconnductors.

And that's why Trump also wants to troll about taking Greenland. He thinks we NEED Danish yttrium, gallium, and germanium.

I am guessing because TSMC is investing so much in our domestic economy, we must help them grow their high-tech manufacturing hub in The Greater Phoenix Area and further pivot away from the appearance of Sino-Pacific interests. 

Which all fits with everything above.

Why we became a society supporting warpig assholes that think it's acceptable to say we "absolutely need Greenland" as we are taking Venezuela (in a matter of speaking) is disillusionment personified.

It's watching the geopolitical tenets of my country getting hijacked and replaced by the tenets of something far more terrifying and land-grabbing.

I don't like identifying with the country where up to 45% of it's people now think it's acceptable to believe "Canada is better off as an American state."  It is disrespectful, arrogant, and entitled shit.

And this is just completely heartbreaking. 

That's now okay because our compass of honor and respect is totally f*cked at the state level.  

What's a NATO ally worth anyway? What's anyone else worth? 

Absolutely nothing at all, apparently.

"Nauseous, revolted, ashamed, saddened, without national pride on the year of our semiquincentennial" are things that come to mind.  Because my country wants to become conquesting little punks and start taking land that doesn't belong to us with force. Because we can..

Who put Arthur Desmond's tiny dick in charge?

I'm going on vacation to the EU this year. Gonna have to say "Je suis une Américaine qui se considère comme originaire de Vancouver, en Colombie-Britannique."

Then they will be FAR less likely to spit in my food, or consider me an inbred nationalist.

[chr0naut]

The dems mandated the clot shot for “national security”.
That mandate did more damage than covid.
You’d be wise to not forget it.

I thought millions of those who were immunized were supposed to be going to die?

If it was a "clot shot", why was the number of stroke deaths in 2022 lower than in both previous years? I mean, COVID-19 vaccination started in earnest in 2021, with hundreds of millions immunized. If it was causing clots, then how were strokes going down?