Month: March 2024

We Have To Take Trump’s Continued Stochastic Terrorism Seriously

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Trump is a curious historic figure because he’s so stupid that he can’t even put enough brain cells together to do the most basic of sneaky tyrannical things when given his first opportunity, while at the same time is wily enough to destroy everything whenever he gets a second chance.


So the latest thing that Trump has done is to yet again dip into the stochastic terrorism well. We have to take this seriously because he knows exactly what he’s doing — putting the idea of a “bloodbath” into the mind of his supporters if he doesn’t win later this year.

This is something I have been talking and writing about over and over and over again. We have to worry about Trump causing a civil war if he wins OR if he loses. He’s such a weird, divisive figure in our political history that just by existing — and acting as the avatar for the MAGA fascist movement that he is very, very destabilizing.

It all boils down to one issue — if we’re pushed to the bring, are we going to stop yelling at each other and start to…shoot at each other? I really don’t want any political violence of any sort, but I am very, very worried.

I Really Need To Do Something With My Backup Scifi Pandemic Concept

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As I work my way through the third draft of my first novel, it becomes clear that there is a real chance it will not be ~100,000 words, but, rather ~140,000 words. That is just too long for a first novel, no matter how good it might be. But because I work in terms of scenes rather than words, I…just don’t know how many words this thing is going to be.

The heroine of my novel looks like Morena Baccarin.

And there is a real good chance that when I do the secondary run-through to tighten the the third draft of the novel down and get it ready for some sort of editor that…it will get even longer. And it doesn’t help that I’m doing all of this in a vacuum because I’m a freaky weirdo that no one likes and / or wants to have anything to do with me on a professional basis.

It is definitely going to be interesting, regardless, to see the fate of the first novel.

But I do think the second track pandemic scifi novel is really compelling. I just have to figure out how to balance my attention on the first novel with similar attention on the secondary novel.

They Shoot Writers, Don’t They?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The issue of finding an editor for my first novel is now beginning to weigh heavily on my mind. I find myself wondering how difficult is going to be to get one.

The heroine of my novel looks like Morena Baccarin.

Three issues are at the forefront of my mind. The first issue is can I get one if they do due diligence on me. I’m afraid, like with manuscript consultants, they they will take one look at me and think I’m too much of a crank for them to want to have any professional relationship with me.

Another issue I’m worried about is, well, am I going to have the funds necessary to pay for an editor in the first place. It’s going to take me months to find enough money to pay for an editor, which will delay things a great deal.

My heroine sports a sleeve tattoo much like the one Megan Fox now has, even though I thought of the idea first!

The third issue is how long it will take the editor, once I get them, to clean up my copy and fix any editorial errors on my part. It’s definitely looking like I could finish the novel by my deadline of July 22 and it will STILL be sometime next year before I can query.

Wish me luck.

Trumplandia 2025

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There are a number of basic problems with Trump’s dreams of making America a dystopian hellscape and deporting 20 million people. Let’s go through them.

Building Out Infrastructure
To do what Trump wants to do, which is deport at least 1 million people a year (if I’ve heard correctly), he would need some sort of infrastructure to do that. I’ve heard that one option he’s thinking of us weaponizing the National Guard of Red States to swoop in and snatch people off the street in Blue States. I’m sure THAT will go well. Ugh.

Rounding Up People
The next issue is actually tracking down and snatching people off the street to put them in the camp. Talk about bad optics. Even if the press is no longer free, people will see with their own two eyes people being napped by Red State National Guard — who might be ordered to shoot anyone who stands in the way. That, unto itself, would add a lot of complications.

Housing and Feeding People (Camps)
Once you get all your people into camps, how are you going to feed them and make sure the camps…don’t turn into concentration camps? What if there are riots at the camps? What then? What if there are American citizens who got somehow sucked into these campus? What then?

Repatriation
Many of the people you are rounding up and sending back to their home countries have never actually been in those countries for decades. And some of them were born in the US and because you’re a dick, by 2025 you’ve done away with birthright citizenship, you’re sending them back to where their PARENTS came from. What happens if you can’t repatriate a lot of them? Are you just going to keep them housed the camps forever? Won’t you be tempted to….solve that particular problem?

Whenever I’ve brought up these issues in the past with my far more conservative relatives — whom I love dearly — they just wave them off and say they will “somehow” be addressed. These are not abstract issues for me — I could very well see me getting put into one of those camps for no other reason than I won’t shut the fuck up about what a cocksucker Tyrant Trump is.

I Bet The New York Times’ Ezra Klein Flees The Country If Trump Wins Re-Election

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner


Of all the smug social media liberals who will flee the country if Trump wins re-election, I think Ezra Klein is at the top of the list. He’s just the type of intellectual soyboy who will talk a big game but will, rather than help use his abilities to protect democracy, will bounce out of the country the moment it’s clear Trump is going to become POTUS again.

He will leave the far less wealthy and educated Poors like me to our own devices as Trump swoops in a begins to, in a very ham-handed manner, consolidate power and go full tyrant.

