Was there a high-level conspiracy in the Trump administration, done with one or more foreign countries, to end democracy in America? Was their next plan to realign us with Russia & autocratic nations?
If you think Thom is paranoid, I urge you to read Malcom Nance's "The Plot to Hack America", "They Want to Kill Americans" (I haven't yet read Nance's other works) and to check out many of Nance"s interviews on YOU TUBE for validation of Thom's concerns. Nance is an intelligence expert who is able to document and connect the dots.
I have, since Trump’s election in 2017, believed in some structured conspiracy to allow he, and his handler’s,
to participate in a coup to overthrow democratic government in our country.
His actions and his inept words never illustrated any concept of democracy.
He first shared secrets with Russians, allowed no access to transparency with media.
What did he ever do that could be seen as a result of any deep thought?
It seemed clear he was taking direction from someone that truly was his ‘Boss’.
It is at best, disturbing, more often dumbfounding , that he took up looking for Russian approval, as well as any other nefarious players in authoritarianism.
He spoke highly of Duterte, who liked to murder drug addicts. He spoke highly of the leaders that were obvious dictators and encouraged oligarchy as a standard composition in government. As to democratically inclined leaders and Heads of State, they received mumbled discourtesy.
He lacks any intuition for right, has not an inkling of compassion or reasonability unless he sees a use to benefit him in some sleazy way.
The Pentagon illustrated their position in the January 6 th attempted coup. Several Generals , (think the Flynn brothers )had done everything necessary to block use of the National Guard and were backed up by lots of other liars .
The Republicans in Congress largely lost their minds.
They suddenly were willing to support a president that appeared to be seriously mentally ill,
believed in pursuing power for the sake of it and made money it’s god.
It seems that those few who expressed disdain for his brash statements and decrees got muffled out by more crazy .
Trump learned at Putin’s knee that to screw things up and keep people off balance by repetitive lies about just about everything. Also, accuse the other side of using shady tactics that you were using.
All crazy making behaviors deployed by a man beset w the need for approval from Powerful but sinister leaders.
Also, interestingly enough Mr Trump did well with his perceived “love affairs”with atrocious murderers ie. , with the head of North Korea, Russia , Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
All of a sudden it’s become ok for Republicans to choose keynote speakers at their political events from ruthless Dictators. Once this might have been considered ‘poor form’ , now , anything goes.
The most heinous lie is the lie they’re selling about the “ stolen election”.
Again the use of tactics that need only an immoral basis with constant repetition to be bought by the people groomed to think of themselves as victims( like their dear leaders cries about ‘witch-hunts’ ad nauseam
There are so many players in government competing to be Dictator of the year
Think D’ Santis , Abbot in Texas All of the leaders who have had a part in criminalizing sexual identity. Burning books that in any way cast the truth on history , truth in general. We’ve now decided our children cannot possibly hold up under the banner of truth in teaching about the racial strife marking this country for hundreds of years Just cover your ears kids.
These people like Trump cannot, will not allow . The truth to “ set them free”.
Now we don’t allow them to feel compassion or support voting rights or in any manner, live as emotional human beings .
Those believing in Democracy and Truth must fight back , in the Voting booths of our nation in conversation in print or whatever enables the truth .
The Supreme Court is another aspect of the White Christian Nationalist lie.
They’ve been installed to be puppets for this authoritarian mind set.
Just remind yourself of the decrees they’ve sent out from their biased little tabernacle. Cutting down fifty years of precedent for women to make the best choices regarding their reproductive lives.
They are a ball and chain on democracy rather than the pillars they should be. Citizens United : Proclaimed corporations are people , as to continue this crazy.
Against enforcing Voting Rights.
The Conspiracy is everywhere as it was designed to be . Where did those emails and texts get to, anyway? You know Secret Service and who else that needs to keep accurate correspondence?
If we want our country back we cannot ask nicely.
The “ Truth will set you free, but first it’ll make you miserable”.
We’re in the miserable stage. We need the truth now.
