On the Saturday broadcast of “Justice” on Fox News Channel, GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump called in and discussed National Review, who published a so-called anti-Trump manifesto entitled “Against Trump.”
“Well, it’s a failing magazine, you know that. It’s been failing badly, and they’re getting some publicity,” Trump said of National Review.
He later added, “I can only say this — the National Review is a failing publication. It’s not going to be around long. And they’ll get some publicity. A lot of the writers think it’s going to help me more because people are tired of the negativity from these people. All they do is talk, but they don’t have solutions to anything, and so I mean, I’m fine with it. I’m not going to be reading it because I don’t read it very much anyway. But a lot of people don’t read it anymore.”
#16. To: cranky, TooConservative, Vicomte13, CZ82, liberator, GarySpFc (#0)
NR is an echo chamber. Everyone listening to them were already supporting another candidate like JEB! or Rubio.
So what does this NR outlash do? Nothing to Trump's primary numbers. Nothing at all. It just makes his supporters dig in more like an Alabama tick and then draws attention to how powerless the party elite is.
What real effect is there? NR is basically coming out and admitting Trump will win the primary and they the elite will support Hitlery. She will take their money.
The party PACs are wasting money millions of dollars to take Trump down. No one is listening.
Best advice for the GOP is stop eating their own and let the candidates campaign and the people vote.
What real effect is there? NR is basically coming out and admitting Trump will win the primary and they the elite will support Hitlery. She will take their money.
The party PACs are wasting money millions of dollars to take Trump down. No one is listening.
Best advice for the GOP is stop eating their own and let the candidates campaign and the people vote.
When I think of National Review I think of William Crystal. I've never liked him. I don't like his arrogant condescending tone he always talks. His slow talking bullshit.
I can't believe Dan Quayle had that clown working for him.
#22. To: A K A Stone, redleghunter, Vicomte13, TooConservative (#17)
When I think of National Review I think of William Crystal. I've never liked him. I don't like his arrogant condescending tone he always talks. His slow talking bullshit.
I can't believe Dan Quayle had that clown working for him.
William Kristol wrote that Trumpism is two-bit Caesarism in the latest issue . You may think he is wrong ;but Vicomte13 boasts that Trump will assume dicatorial powers once in office to make the changes he thinks the country needs.So maybe they have a point . They see how effectively the emperor is at making his fundamental changes by exceeding his constitutional mandate. Now the conservative base is looking for their own dicatator to level the playing field . Up steps Trump who tells them everything they want to hear . And they support him without regard to his qualifications, statements, integrity, credibility, knowledge, consistency, etc. MAYBE he will effectively give them everything they want . But ,a benign dictator is still a dictator .
They see how effectively the emperor is at making his fundamental changes by exceeding his constitutional mandate.
You cannot have Imperium (called today International Community), without Imperator.
So either you resign from imperialism, take troops home, reduce defense by half and return to the original principles OR you keep on going to head-butt with the barbarian tribes and defiant powers of the East.
It is true: you cannot have Imperium without Imperator. That's the way it is.
Now, you know that I think that Imperium is an ultimately suicidal goal - that it is unattainable in the end, but that you can destroy everything you have pursuing it.
The current devastation left in the shrinking footprint of Wal Mart comes to mind. Wal Mart comes, and local goober politicians cut the throats of their ma and pa local groceries and drugstores in the dreams of "bigger tax revenues".
Then the goobers pass special zoning laws to ease WalMart in, give them tax breaks galore, let them have their way.
So they come in, the ma and pa stores go out of business because nobody can compete with the China price, and nobody can compete with a megalith that will slash its prices below profitability in order to put YOU out of business - without the Federal or State Trade Commissions taking regulatory action (because they are bought by imperator WalMart).
So then with the flick of an accountant's risk, WalMart decides that it will close hundreds of stores, and now those goober politicians who sacrificed their own neighbors looking for the mirage of "higher revenues" have to drive 50 miles to get groceries just like everybody else.
And the folks who used to run the grocery store, will they reopen? No. Their livelihoods were wiped out by WalMart. They can't come back. And will the town goobers extend all of those tax breaks and perks to their NEIGHBORS, to let them get back up? Of course not. Imperator gets tribute, little people get the back of the hand.
Tne entrenched rich will attempt to use the delaying power of government to maintain their advantages. They will oppose Trump. Trump will not have been elected by them or for them, but by the people, and we will use the same massive imperial powers that have accumulated in our government since government was used to enforce slavery and drive Indians off their land, to serve HIS constituency, which is me.
