After way more time than I imagined would need to pass, I finally, finally believe I may have figured out the layout of the first act of the third draft of my first novel. I’m going to have to be slow and methodical going forward. I’ve been writing all this copy, reading it, then throwing it out because it just wasn’t good enough.
I feel your vibe, Phoebe. But it seems as though it’s possible this brutal editing and revision that I’ve been doing has finally begun to produce results. I’ve decided to focus on finishing the first two chapters of the novel. If I can stabilize the first two chapters, I think that will be the stepping stone for the rest of the novel.
That, at least, is the vision.
I just can’t keep treading water forever. I’m never going to write something that’s “perfect” relative to my very, very arbitrary personal metrics for what makes a “good” story. There is going to have to come a point — soon — when I just “give up” and do whatever I have to do, break whatever personal “rule” necessary to actually finish the fucking novel.
At the moment, I’m very pleased with the new first chapter I’ve come up with. It’s really, really good. Reading over it yet again, reads like a professional novel you might pick up casually at a physical bookstore. The point is to just finish the novel at this point. Finish. The. Novel.
Once I finish this third draft, then I have to figure out how I save up the money to get a professional manuscript consultant to read the third draft before I query it about a year from now. Of course, it could be that the fucking Fourth Turning happens and all my hard work will be moot because I’ll be too buy living underground, trying to avoid MAGA Nazi ICE agents hunting me down.
But as I keep saying — my vision for this novel is finally beginning to take shape.
I suspect the lesson that MAGA Nazis will learn from their rebuke last night at the polls when it comes to abortion rights will not be to moderate to win elections, but to hasten the end of American democracy. In other words, they are so consumed with their moral objection to women having medical agency, that they will simply bide their time until they can abolish the Senate filibuster and pass a national fetal personhood bill.
And that’s probably the the best case scenario, all things considered. The worst case scenario would be MAGA Nazis involved in Project 2025 figure out some way to use extralegal methods to outlaw abortion, even if its still legal. But for that to happen, they the ranks of The Patriot Front would have to swell significantly.
I continue to think about how there is a gaping hole in the MAGA Nazi Project 2025 plan. They really think that brazenly corruption of both the law and the administration of the executive will be enough to browbeat the 60% of the American Population that still believes in the Second Republic.
Project 2025 people seem to have a childlike belief that whatever reaction they get from the populace from their tyranny they can fix using the Insurrection Act. Those hateful ding-dongs don’t have what the Nazis had in 1933: the SA. If anything gives me hope that maybe we can fight back against the MAGA Nazis is that lack of a big MAGA Nazi paramilitary arm.
I suppose that particular flaw in Project 2025 could be fixed — they still have a year, after all. And I suppose their may be some secret element of Project 2025 involving making a direct link between MAGA Nazi tyranny and the use of The Patriot Front to knock heads.
But even if they were going to do that in early 2025, there would be some lag time between when people began to riot in the streets of Blue States, the U.S. Military balking at crushing them and the establishment of a direct link between Tyrant Trump’s regime and The Patriot Front.
The Nazi’s SA paramilitary group was instrumental in the fascist’s consolidation of power in the early days of their rule. It is clear that the MAGA Nazi Project 2025 believes that they will do via the corruption of the law and administration of government what the Nazis used the SA to do in the streets. Their thinking is that Americans will adhere to the law, even if its been corrupted by a bunch of fucking MAGA Nazi hacks.
It seems as though Project 2025 organizers think they can use the cover of the Insurrection Act to get the U.S. Military to bash heads in like the SA did in 1933. This is a curious assumption — on an institutional basis, the U.S. Military will not be thrilled to be an operational arm of the MAGA Nazis in the streets when freedom loving Americans begin to protest.
There are a number of would-be SA groups floating around in the United States at the moment. The Proud Boys. The Oath Keepers. And, of course The Patriot Front. Of all these groups, it seems as though The Patriot Front has the organization and focus to be the American SA. (I’m sure they would see this as a compliment.)
But as best I can tell, The Patriot Front is kind of small compared to the SA in early 1933 Germany. What’s more, the link between MAGA and The Patriot Front is not nearly as direct. In other words, Republicans don’t have an official paramilitary arm — at least not yet. It seems the thinking of the MAGA Nazis is they can simply browbeat everyday Americans into accepting MAGA tyranny through a combination of the corruption of the law and administration of government while using the Insurrection Act to knock the heads of anyone with the temerity to object.
