Randy Lindsay
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Court of Disaster

9/30/2020

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With the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the appointment of her replacement on the Supreme Court has taken center stage in the political arena. As I have mentioned in my previous articles, the Apocalypse Blog isn’t about making a political statement. These are the thoughts of an author who writes stories about the end of the world and how the current events seem to fit . . . unfortunately . . . into that theme.

There are certainly a lot of ways to incite a civil war and leaving the Supreme Court with a 4 – 4 split is one of them. (More on that in a moment.) But the path to the apocalypse is likely to involve several schisms rather than a war over a single issue. State versus state. City versus city. And even neighborhood versus neighborhood. To have disruption and division at this level requires multiple issues that people feel strongly enough about to use violence.

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Water rights and power shortages are potential sources for civil war if these critical resources are not shared between cities and states to the satisfaction of all parties involved. Local ordinances, that are becoming a source of increasingly volatile dispute, have the potential to set neighborhoods against one another. But the one I’m going to discuss today is the division of a country should the Supreme Court be left incomplete.

There can be no doubt that the current Presidential election will need to draw upon the power of the Supreme Court to resolve the legality of the results. Massive mail in balloting opens the door for either side to dispute the outcome of the election and it will fall on the Supreme Court to rule on what is legal and binding.

It seems obvious that, no matter the results, both sides will claim their candidate is the legitimate winner. Both political parties will accuse the other of attempting to steal the election through fraud. They may even go as far as to both point to the same evidence as part of the underhanded tactics of their opponent.

In this situation, a tied vote in the Supreme Court will rip the country apart. And this is how that will look.

Both parties move forward with the conviction that they represent the legitimate winner of the election and have the right to command the powers of the highest office in the land. Which of course means that neither side recognizes the claims of the other.

Both sides call upon their loyal citizens to do what is right and oppose the usurpers. Political factions clash in the streets. People fight. Buildings burn. People die. Oddly enough, the Corona Virus might turn out to be a blessing in this situation. Less people are in offices and other public locations which might otherwise be among the battlegrounds for this opening volley of the war.

Order must be restored. Both sides call upon the police and military forces loyal to them. I suspect that most of the Armed Services will side with the conservative party and the President in currently in office. If for no other reason than he remains the Commander-In-Chief until the official transfer of the office to a legitimate winner. But National Guard units might be more willing to side with the local governments. Texas will undoubtedly fight for Texas as will several other states.

And that means CIVIL WAR 2.0.

Without a fully-functional court of appeals the loudest proponents of each side will whip the country into a frenzy and fall upon one another with vicious intent. When that happens – not if – God help us all. 

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Crossing the Blue Line - Fiction

9/22/2020

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When I sat down to write the last article, I didn’t plan to make it as dark and grim as it turned out. But that’s what happened. I let the muse take me where it wanted to go and I ended up with a sobering look at the current state of the country. If it was a wakeup call for anyone out there . . . then I guess the article did its job.

I have another grim topic ready, but want to lighten things up a bit before I post it. Today, I’m going to show you what I do with news items like the ones in my Crossing the Blue Line article. I’m going to show you how I plan to use those shocking reports in my next book.

As I pointed out in my previous article, opposition to the police and specifically violence which targets the duly authorized agents of the law, provoke an uneasy feeling in most people. This is not so good in real life, but excellent for fiction.

Creating a situation where the police are prevented from protecting the general public does two things.

  1. It puts the reader off balance. Readers will feel uneasy about the idea of the police being somehow removed from the streets they are meant to protect. The brave men and women in blue are the safety buffer between us the dark elements of society.

  2. It leaves the characters vulnerable to violence and chaos. At least, to the extent that the citizens no longer have a reasonable expectation of help from the defenders who are traditional put into place by society. This puts readers off-balance because society itself is not working the way it is meant to function.​

In fiction, dread is good. It makes the readers worry about what will happen to the characters in the story. The more any threat to the hero seems reasonable and likely, the more tension the reader is going to feel. And the scenario I described in my previous article is as reasonable and as likely as it gets.

