Category: WuFlu

Fragment: The Big Shrug

by Shelt Garner

“Can I be in it?” Dipshit Mike asked as he opened the door of the anonymous bar. I was leaned over the bar working on my novel — and he knew it, hence the question. Why someone — anyone — would ask such an idiotic question never failed to amaze me.

For a moment, I wished I had a gun on me to make it clear he could not be in the novel I was working on. Dipshit Mike was a college student at Ohio State University and the “partner” of my old girlfriend Angie Gregory who was also at the door with him.

Dipshit Mike always had a shit-eating grin on his face. He was always moving around in a twichy fashion. What Angie saw in him I didn’t know. I just saw him as fucking annoying.

I talked to both of them frequently via the streaming service Periscope and Dipshit Mike reminded me of myself at that age, or at least, all the most irritating aspects of me at that age. He did not listen. He asked cloy, saccharine questions meant to provoke. He made me want to pull a gun on him simply to shut him up.

I pushed these thoughts aside for the moment and gave my ex Angie a kiss on the cheek. We were all back home for a series of funerals associated with the COVID19 pandemic. “Have you changed his dipers today,” I asked Angie about Dipshit. “Your infant seems a little bit more cranky than usual.”

“Do you hate me?” Dipshit Mike said, conspicuously holding Angie’s hand.

I again wished I had a gun, something to make it clear how annoying I found him. What’s a little pistil whipping between friends if it makes a point? Then I remembered Angie was looking at us and sighed deeply.

“No, you fucking dipshit, I don’t hate you,” I said. “I simply find you extremely fucking annoying and get angry at all your idiotic, oblivious questions that could easily be avoided if you just listened.”

We got a table and started to talk about the upcoming funerals. The peer group I shared with Angie had been ravaged by COVID19. I looked at her briefly. She noticed me studying her and she flipped back her wavy black hair nervously. We had sex every time she was in town — Dipshit Mike be damned — but maybe not this time. We were all too sad.

No less than 3 people that Angie and I knew were dead from COVID19, struck down, to use the cliche, in the prime of life. And now a group of us were about to have a weekend-long wake for the fallen before the funerals began.

God help us all.

Some Surreal Possible 2020 Futures


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Here are some possible — but reasonably unlikely — bonkers things that may happen still in 2020.

A War In Korea
Weird things are happening in Korea right now. If I was the DPRK, I would shoot my shot right now, both figuratively and literally. The United States is not only extremely distracted and divided, it has a deranged bonkers Mad King as its ruler. If it wants to prove a point — any point — now is the time to do it.

Trump AND Pence Get COVID19
I don’t want this, but if tonight’s MAGA Nuremberg really turns out to be a strategic superspreader event, there’s a good chance both the president and vice president may be temporarily incapacitated. Nancy Pelosi would become acting president and for a few weeks and things would get VERY VERY SURREAL.

Trump Loses It
There’s a chance that Trump really will lose it and all kinds of crazy shit might happen. His criminality and his insanity might fuse and he’ll start to personally attack Electors.

Why Does Everything Have To Be So Dumb? #TrumpTulsaRally



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

You could not think up a worst beginning for a catastrophe. A bunch of people screaming in an enclose space for two hours, screaming at the president during a pandemic. What’s more, all of this is taking place in one of the worst-hit states in the Union.

It’s all very, very, VERY DUMB.

And, yet, here we are.

Really, all you have to do is have Trump finally snap mentally in the next few days and you pretty much have the absolute worst case scenario. But that last bit is probably going to be saved for the middle of his second term when The Kooch (or whomever) is his Veep. Someone young, organized and capable of shepherding Enabling Acts through a Constitutional Convention.

Trump is just a deranged moron who is extremely lucky.

It will, however, be interesting to see if we reach any sort of acute crisis in the coming days that throws everything out of whack as we head towards Election Day. I do know, however, that Trump is going to steal the election. Autocrats never lose, not even a very dumb one like Trump.

This Weekend *Might* Be The Most Significant In The Trump Era



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, the conditions are there for this weekend being the single most significant weekend in the Trump Era. I say this because of the following:

  1. The Tulsa Rally
    Trump is having an extremely ill-advised (and, as such very on-brand) MAGA Nuremberg Rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is major COVID19 hotspot right now. Since no one is going to wear a mask, he’s putting not only his own life — and I think Pence! — in danger, but the lives of the 19,000 attendees in danger. We won’t know for about two weeks if this what I fear — a COVID19 strategic superspreader event.
  2. The Berman Crisis
    Meanwhile, Trump — through Attorney General Barr — is TRYING to fire a prosecutor connected to the SDNY. Right now, it’s not working. That would be some split screen to have Trump ranting at his Tulsa MAGA Rally on one side and a Saturday Night Massacre type situation on the other.

