Tag: We Are So Fucked

Of #TrumpTaxes & The Allegorical Thriller About The Trump Era I’m Writing #AmWriting



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s hard to properly convey how much rage I feel towards the Trump Administration these days. With the punt on the part of SCOTUS in regards to Trump’s taxes, it seem pretty obvious that Trump is going to cruise into a stolen second term.

On the bright side, now I can throw my heart into the novel I’m writing which is meant to be one epic rant about the surreal excesses of the Trump Era. I’m a man of peace, a man of ideas but I also feel extremely powerless to do anything about Trump. So, all I can do is use my native storytelling ability to hopefully get people thinking about what a fucking monsters Trump and his enablers are. The goal is for that rant to be so diffused, however, that it won’t be preachy. It is designed, however, from the ground up to be able to lay out an indictment of extremism on both sides of the political spectrum.

The story is set in the immediate past, right before the pandemic. The second book is likely going to end just about the moment in early 2020 when it became clear that COVID19 was about to strike the United States. I also, for what its worth, do some down low ranting about people being oblivious to global climate change for good measure.

Anyway, as I have said before, I hope to have something of a personal writer’s retreat this weekend. I need some time to just stare out into space, recharge my batteries and maybe drink and read a lot.

I’ve come up with a very unique way to rant about the Trump Era. All systems are go right now to start writing on the first draft sometime after I get back from my writer’s retreat. I still have a huge amount of reading to do. So much reading. But it’s worth it.

Having a novel to develop and write distracts me from being enraged over how Trump and his minions are turning the nation I love into a managed democracy like Russia.

Ugh.

The Great Unknown That Is Trump’s Taxes



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The more I mull it, the more doesn’t seem to make any sense that Trump’s taxes will, ultimately, but the existential issue that we all hope it might be, should they be released. First and foremost, I don’t think we’ll ever see them, or if we do it’ll be long after it’s politically relevant, but let’s play pretend.

If Trump can get away lulzing the Russians putting bounties on the heads of American soldiers, do we really think his taxes will be any different? If you’re that 38% of the electorate that’s MAGA, I honestly can’t think of anything in the taxes that would shake your faith in either Q or Trump. If Trump isn’t very liquid and not really a billionaire….lulz? Trump has proven to the faithful whatever racist fucking thing they wanted from him in the first place. They’re not really thinking about how wealthy is really is at this point.

And even if or worst fears were true and it was extremely obvious that Trump was beholden directly to the Russians from a financial standpoint…so what? I mean, yeah, the usual silence in regards to Trump from the Republican ranks might be even more quiet than usual…but so what. They’ve thrown their lot with him come what may.

In a sense, I think Trump’s taxes are much like the Iraqi WMD issue. Saddam REALLY didn’t want us to poke around his country in a big way, even though he did not, in fact have WMD. Which, of course, led to his downfall anyway. So, in a sense, Trump’s taxes — no matter what we discover in them — will be a big old fat dud.

All I can say is Trump’s poll numbers would have to sink down into the 20s, like, NOW for anything to matter. If the economy tanked in a big way in, say, August-September, then we might be in for a little bit of a crisis. But not an existential one. We’re just too close to the election. Trump’s going to get a pass until Election Day and then the Russians are going to hack into our election systems…and Trump wins.

And it’ll be a solid 18 months before we can have another go at impeaching him, no matter what else happens.

Finished The First Draft Of ‘Part 1’ of The Novel #AmWriting


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, after two years of development, I have reached a important milestone with the novel. I’ve finished “Part I.” Now, to pause for a day or so to clear my mind before heading into Part 2, which is significantly longer.

I’m quite pleased with how things are shaping up.

My vision is really beginning to take shape. I had no idea how hard it was going to be to get to this point. I came up with the plot of this one story, two books concept over the course of an afternoon. I simply did not have, at the time, the storytelling ability necessary to tell what is a reasonably complex story in a very simple manner.

