The Death of the USA

[Tortured_Genius]

Not a surprise, but it has emerged that at least 2 of the "gang members" disappeared into El Salvador were in the USA legally as applicants for asylum. A make-up artist (below) and a football player. To re-iterate these were people who had entered the USA legally and had applied for asylum in full accordance with US and international law.

Next stop - disappearing US citizens.

[chango369]

That idea's already being floated.

US gulag.jpg (92.02 KiB) Viewed 2150 times

[Alan C]

I have a thought I'll try to articulate. With certain chilling effects on science, a clear blunderfuck approach to the economy and moves likely to shaft already low military recruitment rates, I'm curious about the likely affect on US hard power. Can they still develop and produce more advanced military hardware going forward and also have enough personnel?

[Fenrir]

I wonder whether they have any kind of cohesive force at all. No way all servicepeoples are MAGAts and there has to be some proportion who take their oaths seriously.

As for advanced military hardware, sales are drying up already.

[Agi Hammerthief]

I wonder what the effect is on all those experts Silicon Valley wants to recruit from overseas.

When will too many of them stop thinking that MAGA Murica will provide a bright future for them and their families?

[Tortured_Genius]

It turns out Trump isn't the sole Kremlin agent in the US administration. The Special envoy to Russia and Ukraine seems to have swallowed the Kremlin line so thoroughly that he's repeating Putin's talking points as fact: Trump envoy dismisses Starmer plan for Ukraine (BBC)

Witkoff also repeated several Kremlin talking points about the cause of Russia's full-scale invasion. He said it was "correct" that from the Russian perspective the partially occupied territories were now part of Russia: "The elephant in the room is, there are constitutional issues within Ukraine as to what they can concede to with regard to giving up territory. The Russians are de facto in control of these territories. The question is: will the world acknowledge that those are Russian territories?"

He added: "There's a sensibility in Russia that Ukraine is just a false country, that they just patched together in this sort of mosaic, these regions, and that's what is the root cause, in my opinion, of this war, that Russia regards those five regions as rightfully theirs since World War Two, and that's something nobody wants to talk about."

It seems that Krasnov is not the only comrade in Washington and they are firmly lining up the USA to join with Russia, and by extension, Iran and North Korea.

[Tortured_Genius]

The most galling thing about the latest debacle in Trumpland (the inclusion of a journalist on a group chat about bombing Yemen) is that it graphically demonstrates how pathetically stupid the people dismantling the USA actually are.

It'll be interesting to see what sanctions the group attract given that the very least lesser mortals could expect for a similar offense would be summary firing and possible jail time.

My money would be possibly a mild telling off at worst, but probably nothing.

Edit: Link to Atlantic story (via Yahoo)

[BWE]

My training has started well, a step at a time.

The boots I’ve worn in uniform for my last ten years on active duty needed repairs. The heel pads were disintegrated. I sent them away a few weeks ago to have them repaired. I wore them on yesterday’s march, and the repairs are perfect. No hot spots, and they fit me feet absolutely perfectly.

I’m increasing my distance daily. Next week, I start carrying weight while I march. I still have my old Alice (LC-1) field pack, which is also well worn and as comfortable as such a pack can be. It’s an external frame utility back pack I was issued while assigned to a tactical air control party. I’ll start with five kilos, and increase it as my strength and endurance improves.

I suppose, as my body weight falls from training, that extra weight in the pack won’t mean so much.

There are old skills I’ll need to sharpen, land navigation, escape and evasion, concealment. It sounds like I’m preparing for combat, which is exactly what I’m doing. Luck favors the prepared.

I feel like what we really need to move the needle is some heroes who get good looks. Anyway, my fighting days are over.

[Alan C]

Are they actively trying to put The Onion out of business?



They have a group Signal chat going over a warplan to strike Yemen and among the people that shouldn't be there they invite a journalist. One could reasonably conclude as well that this is not the first Signal group chat either. It's also noteworthy that Signal chats can be set to disappear so no permanent records per the presidential records act?

[Tortured_Genius]

As far as the Trump administration is concerned the Signal stupidity has distracted from another couple of stories that have surfaced this week (and it's only Tuesday):

Long waits, waves of calls, website crashes: Social Security is breaking down (Washington Post)

With aging technology systems and a $15 billion budget that has stayed relatively flat over a decade, Social Security was already struggling to serve the public amid an explosion of retiring baby boomers. The staff that reviews claims for two disability programs was on life support following massive pandemic turnover — and still takes 233 days on average to review an initial claim.

