They don’t seem overly concerned with public opinion or the possibility they might be removed from power by the vote.

likely, they are banking on us to revolt so they can deploy the military domestically.

If the whole thing seems like unchecked expectations - so did the dissolution of NATO prior to 2016.

There are no checks. There are no balances. There is nothing stopping them…

This isn’t Trump’s vanity - this is the oligarchs, who do not care about nation states, carving up the globe as a resource grab.

The US will annex Greenland. The US will invade Canada. The US will kill protesters, starting with the students.

Concentration camps. Gulags. The disappearing of opponents and mass killings of the undesirables.

Europe will try to unify, but their democracies are already beset by oligarchs, from Putin to Musk, who are financing newly emboldened far-right fringe groups and political candidates.

Europe may rally and pull together.

Or, they may fracture from external pressure and splinter from internal dissention; that is the plan.

Persist.

Keep at it; try again tomorrow.

Depression will rob you of joy, erode your appetite for life, and leave you blaming yourself for any/everything.

In those circumstances where you cannot defeat it, you can still outlast it.

Do what you can for yourself. When you can do no more, do what you can for the person you will be later, and, when you can do no more: forgive yourself.

Depression is a parasite and it’s been eating your strength far longer than you realize.