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You are going to lecture America about law and order?
The big story of the weekend and week is the protests in Los Angeles and the nasty guy’s oversize response. A Martínez of NPR spoke to Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-Los Angeles and chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. I’m working from the news story corresponding to their discussion.
Many immigrants look for day jobs at work sites outside of Home Depot. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided those sites. They were not targeting criminals, as the nasty guy said they were after. They were sweeping up friends and neighbors. The residents protested the ICE raids, which had detained more than 100 people.
I’ll combine that with a discussion between Leila Fadel of NPR and Hina Shamsi, the ACLU's National Security Project director. Again, I’m working from the news article.
Those demonstrators clashed with police. The nasty guy used the clashes as a reason to sign an order to deploy 2,000 National Guardsmen into the city. This was over the objection of Gov. Gavin Newsom. The deployment was to protect ICE agents from “violent mobs” who “fueled lawless chaos.”
Shamsi discussed the authority for the nasty guy to give that order. His use of the National Guard in domestic situations are reserved for actual emergencies, such as an actual war or armed rebellion. That’s not what this is. Instead, this is a dangerous abuse of power.
The memo didn’t place a geographic or time limit on the deployment. Shamsi sees this as the nasty guy writing himself a blank check to use the Guard in other place where people are using their free speech to protest dangerous ICE raids that are snatching neighbors.
Handling protesting crowds are not what the federal troops are trained for. This is an escalating show of strength that could have deadly results.
The legality of that memo will be tested in courts.
Oliver Willis of Daily Kos added more. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the chaos was provoked by the nasty guy. The raids caused fear and panic. Newsom said the state is suing the nasty guy.
One reason for the raids is the ICE agents are pressured to get their arrest numbers up. The threats are coming from Stephen Miller, the nasty guy aide in charge of anti-immigrant policies. The effort is to report higher numbers for the fear factor, even if the numbers aren’t real. Willis wrote:
Trump wants an excuse to attack the left and continue to justify his anti-immigrant bigotry, so he will continue to escalate. And while things seem to finally be calming down in downtown LA, protests are expected in more than a dozen cities nationwide.
Emily Singer of Kos reported that 22 Democratic governors -- as in all of them but Newsom – signed on to a statement supporting Newsom’s position and condemning the nasty guy’s deployment of the National Guard to squash protests against ICE raids.
The nasty guy falsely claimed the protests “constitute a form of rebellion” requiring a military response. But a National Guard presence only inflamed protests.
Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona wrote on X:
Reminder just because Donald Trump wants to inflame tensions doesn’t mean you have to play along. Don’t loot, don’t assault police officers, protest peacefully. Trump and Miller will do this in every Blue city whenever they want to distract from something unpopular, like their Medicaid cuts.
Walter Einenkel of Kos wrote about Sen. Chris Murphy’s protest of the nasty guy’s actions. Murphy said this on MSNBC:
“Donald Trump only cares about protests when they're opposing him. Every single day we should be reminding the American public that there were protesters at the Capitol fighting for Donald Trump to install him in power permanently on January 6 of 2021, who beat the hell out of police officers with metal poles and tasers and are out on the street today,” he said.
Murphy added that Trump’s unbalanced approach to power, sending in the National Guard despite state and local law enforcement’s objections, is “fundamentally undemocratic,” and a dangerous endorsement of violence.
“The message is simply, if you're violent in service of a Republican cause, you'll get a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card. But if you're engaged in protest against the administration, well then we're sending in the National Guard,” he continued.
Willis reported that Tom Homan, the border czar said Gov. Newsom and Mayor Bass could be targeted for arrest if their actions hindered ICE. “It’s a felony to impede law enforcement doing their job.”
Newsom responded, “Come and get me, tough guy. I don't give a damn. It won’t stop me from standing up for California.”
When a news anchor asked Homan for comment he said, “I never threatened to arrest Gov. Newsom, so I’m not biting off of that, that reporter’s dishonest.”
