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Opinion: What Are The Chances That America’s Disunion Turns Into Civil War?
Market Watch ^ | 11-8-2018 | Ian Morris

Posted on 11/08/2018 8:39:26 PM PST by blam

Strong rhetoric and violence on both sides of the political spectrum are reaching a fever pitch

Is the United States on the brink of a new civil war?

According to Newsweek magazine’s polling, a third of all Americans think such a conflict could break out within the next five years, with 10% thinking it “very likely to happen.” Plenty of experts agree. Back in March, State Department official Keith Mines told Foreign Policy magazine: “It is like 1859, everyone is mad about something and everyone has a gun.” He rated the odds of a second American Civil War breaking out within the next 10-15 years at 60%.

October’s awful events — pipe bombs sent to leading Democratic politicians and supporters, the mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh — have only amplified these fears. “We are now nearing a point comparable to 1860,” my Stanford University colleague Victor Davis Hanson recently wrote in the National Review.

The historian Niall Ferguson, another Stanford colleague, suggested in The Sunday Times of London that if someone were to design a “Civil War Clock” comparable to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ “Doomsday Clock,” the designer would probably now be announcing that it is “two minutes to Fort Sumter.”

Ferguson himself is more upbeat, thinking that “the time on the civil war Doomsday Clock looks more like 11.08 than 11.58.” It seems to me, though, that all these speculations are deeply misleading — so much so, in fact, that the main thing they illustrate is how not to use the past to understand the present.

Similarities, differences and broad patterns

There are certainly some striking similarities between the American political scene in the late 2010s and that of the late 1850s. Both periods saw extreme polarization over issues of intense economic and emotional importance.

(snip)

(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: civilwar; cwii; cwiiping; left; obamalegacy; right; violence; war
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To: Windflier

I had that flag on my house for years and people kept mentioning Betsy Ross.

Alrighty then.

:D


101 posted on 11/08/2018 11:59:07 PM PST by Salamander (My Soul's On Fire...)
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To: luvbach1

Loontopia


102 posted on 11/09/2018 12:00:21 AM PST by Salamander (My Soul's On Fire...)
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To: AmusedBystander
Alternatively, I can just wait for idiots to show up.

Meat's meat but the dogs are off the table. :)

103 posted on 11/09/2018 12:05:34 AM PST by Salamander (My Soul's On Fire...)
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To: Windflier

“Nice” left the barn 30 years ago.


104 posted on 11/09/2018 12:08:02 AM PST by Salamander (My Soul's On Fire...)
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To: dfwgator

105 posted on 11/09/2018 12:09:53 AM PST by Salamander (My Soul's On Fire...)
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To: Salamander
I had that flag on my house for years and people kept mentioning Betsy Ross.

Reminds me that I've been meaning to acquire a high quality Betsy Ross flag. My wife bought me a printed one last year, but it's just not the same as a traditional embroidered flag.

106 posted on 11/09/2018 12:18:28 AM PST by Windflier (Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left tpoo long, they become black rifles.)
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To: Skywarner

This is probably the greatest truth.

In Maryland, Bawlmer is a lawless cesspool where gangs of thugs loot and riot for giggles, but they never venture beyond their asphalt jungle.

*Maybe*, someday, they’d creep out into the closest suburbs but I can bet money they will never come out here to The Wastelands.

Every hick here is armed and we still have the Celtic mentality of hiding in the mountains and ridges and simply picking outlanders off.

When the Beltway snipers were headed this way, *everyone* was looking and waiting for them.

There was a collective groan of frustrated disappointment when they didn’t make it past South Mountain.

It’s genetic.


107 posted on 11/09/2018 12:19:20 AM PST by Salamander (My Soul's On Fire...)
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To: Salamander
“Nice” left the barn 30 years ago.

Too many on our side don't seem to understand that.

'Nice' can get you hurt in today's political climate. Remember what Kurt Schlicter said: "They want us dead."

