Chapter 137

I was up early at 0600 - as had become custom. I dressed quietly and snuck to the kitchen for the first mug of coffee of the day. I headed to the Oval Office with a couple strips of bacon and the coffee to read the day’s updates.

Iran was still saber rattling with their exercises - no change there.

Admiral West had sent a thank you note to the Chief of Naval Operations that was forwarded to me thanking JBG for the excellent videos from the coastal patrol ships’ crews and the aircraft involved in the Tariq Sultan incident.

Also included was an acceptance of the offer to put six JBG coastal patrol ships at under his command for an estimated sixty days, until the Greek ship joined the assignment.

With the family now up and fed I decided to see if we could manipulate our way to into appearing on Sunday Morning America without a previous invitation. I was sure they would be glad to have me without the invitation given the entire news cycle since mid-week had been on the actions of my administration.

With Jason, Lisa, Jake, Mindy and my two little men, we would need eleven seats in the front row. The Secret Service and my JBG body guards agreed as long as it was kept relatively secret.

Having been there several times I knew how to get in and my way around. I sent a text to Arthur, ‘Save eleven seats in the front row. This visit has to remain top secret and a surprise or it will not happen.’ I would see if I could trust him.

Their advertised guests were Senator Jacobson a liberal and Senator Hart a staunch conservative and supporter of President Thomas. The other two guests were Representatives Mackey the liberal house minority leader and the House majority leader Richard Dawson. I was the last man out.

We waited until just ten minutes before air time. The agents went in first to clear the way and block the halls. Other agents followed in to view the live audience. I had the tech wire me up; makeup had been taken care of before I left the White House. I waited until after the announcer went through introducing the guests and gave them a few minutes of opening comments, then my family made their way to the front row seats and I walked from behind the curtain while pushing an office chair for me to sit in.

‘‘Good morning, everyone,’’ I said.

‘‘You did make it after all, I’m glad you did. I am sure we can come up with lots of questions,’’ Arthur said.

‘‘The debate today is certainly going to be about California,’’ Arthur said.

‘‘First off, the big question; how are the California martial law orders working out?’’ Candy asked.

‘‘You are referring to operation ‘Sunshine’. Eighty thousand homeless have been moved to Camp Parks, they have had the opportunity to bathe, been issued new clean clothes, fed and are sleeping in hurricane recovery tents on cots, not on sidewalks. Those deemed to have mental issues or medical issues are being housed separately and medical teams are taking care of their needs.’’

‘‘Fifteen thousand rioters have been arrested and will be charged with a variety of federal crimes in force under martial law.”

‘‘I question if you have the authority to order all these actions?’’ Senator Jacobson said.

‘‘Of course you are referring to the Posse Comitatus Act that was passed after the Civil War to keep federal troops from policing the South. That limits federal troop deployment on U.S. soil and forbids using them to enforce domestic laws.’’

‘‘The act restricts troops from enforcing local or state laws. I ordered first a Natural Emergency because of the massive riots and then initiated Federal martial law. The troops are enforcing the laws that Congress wrote into the Martial Law act,’’ I said.

‘‘Even though the Posse Comitatus Act has not been repealed, there are a variety of other laws that have had a major decreasing influence on its power.’’

‘‘During the great depression, laws were passed under Roosevelt that pulled the country out of the depression. Then there were the laws used to protect us from ourselves during WW2. Later on there was the race riots of the sixties and laws passed to maintain order. Then the cold war and more laws expanding powers of the President and the courts under a National Emergency. The same scenario repeated itself with the anti-war demonstrations of the seventies with more laws tweaked.’’

‘‘Then came 9-11 and more emergency statues were passed. Through all this came the ability to declare a National Emergency, giving the President a host of powers.”

“The War Powers Act and the Patriot Act gave the President even more emergency powers. Then came the pandemic of 2020 and unlimited power to the federal and local governments. All of these things together have made the restrictions of the Posse Comitatus Act nearly mute.’’

‘‘Back to the original question. I have not violated the Posse Comitatus Act because under my Martial Law order all the local police, sheriff’s departments and the state police are all working as they were before the order. They are reporting to their commanders following their orders. If there are questions, they have been instructed to ask for guidance,’’ I said.