Tag: Fuck You MAGA

Mike Pence’s Only Option Is To Become MAGA’s John Dean


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It is comical how dumb Mike Pence is from a political standpoint. He has the means, motive and opportunity to become, overnight, a liberal political hero and, yet, he’s so beholden to Trump he can’t bring himself to do what he has to do — become MAGA’s John Dean.

Let me explain.

Despite their protests to the contrary, modern Blue Check liberals like the “Mueller, She Wrote” Twitter account really do still believe in the system and really do believe that somehow, magically, Trump and his ilk will be, at last, held accountable. They write breathless Twitter threads about the latest MAGA scandal, leaving their audience with a warm fuzzy feeling of justice just on the cusp of being served.

Now, this is the point where Mueller, She Wrote calls me “a terribly negative person” who “mischaracterized” her work. Uh huh. But why is the account itself named after the delusional belief on the part of Blue Check liberals that life-long Republican Bob Mueller was going to somehow — you guessed it — save us from ourselves?

What’s more, people like Liz Cheney have proven that liberals are willing to fall all over themselves with support for you — even they otherwise disagree with you on everything else — if you just are willing to stand up to the MAGA New Right.

So, as such, the case could be made that if Pence became a MAGA apostate that he could potentially throw himself into the ring as — gulp — the Democratic nominee in 2024. Or something. Something like that. At a minimum, he would be in a far better political position that he is now.

Rather than run away from the fact that the MAGA base hates him and wants to “hang Mike Pence” he would be far better off politically to reverse polarity and embrace the #NeverTrump movement.

Why doesn’t he do such an obvious thing?

I dunno. It’s one of the biggest political mysteries of our time. The brass ring of political relevancy is right there in front of him. And, in real terms, he wouldn’t even have to change anything he believes other than stop being a Trump sycophant.

I mean, Liz Cheney is till a tough as nails conservative I don’t agree with on anything, but if she ran for president, I would seriously think about voting for her out of desperation for the fate of the Republic, if nothing else.

Pence switching sides would be not only the biggest political event of the decade, it would breath a huge amount of air into our failing Republic. All he would have to do is totally, completely disavow Trump, confess everything he knew about that malignant idiot.

He could keep all is horrible political views, otherwise. People — especially Blue Check liberals — would be overjoyed at what had happened, that they would ignore the rest of his brutish policy beliefs. The fact that the MAGA base actively wanted to murder him has not been enough to dislodge him from MAGA is, well, it’s something else.

The Republican Trump Problem


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There’s a memorable Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode where we learn that Bart Simpson had a “bad twin” that the family kept up in the attic. At the end of the episode, we learn that the wrong twin was put in the attic, so they switch them. At the very end, we learn that living up in the attic has driven the “good twin” bonkers.

I often think about this when it comes to how desperate the Republican Establishment is to move the fuck past Trump. They love, love, love Ron DeSantis. They know, on a basic level, that DeSantis is Trump without Trump and if they can only squeeze that motherfucker past ding-dong Trump that he can become America’s Putin.

Then Republicans can transform the US into an autocratic white Christian ethno state of blood and soil run by minority whites.

We’ll wake up 20 years from now and there will be talk by the BBC about “Generation DeSantis” and America will be poor, inward looking and politically identical to Putin’s Russia of 2022.

But Republicans have to get past Trump first to make this nightmare a reality.

There are plenty — PLENTY — of reasons to believe Trump will somehow not be the Republican nominee in 2024. He is old and growing more and more deranged each and every day.

And, yet, only the good die young. He could very well politically cockblock DeSantis (or the dozen other would-be autocrats, for that matter) simply by refusing to walk into that dark political night. As such, there are two options for Establishment Republicans.

Either there is something of a political death match between Trump and DeSantis or Trump names DeSantis his veep and DeSantis gets to (eventually) play America’s Putin that way.

But if Trump is the nominee around 2024 – 2025 and Bannon’s “administrative coup” works…oh boy. Trump loves to say “the quiet part out loud” so much that he could, single handedly, unto himself, cause a civil war in the United States. He could rile up the base of the Democratic Party so much in Blue States that there is real, significant political violence in the US which leads to ding-dong Trump striking back, which leads to a secession crisis which leads to civil war.

