As you may know, there is a purge going on at CNN, likely at the behest of MAGA plutocrat John Malone. The transformation is swift and jarring so a lot of people are like, “What the what?”
Well, if what happened to Russia as it transformed into an autocracy after Putin became president there, here is what might happen to not just CNN, but MSNBC should Trump or, say, DeSantis become POTUS in 2025.
Under the guise of transforming the poorly fairing Peacock streaming service, CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery merges with MSNBC parent company NBCUniversal. But, because we’re an autocracy now, either newly elected President DeSantis lulzes this mega merger and lets someone control two of the three major news channels — John Malone, or CNN is sold to some other MAGA oligarch.
Then all three major cable news networks would be purged of all their liberal voices and before you know it, there will be just a lot of OANNs, all parroting the party line, like their Sinclair Broadcasting.
Of course, if we have a civil war, then a mob of angry Blues might sack Fox News’ offices in New York City as the country falls apart. Oh well. Good luck.
First, to directly answer the question in the subject — I don’t know. But what I can tell you is there are two pretty obvious endgames to the American democratic birthright. One thing to make clear is, according to political scientists, after January 6th, the United States isn’t even a democracy anymore — it’s an “anocracy.”
This is when a country is either transitioning to autocracy or transitioning towards democracy. And its in this state of transition that a country is most likely to have a civil war.
As such, while I don’t know what’s going to happen to our democracy, I can give you two possible outcomes — they are civil war or autocracy.
All things being equal, the most obvious answer is we’re going to slide into autocracy when someone like Ron DeSantis becomes president. To be a Republican is to not believe in democracy in the first place and to want autocracy, so any Republican who becomes president will end what’s left of our struggling democracy. We’ll become an autocracy without putting up any struggle at all and 20 years from now we’ll all wonder why DeSantis — or whichever Republican gets the job — is still POTUS.
We may all be Antifa soon.
That on paper, is what the most logical endgame to what’s going on. We can’t simply “hope” that a Republican won’t become POTUS anytime soon so there is time for them to have a come-to-Jesus moment about democracy. That simply is not going to happen. We in an asymmetrical war against autocracy at the moment — Republicans just have to win once to end American democracy.
In a sense, it definitely feels like we’ve collectively just given up.
Then there is Trump.
Trump, unto himself, could start a civil war in a variety of ways. He could start one sooner by telling Red States to leave the Union NOW in an effort to protect himself personally. He could start one later by, say, having such a radical second term that Blue States begin to leave the Union as early as just after Election Day 2024 to as late as spring 2025.
I would suggest you keep an eye on wealthy liberals. If they begin to leave the country en mass then you know Something Big is just about to happen. I estimate as many as 1 million wealthy liberals will flee the country whenever we either start to have a civil war or begin the final transition into autocracy.
All I can say is — figure out what you believe in, what you’re willing to risk life and limb for in the real world. Having such clarity is something you’re really going to need, no matter what happens.
I’m working on yet another attempt at a first draft of my first novel and I’m feeling pretty good. One thing I’ve started to get the hang of is the subtle ebb and flow of scenes.
There are, according to the book “Scene and Structure,” two types of things in a novel — a scene and a sequel. A scene is where some sort of event with a disaster happens at the end, while a sequel is sort of the event in the novel where people react to what just happened.
Once you figure out how to work out that ebb and flow on a structural level, then the story has a native groove to it that the reader can get into without even realizing. It’s a way of, if nothing else, modulating the pace of the story on a macro level.
Anyway, I have a huge amount of work ahead of me. But, for the time being, this story is really keeping me, the writer, entertained, which goes a long ways towards ensuring that I actually finish it. It’s going to be a few months before I’m able to finish this first draft, but I knew going into this project that it would be a lot of work.
As I write all of this, of course, I’m having serious problems figuring out scene sequence. Wish me luck. It’s turning out to be a real struggle.
Trump is a political monster who is not only personally warping American politics and law, but heightening a sense among many that we’re living in an era of lawlessness. And, yet, because the MAGA base is completely indifferent to anything Trump does or says, there’s not a lot we can do about it.
But one thing is clear — the era of “hoping things work out” is over and the era of preparation has begun. If you’re a wealthy liberal, I suppose you’ve already gotten your second passport by this point. Meanwhile, we Poors have to console ourselves with a bugout bag or something.
