Very well put, Charles!

I'm not so much concerned about organized insurrection as about rogue Dylan Roof types with guns. A mass shooting at a polling place in a minority neighborhood, for example. Terrible to even contemplate but sadly not out of the question given our recent history.

@1: I was going to say something different, but why bother now? Let's go a head and throw Charles a bone on this one.

@2 Yeah. They'll never outgun the government (nor are the police going to join their coup) but they can do a lot of damage to the civilians they don't like--which has been the point of the gun-hoarding all along.

@5: FFS, do you think about anything but how much hay you can make out of gang violence in Chicago?

try to think about pussy, for instance. it's very enjoyable, and can distract you from obsessing over things that have zero bearing or effect on your life.

I always chuckle at the idea that a group of half drunk rednecks with hunting rifles and AR's is going to take on the United States Military.

A single US Army Rifle Platoon, properly led and equipped, would be more than capable of handling three times their number of untrained idiots.

If we can use a reaper drone to put a hellfire missile up a camel's ass from 2,000 miles away, what the hell are Billy Bob and his cousins going to accomplish?

Take a look at the Bundy trial/acquittal in Portland.
Not a good sign.

@8, the feds will never use either of those on white people.

@3 How very big of you.

@8

The problem is not that two dozen right-wing zealots might overwhelm the US Army.

The problem is that those angry, gun-hoarding zealots might murder 172 voters at a church or other polling place before the police (never mind the national guard or the Army) can get to them.

That's not how we picture The Revolution happening.

First, we do see voting for Trump as an act of revolution (as opposed to "The Revolution"…) because he in every way is so totally not the status quo, and so totally in every way unsuited to be president; a vote for him is a total rejection of the entire establishment/status quo; government, GOP, etc.
Some people may actually think he would be a good president but most of his voters do not.
Voting for him is the next step in an increasing disaffection with the what the government and culture have become.
People who recognize that the what the nation has become is not the nation they believe in.
People who recognize that it is no longer their nation.

But as for "The Revolution", we think that is going to come from the Left.
This society is on an unsustainable path; debt, dependence, breakdown of the family and chaotic upbringing of children who fail to develop into functioning contributing members of society; we realize you girls on the Left think we are "progressing" but in fact we are declining at an ever increasingly steep rate.

There is a segment of society that sees it, and in some measure is preparing for it.
Y2K, and then Katrina got a lot of folks thinking about being able to take care of themselves when the government will no longer be able to, and that group is growing.
Again, we realize you think that is nutty, and things are just fine.

At some point the government gravy train and/or delivery of basic services (utilities, food, water,etc) is going to be disrupted;
hackers disrupting the grid,
international crisis cuts the flow of oil,
N Korea finally figures it out,
some jihadist gets a dirty bomb,
interest rates rise making the federal debt unsustainable,
some super-predator gets shot by police and the hoods explode,
the nation is militarily overextended and that third war at the same time comes along and we start losing on the battlefield and panic ensues,
some generic Wall Street scam explodes and the markets tank,
or etc or etc or etc.
Something happens and the inner cities do what they always do; Burn The Bitch Down.
Only this time it doesn't stop.
It grows and gets worse.
The veneer of civilization in this society is very thin, perhaps especially in urban areas.
It will take less than you might imagine to crack the eggshell and all the guts will come oozing out.

The police etc will be overwhelmed fairly quickly (if they haven't already gotten the Hell out of Dodge, and here is hoping they do) leaving the various urban communities to sort their affairs themselves.
The blacks. The Koreans. The Gays. etc. etc.

What might it look like?
Isaiah Kalebu.
Times a million.
Are you brave enough?

Hillary is going around the nation stoking black resentment, assuring them that they are victims of Institutional Racism, that Everything and Everyone is against them.
When that rage explodes where will it go?

The Revolution?
It will mostly consist of picking up the pieces after The Big Tent implodes on itself.

@13 LOL

@13: I'm glad to see that you have turned to drugs. Reality clearly wasn't working for you.

13
You really should read Ecotopia and Ecotopia Rising by Ernest Callenbach if you haven't already. Not only do they describe a vaguely similar manner of empire decline that y'all paint in your post (albeit with less fear and anxiety), but they also point out that y'all's imagined scenario has been around for some time now. But they also have a more positive view of how to take advantage of that decline, instead of hand-wringing about "mass chaos".

Sure, the American empire is declining, so what?, that's been obvious for 30 years. But the decline is slow and unevenly distributed. If we manage the decline properly, local regions will be able to step into the gaps and pick up the dropped pieces. The Roman Empire took literally hundreds of years to disintegrate. Ours may or may not take that long, but it's not going to happen as rapidly as your fears imply. It may not even get to a 'critical' stage within our lifetimes.

The real issues fomenting all the unrest is, IMHO, the financial destruction of jobs, income and livelihoods that has been meted out on the middle-class and below. If everyone could make ends meet with a bit to spare, there would be no need for scapegoats, "prepping", and societal infighting.

This is Clinton's big challenge: wrest economic justice from the neoliberal parasites of Wall Street (et.al.) who are currently preying on (middle) America. Now that they've sucked the blood of most other nations for the last 60~ years, they've been turning on us.
Can she actually do that? Fairly doubtful. But they are aware that is a serious issue.

As Nick Hanauer recently said "the pitchforks are coming" if this economic inequality continues the way it has been. So I am partly validating y'all's anxiety about "decline", yes, some shit is definitely well out of balance and some sort of correction will occur. But I really don't think it's as much about cultural issues, because those 'divisions' are being actively ~if wrongly~ targeted by flameheads (Limbaugh, FOX, Beck, Jones, etc.) to exacerbate real anxieties while also distracting people and make them fight each other rather than addressing the real issues, which seem otherwise structural and insurmountable (economic punishment, Wall Street, political insiderism, etc.)

Also, your views on debt are inaccurate.

Remember also
"Privilege doesn't feel like privilege,
it feels like the way things are,
no reason to be aware of it."

Loss of privilege feels like real loss, but it actually means greater equality.
Especially to the patriarchal white supremacists who are betting on violent chaos.

Hey, you fucking idiot:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/15/us/kan…

THEY ARE ALREADY DOING THINGS.