Before, his power was checked by legislature....but now GOP has full control over the gov, and the supreme Court has 5 members nominated by Trump, soon to be 7.
Hand maidens tale seems possible. Destruction of the middle class through tariffs, union busting, tear down of heath coverage, teardown public schools, force colleges to abandon certain studies or no federal money....
Add in non stop fossil fuel promotion with drill baby drill attitudes, tear down NOAA and the nhc because strong hurricane news reinforces climate change.
I guarantee in 4 years Trump will try to name a successor instead of holding an election.
That would require the narcissist to not think he's still young and vibrant and will never die. He will go the same way his father did, being manipulated by the worst around him as he drifts into dementia. He will be propped up as a puppet as Reagan was.
Here's a horrifying thought: JD's Silicon Valley puppetmasters wait until Trump has served just over 2 years into his term, then invoke the 25th and install JD. In the meantime, the MAGA types work the system to ensure they can guarantee a Vance victory through whatever means necessary for the next 2 cycles (since his first abbreviated session won't count as an official term), or a total of 10 years, before most Americans even realize we have sleepwalked into a Vance dictatorship funded by and primarily benefiting oligarchs like Musk and Thiel
He will go the same way his father did, being manipulated by the worst around him as he drifts into dementia. He will be propped up as a puppet as Reagan was.
Trump had a Republican majority in the House and Senate when he entered office in 2017. They were incompetent, and it took them a while to get anything done.
I guarantee in 4 years Trump will try to name a successor instead of holding an election.
No. He will not name a successor, he will remain president. Either he will eliminate elections or he will do like his idol, Putin. Arrest and murder anyone who dares oppose him.
He is an extreme narcissist and egotist. Like extreme extreme. He cannot see a future where he's not on the throne.
Goddamnitalltohell. I forgot we're going to have to subscribe to private disaster warning systems. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Perfectly describes everything they want to do.
I have spent all day crying and drafting escape plans since my life is now in extreme danger. I'm a Latina immigrant, trans, and drag-adjacent performer
If you’re in a blue state you will be much safer. If you’re not, see if you can relocate to one even if that means you sleep on someone’s couch for a while. I wish you the best.
keep in mind this opinion also promises that it can't be fixed, as the more blue voters that leave the red leaning states the more power those red leaning states have. Moving to a blue leaning state only removes the blue votes from the red leaning state in favor of increasing the power of an already blue state.
Of course if he somehow manages to find a way to do away with the election process this would be true, but currently the best bet overall is going to be stay in your state, honestly if you can lower solid blue districts in favor of saturating red districts that's the best option but that's a difficult task.
Our system does not operate under popular vote. It runs off the electoral college, its the main reason red states want to gerrymander the district lines to make all black areas be their own district, its less damage if every opponent is in the same district as it allows only one district to be in opposition instead of multiple.
That's all well and good, but are you really suggesting that trans people who are fearing for their lives should stay put to help the electoral college issues four years from now?
that's a sticky question, there's no perfect answer sadly.
the solution of moving to a blue state is a good short term fix. However it won't survive a long-term exposure. Eventually the federal level laws will outlaw the state level laws regarding it and their protections in the blue state won't help them anymore. When that happens the only outcome is all red laws. We are already seeing that with him claiming that he's going to outlaw abortion period on the federal level, which will overrule state level, an act that currently I believe would make it through the proper channels to actually get implemented as the red party currently holds half (if not all) the legislative, the entire executive, and despite it not being supposed to be possible, the judicial branches.
In a perfect world, due to everyone dispersing into the red districts, it would saturate the polls in those districts, requiring district remaps via gerrymandering to win. Unless there truly is more red voters then blue, in which case there is no solution to this problem while remaining in the US, the only valid option is either a second civil war, or moving to another country and hoping that it doesn't spread. Neither options are ideal.
If someone truly believes they are in fucking danger, they need to remove themselves from the danger first and foremost, before any consideration of "but what about next election?"
Are you for real trying to ivory tower armchair general a person who now fears for their life due to the overt threats of the candidate who just won the fucking presidency? Hold on- let me get you a ladder so you can try to climb down out of your own asshole.
no, I'm not sure where everyone is getting that ideology. Obviously if there is physical threat move. I'm just saying that moving to a blue state isn't a permanent solution and it's just going to fuck them twice over later when the barely red states become fully red states and electoral college allows for a constant 270 for a side that is very very against the concept of it.
Blue states aren't even that much better either. I know from first hand experience that Maine, a state that hasent gone red since 1988, still very much has population that is hostile to the same lifestyles, It's not as bad obviously but, it's not like the problem disappears by moving. I just personally think deciding to leave the state is cementing the issue to being a permanent one.
Personally, if moving is a must, instead of going to a blue state you are likely better off leaving the country. At least then your impact will be mitigated when the full red federal laws go into effect.
I hate that i'm saying this, but Canada or somewhere in the EU are probably your best bets. If Project 2025 goes according to plan we're going to see a great upheaval come Q1 2025 that probably clusterfucks everything.
Long term with christian school mandates via defunding education and funding vouchers will further create a hostile nation for anyone who does not conform to a heterosexual white nationalist christian identity.
If push comes to shove, I sincerely invite you to look at Mexico as an alternative as a trans Latina. Sure, your life won't be a luxury, but you'll be happy and free. You'd be surprised at how well we're doing now, how accepting the Mexican population is regarding important LGBT+ issues and what a bright future we have ahead of us.
Sure, advertising your secret plans in public might not be the best idea, regardles of the medium.
From the technical standpoint, internet has never been more secure and private. The amount of plaintext shit that was literally flying over the air just a decade ago was terrifying.
If it's a good escape plan you might help someone. I mean as long as it doesn't require concealment to succeed. And I guess a lot of plans like "find a job abroad" don't really need to be kept secret.
Pretty fucked, but not as fucked as Ukraine, Palestine, Lebanon, or Taiwan.
NATO will be fucked for a while if the US withdraws, but other NATO countries may ramp up military spending over time.
This situation is a worldwide danger. The US is/was a world power, it has/had the largest national economy in the world, it has the largest military in the world.
Previously, we could be concerned that democratic countries (including the US) weren't putting enough pressure on authoritarian countries (like Russia, China, and North Korea) to improve. Now we have to worry that the US will actually become a fully authoritarian country, like Russia or China.
On the bright side... the rest of the world is realizing that being reliant on one country for military power and maintaining stability was a terrible idea. The UN and NATO only have power if the countries are willing to enforce those decisions, and if the US doesn't, there isn't really a comparable backup option. The US military was always the elephant in the room keeping things generally less extreme just by its existence and not reacting impulsively.
Just to add, it was always the US strategy to have the western world dependent on it for defence, it gave them a lot of soft and hard power and allowed for unopposed imperialism in "less important" (with a lot of irony) parts of the world.
If NATO fades into oblivion, that would be a great opportunity for European countries to make a news defense organization where a single country like Hungary or Turkey can’t play their political games.
Technically the EU already is an defence organisation (Lisbon accords), even with a stronger mutual assistance clause than NATO. What is different is that there is no integrated command structure. But that is currently rapidly changing, Germany and the Netherlands already are fully integrated (more than NATO standards are), the Baltics are making great progress.
I expect that the EU is going to have to claim defence competencies to continue the Union's defense. There are way too many small countries in NATO that can't contribute meaningfully to a military beyond some basic battalions and the EU needs something more robust than France and Poland.
Extremely, tarrifs will erase the middle class. All regulations will be repealed allowing even more corporate power and influence. We're about to experience the Gilded Age on crack mixed with the burning hells of our mother Earth scorned.
They're done with the middle class here. They don't want to raise the poverty level worldwide, they want to bring us down to match the rest of the world. It's strip-mining time, we're too expensive for the international rich's tastes.
You don't want it to fall apart after one use, see? Need to make sure it can stand up to the job. We don't want to build to Harbor Freight standards here. Take pride in our work.
Look, I'm no guillotine-ologist, but I think if I was going to construct one I would forgo my usual method of measure once and cut 5 to 10 times until I have to go get another board because I've destroyed the last one.
We dont need guillotines. We need to heal our culture and unify Americans by ending the two party system that thrives off our division. We are so big we should be lead by a coalition of factions. Not whatever the fuck this is.
Ah yes, the same rhetoric that got us into this mess. Do nothing that actually makes a difference, but try to "fix" it from within. Meanwhile everything is being stolen with intentional legal loopholes.
How do you propose removing the two party system, which the two parties comprising the entirety of the government have every incentive to keep because it's the only reason they have the power they do? The only way, as designed an within the existing system is to get enough representation in to force that change, which means replacing 2/3 of Congress essentially at the same time to force super majorities on both sides.
Do I need to remind everyone that the French Revolution eventually fed their own into the guillotines? No? We're just keen on repeating every bit of history until we're baked off this rock? Okay. Let's do that instead of trying to ratify citizen petitions, getting collective action, and actually building a unified ideal over time. Nah, thats much too hard. Buy some wood, meet up with the three other willing people, and go stand outside some politicians house with a guillotine while he calls his donners all scared and they write up more protest laws.
Let’s do that instead of trying to ratify citizen petitions, getting collective action, and actually building a unified ideal over time.
Those work on a local level, not federal. Citizens have no control of anything Federal. The Federal government doesn't have to listen to the citizens at all. The only consequence for them is during re-election. There they'll just gerrymander the districts to force a win either way overall.
The federal government relies on each branch overseeing each other. And the Republicans have a stacked blatantly partisan Supreme Court that gave the office of the President total immunity. And a Republican majority in both sides of Congress completely willing to let Trump do what he wants as far of the plan.
Fixing this at a federal level will require getting to the exact opposite point we're at now since we've allowed it to get to this point.
No they'll keep things like the farm subsidies, may even expand them. The tariffs will leave those out. That's the socialism their base is 100% reliant on. They won't risk turning on the rural farmers until the end when it they're not a threat. They've already shown a complete willingness to ignore absolutely everything else until this point.
If he manages to pull off even 25% we will be fucked until the last soul melts on the 200 degree pavement. Its never the time for regressionism, but now is especially a bad time.
I'm over it. Be fucking stupid. Sell shit out for cheap. Stain the future with the blood of our children. We are out of time on the climate. The Earth will swallow us as our madness consumes us. Its a triple pronged rape of humanity's future.
What good do tarrifs do towards companies if they pass that on to consumers? When will that price ever touch their wallets? Its not specific to the middle class, the poor will also be eradicated. I just thought I'd mention we're heading towards a shit ass society where you are either poor or rich. Theres no in between, theres no comfort, theres just a boot stomping on the face of humanity forever.
Let me put it this way: we will see the true beginning of WW3 in the Baltics. Trump will predictably not act upon that and the response will be 100% up to Europe itself.
That response better be an armed one, and quick too, or we all better start practicing cyrillic here in W-europe.
Regardless if we are lucky, "only" tens of thousands will die. More likely it will be millions.
So yeah, Trump kinda bedazzled us there, no way around it. Won't be until the people who voted him in will start hurting personally that they'll finally realize they've been conned. But too little too late.
One of the biggest things is that the "deep state", an innocuous thing turned into a convenient boogeyman by trump, will be quietly destroyed. This is the thing that actually keep your mail arriving, your food edible and your children's toys not coated in lead. The "deep state", meaning actual subject matter experts doing their jobs throughout entire government for years, regardless of current administration, are all going to be replaced by kid rock and vaping young republicans fresh from dropping out of their second semester in at The University of Southern Alabama State.
That's who's going to be the dude inspecting your meat for e.coli and signing off on the clinical trials for your perception meds - Gunner, Hunter and Ryder.
Really don't think anyone is considering the reality of how deeply fucked we're going to be as we're all fixed fully on the front door for obvious signs of trouble (immediate societal decay), while these broken cartoon villains fill the crawlspace with fertilizer and gasoline and kick in the backdoor with flamethrowers in hand.
We're fucked, and we're going to be focused on monitoring the wrong indicators of how fucked, until it is just beyond any repair within any of our lifetimes. For example, you're going to have FIVE fundamentally broken people on the Supreme Court for the rest of your life. It's over.
The US will continue ticking. Money keeps flowing, and greed will continue running rampant.
As someone making bank and based on the projections, the Trump tax changes are going to pay well. Anyone making less than $100k, or living off of social security or retirement are going to really suffer.
The Trump tax breaks are going to fund a future international trip. And poor folks will starve.
Btw I voted for Kamala. And America voted for a old dude who struggles to form sentences.
Between 2017 and 2021, things got pretty bad. Riots, wars, a plague, economic crash, and it ended with a mob breaking into the nation's capital and trashing the place.
Multiple regulatory bodies are going to get disbanded. The EPA is unlikely to survive, whole departments of the FDA are about to get gutted. Anything involving industrial safety is going to get its funding cut. Unconstitutional crackdowns on free and independent media is almost certain. Large scale damage to the functions of many government institutions can be expected. Massive economic damage due to reckless deregulation ( that's even before they start putting tariffs on everything and wind up in multiple simultaneous trade wars). Funding for education and infrastructure maintenance will be reduced to allow tax cuts for the already wealthy. Massive loss of global influence and a massive gain in influence by hostile autocratic nations is also something you can expect.
I could go on and on but even if you were to assume they weren't serious about project 2025 (if you haven't read that you should) it's real bad.
If he forgets about everything he talked at any part of the campaign, and just decide to maximize his tranquility during his term, not as bad as if he decides to keep his promises.
I'm hoping he just focuses on enriching himself. Clearing his convictions and then lining his pockets with more NFTs and corruption. That'll keep him sufficiently occupied to not fuck too much with the lives of everyday people.
