{"id":31554,"date":"2024-02-07T12:40:50","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T20:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=31554"},"modified":"2024-02-07T12:40:52","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T20:40:52","slug":"trump-said-he-plans-to-declare-martial-law-heres-what-that-would-look-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/02\/07\/trump-said-he-plans-to-declare-martial-law-heres-what-that-would-look-like\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Said He Plans to Declare Martial Law. Here’s What That Would Look Like"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Brett Wagner\/San Francisco Chronicle<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"TrumpNational Guard members near the White House. (photo: Drew Angerer\/Getty Images<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

06 february 24<\/strong> (RSN.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By now we\u2019ve all had a chance to hear the sound bites: Donald Trump boasting, to the bone-chilling applause of his MAGA base, his plan to declare martial law. As a former military professor, I feel it my duty to spell out for the American people what that would look like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two days in particular \u2014 a study in contrasts from Trump\u2019s final year in office \u2014 should provide the clearest understanding of what to expect should the GOP presidential front-runner\u2019s campaign slogan of \u201crevenge and retribution\u201d become our reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the difference between those two days, and the president\u2019s actions, could not be any starker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump was reportedly holed up in the White House, watching the Capitol riots unfold in real time on television, while for hours resisting calls to send in the National Guard to restore calm \u2014 a day from the previous summer witnessed a much different commander-in-chief: one not shy, but eager, to deploy the military to disperse a crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the morning of June 1, 2020, someone in the presidential chain of command looked into obtaining<\/a> the Active Denial System \u2014 a weapon deemed by international treaties and conventions to be so heinous, so over-the-top, it is banned from ever being deployed by any nation on another nation\u2019s soil\u00ad \u2014 in preparation for clearing a largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in Lafayette Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Orwellian \u201ccrowd control\u201d device Trump sought to unleash on the BLM protesters, and would likely seek to normalize in a second term \u2014 is shaped like a standard satellite dish, fits on the back of a jeep and shoots out \u201cpulsed directed energy waves\u201d similar to a microwave oven \u2014 all designed to make you feel, right down to your nerve endings, like you\u2019re being set on fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On paper, the device may sound innocuous enough: a two-second burst of microwaves that can heat the top 1\/64 inch of your skin almost instantly to a temperature exceeding 130 degrees. But as a now taken-down demonstration video of the weapon shows, it can turn a healthy young military recruit into a screaming, writhing human, doubled over in pain and begging for it to stop within seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another equally troubling weapon also requested that day is one with which I am less familiar: the Long Range Acoustic Device. Suffice it to say, it\u2019s a sound cannon with an extremely high decibel range known to cause permanent hearing loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

America owes an immeasurable debt of gratitude to the military commanders who stonewalled this last-minute, seemingly spontaneous attempt by the White House to get its hands on these weapons. But don\u2019t count on that guardrail a second time. Not under a scenario where Trump pre-vets and installs a more amenable military chain of command ahead of time. Buckle up \u2014 because here\u2019s what that would look like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 47th president invokes the Insurrection Act<\/a> and declares martial law, granting himself sweeping power to deploy U.S. armed forces on America\u2019s streets. Military leaders who dare speak out against him, such as former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, are rounded up and summarily executed. Meanwhile, SEAL Team 6 is deployed to assassinate his political rivals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reporters who don\u2019t toe the line<\/a> are rounded up, newspapers that don\u2019t print what they\u2019re told are shut down and broadcast media outlets that air any news not pre-approved by the White House are forced off the air. Detention camps for undocumented immigrants<\/a> (and God knows who else) start going up everywhere, and armed personnel begin going door-to-door to round them up, along with anyone else unfortunate enough to wind up on Trump\u2019s \u201cenemies list.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, citizens fill the streets, as Americans have done since our nation\u2019s founding, with large protests breaking out across the country. Picture the 2017 Women\u2019s March from Trump\u2019s first time around, only bigger. And that\u2019s where the \u201cyou-know-what\u201d really hits the fan. With news outlets favorable to the new administration broadcasting, for all to see, the fate that awaits anyone\/everyone who fails to heed the warning:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protestors are sent fleeing not by water cannons, but by sound cannons, covering their ears and screaming in pain, while others are targeted by the heat ray, fleeing just as quickly, as if on fire from a burning building; all compounded by the inevitable spectacle of those who slip or fall, disappearing off camera, presumably trampled in the stampedes. Sights, sounds and suffering of such startling proportion deliver a clear message to every single person \u2014 from your average citizen to local officials, from Capitol Hill to the Supreme Court \u2014 who might dare challenge this wanna-be dictator\u2019s authority: You could be next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s be clear: None of this is hyperbole. Trump has made it clear he has no problem deploying any of these measures. Every idea expressed here originated with the former president himself. And so, he must be stopped. Because what I have described here is a point of no return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brett Wagner\/San Francisco Chronicle National Guard members near the White House. (photo: Drew Angerer\/Getty Images 06 february 24 (RSN.org) By now we\u2019ve all had a chance to hear the sound bites: Donald Trump boasting, to the bone-chilling applause of his MAGA base, his plan to declare martial law. As a… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1790],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31555,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31554\/revisions\/31555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}