I’ve come to believe that the very existence of American billionaires is a travesty and they should be taxed at such a rate that they no longer exist.
And I say this as someone who loves capitalism and thinks everyone should strive to make an honest living a best they can. It’s just, if your economy has billionaires, something is out of whack. Or, if you want to be even more nuanced about it — if your economy is producing billionaires that pay little or no taxes, something is seriously wrong. Wrong to the point that it’s immoral.
But this is simply an impossible idea in modern, peaceful America. But if there was a civil war, ahh, then you could probably pull it off. So, given a Second Civil War is the high risk, high reward option (with autocracy being the other) I would propose that if we have to have a civil war (which I hope we won’t) that we simply seize the assists of billionaires to fund the war effort.
And, yet, all of that is very fantastical. Any war — civil or otherwise — is not something anyone controls. And, let me be clear, there is a good chance that your side won’t win if there is a civil war. So — don’t start a civil war.
If the only other option we had wasn’t autocracy, but, say, a new Progressive Era, then that would be a peaceful way to soak the rich to the point that the U.S. Government could be solvent and we could go about our business without lurching from crisis to crisis.
But, obviously, Republicans like all that instability and they don’t want to fund the government unless it helps them get re-elected. To the point that they vote against popular laws, then take credit for them!
The point is — the United States is probably careening towards a massive political reset caused by a Second American Civil War. If we’re going to bomb ourselves into oblivion, we might as well start thinking about how we’re going to fund it.
Using my abstract strategic thinking abilities to wargame against the wargamer Steve K. Bannon (don’t forget that K!), makes me feel empowered. So, here goes.
Steven K. Bannon
Bannon’s wargame is this — he and his MAGA New Right acolytates are working largely in broad daylight (podcasts, etc) because they can. Yes, I’m sure they’re plotting in the dark somewhere, but, in general, they’re making it very clear what they’re up to and, fuck you, lib.
How do we strike back?
First, I would say take what human tumor Bannon is up to seriously. If he wants to play Lenin, then I will play Trotsky. I’m well aware how bad a historical analogy that is — Trotsky became so close to Lenin that he was named his successor in his will before Stalin did a number on that — but I’ve always felt an affinity to Trotsky.
Or, put another way, if I was force Quantum Leap style to jump into the body of a Russian Revolutionary, it would be Trotsky. I have an affinity for how, as I understand it, Trotsky had a number of opportunities to beat Stalin but kept choking at critical historical moments. Which sounds like something I would do.
Anyway, how do we take Steve “Lenin” Bannon seriously? Well, I would say, first we listen to him. We study him. We listen to his very badly hosted podcast and take him both seriously and literally. One thing I share with Bannon is I often get worked up about about abstract speculation that never turns out to be true.
With Bannon, it’s from a combination of wishful thinking and hitching his horse to malignant Chauncey Gardner, Donald Trump. With me, I create a narrative for this or that thing that just, ultimately, doesn’t exist. So, in a sense, that’s a shared known known weakness of the two of us.
Once we pay attention to Bannon and his fellow reactionary radical revolutionaries, we start to think existential. There will be no voting reform. It’s unlikely the filibuster will be eliminated or reformed, either. Looking forward, because Bannon is a sly and evil, we have to do triage. Trump is above the law. Even if we did somehow manage to neutralize him as an autocratic force, there are a dozen other would-be autocrats in the wings, waiting to do exactly what Bannon is trying to do with Trump — turn the United States into an autocratic white Christian ethno state of “blood and soil.”
Bannon’s goal is to pull this off peacefully. If he can just corrupt the election process institution itself enough, then everything the MAGA New Right will be seen as what happened in 2000 only, a quantum leap beyond. In other words, the very “media narrative” that earnest goomba talk about on Joe Rogan’s podcast will be used to their advantage.
The entire election process will be so corrupt that your CNN and MSNBC talking heads will just shrug and tell everyone to calm down — the “system worked” and things aren’t so bad, now are they? That will be their “media narrative,” of course, until the media itself is purged and, lulz, sucks to be you lib.
