World Can't Wait

Threat of Martial Law "Makes Me Want to Burn a Flag," Says Truthout's William Rivers Pitt

The fascist direction of Donald Trump's plans are confirmed by statements from his cabinet/advisors-in-waiting. 

"It's time to up the charges," the president-elect's pick for deputy national security adviserKT McFarland wrote of Chelsea (known as Bradley at the time) Manning in 2010. "Let's charge him and try him for treason. If he's found guilty, he should be executed." She'd create new authority to prosecute both Manning and fellow whistle-blowers: "If we don't have the legal authority to prosecute [Assange] for espionage and to go after his alleged co-conspirator [Manning] for treason and conspiracy, we should create it."

"Towering dangers" identified by Pitt -- a Muslim registry, mass deportations, a rollback of environmental protections -- include the threat of martial law.

"Out of a clear blue sky, Trump became the defender of the American flag," tweeted the Truthout columnist, "that, perhaps, anyone who burns that flag should either be thrown in prison or stripped of their citizenship. The First Amendment, augmented by the Supreme Court's 1989 Texas v. Johnson decision, defends the burning of the flag as an act of free speech. The Fourteenth Amendment specifically prohibits the government from stripping a citizen of their citizenship. This is all black-letter law, making Trump's flag tweet just another burp in the void  . . . but for this: His casual recommendation for addressing something so picayune as a burned flag is imprisonment or exile."

Offering the above "not as prediction, but as warning," the author says we can "damn near count on" Trump to abuse the powers of his office. "If and how he does so will be the whole ballgame. Take appropriate precautions."  

 

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