HOTLINE LIST: Disobeying Orders - Whom Do Armed Force Personnel Call for Advice

ChatGPT said:

Here is a list of credible organizations where U.S. military personnel can seek confidential legal advice or counseling, including regarding potentially illegal orders or conscientious objection:

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🔹 GI Rights Hotline

Phone: 877-447-4487
Website: https://girightshotline.org
Description:

• Offers free, confidential, and non-directive counseling to military service members.

• Specializes in rights, discharge options, and resisting illegal or immoral orders.

• Staffed by trained counselors (not attorneys) with legal referral access.

• 
  
  

  
  

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🔹 Military Law Task Force (MLTF) – National Lawyers Guild

Phone: 619-463-2369
Website: https://nlgmltf.org
Description:

• Provides legal resources and referrals for military personnel.

• Helps with discharges, conscientious objection, and challenges to unlawful orders.

• Offers legal defense strategies and publishes legal guides.

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🔹 Center on Conscience & War (CCW)

Phone: 202-483-2220
Website: https://centeronconscience.org
Description:

• Assists those seeking conscientious objector (CO) status.

• Offers guidance for military personnel troubled by orders that conflict with conscience or law.

• Helps navigate the process of CO application and separation from the military.

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🔹 Civilian Medical Resources Network

Email contact preferred via website
Website: https://civilianmedicalresources.net
Description:

• Network of civilian medical professionals offering evaluations and assistance.

• Supports conscientious objectors, those seeking mental health discharges, and others refusing orders due to medical or ethical concerns.

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🔹 Veterans for Peace

Phone: 314-725-6005
Website: https://www.veteransforpeace.org
Description:

• A veteran-led organization that offers peer support and advocacy.

• While not a legal resource per se, they connect service members with others who have resisted illegal or immoral orders.

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Important Notes:

• Disobeying an order can carry serious consequences unless the order is clearly illegal (e.g., violates the UCMJ, international law, or the Constitution).

• Service members are legally obligated to disobey unlawful orders (per the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Article 92).

• Consulting with a military defense attorney (JAG) is also a right and may be advisable in tandem with outside resources.

 

To the troops. STAND DOWN !!!

This administration is HIGHLY LIKELY to order you to commit crimes by giving you unconstitutional orders to arrest and/or harm citizens demonstrating peacefully to air their grievances. 

If you obey an unlawful order from this administration, you will be committing Treason; and, you may be prosecuted for the crime of obeying an unlawful order whether you are active duty, reservists on TDY, Federal Police, City and/or other sworn Police:

Following orders is not a valid defence against criminal charges resulting from obeying an illegal order.

Trump is using you to install a dictatorship by asking you to violate your oath to the Constitution. Should you help him in this treasonous act, your only hope for avoiding jail time is a presidential pardon.  If you help him you will be remembered as a Traitor to the United States.

Remember that this Administration will turn its back on you when they deem you no longer useful.

And, as at Nuremberg trials, following orders is not valid excuse to avoid criminal prosecution.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, MOST AMERICANS CITIZENS WILL HATE YOU FOR YOUR TREASON, INCLUDING YOUR FAMILY.

See the end of this post for sources of legal guidance for you and your family.

Legal background from chat gpt:

'...active duty military personnel and National Guard troops (when acting under federal authority) are under similar legal and constitutional obligations to disobey unlawful orders, including any order that would violate the First Amendment rights of citizens — such as an order to arrest citizens who are peacefully assembling.

Here’s how it breaks down:

🔹 1. Constitutional Protections (First Amendment)

The First Amendment guarantees the right of the people to peaceably assemble. Any order that directs troops to arrest people solely for peaceful assembly would likely be unconstitutional.

🔹 2. Duty to Disobey Unlawful Orders

Both active duty and National Guard troops (when federally activated, i.e., under Title 10 orders) are bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), which includes a duty to disobey unlawful orders.

UCMJ Article 92: Obedience to lawful orders is required — but only lawful orders.

Troops are trained that they must refuse to carry out manifestly illegal orders.

🔹 3. National Guard vs. Active Duty: Jurisdiction Matters

Active Duty Troops (Title 10):

Operate under federal authority.

Generally prohibited from engaging in domestic law enforcement by the Posse Comitatus Act (with narrow exceptions, like the Insurrection Act).

