asthfghl: (Слушам и не вярвам на очите си!)
[personal profile] asthfghl
As global tensions intensify, the geopolitical landscape is shifting dramatically. While China asserts itself with growing confidence, and global powers compete for influence, Trump is taking an active diplomatic approach toward Putin, aiming to broker an end to the war in Ukraine. Though talks have reportedly led to a proposed 30-day ceasefire and reduced strikes in the Black Sea, the broader implications suggest something more complex: a reordering of global power reminiscent of post-war summits like Yalta:

Trump's approach reflects a worldview in which powerful nations divide spheres of influence and avoid interfering in each other's regions. This realpolitik mindset raises concerns about the future of Ukraine and, by extension, Europe. If Ukraine's fate is decided without its input, it signals a troubling shift: Europe's autonomy and security could be negotiated away behind closed doors.

Read more... )
luzribeiro: (Rabbit!)
[personal profile] luzribeiro
Social media has become flooded with penguin memes after Trump slapped 10% tariffs on all exports from the Heard and McDonald Islands, barren sub-Antarctic Australian territories. Both islands are uninhabited by humans, but home to thousands of penguins.

Nothing can stop you from being dumb, I guess.






airiefairie: (Default)
[personal profile] airiefairie
Hmmm. Greenland possesses significant, largely untapped, mineral resources, inc. rare earth elements, graphite, lithium, and other critical minerals:

PDF MAP

A lot of that is in areas that hold special value and rights to the locals. I know ethnic cleansing for resources is an American tradition, but I kinda hoped that was in the past. But alas.

Trump's lust for taking Greenland is so obvious. It has nothing to do with the security of the US. It is nothing more than a land grab for Greenland's resources. Worse, he is willing to use force, he says, to take Greenland.

The arm-twisting for Ukraine's resources for the sake of a stop of the Russian attacks is also quote telling.
alphistia: (Default)
[personal profile] alphistia
 Although trump won the 2024 presidential election, and he is quickly implementing far right policies since his inauguration, the core ideology behind his misrule isn’t really “Project 2025”. It is a neo-fascist playbook by people working behind-the-scenes, inspired in particular by a schlubby nerd by the name of Curtis Yarvin, a fairly obscure software developer. He has had a lot of influence on “Broligarchs”, techbros and politicians affiliated with them, primarily Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, J D Vance, Josh Hawley, and the grandson of Milton Friedman, Patri Friedman. Sometimes they are called “The Nerd Reich”.
The core of the ideology, called the NRx (Neo-Reactionary ) or “Dark Enlightenment” movement, is that democracy is outdated and needs to be replaced. An amalgamation of corporate power and political government, controlled by a non-elected “monarch” (ie dictator) and business/tech elites, is desirable and inevitable. Instead of large nation-states, there would be city-states (“The Network State”, “Freedom Cities”). They would be anti-democratic, autocratic, with minimal civil rights and no social rights.
The society most like this already is Singapore, which has pretend elections that only one party can win, and where the government controls the media "softly", and sues the hell out of anybody who dares to oppose the government. Thiel points to Singapore as a place he'd love to replicate, but by comparison to what the broligarchs would like to create, Singapore is more like a kind of Sweden...
Although they like to think of themselves as “libertarian” it is not that in the slightest, it's all about control. That's what the oligarchs crave and that's what the ideologues like Curtis Yarvin and Thiel are trying to create.
The Republican Party, MAGA, and especially trump, are simply TOOLS for them to access the power they want to have. Elon Musk is a sui generis fascist, only distantly connected to Yarvin and Thiel, but his general ideas are aligned with theirs. He is the most dangerous of all of them currently, because he is unelected and his behavior in the current trump Administration is autocratic.

As far as trump's imperialist fantasies of annexing Canada, Gaza, Panama, Greenland, any other valuable land he might want, the broligarchs think they are old-fashioned and useful only to be disruptive. They feel city-states will be easier to control, with corporate-dominated non-elected rulers, with no elections at any level of government.
If people don't like that, they can EMIGRATE. The ideologues ultimately guarantee that is the ONLY civil right a person will have in their envisioned society...the Right to Exit. Otherwise they are expected to shut-up and do as they are told.

