The political end of days draws closer by the day. What are the narrowing options?

We have reached a stage where US politics is so fractured that the argument for a fresh start seems closer with each passing day, and soon there may be no choice.

I hate to say it, but the shutdown has now become an extension of the MAGA agenda. Trump is actually fine operating without a government; in its absence, he feels free to continue making his proclamations and instilling fear into his enemies. Vought and the puppet masters have planned all the angles. You can see that Trump is now using the shutdown to reallocate funds to support his priorities and those services he believes are essential for his plenary vision of governance, while allowing areas not promoting social Darwinism to be neglected. He’s even prepared to use outside private donor money to pay the military, and no doubt his Gestapo. Soon, you’ll be able to buy government departments out in the open, literally. ICE and the military may well find themselves sponsored by entities like Palantir and the Military Industrial Complex.

Government to Trump is increasingly seen as irrelevant. Mass deportation is underway, while at the same time, the federal workforce is being culled as child labour laws are gutted; they are creating the conditions to reintroduce servitude in the form of economic slavery. The choice will be to do the work undocumented immigrants did, or starve. BlackRock are already buying up trailer parks, and I fully expect them to build tent cities like military bases to accommodate the newly indentured slave population for a monthly rent, of course. It seems that, based on yesterday’s Supreme Court oral arguments, the Voting Rights Act is likely to fall, and with it, Congress would remain under the control of MAGA for the foreseeable future. Time and again, we have heard, ‘Don’t worry, the courts will hold the line’; it was then, and is now, delusional. The Supreme Court is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the MAGA movement. The line was broken long ago, and we are fast approaching the point of revolution, and that can go one of two ways. It can become a violent uprising, or it can be the world’s first ‘smart revolution’.

The importance of the No Kings Day protests has now taken on new meaning following arguments from right-wing justices in the Supreme Court that the VRA is facing extinction. The act represents the last barrier to protect democracy in a country currently on democratic life support. We are fast approaching an inflexion point from which there will be no return if we continue to suffer from the ‘bystander effect’, a diffusion of responsibility. As humans, we are very proficient at leaving things to others or not participating until a problem directly affects us. It’s just how we’re made, I’m ashamed to say.

America has never faced a truly existential threat to its future. Many might say it has faced several bumps in the road, not least of which was the 9/11 attacks. There’s no question this was its first real experience of vulnerability. For the first time, the government recognised a very real threat. Its reaction? Two wars and trillions of dollars wasted, not to mention lives lost. Unlike Europe, which has lived experience of the devastating impact of fascism, Americans have lived in a world untouched by such concerns until now. But what is truly terrifying is that the threat has risen from within its own borders.

Let me spell this out so there is no ambiguity. Trump was elected by an estimated 32% of the eligible voters. Studies indicate that despite Trump’s net approval rating being underwater (-15%) as of today, it appears that only 4% of those who voted for him now wish they had voted for someone else. Let’s factor that in and accept that he was elected with just 28% of those eligible to vote. This should serve as a stark warning that tyranny can destroy your life because you couldn’t be bothered to vote. The other side to that coin, of course, is that you felt all politicians were the same, so that’s why you sat it out. How did that go?

The reality is that, unless we have personally suffered the direct consequences of authoritarian rule, we find it difficult to comprehend due to the lack of personal experience. Add to that the insular nature of American culture and a population where 54% have a literacy rate at or below the 6th-grade level, and the prognosis has never been good for identifying threats to society. There is a widely held view that someone else will fix it. Well, I’m here to tell you the only people who can fix it are the population YOU belong to, and if you don’t, your life will never be the same again, despite the false sense of security you may be experiencing at the moment.

As each day passes, the options available to remedy the situation are narrowing. I have absolutely no confidence that US democracy can survive until the 2026 midterms, and even if it does manage to navigate the tyrannical undergrowth to the ballot box, there will be little to no electoral path to prevent defeat. It really is that simple, and if anyone is telling you a different story, they are either delusional or feel they’ll be just fine regardless of what happens. Let me assure you that the latter makes them the former, I’m afraid.

I have said that I believe mass protests have a limited impact in delivering change unless they occur daily at a level that can’t be ignored, and I stand by that assertion. However, what I would say is this: the No Kings Protest on October 18th is probably the most essential act of direct action in modern American history and should be regarded as such. I have expressed my fears over the elevated levels of danger those attending will face, but I have to admit, the pace at which this theocratic autocracy is being imposed makes it almost mandatory to participate. I’m taking a day away from writing tomorrow to create a video for the event, which will contain tips and advice on staying safe. Please look out for it on social media, and I’ll share it here as well.

This protest needs to be the largest ever; above all, it MUST remain peaceful. This is one instance where violence would not only undermine the purpose of the event but could also do irreparable damage to the credibility of the resistance movement. Rest assured, there will likely be paid agitators whose sole purpose in attending events will be to create justification for a violent response from those policing the protests. The only way to win is to protest in a loud but peaceful manner, providing no opportunity for Trump to give the order to detain and brutalise people, because, given the chance, it will happen.

