Tag: Republicans Are Fascist

Trump, Russia & Kanye



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We’ve passed the event horizon for Trump’s final consolidation of power. Soon enough, he will, on a political level, be a king. But it is interesting to note the details of this event as they zoom past us.

One of them is the “campaign” of Kanye West.

It seems as though, on the face of it, that House Trump wants to re-create the conditions of 2016. On one hand, there will be a third party candidate who will cut into Biden poll numbers and it’s likely that something along the lines of the Second Comey Letter will happen in late October as well.

But there is another, even darker possibility lurking in the shadows.

It seems to me that House Trump and the Russians are working hand-in-hand for the Russians to hack directly into our election systems. It would make a lot of sense for the Russians, under the cover of Kanye, to move just enough votes from Biden to Kanye so when he provides the margin of victory. This is pretty typical in some elections and so people won’t be as suspicious.

Given that there are a very specific — an well-known – set of events that happen after Election Night, it seems obvious that even if people began to grow suspicious about Russians hacking directly into our election systems, all Trump has to do is stonewall long enough for the electors to be certified and for them to vote.

Everything else is a lulz.

Trump can rapidly consolidate power on a number of different levels and by the time we all figure out what happened, AOC will be founding the Second Republic after having been in prison for 40 years. Darkness is here and, really, it’s just a matter of what shade of pitch black we have to suffer through.

All I can say is, do a gut check on what’s important to you in the real world. There’s going to come a time very, very soon when you either stand up for what you believe in and risk your life, your family or your career, or you don’t.

2021: American Implosion


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Since Trump is going to lie, cheat and steal to win the 2020 election — even to the point of inciting a civil war if need be, we need to start assessing what Trump’s second term is going to be like.

In a word: dark.

It seems to me that given macro trends, it’s not Hitler’s Germany we should be thinking about so much as Pol Pot’s Cambodia. Given the “America First” ideology of House Trump, it makes a lot more sense that the country would implode like Cambodia rather than try to take over the world.

As such, it seems as though something like this may happen — Trump does whatever he has to do to consolidate power, starting with a purge of the media. Then as MAGA and Qanon become indistinguishable, it seems as though what might start off as a general effort to eliminate all opposition to House Trump in the elites will quickly devolve into a general effort to answer the “liberal question” once and for all.

So, it’s not too much to imagine a situation where the U.S. Military is ordered to stand down while bloodthirsty Qanon people organize an emptying of the cities and we end up with American Killing Fields.

This is all so speculative on my part that it’s difficult to imagine of that might end. In the case of Pol Pot, he went so insane that he was felled with a combination of internal rebellion and an invasion. I can’t really see anyone invading the United States, so either the implosion is a complete success and a 10s of millions of people are butchered, or things just to extreme that some sort of counter-action is finally taken and the whole thing comes tumbling down.

Not before, of course, the United States is turned into a 1st world version of modern Cambodia.

The point of all of this is we’ve now entered one of those rare times in human history when the bad guys get their chance to do their thing and only, after way too long, do the good guys get their act together to do anything about it.

I will note that in post-WW2 Eastern Europe, the bad guys won for about 40 years. So there are absolutely no assurances that when the implosion most — if not all — of its goals are acomplished.

Trump: American Norodom Sihanouk


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There has been a lot of hysterical talk on the part of the center-Left that Trump is some sort of “American Hitler.” And I will be the first to admit that I have engaged in a lot of that talk myself. MAGA people chuckle at this and simply grunt something about “orange man bad” in reply.

Well, I used to think that maybe Trump himself wouldn’t be an American Hitler, but it would be one of his younger, more organized successors.

I’m beginning to doubt that assesement.

The reason is: Qanon.

It’s very easy to see a situation where Trump consolidates power after the Russians steal the election for him and ultimately the worst crimes don’t even happen because of him. It would be a situation similar to King Norodom Sihanouk in Cambodia.

Once OANN owns CNN and The New York Times has been nationalized and then given to Rupert Murdoch (and so forth) there simply won’t be anyone to notice that MAGA and Qanon have fused and they’re rounding people up to be murdered in American Killing Fields.

What’s more, the U.S. Military will be so concerned with not interfering in domestic politics that what starts off as a general attack on liberal elites turns into a mass emptying of the cities and American Killing Fields. This sounds surreal and bonkers, I know, but that’s an angle we haven’t really thought about before — Trump himself doesn’t order the American Killing Fields, but he doesn’t do anything to stop it, either.

Besides the whole mass murder thing, the other element of this that is gravely concerning is who is going to save us if this happens? It definitely seems as though once the country implodes that’s it.

I can’t think of how get out to the other side.

This is all a delusional fever nightmare at this point. But it’s definitely something to think about since apparently the fix is in when it comes to Russians hacking directly into our election systems.

