Just when we thought things couldn't get any more insane and when it couldn't become any more obvious that Trump is engaging in a coup attempt--this happens.
In a news recap post from a few weeks ago, I covered a story about how retired General Flynn, Trump's former National Security Advisor who was convicted for lying to the FBI about his collusion with Russia, advocated for imposing martial law to carry out a 'new' election. Flynn advocated for this about a week after Trump pardoned him for his crimes!
If you aren't seeing the gravity of this, let me make it more clear. Wikipedia defines martial law as "the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government." Flynn is a retired Army General and previously worked at the highest levels of the Trump administration. This isn't a whacko blogger casually advocating for martial law. Flynn understands the gravity and meaning of his words.
Now, Trump himself is reported to have considered the possibility of enacting martial law, according to a story published in the New York Times on December 19th. This story is buried within an article whose headline is about deranged lawyer Sidney Powell (more on this in a moment).
Here's the relevant section of the New York Times article:
"In a meeting at the White House on Friday...
[...]Ms. Powell’s client, retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser whom the president recently pardoned, was also there, two of the people briefed on the meeting said. Some senior administration officials drifted in and out of the meeting.
During an appearance on the conservative Newsmax channel this week, Mr. Flynn pushed for Mr. Trump to impose martial law and deploy the military to “rerun” the election. At one point in the meeting on Friday, Mr. Trump asked about that idea."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/us/politics/trump-sidney-powell-voter-fraud.html
Other media outlets are wondering why the headline isn't about Trump's consideration of martial law.
"Here is the front page of the New York Times at the moment:
Down below the fold, just barely beating out “Biden Introduces His Climate Team,” is a story headlined “Trump Weighed Naming Election Conspiracy Theorist as Special Counsel.” The conspiracy theorist in question is Sidney Powell, who is indeed a complete loon. However, if you click the link and read down to the sixth paragraph, you learn this about Friday’s meeting at the White House:
Ms. Powell’s client, retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser whom the president recently pardoned, was also there….During an appearance on the conservative Newsmax channel this week, Mr. Flynn pushed for Mr. Trump to impose martial law and deploy the military to “rerun” the election. At one point in the meeting on Friday, Mr. Trump asked about that idea.
Now, I’m not a Times editor with decades of experience with this stuff, but doesn’t this seem a wee bit more important than whether a nutter is appointed special counsel for a few weeks? And also perhaps more important than “Britain Tightens Lockdown” at the top of the page?
It does to me! The president of the United States asked a bunch of his advisors about the feasibility of imposing martial law and having the Pentagon run a new election. In other words, staging a military coup."
December 19:
"Trump Reportedly Asked Advisors About Deploying Military To Overturn Election.
[...]President Donald Trump reportedly inquired about an idea raised by his former (and now pardoned) national security adviser, Michael Flynn, that the U.S. military be deployed to overturn the results of the presidential election—a claim shot down by his advisors at a meeting where the president appeared to embrace increasingly fringe notions about his election loss."
December 20, once again, non-American media are reporting on this. Every time US-based journalists try to deny a coup is happening, non-Americans must shake their heads with pity for the insanity sane Americans have to endure.
"Trump discussed ‘bringing military in to overturn election result’ and calls for ‘wild’ protest on 6 January.
[...]And there is another protest planned to take place on 6 January, the day Congress meets to officially recognise Joe Biden as president following the 14 December EC vote.
As the coronavirus continues to ravage vast swathes of the country, the outgoing president called on his legion of loyal fans to descend on the capital and join the demonstration.
"Big protest in D.C. on January 6th," he tweeted on Saturday. "Be there, will be wild!""
On December 18, before the New York Times story was published, a journalist received a response from military leaders regarding their thoughts on Flynn's advocacy for a military-backed coup:
Just in: @SecArmy Ryan McCarthy and @ArmyChiefStaff Gen. McConville respond to former Gen. Flynn's remarks urging Trump to declare martial law to overturn the election results: “There is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election.”
https://twitter.com/laraseligman/status/1339985580785086466
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/19/sidney-powell-trump-special-counsel-448694
December 21:
"Is It Time to Impeach Now That the President Is Reportedly Discussing Martial Law in the Oval Office?
