Month: September 2025

How Could We Have Possibly Known Our Democracy Was So Fragile

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Jesus Christ. We continue to careen towards full blow autocracy and because of the MAGA death cult it’s a lulz. I continue to note that what people are oblivious to is that MAGA is actually pretty popular, all things considered.

It’s by no means the majority, but at about 37%, it’s enough to have a strangle hold on our politics now, and for the foreseeable future.

I continue t hope that maybe, just maybe Blues will get tired of getting political dirt kicked in their face and might actually begin to fight back in some meaningful way. I used to think that if Trump really fucked with Federal elections that that might be enough to stir the passions of Blues.

But, now, I don’t know.

I just don’t know. It could be that we’ll finally lurch into tyranny in such a way that it will be too late for anyone — especially the Blues — to do anything about it. I say this because Trump and his goons are really fucking with freedom of speech right now and…nada.

Blues are in a huff, but there are no calls for a General Strike or any other sort of national direct action. So, this could be it. This could really be it.

I could wake up one day and get thrown into the back of a truck with a hood on and wake up in a camp because I called Trump a cocksucker on this blog.

I Stand With Jimmy Kimmel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We live in fundamentally dumb times. I finally saw what Jimmy Kimmel actually said…and…? Nothing he said was offensive enough to get him taken off TV, which leads me to believe it was just His Time to be removed from the airwaves at the hand of the fucking autocrat.

What’s worse is, MAGA is really, really hysterical over the relatively anodyne comments that Kimmel made. You would think he pulled out a gun and threatened the audience or something.

Anyway, it’s all just very sad.

And it’s only going to get much, much worse. My only hope is I somehow manage to sell a novel and can get the fuck out of this sinking ship of a country before I get rounded up by ICE and shot to death in a ditch in some camp.

Because you know that’s where this is headed — kooky people are next. They’re going to murder all the Trans people then come after kooks like me. MAGA will lie and say we need to be in a camp “for our own good” or some such.

I am generally a survivor, though. So, I hope, somehow, I can I can extricate my self from this horrible situation before it’s too late.

Trans Rights Is Such A Political Clusterfuck

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Two things can be true at the same time. The “woke cancel culture mob” HAS been a little bit too touchy about certain elements of the Trans movement — especially the whole “protect trans kids” AND Trump is demagoguing the whole thing because the base demands it.

The MAGA base has a surreal fixation on Trans people to an absurd degree. Some of this comes, I think, from how they know the whole thing (especially the nearly-non existant “Trans kids”) is kind of the political clit of the woke Left.

Now, some context.

Just in the last few days it’s hit home that I have a vested interest in assuring Trans peoples some level of dignity — the moment MAGA rounds up Trans people and puts them in camps, guess who’s next: ME. And people like me.

So, as a member of the kook community, I really am growing nervous about my fate as it is grow more and more clear how dire things are growing for Trans people. I just don’t see how this doesn’t end with Trans people in camps. Maybe it will be the Trans issue that causes the inevitable mission creep for ICE.

Cause, you know that’s going to happen. Form follows function and soon enough ICE is going to become an American SS. They will start to round up any one considered either “an enemy of the state” or unworthy of life.

Now there is something else to consider. As it stands, the USA is in something of a political luminal space. We’re an “anocracy” to be exact. There is going to come a point when we go full-blown autocracy and then, well, all bets are off. The USA in 2025 is not Germany in 1933.

We’re far more diverse, decentralized and have a far stronger traditional of being a liberal democracy.

So, if we go full autocracy, there is going to — finally — be some sort of reaction on the part of Blues. And that’s when things will get messy. Very messy.

And, tragically, many, many people may die for no damn reason other than MAGA bigots are paranoid about the browning of America and a small sliver of the population that is Trans.

Ugh.

The Real Dangerous Element Of The Jimmy Kimmel Imbroglio

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

“You do it to yourself,” the old Radiohead lyric goes and that’s what’s going on with the United States. While, yes, the FCC did pressure Disney into getting rid of Jimmy Kimmel for the time being, it happened in conjunction with something far more insidious.

It was really the ABC affiliates balking continuing to air Kimmel that did him in, over and above the clear threat from the FCC.

As such, it is clear that the United States continues to be a house divided. The two sides continue to rush away from each other at an alarming rate. There is literally a solid 37% of the electorate or so that really, honestly wants my worst nightmare to happen.

They want a white Christian autocratic state and they’ve wanted it since Trump ran in 2016. So, lulz? It definitely seems as though we’re going to slide into autocratic rule for no other reason than Blues simply can not, will not get their act together.

I mean, if we had a proper opposition, there would be calls for a general strike. Or Blues would make life hell for Republicans in Congress to the best of their ability.

But, no. This is it. We’re on cruise control and we’re just going to drift into an autocratic state without even so much as a whimper.

Things Remain Politically Hot

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s an example of how we’re living in a “sick, sad world” that one of America’s most cherished ideals — that we’re a free country with freedom of speech — is being consumed by a the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk.

Charlie Kirk

And, yet, it’s not like this happened out of nowhere. The conditions have long been there — at least since the end of the second Obama administration, so, lulz?

The key thing to remember is this is just the beginning of a very dark time in our nation’s history. It’s only going to get worse. A lot worse.

The question for me now is what the endgame is. How bad do things have to get before there is any meaningful reaction against it all by Blues? As it stands, the crazed death-cult surrounding the MAGA martyr Charlie Kirk seems hell bent on consuming any and everything in its path.

At the moment, it seems like we’re going to wake up in a few years and the United States will have gone full Russia. We’re well on our way to that path, at least.

