For the sake of transparency, I am not the architect of the following discoveries, and am just helping to forward their message and clean it up. Copywrite of the following work belongs to no one and everyone is not only welcome to share these findings as if they were their own, but openly encouraged to do so.
Introduction
If you think you know anything about MAGA. Trust me, you know nothing. Not even his most devout followers or haters will have considered the following. And for the sake of our democracy and way of life, I hope people read this.
This work may very well help to shift the narrative on Trump in a meaningful and foundational way, but I don't want this work exacerbate any feelings of ill will to MAGA members, for they have been prey to possibly one of the largest con jobs our world has ever seen, especially without the help of this counternarrative.
Snippet From My Thesis On MAGA
As I work on tidying up the master file with the helpful dms I got, allow me to post just the most contentious part of it below, now that it’s able to stand on its own.
MAGA didn’t begin in 2015. I argue it began in 2001 on 9/11, while also harnessing and funneling decades of anti-government resentment till many Americans would openly call for a “wrecking ball” figure to help “drain the swamp.”

A Key Fueling Factor To American Outrage- Inflation
Many elements contributed to growing American anger that would later contribute to MAGA, this is a snippet from the larger work.
Rising Cost of Living
o In 1950, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 24.1. By 2000, it had risen to 168 (a 597% increase), and by 2023, it had reached 304.7, a 1163% increase from 1950.
o Housing prices saw a drastic rise overtime, with the median home price increasing from $7,354 in 1950 to $388,700 in 2023, a staggering 5185% increase.
o While rising rent costs can contribute to overall inflation and cost of living, even the left has largely failed to address how exponentially increasing real estate prices impact the cost of living. This omission has made many other conspiracy theories seem more plausible in its wake.
o If we don’t find real solutions for real estate that also aren’t extreme, then society will feel more and more pressure to accept “unreasonable solutions” like Trump, even though he’s the last person on earth who could solve it, considering his business acumen and history.
MAGA Dynamics and Blind Devotion
In 2016, it wasn't just the left calling the MAGA movement a cult. Trump famously said, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters." Even the left failed to grasp the gravity of this statement. As someone who nearly died in a deadly cult and based on my research, I don't know of a single cult where the founder could openly commit murder without losing members. Trump didn't just believe he'd created one of the largest cults ever; he believed he'd created the most fanatical. Let's hope his followers prove him wrong by showing a willingness to criticize him, regardless of their vote.

The MAGA Question
Instead of challenging MAGA supporters on fallacious beliefs, ask them this question to see if they’re at least able to see a world where Trump isn’t a biblical King: "If Trump admitted he was behind 9/11 and used resulting insurance money and donations from hostile governments to create false “grass root” campaigns. And did it all in a way to make it seem like others committed his own atrocities. And that he intended to destroy America in every way if he got elected, would you still vote for him?"

Yet even then, getting through to a MAGA supporter inevitably refers to 9/11 “research” out there when they realize individual positions are usually fallacious. This quagmire me decide to investigate this tragedy, to see if there was a more plausible counter theory. Honestly, the more I looked the more surprised I became. Here are my findings that are but a snippet of my full thesis on MAGA.

9/11 Conspiracy Theories and MAGA
Conspiracy Theories and Credibility:
o First off, conspiracy theories should involve some effort to verify narratives, rather than just repeating claims across multiple sources that mistake themselves as evidence; like a bunch of people who repeat “bob farted” across multiple websites may see that as evidence, when in fact, it was Sean. Sorry Sean.

Early Origins of MAGA:
o Although some believe MAGA began in 2015, its roots lie as early as the 1980s with Rush Limbaugh and later became "serious" on 9/11.
o 9/11 conspiracy theories claim controlled demolitions were used, but the lack of any cellphone recordings of explosions weakens this theory.

Suspicious Factors:
o The official narrative involving chaotic jet fuel leading to a straight fall seemed questionable.
o The collapse of a third building (WTC 7), which wasn’t directly hit, fueled suspicions.
o Airline stocks were heavily shorted before the attacks, raising concerns about insider trading. Harvey Pitt, Republican SEC Chairman at the time, investigated this and claimed there was nothing amiss, but was criticized for later crimes and forced to resign.
o It’s also suspicious that in Trumps 2000 book “The America We Deserve” that he stated, “I really am convinced we’re in danger of the sort of terrorist attacks that will make the [1993] bombing of the Trade Center look like kids playing with firecrackers. No sensible analyst rejects this possibility, and plenty of them, like me, are not wondering if but when it will happen*.”*
§ Yet democrats would largely miss this point entirely and obsess over his false claim that he called for Bin Laden to be killed, when he had not. Somehow conspiracy theorists would find this ‘cool’ rather than suspicious.
CNN Fact Check Donald Trump Osama Bin Laden Book Claim

Reports and Simplified Narratives:
o FEMA's 2002 report and NIST's 2005 report provided technical explanations of the tower collapses.
o However, the Port Authority Chairman stuck to the oversimplified narrative that "jet fuel melted steel beams," even though he knew this was a half-truth, as detailed in the next section, fueling anti-government conspiracies. The question is why.

Potential Impact:
o 9/11 conspiracy theories sowed distrust in the government, which may have been one of the attackers' objectives. Anyone that heavily profited from this tragedy, and helped further those objects, should be questioned.
o The ‘Loose Change’ “documentary” pointed out suspicious parts of the story, but failed to give any clear claims as to who was purportedly behind it. It also failed to note the Twin Towers titanic design flaw that could result in a straight fall. Even the 2015 version of this film fails to mention nearly all of the known facts in this report.
o The Director of that film later states:
“I DON’T THINK WE’D HAVE PRESIDENT TRUMP IF IT WEREN’T FOR 9/11”
“9/11 created a culture of fear, of xenophobia, this sense of entitlement and everything we’ve seen. Warrantless wire-tapping, Guantanamo Bay, everything that’s happened led us to this point, we wouldn’t be here without 9/11. They want to kick out all the Mexicans and Muslims because of this culture of fear and bigotry and xenophobia that directly led to the election of fucking Donald Trump. [laughing] That’s our world now! We had Reagan before, and Governor Schwarzenegger. But President Donald Trump? It’s just weird. Everything is just weird.”
Theoutline Reflecting On Loose Change
o While the director was in the right to ask questions, he failed to ask the most obvious ones.
o However, his lead “researcher,” Jason Bermas, would turn out to be a full blown MAGA wingnut.
Patriot Jason Bermas
o Anyone that would benefit politically and financially from 9/11 should be fully investigated.
Further Reading:
Harvey Pitt - Wikipedia
Politifact How 911 Attacks Helped Shape Modern Misinformation
It will never be possible to defeat MAGA followers “logically” with people who believed his parties rhetoric “that 9/11 was an inside job.”

I say… what if those Republican leaders were self reporting?
What if Trump followers have been rallying behind the very man responsible for its orchestration?

The Twin Towers and Larry Silverstein
Architectural Pitfalls of the Twin Towers:
· The Twin Towers had unique architectural flaws due to the excessive heavy load on their exoskeletons to allow for more floor and leasing space, which greatly contributed to their straight collapse after the 9/11 attacks. This was the first and last skyscraper made in this way.
· For anyone who said that “any other building would have fallen sideways,” you were right, though perhaps not entirely how you may have imagined. A "Coke Can" analogy shows how a similar weakened structure can result in a straight fall, contrary to conspiracy theories claiming controlled demolitions. This isn't something I'm asking you to take for granted, or to read from media sources you don’t trust. This is something you can verify on your own, in person, in real time, in reality.
· However Trump, despite being close friends with Silverstein as we’ll cover later, claimed "It wasn’t architectural defects, you know, the World Trade Center was always known as a very, very strong building” per the attached PolitiFact article.
· Supporting Article:
Engineering Experts Explain the Collapse of the Twin Towers
Politifact Donald Trumps 911 Speculation

Larry Silverstein, The Leasor Of The Twin Towers:
· Nearly went bankrupt after losing his main tenant Drexel Burnham in 1980 after he built tower 7 with him in mind.
· I don't know how many of us understand the level of desperation a situation like this can cause in someone and how many potential crimes it can easily push them towards.
· He is known for then saying, “…looking up at the twin towers and thinking, my building is huge, but it is made diminutive by the twin towers. So I said to myself, wouldn't it be incredible someday to own those?" That's not the statement of a sane person who nearly went bankrupt, and if anything, hints towards jealousy.
· He managed to secure Salomon Brothers two years later, which later paid $300 million in securities fraud penalties casting suspicion over the entities who saved Silverstein, in addition to their overall plans for the future.
· How he would become able to outbid everyone else in 2001, for the right to lease the twin towers, would become a mystery we will untangle later.
Further Reading
Manhattan Institute – Silverstein On Ground Zero
Justice Department: Salomon Brothers Securities Fraud

Trump and Real Estate Connections
Historical Context and Redevelopment Plans:
· A redevelopment plan commenced in the 1990s by Gov. Pataki and Mayor Giuliani, spurred a commercial revival in downtown Manhattan, making the World Trade Center prime property. Pataki would go on to criticize trump, while the other would prove to be one of this wildest, if not craziest, supporters to truly fanatical degrees.
Further Reading:
Manhattan Institute: Rebuilding Ground Zero
· Tom Leppert was the CEO of Turner construction which right wing conspiracy theorists claimed helped ensure the towers would fall straight down. He also became part of Trumps transition team. While there’s no evidence of explosives being used, tampering with the exoskeleton and weaking the relatively thin central column ahead of time are theoretically plausible.
Huffpost Donald Trump Transition Team
Wikipedia Tom Leppert

The bidding for the World Trade Center lease involved only a few major real estate firms as allowed by the Port Authority Chairman. Below are the allowed bidders and their estimated worth at the time included:

· Donald J. Trump’s Organization:
o Worth around $1.5 billion in 1996 after multiple bankruptcies. Confirmed only by Forbes magazine in 2005.
· Tishman Speyer:
o Valued at approximately $1.8 billion in 2000, would soon face ‘tenant issues’ with many scrupulous legal claims against them.
· Gale & Wentworth:
o Worth a few million.
· Mortimer Zuckerman’s Boston Properties:
o Mortimer Zuckerman alone was worth around $2 billion.
· The Rouse Company:
o Mainly a shopping mall operator.
· Brookfield Properties:
o A Canadian firm valued at over $20 billion in 2000.
· Vornado Realty Trust:
o Worth an estimated $2-3 billion. Had the highest bid, but was unexpectedly outed by the Port Authority Chairman, paving the way for Silverstein’s win. CEO of Vornado Trust, Steven Roth would later do many deals with Trump in 2005 and beyond.
· Larry Silverstein:
o As mentioned, was nearly bankrupt in the 1980s, and was mysteriously awarded the right to lease the World Trade Center contract at $3.2 billion, twice the original asking price of 1.2 Billion. It would still be owned by the Port authority of NY and NJ, he would just own the rights to lease it.
o Port Authority Chairman, Lewis Eisenberg, made this unexplained decision, who also later became Trumps lead fundraiser in 2015.
o After putting down only $125 million, as per the contract, Silverstein would be getting back $100 million just 6 weeks after his bid and with an uncommon terrorist insurance addition. His exaggerated bid and insurance contract would also greatly inflate the amount of money he could get from an insurance claim. If the winning bid was 1.5 billion, the insurance payout would also have been much less.
o In real estate, its quite rare for a prudent investor to bid twice the asking price, as demonstrated by the other companies that backed out, of which I find no connections to Trump.
o If anyone had known about 9/11 ahead of time, like Trump claims he did, it would become drastically easier to outbid all competitors, knowing that for pennies on the dollar, you would be getting much more back.

Further Reading:
NY Times Article on World Trade Center Deal
Wikipedia on Lewis Eisenberg
Patch On Lew Eisenberg Leading Trump Fundraising
NY Times Article Silverstein Gets Most Of His Money Back

Giuliani’s Gangster Acts
Arguably, if the above points are what they objectively appear to be, that would be a bad thing. You’d think that would be enough. However, Guliani would say “hold my beer’ to those sentiments.

1. Outdated Equipment for First Responders:
· Due to Giuliani’s inadequate leadership, first responders used old equipment that failed to warn them to evacuate the towers. Which contributed to their deaths while they searched for survivors.
NY Times Article: Giuliani’s Preparedness on 9/11
2. Obstructed Recovery Efforts:
· Giuliani delayed proper search and rescue operations for days, possibly costing lives of citizens and first responders who didn’t know they needed to leave.
· 20 Years later he would claim that some of Bidens actions were so reckless that… “It would be as if I got down to ground zero and said take out the firefighters, all you civilians see if you can get yourselves out.” Self report?
NBC News Report: Giuliani’s Role in Recovery
NY1: Giuliani Reflects on 9/11 Anniversary
3. Twin Towers Fund and Privatization:
· Giuliani privatized the Twin Towers relief funds, making them unauditable.
NY Times Article on Privatization
NY Post Article: Giuliani and Twin Towers Fund
4. Survivors Threaten To SUE Guliani For Relief Funds
· Even after privatizing the twin towers fund, Giuliani would make it incredibly difficult for the victims to receive their fair share. Requiring many of them to spend unnecessary money on advisors and consultants.
· Even with their legal pressure, he only agreed to “give the remaining 100 million to victims,” out of 170 million, if he could first put the money into the bank account of a charity in which he controlled.
· From the attached article: “But Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said that he remained adamantly opposed to any transfer of funds to Mr. Giuliani's charity.
He also objected to Mr. Giuliani's continued control over even the $15 million in his private charity. Mr. Giuliani, he charged, gives every indication of using the Twin Towers Fund to maintain a staff of loyal supporters and to advance his political aspirations.
'The concern that politics will infiltrate the fund becomes even more apparent when one reviews the list of the mayor's former political appointees who are assuming senior staff positions or serving on the fund's board of directors,'' he wrote in a letter on Monday to Eliot L. Spitzer, the state attorney general.”
NY Times Article On Guliani Pressed To Disperse Twin Tower Funds
· However, there is no evidence of Giuliani making good on this promise.
· There are honestly no words for this. All associates of Guliani should be investigated.
5. Attempted Election Cancellation in 2001:
· Giuliani tried to cancel the 2001 election to stay mayor longer. He even considered removing term limits with Governor Pataki’s support. Similar to how Trump has “joked” about increasing his own term limits.
Business Insider: Giuliani and Pataki’s Attempt to Cancel Elections
Esquire Trump Joke Third Term
6. Motive
· In 2000, Guliani unfortunately got prostate cancer. We have to be willing to ask if this was a motive for his corrupt acts.
SurvivorNet: Giuliani’s Cancer


Silverstein’s Unscrupulous Greed
1. Initial Settlement Demands and Profit Claims:
· Despite only having been out for $25 million, Silverstein initially sought nearly $8 BILLION in insurance settlements and argued for "loss of revenue from those buildings," which is quite an uncompassionate claim considering how many lost their lives. Talk about a prime example of the working and lower classes making sacrifices while rich elites complain they didn’t profit enough from the same tragedy.
2. Rebuilding Contributions and Insurance Payout:
· Despite the fact that he only owned the leasing rights to the twin towers, ‘Silverstein Properties’ received up to $4 billion from insurance payouts, instead of the Port Authority, which would be customary as the owner.
· While it's assumed that most of that money went to rebuilding, this isn't actually known or proven. It would be different if he had a separate insurance policy that was not connected to the rebuilding of the towers, with different monies going to the Port Authority to rebuild. This was not the case.
History.com: Rebuilding of Ground Zero
· He additionally refused to return the rights of Building 1 to the Port Authority until he secured additional funds from an $8 billion state fund. Talk about heartless.
Wikipedia: Larry Silverstein
· Various entities would contribute a total of $20 billion to rebuild all six damaged or destroyed towers, including four towers leased by Silverstein and two others he hadn't. This makes it unlikely that he had to go out of pocket with his 4 Billion.
3. Estimated Net Worth:
· While earlier records of Silverstein's net worth are unavailable, aside from his near bankruptcy in 1980, he is currently estimated to be worth around $1 billion.
Forbes Profile: Larry Silverstein

Silverstein’s Controversial Alignment with Trump
Larry Silverstein's connections and public persona have often been scrutinized. This scrutiny became particularly relevant in 2015 when he publicly displayed his support for Donald Trump:

• Long-standing Relationship: Silverstein revealed a 30-year-long acquaintance with Trump, emphasizing the depth of their connection. This means his relationship started in 1985, roughly two years after gaining a powerful criminal organization as a tenant in his tower 7, that saved him from bankruptcy, and 6 years before Trumps first, of many, bankruptcies. This also means they knew each other before 9/11.
• Supportive Yet Vague: He commended Trump for diligently pursuing what he believed to be right, echoing Trump's own ambiguous rhetoric. When pressed about the righteousness of Trump’s goals, Silverstein ambiguously responded, "well, it’s... you know... we’ll find out." This mirrors Trump’s evasive " Well, we're going to have to see what happens" stance, when questioned about committing to a peaceful transfer of power prior to January 6th—an event that ultimately unfolded with violence and chaos.
• Early Endorsement: By voicing his support when Trump announced his presidential campaign, Silverstein positioned himself as one of the early prominent figures in the MAGA movement.

Watch Silverstein Discuss Trump
CNN Trump On 2020 Election

The Man Who Boasted
When most people witness a tragedy, especially of this size, it takes time for their brains to comprehend what happened, it takes even more time to process it. Thus, anyone who was able to brag about their own assets hours after this tragedy on a radio show, is at least worthy of Investigation, especially if this very event helped reshape a misinformation landscape in which he would thrive as its King.
Politifact – How 911 Attacks Helped Shape Modern Misinformation

· Insensitive Boasts About Building Height:
o Trump also boasted that with the fall of the Twin Towers, his building became the tallest in Manhattan—an inaccurate and insensitive claim given the context.
Independent 9 11 Trump Tallest Building
· Early Claims and Revisions:
o Shortly after 9/11, Donald Trump claimed he saw the second plane hit the towers from his Manhattan apartment. He also made an unfounded claim that he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheering, a statement that has been widely debunked. Despite varying explanations and suggesting that he saw it on an untraceable video that was “widely covered,” these claims helped fueled significant conspiracy theories. If anything, this was a self-report.
o Snopes: Trump Claims Muslims Cheered
o FactCheck.org: Trump’s Revised 9/11 Claim
· Visit to Ground Zero:
o A week after the attacks, Trump visited Ground Zero and stated that although he was present, he wouldn’t consider himself a first responder. This attempt at humility struck many as morbidly insensitive, considering the true heroism displayed by actual first responders.
ABC News: Trump Shares New Details About Morning of 9/11

Legacy of Suspicion:
These actions paint Trump as one of the more suspicious figures post-9/11, who may have used the tragedy for personal and political gain. His connections with figures like Larry Silverstein and Lewis Eisenberg, the Port Authority chairman, hint at deep financial interests potentially influenced by the 9/11 aftermath. Meanwhile, survivors and first responders faced challenges in securing support, highlighting the disparities between their experiences and the political maneuvers at play. Again morbidly juxtaposing the struggles of the poor and working class versus elite swamp members such as Trump and his ilk.

While being, arguably, one of the more suspicious Americans of potentially “being an insider," Trump would go on to cast doubt everywhere else with his new holier than thou rhetoric and hints and claims that “it was an inside job” for the next 15 years.

What if he was speaking from personal experience.

The Deepfake Dilemma
Now in a world where Trump's followers already discount reality, the emergence of AI-generated deepfakes threatens to further distort the truth. This technology could transform legal standards of evidence, making it easy to dismiss genuine evidence against the right as fabricated, while baseless accusations against the left might be accepted as the long-awaited proof.

The Potential Escalation of MAGA Actions
Given the willingness of MAGA supporters to storm the Capitol on January 6th, bolstered by Trump's incendiary rhetoric, the potential for escalation is alarming. The advent of fabricated images and videos could present unprecedented national security threats.

Trump's Incendiary Rhetoric on January 6th
Trump's speech on January 6th was a clear incitement, as he urged his followers to "fight like hell" to "stop the steal," despite admitting DURING THE SPEECH that there was no evidence of the massive electoral fraud he claimed. As well as his lawyers laughable court “arguments.”
“...while there is no evidence to prove any wrongdoing…”
Npr.Org Read Trumps Jan 6 Speech
LawAndCrime Come On Now

This speech, coupled with his undermining of constitutional processes, underscores the risks and intentional deceit of his rhetoric. Too bad Republicans senators and our Supreme Court have either claimed he was above the law, or continue to postpone his court dates till after elections. A wild position when treason is on the table. Did that dude commit treason that claims he wants to become a dictator? I dunno, lets let him potentially get elected and then find out!

Elon Musk's Political Shift
Elon was once very much a leftist, unfortunately in more and more far left “activists” continue to attack him endlessly for not agreeing with them on their own singular issues and perspectives. To them I say congratulations, you successfully pushed the most powerful man on earth into the far right. Great job. Great job.
Elon Musk's journey from a liberal supporter to a figure embraced by the far right highlights the volatile nature of political affiliations in today's polarized environment. His actions since acquiring Twitter—such as promoting unfounded conspiracy theories and making high-profile firings—suggest a departure from his initial free speech advocacy.
Especially when considering he fired Don Lemon from his platform for an interview he found offensive. Canceling opinions you find offensive isn’t free speech, it’s literally the opposite. I’m sure many people were offended by the examples below. What about them?
Far Right Support Examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The Need for a Critical Approach
Supporters of Trump should critically evaluate why he did not pardon the January 6th insurrectionists during his term, despite using them as political leverage now. This pattern of using allies until they are no longer useful is evident throughout his political and personal dealings.
What better example could there possibly be as to what trump truly thinks of his supporters, how sacrificial he sees them as part of his endless narratives, then his refusal and failure to pardon January 6th insurrectionists while still in office?
Of course, anyone “just on the grass” or outside the building should only get a day in jail at most, however people that barged inside the capital should naturally get much more.
And while trump refused to pardon those people before, he now calls them “hostages” and is using them as political bait to a truly wild degree. It's very likely he will make good on this promise to further embolden the narrative that “Democrats are trying to take you down and only I can save you.”
His supporters need to seriously ask, “Why didn’t he pardon us before?”
Also, remember when he claimed he would pay legal fees for supporters that were violent at his rallies, but then seemed to falter and change his mind. Much like how Amber Heard donated her money, “by pledging it.”
List of allies he was quick to discard or dump. And let's face it, all of these people have done more for him than the average MAGA supporter. The only person he cares about is himself.
Trump claims that Mike Pence, the man he vetted more than anyone else, “has gone to the dark side.”
Trump seems to have supported the chants to “Hang Mike Pense,” at least in jest? We hope? There are also no links of him condemning them. Yet admittedly this one point doesn’t have hard evidence like a recording or video as far as I know, it certainly fits his brand.
Mike Flynn, a Trump appointee, later testifies against him.
Trump admits Flynn lied on his behalf, accidentally testifying against him, but does pardon him. As long as you’re colluding with Russia you’re ok it seems?

The Future Under Trump's Influence
Trump's rhetoric about overriding constitutional norms to address what he calls "massive fraud" hints at authoritarian aspirations. His praise for dictators and divisive language further aligns with dangerous historical precedents.
Important Articles:
“How a second trump term could end us democracy.” -commondreams
“Ask the expert: What a 2nd Trump term could mean for democracy and advancing policy.” - Msu Today
“Judgement Day” for political opponents.