Seems like we could have seen this coming based on every single thing Donald Trump has said and done in public life.
On November 19, we suggested the president may need to be impeached and removed from office in the lame-duck period on the basis he will never stop trying to steal the election and, even if he fails, that he will do untold damage to the country leading up to January 20. This kind of thing was considered alarmist by the Calm, Savvy Observer crowd, who seem to have been asleep for many years, or who at the very least refuse to see—perhaps as a sort of defense mechanism—what is right in front of them, and who certainly lack imagination with regard to what still may come screaming down the pike. It seems bad, for instance, that the Secretary of the Army just felt compelled to issue a statement declaring the U.S. military won't be doing Coup Things.
[...]Nobody ever went broke betting that Donald Trump will attempt the next most deranged and dangerous stunt on the sliding scale of depravity that forms the backbone of his earthly existence, all in ceaseless servitude to his own pathological self-interest.
[...]And so we arrived this weekend at the next mile-marker on the road to ruin. The president descended to the next level of right-wing loony-toon hell and summoned Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani to the Oval Office for a meeting of the minds, wherein this cavalcade of traitors to the American republic discussed instituting martial law and seizing voting machines by Executive Order for "investigation." (Let's pause here for the mandatory, if grating question: WHAT IF OBAMA DID ANY OF THIS SHIT? OK, let's move on.)
[...]But the real cream of the crop is retired Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn, a true American patriot who in 2016 served as senior adviser to an American presidential campaign and transition team while simultaneously on the payroll of the Turkish government. He also pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians, for which, along with "any and all possible offenses" related to the Mueller probe, the American president pardoned him. Now, Flynn is returning the favor by going on one of the TV channels for people who think Fox News is too squishy-liberal and calling for the president who pardoned him to institute martial law and do a mulligan election, this one run by the military."
The time to impeach him was on January 21, 2017. He's been violating the Constitution and breaking laws every day since then. Since he is never punished for any of his wrong-doings, he continues to push the envelope and do worse things each time. While Republicans are the ones who successfully carried out a self-coup in order to operate outside of the laws of our nation for the entire 4 years of the Trump presidency, almost as much blame deserves to be placed on the Democrat party, since, realistically, they are the only ones who had any hopes of holding Trump accountable. Instead, they let him and his lackeys get away with everything. Instead of playing hardball and jailing Trump cronies for contempt of Congress when they refused to comply, Democrats just gave up and didn't bother pursuing justice. They blew their chance to impeach after the release of the Mueller Report, and the best they could come up with to impeach Trump was his mafia boss "perfect" phone call to Ukraine.
Let that sink in. If Trump wasn't such an imbecile and decided to lay low after Attorney General Barr miraculously covered up the Mueller Report and Democrats somehow completely dropped the ball, there wouldn't even have been an impeachment.
Every president since Nixon got away with all their crimes. Every president since Nixon has been emboldened to commit even greater crimes than the previous president. This must end. We must have a Crimes Commission and punish every single person who aided and abetted the Trump administration's crimes, to the fullest extent of the law. If we don't, America may never recover.
"The Calm, Savvy types are by this point apoplectic. But none of this will work! The coup is stupid! Which brings us, again, to two points: even a Stupid Coup can work, and even if it doesn't, it will cause huge damage to the republic. It already has, even as the president's legal eagles have caught losses in 50-plus court cases. 126 House Republicans signed onto that ludicrous Texas suit seeking to simply throw out the election. This is now mainstream Republicanism—that elections which end in the other party winning power simply do not count. ... Absent massive, transformative change to law and political economy with the next administration, we are well down a path to tyranny. Trump has opened the door, and if nobody finds a way to close it, somebody else will walk through it."
