Trump, Musk and the MAGA GOP's, coup attempt: fighting back! Part II in a series
Turning the tables on the Coup crowd
TAT friends and followers,
Last Friday I brought you the first in a series of discussions about the Trump/ Musk/ MAGA GOP coup. That first essay was to establish that yes, we are in the midst of an ongoing coup attempt against the United States of America. I also used a Special Operations Command graphic and language, to show the primary steps employed by the incoming Trump administration to support the coup, including where they go from here. The bottom line is that yes, this is a coup attempt. One of the best discussions I have seen about what to call the January 6th, 2021, first coup attempt, from Politico, provides excellent background from the most respected of scholars that in my opinion, fully support my conclusion.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat: The night it happened I called it a coup. Technically, it is a self-coup — autogolpe — a lot of our coup language comes from Latin America and Spanish for reasons to do with the Cold War. This was an operation from the inside — somebody who’s already in power and wants to stay in power. And also an inside job in that 57 GOP officials were at the rally. The coup culminated January 6, but it’s part of a thing that started in November and involved the elite of many institutions in the party. So that’s why I call it a coup attempt. - Ask the ‘Coupologists’: Just What Was Jan. 6 Anyway? - Politico Magazine - Josh Zeitz, Ryan McMaken, Matt Cleary, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Scott Althaus - 08/19/2022 04:30 AM EDT
Today’s essay addresses the transition of understanding the ongoing coup, to beginning the discussion about how we must fight back, at this phase of the Trump, Musk coup. Above all else to consider is that if we are to succeed, we must stop using the phrase, “why won’t somebody do something?” My fellow citizens, we are the cavalry, every single one of us. The tasks at hand, require hands on, full participation from all citizens, regardless of political allegiance, to unify, organize and show up. This coup cannot be fought within the confines of private Facebook and LinkedIn type groups, nor in the privacy of our own homes. We will fail if we do not collectively, take this fight to the public square, so-to-speak.
The last thing I will say before beginning, is that this fight cannot be won via partisan political language. Yes, today’s MAGA GOP is the threat, but the answer is not partisan, and no one should use left vs. right, D vs. R, liberal vs. conservative etc. The language of our narrative must be plainly, that we are protecting our republic from those involved in Trump and Musk’s coup. Using political language is a subconscious trigger for most, and by saying that the answer is for the left to take over, will automatically shut down the very independent citizens that we need to support our resistance. Remember, there are “principled conservatives” that don’t support Trump and his henchmen. They are just as honorable citizens, as anyone else that heeds our constitution.
Now my friends, let’s get down to business…
Onward
Okay, let’s see what exactly that we must do right now, to slow the Trump, Musk and GOP coup attempt. Before the details, I cannot stress enough, that time is of the essence. We must act not tomorrow but beginning today. Once coup attempts begin to consolidate their power, via intimidation, illegal EOs/ Executive Orders, failure to comply with the law and suppression of dissent, it becomes far more difficult to dislodge them without violence. No one wishes another open civil war, but I can assure you that with Hegseth at DoD, Gabbard at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Patel at the FBI and Bondi as the AG/ Attorney General, no one is safe, especially with Musk’s young hackers confiscating most American’s pay data for Social Security, Medicare, and countless other government pay systems.
Thank goodness that we still have judges that have been willing to courageously rule for injunctions, blocks etc., for some of the illegal acts already signed by Trump. Still, when it comes to leverage, Trump and Musk still have a great deal of it due to his young hackers, having Department of the Treasury pay data on most, if not all US citizens. These judges have likely bought us a few days, but that is about all. We need to pick up where they left off.
So, if I was building a strategy (yes, I am quietly doing so) to stop this coup, I would very likely use the rough outline of what I explained in the last essay, which is based on the Special Operations Forces publication regarding UW/ Unconventional Warfare. Simply put, it’s a matter of reversing the process that Trump, Musk and Putin used to launch their coup. Their coup’s origin, dates back until at least 2014, although the groundwork was laid decades ago and built on, throughout the Cold War.
Below is the graphic I used in the last essay regarding how the Trump/ Musk coup was built over time. Now that they are the sitting government, it is time to turn the tables on them, by using the same formula to oust or neuter them.
