Self Destructing in Real Time. “Vinash kale viprit buddhi” is a Sanskrit proverb meaning ” When one’s destruction is near, their intellect starts working against them”
I’ve often expressed my disgust at these quack astrologers inundating our social media feeds. Look, its not like I do not believe in astrology. My dad (Nana ) did his masters in mathematics and Vedic Science from Annamalai university. Yes Abdul Kalam was a fellow student. Nana never practiced astrology professionally though- he went on to give his IRS exams and retired as In Come Tax commissioner.
But because of Nana’s knowledge in Vedic astrology, I know it to be a science. A predictive science. Not the random conjecture bullshit one and for all that quack astrologers spout on every second social media reel in our feeds these days .
I have fond memories of so many folk consulting Nana astrologically over the decades– visitors to our home. From India’s biggest film stars, (many of whose rise and fall he predicted accurately) Industrialists, ( Should they buy this airline? Or start International operations?) housewives ( Your husbands affair will end don’t worry ) ,Students.( try another field. Your horoscope shows talent in music, not rocket science ) Nana’s door was open to all.
Nana was always kind. He believed astrology to be a predictive science – the planets give us tendencies and time zones he always said, through which we can navigate situations and outcomes. Nothing is always absolute. He used to equate astrology with spiritual medicine or predictive medicine. Like the blood tests we conduct or the CT scans we do to get our medical parameters tested. High cholesterol? Fatty liver? Get off the booze – planetary positions gave addiction tendencies. Quagmired in court cases? Wait it out- the resolution will be automatic when the planets change. Nana never predicted doom, though I know he often saw it. No ethical astrologer does that. Like A doctors job is to try and help the patient , not send him to the gallows and amplify his fears, similarly an astrologers duty is to also help guide and comfort. .
It’s exactly because of this understanding of astrology I have from observing Nana & his predictions, and my respect for it as a science, that I have such an abhorrence for these quack astrologers who have sprung like fungus in our social media feeds. Black mold. Predicting everyone’s doom to grab eyeballs and fatten their wallets. Use famous names- So and so film star is going to die, divorce etc – views 3 million. They have no ethics – they are merely trading poison for their own personal gain. Using famous names for their own pathetic fame. In astrology a horoscope can change drastically with a minute difference in birth time, or location of birth. These fraud astrologers who predict with wrong birthdays of celebrities they have grabbed from the internet ought to be regulated. Can a doctor practice without a license? Or a trade analyst? Should be made the same for astrologers
So coming back to the purpose of this blog post , a few days ago when I was scrolling through my feed at some ungodly hour (because sleep is overrated and doomscrolling is my cardio), I see this astrologer lady predicting that the United States is going to fragment like the Soviet Union. States breaking away. Economic isolation. The empire crumbling. Divided States of America.
I did what any sensible person would do. I swiped up. Gone. Deleted from my feed and therefore my consciousness. Back to watching reels of shihtzus being cute like the Disney intellectual I am.
And Then Today Happened
I wake up to the news that Trump has announced a 100% tariff on “any and all movies made outside of the United States. He had threatened it before yes. But this time he says he means it.
Let me repeat that. What Trump just did. Imposed a 100% on film made outside The United States of America. ONE. HUNDRED. PERCENT. TARIFF.
On movies!!!!!
Not on steel. Not on guns. Not on cars. Not on semiconductors or soybeans or any of the usual trade war suspects. On MOVIES. On intellectual property. On stories. On creativity that happens to use a post-production house in London or CGI artists in Mumbai. Or film on SOuth American or European or Asian shores.
Do you know what a 100% tariff means? It means if a film cost $100 million to make and was shot even partially abroad, you’re essentially doubling its cost before it even reaches an audience. Films that were budgeted to make a profit? Suddenly can’t break even. Studios that rely on international co-productions? Financially crippled.
And here’s the best part – nobody knows how this would even work. Films aren’t goods you can tariff at a border. They’re digital. They’re ideas. They’re shot in multiple countries, edited in others, with VFX from three continents. Sometimes over the internet. I know of films shot in America, VFX in the UK, editing in Australia etc. Film is America’s largest export after – guess what? Guns and ammunition. Why would Trump want to paralyse his own country’s earning potential?
Only Fascists and Tyrants are afraid of peoples freedom arent they? Hitler burnt books & punished people for daring to think outside the obedience he demanded. Hitler was unhinged. 80 years later the world is still suffering the actions of this maniac.
