‘Hysterical Doom Shit:’ Wake Me Up When Congressional Democrats Have The Balls To Invoke ‘Inherent Contempt’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Let me indulge myself in some of my usual “hysterical doom shit.” Tonight, a lot of the usual Twitter liberal suspects are all excited that the January 6th Commission has subpoena a clutch of Trump associated who were involved in the January 6th Insurrection.

To me, this is no boom. It’s a lulz.

Steve Bannon, among those who are going to ignore Congress.

History has shown that all the people that Congress has subpoenaed will either ignore it or fight it in the courts. There is only one way they will show up — and even then they will invoke the 5th — and that’s if House Democrats used Congress’ “inherent contempt” powers.

The only way we would get to the “I plead the 5th point” would be if they got fined and stuck in the tiny Capitol brig for a few weeks until they broke. We’re not exactly dealing with people who give a shit about allowing the public find out the truth about their nefarious January 6th plans.

The reason why House Democrats won’t do what they should do, is they know the moment they break the modern seal on the use of inherent contempt, that’s the moment that House Republicans will use it when they inevitable begin to impeach Biden and Harris in January 2023.

Republicans are so radicalized on an institutional level, that they’re just biding their time until they have power again. Once they do — and they inevitable will get power again — that’s it. The end of the Republic. That’s hysterical doom shit, but the only reason why that might not be the case is at first things won’t seem to change much.

Because traditional “personal responsibility” Republicans don’t notice anything has changed, it could be years before they sit up and taken notice that, “Hey, this kind of sucks.”

But by that point, it will be too late — or we’ll have had a civil war, bombed ourselves into the stone age and there will be some sort of massive political “reset” where we get back to the usual non-existential ebb-and-flow of a traditional liberal democracy.

Anyway, the point is — we’re fucked. Get your affairs in the real world. Decide what’s important to you and how much you’re willing to suffer for what you believe in. Bannon isn’t going anywhere and in the end, either we peacefully slip into some form of a “Very American Autocracy” or we have a fucking civil war.

But good luck on getting anyone around Trump to talk unless you’re willing to use inherent contempt.

Let’s Talk Bannon’s Podcast Interview With John Eastman


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I listened to Steve Bannon’s recent interview with the would-be architect of Trump’s overthrow of the results of the 2020 election and found it very interesting for a number of reasons.

Steve Bannon

One reason was I got the sense Eastman was sweating things a little bit. Since he would never allow himself to be interviewed by someone who was an actual journalist, he turned to his (literal) partner in crime Steve Bannon. Eastman did what anyone with his background would do given the situation: he took a very lawyerly take on what was being said about him.

And he knew there would be absolutely no pushback to whatever bullshit he pulled out of his lawyerly butt, so he pushed the conflation of events as far as he could. He said that it was all a big misunderstanding and he felt if only the full memo he wrote was in the spotlight like the scary six point memo he wrote, then, lulz, we can all smoke a cigar, bang a hot chick and get back to making sure American peacefully transitions into a white Christian ethno state. (Those may not be his exact words, wink.)

But the fact remains that he did, in fact, plot with Bannon and others to overthrow the free and fair 2020 election. Eastman contended that there was all this proof that illegal votes were cast and, as such, what he proposed was all above board.

This, my gentle reader, is bullshit.

Eastman, for all his bona fides was “yadda yadda yadda-ing” what was really going on, which is much like how the actual six point memo itself reads.

So, while the interview was interesting, it was not exactly newsbreaking. We’re still careening towards the existential choice of autocracy or civil war in January 2025 and there still isn’t going to be any accountability for anything Bannon — or anyone else — has done in the service of Donald Fucking Trump.

I Know What You’re Up To, Mr. Bannon


by Ender

Folks, we got a problem. I now find myself wanting to actively use my scenario abilities to counter Steve Bannon’s nefarious long-term plan: turn the United States into a white Christian autocratic ethno state.

Steve Bannon

We thought we got rid of Bannon when he self-destructed at the beginning of the Trump Administration, but lulz, we were wrong. Like a bad penny, he’s back and worst than ever. Not only did he attempt to “murder the Biden Administration in its crib” on January 6th, he is now actively working to destroy the basic norms and intuitions associated with free-and-fair elections.

The danger is what the United States lacks in the paramilitary groups like the SA that would be critical to ensuring that the fascist GQP wins elections going forward, we may make up for with Big Lie proponents being in charge of the election process in 2022 and 2024.

