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"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August 2018)
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"How do you spell ICE in German? GESTAPO."
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First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me. Pastor Martin Niemoller (c. 1946)
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Introduction:
I wrote the original version of this column just about a week ago. The situation is little changed since I wrote it, except that Trump and Hegseth, and a few of their most devoted admirers (who will speak publicly over something so embarrassing and off-the-wall, even for Trump[?]) have made it even worse, in terms of the law, the Presidency, military justice, and the Constitution. On several Substack sites, I have posted the following Note:
At the trial ---- charge to be determined ---- of Ret. Navy Captain Mark Kelley, the first witness for the Defense to be called would be Army Captain Pete Hegseth. The first question of the witness would be, Mr. Secretary, could you repeat for the Court, when you were sworn in as an Army Captain, the full text of the Oath that you took on that occasion?
The text of that oath is: "I ___, do solemnly swear [or affirm] that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God." [Title 5 U.S. Code 3331, an individual, except the President, elected or appointed to an office of honor or profit in the civil service or uniformed services.])
Trumps excuses for not being familiar with it or its meaning include: likely never having read the Constitution, and as, shall we say, a draft-skipper, never having taken the oath. Hegseth, having been in the Service, did take it. He has no excuse.
At any rate, here's the column as (for the most part) originally written, but with a few additions/updates.
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From Trump:
Its called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand We wont have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET, the president wrote in one TruthSocial post Thursday morning, linking to an article about the video from the Washington Examiner.
This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP??? Trump wrote in another post.
In a third, he wrote: "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!"
Trump was responding to the statement by the Congressional vets who, of course, were simply stating the truth about, according to the oaths they had all taken (at least once) upon joining a military service or the CIS: Click Here.
As for the law, evidence, a trail, a defence, nah! Just straight from the charge to execution, that will do. (That that process was the standard operating procedure of the 20th century fascist countries --- they are a little smoother about it now --- forgetting fascist Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan of the 1930s-40s, no more dumping opponents out of airplanes as was done in Argentina in the 1970s).
Here is Senator Kelly's info|AT|katiehobbs.org Email address">original response:
I put out a video, alongside veterans of the military and former members of the intelligence community. It had a simple message: If you are serving in the military, you have an obligation to refuse illegal orders. Trumps friends in the White House didn't like that. They accused us of insurrection. At some point, the President heard about it, and he hasn't stopped posting and reposting about us since accusing us of sedition, calling for our arrest, calling for us to be hanged. It is no small thing for the President of the United States to call for your execution. Elon Musk called me a traitor. Trumps advisor, Roger Stone, called for me to be executed. And now Trump himself has called for me to be hanged.
Of the Trump-supportive responses, an especially interesting one came from Sen. Lindsey Graham, a lawyer and a former member of Judge Advocate Generals corps in the military. He knows all about the military oath and what it means, and of course at one time he took it himself. Is he just being a Trump loyalist or does he really believe that Trump has that power and that the military oaths mean nothing.
And oh yes, there really have been illegal orders, which, as it happened did result in punishments, as-insignicant-they-might-have-been-in-compairson-to-the-horros-those-orders-uinleashed. Think My Lai and Abu Ghraib.
And now for a few notes on what has happened, is happening, and may happen in the future.
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The different levels of meaning, for Trump making such a statement; Click Here
For Trump, there is no such thing as an illegal order if he gives it. Just another example for Trump, in his mind, not being bound by any law.
The irony of a draft avoider making such a statement.
The meaning of the Nuremberg Trials and the end of the I was just following orders, excuse.
Apparently, Trump is promoting execution without trial, although Hegseth would at least have them held. He, Trump, would apparently dispense with any kind of trial, and proceed directly to execution (by a formerly used, method that has not been employed in the U.S. by the Federal govt. since 1963).
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But what is really going on here?
Trump is operating on two levels. Since more-and-more he is appearing as if he is a dictator (whether he would use that term is not yet known), for him it is just another order that he can give.
But second, it is, of his list of Seven Magic Tricks,Magic Trick No. 2: "Always attack; Never defend: Look, over there!"
He's got the well-known loss on The Epstein Files, and even though the attorney general will have an even-more-edited version to be made available whenever she can get around to it, there may well be one or more, entirely verifiable, copies of the original in the possession of one or more persons or organizations. So who knows (in addition to Trump himself), what might come out.
And of course there are the current Caribbean strikes, which happen by definition to amount to piracy. If the attack on the "Venezuelan" (since there were no survivors, how can it be certain that it was Venezuelan) boats had/have been made by a private force, they would fit the Admiralty Law definition of piracy: Piracy (within the context of maritime law) is when non-state actors commit war-like acts against ships, such as hijacking a ship,taking hostages, etc. In the United States, piracy is governed by A dmiralty law. Piracy is prohibited by both United States and international law. In this case, that's a distinction without a difference. The U.S. force might as well been flying a black flag decorated with a skull and crossbones or crossed swords. The current DOJ opinion is that service members cannot be held personally responsible for the strikes (and that's Trumps DOJ, in Oct. 2025), which by implication indicates that within the DOJ there is a concern/an opinion that the strikes are/may-be illegal.
As it happens, for example, General Milley, a (now very recognizable) former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs under Trump, agrees with the Democrats that the military does not swear allegiance to a dictator and must not follow illegal orders. Which is why the man who some are now referring to as the Orange Hitler threatened to execute him (without trial[?], on what grounds[?]).
Bottom line: Trump has never before made it so clear that his intent is to establish a fascist* dictatorship, along the lines of that of Nazi Germany, where, among other things, he has the final say on criminal procedures and penalties. What he is calling for is nowhere to be found in current US law or military law or the Constitution. And what does mean, more broadly?
Most importantly, it means that anybody, that's ANYBODY, who supports the President and his staff on this is supporting a U.S. form of fascist dictatorship (see just below for the definition).
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*Fascism: "There is a single, all-powerful executive branch of government, in service of an industrial/financial/sales-and-marketing/communications ruling class, that controls, for the most part, the functions of production, distribution, finance, and exchange. There is no separation of the principal governmental powers: executive, legislative, and judicial. They are all held by the Executive branch. There is no independent judiciary/civil/criminal/justice system. There are no independent media. There is a single national ideology, based on some combination of racism, misogyny, religious bigotry and authoritarianism, homophobia, and xenophobia. There is a political party supporting the movement. There is a state propaganda machine using the big and little lie techniques. There may be a full-blown dictatorship, a charismatic leader, engagement in foreign wars, and the use of the mob/private armies to enforce governmental control."
(Article changed on Nov 25, 2025 at 5:28 PM EST)
