Author: Shelton Bumgarner

I am the Editor & Publisher of The Trumplandia Report

Tucker Carlson: The Most Dangerous Man In America


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t think we appricate how easy it would be for Tucker Carlson to become president. A huge swath of the Right’s media echo chamber listens to his personal form of White Nationalism Lite with rapt attention.

Because make no mistake, that’s what Tucker Carlson is: a White Nationalist.

In fact, it’s because of him, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingram that the United States is careening towards a near future where we are no longer a nation-state based on the idea of the Constitution, but rather one based on the “blood and soil” of a white Christian ethno state. There are a dozen would-be autocratic successors to Trump who will flip the switch — with Carlson being at the head of the pack.

And, yet, from what I’ve heard, Carlson isn’t interested in the gig. Which, in itself, is interesting.

Carlson is similar to Trump in a lot of ways as a would-be candidate — he has no government experience, for one. But would have at least a few strengths that Trump doesn’t have — he’s young, bright, articulate and focused. All of those things that Trump obviously doesn’t possess. But there’s another thing that Carlson has that Trump doesn’t: an ideology.

Trump is so deranged and idiotic that he just goes from the gut about what he believes and why. There’s no over arching ideology other than, “own the libs,” even to the point where that’s more important than making any sense whatsoever. Carlson, meanwhile, knows exactly what he believes and is able to articulate it in a way that the average (white) person can get into.

But there are a number of obstacles to Carlson, besides his own self-avowed uninterest in the job. He has to figure out a way to eliminate Trump as a political force. Then he would have to get past the maw of the dozen other would-be autocrats who want the gig far more than he apparently does.

Anyway, don’t sleep on Tucker Carlson.

Developing And Writing Four Novels Is Going Well, So Far


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, here I am, now working on four books instead of what I was working on — two books, one story. This is double the work, obviously, but it actually makes completing the whole project easier — since I’m working on all four books at the same time, I can create something out of whole cloth and plop it in the past if need be to help me get me out of a pinch later on in the series.

But the key issue remains — I have to actually finish this thing, no matter how many books there are.

I’m looking at these four books as one huge story that is broken into four parts that have plots and character arcs of their own. I think I may have reached “saga” levels of storytelling at this point. But whenever I get a little nervous, I remember how great the characters I’ve come up with and how entertaining the over all story is.

Now that I have four novels in this “saga,” I have plenty of room to play with. If I want to flip the script or do something different, I can do it in-universe and help the overall goal of finishing the books.

But, as I have been for some time, I’m completely delusional about all of this. This project has gone from me just wanting to write a novel to writing two novels to, now, four novels. I’m doing all of this blind. I have no idea if anyone will actually be interested in any of this — I mean, why should anyone care? But I feel given how crazy some of the stories out there are these days, it doesn’t really matter what’s going on as long as you have a coherent plot and interesting characters.

At least, that’s the theory.

Revisiting Ezra Klein’s ‘Why We’re Polerized’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The United States definitely has a late-stage Republic vibe to it these days. Something is warping our politics in surreal ways to the point that on an individual basis one can find oneself having some pretty bonkers conversations. At the core of this, of course, is America’s third historical rail: race.

I read Ezra Klein’s Why We’re Polarized and it was very illumining, but for one thing — he went into all this detail as to why we’re polarized, but could not figure out what to do about it. He offered no solutions, probably because there are none at the moment.

It would be like someone writing a similar book in the late 1850s — there just was no solution to the division America faced within the construct of traditional American democracy. Something was going to give.

Just within my own family, I’m the political red headed step child. Everyone in my immediate family is bed rock, old school conservative. If the issues behind the rise of MAGA were not fucking with our politics, they would be pretty much just your regular very conservative people — they only flirt with MAGA because of negative polarization. They simply feel they have no other choice but to go wherever MAGA takes the Republican Party.

The macro bending of our political system warps individual political conversations in some pretty bonkers ways. I have a very conservative relative who is upset about the Virginia police official who lost his job after an online leak showed he gave about $20 to the Kyle Rittenhouse defense fund. This relative was upset that the officer got in trouble both because of a leak and because of the small size of the donation. To my relative, this is just another example of “cancel culture run amuck.”

Meanwhile, to me, I’m flabbergasted that my relative wouldn’t see what I see — you deserve to lose your job (especially if your in law enforcement) if you support a political murderer. It doesn’t matter how much you donated or how we found out. No one with such fascist political views should be in law enforcement, period.

It’s small things like that that trouble me a great deal. Fascism is ascendant in the United States in a rather conspicuous manner and one day we’re either going to slip into an autocratic managed democracy or we’re going to have a civil war.

