Be The Power
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
If I was younger, I would pick a random celebrity and write a lot about them on this blog, just to see if any of their “people” noticed. But, you know, I’m just too old.
While, on paper, it would be a fun experiment, it also would be too easy for said “people” to take one look at this blog and think I’m some insane stalker. So, meh. I have better things to do with my time.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
All I can say is, it definitely seems as though we’re careening towards a very, very dark future. As I keep saying, they say you go bankrupt gradually, then all at once and it definitely SEEMS as though in late 2024, early 2025, we’re going to reach the “all at once” part of that particular rule of thumb.
It’s just all very sad. All great empires must come to an end and so, lulz, either America somehow manages to punt our problems down the road or there’s some sort of Black Swan event that saves us — otherwise, yikes, we’re going to implode.
We’re going to turn into an America First autocracy and the post-WW2 liberal world order is going to collapse. Then, oh Lort. Only the good Lawd knows what will happen then.
It just seems very possible that the next few years could be very, very bumpy in ways that we simply can’t predict or control. Trump is a one-person chaos agent and, as such, pretty much no matter what, he is going to put us to the test.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
The issue of what might happen in the next year could be rather profound in hindsight. The issue first and foremost that no one can predict the future. So, I can write all dystopian hellscape verbiage I want, in the end, only the good Lort knows for sure what is going to happen.
Now, in January of 2024, it definitely SEEMS as though Trump is either going to win and turn us into a very unstable autocracy, or he is going to lose and demand a National Divorce to save his sorry ass on a personal basis.
But there is always a chance that either Trump loses and just slinks off into oblivion, or some Black Swan event happens that no one can predict that gives us an off ramp from a very dark future that none of us can now predict.
And, yet, we have to take seriously at least the possibility that some fucked up shit is going to happen in late 2024, early 2025. It could very well be that the United States as we current conceive of it will no longer exist in a year. It could be that we either are just about to transition into a full-blown MAGA autocracy, or we’re just about to depose Tyrant Trump.
I am growing more and more nervous that because of where I live, I may become some sort of domestic political refugee in about a year. That I will be forced out of my home and forced to move somewhere that better fits my center-Left political views.
But at the moment, that’s kind of out there. It could be that lulz, none of that happens and we’ll somehow — somehow — punt our political and social problems down the road another four years.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I’m extremely harmless. I sometimes get drunk and worked up about MAGA and write some…provocative things…but I always calm down and move on to the next thing. I have a novel to finish.
And, yet, I occasionally get pings to this Website from people who are from the base of the ATF in West Virginia and that makes me EXTREMELY NERVOUS. I don’t mean any harm to anyone, I just have some very strong opinions. I understand why the AFT or FBI might be interested in me because I do rant a lot, but if they read this blog on a regular basis, it would also be clear that it’s just me letting off steam.
I hate violence. I hate guns — I really, really hate guns.
I just get worked up because I want to live in a traditional liberal democracy and it definitely seems at times that that thing — my American birthright — is at risk at the moment and I just don’t know what to do about it.
Anyway, please FBI and AFT, believe me when I say I’m a harmless nobody. No one listens to me and usually when they do they get mad. But I will note that when people DO listen to me — cool shit happens.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Now that it’s mainstream Republican orthodoxy that the insurrectionists of January 6th are “hostages,” I wish members of the center Left would gird their loins for the battle royale we face. My fear is that it won’t be until Trump is re-elected and he goes full tyrant that a lot of center Left people will stop being keyboard warriors and start to think about how they can address MAGA fascism in the real world.
I’m not advocating anything. I hate violence. I’m a man of peace, a man of ideas. But I am saying that just telling people to “vote” or “pass it on” on Twitter won’t mean jackshit when 500,000 armed, weaponized ICE agents are running around snatching people off the street if they don’t have their “papers” or if they’re “an enemy of the people” because they wrote that Donald Trump can suck their cock on their little blog that no one reads.
I just want center Left people to get “woke” in the real sense of the word — they need to change their mental frame of reference. Center Left people need to realize that we may be going to the show in the sense that all my hysterical doom shit may be just….the reality that we’re going to have to live with in just a few months.
How likely is all that? I don’t know. I can’t predict the future. All I know is the center Left can’t allow itself to be sucker punched in January 2025 when Trump does exactly what he has been saying he will do for years now — become a tyrannical dictator who rules over Blue portions of the country as a king.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
As I often say, Virginia is actually two states — one Red, one Blue — fused together who hate each other. The divide is pretty much rural versus metropolitan. The thing about a National Divorce, should it happen starting in late 2024, or early 2025, is what happens to states like Virginia?
If Red States really do start to leave the Union, there will be a massive rush from rural MAGA counties for Virginia to follow suit. Meanwhile, the urban areas of the Commonwealth will remain loyal to the Union. I think we would see coups and counter coups in Richmond if the things really got bad.
On a practical basis, if Virginia imploded, I would have to figure out what I would do on a personal basis. I think I would head to Richmond where I have some relatives. But that would probably be just a makeshift solution. Even Richmond would not be safe to stay in very long. I would, I fear, have to leave Virginia altogether for a more stable state north of the Mason – Dixon line.
I would like to think an infrastructure will have been built out by the point that I have to leave RVA, but, who knows. I know I can’t predict the future, so it’s very possible that all of this is just me and my usual hysterical doom shit. But who knows.
All I do know is the United States is a lot less politically stable than we would like to to think. The MAGA Right grows more and more radical by the day and should the time come, I have no doubt that states where MAGA Republicans control the governments will begin the process of leaving the Union.
