China envy

Trump wishes that he had the sort of dictatorial power exercised by the CCP:

Former President Donald Trump suggested that drug dealers should face the death penalty while speaking at a rally in Las Vegas on Friday.

“If you look at countries through, all throughout the world, no matter where you go, the only ones that don’t have a drug problem are those that institute the death penalty for drug dealers. They’re the only ones. They don’t have any problem,” Trump said.

He went on to claim that “China has no drug problem” because they have “what’s called ‘quick trial,'” which he explained as drug dealers going to trial quickly and swiftly executed if found guilty.

So how exactly does that work? Pot dealers in Wisconsin will be executed, while in Michigan they’ll be given SBA loans? Or will the executions be based on federal law (under which marijuana is everywhere illegal)?

Here’s another example of China envy. Trump supported Xi Jinping’s policy of putting a million Muslims into concentration camps, but had to settle for a watered down Muslim travel ban here in America.

Trump must have looked on with envy as Xi cracked down on those violent protests in Hong Kong, while he was powerless to arrest the BLM protests in America back in 2020. But don’t worry, next time things will be different:

Republicans have seized upon rising crime in big cities as a mid-term issue, framing their party as harder on crime than Democrats.

However, a recent report from Democratic think tank Third Way countered the argument that rising crime is a Democratic problem – finding that eight of the top ten states with the highest per-capita murder rates voted for Trump in 2020.

During his speech, Trump also said that he regretting allowing Democrats run their cities “instead of saying I’m going to do your job for you,” and said he would not allow that “a second time.”

The GOP often favors “states rights” because most states are run by Republicans. But when it comes to city governments (mostly run by Democrats), Trump favors a federal takeover. Send in the troops.

Neoconservatives tell us that China’s a threat to our way of life. But if we end up putting a million Muslims into concentration camps, executing drug merchants after “quick trials”, and have the federal police brush aside local governments and install martial law, it won’t be because the CCP sent shiploads of soldiers to the West Coast to take over our country. We’ll do it to ourselves.


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33 Responses to “China envy”

  1. Gravatar of myst_05 myst_05
    10. July 2022 at 15:08

    What would be your proposed solution to tackling the opioid crisis?

  2. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    10. July 2022 at 16:47

    I’ve always favored 100% drug legalization. I don’t think this would end the opioid crisis; indeed opioid addiction might actually increase somewhat. But I believe it would dramatically reduce the harm caused by opioids. Almost all of the deaths are due to accidental overdoses of illegal opioids such as fentanyl and heroin, where the user doesn’t realize the potency of the drug they are taking.

    This is obviously not going to happen. My second choice would be to emulate those countries that provide a safe place for opioid addicts to use drugs.

    “A number of countries – including Switzerland, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada – prescribe heroin for use under medical supervision, as part of successful programmes to treat long-term users of illicit opioids. Recently Glasgow and Durham, UK, have put forward proposals for Heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) aimed to combat public health risks caused by street use.”

    https://transformdrugs.org/blog/heroin-assisted-treatment-in-switzerland-successfully-regulating-the-supply-and-use-of-a-high-risk-injectable-drug

    Portugal’s approach is also worth looking at:

    https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/10/portugal-opioid

    It’s a very tough problem, with no easy answers.

  3. Gravatar of Dzhaughn Dzhaughn
    10. July 2022 at 18:24

    Trump must wonder what country to invade to sate his envy about Urkaine. I suspect Canada is poorly defended. Ottawa was. Better not tell him it’s a different country.

    But do we prefer dictating gasoline prices? And what other prices?

  4. Gravatar of bb bb
    11. July 2022 at 05:05

    Scott,
    So his position is that “china is terrible, but the one good thing about them is summary judgement for non-violent crimes followed by execution”? That’s quite a hill to die on.

  5. Gravatar of Student Student
    11. July 2022 at 07:06

    Trump sure does love that constitution lol. Wtf. If this guy had his way… 😳

  6. Gravatar of Sarah Sarah
    11. July 2022 at 11:56

    The entire platform of the democrat party is built upon centralization of the state. It’s the conservatives that are fighting for your liberty, not against it.

    Just ask world renowned virologist Robert Malone. Democrats do not believe that his voice is “desirable” in the marketplace of ideas, and so like most totalitarians they ban him. Scott did not support Robert Malone’s right to free speech.

