There is a bit of a self-correcting apparatus built into that kind of greed, though. The Kushner types are thoroughbred parasites; they still need a living host to keep sucking wealth out of. The newer breed of Trump sycophant is just ripping the copper wire out of the walls. We've hit the crackhead era.
Yeah, I'm afraid of this. I'm afraid of the US ending up being a husk of a nation akin to Russia. The worst Kushner-style parasites would do is mold the US into China, which at least resembles a functioning nation.
This current lot wants to steal and sell anything not bolted to the foundation and then sell the foundation to the highest bidder.
Maybe if he does enough damage and everyone really feels it for a while it will change things. I've always said the only way politics will change is if the Republicans actually get their way for once. Well they're getting their way now. Even Trump's first term was mostly the same as earlier conservatives--a tax cut and then pretty much nothing. This is just all of their extreme desires being carried out. Every republican is going to feel it.
They do, just Look into the conservative subreddit. Is insane. As a german i am exceptionally disgusted. cause if one half of the country enables a Dictator and the other half does nothing against it ... well history will judge, just like it judged ALL germans.
GW Bush was president for 5 years with a Republican House and Senate. Worth noting the entire global economy melted down toward the end of that period. So it's not like this hasn't happened before. Somehow they managed to re-frame that time period as "That time Democrats made a bunch of poors buy houses they couldn't afford" and their followers actually deeply believe that narrative.
Nothing? January 6th was unforgivable. Unfortunately, it seems legal if you have enough money, and thug followers who will rain death threats upon anyone who questions an Evil Chauncey Gardener.
At that point it may not matter for us. We can try to turn things around but there's no reason for our trading partners to ever trust us again. We've shown that every 4 years there is the possibility that a bunch of the dumbest citizens will get together to elect someone who will purposefully crash the economy and shit all over our allies.
The previous Trump admin looked at the contemporary CCP police state and tried to emulate its invasions of privacy and increase in state-backed violence against dissidents.
The current Trump admin looked back on the Wild 90s era of Russia and decided to use it and the discography of Lesopoval as a playbook.
100%. We are Russia already. Putin made the same deal with Trump he made with his own oligarchs. “Obey my commands,” (in Trump’s case, destroy America’s democracy), “and I will let you steal as much as you want from the American people.”
This is likely what the tariffs are really about. All they have to do is take short positions on stuff and then create bad news. We lose, they profit.
How you even come to the conclusion that kushner-style parasites would somehow mold the US into anything remotely like china is interesting. Something like gilded age 1880 USA makes more sense.
Thats what I'm thinking, is they want to make the American people so miserable and desperate, when Russia holds out thier hand, we'll all be stamped down to deny it. All other counties and allies cut off, they've been feeding how great Russia is for over a decade now, even when jokes of puton on a horse. It's basically an abusive spouse making the abuse normalized until the only options given are taken without any fight.
As someone from central Europe this is my greatest fear...
Trump will not be you Hitler he will be your Yeltsin, socio economic consequences for your country and people would be so devastating it's terrifying to even imagine....
I think this assessment is probably closer to the truth. There's a certain lack of drive and competence in the Trump camp that makes me doubt that he's our Hitler.
The terrifying thing for me, anyway, is the reactionary movement that'll accompany the US losing its position of economic dominance. The American middle class isn't exactly known for keeping calm in times of crisis.
I once said that its the job of each Republican President to make his Republican predecessor look statesmanlike, so the only question is will the next guy run as Chapo or Guzman.
I now think El Chapo would be an improvement, because he needs a functioning US economy that loves his product, whereas Trump just wants to destroy it all for laughing at his mushroom.
I worked with Kanye on Life of Pablo. Last time that you could say some honest people were around him. After a few folks tried to help him/tell it like it is...he pushed them away.
Yes, clearly his handlers understood that this go round. If nothing else, from Pence’s actions on Jan 6.
They’ve removed literally all impediments - anyone who could possibly talk some sense into him. Now they can just play him like a fiddle and he’ll stand up there like the good puppet he is and do their bidding full stop.
Kinda nuts how the only thing keeping him somewhat in-check the first time was the competing self interests of different factions in the White House.
As crazy as it sounds I think that is still happening a little bit. Vance is owned by Peter Thiel while Trump is owned by Musk. There's more overlap in their shared goals but there is still some head butting.
But crashing the world economy so they can buy everything up/be kings of the ashes is something the two corporate blocks fully align on. So hold onto your butts boys and girls, it's going to be one hell of a ride....
True, but keeping trump controlled and veiled led to public acceptance for a second term. If he was full force for the first term, there would be no second term.
I don't know. He staged a coup and people still reelected him. I don't know why, but there doesn't seem to be anything he can do to truly loose support.
I will never understand how the badly spoken, badly dressed, horrible business man, with terrible makeup, and the world's worst comb over has such a strong cult of personality.
During his first term someone remarked Trump is a weak man's idea of strength, a cheap man's idea of class, and stupid man's idea of intelligent.
This. And covid actually helped him. Esp with the magat nut jobs who insisted his economy was so great. Soo many people wanted to quit but stayed in their positions to keep him inline.
But at least self-enrichment required that the US continue to remain solvent. The current group of loonies is trying to dismantle the entire country.
This is why I longed for Romney after Trump was elected the first time. I don't agree with basically any of his politics, and I'm also ex-Mormon and inherently question his morals and motives, but I at least believed that he was doing and would continue to do what he thought was good for the US, even if I vehemently disagreed with that that actually was.
Can't really say that for anyone in charge right now, and that's what's scary and dangerous. It's like seeing a careless kid playing with a lighter vs. a known arsonist walking around town with a blowtorch and several jugs of gasoline.
Exactly as the founding fathers intended. They knew the government was going to be run by self-interested assholes. They built a system that was supposed to pit self-interests against each other in factions so that only common interest could be pursued.
Clearly, the founding fathers never envisioned fully-automated weaponized avarice. They thought we'd be shooting ourselves in the foot with muskets.
I imagine they tended to get in each other's way a lot as well. Too busy trying to get the dullard king's attention from whatever shiny object the previous supplicant had left behind to get in any significant power / money grabs.
664
u/gcg2016 18h ago
And, to be clear, most of them were also awful in their own ways. They were mostly about self-enrichment rather than installing a new world order.