to rig or not to rig?

The postal predicament.

nytimes.com/2020/08/19/opin … e=Homepage

[b]'The threat to the 2020 election’s legitimacy finally broke through into everyday conversation last week. People who pay little attention to politics started talking about whether President Trump was looking to mess with the United States Postal Service to slow down the receipt of mail-in ballots.

‘Mr. Trump was not shy about it. He told Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business Network last Thursday that he was pushing back against Democrats’ demand for further U.S.P.S. funding in the latest Covid-19 relief bill: “Now they need that money in order to have the post office work, so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots …. But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting, because they’re not equipped to have it.”’[/b]

In some respects, there are those who insist that this is precisely the sort of thing that attracts them to Trump. He cuts through all the ludicrous high school civics text idealism…all the talking head bullshit…and notes how power actually does manifest itself re the Washington/Wall Street nexus. And, sure, there’s that cynical part of me that can appreciate this too. But my own political prejudices still yank me in the direction of wanting him to fail here. So, once again, drawn and quartered.

Then this part:

‘The end game here is a bit curious because Republicans traditionally have relied on mail-in balloting to get out the vote, and there are already signs that Republican turnout might be hurt by his rantings. How else to explain the president seeking to distinguish between good “absentee” voting and bad “mail-in” balloting and urging Floridians to vote by mail? And how else to explain the president not only repeatedly voting by mail but using a third person — what Mr. Trump refers to as “ballot harvesting” — to deliver his own ballot to election officials in the Florida primary on Tuesday?’

That’s the thing with political idealism: it always comes down to context. Who knows, one day it might be to the Democrats advantage to slow down the mail around an election.

It’s like liberals bitching about the Electoral College. Then one day down the road it’s a Democrat who loses the popular vote but wins in the EC.

In other words, it is ever and always about political power. And doing whatever it takes to win.

Or, perhaps:

‘If Mr. Trump is not really concerned about fraud, what’s the real end game? His unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud may be aimed at sowing chaos during the election and depressing turnout to help his side win election. Worse, it could be calculated to delegitimize the election results, which could allow Mr. Trump to contest a close election or weaken a Biden presidency.’

Here then it revolves around how events regarding the coronavirus and economy play out between now an November. If they make the election a close one, Trump is far more able to, say, suggest endless recounts, or to re-do the election, or to take the squabble to the Supreme Court.

The “worst case scenario” scenario…

nytimes.com/2020/08/18/opin … e=Homepage

[b]'Here is a sentence I never in a million years thought that I would ever write or read: This November, for the first time in our history, the United States of America may not be able to conduct a free and fair election and, should President Trump be defeated by Joe Biden, have a legitimate and peaceful transfer of power.

'Because if half the country thinks their votes were not fully counted due to deliberate sabotaging of the U.S. Postal Service by this administration, and if the other half are made to believe by the president that any mail-in vote for Biden was fraudulent, that would not result in just a disputed election — not another Bush v. Gore for the Supreme Court to sort out — that would be the end of American democracy as we know it. It also isn’t hyperbole to say it could sow the seeds of another Civil War.

The threat is real.'[/b]

Uh, define “civil war”?

But point taken.

For some, the thing about mail-in ballots is that it is just easier to imagine the possibility of fraud…of things being “rigged”. Especially given the reality of the coronavirus. After all, suppose the dreaded “second wave” hits well before the election. Spurring people in droves to opt for the mail. All Trump need do then is to make enough people believe in the possibility of fraud to make his argument stick.

I see IQ45 as being the boy who cried wolf… far too
many times before…You sort of learn to tune him out…

Kropotkin

The Facebook factor…

nytimes.com/2020/08/21/tech … e=Homepage

[b]'SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook spent years preparing to ward off any tampering on its site ahead of November’s presidential election. Now the social network is getting ready in case President Trump interferes once the vote is over.

'Employees at the Silicon Valley company are laying out contingency plans and walking through postelection scenarios that include attempts by Mr. Trump or his campaign to use the platform to delegitimize the results, people with knowledge of Facebook’s plans said.

‘Facebook is preparing steps to take should Mr. Trump wrongly claim on the site that he won another four-year term, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Facebook is also working through how it might act if Mr. Trump tries to invalidate the results by declaring that the Postal Service lost mail-in ballots or that other groups meddled with the vote, the people said.’[/b]

It speaks volumes given my own political prejudices that the largest slice of our pop culture “social media” can actually become an important factor in electing the president of the United States.

