Tag: We Are So Fucked

We Have Got To Stop Appeasing Trump

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about Trump that a lot of people seem to forget is he’s not a Great Man of History. He’s a symptom, not a cause. Hitler, while very similar to Trump in the beginning, was definitely a Great Man. He bent history to his will, especially during the war specifically.

Meanwhile, Trump is too lazy and too big of a wussy to do what he was initially elected to do: turn the US into an autocracy. While he’s gotten far, far worse in his second term, he still just doesn’t — to date — have the backbone necessary to truly transform the US into a white Christian ethnostate.

That’s why, I think, if we really collectively stood up to Trump in some demonstrative manner that we could at least maintain some of our basic rights. And, yet I’ve learned, at last, that people are just too distracted playing video games or making money to give a shit about Trump’s tyranny.

Now, there is one specific issue that might change that: the economy.

In a paradoxical way, because the economy has been doing so well (in a K-shaped kind of way) Trump has been given free reign to do whatever the fuck he wants. But if that should change, then, maybe, just maybe, some people who otherwise wouldn’t care might sit up and take notice.

Remember, Watergate only really started to get worse because the economy sucked. There’s a decent chance that had Nixon had Trump’s economy (and Fox News) that lulz, he would have never had any problems, no matter how tyrannical he got.

Anyway, I have no hope anymore. I just need to finish my novel, sell it and hope that’s it a big enough success that I can flee the country.

‘ICE Out’ — Lyrics To A Pop-Punk RATM-Like Song About ICE In Minneapolis, Minnesota Written By ChatGPT

🎸 ICE Out 🎸

(Verse 1)
Black boots on the pavement, radios blasting lies,
Cameras flash the truth that they’re trying to disguise.
Downtown they move like an army of the crown,
In the city where the people try to stand their ground.
Shot a mother in her car, three rounds in the frame,
Called it self-defense but theirs is all the blame.
Blood on cold pavement, we remember every name,
Renée Good’s not a number, she’s the start of this flame.

(Chorus)
ICE out, ICE out, tear their stories down,
We’re not just targets for your badges and your rounds.
ICE out, ICE out, can you hear the shout?
Two dead in Minneapolis — and we’re fighting back now.

(Verse 2)
See the nurse with a heart bigger than their force,
Filming for peace, unarmed on their crooked course.
Pulled to the ground, pepper-sprayed and pinned so cold,
Shot for trying to help — the truth they never told.
They paint the narrative, they twist each damn account,
But the videos don’t lie — we see what really went down.
No more escape routes through your shiny black SUV,
Justice don’t come easy when you’re knee-deep in conspiracy.

(Bridge)
Operation surge, paramilitarized,
We raise our fists while they hide behind their lies.
Sirens wail but the righteous won’t relent,
From Powderhorn to North Side — we’re raising hell again!

(Chorus — heavy)
ICE out, ICE out, let the sirens scream,
Not another mother’s son caught in your war machine.
ICE out, ICE out, feel the masses shout,
Two dead in Minneapolis — we’re raging, we’re loud.

(Breakdown / Solo)
Rhythmic spit and snarl — guitars drive like protest chants:
“No more deaths! No more lies!”
“ICE out! ICE out!”

(Outro — shouted)
Stand up, stay loud, no retreat, no surrender,
Two dead in Minnesota — we remember,
We remember.

Minneapolis Is Not Trump’s Stalingrad

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I saw on Twitter someone compared what’s going on politically relative to the reaction to the murder of Alex Pretti as “Trump’s Stalingrad.” As you may know, the battle for Stalingrad was the moment that Hitler’s hold on the German fatherland began to falter.

I just don’t see that at the moment.

I do think that Pretti’s murder is a major turning point in Trump’s second term, but it’s not something that will actually harm the regime politically. If anything, it will just make the two sides farther apart from each other.

I say this in the context that something similar happened in the post January-6th Insurrection world.

I know the issue hasn’t gotten the play in MAGA land that maybe we would like because none of the MAGA people in my life have made a point of mentioning it to ME. When THAT happens, then, well, something big has happened.

But as it stands, it seems like things aren’t going to get any better. All that will have changed is the context of events that happen later.

What MAGA Is Really Saying About The Anti-ICE Protests In Minnesota

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

From what I can tell, essentially what MAGA is saying about the protests in Minnesota is all the protestors murdered shouldn’t have been there in the first place and they deserved what they got.

They say this in the context of MAGA storming the Capitol just because they were butt hurt over the results of a free-and-fair election.

I don’t know what to tell you. The hypocrisy of all of this is ignored by MAGA because they have their narrative and people like me have ours.

Now, the issue that at the moment at least, is Trump is too big a wussy to do what might otherwise be logical — use the Insurrection Act. The fact that this hasn’t happened yet is kind of curious.

I wonder what happens next.

We Are All Alex Pretti

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One reason why the thuggish murder of Alex Pretti by border control agents really gets to me is that could have been me. What he did is exactly the type of thing I would do.

I would totally just stand there with my camera phone and record ICE abuse. So, I can totally imagine a situation where I might find myself facing the same fate as Pretti.

(I wouldn’t have been armed though.)