To predict the future lets base it on known facts:
Apparently, he will help attack our constitution like he may have with the Twin Towers.
“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
Stated he intended to be a Dictator on day one, but then promises it will be just for a day. Is that how that works? Or is it “Once you go Dictator you don’t go back?”
Praising dictators, referring to immigrants as vermin etc, akin to Hitlers rhetoric against “blood mixing.”
More fraudulent use of lawyers and courts that gets everyone else in trouble but him, with them arguing he's above the law. This further shows how much he will consistently use people for his own ends and then dump them when they're no longer of use.
Warning from republicans and notes on ass kissing. As well as being generally unfit for office.
If you want help from Trump you better kiss his ***
Trumps says he kept Omarosa just because she said nice things about him, while defaming her
DeSantis: "You can be the most worthless Republican in America, but if you kiss the ring, he’ll say you’re wonderful."
Thehill Trump Views People Who Kiss His A As Weak.
And if you dare to speak out against trump, you better kiss his ****
Politico Graham Breaks With Trump On Abortion
WashingtonPost Trump Graham Abortion
News Yahoo 30 More Republicans Denounce Donald Trump Unqualified President
Hot take, if he’s elected president America, and the world, is frankly fucked.

Predicting MAGA 2024 And Beyond
Naturally there are endless possibilities of what MAGA and dictators around the world decide to do this year and into the future. I believe that the one thing that insinuates when it's time for their next evil actions is dictated by their standings in the polls or when a fellow dictator needs a little more political pressure from war torn inflated oil prices etc.
Dictators Unite
While writing my thesis, I speculated that dictators globally were uniting, finding mutual benefits in their governance and deceitful tactics. This theory is increasingly recognized as these autocrats appear to be forming a coalition, undermining peaceful unity efforts through conspiracy theories to preserve their power.
Unherd How Autocrats Unite
The True Nature of MAGA
MAGA was never genuinely about speaking truth to power or restoring America's glory. It has been an elaborate scheme funded by immense wealth, perpetuating anti-American sentiments through fabricated grassroots movements by domestic and foreign actors. This movement has primarily enriched a select few power-hungry dictators and may have been responsible for some of our most horrific moments in history in the past and acts yet to come.
Trump and MAGA
While 'MAGA' predates Trump, he conveniently stepped into a role long in the making. Despite occasional deviations from the MAGA ideology, such as promoting vaccines to emphatic boos, Trump has largely embodied its principles. The real architects of MAGA, however, are likely disillusioned with his unpredictable attacks, which contradict their broader agenda of absolute power.
Nbc News Donald Trump Booed
Trump as a Martyr
Regardless of election outcomes, Trump is poised to claim interference. His rhetoric and the devout belief of his followers in his divine anointment could lead to his martyrdom, especially given his age and the vulnerabilities it brings. This martyrdom could solidify his legacy while serving the interests of MAGA strategists who find him increasingly burdensome even if he “wins.”
Factcheck Trumps Bogus Voter Fraud Claims
La Times Trump Democrats Effort Presidential Ballot

u/neodestiny and friends.
Introduction
If you think you know anything about MAGA. Trust me, you know nothing. Not even his most devout followers or haters will have considered the following. And for the sake of our democracy and way of life, I hope people read this.
This work may very well help to shift the narrative on Trump in a meaningful and foundational way, but I don't want this work exacerbate any feelings of ill will to MAGA members, for they have been prey to possibly one of the largest con jobs our world has ever seen, especially without the help of this counternarrative.
Snippet From My Thesis On MAGA
As I work on tidying up the master file with the helpful dms I got, allow me to post just the most contentious part of it below, now that it’s able to stand on its own.
MAGA didn’t begin in 2015. I argue it began in 2001 on 9/11, while also harnessing and funneling decades of anti-government resentment till many Americans would openly call for a “wrecking ball” figure to help “drain the swamp.”
This work may very well help to shift the narrative on Trump in a meaningful and foundational way, but I don't want this work exacerbate any feelings of ill will to MAGA members, for they have been prey to possibly one of the largest con jobs our world has ever seen, especially without the help of this counternarrative.
A Key Fueling Factor To American Outrage- Inflation
Many elements contributed to growing American anger that would later contribute to MAGA, this is a snippet from the larger work.
Rising Cost of Living
o In 1950, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 24.1. By 2000, it had risen to 168 (a 597% increase), and by 2023, it had reached 304.7, a 1163% increase from 1950.
o Housing prices saw a drastic rise overtime, with the median home price increasing from $7,354 in 1950 to $388,700 in 2023, a staggering 5185% increase.
o While rising rent costs can contribute to overall inflation and cost of living, even the left has largely failed to address how exponentially increasing real estate prices impact the cost of living. This omission has made many other conspiracy theories seem more plausible in its wake.
o If we don’t find real solutions for real estate that also aren’t extreme, then society will feel more and more pressure to accept “unreasonable solutions” like Trump, even though he’s the last person on earth who could solve it, considering his business acumen and history.
MAGA Dynamics and Blind Devotion
In 2016, it wasn't just the left calling the MAGA movement a cult. Trump famously said, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters." Even the left failed to grasp the gravity of this statement. As someone who nearly died in a deadly cult and based on my research, I don't know of a single cult where the founder could openly commit murder without losing members. Trump didn't just believe he'd created one of the largest cults ever; he believed he'd created the most fanatical. Let's hope his followers prove him wrong by showing a willingness to criticize him, regardless of their vote.

The MAGA Question
Instead of challenging MAGA supporters on fallacious beliefs, ask them this question to see if they’re at least able to see a world where Trump isn’t a biblical King: "If Trump admitted he was behind 9/11 and used resulting insurance money and donations from hostile governments to create false “grass root” campaigns. And did it all in a way to make it seem like others committed his own atrocities. And that he intended to destroy America in every way if he got elected, would you still vote for him?"

Yet even then, getting through to a MAGA supporter inevitably refers to 9/11 “research” out there when they realize individual positions are usually fallacious. This quagmire me decide to investigate this tragedy, to see if there was a more plausible counter theory. Honestly, the more I looked the more surprised I became. Here are my findings that are but a snippet of my full thesis on MAGA.

9/11 Conspiracy Theories and MAGA
Conspiracy Theories and Credibility:
o First off, conspiracy theories should involve some effort to verify narratives, rather than just repeating claims across multiple sources that mistake themselves as evidence; like a bunch of people who repeat “bob farted” across multiple websites may see that as evidence, when in fact, it was Sean. Sorry Sean.

Early Origins of MAGA:
o Although some believe MAGA began in 2015, its roots lie as early as the 1980s with Rush Limbaugh and later became "serious" on 9/11.
o 9/11 conspiracy theories claim controlled demolitions were used, but the lack of any cellphone recordings of explosions weakens this theory.

Suspicious Factors:
o The official narrative involving chaotic jet fuel leading to a straight fall seemed questionable.
o The collapse of a third building (WTC 7), which wasn’t directly hit, fueled suspicions.
o Airline stocks were heavily shorted before the attacks, raising concerns about insider trading. Harvey Pitt, Republican SEC Chairman at the time, investigated this and claimed there was nothing amiss, but was criticized for later crimes and forced to resign.
o It’s also suspicious that in Trumps 2000 book “The America We Deserve” that he stated, “I really am convinced we’re in danger of the sort of terrorist attacks that will make the [1993] bombing of the Trade Center look like kids playing with firecrackers. No sensible analyst rejects this possibility, and plenty of them, like me, are not wondering if but when it will happen*.”*
§ Yet democrats would largely miss this point entirely and obsess over his false claim that he called for Bin Laden to be killed, when he had not. Somehow conspiracy theorists would find this ‘cool’ rather than suspicious.
CNN Fact Check Donald Trump Osama Bin Laden Book Claim

Reports and Simplified Narratives:
o FEMA's 2002 report and NIST's 2005 report provided technical explanations of the tower collapses.
o However, the Port Authority Chairman stuck to the oversimplified narrative that "jet fuel melted steel beams," even though he knew this was a half-truth, as detailed in the next section, fueling anti-government conspiracies. The question is why.

Potential Impact:
o 9/11 conspiracy theories sowed distrust in the government, which may have been one of the attackers' objectives. Anyone that heavily profited from this tragedy, and helped further those objects, should be questioned.
o The ‘Loose Change’ “documentary” pointed out suspicious parts of the story, but failed to give any clear claims as to who was purportedly behind it. It also failed to note the Twin Towers titanic design flaw that could result in a straight fall. Even the 2015 version of this film fails to mention nearly all of the known facts in this report.
o The Director of that film later states:
“I DON’T THINK WE’D HAVE PRESIDENT TRUMP IF IT WEREN’T FOR 9/11”
“9/11 created a culture of fear, of xenophobia, this sense of entitlement and everything we’ve seen. Warrantless wire-tapping, Guantanamo Bay, everything that’s happened led us to this point, we wouldn’t be here without 9/11. They want to kick out all the Mexicans and Muslims because of this culture of fear and bigotry and xenophobia that directly led to the election of fucking Donald Trump. [laughing] That’s our world now! We had Reagan before, and Governor Schwarzenegger. But President Donald Trump? It’s just weird. Everything is just weird.”
Theoutline Reflecting On Loose Change
o While the director was in the right to ask questions, he failed to ask the most obvious ones.
o However, his lead “researcher,” Jason Bermas, would turn out to be a full blown MAGA wingnut.
Patriot Jason Bermas
o Anyone that would benefit politically and financially from 9/11 should be fully investigated.
Further Reading:
Harvey Pitt - Wikipedia
Politifact How 911 Attacks Helped Shape Modern Misinformation
It will never be possible to defeat MAGA followers “logically” with people who believed his parties rhetoric “that 9/11 was an inside job.”

I say… what if those Republican leaders were self reporting?
What if Trump followers have been rallying behind the very man responsible for its orchestration?

The Twin Towers and Larry Silverstein
Architectural Pitfalls of the Twin Towers:
· The Twin Towers had unique architectural flaws due to the excessive heavy load on their exoskeletons to allow for more floor and leasing space, which greatly contributed to their straight collapse after the 9/11 attacks. This was the first and last skyscraper made in this way.
· For anyone who said that “any other building would have fallen sideways,” you were right, though perhaps not entirely how you may have imagined. A "Coke Can" analogy shows how a similar weakened structure can result in a straight fall, contrary to conspiracy theories claiming controlled demolitions. This isn't something I'm asking you to take for granted, or to read from media sources you don’t trust. This is something you can verify on your own, in person, in real time, in reality.
· However Trump, despite being close friends with Silverstein as we’ll cover later, claimed "It wasn’t architectural defects, you know, the World Trade Center was always known as a very, very strong building” per the attached PolitiFact article.
· Supporting Article:
Engineering Experts Explain the Collapse of the Twin Towers
Politifact Donald Trumps 911 Speculation

Larry Silverstein, The Leasor Of The Twin Towers:
· Nearly went bankrupt after losing his main tenant Drexel Burnham in 1980 after he built tower 7 with him in mind.
· I don't know how many of us understand the level of desperation a situation like this can cause in someone and how many potential crimes it can easily push them towards.
· He is known for then saying, “…looking up at the twin towers and thinking, my building is huge, but it is made diminutive by the twin towers. So I said to myself, wouldn't it be incredible someday to own those?" That's not the statement of a sane person who nearly went bankrupt, and if anything, hints towards jealousy.
· He managed to secure Salomon Brothers two years later, which later paid $300 million in securities fraud penalties casting suspicion over the entities who saved Silverstein, in addition to their overall plans for the future.
· How he would become able to outbid everyone else in 2001, for the right to lease the twin towers, would become a mystery we will untangle later.
Further Reading
Manhattan Institute – Silverstein On Ground Zero
Justice Department: Salomon Brothers Securities Fraud

Trump and Real Estate Connections
Historical Context and Redevelopment Plans:
· A redevelopment plan commenced in the 1990s by Gov. Pataki and Mayor Giuliani, spurred a commercial revival in downtown Manhattan, making the World Trade Center prime property. Pataki would go on to criticize trump, while the other would prove to be one of this wildest, if not craziest, supporters to truly fanatical degrees.
Further Reading:
Manhattan Institute: Rebuilding Ground Zero
· Tom Leppert was the CEO of Turner construction which right wing conspiracy theorists claimed helped ensure the towers would fall straight down. He also became part of Trumps transition team. While there’s no evidence of explosives being used, tampering with the exoskeleton and weaking the relatively thin central column ahead of time are theoretically plausible.
Huffpost Donald Trump Transition Team
Wikipedia Tom Leppert

The bidding for the World Trade Center lease involved only a few major real estate firms as allowed by the Port Authority Chairman. Below are the allowed bidders and their estimated worth at the time included:

· Donald J. Trump’s Organization:
o Worth around $1.5 billion in 1996 after multiple bankruptcies. Confirmed only by Forbes magazine in 2005.
· Tishman Speyer:
o Valued at approximately $1.8 billion in 2000, would soon face ‘tenant issues’ with many scrupulous legal claims against them.
· Gale & Wentworth:
o Worth a few million.
· Mortimer Zuckerman’s Boston Properties:
o Mortimer Zuckerman alone was worth around $2 billion.
· The Rouse Company:
o Mainly a shopping mall operator.
· Brookfield Properties:
o A Canadian firm valued at over $20 billion in 2000.
· Vornado Realty Trust:
o Worth an estimated $2-3 billion. Had the highest bid, but was unexpectedly outed by the Port Authority Chairman, paving the way for Silverstein’s win. CEO of Vornado Trust, Steven Roth would later do many deals with Trump in 2005 and beyond.
· Larry Silverstein:
o As mentioned, was nearly bankrupt in the 1980s, and was mysteriously awarded the right to lease the World Trade Center contract at $3.2 billion, twice the original asking price of 1.2 Billion. It would still be owned by the Port authority of NY and NJ, he would just own the rights to lease it.
o Port Authority Chairman, Lewis Eisenberg, made this unexplained decision, who also later became Trumps lead fundraiser in 2015.
o After putting down only $125 million, as per the contract, Silverstein would be getting back $100 million just 6 weeks after his bid and with an uncommon terrorist insurance addition. His exaggerated bid and insurance contract would also greatly inflate the amount of money he could get from an insurance claim. If the winning bid was 1.5 billion, the insurance payout would also have been much less.
o In real estate, its quite rare for a prudent investor to bid twice the asking price, as demonstrated by the other companies that backed out, of which I find no connections to Trump.
o If anyone had known about 9/11 ahead of time, like Trump claims he did, it would become drastically easier to outbid all competitors, knowing that for pennies on the dollar, you would be getting much more back.

Further Reading:
NY Times Article on World Trade Center Deal
Wikipedia on Lewis Eisenberg
Patch On Lew Eisenberg Leading Trump Fundraising
NY Times Article Silverstein Gets Most Of His Money Back

Giuliani’s Gangster Acts
Arguably, if the above points are what they objectively appear to be, that would be a bad thing. You’d think that would be enough. However, Guliani would say “hold my beer’ to those sentiments.

1. Outdated Equipment for First Responders:
· Due to Giuliani’s inadequate leadership, first responders used old equipment that failed to warn them to evacuate the towers. Which contributed to their deaths while they searched for survivors.
NY Times Article: Giuliani’s Preparedness on 9/11
2. Obstructed Recovery Efforts:
· Giuliani delayed proper search and rescue operations for days, possibly costing lives of citizens and first responders who didn’t know they needed to leave.
· 20 Years later he would claim that some of Bidens actions were so reckless that… “It would be as if I got down to ground zero and said take out the firefighters, all you civilians see if you can get yourselves out.” Self report?
NBC News Report: Giuliani’s Role in Recovery
NY1: Giuliani Reflects on 9/11 Anniversary
3. Twin Towers Fund and Privatization:
· Giuliani privatized the Twin Towers relief funds, making them unauditable.
NY Times Article on Privatization
NY Post Article: Giuliani and Twin Towers Fund
4. Survivors Threaten To SUE Guliani For Relief Funds
· Even after privatizing the twin towers fund, Giuliani would make it incredibly difficult for the victims to receive their fair share. Requiring many of them to spend unnecessary money on advisors and consultants.
· Even with their legal pressure, he only agreed to “give the remaining 100 million to victims,” out of 170 million, if he could first put the money into the bank account of a charity in which he controlled.
· From the attached article: “But Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said that he remained adamantly opposed to any transfer of funds to Mr. Giuliani's charity.
He also objected to Mr. Giuliani's continued control over even the $15 million in his private charity. Mr. Giuliani, he charged, gives every indication of using the Twin Towers Fund to maintain a staff of loyal supporters and to advance his political aspirations.
'The concern that politics will infiltrate the fund becomes even more apparent when one reviews the list of the mayor's former political appointees who are assuming senior staff positions or serving on the fund's board of directors,'' he wrote in a letter on Monday to Eliot L. Spitzer, the state attorney general.”
NY Times Article On Guliani Pressed To Disperse Twin Tower Funds
· However, there is no evidence of Giuliani making good on this promise.
· There are honestly no words for this. All associates of Guliani should be investigated.
5. Attempted Election Cancellation in 2001:
· Giuliani tried to cancel the 2001 election to stay mayor longer. He even considered removing term limits with Governor Pataki’s support. Similar to how Trump has “joked” about increasing his own term limits.
Business Insider: Giuliani and Pataki’s Attempt to Cancel Elections
Esquire Trump Joke Third Term
6. Motive
· In 2000, Guliani unfortunately got prostate cancer. We have to be willing to ask if this was a motive for his corrupt acts.
SurvivorNet: Giuliani’s Cancer


Silverstein’s Unscrupulous Greed
1. Initial Settlement Demands and Profit Claims:
· Despite only having been out for $25 million, Silverstein initially sought nearly $8 BILLION in insurance settlements and argued for "loss of revenue from those buildings," which is quite an uncompassionate claim considering how many lost their lives. Talk about a prime example of the working and lower classes making sacrifices while rich elites complain they didn’t profit enough from the same tragedy.
2. Rebuilding Contributions and Insurance Payout:
· Despite the fact that he only owned the leasing rights to the twin towers, ‘Silverstein Properties’ received up to $4 billion from insurance payouts, instead of the Port Authority, which would be customary as the owner.
· While it's assumed that most of that money went to rebuilding, this isn't actually known or proven. It would be different if he had a separate insurance policy that was not connected to the rebuilding of the towers, with different monies going to the Port Authority to rebuild. This was not the case.
History.com: Rebuilding of Ground Zero
· He additionally refused to return the rights of Building 1 to the Port Authority until he secured additional funds from an $8 billion state fund. Talk about heartless.
Wikipedia: Larry Silverstein
· Various entities would contribute a total of $20 billion to rebuild all six damaged or destroyed towers, including four towers leased by Silverstein and two others he hadn't. This makes it unlikely that he had to go out of pocket with his 4 Billion.
3. Estimated Net Worth:
· While earlier records of Silverstein's net worth are unavailable, aside from his near bankruptcy in 1980, he is currently estimated to be worth around $1 billion.
Forbes Profile: Larry Silverstein

Silverstein’s Controversial Alignment with Trump
Larry Silverstein's connections and public persona have often been scrutinized. This scrutiny became particularly relevant in 2015 when he publicly displayed his support for Donald Trump:

• Long-standing Relationship: Silverstein revealed a 30-year-long acquaintance with Trump, emphasizing the depth of their connection. This means his relationship started in 1985, roughly two years after gaining a powerful criminal organization as a tenant in his tower 7, that saved him from bankruptcy, and 6 years before Trumps first, of many, bankruptcies. This also means they knew each other before 9/11.
• Supportive Yet Vague: He commended Trump for diligently pursuing what he believed to be right, echoing Trump's own ambiguous rhetoric. When pressed about the righteousness of Trump’s goals, Silverstein ambiguously responded, "well, it’s... you know... we’ll find out." This mirrors Trump’s evasive " Well, we're going to have to see what happens" stance, when questioned about committing to a peaceful transfer of power prior to January 6th—an event that ultimately unfolded with violence and chaos.
• Early Endorsement: By voicing his support when Trump announced his presidential campaign, Silverstein positioned himself as one of the early prominent figures in the MAGA movement.

Watch Silverstein Discuss Trump
CNN Trump On 2020 Election

The Man Who Boasted
When most people witness a tragedy, especially of this size, it takes time for their brains to comprehend what happened, it takes even more time to process it. Thus, anyone who was able to brag about their own assets hours after this tragedy on a radio show, is at least worthy of Investigation, especially if this very event helped reshape a misinformation landscape in which he would thrive as its King.
Politifact – How 911 Attacks Helped Shape Modern Misinformation

· Insensitive Boasts About Building Height:
o Trump also boasted that with the fall of the Twin Towers, his building became the tallest in Manhattan—an inaccurate and insensitive claim given the context.
Independent 9 11 Trump Tallest Building
· Early Claims and Revisions:
o Shortly after 9/11, Donald Trump claimed he saw the second plane hit the towers from his Manhattan apartment. He also made an unfounded claim that he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheering, a statement that has been widely debunked. Despite varying explanations and suggesting that he saw it on an untraceable video that was “widely covered,” these claims helped fueled significant conspiracy theories. If anything, this was a self-report.
o Snopes: Trump Claims Muslims Cheered
o FactCheck.org: Trump’s Revised 9/11 Claim
· Visit to Ground Zero:
o A week after the attacks, Trump visited Ground Zero and stated that although he was present, he wouldn’t consider himself a first responder. This attempt at humility struck many as morbidly insensitive, considering the true heroism displayed by actual first responders.
ABC News: Trump Shares New Details About Morning of 9/11

Legacy of Suspicion:
These actions paint Trump as one of the more suspicious figures post-9/11, who may have used the tragedy for personal and political gain. His connections with figures like Larry Silverstein and Lewis Eisenberg, the Port Authority chairman, hint at deep financial interests potentially influenced by the 9/11 aftermath. Meanwhile, survivors and first responders faced challenges in securing support, highlighting the disparities between their experiences and the political maneuvers at play. Again morbidly juxtaposing the struggles of the poor and working class versus elite swamp members such as Trump and his ilk.

While being, arguably, one of the more suspicious Americans of potentially “being an insider," Trump would go on to cast doubt everywhere else with his new holier than thou rhetoric and hints and claims that “it was an inside job” for the next 15 years.

What if he was speaking from personal experience.

The Deepfake Dilemma
Now in a world where Trump's followers already discount reality, the emergence of AI-generated deepfakes threatens to further distort the truth. This technology could transform legal standards of evidence, making it easy to dismiss genuine evidence against the right as fabricated, while baseless accusations against the left might be accepted as the long-awaited proof.

The Potential Escalation of MAGA Actions
Given the willingness of MAGA supporters to storm the Capitol on January 6th, bolstered by Trump's incendiary rhetoric, the potential for escalation is alarming. The advent of fabricated images and videos could present unprecedented national security threats.

Trump's Incendiary Rhetoric on January 6th
Trump's speech on January 6th was a clear incitement, as he urged his followers to "fight like hell" to "stop the steal," despite admitting DURING THE SPEECH that there was no evidence of the massive electoral fraud he claimed. As well as his lawyers laughable court “arguments.”
“...while there is no evidence to prove any wrongdoing…”
Npr.Org Read Trumps Jan 6 Speech
LawAndCrime Come On Now

This speech, coupled with his undermining of constitutional processes, underscores the risks and intentional deceit of his rhetoric. Too bad Republicans senators and our Supreme Court have either claimed he was above the law, or continue to postpone his court dates till after elections. A wild position when treason is on the table. Did that dude commit treason that claims he wants to become a dictator? I dunno, lets let him potentially get elected and then find out!

