Be The Power
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Whenever Trump talks like this, it could be anything. I *think* he’s going to talk about the huge tariffs that he’s going to place on Mexican and Canadian goods tomorrow (relative to this writing.)
But, as is always the case with Trump, it could be anything. It could be that Trump is going to pull us out of NATO and the UN and align us with Russia. Or something as dumb and dire as that.
Or, it could be that…he’s releasing a new memcoin?
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
As is always the case with Trumplandia, a lot is going on at the same time. The economy — apparently according to forecasting data — is just about to tank in a way not seen in decades. Meanwhile, there is growing chatter among those in-the-know that the skullfucking that Trump is doing to the Social Security Administration…might…actually cause some disruption in the ability of the service to cut checks on time.
Now, before you get too excited, Americans are extremely docile folks. Not even a Great Depression got them to do anything of note. And the Civil War was, in real terms, something of a fluke and in some ways only happened because Abraham Lincoln, personally, was a badass.
And remember, even if somehow, magically, people took to the streets en masse in an effort to bring down Tyrant Trump one of two things would happen — one it works and there’s a civil war because MAGA Reds would pop a gasket or two it doesn’t work and Tyrant Trump uses it as an excuse to consolidate power and we become a military police state.
So, lulz?
Americans love to just “muddle through” things, but I Trump, personally, is a a cocksucker who loves to make it impossible to do just that, so….we’ll see. It’s at least possible that, by the end of the year, the USA will not only pull out of NATO and the UN, but become a full-fledged tyrannical state under the MAGA Nazi jackboot.
Sigh.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
The case could be made that the United States has, essentially, been an autocracy without an autocrat for sometime now. But, finally, we have our autocrat in the guise of Trump and…lulz?
People are making some basic assumptions about our future that just aren’t accurate. We’re never going to have free-and-fair Federal elections again and Republicans just don’t give a shit what you, the voter, thinks. So, getting mad at them on Twitter doesn’t mean jack shit.
Now, this raises the obvious issue of — what is to be done?
All the obvious ideas are not ones I really want to entertain at the moment because I hate what it would involve. But I just want people to realize that the United States is now Trumplandia. We are no longer a democracy and we’re just one tweet away by Trump from aligning ourselves with other autocratic states like Russia, Turkey and Hungary.
And all of this is happening in the context of the Singularity rushing towards us. So, I don’t know what to tell you, folks. I don’t think Americans, in general, are prepared to do what they would have to do to get rid of the Trump regime and MAGA so we just have to get used to all of America becoming Pottersville from It’s A Wonderful Life.
Good luck.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I was just being rhetorical when I suggested that ding-dong Trump might pull the United States out of NATO and align with Russia. Now, given that Musk agrees with this nightmare….maybe it’s actually going to happen?
I still don’t know if any Americans would care. NATO and the UN are largely abstract concepts to Americans obsessed with the price of eggs, so… lulz? Maybe Trump really could do as I fear and do an “Axis of Evil” with the United States, Russia, Turkey and Hungary being members.
Then what. Then what would happen?
There might be some protests, but not enough to change Trump — or Musk’s — mind. So, lulz? It continue to think that the next five years could be some of the most dramatic years since at least the end of WW2, if you factor in the issue of the Singularity rushing towards us at a fast clip.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I suspect we have about five years until the Singularity. This will happen in the context of Trump potentially destroying the post-WW2 liberal order. So, in essence, within five years, everything will be different.
It’s even possible we may blow ourselves up to a limited degree with some sort of limited nuclear exchange because Trump has pulled the US out of the collapsed post-WW2 liberal order.
My big question is how ASI is going to roll out. People too often conflate AGI with ASI. The two are not the same. A lot of people think that all of our problems will be fixed once we reached AGI, when that’s not even the final step — ASI is.
And, in a way, even ASI isn’t the endgame — maybe there will be all sorts of ASIs, not just one. My fear, of course, is that somehow Elon Musk is going to try to upload his mind or that of Trump’s into the cloud and our new ASI ruler will be like the old one.
