Be The Power
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I just realized recently that ChatGPT can generate Thomas Nast-like political cartoons. As such, I’ve become low-key addicted to thinking up different political cartoons.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
While I continue to get my news passively from Twitter, I’ve really cut back watching late night TV for infotainment. I just can’t handle it anymore. Nothing is going to happen and we’re careening into autocracy with a lulz.
So, I’m just going to try to focus on my novel(s) and go from there.
I also continue enjoy screwing around with AI. That’s a lot of fun. Sometimes so pretty interesting things happen out of the blue with AI, enough to keep me interested.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I saw a headline somewhere in which it said we were “sleepwalking” into autocracy. Baby, we ain’t “sleepwalking” to anything, we’re zipping towards autocracy. Probably a very Russian-style autocracy that likes to pretend it’s a democracy with a thin veneer of legalism, but, lulz, is just a regular old autocracy.
As of right now, at least, it seems like we’re going to slouch straight into autocracy without the blink of an eye. There’s currently nothing to stop Trump from crashing the global economy, declaring martial law and then running for an illegal third term.
Nothing. Not a thing.
And, as I’ve said before, I think that’s his historical point — to either destroy our Second Republic so a new one can be founded, or destroy it so we can turn straight into an autocracy.
Given macro trends, here’s what I suspect is going to happen — the USA is going to be an autocracy for AT LEAST 20 years starting now and then once enough Baby Boomers die, gradually, some sort of true resistance movement will begin to take hold and at some point, maybe around 2060, we’ll snap back into a functioning democracy.
But that’s kind of iffy.
It could be that, lulz, this is it. We’re just going to be an autocracy for the rest of time. We just did not have it in us to protect the democracy republic we said we loved so much.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
This summer, it seems as though we are determined to careen directly into a techno-government-economic perfect story clusterfuck. All three of those elements of our society could be “disrupted” in a big way for various reasons and it will all happen at the same, exact time.
The key thing everyone is missing, of course, is Trump would rather murder people in cold blood than relinquish power. And, what’s more, the press is so beholden and co-opted by the fascist Trump MAGA regime that whatever protests there are would have been REALLY BIG and last for a LONG TIME before they would be willing to give them the proper attention.
Though, I suppose if the Social Security Administration collapses then there is a good chance that Trump will be in SERIOUS TROUBLE….but not enough to be deposed. We’re suck with the fucker for the rest of his life.
So, lulz, my prediction is if there are some protests that Trump will just declare martial law and that will be that. That will give him the excuse he needs to start shooting people or rounding them up and maybe even going so far as to end regular elections — at least on the Federal level.
There’s a chance that he will let state and local elections continue as either a safety valve for discontent or make them so unfree and fair that they’re moot anyway.
Meanwhile, as all of this is happening, what might otherwise be a moderate recession might become a severe one as AI causes a huge disruption. The economy will stumble as huge swaths of it are revolutionized by extensive AI use.
At the moment, it seems as though programming and advertising will be two sectors that will be really disrupted in a huge way. They will either contract or be so revolutionized that thousands — millions? — of people simply will not be able to find a job in those fields anymore because of AI.
A lot of people are so wrapped up with how excited they are about the new developments in AI that they totally miss the cold, hard reality of this new world: I just don’t see how many jobs will be left in any number of fields because the changes are just happening too quickly.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Despite all the gnashing of teeth by liberals and progressives, Trump simply is going nowhere for as long as he lives. He’s going to be president for life. I don’t know, exactly, he’ll do it, but he will.
He’s going to destroy everything before he shuffles off this mortal coil and it will take decades — generations maybe — for us to sort things out afterwards. I think that’s Trump’s historical purpose — to destroy the Second American Republic founded by Lincoln.
What happens after that, I don’t know.
Probably some sort of dystopian techno-autocracy is my best guess. Maybe the Singularity will come while Trump’s still alive and Elon Musk will upload Trump’s into the cloud and he’ll be our Max Headroom-style AI overlord.
Now, obvious, we might have a revolution — especially if Social Security checks stop being cut on time — but then we’d have a civil war and I really would prefer not to have either one of those things happen.
I just want to live in a traditional liberal (Western) democracy. But that is not to be because we just don’t have to grit to fight back against Trump. We’re totally fucked. Totally, completely fucked at least for the rest of my life.