Is Trump doing the same to America?
But Wait, There’s More!
Because apparently deciding to kneecap Hollywood wasn’t enough chaos for one administration, Trump also slapped a $100,000 fee on H-1B visas.
You know, those visas that bring skilled workers – software engineers, computer programmers, tech talent – to America. The ones that 71% of recipients are from India. The ones that Silicon Valley literally cannot function without.
Let me paint you a picture from here in Mumbai. I have friends, family, acquaintances – mostly Family- (I am Telugu – a language that is predicted to overtake Spanish as the most spoken language in The United States of America by some) Brilliant minds, coding geniuses, people who’ve built their careers in the States. Desi Brain.
And Trump knowing very well that America’s silicon Valley survives on its imported brain power , imposes One hundred thousand dollars. For the HI-B visa that allows these skilled professionals to work in the UNITED STATES. A one-time fee that went into effect with barely 48 hours notice.
Do you know what happened? Panic. Pure, unadulterated panic.
There were International flights stuck on the tarmac for three hours because H-1B holders didn’t know if they could re-enter the country. People abandoned vacations mid-trip. Families were left behind as workers scrambled to reach the US before the deadline. Microsoft, Amazon, Google – all sending urgent memos telling employees “DO NOT LEAVE THE COUNTRY.”
Can you imagine? You’re visiting your parents in Bangalore, or attending a wedding in Delhi, and suddenly you’re getting frantic calls saying “Get back to America RIGHT NOW or you might lose your job, your home, your entire life.”
This isn’t economic policy. This is cruelty imposed by an unhinged despot. Not only strangling his own economy but also attacking the lives of the more vulnerable. Like the
Harjit Kaur Case: More than three decades ago, Harjit Kaur left Punjab and built a life in California with her two young sons. As an undocumented immigrant, she worked, paid her taxes, and dutifully reported to authorities every six months, as the law required.
Now in 2025, at 73 years of age and grandmother to five American-born children, she found herself shackled and deported to India after months in custody without proper food or medical care.
Kaur still struggles to grasp why she was suddenly uprooted from her family after so many years. Her case underscores both the relentless immigration crackdown under the Trump administration and the absence of compassion in its enforcement. Its tyranny – not leadership.
The Indian Impact
India’s Ministry of External Affairs had to issue a statement warning of “humanitarian consequences” – which is diplomatic speak for -you’re tearing families apart, you monster.
And Silicon Valley? About 65-70% of H-1B jobs are computer-related. Amazon alone has over 10,000 H-1B workers. Microsoft, Meta, Google – all of them built on the backs of this talent. Talent that’s overwhelmingly Indian.
You know what happened to Indian IT stocks the day this was announced? They crashed. Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Tech Mahindra – all down between 2-5%. Because suddenly, the business model that’s been working for decades just became financially impossible.
One analyst calculated that if companies like TCS and Amazon want to maintain their H-1B hiring levels, they’re looking at costs of $550 million and $1 BILLION respectively. Per year. Just for visas.
It’s madness. It’s economic self-sabotage. It’s taking the industries that made America the tech capital of the world and systematically destroying them. America simply doesn’t have this talent or brain power locally currently. Sure they could acquire it in 20 or 50 years but what happens to America till then? Does everybody just curl up obey and die of starvation? What Trump is doing is sabotaging the lives of his own country presently to create his delusional version of his white man supremacist America once again.
The Astrologer’s Prophecy, Reconsidered
So getting back that astrologer lady I saw on my insta feed. She had predicted fragmentation. The Divided States of America. Just like Russia broke up in the 90’s so would America in the next few years. I scoffed at the lady’s prediction.. But that was a few days ago. Today I’m watching America potentially drive not just its entertainment industry, but its entire tech sector into the arms of other countries.
What we’re already seeing today is industries breaking free. Talent breaking free. Economic fragmentation. Cultural isolation by choice. Is the Divided States of America just a matter of time?
Hollywood already makes 70% of its box office revenue from international markets. Silicon Valley is built on global talent – mostly from India and China. And now Trump is taxing them… taxing them into irrelevance and close down? Making it impossible to compete globally while depending on global audiences and global talent?
It’s like cutting off both your arms to spite your hands.
The Mumbai Connection
And let me tell you something from here in Mumbai. We have a thriving film industry. Bollywood. Regional cinema. OTT content that’s going global. We have tech talent that the world is begging for. You know what we don’t do?
