Gil Duran saw this coming years ago and wrote a lot about it in detail. Google him and his articles. Here he is recently being interviewed about it by Fred Wellman. Just so no one thinks you are some tinfoil hat. This has been growing in its knowing about for years. Especially by Gil Duran.
“Elon Musk is running amok through the government using what was sold as an advisory role and organization to effectively dismantle everything from the inside. He is wielding unchecked power including gaining access to the Treasury itself, all but eliminating a federal agency, and appears to be in the personnel files of millions of government employees, contractors, and average Americans. It’s been a shocking couple of weeks but those who have studied the malign plans and dystopian philosophy of Musk, Peter Theil, and J.D. Vance saw this coming. Writer Gil Duran is a journalist and longtime political communicator. He is the author of the Nerd Reich where he writes about the authoritarian dreams and desires of the Silicon Valley elite that appear to be unfolding before our eyes. His work was featured by Heather Cox Richardson in her wildly popular 'Letters from an American' series this week and he sits down with Fred to discuss the insane actions unfolding as we speak. The conversation will open your eyes and drive you to stand up to this destruction before it's too late!”
I’m more afraid of a president Vance than I am of a president Trump. Trump is a racist gasbag who wants to be a king. Human history has dealt with dozens of those. These CEO sociopath nihilists are something new. They’re the dystopian future seen in the Matrix and Terminator movies and they don’t care.
I agree that Vance’s ideology is more dangerous than Trump’s, but I’m not sure the MAGA base will rally around him the way they do for their Orange Deity.
I considered that. I think this is where Musk comes in- but it might be unforced error on his part.I suspect that MAGAS will blame Musk and NOT JD or Trump for the shenanigans in the government. This will be especially true if something happens to Trump. While JD doesn’t the cult of personality around him, he does have the voter’s tepid seal of approval. Plus, JD is one of the biggest chameleons around- he’ll ooze into whatever form Thiel wants him in.
Agree completely. This is where mainstream discussion misses the plot. Liberals and leftists have always had trouble comprehending the distinct groupings on the right. Thiel/Musk/Vance are the most dangerous and noxious, for the reasons you state: we have never in human history witnessed a group of people with such an immense concentration of wealth, such extraordinary technology at their disposal, and who are motivated by such a completely lawless, godless, nihilistic, and self-aggrandizing ideology. And these people have gained untrammeled, unrivaled access to the total power of the most powerful government in human history, which is also at the same time collapsing any pretense of the rule of law.
Will it matter if more people know and understand this? I don’t know, but it’s one of the things we have to try. We have to try everything.
Please someone who has reach… make this palatable for the rest of America. If there is a way to summarize it and get it out there. We are in a race now. Elon Musk is on X lying and threatening journalists. The Maga people think that he’s cutting costs what a joke. We will lose our free press. Some of us have already lost our freedom of speech. Government workers are hurting, whole families are hurting and frightened. I’m frightened. We abandoned starving and sick children. How much has to happen before we can stop him?? I can’t believe that judge said that no one could prove a “irreparable harm”. What the hell was that? What is it going to take?
Now it’s all becoming clear! The Republican’s South African leader and his orange lapdog have given them the audacity to let their masks fall away.. the masks of Christianity, compassion, love for your neighbor, of not judging others, of taking care of widows and orphans, the weak and the poor,.. all these masks have fallen away and we now see the real bigots and know their fear. . .they’re a bunch of scared small minded fools who will and have sold their souls to retain some semblance of relevance.
Hey Shane. Really good, informative, well-structured piece. Thanks. Without the snark (southerners can’t read; orange jesus, etc.), as enjoyable as it might be, to write as well as to read, it could be a more effective instrument. Educating helps our cause. Insulting? Not so much. I’m with you, brother.
Yes! We all see the steamroller(s) flattening everything of decency and compassion in sight. This exposes the workings of insidiousness. Sunlight is the best disinfectant for this kind of virus. But we have to face the sun, not hide in the shadows. Hiding might feel safe but it’s just denial—eyes closed, fingers in ears, singing “La-la-la-LA!”
Shane Almgren provides the history behind the plan to destroy our democracy and replace it with a Corporate Monarchy, currently underway. My take on his incredibly important clarion call:
Clearly we need a PLAN as our economy falls into recession then likely depression due to ...
