Musk’s various ponzi schemes, up to the Artemis-killing SpaceX fiasco, were coming due. Trump provided the opportunity for him to pivot into government, by replacing it with his AI, gps with starlink, air traffic control with whatever he comes up with, etc etc etc, making himself even more too big to fail. The US government the latest offering on the ponzi|pyramid. Trump’s ideology aligning with Musk’s own true beliefs is a bonus.

It will severely weaken the US in direct measurable short and long-term ways, to the point it is a real disaster for the US. Those to blame are all those that never called him out throughout his rise. Not to mention those governments (Republican and Democrat) who fed him public money throughout the entire period.

Edit - Bezos’s The Washington Post is apparently supporting him now. No surprise, they want an oligarchy. The Democrats are moving rightward, they are more or less happy with it too.

I guess it is some version of the land of the free home of the brave, but maybe it is the freedom to do what you want if you’re rich, and have been brave enough to brazenly take everything and exploit everyone.

This is what Canadian and European rivals of the US should have been doing for some time, and should be doing now.

OK, I have read some evidence that shows how when a level of impoverishment is reached, people are too preoccupied with day to day and week to week survival to bother with voting or much of any other civil engagement.

I won’t waste more time on this, I’m not interested in arguing over the definition of ‘disengaged’.

The fact that they voted means they are not disengaged.

Yours might have just been an offhand comment, but as it might be a genuine question I provided a brief answer.

I doubt it will be noticeable overnight, but at least some of his supporters will be pushed into a degree of impoverishment that inhibits political engagement.

Yeah it is other countries fault, lol.

His name is Trump. Russia completed sidelined America’s military.

MAGA by bringing back US manufacturing, which means creating developing world conditions, thus enabling it to become a sweatshop.

And I guess these four supreme justices think the world should continue to buy US debt lol. You reap what you sow.

Edited this post after one person upvoted it:

You are note dealing with reality.

The Democrats have helped construct the explicit oligarchy that is unfolding before your eyes.

It absolutely is about both sides, given both of them are responsible for the current situation. Or it is about the fact that there is only one side: pretty far right neo-liberal corporatists, or fascist far right oligarchy.

And obviously it matters if your only hope is to turn to the other side who are going to prove themselves to be utterly ineffectual. The choice being Trump, or a continuation of the economic-political ideology that made Trump (or similar) inevitable.

But looking at the amount of up/downvotes these two posts have got I guess it doesn’t matter - maybe most of you just aren’t ready to deal with reality, so reality will just happen to you. Trying to downvote it away is what has led you to this point.

As are the Democrats, which pretty much means the US political process is completely lost.

EDIT - Who do you turn to? It would appear that the CIA themselves have been subject to a far right coup, which is somewhat ironic, so I can’t see the intelligence services doing anything, but who do you turn to? The military? Is that where America is at?

I mean, they never hid their intentions.

From a European perspective, even though the Americans I have known in life have all been great, the fact is that the American people voted for all this, including the harmful alliance with Russia. It isn’t just Trump.

Unless of course Trump wasn’t lying again when he hinted at manipulating voting machines. No one has mentioned it other than Trump (as far as I am aware), so I assume it is nothing, but there certainly was concern pre-election from experts in the field regarding the security of voting machines.

I’m aware this sort of idea creates conspiracy theories, something I really am not trying to do. If anything I am just trying to find a reason that potentially lets American people off voting for Trump! https://apnews.com/article/election-security-voting-machines-software-2024-80a23479d8a767ba9333b2324c4e424b

I don’t know if there is a plan. But if there is I would guess it is no more formulated than ‘whatever the government now pays for is what we are going to insert ourselves into and get paid’.

So whatever a couple of individuals scrape and place on a free alternative is provided by a billionaire instead of the government.

So this is happening on a governmental level.

The process from regulatory capture to governmental capture/de-facto oligarchy, to now governmental asset stripping and explicit oligarchy has steadily taken place over many years now. No one, least of all the Democrat Party hierarchy did anything to stop it.

What was Trump’s record with negotiating peace last time?

I recall him capitulating in Afghanistan. Was he successful anywhere else? He appears to like to rant and rave, and wants to throw his weight around, but he is clearly an exploitable, weak leader.

Well this appears to be weather forecasting, rather than climate research. Guess weather forecasting isn’t useful now.

Oh, I suppose the idea is that billionaries will sell weather forecasting services to the public at a huge profit. Worked for healthcare so why not? Edit - if there is a plan, of course.

Here are the four points the bbc is reporting, which are completely different to yours. https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cn5220x56pqt

• To keep military aid flowing into Ukraine while the war is ongoing, and increase economic pressure on Russia

• Any lasting peace must ensure Ukraine’s sovereignty and security, and Ukraine must be at the table for any peace talks

• In the event of a peace deal, European leaders will aim to deter any future invasion by Russia into Ukraine

• There would be a “coalition of the willing” to defend Ukraine and guarantee peace in the country

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:

1. The US’s debts will come due as it loses global reserve currency status. Do you think it can pay those debts?

2. 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.

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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