Tag: the Fourth Reich

Dreading The Potential Rise Of Stochastic Terrorism In Our American Anocracy

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There is a real chance that we’re going to see a rise in stochastic terrorism in the immediate future. I have no idea how exactly it might happen, but it definitely would make a lot of sense in a broader historical context if you assume we’re facing the stark choice of autocracy or civil war.

Or, put another way, America’s 2024 election could very well resemble Germany’s in 1933. It was very violent and turbulent, to the point that it could barely be considered “free and fair.” But the issue we have to remember is, things are not officially out of control. The lingering, chronic crisis that we’ve been in since around 2015 is now accelerating and growing more severe by the moment.

A sudden uptick in organized stochastic terrorism would sucker punch the center-Left in the United States. We wouldn’t know how to react. And, yet, talking to my Traditionalist relatives about such things, they indicate to me that stochastic violence might be a “red line” when it comes to their continuing support for MAGA.

They’re willing accept all of the accoutrements of fascism, but when it comes to violence in the streets, it makes them blanch. I don’t know how much of that is specific to just my relatives and how much of that is something Traditionalists in general believe.

But the point is — all the conditions are there for something dramatic to happen on the stochastic terrorism front. There are a LOT of MAGA true believers and dieharders out there with AR-15s and we’re on “truth” away on the part of Trump for them to start running around, picking off FBI agents in an effort to scare the Federal government into staying away from Trump.

And all of this would be happening the context of Trump being the 2024 nominee and brazenly stealing the 2024 election with the aid of Steve K. Bannon’s “spiritual shock troops.”

Anyway. I’m growing concerned. Maybe you should, too.

There Will Be No ‘DeSantis Pivot’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

A whole lot of people continue to put the entire fate of the most powerful nation in the world in the hands of fate by assuming that their “hope” will get them out of the current Trump-induced crisis.

But what we have to accept is Trump could very well become very, very toxic politically…and yet become POTUS again. And if he feels he might get indicted and booked, he could very well begin to demand Red states to leave the Union in an effort to intimidate the Federal government into letting him off.

The thing that isn’t going to happen, at least without a lot of difficulty, is any sort of pivot towards any of the other would-be autocrats who want to be Trump’s successor. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wants to lead the Trump without Trump version of MAGA and, yet, Trump is in the game again and if anything he’s growing more powerful by the moment.

And, yet.

I want to make clear that we’re not only past the Event Horizon when it comes an existential choice of autocracy or civil war, we’re now in a danger zone of political upheaval that will come to a head in late 2024, early 2025. One thing I fear is going to begin to happen at an alarming rate is stochastic terrorism against groups like the FBI, trans people and anyone else the MAGA New Right hates for various reasons.

There is a real that Trump, who is demonstrably losing his mind, will grow so absolutely politically toxic — and yet refuse to go away — that he, unto himself, is the single reason why the country collapses into something along the lines of a civil war.

But it hasn’t happened yet.

Maybe it won’t. But with Trump, we just don’t know. There are just too many elements to all of this that I can’t game out. I do believe, however, that we’ll have a lot better understanding of things the moment we learn how well the Democrats did with the 2022 midterms.

If Republicans gain control of the House again, then things will grow very unstable very quickly. They will impeach both Biden and Harris repeatedly. They will impeached any number of other people they don’t like. In fact, I would suggest that for the years 2023 – 2024 that’s all the Senate will do — be in session to consider this or that person’s impeachment.

And there is, of course, the idea that Trump could demand to be Speaker. Why he doesn’t talk about doing that more, I don’t know. That seem so on-brand for him as a quasi-autocrat. Anyway. What do I know.

Some Trump Scenarios For The Next Year



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

No one can predict the future. So take that into consideration. But here are some scenarios as to what might happen between now and about a year from now.

Massacre
This is one of the more acute endgames for the clusterfuck that is the Trump Ministration. In this scenario, Trump finally gets his own Tienanmen Square on the National Mall. The bloodshed is enough that he’s quickly forced from office well before Election Day. I don’t really see this happening for a number of reasons. Or, put another way, there might be a massacre, but Trump still won’t leave office.