When the nasty guy was asked about what Homan first said he thought it was great.
Einenkel reported on what the nasty guy said to reporters:
The people that are causing the problem are professional agitators. They're insurrectionist[s]. They're bad people. They should be in jail.
Einenkel wrote:
The hypocrisy of labeling protesters “insurrectionists” after pardoning more than 1,500 convicted ones earlier this year is breathtaking. Even more staggering is the continued insistence of right-wing hot air balloons like Trump that any large protests against his unpopular policies are somehow deep state-funded, fabricated operations.
A reminder that such hypocrisy is a display of their power – they can be highly hypocritical and we can’t do anything about it.
Einenkel reported on House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ response to the nasty guy’s comment.
You know what he did on Day 1? He pardoned hundreds of violent felons who brutally beat police officers. That's the insurrection. The notion that Donald Trump and his minions—his sycophants here in the House of Representatives or in the Senate, who are nothing more than a reckless rubber stamp for Donald Trump's extreme agenda—are going to lecture America about issues of law and order? Get lost. We’re not feeling you at all. You have zero credibility on this issue.
Pedro Molina posted a cartoon on Kos. It shows several headlines – Economy in Danger, Plans to Cut Medicare, Putin Mocks Trump, Sky-Rocketing prices, ICE Abuses – all obscured by the smoke from a tear gas canister.
Willis reported several instances of criminals who impersonated ICE agents. One zip tied the wrists of a legal immigrant and stole $1000 in cash. A pair in South Carolina harassed a Latino man by threatening to send him back to Mexico. A man in Florida harassed two Latino migrants by demanding they prove their immigration status. There are many more instances.
Criminal elements are taking advantage of Trump’s embrace of these authoritarian techniques in yet another way that crime is enabled by Trump’s actions.
Instead of directing the government to fight crime in a traditional manner, Trump has pushed the false narrative that immigrant crime is more of a problem than homegrown threats. This pivot has provided the pretext ICE cosplayers need to rob more auto repair shops, harass innocent people, and continue terrorizing communities.
In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin included a couple quotes to pass on. First is from Steven Beschloss of America America who titled his piece Trump Wanted This Escalation:
Trump’s directive yesterday stated, “To the extent that protests or acts of violence directly inhibit the execution of the laws, they constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”
Note the words: “a form of rebellion.” And note the further escalation by Defense Secretary and Trump sycophant Pete Hegseth who posted this on social media: “The DeptofDefense is mobilizing the National Guard IMMEDIATELY to support federal law enforcement in Los Angeles. And, if violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized—they are on high alert.”
...
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ response to the federal actions: "These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city.”
Second, in a tweet Bill Kristol included a tweet by Terry Moran:
The thing about Stephen Miller is not that he is the brains behind Trumpism.
Yes, he is one of the people who conceptualizes the impulses of the Trumpist movement and translates them into policy.
But that’s not what’s interesting about Miller.
It’s not his brains. It’s his bile.
Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater.
You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.
Trump is a world-class hater. But his hatred only a means to an end, and that end is his own glorification. That’s his spiritual nourishment.
In the comments exlrrp posted a meme showing a much younger nasty guy with Jeffrey Epstein and a woman with just enough clothes. The caption says, “Trump sent troops into L.A. to distract you from this.”
Further down exlrrp posted this tweeted exchange:
Nasty guy: Low-selling author Isaac Marion wrote an “apocalyptic” novel that’s clearly an attack on me. Biased and very boring. Not a good writer!
Isaac Marion: It’s more an attack on the selfishness and fear that poisons humanity, but sure, it can be about you if you want.
I highly doubt the nasty guy read Marion’s book.
Also in the comments is a tweet by Sen. Scott Wiener:
Vance calls the LA protests an “invasion.” 4 min later, Miller calls it an “insurrection.” 29 min later, Hegseth threatens to send in Marines.
