Category: Media

The Internet Archive & A Value Free Novel From An Internet ‘Crank’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Someone, again, poked around this site using the Internet Archive. Whenever this happens, it feels like I’m on a date against my will. Someone was doing “due diligence” on me for some reason. I have a feeling I know who it is and I fear I may have, yet again, failed whatever test the person had for me.

No matter what, I always fail if there are metrics involved. I just don’t do well with metrics for various reasons. If you judge me on my merits, then I do fairly well. But if you have some sort of Twitter liberal metric that you’re judging me against — then I’m just an Internet crank.

So, I find myself worrying a great deal about the novel I’m developing. Will literary agents judge me strictly on what I write, or will they, too, do “due diligence” on me and dismiss me as a Internet crank no matter how good the actual copy is?

This is something that has begun to suck up a huge amount of mental energy because it would be so typical of me — I do really well at something, only to fail not because of what I wrote, but because I don’t fit the Twitter liberal narrative. I will, tragically, just be another Ken Bone. (Though, to be fair to myself, my politics fall well within the Twitter liberal spectrum and his did not.)

Anyway, things are going really well with the novel. Things are moving very, very quickly. I hope to wrap up a first draft early 2021. After that, we’ll just have to see exactly how things work out. But I’m really thrown myself into this novel and I’m finally, at last, feeling pleased at what I’ve managed to come up with.

A huge amount of things can still go wrong, from someone stealing a march on me to the coming Biden Era making the whole thing moot. But the point of writing a novel — proving to myself I can do it — will have been achieved, even if those things unexpectedly happen.

Trump Is Not Well


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have long been ranting about the implications of Trump being a deranged ding-dong, but we’ve reached next-level crisis because after January 6th, Trump isn’t going to have any political or legal options left. So, it’s very possible he’ll explode, instead of implode mentally.

If he were to implode mentally, then we probably wouldn’t know. He just would be catatonic in the White House and we just wouldn’t see him for a few weeks until he mysteriously popped up a few months from now tan, ready and rested. So, it’s very possible Trump will explode — he may very well go completely insane after Congress meets on January 6th.

Did Stephen King predict our fate?

My fear is, of course, that Trump will finally snap but we won’t realize what’s going on at first because he’s been acting crazy for so long that his sudden decent into crazyland will at first be just a matter of degree. But I think one way we will really begin to know Trump has snapped is a combination of him going transactional on Twitter and him growing extremely passive-aggressive there as well.

He’ll not only start to tell MAGA to do things for him in the real world, he’ll also start whining about how liberals “hate him and want him to kill himself” or even out of the blue talk about how he controls our nuclear arsenal. It will be talk like this that might — might — finally scare the shit out of Republicans enough that they decide to do something about it.

But, alas, I think even then, they’re going to sit on their hands. Trump would really, REALLY do something completely insane for Republicans to do anything at this late date in his administration. The only thing I can think of is Trump somehow goes way out of his way and starts a war with the DPRK which involves a limited nuclear exchange.

Then, maybe, #MoscowMitch might do something about Trump.

Otherwise, lulz, nothing matters.

Or, put another way, Trump has his fate — and the fate of humanity — in his hands for the time being and there’s nothing we can do about it.

The Value Free Trump Era


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

In the end, what will decide Trump’s fate will be, as always, Trump. If he can just behave for a few more weeks, he’s going to get away scot free with everything he’s done. Everything. There simply will be no political will do do anything about any of his crimes.

What’s more, he will be in a position to not only be a king maker in Republican Politics for the rest of his life, but come roaring back in 2024. There may even be talk of naming him Speaker of the House in 2023 when Republicans take over again.

But.

Trump is not the political genius that everyone –including me — has thought he was over the years. His actual political ability is little more than a grunt. While he is an avatar for the rot and rage in the American political system, that’s all he is. He doesn’t have any innate political leadership ability. So he pretty much just thrashes around, destroying things and being corrupt without any overall strategy.

As I’ve said before, we live in an autocracy without the autocrat. The only thing stopping the United States from being a Russian-style autocracy at this point is Donald Trump. That’s it. If there was virtually anyone else in his position right now, we would be an autocracy.

