As I said, that’s true, of course, but the question is how long it will remain that way. I can hardly see any difference already, and I don’t see how things in the US are going to get better.

The only possibility, in my opinion, is for the people to rise up and overthrow this blatantly corrupt system. They still have the chance to do so at the moment, as the authoritarian regime with its secret police loyal to no one but the organge godfather (in the form of ICE with a budget that compares to the military spendings of a medium sized country) is still in the process of being fully established.

To be honest, however, I have little hope that the American people will do this - yes, there are massive protests, but there are no signs of a nationwide, organized general strike that could bring the regime to its knees. I don’t think these ruthless criminals will be impressed by anything else, because they hold all the cards.

Yes, that may be true for now, but the US regime is currently obviously working to change that - and fast.

I mean, masked fascist thugs are randomly kidnapping and even murdering people in broad daylight, and the highest law enforcement authorities are not only protecting pedophiles, but are also clearly enabling their decades of monstrous deeds in the first place. This has nothing to do with even a halfway functioning system, especially since the US government is trampling on the law as if it was beneath them - they just don’t care anymore because no one is stopping them. This is evident in the fact that even the most heinous crimes do not result in any consequences for those responsible - and this has been the case for quite some time in the US as well.

None of this is even remotely compatible with a democratic constitution.

I would say that mafia state and oligarchy are roughly synonymous.

The difference lies more in the perception of a given country: Russia is an oligarchy because all power is in the hands of a few. It is seen as a mafia state because Russia has a horrible reputation on the world stage, which is why those in power have a reputation for enriching themselves out of pure greed. Of course they do, but so do despots in other oligarchic countries - only here it is sometimes still considered legitimate state action, even if it, in fact, only benefits a powerful elite.

In contrast, a plutocracy is also an oligarchy, but a special case of it, since wealth is the main source of power for the elite who control the country.

However, now that the US elite is apparently replacing it’s sham democracy with autocratic tyranny, as in Russia, the US is also increasingly becoming an oligarchy in the sense of a dictatorship.

I think it is undisputed that both Russia and the US are led by serious criminals, by a mafia, which, however, has so far only been referred to as such in Russia.

But since the US regime apparently no longer has any scruples about openly committing the most depraved crimes and - like Putin’s crew - shamelessly enriching itself, the US’s international reputation will also rapidly deteriorate, as is already the case.

Today, you will hardly find many people in any country of the world who still believe anything the White House says, given the obvious lies coming out of there.

In short, both countries are mafia states, but the US is so powerful that the oligarchs here are much more dangerous because of their disproportionately greater influence on other countries.

Yes, Russia is an oligarchy, no question, but the country is nowhere near as powerful as the US with its excessively inflated military apparatus … hence the question: Should the US be called a super-oligarchy, now that the country’s elite, who are actually its most degenerate citizens, is obviously no longer satisfied with the plutocracy that has long been the norm there?

It’s truly open mob rule in the States … a superpower under the control of serious criminals. What do you call that, actually?

I mean, organized crime probably hasn’t existed in at least fifty years with such blatant, unpunished audacity and probably not with such an outrageous level of twisted depravity either. I’m not sure if the monsters of the world have ever been so powerful since the end of World War II.

So what would be a fitting term for today’s US?

Super-oligarchy? Orange Mega-MAGA-Mafia-Nation?

Was it already the case before MAGA that it was completely normal for the highest law enforcement authorities in the US to blatantly lie and completely disregard the law, even breaking it themselves on a regular basis, even in high-profile cases?

As a European, I am now so used to the fact that absolutely nothing the White House communicates is even remotely true that it seems like the normal state of affairs in the US.

Is it just particularly extreme with this criminal mafia regime, or was it already common practice before?

This is bad news for the Republicans, because all this hatred is intended to distract attention from how shamelessly the elite is enriching itself at the expense of the country - and also from other crimes, such as those documented in the Epstein files.

