The Democratic Party in Trump's Fascist 2nd Term. Commentary, Ideas & Strategy (+ non Woketicism)

Less competition, more collaboration. From a logical perspective the innovation typically championed is propaganda. I would argue that most American research and development has occurred outside any Capitalistic system. It's happened through our university system, as well as government supported industries (namely the military industrial complex). Corporations through relationships (read this as pay to play, you have to have connections) are then gifted the tech to create consumer products. I believe that sometimes this is in an effort to improve the technology.


My favorite apple, the Honeycrisp, for example was not developed by any farmer or agricultural company. Rather, it was developed at the University of Minnesota, at their Agricultural Experiment Station's Horticultural Research Center. By privatizing a lot of these government programs, I think the most notable thing it does is make labor more expensive and we end up getting less value from dollars put in. In short, we've attributed a lot of innovation to the system of Capitalism, when it reality the Social Welfare state which has been a band-aid allowing it to persist has been the real winner here. Progress is undefeated. The transition from the Dutch to British Empire generally ended up winding down slavery as an acceptable form of labor amongst the most developed nations. The transition to the American Empire meant the end of colonialism and the birth of nation-states as sovereign. The transition to Chinese Hegemony if it happens like that will at least mean the industrialization of the entire world to a point where Socialism is immediately possible. Again, Capitalism has always relied upon exploitation whether abroad or domestic. America has fought these wars under the fake banner of spreading Democracy and Freedom, but to quote two time Medal of Honor recipient (one of only 19 in American history) Smedley Butler:

"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."

China doesn't shrink from the Cultural Revolution. They call it a great setback and loss for the people. While they have a lot of respect for Mao, there aren't too many people in China defending his role in it. That is the official position of the CCP. My point in bringing it up is that American propaganda loves to point over there, while downplaying what happens as a result of our policy. So for example every Capitalist is going to point to the Cultural Revolution rightfully as being something to be critical about China's government. It deserves to be criticized!

America's crimes? They don't get recorded in history the same way because oftentimes the violence is exported to far flung places on the globe. For example, DOGE cutting USAID, (as the Hegemon we are responsible for world stability) has already resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide. Capitalists care about Chinese/Uyghur people, only if their suffering/death allows them to create criticism of the CCP. These same ghouls will then go on and advocate for American Foreign Policy that is multiples more violent and results in more death/destruction across the Globe. An easy thing to do when most of your country's history is centered around a fictional concept of White Supremacy.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/t...said-has-already-killed-hundreds-of-thousands

We are now witnessing what the historian Richard Rhodes termed “public man-made death,” which, he observed, has been perhaps the most overlooked cause of mortality in the last century. Brooke Nichols, the Boston University epidemiologist and mathematical modeller, has maintained a respected tracker of current impact. The model is conservative, assuming, for example, that the State Department will fully sustain the programs that remain. As of November 5th, it estimated that U.S.A.I.D.’s dismantling has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children.

 

What is so strange about that?

Ten years before I was born, the oligarchs in this country decided to take tax rates on top earners from 70 percent down to 28 percent. Education has been gutted. Infrastructure has been left to crumble. All while wealth not only gets hoarded at the very top, but by our country's older population who had the benefit of cheap education and robust social programs. The Baby Boomers are the Escalator generation. All you had to do was step on the Escalator. People on the right are waking up the fact that poor people are offered socialism to go to foreign countries to help Oligarchs exploit poor people, with none of the real wealth trickling down. In return they get trauma that they get to pass down to their children and god forbid it really ********s them up-->they end up homeless and they get to see how a country that loves to say Support the Troops, actually doesn't give a one flying ounce if they live or die.

We see a country in China that has actually built something that can be considered for the Public Good. High speed rail. Modern cities. A raised standard of living for the majority of their people. Contrast that with the Millennial and Generation Z experience. For the past decade we've been run by old men with obvious mental health deficiencies. There has been no representation for us. Our government has been bought by Oligarchs and Corporations alike. China is an aspirational society. America hasn't been an aspirational society since the 1960s, unless you count the Reagan Revolution and the MAGA movement as aspirational. I would categorize them as attempts to maintain White Supremacy.

 

I wonder how many of them have actually already lived there? I'm guessing not many.

 

I have so many people around here on Ignore this lacks 100% context.

But Dan Wang has made the case that China is the most rightist state in the world, particularly when considering its economic policies, illiberal political regime, and complete absence of a social safety net. Karl Marx's birthday is a holiday but if you try and organize a union, you'll be locked up in a couple of minutes and your children will starve unless they get a job at the iPhone factory.

 

I'm starting to think that you're on the Chinese government's payroll.

 

I promise you I'm not. I just don't lick boots that are stomping on my neck.

 

In high school, I knew this gentleman whose parents were from Hong Kong. I once asked him what brought his parents to the US. he told me that as soon as it was announced that Britain would be handing Hong Kong over to China, they wanted to get out of there.

One of those things I think about every now and then.

 

I'm sure I've mentioned before about my grandad who was a communist from the 20's - 30's. When stories about the forced collectivisation of farms, (including the Ukrainian 'Holdomor' of course), started to appear, he initially passed them off as propaganda and, obviously, there was an element of that from some parts of the press.

It was only when reports started to appear in the Manchester grauniad (from Malcolm Muggeridge, writing simply as a manchester grauniad correspondent) that he began to realise things had 'taken a wrong turn'. shall we say.

At some point you have to be able to see the failings in your own society, whilst also realising that maybe... just maybe... other societies have problems, (including bad leaders, liars, authoritarians, etc., etc).