What does that tell us in and of itself about the “dumbing down” of American politics. For some, it’s not a question of intelligent voters only being “one of us”, but of just how unsophisticated literally millions and millions of American citizens seem to be in regard to grappling with the issues of the day. It goes beyond things like the Jaywalking clips from the Tonight Show. It’s the appalling shallowness of the stereotypical thinking that come to the surface time and again whenever one or another voter is interviewed on one or another newscast.

[b]'The preparations underscore how rising concerns over the integrity of the November election have reached social media companies, whose sites can be used to amplify lies, conspiracy theories and inflammatory messages. YouTube and Twitter have also discussed plans for action if the postelection period becomes complicated, according to disinformation and political researchers who have advised the firms.

'The tech companies have spent the past few years working to avoid a repeat of the 2016 election, when Russian operatives used Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to inflame the American electorate with divisive messages. While the firms have since clamped down on foreign meddling, they are reckoning with a surge of domestic interference, such as from the right-wing conspiracy group QAnon and Mr. Trump himself.

In recent weeks, Mr. Trump, who uses social media as a megaphone, has sharpened his comments about the election. He has questioned the legitimacy of mail-in voting, suggested that people’s mail-in ballots would not be counted and avoided answering whether he would step down if he lost.'[/b]

my emphasis

stay tuned…

This dumbing down is an example of the politizitation of intelligence, in general, that includes main street and the highest levels of the intelligence community.

That the slack is being taken up by an AI simulation, should not surprise anyone, the basic distrust with which have not yet been satisfactorily ironed out.

Namely, what is involved in this conspiratorial effect, is the actual movement toward world government, and here the edges blur. Russia has as much right to interfere as China , where the US’s interference of overt control over economic tensors, has no need for such subliminal control.

The tit for tat could, conceivably be hidden by Silicon Valley’s far more advanced state of covert espionage.

This whole issue is becoming mute by the second. Only remotely passed up outmoded deified political processes have interests that they may presume to result in significant difference, on the long run.

The rest of it is simply theater for it’s own sake.

From a Nick Anderson political cartoon:

[b]Reporter: Mr. President, why is the postal service driving out good people, failing to deliver on promised benchmarks, offering poor service, chaotically managed and virtually bankrupt?

Trump: Well, I promised to run government like I run one of my businesses.[/b]

Could that be the actual explanation?

Then this part…

washingtonpost.com/politics … Fstory-ans

[b]'More than 30 years ago, a Republican Party program that dispatched off-duty police officers to patrol polling places in heavily Black and Latino neighborhoods in New Jersey triggered accusations of voter intimidation, resulting in a federal agreement that restricted for decades how the national GOP could observe voting.

'Now, two years after those limits were lifted, President Trump has revived the idea of using law enforcement officers to patrol polling places, invoking tactics historically used to scare voters of color.

'In an interview Thursday with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump described law enforcement officers as part of a phalanx of authorities he hopes will monitor voting in November.

‘“We’re going to have everything,” the president said. “We’re going to have sheriffs, and we’re going to have law enforcement, and we’re going to hopefully have U.S. attorneys and we’re going to have everybody, and attorney generals. But it’s very hard.”’[/b]

And if “law enforcement officers” aren’t enough?

Maybe the National Guard? The Army?

Still, it’s less what he says he might do and more the actual behaviors of those he orders to do it.

'Trump’s remarks are part of a pattern of comments in which he has suggested he is willing to take actions to impede how people cast their ballots this fall. He has repeatedly sought to undermine confidence in the November vote, making false claims about the integrity of mail-in balloting and raising the specter of widespread electoral fraud. Earlier this month, he floated the idea of withholding election money from states and refusing funding for the U.S. Postal Service so as to curtail the use of voting by mail. ’

How far will he go here? And how will those he “commands” do his bidding?

[b]'The president has limited authority to order law enforcement to patrol polling places. Sheriff’s deputies and police officers are commanded at the local level, and a federal law bars U.S. government officials from sending “armed men” to the vicinity of polling places.

‘But civil rights advocates said they feared Trump’s words could inspire local officials to act on his behalf. And they said even the threat of encountering police officers at the polls could be frightening to some voters, particularly in communities of color where residents are distrustful of the police.’[/b]

Stay tuned…

Yawn?

washingtonpost.com/politics … Fstory-ans

[b]'The New York attorney general is investigating President Trump’s private business for allegedly misleading lenders by inflating the value of its assets, the attorney general’s office said Monday in a legal filing.

