This is not a normal shutdown. And it's not going to go away any time soon. Why? Because the shutdown is the policy. Think about it - what does the administration get out of the shutdown? 1. It immediately makes the government drastically smaller, which Republicans have wanted
You could think of this administration as running constant tests. How much will the populace take? How far can they push things? Have they ground people down enough to overwhelm resistance? Think about what they got out of Jimmy Kimmel pulled off the air: 1. 20% of stations are no
Right now, 95% of the media is focused on using a democratic lens on a post-democratic state. If you tried to use democratic analysis frameworks on an entrenched authoritarian regime, you will be wrong every time. It would be like commenting on parliamentary debate in the Weimar Republic in 1934
🚨 Update Summary - Authoritarian descent is effectively complete; the US has entered full entrenchment. The United States has completed its authoritarian descent and entered the entrenchment phase. Almost major democratic institutions have been captured or dismantled. The regime has moved beyond competitive authoritarianism into what scholars term "totalitarian consolidation&
Things are accelerating rapidly in the US. We are now no longer really in authoritarian descent, but entering stages of entrenchment. We're seeing a push farther into stage 8 with increased attacks on Venezuelan boats. We are seeing free speech erosion, with the FCC threatening broadcast licenses if
When people do not trust their government to be just, they take matters into their own hands. This is a bigger problem in countries that do not have gun control. This government has been clear that it does not value its citizens' lives. It has targeted the poor and
🚨 CRITICAL UPDATE - September 7th, 2025 The regime has entered Stage 8, Military Expansion, with the September 2 attack on Venezuelan vessel, killing 11. Combined with the faltering economy (only 22,000 jobs added in August, unemployment at 4.3%), the regime appears to be following the hyper-radicalization trajectory toward
A lot of people right now have trouble understanding what the government is doing. In some ways, it's simple - they're consolidating power, crushing institutions, intimidating resistance, and getting ready to deploy the military on civilians. But, they are also building insecurity. Fiscal policy that raises
The answer: kind of. An absolute takeover is unlikely, but subjugation is highly probable. Canada has a lot of things going for it that make it hard to fully annex: 1) It's geographically huge. It's hard to physically control that much territory. 2) The citizens are
For airplanes and rockets, there are test flights and test launches. In technology, there are beta tests. And right now in politics, we are seeing small scale tests. Many people are confused because they see what the government is doing, and they say, "it's not working"
Post-Consolidation Authoritarian Trajectories (Worst to Best) Path 1: Hyper-Radicalization and Collapse (5-15 years typical duration) Examples: Nazi Germany (1933-1945), Cambodia under Khmer Rouge (1975-1979), Uganda under Idi Amin (1971-1979) * Accelerating purges: Regime begins consuming its own supporters * Economic irrationality: Ideology overrides economic logic, leading to systemic breakdown * International isolation: Aggressive
🔴 Stage 1: Soft Authoritarianism – ✅ COMPLETE ✅ Disregard of court orders: Trump defied Supreme Court and lower court rulings, including in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia – a U.S. father wrongly deported to El Salvador. ✅ Emergency powers without checks: Trump continues to invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to