 

how about the next time I drive up to Detroit, I’ll meet up with Kazuma and buy him a beer or a joint so you all will know I’m a real person. Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Columbus would all be easily doable as well.

 

It's no coincidence that China has capital export controls. And still, citizens will do anything to get around those controls and get their money outside the country.

They live under the constant threat of state seizure of anything they own.

Getting the wrong side of the CCP is a very very bad thing, both personally and professionally. That's a feature of their political system, not a bug.

 

*blinkblinkblink*

Dude.. As bad as the US is, China is WAY worse. LOL. For their construction projects, I suggest you look up "tofu dreg". China's building codes are very, very lax and what building codes they have are easily circumvented by putting a small pile of RMB into local officials hands.

For all of your complaints about the US, China has those issues, but turned up to 20. Speak up against the government, you are disappeared. Bring up any issues at all, you are disappeared. Seriously, people protesting that their bank is refusing them access to their money results in local police coming in to bust heads and arrest people. And no, this isn't like when US police break up protests. The people that are arrested aren't released from jail later that day. They sit in jail for years and their employers are contacted to fire them and they are blacklisted from future employment.

Anyone that looks at China as some bastion of freedom, or anything positive at all, is deeply delusional and has not actually looked into what China does to their people.

 

How? How could he have prevented it? I guess by directing the FBI not to investigate at all, which I’m 100% sure is the opposite of whatever glib point you’re trying to make.

 

He’s got the blind passion of a new convert.

He’s also as fanatical and impervious to common sense, facts, and reason as any Trumpie.

It’s gonna be an interesting journey with him.

 

And you need to look no further than what happened to Hong Kong since China took over to see how poorly China treats its citizens.

 

He's trying to claim that if Garland had prioritized the prosecution of Trump, Trump wouldn't be president right now..

 

If you’re bringing joints and beer 1)I don’t believe you’re real either and 2)I live in New Jersey

 

There is no reason to suspect that they are different than much poorer people who act against their econmic self-interest. As long as the right people are hurt it is all good.

 

He could have overrode Barr’s corrupt decision on obstruction and indicted immediately…thereby accelerating the immunity decision by a full two years…meaning there would have been plenty of time for the documents trial.

 

Hey thanks for engaging with what I’ve said. I appreciate that. Corruption isn’t something that any society can avoid. I think the major point of comparing things to China is that right now America is clearly in a massive decline. And I believe this happened because a very small number of people control the majority of decisions that our government makes. I’ve sought to point out things that we do as a society that causes damage externally to other countries. I would argue that for most of us our system creates the illusion of control and freedom. What good is being able to own your own gun if you have zero control over the data center that they are going to build next to
your house that you no longer own but have to rent?

Obviously all of these things involve trade offs. I myself was exposed to chemicals and that exposure only happened because of regulations that were removed during Trump’s first term. If you remember the East Palestine train derailment? My father is in the East Palestine high school athletic hall of fame. I was tending Bar the night those chemicals they were burning weren’t able to mix up into the atmosphere because of the cold front that came in. I closed down my bar early and sent everyone home because I was beginning to show signs of irritation while breathing. I very well could develop cancer because of lax regulations and corruption in this country. And Trump came in here and all of the idiots who voted for him felt special and a few years later they know they got screwed but they lack the education to know who and how it was done to them. that’s my whole point with comparing things to China. We have propaganda in this country. We purposefully water down education in this country. Look into how the military specifically targets rural communities with poor education and poor prospects. We’ve created a warrior class.

The majority of people living in America are seeing their standard of living decline. And what for? Because our elites are hell bent on accumulating as much wealth and influence as possible. I don’t think America is going to all of the sudden become some Communist country. China isn’t even close to Communism. But I see us responsible for so much more death and destruction globally than China. I grew up in the most depopulated city in North America (Youngstown, Ohio). I’ve seen what is coming for the rest of the country because I grew up in it.

I’m not trying to say China is the best place on the planet. But I do think it’s pretty clear that the balance of power has shifted and our elites are lying to us about it. Why can’t Americans buy chinese cars or chinese phones? it doesn’t have anything to do with National Security. It’s to coverup that American companies are no longer competitive globally in the way they were let’s say 15 years ago. Certainly not 40 years ago. I advocate for socialism because I believe that the World would be a much better place if instead of materialism guiding society, we transformed into one that cared more about community, respecting the dignity of all humans, and ensuring that everyone’s basic needs are met at a minimum. I study history and I think most of the positive gains that have been made are because people have stood up and challenged the system. I’m coming here specifically because I don’t want to be on an echo chamber. I want my ideas challenged. And I also want you all to have a better understanding of what challenges and concerns young people have. Because capitalism isn’t working out very well for us. And it’s frustrating.

 

When i did the fraternity gig I worked at Rutgers. I tried the grease truck challenge and got through four of the five sandwiches with 10 minutes left and threw in the towel. The Chi Psi Lodge there is right on the main drag and to my knowledge has always had a Moose head hanging within it. If I drove to New Jersey I would be coming home with some Taylor ham.


Edit: the ones who remember Traficant will probably understand me better now. Beam me up Scotty!

 

I don't think most of the billionaires have the same rationale as the MAGA peasantry. They just see Trump as one of their own and simply have no desire to antagonize him for the sake of some pesky principles.
Sure, fascism is riskier for them, but the oligarchs have always thought they are more powerful than they actually are. That kind of wealth makes you prone to delusional thinking.