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The GQP: Trumpist Death Cult


Hugo Stiglitz

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Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
Isaac Asimov 

It’s not a great long-term strategy.

But on the bright side, in just a few short years it can devastate a nation, even a continent, maybe the world, and cost millions of lives before it comes crashing down. So….hooray!
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2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

But on the bright side, in just a few short years it can devastate a nation, even a continent, maybe the world, and cost millions of lives before it comes crashing down. So….hooray!

But the Republicans who are actually in positions of power (such as Congress) do not want that, nor do their BMDs.  They have a shit-ton to lose, and most of it is not sitting in some company or foundation in Panama.  Real estate, companies here in the US, stocks in American companies, etc., all that shit gets wiped out in these scenarios we toss around.

In fact, even though they, in theory, have the means to bail on the US is shit goes down, in actuality they have so much more to lose than the idiots who blindly follow Trump and the other GQP types.

Sure, somebody like Beefcake Cawthorn might toss it out there and actually mean it, but he has very little skin in the game - that fucking 20-something college dropout hasn't grifted enough to actually have an actual stake that would be at risk, whether that's a nice bank account or real estate or whatever.

What we have is a bunch of Republican leaders who have the tiger by the tail and don't want to let go because they do not want to get bitten, but you can bet they are trying to figure out how to get away from the tiger without having to kill it. They need it to keep Trump appeased and to not get primaried, but they fucking loathe it.

Edited by atomheartbevo
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For every BMD that doesn't want that, there are plenty with enough hubris who believe they can oligarch their way to more fortune.

If the winds of fortune blow their way, plenty of companies will roll the dice and take their chances. Siemens, Bayer, BMW, and so on profited and they're still around....

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1 minute ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

For every BMD that doesn't want that, there are plenty with enough hubris who believe they can oligarch their way to more fortune.

If the winds of fortune blow their way, plenty of companies will roll the dice and take their chances. Siemens, Bayer, BMW, and so on profited and they're still around....

For reference, see German industrialists in 1933. 

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7 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

But the Republicans who are actually in positions of power (such as Congress) do not want that, nor do their BMDs.  They have a shit-ton to lose, and most of it is not sitting in some company or foundation in Panama.  Real estate, companies here in the US, stocks in American companies, etc., all that shit gets wiped out in these scenarios we toss around.

In fact, even though they, in theory, have the means to bail on the US is shit goes down, in actuality they have so much more to lose than the idiots who blindly follow Trump and the other GQP types.

Sure, somebody like Beefcake Cawthorn might toss it out there and actually mean it, but he has very little skin in the game - that fucking 20-something college dropout hasn't grifted enough to actually have an actual stake that would be at risk, whether that's a nice bank account or real estate or whatever.

What we have is a bunch of Republican leaders who have the tiger by the tail and don't want to let go because they do not want to get bitten, but you can bet they are trying to figure out how to get away from the tiger without having to kill it. They need it to keep Trump appeased and to not get primaried, but they fucking loathe it.

Of course nobody wants partisan violence in the streets - that's bad for business! But the policies and rhetoric being relied on by the GOP lead directly to that.

I agree that they don't want to burn the house down. But they're not gonna stop playing with matches and gasoline. It's only a matter of time. We've seen this story before, man. 

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59 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

For every BMD that doesn't want that, there are plenty with enough hubris who believe they can oligarch their way to more fortune.

If the winds of fortune blow their way, plenty of companies will roll the dice and take their chances. Siemens, Bayer, BMW, and so on profited and they're still around....

57 minutes ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

For reference, see German industrialists in 1933. 

44 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

Yep. That is the point.

I'm sure some corps would rather not, but they'll do whatever they deem successful for their interests regardless.

46 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Of course nobody wants partisan violence in the streets - that's bad for business! But the policies and rhetoric being relied on by the GOP lead directly to that.

I agree that they don't want to burn the house down. But they're not gonna stop playing with matches and gasoline. It's only a matter of time. We've seen this story before, man. 

We are talking about a devastated country in 2021.

