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Praetorium Honoris

Saturday, June 29, 2024

The Last Gasp of the Defeated?

J. Edgar Hoover Building
FBI Headquarters

Source
FBI Director William Sheppard took a deep breath. He had just got off the phone with a contact on the old President's staff. With that President, who had appointed him, dead of a heart attack and the Secretary of the Interior John Nakagawa claiming to be the new President, he thought that he had a golden opportunity to take control of the government, albeit temporarily, and use that to implement the scheme the "Silver Dozen" in Congress wanted to push through.

Five men and two women from the House and five Senators, all men, had concocted this idea during the unrest of the summer before. The American people were apparently getting tired of their wages not going as far as they used to, due to what the "Silver Dozen" had considered to be rational and correct policies. Their views were not shared by the bulk of the American people.

Riots had broken out in at least eight cities, as many as twelve if you counted some of the smaller disturbances, citizens with firearms had started to show up at those demonstrations. Policemen had been threatened, many of whom had then walked off the job. It was one thing to push around unarmed demonstrators, but when those demonstrators were armed, that was another thing altogether.

It looked very much as though the country was going to explode as the temperatures soared throughout the month of August. The last straw seemed to be when a demonstration in Austin, Texas, which had started out peacefully enough, blew up into chaos. The local politicians had decided to quash what they saw as defiance of the law by a show of force. Ten demonstrators had been killed when the police opened fire.

Thirty seven Austin policemen had lost their lives when the demonstrators had fired back.

Only a sudden, and massive, storm front rolling through had broken up the fighting. Tornadoes in the area, flooding after an unusually heavy rainfall, and the fact that both sides were somewhat stunned over what had happened. Both sides were more than ready to step back at that point.

The governor of Texas had sent in the National Guard to separate the two sides. The Guardsmen, with the governor's blessing, had arrested a number of members of the city government and all of the top cops in the city, save those who had fled.

Sheppard thought the "Silver Dozen" was a stupid name, one of the women staffers had noted that all of the members of this clique were gray haired, not one was under the age of seventy. One wag in the press had referred to them as the "Silver Dozen," and the name stuck. The members of the cabal actually liked the name, one had said that it denoted wisdom. But they had promised Sheppard vastly expanded police powers in a new government, so he went along.

"What about the Constitution?" he had asked.

The senior Senator, from Oregon, had shook his head and said, "The Constitution says what we want it to say. We've allowed that piece of paper written by old white slave-owners to govern our actions for far too long. Take away their guns and the masses will settle right down. Mark my words."

An unusually cold autumn and the very early onset of a brutal winter had settled things down. No one wants to protest in the cold. But now things were heating up again, it was time to act.

He picked up his phone, barking at his administrative assistant, "Get me the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the phone."

Shirley Watson paused, then said, "Of course, Director. I'll connect you."

She didn't have the heart, or the courage, to tell him that the phones at the Pentagon were not being answered. She'd keep trying until he asked what the hold up was, then she'd tell him.


Leroy Jackson had been on the phone all morning, things were apparently going nuts in DC and some guy in West Virginia was claiming to be the President. From the calls he had made, apparently the man in West Virginia, one John Nakagawa formerly the Secretary of the Interior, might actually be legitimate.

Lieutenant Colonel Ramirez had returned to his motel, he had thought about heading back to Baltimore but word of one President dying and another one taking office not fifty miles from Cumberland, made him stick around.

As he had told Jackson, "I want to be close to the action."

Of that there seemed to be damned little for the moment.

He walked down to the barracks area, where the on duty staff could sleep and rewind. Ramirez wanted Choe and Chapman close, he didn't think they'd run but he wanted them close at hand. So he had had them put up in the barracks.

Captain Choe was sitting in the break room, wearing tan slacks and a Naval Academy sweatshirt. He looked up from his coffee when Jackson walked in.

"Chapman sleeping?"

"Yes, she is. It's been a rough couple of weeks for her. So, this business with the new President, you buying it?"

"Can't see that I have much choice. Did you know that the FBI Director claims to be the new acting President?"

Choe laughed, "Based on what? Does he think that knowing secrets will give him power?"

"Most of the folks he thinks he has his hooks in are in the wind. Hell, almost half of Congress went home as soon as things started to go south. The ones that stayed seem sincere in getting the country back on track."

"Is that even possible at this point?" Chapman had walked into the room, disheveled and tired, she couldn't sleep for long. Her old back injury made sure of that.

Jackson sighed, before he could answer, his cellphone chimed.

"Jackson. Seriously? All right, I'll send what units I can spare."

Hanging up he looked at Choe and Chapman, "Seems the former SecDef had one more roll of the dice in him."

Choe asked, "What can he do?"

"For starters he's sent out orders over an unencrypted frequency for the Air Force to attack Site B."

"Where Nakagawa and the current government are at?" Choe stood up abruptly, the look on his face worried Jackson.