I suggest everyone re-read the US Declaration of Independence, at least the list of grievances for which we were willing to fight.
The Declaration of independence was basically just a diatribe that listed all the ways that King George was a tyrant, as justification to leave.
The list is long and wordy, but includes:
1. Not passing laws needed by the people
2. Ignoring local government
3. Installing puppet governments and puppet judges and puppet enforcers reporting directly to the King, to pass and enforce laws the citizens disagree with.
4. George also made the military report directly to him, superior to all local authorities, and immune to prosecution.
Now read this list again, and think about the NaziRepublican Party. Basically, everything the Declaration of Independence calls out as unacceptable is what the NaziRepublican Party has done, is doing, and wants to do.
Thom's analysis may be speculation, still it makes a whole lot more sense than the noise we're getting from the usual suspect about magically de-classifying documents. Where do we go from here? If we fail to stop them, things like The Hartman Report will be prohibited, at the least. We, the people can succeed without losing our selves in the battle. I overestimated the abilities of the national security system. They seemed to have lost their edge from how I remember my time as a COMSEC Custodian. The POTUS is not controlled by the usual security standards. They have entitlements. However their entitlements are not without limitations. Trump should not have been left to do as he pleased with NDI. After his election, I thought Trump would directly go after the Department of Treasury to set himself up as the world's first trillionaire. Obviously, he had bigger, and crazier plans on the table.
An avalanche of evidence and clear indications, hard to take it all in again, old and new. Thanks.
The one thing that has bothered me every time Don T is in the spotlight, speaking of intelligence, is his clear lack of even a remote whiff of anything that deserves to be called intelligence.
So somebody else is running things, from behind the curtain, no pun intended, in that mental conjecture.
If I were writing this execrable novel, Melania would be a player, watching somebody’s money, making demands, and giving commands, while hiding in plain sight as an ignorable trophy bimbo. Her origins, access to moneyed interests, and frequent international travel, would set the stage for a web of intrigue.
Never hear anybody asking what her phone calls to the old country are about …
But then, it would be hard to believe that she would allow crucial documents to hang out in cardboard boxes, unlocked.
The simplest piece of this puzzle is the FACT that Trump is a psychopath. The intelligence officers on that list were mere objects to him, objects he could trade for what he wanted. We and this country are objects to him. Isn't it interesting that his daughter found someone just like him, and that's who Trump put in charge of every damn thing?!
Thom asks: "Was their next plan to realign us with autocratic nations like Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Hungary?" I'd say mission accomplished at least during the Trump administration. The plan to debilitate our power and buy Trump was in place before 2016. We may be paying the price, but we are no longer playing THAT game!
Trump, like Pigpen in the Charlie Brown cartoon, has something swirling around him wherever he goes, it's a mixture of chaos, greed, and stupidity. Perhaps the easier question to ask is who hasn't exploited that to get what they want or destroy America.
CIA admits to losing dozens of informants around the world. 10/2021
Leading counterintelligence officials issued a memo to all of the CIA’s global stations saying that a concerning number of U.S. informants were being captured and executed.
The CIA’s counterintelligence mission center investigated dozens of incidents in the last few years that involved killings, arrests or compromises of foreign informants. In an unusual move, the message sent via a top secret cable included the specific number of agents killed by other intelligence agencies, according to The New York Times.
Officials said that level of detail is a sign of the significance of the cable. Announcing the specific number of killings is rare as that figure is typically held under wraps from the public and even from some CIA employees, the Times noted.
Rather than theory, today's topic should be classified (a trendy word of late) as a plausible hypothesis based on well-exposed facts widely available, albeit woefully incomplete.
Nowadays, due mainly to frothing-at-the-mouth MAGA fascists (Nothing "semi" about 'em, Joe!), the term conspiracy theory has come to mean wild conjecture based on the intestinal detritus, certainly not the fortitude, of enthralled Trump acolytes. "His people" have beclowned themselves in bright red hats and undying devotion (daddy issues?). His rallies resemble the Nuremberg Rallies, complete with huge, gaudy flags, mindless crowd mentality, and authoritarian buzzwords galore, just like real by-god Nazis saluting and hailing a cartoonish demigod in heavy makeup sporting a freakish hairdo -- a laughable, derisive little man with little ideas and a big mouth, constantly lying, blaming and ridiculing others for his own deep-set faults and self-made troubles. ("Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" - Welch to McCarthy)
Consider further the startling fact that Trump has been playing fast and loose with our nation's most sensitive -- most deadly! -- secrets imaginable for the past four years and 19 months! Who knows how many agents from how many adversaries spied on the copious piles of classified, secret, and top-secret documents lying around higgledy-piggledy and randomly stuffed in moving boxes, following Trump wherever he goes like the dirt cloud swirling around Pigpen!
No doubt, Putin figured out a way into the inner sanctum of his most prized useful idiot long ago. Billionaires, even fake ones, need lots of staff, consulting services, and all sorts of contractors and vendors employing armies of nameless, faceless workers crawling around like ants, especially a high-roller real estate tycoon forever dancing on the edge of the law, bankruptcy, and ruin, always in need of lots of quick cash to stave off hungry, angry wolves snapping at his heels. Any cracks in security?
With a bewildering cast of Star Wars Tatooine cantina characters populating Trump World, the chance of major breaches in America's primary security and defense apparatuses is extremely high. The cost in time and money to chase it all down and reboot entire systems, methods, technologies, and human intelligence networks is incalculable. And the potential longterm damage is mind boggling.
In game theory, as in life, anticipating worst case scenarios is an educated guess of an opponent's hidden agenda and ability to realize their nefarious goals, however incremental in the making. Americans must now seriously face the great possibility that the 45th POTUS has been selling out our country, unwittingly or not, for whatever reason, to our worst enemy and his best buddy on the world stage, Vladimir Putin. In such a sloppy security atmosphere over such a long period of time, it was probably easy pickings even for the most novice of spies.
One of history's many unknowables will likely be what exactly led Putin to think after four years of Trump at the helm he could invade Ukraine with relative impunity? What did he glean from a compliant White House that leaked like a clogged shitter? After all, that was a huge calculation to get wrong. What did he conclude, rightly or wrongly, by rummaging around in Trump's daily waste product about America's declining standing in the world to take such a brazen action?
Once again, with catastrophic results, stable genius Trump and his rinky-dink carnival of assorted brown-nosers and weirdos are caught red-handed flushing the Constitution, the rule of law, and American principles down the toilet for personal gain.
You'd hope that the Mar-a-"Lardo" (Thank you, Michael Cohen) FBI search crew included a large contingent of intrepid plumbers. It was probably like that scene in Game of Thrones when Lady Tyrell approaching King's Landing in her carriage said, "You can smell the shit from five miles away.
Another great piece, thanks for pulling all of this together in one place. What are your thoughts on Space Force, and how that may have fit into some of the early plans? When it was first announced I saw it as an opportunity for Trump to put together a military organization totally under his control. A branch that had no history, no existing command and control structure, and no leadership in place that had spent decades serving the US, independant of the who was in the White House. A branch where Trump could hand pick leadership based on loyalty to Trump rather than loyalty to the USA. Was this ever a real threat, or did it just look like it in the fog of conspiracy?
Here’s another crucial dot to connect that feeds right into all that Thom has speculated. Could this Daily Kos article spell out the actual mechanisms of the coup plan set for January 6th? After all, the coup needed some sort of legitimate-looking trigger, and Trump and his co-conspirators had put a lot of effort into creating his fake set of electors. That wasn’t just for show, was it? https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/3/2114351/-Speculation-on-How-Trump-Intended-to-Execute-His-Coup-on-Jan-6th
In days of yore (pre-Trump,) the FBI would have been on this case - Big Time! Is there any reason to suppose that they are unaware of, or ignoring this situation, or are they just too snowed by everything else, or too kowed to act?
