As someone who lives in the "wouldnโt be that tough." That's big talk for someone who likely doesn't want to spend their last moments desperately clawing at the roof of a pine box.
Democrats have guns. They just don't worship their guns, display them like phallic symbols, or make a big deal of having them like conservative nutsos do. So there's a ridiculous stereotype that Democrats don't have guns and want to take guns away that conservative nutsos use to terrify their base into voting against responsible gun ownership laws.
We could have better roads, but the Romans would instantly see that a network of rail lines is infinitely more efficient for both people and cargo, so major auto arteries would become a thing of the past. Win win
The Pacific Northwest would be horrible to invade. Even if the people don't offer much resistance trying to get through the Rocky Mountains would be disastrous. But they actually have militias out there too.
I'm far more afraid of the Nazis in Baton Rouge running this state than I am of Acadians hunting out in the swamps. Just don't go in the swamp! The Nazis are actively making life worse whether you seek them or not.
As a resident of "this part wouldn't be that tough", i disagree. The entire Cascade range extending from the top of the central valley to the top of Washington, extending out to the ocean, is very very rough, steep, heavily forested terrain that would be absolute hell to get any kind of equipment through if the locals were to blow up a grand total of three bridges on three separate highways.
Nope, logistics is the first enemy. You can have the men and high tech weapons you want. But if you can't get them to where those things are needed in the quantity they are needed-- You lose.
The US military is still the best in the world at moving men and material in the least amount of time than anyone else. And as much as fuckcars hates the over grown US highway system, it would be a tremendous advantage to be used against any would be invader.
Also: the emerald triangle and that whole area of NorCal are the far-right wackos who regularly fly the state of Jackson flags, they're heavily armed and waiting to shoot people up there
Can imagine the delaying tactics that a classic Minnesotan long goodbye would cause to an invading military? You could cause delays of up to several hours just saying goodbye!
And I know it's got a fuckton of missile silos but I imagine in an invasion they aren't terribly useful. I guess maybe an after you take complete control then it is
Civilian Marksmanship Program. It was a program designed to sell cheap obsolete military rifles, pistols, and ammunition to civilians to shoot target competitions with. It still exists today, though the supply of cheap surplus firearms has dwindled significantly. They never sell machine guns or assault rifles either.
The program arose at the end of WW2 because the US army discovered that the US is not a "Nation of Marksmen" but mostly a motley collection of "city slickers" that didn't know one end of a rifle from the other. Let alone actually shoot well enough to hit anything. It was taking too long to train recruits to use a firearm properly.
All you had to do was join a CMP approved target shooting club and shoot a set number of sanctioned matches to qualify to purchase a refurbished M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, 1903 Springfield, or 1911A1 pistol for very little money. It cost me $200US for a "Rack Grade" M1 Garand back in the day. And for the longest time there was no need for an FFL transfer either. The CMP would mail the firearm directly to your home.
There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
A friend and I took an out-of-state friend to a bar and we ordered moonshine. My friend and I could not get over how wrong it felt to buy moonshine in a public place. With a permit.
Moonshine is what you get from a shady hillbilly type off the side of a dirt road sitting in a shack with two shotguns on a wall. You ask him if he got any and he says something like "not fur free" with an almost toothless smile. He's got horrible hair a stringy beard, and you get the sense he's the kind of guy who don't wash his hands a lot.
You give him the money first, then he takes a shotgun and walks behind the shack. He hands you the two gallons you bought, one in one of those plastic gallon jugs you get milk in and the other a weird looking metal pot that doesn't look close to a gallon but you realize it's probably best not to argue with this guy.
He pulls out a metal cup and another jug (that he left behind under the table he was at to get your stuff) and says "firs ones on me" pours you some, and you better fucking take it.
Yeah, there's a real risk that this stuff might have less safe alcohols in it, but these guys don't wanna die so it's usually safe so you take the swig and regret everything that lead you up to this point as you cough down the highest proof corn and something else liquor you've ever had.
You politely tell him thank you and he gives you that grotesque smile as you drive away.
Ha which this reminds me of a story my dad told us when we asked if there was a shortcut through where we were going in the Ozarks. It was a time before phones.
