A Rubicon Approaches
Pissed is good, but some real fear is in order
It’s not like any more needs to be written about the nightmare unfolding in Los Angeles, but as a native Angeleno I have thoughts. Some quick hitters:
I thought this was about getting the “worst of the worst”, “criminals and rapists” off the streets. Then why are they going to home Depot to round up day laborers? These are guys trying to make a living, and as a long-time resident of LA I can tell you that construction and landscaping would crash to a halt without them. They are going after hard-working, under-paid usually family men because Stephen Miller and Tom Homan are sociopathic ideologues with racist axes to grind. Miller has mandated that every ICE office should make 75 arrests per day. Cruelty quotas.
The vast majority of Angelenos went about their business this past weekend. The protestors numbered in the hundreds. LA has not been “invaded and occupied by illegal aliens” and certainly would not “have been obliterated” if not for DesPOTUS sending in the National Guard. I lived in LA during the Rodney King riots and I am here to tell you that I don’t have to be there to tell you this ain’t that. All a military presence does is fan the flames, which is of course the point.
Not only was it utterly out of bounds for Mango Mussolini to overstep his authority by sending them in, it was done with utterly inadequate logistics and support. Not to mention reports only about 300 of the first 1,200 sent in were actually doing anything. Quick, better send in 2,000 more! And call up the Marines! It is technically within the POTUS’ authority to activate the Guard, but is almost never done because that is the governor’s job. Last time it was done was in 1965 by LBJ in Alabama and worth noting that in that instance it was against the express wishes of the governor to protect the protestors.
It is stupid and counterproductive to move the protests to violence and even dumber that they are burning Waymos. What did they do? It has been shown time and time again that the violence taking place at protests of this size and timing are almost always people that have nothing to do with whatever the issue might be, but rather anarchist assholes that want to burn shit. And fuck them.
What they most definitely are not are “paid insurrectionists” as claimed by Kristi Noempathy, without, of course, any evidence.
Felon47 keeps using “insurrectionists” in his ranting. This is to lay the groundwork for him to use the Insurrection Act of 1807. (I highly recommend reading the Wikipedia at that link. How it has been modified and when it has been used is very revealing.) Ever hear of posse comitatus? It is illegal to use active duty military in domestic law enforcement. If those Marines he has on high alert are deployed it would be an egregious - and terrifying - abuse of power.
It must be noted that the order the Felon-in-Chief used to send the Guard in without being asked, against the wishes of Gov. Newsome, says nothing about LA or California. And that should chill us all right down to our toes. Who’s next? Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas, Boston, Philly, D.C and Baltimore all have anti-ICE protests coming up. That’s a lot of National Guards. This is a despot’s wet dream and it is easy to picture troops deployed in blue states and cities across the country at the drop of a hat. Or, and this one literally gives me chills, polling places.
And not for nothing, while it is ridiculous to call the protestors in LA insurrectionists, we certainly should know how to tell the difference. These are insurrectionists:
We are not freaking out enough about this. Where is Congress? Sorry, stupid question. We are the frog in the pot of boiling water. As the shit being pulled gets worse and worse, not only is it nearly impossible to know what to spend our finite bandwidth on but we also become enured to the pain and grief and existential horror unfolding. But the heat under that pot has just been turned way up and we’d better jump out - and put out the damned flames - before it is too late. Thanks for reading.
**UPDATE**
Well, shit. During my time writing this post, those Marines were sent in. I haven’t been able to determine whether the Trumpster Fire invoked the insurrection Act or didn’t even bother, and I’m not sure which would be worse, but either way an ugly rubicon has been crossed. It will be very interesting to see what the reaction is form the people who ostensibly have the ability to do something about it. This cannot be allowed to stand. If I were dreaming my expectation would instantaneous action by Congress - from resolutions to denounce, censure and 25th amendment up though impeachment. But I would be thrilled if they would even make him recall the troops. I fear I am doomed to disappointment. Don’t sleep on this, friends, this is bad, bad, bad.