Month: November 2023

What Is To Be Done: Tyrant Trump’s Plot Against America

To My Fellow New Lincolnites,

It is a little known fact that the right of revolution is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. I’m a man of peace and of ideas. I hate violence of any sort. And yet these are times that try men’s souls, as Thomas Paine would tell us. It is clear that concentrations camps will be to Trump’s vengeful second term what “the wall” was to his first.

This is of personal interest to me because the same infrastructure used to put “millions” of undocumented people in concentration camps could be used against “vermin” like…me. The thing that gives me a growing sense of frustration is how oblivious the usual suspect nattering nabobs of negativism are to the fact that maybe there are *no* institutions that will step up to save us.

We will have to save ourselves.

The problem we face is there is a certain political momentum to the MAGA Nazi movement that is difficult to defeat using traditional methods. It’s like we’ve all just collectively given up, much like the Roman Empire did in its last few decades. Or, to put a more modern spin on things — freedom loving people are going to appease themselves into a corner.

“What is to be done,” was the question Lenin asked in the years leading up to the Russian Revolution. And I ask that question now, “What is to be done?” I just don’t have a ready answer for you because it seems — as of late 2023 — that it is a historical inevitability that Trump will win a second term and we’re just going to have to sort things out after that.

My fear is that Trump will attempt to use the legal magic pixie dust of the Insurrection Act to knock heads and the U.S. Military will balk at playing the part of some sort of later day SA. There is some sort of “Glorious Revolution” that deposes malignant ding-dong Trump, which, in turn provokes a Secession Crisis as Red States — who want a MAGA Nazi state — get upset and demand a National Divorce.

Before you know it, not only are WMD being used by both sides on U.S. soil, but fucking WW3 has broken out and about 1 billion people die as a number of nuclear-tipped regional conflicts turn hot. If we’re lucky, after a lot of tragic, needless death and destruction “the Good Guys” — people who believe in liberal democracy — win and we have some sort of Second Reconstruction in the context of a complete realignment of the global order — a New World Order, if you will.

But all of that is extremely speculative.

Remember, major historical events are value free while you’re living through them. There is no narrative. I mean, in 1942, your average American had no idea how WW2 was going to end. And, really, all things considered, WW2 ended in a very clean cut way — for the most part — such that The Good Guys won and the Bad Guys lost.

So, predicting what will happen starting in late 2024, early 2025 is impossible. We could very well just punt our problems down the road another four years and all my “hysterical doom shit” will be just that — hysterical doom shit. But I do think we need to think seriously about what the fuck we’re going to do when Trump makes good on his pledge to mass deport people.

And that doesn’t even begin to address what we’re going to do if Trump goes full tyrant and attempts to establish an actual military dictatorship. AND, Trump is fucking old, so it might not even be him who ultimately transitions us from an anocracy into a full Russian-style autocracy.

I dunno. I just dunno.

Keep the faith.

Yours in freedom,

Ender.

Is It Possible That A Few Hollywood Types Are Aware Of This Blog?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While the idea that I might be getting a few views from people somewhere deep in the bowels of the Hollywood industrial complex is flattering, it’s also a bit unnerving. It’s unnerving because I don’t know why they would keep tabs on this novel that I’m still a year from querying.

My fear, of course, is they maybe aren’t going to “steal” the idea so much as steal a march on me by using all my ranting about this novel to write a screenplay with the same basic elements. And, yet, I’m so generally vague about the specifics of the novel that I have only so much to worry about.

This novel is shaping up to be really good — if risky and controversial. But its the “Barry”-like element of the story that both appeals to me and makes me very, very nervous. So nervous that I yet again feel like maybe I need a “second creative track” as a back up in case when I try to query this novel people find the premise so out there that they won’t even give me a chance.

And given the success of Barry, it seems inevitable that someone, somewhere will think up a similar story, even if the everything is different but the crux of the weird part of the story. Don’t quite know what I’m going to do if that happens. Depends on how close their plot is to mine.