If a majority of lawmakers vote to throw out the election, is that not just another aspect of democracy? All the loopholes of checks-and-balances can't save us when the majority of the populace is morally bankrupt. Trump's term in office has shown us that both Republican and Democrat politicians view the Constitution and laws as merely a "gentleman's agreement" that isn't worth the paper it's printed on when the majority of the populace and majority of politicians are dishonorable scumbags.
This dangerous instability and race-to-the-bottom, which the popularity contest of voting causes, is the reason some Founding Fathers like Alexander Hamilton believed the President and Senators should serve for life (although they would be removed if they failed to meet the standard of "good behavior"--meanwhile our democracy can't even manage to remove Trump and others for blatant Constitutional violations...)
"Under Hamilton's system, senators and a national "governor" would be chosen by special electors, and would serve for life. Members of an assembly would be elected directly by citizens; each member would serve a three-year term. State governors would be chosen by the national governor."
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/duel-hamilton-and-us-constitution/
As it stands, members of Congress basically serve for life already. Reelection rates have been over 80-90% for at least the past lifetime. (e.g. Biden was a Senator since 1973, stepping down only to become Vice President. McConnell has been a Senator since 1985. 87-year-old Dianne Feinstein just won another 6-year term to the Senate, despite going senile.)
The criteria for 'winning' office is not having a noble quality of character, good judgment, or wise policy planning. 'Winning' office is a popularity contest where they say literally anything they need to in order to appeal to the lowest common denominator to win votes, and prostitute themselves out to corporate interests in order to take in the campaign funds they need to run propaganda election campaigns.
Hamilton's plan would have at least selected Presidents and members of Congress based on the quality of their character and ability to wisely and selflessly enact policies which benefit Americans as a whole. This is much closer to an actual Republic. (Plato's Republic was certainly did not involve voting. In fact, Plato wisely viewed democracy as the most corrupt form of government besides outright tyranny).
Only when the criteria to hold office is quality-based rather than popularity-based will our government reach a tolerable standard of functionality. It is only then that we will be able to achieve lasting justice and fairness for all Americans.
Federal judges (not just on the Supreme Court) are appointed for life. As intended, this elevates them above the race-to-the-bottom of political election cycles. Even the far-right hyperpartisan judges Trump appointed to the courts have been throwing out his baseless lawsuits rather than help him carry out the coup. And for everyone who wants to abolish the Electoral College--electors were originally autonomous individuals who cast their votes based on their own reasoned judgment. They were supposed to be a "check and balance" against the low-information and reactionary mobs of popular voters. Had the Electoral College been functioning as intended, they would have rejected Trump by a far stronger margin than a 48% vs 46% popular vote margin.
***
Sidney Powell was on the Trump campaign's legal team, but they publicly distanced themselves from her once she started railing on about how dead Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and communists were somehow the ones "rigging" the US election. She was too crazy to be publicly associated with them, but it seems Trump still likes her. At the same time as Flynn, she advocated for setting up "military tribunals" in order to carry out a new election under martial law.
Ctrl+F for Powell in my previous blog post to read more about this.
She was kicked off the Trump campaign's legal team, but Trump wants to let her lead a witch hunt to overturn the election in his final month in office:
"Trump Weighed Naming Election Conspiracy Theorist as Special Counsel.
In a meeting at the White House on Friday, President Trump weighed appointing Sidney Powell, who promoted conspiracy theories about rigged voting machines, to investigate voter fraud.
[...]Most of his advisers opposed the idea, two of the people briefed on the discussion said, including Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer. In recent days Mr. Giuliani has sought to have the Department of Homeland Security join the campaign’s efforts to overturn Mr. Trump’s loss in the election.
[...]Mr. Trump tends to think of Justice Department appointees when he describes special counsels, but those briefed on the meeting said the idea was for Ms. Powell to serve as a special counsel within the White House, appointed by the president, according to those briefed on it.
Mr. Trump also asked about Ms. Powell being given security clearances to pursue her work, two of the people briefed on the meeting said.
