Like Putin and his oligarchs do in Russia.
And the same in China.

My bad! That would be one of those woke books, wouldn't it? That was some hard reading for me—emotionally.

when I was reading it. The cruelty and hopelessness was terrible.

I’m not sure how crushing consumers in a consumer based economy works out well for the crushers.

Sure, it’s a thrilling flex of power…until the markets crash, taking down even the crypto-bros.

not.

What is the GOP going to do when California sends 52 Dem congress persons to DC in January 2027?

I don’t think you’ve thought your doomsday scenario through completely.

and absolutely no bounds on your behavior? Say "oh well, I guess we lost control of the House" and quietly step aside?

you aren't thinking straight about this.

We are talking about the evaporation of trillions in market value, the decimation of the US dollar, which would destroy the Trump family’s wealth, even if they sink a chunk of it into crypto.

Do you think Jarvanka will stand by quietly while daddy destroys their only measure of self-worth? Will Jared’s backers twiddle their thumbs while Wall st. Burns?

Voiding the results of the midterms would collapse the world economy- it’s not going to happen.

then neither will all of his little puppets in the GOP.

He has influence over a few key players, and no influence over those who have trillions on the line.

between Brexit and Trump 2.0 he propagandized two sleeping populations into slitting their own throats.

He's having his own problems in Russia, but he's been wildly successful in harming the west.

Crafty devil that Putin, letting the left win control of Parliament.

yup

he doesn't actually WORK, and this time the PROJECT 2025 folk will be in charge

I presume the GOP will scream that they weren’t “free and fair” elections (jfc if I never hear that phrase again in my life, I’ll die happy).

They didn’t enact their plans to block certification and Dem MOC this year because they won majorities but that won’t stop them next time

It’s just that simple.

They want a global re-alignment with oligarchs, autocrats and tech bros at the head. Crypto as the new currency

Peter Thiel has had multiple interviews about this

But do you think the rest of the world’s billionaires will stand by idly and let it happen?

Putin just throws rogue billionaires out windows. MBS literally imprisoned all of his billionaires in a luxury hotel and tortured them until they either swore fealty or died.

The US has the most powerful military on the planet - $$ is useless against tanks and hellfire missiles.

I truly hope this doesn’t go the way Thiel (and others) are planning. Vance is his puppet tho and I don’t think Traitor is long for this world

Lots of variables at play that you aren’t accounting for.

This won’t be a linear process like
flex power-intimidate opponents-crush economy-rule the world!

All sorts of unpredictable factors can interfere with an authoritarian plan for world dominance.

I just think the big picture looks grim and we’d be fools to discount what they’ve said they want to do (and will finally have all of the levers to pull it off).

Musk said Americans should brace for severe economic pain.

I believe him

But that isn’t the same thing as success.

California won't send 52 dems. But texas and florida could send pure red delegations.

And that's assuming all goes well. Let's hypothetically put troops outside each polling station in a blue area... fer "security", yaknow... and see what that does to the results.

Or declare a state of emergency on election day with patrols in the streets of cities. Because your concerned about "mobs of violent rioters"

Then you make it mandatory to register to vote at least 2 months before an election, and purge voters rolls a month before the election. And maybe you use the justice department to harass potential candidates, and then jail/disqualify a few more as the process continues. Etc

Russia has "elections" too.

Ya think that's gonna happen?

The doomsday scenario you and others depict cannot unfold without a lot of people, many in positions of power, getting shot in the face, in some cases by the their own military/security details.

It comes down to what Trump and his cronies value more, unrestrained, total authoritarian power or money? My bet is Cokey, Gums, and Princess value their precariously leveraged wealth more than any amount of power. Even going all in on crypto wouldn't save them from a world economic collapse.

Can't have both. You can't destroy the world economy, impoverishing billions and make billionaires into, at best, multimillionaires (or nominal billionaires holding worthless US dollars) without severe, tangible consequences.

Like I said, I expect chaos, but chaos isn't the same thing as success, at least not if you value wealth.

economy where people get paid enough to be good customers.

Because greed.

Have you missed all of that?

along with his oligarch buddies.

If the dollar becomes worthless, there won’t be any wealth to steal, and any wealth he manages to keep in gold or crypto will be useless if the nation is bankrupt and its people impoverished. What’s he going to use for cash? Rubles?

Who is going to clean Trumps toilets or work his security detail if they can’t pay rent or buy groceries because of triple digit inflation?

Like I said in another post, if it gets as bad as you claim it will, the suffering will affect all levels and strata of classes, and many people in power, including Trump, will end up getting shot in the face by people they thought they could trust.

There will likely be chaos, but not the dystopian anarchy you forecast with smug certainty.

thank goodness

Ignore them.

