Category: The Resistance

If I Have To Register With The Government Because I’m Bonkers Someone’s Going To Hear About It

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have been very careful to hold my tongue, as it were, as Trump pushes us further and further into regular old autocracy. But with the news that JFK Jr. is floating the idea of “registering” autistic people…I’m given pause for thought.

I’m not autistic, but I am clinically bonkers.

As such, as we lurch farther and father into autocracy, it doesn’t seem like too much a stretch to think one day bonkers people like me will have to register with the government. Why this would be the case, but if they’re going to come after autistic people, then bonkers people sure as hell will be next.

I’m going to cause a ruckus every way I can if I have to register with the government. I’m not going to shut up and it could be the refusing to register could be my first actual real world “resistance.” Of course, I say this now and then I just turn around and do it anyway because I will feel pressure to do so by my far more normal relatives.

And what happens if there is criminal liability for not registering? Then what am I going to do? I guess I can at least get really angry on social media — I do that already — and continue to work on my novel.

Hopefully — hopefully — things won’t get that bad. Hopefully I won’t have to register with the government and I can finish my novel in peace.

Chaos Is The Point

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It seems to me that all the chaos Trump is creating of late is the point — he wants us to be weak enough that we can be attacked so he can consolidate power as “war president.”

I will admit that I’m giving Trump way more long term, abstract reasoning abilities than he actually has, but that would be the end game. No matter what. Trump is going to make us so weak and poor that when we inevitably get attacked for his dumb behavior specifically, people will look to him as some sort of savior.

That could give him the cover he needs to cancel elections, or whatever else he wants to do. I just don’t think we’re ever going to have free-and-fair Federal elections again, at least in my lifetime.

Anyway, good luck, folks. You’ll need it.

My Suggestion For The Democratic Party: Bank Left On The Economy, Bank Right On Social Issues

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There is clearly an interest in progressive politics when it comes to the economy. But at the same time, the Democratic Party’s fixation on Trans Rights is alienating and unpopular. I’m not suggesting abandoning support for Trans Right, just maybe….modulate it.

If the Democratic Party could pull away some of the poorer people from the MAGA coalition of the poor, the wealthy and the religious by appealing to their pocket book instead of their racism and misogyny, maybe Blues could start to win elections again.

And if Democrats simply cooled it with Trans Rights being a “pressure point” for them and were a bit more mainstream in their views on the matter, then maybe those two combined would be enough to swing elections back their way. (Not that there will ever be any more free and fair Federal elections again, mind you. That’s just a thing of the past now that we’re an autocracy.)

The issue of “gender affirming care” for minors is something that is kind of absurd since I don’t think it even is necessary that much. And, yet, both sides use it as something of a political football, with Blues using their fixation on the matter as virtual signaling and Reds using their hate of it to make the faithful fall in line.

But I’m serious about no more free and fair elections. All of this is moot. American democracy is over. The only way we get it back is a revolution and I neither want that nor see it happening.

The Fear Of The ‘Woke Cancel Culture Mob’ Remains a Potent Force With Some Conservatives

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I was talking to a conservative relative recently when he went on a long tirade about, essentially the “woke cancel culture mob” and how this swarm of woke people can ruin a person’s life.

So, that is evidence that long after everyone else has moved on, the fear of the “woke cancel culture mob” continues to linger with a lot of people.

The key issue to me is there is something of an orthodoxy about certain elements of society that the “woke cancel culture mob” simply can not comprehend someone not adhering to. They are so potent within the Blue alliance that they really alienate people with their unpopular agenda.

There is a reason why fucking Hitler-Trump presses the pressure point of the transgender movement in such a gratuitous manner — he knows he got a lot of votes from people who should know better because they’re afraid of being “canceled” when they get someone’s pronouns wrong.

Blues need to do some introspection. But, in a sense, it’s too late. We’re an autocracy now and we’re never — or at least as long as I’m alone — going to have another free-and-fair Federal election again. Good luck.

We Live In Peculiar Political Times

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The United States is now an autocracy. And, yet, some of the last vestiges of the Before Times continue to linger. While Trump continues to do everything in his power to end free speech, Americans — at the moment at least — still have the ability to speak as they like and to peacefully protest.

It is only a matter of time, of course, before Trump and his MAGA Nazi toadies come after our basic rights in a full boar effort to finish the job they’ve started. I suppose we’re kind of in a liminal political space at the moment where it’s dusk, but nightfall as yet to officially arrive.

But arrive it will.

And that’s when the real test of the American populace will arrive. Trump is going to push us to the breaking point to see if we just give up or if we fight back in some way.

And, right now, I honestly doubt anyone will notice that we’ve become a legalistic autocratic state like Russia when it happens. I think the whole process will gradually happen in fits and starts to the point that in about 20 years we’ll be a Russian-style autocracy and a whole generation will assume that’s the way it’s always been.

I just don’t see Americans doing what would be needed to end this nightmare — we need a General Strike organized with the clear objective of ending MAGA tyranny once and for all. If that means we have a Second Revolution, so be it. (Not that I want that, because if it was successful, a Second Civil War would happen immediately.)

So, I continue to hope I sell a breakout hit novel so I can get the fuck out of this country and never come back. It’s inevitable that me ranting about Trump and the MAGA Nazis will come back to bite me.

