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Tribes on my mind

1/8/2021

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Humans are primates. Primates are social animals. We form tribes.
And tribes, across the planet and throughout history, have always had two major internal sins. Sins against the tribe itself.
I'm talking death or exile are the only answers to violators sins.
The first sin is betrayal.
In simple terms, it's choosing the success and well-being of an outsider over that of your tribe. Doesn't sound so bad today. But back in the day, this was "opening the castle gates for the enemy tribe" level shit.
Check out Romeo & Juliet. Two dumbass teenagers choosing the outsider over the tribe gets a half-dozen people slaughtered in days.
In lean years, bad years, famine years, the tribes that survived were the ones who were willing to kill the next tribe over and take their stuff. Everyone alive today, including you and me, are descended from them.
The betrayers? The ones who let the outsider in? They got killed and their stuff got taken.
The second sin has a couple of different meanings, so we'll have to work our way up to wrapping our heads around them.
The earliest term (and you socialist fucks are going to love this one) is loosely defined as "hoarding food away from the rest of the tribe."
Again, it is an act of taking away from your tribemates. Which can lead to their deaths, especially in harsh times.
But obviously we don't scream at people for specifically hoarding food from the tribe today. (toilet paper is a whole nother story)
I could call it unfairness, but that implies fair as a ground state of affairs.
We saw it in cultures that nobody would call fair as a baseline today.
Take feudalism. Nobody alive today would call this a fair society.
But even for what it was, this sin is more the realm of those who enjoy their granted rights but forsake their privileges.
Just being a feudal baron wouldn't be this sin.
But hiding in his castle and refusing to defend attacks to his vassals very much would be.
"Willful cheating in bad faith" is the closest term I can come up with that works today.
These two sins are baked into our DNA. These are the two biggest internal threats to the primitive tribes that we all descended from. And they are still what hits our emotional buttons HARD even when we try to intellectualize.
Unfortunately, tribal instincts don't upscale well. Nor do they account for nuance. the risk:reward ratio in either of those sins was so great that death or exile at the least were the most common punishments for them. Murder one person, rape one person, you MIGHT be allowed to live. But betrayal and cheating put the entire tribe at risk, and the risk of keeping the sinner alive was too great.
Keep that shit in your DNA for a couple millennia, and you can see it short-circuit your brain in real time.
When we find out someone close to us supports or voted for a cause or person we find repugnant, the BETRAYAL light kicks on in our brains. Someone in your "tribe" has chosen a dangerous and repugnant other, when they could have been supporting the tribe instead.
Why they did it doesn't matter.
Not ignorance, not focus on another issue entirely, not honest belief.
None of that compares to the BETRAYAL light kicking on.
Now, we don't live in a tribal society anymore, so death or exile usually aren't on the table.
But shunning? Easy. If you're not tied to someone by needed resources (a coworker you can't shut up in a job you can't quit, a roommate you can't afford to kick out, ect), shunning is easy.
As is ostracism. Doxxing. If you don't want to tell a betrayer how repugnant they are, there's a mob ready and willing to do it for you.
We have successfully outsourced tribal punishments.
But what about the big CHEATING light?
Well, as Americans, we have a baseline idea of what fair and just is.
And while we as a country have a certain admiration for cleverly exploiting loopholes, Willful Cheating In Bad Faith as I described above slams on that big red CHEATING light.
As sports fans, we get into fights in the stands when a referee makes a bad call.
Now scale that up.
Historically speaking, watching cops confront and kill people isn't all that significant. Part of the job since we turned the words "shire reeve" into "sheriff."
But if you keep seeing people who look like you being confronted and killed by cops while people who don't look like you keep walking away alive?
The big red CHEATING light flashes on.
Seeing the person you didn't vote for win on a procedural technicality?
The CHEATING light flashes on.
Watching people get away with shady shit that just happens to benefit them and fuck you?
The CHEATING light flashes on.
Watching people condemn you for getting violent, only to turn around a few months later and get violent themselves?
The CHEATING light flashes on.
Watching people get violent, then turn around and talk shit about you a few months later when you're getting violent?
The CHEATING light flashes on.
Bear in mind, absolutely nothing I've used as an example needs to be true for this to happen. It just needs to be presented that way just enough to flip that light on.
And then, any reasons, excuses, or circumstances face long uphill battles to get any sort of measured response.
Because our brains are back in the day when that light coming on means the person flipped it was going to get us and everyone we cared about killed.
With all that shit in mind, think back on the past few years.
No fucking wonder we're all exhausted, terrified, heartbroken, and pissed off all at once.
Those fucking lights have been going off on a regular basis for years.
I woke up this morning to find that a Capitol police officer died in the hospital. He was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher.
And all I could think of is that sometime in the future, an "unarmed" rioter is going to be shot and killed by a cop, and two people who used to like each other are going to see "BETRAYAL" going off on each other. And only one of them will remember that officer and that fire extinguisher.
So, how do we change this?
No idea.
Humanity sure as fuck hasn't tried changing these instincts.
We sure as hell know how to exploit them though.
They may not label them "BETRAYAL" and "CHEATING" or make the historical connection. But I guarantee you every political operator, rabble-rouser, PR guru and marketing suit knows how to flash those lights in a way to make people do what they want. And they're all playing everyone at once.
I mean, for fuck's sake, Among Us made a popular game out of making your character's personal "BETRAYAL!" light go off.
Knowing that it's happening only does so much. You and the person you're seeing the light on top of both have to recognize it and investigate it.
And we need to police our own tribes.
Tribes work together when leaders make subordinates behave around the other tribe.
AND when leaders in the other tribes stand back and LET THEIR OWN LEADERS DO IT.
Sitting back on your ass and insisting the other side do what you want only makes you look like someone too clueless to realize that they don't answer to you.
Romeo and Juliet again.
Act 1, scene 5. The party. For those who got distracted by the horny teenagers when that happened, it's a Capulet shindig, the Montague boys crash it. Tybalt goes to old man Capulet, asking for permission to throw hands.
And the Old Man shuts Tybalt the fuck down. Capulet makes it absolutely clear that, mortal enemies or no, they became guests the moment they walked in the door. Tybalt is NOT going to make the Old Man look like a bad host in his own house. And he's in for a world of hurt if he tries.
"Be quiet, or I'll make you quiet."
It's quite possibly one of the most peacekeeping moments in the entire show. The party didn't last forever, because tragedy. But it's clear that proper manners are extremely important when dealing with people you regularly try to kill in a place where doing so isn't ideal.
Fun side note: depending on staging, it's entirely possible the Montagues have no idea that this exchange is going on. Think about that the next time you don't see someone on the other side being told to behave.
Tribal conflicts suck.
But there are some big differences between tribal conflicts where everyone minds their manners and tribal conflicts that are complete free-for-alls.
TL:DR
Watch for your BETRAYAL and CHEATER lights going off.
And
Police your own.
Take care of yourselves out there.
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Negligence vs Malice

