"... There have always been a few clear break points, rubicon thresholds in the Trump autocracy storyline where the entire legitimacy of the state and the freedom of American citizens could go sideways very, very fast. This has always been one of the most obvious ones. There’s no need here for the Guard. The irritant is the wildly inflammatory raids by militarized ICE squads. But even assuming those continue the Guard still isn’t necessary. The President has triggered this crisis and is now using it to exercise military authority within a state against the wishes of the state’s civilian elected leaders – Mayor, Governor, congressional representatives, etc. This is 100% Trump. He’s created the situation and now he’s exploiting it.
"We’re very clearly entering a moment of grave danger. My main thought
about this is to remember – as we’ve said in other contexts – that the
fight to preserve the American republic remains fundamentally one over
public opinion. The President has a lot of power here for violence and
mischief. But he’s not in charge of what people think about it, whether
they think his actions are legitimate, wise, anything they support. You
can dismiss whether public opinion matters in a case like this. I
disagree. It’s fundamentally what it’s all about, what will eventually
decide all of this. So I hope all the players here, in the decisions
they make, keep that in mind." -- Josh Marshall, TPM, writing about the Malignant Fascist's provocations in Los Angeles, first with the heavy- handed raids by masked, militarized ICE thugs, then in his response to the legitimate protests arising from those brutal, unprovoked raids.
🤨 One of the most frightening scenarios I imagined, even before the election, was the permission structure the GQP was building with "Mass Deportation Now!" signage and screaming at the Republican National Convention.
ReplyDeleteI was certain, then and now, people who are not law enforcement would gather to forcibly remove "the others" no matter their immigration status. And, with the administration (especially fascist Tom Homan) justifying the mask-wearing and zero identification, I am sure that many raids are not ICE or even adjuncts of ICE. Some of these are just our heavily-armed, radicalized neighbors who are taking advantage during lawless times.
That Italian restaurant in a quiet area of San Diego is, I believe, one of these raids. A dozen masked men, in non-descript surplus police vests, and with popularly owned military-style weapons and unmarked soccer-mom SUVs, rolled up to do their removal of extremely low-hanging fruit.
When the unmasked neighbors caught wind of it and demanded the "ICE" agents leave, they did. I think the raiders were surprised and kept moving to the rear and then left.
I believe real ICE would have kept to the mission and even called for back-up.
I may be wrong about San Diego, but I am sure that paramilitary bullshit raids are afoot and will continue to happen. Why not? These groups have all the cover they need from the Federal government! 🤬
Cleora - that sounds totally plausible under the circumstances.
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