Those who know me or have followed my past FB posts or comments might be familiar with my concerns expressed over the last couple of years that Trump will not leave office when he loses the election this November - mere weeks from now.
We all know that he is engaged in a wide range of
shenanigans to suppress the opposition vote, most recently by efforts to cripple
the U.S. Postal Service. Congressional Members of the former Republican Party
(now the Cult of Trump) have unfailingly enabled him along the way.
It is unclear if any of Trump’s anti-Democratic, unconstitutional
measures to disenfranchise voters will succeed in preventing the American
electorate from throwing him out. Indeed, given the sheer popular disgust at
what he has wreaked upon our nation and global reputation, it seems unlikely.
In earlier musings I’ve wondered about the possibility of Trump,
post-November 3, declaring martial law on some or another pretext, while he
challenges the veracity of the vote, based on bullshit allegations of fraud. I’ve
also worried he might unleash his brownshirts again, as he did in Portland.
Worse, I’m genuinely concerned that his well-armed lunatic fringe
of supporters – like the so-called Proud Boys, or their extremist right-wing anarchist
allies the Boogaloo Bois, or whichever other flavor-of-the-day madfolk – might take
it upon themselves to rain terrorist havoc down on our country.
I’ve chuckled at the blue-sky media musings of Trump
refusing to step down only to have the Secret Service escort his sorry ass out
of the White House on January 20, 2021, and, with no anointed Chief Executive,
ushering in Nancy Pelosi in his stead. Yeah, right. Not.
No, Trump knows he’s fucked if he leaves. Too many State-based
legal cases stacked up against him that will almost certainly produce adverse
results for him and his grifter kin that cannot be undone by Federal pardon,
should someone be dumb enough to contemplate such a sin.
Which leads us to what Trump has occasionally referred to as
his “secret powers.” As he blathered in March of this year, “I have the right
to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about.” Meh, with Trump, we
all just assumed he was spewing more bullshit.
Whoops. Someone somewhere (Rudy? That criminal creep?) may
have briefed the Idiot-in-Chief-cum-SAT-cheater on the concept of Presidential Emergency
Action Documents, also known (sigh) as PEADs. Lord, what a nightmare when it
comes to Trump (his supporters are still fixated on “cum”).
There’s been a lot of chatter today and in recent days about
PEADs, basically presidential orders that are drafted in anticipation of a
range of hypothetical, worst-case scenarios. Okay. Except, uh, no-one knows –
not even the Congress – what powers a PEAD might afford a President. It’s
classified. FFS.
PEADs were born in and of the Cold War and fears of a nuclear
attack that might incapacitate the country. The assumption was that a sitting
President (and advisors) would have in mind the best interests of the country
and citizenry and act accordingly. Trump? Oh shit.
While there are no publicly available PEADs, they are known
to contain provisions allowing, for instance, suspension of the Constitution,
you know, martial law, the roundup and detention of people not suspected of any
crime, etc. That sort of stuff. Basically, Trump’s abuses in Portland, on
steroids.
Oh, it gets worse. Under the National
Emergencies Act of 1976, the President can declare a national emergency just by
signing a proclamation. Trump? Oh. Shit. Again. And this, now, is how I anticipate
he will address his loss in November, or, before, perhaps suspending the elections
altogether.
I’ve not been a fan of the gloom-and-doom types predicting a
post-election civil war. We’re bigger and better than that, I’ve thought. Well
my American friends, in whatever fashion, we cannot let any PEAD-inspired
abomination occur. It would be the end of our nation. Stand up.