It’s like clockwork. They’ve chomped at the bit for months for a pretext to declare martial law under pretext of insurrection/invasion.
Just below that is a tweet by Adam Cochran. It shows a news release from the Los Angeles Police Department. Cochran added:
Even the LAPD is saying the protests are peaceful and managed (i.e. it is not an uncontrolled insurrection requiring the National Guard).
Do you know how f---ing out of line you have to be, to be so authoritarian that the LAPD is siding with the protesters?!
That’s followed by a tweet from Mohammad Safa:
If the United States saw what the United States is doing in the United States, the United States would invade the United States to liberate the United States from the tyranny of the United States.
A tweet from Mike Nellis:
They're so desperate to escalate the situation in Los Angeles, they're sharing video of a car burning from FIVE YEARS AGO.
And one just for fun: A cartoon by Wayno shows Mr. Spock on a desolate planet surface speaking into his communicator: “Mister Scott, I’ve fallen and I can’t beam up.”
In a second pundit roundup Chitown Kev quoted Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times:
It’s important to understand that for this administration, protests needn’t be violent to be considered an illegitimate uprising. The presidential memorandum calling out the National Guard refers to both violent acts and any protests that “inhibit” law enforcement. That definition would seem to include peaceful demonstrations around the site of ICE raids. In May, for example, armed federal agents stormed two popular Italian restaurants in San Diego looking for undocumented workers; they handcuffed staff members and took four people into custody. As they did so, an outraged crowd gathered outside, chanting “shame” and for a time blocking the agents from leaving. Under Trump’s order, the military could target these people as insurrectionists.
The administration, after all, has every reason to want to intimidate those who might take part in civil disobedience. Violent protests play into its hands; peaceful ones threaten the absurd narrative it’s trying to bludgeon America into accepting.
And Chris Geidner of LawDork:
One of Trump’s...favorite methods of addressing a perceived threat is to declare a problem and then over-respond to the problem he has invented, thus expanding the scale of the problem as part of his self-imagined creation.
That, of course, is the reason why Trump is pretending that the National Guard is needed in Los Angeles.
Say there’s a problem, create new rules or restrictions, and justify future escalations based on opposition to the new rules.
Mary Louise Kelly of NPR talked to colleague Lisa Hagen, who looked at pro-nasty guy media spaces to see how his supporters were talking about Los Angeles. Hagen said:
The two words I'm hearing the most are insurrection and invasion. There's been a lot of focus on images of demonstrators waving foreign flags.
About foreign flags, one conservative voice said, “This is what invading armies do.”
Invasion and insurrection are two different things being blended together across conservative media. This could criminalize any protester, citizen or not.
The nasty guy has long been using the word invasion. He first used it to describe asylum seekers and gangs. Now he’s broadening the term to include anyone here illegally.
The Alien Enemies Act has already been invoked as justification to suspend due process for the Venezuelan immigrants accused of being gang members. The Insurrection Act may be invoked next. That “would allow the president to use the armed forces to take any measures he considers necessary to suppress an insurrection.” The problem is that the nasty guy is trying to claim that if he says it’s an insurrection he gets to use the Insurrection Act.
Alas, both of those acts haven’t had a lot of legal testing.
The conservative line used to be we don't hate immigrants. We just want them to come here legally. Voices are now saying, “ban all third-world immigration, legal or illegal.”
Kos of Kos says the deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles is personal because the deployment includes his son.
That son was called to help with the aftermath of the Altadena fire in January. Even after his official deployment ended he still helps out several times a week.
As for the current activation Kos wrote:
You can’t imagine the rage I feel.
Trump has spent his entire presidency railing against dissent. Now that he’s losing in Congress, in the courts, and in the court of public opinion, he’s escalating—using peaceful protests as a pretext for his dream of military dictatorship.