    Democrats have told us they want to “pack” the supreme court, because the six conservative justices tend to favor decentralization, In other words, because the party is not getting their way, and not able to centralize in the manner they wish, they seek to “fix” the problem by adding activist justices who will agree to strip states rights. It should be noted, that Sumner supports this view.

    There are left wing groups currently paying a bounty to “doxx” supreme court justices who disagree with them. Notice how Sumner says nothing about this. Based on his pattern of emotional outbursts, which includes calling anyone who disagrees with him “hard right” and “Nazi”, one would conclude that he doesn’t write about this topic because he supports it.

    Sumner advocated for total and complete lockdowns, which of course was not the view of over 20,000 scientists, including the author of the Great Barrington declaration. Sumner called these scientists “anti-science”. It should be noted that the author of the great Barrington declaration is a Harvard scientist. He went on to praise China’s approach, which included mobile app tracking, weekly visits to the shopping center, and in some cases locking people in side their homes. He has backtracked on this statement recently, nevertheless, this was not his initial view. His recent change in opinion is most likely due to the fact that the democrat party has slightly changed their opinion, as CNN often uses the term “zero-covid” to describe Xi’s policies.

    Not long ago, Sumner told us that his view of a utopia is when “every country joins NATO”. Typically, something so illogical and ridiculous is undeserving of any response, but this does show his innate desire to centralize. One world, one view, one NATO!

    He told us that he supports BLM, despite the fact that the founder of the group is a self proclaimed “trained Marxist”. Like most NGO’s, she funneled money into her private pocket, enough to buy a 5 million dollar home in a white neighborhood, and presumably next to the very people she claims to hate.

    He wants the libertarian party, or his version of it, which is actually just a small group of radicals in San Francisco, to denounce the Mises institute because he’s afraid that Murry Rothbard’s conception of total privatization will encourage people to vote for Trump.

    He told us in 2016 that the electoral college should be ended, because too many rural states were voting for Trump. Again, this shows his lack of education and pension for leaning towards totalitarianism.

    The United States is a republic for a reason. It wasn’t determined overnight by imbeciles; it was crafted by men who understood how previous nations had failed, and the one thing the framers were concerned about — even more than a dictatorship — was the “tyranny of the majority”. You can very easily throw off a dictator. But if the majority violates your rights you will probably be exterminated. Idaho farmers don’t seek to impose their will upon Hunter Biden’s cock stroking parties outside his pool (yes, there is a real video of that now), and in return they expect that you will respect their rights. The electoral college was designed to give rural people a voice in the public arena, and to avoid what could descend into the tyranny of the majority.

    Scott also bans commenters who disagree with him.

    In total, what does all of this say about his views?

    It tells us that people like Sumner, not Trump, are the types of people you have to worry about. Anyone who seeks centralization is a supporter of violating your rights to self determination and by definition does not support a decentralized democratic republic. And this neo-democrat party, which he supports, is moving in that direction.

  7. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    11. July 2022 at 12:52

    Susan “It’s the conservatives that are fighting for your liberty, not against it.”

    You mean the freedom to immigrate? Free trade? Freedom to build apartment buildings on land you own? Freedom of companies to set their Covid policies? Freedom to have an abortion? Freedom to use drugs? Freedom to engage in prostitution? To watch porn? Freedom to change one’s gender? Freedom to teach CRT? Freedom for Tesla to sell directly to consumers? Freedom to photograph policemen? Freedom to vote by mail? Freedom to have physician assisted suicide?

    Which freedoms are you referring to? I’m confused.

  8. Gravatar of Tom M Tom M
    12. July 2022 at 05:00

    Scott-

    Is this any different than Justin Trudeau talking about his admiration for China’s dictatorship?

    The Trump is bad posts are always entertaining, don’t get me wrong they are 100% the most entertaining comment threads to read. But it feels like these posts aren’t much different than what I would read on CNNs Opinion section.

    I think you have a great mind for analysis, would love to see a longer post if you eventually have the time, to look into some of the concerns you have in the American political environment.

  9. Gravatar of Carl Carl
    12. July 2022 at 08:32

    “I’ve always favored 100% drug legalization”. I have too, but I have to say that what’s going on in the California cities I regularly visit is putting that belief to the test. It’s clear that it’s better for a drug addict to use prescription opiates than black market fentanyl or heroin. And, it’s also clear that it’s good to dry up the revenue of the drug cartels and gangs that are destroying parts of Mexico and our inner-cities.
    But, if you don’t couple legalization with enforcement of the rules that the drug-addicted tend to violate on a daily basis– vagrancy, public hygiene, assault, even jay-walking–you end up with parts of your cities that look like scenes out of The Walking Dead.

