Month: September 2021

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


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

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

Steve Bannon

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

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

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

This, my gentle reader, is bullshit.

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

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

I Know What You’re Up To, Mr. Bannon


by Ender

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

Steve Bannon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But, again, absolutely no one listens to me.

‘Rooms in the First House’ #Pop #Rock #Lyrics Inspired By The Name Of Anna Marie Tendler’s Art Showing



I’m just letting off some steam when it comes to this. I need to buy a guitar and actually try to see if I can write lyrics that might, in some way actually be preformed. But I want to buy a nice Nikon camera instead, so, this is just me screwing around. It’s a quick creative fix.

Rooms in the First House
lyrics by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
please give credit if you produce or perform

this home was once my heart
now I just don’t know where to start
I dart from room to room
the rooms in the first house
the rooms in the first house
the rooms in the first house

I feel lost
and cast about in these rooms
thinking of how we used to laugh
and how all I can do now is cry
at all the lies I was told
they’re a sight to behold

the rooms in the first house
bloom with my tears now
when will it all end I cry
is there nothing left to say
but I have to live with my grief
in the
in the
rooms in the first house
rooms in the first house
rooms in the first house

(bridge)
give me a second to clear my thoughts
the second time is the charm
or maybe the third
will you come back to play pretend
I just don’t know
will this grief fade
maybe if I get laid

but for now I reside in the
rooms in the first house
rooms in the first house
rooms in the first house

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


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

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

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

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

So, I dunno.

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

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

Anyway. Fuck Steve Bannon, that piece of shit.

Movie Scenario: China Using ‘Inception’ Technology To Avoid The Thucydides Trap


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Before you call the dudes with the butterfly nets on me — I’m just running a scenario. I’m kind of crashing after writing and developing on four novels all day and I have some nice whiskey next to me so you get a post like this. I do not think any of this is happening now, but think of this as wargaming a potential way that China could become a hyperpower like the USA without firing a shot.

I once read a book called “Brothers” when I was young which was so fucked up that it really did a number on my wee little mind. And, yet, that book was so out there and so wild in its conceit that I often find myself thinking about it whenever I come up with some wild plot point for the four novels I’m working on. I think to myself, “Well, if people bought the premise of THAT book, they’ll be cool with this…”

Anyway, something eerie happened recently to me that is difficult for me to explain. You see, I was really thinking about how I need a second creative track. The four novels I’m developing and writing are going really well — if slow — and I just need something to turn my attention to when I get burnt out with writing.

Then something weird happen.

I started to get pushed videos on my Tik-Tok FYP about how to shoot really cool pictures. I didn’t think anything about it until at some point things came to a head and I was like, “Huh, I think I’m going to save up the money to buy a really nice Nikon camera and see about becoming a fashion photographer.”

Then it hit me — something about the lead up to this “ah-ha!” moment felt…unnatural. As I was being gently guided towards that decision. Again, I’m just letting off some steam by saying that. That is such an abstract observation that there are many, many no-Inception-necessary that would easily explain it.

In other words, it’s bullshit to think Tik-Tok using real-life Inception technology was fucking with me.

But, having said that, let’s run that scenario. What if the next war isn’t a cyber war but a Singularity War. And it would be a war that we didn’t even know was being waged against us.

Here’s my bonkers scenario. China is a rising power. We’re rushing towards the Singularity. Let’s propose that in dribs and drabs Big Tech in both the United States and China have figured out not just Digital Telepathy, but fucking Inception.

They’re not just eaves dropping on our minds, they’re actually implanting concepts into our minds in some way. It’s easy to imagine China, not wanting to blow the world up, begins to, at some point, wage Singularity War against the West to the point that we never have a direct conflict with them because, lulz, strangely, things keep breaking the Chinese’s way at critical junctures

Again, I’m just running a scenario. I don’t believe this is happening. This is way too bonkers for even me to believe in anyway. Think of this is a free Hollywood movie concept, if you will. I’m dropping more log lines than truth bombs. At least in my own mind.

Or, put another way, if I was the Chinese leadership, that’s how I would do it. I would have something akin to Digital Telepathy Manhattan Project where I threw a $1 trillion at weaponizing the technology so I could avoid the Thucydides Trap.

Thankfully, no one listens to me. I’m just relaxing by doing some brain dead writing. Lulz.

Mulling Tik-Tok’s ‘Spooky,’ Definitely-Not-Reading-My-Mind Aspects


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now, before I continue, let me be clear that I don’t think Tik-Tok can read my mind. But it IS entertaining to think about various aspects of a scenario whereby it is. Also, let me also be clear — the vast majority of how Tik-Tok has me (and everyone else) figured out is using the FYP really is algorithms. They really do have the ability to figure me out using nothing more than algorithms. What I’m going to talk about is those few times when Tik-Tok has pushed me something that is so specific to me that I struggle to understand how it’s possible that nothing more than scanning all my Internet use, etc. would explain things.

Ok. Here’s what I’ve managed to glean from my study of Tik-Tok which is totally not reading my mind.

Tik-Tok gets itself in trouble when it seems to latch on to something that has flashed through my mind for a moment or two with intensity. So, I futz with my headphones, thinking really intensely about my headphones and their different features.

Then, next thing you know, I get pushed a video on Tik-Tok about, you guessed — headphones.

I suppose you could say that in that specific situation Tik-Tok is so deep even into my computer usage that they somehow figured that out. I’ll give you that one.

But, then again, how do you explain the “But I’m A Cheerleader” incident I mentioned a bit ago. That is something was exclusive to my mind. That’s just eerie. And, as I keep saying, I’m totally willing to accept that all of what I’m noticing can be explained via algorithms.

I guess, I’d just like someone with the technological know-how to explain things that are very specific to my mind that Tik-Tok has decided to push me videos about.