And, yet, if things grow as severe as all of us worry they will, it’s possible that the lack of a MAGA SA will be the thing that pushes America past the point of no return. MAGA Nazis simply relying upon the U.S. Military to supply a “value added” element to their hateful tyranny seems a recipe for disaster.
What happens if the U.S. Military balks at murdering peaceful protesters in the streets and turns on the tyrannical Trump Administration? Then what? Even if they successfully deposed Tyrant Trump, 38% of the electorate would, in turn, freak out and probably we would have a Secession Crisis on our hands.
I suppose it’s possible that it’s possible that Trump won’t win re-election and we’ll punt our severe structural problems down the road four years — again. That’s what I *HOPE* happens. But we have to begin to think now about what freedom loving people, citizens who honor Abraham Lincoln, are going to do should Tyrant Trump get a second chance to throttle the Second Republic that Lincoln founded upon his death.
It is clear from what I’m learning about the Nazis’ first 100 days how important the role of SA was in their consolidation of power. The German Army pretty much watched as the Nazis throttled the Weimar Republic. Flash forward and, as best I can tell, the plot against America that is the MAGA Nazi Project 2025 makes some basic assumptions about their first 100 days that may not be based in reality.
The key assumption of Project 2025 — from what I can tell — is rather than relying upon a paramilitary group like the SA to consolidate power, MAGA Nazis are going to simply corrupt the legal system to get what they want. With the use of the Insurrection Act in their back pocket if necessary.
There are a lot of problems with this.
In essence, the theory of the case for MAGA Nazis is they can so sucker punch the American population that by the time Barbra Streisand has the wherewithal to send out an angry tweet, it will be too late. But America 2025 will not be Germany 1933.
America is not only a huge, multicultural nation with a huge population, it also is very decentralized and has a very strong tradition of democracy. To the point that democracy in America is part of our identity. What’s more, the U.S. Military for all its non-partisan ethos, is unlikely to want to be reduced to knocking the heads of a restive populace just because Trump hides behind the gratuitous invocation of the Insurrection Act.
So, the issue is — will the U.S. Military lulz things and smash heads in, serving the propose the SA did for the Nazis in 1933 or will it balk and help the populace overthrow our new MAGA Nazis oppressors?
Lulz. This is just mental masturbation. I am so far away from finishing this novel, much less having to worry about shit like this. But I’m drinking 90 proof moonshine at the moment so humor me.
From what I can tell of Hollywood actresses, they love, love, love the opportunity to use the guise of “acting” to do freaky shit. I think this is great for me as an audience member and it does hearten me as an aspiring novelist. I say this because in this third draft of the novel sex work — specifically stripping — plays a pretty significant role.
I am well aware that because of human nature and the needs of marketing that the only thing anyone will want to talk about is the stripper angle of the story. Ok, I get it. But for me, I just think it’s an interesting way to add dimension to some of my female characters.
And I could totally see a number of ambitious women in Hollywood really digging the situations I throw my characters in because of how important stripping is to the progression of the plot. But, as I said, people will be so hung up on the sex worker angle of the story that they may not even realize what the point of the story is in the first place.
But I can see the appeal of my female characters to Hollywood actresses. If I do my job right, I will craft a number of really interesting women who just happen to strip on occasion. At the moment, the stripper angle is nothing more than an excuse to flesh out characters in the first act.
The rest of the novel is a homage to Stieg Larsson’s work in a way that the average read should see it as an old brown shoe. If I am a good enough writer, that is.
Anyway. What do I know. I’m a smelly CIS white male.
By Ender I’m reading a book about the Nazi’s first 100 days and the more I read it, the more compelling it becomes. I say this because of what I’m learning about the Nazi MAGA’s Project 2025 which lays out what the fucking MAGA Nazis plan to do once they have power again.
Essentially, as I understand it, Project 2025 is essentially a plot against America that would provide Tyrant Trump with the legal and administrative shock troops of the MAGA Nazi (counter) revolution. Reading about the Nazis’ first 100 days is very illuminative as to what we should expect should Tyrant Trump win re-election in 2024.
If Trump literally begins to lock up his critics, all American will, at last, face a moment of truth. It seems clear that Tyrant Trump wants to sucker punch us in the first few days of his second administration by arresting people he doesn’t like and invoking the Insurrection Act.
My hunch is that all the fucking earnest, smug Twitter liberals who have loved Mueller, She Wrote so much since the advent of Trump will pretty much just slink out of the country using the second passport. Rather than using their power and influence to organize mass direct action like a General Strike, they will be swilling wine and recording their circle jerk, smug podcasts somewhere in the south of France.
