Those Who Serve the United States With Honor

 Those Who Serve the United States With Honor

Honorable members of United States military and intelligence services face difficult times today. Current administration office holders, including but not limited to the President, well may call for unconstitutional actions. 

Any such unconstitutional orders from the legal Chain of Command must be resisted.

Mr. Schlesinger, in consultation with Gen. George S. Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, created a precedent for such resistance in 1974 under President Nixon.

'WASHINGTON, Aug. 24, 1974—Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger and the Joint Chiefs of Staff kept unusually close control over lines of command, in the last days of the Nixon Administration to insure that no unauthorized orders were given to military units by the White House.

A senior Pentagon official said today that the decision to monitor closely all orders from any source was taken by Mr. Schlesinger, in consultation with Gen. George S. Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to prevent any of a series of hypothetical situations from developing....'

[https://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/25/archives/pentagon-kept-tight-reinin-last-days-of-nixon-rule-no-event.html]

 

Lessons in the Decline of Democracy From the Ruined Roman Republic

Historian Edward Watts argues that violent rhetoric and disregard for political norms was the beginning of Rome’s end.

Smithsonian Magazine  Jason Daley

Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. Credit: Jean-Baptiste Claude Eugène Guillaume / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain.

The U.S. Constitution owes a huge debt to ancient Rome. The Founding Fathers were well-versed in Greek and Roman History. Leaders like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison read the historian Polybius, who laid out one of the clearest descriptions of the Roman Republic’s constitution, where representatives of various factions and social classes checked the power of the elites and the power of the mob. It’s not surprising that in the United States’ nascent years, comparisons to ancient Rome were common. And to this day, Rome, whose 482-year-long Republic, bookended by several hundred years of monarchy and 1,500 years of imperial rule, is still the longest the world has seen.

Aspects of our modern politics reminded University of California San Diego historian Edward Watts of the last century of the Roman Republic, roughly 130 B.C. to 27 B.C. That’s why he took a fresh look at the period in his 2018 book Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell Into Tyranny. Watts chronicles the ways the republic, with a population once devoted to national service and personal honor, was torn to shreds by growing wealth inequality, partisan gridlock, political violence and pandering politicians, and argues that the people of Rome chose to let their democracy die by not protecting their political institutions, eventually turning to the perceived stability of an emperor instead of facing the continued violence of an unstable and degraded republic. Political messaging during the 2018 midterm elections hinged on many of these exact topics.

Though he does not directly compare and contrast Rome with the United States, Watts says that what took place in Rome is a lesson for all modern republics. “Above all else, the Roman Republic teaches the citizens of its modern descendants the incredible dangers that come along with condoning political obstruction and courting political violence,” he writes. “Roman history could not more clearly show that, when citizens look away as their leaders engage in these corrosive behaviors, their republic is in mortal danger.”

Historians are cautious when trying to apply lessons from one unique culture to another, and the differences between the modern United States and Rome are immense. Rome was an Iron-Age city-state with a government-sponsored religion that at times made decisions by looking at the entrails of sheep. Romans had a rigid class system, relied on slave labor and had a tolerance for everyday violence that is genuinely horrifying. Then again, other aspects of the Roman Republic feel rather familiar.

The Roman people’s strong sense of patriotism was unique in the Mediterranean world. Like the United States after World War II, Rome, after winning the Second Punic War in 201 B.C. (the one with Hannibal and the elephants), became the world’s hegemon, which lead to a massive increase in their military spending, a baby boom, and gave rise to a class of super-wealthy elites that were able to use their money to influence politics and push their own agendas. Those similarities make comparisons worthwhile, even if the togas, gladiator battles and appetite for dormice seem completely foreign.

Cullen Murphy, whose 2005 book Are We Rome? makes a more head-on comparison between the fall of the Roman Empire and the U.S., argues that the changes in politics and society in Rome stemmed from one source: its growing complexity. Rome, during the Republic and Empire, had increasing and evolving responsibilities around the Mediterranean which its government constantly struggled to manage. Those challenges forced changes throughout the economy and society, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. In general terms, he sees many of the same struggles in recent U.S. history.

“I think the U.S. is experiencing this same situation—we’ve never quite recovered from our victory in World War II, which left us with the world on our shoulders; and the implications of that responsibility have skewed things in every part of our society and economy, and put our old political (and other) structures under enormous strain,” he says. “New sources of power and new forms of administration and management fill the gap—and create unease and sometimes also injustice, and at the same time create vast new sectors of wealth.”

Those types of social and economic changes also rattled the Roman Republic, leading to the moment in 130 B.C. when politics turned violent. The introduction of a secret ballot meant Roman politicians and political factions couldn’t keep tabs on (or bribe) individual voters. Instead, politicians had to build political brands that appealed to the masses, leading to something akin to modern American campaigning with big promises and populist language aimed at the poor and middle class.

Reforms to the military also meant that service was no longer reserved for the elite, who for centuries used their privilege to demonstrate their loyalty to Rome. For poorer soldiers, however, service became a path to riches. They began to count on the loot, bonuses and gifts of land they received from their often-wealthy commanders meaning that over time the loyalty of the Roman legions shifted from the empire to their generals. These changes set the stage for a new type of politics, one where whipping up the resentments of the lower classes and threatening political enemies with semi-private armies became the norm.

These trends first came to a head in 134 B.C. when Tiberius Gracchus, an elected tribune of the people, proposed a land reform bill that would benefit poorer and middle-class Romans. The way Gracchus went about his reform, however, was an affront to the norms and traditions of the Republic. He brought his law before the Plebeian Assembly without the thumbs-up of the Senate. When his fellow tribune Marcus Octavius threatened to veto the bill, which was his right, Gracchus manipulated the rules to have him stripped of his office. There were other incidents as well, but the most concerning aspect of Gracchus was his fiery, populist language, which whipped his supporters to the edge of political violence. As his power grew, Gracchus began moving through the streets surrounded by a mob of frenzied supporters, a kind of personal militia not seen in Rome before.

Rumors spread that Gracchus was angling to become a king or dictator, and some in the Senate felt they needed to act. When Gracchus stood for a second term as tribune, which was not illegal but broke another norm, a group of Senators and their supporters beat Gracchus and 300 of his followers to death.

It was just the beginning. Over the next century, Tiberius’s brother Gaius Gracchus would come into conflict with the Senate after a similar populist confrontation. The commander Sulla would march legions loyal to him on Rome itself and battle his political rival Marius, the first time Roman troops fought one another. He would then execute and punish his political enemies. In the following generation Pompey and Caesar would settle their political scores using Roman legions, Octavian and Marc Antony would field an army against the Senate before finally battling one another bringing almost 500 years of the Republic to a bloody (and confusing) conclusion.

