Coronavirus
Out of context: Reply #1251
- Started
- Last post
- 6,418 Responses
- yuekit0
Even as President Trump says he tested negative for coronavirus, the COVID-19 pandemic raises the fear that huge swaths of the executive branch or even Congress and the Supreme Court could also be disabled, forcing the implementation of "continuity of government" plans that include evacuating Washington and "devolving" leadership to second-tier officials in remote and quarantined locations.
But Coronavirus is also new territory, where the military itself is vulnerable and the disaster scenarios being contemplated -- including the possibility of widespread domestic violence as a result of food shortages -- are forcing planners to look at what are called "extraordinary circumstances".
Above-Top Secret contingency plans already exist for what the military is supposed to do if all the Constitutional successors are incapacitated. Standby orders were issued more than three weeks ago to ready these plans, not just to protect Washington but also to prepare for the possibility of some form of martial law.
According to new documents and interviews with military experts, the various plans – codenamed Octagon, Freejack and Zodiac – are the underground laws to ensure government continuity. They are so secret that under these extraordinary plans, "devolution" could circumvent the normal Constitutional provisions for government succession, and military commanders could be placed in control around America.
"We're in new territory," says one senior officer, the entire post-9/11 paradigm of emergency planning thrown out the window. The officer jokes, in the kind of morbid humor characteristic of this slow-moving disaster, that America had better learn who Gen. Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy is.
He is the "combatant commander" for the United States and would in theory be in charge if Washington were eviscerated. That is, until a new civilian leader could be installed.
- ok********
- just understand that the entire world follows almost the same procedures shutting down things to avoid the chaos. if nobody is stupid we will be out in 2 months********
- but we have to plan for stupid what means 6-18 months.********
- stupid is growing right now and these thing aren't helping to stop that.********
- Yeah not trying to feed the panic but this is Newsweek, not Alex Jones or somethingyuekit
- And I do wonder about the cascading effects if there are months of lockdowns, governments bungle the response, etcyuekit
- Unfortunately, stupid has an exponential infection curve that rivals the coronavirus's.Continuity
- Newsweek. Ugh.monospaced
- is this a script-pitch for a forgettable made-for-tv movie starring Matthew Modine?********
- ok