  10. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    12. July 2022 at 08:45

    Tom, I notice that you don’t provide a quote for Trudeau praising China for putting a million Muslims into concentration camps, or any other dictatorial polices, so I’ll assume you are lying and ignore your comment.

    After all, I often get criticized by commenters for admiring the Chinese dictatorship, with is a complete lie. I’ve never done that. So why shouldn’t I assume that you are a liar, just like Trump?

    Carl, You are correct that California has done a poor job in dealing with homelessness, but I’m not sure it’s related to drug legalization. Our homeless problem predates pot legalization, and other drugs are still illegal. But yes, complete legalization may require other changes in our society, perhaps including a tougher stance on disruptive street behavior. So I agree with your point.

  11. Gravatar of Carl Carl
    12. July 2022 at 09:19

    I didn’t mean to imply that legalizing pot led to homelessness. I simply meant that the consequences of heavy drug use can be an increase in certain kinds of criminal behavior just as the consequence of criminalizing drug use can be an increase in other kinds of criminal behavior.

  12. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    12. July 2022 at 09:53

    Carl, Fair point, although I suspect there’d be less violent criminal behavior with legalization, and more of the smaller nuisances.

    BTW, pot is still not completely legal in California, hence there’s still crime associated with the black market in selling pot.

  13. Gravatar of Ricardo Ricardo
    12. July 2022 at 12:21

    The only time Trump ever sought to intervene in states rights, as far as I know, was when the thugs setup a no-go-zone in Seattle. A man was shot, many were beaten, and the city wasn’t do anything to stop it. If the states violate the inalienable right of a person or persons, then the federal government must step in because its a violation of the bill of rights. You are making really poor arguments that show an elementary understanding of libertarianism, conservativism.

    https://www.newswars.com/we-are-not-tacos-hispanic-association-slams-jill-biden-for-comparing-latinos-to-breakfast-tacos/

    Here is more proof democrats are bigots. We knew it when they implemented CRT at public school, in which they try to tell my daughter, half-hispanic, half-white, that her mother is a racist.

    The democrats wrongly think that permitting open borders — because the immigrants are Latino — will help them during election season. They funnel these immigrants to red states, because they want to turn those states blue. But you are wrong, because the Latinos aren’t buying what you are selling. We are conservative by nature.

    Massachusetts is 99% white. This is where Sumner spent his career. He knows nothing about multiculturalism; he knows nothing about farmers losing livestock, or fearing they will be shot at night, because thousands of people are crossing their land.

    As we can see, Latinos are beginning to win in the conservative power. We are winning elections, and we will crush your totalitarian agenda. This country, my country, will not be Cuba.

  14. Gravatar of Tacticus Tacticus
    13. July 2022 at 05:38

    ‘They funnel these immigrants to red states, because they want to turn those states blue.’

    Where do you people get these ideas from?

  15. Gravatar of George George
    13. July 2022 at 05:57

    “Trump wishes that he had the sort of dictatorial power exercised by the CCP”

    Lol, psychological projection.

  16. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    13. July 2022 at 08:00

    Tacticus, The biggest irony is that the GOP doesn’t even understand that immigration helps their own party.

    It’s like in 2020 when the crime rate soared during Trump’s presidency; it actually helped him at the polls in the fall. Without the BLM riots he would have lost by even more than 7 million votes.

  17. Gravatar of Tom M Tom M
    13. July 2022 at 08:06

    Scott-

    “There is a flexibility that I know Stephen Harper must dream about: having a dictatorship where you can do whatever you wanted, that I find quite interesting.”- Justin Trudeau

    I accept your apology. I apologize as well, I did not realize I needed to find a direct quote, I figured someone who was as well read as yourself would have already known about this…

    Also, wasn’t it the Trump administration that publicly called the treatment of Uighur Muslims genocide?

    I also noticed you didn’t provide a quote for Trump praising China for putting millions of Muslims into concentration camps? Lol

    Glad your baseline assumption is that anyone who comments about anything you disagree with must be lying – fully embracing the post-modernist framework for discussion. At least your transparent.

