Empire in Decline

[Mercutio]

In what world is the NYT left wing media?

 

[Gödel]

In what world is the NYT left wing media?

In the Trump-ed up America Great Again world, along with most major newspapers, the 3 major (non-Fox) broadcast TV networks, Associated Press, CNN, . . .
From https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trumps-anti-media-rhetoric-turns-action-rcna191949:

"The president has prevented The Associated Press from entering the Oval Office while his FCC goes after other media outlets."​

From https://apnews.com/article/trump-ap-journalism-first-amendment-8a83d8b506053249598e807f8e91e1ae:

"White House bars AP reporter from Oval Office because of AP style policy on ‘Gulf of America’"​

etc., etc.
BTW, along with Trump renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, he has renamed the FCC to the Fascist Communications Commission.

 

[Gödel]

From another commie-pinko website, https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/03/epa-launches-full-assault-on-environmental-protection:

. . . the Trump administration’s widely anticipated assault on regulation on all fronts at once, announcing 31 separate actions to roll back restrictions on air and water pollution​

In related news, Donald Trump has announced that the EPA will stand for Environmental Pollution Agency.

 

[jtr1962]

All this is going exactly as I predicted. We're going to destroy the planet, make workers virtual slaves, treat women and girls like property, all so a few billionaires can become richer. We have to stop this by any means necessary.

 

[Mercutio]

This week, Citi and UBS analysts independently issued blanket investment advice to seek European and Chinese securities and investments over those in the US. China's economy is a mess; it keeps trying to jump start a consumer economy and it has a negative trending real estate market because it's already overbuilt, but these guys whose advice moves money to the tune of tens of billions of dollars are saying THAT is a better idea than leaving money in the chaos that is Trump's regulatory regime.

And he's STILL talking about taking Canada and Greenland somehow.

Also, there are laws in this country about how long we can go without a legal budget. Our current Congress has decided that, rather than follow those rules, that the FLOW OF TIME has stopped for administrative purposes. Which is not a power I knew that humanity had. So that's neat.

Universities are revoking granted degrees from graduates known to have participated in non violent protests against Israel in Gaza and a legal alien is currently being held without charges because the current administration believes that mere public dissent is enough reason to deport him.

I suspect mass protest season is going to get real, real ugly this year. None of the BLM actions I went to in 2020 were as bad as the ones in Portland or Minneapolis, but I suspect the administration will try to implement actual orders to fire on lawful demonstrations this year. They'll blame it on Antifa before declaring that even protesting makes someone Anti fascist and thus subject to these consequences.

I also think Congress will go right ahead and approve a state of emergency this summer so they can go ahead and give Trump imperial control of the government. National level Democrats have been worthless in all of this. Our only real hope is that states and cities remain independent enough to keep national guard and full military forces from being used to override local government. I truly think they'll try to cancel elections. We're there already. The writing is on the wall.

 

[jtr1962]

 

[Gödel]

From ArsTech: Trump plan to fund Musk’s Starlink over fiber called “betrayal” of rural US:

Director of $42 billion broadband fund pushed out, says program is being ruined.​

A federal broadband official departed the US government with a warning that a Trump administration plan will strand rural Americans with worse Internet access in order to help Elon Musk secure public money for Starlink.

"Stranding all or part of rural America with worse Internet so that we can make the world's richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington," wrote Evan Feinman, who had been a Commerce Department official and director of the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program since 2022.

Don't hold back, Mr. Feinman, tell us how you really feel.

 

[sedrosken]

The alarm is starting to be sounded on Trump ignoring court orders; I don't know why anyone is surprised. In other news, he's ended secret service protections, useful as it may or may not be, for Biden's kids, so watch for them to mysteriously disappear before too long and for the media to not say anything about it.

As much as we like to say Musk is the real president, and make no mistake he holds far too much sway over the executive, Trump could order him shot ten minutes from now and someone would gladly do it and thank him for the opportunity to serve their orange god-emperor.

