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This was an article in today’s HUFFPOST:

Trump Hints At Expanded Military Role Within The Country. A Legacy Law Could Let Him.

A law first crafted in the nation’s infancy would give Trump as commander in chief almost unfettered power to do so, military and legal experts have argued.

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Campaigning in Iowa this year, Donald Trump said he was prevented during his presidency from using the military to quell violence in primarily Democratic cities and states.

Calling New York City and Chicago “crime dens,” the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination told his audience, “The next time, I’m not waiting. One of the things I did was let them run it and we’re going to show how bad a job they do,” he said. “Well, we did that. We don’t have to wait any longer.”

Trump has not spelled out precisely how he might use the military during a second term, although he and his advisers have suggested they would have wide latitude to call up units.

While deploying the military regularly within the country’s borders would be a departure from tradition, the former president already has signaled an aggressive agenda if he wins, from mass deportations to travel bans imposed on certain Muslim-majority countries.

Not only can I see some active military unit commanders refusing to obey what they judge to be unlawful orders, but I can see some state National Guard units defying orders to comply with Trump’s directives. If this happen we could have a situation where units from active military units loyal to Trump would literally face off in battle against the National Guards of certain states.

Photos below are of an Oregon National Guard training exercise:

In the above HUFFPOST article Joseph Nunn, a national security expert with the Brennan Center for Justice notes the following:

Nunn, who has suggested steps to restrict the invocation of the law, said military personnel cannot be ordered to break the law.

“Members of the military are legally obliged to disobey an unlawful order. At the same time, that is a lot to ask of the military because they are also obliged to obey orders,” he said. “And the punishment for disobeying an order that turns out to be lawful is your career is over, and you may well be going to jail for a very long time. The stakes for them are extraordinarily high.”

The National Guard can be activated by the federal government and is under Department of Defense control. However some states have military units under the control of the governor which are called State Defense Forces (see Wikipedia), some are inactive, some are ceremonial, but some are active. Generally these units are used to help with natural disasters, but they also work alongside National Guard soldiers and could augment the forces in an armed conflict. The active units are in both red and blue states as you can see here.

I live in a suburb of Portland, Oregon. Portland is a city on Trump’s hate list because it is so liberal. In fact he sent Federal troops here during the George Floyd protests:

Federal officers in unmarked vehicles appeared to forcefully seize protesters from the streets and detain them without justification. They have also fired tear gas and less-lethal munitions into crowds of demonstrators. Read article.

He repeatedly called Portland a “burned down hulk of a city” during a “Meet the Press” interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker, which aired on Sept. 17th. (read article).

If Trump became president I have no doubt there would be major protests in downtown Portland. It is a mere half hour drive from where I live. Portland has attracted groups like the Proud Boys who have squared off against groups like Antifa and in a major demonstration I can see this leading to violence. Our local law enforcement would stuggled to handle this. I can see how Trump would want to use active military with the excuse being that he was helping local law enforcement when in fact he’d be wanting to punish those protesting against him.

Here in my state (above map) in addition to Oregon National Guard bases (we don’t have many active military bases – see article) we have the Oregon Civil Defense Force:

The Oregon Civil Defense Force (ORCDF), formerly known as the Oregon State Defense Force, is the official state defense force of Oregon and one of the three components of Oregon State’s organized militia,^[2]with Oregon’s Army and Air National Guard (ORNG) making up the other two. It serves as a state-level military and emergency services reserve force.

As part of the official state militia, the Oregon Civil Defense Force serves under the Governor of Oregon rather than the President of the United States and draws its legal authority from Chapter 399^[3] of Oregon law. Those statutes require that the ORCDF be made up of individuals that are not a part of the federal military services or the National Guard. It is an all volunteer force composed and is a branch of the Oregon Military Department.

Read more here.

Below are some screen grabs from this local TV report from when the Oregon program was suspended (it was revived later so it exists today).

I’m not even adding what state law enforcement agencies and regular citizens (some of them seniors like me), many of whom are veterans, would do if this became an actual war between the states with tanks on Trump’s orders rolling down our streets like they did in Hungary in 1956 and in China at the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

We don’t have to look to other countries to see what can happen when a national military turns against their own citizens. I was in college protesting against the Vietnam War when the Kent State shootings occurred. We saw photos like this on the cover of Life:

However, no photo had more impact than this one of 15 year old Mary Ann Vecchio.

I can see a Newsweek cover like this which had TRUMP’S HOME FRONT in the upper corner.

If Trump became president and made good on his threat we could have a real second American civil war where in a cruel repeat of history some of the soldiers on Trump’s side had once displayed a Confederate flag and some even carried it into battle.

We’ve had Trump supporters threatening civil war ever since he lost the election. These threats have escalated with each indictment (see article in VICE). If elected and Trump makes good on his threat to use the military against Americans he could be responsible to starting a real civil war.

Read all Stressline blogs here.

Glutten for punishment? Read the blogs I posted on Habrown.org

If you’re a clinical masochist you can read the 1700+ stories I posted on Dauly Kos before I was banned for posting an article that they thought endorsed violence when in fact it was a description of what I’d do if the place I lived was invaded by armed Trump troops. I desribed how I would take up arms to join the fight to stop them.