Found this on a writing prompt Tumblr.
What do you guys think?
California conquers Oregon, Washington and British Columbia on its way to Alaska. Thereby becoming Pacifica and holding off the rest of the states who have mostly gelled into 4 regions east, central, south and the new provinces of Canada. Retaining all of its industry and stability it forges ahead. All the rest of the conditions would hit stalemate and then equilibrium as States assert their rights again as regions of North America.
In a fight to the death with each state keeping its resources, California. It has the most military bases in it already, and the population and resources to resupply them.
In a more realistic case you'd see states like West Virginia get taken over very quickly by powerful regional powers like Virginia. While that was happening states that have middling size states like Ohio and Kentucky forming alliances to keep afloat till they hit a stalemate.
My money's on Delaware, but then, I really can't help myself from rooting for an underdog. Rudy! Rudy!
Mutual destruction all round? It's the only way :-P
I'd say North Dakota. They have alot of nukes and of course my glorious state, Virginia.
This almost reminds me of the time traveling marines thrown back in time to conquer Rome.
From a foreign point of view I'd have to say Texas. It's not having weapons, it's the willingness to use them. I can't imagine California attacking anyone.
I'd go with the state with the most military bases - California I think. Unless people don't fight for the state in which they are currently located.
Then it's trickier.
Would there be a draft? Not military (don't get your hopes up Jessica), but like the NBA draft, where each state got to pick it's people? I'd like to think I'd probably get picked in the mid 500,000's, but my recent laziness may have pushed me down to around the low-1,200,000's.
Ugh. I'd get picked last and it'd be really awkward.
My much publicized refusal to run from (or for) anything - including zombies - would probably hurt my attractiveness in that instance.
I'm betting on Colorado. That's all I do these days, bet on Colorado.
"California conquers Oregon, Washington and British Columbia on its way to Alaska. Thereby becoming Pacifica and holding off the rest of the states who have mostly gelled into 4 regions east, central, south and the new provinces of Canada. Retaining all of its industry and stability it forges ahead. All the rest of the conditions would hit stalemate and then equilibrium as States assert their rights again as regions of North America. "
This is acually kind of epic, only I could see Texas splitting from the South and then conquering Mexico.
It would come down to Alaska V Hawaii. Everyone else would be dead or slaves to the Mexican cartels.
Texas. They already have that sense of unified identity, which is important in recruiting fighters. They've got oil to use as leverage in the creation of alliances, and to trade for other goods they might need. They have guns, and the willingness to use them. Besides, it has already been an independent country in the past.
I think it would come down to Alaska, California, and Texas. 'Cause California has the most bases and is on the coastline so they have a side no one can come at them from, and Texas is batshit insane with their unity, but Alaska is completely removed from the country and can just hook up with Canada. Hawaii would be nuked to death.
I think from a strategic standpoint this is a no-brainer. The winner is Maine. The reason is because in the beginning it is the only state with one front to fight. Alaska and Hawaii don't really count in that respect because given their distances from the mainland they'll be forced to expend too much in projecting power a long way.
Once Maine conquers their one front, they then get the power of two states, only needing to defend on two fronts. Every other state in the union, if they manage to hold off the first amount of fronts they face, receives a bunch more to defend as they go, and their supply chain could collapse behind them.
Maine has the advantage of advancing out of a New England bottleneck that affords them a nice gradual build-up of strength, while defending very few fronts until it finally breaks out in force down by Ohio or Maryland, and by the time it gets there, it'll have a much greater force amassed than most other state-empires will have otherwise been able to realize.
Maine in a cake-walk.
Ya, for an eastern region. What happens in Manhattan?
South Carolina. They have water and food supplies, plus military forts to hold out for a long time, and The Citadel guys. Seriously, places with water supply and transportation will win I think instead of military bases. If we all turn on each other who will be listening to the Commander in Chief?
South Carolina. They have water and food supplies, plus military forts to hold out for a long time, and The Citadel guys. Seriously, places with water supply and transportation will win I think instead of military bases. If we all turn on each other who will be listening to the Commander in Chief?
South Carolina. They have water and food supplies, plus military forts to hold out for a long time, and The Citadel guys. Seriously, places with water supply and transportation will win I think instead of military bases. If we all turn on each other who will be listening to the Commander in Chief?
South Carolina. They have water and food supplies, plus military forts to hold out for a long time, and The Citadel guys. Seriously, places with water supply and transportation will win I think instead of military bases. If we all turn on each other who will be listening to the Commander in Chief?
California, Washington and Colorado are out. They're too stoned to know what the hell's going on.
Nevada wins. They have Area 51.
I still say Alaska. Too cold for easy maneuvering by enemy troops, very little space to hide, especially when the state is so unfamiliar, and all supplies would need to be carried in because deliveries would be instantly spotted.
