Cease and Desist

   The president didn't like a poll that showed him trailing Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden by 14 points, so he demanded that CNN, sponsor of the poll, stop reporting the results and apologize.
   The response: No.
   The result: Even more widespread reporting by other news organizations of the cease and desist demand, contained in a letter to CNN by the president's lawyers.
   The poll was conducted by an independent organization, and the results were similar to those reported by other professional pollsters.
   Whether the demand will be followed by a lawsuit is highly unlikely, since it would clash with the First Amendment right of a free press.
   In other news, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, apologized for attending the president's photo op in front of a church. The general said he made a mistake in doing so, because it gave the impression that he supported using federal troops to suppress peaceful protest demonstrations, which would be unconstitutional.
   He made the comments in a speech to graduates of the National Defense University, one of the military's war colleges, attended by senior officers and other senior government security officials.
   Gen. Milley joins a squadron of other military officers, some retired, in condemning the president's threats to use active duty military troops to deal with civilian protests.
   Milley emphasized that the military has an obligation not to get involved in politics or to take action against American civilians. As chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Milley is the nation's highest ranking military officer.