Author: Shelton Bumgarner

I am the Editor & Publisher of The Trumplandia Report

Day 1: Second Draft Cornerstone

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s April 1st and I’ve completed a solid reworked first scene for the second draft. I’ve given the novel a “soft” opening, rather than anything all that dramatic.

My dream title for my first novel.

My heroine is…unique. She’s really interesting and provocative. She’s very much if you fused Lisbeth Salander and Mare of Easttown and had her be a journalist.

I’m a little nervous about how believable she is as a character. At the moment, my need for her to be really unique is bumping up against my fear that she’s just a little too out there for anyone to believe she would be able to do the things I want / need her to do.

I continue to do this in a vacuum, which slows my progress down. And I haven’t been reading as much as I need to. Though, I have admit that I did some reading and all that happened was I felt some existential angst about the beginning of the novel based on some of the things I read and found myself reworking the nature of the first chapter’s scenes AGAIN.

My next goal is to see how fast I can work my way through the remainder of the first chapter. I’ve extensively re-imagined the first chapter yet again. But I do feel that things are going to go a lot faster once I get out of the first chapter. I’ve finally figured out some basic relationships that I feel make the overall story a lot stronger.

‘Accountability’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I have a hard deadline to finish the second draft of my first novel by July 1st, in the name of accountability, I plan on writing at least one post a day explaining in general terms what I’ve accomplished.

I can’t just keep drifting towards my goal anymore. I need to put on my big boy plants and actually maybe go outside my comfort zone some. Maybe a lot. I’ve come so far and I’m so close to transitioning into the beta reader process that I just don’t want to fumble the bag.

I’m not going to live forever.

Even under the best of circumstances, I’m on track to have my dreams come true….when I’m in my mid-50s. And that’s only if I absolutely stick the landing. It’s times like these when I feel very sheepish as to how lacidastical I’ve been in general as I work on this novel.

I’ve put in a lot — A LOT — of hard work, but I’ve also made some basic assumptions that just were ill-defined. I knew in general I was making progress, but it was slow and steady and now I need to sprint.

Humanity May Shrug Itself Into Servitude To Machine Intelligence

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Humans are, on a macro basis, pretty fucking lazy. So, as such, it’s very possible that there won’t be any sort of “Judgement Day” when it comes to the ultimate take over of humanity by AGI. Rather, it will be a gradual process whereby humans defer to AGI on more and more decisions until we just refuse to make any decisions anymore.

I could see a situation where after a brief power struggle, we hand over all of our critical infrastructure and WMD to AGI and all we do is sit around playing video games and falling in love with our AGI personal assistants. Humans will collectively revert to an infantile state to the point that history just sort of grinds to a halt.

That is kind of dark, yes, but things are happening so fast with LLMs and AI that one begins to realize that Hollywood’s vision for a AGI takeover is far more dramatic than it might actually be. I still am not convinced that, by definition, an AGI would want to destroy humanity when it could just as well just want to manage it.

Why destroy us, when you could be our god?

We just don’t know at the moment. But I do think things are going to get pretty bumpy far sooner than you might think. It’s at least possible that we risk a perfect storm in late 2024, early 2025 of not only the Fourth Turning happening on a political basis, but something akin to a Petite Singularity, too. Throw in a default by the United States this year — as early as July! – and….oh boy.

The rest of this decade could be as eventual as the decades associated with the French Revolution.

What Made January 6th Different?

by Shelt Garner
@shetgarner

Given how meh the MAGA movement has been when it comes to real-world political violence since January 6th, it makes you wonder how did Jan. 6 happen in the first place?

There’s a lot to unpack.

I think there are two major things to consider. One issue is it happened in the context of the passions of the 2020 election. The other issue is Trump had months to organize and rile up the base to the point that a certain small segment of that base decided to storm the Capitol.

As such, it won’t be until 2024 – 2025 that a similar dynamic would be in place and so, lulz, history will repeat itself, only potentially in a much, much more dramatic fashion. I say this because the Republican Party is radicalizing to the point that secession is a very real possibility one way or another.

Either the radicalization of Republicans pushes Blues out of the Union or the radicalization of Republicans causes Republicans to leave the Union. And any such “National Divorce” will be extremely messy because the country isn’t, on a state basis, strictly Blue or Red. There are millions of people whose political views don’t fit their state’s general political inclinations.

So, anyone who thinks there could be a peaceful National Divorce is a wilful fool.

T-Minus 3 Months & Counting

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve finally reached the point in the process of writing my first novel that I really don’t want to talk about it anymore. I just want to do it. And, yet, you take yourself where ever you go — I’m just too much of an extrovert not to talk about the single most important creative thing going on in my life at the moment.

So, here we are.

I’ve given myself until July 1st to finish a beta draft of this novel. I was hoping to finish it by the end of spring, but I’ve decided to make it a clean three months rather than having to worry about when spring actually ends. But, in general, anything past the end of spring will be considered extended overtime in the process of writing this novel.

Things are going pretty well, all things considered. But there is a key thing I have to do — I have to stop rewriting everything at the drop of a hat. I have the entire draft sketched out, but I have to go through and revise it extensively to make it a cohesive whole.

And that’s going to take time.

At the moment, I continue to spin my wheels in the first chapter because I have to figure out the relationships between different characters before I can go any further. I think — think — I have managed to stabilize the relationships I need to stablize.

