Welcome to the international empire of “Pandemia.” This unstructured alliance of disbelievers in public health, skeptics of scientific proof, practitioners of fascist ideology, and bloviators about any subject minus the ones at hand have ensured that a deadly pandemic became an international scourge. Rather than pooling the resources of their nations with those of others, these cartoonish politicians decided to, at first, discount the threat; then, manipulate the numbers of infected persons in their countries; followed by hoarding precious medical supplies and resources and, in the case of Donald Trump, tighten sanctions on nations trying to deal with the virus at home and abroad. Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba discovered that the United States, far from being generous during a global health crisis, would use sanctions to increase the pandemic’s death count in the sanctions-targeted nations.

In two federal republics, the United States and Brazil, led by two extreme-rightwing Presidents, Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, respectively, the central governments demonstrated an initial and continued failure to take Covid-19 seriously. By waiting until the pandemic was already weighing heavily on state governments, the two presidents, rather than taking strong federal action, decided to engage in a ridiculous blame game in both shedding off federal responsibility and forcing state governors into roles best suited to the national governments.

When Trump appointed his New York/New Jersey “kosher nostra”-mobbed up son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to chair a “shadow” Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) task force charged with building up a national stockpile of ventilators, personal protection equipment (PPE), and Covid-19 test kits. Kushner publicly stated at a White House press briefing that the federal medical stockpile was not meant for the states, even though the United States solely consists of states. Who would ultimately receive the federal stockpile over which Kushner maintained his control? Kushner granted himself sole authority to distribute the equipment and supplies. To where? Israel, where the prime minister was a personal friend of Kushner and his family? The New York/New Jersey regional black market, where Baruch Feldheim, Yuriy Borukhov, Maisey Khovasov, and Michael Borukhov were arrested for hoarding masks and other medical supplies and gouging buyers? These are the types of criminals Trump and Kushner have been dealing with throughout their entire lives. As if they were dealoing with organized crime syndicates, governors were alerted to numerous attempts by FEMA and Kushner, using Gestapo-like tactics, to intercept PPEs pre-ordered by the states.

Colorado’s Democratic Governor, Jared Polis, revealed that FEMA “swept up” 500 ventilators that were already purchased by the state of Colorado. Massachusetts Republican Governor Charlie Baker decried the Kushner team’s confiscation of three million masks ordered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Acting entirely outside of their scope and doing the bidding of Trump “capo” and Attorney General William Barr, authorized the FBI to question the chief physician at Baystate Health in Massachusetts about the purpose of two semi-trucks, disguised as food-service vehicles, hauling badly-needed PPEs to Massachusetts hospitals. Even after the FBI stood down, FEMA attempted to seize the equipment. Similar FEMA seizures and attempted seizures were reported from Florida, California, Washington state, Oregon, Alaska, and Texas.

Illinois Democratic Governor J. B. Pritzker said his state’s order of millions of masks and gloves from China via secret chartered flights had to be kept confidential because he feared that FEMA would attempt to seize the cargo prior to it leaving China or upon its arrival in the United States. Another highly secret operation, dubbed “Operation Enduring Friendship” by Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan, saw his Korean-American wife, Yumi Hogan, negotiate a shipment of 500,000 test kits in a chartered Korean Air Boeing 777 aircraft that flew the cargo from South Korea’s LabGenomics company to an isolated tarmac at Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport. The Hogans were on hand to personally welcome the secret flight. It was Maryland’s First Lady who negotiated the deal through the auspices of South Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Lee Soo Hyuk and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Like the mafia extortionists they attempt to portray, Trump and Kushner were livid at both Hogan and Pritzker for working around the White House’s hoarding scheme.

It was unprecedented for governors to be forced to engage in their own foreign efforts to obtain needed medical supplies and the transformation of states into quasi-independent entities hearkened back to the pre-U.S. Constitution days of the Articles of Confederation, a loose-knit federation in which states had wide authority over international commerce and finance.

Democratic members of the U.S. Congress questioned the motive of Kushner in “circumventing protocols that ensure all states’ requests are handled appropriately.” However, Kushner, as seen by his own and his family’s past well-known and concisely reported unethical business practices, was obviously engaging in hoarding and using the powers of FEMA, the Homeland Security Department, the FBI, and Barr to enforce international and interstate stockpiling conduits for his own dubious purposes.

Trump’s partner-in-malfeasance, Bolsonaro, also tangled with Brazil’s state governors, many of whom issued stay-at-home orders and closures of businesses and other venues. On several occasions, Bolsonaro ventured out of the presidential palace and mingled with anti-lockdown protesters and violated social distancing regulations. Like Trump, Bolsonaro criticized lockdown orders issued by state governors and upheld by the Supreme Court. He even coughed in the close presence of others and was seen wiping his nose prior to shaking hands with an elderly woman. In a mirror image of Trump supporters descending on state capitals and demanding the resignation of U.S. state governors, Bolsonaro protesters turned out in Sao Paulo and demanded that Governor Joao Doria also resign over his shelter-in-place orders. Making matters worse, Bolsonaro fired his Health Minister, Luiz Mandetta, who was popular with the governors in guiding them in their lockdown policies.