I’m Growing Worried About Trump’s Potential Second Term

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing I’m beginning to worry about is what are we going to do if Trump goes full tyrant? Anything? If Trump opens concentration camps for “illegal immigrants” it’s easy to imagine him flipping a switch and deciding to put people like ME in a camp.

Once you have that infrastructure built out, you can do anything with it.

Slouching Towards Trump Tyranny

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It is still possible that Trump will lose in 2024 and simply slip into the darkness. But at the moment he has a 50 / 50 chance of winning. As such, we have to take the possibility that Trump will get a second term and be given the opportunity to go full tyrant.

And it’s happening in broad daylight. Trump is telegraphing to all of us exactly what he plans to do once he has the opportunity. What will be interesting to see is what the reaction will be on the part of not just the general population, but the U.S. Military.

In fact, both Agenda47 and Project 2025 both rely on the assumption that people will meekly accept Tyrant Trump corrupting the administration of law and justice in his second term. But what if the populace reacts dramatically to Tyrant Trump at the same time the U.S. Military balks at being Tyrant Trump’s goons?

The key element that Trump and his ilk miss is they don’t have an SA. They don’t have a paramilitary group to knock heads. They think they can use the U.S. Military to serve that purpose by using the Insurrection Act. I have my doubts, however.

So it’s possible that Tyrant Trump might be deposed by the U.S. Military, probably under the guise that he’s not supposed to be POTUS in the first place because of the 14th Amendment.

And, yet, I suppose because form follows function, either ICE is weaponized into some sort of SS or Tyrant Trump very soon — within his first 100 days — organizes some sort of national SA-like organization that would knock heads as he consolidates power.

I’m very worried because I know that it will be people like me who will find myself having my head bashed in by ICE or some sort of MAGA-nationalized Patriot Front.

Pray.

I Have To Accept That This Novel Is Risky & Could Be Controversial If I Actually Manage To Sell It

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Lulz. No one cares. But I really like what I’ve managed to come up with when it comes to the third draft of this novel — but for one thing. And that one thing is it’s kind of risky and potentially controversal.

I can write a great pop novel all I want to, but there will still be members of the woke cancel culture mob (wink) who will be enraged that a smelly CIS white male has a heroine who is both a sex worker and the owner of an alternative weekly.

And, yet, Barry was a success, so why can’t this be a success.

But I know how the world really works. I have to accept that the whole concept is so loaded that there will be some members of the woke cancel culture mob who get REALLY UPSET that I’ve done such a thing. Maybe if I was a transgender undocumented woman they would give me a pass, but, lulz, that ain’t me.

But. Shrug. I’ve always been different. I’m a creep. I’m a weirdo. What the hell am I doing here, as the song goes. I know my vision for the novel and that’s what I’m doing, come what may.

All I can do is just write the best possible novel and tell the best possible story I can think of.

Agenda 47: A Fork In The Road

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve been so fixated on the Project 2025 conspiracy that I was totally oblivious to the real conspiracy — Agenda 47. While, as I understand it, Project 2025 is the theory for our looming autocratic Christian ethnostate, Agenda 47 is the conspiracy that is actually doing the nuts-and-bolts work to make that nightmare a reality.

Now, obviously, there is the issue of Trump having to win first for any of this to matter. And he could still lose. Which, of course, opens the possibility that he might, unto himself, cause a civil war in an effort to stay out of prison.

But for the sake of argument, we have to accept that there is a pretty good chance that malignant ding-dong Trump is going to be the next POTUS. As such, Agenda 47 may play a huge role in the future of the United States.

We have to accept that everything that was bad about Trump’s first term will be taken to a severe next level during his second administration. It’s going to suck really, really bad. There are two things to remember about this situation. One is, it won’t happen in a political vacuum. In other words, Trump can try to strangle American democracy all he wants to — there is a good chance people will fight back.