That which destroys Goldman Sachs and globalism helps me. That which destroys the Israel lobby and its shipping billions offshore...in order to entangle us in places in which I have no interests helps me. That which stops illegal immigration and stops the handing out of visas for skilled labor helps me.
Somebody wins and somebody loses. I am electing Trump so that MY class gets to win for a change. And that means that Trump gets to use, and abuse, all of the power that the crony capitalists have used and abused.
Trump is not of the same class as the globalists. His money is in real estate, which is inescapably local. Trump lives or dies economically on the local economies all across America. He can't just shut down a store, because HIS "stores" are brick and mortar, steel and glass where people LIVE. So HE needs most people to be living WELL, to fill his buildings and pay his rent.
Goldman Sachs employs a few thousand. The economy HERE that Goldman Sachs destroys employs millions and millions. It doesn't do TRUMP any good for Goldman to create millions of jobs in CHINA, because Trump's buildings are in New Jersey. Will Trump fix everything? Of course not. But big pieces: middle class taxes, while specifically targeting the carried interest deduction of big financiers - this is a big thing. Controlling immigration and the influx of Islam is a big thing. Causing foreigners with oil to PAY the Americans to provide security, instead of US subsidizing THEM - this is a big thing...because some WILL, and we will be richer for it, and others won't, and we will tell them to go to hell, they will be overthrown, the terrorists will cut off heads, and the rest will be inclined to pay the Americans the protection money, because the alternative is dying at the hand of their barbarian cousins. Getting rid of Obamacare and replacing it with a comprehensive system: you get it from your employer (the old system), or you get it from Medicare if you're retired (the old system), or you get it from Medicaid if you're poor (the old system) - or if you're none of those, you buy it from some sort of government sponsored insurance - the new thing that Trump proposes. This is different from Obamacare, because Obamacare destroys the CURRENT system and replaces the whole thing with a "private" system that cannot make money and has to be subsidized. Trump says that's dumb: private employer insurance, Medicare and Medicaid work. What needs to be added is government insurance to cover the workers whose employers don't provide, with the gap covered by taxes. It's expensive, but less expensive and disruptive than simply destroying the health insurance system, which Obamacare does. Those things are all good for my class, and generally good for the country. They harm specific minority interests. Currently those minority interests prevail to the detriment of the whole country, and my class in particular. Those minority interests have wielded all the power available, ruthlessly, to get what they have, illegitimately. I expect Trump will wield all of that power to undo that in the favor of what benefits the people who voted for him, and himself.
And if the towns refuse to make variances from the laws to let WalMart come in on the existing terms of law, then WalMart can't compete.
WalMart doesn't do it better. WalMart, like crony capitalists, gets special rules and tax breaks just for them. Then regular people cannot compete and go out of business.
Anyway, it's interesting that you support Trump and so do I. Perhaps you have not thought through what stopping illegal immigration, having universal health care that isn't Obamacare, and putting a tarriff on Chinese goods MEANS.
It means that Americans HAVE TO hire Americans, at higher wages. It means that businesses have to spend more money for labor. It means that either the budget deficit goes up or the taxes go up. And Trump has already said that the taxes WILL go up - on the rich. He has already said that his tax plan will cost him $700 million dollars over ten years, but it has to be done.
You rail angrily against the very thing that Trump will be establishing as national policy, because you hate struggling people, and that is exactly whom Trump's policies use government power to protect. He is aiming at regulating the market in a way that forces the rich to spend more money hiring Americans, employing Americans and pay taxes for the social safety network.
Part of this is internal, and the other part is keeping the foreign competition that makes WalMart possible out through tarriffs.
I think that if you actually understood Trump you'd oppose him, just as you would Jesus and YHWH if you actually understood what they say about economics in the Bible.
Why so? Wouldn't the tariffs apply to all retailers?
Yes, the tarriff applies to all retailers. But WalMart has benefited hugely from a double effect: they get the cheapest foreign goods in bulk, so they get the best China price, which is better than the price others get.
The net result of that is that WalMart has a particular advantage in rock- bottom prices because they own big chunks of the foreign export market.
Now enter a tarriff that imposes a tax on goods based upon their original purchase price, to bring the cost of the goods up to American standards.
Everybody pays the tarriff, but WalMart pays a lot more, because WalMart was getting the stuff cheaper already. So, those cost savings from organizing China are simply handed over to the government as larger taxes.
