If Trump is not behaving as an authoritarian

[ataraxia]

No, they do not support the Nordic model, because to support the Nordic model you have to tax like the Nordic model, and that means about 45% of GDP.

Feel free to provide a link from either of those two communist bozos showing they support increasing US taxes by about 4 trillion per year.

So either Norway is socialist or it’s not. Which is it?

 

[Peter]

No, they do not support the Nordic model, because to support the Nordic model you have to tax like the Nordic model, and that means about 45% of GDP.

Feel free to provide a link from either of those two communist bozos showing they support increasing US taxes by about 4 trillion per year.

The problem you have is the people of Norway are fine with being taxed at that rate because they enjoy having better public services in return.

Maybe the US would have the same reaction if you tried the same tax and spend tactics but you won't because then the super rich might complain and we can't have that!

 

[aociswundumho]

The problem you have is the people of Norway are fine with being taxed at that rate because they enjoy having better public services in return.

Maybe the US would have the same reaction if you tried the same tax and spend tactics but you won't because then the super rich might complain and we can't have that!

The Nordic taxman bends everyone over, not just the super rich.

So either Norway is socialist or it’s not. Which is it?

They have a mixed economy, of course.

 

[Peter]

The Nordic taxman bends everyone over, not just the rich.

I agree that everyone in Norway gets taxed more and they agree to that for better public services.

Maybe, just maybe the people of Norway aren't a bunch of selfish bastards and can think beyond their own instant financial situation?

 

[JohnfrmClevelan]

This was the claim:



Norway is not a socialist state.

As far as this goes:



Mamdani is extremely popular in this forum among leftists, and he is a true socialist, who wants to build public housing projects, state-owned grocery stores, and state-owned daycare centers. So yes, believe it or not, we still have to argue against socialism in 2025, because the "party of science" still luvs it.

Is Mamdani talking about eliminating all other grocery stores?

What he, and posters here that use the term "socialism" are talking about is a European-style mixed economy. The government steps in when the private sector has failed to come through with workable solutions.

 

[aociswundumho]

Is Mamdani talking about eliminating all other grocery stores?

What difference does that make? Are government-run schools not socialist because private schools exist?

What he, and posters here that use the term "socialism" are talking about is a European-style mixed economy.

So you want me to assume every leftist on a political debate site is an ignoramus who doesn't even know what basic political terms mean? Even I give them more credit than that.

The government steps in when the private sector has failed to come through with workable solutions.

Thread 'Why everything costs more (and sucks)'

Jun 5, 2025

It's the same pattern, over and over again:

1) Government identifies some “problem” in a functioning market (e.g., healthcare, housing, education).

2) It intervenes with regulations or controls to “fix” the perceived problem: price caps, mandates, subsidies, zoning laws, rent control, etc.

3) Unintended consequences follow: reduced supply, rising prices, and declining quality.

4) Instead of reversing the intervention, the idiot government piles on more regulation and subsidizes demand, worsening the problem.

5) Prices keep climbing, driven by inflated demand (via subsidies) and...

• aociswundumho
• Replies: 9
• Forum: DP Blogs

• 

 

[JohnfrmClevelan]

What difference does that make? Are government-run schools not socialist because private schools exist?

It makes a difference because you are the (only) one referring to "socialism" in whatever sense of the word helps your argument at the time. You jump between Soviet socialism and European mixed economy socialism when it suits you, but nobody else is talking about Soviet-style socialism. "Socialism" is just shorthand for Euro-style mixed economy, because nobody (but you, on occasion) is talking about Soviet-style socialism.

So you want me to assume every leftist on a political debate site is an ignoramus who doesn't even know what basic political terms mean? Even I give them more credit than that.

We are all referring to Euro-style socialism. You can play Noah Webster if you like.

Thread 'Why everything costs more (and sucks)'

Jun 5, 2025

It's the same pattern, over and over again:

1) Government identifies some “problem” in a functioning market (e.g., healthcare, housing, education).

2) It intervenes with regulations or controls to “fix” the perceived problem: price caps, mandates, subsidies, zoning laws, rent control, etc.