But current and former officials, advocates and others who interact with the agency — many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution — said Social Security has been damaged even further by the rapid cuts and chaos of Trump’s first two months in office. Many current and former officials fear that the push is part of a long-sought effort by conservatives to privatize all or part of the agency.

“They’re creating a fire to require them to come and put it out,” said one high-ranking official who took early retirement this month.

Basically the Social Security system is being deliberately driven into collapse. Expect the checks to stop later in the year as the computer systems stop working with no experienced IT staff to keep them going.

The IRS could collect $500 billion less in tax revenue, report says, and the U.S. may run out of cash in a few months without a debt-ceiling hike (Fortune)

The title says it all really. Who could have guessed that laying off 11,000 staff with a target of dropping 20,000 would result in less taxes being collected.

I am expecting riots later this year as being pretty much inevitable. I suspect that may be part of "the plan".

I would also be unsurprised at a complete economic collapse in the USA later this year. "The plan" is probably to ultimately outsource all government functions via disaster capitalism, but I can't see the economy surviving the transition period, let alone the inevitable gutting of the system as parasitic middle men siphon the maximum profit from public funds whilst proving the absolute minimum (or no) service.

I'd guess 4th. July is when the faecal matter will really hit the rotating blades.

[Calilasseia]

Driving someone to launch a protest, that can be used as a pretext for a MAGA version of Kristallnacht, was something I recall mentioning some time ago.

[Alan C]

It seems Nature did a poll, 70% of the scientists responding said they would move to Canada or Europe. 70%.
That's ok they'll just get Cletus to manage the applied physics department, what could possibli go wrong?

[Tortured_Genius]

This is an interesting take on what the Trump regime's actual goals are. I don't know if he's right, but it does mesh with some of what Trump and Musk are doing. He does neatly tie up the US foreign policy insanity with the wholesale destruction of the Federal Government.

I'd quibble with the "Tech bros" being the only main movers behind what's going on. I'm sure he is missing a lot of the other main actors. Destruction of the Federal government goes back to Reagan, and groups like the Federalist Society were established decades before the rise of the "Tech bros".

Overall I think he has a handle on some of what is going on - but there's a huge chunk more going on in the background.

[Rumraket]

It has never before been more important for Europe to be united than it is now now.

It has never before been more important that we support the EU and strengthen the NATO alliance, even without the US, as they're likely to leave soon.

It has never before been more important that we remain vigilant and cognizant to the systematic, decades-long political and intelligence work that Russia has pursued in supporting and emphasizing anti-EU politicians and political parties in European countries, by exploiting the anti-immigration sentiments, and general fear of foreigners and immigrants.

It also becomes obvious how and why Turkey has been such a contentious issue concerning their possible EU membership, and how Erdogan is likely to have been manipulated by Putin into becoming ever more an autocrat with support from conservative Turkish muslims, and generally more hostile to progressive ideals. It also explains why Erdogan has become so much of a friend of Putin. If conservative Islamism gains more support in Turkey, they will become that much less attractive as EU members, and therefore become less likely to support Europe and NATO should any confict actually break out between Russia and other European nations.

I think in light of this it might actually have been a significant strategic mistake not to invite Turkey into the EU, even despite their numerous failings on corruption and human rights, because it's actually just left them all the more difficult to influence. And therefore probably more open to Putin's manipulations and ass-kissing.

[Tortured_Genius]

The insanity deepens: British man's tattoo wrongly linked to Venezuelan gang in US government document (BBC)

It turns out that instead of using actual intelligence on Venezuelan gangs the guidelines for identifying gang members are made up of pictures of tattoos randomly scraped off the internet.

[Fenrir]

What's the bet they used AI to generate those guidelines.

Efficiency ftw

[Calilasseia]

You mean THIS AI???

Meanwhile, two developments pretty much ensure that my remarks about the USA becoming Black Death era Mongolia look, tragically, as if they will come true in record time.

First we have this piece of blatant ego stroking Kabuki theatre ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is having early discussions about a grand military parade in the nation’s capital this summer, something that is a long-held dream of President Donald Trump.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday that the administration had reached out to the city about holding a parade on June 14 that would stretch from Arlington, Virginia, where the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery are located, across the Potomac River and into Washington, D.C.

The Army is in early discussions about potentially adding a parade to the Army’s 250th birthday festival, which is being held June 14, according to a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are ongoing and no decisions have been made.

