Dark Trump Takeover Scenario

Some say the stock market will crash if Trump steals the midterms. There are many ways he could do this. Prevent enough people from voting. Have ICE seize ballots. Have Republicans just order the counting stopped or refuse to certify election results. Surround the Capitol with tanks and put the lot of them in jail. Everyone is running through possible scenarios in their heads. (Admit it, you are.)

Bailout Bubbles

I keep hearing that this stock bubble persists because traders believe Trump will bail them out if the bubble pops. Go crazy because there’s less downside risk. There certainly is reason to believe this. Just look at what happened after the 2008 crash. Look at Silicon Valley Bank. Look at etc., etc., etc. Downside risk? What’s that? We don’t GOT no stinkin’ downside risk!

Oil Companies Know

Factor that kind of thinking into the “Trump Takeover” scenario. There could be a total corruption bailout! The corporations could finally be totally “unleashed.” ALL the money at the top and NONE of that stupid trickling down!

Oil companies know. Remember how Trump promised the oil companies they can have everything they want if they help him win. Trump won and the oil companies got Venezuela and a government that is fighting green energy & CO2 reduction rules every step of the way. Imagine what the corporations can achieve with no Congress or government departments at all to worry about.

A Dark Vision

So the other argument is at lease some think there’s the possibility that the market could go insane upwards if Trump “goes the full gestapo route.” It means the big guys at the top will get all the rest of (what’s let of) the loot. Maybe markets will believe that with all constraints removed there will be be real cheap labor and no more problems with oversight of anything — for those who can pay Trump enough. Because that’s how it works when the strongman runs things.

They Meant It

In 2005 I wrote a post titled “They Mean It” that warned about Christian fascism and the intent to take over the US. This is how it ended:

These people mean it. America is an experiment. Democracy is an experiment. American democracy has not been around very long, and we have never been so perilously close to losing it. All the checks and balances have been removed by allies of these people. They mean it. The leader of the Senate is saying that Democrats hate “people of faith.” They mean it. Time magazine puts on their cover a person who calls for murdering us.

They mean it. A Supreme Court Justice declares that rulers should be chosen by God, not the people. They mean it. The Vice President is the keynote speaker at a conference where other speakers called for “a new McCarthyism” to bring “terror” to intellectuals, saying “let’s oppress them [liberals],” and that “the entire Harvard faculty” are “traitors.” They mean it. They mean it.

Watch your backs. I mean it.

Well, now we know. They meant it. People didn’t watch their backs – and they did it.

They meant it, and they did it. And here we are.

What Can Be Done?

America’s “system” brought THIS to the world. What can be done and how soon?

Pope Leo criticized the Iran attack. The Trump admin summoned a representative of the Vatican to let them know, “The United States has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”

“One U.S. official present at the meeting brought up the Avignon papacy, a period in the 14th century in which the French monarchy bent the Catholic Church into submission, ordering an attack on Pope Boniface VIII that led to his downfall and subsequent death and forcing the papacy to relocate from Rome to Avignon, a region inside France.”

And today “Our great Military is … looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest.”

Corruption Leads To Corruption Leads To Today

Some time back I listened to Ezra Klein interviewing journalist Anand Giridharadas, The Infrastructure of Jeffrey Epstein’s Power, discussing how the networks Epstein set up worked. It was just so enlightening and I’m still thinking about it, seeing it everywhere…

Of course there were the people, like Trump, who were part of raping young girls, attending the parties, etc.

There were the people who did not engage in the worst but benefitted from the connections Epstein offered. They knew about the worst because he had already been convicted the first time, but they benefitted from the connections and that was what mattered to them.

Earlier than that there were people who saw it happening, knew about the girls and the parties and just thought boys will be boys and laughed. That’s what women and girls were for! It’s just the way it is.

There were lots of people who participated in letting Epstein off that first time. There was the entire crowd at the DOJ who stepped in and took over the prosecution and let him off easy and ordered everyone to keep quiet about it! There were the people who saw this happening and said nothing. This was how things were done and that’s the way it is and if you want your career you’ll keep your mouth shut. And so they kept their mouths shut.

An Entire System Of Corruption

After all, everyone knew that corporate executives and the very wealthy and certain politicians and powerful people like them were above the law. That’s the way it is and if you want to keep your career you’ll sign the NDA and keep your mouth shut.

This was just one part of an entire system of corruption and acceptance of and expectation of corruption built up over the years and it was of a part with the entire system of letting fraudsters and money-launderers and corporate criminals and an entire class of predators get away with harvesting the public for profit. No prosecutions of executives for anything, ever. Polluters. Tax dodgers. Bank executives who crashed the economy with fraud. “Lobbyists” who exist just to pay off politicians. Government regulators who keep their mouths shut and don’t make waves or rock the boat, then leave government and are given lucrative jobs or contracts or “speaking fees” thanking them for their service to the system of corruption.

A corrupt Supreme Court that has now legalized that system of bribery. Every day that all just got worse and worse until we have what we have now – a King and his family and the fascists around them raking in billions and billions.