Yeah, but everyone else around him does have clear goals and plans that they do want to accomplish. And they're prepared this time, whereas they were kinda caught by surprise in 2016.
Every nation should be inviting him for state dinners, banquets, golf tournaments, the works. Collectively keep his ego constantly jerked off and away from any advisors. Keep that going for four years and we might just distract the child enough.
I’m worried about this too. It wouldn’t be surprising if Trump dies in the next four years. Vance is not qualified for the job. He’s smarter than Trump though so scheming would be much worse.
This is why I've argued that technology, in terms of actual benefit for people, peaked many years ago. I won't try to pinpoint a date, but we have past peak technology from this perspective.
After that peak, advancements in technology have mostly just served as means to control the population or extract more from us (see enshittification) and have not been of benefit to the average person.
Technology allows for actual hard power to be concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer. I don't mean like a dictator with an army behind them, but a dictator and small group with enough tech to control everything. You are right, and it's extremely concerning.
Fucked regardless but how fucked remains to be seen. Just as before, Trump will spend his presidency golfing, what really matters are his cabinet picks. Best case scenario is that just like 2016-2020 in-fighting and general incompetence make the administration a revolving door and keep the Christian Nationalist from realizing their darkest ambitions. Worst Case is that the Fascist have learned from their mistakes. I also think Trump either dying or being forced to step down (with a pardon of course) is a possibility that is on the table. Vance is a much more competent Fascist and this is definitely a worst case scenario.
Regardless, I think there are a few things that are guaranteed to happen:
The dismantling of much of the Federal Government. Starve the Beast will finally come to fuition. The Department of Eduction, the FDA, The EPA, ect will become toothless if not entirely abolished. De-regulation will bring us back to early 20th century levels of consumer protection and quality control. Read "The Jungle" to get an idea. Public Health is going to tank dramatically.
The little safety net Americans have will be pulled out from under them. Workers will be entirely beholden to their employers. The price of most consumer goods will surge, bankruptcy from healthcare cost will skyrocket, and homelessness will become even more common. Homelessness will become completely criminalized and the % of the American population imprisoned will make today's prison population look small.
The police and surveillance state will be expanded dramatically with the intent of targeting undesirables. Immigrants will be deported, while Trans people and political dissidents will be labeled as sexual criminals and will be eliminated. As time marches on more groups will be targets for the state. People around you will simply disappear sometimes, victims of secret police.
An increase in media censorship by morality police. Pornography will be banned, and using that vague label media critical of the regime or expressing ideas against the regimes interest will be censored.
The US will pull out of NATO and pursue a policy of isolation. Authoritarian and expansionist regimes around the world will be allowed to pursue their interests unchecked.
A general brain-drain as educated people with the means to do so flee to Canada or Europe. As time passes it is likely that emigration from America will be made more difficult by the state, effectively stranding people here who didn't get out soon enough.
We will completely miss the window to do anything to avoid the worst-case scenarios for climate change. So it's not just America that's fucked here.
Smoke em while you got em, it's about to get rough for everyone. We are in the death throes of the Neo-Liberal world order. Buy a firearm and get a vpn. Keep your vehicle as fueled as you can, and if you are able keep a sizable amount of cash stored somewhere safe. There's never been a better time to go vegan and get in shape. Do what you can for the people you care about.
I have a child with an abusive, vindictive ex-spouse. Regardless of me having sole custody, I would still need to get both the court's permission and his permission just to move out of state, so god knows I will not be able to get out of the country.
We must come to the realization that America is deeply racist and sexist, incapable of electing a Black, Asian woman to its highest office because of our culture’s innate, widespread, and unreconciled bias and hatred.
If that's true, then why on earth would the DNC do everything in their power to ensure that was the only "choice" available to voters? Do they like losing?
Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib had no problems keeping their jobs. It's almost like they are different from the all the losers in their party in some way (hint: it's nothing to do with race or gender).
She holds some blame, but at the end of the day there are nearly 18 million people that didn't vote for her, but did vote for biden. The only reasonable conclusion to draw is, well, she's black and even worse: a woman.
the USA is now going to join WW3 on the side of the bad guys
What do you mean "join"?
The evil empire that militarily supports dictators across the global south to prevent economic development and keep cheap labor and resources flowing out are the bad guys, this hasn't and will not change short of a revolution or the empire's control collapsing.
I mean send American troops to help out Russia in Ukraine, and send troops to help out China in Taiwan, and obviously send troops to help out Israel in Palestine
We've already sent troops to help Israel in Palestine, remember that aid pier that Israel used to do warcrimes, and now there's troops operating aircraft and a missile defense system to prevent anyone from interfering with Israel's genocide.
help out Russia in Ukraine
Just not sending weapons and money should be enough to get Ukraine back to the peace table and stop the bloodshed.
help out China in Taiwan
Ironically if we didn't try to use Taiwan for geopolitical goals, China would have no reason to invade, since a peaceful reintegration over time is far more advantageous than the destruction and insurgency that comes with a military option.
You're not understanding, the arms and money we send Ukraine enables them to continue the war. Last year, Russia offered a peace deal, giving up a portion of the territory they occupied at the time. Ukraine declined and says they won't settle for less than all their territory, including Crimea. Without the weapons, they'd be forced to agree to a deal. Given that Russia probably knows they can't deal with the insurgency outside of Russian-speaking Ukraine, they'll probably agree to borders similar to what exists now.
China would have wanted Taiwan regardless
I mean the Republic of China is a part of China, it's eventual reunification is inevitable, but they obviously see that reunification by invasion would be very expensive, both in cost of the invasion, cost of the insurgency, and resulting sanctions from their third-biggest trading partner. The only case where they'd waste billions of dollars and hundreds of thousand of lives is if the US made that option better than the alternative.
The same calculation happened with Russia; after the maidan coup, the civil war on their border caused them to strategic infrastructure and terrorist attacks. They erroneously calculated the cost of having a hostile, NATO-backed state on the border would be greater than a quick invasion and replacing the US puppet with another Russian one.
You need to look closer to understand what pressures cause countries to do things, these places aren't cartoons who just decide to self-destruct their economies and send an entire generation into a meat grinder because aUTHoriTariaNism.
We should remember that most Americans still live in blue states with sane governments. The federal government can't just barge in and do whatever it wants, and if tries to do so, the social contract that binds the nation together is broken and secession becomes a real possibility. But that's unlikely because Trump is far too clueless to know about any of the problems he'll run into if he tries to implement any of his plans.
Which is fine for him because it was always a con anyway. He talks and acts out of his ass. What he will do is anyone's guess, but it'll at least be restrained by what's realistically possible.
Realistically people should start to self sort and leftists should start to purchase and train with guns if they don’t have them for their family’s protection.
I'd love be as optimistic as you but unless Trump changes his mind the US will get a brainwormed fanatical anti-vaccier in charge of deciding which vaccines are safe to use. Even if the states don't cooperate with trump's agenda there are so many long standing federal institutions which till now you've never needed to think about that are about to get wrecked.
My so called blue state of California just voted against minimum wage increase, against rent control, against banning slavery, and for increasing the war on drugs. At least this time we narrowly voted to approve gay marriage (unlike last time where we banned it)
Support from local and state governments does make a difference though. While federal agencies can still enforce these laws, local/state agencies could look the other way. Cannabis is still federally illegal, but some states have basically said "no thanks, we're good as long as you stick to our rules on it."
It comes down to how much state governments want to go to bat for their constituencies and how much the federal government wants to press the issue. All else being equal, I'd rather be in a state that stands up for my rights than one that doesn't.
As somebody who has lived through the end of a democracy, trust me when I say the federal government will steamroll through local and state governments
Prices on everything will go up exponentially while income comes down. Worker protections won't exist and the people in charge of your health, whether food, medical, other goods, will only care about which company gives them a bigger check.
Remember how baby food had to be recalled recently because it was unsafe to feed babies? That ain't happening anymore! Fuck the babies! And if you can't afford your $4k/month rent, to prison with you (because homelessness will be illegal and prison labour cheap cheap cheap!)
The world is fucked. A climate change denier was elected to one of the most influential countries and we're already past mitigating some of the worst effects. There is no coming back.
Luckily the House of representatives have set up the rules such that they can call to change their majority leader whenever they disagree with each other, so very few actual policies will change. They might even fail to pass their own tax plan again, that would be nice.
What is fucked is USA's allies depending on support from NATO, USA's economy as Tariff season is here now, USA immigrants, and of course the Environment. Last time Trump was in he removed protections for forests and streams, and put a Coal Lobbyist in charge of the EPA.
Trump was pretty ineffective in his first term, largely because he did a terrible job of supporting people who really agreed with his agenda, and an even worse job of removing people from influential positions who didn't.
He said during his campaign that he knew much better who to trust, but now he's got Elon Musk and RFK Jr. prominently featured. I don't think he has learned anything, and I think he will be just as ineffective this time.
It's possible that some of the Republicans in Congress will support more of his agenda, but even there if they have to overcome the filibuster, I don't think mass deportation, a federal abortion ban, or most of the rest of the potential worst of it is in the cards.
I reckon that in all likelihood the Project 2025 folks will piss him off at some point and he'll just throw a tantrum and refuse to work with them. Doesn't mean he'll suddenly turn into a leftist, but if he doesn't play ball, they'll have trouble getting anything passed.
Breathtakingly fucked. Wannabe dictator with a mandate from the dumbest mfers alive.
But take heart. The battle for the US is now a fight between the old guard Reaganite Republicans and the out&out Fascists. For the next 4 years at least the Dems are a complete non-factor. I hope the DNC is proud of their accomplishment.
All the worst possible things that could happen are now not just on the table but incredibly likely.
The planner will never recover from his systematic sabotage of all efforts to save it. This is what scares me most. He lies through his teeth to make money, a lakey to soulless corporate mega entities and the entire human race will pay for this one man's greed, long after he has died. Our kids will pay for his opulence and that to me is so sad.
Pretty fucked. I'm already weighing my options here now that this has happened. My gf is a Brazilian here on a education visa, will Trump deport her? Maybe. If she goes back to see family during the summer will she be allowed back in? I don't have much faith she will be. My cousin is trans and in a red state now, he's very much at risk. My other cousin is queer and also at risk. If my dad wasn't already dead his disability money will have dried up, not to mention his medications and treatments would've been unaffordable more than they already were. Thank fuck I don't have or want kids so they don't have to grow up in this shit hole of a country, if there's even a livable planet left with Trump deregulating and adding to the climate crisis.
We're about to be bent over the table with no lube
Who cares, it's what they want and what they voted for, AGAIN. I'd be more concerned about the rest of the world. America can go off in a puff of smoke and it would be the best thing the ever did
Well, they want to dismantle a lot of the stuff that protects the middle and working classes. The country will be fine. The people will suffer. Democracy? Judgement is reserved. If he follows through on his idea of a third term without a legitimate amendment to the Constitution then it's very very dead. But we won't know that for years.
Did you think by "suffer" I meant play with flowers? It's going to suck for people who aren't able bodied white men. But the country is going to be fine. It's a lot more resilient than people think it is.
I feel like the U.S. is becoming similar to Russia. For example, we are seeing an autocratic strongman holding the highest office and only vaguely behaving within the democratic system, with a clear intent to rule unilaterally with a congress and Supreme Court that are less checks and more support for maintaining the power base. And as generations continue to experience this way of life, America as a society will forget what it was like for the past 250 years where both parties respected the system with peaceful transfer of power.
It’s sad, but fascinating in a kind of slow motion train crash to be alive for.
The truth is it's unlikely anything historically big is going to happen in the US. We saw what Trump did last time he was in office, and it was really bad, but it was recoverable. The fear isn't that it's likely, but that it's far from a non-zero chance, and there's very little we can do about it. That uncertainty is scary when we've had a relatively good time in recent decades.
Will we see a sudden shift toward a state where you can get jailed or murdered for being a dissident? Maybe, but probably not.
Will we see an escalation of the wars involving Israel, such that we see a WWIII and/or the first nuclear strike since WWII? Maybe, but probably not.
Will we see economic collapse causing widespread hunger and homelessness that we haven't seen since the Great Depression? Maybe, but probably not.
The only thing that's really a guarantee is that we're another four years away from dealing with climate change, and while that's massive for humanity down the line, individuals currently living in the US are probably going to be mostly fine. Not to say nobody will be affected - hurricanes, floods, fires, and so on - but it won't cause catastrophic failure of society in the near future.
We saw what Trump did last time he was in office, and it was really bad, but it was recoverable.
Except putting people in cages at the border and separating children from families. Many families still have not been reunited.
Except the million people that died from Covid-19 due to the government putting the economy over human lives.
Except the stuffing of judicial positions, including the supreme court, that same court that basically made him a king and free from any consequences from all the laws he broke.
Except for our air, land, food and water becoming more toxic and polluted due to Trump's rollback of EPA protections.
Except all the pregnant women who are dying or forced to carry their rapist's baby due to that packed court overturning roe v wade.
Except the people of color who rebelled and rioted during the george floyd protests but then the government showed up in unmarked vans and took people away, while the police shot more innocent people and busted heads, and almost nothing changed for the better regarding police violence.
Except the trans people who are now illegal in the state of Florida for having a driver's license that matches their gender identity, or the bounty on trans people in a town in Texas, or the governor of Texas trying to get lists of trans people to hunt down and prosecute. Or insurance companies refusing to cover trans-related healthcare. Or trans people being shunned by their peers and excluded from sports. Or the violence against LGBTQ people that's doubled in the last year. All enabled and emboldened by Trump and Trumpism.
I haven't recovered from any of this shit.
With or without Trump, the new normal is fascism in America. Every american needs to fight every bad policy, every bad law, every bad decision, every threat -- every day -- until there are no more fascists in power.
