It's already bleak and terrifying...and we're less than 5 full months into Trump 2.0.
Every institution but the lower courts has caved.
By the time, the economic disaster, loss of civil rights, and loss of "entitlements" are felt by most Americans...the permanent presence of military across the country will stifle collective resistance.
Most people are missing the narrow window of resistance because Democratic leadership is failing, legacy media is spreading Trump propaganda, and far too many people remain firmly in denial.
As an observer on the other side of the Atlantic, I’m not sure the military has caved. I don’t think they like being treated as Trump’s personal army, it damages their reputation in foreign countries (I’m sure China is watching this folly). Trump’s seems unaware that unlawful orders cannot be followed by the military - which risks him humiliating himself even more.
But Trump and Hegseth has fired a lot of the top generals, and JAG lawyers. He now has generals that are more aligned with him, being advised by lawyers that are also more aligned with Trump.
He already has national guard in California, on HIGHLY flimsy legal grounds, as well as 700 Marines.
The line has already been crossed, the only remaining issue has how far and how wide Trump will go. He has no intention of stopping, and congress and SCOTUS is enabling him every step of the way.
He might have a few top Generals and Admirals aligned with him, but not all of them. And then there are the second tier Generals and Admirals, as well as Colonels and Commodores, and all of the officers below them as well as all the non-commissioned and enlisted personnel, all of whom took an oath to the Constitution. I believe, and hope, a vast majority will take that oath seriously.
You are very optimistic. The attitude in any defence force is that an order from a superior officer is a lawful order. It is only at the very highest level that members are allowed to think.
Those levels at which politics play a huge role....
New thinking and action by Democrats is urgently needed to respond to the ongoing illegal insurrection led by Trump and supported by Republicans in Congress.
Trump and Republicans are constantly lying to manipulate the news media and confuse the public. Trump preposterously claimed with arrogance that the legal, peaceful protests in LA are an insurrection and illegally sent the military into the streets of LA. Trump falsely claimed legal, peaceful protests are an insurrection when he is leading an ongoing insurrection supported by Republicans in Congress that began on Jan 6. Democrats should flood the news media every day with the truth that Trump, his administration, Republicans in Congress, and ICE agents are the insurrectionists and criminal felons that violate federal law.
ICE agents illegally arrest people without due process or Habeas corpus. Habeas corpus is a fundamental legal principle that safeguards against unlawful detention. It essentially means "you have the body" and is a writ that requires a person in custody to be brought before a court to determine the legality of their detention. This right is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
Democrats in control of a few states should enact and enforce a new state law to begin stopping the insurrection within their state.
The problem is, along side the legitimate, peaceful protesting, there is in fact actual, violent, riotous behavior that looks threatening, by opportunistic vandals and looters taking advantage of the situation, and deliberate provocation of the police by romantic lefties who are playing anarchist or think they are conducting the "revolution". The media need to stop conflating all these as "protesters" and the Democrats need to be very clear (as Newsome is sometimes) that they support the peaceful protesters and not the vandals.
I eagerly await some Democrat at the Federal level who reacts with something other than "stop, or I shall say stop again! And by, the way, please send me money so I can say stop again." This isn't hard, guys. Recruit people like Franken, Carville, Mystal, and Abrams to strategize a more active response.
Did you watch Trump's rally yesterday...where thousands of troops booed Democratic politicians and the 46th president...and cheered Trump and his deportation policies?
i read thatt the commander ar fort bragg made sure that the people sitting at that audience were all trumpf supporters, those men and women were carefully screened. this was on TPM..
Trump deliberately ignored the Hatch act. My understanding is that his staff selected attendees who supported Trump. The speech was a rehash of campaign aphorisms with a nod to his “speech” at the elliptical on January 6, 2020.
That’s a fair point, and I didn’t see the rally you mention, but I have seen numerous reports of US military offers unhappy with this deployment. Perhaps Trump is confusing the cheers at a rally, which feeds his ego, with the reality that every officer is very clear that you never, ever, follow an unlawful order.
Trump has form, he asked in his first term why protesters couldn’t just be shot in the leg. I think actual officers are already clear that Trump is a danger to them. Trump looks stupid (so what’s new?) but they would get a court martial.
I read it has been pretty well proven they were handpicked, trvmp supporters. And had to look "in shape". "No fat people" was actually in the criteria list.
Good observation. The military is not the ones to be concerned about, it is the police to fear as they have been allowed military hardware to go along with not being very well trained to interact with people.
There are some Joe's that are MAGA, as you can see in the staged trump rah rah at Fort Bragg, but most are not. Keep your watchful eyes on the police
Trump is unaware of everything but his own monumental ego. He truly thinks he’s a genius, which is truly pathetic in of itself. All these are signs of his fast mental deterioration as he tries to destroy our Nation to satisfy his ego. The other players are starting to catch on, but they don’t care because they are just as crooked and are out to fleece America for every dime. This Administration is every bit, in their own way, as demented as their crazy leader. They want power and with Trump they get it. They all have to go. They are as defective as Trump.
The military is not monolithic. The various services have differing levels of MAGA infiltration. National Guard units are highly variable as they recruit locally, not nationally. Trump or his henchmen will be able fire anyone in the military chain of command that isnt a toady, and find commanders who will machine gun civilians. However, this will cause a chain reaction that will kick off a civil war inside the military. This will end the US reign as a superpower, and be the culmination of Trump's efforts to destroy the US.
One possible escape valve: Trump, Hegseth, and maga better not count on the majority of the U.S. military waging war against the American people. Forty-six percent of active duty forces are Black, Hispanic, Asian/ Pacific Islander or Native American, and many from lower income families, and they won't appreciate Trump and the Republicans using them as pawns to attack their neighbors and family while taking away their Medicaid and SNAP and destroying their hopes for a better future. If Trump really tries to use the military across the nation, I won’t be at all surprised if a method for ridding a unit of a particularly abusive “leader” by some troops in Vietnam makes a return appearance.
I completely agree with your observation that the modern American military seems very diverse and it is hard to imagine a company of marines or infantry with a significant number of Spanish language speakers wanting to be “deployed” to downtown Los Angeles to throw their weight around and annoy the local population.
President Trump seems bizarrely unaware that the US military became one of the first institutions in America to formally scrap segregation and make it clear that talent only was the criteria for judging officers. After Vietnam the Pentagon had no choice, how else did Colin Powell end up as Chief of Staff?
Just a few hours ago a federal judge is reported to have ruled Trump’s actions in California as unlawful. Hopefully this will start sanity returning to the White House. Sending troops to Los Angeles in the State of California against the wishes of the Governor of California is the very thing the constitution was designed to prevent. To anyone familiar with the founding document of the United States this is self evident. One of these days President Trump should try reading the constitution of his country - it’s a good read.
I not sure he is capable of reading, his ignorance is astounding. He does not even have his facts on WWI & WWII correct as per his speech ( if you could call it that - I just call it a rant) at Fort Bragg. And his other rant at Fort Westpoint where he waffled on about Trophy wives, WTF?
Yeah. Me too. But it takes bravery for anyone with dark skin to show up. In the last two big demonstrations I attended, military planes flew low over the crowd, taking photos I presume.
Couldn’t agree more Bob, Trumps tyrannical move towards authoritarianism is vastly unpopular, unlawful, immoral, unconstitutional and must be condemned and suppressed immediately! Liberté, égalité, fraternité! Revolution is in the air!
The GOP base is actually mostly supportive over what's going down in LA, if the NYT poll of yesterday is to be believed.
Considering that FOX News and RW media are going all in on this, echoing the Admin's rhetoric--and (dishonestly) miscaptioning photos and clips of burning cop cars and other property damage from the Floyd protests >5 years ago--to portray LA as an insurrectionist hellscape in need of a militarized beat down, it's not surprising that conservative voters would support it.
But for Trump, the militarization of LA has succeeded in moving the narrative away from Elon's accusation that DJT hasn't released the Espstein pedo files, precisely because he features prominently *in* said pedo files. Michael Wolff said he saw at least two photos seized from Epstein's safe in his NYC brownstone, where Trump is with undressed very young girls.
Americans have been given such an easy opportunity to see dictatorship coming. The tyranny that could have come as a sneaky curveball is (in the form of Trump) the clumsiest underhanded lob. It's what my dad calls a "fat pitch." We the people really should be hitting it out of the park, not letting it strike us out.
Unfortunately, Clemson, too many people are uninformed. And those of us keeping track are overwhelmed—by design of course. But the resistance is coalescing. No Kings Protests nationwide on Saturday.
Funny that you mentioned Fox. I literally had never watched it, but recently decided I needed to know the enemy so to speak. The first thing I saw was Ron DeSantis spewing drivel. He lied about everything going on. So definitely that audience is being fed propaganda.
When this is all over, we need to find a way to Constitutionally ban Faux Newspeak, or what I saw another commenter in another substack refer to as "Fux News". Along with Newsmax and its ilk, which is even worse than the Murdoch property. We should probably shut down 卐itter and "Truth Social" too.
It's not absolute. There can be reasonable exceptions. A good example would be Dominion successfully suing Faux Newspeak to the tune of 3/4 billion because Faux lied.
That this worked is good, but insufficient. We need stronger safeguards against extreme propaganda. Doing so wouldn't impact legitimate free speech. What Faux Noise and Noisemax do isn't legitimate.
They are “uninformed” on purpose. If Fox didn’t say what they want to hear, they would switch to something worse. It’s much worse than being “uninformed.” It’s willful allegiance to a pack of liars who are telling lies their supporters (roughly 60% of white voters) want to hear.
You're absolutely right Katharine, that too many people are uninformed and they have no interest in informing themselves either. It's too much trouble for them. They'd rather watch a movie or a sitcom
“The people” you are talking about (60% of white voters , 70% of white working class voters, and 80% of white evangelical voters) welcome an autocracy that will persecute people they don’t like. Might have slipped a little with the junta’s recent actions, but not much. If there were a big slip, Republicans in the legislature would be scrambling to protect their seats from an angry electorate. The problem is not Trump. It is 77 million American voters.
Dubious of the election results, data tells a different story! Trump promised he and Elon had a “little secret” that would bring him back into the Oval Office many times Rex!!