The looming question, of course, is what the endgame to dumpster fire shit show will ultimately be. How’s it going to end? I honestly don’t know. Logically, of course, what will happen is someone like Ron DeSantis wins the 2024 election and the United States gradually lurches towards being a political clone of somewhere like Hungary (if we’re lucky) or Russia (if we’re not lucky.)
Then, of course, there is wildcard of Donald Trump. He’s such a unique historical and political figure. It’s totally bizarre that of all the people who could single-handedly destroy the most powerful nation the world has ever seen, the hand of fate would pick such a malignant dingus like Trump.
Trump, unto himself, could cause a Second American Civil War. All he has to do is go transactional, say, by telling Red States to secede from the Union and the rest would take care of itself. The thing about this possibility is it sounds hysterical and bonkers, and, yet, this is Trump we’re dealing with. If he personally felt the risk of going to prison, it might focus his mind enough to the point that he could think up and implement something as diabolical and causing a secessionist crisis.
I say this because I just don’t see Trump causing rolling political violence. Yes, plenty of MAGA Republicans want to murder people like me in cold blood, but that’s more about how they want to be able to do so with the rules of war not law being applicable.
Their desire for a civil war says more about they wanting to murder people like me without going to prison than any desire to actually start a civil war. At least, that’s what I think is going on at the moment.
The point is — something’s gotta give. I find it difficult to believe that we’re going to simply stay on edge until some point in late 2024, early 2025 when Blues either leave the Union on the state level or shrug and bend a knee to fascism.
I didn’t keep a good enough watch on the calendar and now I realize I’m not going to sell my first novel by the time I’m 50. As such, I have to take a deep breath and recalculate what I’m doing with this project. I now am on tract to query my first novel in fall 2023 — about a year from now.
I say that because I have to write at least two drafts of this novel, then turn around and done one final draft before I can query. That will probably put me in early summer 2023 and, as such, the fall 2023 querying season is when I will be ready to go.
Not only could a lot — and I mean A LOT — of things go wrong, but no matter what, the context of any success will be different than than want I originally wanted. I think a lot of that has to do with middle age kind of snuck up on me because I don’t have a wife or a girlfriend to remind me of such things. I have been drifting towards my goal, willfully delusional as to the specifics on how I was actually going to accomplish it.
Now, however, I am in a new stage of things. I have a solid fleshed outline to work with and it’s so good that I’m kind of impress with myself. If I can just buckle down and focus more I think I might actually produce something enough to at least not embarrass myself.
Nowhere is it more obvious that we face the existential choice of autocracy or civil war at some point between now and January 2025 than when it comes to Biden, during the 2020 campaign, promising to be a “uniter.” I have traditionalist relatives and they often get really mad that he said this, given that he hasn’t done what they feel would “unite” the country.
Dark Brandon
This is a very murky issue because there is a lot to unpack.
First, if you say that Biden lied when he said that, then you have to address the fact that Trump said 30,000 lies while in office. Then, of course, your MAGA interlocutor will throw up their hands and say this is “bogus” because the “fake news” Washington Post is who collected that figure. Or, they’ll say most of those lies weren’t all that big and, besides, Biden lied when he said he would be a “uniter” and, as such, he needs to be impeached. Or some similar bullshit.
Another element to all of this is probably what was going on when Biden said he would be a “uniter” is he was trying to convey to those 100,000 independent swing voters in 5 purple states that are crucial to winning a presidential election that he would be a more traditional president, one who would governor everyone equally, not demand a quid pro quo for any and every action.
But that’s difficult for MAGA people to process because they’re so consumed with grievance and a fear that of losing status in the context of the browning of America that they’re too blinded with rage to be willing to process any sort of nuance like that.
The key thing to remember, though, is — but for Trump, I would say we’re going to lose our American democratic birthright in plain sight and there won’t be much struggle. If Trump would just get out of the way, after having served his political and historical purpose, then Ron DeSantis could become president and turn us into A Very American Autocracy.
Trump is a political monster, however, and he won’t retire. And because he’s such a fucking chaos agent there is a good chance that he, unto himself, could start a civil war in the United States. It’s not a big chance, but it does exist.
An Effort to Stop Criminal Accountability This is the one scenario whereby the MAGA New Right people who keep coming to this Website looking for a sooner-rather-than-later timetable for being able to murder people like me without criminal recourse might happen. If Trump really felt he might, at last, face some criminal accountability, he could very well begin to rant that Red States need to leave the Union because of how unjust it all is. I suppose he might, in general, demand in his usual dog whistle kind of way general political violence, but I doubt it. When you have an entire party — the Republican Party –with a cult-like devotion to you, why go for general violence when you can get entire states to leave the Union at your behest?
