Tag: Fuck Interior Minister Bill Barr

The Curious State of The 2020 Campaign


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We have two weeks before Election Day and there’s a lot — a LOT — going on. The interesting thing is on the face of it, it seems as though Trump has lost the Mandate of Heaven and we’re headed towards a historic blowout for Biden. I say this because of how tortured shows like Morning Joe are to make it seem as though the race is still up in the air and could go either way.

While that is true, if you read between the lines, it definitely seems as though they don’t want to come off as too cocky. And, yet, if you listen carefully, it definitely seems as though the conditions are there for Trump to get shellacked on Election Night.

But as I keep saying — autocrats never lose.

As such, two weeks is an eternity. So, I guess what I’m saying is at this particular moment, Trump is losing big time. But we’re always just one breaking news story away from all of that changing. Any moment now, I expect a Russian-produced Hunter Biden deep fake to pop out that will throw the whole race up in the air, leading to a Trump victory.

What makes it all so difficult for me to figure out what’s going to happen is how awful Trump is — in real terms — as an actual politician. The only reason why Trump has survived is a very specific set of macro trends that have prompted him up. In real terms, he’s a shit politician who is a massive self-own artist. Trump is just an avatar for white fears about the Browning of America and white, blue color male fears about the growing economic and culture power of women. Trump, as a person, is a lazy piece of shit who takes all of that for granted.

So, as such, at this particular moment, Trump is establishing the conditions for a pretty astonishing landslide against him. But, as I just said, those same conditions make it more likely that the Russians will hack directly into our election systems to throw the election for him and that some sort of Hunter Biden deep fake is going to appear very, very soon — like potentially within hours of now.

Too many powerful people — foreign and domestic — have a massive self-interest in Trump staying in power. So much so, that they could grow far more brazen than any of us could otherwise possibly imagine.

It’s all very difficult to figure out. We have a long fortnight ahead of us.

The Metrics Of The Hunter Biden Deep Fake October Surprise


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Let’s go through why it seems as though very, very soon a purported video (or whatever) of Hunter Biden engaged in some sort of illicit activity is probably going to pop out.

  1. Trump is a traitor
    Trump’s head is so far up Putin’s rectum that it seems logical that the Russians would do anything — anything — to keep that fucker in power. Trump is actively destroying the country and the Russians see Trump as sort of the anti-Gorbachev. Trump would rather destroy the United States than risk any personal criminal liability by not being president anymore. So the idea of him working hand-in-glove with the Russians to facilitate a deep fake Hunter Biden seems logical.
  2. Rudy
    Why go to the trouble of coming up with some bullshit “laptop” disinformation campaign if you’re not going to unlock its sinister second stage. House Trump is about as hysterical as you can get at this point in the political silly season and Rudy has been bouncing back and forth between the United States and the former Soviet Union playing spy. So, seems pretty obvious Something Bad is about to pop out and a deep fake of Hunter Biden is going to be it.
  3. Qanon
    This is just rebranded Protocols of the Elders of Zion which is an OG Russian active measure to (as I understand it) validate pogroms in the Russian Empire, so it seem as though the plan is something like this: Qanon –> Hunter Biden laptop –> Hunter Biden deep fake.

Add to this my continued belief that Trump will mysteriously win just like he did in 2016 by barely winning in some crucial swing states because the Russians hacked directly into our elections systems as part of a quid pro quo for Trump removing 1/3 of our troops from Germany and, well, lulz.

The fix is in.

At this point, the question is will Trump’s innate incompetence and tendency to self-own be enough to save the near-death Republic?

And, don’t forget, I’m of the opinion that even under the best of circumstances, we’re in for a surreal few months. We could see unprecedented political violence on the part of MAGA-Qanon. We could see A Very American Coup (and counter coup.) Nothing is off the table.

Good luck.

The Big Ugly: What I Might Be Getting Wrong About Trump’s Coming ‘Very American Coup’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

My hysterical, dystopian predictions are almost always wrong. And, yet, given that Trump is fucking bonkers and a caged rat at this point, I have a feeling I’m not going to be too far off — Trump is never leaving office for any reason because autocrats never “lose.”

But, for the sake of argument, let’s think about what I might be getting wrong. Is it possible Trump might actually be a normal human being and leave office should he lose the 2020 election?

