Tag: A Very American Autocracy

We Live In A Political Liminal Space (For The Moment?)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Trump is pushing and pushing our political system to the breaking point…or is he? Maybe the our political system is just going to bend so far as to be unrecognizable.

It could be that we’ll have what I’ve heard as a “competitive autocracy.” And yet I wonder if we are heading towards some sort of final spasm of consolidation that turns us into a full-blow autocracy.

Maybe this is just a mid-way point. Maybe we’re in a transitional phase that isn’t over yet and this liminal space is just a temporary moment in time. I just don’t know it could go either way.

But I think what’s really happening, which is kind of dark, is Trump is going to be a Julius Cesar like transitional figure who destroys what’s left our democracy and we turn into a full-blown autocracy in the style of Russia.

Whenever Trump shuffles off this mortal coil, there will be a huge power struggle until we get the official successor who will be president for 30 to 40 years. That seems like one potential fate.

Of course, there’s a chance that Trump could finally do something so stupid that he gets deposed then there’s a civil war when Red States get mad and leave the Union. So, there is a wide range of possibilities.

Who knows what is going to happen. Probably whatever is the worst possible outcome.

Things Are Dark(er)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We have to prepare ourselves for things to get even darker very, very soon. I think we’re going to be surprised in a few days when Trump actually really does, effectively, snatch people off the street.

All the signs point to Trump slowly — and maybe not so slowly — beginning to consolidate power in some pretty unprecedented ways. We haven’t reached the “push people out of windows” stage of things, but we’re getting there.

It could be — at least for now — done in a little less dramatic fashion — TV regulars just go “poof!” never to be seen again. The person I’m must worried about is Stephen Colbert. I watch his show now, on edge, wondering what joke is finally going to get Trump to pull the trigger on purging him from the airwaves.

Because you know that’s coming. I think American late night TV is probably going to be radically changed by the end of the year. Even to the point that SNL is either revamped or ended altogether.

And, of course, I have to worry about myself. I’m growing more and more nervous about my own fate. I’m just a nobody in the middle of nowhere. And, yet, who knows, maybe the regime would want to make an example out of me.

Beyond The Ides Of Trump

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

In a sign yet again that I can’t predict the future, it’s clear — at least at the moment — that Trump isn’t going anywhere. In fact, until something really big and bad happens, he will, in his own way, thrive.

Remember, though, any “big and bad” event that happened would most likely be seen by Trump as an excuse to consolidate power — a Reichstag Fire moment. So, again, lulz.

All I got is Trump is so stupid and lazy that he crashes the economy at some point this year and THEN, MAYBE Blue leadership will get their act together. But I have my doubts.

It seems like we’re stuck with Trump and MAGA from here on out because the only way to get rid of Trump and MAGA is extra-political and I don’t like to think about that. Yikes!

So, I guess I just bide my time until maybe, just maybe, something happens that gives me the funs to get the fuck out of this collapsing into autocracy country.

The United States is Falling Apart

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I can tell you from person experience that the wheels are beginning to fly off the United States government. Things that should be perfunctory are just not happening the way they should be. It’s enough to give one pause for thought.

The thing I keep thinking is — is Trump a Russian agent?

All the bullshit that Trump and his toadies are doing are just the type of things that a Russian agent POTUS would do. Wreck the economy. Wreak the post-WW2 liberal order. Abolish American soft power. You name it, Trump (and Must) it’s being done.

And, yet, here we are. Even if could *prove* Trump was a traitor, he would still have a rock solid approval rating of about 37%. That’s why there are a few ways this goes — Blue revolution then civil war, autocracy, or something on the spectrum between the two.

But…I just don’t see Blues having the guts to depose Trump. He’s proven that there are no guard rails and, lulz, nothing matters. We’re totally fuck, folks.

‘May You Live In Interesting Times’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

But for the fact that we will never have another free-and-fair Federal election in my lifetime, I would say that Trump’s clusterfuck the last few weeks might mean something.

But, fun fact, nope.

Trump is going to run for — and win — a third term and we’ll all be sitting around wondering who will be his successor. The chief reason for all of this is the Republican Party, on an existential basis, is corrupt, autocratic and craven to the point that only burning it to the ground would change anything.

And that, my friends, is just not going to happen.