And two, the whole thing is a setup for whomever happens to be Trump’s successor. It’s Trump’s successor who will be our long-term autocrat. The person who starts to really lean into the America First vision of a white Christian ethnostate.

All I want to do is be a traditionally published author. And here I am, worried I’ll be shot dead by ICE at some point after starting in 2025.

Yet More Worrying About Literary Agent Due Diligence

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

What am I going to do about my status as a fucking drunk crank. Ugh. I just refuse to change who I am. Take me or leave me. I get my freaky weirdo writing on this blog and on social media in general could be a…lability. But it’s not like I ever do what I’m supposed to do.

It’s too late. Fuck it.

I’m going to be sex-positive and write about a “sex worker who solves a murder mystery” and see what happens. That’s just my nature. I always do whatever the fuck I want to (within reason.)

It definitely will be interesting to see literary agents in my Webstats a year from now when I begin to query. I just can’t help who I am. If I was 30 years younger then, lulz, maybe I would do what was necessary to make myself more palatable to “normal” literary agents with money and careers.

But…lulz.

I’m different. Always have been. But I can tell a good to great story. And that should be all that matters.

Superhero Fatigue: Will AI Generated Movies Make It Moot?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Westerns dominated Hollywood fare for a very long time after WW2. Then there was a brief moment in time, right before the age of the summer blockbuster, when “good” movies were popular. The question is, are we leaving superhero movies behind?

And if we are, is it all just a lulz until AI generated movies wash over the audience and nothing matters anymore?

There is a chance that rather than some new, exciting genre taking over Hollywood that the very notion of “mass media” will become rather quaint. We’ll all have a hyper personalized AI — like in the movie “Her” — that will scan our face and give us a movie that it so personalized that there will no longer be any “shared reality” at all anymore.

Hollywood exist of two types of people: plutocrat suits and programmers.

And programmers may be eliminated if we reach AGI sooner rather than later. Or, put another way, Hollywood is ripe for a severe disruption very, very soon. All the technological pieces are falling into place. It’s just a matter of time before AI is a commodity to the point that the entire knowledge / creative economy implodes into a Singularity based around it.

Good times!

I *May* Have A Stable Beginning To Third Draft (Maybe)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After way, way, way, way longer than I imagined, I may — may — have stabilized the beginning of the third draft of my first novel. It’s been tough going. Really tough.

There have been a number of structural problems that have caused everything to collapse repeatedly, to the point that I’ve felt like I was spinning my wheels and not really getting anything done.

But I’ve managed to come up with a sequence of events that pleases me. The true test will be if I can read through what I have done so far and me not realize it’s so bad that I can’t use it. I’m hopeful. I think there’s a decent chance that may, just maybe, things will move at quite a nice clip.

As always, of course, I continue to worry that Something Will Happen that will throw everything out of whack. I’ve been living in a very idyllic situation for way too long and it just can’t last.

And that doesn’t even begin to address the longer term issue of the fucking Fourth Turning that may break out just as I’m beginning to query this novel seriously in about a year. Ugh. I want to become a traditionally published novelist, not spend all my time dodging ICE agents or bombs.

What The Fuck Is To Be Done About Would Be Tyrant Trump?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about Trump is you just never know. That’s his power. The uncertainty. It is a testament to how the man continues to stumble through history — and is not a Great Man — that he can be so fucking lazy and yet get so far.

The people who support him don’t love him, they love “idea” of him. In that sense, Trump is — and always has been -a symptom rather than a cause. Unlike a true Great Man Of History, he simply rides the wave of history rather than divert it to according to his will.

As such, Trump could just as easily start a Second American Civil War in 2024 by demanding a National Divorce to stay out of prison as he is to just slink away after a defeat, never to be seen again. If that — unlikely — event happened, we would at least punt our severe structural problems down the road another four years.

I just have no idea what is going to happen next with Trump. He has all the signs of going full tyrant if he is re-elected in 2024. And, yet, who the fuck knows? I know I don’t. I can’t predict the future.

But I am worried. Very worried.