It Would Require A Historic Blunder On MAGA’s Part For There To Be A Civil War. Too Bad Dingus Trump IS A Historic Blunder

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

At the moment, I don’t think there’s going to be a Second American Civil War in the US anytime soon. The MAGA New Right is ascendant and has the political will to get everything it wants over the course of the next decade or so. There might be a little bit of a hiccup around 2024 – 2025, but, overall we’re in American democracy’s twilight.

For there to be a shooting civil war in the United States, someone, somewhere within the Republican ranks would really have to screw up.

Enter dingus Donald Trump.

Now, let me be clear — there’s every reason to believe that Trump somehow won’t be the Republican 2024 nominee. He could get sick. He could simply not have it in him. He could pick some equally nuts successor (Mike Flynn?) and “retire” to some extent.

And, yet, we all know that if Trump has breath in his lungs, he’s going to want to be the center of attention, DeSantis be damned. And, since the entire edifice of the Republican Party is now designed specifically to ensure that Trump wins in 2024, he has every reason to run.

But Trump is sooooo fucking stupid and lazy. He also says “the quiet part out loud” much, and cheats even when he doesn’t have to, that if you posit that Trump is absolutely going to run in 2024, then the possibility of a civil war in the United States escalates dramatically.

So, by definition, Trump 2024 means things could grow extremely unstable. And even more so if the crazy idea to name Trump, Speaker of the House happens. Yikes!

Welp, America Thinks Political Violence Going To Happen

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I check my Webstats like a hawk throughout the day and almost the only people looking at this blog right now are people who are interested in my “terribly negative” gaming out of some sort of clusterfuck in America’s near future. Most of these people come from Red States, but I do, on on occasion, get a ping from someone in New York City or LA.

But the point is — Americans have political violence on the brain. And as I keep saying, the people who are getting everything they want via politics — the MAGA New Right — are the very people who are the most obsessed political violence.

This makes no sense to me whatsoever.

They have the most to lose from political violence and, yet, here we are, with people from Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and the rest of the Old South really interested in my admittedly dark visions for America’s future. It makes no sense.

The only explanation I have is Reds have had a sense of aggrievement so banged into their minds by their echo chamber that they can’t even appreciate it when they’re getting everything they want. Even the barest slight is seen as an attempt to “oppress” them by the woke cancel culture mob.

Or something. That’s all I got at the moment.

The Only Way We Get Common Sense Gun Control Is A ‘National Divorce’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

During the Civil War, there were a number of different reforms passed while the South was no longer part of the Federal government. And, since form follows function, the only way we’re going to get common sense gun control in the US is if Red States aren’t a problem.

But, also, since history doesn’t repeat but it does rhyme, it won’t be Red States who have left the Union, but Blue States. I wonder where the Blue State capital would be — NYC? LA? If you wanted to troll Reds, you could seize Richmond and put it there for a while.

The point is — gun control is a dead issue. as long as the US is one country or as long as there hasn’t been a civil war where Blues have totally defeated Reds and re-united the nation for a Second Reconstruction. (By definition there is no peaceful “national divorce.” The idea that there might be one is a silly canard on the part of the Right.)

I do NOT want a civil war. I’m just being realistic and pragmatic. And I also don’t think there is any Blue leadership to speak of that could rise to the occasion and help lead Blues against Reds. What’s more likely to happen is, we’re going to slip peacefully into autocracy and that will be that.

I don’t make the historical rules, I just describe them.

But there is a greater than zero chance that the macro forces tearing the US apart will be so absolute that Blue state leadership will create itself out of thin air and away we go. Or, if you really wanted to be bonkers, you would suggest that Blue state leadership will come from the “Radical Moderates” of the #NeverTrumpers.

That would be surreal.

Get Woke, Mike Pence

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

In the book, “How Democracies Die,” they propose a solution to prevent a democracy from dying outright — the other, non-autocratic parties have to bond together for the sake of the nation.

Now, this solution is extremely problematic for America. The country is too big, unfocused and divided for any sort of “unite for the sake of the nation” plan to work.

And, yet, there is one person who could make such a plan a lot closer to being real — Mike Pence.

All he has to do is one fucking thing and he is SOOOO CLOSE to be the Democratic Union (or whatever) Party nominee in 2024: become a MAGA apostate (a John Dean-type character). He doesn’t have to change any other policy view other than turning on Trump and MAGA.

Pence would never do this, of course, because he’s a fucking coward, but if he did, he would suddenly be throw into the rarified ranks of Great American Men because, he could, single handedly give American democracy some breathing room if he teamed up with, say, AOC.

But he’s never going to do it. He somehow thinks he can play it safe and may a charge at MAGA King Trump and somehow succeed (fun fact: no.) So, Pence really faces sinking into political oblivion with both sides hating him equally for different reasons.

Or, he could get woke get pretty damn close to becoming the next POTUS. Of course, if he did run with AOC, there would have to be some sort of power sharing agreement. The whole thing would make America’s government seem rather schizophrenic, but at least it would probably avoid a civil war and probably keep the country a functioning democracy for one or more additional election cycles.

