Vance Trolls Kamala: Trump VP Lands on Same Tarmac as Harris, Takes Questions From Reporters Covering Her Arrival
Trump running mate J.D. Vance trolled Kamala Harris on Wednesday during a campaign stop in Wisconsin after landing on the same tarmac as the presumptive Democrat nominee and approaching reporters covering her arrival.
After landing in Eau Claire shortly after Harris arrived in Air Force Two, Vance was seen walking over to her plane to interact with a gaggle of reporters covering the vice president’s visit.
Just landed in Wisconsin and JD Vance and Kamala Harris’ plane are both here on the tarmac — he appears to be walking over… pic.twitter.com/zgHnfeQFJK
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) August 7, 2024
pic goes hard ⚡️⚡️⚡️ pic.twitter.com/yXhCq0EkUE
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 7, 2024
Standing in front of Air Force Two with Kamala nowhere in sight, Vance told reporters they looked “lonely” because Harris hasn’t answered their questions since she was coronated as the Democrat presidential nominee 17 days ago.
“Hopefully it’s going to be my plane in a few months. I also thought you guys may get lonely, because the VP doesn’t answer questions from reporters, and hasn’t in 17 days,” he said.
Vance and Harris on the same tarmac in Eau Claire.
— James Stratton (@StrattonWISN) August 7, 2024
Vance comes over to cameras covering AF2 arrival…
“… hopefully it’s going to be my plane in a few months. I also thought you guys may get lonely, bc the VP doesn’t answer q’s from reporters…”
Vid: @WEAU13News pic.twitter.com/QhUS2MtEby
“Have they given you guys an explanation for why she won’t take questions from reporters?”
“No? Nobody? Ok, great. Well, I hope that she changes her mind because it’d be good for the American people and I think it’d be good for you all if she actually ran a real campaign instead of one from a basement with a teleprompter,” Vance quipped.
JD Vance trolling Kamala and taking questions at every stop is genius and he’s reached peak Rockstar status now! pic.twitter.com/P3rmX38bh6
— Karli Bonne’ ?? (@KarluskaP) August 7, 2024
Vance continued to field numerous questions from reporters, including mentioning that he reached out to Walz to congratulate him for receiving the Democrat VP nomination.
This is a masterclass in trolling by Trump’s VP pick.
Kamala: “you got something to say, say it to my face.”
— Bad Hombre (@joma_gc) August 7, 2024
JD Vance: “walks over to say it to her face.”
Kamala: *Hides in the plane restroom*
Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are holding a rally in Eau Claire as part of their swing through key battleground states.
Vance is also set to deliver remarks Wednesday afternoon in the same city.
Watch Vance’s campaign event:
Watch the Harris-Walz campaign event:
China’s Competitiveness Is Driven By Low Taxation, Not By Industrial Policy
The West is getting increasingly worried about China’s export prowess as its companies are rapidly gaining market shares in green and high-tech industries.
Recently, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen accused China of industrial overcapacity and urged Europeans to respond jointly to the latter’s nonmarket practices. Allegedly, China is flooding international markets with cheap products of good quality primarily due to industrial subsidies. The U.S. and its allies are ramping up protectionist measures such as punitive tariffs, technology controls and a reinforcement of their own industrial policies. What if they are wrong and China is just providing better incentives to work, save and invest?
Is overcapacity boosting China’s EV exports?
Sales of Chinese electric vehicles in Europe soared to around 20% of the market in 2023 and are set to reach about one-quarter in 2024. Both the U.S. and EU slapped China’s EV exports with high tariffs, blaming China of industrial overcapacity. If true, this would mean that Chinese producers use dumping prices to sell excess output abroad. But this is not the case, as the price of an electric car has been about half in China than in the U.S. and Europe in 2023. Actually, Chinese EVs sell at vast price premiums on Western markets (Table 1) and are likely to enjoy healthy profit margins even after the new tariffs are introduced.
Table 1: EV models prices in selected markets
Source: EVMarketsReports.com.
It is also claimed that overcapacity in China’s EV sector has been unfairly fueled by industrial policy and generous subsidies. Analysts criticize China’s purchase subsidies (approved buyer’s rebate and sales tax exemption), but the U.S. and the EU have been more generous than China. Average EV purchase subsidies in China gradually decreased from about 2,300 euros to 1,300 euros between 2010 and 2022 and were eliminated in 2023. Total average support per vehicle has decreased to about $4,600 in 2023, which is less than the U.S. federal tax credit of $7,500 and incentives in European countries.