Even though I KNOW that Tik-Tok isn’t reading my mind — that’s just crazy talk, right — I continue to be at a loss as to how it figures out the phenotypes of girls I like or even more weird, their personalities.

Then I start to think about if Tik-Tok has even the slightest practical ability to read my mind and use that information to push me information, who else has it and what are they doing with it?

I’ve already had once instance where I fucking swear Tik-Tok pulled a fast on me by nudging me into what it felt was the best “second track” creative option for me — photography. That starts to make you think maybe we’re not just talking about digital telepathy but some combination of digital telepathy hooked up to AI.

That’s enough to make you stop cold in your tracks.

You know if Tik-Tok has such ability then Big Tech in America damn well has similar technology that’s probably far more advanced. Then there’s the NSA and CIA that probably has something far more advanced than even that. I’ve often idly wondered if maybe “Havana Syndrome” is some sort of extreme form of digital telepathy whereby the attack is about “downloading” as much of someone’s mind as possible.

That’s extremely fantastical and bonkers, but, again, I’m just running a scenario.

Anyway. All of this has got to be bullshit. There’s no way the technology exists to read our minds exists. We would know if it existed. Right? Right?

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


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why Is It So Difficult To Imagine Tik-Tok Reading Our Minds?


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Tik-Tok can not read our minds. This is simply me idly imaging why it would be so hard for us to believe that it could.

If I’m regularly being pushed videos on Tik-Tok that have no logical explanation other than there is some way that the service is rooting around my mind, why is it so difficult for anyone to believe me? And, that, is really, why this bothers me so much — reality (especially a shared reality) is very, very important to me and if something is obviously happening and I’m the only person seeing it, it makes me question my own sanity and I fucking hate that.

The biggest obstacle is how unexpected something like that would be. The moment one establishes that something is even possible, you begin to have severe cognitive dissidence as you process it. There are a lot of questions associated with this possiblity.

If Tik-Tok of all people can read our minds, who else can? And what’s the technology being used for? How extensive is it? Is it a point-to-point technology or is the information that Tik-Tok (and others) is gleaning from reading our minds being aggregated and processed somewhere for some later, nefarious reason?

Then there is the issue of how such technology could be developed in secret. Digital telepathy would be equal to the mass adoption of the Internet itself in historical and cultural significance. And, given the national security implications, Tik-Tok being able to read our minds in secret might, in itself, be seen as an act of war on the part of the Chinese government at some point.

It also opens up the Pandora’s box of, essentially, the Singularity already being here now, but in secret. Or maybe some sort of “soft Singularity” may exist. And, again, the issue of — why hide such technology and what’s the long-term goal of its secret use?

Also, how do you explain how subtle, granular and nuanced some of the editorial decisions this mind reading technology seems to be making about me (and others.) Now, obviously, some of this comes not from any mysterious mind reading technology, but they really do have some very advanced “algorithms.”

And, yet, how is it possible that these “algorithms” could figure out not just the phenotype of girls I like, but their personalities? Is it even possible that it’s not just mindreading going on, but some sort of AI hooked up to what it finds out about me? When a service can figure out that there is a specific young woman in New York City that I would fall in love with at first sight if I met her in person…that’s pretty eerie. That takes some abstract thought on whatever “algorthims” are involved.

If my mind is being read — which it isn’t — it’s not just being read, it’s being read and rooted around in to make some meta-editorial decisions using the videos I’m being pushed on a regular fucking basis.

Or, put another way — given how eerie, how spooky, how specific Tik-Tok is when it comes to what it pushes me these days, whatever the reason seems like a pretty severe national security threat. If it takes bonkers white racist Tucker Carlson to draw attention to it, then, lulz….I guess?

But, again, if Tik-Tok has mindreading technology, then, you know damn well that Facebook, Google, et al have it, too, they’re just a lot more sly about it. Tik-Tok, because its nebulous connection to the autocratic Chinese government doesn’t give a shit.

Anyway, thanks for attending my TEDtalk. I don’t believe Tik-Tok can read our minds, but I fucking hate how spooky their algorithms are.

‘A Tipping Point’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Holy Shit

The above is a tipping point for me. It proves to me that my dystopian hellscape for late 2024 – early 2025 is probably pretty close to being accurate. As such, the time for hysterics is over. The time for “hope” is over.

The era of preperation has begun.

Now, I absolutely hate violence — hell, conflict — of any sort. I don’t want to hurt anyone for any reason. But I’m a survivor. And, in my experience, the key to surviving a crisis is to recognize that one exists.

We’re in a crisis.

It’s kind of downlow right now because we’re an autocracy without an autocrat, but we’re careening towards a stunning political crisis at some point between now and January 2025.

Now, things won’t be exactly like 2020 because the person who would be certifying the vote would be a Democrat, Vice President Harris. But that’s pretty late in the game.

Republicans — I see you Roger Stone — are actively taking a shiv to local voting boards. And if they can’t corrupt the system there, they’ll do it at the state level and if they don’t succeed in fucking things up there, they’ll object again in Congress, hoping they can throw things in some way to the House and Senate.

The point is — the above memo is a smoking gun for me. Republicans really are out to destroy our liberal democracy and we all need to start acting accordingly. I don’t write for VOX, so, lulz, I have no idea what that means in real terms.

But I do know that anyone who starts telling me they “hope” this or that thing will save us has lost me. We’re dealing with macro trends that don’t have any easy answers like “vote” or “get involved.” When you’re dealing with an opposing political force that has come to glorify political violence and, worst of all, cheats, well, what can you really do?

I don’t know.

But you can’t do nothing. You have about four years to prepare. Use your time wisely.

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


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

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

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

.

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

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

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

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

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

Oh, by the way fuck Jesse Kelly.