The Case For Selling CNN

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Usually, when people start to talk about a media property being for sale and you have to deny it — that means said media property is for sale. So, apparently, there is some chatter surrounding CNN.

Let’s see what the case would be selling it.

Its current owner, Warner Bros Discovery has a massive amount of debt. And it’s pretty easy to imagine a bidding war over CNN if it was put up for sale. Instead of the estimated $1 billion, CNN might sell for $3 or $4 billion.

But question is, who would have the means, motive and opportunity to buy it and why?

My first guess is someone like Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk. Remember, the United States’ democracy has one foot in the grave, and as such, our new autocratic state sure would like CNN under the ownership of someone like Musk who would probably turn it into a Fox News clone. Meanwhile, if Bezos owns it, he could do something with it and The Washington Post.

Then, of course, there are a few women billionaires who might be interested in buying CNN. Everyone from Laurene Powell Job to MacKenzie Scott might want to buy CNN.

In a sense, CNN is the TV equivalent of The New York Times when it comes to a name brand news property that everyone assumed would never be for sale. I have my doubts that Rupert Murdoch could get his hands on CNN, but I could see our new autocrat President Ron DeSantis allowing some sort of other crazed conservative plutocrat to serve as Murdoch’s proxy.

Anyway.

The Great Irony About MAGA & Their Civil War Bloodlust

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner


I keep saying this, but it’s true — the great irony about MAGA is they’re so blinded by rage at the “woke cancel culture mob” that they’re totally oblivious to how they’re politically ascendant.

All they have to do is be patient and they’ll get everything they want without firing a shot. That’s it — just be patient. And, yet, here we are, with a growing chorus of enraged MAGA people calling for a “National Divorce” or even more direct violence against individual law makers that they don’t like.

It’s all very very dumb.

I still don’t think we’re going to have a civil war for no other reason than because of the ebb and flow of politics, it’s nearly inevitable that the fucking fascist MAGA Republicans will gain control of the White House as part of the next presidential election cycle and away we go — America becomes a fascist state.

As such, there are only two ways we might have a civil war.

  1. Trump is the Republican nominee
  2. A Democrat wins the 2024 election and Red States bounce.

    If either one of those happen, then, yes, states will start leaving the Union. I suppose there is a third option, which would be we just don’t know WHO the POTUS is by the time they’re supposed to be sworn in, but that’s very, very unlikely.

    I can’t predict the future — no one can — but I do think late 2024, early 2025 could be some of the most momentous months in American — if not world — history.

My Second Track Scifi Novel Is Really Interesting

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So. I have a second track novel, a scifi novel that has a lot of heart. It’s one long rant about how people refuse to acknowledge the climate emergency that we currently face.

It conceit seems pretty obvious to me, to the point that I could see someone stealing a march on me in movie form soon enough. And, yet, I really love the idea — an am angry enough at MAGA — that I’m willing to risk it. No one ever got anywhere in this world without taking a risk.

I’m really allowing myself to be as fantastical as I like with this scifi story. I have the basic plot down in my mind, the trick is to flesh it out as quickly as possible. I’m not going to live forever.

I’m playing it as safe as possible with this novel — a single male POV who tells the whole story that hopefully will come in under 100,000 words. My hope is that maybe, if all else fails, I can sell this scifi novel first and use that as leverage to sell the longer thriller I’ve been working on for a few years.

I have another pandemic-themed scifi idea in my mind that I may begin to flesh out soon, too. I like the idea of being able to bounce back and forth between different projects now that my thriller novel has stabilized some.

But, I don’t know. It will be interesting to see how things work out.

It’s Sad That My Dream Of A Usenet-Inspired ‘Twitter Killer’ Will Never Happen

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

In the end, I think all my dreams of someone cherry picking the best bits of the Usenet UX to design a “Twitter Killer” said more about my dissipated youth than anything else. No one was ever going to listen to me and the only way it was ever going to become reality was if I learned to code and showed people my vision in a practical manner.

As it is, lulz.

So, in a sense, it was all a huge waste of time. And, yet, I also think the same foolish and obsessive element of my personality that led me to rant about my dream of bringing back Usenet in some form has helped me when it comes to working on a novel.

There is that, I guess.