Ms. Powell accused other Trump advisers of being quitters, according to the people briefed.
But the idea that Mr. Trump would try to install Ms. Powell in a position to investigate the outcome sent shock waves through the president’s circle. She has repeatedly claimed there was widespread fraud, but several lawsuits she filed related to election fraud have been tossed out of court.
[...]Mr. Giuliani has separately pressed the Department of Homeland Security to seize possession of voting machines as part of a push to overturn the results of the election, three people familiar with the discussion said. Mr. Giuliani was told the department does not have the authority to do such a thing."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/us/politics/trump-sidney-powell-voter-fraud.html
***
The following articles give a brief timeline of Trump's actions in the coup since the election ended.
December 21:
"Inside Trump’s pressure campaign to overturn the election.
No president has ever made such expansive and individualized pleas.In total, the president talked to at least 31 Republicans, encompassing mostly local and state officials from four critical battleground states he lost — Michigan, Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania. The contacts included at least 12 personal phone calls to 11 individuals, and at least four White House meetings with 20 Republican state lawmakers, party leaders and attorneys general, all people he hoped to win over to his side. Trump also spoke by phone about his efforts with numerous House Republicans and at least three current or incoming Senate Republicans.
And it all occurred in parallel to his campaign’s quixotic efforts to launch recounts and file lawsuits demanding ballots be tossed.
Trump’s efforts to cling to power are unprecedented in American history. While political parties have fought over the results of presidential elections before, no incumbent president has ever made such expansive and individualized pleas to the officials who oversee certification of the election results. Trump even used his presidential perch to compel officials to talk with him, summoning state officials to the White House on a few-hours notice and insisting that his outreach was simply part of his presidential duties."
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/21/trump-pressure-campaign-overturn-election-449486
December 21:
"Trump personally pressured more than 150 Republicans to overthrow election for him, report says
[...]Despite the electoral college announcement, Mr Trump continues to challenge the results. He is now backing a plan by Republican House members and potentially at least one senator – Tommy Tuberville – to object to the election results when Congress meets on 6 January to accept the election results."
***
Trump told his supporters to "stand back and stand by" until January 6th, but it looks like they're not going to wait.
December 21:
"Heavily Armed Far-Right Mob Floods Oregon Capitol.
The crowd was a loose collection of members of the Proud Boys, Patriot Prayer and others far-right groups, many of them are armed with pistols and rifles. It got ugly fast.
SALEM, Or.—A group of about 300 demonstrators attempted to force their way into two separate entrances of the Oregon State Capitol on Monday, outraged lawmakers were holding a special session closed to the public.
The crowd was a loose collection of members of the Proud Boys, Patriot Prayer and other far-right groups, many of them are armed with pistols and rifles. At one point during the demonstration, which began around 9 a.m., a woman tried to climb in a window on the west side of the government building. Oregon State Troopers, however, repelled her—before two more troopers showed up to insist that she get off the ledge.
Those troopers were quickly chased off by screaming protesters, many of them toting long black rifles.
Minutes later, the crowd moved to the building’s north entrance and attempted to push their way in. A dozen more troopers arrived at the door, declared it an unlawful assembly, and pushed the crowd back, using some kind of deterrent in a series of “pop” sounds, at which point the protesters swarmed back out again, their eyes watering and coughing.
[...]Protesters, however, quickly changed course. Three men with long guns moved to the west side of the building and encouraged everyone to open a door there. Once successfully opened, the protesters demanded to be let inside, but troopers forced everyone to remain outdoors.
[...]“We’re not gonna give up this easily, everybody come in!” said one protester with a knife on his belt and a bulletproof vest as he entered the lobby. “This is our state. This is our building.”