'In the filing, signed by a deputy to Attorney General Letitia James, the attorney general’s office said it is investigating Trump’s use of “Statements of Financial Condition” — documents Trump sent to lenders, summarizing his assets and debts.

'The filing asks a New York state judge to compel the Trump Organization to provide information it has been withholding from investigators — including a subpoena seeking an interview with the president’s son Eric.

‘The attorney general’s office said it began investigating after Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer,” Michael Cohen, told Congress in February 2019 that Trump had used these statements to inflate his net worth to lenders.’[/b]

Who really knows where the hell “this one” will all end up. But it’s just one more Trump episode that, once he leaves office, may or may not lead to legal consequences that may or may find send the crooked bastard to jail.

Try to even imagine the reality of a U.S. president being sentenced to prison!

But with each new scandal comes an increasing need on Trump’s part stay in office. More and more less and less options are not going to be considered.

So, how ominous might it all become?

You know, if your not Wendy Darling?

Here we go: slate.com/news-and-politics/202 … urder.html

Don’t forget to choose side.

K: it is interesting that the right wing has already chosen dictatorship
and totalitarianism…that is their preferred method of government…
see Nazi Germany for further evidence…

the question arises, why does the right prefer to have dictators
and totalitarianism? what drives the right to make this choice?

being on the left, I don’t see the reason for this choice… dictatorships
don’t favor anyone outside of the ones who benefit from the dictatorships…

perhaps the right believes that they will somehow benefit from this state
of affairs?

in reading history, no, no dictatorship has ever lasted that long…
it winds up destroying itself fairly quickly…

the Soviet Union was a dictatorship, nothing more and it lasted
a long time for a dictatorship, it lasted 73 years… whereas Nazi Germany
lasted only 12 years… and other dictatorships lasted slightly more or slightly
less…but no dictatorship has ever gone very long… which suggests to me that
dictatorship are inherently unstable and going to, to collapse quickly…

so why choose a failed political philosophy that will only last a few years…
short term gains that have no lasting influence …that is a dictatorship
very definition…a short term gain with no lasting influence…

at least monarchies, which I don’t like, at least they last far longer
then any dictatorship ever has…

so, ask yourself, why a dictatorship which has no lasting value over
a democracy which our current method is, which has lasted 230 years,
far longer then any dictatorship ever has… why must we go to something
inherently unstable when we already have something far more stable,
in a democracy?

Kropotkin

Fascism’s minister of propaganda perhaps: nytimes.com/2020/08/28/opin … e=Homepage

“It’s race, stupid!”

[b]'Mr. Trump is leaning on Mr. Miller’s dystopian vision to stoke white fear the way Mr. Miller did in 2016, when he helped his boss depict Democrats as elites seeking to “decimate” America through immigration. This time around the targets have expanded beyond Mexicans and Muslims to include Black Lives Matter protesters and their allies. The Trump campaign’s strategy is to cast the president’s opponents as an existential threat to the nation.

'The term “cancel culture,” used throughout the Republican convention, lumps together and demonizes critics of white male supremacy, in an attempt to silence them. The use of the term in this context allows the far right to dictate the terms of the conversation, as does the news media’s reluctance to call Mr. Trump and his chief adviser what they are: traffickers in hate, pushing a white nationalist agenda through narratives about national identity, prosperity and security.

‘Mr. Miller seeks to re-engineer immigration into this country to keep brown and Black people out, because he sees them as threat to America’s prosperity and national security. It explains why his policies disproportionately affect migrant families from Latin America and Africa, and why the federal government is using force against anti-racist protesters in cities run by Democrats.’[/b]

But this can only work because large swaths of the white working class are still the embodiment of “pawns in their game”:

Or, as Dylan imagined it:

A bullet from the back of a bush
Took Medgar Evers’ blood
A finger fired the trigger to his name
A handle hid out in the dark
A hand set the spark
Two eyes took the aim
Behind a man’s brain
But he can’t be blamed
He’s only a pawn in their game

A South politician preaches to the poor white man
"You got more than the blacks, don’t complain
You’re better than them, you been born with white skin, " they explain
And the Negro’s name
Is used, it is plain
For the politician’s gain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
On the caboose of the train
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game

The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid
And the marshals and cops get the same
But the poor white man’s used in the hands of them all like a tool
He’s taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
'Bout the shape that he’s in
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game

From the poverty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracks
And the hoofbeats pound in his brain
And he’s taught how to walk in a pack
Shoot in the back
With his fist in a clinch
To hang and to lynch
To hide 'neath the hood
To kill with no pain
Like a dog on a chain
He ain’t got no name
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game

Today, Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caught
They lowered him down as a king
But when the shadowy sun sets on the one
That fired the gun
He’ll see by his grave
On the stone that remains
Carved next to his name
His epitaph plain
Only a pawn in their game

Here we go…

From the NYT:

[b]'The new C.D.C. guidance is the latest sign of an accelerating race for a vaccine to greatly ease a pandemic that has killed more than 184,000 Americans. The documents were sent out last week, the same day that President Trump told the nation in his speech to the Republican convention that a vaccine might arrive before the end of the year.

