11 Aug: DefenseOne: “... All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic”: An Open Letter to Gen. Milley
If the commander in chief attempts to ignore the election’s results, you will face a choice.
By John Nagl and Paul Yingling
The president of the United States is actively subverting our electoral system, threatening to remain in office in defiance of our Constitution. In a few months’ time, you may have to choose between defying a lawless president or betraying your Constitutional oath. We write to assist you in thinking clearly about that choice. If Donald Trump refuses to leave office at the expiration of his constitutional term, the United States military must remove him by force, and you must give that order...
There can be little doubt that Mr. Trump is facing electoral defeat. More than 160,000 Americans have died from COVID 19, and that toll is likely to rise to 300,000 by November. One in ten U.S. workers is unemployed, and the U.S. economy in the last quarter suffered the greatest contraction in its history. Nearly 70 percent of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. The Economist estimates that Mr. Trump’s chances of losing the election stand at 91 percent...
https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2020/08/all-enemies-foreign-and-domestic-open-letter-gen-milley/167625/
14 Aug: Washington Examiner: Byron York’s Daily Memo: Coup porn backlash
COUP PORN BACKLASH: The two retired Army officers who wanted to see the 82nd Airborne remove President Trump from office are facing some pretty strong blowback. On Thursday, the Pentagon called the proposal a violation of the country’s most valued principles...
Earlier this week, the two retired officers, Paul Yingling and John Nagl, wrote an open letter to Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Mark Milley asking him to prepare to send troops to remove Trump at gunpoint from the White House on inauguration day. They assumed, of course, that Joe Biden would win, and then further assumed that Trump would not leave office. Then they theorized that Trump, desperate to avoid jail after his presidential term, would deploy a “private army” from the Department of Homeland Security to violently resist any efforts to get him to leave...
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/byron-yorks-daily-memo-coup-porn-backlash
28 Aug: KTEN: Top US general tells Congress the military won’t play a role in the 2020 election
By Ryan Browne, CNN
America’s most senior general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, told members of Congress that the military will not play a role in November’s election and won’t help settle any disputes if the results are contested.
“The Constitution and laws of the US and the states establish procedures for carrying out elections, and for resolving disputes over the outcome of elections ... I do not see the US military as part of this process,” Milley said in a letter released on Friday responding to questions from two members of the House Armed Services Committee.
“In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law U.S. courts and the U.S. Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the U.S. Military,” Milley added...
Milley’s answers came in response to questions from Democratic Reps. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey following a July hearing of the Armed Services Committee...
Concern that Trump may not vacate the presidency after losing an election drove two well-known retired military officers, John Nagl and Paul Yingling, to pen an open letter to Milley, calling on him to get involved in resolving a contested aftermath...
https://www.kten.com/story/42561145/top-us-general-tells-congress-the-military-wont-play-a-role-in-the-2020-election
20 Aug: World Socialist Web Site: The CIA Democrats in the 2020 elections
By Patrick Martin
In 2020, the intervention of the CIA Democrats continues on what is arguably an equally significant scale: besides the reelection campaigns of the 11 representatives who won seats in the House in 2018, half a dozen of those who lost 2018 races are running again in 2020. Some of these are running for House seats again, while others have been promoted by the Democratic Party leadership and are running for the US Senate. And an entire new crop of military-intelligence operatives is being brought forward, some running for Republican seats targeted by the Democratic leadership as possible takeovers, others in seats not currently considered competitive...
The bottom line: at least 34 Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives have a primarily military-intelligence background, up from 30 in 2018, as well as three of the party’s 35 candidates for the US Senate, compared to zero in 2018. For each branch of Congress, this represents about 10 percent of the total...
All 11 CIA Democrats first elected in 2018 are running for reelection. Five are considered prohibitive favorites to win: Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey, Chrissy Houlahan and Connor Lamb in Pennsylvania, Elissa Slotkin in Michigan, and Jason Crow in Colorado. The remaining six are in competitive races: Jared Golden in Maine, Max Rose in New York, Tom Malinowski and Andy Kim in New Jersey, Abigail Spanberger and Elaine Luria in Virginia...
From a fundraising standpoint, the most reliable indicator of success—and ruling class support—in American legislative contests, the 11 CIA Democrats must be considered overwhelming favorites to retain their seats...
Let us recall briefly who these 11 representatives are and their military-intelligence background:
Mikie Sherrill, New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District: Navy helicopter pilot, with 10 years’ active service in Europe and the Middle East.
Elissa Slotkin, Michigan’s 8th Congressional District: CIA agent with three tours in Iraq, National Security Council for both Bush and Obama, assistant to Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, then principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.
Abigail Spanberger, Virginia’s 7th Congressional District: CIA operations officer stationed in Europe for nearly a decade...
In their first two years in Congress, the CIA Democrats carried out two significant common actions. The five women—Houlahan, Luria, Sherrill, Slotkin and Spanberger—formed a joint fundraising committee to promote female candidates who shared their military-intelligence background. And six of them—Crow and the five women—co-signed an op-ed in the Washington Post in September 2019 calling for an impeachment probe into President Trump’s dealing with Ukraine. This was a crucial turning point in the effort that culminated in Trump’s impeachment three months later...
To be continued...
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/20/ciad-a20.html
1 Jul: NYT: Slotkin, Former Intelligence Briefer, Presses White House on Russia Reports
The experience of Representative Elissa Slotkin as an intelligence official told her there was something very unusual in the way the White House handled disturbing reports on Russia.
By Emily Cochrane
Democratic leaders have capitalized on Ms. Slotkin’s expertise, along with that of Representatives Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, a former C.I.A. operations officer, and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, a former Navy helicopter pilot, putting them out front as they raise questions about the intelligence and Mr. Trump’s handling of it. The three freshmen were chosen to accompany senior Democrats to a classified briefing at the White House on Tuesday...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/us/politics/elissa-slotkin-russian-bounty.html