Tensions also ran high during the legislative session. According to OPB, Republican state Sen. Dallas Heard objected to a state-wide mask requirement—and accused his colleagues of being involved in a “campaign against the people and the children of God.” The stunning accusation came after Heard spoke to protesters outside the Capitol, where he also expressed his frustration with the mask mandate and insisted he is for the “people.” The lawmaker asked residents to vote out his Democratic colleagues."
https://www.thedailybeast.com/heavily-armed-far-right-mob-descends-on-oregon-capitol
"SALEM, Ore. – Oregon State Police declared a protest at the Capitol an unlawful assembly on Monday morning and arrested four people while lawmakers met for a special session.
The protest, billed as a "Reopen Oregon" rally, began Monday morning as lawmakers started a special session to offer Oregonians more relief amid the coronavirus pandemic."
katu.com/amp/news/local/protest-at-oregon-capitol-declared-unlawful-assembly
I will remind everyone that a few months ago far-right terrorists tried to incite a civil war by kidnapping and murdering the governor of Michigan. Their plot was foiled and the Michigan governor directly blamed Trump for inciting far-right terrorism. This will probably continue to get worse in the coming months.
***
More news articles related to the ongoing coup.
As expected, the Electoral College cast their votes on December 14th, confirming Biden's victory. But the coup is still not over. The next calendar milestone is on January 6th, when Congress meets to count the electoral votes. This is a mere formality and will change nothing, but Trump and his co-conspirators will continue to stoke the flames.
As covered above, on December 19th the New York Times published an article claiming Trump asked about the feasibility of using the military to back the coup. Stephen Miller said he is going to continue to pursue lawsuits to overturn the electoral vote. Trump told his followers to stage massive riots on January 6th to prevent the final certification of the electoral votes.
This isn't going to be over until January 20th when we get a new president. In fact, Trump supporters will likely continue to riot long after January 20th, and the Republicans in Congress will do all they can to sabotage the Biden administration to prevent it from carrying out a Crimes Commission to bring them to justice. The self-coup Republicans successfully carried out will remain in effect in the Senate and Supreme Court even after the Biden administration takes office. We have a long road ahead.
December 14:
"Electoral College Rejects Trump Coup and Confirms Biden as President.
[...]Given the claims of the Trump campaign and Trump supporters that the president actually won by a landslide in various states carried by Biden, there have been legitimate fears of angry protests against these pro forma Electoral College proceedings. Threats of violence were credible enough in Michigan that state legislative offices were closed in Lansing until the 2 p.m. vote there had taken place. And one Michigan Republican legislator was actually stripped of his committee assignments by the GOP leadership after he publicly refused to rule out violence in protests against the electoral college vote.
As the electoral college repudiations rolled in, Team Trump unveiled a new wrinkle in its strategy to overturn the election. Trump adviser Stephen Miller told Fox & Friends that “alternative electors” pledged to the president would “vote” today in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
And sure enough, as the hardline pro-Trump Epoch Times reported, Trump-selected would-be electors gathered in those three states and in Arizona to cast what one called “conditional” electoral college votes for the president. That sounds better than “imaginary.”
The idea here is that in theory Trump slates could be recognized either by some future action in the courts (though his campaign has pretty much exhausted its legal remedies after the abrupt dismissal of the Texas lawsuit by the U.S. Supreme Court late last week) or by Congress when it meets to formally count electoral votes on January 6.
[...]So we proceed with two parallel elections taking place: a fake election conducted by the Trump campaign without any legal authority, and the real election that is leading inexorably to Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021."
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/electors-are-meeting-today-to-ratify-bidens-win.html
December 14:
"Stephen Miller, an influential White House official, appeared on Fox News this morning and assured the hosts, "[W]e have more than enough time to right the wrong of this fraudulent election result and certify Donald Trump as the winner of the election."
I'll confess, seeing Miller say there's "more than enough time" immediately brought to mind Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and the scene in which the Black Knight keeps insisting he can prevail against King Arthur, even as he's slowly dismembered.
But that's not all Miller said.
"As we speak, today, an alternate slate of electors in the contested states is going to vote and we're going to send those results up to Congress," he continued. "This will ensure that all of our legal remedies remain open. That means that if we win these cases in the courts, that we can direct that the alternate state of electors be certified.""