12/17/2020

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When it comes to gun rights, Trump vs. Biden has never, ever been a case of Good vs. Evil. It's much more akin to Negligence vs. Malice.

Trump doesn't give a tin shit about gun rights and never did. If he had, the city he's spent decades in and millions on wouldn't still be a festering shithole as far as personal freedoms go. But he doesn't give a shit. He's more than capable of getting a "may issue" permit in NYC for himself without even being so crude as to bribe a supervising officer for one. (Seriously, there's like 3 under indictment for that last I checked). You filthy peasants wanting the same recourse are SOL.

But Trump's legacy in gun control isn't any legislation he signed. It's in having the fucking audacity to CHANGE DEFINITIONS IN FEDERAL LAW TO SUIT HIS PURPOSES.

That's exactly what he did to bump stocks, folks. Holy fucking shit.

And there's grumblings that his ATF is chasing after pistol braces the same way.
I can't emphasize enough what a hideous level of executive overreach that was. And the Republicans let him do it to no discernible benefit outside of avoiding the wrath of his cultists.

(And cultists is the word. I have no idea how one gets that kind of power in ways that don't involve sacrificing fuckers in a bog somewhere.)

Nothing else proves the NRA's status as a bucket of sloppy uselessness than Trump's record on gun rights.

Biden?

So far I haven't heard anything from him that isn't Democrat boilerplate. Blah blah children, yadda yadda common sense, same stupid, long-debunked bullshit they've been spouting since the 90's.


The easiest and laziest way for a newly elected politician to prove to their base that they're doing something is to make a ban or a restriction.


With Democrats it's guns, with Republicans it's abortion.


Because doing so:

One, doesn't cost anything. No popular program has to be defunded, no donor sees their taxes raised for it.
Two, energizes your base.
Three, only pisses off people who weren't going to vote for you anyway.

