“I’ll give you a winter prediction: it’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be grey, and it’s gonna last you for the rest of your life.” – Groundhog Day
There was a dwarf fortune teller that was wanted by police. The news headline was “Small medium at large.”
One of the comments on the very first issue of the Civil War Two Weather Report (You can find all three Civil War II Weather Report: Spicy Time Coming, Civil War Weather Report #2, Censorship, Stalin, and a Bunch of Links, Civil War Weather Report #3: Violence, China, and Lots of Links) was a link to Thomas W. Chittum’s 1997 book Civil War Two: The Coming Breakup of America. It is available as a .pdf here. Ordinarily I’d point you towards Amazon® so you could buy the book and put money in the author’s pocket, but it looks like the book has been out of print for some time.
Update: it’s here, Mr. Chittum pointed me in this direction. Please give this one a purchase – it’s good for Mr. Chittum, and I promise I don’t make a dime off of it.
Chittum had an interesting past before writing this book – he fought in Vietnam for the United States. Apparently that wasn’t enough and the United States was all peaceful for the next twenty years, so he fought in Rhodesia and Croatia as a mercenary rifleman. Oh, and he was a computer programmer for most of his life.
The book is now 22 years old, and it makes predictions. How did it do? I won’t spoil the plot too much, but Chittum has probably been better at predicting 2019 while writing about it in 1996 than a lot of people have done living in 2016 and predicting 2019. It was pretty chilling to me to read how much Chittum had gotten right, so I thought I’d review the book.
As the notecards I use for blocking out posts went to three times the number I use for a typical post, I realized that the review would be take (at least) two posts, if not three. So, here’s part one. You’ll see part two next Monday.
Early on, Chittum notes that the United States has moved from the status of a nation to that of an empire. Some might date the beginning of empire to the end of the first Civil War, but I’d say that the United States was, more or less, a single nation up until the 1970’s. Sure there were regional differences, but the idea of kneeling when the national anthem was played wouldn’t have occurred to anyone but revolutionary Leftists.
Make the Empire Great Again™!
The United States had a homogeneous culture for 90% plus of citizens in the 1970’s. The dreams of the civic nationalist were realized in that era that resulted from very low immigration: all that matters was that people were committed to being the idea of integrating and assimilating into being an American, and it would work out fine. As long as we were one group that could sit and watch Cheers® or M*A*S*H™ or baseball, and cheer for our favorite teams, we’d be fine.
In the civic nationalist world it didn’t matter that your great-grandparents were Italian immigrants in 1900. Your grandpa might have been named Enzio, but he went by Ernie and married an Irish gal named Mary. Your dad played baseball. Your name is Robert and your sister’s name is Nancy and the only thing really Italian about you is you like pizza.
I’d guess I’d use the participation in youth soccer as a proxy for demographic change. We all know that soccer was originally invented in Europe so the Germans would have something to do besides invade France and conquer it in an afternoon. It’s not a traditional game that Americans play. Oh, sure, the United States women won the World Cup®. But to be fair, we needed something for our women to do so they didn’t invade France, either.
Let’s face it, our choice is either World Cup® soccer, or panzers streaking through Paris. Is it just me, or do the panzers sound more interesting?
But Chittum points out that stability comes from a single group identity. People being all on the same team makes us stronger, where as many groups make us weaker. In this light, diversity isn’t Our Greatest Strength™, it’s really a weakness.
And his point is clear – ask a Leftist what it means to be an American, and you’ll likely get a vague statement about all you have to do to be an American is want to be one. Asking them to learn English and assimilate and fit into American culture is for some reason now considered racist. From the vantage point of 2019, it’s clear, diversity is our greatest weakness if we want a safe and stable nation.
This is observable in the real world. Chittum fought in the breakup of the Balkans, and witnessed the breakdown of the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union fell, Chittum notes it was about 50% ethnic Russian. The resulting nation that emerged was about 80% ethnic Russian and is much more stable. It’s certainly more Russian.