At the moment, I think there is a historical determinism to the United States becoming a white Christian ethno state of “blood and soil.” The Establishment Powers That Be have a vested interest in keeping everyone calm and so when we’re absolutely forced to make a decision, they’re going to tell everyone that living in a fascist state is just The New Normal.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that on a macro historical level, America’s fate rests more on how likely it is that Trump or any number of his potential successors is deft at shepherding us into autocracy or if they bungle it. Only if things get out of their control will we go the other high risk, high reward route: civil war.

I don’t want a civil war, but I also don’t really want to live in a MAGA-themed autocratic state where I have to worry about ICE pushing me out a window. In a strictly rhetorical manner, I would rather risk dying on my feet a free man than living a slave in an autocratic state.

But that’s just me doing my usual “doom shit.” It’s possible that things will endup being far more subtle than I keep sketching out. We’ll drift into autocracy, but it will be a “light touch” autocracy for a long time until someone realizes that they can get away with anything they want on a political level and they overreach. Americans get woke to living in an autocracy…..and I don’t know.

Anyway, I would advise you to get a passport or make sure you live in a part of the country that aligns with your political views. Good luck.

COVID19 Scenario: August, 2021 — ‘The Omega Variant’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Editor’s Note: This has been edited some since its original publishing.

Each time COVID bounces from one person to the next, there’s a chance it might mutate into something along the lines of the virus found in The Stand. It’s an admittedly microscopic chance, but it does exist. Throw into the equation people from all over the world in Tokyo at the moment and it’s easy to imagine a Stephen King-size clusterfuck.

While it definitely looks like we’re out of the woods — least in most of the First World — when it comes to COVID19, it’s still out there bouncing around with opportunity after opportunity to mutate. It makes you wonder what the reaction would be if COVID19 mutated into something far, far nastier than it is now. Given that August is the shittiest month, I’m working on the assumption that if it happens, it will pop out around August, 2021.

A lot would depend on how this speculative “Omega Variant” popped up. If it was localized to one place at first, then nations are on edge enough right now that it would probably be fairly easily controlled. But my fear is if an Omega Variant appeared, it would appear all over the world at the same time and all we could do is simply attempt to do some triage to an End Of The World type situation.

If variant of COVID19 appeared that was far more deadly than anything out there now, at first, the whole thing — at least in the English-speaking Western World — would, again, be seen through the prism of politics. The Right would scoff, saying “Here we go again.” They would do everything in their power to obstruct the American government from doing anything to mitigate a looming disaster, just like they did the first time.

It would not be until the Right saw some potential political gain that they would switch gears and start to demand something be done. Then, of course, it would be too late. Instead of 600,000 dead, we may be looking at something closer to 10-30 million. If things started to get that bad, it’s very possible MAGA would start to angle for a way to seize power via a coup — or something. They’re already halfway there now, if the country was felled by a severe second wave of COVID19, they might attempt to step into the breach.

So, it’s at least possible that at some point in the next few months (years?) we’re going to have to go through all of this again because an Omega Variant breezes past all our vaccines and starts killing people not in the thousands, but the millions.

But I’m wrong all the time. I’m sure the monster won’t come back for one more round. We’re going to cruise into a new Roaring Twenties, at least until we have a civil war or turn into a MAGA autocracy. This is all very speculative. It’s just if the COVID pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that when you’re dealing with a virus, all the narrative management in the world isn’t going to save us.

UFOs Are Real: Now What?


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Here are the options we face when it comes to the UFOs that the Pentagon told us are “real.”

  1. It’s a Psyop
    All of this is just the US government fucking with us in an effort to distract us from something. What, though?
  2. It’s all a big misunderstand called by faulty equipment
    It’s all just easily explainable telemetry problems that may be connected to number one.
  3. Private companies have Singularity technology
    We’ve reached the Singularity via private companies. They have all these technological goodies they’re keeping from us — for some reason — and they’re going to slowly roll them out over the next few decades to maximize profit.
  4. The US government has Singularity technology
    What we’re seeing is some DARPA, NSA, CIA shit. Why they would not only be spying on their own military base but also be so conspicuous about it is unknown.
  5. Foreign governments have Singularity technology
    China and Russia (at least) have developed extremely advanced technology and, instead of using it to dominate the globe NOW, are keeping it secret so…they can use it at some point in the future?
  6. ETs.
    Probes — or something — from a highly advanced Galactic Empire have travel across the vastness of space, only to hang out on the Eastern seaboard and do really conspicuous shit that all but assures they will eventually be known about by the broader human public.

Deep State Radio & My ‘Doom Shit’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I listened to the most recent Deep State Radio and, while I was pleased, I noticed something. While they kept talking the “doom shit” that some people on Twitter get mad at me about when it comes to MAGA, Trump and our coming decent into autocracy, there was an element of ignoring the pink MAGA elephant in the room.