The MAGA masses would be irrelevant. Most of them would be replaced by AI within a few decades, and they would be a very large “lumpy” proletariat controlled by AI-generated bread and circuses. When necessary they would be used as orcs in wars to distract any discontent domestically. It would be a techno-feudalist order, with “monarchs” ruling in perpetuity.
Where would dissenters go, to exercise their only civil right? Perhaps they’d flee to city states built up according to Solarpunk or Hopepunk ideals, in isolated parts of the world, or in spots where they could buy off local technofascist entities in order to be left alone. And some traditional countries along authoritarian NATIONALIST lines would likely survive, such as Russia and China.
Technofascist city-states could very well replace the EU and the USA though, which would survive only as loose economic and military alliances of smaller “countries”. The Broligarchs have no real need for the gigantic United States or the EU, at least politically. They'd prefer to have fiefdoms with hundreds of mini-Musks subjecting the population to Caligula-style dictatorships.
Like fascist regimes of yore, this system would be unstable. The Nazis begin in 1923 and were defeated in 1945, Mussolini ruled for about 20 years as well. Such tight control breeds resentment and is never based on popularity. Not everyone opposing the New Order would emigrate and there would be opposition no matter what. A repressive apparatus would need to use totalitarian methods to ensure compliance. A society of bee-like drones might satisfy the tiny ruling elite, but is not a long-term guarantee of stability. Far from it.
The ideology has many contradictions. Techno-capitalism is not “green”, so of course such a system would continue to rape the environment and exploit resources until they are exhausted. Such a system would be extremely corrupt at every level of society since there would be no rule of law, except the whims of the dictator issuing edicts. And the city-states of course would fight amongst themselves, and mini-wars would inevitably erupt. China and Russia would never give up nuclear weapons, and neither would any replacement entities for the USA.
It's a very Grimdark future, but the people behind this (particularly like Yarvin)...Thiel, Vance, Andreessen, non-tech bros like Steve Bannon, Project 25 apparatchiks, and other far right allies...they all want that. They want power for themselves and domination over all the rest of us. All these toxic MEN (and the vast majority of them ARE males) are fascist to the core. The Nerd Reich would ultimately fail, if it doesn’t destroy the world first.
fridi: (Default)
[personal profile] fridi
Now that Trump has been on the right track to surrendering a century's worth of US global power in a matter of weeks, there are other sharks that are sure to step in.

Case in point: When the US cut various USAID programs, they left a lot of local organizations in place that lack funding and technical expertise. China is starting to provide the missing funding and replace the departing Americans in key positions. This plus the belt and road program and other initiatives listed below gives China multiple opportunities.

During the Cold War the US surrounded the USSR with alliances around the globe. I think that China is now doing this against the US with Trump's help. China is getting a lock on global raw materials, through soft power, as opposed to Trump's clumsy "give us yours or else" approach.

U.S. Soft Power Is Spiraling in Asia, With China Filling the Void

China builds space alliances in Africa as Trump cuts foreign aid

It may take a few years. After the tariff threats from Trump towards Columbia, I bet Columbia is working rapidly to expand its coffee trade with China too:

Colombia Coffee Exports Rise in 2024, Driven by China Sales

The examples are all across the board. Trouble for the US is, as nice as "America first" may sound as a slogan, this whole thing is going to bite America in the ass big time in the long run. Global influence in every sense of the phrase is never inexpensive to obtain and maintain, but it is going to be hugely expensive to get it back once nations and trade lines up behind China and others who look at the US as a nation in decline/retreat.

The downside of all this? Folks who believe that America providing policing and security duties for the world was bad are in for a shock once China picks up that mantle.
luzribeiro: (Default)
[personal profile] luzribeiro
If Trump wants the US to compete with the world, why would he eviscerate the U.S. Agency for International Development, an essential tool of American soft power influence around the world? Or fire thousands of the scientists needed to keep the United States competitive? Or attack the institutions of higher education that Americans need to stay ahead? Or refer to half of his own population as the enemy within? Or threaten good neighbors while making nice with China’s no-limits friend? Or hand over so much power to Mr Musk, who has deep business interests in China?"

All actions that make little to no sense, among many others.

Short answer? He doesn't. I'm not sure how much is him, and how much is Musk and other billionaires.

But it does seem to be one of those set-ups which in sci-fi books leads to the rise of the merchant princes. (Two words manage to be part of the chapter title of a book I'm re-reading). The goal seems to be to first incapacitate the federal government, and then I presume to use its incapacitaiton as a dishonest justification for getting rid of it. A great example of why Big-L Libertarianism can't work. Get rid of the government and you have a power vacuum. Humanity abhors a vacuum even more than nature does. Someone is gonna be the government, and it isn't going to be one merely influenced and partially bought by monied interests. It could easily end up being whatever the monied interests want.
tcpip: (Default)
[personal profile] tcpip
Trump on womenDespite the chaos and misery of Trump's first term in office, his recent re-election bodes an extreme, tumultuous, and dangerous next four years. This is not just the case for the United States, where it will have the greatest and most immediate effect, but also with other advanced economies in Europe and Australia; the far right is already ascendent in France and Germany, and it is likely to gain power in Australia. In all these cases, the success of the far-right will come from populism aimed at disenfranchised voters with lower levels of education and wealth, the collapse of the centre-right, and an ongoing identity crisis in social democracy.