Another thing I would do, on an individual basis, is think existential. What are you good at? If there was a prolonged crisis — be it autocracy or civil war — what organic talents do you have that you could use to help support the cause of liberty? But for you to do that, there’s something else you would have to do first — decide what’s important to you in the real world.
What makes Bannon so dangerous is the so-called “Resistance” is so busy having a circle jerk on Twitter with its “booms” and “devastating” retorts that he’s busying effecting change in the real world, where it actually matters. He’s thinking existential in the real world, while at the moment, everyone who might oppose him there is too busy drinking wine while watching Maddow and growing their essential oils business.
Ugh.
The only way to fight back against Bannon at this point on an individual basis is to pull back and wait. Think existential and study him closely — listen to his podcast — and take him both seriously and literally. When he’s not ranting about how people like me are a joke, he and others like him and suggesting that I’m “forcing” him to radicalize and embrace political violence. Talk about snowflakes.
I know that sounds rather abstract. What you want is a VOX practical explainer that is simply, cogent and explains small things you can do between now and January 2025 that will ensure you and your loved ones are safe.
Sorry. I have no idea what to tell you in concrete terms. There still too many unknown unknowns for me to be able to do that. All I know is don’t rely upon “hope” at this point to fix anything.
The era of hope is over. The era of preparation has begun.
The thing about the first civil war was how it radicalized President Lincoln, who was, for the most part, pretty moderate. It is difficult for the average modern person to understand how radical abolition was when Lincoln embraced it as a war aim. If you want some sense of the lead up to the Emancipation Proclamation, the late William Safire wrote a huge tome of a historical novel called “Freedom” which is about that very thing.
Anyway, since Americans are the vast majority of the time extremely laid back on a macro political level — we’re not French, after all — only very rarely do you see moderates pick up the banner of radicalism. The most obvious time this happened was the Civil War Era, but, to a far lesser extent “radical moderates” also popped up around the Great Depression as well.
In fact, when it came to the First Civil War, it was these radical moderates who ultimately saved the Union. Only by embracing the radical war aim of freeing the slaves could the Union be saved.
And, now, the United States may be in a modern antebellum period. I only say “may” because a Second American Civil War is one of three options before us — autocracy, civil war or some sort of military junta that might lead to a Constitutional Convention.
The prime candidates to become Radical Moderates are all of the NeverTrumpers, a smattering of the Usual Suspect talking heads on CNN and MSNBC and maybe a few Hollywood celebrities with political ambitions. The key thing to remember is, however, once you slice the seal on a civil war, there’s no going back. Everything — and I mean everything — would be thrown up in the air. Strange alliances would be made. New heroes would arise. Historical figures that you could never imagine might spring into the public imagination.
But there’s one thing I have to make absolutely clear — no matter how much people like Jesse “Welcome To The New Right!” Kelly want to glorify the prospect of a civil war, it would suck. It would suck so bad that everyone involved, no matter who won, would live to regret it ever happened for the rest of their lives.
I say this for a number of pretty obvious reasons.
One, everything would grow existential. When things grow existential, it’s not where you went to school, or your race, or gender or if you’re a hipster in a coffee shop or a transgender person upset over the latest J.K Rowling attack. What would matter is how, you, as a person, could help the war effort. Starvation would be everywhere. Death. Despair. Tragedy. Hate. All these things would become a basic part of everyday life.
I believe this because if things got so bad that there was an actual Second American Civil War, WMD would be seized and used (a whole lot!) The lights would go out. Internet may be blocked or not available. You wouldn’t know anything because your access to any form of mass communication might be controlled or non-existent.
What’s once the United States buckled, the rest of the world would not be far behind. We’re talking WW3. Billions could die if not from a number of limited nuclear exchanges, then from the starvation that would result from the following Nuclear Winter.
All because Tucker Carlson convinced Baby Boomers that the Worst Thing That Could Happen To Them Is To Be “Canceled.”
Because of all of this, the aforementioned Radical Moderates would rise to the surface and probably be in control of the Blue States.
