"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."

cool keep it up.

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.

Tagged for reading later

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.

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

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.

"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."

yup . . .

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