"Yup. He seems to think that the folks at Joint Base Langley-Eustis and also at Seymour-Johnson are under his control. If he does, that's big trouble. That would give him four squadrons of F-15Es, the Strike Eagles, and three of F-22 Raptors. Do you have any sources at the Pentagon which might still be active?"

Before Choe could speak, Chapman interrupted, "I know a guy at Homeland, he's a Marine Reservist, he knows people, Master Gunnery Sergeants often do."

Jackson pulled out his cellphone and handed it to her, "Call him."



50 comments:

  1. Developments may be getting spicy Sarge. Some people believe they know best how others should live, what's that quote about the Tree of Liberty again?

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    1. Seems to be a particular fault in our species' make up, there always seems to be someone who "knows what's best." And typically they don't.

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  2. "he knows people, Master Gunnery Sergeants often do.""

    Maybe a couple of Warrants who owe him some favors? Senior EMs, especially in the Corps, tend to know lots of stuff and are the cement that binds everything together.

    "What about the Constitution?"
    A lot of people in those "Hallowed Halls" have this attitude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6Dj8tdSC1A

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    1. They either don't care, assuming no one is going to stand up to them, or they are profoundly ignorant of what's in that document.

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    2. The huge problem is that too many voters don't know what's in that document, don't care what's in that document, and don't care that the capons and wethers running for office, for the most part, don't know or care about the document. So many consider "promote the general welfare" to be the whole of it, and not bounded by the limits set to circumscribe the powers delegated by it.

      "With respect to the words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators." Jas. Madison

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  3. your muse isn't the oracle at Delphi, is she?

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  4. The Tre of Liberty. https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/tree-liberty-quotation/

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  5. There are always busy bodies that want to run our lives. Starts at the petty tyrants in the local HOA and moves on up from there. At least the biddies in the HOA aren't armed....

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    1. HOAs, I get it but it's always the wrong people who want to be on those boards.

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    2. The desire to control others (even if you actually do know better because they are making exactly the same mistake you've already made twice!) must be supressed.

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  6. Of course Austin PD would copulate things by following illegal orders. Yes, illegal orders. Had to sit through two days of what 'illegal orders' were at the old job because someone high up couldn't keep it in his pants, in his office (apparently practically everything glowed under the correct light, if you know what I mean.)

    And... that's a point. Illegal orders. The military and civil governments require their people to understand what an illegal order is and to make up their own minds over them. Below a certain level, unless the individual is on the 'active decision level' like firing into a crowd 'because they were told to' without questioning said order, the person can generally be excused for following orders.

    Of course, lately, this only counts if the 'illegal order' is issued by the 'right' or 'conservative' or 'racist right-wing crackers.' Too many illegal orders were blindly followed by a whole host of people in the various three-letter (and some four and five letter) agencies since about, curiously, about the time Trump announced he was running for the 2016 election. Hmmm... Then there are the illegal orders by the Bureau of Land Management regarding removal of water rights starting back in 2009... And, of course, pretty much any action ordered and followed by the BATFE.

    Sadly, it's the 'winners' who get to determine what an illegal order is. Though it has been fun over the last few weeks hearing how the Left's favorite illegal and unconstitutional orders have been determined by the Supreme Court to be... illegal and unconstitutional. Wheeee. Are we having fun yet?

    Those fighter/attack squadrons. I can easily see some following orders while others frag the order givers and followers and chaos breaking out. Of course, with enough planning and preparation, the bad people could have stacked the deck by creating very loyal squadrons by making sure 'correct' people were assigned to the units.

    Of course, usually though the leadership and officers may have been hand selected, all it takes is a revolt of the lower enlisted to not make the very fine and expensive planes work or be armed or for said leadership and officers to be able to eat and drink safely during the briefing on the illegal orders. A lot of petty little bullscat can be done without actively revolting (active would be actually attacking said leadership and officers) that would render said aircraft unable to fly or unable to drop weapons or shoot. Disconnect some wires, puncture the tires, forget to fuse the ordnance, leave the safeties engaged, loosened bolts or screws could stop the aircraft from flying, without showing active resistance like throwing a toolbox into a running engine or something. I'm sure our aviation readers and writers can elaborate or understand how simple things can derail a flight (am reminded of the time Dad was talking about how a pureed seagull about killed him, said seagull entering the leading edge of his plane and then rotting for three days in the hot sun of New Mexico and him taking a big old hit of the air system and taking about two days to stop vomiting and coughing up the smell of said pureed seagull and said wing and air system having to be totally torn down and pressure sprayed several times to clean it...)

    Oh, fun times. They are a-coming.

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    1. Follow the Constitution and you really can't go wrong.

      Of course, one must have read that document and understood it. No one seems able to do that these days.

      (I chose Austin for a reason.)

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    2. Following the Constitution can get you very wrong. Like, oh, say... arms. Brass knuckles, gravity knives, switchblades, select fire and full auto weapons, being a machinist and having the tools and materials to make weapons (especially guns) and having plans to do so without actually doing so.

      Then there's all those no-knock warrants and warrantless searches, especially ones done 'for homeland protection.