The United States Is An Autocracy — Now What?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

All my “hysterical doom shit” has come about, it seems. All that’s stopping Trump from doing some of the darker things I’ve worried about is he hasn’t figure out how to do them yet, or hasn’t gotten around to it yet.

So, there you are — the USA is an autocracy now.

I really need to get out of this country. I need to sell a best selling novel and get the fuck out of doge. Should that happen, I want to move somewhere hot an exotic where they speak English and have a pretty good medical system.

Or, hell, I’m so desperate, I’ll move to Great Britain if need be. I’m just done with worrying about ICE or the FBI swooping in an murdering me in cold blood because I won’t stop calling Trump a fucking cocksucker.

Anyway, we live in dark days, folks. And it’s only going to get worse.

Everything Is So Fucked Up

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The issue at the moment is Trump is the spearhead of a sever macro problem in the United States — MAGA. Something like MAGA was going to happen, especially after Obama was elected. But it could just have well been the first female president, if Obama had lost to Hillary in the primaries.

It definitely feels as though the US is imploded. We’re definitely an autocracy now and, really, it’s just a matter of where we stop on the Hungary – Russia spectrum of autocracies.

All I can say is my rage over MAGA fuels my continued writing. That was the point of the first novel (now the last two novels in this specific project.) I wanted to write an allegory about America set in a small town. I got pretty far in the project until at some point I realized that I had enough backstory thought through in my mind for a few novels, so I decided to write those first instead of saving them as some sort of potential “prequel” idea.

There definitely has been an ebb and flow when it comes to this novel project over the years.

But back to how fucked up everything is — there is a greater-than-zero chance that the US will buckle and have a revolution then civil war. A lot will depend on the economy and if Trump freaks out, shoots a few people then declares martial law.

Anyway, I just want to sell a novel that is a big enough success that I can get the fuck out of this country and chill out somewhere hot an exotic for the remainder of my years.

I Fear I’m On Some Sort Of Fucking Watch List. (Ugh)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There have been a few times in the last few days when I saw a ping in my Webstats that seemed…curious. Like, who is this person in Chicago who is interested in me so much? It makes me worry that the FBI has a cyber monitoring field office in Chicago and they’re keeping an eye on me.

Even if that’s not the case, I still think the FBI is probably aware of me — that I at least have a file. This is so dumb! I’m totally, completely harmless I’m just a loud mouth crank and that, the last time I checked, is still legal.

I hate violence. I hate guns. I’m a man of peace, a man of ideas.

I do get worked up sometimes, but I’m just venting. And this blog gets such little traffic — usually no more than maybe 50 hits a day at the most — that I feel reasonably comfortable just being myself.

Of course, I am well aware that should I start to query my novel that all the literary agents doing due diligence on me will be aghast at what a kook I am. But, can’t go back, gotta move forward.

What The Fuck, Republicans?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Sometimes, when Republicans do something really, really dumb on a macro scale like gut Medicaid, I feel like I get a vision from the future about how history will report about it.

On a macro basis, Republicans seem determined to cause a revolution of some sort. They are very cocky and they lean into the cult-like status of Trump to get away with some really, really dumb things. This can only go on for so long before the US experiences some severe political and social upheaval.

And Trump is very much the Nero to all of this. All Republicans want him to do is sign the bills they give him gutting the social safety net, or disfranchising married women. Otherwise, they give him pretty much dictatorial power by default.

No good will come of this. It may take a decade or more, but the USA is careening towards some sort of revolution — the civil war — at an alarming rate. And the only reason why we dodged the bullet of civil war in 2024 is, well, Trump won. Otherwise, the country would have probably collapsed into political anarchy.

I hate living in interesting times.

And, yet, here we are, everything is interesting, too interesting.

But I think we’re just going to circle the drain for a few more years. People just are still too fat and sassy, too reluctant to risk their “lives and sacred honor” in the real world to do anything about fucking MAGA.

If I fell into a little bit of money, I would totally go to, like, the Philippines to retire or to just get the fuck away from MAGA Nazis.

Imagining A Second American Revolution….And Of Course, The Second Civil War That Would Come With It

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

A lot of commentors on Twitter keep saying, “We can’t go through four years of this.” Sadly, we went through four years of it last time and I think we’re probably going to live through more than four years of it this time.

But, just for “fun” let’s imagine what a revolution might look like. Well, at the moment, I can’t really game it out. I say this because there are huge protests in the States all the time and…nothing happens.

So, I think if there was an actual “Second American Revolution” it would have be a lot more dramatic that anything we’ve seen before. One way I could imagine it happening is if there were big protests, Trump ordered the troops to fire on them and then all hell broke loose and Trump imposed marital law.

Even then, I think Trump Tower would have to be stormed in a big way. Or NYC would have to be turned into a commune or something. I guess….maybe Blue States might rebel en masse against Trump and that would buckle the country to the point that Trump MIGHT be deposed.

But I think the US military would probably stay loyal to Trump, so lulz. But if Trump really went full Mad King on us and the US military decided to step in, I think it would collapse because most of the enlisted men and women would be MAGA.

Once that happened, all bets are off. The whole thing would be a massive culsterfuck. It would be far, far worse than the French Revolution and many, many, many, many, many people would die for no damn reason.

If Trump was successfully deposed, then Red States would bolt from the Union and a huge, long, protracted civil war would happen.

The truly sad thing is I’m even thinking about this bullshit. But, here we are. America is ripe for this type of shit to happen. We’ll see, I guess.