Watts argues that while the Senate ordered his murder, it was Tiberius Gracchus who let the genie out of the bottle. “What he has to bear responsibility for is he starts using this really aggressive and threatening language and threatening postures. He never resorts to violence, but there’s always this implicit threat. ‘If not for me, things would get out of control.’ And that is different, that was never done before. What he introduces is this political tool of intimidation and threats of violence. Later thinkers say once it’s there, even if others choose not to use it, it’s there forever.”

While life in Rome, with gladiator battles, crucifixions and endless war was violent, for centuries Romans took pride in their republican system and political violence was taboo. “The Republic was free of political violence for the better part of 300 years. People who are politically engaged are not killing each other and they’re not threatening to kill each other. When they disagree with each other they use political means that were created by the republic for dealing with political conflict,” says Watts. “If you lose one of those conflicts, you don’t die and you don’t lose your property and you aren’t sent away. You just lose face and move on. In that sense, this is a remarkably successful system for encouraging compromise and encouraging consensus building and creating mechanisms whereby political conflicts will be decided peacefully.”

So what does the story of the Roman Republic mean for the United States? The comparison is not perfect. The U.S. has had its share of political violence over the centuries and has more or less recovered. Politicians used to regularly duel one another (See the Hamilton soundtrack, song 15), and in the run-up to the Civil War, the ultimate act of political violence, there was the raid on Harper’s Ferry, Bleeding Kansas, and the near murder of Charles Sumner in the Senate chamber. Joanne B. Freeman, author of Field of Blood, a history of violence in Congress before the Civil War, tells Anna Diamond at Smithsonian she found at least 70 incidents of fighting among legislators, including a mass brawl in the House, though they often tried to paper over the conflicts. “It’s all hidden between the lines in the Congressional record; it might say “the conversation became unpleasantly personal.” That meant duel challenges, shoving, pulling guns and knives.”

The better comparison, surprisingly, applies to post-WWII America. Despite periods where the U.S. political system and established political norms have been tested and stretched—the McCarthy hearings, Vietnam, Watergate, the Iraq War—partisan violence or attempts to subvert the system have been rare. But recent events, like changes to filibuster rules and other procedures in Congress as well as increasingly heated political rhetoric give Watts pause. “It is profoundly dangerous when a politician takes a step to undercut or ignore a political norm, it’s extremely dangerous whenever anyone introduces violent rhetoric or actual violence into a republican system that’s designed to promote compromise and consensus building.”

The solution to keeping a republic healthy, if Rome can truly be a guide, is for the citizens to reject any attempts to alter these norms he says. “I think the lesson I take away most profoundly from spending so much time with these materials is basically, yes, we do need to assign blame to politicians and individuals who take a shortsighted view of the health of a republic in order to try to pursue their own personal objectives or specific short-term political advantages.”

The example of the Roman Republic shows the result of not policing those norms and keeping violence in check is the potential loss of democracy. “No republic is eternal,” Watts writes. “It lives only as long as its citizens want it. And, in both the 21stcentury A.D. and the first century B.C., when a republic fails to work as intended, its citizens are capable of choosing the stability of autocratic rule over the chaos of a broken republic.”

Jason Daley is a Madison, Wisconsin-based writer specializing in natural history, science, travel, and the environment. His work has appeared in Discover, Popular Science, Outside, Men’s Journal, and other magazines.   

USA: Billionaires Choose

Today the United States of America faces two significant long-term threats – inequality and deteriorating systems of healthcare, transportation, social services, etc.

Our country will decline unless we address both. 

Here is a solution to both threats:

Create a comprehensive infrastructure plan to address existing issues; then, raise taxes on billionaires to repair or replace all those items. 

In addition, allow for wages and salaries of working people to rise to at least 1972 levels in real purchasing power. 

Most elected and appointed officials in national, state and local jurisdictions agree with both the threats and the solutions, but our billionaires have blocked meaningful actions since the 1970's.

The billionaire class determines our future; our future is bright if they choose to support meaningful change, but it is dark if they choose greed. 

What Really Saved the Republic From Trump?

It wasn’t our constitutional system of checks and balances.

Tim Wu, New York Times

Mr. Wu is a law professor at Columbia University.

 Dec. 10, 2020

Americans are taught that the main function of the U.S. Constitution is the control of executive power: curtailing presidents who might seek to become tyrants. Other republics have lapsed into dictatorships (the Roman Republic, the Weimar Republic, the Republic of China and so on), but our elaborate constitutional system of checks and balances, engineered largely by James Madison, protects us from despotism.

Or so we think. The presidency of Donald Trump, aggressive in its autocratic impulses but mostly thwarted from realizing them, should prompt a re-examination of that idea. For our system of checks and balances, in which the three branches of government are empowered to control or influence the actions of the others, played a disappointingly small role in stopping Mr. Trump from assuming the unlimited powers he seemed to want.

What really saved the Republic from Mr. Trump was a different set of limits on the executive: an informal and unofficial set of institutional norms upheld by federal prosecutors, military officers and state elections officials. You might call these values our “unwritten constitution.” Whatever you call them, they were the decisive factor.

It’s true that the courts at times provided a check on Mr. Trump’s tyrannical tendencies, as with their dismissal of his frivolous attacks on the election and their striking down of his effort to overturn the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program without appropriate process. But in other cases, such as his anti-Muslim travel ban, the courts have been too unwilling to look beyond form to ferret out unconstitutional motive. More generally, Mr. Trump has tended to move fast, while the courts are slow, and to operate by threat, which the courts cannot adjudicate.

The bigger and more important failure was Congress. Madison intended Congress to be the primary check on the president. Unfortunately, that design has a key flaw (as Madison himself realized). The flaw is vulnerability to party politics. It turns out that if a majority of members of at least one body of Congress exhibits a higher loyalty to its party than to Congress, Congress will not function as a reliable check on a president of that same party. This was what happened with Mr. Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate.

The problem is chronic, but over the last four years it became virulent. Confronted with a president who was heedless of rules, Senate Republicans, in ways large and small, let him do what he wanted. They allowed acting appointees to run the federal government. They allowed him to claim a right to attack Iran without congressional approval. The impeachment process was reduced to nothing but a party-line vote. The Senate became a rubber stamp for executive overreach.

Instead, the president’s worst impulses were neutralized by three pillars of the unwritten constitution. The first is the customary separation between the president and federal criminal prosecution (even though the Department of Justice is part of the executive branch). The second is the traditional political neutrality of the military (even though the president is the commander in chief of the armed forces). The third is the personal integrity of state elections officials.

If any of these informal “firewalls” had failed, President Trump might be on his way to a second and more autocratic term. But they held firm, for which the Republic should be grateful.

Consider the first firewall: prosecutorial independence. The prosecution function of the executive branch is not mentioned in the Constitution, and based on the text alone — “the executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States” — some might think (and some have even insisted) that the president has the power to order federal prosecutors to do his bidding. Mr. Trump claimed that power in 2017, saying “I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department.”