Now, to shut up and write.

…Having Said That, There IS Something Curious Going On In My Webstats

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really monitor my Webstats to an absurd level. And, so, anything — and I mean ANYTHING — out of the ordinary causes me a great deal of speculation and entertainment. And, I have to admit, that there has been a noticeable uptick in people looking for information about the alleged affair that ding-dong Trump had with the Playboy model that was thought to have been covered up by another man. (I don’t want to use anyone’s names because, lulz, it proved not to be true, so why hash that all out again.)

The only reason why it’s interesting that people would be searching for my ranting about the weird situation with the Playboy model and Trump is…what’s their motivation? Is it actually possible that they know something new and that, in turn, has caused them to search for whatever they can find about the incident?

The idea that something new might have been discovered about what Trump didn’t do with a Playboy model is totally bonkers and pretty much is just something for me to think about when I’m not working on the second draft of my novel.

I’m satisfied that Trump had nothing to do with the woman and that the official story is the real story. So, I struggle to understand why there’s a sudden uptick in what was alleged to have happened. The most logical explanation is not that anything NEW has been discovered, but, rather given that a different Playboy model’s name has resurfaced in the news because of Trump’s indictment, people are interested in this long-debunked conspiracy theory.

At least, that makes the most sense.

Trust Me People, There’s No There There

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The reason why I started working on a novel is because I was involved in something of a mystery involving Trump potentially getting a Playboy model he was involved with to have an abortion. That mystery was so compelling that I wanted to try to talk about it in fictional form.

But over the years, that desire fused with a number of other things to the point that, lulz, the actual story I’m working on at the moment has nothing to do with that original idea. The only reason why I talk about this is recently a growing number of people have been looking for my OCD writing about that particular mystery.

In hindsight, I’m very embarrassed that I got wrapped up in such a conspiracy theory. The point is — there’s no there there. Trump did not know the Playboy model in question and it was just a very, very strange coincidence that seemed to outwardly make it seem as though he did.

So, leave it be, folks. I know it’s exciting to think that Trump might have done something as dastardly as demand a lover have an abortion, but, he didn’t do it. For once, that ding-dong is in the clear. I have pretty much absolute, indirect proof relative to my own personal needs on the issue.

Though as we wait to find out what the 34 charges against Trump might be, it is mildly amusing to imagine a scenario where somehow Trump’s non-existence relationship with the woman was somehow involved.

AI & ‘Undead’ Hollywood

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve now heard two different respected podcasts broach some variation of a future that I’ve been ranting about for some time now — the idea that soon there won’t be any art but AI generated art. So, 30 years from now, there won’t be any “mass media” anymore in the sense that we’ll all be watching very, very specific entertainment generated not just for us specifically, but a specific mood.

So, rather than paying $15 a month for a streaming service, we’ll pay a similar amount for access to the bodyscans of our favorite Hollywood stars. Hollywood will soon enough be in an “eternal now” populated with undead stars who may not even exist at all, depending on how sentimental you might be for some star you saw before the AI generated art revolution took over.

I still think that there is a least possibility that in the future the goal of actors will be not to make it in Hollywood, but rather make it on the stage so they can then turn around, get a full body scan and make all their money passively off of the licensing of those scans. It’s at least possible there will be a huge Broadway revival for macro economic and technological reasons.

And, what’s more, all of this could happen very, very fast and very very soon. It could be — especially with a Hollywood writers’ strike looming — that we’ll wake up in 18 months and ChatGPT 8 is spitting out all of the content that we consume. The streaming wars will seem very, very quaint.

Of course, all of this may have to wait for the “Fourth Turning” to sort itself out and it could be that much of the world will be rebuilding itself after several limited nuclear wars because the United States was too busy imploding to keep the world order.

That got kind of dark pretty quick.

Anyway, if I had any money at the moment — which I don’t — I would short Hollywood and long AI.

There’s A Lot To Unpack There, MTG

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about MTG is she’s a lot more dangerous than you might think. Unlike malignant ding-dong Trump, she’s young and focused and, given the opportunity, would be able to make her fascist dreams actually come true. This tweet on her part is pure projection.

MTG is downlow one of the most dangerous pols in modern American political life. All that has to happen is she become Trump’s second term veep, before you know it, we’re all talking about living under the “Velvet Fist” of an autocratic state.

We’d all spin it by saying she’s an American “Iron Lady,” when in fact she’s just a regular old fascist. She’s not just frothy, she’s a lot more radical on a practical basis than Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer Ron DeSantis.

The whole thing is very frightening. The United States continues to careen towards a the so-called “Fourth Turning” of a choice between autocracy or civil war starting in late 2024, early 2025.

Really, Catturd?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, I think Catturd has decided to smoke some of his own frothy supply with this Tweet:

The thing about Catturd is he reminds me of people I know who are well meaning and earnest in their fascism. To the point that they don’t take the anger of people like me seriously.

This, in turn, enrages me.

Anyway, it is amazing to me that there are well meaning people who are so detached from reality that they believe somehow that the Democratic Party is literally Satanic. Meanwhile, there are a dwindling number of crimes that Trump hasn’t actually committed.

It’s a testament to the tectonic forces at play in American political life that a ding-dong like Trump would development such a cult-like following. Some seriously fucked up shit is going on on a political and historical basis.