Apparently, If Republicans Take Control Of The House, They’re Going To Impeach Everyone In The Biden Administration

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Jesus Christ, is there anyone in the Biden Administration that Republicans AREN’T going to impeach if they take control of the House? At last count, there is a real move to impeach not just Biden, but the DHS Secretary AND the Attorney General.

Biden and the DHS Secretary will be impeached — at a minimum — for their “mishandling of the border crisis.” I still believe that Biden may be impeached within a few days of Republicans taking the House for no other reason than they want to take a talking point away from “libtards’ about Trump being “twice impeached.”

Republicans both want to make being impeached THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD, AND make it a lulz “everyone gets impeached now.” They want it both ways. They want to hurt Biden politically by impeaching him…while helping Trump politically by impeaching Biden a few times and making Trump’s status as the only twice impeached president a political lulz.

Anyway, the point is — if Republicans take the House, all the Senate will do for two years is sit as an impeachment jury. Given that Republicans hate a functioning government they will be quite pleased with that situation. We have to let the fact that Republicans are fascists and hate democracy sink in and appreciate the implications of that cold, hard fact.

Any power that Republicans get, they will abuse and use to end American democracy. As such, as I keep saying, Blues really need to be prepared to gird their loins, take a deep breath and seriously think about leaving the Union at the state level.

I hate violence. I am a man a of peace, a man of ideas. But if Republicans really do hate the “woke cancel culture mob” so fucking much and they want a “National Divorce” so fucking much, maybe we should give it to them. I’d much rather live in a stable Blue Union than a Purple Union that is unstable and being eating away from within by fucking MAGA New Right fascists.

Cover Me, I’m Going In (Eventually)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m working my way towards actually reading J.K. Rowling’s very, very indulgent novel about something near and dear to her heart — cancel culture. I’m reading it one, out of spite to the “woke cancel culture mob” (wink) who is aghast that she would write on such things and two, I want to see how she pulls it off. Or doesn’t pull it off. But she did manage to get a 1,000 page novel essentially flicking her bean mentally sold and published so, I’m very interested in what it’s like.

Or, put another way — there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

But I am honestly interested in what she has to say and how she says it. I am pretty indifferent to the controversy surrounding her — I’m not a fan and I have no emotional attachment to the Harry Potter franchise. The whole thing is just a curiosity to me.

I have a huge library of books to read and this particular book keep staring at me as a I walked around the house, so I finally took the dust cover off and sat it down in a strategic location to start reading it.

I have so very many books to read. It will be interesting to see if this novel that the “woke cancel culture mob” hates so much is actually any good or not. I haven’t been Red Pilled — I just refuse to be told what media I can, or can not consume.

Sometimes, You Guys Are A Real Mystery

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As I keep saying, I monitor my Webstats extremely carefully. I study them constantly throughout the day because, well, I have no life and I live in such oblivion these days that anyone showing me any attention for any reason is something to take note of.

The biggest mystery I find in my Webstats is when someone, out of the blue, appears interested in something I wrote without there being any obvious explanation for how they came to the post. They didn’t search for it and they didn’t come to the site via Twitter.

The only thing I can think of is there may be a lot of pings to this site that I just don’t see — probably because my Webstat software registers the visits as those by a bot, as opposed to a “hard” hit by a person. Or something. I have no idea.

The only reason it’s of note beyond me being sad and having no friends is if I had a better understanding of what people were interested in, then I would know to write about those subjects more. As an aside, it seems interesting to me that some people — who I assume are “VIPs” definitely seem to come to this site either in the very middle of the night or really early in the morning. It gives you some insight into the Web usage of powerful people.

But anyway. Welcome everyone. Except for the few stalkers I have — apparently — who are a little bit TOO obsessed with my meaningless writing.

Form Follows Function — The Secret Service As America’s Praetorian Guard

By Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things fall apart, as they say. And the United States definitely seems to be following the tradition of the late Roman Republic and sliding into a real, honest to God, Empire.

And, as you may know, during the history of the Roman Empire there was one group that welded a surprising amount of power as to who became — and stayed — Roman’s emperor.

That would be the Praetorian Guard.

Given the news about how bonkers and untrust worthy the Secret Service has become of late combined with my love of speculative scenarios….the conditions are there for a 9/11 type event only at the hands of the Secret Service.

While the vast majority of Secret Service folks are just highly trained people doing their jobs….there definitely seems to be a MAGA bent to the organization on an institutional level.

