Tag: Autocrats Never Lose

Will ‘A Very American Autocracy’ End SNL In 2025?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While I’m still not sure the United States is going to make it through 2025 in one piece, let’s assume we go the other route and slip into autocracy. It sure would fit the needs of our new autocrat for SNL to end when Lorne Michaels retires in 2025 after about 50 years with the show.

It would be a face-saving measure for NBC. By the end of the 2025 – 2026 TV season the United States will be well on its way to being a Russia clone and our insecure autocrat will probably be pressuring all media in the United States to tow the line.

So, while they won’t SAY that they’re deciding to end SNL because of pressure from the autocrat, that’s what will be happening behind the scenes. And this will happen in conjunction with mysterious purge of late night talk show hosts. A new generation of late night TV hosts will come in who never talk about politics. There will be a lot of talk about how the public just isn’t interested in the partisan nature of late night TV, but all of that will just be bullshit.

This will all happen as at least 1 million — maybe a lot more — wealthy liberals flee the country as our personal freedoms are curtailed one by one. And that will be that. DeSantis will change the Constitution and never leave office. We’ll wake up in 2045 and wonder why DeSantis is invading Canada.

Anyway, if we have a civil war then the fate of SNL will be moot. We’ll all be so busy dodging WMD that what happens on TV will be the least of our worries.

A ‘Great Reset’ Really May Happen Between Now & 2025

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If you have any hope at this point that America is going to avoid the existential choice of autocracy or civil war in late 2024, early 2025 you’re a fool. You probably call yourself a “resister’ on Twitter and wait with baited breath for Mueller, She Wrote’s next breathless, earnest tweet about how this or that thing will be the thing that finally brings Trump down politically.

This is just not going to happen. Trump has successfully gamed both our legal and political system to the point that he is above the law. What’s worse, if we do finally hold him accountable he could personally start a civil war. Or if we miraculously did end his political career, then Ron DeSantis will step in and be America’s first autocrat.

The point is — the democratic America that we’ve all come to assume will always be there is in its twilight. Trump has already served his political and historical purpose. He’s shown the way for people like Ron DeSantis. Now, DeSantis knows he can get away with political bloody murder because the center-Left is so busy bitching about the proper pronouns to use that they simply do not know how to successfully address the rise of fascism in the United States.

I’m working on a six novel project, but every day now I find myself dwelling on how bad things are going to get in late 2024, early 2025 when we’re faced with the stark choice of bending a knee to MAGA Republican fascism or — gulp — having a National Divorce and, as such a civil war.

It definitely sounds very hysterical at the moment to think the wealthiest, most powerful nation in the world could have a civil war. And, yet that definitely seems like a potential endgame at the moment. At the moment, it seems that if such a National Divorce happened, the papers would be served by Blues as they realize their only other choice is a fascist, autocratic state.

At the moment, of course, I think even if Trump gets a second term that we’re just going to shrug and let him — or his fascist successor — turn us in to a political clone of Russia. The Great Reset will happen then because the United States pull out of NATO, not because we have a civil war.

But, as I keep saying, Trump could, unto himself, cause a civil war one way or another. What I’m trying to say is — the United States is far less stable than you might think. Anything that adds additional pressure to our political system could be enough to cause states to begin the process of leaving the Union. The most logical way for such a thing to happen is Trump either demands Red States leave the Union or Blue States leave the Union….because of Trump.

All I can say is — there is no hope. America as we’ve known it since at least the end of the Civil War is in its twilight. Good luck. You’ll need it.

Just Call Me The Fucking ‘MAGA Republican Whisperer’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m over trying to be empathetic to MAGA Republicans. They’re fucking racist, misogynistic fascists who are willing to risk a civil war in their efforts to protect and promote a malignant dingus.

And, yet, there are issues, on the edges of all of this, where I find myself at least understanding what’s going on in the otherwise bad faith, addled minds of fucking fascist MAGA Republicans.

The first one is how dumb so-called Resistance Twitter is when it comes to the issue of “the border” in the minds of MAGA. For MAGA there is not “the border” there is only The Border. Hence, when the MAGA governor or Senator of a state that doesn’t reside next to Mexico talks about “the border” they’re not talking about they’re state border, they’re talking about The Border.

And this goes along with the very idiotic statements that similar MAGA dipshits give about all the things being “seized” at The Border. They don’t care that they’re misusing the word “seized” in an effort to own the libs, the point in their minds is There Is A Crisis At The Border. That crisis leads them to do dick moves like sending undocumented immigrants to D.C. and potentially impeaching Biden for not properly addressing said crisis.

Then there is the issue of “pronouns.”

I just don’t think my center-Left echo chamber properly understands how much hatred there is within the Traditionalist community about this issue. In the minds of MAGA Republicans, all the otherwise idiotic statements about “there are no pronouns in the Bible” make sense. These statements on the part of MAGA Republican “thought leaders” are obviously in bad faith but the idea they’re trying to get across to the base really, really resonates.

