Tag: Autocrats Never Lose

Trumplandia: It Appears America Is Entering Its Imperial Era

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely looks as though Trump is going to be a transitional figure that leads us into a full blow autocracy that is semi-imperial. I suppose this means that whomever succeeds Trump will be Augustus Caesar, the person who formalized the transition into a semi-monarchal form of government.

How, exactly, this works out is still up to debate.

But Trump seems determined to destroy the last vestiges of democracy in the USA and only his age prevents him from simply changing — or ignoring the Constitution and being “emperor” for the rest of his life.

Yet I can’t predict the future. I don’t know what’s going to happen. But it will definitely be interesting to see how far Trump’s tyranny can go before someone, somewhere notices it and there are, I don’t know — protests? Maybe that will never happen.

Maybe we’re just going to shrug ourselves into autocracy.

Trump 2028? (Ugh)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I need to get the fuck out of this country. I fucking hate MAGA with a white hot passion and, yet, here I am, stuck in a country swirling the drain into autocracy. So, I just stew in my juices, I guess.

The latest offense to common decency — among many — is the idea that Steve Bannon is floating that Trump can run for a third term. This makes me very angry. I want to pin down my far more conservative relatives — who I love dearly — down about if they would vote for a third Trump term.

But I know what would happen — they would either wave the concern off, or laugh in my face or somehow just simply not answer the question. Because I know, in the end, they probably would vote for Trump’s third term.

When Trump’s Abstract Tyranny Becomes Concrete

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It seems to be we are in something of a lull before the the mass chaos of the second Trump Administration. There are a lot of elements to the prospective Trump Administration are only vaguely comprehended.

What happens when Trump actually does begin to arrest prominent “Resistance” politicians. Then what? What is going to happen? Will there be a huge reaction in the streets, or will people just shrug as we slide directly into hard autocracy?

I guess the point is — maybe we need to buckle down the hatches for what might be about to happen.

Trump Won Because Of Macro Issues

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of the last remaining elements of our barely functioning democracy is there is an ebb and flow to presidential elections. It just so happens that the center-Right in the US is a fetid miasma of shit.

So, it was inevitable that Republicans would win one way or another. Or, put another way, the average person simply could not take the cognitive leap to think, “I have to vote Democratic to save democracy.”

And thus, here we are.

The Morning Joe Kerfuffle

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I used to listen to the Morning Joe podcast (the first hour of the show) pretty religiously. But since the election, I don’t think I’ve listened to it once. And now that’s learned that Joe and Mika went down to ding-bat Trump’s Mar-a-Largo to kiss the ring and bend the knee….ugh.

Just fucking ugh.

This reminds me of how the Biden Administration is thinking of giving preemptive pardons to a number of people that the MAGA fascists have said they want to imprison.

But I think such thinking misses the point — MAGA doesn’t care if the people Biden might pardon are innocent or not. They just want to hound them — into prison or out of the country.

So, I don’t know what to tell you. We just have to accept that the USA is probably going drift gradually into a legalistic autocratic state like Russia. And if Trump does the obvious for him — do it all in a kneejerk way — then, oh boy. Maybe things won’t happen as calmly as we might otherwise want or believe.

It Seems Inevitable That Trump Will Arrest Congressional Democrats One Day

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

With all the talk of the coup attempt in South Korea, I find myself thinking about how something similar could happen here. The most obvious way is at some point after the Congressional mid-terms (should the Democrats win) they decide to impeach Trump for something and he decides to arrest them all en masse.

I think *that* would be the last shiver of American democracy, more than anything else because I think he would get away with it. SCOTUS has already said he’s above the law, so, lulz, seems like he could pull off such a coup scenario pretty easily.

All the lawmakers would be in jail by the time enough people realized what was going on, given how big and distracted the country is, in general. I have a very low, dark view of how things are going to play out over the course of the next four years.

I think 2024 will be the last free-and-fair election in America history for the rest of my life — at least. We’re going to become a legalistic autocratic state like in Russia and that will be that. And because I will never bend a knee, Trump — or one of his successors — will order my death.