The trends of a nation in peril are observable. Our police departments don’t look like policemen, they’re now military. Remember, to a cop, the citizens look like citizens. To the military, everyone is a potential enemy.
- SWAT teams raided Amish farms because they were selling unpasteurized milk.
- Cops get armored personnel carriers like they’re patrolling Syria and not San Francisco.
- Even local cops in Modern Mayberry wear gloves with hard plastic knuckles during normal patrols.
When she pulled me over I rolled down the window and said, “What’s wrong?” Her response? “Nothing.”
Chittum spends a lot of time on the American Southwest – he figures it will be the trigger to the Civil War.
The original Reconquista took place in Spain as the Spanish expelled the Muslims who had conquered it over the course of six hundred years. It was slow, but it finished up in 1492. In the same way, Chittum notes that, although Mexico is a failed state, Mexicans are “retaking” the Southwest in a modern Reconquista that has taken place over decades since 1965, but with 1000% less Muslims.
Nothing says practical like that hat!
Likewise, Chittum writes that the only solution is to close the border. Of course he was writing this in 1997 so 22 years have passed. Right now, at least 40% of the population of Los Angeles is foreign born. In no way could Los Angeles be considered to be an American city today. It might even be considered Mexican, as rival Mexican gangs have recently infiltrated the LA County Sheriff’s office (LINK).
Who loves this? Leftists who wish to topple the United States: Leftists need the votes. Ethnic groups like La Raza: La Raza is the intellectual part of the movement that actively wishes to retake the Southwest. Multinational corporations: they like the lower wages.
Worst, though, are the hipster cops who will only arrest you ironically.
Let’s be clear: Mexicans are patriots about Mexico. They love their country – that’s why they proudly carry their flag during protests. Even in 1997, Chittum noted that crime was rampant in Mexico and the border was a mess and it’s even worse in Latin America south of Mexico. Who can blame them for wanting to come to the United States, especially when some groups spin a fable of an ethnic empire, Aztlan, which is theirs for the taking?
The South and Northeast aren’t much better, and Chittum mentions that the Northeast will experience massive, open violence, which will be unorganized, and savage. Some of the urban areas might survive as city-states.
California is his odds-on favorite to be ground zero. Street gangs, as mentioned above, are numerous and founded on ethnicity. They’ve infiltrated public organizations and the police and even allegedly corrupted members of the Marine Corps (LINK). It’s this particular “enemy inside” that is troubling. An external enemy is that can be fought, but when the enemy of the country becomes an internal enemy, it’s much worse – there’s a reason that treason is mentioned in the Constitution.
Ahh, California, the meth laboratory of democracy.
Chittum mentions militias. They seemed to have their peak in the 1990’s, and quickly declined after Oklahoma City. He also mentions “Committees of Correspondence” which were a mechanism for people to communicate with each other because they didn’t have the Internet in the 1760’s to begin to organize against the British, LOL. The Internet serves this purpose now, with large groups getting information from unapproved sources, and even managing to “privately*” share information.
*Don’t bet your life or liberty on it.
Chittum writes that Civil War Two will be vicious, atrocity filled, and genocidal. Civilian casualties are to be expected, and many will be on purpose. Looting will be common. This is not the usual scenario our military faces in any fashion, so the analyses performed by John Mark (see Civil War II Weather Report: Spicy Time Coming) or Forward Observer (Civil War Weather Report #3: Violence, China, and Lots of Links) aren’t valid. Civil War Two has the potential to be far worse than any conflict seen in history, as it combines both ethnic division along with ideological division – it’s like the Russian Revolution times Rwanda to the power of Somalia.
I’ve been stuck in the same phase for . . . oh . . . twenty years now. Maybe one day I’ll grow out of being a 12 year old. I’m not telling you how long it took me to get to that phase!