  18. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    13. July 2022 at 08:10

    Tom, “There is a flexibility that I know Stephen Harper must dream about: having a dictatorship where you can do whatever you wanted, that I find quite interesting.”- Justin Trudeau”

    LOL, so when Trudeau claims his political opponent dreams of having the power of a Chinese dictator, that means he’s endorsing China’s dictatorship?

    Is this a joke?

  19. Gravatar of Christian List Christian List
    13. July 2022 at 08:43

    What Trudeau said in 2013 is clearly way more ambiguous than just an asserted criticism of Harper. He’s not really talking about Harper, the actual question was which nation’s administration he admired most. And out of about 195 governments in the world, he chose this answer:

    At a “ladies night” fundraiser in Toronto in 2013, an up-and-coming politician was asked which nation’s administration he admired most in the world.

    Wearing a pale blue shirt and a smile, the fresh-faced Liberal Party leader answered Communist China.

    “There is a level of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and say we need to go green, we need to start, you know, investing in solar,” Justin Trudeau told the group of women. “There is a flexibility that I know [Prime Minister] Stephen Harper must dream about: having a dictatorship where you can do whatever you wanted, that I find quite interesting.”

    https://fee.org/articles/justin-trudeau-said-he-admired-china-s-dictatorship-canadians-should-have-believed-him/

  20. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    13. July 2022 at 08:53

    Christian, Investing in solar is sort of like putting a million people into concentration camps? Whatever you say.

  21. Gravatar of Christian List Christian List
    13. July 2022 at 09:17

    Scott, I never said that. Don’t play these games with me. Trudeau is no Trump. Trump clearly has this narcissistic and sadistic nature and would walk over dead bodies if he could. But in my opinion, he lacks the intellect and the power to really implement this, although opinions on this can of course vary. In general, he doesn’t have the media domination that would be needed. Even Fox News is no longer a fan of his.

    Trudeau has this pretty common admiration of total political and economic control, as is often the case with left-wing liberals, who unfortunately often really think that this would be a positive thing if they had total control, actually believing that the “information problem” does not apply to them.

    So both politicians cause damage in theory, but on a different scale. Trump is way worse in theory, but he never prevails in reality. Trudeau is clearly more harmless, but he is popular with mainstream media and he actually gets things done. So what is worse. I think that’s not so easy to answer.

    I’m rooting for Nikki Haley to be the GOP nominee so far. Biden makes it too easy for Trump, he really wants to run again. Democrats aren’t doing everything they can to stop Trump either. They are making it too easy for him. Why not an age restriction: 75 years is the limit. Even better, 70 years.

  22. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    13. July 2022 at 11:15

    Christian, Then why bother commenting? Tom’s so clueless he might think you are actually defending his point.

  23. Gravatar of Tom M Tom M
    13. July 2022 at 11:30

    Scott-

    “LOL, so when Trudeau claims his political opponent dreams of having the power of a Chinese dictator, that means he’s endorsing China’s dictatorship?”

    Typically, when someone says they have admiration for XYZ, I take that as they admire XYZ. Especially when asked, what administration they admire most, on the planet…

    “Christian, Investing in solar is sort of like putting a million people into concentration camps? Whatever you say.”

    That’s right, Trudeau would be the good kind of dictator, not the bad kind. He’d do good things like invest in solar energy. LOL! Sounds an awful lot like the Bolsheviks who had fantastic altruistic goals like collectivization of agriculture and rapid industrialization.

  24. Gravatar of Tom M Tom M
    13. July 2022 at 11:54

    Ad hominem and straw man fallacies… that’s a bummer

  25. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    13. July 2022 at 12:59

    Tom, ““Christian, Investing in solar is sort of like putting a million people into concentration camps? Whatever you say.”

    That’s right”

    Yes, dictatorship is all a matter of degree. Some of you people are so deep into the Trump cult it makes my jaw drop.

  26. Gravatar of Jerry Jerry
    13. July 2022 at 15:15

    “Neoconservatives tell us that China’s a threat to our way of life. But if we end up putting a million Muslims into concentration camps, executing drug merchants after “quick trials”, and have the federal police brush aside local governments and install martial law, it won’t be because the CCP sent shiploads of soldiers to the West Coast to take over our country. We’ll do it to ourselves.”

    Well, no thought leader in the conservative party condones placing people into “concentration camps”. Conservatives have a great deal of respect for the rule of law and individual liberty.