- Hand over of governance to Musk and his servile followers
- Trump's retaliatory tariffs
- Government services implode leading to measles, flu, polio, and whooping cough pandemics and likely no flu vaccine this fall
- Chaotic and dangerous transportation systems
- Deep cuts to Medicaid/Medicare and Social Security
- Predatory banking and astronomical interest rates
- Not weakened but destroyed foreign policy and diplomacy that brings back the very real threat of WW3 and release of nukes
- Research limited to only the most promising breakthroughs at universities
- A destroyed federal government and related implosion of our nation's capital and the surrounding economy.
The 2026 midterm and 2028 primary elections are the most important elections of our lifetime. We need to start negotiating NOW with moderate Republicans to impeach both under treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors that have already taken place and will continue; publish a centrist playbook NOW that counters Project 2025; come to the very hard realization NOW that perceived extremes in immigration, DEI, LGBT, and abortion caused a conservative backlash; and find NOW then flood the elections with centrist candidates. Go centrist then focus on ways to empower the least and last among us, and bring back radical belonging, extreme fairness, and representation of all among us.
I have spent much of my career developing or bringing emerging technologies to emerging economies. Tech bros believe they can control our democracy (and the reason why they were sitting in the front row at Trump's inauguration) but remember their divisive social media, monopolistic Amazon gutted our small business fabric; exploitative ride sharing Uber and Lyft take every cent from drivers who make barely minimum wage after expenses; predatory banks, high interest rates; etc.
Tech bros are OK with our divisive culture. Tech bros don't care about your privacy. Tech bros have created a profoundly lonely culture of kids, teens and young adults unable to speak to each other. Tech bros have denied the profound climate impact of their technology, preferring instead to take the earth's minerals in exchange for military protection.
Sadly, there is ZERO leadership that is fighting back with a simple statement and plan -- "We didn't read the room and this is why a madman has been elected a second time. We'll be more centrist. It might take a few election cycles to restore our democracy, but we have a PLAN for Congress, judiciary, and a worthy Presidential candidate -- I nominate former Navy Admiral Jim Stavridis whom I got to know when I led the rollout of an online university for the poor -- see WQU. edu.
That's an excellent and very helpful summary of the situation. Thanks. It's very disheartening to find out that the Democratic leadership thinks their problem is too much Bernie, AOC and small dollar donations.
Untangling this mess by highlighting these 3 major agendas in the mix was helpful. Where does the Russia piece fit in? I assume that’s the part that Trump brings. While it may have more implications for the international stage, the influence it’s had through media (and potentially owning the president and others) would have its own impact on what’s happening to democracy.
The Russia agenda is a whole separate beast that I only partially untangled (and that was with a source in Switzerland with direct ties to Putin). There’s the real estate ties, the massive debt leverage, potentially some blackmail, and that’s not even going down the rabbit hole of Trump maybe being an unwitting (or witting) KGB asset. Not sure I’ll ever be able to fully untangle that one…
I think it’s ideological affinity. The same way that America used to seek to ally itself with liberal democracies, because it was a liberal democracy, it is now governed by an authoritarian leader and movement, which seeks to ally itself with other authoritarian leaders and movements across the world. Trump simply recognizes his kind in Putin. It’s not an insult; this is genuinely what they would say. The supporting theme is that Trump operates on schoolyard bully principles: he respects and defers to the strong, he has contempt for the weak. The concepts of “enemy” or “ally” are irrelevant. If an “ally” is weak; they are deserving of contempt; if an “enemy” is strong, they deserve respect.
In trying to put all this together in my mind all I can think is that Trump and Putin are planning to become partners. How else does Trump's bizarre expression of sympathy for Putin in the Oval office the other day make any sense? "Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia". Yes, clearly his buddy Putin is the victim in all this.
The West's resistance to Russia in the past was due to the fact that the USSR was a communist country. Now that it's run by greedy capitalistic oligarchs and hardcore authoritarian Christians (the Russian Orthodox Church is very tight with Putin) what's not to like? Suddenly Trump's cabinet choices start to seem less like trolling and more like a plan. I'm sure North Korea will be involved in the alliance given their military support for Russia. When I saw Trump's cabinet's responses to the "Friday massacre" all I could think of was these people are talking like North Koreans. Does Marco Rubio really think Trump deserves the Nobel Peace prize for all this?
Call your Republican representative NOW and let it rip.
They vote today to gut Medicaid and give massive tax breaks to the wealthy. And the acting director at the Social Security Administration just called for a 50% reduction in forces there. They're starving out Social Security as we speak.
The fact that they’re having to lie, cheat, and steal to get their way is a clear signal that their ideology is so far gone and reprehensible that it should never become a reality. Hopefully people everywhere start to wake up.