Addressing Tim Pool’s ‘Asshole’ Versus ‘The Coward’ Argument



Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

What bothers me about former Vice Magazine writer Tim Pool boiling down the debate between Trump and Biden to the political grunt of “Trump may be an asshole but Biden is a coward” is how effective it is for men who watch Joe Rogan and declare themselves “centrists.”

This argument is effective because it narrows down the strategic threat of Trump destroying the entire Republic to simply calling him “an asshole.” Meanwhile, it taps into the earnest masculinity of Joe Rogan viewers by calling Biden a “coward.”

I guess a similar 1933 situation would be something like a WWI veteran supporting Herr Hitler because he promises to re-militarize the Rhineland. It totally ignores the insane, corrupt racism of the rest of the Nazi agenda and focuses on something you agree with him on. So,in a sense, for Pool, he accepts that Trump is a outrageously corrupt racist misogynistic bigot because he’s a tough guy, a “strong man,” if you will. All the things Pool doesn’t like about Trump is baked into the cake and ignored and accepted because Pool believes Biden is a “coward.”

This allows him to ignore that Trump is actively doing everything in his power to destroy the very Republic itself. He simply focuses on one subject and one subject only — his belief that Biden is a “coward” for not addressing the riots in Wisconsin the way he thinks she should.

To me, at least, it all rather surreal.

We need to begin to accept that darkness is here. MAGA and Qanon are fused now and the ICE camps will become Trumplandia death camps soon enough. We’re simply not prepared for how brazenly Trump is going to steal the election, to the point where he encourages a civil war.

Sometimes, the bad guys win.

Barring something pretty spectacular that I can’t predict, America has passed the event horizon of tyranny. All the macro trends indicate that Trump is either going to eek out some sort of victory outright, or he’s going to burn the entire country down to win one way or another.

We are so fucked.

A Tim Pool Rebuttal


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about former Vice Magazine writer Tim Pool is his arguments for Trump are actually cogent enough to warrant a rebuttal. Pool is interesting to me because he seems like just the type of guy who would REALLY be into Joe Rogan. Anyway, he’s apparently all-in with MAGA at this point and, from his Twitter threat explaining why he’s voting for Trump rather fascist-friendly, if not fascist altogether. Let’s go through the thread a pick it apart.

He opens the thread explaining why Kyle Rittenhouse’s double murder explains why he’s voting for Trump. Now, for me, that statement in itself sets off some warning lights because it establishes he’s going to see what Rittenhouse did through the lens of partisan politics. He also makes a point of claiming the press “lied” about Trump doing something. I don’t know enough about what exactly he’s talking about, but while maybe they weren’t *literally* secret police, a lot of the violence that’s happening across the country is being sparked by the reaction of Trump’s goons more than the often otherwise peaceful protesters.

Ok, this is an extremely charitable explanation of what happened. Pool makes it seem as though some innocent waif decided to swoop in and save the day. He ignores that there are pictures of the 17 year old holding an AR-15. He’s bending over backwards to frame the situation in such a way that your average Joe Rogan audience member will nod their head in agreement. The following tweet is probably his strongest argument in the thread:

I will give him this point. Biden should definitely be more proactive condemning the violence taking place. And, yet, to me, for this to be the single issue that he is so concerned about when 180,000 people have died because of Trump’s criminally incompetent handling of the COVI19 pandemic as well as a shit ton of other criminal activity on House Trump’s part is a little bit of a tell — he was never going to vote for Biden and Biden not doing what he felt was needed was simply confirmation of his existing decision.

Here is where we get to the core of his argument and the whole thing falls apart.

To call Biden “a coward” who “hides in his basement” is straight MAGA agitprop. And given how well the whole “law and order” thing is probably polling with House Trump’s campaign right now, it makes me think Pool is no longer a journalist in an real sense. He’s completely in the pocket of House Trump and, just like Joe Rogan, he uses a form of masculine earnestness to deflect any reasonable effort to talk to him.

I compare it to someone in 1933 saying Herr Hitler is going to make the streets of the Free City of Danzig safe again. He wants us to focus on this sole issue, totally ignoring the astonishing existential threat that House Trump presents to the Republic on a strategic level. He wants to do this because as long as we focus on this specific issue, we aren’t talking about the flaming pile of horseshit that is the Trump Administration.

As such, I can only conclude that Pool is a fascist. That the Right is embracing Kyle Rittenhouse as some sort of John Brown of MAGA tells you everything you need to know about the state of American democracy. The logic is there to support wide-spread political violence against anyone who gets in the way of MAGA or Qanon.

Now, what’s even worse is the center Right and the center Left have grown so detached from each other and what they can agree is “real” that it’s nearly impossible for there to be any discussion at all. The Right has cross the Rubicon and now are full throated fascists, even though they will never admit it because they know it would hurt them politically — for the time being.