I had to laugh at the guy this morning on Thom's show that he seemed to have lost this article when he returned to it. Plus, he said that when he went here to read it again, that he couldn't find it.
I laughed ... then I realized that it is now past noon here and I still haven't received this in my morning email (yet?)/ When I came here to read it, the page stalled for a minute or two - and then I had to refresh the page in order to get here. Very strange - and first time that's happened. Anyway, a friend in upstate NY that I introduced to Thom's work sent me an email this morning saying, "I know you read this,…holy shit!" to this article - of which I hadn't (and still haven't) received.
(Link to E.O. 13957 does not work, though it is easily obtainable as a quick search goes to the Federal Register.)
Reading this reminded me of the fine 1962 book, made into a film two years later, in which a cabal of generals and admirals, along with some really despicable senators, plan a coup. A slightly different scenario but not that far away.
But what gets me is how Trump and company thought they could make this stick. It's their innate arrogance and lover of power, I suppose.
It's true that shutting down the Internet and phone system, and taking over the cable television and radio network systems with shills spouting lies would have paralyzed much of the country. But there are still independent commercial radio stations, plus a lot of amateur ones, as well as some newspapers who would have sounded the alarm. And given their communication systems state governments would have figured out what was happening, plus news does filter in from abroad. Finally once they realized what was really going on, a lot of flag officers and ships' captains would have refused to go along with such a power grab. And at the least more liberal colleges and cities would have become outright centers of resistance. . After all, even Putin has had to face some pushback.
The country could have gone anywhere from a chaotic civil war to a fizzle like the last Soviet believers tried against Gorbachev. It would have been awful in any case, but it's hard to see most Americans simply waking up one day and saying, "Okay, we're a dictatorship now." At least I hope not.
If you think Thom is paranoid, I urge you to read Malcom Nance's "The Plot to Hack America", "They Want to Kill Americans" (I haven't yet read Nance's other works) and to check out many of Nance"s interviews on YOU TUBE for validation of Thom's concerns. Nance is an intelligence expert who is able to document and connect the dots.
This is serious stuff!!!
I have, since Trump’s election in 2017, believed in some structured conspiracy to allow he, and his handler’s,
to participate in a coup to overthrow democratic government in our country.
His actions and his inept words never illustrated any concept of democracy.
He first shared secrets with Russians, allowed no access to transparency with media.
What did he ever do that could be seen as a result of any deep thought?
It seemed clear he was taking direction from someone that truly was his ‘Boss’.
It is at best, disturbing, more often dumbfounding , that he took up looking for Russian approval, as well as any other nefarious players in authoritarianism.
He spoke highly of Duterte, who liked to murder drug addicts. He spoke highly of the leaders that were obvious dictators and encouraged oligarchy as a standard composition in government. As to democratically inclined leaders and Heads of State, they received mumbled discourtesy.
He lacks any intuition for right, has not an inkling of compassion or reasonability unless he sees a use to benefit him in some sleazy way.
The Pentagon illustrated their position in the January 6 th attempted coup. Several Generals , (think the Flynn brothers )had done everything necessary to block use of the National Guard and were backed up by lots of other liars .
The Republicans in Congress largely lost their minds.
They suddenly were willing to support a president that appeared to be seriously mentally ill,
believed in pursuing power for the sake of it and made money it’s god.
It seems that those few who expressed disdain for his brash statements and decrees got muffled out by more crazy .
Trump learned at Putin’s knee that to screw things up and keep people off balance by repetitive lies about just about everything. Also, accuse the other side of using shady tactics that you were using.
All crazy making behaviors deployed by a man beset w the need for approval from Powerful but sinister leaders.
Also, interestingly enough Mr Trump did well with his perceived “love affairs”with atrocious murderers ie. , with the head of North Korea, Russia , Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
All of a sudden it’s become ok for Republicans to choose keynote speakers at their political events from ruthless Dictators. Once this might have been considered ‘poor form’ , now , anything goes.
The most heinous lie is the lie they’re selling about the “ stolen election”.