But an unwritten norm has long held that the president should not dictate law enforcement decisions in general, and criminal prosecutions in particular. That is why, throughout this fall, even as Mr. Trump urged his appointees in the Justice Department to openly announce a criminal investigation into the Biden family, they did not comply. None of Mr. Trump’s appointees was willing to openly investigate Joe Biden or his family members, let alone issue an indictment or civil complaint.

Imagine if the Justice Department had followed Mr. Trump’s lead. Imagine if in response to the provocations of Mr. Trump’s lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, a U.S. attorney had charged Mr. Biden with criminal fraud. Even if Mr. Biden ultimately prevailed in court, publicly fighting such charges during an election would be a political and logistical nightmare. The unwritten constitution blocked this line of attack on the electoral process.

Prosecutorial independence was not limited to refusing to indict Mr. Trump’s political adversaries; it also extended to indicting his allies. Over the past four years, seven of Mr. Trump’s close associates were indicted and six have been convicted, including his adviser Stephen Bannon, his campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his lawyer Michael Cohen. Such convictions would be unimaginable in a dictatorship.

None of this is to suggest that William Barr, Mr. Trump’s attorney general, has served as a model of nonpartisan behavior, or that the Justice Department has been scrupulously fair. What it does show is how powerful unwritten norms can be, even in a department run by a loyalist.

The second firewall of the unwritten constitution was the U.S. military’s longstanding custom against getting involved in domestic politics. It was invaluable in checking Mr. Trump’s militaristic instincts.

On June 1, as protests and counter-protests occasioned by the killing of George Floyd became violent and destructive of property, Mr. Trump appeared in the Rose Garden of the White House and denounced what he called “acts of domestic terror.” He said he would “deploy the United States military” if necessary to “defend the life and property” of U.S. citizens. In a subsequent photo op, he was flanked by Mr. Barr, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was clad in military fatigues. Soon, active duty forces from the 82nd Airborne Division were positioned outside of Washington.

Mr. Trump’s plan had the written law on its side. Neither the Constitution nor any congressional statute would have prevented the president from directly ordering active duty military to suppress the protests. The Constitution makes the president the commander in chief of the armed forces and the Insurrection Act of 1807 allows the president to use the military or National Guard to suppress civil disorder, providing a broad exception to the general rule barring domestic use of the military.

It was an extraordinarily dangerous moment for the country. As the history of lapsed republics suggests, when the military becomes involved in domestic politics, it tends to stay involved. But two days after Mr. Trump’s speech, Mr. Esper publicly broke with the president, stressing that active duty forces should be used domestically only “as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire of situations.” He concluded that “I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act.”

General Milley later issued a public apology for participating in Mr. Trump’s photo op. “My presence in that moment,” he said, “created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.” He added, “I should not have been there.”

Mr. Trump’s plans ran afoul not of the law, but of an unwritten rule. In a few days, the active duty troops gathered around Washington were sent home. Though briefly tested, the norm had held.

The final firewall of the unwritten constitution has been the integrity of state elections officials. Corruption of the people and institutions that set election rules and count votes is an obvious threat to the democratic process. In Russia, for example, the neutrality of its Central Election Commission during President Vladimir Putin’s rule has been repeatedly questioned, especially given the tendency of that body to disqualify leading opposition figures and parties.

The story of Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state in Georgia and its top elections official, testifies to the potential threats to an election’s integrity during a heated campaign. Mr. Raffensperger, a Republican, was loosely in charge of the vote in a state that went narrowly for Mr. Biden. In that capacity, Mr. Raffensperger was attacked and disparaged by higher-ranking members of his own party. This included such prominent political figures as Georgia’s two senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. Both demanded Mr. Raffensperger resign for no apparent reason other than his failure to prevent Mr. Biden from winning the state.

Despite the pressure, Mr. Raffensperger and the state’s governor, Brian Kemp, held steady, along with an overwhelming majority of state elections officials around the country. They have refused to “discover” voting fraud without good evidence of it. Party loyalty — at this point — seems not to have fatally corrupted the vote-counting process.

Might this welcome result be credited to constitutional design? Not really. The states are an important part of the Constitutional design, and the document does give them a central role to play in federal elections. But what seems to have mattered most, in terms of ensuring the integrity of the voting process, was less the constitutional structure and more the personal integrity of the state elections officials. Their professional commitment to a fair vote may have spared the Republic an existential crisis.

Madison famously wrote, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” Cynical minds have read this line to mean that we should never trust people and should rely only on structural controls on government power.

The last four years suggest something different: Structural checks can be overrated. The survival of our Republic depends as much, if not more, on the virtue of those in government, particularly the upholding of norms by civil servants, prosecutors and military officials. We have grown too jaded about things like professionalism and institutions, and the idea of men and women who take their duties seriously. But as every major moral tradition teaches, no external constraint can fully substitute for the personal compulsion to do what is right.

It may sound naïve in our untrusting age to hope that people will care about ethics and professional duties. But Madison, too, saw the need for this trust. “There is a degree of depravity in mankind,” he wrote, but also “qualities in human nature which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence.” A working republican government, he argued, “presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form.”

It is called civic virtue, and at the end of the day, there is no real alternative.

Tim Wu (@superwuster) is a law professor at Columbia, a contributing opinion writer and the author, most recently, of “The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age.”

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Patriot Candidates Warnock and Ossoff Oppose Crooked trump Supporters Perdue and Loeffler

The American ideal expects public servants to place the common good over their personal enrichment. Voters want that ideal in their candidates. 

Georgia Republican incumbent Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler demonstrate the opposite by committing crimes against the country for personal gain. 

See NYT on Perdue here: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/us/politics/david-perdue-stock-trades.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage&fbclid=IwAR3RM1czk73v1IqzGhpw5PQi3HLUbSlCbH-wThKZg8CGju1YfCuzLjAVvTE

Democrat candidates Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossof should make the differences clear to voters by: 

1. Describe a crime done by the incumbent;

2. Promise to represent all voters by doing the best for America's common good;

3. Release tax returns and financial statements; and,

4. Place personal assets in a blind trust.

I advise Warnock and Ossoff to make the statement above at each campaign rally; voters don't need a lengthy discussion - they get it. 

Voters want high quality candidates - they don't want crooks.

Can Donald J. Trump End the American Experiment??

The American experiment is a simple idea: When a group of citizens of good will gathers and agrees to place their personal interests second to the common good, they can create a Democracy where everyone has an equal voice. 

However, if a group among them does not agree that the common good comes ahead of their own personal good, the Democracy may be short lived. 

Donald J. Trump has attempted systematically to fire all the people in Government service who serve the country and dismantle all the United States Institutions created to support the elevation of country over self.

If he were to retain control over a national party, he could use his power and influence to stymy a candidate who opposed his personal corrupt aims.

The GOP has the responsibility of endorsing and supporting only the candidates for office who will place country over self-interest. 

At the least, that means to challenge every trump candidate at the primary level. 