As such, I think the moment it’s clear Trump has won a second term, there will be a massive outflux of wealthy, educated liberals from the country. That will be the first indication that the MAGA Nazi counter revolution has begun. A number of notable Trump critics will be among them, as well. When people like Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart bounce in late 2024, then, lulz, we know we’re going to the show.
Of course, it could be even worse. Rather than leaving the country, Colbert may simply vanish off the airwaves soon after Trump comes back into office. When dystopian, tyrannical shit like that starts to happen, it makes me wonder what my Traditionalist relatives — whom I love — will react.
Because I have made it clear to anyone who will listen that I’m not fucking shutting up about how I think MAGA is fucking American Nazism and Trump is a fucking small dicked cocksucker. Come at me, bruh, as they say. I’ve repeatedly tried to make the rise of MAGA Nazism personal to my conservative relatives, with little reaction.
It’s shit like that that makes me think that much like the Nazis during their first 100 days in 1933, MAGA Nazis, too, will ride political momentum into a situation where they turn the nation I love into a fucking American Nazi state. The existing ICE infrastructure will be weaponized and people like me will be rounded up as “enemies of the state.”
I wish I was kidding. It definitely seems as though that’s my fate at the moment. I’m never fucking shutting up. I would rather die on my feet a free man than live on my knees a slave.
What’s interesting to me is the conditions of the Nazis’ first 100 days and those of the MAGA Nazis’ 100 days are not one-to-one. Among the differences is modern America is far bigger and far more diverse than German 1933. And, what’s more, not only is the American state far more decentralized than the Weimar Republic, being a free country is part of the American self-identity and birthright.
As such, the moment the fruits of Project 2025 begin to be seen, there is very likely going to be a pretty severe reaction. When the fucking Project 2025 SA members begin to use the levers of state while they corrupt the law, we will enter a political crisis not seen since the end of the civil war.
One thing I can’t game out is what the U.S. Military will do should the MAGA Nazis use the Insurrection Act to go after American citizens. The thing about the Nazis is during their first 100 days, they had paramilitary groups like the SA to knock heads and cause the end of the Weimar Republic.
While there are a number of paramilitary groups affiliated with the MAGA Nazi movement, but none of them are as powerful or widespread as the Nazi SA was in early 1933 Germany.
As such, the MAGA Nazis have to invoke the Insurrection Act to get the U.S. Military to do their dirty work for them. This raises the question of if the U.S. Military is prepared to be a goons who club the American public “just cause.” That is an open question in my mind.
It seems to me at least possible that the U.S. Military, rather than knocking heads, may turn on Herr Trump and his MAGA Nazis thugs. I’ve already proposed that the 14th Amendment’s Insurrection Clause would be an ideal legal over to depose Tyrant Trump. A lot would depend, of course, on who was Speaker of the House in 2025.
The most extreme version of this scenario would involve something unpreceded a military junta that would keep the country together until, say, a Constitutional Convention could be held that would push through some very needed Constitutional reforms.
I only suggest such a thing because, lulz, even if we did manage to depose Tyrant Trump, there would still be about 38% of the population that really, really wanted the vision that malignant ding-dong proposed. Only the U.S. Military would have the means to hold the country together long enough to sort out an ongoing clusterfuck in a way that gave us a political off ramp.
If that didn’t work, then well, buckle up — we’re going to the show. Any attempt to depose Tyrant Trump would cause a Secession Crisis which, would, in turn, probably cause WW3 to happen.
The fact that the below is a hang up in the current SAG strike negotiations is an indication of how serious Hollywood Suits are taking the potential of zombie actors populating future movies.
It makes a lot of sense that the Hollywood Suits would really want this ability. It is clear to anyone clued in with a pulse that the very idea of what we consider “entertainment” is about to be revolutionized in near term.
It could be that by around 2030, everyone will be given a very personalized movie that was generated by AI after it did a scan of their face to see what mood they were in.
It seems clear that we’re on the cusp of a major upheaval in Hollywood. The only question now is a matter of timing. In the end, having living actors in a movie may be seen as “quaint” and “artisanal.”
I have long be accused by snooty, well respected Twitter liberals — looking at you Mueller, She wrote — of promoting “hysterical doom shit” in regards to Trump and MAGA.
And, yet, shit like the below is not exactly a secret at this point:
It makes you wonder what the practical response on the part of low information voters — the ones who most likely to vote for Trump — should Trump literally go full tyrant. Would anyone care? Or would Trump cram through an American Nazi counter-revolution on the American body politic with little no no resistance?
