The Fiery Trial Read online

  "I mean," he continued, "if this President – and this President does speak for millions – believes that he has an absolute mandate to continue spending indefinitely because he believes that the most fundamental obligation of the government is to continue paying benefits to people and, further, if this President and his supporters believe that it is acceptable if they must exceed the strictest bounds of the Constitution and the laws in order to do so... And if those of us on the other side believe that this President, by his actions, is destroying liberty and, in fact, creating a dictatorship... Where does it end?"

  Washington, DC

  Like tens of millions of others all around the world, Christopher Sorensen and Sarah Watkins were glued to the television waiting for the President to speak. The junior lawyer and the elementary school teacher had shared a home for only a few months. Like tens of millions of other Americans they, despite their co-habitation, did not share identical political opinions. And, like many of those tens of millions, they were arguing over just which channel to watch insofar as the different channels represented wholly different versions of reality.

  "...This is simply a usurpation without any precedent in the history of the United States," said the Fox News host.

  "But not without precedent elsewhere," one of the guests glumly chimed in.

  "No," agreed the host, "this is the kind of behavior that you would expect to see from a Latin American dictatorship... From a Fidel Castro or a Hugo Chavez."

  "And it remains to be seen whether the courts will uphold this," noted the Fox legal analyst.

  "And it remains to be seen whether the President will even accept the rulings of the court!" interjected another of the guests.

  Sarah grabbed the remote and changed the channel.

  "...Given the continued flight of trillions – literally trillions – of dollars of capital from this country, money that was earned by companies doing business in this country and which was then moved overseas in all sorts of dodgy games to avoid taxation, I don't see how this was anything other than inevitable," said the MSNBC anchor.

  "These companies," agreed one guest, "took trillions of dollars from the pockets of Americans. Then they moved them overseas in order to avoid taxes. Now they're taking these trillions – trillions of American dollars – and they're pulling them out of the market to avoid paying their fair share. I don't think that there's a way to describe this as other than an act of economic warfare against the United States and, in that light, the action of the President is wholly appropriate."

  "Let's go back," said Christopher.

  "Fine," Sarah pouted.

  "...This is a part of a pattern of behavior by this un-elected President," said the guest on Fox, "of unconstitutional acts by this President, who is relying upon the slowness and weakness of the courts and the fact that polls show that he has, if not majority support, then at least enough support to make impeaching him impossible."

  "Not just this President," emphasized another guest, "but this Administration and its predecessor. The problem is that, in the absence of a majority in the Congress dedicated to upholding the Constitution – regardless of partisan considerations – than there is no effective check upon the power of the President. And then what?"

  "Look," said Sarah, speaking over the host, "I don't see what's so wrong about this. There is a law passed that says that he can do something like this and the country needs money. Who else is going to pay for teachers and the police?"

  "First of all," sighed Christopher in response, "those things aren't the responsibility of the Federal Government – or at least they aren't supposed to be. They're supposed to fall within the control of state and local governments. Second – the problem is just like that last guy was saying: if the President is free to take existing laws and either ignore provisions or invent new ones that aren't supported by the text, than the President has become a dictator."

  "But the President only has to do that because the Congress won't pass the laws the people want..."

  "That's why we have a fucking Congress, Sarah," he slammed his fist down on the table, "we don't have a Congress to do what the President wants. Every single member of the House and Senate has their own electorate that put them in office and they're doing their jobs as they're supposed to under the Constitution."

  "All of these laws and technicalities don't do anything to help the poor, or hungry kids, or – well, anyone except for the rich," said Sarah.

  "That's not why we have a government. We have a government to protect or liberties from people – either here or abroad – who would curtail them. That is the essential purpose of the government, not to control the distribution of resources or to do any of the fine and worthy things you're always talking about. That's charity, not government."

  The Oval Office, The White House

  President Kevin Bryan was circling his desk as the CEOs of a quarter of the Fortune 500 shouted into their speakerphones all at once.

  "Ladies and gentlemen!" the President boomed, speaking at a rapid rate as the controllers silenced every participant in the call other than him, "I understand that you believe that you followed the rules. And perhaps you followed such so-called rules as existed. Whether they were fair or not is another question altogether, but I'll defer it. But the rules of the game have changed."

  The controller released every other microphone at once, letting a hundred and fifteen voices turn the audio into an utterly indecipherable mess. The President hopped and clapped with delight as he allowed the cacophony to persist for a full minute before resuming control of the call.

  "The Federal Government is here to serve the people and, to the degree that it means helping you as well, I fully intend to do just that. In serving the people I've used every trick that is available to me under Federal Law, but now I need your help. The President can Constitutionally use existing law to raise new money for already-approved expenditures, but I can't begin the kind of spending that you're going to need."

  The President signaled to free the audio feeds once again as he fell back in his chair and laughed for thirty seconds before beginning to speak once more.