National Guard Troops:

When under state authority (Title 32 or State Active Duty), they can be used in domestic law enforcement roles by a governor.

Still must comply with state and federal laws, including the U.S. Constitution.

Must also disobey unlawful or unconstitutional orders.

🔹 4. Unlawful Orders Example: Arresting Peaceful Protesters

An order to arrest peaceful protesters without legal justification (i.e., no violence, no unlawful conduct) is likely unlawful.

Following such an order could expose troops to legal liability, including criminal responsibility, especially if constitutional rights are violated.

✅ Steps to Take:

Request Clarification of the order in writing if possible.

Report concerns to your chain of command, JAG officer, or Inspector General.

Document everything: time, place, what was ordered, and by whom.

Seek Legal Counsel:

Through JAG or the GI Rights Hotline (girightshotline.org

).

Refuse the order if it is clearly illegal and you have good reason to believe so—but be prepared for potential disciplinary consequences (which may be defendable in court if your refusal was lawful).

⚠️ Important:

If the assembly turns violent or is declared unlawful (e.g., rioting, threats to safety), the legal grounds shift. Orders to disperse or arrest may become lawful in that context.

The specific facts matter a lot: peaceful vs. violent protest, location, curfews, etc.

🔹 Bottom Line:

A National Guard soldier has the duty to disobey unlawful orders, including orders to arrest peaceful protesters—but this decision carries risk and should be supported by legal counsel and documentation.

If you're in this situation or know someone who is, would you like help drafting a statement, contacting legal help, or reviewing specific facts?

 

Can We Nationalize Billionaires' Assets?

Yes, we can Nationalize Billionaires' Assets. 

Below is some history of how it's done from Eric Erdman in today's Dispatches from the Rebellion 

'Trump Just Became America's Extortionist-In-Chief

​In 1952, President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 10340, seizing America's steel mills to prevent a nationwide strike during the Korean War. Within hours, federal officials marched into steel plants across the nation, posted government notices on factory gates, and informed startled executives they now worked for Washington.

​

Two months later, the Supreme Court struck down Truman's power grab in a blistering 6-3 decision, ruling that even wartime emergencies cannot justify blatant overreach into private enterprise without congressional authorization.

​

But President Truman took this unprecedented step to defend national security interests—when American soldiers needed steel for tanks and weapons to fight communism in Korea.

​

Today, President Trump endangers national security in peacetime while pursuing policies no less egregious.

​

Trump has engineered an unprecedented "pay-to-play" scheme that forces Nvidia and AMD to surrender 15% of their China revenues to the federal government in exchange for export licenses. This isn't governance—it's a protection racket with a presidential seal.

​

From tariffs that punish consumers to export taxes that handicap producers, Trump has proven himself an enemy of free enterprise and a barrier to economic growth—as his contempt for constitutional limits continues unabated. Article I, Section 9, Clause 5 of the Constitution states it clearly:

​

​"No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State."

​

​Trump claims this extortion serves national interests, arguing that older chip models pose minimal security risks while generating federal revenue.

​

But Trump's own words reveal his transactional motivation: "I said if I'm going to do that I want you to pay us as a country something, because I'm giving you a release." This is how a mob boss talks, not the leader of the free world. The president has transformed the federal government into a competing business entity, treating private companies as rivals to be squeezed rather than engines of American prosperity to be unleashed.

The National Security Threat

The national security implications are catastrophic. These chips—while older models—will still power artificial intelligence systems that directly support the People's Liberation Army. Nvidia’s H20 chip capabilities will enhance China's military AI programs, helping them build smarter weapons and surveillance systems that oppress Chinese citizens and threaten our Southeast Asian allies.

​

Now Trump even hints at allowing sales of next-generation Nvidia Blackwell chips to China, funding our own strategic competitors while handing them a victory in the critical race for AI supremacy.

​

Liza Tobin, who served on the National Security Council during Trump's first administration, captured the absurdity perfectly: "What's next—letting Lockheed Martin sell F-35s to China for a 15 per cent commission?"

​

I support government intervention in private business when it threatens public harm or endangers national security. This situation clearly qualifies as the latter. But Trump's response represents the worst possible solution: creating financial incentives for Washington to overlook Chinese military applications while crippling American technological leadership.