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, I’ve finished the first draft of the first novel in a projected five novel series. I have a massive amount of work to do, still. But just by sitting on my hands, I’ve managed to find a number of different ways to make these novels a lot better.

I fucking hate this “test.”

Two elements of these novels are really coming together — one is the importance of music and the other is how the reader who is willing to read all five novels will get to see the ebb and flow of history and different families over the course of about 25 years.

That, for me, as the writer, is one of the main draws.

Throw in how I also get to critique both MAGA, Leftists AND religion and, wow, I have a lot of fun (and hard work) ahead of me.

I have to admit that it’s really a struggle to not start writing on the second draft of the first book immediately. But I can use these few weeks to ponder things, develop the other four novels and to do a shit ton of reading. I have so much reading to do. So, so very much reading.

And I’m old. I feel so fucking old.

But, if Stieg Larsson can write three novels and sell them, maybe I can write five novels and sell them.

Hopefully, of course, I won’t die of consumption, or what have you.

I Want To Fuck With The Qanon Mythos In My Novels

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really am striving to create something totally original with these novels but yet in a way that is very much an “old brown shoe” for people familiar with Stieg Larsson’s stuff.

I keep struggling with the idea of how to fuck with the Qanon mythos as part of the universe of these books I’m writing but I’m finding it really difficult. There is some to work with there, but yet…not as much as you might think. I like the idea of making it clear to readers on the sly how much I fucking hate MAGA…and yet to date I’ve yet to figure out how to use the fucked up things that Qanon people believe in any way.

Which, I guess, is for the best.

But the Qanon belief system is SO fucked up, that it’d be a shame not to be able to flip the script on it some and turn them into the bad guys of a thriller. I think I might be influenced some by what they believe when I construct my bad guys, but it won’t be a 1-to-1.

Mike Pence Is A Coward

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As things stand, MAGA hates Mike Pence and everyone else thinks he’s a joke whose only honorable act was to fulfill his perfunctory role as the person required to certify the Electoral Vote on January 6th.

But there is one option for Pence that he is simply too big a fucking coward to take — turn on Trump in full throated manner and confess everything he knows about Trump and Trumplandia. If Pence did that, it would be one of those The Day The Earth Stood Still kind of political events that happen every once or so a generation.

Yet, like I said, Pence is a coward.

He somehow thinks that he can square the circle and use his evangelical base to slingshot himself into a direct competitor to Trump in a We-Need-MAGA-Without-Trump type gambit. But, sadly, this is not going to happen.

Pence’s only option is a hail Mary pass where he becomes a #NeverTrumper and joins Liz Cheney in the ranks of people who are absolutely opposed to Trump and MAGA. He won’t even have to change any of his other opinions. The center-Left is so bereft of good leaders at the moment, that he would instantly be hailed as the potential leader of some sort of Unity Ticket — Pence / AOC 2024, anyone?

I know that would never happen, but…we’re in very desperate times at the moment when it comes to the state of our democracy. Something’s gotta give.

Wait, What? Artists Can’t Release New Music Unless It Goes Viral On Tik-Tok?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This is something that can’t be true, right? Pop stars are being told by their management that they can’t release new songs until they go viral on Tik-Tok. That is just crazy, crazy for real for real.

Just nuts.

I mean, who’s to say this or that song is going to go viral on Tik-Tok in the first place? It doesn’t seem to serve anyone. It’s a lose-lose situation. But here we are.

Blue & Gold — #Lyrics to a #Pop #Song

Blue & Gold
lyrics by @sheltgarner
Please give credit
if you produce or perform

seeds on the ground
tells us where the bodies
are to be found
the future is bright
after a dark night
in the distance we see
the blue and gold
the blue and gold
the blue and gold

blue and gold
makes me smile
knowing that
freedom is not
on hold
the blue and gold
the blue and gold

the sky is blue
the gold of the land
sparks what is be had
in a free land of
free people glad
to be alive
the blue and gold
the blue and gold
the blue and gold

(bridge)
to the east
the bear crushes spirits
it thinks it can make people tremble
but we all know the truth
free people will resist
with the might of a thousand years
of history and hope

the sky is blue
the gold of the land
sparks what is be had
in a free land of
free people glad
to be alive
the blue and gold
the blue and gold
the blue and gold

Why All The Talk Of ‘Civil War’ On The Part of MAGA Is Bullshit — It’s Blues You Have To Worry About

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I call bullshit on all this talk of “civil war” on the part of the MAGA New Right. They’re trolling Blues. The MAGA New Right is ascendant and, in the end, if Blues “bend a knee” to Reds, lulz, what were we talking about?

Should Blues decide NOT to bend a knee to MAGA, then we’re going to have a civil war. And it won’t be because Billy Bob drinking his Miller Light picked up a gun and starting killing all the latte swilling liberals he could find. It will be because, on a state level, Blues say fuck you and begin the process of seceding from the Union.

Then either the U.S. Military gets involved, or it implodes or God only knows what happens. But all this talk and “ReTRUTHing” on the part of the MAGA New Right about a civil war is extremely dumb trolling. They, at the moment at least, have absolutely no reason to worry about a civil war.

They are getting everything they want politically and they’re well on their way to establishing permanent white minority rule without a shot being fired.