Rio de Janeiro’s governor, Wilson Witzel, a one-time ally of Bolsonaro, simply ignored the president and continued to impose his own strict social isolation orders. Witzel also warned Bolsonaro that his actions could land him before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Just as Trump found willing dupes in Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves to ease up on social distancing, so, too, did Bolsonaro in his Bolsonarista allies, Rondônia Governor Marcos Rocha and Roraima Governor Antonio Denarium.

Although the United Kingdom is not a federation per se, it is a nation composed of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the latter three having their own degrees of self-government. United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson initially took a lackadaisical approach to Covid-19, even skipping five emergency “Cobra” intelligence, emergency services, and military meetings on the issue. On January 24, Johnson’s Health Minister, Matt Hancock, claimed that Covid’s threat to the UK public was low, even though intelligence shared by the World Health Organization from China and other affected countries indicated otherwise. Regional and local governments in the UK were left to deal with the public health emergency on their own. The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, was not even invited to the first Cobra meetings on the virus threat. Without any strong leadership from Number 10 Downing Street left the governments of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, crown dependencies, and local English councils to deal with the pandemic as if the UK government did not even exist.

In some countries that would benefit by a devolution of central power to provincial governments, heavy-handed tactics by central governments saw requests for large-scale social restrictions rejected. This resulted in outrage and possible future demands for great self-determination in the Indonesian regions and cities of Palangka Raya, Rote Ndao Regency, Mimika Regency, Fakfak Regency, Sorong, and Bolaang Mongondow Regency in the already secessionist restive provinces of West Papua, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, and East Nusa Tenggara.

Some Mexican state governors were infuriated by leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s slow start in providing guidance to the states on necessary actions to take to combat the virus. The governors of the states of Jalisco, Nuevo Leon, Queretaro, and Sinaloa issued their own lockdown orders in the absence of any firm direction from the central government.

Federal and quasi-federal systems where the national governments worked closely with the leaders of constituent states and provinces and chose not to pick fights with them – Australia, Canada, Argentina, and India — will survive Covid-19 intact. However, for the United States, Brazil, and the United Kingdom, the outlook for federalism is not so bright.

It was the abject inability and incompetence of governments led by dogmatic and ideological conservatives and right-wingers to deal with any emergency, let alone an unprecedented pandemic, that was on display for the entire world. Protecting the security and safety of the people is the most important duty of any government and Trump, Bolsonaro, and Johnson proved that they were utterly incapable of doing so and thus failed in their most solemn responsibilities.

The Deep State Plot Against JFK

The danger of World War and a military coup arose again during the short lived administration of John F. Kennedy who found himself locked in a life or death struggle not with Russia, but with the Military Industrial Complex that had become dominated by the many Dr. Strangeloves of the Joint Chief of Staff and CIA who fanatically believed that America could win a nuclear war with Russia. Kennedy’s valiant efforts to achieve dialogue with his Soviet counterparts, move towards peace in Vietnam, support of colonial liberation, promotion of space exploration and advocacy of a Nuclear Test Ban treaty made him a target of the Deep State of his time. During this period, this effort was led from the top by JFK’s two most powerful American opponents: Allan Dulles (director of the CIA) and General Lyman Lemnitzer (head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), both of whom were proponents of pre-emptive nuclear war, architects of the Bay of Pigs regime change trap and advocates of Operation Northwoods (an ultimate “inside job” precursor to 9/11 which JFK subverted).

As historian Anton Chaitkin recently reported: “Lemnitzer had displayed what his faction viewed as his qualifications for this role back in August 1960, when, as Army chief of staff, he announced that the Army was all ready to “restore order” in the United States after a nuclear war with the Soviet Union—to bring back normalcy just as the military does after a flood or a riot”
This plot was detailed in a quasi-fictional book written by investigative journalists Fletcher Knebel and Charles Bailey published in 1962 entitled Seven Days in May and swiftly made into a famous film with unprecedented support by JFK himself who gave the film crew and director John Frankenheimer full access to the White House, advisors and materials for the film which he believed every American should see.

In the story, a patriotic lieutenant discovers the plans for the coup which is scheduled to take place during a vast military drill whereby a President who is close to finalizing a de-armament treaty with Russia will be incapacitated in a bunker while a military regime takes over America.
Tragically, where the lieutenant is able to expose the plot and save the nation in the story, by the time of the film’s 1964 release, JFK had been deposed by other means. Now 56 years later, history has begun to repeat itself with distinctly 21st century characteristics… and a viral twist.