I don’t think we need to make stuff up. There’s plenty on easily verifiable records to prove the case. Exit polls, for example, are reliable. Pre-election polling has much wider error bars.
I would argue it was always bound to happen, as the logical end point of decades of rising extremism within the GOP. Project 2025 was a long time in the making. The Southern Strategy was always about minority rule and thus anti-democratic. As was the Tea Party Movement.
Correct. Nixon/Atwater set the course. Reagan got the ship going by convincing 70% of white working class voters to abandon their unions in favor of preserving their systemic legal, economic, and political advantages.
The more right-wing politics becomes extreme, the more it becomes attractive for poor and middle class people, who never would have voted for Bush or Reagan. Nationalism and fascism promises to reduce competition in the market by violent deportation of foreign or "wrong" people. This is attractive for many who suffer under the burden of competition.
Democracy is alive and well in the U.S. it is working the way it is supposed to work. Different ideas, policies, races, religions, gender diversity all in conflict with everyone else. The judiciary pushing back and forth, conservative citizens getting some wins, liberals getting much less than what they want, an aggressive presidency. Trump is aggressive , he beat up the Liberals. The liberals are fighting back a la Substack commentary, the media, the public. Polls are being taken, criticism, demonstrations.. all signs of Democracy. The fact that we can’t have everything we can want is not a sign of Democratic decay but a sign of a functioning Democracy. This is how it’s supposed to work .
"But while there were, inevitably, some relatively minor acts of violence, the demonstrations have been overwhelmingly peaceful — and nothing local law enforcement couldn’t handle. "
Yes, and the protests are not even large and according to Mayor Bass, are in about 1/6 of a square mile (a couple of blocks) out of a city that is 500 square miles large. If it was not on the news most people here would have no idea this was even happening.
The news media, especially NBC Nightly News and right wing media, are being very irresponsible in their coverage, zooming in to small groups to make them seem bigger, and replaying views of the couple of cars that were burned one day, etc. over and over with a massive amount of hype. They are playing right into Trump's hands.
Fortunately, CBS evening news decided to get real and report what is really happening and that it is not even a large protest.
Living in LA we get the local news helicopter views and from above it looks like a couple of hundred people decided to stop and listen to someone speak in a park on their lunch break and then all wander down the block together. A few dozen have ended up on the freeway and some bad actors have simply taken advantage of the protests to cause some trouble. Other than one anger fueled day were a couple of cars were burned and rocks thrown, the few looters are likely opportunists and not even the protesters.
The curfew for a couple of square miles has stopped that.
Thus, we have 4,000 national guard and potentially 700 marines that have nothing to do and who far outnumber the protesters about 10-1 and this does not even include the cops who are doing all the work.
Mayor Bass said only 300 of the guard were being used to guard a building or two and the rest have nothing at all to do.
Thus, if they are not needed, what is Trump's real intent?
My guess is he is hoping to inspire a very bad actor or two and then take over with the insurrection act and then martial law.
My advice to governors is to call up your guard in advance, so that they are not federalized and thus remain under your control.
Fortunately, we may hear from the judge for Newsom's court challenge to the guard and marines today.
The judge gave them a few days for each side to compile arguments, so cross your fingers.
Sadly, the laws surrounding this are written broadly, so if and when SCOTUS hears it, one worries that they tend to interpret broad brush laws in favor of the executive branch (unless their judicial power is placed in jeopardy). Odd to think that conservatives were once big on state's rights (well they still are unless a Republican is in the W.H.)
However, a favorable ruling, for today, could cool some authoritarian jets - one hopes and it would make my day
The more the SCOTUS leans toward the Executive branch, the more they imperil their judicial power. At some point Trump will simply dissolve the SCOTUS as they will no longer be of any use to him. They don't seem to understand that undermining the constitution to give more power to the Executive will ultimately destroy the very foundation of our governance system.
And if SCOTUS gives broad deference to an executive branch headed by an ignorant nincompoop with zero expertise (other than grifting), as to matters of life and death, how does that square with their partisan decision that independent executive agencies are not entitled to deference in interpreting and applying broadly written statutes in their areas of specific expertise?
I tried to sign on to the proceeding but was too late so I'm not sure what has happened but my best guess is that if the District Court grants a TRO the government will immediately appeal but try to bypass the Appellate Court and go directly to SCOTUS under the guise off another "emergency relief" petition, this to the Shadow Docket where there will be no briefing, no oral argument, no decision that has an explanation and no sign of what the vote actually was. The one information that the public will get is from the Dissenters. This is no way to run account or a country.
Governors should have already put their guards under their own control. If the rest of the Democrats don't, they are sleepwalking. Newsom et al should convene a meeting to coordinate strategy and begin networking a conference of mayors as well.
The National Guard are already under the control of the Governor of each State. Trump was not supposed to Federalize them without the Governor’s approval. Trump broke the law by doing what he did. That’s why Newsom is rightly pissed.
They need to be activated otherwise they go about their civilian lives. "The term "activated" simply means that a unit or individual of the reserve components has been placed on orders. The purpose and authority for that activation determine limitations and duration of the activation. " Wikipedia
The remainder of the California National Guard could be activated by Newsom and given order to preclude use by Trump.
You misunderstand me. When the National Guard is made into Federal Government soldiers, (Federalize) the President is suppose to do that with the ok from the Governor of whatever State they are in; because until then, the National Guard is under the command of that State’s Governor. President Trump didn’t do that. Which is why Newsom is so mad, and he should be. Also, technically, right now the National Guard in CA can only back up the LAPD. (They cannot arrest anyone etc.) That can only be done if the President enacts the Insurrection Act, which we do not want to happen.
Right, but I am making another point: if governors activate the guards and set their orders, then they can't be federalized because they are already under state command... by a different provision of the statute. The governors can prevent by direct order their use to suppress dissent.
It has certainly crossed my mind. However, protests and events that get a lot of press already draw the nuts out of the woodwork, so there may be no need.
Speaking of bad actors, considering that they have fired a lot of the cyber security people and people who could keep tabs on this type of "chatter" I'm not convinced that our national security is able to detect and protect to the degree they once could.
This is absolutely correct. We also live in LA, just north of downtown. I worked in DTLA for over 25 years and was there in Little Tokyo on Sunday morning. Crickets.
Plenty of friends still work DTLA and they tell us that they would have had no idea anything was going on, even after TACO made it worse. One strolled over to City Hall on Wednesday and there was nothing going on except a mariachi band and singer on the steps, watched by about 2 dozen bystanders.
That was it. The whole thing is the biggest mountain made out of the smallest molehill imaginable. Not even the level of a Dodger Series pennant win.
Just a heads up. There was a massive pickup, of the type you never see in LA (not a real work truck for a business) the type that some Trump supporters like to drive just to say we consume lots of fossil fuels to annoy woke liberals (and to overcompensate for something) and it was hovering in front of my house with Texas plates for quite awhile. I am worried that all of the nonsense reports may cause vigilantes from other states to show up, and harm folks because they actually believe in all of the nonsense. And you know there has been a lot of hype - an insane amount of hype about what is going on and it puts us all in danger, but not from our own but from his base (they know he will pardon them if they run us over). So warn others to be on the lookout. I know darn well this was not one of my neighbor's relatives, etc. I wrote the plates down.
Maybe I'll put out an alert in my FB neighborhood group - we're in a 75% Latino neighborhood (crime free for over 25 years I should note) and we could definitely be a target if your suspicions are correct.
Start keeping your eyes out for out of state license plates. I am wondering if I should do a "see something say something" and report it, but they just hovered for a bit and did not break any laws.
The no kings protests advertised their various meeting locations and so that concerns me, as well.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was on Kimmel last night and said there's literally nothing going on most of the time. People are peaceful and cooperative for the most part. Some provocateurs come out after dark, but that's it.
LAPD doing what they do best: Kicking the shite out of protestors, shooting "non-lethal" projectiles at newspeople, tear-gassing at random...I mean, who needs the NG and Marines while the Boys in Blue are out there "serving and protecting" en masse?
It’s surprising that many or most people don’t recognize that djt has his sights on martial law in order to suspend the 2026 elections. Remember: “Vote for me and you’ll never have to vote again!” Will people notice THEN?!
It's still so hard to believe though. Trump, the buffoonish fool? There on the world stage representing us? That clown? A possible dictator of us? Are we that pathetic? Is our democracy that weak that a National Inquirer laughingstock can bring it to its knees?
A low grade flaccid blob of human flesh with the manners of a geriatric jackal takes us down?
No matter what, we really are a very sorry lot if that sort of fool is our choice, not once, but twice and perhaps until he croaks, if in fact a vile entity such at that is human enough to actually die. Or will there just be a wicked witch like puddle in the end of this dark tale?
California national guards troops and marines deployed to Los Angeles to help restore order after days of protest against the Trump administration have told friends and family members they are deeply unhappy about the assignment and worry their only meaningful role will be as pawns in a political battle they do not want to join.
Three different advocacy organisations representing military families said they had heard from dozens of affected service members who expressed discomfort about being drawn into a domestic policing operation outside their normal field of operations. The groups said they have heard no countervailing opinions.
“The sentiment across the board right now is that deploying military force against our own communities isn’t the kind of national security we signed up for,” said Sarah Streyder of the Secure Families Initiative, which represents the interests of military spouses, children and veterans.
But why aren't more people screaming that sending the Marines is illegal? That's exactly why the Posse Comitatus Act was enacted, to prevent the military to be used on U S . soil for political reasons
What is being done to these brave men and women who are giving their lives in service is not ok. Why would they want to be deployed against their own people? They do not. And the protestors know that they do not. It is not the national guard or the marines who are the problem. It is ICE and everyone under Kristi Noem's command. The whole DHS will have to be dismantled if we are to get to anything resembling democracy again.
Truely terrifying. That is why it is imperative to get as many people protesting out on the streets, big cities, small towns to show that he can not do this.
Who I really lay the blame on for all of this are the republicans in congress. It is beyond the pale
It worked well in Ukraine, it was the people protesting in the Maidan Square that deposed their elected and then Russian backed dictator Yanokovich ( Paul Manafort’s client)
Only after they had shot and killed several young peaceful protesters, it just kept escalating. That is why desensitization and normalization is so important to understand right now. RESIST!!!
Paul, I fundamentally disagree with your take. Trump certainly wants violent clashes, but the general in charge of the 4700 troops is an absolute pro. All the troops are being trained before deployment. Watch this AP interview with Major General Sherman. This isn't his first law enforcement rodeo, and he's going to do it according to long standing army standards.
BTW, I agree that this deployment is absolutely unnecessary.
OTOH, if you hear about General Sherman being replaced by a Trumpier general, then all bets are off. When Trump learns about the honorable attitudes of General Sherman he will be very unhappy.
Is this the issue? I assume the troops are well-trained. It really has no bearing on whether or not Trump had a basis for sending them in. There is something beyond the pale about the presence of the American military on American streets unless you're talking actual full-scale riots (like the Watts riots).
There are two issues. The first is whether the deployment was justified and it isn't. The second is whether the military will make war on the citizenry, and I think that will not happen in this case.
Anne Applebaum recently wrote that Donald Trump will follow the path that other authoritarian leaders have taken, suspend Habeas Corpus, arrest the leaders without charge, and hold them in prison for an indefinite period.
If Trump can manage a "credible" emergency situation, and use it as cover for declaring martial law, all bets are off on Habeas Corpus, etc. A lot rides on the protestors sticking with non-violent resistance, which won't be easy where there is anger and provocation.
The military in Alabama may just be a bit different than the National Guard in California. That audience in Alabama was pre vetted for Trump enthusiasm
Bragg Soldiers Who Cheered Trump's Political Attacks While in Uniform Were Checked for Allegiance, Appearance
I have friends who are actual retired ranking military - the suggestion that “the military” varies by state is quite something, presented as fact. It is a dangerous presumption. Leadership at the head of the Defense Department is just fine with all of this and that’s the problem.
This shouldn’t have happened - but it did. If it didn’t happen in Alabama, it could and would have happened on another base.
There’s an old saying that “fish rots from the head down” - the organization is currently rotten at the top, the head. From the same piece posted above "Experts were quick to come out and say that the public silence from military leadership is a missed opportunity to reinforce the military's nonpartisan nature. Meanwhile, the political leadership at the head of the Defense Department was far from apologetic."
The Los Angeles PD is better trained than any hastily deployed military (lethal force) unit, period. They have been putting down truly violent and destructive riots for decades. My father was a military commander in the California National Guard and would NOT have deployed his troops, with their howitzers, against the American People they were trained to DEFEND. Period.
As I don't live in LA I can't speak to that, only to this: the escalation of crowd control from competent local to not one but two military forces. The military are trained to kill. That is what they do. And calling them in when they aren't needed is risky, illegal and an effing political stunt. Trump is using the military to cover for his pathetic incompetence. And a birthday parade. Costing us millions, BTW.
Please stop kidding yourself, you are whistling as you walk past the cemetery. I'm sure Major General Sherman is a fine military man who will keep his oath to the Constitution, but do you think he can slow Trump's worse impulses?
For heavens sake, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is AWOL in this situation, not a word from him when he should be pushing back from the rooftops. Trump has populated the key positions with sycophant toadies who, like Republicans in Congress, will assume the role of potted plants instead of doing their duty.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is not in the operational chain of command. His only role is to advise the President. Once he has given his advice, if he disagrees with the President, his only recourse is to resign. He cannot publicly speak out while in office.
It is my belief that Trump will find that the California National Guard will disappoint him greatly. Trump has replaced military leaders in Washington, but not all over the country.
It seems you just don't grasp the seriousness of Trumps intervention and its dire political and anti-democratic consequences for all US States.
Your view about the US military in action against US citizens is naive to say the least. Trump changed the leadership in the Pentagon for a personal reason. He is a despot and wannabe dictator, working hard in disrupting law and order with any means he gets his greedy and bloody hands on. He has no scruples and no shame. He was, is and will stay and behave like a criminal. Shame on the US political system, it’s broken.
i think maybe people forget what Trumpf REALLY is...the fact that he took 5 deferrments during the viet nam war..shows exactly where his loyalty lies...he does not give a fig about the military..he sees them as useful idiots.
It is my belief that Trump will find that the California National Guard will disappoint him greatly. Trump has replaced military leaders in Washington, but not all over the country.
The Chain of Command is everything in the military. The Pentagon gives the orders, and Trump orders the Pentagon. The National Guard has to obey these orders, if they like it or not doesn't matter a bit. Generals don't become Generals because they don't fulfill orders. And anybody who would refuse orders would be court martialed. I was in the military, I know, I refused orders.
And it doesn't change anything: Trump is a saboteur of law and order and is attacking frontally the sovereignty of US States and civil and human rights. And this order reflects that clearly, like others from Trump before. The National Guard and the Marines are just obeying pawns that fullfill Trumps orders, without hesitation.
Hitler did the same thing, used the same strategy of unjustified violence, agitation and disruption of public life, creating fear and panic. We all know what it meant for German democracy. So much for protection of civil rights with the military.
General Sherman already has his orders—there is a protocol on the books based on law that says what the military is supposed to do in these circumstances, and General Sherman tends to remain within that law. Did you watch the video?
Trump and the military have already proclaimed war on the citizenry - now it is asked from Americans not to defend democracy, not to defend illegal detentions, not to show solidarity with the victims of the violent persecutions on the part of ICE and other federal agencies. To find general Sherman honourable in his defence of the acts of terror is mind boggling, and I am now even more scared for the US democracy. To see such a comment here is heartbreaking.
I'd wish you would watch this video, and perhaps open your mind to how many in the army intend to operate. If the army wanted to wage war on the citizenry, thousands would be dead already.
I did watch the video, of course. I said very clearly that the war was declared - and if citizens remain obedient, there will be no bloodshed, but fascism, with all its persecutions, will prevail. And all wars start like this - the Vietnam war started with only hundreds deployed to end up with 1-3 million people killed. Almost no war starts the way you insinuate - which thousands would be killed? What is happening is frightening and tragic - there can be peace only if the Americans do what Germans did - let it be until they come for us personally. An honourable thing, the only one, for general Sherman - and any other military personnel - would be to refuse to serve a criminal act ordered by a repeated criminal, the insurrectionist-in-chief who pardons criminals that storm the Capitol. This is an attack on one of the most functioning states in America, on the city that embodies peaceful coexistence based on cosmopolitanism - and above all the attack on human solidarity. What Trump is doing now - and the army supporting it - is the fascist takeover of the country, a blow to all that is sacred, a death of democracy and the rule of law. For months now - as Krugman has been describing repeatedly - Trump and his cronies have been talking of hordes of criminal immigrants who took over LA. Since there was no violence whatsoever, they had to instigate it, to then bring in the army - this is how all fascists operate. Krugman has been writing coherently and eloquently about it, better than me. Anyway, this is all against the constitution, an attempt to get rid of the democratically elected governor and mayor, who are doing a great job. General Sherman, by obeying a criminal order, is a traitor, period.
But that is what all fascists say, from Mussolini onward (I could give you examples ad infinitum) - and then they instigate violence themselves. As say, the ICE agents who terrorise law obeying immigrants in war like gear, deport people illegally without due process, separate fathers and mothers from their children. But please help me understand: do you agree with me (and Krugman) that fascists have taken over the country? That they are destroying democracy and the rule of law? If yes, then a patriot cannot serve them, period. If you disagree with this premise, then we are on opposite sides of the political barricade.
Gen. Sherman may be an honorable man but one of the military vehicles under his command had 'Hang Fauci and Gates' written on, large enough to be seen. He needs to run a tighter ship. If you want to see what a General can do, watch how Gen. Russel Honore loudly chewed out his soldiers to put their damn guns away, repeatedly, as he walked by them, during one of his stateside missions.
Why does one need to train for an imaginary crisis? What are the soldiers learning? How to be brutally cruel to peaceful protesters. How to follow unlawful orders. How to abuse basic human rights. Hmmmm. It doesn’t matter the General’s professionalism. He should have refused the unlawful orders based on an imaginary crisis, then resign and his resignation letter be published in every newspaper, interviews on every channel on why. Thats the only professional path here by our generals who took an oath to the Constitution not the President.
Not yet anyway. How will soldiers react when a right wing militia crazy, pretending to be a protester, throws the first brick at a guardsman’s head? What then?
Since the National Guardsmen are wearing helmets and carrying large riot shields, my guess is very little will happen, unless they can identify the culprit beyond doubt. Then they will detain the lawbreaker until local police authorities arrive to make an arrest. Note that the Capitol Police NEVER fired on the rioters even though many police officers were being assaulted.
It may be too late for some. These are signs that the desensitization has already taken hold when they defend breaking the Constitutional Right to free assembly/peaceful protest.
But there’s hope. Backtrack to the original premise: is the crisis real? Is the protest violent or peaceful? Then ask yourself if calling in the guard and marines is justified.
( hint…. it’s the first time in American history. A president has called in the military against the mayors and governors and police chief in any state.)
Notice that the National Guard were NOT called out January 6th. We're not talking about the police right now. We are talking about the presence of our military on American streets. This was never necessary and to go on about how well-trained our military is is to miss the point. I am sad to see Kathleen, who is obviously intelligent, stick to this narrow idea that the military won't kill protesters. I am not against the military: I have military in my family. But unless we're talking something like the Watts riots, to bring the military onto American streets is beyond the pale.
KEEP in mind who is the DOD..WHISKEY PETE is the man in charge of DOD, the people in the military either obey or are prosecuted; which WHISKEY PETE will do, being the chicken shit drunk he is..it took a long time for the military to get past the VIETNAM STUFF, We respect them again..however, if they continue to go along with the current 'leader' its back to square one...my great grand son recently enlisted..i know this boy.. he will not arrest or harm anyone who is not a threat to this country..he is a firm believer in what this country stands for.... and please, please, someone tell these protestors to stop waving that MEXICAN FLAG.... nothing wrong with the flag..but this is the USA and it makes me feel uncomfortable seeing a foriegn flag used in a protest
Your diagnosis of Trump's motive isn't obviously wrong, but it seems unlikely to me. It seems more like the goal here is to cause harm and stress for its own sake to blue state people who voted against him and oppose his agenda. A "cruelty is the point" kind of thing.
The burning of the Reichstag happpens in two days. The June 14 No Kings protests will be used by Trump as a pretext for martial law, arresting his main opponent Governor Newsom and suspending elections. I think the ICE raids from a few days ago were for this very purpose, a pre-emptive act. Right wing provacateurs in disguise will set fires and destroy property to discredit "leftist radicals" and to promote a fascist response. Two days.
Has anyone considered that the people burning Waymo’s might be taxi or Uber drivers? There are few motivations stronger than the threat of losing your livelihood.
They just cuffed Senator Padilla for asking questions of Noem. Republicans are fine with it. They're beginning to realize they can simply imprison all political opposition with zero resistance.
The party line is that no one knew he was THAT sort of senator, because he only introduced himself by saying, “I am Senator Alex Padilla” and failed to prove to with two-factor identification.
A very memorable piece in the Atlantic traces the stunning parallels to Hitler’s approach of fabricating crisis to override States’ rights and undercut the democratic system of division of power.
A sure-fire way to know that we've slipped into the realm of fascism is to look at the ICE agents and police officers making the immigration arrests. In the America I grew up in, not only could you see their badges and names, you could also see their faces. Now? They all wear masks. Are they so ashamed of their jobs that they need anonymity? Are they so very worried about retribution that they must hide who they are?
In banana republics, they wear masks. The masks are worn to represent a faceless, nameless state that needs to instill fear because that's the only way the populace can be kept under control. Trump's threats and his calling up of the Proud Boys to "infiltrate" the No-Kings Day protests is redolent of Hitler's use of his "brown shirts." Again, its purpose is to strike fear in the populace as it tramples down any dissent.
If anyone still believes we are only on the cusp of fascism, they are not paying attention.
I am paying attention. Yes, we are ascending the escalator to authoritarian rule, but so far it is "merely" testing us, gauging our reactions. It could be far worse; to be sure, it may get much worse, but I do not believe it will become full-blown fascism UNLESS we lose heart and fail to respond appropriately. Right at this moment I believe the situation calls for a strong commitment to non-violent protest, not exaggerated claims.
I have. In the Vietnam days. And again in the pink-hat NYC parade after DonnyJon got elected the first time. I see there's a protest in Asbury Park. I'll take a camera along.
Yeah. Democracy has been under assault since his Jan. 6 game which he won. The question for those paying attention and actually give a ;())@ is what can we do?
Slogans are not enough. Screaming into the wind is not enough. What constructive actions can we citizens take? What can we do that will be measurably effective in stopping this juggernaut of chaos?
You can join one of the No Kings Day nationwide protests near you this Saturday. Protesting in the streets has never been more important than it is now. I am 77 years old and I'll be damned if I sit out any of the nationwide protests (I also stand and protest with fellow citizens in my town in CT every Saturday at 11 am).
This Saturday, I'm heading to Hartford on a bus to join the nationwide protest. It's going to be cold and rainy--like I care. If we're going to end up a fascist dictatorship I want to know I did everything I could to make it not happen.
Here's a link that gives locations of protests. Perhaps there's one near you that you could join. Just be there. Bodies count.
1. Under the 1st Amendment, we have rights. "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
So we need to get out there and make our dissatisfaction known, loud, long, and peaceably. Making fun of Donald is especially effective, because narcissists have no sense of humor. They think EVERYTHING is about them.
2. Make sure your Representative in the House and your two Senators know how you feel. If enough of us make clear that we disapprove, some of the (R) people in Congress might just find a spine.
3. If you see an immigration action in progress, you should not try to physically oppose it, but you should collect video evidence, and ask questions, such as "Do you have a search warrant?" That is a requirement under the 4th Amendment. "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
With regard to the second paragraph in 1, I prefer the moniker "dotard Donny 2 dolls".
Regarding 2, not meaning to discourage you but realistically that will never happen. As the saying goes, "those dogs won't hunt." The best chance is to vote out these Republican potted plants and elect Democrats who will take seriously their constitutional obligations.
You might want to do a search on “the 3.5% rule.” That’s about the percentage of a population that needs to engage in active protest/civil disobedience to begin to destabilize a government. It’s mostly how the various “color revolutions” we’ve seen around the world unfolded—largely peacefully.
Here in the US we’ve never been in such an extreme situation that we needed to think much about this sort of thing. However, given the speed with which Trump is breaking things that will be difficult (if not impossible) to fix, it seems the time has come for us to learn from the lessons other nations have to teach us. If we can get to roughly eleven million participants at the various “No Kings” events around the country this weekend, we’ll be close to the needed critical mass. Above all, this needs to stay non-violent so as to attract the largest possible number of attendees.
I’m still looking for an authoritative estimate of the total turnout for domestic “No Kings” events. The numbers I’ve seen so far are all over the place. Hoping we’ll settle on something in the ten million-plus range. Then I’ll be willing to agree that we’re getting to critical mass.
I know we had an enormous crowd locally. The police had some drones out and put the number at 6,000 (in a town with a population 0f 20,000). It was so peaceful that our participants didn’t even jaywalk on the way home.
With the narrow margins in the Senate (4) and the House (about 4) it only takes a few (R)s coming to their senses to get results. Not saying it is likely, but it just takes a handful at the present time.
November 2026 is coming. But maybe we can get some movement now. Can't hurt to try.
Right now, peaceful protest is it. We have a deeply dysfunctional Federal Government - because the rethugs played a long game. We need to show them we won't let them win.
It can't be out of reach. It's all we have short of a shooting war that we would lose. More and more, Republican electeds fear their constituents more than being primaried by Trump. The job is to peel them away from MAGA one by one. And, of course, there are the mid-terms.
Call congressional members especially the ignoble poltroons who are doing nothing is a start John. I’ve been calling and sending postcards to everyone of the house and senate members!!
The First French Republic showed, how fast democracy can fail. It had Robbespierre's bloody rule 1793-94 and collapsed 1799 with Napoleon's rise to power.
USA experience the same now after 250 years. The First American Republic is collapsing, but a Second can rise in future. Maybe with a different constitution, that has a powerless president like Ireland.
Yes, yes, Paul. So glad that you are calling it what it is—another step towards dictatorship.
Thank you Dr Krugman. The buildup to June 14 sure feels a lot like the build up to J6.
Protest is absolutely necessary. We must show our nation and the world that the citizens here are in majority against Trump and his cronies.
Hoping the media steps up, but doubt it.
Hoping the military does not follow his illegal orders, but expect that to be messy.
Very scary times ahead…
It's already bleak and terrifying...and we're less than 5 full months into Trump 2.0.
Every institution but the lower courts has caved.
By the time, the economic disaster, loss of civil rights, and loss of "entitlements" are felt by most Americans...the permanent presence of military across the country will stifle collective resistance.
Most people are missing the narrow window of resistance because Democratic leadership is failing, legacy media is spreading Trump propaganda, and far too many people remain firmly in denial.
As an observer on the other side of the Atlantic, I’m not sure the military has caved. I don’t think they like being treated as Trump’s personal army, it damages their reputation in foreign countries (I’m sure China is watching this folly). Trump’s seems unaware that unlawful orders cannot be followed by the military - which risks him humiliating himself even more.
I hope that you are right.
But Trump and Hegseth has fired a lot of the top generals, and JAG lawyers. He now has generals that are more aligned with him, being advised by lawyers that are also more aligned with Trump.
He already has national guard in California, on HIGHLY flimsy legal grounds, as well as 700 Marines.
The line has already been crossed, the only remaining issue has how far and how wide Trump will go. He has no intention of stopping, and congress and SCOTUS is enabling him every step of the way.
He might have a few top Generals and Admirals aligned with him, but not all of them. And then there are the second tier Generals and Admirals, as well as Colonels and Commodores, and all of the officers below them as well as all the non-commissioned and enlisted personnel, all of whom took an oath to the Constitution. I believe, and hope, a vast majority will take that oath seriously.
You are very optimistic. The attitude in any defence force is that an order from a superior officer is a lawful order. It is only at the very highest level that members are allowed to think.
Those levels at which politics play a huge role....
New thinking and action by Democrats is urgently needed to respond to the ongoing illegal insurrection led by Trump and supported by Republicans in Congress.
Trump and Republicans are constantly lying to manipulate the news media and confuse the public. Trump preposterously claimed with arrogance that the legal, peaceful protests in LA are an insurrection and illegally sent the military into the streets of LA. Trump falsely claimed legal, peaceful protests are an insurrection when he is leading an ongoing insurrection supported by Republicans in Congress that began on Jan 6. Democrats should flood the news media every day with the truth that Trump, his administration, Republicans in Congress, and ICE agents are the insurrectionists and criminal felons that violate federal law.
ICE agents illegally arrest people without due process or Habeas corpus. Habeas corpus is a fundamental legal principle that safeguards against unlawful detention. It essentially means "you have the body" and is a writ that requires a person in custody to be brought before a court to determine the legality of their detention. This right is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
Democrats in control of a few states should enact and enforce a new state law to begin stopping the insurrection within their state.
Read my post. https://williamlmiller.substack.com/p/how-to-stop-trump-republicans-and
The problem is, along side the legitimate, peaceful protesting, there is in fact actual, violent, riotous behavior that looks threatening, by opportunistic vandals and looters taking advantage of the situation, and deliberate provocation of the police by romantic lefties who are playing anarchist or think they are conducting the "revolution". The media need to stop conflating all these as "protesters" and the Democrats need to be very clear (as Newsome is sometimes) that they support the peaceful protesters and not the vandals.
They are arresting legal immigrants who come into the immigration office for routine scheduled meetings.
I eagerly await some Democrat at the Federal level who reacts with something other than "stop, or I shall say stop again! And by, the way, please send me money so I can say stop again." This isn't hard, guys. Recruit people like Franken, Carville, Mystal, and Abrams to strategize a more active response.
Did you watch Trump's rally yesterday...where thousands of troops booed Democratic politicians and the 46th president...and cheered Trump and his deportation policies?
i read thatt the commander ar fort bragg made sure that the people sitting at that audience were all trumpf supporters, those men and women were carefully screened. this was on TPM..
This hasn't been confirmed, but even if accurate...there were thousands and thousands of madly cheering troops.
Why do people continue to downplay the clear and present dangers?
Yes, they were hand-picked. Trump wanted a more exuberant,, fawning audience than what he found at West Point.
Trump deliberately ignored the Hatch act. My understanding is that his staff selected attendees who supported Trump. The speech was a rehash of campaign aphorisms with a nod to his “speech” at the elliptical on January 6, 2020.
That’s a fair point, and I didn’t see the rally you mention, but I have seen numerous reports of US military offers unhappy with this deployment. Perhaps Trump is confusing the cheers at a rally, which feeds his ego, with the reality that every officer is very clear that you never, ever, follow an unlawful order.
Trump has form, he asked in his first term why protesters couldn’t just be shot in the leg. I think actual officers are already clear that Trump is a danger to them. Trump looks stupid (so what’s new?) but they would get a court martial.
It was a military rally.
Trump purged the upper layers of the military almost immediately after his inauguration.
No active officer, general, admiral, etc. has yet to speak out.
Few veterans have spoken out.
Meanwhile, Trump is eviscerating Veterans Affairs, veteran's benefits, and purging the ranks...all with the blessing of SCOTUS.
I read it has been pretty well proven they were handpicked, trvmp supporters. And had to look "in shape". "No fat people" was actually in the criteria list.
The attendees were preselected for MAGA loyalty.
were they not hand picked trump supporters?
I also read the people at that were vetted. Meaning, if they approved of Trump went, those who didn’t like him were not aloud attend.
Disgusting
Good observation. The military is not the ones to be concerned about, it is the police to fear as they have been allowed military hardware to go along with not being very well trained to interact with people.
There are some Joe's that are MAGA, as you can see in the staged trump rah rah at Fort Bragg, but most are not. Keep your watchful eyes on the police
Trump is unaware of everything but his own monumental ego. He truly thinks he’s a genius, which is truly pathetic in of itself. All these are signs of his fast mental deterioration as he tries to destroy our Nation to satisfy his ego. The other players are starting to catch on, but they don’t care because they are just as crooked and are out to fleece America for every dime. This Administration is every bit, in their own way, as demented as their crazy leader. They want power and with Trump they get it. They all have to go. They are as defective as Trump.
The military is not monolithic. The various services have differing levels of MAGA infiltration. National Guard units are highly variable as they recruit locally, not nationally. Trump or his henchmen will be able fire anyone in the military chain of command that isnt a toady, and find commanders who will machine gun civilians. However, this will cause a chain reaction that will kick off a civil war inside the military. This will end the US reign as a superpower, and be the culmination of Trump's efforts to destroy the US.
One possible escape valve: Trump, Hegseth, and maga better not count on the majority of the U.S. military waging war against the American people. Forty-six percent of active duty forces are Black, Hispanic, Asian/ Pacific Islander or Native American, and many from lower income families, and they won't appreciate Trump and the Republicans using them as pawns to attack their neighbors and family while taking away their Medicaid and SNAP and destroying their hopes for a better future. If Trump really tries to use the military across the nation, I won’t be at all surprised if a method for ridding a unit of a particularly abusive “leader” by some troops in Vietnam makes a return appearance.
I completely agree with your observation that the modern American military seems very diverse and it is hard to imagine a company of marines or infantry with a significant number of Spanish language speakers wanting to be “deployed” to downtown Los Angeles to throw their weight around and annoy the local population.
President Trump seems bizarrely unaware that the US military became one of the first institutions in America to formally scrap segregation and make it clear that talent only was the criteria for judging officers. After Vietnam the Pentagon had no choice, how else did Colin Powell end up as Chief of Staff?
Just a few hours ago a federal judge is reported to have ruled Trump’s actions in California as unlawful. Hopefully this will start sanity returning to the White House. Sending troops to Los Angeles in the State of California against the wishes of the Governor of California is the very thing the constitution was designed to prevent. To anyone familiar with the founding document of the United States this is self evident. One of these days President Trump should try reading the constitution of his country - it’s a good read.
I not sure he is capable of reading, his ignorance is astounding. He does not even have his facts on WWI & WWII correct as per his speech ( if you could call it that - I just call it a rant) at Fort Bragg. And his other rant at Fort Westpoint where he waffled on about Trophy wives, WTF?
I sure hope you're right about this.
The founding fathers got a lot of things right:
US military officers and enlisted personnel swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, not the President.”
Yes, absolutely. I hope most of them take that oath seriously enough to refuse illegal orders. It's a pretty dicey situation we're in now.
See you there! 💪
No fear.
Honor and duty.
Yeah. Me too. But it takes bravery for anyone with dark skin to show up. In the last two big demonstrations I attended, military planes flew low over the crowd, taking photos I presume.
Amen.
Couldn’t agree more Bob, Trumps tyrannical move towards authoritarianism is vastly unpopular, unlawful, immoral, unconstitutional and must be condemned and suppressed immediately! Liberté, égalité, fraternité! Revolution is in the air!
The GOP base is actually mostly supportive over what's going down in LA, if the NYT poll of yesterday is to be believed.
Considering that FOX News and RW media are going all in on this, echoing the Admin's rhetoric--and (dishonestly) miscaptioning photos and clips of burning cop cars and other property damage from the Floyd protests >5 years ago--to portray LA as an insurrectionist hellscape in need of a militarized beat down, it's not surprising that conservative voters would support it.
But for Trump, the militarization of LA has succeeded in moving the narrative away from Elon's accusation that DJT hasn't released the Espstein pedo files, precisely because he features prominently *in* said pedo files. Michael Wolff said he saw at least two photos seized from Epstein's safe in his NYC brownstone, where Trump is with undressed very young girls.
Americans have been given such an easy opportunity to see dictatorship coming. The tyranny that could have come as a sneaky curveball is (in the form of Trump) the clumsiest underhanded lob. It's what my dad calls a "fat pitch." We the people really should be hitting it out of the park, not letting it strike us out.
Unfortunately, Clemson, too many people are uninformed. And those of us keeping track are overwhelmed—by design of course. But the resistance is coalescing. No Kings Protests nationwide on Saturday.
Uninformed, yeah, good point. The Fox Cinematic Universe, that's what makes it a sneaky curveball.
Funny that you mentioned Fox. I literally had never watched it, but recently decided I needed to know the enemy so to speak. The first thing I saw was Ron DeSantis spewing drivel. He lied about everything going on. So definitely that audience is being fed propaganda.
Wow, it took guts to stomach that for even a minute.
When this is all over, we need to find a way to Constitutionally ban Faux Newspeak, or what I saw another commenter in another substack refer to as "Fux News". Along with Newsmax and its ilk, which is even worse than the Murdoch property. We should probably shut down 卐itter and "Truth Social" too.
First Amendment, people (sigh…)
It's not absolute. There can be reasonable exceptions. A good example would be Dominion successfully suing Faux Newspeak to the tune of 3/4 billion because Faux lied.
That this worked is good, but insufficient. We need stronger safeguards against extreme propaganda. Doing so wouldn't impact legitimate free speech. What Faux Noise and Noisemax do isn't legitimate.
They are “uninformed” on purpose. If Fox didn’t say what they want to hear, they would switch to something worse. It’s much worse than being “uninformed.” It’s willful allegiance to a pack of liars who are telling lies their supporters (roughly 60% of white voters) want to hear.
You're absolutely right Katharine, that too many people are uninformed and they have no interest in informing themselves either. It's too much trouble for them. They'd rather watch a movie or a sitcom
“The people” you are talking about (60% of white voters , 70% of white working class voters, and 80% of white evangelical voters) welcome an autocracy that will persecute people they don’t like. Might have slipped a little with the junta’s recent actions, but not much. If there were a big slip, Republicans in the legislature would be scrambling to protect their seats from an angry electorate. The problem is not Trump. It is 77 million American voters.
Dubious of the election results, data tells a different story! Trump promised he and Elon had a “little secret” that would bring him back into the Oval Office many times Rex!!
I don’t think we need to make stuff up. There’s plenty on easily verifiable records to prove the case. Exit polls, for example, are reliable. Pre-election polling has much wider error bars.
The conservatives betrayed Democracy, when they collaborated with Trump 2016. This was the point that led to the collapse of US democracy 2025.
A democratic GOP should never have allowed someone like Trump to ever run for any election.
I would argue it was always bound to happen, as the logical end point of decades of rising extremism within the GOP. Project 2025 was a long time in the making. The Southern Strategy was always about minority rule and thus anti-democratic. As was the Tea Party Movement.
Correct. Nixon/Atwater set the course. Reagan got the ship going by convincing 70% of white working class voters to abandon their unions in favor of preserving their systemic legal, economic, and political advantages.
The more right-wing politics becomes extreme, the more it becomes attractive for poor and middle class people, who never would have voted for Bush or Reagan. Nationalism and fascism promises to reduce competition in the market by violent deportation of foreign or "wrong" people. This is attractive for many who suffer under the burden of competition.
SCOTUS ruled Trump couldn’t be barred from the ballot, however…
Democracy is alive and well in the U.S. it is working the way it is supposed to work. Different ideas, policies, races, religions, gender diversity all in conflict with everyone else. The judiciary pushing back and forth, conservative citizens getting some wins, liberals getting much less than what they want, an aggressive presidency. Trump is aggressive , he beat up the Liberals. The liberals are fighting back a la Substack commentary, the media, the public. Polls are being taken, criticism, demonstrations.. all signs of Democracy. The fact that we can’t have everything we can want is not a sign of Democratic decay but a sign of a functioning Democracy. This is how it’s supposed to work .
"But while there were, inevitably, some relatively minor acts of violence, the demonstrations have been overwhelmingly peaceful — and nothing local law enforcement couldn’t handle. "
Yes, and the protests are not even large and according to Mayor Bass, are in about 1/6 of a square mile (a couple of blocks) out of a city that is 500 square miles large. If it was not on the news most people here would have no idea this was even happening.
The news media, especially NBC Nightly News and right wing media, are being very irresponsible in their coverage, zooming in to small groups to make them seem bigger, and replaying views of the couple of cars that were burned one day, etc. over and over with a massive amount of hype. They are playing right into Trump's hands.
Fortunately, CBS evening news decided to get real and report what is really happening and that it is not even a large protest.