That can and will happen, IF, and it is a BIG IF, the GOP removes the cancer that is trump and his cult from the GOP. Let them pursue their agenda without the support of a responsible, national party.

Will trump Play the Armed Insurrection Card??

Many trump supporters have guns and have indicated they will take their guns to the streets as soon as trump tells them so.

What are the odds he will make that call? 

It may be more and more likely as he perceives he is running out of options to retain power. 

The best response is to arrest and jail any person participating in or threatening any such insurrection.

That may require a declaration of a State of Emergency in open carry States. It's a good idea. 

And, police should respond with deadly force if they are fired upon. 

Whither GOP

The Republican Party in the United States faces a crossroads. One path leads to a stronger party and a stronger country while the other path leads to potential disaster for both country and party.

Some Republicans seek personal power and fortune at the expense of the country.  Some seem so needy that they will accept abhorrent behavior from trump in the hope of staying in office. 

This behavior may well lead to great weakening of the country. 

Since trump probably will not change his behavior, then perhaps it is time to separate the party from him. 

I hope for a group of Republican campaign financiers who can place our country above their personal fortunes. If we look we might find some office seekers who are willing to serve with honor instead of serving with greed. Those folks will need campaign financing in order to become elected. 

With such a group the United States may be able to correct our course and become stronger. And, trump will probably divorce himself from that party group once he finds he cannot control their behavior. 

Things I want to Know from Political Candidates

Here is a list of some questions I want to ask all candidates. It's a bit sad that we have to ask, but things are different now. It will be good if your candidate publishes his/her answers to these questions.

I do not mean to be encyclopedic and all readers can add questions at will.

ABORTION - Do you think a government has the right to decide whether a woman can have an abortion?

GUN LAWS - Shall citizens be allowed to possess assault rifles and other weapons designed for military purposes?

RULE OF LAW - Can a President circumvent the law if he decides it is necessary?

FOREIGN CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS - Have you ever taken anything of value from a foreign donor?

INEQUALITY - Do you think current inequalities of income and wealth are bad for the country?

RACISM - Can our country deny Muslims entry while immigrating to the USA solely on their religion?

FEAR - Are you afraid of black people? Or Muslims? Or Mexicans? Or anyone else?

EQUAL JUSTICE - Do you think that the justice system treats black people and other people of color differently than white people. 

POLICE - Should police officers treat all people identically based on the circumstances they see?

HEALTH CARE - Do you think that all citizens are entitled to health care?

SOCIAL SECURITY - Do you think Social Security should be privatized? In addition, do you think it will go bankrupt soon?

STIMULUS - Do you want the Federal government to provide financial assistance to workers, businesses and local governments to prevent a recession?

FACE MASKS - Do you support a national mandate to wear facemasks if scientists recommend it?

ELECTORAL COLLEGE - Do you support abolishing the Electoral College and accepting the ballot count only in Presidential elections?

INCOME TAX - Do you pay Federal income taxes?

FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE - Have you released your tax returns?

CHILD RAPE - Do you think it is OK for an adult to have sex with a minor child?

NATO - Do you support NATO as a deterrent to Russian expansion?

CLIMATE CHANGE - Do you think climate change is real or a hoax?

IMMIGRATION - Is it OK to take infants from their parents to deport them?

LABOR UNIONS - Do labor unions have too much power?

BLIND TRUST - Will place all your assets into a blind trust while in office?

VOTING FAVORS - Is it OK to place a vote because you think it will help a contributor?

INSIDE INFORMATION - Is it OK to make decisions to buy or sell assets based on information you receive while in office that is not publicly available?

WHITE COLLAR CRIME - Should we put white-collar criminals like convicted bankers in jail?

MONOPOLIES - Do you think that monopolies hurt the economy because they restrict competition?

Resignation Pressure Campaigns: Republican and/or Greedy Useful Idiots and Siloviki

A 'useful idiot' is a person in any country including the United States who willingly believes in ideas which can help Russia and/or hurt his/her own country. As used here, the term can include greedy persons who are bribed into specific actions and those who see a personal financial gain for themselves from an action. A 'Russian asset' is an employee of the Russian state residing in another country. 

A 'siloviki' is a private person or government employee who owns and/or controls companies or state organizations in any country for the benefit of Vladimir Putin and shares in the benefits at Putin's discretion; that control is usually obtained by criminal methods which can include murder. 

It is fair to say that some Republican and other United States Senators, Representatives and bureaucrats fit into one or more of these categories.

Since some of this cohort have real political power to affect or stall legislation, Biden's task is to find a way to enact legislation benefitting the National Interests of the United States with the cooperation of some of the Russian cohort; it is likely that they will impede actions which do not benefit Russia or their personal fortunes. They will probably not support actions which benefit the interests of only the United states. 

Unless, one or more such persons - if they are enough to tip the scales and pass a proposal - can be convinced to do the right thing, it is probable that the United States will be compromised. 

Perhaps some may be encouraged to support a proposal through a resignation campaign. Such a resignation campaign might consist of a dossier enumerating factual cases of illegal or morally repugnant actions.

When asked for their official support of a proposal or law that clearly benefits the United States, they can be presented with the dossier and asked to support the proposal in order to keep the dossier from the press. 

While some may argue that such actions are 'dirty' politics, perhaps they are justified in today's political climate where National Interests are sacrificed routinely for private gain. Who is there that can make those fine distinctions in a time of crisis? The only answer is President Joe Biden.

Of course it may be unethical and perhaps illegal to use public resources like the FBI or CIA to create such dossiers; however, private investigators do not have those restraints. 

And, many of the folks listed below are just personally political in their support and do not realize the effects of their actions, but some have considerable power and are worth pursuing. The underlying assumption is that support for trump and Russia will dissipate among some of these folks as Biden/Harris begin the change the political scene. 

Since the list is so extensive it may seem that it just a political issue; but, the more influential of these folks may act to damage the National Interests of the United States. 

Below is a list from wikipedia of some of the United States officials who MAY fit the categories above and thus be legitimate targets of such resignation campaigns:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Donald_Trump_2020_presidential_campaign_endorsements]

CURRENT UNITED STATES SENATORS

Lamar Alexander, U.S. Senator from Tennessee (2003–present) and 45th Governor of Tennessee (1979–1987

John Barrasso, U.S. Senator from Wyoming (2007–present)

Marsha Blackburn, U.S. Senator from Tennessee (2019–present)

Roy Blunt, U.S. Senator from Missouri (2011–present)

John Boozman, U.S. Senator from Arkansas (2011–present)

Richard Burr, U.S. Senator from North Carolina (2005–present)

Shelley Moore Capito, U.S. Senator from West Virginia (2015–present)

Bill Cassidy, U.S. Senator from Louisiana (2015–present)

John Cornyn, U.S. Senator from Texas (2002–present) and Chair of the Senate Narcotics Caucus (2019–present)

Tom Cotton, U.S. Senator from Arkansas (2015–present)

