Republicans are already gearing up for their next extortionate threat: Do what we want or we’ll shut down the Federal Government.
Among the consequences:
“If you don’t send out Social Security checks, I would hate to think about the credit meeting at S&P and Moody’s the next morning,” said Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
“If you’re not paying millions and millions and millions of people that range in age from 65 on up, money you promised them, you’re not a AAA” credit rating.
But this does not have to happen.
REMEDY 2: THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SHOULD INDICT FOR EXTORTION THOSE HOLDING THE GOVERNMENT HOSTAGE.
President Joseph Biden could order the Justice Department to invoke the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Passed by Congress in 1970, as Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1961-1968, its goal was to destroy the Mafia.
The United States Department of Justice
RICO opens with a series of definitions of “racketeering activity” which can be prosecuted by Justice Department attorneys. Among those crimes: Extortion.
Extortion is defined as “a criminal offense which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person(s), entity, or institution, through coercion.”
And if President Biden believed that RICO was not sufficient to deal with Republicans’ extortion attempts, he could rely on the USA Patriot Act of 2001, passed in the wake of 9/11.
In Section 802, the Act defines domestic terrorism. Among the behavior defined as criminal:
“Activities that…appear to be intended…to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion [and]…occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.”
The remedies for punishing such criminal behavior were now legally in place. President Biden needs only to direct the Justice Department to apply them.
PROBLEM: This would require a Democratic President and Justice Department to act courageously—which would be a rarity for either.
Example: 147 Republican Congressional members voted to invalidate the Electoral College vote count of the 2020 Presidential election. To this date, not one has been indicted for treason.
REMEDY 3: PRESIDENT BIDEN SHOULD ATTACK THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AS A THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY.
Numerous Republicans have taken “campaign contributions”—i.e., bribes—from Russian oligarchs linked to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
One Russian oligarch—Len Blavatnik—has given millions of dollars to top Republican leaders such as Senators Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), Marco Rubio (Florida) and Lindsey Graham (South Carolina).
Putin’s monies have been well-spent: About 90 House Republicans—out of a total of 213—attended Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to Congress on December 21, according to CQ Roll Call. Some who did spent much of the speech on their phones.
Many Republicans—such as former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who in 2021 received about $255,000 from Blavatnik—have openly threatened to end all funding for Ukraine’s heroic struggle against Russian aggression.
Kevin McCarthy
Even some “Reagan Republicans”—such as James Kirchick, a conservative foreign correspondent and author—have openly denounced this treason.
Thus, the White House could ignite an internal conflict within the Right by pitting Republicans against each other.
PROBLEM: Democrats rarely find the courage to attack their enemies as traitors, even when the treason is manifest—as it was when Donald Trump was elected President with the support of Vladimir Putin.
REMEDY 4: CITIZENS WHOSE LIVES HAVE BEEN DRASTICALLY HARMED BY REPUBLICAN POLICIES COULD CHOOSE “THE HEYDRICH SOLUTION.”
Reinhard Heydrich was second-in-command of the dreaded Schutzstaffel, or Protective Squads, better known as the SS. Among his his multitude of crimes Designing “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question,” resulting in the slaughter of six million men, women and children.
In 1941 he was appointed “Reich Protector” of Czechoslovakia, which Nazi Germany had absorbed in 1938. The Czechs were growing restive under brutal Nazi rule, and Heydrich’s mission was to stamp out that unrest.
Reinhard Heydrich
The Czech government-in-exile, headquartered in London, decided to assassinate Heydrich.
Two British-trained Czech commandos—Jan Kubis and Joseph Gabcik—parachuted into Prague—where they got unexpected help from Heydrich himself.
Supremely arrogant, like today’s Republican leaders, he traveled the same route every day from home to his downtown office, refusing to be escorted by armed guards. He claimed that no one would dare attack him.
He was wrong.
On May 27, 1942, Kubis and Gabcik waited at a hairpin turn in the road always taken by Heydrich. When Heydrich’s Mercedes slowed down, Gabcik raised his machinegun–which jammed. Rising in his seat, Heydrich aimed his revolver at Gabcik—as Kubis lobbed a hand grenade at the car.
The explosion drove steel and leather fragments of the car’s upholstery into Heydrich’s diaphragm, spleen and lung.
Adolf Hitler dispatched doctors from Berlin to save the Reich Protector. But infection set in, and on June 4, 1942, Heydrich died at age 38.
ADVISORY: While this remedy is not suggested, it remains an extremely real possibility. Those who have lost access to food, housing and/or medical care for themselves or loved ones under “screw-the-poor” Republican policies could easily decide to follow the advice of Winston Churchill.
When England seemed threatened with a German invasion in 1940, his daughter-in-law, Pamela, asked: “But, Papa, what can I do?”
Replied Churchill: “You can always get a carving knife from the kitchen and take one of the bastards with you.”