Month: July 2024

Is It Possible That People Are … Listening To Me?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Generally, absolutely no one listens to me. I live in oblivion. But I have been ranting and ranting and ranting AND RANTING for years now that late 2024, early 2025 could be a Holy Shit moment in our nation’s history.

I only mention this because someone in Milwaukee*, where the RNC took place recently, looked at what of my hysterical posts from late 2020 where I had all these crazy ideas as to how Trump could stay in power. None of them, I will note, mentioned anything about him inciting an insurrection, natch.

But it does make me wonder — given how fucking much I’ve ranted about the possibility of a civil war / revolution….is it possible someone, somewhere is actually now, at last paying attention to me?

If they are, I don’t quite know what to make of such a thing. It would be totally out of the ordinary for my living-in-oblivion life. I have also caught the attention of someone who was apparently in the NYC area and now is in the DC area.

That would usually make me ecstatic — someone of note gives a shit about me! — but I’m also worried that he / she is an FBI or Secret Service agent worried I’m going to freak out and hurt someone. UGH. I hate that. I hate the idea that just because I’m a kook and have strong opinions about politics I have to worry that I’m on some sort of fucking watch list.

I’m totally, completely fucking harmless. Totally. I hate guns. I hate conflict. I am, I will admit, a kook. But that’s it. I really, really, REALY fucking hate guns.

Let’s see if anyone listens to me about that part.

*I doubled checked – it was Waunakee. Ooopse.

I’m Severely Worried

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

No matter what happens this fall, there is a real risk of domestic political violence in the United States at a level not seen since the end of the Civil War. There is a non-zero chance that the most powerful nation the world has ever seen could buckle because of some pretty dumb shit.

What’s worse, the state I live in — Virginia — is two states, one Red, one Blue, fused together who hate each other. So if the absolute worst happens, there’s a good chance that I will become a domestic political refugee.

I wish I was joking, but I’m not. I could literally have to make good on all my quips about “heading North.” And I’m sure — sure — that somehow I’m going to endup in some sort of waystation in Maryland before I being shipped to a bigger refugee camp somewhere like upstate New York or maybe Maine.

But we have to start to buckle down and game out, on a personal basis, what the fuck we’re going to do should the absolute worst happen. I’m not smart enough to tell you what you should do, but I can tell you that you need to take all of this seriously.

We could be seriously f u c k e d no matter what happens. If Trump wins, he could go full tyrant and be deposed, which would cause a civil war when Red States leave the Union. If he loses, he could demand a National Divorce and…civil war.

But I am known for magical (over) thinking and so…maybe nothing will happen? Maybe Project 2025 will happen, about 1 million smug Twitter liberals will leave the country….and that’s it? About 20 million people will be put into camps, God-only-knows-what will happen to them and it will be just a Big Meh?

I just don’t know what is going to happen. No one does. But I would definitely accept that This Could Be It.

We’re All Collectively Going Through The 5 Stages Of Political Grief Along With Joe Biden

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely seems as though because of Biden’s vanity and ego, we’re all going to be forced to go through the five stages of grief over the next few days. We’re currently at something along the lines of negotiation, I think.

The question now is how long does it take for him to reach the finial stage — acceptance? I wish he would get it over with and do it this weekend. But, alas, it could be that he waits until the very, very last moment — which would be right before the Democratic Convention in a few weeks.

It’s kind of a worst case scenario, all around.

But, here we are.

And I really, really don’t want him to quit. That would leave us without a veep during a very sensitive and potentially volatile moment in our nation’s history.

I Have To Start Working On My Novels Again

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Events have kind of thrown me for a loop the last few weeks. That, combined with finishing up a third draft of the novel I’ve been working on, has kind of left me in a daze.

But I’ve decided to the thriller AGAIN. And I have at least two solid scifi novels I can work on. I just feel so…meh. I feel blah. I need to focus on being creative again in a really focused way. I’m not getting any younger.

