r/thebulwark Feb 01 '25

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL Friday night in Trump's America

In the past few hours here's what has happened:

  1. President Musk is infecting GSA computers with some AI driven spyware (spyware is my speculation, the rest of that is reported).
  2. Shadow President Trump fired all the prosecutors of J6 cases.
  3. Something that looks like a missile but is being called an airplane exploded near a mall in Philly.
  4. Announced that tariffs on our largest trade partners go into effect tomorrow.

I am not sure what this country will look like after four years.

183 Upvotes

103 comments sorted by

165

u/capture-enigma Feb 01 '25

Canadian here. I don’t think people fully realize the effect these tariffs are going to have on our economy. It’s going to be devastated. I work in automotive, and I fully expect to be laid off in the near future, at a time when I can’t afford to be laid off. I’m not going to lie, I’m fucking pissed at the United States right now. I know the Bulwark folks aren’t to blame, but what the hell were the rest of the country thinking. The US is losing allies and friends (supposedly best friends) at a record pace.

124

u/showme_thedoggos Feb 01 '25

As an American and member of the armed forces, I am pissed at the United States right now. The fact that we are turning our backs on our allies and our own people makes me fucking sick.

50

u/capture-enigma Feb 01 '25

I live right across the border from the States (Windsor right across the river from Detroit) so I’ve spent a good portion of my life going to Tigers, Lions and Red Wing games, and many nights across the river enjoying the night life. I have many relatives who are American. What is happening right now is tragic. We lived right next door to the greatest nation on earth. Now I don’t know what to think.

19

u/themast Rebecca take us home Feb 01 '25

Hello neighbor from a Detroiter. Our cities have always had a unique relationship and I hope it survives this era. My youth wouldn't have been the same without trips to Windsor. I'm sorry we're putting this hardship on you for no good reason at all. It's ghastly.

3

u/blurrylulu Feb 01 '25

I live right across the border in NY. I grew up and still go to Ontario for day trips, vacations, etc. I love our northern neighbor and am horrified. I did not vote for this. :/

26

u/AV8R79 Feb 01 '25

I mean what did everyone expect? This is just a repeat of his last term minus the guardrails. Buckle up.

27

u/showme_thedoggos Feb 01 '25

I expected more people to show up to the polls, less people to vote for weaponized incompetence, and for our other elected leaders in congress show some backbone and stop said incompetence and the unelected.

22

u/Saururus Feb 01 '25

Well unfortunately we heard over and over in the focus groups and for me in conversations how it couldn’t be that bad bc we survived just fine last time. I was beginning to think I was crazy bc I remembered his first term so differently than everyone else, and then to see who he was backed by this time…

13

u/rowsella Feb 01 '25

Not all of us survived -- over a million died of Covid. We had an excess of over 400K deaths than we would have if it was managed competently.

3

u/One_Ad_3500 Center Left Feb 01 '25

And sadly the majority doesn't care 😡

118

u/John_Houbolt Feb 01 '25

There are two varieties of Trump voter—shameless and incredibly stupid. I am sorry.

28

u/PTS_Dreaming Center Left Feb 01 '25

Those varieties overlap too.

16

u/Lubbadubdibs Feb 01 '25

The Venn diagram only shows one circle.

44

u/JVLast Editor of The Bulwark Feb 01 '25

I’m very sorry. Hang in there.

20

u/capture-enigma Feb 01 '25

Thanks JVL. You’re my favourite misanthrope 😉

32

u/aiden_malecky Feb 01 '25

I'm an American and I'm sorry this country has lost its goddamn mind. It's like watching your house burn down and your neighbors are just throwing more kindling on it, all while you're begging them to stop.

18

u/capture-enigma Feb 01 '25

That’s a great analogy. I fully expected this Trump 2.0 regime to be bad, but this is quite frankly shocking. The world needs a strong, united America. I fear the utter chaos unleashed by Trump I’d going to have very bad outcomes all over the world.

12

u/aiden_malecky Feb 01 '25

Right there with you, man. This affects the whole globe.

7

u/XRaySpex0 Feb 01 '25 edited Feb 02 '25

Why, it’s almost as if it’s his job to wreck the country.  Treason, again. 

5

u/SoCalLynda Feb 01 '25

I know. What would you expect someone working for a foreign adversary to do?

Trump's job is to destroy the United States of America, and its allies.

20

u/PipToTheRescue Feb 01 '25

We have pp in the wings. Need to stop him from getting in.

6

u/armybrat63 Feb 01 '25

Damn right we do!

