Somebody Hand Me A Banana
Oh good Lord. Maybe we should consider ourselves very, very lucky to have kept Mike Flynn under a legal gag order for almost four years. The disturbed man wants to firebomb the Constitution.
The retired U.S. Army general [Mike Flynn] tweeted out a link to a post calling for the suspension of constitutional law and a new election overseen by the military to ensure Trump remains in office, despite losing the Electoral College 306-232 and the popular vote by more than 6 million.
Ya know, Flynn twice pleaded guilty to a charge of lying to the FBI about his little chats with the Russian ambassador. I’ve always wondered what they were talking about. Now we know.
Thanks to SGray for the heads up.
I have an idea, let’s let the military oversee Mike Flynn’s suggestion–you know to not defend and uphold the Constitution. I am sure they might be very happy to hold him accountable.
1We certainly dodged a bullet with that one. He was the NS Advisor for what? Three weeks? Just imagine the disasters he could have fomented if he hadn’t been caught lying about his doings with the Russians. Above and beyond the disasters that occurred anyway, I mean.
2This stuff is roiling around in the heads of a lot of repugnanticans and mouthpieces. Noticed that Sidney Powell, Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo were part of the tweet putting this out, so will be picked up by other Fox crazies (and NewsMax, etc.). Won’t be surprised if the Matt Gaetz-like members of Congress will also be talking that way. Hope the press takes every opportunity to question Congress and the administration about this idea and forces them to be on the record. If Trumpf retweet’s this and or does not condemn the notion, it’s 25th amendment time. After all, this grew out of his rhetoric and is the next step.
3This is the kinda thing Gabriel Sterling was talking about.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/01/georgia-election-republicans-trump-gabriel-sterling
4And he’s a Republican.
5“… a new election overseen by the military…”
When has the American military ever overseen an election? I’m not even sure how something like that would work. Does he mean with “advisors” like when Pinochet came to power in Chile? Grenada? Bay of Pigs? Or is Flynn thinking more like a boots on the ground oversight of the electoral process like Vietnam or Korea?
6Analysis of the election shows Trump turned out a group of voters that rarely takes part in elections–very socially isolated, no ideology or party preference, antisocial, likely rural. Translation–the meth crowd loved Trump. And they don’t care at all about institutions, traditions, or maintaining a just and orderly society. They’d support his burning the whole system to the ground and becoming a dictator. Not just figuratively but literally. An impoverished, addicted rural adult with a record and an intrenched resentment of the Other getting what should have been theirs–that’s Trump’s base. So he’s risking very little by advancing rhetoric like this.
7Star: Sometimes the military can be overawed by someone’s prior service…but I would hope in this case not. Not sure I trust the ones who’ve survived Trump’s winnowing, though. General & admirals–flag officers–serve at a president’s pleasure.
Steve from Beaverton: it’s been 25th amendment time for a long, long time.
What it’s time for now is enforcing the law against inciting violence, inciting crime, inciting a riot. Whoever supports it is mounting an attack on the Constitution, which is the foundation of our government and our legal system.
And reminding the public *every day* that every member of both houses of Congress has sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution…breaking that oath is wrong. Every member of the military has sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution…and breaking that oath is wrong. Every officer of the law has sworn to uphold and defend the
8Constitution–even if they did have their fingers crossed behind their back–and breaking that oath is wrong.
Elizabeth Moon: Thanks for the reminder about all the roles that swear to uphold and defend the constitution. And the reality check that people passionate and committed to such may not have survived the Cult of Trumpism and its Purge.
I was also recalling that early comments on Flynn was that he was basically persona-non-grata by the still in the military leaders. But you are right, perceptions may not be what we hope. Thanks again for your wisdom.
9Brad in Dallas: What’s the source of the analysis? Is there a non-paywall site where I can read the findings whole? Not saying it’s wrong, but wanting to know the quality of the research. Just from your description, I see some warning signs of inflated assumptions (that “likely rural” thing among them. Rurality is one of the easier divisions to determine if you’re surveying at the correct range of scale. County level is not fine-grained enough. I live in a country that is now considered “metropolitan” but has sizable areas of true rural (agricultural land, low population density) populations and rural problems.
The attitude of “Those People got what should’ve been mine” is common in urban areas as well, and combined with “Those people are trying to get what IS mine” provides a majority of the GOP base. Sometimes they’re right that Somebody got what was theirs, but they often are fooled about who the Somebody is/was.
At any rate, if you’d be willing to share your sources, I’d appreciate it.
10Why am I picturing “Vote of die” from the South Park episode? Stan asks what that even means and Puff Daddy tells him, “exactly what you think it means b****” as he pulls a 45 on him.
They are like the kid down the street that called do overs and changed the rules every time they lost a game. It’s sad.
11What else could Trumpf try to do in his lame brain duck days before being tossed out of the WH? He’s now threatening to “defund” national defense (the national defense authorization act) because Twitter fact checks him? Hah? WTF? He’ll have to explain the connection to us.
12Obviously he doesn’t understand who controls national defense funding, but I guess he thinks it will play well with his base? Maybe he can rant about that at his Georgia rally Saturday.
Flynn has probably not thought about this (and the Orange Moron never knew it): Commissioned officers are never really “retired” from the Army. They can be called back to duty at any time. I wonder if the new Secretary of the Army will consider recalling Flynn to put him on trial before a Military court for trying to foment a military coup.
It’s a fun thought, in any case.
13BarbinDC @13: I was thinking the same. It would be too bad if he were court martialed for sedition and lost his pension. Free speech has consequences.
14@BarbinDC–That is the best suggestion I have heard so far. If only we could make it happen.
15If my information is correct, Flynn’s pardon is somewhat broad but does not extend to crimes committed after the pardon. I believe this qualifies as sedition, and we’ll see if he attempts to foment insurrection. If he does, Trump will be gone soon and there’ll be a new AG.
16Rick @ 6. The US military oversaw elections in Germany and Japan after WW2. It also wrote the very liberal Japanese constitution.
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