If you think things are bad now, then, brace yourself: it is about to get a whole lot worse. If you are alarmed at the speed with which the Trump administration has set about dismantling every institution of American government and every pillar of the international order, you must understand that this is not just the initial burst of activity, the “shock and awe” phase after which things will settle down: if anything, the pace will continue to accelerate.
The world has never before been faced with such a threat. The United States has handed the nuclear codes to a madman, a criminal, a would-be dictator and a moron, all in the same person. Whatever the purpose to which he directs these powers – to impress his dictator friends, to further enrich himself and his cronies, to seize absolute power or just to watch the world burn – we must hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
Paywalled.
the extent that Trump has gone to remove barriers to committing atrocities likely corresponds to the extent he intends to commit them
The american people will have to stand up for themselves and it‘s gonna be hard and brutal. Cause no one else can help you with this.
I found the recent developments in Serbia quite interesting and it might help to get an idea what a widespread resistance from the people could look like. Video on Serbia
It’s going to require daily nationwide protests going on for months and months with national participation approaching 1-2% of the population (4-8 million) on weekends and clear and actionable demands (resignation of Trump and his goons and corrupt members of the judiciary).
From my experience living in the US, I don’t think this is likely (I do hope I am wrong). Geographic size can actually be managed by having many thousands of protest sites by key admin buildings all throughout the country. The bigger issue is perhaps a lack of experience “operationalizing” beliefs and standing up to a thugs and oligarchs.
When the Second Great Depression starts, that’s when shit will hit the fan. Once the bread and circuses end and the starving begins.
I wonder if the European bars will have little “For the Cause” jars similar to how Celtic owned businesss has them to support the IRA here in the US.
It could be like months away too based off them wanting to cut like a million fed jobs and dump a shitload of commercial real estate onto the market.
And unlike the first one, we now have 3 guns per person in the US.
This is gonna be some bad juju ahead.
One thing that concerns me that not many people have talked about is what’s going to happen to the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency? More and more countries want nothing to do with us and while the US dollar has a huge edge over any other currency, the US becoming a pariah is probably going to impact that.
I’ve wondered about this too.
The USA government has enormous debt, which grows every year due to an enormous deficit. But historically people have been relatively comfortable with just letting that continue to grow, because it is balanced by economic growth and stability (roughly speaking).
But now that the government is somewhat unstable… bad things might happen to the currency. The debt will continue to rise, but the productivity and stability that underpin it are eroding. It may collapse.
It’s fine dude, Trump tweeted threats against any country that tried to get off the USD has the global reserve currency so therefore it definitely won’t happen. Or something.
The RMB yuan is used in international trade by only eight countries, yet the Chinese economy is not going down the shitter. Has anyone credible tried to quantify the effect of the USD no longer being used as a reserve currency or in international trade?
Not if we actually stand up and all march to DC. Just sayin’. Nothing has ever been won by shit posting and staying home.
That’s not going to change anything either, not by itself.
Everything, everywhere.
Gotta start somewhere. It’s more than the Americans seem to be doing.
It was an American thing to do. Too many doomers today saying we’ll just get AC130’d.
I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time the US has bombed its own people, intentionally.
People are protesting all across the US. Check out the TeslaTakedown, for example.
Protests do not remove dictators from power.
Only one thing removes them.
I’m just hoping it can stay duct taped together long enough for me to get out of country. I don’t know if it will :/ I’ve been doing the protest thing, donating to resistance efforts, boycotts, building community, been doing all of this for years. I’ve never seen it tangibly help and I’m one of the first to get black bagged if/when this goes full genocide (am trans). I can’t do it anymore, my body is aging, my brain is a disaster. I wish I could keep fighting. At least I can bring my labor somewhere else and stop letting my taxes fund the madness that is the US government
Thank you so much for doing your part. I don’t blame you for feeling defeated. I hate defeatist attitudes, but it’s hard not to feel like that.
stop letting my taxes fund the madness that is the US government
Surprise! FATCA taxes Americans no matter where in the world that they work.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Account_Tax_Compliance_Act
FEIE
There are exemptions for most of that if I’m in another country long enough, and ideally I’ll renounce citizenship entirely down the line
The shit thing, since I don’t make enough to actually pay taxes on my salary, is their PFIC and other rules. I can’t put money in my US retirement accounts. I also can’t use any of the ones here in Japan because, even if I just used them to put money pre-tax into cash savings, they all contain auto-investment rules that makes the target PFICs which are a nightmare.
Thank you for doing what you can. It’s the only thing we can do. No one can save the world alone.
I hope you get somewhere safe.
Duh
Trump is going to get worse until he’s stopped. That has always been the case.
If was so easy dictators wound not have existed.
people were literally going back in time to try to assassinate him before the election. that should give us an indication of how bad it is going to get.
The perma stun proceeds as planned
Removed by mod
Listen to this person; they’re a doctor.
Please assume the position.
saves this comment for later
Hopefully includes Elon too.
Yeah, you can read about it in the project 2025 page online…we know what is coming…we have for a few years…
If Dems were smart, and assuming we have a fair election next year, they’d have their own “Project 2027” in the works right now.
Of course, no one would believe them because they’ll walk half of it back before they lose power again, but it would at least show they’re adapting.
If Dems were smart they wouldn’t have fucked Bernie in 2016
I think that is definitely the point where the US was at a crossroads.