Let me be clear here. If we have a global nuclear war, that's not recoverable, because every human on earth will be dead. If we enter a fascist dictatorship with today's technology, that may not be recoverable, because we may see the permanent end of anything resembling a democracy.
I'm not saying there weren't horrific atrocities committed during Trump's reign. What I'm saying is that so far, there's a chance future generations can live better lives.
Counterpoint (and please, I am literally begging you to talk me off this cliff): Trump didn't know anything about being President the first time. I believe that he thought Presidents could do whatever they wanted. The team he had around him, while you can call them assholes and pieces of shit and every other name in the book, understood how the government and the Presidency worked and were able to reign him in.
All of those people are now gone and he will be surrounded by purely yes-men. He will promote the Generals who will be loyal to him, not the country or the Constitution. Couple that with the newfound Presidential immunity, and Trump has all but free reign to do whatever he wants. He will also appoint judges, like Aileen Cannon, who are loyal to him. Those judges, thanks to the Supreme Court overturning the Chevron deference, will now be the "experts" instead of federal agencies.
I do agree that there probably won't be a sudden shift, but there will be a shift and we will feel it in almost every aspect of our life. He supposedly promised to put RFK Jr in charge of numerous health agencies and campaigned on getting rid of the Department of Education. And I very much recall at least two instances where he said this is the last election you'll have to vote in. Is he going to find/create a way to suspend the 2028 election and stay in power? Who's going to stop him?
Trump started with either incompetent yes men who didn't know how to govern or competent yes men who tried controlling the damage that the President caused.
You now have a group of coordinated people who see Trump as willing to agree with whatever as long as he looks good enough.
On top of what you just mentioned, rather than Trump surrounding himself with incompetent toadies and yes-men, I think a lot of smarter, more powerful, and more dangerous people have taken the last 4 years to worm their way into his ranks.
He's established himself as a useful idiot. During his first 4 years we saw the idiot part glaringly. It was scary and embarrassing, but we scraped by and experienced a few years of relatively boring politics. My big worry is that we'll see the useful part exploited much more effectively this time around.
And I very much recall at least two instances where he said this is the last election you’ll have to vote in. Is he going to find/create a way to suspend the 2028 election and stay in power? Who’s going to stop him?
That's why I said it's possible, I just don't think it's probable. People are loyal to Trump until they're not. Nobody's loyal to him because they like him or they think he's a good guy, or because they think he'll bring the country prosperity. They're loyal because they think they can get something out of it. Most people aren't in a position where they're willing to give up literally everything to help this particular asshole become a dictator. Those that are are typically incompetent - see anything and everything related to stealing the 2020 election. They tried a LOT of things, but nothing came even close to working.
So they'll try again, and I don't think anybody's doubting that. And I don't think our institutions are particularly strong, but they're probably strong enough to stop that kind of incompetence from leading to a dictatorship.
Critics have characterized Project 2025 as an authoritarian, Christian nationalist plan to steer the U.S. toward autocracy.[14][16][17][18] Legal experts have said it would undermine the rule of law,[19] separation of powers,[7] separation of church and state,[20] and civil liberties.[7][19][21]
"It proposes criminalizing pornography and imprisoning those who produce it,[34][35] removing legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,[35][36] and terminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs[7][36] while having the DOJ prosecute "anti-white racism" instead"
We’ll be fine. Yes shit will be fucked up but democracy will not die. We’ll try again in 2028 and thankfully Trump is capped out after this. Maybe midterms will show some shift
Yes. Yes there will be. Even if everyone who voted for Trump is OK with it if you think the rest of America is just going to be ok with dismantling elections you're being irrational.
I don't think any country in the world has been in the position America is in. Similar sure, but not the bastion of wealth and power, with a stubborn population. There would be a civil war before they remove democracy. It's more likely that elections will be a front to the fascist seats of power. The elections aren't going away. What they mean is a different story.
I took this attitude the first time Trump was elected, and boy was I wrong. Not this time. Now, I'm seriously considering what his options might be for eliminating the election in 2028. He needs to clean the military brass of people disloyal to him, which he can easily do as Commander in Chief. Once he's got a loyal military, there's virtually nothing he can't do; and this SCOTUS will let him do anything he wants, so long as it aligns with the view of Evangelical Christians, who have been wanting a theocracy for decades. He can conjure the specter of "Democrat corruption" to justify eliminating any opposition politicians as an official act, completely re-stock the FBI with loyalists to wage any legal battles he needs to make his actions seem legitimate and "official," and arrest any problematic judges under the same "corruption" myth so that he can then replace them with loyalists.
Honestly, we've seen this playbook before in countries that are now dictatorships and Trump has already made it quite clear he wants to be a dictator. There is absolutely no reason to be convinced this will not happen. It might not happen, but there's no reason to think definitely will not.
trump just barely failed to steal it last time, this time he has the fucking supervillain crackpot team behind him.
If he wants to do it, all he has to do is make the call.
He has the executive, he has the house, he has the senate, he will most likely completely have the supreme court, there is literally nobody to tell him no anymore.
That's right, bringing race, gender, and other demographic variables into it totally makes your argument stronger. It definitely doesn't expose your own prejudices at all, no siree.
You are the naive one to think 1 moron can destroy America. Trump can not be a moron and a master manipulator at the same time. The reality is he is too stupid to break anything beyond what can’t be fixed. We will have to rebuild in 2028. Yes there will be hardships but nothing we can’t fix. The only thing he fumbled hard with was the COVID response. So here’s hoping we don’t have another pandemic
This is such a dumb take. Just the fact you didnt mention something as clear as Ukraine's genocide shows you have no idea what a corrupt idiot can do. He will be manipulated and it's going to cause irreparable damage to society.
Exactly my point. You didn't think about Ukraine, so of course you aren't thinking of what this is going to do to the US when other countries abandon their deals too, and Trump retaliates/ sues.
Youre in for a wild economic ride. I guess americans not understanding this is why he got elected. In a way you deserve this.
Based on your comment you aren’t even American so you can shut up now. Only an idiot would answer a question about the US with “Well Ukraine blah blah blah”.
I didn’t mention Ukraine because the question had nothing to do with Ukraine. It’s not that deep. If you’re asking me how fucked is Ukraine, then yes they’re fucked. Sorry. I did my part and im not gonna let morons like you guilt trip me into beating myself up over it. I am along for the ride like everyone else.
What you're missing here is that he has an openly corrupt supreme court behind him and everyone who was willing to tell him no is long gone. We'll see how it plays out but it's going to be hard to come back from this, and the Democrats are going to have to start paying attention and actually doing what voters want or there's no hope for them.
I’m not missing anything. He didn’t destroy the country last time so I’m confident we will survive. Enough with the doom and gloom. We need to unite and be positive if we want to see any kind of change. It’s not time to give up
This is my thoughts as well. He is a really good bullshitter but isn't able to get anything of substance done (for the most part). As long as the Republicans don't get super majority, they won't be able to do to much damage. My biggest fear is him getting more supreme court picks. I believe that's going to cause the most lasting problems for our country.
It's fucked. But it's been fucked for a long time. You just didn't see it until the other day. It's like the foaming at the mouth from rabies. By the time you get that far, it's too late. But that animal bite months ago, and itching and fever were the warning signs, and everybody ignored it.
depends on how much of his immunity he chooses to exercise. also be intrtesting to see how many of the new repuglicans fall into line with his shit policy
The goal is to remake the US into something else. A Christian Patriarchy + Oiligarchy with sham voting every four years. The biggest wild card in their plans is Trump, but as long as he gets to pretend he's Putin 2.0 -- which literally means being able to point his finger to see someone killed -- he'll be happy and easy to play.
Overall, there's no limit to how fucked we are. There are no brakes and there's no steering wheel.
Think militias deputized as enforcers.
Think protests put down by the military ordered to shoot to kill.
Think indoctrination of children and political/militaristic organizations for teens.
Think history books rewritten, science education dumbed down, evolution and global warming illegal to even mention.
Think marriage rights taken away.
Think voting rights taken away and voting laws rammed through to ensure Republicans win.
Think Republicans getting enough state legislatures both to call a Constitutional Convention and to ratify a slew of amendments to rework citizenship, enshrine Christianity into the constitution, and generally butcher the Bill of Rights.
Think "real Americans" going after and imprisoning and/or killing hundreds, thousands, millions of other Americans.
Think purity tests and identification papers, total surveillance, digital tracking of every word and action and movement.
Think of your street with a dead body in the middle of it and everyone afraid to go near it.
Think of being terrified for your own life if you accidentally hear someone say something against The Party.
Think of this very comment used as evidence to lock me up or have me killed.
There is nothing, nothing at all, standing in their way. Like in most one-party systems, the competition among the players will be to see how extreme they can get in order to prove themselves to their party, while the rest of us who vainly hope they'll show restraint will pay the price.
I hope I'm wrong about most of the above. It may not get that bad. But, again, we've gone over the cliff and there's nowhere but a helluva lot of straight down.
It's actually likely to be better as long as trump waddles on. He's just so god damn bumbling that even with all the cards, he'll find little ways to not get his shit done.
Mind you it won't be enough, and it will be god damn fucking horrific. But decidedly less smooth while Narcissism Jones keeps grabby-handsing the wheel from his handlers and derailing his own goals.
Until they kill him or use the 25th amendment to install Vance. Now that he’s won, you think the people around the useful idiot who have accepted all the Russian money will just let him fuck their plans up?
It's a double-edged sword, even for the GOP. Trump's followers are a cult, and cultists follow one person. So without Trump as the godhead, there's no one with enough (ugh) charisma and panache to unify the GOP rabble.
Until a new strongman pops up. I’ve been watching this movie for 30+ years.
They’re not going to seize power and then fuck it up. Project 2025 will go forward. There is structure behind this movement. I’d like to believe that Trump dying or going away would fix the problem too, but it won’t.
Burning the witches is WAY more important than who tells them they're allowed to burn the witches.
When they lose their "imperfect messenger from God" they'll just follow who their pastors tell them to follow. Maybe they'll change the name to the Trump Party and any nazi Christian soldier can lead it. Bible-banger Vance is lined up as the successor atm, but who knows? Could be Desantis. Could be Bannon. Anyone tapped who's willing to act out that vindictive certainty, solidarity and ferocity that Trump performs so well can do the job for them.
Maybe one of his kids. If the fundie leaders want to be truly perverse (and we know they do), they'll choose Ivanka and call it feminism.
source: grew up in a bog-standard xtian cult village in North America. I know these Good Folk, and the Sharia Law-type plans they have for women. The death of Grab-Her-By-The-Pussy will just be a chance to deify him further.
They’ll off him themselves by February and blame it on another nation to get their wartime economy and rights removal powers. And the people will buy merch.
He seems to lack competence in many ways, but some of the guys around him are a whole lot more conniving and potentially effective.
It's also not likely Trump feels any urge to hire a somewhat moderate(ish) cabinet of professionalls like he did last time. I assume he learned his lesson given that they all eventually turned on him.
So let's see. I think he's spent the past 4 years surrounding himself with some bad hombres, to borrow a saying, and now he's ready to act with fewer guardrails.
I think a lot of bad things will happen, but the biggest problem will be that all vaccination everywhere ends, so millions of children die, and it'll be another pandemic crisis.
The orange shrivelled taco will probably keel over before his term ends. Just look at him, does this look like someone who might survive four more years?
What would happen afterwards with JD Vance at the helm I'm less clear.
It all depends on whether they’re competent and can act together for their goals. Many of those goals are truly horrible, but
Trumps first term was incompetent, fractured. Despite all the chaos and destruction, they did nowhere near as much damage to peoples lives and democracy as they wanted to
My conservative brother is all too typical, dismissing the worst statements as “he’s not serious. He’d never do that”. We have to hope people like my brother are right
their goal is narcissism and their methods are stoking outrage: is it possible they’re not actually evil, don’t actually pay attention to what comes out of their own mouths? Are they even capable of working together? Making Trump rich and stoking his ego would be a travesty, but far less damaging than what he says he’ll do
Its hard to say cuz hes so unstable, but since his party has been hijacked by his sycophants and own the three branches, id guess some crazy shit.
Maybe this will finally make the americans understand that voting has consequences, and that some minimal homework is needed to choose.
But honestly no one on this planet has any faith in the average american so i predict ww3, mass incarceration with slavery (woops already has been happening, but for even more ppl), demonization of any minority, and a general loss of wealth that will be vacuumed by the upper class.
Man I cant believe you guys let trump hire Elon fking Musk, hope you guys like living like one of his employees.
To everyone in here saying that this is the end of democracy and this is the end times, what is stopping you from buying a gun and training with other liberals/leftists? Or are you just going to keel over and die?
II think it's entirely possible the world is fucked. Climate crisis won't come during his 2nd administration, but the 4 years we lose in national and international regulation is going to make it impossible to prevent.
It'll be slow, but before 2061, I expect the death of the global Internet, and global shipping, and most air travel. Electrical grids will fracture or fail and the pieces used for smaller (at most regional) grid. Cities won't be able to maintain the sewer pumps, and Cholera will start killing people again. Gas lines will stop maintaining pressure.
I don't plan on sticking around that long. My BP has always been bad, so I figure just indulging my vices will make this no my problem, and I don't have a partner or descendants.
If you prefer not embracing despair, I suggest looking into how you and your dearest can survive without infrastructure. Local food production, local power and medicine production. Don't count on supplies you can't retrieve within a day of travel, and don't count on the state to maintain roads. "Solarpunk" might be a good search term. Also, might prepare for unpredictable shifts in the local climate, like preferring indoor growing.
If anyone has data that says we can avoid climate collapse with no new national or international regulation before 2029, I'd love to hear it. Please.