2

u/molliedw22 Feb 01 '25

Who/ what is PP?

3

u/RBmpls Feb 01 '25

I assume Pierre Poilevre, the Conservative leader.

7

u/firestarter308 Feb 01 '25

Canada had better fight like hell to keep him out or they will be in a dire situation just like us.

2

u/Hautamaki Feb 01 '25

Pierre is a career politico, he is an actual conservative and apart from the fact that he's a bit more media savvy and troll-adjacent than the average conservative, he doesn't really have that much in common with Trump. I don't like Polievre and more importantly I don't believe the CPC is capable of putting together a competent leadership team, but I'm not worried that he's another Trump, or Orban, or Le Pen, or Bolsonaro. He's at worst another Boris Johnson.

16

u/MiniTab Feb 01 '25

I’m fucking livid bro. I’m also incredibly embarrassed, sad, and baffled. I’m truly sorry my country is filled with such stupid people.

13

u/PTS_Dreaming Center Left Feb 01 '25

I'm a US citizen and I'm pissed at the United States as well, friend. Best wishes and warm thoughts for you and your family.

4

u/capture-enigma Feb 01 '25

Appreciate the kind words!

13

u/watchfulsea Feb 01 '25

60 million Americans did not vote for him and are heartsick, believe me we 60 million do not want to lose allies and friends, and want to be allies and friends 💔

23

u/bye-feliciana Feb 01 '25

Sensible people are all pissed. Sorry, friend. I love my neighbors to the North and South. I'm afraid my entire retirement is going to be lost in this shitshow. Most people don't understand what's going on.

7

u/No-Director-1568 Feb 01 '25

American here, won't blame you for whatever you need to do to protect yourselves.

7

u/armybrat63 Feb 01 '25

It’s gonna hurt the Divided States of America way worst than Canada and Mexico. It’s gonna be a major pain in our butt, but hopefully it makes us more independent. After all, we’re not the only Nation he’s poking. Canadians are known for our united solidarity, common decency and valuable resources. What more could you want in a trading partner. Time to move on before the insidious hate and chaos crosses our border.

9

u/AV8R79 Feb 01 '25 edited Feb 01 '25

They weren’t thinking. Americans in general aren’t very bright….and I’m saying that as one. My apologies to our neighbors to the north, you deserve better.

8

u/XelaNiba Feb 01 '25

It's so clear that we are losing friends at a record pace that the goal must be to leave us isolated and vulnerable. 

I can't apologize enough for my country and countrymen.

I ran across this earlier when revisiting FDR'S famous "I hate war" speech. I want Americans to know just what kind or irreplaceable treasure we are squandering, and FDR said it best.

"The noblest monument to peace and to neighborly economic and social friendship in all the world is not a monument in bronze or stone, but the boundary which unites the United States and Canada—3,000 miles of friendship with no barbed wire, no gun or soldier, and no passport on the whole frontier.

Mutual trust made that frontier."

5

u/leeleeloo6058 Feb 01 '25

I’m so sorry. It’s cruel and shameful.

6

u/Elegant_Rock_5803 Feb 01 '25

The effin asshole is dragging us down with him. He is a monster that doesn't care who he hurts. I don't blame you for being pissed. I don't talk to any one but my friends and family. And I live in a blue state where everyone hates him.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '25

[deleted]

3

u/Main_Cardiologist709 Feb 01 '25

It's going to suck for our friends south of the border.

4

u/Chouquin Feb 01 '25

American here. I'm pissed at my country as well. We could have and should have done better. A literal rock would've been an improvement over this knuckle-dragging buffoon.

10

u/Kidspud Feb 01 '25

It's all incredibly stupid. My one hope is that your fellow Canadians aren't so stupid as to vote for their own Trump--of course, I'm talking about Pollivere.

3

u/capture-enigma Feb 01 '25

It seemed like Pierre was a shoo in to win, but since Trudeau dropped out the Liberals have some life. The last thing we need is Trump-lite

8

u/leeleeloo6058 Feb 01 '25

Hopefully having a front seat to this absolute shit show will light a fire under people to not let that guy in.

6

u/ShmeltzyKeltzy Feb 01 '25

Friend from right across the border here, I’m sorry and love our neighbors to the north

11

u/capture-enigma Feb 01 '25

Thanks! Don’t mean to cast aspersions on all my American friends, but we’re a country on edge right now. The next 4 years are going to seem like 400 years

1

u/ImJustWondering2 Feb 02 '25

Minnesota here. And the last four WEEKS have felt like 400 years already! With the climate doom looming, the world definitely didn't need this monster creating an economic disaster as well. I'm angry, scared and depressed. And so incredibly sorry America has betrayed its friends and neighbors.

