Tried and failed at this last year - Didn't have the time, the focus, etc.  Necessary to keep it rolling.   Every time I'd write something, current events would shift and I was no longer happy with where things were going.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: THIS SHIT IS FICTION.  Any similarities to any events, persons, places are either purely coincidental or exaggerated for entertainment purposes.  Additionally, the author is not putting forth any message, hidden or otherwise and does not advocate any of the positions taken by any specific character or group in this story.  In other words: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.


This story is based off a 'What if' scenario posed by a friend of mine a few years ago.   Just writing it out, trying to keep it logically consistent, etc.  I've run into more than a few roadblocks and writer's block over this beast's lifetime.   I've started a new outline after trashing the old one.   I'm also shifting dates a bit further in the future to help with the "Hey, it's 2011 right now, where's ze bullets?!" factor.

Feedback is encouraged!

Round 3 COMING SOON!  HANG IT!



You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it. Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth - right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail. - William Tecumseh Sherman (24 December 1860)




 If you're reading this, I'm probably dead.  I won't go into any detail as to what we've been up to as of late in case one of those commie bastards finds it first.

 If you're one of those commie bastards, and I don't care if you're a bluehat, one of those Reconquista assholes, or a goat fucking traitor, you might've killed me but until you kill us all, you can't kill liberty; liberty kills you.  If your loyalty is to Free America, please do your best to see this note and the documents I've packed to a little town in central Missouri south of Rolla.   Look for a family, if they're still there, with the same name DDG-98 was named for.   I doubt it'll be that easy, but they'll want to know what happened to us.  Maybe if I'm lucky, my family is still alive.  Probably not, but it's nice to think about.   See if you can't remember where you found this and let them know.  I'd like them to have some place they can think of me.   Fair winds and following seas.  Godspeed.



 I'm sure that every historian looking back will tell us where we went wrong; how we mistreated these people or those people and how it tipped the balance of the world; how greed threw the tiller of the world farther off, and brought everything crashing down.  I'm sure by now, there's no shortage of folks standing in line waiting to tell everyone how we were all at fault and humanity has us to blame for the devastation and destruction of a world-spanning civilization.

 Sadly, there's a little bit of truth to all of this.  What those learned historians won't tell you is just how much of that is a lie as well.  Unfortunately, when you're right up next to events and can feel the breath of it on your face, it's hard to see the big picture, and when you're far enough back to see the big picture, you can't get a decent focus on the small things.  That's before you throw in whatever biases the author has, whatever truths he refuses to recognize, whatever lies he believes, and suddenly what you're reading doesn't even resemble what actually happened, but don't tell that to the people who wrote it with their own sweat, who wrote it with their own blood.  Those sheltered academics cowering behind their walls while everything is happening, they don't have a clue.  I left more than a few friends lying out in those fields under cairns we dug for them.  

 Now, let me tell you...  What I saw, what I heard, it was beyond shocking. Trust me when I say that unless you have the sand to join up... unless you have the sand to face what's on the other side of the bubble you've built for yourself and see it in person, words cannot tell you the horror or the pain.  They can't tell you what it's like to feel the air shove you, to wipe what you thought was dirt from your eyepro and realize you're wiping what's left of your best friend off of your face.  

  Shocking as it was, sadly I'd felt it coming for far longer than I saw it coming.  Thank God my grandparents and the vast majority of the generation that fought World War Two weren't around to see it.  As it is, I'm pretty damn sure if you'd wrapped their coffins in copper wire, you would've been able to ditch all that 'green energy' crap they were spewing.

 For what it's worth,  I was there when everything started coming apart.  I was there to see the idiots marching for causes built by lie upon lie.  I was there to hear the talking heads spewing half-truths concealing the bigger outright lies underneath.  I was there to see those same talking heads run out of truth to mix with their lies.   They didn't let that stop them.  I was there when the bullets began to fly, and looking back, I don't think I would do much different given the choice.  Some folks always needed killing and it was inevitable anyway; I just wish more of us could've walked away from this.

 Months later, they're flying thicker and it doesn't look like we're any closer to finishing this.  I never thought of myself as a hero, so here's hoping Chesty and the rest of his jarhead brethren don't get pissed that a squid is borrowing his lines to sum this all up: "All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time."  

 I'm sorry Ben, we couldn't keep it; the Republic has fallen.

 Sucks for their team that we decided to contest the fall.  



The Prelude to Collapse

Economics - The roots of the tree of liberty, the cornerstone of America.  The lack thereof was also its downfall.  If you listened to all the economics majors coming out of colleges around the country around the turn of the century and then compared it to those of economists from the Great Depression, one would quickly wonder how both could claim a degree in economics while preaching things that resembled reality about as well as oil mixes with water.


 I spent a good portion of my childhood listening to my dad talk about how things had changed since his days working for Price Waterhouse as a CPA years before I was born.  Starting in the late 80s, and after every economic hiccup, he'd point out a few Depression-era regulations that had been repealed in the name of higher profits, leading to whatever the current crisis was.  Regulations restricting the size of banks, investments between each other, the amount of liquid cash they kept on hand,  rules on who got loaned what and why;  all of them changed.


 It wasn't until nearly twenty years later that, through the lens of experience and education, that I'd tied it all together.   I never thought I knew everything, but this made sense to me.   The law kept the banks relatively small, there were hundreds of them.  Failure of one or even a dozen wouldn't be the sounding of a death knell; the damage would be contained.  By restricting banks from investing in each other, one bank failure wouldn't lead to another failing, and so on in a catastrophic chain reaction.  Banks were required to keep a percentage of their invested capital on-hand, this kept confidence in the banks up, and in the event a run happened, it would presumably mitigate the effects.  Regulations dictated who was considered a safe risk to lend to and just how far the bank would go to lend them money.


 This all started changing in the late 70s and like any snowball, it started off as a crawl that steadily built up speed.   Banks started buying other banks;  First Hometown Banks became First State banks became nation-spanning banks.   Their newfound size helped them capitalize on larger deals, get better rates, and more due to economy of scale, so the new economists insisted.   Much of that was true, but it annihilated the damage containment principles that were built in to the system.   Not able to rescind the direct investment regulations,  the now mammoth banks created a shady world-spanning market where banks would invest in a third party, which in turn, invested in other banks. What was supposed to be a fixed amount of cash on hand was stored in another bank, who then proceeded to lend on that money.  Banks started shifting their books around, obfuscating exactly how much money they had on hand by shifting funds into other banks, lying to cover their losses from their shareholders and their profits from the tax man.  


 One other significant change in regulations that gave the snowball the last push it needed to become the avalanche it ended up as, started off as an innocent addition to banking regulations passed in the 1977 by Jimmy Carter, the Community Reinvestment Act.  Like most things political, the bill started with good intentions; it dictated that banks who received FDIC insurance get evaluated to make sure that they were meeting the needs of the communities they served.   It sounded like a simple and straightforward way to make sure that banks weren't ignoring certain areas.  The law didn't specify penalties, it simply provided a track-record of a bank that regulatory authorities could consult when the bank sought permission for mergers, acquisitions, or new branches.


 Like many projects the government set up, as time went on, people insisted on tinkering with it until it barely resembled its original self.  In 1989, congress and President Bush amended parts of the CRA as a reaction to the Savings and Loan crisis.  No longer were these ratings private; in an attempt to increase public oversight, they were publicized with written performance evaluations and created a four-tiered rating system.  In 1992, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, previously not required to comply with the CRA, were steered by Congress in that direction.  The Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act required the two government-sponsored enterprises to devote a percentage of their lending to support "affordable" housing.  The CRA was tinkered with again in 1994 by the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act which repealed restrictions on interstate banking, and added the CRA rating of the out-of-state bank as a point of consideration when it wanted to open a branch in another state.  In another attempt to stave off urban blight, the CRA was tampered with further in 1995 under the justification that the exam agencies implementations were too process-oriented and not focused on results.  CRA ratings were published on the web and comments from the public.  In 1999, Congress passed and Clinton signed into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed part of the act that created the FDIC back in 1933, the Glass-Steagall Act.  More specifically, it allowed banks to offer the full range of investment, commercial banking, and insurance services.  Before 1999, Banks had to maintain a separate entity to do each of the services, placing a financial firewall in the corporate structure to contain and isolate any damage.


 All of that tinkering, and no one with a clue paid a lot of attention to the fact that every iteration made it more and of a good idea for banks to lend money to people who likely would not be able to pay it back.  By the mid-90s, any bank that expected to expand its operations had to have a positive CRA rating, and with the ratings accepting public commentary, community organizers could easily threaten a bank's rating with a concerted campaign.  Good old fashioned blackmail.


 By the time the chickens started coming home to roost around 2008, banks that knew what was good for them made sure their lending practices fended off the potential blackmail from community organizations.  Each iteration of law made it more and more incumbent on these banks to increase the amount of fund heading to these areas, and, combined with uncontrolled corporate greed that came to define business in those times, put the powder keg in place.


 Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae operated as intended; grabbing mortgages and turning them into securities that could be sold for investments, making more money available in the long term for borrowers.  Unfortunately, no one seemed to notice or care that an increasing percentage of these mortgages were dangerous, and business continued as usual for many years; after all, the government was backing these securities, why wouldn't they be safe?


 Some groups applauded the tinkering as a means to help lower income people,  some groups applauded it because it made it easier to generate more money in their books even faster;  none of these groups represented your average American.   The first spark occurred in the late 90s with the Tech Bubble, and instead of working to fix issues or ride it out, the Treasury and Federal Reserve began setting policies and interest rates in a fashion to distract people away from the issue.   This spark landed on the housing industry.  Lowered interest rates combined with the predatory lending nearly required by the new CRA created a boom in the housing industry.


 Years later when interest rates climbed, the predatory loans with variable interest rates crumbled as people who should have never received the loan in the first place suddenly found their shoe-string affair coming apart at the seams.   Money started evaporating and the fire was lit.  Originally, that fire would've burned just the lender and the lendee, but all these new regulations spread that fire quickly.  The burning mortgage was part of a securities investment.   That burning investment was now worthless, and its holders lost.   Those holders included private citizens, banks, and foreign/domestic  investment firms.   Investment firms watched their money burn; their customers waking up one day to find their investments suddenly worthless.  Banks, faced with a sudden lack of cash flow through the credit markets, hit the brakes and slowed lending considerably. Housing prices plummeted, leaving loan holders unable to sell their property to pay off the mortgage.  Businesses suddenly couldn't borrow money, which lead to unemployment, and more people who couldn't pay their mortgages.   It became a self-feeding cycle, created from greed and self-interest, that swept through every industry, burning everything it touched, and that firestorm wasn't isolated in the least;  most regulations that would've halted its spread or slowed it down were long since rescinded by the new economists as relics of a bygone age.

Greed, arrogance, and the hunger for power were what brought us low.

Politics - A chaotic sea of backstabbing, back-room deals, snide remarks, character assassination, and power plays.  Economics was the set, politics was the spike.  I've been told that people have been promising lies and selling eachother out since the first group of humans get together, but that never made it right to me.

 Trying to describe exactly what happened, by who, to whom, and when is fairly pointless; you'd have better luck trying to find Jimmy Hoffa or where all that damn 'stimulus' went.

 I can tell you a few things, though, it'll be skewed to my perspective.   Me,  I was always the most conservative guy in my circle of friends, to give you an idea where I came from.  I couldn't stand the democrats when I was in high school, and after I got out and joined the Navy, I only got more and more conservative as time went on.  Thanks to my experiences in New Orleans for the Katrina relief efforts, I quickly developed a gun habit.  That's not to say that I had a room stacked floor to ceiling with em, I never made that much money, but I'll tell you that the first time you see the thin veneer of civilization stripped away, it's frightening, an eye-opening experience.

 Not to be some kind of insensitive ass, but I can't help but chuckle at that last statement, most of the country hasn't seen civilization in months now.  When this started kicking off, the friends I had then were so surprised; with a few exceptions, none of them had seen it coming.

 But, I'm getting ahead of myself now, we were talking about politics.   Dave Barry's assessment of it is arguably the most accurate: "Politics, n.: From the Greek "poly" ("many") and "tick", a blood sucking parasite." or maybe Martin Pitt's take: "Politician, n.: From the Greek "poly" ("many") and the French "tete" ("head" or "face," as in "tete-a-tete": head to head or face to face). Hence "polytetien", a person of two or more faces."

 Things weren't always as screwed up as they were a few months ago or in the last week or so.  Oddly enough, taking some of these bastards out into the streets and shooting them solved more problems than I thought it would, but either way, one could say the foundation of all these problems has existed for quite some time.   No, it wasn't "The South will rise again! (Whistle Dixie here)", which, looking back is pretty funny; the south is actually fighting FOR the union this time.

 The starting point of this, like many great wars, began in a previous great war.  In this case, skip all the recent ones and go back to the aftermath of World War Two.   You see, before World War Two, politics was completely different than it is now, or at least that's what my dad told me multiple times while I was growing up.  According to Dad, back then things were pretty obvious, the Democrats were all for the little guy, and the Republicans were all about businesses.  I guess looking back through the foggy lense of memory I could see that being possible.  At the same time, I can see people not thinking much further than that.

 From the simplistic perspective, anyone with a heart voted D while people who understood business went R, though it's not really that simple, politics never is.  You have idiots on both sides who have a myriad of reasons why they'd never vote for the others, intelligent people who vote the way they do because they think the other party is corrupt, and so forth.   Well, in this case, it turns out back then that it was the Democrats who really were the corrupt ones.  Not too shocking, considering when WW2 wound down, there were plenty of socialists in the US who suddenly realized that the US wasn't very friendly to them.   They did what we finally managed to do to the Republican party just last year: invade and reform them from the inside.   In the space of a few decades, these socialists had hijacked the entire party; but considering that they were the party who had always played on people's compassion to their fellow man instead of logic, I'm sure that wasn't too hard and I guess it wasn't surprising nobody noticed that the party of the mob switched what mob they were supporting.

  Communists and socialists have always been really long on the "feel sorry for me/him/them/the workers/or whomever was determined to be an exploited class, and really short on "Think for yourself and find your own solution."  To me, the main fundamental difference between the two is that commies think everything should belong to "The People" aka the 'proletariat' or whatever nonsense and socialists think that everything should belong to the government.  Without getting too much into the mire that is that discussion, suffice it to say that both ideas are freaking useless, regardless of the liberal's insistence that "No one has ever done it right" or "We could actually do it better."  History and experience tells me that the head communist is inevitably an amoral narcissistic with a napoleon complex  and the government ends up owning everything anyway.  I don't really understand how someone could think government enforced slavery was better than freedom, but for some reason they thought they could do better   When they did something about it, most of us still proud to call themselves American thought we could do it better themselves too;  that's why there's been a ditch shortage as of late, too many reds, not enough ditches.

 Anyway, going back to the 50s again,  the commies overran the Democrats and no one seemed to notice, and went about their schemes and plots to slowly pull everyone to their side.  Government this, government that; by the beginning of this century, there was a constant drumbeat that the government should be able to do anything.  Nevermind that these idiots never listened to reason, or Ronald Reagan: "A government big enough to give you everything, is big enough to take away everything."

 None of this would've been possible if it weren't for the fact that so many of these commies infiltrated more than just the Democrat party.  If only they'd stuck to political parties, this would've been a lot easier.  Hell, it probably could've been avoided, but they'd hit the media too.  Oh, the media.  By the 90s, every media outlet, so proud of their 'journalistic integrity,' was more or less a soundboard for the reds, but it wasn't until the election in 2008 that they became brazen about it,  touting that there wasn't any media bias while simultaneously circle-jerking each-other over the Democratic candidate.  Our 'surprise' victory in 2010 sent them squawking like someone had let cats into a bird house.  We weren't surprised, but they were.  The election last year was pretty entertaining too.

 If that wasn't bad enough, they'd started working on schools at the same time they did the media.  It was pretty simple when they started during the 50s;  there were plenty of stupid smart people to go around.   They worked the universities over, twisting the graduate students.   Some of those were going to be teachers, who went on to teach elsewhere.  It's pretty simple, really; influence the teachers of tomorrow, so that they pervert a new generation of directionless fools, who in turn, grow up to be the next generation of teachers.   Each cycle fed the next, the wave of idiocy and hand-holding kum-by-ya singers multiplied exponentially every generation.   As time passed, the masses became unable to do much of anything for themselves but suck on the government teat.

 They couldn't or wouldn't stop and think for themselves for just one minute about their situation.  None of them, were they capable of grasping the situation, would've ever admitted the reality of it solely because it challenged their belief that the government not only could do it all, but should, and that the government should be the only person allowed to do any of it.  Many people fell into this tar pit, and so very few managed to fight their way free of that flavor of slavery's ever-clingy grasp.

 There are quite a few cities no longer standing because people (and I mean everyone) just couldn't think.  Minorities were brought up to believe that the white man was holding them down;  white people brought up to believe it was their fault that some minorities were poor.  So few people stepped back to look at things rationally, and those that did were either quickly silenced, or never heard from at all since those beliefs challenged the liberal ideal touted by the media.  

 Some say that what liberalism turned into during that time was a parting gift by the Russians, a thought echoed by KGB defectors, and looking at how things have turned out so far, I suspect that, in the beginning, it was, but I doubt the KGB realized that they were biting off more than they could chew, much less the fact that the World War Three they were trying to start wouldn't turn out the way they thought it would.