You’re saying we’re not giving it the seriousness it deserves? Or that its success is far fetched? If it’s the former what can we do about it? Can it be stopped?
I’m seeing a whole lot of people who aren’t rejecting this as a whacky conspiracy theory, but don’t seem to view it as an immediate enough of a threat to do something NOW. We have the numbers, so we can win this if we come together. I’m still not sure what that looks like outside of these little economic boycotts folks are organizing. Probably some massive coordinated civil disobedience.
Thank you for spelling this out so concisely - I knew I needed to understand Yarvin but couldn't bring myself to read any of the lengthy articles I found. Sucks, but necessary information to have
Thanks for writing this. If I may I’d like to ask a follow up question. So the hidden powers behind our current power structure - the Rothschilds the Rockefeller, etc. Are they worried? Are they going to try to co opt? Are they going to forment revolution like usual? One thing for sure, they won’t let their power be taken without a fight.
That’s why the etc…there are hidden powers, and it’s not easy for most to wrap their heads around the truth. Most are content to believe the story. I believe it was one of the Dulles brothers that said “we know we will have been successful when everything the population believes is a lie”. I am afraid they have in fact been successful.
Gil Duran saw this coming years ago and wrote a lot about it in detail. Google him and his articles. Here he is recently being interviewed about it by Fred Wellman. Just so no one thinks you are some tinfoil hat. This has been growing in its knowing about for years. Especially by Gil Duran.
“Elon Musk is running amok through the government using what was sold as an advisory role and organization to effectively dismantle everything from the inside. He is wielding unchecked power including gaining access to the Treasury itself, all but eliminating a federal agency, and appears to be in the personnel files of millions of government employees, contractors, and average Americans. It’s been a shocking couple of weeks but those who have studied the malign plans and dystopian philosophy of Musk, Peter Theil, and J.D. Vance saw this coming. Writer Gil Duran is a journalist and longtime political communicator. He is the author of the Nerd Reich where he writes about the authoritarian dreams and desires of the Silicon Valley elite that appear to be unfolding before our eyes. His work was featured by Heather Cox Richardson in her wildly popular 'Letters from an American' series this week and he sits down with Fred to discuss the insane actions unfolding as we speak. The conversation will open your eyes and drive you to stand up to this destruction before it's too late!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnTBzgjme20&t=7s
Thanks for the info, Leslie!
Thank YOU for writing about it!
America is not falling, it is being liquidated.
The government is not falling apart. It is undergoing corporate restructure.
And by the time we realize what we have lost, we will already be living in what replaced it.
https://roccojarman.substack.com/p/the-corporate-capture-of-america
I’m more afraid of a president Vance than I am of a president Trump. Trump is a racist gasbag who wants to be a king. Human history has dealt with dozens of those. These CEO sociopath nihilists are something new. They’re the dystopian future seen in the Matrix and Terminator movies and they don’t care.
I agree that Vance’s ideology is more dangerous than Trump’s, but I’m not sure the MAGA base will rally around him the way they do for their Orange Deity.
I considered ti that. But that’s where Musk comes in. A lot of MAGA s
I considered that. I think this is where Musk comes in- but it might be unforced error on his part.I suspect that MAGAS will blame Musk and NOT JD or Trump for the shenanigans in the government. This will be especially true if something happens to Trump. While JD doesn’t the cult of personality around him, he does have the voter’s tepid seal of approval. Plus, JD is one of the biggest chameleons around- he’ll ooze into whatever form Thiel wants him in.
.
True, he is gross like that.
Agree completely. This is where mainstream discussion misses the plot. Liberals and leftists have always had trouble comprehending the distinct groupings on the right. Thiel/Musk/Vance are the most dangerous and noxious, for the reasons you state: we have never in human history witnessed a group of people with such an immense concentration of wealth, such extraordinary technology at their disposal, and who are motivated by such a completely lawless, godless, nihilistic, and self-aggrandizing ideology. And these people have gained untrammeled, unrivaled access to the total power of the most powerful government in human history, which is also at the same time collapsing any pretense of the rule of law.
Will it matter if more people know and understand this? I don’t know, but it’s one of the things we have to try. We have to try everything.
Couldn't agree more.
