Day 3 - 10,000 or more

'10,000 lies, would you believe it? 10,000'

'What are you talking about you wally?' Mick knew it was only a matter of time, the camp had been set, dinner was made, fire alight, John sitting back, beer in hand, watching as Mick did all the work.

'Trump, he's told 10,000 lies, Colbert referred to some guy at the New York Times who is counting. Well, that was the other day anyway, so I am sure it is more than that now.'

'oh, I was wondering when it would start, you know the fire, a beer, just the two of us, how long has it been now?'

'It's the intimacy.'

'yeah, yeah. So what's the latest, I've tuned out to it; it got boring.'

'That's the danger. Think about it; Trump got into power because of dissatisfaction with the political elite, and now he is so absurd in all of his lying, crimes and gas lighting that everyone is tuning out. This is what he wants, he will get away with more; you watch.'

'Alright then, it's been a year; how about you bring me up to speed.'

'A year; seriously. How can you not be interested in this? What have you been doing? how can you not know what's going on?'

'Oh I hear shit, but you know, Australia, summer, holidays, work, Michelle and the girls. you know; life.' Leaning back into his camp chair he knew John was about to get going. It had been a while, and he always enjoyed the education, even if at times it seemed a bit over the top and unbelievable. 'come on, hit me with it.'

'Right then. Civil War!'

'What the fuck are you talking about, there is not a civil war.'

'There will be, think about it. You've got a political environment that is so partisan it is insane. The left, they're just stunned, they don't know what to do, while the right, well are they out for the people or themselves who can tell. There's the Mueller report out there with heaps of evidence of obstruction, although he, like the left, is sticking to the rules. While on the other side it looks like the rules don't apply. Barr, Mueller's boss sum's it up, the media buy into it and promote it, who knows what the hell is going on.'

'C' mon mate last year you were telling me that he is definitely going to win the 2020 election.'

'Tell you what, at the rate he is going, he is definitely going to win 2020. The truth though, that is not where the issue is.'

'What's the issue?'

'The Civil War.'

'Oh.' bloody frustrating git. 'Tell me then where' is the Civil War.'

'This is what I have been trying to get my head around. There was this coast guard, then there are all the mass shootings, most recently there was some other ex-military guy on the right who was going to go do something stupid.  The right has gun's, so do the left. There are ex-military types who have been on multiple tours to the middle east, you've got more AR15's in that country than you do people licensed to carry a weapon.'

'Ok'

'Alright, so in brief, you have an armed society, that now with ex-military types, maker culture and consumerism are all set to fight the next War.  Look at it, WW1 trenches, that changed in WW2, then you get Korea, vietnam, the middle east for two decades. Wars have changed, they are urban now, the American's have been fighting urban War's every, you know Black hawk down, stuff like that. Yet all the old farts are still buying their big ships. Bloody hell, Trump today decided to spend 20 billion on an aircraft carrier when the military wants it on cyber warfare.'

'I still don't get the Civil War.'

'Ok, hold a tic, let me think on it. You want a beer'

He watched as John made his way around the fire to the esky. All of what he said made sense, and there was plenty of evidence to support it. Mick had seen the news, just hadn't paid any attention. He took the beer John offered; twisted the cap, pfft. 'Ok then.'

'Right, maybe think of it this way. Imagine you are a domino geek.'

'What the hell is a domino geek?'

'You know, someone who finds it therapeutic building Domino pyramids, you've been doing it since; you know 1787, when the American constitution was created, the start of their democracy. 

Anyway, you've been building this domino pyramid all this time. Through the depression you had to carve the domino's yourself, there have been boom times when democracy moved forward, prosperity, equal rights all this sort of stuff. You've had people come and go, occasionally a little catastrophe has occurred, you lost a small pyramid or something like that, but luckily it did not tear down the whole thing.'

'Shit mate, you're drawing a long bow on this analogy.'

'Yeah yeah, stick with it. So here you are, you've survived this, big downturn round 2007-2008, then it started kicking up again, everything's booming, you're building faster and faster, the only problem is that bottom 40% of your domino's, well there old, some would say burdened, even impoverished. You, well you're old, set in your ways and love the rule of law, doing things right, stacking the pyramid, to the rules to try and distribute the weight fairly.'

'Johnno, this isn't working for me.'

'Me neither, I think it's a bit tenuous.'

'No shit.'

'Right, let me try this. America is so divided and insane about the interpretation of their constitution; it is like a religious war. You know old testament, and the knew, Christians recognise both, the Jewish think of only the old, the Koran you've got the Muslims and the extremists.  Well, the left interprets the constitution for the betterment of all, the right for the betterment of a few.  They have lost faith in the political class and now have a reality TV star running the place.'

'Yeah, so.'

'Shit Mick, America is like a tinder box of touch paper, and Trump is holding a match upside down like a young kid experimenting with a flame when he finally burns his fingers the match will fall onto the touch paper and Kaboom!!  Civil War.'

'Oh.'

'Bit of a sombre thought ain't it?'

'Shit mate, that's depressing.'

'Yeah it is, but mate we're in Australian we can only watch.'

'A bloody train smash in slow motion.'

'Yup. you want another beer.'

'Sure.'

 ----

The Domino analogy didn't work the way I thought it would, the video was fun to watch though while I was trying to work it out.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cNOxE4dGEo

I have played with this format, and these two characters before during the 2018 story a day.  

Day 16 - Fireside Philosopher

Day 28 - Red Wine Rationalist