As a first mover, China has spent about $230 billion to boost the EV sector so far, according to analysts for the Center for Strategic and International Studies. However, China is phasing out subsidies, which declined substantially from over 40% of total sales to only 11.5% in 2023. At the same time, in order to catch up, the U.S. is planning to further ramp up its aid to the EV sector by an estimated $174 billion under the Inflation Reduction Act. Eventually, total Inflation Reduction Act subsidies could end up three times higher, with tax credits for EVs of up to $390 billion and direct subsidies of $130 billion. However, while China’s EV subsidies are constantly brought into the limelight, the Western ones are swept under the carpet.
How significant are industrial subsidies?
The same goes regarding public support for the entire industrial activity. A widely quoted CSIS study estimates China’s subsidies at about $248 billion or 1.7% of the gross domestic product in 2019, which is two to three times more than in key economies (Figure 1). Yet in nominal terms, subsidies of $84 billion (0.4% of GDP) are not trivial in the U.S. either. At $262 billion (1.7% of GDP) in the EU as a whole, industrial subsidies are almost at the same level as in China.
Figure 1: Industrial policy spending in key economies, 2019
Source: Center for Strategic and International Studies.
According to the CSIS study, the majority of aid instruments in China (direct subsidies and below-market credit) go to state-owned enterprises. Yet state-owned enterprises account for only about 10% of exports, which means that the direct contribution of industrial subsidies to China’s competitiveness is not the key determinant. Mainstream pundits seem to exaggerate both the size and role of Chinese subsidies in order to argue for more industrial policy in the West. Indeed, industrial policy is in fashion again worldwide, with a steep increase in industrial policy interventions in recent years. High-income countries, having more fiscal resources, are at the forefront of this trend. The Biden administration launched several onerous programs exceeding $2 trillion to revive green and high-tech manufacturing. In Europe, Mario Draghi wants to place more public investment and an EU “Industrial Deal” at the core of revitalizing productivity growth.
Is industrial policy the right move?
There are strong arguments against industrial policy such as the lack of market knowledge by bureaucratic decision-makers, the capture of decisions by special interest groups, and high seen and unseen costs, together with an underwhelming historical experience riddled with failures. However, these are now brushed aside, with claims that previous industrial policies were not well-targeted. China is being advertised as the “true example” of industrial policy, without a proper understanding of its specificities.
According to García-Herrero and Schindowski, China’s industrial policy differs from that of a market economy due to significant government interventions through the state-owned enterprises sector. Private companies have traditionally been disadvantaged relative to state-owned enterprises through arbitrary fees, fines and extortion as well as more expensive credit. Industrial policy is primarily a tool to alleviate this disadvantage and directs private capital to the government’s strategic objectives. Moreover, industrial policy has not benefited productivity growth as it fosters cronyism and pervasive ties between government officials and large enterprises to the detriment of more productive but not politically connected small and midsized enterprises. Other papers also emphasize that China’s experience with industrial policy is mixed at best, while massive state subsidies led to numerous failures.
At the same time, China manages to dominate not only the nascent global EV market, but the entire global clean tech manufacturing sector, including wind turbines, solar panels and car batteries. All these sectors have recently been under scrutiny for price dumping and subsidies, joining more traditional ones such as steel, aluminum and shipbuilding. According to recent research, China holds a dominant position for almost 600 products out of 5,000 in the global export markets, mainly in electronics, textiles/clothing, footwear and machinery. This is unparalleled by any other country. Once acquired, the dominant positions persisted over time, meaning that the industries remained highly competitive even after subsidies were discontinued. It is obvious that more fundamental factors are at play, rather than a huge scheme of industrial policy cross-subsidization as argued by mainstream pundits. With the share of labor compensation in GDP at about the same level as in the U.S., the case for social dumping appears feeble too.
Low taxes and fast capital accumulation are key
China has had an impressive economic performance since the acceleration of market-oriented reforms and World Trade Organization accession in 2001. Its economy accounts for a third of the global gross manufacturing production today, from less than 10% in 2003, and dominates numerous advanced technology sectors. This was possible due to rapid capital accumulation fueled by very high savings and investment ratios, the latter exceeding 40% of GDP for about two decades (compared to 25% of the GDP global average).
Some investments were potentially misallocated by the large state-owned enterprises sector, by industrial policy failures or in the real estate bubble. Yet the productive ones were sufficient to ensure a notable increase in the capital stock as reflected by the surge in automation and robot density, with China catching up with the U.S., Japan and Germany (Figure 2). Together with steady progress in innovation, where China has surpassed Japan and is gradually closing the gap with the EU, these investments reinforce high productivity growth and cheap exports of manufactured goods.