"The fantasy narrative has spilled out of the internet and into the streets. In Georgia, pro-Trump Republicans claimed to cast the state’s Electoral College votes for Trump. (Biden won Georgia by 12,000 votes.) In Nevada, the chair of the state’s Republican Party held a press conference to “certify” Nevada’s six electoral votes for Trump. (Biden won Nevada by 34,000 votes.) In Michigan, a crowd of would-be electors demanded to enter the statehouse to cast their votes for Trump, but were refused because the actual Electoral College members were already inside."
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/paulmcleod/electoral-college-trump-supporters
December 14:
"On Monday, the state’s 11 electors met, as required by law, and cast their votes for Democrat Joe Biden, as required by law given the fact that he … you know … won the election.
Also on Monday, the state GOP’s 11 fake electors met, as required by no one, and cast their non-existent votes for Trump, as required by their desperate need to continue to live in fantasyland.
The party even sent out a press release – headlined Arizona Republican Presidential Electors Convene To Cast Votes For President Trump, Vice President Pence – along with an all-smiles picture of the 11 fake electors.
Then came the three-page "Joint Resolution of the 54th Legislature", asking Congress to accept the 11 "alternate" electoral votes for Trump or “to have all electoral votes nullified completely until a full forensic audit can be conducted.”"
Mitch McConnell has publicly accepted Biden's victory now that the electoral college has officially voted, but "libertarian" Rand Paul is helping to keep the coup going.
December 16:
"Sen. Rand Paul falsely claims presidential election was 'stolen', siding with Donald Trump."
Although people like Paul claim to hold principles advocating for liberty and rooting out corruption in the government, it has long been obvious Paul is just as crooked and devoid of principle as the rest. In March 2017, just months after the Trump administration began, John McCain said, referring to Paul, "The Senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin."
A year later, Paul was hand-delivering letters to Putin, taking great pride in this.
"“I was honored to deliver a letter from President Trump to President Vladimir Putin’s administration. The letter emphasized the importance of further engagement in various areas including countering terrorism, enhancing legislative dialogue and resuming cultural exchanges,” Paul wrote in a Twitter post.
The White House said the Republican president had provided Paul with a “letter of introduction” for his trip at the senator’s request.
“In the letter, the president mentioned topics of interest that Senator Paul wanted to discuss with President Putin,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement."
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-idUSKBN1KT1RV
"By now, practically everyone has seen that picture of the two guys at President Trump's weekend rally in Ohio wearing T-shirts that said: "I'd Rather be a Russian than a Democrat!"
Many have also seen the visuals of Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul hobnobbing in Moscow this week with members of the Russian Council, sometimes called his "counterparts.""
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/09/636982295/is-it-springtime-for-putin-and-republicans
This came a month after 8 Republicans went to Russia during the 4th of July:
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/395719-gop-senators-visited-moscow-on-july-4
I pointed out back in early 2019 how obvious it was that Republican love for Russia was a clear signal that our government had been compromised. Looking back, this is probably some of the earliest clear-cut evidence of the successful Republican self-coup, where the Republican administration operated with total disregard to both the letter and spirit of our Constitution and laws with impunity.
December 9: Russian state media has suggested Trump should go into exile in Russia once his term is over. Heading to a country which supported your regime in order to escape punishment is, you know, something leaders of failed coups often do.
December 16: Trump wants to fire FBI director for not helping him with the coup, but Trump's lawyers talked him out of it:
"The White House counsel's office has advised President Trump against firing FBI Director Christopher Wray, warning of potential legal consequences for the move, NBC News reported.
[...]Administration lawyers reportedly told the president the move would make explicit that he expected the personal loyalty of anyone appointed to the position, adding that it could create a ripple effect similar to the 2017 dismissal of former FBI Director James Comey, which led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller.
White House counsel Pat Cipollone and other White House attorneys have also told the president the firing would likely be viewed as retaliation for Wray's failure to announce investigations the president has called for into his political enemies, according to NBC News."
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