 From what I gather, the idea was to use the US-native commies to weaken the US from the inside and turn us into some sort of indecisive, effeminate state that couldn't get anything accomplished.   What they didn't seem to account for is that when you deal with large masses of people, there's essentially one rule:  Everyone is fucking stupid.   It was stupid that this turned into a shooting war,  it was stupid of the Chinese and the Mexicans to try what they did, and it was pretty stupid when the "Global economy" flew apart like a sparrow thrown into a hurricane fan.   Guess the libs were right about one thing after all, we're all connected somehow.  

 It wasn't obvious then, but what liberalism turned into was sinister.   It was two-faced,  publicly espousing that everyone should be friends, everyone should get along, everyone should care, and since the government represented everyone, then the goverment should care.   Privately, things were another matter.   There, it was 'fuck everyone but me and mine,' and that message was translated to every circle or clique imaginable with as little altruism as possible.  People became rich and powerful on the backs of their own people by holding their own people down and blaming others, directing their hate elsewhere.  Dems blamed the Republicans, blacks blamed the whites, hispanics blamed the blacks, skinheads blamed the Jews, cats blamed the dogs; everyone blamed everyone else but themselves.   The liberal indoctrination everyone received when they were growing up stuck true, it wasn't your fault, it was someone else's.   Year after year, all that hate built up like a pressure cooker, and sooner or later it had to go somewhere.  The liberals knew that, and they tried to build a way to use that release to their own ends.   Gun-control wasn't about unsafe weapons, it was about disarming the public, though they'd never admit it publicly .   The hypocrisy was staggering in it's magnitude, and mind-numbing in its effects.

 Combine an unstable economy shuddering and slowing down with a bunch of self-important, closet-racists bent on getting theirs first before they'd give anything to "them," and it's no wonder the shooting started.  Hell, before we reformed the Republican party, it wasn't any better than the Democrats.  Reagan was probably spinning like a top in his grave at what mess his party had become; exactly like the Russians wanted, indecisive and afraid to make any move that'd upset anyone.  They were more like Republicants than Republicans.

 Looking at all of this, I thank God that the vast majority of Americans who were around to fight in World War Two aren't here now.   I saw the look of disappointment and despair on a few of their faces, and to think of it mirrored to so many millions of others who fought and died for this country; I can only pray to God for forgiveness and compassion to help us through this.   It'll be Christmas soon, and after that, New Years.  I can't help but wonder what next year will bring, life's pretty goddamn rough since 2012.

Really like the writing style - "friend next door" kind of thing. Nice setting up of the background and sprinkling of foretelling to let you know something big is coming.

I'm doing a bit of writing and trust me, it’s not my day job, so I know where you are coming from.  So far you have shown us your homework not the answer.  We like to read the answer so show us that.  My old short fiction prof. would have put it this way, "show us don't tell us."

While I think starting with dialogue isn't the best way to start you should get to actual character interaction as quickly as you can.  Get us hooked early and we will stick with it when you have to explain something.

Having said all that it seems like you are setting up a very well thought up background and I'm curious where you are going with it.  It kinda reminds me of the background from the Postman.  Good book, bad movie.  Good luck.

Good stuff so far, cant wait for more

Yeah, no doubt.  I've been writing on-off since High School (AKA, a bit over 10 years ago) and I'll admit this intro is fairly weak;  however, as a SHTF story, I decided to try something new.   My first attempt at this story started with character interaction, but I had some serious issues outlining the starting points for some of things going on.   I'm sure, with more time and some serious thinking I could've dug myself out of that hole, but I didn't really have the time then.   Figured it was a little easier to lead in with a Red-Dawn-esque (though longer) "The world today is fucked up, tomorrow, it's getting Fuckier(TM)."

ETA: Part of my issue was trying to keep it as close to reality as possible in the initial part of the story to make people stop and think.   I figured outlining what's currently messed up in detail might cover some things people didn't think about or know.  Yay, edutainment.

I want more of this story already...

Wait till I get to the meat of the story before you make that decision.  No need to start drooling over a package that says 'Bacon' when you don't know if it's freezer burnt or even bacon yet

On the downside, my company lost it's contract with the USAF yesterday, so I'll be unemployed in 30 days.   On the plus side, that means I have more time to write.

As to how this all got started with almost nobody noticing, well, that's a long story.   A good portion of Americans were easily distracted by the bread and circuses; as long as American Idol was on, they didn't care.  Another large portion of America was too busy working to keep themselves out of the poor house to look around and see what was going on.  As time went on, more and more of those workers lost those jobs, and suddenly had a lot more time to look around.  

The big stimulus debate woke a few people up.  Most of us laughed at the first attempt, and cried at then-President Bush's justification: "We had to abandon free market principles to save the free market."   None of us were surprised when the new President, ushered in by the Democrats with waves of Hope and Change, decided he didn't like the free market either.  The next few years were similarly unsurprising to those of us who were already awake as the media had given the new President a pass on almost everything, shuffling coverage off under the rug for the embarassing moments and flat out not reporting on the really damaging items.  It was an open secret that the man was a marxist, though it was hotly argued by a variety of circles how authentic anything else about his was.

Those of us that were already awake took note of their tactics, and got increasingly concerned as we started seeing the numbers.   $700 Billion became $700B "at one time."  Then suddenly that wasn't enough and the Fed started buying up stakes in banks.  They called it "investing in our financial sector to keep it running" but as more and more information leaked out as to what was happening to banks that took the money, it was pretty obvious that anyone who signed on the dotted line sold their soul to the Government; they tried to hide it, call it other things, but they were nationalizing banks one by one.  When buying up banks wasn't enough, they "invested" in a wider variety of industry.  They'd never call it "nationalizing", but that's what it was when they violated contract law and tossed out the investors for GM and Chrystler.  Handed the shares straight across the board to the Union folks that had steadfastly worked to drive the companies into the dirt.  We weren't surprised that in the end the government sold their shares at a massive loss to the taxpayer a few years later.   What's $10-15 billion when you're burning it by the hundreds of billions out back?

Many were shocked to find out that within a year of the first bank collapse, that the government had frittered away or bought up bad loans to the tune of almost $9 trillion.    Those of us who were awake sat in horrified silence.  Where was this money coming from?  Our pockets.   Not directly, of course, the government just had the Federal Reserve turn on the printing presses and go to town like a group of sailors in port.   Yet, the effect we were all worried and waiting for, inflation, didn't show up, not immediately anyway.  Instead, prices shifted, they'd fall for a bit, then shoot up, then fall some more.  Rinse, wash, repeat.  I'd looked up a good deal of information at that point; hyper-inflation, deflationary spirals, all sorts of economic hells that happened earlier in the 20th century.  I didn't know then what was going to happen, no one did, not even the people paid to figure things like this out, but I knew it was about to get interesting because I was pretty certain the folks paid to figure things out didn't give a damn what the side-effects were.

I personally would like to skullfuck whoever it was that came up with the Chinese proverb/curse: "May you live in interesting times."  Though, they'd have to get in line behind most of the current administration and a few of my ex-girlfriends.

One bright point though, is at least my kids won't have to go through this, if I ever have them.   On the other hand though, they won't truly benefit from the wisdom I've fought and killed for.  I know I didn't truly understand and take to heart and of the lessons my grand-parents and great-grandparents tried to pass on about the Great Depression.  I see it now, the reason why I didn't learn those lessons is simple:  I didn't suffer to get that knowledge, I had no context and couldn't understand.  

 My children won't get it either.  Other people's kids? They won't either, no one ever does.  We'll probably be back at each other's throats again a few generations down the line.   It sucks, but that's the truth.  Insulated from what we paid in blood for, folks will sell their freedoms and those of their children away cheaply yet again until one day this will all happen again.

 I'd like to think that no matter kind of person my great-grandchildren will be, that they'll value their freedoms as much as we did, that they'll keep their guard up and failing that, take their freedoms back.

"I don't see how you could possibly support those people!"

Jason grunted, pursing his lips, possible retorts and counter arguments roiling up while he warily eyed the woman sitting next to his coworker across the booth.  His coworker gave him an apologetic look, practically begging him to keep silent.

"Serously, those people were running this country into the ground!  It's a miracle our new President has managed to keep things from falling apart so far!"

Biting his lip, Jason stared incredulously at the woman through narrowed eyelids.

"They tortured people, killed innocent Iraqi women and children, let thousands starve in New Orleans and didn't do anything to help them!"

The sound of his fork bouncing off his plate managed to do what his sudden grimace had not, the woman's streaming tirade came to a sudden halt.

"Really, Becca?" Jason sighed, fighting back the urge to raise his voice and happy he'd managed to transform "Bitch" to "Becca" even though he knew Rebecca hated the short form of her name.  She'd probably think he was trying to be an ass and never realize the alternative was far more insulting.  "So you mean to tell me that if I said the military was in New Orleans within hours of Katrina blowing through, you'd call me a liar?" he asked.