Oh Jesus, this Search Engine podcast I’m listening to that Klein is the guest on is both informative and extremely grating on the nerves. It’s bunch of smug social media liberals who look down on freaky weirdos like me talk to each other about smug, social media liberal things.

UGH.

Something about all the fey, soboy voices on Search Engine really grates on my nerves, too. Like, pick up a barbell or something. It’s these rare times like this that I “get” why people listen to Joe Rogan. UUUUHHHHH. Being traditionally masculine isn’t, by definition, a bad thing, you know.

I May Have Another Word Count Problem With This Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The one piece of hope I have about this novel is that it tells a coherent, cogent story. And I’ve fixed a huge issue with the original version of the story — it’s a lot easier to explain –the novel is a about the struggle of a part-time sex worker to own a small town community newspaper.

The heroine of my novel looks like Morena Baccarin.

That’s a story that makes sense.

The SECOND story in the series is a murder mystery in the style of a Stieg Larsson novel. That, at least, is the goal.

But there is a problem — if you think on average each scene has 1,000 words, I’m in deep trouble. My novel is going to be about 160,000 words. Which, of course, is exactly where I was when I split the second draft of the novel in two in the first place.

And, yet, because the novel is far more coherent it’s a lot easier to simply edit down the word count if need be. Additionally, as I found out with the second draft, just because I have X number of scenes, doesn’t mean each one of those scenes will actually be 1,000 words.

My heroine sports a sleeve tattoo much like the one Megan Fox now has, even though I thought of the idea first!

I think that’s going just write the novel and then once I’m done with the third draft, it back and assess what options I have. But I also need to work on not just this novel, but the sequel to it as well as a separate scifi pandemic novel that I can potentially pitch for sale before the end of the year.

Or, put another way, I have to, as always, hurry up — the Fourth Turning or the Petite Singularity may arrive and make all of this moot.

Apocalypse 2025

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner


I don’t know what to tell you, folks. I sometimes think it’s better to get it over with and let Trump win in 2024 and take our chances. I say this not because I want Trump to win, but the fact that if he loses in 2024, we’re just going to punt our problems down the road like we did in 2020.

Trump will be the frontrunner for the 2028 Republican nomination if he loses in 2024 and doesn’t manage to start a civil war in the process. So, why not just have at it.

Trump, unto himself, could cause some pretty catastrophic things to happen in the United States. It will not be pretty. It will be jaw dropping and dystopian. I no longer have any hope that the good guys will win, either, not without a civil war.

So, pray.

There Is An Economic Element To What Divides America At The Moment — Abortion

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Someone far more even keel than I has long poo-pooed my somewhat hysterical fears about a the potential for a revolution / civil war starting in late 2024 – early 2025 because, in his opinion, there is something absent: an economic element.

He suggests that you can only have a civil war / revolution if there some sort of economic component to the causes of such a conflict. With the original Civil War, it was, of course the economics of slavery that caused the United States to buckle.

But as I have proposed before, abortion is an economic division in the United States and, as such, could be the cornerstone of any revolution / civil war in the United States that might start in the next 18 months.

Trump’s hero, Viktor Orban of Hungary.

Do I really think a civil war is going to happen should Trump be re-elected? I dunno. I honestly don’t know. It’s a least a POSSIBILITY, but not a probability. At this point, the only reason why I give the idea any mental energy is how absolutely dumb and ham-handed Trump would be in any effort to transition the United States into an autocracy.

Anyone else in his position — ANYONE ELSE — would be able to do it in such a way that there was no civil war and we would transition to, at a minimum, an Hungary-like autocracy in due course.

But Trump is so fucking dumb and stupid that he, unto himself, could push the United States to the brink.

Mulling The Nick Denton App Mentioned in Ben Smith’s ‘Traffic’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, Nick Denton is tinkering with some sort of social media platform that would incorporate private text chains, according to Ben Smith’s book “Traffic.” I find myself thinking about how you would pull such a thing off. I think it boils down to privacy settings.

What you do is, you set the default of the network to private and only if everyone on the private text chain agrees, do you change the setting of whatever content you want to share to the broader service. Otherwise, the interface would be like a fusion of a texting app and Twitter.

I think that would be a pretty cool app.

Too bad all the money of VCs is going to AI. Oh well. What could have been.

Am I Going To Make My July 22 Deadline For This Novel?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I can only write so fast. And, what’s more, I have to factor in the idea that I don’t want to “overheat” my creative self by writing too fast. So, I find myself just chilling out every once in a while, rather than speeding through the novel.

The heroine of my novel looks like Morena Baccarin.

But having said all that, I still think I’m probably going to make it. I think at some vague point between now and July 22 I’m going to finish the first novel. I have two other novels I’m working on — one is a sequel to the novel I’m working on and a pandemic scifi novel.

It’s going to be interesting to see how things work out. I have to focus on getting this first novel done. Everything is pretty well gamed out at this point, I just have to do the writing without burning myself out.

My heroine sports a sleeve tattoo much like the one Megan Fox now has, even though I thought of the idea first!

Of course, the fact that I no longer thing has put a different spin on things. On one hand, I am a lot more protective than I was during my drunk phase, but on the other….oh boy. It’s a lot more difficult to get anything done.