If I were president, I would start with a round of mass imprisonments. <\/p>\n

As Machiavelli advises, I’d do it quickly, perhaps all in one night. A few tens of thousands should be enough.<\/p>\n

No, no, you’ve got me all wrong — these aren’t<\/em> political prisoners. Yes, they just happen to include the members of the Democratic and Republican National Committees. There are a lot of big-time political donors. (Which ones? Don’t ask!) Industrialists, financiers, labor leaders, community organizers. Academics. Journalists. Judges. A few members of Congress. (I wouldn’t need too many of those. It only needs a few pour encourager les autres<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

But they’re not in prison for their politics. No indeed. They’re terrorism suspects<\/em><\/a>, and I’m holding them in military prisons for the duration of the conflict.<\/p>\n

Courts don’t<\/em> get to review my decision. No one does. I don’t need to show evidence. I don’t need to say where I’m holding them. I don’t even need to say who<\/em> I’m holding. <\/p>\n

What do<\/em> I need? I need the loyalty of the folks with the guns. In a sense, that’s all I’ve ever needed, but it’s awfully nice of U.S. law to just come right out and say so, and to sweep away all the legal mumbo jumbo.<\/p>\n

I also need to torture. Terror suspects deserve no less. I’ve got legal memos saying it’s okay.<\/p>\n

I might go down in history as one of the most hated world leaders of all time, but I bet Americans would care a lot more about their civil liberties after my very short and perhaps violently abbreviated time in office.<\/p>\n

Just a pity about all the damage I’d do in the meantime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I were president, I would start with a round of mass imprisonments. As Machiavelli advises, I’d do it quickly, perhaps all in one night. A few tens of thousands should be enough. No,...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"featured_media":302081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[]},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-league"],"yoast_head":"\n