Tag: Orange Man IS Bad Shithead

America As Fascist State



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Twitter liberals are so clueless. They clutch their pearls whenever Trump zooms past some norm and then come up with elaborate fever dreams as to how this is going to “bring down” Trump.

Trump is never going anywhere. Never.

MAGA wants the very nightmare that people like me fear. They crave it. They lust for it. That’s the whole appeal of the Qanon fucktard conspiracy theory. It gives them a framework for what they want — everyone who disagrees with them in jail or dead.

It’s because of this that darkness has officially fallen. It really happened the moment Trump was acquitted by the Senate. The pandemic kind of momentarily made it seem as though there was a chance for a free-and-fair election, but lulz, that’s over with.

Trump is a tyrant and we’re never fucking getting rid of him. Early in 2021, he’s going to consolidate power in any number of different ways. By about 2023, people — like me! — getting pushed out of windows will become common place and accepted part of life.

The only unknown is Trump himself. Trump is such a massive self-own artist that one could come up with any number of different ways might massively self-own.

But even if he did, it would be nothing more than a pause. The macro trends simply don’t point towards the United States being a liberal democracy anymore.

Maybe in about 40 years, once the last of the Baby Boomers are dead, then, maybe, we may gradually begin to drift back towards the America I grew up in. But, generally, we’re very much fucked.

Let’s Talk About The Election Of 1988



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It seems as though a lot of people are comparing the lead that Michael Dikukus had after the 1988 Democratic Convention with the lead that Joe Biden currently enjoys.

I was not very old at the time, but I was politically aware to know that the bump Dikukus enjoyed in late July and early August was an anomaly. Reagan was a historically popular president and Bush was seen as his third term. Dikukus was about as exciting as drying paint.

No one seriously thought he was going to win.

So, 2020 and 1988 aren’t anything like each other. Trump is going to win, of course, because he’s a fucking fascist and fascists always win in the context of a dying democracy. In real terms, Trump’s fate is one person’s hands — his own. The issue is will Trump self-own to such an extent that he loses, or will he hold it together long enough to lurch into a stolen second term?

It’s stuff like that that you simply can’t predict.

But the point is — because Trump is a very incompetent fascist everything is up in the air that literally anything is possible.

MAGA As American Fascism



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about fascism is they don’t play by the rules of democracy. Or, if they do, they use the rules for their ultimate goal — to win. So, it seems as though 100 days before the 2020 election there are two macro trends happening at the same time.

On one hand, we have about 240 years of liberal democratic tradition all pointing towards Biden having a decent shot at winning a major victory against Trump in the fall.

Meanwhile, we have the “new rules” of the fucking fascist MAGA movement, which means, lulz, fuck you Trump’s never leaving office.

So, what I guess I’m saying is, when the dust settles, Trump is going to still be in office come Jan. 20, 2021. He’s simply never leaving office. I say this with the likelihood that he’s going to demand a Constitutional Convention at some point in his stole second term in the back of my mind. He’s going to be around for the next 10-15 years being more and more crazy and more and more criminal. Then we’re going to have a series of Trumps for the next few decades until the Graying of America crosses the Browning of America and AOC, I don’t know, manages to overthrow the government about 2050.

I can’t predict the future — I don’t know exactly how this is all going to work out — but that’s definitely where the macro political trends in the United States are pointing right now. The center-Left is so busy scoring density politics points on Twitter, that they’re completely oblivious to how they might need to address the fascist infection in real life.

Real “resistance” is hard work. You have to risk things that are important to you. There’s no assurance that you will live. There’s no assurance that you won’t be anymore than a number. And, really, the actual number of people who will resist MAGA tyranny is probably going to be pretty small.

It’s kooks and cranks like me who will have to take up the burden because I have principles and will refuse — absolutely — to shut up when everyone around me tells me I had better do so “for my own good.” I’m a man of peace. A man of ideas. And I’m not going to be violent. That’s just not me. But will note that sometimes you can have a shit tone of guns and not do jack squat.

