The Guardian has an article about how far-right U.S. domestic terrorist groups want to build stockpiles of drones, in preparation for the upcoming Civil War II.
They’ve been watching the news and seeing how effective drones have been in the Ukraine/Russian War. They want what the big players have. They can’t have cruise missiles yet.
So they’re wishing for small but effective, disposable, first-person-view (FPV) drones.
The current cost of a helicopter drone with a camera “for adults,” according to Amazon.com, is in the range of $100. I can’t imagine that weaponized versions of such drones would cost much more than $200 each.
If you’re into starting a civil war, you can’t do much better than that. I don’t think you can buy decent firearms for much cheaper.
I’ve always said AI warfare is the wave of the future. Not just drones, but AI-directed drones. Judging from the Guardian article, the idea of linking the drones to a PC or two isn’t part of the right wingers’ dream. But give them time.
What’s funny (peculiar) about all this is that for now and for the next three years, the far right’s idea that they’ll be fighting a war with the U.S. government is silly. The government is now Trump. He’s totally on their side.
Who really needs FPV drones? The city governments of places like Chicago, NYC, LA, San Francisco and Seattle. Blue cities that ticked off Trump by not voting en masse for him in 2024. So he wants to make us pay, because he has the emotional development of a two year old.
What would be really great is if we could simply deny our tax revenues to the federal government as long as Trump is threatening us with our own national guards, paid for by us. But I’ve never been able to figure out how that could be made to work, short of a major local revolt on the scale of a general strike.
I’m kind of a fan of war fantasies. I grew up as an army brat, so I got to see Armed Forces Day mock battles. I imagine the far-right wingers are also into war fantasies. They probably play with plastic soldiers all the time.
The best mock battle I ever saw was held in Zurich in 1979 while I was there working as a research mathematician. A nameless foreign enemy was attacking the city, and the city put on a show of its defensive capabilities. It was so cool.
It would have been cooler if they had drones.
Since the enemy was nameless, it was hard for me to decide whether I should root for Zurich or the enemy. At one point, an “enemy” jet roared down an avenue and strafed the headquarters of USB, the Swiss Bank. How could I not approve?
Likewise, the focus of an enemy tank assault was a plaza famous for its coffee shops, including a place where Thomas Mann and James Joyce regularly met. Why wouldn’t I want that laid to waste? Have you ever tried to read any of Mann’s work? My condolences.
Don’t even get me started on Joyce. I’d never finish. Why would I? He didn’t.
Zurich is famous for being the city that inspired Lenin to invent the Soviet Union secret police. Prior to the Russian revolution, he had an apartment in Zurich where he lived in exile — coincidentally within blocks of the afore-mentioned plaza. The apartment was later turned into a tourist trap. I never went there because I heard enough about it. A tiny room with a bed, a table and a teacup. Supposed to be the same teacup he drank out of while dreaming up the coming revolution.
No freakin’ way. I can’t believe the landlord kept the room as it was and didn’t toss the teacup and rent it out to someone else. The landlord did not think, “Wow, the future famous Vladimir Lenin was my tenant; I mustn’t disturb anything. I’ll rope it off and charge people to gaze at it from behind the ropes.”
Where was I? Oh yes, the coming revolution here, not Russia. We have citizens here who want to be Lenins. They aren’t even in exile. Because they have nothing to fear from the government. They are on the same side as the current Tsar.
Everything is inside-out and backward.
Read more of the Sept. 3–9, 2025 issue.