Let’s consider the other side of the issue as well. Let’s assume that Biden does take office at noon on 1/20/2021. Let’s say that in the interim Trump, Barr, the new civilian pentagon leaders, and so on continue to claim Trump won the election and that he will not concede. What sorts of actions would rise to the level where they could be charged with treason?
The new Undersecretary of Defense, Anthony Tata seems nice.
Firing all the top people at the Pentagon and replacing them with loyalists?
They’d need a foreign country that we are enemies with to intervene and/or levy war against the government.
Treason is a super high bar that is near impossible to be convicted of.
Which is not to say they wouldn’t face consequences but not treason.
Certainly don’t have to keep wondering how he got the job.
Yeah. No bueno.
I don’t understand the move here. Trump doesn’t care about getting troops out of the middle east before his last day in office. He doesn’t care about pulling out the troops from South Korea. All things the Pentagon and the national security would resist doing, especially now. His only concern is about his own worthless orange hide. So how does this benefit Trump? If this was just revenge against those who would not comply with his demands, he doesn’t need to fill those positions. He can just fire them and leave as big a mess as he can create. No. He is putting “yes men” into these positions for entirely self serving, self preserving means.
I vacillate about this but right now I’m thinking… what is the chain of command in authorizing (or not) the military to intercept his flight from the US, if such a directive is made by national security?
If that’s his play then we should let the orangutan flee and try him in absentia for his crimes.
If the election was certified, I imagine they’d just set up a temporary office somewhere until the trespassers could be evicted.
I still think pointing and laughing is the best strategy at this point. I think they’d like to incite some violence among the left, and that’s the only think I can think of that might change the equation. And if I’m wrong, worrying about it now isn’t going to help.
I think Trump expects them to deliver him his second term and they’re scared that his itchy Twitter finger’s going to cost them the Senate. I don’t think they have much of a plan.
You may have noticed they aren’t real good at this. The face of their master plan to whip up allegations of voter fraud is Rudy Guiliani waving around ridiculous affidavits from Republican operatives while standing in front of a lawn mower garage located next to a whack-off joint.
Another observation, FWIW, is that they seriously seem caught off guard by his loss. They have no exit plan. Their confidence makes me wonder if maybe we outvoted whatever systemic cheat they had in place.
OTOH, they’re clowns.
And I just saw Brett Bair talking to Pompeo on Fox. He never quite walked back his “quip” -he danced a bit but he came close, talking about other transitions, then Brett asked him what challenges the Biden Adminstration would face and he answered at length.
Not among the evangelicals, they think his nastiness is a feature, not a bug.
Interesting…
If Trump Tweeted that all republicans should stay home in Georgia and not vote in the senate run-off election do you think conservatives would listen?
I really do not know. Doubtless some would but how many?
Put another way, can Trump threaten to pull the rug out on the Georgia senate election for conservatives unless they meet some demands of his? It would be a very Trumpy kinda thing to do. He has no allegiances except to himself. He’d gladly fuck-over Georgia republicans to get his way (IIRC he didn’t want Loeffler in the first place).
I heard he tried to order Esper to unleash troops. If so, Esper rightfully refused to commit treason.
Or Trump is just firing everyone. Expect Fauci to get fired shortly (and then get rehired in two to three months).
Unleash troops on who? BLM protestors? He must then believe that when he refuses to step down and protests break out, his lackeys will order military to be unleashed on the protesters.
Re treason, see what Whack-a-Mole wrote nine or so posts above.
I don’t understand the great popularity of using the word treason to describe a domestic change in the form of government the poster doesn’t, or wouldn’t, like, or a tilt towards a foreign nation the poster dislikes without being a military enemy…Is there some deep emotional satisfaction in using that word?
There is legal treason, and there is conversational treason, meaning, “the crime of betraying one’s country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government.”
As Jesus said, “rat-fuck every election.” Amen.
A Michael Flynn aide is now Acting Undersecretary of Intelligence:
I don’t think it he would explicitly tweet “Republicans, Don’t Vote” but I think If he starts tweeting about “Republican Senate traitors not standing up for me I won the rigged election” - it could seriously depress voter turnout.
And they aren’t going to be able to keep this up until January. It’s already collapsing
If conspiring to overthrow the legally elected government isn’t treason, what is it? Were Confederate leaders not guilty of treason?
Genuinely asking.
Isn’t crossfire hurricane a QAnon thing?
Confederate leaders (indeed, ALL confederate soldiers) were guilty of treason.
But conspiring to overthrow the government I do not think is actually treason in the legal sense unless “overthrow” = “levying war”.
Article III, Section 3, Clause 1: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.
The FFs were really weird about the treason thing. I have forgotten but I think it had been that in Great Britain treason was sort of a catch-all thing used to toss just about anyone the crown didn’t like into prison so the FFs made treason a super hard thing to do.
I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong on that (which would be great…kinda curious myself).