Anyway, I only even mention it again because someone from California did a Google search that led them to some of my writings about the Usenet UX. I have no idea who they were or their motives, but it reminded me of what we lost in social media UX over the last 30 years.

The funny thing about it all is, of course, that we’re zooming towards a whole different era in technology based around the metaverse and AI (AGI?) So, yeah. I need to stop dwelling on Usenet and throw myself into working on my first novel before even novel writing has been co-oped by the ravious chatbot revolution.

‘America’s Next Civil War Coming’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I just don’t see the United States having a civil war. I do see the United States slipping peacefully into autocracy whenever we have another Republican POTUS. And, yet, for the sake of argument, let’s game out what might happen.

There would need to be some sort of catalyst for there to be “civil unrest” in the United States any time soon. I say this, even as I believe the United States is very unstable and it wouldn’t be too hard to push us into a civil war or “civil unrest” at some point.

But, barring some sort of catalyst, I think we’re fine until at least late 2024. I still think you need to get out of the country as soon as possible if you really believe there’s going to be “civil unrest.”

However, here are some reasons why we will have a civil war, starting around late 2024, early 2025.

  1. Republicans have come to glorify political violence
    Something you see a lot these days within the bullshit echo chamber of the MAGA New Right is the belief that because “liberals won’t leave us alone” that they are being “driven” to extremism. There’s a lot of leading not-so-vague talk as to what all this would ultimately mean. But it’s clear that for a number of “thought leaders” within the MAGA New Right that they have accepted that at some point in the future, they’re going to have to resort to violence to get what they want.
  2. Republicans no longer believe in democracy
    It is now clear that like any good fascists, Republicans no longer believe in democracy unless it’s for the specific purpose of gaining and keeping power. This view of the system they’re supposed to a part of leads them do extremely destabilizing things that help push the country to the brink.
  3. Trump 2024
    Just Trump being the 2024 nominee would, in itself, be enough to cause a civil war at some point in late 2024 – early 2025. He just has a special knack for “owning the libs” in such a way that if he stole in 2024 election and said the “quiet part outloud” that Blue States would grow so enraged that it would be they, not Red States, that left the Union and caused a Second Civil War. But Ron DeSantis is polling exceptionally well at the moment, so either Trump politically shivs him at some point, or he co-ops him, making him his VP, opening the door to DeSantis becoming America’s Putin at some point down the road a little bit.
  4. Steve K Bannon.
    Bannon and his toadies are actively working to destroy the framework that we use to administer free and fair elections. So, it’s very easy to imagine a situation where this gambit works in ways that Trump himself is too idiotic to pull off personally and it will be so egregious that, again, Blue States leave the Union and we have a Second American Civil War.
  5. Extreme negative polarization
    We’re in for a bump four or so years, no matter what, because negative polarization, on a systemic level, has reached a critical mass. When one of your political parties is fascist and would rather crash the global economy instead of even appear to work for the good of the nation — you got a problem.
  6. A lack of shared values
    As the big blow up on Twitter in the last 24 hours about a Stephen Colbert song and dance gag about getting vaccinated proves — we can’t even agree on what’s funny. A combination of this and negative polarization is leading to the United States being two nations, one Red, one Blue and when we get around to attempting to elect the next president, the system simply won’t be prepared for the passions it will stir up.
  7. A potentially historic miscalculation on the part of Republicans
    It’s possible that, much like European powers in the lead up to WW1, when the time comes and Republicans have a choice between peacefully transitioning us into autocracy or fucking with us all so we want to take up arms, they will choose the latter not because they have to, but because they want to. It’s possible that by the 2024 — 2025 period, Republicans will see a civil war as their only choice to consolidate power, even if it’s clear that they could get everything they ever wanted within the system they so obviously loath.
  8. SCOTUS sides with MAGA on the “Independent Legislature” concept.
    I really don’t know that much about this idea other than it would pretty much give MAGA free reign to ignore the popular vote and use its power over state legislatures to deny Democrats the White House for, well, forever. Once it dawns on Blues that they simply will never be allowed to take the White House again, that might be the final breaking point.

And, honestly, the only thing standing in the way of an autocrat becoming president in 2025 and seizing “total control” pretty quick is any potential cleaving between MAGA and the Republican Party that takes place between now and then.

