Month: December 2020

The Monster Always Comes Back One Last Time


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

For the time being, we can all sigh a huge sigh of relief. The Electoral College voted without a hitch and now Biden is a pretty huge leap closer to actually being sworn in.

The Dead Zone as documentary.

But as with any horror movie, the monster is probably going to come back one last time. We got our first sense of that just about when the Electoral College wrapped up voting — Bill Barr is leaving just before Christmas. As such, we now enter the most dangerous phase of the Trump Era to date. Trump has every reason to demand a dozen Special Counsels to look into every aspect of the “Deep State” his way out.

These Special Counsels would be given a huge, vague charge so they could go after every aspect of Biden even before he’s sworn in. They would be what was needed for the Republicans to impeach Biden the moment they won the House and took over in 2023.

But this is Trump we’re talking about. It’s very easy to imagine he being far more dumb and ham handed about it all. I could very well see him doing something directly against Biden himself — or Obama, or whomever — specifically for the purpose of destroying the United States so everything would be so fucked up that New York State wouldn’t have the ability to concentrate on him.

Or, put another way, between now and January 20th is the danger zone. Everything from Trump going insane in such a way that significant political violence begins in the United States to a wide array of completely batshit insane things that so destabilize the country that there could be a serious secession crisis the first 100 days of the Biden Administration.

The main issue right now is Trump simply won’t concede so that gives MAGA hope that somehow, someway, they can still win. It’s a pretty massive clusterfuck we find ourselves in because either MAGA “catches the car” and there’s a civil war for that reason, or they don’t and they start blowing shit up…which starts a civil war.

And so we go back to the main issue of the day — the fate of 300 million Americans and about 7 billion humans rests on Trump. Will he continue to simply be a very incompetent ding-dong, or will he finally summon the energy to bring the United States to its knees and potentially destroy not just the United States, but everything.

Taylor Swift’s Missed Opportunity


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Let me begin by saying Taylor Swift is an accomplished singer-songwriter. And that’s not what may problem with her is. Her fans are totally right to adore her and love everything she produces. My problem is with how it seems every album she drops is fan service.

Now, let me be clear — I’m well aware that because I’m a white male that any criticism of Swift is opening me up to her fans flipping out. Swift’s fanbase is musical identity politics for young women. My issue is Swift is…maybe challenge her fanbase a little bit to the extent that people outside of that fan base might get good music, too?

As a counter-example, take Miley Cyrus. She is really exploring a New Sound — a call it Rona Rock — and going in some pretty cool musical directions that has the potential to greatly expand her fan base. Swift, meanwhile, is making good-to-great music…but it’s fan service. Exclusively fan service.

I guess Swift’s thinking is — she’s got a good thing, why fix what isn’t broken. It just seems to me that this is a very short-sighted world view in the sense that is she just going to coast on her fans for the next 20 to 30 years? That’s not really a recipe for any type of long-term cultural relevance.

Maybe Swift just wants to be a more popular version of Shania Twain? I guess there’s nothing wrong with that. May pique is if Swift put out a rock album, maybe rock would come back, if just for a moment. What Cyrus is doing suggests that that is at least possible.

Anyway. I got no beef with Swift. Just think there’s a miss opportunity for both she and her fans.

Had A Major ‘Ah-Ha!’ Moment With The #Novel


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After about three years of struggle, I have finally figured out not only what the story I want to tell is, but how to tell it. I’m extremely embarrassed by how long it’s taken me.

If I wasn’t totally alone, a wife or girlfriend probably would have pointed out how I’m solving a long-term problem with this story about two years ago. Or, she would have maybe told me what was obvious to everyone but me — the story was just too big. While she might have said it was “too ambitious” which would have made me angry, what would have been true was I had a lot of great set pieces, but too much time covered.

Anyway. Problem fixed now.

I still have a huge amount of reading to do. But the “snap!” I heard in my mind when I figured out how to tell this story was so loud, I’m still adjusting to how pleased I am. It’s like I realize that I finally, at last, have the credits to graduate from grad school.

A lot — A LOT — could still go wrong. But the specific reason for this creative journey is now within sight. I am going to finish a novel.