I don't understand why people are tiptoeing around it, the man is a dictator. The republic is over. I'd say we got what we deserved except this is likely to hurt and kill a lot of people who had nothing to do with it.

The only reason I'm not running is because frankly I'm tired, have no one to run for, can't bring anyone I care about with me, and the places I could run to are most likely going to either be in the crosshairs or the crossfire here shortly anyway.

 

[Gödel]

Donald Trump has won the Nobel Prize in Fiction for his State-of-the-DisUnion speech on March 4.

From https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/05/arts/television/late-night-trump-address-congress.html:

“Things got off to a big start when Trump and JD Vance held hands and sang a medley from ‘Wicked.’” — JIMMY FALLON

“What he’s talking about, I have no idea. The stock market’s down, consumer confidence is down, the dollar is down. The only things that are high are egg prices and Elon Musk.” — JIMMY KIMMEL

“He told our farmers to have a lot of fun and said the days of unelected bureaucrats are over, with Elon standing right there clapping like an imbecile. Yay for unelected bureaucrats.” — JIMMY KIMMEL

“And the days of rule by unelected billionaires have just begun. Elon! Take a bow, Elon! You paid for it.” — STEPHEN COLBERT

“Meanwhile, ahead of his address, Trump’s new tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China went into effect, and they’re going to raise the price of everything from cars to electronics to clothes. It’s all part of Trump’s plan to make everything more expensive so eggs seem cheaper by comparison.” — JIMMY FALLON

“There was a big moment in Trump’s speech when Texas congressman Al Green was removed from the chamber because he kept yelling, ‘He has no mandate.’ Trump was like, ‘Not true. Elon Musk is my man date.’ ” — JIMMY FALLON

 

[Mercutio]

The only reason I'm not running is because frankly I'm tired, have no one to run for, can't bring anyone I care about with me, and the places I could run to are most likely going to either be in the crosshairs or the crossfire here shortly anyway.

I'm in the same boat. I do wish I lived on the good side of the Illinois state line right now, but even that is a risk since the godless trans-abortionplex that is Chicago is target #1 for every red hat bumpkin west of Ohio and east of Colorado. My partner has the option to get Spanish and Ecuadorian citizenship via an ex who still has feelings, but there's nowhere I can really go on my own. As far as I can tell, much of the rest of the world doesn't want anything to do with Americans unless they're independently wealthy in the first place.

The current administration says it's going to be ignoring court orders. This should be a crisis point for every single person in Congress, regardless of affiliation. The Trump administration also says that Biden's pardons aren't valid, which should also be raising alarm bells. Basically, we're watching every single aspect of public engagement disintegrate in favor of whatever Imperial vision the Trumpers have. We're watching the country fail in slow motion.

 

[jtr1962]

Here's my solution to the problem:

1) Denmark gives Greenland to the US subject to #2 to #4.
2) Trump and all his MAGA supporters are deported to Greenland and lose their US citizenship.
3) Trump can become King, Emperor, Fuhrer or whatever he cares to call himself of Greenland.
4) Greenland is renamed "The Island of Misfit Toys".

We're rid of the stupidity of Trump and his supporters forever. They get what they appear to want, which is Trump as an orange god-king. We can finally have a real country without a bunch of Republicans trying to take us back to the 19th century.

After the MAGAs leave we'll need a census so we recalculate electoral votes. My guess is most of the red states will be down to 3 electoral votes. And they'll probably be blue now given that most Trump supporters will be living on The Island of Misfit Toys.

 

[Mercutio]

MAGA is right on the edge of complete imperial control over what used to be the United States. Why would the be content with Greenland?

 

[jtr1962]

MAGA is right on the edge of complete imperial control over what used to be the United States. Why would the be content with Greenland?

Because it's harder to maintain control in a country where at least 60% don't want them in power. We're fast heading towards a civil war. Despite the bravado of Trump and his followers, they will come up on the losing side if that happens.

