The command, control, and communication operations create a “buffer” of vague and undefined groups between the Chinese intelligence services and the actual street violence. This is classic intelligence community tradecraft.
Some seek courtroom-style evidence of Chinese enablers passing cash and direction to the purveyors of violence. As long as domestic law enforcement has been prioritized, such as Attorney General Barr and FBI Director Wray directed in speeches during the June–August period, this evidence may already exist.
For the government, there are actions the president can take immediately after the election, regardless of outcome, to quell violence and protect the citizens of the United States. Civil unrest threatens the stability, good order, and constitutional rule of law in the United States, and all citizens of the United States are being negatively affected.
This comes in forms that include violence through coordinated street mobs, damage and loss to property and businesses, unequal protection under the law, loss of job or livelihood, and restriction of civil liberties by state and local leaders.
Address the Unchecked Power of Social Media Firms
The unchecked concentration of power by social media companies such as Twitter, Facebook, and others represents a grave danger to civil liberties of the citizens of the United States as well as the everyday conduct of affairs for businesses and governments.These companies have become active partisans enabling this violent social unrest. The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) chairman has discretionary power to recategorize these entities as providers of content, rather than transporters of content. Why hasn’t this been done already? Unknown.
Twitter, Facebook, and others should be deemed partisan enablers of civil disorder by the FCC chairman, and/or the president, leaving them no longer subject to protection under Section 230 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, and therefore, vulnerable to immediate litigation by those who feel their content and traffic has been hidden, blocked, or manipulated.
Take Action Against Foreign-Funded Street Violence
The violent civil unrest and disorder in the United States is being largely facilitated by Marxist, Maoist, and communist groups seeking the violent overthrow of the U.S. Constitutional system. Much of this is being enabled by foreign powers and shadowy international groups such as ones led by George Soros.Ensure Resilience of Continuity of Executive Branch
The continuity of government, nuclear command and control, national leadership communications, and military, homeland security, and law enforcement capabilities must be brought to higher levels of readiness and assurance to ensure the resilience of constitutional government in the face of all enemies, foreign and domestic, who seek to undermine our incredible republic.Decisive Use of Existing Law and Process
The U.S. government has powerful laws already in the toolkit but has used them in a lethargic fashion. These statutes and principles should be used in an expedited fashion, on a broad scale, to reestablish civil society. The laws and processes include, but are not limited to:- The Foreign Agent Registration Act.
- Full authority of the FCC to limit foreign involvement/ownership of U.S. broadcast media to include social media.
- RICO (anti-racketeering) with regards to social media firms.
- The Insurrection Act.
- Asset seizure laws and procedures.
- Full enforcement of equal protection under the law for all citizens by all governments: local, state, and federal.
- Measures to encourage and, when necessary, penalize cities and local governments deemed as failing to provide equal protection under the law. (The presidential memo from Sept. 2 was a powerful step toward holding leaders of local government responsible for failing to provide equal protection under the law for all citizens.)
- Declaration of a Lead Federal Official (LFO) to synchronize whole of government actions to restore civil society.
How Will America Look After Nov. 3?
The character and nature of America after the election remains to be seen. Some, including me, semi-humorously offer that the CCP virus will go away on Nov. 4, 2020. Some local and state leaders have plunged their cities and states into precarious, unsustainable economic and social statuses. It’s curious why they’ve done that, other than to dabble at the edges of totalitarianism and the thrill of societal control that it gives them.However, regardless of the outcome of the election, there are decisive measures, easily invoked, that the president can use to immediately help stabilize society and begin the pathway back to civil order across all parts of the United States.