But I really believe in this concept — and am obsessive enough by nature to wade through every possible mistake — and here I am. I’m very, very pleased. It’s just a matter of staying focused on my vision.

The main thing driving this novel is my fucking white hot rage at the Trump Administration. I feel so powerless, that writing the novel at least gives me the sense that maybe I might, at some point in the future, make a difference in a big way.

I guess only time will tell.

The Lincoln Project & The Law of Unintended Consequences



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Like a lot of people who hate the Trump Administration, I’m tickled pink with the potency of The Lincoln Project. And, yet something about it makes me nervous. They’re so good at their mission, that I worry at some point down the road the they may turn their dark arts on a different set of people.

Now, I have no idea how this might happen or who they would go after. In all likelihood, Trump will steal the 2020 election rather brazenly and they’ll keep at it for another four years. Or if Biden does somehow magically win (and is actually able to get sworn in) my fears my never come to be and that will be that.

And, yet, Trump is such a seminal figure in modern American politics that it’s possible all kinds of surreal things may happen in the next four years, no matter what. As I’ve said repeatedly, a Trump-like figure was bound to happen in the United States at some point between 2016 and 2024 for cold, hard demographic reasons. But here we are.

I just worry that a group such a The Lincoln Project which “radical” #NeverTrumpers may realize what a good thing they have and, at some point, become the bane of some of the very groups they’re currently aligned with in the seemingly never-ending quest to end Trump’s reign of terror.

It would be classic mission creep.

But, again, I have no idea how my fears would come into being.

The Stench Of Treason Is All Over #BenedictDonald



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s wild how so many really smart people — the Blue Check Liberals — stare straight at the answer as to why Trump acts the way he does and can’t come up with an explanation.

Trump is a traitor.

Now, let me qualify that statement. He’s probably not a LITERAL traitor in the legal definition, but fuck if he isn’t one in the political sense. The thing about Trump is you can never figure out if he’s a patsy or an actual active Russian agent.

I think, maybe, it’s a muddled mixture of both. He’s so stupid and lacks such self-awareness that he probably is simply a useful fool for the Russians, and, yet, he turns around and pulls 1/3 of our troops out of German by September and you wonder if he’s just a regular old agent.

You see, I think in the end, Trump has half a dozen (maybe more) ways he’s going to use to steal the 2020 election. But his ultimate failsafe is pretty obvious — there’s reason why he’s pulling those troops out of German — it’s a direct quid pro quo for the Russians hacking directly into our election systems.

The question, of course, is will we even figure it out?

I could see the period of time between Election Night and Jan 20th being a period of astonishing instability in the United States. There will be lawsuits. There will be rolling political violence. There will be Republican ratfucking and treason.

And, in the end, Trump will win.

All he has to do is get into his second term so his new second term Veep (who I think may be Gen. Mike Flynn) can become president and be even more treasonous.

Lulz, nothing matters.

Trump Endgame Enigma: ‘Jhi-na Syndrome’



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I love scenarios. I love weighing different factors, asking “what if” and wondering how a number of conditions would work. Usually my scenarios are the absolute worst-case.

So, let’s play the “What if Trump finally lost his mind” scenario.

Here’s the thing: first, how would we know?

Trump is so conspicuous in his instability, that for him to have finally have cracked, something REALLY Big would have have to happen. I am still of the opinion that Trump is more likely to implode than explode and we’ll simply not see him very much in his inevitable ill-gotten second term. He’ll be catatonic somewhere, babbling about the Deep State.

But, let’s say between now and, say, mid-August, a series of things push Trump over the edge. A combination of a pandemic, a depression, BountyGate and maybe even his taxes being released, becomes such a weigh on his mind that he snaps. I think such a decompensation would come a logic trap — he would absolutely want to win and yet he would absolute know he wasn’t going to win. (Though he might never get that bad since it’s obvious the Russians are going to hack into our election systems in exchange for Trump removing 1/3 of our fighting force out of Germany before September.)