Which makes it perfect for one of my storylines. Sierra is in California, dealing with the aftermath of the occupation of Los Angeles by the Chinese army. Her romantic interest, Robert, is making the dangerous trek across the country, intent on marrying her.

But I want my readers to worry. I want to force them to turn the page at the end of each of her chapter and continue to turn pages until they finish the book. I want them to write me and complain about the amount of sleep they missed because they couldn’t put my book down at 2:00 in the morning.
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How do I do that?



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                                                                         Image courtesy of NBC News

First, I take away the police. Sierra lives with her ailing father. Gang activity has risen to an unprecedented level. In this case, it isn’t that the public has protested against the police, but rather a lack of trained officers. Riots do play a role in the situation. Violence by the citizens leaves many of the potential officers too afraid to take the role of defender. There simply aren’t enough recruits to replace the losses inflicted on the police force by Chinese soldiers.  


Each of Sierra’s chapters will leave her in a continually worse situation. If past experience is any indication, readers will clench their fists in anticipation, cursing every delay that I purposely impose upon Robert. Hurry Robert, hurry. Sierra is alone and needs your help.

Shame on me. What wicked things I inflict on my readers. Bwaa-ha-ha.

Crossing the Blue Line is a problem Sarah is going to have to deal with as well. I want to showcase the same situation we are seeing in our cities right now. Sarah’s chapters are my chance to put my readers in the streets, surrounded by crowds of angry and unreasonable protestors. I plan to put her in the path of mobs attacking the police, leaving the streets virtually defenseless. These attacks will build tension and when the rioters finally are pointed in Sarah’s direction, the readers will know what to expect. They will understand the serious danger she faces.

Sarah and a new character will find themselves facing hateful mobs without any chance of help from the police. What will they do? The situation seems hopeless. Surely, I wouldn’t kill off one of my main characters . . . would I?

Trust me. It’s going to be scary for them and for the reader. Why would I do that? A small part of it is the entertainment value a situation like that provides. Readers enjoy the threat of danger as long as they can safely view it through the lens of fiction. But the real reason is that I want readers to put themselves into the story. To feel the situation. And if they do . . . then maybe they’ll pay a little more attention to what is happening around us. I want people to be prepared for the day when this is no longer fiction.

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Crossing the Blue Line

9/16/2020

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It sure didn’t take long for events in the news to produce an apocalypse-
worthy article. These two items happened over the weekend, but a full schedule kept me from responding to them in a timely manner. But before I get started, I want to make something clear.

* Disclaimer: I am not participating in a political debate. The purpose of the Apocalypse Blog is to look at the current events with an eye towards how they fit into the prophecies of the Second Coming. I am not picking a political side. I am looking at the possible consequences for the events we are experiencing. Keep in mind that all of this comes from a guy who spends too much of his time wondering how the world will end and then writing stories about it. 





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Compton Shooting.
​Image courtesy of Newsbreak

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            News Item #1 – Two LA Police Officers Ambushed

Saturday, September 12, 2002. An individual with a pistol, walked up to two Compton police officers and shot both. Each of the officers took a single shot to the head. Then the assailant fled the scene. The victims are a 31-year-old mother and her 24-year-old police partner.

People on the street, when the shooting happened, cheered the unprovoked attack. One individual even streamed himself laughing about the violence perpetrated against the officers. A crowd gathered at the hospital, while the officers were in surgery, and chanted, “We hope they die” and “Ya’ll going to die. One by one.” The crowd also blocked the entrance to the emergency room, putting other lives at risk. 

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Lancaster riot. Image courtesy of Red State

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            News Item #2 – Police Involved Shooting in Lancaster, PA.

Sunday, September 13, 2020. A man wielding a knife charges a Lancaster police officer. The officer shoots and kills the man after it first attempting to flee the situation. Based on the body-cam footage of the incident, it appears to be a case of self-defense.

As a result of the shooting, members of Black Lives Matter have rioted, taken up position in front of the local police station for the purpose of taunting officers, and finally a clash between police and the protesters.  

