contingency plan november 2024

by: zetabeta

updated: 2025-03-28

tldr:
trump is already above the laws and transforming u.s. into surveillance with corporate power either voluntarily or involuntarily. media is part of it more or less. avoid android and apple products. smartphones collect huge load of data and it's serious liability for their users. use un-googled androids for temporary measure. dump most google products. dump most cloud services. avoid other u.s. based big tech. (possible link).


background:
trump is corrupting u.s. administration and judicial system. in the end, it is trump dictator ship with corporate power, at least partially, similar to china with social accounts. even if trump is replaced by gop, gop is just trumpian or worse. gop plays more for corporate and financial interests and not for ordinary citizens. trump's enforcement like ice police is already above the laws. ice detains people without due process and evidence, and sends people to special prison, which have been called as gulags. detained people mostly have been foreigners but includes green card holders. it is only a matter of time when trump forces start to detain ordinary americans with some weird excuses. elon musk and his superrich techbro cronies are part of it. elon musk has some kind of personal agenda on this corporate coup. maybe it is looting treasury with tax cuts, stealing information and data, dismantling supervision of musk's companies, favoritism in contracts or other financial motive. elon musk may build some kind financial transaction app within x app. this may give questonable monopoly power to elon musk.

do not downplay or underestimate these issues, this is not a small issue anymore ! you really need to do something ! basically resist way or another.

i'm in the e.u.. advises are slightly different for non-u.s. and u.s. residents. for non-u.s., you need to reduce dependencies from u.s. based companies and seeking alternatives. for u.s. it is more like, how to survive likely surveillance state.

avoid u.s. based big tech companies. many of them are pro-trump. also, media will be skewed towards pro-trump direction.

like:
alphabet inc, google, youtube, gmail.
apple.
microsoft.
amazon, aws.
meta inc, facebook, whatsapp, threads, instagram.
x.com, former twitter. x.com probably already spies its users for corporate control.
bluesky, half illusional alternative for x.com.
tiktok, most likely will make a some kind of deal with the u.s.. basically there might be badness from both china and the u.s..
and other possible big tech.

they will become spying and data collecton platforms for trump government, sooner or later, either voluntarily or involuntarily.

avoid android and apple products. this is important and also difficult, because smartphones are quite essential devices and personal, therefore smartphones hold serious liability.

use un-googled android, but consider going away from android.
avoid apple products totally, including macs.
avoid google account. do not log in all times.
avoid 2fa's which is based on closed platforms, like google play and apple app store.
stop using whatsapp, facebook, instagram and threads.
avoid windows, consider linux operating system, like linux mint xfce.
avoid microsoft account.

alternatives:
linux o.s., like linuxmint xfce, https://linuxmint.com/ .
mastodon, https://joinmastodon.org/ .
technical basic phone.
tuta, tutanota, https://tuta.com/ .
openstreetmaps.org
peertube, https://joinpeertube.org/ .
ecosia, https://www.ecosia.org/ .
qwant, https://www.qwant.com/ .
duckduckgo, duck.com .

some linux based mobile operation systems:
mobian, https://mobian.org/ .
postmarketos, https://postmarketos.org/ .

linux based mobile is not for everyone, every situtation and not definately beginners.

some un-googled android options:
lineageos.
calyxos.
grapheneos.

fairphone might be one option, mostly for europeans. https://www.fairphone.com/ .


use technical basic phones, difficult to find. some basic phones are based on smartphone os. technical basic phones may not be good for some critical apps, like banking apps. consider two or multiple phones, and leave some of them home, also without sim card.

even though "android open source project" is open source, aosp is controlled and developed by alphabet inc with their corporate and abusive motives. it may not be easy, move away from android, especially in long term. technically android is linux, practically, android is abuse of linux. android is heavily modified linux by alphabet inc.

privacy switches in most systems like google's android and apple are illusional or partial. they are like gatekeepers, can limit some info for third party, but what about system itself. who watches the gatekeepers.

smartphones and their apps collect huge load of data and usually it is private information. this information will be abused by corporations, and it was already abused for corporate reasons. now information goes to government for possible spying and manipulation of people.

most of these advises are good idea anyway, because they improve privacy and reduce data harvesting in your devices. government may not build total surveillance system in th end, but corporations already collect huge load of data and use it against their users. technology is already out there for mass surveillance.

trump administration try to control mass media as well. i don't think there will total bans or control, but with selective funding, taxes and fines, it can favor pro-trump talking points. free speech may exist but certain talking points are heavily favored and enhanced. practically, do not trust media. they already had some kind horse race agenda, pretending republicans as a normal choice. many mainstream media outlets have started to favor pro-trump talking points and downplaying anti-trump. trump will use weaponized justice system to go after opponents, which include media in some cases. free speech is seriously threatened.

https://freespeech.org/ is running and offers different views than so called mainstream media and especially rightwing media outlets. many of the rightwing media outlets were propaganda operation even before trump's re-election.


some pre-emptive questions:

check and balance will keep trump and gop under control?

trump is already out of control, and gop is watching idly. trump is the check and balance and enforcement. supreme court is already rightwing, corrupt and trump supporting. trump could replace supreme court with other loyalists. republicans in the congress are in the trump train and are basically rubber stamps. check and balance starting to be dysfunctional and laughable. media won't do their duty either for supervising trump.

constitution prevent abuse of power?

i have this saying, "laws are only for those who obey them!". it means that if enforcement and implementation do not follow laws or follows them selectively, then laws are just empty words. final arbiter for constitution is supreme court. supreme court could easily divert the meaning of the laws.

democrats will take over?

i wish. it might happen, but some other half-dictator might come back after trump.

you are paranoid, this will never happen?

denying reality might be perfect way to support trump and let it happen. it may not happen in the end. but trump has personal agenda and already tried to hijack power. trump has already done many of these either partially or fully. btw, it is already happening.

republicans will put trump under control?

republicans might be worse than trump, because of their corporate motives. they may look moderate, but they are not. republicans had numerous possibilities put trump under control, and never happened. is it going to happen next time, i don't think so.

you use aws, why?

update, critical stuff is moved from aws. i still have some remnants.