So, we’re stuck with one of our two major parties not believing in any form of democracy that doesn’t help them. As such, while there may be the occasional flair up, in general we’re heading into a New Age where the US is probably going to align with Russia and other autocratic states just as the social safety net is gutted for huge tax breaks for plutocrats.

Lulz, nothing matters.

The United States Will Never Have Free-And-Fair Federal Elections Again

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This is it, folks, the end. It’s clear now that our democracy was far less stable than we realized. But, here we are, at the end of the road. We will never have free and fair Federal elections again.

For the time being, we’ll*probably* have something akin to free and fair state and local elections, but that’s it. And that doesn’t even begin to address the idea that something might go wrong and we’ll swerve into a militarized police state of some sort.

Anyway. Trump is going to ruin the United States and we’re now a fascist state. I really need to get out of this country at some point, but that’s just not practical for the time being. I just hope I don’t get pushed out a window.

The Kennedy Center Is Going To Suck Now

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Trump seems determined to drive the Kennedy Center into the ditch like he does everything else he touches. Kid Rock will probably have a residency there soon enough. Or, I could see Trump turning the place is a sleezier version of the Grande Olde Opry.

Something horrible like that.

And I continue to doubt we’re ever going to have free-and-fair elections on a Federal basis ever again so, lulz, this is it. Trump and his toadies are going to ruin the entire country, at least for the rest of my life.

I need to get used to living in rather different country, I guess. Maybe one day I’ll find the funds to leave the country somehow, but that could be a long, long time from now and I’m going to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous Trumplandia fortune for the time being.

The Quiet Before The Storm?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are pretty quiet at the moment, in relative terms. There is the usual Trump chaos, but, in general, things are kind of meh. And it’s not like I want anything big to happen — unless it’s cool.

My lingering fear is that whatever “event” happens is Trump’s Reichstag Fire moment that he uses as an excuse to seize control of the country in a big way. We can only hope *nothing* happens and we’ll just slink into our autocratic future without too much horrible things going on in the process.

Contemplating The Possible Collapse Of The Social Security Administration

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As is always the case with Trumplandia, a lot is going on at the same time. The economy — apparently according to forecasting data — is just about to tank in a way not seen in decades. Meanwhile, there is growing chatter among those in-the-know that the skullfucking that Trump is doing to the Social Security Administration…might…actually cause some disruption in the ability of the service to cut checks on time.

Now, before you get too excited, Americans are extremely docile folks. Not even a Great Depression got them to do anything of note. And the Civil War was, in real terms, something of a fluke and in some ways only happened because Abraham Lincoln, personally, was a badass.

And remember, even if somehow, magically, people took to the streets en masse in an effort to bring down Tyrant Trump one of two things would happen — one it works and there’s a civil war because MAGA Reds would pop a gasket or two it doesn’t work and Tyrant Trump uses it as an excuse to consolidate power and we become a military police state.

So, lulz?

Americans love to just “muddle through” things, but I Trump, personally, is a a cocksucker who loves to make it impossible to do just that, so….we’ll see. It’s at least possible that, by the end of the year, the USA will not only pull out of NATO and the UN, but become a full-fledged tyrannical state under the MAGA Nazi jackboot.

Sigh.

This Is Not Your Father’s Autocratic America

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The case could be made that the United States has, essentially, been an autocracy without an autocrat for sometime now. But, finally, we have our autocrat in the guise of Trump and…lulz?

People are making some basic assumptions about our future that just aren’t accurate. We’re never going to have free-and-fair Federal elections again and Republicans just don’t give a shit what you, the voter, thinks. So, getting mad at them on Twitter doesn’t mean jack shit.

Now, this raises the obvious issue of — what is to be done?

All the obvious ideas are not ones I really want to entertain at the moment because I hate what it would involve. But I just want people to realize that the United States is now Trumplandia. We are no longer a democracy and we’re just one tweet away by Trump from aligning ourselves with other autocratic states like Russia, Turkey and Hungary.

And all of this is happening in the context of the Singularity rushing towards us. So, I don’t know what to tell you, folks. I don’t think Americans, in general, are prepared to do what they would have to do to get rid of the Trump regime and MAGA so we just have to get used to all of America becoming Pottersville from It’s A Wonderful Life.

Good luck.