In 2016, there was a certain momentum to the Trump campaign. You could feel it in the air. The country really wanted him to win and so fate stepped in an brought us the Second Comey Letter.
This time, meanwhile, there definitely seems to be some momentum with Harris.
And, yet, I have a growing concern that just because Harris might win, doesn’t mean we’re done with Trump. It seems very possible that her winning would be just the beginning of a long, drawn out process that would begin election night and only end with Harris being sworn in.
My fear is that we will see a quantum leap worse political violence from what we saw in 2020 – 2021. I’m really worried that things might get out of hand and God-only-knows what might happen.
I don’t quite know when it’s going to happen, but very soon, I’m going to throw myself back into working on the novel. And it might not just be the passion project. It might be the other novel(s) I have rolling around in my mind.
I don’t know when it will happen, but it will be soon.
I’m beginning to grow restless and I need to be productive. It’s only because of a very specific set of circumstances that I have this particular situation in my life and when things change — as they inevitably will — I would prefer not to look back with regret.
I may start work on the novel tomorrow.
Now, of course, there is the looming election I have to deal with. I hope — hope — that no matter who wins that I won’t have to deal with some disruption in my life that forces me to end my work on the novel. I don’t think that is going to happen, but I am worried that something will.
I could be a domestic political refugee before it’s over with, the way things are going. But let’s hope not.
The thing that really worries me is about a second Trump administration is how people will react when his tyrannical inclinations are no longer abstract. What happens when he actually starts to be a dictator?
Now, if Trump wasn’t so fucking stupid and lazy, I would say that he could easily transition the United States directly into a MAGA autocracy without any problems. But, Trump is really stupid and lazy and he’s probably going to be very ham-handed in any transition of the USA from failing democracy to full-fledged autocracy.
Here’s what I think will happen in a Trump second term — he’s probably going to rule by executive order. If the House is Democratic, he is probably going to be repeatedly impeached for various things and the Senate will lulz it to the point that we’re all rolling our eyes about how many times they have tried to get rid of Trump.
Meanwhile, about 1 million wealthy, smug liberals are going to flee the country soon after Trump is elected. This brain drain is going to get so bad that Trump is going to lock the country down. I think there’s going to be a shocking change in TV content — specifically late night TV.
Late night TV is going to be neutered in one fell swoop. That is going to be a change that the average person that maybe isn’t all that interested in politics will notice.
Now, all of this will happen in the context of potential uprisings in Blue States over Trump literally being a tyrant. This is where things get fuzzy and murky. I just can’t game out what will happen relative to the U.S. Military.
Will they follow Trump’s orders, or will they balk and sit on their hands? It seems pretty clear that Trump is going to force the issue of civilian – military relations to the breaking point.
That is when things will get really interesting because I simply can’t tell you what might happen. It could be that using the military on domestic opponents will be a bridge too far and they simply ignore whatever Trump has to say.
If that happens, then it could be that either the military collapses or Trump leans into paramilitary groups to do his bidding.
I just don’t know. I just hope the motherfucker doesn’t become president. That’s all I got at this point.
I saw yet ANOTHER person who was clearly interested in my passion project novel poking around this blog. They went from looking at the link about Lisbeth Salander to that about Corrie Yee. Now, I’m by nature extremely paranoid, so my first reaction is — “Oh, shit, someone is going to cherry pick my idea for some sort of screenplay.”
My heroine — who looks somewhat like Corrie Yee in my imagination — has a sleeve tattoo like Megan Fox does in this picture. (Totally different design, though)
And, yet, you can’t live your life in fear and paranoia. So lulz, I’m going to keep working on the novel until something pops out that makes it clear that my idea has, in fact, been “stolen.”
My hunch is, if it is “stolen,” it would be that two elements of my dream, my vision which are publicly known — that the heroine Union Pang would have a sleeve tattoo and look a lot like an older version of Corrie Yee — is what would be used in any screenplay.
Corrie Yee
The issue is — I’ve been working on this fucking thing so long that it’s inevitable that some element of it would be used independently by someone else. This just would be an instance of someone using cherry picking some elements I put out pubically.
I live in oblivion — how was I supposed to know anyone would give enough of a shit to do such a thing?
There are any number of reasons why someone would be interested in my novel’s heroine other than stealing the idea, I’m going to just chill out for the time being.
I am just about ready to throw myself back into working on the novel, but for the fact that I’m locked in neutral, not knowing how the 2024 election is going to turn out. What I think I’m going to do is at some point next week, I’m going to lurch back into my normal headspace and THEN I will start to write a lot again.
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.
American politics is so fucking tribal at this point that there just is nothing — absolutely nothing — that will change the minds of people voting for Trump. Every possible bad thing you could say or reveal about him is backed into the political cake.
Which makes me again wonder if, in the end, this is who we are in 2024. Is this is it? Is the free, democratic America I grew up in, over? Have we finally reached the point where, generally, people want to live in an autocratic state of blood and soil?
Is that what’s going on?
At the moment, less than two weeks away from election day 2024, I just don’t know. It’s a mystery. And, what’s more, even if we defeat MAGA this cycle, I just don’t see MAGA going away — we’re going to have to face it in 2028 and 2032.
And, in a sense, things could get even worse with the rise of AI and androids. Maybe, if we defeat MAGA racism in 2024, it will be MAGA bigotry against sentient AI androids in 2028 or 2032. Something like that is very possible.
You must be logged in to post a comment.