Ted Cruz, U.S. Senator from Texas (2013–present)

Steve Daines, U.S. Senator from Montana (2015–present) and U.S. Representative from MT-AL (2013–2015)

Mike Enzi, U.S. Senator from Wyoming (1997–present)

Joni Ernst, U.S. Senator from Iowa (2015–present)

Deb Fischer, U.S. Senator from Nebraska (2013–present)

Cory Gardner, U.S. Senator from Colorado (2015–present) and U.S Representative from CO-4 (2011–2015)

Lindsey Graham, U.S. Senator from South Carolina (2003–present, U.S. Representative from SC-3 (1995–2003) and candidate for president in 2016

Chuck Grassley, U.S. Senator from Iowa and President pro tempore of the United States Senate (1981–present)

Josh Hawley, U.S. Senator from Missouri (2019–present)

Cindy Hyde-Smith, U.S. Senator from Mississippi (2018–present)

Jim Inhofe, U.S. Senator from Oklahoma (1994–present)

Ron Johnson, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin (2011–present) and Chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (2015–present)

John Kennedy, U.S. Senator from Louisiana (2017–present)

James Lankford, U.S. Senator from Oklahoma (2015–present) and U.S. Representative from OK-5 (2011–2015)

Mike Lee, U.S. Senator from Utah (2011–present)

Kelly Loeffler, U.S. Senator from Georgia (2020–present)

Mitch McConnell, U.S. Senator from Kentucky (1985–present) and Senate Majority Leader (2015–present)[68]

Martha McSally, U.S. Senator from Arizona (2019–present) and U.S. Representative from AZ-02 (2015–2019)[69]

Rand Paul, U.S. Senator from Kentucky (2011–present)

David Perdue, U.S. Senator from Georgia (2015–present)

Rob Portman, U.S. Senator from Ohio (2011–present

Marco Rubio, U.S. Senator from Florida (2011–present)

Rick Scott, U.S. Senator from Florida (2019–present)

Tim Scott, U.S. Senator from South Carolina (2013–present)

Richard Shelby, U.S. Senator from Alabama (1987–present)

Dan Sullivan, U.S. Senator from Alaska (2015–present)

John Thune, Senate Majority Whip (2019–present) U.S. Senator from South Dakota (2005–present)

Thom Tillis, U.S. Senator from North Carolina (2015–present)

Pat Toomey, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (2011–present)

Roger Wicker, U.S. Senator from Mississippi (2007–present)

CURRENT FEDERAL OFFICIALS:

[Note - Footnotes can be found in the wikipedia line]

    Alex Azar, United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (2018–present) and United States Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services (2005–2007)[2] 

David Bernhardt, United States Secretary of the Interior (2019–present) and United States Deputy Secretary of the Interior (2017–2019)[2]

    Jovita Carranza, Administrator of the Small Business Administration (2020–present) and Treasurer of the United States (2017–2020)[2]

    Ben Carson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (2017–present)[3]

    Elaine Chao, United States Secretary of Transportation (2017–present) and United States Secretary of Labor (2001–2009)[4]

    Betsy DeVos, United States Secretary of Education (2017–present)[5]

    Richard Grenell, special envoy for the Serbia and Kosovo Peace Negotiations (2019–present)[6]

    Keith Kellogg, National Security Advisor to the Vice President of the United States (2018–present)[3]

    Larry Kudlow, Director of the National Economic Council (2018–present)[3]

    Jared Kushner, Senior Advisor to the President (2017–present), Director of the Office of American Innovation (2017–present) and son-in-law to Donald Trump[7]

    Kayleigh McEnany, White House Press Secretary (2020–present)[3]

    Mick Mulvaney, United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland (2020–present), White House Chief of Staff (2019–2020), director of the Office of Management and Budget (2017–2019)[8]

    Peter Navarro, Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy (2017–present) and Director of the National Trade Council (2017)[9]

    Robert C. O'Brien, National Security Advisor (2019–present) and Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs (2017–2018)[10]

    Sonny Perdue, United States Secretary of Agriculture (2017–present)[11]

    Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State (2018–present), Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (2017–2018)[3]

    Wilbur Ross, United States Secretary of Commerce (2017–present)[2]

    Dan Scavino, White House Deputy Chief of Staff (2020–present)[3]

    Ja'Ron Smith, Assistant to the President for domestic policy (2019–present)[3]

    Ivanka Trump, Advisor to the President for women's issues policy (2017–present) and daughter of Donald Trump[12]

    David Urban, Chair of the American Battle Monuments Commission (2018–present)[13]

    Seema Verma, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2017–present)[14]

    Robert Wilkie, United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs (2018–present) and Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (2017–2018)[2]

The wikipedai page includes several other categories as well. 

100 Days

 100 Days

Here is my take on Biden/Harris first 100 days.

Fire every single person hired by 45 or his minions.

Reverse every single executive order issued by 45 and his minions.

Offer jobs to all the Americans fired by 45 and his minions.

Make no effort to impede court actions directed to 45.

Rejoin the Paris Accord, the Iran treaty, the WHO and the other international organizations 45 withdrew. 

If McConnell remains as Senate Majority leader, find areas of legitimate national interest and encourage him to cooperate; if he fails, then target him with a resignation campaign. 

Diligently work to find Republican Senators who will support legislation on critical national interests; they can be encouraged to cooperate with resignation campaigns. 

Invite our allies' Heads of State to a formal White House reception. Make our positions clear to the Ambassadors of our rivals like Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Turkey and so forth.

Be prepared for a provocation requiring a violent response from one or more of our rivals - they want to see if Biden/Harris has the stomach for violence or not. 

Pass the Bills forwarded to the Senate by the House. 

Obey the law and treaties the US has signed about asylum seekers: build facilities to hold seekers while we adjudicate their cases; replace ICE with IRS agents so we can tax the corporations profiting from illegal immigrants. FIND THE CHILDREN'S PARENTS - this failure is simply shameful.

It will be a busy time.

May God bless the United States of America.

Two Negative Issues in the United States Today

 There are at least two negative issues in American politics.

GREED / INCOME INEQUALITY - The US has extreme inequalities of wealth and incomes; these inequalities harm the health and well being of much of the population today.

RACISM / FEAR / HATRED - People of color are treated more poorly than white people due to their skin color.

Both of these issues have found a home in the Republican Party.

Greed/inequality - Republicans have been at the forefront of weakening of worker's rights, health care, workplace protections and other issues. Republicans seem to take the position that anything which reduces business profits or increases costs should be eliminated. This trend became pronounced in the 1970's and has continued since then.

There appears to be an idea held by many if not most Republicans that greed and accumulation of riches is good for the security of the United States. The reverse is true - accumulations of material wealth actively harm the health and well being of the population. 

When legislators are encouraged to pass laws favoring wealth accumulations, that harms citizens by promoting monopolies, restricting essential services to those able to pay and etc., etc.