The Abandonment of Conservative Principles

The administration claims this arrangement will generate $3 billion in revenue. But does anyone really believe federal bureaucrats will invest these dollars more productively than Nvidia and AMD would? These companies would channel the money into research laboratories, engineering talent, and next-generation innovations that secure America's technological edge. Instead, Trump wants to feed the same Washington spending machine that conservatives have battled for decades.

​

This represents the complete abandonment of conservative principles on multiple fronts. Free market economics? Destroyed by trade wars and crony capitalism. Constitutional governance? Trampled by executive overreach. National security hawkishness? Compromised by profit motives. Small government? Replaced by a regulatory regime creating new forms of taxation.

​

Trump's business background, once seen as an asset, has become a liability as he approaches the presidency like a corporate takeover artist. He views other successful businesses not as allies in American prosperity, but as competitors who must pay tribute. He applies leverage the same way he would pressure a business adversary.

​

The president even boasted about negotiating the 15% rate down from his initial 20, as if shaking down American companies deserves applause.

​

A few otherwise deferential Republicans are pushing back. Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, Chair of the House Select Committee on China, spoke bluntly: “Export controls are a frontline defense in protecting our national security, and we should not set a precedent that incentivizes the Government to grant licenses to sell China technology that will enhance its AI capabilities.”

American Prosperity: No Friends Left

Harry Truman seized steel mills only when national security demanded it. The Supreme Court rejected his power grab, understanding that even legitimate emergencies cannot justify trampling constitutional limits on government power.

​

Trump has become what the founders feared most: a leader who uses government power not to protect the nation's interests, but to extract tribute from those who create its wealth.

​

And in abandoning the very conservative principles he claims to champion, Trump has left America without a major party that truly supports the private enterprises that have empowered our prosperity for 250 years. '

​The Rebel Alliance  1550 Broadstone Parkway, Folsom, CA 95630; <eerdman@rebelalliance.media> 

 

What's the deal with troops in D C ?

The BIG question is this: will the commanders of each agency - and there are several - disobey a Presidential order that is clearly unconstitutional. 

For example, will troops on the ground disobey an order to violently disperse a peaceful gathering demonstrating their grievances? Such a gathering, IMHO, is clearly allowed by the Constitution. Using violence against civilians is a crime in that circumstance. Will the troops stand down or will they follow the order and use violence to clear the gathering?

The point here is for the Rump to see which agencies and commands will follow him in defiance of the Constitution and which will not. You can bet that the agencies who choose to defy the order will be relieved of the duty and the ones who obey the order will be reinforced.

This exercise is setting the stage for armed forces to prevent a newly elected government to take the office after the Rump loses an election. 

We beg all the commanders and troops to stand with their Oath and NOT with the Traitor President.

Read this if you still think we’re going to vote our way out of this

Read this if you still think we’re going to vote our way out of this. ' Courtney Summers'

If you’ve followed me, you already know I believe the most urgent action we must take now is to form a Shadow Government—a constitutional body in exile made up of governors, attorneys general, and elected leaders who formally declare Trump’s regime illegitimate under U.S. and international law.

One follower asked, “How would that even work?”

Another, Michael-Angelo Sullivan, proposed a national resistance convention—with sweeping reforms and a militant party to enforce them.

And honestly?

He’s not wrong.

But there’s a sequence we must follow—

Or we will lose everything.

Because here’s the truth no one wants to say out loud:

We are already living under the early stages of a fascist regime preparing for mass imprisonment—and yes, potentially mass death—of political dissenters.

And I say that as someone who has been anti-gun, anti-violence, and raised to believe this country could never fall that far.

But I know better now.

⸻

What They’re Planning

Stephen Miller—architect of child separation, indefinite detention, and racial terror—is now openly writing the framework for:

• Mass deportations of U.S. citizens

• Expanded military internment camps

• The suspension of due process

• AI-driven political blacklists

• Reactivation of wartime powers—designed for foreign enemies, now aimed at us

He has stated publicly that he wants an America made up of 100 million people who look like him—a white nationalist eugenics fantasy written in policy.

This is Project 2025—a fascist blueprint designed to make dictatorship look legal, backed by the traitors at the Heritage Foundation.