So, it’s very easy to imagine a situation where a bad apple — or a few bad apples — strike when the country is a very vulnerable position. For instance, what if there was some sort of Certification Crisis in late 2024, early 2025? If Republicans controlled the House, a few rouge Secret Service people could change history by putting control of the country safely in the hands of MAGA as we transition into autocracy.

But that’s EXTREMELY SPECULIVE.

I’m sure nothing like that will happen.

How And When Will A Second American Civil War Start?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We’ve reached the point in our immutable march towards MAGA autocracy, civil war or military junta at some point between now and spring 2025 that we need to start trying to make concrete our abstract fears.

So, let’s take a Second American Civil War. What are some practical elements to such an event happening that may — or may not — cause it to happen in the first place.

The first thing we need to contemplate is what would cause a 2AMC in the first place. There has been a lot — A LOT — of talk by Very Important Experts about how if there is a 2ACW that it will be rolling political violence on the part of Reds who feel stymied in their efforts to establish a white Christian ethnostate. The thinking goes that at some point in the immediate future all the good old boys who drink Miller Lite at the cabin shooting off their AR-15s will finally get so fed up with the “woke cancel culture mob” that they will spontaneously begin to shoot at liberals.

Or something. Something like that.

I’m just a drunk crank in the middle of nowhere, but I call bullshit on this prediction because Reds are politically ascendant and, as such, have no reason to do such a thing. They’re putting all the pieces in place for them to be able to steal the 2024 election in a pretty brazen manner. Starting with local election boards refusing to certify any Democrat win, the fix will be in.

Rather than having a Western democracy in the guise of our constitutional republic, it will become accepted that the administration of elections is now so corrupt that it is effectively impossible for a Democrat to win high office peacefully in the United States. Twitter liberals will flee the country en mass and that, sadly, will be that.

That’s what I believe is going to happen, by the way.

But. There is a greater than zero sum chance that instead of us slipping peacefully into MAGA fascist autocracy that it will be Blues who refuse to bend a knee and begin the process of not blowing shit up randomly, but actually having states leave the Union on a political basis.

Now, this is where things remain murky and very, very speculative. At the moment, there is no reason to believe Blues would take the step of calling Secessionist Conventions so they could start a Blue America Union. So, if it did happen, it would be one of the biggest and most unexpected political developments in the United States since, well, the first time it was attempted in 1860 – 1861.

I love a good scenario, so if you want my hot take on how the Secessionist Crisis of 2024 – 2025 would go down, it would be something like this. The first indication that things were going to be different would be that local MAGA controlled election boards in swing states would simply not do their job. They would balk at certifying the election of the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate.

The reason why this is so important to what happens next is would introduce a level of uncertainty into the process that could easily be exploited by because so much of the Federal bench is now made up of young MAGA hacks who will do the bidding of MAGA when the time comes. I’m well aware that this did NOT happen in 2020….but we were very lucky. It’s very possible that the process of the corruption of the administration of elections will be much farther along by 2024 and, I don’t know, the election might be closer.

Each election has a personality of its own, if you will.

Once MAGA controlled election boards simply refuse to do their jobs because they don’t like the result, then one of the great ironies of the modern age will happen — suddenly, it will be Blues who will be screaming at the top of their lungs about “Stop The Steal.”

Let me pause here to note that America is tearing itself apart in ways big and small to the point that I just don’t see us making through the passions of another presidential cycle without Something Bad happening. That Somethng Bad could be, as I mentioned, autocracy, civil war or military junta.

But back to the scenario.

Once election boards in swing states balk at doing their jobs, the clock will begin to tick as to what the fuck is going to happen. And if SCOTUS validates the “independent legislature” concept this would be the point where everything would go off the rails. MAGA controlled legislatures in swing states could simply take control of the administration of elections that that point and pretty much just do whatever the fuck they wanted.

This is the point when we would reach a crisis. Just a few days after Election Day 2024, there would begin to be talk amongst a lot of Twitter liberals about either simply voting with their feet and leaving the country for good or even giving up on trying to “Stop The Steal” and having states call up Secessionist Conventions to give at least a thin cover of legality to trying to leave the Union.

Now, remember, all of this would be happening in the context of an old as hell POTUS who could very well just drop dead in the middle of this crisis, making an already very bad situation even worse.

The key element as to any Secessionist Crisis would be, of course, California and maybe New York City. If there was such popular outrage in Blue states that the 2024 election was going to be stolen in broad daylight that election officials in the deep blue states simply could not ignore the demand to leave the Union, then well, we’re going to show.