First — no. This is never happening.

But, again, I’m not perfect. I keep getting things wrong. So, what could possibly happen that might cause Trump to actually not do A Very American Coup with the help his hatchet man Barr?

Well, I think one thing that would have to happen is the result be massive. Trump would really have to fucking lose in such a massive landslide that it was obvious he had lost the Mandate of Heaven. I just don’t see this happening because the Russians are going to hack directly into our election systems as part of a quid pro quo for Trump removing 1/3 of our troops from Germany.

And, yet, I don’t know that that is going to happen — even though all evidence suggests it will.

So, let’s assume for some weird reason Trump actually does, in fact, lose the election. Then what? I think TrumpBarr will do exactly what they would do, anyway — sue. They will sue any obstacle to them staying in power, even to the point of causing the country to implode (The Big Ugly.) The more difficult it is for them to stay in power, the more radical they will become. The only difference might be the context — if it’s a real blowout, it might be a teeny-tiny bit more difficult for SCOTUS to rule in his favor or Republicans to suck his cock. Lulz, who am I kidding. Of course, even if the country is about to fucking implode, SCOTUS will rule in Trump’s favor and Republicans will cling as tight to House Trump as they absolutely can. I wish I was wrong on that one. But I’m note. The Big Ugly would happen in that case, no matter what.

But am I being too dystopian? I don’t think so, but maybe? I guess if Trump actually does lose — and admits it — what he’ll do is go completely bonkers for three months. He will fire anyone he doesn’t like just out of spite. The lame duck Senate will approve any number of surreal nominations. Trump will pardon Jared’s dad, Flynn, and who knows, maybe himself.

The thing about Trump is he’s so unstable and unpredictable that I have a tendency to assume the absolute worst. It could be that Trump will just continue to be his usual bonkers self and any “salting the earth” will be in his usual half-assed incompetent fashion. That really is our best case scenario at this point.

Also of note is it’s not like Trump won’t still have a Twitter account and a golden Rolodex to flip through whenever he wants to cause mischief. He knows all our secrets and he’s going to be desperate for cash.

Or, put another way, even under the best of scenarios, we’re absolutely fucked as long as Trump is alive and in debt. Good luck, folks.

The Big Ugly: TrumpBarr Will Have To Be Physically Dragged From The White House If They Lose


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The old Benjamin Wittes quip is Trump is “malevolence mitigated by incompetence.” Another saw is “autocrats never lose.” By every possible metric, it seems as though Trump, through Barr, is going to stay in power by any means necessary even if there is a Biden landslide.

TrumpBarr would rather destroy the whole country than have Trump risk criminal exposure once he is out of office. Or, put another way, the only way Trump is leaving office should he lose is not only will he salt the earth on his way out, he’s going to demand some sort of promise about not being prosecuted once he’s no longer president.

I would even suggest he might frogwalk Obama between November and January to drive the point across — if you think me indicting Obama was bad, just wait until you try to do it to ME.

The issue is — Trump is an avatar for some seriously fucked up issue in American society. He’s like political herpes. Now that we have him, he ain’t going anywhere. Or, at least, his influence in government isn’t going anywhere. I think Trump is literally going to stay in office for the rest of his life, but that may be overstating the issue.

It could be that we’re simply in A New Era and Trump will be like Reagan was — there was life before the Reagan Revolution and life after it. I’m not one of those people who thinks Republicans will run away from Trump. To the contrary, Trump will be the new heart and soul of the Republican Party. Everything will be relative to him, just like it used to be everything was relative to Reagan.

Or, put yet another way, while I keep hearing people talk about how “fragile” our democracy is, I think we’re no longer a democracy. We’re now, officially, an autocratic managed democracy and the only possible way we have some sort of House Trump Interregnum is how God-awful incompetence Trump is at being an autocrat.

As such, we might have a few years of respite from autocracy, but soon enough, a new autocrat will take power and that will be that. It will be Trumpism without Trump. And I still think Trump will be like a reverse Gorbachev. Instead of bringing freedom to a country, Trump will strangle it.