MAGA Seditionist Secessionist Grievances Elude Me


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really struggle to figure out the specific reasons why growing number of MAGA seditionists have decided that secession — and the resulting violence — is their only course of action.

The closest reason I can think of is their devotion to their ding-dong Dear Leader is so absolute that they believe all his fraud claims and would rather destroy the Union than allow Biden to become president. But here’s the thing — this is still very poorly thought out and not very concrete.

At least with the 1860 secessionist crisis, there was a concrete fear that the South had — by definition, Lincoln being president would lead to first a retrenchment of slave power and then its ultimate destruction. That, at least, has some logic to it.

But to have such absolute support for just one person that you would rather leave the Union than accept Biden is legitimately POTUS now is rather curious. It still seems like a very abstract fear. Where is all this passion — even if it’s empty for the time being — coming from? From my conversations with conservatives, it seems it boils down to an absolute fear of the abstract concept of cancel culture. This is the idea that just by being conservative, a person risk having their lives ruined by liberal-progressive “cancel culture.” This is a really big deal for MAGA and Trump talks about it all the time.

I would suggest, however, that the real origin of our current clusterfuck is the end of the American dream for white blue collar men without a college education. In short — they can’t get laid. They feel left behind because not only can they not afford to get married and have kids, but they also feel that the growing economic power of women — with its associated sexual agency — makes finding a mate more difficult in the first place. The racism and willful ignorance springs from that, as well.

While it’s way too late, I’ll tell you how we could have fixed this problem — national service for all 18 year olds. If, say, AmeriCorps had been true national service and we had 30 or so years of all 18 year olds across the country being forced to hang out with each other for 18 months a lot of our problems would have been preemptively solved.

But’s too late now.

The damage is done. We’re just one political 9/11 event away from the entire Union States buckling and Blue and Red states actually beginning to attack each other on the battlefield.

The question now, of course, is we simply be locked in political neutral for a few years until the passions die down or will we not be that lucky.

Second American Civil War: The Electoral College Voting Today & The Prospect Of A ‘Political 9/11’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Today is one of a few days that we kinda know would be a prime moment for the “political 9/11” I keep worrying about. But, to date, I’ve been pretty much totally wrong. I’ve been wrong for number of reasons, among them Trump is just a ding-dong not an autocrat and there’s just not been any stomach in seditionist quarters to actually do the things necessary to provoke a secessionist crisis.

But today — along with January 6th — are obvious days where our current eerie political moment could change dramatically. All that would have to happen is a lot of faithless Electors throwing the election to Trump suddenly. Or, say, Michigan militia groups manage to hurt Electors so they couldn’t even vote.

Or, put another way — if the voting of Electoral College was paused or disrupted because of violence or the threat of violence, that, in itself, might be the crisis necessary to push us into a secessionist crisis. My point is — the American political system is so out of whack, so fragile right now that any extra stress on it will lead to its collapse.

One reason why I know America is in deep trouble is we’ve reached the point when some pretty Far Right concepts are now hurtling towards mainstream acceptance in the Republican Party. The surreal part of all of this is secessionists don’t have any concreate reasons for leaving the Union other than they hate liberal-progressives and woke cancel culture. That’s it. I guess you could say they love the Dear Leader so much they would rather destroy the country than risk living under a Biden Administration, but I still don’t know what, exactly, would be so bad about a Biden Administration that it would be worth destroying the country MAGA says they want to make great again.

And, as I’ve said, MAGA secessionists are completely oblivious about how, in practical terms, they might have some serious problems leaving the Union in the first place. Sure, there are about 15 small population, homogenous states in the center of the country that could probably make a good show of leaving the Union, but that’s it.

I can’t think of a single state of the old CSA that could make a clean break of it. Take Georgia for instance. Not only is Atlanta a major metropolitan area now, but the African American community would rather take up arms against any secessionists than let the state leave the Union for pretty obvious racist reasons.

As such, while I could see any Second American Civil War being a lot longer and a lot bloodier than MAGA could ever possibly imagine — the end result would be the same — they would fucking lose.

