In the wake of the terrifying news of the New York Times/Siena College polls showing Donald Trump beating President Biden in must-win battleground states, keep two words in mind and spread them: Insurrection Act.

It has been 31 years since a president last invoked this law and sent troops into the interior to enforce federal law. That’s the longest stretch of nun

–

in the Rebellion Acts use approximately 240 years of history, befitting the disturbing power it confers. At the time, President George HW Bush sent in the military at the request of the governor of California. Pete Wilson, to quell the 1992 riots in Los Angeles after four police officers were acquitted for their horrific videotaped beating of Rodney

King Davis

.

But if Trump is reelected, the law’s next invocation could come soon, on January 20, 2025, Inauguration Day. You have been warned.

Anticipating widespread protests against his second term, Trump and his allies are reportedly drawing up plans to invoke the Insurrection Act in his first hours in the White House, confirming the protesters’ expected point: Trump is a danger to freedom and constitutional government.

And that’s just one of many MAGA plans in the works, as the Washington Post reported this week

NOVEMBER 5 AND 6

all aimed at making amends

Trump’s central promise of the 2024 campaign: “

retaliation.

“

(A third word to remember and repeat.)

According to the Post, Trump allies are mapping out specific plans to use the federal government to punish so-called intellectuals and cabinet wannabes in far-right think tanks. [his] critics and opponents, and even names individuals who should be investigated and prosecuted. For what, you ask. To be determined.

The targets include some of the top appointees from Trump’s four years as president (“Only the best people,” he said), who heard firsthand that he was and is unfit for office: John F. Kelly, the retired Navy general and Gold Star father who served as White House chief of staff and was Secretary of Homeland Security; former Atty.General William

P

Barr (I’m shaking in my boots, Barr told the Post sardonically); retired Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, formerly the nation’s top military officer, as chairman of

the

Joint Chiefs of Staff

;,

and a slew of Justice Department and FBI officials. Oh, and he’s already told us he’ll go after Biden and his family.

The Post account builds on an earlier New York Times report on the Project 2025 plan for a new Trump administration

,

he, autocracy. According to the newspaper report, Trump’s goals for the second term include taking control of independent agencies, including the Fed, which are intended to be free from political interference; seizing congressionally appropriated funds he doesn’t like; clear out the civil service and return to the

partisan

19th century

partisan

spoils system

,

;

and purging the defense, state and intelligence departments of disloyal officials disloyal to Trump.

As Tom Nichols, a national security analyst and former Republican, wrote in the Atlantic, there are plans for a dictatorship that should appeal to every American.

Every American should be shocked. Yet almost half of the electorate supports this so-called despot, according to opinion polls, including a CNN poll published on Tuesday. More voters think Biden is the mentally suspect coder of the two. But an unprecedented number of former presidential candidates confirm that Trump has a very fragile ego

.

Something happened to him as a child, Barr theorized recently. They’re practically begging us never to let their former boss darken the Oval Office door again.

We talked about former heads of the Pentagon and the intelligence community, other Cabinet secretaries, members of his inner circle in the White House, even his vice president! Like I said, it’s unprecedented. Not even Richard

M.

Nixon invited such smears from former acolytes after his resignation.

Nevertheless, too many voters are reluctant and grumpy that their choice seems to come down to Trump vs. Biden. As if those choices are comparably unpalatable when in fact one is vanilla and the other is nitroglycerin.

If Trump returns to the presidency, he would preside over an administration whose foundation is the rule of law. Still, unpleasant outbursts occurred this week in his civil trial in New York

past for

Financial fraud was just the latest evidence of his disregard for the law And

the

And we haven’t even gotten to his three criminal cases for trying to overturn Biden’s election and make off with government documents. No one, no witnesses, prosecutors or judges

his are

immune to his attacks and the death threats that follow.

Then there is the downside of Trump’s promises

WENT REVENGE FOR ALLITERATION WITH REWARDS AND BECAUSE WE HAVE REVENGE IN THE HED: revenge

:

T

he rewards and pardons the rioters and schemers convicted on January 6, accomplices in legal danger and of course himself. “If there is a next time, I will try to make good on his past claim that I have the right under Article 2 of the Constitution to do whatever I want as president.”

Fact check: he doesn’t.

As president, Trump was thwarted in his unhinged, unconstitutional

and or

unethical impulses of the former government officials he is now killing. Kelly told the Post: The lesson he learned was to find sycophants.

Well, the folks at Project 2025 have that covered. They are collecting the names of thousands of potential candidates for a second Trump administration

who are

they are certainly conservative fighters.

So what guardrails could protect us from Trump?

2.0

?

There is the military, which, as Milley himself realized, can refuse an illegal order. However, the Insurrection Act gives a president broad powers to order the military to take action in this country; the Supreme Court said in 1827 that it was the power to use troops domestically belongs solely to the President, and his decision is final for all other persons.

There are the federal courts, which have largely served the republic well against Trump’s post

–

election manifesto. There’s the Senate, given its power to confirm presidential nominees, although that’s a thin straw indeed given the loyalty of Republicans. to Trump.

The best guardrail is not electing Trump

,

period of time.

Repeat: Insurrection Act. Retaliation. Because he warned us.

@jackiekcalmes