Please someone who has reach… make this palatable for the rest of America. If there is a way to summarize it and get it out there. We are in a race now. Elon Musk is on X lying and threatening journalists. The Maga people think that he’s cutting costs what a joke. We will lose our free press. Some of us have already lost our freedom of speech. Government workers are hurting, whole families are hurting and frightened. I’m frightened. We abandoned starving and sick children. How much has to happen before we can stop him?? I can’t believe that judge said that no one could prove a “irreparable harm”. What the hell was that? What is it going to take?
Now it’s all becoming clear! The Republican’s South African leader and his orange lapdog have given them the audacity to let their masks fall away.. the masks of Christianity, compassion, love for your neighbor, of not judging others, of taking care of widows and orphans, the weak and the poor,.. all these masks have fallen away and we now see the real bigots and know their fear. . .they’re a bunch of scared small minded fools who will and have sold their souls to retain some semblance of relevance.
Spot on!
Hey Shane. Really good, informative, well-structured piece. Thanks. Without the snark (southerners can’t read; orange jesus, etc.), as enjoyable as it might be, to write as well as to read, it could be a more effective instrument. Educating helps our cause. Insulting? Not so much. I’m with you, brother.
Agree. We need to spread the message to whoever will listen. Not exclude people.
Yes! We all see the steamroller(s) flattening everything of decency and compassion in sight. This exposes the workings of insidiousness. Sunlight is the best disinfectant for this kind of virus. But we have to face the sun, not hide in the shadows. Hiding might feel safe but it’s just denial—eyes closed, fingers in ears, singing “La-la-la-LA!”
Absolutely!
Shane Almgren provides the history behind the plan to destroy our democracy and replace it with a Corporate Monarchy, currently underway. My take on his incredibly important clarion call:
Clearly we need a PLAN as our economy falls into recession then likely depression due to ...
- Hand over of governance to Musk and his servile followers
- Trump's retaliatory tariffs
- Government services implode leading to measles, flu, polio, and whooping cough pandemics and likely no flu vaccine this fall
- Chaotic and dangerous transportation systems
- Deep cuts to Medicaid/Medicare and Social Security
- Predatory banking and astronomical interest rates
- Not weakened but destroyed foreign policy and diplomacy that brings back the very real threat of WW3 and release of nukes
- Research limited to only the most promising breakthroughs at universities
- A destroyed federal government and related implosion of our nation's capital and the surrounding economy.
The 2026 midterm and 2028 primary elections are the most important elections of our lifetime. We need to start negotiating NOW with moderate Republicans to impeach both under treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors that have already taken place and will continue; publish a centrist playbook NOW that counters Project 2025; come to the very hard realization NOW that perceived extremes in immigration, DEI, LGBT, and abortion caused a conservative backlash; and find NOW then flood the elections with centrist candidates. Go centrist then focus on ways to empower the least and last among us, and bring back radical belonging, extreme fairness, and representation of all among us.
I have spent much of my career developing or bringing emerging technologies to emerging economies. Tech bros believe they can control our democracy (and the reason why they were sitting in the front row at Trump's inauguration) but remember their divisive social media, monopolistic Amazon gutted our small business fabric; exploitative ride sharing Uber and Lyft take every cent from drivers who make barely minimum wage after expenses; predatory banks, high interest rates; etc.
Tech bros are OK with our divisive culture. Tech bros don't care about your privacy. Tech bros have created a profoundly lonely culture of kids, teens and young adults unable to speak to each other. Tech bros have denied the profound climate impact of their technology, preferring instead to take the earth's minerals in exchange for military protection.
Sadly, there is ZERO leadership that is fighting back with a simple statement and plan -- "We didn't read the room and this is why a madman has been elected a second time. We'll be more centrist. It might take a few election cycles to restore our democracy, but we have a PLAN for Congress, judiciary, and a worthy Presidential candidate -- I nominate former Navy Admiral Jim Stavridis whom I got to know when I led the rollout of an online university for the poor -- see WQU. edu.
We need a plan NOW.
That's an excellent and very helpful summary of the situation. Thanks. It's very disheartening to find out that the Democratic leadership thinks their problem is too much Bernie, AOC and small dollar donations.
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2025/03/02/democrats-in-despair-00206883?nname=playbook&nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&nrid=0000014e-f10d-dd93-ad7f-f90de50d0003&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
It's going to be a long road back to sanity and democracy.
Untangling this mess by highlighting these 3 major agendas in the mix was helpful. Where does the Russia piece fit in? I assume that’s the part that Trump brings. While it may have more implications for the international stage, the influence it’s had through media (and potentially owning the president and others) would have its own impact on what’s happening to democracy.
