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Campaign? They're friends of the administration, and the US is firmly in the kleptocracy stage now (the last wrungs of democracy are about to be undone this Thu

Campaign? They're friends of the administration, and the US is firmly in the kleptocracy stage now (the last wrungs of democracy are about to be undone this Thursday evening). They'll give a bribe to Trump, they'll offer up 5% of the stock to Chairman Trump as the People's Stock now that the US is basically a bizarre oligarchy form of communism, and Oracle will be declared a state enterprise that cannot lose money. The super rich simply do not fail, and they utterly control every aspect of the US now, exactly as the people apparently wanted. Americans are in a state of profound denial, but things are about to become very real, very quickly.

ceejayoz 3mo ago
The administration isn't fully immune to public opinion yet.
- triceratops 3mo ago
  Public opinion seems immune to reality though.
- platevoltage 3mo ago
  If you look back to what he has been able to get away with, and still get re-elected, I'd say he is.
  - ceejayoz 3mo ago
    Nah, they tried the invulnerable thing. They tried really, really hard to avoid the "chaos in the White House" firings from the first term. Noem wrecked it.
    - platevoltage 3mo ago
      Yeah, she wrecked it by having the audacity to be a woman, while Patel and Hegseth seem to be "invulnerable" despite being incompetent train wrecks themselves.
lelanthran 3mo ago
> They'll give a bribe to Trump, they'll offer up 5% of the stock to Chairman Trump as the People's Stock now that the US is basically a bizarre oligarchy form of communism, and Oracle will be declared a state enterprise that cannot lose money. A little bit dangerous for a US administration (any US administration) to do a bailout of unloved companies just before a midterm. Not that Trump won't do it, just saying that he'll think twice about it if he wants to hold on to the power that the American people have given him. It's one thing to boast that he can shoot someone in the street and the public won't care, quite another to tell the masses that he's funding their upcoming unemployment using their tax money :-)
- platevoltage 3mo ago
  The Republican strategy has moved away from swaying public opinion for a while now. Now their strategy is to manipulate voting maps, intimidate voters and suppress votes in areas likely to vote against them. The Iran war is unpopular, but they did it anyway.
  - tialaramex 3mo ago
    It doesn't matter anyway. The US is done. The empire's peak was towards the end of last century. That's one reason the nostalgia play works so well. A Trump supporter in 2026 can see that their past looks better than their future, they're just wrong to imagine that they can do anything about that. I think it's interesting to analyse Xi, who unlike Trump is aware that the US is failing and that most likely China will dominate a future global economy, but who must by now be wondering what an inevitable decline looks like for China. Can he postpone it somehow? Are its seeds ultimately in something he will do, or worse has already done? That's not a happy thought is it?
    - saturn8601 3mo ago
      The UK empire is considered by many to have ended in 1947 with the independence of India. Others say it was finally finished in 1997 with Hong Kong. Either way the UK is still around and while things aren't rosy, they still trudge along and will continue to do so. Meanwhile the US's "supposed upcoming ending" puts them in a better position than the UK was in many different categories. It still has massive resources, amazing talent and a citizenry with an "ambitious" can do attitude vs the "tall poppy syndrome" of the UK. Its difficult to argue that there is an exact end date thats occurring now. To say its all over and that there isn't a second story coming seems premature. Re China: This is a country that has overexpanded in infrastructure which will come home to roost sooner or later, has a terrible demographic structural collapse looming with no realistic way to correct(unlike the US which has options to correct), has overinvested in so many industries that they are experiencing massive (25%) youth unemployment with deflation occurring. They have serious problems coming in the next few decades.

ceejayoz 3mo ago

The administration isn't fully immune to public opinion yet.

triceratops 3mo ago
Public opinion seems immune to reality though.
platevoltage 3mo ago
If you look back to what he has been able to get away with, and still get re-elected, I'd say he is.
- ceejayoz 3mo ago
  Nah, they tried the invulnerable thing. They tried really, really hard to avoid the "chaos in the White House" firings from the first term. Noem wrecked it.
  - platevoltage 3mo ago
    Yeah, she wrecked it by having the audacity to be a woman, while Patel and Hegseth seem to be "invulnerable" despite being incompetent train wrecks themselves.

lelanthran 3mo ago

> They'll give a bribe to Trump, they'll offer up 5% of the stock to Chairman Trump as the People's Stock now that the US is basically a bizarre oligarchy form of communism, and Oracle will be declared a state enterprise that cannot lose money. A little bit dangerous for a US administration (any US administration) to do a bailout of unloved companies just before a midterm. Not that Trump won't do it, just saying that he'll think twice about it if he wants to hold on to the power that the American people have given him. It's one thing to boast that he can shoot someone in the street and the public won't care, quite another to tell the masses that he's funding their upcoming unemployment using their tax money :-)

platevoltage 3mo ago
The Republican strategy has moved away from swaying public opinion for a while now. Now their strategy is to manipulate voting maps, intimidate voters and suppress votes in areas likely to vote against them. The Iran war is unpopular, but they did it anyway.
- tialaramex 3mo ago
  It doesn't matter anyway. The US is done. The empire's peak was towards the end of last century. That's one reason the nostalgia play works so well. A Trump supporter in 2026 can see that their past looks better than their future, they're just wrong to imagine that they can do anything about that. I think it's interesting to analyse Xi, who unlike Trump is aware that the US is failing and that most likely China will dominate a future global economy, but who must by now be wondering what an inevitable decline looks like for China. Can he postpone it somehow? Are its seeds ultimately in something he will do, or worse has already done? That's not a happy thought is it?
  - saturn8601 3mo ago
    The UK empire is considered by many to have ended in 1947 with the independence of India. Others say it was finally finished in 1997 with Hong Kong. Either way the UK is still around and while things aren't rosy, they still trudge along and will continue to do so. Meanwhile the US's "supposed upcoming ending" puts them in a better position than the UK was in many different categories. It still has massive resources, amazing talent and a citizenry with an "ambitious" can do attitude vs the "tall poppy syndrome" of the UK. Its difficult to argue that there is an exact end date thats occurring now. To say its all over and that there isn't a second story coming seems premature. Re China: This is a country that has overexpanded in infrastructure which will come home to roost sooner or later, has a terrible demographic structural collapse looming with no realistic way to correct(unlike the US which has options to correct), has overinvested in so many industries that they are experiencing massive (25%) youth unemployment with deflation occurring. They have serious problems coming in the next few decades.