this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2025
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Opinion: Brace yourselves: whatever crazy, awful things Trump may have done to date, it’s only going to get worse (www.theglobeandmail.com)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca to c/politics@lemmy.world
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If you think things are bad now, then, brace yourself: it is about to get a whole lot worse. If you are alarmed at the speed with which the Trump administration has set about dismantling every institution of American government and every pillar of the international order, you must understand that this is not just the initial burst of activity, the “shock and awe” phase after which things will settle down: if anything, the pace will continue to accelerate.

The world has never before been faced with such a threat. The United States has handed the nuclear codes to a madman, a criminal, a would-be dictator and a moron, all in the same person. Whatever the purpose to which he directs these powers – to impress his dictator friends, to further enrich himself and his cronies, to seize absolute power or just to watch the world burn – we must hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

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[–] RufusFirefly@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (3 children)

One thing that concerns me that not many people have talked about is what's going to happen to the US dollar as the world's reserve currency? More and more countries want nothing to do with us and while the US dollar has a huge edge over any other currency, the US becoming a pariah is probably going to impact that.

[–] nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago

It's fine dude, Trump tweeted threats against any country that tried to get off the USD has the global reserve currency so therefore it definitely won't happen. Or something.

[–] blind3rdeye@lemm.ee 7 points 1 week ago

I've wondered about this too.

The USA government has enormous debt, which grows every year due to an enormous deficit. But historically people have been relatively comfortable with just letting that continue to grow, because it is balanced by economic growth and stability (roughly speaking).

But now that the government is somewhat unstable... bad things might happen to the currency. The debt will continue to rise, but the productivity and stability that underpin it are eroding. It may collapse.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago

The RMB yuan is used in international trade by only eight countries, yet the Chinese economy is not going down the shitter. Has anyone credible tried to quantify the effect of the USD no longer being used as a reserve currency or in international trade?

[–] Freefall@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Yeah, you can read about it in the project 2025 page online....we know what is coming....we have for a few years...

[–] octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 week ago (4 children)

For those who want to watch as the progress bar of doom slowly progresses...

https://www.project2025.observer/

[–] JacksonLamb@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thanks for posting this link. I had not read through Project 2025 before.

Is it just me or is the US heading into an economic recession? That thing reads like they are trying to destroy social cohesion, the environment, and probably the economy.

[–] octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 week ago (3 children)

That thing reads like they are trying to destroy social cohesion, the environment, and probably the economy.

It sure does. Almost like he was an asset of an adversarial foreign government.

Is it just me or is the US heading into an economic recession?

Everyone but Trump, 77million magas, and Musk thinks so too.

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[–] EySkibidiBabBab@feddit.dk 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

The design of that page makes it a bit too satisfying watching the tracker go up. Like watching an xp bar in a mmo bar go up or something. I'm almost rooting for it despite despising everything it stands for...

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[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

If Dems were smart, and assuming we have a fair election next year, they'd have their own "Project 2027" in the works right now.

Of course, no one would believe them because they'll walk half of it back before they lose power again, but it would at least show they're adapting.

[–] AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If Dems were smart they wouldn't have fucked Bernie in 2016

[–] JacksonLamb@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think that is definitely the point where the US was at a crossroads.

[–] Daelsky@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

For me it’s Al Gore losing that was definitely a start of some kind of fall. I know people point to Reagan often, but for me it’s Bush winning and starting all those wars.

[–] JacksonLamb@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

That's a very good point. I think you're right.

That was when the US moved from covertly to openly breaking international human rights laws, introduced indefinite detention without trial, legally authorised itself to invade Europe, curtailed civil liberties, and rolled out a multi-national network of surveillance of its own citizens.

It also undercut rational reactions to climate change and normalized working-class right wing pride in having a president who sounds stupid to educated people. All of these things are arguably the groundwork for what they have now.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

What we need is a manifesto for Rollback 2016. Any executive order from Trump? Invalid. Any appointment? Rescinded and Trump, Vance and any Trump appointee is removed from office and barred from any public office for life. Any corporation or billionaire that supported Project 2025 is guilty of treason and will have their assets expropriated as compensation. All legislation passed under Trump is summarily repealed. All regulatory decisions made by Trump appointees, likewise. Networks and sites that have repeated foreign propaganda will be sut down and their executives barred from ever running another public corportation and from holding public office. Tax windfalls for the rich from Trump's cuts will be reclaimed.

The Democrats won't do it. Someone will have to.

