Saw this in the LATIMES. haters gonna hate and all that but this shit is way out of line.

Op-ed If Trump wins, a coup isn't impossible here in the U.S.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion...0719-snap-story.html


James Kirchick

July 19, 2016, 1:45 PM |Reporting from Cleveland


Americans viewing the recent failed coup attempt in Turkey as some exotic foreign news story -- the latest, violent yet hardly unusual political development to occur in a region constantly beset by turmoil -- should pause to consider that the prospect of similar instability would not be unfathomable in this country if Donald Trump were to win the presidency.

Trump is the most brazenly authoritarian figure to secure the nomination of a major American political party. He expresses his support for all manner of strongmen, and his campaign manager, Paul Manafort, has actually worked for one: former Ukrainian president and Vladimir Putin ally Viktor Yanukovich. At the Republican National Convention here Monday, Manafort put some of the tricks he learned overseas as a dictator whisperer to good use, employing underhanded tactics to avoid a roll call vote on the convention’s rules package and quietly removing language from the party platform expressing support for Ukraine’s democratic aspirations.

Throughout the campaign, Trump has repeatedly bragged about ordering soldiers to commit war crimes, and has dismissed the possibility that he would face any resistance. “They won’t refuse,” he told Fox News’ Bret Baierearlier this year. “They’re not gonna refuse me. Believe me.” When Baier insisted that such orders are “illegal,” Trump replied, “I’m a leader. I’ve always been a leader. I’ve never had any problem leading people. If I say do it, they’re going to do it.”

Oh really? Blimpish swagger might fly within the patriarchal confines of a family business, a criminal operation (the distinction is sometimes blurred) or a dictatorship. It does not, however, work in a liberal democracy, legally grounded by a written constitution, each branch restrained by separation of powers.

Try to imagine, then, a situation in which Trump commanded our military to do something stupid, illegal or irrational. Something so dangerous that it put the lives of Americans and the security of the country at stake. (Trump’s former rival for the Republican presidential nomination, Marco Rubio, said the United States could not trust “the nuclear codes” to an “erratic individual.”) Faced with opposition from his military brass, Trump would perhaps reconsider and back down. But what if he didn’t?

In that case, our military men and women, who swear to uphold the Constitution and a civilian chain of command, would be forced to choose between obeying the law and serving the wishes of someone who has explicitly expressed his utter lack of respect for it.

They might well choose the former.

“I would be incredibly concerned if a President Trump governed in a way that was consistent with the language that candidate Trump expressed during the campaign,” retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, who served as head of the CIA and the National Security Agency under President George W. Bush, said in response to Trump’s autocratic ruminations. Asked by TV host Bill Maher what would happen if Trump told American soldiers to kill the families of terrorists, as he has promised to do, Hayden replied, “If he were to order that once in government, the American armed forces would refuse to act.”

“You are required not to follow an unlawful order,” Hayden added. “That would be in violation of all the international laws of armed conflict.”

Previously, in those rare situations when irreconcilable disagreements have arisen between America’s civilian and military leadership, it is the latter who were ultimately deemed out of line. This was the case when President Truman acrimoniously fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur after he publicly criticized Truman for denying him permission to bomb China in the midst of the Korean War. Though MacArthur returned to the United States with a hero’s welcome, Truman’s decision endures as one of the most important in the history of American civil-military relations.

Trump could pull a reverse-Truman, firing a general who refused to bomb.

If this scenario sounds implausible, consider that Trump has normalized so many once-outrageous things -- from open racism to blatant lying. Needless to say, such dystopian situations are unimaginable under a President Hillary Clinton, who, whatever her faults, would never contemplate ordering a bombing run or -- heaven forbid -- a nuclear strike on a country just because its leader slighted her small hands at a summit. Rubio might detest her, but he cannot honestly say that Clinton, a former secretary of State, should not be trusted with the nation’s nuclear codes.

Trump is not only patently unfit to be president, but a danger to America and the world. Voters must stop him before the military has to.

James Kirchick is a fellow with the Foreign Policy Initiative

^^^ That is the most delusional, hateful piece of garbage I've ever read. Not to mention ignorant.

Just made my first donation to Trump's campaign.

That is hilarious. Yep one could never imagine a Clinton ordering a bombing to distract from domestic issues.
Are they truly this blind to recent actions and history or do they just assume that nobody else remembers the Clinton family support for all of the foreign bombings over the past decades?

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
^^^ That is the most delusional, hateful piece of garbage I've ever read. Not to mention ignorant.

Substitute the word Hillary where ever Trump is mentioned and then it'll be spot on. The left always exposes itself and its ambitions through the lies it states about the right.

Hillary is the true enemy of the constitution.

Kirchick is trying to encourage a coup attempt in the event that Trump wins.

Democrats thing democracy is fine – provided their guy wins.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
Kirchick is trying to encourage a coup attempt in the event that Trump wins.

Democrats thing democracy is fine – provided their guy wins.

Yes, that is the other thing.