Whatever you put forward doesn't have to have a chance at passing. You just have to put it up so you can say you tried. But those opposition so-and-so's just didn't want to work with you.


The real political capital is being spent on other things. Biden's inheriting a pandemic, a shit economy, a far-left chunk of his own party clamoring for bloody revenge (and pissed off at him for calling for unity), and a good-sized chunk of his opposition convinced he was elected under circumstances that were questionable at best (and telling him where he can put his unity).


(If it was Harris we were talking about, I would understand this. I know a gun owner in her old jurisdiction. Let's just say I never thought I'd ever learn new swear words from a zoomie and leave it at that.)


I haven't even mentioned the bare minimum 10 million (probably closer to 15M) of his constituents who armed themselves for the first time this year.


There's plenty of things to be worried about these days, people.


Incoming gun control laws are NOT high on the priority list.

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Requiem for a photognome

11/29/2020

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If you were a nerd of any stripe in the Atlanta area, sooner or later you would encounter the Photognome.
A squat, burly figure whose kilt and red beard could be recognized from a block away.
Soon you'd see the Camera and/or Guinness at hand regularly.
Almost as soon, you'd realized that barrel chest of his housed a massive heart.
I knew Joe Hunt well enough that he'd recognize me on sight as easily as I'd recognize him, which was close enough to be comfortable with a man who seemed as much a force of nature in his preferred stomping grounds. In places like that, it can feel that folks like yourself are a dime a dozen. Yet once he met you, he worked hard to never forget you, regardless of how generic a face in the crowd you could feel at times.
He was vibrant proof that one could be a bold, lusty gent, a quite masculine fellow, and a wonderful person, all at once. A state of being that seems endangered if not dying out in these troubled times.
For years now I've preached appreciation over objectification. I don't know if he ever read what I've written, but in the end he didn't need to. He lived it himself.
Where my words have been in my sword or at my keyboard, his were in his lenses. He had an uncanny eye for beauty, even in those who could not see it in themselves. In a world with objectifying guys with cameras by the score, he had nothing less than appreciation for the humanity of his subjects. He could see the sensual and the intimate alongside the sexual each on their own as well as intertwined, a rare gift in and of itself. And he celebrated them all. Years after I gave up the camera myself, I'd delight in by chance seeing the smiles he brought to his subjects, the looks of, "wow! that's me?"
Among scores of GWC's who merely collected what images they could harvest for their social media counts (or worse, their spank banks), he treasured those smiles.
I never saw him turned down when he asked to take pictures. But I have no doubt in my mind that he accepted declines as graciously as he stepped up to what permissions he was granted.
I told him once that he reminded me of Hans Holbein the younger, court artist to Henry VIII.
(That painting of Henry you always see in history books? It's a Holbein.)
I have no idea how close to history the incident was. But on the Tudors, Holbein was interrupted at his work on a nude portrait by Sir Robert Travistock, fiancee to his model (who was Henry's mistress at the time).
Sir Robert attacked Holbein, who threw him into a shelf for his trouble.
Convinced he would be dismissed from court for striking a nobleman, Holbein went to Henry to beg forgiveness.
Henry, finding the whole thing hilarious, convinced Holbein his position was safe.
When Sir Robert complained to Henry, Henry was singularly unimpressed, saying, "You have not to do with Master Holbein, but with me. I'll tell you frankly: if I had seven peasants, I could make seven lords. But if I had seven lords, I could not make ONE Holbein."
Give me an entire school of art, and I could not make a single Joe Hunt.
Goodnight, old friend.
You leave the worlds of both arts and men with much to live up to.
May they both strive to do so.
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Gratitude

11/25/2020

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Last of the pre-holiday work is done and the thanksgiving episodes are playing.
Gratitude.
There's been less death, destruction, and chaos than I thought there would be, this late in this wretched year. Not to say what did come was inconsequential. Just not as nasty as it could have. And for that, I'm grateful.
Over the years, I've spent this holiday in a war zone, in the gulf of Oman, and working late for minimum wage. This year I'm spending it with the other denizens of the Outpost, with family and loved ones available through any screen I care to use, instead of waiting in line with the dozen other fucks for old workstations still running on XP. And for that I'm grateful.
I'm fed, clothed, shoed, sheltered, entertained, and loved. And for that I'm grateful.
I live in a country full of third option seeking, loophole-exploiting, fuck-you-I-won't-do-what-you-tell-me-bellowing fuckers as compassionate and selfless as they are ambitious and audacious. Not exactly the kind of attitudes effective in mitigating the spread of a pandemic, but exactly the kinds of attitudes that will cause those who survive to recover to thrive. And for that I'm grateful.
I'm already auditioning again as well as writing my second book with more planned. And for that I'm grateful.
Celebrate safe, wear your masks if you need to be around people you don't live with, a clean test is no excuse to stop taking other precautions, and if a local authority wants you to narc on who's gathering, give the authoritarian stooge an extra fuck you from me.
You're still out there. And for that I'm grateful.
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Hunkering down