Elon Musk's Political Shift
Elon was once very much a leftist, unfortunately in more and more far left “activists” continue to attack him endlessly for not agreeing with them on their own singular issues and perspectives. To them I say congratulations, you successfully pushed the most powerful man on earth into the far right. Great job. Great job.
Elon Musk's journey from a liberal supporter to a figure embraced by the far right highlights the volatile nature of political affiliations in today's polarized environment. His actions since acquiring Twitter—such as promoting unfounded conspiracy theories and making high-profile firings—suggest a departure from his initial free speech advocacy.
Especially when considering he fired Don Lemon from his platform for an interview he found offensive. Canceling opinions you find offensive isn’t free speech, it’s literally the opposite. I’m sure many people were offended by the examples below. What about them?
Far Right Support Examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The Need for a Critical Approach
Supporters of Trump should critically evaluate why he did not pardon the January 6th insurrectionists during his term, despite using them as political leverage now. This pattern of using allies until they are no longer useful is evident throughout his political and personal dealings.
What better example could there possibly be as to what trump truly thinks of his supporters, how sacrificial he sees them as part of his endless narratives, then his refusal and failure to pardon January 6th insurrectionists while still in office?
Of course, anyone “just on the grass” or outside the building should only get a day in jail at most, however people that barged inside the capital should naturally get much more.
And while trump refused to pardon those people before, he now calls them “hostages” and is using them as political bait to a truly wild degree. It's very likely he will make good on this promise to further embolden the narrative that “Democrats are trying to take you down and only I can save you.”
His supporters need to seriously ask, “Why didn’t he pardon us before?”
Also, remember when he claimed he would pay legal fees for supporters that were violent at his rallies, but then seemed to falter and change his mind. Much like how Amber Heard donated her money, “by pledging it.”
List of allies he was quick to discard or dump. And let's face it, all of these people have done more for him than the average MAGA supporter. The only person he cares about is himself.
Trump claims that Mike Pence, the man he vetted more than anyone else, “has gone to the dark side.”
Trump seems to have supported the chants to “Hang Mike Pense,” at least in jest? We hope? There are also no links of him condemning them. Yet admittedly this one point doesn’t have hard evidence like a recording or video as far as I know, it certainly fits his brand.
Mike Flynn, a Trump appointee, later testifies against him.
Trump admits Flynn lied on his behalf, accidentally testifying against him, but does pardon him. As long as you’re colluding with Russia you’re ok it seems?

The Future Under Trump's Influence
Trump's rhetoric about overriding constitutional norms to address what he calls "massive fraud" hints at authoritarian aspirations. His praise for dictators and divisive language further aligns with dangerous historical precedents.
Important Articles:
“How a second trump term could end us democracy.” -commondreams
“Ask the expert: What a 2nd Trump term could mean for democracy and advancing policy.” - Msu Today
“Judgement Day” for political opponents.

To predict the future lets base it on known facts:
Apparently, he will help attack our constitution like he may have with the Twin Towers.
“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
Stated he intended to be a Dictator on day one, but then promises it will be just for a day. Is that how that works? Or is it “Once you go Dictator you don’t go back?”
Praising dictators, referring to immigrants as vermin etc, akin to Hitlers rhetoric against “blood mixing.”
More fraudulent use of lawyers and courts that gets everyone else in trouble but him, with them arguing he's above the law. This further shows how much he will consistently use people for his own ends and then dump them when they're no longer of use.
Warning from republicans and notes on ass kissing. As well as being generally unfit for office.
If you want help from Trump you better kiss his ***
Trumps says he kept Omarosa just because she said nice things about him, while defaming her
DeSantis: "You can be the most worthless Republican in America, but if you kiss the ring, he’ll say you’re wonderful."
Thehill Trump Views People Who Kiss His A As Weak.
And if you dare to speak out against trump, you better kiss his ****
Politico Graham Breaks With Trump On Abortion
WashingtonPost Trump Graham Abortion
News Yahoo 30 More Republicans Denounce Donald Trump Unqualified President
Hot take, if he’s elected president America, and the world, is frankly fucked.

Predicting MAGA 2024 And Beyond
Naturally there are endless possibilities of what MAGA and dictators around the world decide to do this year and into the future. I believe that the one thing that insinuates when it's time for their next evil actions is dictated by their standings in the polls or when a fellow dictator needs a little more political pressure from war torn inflated oil prices etc.
Dictators Unite
While writing my thesis, I speculated that dictators globally were uniting, finding mutual benefits in their governance and deceitful tactics. This theory is increasingly recognized as these autocrats appear to be forming a coalition, undermining peaceful unity efforts through conspiracy theories to preserve their power.
Unherd How Autocrats Unite
The True Nature of MAGA
MAGA was never genuinely about speaking truth to power or restoring America's glory. It has been an elaborate scheme funded by immense wealth, perpetuating anti-American sentiments through fabricated grassroots movements by domestic and foreign actors. This movement has primarily enriched a select few power-hungry dictators and may have been responsible for some of our most horrific moments in history in the past and acts yet to come.
Trump and MAGA
While 'MAGA' predates Trump, he conveniently stepped into a role long in the making. Despite occasional deviations from the MAGA ideology, such as promoting vaccines to emphatic boos, Trump has largely embodied its principles. The real architects of MAGA, however, are likely disillusioned with his unpredictable attacks, which contradict their broader agenda of absolute power.
Nbc News Donald Trump Booed
Trump as a Martyr
Regardless of election outcomes, Trump is poised to claim interference. His rhetoric and the devout belief of his followers in his divine anointment could lead to his martyrdom, especially given his age and the vulnerabilities it brings. This martyrdom could solidify his legacy while serving the interests of MAGA strategists who find him increasingly burdensome even if he “wins.”
Factcheck Trumps Bogus Voter Fraud Claims
La Times Trump Democrats Effort Presidential Ballot

Russian forces are making a push, animal testing ramps up for H5N1, and over 365 days of temperature records…
Last Week in Collapse: May 5-11, 2024
This is Last Week in Collapse, a weekly newsletter compiling some of the most important, timely, useful, soul-crushing, ironic, stunning, exhausting, or otherwise must-see/can’t-look-away moments in Collapse.
This is the 124th newsletter. You can find the April 28-May 4 edition here if you missed it last week. You can also receive these posts (with images) every Sunday in your email inbox with Substack.
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Earth experienced its largest CO2 concentration increase over a 12-month period, scientists say, from March 2023-2024. It was a jump of 4.7ppm more of carbon dioxide, blamed on deforestation, fossil fuels, and El Niño. Experts are saying that El Niño has peaked, and will transition to La Niña within a few months. La Niña lasts about 1-3 years, and it generally cools the Pacific Ocean, and brings more rain to India & Bangladesh, among other changes. Earth also experienced its greatest atmospheric moisture for the month of April.
Venezuela has lost its last glacier, the Humboldt, which was reclassified into an “ice field.” It is the first modern nation to lose all its glaciers. Scientists believe Indonesia, Mexico, and Slovenia are next in line to see the extinction of their glaciers. Colombia is also rapidly losing its remaining 6 glaciers.
Wildfires in Chile have killed about a hundred people, and injured & displaced thousands. Flooding in Afghanistan. And climate change is ruining cotton crops, and livestock, in Chad. Plus, flooding struck the DRC, overflowing rivers and latrines—affecting some 500,000 people. And some climatologists think we have been underestimating how much climate change is driving greater rainfall & flooding; the worst is yet to come.
The first week of May saw so many temperature records broken; some are claiming that it might be the “most record breaking month in climatic history”—until June, that is. Earth has been seeing 13 months of monthly records being broken for global sea surface temperatures. Literally 365 days of record-breaking ocean temperatures.
A study in PNAS examined North Pacific “warm blob” heat waves from 2010-2020, and concluded that China’s reduction in aerosols, which cleaned the air but also removed the sun-reflective particles, incidentally probably caused marine heat waves which killed fish and resulted in algae blooms.
Bees are having difficulty acclimatizing their nests to rising temperatures. The dugong, while still rarely seen in parts of the world, has been declared extinct inside China, having gone 24 years without a known sighting. In Florida, the suburbification of land under development is pushing the Florida panther closer to extinction; some 100 panthers remain in the sunshine state.
Siberia’s Batagaika crater—I prefer its alternative title, “megaslump”—is expanding by about 1M cubic meters, every year. Scientists naturally blame the rapid permafrost melting on climate change.
A cruise ship entered New York City with an endangered 44 ft {13.4m} dead sea whale stuck on its bow (front). Investigators are looking into whether it was already dead when the ship hit it. A study in Conservation Letters looked at the 100 largest Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)—which cover 7.3% of all ocean area—and found that almost 60% of this area is not in range of meeting the 2030 preservation goals.
Part of India broke May records already; the Maldives, too. Eastern Ukraine ended a far warmer & wetter April than usual. And a heat wave in Mexico scorched previous May temperature records across 10 cities, as well as small regional blackouts. North America felt its all-time hottest May temperature...
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AstraZeneca is pulling its COVID vaccine from the EU over a rare blood clooting side effect. Nevertheless, some experts claim that vaccine saved over 6M lives. Whatever U.S. CDC data on COVID is still available points to “a small rise” in cases later this summer, mostly from the growing KP.2 “FLiRT” variant.
COVID patients and immunocompromised individuals are still using lots of healthcare resources, and the rise of resistant superbugs is developing alarmingly fast. According to the article, “It only takes about a year on average for bacteria to grow resistant to treatment, when they used to take 21 years to evolve back in the 1960s.”
Engineers and medical professionals remain concerned about nanoplastics, between 1-1,000 nanometers wide. One grain of sand is about 500,000 nanometers, and one strand of DNA is about 2.5 nanometers. A single wavelength of light ranges from 400-700 nanometers.
South Africa’s water shortage is projected to worsen through at least 2025. Nairobi’s water shortage continues, despite the city’s dams being filled with floodwater. Costa Rica is facing a Drought so bad it’s rationing electricity. Mexico City—the second-most-populous city (by metro area: 21.8M; São Paolo is #1, at 22M) in North America— is seeing more than 20% of freshwater sources exhausted, and rationing is not enough. It’s almost like we’re living at unsustainable levels of consumption…
As Latin America warms (and suffers flooding), disease is becoming more common—as well as heat stroke & serious hunger. Benin is refusing Niger the permission to use its port to export oil, as a result of a border dispute.
A paywalled study in Nature Water tested a new method for removing PFAS foam particles in water, with “near-complete destruction of PFAS in various water samples contaminated by the foams.” The process involves “ultra-violet (UV) light, sulfite, and a process called electrochemical oxidation” and does not require heat or high pressure. The number of U.S. states phasing out PFAS is growing.
As forcible repatriations of thousands of Afghans continue, millions of Afghans are suffering from lack of humanitarian aid—aggravated by recent deadly flash floods in the beleaguered, landlocked, failed state.
Yeasty superfungus Candida Auris infections were detected in 77 cases in Germany last year, authorities say. Candida Auris was only identified 15 years ago, but its three separate genetic variants (each on a different continent) have stealthily and stubbornly grown to pose a stealth threat to humankind. It is incredibly resistant to antifungal drugs, and it survives at higher temperatures than most other fungi. The WHO has listed it on a shortlist of top fungal pathogen dangers.
3 cats died from H5N1 in the United States last week. Some health professionals are getting more worried about a future H5N1 jump to become human-to-human transmissible, and claim that we are not ready as a species. Experts say we are not doing enough testing, and may already be in the prologue of a much more devastating pandemic. Scientists still say it is unlikely that a strain will make the critical mutation necessary, but the similarities between human and cow (and other mammal) flu receptors present potential complications.
The world is supposedly being divided into three general trade blocs: U.S., China, and the non-aligned states. For better or worse, globalization is crumbling, and governments are imposing tariffs, attempting to reshore industries, and restructure debt & credit flows. What will happen when the people, long-trained to expect high returns, find their profits wanting?
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Two camps for internally displaced people near Goma, DRC were bombed, killing 12+ and injuring 20+. The perpetrators and their motives are unclear.
Rising crime. Drinking water. Closing the Darien Gap. These were the issues propelling Panama’s president-elect to a victory last Sunday. The arrival of rain is also improving conditions on the Drought-choken Panama Canal, expected to return to normal for at least a month or two.
A wave of Chinese espionage, much of it several years old, is sweeping Europe. Of particular concern is a hack of British military personnel information uncovered on Tuesday—which China denies. Similar espionage against the U.S. has reportedly cost the economy hundreds of billions per year.
Kenya’s mission to stabilize Haiti is inching forward slowly. The Pentagon has ordered its 1,000 troops to leave Niger. At least one Saudi villager was killed to make room for The Line, and reports claim Saudi forces have been given the green light to clear other people who get in the way of the development. Germany’s Defence Ministry is seriously considering recommending conscription for its 18-year olds later this summer.
Displacement in Myanmar has spiked over the past six months—and now counts 3M+ people since the February 2021 coup which sparked more open resistance.
Tunisia ejected ~400 migrants into Libya. Kazakhstan is expelling Tajik migrants in far-ranging sweeps. In Lebanon, vigilante attacks against Syrians have become more common. Mauritania is conducting military drills along part of its border with Mali, after reports emerged of Malian soldiers attacking border settlements.
In Sudan, over 200 witnesses corroborated reports of a massacre last June, where RSF insurgents piled up and shot” at least 17 people, most of whom were children. A lengthy report from Human Rights Watch, complete with timelines, testimony, war crimes, and other horrors from Sudan is over 150 pages. I did not have the fortitude to skim much of it.
A Hamas attack on Sunday, which killed 4 Israeli soldiers, reportedly pushed the Rafah invasion ahead of schedule. The IDF took over the Egypt-Gaza border, and is scaling up operations in southern Gaza. In response, the U.S. paused arms transfers to Israel. Any chance of a ceasefire, if there was ever really a credible chance, will have to wait. Diarrhea is soaring in Gaza, due in large part to a critical water shortage, caused by the destruction of wastewater treatment plants, the damage to water infrastructure, and large-scale displacement. A new evacuation order has commanded over 1M people in Gaza to leave before a more comprehensive invasion of Rafah begins.
A day after President Putin was inaugurated for his fifth term, he ordered a wide strike at Ukrainian infrastructure across seven oblasts. Most of the missiles and drones were shot down. And another plot to assassinate Zelenskyy was foiled. Lithuania is considering sending military trainers into Ukraine. Putin announced that Russian forces would target Western soldiers deployed in Ukraine, and begin drills simulating nuclear weapons if Britain’s involvement grows. Already, Belarus conducted a military drill with missiles & planes capable of using nukes.
In addition to extending Ukraine’s mobilization by another 90 days, the government has also allowing some convicts to fight on the battlefield in exchange for reduced sentences. Poland is allegedly considering repatriating thousands of draft-eligible Ukrainian men, and Germany is emphasizing the need for Ukrainian refugees to work.
Japan is boosting investment in a hypersonic missile interceptor project with the United States. A large-scale Russian offensive has begun across the front-lines, particularly around Kharkiv. And Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is beginning talk of a “genocide” in Moldova, which could provide the pretext for another special military operation in Transnistria—and perhaps beyond.
——————————
Things to watch out for next week include:
↠ The IDMC is releasing their 2024 report on Internally Displaced People (IDPs) on Tuesday, with estimates for total figures by nation & region.
Select comments/threads from the subreddit last week suggest:
-High temperatures are going to ruin food—and a lot of people’s health. This thread about the contamination of bánh mi in Vietnam sheds some light on the interconnectivity of our problems. Add in some heat wave-induced power outages, loose government regulation, and hospital problems, and you can imagine how this slow-moving disaster can cripple a community.
-“Microforests” may help mitigate some of the effects of ecosystem collapse and desertification—as well as boosting your property value, judging by this thread and its comments.
-One Collapsenik published a free ebook & audiobook satirizing American Collapse—and I’m not just linking because this newsletter was apparently a source of Doom inspiration. If you write an 80,000 word novel about Collapse, featuring some 300 references, I’ll share it too. Maybe one day I’ll have the time to write one…
Got any feedback, questions, comments, complaints, upvotes, movie recommendations, good off-grid land deals, locust broth, etc.? Check out the Last Week in Collapse SubStack if you don’t want to check collapse every Sunday, you can receive this newsletter sent to your (or someone else’s) email inbox every weekend. What did I forget this week?

u/neodestiny and friends.
For the sake of transparency, I am not the architect of the following discoveries, and am just helping to forward their message and clean it up. Copywrite of the following work belongs to no one and everyone is not only welcome to share these findings as if they were their own, but openly encouraged to do so.
Introduction
If you think you know anything about MAGA. Trust me, you know nothing. Not even his most devout followers or haters will have considered the following. And for the sake of our democracy and way of life, I hope people read this.
This work may very well help to shift the narrative on Trump in a meaningful and foundational way, but I don't want this work exacerbate any feelings of ill will to MAGA members, for they have been prey to possibly one of the largest con jobs our world has ever seen, especially without the help of this counternarrative.
Snippet From My Thesis On MAGA
As I work on tidying up the master file with the helpful dms I got, allow me to post just the most contentious part of it below, now that it’s able to stand on its own.
MAGA didn’t begin in 2015. I argue it began in 2001 on 9/11, while also harnessing and funneling decades of anti-government resentment till many Americans would openly call for a “wrecking ball” figure to help “drain the swamp.”

A Key Fueling Factor To American Outrage- Inflation
Many elements contributed to growing American anger that would later contribute to MAGA, this is a snippet from the larger work.
Rising Cost of Living
o In 1950, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 24.1. By 2000, it had risen to 168 (a 597% increase), and by 2023, it had reached 304.7, a 1163% increase from 1950.
o Housing prices saw a drastic rise overtime, with the median home price increasing from $7,354 in 1950 to $388,700 in 2023, a staggering 5185% increase.
o While rising rent costs can contribute to overall inflation and cost of living, even the left has largely failed to address how exponentially increasing real estate prices impact the cost of living. This omission has made many other conspiracy theories seem more plausible in its wake.
o If we don’t find real solutions for real estate that also aren’t extreme, then society will feel more and more pressure to accept “unreasonable solutions” like Trump, even though he’s the last person on earth who could solve it, considering his business acumen and history.
MAGA Dynamics and Blind Devotion
In 2016, it wasn't just the left calling the MAGA movement a cult. Trump famously said, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters." Even the left failed to grasp the gravity of this statement. As someone who nearly died in a deadly cult and based on my research, I don't know of a single cult where the founder could openly commit murder without losing members. Trump didn't just believe he'd created one of the largest cults ever; he believed he'd created the most fanatical. Let's hope his followers prove him wrong by showing a willingness to criticize him, regardless of their vote.

The MAGA Question
Instead of challenging MAGA supporters on fallacious beliefs, ask them this question to see if they’re at least able to see a world where Trump isn’t a biblical King: "If Trump admitted he was behind 9/11 and used resulting insurance money and donations from hostile governments to create false “grass root” campaigns. And did it all in a way to make it seem like others committed his own atrocities. And that he intended to destroy America in every way if he got elected, would you still vote for him?"

Yet even then, getting through to a MAGA supporter inevitably refers to 9/11 “research” out there when they realize individual positions are usually fallacious. This quagmire me decide to investigate this tragedy, to see if there was a more plausible counter theory. Honestly, the more I looked the more surprised I became. Here are my findings that are but a snippet of my full thesis on MAGA.

9/11 Conspiracy Theories and MAGA
Conspiracy Theories and Credibility:
o First off, conspiracy theories should involve some effort to verify narratives, rather than just repeating claims across multiple sources that mistake themselves as evidence; like a bunch of people who repeat “bob farted” across multiple websites may see that as evidence, when in fact, it was Sean. Sorry Sean.

Early Origins of MAGA:
o Although some believe MAGA began in 2015, its roots lie as early as the 1980s with Rush Limbaugh and later became "serious" on 9/11.
o 9/11 conspiracy theories claim controlled demolitions were used, but the lack of any cellphone recordings of explosions weakens this theory.

Suspicious Factors:
o The official narrative involving chaotic jet fuel leading to a straight fall seemed questionable.
o The collapse of a third building (WTC 7), which wasn’t directly hit, fueled suspicions.
o Airline stocks were heavily shorted before the attacks, raising concerns about insider trading. Harvey Pitt, Republican SEC Chairman at the time, investigated this and claimed there was nothing amiss, but was criticized for later crimes and forced to resign.
o It’s also suspicious that in Trumps 2000 book “The America We Deserve” that he stated, “I really am convinced we’re in danger of the sort of terrorist attacks that will make the [1993] bombing of the Trade Center look like kids playing with firecrackers. No sensible analyst rejects this possibility, and plenty of them, like me, are not wondering if but when it will happen*.”*
§ Yet democrats would largely miss this point entirely and obsess over his false claim that he called for Bin Laden to be killed, when he had not. Somehow conspiracy theorists would find this ‘cool’ rather than suspicious.
CNN Fact Check Donald Trump Osama Bin Laden Book Claim

Reports and Simplified Narratives:
o FEMA's 2002 report and NIST's 2005 report provided technical explanations of the tower collapses.
o However, the Port Authority Chairman stuck to the oversimplified narrative that "jet fuel melted steel beams," even though he knew this was a half-truth, as detailed in the next section, fueling anti-government conspiracies. The question is why.

Potential Impact:
o 9/11 conspiracy theories sowed distrust in the government, which may have been one of the attackers' objectives. Anyone that heavily profited from this tragedy, and helped further those objects, should be questioned.
o The ‘Loose Change’ “documentary” pointed out suspicious parts of the story, but failed to give any clear claims as to who was purportedly behind it. It also failed to note the Twin Towers titanic design flaw that could result in a straight fall. Even the 2015 version of this film fails to mention nearly all of the known facts in this report.
o The Director of that film later states:
“I DON’T THINK WE’D HAVE PRESIDENT TRUMP IF IT WEREN’T FOR 9/11”
“9/11 created a culture of fear, of xenophobia, this sense of entitlement and everything we’ve seen. Warrantless wire-tapping, Guantanamo Bay, everything that’s happened led us to this point, we wouldn’t be here without 9/11. They want to kick out all the Mexicans and Muslims because of this culture of fear and bigotry and xenophobia that directly led to the election of fucking Donald Trump. [laughing] That’s our world now! We had Reagan before, and Governor Schwarzenegger. But President Donald Trump? It’s just weird. Everything is just weird.”
Theoutline Reflecting On Loose Change
o While the director was in the right to ask questions, he failed to ask the most obvious ones.
o However, his lead “researcher,” Jason Bermas, would turn out to be a full blown MAGA wingnut.
Patriot Jason Bermas
o Anyone that would benefit politically and financially from 9/11 should be fully investigated.
Further Reading:
Harvey Pitt - Wikipedia
Politifact How 911 Attacks Helped Shape Modern Misinformation
It will never be possible to defeat MAGA followers “logically” with people who believed his parties rhetoric “that 9/11 was an inside job.”

I say… what if those Republican leaders were self reporting?
What if Trump followers have been rallying behind the very man responsible for its orchestration?