I find myself wondering how long a Second American Civil War might last. A lot would depend on the specifics of what caused it and the leadership the two sides had when it began. Or, even more importantly — what would be the two sides war aims?
The MAGA New Right would have some very clear war aims at the beginning — establish a White Christian Autocratic Ethno State — while Blues would probably have to gradually come up with them. And, as I have repeatedly said, a lot would depend on what California did. If it left the Union altogether, the Reds probably would win and consolidate power in the rump USA.
If, however, California stayed united with other Blue States, then we’re going to the show. California would be the Union’s Arsenal Of Democracy.
But, let me be clear –while I like to think the high-risk, high-reward of a Second American Civil War would lead ultimately to a stronger, more perfect Union just like the First Civil War, it might just suck. The United States could simply devolve into a number of rump states like the old Soviet Union.
It could be that after a number of years of chaos, that you would have something that looked like this: California, Texas and Florida would be their own nation-states. NYC might be a “free state.” Some sort of American Taliban might control huge swaths of the South.
Meanwhile, you would have a number of regional alliances that would exist with the goal of giving people some sense of security.
But all of that is extremely speculative. It could be that, in the end, we simply slip peacefully into autocracy and that’s that. Wealthy liberals leave the country for, I dunno, Perth and the cities of Europe and the remaining Americans slowly, but inevitably, circle the drain to “shit hole country” status.
Good luck. You — and the Radical Moderates — will need it.
Folks, we got a problem. I now find myself wanting to actively use my scenario abilities to counter Steve Bannon’s nefarious long-term plan: turn the United States into a white Christian autocratic ethno state.
Steve Bannon
We thought we got rid of Bannon when he self-destructed at the beginning of the Trump Administration, but lulz, we were wrong. Like a bad penny, he’s back and worst than ever. Not only did he attempt to “murder the Biden Administration in its crib” on January 6th, he is now actively working to destroy the basic norms and intuitions associated with free-and-fair elections.
The danger is what the United States lacks in the paramilitary groups like the SA that would be critical to ensuring that the fascist GQP wins elections going forward, we may make up for with Big Lie proponents being in charge of the election process in 2022 and 2024.
In other words, there won’t be sexxy violent Proud Boy attacks that cause us to turn into an American autocracy, but rather the far less sexxy corruption of what should be pretty mundane formalities. I know what’s happening — Bannon looked at what happened in the early days after Election 2020 and realized that they didn’t get what they wanted because every day people took a stand and did their jobs.
As such, he and his coterie of fascists now want to pack those jobs with Big Lie advocates at a minimum votes they don’t like won’t be certified at the local level, which opens up a huge range of possibilities as things head toward Congress.
Bannon feels that was the GQP’s biggest mistake — they let the process get too far along before they struck. This is something I have long said myself. But I thought about it in the context of it proving Trump, himself, was not a Great Man, but just an idiotic avatar for the rot within our political process.
And, yet Bannon is sort of ding-dong Trump’s strategic mind. But let me put it to you this way — Bannon may have wealth and influence, but I feel when it comes to abstract political calculations and strategic thinking, I’m his equal. We’re on opposite ends of the political spectrum — to say the least — but he’s on my radar now and I’m going to begin to map out how to counter his attack on my beloved liberal democracy.
The biggest problem is, of course, that no one listens to me.
But, if I was going to counter Bannon, I would first do triage and accept that we have to write off 2022 and or 2024 being traditional elections. My belief at the moment is that 2022 will be Bannon’s dry run for 2024. While no one listens to me, Bannon has some pretty huge weaknesses himself.
One, he’s too tied to Trump and Trump is self-evidently his own worst enemy when it comes to would otherwise be the easy peaceful transition of the United States into a GQP autocratic state. And, I believe, Bannon is way too blinded by his own fevered ideology. He really does want to suck his own political cock.
The point of all of this is — I think I’m going to start studying Mr. Bannon. Keep your friends close and your emeries closer, as they say. The reason why I say that is Bannon is actively working RIGHT NOW to ensure we become an autocracy.