3) Unintended consequences follow: reduced supply, rising prices, and declining quality.

4) Instead of reversing the intervention, the idiot government piles on more regulation and subsidizes demand, worsening the problem.

5) Prices keep climbing, driven by inflated demand (via subsidies) and...

• aociswundumho
• Replies: 9
• Forum: DP Blogs

• 

You are citing yourself as an authority now?

European countries run just fine with the government running healthcare. And trains. And pensions, etc. Their healthcare outcomes are better than ours.

 

[jaypatriot]

jayPATRIOT what a name . If Trump is Hitler he would be very, very old, agreed?. Hitler left the League of Nations and like him Trump belittles NATO threatening to do the same. Walks like a duck and quacks like a duck .....................
One more comparison, both men's brains are rotting.

Man, you really are upset learning about all of legislative victories in addition to his military victories. He doesn't deserve all that praise as Commander-in-Chief and head of his party does he?

Trump's brain might be deteriorating. But he sure is getting a lot of things right.
Wait till the House passes the big beautiful bill. Then you will see lots of wailing and gnashing of Democrat teeth.

 

[jaypatriot]

No, I don't like him. He is unlikeable. If you like him, you probably liked the schoolyard bully that wasn't picking on you at the time.

We have already seen the not-as-effective-as-we-once-thought checks and balances in action. trump has effectively purged non-MAGA Republicans from the party, and is still doing so, so Congress isn't a check on him. He escaped full impeachment twice when the Senate voted party-line to let him off. He has packed the SC with loyalists. He has created an atmosphere of fear among judges and politicians - one tweet from trump and an army of dangerous trumpies will flood their voicemail with threats. Plus, he pardoned 1600 of the most dangerous trumpies.

Our Constitution has very little to say about checks and balances on the POTUS. Laws that apply at the level of POTUS are few and far between, and the laws, rules, regulations, and norms that we do have, trump has pretty much brushed aside. He hasn't obeyed the Emoluments Clause. Not only has he not divested his business interests, he has accelerated his moneymaking schemes while in office. trumpcoin? Selling pardons? The guy is absolutely unwilling to police himself, and there are no legal checks that can stop a POTUS willing to abuse the powers of the office.

You would do well to consider the possibility that you are wrong here. I see nothing on the horizon that is going to check trump's excesses/power grab.

AREN'T you happy he's going to be gone in less than four years?
Then you'll just have JD Vance as President to deal with.

If things turn sour for our country, then I will re-evaluate by thinking about the job he is doing.
Keep in mind, I never voted for him because he is not a good person.
But he's a helluva lot better than the DEI hire Kamala who got very close to winning.

He is the duly-elected leader of our country.
Why would I want to see him fail like so many doomsday predictors and anti-Americans on this web site? To wish for a president to fail is un-American.

 

[JohnfrmClevelan]

AREN'T you happy he's going to be gone in less than four years?
Then you'll just have JD Vance as President to deal with.

If things turn sour for our country, then I will re-evaluate by thinking about the job he is doing.
Keep in mind, I never voted for him because he is not a good person.
But he's a helluva lot better than the DEI hire Kamala who got very close to winning.

He is the duly-elected leader of our country.
Why would I want to see him fail like so many doomsday predictors and anti-Americans on this web site? To wish for a president to fail is un-American.

I notice that you didn't try to refute the parallels between trump and Hitler. I guess we can conclude that you are A-OK with an authoritarian running our country.

Authoritarians don't just cede power once they have it. trump is already talking about a third term. I'll be happy if we have a fair election in four years.

 

[Captain Adverse]

I notice that you didn't try to refute the parallels between trump and Hitler. I guess we can conclude that you are A-OK with an authoritarian running our country.

Authoritarians don't just cede power once they have it. trump is already talking about a third term. I'll be happy if we have a fair election in four years.

LOL!

There are no real comparisons between Trump and Hitler except those delusions in the minds of Americans with TDS. It is all projection, based on emotion and partisan politics. Rhetoric designed to justify people in their emotional viewpoints thereby allowing them to feel righteous in acting out against the imagined evil.