Though I will note that while I’m often wrong, something really big has to happen for Trump to simply never leave office. TrumpBarr will use the same media narrative management techniques they used with The Mueller Report. The more difficult is for them to do this, the more radical they will become to the point that it’s rather brazen that A Very American Coup is taking place.

In the end, we may have to go through what I call The Big Ugly. And there are no assurances that the Good Guys will win if that happens.

Our Coming Hunter Biden Laptop Deep Fake Debacle


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, that’s how Trump plans on winning. This mysterious laptop of Hunter Biden’s Republicans have discovered will have a video on it that will be released soon that makes every Qanon fucktard spooge their pants.

From Russia with love.

This is going to happen very, very soon. Probably in a few days.

We spend about a week debating as to how real it all is, but it serves the purpose of the Second Comey Letter and Trump “wins.” Soon enough, we learn it was a deep fake done by the Russians.

Add to this my continued belief that the Russians are going to hack directly into our election systems as part of a quid pro quo with Trump for him removing 1/3 of our troops from German and, well, there you go.

Trump wins and our dystopian nightmare kicks into high gear. We leave NATO, form a direct alliance with Russia and politically we’re identical to Russia. People start to get snatched off the street and pushed out of windows. We have a solid 40 years of this before the dead hand of demographics finally makes House Trump’s rule untenable.

Autocrats Never Lose


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As I keep saying, two facts are heading towards each other. On one hand, it definitely seems as though we may see unprecedented numbers of people vote in this election. On the other hand — autocrats never lose.

Add to this my personal belief that Russians are going to hack directly into our election systems as part of a quid pro quo with Trump for him removing 1/3 of our troops from German, and you have the makings of a massive clusterfuck — The Big Ugly.

Or, put another way, come January 20th, 2021, Trump is getting sworn in for a second term, no matter what. Even if it means we have dueling swearing in ceremonies and the country implodes. Even if Trump loses in a landslide, he’s going to sue everything and everyone in the way of his victory and he will win 5-4 or 6-3 at SCOTUS.

This is going to happen even if a sizable chunk of the Republican Establishment publically tells Trump to cool it and to leave office.

It’s just not going to happen.

I say this because Trump knows he’s probably got a real risk of being indicted if he ever leaves office. And the Russians have him by the short ones, so he has every reason to destroy the country before leaving office. And he has Bill Barr to make sure all this troubles go away.

The more difficult it becomes for TrumpBarr to stay in power, the more radical they will become. We could very well have A Very American Coup before it’s over with to the point that it’s seen as something of a political 9/11 — not even The New York Times will be able to “both sides” this — they’re going to have to admit that a coup is taking place.

The question, of course, is what the reaction of the average person will be to this Very American Coup. There’s something of a spectrum in my opinion — either there’s a lot of gnashing of teeth on Twitter but nothing really happens i the real world, or we careening towards The Big Ugly of some sort of civil war / revolution.

Of course, there is the “Trump Salts The Earth” scenario where Trump, after quickly bringing the country to the edge of The Big Ugly abruptly gives up, but tries to destroy as much as possible on his way out. He fires people, he pardons people — including himself! Or he won’t leave office unless he can quit and get Pence to pardon him.

The darkest scenario is Trump holds up in the White House and just rants on Twitter all day and we have to physically remove him from the Oval Office while a mob of angry MAGA shitheads surround the building to defend the Dear Leader.

The Bad Guys Are Going To Win


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I just don’t see any way that the bad guys of TrumpBarr don’t win. Even though I’m very pleased with how many people are voting right now, in the end, it won’t matter — TrumpBarr will likely nationalize the National Guard across the country Election Night and stop voting “until SCOTUS can figure things out.”

Or whatever.

We’re too far down the road to tyranny. In fact, we’re IN tyranny. Autocrats never lose. There’s going to be A Very American Coup and because we can’t get the conservatives-who-aren’t-MAGA to care, it’s going to be successful. There may be some violence and threats of secession, but in the end, nothing will happen.

It will all be decided at SCOTUS and it will just be a more extreme version of 2000. I just don’t see any other outcome. Even if there was a landslide, you have to actually count the votes, you know. TrumpBarr will either never let that happen, or they’re just going to sue everything and everyone to SCOTUS and win there.