What happened to the Iranian left after 1979's revolution:
The Iranian left played a significant role in the 1979 revolution but was ultimately suppressed and marginalized by Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamist forces in the aftermath. Here's an overview of what happened to leftist groups after the revolution:
Initial Collaboration and Support
Many leftist groups initially supported and collaborated with Khomeini's movement to overthrow the Shah:
Various Marxist-Leninist, socialist, and communist organizations participated in the revolutionary coalition[5].
Some leftist groups like the Tudeh Party (pro-Soviet communists) and Fedayeen (urban guerillas) attracted many student members[5].
The leftist-Islamist group Mujahedin also gained significant support among students[5].
Many leftists viewed Khomeini's movement as anti-imperialist and hoped to push it in a more progressive direction[1].
Gradual Suppression
However, Khomeini and his allies soon moved to sideline and suppress leftist forces:
In March 1979, Khomeini declared "do not use this term, 'democratic.' That is the Western style," signaling his opposition to liberal and leftist ideals[2].
The National Democratic Front (a leftist group) was banned in August 1979[2].
Universities were purged of leftist influence starting in March 1980[2].
By early 1981, the government had closed MEK (People's Mujahedin) offices, banned their newspapers, and issued arrest warrants for their leaders[2].
Violent Crackdown
The suppression of the left intensified into violent persecution:
Between 1981-1985, nearly 8,000 political opponents were executed, many of them leftists[3].
In 1988, a "Death Committee" oversaw the mass execution of leftist prisoners[1].
Overall, the Islamic Republic's crackdown on dissent was far more brutal than the Shah's regime, which had executed fewer than 100 political prisoners between 1971-1979[3].
Reasons for Failure
Several factors contributed to the left's inability to maintain influence:
Lack of unity and organization among moderate and radical leftist factions[2].
Underestimation of the conservatism of the Iranian masses[2].
The left's secular ideology conflicted with the religious fervor driving much of the revolution[1].
Khomeini's skillful co-opting of leftist anti-imperialist and social justice rhetoric into an Islamist framework[3][4].
Legacy
By the end of 1979, the "secular middle class" and liberals had been largely sidelined, leaving mainly Islamist factions in power[2]. The suppression of the left helped consolidate the Islamic Republic's hold on power and narrowed the range of acceptable political ideologies in Iran[3]. However, some leftist ideas around social justice and anti-imperialism were incorporated into the Islamic Republic's ideology, albeit in a religious framework[4].
There was a slim sliver of hope left that we might reduce the acceleration towards the planet becoming largely uninhabitable for most people, but that is gone now, many of the brakes we had before are about to come off
He had pretty much that his first two years. Maybe not the judicial branch, totally. But, he had both chambers of congress. They could have done a lot but didn’t because of incompetence, a little dissent and fear of electoral reprisals.
Now, they’re more organized and possibly more unified behind the rat-fucking that’s planned.
If they move too fast they’ll lose the House in two years. If they slow boil, we’ll all be cooked before we know it.
Last time, I don't think Trump was expecting to win. He ended up needing to scrape together a cabinet, and a bunch of those officials were old-school Republicans who chafed at all the crazy stuff he wanted to do.
This time, the Heritage Foundation is preparing him, and the new Senate will rubber-stamp all his appointments. He will pick people who intend to "dismantle the administrative state". Grover Norquist famously wanted to make Government so small he could drown it in fhe bathtub. He might get his wish.
100% his plan the first time was to lose, talk a lot of shit and complain. Sell a bunch of merchandise and try it again over and over, grifting millions from idiots.
You can see it immediately when he wins. Both his and Melania's expressions when they get the news show that winning wasn't the plan. It's also why he immediately started talking about fraud. He didn't have any prepared talking points for winning, they were all based on losing and using that to power his next scams.
They're organized, have begun implementing the government takeover that they've worked towards since Reagan, and he's officially been given immunity for anything he wants to do by the Supreme Court before entering office.
All of these plans have nothing to do with Trump, they've been being laid since Reagan and Nixon. Trump just stumbled on them, openly exposing them to the world because he's such an extreme narcissist he MUST brag about anything he even thinks gives him power. We stopped it the first time, and had a chance to correct, but enough of the population has been drinking the Republican propaganda Kool-aid through Fix News since it's inception. Fox News was started explicitly as a response to Nixon's impeachment to provide an open partisan propaganda network for the Republican party. Nixon was going to be just fine until the media started educating the electorate, who demanded something be done. Congress was completely fine with Watergate until that point.
Project 2025. Complete control of all branches of government. A Supreme Court that says he can do whatever he wants. I'm sorry to be pessimistic, but we're absolutely fucked.
I'm not as doomer as everyone else for the short term. It's the long term I'm worried about. He might get 2 more scotus members, and he's going to do everything in his power to undercut any attempt to tackle climate change. And that includes his scotus picks who will almost certainly declare any needed attention to address climate change as unconstitutional.
There are less adults/competent/people with any morals in the room now. Swap John Kelly and some of the slightly more upstanding members of his inner circle for RFK Jr and some of the worst of the worst
Someone joke bet $500 Michigan will be blue with a +4% lead so I think I'll joke bet $500 it will just be a repeat of 2016-2020 except 1.5x worse and then by next election maybe the DNC will learn to run a normal primary again and promote a popular candidate who actually promises to meet constituents' demands instead of ignoring them.
Also someone on this community asked what everyone would do if Trump won and I said I'd probably make a collage of a years worth of my comments telling people ignoring genocide would cost Democrats the election.
So I guess I might go do that now and say "I told you so" to everyone who told me I was wrong.
Him dropping out wasn't his biggest mistake. Him choosing to drop out months after the primary process was his biggest downfall. He basically fucked the democratic party because he couldn't swallow his ego and drop out when it was clear his popularity among the country was dwindling even in the party itself. Every advisor he had said "hey you likely shouldn't run again" but he stayed, Hell fucking Obama even told him "yo you aren't going to win this". His stubbornness to run for a second term is what killed the chances of a democratic win here.
additional note: I don't blame him though, like I could not imagine working my entire life up to that moment, and then having to say "I wasn't the change I wanted to be I need to let someone else take the reins", it must have been such a blow to his self confidence. The fact that he dropped out at all was a show of strength. I don't think him dropping out at the point he was in changed the outcome overall, the damage in my eyes was done as soon as he decided to continue with the primaries knowing he was losing support
I'm fairly certain Biden would have done the same if not worse considering his lower popularity that resulted in Democrats switching to Harris.
Had they planned this out and done a primary, there'd probably be a new candidate who would have done better and possibly won.
Of course that would involve letting people decide their candidate which is a big no no and too expensive to rig and risk losing anyway just like Hillary's campaign.
The other branches are now controlled by the same far right groups who largely fall in line with what Trump (or his masters) demand. There are no checks and balances now. Congress will propose and pass any legislation he wants and the supreme court will find no fault with the legislation. The public does not have to go along with anything. They have now given full control to the far right who is in lock step with their plan to dismantle the US government and rebuild it to suit their own whims. The guardrails are gone, there is no protection now.
He controls one. Hand picked asshats on the bench, and his supporters won Congress. It’s really hard to see a world where this doesn’t get drastically worse for liberals.
The first year will be him living off Bidens reduction of inflation. EVERY policy Trump has discussed increases prices. So we will have hyper inflation.
Name One policy he has discussed that will cut costs in his 4 years please.
Well he's going to try to lower energy prices and cut taxes on paychecks as much as possible plus cut taxes on social security. So that's multiple things in one little sentence lol
The lowest energy costs are in solar and renewables, which he has promised to slash all investments that Biden put into place for those. So energy costs would go up long term..not down. Also the impact on the environment will be more for fossil fuels so it will cost more to clean up long term. (more expensive, not cheaper)
As for cutting taxes on Social Security, what is it going to do? He's also mentioned cut backs to social security, but we haven't seen any numbers for it, so we don't know yet. We do know Obama tried to up the the salary limit for minimum wage for overtime requirements from 23,000 to over 47k but the courts blocked it. Then Trump set it at 35k. Biden has upped it to 55,000. Trump has said he wants to bring that back down. You know, because all those hard working Americans who make 40k a year don't deserve to make overtime I guess.
Nothing will happen. We'll all get up in the morning, maybe eat some breakfast, go to work, come home, play with the kids, eat some dinner, may shag your wife/husband, go to bed. Repeat. I can't wait for four years to fly and be just as boring as the last four years.
Actually, maybe that's what life will be like for a white, upper middle class, cisgender-heterosexual married male in his late 30s-40s, but for anyone who isn't that... oh boy are we fucked.
Not much will change, this guy has been president before, he spend more time on the golf course then in the oval office.
I expect lots of embarrassing speeches and truths/tweets, but other then that the purple party autocrats will be running the country like they always do.
He doesn't have to. He doesn't have to do much. Though since he now has unfettered opportunity, I think he will. The groundwork is laid for theocrats to run everything down to the dark confines of the womb.
Right now, this is what I am telling myself. Let's just hope he is only as bad as he was the first go around, and not as bad as he has been claiming he will be on the campaign trail. He is the lyingest sack of shit to ever hold office. Let's cross our fingers he was lying about most of the shit he promised his cult.
There is some panicking prompted by the horrible things he's promised to do but probably can't, but:
-He got Roe v. Wade overturned, stripping rights from Americans while also being responsible for a 3% increase in infant mortality in the US, the first significant increase in decades
-about as many people died of COVID as voted for Jill Stein, and while Trump isn't responsible for all their deaths he significantly worsened the problem.
Before, his power was checked by legislature....but now GOP has full control over the gov, and the supreme Court has 5 members nominated by Trump, soon to be 7.
Hand maidens tale seems possible. Destruction of the middle class through tariffs, union busting, tear down of heath coverage, teardown public schools, force colleges to abandon certain studies or no federal money....
Add in non stop fossil fuel promotion with drill baby drill attitudes, tear down NOAA and the nhc because strong hurricane news reinforces climate change.
I guarantee in 4 years Trump will try to name a successor instead of holding an election.
That would require the narcissist to not think he's still young and vibrant and will never die. He will go the same way his father did, being manipulated by the worst around him as he drifts into dementia. He will be propped up as a puppet as Reagan was.
He could postpone the election if America is at war.
"We have always been at war with Eastasia"
That's funny, I could have sworn it was Eurasia last year. I must be mistaken.
WE FOUND A GOLDSTEIN SYMPATHIZER!!
I'm most certainly not. Oh look, time for The Two Minutes of Hate already. 📺
Here's a horrifying thought: JD's Silicon Valley puppetmasters wait until Trump has served just over 2 years into his term, then invoke the 25th and install JD. In the meantime, the MAGA types work the system to ensure they can guarantee a Vance victory through whatever means necessary for the next 2 cycles (since his first abbreviated session won't count as an official term), or a total of 10 years, before most Americans even realize we have sleepwalked into a Vance dictatorship funded by and primarily benefiting oligarchs like Musk and Thiel
I'm quite sure that this is already the case.
Fuuuccckkkk.... Add to the list of things I forgot... The AccuWeather guy is about to become even more wealthy....
The billionaire class are the only winners of this election, but then again when aren't they the winner? Money is literally power.
Trump had a Republican majority in the House and Senate when he entered office in 2017. They were incompetent, and it took them a while to get anything done.
They didn't have a Project 2025 game plan going in like they do now.
They did, and most of it was implemented then as well.
Yeah but he probably thought he was going to have 8 years in a row. Now he has bigger ass-kissers.
No. He will not name a successor, he will remain president. Either he will eliminate elections or he will do like his idol, Putin. Arrest and murder anyone who dares oppose him.
He is an extreme narcissist and egotist. Like extreme extreme. He cannot see a future where he's not on the throne.
Wanna bet he'll put up one of his kids (hell perhaps even Barron?) and bend the whole sycophantic side of the GOP into endlesdly propping them up?
In 4 years, you may simply get Trump III. I want to say this notion seems absurd, except that it absolutely isn't.
Bush SR, JR and Jeb.
Jeb doesen't count. Please clap.
Lmao fair enough...
Goddamnitalltohell. I forgot we're going to have to subscribe to private disaster warning systems. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Perfectly describes everything they want to do.
Do you remember a few years ago when the orange idiot hugged a piece of coal and called it "beautiful clean coal"? Ugh, what a dip shit.
And it'll certainly be one of his moronic children.
I have spent all day crying and drafting escape plans since my life is now in extreme danger. I'm a Latina immigrant, trans, and drag-adjacent performer
Good luck and I wish you the safest journey to somewhere safe as possible.
If you’re in a blue state you will be much safer. If you’re not, see if you can relocate to one even if that means you sleep on someone’s couch for a while. I wish you the best.
Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine are desperate for people to move there... And the Canadian border is right there just in case
Canadian Immigration is pretty full up at the moment, might take a while to process unless the person heads there and claims asylum once in.
keep in mind this opinion also promises that it can't be fixed, as the more blue voters that leave the red leaning states the more power those red leaning states have. Moving to a blue leaning state only removes the blue votes from the red leaning state in favor of increasing the power of an already blue state.
Of course if he somehow manages to find a way to do away with the election process this would be true, but currently the best bet overall is going to be stay in your state, honestly if you can lower solid blue districts in favor of saturating red districts that's the best option but that's a difficult task.
Our system does not operate under popular vote. It runs off the electoral college, its the main reason red states want to gerrymander the district lines to make all black areas be their own district, its less damage if every opponent is in the same district as it allows only one district to be in opposition instead of multiple.