Again the use of tactics that need only an immoral basis with constant repetition to be bought by the people groomed to think of themselves as victims( like their dear leaders cries about ‘witch-hunts’ ad nauseam
There are so many players in government competing to be Dictator of the year
Think D’ Santis , Abbot in Texas All of the leaders who have had a part in criminalizing sexual identity. Burning books that in any way cast the truth on history , truth in general. We’ve now decided our children cannot possibly hold up under the banner of truth in teaching about the racial strife marking this country for hundreds of years Just cover your ears kids.
These people like Trump cannot, will not allow . The truth to “ set them free”.
Now we don’t allow them to feel compassion or support voting rights or in any manner, live as emotional human beings .
Those believing in Democracy and Truth must fight back , in the Voting booths of our nation in conversation in print or whatever enables the truth .
The Supreme Court is another aspect of the White Christian Nationalist lie.
They’ve been installed to be puppets for this authoritarian mind set.
Just remind yourself of the decrees they’ve sent out from their biased little tabernacle. Cutting down fifty years of precedent for women to make the best choices regarding their reproductive lives.
They are a ball and chain on democracy rather than the pillars they should be. Citizens United : Proclaimed corporations are people , as to continue this crazy.
Against enforcing Voting Rights.
The Conspiracy is everywhere as it was designed to be . Where did those emails and texts get to, anyway? You know Secret Service and who else that needs to keep accurate correspondence?
If we want our country back we cannot ask nicely.
The “ Truth will set you free, but first it’ll make you miserable”.
We’re in the miserable stage. We need the truth now.
I suggest everyone re-read the US Declaration of Independence, at least the list of grievances for which we were willing to fight.
The Declaration of independence was basically just a diatribe that listed all the ways that King George was a tyrant, as justification to leave.
The list is long and wordy, but includes:
1. Not passing laws needed by the people
2. Ignoring local government
3. Installing puppet governments and puppet judges and puppet enforcers reporting directly to the King, to pass and enforce laws the citizens disagree with.
4. George also made the military report directly to him, superior to all local authorities, and immune to prosecution.
Now read this list again, and think about the NaziRepublican Party. Basically, everything the Declaration of Independence calls out as unacceptable is what the NaziRepublican Party has done, is doing, and wants to do.
Thom's analysis may be speculation, still it makes a whole lot more sense than the noise we're getting from the usual suspect about magically de-classifying documents. Where do we go from here? If we fail to stop them, things like The Hartman Report will be prohibited, at the least. We, the people can succeed without losing our selves in the battle. I overestimated the abilities of the national security system. They seemed to have lost their edge from how I remember my time as a COMSEC Custodian. The POTUS is not controlled by the usual security standards. They have entitlements. However their entitlements are not without limitations. Trump should not have been left to do as he pleased with NDI. After his election, I thought Trump would directly go after the Department of Treasury to set himself up as the world's first trillionaire. Obviously, he had bigger, and crazier plans on the table.
An avalanche of evidence and clear indications, hard to take it all in again, old and new. Thanks.
The one thing that has bothered me every time Don T is in the spotlight, speaking of intelligence, is his clear lack of even a remote whiff of anything that deserves to be called intelligence.
So somebody else is running things, from behind the curtain, no pun intended, in that mental conjecture.
If I were writing this execrable novel, Melania would be a player, watching somebody’s money, making demands, and giving commands, while hiding in plain sight as an ignorable trophy bimbo. Her origins, access to moneyed interests, and frequent international travel, would set the stage for a web of intrigue.
Never hear anybody asking what her phone calls to the old country are about …
But then, it would be hard to believe that she would allow crucial documents to hang out in cardboard boxes, unlocked.
So who is it / who are they?
best luck to US — b.rad
Go, Thom! Impressive.
The simplest piece of this puzzle is the FACT that Trump is a psychopath. The intelligence officers on that list were mere objects to him, objects he could trade for what he wanted. We and this country are objects to him. Isn't it interesting that his daughter found someone just like him, and that's who Trump put in charge of every damn thing?!
