[Schweinshaxe]

Since the hurricane will have consequences for maybe millions of people (no home, no job, no future) is it possible that civil war or "at least" something nastier than your average riot will break out?

I mean they have already started to shoot at rescue choppers and looting seems to be very common. What will follow?

Anyway, this event will be very interesting to follow as a social test for mankind. A local disaster strikes the wealthiest and most disaster conscious nation in the world and it's nothing but total chaos there.

[MD]

in a word, "no".

[basil_hayden]

I hope so, but MD is probably correct.

[BabyPeanut]

I'd say not just yet.

[erl]

I suspect that it is as bad as it's going to get, right now.

Tomorrow, things should be more stable.

Civil war? Not even close.

[Specop_007]

The only "Civil War" thats gonna happen is a whole bunch of good ole boys are gonna get sick and tired of the crap the looters are pullin, and gonna go greet them with a face full of buckshot.
Then proceed to hand out water to the unfortunate victims in the area.

Heres to hoping,
Specop_007

[oli]

Hell no, dawg!

[stu]

In terms of uprisings, the only thought I had was that maybe poor black people in other parts of the country would see the lack of help going to their fellow underpriveliged and decide that enough is enough and start a few riots here and there.

[idiom]

Civil war requires two organised sides.

call me when you can get ONE organised side together (an a story about a super-organised team pretending to be massively incompetent doesn't count)

[Madpaddy]

Civil War.

Arsebiscuits

[Kingcoal]

Millions of people affected yes, millions out of work, no. Those people you see on TV wading through the streets of New Orleans are poor and often without a car. Plenty of warning was given to vacate the city. The problem is that a sizable population of that city as well as all other cities in the US have few options. They don't have a car and more importantly, they have no where else to go. So they wait it out.

The millions affected are the rest of the country who suffer the economic consequences.

[OilsNotWell]

I have followed FIRST-HAND accounts of the disaster in NOLA quite closely, and I believe that accounts of looting and more recently, shooting/sniper are being over-played/hyped/or even made up. I'm serious. Thus as the true picture of the carnage becomes known, there will be less blame as to why the FEMA and federal response has been so delayed/weak/contradictory to the state and local level. Listen to the mayor and local emerg. officer tell you how it really is...

This has Rove's handiwork all over it, taking a tragedy, and playing the political blame game, 'cause otherwise it's going to come crashing down on their heads. Racism and elitism is at play as well. These people are fighting for their very lives...

[EnemyCombatant]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')He claims that the seeds of this conflict will begin to be seen in 2004/2005 around the time of U.S. presidential election, 2004. Continuing Muslim/Jewish tensions are still a problem at that time but are not the cause; instead, an American civil war is brought on by increasingly intrusive police state tactics more or less resembling the massacres at Waco and Ruby Ridge. The "second civil war" sees those in the cities fighting those in rural areas; Titor fought on the rural forces, joining a "shotgun militia" when he was 13.

The civil war is effectively ended by Russia in 2015 when it commences nuclear warfare on most major US cities, eliminating the federal government and thereby securing a 'victory' for the rural forces. Most major urban areas in the world are also hit by nuclear weapons in tit-for-tat retaliation. Europe, Africa and Australia are particularly badly hit in this regard and, Titor claims, are devastated as approximately three billion people die worldwide.

By 2036, people are making progress in recovering from the war. There are five US states (the seat of government is in Omaha, Nebraska). Society is considerably decentralized, focused on tight-knit rural communities. There is more emphasis on religion, personal interaction (as opposed to mass media and other sources of social isolation) and self-sufficiency. Technology does not seem to be widely affected, however, with "predictable" advances such as rapid rail transport between cities, space travel and genetic engineering complementing the exotic advances necessary for time travel. Water must still be filtered or distilled to remove radioactive particles and life is harsh, with people expected to work in the fields to produce locally-grown food for part of their day.

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilsNotWell', 'I') have followed FIRST-HAND accounts of the disaster in NOLA quite closely, and I believe that accounts of looting and more recently, shooting/sniper are being over-played/hyped/or even made up. I'm serious. Thus as the true picture of the carnage becomes known, there will be less blame as to why the FEMA and federal response has been so delayed/weak/contradictory to the state and local level. Listen to the mayor and local emerg. officer tell you how it really is...

This has Rove's handiwork all over it, taking a tragedy, and playing the political blame game, 'cause otherwise it's going to come crashing down on their heads. Racism and elitism is at play as well. These people are fighting for their very lives...

[Macsporan]

No civil war. Order will be restored in NO within a week and rebuilding will proceed.

Society is strong. Civilisation endures. Do not be afraid.

[swingbolder]

No civil war, no way.

Anyhow, in 2003 the gummint cut spending on flood control by 44% to pay for the Iraq war:


"No one can say they didn't see it coming."

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/interna ... 55,00.html

[MD]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Macsporan', 'N')o civil war. Order will be restored in NO within a week and rebuilding will proceed.

Society is strong. Civilisation endures. Do not be afraid.

[cheRand]

Are we noticing the social displacement? A lot of folks now "have nothing to lose." On a good day, the "economic black hole" will have created joblessness rates in of unprecedented proportion in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and surrounding states. On a bad day, folks will get restless about being unengaged and unfranchised, and they'll notice the racial disparity between those who drove away from harm and those who were trapped by poverty and no mass-transit evacuation plan. I'm wondering "What is the breaking point for social disenfranchisement to turn to social chaos?"

We can look at historical events like Watts 1968 (?) and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1925, for anecdotes. There's some research on group dynamics. What proportion of mad people does it take to spark a takeover like in New Orleans?

[0mar]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Macsporan', 'N')o civil war. Order will be restored in NO within a week and rebuilding will proceed.

Society is strong. Civilisation endures. Do not be afraid.

[k_semler]

Hell no, the NG would squash any attempted local uprising. If the NG couldn't do it by themselves on the ground, then they still have air support they can call in if nessecary. Any organized rebellion beyond local gangs being punks will be completly eliminated using any and all force required to do so. NO is not big enough that a few hundred B52's couldn't reduce it to a pile of floating rubble. Hell, the ABC Radio News feed said that the governer said that many of the NG troops being deployed are fresh back from Iraq, and know how to shoot to kill if nessecary. She also said "and I imagine they will". A nationwide rebellion would be difficult to squash, but a localised uprising in one paticular city would be very easy, (if the gloves came off and we didn't play party to the liberal news media stations.)