Their president, Kevin Roberts, just said:

“This will be a bloodless revolution… if the left allows it to be.”

Let me be clear:

That is not a prediction.

That is a threat.

A prelude to violence masquerading as order.

⸻

Regimes Want Resistance to Fail in One of Two Ways:

1. Do nothing—stay passive and wait for collapse

2. Explode too soon—lash out chaotically and give them justification for a military response

Because both are traps.

• Too passive, and we fall like Germany in the 1930s—lulled into submission, trusting the system to correct itself

• Too violent, too early, and they’ll brand us as terrorists, invoke martial law, and use it to justify genocide

And they will do that—no matter what we do. So the point is not to avoid triggering them.

The point is to build power first—legal, global, undeniable power—so that when we do fight, we win.

Because make no mistake:

They are already building the camps.

They are already writing the laws.

They are already preparing the mass database of who to round up first.

And as Hitler himself admitted:

“If our opponents had understood our intentions, if they had realized how determined we were to destroy them, they would have crushed us early on.”

But they didn’t.

They hesitated.

And by the time they saw it clearly—it was too late.

That’s why we build the Shadow Government first.

⸻

Why They’ve Cut Our Global Lifelines

They’ve already begun:

• Revoking visas

• Targeting dual citizens

• Detaining immigrant families

• Silencing international communications

This isn’t control—it’s containment.

Exactly what authoritarian regimes always do before a purge.

Because when the mass killing begins, they don’t want the outside world to know.

They don’t want our families abroad to tell the truth.

They don’t want us to reach NATO, the ICC, or the UN.

And online?

They’ve flooded social media with propaganda, rigged the algorithm to bury dissent, and isolated us in digitally engineered despair.

Because when the disappearances start, they want the world blind.

⸻

The Full Strategic Sequence to Stop This

STEP 1: Form the SHADOW GOVERNMENT

• Declare Trump’s regime illegitimate under constitutional and international law

• Establish a secure operating base (preferably abroad)

• Claim lawful representation of the American people

• Seek formal recognition from NATO, the UN, ICC, and allied democracies

• Begin official communication with foreign governments—not as rebels, but as the real government-in-exile

⸻

STEP 2: Gain ICC Jurisdiction

• Join the International Criminal Court (which the U.S. avoided for decades—for fear of being held accountable)

• Revoke the “Hague Invasion Act”—a U.S. law that threatens military attack on The Hague if any American official is detained for war crimes

• Use ICC authority to issue international arrest warrants for Trump, Miller, and other regime leaders—on charges of crimes against humanity, election subversion, and political genocide

This isn’t symbolic.

It shatters the illusion of legitimacy Trump and his backers depend on.

⸻

STEP 3: Convene the NATIONAL CONVENTION OF RESISTANCE

• A new Continental Congress—elected by the people, not billionaires

• Held under international recognition, not domestic surveillance

• Delegates draft emergency legal reforms and a provisional government framework

• Ratify the Articles of Reform, including:

• Abolish lifetime Supreme Court terms

• Require constitutional literacy for presidential candidates

• Criminalize abuse of executive power

• Create a People’s House of Commons—a fourth branch giving the public direct legislative veto power

• Establish emergency elections and a peaceful, constitutional transition of power

⸻

STEP 4: Form the MILITANT PARTY ORGANIZATION

(Only if all peaceful means are exhausted)

• Not a mob. Not chaos. A disciplined civilian defense force

• Governed by the Shadow Government and international law

• Trained to protect the people, not wage ideological war

• Activated only if the regime begins mass arrests, executions, or genocide

“We do not seek violence.

But if this regime continues to detain, torture, silence, or kill our people—

we will defend them by any means necessary.”

This is not terrorism.

This is Nuremberg-level prevention.

This is what the German people failed to do.

We must not fail.

⸻

When Is Physical Resistance Justified?

The Declaration of Independence says it best:

“…when a long train of abuses and usurpations…

evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism,

it is their right,

it is their duty,

to throw off such Government…”

That threshold has been crossed:

• Mass political persecution of dissidents, whistleblowers, immigrants, journalists

• Project 2025: a full-scale authoritarian blueprint to seize all federal power

• Dismantling of democratic elections, reproductive rights, voting access, judicial independence

• Open violations of the Constitution and separation of powers

• Militarized police violence against peaceful protestors—rubber bullets, tear gas, Blackhawks

• Coordination with authoritarian regimes like Russia, Hungary, and Saudi Arabia to build an anti-democracy axis

This isn’t a warning. This is already happening.