And then you have people like DeSantis having to make a regular Sophie’s Choice of which side they finally, at last, are going to be on. Though, come to think of it, if it’s Blue States that leave, lulz, DeSantis will be right there, comping at the bit for his chance to wreak vengeance on the prodigal Blue States.

MAGA Is Ascendant & Yet They Still Crave A Civil War


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m obsessed with my Webstats and have been for 20 years or more. Something about knowing (in general) a little bit about who is interested in me and my writing is very, very addictive. I keep writing about the possibility of a Second American Civil War and, weirdly enough, most of the interest in my speculation comes from people in Red States.

I say curious because the MAGA New Right is ascendant. They are well on their way to getting everything they want — a more — via political means and all they have to do is sit on their hands and be patient and soon enough the US will be an autocratic white Christian ethno state run by minority whites.

That’s what they want and that’s what they’re going to get — without firing a shot.

And, yet, here we are.

There is obviously a lot of interest in severe political violence on the part of the MAGA New Right. They are, in short, craven, greedy and impatient. They are completely oblivious to how they risk getting ahead of their skis and causing Blue States to leave the Union because they’re being forced to “bend a knee” to Red State orthodoxy.

As such, Red States might be giddy at the opportunity to “crush” Blue States that they open up a can of worms they had no need to open. You would think Red State “though leaders” might at least TRY to calm down some of the frothy civil war rhetoric on their side, but, no.

All the usual suspects of the Right want to burn the country to the ground, even though they’re politically ascendant. You can’t make this shit up.

The Second American Civil War That Came Early: What If Democrats Win In 2022, But Still Lose


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I write a lot about how I vacillate widely at any particular moment between thinking we’re going to have a civil war and thinking we’re going to simply turn into an autocracy. But usually, I assume this particular crisis will happen around 2024 – 2025.

But there are signs that things have gotten so bad that my fears about the corruption of the administration of elections — Bannon’s “administrative coup” — might happen as part the 2022 mid-terms. Given that Republicans always, ALWAYS get away with politically bloody murder, if Democrats get sucker punched in the 2022 election we’re all probably going to shrug.

And, yet, I suppose there is a small possibility that if Republicans yet again catch the political car and get what they want, which is making it logistically impossible Democrats to win elections in crucial states like Michigan and Florida, there might be some blowback at last.

How that might work out, I don’t know, but if Republicans brazenly steal Congress in 2022 by simply not certifying the election of Democrats…well, who knows.

I don’t think anything is going to happen, no matter what.

The GQP New Right Keep Catching The Car & Nothing Happens


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If you want any indication of how fucked we are, look no further than how Republicans have officially reached the point where they catch the political car over and over again…and nothing happens. As such, this only emboldens fascist Republicans to keep going.

I think of it as the political slack that exists in the system when it comes to what how far Republicans can go before anyone on the other side does anything about it in the real world. As such, we’re an anocracy and it definitely seems as though we’re going to peacefully slide into a hard autocracy over the course of the next 20 years.

It’s still possible that we’re just going to have a civil war of some sort. But my “hopes” of this happening are fading. Sure, there will be lots of talk on Twitter of states leaving the Union and there being a secession crisis around 2024 – 2025 but, in the end, lulz. No one will do anything in the real world. Or, put another way, the only thing that happens is about a million wealthy liberals will feel the country for places in Europe.

These new expats will do all the same meaningless shit that they did during the twilight of the republic, only in a different country.

So, in the end, I think there won’t be a civil war. Blue States because of a lack of leadership and grit, will bend a knee to the MAGA New Right. It’s not going to happen immediately, but it will happen.

‘The Undertoad’

Tell me about it

By Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This definitely seems like the Before Times. I don’t know what the future brings — no one does — but as I keep saying, either the United States implodes into autocracy or it explodes into a civil war. Call it the Great Reset or the Fourth Turning or whatever the fuck you like — but it’s coming.

A number of macro trends are all coming to a head in late 2024, early 2025. One way or another, we’re headed for a catastrophe in the United States. Either we simply lulz the end of our democratic republic or we bomb ourselves into the Stone Age in the process of figuring out who gets the USA “brand.”

But let me be clear — I can’t predict the future. Maybe we’ll just punt our problems down the road another presidential cycle. And, in fact, even if MAGA seizes control of the country in 2025 things aren’t going to change overnight. There will be a false sense of relief until, of course, it begins to dawn on us that things are beginning to change.

