Opinion: Brace yourselves: whatever crazy, awful things Trump may have done to date, it’s only going to get worse
Opinion: Brace yourselves: whatever crazy, awful things Trump may have done to date, it’s only going to get worse
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
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.
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This will end with blood in the streets.
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Yeah but who's? I have a bad feeling it won't be theirs, it'll probably be the vulnerable and the enemies of the MAGA.
The opposition to the MAGA cult can't just sleep for too long on letting them terrorize everyone's livelihoods since they've gotten the backing and enabling of their 'leader'. They won't sleep to upset everyone's lives.
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The process of global de-dollarisation,much talked about, is being hastened far sooner than I think most people (at least those not privvy to whatever intelligence existed on Trump and others' motivations and intentions) expected.
The question as to whether the country with the largest military in the world can accept a much-reduced international role (and much reduced share of unearned global wealth to go with it), without kicking off a kinetic world war three will likely be answered shortly.
Trump and Musk appear wide open to exploitation/manipulation, without anywhere near the required experience or intelligence to maintain the US's international position.
Unstable times ahead.
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The chuds at the top (most of them, anyways) know that this will likely lead to ww3, and that's been the plan. The US is the preeminent military power, so they feel safe, and there's a shit load of money to be made in war and instability.
The chuds at the bottom voting for US isolationism don't understand just how much an interconnected world benefits them and how bad dedollarization is going to be for them. But then that goes along with a lot of people not understanding the benefits of concepts like soft power, humanitarian aid, foreign assistance, etc.
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If the people at the top's plan is actually WW3, then they're stupider than they let on.
Sure, in theory it's profitable, in practice though? All you're left with is a wrecked world that's worse to live in in every possible way, and that's assuming nukes won't fly
It's literally the broken window fallacy, which to me has always been a dead obvious problem. Stability, cooperation, and peaceful progress and development has always, and always will be, much more beneficial to everyone in the long run
These people are literally enemies of humanity
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Even worse, the chuds might be dead of malnourishment, preventable vírus diseases, violence, before the consequences of dedollarization hits them
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God, I so wish that an average American was smart enough to realize this. I feel like all they care about are their gas prices.
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Here's a few of my predictions ftom election night and the following days:
................. "Edit:
Just wanted to add this moment of realization from a CBS news personality.
He was talking about how people shouldn’t be afraid, that America is the oldest democracy on earth, that democracy wil survive, and things will be OK…
… And he continued on talking about how trump likely has full control of the government, the house, the senate, the courts, and an immunity ruling.
After the last words came out of his mouth he looked at the camera and paused and said, (paraphrasing) ** " I’d like to maybe take back the first part of what I said, we should be afraid" **
I promise you he will order shootings on 5th avenue.
If you think I, we, us, anyone will be OK, like the half of the nation that elected him, you haven’t been listening.
People voted for an economy and against scary immigrants.
They also get the storm, the purge, the accelerationists, the camps, the executions, the prisons, smothered hope for the last possibility of saving this earth from environmental collapse.
They literally want Armageddon.
I mean actually fucking literally.
Once you learn how many in the Republican party, and supreme court, are members of NAR and 7MM - literally groups with the purpose of bringing Jesus back.
Nobody is going to be OK ."
https://lemmy.ca/post/32433434/12637803
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I believe his (and Putin’s) goal is to destabilize (destroy) the western order, devalue the current global currency (USD), crash the central banks, fully shift economic power eastward, inflate crypto.
Tariffs on all north American trading partners will cause harm to the entire continent and beyond.
If none can trade, none can profit. If the tarrifs go to gov, with this admin, will they really?
The only thing pro wall street will be how they siphon off whatever wealth is left, pump and dump, crash and burn.
https://lemmy.ca/post/33768636/13042232
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And here's a little freebie from Alexander dugin - Putin's philosopher and author of Foundations of Geopolitics - about Curtis Yarvin, trumpism, and monarchy.
https://alexanderdugin.substack.com/p/in-the-united-states-three-completely
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The end is nigh, my friends. Very nigh.
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global de-dollarisation
This is the real problem for us in the US. Currently debt doesn’t matter: that’s stupid and short sighted but it doesn’t matter. I’m not entirely sure what global de-dollarisation means but US debt is going to matter a hell of a lot more when we’re treated like any other economy
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De-dollarisation is the dismantling of the dollar's role as global reserve currency, which is intimately tied to the petrodollar arrangement, which caused the world to buy oil in dollars for the last fifty years.
I welcome any corrections/clarifications, but off the top of my head, the petrodollar arrangement was an agreement that Richard Nixon's government made with the Saudis in the early seventies where the Saudis agreed to only sell oil in US dollars in return for military support. The agreement was a fifty year deal.
In order for countries to buy oil they needed dollars. This was and currently still is via the selling of US government bonds, which has allowed the US to fund its deficits by printing more and more US dollars. Ultimately the world has paid for that US spending. This ends with the end of the US dollar as global reserve currency.
Trump is showing in real time that the US cannot now be relied upon to provide security, so that half of the petrodollar arrangement is dead and gone. Would you fund the enemy's military spending? Plenty have. And when you wanted to try and sell oil in a currency other than dollars you got a whole lot of freedom!
This de-dollarisation very much suits the likes of Russia (for historical reasons) and China (for sound economic reasons) who do not want a world dominated by the US.