The point is — that’s all I got. Those are the minor quibbles I have with the general media narrative that is now constructed about MAGA Republicans. Excuse me while I go back to fucking hating the MAGA Republican movement with a white hot hatred equal to the center of the sun.

Of ‘Problematic’ Authors

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As someone who has rarely done anything “normal,” I find myself dwelling upon my fate should I actually overcome the odds and sell a pop novel in the vein of Stieg Larsson. I’ve done a lot over the years that if you rooted around in it not knowing me or the context that could definitely get my ass “canceled” by the “woke cancel culture mob.”

It’s with this in mind that I think of J.K. Rowling. I don’t have a vested interest in either her or the controversy that now surrounds her, but I do have Traditionalist relatives and I find myself torn. It’s Rowling’s “cancelation” for being a TERF that, well, is very difficult for me to defend to my Traditionalist relatives.

I’m aware that there is more going on with Rowling than just her being a TERF, but it’s her status as someone who has a more traditional belief on what a “woman” is that is the thing that MAGA Republicans latch on to because it’s simple to understand.

Out of spite to the “woke cancel culture mob” I bought Rowling’s latest self-indulgent tome out of curiosity as to how she managed to write a 1,000 page novel about herself.

So I continue to ponder my own risk of being “canceled” should I ever become a public figure because, oh boy. I was a drunk idiot for a number of years and there is plenty of bad behavior to rummage through if the occasion arose. And, of course, there is the cold hard fact that I may never even get that far, never be given an opportunity — apparently, in general, literary types think I’m too bonkers to associate with.

But all of this points to a broader issue, which is how illiberal some elements of the Left are in the United States. I continue to be dubious about the idea that the “woke cancel culture mob” even exists. I think it’s more a matter of changing social expectations between generations combined with something of a “soft Singularity” taking place.

I say all that, of course, before I get canceled because of some dumb thing I did 20 years while I was drunk in Seoul.

The Frothy Rhetoric Of MAGA Republicans is a Never Ending Stream of Bullshit

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There are a number of MAGA Republican “thought leaders” who revel in putting out idiotic, frothy pronouncements on Twitter. The one that seems to rise to the surface of the sewer that is the Right Wing echo chamber is Jesse Kelly. He constantly comes up with the stupidest, most frothy hot take on issues of the day. Just take this one below:

This is demonstrably false and he knows it. But it plays well to the MAGA Republican base so he tweets it out with a bad faith leer on his face. What makes him so dangerous is such bad faith frothy talking point inevitably drifts down to your estranged MAGA uncle who gives you a watered down, poorly remembered version of this sentiment across the table at Thanksgiving.

And, what’s more, all this bullshit that people like him spew is very corrosive and only helps to harden the positions of the two sides even more. But, alas, there just isn’t anything we can do about it. There is definitely a sizable, passionate audience for Kelly’s kneejerk stupidity and as such it’s part of a broader trend towards the country either tearing itself apart via political violence or simply shrugging and becoming a MAGA-themed autocracy.

What really bothers me about idiot Kelly is he’s so caviler about this all. He simply, like Trump, finds the absolute most extreme — and dumb — Right wing position and then demands all conservatives tow the line or else. It’s all very, very dangerous.

But there’s not much we can do about it. It’s autocracy or civil war between now and spring 2025. Get ready. The time for hope is over, the era of preperation has begun.

The Grift Not Taken

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

In hindsight, I left a lot and I mean A LOT of money on the table when I decided I fucking hated what Trump stood for. What’s more, because of my personal history, I would have a huge built-in group of friends who would be very pleased if I was a fucking MAGA Republican fascist.

I say this because I can tell from my Webstats that there is still an insatiable demand from MAGA Republican fascists for content that fits within their media narrative. And their standards are so low that even a idiot like me could probably have found some success as a MAGA Republican fascist “thought leader.”

And it’s well established that Trump loves positive attention so much that I would be writing books and having lunch with the malignant dingus himself if I had gone down that path. It’s all very surreal.

I suppose a lot of why I didn’t go that path is I went to college. Which, of course, is why fucking MAGA Republican fascists hate education so much. They know the more ignorant people are, the more likely they are to succumb to the MAGA Republican fascist mentality.

We all may be Antifa before it’s over with.

Anyway, the point of all of this is this is situation is going to grow more and more severe now that we’re careening toward autocracy or civil war. If we have a civil war, I’m probably going to join millions of other Americans who become domestic political refugees. If we become an autocracy, I’m probably going to have to figure out how to escape ICE that will start to “vanish” people.

All I can say is, good luck. I’ve picked my side, have you?

The Nightmare Scenario

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We apparently are in the midst of the Rule of Three when it comes to major political figures dying and, as such, my mind turns to Biden. He’s really old and, sad to say, it’s well within the realm of possibility that he may not live through his first term.