For instance, when Napoleon escaped from Elba in 1815, he famously stood before a huge army and told them to shoot “their emperor” if felt so inclined. They had all those weapons. They could have killed him on the spot. But they didn’t they made him their leader and they rode to Paris, starting the 100 Days.

I’m not comparing myself to Napoleon — that would be pretty bonkers — but I am saying that history is made by people with nothing to lose. For me — a bonkers loser in the middle of nowhere — to be of note in anyway, things would have had to have grown extremely dire.

So, hopefully, while things are obviously going to get REALLY BAD in Trump’s stolen second term, they won’t get SO BAD that I have to use my native skillset for anything other than developing and writing a novel.

Trump’s Second Term



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Here are a few of the things that will happen in Trump’s stolen second term. Please remember, that even if somehow we miraculously get him out of office, any number of these things could happen later under the presidency of a “National Conservative.”

Leaving NATO
Trump has flirted with this idea repeatedly the last four years. And it seems as though once he’s safely in his stolen second term, this is something he will again turn his attention to. I could see some sort of surreal alliance with Russia taking place over the course of his second term.

Purge of Late Night Hosts
This is one of those things that will happen so quickly and ostensibly so mysteriously that the average person will be upset for a few days but ultimately go back to raising their kids and paying their mortgage. There might be a few protests in major cities, but ultimately all that will happen is the purged late night hosts will endup on a streaming service or a podcast. They will still be around, but their cultural relevancy will be greatly reduced.

Widespread Snatching of People
The snatching taking place in Portland will become common place across the country. People will simply vanish. Upon the first reports, there might be some concern, like there was with family separations at the border, but this will pass soon enough. Gradually, these abductions will become so common place that it will be just a fact of life that people accept. As Trump’s second term continues, the snatching will graduate to pushing people out of windows like they do in Russia. It will become, again, just another part of life.

Constitutional Convention
We are already extremely close to a Constitutional Convention as it is. I think it’s about five states away at this point. Trump will demand one because he believes its absolutely necessary to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment. He might even sell it to liberals by saying such a convention will take up the issue of the ERA while it’s at it. Of course, the vast majority of state legislatures — the government bodies that would pick attendees to this convention — are MAGA and so the whole thing will be an excuse to pass American Enabling Acts.

‘Vichy America,’ Or: I Know Way Too Many Fucking Fascists



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarer

Repeatedly over the last few days, I’ve found myself talking to people who were American fascists. Such fascists make a point of establishing that the United States is a “constitutional republic” and not a democracy. To me, this seems a pretty obvious setup to crowing when Trump steals the election in the fall and somehow magically remains president after, on a democratic level, he loses.

Another interesting thing is how absolute these fucking fascists are in their support for Trump. They crow that we should expect “36 years” of Trump rule. They say this nearly in the same breath as the one they just used to talk about the United States not being a democracy but a “constitutional republic.” Having a family stay in power that long definitely doesn’t sound like a republic to me.

Of course, I guess these shithead fascists would would bob and weave when I pointed out that under their definition of a “constitutional republic.” Russia is one, too. Which, of course, is what they want. What I see as a tragedy, the see as “making America great again.” They want the very nightmare of a fascist America that I desperately hope to avoid.

The even greater irony is these very same people are extremely delusional (at least relative to what I find demonstrable) by saying things like I’m going to “have to learn Russian and Chinese” if Biden wins. Given what a fucking suckup Trump to both President Putin and President Xi, this seems a dubious suggestion to say the least.

But the whole point is, not since Vichy France has a democracy so willingly allowed itself to slip into tyranny. I read a lot of people talking about how the Republican Party needs to be burned to the ground after Trump (should this ever happen), but this is extremely clueless.

Trump is the Republican Party and the Republican Party is Trump. Even under the best of scenarios, neither he nor the Republican Party are going anywhere and he’s likely to continue use his absolute control over the GOP to destroy what’s left of any form of liberal democracy in the States. Instead of living in a dream world, we need to start to figure out how we’re going to survive in fascist America for the next 20 to 40 years.