That specific issue is one I just can’t game out. Not only is the United States a huge population at 335 million people, but Trump still has a lot of slack in the system before he finally, at last, bumps up against American First Principles to the point that things like a General Strike seem viable.
I have my doubts. And, really, the only reason why I think something like a General Strike might happen at some point during Trump’s second term is he is so dumb and so erratic that he is the only person I can think of that might be so political disruptive and destructive that there might be a popular uprising.
But, of course, such an uprising would inevitably prompt a counter-uprising on the part of MAGA.
So, let’s just hope that my hysterical doom shit stays something that resides only in my fevered imagination.
Now, before I lay this scenario out, let me be clear — I’m not advocating anything. I’m a man of peace. A man of ideas. And, what’s more, we all know that what I’m about to suggests happened that it would be just the opening salvo into pretty much a civil war / revolution situation.
But, having said that, here goes.
While it’s of course possible that Trump won’t win the 2024 election, it’s also true that at the moment it seems as though he is, in fact, going to win and we have to start to think now about what our reaction to that will be. Trump has made it very clear that he’s pretty much going to become a fucking tyrant the moment he is in power again.
He’s going to arrest people he doesn’t like. He’s going to invoke the Insurrection Act, the list goes on.
Really, the only thing that gives me any hope at the moment is that all these tyrannical things would not happen in a vacuum. If Trump really does go full tyrant straight out of the gate, there may come a point where a lot of well-meaning Traditionalists who voted for Trump because of negative polarization will finally, at last, sit up and take notice.
If Trump actually starts to not only round his critics up so he can “lock them up” AND he uses the military to crack down on any form of dissent, then, lulz, we got a problem on our hands. We may, very well, be going to the show. That’s what so dumb about tyrant Trump — if he had any self control he could get everything he wanted in due time.
But, no, Trump is so dumb that he could do what a civil war and two world wars could not do — cause an actual Glorious Revolution where the 60% of the population that hates Trump and MAGA with a passion actually collectively does something about it.
If Trump is a tyrant and makes all my hysterical doom shit fears become a reality, then there is at least a small possibility that the U.S. Military will step in and depose him in some way. The most logical way such a thing might happen is they could use the legal cover of the 14th Amendment to say both Trump and his veep aren’t legally in office to begin with.
We may find ourselves with a military junta (President James Mattis anyone?) who exists specifically to call up a Constitutional Convention that would enact a series of much-needed structural political reforms.
Another wild card is the issue of impeachment. If Trump goes totally completely fucking tyrannical and nuts from day one, if the House is Democratic, there is a chance that if the country is wracked with massive, rolling protests and there is even a General Strike, then there may be a snap impeachment that flies over to the Senate where Republicans may, at last, find their guts.
Or not. They’re all wussies.
But as I mentioned, Trump is really popular with about 38% of the population. If there was some sort of “Glorious Revolution,” well, there would be a counter-revolution that would probably happen in the guise of a secession crisis.
So. I don’t know. It’s all very curious. I can’t predict the future, so it’s possible that Biden will win re-election and, rather than demanding a National Divorce to stay out of prison, Trump just rants a lot and finally fades into oblivion. We’ll be safe another four years until the usual ebb and flow of a democracy causes a far more sly fascist revolution to take place in 2028 -2029.
While I feel this novel is getting much, much better, I also growing a bit uneasy with the possibility that I have a little bit of a “slut” problem. What I see as being “sex positive,” I’m afraid others might see me as having all my female characters being horny toads.
It’s one of those situations where there comes a point where you can only over think things so much. Sometimes, you just have to accept that you can’t please everyone. I do think that my characterizations of my characters — especially the female characters — are getting a lot better.
To the point that I think it’s possible that I’m within shouting distance of having a professional novel on my hands. One that I can query in about a year — just as the Fourth Turning is fucking everything up — and not be embarrassed that I’m doing it.
But still have a few major steps between now and then. I still haven’t even gotten past the first chapter of the third draft at the moment. I keep writing copy, then reading it and realizing I can do a lot better. There is going to come a point when I realize I just can’t spin my wheels like this forever and need to move forward.
If nothing else, every time I do this, my storytelling ability gets a little bit better.
But back to women. I mean well, but I also realize that if I lean into women being “sex positive” for the sake of plot all the time, then I’m going to have an usually large number of sexually aggressive women in the story and, as such, critics will make note of it.
Anyway. I am very pleased with what I’m managed to come up with. I hope to throw myself into writing tomorrow, but who knows if that will work out or not. My life is in flux at the moment. But I am pleased with the state of the novel, if nothing else.
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