Soon they will obviously be on the wrong mother fucking side and we can all stop playing word games.

CA has 41 Dems and 9 MAGA, all the coastal states are blue on the coast and red on the interior.
And since the house runs on simple majority votes, 1 seat is enough to in effect prevent the Dems from doing anything but give moving speeches.
I use the last two sessions as my example. GOP controlled the House and the only things we got done a ton of barbed hooks and traps built in.
Now that the Dems have lost control of both houses, they will bend all rules to get their agenda through.
I fully expect the filibuster to die in the first month.

If Trump implements his policies, causes millions to suffer, and crashes the economy, the dems would be favored to win supermajorities in the midterms.

will allow or honor a free election in 2026?

Did you hear the felon's statement that he intends to be a dictator on day one?

If the economic severity program is implemented, it won't be eliminated at the polls. With MAGA in control of all 3 branches of government, it would require massive unrest and demonstrations in the streets to change it. They would likely be met with severe consequences for protesting, maybe like Tiananmen Square in China. That could lead to the people fighting back.

We are not in Kansas any more, Toto.

If Trump were somehow successful in preventing all 50 states from holding midterms, thus dissolving Congress when the current terms expire, the world economy, and the US dollar, would collapse.

I don't think you've thought this through all the way.

Why do you say that denial of midterms would mean dissolving Congress?

Trump could give an excuse for not holding the elections on time. All the offices in Congress would be frozen in place. Not dissolved, just perpetually run by the MAGA majority.

He could allow the elections to proceed and rig them. Or just refuse to acknowledge Dem wins. How could he do that? Easy. MAGA creativity in setting and interpreting the rules. Just needs a cover story to "explain" why.

Collapse of the US dollar? I am sure Putin would weep over that. But never fear. The dollar would be replaced with bit coin. Isn't that already part of the ecomomic plan?

As does a third of the senate.

You fantasize that Trump can wave a magic wand and change the constitution and hundreds of laws, just because he wills it.

If no midterms are held in 2026 the House of Representatives will cease to exist.

I see in you a denial of what types of characters and authoritarianism are in control.

Crushing the US economy would destroy shareholder value and thereby business value and ultimately that is not in the interest of the oligarchs.
Even for Musk. Poor people cannot buy Teslas or even his Internet service.

There is no way business leaders are going to sign off on becoming poor and going out of business.

in his book “On Tyranny.” Refuse to agree in advance. Don’t just complain and do nothing! STOP!

It’s not helpful!

the problem with shock therapy and austerity economics is that everyone is frozen for a long time, amazed at the audacity/evil of what is unfolding.

The faster we, as a populace and as a people, get over the shock (by facing what I think is clearly coming), the faster we can do something about it.

Relying on "oh, just wait until the midterms" or "Putin won't want to crash the US economy" makes you ill-prepared to see what is coming and unable to react.

Plus, I honestly don't see what levers of power are even left to people of goodwill - or where they will emerge from. Counting on a roided-out GOP in full control of all three branches of the government to cede power is naive.

they have it all now and they want to burn it all down

NOT

Pigs get fed,
Hogs get slaughtered.

...because after all, he's a heroic job-creator and defense contractor! Eloon even stated all of his plans for his ridiculous "DOGE" agency in a public forum.

https://democraticunderground.com/100219670941#post12
https://democraticunderground.com/100219666895#post12
https://democraticunderground.com/100219666945#post12
https://democraticunderground.com/100219639221
https://democraticunderground.com/100219639221#post3
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219623119#post19

Thatcher administration. Each admin afterwards tried to out-austere the one prior to it. You can see how great that worked out. Conservatives have wanted to do the austerity thing here since before Reagan, but we wouldn't stand for it. Now... they've got the reins of government and are going to go full bore on everything they've ever wanted to do.

Besides hurting so many people, and killing not a few of us, the sad thing is it will fail every bit as bad as it has everywhere else it's been tried. Britain, Greece, Venezuela, Brazil. The wanted so badly to start from scratch in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they couldn't make headway there. Pallets of money disappeared, probably into either warlord's pockets or the republicans' pockets, themselves. Whichever, the people of those countries were smarter enough to know what was happening and wanted no part of it. We may make snide comments about how backwards they are, but they were smarter than Americans when it came to kitchen macro- and micro-economics.

Austerity fails to make a country better. But that isn't what it is for.

Depending how we are situated, we can grow food, buy from local farmers or farmers markets, beans, rice, and whatever mystery meat is available goes a long way, join co-ops for heating or whatever else we can find, drive less or not at all, avoid, corporate, whatever we can do without, join community groups, and continue to plan ways to resist, resist, resist with imagination.

what I hope happens to Musk. But it might involve space flight --- and sudden decompression. He is an evil SOB.