We’ll begin at Phase I from the graphic. This will be the longest section. For the moment, we only need to review Phases I through IV.
What most Americans have mistakenly believed was politics in the Trump era, was actually Trump, Putin and the far-right, zombie-like MAGA GOP conditioning the entire GOP to accept only conspiracy theories as truth. Like I explained in the previous article, once an audience has been so conditioned, they are easily controlled and will only see their usual narrators, like politicians, FOX News types of media and a wide assortment of MAGA pundits like Alex Jones, Joe Rogan, Charlie Kirk, Dinesh Souza etc. as the narrators of truth. Nothing of substance in either Project 2025 or the 2024 GOP Platform are true. They are an assembly of conspiracy theories presented as truth. Both contain unconstitutional agenda items, but GOP voters have been convinced that these are conservative items. Nothing about today’s GOP represents principled conservatism.
The psychological way that conditioning works, is that when complete, audiences are easily controlled and predictably. The point of this is that there is no reason to try and change the minds of GOP voters now that they believe in an alternative reality. The key is to build resistance groups that are willing, capable and willing to put up a fierce resistance to Trump and Musk’s illegal and unconstitutional alterations to our government. This is not just for lawyers, but for everyone.
Lawyers do the legal work but the rest of us must inform and coordinate resistance, including large-scale protests outside of courts, congressional offices and even the homes of the MAGA GOP Republicans. I emphasize here, that all protests must be non-violent. After all, we are not MAGA, who does employ political violence and January 6th is but one example. Don’t forget that politicians that wish to be reelected during the Midterms, cannot afford to ostracize the preponderance of their constituents. Massive, organized protests will reinforce to them just how vulnerable they are to their constituents wishes. It worked for the GOP in the Trump era, and it will work for us, the true patriots defending our republic.
At this phase, and in order to better educate those resisting, I recommend that writers that inform resisters with truthful information, coordinate to better cover all of the primary issues. This may not require a formal organization but rather a linked but independent set of informers. I would hope to be able to support this group as well, if they will have me. We all have specialties to contribute, like Heather Cox Richardson, Robert Reich, SpyTalk, Sam Ray, Ruth Ben Ghiat etc. etc. etc. Remember, we are not the GOP. We are informing, not indoctrinating.
Phase II: Coordination
Although the graphic portrays a situation for Special Operations involvement in outside countries, we are fighting a home-grown coup. Should Trump and his sycophantic nominees to run agencies like the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Attorney General, DoD, the FBI, Homeland Security etc. follow through with their threats, some former leaders may end up out of the country. Their value to resistance may be reduced, but their voices matter to the resistance. We must maintain connections with them, should this occur.
At home, we must find safe ways for coordinating between different elements of our movement to restore our republic. The Federal Government has a powerful array of tools that could present significant communication between private citizens. This is not something made up but based on some of the intelligence gathered, regarding Trump/ Musk plans for keeping Americans under control. For example, things like Martial Law and rounding up those in opposition are just a couple of the plans being discussed.
Suppression of media is already occurring. ABC caved in immediately when challenged over a singular comment made by George Stephanopoulos, netting Trump a $5 million dollar settlement. Other networks are being similarly challenged and intimidated. Musk owns X and uses it as a propaganda platform, suppressing opposition. Zuckerberg, complicit in the 2016 Russian/ GOP handover of illegally acquired user data from FB. He jumped on the new Trump bandwagon almost immediately.
For this reason, I have had to stop using FB to keep up with family and friends, a painful but necessary decision. So far, Substack so far seems to be holding up, although there has over the past couple of months, been more bot and troll activity in the past. They are working hard to keep this platform as clean as possible.
Finally, the key to Phase II is coordination in planning, execution and assessing success or failure of the resistance. Assessments must be done in order to make the requisite changes required as we move forward. This is standard practice for any conflict, war, coup, politics or sales, etc.