The most surreal point of all of this is Trump isn’t going to behave. He probably is going to do some dumb self-own move that redefines his era to such an extent that he destroys himself politically. Whatever extra-political or extra-legal thing he attempts, may finally, at last, give us the political will to do something about the Trump cancer.

But it will come at a cost.

He’s likely to extract a pound of political flesh from us along the way. It could be a war, or him going transactional on Twitter. Nothing is off the table. So, it’s not going to be some sort of liberal fever dream where Rachel Maddow becomes president.

Nope, it’s going to suck.

‘Night Monsters’ — #Lyrics To A Pop-Rock Song About #Covid19 Symptoms


I know nothing about music. I’m just letting off steam. This would be a slow, dark, methodical pop rock song.


Night Monsters
lyrics by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
please give credit if you produce or perform

night monsters
night monsters
come out at night
just out of sight
night monsters
night monsters

night monsters
knock you out for delight
the aches are there
the fear rears its head
at night with all its might
what are you going to do
when they’re let out of the zoo

night monsters
night monsters
comout out at night
just out of sight
night monsters
night monsters

night monsters
stare at your body
make you can’t move or make a sound
you feel like a clown
won’t allow a twitch
without some sort of hitch

(bridge)
when dawn arrives
we let out a sigh
hoping they’re gone
knowing they’ll be back
leaving us out of whack

night monsters
night monsters
comout out at night
just out of sight
night monsters
night monsters

The Trump Era Can Be Value Free If Trump Just Behaves Himself


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Because Republicans have no shame, all Trump has to do to be in a decent position to make a come back in 2024 is simply behave. He just has to still keep political considerations in mind between now and January 20th. If he can just do that, he probably will remain a Republican Party king maker for at least a decade to come.

Yet, as we know, Trump is a willful child.

So, it’s fairly possible that Trump is going to attempt something extra-political or extra-legal in a desperate attempt to stay in office. He could do something so bad that for a bright, shining moment a lot of America will, at last, be on the same page about Trump: he’s gotta go.

I honestly don’t know what exactly he might do. But one thing is clear — it’s not like Trump has hidden his slide into insanity. He’s been quite open about it. He’s bonkers and there’s a decent chance that he’ll do something in the last few days (hours?) of his administration that redefines the whole five year experiment in political terror.

What, exactly, it might be, I don’t know.

But whatever it is, he will be doing it from a position of weakness. And there’s still a decent chance that after January 6th, he won’t have any hope anymore and he’ll finally flip the fuck out in a pretty massive fashion. He could grow extremely passive aggressive on Twitter. Or he could grow transactional.

Anything’s possible when someone’s lost their mind.

I guess only time will tell.

Second American Civil War In An Autocracy Without An Autocrat


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The explosion in Nashville seems to have been an attack on infrastructure, which is rather ominous. It definitely seem as though dark forces are aligning to strike at some point in the future if they don’t get what they want. Which, given what’s going on, seems like Trump Stays In Office.

And I continue to get a significant trickle to this site of people who think a Trump coup and or a Second American Civil War is imminent. All the conditions for such things to happen are there, but for one: Trump isn’t the autocrat people like me thought he was. He’s just an avatar for the rot and rage in the American political system — he has been successful to date by just being himself. He hasn’t had to show any political leadership on his own. He hasn’t forced the issue when necessary and he hasn’t done any and I mean ANY of the prep work to seize “total control.”

If Trump really was some sort of political genius, he would have struck months ago. He would have goaded the Blue States into secession, destroyed them and rebuilt them in his own image. And, then, we would be an autocracy. Then the fucking shithead fucktard cocksucker of MAGA-Qanon-Patriot Party would have gotten what they wanted.

But, Trump’s not an autocrat.

So, everything is there for a coup, civil war and autocracy, but for someone to play the autocrat. If Trump does attempt some sort of coup at this point, it’s most likely going to be by going transactional on Twitter. And I still think that if a civil war happens in the United States it will be at some point between, say, 2022 and 2025. The radical forces in the American political system need to stew in their juices a few more years so they can organize better.

