Month: January 2019

The Vision Thing: Disrupting Journalism With An App

Meh. No one listens to me.

Embrace The Dark Side — Take Up The Mantle Of ‘Radical Resistance’

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

It goes without saying that a lot of Blue Check Liberal Nattering Nabobs on Twitter will clutch their pearls at the notion of the currently nebulous anti-Trump “Resistance” getting a lot more radical and a lot more organized. They will say would be a boon to Trump and MAGA on any number of different levels.

I say fuck that.

We’re in a crisis and as such we need to embrace the idea that we are, in fact, radical. But as I keep saying, its more about being radical on an ideological level as opposed to, say, blowing shit up. The Resistance needs to establish a united front of anti-Trump forces then use the ideology of Radical Resistance, that using “any means necessary” to politically destroy Trump and end him as a political force is a rhetorical goal then use that as bludgeon against the alt-Right and MAGA.

As I’ve said before, this is the biggest crisis since the end of the Civil War in a way, because it’s like an abscess tooth that risks going septic. We need to stop worrying so much about what Trump might tweet about the idea of “Radical Resistance” and BECOME the Radical Resistance.

Again, the issue is having an overarching ideology. Something cogent enough and broad enough that you might be able to get #NeverTrumpers to support it on Twitter while not alienating the base of the Democratic Party, which, to date, has been, in essence, “The Resistance.”

But as I keep saying, I have very, very low expectations. If we don’t get Trump politically by August 2019, we’re not going to get him until 2021, if ever. We need to stop worrying about what may or may not happen in the Senate. The House needs to do its job and and begin actively investigating the Trump Administration on any number of different levels.

I have my doubts this will ever happen until a Radical Resistance begins to actively begin to put pressure on Establishment Democrats by threatening to primary them in 2020 if they don’t support what I suggest. The Convention Wisdom of the Blue Check Liberals on Twitter in starting September 2019 will be “let the people decide” and any talk of impeachment is a “gift” to Trump and MAGA.

That’s why we have to do it now.

We have to stop hoping and wishing that some mythical Mueller Report is going to give us the fit leaf need to somehow magically convince mouth breathing MAGA people the error of their ways.

It just isn’t going to happen.

So why bother in the first place?

Impeach Trump immediately in the House and see what happens in the Senate.

It’s Not ‘Radical Democrats,’ Mr. Trump, It’s ‘Radical Resistance’ — If You’re Nasty

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I find it odd that Trump, the master branding and marketing guy, hasn’t figured out to call people like me Radical Resistors. It definitely rolls off the tongue better than Radical Democrats.

I am well aware that the Blue Check Nattering Nabobs, should they actual read any of these posts I’m writing here, would say “You’re only helping Trump by all this ‘radical’ talk.'”

Maybe. Maybe not.

The battle is going to be joined politically soon enough, so why not embrace the phrase Radical Resistance now instead of feeling bad when Trump inevitably stops snorting Adderall long enough to figure out its use for himself?

Meh.

As I keep saying, all my talk about being radical is strictly one of theory and ideology. I hate violence and don’t sanction it in any way for any reason. I just want Trump politically destroyed as soon as possible.

But I honestly don’t see anything happening in time for it to matter.

Trump’s going to survive until 2025.

Fuck.

Radical Resistance, The Wittes Principle & Ending King Trump I’s Tyrannical Rule

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

It is self-evident that, to paraphrase Lawfare’s Benjamin Wittes, but for his incompetence, Trump’s malevolence might be significantly more effective. As such, as part of Radical Resistance, we need some real talk.

In Trump, we’re dealing with a very American dictatorship. What the mad King Trump I wants is a “managed democracy” like Putin has in Russia. That’s Trump’s endgame. He wants to establish that so he can hand this new system off to a younger, more focused and ideological successor in 2024.

I honestly think that the only thing stopping King Trump I from going full Putin on us is, well, the American spirit. Americans, like the Romans of yore, aren’t too fond of dictators, tyrants or kings and so what is likely to happen is either we kind of drift into an elected dictatorship or sorts…or something REALLY surreal and dramatic happens.

Either the United States is torn apart ( peacefully or otherwise,) there’s a light tough coup by the military, we slowly drift into an actual theocratic, plutocratic autocratic elected dictorship…or something completely unprecedented happens.