As such, this fall is going to be very dark.

I continue to believe that House Trump is never, EVER leaving power for any reason, even if it means inciting a civil war. Given Pool’s reasoning for voting for Trump, I honestly can’t imagine any situation where he wouldn’t be right there with MAGA and Qanon, cheering on the political violence that apparently he — and much of the American Right — are now cool with.

Good luck, guys.

A Biden Administration Would Not Be A Panacea


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I like to run casual scenarios in my mind and of all the scenarios about America’s political future, not one of them ends with Biden being legally sworn in as president in 2021.

It just is never going to happen.

If Trump has to force the issue and start a civil war of some sort, he’ll do it and he’ll win for no other reason than MAGA are bunch of bloodthirsty assholes already, they just need a little prompting.

But, just like sometimes you feel like imagining what might happen if you won the lottery, let’s think about the implications of a Biden Administration.

The biggest thing that comes to mind is we’re all going to deal with the possibly of a former president being indicted. The divisions in the United States won’t go anywhere if Biden’s president and so, as such, in all likelihood Trump will get away scot free even if he is somehow miraculously forced out of off.

Even I am leery of setting the precedent of criminally charging a former president, even if it’s Trump who richly deserves it. Once you go down that road, then the first thing that will happen once MAGA-Qanon are in power again is they’re going to go after Hillary Clinton or whomever.

The case could be made that Trump is the exception that proves the rule. The problem with that, of course, is that’s not how MAGA-Qanon would see it. They would be so enraged that The Dear Leader was on trial that there would likely be significant political violence associated with it AND they would go after any major center-Left political leader once they got the chance.

Another issue in the Biden Era would be what the Republican Party would become. I see three major issues.

  1. Qanon will become gospel to MAGA.
  2. Trump will be the new Ronald Reagan
  3. The “Lost Cause.”

Put these together and, really, we might get a few months of “normal” before the Republican Party would come back with a vengeance. One reason I have no hope for the First Republic is the Republican Party, by definition, hates democracy. And if you have one of your two major parties actively doing everything in its power to destroy the very democracy it’s suppose to be participating in, then, well, lulz, your fucked.

Another thing we have to remember is, a lot of major Clinton Era figures continue to be established public figures. So it goes without saying that we have a solid 20, 30, 40 years of Trump Era people who will continue to linger in the public eye in various ways.

Just because Biden is president, that’s not going to stop at least three of Trump children from running for president in some capacity. What’s more, the moment the Republicans regain the House, they’re going to start plotting the impeachment of Biden. As such, given how they would, on an existential level, see Biden – Harris as illegitimate, there’s a chance they would impeach both of them and name Trump I as Speaker of the House in hopes that he would become president again that way.

That’s how insane the Republican Party is now. They are so bonkers and so craven, that they will stop at nothing to put House Trump back on the throne.

This all boils down to the existential problems with the United States. The United States is two nations that are zooming as far as possible away from each other in every regard.

So, either there’s a civil war sooner, or a civil war later.

It’s all very tragic. I hope I’m wrong.

Only time will tell.

House Trump Is Never Leaving Power Unless It Loses A Civil War



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The moment Trump was acquitted by the Senate, the First Republic was no more. These few remaining months of 2020 are simply a twilight era before House Trump’s final consolidation of power.

As it stands, the only way House Trump is EVER leaving power for any reason is if it loses a civil war. As such, all the Twitter liberals who get all excited about this or that speech or meme that “destroys” some member of the Ruling Family really are missing the point.

The United States is no longer a liberal democracy. We’re an autocratic managed democracy like Russia and House Trump will continue to re-imagine the country into something more akin to Trumplandia for some 20 to 40 years to come. This boils down to cold, hard demographics. The hate, rage, racism and misogyny of angry old Baby Boomers will power House Trump until they finally all drop dead in about 20 years. As there usually is some lag between demographics and politics (especially when autocrats are involved) one could easily imagine another sold 20 years after that before, I don’t know, Zoomers rally around AOC and found a Second Republic.

The point of all of this is — it’s easy to get mad on social media. But how many people, really, are willing to risk things important to them in the real world when ICE or Little Green Men come knocking on their doors? And once the press is finally shipped off to Trumplandia death camps because Qanon demanded it, then, well, lulz, how is anyone even going to know what happened?

Let me put it another way — as an autocrat, all Trump cares about is power. So he could lose by 5 million votes and as long as he wins the Electoral College, he will be quite content. And that’s the Best Case Scenario for people like me. The Worst Case Scenario is Trump has to force the issue and there’s a civil war. In that case, things are likely to grow far more radical and dark that we could possibly imagine.

If there is a civil war, Blue State governments are likely to be abolished favor of military districts. ICE camps will become death camps, full of all the people Qanon want dead.

