Tag: American Ancien Regime

I’m Growing Unnerved About Trump Being Bonkers

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Oh boy. Trump is growing more and more bonkers. To the point that I wonder how far he has to go until someone actually puts him in a straightjacket.

This is an example of Trump being a very, very curious historical figure. If he wasn’t so nuts and just an avatar for some severe structural problems in the American political system, he would have converted us into a Russian-style managed democracy a long, long time ago.

And he’s definitely trying right now.

But…he continues to be too nuts. He’s just so unfocused that even though he’s getting a lot — much — closer to enacting his tyranny this go round…he’s still a big old doofus.

Which, of course, leads you to wonder what happens next, after Trump. I think he’s a transitional figure. Whomever is next after Trump — if they’re a Republican — will become Augustus Caesar and figure out a way to rule for their entire life. We will wake up 40 years from now and wonder why we’ve only had one president.

Or we have a civil war / revolution and the country collapses into chaos.

Good times! (Ugh)

I Continue To Be Amazed That The Politically Ascendant MAGA Agitates For Civil War

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Of all the completely nonsensical political ideas floating around at the moment, the idea that there would be a civil war started by MAGA has got to be up there. I understand and validate their rage and anger at the murder of Charlie Kirk.

Ok, I get it, your mad and hurt.

But to work yourself up into such a lather that you want to fuck up your political ascendancy by turning to political violence in the form of a civil war makes no sense whatsoever. All MAGA has to do is just cool their heels for a few years and they will get everything they want through politics — and then some.

Talk about a political circle jerk! I can’t even fathom the logic of anyone on the MAGA Right who wants a civil war. What it really sounds like is MAGA doesn’t really want a civil war, they just want an excuse to murder people like me in cold blood and not risk any consequences.

The whole idea of a MAGA – induced civil war just makes no sense! None. Zip. Nada. It seems like in their pain and anger over what happened to Charlie Kirk, they grasp at the worse possible thing they can think of doing and that turns out to be a civil war. The whole thing seems ill conceived.

Meanwhile, the it’s the center-Left that we have to worry about long-term when it comes to a civil war or revolution. If, say, Trump really tries to fuck with the 2026 and or 2028 elections in a really ham-handed manner, in a way that just can’t be spun…then, we got ourselves a problem.

Add to this the astonishing income inequality found in the American socio-economic system and holy shit are we primed and ready for a traditional center-Left revolution.

I generally find MAGA to be crybaby wussies who are all talk, so I think once they calm down a little bit they may grumbled about murdering people like me but hopefully — hopefully — they won’t get around to doing it.

I Just Don’t See Republicans Allowing A Free & Fair Election In 2026

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

People keep talking about how Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” may cost Republicans the House in 2026 and I just don’t see it. Republicans will do everything in their power to make it nearly impossible to vote next year and so they will be protected from any consequences of their vicious, hateful Big Beautiful Bill.

And that will be that.

Once Republicans pull that fast one, they will be embolden. I suspect they will go through with efforts to replace the income tax with a VAT at some point in the near future.

A lot of macro things are going wrong at the same time and I think this is it — the USA now an autocracy and there’s little, if anything we can do about it outside of — gulp — a revolution. Since I would prefer not to live through a revolution, I guess my next best hope is somehow I find the means to bounce out of the country and never look back.

We Live In Peculiar Political Times

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The United States is now an autocracy. And, yet, some of the last vestiges of the Before Times continue to linger. While Trump continues to do everything in his power to end free speech, Americans — at the moment at least — still have the ability to speak as they like and to peacefully protest.

It is only a matter of time, of course, before Trump and his MAGA Nazi toadies come after our basic rights in a full boar effort to finish the job they’ve started. I suppose we’re kind of in a liminal political space at the moment where it’s dusk, but nightfall as yet to officially arrive.

But arrive it will.

And that’s when the real test of the American populace will arrive. Trump is going to push us to the breaking point to see if we just give up or if we fight back in some way.

And, right now, I honestly doubt anyone will notice that we’ve become a legalistic autocratic state like Russia when it happens. I think the whole process will gradually happen in fits and starts to the point that in about 20 years we’ll be a Russian-style autocracy and a whole generation will assume that’s the way it’s always been.

I just don’t see Americans doing what would be needed to end this nightmare — we need a General Strike organized with the clear objective of ending MAGA tyranny once and for all. If that means we have a Second Revolution, so be it. (Not that I want that, because if it was successful, a Second Civil War would happen immediately.)

So, I continue to hope I sell a breakout hit novel so I can get the fuck out of this country and never come back. It’s inevitable that me ranting about Trump and the MAGA Nazis will come back to bite me.

What The Fuck, Republicans?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Sometimes, when Republicans do something really, really dumb on a macro scale like gut Medicaid, I feel like I get a vision from the future about how history will report about it.

On a macro basis, Republicans seem determined to cause a revolution of some sort. They are very cocky and they lean into the cult-like status of Trump to get away with some really, really dumb things. This can only go on for so long before the US experiences some severe political and social upheaval.

And Trump is very much the Nero to all of this. All Republicans want him to do is sign the bills they give him gutting the social safety net, or disfranchising married women. Otherwise, they give him pretty much dictatorial power by default.

No good will come of this. It may take a decade or more, but the USA is careening towards some sort of revolution — the civil war — at an alarming rate. And the only reason why we dodged the bullet of civil war in 2024 is, well, Trump won. Otherwise, the country would have probably collapsed into political anarchy.

I hate living in interesting times.

And, yet, here we are, everything is interesting, too interesting.

But I think we’re just going to circle the drain for a few more years. People just are still too fat and sassy, too reluctant to risk their “lives and sacred honor” in the real world to do anything about fucking MAGA.

