First-time readers, this blog is set in the future (sometime after the year 2020).  Each entry assumes there has been a 5th revolution in the US — the Revenge Revolution.  More about Revenge Revolution and author, Entry #1.  List and general description of entries to date.  Annual assessment whether Revolution plausible.

Note: most characters appear in a number of entries, with many entries building on previous conversations.  Profile of characters.  You’ll catch on quickly.  Thanks for your time and interest…and comments.

Scene: Jordan’s office in Washington. Jordan meeting with JC, who has agreed to propose causes of the Revenge Revolution for Greenie, a mutual friend, who is an author.  Greenie is recovering from short-term illness.  Conversation started #191.

JC:  “Back from my break.  We’ve got one more topic for Greenie’s articles.”

Jordan:  “OK, but let’s go to the coffee shop and sit outside.  It’s a Chamber-of-Commerce day and we should enjoy it.”

(Now outside at the coffee shop.)

JC:  “Here’s an idea as a cause for the Revenge Revolution – bullying, blaming and blasphemy?”

Jordan:  “Sounds like a headline from some tabloid.  Tell me more.  Start with bullying.”

JC:  “Seems to me that many people just got tired of politicians trying to bully each other, bully the media and bully the public.”

Jordan:  “Such as…”

JC:  “I keep ratcheting back to the 2016 presidential campaign.  That set a new standard for bullying.  Simple example, conservative Republicans ranting and raving that news clips on Facebook were biased against Republicans.  C’mon.  As if the news clips on Fox aren’t biased?  Look who’s calling the kettle black?”

Jordan:  “OK, the bias claim has long been a standard line of the radio talking heads.  I guess because of its popularity, Facebook qualified as ‘drive-by’ media.  What else?”

JC:  “What else is this.  People who tried to bully Facebook should be glad I wasn’t in charge.  I would have told them to shove it.  Zuckerberg was far too diplomatic.”

Jordan:  “A more relevant example, please.”

JC:  “Your great state of North Carolina.  I know it’s not really your state but you do live there.  The legislators…and governor what’s his name…tried to become world-class at bullying and blaming.”

Jordan:  “You talking about HB2 – the transgender law?  And by the way, the governor in 2016 was Pat McCrory.”

JC:  “See if I have the sequencing right.  The City of Charlotte passed a law that provided certain rights to LGBT’s.  The law applied only to the city and nowhere else.  Right?”

Jordan:  “Right so far.”

JC:  “Then the Republican state legislators passed some law in a special session with no discussion.  The law applied to the entire state, not just the City of Charlotte.  Moreover, the language read like an old Jim Crow law with ‘LGBT’ inserted for blacks.’  Then puppet Pat signed the bill the same day.”

Jordan:  “Why do you classify that as bullying?”

JC:  “Why did the Republican legislators feel compelled to pass a law for the entire state when the ordinance covered only Charlotte?  Bullies want people to think they’re powerful.  So the yahoos from rural North Carolina, who would never step foot in Charlotte anyway – too many of ‘those people’ and too many Yankee liberals – passed a law for the entire state.  Bullying pure and simple.”

Jordan:  “OK, where’s the blame come in?”

JC:  “The yahoos then blamed the mayor of Charlotte for causing the problem and forcing the legislators to act.  Excuse me.  No one twisted the legislators arm to act.”

Jordan:  “Are you implying some pattern for blaming?”

JC:  “Yes, there is a pattern…at least there was a pattern then.  If one listens closely to Republicans, then and even now – and I’m not talking just North Carolina but nationally – the mantra seems to be that whatever the issue, someone else is to blame for causing the problem.  Republicans never, ever seem to own up to being at fault.”

Jordan:  “JC, You seem to be letting your liberal side get out of control.  You really believe there’s a pattern?”

JC:  “Start listening more carefully to the wording of statements.  You’ll see the pattern.  Sometimes its blatant but most of the time it’s more subtle.”

Jordan:  “Let’s go back to the NC law for a few more minutes.”

JC:  “OK, remember right after Puppet Pat signed HB2, PayPal cancelled an operations center in Charlotte with how many jobs?”

Jordan:  “400 minimum.”

JC:  “What does the Puppet say?  PayPal was bad because they did business in countries that discriminate against gays and other LGBT’s.  Well, Patty Boy, if PayPal was such a bad company, then why did you slobber all over yourself and take credit for ‘economic development’ when PayPal announced the call center?  Using Patty’s logic, PayPal was at fault for cancelling the call center, not actions by the legislators or the governor.”

Jordan:  “Keep going.”

JC:  “Not long after PayPal bailed, the Feds got involved.  They threatened to without funds for schools and roads because HB2 conflicted with some Federal statutes.  The Feds gave the state a chance to overturn the law or at least stop enforcement.  And how do Patty Boy and the legislators react?”

Jordan:  “They blamed the Feds for not giving them enough time to overturn the law.”

JC:  “Now you’re getting the picture.  In less than one day, the legislators passed the law and Patty signed it.  But then the same fast-draw Republicans screamed and blamed the Feds that five days wasn’t enough time to respond.  See my point?”

Jordan:  “There’s a pattern.”

JC:  “Then talk about stupid is as stupid does.  The state sued the Feds claiming, really blaming overreaching.  Did anyone ever teach those yahoos not to poke a sleeping dog with a stick, especially a really big dog?”

Jordan:  “Apparently not.  Just to be fair and balanced…”

JC:  “Please, Jordan, don’t make me throw up over fair and balanced.”

Jordan:  “You’re not suggesting that Democrats are completely clean on bullying and blaming are you?”

JC:  “No, but the scale seems to be heavily weighted toward Republicans.  Look who the Republicans nominated in 2016, the Donald.”

Jordan:  “I don’t think I ever heard him take responsibility for anything going wrong.  It was always someone else’s fault.  And he was clearly a master bullier.”

JC:  “And a master bull…oops, I forgot we’re outside.  A master BSer.”

Jordan:  “We’ve covered bullying and blaming.  What’s the blasphemy part?”

JC:  “The religious right kept claiming they were exempt from certain laws because the laws conflicted with their religious beliefs.  And any challenge to their argument was considered blasphemous.  Sometimes I thought we were in Iran, not the US.”

Jordan:  “You must think the US Constitution includes some kind of clause about separation of church and state?  Where’d you ever get an idea like that?”

JC:  “My apologies for such a stupid thought.  Seriously, the claims by many fundamentalists they should be excluded from certain laws created extreme resentment among many people.”

Jordan:  “I agree.  The constant finger-pointing and the attitude ‘I’m right, you’re wrong’ and the ‘law doesn’t apply to me’ really added fuel to the fire.”

JC:  “As we talked earlier, the pot of water boiling over lead to the Revenge Revolution.”

Jordan:  “You think we’ve been too one-sided in our topics for Greenie?  Most seem to fall in the Republican camp.”

JC:  “No one’s claiming Democrats are faultless.  But if one evaluates objectively where society got out of whack, I think the Republicans hard shift to the right along with the bullying, blaming and blasphemy made governing nearly impossible.  So the pot boils over and we have a revolution.”

Jordan:  “Think the country can recover?”

JC:  “I don’t know.  You and I are old enough to have lived through the last revolution.  The country was in turmoil for more than a decade.”

Jordan:  “And it wasn’t any fun.  Let’s hope this recovery doesn’t take as long.”

JC:  “I agree.  Maybe Greenie’s articles will help heal the wounds more quickly.  I’ll let her know what we came up with.”

(End of the series about articles for Greenie)