And, before you know it, one a political basis, the United States and Russia will be one and the same. Which, of course, is what the MAGA New Right screams at the top of their lungs right now that they want. It’s not like they’re hiding it. Republicans have a soft spot for autocrats and they desperately want white Christian minority rule.

So, either we have white Christian minority rule or we have a civil war. At the moment, it just doesn’t seem as though the center-Left has the grit to challenge the rise of autocracy in the United States long term. Twitter liberals are already talking about getting a second passport and fleeing the country rather than doing anything constructive in the real world to stop our slide into autocracy.

And, remember, once we’re an autocracy, that’s it. Republicans will be able to destroy the social safety net, cut taxes for the plutocrats and raise taxes on the poor. They will probably finally seize control permanently with a Constitutional Convention.

Then loud mouth cranks like me, who have had the luxury of living in a Western liberal democracy are just going to be fucked. We’ll die in a camp. Or be sentence to long prison terms. But our lives won’t be the same. And then all the Good Germans in our lives who have been waiting with baited breath for the arrival of white Christian minority rule will finally have reached their red line — ME.

Anyway, either you realize how dire things are at the moment or you don’t. Either you’re realistic and understand we’re careening towards a very dark choice of autocracy or civil war, or you think people like me are “terribly negative” for simply pointing out the truth.

America’s Coming White Christian Minority Rule


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Make no mistake, all the hatred that the MAGA New Right has for democracy is all a smoke screen for what they really mean — they are craven and want to establish a white Christian ethnostate based on minority rule. They don’t come out and say this for a number of reasons, specifically they don’t want any association with the term “white minority rule” because it’s racist as hell.

So they beat around the bush and hate on democracy in general. They usually hate on Abraham Lincoln at the same time, which if that isn’t a tell I don’t know what is.

Anyway, we have to accept that the endgame of the the clusterfuck we’re living through at the moment is minority rule. Starting around 2024 – 2025, the United States will be run by a very passionate, organized minority — white Christians.

And that will be that.

Republicans will finally get what they want — the ability to pass all their unpopular policies without having to worry about blowback from the 60% of the population that opposes them.

I honestly don’t see how this dark, dysoptian political hellscape doesn’t happen. The American center-Left is too divided and too busy sucking its own cock in the guise of long, overwrought Twitter threads to do the hard work in the real world that would prevent white Christian minority rule from happening. Or, put another way, we’re past the Event Horizon.

There is, of course, a small chance that rather than imploding into autocracy and minority rule, we’ll explode into a civil war. I still find this very unlikely, however. There probably will be a lot of talk of secession now and again between now and January 2025, but in the end, Blue States will just “bend a knee” to white Christian minority rule.

The question is not how bad it will get, but how long it will take to get as bad as our worst nightmares. I suspect that, initially, nothing will really change. So the first few years of President DeSantis’ administration won’t really feel any different.

But gradually, however, things are very much going to change. The MAGA New Right will grow accustomed to unchecked, unfettered control of the leavers of power and, well, sucks to be you non-MAGA person.

And, in the end, all those people’s who’s only red line was personal, well, they’re going to find out what that means in real terms.

And, yet, there is, like I said, a chance — however small — that things go the other way and we have a civil war. And it’s very unlikely there will be a nice pat ending.

But one thing is for sure, a shit ton of wealthy Blue Check liberals are going to flee the United States in the next few years, no matter what happens. They will only sheepishly come back to the States should there be a civil war and Blue States win.

Otherwise, they’re just going to smell their own farts at cocktail parties while drinking ironic White Russians.

‘Vibe Shift’ Episode 2

Here you go. This is about the rise of fascism in the United States as well as the five novel project I’m working on.

Now Is The Time For People Of Good Conscience To Prepare


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Despite what the feel-good liberals of the “Mueller, She Wrote” Twitter account may think — we’re fucked. Trump and his coterie are above the law. The United States is a failed political state running on fumes of an established political order based on 250 years of Western democracy.

But this is coming to an end.

We’re in America’s twilight. We’re an anocracy, which is a fancy word for being between autocracy and democracy. When a nation is anocracy, it’s at its most vulnerable because it’s either transitioning to democracy or sliding into autocracy. It’s when a nation is an anocracy that the probability of it having a civil war is at its highest.