'Over the past week, both Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, and Dr. Stephen Hahn, who heads the Food and Drug Administration, have said in interviews with news organizations that a vaccine could be available for certain groups before clinical trials have been completed, if the data were overwhelmingly positive.

'Public health experts agree that agencies at all levels of government should urgently prepare for what will eventually be a vast, complex effort to vaccinate hundreds of millions of Americans. But the possibility of a rollout in late October or early November has also heightened concerns that the Trump administration is seeking to rush the distribution of a vaccine — or simply to suggest that one is possible — before Election Day on Nov. 3.

“This timeline of the initial deployment at the end of October is deeply worrisome for the politicization of public health and the potential safety ramifications,” said Saskia Popescu, an infection prevention epidemiologist based in Arizona. “It’s hard not to see this as a push for a pre-election vaccine.”'[/b]

Yes, the politicization of the Covid 19 vaccine as a way to “rig” the election.

So how far will Trump go here? And how will Biden react to it?

Also, what might the reactions be from those here who are fierce Trump supporters, but are also fierce anti-vaxxers?

“Well, maybe this time it’s okay.”

The worst case scenario:

nytimes.com/2020/09/03/opin … cracy.html

Or, for some, like Joker…the best case scenario?

[b]'Armed political skirmishes are erupting on the streets, and scholars are tracking a rise in violence and instability as the election draws near. Gun sales keep shattering records. Mercifully, I suppose, there’s a nationwide shortage of ammo. Then there is the pandemic, mass unemployment, natural disasters on every coast, intense racial and partisan polarization, and not a little bit of lockdown-induced collective stir craziness.

‘There’s also this: [My wife] skipped the Republican convention. I watched it wall-to-wall, and it drove me to despair. In that four-night celebration of Trumpism, I caught a frightening glimpse of the ugly end of America, an authoritarian cult in full flower, and I am not keen to stick around much longer to see if my terrifying premonition pans out.’[/b]

Rigged or not this election sits astride events that more and more people are beginning to think about in “apocalyptic” terms.

Or, sure, perhaps, apoplectic terms.

‘But the Republican convention also quickened my worries about American democracy even in the event that he loses. If Trumpism has charmed a sizable minority of Americans, and if the Trump dynasty retains its mass appeal, will America ever move on? Even if the country can get as far as a peaceful transition of power, can we expect anything like a functioning federal government beyond the inauguration?’

Think Ivanka and Don Jr.

Eric?

An “establishment conservative” on “playing out the nightmare scenario”.

nytimes.com/2020/09/03/opin … e=Homepage

[b]'On the evening of Nov. 3, Americans settle nervously in front of their screens to await elections results. In the early hours Donald Trump seems to be having an excellent night. Counting the votes cast at polling places, Trump is winning Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

'Those states don’t even begin processing mail-in ballots until Election Day, yet Trump quickly declares victory. So do many other Republican candidates. The media complains that it’s premature, but Trumpworld is ecstatic.

'Democrats know that as many as 40 percent of the ballots are mail-in and still being counted, and those votes are likely to be overwhelmingly for Joe Biden, but they can’t control the emotions of that night. It’s a gut punch.

'As the mail-in ballots are tallied, the Trump leads erode. But the situation is genuinely unclear. Trump is on the warpath, raging about fraud.

'Within weeks there are lawsuits and challenges everywhere. It’s like Florida in 2000, but the chaos is happening in many states at once. Ballots are getting tossed because of problems with signatures, or not getting tossed, amid national frenzy.

‘Trump says he won’t let Democrats steal the election and declares himself re-elected. It’s an outrage, but as when he used the White House for a campaign prop during his convention, who’s going to stop him?’[/b]

Exactly. it’s not what he does but who is ready, willing and able to stop him from doing whatever he damn well pleases?

Some are optimistic that “the system” – what others call the “deep state” – will kick in and, if he loses, out he goes.