Anyway, let’s just say Trump snaps.

I think a number of things would happen at the same time. A lot of things that have been rolling around his mind would pop out. He might whip is cock out. He might tweet out a dick pic. He might began to tweet out out the N-word to any African American who crosses him. He might simple begin to babble vulgarities at every opportunity. Or even stranger things might happen, like he dives head first into Tik-Tok and starts attempting some of the dances there. Or maybe he really, REALLY makes it clear he wants certain people “reminded of the power of the 2nd Amendment.” He keeps doing this now and no one takes him seriously. What if he won’t shut up about it in a rather manic fashion for days or weeks on end?

The next issue is what the reaction would be.

Given how close we are to the election, initially, not a lot would happen different. Republicans would simply ignore the behavior, hoping it will go away. It would take a few days of some seriously disturbing behavior before the pressure would begin to build for something, anything to happen.

This is where things get murky. I can’t figure out how we would ever get rid of Trump, even if he was, say, going out of his way to start a war with the DPRK in a desperate bid to “Wag the Dog.” I might go so far as to say this crisis might go on and on and on and on for months until the election rolls around and, surprise! Trump weirdly wins anyway.

Then we spend three months on edge we try to figure out how we’re going to get Electors to vote for Joe Biden because it’s absolutely clear that because of a quid pro quo with Russia, Trump has illegally won re-election because of hacking on the part of Putin.

I guess the point is — I don’t know how we would ever actually get rid of Trump, even if he fucking totally lost his fucking mind and put the lives of 300 million Americans at risk. We’re stuck with him, no matter what.

An Observation On Trump Scandals



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Trump has an absolute floor of support of about 35% of the electorate. He’s not quite down to it, yet, but he seems to be working his way towards it. That core support of people barely pay any attention to traditional news sources and, in fact, get most of their news directly from Trump’s twitter feed. They’re a bunch of racist, ignorant morons who are willfully destroying the country by supporting Trump through thick and thin.

This leaves people like me extremely frustrated because Trump is pretty obviously a Russian stooge at best and a Russian agent at worst. He has no traditional political accountability and as long as he has that core 35%, never will.

I will note, however, that occasionally he gets himself into trouble that lingers. He eventually peters out like all his scandals, but sometimes he screws up in such a massive way that while he still has that 35% of racist, authoritarian loving assholes, at least those people are made to sweat for a little while.

This issue with “BountyGate” is a prime example of what I’m talking about. While I know that barring Trump, himself, self-owning even more that it will eventually get lost in lead up to the 2020 Election, I find myself thinking about it all the time these days. I’m REALLY MAD about this thing and I can’t stop thinking about how bad either option is for Trump.

Either he’s criminally incompetent and his job or he’s a traitor. He’s going to go with criminally incompetent and weasel his way out of yet another jam, then get the Russians to steal the election for him (or he’s going to steal it himself by going after Electors) and he’ll be impeached AGAIN at some point in his second term, probably either 1 1/2 or 3 1/2 years into his second term. (I’m thinking it’s most likely to happen the same year as an election for various reasons.)

By that point, of course, Ivanka Trump, Tom Cotton or Mike Flynn will be his second term VP and we’ll be nothing more than Russian style “managed democracy.” (Ivanka would be used as a figure head for her veep Tom Cotton or Mike Flynn should she become president. It’s rat fucking like that that authoritarians love, love, love to do.)

Again, let me be clear — the fate of the Republic hinges not on Biden, or Pelosi, or voters. It hinges on the mental state of one Donald J. Trump. If he fucking loses his mind in The Night Of Camp David style meltdown between now and,say, August, then there’s a chance that we’ll at least punt the end of the Republic down the road one more election cycle.

Otherwise, lulz!

How The Trump Era Might End Rather Dramatically On A Political Level



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Trump is never going to leave office. And, really, there’s only one scenario whereby that ever happens for any reason — Trump finally goes completely batshit insane.

But how might that play out?

