Yes, Tucker Journalism is "you say anything you want, then I go a little, and you can cuck me a bit if you're more powerful than me (such is the way). Don't worry, I won't challenge a thing".
I would argue that the entire Trump movement timeline is lazy fanfic. The best predictions often involve an absolute caricature of terrible events, but the cards still usually fall more fantastically and awfully than previously thought possible. So here we are.
Hey, I didn't say Putin would successfully acquire Poland. It'd be a game of Bear The Poke, in which Russia periodically sends volleys of missiles to test the NATO defense pact. Regardless of anything, Trump will force a U.S. exit of NATO, that much is a given. Europe would be on their own. As for Mexico, sorry, I could absolutely see Trump trying to order military strikes on cartels if he needs to really feed his image and base. Would trade be massively impacted? Sure, but it was all because of the "DRUGS AND MIGRANTS LIKE NOBODY HAS EVER SEEN, EXTREMELY THE WORST ANYONE HAS THOUGHT POSSIBLE, REALLY". The plan is to station the entire military down at the Mexican border for mass deportations anyway, Trump would say, they can defend if Mexico tries anything funny (Trump would say, not me).
I do always dig the history takes, truly. It's just very hard to convince me that the U.S. will contain our brand of fascism before it irreversibly infects the global hegemony. When the most powerful country in the world switches teams like this, I think using modern geopolitical history as a guide only gets you so far. Sorryyyyy I know you hate this paragraph. Sorry.
But I did love the tank footage, I've seen that tank fight from another angle. There's a separate Bradley that drew their attention and allowed the one firing to flank the T-90, iirc. And I did watch The Pentagon Wars a couple of nights ago. That was pretty excellent. Thank you for the recommend.
I think we'd ally with Russia more and more with Trump back in office. I do wonder how Putin will subvert U.S. power and influence while cozying up to Trump, besides the obvious diminishing of respect from other western countries. That'll be a fun courtship to watch, "Kiss me on the dancefloor while I smash your toes".
I’m convinced Trump could be a revolutionary, it’s not just fanfic, as he’s actually executing a plan to bring the administrative state to heel and to some extent I think it’s necessary as much of it has been doing de facto legislation since probably the 1970s with little to no accountability or oversight. That’s not to say replacing everyone with loyalists is good, but letting the administrative system decide to outright ban things with no input from congress is not what I would call democratic either. Likewise, these agencies do waste a lot of money on things that don’t do the public any good. Someone needs to force these issues simply because the public is not served when agencies can make wide ranging decisions or spend millions with no accountability for following the directives of the actual elected government or for causing harm or wasting money.
None of that is Trump going Full Hitler. That’s more of a democratic talking point than a political reality. He’s not massing troops to take Mexico, Canada, or Greenland. He isn’t undermining the power of congress. The worst I could say he’s actually done is rename the Gulf of Mexico into Gulf of America. Other than absolutely hilarious “google support notes” insisting that Google shouldn’t have gone along with the renaming, it’s not that important. I am concerned about mass deportations, and I think it should be stopped.
It would be fruitless to have this discussion at this moment in time. We will get back to it at a later date.