      Or burn a pride flag. Or a flag of Mexico, or Canada, or England, or California. Or say outside an abortion clinic that abortion is murder. Or ...

      Just look at all the Jan6 people who have been jammed up because of their internet postings and their locations from their phones, obtained often without warrants, shows them being somewhere near or in DC at the time.

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    3. Not enforcing the oaths those Gorram politicians swore to is the biggest problem. Behead the worst offenders.

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    4. All federal employees who engaged in a coup against President Trump should be hung or shot as traitors. From generals to spooks to cabinet members to members of the federal medical bureaus.

      Gen. Milley especially. The fat fart openly proclaimed that he would (and did) tell the ChiComs what Trump was thinking about. And yet no member of the military acted to arrest and prosecute said fat fart.

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    5. As of late, I have been pondering if there aren't more than a few in our Government who need to be dealt with harshly, for their crimes against the nation.

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    6. @ Beans
      one of the extremely rare times I'll disagree with you:
      hanging or shoting the traitors is too good for them
      would you please consider reinstituting the guillotine (with open, barred prison windows facing the machine) - Thunk! - Thunk!

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    7. "without showing active resistance like throwing a toolbox into a running engine or something."

      Maybe a wrench or screwdriver accidentally left in the intake.

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    8. "All federal employees who engaged in a coup against President Trump should be hung or shot as traitors. From generals to spooks to cabinet members to members of the federal medical bureaus."

      Not to forget Pelosi an her attempted coup, AND her call for active civil war, "U don't know why there aren't more uprisings" in the midst of the 4 years of civil war being waged by the DNC's BLM Red Guard and Antifa Sturmableitung. Also Maxine Waters telling her minions to physically attack members of the Trump administration if they were seen in public.

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    9. StB - Like the Russian hoax? Hunter's laptop? Hillary's server? Just to name a few.

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    10. boron - I watched something about the guillotine being a more humane way to kill people. I'd opt for hanging.

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    11. it's a mind game
      it's the waiting and hearing the horrible Thunk!

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    12. But does the condemned hear that thunk?

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    13. As OAFS said, the guillotine is a very humane way of whacking someone. I want either the short drop or the pull method of hanging, and to watch them all do the danse macabre, also known as The Hangman's Jig, while they choke slowly.

      Or by gunfire. You could pay off part of the national debt by selling firing slots. And put it on broadcast tv or the interwebs.

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    14. Beans:
      I call first dibs on runnhg the auction

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  7. Sarge - I can only imagine in such a situation there would be multiple competing claims to the mantle of power - even more so after the elected president had died. And even more confusing with the range of information and counter information in such events.

    Your theoretical "even" in Austin seems possible in such circumstances. I am almost sure such events would be replicated in many cities - or the other ways, out of control protest by those that somehow felt the law no longer applied.

    It is a terrible thing to be in a disintegrating civilization.

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    1. The line of succession is pretty clearly laid out. If you aren't in the line, you aren't in The Line.

      Technically Al Haig was right when he said "I am in control" during the kerfuffle after Reagan was shot. Until he wasn't. Going on TV at about the same time they finally got ahold of the Veep and acting the fool didn't help. But he was right.

      As to law enforcement, they'll ignore lawful orders (laid out in policies and procedure manuals since Columbine) to engage active shooters as soon as possible, but, yeah, the same will most likely willingly fire upon not-left wing protestors. Or the same LEO and prosecutors will arrest lawful self-defense shooters and not arrest the attackers with guns who are prohibited from carrying said guns.

      Places like Austin and the coastal cities of the Left Coast have ignored and bent the national Constitution, state constitutions, national and state laws, their own laws...

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    2. Seems that there are certain departments that won't engage active shooters as soon as possible.

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    3. TB - Best example of what must that be like is the Balkans after Yugoslavia fell apart.

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    4. Sarge, as it turns out I bought an Essential History on The Fall of Yugoslavia from Osprey Publishing. Honestly, it was the first work I have purchased of theirs that covered a relatively modern event and I think they do established history far better, but it did give an interesting timeline and overview of the situation.

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  8. But what does Soros want?
    Or Zuckerberg?
    Or Xi?

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    1. As always, follow the money. Money talks, bullshit walks.

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    2. same as Joseph Vissarionovich
      control, control, control
      call it power, call it money, but it all boils down to control
      you'd know if you were ever married to a canis of the female variety

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    3. boron - It really is all about control. If you're in charge you have the power, once you get power, the money will flow.

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    4. What do they want? I think they have an image in the back of their minds about how they want the world to look.

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    5. And they're deluded if they think it would work out that way. It never does.

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  9. Besides Austin, you were right in choosing a senator from Oregon in your story as well, as he is off the rails. Has been since he was a congressman. I never voted for him when I was an Oregonian, and he has been entrenched in DC representing Oregon since before I was able to vote.

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    1. Oregon is as far gone as California, at least the coastal enclaves.

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    2. Portland enclave for the most part. Some of Eugene and Bend as well, but the rest is bright red.

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    3. So there is hope for Oregon.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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