That's all well and good, but are you really suggesting that trans people who are fearing for their lives should stay put to help the electoral college issues four years from now?
that's a sticky question, there's no perfect answer sadly.
the solution of moving to a blue state is a good short term fix. However it won't survive a long-term exposure. Eventually the federal level laws will outlaw the state level laws regarding it and their protections in the blue state won't help them anymore. When that happens the only outcome is all red laws. We are already seeing that with him claiming that he's going to outlaw abortion period on the federal level, which will overrule state level, an act that currently I believe would make it through the proper channels to actually get implemented as the red party currently holds half (if not all) the legislative, the entire executive, and despite it not being supposed to be possible, the judicial branches.
In a perfect world, due to everyone dispersing into the red districts, it would saturate the polls in those districts, requiring district remaps via gerrymandering to win. Unless there truly is more red voters then blue, in which case there is no solution to this problem while remaining in the US, the only valid option is either a second civil war, or moving to another country and hoping that it doesn't spread. Neither options are ideal.
No, the banshee-wailing fuck it isn't!
If someone truly believes they are in fucking danger, they need to remove themselves from the danger first and foremost, before any consideration of "but what about next election?"
More than half of Americans are OK with fascism. No fixing this.
Are you for real trying to ivory tower armchair general a person who now fears for their life due to the overt threats of the candidate who just won the fucking presidency? Hold on- let me get you a ladder so you can try to climb down out of your own asshole.
no, I'm not sure where everyone is getting that ideology. Obviously if there is physical threat move. I'm just saying that moving to a blue state isn't a permanent solution and it's just going to fuck them twice over later when the barely red states become fully red states and electoral college allows for a constant 270 for a side that is very very against the concept of it.
Blue states aren't even that much better either. I know from first hand experience that Maine, a state that hasent gone red since 1988, still very much has population that is hostile to the same lifestyles, It's not as bad obviously but, it's not like the problem disappears by moving. I just personally think deciding to leave the state is cementing the issue to being a permanent one.
Personally, if moving is a must, instead of going to a blue state you are likely better off leaving the country. At least then your impact will be mitigated when the full red federal laws go into effect.
New Mexico is quite nice and still affordable.
I wish you luck and safety.
I hate that i'm saying this, but Canada or somewhere in the EU are probably your best bets. If Project 2025 goes according to plan we're going to see a great upheaval come Q1 2025 that probably clusterfucks everything.
Long term with christian school mandates via defunding education and funding vouchers will further create a hostile nation for anyone who does not conform to a heterosexual white nationalist christian identity.
If push comes to shove, I sincerely invite you to look at Mexico as an alternative as a trans Latina. Sure, your life won't be a luxury, but you'll be happy and free. You'd be surprised at how well we're doing now, how accepting the Mexican population is regarding important LGBT+ issues and what a bright future we have ahead of us.
Is that you Iniko?
You have my axe, for what it's worth. Godspeed.
What does your escape plan look like?
Edit: lmao people LARPing
Maybe not a great idea for some individuals to advertise their escape plans in open channels online?
Honestly, the internet doesn't feel "safe" anymore, in general. I've already stopped myself saying certain things a few times in the last 24 hours.
"Great Firewall of China" style internet incoming.
Put on your pirate hat and get while the gettings good. Sneakernets makin a comeback.
Sure, advertising your secret plans in public might not be the best idea, regardles of the medium.
From the technical standpoint, internet has never been more secure and private. The amount of plaintext shit that was literally flying over the air just a decade ago was terrifying.
Tbh I haven't pirated much in years. Mind PMing me any decent trackers?
If it's a good escape plan you might help someone. I mean as long as it doesn't require concealment to succeed. And I guess a lot of plans like "find a job abroad" don't really need to be kept secret.
Pretty fucked, but not as fucked as Ukraine, Palestine, Lebanon, or Taiwan.
NATO will be fucked for a while if the US withdraws, but other NATO countries may ramp up military spending over time.
This situation is a worldwide danger. The US is/was a world power, it has/had the largest national economy in the world, it has the largest military in the world.
Previously, we could be concerned that democratic countries (including the US) weren't putting enough pressure on authoritarian countries (like Russia, China, and North Korea) to improve. Now we have to worry that the US will actually become a fully authoritarian country, like Russia or China.
On the bright side... the rest of the world is realizing that being reliant on one country for military power and maintaining stability was a terrible idea. The UN and NATO only have power if the countries are willing to enforce those decisions, and if the US doesn't, there isn't really a comparable backup option. The US military was always the elephant in the room keeping things generally less extreme just by its existence and not reacting impulsively.
Just to add, it was always the US strategy to have the western world dependent on it for defence, it gave them a lot of soft and hard power and allowed for unopposed imperialism in "less important" (with a lot of irony) parts of the world.
If NATO fades into oblivion, that would be a great opportunity for European countries to make a news defense organization where a single country like Hungary or Turkey can’t play their political games.
Technically the EU already is an defence organisation (Lisbon accords), even with a stronger mutual assistance clause than NATO. What is different is that there is no integrated command structure. But that is currently rapidly changing, Germany and the Netherlands already are fully integrated (more than NATO standards are), the Baltics are making great progress.
There is at least a chance
Huh, that’s fascinating. I wasn’t aware, but that’s cool to hear, despite how frustrating and depressing the motivation for it may be
I expect that the EU is going to have to claim defence competencies to continue the Union's defense. There are way too many small countries in NATO that can't contribute meaningfully to a military beyond some basic battalions and the EU needs something more robust than France and Poland.
Extremely, tarrifs will erase the middle class. All regulations will be repealed allowing even more corporate power and influence. We're about to experience the Gilded Age on crack mixed with the burning hells of our mother Earth scorned.
They're done with the middle class here. They don't want to raise the poverty level worldwide, they want to bring us down to match the rest of the world. It's strip-mining time, we're too expensive for the international rich's tastes.
Time to stock up on the automatic rifles they want us all to have so much, and learn carpentry to build some guillotines.
Maybe the French will help us again, they've got some experience with this.
Why do you need to learn carpentry? Isn’t it a slot with a big metal blade? Add a rope so you can pull it up, and let it go to make it work…
You don't want it to fall apart after one use, see? Need to make sure it can stand up to the job. We don't want to build to Harbor Freight standards here. Take pride in our work.
Look, I'm no guillotine-ologist, but I think if I was going to construct one I would forgo my usual method of measure once and cut 5 to 10 times until I have to go get another board because I've destroyed the last one.
the French forgot about when to use guillotines decades ago
We dont need guillotines. We need to heal our culture and unify Americans by ending the two party system that thrives off our division. We are so big we should be lead by a coalition of factions. Not whatever the fuck this is.
Ah yes, the same rhetoric that got us into this mess. Do nothing that actually makes a difference, but try to "fix" it from within. Meanwhile everything is being stolen with intentional legal loopholes.
How do you propose removing the two party system, which the two parties comprising the entirety of the government have every incentive to keep because it's the only reason they have the power they do? The only way, as designed an within the existing system is to get enough representation in to force that change, which means replacing 2/3 of Congress essentially at the same time to force super majorities on both sides.
Do I need to remind everyone that the French Revolution eventually fed their own into the guillotines? No? We're just keen on repeating every bit of history until we're baked off this rock? Okay. Let's do that instead of trying to ratify citizen petitions, getting collective action, and actually building a unified ideal over time. Nah, thats much too hard. Buy some wood, meet up with the three other willing people, and go stand outside some politicians house with a guillotine while he calls his donners all scared and they write up more protest laws.
Those work on a local level, not federal. Citizens have no control of anything Federal. The Federal government doesn't have to listen to the citizens at all. The only consequence for them is during re-election. There they'll just gerrymander the districts to force a win either way overall.
The federal government relies on each branch overseeing each other. And the Republicans have a stacked blatantly partisan Supreme Court that gave the office of the President total immunity. And a Republican majority in both sides of Congress completely willing to let Trump do what he wants as far of the plan.
Fixing this at a federal level will require getting to the exact opposite point we're at now since we've allowed it to get to this point.
Then local it is. We gotta do something or die my guy.
No they'll keep things like the farm subsidies, may even expand them. The tariffs will leave those out. That's the socialism their base is 100% reliant on. They won't risk turning on the rural farmers until the end when it they're not a threat. They've already shown a complete willingness to ignore absolutely everything else until this point.
If he manages to pull off even 25% we will be fucked until the last soul melts on the 200 degree pavement. Its never the time for regressionism, but now is especially a bad time.
I'm over it. Be fucking stupid. Sell shit out for cheap. Stain the future with the blood of our children. We are out of time on the climate. The Earth will swallow us as our madness consumes us. Its a triple pronged rape of humanity's future.
Ending farming and allowing nature to return would prevent a dust bowl. Allowing a field to go fallow means that a whole lot of plants start growing.
That’s because it is soil that has been destroyed through decades of mismanagement. That is what caused the previous dust bowl.
Okay don't rage at me. How do tarrifs affect the middle class?
We end up paying them. Not countries, or corporations. The cost gets passed to consumers.
Okay, but why is that specific to the middle class?
Also, wouldn't it make sense to tarrif all the businesses who are using other countries for cheap labor?
What good do tarrifs do towards companies if they pass that on to consumers? When will that price ever touch their wallets? Its not specific to the middle class, the poor will also be eradicated. I just thought I'd mention we're heading towards a shit ass society where you are either poor or rich. Theres no in between, theres no comfort, theres just a boot stomping on the face of humanity forever.
Well it should hit them in the wallet when people choose not to buy that thing because there's something better at the same price here.
But it doesnt. It hits us in our wallets, dude.
Don't buy the stuff. Buy the American stuff so it goes back in American wallets. That's the idea right?
Let me put it this way: we will see the true beginning of WW3 in the Baltics. Trump will predictably not act upon that and the response will be 100% up to Europe itself.
That response better be an armed one, and quick too, or we all better start practicing cyrillic here in W-europe.
Regardless if we are lucky, "only" tens of thousands will die. More likely it will be millions.
So yeah, Trump kinda bedazzled us there, no way around it. Won't be until the people who voted him in will start hurting personally that they'll finally realize they've been conned. But too little too late.
Cute that you think they won't just blame Mexicans when they do start hurting.
As long as they have a group to scapegoat
Oh he'd act. He'd assist Russia and be the other Axis power.
Germany's fatal mistake in WW2 was not being America instead.
Who, exactly, is to take its place along with the British Empire and USSR in holding back fascism?
One of the biggest things is that the "deep state", an innocuous thing turned into a convenient boogeyman by trump, will be quietly destroyed. This is the thing that actually keep your mail arriving, your food edible and your children's toys not coated in lead. The "deep state", meaning actual subject matter experts doing their jobs throughout entire government for years, regardless of current administration, are all going to be replaced by kid rock and vaping young republicans fresh from dropping out of their second semester in at The University of Southern Alabama State.
That's who's going to be the dude inspecting your meat for e.coli and signing off on the clinical trials for your perception meds - Gunner, Hunter and Ryder.
Really don't think anyone is considering the reality of how deeply fucked we're going to be as we're all fixed fully on the front door for obvious signs of trouble (immediate societal decay), while these broken cartoon villains fill the crawlspace with fertilizer and gasoline and kick in the backdoor with flamethrowers in hand.
We're fucked, and we're going to be focused on monitoring the wrong indicators of how fucked, until it is just beyond any repair within any of our lifetimes. For example, you're going to have FIVE fundamentally broken people on the Supreme Court for the rest of your life. It's over.
anywhere from not really, to literally world war 3.
trump is a loose cannon.
We do not win here.
Some of you people didn't pay attention to the Congressional results and it shows.
What do you mean ? (The house is on track to be won by the gop. The senate is won by the gop. I just want to understand your point.)
"Not really" isn't an option.
The question isn't how fucked America is, that answer is some shade of "very."
The question is who is going down with us.
Ha gotcha, thank you
The US will continue ticking. Money keeps flowing, and greed will continue running rampant.
As someone making bank and based on the projections, the Trump tax changes are going to pay well. Anyone making less than $100k, or living off of social security or retirement are going to really suffer.
The Trump tax breaks are going to fund a future international trip. And poor folks will starve.
Btw I voted for Kamala. And America voted for a old dude who struggles to form sentences.
Between 2017 and 2021, things got pretty bad. Riots, wars, a plague, economic crash, and it ended with a mob breaking into the nation's capital and trashing the place.
Can't imagine a repeat will be better.
Multiple regulatory bodies are going to get disbanded. The EPA is unlikely to survive, whole departments of the FDA are about to get gutted. Anything involving industrial safety is going to get its funding cut. Unconstitutional crackdowns on free and independent media is almost certain. Large scale damage to the functions of many government institutions can be expected. Massive economic damage due to reckless deregulation ( that's even before they start putting tariffs on everything and wind up in multiple simultaneous trade wars). Funding for education and infrastructure maintenance will be reduced to allow tax cuts for the already wealthy. Massive loss of global influence and a massive gain in influence by hostile autocratic nations is also something you can expect.
I could go on and on but even if you were to assume they weren't serious about project 2025 (if you haven't read that you should) it's real bad.
The US? pretty fucking fucked. The World, so fucked it has no idea how truly fucking fucked it is yet.
Weirdly, it depends on how honest Trump is.
If he forgets about everything he talked at any part of the campaign, and just decide to maximize his tranquility during his term, not as bad as if he decides to keep his promises.
I'm hoping he just focuses on enriching himself. Clearing his convictions and then lining his pockets with more NFTs and corruption. That'll keep him sufficiently occupied to not fuck too much with the lives of everyday people.
Yeah, but everyone else around him does have clear goals and plans that they do want to accomplish. And they're prepared this time, whereas they were kinda caught by surprise in 2016.