I just don’t know. What happened to Charlie Kirk was a tragedy, but maybe if we just cooled it a little bit we will still have a nation where we have democratic politics instead of tyranny.

Being An ‘AI First’ Writer Is Really Speeding The Novel Along

As I keep saying, I’m doing everything in my power not to let AI do the actual narrative writing — especially now that I’m deep into the second draft. That part has to come from me. But I am leaning on AI for development work and fleshing out scene summaries, and it’s been surprisingly helpful.

Sometimes it shows me angles I hadn’t considered, and more than once I’ve had a genuine “ah-ha!” moment thanks to its perspective. Still, the writing itself — the sentences, the voice, the rhythm — that’s all mine. If this draft falls flat, that’s on me. If it sings, that’s because of my own ability, not because a machine wrote it for me.

That said, the process is moving quickly. I’m burning through the outline faster than I expected, and maybe — just maybe — this second draft will come together sooner rather than later. Or maybe not. I’m giving myself some slack, because querying is still probably a year out. But I also feel the clock ticking. I need to wrap this up. I’m not getting any younger.

I’m At A Loss Over This Jimmy Kimmel Thing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely seems as though we’re careening towards the type of situation that happened as Putin was consolidating power in the early 2000s: Russia’s vibrant late night TV industry was strangled.

Now, I haven’t actually heard what Jimmy Kimmel joked about in regards to the now-martyred Charlie Kirk, but the fact that Disney is so feckless and weak willed as to pull him off TV “indefinitely” over it is extremely alarming. It shows you that we really are in a new era.

The great irony is, of course, that the very group that bitches and moans about “cancel culture” is now using the very techniques of cancel culture on people they don’t like. I guess you really do become the thing you hate if you are around long enough.

I do think that Kimmel should have maybe paused on joking about anything to do with Charlie Kirk. What happened was tragic and the MAGA Right is so crazed at the moment that every day we don’t have a revenge murder is a blessing.

And we all know that if there is a revenge murder on the part of the Right it’s going to be someone big, someone really big. That’s usually how these fucking dumb tit-for-tat things happen.

Anyway. I wish we could all just calm down. We also can be thankful that Trump hasn’t demanded Enabling Acts be passed by Congress in response to Charlie Kirk’s murder. If Trump was more of a Hitler-like figure, that’s exactly what he would be doing right about now.

As it stands, while a lot of fucked up shit is going to happen in Charlie Kirk’s name, it probably will continue to happen in dribs and drabs.

‘Over And Over’

My sci-fi dramedy has reached a significant milestone: the premise is solid and the first act structure is strong. But creative work rarely moves in straight lines. After reimagining elements of the opening chapter, I’m facing a complete rewrite of material I thought was finished.

This cycle of writing and rewriting has become a familiar pattern over the years I’ve spent developing a query-ready novel. The constant revision can be exhausting, but it’s also how the work gets better. Each iteration teaches me something about the story that the previous version couldn’t.

The timing feels particularly urgent now. Major life changes appear to be on the horizon, and by the time I’m ready to send this to beta readers in late spring 2026, my circumstances may be completely different. This awareness creates both pressure and motivation.

The challenge is maintaining momentum without getting trapped in endless revision cycles. Sometimes the wheels spin, but forward motion—however incremental—still counts as progress.

.

Charlie Kirk Is A MAGA Martyr — Now What

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t know what to tell you folks. Form follows function and MAGA, like Nazism, apparently craves a martyr and now it has one in the guise of Charlie Kirk.

The issue for me is I wish we wouldn’t do so much “who shot John” in regards to the motives of the shooter and just follow wherever the facts took us. But the MAGA Right has an established orthodoxy, an established narrative, and they have the political and media clout to make it the official story.

Ugh.

As I keep saying, the great irony of all of this is MAGA is ascendant. All they have to do is just be fucking patient and they will get the white, autocratic Christian ethnostate they are rabidly desiring.

If they don’t cool their heels for just a few short years, they really risk letting loose centrifugal forces that will tear the country apart. Or, if noting else, cause the two sides to actually go to war to figure out which vision of America will be used going forward.

I still have my doubts about Blues states wanting to leave the Union. That’s not their vibe. But a revolution on the other hand, yeah, maybe. That’s a possibility.

And that’s the crux of the crucial thing that MAGA is obvious to. The USA is not Germany in 1933 and it is not going to be nearly as easy to make America a Nazi state. The country is too diverse, has too strong a tradition of democracy and too decentralized for that to happen very easily.

MAGA is going to have to fight for it.

Things Are Going Well With The Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Working On

It feels like I might actually be zooming through the second draft of my sci-fi dramedy—or at least the tentative, beta-ish version of it. I’m about halfway through Act One, which is both exciting and slightly terrifying.

I’ve been using AI here and there, but only in the background: development notes, scene summaries, little nudges that help me keep momentum. None of that makes it directly onto the page in the prose itself. That part is all me.

And honestly, I want to keep it that way. I’m not interested in giving people a false impression of my writing by leaning too hard on tools. This second draft has to come out of my own voice, my own instincts, my own stubborn word-slinging.

That said, I can’t deny how helpful AI is as a drafting partner. When I need to map out a scene or shake myself loose from writer’s block, it’s like having a sounding board on call 24/7. It helps me keep the gears turning and the story moving forward—without stealing the fun of actually writing the thing myself.

Do you want me to make a snappier blog-friendly version (shorter, punchier sentences for people skimming), or keep it more like a writer’s journal entry (slightly longer, thoughtful tone)?