For me it’s Al Gore losing that was definitely a start of some kind of fall. I know people point to Reagan often, but for me it’s Bush winning and starting all those wars.
That’s a very good point. I think you’re right.
That was when the US moved from covertly to openly breaking international human rights laws, introduced indefinite detention without trial, legally authorised itself to invade Europe, curtailed civil liberties, and rolled out a multi-national network of surveillance of its own citizens.
It also undercut rational reactions to climate change and normalized working-class right wing pride in having a president who sounds stupid to educated people. All of these things are arguably the groundwork for what they have now.
What we need is a manifesto for Rollback 2016. Any executive order from Trump? Invalid. Any appointment? Rescinded and Trump, Vance and any Trump appointee is removed from office and barred from any public office for life. Any corporation or billionaire that supported Project 2025 is guilty of treason and will have their assets expropriated as compensation. All legislation passed under Trump is summarily repealed. All regulatory decisions made by Trump appointees, likewise. Networks and sites that have repeated foreign propaganda will be sut down and their executives barred from ever running another public corportation and from holding public office. Tax windfalls for the rich from Trump’s cuts will be reclaimed.
The Democrats won’t do it. Someone will have to.
For those who want to watch as the progress bar of doom slowly progresses…
Thanks for posting this link. I had not read through Project 2025 before.
Is it just me or is the US heading into an economic recession? That thing reads like they are trying to destroy social cohesion, the environment, and probably the economy.
That thing reads like they are trying to destroy social cohesion, the environment, and probably the economy.
It sure does. Almost like he was an asset of an adversarial foreign government.
Is it just me or is the US heading into an economic recession?
Everyone but Trump, 77million magas, and Musk thinks so too.
Presumably whoever controls Musk wants it. Money has no countey, and the oligarchs are disaster capitalists, they profit from these kinds of events.
Not to be overly flippant, but it’s very clearly Russia, IMO. We don’t even need to wade into the current “Krasnov” discussion or talk about Trump on the Ukraine war to see it.
The report, drafted by the CIA, the FBI, and several other agencies, was released in unclassified form on Tuesday, but it was presented in classified form on Jan. 7. In other words, it was compiled, written, and edited during Trump’s administration. It destroys his lies about the election, and it exposes him as a Russian asset.
Miraculously the report is still up: https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ICA-declass-16MAR21.pdf
Ice Cube had it worked out in 2017 though. 😁
Love the Ice Cube quote.
Like I said, money has no country.
Russia itself is ruled by oligarchs for oligarchs.
They’ve clearly made common cause with oligarchs from elsewhere.
Sure, Trump is clearly being controlled by Putin to some degree but this isn’t about national interests. That’s too narrow.
Ok evil aside people really need to commend them on their execution. This is a damn successful destruction of democracy
Ohh up to 36% now. Time for the next bag of popcorn.
The design of that page makes it a bit too satisfying watching the tracker go up. Like watching an xp bar in a mmo bar go up or something. I’m almost rooting for it despite despising everything it stands for…
The “good” news is it’s been stuck at 36% for a few days. But yeah, I see what you mean and had a similar thought.
Less hysteria, more substance—this article misses the mark.
🐱🐱
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is already distancing himself. The wheels of government are going to shut Trump down. He doesn’t have that much power.
Mike Johnson is way scarier than Trump. He’s a true believer, total hypocrite, and smart. His ideal society would be similar to The Handmaid’s Tale and he will pursue that agenda and believe he’s righteous when they build camps and dig trenches for the bodies.
Mike Johnson scares the fuck out of me. Watch him.
…they said, hopefully.
Yes — hopefully
Hopefully the house is not found to be impeding in making great again… Be a shame if something where to happen to it.
What’s really got me sweating is the fact that we’re living in sorta good times. A lot of people are struggling of course, and serious issues are unfolding, but imagine what the world could look like if we get hit by the next Great Recession or Great Depression. Things could quickly go from very bad to much, much worse.
Living in good times? Tell that to the people getting deported. This clownery hasn’t directly affected me yet. Everything is fine.
Like I said in my original comment:
“A lot of people are struggling of course,”
The deportations are terrible now. Imagine how they’d be if the world fell into a Great Depression. I’d be legitimately worried about frequent lynchings of immigrants.
I’ll be the one to say it. We have been living in good times. The internet has the vocal crowd of naysayers. I believe they are signal boosted by “the algorithms” sowing the discontent bubble. That’s why there hasn’t been much counter-movement. Enough people are still too comfortable.
And you all can spare me the belligerent replies about how this or that sucks for whoever or whatever. That doesn’t strike the fact that things are good for enough people such that there isn’t mass breakdowns of social order.
It’s actually kind of crazy how the system keeps bending yet nothing has completely snapped. We’re not even at Occupy Wall Street level.
I agree that in general these are good times. Some groups and demographics are struggling and I do think most people are feeling varying degrees of pressure from inflation and other issues.
Of course, people in hotspots, like Ukraine, Syria, and Gaza, are having a much worse time.
What I do think is a serious risk is that a lot of groups could end up hit very hard if the economy were to go into a downturn. People suffer during every downturn, of course, but I think any downturn now could quickly grow severe and match or exceed the Great Recession.
I’m no economist, but I hear the economists are not thrilled with what Trump is doing to the economy. We’re headed for a recession at minimum, if those folks are anything to go by.
I thknk you are. I just read through the Project 2025 stuff and it does seem to point to a recession.
As a non American with investments, I’m glad I read it.