The Twin Towers and Larry Silverstein
Architectural Pitfalls of the Twin Towers:
· The Twin Towers had unique architectural flaws due to the excessive heavy load on their exoskeletons to allow for more floor and leasing space, which greatly contributed to their straight collapse after the 9/11 attacks. This was the first and last skyscraper made in this way.
· For anyone who said that “any other building would have fallen sideways,” you were right, though perhaps not entirely how you may have imagined. A "Coke Can" analogy shows how a similar weakened structure can result in a straight fall, contrary to conspiracy theories claiming controlled demolitions. This isn't something I'm asking you to take for granted, or to read from media sources you don’t trust. This is something you can verify on your own, in person, in real time, in reality.
· However Trump, despite being close friends with Silverstein as we’ll cover later, claimed "It wasn’t architectural defects, you know, the World Trade Center was always known as a very, very strong building” per the attached PolitiFact article.
· Supporting Article:
Engineering Experts Explain the Collapse of the Twin Towers
Politifact Donald Trumps 911 Speculation

Larry Silverstein, The Leasor Of The Twin Towers:
· Nearly went bankrupt after losing his main tenant Drexel Burnham in 1980 after he built tower 7 with him in mind.
· I don't know how many of us understand the level of desperation a situation like this can cause in someone and how many potential crimes it can easily push them towards.
· He is known for then saying, “…looking up at the twin towers and thinking, my building is huge, but it is made diminutive by the twin towers. So I said to myself, wouldn't it be incredible someday to own those?" That's not the statement of a sane person who nearly went bankrupt, and if anything, hints towards jealousy.
· He managed to secure Salomon Brothers two years later, which later paid $300 million in securities fraud penalties casting suspicion over the entities who saved Silverstein, in addition to their overall plans for the future.
· How he would become able to outbid everyone else in 2001, for the right to lease the twin towers, would become a mystery we will untangle later.
Further Reading
Manhattan Institute – Silverstein On Ground Zero
Justice Department: Salomon Brothers Securities Fraud

Trump and Real Estate Connections
Historical Context and Redevelopment Plans:
· A redevelopment plan commenced in the 1990s by Gov. Pataki and Mayor Giuliani, spurred a commercial revival in downtown Manhattan, making the World Trade Center prime property. Pataki would go on to criticize trump, while the other would prove to be one of this wildest, if not craziest, supporters to truly fanatical degrees.
Further Reading:
Manhattan Institute: Rebuilding Ground Zero
· Tom Leppert was the CEO of Turner construction which right wing conspiracy theorists claimed helped ensure the towers would fall straight down. He also became part of Trumps transition team. While there’s no evidence of explosives being used, tampering with the exoskeleton and weaking the relatively thin central column ahead of time are theoretically plausible.
Huffpost Donald Trump Transition Team
Wikipedia Tom Leppert

The bidding for the World Trade Center lease involved only a few major real estate firms as allowed by the Port Authority Chairman. Below are the allowed bidders and their estimated worth at the time included:

· Donald J. Trump’s Organization:
o Worth around $1.5 billion in 1996 after multiple bankruptcies. Confirmed only by Forbes magazine in 2005.
· Tishman Speyer:
o Valued at approximately $1.8 billion in 2000, would soon face ‘tenant issues’ with many scrupulous legal claims against them.
· Gale & Wentworth:
o Worth a few million.
· Mortimer Zuckerman’s Boston Properties:
o Mortimer Zuckerman alone was worth around $2 billion.
· The Rouse Company:
o Mainly a shopping mall operator.
· Brookfield Properties:
o A Canadian firm valued at over $20 billion in 2000.
· Vornado Realty Trust:
o Worth an estimated $2-3 billion. Had the highest bid, but was unexpectedly outed by the Port Authority Chairman, paving the way for Silverstein’s win. CEO of Vornado Trust, Steven Roth would later do many deals with Trump in 2005 and beyond.
· Larry Silverstein:
o As mentioned, was nearly bankrupt in the 1980s, and was mysteriously awarded the right to lease the World Trade Center contract at $3.2 billion, twice the original asking price of 1.2 Billion. It would still be owned by the Port authority of NY and NJ, he would just own the rights to lease it.
o Port Authority Chairman, Lewis Eisenberg, made this unexplained decision, who also later became Trumps lead fundraiser in 2015.
o After putting down only $125 million, as per the contract, Silverstein would be getting back $100 million just 6 weeks after his bid and with an uncommon terrorist insurance addition. His exaggerated bid and insurance contract would also greatly inflate the amount of money he could get from an insurance claim. If the winning bid was 1.5 billion, the insurance payout would also have been much less.
o In real estate, its quite rare for a prudent investor to bid twice the asking price, as demonstrated by the other companies that backed out, of which I find no connections to Trump.
o If anyone had known about 9/11 ahead of time, like Trump claims he did, it would become drastically easier to outbid all competitors, knowing that for pennies on the dollar, you would be getting much more back.

Further Reading:
NY Times Article on World Trade Center Deal
Wikipedia on Lewis Eisenberg
Patch On Lew Eisenberg Leading Trump Fundraising
NY Times Article Silverstein Gets Most Of His Money Back

Giuliani’s Gangster Acts
Arguably, if the above points are what they objectively appear to be, that would be a bad thing. You’d think that would be enough. However, Guliani would say “hold my beer’ to those sentiments.

1. Outdated Equipment for First Responders:
· Due to Giuliani’s inadequate leadership, first responders used old equipment that failed to warn them to evacuate the towers. Which contributed to their deaths while they searched for survivors.
NY Times Article: Giuliani’s Preparedness on 9/11
2. Obstructed Recovery Efforts:
· Giuliani delayed proper search and rescue operations for days, possibly costing lives of citizens and first responders who didn’t know they needed to leave.
· 20 Years later he would claim that some of Bidens actions were so reckless that… “It would be as if I got down to ground zero and said take out the firefighters, all you civilians see if you can get yourselves out.” Self report?
NBC News Report: Giuliani’s Role in Recovery
NY1: Giuliani Reflects on 9/11 Anniversary
3. Twin Towers Fund and Privatization:
· Giuliani privatized the Twin Towers relief funds, making them unauditable.
NY Times Article on Privatization
NY Post Article: Giuliani and Twin Towers Fund
4. Survivors Threaten To SUE Guliani For Relief Funds
· Even after privatizing the twin towers fund, Giuliani would make it incredibly difficult for the victims to receive their fair share. Requiring many of them to spend unnecessary money on advisors and consultants.
· Even with their legal pressure, he only agreed to “give the remaining 100 million to victims,” out of 170 million, if he could first put the money into the bank account of a charity in which he controlled.
· From the attached article: “But Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said that he remained adamantly opposed to any transfer of funds to Mr. Giuliani's charity.
He also objected to Mr. Giuliani's continued control over even the $15 million in his private charity. Mr. Giuliani, he charged, gives every indication of using the Twin Towers Fund to maintain a staff of loyal supporters and to advance his political aspirations.
'The concern that politics will infiltrate the fund becomes even more apparent when one reviews the list of the mayor's former political appointees who are assuming senior staff positions or serving on the fund's board of directors,'' he wrote in a letter on Monday to Eliot L. Spitzer, the state attorney general.”
NY Times Article On Guliani Pressed To Disperse Twin Tower Funds
· However, there is no evidence of Giuliani making good on this promise.
· There are honestly no words for this. All associates of Guliani should be investigated.
5. Attempted Election Cancellation in 2001:
· Giuliani tried to cancel the 2001 election to stay mayor longer. He even considered removing term limits with Governor Pataki’s support. Similar to how Trump has “joked” about increasing his own term limits.
Business Insider: Giuliani and Pataki’s Attempt to Cancel Elections
Esquire Trump Joke Third Term
6. Motive
· In 2000, Guliani unfortunately got prostate cancer. We have to be willing to ask if this was a motive for his corrupt acts.
SurvivorNet: Giuliani’s Cancer


Silverstein’s Unscrupulous Greed
1. Initial Settlement Demands and Profit Claims:
· Despite only having been out for $25 million, Silverstein initially sought nearly $8 BILLION in insurance settlements and argued for "loss of revenue from those buildings," which is quite an uncompassionate claim considering how many lost their lives. Talk about a prime example of the working and lower classes making sacrifices while rich elites complain they didn’t profit enough from the same tragedy.
2. Rebuilding Contributions and Insurance Payout:
· Despite the fact that he only owned the leasing rights to the twin towers, ‘Silverstein Properties’ received up to $4 billion from insurance payouts, instead of the Port Authority, which would be customary as the owner.
· While it's assumed that most of that money went to rebuilding, this isn't actually known or proven. It would be different if he had a separate insurance policy that was not connected to the rebuilding of the towers, with different monies going to the Port Authority to rebuild. This was not the case.
History.com: Rebuilding of Ground Zero
· He additionally refused to return the rights of Building 1 to the Port Authority until he secured additional funds from an $8 billion state fund. Talk about heartless.
Wikipedia: Larry Silverstein
· Various entities would contribute a total of $20 billion to rebuild all six damaged or destroyed towers, including four towers leased by Silverstein and two others he hadn't. This makes it unlikely that he had to go out of pocket with his 4 Billion.
3. Estimated Net Worth:
· While earlier records of Silverstein's net worth are unavailable, aside from his near bankruptcy in 1980, he is currently estimated to be worth around $1 billion.
Forbes Profile: Larry Silverstein

Silverstein’s Controversial Alignment with Trump
Larry Silverstein's connections and public persona have often been scrutinized. This scrutiny became particularly relevant in 2015 when he publicly displayed his support for Donald Trump:

• Long-standing Relationship: Silverstein revealed a 30-year-long acquaintance with Trump, emphasizing the depth of their connection. This means his relationship started in 1985, roughly two years after gaining a powerful criminal organization as a tenant in his tower 7, that saved him from bankruptcy, and 6 years before Trumps first, of many, bankruptcies. This also means they knew each other before 9/11.
• Supportive Yet Vague: He commended Trump for diligently pursuing what he believed to be right, echoing Trump's own ambiguous rhetoric. When pressed about the righteousness of Trump’s goals, Silverstein ambiguously responded, "well, it’s... you know... we’ll find out." This mirrors Trump’s evasive " Well, we're going to have to see what happens" stance, when questioned about committing to a peaceful transfer of power prior to January 6th—an event that ultimately unfolded with violence and chaos.
• Early Endorsement: By voicing his support when Trump announced his presidential campaign, Silverstein positioned himself as one of the early prominent figures in the MAGA movement.

Watch Silverstein Discuss Trump
CNN Trump On 2020 Election

The Man Who Boasted
When most people witness a tragedy, especially of this size, it takes time for their brains to comprehend what happened, it takes even more time to process it. Thus, anyone who was able to brag about their own assets hours after this tragedy on a radio show, is at least worthy of Investigation, especially if this very event helped reshape a misinformation landscape in which he would thrive as its King.
Politifact – How 911 Attacks Helped Shape Modern Misinformation

· Insensitive Boasts About Building Height:
o Trump also boasted that with the fall of the Twin Towers, his building became the tallest in Manhattan—an inaccurate and insensitive claim given the context.
Independent 9 11 Trump Tallest Building
· Early Claims and Revisions:
o Shortly after 9/11, Donald Trump claimed he saw the second plane hit the towers from his Manhattan apartment. He also made an unfounded claim that he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheering, a statement that has been widely debunked. Despite varying explanations and suggesting that he saw it on an untraceable video that was “widely covered,” these claims helped fueled significant conspiracy theories. If anything, this was a self-report.
o Snopes: Trump Claims Muslims Cheered
o FactCheck.org: Trump’s Revised 9/11 Claim
· Visit to Ground Zero:
o A week after the attacks, Trump visited Ground Zero and stated that although he was present, he wouldn’t consider himself a first responder. This attempt at humility struck many as morbidly insensitive, considering the true heroism displayed by actual first responders.
ABC News: Trump Shares New Details About Morning of 9/11

Legacy of Suspicion:
These actions paint Trump as one of the more suspicious figures post-9/11, who may have used the tragedy for personal and political gain. His connections with figures like Larry Silverstein and Lewis Eisenberg, the Port Authority chairman, hint at deep financial interests potentially influenced by the 9/11 aftermath. Meanwhile, survivors and first responders faced challenges in securing support, highlighting the disparities between their experiences and the political maneuvers at play. Again morbidly juxtaposing the struggles of the poor and working class versus elite swamp members such as Trump and his ilk.

While being, arguably, one of the more suspicious Americans of potentially “being an insider," Trump would go on to cast doubt everywhere else with his new holier than thou rhetoric and hints and claims that “it was an inside job” for the next 15 years.

What if he was speaking from personal experience.

The Deepfake Dilemma
Now in a world where Trump's followers already discount reality, the emergence of AI-generated deepfakes threatens to further distort the truth. This technology could transform legal standards of evidence, making it easy to dismiss genuine evidence against the right as fabricated, while baseless accusations against the left might be accepted as the long-awaited proof.

The Potential Escalation of MAGA Actions
Given the willingness of MAGA supporters to storm the Capitol on January 6th, bolstered by Trump's incendiary rhetoric, the potential for escalation is alarming. The advent of fabricated images and videos could present unprecedented national security threats.

Trump's Incendiary Rhetoric on January 6th
Trump's speech on January 6th was a clear incitement, as he urged his followers to "fight like hell" to "stop the steal," despite admitting DURING THE SPEECH that there was no evidence of the massive electoral fraud he claimed. As well as his lawyers laughable court “arguments.”
“...while there is no evidence to prove any wrongdoing…”
Npr.Org Read Trumps Jan 6 Speech
LawAndCrime Come On Now

This speech, coupled with his undermining of constitutional processes, underscores the risks and intentional deceit of his rhetoric. Too bad Republicans senators and our Supreme Court have either claimed he was above the law, or continue to postpone his court dates till after elections. A wild position when treason is on the table. Did that dude commit treason that claims he wants to become a dictator? I dunno, lets let him potentially get elected and then find out!

Elon Musk's Political Shift
Elon was once very much a leftist, unfortunately in more and more far left “activists” continue to attack him endlessly for not agreeing with them on their own singular issues and perspectives. To them I say congratulations, you successfully pushed the most powerful man on earth into the far right. Great job. Great job.
Elon Musk's journey from a liberal supporter to a figure embraced by the far right highlights the volatile nature of political affiliations in today's polarized environment. His actions since acquiring Twitter—such as promoting unfounded conspiracy theories and making high-profile firings—suggest a departure from his initial free speech advocacy.
Especially when considering he fired Don Lemon from his platform for an interview he found offensive. Canceling opinions you find offensive isn’t free speech, it’s literally the opposite. I’m sure many people were offended by the examples below. What about them?
Far Right Support Examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The Need for a Critical Approach
Supporters of Trump should critically evaluate why he did not pardon the January 6th insurrectionists during his term, despite using them as political leverage now. This pattern of using allies until they are no longer useful is evident throughout his political and personal dealings.
What better example could there possibly be as to what trump truly thinks of his supporters, how sacrificial he sees them as part of his endless narratives, then his refusal and failure to pardon January 6th insurrectionists while still in office?
Of course, anyone “just on the grass” or outside the building should only get a day in jail at most, however people that barged inside the capital should naturally get much more.
And while trump refused to pardon those people before, he now calls them “hostages” and is using them as political bait to a truly wild degree. It's very likely he will make good on this promise to further embolden the narrative that “Democrats are trying to take you down and only I can save you.”
His supporters need to seriously ask, “Why didn’t he pardon us before?”
Also, remember when he claimed he would pay legal fees for supporters that were violent at his rallies, but then seemed to falter and change his mind. Much like how Amber Heard donated her money, “by pledging it.”
List of allies he was quick to discard or dump. And let's face it, all of these people have done more for him than the average MAGA supporter. The only person he cares about is himself.
Trump claims that Mike Pence, the man he vetted more than anyone else, “has gone to the dark side.”
Trump seems to have supported the chants to “Hang Mike Pense,” at least in jest? We hope? There are also no links of him condemning them. Yet admittedly this one point doesn’t have hard evidence like a recording or video as far as I know, it certainly fits his brand.
Mike Flynn, a Trump appointee, later testifies against him.
Trump admits Flynn lied on his behalf, accidentally testifying against him, but does pardon him. As long as you’re colluding with Russia you’re ok it seems?

The Future Under Trump's Influence
Trump's rhetoric about overriding constitutional norms to address what he calls "massive fraud" hints at authoritarian aspirations. His praise for dictators and divisive language further aligns with dangerous historical precedents.
Important Articles:
“How a second trump term could end us democracy.” -commondreams
“Ask the expert: What a 2nd Trump term could mean for democracy and advancing policy.” - Msu Today
“Judgement Day” for political opponents.

To predict the future lets base it on known facts:
Apparently, he will help attack our constitution like he may have with the Twin Towers.
“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
Stated he intended to be a Dictator on day one, but then promises it will be just for a day. Is that how that works? Or is it “Once you go Dictator you don’t go back?”
Praising dictators, referring to immigrants as vermin etc, akin to Hitlers rhetoric against “blood mixing.”
More fraudulent use of lawyers and courts that gets everyone else in trouble but him, with them arguing he's above the law. This further shows how much he will consistently use people for his own ends and then dump them when they're no longer of use.
Warning from republicans and notes on ass kissing. As well as being generally unfit for office.
If you want help from Trump you better kiss his ***
Trumps says he kept Omarosa just because she said nice things about him, while defaming her
DeSantis: "You can be the most worthless Republican in America, but if you kiss the ring, he’ll say you’re wonderful."
Thehill Trump Views People Who Kiss His A As Weak.
And if you dare to speak out against trump, you better kiss his ****
Politico Graham Breaks With Trump On Abortion
WashingtonPost Trump Graham Abortion
News Yahoo 30 More Republicans Denounce Donald Trump Unqualified President
Hot take, if he’s elected president America, and the world, is frankly fucked.

Predicting MAGA 2024 And Beyond
Naturally there are endless possibilities of what MAGA and dictators around the world decide to do this year and into the future. I believe that the one thing that insinuates when it's time for their next evil actions is dictated by their standings in the polls or when a fellow dictator needs a little more political pressure from war torn inflated oil prices etc.
Dictators Unite
While writing my thesis, I speculated that dictators globally were uniting, finding mutual benefits in their governance and deceitful tactics. This theory is increasingly recognized as these autocrats appear to be forming a coalition, undermining peaceful unity efforts through conspiracy theories to preserve their power.
Unherd How Autocrats Unite
The True Nature of MAGA
MAGA was never genuinely about speaking truth to power or restoring America's glory. It has been an elaborate scheme funded by immense wealth, perpetuating anti-American sentiments through fabricated grassroots movements by domestic and foreign actors. This movement has primarily enriched a select few power-hungry dictators and may have been responsible for some of our most horrific moments in history in the past and acts yet to come.
Trump and MAGA
While 'MAGA' predates Trump, he conveniently stepped into a role long in the making. Despite occasional deviations from the MAGA ideology, such as promoting vaccines to emphatic boos, Trump has largely embodied its principles. The real architects of MAGA, however, are likely disillusioned with his unpredictable attacks, which contradict their broader agenda of absolute power.
Nbc News Donald Trump Booed
Trump as a Martyr
Regardless of election outcomes, Trump is poised to claim interference. His rhetoric and the devout belief of his followers in his divine anointment could lead to his martyrdom, especially given his age and the vulnerabilities it brings. This martyrdom could solidify his legacy while serving the interests of MAGA strategists who find him increasingly burdensome even if he “wins.”
Factcheck Trumps Bogus Voter Fraud Claims
La Times Trump Democrats Effort Presidential Ballot

Hello all,
I'm a social worker in Ontario, Canada. It has been quite frustrating and upsetting for me to see that our college, OCSWSSW, has been silent regarding the ongoing genocide in Palestine. A key tenet of OCSWSSW''s code of ethics is a commitment to social justice and benefitting society, the environment, and the global community. This is a specific one among many others including continuing education, dedication to anti-racism and anti-oppressive practices in your practice, committing to lifeling learning and education, and self reflection.
Unsure of how many of you are familiar with social workers in Canada but our profession has a history of acting as an agent of the government in carrying out the genocide against Indigenous peoples. Social workers would take kids from their homes and put them into the foster system and into residential schools where these kids were subjected to SA, abuse, forced cultural assimilation, and more. There is a lot more to the horrors Indigenous people's experienced at the hands of social workers but I will keep it brief. Social work schools, associations, regulatory bodies, etc - will acknowledge the harm they did to the Indigenous community and how these effects are still seen today by the alarming excessive population of Indigenous kids still in "care".
I find it extremely disturbing and frustrating how a body that tries to recognize the harm it did to Indigenous people's remains quiet on another genocide occuring to the degree it is when people are trying to advocate for change. We should be at the forefront of raising awareness for (at a minimum) ongoing genocides happening in the world if we are truly trying to learn from our past mistakes. It is baffling to see social workers silent, play the both sides card, try to shift the focus to other topics. Social justice and human rights should not be something that you can pick and choose what to support.
OCSWSSW has also been silent about the genocides in Congo, Sudan, and China. Aside from this, OCSWSSW has also been silent regarding the legislative change that Alberta has made regarding the duty to report students to their parents/guardians regarding if the student wants to change their pronouns. We know that the unaliving risk of LGBTQ2S+ is extremely high and now again, social workers will be a cause of this harm against minors.
I get that the College is there solely to protect the public but I would think if their Code of Ethics literally tells it's registrants to commit to social justice, that they would do the same. It is also frustrating seeing the POC board of directors and knowing they too, are silent, despite having their own lived experiences of racism. OASW has also been silent and says on their page their dedication to mental health - does vicarious trauma not impact people's mental health? Are we not going to address the lasting impacts of this/these genocides on the general public, not to mention racialized populations.
Feel like I'm going to get some pushback from people claiming antisemitism so I would like to address complaints about my post head on:

I am against Israel and Zionism. We have heard of the doctrine of discovery used against Indigenous peoples in Canada and I don't know what the word is for using something similar and basing it in religion but people (Muslims, Christians, and Jews) lived on that land for a long long time. It is not a religious issue although it is easy to paint it as such due to majority of both sides. There are hundreds of thousands of Jewish organizations and people who are also against Israel and Zionism. Israelis in Israel during this time have also been protesting the events in Palestine. All of these people with lived experience, documented footage and live updates, people of various groups and organizations who have worked there and escaped, etc - cannot all be wrong. I urge you to do more research and combat the propaganda you are being served.
Someone will make the argument that social workers must remain neutral to help all people. As a social worker, I would never deny any of my clients services. I may have internal biases when working with certain clients (which we all do as humans) but I check them when I am in the professional capacity and providing services. I would never treat clients differently, harmfully, or purposely create unsafe environments for them regardless of their background or who they support - even if they were a Zionist. If I felt I was compromised and harming my client, I would have to re-evaluate and might have to pass the client to a colleague if I was unable to address my issues. That is how service professions work. The same comment can be made when working in a setting where you have clients who may have done extremely terrible, harmful things. You have to put your biases aside and serve that client and assist them in any way you can or guide them to someone who can assist them.
The College cannot claim or ask registrants to swear by a Code of Ethics that they themselves do not uphold. This discredits both the college and the profession at a time when we are trying to gain more credibility and gain more respect as a profession.
The College should be setting an example for it's registrants, applicants, organizations and partners, and affiliated universities and schools.
The College needs to keep its commitment to Indigenous peoples by continuimg to speak out against global issues and dedicate itself to change. Otherwise, it is all performative and their words and land acknowledgments do nothing as there is no actual steps behind what they are saying.