Given what I’m seeing right now, it definitely doesn’t seem as though that’s going to be a problem. At this point, it seems as though Republicans will first win power in Congress in 2022, then win the presidency (one way or another) in 2024 and that will be that.

The autocracy we feared during the Trump Era will come, just four years later than we all expected. But…

There’s a real chance that our transition from liberal democracy to autocracy won’t be as smooth as I think — there could be a civil war. One side — or the other — won’t accept the results of the election and the country will finally buckle. All the nightmare scenarios that I came up with in 2020-2021, will just happen in 2024-2025.

If what happened in 2020 is any indication, the first sign that we would have that something was amiss would be on the local level. Instead of people who simply do their job as Americans and do the rather perfunctory duty of certifying the win of A Democrat, this doesn’t happen. In crucial voting districts all across swing states, Bannon’s “spiritual shock troops” either refuse to certify the win of A Democrat, or they go so far as to YOLO things and switch the win to Trump.

As this happens, the tension in United States escalates day by day. The very rallying cry of MAGA in 2020 — “Stop The Steal” will be adopted by the center-Left when it becomes clear that the MAGA New Right is hell bent on brazenly stealing the 2024 election in broad daylight.

But remember, the center-Left has a very different personality than the MAGA New Right. The center-Left, for all it’s problems with “cancel culture” and being “woke” is still actually connected to reality. So, there would be a struggle between the natural inclination of centrist Liberals to let the “process work” and Leftists who would want to burn everything to the ground given how corrupted everything had become.

All of this turmoil on the local level would find elections in crucial states thrown into the political realm where MAGA state legislatures and Secretary’s of State would begin to actively ensure that A Democrat is prevented from winning. Every day between Election Day 2024 and Certification Day 2025 things would grow more and more unstable in the United States as it became clear that Bannon’s long-planned “administrative coup” was actually going to work.

There would be mass confusion. Lots of lawsuits

And, remember, if Trump is involved, as all of this is going on, he would do everything in his personal power to rile up both sides. If his ongoing, progressive cognitive decline has gotten bad enough, he might even go transactional.

It would be around this point that I could see Blue governors begin to make serious plans to leave the Union. A lot would depend on what California was willing to do. But it would definitely make sense that California would be the first state to call a Secessionist Convention in preparation of leaving the Union if the 2024 election is, in fact, stolen.

But by some point between Thanksgiving and Christmas, you could see some sort of summit of Blue Governors where they debate their plans to leave the Union if the very thing that the MAGA New Right wants — to turn the United States into an autocracy — actually happens.

And as we approached Certification Day in January 2025, the last step in the crisis would happen. If you thought Certification Day 2021 was bad, just wait until Republicans are actively going over and above what they did then when it rolls around in 2025. So, the system will have been corrupted at both the local and state level. And then if that doesn’t work, Republicans will again try to throw the election into the House and Senate to buy time, if nothing else.

So, let me be clear — anyone who thinks we’re going to have some sort of MAGA New Right revolution a la The Turner Diaries — is a fool. Any Second American Civil War we have is probably going to be started by Blue States leaving the Union out of disgust that the fix is in.

Therefore, by the time Certification Day 2025 rolls around, it could very well be a foregone conclusion that we’re going to have a pretty organized civil war. Republicans have no shame and don’t apparently care about the consequences of their actions, so, lulz, we could find ourselves in the absolute worst of worlds because not only are states actively thinking about leaving the Union around this time, but the whole process of figuring out who is POTUS will be languishing in Congress. Republicans, because they are politically blood thirsty and will cheat, will win the power struggle, but there’s a chance states will begin leaving the Union.

It won’t be deranged, individual MAGA New Right blowing stuff up in some sort of rearguard action. It’s going to be a Blue Nation verses a Red Nation. A lot of the same things that happened in the First American Civil War will happen in the second. The U.S. Military will implode as people from Blue States leave it to establish a new Blue State military.

But one thing we have to expect in late 2024 to early 2025 is a mass migration of people across the country as people no longer feel safe living in an area of the country that doesn’t fit their politics. It could be rather frightening.

If it were, God forbid, to happen, I would guess that a Second American Civil War will begin between Certification Day 2025 and Inauguration Day 2025. In other words, as Trump is being sworn in, mass chaos will have erupted across the United States.