Freedom in all things as long as the (D) approves.

Trump fired up in Florida

http://www.miamiherald.com/new...article92103212.html

“It’s just a total deflection this whole thing with Russia. ... By the way they hacked, they probably have her 33,000 e-mails. I hope they do. They probably have her 33,000 e-mails that she lost and deleted because you’d see some beauties there. So let’s see.”

The Clinton campaign was quick to respond. Said advisor Jake Sullivan: "This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent. That's not hyperbole, those are just the facts. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue."

I thought the deleted emails were about yoga and Chelsea's wedding ????

Trump bashed President Barack Obama as “the most ignorant president in our history”

When a female reporter asked Trump whether he was encouraging Russia to hack into emails, Trump snapped back: “Be quiet. I know you want to save her,” a reference to Clinton.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue."

Right, you idiot, cause just before, this was really all about a simple "security review." Moron.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
When a female reporter asked Trump whether he was encouraging Russia to hack into emails, Trump snapped back: “Be quiet. I know you want to save her,” a reference to Clinton.

"Oh, schnap!!"

It was fun to watch Trump having an enjoyable batting practice with the reporter's questions.

Trump's request for Putin to release Hillary's deleted emails was obviously humorous. And the Democrat response proved, once again, that they have no sense of humor.

It's fun watching the media get smacked around and they are totally oblivious and can't understand why people aren't mad about it



Can't have it both ways media nimrods!

6 months ago, Clinton called for the FBI to release the emails that were considered Top Secret.

I wonder if Jake Sullivan remembers that.

January 2016

https://www.hillaryclinton.com...9/release-of-emails/

Hillary for America National Press Secretary Brian Fallon released the following statement Friday after the intelligence community demanded that more than 20 emails from Hillary Clinton’s tenure at the State Department be fully withheld from public release:

“We firmly oppose the complete blocking of the release of these emails. Since first providing her emails to the State Department more than one year ago, Hillary Clinton has urged that they be made available to the public. We feel no differently today.

“After a process that has been dominated by bureaucratic infighting that has too often played out in public view, the loudest and leakiest participants in this interagency dispute have now prevailed in blocking any release of these emails. This flies in the face of the fact that these emails were unmarked at the time they were sent, and have been called ‘innocuous’ by certain intelligence officials. We understand that these emails were likely originated on the State Department’s unclassified system before they were ever shared with Secretary Clinton, and they have remained on the department’s unclassified system for years. And, in at least one case, the emails appear to involve information from a published news article.

“This appears to be over-classification run amok. We will pursue all appropriate avenues to see that her emails are released in a manner consistent with her call last year .”


*******************

side note, Don't know what else Trump may have said, but here is a Trump Tweet:

If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton's 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!

http://thefederalist.com/2016/...onal-security-issue/

D-Day is coming soon.

quote:

Originally posted by gw3971:
Saw this in the LATIMES. haters gonna hate and all that but this shit is way out of line.

Op-ed If Trump wins, a coup isn't impossible here in the U.S.

Who is going to lead this coup? Liberals don't like guns. Are they going to bitch-slap their way in?

quote:

Originally posted by WildSig:

quote:

Originally posted by gw3971:
Saw this in the LATIMES. haters gonna hate and all that but this shit is way out of line.

Op-ed If Trump wins, a coup isn't impossible here in the U.S.

Who is going to lead this coup? Liberals don't like guns. Are they going to bitch-slap their way in?

Yes, after they wet their pants and insert their pacifier in their safe space.

sdy posted a link to Trump's presser, above, and if you have not clicked on it and listened, you really should do so. Trump was great. Great. This is the man we want for POTUS: thoughtful, articulate, cool tempered, and taking no shit from the Hillary stooges.

I'll post a youtube link, again. (You need to start at the 33 min mark, or something like that. It's listed.) This is not a snippet, it's the whole-- wonderful-- presser.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGHWou0h1kk

quote:

Originally posted by justjoe:
sdy posted a link to Trump's presser, above, and if you have not clicked on it and listened, you really should do so. Trump was great. Great. This is the man we want for POTUS: thoughtful, articulate, cool tempered, and taking no shit from the Hillary stooges.

I'll post a youtube link, again. (You need to start at the 33 min mark, or something like that. It's listed.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGHWou0h1kk

watched it with my wife a bit ago. her laughing at his zingers is worth any break from work....the anthony weiner comments, the obama knowing nothing and now knows less. i mean just priceless. god bless this great american and his family.

quote:

Originally posted by WildSig:

quote:

Originally posted by gw3971:
Saw this in the LATIMES. haters gonna hate and all that but this shit is way out of line.

Op-ed If Trump wins, a coup isn't impossible here in the U.S.

Who is going to lead this coup? Liberals don't like guns. Are they going to bitch-slap their way in?

Or complain their way to victory. I spoke to a young lady the other day who honestly believed that there would be a violent overthrow from the Left if Trump was elected. I kept a straight face during the entire conversation.