So at some point, too, though, there are actual facts and things and events in 
the world, which aren’t just cut from the fabric of human impression and 
attitude.

Suppose the following; as I was walking thisPM, after finally watching the Van 
Jones TED that Glen circulated, it seemed quite believable to me.

1. Suppose what Van sketches is actually the plan.  Trump plans to instigate a 
constitutional crisis.  I think he is capable of planning to that degree of 
complexity and on that time horizon.  And I have no reason in the world not to 
think Bill Barr would be down with the lark, and could advise him on the law to 
do it.  I’m not sure Pompeo has the same background, but in character I expect 
he would think it is a great idea.

2. Then we wind up in congress.  He doesn’t have a huge margin; there are only 
26 republican representatives (or whatever the name is for them).  So he really 
needs them all.  That’s what the last four years has been for.  Figure out who 
has any other levers besides greed of fear, and get them out.  Keep Graham and 
Cruz and all the rest like them, who are amoral and predatory, and Collins and 
her ilk who can be terrorized.

3. Suppose people decide to object, and want to take to the streets.  Really a 
terrible time to have Esper running DOD.  He wouldn’t sic the US armed forces 
on them.  So find some quasi-fascist brigadier general who thinks might is not 
merely right, but Everything.  Of course, you have to goad people and try to 
provoke them, so that the lower-downs in the military will be willing to take 
orders, not because they think the orders are moral, but because they feel 
threatened and are trying to protect themselves and each other.  That’s always 
how you co-opt soldiers.

I look at the footage of old civil rights protestors, singing, dancing, and 
clapping while being herded into paddy wagons, after generations of abuse, and 
I cannot imagine a large cross-section of Americans today with the discipline 
to do the same if provoked.  So goading a few people into violence, and then 
using that to excuse a military lockdown, doesn’t seem out of reach.

Does anyone, anywhere, think the thing to make this unrealistic would be 
trump’s getting cold feet or having qualms?  If so, then I think that person is 
on the wrong side of a factual evaluation that has nothing to do with values or 
character.  One of the two positions is right.  

The rest is really a calculation.  How degraded are the other needed actors, 
and how wide is the margin of error for the ones who would try it?  There 
people could have opinions deriving from their own characters or their beliefs 
in the characters of others, which I can easily see disagreeing.  It also may 
not have a deterministic answer, but boil down to accidents of circumstance.  
So the disagreement could reasonably reflect this too.

Dunno.  If you can read enough news to know that S. Korea exists, how can your 
intelligence lead you to believe either that trump and co have done this well, 
or that if they haven’t it’s no big deal?  That to me does not seem to be a 
question about ideology.

Eric



> On Nov 11, 2020, at 5:50 PM, Stephen Guerin <[email protected]> 
> wrote:
> 
> Marcus,
> 
> Do you have close friend or family member with strong character and high 
> intelligence that is also a Trump voter? My brother-in-law is a submarine 
> captain. It was helpful to have a 3-hour call with him last night. 
> 
> I come away with the idea that his mental model is not opposed to mine...it's 
> more of a dual to mine on which future Action can be defined :-)
> 
> -Stephen
> 
> On Wed, Nov 11, 2020 at 11:35 AM Marcus Daniels <[email protected] 
> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> Roger writes:
> 
>  
> 
> < These people weren't voting for rascism, misogyny, narcissism, 
> authoritarianism, xenophobia, gimp shaming, science denialism, or all that 
> other baggage, they were overlooking it for reasons. >
> 
>  
> 
> Many of those that could not work due to COVID restrictions are often in 
> battleground or red states.   That’s the only way I can possibly begin to 
> rationalize the 71 million.  To me, overlooking those things is unacceptable. 
>   It’s not useful to exercise any empathy for them.   They made a deal with 
> the devil.   It should have been a win by 50 million, not 5 million.  
> 
>  
> 
> Marcus
> 
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