⸻

What We Tell the World

We are not violent extremists.

We are not chaotic mobs.

We are constitutional defenders.

We are descendants of revolutionaries.

We are the governed—and we do not consent.

We didn’t ask for this fight.

But we will not die silent in camps pretending it isn’t real.

⸻

Final Word

We must act before the only option left is bloodshed.

Because once the killing starts—and it will if you understand history—the rest of the world won’t come save us.

Not because they don’t care.

But because they’ll be cut off, blind, manipulated, and too late.

They’re watching us now—through distorted feeds and muffled algorithms.

They still see us—barely.

And this… right now… is the moment we give them something to recognize.

⸻

Build the Shadow Government.

Convene the Convention.

Ratify the Reforms.

And if we must—

form the firewall.

Recognition.

Prosecution.

Restoration.

Resistance.

Let’s finish what must be finished.

It is time.

—Courtney Summers

#frylikebaconyoufascistfuckingpigs

IT IS TIME TO FACE REALITY ABOUT TRUMP.

He will not be restrained or controlled by the law, or the courts, or by common decency.

He has acted and affirmed that the law means nothing to him. He wants to be and acts just like a King, above the law. He demands personal loyalty to him above any other consideration; and, he finds cowards who will give him that. 

So, then, if he believes he is above the law, then those of us who want to restore the law will have to use illegal methods to stop him.

If we insist on using the law and legal methods to stop him, we will fail.

It is time to be creative and colour outside the lines. If we do not, then the United States of America is over...

 

Documenting the Whole Story: trump and Epstein

 

'... he alleged Trump was a serial cheat in his marriages and loved to “f--- the wives of his best friends.” '

Read the whole story at the link...

Documenting trump epstein 

ACLU Sues ICE: The Petition

'This lawsuit seeks to enjoin Defendants’ ongoing pattern and practice of flouting the Constitution and federal law in connection with ongoing immigration raids in the Los Angeles area. '

Click here for suit:

Or copy and paste this link: 

https://www.aclusocal.org/sites/default/files/vasquez_perdomo_v_noem_-_first_amended_petition_and_complaint.pdf?fbclid=IwY2xjawLeGM9leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF5WEFocnl2OTNlQVhXY0d2AR5XyOabTPSRJQ4PVgzO1SAY1TORHUZd4v7mZPGzToXiUKy-GH7ITdWYBkLG_Q_aem_QHB14oVSU8zPuq1qOYxt7Q

Elon Musk Does Not Understand Macroeconomics

From Robert Reich: 

' Friends, During a three-hour interview with the podcaster Joe Rogan some months ago, Elon Musk revealed the core of the ideology animating the richest person in the world.

“The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy,” Musk said, adding that liberals and progressives are “exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.”

Musk pointed to California’s move to provide medical insurance even to undocumented people who qualify for its low-income Medi-Cal program.

“We’ve got civilizational suicidal empathy going on,” Musk continued. Empathy has been “weaponized.” '

Elon Musk has a colossal misunderstanding of basic macroeconomies when he suggests that there is "...a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response...”

When you ignore the 'empathy response' and assume that economics is a zero sum game, then you create a situation whereby you are constantly chasing a bigger share of a smaller and smaller pie. 

The actions you might take to chase that bigger share would probably involve taking away some income from as many as possible in order to increase your riches. You might weaken labor unions so that they cannot get higher wages for workers, eliminate the minimum wage so that people will work for very low wages, do away with public government funded medical care and stop or reduce pensions for elderly and disabled people. That might grow your wealth in the short run but in the long run your income and wealth will shrink since fewer and fewer people can afford to buy the stuff you sell.

All these follow from the classical economic, free market school of economics which argues that any interference in market dynamics lowers welfare for everyone. In that belief system any introduction of empathy means changing some market outcomes to favor some people disadvantaged by market forces. I won't introduce the concept of market failures here since it is a long discussion but I will suggest that those free market principles require that competition exist in order for those principles to work.

