You're FIRED!
Serial Killer Of Federal Government
Sacks Acting Attorney General
What Are The Implications?
What Are The Implications?
Rat Race
In a highly predictable move, Donald Trump, President of The United States, sacked the Government's highest legal officer for refusing to implement his executive order and make representations on his government's behalf in the Federal District Courts to implement his ban on refugees policy.
A Stitch In Time
But is he correct in this course of action?
I would like to just briefly comment on why this decision may well come back to haunt him and his executive team long after they have all departed from office.
Circus Trump
We do not yet know what domestic and international disasters are likely to befall the Trump administration and it's senior officers - but the omens do not look good at all.
Chaos
As I said before Trump was elected President it would be highly likely that, as with President Nixon, there will be civil unrest to peacefully protest Trump's authoritarianism, perhaps bringing the entire country to a standstill.
How Trump reacts to such mass protests throughout the country during his presidency, from his actions to date, do not suggest anything other than a very serious civil confrontation situations - since nothing he ever does diffuses crises but merely intensifies them - and the end results could be profound, disturbing and fatal.
The Godfather
As I predicted earlier, he has already threatened all Federal employees:'either support my political agenda or resign'.
Many may well take him up on this offer.
The problems will really start if senior officers in the IC and military communities decide they too are unwilling to serve a fascist government, pack their bags and (literally) take off.
This may at first appear a 'godsend' for Steve Bannon and other extremists but appearances in this case are most deceptive.
Replacing The IC and U.S. Top Military Brass
As I said before he was elected, Trump would begin, as did the Fuhrer, by praising military.
But the 'night of the long knives' is not far behind - should any commander refuse to do his bidding.
The destruction of both Federal government and the military (see my earlier blog 'What If Trump Becomes President') will not produce what Bannon and Trump want to achieve - total control of the military-industrial complex by sympathisers - in the United States.
Quite the contrary, in the absence of reliable authority and management, a more organised element, not currently within government, will be facilitated to power.
[Be very careful what you wish for Mr Bannon.]
The 'Bystander' Phenomenon
There is no doubt that Republican Representatives and Senators will do nothing to reign in Trump's 'madness' - since they too will (naively) see the 'looting and pillage' of Federal government as a dream come true.
Wag The Dog
But how will America organise itself should North Korea, in response to Trump's promise of nuclear weapons autonomy to South Korea launch a nuclear attack against the South - resulting the deaths of millions of people? Or indeed China invade Taiwan before Trump's promise of nuclear weapons to that country is effected?; or indeed an invasion of Vietnam or Indonesia by China - again in response to Trump's nuclear promises to these countries or because he stupidly 'tweets' something any idiot would have refrained from saying. Or indeed that lack of proper chains of command and consultation result in a mistaken or misinterpreted nuclear strike on North Korea from, say, the Straits of Nusa Tenggara or the South China Seas?
[Trump will always scapegoat someone else to 'carry the can', that we know already.]
Oh! What A Lovely War!
('I Was Only Following Orders')
On the other hand, what if, at a time of international crisis, other senior officers or commanders refuse(s) to obey commands from Trump which they too consider unlawful?
Nobody in their right mind will want to end their term in office as hunted international war criminals - and all because they were 'only following orders' of the Commander-In-Chief and which orders were unlawful, unconstitutional or both.
2026, Nuremberg, Germany:
International War Crimes Trials For The Trump White House Conspirators 2017-2025
I thought the whole purpose of Nuremberg was to ensure that future students of politics, politicians, government officers and military commanders were cognizant of the fact that you do not ever (nor are you obligated to) obey any order which you, in all conscience, ethics and morality, consider unlawful or unconstitutional. In fact should you go further and attempt to obstruct any order which you, as a Federal Officer, again in all conscience, consider unlawful, you are amongst the righteous, whatever the 'dumbed down' media and popular opinion of the time say about such an action.
So the Acting Attorney General, Sally Q. Yates, far from commiting an act of treason took a decision to take an active stand which I believe will be vindicated in historical time as a righteous decision - and her actions quoted in the annals of history as exactly what a good Officer should do when faced with orders which he or she suspects may violate the constitution, at a time when tyranny ruled the land.
Before The Storm
The irony of all of this is that many people would, as I did, agree with Trump's initial executive decision to restrict refugees from certain countries which President Obama already designated as 'terrorist' countries - and were available for anyone to see on the State Department's website I myself accessed to confirm the validity of this fact during the Obama administration.
However the final say whether to implement the legal mechanics of such an executive action by the President is not that of the Legal Office but that of the Attorney General.
Don't Be Fooled By The Media Hype
For it to be lawful, Trump should have consulted the AG/Acting AG then after he/she took advice, referred back to his Office with an Opinion and/or Draft for Executive action.
So his firing of Yates itself has dubious legal standing and may even have been unconstitutional because he himself, the President, did not, it appears, follow lawful consultation procedure in the first place but attempted to 'short circuit' the legal process in haste.
This is the first of many such dark acts during Trump's term in Office which will cast a permanent shadow over the Office of the U.S. Presidency for a very long time after the incumbent departs.
All any rational and sane individual running the White House would have done would have been to either accept the Attorney General's decision or, better still, just wait a few weeks until a new Attorney General is confirmed into Office - then proceed with the executive decision - lawfully.
What Trump did - fire the AAG - is indicative of how he will run the country for the next four years - if indeed the responsibilities of Office are not resigned over to someone else before that time.
And the sooner this happens the safer it will be for the whole world.
Witch Doctors with Magic Potions, Crystal Balls and Nuclear Codes
It is for this reason that civil unrest in the United States and emergency nuclear or biowarfare scenarios abroad are all very likely and very real possibilities in the absence of a proper working 'chain' of military and intelligence command systems - since Trump is now installing himself not only as the democratically elected President, but also, in the image of his (publicly declared) admired counterpart, Vladimir Putin, as Captain or CEO, of, in his instance, a rudderless ship.
©Patrick Emek, January 2017
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_fools
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_fools#/media/File:Wheel_of_fortune.png
