Meet SG3: The lite Legal Squad That Vowed to Safeguard the Election

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The Bench March 1, 2021 Issue

Calling themselves the Three Amigos, a self-appointed legal SWAT team of former Solicitors General ran through all the Doomsday scenarios they could think of—except armed insurrection at the Capitol.

By Jane Mayer

February 20, 2021

Last March, after President Trump declaimed that the only way he could lose the election was if there was fraud, Seth Waxman couldn’t sleep. A member of the tiny, élite club of litigators who have served as Solicitors General of the United States, Waxman is not a mellow guy. An obsessive runner with the wound-up energy of a twisted rubber band, he often wakes up at three in the morning agitated by something or other. Typically, he makes a cup of tea, works for an hour, and goes back to bed. But the insomnia last March, he said, “was, like, five nights in a row!”

The proximate cause was what he calls “the Doomsday scenarios,” which he feared could unfold if Trump tried to subvert the 2020 election. Could the President order the election postponed because of the pandemic? he wondered. Could he call a reunion of the ice agents he sent into Portland to intimidate minority voters in urban centers?

Night after night, Waxman tabulated every possible thing that could go wrong. Having advised several Democratic Presidential campaigns, he was familiar with the pitfalls. But none of the nightmares conjured by Trump “corresponded with anything I’d worried about in earlier campaigns,” he said. He ended up with a three-and-a-half-page single-spaced list of potential catastrophes.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/01/meet-sg3-the-elite-legal-squad-that-vowed-to-safeguard-the-election?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_022021&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd67fd124c17c1048038393&cndid=50189165&hasha=45886f03c1aa05e3470c660c45ddebe7&hashb=59a6fd04f1e545a9338906f74cbb9db4f42cb88c&hashc=9d3b3f9210a99c8661af766f300c9bc1287afa0e5769a5c3d788965afdb6ca2f&esrc=bounceX

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1. I think the article still falls way short in identifying the intended scenario

I recently watched a CNN piece (1) where a daughter talks about how crazy her mother is with Trump and QAnon. At one point in the video the daughter says, "my mother is gone." It's really a powerful piece. So in the video there is a pic of her mother's YouTube channel. I was able to track down the channel from the CNN picture. You really need to understand the depth of how crazy these seditionists have become. First, their devotion to Trump is absolute. They see Trump as God on Earth.

Since then, YouTube deleted her mom's channel for violating TOS. But before they did I was able to watch some of her mom's videos. I can't watch the video again to give you the exact quote. But here is a paraphrase of what her mother said in one of the videos I found to be so alarming: "We would just have martial law for a short time until we got the Constitution back in order." I remember when I heard her mother say this my jaw just dropped. If Trump ever declared martial law, he would never have relinquish power after that point.

So here is the nightmare scenario I think Trump was trying to achieve. If the Trump protestors on January 6th were successful in killing Pence, Schumer, Pelosi, AOC, or any congressperson, I think Trump would have declared martial law and stopped the transfer of power. He was so close with his Storm Troopers it was and still is breathtaking!

I haven't healed from the events of January 6th. I am deeply divided. I cannot make peace with a party intent on violence, sedition, and insurrection. I am not ready to give up the rule-of-law as part of any political compromise.

I think this article has the best description of the motivation behind the events of January 6th:

"Fascists shared a seething hatred for socialism, liberalism, and bourgeois individualism. They believed in authoritarian leadership and the right of the strong to subjugate the weak. They believed in the primacy of the state over the rights of the individual. They believed their collective grievance justified violence." (2)

Thank God we have Randow Rainbow (3) to help lighten up the situation. It's only funny because it's so tragic!

1: https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/02/10/qanon-family-members-donie-osullivan-zw-rn-orig.cnn-business

2: https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/fascism-what-else-do-you-call-rejecting-democracy-scapegoating-immigrants-and-being-consumed-by-grievance/Content?oid=25352265

3: