by William Skink
If Trump is elected president of the United States of America and his rhetoric turns into action, don’t worry, says former CIA Director Michael Hayden, there will be a coup:
It’s not entirely clear that Donald Trump understands the movement he’s started. But America’s entrenched political establishment is now scrambling to understand how to deal with the Trump juggernaut and it’s not just politicians who are concerned.
Indeed, former intelligence officials now say the brazen billionaire could face a veritable security rebellion if he’s elected.
“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,” Former CIA director Michael Hayden said, in an interview with Bill Maher. Hayden also says that the armed forces would simply refuse to follow Trump’s orders were he to be elected and follow through on his campaign promises.
Here’s what Hayden had to say about Trump’s promise to kill family members of ISIS: “God, no! Let me give you a punchline: If he were to order that once in government, the American armed forces would refuse to act. You cannot—you are not committed, you are not required, in fact you’re required to not follow an unlawful order. That would be in violation of all the international laws of armed conflict. There would be a coup in this country.”
Coming from a former head of the agency that enacted a coup against Kennedy in 1963, that’s a strong statement. How would this country react to Trump being removed from office? And what justification would be used?
I’m surprised Hayden is acting so squeamish about killing family members of terrorists. If killing family members of terrorists is a coup-worthy action, why is Obama still in office? Remember, Team Obama had no problem killing the 16 year old son of Anwar al-Awlaki with a drone strike. Here is how Robert Gibbs justified using lethal force against an American teenager:
ADAMSON: …It’s an American citizen that is being targeted without due process, without trial. And, he’s underage. He’s a minor.
GIBBS: I would suggest that you should have a far more responsible father if they are truly concerned about the well being of their children. I don’t think becoming an al Qaeda jihadist terrorist is the best way to go about doing your business.
So the problem doesn’t seem to be with American Presidents killing the children of terrorists. Obama did it and there weren’t any consequences. The problem appears to be more how Trump is choosing to talk about continuing the Obama policy of targeting the children of terrorists for execution.
Trump is definitely not acting very presidential. He doesn’t seem to know that when you talk about killing people, as the president, you need to use bloodless euphemisms so as not to unduly upset the electorate. Also, when you are too honest about your murderous intentions, it makes an agency talking head who lies as easily as he breathes willing to openly discuss doing what up until now has only been enacted covertly.
JC
Wait a minute, we’re currently not killing the children of ISIS?
no, our allies are supplying ISIS, silly Swede.
Hayden’s probably pissed that Trump seems ungrateful for his work shredding the 4th Amendment and worried he would fire everyone connected with The Chertoff (lobby)Group, where GW Bush’s top spooks went to graze on federal contracts for full-body scanners and other expensive airport security equipment.
“We are living in a world in which a handful of high-tech companies, sometimes working hand-in-hand with governments, are not only monitoring much of our activity, but are also invisibly controlling more and more of what we think, feel, do and say. The technology that now surrounds us is not just a harmless toy; it has also made possible undetectable and untraceable manipulations of entire populations – manipulations that have no precedent in human history and that are currently well beyond the scope of existing regulations and laws.” – Robert Epstein http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44353.htm
Steve, ya got to get this new game. It’s called “Sanders Monopoly”.
http://11886-presscdn-0-22.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/aBuugTd.jpg
It is a complicated landscape, hard to read. I have wondered if Trump is a real wild card, as he has said things that are patently true, as with other countries being better off without American invasions or Putin being a distinguished leader. But he doesn’t follow through, and is frustratingly short of depth.
If he genuinely believes that he can attain office and exercise its power without dealing with other higher powers, he is naive and will be brought into line, as I believe Reagan was, but I cannot know of course. Pure speculation, Reagan being shot by a friend of the Bush family. If it was a real event.
The rich that fund the GOP are deathly afraid. If Trump wins, they lose their power and influence. Trump can’t be bought, they can. Americans know this. They rally to Trump.
If Trump wins, there’s a very high likelihood that he’ll be assassinated. The key for him is to fund his private security so he can get away from the Praetorian Guards that will do him in. Taking out the CIA and NSA before January 20 will be critical. He can do it, we’re counting on him.
If they can’t control you, they’ll take you out. Nixon, JFK and Truman come quickly to mind. Trump is far enough out of the mainstream political machines that most likely they’re just floating some balloons out there. And it appears that GOP is responding quite rapidly (Mitt???).
My take is that Trump is just making overt statements about policies that the dark state wants kept covert. It’s ok to torture people as long as the torturers are in control of the spin. It’s ok to carpet bomb as long as the carpet bombers are in control of the spin. But once someone who isn’t in on the spin starts spouting off, it makes people nervous.
If Trump wins, he’s either going to have to consolidate power rapidly — totalitarian/fascist style — or he’ll be taken out just like the others and replaced with a lackey or a military “placeholder”. Watch the maneuvering for who they are going to force as a vice presidential pick on Trump. That will be the first visible skirmish for power — Trump’s pick vs. their pick. If they get their pick, Trump eventually goes away and the VP carries on. If Trump gets his pick, he gets overthrown if he can’t consolidate power quick enough (WWIII???). At least they gave Nixon the choice — get a new VP fast, or you’re both gone.
I guess it really depends on your outlook, and how much power you think regular citizens have anymore. For instance, I don’t think our representatives in Washington have any power at all now. Most has been taken away and what still remains is dictated by the corporations tugging the campaign contribution leash.
I would like to see Trump take on the power behind the curtain. I’m not sure he could, however. Maybe it’s too late for that, or maybe the levers of power just won’t allow it. After all, how much real power does the president even have anymore? Compared to the Bank of International Settlements, not much.
He’s got the power behind the world’s biggest military and nuclear force. And he is probably insane enough to think he could use it, damn the consequences and whomever thinks they have control over him. It is naive to think that a future president may not make a power play to consolidate the military and economic forces needed to complete a fascist state and wage war on the rest of the world.
Here, go read Hedges. He puts it fairly clearly. There’s a lot more cogent analysis along similar lines. Neofascism is on the rise in america, and Trump may be the solidifying player. Clinton will just ease the process along as Obama did.
Couple of points I thought interesting after listening to Craig Hewlett on the radio tonight.
What is Kissinger’s role in global affairs right now and would Trump be subservient to whatever deals the man forces upon him?
Was the recent rise in oil prices, just before Super Tuesday, a clear indication that the switch will not be flipped, the economy will not be sent into a tailspin this year? Oil prices are a main driver of the stock market and we know the petrol dollar is what we use to bind the nations to our will.
Did Karl Rove screw up by releasing Jeb too early, putting him in 4 primary contests he had no chance of winning….at least in a crowded field? Maybe it should have been Jeb up there instead of Romney on Thursday.
http://www.craigbhulet.com/
All part of the plan. Mitt is stepping in at the brokered convention causing turmoil causing Hillary and the Dems slide into home.
All part of the evil plot.
They take turns in office, and it is the Republicans’ turn. Trump might mess this up, meaning a four-year Democrat in office. As I see it, they don’t want Trump, won’t allow it. I assume, somehow, someone else “emerges” in the Republcian field, most likely Cruz. But as time goes on and Trump fails to fail, even despite constant negative press at every level, it is getting harder and harder to steal the thing from him without being obvious.
American politics is so effing corrupt at every level, vote counts especially malleable. But Trump is somehow surviving.
We’ve seen this act before. The bravado before the brink. Populist Caesar ignored the warning: Beware the ides of March. The bigger they come, they harder they fall. Don’t forget to duck.
CIA is a catch word, meaning intelligence. Who are intelligence? They are those who work for the oligarchs, often saying they work for elected officials or in service of the military. They are moles and wonks, people who connive better than most, who try to stay one or four steps ahead of public opinion so they can manage it. They run false events, false flag attacks, and have complete control of the news media. They were around long before there was a CIA or even USA. They do not necessarily own the politicians, whose ownership is more mundane – oil companies, health and PhRMA, Monsanto, timber lobby and mining own those guys so there are often real conflicts in election contests, but it doesn’t matter, as in the end, the vote cannot be audited and is what they say it is.
If CIA officials say in public they are worried about Trump, that means they own him and are not worried about him.
Took me 28 years to learn all of this. And the learning never stops.
Trump is #1 sheepdog. Anything and everything of value will be looted if we stay on this path. We are the Middle East on a longer fuse.
I personally think that if they try to take Donald Trump out of the White House there will be an uprising of the American People against the corruption. And it will not be pretty. We the People have spoken and Chose who we wanted to run this country. No matter how well qualified any of the machine feels he is. He will surround himself with those that can do the things that need to be done. The political correctness, the total disrespect for the laws of the land, the racism, the illegal immigrants. We are sick of it. We want change. President Elect Trump has brought that change to us. Blaming Hillarys loss on everything and everyone but her is just plain stupidity. She put herself where she is.