Once the hollowed out American military turns it attention to the Blue rebellion at the behest of Trump, it won’t be too long before WMD are sized and used by both sides. Not only would America bomb itself into oblivion with its eyes wide open, but it will be done in the context of WW3 definitely breaking out across the globe because the US will be too busy imploding to ensure the continuation of the post WW2 global order.

How’s that for a New World Order.

So, here goes. Here’s how the individual states would handle A Second American Civil War, probably starting in late 2024 when it becomes clear that Reds are going to brazenly steal the election. I don’t think this is going to happen — I think we’re just going to slip peacefully into autocracy — but it is at least possible. I’m NOT going to do every state because, lulz, I don’t know the internal politics of each state well enough to do it right.

California

If Blues really decide to have a National Divorce, it will be California that probably is at the forefront serving the papers. And the key issue is — war aims. I think at first the war aims of the Blues will be to simply start, say, the United States of Canada. It will only be much later in any conflict that Blues get sucked into fighting the longer-term goal of maybe establishing the United States of North America. And that would happen because Trumplandia could possible begin a Final Solution for POC within its territory and, as such, the second phase of the civil war would be one of liberation. But that’s extremely speculative on my part.

Everything will hinge on what California wants to do. If it simply wants independence for itself, that’s a lot different war than if it joins with other Blue States to establish a new, larger state. But whatever happens once the 2ACW starts, California will be the “Arsenal of Democracy.” If they want to establish a Blue Union, then California would put itself on a war footing. It would call up a few million young men and women into a new Blue Army and away we go. A lot would depend on the state of the US Military, but the case could be made that it might implode, leaving the individual states with the ability to fend for themselves.

California would quickly secure Oregon and Washington then swoop through the plains states to link up with major Blue States in the old Upper Midwest. They would crash into Texas in the south and that would be a Battle Royale, though it’s possible because Texas is shifting blue that Texas might simply implode into an intra-state civil war and Blues could secure the state a lot easier than one might otherwise expect.

But the point is — as goes California, so goes the Blue Union cause.

Texas
Texas is a state that is really difficult to game out because while MAGA has turned into a Red stronghold, on the ground, the state is shifting Blue long term. As such, when our national politics finally collapses and we’re dealing with the existential it’s possible that Texas will simply implode. There could be a massive intra-state civil war that leaves it open to Blue Union forces from the West to swoop in and take it over. Or, at least, a lot of it over. But between when the civil war starts and when Blue Union troops come to the rescue, we could all be talking about the Siege of Austin as MAGA surrounds that particular blue dot in a purple state and want to wipe it off the face of the earth.

In a sense, Texas probably has the most to loose from a 2ACW. Texas would probably be the site of a huge amount of fighting as the difference between the Blue shift in the state’s practical politics slams up against the autocratic state government. Or, put another way, Texas is a lot less stable than you might think. It will likely be the source of a huge amount of domestic political refugees who will either endup in camps, or simply flee the state altogether, only to return when (hopefully) Blues win the civil war and there’s a Second Reconstruction.

Oregon
The thing about this state is it’s ripe for a huge clusterfuck. Of all the places in the Union in the lead up to any potential 2ACW, Oregon is the state I could most likely see some sort of “Troubles” taking place. There could be a pretty bloody Battle of Portland as all the crazed Far Right Militia’s swoop down on the city and decide to end the “Antifa Problem” once and for all. Then, of course, there’s pretty good chance that all of that will be for naught when California troops come from the south and consolidate Blue control over the state. Not that it won’t come at a very, very blood cost. But California is just too powerful not to be able to seize both Oregon and Washington in the early stages of any 2ACW. Even if California simply wants to go it alone, the mass chaos of Oregon might pull them into the state for some sort of peacekeeping mission.

The Plains States

Outside of Texas, the Plaines states may see their fates during a 2ACW largly out of their hands. They could shift from Blue to Red and back again as the two sides fight it out. They have small populations and economies and if California wants to link up with Blue States in the old Upper Midwest, then, they may see their extremely Red politics change in a rather abrupt, violent manner. These states are an example of why it would be so dumb for Red States to want a civil war — the values of small plains states are being forced upon Blue States and Blues aren’t really doing anything about it. But if there was a civil war, the Red Plains States would be forced to change their ways rather quickly.