In other words, there won’t be sexxy violent Proud Boy attacks that cause us to turn into an American autocracy, but rather the far less sexxy corruption of what should be pretty mundane formalities. I know what’s happening — Bannon looked at what happened in the early days after Election 2020 and realized that they didn’t get what they wanted because every day people took a stand and did their jobs.

As such, he and his coterie of fascists now want to pack those jobs with Big Lie advocates at a minimum votes they don’t like won’t be certified at the local level, which opens up a huge range of possibilities as things head toward Congress.

Bannon feels that was the GQP’s biggest mistake — they let the process get too far along before they struck. This is something I have long said myself. But I thought about it in the context of it proving Trump, himself, was not a Great Man, but just an idiotic avatar for the rot within our political process.

And, yet Bannon is sort of ding-dong Trump’s strategic mind. But let me put it to you this way — Bannon may have wealth and influence, but I feel when it comes to abstract political calculations and strategic thinking, I’m his equal. We’re on opposite ends of the political spectrum — to say the least — but he’s on my radar now and I’m going to begin to map out how to counter his attack on my beloved liberal democracy.

The biggest problem is, of course, that no one listens to me.

But, if I was going to counter Bannon, I would first do triage and accept that we have to write off 2022 and or 2024 being traditional elections. My belief at the moment is that 2022 will be Bannon’s dry run for 2024. While no one listens to me, Bannon has some pretty huge weaknesses himself.

One, he’s too tied to Trump and Trump is self-evidently his own worst enemy when it comes to would otherwise be the easy peaceful transition of the United States into a GQP autocratic state. And, I believe, Bannon is way too blinded by his own fevered ideology. He really does want to suck his own political cock.

The point of all of this is — I think I’m going to start studying Mr. Bannon. Keep your friends close and your emeries closer, as they say. The reason why I say that is Bannon is actively working RIGHT NOW to ensure we become an autocracy.

Since I don’t write for VOX and have no easy answers (nor a conspicuous received English vocal fry in my Tik-Tok videos) all I got is my ability to see if I can, on an abstract level, counter what Bannon is up to.

But, again, absolutely no one listens to me.

Is The ‘Fourth Turning’ Just A Bunch Of Lucky Bullshit?


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Steve Bannon’s favorite book, “The Fourth Turning,” sure does seem to jibe pretty well with my own personal prediction — the United States is in for a severe political crisis no later than around (January) 2025.

And, yet, there’s a lot of that book that seems, I don’t know, historical bullshit. It seems as though they had a idea they wanted to sell and reverse engineered things to the point that what they already believed made sense.

For instance, they themselves say that their concept of “Turnings” can’t account for when the Civil War happened. But, to be fair, you could say that the unexpected deaths of both William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor may have have somehow sped up the Civil War so it didn’t happen according to macro trends. Whenever you try “psychohistory” you can’t account for how the life — or death — of one individual changes huge macro trends.

So, I dunno.

I think some of my annoyance comes from my belief that no one can predict the future and there’s no reveled truth. I don’t like the idea that people who are lazy just want to read The Fourth Turning and somehow think they’ve got everything figured out.

And, really, the only reason why The Fourth Turning has a shot at being extremely good at predicting the future is Donald Fucking Trump. He’s sort of the potential “Great Man” who could fucking destroy the United State simply by being himself.

Anyway. Fuck Steve Bannon, that piece of shit.

No, Schlichter, We Don’t Hate You — We’re Taking You Seriously: Imagining A Very American Autocracy


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Don’t put me on blast Kurt Schlichter! Or, as Briar Rabbit would say, “Please don’t throw me in that briar patch.”

The reason why people like me grow “hysterical” with our “doom shit” is once you slip into autocracy, the entire dynamic of your politics changes. Suddenly, there is no longer any ebb-and-flow to it. The government becomes unmoored from any sort of influence from the populace because, well, it’s an autocracy.

You can move policy on the edges, but, in general, if you live in an autocracy, whatever the autocrat wants is what you get. And because autocracy is EXTREMELY POPULAR with the MAGA New Right base, it’s easy to imagine once it becomes clear that the United States is no longer a traditional Western democracy that things might swerve into a pretty dark direction pretty quick.

Now, there are some aspects to all of this that have to be addressed.

There’s a good chance that once the United States is considered an autocracy….that huge swaths of the American electorate will deny this is, in fact, the case. Nothing will change for them, so fuck you, lib. And as long as things, in general, stay the same — and the new autocratic regime behaves itself — people like me will continue to be “hysterical.”

But there are about 50 years of bent up rage on the part of the MAGA New Right and it’s very, very easy to imagine that at some point in, say, 2025 President DeSantis or Cotton or Hawley begins to rant about how we absolutely HAVE to have a Constitutional Convention “to pass a balance budget amendment.”

And, because we’re now an autocracy, such a convention will be convened and it will transform the United States into something a lot more like Russia. And then that’s it.

It will be over. And people like me who can’t or won’t get the hint about the New Order will get pushed out a window or throw into a Trumplandia re-education camp. I will have been right all along and the only price I get will be a bullet in the back of the head by a an ICE agent.

Now, the conservative I know would say at this point “that’s not going to happen.” When I ask them how they know this, they will say, “it just won’t.” In other words, they are resting all their assumptions on the “hope” that our new autocratic rulers will abide by the much maligned democratic “norms” that conservative have been attacking for a decade or so now.

And, of course, in the end, it won’t be until things get personal that the conservatives I know will have a “come to Jesus” moment. Then it will be too late. Then we’re living in autocratic America and I’m dead in a ditch somewhere — still very right, though!

But, how likely is it that our new autocratic overlords would abuse their unlimited power? Isn’t it possible that while Republicans will have a lock on power for the foreseeable future that they will be sure to stay within a spectrum of actions that would not rile up the “Good Germans” that would be the bedrock of their power.

This is a very good question. I suppose it’s possible that what might happen is that, yes, we’ll become a white Christian ethno state, but President Hawley will have the good graces not to purge the media. He’ll let Twitter liberals vent all they like, but because they’re so fucking powerless, from his point of view, it’s all a lulz.

I guess the difference between myself and the conservatives in my life is I would rather not have to trust insane MAGA New Right cocksuckers being gracious enough to not kill me because I absolutely won’t fucking shut up about what a piece of shit President Hawley is. They shoot writers, don’t they?

Fuck The MAGA New Right, Or — Untangling The Rhetorical Knot That Is Their COVID19 Talking Points


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ok. This is going to take some brain power. But, here goes. When it comes to COVID, I think the MAGA New Right thinks (I use that term loosely) that it was designed in a lab in Wuhan and, as such, we should PRAISE Son Of God Donald Trump for the vaccine, but we shouldn’t take it to own the libs.

And, lib, you never know, it’s possible this is all a “plandemic” in the sense that it was big pharma who was funding the “gain of function” research in Wuhan and you don’t KNOW that Dr. Fauchi isn’t profiting personally from it, now do you? Something something something Jewish space lasers

.

Any change in behavior — however minor — to manage the pandemic is a brutal attack on lady liberty because “my body, my choice” and also you’re excited that Roe is going to be overturned soon.

To take the free vaccine would would somehow be a win to the libs and to Red China, so take Regeneron or horse dewormer instead. There can never be “Vaccine passports” or, God forbid, a vaccine mandate, even though there are a variety of existing vaccine mandates that have been on the books for generations.

The difference is mumble mumble mumble the politics are different mumble mumble and fuck you, lib.

Nothing short of reparation from China will do when it comes to COVID. And, if that doesn’t work, then nuke them and let Trump ride one of the bombs like Slim Pickins in Dr. Strangelove.

And, in the end, it’s all about “personal responsibility” and if the fucking lib still won’t shut up, just tell them “no it won’t” and claim that all the facts that they use are “bogus.”

Oh, by the way fuck Jesse Kelly.

Holy Shit — We May Be Careening Towards A Very Dark Future Because of Evergrande & The Debt Ceiling


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve been reluctant to write about all of this because I don’t really know a lot about it, but from what I do know….we all need to sit up and take notice. Two events are beginning to bubble up to the surface — one in China, the other here in the good old USA.

So, from what I understand it there’s a huge fucking company in China called Evergrande that has defaulted on a massive amount of loans. Something like $US800 Million. The fear is, of course, that this will cause a massive shockwave throughout the global economy.

Meanwhile, because of fucking MoscowMitch in the United States, there’s a real possibility that we’re going to fail to raise the debt ceiling and we’re going to default on our own payments. (Or something — I’m kind of fuzzy on the specifics of what exactly would happen.)

But the point is — this could all be the set up for a one-two punch against the global economy, already weakened by COVID19. For once, I’m not going to assume the absolute worst will happen.

I do think, however, that at the moment, at least, Republicans are prepared to crash the global economy to “own the libs.” Such a catastrophe would be a setup for a MAGA landslide in fall 2022 and then, fuck you lib, we’ll win 2024 and finally turn the United States into the autocracy we’ve all assumed it would become.