Since I don’t write for VOX and have no easy answers (nor a conspicuous received English vocal fry in my Tik-Tok videos) all I got is my ability to see if I can, on an abstract level, counter what Bannon is up to.
I know that I sound hysterical. I know that seem to love peddling my own version of “fear porn” and “doom shit.” But we have to admit that no one is going to save us. There will be no “boom” that takes down the entire rotten, fetid Trumplandia edifice. (That this is a mirror image of MAGA Far Right discussions on Twitter about The Durham Report should tell you something.)
But one thing that is going on all around us is our politics has frozen up. We’ve reached a point in negative polarization where the two sides are absolutely opposed to anything the other side supports. As such, outside of a few highly educated NeverTrumper thinkers, there is no and will never be common cause against MAGA. There will never be a broad United Front formed to save our faltering democracy.
In short — we’re fucked.
And there are two, maybe three endgames to this. Either we slide peacefully into autocracy, a military junta takes over…or we have a civil war.
It’s this last option that MAGA New Right thought leaders become so giddy over. They keep saying that because “liberals won’t leave them alone,” they are going to have to turn to political violence. Their thinking is — liberal progressives are all soyboy milquetoasts who will be crush by their Alpha Male prowess.
This is such a fucking dumb thing to think.
I say this AGAIN because human nature is such that even a “sissy boy” is going to grow a lot more “alpha” if things grow existential. So, it seems to me the MAGA New Right cocksuckers who think Blue States will “collapse like a rotten door” will be in for a pretty rude awakening if things got so bad that we had a civil war.
But there is one thing to consider — WMD.
If we have a civil war, we’re probably going to bomb ourselves into oblivion.
At the moment, ding-dong Trump AGAIN holds the entire fate of the United States in his teeny-tiny hands. I say this because we face a far different future if someone else is the Republican nominee in 2024 than we do if it’s him. If its DeSantis or Cotton or Hawley or Pompeo, then we’re probably going to slip peacefully into some form of autocracy.
Good German Republicans will call people like me hysterical as we slowly — then not so slowly — begin to lose some rights that we’ve assumed we’d always have. Everything will come to a head when the argument of the day is if we’re going to have a MAGA-themed Constitutional Convention or not. It will be pitched to traditional American conservatives as the “only way” to pass a balanced budget amendment.
Then, lulz, fuck you, lib, it goes rouge and I definitely end up dead at the hands of a ICE agent.
But if Trump runs again, he is soooooo fucking stupid and incompetent that he could single handedly force the United States into a civil war. And it’s going to be Blue States who leave the Union. Remember, a lot — and I mean A LOT — of things would have to go wrong for us to get to that point.
The U.S. Military would have to sit back and let Blue States hold Secession Conventions. But, maybe they will.
Anyway, if it is Blue States who leave the Union (or try) and California stays with the Blue State Union then we’re probably going to bomb ourselves into oblivion using WMD.
I keep talking about this hysterical “doom shit” because Republicans are radicalized and so anti-democratic at this point that what else is going to happen? Why would anyone thing anything else is going to happen?
It seems as though the people who think I peddle political disaster porn either think the law is going to save us, or they tacitly agree with the coming autocracy we may face.
All I know, something’s gotta give. At some point the modern day Slave Power of MAGA either gets its way and establishes an white Christian ethno state, or there’s a civil war and (hopefully) its gaping wound gets cauterized.
As it stands, for a lot of MAGA New Right cocksuckers, the idea of a “civil war” is simply the worst possible thing they can think of. They talk about how liberals are “forcing” them to radicalize and to want a civil war, but all that’s going on is they’re snowflakes and a civil war is just the worst possible thing they can think of that might happen.
They’re politically pouting, in other words.