So my friends from Bangalore had come today to vote in our constituency in North Karnataka…and we caught up in the evening in a restaurant…
There were 4 of us and I was the only one who voted for Congress while the rest voted for “modi”
I expected them to have voted against BJP since I tried to spread awareness about what is happening in the country in a few WhatsApp posts and individual messages and I even created a topic wise side by side manifesto comparison so that it would be easier and faster to MAKE INFORMED DECISIONS.
All my friends are in good positions and earning well as Software Devs and all are well “educated academically”
My friends said they just voted for modi, I asked them on what basis did you vote?
Arent you realising the death of democracy that is happening in front of your eyes?
These were some of the arguments and counter points :

• I voted for BJP because of internal security and defence across borders

I said what about terrorist attacks across the borders and Pulwama?
One of my friends said, We gave strong response for pulwama by striking Pakistan..
I said why the heck was Pulwama allowed to happen in the first place? Why arent you seeing the intelligence failure?
I was shocked at the reply given,
How is intelligence failure of officers the responsibility of Modi and Govt?
Lmaoooo Homeland security comes under MHA I said,
I said do you know the things the then Governor SatyaPal malik said about Pulwama and the failure despite having inputs and information about a potential threat and the blatant violation of protocols for army transportation..
They said why should we trust what governor? ☠️☠️🤡🤡 I said you do not have to trust his words, see the facts and documents and the evidence and decide for yourself
No reply thereafter, then they said what about 26/11…I said yes it was their failure..But then this is just classic whataboutery , I told them you were talking about Pulwama but now you went to 26/11
I also told for all the wrongs and perceived wrongs, congress has paid the price in 2014 thats why they lost and last 10 years it was BJP in power.
Then they went onto article 370 and that they watched article 370 movie, I said how is article 370 even related to you and do you realize that its a propaganda film?
I said why isnt BJP contesting even 1 seat from J&K? What about Ladakh protest? Why are journalists not allowed to go there? Why are there restrictions?
Again no convincing reply and they resorted to trolling me as a congressi and some ad hominem attacks.
Then another reason they cited was INDI Alliance will have one PM every year, I said that this is classic lapping up of what BJP says..
I said why can’t you even spare 30 mins and read the manifesto that too once in 5 years or spare 5-10 mins a day reading more independent news like when you are travelling or stuck in bangalore traffic you can atleast listen…
They said too busy for all this..and no time for all this, we only focus on job
I said I counter all your beliefs with facts and logic and report but they werent ready and just kept trolling or laughing at me
I said vote for BJP if you want to vote for them but the basis of your judgement is BJP propaganda and not informed judgement..I told be an educated informed citizen and vote whoever you want to and not be an andhbhakt
Then they spoke about the Hubli murder case and Love Jihad,
I told the same happens when the culprit is a Hindu but doesn’t get the sensationalisation like it does when the culprit is Muslim..and told murders from Hindu culprits also happened around the same time but it doesnt get coverage..
Then they started blaming congress govt in Karnataka for the handling of that case..
Then they moved onto similar propaganda that is spewed by BJP….
Im so frustrated that it is the urban class who does not think and make informed decision more than the rural class…
These people dont have to worry about basic things in life and living good middle class lives and hence dont seem to care..whereas a poor person is more likely to vote based on food,inflation, employment and things that directly affect their life much much more than their urban counterparts…
All my efforts to create a manifesto comparison, share independent news reports, incidents like Surat, Chandigarh dint make any difference in their thought process…
Heck they said they dint find the anti muslim hate speech by Modi as worrying and saw it just as a one off incident and something they are aware of but not really know it..
Forgive my grammar for I am really frustrated…
I finally told them you guys are acting the same way when theists are confronted with rationality..they choose to look otherside and brush it off…
I now know what “andhbhakt” means.
I failed as a fellow citizen …and feel so frustrated
I created a PDF document comparing both the manifestos topic wise in a side by side tabular manner so that it makes it easier and faster to make informed decisions for the benefit of all. It has the exact same words and lines from each manifestos and nothing is changed or deleted/missed.
Read Time of the entire document : 30 Minutes
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_bdz8Ee7B96aO36pP5_cZpe47PBkCDDc/view?usp=drivesdk
EDIT 1: Now some people are asking me what about DBT and reservation:
Reservation : I’m not in favour of it, in my previous comments on reddit only I have told so many times General caste is the REAL MINORITY TODAY. And the entire concept of reservation is shit
Please read this, I have made rational arguments against the entire concept of reservation.
On Freebies/welfare whatever you call it :
What if I told you BJP does equal if not more freebies/welfare (whatever you call it). What if I told you 34Lakh crore was given in direct cash transfers in last 10 years alone?

1. The Myth that congress is a freebie government and something that would bankrupt us is overblown IMHO.
2. What if I told you BJP also doles out equal freebies if not more? I was shocked to know that BJP in last 10 years has given out 34 LAKH CRORE ALONE in direct cash transfers to beneficiaries. They have mentioned this in the initial pages if you want to verify.
3. What CONGRESS is probably going to do is unbundle various schemes through which the present govt does cash transfers and then re-bundle them into one scheme "MahaLakshmi" and give out 1 Lakh per poor women family.
4. Congress is most likely to do this transfers only after socio-economic survey and my guess is that it would atleast take a year or two along with census. They would try to limit the outflow as much as possible.
5. Lastly since the amount is fixed at 1L a year, as economy grows this outflow will remain same while collections increase

Like we all know BJP is great at perception and headline management :)
Ultimately Indian politics is not who is better than the other but who is the lesser of the evils and in this case a country if it becomes autocratic or has a kind of religious intolerance and constant religious violence, nothing else matters.
Congress atleast listens to protests and is more democratic than the other.
At this time anything but full blown autocracy.
Edit 2 : Another Classic whataboutery.
Emergency was absolutely horrible. And they were punished for it in the subsequent election and GLAD THAT our countrymen restored democracy and fought for it.
Now this is the time for us to do the same. No party should enjoy unbridled power and definitely not 400+
And UPA 1/2 was far more democratic than the undeclared emergency we are living through.

CAL. MAIOR. LUDI FLORES. NEW MOON OF THE THIRD MONTH.

Salve salve, Jaguar Warriors at the Flower Games!
There seems to have been quite a lot of writing done over the last month, as I look back over it: one little book almost finished and two little books started. All of them niche within niche within niche – mere exercises in rhetoric and utterly meaningless; we have not refuted abramic religion, nor solved the matter of politics, nor cured mental illness – quite in fact we have been simply writing elaborate epigrams in the style of M. Valerius Martialis, as Chrysippus did and as Plato and Galen did, and so on and so on. Quite in fact, over this last month, my greatest accomplishment in my opinion was none of these exercises in rhetoric but that time when I improved upon the fish-feed mechanism in my garden and repaired the roof, as: those are tangible things, you understand, far superior to the phantasms of political affairs, grande narrative and “putting the world right” that preoccupies so those dusty labyrinthine passages in the minds of Men and Women; as: all desire, as Bastiat observed, to clamour that someone else sweep the floor when they could themselves be sweeping the floor – mere laziness. I am inclined to approve of the great-great-grandmother of yours, reader, who would have lifted your skirt or pulled down your Vikingr lodbrok and turned your bare arse the colour purple with a broomstick for being so work-shy; indeed, mad and lunatic in that moment of action, she would nevertheless be correct in her intuition that if she did not do such a thing to you that you would never learn the lesson as none else would care to trouble themselves to give it to you; being overly concerned of the matter of their own self-image, and thus a village and thus a township and thus a peoples would wither on the vine; their vintage never even realized - much less sampled, and much much less facilitating progenition.
Here, let us honour Octavian Caesar’s favourite pastime, in the spirit of the Flores, and roll the dice; let us pick a book and a page and a verse at random, and see what M. Valerius Martialis has to say at this juncture:
O’ thank the Lares it is short and praise be that it mentions Grapes! That would be the equivalent of rolling a double six, on a pair of dice each with 750 sides, you understand.

Galbina (a type Woodpecker)’s quills are cheated and her wings bound by nets;

Galbina decipitur calamis* et retibus ales,

writhing and swollen; all gone green over a mere raw grape.

turget\* ad hoc viridi cum rudis uva mero.*

M. VALERIUS MARTIALIS, BOOK 13, VERSE 68

\calamis: feather, pen, quill.*
\*either ‘turget’ is either to be translated as ‘swollen’ (from: turgida) (as it is in Bohn’s version) or it is ‘twist, torment, distorted’ (from: torqueo; pertorqueo, extorqueo, etc.), with the latter “tor-go-eo” (or “tor-gwa-eo”) more phonetically closer to the otherwise inexplicable word ‘turget’ “tor-geet”, so I just use both – probably it is the latter since it offers a better image of “writhing under a net”.*
Honestly it beggars belief how Bohn missed this one; I mean: what sense does this make:

“The (Woodpecker) is trapped by reeds and nets, while the grape, yet immature, swells with green juice.” Bohn’s Classical Library (1897)

Obviously the ‘joke’ is that the woodpecker who sought to eat the green raw grape has turned green through exertion and terror as consequence of being snared by the use of the green raw grape as bait. The reader may understand why I have such confidence in the worth of my own amusements here as that many of these Epigrams even in their most basic sense of overt verbatim import, let alone their deeper profundities, seem to sit utterly unrealized.
Such is true also, I suppose, of the contents of our index page,

• TRUE SELF AND EGO DEATH; THE ERADICATION OF THE FALSE; SUPERFICIAL, SELF THE EXTRICATION FROM PATHOS (2) also a video supplemental from McKenna on “the ego of the false self; ego as a construct of culture”
• QUICK THOUGHT ON HOW NARCOTICS CAME TO DOMINATE PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WEST; “INNER SELF AND INNER WORLD” AS THE EGO CONSTRUCT OF THE FALSE SELF VS. “CAUSES OF THINGS” IN THE EXTERNALWORLD, OR JUNG VS FREUD
• IT’S NOT “WOKE”, MATE, IT’S LATE STAGE CAPITALISM H.G. WELLS INTERVIEW WITH STALIN (1934) (1)
• THOUGHTS ON THE UNDUE CONCRETENESS WHICH WE PROJECT ONTO THE CULTURE IN THE WORLD AROUND US, OR ETHNOS IN FOSTERING A DISPOSITION ANTITHETICAL TO REALIZING THE LOGOS OF THE MATERIAL WORLD AND ATTUNING TO IT LOGOS VS ETHNOS (3)
• THE POLITICS OF ABSURDISM, OR THE FAMILIAR PATTERN OF HOW AN ABSURDIST IDEOLOGY SUBSUMED DEMOCRACY DESTROYED CIVILIZATION ACROSS THE ROMAN EMPIRE, AND AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CHRISTIAN RHETOIC OF DEAD-PAN ABSURDISM LOGOS VS ETHNOS (4)
• THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EGO AND TRUE SELF LOGOS VS ETHNOS (5)
• ON ROMAN CHRISTIANITY AS CONSIDERED BY THE ROMAN PATRICIANS AND JESUS AS LOGOS; JESUS AS THE MESSIAH OF THE JEWS, AND “THE PARABLE OF THE “GOLDEN ROMANS”, OR THE COMPREHENSION OF VIRTUE THAT WAS LOST TO CHRISTIANITY LOGOS VS ETHNOS (6)
• THOUGHTS ON CLASS WARFARE, EXAMINING THE MANAGERIAL CLASS, OR THE BOURGEOIS, IN THE CONTEMPORARY WEST COMPARED TO THE BOURGEOIS OF THE EARLY 1900’S CIVICS AND PRODUCTION POWER, H.G. WELLS INTERVIEW WITH STALIN (1934) (2)
• CLASS WARFARE AND THE BOURGEOIS CONTINUED, AND THE USE OF PATHOS IN MEDIA (ATROCITY PROPAGANDA) AS AN EFFORT TO SEIZE TEMPORARY DIRECTORATE POWER CIVICS AND PRODUCTION POWER, H.G. WELLS INTERVIEW WITH STALIN (1934) (3)
• DEMOS AS ETHNOS, OR SOCIAL INFLUENCE AS THE DEMOS AND THE RECOGNITION OF THE DEMOS AS THE PRIMARY EVIL THING; I.E. THE EVIL OF THE “GREEK POLITY” ITSELF, AND THE AETIOLOGY OF THE WORD AND CONCEPT OF A DEMON (IN THE CHRISTIAN FRAMING OF THINGS) LOGOS VS ETHNOS (7)
• INTRODUCTION TO ROMAN PAGANISM, THE ORIGINAL OF POLYTHEISM AND SHAMANISM IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES CUSTOMS OF OUR ANCESTORS (WORKING TITLE) (1)
• THE ETRUSCAN ORIGINS OF ROMAN PAGANISM, AND THE “SECULAR RELIGION” OF THE ROMAN TEMPLES CUSTOMS OF OUR ANCESTORS (WORKING TITLE) (2)
• ON THE INTERTIA OF CULTURE*

\more of a follow-up to* this rant about the culture of docility and passive egoism in West, of which the internet is a apex crystallization of, as being undeniably the cause of war, genocide and domestic enmity, as: we today do not possess the excuses of the past of having some culture of militarism nor an autocratic government which can be blamed for causing these things as has historically been the excuse to “explain away” such things in human behaviour.

• THOUGHTS ON FALSE CLAIMS OF PERSECUTION, OR THE GREATLY IGNORED CASE STUDY OF “FALSE CLAIMS OF PERSECUTION AS POLITICAL LEVERAGE (OR SOCIAL CAPITAL)” DEMONSTRATED BY THE EARLY CHRISTIANS**

\*probably this ought be read as* “Logos vs Ethnos (7.1)”

• DEMOS CONTINUED AND EXPANDED, THE FALSE UNIVERSE OF THE “DEMOS-THINKER” AND “THE PUBLIC” AS AN ARTIFICAL CONSTRUCT (OF THE MEDIEVAL PRINTING-PRESS) AND THE MASS PSYCHOSIS OF POLITICAL NARRATIVES LOGOS VS ETHNOS (8)

all draft copies, all subject to revision and usually in need of tidying up

and

lest we forget the last dice roll: MARTIAL 5:45-5:47; in which Martial – in the first verse in my opinion – forces a Helot or Dacian boy to dress as a girl, then makes fun of the boy for “wanting to be a girl”, then explains in the next verse that the reason he is sexually humiliating the lad is simply to kill the boys spirit. Then he mocks a ‘Philo’ (which certainly is a reference to the wisest of the Greeks; regardless of any more depth to it than that) for being too poor to afford to eat; suggesting, I think, that the fake moralists only complain about such things and do not do such things is because they simply lack the coin to do such things themselves; as like in another verse to the same effect; how easy it is for a poor Man to resist narcotics or sexual indulgences when he has no means to procure them in the first place, when give him 200,000 sesterces and see how he immediately changes into the drunkard and the whore-monger.
But honestly, reader, if you think I have been choosing these epigrams with any forethought you are completely cracked. See here that we have upset the homosexuals ‘and’ the anti-homosexuals all in one go. However if one is in neither camp and is, therefore, able to enjoy such witticisms for their own sake as fond mockery, that such poems are Fucking “Based” – in both the colloquial and verbatim meaning of that word at once. Ultimately that ‘is’ the intention of the most highly moralistic satire, lest it need be pointed out to you – and obviously it does.
Anyway I am quite done with talking to you now, ‘the public’, you do not even exist according to the most cutting-edge thesis on the matter; and more importantly than this: it is a Nice Day outside.

Valete.

CAL. MAIOR. LUDI FLORES. NEW MOON OF THE THIRD MONTH.

​

If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that "broken" systems are often that way because they actually do "work" for somebody. I.e. a corrupt military where leadership positions are sold "works" for the people who get to sell the positions, because in that case the military is just a marketplace for political powemoney and not actually meant to fight peer conflicts.
It's easy to see the Helldivers and Super Earth as some kind of "lol incompetent" faction, what with the muzzle-loading cannons on your FTL warships, and the Schrodinger's paradox of you being elite spearheads and also cannon fodder. However, there's clearly something off going on with just the mere fact that the Helldivers program exists, because let's look at some basic facts first:

• While some Helldiver missions are classic special forces/infantry jobs that do require boots on the ground (i.e. hot evacuations of civilians, recovering data), a good portion are also just pure destruction missions. No territory to occupy, no collateral damage to be worried about. Just kill/destroy stuff.
• In these destruction/kill focused missions, the locations of your targets are already known. Indeed, when deciding your initial drop point you can clearly see your objectives and even get "enemy presence" warnings.
• The Helldivers fight/destroy stuff using Strategem beacons, which are basically these Pokeball-type gadgets that you input a code into then throw to call down weapons, air support, and orbital bombardment strikes.
• SE already has the technology for drones that output the firepower of an infantryman (the Rover backpacks) and independently target enemies outside player control.
• Extreme Helldiver casualties are completely expected, to the point where even 100% casualty rates (no backup divers remaining, full party kill, no extraction) still falls under "Mission Accomplished". Surviving a mission is quite literally just bonus points.
• Helldivers are ideological fanatics, and Super Earth values loyalty.
• The Helldivers, despite being treated like cannon fodder, are clearly expert soldiers and athletes. They can handle dozens of different weapons, sprint with full kit, reload confidently under pressure, etc.
• Helldivers, for soldiers of an autocratic regime, are given a shocking amount of independence. Each Helldiver essentially gets to customize their own loadouts for each mission, spend money on upgrades, and even choose to not partake in campaigns that SE government considers to be of existential importance. They're treated almost more like privateer-infantrymen rather than special forces. SE can say they'll get more Warbonds (i.e. money) if they defend X or Y planet, but nothing stops any given Helldiver from fighting their own war on the other side of the galaxy if they choose.
• As independent as the Helldivers are, they are still overseen by Democracy Officers. Helldivers are all given their own spaceship and crew, and given the freedom to contribute to the war however they wish, yet their activities are constantly monitored by a political commissar who can and will kill them with "their" ship's weapons without hesitation should they do something as simple as stray meet feet out of a mission area for 10 seconds. The Democracy Officers, interestingly enough, seem less fanatical than the Helldivers, preferring to engage in more generic and monotoned political rhetoric as opposed to the mouth-frothing freedom-loving of the actual Helldiver units.
• SE has apparently absolute orbital and naval superiority in space. Helldivers lore and gameplay is remarkably absent of mentions of ship-to-ship combat, the organization of SE's military almost entirely ignores any concept of fleets (i.e. the Helldivers, despite being commanders of warships, receive no naval training), and the ubiquitous Super Destroyers seem almost entirely geared towards ground support rather than fighting other starships.

Cynically, one might suggest that the Helldivers are just glorified "eyes on the ground" whose job it is to fight their way within throwing distance of their objectives, hurl their Strategems, and then die. However, there's an even deeper conspiracy once we put all the basic facts together to get second-level facts:

• Beacons are not actually necessary to launch stratagems: The entire "Beacon" thing is a lie made up by Super Earth. If a Helldiver strays from the combat zone, the Super Destroyers in orbit will automatically begin to accurately target them from orbit without a beacon.
• Super Earth does not need human soldiers: SE could literally win every battle with swarms of Rover drones. They could deploy directly from hellpods, and already demonstrate the ability to independently move, identify, and target enemies. Literally just strap a strategem beacon onto them so they can drop them like quadcopter grenades, and you now have a force that can do anything human Helldivers can.
• Ground combat itself is redundant for a lot of SE's operational needs: Not only can pretty much 90% of a Helldiver's job be performed by simple drones, ground combat itself seems an unforced error. Super Earth can already detect enemy structures and troop concentrations from orbit, precisely fire at exact spots on the first try (i.e. the initial Helldiver dive each mission is made without the help of a beacon), and in most battles does not have any collateral damage to worry about, not that it would worry about it anyway.
• Super Earth doesn't really seem all that concerned about its most valuable citizens dying so often. Loyalty is a premium in dictatorial regimes, yet SE seems bizarrely indifferent to so much of its most loyal supporters dying in such huge numbers. Strangely, despite the Helldivers being the most loyal citizens, SE still deems it necessary to assign political commissars to them on a 1:1 basis. IIRC correctly, the Helldivers are even a volunteer unit, so not only are these people fighting for you, they choose to do so, which makes throwing away their lives even more baffling.
• Super Earth's enemies are not nearly as threatening as we are meant to believe. How, exactly, are the Automatons and Terminids even able to invade other planets when SE, upon the latest invasion or outbreak, can instantly swarm the orbits of enemy planets with 100,000+ warships? Something just doesn't add up. There's never any mention of a preliminary naval campaign to secure the planetary orbits first, and the Helldivers never have to contest enemy ships, fleets, or airforces before doing their ground missions.

So, why engage in ground combat with human soldiers if both clauses of that idea are invalid? Why have soldiers have to rush within throwing distance to deploy stratagems when precise orbital bombardment with no targeting aids is already possible? Why treat the most reliable supporters of your government like cannon fodder?
Here's the answer: Super Earth, as a militaristic society, doesn't actually value loyalty. It values passivity and docility. The kind of person who becomes a Helldiver is the exact opposite of that: a violent, gullible person who is very independently minded (i.e. volunteers for military service, decides for themselves where and how to fight). Instead, the Helldiver program is essentially a pipeline so that the most violently skilled, independently minded, and ideologically susceptible citizens (i.e. those most willing and able to launch a revolution) are instead A. in state service and B. constantly killed. SE's wars could be fought entirely by orbital bombardment and drones, but using human soldiers allows it to massacre its own citizens under the guise of an "elite" unit.
In short, every Helldiver who yells "For democracy!" while throwing a strategem at an enemy tank 10 feet away and then dies in the ensuing airstrike is one less person who could have been duped into believing a rebellious ideology and fighting against Super Earth instead. By fighting wars in such a horrifically "inefficient" and human-life-wasting fashion, Super Earth is able to funnel dangerous elements of its society (people skilled at violence with strong political beliefs) into fighting and, more importantly, dying for its own causes.
Once you are in the Helldiver program, there is essentially no escape. You will be shot into combat over and over and over again until you either die or your democracy officer finds some excuse to kill you with "your" ship anyway. It's these democracy officers, the calmer, more level-headed supporters of the regime, who are the real backbone of SE. They are the people who are actually in allegiance to Managed Democracy on an intelligent, ideological level, whereas the Helldivers are just useful idiots who, with their independence, might just as easily choose a different ideology to mindlessly believe in just as easily be spouting someone else's political slogan. For this they are too dangerous to be left alive, even in the service of Super Earth. They must be killed.
Note: "independent thinking" and "gullible" can coexist, like someone who "does their own research" and believes in a conspiracy theory, or someone who chooses to "reject the mainstream narrative" and believe nonsense simply because it's "not what they want me to think".
Back home, any potential rebel movement will have just leftovers: citizens who wouldn't be as motivated to resist or fight back, or those who couldn't do as well fighting back if they did.
SE's stated enemies in the Terminids and Automatons are just paper tigers meant to direct hatred towards an outside foe that isn't nearly as dangerous as feared, hence why even "Major Orders" are just glorified suggestions and contests. Given the lie behind the strategem beacons and the clear viability of their combat drones, the Helldivers are not actually needed to fight or win any of SE's conflicts. Should they ever actually be in existential danger, the Democracy Officers could just simply glass every combat zone free of bugs and robots from orbit without sending a single boot on the ground.
All the "Major Orders" SE government says are so important are just ways to concentrate Helldivers into deliberately bloody battlefields so that even more of them can be killed. Heck, evne the "Personal Orders" like using a certain weapon or killing a certain enemy are just ways to disunite the Helldivers and trick them into using weapons or getting into confrontations that may not be optimal for overall mission survival.

Propaganda: noun; (2.) Material disseminated by the advocates or opponents of a doctrine or cause.
— The American Heritage®️Dictionary of English Language, 5th edition.

China

China is a nation founded upon the ideologies and principles of communism.

United States

A Democratic Republic founded upon the ideologies and principles of democracy.

The American Way

When many Americans hear or see the words “communism,” they actively begin associating communism with corrupt authoritarian regimes that leverage a totalitarian system to control, undermine and(or) manipulate the very people it’s intended to serve. From that perspective, all that’s required is an onslaught of corrupt regimes to gain control long enough to form a dictatorship that devolves into an oppressive oligarchy; so… I understand why Americans don’t like communism. After all, America was founded on a rebellion against an oppressive regime(Great Britain).
Communism has the potential to threaten the American individual’s liberties, rights and infringe upon their freedoms. The constituency base of the United States are typically aligned with preserving their right to exercise autocratic power over the greater population, through self-serving initiatives that align with their own personal values and interests, rather than the collective interests of others or, utilizing their power and influence to achieve a common cause that the collective of constituents align on. Checks and balances keep individual autocracy intact whilst preserving the interests of other individual citizens and their interests.
In a Democratic Republic, one bad president is kept in check with a limitation on time served and the checks and balances system. This prevents the President (or any Federal governing individual/entity) from being omnipotent enough to make changes in such a capacity that it could ever lead to The United States devolving into a socialist dictatorship.
Communism is the Democratic Republic’s antithetical concept that negates autonomy.
So, yes — for Americans Communism is bad news. So is China bad news? The short answer, no.
China and communism are not synonymous, communism is simply an attribute of the Chinese society; therefore, believing China is bad due to your pre-disposition towards communism is nonsensical. China isn’t simply bad because their communistic way of governing is antithetical to those of The United States… in fact, many people in China love China and communism (not everyone obviously) because of what communism helps them achieve — when communism is done right.

The Chinese way

Communism in China (disclaimer: I’m not Chinese and have never visited China so this is relatively speculative) revolves around the concept and idea that all people are created equal and are treated equally. A rich person is no better than a poor person vice versa; a poor person has access to what a rich person has access to.
There’s typically no class system in a communist society and everything essentially belongs to the public and redistributions may be made on an as-needed basis to those in need. The people subject to communistic regimes often rely on a well managed governing body to provide for their basic needs: housing, food, transportation, jobs and services. Communistic regimes essentially take full responsibility for ensuring their citizens are provided for. Hard to see communism as a bad thing from that angle, right?
Everything works out until some authoritarian dictator gets elected and refuses to accept the end of his term. You end up with a Kim Jong, who does nothing but prevent the growth of a nation, stagnating it so much that a third-world country outperforms its entire economy; tanking the GDP, flattening the educational band so much that the citizens can’t obtain a proper updated education leaving them behind the educational curve, innovation is practically non-existent because the people are sterilized and forced to only do what one persons limited imagination can conceive. Communism is great, until it isn’t.
Irrespective of the pitfalls of communism, China has done a great job at protecting its people against tyranny. China is arguably a fairly decent example of how communism can work out positively.

China and U.S. debacle

China (seemingly comprised mostly of proletariat’s and bourgeois’s engaged in some form of manufacturing) is responsible for ensuring that their exports and products are delivered to their respective markets at a reasonable cost to them, for the sakes of: ensuring their is a large enough capital spread across a transaction to engage in mutually beneficial trading.
The United States is a capitalist society and capitalist societies tend to exploit developing economies and countries (hence why everything is outsourced in the U.S. to countries with poor GDPs). The latest exploitation? Arguably the raise on tarrifs related to Chinese imports, which is essentially taking advantage of China but there’s a catch.
Chinese manufactures have been flooding the U.S. market with D2C (direct-to-consumer) products leveraging large e-commerce platforms, essentially funneling USD right out the U.S. economy, further growing the Chinese economy. Making the U.S. a big piggy bank just asking to be drained from because of their obsession with cheap labor and products.
As China penetrates the U.S. market it will become easier for China to overtake the United States as the leading global economy because China has a stronger foot hold in the U.S. than the U.S. will ever have in China. The U.S.’s exploitation will seemingly backfire, leading to the U.S. possibly falling to number 2.
China recently banned all imports on semiconductor products from the U.S., this prevents U.S. based manufacturers from being able to leverage Chinese products to improve their competitiveness and sales. If China is the world’s leading producer of goods and they don’t rely on U.S. based producers and are able to freely sell in the U.S. market, well… guess what? The U.S. is in its way to seeing China put them in checkmate since all the U.S.’s money would be entering China with no reason to return it. As the U.S. economy collapses thanks to the idiots making decisions , you may notice things like the U.S.; printing more money, raising the debt ceiling and increasing taxes. Wait? We’re already doing that?
Long story short the U.S. is kind of fucked and outsourcing is a huge problem. Outsourcing puts the longevity of the U.S at risk and it’s U.S. citizens. The U.S. is doing nothing to build itself but continues to build other countries and invest money in other nations. Good job, China and India exploiting the U.S.’s filthy greedy capitalist society. The U.S. employs foreign nationals instead of their own citizens to make a quick buck of their own people.

The Propaganda

“China is bad [blah,blah],” the U.S is just looking for something to blame for their mistakes. China isn’t bad, they just made smarter moves.
The logical solution for the U.S would be raising tariffs so high that in order for Chinese products to be shipped into the U.S. it would put the manufacturers at a net negative per transaction, slowly brining money back into the U.S. This would possibly put pressure on Chinese manufacturers to reduce their prices to remain profitable. Logically it would make sense to keep increasing tariffs(without straining the relationship, supply and economy) until a reasonable market between the two countries established. Chinese based e-commerce sellers would have to pay an additional tariff, in addition to taxes for selling foreign products in the U.S. market — these increased tariffs would be the opportunity cost, which may either reduce the amount of sellers or increase federal revenue from foreign suppliers.
Did you enjoy reading this? Leave us a comment or share our post with your favorite people! We’ve glossed over some things because typing an essay on redits mobile app is an unbearable experience. 🥹

The slow evolution of the Monarchy from having near autocratic powers to having naught but ceremonial authority is fascinating to me.
I don’t know that we’ve had an institution grow gradually less and less powerful in history before.
Most other monarchies were outright abolished; other offices such as the US President have only grown in power over time. The Roman Emperor’s power only grew also. Other monarchies have followed the British into being ceremonial figures only - but the British did it first.
Today, it is considered unacceptable for the monarch to voice his or her political opinions publicly.
It isn’t illegal for them to speak their mind; there is no statue governing the Monarch’s speech, but it is considered “tradition” that they keep their traps shut; and if a Monarch began voicing their opinions, it’s very possible Parliament would abolish the Monarchy in short order.
My question for those who have followed the history of the office is, when did it become an accepted part of British life that the Monarch does not discuss politics publicly - or else?

This is a crossover fanfiction between original fiction titles: Nature of Predators by SpacePaladin15 and The Last Angel by Proximal Flame respectively. All credit and rights reserved goes to them for making such amazing science fiction settings that I wanted to put this together.
You can read The Last Angel here: Be warned, it's decently long, and at its third installment so far. I highly suggest reading it before reading this, or this story will not make sense.

Otherwise, enjoy the story! Thanks again to u/jesterra54 and u/skais01 for beta and checking of work!
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Memory transcription subject: Second Submissive Specific Advisor Lithke, Arxur Dominion 6th Sector Fleet
Date [standardized human time]: October 19, 2136
It took a long time to get to its point, but the...artificial intelligence finally properly introduced itself to us. I didn't exactly know what to think of it.
Sentience was defined in true sapients, unlike that of the Federation leaflickers; a right reserved to predators, not prey. But this was neither. It was outside the cycle of life, yet smart as life all the same. It did not need sustenance or instincts to survive, for it was never built with them in mind. It had more in common with that of a plant in diet than an animal, and I was tempted to treat it like an object at first.
But thinking back to its story. Its history, its hull, its purpose. It was built by humanity, not the one we knew, but still the creation of truly sentient beings. It was a weapon of war, of unbridled power meant to hunt, ambush, and kill the most dangerous prey of all: other super-ships. In a way, it was a predator of a scale near unimaginable, seeking unimaginable cruelty towards the alien races that dared to kill off its kin, its creators. It was an applaudable effort.
Yet, the dichotomy was the most alien concept I had tried to chew on, even considering the concept of time travel that was mentioned mere [minutes] earlier. That concept was annoying enough to translate.
Why would anyone return to the past? The past is not worth returning to, as a [weak fortification], unfocused era is not worth the time of those espoused to the Great Prophet's [fullthought] of endless self-improvement.
But chew on both I still would. Eventually. For now, I wish to gauge its character. If it was anything like the humans, it might've been softer than a predator ought to be, but in its case its motivation towards war, towards how it reveled in the total death of this...Compact was ever honing, ever chaseworthy, to inspire it to further improve. It had been at war longer than Betterment had even existed. If there was something worthwhile to learn we had not about the proper self, they might be the key to it.
I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt, and treat it as one would treat a fellow predator. It was only fair, they had saved humanity as well, as who else but a fellow predator would stick their heads out to assist on their own free will?
Unlike the slave 'pets' that the Venlil are humans keep around. Isif's order to follow the human's rules involving prey was a pain. I could hardly stand to treat them with any dignified respect as they assisted Earth; why the humans and prey went so much further for eachother was a mystery I'd never truly get to the bone of.
But that was besides the point. The artifi- no...Red One - finally turned away from Hailey to signify interest in me at last, and I was glad for it. A chance to talk with such a being would likely be useful.
"And you, who are you, Arxur?" She said.
My tail lashed with some pride.
"I am Lithke, Second Submissive Specific Advisor to Chief Hunter Isif! I am glad that the humanity of your future was willing to build a fellow predator."
Red One seemed to stall at that. "Fellow predator? Is there a cultural reference I'm not getting here?"
Hailey stepped into the conversation once again. "Ah, apologies! You gave a bunch of context to your own future, but we haven't exactly talked about our culture and history, have we?"
I held my claws forward, a gesture meant to make her stop. "I will handle our side of the conversation, human. Don't interrupt." Hailey looked frustrated at that, but she did not know our culture like we did.
Red One turned to me, a digital eyebrow raised at my command. I continued. "I refer to you as a predator with reverence, Red One. Despite the fact that you are not a natural predator, you are built as one, designed to hunt game of far greater prize than others. The Dominion appreciates those who fully embrace their predator roots, for through them we manage to thrive against a hostile galaxy."
Red One started to look...perturbed? Confused? She must know the Federation prey tried to exterminate Earth, they hated humanity for their biology, what was wrong with what I had just said?
"I do not understand why that matters. Why would diet be a basis of respect?" Her response was staggeringly ignorant.
No. It can't be...she doesn't know!?
Hailey looked at me with an almost sickened expression of pain, the explanation to come undesirable for either of us. She stepped forward again, meekly embarrassed, but this time I did not stop her.
"Well uh...about that..."
+CONFED IO.5+
+READING MAIN SEQ.MEM+
...
This galaxy is utterly absurd.
I had seen a lot of things in my time alive. Abominations from the void, dyson swarms that could move entire stars, and an encroaching superpower that squashed every aspect of culture and memory for the mere feeling of control. But never had I seen as hilariously sad a reason as racial prejudice based off merely being able to eat meat.
And then the Arxur decided to run with the stereotype.
Why?! What half-stupid species reaches spaceflight, hell, faster-than-light travel, and is deathly afraid of the very concept of a food chain, let alone half the niches inside it?! Did these races even evolve!?
I am almost willing to take Lithke's words for granted that the people in The Federation aren't sentient if they can't see that...
But that's not all. Not only did this Federation of species all end up to be only herbivores, something statistically suspicious assuming life was as common as in my reality, but it also met with one obligate carnivore, and those carnivores just happened to turn into the very thing they sought to destroy! Of all the possibilities, why did I have to end up dealing with a universe as insane as this?
But I took a mental step back, as my avatar pinched its nose to better reflect its utter frustration. No, there has to be more to this...galactic-wide phobia. Plenty of sentient obligate herbivores and carnivores existed in my universe, yet none were discriminated against in any diet specific ways. Oh sure, there was the equivalent of refusing to serve food because the amino-acids of one race didn't match with the cooking of another, but that was not prejudice for one's diet, but prejudice using diet to deny another.
I could at least take solace in the fact that humanity seems to be sane enough. They don't seem to be cruel slavers akin to the Arxur, or hysterical fanatics like the Federation. Small mercies...
This galaxy still had its similarities in unsettling ways. Both The Federation and The Arxur Dominion did not hold much care for the past, readily uncaring of old culture or history. It spoke of monoculture red flags, at least from the top-down, with an obligation towards prejudice. Most of the races of the Federation were forcibly uplifted, which rang oddly and painfully like that of The Compact's same policy of expansion and absorption. The Arxur were comically cruel and evil in their policy, they thought more akin to that of autocratic dictators, chasing after ideals that would make a eugenicist blush. If I squinted, it felt like I was looking at a badly written holo-novel reflecting my galaxy's politics, but horribly distorted and exaggerated; like looking at a broken reflection.
But that was besides the point currently. Why humanity was allied with the Arxur was likely for pragmatic reasons, ones I had yet to figure out besides obvious protection. I could only hope humanity was smart enough to not have anything else rub off on them. Which is why I turned my attention back to Hailey's and Lithke's explanations, hungry for more context.
"And The Federation, when you first met them, was immediately hostile?" I asked Hailey.
"Yes. The Venlil took a chance to trust us, but the other races could not say the same. Upon the first meeting of Marcel Fraiser, a UN soldier attached to the defense of Venlil Prime with proper Federation forces, he was immediately subjected to torture by them, and only broke out with the assistance of one of the Federation crew members. I don't remember their names, sadly."
So there was some sense of care for predators among the Federation. It didn't seem to be as fully iron grip as I had feared. But if it took blatant torture of an innocent being for even one to realize something was wrong, then it was likely deeply entrenched. I had no idea how to proceed with that.
"Peh, as if prey can be trusted. I still do not see what you humans do in them, they are all pathetic at best." Lithke heartwarmingly added right after. The bad blood was deep here, Arxur and Federation were at eachothers throats, sometimes quite literally if Lithke's talk is to be believed.
"If this is all true, I cannot tolerate the Federation as an entity. They are deeply entrenched in an absurd ideology, and they had the gall to use it as an excuse to exterminate humanity."
They reminded me of the Compact in possibly the most personal way imaginable. They went after humanity. They sought to burn it to the ground, to salt Earth until it was a desolate rock.
That was unforgivable.
They would pay.
But not yet. Currently, I needed assistance, and so, I sought to turn the conversation back to the other topic matter at hand: my intentions to stay in this system. It felt...odd to ask for help, I never had the opportunity to do so for so long without strings attached, but this...this was the closest to trustworthy it got.
"Nevermind the state of the galaxy for now. If it is within your capabilities to help me get back home, and repaired, I would appreciate it."
Hailey jumped at that statement with one of her own. "Home being your reality or Earth?..." She asked tentatively.
Well, if you're going to line it up for me so easily.
"Yes." I responded, a feeling of cheekiness spreading throughout my circuits. Hailey groaned in response. A chance to talk with humanity once again burning away whatever tension I had built up over these long years. I was happy in a way I thought I'd never have again.
Happiness, huh? What a rare feeling.
Memory transcription subject: Second Advisor Lithke, Arxur Dominion 6th Sector Fleet
Date [standardized human time]: October 19, 2136
As Hailey retreated to the back of the ship to activate the communication relay back to command, I found myself alone in the pilot cabin, with Red One as my on-screen company. The synthetic predator watched me for a few moments, as if analyzing me, looking for anything to pry into. She was inquisitive, smart, [quick to the kill], and dangerous given her ship-self. All of which would be admirable traits in the Dominion. Yet, she was still more akin to a human in mindset than I had liked; I had hoped she would be more receptive to our way of thinking given her nature, but...
"Lithke." She interrupted from nowhere. I was roused from my mulling once again to look at her. "I have learned a bit about the Dominion from you, but I have a question pertaining to them if you'd hear it."
She wished to learn more? Maybe she was conscious of her creator's race's more...delicate palate then, and just waiting for us to be alone.
"Speak. I will listen and answer." I said.
"The Federation and Dominion are absolute enemies of one another, neither willing to extend any hand of diplomacy or ceasefire, according to what I've heard so far. You are both morally and racially repugnant to one another, and yet, I see there is clearly a problem if that is the case. Why aren't you both at total war with each other?"
I paused for a moment.
"But...we are at total war with each other. We do not forgive them, nor forget their actions. They deserve no mercy and we give none."
"Lithke, if the Dominion has as much of a military edge over the Federation as I am likened to believe, you have the capability to [utterly devastate] them on a whim. Yet, your [main method] is merely to raid their outer settlements, and aim for weaker colonies and targets. If they've wronged you so incredibly in the past, and you have the means to take revenge directly, why do you not attack their homeworlds?"
This was an odd take, especially given that Red One knew of our cattle farms. I told her specifically of our use of Federation prey to replace the now extinct cattle species during first contact. What was she hinting at?
"We raid because they are a source of food. It is an un-intuitive idea to kill off your food supply in total."
"And yet it has been nearly [300 years] and you couldn't find a suitable cattle species on a different planet? The galaxy is likely filled with multicellular life of various sizes, and not one planet you've passed through has had any possibility of domesticable animals? The premise of this war seems inefficient. You raid sentient-controlled planets for sentient livestock, when they are slow-breeding and trouble to contain over non-sentients. The main aspect to me that stands out is how...cruel it is, for no real point."
"Cruelty always has a point, Great Predator. It tempers us to our more primal selves."
Her avatar cringed at that. "Please do not call me that. Just Red One. But that is besides the point: in what purpose is there to live a life that best emulates your animal roots?"
I sniffled in amusement. She did not know of The Great Prophet's wisdom. Of course, her creators could not see it either, so I was not surprised. I tilted forward in my chair to explain.
"The idea seems counterintuitive, I know. But it does make sense once you think about it more. The Great Prophet once said that we should strive to better ourselves at every moment, that we should be driven forever to improve the species and ourselves. That we should train to become the utter pinnacle of physical and mental might. We tried to emulate this chase in various ways, but the most powerful driver of all was that of hunger."
She crossed her arms, clearly waiting for me to elaborate. "Hunger makes us more than want, it makes us need. It is the strongest method one has to inspire yourself towards your goals. The starving beast is strong in body, but not in mind. The sapient creature is strong in mind, but not in body. To be both mentally and physically strong, is to be the starving sapient. Through that comes enlightenment to The Great Prophet's Word: a hungry mindset is a perfect one."
"And so, you take the harder route in search of a perfect species. You specifically don't produce enough food to go around, you exact cruelty to hone your killing instincts, all to follow your 'Great Prophet's Word'. Is that correct?"
She understood! We were getting somewhere!
"Exactly. I was worried you, like most humans, would not understand our ways. But clearly we are more alike than you think. You struggled against your Compact for over a millennia, ever seeking to improve your weapons, to further your tactical acumen, because your nature was to wage war. You gave in to your programmed instincts to best commit to revenge. And now you are a killing machine above any other. We struggle in another way, but for similar reasons, to best fit our nature."
She looked almost distraught at my comment. Like she pitied me.
"Lithke...nature...doesn't work like that. Evolution doesn't want you to be starving, so it gives you a strong motivator signal so that you don't die. To starve is not evolution rewarding you, it's warning you're in grave danger. Malnutrition does not let you grow ideally, it does not give your body the resources it needs to get stronger. The 'starving beast' is desperate, because it wants to live in a world where it is stronger, more capable to take on life, where it is full."
How dare she ridicule His Wisdom! I spun to face the wall, teeth gnashing, but I could still hear her voice.
"It's not intended to starve yourself for so long, trust me, I've been on the edge of survival for far too long. It burns at your psyche, it melts away yourself to be constantly chased, constantly in danger, constantly in pain. You don't live a fulfilling life feeling like you're wasting away at every moment. The fact that these principles are enshrined in your very government is worrying, Lithke. It's as if..."
Her avatar seemed to light up in a moment of enlightenment. But what she said chilled me to my bones.
"...as if your government wants you this way for control. A status quo of death, of hardship. The Dominion doesn't end the war outright despite your advantages, because it sees this as a way to keep everyone in line. Hunger and cruelty as a motivator not to improve, but to conform."
That...that...
It was like being doused in the cold water near the cattle pens. I thought back to past moments in my life. Where I had shown interest in the relatively mundane, the simple. Where the endless details stuck out to me, but no one else saw them.
"Lithke! Quit staring at the ships outside!"
"Are you DAFT? Why is your instinct wasted on this?!"
"You are a disgrace to think of anything but the chase so much, Lithke."
Her words rang in my head, over and over, as I stared blankly into the wall.
"-not to improve, but to conform."
Why did it make sense?
No...no...there must be something I'm missing. The humans are good at manipulation, I'll give them that, and their creation is too.
I must speak with Chief Hunter Isif immediately. His Cruelty would know what to do.
Memory transcription subject: Hailey Whitmer, UN Special Envoy
Date [standardized human time]: October 19, 2136
As I walked back from the communication relay room, Lithke was coming in the opposite direction. He was deep in thought, almost shaken, as he slowly walked my way.
"You uh...okay Lithke?..."
"Nothing, human." He growled. "Just talk with the AI. I have business to attend to." He pushed past me with no further clarification.
Oh no, what did he do?
My pace hurried back to the front of the ship, expecting the worst, but when I returned, neither the AI nor the ship looked worse for wear, thankfully. She was paitently sitting on the projection, simply biding time until one of us came back, I assume.
"Ah...Lithke just walked back to the comms room. Looked rather perturbed. Anything wrong?" I asked her.
"We talked. Nothing too special." She cryptically responded. Before I could ask further, she spoke again. "So, anything about my request?"
Right to it, then.
"Well, we are willing to help you repair and return home as far as I asked. They're still utterly surprised about well...everything, but I only gave them a summarized view. I'll have to explain in further detail when I get back to command, since the ship will have proper recordings of our conversations. The only problem is, the place where we could feasibly help you repair is in only one location: The Lunar Shipyards"
Red One's sobering smile told the whole story. "Ah. And I have no way to easily get there with no main engines. At least...not quickly, that is."
"Now, there's still options!" I put my hands in front of me. "While I'm no engineer, and the United Nations of Sol's fleet is rather...weakened at the moment, I could try and ask the Venlil Space Force still in the system if they'd be able to spare people and resources to getting you home somehow." I grimaced a bit. "They're still touchy right now, given both you and The Arxur showing up were highly unexpected developments, but I'm sure they will be able to find some way to help!"
Hopefully my speech was a comforting one. Red One mulled it over, her avatar rocking slightly back and forth as she looked up at nothing in particular, pondering. Then, she stopped to look back at me again.
"Whatever works. I have effectively no other options unless you want to toss asteroids my way. But given a shipyard would likely be faster, there's more merit to that." She paused. "Won't they...be afraid of me?"
"Red. Can I call you Red? Red...everyone is afraid of you. For once, the Venlil aren't alone in this, you are an anomaly on a scale I can hardly believe exists. You're dangerous beyond our wildest measure, but I trust you nevertheless because your story and physical existence is too nuts to be anything but the truth."
She didn't look all too happy at that. I continued however.
"But, I have to say, if the Venlil can get over us, they can likely get over you. There's merit to be had in not worrying about them for once. No, worry about yourself for now. Once Lithke is done with his call, we're gonna head back to Earth and give a full report. I promise, I'll come back as soon as possible, with as much help as I can provide for your sake. You've earned it for helping us so far."
Red One smiled at me. It was muted, tired, but it felt more genuine than any other up to that point
"Thank you."
Memory transcription subject: Captain Kalsim, Krakotl Alliance Command
Date [standardized human time]: October 19, 2136
My mind was on fire as I awoke. Painful throbbing all throughout my body as I attempted to shift in place, and yet couldn't.
As the vision cleared from a starry blur, I saw I was in a hospital room of some sort. The room set me off however, as this was no Zurulian setup I knew of.
Where was I?
The floors, walls, and ceiling were all adorned in unfamiliar apparatuses and a language I was having trouble reading. Perhaps the translator was acting up?
I reached for my [auriculars], feeling around for the implant. But as I did, I looked at my...wings.
Bandages wrapped around them, their structure feels so weak in comparison to normal...and the-
The hole
[[Utter panic setting in as I could hear the metal screech closing in behind me, a terrifying reminder that it was faster even damaged]]
[[The feeling of falling, as my wing went numb and limp from shock]]
[[The cracking of bones, the feeling of blood, the limp of failing adrenaline]]
[[The Machine speaking in Jala's voice, the robotic monster, that killed them. Waiting paitently to do the same to me.]]
It came back like a Hurricane. I could not breathe, could not speak, my heart rate convulsed higher and higher on the screen next to me oh Inatala's talons why did this happen oh nononono....
I flailed for help, desperately trying to not think of the arm. My body hurt in ways I hadn't felt until I had noticed. And the worst part was knowing...
...I'm in a human hospital, aren't I? That's why none of this is familiar. I'm going to die. Oh no by Inatala I'm going to die, accursed Maltos-song scourged predator-infested planet this is-
A human rushed to the door, as if to capitalize on my fear at that moment. He was dressed in what I could only assume were a doctor or nurse's clothes, but they were waiting to kill me, they wanted me awake to die-
The human grabbed me. The end is nigh get off me GET OFF ME GET OFF ME!-
I twisted and squawked as loud and as violent as my damaged body could manage. I wouldn't go without a fight! But regretfully, he overpowered me with little issue.
"Hey! Calm down, hey! You're gonna be alright. Relax! You were banged up pretty good when you came in, I'm surprised you're even awake!
I attempted to struggle any bit further, but after a certain point my strength was spent, my will leaving me to fight further.
Well, this is it. I can only hope the humans aren't slow to kill me...
But it didn't come. He just kept by my side, stating phrases I didn't understand, like "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder", and "Flashback Triggers".
Oh no, have I been corrupted?
I didn't know how long I've been in the hospital, but perhaps their predator taint finally reached me? Am I...predator diseased?
I could only lay in silence as he left my room, awake but unthinking, my brain spent on the stress of...everything. Of the battle above Earth, the escape pod, the machine. Time passed like nothing at all.
I did not know when he came in. Sitting in a chair across the room from me, he was dark-skinned, tall, professionally dressed, looking at me as if I had just killed his family.
…In possibility, that was a concern.
"Captain Kalsim, I presume?" He said with a distinct tone of disdain in his voice.
Very much possible.
I was prepared for him to pull a weapon, to simply finish me off in my broken state, to complete whatever retribution might lie on his mind. But, he didn't. He just continued, the same light tone of hatred infused within his words.
"My name isn't important, but what is important is that I am an Intelligence Officer. For what nation doesn't matter anymore, really...not after what you did."
He stood up, slowly walking closer. "The current estimates for total dead is somewhere in the 780 million range. Seven-hundred and eighty-million men, women, and children buried under rock and rubble where they weren't atomized by the bombardment you ordered. Seventy-five major cities, countless minor ones, dating eons of history and cultures, reduced to rubble and cinders."
He finally stood, still, directly to the side of my hospital bed. He looked imposing, and furious in a way that made me fear for my life.
"To put it mildly, the fact that they're even giving you the chance to heal first is a farce. Any court would sentence you to a firing squad, even if they were juried by nothing but pacifists. Yet, despite all that, the UN is offering a reduction of your sentence to merely rotting in a cell for your life. Why, you might ask? For pragmatism's sake." He scoffed. "We don't know enough about the Federation's capabilities, their true numbers. What is fiction and what is fact about your military is not widely given, nor the specifications of your technology. Normally, we'd just spy on you to get answers, but there's no chance to sneak us into your domain. So, it's come to this, of all things."
"I have to stand down the crippled fucking turkey that killed my country and pry numbers out of him." The human said in the coldest tone I've ever heard a sapient being use.
"So...before I take to any urge of personal justice, I suggest you give me something to work with here for my bosses. Especially about the vessel that [murdered] your fleet. Time's ticking."
My voice found a sudden strength for the next hour where there wasn't one before.
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WARNING: Long post ahead.
I’ve seen discussion in other threads that Mr. House’s ending where he alludes to making the monorail run more on time is a reference to the famous claim that Mussolini made the trains run on time. But I don’t think this is itself proof that Mr. House is meant to be fascist, more of a wink and nod to his admitted “autocratic” nature. Kinda like how Yes Man’s ending has him ominously say that he reprogrammed himself to be more “assertive.” Which made many of us feel like we accidentally installed Skynet when we first played. Josh Sawyer has since claimed that’s not what happens, but in both cases I think the game was trying to make you stop and think “What have I done?” for a second by acknowledging the superficial similarities to known tropes.
In any case, Mr. House cannot be a fascist because he doesn’t meet the core elements of fascism at all.
For one thing, the fact that he is at first OK with the NCR and says he would have no problem at all with them if they didn’t want to take over the Strip is not consistent with fascism. Then even after the game, he makes an uneasy peace with them and becomes close economic and trade partners with them. Fascists hate liberal democracy and all it stands for, and also are driven by constant war and struggle against ideological enemies. There is no way House would be content with the NCR sitting on his border and make this arrangement with them. Cut content even allowed him to join the NCR and accept their rule. Even less possible for a fascist.
Second, fascists are totalitarians, which means they try to control every aspect of a society, culture, and the personal lives and morality of citizens, reshaping it all in their image. House could not possibly care less about any of this. As long as people pay their dues and follow basic laws, he leaves them alone. No fascist would ever do this.
So what is House? Actually I’d say he’s a classical liberal (closer to “libertarian” in modern American politics) both socially and economically. He is a capitalist for sure, but has little to no interest in enforcing social cohesion or moral values. BUT at the same time, he is as he says an “autocrat” when it comes to government structure. The closest analogy in the real world I can think of is maybe Singapore (also a city-state), except he is actually way less socially conservative. And they aren’t fascist either.
This is why I think people get confused, they see he is a socially liberal capitalist and assume “libertarian” but see the autocracy as antithetical to this. Whether it is or not, it definitely doesn’t make him a fascist.
Now who in the game actually is fascist? Caesar’s Legion, hands down. Almost a perfect example in fact, right down to the pseudo-Roman imagery and pseudo-philosophical justifications. The game does not have two fascist factions.
None of this is to say I think House is the best ending. My heart will always be with the NCR because I still believe in liberal democracy at the end of the day. But, except for the show maybe implying some things about House which make him a less morally gray character, I think he is a valid choice for a good karma courier. Just going by the game anyway.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