Darkness is here. We’re in a dystopia. Get out of the country while you still can. Proles like me will just have to make do as best we can. I’ll be snatch off the street or pushed out a window by ICE soon enough. Maybe sent to a re-education came and die there. Who knows.

The only way that doesn’t happen is if people are willing to risk things important to them in the real world. I just don’t see that happening. And if they do, Qanon or whomever will respond in kind and the whole country will implode.

If that happens, then TrumpBarr uses the Insurrection Act from here on out. Maybe there will be a dystopian Second Reconstruction. Autocrats never fucking lose.

Good luck

Various ‘Big Ugly’ Scenarios


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We’ve officially reached the point in the political silly season when all this data is getting thrown at you on a near-hourly basis and you have no idea what’s important.

So, as it stands, because of how badly 2016 hurt, I’m simply assuming that “autocrats never lose” is our future. I’m sitting back, waiting for the inevitable political 9/11 on the part of TrumpBarr. They will do this attack even if Biden wins by 10 points (or more) and the entire country outside of GOP-MAGA-Qanon wants TrumpBarr to leave office.

And they’ll win, for no other reason than we just don’t have it in us to go the South Korea route where we grind the country to a halt until TrumpBarr leaves office. And, remember, even if The New York Times says, “there’s a coup going on” that may not be enough to get conservatives-who-aren’t-MAGA to even tacitly agree with massive, rolling political protests against TrumpBarr.

We would have to literally be on the cusp of a hard Big Ugly — revolution / civil war — for #MoscowMitch to walk to the White House and suggest TrumpBarr leave office because, lulz, they lost the election. It could really get that bad. Nothing TrumpBarr is doing right now indicates they have any intention of leaving office for any reason, even if they lose in a landslide.

Now, I think the Russians are going to hack directly into our election systems as part of a quid pro quo for Trump removing 1/3 of our troops from Germany. If that happens — which I think it will 100% — and Trump mysteriously wins in exactly the same way he won in 2016, it will be interesting to see if we figure out what happened before or after the Electors vote.

I think the whole thing will be a lulz. Trump will “not lose” and we’ll leave NATO and make a direct alliance with Russia, Hungry, Rump England, and the Philippines. The bad guys will win, the dystopia will be here and we’ll have to wait about 40 years until the end hand of demographics makes House Trump’s control over the country untenable.

That’s what’s going to happen.

But, let’s daydream. Imagine there really is a blowout Biden Blue Wave. Then what?

Well, first, no matter what, Trump won’t concede. TrumpBarr will sue everythig and everyone in the courts. But if the country is on the cusp of The Big Ugly, it’s at least possible the courts choke this time and we don’t have a replay of 2000.

But another possibly — and I’ve seen this discussed elsewhere — is Trump “salts the earth” on his way out. He pardons everyone he can possibly pardon — including himself! He fires the FBI director and force-confirms some MAGA-Qanon lackey. He actively tries to destroy the country on the way out.

Another horrific possibly is he goes Hitler in the Bunker on us and simply won’t leave the White House no matter fucking what. He demands MAGA circle the White House and we have a huge standoff on the front lawn as we struggle to get him out safely..

One interesting thing is Trump keeps egging his supporters to fuck shit up and, to date, they haven’t taken him seriously. If he finally fucking snaps because he can’t simply sue his way into victory, then the long-feared Big Ugly might happen for the same reason the violence at the end of Do The Right Thing Happened — fuck you.

The point is –the conditions are there for The Big Ugly to start very, very, very soon. Like any moment. It could be a Oklahoma City type bombing somewhere. A false flag. Anything at any moment.

One thing that is curious is how many people are voting NOW. What does that mean for election day itself? Is it possible that so many people will have voted by election day that the day itself will be rather mundane until Trump simply won’t concede? (Or he “wins” mysteriously.)

November to January is going to suck, is all I know.

The Metrics Of ‘The Big Ugly’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

All signs point to Trump simply never leaving office, no matter what. I say this because of Bill Barr. Even if Trump loses in a massive landslide, Barr is going to be Trump’s hatchet man and make sure all Trump’s troubles go away. In the end, it all endsup at SCOTUS and Trump wins 5-4 or 6-3.

