Background Briefing: December 23, 2021

On By gram

 

Dealing With the Threat of Political Extremism Within the Ranks of the Military

We begin with new guidelines from the Pentagon to deal with political extremism within the ranks following the disturbing number of current and former military members who took part in the January 6 insurrection. Joining us is Rachel VanLandingham, a retired Lieutenant Colonel, a Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School and former judge advocate in the U.S. Air Force. During her military career, she served as a senior legal advisor on the international law of armed conflict, military prosecutor, criminal defense attorney, appellate defense attorney and nuclear surety inspector, stationed in the United States, South Korea, and Italy with deployments to the Middle East. We discuss the recent op-ed in The Washington Post “Opinion: 3 retired generals: The military must prepare now for a 2024 insurrection” by Paul D. Eaton, a retired U.S. Army major general and a senior adviser to VoteVets, Antonio M. Taguba is a retired Army major general, with 34 years of active duty service and Steven M. Anderson is a retired brigadier general who served in the U.S. Army for 31 years. They raised concerns about the defiance of the head of the Oklahoma National Guard who is refusing to mandate Covid vaccinations against Pentagon policy and we assess whether the politicization of vaccines could inspire other politically-motivated governors from states like Florida to follow suit. We also look into the numerous incidents during Trump’s presidency when retired General John Kelly stopped Trump from ordering the Marines to shoot Mexicans crossing the border and when General Milley intervened to ensure that a mentally unstable Donald Trump did not order a nuclear strike which in spite of what seems like a good idea at the time, Milley’s actions were a violation of civilian control of the military and a dangerous precedent no matter how noble and necessary the intentions. 

 

The Plot to Destroy America From Within

Then as the investigations into the acts of a banana republic petty dictator who happened to be President of the United States and the treasonous actions of his blindly loyal lieutenants serving in the U.S. Congress continue to get closer to outlining a coup attempt that almost succeeded, and The New York AG moves closing to indicting Trump and his companies while the Manhattan DA’s probe into Trump taxes etc. is proceeding, we assess the possibility of a career criminal and conman who has been one step ahead of the sheriff all his working might be soon be fitted out for an orange jumpsuit. Joining us is Lawrence Douglas, the James Grosfeld Chair in Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought at Amherst College and a contributing opinion writer for the Guardian. His latest book is Will He Go? Trump and the Looming Electoral Meltdown in 2020, and we discuss his latest article at The Guardian “Republicans are plotting to destroy democracy from within.” He argues that what we are now witnessing is a plot to destroy American democracy from within since its organizers have infiltrated the highest echelons of state and federal government, and have instigated and are condoning acts of violence directed against our elected officials. And although this might sound far-fetched, the threat is real as the seditious group leading us into a one-party American fascist state is none other than the Republican party now controlled by Donald Trump and its target is the 2024 presidential election.