The current and future far-right demagogues that will rule the world in the foreseeable future will enact a program of punishment toward their opposition, reward their favourites (regardless of legality), engage in a culture war against minorities, and, with great awareness of their ironic punishment of their supporters, engage in a wealth transfer from the lower and middle classes to their business allies. It is more than plausible that they will, given the opportunity, transform into a militaristic socialisation of labour in the interests of national capital. That is, a war of aggression against the developing world. Understanding this trajectory suggests not only the dire need for organised and effective political strategy but also a working reconsideration of democracy to prevent another rise of reactionary extremism.

Read more... )

Kakistocracy: Rule of the Worst

A characteristic of extremist States that operate with authoritarian and totalitarian agendas is the need for constant violence and chaos of varying levels. The concern that the Trump administration, having captured the institutions of governance, could transform into a fascist regime is far from hyperbole. If they do so, it will come with the spectre of war, and one which hawkish commentators have been already ear-marked 2027 for a potential conflict with the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China over Taiwan. Such a war almost certainly will not eventuate, but the possibility can be used as an excuse to crush what remains of the one body that is capable of stopping the crushing rule of the far-right: an already weakened organised labour.

Of course, the rise of this international demagoguery is a sign of the times, a combination of social media rumours that circulate without responsibility among those least able to asses their validity and a major selection of the rentier-capitalist elite who are only capable of aggrandisement at the expense of others. The control of the former over the latter is the fundamental cause of our current circumstances; developing political economies and processes that prevent such a coup from ever occurring again is a subject for further inquiry. At the moment, one is ultimately reminded that politics is primarily determined by extra-parliamentary means, with the law and institutions dragging rather than leading. Strap yourself in and show solidarity to all, for this is going to be an extremely rough next four years, the worst in living memory.
asthfghl: (You may kiss me now!)
[personal profile] asthfghl

Oh well. It's not like you guys weren't warned, and many times. Sadly, you'll now have to face, and very shortly, the two faces of Soviet life. I'm talking to you, ma'dear Americans. And those two faces of Soviet life? 1) Soviet-style dictatorship and 2) Post-Soviet style oligarchy. You'll be facing them both at the same time, and pretty soon I'm afraid.

Do I sound too doomsday-ey? Oo-kaay, if you say so.

Funny thing: Until not so long ago, I sincerely used to believe you guys were the most immune folks to this sort of devilry. Guess I was wrong. You've brought both Soviet demons to your own doorstep, and without anyone forcing you to do so.

It's been clear to everyone, certainly to Putin and certainly to the most of the rest of the world: war on American soil is never possible to happen again - unless... Well... Unless you choose to go down the Soviet path. This was the only way Putin could bring war to your doorstep. And he has now done it. And you've allowed it.

You were warned. Let's not pretend that you weren't.

Read more... )
mahnmut: (Default)
[personal profile] mahnmut
Question. How many countries will Trump alienate in the next 4 years? He's not even taken office and he has already alienated his Canadian neighbors, and now he's messing with a vital shipping partner in Panama. Add Denmark to the list, he's sounding off about buying Greenland again. Old men and their idées fixes. Where does he stop?

Of course it stands to reason that Russia and DPRK will escape his wrath.

But seriously. I think all that Trump will do is hasten the rest of the world devolving their economic connection to the US and the US$*.

Countries aren't going to leave themselves exposed to an unreliable and bullying 'partner' any further than they have to. The economic rise of China, and now India, are providing significant new markets that other countries can divert their current US trade towards.

As for NATO, if the other NATO nations spend more on defence they won't need US support enough to make working with an unreliable and irresponsible partner worth the effort. They won't want to see the US leave, but there is a point when it is better just to spend more on defence than stay reliant on an unreliable 'partner'.