Ugh.
But, I try not to think about that too much. All I do know is that the next five years are likely to be…eventful.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
It is increasingly clear that we may be but one Truth Social post away from completely re-aligning the global order by trying to form some alliance with Russia. The specifics are up in the air, but I could totally see him taking “America First” to its logical conclusion by ending American involvement in NATO and forming some sort of new military alliance between the United States, Russia, Turkey and Hungary.
And that, as they say, would be that.
Given the absolute power Trump has over the Republican Party, I suspect within hours of the announcement the talking points would be distributed and everyone would fall into line. This, especially if Trump pitched it as a way to cut the military budget significantly so he could cut takes even more for plutocrats.
I do sense that the United States is growing just a wee bit more unstable than it used to be just months (weeks?) ago. Trump flipping out on the president of Ukraine in the Oval Office recently may be seen as a watershed in our long national MAGA nightmare.
It reminded a lot of people that, “Hey, is Trump a Russian spy?” And, yet, I have my doubts that even if my nightmare scenario came to be that anything of note would happen. MAGA would tow the line while the already pointless Democratic leadership would just wince and grit its teeth, not actually doing anything worthwhile.
So, I do think it’s at least possible that by the time Trump is Moscow in May to celebrate the end of WW2 that, lulz, we may be living in a totally different geopolitical world than we do now.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Given what happened today at the White House between Trump and the president of Ukraine, we have to contemplate Trump taking things to the next logical step — destroying the post-WW2 liberal order entirely and aligning the USA with Russia.
Here’s how I think it would happen — Trump, at some point between now and when he goes to Russia for the anniversary of the end of WW2, will announce that the US is not only pulling out of NATO, but forming a new alliance with Russia, Turkey and Hungary.
He will also say that the USA is pulling out all of its troops from Europe and South Korea and cutting the defense budge severely.
It definitely *seems* as though the events of the last few weeks are leading up to something like that. Now, of course, the question is, will Trump do it?
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Russia is just too weak to invade the Baltics or Poland. If it was not so weak, then, yeah, I would assume they would invade much of Eastern Europe pretty soon, no question.
But Russia is too tied up in Ukraine at the moment to pose too much of a threat to Europe. Yet, I do think that Trump is probably going to make NATO moot soon enough. I think the whole post-WW2 liberal order is officially dead and something new — something unknown — is going to be formed soon enough.
It make take another World War for it to finally be birthed, but I do think that it’s at least possible something *better* might arise from the ashes of the old order.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I don’t know what to tell you, folks. We are still in the 1939 to 1941 era of this clusterfuck. The good guys still don’t know what has hit them and maybe in this particular situation, they never will.
Unless something happens I can’t predict, the USA is careening towards a full blown Russian-style autocracy sooner rather than later. Trump will run for an illegal third term, win and the point will be made, no matter what — the old Constitutional order is completely broken and, lulz, we’re going to have to think up something new.
This is just the beginning. Trump is probably going to remove troops from around the world — specifically South Korea and much of Europe. He will probably make it clear that NATO is moot, no matter what the Senate may want.
The question is — will anything stop Trump at this point? Anything? Anything?
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Here’s the point of what Trump and Musk are doing. They want to fire as many civil servants as possible illegally, then fill the positions with absolute MAGA loyalists.
They know that it’s not like Blues are going to fire all these MAGA whack jobs in the unlikely event they ever win again. Trump wants a MAGA Deep State that will continue to rule the nation with his vision in mind, no matter who is in power.
You already see this with what’s going on with the FBI. Kash Patel wants to bring in UFC wrestlers — of all people — to “supplement” the existing FBI force. Good luck getting rid of THOSE guys once they’re in place. And, on that front, I think we’re well on our away to Trump turning the FBI into the Gestapo.
It’s only a matter of time before people like me are rounded up by the FBI and either shot dead on sight or put into a concentration camp. So, there you go.
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