The Republican Party has a bloodlust for absolute power that, to date, has been mitigated by how bonkers and incompetent The Dear Leader is. There are about a dozen would-be successors to Trump who are younger, more focused and a lot less incompetently bonkers who are comping at the bit to finish the process Trump began.

As I’ve said before, someone like Trump was bound to become president at some point between 2016 and 2024 for demographic reasons, if nothing else. Something about Obama’s second term turned the Republican Party into fascists and Trump was the vessel for our decent into fascism.

In real terms, a lot of this fascism is simply the modern equivalent of the Roman Republic becoming the Roman Empire. So, in a sense, the only thing stopping House Trump — or whomever the fuck else — from simply going full Darth Vader on us is what kept the Roman Empire from never actually having a “king” — it goes against America’s collective self-perception too much.

While it is inevitable that the 1st and 4th Amendments will be…uhh…radically reinterpreted in Trump’s stolen second term, even if he does, somehow leave office, then that very same reinterpretation will happen under a President Pompeo or President Cotton. All Trump did was slice the seal on tyranny.

On a macro demographic level we are all very much fucked and there’s nothing we can do about it but either get out of the country or think about what we’re going to say when the Little Green Men finally come for us.

America As Fascist State



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of MAGA’s favorite talking points these days is that United States is “a constitutional republic not a democracy.” They can get quite snotty about it, in fact.

Laying aside why they wouldn’t WANT to live in a democracy, this is their way of establishing the groundwork for why it’s “totally cool and totally legal” that Trump brazenly, in an astonishing fashion, steals the election in the fall. When it happens, they can shout at the top of their lungs that we rubes are fools for being enraged that American democracy is dead. “Buht America’s a constitutional republic,” they’ll crow.

As usual, this is MAGA tactically owning the moment in the short term to deflect what fucking fascists they are. Them being soooooo absolute about this conflation of terminology either gets you upset and the conversation devolves into screaming or you waste way too much time trying to explain something with, until recently, was simply assumed — there are “norms” that we all follow that make sure the while, yes, we are a “constitutional republic” we all agree that there should be free and fair elections and it’s like a bloodthirsty fight simply to get the ruling party to accept defeat in an election.

But that’s just the beginning of the clusterfuckery.

The issue of Trump’s goons snatching people off the streets of Portland to make campaign videos for the Trump campaign is another, more important issue. In general, I’ve come to believe that you can pretty much figure out if someone is a fascist by their response to this Authoritarian turn for the worse. The further they are away from “Oh my GOD, what’s happening?” they are, the more, well, fascist they are. If they’re quibbling about stupid shit how the people snatched are let go after a little while or that these Little Green Men have “police” on them, then, well, you’re talking to a fascist.

Everyone involved would be better off if MAGA simply embraced their fascism. Then we’d all be on the same page. Of course, I guess, in a sense, they will at some point down the road when MAGA pivots from any argument at all about Trump to whispering in harsh tones that people like me “should shut up if you know what’s good for you.” The implication being, of course, that Little Green Men will come for YOU now.

I would prefer if I was able to finish and sell my novel before Trump finally comes after people like me for good.

America As Trumplandia: Living In A Fascist State


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of the talking points of fucking cocksucker MAGA shitheads whenever people like me begin ranting about how Trump is a threat to democracy is that the United States is really a “constitutional republic.” This helps them “own the moment” because instead of talk about people being snatched off the street in Portland, suddenly you’re fighting over what it means to be American and the exact meaning of “democracy” and “constitutional republic.”

If you really wanted to get technical about it, Russia is a “constitutional republic,” and people getting pushed out of windows there.

It’s when you have to fight over such stupid shit that it one should take a deep breath and realize that if you’re arguing with a MAGA person, you’re arguing with a fascist. Because of a number of demographic, social and economic macro problems in the United States, we are now a fascist state.