The Dirty Hippies Who Refused To Participate In The Corrupt System

What stood out to me was there also were people who were repelled by it and wanted nothing to do with it and refused to benefit from the connections, favors & gifts and other things Epstein was dangling. They told associates to keep away from him and keep him away from anything they had to do with. Those are the ones the Trump admin is going after now because of that, prosecuting, etc. They are the “dirty hippies” who protest and show up at marches. They are the people who try to protect their neighbors from being taken away by masked thugs in unmarked vans.

So I recommend listening to:
The Infrastructure of Jeffrey Epstein’s Power
The journalist Anand Giridharadas examines the power and influence that Jeffrey Epstein brokered and that the latest batch of Epstein files puts on display.

This Is America Now

This is what the world sees. Read it.

ICE ‘throw flash-bang at family car’ as 6 kids hospitalized including a 6-month-old baby,

She further explained: “ICE agents began tear-gassing a residential neighborhood after shooting a man nearby. As the gas spread, a family got into their vehicle to escape the tear gas. In the video, a man is seen standing in front of a car with airbags deployed on all sides, explaining that he told the agents he was trying to leave his house, with his family because of the tear gas. It comes after an out-of-control ICE agent yelled a disgusting 3-word slur before shooting a woman 5 times.

“Despite this, an agent threw multiple flash-bang grenades at the vehicle anyway… while children were inside.

“Inside the van was a 6-month-old infant who stopped breathing after the attack. EMTs were called and taking the baby in an ambulance.

Once this stuff gets started it only gets worse.

It Was Never About Immigration

The vast “immigration” apparatus is quickly migrating to a political enforcement apparatus.

The original excuse for building a vast “enforcement” apparatus was to deport “immigrants.” (People who are not white.) The pretense was “immigration” but the purpose was political — they sent them to “liberal” states and cities.

Now the right and their propaganda apparatus have drummed up a fake story about “fraud” in Minnesota. So guess what? They’re sending more agents to terrorize Minnesota over “fraud”, not “immigration.” NYTimes, Noem Says ‘Hundreds More’ Agents Will Be Sent to Minnesota Over ‘Corruption’,

Minneapolis crackdown: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News that “hundreds more” federal agents were being dispatched to Minneapolis to uncover “true corruption,” citing a yearslong federal investigation into social program fraud in the state. The deployment, to be carried out Sunday and Monday, comes after an ICE agent shot and killed a woman, Renee Good, there on Wednesday. On CNN, Ms. Noem again claimed that Ms. Good had attempted to “run over” agents.

Building the vast apparatus was never about “immigration.” It was about building a vast apparatus to enforce fascism.

It Always Starts With The Immigrants

It always starts with the immigrants. They’re “not us.”

Extreme measures and abuses become OK. Because “they” are “not us.”

Bradley Balko, writing in ‘Trump’s Immigration Nightmare: It Is Happening Here‘ at The New Republic,

We’ve seen rapid normalization of abuses we once associated with authoritarian regimes or the old Iron Curtain countries. It’s now routine for masked, unidentifiable government agents to sweep people off the street and whisk them away in unmarked vehicles. Some of those arrested have been quickly shuttled off to detention facilities in other parts of the country without any notification to their families or attorneys. Others have been sent to a third country, often a country in the developing world to which they have no connection. Still others have been explicitly targeted for their political opinions, their activism, or their journalism.

Then it moves to the minorities – as the definition of “us” is whittled down. “We” don’t want “them” making demands, getting benefits, etc.

Then the opposition is targeted because they’re in the way. Of course the activists and unions are targets. And YOU certainly don’t want to become a target by being opposition.

What Stage Is The US In?

The US is at the targeting-minorities stage already. I mean more than the usual persecution and discrimination. Now, if you “look like” you “might be” an “illegal” then it is accepted that you should be stopped and checked, and taken away if you can’t “prove” you are a “citizen.” The Republican Supreme Court already OK’d this. This is already happening all the time. “DEI” – which just means employing women and minorities – is considered criminal and the unemployment rate for non-whites is already almost double that for whites.

They have started on the opposition. Opponents are being “investigated” and prosecuted. For the rest they are sending a message.

What About You?

So do YOU want to be opposed to them? It’s time to decide if you are going to let them go any further down this path. They can be stopped if enough people stand up and refuse to go along with it.

2026

I suspect 2026 might be the year the shit hits the fan for the US. It’s clear their grip on power is threatened. The coming election will bring in the Dems if it is allowed to be free and fair. And that will mean some amount of accountability. The resistance is finding its voice. AND the economy is faltering. So they will feel threatened.

I think they will feel it is take it or lose it time. They’ll want a real clampdown to get things under control. Send dissenters to camps. Shoot protesters. Turn your neighbor in.  A war could give them legal powers for that.

I really do suspect Putin advised not to move too fast and be too public about the takeover by the Putin/MBS/Oligarchs etc. cartel because of the resistance that would bring, but now that MAGA is dividing it’s maybe time to advance the project.

They don’t have the machine built up yet for mass detention of people (immigrants are a cover story). They’re hiring and buying equipment. So I wonder if they have the ability to make people afraid enough. There is a tradition of resisting this stuff in the US… On the other hand, if they just go for it and start shooting and rounding people up for disloyalty, all bets are off.

That’s my year-end look back at 2025. Have a Happy Holiday!