Autocrat 101 - Transitioning the Military into a National Police Force

 

Autocrat 101 - Transitioning the Military into a National Police Force

“It’s still simmering a little bit… But not very much.”

Donald Trump, June 9th, to reporters at the White House

“This is a provocation, not just an escalation… This is intended to sow more fear, more anger, and to further divide.” 

 CA Gov. Gavin Newsom an interview with The NY Times

The Pentagon is reviewing a Department of Homeland Security request to deploy more than 20,000 additional National Guard troops to aid the Trump administration's widening crackdown on illegal immigration around the United States, according to officials and documents. USA Today, June 10th

I live in Los Angeles. Sending in 2000 federalized California National Guardsmen and 700 active-duty Marines, without request from the Governor and with zero coordination with local police, to contain maybe a couple of hundred protestors scattered around Los Angeles (e.g., Paramount, Compton, downtown LA) – LA City alone has 3.8 million people with a significant police force that has said it could easily handle this situation… and did – is a bit like tenting your house because the stray cat in your back yard has fleas. Watching National Guardsmen sitting around doing nothing was hard to understand. But they have lots of nice military vehicles to take care of. Yet Trump told the press on July 10th that but for those troops (looking for something to do), Los Angeles would be “burning to the ground.” Hard to prove what didn’t happen, huh?

Donald Trump, and his gangsta ICE shot-caller, Tom Homan, have also issued direct threats to arrest California Governor Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass if they do anything that, in the opinion of Trump appointees, is viewed as interfering with ICE or these completely unnecessary troops. The National Guard, useful to the Governor in times of emergency, has some training in domestic crowd control; the Marines have no such training! We still do not have a good explanation as to why those troops were/are necessary.

But California, particularly Los Angeles and San Francisco, is the quintessential blue opponent to everything Trump stands for, even though there are large areas of Republican control. If Trump can bring these bluies to their knees, the rest of the nation would, in his opinion, follow. As much as the June 14th Trump birthday “autocrats street destroying” massive military parade is supposed to be a celebration (pictures above) – incidentally celebrating the 250th anniversary of the US Army (one day older than our Declaration of Independence) – we know it is a show of force to blue America that “you vil follow orders!” Hundreds (thousands?) of massive No Kings protests, all over the United States, beg to differ, political assassinations in Minnesota notwithstanding.

Some analogize the current protests to the roiling anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960s that brought down Democratic President Lyndon Johnson. Johnson hated those protests, mostly because he came to the realization that we would not win that conflict; they were right. But those angry, mostly younger Americans (many facing the draft), were protesting US involvement in a foreign war. BIG DIFFERENCE to what is happening today: now protestors are fighting for their constitutional rights in their own country! And it’s not just the opinion of pitiful few. It is a massive and growing movement against an autocratic, blame-driven autocrat with clear evidence of mental and physical deterioration, the architect of economic instability and soaring prices.

Trump has reveled in appointing exceptionally unqualified cabinet leaders, most of whom have the following characteristics: they have a strong media presence taking very controversial positions (whoever thought Fox News would become a government recruiting service?), they are woefully ignorant (or just don’t care) about stuff like the Constitution and federal statutes or court rulings, they place Donald Trump’s orders above all other authorities, they really abhor democracy, they are science and fact averse, they will never contradict the boss and any person anywhere who disagrees even slightly is the “enemy of the people.” Appended to today’s blog are a couple of quotes from US military, current and retired, on their views on being used as cops.

That these Trump appointees are so obviously unqualified appears intentional. First, they vil follow orders. Second, their statements and actions so infuriate such a large segment of the public that they provoke protests everywhere. Protests are just what Trump wants; it gives him the ability to use all kinds of ambiguous, exceptionally old federal laws, to declare some kind of emergency or invasion and thus use the entire US military as his unleashed private police. Kind of like his using the DOJ as his private lawyers. The MAGA clan is rolling like a pig wallowing happily in mud at the destruction of the “deep state” (where was that?), the elevation of their treasured conspiracy theories above the federal experts anchored in facts, and the attack on hallowed institutions of hated elites (job creation, scientific research and medical cures notwithstanding).

A strong example of this idiocy is the recent RFK, Jr’s firing of all 17 of the CDC’s panel of medical superstar advisors on vaccine policy, something he pledged not to do, in his confirmation hearing, to Dr Bill Cassidy, the Republican Senator from Louisiana. Doctors across the land, insurance companies setting coverage and state healthcare agencies have long looked at this advisory board for guidance on vaccine use. RFK, Jr fabricated that this advisory board was rife with conflicts of interest. But this pisses off just the blue folks that Trump loves to provoke.

Protests justify Trump, under his vision of the law, at every turn. “The founders wanted to prevent the president from using federal troops against ‘we the people’ because of the way the Red Coats used warrants to do whatever they wanted in people’s homes. But National Guard troops are local citizens; they live in their communities. So they’re allowed to help with police work — until they’re federalized. Which is what Trump did last weekend. Then they became indistinguishable from active-duty military. All they can do is defend federal workers like ICE agents, and federal buildings like an ICE detention center.

“So the California National Guard and the Marines can’t contain the protests?... Not unless the president invokes the Insurrection Act! That law lets troops police our streets to suppress insurrections and help execute federal law in the face of rebellion… Trump said yesterday that the protesters were ‘insurrectionists.’ What counts as a rebellion?... It’s very vague — the law doesn’t say. It could be people trying to stop ICE agents from doing their job. I don’t think courts are going to want to argue about what constitutes a rebellion. The founders gave the president discretion here, so if Trump does invoke the Insurrection Act, [he has a case].” The Morning newsfeed, June 9th, from the New York Times. According to the June 10th Newsweek, “The Pentagon said Tuesday [6/10] that it expects its 60-day deployment of the California National Guard and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles to cost at least $134 million, primarily covering travel, lodging, and meal expenses, according to Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell, the acting chief financial officer at the Department of Defense.” The Guardsmen just hanging out is a profound waste of taxpayer money!!!

Will courts limit Trump’s obvious gradual and normalized use of the US military as his personal police force, intended to scare everyone? Is there enough to justifying exemption from the 144-year-old Posse Comitatus Act bars federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement except when expressly authorized by law? California is suing the Trump administration to find out. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and I am watching Trump’s overkill use of military force here in Los Angeles as a front row witness to one of many Trump-government’s extreme efforts to end democracy and the rule of law under the Constitution.