I suppose what will happen is roadblocks will begin to pop up between Red and Blue states as the process of collapse begins in force. I suppose that Red States — who at this point I think will be the ones leaving the Union — will issue their own passports. And the new Trumplandia government will have to attempt to seek recognition from other countries, probably with our enemies like China and Russia being the first to rush to do so.
But, again, let me stress, all I’m trying to do is make my abstract fears concrete. It could be that some sort of Black Swan event will happen and we’ll simply punt our severe structural political problems down the road another four years. But I do believe, in general, that our next Republican president — whomever that might be — will ben autocrat.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
The key thing is — as of right now, there is zero chance of me ever returning to South Korea. I just have the idea of one day returning on the brain at the moment since I’m not getting any younger. And, really, the world is so big that who knows, maybe I might have the means to return to South Korea, only to get distracted and go to Europe instead.
Back when I was a DJ at Nori bar.
At the moment, I just don’t know.
I only bring all of this up because something mysterious happened in my Webstats — someone went specifically to the post I did of me dwelling on what I would do if I went back to South Korea for a little trip. I have no idea what that means. They were in Canada, so it could very well be someone who knows me and is interested in any plans I might have to return to the Land of the Morning Calm.
The thing about me ever returning to South Korea is I would go back without knowing the context of my return.
It could be that it will be a nostalgic, uneventful little journey and I will return home to go on my next adventure somewhere else. OR, it could be a massive clusterfuck with all these people who remember the Bad Old Me giving me jump scares as they “accidently” run into me and confront me for all the crazy shit I did between late 2006 to early 2008.
The late Annie Shapiro and me, back when I was cute.
But I haven’t been in South Korea for a very long time. While I know I was really fucking weird at times while I was in South Korea the first few times….I’ve changed. I really have. All I’ve done the last decade or so is dwell on what went wrong with ROKon Magazine and how I could have done things differently.
And, what’s more, the person at the center of most of my fucked up behavior — Annie Shapiro — has shuffled off this mortal coil. So, really, everyone should just move on and let me visit my old stomping grounds in South Korea without giving me any grief.
I am very curious if Nori Bar is still open. I’m sure everything has changed if it is. It’s not like I could DJ there again for a night like I used to. I’m sure they just use something like Spotify to pick music, no need for a DJ. I had a lot of good times at that bar, I have to say.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I was leaving the grocery store the other day when I saw a ghost. Or, at least, I saw a doppelgänger for the late Annie Shapiro. As I approached the woman, my mind was in something of a panic: is that Annie?
The late Annie Shapiro
While Annie Shapiro is the only person I know who could successfully fake her own death, I think I have to accept that she is, in fact, tragically dead. But it was surreal seeing someone who looked so much like her.
Annie was probably one of the weirdest individuals I’ve ever met, and this is saying something given how fucking weird I AM. But, who knows.
The crux of how I think about Annie now that she’s dead is that we never had a chance to reconcile. And, yet, lulz, it was a long time ago and nobody cares anymore.
But I continue to think what happened between Annie Shapiro and myself and what a great novel or movie it might make. It was really, really fucked up.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Something curious happened in Miami the other day and it leaves me with a lot of questions. So, here’s what we know — a HUGE number of Miami police officers rushed to the scene around one of the malls in Miami. They apparently went to the scene because a bunch of teens were causing trouble and shooting off fireworks.
Ok, here’s where things get weird.
There is footage — in the dark, natch — of some sort of “creature” walking around the scene as well.
But here’s the catch — that’s all we got. There’s no up close, clear footage of such a huge creature walking around the middle of a major American city. You’d think SOMEONE would have a cellphone with a camera and have recorded the incident in a far less ambiguous manner.
And if there was some sort of space alien involved, where was there ship? And what happened later that night? Was the creature taken into custody by the police? And you mean to tell me that the single biggest event in Human History — Hard First Contact — just happened and everyone lulzed it? No leaks? No people screaming at the top of their lungs that aliens have landed?
It’s all very curious. It does give us a sense of what might happen if Hard First Contact did actually happen. I think you’d be surprised by how blasé people would be once it was clear that the ETs came in peace. I think (most) people would just shrug and move on to the next thing.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
My tendency to be really paranoid served me quite well as an expat in South Korea. In the ROK as an expat, you’re pretty much one sentence away from scrambling to stay in the country. Living in America, though, this can make me come across as kind of bonkers.
But, having said all that, let’s think the issue what the fuck I’m going to do if the absolute worst happens and I am forced out of my Deep Red part of my state when the country implodes because of “vibes.”
At lot depends on how bad things get and how quickly. If things get really bad in the sense that I don’t feel safe being a Blue in a Red part of a Purple State, then, I suppose I’ll flee to the home of family in a Blue part of the state. But if things got REALLY BAD, REALLY QUICK, things are more complicated.
If there was some sort of infrastructure for Blue domestic political refugees to use, then I probably would grab my passport and stuff some essentials in a backpack and head North. With a general destination of NYC, if I could somehow finagle it.
But that’s very speculative and maybe a bit — or a lot — delusional. The key thing for me is I have to be prepared to bounce the moment it’s obvious that my political orientation is suddenly An Issue to the people around me. They say you go bankrupt gradually, then all at once, and that’s my fear — that I’ll wake up one day at some point after the 2024 Election and a bunch of good olde boys with guns will make it clear that I need to leave town — or else.
And, yet, I’m probably being hysterical. I am prone to think up the absolute worst case scenario. I won’t have to worry about any of this. Right? Right?
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