Monday, January 04, 2021

I think Trump will try to declare Martial Law

When Trump doesn't succeed on Wednesday to get Pence to "do something" about winning the election, I believe he is going to try to declare Martial Law, thinking that will stop Biden from being sworn in. 
It's going to be a nightmare
We're already seeing such bizarre stuff -- Senators and Congressmen maneuvering to get Pence to delay confirming Biden's victory, Trump trying to muscle the Georgia secretary of state to change the vote count; Dick Cheney (yes, Dick Cheney!) organizing a letter from every single former Secretary of Defense to tell Trump to back off; Lindsay Graham, Liz Cheney and Paul Ryan sounding alarms about what Trump is planning; even Tom Cotton backing slowly away from the debacle - and that was only Sunday. 
I can't imagine what Trump's Georgia rally on Monday will be like. 
And then the Georgia vote on Tuesday, the Electoral College confirmation or whatever it will be in the Senate Wednesday. 
Leaving Trump two more weeks to declare Martial Law before the Biden inauguration. 
Until I read this article tonight at Balloon Juice, I hadn't realized that  the people Trump now has in charge at the Pentagon are very frightening:
There is no way this letter is put together and then pushed for publication unless someone senior, most likely either senior uniformed personnel (general officers/flag officers) and/or senior executive service personnel at the Department of Defense or one of the Services unless someone got a message out to one or more of their former bosses. Someone is very worried that the Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, his Chief of Staff Kash Patel (who really works for Devin Nunes and was once thrown out of a Federal courtroom in Texas for being an ass and sanctioned by the judge in the case with an order of ineptitude), the Acting Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Acting as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations & Low Intensity Conflict Ezra Cohen-Watnick (who is the protege of LTG Flynn, Michael Ledeen, and Safra Catz and who has been completely unqualified for every position he’s been appointed to in the Trump administration), the Acting Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Anthony Tata (a noted racist, anti-Semite, Islamophone, homophobe, and all around bigot), and the Special Advisor to the Acting Secretary of Defense Douglas MacGregor (noted extremist kook) are up to something dangerous.
Not a reassuring bunch. The Constitution means nothing to these people, nor to Trump.

2 comments:

The Disaffected Lib said...

I found it particularly unsettling that former secretaries of defense from Leon Panetta to James Mattis, Chuck Hagel and Ash Carter thought it necessary to issue a joint statement warning the military to stay out of the election. I thought that issue was settled when general Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, released a statement that the US military has no role to play in American politics atop his earlier statement that the military serves the Constitution, not a president.

Today I read that the acting secretary of defense reversed his own order recalling the Nimitz from the Persian Gulf. Some think this suggests an air war on Iran is in the works.

What a mess. Nixon went into meltdown in his final days. Kissinger intervened with the Joint Chiefs, telling them their POTUS was unhinged and not to let him anywhere near the "nuclear football." Nixon had Kissinger. Trump is surrounded by ass-kissers.

Cathie from Canada said...

I agree this is a very dangerous month in the American democracy - I can't see how it is going to end peacefully, to be honest.
Its very sad to see this happening, but maybe it has been building up to this for the last 50 years, ever since Reagan.