And, yet, it has to be noted that this isn’t going to happen in a political vacuum. This is not 2000. The reason why the Republicans were able to steal that election was the country wasn’t as polarized and it was something of a sucker punch. It took us years to process what happened and why.

While I absolutely believe at this point that TrumpBarr will “not lose” the 2020 election, there is at least small possibility that I’m wrong. In the end Trump’s incompetence will finally, at last be his downfall. But the nation will have to go through a traumatic experience to get rid of him.

Here’s the idea — it soon becomes apparent that TrumpBarr has lost “the mandate of heaven.” So much so that even Senate Republicans, sated by a huge tax cut and hundreds of young, hack MAGA judges might begin to distance themselves from The Dear Leader.

One metric to look at is Sen. Lindsey Graham. If Graham starts to make it clear that Trump should leave office because, lulz, he lost the election, then that’s a good indication that even though Trump is using the full weight of the U.S. Government to stay in power, that the political ground has shifted subtly beneath him.

But the biggest metric to look at his Trump himself. If Trump’s insanity and political criminality fuse — which they will — then it’s possible we enter a gotterdammerung situation where Trump, using Barr, sort of forces the issue. He forces EVERYONE to take a side on an existential level. So much so that the Republican Establishment itself begins to fragment.

I guess you could call this the “Very American Coup” scenario. In this situation, TrumpBarr’s attempt to “not lose” the election is nothing short of a political 9/11 attack. Everyone knows what’s going on. Everyone is on the same page. And it all boils down to if you’re a Trump “true believer” or not.

So, even though even Senate Republicans don’t want Trump to take everything to SCOTUS, he does anyway. He wins there and the country is so fucking enraged at what has happened, that the fucking bolts finally pop off and the United States implodes along the lines of the Soviet Union in 1991. But probably in a far more messy, violent manner — The Big Ugly.

It just seems like 2020 is it. This is the election where 50-odd years of macro trends all crest at the same moment and all of our nightmares and dystopian fears happen at the same time.

I honestly don’t know the endgame. I honestly don’t know if TrumpBarr wins or if such a brazen extra-political attempt to stay in power will be enough to get conservatives-who-are-not-MAGA to get woke or not. If we can’t get that crucial part of the electorate to finally show some backbone, then on a political level, at least, the United States in 2021 will be identical to Belarus in 2021.

A Nation On Edge


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Two things are happening at the same time right now. One, we’re seeing massive in-person voting 20 days before the election. If that keeps up, we might see 30 million people vote before election day.

On the other hand, TrumpBarr will never fucking leave power for any fucking reason.

As such, we’re in for The Big Ugly.

Now, I am well aware that a lot of people think Trump’s too much of a lazy, incompetent moron coward to simply stay in power no matter what. While he is, in fact, all those things, Interior Minister Bill Barr is NOT those things. So, it seems logical to assume that even if Biden somehow wins with a massive popular vote total, Barr is going to lulz that.

TrumpBarr will use the full power of the U.S government to challenge any and every aspect of the election that hasn’t broken their way. This will go to SCOTUS and the result will be 5-4 or 6-3. The end, fuck you, America.

And, yet, at the same time if what everyone expects — Trump leaving office because he has lost in a historic landslide — doesn’t happen because of a dubious SCOTUS decision….well, things may get ugly. Like, Big Ugly, ugly. I say this because of the Mueller Report. Barr, through simple media narrative management was able to keep Trump in power.

As such, it seems logical that Barr will start off trying to do the same thing and grow more radical the more difficult it becomes to do that. This is a very risky game Barr is playing because once you lose the Mandate of Heaven, you should politely leave office.

If it becomes impossible for The New York Times to deny that a fucking coup is taking place, well, then, The Big Ugly has begun. Things are going to grow existential. Given that apparently bad guys always win these days, I can only assume that in the end, America will be under the TrumpBarr jackboot.

We just don’t have it in us to do what is necessary to catch #MoscowMitch’s attention — bring the country to its knees.

It just isn’t going to happen. After all is said and done, TrumpBarr will “not lose” the 2020 election and that will be that. We’ll leave NATO, form an alliance with autocrats around the world and the dystopian will officially be here. The ICE camps will be come death camps and Qanon’s dreams will come true. Maybe they’ll empty the cities and there will be American Killing Fields.

The stakes are really that high.