The Russia agenda is a whole separate beast that I only partially untangled (and that was with a source in Switzerland with direct ties to Putin). There’s the real estate ties, the massive debt leverage, potentially some blackmail, and that’s not even going down the rabbit hole of Trump maybe being an unwitting (or witting) KGB asset. Not sure I’ll ever be able to fully untangle that one…
I think it’s ideological affinity. The same way that America used to seek to ally itself with liberal democracies, because it was a liberal democracy, it is now governed by an authoritarian leader and movement, which seeks to ally itself with other authoritarian leaders and movements across the world. Trump simply recognizes his kind in Putin. It’s not an insult; this is genuinely what they would say. The supporting theme is that Trump operates on schoolyard bully principles: he respects and defers to the strong, he has contempt for the weak. The concepts of “enemy” or “ally” are irrelevant. If an “ally” is weak; they are deserving of contempt; if an “enemy” is strong, they deserve respect.
In trying to put all this together in my mind all I can think is that Trump and Putin are planning to become partners. How else does Trump's bizarre expression of sympathy for Putin in the Oval office the other day make any sense? "Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia". Yes, clearly his buddy Putin is the victim in all this.
The West's resistance to Russia in the past was due to the fact that the USSR was a communist country. Now that it's run by greedy capitalistic oligarchs and hardcore authoritarian Christians (the Russian Orthodox Church is very tight with Putin) what's not to like? Suddenly Trump's cabinet choices start to seem less like trolling and more like a plan. I'm sure North Korea will be involved in the alliance given their military support for Russia. When I saw Trump's cabinet's responses to the "Friday massacre" all I could think of was these people are talking like North Koreans. Does Marco Rubio really think Trump deserves the Nobel Peace prize for all this?
It's not over yet!
Call your Republican representative NOW and let it rip.
They vote today to gut Medicaid and give massive tax breaks to the wealthy. And the acting director at the Social Security Administration just called for a 50% reduction in forces there. They're starving out Social Security as we speak.
https://apnews.com/article/social-security-layoffs-doge-musk-trump-93efbed33957af5ec8ac37744d0592de
CALL 202-224-3121
SAY:
DON'T TOUCH MEDICAID AND SOCIAL SECURITY!!
We are angry and we are watching. THIS CARNAGE HAS TO STOP!
**********
PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW.
Thanks Naomi!!
I really wish this was just an apocalyptic movie where the good guys win.
Like Marcel’s Avengers films.
But I don’t think we’re that lucky right now.
Real life has become a nightmare, with no guarantee that heroes are going to save us.
Be strong. Stay in the know. Resist.
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Aye, resist.
100% accurate
I wish it weren’t
The fact that they’re having to lie, cheat, and steal to get their way is a clear signal that their ideology is so far gone and reprehensible that it should never become a reality. Hopefully people everywhere start to wake up.
So this is the endgame… shouldn’t this be the front and center fight of our time? Why are we just glancing over it like it’s just another hurdle?
Even though we’re watching the implementation unfolding, the big picture sounds too far-fetched to treat it with the seriousness it deserves.
You’re saying we’re not giving it the seriousness it deserves? Or that its success is far fetched? If it’s the former what can we do about it? Can it be stopped?
I’m seeing a whole lot of people who aren’t rejecting this as a whacky conspiracy theory, but don’t seem to view it as an immediate enough of a threat to do something NOW. We have the numbers, so we can win this if we come together. I’m still not sure what that looks like outside of these little economic boycotts folks are organizing. Probably some massive coordinated civil disobedience.
Thank you for spelling this out so concisely - I knew I needed to understand Yarvin but couldn't bring myself to read any of the lengthy articles I found. Sucks, but necessary information to have
Sucks is an understatement - but at least we know what we're dealing with.
Thanks for writing this. If I may I’d like to ask a follow up question. So the hidden powers behind our current power structure - the Rothschilds the Rockefeller, etc. Are they worried? Are they going to try to co opt? Are they going to forment revolution like usual? One thing for sure, they won’t let their power be taken without a fight.
I'm not so sure the Rothschilds and Rockefellers are quite the players it's been suggested in the past.
That’s why the etc…there are hidden powers, and it’s not easy for most to wrap their heads around the truth. Most are content to believe the story. I believe it was one of the Dulles brothers that said “we know we will have been successful when everything the population believes is a lie”. I am afraid they have in fact been successful.
People need to understand the danger democracy is under: https://open.substack.com/pub/publicenlightenment/p/context-dems-cozy-up-to-palantir?r=8d0xr&utm_medium=ios