This IS a very substantial piece of WalMart's profit margin.
Also, the mass closings of WalMart stores after towns bent over backwards to get the WalMarts in...and had their own shopping bases wiped out, only to have WalMart leave - this will make it more difficult in the future for WalMart to be able to get the "We're WalMart, you must give us a tax rebate if we're going to move into your town" advantages they get out of local governments. Hundreds of communities, many in every state, will have played the WalMart lottery and gotten burnt badly.
With that sort of behavior, WalMart has fouled its own nest, but having their foreign price advantage extracted will mean that when it comes to many things, WalMart will lose its price advantage.
Take the price advantage away, and WalMart is not a particularly pleasant place to shop.
If there is a 25% tariff, everyone pays 25% more for imports -- Walmart AND the smaller stores.
If that is how the tariff is calculated. If it is an equalization tariff, not a flat percentage tariff, then the level of tariff is imposed to bring the cost of goods up to the tariff level.
So, you pay $10 for something that has an equalization tariff of $11, you pay $1 of tariff. You pay $1 for the same thing, you pay $10 of tariff.
An equalization tariff establishes the price that must be paid to bring the good into the domestic market so as to eliminate the price advantage found by buying goods overseas. It is not a percentage, it is an amount added to bring the foreign product up to the US market price, eliminating all price advantages.
Then, if people STILL want to buy a lamp made in China for $50, they can. Or they can buy the $50 American lamp What they do not have is the choice between a $50 American lamp and a $10 Chinese lamp, because of the $40 equalization tariff. If WalMart pays only $5 for the lamp, they pay $45 dollars in equalization tariff.
WalMart is able to exist and run everybody out of business because they get the lowest "China price" (by "China" we also mean Indonesia, Vietnam, etc.) and there is no tariff.
People will still buy Gucci handbags and Mercedes Benz's, because they want that particular brand. And the tariffs won't affect those much because (a) those cars are already priced above the US market price for domestic cars and (b) many foreign cars are actually made here anyway.
But you cannot make "China Price" things in the USA, because the cost (or lack of cost) of labor in China is THE thing that makes the Chinese-made goods competitive. The equalization tariff takes away the price advantage COMPLETELY.
There is no "New Math" involved in it. And there was no cause to lead off with an insult.
Then, if people STILL want to buy a lamp made in China for $50, they can. Or they can buy the $50 American lamp What they do not have is the choice between a $50 American lamp and a $10 Chinese lamp, because of the $40 equalization tariff. If WalMart pays only $5 for the lamp, they pay $45 dollars in equalization tariff.
And the poor and working class consumer gets to pay $50 for a lamp when they could've paid $10 . So tell me again who benefits from this arrangement ?
"And the poor and working class consumer gets to pay $50 for a lamp when they could've paid $10 . So tell me again who benefits from this arrangement?"
I'd say the federal government which made $40 without doing anything.
But not to worry. They can spend that $40 more wisely than the poor and working class consumer.
And the poor and working class consumer gets to pay $50 for a lamp when they could've paid $10 . So tell me again who benefits from this arrangement ?
The working class benefit, because they have a STEADY JOB at the lamp factory, and through their steady job, they pay for food and housing, and education.
And they have to save money to be able to buy a lamp, instead of buying a cheap throwaway, so they don't have as many material goods, but they have much greater security on the most important things: housing, food, health care, education.
The price of $10 lamps is that the jobs making the lamps are in China, and the American workers put out of work as manufacturing of consumer goods is offshored do not find comparable jobs to replace what has been lost. So they lose their security. They can fill their apartments with cheap Chinese lamps, but what they need is expensive security. And that takes jobs. This is all obvious to the working poor, and has become more and more obvious to the Middle Class, which is why Trump is going to win and impose policies that are the diametric opposite of the free trade charade in which you believe. The middle class and working class have lost in the global game you played by the rules you like. So now they're going to take power and rejigger the rules in a way you don't like, but that will be better for them. For my part, I'm with them not you, because I recognize that struggling Americans are my brothers and sisters, and we have to make sure they can all make it. That means that we have to reverse the wealth concentration at the top, because it has taken too much and left the rest with too little. That's the way it is. You'll never agree. You're not at the top, but you've always had your nose pressed up against the glass and you look up to them, and look down upon your poorer neighbors with contempt. You think they are lazy and stupid and bad. We've tried it your way for 40 years. It's been a failure. We're not going to do it your way anymore. You will hate Trump.
