I predict the Reichstag Fire is going to be in California.

[byronius]

Unless the votes are counted in PA, WI, and MI, that is.

Just lodging my prediction. Not rocket science. It's Trump Payback science.

The Reptile is strong with this one.

[YoungDemCA]

1. Don't give them any fucking ideas!

[Dreamer Tatum]

2. Sounds like a threat to me. nt

[lapfog_1]

3. You can bet that FEMA will be nowhere to be found

if California has another "great quake".

[DetlefK]

4. That's no surprise. The GOP hates disaster-relief, unless their very own state is affected.

[TexasProgresive]

5. Nah!

It'll be "Rump Tower while Melania and scion are our on a play date. That would have similar propaganda power as the Reichstag fire and the WTC collapse. Just my take.

[NightWatcher]

10. Or one of his hundred other named properties around the world

He'll blame Islamic fundies and start rounding them up here and bombing them there.

[el_bryanto]

6. California isn't a great choice - everything is too spread out.

I would say New York or Chicago might better choices.

But actually if the goal is to get a bunch of Trump Supporters together to destroy a building and put the fear of Trump into liberals - well - you need three things.

1. you have to have a good building to destroy (something symbolic)
2. you have to have a bunch of trump supporting hot-heads to do the act (and provide plausible deniability if it goes south)
3. you need a readymade victim class to blame it on.

Maybe actually a big southern city might be a better choice - Atlanta or New Orleans or Orlando? Or possibly something in Texas?

I don't know - maybe it's best not to talk too much about this theory.

Bryant

[Retrograde]

12. The Bay Area's pretty dense

We saw after Loma Prieta what happens when a major public transportation system is damaged - and there are a lot more people here now then there were in 1989.

[Bucky]

7. This comment is in egregiously bad taste, two days after an actual deadly fire in California

I value DU as a forum for free debate. But free debate does not include freedom from common decency.

[nini]

9. No kidding

Disgusting to say the least.

[obnoxiousdrunk]

11. +100. n/t

[byronius]

14. I'm quite commonly decent. I'm also familiar with Standard Authoritarian Practice.

Are you suggesting that Trump and his followers are decent people who would never commit such a crime?

I think it's axiomatic. And if you're familiar with the intricacies of the Weimar Republic and it's demise (as I am), the parallels are quite perfect. If they do not commit such an act to corral the remainder of the weak-minded and silence the intelligent opposition, it will not be for lack of planning, motive, or opportunity.

Really, let's not be naïve. This is It. It has come to America. The form of Silencing Of Dissent may be new and different somehow, but the act will have the same effect as the Reichstag Fire.

They hate California. We are about to be attacked in a thousand different ways. They intend to crush our spirit and our economy. I'm sorry you think such words are in bad taste. I believe them to be true.

[ProfessorPlum]

15. yeah, I do too. Stick to your figurative guns

because this kind of game theory scenario allows us to recognize what is actually happening in the real event, while everyone else loses their head.

[byronius]

16. Part of me is hoping to derail this choice by mentioning it as an obvious target.

They read this board. Maybe they'll pick someplace else.

Silly and paranoid.

Or not.

[ghostsinthemachine]

8. It will be at a Trump property

Which he will be over insured. Ego, ego, ego.

[woodsprite]

13. Which he can control.

Hopefully someone will have a video of him planning it, like Romney's 47% dinner.

[jmowreader]

17. It probably won't be a fire but it WILL be in a liberal area

The three things Trump hates most are Muslims, Mexicans and liberals. So...if he can get something blown up in a liberal area and blame it on "Muslim terrorists" or "illegal Mexican immigrants" (or better, a coalition of the two) abetted by "soft-on-terrorism liberals" he can go after both groups with impunity.

[TheBlackAdder]

18. It will be in a conservative area, with a lot of soft targets--blamed on some disadvantaged class.

.


If it was in a liberal area, that might garnish sympathy... now, if it's a widespread riot that would be different.


.

[dembotoz]

19. bingo

[TheBlackAdder]

20. The goal is to lead to the forfeiture of weapons amongst that class, so they are defenseless.

.


Authoritarians are the ones who seize weapons. The weapons of their perceived "enemies" or factious groups.

But, like all good Hitlerians, they want to take them from selective groups.


.