[ExI] put pain

[John Grigg]

In the classic near future thriller/borderline sf novel, The Profession, by
Steven Pressfield, a former USMC lieutenant general war hero who is sort of
an evil version of Douglas MacArthur (he successfully forced a CCP
expeditionary force in Africa to retreat and go home, but nearly started a
nuclear war, and so the current president fires him, but he returns to
America and receives a hero's welcome), becomes president during very hard
economic and foreign policy times for America. This is a man who had worked
with the intelligence agencies, and has no qualms about killing enemies,
foreign and domestic. He has his loyal henchman (assassins and special
forces) kill off key senators, congressmen and journalists. They all look
like accidents. The country senses something is up, but this man actually
does turn the nation around. He gets the economy going, in part by
intimidating the billionaire class, and getting them to invest in the
economy rather than off-shoring money, and also to pay much higher taxes.
All it takes is secretly kidnapping key members of their class and then
threatening their lives! Well over half the nation adores this president,
despite some elements of the "liberal media" being very worried about him.
But in the end, karma catches up to the man in a Shakespearean way. Donald
Trump could only dream in his most fervent power mad fantasies to be at
this villain's level. I worry that one day we will actually elect someone
with such monstrous talents who will be very hard to stop. Pressfield is
one of America's finest writers, and his book about ancient Sparta, The
Gates of Fire, is required reading at all of the military academies.

John



On Fri, Nov 13, 2020 at 11:38 PM William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> The idea that Trump (and this is here because it is not controversial)
> could pull a coup is an idea that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
> STaff, Gen. Mark MIlley has put paid to.
>
> He said that the military does not take an oath to individuals but to the
> Constitution.  Surely you have seen this story.
>
> So what happens at the D of Defense is irrelevant.  They cannot order the
> military to contravene the Constitution.
>
> Worry gone, over, done with, put paid to.
>
> Now can we worry about something else?
>
> bill w
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>
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