Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: William Hyde Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Re: (ReacTor) Five SF Scenarios Involving the US Presidential Line of Succession Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2024 11:23:18 -0400 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 89 Message-ID: References: <2gtfgj9p2r66h84afc2hfapm4l2gflac9b@4ax.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2024 17:23:37 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="2e31428aa9a3c298ab01993d112cd238"; logging-data="3908194"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/TiiRD31lkYn5ZACapXH54" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:91.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/91.0 SeaMonkey/2.53.19 Cancel-Lock: sha1:VVYUkC6V3BmCIEBQaWUm4QgKHjk= X-Antivirus-Status: Clean X-Antivirus: Norton (VPS 241011-4, 10/11/2024), Outbound message In-Reply-To: Bytes: 4812 Dimensional Traveler wrote: > On 10/10/2024 9:28 AM, William Hyde wrote: >> Paul S Person wrote: >>> On Wed, 9 Oct 2024 13:51:44 -0400, Cryptoengineer >>> wrote: >>> >>>> On 10/9/2024 11:42 AM, Paul S Person wrote: >>>>> On Tue, 8 Oct 2024 22:18:12 -0400, Cryptoengineer >>>>> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> On 10/8/2024 11:55 AM, Paul S Person wrote: >>>>>>> On 8 Oct 2024 14:16:07 -0000, jdnicoll@panix.com (James Nicoll) >>>>>>> wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Five SF Scenarios Involving the US Presidential Line of Succession >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> The American Presidential Line of Succession determines who >>>>>>>> replaces >>>>>>>> a suddenly absent President. More importantly, it is an invaluable >>>>>>>> narrative tool. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> https://reactormag.com/five-sf-scenarios-involving-the- >>>>>>>> presidential-line-of-succession/ >>>>>>> >>>>>>> I've occasionally wondered: in the event of a complete wipeout not >>>>>>> actually destroying the entire USA, so that most States could >>>>>>> replace >>>>>>> their Senators and Representatives, would whichever of the Senate >>>>>>> (by >>>>>>> electing a President Pro Tempore) or the House (by electing a >>>>>>> Speaker), depending on which is faster, actually be electing a >>>>>>> President of the USA? >>>>>>> >>>>>>> As to maintaining order, I suspect the highest ranking military >>>>>>> officer would temporarily assume de facto control. As opposed to, >>>>>>> say, >>>>>>> one of the Federal Attorneys scattered around the country. The >>>>>>> military does have one advantage: there is /always/ someone who >>>>>>> outranks everybody else, so "who takes charge?" is clear. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Once a President exists, of course, the rest of the gummint (with >>>>>>> the >>>>>>> advice and consent of the Senate, of course) would follow, and >>>>>>> the DoD >>>>>>> could be put back under civilian control. >>>>>> >>>>>> IIRC, Congress is installed first, and they approve the >>>>>> slate of electoral votes to declare the President. So Congress comes >>>>>> first. That's what Trump was treasonously trying to disrupt on Jan 6. >>>>> >>>>> Which is corrrect, but has nothing to do with my very wild >>>>> speculations. >>>>> >>>>> Or are you contemplating an off-year/out of season Presidential >>>>> election before a new President can be installed? >>>> >>>> No, the regular Congress. >>>> >>>> Here's the timeline: >>>> https://bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/2024-election-key-dates-beyond- >>>> election-day/ >>>> >>>> The new Congress is sworn in Jan 3, and counts the electoral >>>> votes Jan 6. >>> >> >>> >>> I also suspect a new District of Columbia will be established, >>> probably in the middle of the country. Nothing like high mountains and >>> a thousand miles or two of land to make a government feel secure. >> >> Without, one hopes, disenfranchising a million Americans. >> > You can't be disenfranchised if you don't have the ability to vote in > the first place.  ;) As I understand it a number of people in Georgetown and other settlements in what became DC were rather unhappy with their loss of voting rights. When I lived in DC someone published a few letters from the time as part of the movement to enfranchise the residents of DC. William Hyde