Thus, if Trump lashes out in the final days of his administration in an effort to stay in power, he may cause a serious setback to the effort to turn the United States into an autocracy in the coming years. The thing about Trump is you never know what to expect. He may just allow us to drift into a Biden Administration, or he may self-own in a pretty spectacular fashion.

The Great Irony Of When #MoscowMitch Plays ‘Barry Goldwater In August 1974’ On January 20th, 2021


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If you believe as I do that Trump is going to self-own in some spectator fashion in the final days of his administration, then it’s at least possible that the thing we’ve all hoped would happen one day, #MoscowMitch takes a delegation of senior Republicans to the White House and tells Trump “he’s gotta go,” may happen at the absolute very last moment.

It would be a surreal irony if after five years of terrorizing America, Trump’s entire political legacy is defined by a few days in early 2021. I struggle to imagine a situation where Trump is actually able to successfully pull of a coup. He’s just not done the hard autocratic prep work necessary for it to happen. If he does attempt a coup, he won’t have even a thin veneer of legality to cling to. I guess it’s at least POSSIBLE some sort of surreal event might happen January 6th, but it would be done in the broader context of something extra-political or extra-legal having had happened as well.

So, it’s pretty easy to imagine Trump is hold up in the White House the evening of January 20th, 2021 and it is then, at last, that #MoscowMitch plays Barry Goldwater in August 1974 and attempts to negotiate Trump physically leaving the White House.

If Trump really does refuse to physically leave the White House, it would be the seminal event of his era. Everything that happened before would be framed relative to those fateful hours between when Biden was sworn in and when we finally managed to get Trump to leave the Oval Office. What would have otherwise been a value free — if turbulent — few years in our nation’s history would suddenly be something of 9/11-sized cultural significance.

Why A Trump Coup Attempt At This Point Would Be Quixotic


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There’s a lot of talk about Trump staging a coup these days, so let’s go through different scenarios to see how successful they might be.

January 6th
This is yet another day in the inevitable march towards Biden becoming president that MAGA shithead cocksuckers think they can somehow magically prevent Biden from ever becoming president. There are a series of things Trump could do at this point. MAGA people in Congress will challenge the Electoral vote and obviously delay things for a few hours — maybe even 24 hours if they are big enough assholes. And there are plenty of really dark scenarios whereby Pence doesn’t do his job, or there’s violence in Congress itself or Trump goes transactional on Twitter as all of this is happening. But the fact remains — Trump has not done any prep work to pull of a successful coup. There were a multitude of autocratic things Trump COULD have done over the last four years so he was able to successful steal a second term…and he didn’t do any of them. So, even under the most favorable of coup conditions…all Trump does is just destroy himself politically and damage the MAGA movement for a few years.

Wag The Dog
Under this scenario, Trump effectively starts WW3, thinking he can pull a Constitutional fast one one us — while we’re distracted by a war with Iran or the DPRK (or both) he simply never leaves office. This is just silly. Of all the civil society institutions in the United States, I have the most faith in our military to Do The Right Thing when the time comes. Even if WW3 starts, when January 20th comes around, Trump is no longer POTUS. The US. Military was able to wage a massive, global two front war, I think they can handle both waging WW3 and getting rid of an asshole POTUS. But given how stupid Trump is, I can definitely see why he might think he could pull such a thing off.

Downfall
In this scenario, Trump loses his fucking mind (probably at some point after January 6th) and really leans into going transactional on Twitter. He tells his MAGA shithead cocksucker followers to blow shit up or attempt to secede from the Union or whatever in a last ditch effort to stay in power no matter what. He might even — gulp — go so far as to blackmail the United States because he still has control over our nuclear arsenal. Or he might grow really fucking passive aggressive on Twitter, suggesting “liberals want him to kill himself” or some such bullshit. But in the end, this, too, would be very dumb.

The key thing we have to appricate is at this point, Trump staging a coup would be more a symptom of him being bonkers than any sort of actual autocratic ability. So, in the end, he will probably scare the shit out of us all in some way and pretty much just destroy himself on his way out the door.

