Bulletins and News Discussion from February 3rd to February 9th, 2025 - Fuhrer Failsons

Image is of Elon Musk giving the Nazi salute a week or so ago.

I didn't really want to keep spotlighting American domestic events as I had assumed that shit would calm down pretty quickly, but it appears that the Trump administration, including Musk, are determined to bring down the empire from the inside.

One of the most important lessons of ruling a country - and especially an empire - is to never, ever believe your own propaganda; and yet now we have neo-Nazi failsons disrupting parts of the imperial apparatus and causing general government mayhem because they actually seem to believe in libertarianism; that the state and the capitalists are somehow in opposition, rather than working in lockstep to maximise profit and boost American hegemony around the world.

I'm not so optimistic as to believe that a national collapse is FOUR DAYS AWAY, like those weird anti-China cranks often speculate - the US has at least a decade or two left even under these conditions. But consider the damage being inflicted in these past couple weeks, and extrapolate that over the next four years. Does any living American political figure possess the competency to halt - or even meaningfully slow - the already ongoing decline? And could they achieve power (or even be allowed to do so) after Trump's term is done?

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742 comments

Following Senator Marco Rubio's trip to Panama, some "concessions" were extracted:
Panama will not be renewing its agreement with China’s Belt and Road Initiative when it expires.
Rebidding will take place after a 25 year no-bid extension of a contract to run the Panama Canal was given to the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Ports Company.
Pressed the President on curbing illegal immigration. Thanked him for taking the migrants earlier.
Pressed the President on fighting war on drugs which Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela "have wreaked havoc".
These aren't even really concessions, I think. The BRI coming to Panama came partly on the condition of recognition of China as owner of Taiwan, and that is still the case of course. "A rebidding process" will take place meaning at best the US will get to run the canal after paying for the ability to do so.
Although gun boat diplomacy is a very real thing in this region so they aren't out of the woods until Trump is gone IMO.
- ah yes, Cuba, the perfect place to stealthily smuggle drugs into the US
  
  The Florida Strait, famous for it’s historical lack of US military presence and monitoring
  
  And Cuba's famous lax stance on drug possession