Tag: The Deep State

The Fucking MAGA Fascists Are Coming For Dr. Fauci


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One thing that does not give me a lot of confidence about the state of American politics is how the MAGA Right in the US is working itself up into a lather when it comes to Dr. Fauci.

This is all very surreal to me given that Trump’s dingdong incompetence directly caused about 500,000 excess COVID19 deaths. Now, it’s very clear what’s going on — Republicans know this and are using the age-old political technique of screaming at the top of their lungs about emails in an effort to deflect from their own weaknesses.

They know that every moment we’re yelling over Dr. Fauci’s emails is a moment we’re not thinking about what an utter disaster Trump’s handling of COVID19 was. They have a two fold goal. On one hand, they want to stir up the base with a 2 Minute of Fauci Hate every day so they will flood the polls to flip Congress to “hold him accountable.” Meanwhile, they want to control the media narrative so we’re all fighting over Dr. Fauci his emails and not Trump and his COVID19 mismanagement.

The thing none of us non-MAGA people are prepared for is how hysterical and ultimately bloodthirsty MAGA is going to become about Dr. Fauci. He’s a convenient lightening rod because he wasn’t cowed into submission by Trump and didn’t take any of his shit. Add to this the well-worn outrage machine that MAGA already has when it comes to emails and, well, look out.

The moment MAGA controls Congress, every moment they’re not cutting taxes for plutocrats or flooding the Federal bench with young hack MAGA judges or impeaching Biden and Harris for Not Being Trump, they’re going to be yelling at Dr. Fauci in committee meeting after committee meeting. It won’t matter what he says, it won’t matter what the facts are, they will strip mine his status as a political lightening rod until we reach Benghazi levels of stupidity.

In the end, all of this will fuse together so the usual suspects of MAGA will get involved. Ultimately, it will become MAGA orthodoxy that Dr. Fauci is a member of the Deep State and directly funded — and ordered — the release of COVID19 from the Wuhan lab because he wanted to bring down Trump. They’ll claim the emails prove this — somehow — and before you know it somehow Qanon, George Soros and Comet Pizza will be involved.

My fear is, of course, that someone is going to get hurt because of all of this. Then Republicans will be SHOCKED, SHOCKED I tell you that some “mentally unstable person” would do such a thing. They will mumble something about “thoughts and prayers” and then move on to whatever other batshit insane thing that can mentally stroke to make themselves feel better.

The Ghost In The Machine


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now, I’ve had some weird hacking problems in the past with my newest computer, but the thing that happened tonight has go to be the weirdest of all. So, I pull up my computer and lo and behold, there’s a tab on my browser where it appears as though someone — not me — wanted to look at Twitter but couldn’t because my computer wasn’t connected to WiFi.

I’m fully willing to admit that this was just a fluke of my computer. The only reason why I am weirded out by this event is the specific tab I was working on was the one that was used to attempt the connection to Twitter AND I wasn’t connected to the Internet via a Wifi link.

So, if it was a hacker, how did they even get into my computer in the first place?

It’s all very strange. I guess if you wanted to go completely bonkers, you might suggest, I don’t know, the Deep State was involved in some way. But right now, I’m a complete nobody. So much of a nobody that the Deep State — even if it actually existed — would have no reason to worry about me. There’s pretty much nothing I could possibly do that would cause any punitive Deep State want to fuck with my computer.

That leaves, I dunno, space aliens?

Unless the ghost in the machine starts to give me some indication of who they are and their motives, I guess I’m going to have to just assume it’s weird Windows issues going on.

It’s all very odd, though.

I May Start Using Big Tech’s ‘Digital Telepathy’ As My Informal Shrink


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have no idea if my suspicions about the ability of Big Tech to read my mind are true or not. But, Jesus, Tik-Tok specifically sure does do some fucking spooky things with its “algorithms.” So much so that either we need to break up and regulate Big Tech because they’re hiding a Soft Singularity from us, or we need to break up and regulate Big Tech because they’re rooting around in our minds using Digital Telepathy.

Well, maybe Big Tech can read our minds?

Let me explain.

I’m around my elderly father a lot and…for some reason, out of the blue, Tik-Tok pushes me videos about World War 2 a lot. So much so, that I’m like, “Any algorithm they may be using sure seems to be thinking about my dad, not me.” Remember, there was a point some time ago when YouTube was pushing me videos about lockboxes and the end of the world which totally made no sense for me at the time. (But did for my father, natch.)

But Tik-Tok has begun to push me weird, almost snarky, content as if it’s rooting around in my mind and wants to have some fun of some sort. The key issue is, of course, is I can’t really prove any of this. There are plenty — PLENTY — of other ways their “algorithm” could figure out most, but not all, of the shit about me that they are pushing. I’m sure they’re listening to me using my phone. I’m sure — somehow — these very words I’m writing right now are being monitored and throw into the maw of an “algorithm” somewhere to better sell me widges.

I get that. THAT, I understand.