I really went on a tangent there. Back to the point — if we can get past today without a “political 9/11” then we’re in the clear until January 6th. If we get pass the Congressional Certification Crisis, then we have the Trump Goes Insane Crisis for much of January.

And, in the end, it could be Trump going insane that leads to the Union collapsing. If Trump goes transactional on Twitter and starts ranting about how Trumplandia needs to be founded, then, well, I guess we’ll have to see how many people take Trump both literally and seriously.

It’s The Abstract Aspect Of Big Tech’s Use Of Digital Telepathy That Tipped Me Off


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

You know why I know Big Tech is using Digital Telepathy on us without our knowledge or consent — they know abstract things about me.

That’s the tip off.

A lot of the spooky things I see on my For You Page on Tik-Tok can easily be explained by them somehow having access to everything on my phone. Ok, I get it. They could maybe be listening to me via my phone. Or reading any text I input into my phone.

But that doesn’t explain the more abstract things I’m seeing on my For You Page. Or the videos about things I’ve briefly thought about without telling anyone about it.

It reminds me of how my YouTube account suddenly started showing me videos about lockboxes, WW2 and The End Of The World. I was at a loss as to how this was possible until I remembered that my phone was in my car between my dad and myself.

It definitely seems as though whatever Digital Telepathy Google has was picking up what was on my DAD’s MIND, not mine. (My dad is elderly.) I will give you a way to test my theory — let someone else use your phone to use your Tik-Tok account for, say 20 minutes.

Then take your phone back and see what your For You Page’s recommendations are.

#Novel Update


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Just in the last few days I’ve had a massive “Ah-ha!” moment. It’s so massive that I’m still sort of processing the implications of it all.

I feel like how Dan Ackroyd’s original Blues Brother script was, like, 300 pages and he used just the best bits for the produced movie. This, in a sense, has happened to me.

I now know how to tell this story.

It’s going to have a lot of really cool gadgets that put James Bond to shame. It’s going to have strong, complex female characters with flaws who are believable. I have a huge amount of reading to do to get that last bit done, however.

But, in general, I have a profound sense of relief.

I’m actually going finish a novel. It’s taken me three years, but if nothing else, I’m going to actually finish the first draft of a novel that doesn’t embarrassment me pretty soon.

I say this knowing that a civil war could erupt at any moment and all my plans will be thrown up in the air, to say the least.

Eyes Wide Shut: Big Tech’s Digital Telepathy


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Let’s think about this. Why, specifically, have I come to the conclusion that Digital Telepathy is being used rather widely right now. Given that they’re using the Internet to do this, I guess maybe you might call it Internet Digital ESP? I feel like Big Tech has some sort of buzzy cooperate speak that they use when they’re talking about this technology in a meeting.

Tik-Tok can read our minds.

Anyway, back to the point.

I’m know for not only being wrong all the time, but occasionally thinking up some pretty weird ideas. And, I guess this could be another instance of that. I mean, just because Facebook has a patent for Digital Telepathy, doesn’t mean that Tik-Tok has it and is using it.

So, what has me so convinced?

I would have to say Tik-Tok’s abuse of its For You Page is what did it. When they have narrowed down the specific phenotypes of women who have been important to me over the years to the point that I find myself saying, “Hey, that girl looks like Annie Shapiro!” something is going on.

I’m on to you Big Tech.

Let’s talk about that.

There are two female phenotypes that have made a big impression on me over the years. One of them is that of the late Annie Shapiro. That they would find a young lady that looks soooooooo much like Annie Shapiro Means Something. Our choices are that they’re using AI along with some significant rooting around on my phone so make some pretty astonishing inferences about the type of women I like, or, more directly, they are rooting around in my wetware, if you will.

I feel ya, Martha.

When you start to think that it’s not even Google or Facebook, but fucking Tik-Tok that is rooting around in my mind, the implications can make you sick to your stomach. You definitely get a sense of mental rape. Is Annie Shapiro still so important to my mind that they are able to figure out that for emotional and sentimental reasons I like girls who look like Annie Shapiro? Or even more ominous — to what extent have they hacked into my subconscious!

The implications of that alone would be staggering.

