(Disclaimer: I voted against Trump and anyone who supported him in my state.)
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
Hahaha you still think there will be elections. Cute!
I hope you’re right.
Glad you asked.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
tear down NOAA
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.
in 4 years Trump will try to name a successor
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.
I’m quite sure that this is already the case.
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. 📺
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.
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.
Yeah but he probably thought he was going to have 8 years in a row. Now he has bigger ass-kissers.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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 push comes to sobre 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.
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.
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.
that’s a sticky question,
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?”
Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine are desperate for people to move there… And the Canadian border is right there just in case
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.
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I wish you luck and safety.
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.
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
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.
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
Ukraine
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.
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.
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.
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.
Then local it is. We gotta do something or die my guy.
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.
Tariffs will not only erase the middle class but also erase our topsoil like it’s 1924 all over again if farmers aren’t subsidized and everything is left to go fallow. In terms of dollars we’re pretty even in terms of agricultural imports and exports, but in terms of acreage… We push a shitload of soy, corn, and wheat. We’re more than a little fucked in lots of ways if we’re hit with retaliatory tariffs, but the biggest one is if farmers don’t have any reason to plant crops and don’t have any money to do it, we’re doomed for dustbowl days.
Don’t even get me started on water, fluoride is one thing but if they start removing a lot of other stuff like phosphate and permanganate the entire country’s municipal water supply will be as bad as Flint MI.
I’m hoping Trump doesn’t pull off 95% of the stuff he talked about due to unbridled incompetence because if he still manages to pull off 80% of it we’re gonna be fucked
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.
I’m hoping. Last trade war, Trump basically rolled out of bed one morning and decided to try it on China as some temporary transient thing in order to convey that the US has a lot of leverage (and it blew up in our faces), which is an entirely different beast than unilateral tariffs as part of fiscal policy. I have no clue how much it’d cost to just subsidize everything in perpetuity but I hope it isn’t some ridiculous sum.
He’ll probably do something like allowing us to sell semiconductors to foreign nations in exchange for dropping tariffs on agricultural exports which is also really fucking boneheaded. The art of the deal, giving away the only shit that has lots of value for us. China outpacing the US in tech is something Europe wouldn’t want, but if we cut ties with Europe they’d probably warm up to China and we’d become a really big insular nation that can’t even sustain its economy as is
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 rehressionism, but now is especially a bad time.
We’re already net exporter of petroleum but they’re intending to carve up our parks and stuff, even though we won’t be able to sell it for more than the cost of producing it. Everyone will slam us with tariffs and go to other countries for their fix, and it’ll be cheaper than bottled water for us.
The idiots who don’t understand what a pronoun is and are terrified of their kids learning about them in English class will have cheap gas, but their kids will endure a literal hell for it.
And they’ll think Trump’s doing a good job for all of it, blame some totally unrelated shit for our interest rate being at 25%
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.
It might do that in some fields but it’d take ages in those spots where all you see is corn as far as the eye can see. Might be switchgrass growing in a drainage ditch but it’d just creep in like capillary action on a paper towel. You’d need to have people out there casting seed at least
That’s because it is soil that has been destroyed through decades of mismanagement. That is what caused the previous dust bowl.
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.
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.
The US? pretty fucking fucked. The World, so fucked it has no idea how truly fucking fucked it is yet.
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.
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.
surprise pregnancy, wife suffers from complications, isn’t allowed to abort, dies painfully
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.
With AMOC collapse underway, the entire planet is fucked. Hope this helps
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