Thom asks: "Was their next plan to realign us with autocratic nations like Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Hungary?" I'd say mission accomplished at least during the Trump administration. The plan to debilitate our power and buy Trump was in place before 2016. We may be paying the price, but we are no longer playing THAT game!
Trump, like Pigpen in the Charlie Brown cartoon, has something swirling around him wherever he goes, it's a mixture of chaos, greed, and stupidity. Perhaps the easier question to ask is who hasn't exploited that to get what they want or destroy America.
As always, it is the cover-up that will get them.
CIA admits to losing dozens of informants around the world. 10/2021
Leading counterintelligence officials issued a memo to all of the CIA’s global stations saying that a concerning number of U.S. informants were being captured and executed.
The CIA’s counterintelligence mission center investigated dozens of incidents in the last few years that involved killings, arrests or compromises of foreign informants. In an unusual move, the message sent via a top secret cable included the specific number of agents killed by other intelligence agencies, according to The New York Times.
Officials said that level of detail is a sign of the significance of the cable. Announcing the specific number of killings is rare as that figure is typically held under wraps from the public and even from some CIA employees, the Times noted.
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/575384-cia-admits-to-losing-dozens-of-informants-around-the-world-nyt/
Rather than theory, today's topic should be classified (a trendy word of late) as a plausible hypothesis based on well-exposed facts widely available, albeit woefully incomplete.
Nowadays, due mainly to frothing-at-the-mouth MAGA fascists (Nothing "semi" about 'em, Joe!), the term conspiracy theory has come to mean wild conjecture based on the intestinal detritus, certainly not the fortitude, of enthralled Trump acolytes. "His people" have beclowned themselves in bright red hats and undying devotion (daddy issues?). His rallies resemble the Nuremberg Rallies, complete with huge, gaudy flags, mindless crowd mentality, and authoritarian buzzwords galore, just like real by-god Nazis saluting and hailing a cartoonish demigod in heavy makeup sporting a freakish hairdo -- a laughable, derisive little man with little ideas and a big mouth, constantly lying, blaming and ridiculing others for his own deep-set faults and self-made troubles. ("Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" - Welch to McCarthy)
Consider further the startling fact that Trump has been playing fast and loose with our nation's most sensitive -- most deadly! -- secrets imaginable for the past four years and 19 months! Who knows how many agents from how many adversaries spied on the copious piles of classified, secret, and top-secret documents lying around higgledy-piggledy and randomly stuffed in moving boxes, following Trump wherever he goes like the dirt cloud swirling around Pigpen!
No doubt, Putin figured out a way into the inner sanctum of his most prized useful idiot long ago. Billionaires, even fake ones, need lots of staff, consulting services, and all sorts of contractors and vendors employing armies of nameless, faceless workers crawling around like ants, especially a high-roller real estate tycoon forever dancing on the edge of the law, bankruptcy, and ruin, always in need of lots of quick cash to stave off hungry, angry wolves snapping at his heels. Any cracks in security?
With a bewildering cast of Star Wars Tatooine cantina characters populating Trump World, the chance of major breaches in America's primary security and defense apparatuses is extremely high. The cost in time and money to chase it all down and reboot entire systems, methods, technologies, and human intelligence networks is incalculable. And the potential longterm damage is mind boggling.
In game theory, as in life, anticipating worst case scenarios is an educated guess of an opponent's hidden agenda and ability to realize their nefarious goals, however incremental in the making. Americans must now seriously face the great possibility that the 45th POTUS has been selling out our country, unwittingly or not, for whatever reason, to our worst enemy and his best buddy on the world stage, Vladimir Putin. In such a sloppy security atmosphere over such a long period of time, it was probably easy pickings even for the most novice of spies.
One of history's many unknowables will likely be what exactly led Putin to think after four years of Trump at the helm he could invade Ukraine with relative impunity? What did he glean from a compliant White House that leaked like a clogged shitter? After all, that was a huge calculation to get wrong. What did he conclude, rightly or wrongly, by rummaging around in Trump's daily waste product about America's declining standing in the world to take such a brazen action?