The inequalities today are not sustainable; they create conditions favoring revolution. However, there are minor policy changes which can ease the burden on citizens and, surprisingly, make the rich even richer. 

The United States had installed many of those polices until about 1975 approximately. Since then those policies have degraded.

Racism - It is my considered opinion that the white citizens who fear violence from people of color has led many Americans to hate all people of color. That hate has created policies that actively harm and/or murder people of color. 

This situation is both stupid and intolerable. It will create additional momentum toward revolution unless addressed. As before there are some policies which can reduce the effects of discrimination and thereby make the entire country more prosperous and secure. I believe that several of those policy changes are understood by most people but they are blocked due to fear.

Both of theses issues can be improved by encouraging some Republican Senators to resign. Several of them have taken material support from Putin and helped block policy initiatives passed by the House to benefit the citizenry. One way to encourage their resignation might be to find areas on national concern on which most voter agree and ask them to support legislation to solve those issues. They might face serious efforts to unseat them if they continue to block policies clearly in the national interest.  

Michael Moore, Absolutely, Positively MUST READ

 Michael Moore

 

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·

MY PLAN FOR HOW TO MAKE SURE WE HAVE AN ELECTION, TRUMP IS REMOVED, AND THE REPUBLICANS ARE GONE FOR GOOD

by Michael Moore

TRUMP HAS DECLARED WAR ON US AND OUR DEMOCRACY.

IT’S TIME FOR US TO PUT OUR LIVES ON THE LINE, IF NECESSARY, AND TO MAKE HIM THE LAST REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT OF OUR UNITED STATES.

Trump, right now, tonight, is up to some very nasty, scary stuff — stuff we can’t even imagine — and of course we can’t imagine it because we don’t think like Trump. Our brains are wired for love, empathy, solidarity, compassion, freedom, person, woman, man, camera, TV.

You know like I know that Trump has a devious, wicked plan to destroy this Election. We need to declare, immediately, that it is he and the Republican Party who have to go, for the sake of this country’s existence, they must be crushed and removed.

Trump actually has an arsenal of plans already in action to ensure he never leaves office. He has them all in high gear — some visible, some not. If you could see them all you’d be so stunned, you’d have to immediately convince yourself that there’s no way he can pull this off.

We are all caught in Trump’s Matrix, a mad web, the work of a psychopath-in-chief with tricks so devious that fascists of old, if alive today, would marvel at what Trump has accomplished.

For the next 11 weeks — and then for the 12 weeks between the Election and the Inauguration — Trump is planning nothing but anarchy, chaos, a call to arms of his angry white male followers and the complete destruction of our democracy. You think I’m kidding? You think I’m overstating the case? Do you want to take the risk that I might not be wrong? Most of you understandably chose not to listen to me four years ago when I warned you Trump was going to win the Presidency by taking Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. May I please ask that you now give me your serious attention for what I am about to say — because if I’m right again this time, there won’t be a next time. There will be nothing left for me to warn you about. There probably won’t be much left of me.

Here’s how Trump plans to end our right to choose the next President and Congress. It will happen fast. I am also laying out here a battle plan for us to defeat this takeover of our democracy. We must act now.

HERE ARE TRUMP’S 5 PLANS ALREADY IN MOTION:

PLAN #1: Create Chaos. Instill Fear. Fire Up the Base with Racist Vigor. Pandemonium Ensues.

CHECK. DONE.

PLAN #2: Suppress the Vote

•Dismantle the Post Office.

•Create 4-Hour-Long Lines by Drastically Reducing Number of Polling Locations.

•Throw Black and Brown Voters Off the Rolls.

•Stop Those Who’ve Served Time from Voting.

•Place 50,000 “Poll Watchers” at Voting Sites Around the Country to Intimidate Voters.

VOTER SUPPRESSION IN ACTION AS WE SPEAK.

PLAN #3: Postpone the Election. Place the blame on a “legitimate” national tragedy or emergency — massive deaths from the pandemic, a terrorist attack, an assassination, a deadly hurricane, a civil war in the streets, one or both Presidential candidates falling ill to Covid-19 — anything that reasonable people, even people who are opposed to Trump, will agree that “we just can’t hold an election right now! We just need to postpone it for a couple days, a couple weeks (a couple months... a couple years...)” Or perhaps he’ll just cancel the Election outright and see if he can get away with it.

TRUMP READY TO PULL THE TRIGGER.

PLAN #4: His September Surprise.

His October Surprise.

His November Surprise.

His January Surprise.

You think you can guess what it will be, but trust me, it’ll be far worse. We need to be ready. Stay on high alert, my friends. Millions of us will need to act on a moment’s notice. It’s the grim reaper of Democracy at our doorstep. We made the mistake of letting Trump get this far — why wouldn’t he now think he can get away with everything??

THE SURPRISE IS UNKNOWN. THAT’S WHY IT’S A SURPRISE.

PLAN #5: He Will Not Leave.

When Trump loses, he will declare the Election invalid, rigged, stolen — and he will refuse to step down.

So, what will we do then?

HERE IS OUR BATTLE PLAN TO REMOVE TRUMP AND THE REPUBLICANS:

1. Do Not Wait — Biden/Harris Should Start Running the Country Now.

We simply don’t have time to wait until January 20, 2021. Nearly 200,000 of us have already died from Trump’s reckless incompetence with the coronavirus. By Election Day it’s possible another 100,000 to 200,000 of us will have needlessly died. A total of 400,000 dead? That’s the equivalent of one hundred and thirty-three 9/11s! Or 532 planes being flown into 532 buildings. If something that horrific ever happened, and the President not only didn’t do anything about it, but tried to pretend it wasn’t all that bad - “it is what it is” - he would be run out of the White House by an angry mob of millions of Americans, lucky not to have his head put on a spike on the Key Bridge over the Potomac.

It doesn’t have to come to that. Biden and Harris should present to America a simple nationwide plan to end the pandemic — and then act on it immediately.

They should call a meeting of all the Governors and ask them what help do they need — and then find a way to get them that help, going around Trump and just making it happen. They should ask industry, in lieu of campaign contributions, to produce hundreds of millions of instant-result tests. They should call their Heads of State friends overseas and ask them to send all the PPE they can spare. They should get 250 million Americans to take the “Face Mask Pledge.” And they should promise the scientists in our top universities all the money and help they need once they’re in office. Ignore Trump. Treat him as if he’s irrelevant and get the job done.