 

[sedrosken]

No, it'll just be the first civil war to involve the use of nuclear weapons. See if they don't nuke NY and California and anyone who helps them.

 

[jtr1962]

Bringing nukes into it is basically a mutually assured destruction scenario. Nobody wins. The USSR had a civil war which broke it up and nukes weren't used. If we can secure a peaceful splitting of the country in two or three pieces even better. They don't like us anyway, so why would they want to keep us as part of their country? I'd like to see red and blue America just to see red America implode within a decade as those states no longer have the blue states to bankroll them. We'll see how the GOP idea of cutting taxes to the bone, removing worker and environmental protections, treating women as second class citizens works in practice. My guess is they lose 90% of their females within the first decade.

 

[sedrosken]

Here's the thing -- Trump doesn't just want to rule over it all, he wants to punish anyone who defies him. Nuclear bomb usage is a MAD scenario that would deter most rational actors -- I don't believe Trump is a rational actor in this equation. If he can't have it, he may well make it so nobody can.

Terrifyingly, I think he has enough sway in the military that even if there's some amount of them who'd ignore illegal orders, it wouldn't be enough to stop a couple getting through.

And if it hurts da libruls, or kills them, his base doesn't much seem to care either way. I think he'd gladly glass any location that's serious enough in their defiance to outright rebel.

 

[Mercutio]

We're not going to have a North vs. South war. We're going to have Northern Ireland in the 1970s. We'll see bombings and many forms of sabotage. I suspect that punitive actions will be taken against cities, such as highway blockades and damage to rail lines, because Johnny Sisterfuck can rightly say that it is the products of Sisterfuckistan that allow cities to exist. That's true, but it's also true that nobody in Sisterfuckistan can make any money without logistics centers and markets, and it's not like those things are in East David Dukeburg where they all live.

We could very well see cases where (state-controlled) national guardsmen are deployed to prevent actions by active duty US Military or Homeland Security, or likewise cases where city police are ordered to resist state national guardsmen. Likely as not all of the above will wind up co-opted by MAGA. Other than a few major urban centers, I think we'll see a year or two of civil unrest followed by campaigns of bombings and the kinds of cybersecurity incidents that cause real damage. I don't think this administration will be shy at all labeling anyone demonstrating against MAGA policies an enemy of the state and letting the 2020s equivalents of Black Shirts violate whatever human rights they might've had in the before times.

I hope to tits I can look back on this and laugh in four years but I truly think allowing Trump to come to power was the end of the American experiment.

 

[Gödel]

Breaking news: Eel-on Muskrat is buying TikTok. He's going to rename it Xmy@$$.

And Donald Trump has issued an executive order declaring the Constitution unconstitutional.

From the radical left-wing commie-pinko New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/arts/television/late-night-trump-tariffs.html):

Today is, in President Trump’s telling, “Liberation Day.”

Late Night Is Expecting Tariffs With a Side of Drama​

President Trump plans to announce yet more tariffs in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday (he’s calling it “Liberation Day”).
“Like everything, he’s got to make it a spectacle,” Stephen Colbert said on Tuesday.
“Because when you elect a reality TV star, you get all your economic policy via rose ceremony.” — STEPHEN COLBERT
“[imitating Trump] Germany, I enjoyed our time in the fantasy suite, but your home visit left me cold. Thirty percent tariffs across the board. Pack your lederhosen, Fräulein.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“
“Yes, ‘Liberation Day.’ I’m reminded of the immortal words of Patrick Henry: ‘Give me liberty or charge me an extra $10,000 for a Hyundai Elantra.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT
“President Trump is set to announce a new set of tariffs tomorrow in what he said will be ‘Liberation Day.’ Ah, yes, the day we’ll all finally be liberated from our 401(k)s.” — SETH MEYERS
“Yep, Trump’s calling tomorrow ‘Liberation Day,’ while every stockbroker is calling it ‘Inebriation Day.’” — JIMMY FALLON

 

[jtr1962]

I'm already liberated from my 401K, IRAs, etc. Down over 30% since Trump took office.