Once again, with catastrophic results, stable genius Trump and his rinky-dink carnival of assorted brown-nosers and weirdos are caught red-handed flushing the Constitution, the rule of law, and American principles down the toilet for personal gain.
You'd hope that the Mar-a-"Lardo" (Thank you, Michael Cohen) FBI search crew included a large contingent of intrepid plumbers. It was probably like that scene in Game of Thrones when Lady Tyrell approaching King's Landing in her carriage said, "You can smell the shit from five miles away.
Another great piece, thanks for pulling all of this together in one place. What are your thoughts on Space Force, and how that may have fit into some of the early plans? When it was first announced I saw it as an opportunity for Trump to put together a military organization totally under his control. A branch that had no history, no existing command and control structure, and no leadership in place that had spent decades serving the US, independant of the who was in the White House. A branch where Trump could hand pick leadership based on loyalty to Trump rather than loyalty to the USA. Was this ever a real threat, or did it just look like it in the fog of conspiracy?
Here’s another crucial dot to connect that feeds right into all that Thom has speculated. Could this Daily Kos article spell out the actual mechanisms of the coup plan set for January 6th? After all, the coup needed some sort of legitimate-looking trigger, and Trump and his co-conspirators had put a lot of effort into creating his fake set of electors. That wasn’t just for show, was it? https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/3/2114351/-Speculation-on-How-Trump-Intended-to-Execute-His-Coup-on-Jan-6th
In days of yore (pre-Trump,) the FBI would have been on this case - Big Time! Is there any reason to suppose that they are unaware of, or ignoring this situation, or are they just too snowed by everything else, or too kowed to act?
ps — we all know it’s prima fascist obvious — that’s a technical term, but anybody can use it
I had to laugh at the guy this morning on Thom's show that he seemed to have lost this article when he returned to it. Plus, he said that when he went here to read it again, that he couldn't find it.
I laughed ... then I realized that it is now past noon here and I still haven't received this in my morning email (yet?)/ When I came here to read it, the page stalled for a minute or two - and then I had to refresh the page in order to get here. Very strange - and first time that's happened. Anyway, a friend in upstate NY that I introduced to Thom's work sent me an email this morning saying, "I know you read this,…holy shit!" to this article - of which I hadn't (and still haven't) received.
(Link to E.O. 13957 does not work, though it is easily obtainable as a quick search goes to the Federal Register.)
Reading this reminded me of the fine 1962 book, made into a film two years later, in which a cabal of generals and admirals, along with some really despicable senators, plan a coup. A slightly different scenario but not that far away.
But what gets me is how Trump and company thought they could make this stick. It's their innate arrogance and lover of power, I suppose.
It's true that shutting down the Internet and phone system, and taking over the cable television and radio network systems with shills spouting lies would have paralyzed much of the country. But there are still independent commercial radio stations, plus a lot of amateur ones, as well as some newspapers who would have sounded the alarm. And given their communication systems state governments would have figured out what was happening, plus news does filter in from abroad. Finally once they realized what was really going on, a lot of flag officers and ships' captains would have refused to go along with such a power grab. And at the least more liberal colleges and cities would have become outright centers of resistance. . After all, even Putin has had to face some pushback.
The country could have gone anywhere from a chaotic civil war to a fizzle like the last Soviet believers tried against Gorbachev. It would have been awful in any case, but it's hard to see most Americans simply waking up one day and saying, "Okay, we're a dictatorship now." At least I hope not.
It was January 6, 2021, not 2020.
OK, I just have to comment on something ONLY Thom seems to get right.
I'm hearing "you can't have your cake and eat it too!"
That's nonsense, the ONLY cake you can eat is one you have.
In the dark ages, when religion ruled, the word "Flutterby" was changed to "Butterfly", for who knows what reason.
This is the same. The cliché can ONLY be said "You can't eat your cake and have it too!"
It only makes sense that way.
Everyone needs to change this because of the impact on children and foreigners trying to unscramble English.