Imma just post this video here: https://youtu.be/5RpPTRcz1no

What the current administration is doing tracks with this video fairly accurately. Basically, “Network States” are what they want. It’s basically what exists in Honduras right now in the form of "Prospera, which is a network state that operates in that country.

Damn, I’d like to see the data on that.

He doesn’t understand what VAT is.

Timu: shop like a billionaire because only billionaires can afford the cheap Chinese garbage.

Shit might hit the fan harder and faster in USA, but don’t be fooled: Canada and every other country in the world will be gravely affected: less trade, prices inflate, some goods become hard to find at all at any price, etc. US $ after all is the big reserve currency and all international trade was de facto protected by US military hegemony. Probably countries like North Korea or Iran will see least influence from all this… It’s insane to watch this happening. Their main goal really just seems to be to create chaos. And from chaos… rises whatever authoritarian state they want to create after declaring some state of emergency shit and after the superwealthy gobbled up all the failing companies at bargain prices. It’s like they’re organising a reenactment of the “shock therapy” that crashed the Russian economy on a speedrun after the soviet union fell apart.

um, yeah. we heard you the first 5 times, why do you keep reposting the same comment over and over?

Never underestimate the destruction that stupid people in position of power can do.

What is looking like more of an idiot than he already does going to accomplish? He’s the most idiotic politician in living memory, by far, and there are some absolutely colossal morons on that list.

He is a Reality TV star. People can not resist mocking Donald Trump. Mocking isn’t resisting, mockery is all part of the Kremlin media techniques. The more idiotic he and Elin Musk behaves, the more people rush to their social machines and LOL. People can not resist his orange skin color, it makes skin color a constant topic (brown, black, white, orange, etc).

Introduction to the Kremlin media techniques of year 2014

1. Peter Pomerantsev September 9, 2014: Russia and the Menace of Unreality. How Vladimir Putin is revolutionizing information warfare

2. Adam Curtis, BBC, December 31, 2014: On The “Contradictory Vaudeville” Of Post-Modern Politics - “What this film is going to suggest is that that defeatist response has become a central part of a new system of political control. And to understand how this is happening, you have to look to Russia, to a man called Vladislav Surkov, who is a hero of our time. Surkov is one of President Putin’s advisers, and has helped him maintain his power for 15 years, but he has done it in a very new way.”

3. Book reading from December 5, 2014 on the subject by Peter Pomerantsev

Luxury goods are not really hit by tariffs nor taxes the same way more basic goods might be. A $ 4000 bag that goes to $ 4 500 is way more manageable for the kind of people who want to and can buy it (it may even make it more desirable for those who want and can’t buy it).

I REALLY hope trump is just actively destroying the US either in the name of putin

People won’t discuss that this was all planned in a November 2013 Moscow meeting and announced one month later in December 2013… shortly before the February 2014 Ukraine invasion. https://lemmy.world/post/27627662/16165977

Except, for example many Canadians, who are really fed up with being the kick ball for American Presidents (Trump has a lot of company when it comes to tariffs), who will do their best to not buy anything from the USA. I predict our trade deficit will go in the opposite direction that Trump hopes. The USA still needs to buy electricity, gas/oil, wood, and various other raw products from Canada. We don’t have to buy finished goods from the USA since there are plenty of other countries to supply them. We really don’t need to vacation there.

And since we haven’t moved the needle on the minimum wage in decades, people will be making those low-added value products at starvation wages.

Wait, what?

The current administration is trying to pull the funding back even tho its been appropriated by congress. Funny how congress isn’t doing anything about it.

… Now?

If we can’t buy anythibg from North Korea, what would be tariffed?

Just stopped pretending to be good.

I am not.

UK is also 10% like the rest of world. Why was it mentioned seperately? It’s not like Russia is a small country.

Like the EU?

Shit, bruh. sorry. I may not be that far behind you.

pause buttons is all its about. emissions wont stop after energy generation is zero-emission. it just will be slower by a chunk (like 60%ish)

people will still breed cows/not turn vegan (up to 75% of total 20%ghg emissions) and mobility will also remain (lets just say by half without derailing too much - so half of total 20%ghg emissions)

Also theres studies on how we are kinda jet lagging in resulted heating and on how recordings of right before pre-industrial era levels also could be different, lower in total and therefore more extreme heating affecting tipping points.

so a pause like that would be great - because all we have left is time and smart people (although kinda marginalized nowadays and I dont really believe in the success of that in short term) we have crossed 1,5° and therefore are in tipping point cascade (which is irreversable) territory.

Not wrong. But I will point out that this will funnel a lot more money to China, which has been investing much more heavily in greentech than the US has. So overall it could actually be a plus - for climate change at least.