I think maybe if I distract myself for a few days by reading and watching content from other people that that might be enough to get me going again. I just hate being in this luminal space where I just kind of lounge around and daydream.

Something’s gotta give.

What A Strange Turn Of Events

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

What the fuck is going on with Jason Calacanis? He is far more wealthy and successful than I will ever be, but recently he’s become a uhhh….beta? A mid? When it comes to his politics.

He’s all-in (pardon the pun) with Trump and I can only assume he’s doing so at the behest of his best-bud Elon Musk. It seems very…beta of him. Have some self-respect, man.

But here we are, with @Jason on Twitter sucking Trump’s political cock — and urging everyone else to do the same thing in a very conspicuous way. Industrialists are never wrong, are they? ARE THEY?

Industrialists have never, ever picked a candidate for short term gain that ultimately destroyed everything….have they? HAVE THEY?

Twitter Is Trash

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I totally given up on Twitter. I now only use it out of habit. I hate it — and it’s overwrought fascism — totally and completely. I am going to try to be more proactive using BlueSky and Threads.

But both of those services have their problems.

I just want the old Twitter — with all its problems — back.

AI Mules & ‘Inception’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One interesting novel idea would be that it wouldn’t be Humans who were doing “inception,” but AI. Imagine if AIs were able to “incept” concepts into human minds. Such AIs could take over Humanity without us even knowing what was going on.

The Mule
They would be like “The Mule” from the Foundation series….

Writing Sober Sucks

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Because of some….uhh…developments in my life, I’ve decide to go sober. I hate it. It sucks. But, here I am. And one of the biggest differences comes when I sit down to write. Usually, I would get a buzz going before I would write in the afternoons.

But now….clean sober.

It’s a real struggle. And, yet, Stephen King manages to pump out novel after novel in a far better state that he did when he wrote a lot of novels, so it’s not impossible. It’s going to be tough, though. I was so used to being in something of a “fugue” state when I wrote that being totally sober is going to be a significant change.

But, let’s rock, I guess.

‘Truth Tellers’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of my far-more-conservative relatives, whom I love dearly, has been ranting about how fucking old Biden is. This person kind of got worked up about it more than once. And I, too, have admitted that Biden is really old — and acts it — but I simply hate MAGA too much to use Biden’s age as any sort of excuse to vote for…ugh…Trump.

Now that Biden appears to be about to leave the race, it seems like it’s time to contemplate the OTHER thing my far more conservative relative has gotten worked up about — the COVID restrictions of a few years ago.

Is my far more conservative relative right about all that? Should there be “consequences” — even criminal — for the people responsible for those restrictions?

Nope. I keep thinking about what happened and why and I just can’t agree with such severe political views. And, what’s more, there just isn’t any political will all these years later to do anything like arrest the CDC en masse. I suppose Tyrant Trump might do it, but…I don’t know.

That’s a maybe. He might have bigger issues to contend with going forward. Anyway, I just don’t see the point in going after the people who did the COVID restrictions. It was a time without any leadership and no one had any idea what to do.

We can just hope the Fire Next Time will be handled better — hopefully because Trump won’t be in charge.

Work On My Novels Is Starting Up Again

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After a few weeks of aggressive daydreaming, I’m just about in the right headspace to get back to writing on not just one, but as many as three different novels — two scifi and one thriller.

The thriller I’ve been working on for a very long time. The two scifi novels, just a little bit. I’ve been able to speed up the process of writing a great deal by using LLMs. Or, at least, the development that leads to writing.

I can totally see how some people would just lulz it and not do any writing, given how eager LLMs are to write for you. But I just refuse to be THAT lazy, even though I am, in general, pretty lazy at times.

But I hope to really start writing a lot this weekend. I keep wishing I was younger, though. It would be so nice to be 25 years younger and be able to hit the pavement in LA with a half-dozen scripts under my arm.

Yet, alas, I’m an old gray beard now. Even under the absolute best of circumstances, I probably am not going to see any creative success at this point until I’m in my mid-to-late 50s.

Ugh.