Living in LA we get the local news helicopter views and from above it looks like a couple of hundred people decided to stop and listen to someone speak in a park on their lunch break and then all wander down the block together. A few dozen have ended up on the freeway and some bad actors have simply taken advantage of the protests to cause some trouble. Other than one anger fueled day were a couple of cars were burned and rocks thrown, the few looters are likely opportunists and not even the protesters.
The curfew for a couple of square miles has stopped that.
Thus, we have 4,000 national guard and potentially 700 marines that have nothing to do and who far outnumber the protesters about 10-1 and this does not even include the cops who are doing all the work.
Mayor Bass said only 300 of the guard were being used to guard a building or two and the rest have nothing at all to do.
Thus, if they are not needed, what is Trump's real intent?
My guess is he is hoping to inspire a very bad actor or two and then take over with the insurrection act and then martial law.
My advice to governors is to call up your guard in advance, so that they are not federalized and thus remain under your control.
Fortunately, we may hear from the judge for Newsom's court challenge to the guard and marines today.
The judge gave them a few days for each side to compile arguments, so cross your fingers.
Sadly, the laws surrounding this are written broadly, so if and when SCOTUS hears it, one worries that they tend to interpret broad brush laws in favor of the executive branch (unless their judicial power is placed in jeopardy). Odd to think that conservatives were once big on state's rights (well they still are unless a Republican is in the W.H.)
However, a favorable ruling, for today, could cool some authoritarian jets - one hopes and it would make my day
The more the SCOTUS leans toward the Executive branch, the more they imperil their judicial power. At some point Trump will simply dissolve the SCOTUS as they will no longer be of any use to him. They don't seem to understand that undermining the constitution to give more power to the Executive will ultimately destroy the very foundation of our governance system.
And if SCOTUS gives broad deference to an executive branch headed by an ignorant nincompoop with zero expertise (other than grifting), as to matters of life and death, how does that square with their partisan decision that independent executive agencies are not entitled to deference in interpreting and applying broadly written statutes in their areas of specific expertise?
I tried to sign on to the proceeding but was too late so I'm not sure what has happened but my best guess is that if the District Court grants a TRO the government will immediately appeal but try to bypass the Appellate Court and go directly to SCOTUS under the guise off another "emergency relief" petition, this to the Shadow Docket where there will be no briefing, no oral argument, no decision that has an explanation and no sign of what the vote actually was. The one information that the public will get is from the Dissenters. This is no way to run account or a country.
Governors should have already put their guards under their own control. If the rest of the Democrats don't, they are sleepwalking. Newsom et al should convene a meeting to coordinate strategy and begin networking a conference of mayors as well.
The National Guard are already under the control of the Governor of each State. Trump was not supposed to Federalize them without the Governor’s approval. Trump broke the law by doing what he did. That’s why Newsom is rightly pissed.
They need to be activated otherwise they go about their civilian lives. "The term "activated" simply means that a unit or individual of the reserve components has been placed on orders. The purpose and authority for that activation determine limitations and duration of the activation. " Wikipedia
The remainder of the California National Guard could be activated by Newsom and given order to preclude use by Trump.
You misunderstand me. When the National Guard is made into Federal Government soldiers, (Federalize) the President is suppose to do that with the ok from the Governor of whatever State they are in; because until then, the National Guard is under the command of that State’s Governor. President Trump didn’t do that. Which is why Newsom is so mad, and he should be. Also, technically, right now the National Guard in CA can only back up the LAPD. (They cannot arrest anyone etc.) That can only be done if the President enacts the Insurrection Act, which we do not want to happen.
Right, but I am making another point: if governors activate the guards and set their orders, then they can't be federalized because they are already under state command... by a different provision of the statute. The governors can prevent by direct order their use to suppress dissent.
My guess is that he plans to import a very bad actor or two.
It has certainly crossed my mind. However, protests and events that get a lot of press already draw the nuts out of the woodwork, so there may be no need.
Speaking of bad actors, considering that they have fired a lot of the cyber security people and people who could keep tabs on this type of "chatter" I'm not convinced that our national security is able to detect and protect to the degree they once could.
At his military masterbat...I mean parade, too.
Excellent wrap up, PipandJoe. I hope everyone finally learns the facts.
This is absolutely correct. We also live in LA, just north of downtown. I worked in DTLA for over 25 years and was there in Little Tokyo on Sunday morning. Crickets.
Plenty of friends still work DTLA and they tell us that they would have had no idea anything was going on, even after TACO made it worse. One strolled over to City Hall on Wednesday and there was nothing going on except a mariachi band and singer on the steps, watched by about 2 dozen bystanders.
That was it. The whole thing is the biggest mountain made out of the smallest molehill imaginable. Not even the level of a Dodger Series pennant win.
Just a heads up. There was a massive pickup, of the type you never see in LA (not a real work truck for a business) the type that some Trump supporters like to drive just to say we consume lots of fossil fuels to annoy woke liberals (and to overcompensate for something) and it was hovering in front of my house with Texas plates for quite awhile. I am worried that all of the nonsense reports may cause vigilantes from other states to show up, and harm folks because they actually believe in all of the nonsense. And you know there has been a lot of hype - an insane amount of hype about what is going on and it puts us all in danger, but not from our own but from his base (they know he will pardon them if they run us over). So warn others to be on the lookout. I know darn well this was not one of my neighbor's relatives, etc. I wrote the plates down.
Thank you. Good to know.
Maybe I'll put out an alert in my FB neighborhood group - we're in a 75% Latino neighborhood (crime free for over 25 years I should note) and we could definitely be a target if your suspicions are correct.
Start keeping your eyes out for out of state license plates. I am wondering if I should do a "see something say something" and report it, but they just hovered for a bit and did not break any laws.
The no kings protests advertised their various meeting locations and so that concerns me, as well.
If you see something that suspicious, I would recommend that you alert the police immediately.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was on Kimmel last night and said there's literally nothing going on most of the time. People are peaceful and cooperative for the most part. Some provocateurs come out after dark, but that's it.
LAPD doing what they do best: Kicking the shite out of protestors, shooting "non-lethal" projectiles at newspeople, tear-gassing at random...I mean, who needs the NG and Marines while the Boys in Blue are out there "serving and protecting" en masse?
I would take on a Marine any day over the LAPD.
Right, now imagine if our mass media published this sort of Op-ed across every major news source.
It’s surprising that many or most people don’t recognize that djt has his sights on martial law in order to suspend the 2026 elections. Remember: “Vote for me and you’ll never have to vote again!” Will people notice THEN?!
Trump said everything out loud… unsurprising people didn’t listen Deborah!!
So glad Dr. Krugman speaks with such clarity!
Here is a BBC article that can inspire hope -- and action. The main takeaway is...
"It takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change."
Link to the article:
The '3.5% rule': How a small minority can change the world
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world
Trump is increasingly revealling his ultimate goal. So, Professor Krugman, please tell us what voters could stop him. That is the question.1
It's still so hard to believe though. Trump, the buffoonish fool? There on the world stage representing us? That clown? A possible dictator of us? Are we that pathetic? Is our democracy that weak that a National Inquirer laughingstock can bring it to its knees?
A low grade flaccid blob of human flesh with the manners of a geriatric jackal takes us down?
No matter what, we really are a very sorry lot if that sort of fool is our choice, not once, but twice and perhaps until he croaks, if in fact a vile entity such at that is human enough to actually die. Or will there just be a wicked witch like puddle in the end of this dark tale?
Anyone who watched the protests would have reached the same conclusion.
The troops in LA do not like how they are being used (or more properly, abused).
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/12/los-angeles-national-guard-troops-marines-morale
Quote:
California national guards troops and marines deployed to Los Angeles to help restore order after days of protest against the Trump administration have told friends and family members they are deeply unhappy about the assignment and worry their only meaningful role will be as pawns in a political battle they do not want to join.
Three different advocacy organisations representing military families said they had heard from dozens of affected service members who expressed discomfort about being drawn into a domestic policing operation outside their normal field of operations. The groups said they have heard no countervailing opinions.
“The sentiment across the board right now is that deploying military force against our own communities isn’t the kind of national security we signed up for,” said Sarah Streyder of the Secure Families Initiative, which represents the interests of military spouses, children and veterans.
End quote
Read the article for yourself.
But why aren't more people screaming that sending the Marines is illegal? That's exactly why the Posse Comitatus Act was enacted, to prevent the military to be used on U S . soil for political reasons
They do not care about the law or the constitution. Things are about to get much worse
The Republicans are cowards or complicit. That's why the next elections are crucial.
What is being done to these brave men and women who are giving their lives in service is not ok. Why would they want to be deployed against their own people? They do not. And the protestors know that they do not. It is not the national guard or the marines who are the problem. It is ICE and everyone under Kristi Noem's command. The whole DHS will have to be dismantled if we are to get to anything resembling democracy again.
Truely terrifying. That is why it is imperative to get as many people protesting out on the streets, big cities, small towns to show that he can not do this.
Who I really lay the blame on for all of this are the republicans in congress. It is beyond the pale
And the media
100%. Get in the people in the streets.
“Practice corporeal politics”-Dr Timothy Snyder
It worked well in Ukraine, it was the people protesting in the Maidan Square that deposed their elected and then Russian backed dictator Yanokovich ( Paul Manafort’s client)
In the Ukraine, as I recall large crowds of protesters donned homemade suits of armor, and brought heavy steel clubs to battle security forces.
Only after they had shot and killed several young peaceful protesters, it just kept escalating. That is why desensitization and normalization is so important to understand right now. RESIST!!!
Looking on from Canada… ‘Everything is on the line.’ At this very moment, the line between global stability and chaos feels perilously thin.
Exactly.
Paul, I fundamentally disagree with your take. Trump certainly wants violent clashes, but the general in charge of the 4700 troops is an absolute pro. All the troops are being trained before deployment. Watch this AP interview with Major General Sherman. This isn't his first law enforcement rodeo, and he's going to do it according to long standing army standards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojieeqls6r0
BTW, I agree that this deployment is absolutely unnecessary.
OTOH, if you hear about General Sherman being replaced by a Trumpier general, then all bets are off. When Trump learns about the honorable attitudes of General Sherman he will be very unhappy.
Is this the issue? I assume the troops are well-trained. It really has no bearing on whether or not Trump had a basis for sending them in. There is something beyond the pale about the presence of the American military on American streets unless you're talking actual full-scale riots (like the Watts riots).