Americans are notoriously chill relative to the populace of other nations. Since the Civil War, you can name just a very few occasions when the center was radicalized enough for there to be real change in any meaningful way. Off the top of my head, I can think of 1)Reconstruction 2) The Progressive Era 3)1919-1920 4)The Great Depression 5) World War II 5) The Rights Movement and 6) Vietnam.

So, it’s no real surprise that — especially given how well the economy is doing — King Trump I has been given an effective pass by the vast majority of the population. The average person is STILL more concerned with raising their kids, paying their mortgage and the next season of Game Of Thrones.

Hence, it’s highly unlikely that we’re going to meet our deadline of August 2019 to impeach Trump. It’s just not going to happen. And, as such, all the Blue Check Nattering Nabobs of Twitter will tell us rubes to shut up and let “the people decide” in 2020, instead of impeaching and convicting incompetent tyrant Trump whenever we finally get around to doing so.

But, as a daydream, I continue to wargame how you might meet that deadline. You could think up an app. The shutdown and No Deal Brexit might hit the economy as something of a perfect storm and, as such, Trump’s poll ratings MIGHT drift down to simply to flat Earthers and anti-vaxxers mouth breathers who aren’t self-aware enough to realize the long con that they’ve been duped by.

Also, I feel as though if we’re going to save the American Republic, the Resistance needs to begin to adopt the rules –or “new rules” — of the alt-Right. Fuck those guys. Why can’t we have an alt-Left Radical Resistance? Or, if nothing else, why can’t we at least begin to think in new, different ways should a tipping point arise when something truly extraordinary happens — say we impeach Trump, he gets convicted and…he won’t physically leave the Oval Office, but instead spends all day tweeting in a passive-aggressive manner.

It would be tragic if we lose our Republic simply because the fat cats got their tax cuts and were, like the German Industrialists of the 1930s, so content with the “booming economy” that they refused to use any of their plutocrat money to help the situation.

I guess I’m just really angry that the country I love is in limbo — and is being saved from true tyranny — simply because the avatar of stupid people is too incompetent to realize his tyrannical dreams.

It’s all very surreal. I guess, in my own way, I think we need a vanguard of the proletariat in the United States that would be ready to strike against Trump’s regime in a massively peaceful manner should the occasion arise. That’s where an app might come in handy. If we could have rolling, massive strikes around the country like May Day anti-war protest of 1971, then maybe, finally The Powers That Be in Washington might do something about King Trump I.

I can dream, can’t I. I don’t really expect anything to happen in time to prevent King Trump I from shepherding Sen. Tom Cotton to the presidency in 2024.

Nancy Pelosi, Please Answer With No SOTU Trump, STFU

By Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Let’s do this.

Let’s force the issue. If Trump wants to get all King Charles I on us, let’s have at it. Have him charge the well of the House under the force of arms. If the optics on that is what it takes to end this nightmare, so be it

Fuck Trump.

Managed Democracy Is Trump’s Endgame — Trump As America’s Biggest Existential Threat Since The End Of The Civil War

By Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Today, I was thinking about what, in real terms, have been the existential threats to the American Republic since 1865. Honestly, in macro terms, only World War II is arguably a bigger threat to the United States than the current Trump Administration.

Let me explain.

If you were to compare WWII and Trump to threats an individual might face in the real world, WWII was analogous to, say, a fist fight. It was a street brawl, but we had friends and they had friends and by my mid-way through the fight, we knew we weren’t in real harm of dying.

Now, let’s look at Trump.

Trump is like an abscessed tooth that is going unpulled and there’s a real risk of…uhhh…it going septic? I say this because Trump is an avatar for a multitude of things that are seriously wrong with the American political system right now. If he’s not destroyed politically very, very soon — I suggest August 2019 — he could very well kill us, the Republic.

What I mean by this is, we could no longer be even a barely function democracy. It might not even be Trump who kills the Republic, it might be a younger, more ideological and more competent successor such as Sen. Tom Cotton. As such, we’re in a crisis. We have to pull this rotten tooth now, as soon as possible.

If we don’t, there’s a real chance that the only thing that will stop us going full theocratic, autocratic, fascist plutocracy is the basic temperament of the American population. We just won’t stand for the government going full tyrant, so the rules will be bent just enough that effectively we’re a “managed democracy” like they have in Russia. That’s Trump’s goal — to turn us into a clone of Putin’s Russia.

If that’s not a call to arms, a reason to galvanize the Center into a Radical Resistance, I don’t know what is.

