There will be blood.

[cilla4progress]

Does anyone think this doesn't end in violence?

[Progressive Jones]

1. Agreed. I give it a couple of more weeks before the shit hits the fan.

I also believe that the righties will jump first.

[cilla4progress]

3. Military?

After Crozier's firing?

[Progressive Jones]

8. I think that there will be paranoia about resources

becoming scarce. Some righties get paranoid easy.
You know, the gun nuts, and the little militias, and such.

[cilla4progress]

9. Gun and ammo sales spiked

right after it hit.

[Progressive Jones]

25. Of course they did. Like I said, fear and paranoia. nt

[NickB79]

30. I know 3 reliably liberal friends and co-workers who bought guns

All people that hate Trump. All bought handguns or shotguns in the past month. Two have owned or shot hunting guns before and got home defense shotguns.

The one that worries me the most is my co-worker. She's late 50's, never owned a gun before, and came to me almost crying asking if she needed a gun now. I told her probably not, but she bought a little pocket .380 anyway. I told her to come out to my place after work so I can at least show her how to shoot it in my backyard so she doesn't kill herself

I'm fine with legal gun ownership, but a pandemic is not the time to be learning basic gun safety.

[lark]

31. My husband stopped at one of the very large gun stores around here.

There was no one in the parking lot so he was curious. He went in and all the shelves were totally empty. Fucking trumpers gunning up to kill us when we riot because the government is killing us on purpose.

[SheltieLover]

15. This

👆

[ancianita]

2. Who's going to kill whom? It's not like the feckless leaders we have are going to be hurt. So...

why will people be violent?

Because I can't see it, and I'm living in Florida where people are nutty gun-humpers.

No signs that I can read yet. Do you see any?

Do you have a possible scenario?

[cilla4progress]

4. Just

history.

[ancianita]

6. I read a lot of history. But I'm at a loss.

I just wonder. Maybe crime because of being broke and jobless?

[Moostache]

33. Here is a depressing (but plausible) trajectory into chaos...

1 - we are a population in insolvency RIGHT NOW...April 1st rents and mortgages are the first (of many to come) that will be missed by a lack of ability to pay. People are stressed about where the money to buy food is going to come from, utilities are going to be in arrears and within 2-3 months, people are going to be facing shutdowns of water, electric, phones, cell phones, internet access....everything that modern life depends upon to stay 'modern'...

2 - that lack of ability to pay is also the death knell of small restaurants and businesses across the nation. After they fail to pay rent, they fail to pay for deliveries and the snowball is heading down the mountain without a way to stop it. Their credit rating is finished, their ability to get loans and inventory and stock is finished. They are bankrupt and will not return in any recognizable form. Millions of additional jobs are evaporating today.

3 - the failure of small businesses will collapse local government budgets and state budgets - which CANNOT operate in the red the way the Federal Government can. All 50 states, which have been thrown to the wolves to fight and fend by Trump, are going to be bankrupt and in default by July. The loss of local government and state government and total absence of a federal response leaves a massive vacuum that will not stay empty...it WILL BE FILLED.

4 - Once widespread bankruptcies and state failures take hold, there will be riots - for food and water. People with nothing can SPEND nothing...commerce in a capitalist system ceases to exist at all...the rich MUST see this is true, without consumer base they too have no income...ownership of "assets" cease to have value when the 'assets' no longer provide income or appreciate over time.

5 - Without a strong, centralized and CONTROLLED plan (administered via the military and National Guard) for distribution of life sustaining food, water and supplies, complete chaos is only 2 weeks (a regular restocking and shipping schedule)...a similar ban on foreclosures and evictions is MANDATORY...we as a society cannot survive throwing people out of their homes and into the public without food, shelter or hope of changing that situation any time soon.

This situation is dire...but failure to have smart, competent people planning for what's coming is deadly.

[ancianita]

34. So you envision this shithole country scenario on the horizon.

What do you see as the timeline. Fall? Asset stripping might take a while.

I envision people with children at home -- their fearful decisions to get out and fight, or stay home and hope.

Do you have any ideas about who CAN be the smart, competent, non-reactive people in this situation? I'm keeping an eye out.