These events happened during the same weekend, on opposite sides of the country. A sign that this is more than an isolated incident of bad behavior. Together, they represent the current state of mind for a growing segment of America. Together, they bracket the gateway into the apocalyptic world of Mad Max. 
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 Mad Max was the story of a police officer, attempting to keep his part of the world from devolving into utter chaos and barbarism. In the movie, he eventually embraces the same violence he originally sought to oppose. But that isn’t our story.
 
What connects the fictional story of Mad Max with the events that are taking place in the United States today, is what it means to Cross the Blue Line.

Police represent law and order in society. A level of respect and even admiration is expected to be shown to the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our civil rights. They are a symbol of freedom and security. They are the living embodiment of the law and thusly the government.

In a normal, functioning society, the citizens take pause when it comes to how they interact with the police. After all, bad behavior directed at an officer of the law could result in penalties involving fines and imprisonment.  And this is the way we want the system to work. The police can only protect us and enforce peace for as long as we respect their authority.
 
When society as a whole targets the police and actively works to hinder their ability to enforce the law, we have Crossed the Blue Line. It is the gateway to societal chaos. Crossing that line permits every variant of us vs. them to be explored because there is no one to stop the conflict between opposing factions. The actions citizens take are only limited by the lengths which each individual is willing to go in order to promote their own side of an argument.
 
Books and movies are filled with examples of what we expect it to look like when we Cross the Blue Line: Mad Max, Escape from New York, The Road, The Postman, and The Book of Eli. All of these stories show what happens when we eliminate the police from the equation. Power is taken by those strong enough to force others to their will. Property is taken by groups large enough to take it. The weak are enslave, killed, or worse.

Make no mistake about it. The authority of the police is under attack. More than one-hundred days of violent protest in Portland. The lawless CHOP zone in Seattle. Riots in major cities every time a police officer is involved in a shooting – even when it is the officer being shot. This is madness.

 This is the apocalypse. 

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Apocalypse Blog

9/9/2020

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 My life took an unexpected turn when I discovered, a few years ago, that my dad is not my biological father. Dealing with that discovery, writing a memoir about my experience, and then marketing the book has delayed the writing and publishing of The Gathering series.

As you can see from my last posting, I have started work on the fourth and final story in the series. However, the material I had planned to use in a book 4 and a book 5 is going to be crammed into a single novel. I just don’t feel that I have the time to write two books before many of the events I believe are to come are upon us.

Even if I had the time, there’s too much that is happening in the world today for me to use all of it as part of my story of hope and encouragement. I want to address the events of the news while they are still fresh in our minds. What that means is that I plan (hope) to blog about the apocalypse.

Some of you are probably out there saying, “Don’t you mean you’ll be blogging about the future apocalypse?” The answer is, “No.” We are in the midst of The Apocalypse. Alright, probably more like the start of the apocalypse. Take a look at these images. This is America, as taken from recent news reports. If this isn’t an apocalypse, then tell me what is.





Minneapolis Riot.  

Image courtesy of  Boston Review.net. 
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The purpose of this blog is the same as my reason for writing The Gathering. Events of the Last Days have been prophesied so the faithful can be prepared. Knowing what to expect will make it easier to deal with the trials we will face.   
While the material I draw upon for my stories is based on the words of the prophets, I am not one myself. I am only a storyteller, trying to make sense of what is happening around me in light of what the prophets have said. Some of my guesses in the first two books have been reasonably accurate and others have not. But that is all they are – guesses.

The Apocalypse Blog will feature news items that are worth examining. I might offer a few suggestions on how each of the events could affect our lives and our future lives, but I leave it to you to ponder their significance.

Expect to see the first post as soon as an item in the news grabs my attention. Or in other words, expect to see that soon.


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​​Minnesota
Image courtesy of Star Tribune.

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​Portland
Image courtesy of CNN




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    The Apocalypse

    Here are some of my recommendations for books dealing with the end of the world. 

    Damnation Alley
      by Roger Zelazny

    Alas Babylon
      by Pat Frank

    I Am Legend
      by Richard Matheson

    Folk of the Fringe
      by Orson Scott Card

    The Postman
      by David Brin

    Daybreak 2250 A. D.
      by Andre Norton  

    Hiero’s Journey
      by Sterling E. Lanier

    The White Mountains
      by John Christopher

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