"Hell yes, I would!"

Jason smiled, one that absolutely nothing to do with friendly intentions.

"Really?  So, you would call me a liar if I told you about a US Navy vessel moored downtown New Orleans across from Bourbon street?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she bit back snidely, "Everyone knows Bush couldn't be bothered to lift a finger to help all those poor people."

"Of course you wouldn't know anything about it.  You weren't there and instead of doing the intelligent thing and keeping an open mind like you libs are supposedly vaunted for, you've decided to suck up the party line and regurgitate it like a robot."

"Oh really?  So what's so wrong with my 'party line' as you put it?"

"You weren't there.  I was."

"Really? And why, pray-tell, didn't you evacuate like everyone was supposed to?  What were you one of those survivalist nutcases that shot at the poor people there?"

 Jason chuckled and sat his soda back on the table, and looked her in the eye, "'Evacuate like everyone was supposed to'  that's good.  Why don't you ask all those 'poor people' who were looting their way to prosperity why they didn't evacuate before Katrina hit while-"

"There's no way they could leave; they didn't have any money!" Rebecca interrupted, "And I asked you what you were doing there."

"Oh, that's what makes this whole thing so funny to me," Jason smiled and took a long drink from his Coke.  He let his shark-like grin return, "You see, hon, I wasn't there before the storm hit." He paused for it to sink in, and, seeing no sudden lightbulb turning on, "Becca, I was sent in to help.  I was one of the few thousand military members you swear weren't there.  I won't bore you with stories about finding a few dozen drowned corpses in a church in Mississippi.  I won't offend your sensibilities with stories about how your precious poor people shot up rescue helicopters and ambulances.  How some of your displaced, unfortunate people opened fire on a military foot patrol without noticing the humvee down the street or the Ma-deuce manned on top of it because they weren't the first patrol to get fired on.  Let me assure you and your myoptic, self-interested point of view, that on this point you are sorely, sorely misinformed and that, if put in your position, I'd be doing some serious soul-searching as to how I could be that wrong about so many thing."

Rebecca harumphed, scowling at him, "Baby killer."

"That's Baby Eater Second Class, Miss Twizzlestick," he retorted.  "Well Todd, this has been a truly enlightening lunch.  I never would've guessed that swearing to protect the constitution meant that I secretly killed babies, tortured children, and harbored the seed of evil in my heart. I'll leave you this twenty to pay my portion, but do your best to make sure your commie friend doesn't try to redistribute the tip to the poor who so obviously can't be expected to work for their own damn selves," Jason said, dropping a bill on the table as grabbed his Navy-issue trenchcoat.

"So much for having a good day.  Fucking commies," he mumbled as he unlocked his car door, "If that bitch is an example of how most of these tards truly think, this country is so fucked."

*******

I need MORE.

I've bounced around a few separate storylines so far... unfortunately it's a bit like some of the games I've seen under development -> write write write ... pause.  Shit.  That isn't what I wanted.  Start over.   Knowing where you want it to go and being able to realisticly steer it there are two separate things, especially since I'm trying to keep this from reading like some tin-foil conspiracy theorist circle-jerk.

Jason sighed and sat back in his office chair as the overhead yellow light flared to life and started spinning.  A few quick clicks closed the variety of network security monitoring tools he had up, and a press of a button shut down his third monitor.

 "Hey man," Todd said from his seat a few workstations down the table, "I'm sorry about... lunch.  I had no clue she'd do that.."

 Jason eyed the uncleared visitor being escorted about by his boss, replying half-heartedly, "Yeah, well, it's not that I don't appreciate people who stand up for what they believe in.  I like that quality in people.  I just wish that there was some sort of logical, realistic foundation underneath that hostility.  I'd bet my next three paychecks against a Mafia bookie that she voted for The One."

 Todd nodded, "Yeah, you know that pea-green Prius that was outside, the one covered in 'Hope and Change' stickers?"

 Jason gave Todd a nonplussed raised eyebrow, "You're kidding?  Tell me you're kidding."

 "Nope, probably still wants to have his babies too."

 Chuckling, Jason shook his head, "Sweet Jesus.  People like that, they're about as useful as a damn football bat or a soup fork.  You could probably show her picture of him biting the heads off of babies with a rotisserie going behind him filled with puppies and kittens, and all she'd see is his smile and rattle of some justification that those were children and pets of conservatives, so they got what they had coming to them."

 "You sure you're not exaggerating just a little?"

 Jason checked his watch, and smiled as he logged off and organized his work space, leaving the question hang.  As he walked to the door, he glanced back, "Yeah, maybe a little.  She might want to share recipes instead."   Todd snorted, shook his head, and went back to work.

*non-story content removed*

Relief slowly tricked back as he hit the various exit buttons to unlock the doors as he walked on his way out.  Within seconds of his boots hitting the parking lot, his temper was dialed back to a slow boil.  He pressed his key fob a few times while wrestling out of his trench coat, opened the driver side door and tossed his coat over into the passenger seat.  He paused to stretch, looking up at the large US Air Force marked jet coasting down the glide path towards the runway he was barely three hundred yards from.  

"Never let work follow you home," he mumbled to himself while he tried to push the events from lunch from his mind.  He got in, pulled his seat-belt on, and pulled his door shut just as the jet touched down.  The engine rumbled to life with a twist of a key and a pushed in clutch.   Seconds later, he was driving home.

"Sweet monkey jesus! Can't anyone on this damn base drive?" he plead, voice full of exasperation at the Saturn convertible sports car ahead of him, "Any other time, you'd be so close to my ass, I'd be wondering you were going to eat my ass, and now you can't even do the damn speed limit? Bah."   With the changes in his shift time, the side gate he normally used was still closed, forcing him to take the long, slow route all the way around the flight line to the main gate, and inevitably there were a few yahoos that didn't realise that thirty miles an hour meant thirty, not twenty.

"Meh," he poked the radio button on.

"Today, the President gave a speech to the people gathered in Philadelphia," the radio started, "And the crowd gathered there cheered him on.   The President spoke of his original stimulus bill and how it hadn't had much of the effect he'd envisioned.  The President was quoted as saying," the narrator's voice faded out and was replaced with the President's voice.

"In my first eight months in office, I have done everything I could to bring America forward towards the image we need to be.  I have apologized to many people for our actions under previous administrations,  I have worked tirelessly to bring our allies together, and I have done everything in my power that I considered necessary to, uh, help the people of this great country.  Ah, unfortunately, one of my first acts, the stimulus bill, seems to have not helped everyone who needed it the most.   Tomorrow, I will be asking Congress to consider additional programs to help those who, through no fault of their own, seem to have fallen through the cracks.  What, ah, we need to consider, as Americans, is that we need to help our fellow man.  Not everyone is in a position where they can help themselves, and it falls, uh, on us, as proper, forward-thinking Americans, to step in and he-"

"Sweet monkey Jesus," Jason scowled as he switched radio stations, "As if throwing trillions of dollars onto the bonfire of stupidity the last time wasn't enough.  What the hell with this clown think of next?"

Keep it coming please.

Toad

Will do; it's been pretty hard to sit down and post, between BRD and my new job  Might post another section here soon-ish, but don't hold your breath, my brother just got back from Afghanistan for his mid-tour leave.

Just started reading this, that one cracked me up!  

Keep going, you're doing great.

*non-story content removed*

The short amount of time it took him to drive home did little to bleed off his irritation; in fact, if anything, the slow boiling anger made the drive seem over that much faster.   The singular point of relief came as he made the final turn onto his street and saw the orange Dodge Neon that used to be his sister's parked out front.  A small smile burnt away his scowl as he pulled into his driveway and shut off the car and by the time he'd pulled out his keys to unlock his front door he was genuinely smiling.

 "Amanda, I'm home!" he announced as he closed the door, dead-bolting it behind him.  He sometimes wondered if the deadbolts weren't overkill due to this being a fairly good neighborhood, but they came with the house and he wouldn't downgrade security just because it might be 'too much.'

 "Hey honey!" came a cheerful reply from farther back in the small house, "I'm back in the bedroom!"

 Jason glanced around the living room as he made his way to the bedroom.   Everything was spotless and in order, well, as much order as could be imposed on his house.  There were always small things lying about or tucked away, a few Rock Band guitars behind the Rock band drum kit in the corner next to his amp, a few books on the assorted bookshelves.  The blue plastic tub he used as a ghetto coffee table was always cluttered with something,  some days it was mail, some days computer parts, others it was gun cleaning gear; today, the tub was littered haphazardly with black plastic magazines for his AR and sitting atop them was a small white shipping box complete with FedEx logo.

 The kitchen could have been said to be similarly cluttered at one point, but the sea of chaos had receeded many months ago, its last remnant the main counter itself which was covered with various plastic and glass cups, a bag of chocolates, and his knife sharpening kit.  Instead, there was a definite feeling of order.  No more were the stacks of dishes languishing in the sink for weeks at a time, nor boxes stacked around where convenient.  While some part of him mildly resented the intrusion of order into his chaotic personal housekeeping method, the rest of him welcomed the change and considered what little friction generated by the difference between Amanda's style and his to be well worth the aggrivation.

 "Thought you'd be at work?" he asked as he walked into the master bedroom, yet another room where order could not quite wrestle chaos and win.  Chests of drawers dominated two walls and a large queen sized bed was offset to a third wall in the middle of the room.  At both sides of the head of the bed were two square black night stands.  While the floor space was clean and empty of anything save a clothes basket in the corner next to the door and the closet, every surface was cluttered with something.  The top of his dresser was hidden beneath a few sets of unusually patterned ACU-cut camoflague tops and bottoms, a few boxes of ammunition, and a pile of random items Amanda had removed from his pockets over the last few weeks before washing his clothes.  A mound of random clothes, some slinkier than others perched atop her dresser, and a pile of socks were attempting an escape from the open top drawer.  His pistol, a black Springfield XD in .45 sat on his nightstand next to an old rail off of his GSG-5 and one short knife.  His khukri and another much larger knife sat on her nightstand.  

 "Yeah, since I filled in again tonight they're letting me come in a bit later.   Good news though is that starting next week, I'll finally be on third shift!" Amanda said in a fairly cheery manner as she came walking out of the master bathroom wearing her black work outfit,"How was work?"

 "Oh, it was work, I guess," he replied in a very non-commital tone as she moved about the room trying to give everything one last look, "Good to hear that about your shift change, I'm sure you'll make a heck of a lot more in tips then."

 "Yeah, last few times I filled in, I made almost eighty bucks in a shift off of tips alone, here's hopin it keeps up."

 "Yeah, here's hoping.  How was your day" he managed a smile as he watched her worry over random things, putting them away or nudging them around.  He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he found it cute.

 "Well, I love you hon, but I gotta go to work,"  she walked up to him and hugged him as he leaned down and returned the hug.  She gave him a quick kiss on cheek, then another on his lips before pulling back, smiling at him, and then she was walking out of the bedroom and on her way to the front door.

 "Oh, honey, a package came today.  From some place in California- TNVC?  Anyways, I love you!  Bye!"

 Jason supressed a smile as he went back into the living room to retrieve his new PVS-14.

So far, so good.  Keep it coming.

The building was quiet save for the droning of late night traffic on the interstate less than a mile to the west, and all the lights were out.  A musty acrid odor hung in the air, a mixture of mold, wet dirt, and old animal waste.  It had been over a year since this building had seen its normal traffic, now the four enormous doors, two at either end, rarely opened save to admit a lone person or two instead of the massive racing horses that used to be kept in the big aluminum sided barn.    Nothing moved for the longest time, save a lone cat who sauntered back and forth down one of the main aisles as if protecting the two half full food and water dishes, periodicly he would be joined by one of his many family members who would stop by, eat a little, and stare up at the darkness above the small office down the aisle before traipsing off into the darkness.

Some time later, the monotony of this pattern was broken; a hiss barely audible at first from the far side of the building, a few cats scattered across the barn away from the source, some taking up positions between the new interloper and the food dishes.   Seconds pass, the cats guarding the dishes arch their backs, hissing and pacing back and forth before retreating.    In the darkness, a handful of racoons emerge from the far corner stall, puffed up to appear much more formidible than they actually are, and make their way to the dishes.  They spread out around the dishes, forming a circle around it and start taking turns darting in to eat.  The group freezes at a soft clicking sound and immediately starts looking around nervously.   One of them stares up at the darkness above the small office down the way and the small, nearly invisible purple glowing circle that seems to float there.

*non-story content removed*

A few seconds pass, the staring racoon's attention moves elsewhere.   Moments later, the quiet night is interrupted by bright strobing flashes, a series of loud pops.  Cats, racoons, everything attempts to scatter in front of this sudden development, fleeing towards some perceived safety.  Within seconds, the gun fire stops.  A figure slinks down the ladder next to the office door, what little sound made covered by the cries of the dying and the fleeing.  

 The figure advances, weapon up and a chirp breaks the silence.

"Jay, just heard gunshots, you get 'em?"

Jason pulls out his cell and hits the Nextel radio button, "Yep, got a few."

"Sweet.  How many?"

"Three, wait," *BANG* "Make that four."



 "See, I told you, night vision kicks ass.  It's the solution to a whole host of problems you never knew you had!" Jason said, stuffing a few fries in his mouth as he placed his GSG-5 on the counter.

 "Yeah, sure, but three and a half grand?  That's a pretty shitty investment," his buddy Eric commented, rifling through the sack of Arby's on the table.

 "Sure sure, I'll won't pass up the opportunity to remind you of that later," he mumbled with a grin, pulling the magazine out of the GSG-5 and reloading it.

 "Like when?  It's not like any of your paranoia induced fantasies are going to come true."

 "Sooner than you're willing to admit, man," Jason sighed.This was an altogether too familiar argument between them.  Some days Jason wondered why he bothered to bring it up anymore, given the amount of frustration the subject generated for the both of them.  Sometimes he wondered how he could be friends with someone who had always made light of the fact they refused to see the world with blinders on, yet so very clearly had certain blind spots and refused to acknowledge them..

 "Hardly.  While I'm no friend of big government, no one is going to be standing up and shooting at them, you'd be stupid to even consider it."

 "No doubt, but you can only push people so far.  Look at all the Tea Party events, look at the 9/12 march, there's no shortage of people pissed off about the shit they've been doing," Jason watched a car pull into the drive.  Thinking about why he was still friends with Eric quickly lead to him pondering what else about their friendship was based on flawed logic, what else wasn't as it seemed, and those thoughts would eat away at him until beaten back.

 "Yeah, that's all a bunch of drummed up right-wing bullshit spin and you know it."

 "Keep telling yourself that man, keep telling yourself that.   You don't get two-plus million people,  two million job-holding 'gotta-go-to-work' types to get off their ass, get away from home, take time off work and go protest.  Not without them being pretty damn pissed off.  I'd mention the fallout with the Acorn shit, the new bullshit RoE in Afghanistan, or hell, half the crap the Anointed One and his cadre of self-important fools are doing... but you'd just dismiss that as right wing spin too." Jason resisted the urge to sigh again.  He'd been friends with Eric for the better part of almost two decades, and while they might not have seen eye to eye, might not have had eachother's backs at the beginning, they had both helped the other through some very trying times before.

 "Damn right I would.  There's a reason why I don't watch the news.  It's all spin; none of it can be trusted."

 "So your solution is to stick your head in the sand?  Pretend everything's okay while storm clouds build where you can't see 'em?  Yeah.  That makes sense.  I'm not advocating shit here, but I'm just sayin, that if some shit like that went down, I could understand why it did.  One thing you're right on though, as fucked-nasty as shit's been getting, it's nowhere bad enough yet.  Give it time though, it's getting there." That help had come at a cost to the one helping, but neither at the time questioned that cost.  Both of them had stuck their heads out for the other regardless of the costs, and if all you could analyze for the truth were someone's actions, then those actions spoke very clearly as to how serious they took their friendship.  Few people stood out in this circle of friends like that, and Jason wasn't about to dismiss such friendship lightly, no matter how disagreeable things might get.  By the end of such thoughts, even if he didn't always remember the conclusion of this thought train, he would eventually come to the realization that he continued to bring it up purely because Eric had been such a good friend in the past.

 "And what do you intend to do when it does get there?"

 "Pretty simple, keep my head down, keep me and mine safe.   If that means drastically increasing someone's daily intake of lead and inconveniencing them, then that's how it'll be.  There's a reason why I've spent the last few months putting together as much stuff as I have been.   When this kicks off, there's probably not going to be much warning, and I'm sure as shit not going to be caught unprepared,"  Jason paused as the front door opened and two of his other friends came in. One didn't just give up on friends, not real ones

 "Holy shit man, what the hell is that?" Travis asked, pointing at the black device perched on the front of the helmet he'd left on the dining room table, "Is that what I think it is?"

 "Niiice," Nate smiled, picking it up, "How much did this set you back?"

 "Three and a half."

 "Holy ouch.  Still, that's cool as fuck man," Nate sat the helmet mounted PVS-14 back down.

 "Damn straight it is.  So what you up to Jay?" Travis asked.

 "Not too much,  just smoked a bunch of coons out back with that."

 "Bet those fucks didn't know what hit em," Travis laughed.

 "Nope, they didn't have a clue until it was too late.  Like I told Eric, night vision is the solution to problems you didn't know you had."

I'm really liking it, can't wait to see everything play out.

Great story so far, please continue.

"Same old argument again?" Nate asked.  When Jason gave him a questioning look, he continued, "I could hear you outside."

"Yeah, same old right-wing militia-nut bullshit," Eric sighed.

"Bullshit?!" Jason nearly gasped, anger and passion leaking through, "Bullshit?"

"For the most part it is, and you know it.."

"I pray to God that it what I worry about turns out to be wrong in the end, but bullshit?  A few years ago, I would never have thought that I'd be standing here even talking about this seriously.  Hell, a few years ago I would've made fun of anyone even suggesting such a thing, but now? Well," his features softened.  He stared at the floor for a few seconds, "Now, it's a different story."

"A few weeks ago, I would've told you that you were a fucking idiot for even entertaining the thought.  Hell, I still think you're paranoid."

"If I was truly paranoid, do you think I'd spend so much time trying to disprove myself?  Trying to re-analyse everything just so I could sleep better at night?  Do you think I've spent the better part of the last year spending all my extra money getting ready for something simply because I went off on a lark?  Do I strike you as the kind of fanciful person to just latch on to things at random and waste my life on them?"  He paused a second, grimacing,  "Well, besides latching on to horrible girlfriends.   We all have blind spots."

 The other three stood, looking at him as if expecting him to continue.

 "We've hashed over a lot of this already, especially the beginning of it all.  Some of it made enough sense to you that some of you went out and got your FOID cards, but what I'm telling you now is that things are much different than they were before.  I'll warn you right now, this is going to be disjointed as shit, it's not like I got notes or a speechwriter.  Or a teleprompter.

 "Months ago, we were looking at the great unknown because of the election.  We were looking at a hurricane of spin and fear mongering; even I admitted to that then.  Look, I'm not trying to say I'm some sort of messiah.  I'm not.  I'll be happy to agree with you that I let a smidge of paranoia accelerate the pace of what I was doing then, but with God as my witness, I have no doubts left.   If something doesn't change, it will end in bloodshed.  There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

 "Look at it this way.  Before, it was all an unknown.  Now, we know we have a President dead set on enacting every piece of Socialist bullshit that crosses his desk.  Next week they're voting on the Health Scare bills, but it wouldn't surprise me if they find some way to cloak-and-dagger that shit through before anyone knows it's too late.   They're talking about bringing that card-check bill back up again, and on top of that, they're agitating for amnesty again.    None of that is going to make anyone happy.  Throw in the fact that you have a foreign policy hinged on apologizing to everyone about how horrible we are and it seems to me that that this guy blatently wants to throw the game in Asscrackistan.  I mean, seriously, it's been how long since McCrystal requested more troops and we still haven't heard anything out of him?  How fucking long does it take?  This is fucked up like a football bat; it's almost to the point where he might actually be worse than Carter.   It almost looks to me like the asshole wants us to lose there, and if he doesn't want us to lose, then I've seen squid with more spine.  They bitched and pranced around talking about how Iraq was Vietnam, and I tell you right the fuck now, unless a whole lot of heads pull out of a whole lot of asses PDQ, Afghanistan is going to be another Vietnam because of the fucking politicians.  They thought they knew better than the military then, just like they do now.  That's not even touching on the fact that both places ate up another country before we even got there or any of their soup-sandwich fobbit-sponsored retard policies.   You've got Israel threatening to replace Iran with a series of large craters if there aren't any sanctions by the end of the year, North Korea popping off missiles left right and center, those commies in South America doing, well, commie shit.  We abandoned Poland with the missile defense shit, and now Russia seems to think they've managed to get out of the minor leagues again and China, well, fuck.  China.   I can't tell you everything I know about that shit, but you guys already know as well as I do that they're styling themselves to replace us, and Sir Dickless the Savior of the World, Receiver of the Nobel Peace Prize, can't be bothered to do anything about any of what I've mentioned besides apologize for Bush, blame Bush, or try to pretend that the jackals he's so happy to sit down with are his friends.  Fuck, even Neville Chamberland would've woken the fuck up by now.

 "Now consider the domestic policies I haven't already mentioned,  they've pretty much assraped the dollar while pretending they're not pulling every play out of Hoover and Roosevelt's playbook on depressions.  The 'unofficial' unemployment rate is over 25% now.  Trust me, that's more accurate than the 10% they're giving you.  Look up how it's figured and you'll see.  The dollar is dying, don't be too surprised when that shit-bird comes home to roost.    Read the damn market ticker site, go back a few months and read up till now.  The US financial industry as it stands exists like another set of the Emperor's clothes.  Don't look too close, the Fed and the regulators are fucking each of us in the ass by refusing to do their jobs, and the fucking Democrats are looking the other way.  I have a bad feeling that most of that shit is because those asshats wouldn't know what ethics was if it flew down out of the sky and rubbed one out on their face.   To top that off, they are ignoring everything that doesn't fit their world view.  They ignored the town halls.  They ignored the tea parties.   They've ignored all the questions about how they defunded Acorn for just the month of October.   They are flat out ignoring the people, and to make things worse, the fucking Republican'ts aren't doing anything better because we elected a bunch of goddamn RINOs like McCain and that bitch from Oregon.   They want to play 'go-along' instead of letting the Dems hoist themselves on their own petards.  Those clowns are, well, just like every fucking politician in Washington, too worried about their reelection campaign to be bothered with reality.   If we make it to the next set of elections, it's going to be ugly as shit.

 "Other than that, they've essentially blacklisted Fox News, which, having watched the hell out of it, the worst you could say is that they refuse to give soft-toss questions to the man and have chosen to, I don't know, be real journalists instead of fucking lapdogs and propagandists like the rest of those flaming commies, but who needs the first amendment or an honest press corps anyways, right?  

 "You want to know why I'm so fucking worried?  All that's about ninety percent of what's floating around in my head right now.  Fucked up foreign policy, fucking our own military, fucking our own people, and telling us we should be fucking happy to have the opportunity to get fucked.   Does that sound like a giant fucking rainbow and a basket of kittens?  The country is on the wrong set of tracks, passing a 'Bridge out ahead' sign, and instead of trying to find out how the hell to get off the tracks or at the very least, hit the goddamn brakes, they're calling for full steam while ignoring anyone who tells them otherwise.

 "Worst case scenario: someone is gets fed up with this.  Someone who is so fucking short sighted they can't stop for a second stop and look at what's come before.  Someone who will ignore any and all voices of reason telling him that making someone a martyr is the worst way to accomplish anything.  I mean, look at the shit they lay on Kennedy now.  Kennedy would be sick if he saw all the shit that gets done in his name were he still around; the man was an NRA member for Christ's sake, practically more Republican than most of our current Republicans!   But no, someone will go off and do something stupid.   Congress will reply with something even stupider, half because most of them are blinded by their anti-gun theology.  Hell, don't be surprised guns had nothing to do with whatever happens but it results in a gun ban, these asshats don't know reason.   Either way, half these guys will come up with the bullshit because they see a chance to get the utopia they've dreamed about, the other half will go along because 'they have to do something!'    From there, it's a self-feeding cycle of idiocy until a large enough group of idiots sparks off the last stage of stupid and then a lot of people die.   That is largely what I'm afraid of.   Even the best case I can think of, based on the wholesale lack of give-a-shit about turning the country around, ends in a fuckton of shooting and good people dying.

 "But you know what scares me the most about either one of those situations?   It's the fact that that the idiots in charge would wipe their ass with the Constitution if it didn't mean losing an election.   They think this place is their own private fiefdom and they waddle about incapable of understanding how people could possibly disagree with them.  Innocent people will get labeled terrorists, dogs will get shot, all sorts of horrible shit.  And then they'll finally run into someone who isn't a push-over wallflower who doesn't have anything left to lose.   Shots fired, cops down, leftist media crying about terrorists, etc.  That's how it'll start regardless of best or worst case.  Small, and like a wildfire it'll spread.   It's that simple.

 "There might be, and I stress might, be a slim chance we'd get through this without it getting that far, but the current course changes, I'd take bets on the Cubs winning the World Series and the President not being involved in some way, shape, or form before I'd bet on the 'No bloodshed option.'    Keep your powder dry and hold on to your hats, it's about to get bumpy."

*non-story content removed*

cool keep it up.

*non-story content removed*

Well then, I guess you did base it on a co-worker, didn't you!  
Hehe...you must have used your time machine to make that post.

Bump to reset archiving timer... god I'm such a slacker.  I come up with plenty of good ideas when I'm at work... but can't do shit about it there

Tagged for reading later

Ah-hm.....it's called pen & paper, aka, notebook & pen.
Do I need to send you one, or do I need to have your GF get you one?

Actually, I need to get one of those voice recorders for when I'm not at home, but not at work... can't have them at work, secure space and all that... meh, it's just messed up, as I've had a few really good ideas as to where to go with things here but can't make up my mind which is the most likely.

*non-story content removed*

  Jason looked out into his back yard and scowled as he munched on the last of his pop tart.   It had been four months since his conversation with Eric and the rest of the group and he didn't feel any any better prepared for what he felt was surely coming.   The cold January wind blew bits of leaves around the trees as he watched and thought about events that had taken place since that talk.  They all seemed jammed together in the way that only a busy life could make big events seem small.   Sure, he'd stacked up a few more ammo cans worth of ammo, socked away a little more food,  stacked up a little more gear, but in the end he didn't feel any further along than he was months ago.  Eric had taken the initiative out of all his friends and obtained his FOID card and a .40S&W Walther P99. but so far, he had been the only friend who seemed to take the 'get a gun' advice seriously.  After all, in the coming catastrophe, a handgun was of limited use and there were only so many long guns in Jason's house to go around.

   He'd also made friends with the new coworker, Josh,  on his shift a few weeks back, a fellow Navy guy fresh out of the service.  Being friends with the guy was a foregone conclusion, he'd joked with Amanda that Josh was born in a secret government lab as a clone of his, only with a touch more redneck.  And then there was Rebecca.

 Jason and his newfound buddy had both had repeated incidents where politics resulted in some heated words with her.  The problem had brewed for over a month and a half; Jason had initially tried to be a welcoming coworker but by the time Josh joined the shift, he'd switched tactics to complete avoidance.  He'd seen what this kind of personality could to and had no desire to give her any more ammunition.  Both of them did their best to not inflame the situation despite the inevitable snide comments, but things had come to a head when she'd made complaints directly to upper management that she didn't feel safe because both of the pair carried pocket knives and had "threatened her."   Thankfully the situation resolved itself as other coworkers came forward and management discovered the difference between the allegations and reality.   That didn't stop a few veiled threats referring to unemployment towards the two, but in the end some personnel shuffling kept the three apart.

 Jason chased the last of his strawberry pop tart with the last of the milk in his glass, shook his head, and grabbed his ID.   He knew he didn't feel any better off because the probable future kept getting darker no matter how fast he tried to prep for it.   The Senate had passed its version of the health care bill, and since then the rhetoric had steadily ratcheted up.  No longer did it seem to be a simple disagreement or a forceful difference of opinion.  He'd listened to both sides and understood the rhetoric going both ways, but the language was changing, crystallizing.  He'd always theorized an extension to liberal hatred, but idly theorizing it and seeing it were two different things.   The future was getting darker because the potential paths to the future were dwindling and only the darker ones didn't seem to close.   The last election was a disappointment for him, no doubt, but at that point in time it seemed a mistake that could be solved over time and changing people's minds.  Now, with the language turning, changing minds seemed a more and more distant option; the language being used sounded more like wartime propaganda than a disagreement.

  The fact that the current president seemed to be spending every waking minute trying to undermine everything the country classically stood for wasn't making this any easier.  Alienating allies, attempting to suck up to enemies, encouraging anything and everything to advance his socialist agenda while trying to break the back of the United States.  Three more years of this?  Dear God, what have they done?

ETA: Now with 33% more proofreading!  Don't be shy, if you see something fucked up, grammar, spelling... whatever, lemme know so I can fix it.  I feel like I need to be in a special ed class based on what I cleaned up in this post

Good story keep them coming I will keep reading.

Will do,  kinda bent at doing these quickie "time passes" sections, but seeing as some of the characters are derived from people I know, and some of the events are similarly derived, trying to tie things together and make them coherent is difficult without throwing out a silly amount of information that would probably bore most people to tears.   This isn't going to win any writing awards, that's for sure, but I will say that if I thought I was going to go and get this published, there'd be a complete re-write of many different sections, as there's a marked difference between web-based fan-fiction and printed-on-dead-tree fiction.

"So what you're telling me, Josh, is that you moved out of the hotel room you were staying in just to find out that the apartment management rented out the room you were trying to get... out from underneath you after you told them you'd have the final paperwork back in today?" Jason asked while pulling his CAC out of the machine he was logging out of.

"Yeaah. Now I've got to find another hotel to move to until I can find a place... and the wife is bitching at me every chance she gets about how shitty things are back in Washington," Josh sighed again, clearly frustrated.   The two went through the motions, hitting buttons to open doors as they walked out to the parking lot now that their shift was over.

"That's fucked up, dude.  That's a big pile of suck.  When's she supposed to be moving down here?"  The pair stopped at the gazebo that served as the smoke shack outside the building they worked in.

"Well, I don't really know, Jason... her command is fucking her around with her paperwork.  You'd think it wouldn't be that hard to file some paperwork to get out.  I mean, seriously, even according to their own rules, she's not able to do what they need to do, and when my son's born, it'll be even worse."

"Ugh.  Well, hotels aren't cheap, even if you're going monthly.   Tell you what," Jason paused, thinking for a second, trying to judge the situation.  He balanced his urge to do the right thing, to be a good person, with the cold hard fact that not everyone was worthy of trust just because you liked them.  Josh cocked his head to one side and waited expectantly for a few moments before Jason continued, "Yeah, tell you what, you've been a good friend so far, and I hate seeing good friends getting bent over a barrel.  Moving your wife out here isn't going to be cheap, and getting fucked for hotel bills isn't going to make it any easier.   I got a spare room upstairs and a couch downstairs.  Grab your shit and you can crash at my place.  Don't worry about paying me or anything,  I'm not going to take advantage of a friend."

Josh brightened, "No shit?  Won't Amanda mind?"

"Heh, well, it is my place and last time I checked, I still pay all the bills."  Jason smiled.

"Holy crap," Josh sputtered, "You have no idea how much this means to me... I'll pay you back."

"Like I said, don't worry about it.  If you really want to throw cash my way, wait till you're back on your feet and your wife is here."

 A few hours later, Jason heard a vehicle pull up to the curb outside and peeked out the window to find Josh's SUV snugged up behind the car Amanda planned to buy from his sister.   He started downstairs and beat Josh to the door by a few seconds.   Jason flipped back the deadbolt, and opened the door just as Josh reached for the handle.

"Sup dude?" Jason asked.

"Got my shit, what's up, roomie?"

"Meh, not too much.  How much crap you got?"

"Not too much, just what I could fit in my car.  What I got here is pretty much it," Josh replied, nodding his head at the shopping bag of DVDs, a gym bag of clothes, and his guitar case.

"Sweet, didn't know you played," Josh said as he noticed Jason's acoustic and electric guitars on a stand.

"Yeah, I still suck, but I'm getting better."

"Cool, we'll have to jam or something."

"Like I said, I still suck."

"No worries."

 "Man, you weren't kidding," Jason heard from downstairs and shouted down to Josh, "What?"

"Your couch.  It fucking rocks.  I don't think I've sat in a couch this comfy."

Jason laughed, "Yeah, best thing to come out of my last relationship.  Careful, it'll sneak up and rape you.  You'll wake up two, three hours later with no idea what the fuck happened.   Like roofies."

"No shit.  Well... shit."

"What?"

"Dude, that fuckin universal health scare bill passed!"

"What?! You gotta be shitting me," Jason said, pausing the game on his PC, and heading down the stairs.

"Fuck me five ways from Friday, those dumb bastards did it," he said, watching the sneering, cheering faces on C-SPAN, "That takes us another notch closer to fo time."

"Fo time?"

"Yeah, another inside joke from the gun board I'm on."

"Dude, we heard you like memes, so we put a meme in your meme, so you can-"

"Shush.  Shut your /b/tard mouth,"  Jason cut him off.

"Hah, and who's the /b/tard now, oldfag?"  Josh laughed.

"Here, let me get you a spoon."

"A spoon? What? Why would I need a spoon?" Josh asked.

"So you can eat my ass; now be quiet."

Jason took another drink from his beer and sat down on the porch and looked over at Josh who was shaking his head.

 "Dude, you really need to work on your choice of beer.  I mean, really?  Stag?"

 "Hey, what can say?  Most beer leaves a really shitty aftertaste."

 "And Stag doesn't?"  Josh asked, incredulity in his voice.

 "Not quite the same way, no.  God help me, I kinda like the taste."

 "I don't think God has much to do with it, buddy.  You're fuckin hopeless. Be. Yond. redemption.  Speaking of redemption, you know what we were talking about earlier?  About how everyone needs a tribe?"

 "Yeah, yeah," Jason noted the sudden serious tone creeping in.

 "I wasn't kidding.  Sooner or later, the train we're on is going to hit the end of the line.  The guys pulling the switches, choosing the tracks?  They're choosing all the wrong tracks, like they're searching for a dead end one they can drive us off of."

 Jason pulled out his pack of cigarettes, pulled a red out, and lit it, "I know you're serious.  You'll have to pardon me if I'm a bit hesitant to 'hook my train' to someone else's just yet.  I definitely appreciate the offer though.  I'll consider it, and I know you don't make the offer lightly."

 "You know what I don't get, though?" Josh asked, sipping from his Bud Select.

 "What's that?"