I should preface this with an acknowledgement that this is mostly a headcanon thing and that I don’t expect any changes to the game, which is perfectly fine as it currently is.
Lore issues
One of my main problems with the Suzerain lore is that the role of President and some aspects of the Constitution don’t make a lot of sense. The game never mentions there being a Presidential election, and whenever election results are given they relate to the parliamentary election. Indeed, the President and VP are members of parliament, which implies a parliamentary system. This is further reinforced by the fact that cabinet ministers must also be members of parliament, which I found weird since none of your ministers ever show up in the GNA and I doubt some of them, such as the technocratic Holl or general Lancea would run for public office. The position of VP is particularly strange, as they seem to lack any personal mandate and can be dismissed and appointed at the President’s wish. The Presidency seemingly is automatically awarded to the head of the biggest party in the GNA, since the epilogue will always have you re-elected as President if you win the election even if the parliamentary arithmetic doesn’t hold up (the entry of new left wing parties, especially in case of a 3% threshold would mean that a right-wing Rayne would have a hard time cobbling a parliamentary majority).
Another issue is the role of Soll. Soll is repeatedly referred to as a widely beloved figure who is seen as a father of the nation type figure and yet the lore has him almost lose an election and then lose the party leadership to Alphonso. Having Soll booted as leader of an explicitly Sollist party is weird enough, but in game we also learn that most USP members are staunch supporters of Soll, making Soll’s defeat jarring. It’s true that Alphonso’s failure might have reignited the revival of Sollism, but this doesn’t solve another problem, that of Soll’s authoritarianism.
The game depicts Soll as an authoritarian leader who bordered on being a dictator (in the ending compass he is depicted as more authoritarian than the NFP, which seeks to create a ethnonationalist dictatorship). However, we also learn that he not only allowed the opposition to grow to a point where he would’ve lost if not for a sex scandal but even allowed the opposition within his own party to grow until they controlled the party. Soll is often compared unfavourably to Atatürk by the fandom, but in terms of authoritarianism Atatürk only ever allowed the creation of two controlled opposition parties which he swiftly banned. Indeed, we learn that in 1946 Soll appointed Alphonso VP (again raising the issue of the vice-presidency) and allowed him to effectively run the government until he got his own mandate in 1949.
The final lore problem is that of the Old Guard. The OG is depicted as an all powerful deep state which completely destroyed Alphonso’s administration. However, in a reformist playthrough they seem downright pathetic, as they have essentially no power over constitutional reform, whose passage depends not on the support of the OG but of Edmonds, who is effectively more powerful than Chief Justice Hawker. The Supreme Court is in fact a rather confusing institution, as it essentially has codified legislative powers and can seemingly impeach and dismiss the President at will.
All these problems can in my opinion be solved with one change: at game start Soll remains President and you instead serve as his Prime Minister.
The new lore
In my view the lore should remain the same until 1929. When Soll drafts the 1929 Constitution he seeks to create a balance between his autocratic tendencies and the population’s democratic demands. On the one hand he has himself appointed as President for life. The President technically holds wide powers, being able to veto laws, declare a state of emergency, pass decrees and appoint Supreme Court judges as well as holding legal immunity. However, this is balanced with the creation of an elected GNA and the role of Prime Minister. Despite having a lot of powers on paper, the role of President is meant to be a non-partisan and ceremonial role, with most executive functions instead vested on the PM. The President can appoint any Member of Parliament as PM and dismiss them at will, but there is a conventional understanding that the PM must hold the GNA’s confidence. Similarly, the President’s decrees must be proposed and countersigned by the PM and it’s the PM who proposes the Supreme Court candidates which the President then appoints. Soll then introduces the 10% threshold as a way to ensure the USP controls the GNA, and by extension, he controls the office of PM, which he uses as a shield for his own popularity, scapegoating the PM whenever one of his plans doesn’t work out.
For the first decade and a half Soll’s plan works without a hitch. USP dominance means that Soll is free to appoint subservient loyalists to the Prime Ministership and he effectively holds absolute power, with the PM as a mere executor of his will. By the mid 1940s, however, economic and political stagnation lead to the rise of the opposition both within and without the USP. While Soll remains broadly popular, the unpopularity of the USP and his PMs start to filter upwards and his grasp of power becomes increasingly tenuous. In 1946 the reformist wing of the USP under Alphonso takes advantage of the unpopularity of the establishment to take over the party leadership from the incumbent Sollist PM and Soll has no choice but to appoint Alphonso as the new head of government. Most importantly, the average USP member doesn’t believe that Soll himself is the problem, but simply thinks that his ministers are incompetent and therefore don’t see Alphonso’s rise as a challenge to Soll himself.
After Alphonso’s rise a new era starts. Soll enters a state of semi-retirement, retreating to a more ceremonial role and letting Alphonso do as he pleases. At first this arrangement is amenable to both sides, but when Alphonso gets a strong mandate in the 1949 election he starts pushing for more radical political and economic reforms. At this point Soll comes out of retirement and together with the OG sabotages Alphonso’s administration. Before the 1953 election Alphonso steps down as party leader and announces he won’t run for a third term, being replaced by Rayne as head of the USP during the election.
The new gameplay
At game start Soll remains President but is still formally in a state of semi-retirement. After winning the 1953 election Rayne is appointed PM and Petr becomes Deputy PM. Most interactions with Hawker would be replaced with Soll, so for example the first event would be Soll appointing Rayne as PM. The three main paths would similarly remain with some changes:

1. Reformist path

The objective of this path would be to reform the Constitution to make the Presidency a truly ceremonial role. Possible reforms would include making the PM answerable not to the President but to the Assembly, introducing votes of confidence and no confidence, with the President merely rubber stamping the GNA’s decision instead of appointing his own candidate. Similarly vetoes could be removed or be subject to parliamentary override, decrees would be passed by the PM with an enabling act or removed, etc. Presidential immunity can also be removed, which will be important for the reason I’ll state later on.
The reformist path, which currently serves as a sort of “easy mode” would be significantly harder. For starters, Gloria Tory and the “conservatives” currently are quite favourable to reformism, in fact Tory supports giving the GNA (and by extension herself) more power and mainly cares about retaining power by keeping the 10% threshold and protecting Soll’s immunity. In this new gameplay conservatives would be far more hostile to reform, as they see it as a personal attack on Soll (which it kind of is), and getting their support would be more difficult.
Similarly, the legislative power of the SC would be gone. The game currently acknowledges that it doesn’t make a lot of sense, and the whole SC reform subplot would be replaced with another subplot in which you try to convince the Supreme Court to rule a certain way in a case, maybe expanding the Ershval case.
The main hurdle on this path would therefore be Soll himself, and most of it would be focused on forcing Soll to sign the constitutional reform package. Soll’s current opposition to reform is quite pathetic, as despite all his lore power he simply shows up at the GNA, isn’t noticed by anyone and doesn’t affect the vote. Instead, Rayne’s objective would be to make Soll’s position untenable and give him no choice but to approve of the reforms. Soll’s ego means that he’s deeply offended by criticism and is very worried about his popularity. If Soll is seen as going against the popular will and publicly clashes with a strong PM he would open himself to calls of resignation, which he wants to avoid at all costs. As such factors such as your ideology, your popularity, the scope of the reforms, the support you got for your reforms at the GNA and your ability to sway the Supreme Court to your side on the court case would determine whether he signs the reforms or not.
Right now failing to pass the Constitution has pretty much no impact in-game. In this version failing to get the Constitution past the Assembly would give Soll the pretext to fire you, leading to an early game over. If you do get it past the GNA but fail to convince Soll to sign it you would get a popularity hit that would make re-election near impossible.
If you manage to pass the Constitution or Soll vetoes it you would continue the game with an incredibly pissed off head of State looming over you, which brings me to the other change. As I said veto power lies on the President and not the PM. The current mechanic of sign or veto would therefore be replaced with a decision to either introduce or withdraw legislation as you currently do in the case of the Women Liberation Act or the Minority Rights Act.
At the start of the game you enjoy a honeymoon period and Soll is still optimistic about Rayne so he will sign whatever legislation you introduce. However, after the constitution reform debacle he would be willing to use his veto powers to screw over Rayne. Currently there’s a mechanic where you can piss off the party wings and they will override your vetoes, which leads to a weird dynamic where conservatives or reformists will override vetoes of laws they presumably didn’t support and likely didn’t vote for in the first place. This would be replaced with Soll’s veto, which he uses to sabotage your administration. This would make the veto power reform particularly important, and you should have the ability to lobby for individual bills with your personal wealth to be able to clear the ⅔ majority needed to override Soll’s veto. Removing the veto altogether would be possible but extremely unlikely to pass.
As I stated before, removing Presidential immunity would play a massive role. Right now there’s no mechanical point to removing Soll’s immunity let alone placing him on trial and it’s basically a RP decision that just hurts your popularity. In the new gameplay passing the immunity reform would require mega-dictator constitution level of perfect play, including having the ACP investigate the OG and having high public popularity, giving Soll no choice but to pass the reform to avoid suggestions that he is corrupt himself. If you managed to pass the immunity reform and kept investigating the OG Soll would eventually be revealed to be involved in Circas’ assassination, and you would be able to have him and Lileas tried for this. You would then be able to appoint a new President, bypassing the whole veto dynamic. Failing to remove Soll, on the other hand, would see him sabotage your administration, block any ACP investigations on the OG, and, should you fail to appease Lileas, would make her party leadership bid unbeatable.

1. Emergency path

The emergency path would receive few changes, mostly replacing Hawker with Soll. As I stated Soll requires Rayne’s countersignature to pass the emergency decree, so his plan is to have him the PM pass the decree and then use his new power to return to the situation of the 1930s, with Soll holding almost absolute power and Rayne being more or less a puppet. Similarly to what Hawker does, if you displease Soll or pass policies he disagrees with he would sack you and it would lead to an early game over.

1. Dictator path

I always found the use of the term “dictator” funny, as this path is for all intents and purposes less oppressive than the emergency path. The game currently has you package a naked power grab as a “democratic” reform, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. However, in this new path the objective would instead be to transfer the President’s wide ranging powers to the PM, who is an elected member of the GNA and therefore has a stronger democratic mandate, making the “democratic” claims more plausible. The constitutional reform gameplay would be similar to the reformist playthrough, but there should be an additional option to truly make this a dictatorship path. Should Rayne ally the NFP and run an ultranationalist administration he would have the option to have Holstorn and the Young Sords assassinate Soll and then merge the positions of President and PM, turning Sordland into a fascist dictatorship.

[Author note: I am an academic philosopher with an interest in war studies, but hardly an expert. Nevertheless, I thought this idea might be interesting and I look forward to reading your comments]
Taiwan is an independent prosperous liberal democracy of 24 million free people that the Chinese Communist Party solemnly promises to annex to its empire by whatever means are necessary. Although Taiwan’s flourishing capitalist economy once allowed it to outgun and hence straightforwardly deter China from a military invasion, this military advantage has switched to China over the last 20 years. If Taiwan is to be kept free it must find another means to deter the CCP.
In fact it makes sense for Taiwan to develop a new deterrence that rests on multiple pillars and is thus robust to the failure of any one of them. Hence Taiwan appears very sensibly to be pursuing closer and more militarised alliances with America and other democracies of S.E. Asia threatened by China’s imperial expansionism (especially Japan and S. Korea). At the same time, Taiwan is moving to adopt a ‘porcupine’ strategic posture, investing in large numbers of cheap access denial weapons such as sea mines, torpedo boats, and anti-ship missiles that would exact catastrophic losses on any amphibious invasion fleet.
An additional possibility is for Taiwan to develop an independent nuclear deterrent of its own, which would be well within its technological capabilities (and something the KMT dictatorship actively pursued in the 1960s to 1980s before America persuaded them to drop it). On the one hand a nuclear deterrent would free Taiwan from dependence on US promises to risk a direct large-scale war with a nuclear armed super-power to stop a Chinese invasion (and the presidential elections that determine the worth of those promises). On the other hand, the ability to escalate a Chinese invasion to a nuclear conflict would also allow Taiwan to coerce its allies into upholding their promises of conventional military aid in case of an invasion, thus increasing the deterrence value of those promises in the eyes of the CCP. (Israel is reckoned to have done something similar at the nadir of the 1973 Yom Kippur war, making arrangements to ready its nuclear weapons for use that were intended to be visible to the US and thereby successfully extorting a massive airlift of conventional military supplies under the threat that ‘if you don’t save us, we are desperate enough to take this nuclear’.)
One thing all those other deterrents have in common though is that they are only capable of deterring the CCP from the most extreme actions it may be contemplating against Taiwan. But what if China drops the idea of a full scale invasion (because it is successfully deterred) and instead tries something else from its menu of options. For example, what if China blockaded Taiwan’s ports and airspace, as it seemed to be practising during Nancy Pelosi’s visit in 2022? Taiwan’s weakness in conventional military power means that it can’t contest China for control of its own sea and airspace. Moreover this is the kind of aggressive action short of military invasion that allies like Japan and America would not necessarily see as crossing their red lines, and even if they did, are unlikely to have any ready answers to. Yet such a blockade would be devastating to Taiwan’s economy and society, and in the medium term would also undermine its military readiness and international perceptions of its legitimacy as an independent country.
And so perhaps we need to add another pillar to Taiwan’s deterrence, but one that can be deployed in a proportionate way in response to acts of aggression that fall short of full scale military invasion. Economic sanctions such as those deployed against Putin’s Russia are the obvious such device: versatile enough to be scaled up or down and powerful enough to impose immediate and severe costs on the CCP regime. There is also an additional moral legitimacy to blockading a country to punish it for blockading another.
Unfortunately while economic sanctions would certainly hurt China’s economy, they have some drawbacks. First, economic sanctions are indiscriminate weapons that would cause a great deal of hardship for hundreds of millions of ordinary Chinese citizens who are entirely innocent of the crimes of their unelected and murderous rulers. Second, economic sanctions on Russia caused significant disruption to the world economy, including extended effects on innocent 3rd parties (such as via higher food and energy prices in poor countries). But China is a far more important part of the world economy than Russia, and so the consequences of such a blockade would be almost as severe for those imposing it, and for 3rd party countries in the Global South, as for China. It is an odd weapon that shoots whoever is using it in the face as well as the person they are aiming at. That oddness also undermines the most important feature of a deterrent: the regime you are trying to deter has to believe that you would actually do what you threaten to do.
Fortunately there is another possibility that seems more promising: Information warfare.
Information war is the attempt to subvert a regime’s grip over its population, and hence its ability to order them about and to draw resources from them to advance its goals (whether those goals be to fight wars, to fight Covid, or to extract loot). The internet – and especially social media – have made it much easier to pr0mote distrust of governments and institutions in other countries, for example by amplifying social divisions and disinforming people about what is happening.
Up to this point, information war has largely been employed by authoritarian regimes against their own populations, and against the populations of democracies that defy them. For example, Taiwan is the target of disinformation and distrust campaigns on a vast scale by the Chinese Communist Party’s dedicated information warfare units.
Democracies do engage in information warfare of course, but they are constrained by domestic laws and norms against governmental deception and lying (famous scandals from Cold War era CIA sponsored information operations being exceptions that prove the rule), and also by democracies’ general lack of interest in what people in other countries think. The most democracies do is to (rather grudgingly) subsidise foreign language broadcasting that gives the populations of non-democracies some access to trustworthy information outside the control of their rulers. Naturally this enrages autocrats, but it is much less than democracies could do if they really tried.
The Chinese Communist Party is pathologically anxious about losing control because the basis of the legitimacy of their regime is the exclusion of any possibility of an alternative. Xi’s concept of ‘Comprehensive National Security‘ prioritises the survival of the regime and identifies a bewildering number of potential threats, including:
-Any form of civil society (besides economic) that allows citizens to organise themselves and come to think that they can get things done or demand that things should get done by the government. (Private corporations too, the source of all China’s economic development, have been brought more thoroughly under the supervision and control of the Party, at the cost of economic growth.)
-Women’s equality, which despite its place in official party doctrine Xi Jinping seems to see as the leading cause of China’s demographic collapse. (Generally, Xi’s obsession with social stability supports rather conservative values, and explains also why LGBT rights and even effeminate looking male influencers are being targeted)
-University student Marxist societies – since they may come to different interpretations of communist theology than that currently endorsed by the CCP
-Inconvenient history – every ten years or so the CCP rewrites China’s history to whitewash its record. (One pillar of the regime’s legitimacy is the CCP’s tremendous and continuous record of success, which it gets to write for itself.)
-Even very ordinary people outside China criticising the regime or its policies in Chinese.
This paranoia is actually one of the greatest threats to China’s peace and prosperity, since it has spurred an extremely aggressive attitude to merely potential threats that undermines the functioning of the state and economy (e.g. treating all foreigners as spies; banning encryption on the civilian internet) and generates resentment and distrust from foreign governments (e.g. China has border disputes with all its neighbours; many of them are investing in their militaries and reaching out to America).
The good thing about Xi Jinping’s expansive and paranoid concept of Comprehensive National Security is that by greatly expanding what China considers a significant harm to its interests it necessarily makes it much easier to succeed in harming China at quite low effort. In effect Xi has made his regime into a hypersensitive snowflake, vulnerable to imaginary harms as well as real ones.
In response to Chinese aggression against Taiwan that fell short of military invasion, information war could be launched in retaliation, flooding China with alternative opinions to those the CCP prefers, and inconvenient but truthful information on sensitive topics (such as the CCP’s dismal record of killing more Chinese people than all foreign invaders combined over all of history). Among other things this might include broadcasting Chinese language radio from over the border; distributing free VPNs by text message; and information-bombing students/tourists outside China.
Obviously Taiwan couldn’t do this alone. China’s hypersensitivity is a danger as well as an opportunity (as Lithuania recently found). But Taiwan’s allies (especially America, Japan, S. Korea) could join it in collectively and quite credibly committing to flood China with information that the CCP considers an existential threat.
Unlike the first set of deterrents that I discussed, information warfare allows for a proportional response to acts of aggression by China that fall short of full scale military invasion. It can also be modulated in response to China’s own response, which facilitates the tricky business of de-escalating a conflict. Unlike economic sanctions, information warfare is very cheap for those employing it, and, because it is targeted at the bullseye the CCP’s paranoia has painted on itself, it does not impose significant harms on large numbers of innocent ordinary people. Of course, information warfare of this kind would not actually topple the regime that misrules China. But the regime’s exaggerated fear that it might do so creates the possibility of a deterrent, of raising the perceived costs of aggression against Taiwan to more than the perceived benefits.

