Trump’s Pentagon nominee promoted calls for the president to declare martial law: report

AlterNet logo

Scott O’Grady is a former fighter pilot who President Donald Trump has nominated for a senior position in the Pentagon. And according to CNN, he is also a Trump loyalist and far-right conspiracy theoristwho has been echoing Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud and shared tweets calling for martial law.

Trump supporters who have posted or forwarded tweets urging the president to declare martial law include attorney Lin Wood (who has been fighting President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia) and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

According to CNN reporters Nathan McDermott, Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, O’Grady “retweeted an account that shared an article that said former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had shared a petition that called for martial law. He then retweeted the same account which suggested that Trump should declare martial law.” Continue reading.

Here’s why Republicans who are calling for a Trump dictatorship should not be taken lightly — and aren’t going away

AlterNet logo

The United States dodged an authoritarian bullet when former Vice President Joe Biden, a centrist Democrat, became president-elect, winning 306 electoral votes and defeating defeated President Donald Trump by more than 6 million in the popular vote. But when Republican Lin Wood, a pro-Trump attorney who has been fighting the election results in Georgia, implores Trump to impose martial law and elections officials are receiving death threats for acknowledging Biden as president-elect, it is painfully obvious that there is a strong appetite for fascism in parts of the United States. And journalist Sasha Abramsky, in an article published by The Nation on December 4, warns that Republicans who are openly calling for fascism should not be taken lightly.

We are less than seven weeks away from the inauguration, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t counting down the seconds,” Abramsky writes. “For the last spasms of Trumpist rule are truly a sight and sound to behold. Trumpism is, at this point, nothing more than a blend of cultism and fascism — a violent, nihilistic howl against the pillars of American democracy unparalleled in presidential history.”

Abramsky adds, however, that when “people surrounding Trump are calling for dictatorship,” it “ought to send a chill up all Americans’ spines.” And Abramsky cites some specific examples of Trumpistas who haven’t been shy about showing their authoritarianism. Continue reading.