It’s when Tik-Tok gets cocky and does a bankshot off some something only I know about my personal mental monologue that I go…hmmmm….weird. Why am I getting that if ONLY I KNOW ABOUT THAT REFERENCE. And, what’s more, some of the stuff Tik-Tok is pushing me is almost like it’s trying to help me with personal problems. Wow-we-wow.

If Big Tech has gone past simply knowing that I’m I have “CAT” on my mind all the time, but has figured out the more abstract things associated with WHY that term is on my mind all the time, then……oooooooooh boy. The national security implications of that are deep, deep, deep.

There are two I can think off the top of my head.

One is, if, say the United States really did slip into autocracy, I could see the NSA start to hunt down specific people whose minds their monitoring for “anti-MAGA thinking” (or somesuch.) Though, to be fair, I generally think that while they obviously abuse their power, in the war against MAGA, the NSA is probably the good guys for the time being. There’s a reason why MAGAQ-Trump hate “the Deep State” so much.

The other is, if a hot war broke out between China and the United States, it sure would be useful for China to have some sense of how open America’s youth would be to be, say, getting drafted. That’s some serious Soft Singularity intelligence there.

But no one listens to me. Absolutely no one listens to me.

Flipping The Script On #MAGA’s Paranoid Delusional Canon Of Bonkers Conspiracy Theories In The #Novel I’m Developing & #Writing



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Say what you will about MAGA shitheads, they definitely are creative in their sheer insane, bonkers views on the world. So, in the novel I’m developing I actively flip the script on some of their favorite talking points.

It’s worked out quite well, if I do say so myself.

I like the idea of taking their insane fucktard conspiracies seriously and then turning them against them. So one of their favorite talking points — the existence of a Deep State — is a central plot point in this novel. In fact, it’s such a rich vein of surreal insanity that the more I think about it, the more I realize how great it is. It’s really a matter of simply figure out how to flesh it all out so it makes as much sense as possible.

I mean, it makes a lot of sense to me in my head, but putting it down on paper is a different matter altogether.

It’s just so funny to me. In fact, if I work hard enough, it’s possible I might hook some MAGA cocksuckers into reading the novel for no other reason than it strokes their fucking whacked out conspiracy theory needs. I must say in passing that I think the late Stieg Larsson was in to conspiracy theories, so given how influenced my work is by his stuff, it would be an appropriate homage to his novels to do this, even if it is mean to be DL ironic in nature.

As I said, the more I think about it, the more it works. If I could get MAGA people to read the novel for no other reason than I take seriously their paranoid fucking insane ideas, then, well, that would be pretty cool. The whole thing is done on the sly, though. I take is seriously, but with an eye cocked at the audience like, “Can you believe this shit?”

Anyway. It all makes sense in the context of the story. It has taken me two years to get to this point and it’s such a relief to finally reach land. I’ve finally figured out the infrastructure so I can lay out my vision for the canon of this novel. Now comes the hard part of seeing if my writing is up to the task.

A House Trump Death Rattle (Maybe)

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I’m reluctant to say we’re in any type of late-stage Watergate situation just yet. Watergate’s conclusion came about because of a very specific set of circumstances that, because of a lack of precedent, we’ve come to believe is a forgone conclusion.

As I’ve written before, this is not 1974 and Trump is not Nixon. Republicans have no shame and crave power for power’s sake. As such, even though every other metric could be against Trump, Republicans could simply deny it all and stand firm. It’s hard for a liberal democracy to have a functioning Constitution when one of its major parties believes you can only impeach a president if they gain from it politically.

I guess what I’m saying is — the entire fate of the United States rests on Trump, well, being Trump. I would go so far as to say at this point it would actually be out of character for Trump not to do something so completely indefensible, so completely and demonstrably beyond the pale of any type of normal human behavior, that Republicans will find themselves at last defending the absolutely indefensible. If we’ve gotten this far into this situation and we’re not thinking that maybe the Deep State might be the good guys, well,oh boy.

In fact, I will go so far as to say we’re looking for the wrong signs. We’re looking for a major Republican to be Barry Goldwater. Nope. The best we can maybe hope for is a surreal version of The Pence Pivot. If Trump gets the whistleblower murdered, or tweets out a dick pic or tweets the n-word to Obama, Republican leaders will simply say they REALLY voted for Pence and why are you asking the question.

Even then, they won’t even hold an impeachment trial in the Senate.

Having said all that, I would like to tell AOC and a few other people floating around that there’s a chance that things are going to get so bad, so surreal that they are going to be given a masterclass on leadership in real time. I watched on 9/11 as then President Bush simply deflated. He ran away. The nation, for a moment, was leaderless. For a few crucial hours, Rudy was our president.

All I’m saying is, if things get as absolutely surreal as they look like they may, history is watching. They say one’s character comes out best in extreme situations. A few of our elected leaders may be given the opportunity to tell us who they really are, for better or worse.

But we’re not quite there yet. Maybe Bill Barr has proof TrumpUkraine is all an evil plot on the part of the Deep State. Again, at this point, Chris Wallace might suggest the “optics” on that one might not be so great for House Trump.

Maybe the Deep State is like the Second Foundation? Maybe they’re protecting the Constitution? We’ll see.