* That could pose a huge security threat to the US.
luzribeiro: (Default)
[personal profile] luzribeiro
How you see the economy is actually how you see the future economy. It's like the stock market forecasting six months in advance. With a landslide Trump win and Republicans in total control of the House and Senate, people seem to be expecting that they're going to see some real much needed change. Whether that's going to materialize is a different matter altogether:

Republicans are feeling great about the economy again. Democrats are really worried

I think the article really gets it wrong. It's not that Republicans and Democrats see the economy differently. It's that there is the reality of the economy and that hasn't changed at all. Yet, Republicans see the economy more like it really is since the election. During Biden's years, they saw the economy as terrible, even though the economic measures disagreed.

How that may change if and when Trump imposes the tariffs that he promised and after he deports the workers who harvest America's food, is yet to be seen (if at all). Trump already stated that prices may rise, mind you:

Trump says he can’t guarantee tariffs won’t raise US prices and won’t rule out revenge prosecutions
fridi: (Default)
[personal profile] fridi

The election of Donald Trump is much scarier than many may imagine. It's not just that an orange pro-fascist pseudo-Mussolini is poised to get back to the helm of the greatest power in the world. No. It's scarier than that. Because all this carries dire consequences for the future.

The scary thing is that Trump has started a trend and now the entire Republican party is radicalized. First internally, meaning its politicians... that is, I meant to call them "politicians" (the quotation marks here are deliberate - apparently there are no politicians left in that party, only sectarians), but it is also being radicalized externally - in the party followers.

It is not about liberals vs conservatives at all any more )
fridi: (Default)
[personal profile] fridi
What moment will be remembered as the one that ensured victory? The fist pump after being shot? Serving fries at McDonald's? Or was it the orange vest show while driving the garbage truck?

Your thoughts?

How Donald Trump Pulled Off the Greatest Comeback in Political History

My thoughts: This race was never anything but 50/50. How is it the "greatest comeback in history"? I think Truman beating Dewey is still bigger.
luzribeiro: (Default)
[personal profile] luzribeiro
...But I did, recently.

Because of this:

Just under half (49%) of Americans say Trump is a Fascist -

Half of Americans see Donald Trump as a fascist: POLL

Some random guy on the Internet: "Translation: The Progressive Media has convinced the least intelligent half of the country that Trump is Hitler."

Yeah, well. If Obama talked EXPLICITLY about overturning the Constitution, threatening the press, and siccing the military on protestors y'all would be freaking out. I don't need the "progressive" media (lol) to tell me how to think, Trump tells me who he is with his own goddamn words.

Hell y'all freaked out and called Obama a tyrant even when Obama didn't do any of that shit.

It's always the Dunning Kruger types that like to call other people stupid that have zero self-awareness and nine times out of ten they are right wing narcissists.
luzribeiro: (Default)
[personal profile] luzribeiro
There's something deeply perverse about a guy who has never (not even for a second!) worked a hard, low-paying job taking pictures of himself in a fast-food chain restaurant where people bust their asses working for minimum wage. (The same person is from the party that stubbornly votes against raising the minimum wage every time!)

All of this in the name of a Halloween costume party, only... for an election campaign.
Why? Because Kamala Harris had orked at that chain 40 years ago.

I mean... I mean, all of this is done so that the Orange stain on America's pants could also count himself among the "hard working folks".

Read more... )
luzribeiro: (Default)
[personal profile] luzribeiro
Trump meeting with Zelensky. Watch the 2nd half. What a clown.

VIDEO

Zelensky looks like he wants to slap the daylights out of Trump. "I can't believe I have to suck up to this guy." Yep, you guessed right. Trump is babbling incoherently... almost entirely about himself. As per usual.

I imagine that's something one must reconcile pretty early on if going into politics, especially if one's ambition is to be a foreign diplomat or a leader of international significance.

As to why people don't care about his apparent decline? Well... Most people have made up their mind, and aren't likely to change, unless one candidate utterly flops in a very public forum. The people on the fence generally don't pay avid attention to politics, and won't even watch something big like a debate.

I'd add that IMO Republicans these days are also much more blinded by partisanship, including negative partisanship, than Democrats.

The only way Trump could seriously bleed support is if he changed his tune on immigration. He could flip-flop on almost anything else - abortion, drugs, military, taxes, whatever - but for today's Republican base, which is loaded with racists and xenophobes, that is the red line in the sand.
luzribeiro: (Default)
[personal profile] luzribeiro
Trump insists he’s ‘not a threat to democracy’ in Dr Phil interview, suggests God wants him to save the world

Donald Trump insisted that he is “not a threat to democracy” in an interview with TV personality Dr Phil on Tuesday night, during which he also suggested that he survived an assassination attempt last month because God wanted him to save the US - and possibly the world.