As such, we have to take seriously the idea that the United States is headed for a truly nightmarish political situation. If we find ourselves with both a President Harris and a Republican Congress, the likelihood of a Speaker Trump grows exponentially.

With just one, rather than two heartbeats between Trump and being president again, the temptation might be just too much for him. It’s very, very possible that because of how fucked up American politics is at the moment, that the Senate simply could not, would not be able to name a replacement veep.

Then, you have a situation where malignant dingus Trump could very well be Speaker and when the inevitable impeachment of President Harris goes to the Senate, he begins to rant — at great length — about how Red States should leave the Union if she’s not convicted.

Talk about a Constitutional Crisis!

But, I have to note that I always, always overestimate Trump. He’s such an idiot and lacks any form of abstract thought ability that such an obvious and diabolical idea may be just too complex for him to comprehend. But it definitely is something to think about.

Will Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin Be President One Day?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin is, on paper at least, he has a pretty good shot at being a serious — if dark horse — candidate for president in 2024. But there are a lot of problems with this on a practical basis.

If this was 20 years ago, then Youngkin would have a pretty good shot at being president by going the successful George W. Bush route — run on empty, vacuous platitudes, not really saying anything and then once in office being a lot more conservative than any of us expected.

But this isn’t 2000. And there is the issue of Trump standing in the way. So, Youngkin’s best bet at this point is to be Trump’s veep then succeed the orange dingus should he shuffle off this mortal coil during his radical second term. But, by definition, even someone as bland as Youngkin would be America’s first autocrat for no other reason than our democratic norms have been destroyed to the point that ANY Republican president will be an autocrat.

This is all part of a broader problem with the United States. The positions of the two sides have hardened to the point that there is no middle ground. Pick a side or a side will be chosen for you.

MAGA Vs. The ‘Woke Cancel Culture Mob’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

In my discussions with my Traditionalist relatives, one thing that is at the forefront of their minds is the idea that their lives will be ruined just because they’re conservative. Whenever I point out that that is “soft” power as opposed to the “hard” power that MAGA is rapidly accumulating, all I get is a hand wave.

In their minds, the issue is settled — the all powerful Left has all the power and it’s a struggle for oppressed MAGA people to survive without being “canceled” just because they don’t follow the media narrative. A prime example of this thinking is what has happened to J.K. Rowling over her anti-trans stance. (Out of spite, I’ve bought her latest self-indulgent book for no other reason than I want to see how she pulls off talking about herself for 1,000 pages.)

This is very alarming to me. It sets up a false equivalency that is very dangerous and corrosive. And, I think, it says more about how the United States is careening towards autocracy or civil war at some point between now and, say, spring of 2025. Something’s gotta give.

But there doesn’t seem to be much we can do about this particular situation. The sides have hardened to the point that there’s just no point in trying to clear up the difference between hard and soft power. White Christian (men) have their talking points and their ideology and that’s that.

The thing we don’t know is the endgame. Are white Christian (men) all talk, or will there reach a point when they’re going to follow MAGA Republicans off the cliff into political violence? It’s a forgone conclusion at this point that the United States is going to become an autocracy unless we have a civil war during the final transition.

Don’t know what to tell you. We’re on our own. The era of pining the entire fate of the United States on “hope” that things will work out is over. Time to prepare for something dramatic happening at some point between now and spring 2025.

The Central Political Issue Facing Modern America — How Real Is The MAGA Republican Threat of Political Violence?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As the United States spins out of control, the thing I keep wondering about is how serious the frothy and violent rhetoric coming from MAGA Republicans really is. Are they really willing to start murdering people like me in cold blood if they don’t get what they want?

This is a very complicated issue for a number of reasons. Trump has been spewing violent rhetoric for years now and, for the most part, other than January 6th there hasn’t been all that much actual political violence in the United States. I keep suggesting that if Trump went transactional and demanded, say, Red states leave the Union that we might have a civil war but that theory to date has, thankfully, remained untested.

So I think some of what we’re seeing is MAGA Republicans are so angry at liberals that they definitely have political violence on the brain — but they don’t want to be held criminally accountable. They dream of running around, murdering liberals with their AR-15s….and getting away with it. They want to murder people like me, but not enough to risk going to prison for her.

That’s why they keep searching for “when does the civil war start” and coming to this Website with all my dark, dystopian hellscape scenarios.

And, what’s more, I still believe that ultimately it will be Blues, not Reds who start any civil war, should there be one. I say this because Blues have a lot more reason to start a civil war than Reds do. Reds want a civil war because they’re so blinded by grievance that they don’t realize they are politically ascendant. Blues, meanwhile, may wake up at some point in late 2024, early 2025 and realize they have no choice but to leave the Union at the state level.

I hope I’m wrong. I don’t want any violence of any sort. But it’s all definitely something to think about.