We can assume safely that national governments which enact the 'empathy response' in a national economy means that more people will better off with higher incomes and better living standards, which means that more people will spend more money to buy more and better stuff and that the economy will grow. 

See the Circular Flow of Money In The Economy illustration below:

Copied with permission from: Macroeconomic Essentials: College Macroeconomic Textbook for Undergraduates Kindle Edition; by Mike P. McKeever (Author)

And it follows that if you are a rich person with a high income, you derive most of your income and wealth from people buying the stuff you sell. And it further follows that the incomes of everyone including especially those of rich people, will rise. 

See also Dispositional Greed Scales from  the Tilburg Institute for Behavioral Economics Research (TIBER) .

Article Excerpt: 'Greed is the insatiable desire for more. It applies to any valuable thing, such as money, goods, friends, love, or sex. The experience of greed combines a feeling of dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs with a longing for something better or more (Seuntjens, Zeelenberg, Breugelmans, et al., 2015). Greed is seen as an important motivation in economics and is thought to have been an important cause of the financial crisis and fraud (e.g., Mussel et al. 2018). Pathological personality traits (Sekhar et al., 2020) and the dark triad have been positively associated with greed (Veselka et al., 2014) and greed has been found to be a cause of unethical behaviors that lead people to take more than they are entitled to (Seuntjens et al., 2019).'

So then, the empathy response actually makes rich people even richer.  One would think that otherwise intelligent people would understand that basic relationship.

Of course, there are some people who accumulate wealth through government contracts and are thereby not inconvenienced every day by market forces. Even those folks, however, will face the consequences of lower general incomes for everyone since the government contracts revenues are paid from income taxes on taxpayers. As wages for most people decline then the income tax revenue to the government will also decline making it more difficult for the government to enter into those contracts. So far, entitled government contractors have encouraged the government to borrow money in order to pay for government deficits, some part of which are caused by those self-same contracts combined with a decline in individual household incomes and lower income tax payments. But resolving that issue will be painful; for all sectors of the population as we saw in the Greek example of a few years ago. 

 

Introducing the American Fascist Party: Is It Evil?

Some Europeans call today's GOP the American Fascist Party. 

It seems like an appropriate name. Most Republicans seem to have abandoned the GOP to join the Fascist trump cult.

Be that as it may, the real question is whether or not the new party is Evil.

Evil is a large philosophical question and I'm not sure there is enough agreement around to denigrate an entire party with that designation.

But, the is some agreement on designating some acts and policies as Evil regardless of who creates them.

The question arises: What is an Evil act and why is it Evil?

We need a definition of Evil, then, to look at Evil acts. I think it's fair to use the definition of Evil as the one that was developed after World War 2 at the Nuremburg trials of Nazi officials, many of whom were executed after those trials.

According to army psychologist Captain G. M. Gilbert, who was assigned to watch the Nuremburg trials after WW 2, Evil is a lack of empathy. Without empathy people can think that other people do not have human attributes and are little better than plants, rocks or livestock. That is to say, the Nazi's treated people like inanimate cut outs who felt no emotions and were thus able to be manipulated and abused without consequences.

In today's American Fascist Party, party leaders like Steve Miller and Donald Trump may gain support from some voters by treating immigrants to the United States as less than human. They may calculate that deporting immigrants without due process will gain them fear in the population and possible votes from supporters. Whatever consequences befall the deportee or his family are of no consequence since the people deported do not possess humanity.

Clearly, some acts by the American Fascist Party are Evil in nature.

I will leave to others the judgment of whether or not that means that the entire American Fascist Party is evil or whether the individual Party leaders are evil people.

 

Judge Michael Luttig’s July 4th Essay in Telos

Media Mention, July 2, 2025

In honor of the Fourth of July, Board Member J. Michael Luttig authored an exclusive piece for Telos outlining twenty-seven truths — an homage to the original 27 grievances the colonists presented to the British Crown — about the freedoms, rights, and liberties we all enjoy as Americans.

From the article:

'When the tyrannical reign of King George III became destructive of the ends of government by law under which all persons are equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights, the American Colonists declared their independence from the British King, chronicling 27 grievances of self-evident truths about tyranny as reasons for their declaration of independence.

On this July 4, 2025, the eve of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of America’s declaration of independence and the founding of this Nation, ‘We the People’ hold to be self-evident these 27 truths about freedom—and about tyranny.'

