Why is this whole episode not making everyone EXTREMELY nervous? If POTUS loses in the next election, we all know he will claim he won and refuse to leave. He will use all the folks in congress and the media who have demonstrated already that they will gladly help him 1/
Muddy the waters just enough to fire up the Fox crowd and we all know that significant numbers of the rank and file military are among those. If he decides to defy election results and claims there was a conspiracy to knock him out of office and points to the "deep state" 2/
as the source, then it'll come down to the military to make him leave. And now we are in coup territory, folks. The brass is mostly made up of highly educated men and women who believe deeply in order and discipline and defending against "all enemies, foreign and domestic." 3/
They also get all their information from the same credible places reasonable people do: the mainstream media. They will believe to the tips of their toes that the election result is valid and will of course be prepared to do their constitutional duty. 4/
A large number of the rank and file, however, will have gotten their info in other places and will therefore believe just as deeply and just as much to the tips of their toes that their superiors are part of the deep state and will see no choice but to buck orders. 5/
And if their POTUS, a man to whom they are now almost religiously devoted (actually, maybe not "almost") has spent the last four years signaling to them one way or another, for instance by going around the brass to excuse and even praise behavior 6/
That is otherwise entirely in opposition to the deepest values of order and discipline their superiors are committed to, then they won't feel they are doing the wrong thing to, for instance, take up positions around the White House and challenge the brass to come and take 7/
The president themselves. I'm not being paranoid. Although I wish I were. I'm just gaming this whole thing through. I don't think POTUS is passing out pardons on a whim. I think he is sending a targeted and deliberate message to those in uniform whom he will 8/
Need should it become necessary. I'm sorry, I don't want to believe any of this, but I think none of us should take these pardons lightly. I feel like an idiot for typing all this, except I keep asking myself, when has this president NOT exceeded my worst expectations?