Why Trump Was Not ‘America’s Hitler’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now, before we begin, let me note that Trump “not being Hitler” isn’t what you might think — Trump’s not Hitler not because he’s not a deranged lunatic, but he’s so lazy and incompetent he can’t exploit the conditions that would otherwise MAKE him Hitler.

Let’s put it this way — the people who voted for Trump in 2016 were on a spectrum. There were people who wanted Trump to be America’s Hitler. There were also a lot of conservatives-who-weren’t-MAGA were given a permission structure to “come home” to the Republican Party when it counted: election day. In this sense, all things being equal, Trump was set to be an American Hitler — then he blew it.

What people like me saw in Trump was a Hitler-like character. We spun all these dark, dystopian scenarios where Trump would go full-autocrat on us and start off at Putin and endup at Hitler before it was all over with. Then we spent 4 years expecting Trump to do all these autocratic things…that he never did. Trump never did some basic Hitler-like actions that could have destroyed American democracy and taken us on the path towards some semblance of a Trumplandian-Nazi America. So, the case could be made that while Trump slice the seal of autocracy and tyranny, we may have dodged a bullet for the time being because of it was Trump, specifically, who was elected in 2016. If it had been anyone else, then they would have had the wherewithal to actually be an American Hitler.

The surreal thing is Trump, in a frantic attempt to stay in power, may change the entire context of the Trump Era. If Trump destroys himself politically by attempting to seize power through extra-political or extra-legal means, then it’s possible that he will so enrage Americans that for one, brief moment, we’ll be united it how much we all hate Trump.

Then, of course, we’ll descend into finger-pointing and recriminations. And, remember, the conditions that put Trump in the position to become an American Hitler will still be there, so it could be someone younger and more focused who ultimately does the deed.

But it definitely seems as though we’re careening towards some sort of “political 9/11” between now and January 20th. How exactly that will happen is anyone’s guess. Even if Trump attempted some sort of American Reichstag Fire in an effort to stay in power, it’s just too late. He’s done none of the hard work that Hitler would have done in Trump’s position.

So, in the end, it’s possible Trump might, just might, punt America’s lurch towards Nazi-style tyranny down the road a decade or so. But we’re not out of the woods yet. Anything can happen now MAGA has enjoyed power for four years.

‘#ETTD’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

America definitely has a Soviet Union in August 1991 vibe to it right now. If my Webstats are any indication, a lot of people across the country think — hope? — that we’re going to have some sort of Second American Civil War soon.

I generally don’t think that will happen now, but rather sometime in 2024-2025, but for one thing: Donald Trump. There are any number of different ways Trump could force the issue of a civil war as he attempts to stay in power. Now, we have to put this in perspective: Trump has done none of the prep work to do anything extra-political or extra-legal to stay in power. In other words — if he does stage a coup of some sort, it will be because he’s bonkers.

Also, if he makes any type of significant power grab, it would be, at last, a self-evident proof of what people like me have said about Trump all along: he’s a tyrant. To date, Trump has enjoyed a lot of negative-polarization support from conservatives-who-aren’t-MAGA because they like his policies but don’t like him. They just don’t feel they have any option — they support Trump because of things like cancel culture which they think will destroy them for simply being conservative.

The great irony of the Trump Era is the context of the whole thing may change in its waning days if Trump pulls some sort of extra-political or extra-legal stunt in a one last death rattle. If Trump could just control himself, then the entire Trump Era would be value free to huge swaths of the American politic. We would snap back to the political assumptions of the late Obama Administration and that would be that.

But if Trump goes transactional on Twitter in some way and real people begin to get hurt then those conservatives-who-aren’t-MAGA are going to, at last, have to face tyrannical behavior on Trump’s part that isn’t abstract. It can’t be dismissed as just Trump Derangement Syndrome. If Trump makes a power grab, it will be very difficult to say “both sides.”

Or, put another way, conservatives-who-aren’t-MAGA are going to face an existential decision — are they MAGA or not? Are they willing to support a tyrant because they fear cancel culture or not? There will be some who will realize they’re MAGA after all. But enough conservative-but-not-MAGA people will, at last, get woke and join some sort of United Front against Trump at the very last moment that Trump is going to destroy himself politically at last.