Meanwhile, NYC would be important because that’s where Trump Tower, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post are physically located. If hordes of enraged New Yorkers sacked those places in the middle of any Certification Crisis, then, well, that would be very bad as to the continued unity of the country.

If we turned on CNN in late 2024 and saw Trump Tower in New York City in flames, then, well, that would probably prompt retaliation on the part of Reds across the country. Which would would cause a cascading series of events that would definitely turn a Certification Crisis in to a Secessionist Crisis.

And all of this would be happening in the context of Trump freaking the fuck out and demanding blood. He might go so totally nuts that he, unto himself, could push the country into not just “chaos” but an actual civil war with two governments fighting it out.

There is just so much about this scenario that I can’t game out. I’m not an expert and I can’t predict the future. So, take that into consideration.

At this point, all eyes would be on California. Either they maybe call up a Secessionist Convention just to placate enraged liberals in the state or they maybe call some sort of emergency summit of Blue governors to discuss what happens next.

Then we bump up against two crucial questions. What about “purple” states and what happens with the U.S Military?

There are a number of states, like Virginia, which are purple. Virginia, specifically, is actually two states who fucking hate each other fused together because of history and geography. So this is when something that would make a lot of people sit up and take notice would happen — not only would there potentially be coups and counter coups in state houses across the country, many, many Reds would leave Blue states and Blues would leave Red states.

All this happening virtually overnight would put ever-more pressure on the Federal government. It would begin to dawn on people that the United States, the richest most stable country in the world was about to collapse into not just “rolling political violence” like The Troubles in Northern Ireland but an honest to God civil war like the one that happened in 1861 – 1865.

This brings us to the other issue — what the fuck would the U.S. Military do?

Well, I simply can’t game this out. There is a spectrum of things the U.S. Military might end up doing. Everything from simply collapsing as the Red enlisted go one way while the Blue officer corp goes another way to some sort of martial law / military junta happening. (If you really wanted to be paranoid, the fact that bonkers Gen. Mike Flynn’s brother is in control of the U.S. Pacific Command might suddenly become VERY IMPORTANT at this point.)

I really can’t game out what happens now. Either Blue States leave the Union en mass, establish their own Federal government and military or the U.S. Military steps in and we have a military junta for a little while until passions die down.

Or Blue States could choke and we slide into autocracy, with millions of wealth Blues leaving the country for good.

So, here goes. Here’s how the individual states would handle A Second American Civil War, probably starting in late 2024 when it becomes clear that Reds are going to brazenly steal the election. I don’t think this is going to happen — I think we’re just going to slip peacefully into autocracy — but it is at least possible. I’m NOT going to do every state because, lulz, I don’t know the internal politics of each state well enough to do it right.

California

If Blues really decide to have a National Divorce, it will be California that probably is at the forefront serving the papers. And the key issue is — war aims. I think at first the war aims of the Blues will be to simply start, say, the United States of Canada. It will only be much later in any conflict that Blues get sucked into fighting the longer-term goal of maybe establishing the United States of North America. And that would happen because Trumplandia could possible begin a Final Solution for POC within its territory and, as such, the second phase of the civil war would be one of liberation. But that’s extremely speculative on my part.

Everything will hinge on what California wants to do. If it simply wants independence for itself, that’s a lot different war than if it joins with other Blue States to establish a new, larger state. But whatever happens once the 2ACW starts, California will be the “Arsenal of Democracy.” If they want to establish a Blue Union, then California would put itself on a war footing. It would call up a few million young men and women into a new Blue Army and away we go. A lot would depend on the state of the US Military, but the case could be made that it might implode, leaving the individual states with the ability to fend for themselves.

California would quickly secure Oregon and Washington then swoop through the plains states to link up with major Blue States in the old Upper Midwest. They would crash into Texas in the south and that would be a Battle Royale, though it’s possible because Texas is shifting blue that Texas might simply implode into an intra-state civil war and Blues could secure the state a lot easier than one might otherwise expect.

But the point is — as goes California, so goes the Blue Union cause.

Texas
Texas is a state that is really difficult to game out because while MAGA has turned into a Red stronghold, on the ground, the state is shifting Blue long term. As such, when our national politics finally collapses and we’re dealing with the existential it’s possible that Texas will simply implode. There could be a massive intra-state civil war that leaves it open to Blue Union forces from the West to swoop in and take it over. Or, at least, a lot of it over. But between when the civil war starts and when Blue Union troops come to the rescue, we could all be talking about the Siege of Austin as MAGA surrounds that particular blue dot in a purple state and want to wipe it off the face of the earth.

