UCMJ applies to all levels, there is no “leeway” to disobey a lawful order. See CAPT Crozier.
Anything Trump orders will have Barr’s stamp of approval, thus they can’t disobey without undermining our entire system. So it would become a very public Saturday Night massacre, with perhaps even the entire Joint Chiefs having to resign while pressure builds against it from Congress and even citizens.
The resignations will continue until Drumpf finds his Roy Cohn.
One thing to note is that of his 43% or so support, not all are diehard burn the place down, culture of resentment proto-fascist true believers willing to wage civil war. I’d say that around half of them are like that, the rest single issue types who support him because of their pet issue, lifelong Repubs, and low-info gullible types he was able to win over but whose support for him is not that deep. So, we’re talking 20-25% of the country. That’s not enough to completely destroy our democracy.
He can steal a page from Chairman Xi and send them “Vocational Training Centres”. Maybe if you take away their daily doses foxnews and infowars the mush in their skull might revert back to brains.
True enough.
But I also take heart in demographics. Whites are in the minority in people under the age of 15 - right. now. The folks voting in the next election are numerically greater. Sure - no race votes as a monolithic block - but there are real trends brewing. And that’s why this is the last gasp of a dying party.
Cornered animals have nothing to lose. We need to be thorough.
Yup. Trump didn’t elect himself.
up vote X infinity
I have two young sons, I have to contingency plan and consider abandoning everything I have worked for and achieved in my lifetime so that I can present them with a viable option for a reasonable life
Hah.
The closest thing American has/had to ‘indoctrination centers’ - was a public school system. There was a brief time when the curriculum centered on liberal ideas. You know, like democracy and science. And religion was left where it belonged, in the homes and the churches.
Once the right wing realized our public taxes were paying for - you know - an informed electorate, that shit had to go.
March on Washington…we’re with you!
It can really go in any potential direction, good, horrible, in-between. Most likely the latter, but he’s done so much damage, on top of the racial, cultural, ideological, political and class fault lines that have always been with us, that even if, as I expect, Biden wins and Dems retake the senate, the instability he stirred up, which is not going away any time soon, may well boil over next year and lead to a major national crisis. I mean, what if he’s planted enough loyalists in the military and law enforcement that, along with these heavily-armed militias, they’re able to stage a coup next year, and put him back in power? Perhaps he WANTS to force all these military leaders to resign, so that their loyalist replacements can either keep him in power, or put him back next year? I’m not saying that either will happen, but either COULD happen. Anyone who refuses to believe that is in denial.
No, don’t resign, just refuse his illegal orders. If you resign he’ll replace you with toadies who will do it. Better to have the military forcibly remove him, install Pence to finish his term, then swear in Biden. The thought of a military coup to remove a sitting president scares the crap out of me but if it’s done to uphold a valid election, that’s something we’re going to have to live with. Certainly better than letting Trump get away with it.
The recent event where Esper danced around trump’s desire to have the 82nd airborne deployed against American civilians by instead stationing them outside of Washington DC on standby to placate him is an example of the military’s reluctance to accommodate trump’s worst instincts.
It would be naive to just assume in an election worst case scenario the military would come to the rescue, but I would say military leaders resisting a power grab is the most likely resolution if that should ever come to pass.
I think they will fire/force resignation of a number of top military officials until they the military’s version of Robert Bork, willing to carry out an illegal order. I think our best hope is that the disruption in military command plus the Trump administrations general incompetence will prevent them from effectively carrying out the order.
I believe that Democracy was held together by commitment by all actors to the democratic process. The fact that we have a president that flaunts all norms, and laws and still retain 40% of the support of the population. The US Constitution has no mechanisms to deal with that. To be fair no constitution does.
# Pentagon Brass Privately Discussing What To Do If Trump Invokes Insurrection Act
Pretty.
But, then, nothing this administration has ever done has been aesthetically pleasing.
From start to finish, it’s just ugly.
Which is why they would resign in succession as needed. Once you open Pandora’s box and allow a military coup once, you can’t put that back in.
And even MoscowMitch would start having concerns if a wave of general officers started resigning one after the other.
The thing is, all ultimately successful coups were preceded by one or more unsuccessful ones. These people don’t give up. They just keep coming back until they’re either destroyed or prevail. Each time he tries to blow up the republic, and fails, the republic suffers some damage. Eventually, if it’s not fixed, it’ll break. And he’s not going to give up, even out of the WH. Defeated, he’ll try to rally his figurative and literal troops to stage a comeback and coup. That’s why Biden MUST have the DoJ destroy him.
Never trust the brass. Look to the lower ranks to stand up.
The 40,000ft view: Trump would love nothing more than to have me feel panicked, resigned, and hopeless. I won’t give him that, y’know?
If this turns out to be a blowout election, Trump will still stomp his feet and whine, and pose “stable genius” theories such as, “I only carried 5 states? That’s never happened before! No one can believe it happened without widespread fraud! To the greatest President in history? Many people say the Democrats cheated!”