The Stage is Again Set for Martial Law

Another President resistant to regime change and nuclear confrontation with Russia and China finds himself today in the White House in the form of Donald Trump.

As in 1933, today’s financial collapse threatens to rip the social and economic fabric of America to shreds, and just as in 1963 a powerful military industrial complex and private banking system manages a web of power which is devoted to overturning the 2016 election (and 1776 revolution) by any means. The biggest difference today is that a global coronavirus pandemic threatens to be the catalyzer used to justify military dictatorship in America and broader nuclear confrontation with Russia and China.

Instead of names like “Dulles”, or “Lemnitzer”, today’s coup directors feature such names as “Pompeo” and “O’Shawnessy”… both Deep State assets highly positioned in 3rd and 4th place to take over the Presidency at the drop of a hat.

Terrence O’Shawnessy: The Man Who Could Be President

Having slipped silently under the radar four weeks ago, the American Government passed a new emergency protocol into law which vastly expands powers and procedures of Martial Law under “Continuity of Government” which must be taken very seriously. These new protocols deal at length with the triggering of Martial Law should the nation become ungovernable through a variety of foreseeable scenarios that COVID-19 has unleashed, such as “unwanted violence” caused by “food shortage, financial chaos” or also if the President, Vice President and Secretary of State all become incapacitated for any reason.

Even though this act was classified “Above Top Secret” a surprisingly in depth March 18 Newsweek report by William Arkin documented how the “Combat Commander” of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) will immediately take power as a part of the “Continuity of Government” procedures which took on monstrous dimensions under the control of Dick Cheney in the wake of 9/11. According to Newsweek, the new regulation drafted by the Joint Chiefs states that the military may take control where “duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation” even when “authorization by the President is impossible”. Arkin describes the new protocols for “devolving” leadership to second-tier officials in remote and quarantined locations.”

General O’Shawnessy, (former Deputy of UN Command in Korea) currently doubles as the head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and has devoted his past 14 months to the promotion of a military confrontation over the Arctic which he has described as “the new frontline of our homeland defense” against Russia and China who are “determined to exploit the region’s economic and strategic potential”.

NORTHCOM went operational on October 1, 2002 as part of the Neocon takeover of America. This neocon coup which came to full fruition with 9/11 was governed by a manifesto entitled the Project for a New American Century  which laid out a Pax Americana of police state measures at home, regime change abroad and containment of a rising China and Russia under a religious belief in a unipolar world order.

This continental organization interfaces closely with both FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, and was given a wide jurisdiction embracing not only the USA but also Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, acting as “primary defender of an invasion of America”. NORTHCOM interfaces closely with the deep state by hosting personnel from the FBI, CIA, NSA and Defense Intelligence Agency in its headquarters and is responsible for the protection of the President, Vice President and Secretary of State.

Most recently, RT has reported on March 28 that O’Shawnessy has ordered teams of “essential staff” deep into vast bunkers 650 meters below the surface in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado to “wait out the COVID-19 crisis”. Announcing this secretive mission, the General tweeted “Our dedicated professionals of the NORAD and NORTHCOM Command and control watch have left their homes, said goodbye to their families and are isolated from everyone to ensure they can stand watch each and every day to defend our homeland.”

Other military personnel have been banned from travelling and commanded to stay near their bases ready for action and as of March 30, over 14 600 National Guard forces have been deployed to all 50 states. Although they cannot currently engage in policing due to the 1878 US Posse Comitatus Act, Martial Law would render that provision null and void.

It is also noteworthy that only one day after the Coronavirus was labelled an “international public health emergency” by the World Health Organization on January 30, Defense Secretary Mark Esper approved nationwide pandemic plans and warned NORTHCOM to “prepare to deploy”.

This author doesn’t believe it to be a coincidence that patriotic voices who would typically be opposed to such a Martial Law agenda have been taken out of public life due to chaos emerging from the Coronavirus with Senator Ron Paul’s March 22 COVID-19 diagnosis forcing him into quarantine and the politically naive Tulsi Gabbard’s dropping out of the presidential race in order “to be prepared for the national guard duties”. It isn’t very hard to imagine a COVID-19 diagnosis, real or fabricated to take the President and other members of the government out of office at a moment’s notice.

Time is running out for America and only bold, decisive action taken courageously and swiftly can change the course of self-annihilation upon which the republic now finds itself.

Presidents Xi Jinping and Putin have opened their arms to welcome America and other western nations into their new multipolar system which is built not upon a worship of money or militarism, but rather cooperation and creative mutual growth. Project Airbridge collaboration between China and the USA has begun as a part of the Health Silk Road bringing millions of medical supplies to America. Meanwhile a brilliant coalition of former Latin American heads of State called for the creation of a new just economic order and debt jubilee as a response to the failure of the neoliberal system which shines a principled light out of the current threefold danger of economic collapse, war and Martial Law.

The author can be reached at matt.ehret@tutamail.com