    The left is responsible for over 100 million deaths in the last century, and if we include the socialist Hitler along with communists like Stalin and Mao then the number is closer to 150M. They are also the party of slavery, Jim Crow, Japanese internment and weapons bans, so they don’t have a good record when it comes to supporting the bill of rights.

    And Scott, even Bush said Bolton was a known liar, so I do hope you are not basing your opinion on a random statement he made in a book. He’s a terrible source.

    Conservatives don’t support “quick-deaths”, or trial without a jury, or packing the court, etc. I don’t know who you’ve been speaking with, but that is not the language I’ve been hearing from party leaders.

    Re drugs: They don’t just affect the person taking them; they affect the whole community. Take a look at Kensington ave documentary on YouTube. The people living in that area support arresting the peddlers, and rehab for the users. The local government is simply ignoring their request, most likely because the criminals have paid off the prosecutor.

  27. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    13. July 2022 at 15:55

    Jerry, Oh, so it’s a lie that Trump told Xi he approved of the concentration camps? That’s your argument? That’s what you want me to believe? Is it also a lie that Trump praised Duterte’s policy of murdering drug users in the Philippines?

    “Re drugs: They don’t just affect the person taking them; they affect the whole community.”

    So now conservatives care more about externalities than “freedom”? Why didn’t you say so. So can I assume you also support mask mandates? Vaccine mandates?

    Or is it only the freedom to do things that you personally approve of? Your story keeps changing.

    And if you think Hitler and the proponents of slavery were “leftist”, then I don’t even know what to say. I’m speechless.

    (Where do these people come from?)

  28. Gravatar of mbka mbka
    14. July 2022 at 17:42

    Christian,

    re: the argument that “Trump isn’t smart enough to be dangerous” .

    Looking at many dictators out there, and including Hitler himself, intelligence doesn’t matter so much. You’ll always find willing henchmen as long as you are present a convincing vision. I was reading Scott Alexander’s take on a John von Neumann biography, the part about the early 20th Century explosion of brilliance in East European Jewry that was immediately destroyed by the Holocaust. And then it hit me. Geniuses like von Neumann understood maths and physics. Hitler and Mussolini understood people. It breaks my heart to even type this but to be consistent, you’d have to admit there is a kind of political genius in this. Compared to classical fascism, Trump is second rate with his shtick but it’s in the same vein.

    In Simon Sinek’s words, people like John von Neumann are good at the “how”. People like Hitler, and Trump, are good at the “why”. Unfortunately, this works for a lot of people, even if their “why” is really evil. Compare Eichmann in Jerusalem, about Hitler: “He was our God”.

    What stops Trump is perhaps the fact that his vision is not coherent, it’s many small mean things, not one big and grand evil thing such as Hitler’s: One aim, German greatness, One culprit, the Jews, One victim, the German people. Trump’s meanness is fragmented, so it is less powerful. Still. People don’t believe what Trump promises, people simply believe in Trump.

  29. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    15. July 2022 at 08:23

    In my view, the main problem is not Trump, he’s a very old man, rather it’s that the GOP is being remade in his image. The party of Ronald Reagan is almost gone. (Apart from a few people like Cheney and Romney.)

  30. Gravatar of TBD TBD
    15. July 2022 at 10:36

    Are you in favor of government being powerless to arrest rioters who are actually breaking laws?

    Are laws dictatorial based on the process by which they are passed (many accepted democracies/US allies… but I repeat myself… have DP for drug dealers) or based on whether you agree with them?

  31. Gravatar of Ginny Ginny
    15. July 2022 at 10:41

    You are delusional.

    Republicans, despite two hundred years of supporting states rights — traced all the way back to Jefferson — now only support states rights because they want to dominate you. All the evidence points to democrats wanting to implement CCP governance, but its really those Republicans. They don’t show outwardly, but its what they are truly thinking!

    LOL! It doesn’t get more delusional than that folks.

  32. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    15. July 2022 at 10:50

    Ginny, You said:

    “Republicans, despite two hundred years of supporting states rights — traced all the way back to Jefferson”

    LOL. You forgot to mention Lincoln’s support for states rights.

    BTW, is your husband a Supreme Court justice?

  33. Gravatar of Matthias Matthias
    17. July 2022 at 04:18

    The US Republican party was founded in 1854. How can they have some anything for 200 years?

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