Figure 2: Robot density in 2016 and 2022
Source: International Federation of Robots.
This is primarily the result of a limited welfare state, with China allocating about 8% of GDP to social spending, a fraction of the level in the U.S. (20%) and Germany (25%). Although China has eradicated extreme poverty, it does not try to soak the rich and the middle class through high-income redistribution. Unlike in the West, the low tax burden and limited progressivity in its tax system encourage strong labor force participation, long working hours and high savings. The Chinese work around 2,170 hours on average per year (about 25% more than in the U.S. and 50% than in Germany).
Overall, China redistributes only about 28% of GDP in total government spending relative to a bloated 42% on average in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries and close to 50% of GDP in Western Europe. This explains China’s economic success and not the meager 0.5-1% of GDP it may spend more on industrial policy with doubtful results. Western economies have developed a predilection for the progressive taxation of incomes, penalizing the most entrepreneurial and hardworking members of society, reducing work incentives, and discouraging savings and investment. Even when industrial subsidies are lavishly provided, such as for the nascent car batteries sector, domestic producers still cannot compete with more nimble Asian competitors.
In conclusion, the industrial policy argument is just a smoke screen by socialist economists to cover up inefficiencies of the much-larger government redistribution in the West. The latter is used to subsidize not only companies, but also individuals, through a huge welfare system and broad range of public services. Even worse, a large chunk of public spending is financed by mounting debt and the printing press. Replicating China’s industrial policies will not help solve this huge problem but can even worsen it.
Economist Warns Warren Buffett Deliberately Triggered Stock Market Crash— Major Collapse Imminent
EXCLUSIVE: Roger Stone Responds To Democrat Deep State Plan For Civil War To Stop Trump
Roger Stone joins Alex Jones to discuss Rep. Jamie Raskin’s (D-Md.) proposal to pack the Supreme Court and prepare for civil war ahead of disqualifying Donald Trump from office if he wins in November. Tune in!
EXCLUSIVE: Roger Stone Responds To Democrat Deep State Plan For Civil War To Stop Trump@RogerJStoneJr pic.twitter.com/Gm2VJkW2Yi
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) August 7, 2024
KAMABLA! New Trump Nickname for Harris Stirs Controversy
Democrats are scratching their heads over a new nickname bestowed by Donald Trump on Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris: “Kamabla.”
While he’s deployed typical nicknames like “Lyin’ Kamala,” “Laffin’ Kamala,” “Cacklin’ Kamala,” and “Crazy Kamala,” over the past few days the term “Kamabla” began appearing in Trump’s Truth Social posts, at first assumed to be a typo.
“People vote with their STOMACH, and food is now at an all time high because of Kamabla/Biden INCOMPETENCE. With them in charge, IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE!,” Trump wrote on Truth on Monday.
However, the former president continued using “Kamabla” in subsequent posts, establishing a noticeable trend.
The Kamala misspelling got under the skin of leftists on social media, with many claiming without evidence that the new title is a racist dog whistle.
In one humorous exchange, a HuffPo writer attempted to get an explanation on “Kamabla” from the Trump campaign, with a senior staffer simply replying, “Kamabla” over and over.
For those of you with real lives who do not have to monitor the coup-attempting criminal’s social media feed, he has been calling VP Kamala Harris “Kamabla.”
— S.V. Dáte (@svdate) August 7, 2024
I reached out to a Senior Trump Campaign Official to sort it out.
Here is how it went: pic.twitter.com/mRzKgyayUH
When he failed to get an answer, the leftist writer asserted he assumed the title was “racist,” but couldn’t figure out “how.”
I mean, I’m assuming it’s meant to be a racist insult — but *how* is it meant to be racist, that’s the question!
— S.V. Dáte (@svdate) August 7, 2024
Others propagated a Kamala misspelling of their own, claiming Trump had called her “Kambala,” which was not the case.
I’m sure this will lock up the racist, um… 6 year old vote?#Kambala pic.twitter.com/eyeZXY3MxJ
— Lanny (@rangerlongshot) August 6, 2024
Throughout the primaries, Trump called Nikki Haley “Nimbra.” (Her given name is “Nimarata.”) He is now calling Harris “Kambala.” I suppose this is his way of “othering” his opponents. The conservatives I knew would have been repulsed by this — and found it disqualifying.