The Old CSA (At least some of it.)
At first, a number of states of the old CSA would explode into joy if there was a 2ACW. States like Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina would have you believe they are already half way out of the Union as it is because of the evil libtard “groomers” and, as such, if Blue States left the Union the populations of the old CSA states would be very, very happy. But. And this is a big but, as the war progressed and everything went to shit there would be a natural inclination on the part of white Christians in these states to make POC scape goats. There would be a rapid radicalization of the politics of these states to the point that something akin to a race war might break out. Or, if not that, then at least Nazi-style concentration camps would be established with the aim of enacting a Final Solution once and for all. This would, in turn freak the Blue States out to the point that even if they were free of the United States, they might rejoin the battle simply to stop the Final Solution from happening. This is all extremely speculative, of course, but I’m simply gaming out what already exists and then assume the worse.

Florida
I used to think that Florida would break up into about three states, given how diverse it is, but no more. I think it would be a fully autocratic state under DeSantis — even if he was POTUS at this point — and a lot of young men from Florida would face up against young men (and women) from California as the war progressed and got worse and worse for everyone concerned. The already fucked up politics of Florida would grow significantly more radical to the point that it was a one party fascist state.

Georgia
The thing about Georgia is Atlanta. If there was a 2ACW, then it’s possible that within the state it would be Atlanta versus everyone else. Atlanta would be a very Blue stronghold and the rest of the state would be so Red that it could all get very bloody. Of course, Blue forces from outside the state could swoop in at some point and help take stabilize the situation.

Virginia
As I’ve said the last time I wrote this scenario up, Virginia is two states that hate each other. Of all the states of the Union that might find destruction as part of a 2ACW, Virginia is at the top of the list — even more so than Texas. The state would collapse into coups and counter coups. The rural Red parts of the state would go all Pol Pot on the Blue parts of the state and there would be a lot of political scores settled by extremely radicalized rural Reds who wanted to make sure drag queens of the woke cancel culture mob could never teach their kids critical race theory again. I wish I was joking or exaggerating, but I’m not.

Heartland

The so-called “American Heartland” is where the worst fighting of any 2ACW would take place. States like Ohio and Indiana would be diehard supporters of Trumplandia and they just would not go down without a fight. It would be the type of fighting not seen since the end of WW2. And it would be happening in what was once the most stable country in the world. As I’ve mentioned, a lot would depend on what Blue war aims were. If they just wanted to start the USoC, then my dark fears probably won’t happen. But if, for some reason, those war aims change and the issue becomes bringing the US back together again (probably with Canada by this point) then, well, all bets are off. It would be a very bloody pitched battle.

New York City

A 2ACW might be a tale of two cities for NYC. On one hand, there’s a chance NYC could become something akin to a Free City and on the other it could get nuked by Trumplandia. Any 2ACW would probably see the city flooded with refugees, maybe even including yours truly. But one thing is for sure — the long term tension between Upstate New York and NYC will grow in the event of a 2ACW to the point that NYC may break away politically in some way. Update New York has a lot of room for political refugees and, as such, you could see the population of some of the Update New York cities might balloon as a result.

New England
I think in the even of a 2ACW that New England would be flooded with political refugees to an unprecedented extent. People fleeing all parts of Trumplandia would go to New England, potentially in hopes of getting across the border to Canada. Should the Blue Union unite with Canada, then, of course, that dynamic would change.

In closing, I would note three things. There’s not going to be a 2ACW if Blues don’t have any leadership. They currently have no effective leadership, so a lot of abrupt heroes would have to bubble up to the surface once it became clear that Blues had to leave the Union. Also, all of what I’ve described above has to be taken into the context of very real possibility that WMD would be used by both sides as the war progressed. And, remember, if the United States is too busy bombing itself into oblivion, then the prospect of a “Great Reset” in the guise of WW3 is a very, very real possibility.

Apparently, My Mind Wants Any Novel I Write To Be An Allegory

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, I’ve done it again with my second tract scifi novel — I’ve come up with an allegory for the modern world. What’s more it’s also an opportunity for me to rant at great length about how much I fucking hate people who deny global climate change.

I’m going to use subtext, of course, to do all this ranting. But it is interesting that the first thing I do once I start to seriously flesh out this scifi concept is to turn into an allegory.