This isn't 1933 where you can run your business out of a checkbook, and where the phone system can still operate with nothing more than some copper wiring and a little electricity.  This isn't 1833 where your factory or ranch or stockyard or whatever in one town isn't affected by shit going down in another town 30 miles away.  We are way too interconnected these days.

And those corporations can't function if supply chains go down, if people don't come in to work, if the internet doesn't work.

Is Apple or Amazon a trillion dollar company if there is no electricity or internet?  No, because their physical products are in another country that they can't talk to, and their customers have no means of paying for those products even if they could magically transport them over to the US and then out to the various locales.

The people and the companies who are calling the shots, who can pick up a phone and call a Senator or a Representative or a Governor, are arguably more vulnerable in terms of societal problems and violence than they've ever been.  They are completely reliant upon stable electricity, stable internet access, stable distribution of goods.  Our power grid is completely vulnerable to widespread sabotage (or widespread neglect if people stop showing up for work), and without power, we're fucked.

In a devastated America, if electricity goes down, there's no fuel distribution, there's no food distribution, no clean water, no supplies in general.  Unless you've got a large supply of fuel, you are limited to what's in your car's gas tank and whatever gas cans you have around.

Electricity goes down, there's no internet access.  If there's no internet access, there's no banking, there's no stock markets, there's very little ability to communicate.

 "Oh I have paper checks in my checkbook!" No bank is going to cash your check without internet access (hint: they won't even be open).  You're not going to be able to make a phone call to the next town over.  Hell, you won't be able to get a response from 911 even if you have a landline.

Another problems it that our society is, for all intents and purposes, is built around just-in-time delivery.  We saw this with the beginnings of the pandemic, we see this with various storms.  What you see on the shelves of a grocery store is pretty much what you get.  Shit goes down, people who work at warehouses/distribution centers are not going to make it their life's work to get you your fucking Wheaties and your almond milk. Tell your kids to say goodbye to grandma, because she ain't getting any more insulin. HEB is not going to roll up with their amazing 18 wheelers full of supplies if things go to shit everywhere.

"Oh but if shit goes down I'm rich and have a $5 million place outside of town and I can be out of work for a while and survive just fine".  No, you don't have a $5 million place, because nobody is going to roll up with $5 million in gold.  If shit goes down, nobody will A) even know how much your place is worth (no internet, remember?), B) will be able to transfer the funds to you and C) you won't be able to receive the funds.  Your place is worth whatever somebody will physically trade you for it, assuming shit hasn't gone Mad Max and they don't just shoot you. And you won't have access to your wealth unless you have a stash of cash/gold in a safe in your house, and even then it might not be worth much if we go to bartering.

"Oh but but at my place outside of town I've got supplies and I have large gardens to raise food for my family and I've got some solar electricity going, and I've got a well with clean water and I've got my fancy $1,000 AR-15". The problem is that over the years, people from the lower classes have worked on your place - installed your solar panels, installed the well, delivered things to you.  One of those dudes will get his buddies together, and with their cheap-ass $200 rifles from Walmart are going to hike or bike or ride (horses) out to your place.  

You weren't growing food and providing water for your family, you were growing food and providing water for 4 dudes who are just as desperate to feed their families.

And the people and companies we are talking about know just how vulnerable they (and we) are.  

They may be fucking around, but ultimately they, and the people they manipulate, aren't willing to find out.  If they were, they would have went all in on in March or July or September, or whenever Trump was supposed to be reinstated. So they satisfy themselves with manipulating the mentally ill.

 

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You need to read the recent article about the Pandora papers. Long before your scenario happens, the top % will be working from home...the other home that is not stateside.

Sure, chaos for awhile, but they'll wait while Rome burns and then all will be good...for most of them. Some will lose, sure, but those that know what they're doing and have already made connections with the right people will come out fine. It's a transnational crime syndicate (as Gaslit Nation is fond of reminding). Even in crime families, there's winners and losers.

It's the rest of us that are done for...

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15 hours ago, Brisketexan said:


It’s not a great long-term strategy.

