Speaking of non-violent international conflicts such as the ones that Trump is unnecessarily provoking with China, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Qatar, etc., that could and likely will eventually lead to actual violent conflict in one form or another, let alone non-violent harm to countless people in this and other countries, what happens if, as we all expect, Russia and its proxies interfere with and try to sabotage US infrastructure as we approach the 2020 elections, not just with the elections themselves and all that surrounds them, e.g. voter rolls, machines, ballots, etc., but with basically everything, to one extent or another, e.g. power grid, internet, transportation, shipping, business and e-commerce, banking, EMS, hospitals, etc. Even a partially successful attack on only a few of these could be catastrophic, and many here expect something like this to happen.
Trump & Repubs are clearly not doing anything about it, either believing that it will benefit them politically, or fearing what might happen to them if they meaningfully tried to prevent it. For all we know they’re actively enabling such attacks, through back channels and cutouts. What are the non-political components of our federal, state and local governments, that comprise the vast majority of them, e.g. uniformed military, career workers, long-term contractors, etc., doing to prevent this, and have they effectively been kneecapped by Trump & Repubs? What if something does happen (assuming it already hasn’t), and they try to respond, and are blocked by them? Will they defy direct orders and do the right thing, or will they stand down and watch the whole thing burn down? I suspect that we’ll see some of both, perhaps culminating in a minor de facto coup, where the military and such do what they need to do and give the folks at the top the finger. Which is perhaps what they want to happen, to justify a declaration of martial law and the suspension of the elections.
Normally this would be way out there in CT land. But not this time. I’m sure many, perhaps most here, share these concerns. What prompted these fears was my noticing that various online orders I’ve placed over the past week, mostly from Amazon, have been delayed in ways they never have in my 20 years of buying from Amazon (I have Prime now). Could be just some glitches, bad weather, etc., and most likely is. But it did prompt me to wonder if there’s something else going on here, a sort of trial run for the big one coming later. Amazon would also be an ideal test target, for obvious reasons.
Anyway, just thinking out loud. Ignore if this seems like crazy talk.