Wow! If God wants Trump to save the world, then it must be really bad...lmao

Geez. The insane crap that Trump spews out is simply amazing. More amazing is the millions of dumbasses and profoundly weak and insecure people that actually believe this utter nonsense.

You might say Trump didn't die or get seriously injured that day amazingly and God may have had something to do with it.

Or Satan.
luzribeiro: (Default)
[personal profile] luzribeiro
Trump gets shot and conspiracy theories ensue. It was the CIA, some say. No, it was a fake, others counter.

I admit I was immediately skeptical myself at first but very soon after I dropped the skepticism. It became rather obvious this was no "false flag".

Incredibly lucky as I see it.

If I believed in fate, I'd almost think fate wants Trump as president. Not by this alone, but by his obvious victories in his legal battles plus this. They aren't complete victories, but if he wins and can get the cases dropped, the result will be the same.

I can't believe it is some god thing either because an innocent man died. If you think your god saved Trump while allowing another man to die, you're a ghoul IMO. It's akin to thinking some god saved you from a tornado while others lost their lives.

Sorry to say but the poster before me is right. Biden is now most definitely toast.

Oh, also for the maps&graphs junkies (you know who you are), there's THIS
luzribeiro: (Default)
[personal profile] luzribeiro
Not sure how this benefits the American people, I suppose if you think the purpose of government is to stick it to the libs you'd be happy with this.

Who Is on Donald Trump’s Revenge List?

It's a long list indeed:

Joe Biden and his family​
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg
New York Judge Juan Merchan
New York Attorney General Letitia James​
New York Judge Arthur Engoron
Special Counsel Jack Smith and anyone involved in the federal Trump investigations/indictments​
Members of the House select 1/6 committee
Journalists and Media Organizations
Nonprofits and charities that support migrants
Retired Joint Chiefs Chairman Miley
Federal regulatory agencies​
Employees at the National Archives​
Tens of thousands of civil servants in the federal government
Mark Zuckerberg

Let's not forget the other 80,000,000 people that voted against him. Remember, his tax cuts punished high income blue states by limiting the SALT deductions for members of states that already shared excess federal taxes collected from the state.

Also, you have to consider that many MAGA will be in the line of fire as well for not donating. It's not enough to merely support Trump, vocally defend him, or vote for him. You need to be giving your money to him as well. If you're not giving financially, then you're basically no better than the rest of the RINO filth.
kiaa: (Default)
[personal profile] kiaa
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/number-prominent-republicans-backing-biden-grows-slowly-rcna151279

I'd like to believe that many of the prominent Republicans who, despite trashing Trump, said they would vote for him, would actually vote against him. It is well known that Republicans who are vocally opposed to Trump are not only threatened with the loss of their seats in Congress by Trump's mindless minions, but much worse than that, have actually had their lives and their families' lives threatened for crossing Herr Führer.

But we know that even as recently as this past week, Nikki Haley pulled over 20% of the vote at one of the remaining primaries. And I'd suspect that perhaps another 20% of those who voted for Trump did so holding their noses. So this speaks not only to the very real possibility that the disproportionate polling in Trump's favor of just a few months back would actually not be reflected in the general elections, but that there is a very real possibility that Trump faces a contested GOP Convention, where he may not even emerge as the candidate.

It's worth reminding folks that the Convention is not an election - but is in fact the Party's selection of a candidate, and the Republican Party can stack the convention with their own Super Delegates, just as the Dems did a few elections back. I think his own people know this, which is why we see the rather desperate nepotism of putting a family member at the head of the RNC, and even his own young son Baron as a convention delegate.

Don't be surprised to find that the Republican Convention is a very unhappy affair, and that Trump's nomination is not fait accompli.
luzribeiro: (Default)
[personal profile] luzribeiro
This guy is all over the place, dayum.

Trump Posts Clip Flaming Judge’s Daughter—Hours After Gag Order Ruling

This is interesting. Trump posted a clip of what someone else is saying about the daughter. I have not read the specific gag order. Wonder if it covers Trump posting someone else opinion. Either way, imo, Trump is definitely pushing the envelope and not in a good way. This is not what a leader of America should be doing. But then again, it's the Don we're talking about here.

Trump Endorses Pastor Who Calls For LGBTQ+, Transgender Executions

So like are we allowed to raise any concerns yet or is this guy still a nobody whose opinions on queer people aren't relevant or representative of the Republican party?

Oh, there is more. Much more. )

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