There are four phases according to Chittum. The first phase of the problem is what he refers to as Foundational. He said in 1997 the Foundational phase was already complete.
- Tribalization of society – have different rules for different ethnic groups, push people to identify as something other than “American.”
- Power shift to unelected administrators, judges, board, commissions, and public servants.
- Since 1972, wages been stagnant, or, when compared to medical care or education, dramatically falling.
- The core of many large cities has been abandoned – think Baltimore or Detroit.
- Massive and sustained immigration, falling of standards and conditions in some locations to those similar to undeveloped countries.
- Racial organizations in police – militarization of police, which are both covered above.
- Treaties are more important that state sovereignty.
- A consistent and strong drive for gun control.
- From Antifa© to MS-13 to the Crips, these are in place.
- Mass media participation in the polarization. The mass media has already picked a side – Left.
We can see what Chittum says is behind us. Next Monday we’ll look (from his vantage point in 1997 and ours in 2019) to see what else he’s predicted, and how far along we are.
Sweet dreams!
Bless your pea picken heart for this analysis. Very welcome. I owned the book back in the day but just read it quickly and moved on, dismissing it as hyperbolic. I guess I’m a dumbass. Looking forward to the next installment ( PS-loved your wife’s comment on Jack Ruby when another Clinton Suicide victim was announced-I think I read that over at Aesop? )
Right, I know! If I would have read it in 1997 I would have said, “Pffft. There’s more of a chance of aliens landing.”
Scary stuff.
The Mrs. says really funny stuff. Even when she’s not been nipping into the vino.
The drumbeat grows. The articles below have all been published IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS.
https://www.amgreatness.com/2019/08/06/igniting-civil-war/
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/08/04/eddie_glaude_trumps_immigration_rhetoric_has_led_american_in_a_cold_civil_war.html
https://www.insightnews.com/news/the-cold-civil-war-in-america/article_435d775e-b282-11e9-aae0-77866dfbdac4.html
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/this-is-the-path-to-civil-war-tucker-carlson-warns-against-escalating-political-rhetoric
https://www.manitobapost.com/World-News/americas-next-civil-war-117952
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/08/heading_for_civil_war.html
That’s scary as hell. When you talk about it, that’s the first step in preparing for it. I’ll be popping them in the next Weather Report. Thanks.
I also just read Civil War 2.
While I also am impressed by the many things that Chittum got right, I’m a little more hopeful after getting through the book.
I suspect he is drawing too many lessons from the LA Riots of 1992 and extrapolating that forward. It was a pretty gloomy period. While I have not researched the subject extensively, I was in Metro LA when the rioting began. LAPD seemed to vanish early in the rioting (that’s my perception, not necessarily fact), the assaults in Florence and Normandy happened at the start of the rioting, and it just exploded from there. News helicopters easily filmed the brick throwers in the intersection. I remember shouting at the TV, “Where are the police?”
Also I gotta disagree with the author’s focus on ethnicity. Our problem is with “The Left”. While not putting too PC a face on it, it is one multi-ethnic group against another. (Somehow I sense laughter after that comment). A major problem is The Left inflames racial animosities to get votes and is quite good at it.
My view is closer to that of “The Big Sort”. There are big cities that are or are going hard-left, and then there is the rest of the nation. The hard-left will inherit most of the major cities, the conservatives get the rest (some suburbs, the bulk of the exurbs and the rural-regions). It’s very possible that there will be explosive trouble in many of the big cities so it’s probably best to get out of Metropolis as you pointed out earlier.
Blacks vote 90%+ Left.
Asians vote 80%+ Left.
Latinos vote 70%+ Left.
Tell me again how this won’t be a race war?
Go look up “polar bear hunting” and the “knockout game”. Now go look what happens to black neighborhoods when the Latinos show up.
Tell me again how this won’t be a race war?