But when does he lose given the scenarios above?

Possible reactions:

Right wing/left wing.

[b]'A certain kind of Republican takes to the streets to enforce Trump’s version of events. According to research done by Larry Bartels of Vanderbilt, 50 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents believe “the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it.” Nearly as many believe, “A time will come when patriotic Americans have to take the law into their own hands.”

‘The left is in the streets, too. On the fringe of the left there are those who want to overthrow the racist, cisgendered, patriarchal neoliberal oligarchy. This is their chance at mayhem, too, and they seize it with sometimes violent passion.’[/b]

Pandemic and economic crisis aside, is it really all about this:

[b]'It turns out, amid the existential crisis, there really is a group of sober people who are militant about America, who can see reality unblinkered by the lens of partisanship, and who are finally compelled to organize.

'They understand that, like so many American tragedies, this is largely about race. It’s about the transition from a certain kind of white-dominated America to a diverse America — and the people who will do anything to stop it./[/b]

Ironically, I just finished watching a five part documentary on Charles Manson. Though some suspect it to be bogus, others argue that Manson really was intent on starting a race war in America. To bring about his own rendition of a brave new world.

Might Trump and his ilk actually bring it about? Fascism for real.

Read all about it: politico.com/news/2020/09/0 … per-408945

From wiki:

‘Stars and Stripes is an American military newspaper that focuses and reports on matters concerning the members of the United States Armed Forces. It operates from inside the Department of Defense, but is editorially separate from it, and its First Amendment protection is safeguarded by the United States Congress,[citation needed] to whom an independent ombudsman, who serves the readers’ interests, regularly reports.

I read my own fair share of issues way back then. Of course back then I was on my way to becoming a full fledged Marxist.

For me though, here’s the murky part: Did Trump himself order this? Did the Pentagon act on his orders?

If so, suppose Trump loses the election this November, claims Biden’s victory was rigged by the Democrats and orders the Pentagon to keep him from office.

It’s always the guys with the guns owned and operated by the state that get the last word. In Third World countries time and again. But what about here?

Below is a column from a WP liberal offering up a “realist’s case against despair” pertaining to the election in November.

washingtonpost.com/opinions … Fstory-ans

But some of us are more inclined to suspect that this is more likely to unfold:

[b]'From the first day of his campaign to this moment, he has made the same case: We can view four years of Trump as an aberration that we can put behind us. But eight years would set us on a course from which there would be no return.

'What’s striking is that many who are Biden’s strongest supporters and Trump’s most fervent foes are deeply skeptical of the old warhorse’s optimism.

'There is, first, the fear that even if Biden wins the popular vote — this now seems nearly inevitable — he might lose the electoral college. And if Biden prevails there, too, it is easy to imagine Trump trying to cling to power by discrediting the result with a pack of lies about the voting process.

‘This, in turn, means that Trump’s most fervent loyalists will never accept a Biden victory. The new president will thus take over a nation torn asunder, and the most somber pessimists predict that armed militias could threaten public order.’[/b]

Why this more dire scenario?

Two words:

1] Donald
2] Trump

Isn’t it reasonable to suspect, given what we have seen from him of late, that the worst of all possible worlds is more likely?

Donald Trump 2024? 2028?

slate.com/news-and-politics/202 … ction.html

‘Speaking to a packed, largely maskless crowd in Nevada on Saturday night, President Donald Trump once again said he wanted to serve three terms in office. Trump said he is “probably entitled” to an additional four years in the White House. “Fifty-two days from now, we’re going to win Nevada, and we’re going to win four more years in the White House,” Trump told a crowd of at least 5,000 people in Minden, Nevada, that was standing shoulder to shoulder. “And then after that, we’ll negotiate, right? Because we’re probably—based on the way we were treated—we are probably entitled to another four after that.”’

Over and again, being a blustering narcissist, Trump will say things like this. And it can be about practically anything.

What counts though is what he is actually setting into motion behind the curtains. And, if it does involve, as with Putin, being president for life, how far is willing to go to bring it about.

And, then, most important of all, are those with actual power – political, economic, police, military, paramilitary – willing to back him up on it.

What is extraordinary here is that more and more people seem to be genuinely concerned about how this might all play out.

And many argue that the thousands upon thousands of white working class “no-nothings” that back him really would stand behind him if he shot and killed someone walking down the street. There’s almost nothing that he can’t do as far as they are concerned.