In January, my son and his fellow first responders were welcomed by Southern Californians with food, gifts, and gratitude. Today, Trump is sending them into those same communities as symbols of repression. He’s destroyed the goodwill they built—and he doesn’t care.
He wants confrontation. He wants escalation. He wants violence, because he thinks it gives him license to go even further.
The father is scared, but proud of his son. He’s also “burning with righteous fury.”
In the comments Albanius quoted Malcom Nance and his Substack Special Intelligence, where he recommends, “strategic ridicule including dance parties, led by patriotic military veterans.” From Nance:
Right now, Trump’s narrative is that he is using tough, lethal armed soldiers and marines to snatch a city from foreign invaders.
We must change that false narrative into harsh reality: A moron Presidrent and a drunk Secretary of Defense has taken good soldiers from training and has transformed them into a bunch of under equipped, under fed, hapless yutzes who have now been assigned to the stupidest duty in the world.
The best way to do that is to utilize former military personnel and retired veterans to take to the front line in Los Angeles and form Dumb Deployment Intervention Platoons (DDIPs). These DDIPs will use tried and tested techniques honed over hundreds of years of American soldiering to mock stupid decisions on and off the battlefield. And this one is a doozy.
Our DDIPs will also explain to the media just exactly how ridiculous and silly it was for Trump to order Marines to conduct an operational deployment to West Hollywood.
Dance party as resistance? I like that idea.
In a third pundit roundup, this one by Dworkin, he included a tweet by G Elliott Morris:
Brand-new polling from YouGov out this morning finds Trump's actions re: LA underwater — and double-digit disapproval on sending in Marines.
This should be a reality check for those people arguing the protests inherently help Trump bc his immigration approval # is positive.
And a tweet by Jon Favreau:
Every paragraph of this WSJ story is more shocking than the last:
"Agents didn’t need to develop target lists of immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, a longstanding practice, Miller said. Instead, he directed them to target Home Depot, where day laborers typically gather for hire, or 7-Eleven convenience stores. Miller bet that he and a handful of agents could go out on the streets of Washington, D.C., and arrest 30 people right away."
Alas, the part that X allows me to see does not include a link to the WSJ story.
In a fourth pundit roundup Chitown Kev quoted Anne Applebaum of The Atlantic compared the nasty guy to the Bolsheviks and the Maoists. Here’s a bit:
Trump faces the same choice as his revolutionary predecessors: Give up—or radicalize. Find compromises—or polarize society further. Slow down—or use violence. Like his revolutionary predecessors, Trump has chosen radicalization and polarization, and he is openly seeking to provoke violence.
In the comments exlrrp posted a meme from Occupy Democrats: “Notice how it’s no longer ‘State’s Rights’ since Republicans control the federal government.”
There are also two sets of cartoons about the comment about foreign flags. One shows a guy waving the Mexican flag and a bystander says, “We have to hire Mexicans to do the rioting Americans won’t do.”
Other memes and cartoons note how many MAGA followers, especially during the Capitol attack, carried Confederate flags, which are not American flags. Another Occupy Democrats meme says, “So when a guy waves a Confederate flag to celebrate heritage it’s ok, but when a guy waves a Mexican flag to celebrate his heritage he’s an ‘insurrectionist?’ I’m going to start waving a Mexican flag to troll the snowflakes offended by it.”
I like this one: rugbymom posted a few tweets under the heading, “Resistance takes many forms, including the supremely gloriously petty.” The tweets say, “At the Kennedy Center, half the theater just started clapping when a group of drag queens showed up to find their seats at opening night of Les Miserables, which Trump, Melania, Vance and their top allies have all come out to see.”
I hope they waited until the nasty guy was seated.
And lpeacock posted a tweet from BrooklynDad:
Good morning and Happy Thursday to everyone who appreciates the delicious irony of trump going to see Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center, a show about a country fighting a tyrannical king, and trump got his ass mercilessly BOOED.
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