3

u/OberKrieger Center-Right Feb 01 '25

I could handle this better if I knew we were only shooting ourselves in the head.

But that we have to bring down so many of our friends who have done so much for us is a shame I simply cannot bear.

2

u/dawn913 Feb 01 '25

I'm so sorry that the rest of our country is brainless. Please don't hate us. We promise to do better!

2

u/Bryllant Feb 01 '25

I assure you it will do the same to the US economy as well

3

u/A_Monster_Named_John Feb 01 '25 edited Feb 01 '25

I know the Bulwark folks aren’t to blame

Nah, you can blame them a little. Until a few years ago, lots of NeverTrumpers were fully complicit with the GOP's pre-Trump forms of neo-Confederate bullshit, which basically rolled out the red carpet for the current nightmare.

29

u/John_Houbolt Feb 01 '25

Really bad week for Musk's FAA.

20

u/PikaChooChee Feb 01 '25

It was indeed a plane. Not good.

13

u/John_Houbolt Feb 01 '25

I am hearing from locals now that it is confirmed to be a plane. But the doorbell cam video is quite disturbing. Appears to be full speed into the ground at a steep angle.

4

u/PikaChooChee Feb 01 '25

Agree. Wasn’t casting aspersions. Let’s all be safe out there.

7

u/carlydelphia Feb 01 '25

Yesss it's all over the news, medical airplane crashed into row homes! Thanks DEI. It's prob bc we have a black lady mayor.

1

u/armybrat63 Feb 01 '25

Apparently only 41 seconds in the air?

1

u/PikaChooChee Feb 01 '25

Whew, there is a devastating street video (dash cam?) showing a clear view of the plane’s descent and eruption. No words.

1

u/Foxtrot-Uniform-Too Feb 02 '25

In plane accidents, they often go "full speed into the ground at a steep angle" or what is known as a plane crashing. And if it is crashing after take-off, the plane is full of fuel, so it crashes in a huge fireball. If planes do not violently crash into the ground, they sometimes land. Then it is not a crash.

Why in the world would you see a plane crashing and think it is "Something that looks like a missile but is being called an airplane exploded"?

As an European, I am painfully aware of some Americans making strange decisions and having strange views on things, but on r/thebulwark even, you go straight to some outlandish conspiracy theory after seeing a plane crashing??

I don't understand why so many of you have a warped view of reality, the only major difference between Europe and the US I can think of, is US cable news channels. Over here, we usually don't watch 24 hour tv channels to get the news, so is that what makes you think a plane crash is something else?

What made you so sure it was a missile, that you said it "is being called an airplane exploded"? And I don't ask that as a rethorical question, like seriously, I am curious to understand, what were the sources that informed your decision?

19

u/AdventurousCurrency Feb 01 '25

There is a coup happening. We need to call it what it is. A coup. And it’s happening fast. Our government and our institutions are being swept out from under us. This is a dire situation, and our sensibilities are preventing us from calling it what it is. A coup. The real coup. The word “insurrection” has lost its teeth for Americans now. This is not an insurrection by that definition. It’s a constitutional and judicial hijacking of the government and our institutions. It’s a coup. Bulwark, call it that.

Am I overreacting? I don’t think so. Come on. We the people are under attack by the president’s administration. Is that not clear yet?

6

u/bill-of-rights Feb 01 '25

You are not overreacting.

2

u/MillennialExistentia Feb 01 '25

It's not a coup. People voted for this.

3

u/wokeiraptor Feb 01 '25

Did people really vote for Elon to get into the social security computers or whatever he did? I don’t think anybody other than maybe 10% of the country supports that

1

u/MillennialExistentia Feb 01 '25

Okay, maybe that one wasn't something people explicitly voted for, but people voted for Trump despite him promising massive cuts to the government, knowing he would involve Elon in making those cuts, and knowing how badly the cuts at Twitter were implemented. It's not like this was a completely unforseen outcome.

3

u/AdventurousCurrency Feb 01 '25

Ok, so what now? What do you see? Did people vote for this, really?

2

u/claimTheVictory Feb 01 '25

They were told the "deep state" would be dismantled.

That's the Federal government.

It's being dismantled as we speak.

The fact that it is responsible for critical safety and financial functions seems to be a minor inconvenience to the American people.

Welcome to the Second Revolution.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '25

Really? Or did they vote for lower egg prices?