Just a silly joke of course. Gallows humor. In order to combat climate change you’d have to re-design how we live and work and our economic system and reset existing wealth inequalities, re-design and rebuild thousands of industrial processes, and change multiple systems that are in place. For example you’d at least have to:

1. Ban advertising to reduce desire/demand for consumption
2. Ban patents (at least in the current form) so industrial processes can be re-designed and rebuild without roadblocks
3. Nationalize news and social media and turn them into a cooperative under the control of the workers there
4. Invest into R&D for circular economy and development and regulation for long lasting appliances and goods that last decades with repair and maintenance

Basically what we learned is that it’s practically impossible for humanity as a global civilization to stop climate change. Most people can’t even bear to think about the steps it would take.

Of course, developing the technology for a sustainable circular economy for the basic needs (food, energy, education, building shelters, communication etc) is still worthwhile.

Same. Got chickens, veg seeds, and I’m about to buy a bow for hunting my own meat. Fuck the US, time to crack out that survivalism I’ve been practicing.

Ok to be fair… You may come as long as you’re a queer / trans baddie or if your name is Luigi, or take the “death to America” pledge. 😌

Immigrants are welcome, tourists as well.

Also intentionally crashing the economy to hurt political enemies and cause civil unrest (mass government firings = lots of educated qualified people out of work, also drives down wages of other educated qualified people). Techo-fascist corporate cities and Gilead don’t need a Dow Jones index.

This is really not true. The wealthy aren’t playing 4D chess with the economy, they are just as short-sighted behind closed doors. The Great Depression fucked a lot of wealthy people up and turned the entire nation against them. It can happen again.

Edit - and for the record, the abundance does vanish in a depression scenario. Factories shut down, productivity collapses. The world will literally extract, refine, process, and build less of everything. You can’t build a fleet of yachts without a functioning economy.

Just like how a rising tide raises all boats, a sinking ship takes everyone down with it. The billionaires think being on the life rafts will make them more wealthy compared to those that are sinking.

Cave about what though?

Could you imagine if Biden declared what essentially amounts to a 10% sales tax?

I don’t even have to click on that to know that Russia is not listed.

You can’t get close to orange fuck for anything like that. You gotta hope for a natural luigi to show up and say “time’s up bitch”

won’t countries stop using the us dollar as the backing reserve

Yeah. Putin’s gonna be so pleased.

I hope Euro takes over

Honestly, at this point, I think it’s time to just call it a day on the very idea of the US as a single unified nation. The Constitution has been demonstrated, beyond a shadow of a doubt, to be utterly incapable of actually doing its job. It’s a 200+ year old document written in a different age, by people who didn’t have hundreds of examples of modern democracies to draw upon. It was a good attempt, but it’s horribly obsolete at this point. And our institutions are equally not up to the task. And it was written by 13 states who each joined willingly. If you gave each state a chance to join the current US today, how many would actually do it?

We need to peacefully dissolve the whole thing. Dissolve the federal government; grant every state full independence. The states can then come together into whatever number of new nations they wish to form.

This clearly isn’t working. Half the country has completely given up on the Constitution, and the other half thinks institutions and laws alone will magically fix the problem. We’ve crossed the Rubicon. Once a president is allowed to get away with this level of flagrant law breaking, once the courts have become this corrupted, once the system has become so sclerotic and fundamentally incapable of meeting the needs of the people? It’s time to call it quits. There’s no repairing a system like this. Even if free and fair elections happen, electing a Democrat in 2028 will not fix this problem. At best, we’ll get 4 more years of useless waffling, and then another fascist will get elected in 2032.

The US is a couple that has reached an impasse of irreconcilable differences. The US had a good run, but at this point it’s time to admit that it’s run its course, and it is time to move on.

The US isn’t even really a nation; it’s more of an empire. There are vast regional differences in the country. The cultures and desired governments of the people in the different regions vary substantially. But because we’re all locked together in this bloated dying husk of an empire, nobody is happy. There’s a reason the oldest countries in the world tend to be smaller ones. Empires are held together by force, not by common culture and shared values. They tend to collapse under their own weight and contradictions eventually. And the US is no exception.

And we shouldn’t mourn this. The US had a good run. It did some cool things and made some real advancements on the human story. But governments exist ultimately to serve the people. Can anyone really say with a straight face that the people of the US wouldn’t be better served by breaking the US into a series of smaller, more manageable nations that better reflect the will of their people? Would all the nations that border the Mediterranean really be better off if they were still united in the Roman Empire? Would all of Latin America outside of Brazil be better off if it was all still New Spain? Would the people of Asia be happier if they were still united in some post-Mongol empire? I don’t think so.

Sometimes you just need to let things die. It’s time to put the United States out of its misery. We can do better.