That's why no one who supports Trump is trying to "refute the parallels..." There really are none.

Trump is simply the duly elected President of the USA. He will serve out this second term, and then another Republican candidate will be chosen by the Party to run for office and hopefully win.

 

[Stealers Wheel]

Union membership was mandatory in fascist Italy:

From YOUR link, @aociswundumho:

In 1930, the National Council of Corporations was established and it was for representatives of all levels of the twenty-two key elements of the economy to meet and resolve problems. In practice, it was an enormous bureaucracy of committees that while consolidating the potential powers of the state resulted in a cumbersome and inefficient system of patronage and obstructionism. One consequence of the Council was the fact that trade unions held little to no representation whereas organized business, specifically organized industry (CGII), was able to gain a foothold over its competitors.

Not long after the creation of the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction, Mussolini boasted in a 1934 speech to his Chamber of Deputies: "Three-quarters of the Italian economy, industrial and agricultural, is in the hands of the state". As Italy continued to nationalize its economy, the IRI "became the owner not only of the three most important Italian banks, which were clearly too big to fail, but also of the lion’s share of the Italian industries".

By 1939, Fascist Italy attained the highest rate of state ownership of an economy in the world other than the Soviet Union, where the Italian state "controlled over four-fifths of Italy's shipping and shipbuilding, three-quarters of its pig iron production and almost half that of steel".

 

[vesper]

Wow! This was a hysterical thread to read through. Thank you!
I have a challenging life and don't have the time to post on this forum as some do.
But what a heck of a topic to bring up when a full fledge communist is leading in NYC for mayor election.
Mamdani is a Communist. He has been talking a lot on his vision for NYC.
He hates capitalism where the stock market is located.
He hates private grocery stores and wants the government to run them.
He hates home ownership and wants government to confiscate private homes and produce government housing.
AOC and Bernie Sanders support him.
That's about has authorization one can get! Brought to you by the leftists of the Democratic party.

 

[aociswundumho]

From YOUR link, @aociswundumho:

The quotes you posted simply show that fascism is a form of socialism.

What point are you trying to make?

 

[JohnfrmClevelan]

LOL!

There are no real comparisons between Trump and Hitler except those delusions in the minds of Americans with TDS. It is all projection, based on emotion and partisan politics. Rhetoric designed to justify people in their emotional viewpoints thereby allowing them to feel righteous in acting out against the imagined evil.

That's why no one who supports Trump is trying to "refute the parallels..." There really are none.

Trump is simply the duly elected President of the USA. He will serve out this second term, and then another Republican candidate will be chosen by the Party to run for office and hopefully win.

Did he demonize minority groups? Yes.
Did he attack the press? Yes.
Did he attempt a coup and fail? Yes.
Did he declare an emergency in order to justify powers that were not ordinarily available? Yes.
Did he use government goons to suppress dissent? Yes.
Did he strip people of their citizenship and their rights? Yes.
Did he use propaganda, rallies, and symbols to create a cult of personality? Yes.

Every one of those examples also applies to trump, except stripping people of their citizenship, which he is probably working on. Red caps are the new swastikas.

 

[Econ4every1]

Trump must be Hitler!!

• "Poisoning the Blood of Our Country" and "Vermin" Comments: Use of dehumanizing language regarding immigrants and political opponents.
• Alleged Admiration for Hitler's Generals: Reported comments expressing a desire for similar loyalty from his own generals.
• "Unified Reich" Campaign Video: A video posted on his social media account featuring text referring to a "unified Reich."
• Admiration for Strongmen: Frequent praise for leaders like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and comments about being a "dictator on Day One."
• Rally Tactics and Imagery: Critics have drawn comparisons between some of his rally behaviors (e.g., hand pledges) and the mass gatherings used by historical authoritarian movements.
• Tulsa Rally on Juneteenth (June 19, 2020): President Trump scheduled a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 19th, a date recognized as Juneteenth, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Tulsa is also the site of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst acts of racial violence in U.S. history
• The "Very fine people comment" Full qute in context: REPORTER: The neo-Nazis started this thing. They showed up in Charlottesville.
  
