Portland is the beta test

Yesterday, I wrote about the Wall of Moms protecting protesters from federal police in Portland, OR. Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reported that last night the dads joined them. The men wore orange (the women wore yellow) and came with leaf blowers to fend off tear gas.

The nasty guy has said he intends to send his personal police into more cities – Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, and Oakland. He has said the reason why is they’re run by “liberal Democrats” and, in his opinion, not run well. I’m sure in his mind the only type of Democrat is a liberal Democrat. He’s making sure to use the word he’s trained to trigger his base.

McCarter quoted Michael Dorf of the AP talking about the nasty guy’s actions:

It is a standard move of authoritarians to use the pretext of quelling violence to bring in force, thereby prompting a violent response and then bootstrapping the initial use of force in the first place.

Then McCarter wrote:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims that bashing people's heads in is justified because protesters pointed lasers at them, threw frozen water bottles, and put graffiti on the federal courthouse. "Portland is rife with violent anarchists assaulting federal officers and federal buildings," DHS tweeted. "This isn't a peaceful crowd." Which is an exceedingly ridiculous statement now that moms and grandmas are leading the protests.

McCarter closed with saying the House is considering the DHS appropriations bill. She says it is time for the House to defund the DHS police.



Mark Sumner of Kos wrote that Lawfare obtained documents saying DHS is now collecting information (otherwise known as spying) on protesters. DHS is drafting legal cover to justify it. Wrote Sumner:

That’s right—spray paint is now a significant threat to the nation, one so severe that it allows DHS to draft legal cover created in the shadow of 9/11.

Sumner adds some background:

What may be the most extraordinary thing about this incredible step is just how openly Trump is handing out unchecked authority to deal with trivial offenses in defense of blatantly racist symbols. For as many times as Trump has raged about “MS-13” or drug lords on the southern border, it’s not those threats that have generated this massive expansion of federal authority—it’s people who think a century and a half of official veneration of slavery is more than enough.

But the extraordinary surveillance actions and invasion of federal forces into American cities isn’t the end of this assault. There’s another vital flank on Fox News, talk radio, and right-wing media. With edited photo, endlessly replayed clips, and footage lifted from completely unconnected incidents, the Fox audience has been sold the idea that American cities have descended into chaos for months. It wasn’t a part of Seattle occupied by people handing out free pizza and medical care, it was the entire city overrun by screaming anarchists firebombing buildings and shooting police. It’s not a wall of local moms trying to prevent Trump’s secret police in Portland from launching another random assault on protesters, it is, of course, an army of antifa terrorists ready to burn America to the ground.

Sumner concluded:

Washington, D.C. was the proof of concept. Portland is the beta test. What Trump has learned is that Republicans in Congress will still back his every play, and Fox is always willing to stand in support of racism. Now the rollout is coming across America.

I had been thinking that the 2nd Civil War wouldn’t happen until after the election when his refusal to leave brought out the right-wing militias to defend him.



David Atkins tweeted:

Trump is very likely to use the same paramilitary DHS security force he's using in Portland, to stop people from voting on Election Day. The RNC is already planning to send 10s of 1000s of armed goons to do so.

Democrats must plan accordingly.

Atkins isn’t sure of exact steps to take, though Greg Palast, who wrote the book How Trump Stole 2020, updated the chapter on voting to emphasize voting by mail – and making sure to get through the mail-in minefield.



As for that mail-n minefield McCarter also wrote about a warning from Common Cause that the nasty guy and his crony now at the top of the Postal Service “threatens to corrupt one of America's most trusted institutions at a key moment.” McCarter expanded on that:

The perfect storm of a pandemic, the most corrupt person to ever sit in the Oval Office, a Republican rubber stamp in the Senate, an already-weakened Postal Service, and a Trump lackey in charge of the institution is extraordinarily dangerous. From now until Nov. 3 is a short timeframe for Trump to destroy public trust in both the Postal Service and in the election system, but it appears he's going to do his damnedest.
…
That this [slower delivery] particularly hurts Indigenous, Black, and Latino people—particularly those who live in rural areas and those who don't have access to privatized delivery systems—is a very large part of the point for Trump. That it also harms rural people who rely on the Postal Service, many of whom voted for Trump last time around, is an unfortunate byproduct. It will be a painful byproduct, however, for a lot of Republican senators who represent states with large rural populations.

Sarah Kendzior reposted a Twitter thread from September 2018, about the time Brett Kavanaugh was being approved for the Supreme Court.

The GOP plan to remain in power forever. They don't care if damning info comes out so long as they control the mechanisms of repercussions for it. The final step in doing that is controlling the courts. That's why they are rushing the process and being so brazen at the same time.

Kendzior has said many times that the nasty guy likes to flaunt his crimes, but he doesn’t like to be punished. Controlling the mechanisms of repercussions in the face of damning info is the same kind of thing. About the only thing the Senate is doing is confirming federal judges.

This was also just before the 2018 midterm elections when a record 45 GOP Congressmen retired. Kendzior asked why.

It's a transnational crime syndicate masquerading as a government. That means GOP candidates have taken very dirty money since groups like the NRA were used to launder it. They also have little autonomy outside total obedience. They have no future unless they're complicit drones.