A Ploy to Convict Biden / Harris in the Senate In this scenario, it’s 2023 and Republicans have gone nuts. They have impeached both Biden and Harris out of spite. Now, for Trump to actively be trying to destroy the country, he would, of course, need to have some personal investment in it. So, this one only really works if he is the Speaker of the House and he thinks he can become POTUS again early. So, in a bid to scare the living shit out of the Senate, he, as Speaker, begins to demand Red States leave the Union in order to get what he wants. He says this just as a rhetorical flourish, but MAGA legislatures take him seriously and states, probably beginning with Texas, begin to convene Secessionist Conventions. An away we go.
A 2024 Clusterfuck — MAGA Counter Revolution This endgame was two parts to it. It could be that at some point in late 2024, after Election Day, it will be obvious to Blue States that the election was stolen and they have no recourse but to begin the process of leaving the Union. By the time Certification Day 2025 rolls around, we are in a full fledged Secession Crisis. The other possibility is that Trump wins outright — even though he’ll cheat no matter what — and by late January it becomes clear that Trump’s second term agenda is so fascist and radical that Blue States begin to leave the Union.
So, I decided to buy JK Rowling’s self-indulgent mystery tome out of spite towards the “woke cancel culture mob.” I have a feeling, given my dissipated youth that if I manage to miraculously sell my first novel, I’m probably going to get canceled pretty quick.
But, who knows, maybe I’ve overthinking things.
Something about why Rowling has been so vehemently “canceled” doesn’t set well with me. Her “cancelation” because of viewpoint that a lot of average people have is very troubling for a number of reasons. It’s because of shit like that that we got Trump.
When the average person begins to believe they risk their entire life being ruined for holding a view that seems pretty obvious and simple — then you have a serious problem. That’s when they start to doubt the very legitimacy of democracy and fascism becomes more and more appealing to them.
And I say all of this as someone who fucking hates the MAGA New Right. I suppose you might call it a little bit of political tough love. In the end, I think the “woke” era is going to end either when we have a civil war or when we turn into an autocracy.
I have been “different” all my life. I’m different now and I was different — and pretty drunk all the time — in college. But I did manage to make my mark at James Madison University. I was the first Webmaster of The Breeze, the great student-run newspaper.
Given how potent the Internet has become in our daily lives over the last 25 years, you’d think I could at least get the current people involved with the paper to have dinner with me or something.
No such luck. They totally played with my mind as if they wanted to meet up when I suggested it a few months ago, only to ghost me when I tried to follow up. I think, if anything, it’s small slights like that that “normal” people don’t have to put up with. I call such problems the “kook tax.”
If I was “normal” they would have been impressed with my place in the newspaper’s history and be glad to hang out with me for an evening. I’m actually a great conversationalist and, given the opportunity, I can be quite thought provoking in person.
But, alas, I’m a freaky weirdo to the normies of JMU. I love JMU a lot, but it’s kind of sad that not even in college can you be weird and expect people to take you seriously.
It’s because of shit like that that I worry about what will happen once I start to query this first novel. Am I just too weird, by definition, for a literary agent to be willing to sign me? Only time will tell, I suppose.
Team Trump is caterwauling about a photo taken of Top Secret documents at Mar-a-Lago by the FBI. The reason is, of course, is it really hits home what was going on. And given that how much MAGA is freaking out about the picture, it’s obvious that MAGA “thought leaders” feel the photo is hurting them politically.
The big issue that they have with the photo is that is makes like they discovered the documents that way. But, if you look carefully at the photo, the box that the documents (not in this photo, but in another photo) were being stored is right there. So, the real reason why MAGA is freaking out is the photo tells the story of what was going on.
It’s a simple to understand of element of an abstract scandal. Which is exactly why MAGA hates it so much. And given the how potent the picture has been, I think maybe Trump shouldn’t release the CCTV footage of the FBI raid. That would, too, give the average person some sense, in concrete terms, the scope of what was going on at Mar-a-Lago.
Anyway, I think we need to accept that Trump continues to be above the law and he is bending both our political and criminal systems. And there comes a point when we have to put up or shut up about the existential crisis we face of autocracy or civil war.
We’re in the danger zone. We’re past the event horizon for some pretty fucked up things happening in the United States one way or another.
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