History is easy; current events are hard. One can read about the most horrific events imaginable from long ago in the comfort of the distant future knowing that everything somehow worked out reasonably okay in the end because, well, here we are. But living through the first raw take unfolding in real-time with skin in the game that feels the pain, dreading an unknown fate, now that's real. In the age of Republicanism/Trumpism, it's damn scary.

Describing modern economic fascism rhetorically as wage slavery isn't meant to dilute the deeply offensive historical injustice of actual slavery, when workers were literally owned and kept in line with chains, whips, beatings, rapes, lynchings, and all manner of human predation and cruelty. Thanks to blacks pushing back hard, the norms of society have certainly improved from the bad old days, albeit with a long way to go to "form a more perfect union."

But the one percent (or less) at the top of the pyramid nowadays still looks down at working-class consumers as chattel, kept in line by an oppressive system of low wages, high prices, deep debts, healthcare tied to employers, and a stingy safety net, all stifling upward job mobility, independent innovation, and true free enterprise.

Ayn Rand's Objectivism and Mussolini's fascism have evolved into an economic religion on Wall Street, where the interests of We the People (guvmunts-R-us) are subsumed by the interests of the rich. Through a hopelessly complex system of legal bribery, the "Masters of the Universe" effectively own our government, which enforces their agendas, not ours.

Politicians pass laws that allow the nation's treasures to accumulate in the vaults of the privileged few while the working poor (bills-R-us) are left with bare cupboards full of stale air and only the illusion of wealth. Artificial demand financed by massive consumer debt feeds unregulated predatory capitalism, which depends on high productivity and low wages. (Beat 'em until their attitude improves!)

When the bubble finally bursts, as it must, the big fish get bailed out, gobble up the little fish, and then blow another bubble out of their arse. It's crony socialism for the kings and queens and lords and ladies, and harsh capitalism for the unwashed masses serving (and dying) at their pleasure.

Imagining potential Trumpian futures is contingent upon what happens in the present, what actions we take playing our pivotal roles on the stage before the big curtain drops. Effect follows cause, so if you don't want another four years of the *Cr8Zy* virus, then VOTE !

If you can't vote by mail, then don your PPE and head to the polling station, even if you have to show up in a garbage bag and duct tape like some of our frontline healthcare heroes had to do during the worst of the first wave -- while Trump was in denial playing golf, attending fundraisers, holding rallies, and didn't have time to do a gawdamn thing when it really counted. Now, counting the uncounted, many more than a hundred thousand of us are dead and gone. So go out and vote as if your life depends on it. It does!

(How quaint. Before the Republican Dark Ages descended upon humankind, that was just a bit of innocent election-day hyperbole meant to rally the troops. Now, it's a plea as serious as a heart attack, suffocating on a ventilator, losing your kids, your spouse, your parents, your siblings, your relatives, your friends.)

Given the same set of well-known facts that constitute Trump's proven track record and predictable behavior that Thom alludes to above, one could just as easily take it to the next level and conclude that if the death toll explodes as expected and his base collapses in horror, then the greatest white man in history (in his mind), who is above the law, could simply declare an emergency health crisis as the pandemic experts had dearly hoped he would back in February. His newfound martial-law powers could cancel the election altogether with one tweet -- to be in effect until those pointy-headed brainiacs concoct a vaccine, possibly years away.

The longer it takes the better, and the more time to cheat the voters and consolidate power (and, of course, to escape the Federal statute of limitations on the many crimes of his first term apropos of the Mueller Report). Martial law is usually considered the last step in a failing democracy's march to full-fledged fascism -- an irresistible opportunity for a wannabe tinpot dictator to lord over his very own banana republic, making Daddy Putin proud.

Why should anyone think that Trump would not cross that line when staring into the abyss of personal oblivion? Have they not been paying attention? Sure, all hell would break loose, but so what? He thrives on chaos. And who's going to stop him from crowning himself the imperial president? Moscow Mitch McTurtle took that option off the table, remember? Besides, Congress and the Supreme Court can't enforce their own laws anyway because the Trump crime family controls the military and the police. It's a Trumptopian nightmare that puts George Orwell to shame.

Thom wonders what Trump is doing with a lot of the PPE, tests etc. Cory Gardner is running campaign ads about how he suddenly has all sorts of PPE and tests to distribute in Colorado. He is in a tough election (hopefully loses). They are using PPE to get votes.