There’s An App For That — How A Radical Resistance Could, In Practical Terms, End The Trump Administration And Accidentally Design A ‘Twitter Killer’

By Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

The macro-level forces at work against an effective Radical Resistance, one with the single-issue goal of impeaching and removing Donald J. Trump, 45 president of the United States, are pretty staggering.

Trump is an avatar for about 37% of the elector that feels historically disenfranchised. Meanwhile, the economy is doing — in relative terms — great, so a lot of people who might otherwise be angry with Trump honestly don’t give a shit. They’re more concerned with Little Johnny’s t-ball match that the fact that the current administration is headed by a treasonous, felonious 72-year-old toddler.

So, if you wanted to politically wargame the situation on a macro level, I have — and have had — at least one suggestion: build an app.

I have proposed building a social media startup designed specifically to facilitate regular massive national protests with the intent of putting pressure on Congress to finally do something about the cancer on the Republic known as the Trump Administration.


Doing such a thing would be very complex and potentially time consuming. But if you designed an app or a site specifically from the ground up to meet the needs of this concept, then I think it would help greatly.

Regular massive protests on a national scale would have to be legal, civil and well organized. I would not want to use Facebook or Twitter because I find them cumbersome and too easily compromised by trolls, bots and MAGA haters who would want to disrupt thing.

Anyway, in my vision of things, the service would be set up like this: You would have Groups that were divided into threaded Discussions. One third of the screen — the right side — would be live text chat. If you wanted to start a threaded discussion with someone in text chat, you just hit a button and invited them into a video chat that could have up to four people in it. This would be done in the context of a Discussion (which would take up the other two thirds of the screen on the left). Below the initial video chat would be a place to write a full page blog post. The whole thing would be threaded and you could have inline editing of someone’s post.

But this is just the basic concept. As time progressed and problems arose that needed to be fixed, the service would evolve to meet these problems. Best of all, after Trump was brought down, the service would be repurposed as something of a “Twitter Killer.”

I suspect the only way to fund this site would be either an angel funder or crowd funding. I doubt you could get a traditional VC to fund it simply because they wouldn’t see how they could make money right away. I believe if you see this site as the core of a potential Twitter Killer, however, it would be a pretty cool investment.

I guess what I’m saying is if the Radical Resistance simply existed in the first place and was organized enough, it could not only maybe bring down the Trump Adminstration via an app, it might also accidently produce a Twitter Killer social media app along the way.

Deadline August 2019: Radical Resistance In The Context Of Reconstruction’s Radical Republicans & No Deal Brexit

By Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

The major difference between the Radical Republicans and the Radical Resistance is the historical context. The Radical Republicans existed, in large part because there was a lot of bent-up political anger towards the South and, as such, a small, but powerful segment of the American body politic was pissed.

Meanwhile, right now, the very idea of a Radical Resistance is more theoretical. People are generally content on an economic level because things are doing fine and they’re more busy raising their kids and paying their mortgage than they are interested in impeaching the president. But, for me at least, we have a deadline — if we don’t impeach Trump by August 2019, he’s not going anywhere until at least 2021, if ever.

So, that’s why unless something really big happens in an unexpected way, all my writing about a Radical Resistance movement is more theoretical. But there is one major event that could change a basic aspect of this equation — No Deal Brexit.

As I understand it, the UK is now lurching towards leaving the EU in March 2019 without a deal. There’s a very good chance that the global economy could get kneecapped under such a scenario and, as such, so would Trump. As I keep saying, Trump is an avatar for about 37% of the population who feel historically disenfranchised. That he may also be something of a Russian agent is also something to take into consideration.

Put another way, what might happen is I’m just going to write out my frustration with a lack of interest on the part of the House to impeach Trump until March and suddenly my theoretical ranting about the need for a Radical Resistance won’t seem quiet so much like the rantings of just another Internet crank.

There’s a really good chance that the political center will grow a lot more willing to adopt the ideology of the Radical Resistance once the bottom drops out of the global economy. But that’s just me spitballing at this point. I just don’t see us making our deadline. Trump’s only weakness right now is a macro event.

Americans generally aren’t ones to get radical in any mass way. In real terms, not even the Vietnam War did it. So, all this writing I’m doing is just for my own sake unless I might be able to get a famous person to re-tweet a link to this site.

Or something.

V-Log: Some Idle Rambling About ‘Radical Resistance’

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

V-Log: The State of The ‘Thriller’ I’m Developing As Of Jan. 22nd

Some thoughts.