The more golf he plays the less damage he can do
Every nation should be inviting him for state dinners, banquets, golf tournaments, the works. Collectively keep his ego constantly jerked off and away from any advisors. Keep that going for four years and we might just distract the child enough.
Ew, gross
Better than the alternative
Trump has never kept a promise in his life
Then we are good.
Hopefully.
I'm more scared of the JD Vance than Trump. He's much worse
I’m worried about this too. It wouldn’t be surprising if Trump dies in the next four years. Vance is not qualified for the job. He’s smarter than Trump though so scheming would be much worse.
Vance himself is irrelevant, the problem is he's an errand boy for the would-be technocracy.
The world is on the precipice of an unbreakable tyranny, and he wants to give the keys of power to the ones making the drone armies.
This is why I've argued that technology, in terms of actual benefit for people, peaked many years ago. I won't try to pinpoint a date, but we have past peak technology from this perspective.
After that peak, advancements in technology have mostly just served as means to control the population or extract more from us (see enshittification) and have not been of benefit to the average person.
Technology allows for actual hard power to be concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer. I don't mean like a dictator with an army behind them, but a dictator and small group with enough tech to control everything. You are right, and it's extremely concerning.
Fucked regardless but how fucked remains to be seen. Just as before, Trump will spend his presidency golfing, what really matters are his cabinet picks. Best case scenario is that just like 2016-2020 in-fighting and general incompetence make the administration a revolving door and keep the Christian Nationalist from realizing their darkest ambitions. Worst Case is that the Fascist have learned from their mistakes. I also think Trump either dying or being forced to step down (with a pardon of course) is a possibility that is on the table. Vance is a much more competent Fascist and this is definitely a worst case scenario.
Regardless, I think there are a few things that are guaranteed to happen:
Smoke em while you got em, it's about to get rough for everyone. We are in the death throes of the Neo-Liberal world order. Buy a firearm and get a vpn. Keep your vehicle as fueled as you can, and if you are able keep a sizable amount of cash stored somewhere safe. There's never been a better time to go vegan and get in shape. Do what you can for the people you care about.
I can't leave.
I have a child with an abusive, vindictive ex-spouse. Regardless of me having sole custody, I would still need to get both the court's permission and his permission just to move out of state, so god knows I will not be able to get out of the country.
I'm at a loss. I will not leave without my kid.
Well you go on a vacation and then sort of just not return.
Won't they just put out a kidnapping notice? Then they get arrested, and bad person gets the kid.
Some places don't extradite, besides how long til trump completely destroys extradition treaties bc he doesn't want "criminals entering the US"
It's little solace, but not all destination countries will care about that. It might force you to stay away, which creates its own issues.
Glad you asked.
https://buzzmachine.com/2024/11/06/how-fucked-are-we-very/
If that's true, then why on earth would the DNC do everything in their power to ensure that was the only "choice" available to voters? Do they like losing?
Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib had no problems keeping their jobs. It's almost like they are different from the all the losers in their party in some way (hint: it's nothing to do with race or gender).
Lol, "the fault is not hers"
She holds some blame, but at the end of the day there are nearly 18 million people that didn't vote for her, but did vote for biden. The only reasonable conclusion to draw is, well, she's black and even worse: a woman.
(second part is /s)
It's no /s, black men got the vote before women for a reason.
Objectively, the standards applied to the two candidates is wildly different, I'm not sure why we blame anyone other than voters, at this point.
100% fucked, the USA is now going to join WW3 on the side of the bad guys and get rid of vaccines and the EPA and ACA and so many other things
What do you mean "join"?
The evil empire that militarily supports dictators across the global south to prevent economic development and keep cheap labor and resources flowing out are the bad guys, this hasn't and will not change short of a revolution or the empire's control collapsing.
I mean send American troops to help out Russia in Ukraine, and send troops to help out China in Taiwan, and obviously send troops to help out Israel in Palestine
We've already sent troops to help Israel in Palestine, remember that aid pier that Israel used to do warcrimes, and now there's troops operating aircraft and a missile defense system to prevent anyone from interfering with Israel's genocide.
Just not sending weapons and money should be enough to get Ukraine back to the peace table and stop the bloodshed.
Ironically if we didn't try to use Taiwan for geopolitical goals, China would have no reason to invade, since a peaceful reintegration over time is far more advantageous than the destruction and insurgency that comes with a military option.
Why would Putin's American President ever help Ukraine, are you delusional?
China would have wanted Taiwan regardless, authoritarian regimes love to conquer and expand
You're not understanding, the arms and money we send Ukraine enables them to continue the war. Last year, Russia offered a peace deal, giving up a portion of the territory they occupied at the time. Ukraine declined and says they won't settle for less than all their territory, including Crimea. Without the weapons, they'd be forced to agree to a deal. Given that Russia probably knows they can't deal with the insurgency outside of Russian-speaking Ukraine, they'll probably agree to borders similar to what exists now.
I mean the Republic of China is a part of China, it's eventual reunification is inevitable, but they obviously see that reunification by invasion would be very expensive, both in cost of the invasion, cost of the insurgency, and resulting sanctions from their third-biggest trading partner. The only case where they'd waste billions of dollars and hundreds of thousand of lives is if the US made that option better than the alternative.
The same calculation happened with Russia; after the maidan coup, the civil war on their border caused them to strategic infrastructure and terrorist attacks. They erroneously calculated the cost of having a hostile, NATO-backed state on the border would be greater than a quick invasion and replacing the US puppet with another Russian one.
You need to look closer to understand what pressures cause countries to do things, these places aren't cartoons who just decide to self-destruct their economies and send an entire generation into a meat grinder because aUTHoriTariaNism.
Man, Lemmings just love downvoting anything that hurts their fee fees.
We should remember that most Americans still live in blue states with sane governments. The federal government can't just barge in and do whatever it wants, and if tries to do so, the social contract that binds the nation together is broken and secession becomes a real possibility. But that's unlikely because Trump is far too clueless to know about any of the problems he'll run into if he tries to implement any of his plans.
Which is fine for him because it was always a con anyway. He talks and acts out of his ass. What he will do is anyone's guess, but it'll at least be restrained by what's realistically possible.
And what about the ones, like me, in red states? How fucked are we? (I know the answer and hence drunk and high rn)
Join us in the PNW! We have legal weed!
Realistically people should start to self sort and leftists should start to purchase and train with guns if they don’t have them for their family’s protection.
I'd love be as optimistic as you but unless Trump changes his mind the US will get a brainwormed fanatical anti-vaccier in charge of deciding which vaccines are safe to use. Even if the states don't cooperate with trump's agenda there are so many long standing federal institutions which till now you've never needed to think about that are about to get wrecked.
And what about project 2025. That total teeheee not our plan teeheee thing …
My so called blue state of California just voted against minimum wage increase, against rent control, against banning slavery, and for increasing the war on drugs. At least this time we narrowly voted to approve gay marriage (unlike last time where we banned it)
The Federal government CAN just barge in. We specifically designed the structure that way. Federal supercedes state.
Federal laws trump state laws every time, those blue states will be just as shit as the red states in no time
Support from local and state governments does make a difference though. While federal agencies can still enforce these laws, local/state agencies could look the other way. Cannabis is still federally illegal, but some states have basically said "no thanks, we're good as long as you stick to our rules on it."
It comes down to how much state governments want to go to bat for their constituencies and how much the federal government wants to press the issue. All else being equal, I'd rather be in a state that stands up for my rights than one that doesn't.
As somebody who has lived through the end of a democracy, trust me when I say the federal government will steamroll through local and state governments
Where, if you don't mind me asking?
Sorry, I'm not going to give details for my own safety
Totally fair
He will absolutely move the military into a blue state to force compliance. This is how the next civil war will start. Red Force and blue resistance.
Honestly who knows, it's literally on the whims of the giant toddler and who he listens to last that afternoon.
Prices on everything will go up exponentially while income comes down. Worker protections won't exist and the people in charge of your health, whether food, medical, other goods, will only care about which company gives them a bigger check.
Remember how baby food had to be recalled recently because it was unsafe to feed babies? That ain't happening anymore! Fuck the babies! And if you can't afford your $4k/month rent, to prison with you (because homelessness will be illegal and prison labour cheap cheap cheap!)
The world is fucked. A climate change denier was elected to one of the most influential countries and we're already past mitigating some of the worst effects. There is no coming back.
Luckily the House of representatives have set up the rules such that they can call to change their majority leader whenever they disagree with each other, so very few actual policies will change. They might even fail to pass their own tax plan again, that would be nice.
What is fucked is USA's allies depending on support from NATO, USA's economy as Tariff season is here now, USA immigrants, and of course the Environment. Last time Trump was in he removed protections for forests and streams, and put a Coal Lobbyist in charge of the EPA.
Trump was pretty ineffective in his first term, largely because he did a terrible job of supporting people who really agreed with his agenda, and an even worse job of removing people from influential positions who didn't.
He said during his campaign that he knew much better who to trust, but now he's got Elon Musk and RFK Jr. prominently featured. I don't think he has learned anything, and I think he will be just as ineffective this time.
It's possible that some of the Republicans in Congress will support more of his agenda, but even there if they have to overcome the filibuster, I don't think mass deportation, a federal abortion ban, or most of the rest of the potential worst of it is in the cards.
I reckon that in all likelihood the Project 2025 folks will piss him off at some point and he'll just throw a tantrum and refuse to work with them. Doesn't mean he'll suddenly turn into a leftist, but if he doesn't play ball, they'll have trouble getting anything passed.
Breathtakingly fucked. Wannabe dictator with a mandate from the dumbest mfers alive.
But take heart. The battle for the US is now a fight between the old guard Reaganite Republicans and the out&out Fascists. For the next 4 years at least the Dems are a complete non-factor. I hope the DNC is proud of their accomplishment.
All the worst possible things that could happen are now not just on the table but incredibly likely.
Even if trump doesn't do everything in project 2025, the supreme court picks mean we're basically ultra fucked. Like, that's best case.
Not just the US, the entire planet.
For example: Ukraine Gaza Taiwan South Korea
Ugh, just thinking about the ripple effect that this is going to cause is makes me want to curl up in a corner.
Remember all thay resistance he faced in 2016? Gone. That shit takes decades to build up and was out of steam four years ago.
After that I have no idea.
If you're a white Christian male you are the shit.
Anyone else is losing rights
Also Trump will declare martial law after 4 years with presidential immunity and every position of power stacked with handpicked loyalists.
Unless there is a revolution of some kind the US will probably go the path of Nazi Germany after Hitler achieved total control
The planner will never recover from his systematic sabotage of all efforts to save it. This is what scares me most. He lies through his teeth to make money, a lakey to soulless corporate mega entities and the entire human race will pay for this one man's greed, long after he has died. Our kids will pay for his opulence and that to me is so sad.
More fucked than BREXIT.
Pretty fucked. I'm already weighing my options here now that this has happened. My gf is a Brazilian here on a education visa, will Trump deport her? Maybe. If she goes back to see family during the summer will she be allowed back in? I don't have much faith she will be. My cousin is trans and in a red state now, he's very much at risk. My other cousin is queer and also at risk. If my dad wasn't already dead his disability money will have dried up, not to mention his medications and treatments would've been unaffordable more than they already were. Thank fuck I don't have or want kids so they don't have to grow up in this shit hole of a country, if there's even a livable planet left with Trump deregulating and adding to the climate crisis.
We're about to be bent over the table with no lube
The US is just as fucked as everything and everyone else, which is 100%
Who cares, it's what they want and what they voted for, AGAIN. I'd be more concerned about the rest of the world. America can go off in a puff of smoke and it would be the best thing the ever did
Well, they want to dismantle a lot of the stuff that protects the middle and working classes. The country will be fine. The people will suffer. Democracy? Judgement is reserved. If he follows through on his idea of a third term without a legitimate amendment to the Constitution then it's very very dead. But we won't know that for years.
Fuck you people will literally die.
Did you think by "suffer" I meant play with flowers? It's going to suck for people who aren't able bodied white men. But the country is going to be fine. It's a lot more resilient than people think it is.
I feel like the U.S. is becoming similar to Russia. For example, we are seeing an autocratic strongman holding the highest office and only vaguely behaving within the democratic system, with a clear intent to rule unilaterally with a congress and Supreme Court that are less checks and more support for maintaining the power base. And as generations continue to experience this way of life, America as a society will forget what it was like for the past 250 years where both parties respected the system with peaceful transfer of power.
It’s sad, but fascinating in a kind of slow motion train crash to be alive for.
The truth is it's unlikely anything historically big is going to happen in the US. We saw what Trump did last time he was in office, and it was really bad, but it was recoverable. The fear isn't that it's likely, but that it's far from a non-zero chance, and there's very little we can do about it. That uncertainty is scary when we've had a relatively good time in recent decades.
Will we see a sudden shift toward a state where you can get jailed or murdered for being a dissident? Maybe, but probably not.
Will we see an escalation of the wars involving Israel, such that we see a WWIII and/or the first nuclear strike since WWII? Maybe, but probably not.
Will we see economic collapse causing widespread hunger and homelessness that we haven't seen since the Great Depression? Maybe, but probably not.
The only thing that's really a guarantee is that we're another four years away from dealing with climate change, and while that's massive for humanity down the line, individuals currently living in the US are probably going to be mostly fine. Not to say nobody will be affected - hurricanes, floods, fires, and so on - but it won't cause catastrophic failure of society in the near future.
Except putting people in cages at the border and separating children from families. Many families still have not been reunited.
Except the million people that died from Covid-19 due to the government putting the economy over human lives.
Except the stuffing of judicial positions, including the supreme court, that same court that basically made him a king and free from any consequences from all the laws he broke.
Except for our air, land, food and water becoming more toxic and polluted due to Trump's rollback of EPA protections.
