Jack of Harts

The firefight between the Texas State Guard and “certain undisclosed elements of the United States Armed Forces” in Dallas, Texas severely impacted the loyalty of federal troops all throughout America. It was especially disastrous for those stationed in Texas. It was a matter of faith with the troops that they could not and should not ever be deployed against American citizens, and the orders to do exactly that shook their faith in the government to a bone-deep level. So when their commanders chose not to follow those orders, there were very few dissenters. There were some. There will always be some, and they would cause a great deal of heartache. And there were many who simply walked away. But at every military base in Texas, there was a core of troops who remained loyal to their commanders. Some of those bases chose to join Texas in time. Some remained American bases, though worked with Texas. No major military base fought Texas. Some minor ones did, and they would also cause a great deal of heartache. But the most important thing to understand is that the vast majority of the American military could not and did not break faith with their oaths. And that, in the end, is why most historians never named this period the Second Civil War.

The firefight between the Texas State Guard and “certain undisclosed elements of the United States Armed Forces” in Dallas, Texas broke the Supreme Court of the United States of America. The new President had stuffed it with friendly justices, and the Stuffed Supreme Court voted to uphold his actions while vacating those of Texas. But the still-serving justices of the previous Supreme Court did not agree, and their Last Dissent burned through the networks like a brushfire. Those demanding justice for the “Dallas Massacre” dueled with others standing up for the “Last Legitimate Supreme Court,” and many who simply enjoyed stirring the pot. Honest debates and shouting matches alike ruled the networks. The House soon voted to Impeach the dissenting justices, the Lame Duck Senate approved them without further review, and the United States Capitol Police physically removed them from the Supreme Court Building. That did not calm the networks down.

The firefight between the Texas State Guard and “certain undisclosed elements of the United States Armed Forces” in Dallas, Texas had many consequences over the next few hours, days, and weeks. Hasty camera footage from a local news helicopter broadcast it live all over the networks, and more stable cameras from the ground followed within minutes as the newsies competed to get their spin on the news out as quickly as possible. Most of the mainstream networks supported the President, but widespread support for Texas covered the secondary networks and social media. Mainstream networks banned the full and unedited video that showed the federal forces drawing first blood for “violating community standards,” while continuing to broadcast edited versions that implied Texas shot the incoming helicopters down first. They escalated to muting or banning accounts that promoted the full video within days, and a public that had been increasingly distrustful of the mainstream media for decades found other ways to communicate. The President finally Nationalized control of the networks in order to keep the “most seditious elements of the irredeemable parts of society from broadcasting their traitorous diatribes.” Local networks all over America cut ties with the national networks at that point, and the large public media that had brought the United States together for a century shattered into dozens of smaller pieces that would never again broadcast the same news to all American citizens.