November 2025 Update
The US is gearing up to go to war with Venezuela. Don’t be mistaken; this conflict is about extracting resources, not about curbing the influx of drugs into the US. If the borders are as secure as Trump claims, then drug trafficking would not be an issue anyway. Moreover, my understanding is that drugs that make their way into this country originate in Colombia and Ecuador, not primarily Venezuela, and are moved into the US via Mexican cartels.
The dollar continues its decline as a fiat currency (i.e. not backed by gold) against competition from BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and others). In other news, the government has been shut down for about a month now, with food stamps set to be put on pause starting November 1 for about 40 million Americans (too many if you ask me). Additionally, ICE and the National Guard have been called in to certain urban areas to try to dampen civil unrest.
This country is determined to keep acting as though we are the global bully despite all our structural weaknesses, looming debt crisis, lack of long-range planning, increasingly impoverished masses, and the shifting balance of power among a multiplicity of nations. The overarching prognosis generally seems to be that Europe is set to get down with us, and China and Russia play the long-term game. (Speaking of Russia, Ukraine at this point has no chance to win the war, and we cannot afford to help Ukraine continue the fight.)
Perhaps because of the content I consume, I am increasingly on edge about what the future holds. I would say that there is almost a feeling in the air (among those who know more about national and global affairs than I, not just me) that we are living through history. We may look back on this specific time (late 2025) and see that a recession was already here. At any rate, it’s safe to say that America has been sold to the oligarchs, and the bottom 99% of us are merely serfs and peasants.
We are at some sort of threshold with hope quickly eroding and a vastly different future coming at us quickly. That’s to say nothing of the AI race and its real-world impacts. Finally, I would just say that I am 40 years old. (For context, the Soviet Union collapsed when I was in kindergarten.) I don’t remember there ever being a time when the stakes were so high and when so many chaotic forces were unfolding together with such unpredictable outcomes. My feeling is that we will perceive change as happening gradually and then all at once, beyond which point life will never be the same.
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