The thing about this type situation is you just never know. You never know until after the fact that it was obvious that SOMETHING BIG was going to happen. I honestly have no idea what is going to happen this weekend.

Could be nothing.

My Webstats Suggest Someone Is Developing a ‘Big Chill’ For The #COVID19 #Pandemic #Trump Era



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I wish I had the resources to do it, it’s so obvious — a quickie, updated version of The Big Chill set in NYC during the current COVID19 Pandemic. The plot writes itself — a group of six 40th somethings (and one younger person) come together for a series of COVID19-related funerals and talk about the modern world.

Pretty much all you have to do is find a decent screenwriter and some high-end movie equipment and you have a movie. It could be super timely and it would give you the opportunity to explore — and maybe have some catharsis — about the current fucked up Trump Era.

I say someone is producing this movie because twice in the last few weeks someone has looked at a post I did two years ago suggesting such a movie. But now that funerals are starting up in NYC, well, it’s very easy to see an indie movie about what I’m proposing popping up.

You could do it really, really fast and maybe even get a well-known actor to be a producer and pay for the whole thing as well. You need six people. I tried to come up with a dream cast, only to realize if everyone (expect one person) is supposed to be in their 40s, you’d have to think about who would play which character and I’m not really into putting that much energy into this post.

Anyway, good luck people who are writing and producing the movie I thought up two years ago.




How Trump Won



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Autocrats never lose, and as such, Trump is going to win in 2020. Here are a few of the ways he will win.

The Insurance Policy
Trump is going to ditch Pence and name some insane person (The Kooch, Tom Cotton, Steve King, Kris Kobach) as his veep. Or someone ostensibly sane (Ivanka Trump), but actual a proxy for the person they will name their veep when Trump finally goes insane in his second term. Ivanka, in particular, is perfect to help him pull off an “upset” win (see below) because she’s a threefer: a woman, Jewish and a Trump (and moderate!)

The Quid Pro Quo
The United States is removing 1/3 of its troops from Germany after a friendly call between Trump and Putin. This is set to happen by September, just in time for Putin to directly hack into our election systems on Election Day. By the time we figure out why the polls were so wrong again, lulz, we’ve had a Constitutional Convention and Trump is a barely functioning American Brezhnev.

The Durham Investigation
This is still lurking out there, ready to pop out. This is a catch-all investigation into everyone Trump hates by this dude named Durham. The conditions are there for Biden to be indicted just about the same time as the Second Comey Letter. Lulz! Trump wins.

COVID19
It’s possible that if COVID19 will simply grow so deadly that center-Left people won’t go to the polls (the ones that are still open for them) and Trump squeezes about a victory in Michigan and Wisconsin.

Trump Sues
If the other two things don’t work, then Trump sues, claiming massive voter fraud. It goes to SCOTUS and he wins 5-4. Lulz!

The Electoral College Commission
It’s very easy to see a 1876-style commission established to figure out which Electors to allow to cast their votes. Last time, it was made up of half Republicans, half Democrats. In the divided America we live in, all they have to do is have another Brooks Brothers Riot at some point and lulz, Trump wins.

General Electoral Ratfucking
If all THAT doesn’t hand the presidency to Trump, he simply ratfucks Electors on a personal level. His criminality and insanity fuse into one. He doxxes them on Twitter, telling MAGA, Proud Boys and whomever else will listen that they and their families have to be taught a lesson about the power of the 2nd Amendment. Or he bribes Electors. Or whatever else the fuck he wants to do. Nothing matters and no one cares at this point.

General Election Violence
This is a real wild card. It’s going to happen at some point, the question is how badly is it going to get. It’s going to get so bad that it’s the biggest story of the year, bigger than COVID19. America doesn’t have any history of political violence, and so when MAGA starts murdering people like me in cold blood, well, there’s a chance that, in itself, will be enough to keep Trump in office.

The point is — TRUMP IS NEVER LEAVING OFFICE FOR ANY REASON.

He is going to get into his second term and gradually turn into an American Brezhnev with absolute power after a rouge Constitutional Convention gives it to him. His successor will be even worst than he is.

Get out of the country if you can.

‘Spooky’



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

When I was living in Seoul, I occasionally would get a weird feeling that someone I was interacting with was….a bit…spooky. Whenever you suspect you’re dealing with spooks, you come off sounding like an crazy person because typically the average person doesn’t run into them.