Read the piece here.

https://www.telos.news/p/luttig-the-self-evident-truths-of-freedom

 

Surviving Life in A Dictatorship Using Passive Aggressive Behaviour

A disclaimer first: Until now, I have never lived in an authoritarian regime. 

My thoughts are educated guesses at best. However, there may be some behaviour rules that will help the country until the tyrant is gone, regardless of the reason he goes.

I think it is a safe assumption that all of his and his minions' actions are evil and will harm real people. Since he thinks like a tyrant, then all his actions are directed to his own benefit regardless of any harm that may hurt citizens. This is the root definition of evil: a lack of empathy. He considers other people to be objects without feelings or worth who can be manipulated and/or destroyed for his personal benefit. 

Some of us want to prevent the tyrant from inflicting harm on the country with any of his programs and initiatives. We may be in a position to impede his and his minions' machinations. We should do so wherever we can. 

My basic mind set is that whatever he chooses to do will be harmful for the general population while any benefits accrue to him and his cronies.

Here's an idea of how to impede and delay his evil programs for those in positions of power: continue to vocally support the tyrant while at the same time you are obstructing any and all actions he wishes you to perform. "Of course I support you because you are mighty and wise, I am only sorry that I was not able to do what you asked. I will try harder."

If the tyrant says that he will fire you for poor performance, then make him do just that, don't do his job by quitting. Continue deflecting and offering excuses as long as you can since that will use up his attention and delay other harms he wants to do.

That is disgusting behaviour for anyone. However, it is justified since that behaviour is exactly what the tyrant does every day. 

When all the directions from the tyrant will harm the people you love and he has political violence at his disposal, it will likely be foolish of you who are in a power position to 'get in his face' and call him out. That time has passed for any minor action. Of course, there may be something so bad that you are willing to torpedo your career to stop him; if so, the God bless you.

Others may be unable to sabotage his programs because they are outside positions of power; those of us in that position should march, protest and strike with as much vigour as we can find. Some political scientists suggest that tyrannies fall when 3.5 % of the population demonstrates continuously against the regime. Recent protests have seen 5 million people march and demonstrate; that number has been growing. 3.5% of the population is about 11 million, so we must continue to protest.

 

Gaming Out Trump's Death and/or Resignation

His demise or departure will be good for the United States of America. We will dance in the streets with great joy.

But, let us be clear - his departure will not end our problems. While we will still have the shells and appearance of many of the institutions which create the Rule of Law, those institutions will be hollowed out and filled with trump's Fascist supporters. Other institutions may be moribund or inactive.

We will see a recession after his demise because billionaires control large sections of the economy. We can overcome the recession by ensuring that the Rule of Law survives.

In order to create or re-create the Rule of Law, we will need to restore integrity and power to all our institutions. Otherwise, we will just be another country ruled by Oligarchs. Here's how: remove all trump supporters and other Fascists and replace them with people of integrity and competence. 

Here is a partial list of the institutions in peril: 

1. Election integrity. Today our election process is vulnerable to manipulation. Credible reports suggest that election interference gave trump the win in 2024. 

2. Monopoly Regulation. Private firms which control any industry are incentivized to raise prices and sell less for more profits. They also increase profits when they acquire or destroy competitors. 

3. Competition. Firms in free markets reduce prices to consumers, encourage innovation and raise the GDP when they face competition. When privately owned industries cannot be made to allow more competition, then they can be managed by a Public Utilities Commission which has the power to approve of price changes and acquisitions and divestments. Obviously any such commission will be the target for bribery and corruption and so must be protected vigorously.

4. Income and Wealth Inequality. Most of our wealth and incomes are owned by the very rich among us. That cannot stand. We need a viable middle class in order to be prosperous and free. Extreme wealth should be nationalized; very high incomes should be highly taxed to fund the social services our population needs. 

5. Immigration. Immigrants contribute vast amounts of wealth and industry to all our benefit. Our 100 year sustained economic growth pattern relies on immigrants to continue. 

6. Education. Our jobs and wealth come from technologies invented by scientists and engineers trained in our universities. We must support them in order to secure our future.  

Americans can find the will to fix these issues, but it will be hard. Our grandchildren deserve no less.