Phase III: Infiltration
In the case of our coup, infiltration means a couple of things. First, opposition representatives are already in the system, and they are key to keeping us informed with the most up-to-date intelligence within Congress, Agencies, organizations etc. Without intelligence, no campaign succeeds, The more intel the better, and especially from reliable inside sources. For example, Congress already has insiders and not just among Democrats. Plenty of Republicans detest Trump and what Musk is doing to our Federal Government. Sure, they may be outwardly cowardly and silent as they have been for at least a decade, but they are the worst possible threat to Trump and Musk’s plans, because are expected to be onboard. Think of them as spies or insider threats. All caution must be applied to keep their participation hidden.
The reason that Trump and Musk are foolishly attempting to fire all GS/ Government Service employees is that they want loyalty to Trump, not the constitution that they are sworn to uphold and protect. So far, legal opposition is attempting to protect these employees, but we must act to keep them in place and reporting on what Trump’s political commissars are up to within the Government.
Political commissars were Soviet Communist Party officials who oversaw its military units and reported directly to party leaders. Operating as they did outside the military hierarchy, commissars acted as a conduit from the party to the ranks of ordinary soldiers, transmitting political propaganda and preventing dissension. - Duties of a Soviet Political Commissar - Holocaust Encyclopedia
Anyone inside of the Trump Administration becomes a potential informer or spy. This will keep Trump’s investigators and own spies beyond busy, therefore limiting their efforts against the American people. Legal protection must be on retainer for those contributing intelligence to the opposition.
This will also require an organized, covert system of moving information between informers and the resistance.
Phase IV: Building and training the resistance and its infrastructure
What this means in the simplest manner possible, is that regardless of what role any of us will play in restoring our republic, we will require training, information, specialized teams and communications, at a minimum. Like any military, political campaign, conflict, ad campaign etc., there must be infrastructure in order to be and remain effective.
This includes training for all of the specialized requirements of non-violent resistance. Writers must coordinate so that there is as little redundancy as possible, media operatives must be trained to disseminate effectively and via the best possible methodology, a communication system both public and clandestine, training protesters in the tactics of non-violent resistance, sharing of tactics and helping everyone to best understand our strategy etc. These are normal details of normal Special Operations in a campaign, but we must train civilians as well, with little or no experience.
The more effective we become, the more resistance from the Trump administration. While that lawyers can provide some shields for regular citizens, any protection from them will be limited, so long as we have a weaponized DOJ, FBI and DHS. Again, the more citizens in opposition, the less success for Trump and Musk. At some point and especially if Trump declares Martial Law, there may be violence employed against the resistance. He has already threatened this in his first administration. Credible reporting also reveals his willingness to use the military against US citizens. I personally doubt that even with Hegseth, a disgraced Veteran sycophant of Trump at the head of DoD, the military will not go along with such an unlawful order.
Summary
Today’s lesson is an abbreviated discussion of what the Special Operations community knows and trains for, day in and day out. We’ve employed such tactics in every major lesser conflict, for as long as we’ve been a nation. It is part of either engaging in conflict or averting it. The better we are at stopping the coup, the lesser the chance of actual violence. This is goal number one, after our primary objective, shutting down the coup.
First and foremost, we must motivate the masses, regardless of political affiliation. Honest Americans don’t what I have termed, The Four Horsemen of the MAGA Apocalypse, Autocracy, Oligarchy, White Christian Nationalism and Political Violence. Every one of these elements are the precise opposite of being an American and our constitution in a variety of ways, makes each one unconstitutional. We have right on our side. Never doubt this. Resisting tyranny and ensuring freedom are the essence of being a patriotic American. Our resistance is both. Sadly, this time we must do both on our home soil, just like the last Civil War.
I would ask that those who are willing to read this to the end, will begin to seek out those with like minds and courage. Saving our republic will not be easy, considering that like our Civil War, half of America is against us. There will be required sacrifices of time, energy and resources, some financial and many others requiring personal involvement. I am resolved to this, but I am an old soldier that has, been there done that.” and for a very long time. I say this to all of you now, because I wish to be honest about what I am proposing. For me the choice is simple, it’s what my family has always done when the nation asked for or needed help. It is just a matter of being an American citizen, which comes with rights, but also obligations. Both of my parents, my uncles and cousins answered the call, as did my son. I am now asking for your help too, one citizen to another.
My kindest wishes to all of you,
Paul