There are two issues. The first is whether the deployment was justified and it isn't. The second is whether the military will make war on the citizenry, and I think that will not happen in this case.
Anne Applebaum recently wrote that Donald Trump will follow the path that other authoritarian leaders have taken, suspend Habeas Corpus, arrest the leaders without charge, and hold them in prison for an indefinite period.
He hasn't done that yet. I dont think he will succeed at that
Haven't you heard? Trump always chickens out.
If Trump can manage a "credible" emergency situation, and use it as cover for declaring martial law, all bets are off on Habeas Corpus, etc. A lot rides on the protestors sticking with non-violent resistance, which won't be easy where there is anger and provocation.
Does “the military” have standards that they’ll uphold? lines they won’t cross? The debacle (as one word) at Fort Bragg yesterday suggests that they will do all sorts of things for Trump and Hegseth. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/06/11/bragg-soldiers-who-cheered-trumps-political-attacks-while-uniform-were-checked-allegiance-appearance.html
The military in Alabama may just be a bit different than the National Guard in California. That audience in Alabama was pre vetted for Trump enthusiasm
Bragg Soldiers Who Cheered Trump's Political Attacks While in Uniform Were Checked for Allegiance, Appearance
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/06/11/bragg-soldiers-who-cheered-trumps-political-attacks-while-uniform-were-checked-allegiance-appearance.html
North Carolina. Fort Bragg is in North Carolina.
I have friends who are actual retired ranking military - the suggestion that “the military” varies by state is quite something, presented as fact. It is a dangerous presumption. Leadership at the head of the Defense Department is just fine with all of this and that’s the problem.
This shouldn’t have happened - but it did. If it didn’t happen in Alabama, it could and would have happened on another base.
There’s an old saying that “fish rots from the head down” - the organization is currently rotten at the top, the head. From the same piece posted above "Experts were quick to come out and say that the public silence from military leadership is a missed opportunity to reinforce the military's nonpartisan nature. Meanwhile, the political leadership at the head of the Defense Department was far from apologetic."
100%
The Los Angeles PD is better trained than any hastily deployed military (lethal force) unit, period. They have been putting down truly violent and destructive riots for decades. My father was a military commander in the California National Guard and would NOT have deployed his troops, with their howitzers, against the American People they were trained to DEFEND. Period.
...
The LAPD has absolutely been causing truly violent and destructive riots for decades, and have definitely crushed protests against their brutality.
As I don't live in LA I can't speak to that, only to this: the escalation of crowd control from competent local to not one but two military forces. The military are trained to kill. That is what they do. And calling them in when they aren't needed is risky, illegal and an effing political stunt. Trump is using the military to cover for his pathetic incompetence. And a birthday parade. Costing us millions, BTW.
Please stop kidding yourself, you are whistling as you walk past the cemetery. I'm sure Major General Sherman is a fine military man who will keep his oath to the Constitution, but do you think he can slow Trump's worse impulses?
For heavens sake, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is AWOL in this situation, not a word from him when he should be pushing back from the rooftops. Trump has populated the key positions with sycophant toadies who, like Republicans in Congress, will assume the role of potted plants instead of doing their duty.
Potted plants is an apt description.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is not in the operational chain of command. His only role is to advise the President. Once he has given his advice, if he disagrees with the President, his only recourse is to resign. He cannot publicly speak out while in office.
He should resign.
If he continues to make public statements similar to what he said in hearings yesterday, he'll soon be fired.
It is my belief that Trump will find that the California National Guard will disappoint him greatly. Trump has replaced military leaders in Washington, but not all over the country.
It seems you just don't grasp the seriousness of Trumps intervention and its dire political and anti-democratic consequences for all US States.
Your view about the US military in action against US citizens is naive to say the least. Trump changed the leadership in the Pentagon for a personal reason. He is a despot and wannabe dictator, working hard in disrupting law and order with any means he gets his greedy and bloody hands on. He has no scruples and no shame. He was, is and will stay and behave like a criminal. Shame on the US political system, it’s broken.
Thanks to the corrupt Supreme Court and the Citizens United decision.
Are you suggesting that money rules American politics??? What an absurd idea!
Yes, I guess you could say I was hinting at that :)
How perfectly cromulent of you.
are you also, like Louis, shocked to find gambling in certain establishments?
Heaven forfend and perish the thought!
Perish the thought!
i think maybe people forget what Trumpf REALLY is...the fact that he took 5 deferrments during the viet nam war..shows exactly where his loyalty lies...he does not give a fig about the military..he sees them as useful idiots.
and he's said so.
Andy, yes - then add in the designed for the cameras and optics spectacle at Bragg: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/06/11/bragg-soldiers-who-cheered-trumps-political-attacks-while-uniform-were-checked-allegiance-appearance.html
100%
It is my belief that Trump will find that the California National Guard will disappoint him greatly. Trump has replaced military leaders in Washington, but not all over the country.
The Chain of Command is everything in the military. The Pentagon gives the orders, and Trump orders the Pentagon. The National Guard has to obey these orders, if they like it or not doesn't matter a bit. Generals don't become Generals because they don't fulfill orders. And anybody who would refuse orders would be court martialed. I was in the military, I know, I refused orders.
And it doesn't change anything: Trump is a saboteur of law and order and is attacking frontally the sovereignty of US States and civil and human rights. And this order reflects that clearly, like others from Trump before. The National Guard and the Marines are just obeying pawns that fullfill Trumps orders, without hesitation.
Hitler did the same thing, used the same strategy of unjustified violence, agitation and disruption of public life, creating fear and panic. We all know what it meant for German democracy. So much for protection of civil rights with the military.
So much for American Exceptionalism.
General Sherman already has his orders—there is a protocol on the books based on law that says what the military is supposed to do in these circumstances, and General Sherman tends to remain within that law. Did you watch the video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkATuJNFt3g
Trump and the military have already proclaimed war on the citizenry - now it is asked from Americans not to defend democracy, not to defend illegal detentions, not to show solidarity with the victims of the violent persecutions on the part of ICE and other federal agencies. To find general Sherman honourable in his defence of the acts of terror is mind boggling, and I am now even more scared for the US democracy. To see such a comment here is heartbreaking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkATuJNFt3g
I'd wish you would watch this video, and perhaps open your mind to how many in the army intend to operate. If the army wanted to wage war on the citizenry, thousands would be dead already.
I did watch the video, of course. I said very clearly that the war was declared - and if citizens remain obedient, there will be no bloodshed, but fascism, with all its persecutions, will prevail. And all wars start like this - the Vietnam war started with only hundreds deployed to end up with 1-3 million people killed. Almost no war starts the way you insinuate - which thousands would be killed? What is happening is frightening and tragic - there can be peace only if the Americans do what Germans did - let it be until they come for us personally. An honourable thing, the only one, for general Sherman - and any other military personnel - would be to refuse to serve a criminal act ordered by a repeated criminal, the insurrectionist-in-chief who pardons criminals that storm the Capitol. This is an attack on one of the most functioning states in America, on the city that embodies peaceful coexistence based on cosmopolitanism - and above all the attack on human solidarity. What Trump is doing now - and the army supporting it - is the fascist takeover of the country, a blow to all that is sacred, a death of democracy and the rule of law. For months now - as Krugman has been describing repeatedly - Trump and his cronies have been talking of hordes of criminal immigrants who took over LA. Since there was no violence whatsoever, they had to instigate it, to then bring in the army - this is how all fascists operate. Krugman has been writing coherently and eloquently about it, better than me. Anyway, this is all against the constitution, an attempt to get rid of the democratically elected governor and mayor, who are doing a great job. General Sherman, by obeying a criminal order, is a traitor, period.
It was said very clearly if citizens protest peacefully and do not commit the crimes of assault and vandalism, there would be no arrests.
and you believe DonnyJon? He wouldn't know the truth if it came up and bit him.
But that is what all fascists say, from Mussolini onward (I could give you examples ad infinitum) - and then they instigate violence themselves. As say, the ICE agents who terrorise law obeying immigrants in war like gear, deport people illegally without due process, separate fathers and mothers from their children. But please help me understand: do you agree with me (and Krugman) that fascists have taken over the country? That they are destroying democracy and the rule of law? If yes, then a patriot cannot serve them, period. If you disagree with this premise, then we are on opposite sides of the political barricade.
Excellent point Kathleen!!
And a very cromulent point to boot!
bootlicker
Gen. Sherman may be an honorable man but one of the military vehicles under his command had 'Hang Fauci and Gates' written on, large enough to be seen. He needs to run a tighter ship. If you want to see what a General can do, watch how Gen. Russel Honore loudly chewed out his soldiers to put their damn guns away, repeatedly, as he walked by them, during one of his stateside missions.
Why does one need to train for an imaginary crisis? What are the soldiers learning? How to be brutally cruel to peaceful protesters. How to follow unlawful orders. How to abuse basic human rights. Hmmmm. It doesn’t matter the General’s professionalism. He should have refused the unlawful orders based on an imaginary crisis, then resign and his resignation letter be published in every newspaper, interviews on every channel on why. Thats the only professional path here by our generals who took an oath to the Constitution not the President.
If you watched a video, you will realize that they aren't being trained to be brutally cruel. Please substitute from some facts for your fears.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkATuJNFt3g
Not yet anyway. How will soldiers react when a right wing militia crazy, pretending to be a protester, throws the first brick at a guardsman’s head? What then?
Like January 6, 2016.
Since the National Guardsmen are wearing helmets and carrying large riot shields, my guess is very little will happen, unless they can identify the culprit beyond doubt. Then they will detain the lawbreaker until local police authorities arrive to make an arrest. Note that the Capitol Police NEVER fired on the rioters even though many police officers were being assaulted.
It may be too late for some. These are signs that the desensitization has already taken hold when they defend breaking the Constitutional Right to free assembly/peaceful protest.
But there’s hope. Backtrack to the original premise: is the crisis real? Is the protest violent or peaceful? Then ask yourself if calling in the guard and marines is justified.
( hint…. it’s the first time in American history. A president has called in the military against the mayors and governors and police chief in any state.)
