The primary hope I had of averting an Anschluß was that the military would simply refuse to follow such a blatantly illegal order, a war based on lies that Congress did not and would (I would hope) never authorise (even if in some cases for stupid ideological reasons rather than principled ones).
So my reaction to this can be pretty much summed up by two words: Well, fuck.
Doubly so if border states with Democratic Governors have their National Guard also being paid by this oh-so-generous donor.
I guess I'll have to fall back on my next hope: veterans who served with Canadians in Afghanistan and Iraq (or elsewhere; and yes, there were Canadians in Iraq, we didn't send our own units but also didn't recall our troops on military exchange) who take up arms again to defend the US Constitution and the rule of law against such an act.
What an incredible article. It is actually frightening! Reading out–loud made it sink in deeply to my companion and me. This needs to be published and distributed widely! It puts the nail in the coffin! May it be so!
Trump ran a shadow foreign policy before he got elected. Project 2025 was the shadow strategic plan for destroying the government. Doge was a shadow quasi-government wrecking ball. Now this funding of military salaries along with all the misappropriated funds is a shadow budget. Everything is being privatized into a criminal organization outside the bounds of the actual government. It needs a name, maybe crypto-government.
My first thought when I read about a billionaire volunteering to pay the troops was what's he getting in return. Billionaires aren't generous. They are greedy assholes and that's mainly how they got wealthy. So to part with $130 million there has to be a quid pro quo. The question is what is it.
This article closes with a bunch of ways in which governments around the world have bribed Trump and others in his close orbit, and received a favourable response, if you needed any more examples of how horribly corrupt he is.
This is getting worse and worse daily. I don’t know how we get through it, how long it will take and what will be left of America? I do appreciate your thoughts and words to describe the serious situation.
Not much. Trump is already deploying “election observers” to Latino areas of “blue” states (where there is still democracy) this November, so that he can claim fraud and use that next November to control the election, at which point I could see the coalitions of “blue” coastal states seceding.
budgeted salaries and benefits for the ~1.3 million active‐duty and ~800,000 reserve uniformed personnel in FY 2025 total about US$182 billion. So $130 million covers 1/3 of a days pay.
The actual amount is unimportant; it’s the symbolic gesture that’s important here. It’s also illegal and unconstitutional, but again, it’s the symbolic gesture that’s important here; it yet again shows that Trump and his benefactors believe themselves to be above the law and Constitution.
Yes it is against the law. But it seems its being used to set up the military getting a paycheck on October 31. That would be illegal as well. October 15 pay was released using funds earmarked for R&D. They don’t have any legal options left
October 15 pay was illegal as well. The Senate tried to pass a resolution to pay the federal workforce and military, but Democrats wanted to pay everyone and emphasize that Trump can’t fire people during the shutdown, while Republicans wanted to only pay “essential” workers, i.e. whoever Trump deems worthy. So it failed.
Thank you, this is an incredible article and you wrote everything I’ve been feeling here. It’s chilling and yet so obvious, anyone that makes you feel you are overreacting needs their head checked for Kool Aid overdose.
Mike Brock is correct that there's a huge philosophical problem with Timothy Mellon, or someone like him, donating millions to support the military, just as there is with tech CEOs supporting a President who thinks he's a dictator. There are a multitutde of problems with how the 1% are using money to undermine the democratic republic. However, $130m is a mere blip in the amount of money the US pays active military service members. In any event, how likely is it that this money will go to US military service members, rather than into Trump's own black hole of need for other people's money? I'm sure this is another lie for the propaganda machine designed to piss off loyal Americans. One thing we can always count on with Trump is that hell will freeze over before he helps any human being other than himself or his spawn.
What Mike writes is both obvious and alarm-level. But possibly there is more of the related danger. Possibly there is a spiral of "I have no choice but to pay tribute to Trump, but maybe I can maneuver to eventually come ahead, with proper nudging of the systemic changes".
By design or serendipitously, the Epstein "social activities" were effectively a systematic kompromat gathering operation. Content of Virginia Giuffre book shows that it were not just "socialites of acquaintance" who got ensnared, but people from key society elite positions.
So whoever controls "the Epstein files", controls all the people involved. This is possibly in the leauge of controlling the whole of the US system itself.
In retrospect, US presidential elections of 2024 were also a race for that dossier. And any amount of money spent on winning that race was an obvious sound investment, both for defensive and offensive purposes.
Yeah…it’s all so overwhelming, and exactly their intention. People need to WTFU. I think it’s already too late…but the sooner people wake up the quicker this horror run it’s degenerate course. Sinister at every angle, every curve. Fear and hopelessness ….this is life in the USA.
The primary hope I had of averting an Anschluß was that the military would simply refuse to follow such a blatantly illegal order, a war based on lies that Congress did not and would (I would hope) never authorise (even if in some cases for stupid ideological reasons rather than principled ones).
