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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Stathis Papaioannou<br><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, February 27, 2019 3:30 PM<br><b>To:</b> ExI chat list <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] Michael Cohen<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Thu, 28 Feb 2019 at 10:24, <<a href="mailto:spike@rainier66.com">spike@rainier66.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>John, many of the posters and readers here are not US based and don’t care about the details of American politics.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'> spike<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>But it would concern the whole world if something like Trump refusing to leave office if he were voted out occurred. <o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>-- <o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>Stathis Papaioannou<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Stathis, we have witnessed a nuclear-armed government at war with itself for at least two years. Nothing bad comes of having the US government at war with itself. Nukes are not more likely to fly; they are less likely. Adversaries are not more likely to attack. We have seen great progress in weakening the office that desperately needed weakening, in such a way that the previous level of power will take a long time (if ever) to return to that office. I am ready to argue that it is a good thing when the federal government is at war with itself. It prevents accumulation of power.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Regarding the concern that the current POTUS (whose name I cannot recall at the moment) will refuse to leave office, the framers of the US constitution thought of that, for they wrote that document with fresh memories of having sacrificed and struggled to deal with autocrats and tyrants. So they created a system where the current POTUS does not have the authority to stop an election and has neither the legal authority nor the illegal means to hold the office if he loses. The Supreme Court meets just the same, they swear in the guy they believe won the election, top military brass are present at the swearing in and the new guy takes command of the military, even if some delusional yahoo protests and refuses to leave the office. They have a duplicate nuclear football, they transfer functionality to the new one, then it doesn’t matter what the old guy does. There is no civil war in such a case.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>What does concern me a lot more than that is the remaining electronic voting machines and the new threat I see in California, where they instituted a new law that allows anyone, including political operatives, to collect ballots. That bodes ill. But it is an example of local and state level politics which shouldn’t concern many of those who post to and read ExI.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></body></html>