@IveyJanette @LinuxAndYarn
Yes, Putin, Musk, and several less flamboyant oligarchs whose names aren’t as close to the surface. Vance is apparently Thiel putting his hat in the ring, for example. Trump is old and in poor health; there’s a whole lot of people jockeying for position when he finally dies off.
And yes, it's going to lead to conflict: war, or economic destruction, or heaven knows what. We need to get this whole authoritarian gambit to implode as fast as possible; the longer it stay alive, the more it takes us down with it.