That elephant is they are so concerned about the political problems we face when it comes to MAGA that they said not a word about the other option before us: civil war.

Now, I know why this is — they’re working with metrics that are real, not speculative and they don’t want to sound hysterical or like their doing “doom shit.” But I compare it to a fictional, anachronistic podcast in, say, 1859. They would be talking about the rise of Slave Power and how “these United States” risked being all slave under autocratic Slave Power rule. The idea that Lincoln would win and slave states would leave the Union in protest is probably something they would dare broach.

But not one listens to me, so I talk about it all the time.

As I keep saying, we have something of a spectrum ahead of us with a MAGA autocracy on one end and a civil war at the other. I vacillate wildly between these two possibilities in my mind. At the moment, I think we’re going to slip peacefully into autocracy because The Powers That Be have every reason to tell an enraged populace that Everything Is Fine.

It will only be if MAGA bungles the historical inevitable of America transitioning into an autocracy that there is any risk of the “doom shit” that I keep writing about here and on Twitter becoming a reality.

Before I go, let me explain my gratuitous use of “doom shit.” See, one of those well respect Resistance Twitter accounts who do a lot of yeoman work covering the Trump Era got mad a me for pretty much saying, “I simply don’t believe Trump is every going to be legally held account for anything he’s ever done.”

They yelled at me and said, “You have to stop it with the doom shit.”

At the moment, at least, it’s not “doom shit” — it’s what really going on. Mad Kind Trump is politically above the law. And, even worse, even if we magically fell him on a political level, he’s always just been an avatar — there are a dozen would-be autocrats lurking in the shadows, waiting to finish the job he completed.

As such, we still face the choice of autocracy or civil war between now and January 2025.

Why Developing And Writing Four Novels Simultaneously Is Going So Well


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve been hard at work on a two novels, one story situation for a few years now. But it wasn’t until recently when it hit met that I had two prequels I could also develop and write within the same universe. After some deep thought, I realized I would rather go for broke and write all (now) four novels at the same time than write two novels then go back and write two prequels if there was enough interest.

So, in a sense, it’s as if George Lucas had balls of steel in the 70s and wrote and produced two prequals to Star Wars (along with the Empire Strikes Back.) It’s not a perfect comparison for obvious reasons, but it’s similar. The key to what’s going on is this now such a massive creative project that if I grow frustrated with one aspect of it, I can just go somewhere else and do some work there and still be in the same universe.

A lot of this comes from I now know how *I* write and develop a novel, so some of this happening really fast because I have something of a template in my mind about how to write a novel, any novel. In fact, the idea for two prequels really came rushing into the front of my mind when pretty much got the third book in the series figured out. It was then I was like, “ah ha!”

Being able to root around in the backstory of the last two books has also changed the story some because while previous I had two major events in my head, now they have characters and a plot.

I also think maybe making this creative enterprise double in size now really gives me incentive to go a lot faster and work a lot harder.

From my point of view all of this now feels extremely self-indulgent because, well, I’m drawing so deeply from my personal history now to tell this story that I’m a little nervous people are going to know a little too much about me once they finish all four books.

But, of course, they won’t know the context.

Anyway, wish me luck.

Why Does MAGA Want A Second American Civil War So Bad?


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Much like the lead up to WW1, MAGA has glorified political violence to the point where they think all their fucking problems will be solved if we just have a civil war and settle the “liberal problem” once and for all.

Besides the obvious — war is hell, is never pretty and never goes the way you plan it — there’s the issue of MAGA not being nearly in the pole position to win any civil war once they finally get what they’re lusting after so badly right now. They would be much better off just being patient and letting the existing drift of macro political history forces give them the autocracy they want peacefully.

But they’re idiots who can’t understand that — so they want a civil war.

And, yet, why?

I struggle with this a lot these days. One idea is MAGA sees “civil war” as a kind of short hand, much like the “Insurrection Act” was around January 6th. They’re sitting on the back porch of the cabin with their buddies smoking pot and drinking Miller Lite and they start talking about how dem dar lib’rals “won’t leave them alone.” Then get all riled up and start taking their anger to its logical extreme — a civil war.

But the vast majority of these fucking cocksuckers haven’t gamed this idea out in any practical fashion. All they know is the hate liberals and in some sort of vague manner think if only the United States was more like modern Russia that they wouldn’t have to worry about “cancel culture” or their children being forced to learn Critical Race Theory. There’s no logic to any of what they believe. They just have a general sense that “things ain’t right” and, as such, Something Bad should happen to liberals. But I doubt they really have any concrete ideas about a civil war other than that’s the worst thing they can think of.