But on the bright side, in just a few short years it can devastate a nation, even a continent, maybe the world, and cost millions of lives before it comes crashing down. So….hooray!

It's true!  All problems are ultimately self-correcting.  The problem is there, its bad, then like a miracle, its gone.  You may be gone, too, but that's besides the point.

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4 hours ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

You need to read the recent article about the Pandora papers. Long before your scenario happens, the top % will be working from home...the other home that is not stateside.

Sure, chaos for awhile, but they'll wait while Rome burns and then all will be good...for most of them.

If the US were to go down, it's taking the economies of a lot of other countries with it.  And unless the folks you are talking about moved all of their holdings out of the US and to a country that wouldn't be affected (which would be a short list), they are losing a lot.

Hell, China alone would be chaos (which is why we will never go to war with them).  Beijing has a hard time controlling various minorities out on the far reachers.  What happens when hundreds of millions of Chinese are out of work, pissed off, and in the streets?

So much of our wealth and the transfer of said wealth is tied up electronically in some manner. 

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13 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

If the US were to go down, it's taking the economies of a lot of other countries with it.  And unless the folks you are talking about moved all of their holdings out of the US and to a country that wouldn't be affected (which would be a short list), they are losing a lot.

Hell, China alone would be chaos (which is why we will never go to war with them).  Beijing has a hard time controlling various minorities out on the far reachers.  What happens when hundreds of millions of Chinese are out of work, pissed off, and in the streets?

So much of our wealth and the transfer of said wealth is tied up electronically in some manner. 

Perhaps you're correct, but like your earlier post it is the best laid plans o mice and men. They can be above the fray and we can all eat cake...until we are starving. Then things will get pretty ugly. Whether they have the ability to reign that in is the looming question. History is being made every second of every day.

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We are talking about a devastated country in 2021.
This isn't 1933 where you can run your business out of a checkbook, and where the phone system can still operate with nothing more than some copper wiring and a little electricity.  This isn't 1833 where your factory or ranch or stockyard or whatever in one town isn't affected by shit going down in another town 30 miles away.  We are way too interconnected these days.
And those corporations can't function if supply chains go down, if people don't come in to work, if the internet doesn't work.
Is Apple or Amazon a trillion dollar company if there is no electricity or internet?  No, because their physical products are in another country that they can't talk to, and their customers have no means of paying for those products even if they could magically transport them over to the US and then out to the various locales.
The people and the companies who are calling the shots, who can pick up a phone and call a Senator or a Representative or a Governor, are arguably more vulnerable in terms of societal problems and violence than they've ever been.  They are completely reliant upon stable electricity, stable internet access, stable distribution of goods.  Our power grid is completely vulnerable to widespread sabotage (or widespread neglect if people stop showing up for work), and without power, we're fucked.
In a devastated America, if electricity goes down, there's no fuel distribution, there's no food distribution, no clean water, no supplies in general.  Unless you've got a large supply of fuel, you are limited to what's in your car's gas tank and whatever gas cans you have around.
Electricity goes down, there's no internet access.  If there's no internet access, there's no banking, there's no stock markets, there's very little ability to communicate.
 "Oh I have paper checks in my checkbook!" No bank is going to cash your check without internet access (hint: they won't even be open).  You're not going to be able to make a phone call to the next town over.  Hell, you won't be able to get a response from 911 even if you have a landline.
Another problems it that our society is, for all intents and purposes, is built around just-in-time delivery.  We saw this with the beginnings of the pandemic, we see this with various storms.  What you see on the shelves of a grocery store is pretty much what you get.  Shit goes down, people who work at warehouses/distribution centers are not going to make it their life's work to get you your fucking Wheaties and your almond milk. Tell your kids to say goodbye to grandma, because she ain't getting any more insulin. HEB is not going to roll up with their amazing 18 wheelers full of supplies if things go to shit everywhere.
"Oh but if shit goes down I'm rich and have a $5 million place outside of town and I can be out of work for a while and survive just fine".  No, you don't have a $5 million place, because nobody is going to roll up with $5 million in gold.  If shit goes down, nobody will A) even know how much your place is worth (no internet, remember?), B) will be able to transfer the funds to you and C) you won't be able to receive the funds.  Your place is worth whatever somebody will physically trade you for it, assuming shit hasn't gone Mad Max and they don't just shoot you. And you won't have access to your wealth unless you have a stash of cash/gold in a safe in your house, and even then it might not be worth much if we go to bartering.
"Oh but but at my place outside of town I've got supplies and I have large gardens to raise food for my family and I've got some solar electricity going, and I've got a well with clean water and I've got my fancy $1,000 AR-15". The problem is that over the years, people from the lower classes have worked on your place - installed your solar panels, installed the well, delivered things to you.  One of those dudes will get his buddies together, and with their cheap-ass $200 rifles from Walmart are going to hike or bike or ride (horses) out to your place.  
You weren't growing food and providing water for your family, you were growing food and providing water for 4 dudes who are just as desperate to feed their families.
And the people and companies we are talking about know just how vulnerable they (and we) are.  
They may be fucking around, but ultimately they, and the people they manipulate, aren't willing to find out.  If they were, they would have went all in on in March or July or September, or whenever Trump was supposed to be reinstated. So they satisfy themselves with manipulating the mentally ill.
 