— Jay Nordlinger (@jaynordlinger) August 7, 2024
Kambala is the name of a Serpent (sarpa) mentioned in the thirty-fifth chapter (verses 4-17) of the Ādiparva of the Mahābhārata.
— MANOR.MAVEN. (@Mwam19931) August 6, 2024
Trump is sooooo cryptically intelligent. He pinpoints them down quickly.
Remember his Snake poem that he would read at rallies? pic.twitter.com/g76qiCZ76g
An X post shared by Trump senior campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung on Wednesday shed light on the nickname.
Kamabla pic.twitter.com/P8bKfrSVDm
— Steven Cheung (@TheStevenCheung) August 7, 2024
Anti-Trump UK media outlet Indy100.com also provided a sufficient explanation for Trump’s use of the term: “‘Kamabla’ appears to be a riff on Harris’s name so that it includes the word ‘blah.’”
At any rate, Trump’s “Kamabla” nickname appears to be having the intended effect: pissing off leftists.
UK Gov’t Threatens to Prosecute Anyone Who Shares Footage of Riots Online For Terrorism, Media Demands TOTAL BAN of Social Media
The UK government is threatening to arrest anyone who shares or even “retweets” footage of the unrest sweeping the region sparked by its mass migration policies and two-tiered policing.
And the UK media is demanding a “temporary” national BAN of social media altogether.
The Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales, Stephen Parkinson, told Sky News on Wednesday that prosecutors are considering bringing “terror offenses” to anyone who’s arrested during the riots, but “wouldn’t go into specific details.”
‘We do have dedicated police officers who are scouring social media to look for this material, and then follow up with arrests.’
— Sky News (@SkyNews) August 7, 2024
The director of public prosecutions of England and Wales warns that sharing online material of riots could be an offencehttps://t.co/PYaeP7gPAQ pic.twitter.com/kOGWDPrlyz
Parkinson also claimed certain social media posts could be considered an “incitement to racial hatred,” which “involves publishing or distributing material which is insulting or abusive, which is intended to, or likely to start racial hatred.”
“So if you retweet that, then you’ll be publishing that and then potentially you’re committing that offense,” Parkinson said, adding there are police officers dedicated to “scouring” social media.
“Their job is to look for this material and then follow up with identification, arrests and so forth.”
“So it’s very, very serious, people might think they’re not doing anything harmful. They are. And the consequences will be visited upon them,” he added.
Sky News correspondent Matthew Thompson also noted that this online crackdown “isn’t an idle threat” by prosecutors either because they’ve already filed several charges related to “stirring up racial hatred online.”
In dystopian Britain we now have a child Sly News reporter warning citizens against retweeting because they could find themselves prosecuted.
— Dan Wootton (@danwootton) August 7, 2024
“It’s not an idle threat either,” he insists.
The MSM is now a propaganda arm of the state attempting to shut down free speech.
RESIST! pic.twitter.com/V7ICCJmHGH
Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley likewise stated that “being a keyboard warrior does not make you safe from the law.”
“And we will come after those individuals just as we would physically confront on the streets the thugs and the yobbs who are causing the problems for communities,” he said Wednesday.
TWO-TIER POLICING@metpoliceuk will ‘throw the full force of the law’ at me.
— Tommy Robinson ?? (@TRobinsonNewEra) August 7, 2024
It’s very clear what they intend to do to me.
They are attacking @elonmusk as well, because they want to clamp down on citizen journalism, they MUST have total control of any narrative.
X is a… pic.twitter.com/2wC6gJPkW9
“We have commentators from either end of the political spectrum who like to throw accusations of bias at the police because we stand in the middle, we operate independently of the law without fear or favor,” he opined.
Meanwhile, online footage shows police giving Muslim “migrants” carte blanche to attack and assault anyone they deem “far-right” while cracking down on protesters, including women.
Whilst police and politicians bend over backwards shouting about protecting the “Muslim community” from the “far right”.
— Tommy Robinson ?? (@TRobinsonNewEra) August 7, 2024
Let us show you what the legacy media won’t. pic.twitter.com/aTznJH2xt0
Gangs of Muslims chasing people through the streets of Belfast tonight.
— Tommy Robinson ?? (@TRobinsonNewEra) August 6, 2024
Similar scenes across the UK since @Keir_Starmer and the legacy media put out that the “EDL”, a non existent group, was after them.
Instead of correcting it, they targeted me.
The world is watching. pic.twitter.com/81AJrCHtil
You won’t see this in the legacy media.