June 14 is also Trump’s 79th birthday.

So he sent out Muskrat and his Doge Bois to eviscerate vital parts of government and civil infrastructure, but now wants a vast sum of money to be splurged on an ego-wanking exercise. Which coincides neatly with this piece of bullshit straight out of the North Korean playbook. Yes, he's making his sycophants wear Dear Leader badges on their lapels.

So we can add Trump to the list of monstrous egos that loved giving themselves a tug while tanks rolled past them, such as Stalin, Mao, etc.

But the real killer move is this one. Namely, the plan to destroy completely ALL climate change science research by gutting NOAA and NASA.

The USA has officially ceased to be a developed nation as a result of this. And thanks to various other measures, has also ceased to be a civilised nation. It's basically a mix of Videla era Argentina and Kim Il Sung era North Korea with added ICBMs.

Oh, and tourism? Forget that. After events that included a Canadian citizen being thrown into an ICE concentration camp (let's be honest that's what these "compounds" are - concentration camps), tourists are crossing the USA off their lists in droves. Disnelyand? Forget it - they'll go to the one in Paris.

Meanwhile, as a result of the tariffs nonsense, Jaguar Land Rover announced that they were suspending all exports to the USA with immediate effect. Similar announcements were delivered shortly afterwards by the VW Audi Group and BMW. This includes exports of spare parts, so anyone who bought a high end Audi, Range Rover or BMW SUV will shortly be fucked when it comes to having their four wheeled dick extensions serviced.

Moreover, since several American car manufacturers use European parts in several key models, this move will screw them over too. GM uses parts from Mercedes-Benz in some of its models, a step that arose from the collaboration between the two on the Chrysler Crossfire, and I suspect the execs at Benz are already thinking of redirecting their US output to China. Plus, Japan is now considering its future in the US market, with Mitsubishi joining the embargo, as reported here. From here, we learn that Nissan is about to pull the plug on exports of its Infiniti SUVs, and Aston Martin is now joining the list of manufacturers rethinking US sales.

Meanwhile, the implications will spread wider. Microsoft and Intel are almost certain to discover, that reliance on their software and hardware will be considered a security threat y the rest of the world, and Canada has already declared the Trump-governed USA to be precisely that. Wouldn't it be ironic, if the Orange Scrotum turned out to be the biggest impetus behind a global shift to Linux and ARM/RISC-V in the desktop and laptop arenas?

I'm sure the Chinese are smiling broadly at the idea that we Live In Interesting Times™ ...

[Alan C]

Well, the rich wankers could all buy the Panzerdoucheswagen [cybertruck], oh wait, they get recalled. Oh well.

[Tortured_Genius]

It's now, inevitably, become a constitutional crisis (as if it wasn't before) with the regime outright refusing to comply with the Supreme Court's ruling that Kilmar Ábrego García should be returned to the US from El Salvador (rather a lot of people online are taking this as an indication that he is in fact dead). Commentators are calling this the Rubicon - but I think that river was crossed several months ago.

I'm guessing the response of the Supreme Court will determine where the regime goes next - but given that there seems to be no (functional) mechanism for enforcing the Court's rulings on this then the USA is now manifestly a failed democracy. I'm guessing that it'll only require one failed continuing resolution on financing the budget and a loan default for it to rapidly slide into failed state territory.

I'd note that every single member of the Republican party is complicit in this coup given that it is the responsibility of Congress and the Senate to reign in abuses by the executive (it would have only required 6 congress members to break ranks). Through inaction they have implicitly backed Trump's tariffs and the "disappearance" of legal US residents by presidential fiat.

It'll be interesting to see how the international community will react when US citizens start applying for political asylum in Canada.

The speed with which this is happening is stunning.

The big questions now:
How quickly and deeply will an economic collapse happen? (Recession is pretty much inevitable if the country isn't there already, depression very likely).

How quickly will the Federal Government collapse with the evisceration of essential departments? (My guess is that this will come to a head when the massively reduced receipts are in and they realise quite how much revenue they've lost through gutting the IRS)

Which way are the armed forces going to jump? (The trigger for that will likely be the repeal of the Posse Comitatus Act).

Hopefully I'm completely wrong and all of the above will fail to pass and somehow sanity will prevail (although fuck knows how that will happen).

Whatever happens, the American Century is well and truly over.

[Calilasseia]

The USA is now a de facto re-run of Videla's Argentina.