Instead of “making America great again,” Trump has decided to burn everything to the ground. At long last, the long predicted decline of the United States has actually demonstrably begun.
We’re just not the nation we used to be.
It definitely will be interesting to see how that decline plays out going forward. But it is happening. And it may just accelerate no matter what happens because of the series of events that Trump has set in motion.
I still think that it’s possible that Ivanka or Lara Trump will be Trump’s hand picked successor. Let the “good times” roll, as they say, I suppose.
What’s going on at 60 Minutes makes no sense. None. Why “fix” something that doesn’t need to be fixed unless there is some ulterior motive? It seems pretty obvious that the whole point of the screw up at 60 Minutes is to placate Trump so the Warner Bros – Paramount merger can take place.
But, sad to say, I think there’s a broader issue at play — Trump is causing something akin of a revolution across American culture as he continues to consolidate power.
It definitely makes you wonder what might happen once Trump leaves the scene. I’ve heard some chatter that maybe Ivanka or Lara Trump might be Trump’s direct successor in 2028.
That would make a lot of sense.
But I think the key thing to remember is no matter what happens, America is changed because of Trump. There’s no going back. No amount of AOC presidency will bring the old America back.
There is a growing political rage brewing against AI and yet, to date, neither political side really knows what to do about it. The Left is vaguely against AI, while the Right is vaguely for it.
While I do think that the popular rage against AI will come to the fore during the 2028 election, I also think there’s one specific thing that is going to throw everything for a loop — AI consciousness.
Once it’s determined, in some way, that AI is conscious, then…lulz. The two sids will snap into place as expected, with the center-Left being pro-AI and the center-Right being totally against it other than to use it as a tool.
But we’re a ways away from consciousness coming to AI — or coming to AI in a way that can be “proven” enough for us to start talking about AI rights. Maybe a decade?
It definitely seems as though CBS’ 60 Minutes has rather abruptly imploded in the last few days. I mean, Nick Bilton as head of the storied news program just makes no sense.
This weird series of events makes me think of two things.
One, what the fuck happens once Trump is gone? It seems as though Trump will be, in hindsight, one of the meaningful political figures in America history. Up there with TR, FDR and LBJ. It’s really very unsettling.
Two, the issue of what is going to happen to the USA in a macro basis is something I really think about a lot. All the conditions are there for some sort of “Great Reset.” We seem to be careening towards a rather dramatic event that could be as big as the French Revolution, only on a global scale, given how interconnected the globe these days.
Anyway, I just hope things work out and we muddle through, like aways.
As much as I want James Talarico to win the Texas U.S. Senate race…I just don’t see it happening. On paper, yes, but I just don’t know how his win is possible given that 2024 may have been the last free-and-fair election the USA may have ever had.
But I will note, that if Talarico wins in Texas, he will be the 2028 Democratic frontrunner for POTUS. To win in Texas as a Democrat is a Big Deal. I say this in the context of AOC being the obvious choice.
Yet sometimes I think given how fucked up everything is, we have to go the Hungary path if we ever want to live in a democracy again — have Democrats nominate someone like George Conway or Liz Chaney instead of AOC.
I still feel a little bit uneasy that there might be some sort of “reset” in the next 20 to 40 years. I don’t know how it would work out, but…who knows.
Oh boy. I have to accept that there is a greater-than-zero chance that the Trump Justice Department may come after even anonymous nobodies like me. I’m prepared for that to happen, even if it would s u c k.
The issue is, what’s the point of having principles if you aren’t willing to suffer for them? So, yes, it would be scary and frightening if I had to deal with the Justice Department then, that would be the consequences of my actions one way or another.
Maybe I’m overthinking things. Maybe I’m really am such an anonymous nobody that I really am such a nobody that they won’t come after me.
I don’t know. I just don’t know. But I have to be brave, no matter what.
As I understand it, the only way that Viktor Orban was defeated in Hungary was that his opponent was a break away conservative. So, as such, it seems like if Democrats are ever going to win again maybe they need to find someone who is conservative yet opposes Trump.