If this keeps up Trump will solve global warming. The breeze from all the stockbrokers jumping out the windows will cool the planet down.

 

[Handruin]

As my buddy says, the only thing cheaper under trump are stock prices

 

[jtr1962]

And the market rout continues. Down and down she goes, where she stops nobody knows.

 

[sedrosken]

The thing is, this is exactly what the richest want -- they can weather the storm, buy up everything the small fry is forced to sell to survive, and further consolidate their ownership over... well... everything.

I'm actually kind of glad I never planned to retire; at this point it looks like it wouldn't be happening either way, as any value I'd have managed to work up in the last few years would have evaporated like an ice cube on a metal slide.

 

[Handruin]

Even though the market is down from all this nonsense, I still think your point isn't quite valid.

If you had invested even just a little bit just 5 years back, that amount in a cheap s&p500 index fund would still be up 106% even with today's market decline.

 

[Gödel]

Trump is the Reverse Robbin' Hood - he takes from the poor and gives to the rich.

He's gonna make you an offer you can't refuse. What's that old saying, "A fool and his money are soon Liberated".

 

[sedrosken]

So birthright citizenship basically isn’t a thing anymore, and now I’m just waiting until they turn that around to start making dissidents who were born here non-citizens and therefore fair game to deport to an El Salvadoran gulag.

 

[jtr1962]

Sad to say I think that's going to happen. Even worse, this Supreme Court will rubber stamp it.

 

[Mercutio]

So birthright citizenship basically isn’t a thing anymore, and now I’m just waiting until they turn that around to start making dissidents who were born here non-citizens and therefore fair game to deport to an El Salvadoran gulag.

Using the California State National Guard and calling in Marines are both signals that the administration will jump at any chance it gets to assert martial law over big (blue) cities where the administration has the least power to enforce its policies already. We can look forward to some Kent State situations in the coming months. At some point, some MAGA dipshit is going to order soldiers to fire on civilians and the kids on the ground will do it out of their conditioning to follow orders, even illegal ones.

We can also look forward to some states not having to recognize marriage equality soon. There's no way that will stand in the current judicial climate.

And finally, if the current budget bill passes, Medicaid is going to be out about a trillion dollars. People are going to die from that by the tens of thousands. It's not an exaggeration to call that actual genocide on people too poor or sick to get private insurance.

 

[jtr1962]

Let's not forget this speech by ICE Barbie:

Apparently this administration wants to "liberate" cities like LA from so-called "socialism". I can see where this is heading. Next year they'll use this playbook to try to void election results they don't like. We're getting a front row seat to how fascism takes over democratic countries and it isn't pretty.

 

[sedrosken]

Oh, that's already happening. Miami's elections this year are cancelled, they're pushing them to next year is the official line. If you think this stops in Florida, you're delusional.

 

[jtr1962]

Stuff like this is why the 2nd Amendment exists. Civil war anyone? It sadly might come to that to stop these people.

 

[Mercutio]

Stuff like this is why the 2nd Amendment exists. Civil war anyone? It sadly might come to that to stop these people.

I think when people think "civil war", they think Johnny Reb and grapeshot cannonades into cavalry charges but it's not going to be like that. It's going to be random bombings and assholes blockading highways and railroads with semis or driving through protests with their cars. The Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville might very well be considered an opening salvo in a lot of ways. I think we'll have low intensity conflicts for decades to come and if I had any one thing to blame it would be the rise of social media and the destruction of consensus reality starting around the time Fox News took to the airwaves.

 

[jtr1962]

I totally agree about the alternate reality being propagated by the likes of Fox News, OANN, and Newsmax being largely responsible for where we are now. When nearly half the country can't even agree on the same basic facts as the rest, what hope is there?

 

[ddrueding]

Stuff like this is why the 2nd Amendment exists. Civil war anyone? It sadly might come to that to stop these people.