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Iowa passed a law changing their state's interpretation of the Civil Rights Act to be one that excludes Gender Identity, they claimed they were doing it in order to protect women. This marks the first time that a group was removed from a protected status.

Chaos and Anarchy will break out in the US soon, the bad kind though.

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[–] davepleasebehave@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

people were literally going back in time to try to assassinate him before the election. that should give us an indication of how bad it is going to get.

[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I'm just hoping it can stay duct taped together long enough for me to get out of country. I don't know if it will :/ I've been doing the protest thing, donating to resistance efforts, boycotts, building community, been doing all of this for years. I've never seen it tangibly help and I'm one of the first to get black bagged if/when this goes full genocide (am trans). I can't do it anymore, my body is aging, my brain is a disaster. I wish I could keep fighting. At least I can bring my labor somewhere else and stop letting my taxes fund the madness that is the US government

[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago

Thank you for doing what you can. It's the only thing we can do. No one can save the world alone.

I hope you get somewhere safe.

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[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Trump is going to get worse until he's stopped. That has always been the case.

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[–] helopigs@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

the extent that Trump has gone to remove barriers to committing atrocities likely corresponds to the extent he intends to commit them

[–] PortoPeople@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This will end with blood in the streets.

[–] venotic@kbin.melroy.org 3 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Yeah but who's? I have a bad feeling it won't be theirs, it'll probably be the vulnerable and the enemies of the MAGA.

The opposition to the MAGA cult can't just sleep for too long on letting them terrorize everyone's livelihoods since they've gotten the backing and enabling of their 'leader'. They won't sleep to upset everyone's lives.

[–] BlemboTheThird@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

it'll probably be the vulnerable and the enemies of the MAGA.

Well, it's starting with ours. It'll end with theirs.

Tap for spoilerDamn this is the edgiest shit I've said since I was in high school, holy fuck

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[–] rayyy@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (3 children)

MAGAs are going to be hit hard with the cost cuttings and job eliminations. Sit back. They are the ones who are violent and they will take that violence to their source of problems when they wise up enough. It may take them awhile to work through the propaganda and bullshit though.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

They are the ones who are violent and they will take that violence to their source of problems when they wise up enough.

They're as likely to direct that violence at us as against their leadership. They're authoritarian enablers who want to be abused. Most of them will never wise up, let alone rise up.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

That’s the whole point of starting off with scapegoats. “Ermagod, the transgirl trying to use the bathroom in another state raised the price of eggs”. Or of course “we’re breaking up families and sending children to concentration camps at Guantanamo because they’re criminals “ and even “Canada deserves it because we need to stop fentanyl”

[–] vonbaronhans@midwest.social 3 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Will they ever wise up though?

Scoreboard shows these people, the most violent among them, are disconnected from reality and blindly trust Trump and his cronies.

I can't even get my MAGA mom to believe Musk did a Nazi salute. "Apparently he was throwing his heart to the crowd." Granted, she's not politically engaged, she just listens to my dad who stopped watching Fox News because it wasn't conservative enough. So yeah.

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[–] aaron@infosec.pub 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (8 children)

The process of global de-dollarisation,much talked about, is being hastened far sooner than I think most people (at least those not privvy to whatever intelligence existed on Trump and others' motivations and intentions) expected.

The question as to whether the country with the largest military in the world can accept a much-reduced international role (and much reduced share of unearned global wealth to go with it), without kicking off a kinetic world war three will likely be answered shortly.

Trump and Musk appear wide open to exploitation/manipulation, without anywhere near the required experience or intelligence to maintain the US's international position.

Unstable times ahead.

[–] Tower@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago (6 children)

The chuds at the top (most of them, anyways) know that this will likely lead to ww3, and that's been the plan. The US is the preeminent military power, so they feel safe, and there's a shit load of money to be made in war and instability.

The chuds at the bottom voting for US isolationism don't understand just how much an interconnected world benefits them and how bad dedollarization is going to be for them. But then that goes along with a lot of people not understanding the benefits of concepts like soft power, humanitarian aid, foreign assistance, etc.

[–] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If the people at the top's plan is actually WW3, then they're stupider than they let on.

Sure, in theory it's profitable, in practice though? All you're left with is a wrecked world that's worse to live in in every possible way, and that's assuming nukes won't fly

It's literally the broken window fallacy, which to me has always been a dead obvious problem. Stability, cooperation, and peaceful progress and development has always, and always will be, much more beneficial to everyone in the long run

These people are literally enemies of humanity

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

then they’re stupider than they let on

That's a certainty.