So, in a sense, MAGA’s political stance is completely recursive — they believe what they believe because they believe it, and fuck you lib. But this is a very dangerous dynamic because it gives a general historical determinism to a general drift towards SOMETHING bad, be it a civil war, or something else.

I have no idea what is going to happen, but I am growing aggravated with how wrapped up in the idea of a civil war MAGA has become. If nothing else, it means the United States is growing far more politically unstable than one might otherwise think.

But as I keep saying, it wouldn’t just magically happen. Just as MAGA thought Trump invoking the Insurrection Act was magic pixie dust that would solve all their liberal problems, so, too, has “civil war” become some sort of abstract cure-all.

What any of this means in practical terms, I still don’t know. Only time will tell, I guess.

Second American Civil War Flashpoints


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Let’s get some things out of the way. One is, while the MAGA far Right has crossed the abstract Rubicon when it comes to a Second American Civil War, it wouldn’t just magically happen.

You would have to have some sort of secession crisis caused by something like Cyber Ninjas “proving” Trump “won” Arizona or a some sort of nullification crisis in the 2024-2025 time frame. Even then, there is plenty of reason to believe that instead of a civil war, America will chose the other option: autocracy.

Someone like Ron DeSantis will become president — potentially fair and square — then purge the media and weaponize the ICE infrastructure so loudmouths like me either get pushed out a window or end up in a camp somewhere.

But let’s say, just like in 1861, we aren’t able to take any of the peaceful off ramps and we actually have a Second American Civil War, where can we expect the most bloodshed?

The first area that comes to mind is somewhere like Ohio and Indiana. These are smaller states with high population concentrations that would likely be the center of significant fighting between Red and Blue. Red, on a political level, controls both of the states, but they have big Blue neighbors and there are enough Blue people in the states that there could be some very heavy fighting. It would be a lot like the type of fighting we saw in Europe during WW2.

Another place I would imagine there would be a lot of fighting would be Texas. This state has a huge, diverse population and once we no longer see things in terms of politics but rather the dynamic of war, then the state is likely to implode and have an intra-state civil war. So much so, that its ability to help Trumplandia in any broader war would be significantly hampered.

The rest of the South west of the Texas would also pretty much just go tits up the moment Americans took up arms against each other. The old CSA South would be were the most atrocities would likely take place because of race, race, race. It’s easy to imagine historic race-war-like crimes against humanity taking place there — the type of stuff people would eventually get hung for if the “Good Guys” (at least in my view) won.

It just seems like the rest of the country would stabilize a lot quicker for various reasons. If California could get its act together, it would control a huge swath of the country east and north of it, while the Northeast would be firmly in the Blue camp. But it’s places where Blue and Red states neighbor each other — or there are sizable minority populations — where the highest number of deaths would occur.

Hopefully, I’m wrong one way or another. I hate violence. Though, as I have mentioned before, in an abstract way, the idea of civil war at least would give us the possibility that we could end the MAGA threat once and for all. But, lulz, who knows what is going to happen. I hope we just keep punting this problem down the road for the foreseeable future.

Novel Development Odds & Ends


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Some things I keep thinking about these days as I develop the first book in a four book (at least) series.

  1. Motivation & Writing Female Characters
    The better my storytelling ability gets, the more I find myself dwelling on motivation and how to construct interesting characters — usually female. I find developing female characters a lot more interesting than male characters because it’s so much more of a challenge to believably reverse engineer the personality and motivation of a female character (as male author.) And anyone who tells you to “just write a male character and flip the gender pronouns later” is full of shit. That’s a trite, pat, way of encouraging skittish male authors to write more female characters when, in fact, writing a female character as a male author is hard as shit.
  2. Gender & Hero Politics
    To write an effective Hero (Protagonist) for a story, they need to move the plot along. So, at the moment, I have my Heroine being rather passive at the climax of the story. I have come up with a way to make her far more active, but something occurred to me — there’s a reason why you see a lot of mom’s saving kids stories, but not a lot — if any of — of children saving mom stories. The implication is if a young man saves the metaphorical princess that they marry and live happily ever after. So, it’s weird to think that a son might save a mom from the dragon. But a mom saving a child (son) from danger fits the idea of a mother’s love.
  3. Writing An Interesting Female Character Is Tough
    I love to think up really interesting female protagonists, but given where all these stories are set, I really need to explain how is that all these out-there female characters could reside essentially in the same place when in real life you don’t often run into a woman as interesting as I’ve thought up. It’s not like there are all these Lisbeth Salanders running around Sweden. I have come up with a reason why these three women I need to exist would do so near each other, but I really need to think about the consequences of them being such iconoclasts. Men are socialized to be the Hero, while women — at least up until fairly recently — have been socialized to be the Princess who needs to be saved. For a real life woman to buck this very potent social construct would come with some significant downside for her on a personal level.