108 posted on 11/09/2018 12:23:28 AM PST by Windflier (Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left tpoo long, they become black rifles.)
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To: Windflier

Many years ago, I bought a hand sewn 4x6 cotton, double sided Confederate flag with every star and stripe separately applied.

I can’t hang it outdoors due to the nature of cotton so it hangs in the bedroom.

Wish I could remember the company name because they had exquisite stuff, including Betsy Ross flags.


109 posted on 11/09/2018 12:28:39 AM PST by Salamander (My Soul's On Fire...)
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To: Windflier

https://www.iamericasflags.com/vintage-antiqued-applique-betsy-ross-house-flag/


110 posted on 11/09/2018 12:33:33 AM PST by Salamander (My Soul's On Fire...)
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To: Salamander
Many years ago, I bought a hand sewn 4x6 cotton, double sided Confederate flag with every star and stripe separately applied.

I bought a Betsy Ross like that for my dad about fifteen years ago. He never would fly it, preferring to fly a cheap Costco fifty star flag out on the front porch.

When he passed last year it was the only thing in the house I wanted (besides my grandad's pistol). The house was so cluttered, I didn't even try to find it. I'm sure my half sister (big lib) wound up giving it to the local thrift store.

111 posted on 11/09/2018 12:37:28 AM PST by Windflier (Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left tpoo long, they become black rifles.)
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To: Windflier

That pains my heart.

:(


112 posted on 11/09/2018 12:39:04 AM PST by Salamander (My Soul's On Fire...)
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To: Salamander

Wow, they only want $25 for that flag. Wonder why so cheap?


113 posted on 11/09/2018 12:39:21 AM PST by Windflier (Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left tpoo long, they become black rifles.)
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To: Pelham
"Low. The Civil War was a war for independence, a war between the states. There’s no geographic separation today."

This will be a war to either support or discard the Constitution. Not geographical, except based on density of political choice.

I took an oath, some time back, promising to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Guess which party wants to destroy the constitution?

I consider the probability to be past 90%, unless it dawns on the Stupids that they are going up against the most heavily armed and trained civilian population in human history.

I do not believe they are that bright.

114 posted on 11/09/2018 12:42:26 AM PST by jonascord (First rule of the Dunning-Kruger Club is that you do not know you are in the Dunning-Kruger club.)
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To: Windflier
Try to ignore Bob and the hairdo he gave me. :)


115 posted on 11/09/2018 12:44:30 AM PST by Salamander (My Soul's On Fire...)
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To: Salamander
That pains my heart :(

Well, she doesn't recognize the value in iconic Americana like I do, so...

Dad left her the house, and I only had a couple hours one evening to go through stuff before she took possession. I just felt weird about picking through his things, so I left it all.

One of my other sisters did manage to retrieve a bunch of family photos and my grandad's pistol. I was happy for at least that much.

116 posted on 11/09/2018 12:46:54 AM PST by Windflier (Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left tpoo long, they become black rifles.)
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To: Windflier

Beats me.

The 3x5 “antiqued” is not much more.

https://www.iamericasflags.com/vintage-antiqued-sewn-nylon-3x5-betsy-ross-flag/

Still trying to find you the company that I used.

There are a *lot* more choices to root through than 20 years ago.


117 posted on 11/09/2018 12:47:47 AM PST by Salamander (My Soul's On Fire...)
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To: Salamander

Don’t. Move...

There’s a big freaking snake crawling onto your shoulder!!


118 posted on 11/09/2018 12:49:17 AM PST by Windflier (Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left tpoo long, they become black rifles.)
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To: Windflier

So sad.

When my beloved dad passed away, my mom immediately had an auction and virtually wiped every vestige of his existence from the house.

I hope he was blissfully unaware of what became of his huge gun collection, none of which I got hold of.


119 posted on 11/09/2018 12:50:30 AM PST by Salamander (My Soul's On Fire...)
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To: Windflier

LOL

That’s Bob T. Boa.

:)


120 posted on 11/09/2018 12:51:22 AM PST by Salamander (My Soul's On Fire...)
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