Trump’s ‘Shock & Awe’ At The State Department & Voice of America

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve always had a soft spot for the hard working men and women of the US State Department. And so, yet again, I realize Foggy Bottom is going to be grown zero for the fucking fascism of fucking Trump and MAGA.

They are going to burn that place to the ground on a staff basis to the point that even if miraculously at some point in the future a Blue becomes president, it will all be moot — the very nature of State will be different. There really will be a “deep state” there — a fucking MAGA deep state.

And don’t get me started on what’s going to happen at Voice of America. I really like VOA for various reasons and I fear it’s going to be State Media to the point that there will be talk of defunding PBS and replacing it with VOA or something. Something dark and scary where the most number of people can be hurt or mislead.

But, people voted for this bullshit, so we have to live with it, I guess. Yet remember that the entire point of MAGA this go round is to destroy everything so it can never be put back together in the way that it once was.

I’m Worried

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m worried about what is going to happen when Trump crash lands AGAIN into our government. The key thing I’m really worried about is all these mass arrests that I’m hearing are going to take place across the country of undocumented residents.

My ultimate fear is, of course, that if enough people are just snatched off the street, that there will be protests in Blue parts of the country and Trump will use Red State National Guard troops on these protests.

That, in turn will cause things to get out of control and who knows what the ultimate end result of all of that will be. I have long feared Trump might be deposed if he was really craven and that, in turn, would cause Red States to leave the Union and….we have a civil war.

But, hopefully, that won’t happen.

And, yet, if Trump really leans into making good on his promises to deport 20 million people as fast as humanly possible — yikes!

2025 May Be An AI Tipping Point

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It could be that the coming year will be the year when we see real jobs begin to be lost because of AI. If that does happen, it will be a real tipping point for the technology.

The imperative of capitalism is to take the path of lease resistance, so if entire types of jobs could be eliminated using it, then, lulz, they’re gone. The big question may be how big and how fast these jobs are eliminated.

If there is a really big retrenchment that could have a huge impact on politics and the Trump autocracy. I have my doubts about the possibility of any AI regulation passing at any point.

I just don’t think we have the gumption to regulate AI for any reason. We’re just kind of fucked.

America’s Epitaph: We Got Bored

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The demise of the United States seems to boil down to simple boredom. We’re allowing Trump to destroy the American experiment because, lulz, it’s fun, right?

I think the key thing to remember is the American Right turned fascist while we weren’t watching so as part of the general ebb and flow of a normal democracy….we ended up electing a fucking fascist president. I just don’t see how we ever have another free and fair election.

I hope I’m wrong. And I can’t predict the future, but it’s not looking great, folks.

We Came So Close To A Civil War in 2024

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Looking over 2024, I can’t help but think that we came, really, really close to a civil war in 2024. The we only avoided one because, well, lulz, MAGA won. And now, of course, we have something new to worry about, albeit low-key: Trump could go full tyrant, get deposed then cause a civil war when Red states leave the Union.

I just don’t believe that is going to happen. I struggle to believe that Blues could somehow convince the U.S. Military to do anything like depose Trump. But the thing about Trump is he always tests the boundaries of what is possible.

So, who knows, maybe Trump will go so full tyrant that something really, really, REALLY bad happens.

The Next Insurrection…Will Be From The Pentagon?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s comical to think that liberals have the wherewithal to do any sort of insurrection in associating with Trump being sworn in. They just don’t have it in them.

But I *could* see, if and this is a big if, Trump went nuts and tried to force the issue of him being an tyrant the possibility — just the possibility — of the U.S. Military deposing him at some point.

And, yet, lulz, who am I kidding? Trump would have to get pretty bad for such a thing to happen. And, what’s more, it’s not like that would be some sort of magical solution to our problems — Red States would promptly leave the Union, causing a civil war.

So…lulz?

How We Get A Female POTUS

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There are three paths that will lead to America’s first female POTUS:

  1. She ascends to the office.
  2. She is really, really conservative
  3. She’s a Trump

    I add the last one because I just don’t ever see us having another free and fair election. The very people who would otherwise be the bedrock of our democracy — Traditionalists — are now all-in for fascism and so, lulz?

    So what the person one would assume would be our first female POTUS is someone like Lara Trump. Of course, she probably would be just a figurehead to some OTHER nutjob Trump.

    But for how it seems the United States is now Trumplandia, I would propose that Liz Chaney is the type of woman who might be POTUS at some point. But I think anyone who pins their hopes on her is being rather naive.

    It’s Trumps (or MAGA) all the way down from here on out, I suspect.

Trump’s Idiotic Canada Annexation Idea

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

And here I was, thinking it would take Trump a few years to get around to the autocratic idea of annexing Canada to “free” it from the “woke cancel culture mob.”

Man, have I been naive.

Now, obviously, at the moment, Trump’s desire to make Canada — all of fucking Canada — the 51st State is beyond stupid and crazy on a number of different levels.

But history has a force of its own sometimes and lulz, who knows, Trump could be in desperate need for a major distraction at some point in the near future and what starts off as “we’ll force a union with Canada via a pressure campaign” turns into, “let’s bomb those fuckers.”

Will it come to that? I doubt it, but there is a greater than zero chance that Trump might decide to invade Canada at some point over the next eight or so years (I doubt he will ever leave office willingly.)

I still think this part of a broader plan on the part of Putin to destroy the post-WW2 liberal order. Ugh.

Anyway. Only time will tell, I suppose.

Sick Sad World

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The sad thing about modern America — and the thing that too me way too long to realize — is the people who were once the bedrock of American democracy are now the bedrock of American fascism.

It used to be that hard core, traditional conservatives believed in American democracy. Now, they hate democracy and want a white Christian ethnostate, damn the consequences — even if the consequences are things that go against their own fucking self interest!

Racism is a hell of a drug.

I still believe there is a risk that, in the end, Trump will personally cause more deaths around the world than Hitler. It doesn’t take too many nuclear-tipped hotspots around the globe to go off for that to happen.

Tragically, I am beginning to believe that only something REALLY drastic — like Trump, specifically, being the cause of the DPRK blowing up NYC with an H-bomb could possibly cause some MAGA conservatives to ponder their support for that fucking malignant ding-dong.

Anyway. I have no idea what is going to happen going forward. All I know is it’s probably going to be pretty fucking dark.

Tsar-A-Largo: Trump’s Plot Against America

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Trump’s idea to turn all of Canada into the 51st state is so fucking stupid that you couldn’t write a novel or movie with that as a plot point. The idea that ALL of Canada would be ONE FUCKING STATE is so astonishingly stupid that it is like we’re living in a simulation.

But, here we are.

We’ve been so focused on the domestic political hellscape that Trump promises, that we have totally forgotten about how Trump could single handedly destroy the post WW2 liberal order. If he really does go after Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal…that is like a Russian wet dream.

And remember, all that bullshit comes in the context of Trump planning on rounding up and deporting 20 million people.

All of this is seriously fucked up.

It definitely seems as though MAGA is determined to destroy everything to the point that it can never be rebuilt, even if Blues somehow, magically come to power again at some point in the future.

It could be that something akin to WW3 is going to happen specifically because of Trump and after a few billion people die because of him, personally….maybe the good guys will come back to power?

Maybe we’ll have the Singularity and be able to regulate it as species so we don’t get snuffed out by some sort of Artificial Super Intelligence? Only time will tell, I guess. But I am growing more and more alarmed.