Leave the country if you have the means.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
While my rhetoric about the FBI may have grown a bit more heated of late, it’s more about me fucking hating what Trump is doing to it than anything else. My sole encounter with the FBI — when I talked to one of the PR people about an element of my novel — was quite pleasant.
It’s because I trust and like the FBI that I’ve grown so fucking angry over what’s going on with it. It’s being corrupted and turned into a fucking arm of the Trump campaign.
Anyway. Live long and prosper, guys. You deserve better.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Anyone who thinks the next major Federal election will be free and fair is a fool. The whole thing is going to be so rigged that the already cocky MAGA is going to take things to the next level. That’s why I think all this talk about the reason why Trump and Musk are acting so fast is it’s a “smash and grab” operation before the next election is just dumb.
We’re totally, completely fucked. Totally. The end. It’s over. Stick a fork in America, it’s cooked. There’s no going back. Either we have a revolution then a civil war (which I don’t want) or we turn into a legalistic autocracy like in Russia.
There is no longer any middle grown, no more “muddling through.” That option is long gone.
So, get out of the country while you still can. Maybe my novel will be a hit and I can get out eventually, too. But the way things are going, I’m going to be pushed out a window by either a weaponized ICE or FBI.
Sigh.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I fear this is it — American democracy is dead. There’s no going back. Or, put another way, either we have a revolution then civil war that Blues win or we slip into a legalistic autocracy like they have in Russia.
That’s it, those are our two choices.
I say this primarily because Trump and MAGA are not acting like they’re ever going to have another free-and-fair election to face — ever. And instead of anyone putting up a fight, group after group, institution after institution, just gives up and bends a knee to Trump.
So, there you go. It’s over folks. And the real question is not that it will get bad, but how bad, exactly, it will get — especially for me! There’s going to come a point when Trumplandia comes for even nobodies like me living in oblivion, to make a point, if nothing else.
I can only talk my way out of so much.
So, lulz, for the time being, I’m going to be a man in a high castle and work on my thriller that I’ve been working on for years and years now. I’m hoping that I will sell the novel at just the right moment so I can get the fuck out of the United States and resettle somewhere a little less…autocratic.
But that’s just something I tell myself to give myself hope. I fear I’m fucked, guys.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
It’s clear that This Is It. The End. Something new is going to arise from the ashes of the Second American Republic and there are absolutely no assurances that it will be a Third Republic. It could very well be a full-blown legalistic autocracy like that they have in Russia.
I still have my doubts that Trump will end regular Federal elections. It might run for a illegal third term, but just calling off elections when he can rig them and use them to validate his ego seems more likely.
But we continue to lurch more and more into a situation where people like me — who are harmless loudmouth cranks — could very well cross the regime. Everything from simply getting arrested, to being pushed out a window to being one of those people the Soviets drugged up in looney bins is on the table.
What I feel like doing is protesting at the nearest circuit court with a sheet of paper that has the 1st Amendment on it. Given how small the nearest town to me is, there’s a 50 / 50 chance that I’d be arrested for doing that just because it would unnerve people.
Anyway. It’s over, guys. Stick a fork in American democracy, it’s dead. It’s cooked. The end, end of story. Blues just don’t have the leadership necessary to do anything constructive about Trump and he will stay in office for the rest of his life, one way or another.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Apparently, a lot of wealthy Americans are buying second homes outside the country in preperation for “domestic upheaval.” Sadly, I think they have a point. I think it’s at least possible — maybe 50 / 50 — that something will happen well before the next four years are up that will cause Trump to enact martial law.
One issue I struggle with is if Trump would cancel elections altogether. I have my doubts. Why cancel the elections — which would upset people — when you can just make them so unfree and so unfair that you win in a landslide and you can point to that during your illegal third term.
And, yet, some people far smarter — and far more successful — than I, seem to believe Trump wants to be “president for life” without allowing any elections — free and fair or otherwise — from happening.
I do think that Trump is so fucking stupid that it’s inevitable that he will do something that actually provokes Democrats into action. At the moment, Trump has free reign to do whatever the fuck he wants because Democrats are such pantywaists that they can’t get their act together to oppose him.
I worry about Trump finally doing something so stupid that he gets deposed then there’s a civil war because Red States get mad. Ugh.
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