2. The Republican Party Must Be Crushed and Destroyed. Trump Must Become the Last Republican President.

In the Michigan county where I live, the August primary this month set a record turnout for a presidential-year primary. In fact, more people this year voted by mail-in ballot than ALL those who voted in 2016 — by mail-in AND in-person combined. This is a highly encouraging sign for what we now need to do:

• We must create an historic massive turnout between now and November 3rd — a tsunami of voters the likes of which have never been seen, and may never be seen again. In 2016, 66 million Americans voted for Hillary Clinton. This time, though, we have to WALLOP Trump with an electoral concussion, a blow so profound he won’t know what hit him. This must be a defeat so crushing, so humiliating, a whooping of such epic proportions that he will be forced to leave 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with his tail between his legs on January 20th. This mammoth landslide must not only ensure that no president ever behaves this way again, we need to see to it that Trump is the last Republican president. The Election Day Uprising must put an end to this party of Trump enablers and traitors. They had a choice. They chose Trump over Democracy. They chose Putin and Netanyahu over fair elections and freedom for all. They chose the 1% over the 160 million working Americans. They chose the NRA over the massacred children of Sandy Hook. They chose to rig our elections, our textbooks, our economy. Democrats helped them along the way, and we’ll take the stick to them and fix that. The Republicans, though, chose to let hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens perish from Covid-19 because loyalty to Party and to Trump was greater than their duty to the American people. For that alone, the Republican Party must be put out of business for good. Vote out every last one of them. Conservatives will have to form a new party, much like when the Whigs were sent packing in the 1800s. The 

Republicans must pay for their crimes.

• We must flip the Senate —- and not just by the three seats we need for control. We should shock the pundit class and, as the Republican Party is reduced to ashes, grab a solid 55+ seat majority. Colorado, Arizona, Maine, North Carolina, Georgia, Iowa, Montana and even Kansas, South Carolina and, yes, Texas (a state that is now 57% non-white) — are all possible Democratic Senate wins. Think about spending a weekend or a week helping out in one of these states. The Republicans will wish they had managed this pandemic better and had everyone busy back at work by now. All this “free time” should make for their undoing.

• Finally, we have to vote the local Republicans out of office, too. State Houses and Senates will be drawing the electoral map for the next ten years. We can’t let the cheating Republicans do this again. Do what you can to elect Dems in your state and local elections. The punishment of the Republican Party — a certified terrorist organization for having helped kill at least 200,000 Americans — is an imperative.

3. Who Would Be Willing To, If Need Be, Put Their Life on the Line To Ensure This Election Is Held and EVERYONE Gets to Vote? I Would. Would You?

These steps must be taken immediately:

• The Secret Service, the FBI, the Capitol Police and the Joint Chiefs of Staff must be called before Congress and swear under oath that they will guarantee that the election will be held, they will enforce the Constitution they swore to uphold, and if he’s defeated but refuses to leave, they will escort the former President of the United States out of the White House.

• Biden and Harris must put Trump on notice that if he does one more thing to interfere with the Election or issues one more threat to suppress the vote, they will turn him and his crime family over to the new Justice Department for prosecution.

• Every single one of us must be strong in our publicly-stated resolve that there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON ON EARTH TO POSTPONE OR CANCEL THE ELECTION. That’s our unmovable and intractable position. No national tragedy, disease, threat or the melting of all of Greenland will cause us not to vote on or before November 3rd. Even if, God forbid, either candidate passes in their sleep between now and Election Day, the Election will continue — and the winner’s VP - or Nancy Pelosi - will become President on Inauguration Day.

• Let’s all pledge that, if Trump tries to cancel the election or if he refuses to accept its results, millions of us will go to DC and encircle the White House, a thousand deep, until he backs down, resigns or is removed.

• And, if you can, quietly make this commitment to yourself: “There are only a very few things I’d be willing to give my life for. This is one of them.” I know. That’s dark. And heavy. And awfully sad because it shouldn’t have come to this. But if we can’t even say that, then what good are we? If we aren’t willing to make that sacrifice, then America is already over and we might as well just fold our tent and see if Canada will take the non-racist, non-homophobic, non war-mongering ones of us who have manners and get satire.

4. Become an Election Defender.

Each of you should form an urgent action group - a rapid response team - in your neighborhood or town and do the following:

• Hold a daily protest at your local post office

• Picket the home of your local Postmaster (he/she may be on your side, so bring them some baked goods)

• Chain yourself to a local blue USPS dropbox if you can find one. Or chain it to something that won’t move.

• Sign up with the city clerk to be a poll worker on Election Day - especially if you’re young. Because of the pandemic, polls will be very short of poll workers. If you’re told they have enough help, then call the local Democratic Party and offer to be a “poll watcher”, the group of people from each party who get to oversee the voting to make sure there are no irregularities.

• Demand your city create more voting locations. Convince owners of arenas, theaters, ball parks, malls - places with large open spaces - to offer their facilities as polling places so that everyone gets a chance to vote.

• Canvas your neighborhoods over the next month to get people to fill out the form you’ll have them sign to get a mail-in ballot — and if they want to vote in person, let them know when the first day is so they can do that. Make a list of who needs a Covid-safe ride. The earlier the better!

5. The Uprising We’re In Is Only Getting Bigger. The People Will Now Call the Shots.

Why wait for the politicians to fix the mess of a country we’re in when they helped orchestrate the mess in the first place? Why don’t we just declare how we want to live — a new way to govern and function as a country — and we will finally fulfill the promise of the American Dream that has never been realized. Life, liberty, true equality, a sharing of the wealth, being good citizens of this world and kind stewards of a fragile Earth.

What have we learned from this pandemic? What we already knew: That employer-based health insurance can evaporate in an instant. Health care is a human right.

That being told “we can’t afford that!” (free college, free child care, free medical care - the things most advanced nations have) is total BS — the government CAN afford anything we decide we need!

We’ve learned that teachers, nurses, the mailwoman, farm workers, mass transit drivers and the minimum wage workers stocking the grocery shelves at 3 in the morning are our most important citizens and they need the respect and income they deserve immediately. 74% of the country now believes a guaranteed annual income is a great idea — fifty percentage points higher than when Andrew Yang proposed it 7 months ago!

We’ve learned to slow down, consume less — and that is what may be the path to saving the planet (when the 4% of its inhabitants [US] is no longer sucking up 25% of its resources and hoarding more than half its wealth).

We’re about to go elect more women than ever before — a time to turn the reins over to the gender that stands a better chance of getting us through the deadly viruses of Covid, Capitalism and Republicans(R.I.P.).

None of this will be launched by politicians. It will only come about through you and me taking action as part of the largest protest movement in our history — still growing, still going strong! — to end the racism, the abuse of the police state, the disgusting income inequality and the hateful misogyny that is going to come to an end in our lifetime.

America, post-pandemic, must become a very different place. Let’s make this happen. Doing the above will be the best cure for the trauma of these past four years.

Commit to being the change.

Organize your friends and family today.

Make your plan to campaign in a swing state Sept. or Oct.

VOTE AS EARLY AS YOU CAN—and take 5 people along with you!

We can do this. Trump - we’re coming for you. I’ll be in the first U-Haul truck that pulls up to your door.

October Surprise

Premise: trump tries to hijack the government with false claims of national security threats and election tampering. 

I like the idea that we game out alternative strategies to possible maneuvers in order to create an effective counter strategy.