But the thing about Seoul when I was there was there was a huge military base in the middle of the city. So, every once in a while when I was DJing at Nori in Sinchon, I saw older guys in the audience who just did not fit in. I have an extremely active imagination and so I would stand there, behind the bar, and wonder…are those guys spooks?

The only reason why I even bring this up is I’m listening to the “Wind of Change” podcast and it seems to fit very much in how I view the world in general — “normal” people are way too quick to assume that that just because someone is a kook that they couldn’t possibly have anything of merit to contribute. I am finding a lot of inspiration from the podcast as to how to come up with some out-of-the-box ideas for the novel I’m writing.

It’s this tendency that really bugs the shit out of me about successful Twitter liberals who look down their nose at me because I’m a bit “touched.” I often up come up with rather fantastical ideas. But at the same time, I occasionally do actually figure things out correctly — COVID19 being a prime example. I know why they do this — they have a vested interest in doing things “the right way” and if you don’t fit that metric, then, well, fuck you.

Anyway, I generally have a positive view of spooks these days because, well, we have a mad, tyrannical American Caligula hell-bent on destroying the nation I love and it seems as those if there really was a Deep State, they would be the good guys. Trump is actively trying to replace these good guys with traitors and sycophants, so who knows where things will end up.

There Will Be Unprecedented Political Violence In The Fall



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

When the history books are written, it won’t be COVID19 that 2020-2021 is remembered for, it will be the waves of political violence that will terrorize America.

The death toll may grow so shocking that we will all turn our heads in shame.

It will likely be 40 years from now, of course, because, lulz, it will all go down the memory hole in Trump’s second term. AOC will have to overthrow House Trump in 2060 in a popular uprising before the true extent of the MAGA violence that destroyed the United States will ultimately be understood.

Trump will be on Twitter egging MAGA on during all of it. His goal will be to get a second term and he will get it. Or, if somehow, miraculously, Electors don’t vote for Trump, then Trump will order MAGA to murder even more people as we struggle to figure out how to get him physically out of the White House.

And even if we do get him out of the White House, a new MAGA Deep State will do everything in its power to bring down the new Biden Administration. And, in the end, it will be President Tom Cotton or President Mike Flynn or President Mike Pompeo who ultimately ends the Republic.

It’s over. Get out while you can.

Autocrats Always Win



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ultimately, what is going to happen in the fall is if Trump loses in a landslide, he is going to begin to intemidate individual Electors on Twitter. He will dox them. He will sick MAGA on them.

The point is, Trump is never leaving office for any reason.

He could lose the popular vote in a huge landslide and “legally” win by simply scaring the shit out of Electors so they vote for him. I see no scenario where this does not happen.

Or, put another way, if somehow Biden DOES get the Electoral votes necessary to become president, his first 100 days will pretty much just be dealing with unprecedented, rolling political violence. Post-Election violence will be so severe that it will be THAT, not COVID19 that 2020-2021 is remembered for.

So, I just don’t see any way Trump doesn’t win. I just don’t see any way that the fascists don’t win and we’re little more than a managed democracy like Putin’s Russia.

Prove me wrong, people.

On That General Flynn ‘Exoneration’



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Mike Flynn is a traitor. But the fact that he’s likely going to be “exonerates” very, very soon is a testament not to his innocence but how powerful House Trump has become.

Autocrats never lose.

So, either Trump pardons Flynn or Bill Barr simply works his magic again and he’s a free man without a pardon. All the conditions are there for either one of those scenarios to happen very, very soon.

Why Trump and his fellow treasonous travelers have such a huge boner to “vindicating” Flynn is all very, very curious. But they’re going to “own the moment” on the Flynn front and crow about it because it gives them something to talk about other than Trump’s horrific handling of the COVID19 pandemic. That’s pretty much all the Right lives for now — anything they can talk about other than COVID19.

Anything.

It’s stuff like this that lends credence to my belief we’re going to all assume Trump will lose in the fall and somehow we wake up in 2022 and he’s still in office, telling us how desperately we need a Constructional Convention to “balance the budget.”

The center-Left in the United States is historically weak all around and the dystopia is here. We’re not thing more than a Russian-style “managed democracy.” By the end of Trump’s second term, protests will be outlawed and any opposition to Trump in the media will be gutted through a variety of means.

If you oppose Trump and have the means to leave the country now, I suggest you do so. It’s only going to get far, far worse in the coming days.