Except all the pregnant women who are dying or forced to carry their rapist's baby due to that packed court overturning roe v wade.
Except the people of color who rebelled and rioted during the george floyd protests but then the government showed up in unmarked vans and took people away, while the police shot more innocent people and busted heads, and almost nothing changed for the better regarding police violence.
Except the trans people who are now illegal in the state of Florida for having a driver's license that matches their gender identity, or the bounty on trans people in a town in Texas, or the governor of Texas trying to get lists of trans people to hunt down and prosecute. Or insurance companies refusing to cover trans-related healthcare. Or trans people being shunned by their peers and excluded from sports. Or the violence against LGBTQ people that's doubled in the last year. All enabled and emboldened by Trump and Trumpism.
I haven't recovered from any of this shit.
With or without Trump, the new normal is fascism in America. Every american needs to fight every bad policy, every bad law, every bad decision, every threat -- every day -- until there are no more fascists in power.
Let me be clear here. If we have a global nuclear war, that's not recoverable, because every human on earth will be dead. If we enter a fascist dictatorship with today's technology, that may not be recoverable, because we may see the permanent end of anything resembling a democracy.
I'm not saying there weren't horrific atrocities committed during Trump's reign. What I'm saying is that so far, there's a chance future generations can live better lives.
Counterpoint (and please, I am literally begging you to talk me off this cliff): Trump didn't know anything about being President the first time. I believe that he thought Presidents could do whatever they wanted. The team he had around him, while you can call them assholes and pieces of shit and every other name in the book, understood how the government and the Presidency worked and were able to reign him in.
All of those people are now gone and he will be surrounded by purely yes-men. He will promote the Generals who will be loyal to him, not the country or the Constitution. Couple that with the newfound Presidential immunity, and Trump has all but free reign to do whatever he wants. He will also appoint judges, like Aileen Cannon, who are loyal to him. Those judges, thanks to the Supreme Court overturning the Chevron deference, will now be the "experts" instead of federal agencies.
I do agree that there probably won't be a sudden shift, but there will be a shift and we will feel it in almost every aspect of our life. He supposedly promised to put RFK Jr in charge of numerous health agencies and campaigned on getting rid of the Department of Education. And I very much recall at least two instances where he said this is the last election you'll have to vote in. Is he going to find/create a way to suspend the 2028 election and stay in power? Who's going to stop him?
It is worse.
Trump started with either incompetent yes men who didn't know how to govern or competent yes men who tried controlling the damage that the President caused.
You now have a group of coordinated people who see Trump as willing to agree with whatever as long as he looks good enough.
On top of what you just mentioned, rather than Trump surrounding himself with incompetent toadies and yes-men, I think a lot of smarter, more powerful, and more dangerous people have taken the last 4 years to worm their way into his ranks.
He's established himself as a useful idiot. During his first 4 years we saw the idiot part glaringly. It was scary and embarrassing, but we scraped by and experienced a few years of relatively boring politics. My big worry is that we'll see the useful part exploited much more effectively this time around.
That's why I said it's possible, I just don't think it's probable. People are loyal to Trump until they're not. Nobody's loyal to him because they like him or they think he's a good guy, or because they think he'll bring the country prosperity. They're loyal because they think they can get something out of it. Most people aren't in a position where they're willing to give up literally everything to help this particular asshole become a dictator. Those that are are typically incompetent - see anything and everything related to stealing the 2020 election. They tried a LOT of things, but nothing came even close to working.
So they'll try again, and I don't think anybody's doubting that. And I don't think our institutions are particularly strong, but they're probably strong enough to stop that kind of incompetence from leading to a dictatorship.
Finally a level-headed take. The world isn't ending overnight, it'll just get shittier
From the wiki on Project 2025:
We’ll be fine. Yes shit will be fucked up but democracy will not die. We’ll try again in 2028 and thankfully Trump is capped out after this. Maybe midterms will show some shift
Yes. Yes there will be. Even if everyone who voted for Trump is OK with it if you think the rest of America is just going to be ok with dismantling elections you're being irrational.
This has happened plenty of times in other countries. To think it can't happen here is what is irrational.
I don't think any country in the world has been in the position America is in. Similar sure, but not the bastion of wealth and power, with a stubborn population. There would be a civil war before they remove democracy. It's more likely that elections will be a front to the fascist seats of power. The elections aren't going away. What they mean is a different story.
you realize places without elections still have them, they just mean nothing right?
You can argue American elections have meant nothing either.
and you'd be the stupidest person in the room if you did.
I hope you're right.
I took this attitude the first time Trump was elected, and boy was I wrong. Not this time. Now, I'm seriously considering what his options might be for eliminating the election in 2028. He needs to clean the military brass of people disloyal to him, which he can easily do as Commander in Chief. Once he's got a loyal military, there's virtually nothing he can't do; and this SCOTUS will let him do anything he wants, so long as it aligns with the view of Evangelical Christians, who have been wanting a theocracy for decades. He can conjure the specter of "Democrat corruption" to justify eliminating any opposition politicians as an official act, completely re-stock the FBI with loyalists to wage any legal battles he needs to make his actions seem legitimate and "official," and arrest any problematic judges under the same "corruption" myth so that he can then replace them with loyalists.
Honestly, we've seen this playbook before in countries that are now dictatorships and Trump has already made it quite clear he wants to be a dictator. There is absolutely no reason to be convinced this will not happen. It might not happen, but there's no reason to think definitely will not.
he doesnt even have to touch the military, just has to certify fraudulent voter slates, that's it.
trump just barely failed to steal it last time, this time he has the fucking supervillain crackpot team behind him.
If he wants to do it, all he has to do is make the call.
He has the executive, he has the house, he has the senate, he will most likely completely have the supreme court, there is literally nobody to tell him no anymore.
The generals will tell him no.
And he will replace them with someone who will say yes.
Genuinely curious: how can he? Does POTUS have control over the entire chain of command?
His official title is commander-in-chief. The generals answer to him AFAIK.
the military might be the only thing that stops him. Hence why i didn't include it.
But i have no idea. Literally every other duty, and every other branch will be under the whims of the stupidest person in america right now.
Naive.
Edit: I’m guessing you’re a straight with male with no children or family who are lgbtq.
That's right, bringing race, gender, and other demographic variables into it totally makes your argument stronger. It definitely doesn't expose your own prejudices at all, no siree.
Only part you got right is a straight male.
You are the naive one to think 1 moron can destroy America. Trump can not be a moron and a master manipulator at the same time. The reality is he is too stupid to break anything beyond what can’t be fixed. We will have to rebuild in 2028. Yes there will be hardships but nothing we can’t fix. The only thing he fumbled hard with was the COVID response. So here’s hoping we don’t have another pandemic
This is such a dumb take. Just the fact you didnt mention something as clear as Ukraine's genocide shows you have no idea what a corrupt idiot can do. He will be manipulated and it's going to cause irreparable damage to society.
The question was how fucked is the US. Not Ukraine.
Exactly my point. You didn't think about Ukraine, so of course you aren't thinking of what this is going to do to the US when other countries abandon their deals too, and Trump retaliates/ sues.
Youre in for a wild economic ride. I guess americans not understanding this is why he got elected. In a way you deserve this.
Based on your comment you aren’t even American so you can shut up now. Only an idiot would answer a question about the US with “Well Ukraine blah blah blah”.
I didn’t mention Ukraine because the question had nothing to do with Ukraine. It’s not that deep. If you’re asking me how fucked is Ukraine, then yes they’re fucked. Sorry. I did my part and im not gonna let morons like you guilt trip me into beating myself up over it. I am along for the ride like everyone else.
People give zero shits who you have as a president and what discrimination you guys support. This election affects everyone, like it did last time.
If you think US foreign policy doesn't affect the US itself, nobody can help you.
What you're missing here is that he has an openly corrupt supreme court behind him and everyone who was willing to tell him no is long gone. We'll see how it plays out but it's going to be hard to come back from this, and the Democrats are going to have to start paying attention and actually doing what voters want or there's no hope for them.
I’m not missing anything. He didn’t destroy the country last time so I’m confident we will survive. Enough with the doom and gloom. We need to unite and be positive if we want to see any kind of change. It’s not time to give up
I didn’t even bother reading this.
This is my thoughts as well. He is a really good bullshitter but isn't able to get anything of substance done (for the most part). As long as the Republicans don't get super majority, they won't be able to do to much damage. My biggest fear is him getting more supreme court picks. I believe that's going to cause the most lasting problems for our country.
It's fucked. But it's been fucked for a long time. You just didn't see it until the other day. It's like the foaming at the mouth from rabies. By the time you get that far, it's too late. But that animal bite months ago, and itching and fever were the warning signs, and everybody ignored it.
depends on how much of his immunity he chooses to exercise. also be intrtesting to see how many of the new repuglicans fall into line with his shit policy
The goal is to remake the US into something else. A Christian Patriarchy + Oiligarchy with sham voting every four years. The biggest wild card in their plans is Trump, but as long as he gets to pretend he's Putin 2.0 -- which literally means being able to point his finger to see someone killed -- he'll be happy and easy to play.
Overall, there's no limit to how fucked we are. There are no brakes and there's no steering wheel.
Think militias deputized as enforcers.
Think protests put down by the military ordered to shoot to kill.
Think indoctrination of children and political/militaristic organizations for teens.
Think history books rewritten, science education dumbed down, evolution and global warming illegal to even mention.
Think marriage rights taken away.
Think voting rights taken away and voting laws rammed through to ensure Republicans win.
Think Republicans getting enough state legislatures both to call a Constitutional Convention and to ratify a slew of amendments to rework citizenship, enshrine Christianity into the constitution, and generally butcher the Bill of Rights.
Think "real Americans" going after and imprisoning and/or killing hundreds, thousands, millions of other Americans.
Think purity tests and identification papers, total surveillance, digital tracking of every word and action and movement.
Think of your street with a dead body in the middle of it and everyone afraid to go near it.
Think of being terrified for your own life if you accidentally hear someone say something against The Party.
Think of this very comment used as evidence to lock me up or have me killed.
There is nothing, nothing at all, standing in their way. Like in most one-party systems, the competition among the players will be to see how extreme they can get in order to prove themselves to their party, while the rest of us who vainly hope they'll show restraint will pay the price.
I hope I'm wrong about most of the above. It may not get that bad. But, again, we've gone over the cliff and there's nowhere but a helluva lot of straight down.
It's actually likely to be better as long as trump waddles on. He's just so god damn bumbling that even with all the cards, he'll find little ways to not get his shit done.
Mind you it won't be enough, and it will be god damn fucking horrific. But decidedly less smooth while Narcissism Jones keeps grabby-handsing the wheel from his handlers and derailing his own goals.
Until they kill him or use the 25th amendment to install Vance. Now that he’s won, you think the people around the useful idiot who have accepted all the Russian money will just let him fuck their plans up?
It's a double-edged sword, even for the GOP. Trump's followers are a cult, and cultists follow one person. So without Trump as the godhead, there's no one with enough (ugh) charisma and panache to unify the GOP rabble.
The right wing always galvanizes behind someone new if it means they get to hurt their enemies.
Sure, but understand basic Followership: a cultist will allow any action, any cut, so long as they believe it ingratiates them with their Leader.
No culthead, no cult following. The GOP reverts to a mob.
Until a new strongman pops up. I’ve been watching this movie for 30+ years.
They’re not going to seize power and then fuck it up. Project 2025 will go forward. There is structure behind this movement. I’d like to believe that Trump dying or going away would fix the problem too, but it won’t.
Burning the witches is WAY more important than who tells them they're allowed to burn the witches.
When they lose their "imperfect messenger from God" they'll just follow who their pastors tell them to follow. Maybe they'll change the name to the Trump Party and any nazi Christian soldier can lead it. Bible-banger Vance is lined up as the successor atm, but who knows? Could be Desantis. Could be Bannon. Anyone tapped who's willing to act out that vindictive certainty, solidarity and ferocity that Trump performs so well can do the job for them.
Maybe one of his kids. If the fundie leaders want to be truly perverse (and we know they do), they'll choose Ivanka and call it feminism.
source: grew up in a bog-standard xtian cult village in North America. I know these Good Folk, and the Sharia Law-type plans they have for women. The death of Grab-Her-By-The-Pussy will just be a chance to deify him further.
They’ll off him themselves by February and blame it on another nation to get their wartime economy and rights removal powers. And the people will buy merch.
He seems to lack competence in many ways, but some of the guys around him are a whole lot more conniving and potentially effective.
It's also not likely Trump feels any urge to hire a somewhat moderate(ish) cabinet of professionalls like he did last time. I assume he learned his lesson given that they all eventually turned on him.
So let's see. I think he's spent the past 4 years surrounding himself with some bad hombres, to borrow a saying, and now he's ready to act with fewer guardrails.
With AMOC collapse underway, the entire planet is fucked. Hope this helps
On a scale from 1 to 10 its about 12 now.
BTW, 90 seconds to midnight!!!!!! Hell yeaaaaah!
https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/
I think a lot of bad things will happen, but the biggest problem will be that all vaccination everywhere ends, so millions of children die, and it'll be another pandemic crisis.
The orange shrivelled taco will probably keel over before his term ends. Just look at him, does this look like someone who might survive four more years?
What would happen afterwards with JD Vance at the helm I'm less clear.
It all depends on whether they’re competent and can act together for their goals. Many of those goals are truly horrible, but
Its hard to say cuz hes so unstable, but since his party has been hijacked by his sycophants and own the three branches, id guess some crazy shit. Maybe this will finally make the americans understand that voting has consequences, and that some minimal homework is needed to choose. But honestly no one on this planet has any faith in the average american so i predict ww3, mass incarceration with slavery (woops already has been happening, but for even more ppl), demonization of any minority, and a general loss of wealth that will be vacuumed by the upper class. Man I cant believe you guys let trump hire Elon fking Musk, hope you guys like living like one of his employees.