In a sense, Texas probably has the most to loose from a 2ACW. Texas would probably be the site of a huge amount of fighting as the difference between the Blue shift in the state’s practical politics slams up against the autocratic state government. Or, put another way, Texas is a lot less stable than you might think. It will likely be the source of a huge amount of domestic political refugees who will either endup in camps, or simply flee the state altogether, only to return when (hopefully) Blues win the civil war and there’s a Second Reconstruction.

Oregon
The thing about this state is it’s ripe for a huge clusterfuck. Of all the places in the Union in the lead up to any potential 2ACW, Oregon is the state I could most likely see some sort of “Troubles” taking place. There could be a pretty bloody Battle of Portland as all the crazed Far Right Militia’s swoop down on the city and decide to end the “Antifa Problem” once and for all. Then, of course, there’s pretty good chance that all of that will be for naught when California troops come from the south and consolidate Blue control over the state. Not that it won’t come at a very, very blood cost. But California is just too powerful not to be able to seize both Oregon and Washington in the early stages of any 2ACW. Even if California simply wants to go it alone, the mass chaos of Oregon might pull them into the state for some sort of peacekeeping mission.

The Plains States

Outside of Texas, the Plaines states may see their fates during a 2ACW largly out of their hands. They could shift from Blue to Red and back again as the two sides fight it out. They have small populations and economies and if California wants to link up with Blue States in the old Upper Midwest, then, they may see their extremely Red politics change in a rather abrupt, violent manner. These states are an example of why it would be so dumb for Red States to want a civil war — the values of small plains states are being forced upon Blue States and Blues aren’t really doing anything about it. But if there was a civil war, the Red Plains States would be forced to change their ways rather quickly.

The Old CSA (At least some of it.)
At first, a number of states of the old CSA would explode into joy if there was a 2ACW. States like Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina would have you believe they are already half way out of the Union as it is because of the evil libtard “groomers” and, as such, if Blue States left the Union the populations of the old CSA states would be very, very happy. But. And this is a big but, as the war progressed and everything went to shit there would be a natural inclination on the part of white Christians in these states to make POC scape goats. There would be a rapid radicalization of the politics of these states to the point that something akin to a race war might break out. Or, if not that, then at least Nazi-style concentration camps would be established with the aim of enacting a Final Solution once and for all. This would, in turn freak the Blue States out to the point that even if they were free of the United States, they might rejoin the battle simply to stop the Final Solution from happening. This is all extremely speculative, of course, but I’m simply gaming out what already exists and then assume the worse.

Florida
I used to think that Florida would break up into about three states, given how diverse it is, but no more. I think it would be a fully autocratic state under DeSantis — even if he was POTUS at this point — and a lot of young men from Florida would face up against young men (and women) from California as the war progressed and got worse and worse for everyone concerned. The already fucked up politics of Florida would grow significantly more radical to the point that it was a one party fascist state.

Georgia
The thing about Georgia is Atlanta. If there was a 2ACW, then it’s possible that within the state it would be Atlanta versus everyone else. Atlanta would be a very Blue stronghold and the rest of the state would be so Red that it could all get very bloody. Of course, Blue forces from outside the state could swoop in at some point and help take stabilize the situation.

Virginia
As I’ve said the last time I wrote this scenario up, Virginia is two states that hate each other. Of all the states of the Union that might find destruction as part of a 2ACW, Virginia is at the top of the list — even more so than Texas. The state would collapse into coups and counter coups. The rural Red parts of the state would go all Pol Pot on the Blue parts of the state and there would be a lot of political scores settled by extremely radicalized rural Reds who wanted to make sure drag queens of the woke cancel culture mob could never teach their kids critical race theory again. I wish I was joking or exaggerating, but I’m not.

Heartland

The so-called “American Heartland” is where the worst fighting of any 2ACW would take place. States like Ohio and Indiana would be diehard supporters of Trumplandia and they just would not go down without a fight. It would be the type of fighting not seen since the end of WW2. And it would be happening in what was once the most stable country in the world. As I’ve mentioned, a lot would depend on what Blue war aims were. If they just wanted to start the USoC, then my dark fears probably won’t happen. But if, for some reason, those war aims change and the issue becomes bringing the US back together again (probably with Canada by this point) then, well, all bets are off. It would be a very bloody pitched battle.

