[delecti]

I think the main reason is that they were all too incompetent to realize what the effects of the war would be on the global financial system. The bets were probably just a happy opportunity for corruption.

> The whole thing is so stupid it makes my head hurt

Look on the bright side, at least the malicious actors aren't able to competently implement their goals.

[colechristensen]

The economic effects impact the rest of the world much more than the US, which may have been somebody's planning point, although on the surface they seem to be too stupid to come up with this idea.

The US/North America is petroleum-product-independent-ish. We produce approximately as much hydrocarbons as we use. We also could produce a lot more but tar sands, shale oil, etc. are more expensive to produce and not very profitable at $60/bbl but it's there ready for the taking. When you're talking about how we aren't it's about how certain refineries are tuned for which type of oil and how we import unrefined and export the refined products, etc... but we're not RUNNING OUT of oil or energy.

Many places in the rest of the world aren't like that and will suffer much greater losses while the US is relatively strong. Of course we're all linked, but a power hungry dictator might only really care who's on top in a relative sense even if everybody is dragged down.

[huijzer]

When do we cross the barrier from incompetent to nefarious?

[delecti]

They're orthogonal, so there's no barrier. They're all nefarious, and most are also incompetent.

[ragebol]

Getting yourself installed as president while knowing you are incompetent (I mean, look at all those bankrupt businesses, he should know) is nefarious in itself. His entourage is nefarious for supporting the incompetency for their own gain.

[jerlam]

If people are giving you money, are you truly incompetent?

I think we're using different scales to measure competency.

[ragebol]

Competent enough to receive money, not competent enough to run a country well. But now we're getting into very subjective stuff, I'm sure his handlers are quite OK with what he's doing. It doesn't matter it all looks super suspicious, they are confident they won't face any consequences.

[array_key_first]

If you're incompetent maybe you don't know you're incompetent? I think probably a lot of people told him, but he's also very stubborn, so. He's been rocking that god fucking awful spray tan for decades now.

I mean, Christ, we have good spray tans, I know we do.

[delecti]

One of the few conspiracy theories I kinda believe is that Trump's 2016 presidential run was a grift and he expected to lose.

Everything since has just been an inability to admit he was in over his head, plus trying to get out of trouble for all the crimes he did. He (and Clinton) just underestimated how susceptible the US was to a demagogue. If you look at his face after the win was announced on election night, and after the first meeting with Obama for the transition, I think it shows plainly on his face.

[huijzer]

And they are not nefarious and competent while pretending to be incompetent?

[XorNot]

The Nazis were hilariously incompetent, but it didn't make them any less dangerous.

[idle_zealot]

It's not an either-or question; they're very transparently both nefarious and incompetent.

[red-iron-pine]

they are incompetent at running a successful government and maintaining hegemonic domination for western interests.

they're doing a fine job of screwing the world for their own gain, and/or working as sock puppets of foreign governments.

at no point was there ever a true belief, except for the "idjit" demographic, that trump would ever do anything meaningful in a governance sense.

[edgyquant]

So what does that say about their opposition who lost all three branches of government to them?

[idle_zealot]

Populist evil polls better than technocratic evil.

[bdangubic]

this is cyclical in america by design. see 2016 then 2018 than 2020 etc…

[Tarsul]

Not nefarious enough?

[saulapremium]

it says that playing by the rules means losing work when the other party doesn't.

[munk-a]

Probably January 6th 2021

[red-iron-pine]

their goal is to tank the market, make fast stacks of $$$, and then buy up everything.

this isn't new, the techo-feudalism has been pretty clear since Thiel got his man (JD Vance) into the VP slot.

the Israelis also figure he's probably not gonna last through the mid-terms, so they want the US to do their dirty work while they still have leverage over him via Epstein files. Russia wants the US to get into a similar long-slog war, and is desperate for high oil prices.