Is Kamala Harris a communist?

[Dinner]

Let's examine the record.

https://youtu.be/qOpaEFHRRwc?si=Y_wv5PQTn1lUlOKr

[Lorizael]

No.

[Ming]

Is Trump a convicted felon?
Yep

[Elok]

She has many idiotic ideas concerning economics but cannot be called a communist in any meaningful sense of the word.

[Elok]

Whereas Trump is a "convicted felon" in the same sense that a guy who got a quick BJ behind the bleachers in ninth grade and nothing in the twenty years since is "not a virgin." Technically correct but for the sake of virtually any sincere argument employing the term irrelevant.

[Ming]

Relevant in the fact that he is a felon... many times over. And it didn't happen 20 years ago.
But go ahead and continue to support felon's... drink the kool aid

[Lorizael]

Trump is as much a felon as any other felon, with the primary difference being that in Trump's case, the justice system's unseemly zeal for punishment is on display for all to see.

But his felony conviction is also the least objectionable thing about him. He's a misogynistic, racist, narcissistic rapist who cares about nothing other than himself and his image to such an absurd degree that the only reason he stole nuclear secrets from the White House is so he could show them off to guests at his private club, and the only reason he incited an insurrection is because he's a sore loser who likes it when the crowd cheers him on. He wouldn't be a felon or under a myriad of criminal indictments if none of that were the case.

[Elok]

My point was that "convicted felon" brings up a mental image of a rapist, a murderer, a carjacker, a robber, an arsonist, at a bare minimum somebody who defrauds innocent people of large chunks of money. Prior to Trump's prosecution, I don't believe anybody thought of the phrase and imagined "guy who paid off his mistress in a way somebody managed to convince a jury was procedurally incorrect." It is a painfully non-central example of "convicted felon," and renders the phrase meaningless except as another variation of "[smear word for Trump]." Of course Trump is a worthless piece of crap and I will never vote for him. But my opinion and vote do not matter. American Democracy being what it is, my role is confined to sitting around waiting to see which of these two unfit people assumes the most powerful position in the world, and how their bad decisions will screw over me personally, my family and community, the nation, and the world. It is evidently not a question of whether and when at this point, but how and how much.

That somebody abused the criminal justice system to manufacture a tacky and probably marginally effective PR victory over a political enemy is interesting, but not for what it says about Donald Trump.

[SlowwHand]

To get back to the question, no. She's certainly Socialist, but Communism has failed.
There are still some that exist,but it's Dark Ages.

[Dinner]

A Communist system can be recognized by the fact
that it spares the criminals
and criminalizes the political opponent.

Alexander Solschenizyn​

[SlowwHand]

In that case, she can be called Communist.

[pchang]

That description fits Trump even better.

[Ming]

Trump is more of a Nazi than she is a Communist

[Lorizael]

In that case, she can be called Communist.

Agreed. If you change the meaning of the word, it could apply to Harris. But also in this case to Trump: promises to pardon the January 6 insurrectionists, and a campaign that began with the chant of "LOCK HER UP."

I'd expect a definition of communism to say something about the state owning the means of production, but what do I know.

[Elok]

So, per UPenn, Kamala currently looks slated to drive up the deficit by about $2 trillion (once economic slowdown from tax raises are factored in), plus of course if she does virtually anything she's said she'll do the average American's bottom line will suffer severely in one way or another--massive spike in housing costs, rolling shortages on grocery store shelves, whatever. But UPEnn doesn't get into the latter in detail.

https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2024/8/26/harris-campaign-policy-proposals-2024

Trump's planned tax cuts will be have a much bigger impact on the deficit at ~$4 trillion net, because everything Trump does must be bigger, No immediate economic albatross noted, but only because Trump is too vague about his asinine tariffs for UPenn to assess. Those will, in fact, hurt, as they have already. His reckless tax cuts will accelerate the already imminent day of reckoning, including elimination of taxes on social security benefits, because he just can't resist dumping even more cash on a demographic group which very frequently does not need it (and which will stop receiving it in about a decade anyway).

https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2024/8/26/trump-campaign-policy-proposals-2024

Whoever wins, we lose. Like Aliens Vs. Predator but without cool fight scenes.

[EPW]

Is Donald Trump a fascist?

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/27/nx-s1-5091154/trump-arlington-cemetery