But that allegory works really well. What’s more, as currently conceived, there’s actually more than one allegory involved. Or, I suppose, you might say there are different “layers” to this novel that you need a “key” to unlock. Or something. Something like that.

Anyway, it’s interesting. I’m really enjoying being able to piviot to a different story every once in a while when the mood strikes me.

I still need to read more and I still need to think seriously about working on some short story ideas.

‘Limited Time Only’ #lyrics to a #pop #rock song

Limited Time Only
by @sheltgarner
Please give credit if you produce or perform

things are dire
there’s no doubt
when you’re gone
and I walk about
without any fret
that you’ll be out of my net

limited time only
is all we got
limited time only
is all we got
limited time only
until we drop

a tingle in my toes
of the reget I feel
without you present
in the end we all have
a limited time
on this earth

limited time only
is all we got
limited time only
is all we got
limited time only
until we drop

(bridge)
everything is safe
let’s call it a date
you and I forever
no one can pull us apart
even if we dart back and forth
like a cat under foot
looking for a bite to eat

because remember
we all have a limited time
a limited time only
to make peace with the past
before it’s all just a memory
forgotten without sass

So Much Grifting In The Online Writing Community

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One thing I learned from starting ROKon Magazine in Seoul is how just by deciding to go a direction, any direction, people will scream at you that you’re doing it wrong. I think about this fact a lot now that I’m pretty far into not just the second draft of my first novel, but developing a second tract scifi novel.

There is so much grifting going on when it comes to the online writing community. Don’t get me wrong — there is a lot of benefit found within the writing communities found across the various social media platform. But there is a lot, a LOT, of hokum and grift generated by people who want to take advantage of people who don’t know what they’re doing, but they do know they want to be a novelist.

As such, I’ve decided to tune out as much as I can from the online writing community. I only even talk about the novels I’m working on because I’m 100% extroverted and can’t help myself. Sigh.

Anyway, my 50th birthday is looming and I really need to hunker down and try — try — to finish something so I can begin to query agents as quickly as possible.

‘Flying Blind’

I continue to be puzzled by what is going on with the United States. The latest bonkers thing is Marjorie Taylor Greene calling for a National Divorce and, as such, a civil war. It was inevitable that she would take things to the next obvious stage in the nation’s continuing lurch towards autocracy or civil war.

The key reason why I just don’t see there being a civil war is modern American temperament. Someone I know who is really smart continues to tell me that the First American Civil War happened pretty much exclusively for economic reasons and there the battle over being “woke” is not an economic problem and as such, lulz — no Second American Civil War.

And, yet, there’s a first for everything

It could be possible that the United States will be the first nation in world history to destroy itself because of “vibes.” And, to be fair, there is an economic element to what’s going on in the United States. The fact that white Christians are so freaked out about the white Christian baby “birth dearth” that they want to ban birth control entirely is, at its heart, an economic issue.

But, in general, we’re still too far out from 2024 – 2025 to know for sure one way or another what is going to happen. I will be, however, totally shocked if its Red States who leave the Union if push comes to shove. Red States have no reason to leave the Union — they’re politically ascendant. All they have to do is be patient.

Meanwhile, if there’s going to be a National Divorce, it’s going to be because Blue States refuse to “bend a knee” to autocratic MAGA fascism.

I just don’t see that happening, though. We are, if anything, going to slip peacefully into a MAGA autocracy and that will be that.

A Hot Take On MSCHF’s Big Red Boots

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

For once, something fun-interesting is happening where nobody gets hurt and we don’t have to worry about some sort of contrived battle over “is it woke” or not. I’m talking, of course, about MSCHF’s Big Red Boots.

Big Red Boots

They have sprung up out of nowhere and now can be seen all over my Tik-Tok For You Page. I knew that they would be really expensive, but when I found out they were over $1,000 — I blanched.

And I think the fact that REALLY WEALTHY people are wearing these boots in a “who me?” type of way does have a political element to it in the sense that it all goes back to how much income inequality there is in the United States at the moment. With the advent of the Chatbot Revolution, things are probably only going to get worse.

So, if the country collapses into revolution and civil war, I guess we will look back at these very cool, very expensive Big Red Boots as a rather innocuous ping from our impeding doom.