The tariffs he spoke of would amount to an additional $5K onto the sticker of a new car for consumers. And the morons cheered for this.
‘The Donald for President — of Venezuela’
By
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
July 16, 2015
Writes Scott Lazarowitz:
Given that Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump is an entrepreneur, one would think that he would support economic freedom and free markets. But no, instead he supports draconian bureaucratic intrusions, regulations and crippling taxes on Americans. Go figure.
So besides being anti-immigration, Trump also supports trade wars with
Mexico and
China, and believes that the U.S. government should continue to impose restrictions on Americans’ freedom of trade with foreigners.
Trump also supports, or
says he supports, a very militaristic U.S. government foreign policy, including his support for torture.
It’s yet another disappointment from a businessman turning to the political world, joining the graveyard of businessmen turning to politics Willard Romney, Steve Forbes, Ross Perot, Pete DuPont, and on and on.
For example, instead of
threatening to impose further tax burdens on Ford Motor Company for moving manufacturing plants to Mexico, burdens which are then handed down to American consumers, why doesn’t Trump insist that the U.S. government remove the
existing tax-thefts, regulatory nightmares, and wage and price controls which are motivating American companies to move out in the first place?
Because that’s what all these government-imposed trade deals, regulations, taxes, mandates and other intrusions really are: restrictions on
Americans’ freedom of trade and commerce.
Even worse than Trump’s views on trade (if they can get any worse), he actually supports
nationalized health care. In his own words, Trump has stated, “We must have universal healthcare … We should not hear so many stories of families ruined by healthcare expenses.”
So the Donald agrees with
Obama on
health care. But wouldn’t you think a real capitalist would call for
repealing all the regulations, taxes, licensure requirements and mandates already imposed by the government which are the real causes of skyrocketing medical expenses?
Venezuela is similar to the U.S. in its rulers’ tyrannical compulsions to control every aspect of the people’s daily existence.
In Venezuela,
rationing of medical supplies has been imposed, and now fingerprinting patients is required to get prescriptions at pharmacies. As with their food shortages, the medical supply shortages are caused by the Venezuelan government’s socialist policies and
price controls.
Will Trump also call for the nationalization of America’s food supply, as Venezuelan President Maduro has
imposed, such as when there is another economic crisis like in 2008 or a worldwide revolt against
dollar hegemony, or, because of so many existing restrictions on American industry and commerce, if much of U.S. industry falls to pieces?
Besides being against free trade, free markets, and free
competition, Donald Trump seems to also be against freedom of speech. One would think that someone with such a big mouth and who likes to publicly insult the people of an entire country (Mexico) would support the right of others to make public criticisms of powerful people or make insults and otherwise enjoy the same speech freedoms.
But that does not appear to be the case. For example, in 2012 Trump
complained to the BBC about a documentary (“
You’ve Been Trumped“) which informed the Scottish people of his plans to build a golf resort in their neck of the woods, and he attempted to
stop the BBC’s airing of that award-winning documentary. There had already been
questions regarding the golf resort construction’s alleged benefits to the local people.
If he really believed in freedom of speech, rather than trying to censor the documentary, couldn’t he have just used his own influential bully pulpit to respond to his Scottish critics?
And in his comments regarding anti-Islam activist Pamela Geller’s “Draw Mohammad” contest in Texas, Trump seemed extremely upset by Geller’s actions: He
stated, “I mean it’s disgusting. Isn’t there something else they could be doing? Drawing Muhammad?…They can’t do something else? They have to be in the middle of Texas doing something on Muhammad and insulting everybody? What is she doing? Why is she doing it?” To which Geller responded that Trump himself has taunted and insulted Mexicans, and that his own financial interests in Muslim countries could be influencing his emotions. Would a President Trump enforce some PC “Right to Not Be Offended” law and jail Ms. Geller for offending Muslims?
In Venezuela, 2014 was the “worst year” for freedom of expression, according to a study conducted by Espacio Público. I don’t think that Pamela Geller would have been allowed to hold a Muslim-drawing contest, certainly not a Chavez-drawing contest or a Maduro-drawing contest. And it is doubtful that Donald Trump could have gotten away with insulting Mexicans were he to say those things in Venezuela. As the University of Texas, Austin,
Journalism in the Americas blog
summarized the study, “According to the study, the state’s security forces oppressed social movements, which is why freedom of expression violations were not only experienced by journalists and media workers, but also by people who participated in and documented them, such as human rights activists, NGO members, and civilians.”
Most recently, because three Venezuelan news outlets are accused of “defamation” for republishing a story alleging drug trafficking by the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly, the Venezuelan regime has
banned 22 of the news outlets’ executives from traveling outside the country. Who knows how a President Trump might respond if U.S. news outlets aired stories alleging some sort of improper Trump dealings, given that Trump himself
has sued for defamation, and in fact most recently he
is suing Univision for its cancelling his Miss USA telecast. I honestly don’t think that Trump really understands what freedom of speech is all about.
And Donald Trump supports the government’s torturing of suspects. On
Fox & Friends, he
said, “This whole thing on torture not working … Torture not working? … Well, for 5,000 years it’s worked, but now it’s not working?”
According to the U.S. Senate’s
report on CIA “harsh interrogation techniques” last December, the torture was ineffective and flawed. This
summary of the report notes that such torture included waterboarding to the point of “convulsions” and “near-drowning,” detainees being made to stand on broken legs and being placed in freezing temperatures leading one victim to freeze to death.
Click link for the rest.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/political-theatre/vote-for-the-donald-for-president-of-venezuela/