— Tommy Robinson ?? (@TRobinsonNewEra) August 6, 2024
Muslims launching bricks at people from the grounds of a mosque in Hull.
Riot police standing beside them! pic.twitter.com/g5p6eBO38p
Can we all take a moment to appreciate the amazing job the police have done keeping armed Muslim mobs safe from women pic.twitter.com/aVhznjOAo5
— Leo Kearse – on YouTube & Saturday Night Showdown (@LeoKearse) August 4, 2024
“It was the most hideous, alien experience to me. I’ve never been in a police station, I didn’t even know why I was there!” a woman who was arrested told TalkTV.
Talk EXCLUSIVE: Leeds resident Nicola Wilcox tearfully recounts how she was a victim of two-tier policing, after she was jailed instead of rioters.
— Talk (@TalkTV) August 6, 2024
“It was the most hideous, alien experience to me. I’ve never been in a police station, I didn’t even know why I was there!”@TVKev pic.twitter.com/0KugVD0sfn
Perhaps that’s why authorities are threatening to arrest anyone who shares footage of the riots — it’s exposing the government’s two-tiered policing.
2 tier policing on full view for the world . Basically the Muslim community leaders told the police to stay away if they know what’s good for them . Police knew they were armed , knew they were walking the streets looking for people to attack & the police refused to turn up to… https://t.co/xK9q3pJSOF
— Tommy Robinson ?? (@TRobinsonNewEra) August 7, 2024
If you want to know how things are going in globalist England. ???????
— Paul Hookem (@PaulHook_em) August 7, 2024
LEFT: James Nelson, 18, who has been jailed for TWO MONTHS for protesting on Sunday.
RIGHT: Lawson Natty, 18, who will spend just SIX months in jail for the manslaughter of a 14-year-old boy.
They free child… pic.twitter.com/3vFUMaabqn
The UK media is even calling for a total ban on social media “as a temporary measure” until the unrest is quelled.
??? Should Britain BAN Social Media?
— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) August 7, 2024
“I think so”
UK Powers have lost complete control of the narrative – people are seeing the truth,
their Lies & Propaganda exposed.
Welcome to the UK in 2024 where Fascism is very much on the rise. pic.twitter.com/k7NKwGGjjO
The UK is in a state of 1984 meets V For Vendetta.
Tim Walz: ‘NO RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH’ If Gov’t Deems Misinformation or Hate Speech
Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz believes people shouldn’t be afforded First Amendment protections if they say things the government has deemed “misinformation.”
The Democrat Minnesota governor shared his disdain for free speech during an MSNBC discussion in Dec. 2022, where he proclaimed that people expressing that “mail-in ballots aren’t legal” represented voter intimidation.
“Years ago, it was the little things. Telling people to vote the day after the election, and we kind of brushed them off,” Walz said. “Now we know it’s intimidation at the ballot box. It’s undermining the idea that mail-in ballots aren’t legal. I think we need to push back on this.”
HOLY SH!T
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 7, 2024
Governor Tim Walz: NO RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH if the government decides it is misinformation or hateful
This man is a dangerous commie pic.twitter.com/hE8xGcRx87
He went on to say, “There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy. Tell the truth.”
Of course, if the COVID pandemic taught us anything, it’s that the establishment cannot be trusted to dictate what is and isn’t “misinformation,” and that their covert power-hungry motives guide their censorship efforts.
Walz’s embrace of a crackdown on free speech rightfully rattled conservatives on X, who feared if he and Kamala take office they would set their targets squarely on the Elon Musk-owned free speech platform, with many labeling him a radical far-left Communist.
If these two get into office, they will immediately target X.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 7, 2024
Welp there you have it. Full communist takeover of Kamala Harris steals the election. X will be history.
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) August 7, 2024
Only the government is allowed to use misinformation, right Tim?
— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) August 7, 2024
He is a far left commie who likes horses and tampons.
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) August 7, 2024
The Democrat Party has fully embraced Communism.
— Planet Of Memes (@PlanetOfMemes) August 7, 2024
In other words??? pic.twitter.com/a2FYvNUdt8
— Liberacrat Media™️ (@Liberacrat) August 7, 2024
Misinformation experts have a certain leaning which can impact which speech is deemed valid or not.
— The Rabbit Hole (@TheRabbitHole84) August 7, 2024
Risky path to go down.. pic.twitter.com/hrEGRICBNW
Here’s Walz’s full Dec. 29, 2022, interview on MSNBC: