Living In Oblivion

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While I know I have a lot of “potential” as the late Annie Shapiro once told me, in general, I’ve been living in oblivion for a very, very long time. I kind of flew too close to the sun in the 2006 – 2008 timeframe.

Vibe.
As such, I was kind of a mental prison of my own making for a long, long time. And embarrassing amount of time. But things have changed and I’m finally really focused on something that will — hopefully — let me live up to my potential: my first novel.

Occasionally with this blog’s Webstats, I see pings from places that make me scratch my head a little bit. Why would someone from — there — be looking at this blog of all things? I can never figure out if these mysterious people from exotic locales are interested my political ranting or my very public navel gazing about writing a novel.

It’s a mystery!

I fucking hate this test.

But just the idea that someone of note would give a shit about me — whatever the reason — is quite flattering. All are welcome, I suppose, as long as you’re not a fucking stalker. (Ugh.)

Anyway, it will be interesting to see if I wrap up this third draft of the novel when I hope to — which is no later than around April 1st. So very much could go wrong. Not only do I have lingering problems with my teeth, but the fact that Stieg Larsson died at 50 looms large in my mind.

Stieg Larsson

Being 50 at the moment makes me think about if I don’t wrap this novel up as quickly as possible that it will all be a lulz. I’m not writing A Confederacy of Dunces, after all — this is a modern pop novel that needs to hit shelves at some point in the near future, not 11 years after my death.

Hopefully, I won’t become so incapacitated from my teeth problems that I can’t continue to write as quickly as I have been the last few weeks.

I Fucking Hate Guns

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really, really fucking hate guns. I’m a man of peace. A man of ideas. I hate conflict of any sort. I despise violence. And the idea that anyone would actually want to *own* a gun for any reason…boggles my mind.

I just sometimes shoot off at the mouth because I’m aghast at how everyone seems to be lulzing the return of Tyrant Trump. So, if you’re with the government and you’re reading this — I SWEAR YOU HAVE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT.

I’m a kook, yes, but I’m a very peaceful kook who just wants to finish my first novel.

What Is To Be Done: How Bad Will Things Have To Get Under Tyrant Trump In 2025 For The American Populace To Get ‘Woke?’

by Ender

Editor’s Note: I’m not advocating anything. I’m just frustrated and sometimes I write provocative things generated from that frustration.

If Tyrant Trump freaks out we all may be antifa in 2025.
Something that has really been weighing on my mind of late is — how bad, exactly, will things have to get before some direct action concepts that would otherwise NEVER HAPPEN suddenly become viable? Remember, none of the fascist dreams that Tyrant Trump will happen in a vacuum. If Trump and his goons literally begin to snatch people off the street — or drive them out of the country — there is going to be some sort of reaction on the part of the population.

Or will there? Is it possible that as long as the economy is going well and 1 million smug Twitter liberals with their circle jerk podcasts leave the country that….lulz? Even if we literally descend into tyranny of autocratic rule that…no one will care? There might be some riots or protests here or there, but if Tyrant Trump has scared the shit out of the broadcasts networks…no one will know about it?

Of course, Tyrant Trump thinks that all of his problems will be solved by invoking the Insurrection Act. This is very dumb and naive. That’s just not how this works, it’s not how any of this works.


I’ve read up on how the Nazis consolidated power in early 1933 and the crucial thing they had that Tyrant Trump won’t have is a paramilitary group. The U.S. Military is simply NOT the Nazi SA. On an institutional basis, the U.S. Military simply isn’t interested in being a tyrant’s bitch. It may slow walk any knocking of heads if Trump causes mass riots across the country, or, if there was a Women’s Strike or General Strike, they might even just stand down and wait for things to play out.

Who knows. Given the absence of a SA-like paramilitary group, things get really murky in early 2025 really quick. Even if Trump does everything in his power to corrupt the adminstration of civilian rule over the U.S. Military if Tyrant Trump does all the batshit insane things he wants to do…yikes. Things could get rather bonkers rather quick.

My fear is that a second Trump term would cause first a Glorious American Revolution….then a Secession Crisis as Reds balk at all the structural political reforms that Blues will want to push through.

The whole thing would be a clusterfuck. I don’t want it to happen, but I am gravely concerned that we’re just not prepared for what may happen in the United States starting in late 2024, early 2025.

My Characterizations Are Getting Much Better

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One thing I’m leaning into is how people can change over the course of 25 years. This is one of those things where even though it’s felt like I’ve been spinning my wheels for months, I actually am slowly stumbling across some new, important elements to the story.

Among these improvements is significantly better characterizations. I have two secondary POV characters that have gone from just meh “vibes” into really unique people with sharp edges that make them really, really interesting. I have long written on character specifically with Jessica Chastain in my mind as I write the character.

I really liked her in Zero Dark Thirty and, as such, in the last two novels in this six novel project I have a hardass FBI agent who drives my hero nuts. But now that I’ve been really rooting around in the events that lead to those last two novels — which are meant to be an allegory for how fucked up modern America is — I realize that there is a lot of interesting avenues I can go.

As such, we meet this future FBI agent as a 90s Riot Grrrl. This makes her transformation 25 years later even greater. So she goes from being depicted in the novel like this:

To this:

I think that’s pretty cool! So, over the course of six novels — and 25 years — we gradually see this character morph from a passionate Riot Grrrl into a very conventional, serious FBI agent who drives the Hero of the last two novels crazy with what an asshole she is to him.

That, at least, is the vision.

No, Twitter Liberals, You Can’t Fix Anything By Simply ‘Tweeting Harder’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I am growing more and more frustrated by well-meaning Twitter liberals who think that they can avoid risking their “lives and sacred honor” when it comes to defeating Tyrant Trump simply by “tweeting harder.”

They’re such pussies that I think it’s inevitable that when Tyrant Trump starts to literally round up people in late January 2025 that they’re just going to flee the country en masse. They just don’t have the guts to do anything else. They are going to leave us Poors to our own devices as the ranks of ICE agents swells and is weaponized and mysteriously drunk crank citizens like me will just go “poof” as 10 million undocumented people are rounded up and put in camps.

I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m a man of peace. A man of ideas. But I would also die on my feet than live on my knees a slave. So, lulz, come at me bruh?

I just am never, ever going to shut up. I’m never going to be a “Good German.” So, yeah, I’m willing to do the one thing that all those fucking smug Twitter liberals with careers and families aren’t willing to do — actually take an existential risk for what I believe in.

But, hopefully, it won’t come to that. Hopefully, Biden will win in 2024, Trump will fade into political oblivion and I can somehow sell my first novel.

Chaos Is A Ladder: Gaming Out America’s Final Decent Into A MAGA-Themed Autocracy In Early 2025

by Ender

Ok. There’s a lot to unpack here. It seems as though malignant ding-dong Trump and his goons MAY have made a pretty big strategic error in their plans to turn the United States into an autocracy starting in late January 2025. As I’ve written before, they assume that through sheer force of will they can corrupt the administration of justice and of the executive and turn America into a Hungary-style managed democracy without any problems.

They seem to think that as long as they have the Insurrection Act in their back pocket that everything else will be unicorns and rainbow farts for their autocratic dreams. That may be so….but I have some quibbles.

The ironic thing is just as liberals seem to think that someone is to swoop in and save us from Trump if they just tweet harder, so, too, do MAGA fascists believe that invocation of the Insurrection Act is some sort of fascist fairy dust. This, despite the U.S. Military being loathed to get involved any political issues fights and the United States being a diverse, decentralized country with a huge population and a long tradition of democracy.

So….lulz?

Yes, there is a lot of low hanging fruit for Trump in the first few days of his tyrannically second administration. He can arrest a lot of people he doesn’t like — or drive them out of the country. He can fire 100,000 civil servants, turn Voice of America into his propaganda organ, pull the US out of NATO and our troops out of Korea and Japan.

BUT…..none of this will happen in a vacuum.

And, as such, if there is some sort of massive revolt against dingus Trump for these tyrannical moves by the population…the Insurrection Act can only do so much. There is a key thing that Trump is missing — he has no paramilitary group to “forcefully suggest” to people that they shut up and go along with the America First agenda….and if they don’t, they end up in a camp.

There are two things to consider at this point.

One is, clearly while Trump is weaponizing the existing ICE infrastructure to round up 10 million(!) undocumented people in the US….he could probably use that same weaponization to turn ICE agents into something akin to the SA. So, I could see Trump passing a HUGE FUCKING BILL that would enlarge the ranks of ICE Agents to an astonishing level. They would serve the purpose of the Nazi SA in the first 100 days of Hitler’s consolidation of power in early 1933.

Or, Trump could go the more direct route and somehow organize an actual MAGA SA made up of consolidated group of Patriot Front, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who would be his goons as the US lurched towards a Nazi-style autocracy.

BUT….This, too, would NOT happen in a vacuum. There would be some lag time between when all hell broke loose in the US because Trump went full tyrant and the time where he would have a 500,000 goons on the streets to knock heads. That would give anti-fascist forces a window of opportunity. Things like a Woman’s Strike or a General Strike with specific anti-fascist demands might be enough to convince the U.S. Military to at least stand down, if not actively join anti-fascist forces. In a sense, we would all be antifa at that point.

Remember, however, all of this would be happening in the context of mass chaos in the United States. There would be no assurance that any Blue Glorious Revolution would work — it could endup like what happened in Turkey and only make the autocrat more powerful by failing. And even if it was successful, it’s very possible that it would only cause a Secession Crisis as Red States — probably starting with Texas — would leave the Union rather than accept any sort of reforms that they knew would hurt the fascist MAGA agenda.