"Peopleproblems, you don't take shortcuts around here. You stick to the main roads, follow the signs, and make darn sure you have a map. When I was in college, engaged to your mom, we were on our way back from doxable university and we decided to do that, cause my friend (has a name), said he knew of one. We went with it - we came up to a stop sign, and this old beat up truck pulled up next to us. A short ugly looking thin as bones guy with a beard and no hair, with his unfortunately worse looking daughter. He gets out of the truck after he places his shot gun on the dashboard drunkenly steps on over to us and says 'One o' yee need to murry my daughter. She ain't purty but she cook and clean real good. I don care wheech one o' y'all does, but we got e'rything ready. Jus follow us on down 'ere.' My friend says something stupid, I can't remember what, but his response was what I won't forget: 'I ain't given yee a choice.' As he heads back to the truck my friend just says 'Gun it!' and the little Gremlin I was in worked the hardest it ever had. Once we got back on the highway there was a mix of laughing and crying as we were facing a real shotgun wedding."
We were young at the time, so he left the sad part out. Around there incest/rape was a known thing, and she had probably gotten pregnant. He was likely trying to find someone to marry her so he didn't get the blame, she didn't get the problems associated with being a single pregnant mother in hillbilly land, and the whole problem is solved. And he'd do it at gun point if he had to.
Why you doing things the hard way? Guy I buy from is an old family friend and he'll meet you in a parking lot somewhere or you can ask to swing by his house.
To be fair, the term โmoonshineโ nowadays doesnโt exclusively refer to illegally produced liquor and is often used to describe non-barrel-aged whiskey made from corn.
I have a feeling that they may mean real moonshine, not the stuff listed as moonshine in stores. Although it may not be considered "in public" I know a guy here that just left flyers at a local bar for his moonshine and would come by a few times a week and everyone knew which nights they'd be around. He'd reuse gallon jugs that used to have water, or those cheap punches you'd buy in stores. Most people would by a pint or quart though. He'd flavor some, but getting a gallon of it plain just basically tastes like slightly off grain alcohol.
At the end of the day, whatever was getting sucked out of the plastic bottle into the alcohol was likely just as bad for us as the alcohol itself.
I stopped going to bars, and cut back drinking by a long shot, but I'm sure if he's not around still someone likely took his place.
That's exactly what I'm trying to say! Absolutely baffling. We kept telling him we could get him some of the real deal but he is just so shockingly adverse to anything he thinks might be even a teensie bit less-than-legal and I still can't understand how I became friends with someone like him.
Ahhh moonshine. Used to know a southern guy, who wanting to get wrecked at parties but being broke, would buy gallon jugs of the stuff from โa guy I knowโ. Which clearly was pretty potent - once poured into a foam cup over some ice, it would dissolve out the whole bottom of the foam cup before he could put the mixer in.
The โsolutionโ was to put the Mountain Dew in first, so the shine is diluted enough to keep the cupโs integrity while he drank itโฆ I outta check up on him, see how heโs doinโ
I never tried putting it in a foam cup! Good on him for the Mountain Dew. I don't drink the stuff but that's historically what it was made for- as a mixer for moonshine.
There are a lot of right-wing militias there. Oregon was basically settled for racist white people. Outside the major cities, the Pacific NW has a lot of fascists.
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
There is a second contingent of people who wear shorts in the winter in between the corn maze and the Mormons. The ones that who don't own guns still know how to swing a bike lock.
And I'm not so sure about coastal Northern California / Southern Oregon. It's marked on the map as being not that difficult. But I believe there are still plenty of paranoid, heavily-armed pot growers up in that area.
Coloradans are fit, enjoy difficult hunting in bad terrain, know how to maneuver off road vehicles, are naturally trained at high altitudes, generally have good survival skills, and includes a large population of active or former military.
Not to mention, the Rockies stretch the entire length of the State.
To get to Colorado means getting past Mormons, the cartel, machine gun enthusiasts, armed farmers, and backcountry hunters(militia should also be a concern in that area). Colorado is quite well defended by topography and neighbors that they might as well just stay high and chill.