America simply is too divided and apathetic to do the things necessary to stop this nightmare from becoming a reality. The darkness is here. As I keep saying, if I was writing for VOX, I’d come up with some practical way for you to stop this from happening, or whatever.

But I’m not smart enough.

All I know is, we’re fucked. Totally and completely fucked. MAGA and Qanon are rapidly fusing and Trump will destroy any norm, break any law, necessary to maintain power.

Good luck.

Don’t Sleep On Eric Trump’s Coming Political Career


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

My political predictions are often very, very wrong. But given how Eric Trump’s profile is beginning to grow more conspicuous around the White House, it seems as though he has political aspirations.

Since Trump is going to brazenly steal the 2020 election, we’re going to have to get used to seeing a whole lot more of the entire House Trump royal family. It makes a lot of sense that now that the first republic is over that we would lurch into a semi-monarchical era in our history. Really, it’s just a matter of degree.

So, as such, it’s very possible it might be Eric vs. Don Jr. in the coming years, not Ivanka vs. Don Jr. Given that Eric has taken the brunt of the personal attacks in the media, it would make a lot of sense for him to want to prove the same point his dad did after the WHCD just before Trump ran for office. It definitely will be interesting to see how far he gets.

The longer Trump stays in power, the more comfortable he becomes with doing whatever the fuck he wants. He knows he has broken the back of the Constitution and, really, it’s just a matter of purging the media at this point. Once that’s out of the way, America’s once robust civil society will implode in a rather dramatic fashion.

We’ll be nothing more than Russia.

I spare me any delusional claims that this or that thing will stop Trump. America is just too divided and apathetic to do anything about House Trump at this point. Qanon will completely consume the Republican Party very, very soon and, as such, the ICE camps will become Trumplandia death camps in a matter of months at this point.

Something pretty dramatic will have to change for this not to happen. A general strike. Twitter liberals having to risk their careers at major media companies. People with families having to risk that, too.

I just don’t see that happening.

I hope I’m wrong. I really do.

The Quiet Before The Storm?



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While there may be a lot of noise (and lying) going on right now because of the RNC, in real terms, things are pretty dull. Usually, at some point in August, something so spectacular happens that The Beautiful People have to rush home from their vacations to deal with it.

But, to date, that’s not happened.

Not that there aren’t any number of things that flair up before the end of the month, but it definitely seems this month is, for once, going to be something of a dud.

I guess the case could be made that August 2001 was pretty dull (I think?) and the Big News was the 9/11 attacks in September.

Or, maybe this fall and winter are going to be such a massive clusterfuck that this is the quiet before the storm. Maybe. I still think in the end the post-election day season is going to be quite dull. Trump is going to win far earlier than we might otherwise think and we’ll continue our lurch towards an autocratic managed democracy.

The issue is, really, that the macro trends all indicate that The First Republic is no more. The bad guys have won. Now we have to think about how long we suffer under the jackboot of House Trump tyranny before the Second Republic is founded.

Just off the top of my head, I would suggest about 40 years (at a least.)

Good luck.

Political Darkness Is Here



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I hate to sound so dystopian, but we need to be honest with ourselves. Our fate is staring us straight in the face and either you acknowledge it or you don’t. Trump is throwing everything he can at the 2020 election and we’re simply not prepared for how brazen his theft will be.

And that doesn’t even begin to address the underhanded ways he will use to steal the election, like having the Russians directly hack into our election systems.

So, political darkness has fallen.

Really, the only issue is how difficult is it, ultimately, for Trump to steal the election. I’m beginning to think Trump is going to cruise into a similar situation like 2016, even before he ratfucks the postal service and has Barr, through the bullshit Durham investigation produce a Second Comey Letter effect so he wins.

Once Trump effectively has his political sins wiped clean by “winning” the 2020 election, the autocratic trend we’ve already seen will only accelerate. I just don’t see there being any more elections in the United States after 2020. For various reasons, ranging from blood thirsty Qanon moves to a Constitutional Convention, the 2020 Election is it. It’s the last one we’ll have.

Of course, there is a .00000000000000000000000000000001% chance that somehow, someway all the ratfucking that House Trump uses doesn’t work. But, just like with impeachment, it’s comical at this point to entertain such an idea.

Really, the only possible way Trump doesn’t stay in power for the rest of his life is he loses some sort of civil war. And I just don’t see that happening. House Trump is going to rapidly consolidate power to the point that the current ICE camps become Trumplandia death camps.

Nothing is going to save us. We’re not even going to save ourselves.

I only keep writing stuff like this to acclimate myself to the new reality of living in Trumplandia.

I wish something would happen to give me hope. Sadly, every day only proves my worst fears are already a reality. The First Republic is no more.