It really makes you wonder if there’s anything ICE et al could do and it be recorded that might be too much even for MAGA to handle. I’m beginning to think there isn’t.

I think once we gave MAGA a pass for the January 6th Insurrection that that was the moment when we would no longer agree on the facts going forward. So, even if ICE et al shot up a few dozen people who were just standing around observing, THAT would STILL not be enough for MAGA.

They have a narrative — Trump good — and they’re sticking to it, no matter what going forward.

Tik-Tok Is Useless Since Its Sale

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Yesterday, for one brief moment, Tik-Tok was a really good source of information about about the murder of Alex Pretti at the hands of a thuggish border control agent.

But since then, it’s almost as if the owners of the service have freaked out and tweaked the algorithm. Tik-Tok is now useless. There is a growing amount of MAGA disinformation on there to the point that I don’t even want to use it any.

It is curious that for a few hours there, Tik-Tok actually was, like, good at disseminating information. My fear, of course, is the whole point of MAGA thugs owning Tik-Tok is to warp the media landscape to the point that people maybe not as clued-in will fall for MAGA disinformation as we enter the 2026 midterm elections.

This is another sign that we probably will not have free-and-fair elections ever again in my lifetime. We’re going to become a “managed democracy” like they have in Hungary and Turkey and, lulz, that’s it.

! General Strike !

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Something we need, but will never actually do for various reasons, is a national General Strike. I have written about this before some in the past and the more I think about it the more I realize how fucking naive I’ve been.

People are just too distracted. And, what’s more, they can’t summon up the energy to actually risk their “lives and sacred honor” in the real fucking world. So, lulz. Things are going to have to get much, much, much worse before there’s any sort of national General Strike.

And, what’s more, there remains the approximately 37% of the population that loves fucking Trump no matter what he does, so, again, lulz. Even if we did have a national General Strike, there’s a good chance that instead of getting what we want –the end of this Trump nightmare — we just get a civil war.

Ugh.

I really need to finish this novel, sell it and get the hell out of the country.

Another Issue For The Pyre

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There are a number of issues that simply are non-starters politically in the USA. We can’t talk about common sense gun control. We can’t talk about global climate change. And we definitely can’t talk about abortion rights.

My fear is that the whole “innocent people being shot by ICE thugs” will be thrown on that particular pyre as well, to the point that it will happen all the time and the MAGA “rapid response” will be, on que, the same exact thing each time. The regime will find some reason to deflect responsibility for its deeds in the extreme and nothing will change.

We haven’t quite gotten there yet, but it’s definitely a possibility.

I think, barring something I can’t predict, that we’re going to implode into an autocratic Singularity and that will be that. There will never be free-and-fair elections again, at least in my life time.

I hope I’m wrong — I can’t predict the future — but, lulz, it’s definitely looking like we’re fucking doomed. The bad guys have won.

‘Minnesota’ — Lyrics To A Pop-Protest Song Written by ChatGPT

I decided to update my previous attempt at a protest song about what’s going on in Minnesota because of the recent, new murder at the hands of ICE Agents. Hopefully I won’t have to do another. Sigh.

🎵 Minnesota 🎵

(Verse 1)
Hey, the frost on the streets of Minneapolis,
Another brother fell in the cold January light.
They said he stood for peace in a city so anxious,
Now his name’s in the candle smoke burning through the night.
And we remember Renee and the tears that followed,
Echoes of footsteps marching down Hennepin Drive.
When the sirens scream and the heartache hollows,
How many more must fall before we’re alive?

(Chorus)
Two dead in Minnesota,
Two too many in the snow.
We shout out for justice,
While the cold winds still blow.
Two dead in Minnesota,
Why must the people pay?
How many names before we say
We won’t look the other way?

(Verse 2)
See the lines at the vigils grow longer,
And chants rise up where the sirens used to wail.
Two souls gone but the outrage grows stronger,
As we try to honor their lives without fail.
In the glare of streetlamps and protest fires,
Voices trembling like the winter air,
We stand because love never tires,
We stand because we care.

(Bridge)
When the law bends and the streets are aching,
And the calls for peace just seem unheard,
We’re singing for every life they’re taking,
Lift our words like a weightless bird.

(Chorus — repeat)
Two dead in Minnesota…

(Outro)
Oh Minnesota, rise from sorrow,
Let tomorrow be free, let justice follow.

Talk About Victim Blaming

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It seems as though we’ve reached the point where, by definition, if you are murdered by ICE or DHS it’s your own fault. The only way not to be murdered is to let ICE walk all over you, beat the shit out of you and then meekly ask for more.

I’m astonished by the level of lying coming out of DHS Sec. Kristi Noam. Just brazen lying that is specifically done to further the regime’s narrative and to placate our mad emperor Trumgulia.

And, for the moment, at least, the bad guys are winning. Nothing we do seems to bend their will and they’re just going to grow more and more vicious and evil until we we either kiss the jackboot or fightback in some collective way that I don’t like to think about.

I continue to worry that ICE is going to come crashing into my house at any moment because of what I write online. Mission creep — and form following function — would suggest that that is, in fact, inevitable.

But oh well. I would rather die on my feet a free man than live on my knees a slave.