That entire concept has been a joke since at least the 90s. The gap between a bunch of people with fancy guns and a small number of people with all the data, drones, smart weapons, and control of the infrastructure is insurmountable. If the military is on the side of the politicians (and it looks like they are), there isn't a way to stop them.

 

[jtr1962]

That entire concept has been a joke since at least the 90s. The gap between a bunch of people with fancy guns and a small number of people with all the data, drones, smart weapons, and control of the infrastructure is insurmountable. If the military is on the side of the politicians (and it looks like they are), there isn't a way to stop them.

I'm thinking more along the lines of the blue states having the drones, data, and smart bombs. They'll be confronted by MAGAs with AR-15s. The end result will be so lopsided it wouldn't even be funny. The military is on whichever side pays it. If the blue donor states stop sending their money to Washington the troops don't get paid. At that point the blue states can say come work for us.

 

[ddrueding]

I'm not sure about that. The military has been selecting for and developing ideals in-line with Republican values forever.

 

[jtr1962]

I'm not sure about that. The military has been selecting for and developing ideals in-line with Republican values forever.

I'm aware of that. I'm also aware that if the blue states stop sending money to Washington lots of people won't be getting paid. Those with the gold make the rules. The blue states have a lot more gold. NY and CA combined would be the world's 3rd largest economy. The US GDP would fall from $30.5 trillion to $24.1 trillion if both states left the union. If every blue part of the country left, the GDP of the remaining US would drop to about $11 trillion. Basically, a blue union would be #1 by GDP, China #2, the red US a distant #3.

 

[sedrosken]

Yeah, I'd say the military is brainwashed enough to just fall in line. See what they're doing in California. They're already deployed there -- in the event of a shooting war, California would be subdued in less than a day because they're already there and California has no defense of their own. Their national guard was federalized too. No doubt that's precisely what's on Trump's mind -- or on the mind of one of his lackeys, Trump himself seems to have the mental capacity of a bowl of blended peas these days -- and why he wants to deploy the troops across more "blue" territories, to keep them under thumb and curbstomp them when enough is finally had, and to provide the escalation in unrest necessary to justify a declaration of martial law.

We're just waiting for our Reichstag fire -- it's a little out of order, our courts already passed our enabling act, though, and brownshirts and gestapo have been roaming our streets for a while. The time to stop him was months ago. It's over, we already lost. The move now is enabling vulnerable groups to escape while other countries are still accepting travelers from the US, because no doubt that won't last forever. And to another continent, minimum, I doubt going to Canada will save them longterm.

I used to think our armed forces had enough integrity and dignity to not follow illegal orders, but I've been proven wrong.

 

[jtr1962]

I don't disagree with anything you wrote, sed. It's 1933 all over again, and it's scaring the crap out of me.

 

[Mercutio]

I'm thinking more along the lines of the blue states having the drones, data, and smart bombs. They'll be confronted by MAGAs with AR-15s. The end result will be so lopsided it wouldn't even be funny. The military is on whichever side pays it. If the blue donor states stop sending their money to Washington the troops don't get paid. At that point the blue states can say come work for us.

First thing is there are no blue states. There are CITIES and not-cities. Everyone has access to the same tech and same training, and you're as likely to find urban and rural dwellers who know how to conduct drone warfare or cybercrime. What cities largely don't have is a widely distributed population who all know someone with a vast collection of collection of firearms and experience with things like cordite. I'd argue that while not very many people actually have real world understanding of things like subsistence food production (gardening, preserving, raising food animals), people in cities are likewise less able to do those things because there just aren't that many spaces in urban areas to allow for those things. That's also not a good sign. Cities are home to central logistical points and that's a good and a bad thing, because it's a lot easier to get things like food and gas to people who need them, but cities are also vulnerable choke points that cannot possibly be singularly self-sufficient.