This is just basic political science so I’m not being a “terribly negative person” to point it out — it’s just what’s going on.

A key thing for us to remember is the American electoral system hides how bad things are because of the two party system. Right now, the United States has a Fascist Republican Party that runs against an array of liberal interest groups that call themselves the Democratic Party. As such, when push comes to shove, the Fascist Republicans are probably going to bowl over anti-fascist groups without breaking a sweat.

So, what does this mean?

It means that you have a few years to figure out what the fuck you believe. As I keep saying, the key to anyone’s success — or failure — in the coming years will be knowing what you believe in, what you believe in to the point that you’re willing to suffer for it.

I say this because things are going to grow existential starting far sooner than you might believe. Once Roe is officially overturned and Republicans take Congress….all bets are off. The United States is going to go through a very bumpy political moment in time that will stretch from 2022 to beyond 2025. Either we sink into the maw of autocracy, or we collapse into a civil war that will pit brother against brother and sister against sister.

And the only way to at least feel good about your fate is to know what you believe in the real world. No more angry Twitter threads. Now is the time to figure out what you’re willing to risk in the real world. What are you willing to risk your life and sacred honor for?

There is no middle ground anymore. Either you’re a Good German or you’re not. Either you’re with the autocrat, or your not. And there will be consequences to your decision one way or another.

And, what’s more, there is the other alternative of a civil war. Then things will really grow existential — your life could depend on making the right choice about what you believe at, say, a highway check on your way to a place in the county that better fits your political views.

I know that sounds “terribly negative” but I refuse to continue to participate in the Twitter liberal circle jerk that assume if we just get mad enough on Twitter and write a long enough, earnest enough Twitter thread that somehow magically the the thing that hasn’t happen — Trump being held accountable — will somehow magically happen.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) gestures toward a crowd of supporters of President Donald Trump gathered outside the U.S. Capitol to protest the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college victory Jan. 6, 2021 at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Some demonstrators later breached security and stormed the Capitol. (Francis Chung/E&E News and Politico via AP Images)

And, what’s more, it’s not even about Trump anymore.

Even if Trump somehow is taken out of the equation, there are a dozen — a dozen! — would be autocrats chomping at the bit to finish what Trump was too stupid and lazy to finish.

Or, put another way, we can not longer to make some of the basic assumptions about political life in the United States. Things are about to change in a big, dramatic fashion — all we don’t know is what exactly it will be. Either it will be autocracy or civil war.

And, for the moment, it could go either way.

So, figure out what you believe in the real world now. You’ll thank me later.

What’s A Matter With Michigan? America’s Political Future Is Fucking Messy


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Jesus Christ, are we as a nation in trouble. These are the times that try men’s souls and all that. The key thing we have to understand is we’re an anocracy, not a democracy. We’re in between democracy and autocracy. This is when a country is most likely to have a civil war when it’s either transitioning into democracy or sliding into autocracy.

We, unfortunately, are sliding into autocracy.

Our form of autocracy will be white Christian minority rule. That’s the end game of what’s going on — white Christians will have a permanent strangle hold on national elections going forward and that will be that. We’ll become nothing more than a wealthy version of apartheid South Africa. White Christians will transform the United States into Trumplandia.

We will become identical to Russia in some form and lulz, sucks to be me since I’ve always been something of a loud mouth crank. I couldn’t shut up even if I wanted to, so…oh boy. A weaponized ICE — or whatever — is probably going to come after me at some point in the near-ish future.

Anyway, it’s eerie when your dark “terribly negative” fears about the nation you love so much begin to come true. Take, for instance, Michigan. It’s a crucial swing state each presidential cycle and recently Republicans replaced the people who certified Biden’s win in the state.

As such, it’s easy to imagine that MAGA Republicans are going to YOLO the 2024 election and steal it to the point whereby there is going to be serious, serious talk of some sort of secession among Blue States. Or, it could be that it’s even messier than that with there being coups and counter coups within state governments until the whole country collapses and we have a real knock down, drag out civil war that will leave us bombed into the Stone Age and take a generation to recover from, if we ever do.

Anyway, something’s gotta give. We can’t stay an anocracy forever.