Well, the key thing to look at is his poll numbers. If there was, say, a 1-2-3 punch of a pandemic, treason AND his taxes finally coming out because of a SCOTUS decision, then, well, the stress of that combined with his approval rating going down into the 20s might be enough to make him snap.

Remember, the point is unless Trump, himself, causes his downfall, he’s never leaving office. With Russian help, he’s going to steal the 2020 election in a rather brazen fashion, cruise into his second term, call for a Constitutional Convention and simply be an American Brezhnev for the next decade. I believe that’s our fate as of right now. Like, 200%.

So, really, like I said, the only way Trump DOESN’T stay in office for the next 10 years or so is, well, Trump. And he would have to do it in a rather dramatic fashion. He would have to explode, not implode, mentally. He would have to become so absolutely deranged that it was a minute-by-minute crisis.

But there’s an added complication — the 25 Amendment is a dead letter, so even if that happened, well, nothing wold happen until the election and, well, lulz, he’s going to steal that anyway, so we’d have a completely insane, deranged president until sometime in 2021 or so. By that point, of course, he will have picked his new second term veep of Tom Cotton or Zombie Hitler or whomever.

And, remember, keep this part at the forefront of your mind: at some point Trump’s political criminality and his insanity may fuse into the same thing. So he will bribe Electors. Or attack them personally on Twitter. Or demand MAGA threaten the families of any Electors who refuse to vote for him, damn the popular vote.

There’s simply no political will to do anything about this as it happens. Lulz!

But I would, however, suggest you keep any eye on his polling. Not until he’s in the 20s will there be any semblance of accountability and even then it will be far, far, far FAR too late to actually help anything.

None Dare Call It Treason #Trump



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The issue right now is if things really are as bad as we fear when it comes to TrumpBountyGate, what are we going to do about it? There really isn’t much that can be done as best I can tell. We can’t impeach Trump again until well into his second term. He’ll never resign. He’s going to steal the election with Russian help.

So, I don’t know.

This goes back to something that is central to the Trump Era — Trump is his own worst enemy. So, really, if we have him dead to rights on this issue, the thing that causes some serious accountability to come to him for once won’t be anything but himself. He may finally flip the fuck out.

I don’t even know how that might manifest itself. I think maybe he might finally snap in a really crazy way whereby he starts to tweet out the N-Word to Obama. Or maybe he joins Tik-Tok and starts to do dances there. Things that are simply so outside the bounds of normal behavior that someone, somewhere, finally sits up and takes notice.

But I’ve been let down by Congress so many times that I honestly don’t think anything of note is going to happen. After a few days of teeth gnashing, things will gradually go back to a Trump Era level of normality.

I would keep an eye on SCOTUS and Trump’s taxes. If Trump faces not only a pandemic and accusations of treason but his taxes being forced to be released as well, then, we may, at last, be going to the show.

The Mueller Report, Trump’s Taxes & (The Potential End of) The Trump Administration



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I often wonder what would be the real consequences if we found out Castro and the Mob were directly responsible for JFK’s death. All the principals would be dead. It might be give closure, but in real terms, it would be a big meh.

The reason I think about this a lot these days is not only the possibility that much of the Mueller Report might be unredacted by a Federal judge, but the small possibility that we might, at last, see Trump’s taxes. We’re so close to the election and Trump is obviously simply going to ratfuck his way into a second term, I honestly don’t see anything of note happening if we learn the absolute worst about Trump.

I mean, if we have absolute proof that Putin has near-absolute financial control over Trump Org…would it even matter at this point? Probably not. Trump is going to have a second term, no matter what and, in real terms, Trump faces one real threat and one real threat only: himself.

The only way I see anything of significance happening to the Trump Administration going forward is if Trump finally loses his fucking mind to the point that he, say, starts a war with the DPRK or something else of similar significance.

We probably would have a few days of uncertainty if Trump’s taxes came out, but in the end, we’re just too close to the election and Trump will never resign so, lulz.

Darkness has fallen.