 "With everything that's going on.  With everything that's been said and done by these elected officials, why is it that nobody is doing anything about it?  No mythical 'Fo time'?"

 Jason visibly paused in mid-drag.

 "Really, Jason," Josh started.

 Jason could hear heat building in Josh's voice and decided to head it off at the pass,  "Slow your roll, buddy, slow your roll."

 "But-"

 "No buts, man.  No buts, it's really stupid simple.   You want people to 'fo', you have to give them a reason to.    They don't have a reason to."

 "No reason to?" Josh started again, "How the hell do they not have a reason to?"
 
 "Well, look at it this way, Josh.  Most people are at least decently reasonable people right?  What you're describing is generally not considered to be reasonable action.  I'm not going to argue that point, but hear me out a minute.  If you want you get reasonable people to do unreasonable things, you have to put them in an unreasonable situation where unreasonable action isn't so unreasonable anymore.  You have to threaten their existence, undermine their ability to continue living the way they are, force them out of their comfort zone.  People today have been lulled into a zombie-like state because they've never had it rough.  Yeah, there's a bunch of bullshit flying around that has a bunch of people up in arms, but those are the people who are still awake and give a damn.   The rest of the sheep think those folks are paranoid and crazy, but give it time.  Way things are going, the sheep won't be able to graze about much longer.
 "And besides which, Mr. I have a clearance, you really should think of the implications of what you seem to be asking for.  It won't be pretty."

 "I know-"

 "No, you really don't.  The lines aren't really drawn yet, so you don't have a clue how things could turn out.  What would you do if, and I'm pulling this out of my ass, our own Federal government was the bad guy in all this.  Some kinda nazi/commie shit goes down, and you work for them.  What would you do then?  I mean, you have a clearance.   Hell, say it just starts looking like that's the way it's going to be.  Shit'll get real fucking complicated real fast, so think a bit more and be carefuly what you're asking for."

yup . . .

NEED MOAR!!!!!!!!!!!!

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"Okay then, what would it take to set you off?" Josh asked.

"To paraphrase, 'when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."

Josh cocked an eyebrow, "That's almost word for word from-"

"The Declaration of Independence," Jason smiled, "and yes, it is word for word.  You know what's sad?  When I first read that in high school, I couldn't have cared less about it or what it meant; same goes for the rest of the document and the Constitution too.   Funny, how spending a decade in the Navy and watching the world change around you puts things in perspective and helps focus things for you."

Josh grunted, finished off his beer, and reached for the twelve-pack he'd brought outside, "Care to elaborate?"

"Well," Jason said.pulling out his iTouch, "Let me double check to make sure I haven't missed anything, but I'm fairly certain I remember most of it.  Ah, yep, here we go:

"He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.  One could make the case that everything done since this bullshit 'recession' started was designed to only make it worse.  They've laughed at the idea of repealing any of the legislation they passed, and have threatened to veto anything we're likely to try if we win this fall.

"Yeah, tell me that ain't some bullshit," Josh interjected.

"He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.  I'd say the first offense we've seen like this would be SB1070 from Arizona.  Sure, they're not the first administration to ignore the problem, but not being the first to ignore it doesn't remove their responsibility for choosing to continue ignoring it.  Shouting down the states that have tried to make up for their idiocy, filing suit, and running to the UN about it definitely makes this qualify.

"He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.  I really wouldn't say we've seen this, though I guess if you were creative with logic, you could say the inverse is the issue, considering the illegal immigration issue.  Instead of people who should get a say getting denied that right, we have people who should get the fuck out getting the ability to tell us how to run our own house."

"Fuck that noise," Josh snorted.

"He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.  Not sure how say we had something here, but if I were one to stretch for things, I could make a case that the Dems constantly calling everyone back for a 'special session' to get their pet bills passed when they thought nobody would be looking qualifies.

"He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.  No way to stretch that, it hasn't happened.  In fact, I'd say that they did something like that, there would be blood in the streets PDQ.

"He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. I-"

"What the fuck does that mean?" Josh interrupted.

"Fucked if I know, right? Oh ah-ha, I see.  Related to the section before it.  So, first the King dissolved Parliament, and second, he refused to re-instate it.  Well, if the first hasn't happened then this one hasn't either.   Not so sure people would give them the chance to re-instate Congress.

"He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.  This throws back to Arizona, too.

"He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.  Same as the last.

"He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.  Meh.  You

could argue this one, considering how federal appointments work.

""He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.  Hell yes, this one applies.  Healthscare? IRS expansion? BATFE deciding the can do whatever the fuck they want, like arresting that guy in Texas for a private sale of a firearm to an illegal.  An illegal with a fucking drivers license who spoke English.  How the hell was he supposed to know the guy was an illegal?  They can't 'profile' but now we have to?  Fucking hypocrites.  USDA with law enforcment doing armed raids on people selling their own milk to their neighbors or whatever?  This one is true.

"He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.  Definately not, at least not in the way they meant and not that we know of if that were true.  Congress reauthorizes the military every so many years to address this point.

"He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.  Not yet, and considering their distrust or dislike of the military, not likely.

"He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation.  His collaboration with the UN, running to the international stage to crawl all overhimself.  Add a side order of his supreme court nominees attempting to use foreign non-English Common Law in their decisions.  I'd chalk this as a yes.

"For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us, You'd have to listen to Alex Jones to be able to argue this one.  I'd expect that kind of paranoid type to argue that the militarizing police should qualify for this.

"For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states, and I would expect, like the above, for the tin foiler's the claim the police here too.  Sadly, if you've seen some of the things going down lately, the case would almost be believable.

"For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world, not really, but if they start throwing in tarriffs or starting a stupid trade war.

"For imposing taxes on us without our consent, this applies if you consider the idea that Congress doesn't give a fuck what we think.  Healthscare was a good example of taxes without the People's consent; even if a sizable portion of the morons don't realize it.

"For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury,"  Jason paused a moment, thinking.  "Well, it'd be stretching but under the provisions of the renewed Patriot Act and and the like, I can see the government attempting to crack down on Constitutionalists once the ball gets rolling, and burying them behind a Patriot Act wall and a pile of national security letters.

"For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses,  hasn't happened yet, but if we started handing people over to the UN's International Court of Justice, that would fit this one.

"For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies, I don't see how this would apply, though I guess you could make the case that the way the Feds treat the border states in the South, the legal fights to kill any state's ability to regulate itself or immigration.   It'd be a stretch though.

"For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments," Jason Chuckled,

"Didn't they say they were moments away from fundamentally altering our country at the inaugeration?  Sounds like a confession to me, lump in how they confiscated all the company shit and redistrubuted it, giving the shaft to investors when they took over the car companies and shredding contract law and investment principles when they did it.  Yeah, that one's so easy it's shooting fish in a barrel.

"For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever, hasn't happened yet, though you have plenty of exectutive orders that probably should've been laws passed by Congress.

"He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us,  this will be true once they decide to start cracking down on the Constitutionalists and Three Percenters.

"He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people, same as above.

"He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation, hasn't happened that I'm aware of, and not to sound like I need tinfoil,  but that doesn't mean it won't either.

"He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands, hmm.   This was originally about sailors getting impressed into the British Navy, but I'd say if they started turning Constitutionalists as informers and using them against us, you could argue it.

"He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions, first part you could make the case for, last part not so much.  I think the 1800s made doing that again on a non-local scale pretty impossible.

"In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.  The People have spoken many times, and ignored each time.

"Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.  I guess you might be able to replace British with 'elected' and attempt to make it sound like Congress should know better.   They should, but I don't think it applies here.

"So, let's tally that up," Jason sighed, "Survey says, something like seven clauses valid today, two that are likely to true, five you could stretch for, and ten that aren't.  If you didn't require a lot of proof and had a bad opinion of the government, that makes it fourteen to ten.  Is that enough to justify insurrection to you Josh?"

"Well, put that way, not really.  Kinda?  I guess?"

"Exactly," Jason nodded, "The biggest error that most of the folks in the government make is that they don't bother to think that they're representing the government.  Oh, they use it when it's useful, when it helps them steamplow opposition, but overall, they don't think anyone would object to what they're doing strong enough to do more than bitch.   The funny thing is, ten years ago anyone talking about this kinda crap, I'dve labeled some kinda unibomber-esque nut, but nowadays, not so much.  That's kinda the point I'm trying to get across, too.  The way things are going, normal reasonable people are starting to talk about this, which is the first warning sign that something serious is growing, and I get the impression that the government folks are going to just keep treating this like some fringe-nutter movement and not take it seriously.  They're walking the knife's edge on this, don't even know it, and the results can be pretty fucking nasty.  It's like they don't realize how many people started to keep score in the last few years and are waiting for something to happen.   I fear for my Country in ways I haven't in a long time."

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this can be the only explanation for not continuing...WE DEMAND MOAR

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two days and no update??? UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!