We don’t tax creativity. We don’t put six-figure fees on visas for skilled workers. We don’t wake up one morning and decide that the entire foundation of our tech and entertainment industries is now economically unviable.
Sure, we have our own problems. Plenty of them. Infrastructure that makes you weep. Bureaucracy that could bore you to death. A sewage system that… well, let’s not even go there. It stinks. But at least we’re not actively trying to kill our own industries through bizarre economic self-sabotage announced via social media at 2 AM. What is this man smoking? Are his actions even sane?
There are Indian startups right now licking their chops. Because that brilliant software engineer who was planning to go to Silicon Valley? She’s staying home now. That AI researcher who was being recruited by Google? He’s joining an Indian company instead.
The brain drain is reversing. Not because India suddenly became paradise, but because America decided to slam the door on its own foot.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Here’s what’s making me squirm: The astrologer was wrong about the mechanism but maybe right about the outcome. She predicted fragmentation. What’s happening already is America choosing isolation – economic, cultural, industrial isolation. Desperate attempts to befriend Pakistan to threaten India, get Israel to apologize to Pakistan etc etc . For what? Its lunacy . It’s the slow, painful process of an empire making itself irrelevant through sheer stubbornness and spectacular misunderstanding of how the modern world works. The unhinged delusions of a despot.
What This Actually Means
Governor Newsom’s office had the best response to the movie tariff: “Today’s move is 100% stupid.” They’re not wrong.
And in my favorite detail – because Trump’s tariff would apparently apply to ALL foreign-made films – that includes films about Jesus shot overseas. Newsom’s team pointed out: “TRUMP IS NOW PLACING TARIFFS ON JESUS!”
India’s External Affairs Ministry was more diplomatic, but the message was clear: This will have “humanitarian consequences.” Families disrupted. Lives upended. Careers destroyed. All in the name of… what exactly? Protecting American workers who don’t exist in sufficient numbers? Making America great again by driving away the people who made it great in the first place?
Since when did Presidents start announcing policy on social Media? Is America not a democracy where bills must be voted for and passed by due dilligence and process? What is going on and why are people silent?
So here I am, coffee in hand, staring at my phone, watching American policy being made via 2 am America time Truth Social posts that would make my WhatsApp uncle forwards look restrained and well-thought-out.
I still don’t believe in doom scrolling quack astrology. Planetary alignments don’t cause such catastrophes . Or do they?
Because when an astrologer predicts fragmentation and then:
- The President announces economic policies so mind-bendingly counterproductive that entire industries might relocate
- Tech talent that built Silicon Valley is being priced out of the country
- Hollywood is facing tariffs on its own global business model
- Families are being torn apart with 48 hours notice
- America’s competitive edge is being deliberately destroyed
Maybe the universe does have a sense of humor.
Or maybe – and this is the scary part – we don’t need mystical insight when the chaos is this predictable. Maybe pattern recognition is enough. Maybe when you elect someone whose understanding of global economics seems to come from a fever dream, and unhinged narcissistic megalomania, you don’t need the stars to tell you things are about to get weird. its pure Cosmic Chaos
The Bottom Line
The astrologer said America would fragment. I laughed. And now I’m watching an administration actively push major industries AND talent toward the exit. Not through states seceding, but through making it financially impossible to stay.
From Mumbai, watching this unfold, I can tell you – there’s a mix of horror and opportunity here. Horror at watching a superpower self-destruct in real-time. Opportunity because that brilliant talent? They’re coming home. Or going to Canada. Or Europe. Anywhere but America.
The brain drain is reversing. Not because we suddenly solved all our problems, but because America decided isolation was the answer to globalization.
The astrologer saw fragmentation. What she didn’t see was that it wouldn’t be solely geographic. It would be economic, cultural, technological. The slow crumbling of an empire that forgot that its strength came from being open, not closed.
P.S. – Apparently Trump made the movie tariff threat back in May and nothing happened. So maybe this is all just performative chaos that will evaporate by tomorrow. But the H-1B fee? That’s already in effect. People’s lives are already disrupted. The damage is already done.
P.P.S. – I still abhor these quack social media doomsday astrologers who build careers on fear mongering and
name dropping.. But I am keeping an open mind. A very, very uncomfortable open mind.
P.P.P.S. – To my friends and family on H-1B visas – I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. You deserved better than this.