Good Morning McChuck,
I looked up “polar bear hunting” (I knew the other term) and sure enough, the first link is from Capitalism Magazine and is an article from Thomas Sewell, a conservative black man -> https://www.capitalismmagazine.com/2013/11/dangerous-game-knockout-game-polar-bear-hunting. (That reminds me, I need to read more of Thomas Sewell’s works one of these days).
Yes, some people hate others because of ethnicity, no doubt. I know a lot of people in the US do not like white people, and that this aggression against white people is being tolerated and encouraged by some. There are many inner cities in large cities I would not go. In some places, it seems that the authorities have given up or maybe they dislike the leftist political leadership so much that their heart is not in their work. So I’m not unaware.
But we as Constitutional Conservatives legally fight a Marxist ideology (not an ethnicity) which is behind this. Hopefully we win.
I really hope you are right, but, again, it’s like the Left is pushing it that way.
True. And in 1997, I would have dismissed the ethnic component. But I see nothing but the attempt to stir up rage, division, and entitlement in our society now.
Which certainly benefits some people . . .
I think a large part of why illegal immigration is being pushed hard by the Left is that people from those regions are already used to Government interference in their life. They don’t have many gun rights from where they were either and fighting for your rights has been discouraged from birth. Perfect future U.S. citizens – er – Subjects. Being told what to do and when to do it. U.S. citizens are becoming conditioned to do the same – witness how MSM can so easily steer the ‘Hot Topic of the Day’ (i.e. What are we going to be triggered by today ?).
I’m old enough to remember when a person asked another ‘Can you do that?’ and the response was ‘Sure – its a free country, isn’t it ?’ I don’t hear that said much any more.
Wow, anon – it’s been FOREVER since I heard that. Great point.
1) LAPD did, in fact, disappear in the Rodney King/Free Nikes and TVs Riots.
That was counter to the choice of the rank and file officers, but exactly in line with the wishes of Mayor Uncle Tom Bradley, lackwit Keystone Kops Chief Darryl Jackass, and the feckless city council.
So they were “just following orders”.
They were pulled back to the city bus yard, and the city allowed to go wild, until adult supervision arrived from Camp Pendleton a few days later, after the CA Notional Guard dropped the ball and stepped on their dicks, when it was reported their weapons were empty, exactly as they were.
Fresh from turning the Republican Guards into confetti on the Highway To Hell, one 1st MarDiv LAV was opened up on by some idiot who hadn’t noted the rules change, and he got a faceful of 25mm by way of ROE reply.
The riots ended about 4 minutes after that point in time.
2) The Left trolls race because that’s how you play Identity Politics. It’s in The Manual.
It works a lot like Iraqi militia digging up an IED with their hands.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGbJZ1XlnyY
Because once your “tame” race pitbulls get a taste of blood, it’s hard to get them back on the leash, and they tend to turn and eat you too.
As is happening to the DNC, even as we speak.
This is how establishment @$$clowns like Pelosi, Schumer, and Nadler are being supplanted in their tracks by such morons as Sen. Kneepads, AOC & The Moron Squad, and Antifa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZuMe5RvxPQ
@JW:
“…the notecards I use for blocking out posts…”
Huh? The what…?
I just sit down and crank mine out. I thought everyone did.
No, really.
All the editing I do is going back and ruthlessly killing off the typographical errors, occasionally looking for a fact I don’t have at the tip of my tongue (or confirming my recollection as typed was dead-on, or fixing it so it is), and looking for the right pics to bootleg into memes or illustrations, and inserting the graphics.
What are those note cards you speak of?
I blew that nonsense off in 4th grade, and never looked back.
I did term papers in all-nighters, in the age before the internet, and aced them.
But kudos for the opening Groundhog Day line.
It’s a classic, amidst a movie filled cornucopia-like with many such gems.
Harold Ramis was a genius, and Bill Murray was his best instrument.