Read: On Tyranny by Tim Snyder
Notice that the National Guard were NOT called out January 6th. We're not talking about the police right now. We are talking about the presence of our military on American streets. This was never necessary and to go on about how well-trained our military is is to miss the point. I am sad to see Kathleen, who is obviously intelligent, stick to this narrow idea that the military won't kill protesters. I am not against the military: I have military in my family. But unless we're talking something like the Watts riots, to bring the military onto American streets is beyond the pale.
What if instead the protesters arm themselves like Ukraine protesters during the Mandan demonstrations? Homemade armor done right, steel maces.
bootlicker
KEEP in mind who is the DOD..WHISKEY PETE is the man in charge of DOD, the people in the military either obey or are prosecuted; which WHISKEY PETE will do, being the chicken shit drunk he is..it took a long time for the military to get past the VIETNAM STUFF, We respect them again..however, if they continue to go along with the current 'leader' its back to square one...my great grand son recently enlisted..i know this boy.. he will not arrest or harm anyone who is not a threat to this country..he is a firm believer in what this country stands for.... and please, please, someone tell these protestors to stop waving that MEXICAN FLAG.... nothing wrong with the flag..but this is the USA and it makes me feel uncomfortable seeing a foriegn flag used in a protest
If General Sherman, who intends to go by the constitution and the law is replaced, then things may go badly.
Thanks for sharing our work at Strength In Numbers, Paul. Indeed not a drill.
Oh, hey there, Fake Nate Silver. Wasn’t expecting to see you here.
Your diagnosis of Trump's motive isn't obviously wrong, but it seems unlikely to me. It seems more like the goal here is to cause harm and stress for its own sake to blue state people who voted against him and oppose his agenda. A "cruelty is the point" kind of thing.
Keep well. Thanks for your work.
Trump will NOT succeed! People like you are our anchors. Keep exposing the truth!
Right on!
The burning of the Reichstag happpens in two days. The June 14 No Kings protests will be used by Trump as a pretext for martial law, arresting his main opponent Governor Newsom and suspending elections. I think the ICE raids from a few days ago were for this very purpose, a pre-emptive act. Right wing provacateurs in disguise will set fires and destroy property to discredit "leftist radicals" and to promote a fascist response. Two days.
Yup. Already thought of that -- they did it in Detroit, Portland, & other cities before, remember?
I specifically remember a woman outing her MAGAt ex-husband as he set fire to a drug store.
It's WHY they're all masked. When the retribution comes, these cowards -- like Deferment Donnie -- don't want to be caught up in their accountability.
We ALL need to make notes, bear witness, & stockpile "incidents," to ensure they pay for the destruction of our country.
Has anyone considered that the people burning Waymo’s might be taxi or Uber drivers? There are few motivations stronger than the threat of losing your livelihood.
Possible but not likely. More likely
paid provocateurs.
Here's context for false flag attacks during George Floyd protests. https://postimg.cc/0rFbMkx2 You'll have to hit "zoom" on the image.
Not gonna happen. Don't lose heart. Love of liberty runs strong in America.
They just cuffed Senator Padilla for asking questions of Noem. Republicans are fine with it. They're beginning to realize they can simply imprison all political opposition with zero resistance.
The party line is that no one knew he was THAT sort of senator, because he only introduced himself by saying, “I am Senator Alex Padilla” and failed to prove to with two-factor identification.
A very memorable piece in the Atlantic traces the stunning parallels to Hitler’s approach of fabricating crisis to override States’ rights and undercut the democratic system of division of power.
Yes, I believe this is the article:
https://apple.news/AArvdsieeTMi3TbKujOVXsQ
Mr. Ryback has had other great articles in The Atlantic about the Nazi’s rise to power.
Wow, astonishing parallels. The Time Is Now™
A sure-fire way to know that we've slipped into the realm of fascism is to look at the ICE agents and police officers making the immigration arrests. In the America I grew up in, not only could you see their badges and names, you could also see their faces. Now? They all wear masks. Are they so ashamed of their jobs that they need anonymity? Are they so very worried about retribution that they must hide who they are?
In banana republics, they wear masks. The masks are worn to represent a faceless, nameless state that needs to instill fear because that's the only way the populace can be kept under control. Trump's threats and his calling up of the Proud Boys to "infiltrate" the No-Kings Day protests is redolent of Hitler's use of his "brown shirts." Again, its purpose is to strike fear in the populace as it tramples down any dissent.
If anyone still believes we are only on the cusp of fascism, they are not paying attention.
I am paying attention. Yes, we are ascending the escalator to authoritarian rule, but so far it is "merely" testing us, gauging our reactions. It could be far worse; to be sure, it may get much worse, but I do not believe it will become full-blown fascism UNLESS we lose heart and fail to respond appropriately. Right at this moment I believe the situation calls for a strong commitment to non-violent protest, not exaggerated claims.
So glad to see you free of The Times.
Big day coming - this Saturday. This focus, Paul, puts the march in my boots, the sign in my hands.
Me too and I’ve never protested before…
I have. In the Vietnam days. And again in the pink-hat NYC parade after DonnyJon got elected the first time. I see there's a protest in Asbury Park. I'll take a camera along.
Many haven’t Eileen, it’s a bonding with brother experience, enjoy!!
Yeah. Democracy has been under assault since his Jan. 6 game which he won. The question for those paying attention and actually give a ;())@ is what can we do?
Make a sign. Join a peaceful protest. Sit down immediately if someone there gets violent. If you care, be there!
A person should in shape for that marathon.
This is the first really big engagement. I’ll be out there, bad knees and all.
It would be a drain on the resources of the city and state.
Why don’t you say what you really mean, because I’m not clear on your point of view.
Please be more specific.
No Kings protest 6/14
Slogans are not enough. Screaming into the wind is not enough. What constructive actions can we citizens take? What can we do that will be measurably effective in stopping this juggernaut of chaos?
You can join one of the No Kings Day nationwide protests near you this Saturday. Protesting in the streets has never been more important than it is now. I am 77 years old and I'll be damned if I sit out any of the nationwide protests (I also stand and protest with fellow citizens in my town in CT every Saturday at 11 am).
This Saturday, I'm heading to Hartford on a bus to join the nationwide protest. It's going to be cold and rainy--like I care. If we're going to end up a fascist dictatorship I want to know I did everything I could to make it not happen.
Here's a link that gives locations of protests. Perhaps there's one near you that you could join. Just be there. Bodies count.
https://indivisible.org
I went to one in NYC last night. This weekend I’m going to the Hudson River Music Fest which will be a large No Kings music fest.
Excellent Laurie, be safe, but loud!!
What constructive action can we citizens take?
1. Under the 1st Amendment, we have rights. "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
So we need to get out there and make our dissatisfaction known, loud, long, and peaceably. Making fun of Donald is especially effective, because narcissists have no sense of humor. They think EVERYTHING is about them.
2. Make sure your Representative in the House and your two Senators know how you feel. If enough of us make clear that we disapprove, some of the (R) people in Congress might just find a spine.
3. If you see an immigration action in progress, you should not try to physically oppose it, but you should collect video evidence, and ask questions, such as "Do you have a search warrant?" That is a requirement under the 4th Amendment. "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
With regard to the second paragraph in 1, I prefer the moniker "dotard Donny 2 dolls".
Regarding 2, not meaning to discourage you but realistically that will never happen. As the saying goes, "those dogs won't hunt." The best chance is to vote out these Republican potted plants and elect Democrats who will take seriously their constitutional obligations.
You might want to do a search on “the 3.5% rule.” That’s about the percentage of a population that needs to engage in active protest/civil disobedience to begin to destabilize a government. It’s mostly how the various “color revolutions” we’ve seen around the world unfolded—largely peacefully.
Here in the US we’ve never been in such an extreme situation that we needed to think much about this sort of thing. However, given the speed with which Trump is breaking things that will be difficult (if not impossible) to fix, it seems the time has come for us to learn from the lessons other nations have to teach us. If we can get to roughly eleven million participants at the various “No Kings” events around the country this weekend, we’ll be close to the needed critical mass. Above all, this needs to stay non-violent so as to attract the largest possible number of attendees.
It felt like we achieved that goal yesterday Kim, thanks to everyone that stood up to such an odious wastrel and traitor!!
I’m still looking for an authoritative estimate of the total turnout for domestic “No Kings” events. The numbers I’ve seen so far are all over the place. Hoping we’ll settle on something in the ten million-plus range. Then I’ll be willing to agree that we’re getting to critical mass.
I know we had an enormous crowd locally. The police had some drones out and put the number at 6,000 (in a town with a population 0f 20,000). It was so peaceful that our participants didn’t even jaywalk on the way home.
Thanks for the 3.5% tip :)
With the narrow margins in the Senate (4) and the House (about 4) it only takes a few (R)s coming to their senses to get results. Not saying it is likely, but it just takes a handful at the present time.
November 2026 is coming. But maybe we can get some movement now. Can't hurt to try.
There will be no election in 2026 if we don't act now.
Right now, peaceful protest is it. We have a deeply dysfunctional Federal Government - because the rethugs played a long game. We need to show them we won't let them win.
Impeachment is out of reach. Congress is complicit!
It can't be out of reach. It's all we have short of a shooting war that we would lose. More and more, Republican electeds fear their constituents more than being primaried by Trump. The job is to peel them away from MAGA one by one. And, of course, there are the mid-terms.
Then we show up at their offices and demand they do their job as an equal branch of govt. take the protest to the office of these asshole cowards
Call congressional members especially the ignoble poltroons who are doing nothing is a start John. I’ve been calling and sending postcards to everyone of the house and senate members!!
Excellent idea, and I like the word “poltroon”. Better than plain old coward.
See Stephen Brady's comments (above). Call or write your Representative or Senator and local authority.
No Kings Protest 6/14
The First French Republic showed, how fast democracy can fail. It had Robbespierre's bloody rule 1793-94 and collapsed 1799 with Napoleon's rise to power.
USA experience the same now after 250 years. The First American Republic is collapsing, but a Second can rise in future. Maybe with a different constitution, that has a powerless president like Ireland.
Exactly Cynthia!!
Well said Mr. Krugman. You hit the nail on the head.
Unfortunately, on the mark.
Nail on the head. It’s shameful that the media is normalizing all of this, and barely even covering Saturday’s protests