[Peace-discuss] News of the next eight weeks

[C. G. Estabrook]

1.) The Green/Dem recounts/challenges draw down the Electoral College vote so that neither Trump nor Clinton reaches a majority.

2.) The selection of a president is thus thrown into the House of Representatives, where each state has one vote, regardless of population.

3.) Clinton receives 26 votes from state delegations (which are not required to follow their state's election results) and is declared president. 

4.) Protests and riots break out, mainly in the Midwest and South, but elsewhere as well; the Obama administration puts them down vigorously, using the militarized police and the National Guard.

5.) On January 20, 2017, President Hillary Clinton is inaugurated in a Washington DC patrolled by the military. 

6.) President Clinton declares (on the legal authority of the 2001 AUMF) a no-fly/safe zone over Aleppo and other rebel areas in Syria.

7.) Confrontations between Russian and American planes result in shoot-downs and widening conflict in Syria and elsewhere in MENA; Iran and Israel are drawn in; each side threatens the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

8.) The president - vowing to "Bring Us Together!" - (re)declares a National Emergency, owing to the spreading war in the Mideast, and orders the suppression of all political demonstrations (and unofficial commentary) for the duration of hostilities (e.g., the sites on the WaPo PropOrNot list are shut down).

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