Good times!

The Rise & Fall Of Crooked Media

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This is just me thinking off the top of my head, so if you want some sort of researched depiction of what has happened to Crooked Media look elsewhere. But, in general, I’ve listened to Crooked Media back before it was still Keepin’ It 1600.

I’ve really enjoyed Crooked Media over the years, but at some point around the time there was a push to remove Biden from the running to be the 2024 nominee the media group kind of jumped the shark.

There was a moment when it just seemed as though the media group had lost its way. It was saying things that seemed way more elitist than what I remember. Do I think it can recover?

I honestly don’t know.

A lot depends on how bad things get with the potentially tyrannical second Trump administration. I suppose it’s possible that the Kash Patel run FBI will make the whole thing moot by shooting Crooked Media down.

But, who knows?

I think the key element is Crooked needs to stop smelling its own farts. It’s just way too smug at this point.

The Catastrophic Collapse Of American Liberalism

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The great joke that has been played on everyone is, of course, that American Liberalism has been crucified for the sins of the American Left that hates liberals with a passion. So pretty much, all the “woke” stuff that has hurt liberalism in the US isn’t even liberalism.

But, despite this, I suspect what is going to happen is, baring, I don’t know a DPRK nuke blowing up NYC specifically because of a Trump screw up, a reign of “just good enough” MAGA tyrants for the rest of my life.

Either Trump pushes through a Constitutional Convention so he has a lot more power for the rest of his life or we enter a semi-imperial era in our nation’s history where it’s just Trump after Trump after Trump from here on out being president.

And because Americans are generally complacent, lulz, it won’t matter. I’ve come to believe that its the “just good enough” part of the equation that is going to save Trumplandia — because of income inequality, America otherwise would be ripe for revolution. (Not that I’m advocating any such thing.)

Anyway — I still want to leave the country. As soon as possible. But for various reasons that just isn’t possible at the moment and so I will have to suffer the slings and arrows of being a minority of one in Trumplandia.

Blues Could Make A Comeback Pretty Soon — BUT

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

But for the fact that I just don’t see the US ever having another free and fair election again anytime soon, I would say given what a catastrophe Trump’s second term will be that Blues will make a big comeback as soon as possible.

So, what I expect will happen is the US is going to slowly circle the drain and in 20 years we’ll be a total MAGA autocracy and I’ll be long gone (or dead) because I wouldn’t shut my mouth about how much I fucking hate MAGA.

I suppose there are any number of black swan events that might happen that could upend this particular dystopian hellscape, but I wouldn’t get too excited. We’re stuck with MAGA for the rest of my life, I fear, no matter how fucking bad things get.

I suppose if, like we lost a few major cities to specifically Trump bungling a crisis with the nuclear-armed DPRK then, yeah, maybe that end MAGA. But racism is a hell of a drug.

I will note in passing that Blues need to reflect deeply on how they come across as white cancel culture snobs to “real America.” (Whatever that means.) The average American thinks Blues want everyone to be gay or trans and that they care more about pronouns than helping people with everyday problems.

This is the result of a massive, viscous propaganda machine that pumps out a lot of MAGA garbage against Blues as a whole. I just don’t have any ready answer to that particular problem.

It’s an example of how, in the macro the US is just historically fucked.

I Don’t Know What To Tell You

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The issue is that apparently America is now a white Christian ethnostate and we’re just going to have to get used to it. It’s going to be interesting to see, however, what happens when a lot of these abstract issues become very concrete.

What happens when all these dystopian things that Trump has promised to do actually happen? What are people — even some people who voted for him — going to do then?

I honestly don’t know.

It could be that we’re just going continue to lurch into fascism without even a hickup. People just won’t care. And that will be that. People will be pushed out of windows like they are in Russia and it will be just a bit old lulz.

I continue to want to leave the country as soon as possible. But for various reasons, that’s just not going to happen anytime soon — if ever. So, I’m kind of stuck. I guess we’ll just see what happens, huh?