  "Yes, indeed, our goal is to preserve the jobs of the American people and to do that we will work with you. Of course, in order to ensure that we get value for taxpayers' money, there are going to have to be some terms and conditions..."

  Dirksen Senate Office Building

  "I understand that, believe me. I'll do my best," said Senator Dianne Dawson as she ended her call with the CEO of the Bank of America.

  "Jesus," she breathed as she dropped her phone on the desk with a thud.

  "There are more call-backs to make, Senator," said her scheduler as Dawson stretched out in her chair.

  "At this point, what difference does it make? Everyone is fucking frightened, and there's not much that I can say until I know what the President is fucking up to. He hasn't said a word about this to anyone on the damned Hill."

  "I wish that I knew what the fuck he was playing at," said Melanie McCullough, nominally Senator Dawson's Deputy Press Secretary but actually her most trusted aide.

  "I wish that he knew what the fuck he was playing at," said Dawson, "the only Goddamned reason why Henry Warren put him on the ticket was to solidify the votes of disgruntled liberals. No one ever thought that that nutcase would run the country. Certainly, the party wasn't going to back him for President the next time around, no matter what he thought."

  "What's he going to do next?"

  "Who the fuck knows? He bounced the Senate with this stuff – and he's struck enough of a populist chord that we can hardly just run away from him. He has the wheel and he's going to take us all for a ride."

  New York, NY

  The Board of Directors of Praetorian were conducting an emergency meeting via a secure video conference. During the preceding years, Praetorian had built up its own private communications network that was not linked to the regular internet in any way, shape, or form. Instead the sys
tem used a series of peer-to-peer satellite connections together with a closely guarded and limited number of hardware units that had access.

  "We managed to get out pretty securely," noted King glumly, "we've been moving money beyond the reach of the U.S. Government for years now and so I think that the total assets frozen on our end are limited to a few billion dollars."

  "Just a few billion?" asked the former Secretary of State with a sharp tone.

  "Yes," confirmed King, "just a few billion. Given all that we control and the fact that we needed to keep some money controlled by foreign subsidiaries in places where the Federal Government has reach in order to pay expenses, we've gotten off pretty lightly. There are a lot of companies that have lost significant portions of their total assets."

  "Actually," King continued, "we stand to make a substantial amount of money on the upswing. Though we don't know the full sweep of what the President plans to do here, he can only touch money that's 'foreign' in this context. That means that he can't, unless he intends to go even further beyond the law in a way that he really doesn't have any legal means to do so – touch our purely domestic assets and also we're going to see very large gains on all of the precious metals and resources that we're holding."

  "Hmmm..." said the former Governor of Mississippi, going through the papers in front of him, "this makes the purchase of all of those Canadian banks seem like a better decision than it did at the time."

  "He's about to start," said the former Secretary.

  The Oval Office, The White House

  "Good evening, my fellow Americans," President Kevin Bryan began speaking, his hands gravely folded on the Resolution desk in front of him, "I am speaking to you tonight to explain several extraordinary measures that I have been required to take in order to ensure the continued financial survival of our nation.

  "For decades we have struggled with a core problem: the growth of income inequality as exacerbated by the arrival of the modern cycle of globalization. Different people attribute this to different causes and almost everyone has a point. The increase of inequality is driven by greed, to be certain, but it is also accelerated by international trade, the newfound mobility of capital, and the startling increases in productivity that we have seen in recent decades.

  "Last month a new factory opened in Alabama. It uses advanced 3D printers to assemble parts for a new generation of Hondas. Decades ago such a factory would have employed several thousand people. This one employs one hundred and six – all either highly paid specialists or very lowly paid manual laborers. This factory was built to supply parts for another factory of which very much the same is true.

  "A lot of money for the people at the top and a little for people at the bottom and not very much in-between. This pattern has been repeated all across our country.

  "How do we assure the prosperity of the American people through this change? Some would say that we should adopt a winner-take-all, sink-or-swim philosophy. But I don't believe that that is what the American people want and that they have said as much by the election and then the re-election of this Administration and its predecessor.

  "I believe that the modern economy requires the government to take a more active role in ensuring that fairness, empathy, and respect remain at the core of our society.

  "Now, others take an opposite view. And, in so doing, they have gone to extraordinary lengths in an attempt to thwart the desires of the American people. The Congress has repeatedly attempted to use every trick in the book in order to force broad and across-the-board reductions in spending that would be devastating to the majority of Americans. My predecessor found a way around this form of blackmail by using the existing laws of this country in such a way as to evade Congressional obstructionism. Indeed, as it was that action that set off the storm of hatred that led to his impeachment and, eventually, to his assassination as well, it might even be said that he paid for his efforts with his life.

  "The choice that I face – and that we face – is a stark one: if people don't pay their fair share, then this country cannot pay its bills.