“There’s no way anyone would pull the cord on a suicide vest, because that would blow them up as well!”

Understand that the rational actors - selfish and evil as they may be, they’re “rational” - have handed the keys over to the insane mob. It’s not Goldman Sachs’ decision anymore….it’s in the hands of Donny and his batshit insane gang of grifters, and the mindless mob they have following them and literally willing to kill for them.

The monster has escaped the former masters’ control. This is our concern, dude.
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6 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

….it’s in the hands of Donny and his batshit insane gang of grifters, and the mindless mob they have following them and literally willing to kill for them.

The monster has escaped the former masters’ control. This is our concern, dude.

Mike Pence. You ever wonder about the secret service detail and how Biden's team went through and (re)vetted the detail. You ever wonder if Mike Pence asks himself that question now that he's out of office and if he were to say anything about the last four years? About whether it's the former guy's team of loyalists? Uh-huh.

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Had atomheartbevo been alive a little over 100 years ago, he would've been telling anyone who would even pretend to be willing to listen that there was absolutely no way the world was going to devolve into a world war and that countries were too connected by a complex network of alliances to let some silliness in the Balkans fuck everything up for everyone. 

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5 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

Had atomheartbevo been alive a little over 100 years ago, he would've been telling anyone who would even pretend to be willing to listen that there was absolutely no way the world was going to devolve into a world war and that countries were too connected by a complex network of alliances to let some silliness in the Balkans fuck everything up for everyone. 

Greeneville High School

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16 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

Had atomheartbevo been alive a little over 100 years ago, he would've been telling anyone who would even pretend to be willing to listen that there was absolutely no way the world was going to devolve into a world war and that countries were too connected by a complex network of alliances to let some silliness in the Balkans fuck everything up for everyone. 

Wish I could rep this more.

"A really horrible, inconceivable, horribly destructive outcome just can't happen.....in spite of the fact that just that has happened....repeatedly...in circumstances eerily similar to the present ones."

Functionally every alarm has been tripped.  We should pay attention to them.

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3 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Wish I could rep this more.

"A really horrible, inconceivable, horribly destructive outcome just can't happen.....in spite of the fact that just that has happened....repeatedly...in circumstances eerily similar to the present ones."

Functionally every alarm has been tripped.  We should pay attention to them.

no no no, nothing can go wrong because the US is just too big to fail

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1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

“There’s no way anyone would pull the cord on a suicide vest, because that would blow them up as well!”

Understand that the rational actors - selfish and evil as they may be, they’re “rational” - have handed the keys over to the insane mob. It’s not Goldman Sachs’ decision anymore….it’s in the hands of Donny and his batshit insane gang of grifters, and the mindless mob they have following them and literally willing to kill for them.

You're talking about the Trumps, and I'm talking about people whose wealth is not tied up in worthless naming rights or tied to properties that are barely staying afloat, and who can afford to keep their aircraft in the air.