Rolling Political & Racial Violence
In this scenario, the rolling political violence I have long predicted for the fall simply happens as part of the rolling protests we’re having right now. The two merge as the year progresses and there’s massive violence on Election Day. America has its own “Troubles” until sometime in April-May 2021 when we finally figure out how to pull the now completely insane Trump physically out of the Oval Office

Trump Self-Owns By Going Crazy
There’s a real chance that Trump’s criminality and his lurching insanity will fuse to such an extent that he’ll take the whole country down with him. By the time his enables finally get with the program, it will be far, far too late to save the country and something akin to either an autocratic managed-democracy or a civil war happens. It all happens because no one is willing to stick their neck out in the real world to stop it.

Startup Saves The Day
In this scenario, someone figures out a way to organize the protests happening right now via an app. It would be designed to find leaders and to coordinate these protests in a meaningful manner. This is really me daydreaming because no one ever listens to me.

The Elector Crisis
Trump loses the popular vote, but goes after Electors on a personal level until they vote for him. Or there’s a 1876-type commission because Trump claims a huge amount of voter fraud and SCOTUS believes him. This all ends up with a massive clusterfuck and we either endup with an acting president or knowing way, way more about the personalities and personal lives of individual Electors than we should.

Bides 100 Days
Bides first 100 days — should they happen — may simply be him struggle to keep the country together as Trump rants on Twitter about how MAGA has to kill people to protect their 2nd Amendment rights.

Trump’s Most Dangerous Game



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While Trump is an absolute moron, he is getting advice from someone who isn’t: Putin. So, it has occurred to me there’s a reason why Trump is shipping in Texas prison riot police to DC — he really wants to murder peaceful protesters in cold blood.

It not too much of a stretch to imagine the following: the goons from Texas serve as the Hell’s Angels at Altamont and there’s violence. Enough violence that the entire nation is shocked. This leads to direct combat(!) between the goons from Texas and the US Military.

The America Putin Wants.

The final battle is joined as everyone picks sides.

How exactly that would go down is anyone’s guess. I do think this would be the rolling political violence of the fall I have long predicted, just a few months early and in a different context. Now, there are a number of scenarios you could imagine at this point.

One is Trump really misjudges the whole situation and he is effectively forced from office in a rushed impeachment process at gunpoint on the part of the U.S. Military. But, given how things are likely to actually happen, it’s possible it could get even messier. It would happen very, very fast.

It would be total chaos (which is what Trump’s bestie Putin wants.)

And, really, I would say Trump would win, as always, but for how moronic and incompetent he is. He’s such a self-own artist that when faced with an unprecedented extra-political, extra-Constitutional attempt to remove him from office, he simply won’t know what to do.

A Very American Coup



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Not once in our nation’s history have we ever had a coup in the traditional sense. So, it’s rather surreal to me that I find myself thinking how a coup might happen now.

If any military coup happened, it would be so chaotic in nature that it’s impossible to predict exactly how it might happen. But my best guess is Trump finally gets the massacre of peaceful protesters in DC that he’s so excited about and the military does something completely out of the ordinary for it on a historic and institutional level — it turns on its commander-in-chief.

Given the nature of American political tradition, the only way I could possibly imagine this happening would be the top military leaders contact Nancy Pelosi and tell her in no uncertain terms that the House has to do a snap impeachment of Trump….NOW.

Then, using the same hint-hint methods, the military gets the Senate to do a snap trial and conviction of Trump. This would be the only way for everyone not to feel dirty about what had just happened. Of course, this could all be a setup. Trump could be trying to consolidate power in the military by pushing it to the breaking point, then hoping there would be some sort of coup attempt so he could purge those people. (This happened in Turkey a few years ago.)

All of this is meaningless, of course, because Tom Cotton is likely to be elected president in 2024, no matter what because of the same macro issues that elected Trump in the first place.

Lulz!

The ‘Little Green Men’ Have Landed

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ugh. Why am I the only one to notice this:

American Little Green Men
Russian Little Green Men

V-Log: #WuFlu & The Birth Of The Fourth Reich

The End