Nah, I have to block out the reviews and the longer ones with the note cards. I also use them for future post ideas. I have a box of hundreds of ideas in multiple categories. Some I’ll never get to. Some I pull out on a Sunday when I haven’t had time to plan a post.
The nice thing about the note cards is when I have a bit that doesn’t quite work in a post, it’s still waiting for when it is useful.
Bill Murray should be the first living Saint.
Wow.
The US is now a police state where everything is illegal and Americans have no rights.
The 1% could confiscate guns and order Americans to go to the concentration camps tomorrow, but the ruling class do not have the manpower and the camps have not built yet.
The elites seem to prefer to slowly kill every possible bit of freedom. Yesterday bump stocks were banned, today silencers will be banned, and pistols will be outlawed tomorrow.
Not only are the ruling powers determined to kill off the 99%, Americans are embracing their slavery with glee.
The media screams the USA must bomb Iran and Americans clap with delight.
The elites say debt doesn’t matter and Americans agree.
Trump could decree that every American get their thumbs chopped off with machetes and Americans would jump with joy.
Have Americans ever read a history book?
Americans today could either be a zombie and willing accomplice to US wars, debt, and tyranny and remain silent, attack the government, or look for a way to escape.
What kind of life do you have now when you must lie to your wife about your plans because you’re afraid the NSA will hear you on her mobile phone?
Americans need to go hardcore about resisting the police state now.
Increase your privacy and become anonymous.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/10/7-privacy-tools-essential-making-citizenfour
Use gold, cash, and barter.
Avoid taxes.
Research buying a boat, submarine, or an island.
Try to avoid security cameras, license plate readers, and redlight cameras.
Americans really should try to live like the Amish or a primitive tribe in the Amazon or Vietnam.
Once you have a SSN and a name and the government has your fingerprints and DNA, the elites know who to look for when they launch their final solution against the 99%.
Do you think the ruling class will be able kick the debt can down the road for another 2, 5, 10, or 30 years?
https://www.forgottentribes.com/blogs/lifestyle/hmong-fashion-the-people-their-history-and-their-textile-legacy
OK, people. Basic math time again.
There are 200 million whites. 30% of those are avowed Leftists. That leaves 140 million people potentially on our side, against about 200 million enemies.
Fortunately, we own probably 80% of the guns.
Once the electricity goes down and the gasoline dries up and the trucks stop rolling into the loading docks at WalMart, it gonna go way past race in a hurry and be all about Bartertown and Thunderdome and Fury Road instead. Everybody’s gonna look the same after dark.
It depends? Maybe in NYC or LA. In Modern Mayberry, we actually know and like each other (mostly). You’ll see a lot more cohesiveness in smaller areas.
And I hope 95% of the ammo. Most people don’t plan ahead.
“Fortunately, we own probably 80% of the guns”
Yeah? How’s that working out for you so far? Just one more freedom taken and Patriots will rise up? Any day now… Sorry, been reading that nonsense for decades.
I’ll grab that pdf and take a gander. Thanks for bringing it up on the radar. Another author along very similar lines is Matt Bracken. He’s a former SEAL that did a civil war trilogy that is worthy of consideration.
Yeah, I know that Mr. Bracken has been here a time or two, and his books and blog posts are great. Highly recommended.
Very depressing information. I’m in the middle of reading Civil War 2. I balance it by watching puppies. It’s about a 1:3 ratio. For every minute of reading, I have to watch 3 minutes of puppies to restore my optimism. If I keep reading things like this… well, Chief Brody had it right when he said: “We’re gonna need a bigger litter.”
As depressing as it is, it’s well worth everyone’s time, however.
Yeah – that’s why I’m only doing one post a week on the book. Scary stuff.
I purchased this from Amazon in 2016. Just checked, and yes, the listing has been deleted, although it looks as though someone up[loaded a bootleg copy. Thanks for bringing this fascinating book to wider attention. I’ll tweet your review overnight.
Good news! It’s back on Kindle.