But, I just don’t know. This is really a very dark scenario. And we all know that nothing bad has ever happened to a country because of a depression. Lulz! I wish we skip the potentially scary part and go straight to where we have Truth & Reconciliation Trials in, say, Mobile, Alabama.

All know is, there is the POTENTAL for a massive, stunning self-induced economic clusterfuck this fall.

All Eyes On Texas & Matthew McConaughey


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

First, let me say that I’m not from Texas and don’t know anything about its internal politics. But I do know, on a macro level, that it definitely looks as though there will never be another center-Left state-wide office holder there unless it’s part of a Second Reconstruction in a post-Second American Civil War won by Blue States.

By All-Pro Reels from District of Columbia, USA – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0,

But there is at least one wild card at the moment, and that’s Matthew McConaughey. He sort of embodies the spirit of modern Texas (IMHO) and it’s easy to see him becoming governor for the same reasons that Trump became POTUS — everyone imbued him with their hopes and fears, not really knowing anything about him.

And, if McConaughey can just prove himself capable of Not Being Trump in Texas, he will be the de facto shadow Democratic candidate for 2024. Now, things would get really weird if he rans a Republican. But, I find that unlikely because I would be flabbergasted if he was willing to pander to the MAGA New Right base that much.

I don’t think we’re prepared for how much POTUS talk would swirl around McConaughey if he ran and won in Texas. It would be very, very intense. He’s the perfect post-Obama, post-Trump post-Rona candidate. But he has to decide to run and he has to win.

And, like I said, even if he won, the case could be made that Republicans would find out some way, anyway to nullify his win, just like they’re probably going to do in January 2025 with any Biden win nationally.

But it will be interesting, no matter what.

I just don’t see Beto O’Rourke ever having a shot at winning in Texas. He’s always going to be the guy who Should Win, not the guy who Will Win.

MAGA New Right ‘Thought Leaders’ Are Such Fucking Morons — Even ‘Soyboys’ Got Spunk When Things Turn Existential


By Ender

I know that I sound hysterical. I know that seem to love peddling my own version of “fear porn” and “doom shit.” But we have to admit that no one is going to save us. There will be no “boom” that takes down the entire rotten, fetid Trumplandia edifice. (That this is a mirror image of MAGA Far Right discussions on Twitter about The Durham Report should tell you something.)

But one thing that is going on all around us is our politics has frozen up. We’ve reached a point in negative polarization where the two sides are absolutely opposed to anything the other side supports. As such, outside of a few highly educated NeverTrumper thinkers, there is no and will never be common cause against MAGA. There will never be a broad United Front formed to save our faltering democracy.

In short — we’re fucked.

And there are two, maybe three endgames to this. Either we slide peacefully into autocracy, a military junta takes over…or we have a civil war.

It’s this last option that MAGA New Right thought leaders become so giddy over. They keep saying that because “liberals won’t leave them alone,” they are going to have to turn to political violence. Their thinking is — liberal progressives are all soyboy milquetoasts who will be crush by their Alpha Male prowess.

This is such a fucking dumb thing to think.

I say this AGAIN because human nature is such that even a “sissy boy” is going to grow a lot more “alpha” if things grow existential. So, it seems to me the MAGA New Right cocksuckers who think Blue States will “collapse like a rotten door” will be in for a pretty rude awakening if things got so bad that we had a civil war.

But there is one thing to consider — WMD.

If we have a civil war, we’re probably going to bomb ourselves into oblivion.

Good luck!

J4J6: Don’t Make Me Come Up There

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ugh. Fucking Insurrectionists. I live within driving distance of D.C. and now I have to think about being “forced” to drive up to the nation’s capitol to see if those idiots have it in them to do it AGAIN.

I only didn’t go to the January 6th attack because it was — wait for it — too cold. And, long term, it was that attack that has caused me to want to buy the best digital camera I can buy so maybe I can take The Picture I know I have in me. Something for the ages.

But I’m still debating things. It could very well be the whole thing will be a dud and I will have wasted all that time, energy and money for nothing. (By “nothing” I mean, thankfully, no second attack on the Capitol. As of the moment, I think I’m not going. )

Back to the future.

I’m going to wait this one out.

There will always be another historic event within driving distance of me, and by that point, I will hopefully have the camera I want / need. I will note, however, that I’m notorious for saying that, only to turn around and do the exact opposite thing when the time comes.

But maybe not this time. I want to hold tight until I have that camera. I just don’t see much point in going up to DC with just my smartphone. If I’m going to cover a potentially big event like that, I’m going to do it with a great camera that will serve me well.