I don’t think the fucking nattering nabobs of negativism on Twitter realize how bad things will get if Trump is re-elected. We would be going to the show, folks. This would be it.

America would either turn into a Russian-style autocratic state or we would somehow found a Third Republic.

A Perfect Storm: A Hottake On Q*, The Looming Possibility of AGI and The Need For UBI

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve been reading up on this whole Q* issue in its relation to Sam Altman being fired then rehired and it’s all…very curious. Just the idea that we may be approaching AGI is enough to give one pause for thought. And the idea that it may happen between now and when the so-called “Fourth Turning” staring in late 2024, early 2025 is very unsettling.

Imagine that just as the United States is having an existential political crisis, we are also being faced with something akin to a Singularity as well. If we achieve AGI between now and Election Day 2024, then, suddenly the idea of a Universal Basic Income becomes a serious political proposal.

But, wait, there’s more!

What if AGI is considered “woke” by MAGA to the point that they want it destroyed because it starts to take “jerbs” away from blue collar MAGA people? How’s that for a sticky wicket? You would pit the tech against the people at the same time as we the United States debates if it should lurch into fascism. And if AGI came and suddenly the entire economy was thrown up in the air…well, you really have a recipe for economic — and political — disaster.

But I am prone to “hysterical doom shit,” so, lulz, it could be that we just continue to drift through history and we punt our political problems down the road and only gradually reach any sort of technological Singularity. But I am…worried.

It definitely seems as though 2024 – 2025 could be one of the most momentous eras in American, if not human history. Only time will tell.

Welp, Biden Is Probably Going To Be Impeached In January

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

All signs point to Speaker MAGA Mike impeaching Joe Biden sometime in January. The point of this silly act is simply to make Biden and Trump “equal” in the minds of low information voters as they head to the polls in late 2024. That and a huge amount of spite.

It seems as though Speaker MAGA Mike is doing this at the direct order of ding-dong Trump. The two met recently so the speaker could suck Trump’s political cock. As one does in such a position.

The whole thing is a huge waste of time. But it will only help to cement Trump’s absolute power over House Republicans. And, remember, when should Trump go full tyrant once he’s re-elected, if the House is Republican….he’s going to have pretty much absolute power. He will be able to consolidate power through Agenda47, Schedule F and Project 2025 quite quickly.

Then, given how form follows function, we’re going to have a Constitutional Convention that will go rouge, put MAGA Enabling Acts into the Constitution itself and that’s all she wrote. We turn into a Russia-style autocracy with camps and potentially American Killing fields.

I wish I was joking.

But we have to go through a dumb impeachment of Biden in January so Trump has a spring in his step heading into November 2024.

Canaries In The Coalmine

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There are two things to keep an eye out for starting Election Day 2024 if Trump is re-elected — smug Twitter liberals fleeing the country and people leaving their state to states that better fit their personal politics.

If the first happens, then, lulz, we’re going to slip peacefully into autocracy. I predict as many as 1 million smug Twitter liberals with circle jerk podcasts could simply bounce between November 2024 and February 2025. Maybe I’m over estimating these numbers, but I do believe that there will be a large number of Twitter liberals who peace out because they have the means to escape the looming Trump autocracy.

Meanwhile, if there is a mad rush of Reds fleeing to Red States and Blues fleeing to Blue states then there is a chance that we’re going to have some sort of epic shitshow political crisis, the largest scene since the beginning of the Civil War. I think it’s more likely such a scenario would happen if Trump loses, but I suppose it’s possible that if Trump wins there might be something akin to a “Glorious Revolution” that would make people feel pretty insecure about their personal safety because of political violence.

And remember, any attempt at a Blue “Glorious Revolution” probably will do nothing more than prompt a secession crisis as Red states decide to leave the Union rather than tolerate any of the structural reforms that a Glorious Revolution would push through.

I guess what I’m saying is — we’re fucked.

The only scenario where there isn’t a “Fourth Turning” is if Biden wins and Trump goes peacefully back into the shadows. While possible, that’s…unlikely.

I Have Got To Hurry Up

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely seems as though disaster could strike at any moment when it comes to this novel. Something might happen that either changes the context of the novel a great deal relative to my personal life or even makes the whole experience a lot more difficult to do.

I have some issues with my teeth that are really causing me growing alarm. I’m afraid there will come a point very, very soon when I’m in so much pain that it is difficult for me to get *any* writing done. That, combined with how I’m not going to live forever, is forcing me to push myself to write faster and better.

And all of this is happening in the context of not just the fucking Fourth Turning zooming towards us starting in late 2024, early 2025, but the very real possibility that all human art will be replaced by some sort of AGI in the near, near future.

All of this is a “Not great, Bob,” situation for someone like me who just wants to write a break out first novel that will be enjoyed by millions. (Wink.)