Domestic consequences of the 2024 US presidential election: the quickening

[Nekojin]

Yes, but Trump is a symptom, not the disease. The disease is corruption, enabled by Epstein-class billionaires and corporations. The death of Trump, as the old joke goes, might be a good start, but it'd only be a start. Vance would not be better.

Vance would be better in that he's a follower, not a leader, and wouldn't be doing even half of the crazy shit that Trump's doing. I have a hard time believing that Vance would sue the government while sitting as president so that he can negotiate a settlement with himself. (That's failing hard for Trump, by the way, as the judge accurately identified it as blatant collusion.)

Vance wouldn't have torn down 1/3 of the White House for a vanity project (read: money extraction scheme) that will never end. Vance wouldn't have started a war because he wanted to take credit for the war that Netanyahu was about to start (although he probably would have supported Netanyahu just as much). He likely wouldn't have invaded Venezuela to kidnap their leader.

And Vance wouldn't be spending millions of dollars in taxpayer funds starting pointless lawsuits that he doesn't even intend to win, he's just throwing money at it to stall the lawsuits and hopefully get the other side to give up.

Of the things that Trump has done that Vance would do, Vance will attempt to do them more subtly, and therefore faceplant harder when it's exposed.

 

[Technarch]

Vance would be better in that he's a follower, not a leader, and wouldn't be doing even half of the crazy shit that Trump's doing. I have a hard time believing that Vance would sue the government while sitting as president so that he can negotiate a settlement with himself. (That's failing hard for Trump, by the way, as the judge accurately identified it as blatant collusion.)

Vance wouldn't have torn down 1/3 of the White House for a vanity project that will never end. Vance wouldn't have started a war because he wanted to take credit for the war that Netanyahu was about to start (although he probably would have supported Netanyahu just as much). He likely wouldn't have invaded Venezuela to kidnap their leader.

And Vance wouldn't be spending millions of dollars in taxpayer funds starting pointless lawsuits that he doesn't even intend to win, he's just throwing money at it to stall the lawsuits and hopefully get the other side to give up.

Of the things that Trump has done that Vance would do, Vance will attempt to do them more subtly, and therefore faceplant harder when it's exposed.

Vance being more competent than Trump is not necessarily a good thing. Especially since he's a creature of Thiel, and Thiel is both completely batshit and also pure concentrated evil. Like launch-the-nukes-on-purpose evil.

 

[linnen]

Again, the question must be asked: if you were a foreign agent charged with the sabotage and destruction of the United States as a geopolitical entity, how would you be doing anything differently than what President Trump is and has been doing?

Given what Trump did for his casinos, NYC real estate and other ventures, I'd say that it would have been better if he was/is a foreign agent given his malignant and narcissistic incompetence.

And I say this with the knowledge there is a good chance that Russia has Kompromat on him

 

[Nekojin]

Vance being more competent than Trump is not necessarily a good thing. Especially since he's a creature of Thiel, and Thiel is both completely batshit and also pure concentrated evil. Like launch-the-nukes-on-purpose evil.

Vance isn't more competent, he's just less full of himself. Trump knows what he wants, and knows what his strengths are. He has decades of experience in knowing how to grift. Vance is an incompetent imbecile who shifts his "ideals" like a cocaine-addled chameleon. He has no strengths, and doesn't know how to do things aggressively and confidently the way Trump does.

 

[Technarch]

Vance isn't more competent, he's just less full of himself. Trump knows what he wants, and knows what his strengths are. He has decades of experience in knowing how to grift. Vance is an incompetent imbecile who shifts his "ideals" like a cocaine-addled chameleon. He has no strengths, and doesn't know how to do things aggressively and confidently the way Trump does.

Vance at least knew better than to attack Iran. But "more competent than Trump" surely qualifies as damning with faint praise.

 

[Macam]

Vance at least knew better than to attack Iran. But "more competent than Trump" surely qualifies as damning with faint praise.

That’s probably giving Vance more credence than is warranted given his record.

He would certainly like people to think that and has likely leaked details to that effect, but there is nothing in his rhetoric and endless taking every side on all issues that would suggest he does indeed know better.

 

[Ananke]

Again, the question must be asked: if you were a foreign agent charged with the sabotage and destruction of the United States as a geopolitical entity, how would you be doing anything differently than what President Trump is and has been doing?

Probably going a lot slower and a lot less far because holy shit could anyone before Trump have believed a national leader could get away with so openly and promptly sabotaging his own country to this extent and the population just _ go along with it_?

A writer who tried a book or tv show like it would have been laughed out of the room.

 

[Wheels Of Confusion]

It's like watching Shin Godzilla stomp around Tokyo, becoming increasingly mutated, terrifying, and powerful, while the ineffectual government apparatus is powerless to do anything because of institutional inertia.

 

[chateauarusi]

It's like watching Shin Godzilla stomp around Tokyo, becoming increasingly mutated, terrifying, and powerful, while the ineffectual government apparatus is powerless to do anything because of institutional inertia.

Great analogy. (And what a great, great movie that is.)

 

[Chanur64]

Again, the question must be asked: if you were a foreign agent charged with the sabotage and destruction of the United States as a geopolitical entity, how would you be doing anything differently than what President Trump is and has been doing?

But what Trump is doing wouldn't be possible without Congress enabling it. They could have seized their powers back at any time, whether it was the war, or tariffs, or appropriations, or funding, or the agencies. No single man could've done what Trump has done without the aid and enablement of an entire political party's funding, support, and machinations. Even then it still took having Fox news, and all those extreme right tabloids pretending to be news outlets that greased the wheels and held everything together with cohesive extremist narratives.

Conservatives have been willing to hurt Americans and undermine the very health of the country itself just to win political points in Congress for ages, but it's been especially true for the last 20 years. The gutting of consumer protections, financial firewalls in the fiscal sector, and the constant undermining of the ACA's foundations ever since it was passed are just three easy examples to look up. If there is nothing they hold sacred, no line they won't cross, then the stage was already well set for this to happen. Because now with a president like Trump they're willing to allow or overlook any harm as long as they and the party can manage to benefit from or exploit it. So don't give Trump all the credit here, it's very much a team Republican effort and all of them deserve equal credit.

A foreign agent hardly needs to do anything. Inaction alone will guarantee the demise of this country, but certainly another costly war that triggers a recession years before SS incomes get chopped by 25% will do it. A few more downgrades to the US credit rating will cause interest on US debt to pass the point of no return too. I expect a recession, massive war debt once the cost becomes known, and a doubling of the Pentagon's budget to $1.5 trillion should trigger the next credit rating downgrade this very year.