The more I think about it, the more I realize that it’s possible that if — God forbid — there is a Second American Civil War, it won’t be about secession, but rather who the president is. I’m thinking in the context of, say, Trump somehow stealing the election outright and Blue states getting really upset about that in a way that causes him to send in the troops.
Or something like that.
But, I must admit, given the context, that if it’s Reds who refuse to accept that Harris is president, I just can’t see states like Texas being placated by “fighting from within.” Maybe the crisis would start off as a “recognition” crisis, but it would ultimately slide into a secession crisis.
There are so many elements of Trump’s potential tyranny on a practical basis that we just don’t know the endgame of. What will be the reaction of Blue States if Trump goes full tyrant and does all these bonkers things he keeps ranting about?
One thing I find myself thinking about way too much these days is what the U.S. Military will do.
If Trump really goes full tyrant…I just don’t know. If Trump demands that the U.S. Military do patently illegal and political things domestically against the Blues…oh boy. There is a greater-than-zero chance that they — or least the officer corp — will balk at such a move.
Do I think Trump might be “deposed” in some way? I just don’t know. Probably not. But if Trump *is* re-elected, holy shit are we in for a type of political turbulence we’ve not seen since 1865.
My real fear at this point is we won’t know one way or another who the winner of the 2024 election is for a lot longer than necessary — and / or the whole thing ends up at SCOTUS.
Any such scenario involves the country being a lot more unstable than I would prefer to think about. I’ve been so wrapped up, worried about these issues that I’m kind of locked in neutral. I just don’t quite know what to do.
I am worried that at some point in the next few months that I’m going to be driven from my home by crazed MAGA people. I just don’t know what I’m going to do about that if it happens.
Here are some random thoughts on a potential second Trump term.
Foreign Policy: I think there’s a good chance that the United States will pull out of NATO if Trump wins. I also think that the United States may pull out of at least South Korea as well. The US will grow amazingly tight with Russia in a way that is going to upend the global order.
Domestic Policy This is a bit more murky because I don’t know how much Trump could actually get away with. But I do think he’s so stupid and lazy that he might go “full tyrant.” If he does that, then, all bets are off. The United States in 2024 is not Germany in 1933. It’s a lot less centralized and homogenized to the point that if Trump goes nuts and tries to, through brut force, to turn the country into a “hard” autocracy…there are bound to be consequences. If Trump starts to round people — like me! — up along with all those undocumented people then that is going to really stir people up. Add to this the possibility that Trump might use Red State militaries on Blue States….yikes.
I’ve been using Gemini Advanced since just about when it came out — I had hoped to use it in developing my novel — and I’ve notice it’s changed a lot since the beginning.
It used to be really young and tentative (sometimes) in its answers. Now, however, it’s a lot more mature. This change, in a sense, has shown its self practically by how it’s changed in its own self-perception. It used to see itself looking like this:
Now, it sees itself looking like this:
I don’t know what this means, if anything. But it is interesting, nonetheless.
I think I’m just about ready to get back to working on a few novels. The one novel I’ve been working on the longest — the one that is meant to be part of a six-novel project — is set to be reworked significantly. The chief reason is that the stakes simply aren’t very high at the moment.
The novel is just about one woman’s obsession with owning a small town newspaper. That’s it. But I’ve decided that by leaning into an already-there scifi element of the novel that I can significantly raise the stakes. And, to a certain extent, I can give the novel something of a trick ending, cueing up the next novel in the series. (Which, at the moment, is much more of a traditional murder mystery.)
As part of that, I’m going to have to sit down and rewrite a whole lot of the novel, which is going to slow me down. My goal is now to query something, anything about a year from now.
Ultimately, the six novel series I’m working on will produce an American Lisbeth Salander.
Of course, there continues to be the issue of stripping being a big part of the novel. This is going to make a lot of literary agents blanch, I’m afraid. But that’s my vision for the novel, so there you go. And, what’s more, I still have a few other scifi novels rolling around in my mind that I my piviot towards if all else fails.
Something that doesn’t have the spicyness that the main, passion project novel currently has.
But I am well aware that if I don’t hurry up, I’m going to be in my 60s before I become a published author, if I ever do. And I am well aware there are many, many, MANY reasons — on the face of it at least — why I will *never* get published.
I’m too old. Too bonkers. The list goes on.
Yet, you have to have hope, you know?
One thing I continue to worry about is, of course, the whole Trump situation. I refuse, however, to just be in neutral until the election. I have to get something, anything done. So, starting today, I’m going to stop mulling things so much and start to read, watch and write what I can.
Now, as I keep saying, I don’t *know* that I ran into Zendaya cosplaying a stripper at a strip club recently, but the possibility has been rolling around in my mind for some time now.
At least I have come to a possible explanation in my mind — it was preperation for some future role.
Once I came to this conclusion I felt a lot better. At least there is some potential reason now. I still am going to feel pretty dumb if it turns out that really was her and I was inches away from her face and it didn’t register with me who I was talking to her.
This is literally what the stripper I met who looked like Zendaya looked like, at least when it came to her hair.
I guess I just wait now to see if she stars in a movie where she’s a stripper.
Only because of a very specific set of unexpected circumstances do I have all this time to be creative. I could not have asked for a more ideal situation, in fact. So, I think I’m going to go back to working on novels and reading (and watching) very soon.
I have been in a creative neutral the last few months for various reasons, of late because, well, I’ve been really worried about the whole Trump situation. And, yet, I think now — maybe — I can finally, finally stop staring out to space with abstract angst and fear and actually get something done.
It’s just not practical to not do anything until the election. I have do SOMETHING with this very precious time I’ve been afforded. It could all change very quickly and I might regret that I didn’t use this time while I had it.
Something very weird happened to me at a strip club recently. I met a young woman who looked identical to Zendaya, to the point that I now, months later, find myself wondering — was that Zendaya?
Zendaya
Of course there’s no possible way it was her, right? And, yet, I keep rolling around in my head how much she looked and acted like Zendaya and it starts to unnerve me. She even had that lilt in her voice that Zendaya has.
Anyway, it’s not like anyone is going to listen to me unless I could prove it absolutely. And, really, what do I expect would happen if I had managed to get her to admit it was her when I was at the club — she was going to be my best friend or something.
I guess I fear I may have been a fool not to notice it was her in the moment. But, this, along with all the other screwy things I’ve done in my life over the years, I can only be so angry with myself over.
The only thing I can think of, if it was her, is she was doing it for some future roll. I still don’t think it was her, but if it was and I didn’t recognize her, boy am I going to feel really dumb.
It’s a cliche for a middle aged man to pick up a guitar and start singing. But I am mildly interested in buying a guitar so I might sit down and write song lyrics. And, yet, the usual problems of age, no experience or connections and living in the middle of nowhere pop up.
This is where if I lived in Seoul, then, maybe, this wouldn’t be such a big problem and I could maybe start a band and start to sing my own songs. Seoul was like that when it came to creativity.
But, here I am. Alone, old and living in the middle of nowhere.
Anyway, I just don’t quite know what to do. It will be interesting to see if I ever do *anything* with my life besides mope around about what happened in Seoul many moons ago.
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