He can spout things like this…

‘During the rally, Trump once again raised doubts about the reliability of mail-in voting, and without citing any evidence said that Democrats will use it to cheat. “The Democrats are trying to rig this election because that’s the only way they’re going to win,” he said. Trump characterized mail-in voting as “the greatest scam in the history of presidential politics” and said Democrats are sending ballots “to dogs” as part of his effort to raise questions about the integrity of the vote. “Everybody is getting ballots,” he said. “Probably everybody but Republicans.”’

…and Trumpworld’s equivalent of “the masses” would simply fall for it hook, line and sinker.

Wasn’t it H. L. Mencken who once suggested that, “no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of American people”.

Liberals have one rendition of this, conservatives another.

The part about power:

nytimes.com/2020/09/14/nyre … e=Homepage

[b]'New York City’s largest police union had not endorsed a candidate for president in decades when its leader, Patrick J. Lynch, stepped to the lectern last month at President Trump’s golf club in New Jersey.

“Mr. President, we are fighting for our lives out there,” Mr. Lynch said, in the all-caps cadence familiar to any casual viewer of the New York nightly news. “We don’t want this to spread to the rest of the country. We need your strong voice across the country.”

Mr. Lynch said his union, the Police Benevolent Association, was endorsing Mr. Trump because city and state leaders had been relentlessly scapegoating hard-working police officers and allowing chaos to reign on the streets.'[/b]

And what of those in the military and paramilitary forces?

How “pro Trump” might they be if Trump refuses to step down?

Look at Vladimir Putin in Russia or Xi Jinping in China. Does anyone here believe that they don’t have the backing of the guys with the guns and the tanks and the nuclear warheads?

I think that the ever changing consensus is that
IQ45 will declare martial law, either right before the election
or right after…the question becomes, does the military
actually follow through on their prior statement that
the military will in no way, shape or form, interfere
with the upcoming election…implying that the military,
at least the joint chief of staff, will not participate in
any pre or post election actions…involving the elections…
even though it is their sworn duty to protect the constitution
which should mean they are suppose to interfere with IQ45
declaring martial law… which is in violation of his sworn duty
to… “will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend
the constitution of the United State”

There is no way that one can defend declaring martial law and still
be able to say “preserve, protect and defend the constitution…”

so the head of the Joint chief of staff has already declared that
any declaration of martial law to be a political problem, not
a military problem…which I believe to be a violation of his
sworn oath to “preserve, protect and defend the constitution
of the United States”

in other words, if IQ45 does declare martial law, that is a gross
violation of the constitution and the military, must in defense of
their oath to the constitution, must engaged with IQ45 to return the
nation to its democratic constitution… in which the military must
use all force necessary to overturn any presidential declaration of
martial law…failure to do so, means they violate their oath to the
constitution…to “preserve, protect, defend the constitution of the
United States”

so if the president violates his oath, the military must act to
obey their sworn duty to defend the constitution…

it is not a political question that the joint chief of staff believes
it to be… it is a question of the military obeying their sworn
duty as military officers to “preserve, protect and defend
the constitution of the United States”…

to those who hold that martial law is the only answer,
are violating in a very direct way, the constitution and its
mandate…to approve any type of martial law is to announce
that you approve of and agree to the end of the constitution
of United States and what it stands for…

that you have not only in theory, but in practice believe
in dictatorships such as the ones by Stalin and Hitler…

for any violation of the constitution is a call for and acting
for a dictatorship by IQ45…

You have called for the end of democracy and what it stands for…

you have, in every sense of the word, committed TREASON against
the United States… you are no different then Hitler or his followers
in attempting to overthrow the American system of government…

I think each and every one of you must think about what side
of this issue you intend to act upon… silence is complicity
to this act of TREASON… to say, a pox on both houses, is to
be complicit in this TREASON against America…
if you are not marching in the streets against Martial law
and it outright meaning of an dictatorship in America,
you are complicit in the dictatorship…

no action against martial law, for any reason, is to say, I am
ok with a dictatorship in America… and you have, denounced
and violated the very constitution of the United States…
which is nothing short of TREASON…

this is no longer a theoretical question… it is less then
three months away… how will you respond to martial
law and dictatorship?

think about it because whither you believe it or not,
you will be called to action, by one side or the other…
and which side will you engage with?

think long and hard… because becoming a dictatorship is a
very real possibility right now and what is your answer to
the question of martial law and dictatorship…

for America and its democracy or for martial law/dictatorship
and against the constitution and democracy?

decide…

Kropotkin