New York City

A 2ACW might be a tale of two cities for NYC. On one hand, there’s a chance NYC could become something akin to a Free City and on the other it could get nuked by Trumplandia. Any 2ACW would probably see the city flooded with refugees, maybe even including yours truly. But one thing is for sure — the long term tension between Upstate New York and NYC will grow in the event of a 2ACW to the point that NYC may break away politically in some way. Update New York has a lot of room for political refugees and, as such, you could see the population of some of the Update New York cities might balloon as a result.

New England
I think in the even of a 2ACW that New England would be flooded with political refugees to an unprecedented extent. People fleeing all parts of Trumplandia would go to New England, potentially in hopes of getting across the border to Canada. Should the Blue Union unite with Canada, then, of course, that dynamic would change.

In closing, I would note three things. There’s not going to be a 2ACW if Blues don’t have any leadership. They currently have no effective leadership, so a lot of abrupt heroes would have to bubble up to the surface once it became clear that Blues had to leave the Union. Also, all of what I’ve described above has to be taken into the context of very real possibility that WMD would be used by both sides as the war progressed. And, remember, if the United States is too busy bombing itself into oblivion, then the prospect of a “Great Reset” in the guise of WW3 is a very, very real possibility.

‘Dreams Of Writing The Great American Pop Novel’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

In general, the sweet spot for a novel — especially a first novel — is about 100,000 words. Anymore than that and the costs of physically printing the Goddamn thing begins to become an issue. Add to this particular situation the cold, hard fact that any literary agent worth their salt is going to do “due dilligence” on me discover — surprise! — that I’m a drunk crank and, well, oh boy.

I need to keep this first novel at around 100,000 words. This pains me to no end. I say this because, for some reason, the story I want to tell keeps creeping up towards 120,000 to 160,000(!) words. But even I have to admit that things are getting much, much better now that I’ve changed the structure of this first novel to something far more traditional.

My inciting incident is just about where it needs to be and we pretty much get into the story in the second chapter. I’ve noticed in Gone Girl that the inciting incident is in the second chapter with that book so I feel on pretty stable ground on that front.

Now that I’m slowly getting past years of living in delusion about this novel and getting into the bare knuckled phase where I actually have to convince a human being with money to invest in my dream … YIKES. Now that I feel I have a shot at not only not embarrassing myself but coming within shouting distance of getting a literary agent — this first draft of the novel is really good in my opinion — I have to start really dwelling on the practical issues of word count, etc.

I’m still on target to wrap up the second draft at some point in the spring of 2023. That gives me the summer to improve the story to the point that I can querying in fall of 2023.

Now, obviously, what I’m probably going to start doing is start a new novel just as I finish the second draft so I can keep getting that creative rush that developing and writing a novel gives me. But I’m going to be so satisfied when I wrap up — at last — a second draft.

Having a sold second draft done is when the real fun — and hard work — begins. I’m going to need beta readers. I’m going to have to figure out where the money for an actual editor might come from.

Things broke my way with ROKon Magazine for a few months, maybe they’ll break my way with this novel, too. Who knows?

‘It Was A Dark And Stormy Night’ — Reflections On Writing A First Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have to hurry up. I have to set deadlines. Absolutely no one cares about this first novel. I’ve alienated pretty much anyone who has shown any interest in it by talking about it all the time.

I have gotten a lot better about that, but the damage is done. And, honestly, I’m just not someone who has a lot — if any — friends. All my friends are the ones I make up at the moment.

Though, I need to make some of my “friends” bit more nasty at the moment. While this novel’s story is…interesting….it’s just not really as action pack and dark and scary as one might imagine a thriller to be. It’s a very, very easy read, very accusable but whenever I compare it other books in its genre…oh boy.

There is one specific book I’m thinking about which pretty much wants to do what this novel aims to be — something that if you like Stieg Larsson you will enjoy. I want this novel series to be an old brown shoe for readers of Larsson. The high concept is literally, “Stieg Larsson meets Mare of Easttown.”

At least, for the first few novels.

Then the series will become a more obvious and direct homage. I want to create a heroine of the ages. And, what’s more, if I don’t manage to drop dead of a heart attack, I’d like to think that readers will really enjoy being able to see my POC American Lisbeth Salander grow up, look exactly like Zendaya and become a crime fighter.

There is, of course, a dabble of female James Bond in my vision as well.