If I fell into a little bit of money, I would totally go to, like, the Philippines to retire or to just get the fuck away from MAGA Nazis.

I’m A Little Worried About America

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Oh boy. I saw today where the United States has greater income inequality than France before the revolution. Yikes. And, given the absolute existential push towards tax cuts for plutocrats on the part of Republicans, its only going to get worse. Much worse.

I’m a little worried that Trump and his toadies are going to push the USA into revolution then civil war. I really don’t want that to happen. It would be horrific because of the number of WMD floating around the USA domestically.

And that doesn’t begin to address how WW3 would happen while the USA was indisposed. Ugh. It’s just horrible. Just the idea of a revolution then civil war gives me the heebeejeebees.

The thing about Trump is he’s a one person stress test for the system — and right now the system is failing, collapsing. Just don’t know what we’re going to do about that.

I just don’t see us doing what we want to do, which is “muddle through.” I think something painful and dramatic MIGHT happen within the next four years. I hope not, but I tend to try to make my abstract fears concrete, so here I am worried about a Blue revolution then a civil war between Blues and Reds.

A Perfect Storm

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This summer, it seems as though we are determined to careen directly into a techno-government-economic perfect story clusterfuck. All three of those elements of our society could be “disrupted” in a big way for various reasons and it will all happen at the same, exact time.

The key thing everyone is missing, of course, is Trump would rather murder people in cold blood than relinquish power. And, what’s more, the press is so beholden and co-opted by the fascist Trump MAGA regime that whatever protests there are would have been REALLY BIG and last for a LONG TIME before they would be willing to give them the proper attention.

Though, I suppose if the Social Security Administration collapses then there is a good chance that Trump will be in SERIOUS TROUBLE….but not enough to be deposed. We’re suck with the fucker for the rest of his life.

So, lulz, my prediction is if there are some protests that Trump will just declare martial law and that will be that. That will give him the excuse he needs to start shooting people or rounding them up and maybe even going so far as to end regular elections — at least on the Federal level.

There’s a chance that he will let state and local elections continue as either a safety valve for discontent or make them so unfree and fair that they’re moot anyway.

Meanwhile, as all of this is happening, what might otherwise be a moderate recession might become a severe one as AI causes a huge disruption. The economy will stumble as huge swaths of it are revolutionized by extensive AI use.

At the moment, it seems as though programming and advertising will be two sectors that will be really disrupted in a huge way. They will either contract or be so revolutionized that thousands — millions? — of people simply will not be able to find a job in those fields anymore because of AI.

A lot of people are so wrapped up with how excited they are about the new developments in AI that they totally miss the cold, hard reality of this new world: I just don’t see how many jobs will be left in any number of fields because the changes are just happening too quickly.

We’re Stuck With Fucking Trump For The Rest of His Fucking Life, Baring A Revolution (Ugh)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Despite all the gnashing of teeth by liberals and progressives, Trump simply is going nowhere for as long as he lives. He’s going to be president for life. I don’t know, exactly, he’ll do it, but he will.

He’s going to destroy everything before he shuffles off this mortal coil and it will take decades — generations maybe — for us to sort things out afterwards. I think that’s Trump’s historical purpose — to destroy the Second American Republic founded by Lincoln.

What happens after that, I don’t know.

Probably some sort of dystopian techno-autocracy is my best guess. Maybe the Singularity will come while Trump’s still alive and Elon Musk will upload Trump’s into the cloud and he’ll be our Max Headroom-style AI overlord.

Now, obvious, we might have a revolution — especially if Social Security checks stop being cut on time — but then we’d have a civil war and I really would prefer not to have either one of those things happen.

I just want to live in a traditional liberal (Western) democracy. But that is not to be because we just don’t have to grit to fight back against Trump. We’re totally fucked. Totally, completely fucked at least for the rest of my life.

Leave the country if you have the means.

Why I Don’t Think The Trump-Musk Dope Show Is A ‘Smash & Grab’ Operation

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Anyone who thinks the next major Federal election will be free and fair is a fool. The whole thing is going to be so rigged that the already cocky MAGA is going to take things to the next level. That’s why I think all this talk about the reason why Trump and Musk are acting so fast is it’s a “smash and grab” operation before the next election is just dumb.

We’re totally, completely fucked. Totally. The end. It’s over. Stick a fork in America, it’s cooked. There’s no going back. Either we have a revolution then a civil war (which I don’t want) or we turn into a legalistic autocracy like in Russia.

There is no longer any middle grown, no more “muddling through.” That option is long gone.

So, get out of the country while you still can. Maybe my novel will be a hit and I can get out eventually, too. But the way things are going, I’m going to be pushed out a window by either a weaponized ICE or FBI.

Sigh.

I’m Beginning To Worry In A Concrete Way About My Personal Safety Because Of My Politics

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s clear that This Is It. The End. Something new is going to arise from the ashes of the Second American Republic and there are absolutely no assurances that it will be a Third Republic. It could very well be a full-blown legalistic autocracy like that they have in Russia.

I still have my doubts that Trump will end regular Federal elections. It might run for a illegal third term, but just calling off elections when he can rig them and use them to validate his ego seems more likely.

But we continue to lurch more and more into a situation where people like me — who are harmless loudmouth cranks — could very well cross the regime. Everything from simply getting arrested, to being pushed out a window to being one of those people the Soviets drugged up in looney bins is on the table.

What I feel like doing is protesting at the nearest circuit court with a sheet of paper that has the 1st Amendment on it. Given how small the nearest town to me is, there’s a 50 / 50 chance that I’d be arrested for doing that just because it would unnerve people.

Anyway. It’s over, guys. Stick a fork in American democracy, it’s dead. It’s cooked. The end, end of story. Blues just don’t have the leadership necessary to do anything constructive about Trump and he will stay in office for the rest of his life, one way or another.