And, yet, as January 6th showed, there comes a point where overwrought rhetoric causes something to actually happen in the real world. In other words, things continue to be pretty frothy within the MAGA New Right. Even though the majority of establishment Republicans have moved on to Ron DeSantis, Trump continues to have an absolute lock on his personality death cult. They can’t wrap their minds around the very liberal democracy concept of if you don’t get enough votes, you don’t get to have power, so they suck their own cock thinking up ways that Trump “really” won.
Where things get dangerous is when things in the real world begin to have a momentum out of the control of the establishment that just wants to sit back enjoy that plutocrat tax cut and young hack MAGA judges and think about how they’re going to finally strangle American democracy and rule as a minority.
So, in a sense, Trump is now a lingering, festering political problem that Republicans would rather just use an ointment on. He just won’t go away. And if he runs again in 2024, he’s going to win the nomination either by co-opting DeSantis or destroying him.
If Trump can just get out of the way, America is going to peacefully transition into an “lite touch” autocracy that is at first is an autocracy because the disconnect between the will of the people and who actually runs the country will be so enormous that all this talk about “don’t boo, vote” will be looked back upon as quaint. Voting will be meaningless and Republicans will so rig the system that they always win, no matter what.
People will stop voting and we become an autocracy.
Of course, as I keep “hysterically” saying, there are two things to consider with my “doom shit.” One is, this process could be bungled — probably because Trump tries to be the one to finish the transition into autocracy — or form follows function like it always does and the fascists of the MAGA New Right will become…fascists. They’ll realize they now have absolutely no checks on their power and they’ll start to knock heads –specifically, probably mine.
(Thankfully, I have a passport again, but, lulz.)
Anyway, let’s pause for a moment to ruminate on how “hysterical” I’m being. The type of person who calls me “hysterical,” probably is a traditional conservative who is so worried about “woke corporations” that they simply want to nullify any political argument they don’t like. They can’t comphrend my “doom shit” happening in the United States, so, by definition, it can’t happen.
Lulz!
And, in a sense, they know they won’t have anything to worry about if a MAGA New Right autocracy is established — they always follow the rules — so it’s all an abstract. They have a job and kids and a mortgage to worry about. For me, however, since I won’t fucking shut up about what a fucking cocksuckers our new autocratic overlords are, I have some very concrete things I have to worry about.
And, in general, given what I keep seeing actually happening, people who claim my belief that we have the existential choice of autocracy or civil war ahead of us is “doom shit” are living a delusion. Soon enough, either we accept that Republicans have established white Christian minority rule, or we don’t. Either the transition into autocracy is peaceful and long-lasting, or it’s not.
I hate violence, but we definitely need to start thinking about what happens if the MAGA New Right either bungles what should be a peaceful transition into autocracy or they start to believe their own press about how great and wonderful a civil war would be. (Ugh.)
Anyway, every day I see evidence I’m not being “hysterical” and my “doom shit” is just reality. Now what.
The thing about the MAGA New Right is they’re telling us exactly what their vision for America is — they see organized political violence as a viable option in their never-ending goal of “owning the libs.” Mo Brooks’ statement today that is, in essence, one of support for a would-be bomber is a prime example of this. People like Brooks are now all-in on the notion that only through violence can they “own the libs” once and for all.
When you have the entire Republican ecosystem and infrastructure focused on the specific goal of establishing a white Christian ethno state in the United States, there’s not much we can do other than hunker down for a civil war, autocracy or a military junta. They dress it up in some weird idea about being against “dictatorial socialism” but they’re just scared of the browning of America and want to make sure POC “know their place” like they used to.
In an abstract way, the solution to our problems is, of course, to destroy the Republican Party altogether. But that could only be done if it was one of several aims of a civil war. And I don’t particularly want a civil war, but the MAGA New Right sure does like talking about how they want to murder people like me for political reasons.
All of this is part of broader macro problems the United States faces. In general, we’re totally, completely, fucked. We’re doomed and the sooner we sit up and take notice on how totally fucked we are, the better.
The MAGA New Right grows more and more radical — and blaming liberals for “doing it to them” — and there’s going to come a point, probably around January 2025, when we finally reach a breaking point. People are going to get hurt at the hands of the MAGA New Right. Probably A LOT of people.