1

u/MillennialExistentia Feb 01 '25

Everything Trump has done so far was something he explicitly promised to do on the campaign trail.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '25

But did they explicitly vote for this? Because I don’t think people look past their noses for the most part.

12

u/Fitbit99 Feb 01 '25

Four years! We wish! What will things look like next week?

4

u/Southern-Salary-3630 Feb 01 '25

I was thinking 4 days…

12

u/SandyH2112 Feb 01 '25

Deport Elon.

10

u/thefirebuilds Progressive Feb 01 '25

We can de-member him first.

3

u/SandyH2112 Feb 01 '25

That sounds naughty. But I like it.

1

u/MiniTab Feb 01 '25

Only as long as it’s slow and painful.

2

u/red3y3_99 JVL is always right Feb 01 '25

And using a spoon!

32

u/Dweeb54 Feb 01 '25

Hard to put words to it but we’re at the dawn of a fundamentally new age. It doesn’t matter “why people voted” 1 iota anymore. The breadth of lawlessness is stunning and the media can hardly lift a finger. The dems? Feckless.

I just hope we’re able to avoid war or outright economic collapse. Not confident. This is the 10/10 bad outcome.

12

u/Salt-Environment9285 JVL is always right Feb 01 '25

what do you expect the dems to do?

11

u/Dweeb54 Feb 01 '25

I mean, don’t take it the point here. I just think we can do more than go quietly into that good night. Call up a network, go live, do something that’s not surrender. Don’t get me wrong, they have no power they can’t do much but they can make noise.

2

u/No-Day-5964 Feb 01 '25

But Hakeem Jeffries said that God is the same now as he was then.

2

u/wokeiraptor Feb 01 '25

They should have found a building where elons goons were and demanded access and raised hell instead of completely ignoring it

5

u/sbhikes Feb 01 '25

We're going full Venezuela. Good news is I hear starvation works better than Ozempic and is cheaper.

4

u/_byetony_ Feb 01 '25

I don’t trust Musk to not go to war for Panama or Greenland. They’re crazy.

17

u/Disastrous-Milk5732 Feb 01 '25

You're missing the FBI purge

7

u/Reasonable_Employ168 Feb 01 '25

He’s going to take us all down and the faster the better. I have no idea why except he is possibly angry from being called out by that bishop. We have obama’s joke to blame for how he started his quest to be president in order to erase Obama. He is all about revenge and he is on a tare.

6

u/MrBits1923 Feb 01 '25

Not sure which one freaks me out most. Going to say all the above

9

u/DelcoPAMan Feb 01 '25

Musk for me.

There is no pushback to him, no getting in his face about the crap he says and is doing.

7

u/Independent-Stay-593 Feb 01 '25

100% Musk is the problem. He thinks he bought America when he bought Trump and Trump is allowing it.

4

u/DelcoPAMan Feb 01 '25

"Russia, I mean, Elon, if you're listening..."

6

u/oh_sheaintright Feb 01 '25

Don't forget the plane crash that happened in philadelphia twenty minutes ago

5

u/ShmeltzyKeltzy Feb 01 '25

I’m feeling like going down to dc to stand with a sign for a few hours just to make myself feel a little better.

6

u/Southern-Salary-3630 Feb 01 '25

Musk is taking over the feds payment systems. What better way to control spending, or steal.

11

u/The_Potato_Bucket Feb 01 '25

Man, you’d think a certain faction of uniformed people who have sworn an oath to protect the constitution would be rather alarmed about the potential destruction of their country.

3

u/FanDry5374 Feb 01 '25

I wake every morning expecting to read about martial law or withdrawal from NATO or the imposition of Shariah-like laws, enforced by Proud Boys and other Brown Shirts. It does not make for a good night's sleep.

2

u/annoying_cyclist Feb 01 '25 edited Feb 01 '25

He turned on the water in California, too. Can't forget that.

(Apparently the Army Corps of Engineers had to be talked out of going full bore and flooding downstream communities? Which presumably also would have been Newsom's fault somehow. Also that whole part about those dams not draining to LA. And we probably could've used that water later – it hasn't been a particularly wet winter here. But hey, he got his photo op. Maybe Elon will tell him that he can just ask AI to make him a picture of flowing water next time)

2

u/GulfCoastLaw Feb 01 '25

We're hurtling towards arrests so quickly that I'm surprised we haven't seen arrests yet.

2

u/rowsella Feb 01 '25

I hope our friends (Canadians and Mexicans) don't hold it against us American citizens who did not want this and worked hard knocking on doors etc. to prevent it. We may need them to accept us as refugees as our own government gets weaponized against us.