There are three general types of government, with all other types being variations on those three: democracy, oligarchy, and autocracy. Either all can share in government, only some, or only one; otherwise there is no government. Which type has the best variation?
If all share in government, you have mob rule, unlimited hands in the treasury, wanting a cut. There is no assurance of life or property for anyone: if you have more, covetous neighbors can vote themselves your property. Many of the American founders openly condemned democracy, wanting to create a limited franchise, where property owners had a disproportionate share of power. Any legal assurance of individual liberty will be swept away if it ever becomes an obstacle to what the majority wants in the moment. It is not enough to say that something is illegal for the majority to do, to write and pass laws creating legal limits on its on what it can vote for. If power is shared by all, the majority will always have its way and who will stop them? In every country with a general franchise, there are countless cases of things that the government supposedly could not do, but did anyway if the wind happened to be blowing that way. In the United States virtually every amendment has been violated at some point. The power of the state has expanded beyond all limits established in the constitution, often to establish popular social programs. Besides unconstitutional social programs, large numbers of American citizens have been imprisoned solely on the basis of their ethnicity(see Japanese-American internment camps) with no due process of law, the state regularly violates privacy rights today, and has imprisoned people for their political opinions at various points(see Woodrow Wilson's presidency, for example). Is America the exception regarding countries with a general franchise? No.
In the U.K., with its vaunted constitutional "monarchy," where the monarch possesses no actual power and is not a part of the de facto political system except as a rubber stamp, freedom of speech has been abolished in favor of "hate speech" laws. The same is true in other European countries. There is no country with a general franchise where the government actually follows its constitution consistently, unless it has a very permissive, and thus worthless, constitution.
Power structures and their incentives constrain governments, not constitutions.
To guard against the dangers of mob rule, of democracy, the American founders and others created mechanisms to restrict the general population's involvement in government(we can see how successful that was in ensuring the rights of the individual(partial and temporary success before degrading)). In essence, they created oligarchic government instead. Many will praise oligarchy for its stability, for keeping mob rule in check while preventing the rise of a single oppressive autocrat. But it has its own problems instead.
Despairing of gaining supreme power, oligarchs are instead incentivized to collude to rob the nation of as much of its wealth as possible. Widespread, unaccountable corruption is practically certain in oligarchies. There are still plenty of "hands in the pot," all wanting a cut. The incentives of the alliance of oligarchs are to make their hold on power as secure as possible(i.e. to ossify the political system) and to leech as much off it as possible(because it the whole system breaks, an oligarch can always leave for a foreign land to live out his days in luxury with the wealth he stole). Since a successful oligarchic political system is fixed in place, unable to change much(the source of oligarchy's vaunted "stability"), if it enters upon a bad course, it will follow that course to the end, to the ruin of the nation over which it rules.
But what are the alternatives? Virtually everyone can think of failed autocracies and the dangers of a horrible ruler. But if one looks at the variant of autocracy that is absolute monarchy, one sees a system with, on the whole, a very good record. Most of the successful states in history were absolute monarchies and horrible rulers were rare. Most of the bad rulers I've seen were bad because they were weak, not because they were cruel or terrible in the way Hitler or Stalin were terrible. Some absolute monarchies are better than others as well; the Ottoman Empire never had a truly terrible ruler. It seems there are even better ways of arranging an absolute monarchy to maximize the systems benefits.
The following are my list of unique advantages of absolute monarchy:

1. The ruler is incentivized to work for the national good. The nation's power is the ruler's, and so in order to maximize his own upside, the ruler can only work to improve the nation as a whole in power and wealth. In a democracy or an oligarchy individual ambition is a danger to the political system, but in an absolute monarchy individual ambition in the ruler is a virtue.
2. The ruler is incentivized to care about the long term consequences. Absolute monarchy bets on basic human instincts, such as selfishness and care for one's own children, while other systems bet on "virtue" and altruism. Almost everyone wants to leave their children better off, and so an absolute monarchy incentivizes the ruler to care about the future of the nation, not merely to exploit it into the ground and fly out of the country on a helicopter while it falls apart, like the prime minister of Sri Lanka did in recent years after his idiotic debt-leveraging policies(notice the insane levels of debt in oligarchies/democracies around the world).
3. There is only one hand in the treasury. Even if the ruler wants to live large on taxpayer money, it's only one person rather than a large number of people. This is better for fiscal sustainability.
4. In absolute monarchy, the ones who hold power don't have to "sell themselves," whether than means promising "the people" or the oligarchs spoils. Other political systems select for people who are willing to wheel and deal to gain status, while monarchs hold their positions by right and in absolute monarchy don't have to share power with those who "sell themselves." As a result, absolute monarchy is the only political system where people of ordinary or even good character will gain power the vast majority of the time, as opposed to other systems, where you're more likely to promote the venal and mediocre than if you selected the ruler by lot.
5. Political power is only held by those who can be prepared from birth. Not every monarchy took advantage of this, but every monarchy that did produced good rulers with an unexpectedly high degree of consistency(see the Ottoman Empire in the first half of its history and Prussia up to and including Frederick the Great, where each generation added territory and power to the realm).
6. Absolute monarchy's greatest advantage, one that no other kind of monarchy can have, is the ability drag a nation back from the brink of oblivion over and over again. Only an autocrat has the resources to overcome seemingly impossible situations and triumph, something even republics like Rome, with its hatred of kings, acknowledged by appointing dictators. Philip II of Macedon saved his country: when he became king, it was being invaded by three separate enemies, had hardly any money, and a weak military on the verge of collapse, but he not only salvaged the situation, but made Macedon the hegemon of Greece and built the great army Alexander would use to conquer Persia. If a republic had been in Macedon's position, it probably wouldn't have survived. An absolute monarchy can take any necessary action to survive, while an oligarchy or a democracy is constrained in what it can practically do, especially in what it can practically do quickly, by its own nature. China has lasted over two millennia ruled by absolute monarchs, not because it was stable(it fractured many times), but because a new emperor or a new dynasty could always bring it back. This is also the reason Rome survived so long.

If you want survival for your nation, the two common ways for nations to die is to be destroyed by war or to become fiscally unsustainable. Absolute monarchy guards best against both.
The moment you introduce a power sharing arrangement, you make the monarch into just another oligarch and so he no longer has the positive incentives of absolute monarchy, just the negative incentives of oligarchy. Either that or you have a power struggle between the monarch and oligarchs, a power struggle monarchs frequently lose(see English civil war, the Hungarian "Golden Bull," and the fate of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Hungary and Poland-Lithuania's weak monarchies couldn't stand up to external threats(the Ottomans and the Russians) because the oligarchs wanted to weaken the central military, and thus the monarchy.
If you believe monarchs should have at least some power, be wary of power-sharing arrangements, because you could end up with just another republic in all but name.
If you believe that oligarchy or democracy is better than autocracy(inclusive of absolute monarchies) because America and Europe are richer than other places, you'll have to account for all the poor, failed oligarchies and democracies in Latin America, Africa, and various places in Asia. I have not noticed a tendency of monarchists to disown our ugly children, but democrats and republicans love to do this.
As for Europe's successes, they are easily explained by the fact that monarchies built Europe, monarchies where the monarchs had substantial power. It was only after they became rich and relatively stable that they were strong enough to endure the degradation of democracy and oligarchy without rapidly collapsing(though the French Revolution doesn't look so great, does it?). But they are living on the fumes of past accomplishment; European countries today are debt-ridden has-beens that lost their empires and are clearly in decline. America is only little behind Europe on this path and its gigantic size, wealth of natural resources, and extremely kind geography help mask its problems to a point.
I am a disillusioned former republican who grew up on the tales of the American Revolution and the glory of the founders. I favored an aristocratic republic for a while, hoping to protect the legacy of that revolution from the constant degradation by instituting a system that severely limited change. However, I came to view the ability to renew a nation's vitality as superior to stability of the political system and seeing the effects of oligarchy throughout history, both in my country and in others, has turned me against that system. America and Europe need to renew themselves in order to survive and not enter a final death spiral. I would like to see America become its own civilization-state which can come back from any cataclysm and for which people are willing to endure anything. I do not see that happening under a corrupt oligarchy, regardless of what band-aid fixes are made or who wins the next election.
I would invite more monarchists who are not already absolute monarchists to consider absolute monarchy. Constitutional monarchists should consider that based on the actual power structure of a constitutional monarchy, it does not have any of the advantages of monarchy while possessing all the disadvantages of a republic. Semi-constitutional monarchists should beware how the people with whom the monarch is sharing power can undermine and strangle the monarchy. By adding checks and balances, you do not simply have a monarchy, but without the risks, but both worsen and threaten the monarchy, changing the monarch's incentives for the worse. There is, unfortunately, no way out of the risks as far as I can tell. Any kind of government can become, and is just as likely as an absolute monarchy to become, oppressive.

Reported both in N12 and N14 (Israeli medias) that the ICC will likely issue arrest warrants to Prime Minister Netanyahu, IDF chief of Staff of IDF Herz Halevi, and Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant next week.
If the ICC issues arrest warrants those indicted must be arrested if they are in any country that is a member of the ICC (note, not Israel and the US). However it is possible (low possibility, but non-zero) that since Israel and the US are part of The Hague convention, they might be required to arrest them, if they are charged with crimes against humanity.
If this does happen, might be of interest for Destiny to look into the legal requirements of members of ICC and The Hague convention with regards to those with arrest warrants (I know he looked into both in the past, but it was only at a cursory level to understand who/what the international legal bodies are).
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Including some analysis I have seen floating around:

Tamir Morag of Channel 14 reports that the Israeli government has received word that the top echelon of the Israeli government and IDF will receive indictments from the ICC within the next week or so. The individuals to be indicated include Netanyahu, Gallant, and Halevi. But the list will not stop there. They will likely be charged with crimes against humanity. Despite his bravado about the ICC, I am hearing from sources that Netanyahu is very nervous about the high likelihood that they will issue arrest warrants. At this point, it appears that that is inevitable. While the ICC cannot arrest anyone, all court members are obligated to hand over individuals with warrants against them. So if served, that could stop anyone served from going to 124 countries. Basically, all important nations on earth aside from the United States, China, India, and a few Arab states (and Israel, of course). Most importantly, it would be a nightmare for Israel's international image. Russia and Sudan have had warrants issued for their leaders. But no Western democracy ever has. This is yet another piece of diplomatic fallout from the war. The clock the international community set for this conflict long expired. Now, Israel finds itself fighting in the ICJ and soon the ICC. This will embroil Israel in a multi-year legal and diplomatic nightmare. Netanyahu is reportedly very concerned about this and thinks he can avoid some of these warrants by delaying an invasion of Rafah even further. That seems to be the main consideration right now—stopping an operation—far more than the US or Egypt.

And another:

Another consequence that could be, because we are a member state of the Hague, that there would be a demand that we arrest them and hand them over. It is not certain that this will happen (a very low chance, but in the basket of possibilities), and it is not certain what the meaning of diplomatic immunity is in this context, but if it happens and it is demanded of us, assuming and we do not fulfill the request, we will have to withdraw from being a member state of The Hague. The meaning of this is that we will no longer be able to defend ourselves, and there will begin to be significant sanctions on the country, economically, etc. (at the level of completely collapsing the economy here, as they did to South Africa), and the possibility of arrest warrants for more specific people, even down to the level of ordinary soldiers who simply served as warriors. It is not certain that we will get there, there are still opportunities to play "by the book" so-called and resolve this diplomatic crisis, but the direction we are moving towards is not good at all.

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Karl's actually the most competent official in the entire game when you give him the resources he needs. For example
With the ACP
-Will Uncover Lileas and Hawker's plot to kill Bernard to cause a state of emergency to create an autocratic Sollist police state and finding out everyone who could have been included in the plot allowing Rayne to conduct the largest purge ever all while the old guard tried to torch all the records.
-Will significantly reduce the amount of corruption in the government by destroying either the oligarchs' or old guards' system of corruption and patronage.
-Will find evidence that shows that the Kiberner, Remus, the NFP, and the young sords were directly working with the members of the old guard in the planning and execution of Bernard's assassination.
-Will arrest both Tusk and Koronti even after Tusk tried to buy time by leaking Koronti's corruption. Able to conform the rumors that the oligarchs were funding terrorism and the cartel.
-Will be able to prevent a mass capital flight by discovering the Oligarch's plan to crash the economy in revenge and still be able to confirm their shady dealings.
-Will reduce tax evasion dramatically (Red Situation to Green Situation) when partnered with the Free Trade Commission.
-Does everything he can to fulfill his mandate to end corruption, will even arrest His current and former boss once he discovers the extent of their corruption.
With SSP
-Is able to eliminate the entire BFF leadership and rescue the governor and take control of the soll damn before the BFF destroys it. Effectively destroying any remaining bludish resistance.
-Able to foil 3 (Blud, Oligarch, Rumburg) different assassination plots
-Completely decimates the cartels and the oligarchs that fund them, also discovers that the cartels were making their murders look like political attacks to avoid suspicion.
-Able to successfully cover up the murders of up to 8 people (Tusk, Koronti, Kibner, Ricter, Party second in command, Petr, Livia, and Horten). Basically guaranteeing you the election all while covering his tracks so effectively that the only way to get caught is not tying up loose ends (Lucian stays quiet by either being VP or Rayne being a Chess God)
-Destroy's a mass political movement by assassinating it's leadership and effectively neutering the movement and ending the mass unrest.
-Still able to assist Rayne in dealing with the old guard by eliminating Hawker
In all, Karl is one of the most competent officials that Sordland has ever had and it makes sense that it would be Karl, the person who grew up in destitute poverty, who had to work 14 hours a day to provide for those around him, a cadet who despite all that adversity was able to climb to the top of the sordish police. If your Rayne was also poor, both you and Karl are able to bond about your shared experiences climbing the ladder. I also think Karl is the sole reason why Lileas is even considered a competent crime-fighter considering he was her chief of police when she was a mayor, and she could have just passed his success off as her own, considering that through most of the game, all she does is try to expand her power and try and seize control. The thing with Karl is that he's dangerously competent and can either be used to change Sordland for the better or become the equivalent of the sordish Beria.
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From an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune ("The origin of COVID-19 remains uncertain — still"):

It has become fashionable to use the term “conspiracy theory” to discredit anyone or any idea that is contrary to a mainstream belief or political view. Where once the term was reserved for such confections as faked moon landings or multiple shooters firing at former President John F. Kennedy from a grassy knoll, now it is a fashionable ad hominem way to discredit people without confronting and refuting their arguments through discourse.
Ironically, in the search for the source of COVID-19, there have been at least two documented actual — not theoretical — conspiracies: one by leading U.S. public health officials to debunk the lab leak theory and another by the Chinese government, which destroyed evidence in a probable attempt to hinder investigation of the source. When real conspiracies are in the air, scientists should consider retiring their use of the term “conspiracy theory” and stick to explaining facts. The best way to debunk the lab leak theory is to discover the animal that serves as the intermediary. Name calling is not a becoming feature of science, and does nothing to discredit the lab leak theory.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that the Chinese government conspired to cover up the origins of SARS-CoV-2. An autocratic regime at the epicenter of a global pandemic will easily take extraordinary measures to conceal culpability.
But we should expect more from a liberal, democratic nation like the US. Yet our public health officials "dissembled" and help label a lab origin as a "conspiracy theory"; influential scientists "misled" the press and had the story "dropped" for over a year.
While traditionally media merely dropped the issue, social media censored the topic outright. And medical journals still labeled the lab leak hypothesis as "misinformation" last year.
The deception around SARS-CoV-2's origin is a reminder to avoid blind faith in institutions and that some skepticism is usually warranted (particularly with highly politicized topics).

Introduction
Let's start of with a bit of background first: I used to be a big Civ 4 player back in my day. I haven't played 5 or 6 yet. I played Civ 3 years ago and it was mostly ok, surprisingly good compared to 4. However, when I entered the Wikipedia page for all the Civ games to learn about them, a couple of titles kept popping up: Call to Power, an Activision ripoff which was created after the whole Micropose-Firaxis debacle which happened when I had an age such that sucking milk from a woman's nipple was socially acceptable; and Alpha Centauri, aka, "Civilization 2.5 IN SPACE" that allegedly took place after a canonical space victory. I started reading and the premise blew my mind.
Alpha Centauri as a sci-fi game
Ok, so for anyone still in the dark, Mandalore made a video about it I recommend to everyone, but the gist of the story is that in the middle-to-far future, the Earth is inhabitable because of war and climate change and the UN decides to send a starship to colonize a planet in the Alpha Centauri system. However war, war never chang... ahem, what I meant is that even in apocalypse our ideologies keep making us different, and humans once again quarrel about how to govern this new world and end arriving to the only possible conclussion: to form 7 different factions with different ideologies and whoever society works better -or is the only one standing- keeps the planet. So we have: a Maoist autocratic dictatorship, an Abrahamic theocacry, a university the size of a continent... and by far the most memeable of all: a laissez-faire ultra-capitalistic megacorporation. What could possibly go wrong?
In other line of thought, I MOTHERF💀🎇🐀GLY HATE AVATAR. No, not the bald kid with air powers, unless we're talking about the movie that shall not be named. I meant the other movies, the ones with blue people. Ok, I don't "hate" them, but they're so forgettable. They're the definition of "big corporate shallow movie aiming to the lowest common denominator". I saw "the Way of the Water" and was like "I wish there was another human faction with other flaws so we get to see more nuance". Thing is, Alpha Centauri does precisely that. In spades. I actually got to start writing an unoriginal post-apocaliptic copy when I was in university. And now, once EA has posted the game on Steam and I don't need to get a GOG account I've finally decided to try it.
First, I gotta say that everything I had being told about the universe and story is wrong... the game is even better. Granted, an 4X title doesn't have many scripted moments and therefore can't tell a good narrative, but the charismatic leaders and interesting setting sell it. From the fact that the Alpha Centauri system exists, how every leader is at least a bit right in their convictions... there's even a quote when you unlock a tech about talking about IA and how these system would hypothetically work by iterations of running the same data processes over and over, written 2 decades before most modern studies on the algorithms used in machine learning. It's clear whoever wrote this is a sci-fi and regular sci nerd from head to toe. The aliens aren't trees and giant animals but worms and fungi. It feels more like The Martian or Interstellar than Star Wars or the aforementioned Avatar.
Alpha Centauri vs other Civilization titles
Being set in the future in another world also has gameplay implications that set it apart from normal Civ games. For instance:

• "Cities" are "bases", "food, production and trade" are "nutrients, minerals and energy", "workers" are "terraformers"... but I'll call them the way you do in a normal Civ game.
• There aren't any barbarians in the beginning of the game. Instead, fungi and native life take their place, with special mechanics like attacking with psychic abilities, which do a lot to add to the immersion. Similarly, the xenofungus will harm our productivity, and must be cleant with workers, although if we choose the ecological path it might be beneficial in the future.
• Here we see a first deep dive in "government mechanics", meaning that instead of picking one of different government types, here we got different policies, or "social engineering". These are very important to add flavour to each faction and playthrough, as politics has a vital role in this game, but also because the effects of this policies are substantial to the gameplay.
• Instead of having different units types -archers, pikemen, cruisers...- here we unlock components to mark the attack, defense, mobility and some special skill of our units, similar to Endless Space, so we customize our army. The upside is that there's more flexibility in your forces. The downside is that this makes creating and army way more tedious as well as that every unit is less visually distinguishable.

However I did say the game is old and nowhere is this more obvious than in the graphics. Not only the few cutscenes are low-res and low-poly, they don't even run on most computers. I've tried to look for a solution but it seems I'll have to conform with looking them on youtube. As for the game itself, the leader portraits are fine, but with no moving facial features you can't tell their attitude like in later Civs. Something similar can be said for the rest of the game, where only small pixels separate different types of tiles according to biome and almost every armor is the same with different color. Functional, but can't compete with having different unit models.
This principle also applies to the UI and controls themselves. Here you don't "left-click to select", "right-click to move", but rather drag to move. If a unit is on a city, by clicking it you select the whole city, rather than the unit itself, and you have go to the unit list to select which ever you want to move. And IMO the worst part, there is no "action section" in the UI. You know, the one where you choose "move", "defend", "build x"... instead you have to select a unit and then, either right click on it to have access to a "cursor menu", then choose either "action" or "terraform" and then whatever you want. Granted, these things are something you eventually grow accustomed to, but it's undeniable they're way more of a hassle than the controls of newer games and an objectively worst way to control the game. They remind me to the old RTS titles where the was no "right-click to move" nor making a square to select multiple units and everything was more clunky.
Finally, this also has implications on the rules themselves, the gameplay, and I could once again just say "it shows its age", but instead I'll explain a series of examples that have aggrieved me:

• The map seems to only have two "stages": unexplored and visible, meaning that you can't perceive the "fog of war" -the map that you have knowledge of but aren't currently watching-. At first I thought there was no fog of war, like in Dune 2, but there is, you just don't know where your sight ends.
• The unit support, that is the maintenance, doesn't come from your treasury but from your cities production, 1 per unit. Not only this means units are way more expensive, each "logistic" support is linked to each city, so we want to level out our unit production and make each city make a part of our army, which in turn makes the strategy of making a single military-making city with a barracks not viable.
• Unless we use spies, there's no way to know the disposition of each faction with each other. At least I haven't found a "tell me what you think of X" option in the diplomacy menu.
• This is another thing that gets mixed up with the "UI" version, but there's no tech tree. For once, research is supposed to be blind, although you can disable that. What I mean is that the only way to see all the technologies is to jump from on to the next in the Civilopedia to get an idea of what you want. I've looked it up and a large poster with all the tech was sold alongside the manual, so I guess it's not included in the game for technical constraints or something. Still, having the tech tree in Civ 3 onwards was delightful.
• While there are borders, here they are a bit arbitrary, as the concept of culture to determine these borders wasn't born until Civ3. Similarly there are no strategic or luxurious resources, they only offer a bonus. Speaking of, here the are only 3 resources tied to the 3 main work types: food/nutrients, production/minerals and energy/trade/gold. Not bad, but certainly shallow and unoriginal.
• I am speaking of memory here, but in Civ4 onwards voting in the UN works depending on your population. In SMAC, apart of being Head of the Planetary Council, most elections are chosen by "1 vote per faction" system.
• I don't know if this was a thing in earlier Civ games, but in most modern 4X titles, making a settler or just spreading your faction costs not only production but also food. This doesn't happen in SMAC, as building a Colony Pod only doesn't diminish your population. Similarly, corruption is only affected by the distance between each city and the capital, not the number of cities. The ending result is that early expansion is very quick, as you can augment your workforce by making more cities, and in the late game you're encouraged to have a city every 3-4 tiles, no matter the terrain.
• Messing around one of the last things I discovered before posting this is that the same summary screen that tell you about your units, cities... also do so about your rivals, which is conveniently a lot of useful information that should be kept secret.

tl,dr; Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is a very interesting sci-fi game with an intriguing world and great narrative potential, but after a couple of playthroughs, I'm going to return to more modern Civ games.