So my reaction to this can be pretty much summed up by two words: Well, fuck.
Doubly so if border states with Democratic Governors have their National Guard also being paid by this oh-so-generous donor.
I guess I'll have to fall back on my next hope: veterans who served with Canadians in Afghanistan and Iraq (or elsewhere; and yes, there were Canadians in Iraq, we didn't send our own units but also didn't recall our troops on military exchange) who take up arms again to defend the US Constitution and the rule of law against such an act.
You’re not overreacting
There's a term for this: Mercenaries. trump is turning our armed forces into mercenaries.
What an incredible article. It is actually frightening! Reading out–loud made it sink in deeply to my companion and me. This needs to be published and distributed widely! It puts the nail in the coffin! May it be so!
Trump ran a shadow foreign policy before he got elected. Project 2025 was the shadow strategic plan for destroying the government. Doge was a shadow quasi-government wrecking ball. Now this funding of military salaries along with all the misappropriated funds is a shadow budget. Everything is being privatized into a criminal organization outside the bounds of the actual government. It needs a name, maybe crypto-government.
My first thought when I read about a billionaire volunteering to pay the troops was what's he getting in return. Billionaires aren't generous. They are greedy assholes and that's mainly how they got wealthy. So to part with $130 million there has to be a quid pro quo. The question is what is it.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trump-argentina-farmers-trade-9.6950426
This article closes with a bunch of ways in which governments around the world have bribed Trump and others in his close orbit, and received a favourable response, if you needed any more examples of how horribly corrupt he is.
This is getting worse and worse daily. I don’t know how we get through it, how long it will take and what will be left of America? I do appreciate your thoughts and words to describe the serious situation.
Not much. Trump is already deploying “election observers” to Latino areas of “blue” states (where there is still democracy) this November, so that he can claim fraud and use that next November to control the election, at which point I could see the coalitions of “blue” coastal states seceding.
budgeted salaries and benefits for the ~1.3 million active‐duty and ~800,000 reserve uniformed personnel in FY 2025 total about US$182 billion. So $130 million covers 1/3 of a days pay.
The actual amount is unimportant; it’s the symbolic gesture that’s important here. It’s also illegal and unconstitutional, but again, it’s the symbolic gesture that’s important here; it yet again shows that Trump and his benefactors believe themselves to be above the law and Constitution.
Yes it is against the law. But it seems its being used to set up the military getting a paycheck on October 31. That would be illegal as well. October 15 pay was released using funds earmarked for R&D. They don’t have any legal options left
October 15 pay was illegal as well. The Senate tried to pass a resolution to pay the federal workforce and military, but Democrats wanted to pay everyone and emphasize that Trump can’t fire people during the shutdown, while Republicans wanted to only pay “essential” workers, i.e. whoever Trump deems worthy. So it failed.
These were my exact thoughts. Right on the money. They don’t want the military to resist the actions of this regime.
Thank you, this is an incredible article and you wrote everything I’ve been feeling here. It’s chilling and yet so obvious, anyone that makes you feel you are overreacting needs their head checked for Kool Aid overdose.
Very clear. Conveys how frightening the risk really is. Thx.
Mike Brock is correct that there's a huge philosophical problem with Timothy Mellon, or someone like him, donating millions to support the military, just as there is with tech CEOs supporting a President who thinks he's a dictator. There are a multitutde of problems with how the 1% are using money to undermine the democratic republic. However, $130m is a mere blip in the amount of money the US pays active military service members. In any event, how likely is it that this money will go to US military service members, rather than into Trump's own black hole of need for other people's money? I'm sure this is another lie for the propaganda machine designed to piss off loyal Americans. One thing we can always count on with Trump is that hell will freeze over before he helps any human being other than himself or his spawn.
What Mike writes is both obvious and alarm-level. But possibly there is more of the related danger. Possibly there is a spiral of "I have no choice but to pay tribute to Trump, but maybe I can maneuver to eventually come ahead, with proper nudging of the systemic changes".
By design or serendipitously, the Epstein "social activities" were effectively a systematic kompromat gathering operation. Content of Virginia Giuffre book shows that it were not just "socialites of acquaintance" who got ensnared, but people from key society elite positions.
So whoever controls "the Epstein files", controls all the people involved. This is possibly in the leauge of controlling the whole of the US system itself.
In retrospect, US presidential elections of 2024 were also a race for that dossier. And any amount of money spent on winning that race was an obvious sound investment, both for defensive and offensive purposes.
Yeah…it’s all so overwhelming, and exactly their intention. People need to WTFU. I think it’s already too late…but the sooner people wake up the quicker this horror run it’s degenerate course. Sinister at every angle, every curve. Fear and hopelessness ….this is life in the USA.
Then add Tesla building a robot army Elon plans on controlling. WCGW?