No, people who rub one out to Ruby Ridge and Waco cannot stand up to any sort of real engagement with the military, but they don't have to. The last 60 years have taught us that even the best military forces in the world will wind up paralyzed and living in a small secure zone since they can't do a goddamned thing about loosely coordinated insurgencies embedded in civilian populace and willing to operate with home ground advantage in rough terrain. Are we going to drop a MIRV or call in an A10 on East Bumfuck, Arkansas because Bubba n' them're willing to use their 30-06s and semi-auto AR15s to harass military convoys? Knowing they're going to be completely indistinguishable from every one of their less-reactionary cousin-sisters back at the farm? There won't be open engagements anywhere, and if we put troops in East Bumfuck, there's going to be nothing but morale issues from stemming from the fact that 70% of the kids in the occupying unit grew up in a place just like it. The strategy will just be to keep up their conflicts until the US loses its will to fight. This has worked in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Regarding loyalties of the military: US military forces swear an oath to defend the constitution and they ARE technically trained to refuse illegal orders. As a pragmatic matter, shit rolls downhill and absolutely no one one wants to not just end their career but probably any decent option for future employment when the powers that be summon every bit of petty bullshit in writing their undoubtedly swift severance of their rank or commission. The Air Force leadership in particular is overrun by Evangelical protestants who believe we are living in the end times; the Air Force Academy is located in Colorado Springs, CO, home to massive Evangelical organizations, and it's widely understood that this was to indoctrinate its officer corps thusly. This has been widely understood as a problem for at least a couple decades now. Do we really WANT the people running our bombers and cruise missiles thinking they have Biblical responsibilities? Too bad, because we've had that for the last 50 years.

Further, Trump absolutely cleaned house when he re-took the White House. The General Staff of every service branch of the armed forces is currently nothing but Trump loyalists, as is the leadership of almost every administrative agency in the Federal Government. This was literally a line-item goal of Project 2025. Trump was frequently pissed that the Pentagon would tell him that he wanted to do something stupid and/or illegal during his last term and more priority was given to finding loyal rather than qualified people to hold positions of power. Absent the conscience of someone sitting in the right chair at the moment Trump's will exceeds the previously understood legal authority of the Presidency, there are literally no safeguards any more. Posse Comitatus will be ignored. Uniformed soldiers will be ordered to fire on civilians. It's going to happen.

At the highest levels of the military, and to some degree for anyone operating at senior officer ranks, there's a pipeline that runs from being willing to rubber stamp the demands of defense contractors over their time in power and having a cushy second career after they retire from active duty. This isn't even a secret. This is just what happens. My father did it, kind of. Republicans are more willing to increase defense budgets in general, so there should be no surprise that they're "Where the money is" for the military. That's not to say that there aren't officers who understand and would uphold their oath to the Constitution, only that the overwhelming majority of high-ranking officers aren't likely to see an issue between what this particular President wants and their own self-interest.

My feeling overall is that the best-case scenario for the future of North America is that the US fully Balkanizes into about a dozen states with geographically aligned interests. The Constitution is no longer relevant to our Federal system. I am sure I could write more about this, but I do have other things to do today, so perhaps I'll save this for another day.

 

[jtr1962]

My feeling overall is that the best-case scenario for the future of North America is that the US fully Balkanizes into about a dozen states with geographically aligned interests. The Constitution is no longer relevant to our Federal system. I am sure I could write more about this, but I do have other things to do today, so perhaps I'll save this for another day.

That's what I'm hoping happens, rather than any low-level conflicts lasting for years or decades. In theory we can stop this cold in 2026 if the Dems get control of both houses of Congress. In practice I think Trump will find an excuse to void any election results he doesn't like.

There's also another option, although I don't know how much of it is real, and how much of it is hearsay. Three letter agencies probably have a team of non-political operatives ready to act if the state of our democracy reaches Defcon 1 status. Arguably we're already there. Maybe it needs to be one step higher. The "action" would most likely be taking out scores of higher officials within a very short time frame. At least this is what a person I knew who worked at one of these three letter agencies told me. Think something along the lines of Operation Valkerie.