 

 

 

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1 minute ago, atomheartbevo said:

You're talking about the Trumps, and I'm talking about people whose wealth is not tied up in worthless naming rights or tied to properties that are barely staying afloat, and who can afford to keep their aircraft in the air.

 

 

 

And we're telling you that those people created a monster that they no longer control.  It's not up to them anymore.

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1 hour ago, wildcat09 said:

Had atomheartbevo been alive a little over 100 years ago, he would've been telling anyone who would even pretend to be willing to listen that there was absolutely no way the world was going to devolve into a world war and that countries were too connected by a complex network of alliances to let some silliness in the Balkans fuck everything up for everyone. 

Actually, I would have been concerned over the rapid buildup of various European militaries, Imperials clashing with one another, along with alliances that all but guaranteed war on a continent-wide scale.

In 1904 a German writer literally wrote a book called "World War" that predicted the coming war between England, France, and Russia vs the Germans.  In the 1910s, Russian governmental advisors were telling the Tsar not to piss off the Germans.

For fuck's sake, in the 1880s Frederich Engles wrote a book predicting war between Germany and a huge chunk of Europe that would devastate entire countries, wipe out governments, and would lead to devastation on a scale never before seen in human history.

The only thing surprising about WWI was how long it took to kick off.  Archduke Ferdinand's assassination was merely the coin toss for the big game.

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6 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

And we're telling you that those people created a monster that they no longer control.  It's not up to them anymore.

Or maybe that monster is a lot more impotent than it (and they) want to admit. 

There's certainly been ample opportunity to fuck around and find out since January.

Instead, they choose to expend their energy whining on twitter or Facebook rather than out attacking hospitals and doctors who are injecting microchips in the vaccines, or trying to assassinate various politicians who are trafficking in children or whatever the fuck is the latest batshit theory.

Shitty Florida construction has killed more people than any of these individuals who talk a big game on twitter or Facebook.

Maybe it's the covid knocking them down, who knows, but we are almost 9 months into Biden's Presidency and somehow they are more interested in turning informant on one another than acting out in some big way.

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8 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

.... rather than out attacking hospitals and doctors who are injecting microchips in the vaccines, or trying to assassinate various politicians who are trafficking in children or whatever the fuck is the latest batshit theory.
 

What was that?

1 hour ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Today in NYC.

 

 

And the school boards? And the fellow arrested outside the Capitol with weapons?

It isn't just the little guy with the flaming incendiary outside the Democratic office, it's the concerted effort by the establishment in office to downplay and misdirect all of this anger building and these groups forming alliances in order to coalesce for the next attempt. The Q people have joined up with the vaccine resisters and the Proud Boys and the Blue Lives Matter and the build a wall and....shall I go on? It's how the fear and loathing of whom they perceive is their "enemy" is channeled into dehumanizing and othering those of us who don't fall in line.

With respect to predictions, Ruth Ben Ghiat, Anne Applebaum, Teri Kanefield, Adam Serwer, among others have been yelling as loud as they can but no one is listening or have decided it's all just them trying to sell books, or have fame, or being alarmist. Fmr Admiral McRaven doesn't strike me as an alarmist, but he signed on with a whole lotta people that the atmosphere in America is heading in an ominous direction. I can't imagine he's let down his guard since  either.

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4 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

You're talking about the Trumps, and I'm talking about people whose wealth is not tied up in worthless naming rights or tied to properties that are barely staying afloat, and who can afford to keep their aircraft in the air.

 

 

 

The mob is in control; not these folks.  We're telling you; this shit will get bloody and ugly unless the perpetrators (people in power) of 1/6 are dealt with harshly...talking 20+ year prison sentences...barring that; we're on a collision course w/ fascism and all the violence and discord that comes w/ it. 

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44 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

There are rumors that Tony Spell may also be a man.

Holy shit, that dude will call you right back from 225-485-7833 

Like I left him a voicemail while pissing 5 minutes ago and he was johnny on the spot.  Kinda weird when a main of Faith knows exactly when you got your dick in your hand.

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