I like the idea of taking all the dumb tropes of Trumplandia and twisting them, turning them upside down so I can give MAGA a fuck you while using their own deranged conspiracy theories. That’s a lingering aim in this series, at least.

Anyway. Tonight I got a huge amount of work done. I keep moving things around in a very ad hoc, slipshod kind of way. But since I have no idea what I’m doing, it’s all I got.

First Novel Endgame: To Query in Fall 2023

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m feeling pretty good about being able to meet my goal of querying this novel as part of the fall 2023 querying season. I hope to finish a second draft in spring 2023 and spend the next few months after that editing in some sort of coordination with beta readers. And, if I fall into some money, maybe even some sort of editor.

So, I’m feeling a lot of self-imposed pressure at the moment. I need to hurry up. I’m not getting any younger and I have to stop moving scenes around and start to actually cobble together a first draft of some sort. But we’ll see, I guess. I have to believe in myself.

And I should happen not to succeed this time, then maybe the next novel or the one after that will be my big break. But I’m having a lot of fun at the moment. I’m working really, really hard to make this the best novel I can within my skillset.

I still need to read more, though.

Buckle Up — MAGA Fascists Are Winning The Propaganda War

By Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So. I had a wide-ranging political discussion with my Traditionalist relative this weekend and…it did not go well. Or, it did go well in the sense that we didn’t yell at each other. But I do think I got at least a little bit of insight into what the fuck is wrong with American politics right now.

The key thing we have to understand is the fascists are winning the propaganda battle. Republicans are good at latching on to a few concepts and banging them into the minds of Traditionalists in such a simplistic manner that the actual issue is conflated and lost. So even my relative — who is educated and just happens to be on the other end of the political spectrum as me — brought up those MAGA chestnuts like how “the woke cancel culture mob” is not only “grooming” little kids to be gay, but also he thinks that infanticide is something that people like me actually support. (I don’t.)

So, there are a number of key issues which MAGA fascists have managed to successfully lodge a Big Lie into the minds of people who should know better, but generally don’t have the time to come up with a complex political opinion. Traditionalists like my relatives are very, very, very receptive to fascist concepts — even though they don’t even know that they are.

There are two big issues to realize about this.

One, this is not an abstract to me. In the end, if we become a MAGA themed fascist autocracy, then I’m fucked. I’ve had the luxury of living in a Western democracy where I could be a drunk kook and rant at a bar about how much I think President DeSantis can suck my dick. When I’m no longer living in a Western democracy….uh oh. I may very well find myself throw into a Trump branded ICE camp because I shot off at the mouth.

That sounds hysterical at the moment, but that’s the ultimate endgame to living in a MAGA fascist state.

Meanwhile, the other issue is my Traditionalist relative, who works at a big multinational corporation, feels he has a personal reason to hate the “woke cancel culture mob” — apparently because of the “sensitivity training” of his huge company in a relatively conservative state, “there are so many things he can’t say.”

And THAT difference between what a Blues think is socially acceptable and what Reds think is socially acceptable in, say, a workplace environment has grown so different that Traditionalist conservatives feel they have no other choice but support the rise of fascism in the United States. Well, the whole country is in deep, deep trouble.

So, again, between now and spring 2025, the United States is going to face the issue of choosing between autocracy, civil war or military junta. And, at the moment, I think we’re just going to slip into autocracy in the context of millions of Blues simply leaving the country because they can.

I don’t know what else to tell you. We’re fucked. Good luck.

Well, At Least I Think This First Novel Is Getting Really Good

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There is a lot I don’t know about how other people develop and write novels. And, as such, I need to read other works other than just one novel over and over again. But the novel I continue, despite everything, to use as my “textbook” is Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire.

Even though I continue to feel as though there is something — maybe a lot of something — that I’m missing as to how Larsson wrote his novels, his writing is at least at the far end of my ability. In other words, I can only reverse engineer what he did so much. There comes a point where my own innate ability — or lack thereof — determines what the end product looks like.

But, in general, I’m feeling quite content with what I’ve managed to come up with to date. I’m very much a plotter, rather than “pantser” and I STILL struggle getting this thing done. I know the story back and forth like the back of my hand and things continue to change rather dramatically as I go through and write the scenes out.

And, yet, like I said, I think, I’ve come up with someone pretty cool. If nothing else, I’m not going to embarrass myself. Which was the whole point of this project to begin with — to learn how *I* develop and write novels and to also prove to myself that all those people who think I suck, who won’t take me seriously because I’m a (drunk) kook that, if nothing else, I really can tell a great yarn.