  TRUMP: Excuse me, they didn’t put themselves down as neo-Nazis, and you had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group – excuse me, excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down, of to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.

And let's remember the rally in Charlotte was organized by a white supremacist group, not patriots or history buffs trying to save a statue, and I don't know about you, but if I hear about a rally to save a statue and I see, the night before a bunch of racists carrying tiki torches screaming about how the Jews will not replace us, or if you happened to miss that news, you show up on the day of and see the racists protesting the removal of the statue of Robert E. Lee, would you want to stand shoulder to shoulder with the racists? (Here's a hint, that's a 'heads I win, tails you lose' kinda question).

Now, all the maga folks out there, go-ahead and gaslight us, tell us not to believe our lying eyes.

See, it's not just a thing or two that Trump does, it's carefully crafted message to maintain just enough plausible deniability to win the right, even those that don't see themselves as racist, ya know, the kind of people who say things like, "I'm not a racist, I voted for Obama!"

So no, Trump is not Hitler, Pol Pot, Mussolini or any other of those nutjobs, but then they weren't each other either. Trump doesn't have to be exactly like any of those men to join that list.

I leave you with a quote. "Trump is America's Hitler" - J.D. Vance 2016

 

[Nickyjo]

I agree that everyone in Norway gets taxed more and they agree to that for better public services.

Maybe, just maybe the people of Norway aren't a bunch of selfish bastards and can think beyond their own instant financial situation?

And remember, Trump wants more Norwegians to immigrate to the US.

 

[CharisRose]

Wow! This was a hysterical thread to read through. Thank you!
I have a challenging life and don't have the time to post on this forum as some do.
But what a heck of a topic to bring up when a full fledge communist is leading in NYC for mayor election.
Mamdani is a Communist. He has been talking a lot on his vision for NYC.
He hates capitalism where the stock market is located.
He hates private grocery stores and wants the government to run them.
He hates home ownership and wants government to confiscate private homes and produce government housing.
AOC and Bernie Sanders support him.
That's about has authorization one can get! Brought to you by the leftists of the Democratic party.

Thanks vesper! This is an Excellent to the point post. It deserves A HEAR!HEAR!

 

[aociswundumho]

Did he demonize minority groups? Yes.
Did he attack the press? Yes.
Did he attempt a coup and fail? Yes.
Did he declare an emergency in order to justify powers that were not ordinarily available? Yes.
Did he use government goons to suppress dissent? Yes.
Did he strip people of their citizenship and their rights? Yes.
Did he use propaganda, rallies, and symbols to create a cult of personality? Yes.

Sounds like a typical dictator of a typical socialist state.

 

[CharisRose]

LOL!

There are no real comparisons between Trump and Hitler except those delusions in the minds of Americans with TDS. It is all projection, based on emotion and partisan politics. Rhetoric designed to justify people in their emotional viewpoints thereby allowing them to feel righteous in acting out against the imagined evil.

That's why no one who supports Trump is trying to "refute the parallels..." There really are none.

Trump is simply the duly elected President of the USA. He will serve out this second term, and then another Republican candidate will be chosen by the Party to run for office and hopefully win.

HEAR!HEAR! Thanks! Just a like wasn’t good enough

 

[JohnfrmClevelan]

Sounds like a typical dictator of a typical socialist state.

Sounds like a typical dictator, period.

 

[JohnfrmClevelan]

HEAR!HEAR! Thanks! Just a like wasn’t good enough

What would you have done for a point-by-point refutation? Because I haven't seen one yet.

 

[aociswundumho]

So no, Trump is not Hitler, Pol Pot, Mussolini or any other of those nutjobs, but then they weren't each other either. Trump doesn't have to be exactly like any of those men to join that list.

Really. You would put Trump on a list that includes Hitler and Pol Pot.

 

[JohnfrmClevelan]

Really. You would put Trump on a list that includes Hitler and Pol Pot.

He is on the road there. Not there yet, but he's checking a whole lot of boxes that the others checked on their rise to power.

 

[aociswundumho]

He is on the road there.

So you think Trump is on the road to torturing, enslaving, and murdering millions of innocent people?