Plus, you have to pass Canada to reach it unless you want to ride boats. We don't have a large enough navy to attack both Alaska and Hawaii, and they'd go for Hawaii first because they seem like more of a threat.
Maybe I wasn't clear enough...
And:
What's unfortunate about this is not the destruction of the United States, but the fact that Will Smith and Tom Cruise will be the ones to bring these things down. Then, it's goodbye Christianity, hello Scientology.
To digress, I have a theory about why celebrities buy into Scientology more than "common" people: one, the most important part of the religion is "auditing," where you re-experience the worst things you've done and are basically "cleansed" of them.
Two: auditing is done to remove the "limitations" they put on you, which helps you achieve immortality -- because we're all technically immortal, but we've forgotten, and we can only be immortal if the "auditing" is performed.
Three: It's incredibly exclusive. Society places a lot of emphasis on exclusivity; one of the factors that goes into college rankings is how many students apply and how many of those are turned away. Some colleges inflate their rates by spamming all students with a certain GPA or SAT/ACT score with "expedited applications" and turn away most of them.
Celebrities would love all this shit. Power and strength usually led to mistakes, so they're more likely to commit terrible acts than normal people. Immortality is one of the obsessions of the famous. And, exclusivity is like crack to celebrities.
Back to the thought exercise!
Seriously. Alaska. FROZEN WILDERNESS.
If you had alliances I think the C.S.A. would be back in a few weeks, and yeah Court worst case for Alaska would be 'fight it out we're gonna chill out up here while you bleed.'
Gosh, Washington blitz's British Columbia and secures northern border with Alaska. After all, the main population is within 50 miles of the international border. Then, reversing direction, whacks Oregon using the family connections card and occupation of Portland. Third, California is coup'd one dark night and offers Washington an alliance the next day which is actually just for show as Microsoft already owned everyone in on the coup. Boeing then dispatches aid to Alaska and formally brings them into the new nation by offering tourism and cheap travel with Alaskan Air branding.
The passes are locked up by Rangers. Backed by air cover. Regulations are harmonized up and down the coast. Commerce is halted at the mountains until payments for goods from the newly nationalized corporations are made in gold or foreign currencies. A new constitution is implemented giving the citizens a standard and a belief things are much better. Life goes on without interruption. Education is modernized, streamlined and truncated after basic skills are achieved and corporations are tasked with training their workforces causing employment to go up. Military service is mandatory but is about service to country in everything from public works to taking care of grandma.
Fiscal reform follows as money is issued without debt as needed to buoy up infrastructure, a rationalization of capitalism is implemented and while choice declines overall waste and duplication of effort declines. Light rail and people movers based on 8th generation Apple technology replace 86% of car trips. Massive reforms are implemented in medicine, law and government through a plain english doctrine, move to technology and granting of Apple rights to let loose the hounds. Ugly is banned from everything. Hollywood releases forty top action propaganda films making everything over to this new standard. DRM is thrown out and micropayments are instituted on the InterToobs redistributing wealth to creators of content.
Microsoft and Apple merge throwing off the shells around them like they did in Lost in Space to emerge as the biggest, meanest and toughest technological force on the planet. They then reveal that they own 78% of Google voting stock. Boeing unwraps their multistrike drone forces with Gnat Class to OctoEngine Behemoths crewed by enthusiastic ex-gamers now comfortably employed out of mom's basement in huge facilities. Baby Boomers prosper with the deadweight removed from their budgets and create a massive new wave of small businesses that suck up all deficits in employable peoples with a new work and own profit sharing model.
Lobbyists comfortably bring forth alliance/trade/treaty/economic models for the other regions of the country paying off anyone in control of anything. Those people agree because of a shitty winter, power grid brownouts and the effect the propaganda films had over the internet. Seattle becomes the defacto power centre of North America.
Yea, i have to say I dont see California attacking anyone with all its self righteous flower power. It'd probably be saacked while negotiating peace treaties. And yea we got bases, but are all the soldiers there loyal to california? Prob not, probably have some mix of out of state soldiers no? Very difficult question to provide a believable scenario for though.
The thrust from Washington State and the darker deals done on the inside of corporate boardrooms and jets would guarantee a lifestyle already in place for Californians. You pay well and have good weather and toss the crap out and support that with the best propaganda machine around and you'd be surprised how well it would work out. Who wants to live in winter anyway? I'd also be for building enormous cannons up the side of mountains for a defence zone past the Rockies. Anybody who wanted repatriation to their home states would be allowed to go. Incoming population would have to head towards one of three new cities or fifteen agricultural <underground to highrise> centres. Teh three new cities would be designed around full climate use and adaptation as well as central transportation grids for high density living with surrounding lands kept pristine. Proper resource management along with conservation principles enshrined in the new country's constitution would lead the day.