11/2/2020

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In the grand tradition of "If you can't do something useful, get the fuck out the way," I'm probably gonna go silent between tonight and whenever the loudest roaring dies down post-election day.
I'll still be available via messenger and whatnot. Just don't have much to say from my lawn chair with a drinking skull holder that won't get lost in the sauce.
In the meantime, as someone who's survived their share of truly wacky shit:
As long as you're still alive, you got more options than you think.
Take care of yourselves out there.
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*sighs, sips my morning Dr. Pepper*

10/27/2020

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I've given this advice three times this week and I'm getting sick of it.
If you're shopping for a gun, now, because you're worried about civil unrest and suchlike?
Stop.
If your home has never been within, oh, ten miles of a riot this year?
Civil unrest ain't coming for you anytime soon. Deal with it.
If your home is within that ten-mile radius?
Taking next week off and going somewhere else is easier, cheaper, and safer than anything you can possibly do as a new shooter with a new gun in that timeframe.
Wait till next year when Ollivander's guns, ammo, & pawn opens up and we'll see if we can hook you up then.
Oh, and if you're an antimasker AND trying to get your first gun now?
Just go fuck yourself.
With something wildly inappropriate.
Seriously, it's a free country.
Anything's a dildo if you got the courage.
This is the way!
*sighs, sips my morning Dr. Pepper.*
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Some Points

10/15/2020

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Point one: It's pretty much impossible for a non-government entity to commit censorship.
Point one-A: Coercive and intimidating self-censorship practices undertaken in a devil's deal to avoid legal censorship is absolutely possible and happens all the time (see the MPAA).
Point two: Both wings of American politics are pissed off at social media platforms for, essentially, suppressing what they like and allowing what they don't. Wrap it up in whatever wrapper you like: foreign interference, deep fake, lies, slander, what have you, it's all more or less the same when you open the box.
Point two-A: Getting the bulk of our news from a single platform run by a guy who looks like Data's stand-in on Star Trek stepped off the set for a smoke probably wasn't the best idea ever, but it was free, easy, and popular, and we're all about that.
Point three: Aforesaid platforms plan on still being here and still being privately controlled regardless of election results, preferably with as much freedom to do so as possible.
Point four: Social media corporate cultures lean at least somewhat left. Traditional media platforms lean by a significant majority left.
Point four-A: Traditional media overwhelmingly went for the Dems in 2016 and got massive levels of egg on their collective face thanks to Trump's win.
Point five: if Trump wins, about all he can do is bluster at media platforms the same way he has for the last few years. The right's already demonstrated that they're not willing to try messing with section 230. Because they know social media platforms are their best defense and counteroffense against traditional platforms. It's not the 90's anymore, falling back to talk radio isn't a viable option now.
Point six: if Biden wins, especially with one or both houses behind him, the stakes are potentially far higher. Payback for four years of "how dare you let that happen" could and would totally be on the agenda. Punishing social platforms for promoting wrongthink, whether that's my eliminating section 230 or other means, would be easily doable. As described in point one-A above, they don't have to repeal the first Amendment to punish platforms if it's arranged that they bleed legal fees defending the actions of their users in court.
Point seven: We're already years past when the ACLU stopped giving a shit about free speech. The left will gladly watch it go, secure in the knowledge that the only people silenced will be Nazis, haters, -ists, -phobes, and other undesirables. And they'll sleep soundly, secure in the knowledge that such things have no way of coming back to bite them in the ass later.
The poor fuckers.
Long story short, more people getting kicked off of more platforms, usually for being somewhere on the right and not keeping their mouth shut.
Ready for this wretched year to be over, but it's not cold enough to hibernate yet.
Take care of yourselves out there.
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Uff Da