Will they come from our party? From the military? Some combination of military and "professionals"? Big Corps and banks?

Will we non-poor end up being the "reliable help" for the 40 million poor, dying in sadness, depression?

If this situation is dire, I need to get out to see this.

Because where I am in Florida, people seem to be keeping their dire straits hidden. Maybe I'm living in the wrong area.

[Moostache]

35. I will not be surprised to see stories of parking lot robberies soon

People without money or access to jobs still need to eat...hungry people get desperate fast.

Local officials are going to have to fill the void...my concern is how they get resources...deal with the devil seems only way to pry goods or services from Trump cabal.

I hope I'm wrong, but it is a grim picture right now.

I truly think the 'plan' is to allow a major die off of poor people and minorities...the reaction to this is clearly one Alfred E, Neuman would envy...what Trump worry?

Stay safe, vigilant and watch out for signs of real trouble - robberies for groceries in parking lots, car jackings, killings and eventually riots...if you live in an area with an idiot in charge, start making plans for how you would leave and I hope you never need them.

[ancianita]

40. Duly noted. Thanks.

You stay safe, as well.

[EllieBC]

12. I think the uncertainty

of when things will be un-lockeddown and the almost caged in feeling combined with uncertainty about financial futures (in the US and Canada there’s a stunning amount of debt and paycheque to paycheque living) with a sprinkling of mistrust for the government (even Health Canada tried for claim the risk was low as late as mid March) and a side dish of exhaustion from having to wait in line after line to go to stores where shelves are still often bare will cause people to behave in ways they would not normally.

I think there’ll be anger and frustration in urban cores which will result in heavy handed actions by police and/or military. People without yards will be sick of being told they are essentially under house arrest.

In the rural areas it’ll be the wannabe militia types with their armories.

And in the ‘burbs it’ll be just people starting to break the rules in the way they do with with wine soaked block parties that will go largely unnoticed because the police will be busy punishing the frustrated people in the cities and tired from trying to keep down the crazies in the sticks.

This is going to be a bad summer.

[ancianita]

13. I see. 40 million poor can build up to a lot of desperate acts. I hope we can hold it together.

[EllieBC]

18. It's not just because they are poor.

There is going to be a lot of people who might not have been poor who will be.

There’s no game plan except “stay home”. That’s not going to work for people by June. Especially if you live in a city. What exactly does anyone expect from people being treated like prisoners with no access to green spaces?

[ancianita]

21. I hear you.

[Blues Heron]

26. we're not locked in - you can leave your house

just wear a mask, wash your hands and be calm.

[meadowlander]

14. Poor people with guns and going to kill other people without guns.

When the CDC recommendation is to wear masks and people realise there is no way to buy masks because the rich already stockpiled all of them people will start attacking each other to get them.

When people start to get really sick and have to stand in line for two days outside a clinic to get in to see a doctor, there will be violence.

We've already seen punch ups in supermarkets over toilet paper. Wait until its been a month and people still can't buy rice or pasta or baking ingredients or bread or feminine hygiene products and someone else beats them to the last one, the only one they've seen in stores in weeks.

People are already stealing masks and hand sanitiser from hospitals. When there are no more easy things to steal, they will start stealing violently. And the fear and paranoia that that violence causes with start a domino effect.

[dchill]

16. "Poor people with guns and going to kill other people without guns."

People who don't have guns, but who DO have toilet paper - among other things.

[Frasier Balzov]

5. It was a lovely spring day here today.

And families were outside with their children playing yard games.

I can't know whether any of those parents were thinking desperate thoughts about their safety or the future.

It just seemed that they were enjoying their time at home which the emergency has granted us.

[SunSeeker]

7. 240,000 Covid-19 dead is a lot of blood on its own.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

10. I'm still waiting for the corporate sociopaths...

... to finally part ways with their evangelical fools.

Something like this scene from “There Will Be Blood”:

[cilla4progress]

11. I hope

I'm wrong.