What this means in practical terms is while in “the before times” Biden would likely win in a landslide in the fall, that’s simply not going to happen this time. MAGA fascists, when Trump uses all the levers of power at his disposal to steal the election in a rather brazen fashion, will snort and say, “but we’re a constitutional republic.”

There comes a point when you have to realize that MAGA shitheads WANT the very things you’re afraid will happen. They wants a “managed democracy” like there is in Russia. That’s what they want. It’s not like you can in any way make them care about traditional American democracy values because, well, they don’t believe in them.

All the MAGA people I talk to in my life are so absolute in their abstract fears about what progressives MIGHT do, that they won’t answer you when you asked them direct questions about our decent into tyranny. The great irony is Trump is his own worst enemy, so the only way we’re ever getting him out of office — ever — is he, himself somehow screws things up so badly that he leaves.

That could be because he finally loses his mind, or, I don’t know, raises taxes.

The point of all of this is — there’s no one to save us. The only way fascists are gotten rid of is if they lose a war. So it definitely seems we have 20 to 40 years of fascist rule ahead of us until the demographics of the Graying of America crosses that of the Browning of America.

Of The Durham Investigation


by Shelt Garner
@Sheltgarner

Now, I know how the world works, so if you’ve stumbled across the post because you’re some fucking Qanon shithead fucktard, please eat shit.

The current lingering “Durham Investigation” is only one of a host of ways the Trump Administration is going to steal the election in the fall. The Durham Investigation is looking into the origins of the investigation into Trump and Russia and given the overheated rhetoric it generates on the Right, it definitely seems as though they expect the entire Obama Administration to be frogwalked to Gitmo.

There is so much agitation about this, that I’ve come to believe that’s pretty much what’s going to happen. At some point between now and, say, mid-October, there will be bullshit criminal referrals for Joe Biden and President Obama. While Biden being charged is an obvious “duh,” Obama being charged would have a more subtle point to it: Trump would want to show what would happen if HE got charged in a sort of, “Well, if you think Obama being charged was bad, just wait until you try to charge ME.”

This is yet another concrete sign that the United States is now a fascist state. The sooner people like me acknowledge and accept it, the better. What this means in practical terms is Trump is never, ever leaving office for any reason and we need to begin making plans for what we’re going to do in Trump’s ill-gotten second term when people start getting pushed out of windows.

All I got is a novel I’m working on. Hopefully, I have a window of opportunity before freedom of speech is finally squelched for good.

My Prediction For The Republican Party In A Post-Trump America


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The issue when thinking about the extremely unlikely possibility that we’ll actually physically get Trump out of the White House (no matter the outcome in the fall) is people think anything matters.

MAGA Republicans have gotten what they have wanted for 20 years — a big tax cut and a massive influx of young, hack MAGA judges on the Federal bench for 20 to 40 years. So, really, that’s what they’re going to focus about Trump going forward. That’s what they’ll pivot to.

Remember, we have about 20 years before the Graying of America crosses the Browning of America. As such, House Trump — even if somehow the lying, cheating and stealing they plan to do in the fall isn’t enough to keep them in power — will probably bounce back quite quickly. Trump will still have a Twitter account and a Rolodex of powerful people he can use after four years in office. He will, in effect, continue to be a one man Republican primary process.

And, remember, it was only six years from Nixon leaving office in 1974 to the Reagan Revolution of 1980. Six years. So, it seems pretty logical that MAGA is here to stay on a macro level, no matter what happens. When one of a democracy’s major parties doesn’t believe in democracy, well, that’s not something that is helpful to a liberal democracy at all.

Also, lurking in the darkness is a long-term goal on the part of the far Right to call up a Constitutional Convention so they can fuck everything up for good. It’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of details at this point. Either it happens in Trump’s second term, or it happens during Tucker Carlson’s first term. Or whomever.

My absolute certainty as to how doomed we are — and my absolute inability to do anything about it — is the source of the energy needed for me to develop and write a novel about how fucked up everything is right now.