Thinking The Unthinkable, By Hal M. Brown

Tue, Aug 26 at 5:23 AM

 

I was going to write a Substack about this before I read my friend Sabrina Haake’s Substack this morning. Then I read her Substack and realized how what I was thinking fit in with what she was saying in her Haake Take titled “Blue states: Stop funding Trump's Confederacy.” It is subtitled “Previously held assumptions about federalism, including taxation, are falling.” I noticed that the illustration she used was Archibald Willard’s “Yankee Doodle” which is also known as “The Spirit of ‘76.”

I wondered why she used this painting rather than an illustration of a Civl War battle like one of these:

Still, even though she wrote about a peaceful civil war the picture is of a battlefield and you can clearly see, in addtion to the drummers and fife player a wounded soldier and a Union soldier raising his hat in victory.

This is her concluding paragraph:

A new kind of civil war is here, but Democrats did not invite it. When our backs are against the wall, facing the firing squad of a rogue president, complicit party, and corrupt high court determined to destroy us, we must act in our own self-interest. Freedom and our nation’s survival depend on it.

I agree completely with what Sabrina is saying about blue states hitting the Trump Confederacy in the wallet.

My focus is on the development we hope never comes to pass. This would be an actual armed confrontation between the New Union and the New Confederacy.

The Oregon Army National Guard consists of 41 armories in 33 communities. (Read about it in Wikipedia.)

Because we drove by one of their amories yesterday and Ann managed to take some decent photos last night I thought I’d use them as part of my Wednesday Substack.

Click above to enlarge.

There are a few scenarios which could develop where blue states would end up mobilizing their National Guards to protect themselves. Much would depend on the legal cover given if the Supreme Court came to its senses and ruled that Trump had violated the Posse Comitatus Act in sending troops to LA and DC. This could come to a head if he does this in Chicago as he has threatend to do.

If Trump defied such a ruling (Sabrina may want to weigh in on this since she’s a lawyer) and tried to take over normal law enforcement functions could the state governors order the National Guard to stop them from doing this? I seems to this non-lawyer that it is possible.

If Trump wanted his own soldiers to enforce his will, it could pit members of the Oregon National Guard against members of the Idaho National Guard (Wiki) or against members of active duty military.

I find it beyond the pale to imagine another actual replay of the Civil War with Americans shooting Americans. I could, however, see some extremely tense face-offs which resulted in a trigger happy soldier shooting someone.

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Previous Substacks

Chauncey DeVega's quote should be terrifying and mind-boggling

 By Hal Brown

Click above to enlarge image

Pictured above, would be Queen of the New Confederacy Marjorie Taylor Greene holding a $2400 Honey Badger firearm, because inquiring minds probably don't want to know. I am not an expert on firearms. I used Google Image search (here) to find out about the weapon.

The following paragraph is from Chauncey DeVega's article in Salon. 

Stop mocking Marjorie Taylor Greene

It's not just trolling. Republican threats of civil war should be taken seriously

We have just experienced a nightmare here in America (and the world) where what many "centrists" and "mainstream" political thinkers and voices said was impossible came true. If someone in 2015 or 2016 had told you that a professional wrestling heel, fake billionaire, willful ignoramus, white supremacist cult leader and TV host, a man credibly accused of rape many times, a failed casino owner and real estate developer, con artist would become president of the United States, make choices in response to a pandemic that would kill at least a million Americans, bring the country and its democracy to a breaking point, attempt a coup, surrender America's interests to its enemies such as Russia, commit an endless number of serious crimes while in office, be impeached twice and almost win reelection, and then announce a second presidential candidacy all the while not being held responsible for his crimes many people would – and did — mock any person willing to say such a thing. They labeled it "Trump derangement" syndrome. We all know what happened next.

Fo those who mercifully have forgotten:

Click above to enlarge

It should be as terrifying as it is mind-boggling that the things described above actually occurred. That there is a significant minority of the entire population of the United States who are happy about this is is beyond the pale, that is, outside the bounds of morality, good behavior or judgement in civilized society.

The reasons how and why the things DeVega describes in chilling words happened have been addressed by political and social scientists and by mental health experts. I don't feel like delving into these when others have done a thorough job.* I really am devoting this blog about it to share DeVega's description.

The portion of the DeVega article that Salon highlighted, the concluding sentence, follows:

Marjorie Taylor Greene and the other Republican fascists and the larger white right and their allies are very dangerous. Your laughter does not change that fact. Your laughter will not save you from them or the new American nightmare they are forcing into being. He who laughs last laughs loudest. The laughter of Marjorie Taylor Greene and the other American fascists will be very deafening indeed.

About DeSantis from: 

Introducing the first-ever, sort-of-annual Bulls**t Awards: Not just for Republicans! by Brian Karem in Salon

A Mini-Me Bullshit award goes to Ron DeSantis, who while proving to be smarter than Trump (at least in some ways) has the charisma of roadkill and the smell of a dead skunk in the middle of the road. (That's a reference to an obscure song lyric — actually, DeSantis is so far to the right he's off the road). He mimics Trump's fascism in every move he makes, but takes it even further as he tries to turn the state of Florida into a Disney version of Germany in 1937. 

Here's Loudon Wainwright III singing Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road:

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* Footnote:

 DeVega regularly addresses these topics. For example just in the past week:

The science behind why conservatives are so easily triggered

The media's biggest addiction: Trump voters

UFOs and CRT: Republicans are in a constant state of panic about the "other"

Addendum:

I wanted to use the sign I made to use to illustrate yesterday's blog, DeSantis's great Florida fascist experiment, with a new background. I changed the background and also added five new elements.

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Thanks to Chauncey DeVega for his retweet: