Thursday, December 3, 2020

Flynn Retweets Call For Trump To Declare Martial Law To Hold New Elections—Jonathan Turley

Retired Gen. Michael Flynn embraced an extreme call this week for President Donald Trump to declare martial law to hold a new presidential election. In a tweet, Flynn appeared to endorse a call from We the People Convention to declare martial law. He added “Freedom never kneels except for God.” As someone who long criticized Flynn’s prosecution as abusive, his association is deeply disappointing.…

Banana republic watch. Or maybe just bananas.

JONATHAN TURLEY
Flynn Retweets Call For Trump To Declare Martial Law To Hold New Elections
Jonathan Turley | Professor for Public Interest Law in the George Washington University Law School

Also

AlterNet
'All about money': Insider explains how Trump will 'set himself up for the future' by undermining Biden
Alex Henderson

Read along with Ray Dalio, The Changing World Order, chapters 8 and 9, available on Linkedin (free subscription).

The Changing World Order is forthcoming as book but a preview of the chapters is available at Linkedin. It is worth reading. 

Dalio's points are worth considering, although I would not endorse his analysis without qualifications, since I don't think he understands the world system well enough in terms of its historical development given the angle of his approach, which, of course, is from the vantage of a fund manager. Being a fund manager is an advantage in that it requires being well acquainted with material, psychological, political and social factors that influence finance and economics, but it is also a disadvantage in being limited to that focus.

Another big problem I see is that Dalio rejects MMT analysis and views sound money as a social, political and economic value based on his reading of history. He doesn't seem to be aware that "munnie" is a financial asset and liability (which he has to be but doesn't draw the implications), and he doesn't sufficiently understand the implications of sovereign currency issuers versus users, even though he is aware of this. This limits his ability to achieve a comprehensive view of the world system and how nations fit into it historically.

That said, I think it is well worthwhile to become familiar with his analysis. He covers a lot of the basics. He is also very modest and freely admits that getting a handle on something of this is scope is hugely challenging.

According to Dalio, the driving force of human history is power and wealth, which give control. He also analyzes the current dynamic in the US, into which the above links fit. In Dalio's view things like this indicate potential turning points in the rise and fall of power structures, including political systems.


50 comments:

Peter Pan said...

Flynn was traumatized by his experience. Free pass awarded.

Matt Franko said...

I think you are getting carried away here a bit... all the Trump people are alleging is election fraud and are trying to get a court to order illegally counted ballots be thrown out of the totals... perhaps cover the current non-binding recognized margins in some key swing states... then Trump keeps the office...

It doesnt have anything to do with larger issues... just election fraud and election security...



Peter Pan said...

The legal redress route is about to run its course.

Then what?

I doubt the pickup truck crowd is willing to lay everything on the line for Trump or Trumpism.

Matt Franko said...

Here is a REAL conspiracy theory for you “neoliberal conspiracy!” believers:

https://truth11.com/2020/12/02/obama-biden-cia-director-gina-haspel-evidently-arrested-for-espionage-voter-fraud/

Matt Franko said...

More ... I’m getting bombarded:

https://m.thebl.com/us-news/democrat-fraud-retired-general-confirms-seizure-of-dominions-servers-in-germany-from-cia-hq.html

Tom Hickey said...

ROFLMAO!

Matt Franko said...

Those are the more tame ones Tom....

lastgreek said...

Flynn was still being paid as a Turkish agent when he was your national security advisor. Why this man without a shred of ethics is not rotting in prison is beyond me... oh wait -- he was part of the reality tv clown administration. OK, that now explains it :)

Peter Pan said...

They did give it the old college try, but Erdogan escaped assassination.

Unknown said...

Right-wingers with short memories or just plain ignorance that 24% of the 2016 presidential election consisted of postal absentee ballots. Can't recall Trump crying like a baby the electoral system was fraudulent then can you Franko?

Matt Franko said...

You guys don’t have any voters.... your voters consist of corrupt urban machine Democrat goons running the same stack of ballots back thru the scanners over and over and over again... paper tiger...

Unknown said...

Can't recall Trump crying like a baby the electoral system was fraudulent then can you Franko?

Answer the question Franko!

Unknown said...

I'll answer it. No Trump wasn't crying like a baby in 2016 that the 24% of postal absentee ballots were fraudulent or the Republican Party had rigged the election through biased voter software, etc. because he'd won the presidential election. You need to be mindful Franko that what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander with or without an Arts Degree!

Matt Franko said...

“Crying like a baby” = figurative language...

Trump is pursuing a legal challenge in courts because they were unsolicited (illegal) ballots.... nothing wrong with that...

Look here is our dialogic Tom from the other day: “we knew this already”.... starts with the Thesis first... no objectivity at all... completely opposite of scientific training..,, I don’t know how you people can drive a car... what if you come to a fork in the road?

In any case Don’t count me in as “we” here... I didn’t know anything...

Now what happens if Trump’s legal challenges are successful?

Maybe he won’t be but maybe he will be....

If he is successful then you morons are going to be there coming up with more “neoliberal conspiracy!” theories.., that will be all you have left..l

Matt Franko said...

And another thing with you people that is hard to understand is that Trump is far and away the Dialogic candidate ... his preferred methodology is negotiating into a synthesis of the opposing theses... rather than warfare...

And yet you guys are claiming you are anti war... so this is hard to understand...

Tom Hickey said...

his preferred methodology is negotiating into a synthesis of the opposing theses... rather than warfare...

Uh, no. DJT's "negotiation on the basis of strength" is using economic warfare as a siege strategy, and it is lethal to noncombatants, just as contemporary kinetic war is.

It is a form of aggression and it is a potential war crime and crime against humanity. The US leadership has buckets of blood on its hands going back to Vietnam. Trump is adding to it.

One can argue that economic warfare is preferable to kinetic warfare, and if there is going to be war, I would agree with that, for one thing, owing to the danger of things spinning out of control with kinetic warfare.

But in this scenario, hybrid warfare including economic warfare, is preliminary to kinetic warfare if the former doesn't get the job done. Regarding this, Trump is for establishing permanent US military dominance, along with geopolitical and economic dominance.

Empires are based on vassals and colonies. The only choice is how the empire chooses to deal with this on a range from velvet glove to iron fist.

Tom Hickey said...

You guys don’t have any voters.... your voters consist of corrupt urban machine Democrat goons running the same stack of ballots back thru the scanners over and over and over again... paper tiger...

And there is hard evidence of this?

Not that there may not be evidence. But so far it's conspiracy theory all the way down. Courts have not even gotten to the point of considering the so-called evidence because they have not found anything in the complaint to act on.

Tinfoil hat stuff so far.

Tom Hickey said...

Just caught this.

Only 26 Out of 249 Republicans in US Congress Convinced Biden Won Election, Survey Shows

Gives divisiveness new meaning. Ray Dalio's projection (links in post) of possible revolution or civil war at this stage of the cycle may be prescient.

Now the Democrats believe that Trump was elected in 2016 through the Russian collusion and the GOP now believes that Biden was elected by massive voter fraud.

All we need now is economic contraction to raise pressure and blow the lid off, amid pandemic, climate change and war. All four of the horsemen are mounted up.

Peter Pan said...

Maduro's master plan comes to fruition ;)

Joe said...

It's truly insane to believe there was any significant election fraud beyond the few dumbfucks that sent in their dead spouses ballots (and those people usually get caught)...

Anytime they get in court where it matters, where there's consequences for lying, their "evidence" suddenly dries up. They're now 1-46 in court. They've been literally laughed out of course multiple times. They couldn't even hire real election lawyers.

The conspiracy involves Venezuela, Cuba, possibly China and Hong Kong, Germany, Spain, Serbia, dead voters, voters from Camden voting in PA, US special forces raiding an office in Germany to confiscate a server, trucks of ballots crossing state lines, dems in the other room filling out ballots, poll workers giving republican watchers dirty looks, machines flipping votes, machines throwing away votes, the Clinton Foundation, people who are friends of antifa, Soros, Soros's #2 guy, Dominion sending an executive to personally oversee cheating in Detroit, "massive dumps", governor Kemp in GA accepting a bribe from Dominion, and now they're even alleging the FBI and DOJ are in on it.

If you can't tell it's a bunch of made up horseshit, then I have a bridge to sell you. It's all ready to install a tollbooth on it and generate you monthly income...

Why would you need to do voter fraud when the machines can just flip votes? Never mind that the recount in GA showed no discrepancies, two recounts in WI showed no discrepancies, and an audit in AZ showed no discrepancies. Never mind that coordinated voter fraud is basically impossible. You'd have to fake the ballots, which would require hacking multiple states or the manufacturer of ballots to be able to fake legit bar codes. You'd have to fill out hundreds of thousands (even millions!) of ballots by hand and sign them by hand (or else you'd have found 10's of thousands of obviously printed signatures), then you'd have to hack the postal service to fake the prepaid postage. Then you have to drop box after box after box of ballots off at the post office or drop boxes without drawing suspicion. It'd likely cost millions of dollars leaving a paper trail, with multiple teams across multiple states, all within a 2 or 3 week window. At least several dozen if not hundreds of people. The CIA likely couldn't pull it off, much less the DNC..

Matt Franko said...

“ negotiation on the basis of strength" is using economic warfare as a siege strategy”

It’s not a “siege!” ( figurative language) .. All the other side has to do is make a deal then they get what they want... it’s not a siege if you make a deal... its a deal...

Tom Hickey said...

It’s not a “siege!” ( figurative language) .. All the other side has to do is make a deal then they get what they want... it’s not a siege if you make a deal... its a deal...

A contract based on force is not a legal contract. Force is excluded from legal negotiation, as in "no deal."

Blackmail is illegal even if the objective is legal. It's not figurative speech.

Neither is "siege." Like blockade, it is an act of war. Siege tactics are permitted in war under international law, but only if directed at a military target and does not deprive civilians of vital necessities. If it does, it is prohibited.

Peter Pan said...

Have patience and wait for the legal process to conclude. Then you can say "I told you so".

What is happening with the thousands of affidavits?

Matt Franko said...

“ What is happening with the thousands of affidavits?”

They don’t exist...

Peter Pan said...

What is in Guliani's binder? He says these are affidavits.

Joe said...

It's not that the affidavits don't exist, it's they don't mean anything significant. Kinda like how Trump has tweeted out videos that just show election workers doing their job, as if it's nefarious (ballots have to be transported to the counting center, they don't just magically show up)... Some of these affidavits are literally that someone gave the person a dirty look making them feel "threatened".

During the Michigan hearing, Rudy threw a fit when one of the MI lawmakers wanted to put people under oath, so they didn't put them under oath. The best he came up with was a drunk woman and some woman who thinks all Chinese people look the same (“A lot of people think Indians look alike. I think all Chinese people look alike. So, how would you tell? If some Chow show up, you can be anybody and you can vote,” It's hilarious, I agree, but not exactly the wording I'd have chosen if I wanted to be taken seriously).. If the evidence were really overwhelming and obvious, are these really the best he could come up with? Some Republicans in MI described it as embarrassing. In AZ, it wasn't even a legit hearing, it was just people meeting in a hotel ballroom.

They got MI and MN mixed up and submitted election data from MN counties to a MI court. They sued the wrong party at least once (which I'll let them slide on, I've heard even experienced attorney's can do this from time to time, but again, they don't have proper election lawyers). One of the plaintiffs in a GA case didn't even know he was a plaintiff until he learned about it on social media.. Powell's "kraken" in GA said votes were flipped from Biden to Trump, which she later had to amend to correct it, in addition to entire sentences with no spaces and references to attached documents that weren't attached (that also happened in MI). Then there was the infamous "non-zero number of Republicans in the room" incident, followed by the judge laughing them out of court.

Trump's fundraising emails gave the game away in the fine print, most of the money doesn't even go towards his legal fight. Most just goes to a Trump controlled PAC set up after the election.

And Rudy twice had farts caught on the mic in MI. Not significant of really much of anything, just funny. Same as his hair dye, and hosting a press at four seasons total landscaping across from a crematorium a few doors down from a porn store.. Although the reports are now that Rudy has indeed asked for a pardon..

Matt Franko said...

You guys watching all of your commie media are not going to see the reporting on any evidence they have and are presenting...

Peter Pan said...

I watched a few hours in total of the testimony.
I watch Convo Couch, which is one of the few channels concerned with election integrity.

Guliani et al. are doing a disservice to a serious issue, but that is to be expected.

Greg said...

Commie media? ?

Matt you have lost whatever credibility you’ve ever had on any subject by just mindlessly labeling anything left of fascism as commie. You are just a fucking joke. Grow the fuck up. Stop the nonsense

Calgacus said...

Trump is pursuing a legal challenge in courts because they were unsolicited (illegal) ballots.... nothing wrong with that...

But that's not really why he is doing that - according to Consortium News & CNN reports - he told an unidentified friend that this is just payback for Russiagate. Of course he knows Biden won and that there was no fraud.

While this is infantile, both parties share blame. The reckless, fabricated nothingburger of Russiagate was itself an attack on elections and democracy - and it started before Trump had a chance to do anything wrong. But tens of millions of people were convinced of that Trump stole 2016. If it were not dangerous for the future, the annoyance to the Democratic Russiagaters is less than what many of them deserve.

Greg said...


But that's not really why he is doing that - according to Consortium News & CNN reports - he told an unidentified friend that this is just payback for Russiagate. Of course he knows Biden won and that there was no fraud.

While this is infantile, both parties share blame. The reckless, fabricated nothingburger of Russiagate was itself an attack on elections and democracy - and it started before Trump had a chance to do anything wrong

—————————-

And I’m sure Russiagate was seen by many as a payback for “hanging chads”, this is just the Middle East mentality writ American election politics. What came first GOP cheating or Democrats cheating? What constitutes cheating? This will now become SOP for every close election, which we are bound to see more of.

Also much of what GOPers call election fraud is in fact election registration fraud, but election registration fraud can’t be prosecuted very easily and is usually meaningless.

Matt Franko said...

Greg all you have to do is subscribe to both sides on the feeds... then you get BOTH sides...

It’s never been easier than today with Twitter... you get to see both sides in real time...

I get both ... I don’t know what these people are talking about with “shadow banning”... that is not my experience...

Greg said...

Tom all of these foreign countries can go fuck themselves... and they can tell us to go fuck ourselves... nobody cares...

We dont need them and they dont need us..,

I dont see the problem..

———————————-

I can’t let this crap go without comment.... I’ll start with a sarcastic dose of your own medicine.. everyone just fuck themselves? Figure of speech, figure of speech, figure of speech!!! Nobody cares?! Oh really? Nobody cares about having access to USD system? Hmmmmmm
If you are referring to our status as reserve currency I’ll bet if you posed that question at any Trump rally you’d find out they care a lot that the USD is seen as “strong”. Its our status as reserve currency that gives us a certain amount of power to say fuck you we dont need you, but the power isn’t absolute. Trouble with Trump is he always overplays his power. His MAGAts can’t wield any power to help him internationally like they can domestically

Need them? Who is them? Russia,......China...... Israel.....anyone at all? If you seriously think that an effective strategy to achieve peace, prosperity, security is to just go it alone ........ your dumber than I thought. So what exactly are you advocating for? We certainly need many of “them” to buy our weapon systems. It’s the only thing Trump brags about selling to the ROW.

Need us? We certainly want to be needed by ROW. It’s part of the American psyche. We think we are the most important force for good on globe. Your wet dream of America first ,America only will never be attempted. And either we have a one world currency, which will not be accepted peacefully by Trumpers, unless that currency is ours or we support a system where people might save your currency for whatever reasons

Greg said...

PP your bothsiderism is quite tiresome.

Is that really all you have to add? Pushing for entire elections in states to be completely negated is not a fascist move? What line has to be crossed before you admit to seeing fascism?

Matt Franko said...

I’m right of fascism.... no Darwin and no gold....

Matt Franko said...

“Pushing for entire elections in states to be completely negated “

If it’s legal you shouldn’t have a problem with it.. I wouldn’t have a problem with it... it’s not like a bunch of GOP goons were the ones rigging the elections that was democrats...

And yes We don’t need the ROW... all that “international relations!” Leads to wars 9f choice, regime change wars ,etc..,

Let’s move on from all this post WW2 bs and just start forming fully reciprocal bilateral relationships with foreign nations or NO DEAL...

Peter Pan said...

@Greg

An actual coup would be a fascist move.
Asking for legal redress should be the least worrisome.

A pandemic with protests/riots in the streets is an authoritarian's wet dream. But Trump passed up the opportunity.

Biden/Harris will either bury Trumpism, or ensure its return to power.

Joe said...

"Biden/Harris will either bury Trumpism, or ensure its return to power."

I'm with you on that one. Trump is Obama's legacy. But his incompetence and clownishness saved us. We won't be so lucky next time. The next fascist won't be an obvious conman and buffoon that cakes orange makeup on their face.

Greg said...

Asking for legal redress? Hahahahaha! What he asked the GA gov to do was illegal....which was why he said no.....not cuz he didn’t want to reverse the vote. I actually know Brian Kemp, his nephew played baseball with my son, he grew up in Athens Ga area where I lived for 33 years. It was the system and his slight respect for it that stopped Kemp.

Trump rules as a fascist.....PERIOD. The fact that he hasn’t gotten everything he wanted doesn’t mean he’s less fascist it just means the system he’s working within has some anti fascist properties that have worked to a degree..... so far.


Peter Pan said...

Any question of its legality would've been taken to the Supremes. Maybe that is the plan... worked for Bush last time.

Tom Hickey said...

SCOTUS is the second to last step.

The last step is taking to red state legislature, who can direct the electors that choose the president in the electoral college.

It's "constitutional," but it basically shows that the US is not a liberal democracy in which voting counts. It's not set up that way constitutionally.

Nothing wrong with setting a constitution up that way, but the US should just drop the pretense about being a liberal democracy when it is a republic with some democratic features.

Peter Pan said...

Guliani and Ellis have been taking it to the state legislatures. Hours and hours of hearings, all for nothing?

Joe said...

Peter-
Half of those "hearing" aren't actually hearings. They're just people meeting in a hotel ballroom, they have absolutely no connection to a court of law or a state legislature.

Yes, it's all made up. It's a scam to make money. They gave it away in the fine print in the fundraising emails. Almost none of the money goes to the legal defense fund. 75% goes to a Trump controlled pac and the other 25% goes to the RNC. Only after a person donates many thousands of dollars does any of it go to the legal defense fund.

They're now 1-50 in court. Several of those cases were dismissed by Trump appointed judges. We now have two recounts in GA, 2 in WI and an audit in AZ that showed no deficiencies.. The "suitcases of ballots under the table" showed absolutely nothing out of the normal, Powell said the machines weren't certified when she herself cropped the date out of the scan, scam after scam..

Yes, it's all made up... Are you interested in buying a bridge?

Joe said...

Giuliani has at least one FBI investigation open against him. It's reported he's asked for a pardon and that he's requested $20k a day. He's willing to drag this on as long as possible since the FBI won't do anything against him while this charade is ongoing due to the optics of it... Ellis is just a nobody who's looking for her 15 minutes and a paycheck. And possibly a grift afterwards, the Trump cult is super gullible.

The "elite strike force" is 1-50 when it matters (the real lawyers quit weeks ago). They'll be lucky if they don't all lose their licenses to practice law after this is over.

Joe said...

Update: The elite strike force is now 1-51. The day just keeps getting better!

Peter Pan said...

The hearings I watched were legitimate (Michigan, Georgia). The quality of the presentations were another story. According to Tom, these hearings were the 'last step', instead of the judiciary.

The elite strike force has Covid, which precludes their presence in public for a week or more. We're in the bottom of the ninth, 3 balls, 2 strikes, and the umpire is an opera singer...

Tom Hickey said...

SCOTUS has signaled it is not going to change the result, although potentially it could still happen.

There are two avenues left. The first is getting enough state legislators to either get Trump the electoral vote, which would swing the election.

Otherwise, to deny Biden the 270 votes he needs to win, throwing the election to the House, where the numbers result in a Trump win since it's one vote per state and the red states outnumber the blue in although not in population.

From what I am seeing, the diehards are still convinced that DJT will be inaugurated on Jan 20.

Peter Pan said...

I don't understand. The House is controlled by the Democrats. And why would it go to the House when only a handful of states are in dispute?

Tom Hickey said...

US Constitution. I said previously it was quirky. The US is a republic not a democracy. As such it is designed for oligarchy to obviate the rule of the rabble.

Peter Pan said...

France is a republic and they're as much a 'democracy' as countries with a parliamentary system. Even more so, if one considers the role of the Senate.