The MAGA New Right will stop at nothing to destroy the America we’ve known for the last 260 years. And, honestly, I don’t see any way to stop them at this point.
I’ve decided to answer searches that bring people to this site. So, let me answer this question. The short answer is: maybe.
The long answer is, well, it’s one of a series of potential endgames. MAGA New Right people get a lot of things wrong in their overheated need to glorify political violence.
The first thing they get wrong is thinking that somehow a violent civil war would be better for them than simply being patient and staying within the quickly dying norms of our undead democracy. The MAGA New Right’s best option is we turn into a MAGA themed autocracy — which, right now, is theirs to lose. No one will get hurt — other than people like me who won’t shut up about what a fucking cocksucker our new autocratic ruler is — and they get what they want, which is a white Christian ethno state.
But, no, just like how Europe in 1914 went to war with great gusto, the obviously self-defeating gorification of political violence on the part of the MAGA New Right is probably going to cause a civil war — but not the one the New Right thinks.
What is likely to happen is, if there is, in fact, a Second American Civil War, it will be when Blue States attempt to leave the Union in January 2025 when a MAGA controlled Congress balks at allowing Biden (or whomever) to become president. As such, President DeSantis (or whomever) will freak out, attack the secessionist Blue States and we get the civil war that all the fucking cocksucker MAGA New Right assholes think is going to happen when they stumble across this site looking for my “doom shit” on the subject.
Of course, the wild card is the U.S. Military. We might find ourselves with the third option — a military junta — if it steps in to calm things down should there be a 2025 Nullification Crisis.
It seems as though at the moment there is just a lot of abstract interest in a civli war on the part of a lot of MAGA New Right shitheads. They feel as though liberals are forcing them to radicalize and the goalposts have been moved to much that we’re officially in, “Welp, let’s have a civil war to end Cancel Culture once and for all.”
This is such a dumb fucking thing to think because a Second American Civil War would be such a fucking tragedy — because of the likely use of WMD — that even the most diehard MAGA New Right fucktard might regret being so excited at the prospect.
But, back to the question at hand: will there be a Second American Civil War?
At the moment, I don’t think so. I think we’re going to slip peacefully into a MAGA-themed autocracy and the New Right will enjoy minority rule for generations to come after January 2025. If that doesn’t happen, it will because the leadership of the MAGA New Right, specifically fucked things up and bungled that peaceful transition.
There’s a lot of hype within the center-Left echo chamber about how Texas is “one day” going to swing Blue because of macro economic trends. All things being equal, if we were still a functioning liberal democracy — and if Texas Republicans were collectively lobotomized — this would be true.
But we’re not a functioning democracy and Texas Republicans know damn well they’re on the cusp of losing power if people vote so — they don’t want people to vote.
Texas Republicans are growing more and more autocratic in leaps and bounds to the point that I believe the only way they will ever allow Texas to turn Blue is if they’ve been destroyed and no longer have the ability to do anything about it. In other words, only after a Second American Civil War has destroyed the state of Texas as we know it and it’s being Reconstructed afterwards will Texas ever be allowed to vote for a Democratic president.
A Blue Texas would doom Republican hopes for the presidency to such an extent that not even Florida being a safe Red state now could help the situation. Add to this how fucking hysterical and anti-democratic Texas Republicans are on an systemic, existential basis and there is absolutely no fucking way they will ever allow the state to shift Blue peacefully.
The absolute white hot rage that Texas Republicans have about the mere notion of the state turning Blue is pretty much what’s going on in general with the national Republican Party. It is very tragic, but it’s clear to me now that only as the by product of a tragic, avoidable civil war will the United States ever be a functioning liberal democracy again. It’s possible that the U.S. Military might step in to fix all the problems necessary to get us back on the democratic track, but unlikely.
So you can add an autocratic Texas to the long list of macro trends that indicate we’re either going to slip peacefully into the autocratic rule of a white Christian ethno state — or we’re going to have a fucking civil war.
I have no idea what is going to happen at this point.
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