10/13/2020

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I've posted my share of stores about cringy lefty folks looking for guns.
Yesterday, a gun nut group I'm in had someone way on the other side that just made me twitch.
Older than my parents boomer. Morbidly overweight. Lost all his guns to a burglar years ago. Purpleish city in a red state. Asking what to get now. Thinks civil war is coming. Wants to defend home and family. Also wants to, direct quote, "suppress self-styled liberals."
I did my best to be nice. I don't like picking on people. I really don't like picking on scared people. I don't like telling people that they're dipping their toes into tinfoil hat lake. Nor do I like telling someone that their tactical assessment is about as fucked up as a cobra at a mongoose convention.
But seriously, the fuck?
What I did say was thus:
"Since you asked, and given what you've described?
Preference and Effective are ships that sailed long ago.
Find the closest thing to comfortable you can afford in a shop that has two boxes of rounds to go with it. Shoot off one box to familiarize yourself, keep the other box handy near wherever you're locking up the weapon.
Then relax. In any but the worst case scenarios, you're not even going to be in the same grid square as anyone needing suppression. Getting used to salads and getting to know your neighbors are gonna do a whole lot more to keep you alive than anything else at this point."
About the best I could hope for actually being paid attention to, given most of the thread was touting brand loyalty like it was last year or something.
Look folks, not to suck my own dick here, but I got a resume any guerilla wannabe would drool over. Know what the top four things I did to keep me alive in the last six months?
Number one, wore a mask.
If you're an antimasker, spare me your degree in virology from Facebook U. It ain't perfect, but paired with distancing and some hardcore hygiene practices, it beats the shit out of pretending we're back to normal. And if you think it's security theater, fine. It's not the bullshit disarming you security theater of the TSA. It's the security theater that keeps the 320 million other scared and angry people you're sharing this country with from panicking. Panicky crowds are deadly enough on their own. Do your part to keep them from happening.
Number two, bought an exercise machine I actually use.
I'm strong as fuck, but I'm also paunchy and not getting any younger. I never thought rowing would be my thing, but here we are. It's smaller, quieter, easier to use and more fun than the elliptical I had. Thus, I'm using it at least twice a day.
Number three, snuck in some portion control.
Dropping my morning omelet from four eggs and three meatballs to three and two respectively doesn't sound like much, but when you have a few a week, it helps.
Number four, cuddled the cats.
World's on fire, emotional care is a thing.
I've said before, I don't think we're entering a new civil war.
I do think we're in for some election day fuckery regardless of who wins, so if you're in a contentious area, visiting elsewhere for the week of election day may be a smart idea.
But even at our worst I don't see communist hordes invading flyover country as a significant threat to the cornfed ass of the OP.
We got a long way to go and nowhere near out of the woods yet, folks. Let's not stop to squat in thornbushes along the way, eh?
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Let me make something abundantly clear

10/6/2020

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Hashtags and declarations of faith and all that are great for reinforcing tribal affiliation and shared values.
That said, using them to do your character judgement for you is both lazy and woefully inaccurate.
And demanding them? Well, the precedents on that don't look too good.
So, before it comes up again,
Yes, I voted.
And No, I ain't saying for who.
So if you were relying on who as a yes/no toggle switch to determine if I was worthy of your disdain, hatred, disgust, and/or banishment from your company?
Well, tough shit.
That's your emotional labor to undertake, cupcake. You're gonna have to take a look at other things I do and come to a conclusion of your own. I ain't gonna make it that easy for you.
And fwiw, you should probably do some pondering as to why you're trying to make a decision like that easy.
Take care of yourselves out there.
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Least bloody scenario