[dchill]

17. I hope so, too. But I'm really worried.

[Under The Radar]

19. The governors are taking charge and showing leadership

Trump has not done a damn thing here. He hasnt issued a shutdown of anything, or has forced any corporation to do anything. He has an nightly reality tv show at .5:00 that I do not think anyone feels is authentic

[eleny]

20. Talk of the USPS going dark in June

[ancianita]

41. There was talk of the Internet going down on April 1 for ten days, too.

[7wo7rees]

22. Yeah, no..... too many very desperate people with no resources...

Maybe in rural areas not so much.....

It is going to happen.

Why else are the store fronts, restaurants ad bars included boarding up windows as though expecting a hurricane in April in Dallas? Hmmm?

[OhioChick]

23. Of Course

COVID will peak, many deaths will ensue, people going bankrupt, jobless, hungry and social unrest will follow.

Sad thing is, the public is more armed than the police.

[ancianita]

42. You're so right. According to Wikipedia, Americans have more guns than any entity on the planet,

including the US military.

-- American civilians own nearly 100 times as many firearms as the U.S. military and nearly
-- 400 times as many as law enforcement."[8]

-- Americans bought more than 2 million guns in May 2018, alone.[8] That is more than twice as many guns, as possessed by every law enforcement agency in the United States put together.[8]
-- In April and May 2018, U.S. civilians bought 4.7 million guns, which is more than all the firearms stockpiled by the United States military.[8]

-- In 2017, Americans bought 25.2 million guns, which is 2.5 million more guns than possessed by every law enforcement agency in the world put together.[8]
-- Between 2012 and 2017, U.S. civilians bought 135 million guns, 2 million more guns than the combined stockpile of all the world's armed forces.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_ownership

[Captain Stern]

24. How so?

Unfortunately, there's always been some violence going on.

There is violence going on, as I type this.

Are you speaking about some specific violence?

[Dan]

27. Their was this leader - what was his name....

Mussolini

[cilla4progress]

38. Yeah, been researching his demise

recently. Had to chuckle wondering how many google searches on his name recently...

[NickB79]

28. If we have food shortages, we'll have riots

Nothing gets people motivated towards violence more than seeing their family go hungry.

[stillcool]

29. desperate people do desperate things

[customerserviceguy]

32. Keep talking like that

The gun shops love it when they go to persuade red state governors to list their businesses as essential.

[Baked Potato]

36. People will look to Police and Military for stability and security,

and that’s where it will be found. Nobody will care if the security is Left or Right.

[ancianita]

43. People might, but unless I know any police or military personally, I'd never look to them.

Most people who look to police and military don't know that those two are not bound by law to protect anything but property.

Just sayin'.

[Baked Potato]

45. That's not true of the military.

The military is holding the country together. Trump hates the military and the military hates him. His actions as CIC is akin to spitting on the fallen.

[ancianita]

46. True. They do provide disaster response and a homeland defense role; they're just

not supposed to do law enforcement.

Police do law enforcement, and are not bound (Castle Rock v Gonzales 2005) to provide protections for citizens except for enforcing court orders, and after crimes are committed, at which point they record the complaint and go after alleged perpetrators.

I don't look to either to protect people during public upheaval, only to create order that protects property; not to ensure justice, just patrol and control crowds.

People can look to police and military if they like, but I don't.

[panader0]

37. Some people may go that way--I won't be one of them.

There will be no blood from me or because of me.
"I can wait, I can fast and I can think." --Siddhartha

[cilla4progress]

39. Exactly.

I agree. My OP was a fear / expectation, not a prescription.

I truly believe we are on our way to becoming a "third world", or shithole, dictatorship. Think roving gangs of unemployed youth in Iraq. Compare our trajectory with Germany, Denmark.

And by the way, my Husband and I started intermittent fasting. Amazing health benefits, including mental acuity.

[ancianita]

44. Good idea.

[GulfCoast66]

47. Jesus. Feels like I'm in freeperville.

Here people are finding a way to get by.

Families are riding their bikes while isolated. Neighbors are talking from a distance. Even barbecues at a distance.

Those of us who still have to work because we are in critical jobs are finding a sense of solidarity that transcends politics. Those working are supporting local take out restaurants.

And there is a shared sense of humor I have never seen. Many Americans are laughing in the face of this.

We will be fine.

Some people are spending too much time on the internet.