Will Trump, the autocrat, try to use the military to take control of the protests in various states? That’s the question before us at this most critical time in our history. He is threatening to do just that as these protests go on and on. He says he will do that, based on the Insurrection Act, which he says gives him that power.
Trump has just used the Act to deploy U.S. military troops in Washington DC. He was able to do it because D.C. is not a state. If these protests across America continue, with violence in some of them, then the question is, will Trump send troops into various states where this is happening? If he does, will it be legal? No, it will not!
From Wikipedia: “The Act empowers the U.S. president to call into service the U.S. Armed Forces and the National Guard: when requested by a state’s legislature, or governor if the legislature cannot be convened, to address an insurrection against that state. Here’s the Acts exact wording:
“to address an insurrection, in any state, which makes it impracticable to enforce the law” or:
“to address an insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy, in any state, which results in the deprivation of Constitutionally-secured rights, and where the state is unable, fails, or refuses to protect said rights.
US presidents, down through history, have invoked this Act to quell massive riots, or to provide assistance when cities were greatly damaged by hurricanes. But the Act has never been used by a president to send the military into many states at the same time when they have not requested them.
Trump has not been reacting to these protests in the right way. Instead of speaking to the protesters and telling them to stay calm, that he understands why they are angry, and that all of us should be working together to see that police brutality is brought under control, he is fueling the unrest by condemning what they are doing as unlawful.
Here are some things he has said to exacerbate the situation:
Last Thursday, as violence broke out in Minneapolis, Trump tweeted, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Trump later said his comments had been misconstrued. “Frankly it means when there’s looting, people get shot, and they die,” he said.
Recently, he claimed that many Secret Service agents were “just waiting for action” and ready to unleash “the most vicious dogs, and the most ominous weapons, I have ever seen.” He meant that if protesters, angered by his response to George Floyd’s death, had tried to cross the White House’s security fence, they would be attacked by massive forces.
Trump is just scared sh—less, and in his state of panic, when he saw the many protesters just outside the gates to the White House, he panicked and invoked the Insurrection Act. He ordered the police, the National Guard, and some members of the military, to remove all the protesters, all 100% of them who were protesting peacefully. Police used horses, smoke bombs, tear gas, and rubber bullets to drive them out.
A short time after that we saw Trump, the greatest hypocrite of our time, and some of his minions walking down the path to a Catholic Church near the White House. Trump stood in front of the church and held up a Bible in his right hand and made some statement which I didn’t hear. I was surprised that a bolt of lightning from above didn’t suddenly come down and spoil his photo op.
Washington’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Wilton Gregory strongly criticized Trump’s visit to the Saint John Paul II church near the White House. He said, “I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree.”
If the U.S. military forcibly enters any number of states, we could see all hell break loose, pandemonium in the streets and massive protests with mega-millions screaming out “enough is enough, we’re not going to take this anymore.”
We would likely see a great many of the strong advocates of the 2nd Amendment, those who own guns, including various kinds of assault weapons, come out with them and confront the military. Then, what will happen? We could see lots of blood flowing in the streets of America.
Don’t think that this can’t happen because these people have said that they possess the guns in case they feel law enforcement is trying to totally control this country and, perhaps, try to confiscate their weapons.
There are about 240 million guns in this country and in May there were 1.7 million guns sold. That’s a tremendous amount of firepower and the last thing we need to see in America is a firefight between the military and this country’s gun owners. We don’t need a massive war in this country, that must never happen, but it is entirely possible it will in this dire situation.
Are we in the midst of a modern-day Civil War? Can America and its Democracy withstand the attacks that are being made upon it from forces, not from without, but from within this country? What we desperately need, at this time, is a peoples’ revolution.
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