Here's a possible scenario:

trump knows for sure he loses the election; that may occur before the polls close or perhaps after the polls close but before Biden/Harris take office.

A large Black Lives Matter demonstration happens in D. C. Several armed provocateurs in the demontration shoot at the Nazi armed militia standing near the demonstrators. The militia fires back killing several protestors. 

Barr calls in the heavily armed ICE and DHS secret police to 'secure order'. Police kill and/or beat hundreds.

trump declares a national emergency and declares election invalid. 

Federal troops surround the white house and prevent access.

trump announces a temporary suspension of the election in a national speech. He arrests Biden and Harris.

OR, another scenario:

A large bomb explodes at a Republican meeting killing 200 or 300 men, women and children.

A fake BLM spokesperson claims responsibility for the explosion. 

Repeat above:

Barr calls in the heavily armed ICE and DHS secret police to 'secure order'. Police kill and/or beat hundreds.

trump declares a national emergency and declares election invalid. 

Federal troops surround the white house and prevent access.

trump announces a temporary suspension of the election in a national speech. He arrests Biden and Harris.

DC Mayor can stop the coup by demanding the Federal troops exit the city and relying on city Police to control the situation.

My point is to prepare for the possibilities so we do not respond poorly. I hope we are doing this preparation now. 

trump is Russian oligarch

 Russian oligarchs amass great fortunes manipulating legal systems with Russian gangster help, then steal and murder for profit. 

trump is a Russian oligarch who answers to the FSB.

Here are some of his properties as per wikipedia:

Selected completed properties

    Trump Tower, 725 Fifth Avenue, Midtown Manhattan: A 58-story mixed-use tower, the headquarters of the Trump Organization, was developed in partnership with The Equitable, and opened in 1983. Trump bought out the Equitable's stake in 1986, and now owns the office and retail components of the tower. The building also contains the three-story penthouse apartment that was Donald Trump's primary residence until he moved to the White House. The value of the tower was estimated at $450 million in 2017. Trump took out a $100 million mortgage on the building in 2012.

    Trump World Tower, 845 United Nations Plaza, also in Midtown Manhattan: In 2006, Forbes magazine estimated "$290 million in profits and unrealized appreciation" going to Trump.

    AXA Financial Center in Manhattan and 555 California Street in San Francisco: Trump owns a 30 percent stake in these two office buildings, resulting from a property swap involving Riverside South. Trump's stake in the two buildings was estimated to be at least $850 million as of 2013.

    The Trump Building at 40 Wall Street: Trump bought and renovated this building for $1 million in 1995. The pre-tax net operating income at the building as of 2011 was $20.89 million and is valued at $350 million to $400 million, according to the New York Department of Finance. Trump took out a $160 million mortgage attached to the property with an interest rate of 5.71% to use for other investments. Forbes valued the property at $260 million in 2006.

    Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago: The entire project is valued at $1.2 billion ($112 million stake for Trump).

    Trump International Hotel Las Vegas: A joint development with fellow Forbes 400 members, Phil Ruffin ("key partner"), and Jack Wishna ("minority partner"). In 2006, Trump's stake was estimated at $162 million. In Forbes in March 2017, the Trump International Las Vegas was described as a 50-50 partnership between Donald Sr. and Ruffin, with Eric as the primary manager for the Trump Organization.

    Trump International Hotel and Tower New York: Trump provided his name and expertise to the building's owner (GE) during the building's re-development in 1994 for a fee totaling $40 million ($25 million for project management and $15 million in incentives deriving from the condo sales). Forbes values Trump's stake at $12 million. In March 2010, the penthouse apartment at Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York City sold for $33 million.

    Trump Park Avenue Park Avenue & 59th Street: It is valued at $142 million. Trump owns 23 apartments at Trump Park Avenue, which he rents for rates as high as $100,000 per month, and 19 units at Trump Parc.

    6 East 57th Street: Trump has a leasehold interest on this retail building, adjacent to Trump Tower, through the year 2079.The building was occupied by a Niketown store from 1996 to 2018.The value of Trump's interest was estimated at $470 million as of 2015.

    Mar-a-Lago: A historic estate in Palm Beach, Florida, most of which was converted by Trump into a members-only resort. The property was worth as much as $250 million as of 2013. Trump also owns two neighboring private houses, valued at $6.5 million and $3 million.

    Seven Springs: A 213-acre (86 ha) estate with a 13-bedroom mansion near Bedford, New York. Trump paid $7.5 million for the property in 1995. Local brokers put the property's value at around $40 million as of 2013. Trump had hoped to develop the land with a golf course or houses, but apparently abandoned those plans in 2015.

    Beverly Hills house: A 5-bedroom home purchased by Trump in 2007 for $7 million, and valued at $8.5 to $10 million as of 2013.

    Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C.: The Old Post Office Pavilion, historically known as the Old Post Office and Clock Tower, is a property located at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. The Trump Organization developed the property into a luxury hotel, which opened in September 2016.

The Federal government of the United States has failed.

5 million Americans and counting infected with a deadly virus. 

The death toll from that virus likely will reach 200,000 dead Americans by year's end. 

More than 40 million jobs have been lost. 

Masses of evictions, foreclosures and increased homelessness are likely. 

We wrote the Constitution to prevent a tyrant from seizing power. It failed.

The President and his accomplices have systematically violated the law and the spirit of the country in pursuit of personal financial gain at the expense of the American people. 

This pursuit of personal financial gain by the very people entrusted to protect the American people caused the deaths, illnesses and unemployment.

Now comes an election wherein the President will most likely ignore the results and declare the election invalid. 

It is time to hold them to account and prevent their confiscation of power. 

First, one million people should come to Washington DC and close the city and the government until our demands are met.

Second, adventurous Americans can inflict property damage on the personal holdings of those who enable tyranny. Perhaps powerful people will choose to resign in order to prevent further harm to their property. Many enablers own and operate retail businesses, which we can damage in various ways while carefully avoiding injury and death to innocents.

Vandalism and arson can destroy buildings and businesses. Hacking can compromise bank and investment accounts. Here are some property lists: 

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trump_Organization#Selected_completed_properties] and 

[[https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/the-very-luxe-real-estate-holdings-of-trump-s-cabinet-picks-49856] and 

[https://donegood.co/blogs/news/boycott-trump-companies-to-avoid]

Third, we have demands:

A. Three Supreme Court judges occupy the White House immediately and countersign unanimously any and all laws and executive orders of any kind to ensure those laws and actions are Constitutional. All government employees are required to ignore any order not approved by those judges. The Judge panel expires when a new administration takes office.

B. We enact a national facemask order requiring all people in any public place wear a facemask; violators receive a $100 fine for each event.

C. Discipline records of all sworn peace officers in all jurisdictions are open to public view. 

D. We release immediately all immigrant detainees to humane camps while they await asylum hearings. 

E. All properties owned by Russian oligarchs/thugs are confiscated and sold on the open market and the oligarchs/thugs expelled from the country.