To put this into a broader perspective, we have to view this from the position of an administration whose economy is walking a tightrope without a safety net. Despite all the bluster and aggression, Trump does not hold all the cards here; indeed, he has very few if the American people decide to mobilise and flex their consumption muscles. I have said it over and over again, the US is the largest consumer economy on the planet. This government could be brought to its knees in a matter of weeks if a coordinated campaign of strategic economic disengagement were to take place.

We saw a shining example of it when people cancelled their Disney subscriptions and began boycotting the company following the cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel’s show. Within a week, he was back on air. That’s the power that your purse has. People often discuss a general strike and a blanket spending strike, but in my opinion, such actions can be counterproductive. Certainly, a general strike will open the door to further job losses, and a blanket spending strike can be a very blunt instrument, too. If you would like more of my thoughts on this, I have linked an article below:

Do I believe that mass protests months apart will move the needle? No, I don’t, but I don’t doubt for a minute the value of the message it sends, and in that respect, I am fully onboard. This, for me, has gone beyond a political fight; the oligarchs have raised the stakes to make this about choosing a side, not just a political one. Supporting the rich in the hope that they will spare you some crumbs from their banquet table, or turn off the tap that feeds them, or turn off their wealth-generating tap.

In 2008, Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) dropped by just 2.7%. While there were other factors involved, not least of which was the housing bubble, reduced consumption proved to be the kryptonite of any government presiding over a consumer-driven economy. Were this government to be a targeted and coordinated attack on consumer spending, it would result in the fiscal suffocation of the economy. As things stand, 49.7% of current consumer spending is being driven by the top 10%. However, that still leaves 50.3% in the hands of the bottom 90% and that, my friends, is a very potent weapon that has yet to be weaponised in this fight. Disney was just a micro-example of targeted economic disengagement, and the results were clear.

I’ve heard the argument that Trump supporters will just buy more, but look at the demographics they reside in. Most are already struggling to put food on the table. If the ACA subsidies expire, two out of three of them are in the economic trash can. This has nothing to do with whether this will work; it’s a matter of the people's willingness to endure inconvenience. If I’m honest, I’m not optimistic, I’m afraid. It amazes me to say that people aren’t willing to save their money for a couple of months to preserve their way of life. Explain that to me like I’m a child, because I just don’t get it.

There has never been a better time to fight a domestic economic civil war. There would be no blood spilt, nor a shot fired in pursuit of such a goal, simply a sustained attack on the trough that holds the wealth of the top 1%. This is a government that has bet the house on the support of the obscenely rich. Suppose they become the target of an army of economic holdouts. In that case, it’s only a matter of time before the dam bursts and the government collapses as the bond markets jump in to deliver the euthanasia injection.

This is a strategy that will have the least impact on those firing the bullets at Goliath; your denial of contact with the ‘buy now’ button is akin to priming the doomsday weapon. This government is drowning in a sea of nearly $38 trillion in debt, with almost $9 trillion of that debt due for servicing this year alone. You don’t have to be an economist to understand that the economy is living on the edge. I’ve discussed the incoming inflation risk from Trump’s misguided tariff policy extensively, and every indication suggests a considerable risk to the economy. This is before we discuss the cratering job numbers.

I noted that yesterday, the "Liar of the Year," Scott Bessent, was suggesting that the US and its allies should be putting pressure on China regarding rare earth minerals. Did I miss something? Is he speaking of the same allies he’s helping perpetrate an international extortion racket against? Most of his perceived allies would not pee on him if her were on fire. China now has the measure of the US, and that’s not good news for Trump. He thought they would cave, and he’s been shocked by the fact that they seem unmoved by his bullying attempts. They have spent the last four years gaming his totally predictable attempts to muscle his way to an economic win. He can’t threaten them economically, and he certainly can’t bully them militarily.

All Xi has to do now is maintain export restrictions on rare earth minerals to the US and begin to relax them for the EU, bringing them closer to China. Then what? What I am desperately trying to explain in my usual clumsy way is that the American people have never had as much power as they don’t understand they have.

In the next post, we’ll delve into the danger that China now poses to the US economic stability. We’ll walk through the financial risks associated with overpriced AI, as well as the warning signs emerging from China that current US investment levels in their domestic AI Tech Stack may prove to be the undoing of the US economy.

Please note that I’m taking a day off tomorrow to participate in an Ad in support of No King’s Day, so I’ll be back on Saturday. If you are attending an event, please take care and ensure you are prepared. My video tomorrow will provide a checklist of things you should be aware of, so keep an eye out for that. I will also share a copy here on Substack, as well as on my YouTube Channel, TikTok, and X.

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