To everyone in here saying that this is the end of democracy and this is the end times, what is stopping you from buying a gun and training with other liberals/leftists? Or are you just going to keel over and die?
America has always been a white supremacist slave colony.
It will still be fucking over the entire planet.
7
It depends...
Do you think Jimmy Carter has seen the season 4 finale of Breaking Bad?
🛎️
*the world
This is going to create the political order we will live under for the rest of our lives.
The Fifth Risk is a very good read for anyone who might be interested in a finer grained look into the lesser-known functions of our government 👍
II think it's entirely possible the world is fucked. Climate crisis won't come during his 2nd administration, but the 4 years we lose in national and international regulation is going to make it impossible to prevent.
It'll be slow, but before 2061, I expect the death of the global Internet, and global shipping, and most air travel. Electrical grids will fracture or fail and the pieces used for smaller (at most regional) grid. Cities won't be able to maintain the sewer pumps, and Cholera will start killing people again. Gas lines will stop maintaining pressure.
I don't plan on sticking around that long. My BP has always been bad, so I figure just indulging my vices will make this no my problem, and I don't have a partner or descendants.
If you prefer not embracing despair, I suggest looking into how you and your dearest can survive without infrastructure. Local food production, local power and medicine production. Don't count on supplies you can't retrieve within a day of travel, and don't count on the state to maintain roads. "Solarpunk" might be a good search term. Also, might prepare for unpredictable shifts in the local climate, like preferring indoor growing.
If anyone has data that says we can avoid climate collapse with no new national or international regulation before 2029, I'd love to hear it. Please.
What happened to the Iranian left after 1979's revolution:
The Iranian left played a significant role in the 1979 revolution but was ultimately suppressed and marginalized by Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamist forces in the aftermath. Here's an overview of what happened to leftist groups after the revolution:
Initial Collaboration and Support
Many leftist groups initially supported and collaborated with Khomeini's movement to overthrow the Shah:
Gradual Suppression
However, Khomeini and his allies soon moved to sideline and suppress leftist forces:
Violent Crackdown
The suppression of the left intensified into violent persecution:
Reasons for Failure
Several factors contributed to the left's inability to maintain influence:
Legacy
By the end of 1979, the "secular middle class" and liberals had been largely sidelined, leaving mainly Islamist factions in power[2]. The suppression of the left helped consolidate the Islamic Republic's hold on power and narrowed the range of acceptable political ideologies in Iran[3]. However, some leftist ideas around social justice and anti-imperialism were incorporated into the Islamic Republic's ideology, albeit in a religious framework[4].
Citations: [1] Ideology and Iran's Revolution: How 1979 Changed the World https://institute.global/insights/geopolitics-and-security/ideology-and-irans-revolution-how-1979-changed-world [2] Aftermath of the Iranian revolution - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath_of_the_Iranian_Revolution [3] Four decades later, did the Iranian revolution fulfill its promises? https://www.brookings.edu/articles/four-decades-later-did-the-iranian-revolution-fulfill-its-promises/ [4] What Iran's 1979 revolution meant for the Muslim Brotherhood https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-irans-1979-revolution-meant-for-the-muslim-brotherhood/ [5] How Iran's Theocrats Allied With — and Then Crushed — the Left https://jacobin.com/2022/10/chahla-chafiq-iranian-left-khomeini-protests-feminism [6] Iranian Revolution | Summary, Causes, Effects, & Facts - Britannica https://www.britannica.com/event/Iranian-Revolution
At least 200%, it's the end of an era.
Sounds like my country. We have bit better prisons if I happen to snap some day :D
most problems are state level problems, so generally unaffected, but any interstate, constitutional amd international problem is up in the air
Probably fine
It's business as usual.
I was talking about your Russian statement. Lool
Let’s be real we are fucked no matter who the president is. With or without him the world is headed down the toilet.
There was a slim sliver of hope left that we might reduce the acceleration towards the planet becoming largely uninhabitable for most people, but that is gone now, many of the brakes we had before are about to come off
Realistically... what do you expect to be radically different this time in comparison to the four years Trump has already been president?
They're organised this time
Control of the house, senate, presidency and Judiciary.
He had pretty much that his first two years. Maybe not the judicial branch, totally. But, he had both chambers of congress. They could have done a lot but didn’t because of incompetence, a little dissent and fear of electoral reprisals.
Now, they’re more organized and possibly more unified behind the rat-fucking that’s planned.
If they move too fast they’ll lose the House in two years. If they slow boil, we’ll all be cooked before we know it.
Last time, I don't think Trump was expecting to win. He ended up needing to scrape together a cabinet, and a bunch of those officials were old-school Republicans who chafed at all the crazy stuff he wanted to do.
This time, the Heritage Foundation is preparing him, and the new Senate will rubber-stamp all his appointments. He will pick people who intend to "dismantle the administrative state". Grover Norquist famously wanted to make Government so small he could drown it in fhe bathtub. He might get his wish.
100% his plan the first time was to lose, talk a lot of shit and complain. Sell a bunch of merchandise and try it again over and over, grifting millions from idiots.
You can see it immediately when he wins. Both his and Melania's expressions when they get the news show that winning wasn't the plan. It's also why he immediately started talking about fraud. He didn't have any prepared talking points for winning, they were all based on losing and using that to power his next scams.
They're organized, have begun implementing the government takeover that they've worked towards since Reagan, and he's officially been given immunity for anything he wants to do by the Supreme Court before entering office.
All of these plans have nothing to do with Trump, they've been being laid since Reagan and Nixon. Trump just stumbled on them, openly exposing them to the world because he's such an extreme narcissist he MUST brag about anything he even thinks gives him power. We stopped it the first time, and had a chance to correct, but enough of the population has been drinking the Republican propaganda Kool-aid through Fix News since it's inception. Fox News was started explicitly as a response to Nixon's impeachment to provide an open partisan propaganda network for the Republican party. Nixon was going to be just fine until the media started educating the electorate, who demanded something be done. Congress was completely fine with Watergate until that point.
Since Nixon. He designed and started the plan that Reagan followed.
Since immediately after FDRs New Deal.
We never recovered from the first time
Project 2025. Complete control of all branches of government. A Supreme Court that says he can do whatever he wants. I'm sorry to be pessimistic, but we're absolutely fucked.
I'm not as doomer as everyone else for the short term. It's the long term I'm worried about. He might get 2 more scotus members, and he's going to do everything in his power to undercut any attempt to tackle climate change. And that includes his scotus picks who will almost certainly declare any needed attention to address climate change as unconstitutional.
RIP Elana and Sonia
Trump doesn’t actually think he’d be president the first time and never planned for it. They’ve had since then to prepare this time.
There are less adults/competent/people with any morals in the room now. Swap John Kelly and some of the slightly more upstanding members of his inner circle for RFK Jr and some of the worst of the worst
Project 2025. They exposed their plan and now thry will implement it, and nithing can stop them.
Slightly worse than with Harris. But the downward trend would never stop.
Someone joke bet $500 Michigan will be blue with a +4% lead so I think I'll joke bet $500 it will just be a repeat of 2016-2020 except 1.5x worse and then by next election maybe the DNC will learn to run a normal primary again and promote a popular candidate who actually promises to meet constituents' demands instead of ignoring them.
Also someone on this community asked what everyone would do if Trump won and I said I'd probably make a collage of a years worth of my comments telling people ignoring genocide would cost Democrats the election.
So I guess I might go do that now and say "I told you so" to everyone who told me I was wrong.
I wrote that Biden dropping out of the race would be a big mistake. My "I told you so" is worth about as much as yours.
The ONLY thing I know for certain after this clusterfuck is that Biden would have lost by even more.
Him dropping out wasn't his biggest mistake. Him choosing to drop out months after the primary process was his biggest downfall. He basically fucked the democratic party because he couldn't swallow his ego and drop out when it was clear his popularity among the country was dwindling even in the party itself. Every advisor he had said "hey you likely shouldn't run again" but he stayed, Hell fucking Obama even told him "yo you aren't going to win this". His stubbornness to run for a second term is what killed the chances of a democratic win here.
additional note: I don't blame him though, like I could not imagine working my entire life up to that moment, and then having to say "I wasn't the change I wanted to be I need to let someone else take the reins", it must have been such a blow to his self confidence. The fact that he dropped out at all was a show of strength. I don't think him dropping out at the point he was in changed the outcome overall, the damage in my eyes was done as soon as he decided to continue with the primaries knowing he was losing support
I'm fairly certain Biden would have done the same if not worse considering his lower popularity that resulted in Democrats switching to Harris.
Had they planned this out and done a primary, there'd probably be a new candidate who would have done better and possibly won.
Of course that would involve letting people decide their candidate which is a big no no and too expensive to rig and risk losing anyway just like Hillary's campaign.
I hate that this is true, just for 2 reasons: he is male and white
Y'all realize there are three branches of US government right?
Trump commands only one. And he isn't an actual monarch or dictator. He won't be allowed to over step too much.
Either he's going to be rained in or section four of the 25th amendment will be instituted.
The other branches are now controlled by the same far right groups who largely fall in line with what Trump (or his masters) demand. There are no checks and balances now. Congress will propose and pass any legislation he wants and the supreme court will find no fault with the legislation. The public does not have to go along with anything. They have now given full control to the far right who is in lock step with their plan to dismantle the US government and rebuild it to suit their own whims. The guardrails are gone, there is no protection now.
They win the house??? I think I read it will be a few days before we know for sure.
We already know enough. There were 20 or so seats in the House that Dems could pick up, and they needed 40 for control.
The Senate is lost for sure.
He controls one. Hand picked asshats on the bench, and his supporters won Congress. It’s really hard to see a world where this doesn’t get drastically worse for liberals.
It’s really hard to see a world where this doesn’t get drastically worse for
liberalsliterally everyone in the world...Oh yeah. It will be bad for everyone, but I meant for liberal candidates in the future.
I should have been more specific.
If the next term doesn’t actively harm people in the public eye, I guarantee they will make it next to impossible to ever win again.
Republicans have majority in senate. Conservatives control 2/3 branches and are coming for the house
We're going to have a great 4 years. The first 2 will be amazing if we actually get a super majority.
The first year will be him living off Bidens reduction of inflation. EVERY policy Trump has discussed increases prices. So we will have hyper inflation.
Name One policy he has discussed that will cut costs in his 4 years please.
Well he's going to try to lower energy prices and cut taxes on paychecks as much as possible plus cut taxes on social security. So that's multiple things in one little sentence lol
The lowest energy costs are in solar and renewables, which he has promised to slash all investments that Biden put into place for those. So energy costs would go up long term..not down. Also the impact on the environment will be more for fossil fuels so it will cost more to clean up long term. (more expensive, not cheaper)
As for cutting taxes on Social Security, what is it going to do? He's also mentioned cut backs to social security, but we haven't seen any numbers for it, so we don't know yet. We do know Obama tried to up the the salary limit for minimum wage for overtime requirements from 23,000 to over 47k but the courts blocked it. Then Trump set it at 35k. Biden has upped it to 55,000. Trump has said he wants to bring that back down. You know, because all those hard working Americans who make 40k a year don't deserve to make overtime I guess.
Nothing will happen. We'll all get up in the morning, maybe eat some breakfast, go to work, come home, play with the kids, eat some dinner, may shag your wife/husband, go to bed. Repeat. I can't wait for four years to fly and be just as boring as the last four years.
surprise pregnancy, wife suffers from complications, isn't allowed to abort, dies painfully
or rape. even incest. better not live in a red state if you have ovaries.
That could have happened in specific states anytime in the last 2.5 years. That's not specific to the next four years.
O, to be so proverbially blissful.
O, to be so unrealistically terrified. Filled with misery and woe.
Living up to the middle of your username, I see.
Gottem
Oh, my sweet sweet summer child...
Actually, maybe that's what life will be like for a white, upper middle class, cisgender-heterosexual married male in his late 30s-40s, but for anyone who isn't that... oh boy are we fucked.
Well, I guess you better hurry up and become those things.
Not much will change, this guy has been president before, he spend more time on the golf course then in the oval office.
I expect lots of embarrassing speeches and truths/tweets, but other then that the purple party autocrats will be running the country like they always do.
When he won before, he was outside the Republican party establishment and just put his own unprepared cronies in charge.
He's also not going to even try to do half the things he said because he's a pathological liar
He doesn't have to. He doesn't have to do much. Though since he now has unfettered opportunity, I think he will. The groundwork is laid for theocrats to run everything down to the dark confines of the womb.
Last time he was in office housing assistance programs were gutted so that will most likely change
Right now, this is what I am telling myself. Let's just hope he is only as bad as he was the first go around, and not as bad as he has been claiming he will be on the campaign trail. He is the lyingest sack of shit to ever hold office. Let's cross our fingers he was lying about most of the shit he promised his cult.
The headline in this comment is the 29 downvotes.
This is why I like you, Lemmy.
Yes, there's an awful lot of hysteria about Trump, when in reality he's just a shit president.
There is some panicking prompted by the horrible things he's promised to do but probably can't, but:
-He got Roe v. Wade overturned, stripping rights from Americans while also being responsible for a 3% increase in infant mortality in the US, the first significant increase in decades
-about as many people died of COVID as voted for Jill Stein, and while Trump isn't responsible for all their deaths he significantly worsened the problem.
So I'd say beyond shit
yeah, they are just being hysterical, it is not as if he publicly encouraged and condoned terrorism, right, comrade?