By Nathan Barton
Warning: this is a commentary on a commentary on a commentary!
A guy (gal?) Finian Cunningham published a commentary on OpEdNews, asking, “Is a military coup against Trump in the cards?” In part this reads: “In an extraordinary US Senate hearing this week, lawmakers and military officials rounded on President Trump as being a danger to world peace due to his Commander-in-Chief powers for launching nuclear weapons. The highlight came when the hearing was told military officers have the constitutional right to disobey the president. This was, in effect, an open call to mutiny against the president’s authority.”
In Freedom Net Daily, Tom Knapp provides a very good note (commentary): “The president does not have any authority to give unconstitutional orders. Military personnel are under no obligation to obey unconstitutional orders, and indeed are obligated not to…”
Tom is absolutely right, but I want to add my two cents as a military officer who undertook that obligation and still accepts (and tries to carry out) that commitment. Telling a military officer we have the constitutional (and God-given) right to disobey the president is NOT mutiny. And it is NOT a coup. And it is NOT news to anyone with two brain cells to rub together, who has served as a military officer.
The solemn promise the military take (and are supposed to live by) is to obey the LAWFUL orders of those appointed over them. What is and is not lawful is not decided by courts or superiors or popular vote. It is, and can only be, decided by the individual who must make the choice to obey or not. Continue reading →
Flyover country? Alternatives for Korea
By Nathan Barton
By now, I’m sure everyone has heard that Illustrious Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has successfully launched their latest and greatest ICBM. As reported in Zero Hedge, the Hwasong-15 apparently does have the range to be fired from North Korea to hit targets in all parts of the Fifty States. Zero Hedge republished this map from the Hawai’i Emergency Management agency, showing what is now possible.
As a result, Hawai’i is again setting up its air/missile raid siren warning system, long left to rust away, since not even Russians or Chinese are so crude and barbaric as to drop a nuke on Honolulu, or even Pearl Harbor or the Big Island. But the DPRK is far more savage, as demonstrated by their Illustrious Leader’s haircut and the big Stalinist-style dress caps their officer corps wears. Continue reading →