10/6/2020

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So, a few weeks ago, I was asked what I think about the various second civil war scenarios that have been floating around.
Ain't gonna.
Instead, I'm going to describe what the scenario that has the least amount of blood on the walls looks like. This is going off the cuff and without checking sources, so keep that in mind. Bear in mind that it's also not my personal best case scenario, just the one I think that results in the least amount of violence and misery.
To do that, I have to talk a little about how Trump operates and about how the federal government operates.
Trump is, politically speaking, an independent more than anything else. He was a Democrat when it suited him to be while rubbing shoulders with limousine liberals in NYC, and he's a Republican by the road taken. In a lot of ways, his journey parallels Bernie Sanders. Both are independent populists who tore up their milquetoast competition With two big differences.
One, the GOP had no heir apparent anywhere near on Hillary's level.
Two, the RNC wasn't willing to cheat to ensure that a member of their chosen few won.
Trump might not have been pleasant, but he could work a crowd better than the entire GOP pack. But there was no endearment between him and the rest of the party. And that got expressed in a way that's hard to notice if you're not looking for it.
Try not to think of your own personal catchphrases and bouts of profanity when I say "the worst thing about Trump is..." Was that a good practice run for everyone? OK.
The worst thing about Trump IN REGARDS TO RUNNING A COUNTRY is the inability of almost anyone to behave like a functional adult in his presence. Including himself. The Dems have been in a constant screeching tantrum since 2016 and the Republicans can't go a day without looking at him like the designated driver looking at everyone else well into their latest round of whatever his friends are drinking.
And while that excites his base, embarrasses his allies and enrages his enemies, it had another effect. Specifically, on what I'm going to call Federal Middle Management, or FMM.
FMM is a group of people you never hear about unless they're in a scandal. And unless you did a lot of extra credit in civics class or saw a West Wing episode about it, you're probably not all that up on their jobs. They're the feds who get shit done. Cabinet secretaries, task force leaders, czars and suchlike. Doesn't matter how smart or hardworking a President is, they need effective middle management to accomplish anything.
FMM's are cyclical career bureaucrats. They typically choose party identity early in their careers. When their party holds the White House, they go to work. When a change in leading party happens, they step down and go to consultancies, think tanks, or related work until the cycle comes around again.
And when Trump was elected, a HUGE swath of the FMM's said, "I'll sit this one out."
Trump had all the rights and privileges of the party's candidate, and absolutely none of the alliances, friendships and mutual respects that an effective President needs. That is why his cabinet has been filled with empty positions and acting members the entire time. The FMM refused to be associated with him. The few who did were the dregs with no friends, the ladder climbers seeking power for their own sakes, and a handful of people dedicated to being adults in the room (Kelly and Mattis, to name two).
This is also why his Presidency is so ineffective at handling crises. I'll be fair, ANY American President would have had a huge challenge with Covid-19. America is a special child of a country. I love her dearly, but even I see that.
Most countries eventually develop a subculture revolved around the concept of, "fuck you, I won't do what you tell me."
America COLLECTS them.
Fuck, the American Revolutionary War was a cross-continental "fuck you, I won't do what you tell me."
It's a dynamic attitude. It gets a lot done.
It's also the antithesis of helpful when it comes to a crisis where everyone NEEDS to be on the same page to get shit done.
We'd still be in more of a mess than countries with more authoritarian traditions or homogeneous populations.
But with a functional FMM, we'd have much, much less of a shit show than we do now.
Got all that?
OK, here's what I see as the least harmful scenario.
One: Barrett gets confirmed before Halloween. (The GOP won't find out until summer that they confirmed a Constitutionalist instead of an Evangelical, but by then it will be far too late.)
Barrett's confirmation is the tipping point. With her confirmed, Trump officially becomes more trouble than he's worth in the eyes of the GOP. Nothing official gets released. But any aid to his fuckery of any kind just melts away into stone walls.
Two: Biden wins by enough to call it on election night or before that weekend, but not so much that anyone with a spoonful of brains calls it a landslide.
The GOP retain the Senate and might regain seats in the house.
Trump is largely ignored. Pence may or may not concede for him.
Three: Winter is here. The Hill puts together an aid package considered unthinkable pre-election: one with a veto-proof majority. It uses the continued infrastructure put together for PUA and fills in some of the weak spots. It passes by Thanksgiving.
Four: Between the weather and the election results, the bulk of active protests die down considerably. A lone gunman may spark bigger ones in one city or another, but the bulk of the ctrl-left and savage right see the lack of popular support they need and pull back out of the public eye.
Five: The aid package bouys consumer spending but little else. Unemployment remains high and grows higher as a number of restaurants, retail stores, and even airlines only last through the end of the year. But people eat, a wave of evictions is stymied, and a muted holiday season is survived.
Six: Academia is hit hard as a wave of students screwed over for the fall term refuse to return. The Ivy League and a good number of state schools and community colleges remain, but a lot of institutions close for good.
Seven: The Democrat FMM takes their places upon inauguration and get to work. There's a lot of neglected mess to clean up, but centralized control and working FMM helps with effectiveness within weeks.
Eight: Vaccine distribution, even when effective, makes for cautious months leading into the next normal.
Well, that's where I'm at. I might be wrong. But I have an annoying habit of thinking good of people. So we'll see what happens.
Oh, and I've already voted, so this may well be my last political commentary until after the election.
(I know, who am I kidding? But it would be nice to just look at Halloween for a while.)
Take care of yourselves out there.
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    Jay Peterson

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