  "Faced with this choice – as stark as any faced by any President – I have made a decision. I will not allow the many to suffer for the sake of the privileged few, especially when the few are violating both the spirit and, in many cases, the letter of the law.

  "However, those violators – these malefactors of great wealth, as Franklin Roosevelt once said – have many resources and many tools at their disposal. They can manipulate the legal system to evade justice for years and in some cases forever. They do not believe that they have to play by the same rules as the majority of the American people because in most cases it has been many years since they were called upon to do so.

  "Well, it's time that we brought an end to that. Prior Congresses, in their wisdom, have passed laws that give the President vast discretion in times of national emergency. I am not afraid to use that discretion in defense of the people of the United States. Therefore, tonight, I have signed an order invoking certain provisions of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Specifically, I have found that certain foreign companies – some of them subsidiaries of American ones – have engaged in acts of economic warfare against the United States by conducting grand campaigns of tax avoidance. And, in view of this pattern of tax avoidance, I have ordered – pursuant to the law passed by the Congress – that the assets of those engaging in such acts of economic warfare be seized by the Treasury.

  "This act, though, is merely the beginning of a process: not the end. True economic reforms that will restore fairness to this country will require the collaboration of the Congress. To begin with, it is vital that we protect American jobs by ensuring that the turbulence that has afflicted our financial markets ever since the disruptions created by obstructionism regarding the debt limit began to be felt is brought to an end. To that end, I have spoken to business leaders who have agreed to a renewed partnership between business and government here in America. However, the facilitation of this partnership requires the assistance of the Congress. By passing the Economic Reform Act proposed by my Administration the Congress can ensure that adequate loans and loan guarantees are provided to American businesses and that, in turn, taxpayers are protected by the government's receipt of direct capital stakes in these companies in return."

  Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC

  "My God, my God," repeated Congressman Michael Nelson as he watched the President speak from the Oval Office.

  "This is third-world level lawlessness!" he shouted to his staff as the broadcast continued.

  "I'd expect this shit from some fucking South American dictator. But from a President of the United States? We have to stop him."

  Phones began to ring and buzz across the Capitol. Major donors were going nuts. Every Republican activist in the country was in a rage. The phones of the Democratic members were ringing off the hooks as well – with words of praise and affection from those individuals thrilled at the idea of the President having taken such dramatic action designed to make others, "pay their fair share."

  "Do you really think that Halverson is up to the job?" Nelson asked a colleague over the phone.

  "I don't know," said the Congressman from Michigan's Eighth District glumly, "we don't have enough votes to impeach or to override a Presidential veto. We can try and shut down the government, but I don't know that there's even much hope of that – the President can just lawlessly evade that and, without a basic respect for the Constitution either on the part of the President or his supporters in the Congress and the country, I don't know how we overcome it."

  "I don't know yet either," admitted Nelson, "but we just have to fight like hell."

  "For whatever good it will do," replied the Michigan Congressman, "I mean, if people won't listen to what the Constitution says, then this country has just become another cult of the Caudillo. We don't have the authority to tell anyone to stop. We can pass laws, the President can veto. We can try an
d deny funding and it seems like he'll just take as he likes and dare us and the courts to stop him. And who will? Everyone in the Goddamned Federal Government will just shrug and say "befehl ist befehl" and move on."

  Silence filled the line.

  "Michael?"

  "What did you just say?" Representative Nelson.

  "Oh," laughed the Michigan Congressman, "it's a German phrase..."

  "I know," said Nelson, "but that could be it."

  "What?"

  "An order is an order," replied Nelson, "yes."

  Fifteen minutes later, Congressman Nelson and Representative Jon Sawyer of Michigan had managed to barge their way into the besieged officer of the House Majority Leader.

  "Mike," said Rickover, "I know that you're angry. You know that I'm pissed too. We're going to have to be focused, though, and not let rage take over."

  "I know," said Nelson quietly.

  "Alright," said Rickover, "what's up?"

  "Jon and I were talking about this, and Jon said something that triggered a thought. How much do you know about the Nuremberg Tribunals?"

  "Enough," said Rickover somewhat quizzically.

  "One of the things established at Nuremberg – something that I studied and was emphasized when I was joining the JAG corps, is how and why the tribunal there rejected the so-called 'superior orders' defense. All of these German officers tried to plead that, during the war, they had just been following orders – but they were convicted anyways."

  "Right. I know that," interjected the Majority Leader.

  "Right," said Nelson, "but that's true here in the United States as well. An officer of the United States has a legal obligation to refuse to obey an illegal order. Failing to disobey such an order makes the individual in question guilty of a crime just as the person who issued the order is."

  "Ok," said Rickover, "I follow that. How do we apply that here?"

  "Well," said Nelson, "even if we can't pass a new law, the public recognizes that we're a better-than-even shot to win the next Presidential election. That's what the polls say and this stunt by the President might help him with his base, but I can't see it improving his overall standing in the polls.