Let’s Talk about Insurrection by Retired Military…
Earlier, we were talking about retired Air Force Lt. Colonel Larry Rendell Brock, Jr. who was photographed taking part in the paramilitary operation that took over the Capitol on Wednesday. Members of Oathkeepers and the Three Percenters, as well as othersThere were a lot of others like Brock at the Capitol who were working together as a unit to…wait for it…shut down the US Congress and kidnap or even kill elected officials of the US Government. That is the very definition insurrection. AND, Ooo; Ooo; here’s the good part – on top of the jail time they get, under several federal laws, a military retiree convicted of certain crimes, INCLUDING INSURRECTION, can be court-martialed, convicted, STRIPPED OF ALL THEIR RETIREMENT and other benefits. That’s right, folks, and it gets better. Just last year, the Supreme Court declined to take an appeal of a court-martial of a military retiree for rape that stripped him of his retirement benefits.
I’m hearing that arrests are up to 100 and climbing, and the FBI is looking for a whole bushel basket full of other Trumpists-turned-felons. Oh, and by the by – The Justice Department announced today that Larry Brock was arrested today in Texas. Mr. Zip Tie, Eric Gavelek Munchel, was also arrested today in Tennessee. All these cases are being prosecuted by the Justice Department Anti-Terrorism Division in Washington. Boom.
None other than Clint Eastwood made a movie with a most appropriate title: “Hang ‘Em High”.
The plot, etc., doesn’t fit, but the movie name sure does.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hang_%27Em_High
“Hang ‘Em High was the first production of The Malpaso Company, Eastwood’s production company.”
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1It is [less than] 1 week, 2 days, 17 hours, 21 minutes, 22 seconds until Wednesday, January 20, 2021 at 12:00:00 noon (Washington DC, District of Columbia time)
And these were the officers I was sworn to obey during my enlistment?
2Reading this and the involvement of a high ranking ret. officer’s participation. I could find no analogies to the (now) tepid movie: 7 Days in May, where AF Gen.James Matoon Scott’s seditious attempt to take contol of the country ended with actor Burt Lancaster telling his driver to take him home.- his plot finally squelched.
The current hunt,indlctments and prosecutions for these insurrectionists could never have been imagined by the writer’s of the movie.
3As a person wrote on another blog I frequent:
“Play terrorist games, win terrorist prizes.”
You’ve made the biggest mistake of your life, Lt. Col. Brock (ret.). Whatever career you had, whatever benefits you earned, are most likely gone forever, along with your honor. The Air Force will want nothing to do with you, when it’s over.
4I know, I know, it sounds promising, but I’m still not holding my breath that any of these asshats will see jail time, let alone lose any benefits.
5El Jefe, as one who once served with honor, love of country and strict adherence to both the UCMJ and Constitution, nothing would please me more than these rogues seditionists receiving a late lesson by whatever can be legally stripped from them in way of pay and benefits. In a just world, Petraeus and Flynn would be first up to be stripped.
RHIP (rank has it privileges) needs to go the way of the DOJ memo that was misused to protect the fu king moron. Equality under the law, or there is no rule of law.
6The Trumpf department of defense sent out an official statement calling the insurrection a “1st amendment event”. Let’s hope that doesn’t influence charging them with serious federal crimes that should result in the loss of retirement benefits outlined above. In 10 days, Biden’s DOJ and defense department will hopefully reclassify these crimes for what they are. And if any active military, law enforcement or politicians are found to be involved, treason.
7Lots going on. Hard to keep up. IMO, all this and the preceding history of at least this country, shows no long-term meaningful change because there is no way at this time to intervene between these parents and their ability to indoctrinate their children replacements.
8Hence, it is “deja vu all over again” until this cycle can be broken. If this is a potential answer to stopping this cycle, does anyone care to put forth a viable answer, solution? Or perhaps a better one?
Question for the military guys: would a blanket amnesty issued by Trump supersede the court martial and loss of benefits? Sure would like to see them convicted and jailed.
Even though Flynn was pardoned for lying to the FBI, can he be court-martialed?
9And I love this. Oh Boo hoo proud boy.
https://www.rawstory.com/rioter-kicked-off-plane-nofly/
10I see no change in Congressional GOP. Various small fry in this coup will be picked up by the FBI, but I’m waiting for a big fish, but I think that will be as difficult to find as a unicorn.
11Article I, Section 8, Clause 15:
[The Congress shall have Power . . .] To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
Under US Code, the Militia is not the National Guard, not groups of self-anointed yahoos who want to call themselves militias. The function of the real Militia is to suppress insurrections like the Capitol Riot, and to administer existing US law. These fool SOBs have asked to be put down and have the law dropped on their heads; we should accomodate them.
12Benedict Donald would be wise to take the resignation deal. If the Senate convicts and he no longer has secret service protection, collection of the 3mil reward from Iran will be so much easier. And then there is the arrest warrant out by the Iraqis.
13In addition, his po children would lose security and there are some who could not afford it on their own.
As I mentioned on another thread here, the Tangerine Twitler is going to visit the Rio Grande Valley in Deep South Texas in order to fondle his precious environmentally destructive ‘Wall’ one last time.
Very ironically, one of his stops will be in –Alamo–, TX .
[AKA, p/o PSJA, PharrSanJuanAlamo, three Valley towns that used to be quite small villages a few miles apart, but have all grown together now, in a massive ‘burb of McAllen, sort of].
Let’s hope that when the dust settles, none of the MAGAots, Trumpanzees, GOPers, or Trump are left standing. Having all been massacred at their own Alamo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamo,_Texas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Juan,_Texas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharr,_Texas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Grande_Valley
The Valley, my [former] homeplace :
14“The Río Grande Valley (Spanish: Valle del Río Grande) is a transborder socio-cultural region located in a floodplain draining into the Rio Grande river near its mouth.[1]
The region includes the southernmost tip of South Texas and a portion of northern Tamaulipas, Mexico. It consists of the Brownsville, Harlingen, Weslaco, Pharr, McAllen, Edinburg, Mission, San Juan, and Rio Grande City metropolitan areas in the United States and the Matamoros, Río Bravo, and Reynosa metropolitan areas in Mexico.[2][3] These cities are surrounded by many small neighborhoods or colonias.[4]
The area is generally bilingual in English and Spanish with a fair amount of Spanglish[5] due to the diverse history of the region.[6]
There is a large seasonal influx of “winter Texans” — Texans who come down from the north for the winter and then go back up north before summer arrives.[7] “
Oh yeah, forgot linkies:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/1/10/2007938/-Scenes-from-the-bunker-Trump-plans-unironic-trip-to-the-Alamo-still-furious-about-Twitter-ban
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-10/trump-plans-defiant-final-week-as-many-democrats-urge-his-ouster?sref=zQ8DuwIB
15Easttxdem @9. To your two part question, yes retired military personnel can be court martialed. The second part of your question is way beyond my pay grade, and complex. To my knowledge the the question of a pardon vs. court martial has never been answered in any court. The example of Flynn being pardoned doesn’t address that question as he was tried in civilian court, not court martialed. Petraeus was never court martialed; he ‘stepped down.’
Sadly the military has a dismal record on court martialing flag officers, so court challenges beyond that are substantially non-existent. Short answer on a presidential pardon, those are irreversible. So if the courts were to take another bite at Flynn it would be through the PA courts for crimes he committed there that are non federal which would be a big reach.
16Yep, there have been pardons for those convicted by courts martial.
https://www.militaryjusticeattorneys.com/blog/presidential-pardon-the-last-line-of-defense/
“A presidential pardon generally relieves the offender of all punishments, penalties, and disabilities that flow directly from the conviction”
“A presidential pardon does not, however, erase or expunge the record of a military conviction. ”
“the pardon of a military court-martial conviction will not change the character of a military discharge (e.g. dishonorable or bad conduct). ”
There also have been commutations.
17I will bet a large amount that, even if trump is stripped of Secret Service protection, he will still get it. The Republicans in Congress will go to the mat for it.
Regarding arrests, I have been thinking. While I think all the rioters should have been herded into a stadium, there is the issue of covid.
But their ID could have been and should have been confiscated.
18Just wondering, do the people planning Trump’s trip to Texas know that The Alamo is not in Alamo, TX? The way sone news sites are reporting it, I’m not sure.
19As a former USAF Captain, I will enjoy the “a military retiree convicted of certain crimes, INCLUDING INSURRECTION, can be court-martialed, convicted, STRIPPED OF ALL THEIR RETIREMENT and other benefits part!
20I have long been appalled at the dubious actions of many of high ranking retired officers.
There was a time when being a US Military officer was an honorable profession.
Yes well, if the cops and the troops hadn’t opened the barricade and let the terrorists walk free the arrests wouldn’t be “up to 100 and climbing,” they’d be in the thousands.
But noooooooooooo, the cops and the national guard aided and abetted the people who attacked the nation and the Constitution.
We need to see arrests of the co-conspirators who let the terrorists into the Capitol and then escorted them out.
21Harry Eager @ 18:
Somehow, I don’t think the terrorists would have a leg to stand on if they tried to claim that the government was exposing them to covid by holding them in a stadium:
1] From the pics I’ve seen, I would wager not one of them bothered to bring a mask from home. Holding the government to a higher level of protection than they afforded themselves seems ridiculous on its face.
2] Any stadium would easily accommodate the number present at a social distance from one another. Not that they’d take advantage of such opportunity, but it would be available to them.
Yes, the entitled brats would scream but how would that behavior be different from what they’re already doing? It would be less dangerous to the nation and to each other but that’s all.
22Here is something about the military reaction. To understand this story, you have to know that Sykesville, Maryland, where I live, and Washington, D.C., are each the same distance from Baltimore.
In 1831, there was a riot in Sykesville. A militia force was assembled in Baltimore and sent to Sykesville. It was the first movement of armed troops by rail in history.
(But not by steam engine. There weren’t any in America then, the rail cars were pulled by horses.)
On Wednesday, a National Guard force was assembled in Baltimore to deal with the riotous insurrection in Washington.
23The Guard took longer to get to Washington this week than the militia took to get to Sykesville 189 years ago.
twocrows @22 …
Apparently, one of the items on the agenda of the new acting head of the Capitol Police is investigation of what happened…. and there are additional investigations going on, too. One source said 8 separate investigations.
Washington Post began an article with the CPD’s own investigations, saying “The Department also has been actively reviewing video and other open source materials of some USCP officers and officials that appear to be in violation of Department regulations and policies,” she said. “Our Office of Professional Responsibility will investigate these behaviors for disciplinary action, up to, and including, termination.”
Tally so far, according to the article: “Several U.S. Capitol Police officers have been suspended and more than a dozen others are under investigation for suspected involvement with or inappropriate support for the demonstration last week that turned into a deadly riot at the Capitol”
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