If their voters also realize that hatred of foreigners and the wars waged by the regime are one and the same thing, they will really have a lot to explain…

“Impeachment plans ramp up,” “Democrats threaten legal action,” “X slammed for Y” … the consequences would certainly be devastating, if there were any …

Yes, under this regime, the US is no longer a constitutional state. And that is why I believe it is impossible to remove the regime by constitutional means. Some people point to the midterms and say that the president will then be a lame duck. That applies to presidents who abide by the law, but not to one who has no scruples whatsoever. Waiting to see what happens will only give the orange child molester more time.

The answer is clear: the regime does not abide by laws or court rulings - the US has now abandoned even the appearance of being a constitutional state. If US citizens have a problem with this, they should rise up against all the corruption and all the crimes. However, since they are not doing so, we will continue to read news stories like this.

There is a term for countries where corrupt, criminal regimes can do whatever they want and the wealthy elites can indulge their degenerate desires: banana republics.

Yes, that’s clear. I didn’t mean to imply that anyone here is getting paid, except for the operators of instances and Foss developers—and they presumably get far too little for their efforts.

Yes, ads would be unavoidable, but there would be the possibility of distributing the revenue more fairly. Otherwise, the only option would be to accept donations to accounts, but no one would likely use that. I’ll say it again: ads are not an option in the Fediverse, not even in a transparent way, and not even though ads not only finance the internet, but have also traditionally been a major source of funding for things like quality journalism (subscriptions have never been the main source of income here). Nevertheless, it remains a fact that good content costs time and skill, and therefore usually money. Without monetization methods, there will always be a shortage of content that is more than just reposts from elsewhere. So it seems to me to be an unsolvable problem. But of course, I also completely understand why the Fediverse fundamentally rejects monetization—at least in the form of ads.

That’s the downside of having few users. In terms of basic principles, Lemmy is no different from other social media apps: The lion’s share just consumes, few comment, hardly anyone posts anything. In fact, it’s anything but a community approach, but rather the merit of a few “power users” who provide the vast majority of the content.

In addition, there are no monetization opportunities whatsoever. Many people see this as a good thing, which is understandable, but in fact there are perfectly normal people who try to make a living from their content or at least want to earn some extra money. I don’t think there will ever be any understanding for this on this platform. Therefore, there will never be such content here, because without monetization opportunities, there is no motivation to provide such content here instead of on mainstream social media platforms. I can imagine that the Fediverse could develop remuneration models that are much fairer and more sustainable, but this will fail from the outset due to ideology.

I think that’s a shame, but I think there is 0 chance this could even be discussed in the Fediverse.

Unfortunately, in Germany we are also facing major problems with the resurgence of fascism. Here, it takes the form of the AfD these days, a right-wing extremist party that basically stands for the same inhumane ideology as MAGA: hatred, greed and blatant stupidity.

I attribute the popularity of these damn fascists primarily to the fact that Europe uses the same US social media platforms, which are controlled by the same billionaires. Another reason may be that Europe is also experiencing an economic downturn, and the AfD, like MAGA, promises a return to “the golden days,” which is of course a blatant lie, especially since the AfD is a neoliberal party that, like MAGA, exclusively pursues policies that benefit the super-rich - yet somehow people here don’t seem to see through this either.

So I’m afraid we can’t help out, especially since the world today is a completely different place, if only because of nuclear weapons. Sorry :(

I’m afraid I phrased that incorrectly: In Germany, the US president is despised by the vast majority of rational-minded people, but unfortunately there are also many completely brainless, hateful people here who vote for a party that stands for exactly the same Nazi bullshit.

Unpopular seems to me to be quite an understatement. I can only report back from Germany: here, he is deeply despised by most people.

It is quite a feat to save people from embarrassment, namely from a golden abomination of trashiness, through another embarrassment such as this.

Let anyone say they don’t make progress - quite the contrary: every day brings new lows.

Indeed, and a murderer

This was all foreseeable long in advance:

We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality and authority for warfighters.

Pete Hegseth [Source]

It is, after all, a criminal regime. Anyone who supports it is complicit and should bear in mind that it will not be those at the top who bear the consequences.

We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality and authority for warfighters.

Pete Hegseth [Source]