Trump is playing into the likes of Putin's hands fantastically. Not only is Putin getting what he wants from Trump in Ukraine, Trump is also voluntarily dismantling America's position as global leader. I don't know if he is a Russian asset, or if he is just so stupid, or believes the US should be an explicit oligarchy.
Buckle up, the future is not looking good for the US. Countries that have relied on the US are facing a period of serious instability.
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The process of global de-dollarisation,much talked about, is being hastened
China has a thriving economy without the RMB being anyone's reserve currency.
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I'm not really sure what your point is. I assume you are saying the US can have a thriving economy and not be the global reserve currency? If so, a couple of points:
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The US's debts will come due as it loses global reserve currency status. Do you think it can pay those debts?
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US and other capitalists outsourced production to China due to the lack of collectively bargained labour agreements and environmental protections. It was cheap. Are you saying the US could 'Make America Great Again' by making it a sweatshop!? Because I don't think that is what Trump voters had in mind for themselves.
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Yeah, you can read about it in the project 2025 page online....we know what is coming....we have for a few years...
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For those who want to watch as the progress bar of doom slowly progresses...
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Ok evil aside people really need to commend them on their execution. This is a damn successful destruction of democracy
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Ohh up to 36% now. Time for the next bag of popcorn.
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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.
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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.
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No no no no...we just need to run out the clock - it must be almost time for another election. Let me just check the calenda-... ...SIX WEEKS? It's been six weeks?!
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Yeah, in 6 weeks we went from being allies, strong trading partners, and friends to honestly fearing an impending invasion. SIX WEEKS
Imagine what the next 6 will bring.
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Iowa passed a law changing their state's interpretation of the Civil Rights Act to be one that excludes Gender Identity, they claimed they were doing it in order to protect women. This marks the first time that a group was removed from a protected status.
Chaos and Anarchy will break out in the US soon, the bad kind though.
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not chaos and anarchy. any disruptions to order and civility will get crushed.
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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FEIE
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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the extent that Trump has gone to remove barriers to committing atrocities likely corresponds to the extent he intends to commit them
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And American still just going to whine on the internet and do nothing about it.
If anything this has completely vaporized the "checks and balances" democratic system everyone was so obsessed about.
Americans need to update the constitution where people have the power to dethrone a dictator as of right now theres nothing right?
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They already have it.
The 2nd amendment.
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Yeah lol that would never happen.
If americans can't even form strong, lasting peaceful protests how could they form an armed resistance against literally the most advanced and powerful military in the world? Even US police is equipped with military APCs - what is your glock gonna do about that?
The 2nd amendment never made sense in the contemporary world. The casualty rate would be 1 to HUNDREDS just through sheer technological and skill difference and no uprising can possibly sustain that.
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I was thinking about this last night. If we fall, can (do we have the will) we write a better Constitution?
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Trump is going to get worse until he's stopped. That has always been the case.
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If was so easy dictators wound not have existed.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Living in good times? Tell that to the people getting deported. This clownery hasn't directly affected me yet. Everything is fine.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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The only thing at this point that could prevent the USA from annexing Canada is a civil war to deal with. So yeah, it's gonna get worse before it gets better.
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And that doesn't seem like it's going to happen. For the most part Americans are complaining but not willing to actually do anything about the situation.
I've heard people say the US couldn't invade us because it would cause an uprising, but they aren't willing to stand up and fight for their own democracy. They won't stand up to fight for ours.
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We've never been in a situation even remotely like this before. A lot of people aren't sure that doing a coup would be fighting for our democracy because removing them from office would be removing the, as far as any evidence can show, legally elected government. It's about as bad as it's been in nearly 200 years, but what if we "destroy the democracy to save it"?
Invading a country that most Americans like more than their federal government is an entirely different question. This current bullshit is disgusting and heartbreaking.
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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.
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Dont brace yourself. Unleash your frustration and direct it at anything that proudly displays the star spangled banner.
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i guess i didn't really need free information about the weather or how fucked is the climate. i know it's fucked and seasons change. fuck science after all.
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Never submit to the POV that the services they are dismantling are free. You pay for them. I pay for them. We deserve these services and they are being stolen from us just like when tax funded research is locked behind patents and pay walls.
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well put
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Added to the post. Thanks.
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Less hysteria, more substance—this article misses the mark.
🐱🐱
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Damn those Democrats! They did this to us by not making more of us voted for them.
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Yeah! This is bullshit, we shouldn't ever have to try or promise anything meaningful! They should just shut up, quit asking us to work, and pay us for every melodramatic fundraising text we send!
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Our senators, representatives, and judges who aren't MAGA idiots did take an oath to serve our country and defend the rule of law, right? The fact that Trump is in office illegally (he's a convicted felon, remember) and he and Musk are doing highly illegal, unconstitutional things means you have the duty to gather up an armed force, march into the White House, and forcefully eject Trump, Musk, Vance, and any other MAGA moron, and put the actual victor of the 2024 election after you throw away all of the invalid votes for Trump in Trump's place (Harris).
MAGA idiots are going to lose their shit, yes, but let them. Arrest them, educate them, pacify them, make them understand that this is following the rule of law for the USA. This all has to end. Now. We can't wait for citizens to protest or especially not for a vote that probably won't count or may not even come if Trump gets his way.
Do your fucking duty.
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Paywalled.
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Like we didn't know. This was just the beginning! RIP for you........
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Serious question: Has the person with the nuke codes have an independent security detail, and isn't beholden to any president?
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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.
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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.
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Duh
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The perma stun proceeds as planned