These people are literally enemies of humanity

Yes, they are.

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[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

global de-dollarisation

This is the real problem for us in the US. Currently debt doesn’t matter: that’s stupid and short sighted but it doesn’t matter. I’m not entirely sure what global de-dollarisation means but US debt is going to matter a hell of a lot more when we’re treated like any other economy

[–] aaron@infosec.pub 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

De-dollarisation is the dismantling of the dollar's role as global reserve currency, which is intimately tied to the petrodollar arrangement, which caused the world to buy oil in dollars for the last fifty years.

I welcome any corrections/clarifications, but off the top of my head, the petrodollar arrangement was an agreement that Richard Nixon's government made with the Saudis in the early seventies where the Saudis agreed to only sell oil in US dollars in return for military support. The agreement was a fifty year deal.

In order for countries to buy oil they needed dollars. This was and currently still is via the selling of US government bonds, which has allowed the US to fund its deficits by printing more and more US dollars. Ultimately the world has paid for that US spending. This ends with the end of the US dollar as global reserve currency.

Trump is showing in real time that the US cannot now be relied upon to provide security, so that half of the petrodollar arrangement is dead and gone. Would you fund the enemy's military spending? Plenty have. And when you wanted to try and sell oil in a currency other than dollars you got a whole lot of freedom!

This de-dollarisation very much suits the likes of Russia (for historical reasons) and China (for sound economic reasons) who do not want a world dominated by the US.

Trump is playing into the likes of Putin's hands fantastically. Not only is Putin getting what he wants from Trump in Ukraine, Trump is also voluntarily dismantling America's position as global leader. I don't know if he is a Russian asset, or if he is just so stupid, or believes the US should be an explicit oligarchy.

Buckle up, the future is not looking good for the US. Countries that have relied on the US are facing a period of serious instability.

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[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (15 children)

And American still just going to whine on the internet and do nothing about it.

If anything this has completely vaporized the "checks and balances" democratic system everyone was so obsessed about.

Americans need to update the constitution where people have the power to dethrone a dictator as of right now theres nothing right?

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[–] McLarny@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The american people will have to stand up for themselves and it‘s gonna be hard and brutal. Cause no one else can help you with this.

I found the recent developments in Serbia quite interesting and it might help to get an idea what a widespread resistance from the people could look like. Video on Serbia

[–] Skiluros@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)

It's going to require daily nationwide protests going on for months and months with national participation approaching 1-2% of the population (4-8 million) on weekends and clear and actionable demands (resignation of Trump and his goons and corrupt members of the judiciary).

From my experience living in the US, I don't think this is likely (I do hope I am wrong). Geographic size can actually be managed by having many thousands of protest sites by key admin buildings all throughout the country. The bigger issue is perhaps a lack of experience "operationalizing" beliefs and standing up to a thugs and oligarchs.

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[–] robbinhood@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (5 children)

What's really got me sweating is the fact that we're living in sorta good times. A lot of people are struggling of course, and serious issues are unfolding, but imagine what the world could look like if we get hit by the next Great Recession or Great Depression. Things could quickly go from very bad to much, much worse.

[–] vonbaronhans@midwest.social 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm no economist, but I hear the economists are not thrilled with what Trump is doing to the economy. We're headed for a recession at minimum, if those folks are anything to go by.

[–] JacksonLamb@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

I thknk you are. I just read through the Project 2025 stuff and it does seem to point to a recession.

As a non American with investments, I'm glad I read it.

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[–] TheChickenOfDoom@lemm.ee 3 points 1 week ago

Our senators, representatives, and judges who aren't MAGA idiots did take an oath to serve our country and defend the rule of law, right? The fact that Trump is in office illegally (he's a convicted felon, remember) and he and Musk are doing highly illegal, unconstitutional things means you have the duty to gather up an armed force, march into the White House, and forcefully eject Trump, Musk, Vance, and any other MAGA moron, and put the actual victor of the 2024 election after you throw away all of the invalid votes for Trump in Trump's place (Harris).

MAGA idiots are going to lose their shit, yes, but let them. Arrest them, educate them, pacify them, make them understand that this is following the rule of law for the USA. This all has to end. Now. We can't wait for citizens to protest or especially not for a vote that probably won't count or may not even come if Trump gets his way.

Do your fucking duty.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Not if we actually stand up and all march to DC. Just sayin'. Nothing has ever been won by shit posting and staying home.

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