Doug's Darkworld

That’s where we are today, 200,000 Americans are dead of Covid-19. Hundreds of thousands more have long term or even permanent health deficits. It’s all OK though: Trump said coronavirus “affects virtually nobody,” as U.S. surpasses 200,000 deaths. He said this while holding one of his Covid-19 superspreader rallies. What does one call a POTUS who is not only doing essentially nothing to fight Covid-19, he’s holding big rallies where Covid-19 transmission is assured? Mass murderer comes to mind. Trump is not Putin’s bitch, he’s Covid-19’s bitch. 

I was thinking of running a really outré blog today, but decided against it. Still, gonna include the thought. I was mulling last night about how this could all work out, and had this vision of some huge conflict at the White House, Trump and hundreds of his followers besieged inside when the whole thing blows up and burns. The Branch Davidians, the Alamo, and 9-11 rolled into one. It would be epic, Trump instantly a martyr, numerous states promptly secede and form Trump’s Kingdom or whatever. Weeks of non-stop TV coverage as it all plays out, nothing in any of our American lives will have been like it before. Only six weeks away folks, people should be making trailers. 

With these both disturbing and satisfying thoughts running through my head, I ran across this article: “A wargame designer defines our four possible civil wars.” Being a wargame designer myself, I was intrigued. And I was pleased. His analysis of the election comes up with four big possible scenarios: One similar to the US election of 1860 and the outbreak of the Civil War. Something akin to the Russian revolution. The Irish War of Independence. And last but not least, the Rwandan Civil War. 

Not a happy range of possibilities. One of the four above is a Biden blowout, one a Trump blowout. The Biden blowout he considers to be the US Civil War one. The main similarity being that yes, Lincoln did indeed clearly win the election, so the Federal government sided with him in the ensuing mess. And Lincoln still ended up with the worst mass death event in US history. And Biden’s no Lincoln. Not reassuring.

Oddly enough, the scariest one was a Trump blowout, that was the one the author compared to the Rwandan Civil War. Yes, the war that included the Rwanda Genocide, up to a million murdered in a few months. Seems extreme, but Trump is one vindictive fellow and many, including him, might see an election blowout as a mandate to remake America as the Christian Nation they envision. Abortion criminalized, half a million marriages dissolved, civil rights losses for huge numbers of minorities … and anyone that gets in the way gets hurt. Trump has done everything he can to portray Democrats and liberals as un-American enemies of the state. Is it beyond the realm to imagine that given the power to “lock them up!” at will, Trump might? 

Anyhow, read the article and see what the gentle reader thinks: A wargame designer defines our four possible civil wars. And the elephant in the room of course is Covid-19. No matter what happens election wise, the economic and social costs of Covid-19 will continue to mount in the US until something is done, coupled with global issues around same. Not to mention that since global warming and its climate downsides are actually real, just the background the US election 2020 is playing out on is quicksand. Or a minefield with quicksand. 

Once again, a bunch of links but no time to write about them. The news is cycling quickly these days, what would a year ago be big news for a week is now old hat in a day. Tomorrow is a busy personal day for me, so maybe I will just go back and post all the links that still are relevant. Despite the ongoing crisis, the world does go on. Stay safe everyone.#StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #InsanusTempora

Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved. 

(Image: Public domain Snappygoat image is the base. Haiku: Copyright © 2020 Yula Flournoy. All rights reserved. The meme above, unaltered, may be freely shared for legal non-commercial use.)