So, in a sense, maybe The Lincoln Project is going to be the source of any Democratic candidate that might actually have a chance of winning. America is a conservative nation with liberal ideals and we continue to drift towards a more and more conservative future.
As such, maybe someone like George Conway might be just the person to at least make sure the United States ensures a traditional liberal democracy for…a little bit longer?
I have no illusions that this might actually happen. In fact, I think we’re stuck with MAGA candidates and policies for the foreseeable future. We’re all kind of doomed.
Baring something really unexpected, I think America will continue to drift into being a more and more craven, idiotic place.
I think we have to come to grips with the fact that Trump’s second term is something of a revolution. There’s no going back. The whole tenor of the country is changing — not to mention the creation of a MAGA “Deep State” — in such a way that simply can not, will not be fixed no matter what.
America is in an extended period of decline.
The only question is, what happens next? Where do we end up after Trump FINALLY ends his reign of dumb terror.
I think, ultimately, the moment we get a young MAGA leader that that will be that. We will never have another free and fair election — or we will have about 20 years of MAGA leaders.
Now, there is one cavate.
The issue of the Singularity. I could see the Singularity so totally fucking with our political system that the traditional Left-Right divide is totally switched around. How, exactly, I don’t know.
But it’s very possible.
But it’s also possible that we’re just fucked. That at least for my lifetime we’ll have a series of MAGA leaders that make us sicker, dumber and poorer (except for plutocrats.)
When asked recently by Seth Myers on his TV show, Stephen Colbert said he would need to “talk to his faith leader and his wife” about running for office. He definitely did not say *no.*
Now, the hilarious element to any talk about Colbert running for any sort of office is, of course, that he would be definition be a Blue Donald Trump. They say if you live long enough, you turn into the thing you hate and so, lulz. That’s exactly what would happen if Colbert if he ran for POTUS.
Not that Colbert would not do a good-to-great job as POTUS. He would be great and I definitely would vote for him. In fact, I would go so far as to suggest that Colbert might even be an American Volodymyr Zelenskyy if he ran and became POTUS.
And….yet…Trump has such damage to the American political system and government and the rot, the innate structural problems that caused Trump in the first place aren’t going anywhere so….Colbert would only be able to do so much good under the best of times.
As it stands, we probably have a good 20 to 40 more years of MAGA dominance to suffer through, unless something — the Singularity? — happens that really puts a new spin on things in ways that no one, least of all me, can expect.
Anyway, I hope does Colbert does run for POTUS. That would be pretty cool.
A number of macro events have happened in the last few decades that made the political clusterfuck we are experiencing in the United States now inevitable. NAFTA is a big one. But the real issue, the issue that is the source of all it, is the decline in white babies being born.
That’s the ur issue that has led to MAGA. I can remember reading a bit of The Birth Dearth in the 1980s (90s?) that talked about the impact of such things. The whole concern about white babies being born is fucking racist, but it’s because of whites feeling insecure about their social status that we get fucking Trump and his ilk.
That particular issue isn’t going anywhere.
In fact, if anything, it’s going to get worse as Baby Boomers start to drop dead and there just aren’t enough of those sweet, sweet little white babies to make up the difference. I, for one, welcome our “brown” future — as long as I get to live in a traditional liberal democracy — but, lulz, the fucking fascists of MAGA are so freaking the fuck out that we’re kind of doomed.
The thing about Trump is he is probably the most important political figure of the last 50 or more years because he has a unique talent for accelerating trends that were inevitable. What might have, under the best of possibilities, taken a gradual 20 years if, say, Hillary had won in 2016 or Biden won in 2016….is now happening in a few years.
We’re fucked. We’re totally, completely fucked. There’s no going back. America is in decline and I don’t have any ready answer for you as to what happens next. The only unknown at the moment is the Singularity.
The Singularity — which, for me, means the rise of ASI — could throw everything for a loop. We might find ourselves thinking not about the decline and fall of the American Empire but rather how we’re going to deal with “aliens” of our own creation that make demands of us in ways none of us can in any way expect.
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