Because if Tik-Tok can peer into the subconscious minds of its uses, what’s to stop them (the Chinese government) from at some point using that information and / or selling it to the highest bidder?

I have no idea if my suspicious are in any way based in reality. I’m sure someone at Vox has it all figured out and I’m just pulling this out of my butt like usual. But….it definitely seems as though something…odd is going on.

The Implications Of ‘Digital Telepathy’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Talk about future shock.

If Big Tech is secretly using the Internet to read our minds, the implications are massive. One question I have is are they storing what they know about us somewhere, or is it some sort of ephemeral point-to-point thing? I think if my fears are real, then what’s happening is there’s a massive amount of processing power being used that is being hidden from us.

Or, to put it another way, while we were all being “entertained” by the Trump Show, some pretty massive technological changes were being slipped past us without us realizing it.

We can read your mind…

If Facebook, Google and Tik-Tok aren’t storing what they know about our minds, they probably are working towards it. Even more interesting is who knows this stuff? What if someone goes rouge and starts to use what they know about our most personal thoughts to make money? I guess if you had the information of enough minds in aggregate at your disposal, you could predictively play the stock market quite effectively.

I guess what I’m trying to say is — what if the Singularity happened an The Powers That Be didn’t tell us? If they’re hiding Digital Telepathy from us, would they even tell us if hard AI came into existence? What the fuck is Silcom Valley up to? What’s their vision?

Now, let me be clear — it’s not like I think they’re out to get ME. I’m a random no body that no one listens to me. I’m just a crank. They have absolutely nothing to worry about — no one is listening to me, no one cares what I have to say and I can pretty much just rant about this obvious scandal and nothing will happen other than people will just roll their eyes and think I’m crazy.

My only response is the Martha Mitchell Syndrome — I know the truth and everyone thinks I’m crazy just like how she knew about Watergate just about when it happened.

To me, it’s not so much that they can read my mind it’s that they’re hiding it from us. If they were to slowly let the cat out of the bag, to let our minds get used to the idea that they can be read…then, lulz. But Big Tech is setting itself up for it’s own “disruption” if they start to use Digital Telepathy not only as a crutch, but as a secret money making opportunity.

Not cool, guys, not cool.

The ‘Soft Singularity’ Is Here: Big Tech’s Brazen Implementation of ‘Digital Telepathy’ is Alarming


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The old Arthur C. Clarke quote when it comes to such matters is, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” I think of this quote as I use Tik-Tok and realize it’s reading my mind. I don’t know the specifics and I don’t know the extent, but it’s happening.

I’m not saying that Tik-Tok, Facebook and Google aren’t monitoring every aspect of my Internet use in other ways — they obviously are — but there is absolutely no way I’m getting some of the For You Page suggestions I’m getting on Tik-Tok unless they have figured out a way to literally read my fucking mind.

If these eerie things happened once or twice, then, yes, I probably could think of any of different ways they might have figured out that I like a certain female phenotype or that this or that thing was important to me in my internal monologue.

But it happens all the fucking time!

Me, 2020.

So, I can only come to the conclusion that the Singularity isn’t just near, it’s here! And if there is now commercial application of such Singularity technology as digital telepathy, then just imagine what the NSA, CIA or MI5 are now using on a regular basis.

It just seems very possible that Tik-Tok is going to screw up in some way. Or Facebook. Either one of those two I could see deciding to sell what they know about our minds to some nefarious group that turns around and uses it to do something we learn about later.

Imagine if the average person was presented with absolute proof that Facebook or Tik-Tok sold their innermost secrets to the 2024 Trump Campaign. Or the Russians. And, remember, Tik-Tok is tight with the Chinese government. That’s a clusterfuck just waiting to happen.

Or, put another way, if digital telepathy is being used as much as I believe it is, someone, somewhere is going to screw up. Knowledge is power. And if Big Tech wants to keep Digital Telepathy a secret instead of slowly letting people know of its existence, there’s going to be a massive scandal that could destroy companies that abuse it like Google, Facebook and Tik-Tok.

I know this sounds nuts. But I’m simply using cold hard facts and putting logic to use. And, remember, this is coming from someone who generally hates conspiracy theories.