Trump Launches The Invasion And Occupation Of American Cities

[Celerity]

It’s difficult to fully emphasize how unconstitutional and despotic this is.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/trump-launches-the-invasion-and-occupation



WASHINGTON, DC -- We’re currently in the midst of the five-year anniversary of a series of military exercises known as “Jade Helm 15.” Between July and September of 2015, the Pentagon conducted these completely anodyne exercises in various locations throughout Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida. At the time, Republicans -- future Red Hats -- thought this was one of the most egregious trespasses against constitutional liberty in American history. Alex Jones, Donald Trump’s favorite radio host, thought it was a “psyop” intended to acclimate Americans to a military occupation. Louie Gohmert insisted that Obama was “declaring an enemy of two or more of your states.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott deployed the state guard to monitor the federal troops. Jade Helm was the biggest political story of mid-2015, even though the soldiers involved didn’t engage with civilians, nor was there any intention to do so. The exercises ended, the soldiers went home and crickets continued to chirp. I know this is a well-worn process, but play along. Knowing how the Republicans reacted to a completely innocuous military exercise, imagine if Barack Obama had personally deployed troops to, say, Tulsa, Orlando, Little Rock and Charleston to round up and disappear tea party protesters. It’s a safe bet he would’ve been hastily impeached by the Republican Congress at the time. And you know what? If Obama had been capable of such a decision, which he obviously wasn’t, the Republicans would’ve been right to do it.

Today, Donald Trump announced that in addition to Portland, he’s deploying unidentified federal soldiers to Chicago and, for some reason, Albuquerque. But this time, the pretext isn’t to guard federal property, it’s to engage in law enforcement. This intention was confirmed by Trump’s personal lawyer, Bill Barr. That’s the greatly sanitized description of what can only be seen as Trump’s invasion and indefinite occupation of American cities. We’re ultimately talking about nothing more than petty vandalism and graffiti. It’s not like armed insurrectionists are seizing federal land and exploiting it for profit -- you know, like the Cliven Bundy gang did in Nevada, circa 2014. Trump wants to flex his “law and order” campaign slogan by completely immolating the Republican Party’s states’ rights, Tenth Amendment fetish. Worse, he’s given us no reason not to assume that his Gestapo will continue to occupy these cities -- predominantly Democratic cities -- through Election Day. In addition to fluffing the racist Republican base, this will carry with it the added benefit of discouraging legal immigrants and other groups from voting for fear of being black-bagged by these nameless Trump thugs.

It’s difficult to fully emphasize how unconstitutional and despotic this is, especially during a pandemic when societal stress and tension is at an all-time high. The only reason Trump pulled the trigger on this is because he knows he can get away with it, at least for a while. As I’ve been repeating: there’s no way to remove him for the next several months, a task made more difficult by his undeclared war on Americans. To be clear: the reason we’re here is because of law enforcement violence and overreach. So, in reaction, Trump has authorized even more law enforcement violence, now with even less accountability for the anonymous shocktroopers and their commanders. The unrest began as a consequence of police officers murdering a man in the street. Trump chose to escalate the unrest by ordering tear gas and rubber bullets fired into crowds. Today, the protesters are marching against both police violence and Trump’s invasion. The president had the power to de-escalate all of this, like so many previous chief executives have. Instead, because chaos makes him hard as a rock, he’s making everything worse. Shortly after his Chicago announcement, Trump held a brief press conference where he had the balls to say, “I’ve done more for Black Americans than anybody with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln.” Not only is this more of Trump’s kneejerk lying and “toxic positivity,” but it makes his invasion of Chicago even more perverse. Given the demographics of that city, Trump has essentially authorized the rounding up of countless Black people.

Who knows where they’ll end up, but it’s likely they’ll be tossed into prison-for-profit gulags around the country, stripped of their rights. Imagine all of the innocent men and women who’ll be swept up in the mayhem. And as free-thinking citizens, we have an obligation to ask whether this professional con-man tyrant has a financial stake in the for-profit prison system. We have to ask whether he’s receiving kickbacks or other monetary benefits for delivering valuable bodies to these hellholes. He’s given us no reason -- none! -- to offer him the benefit of the doubt. Not on the mass incarcerations. Not on his obvious racism. Trump isn’t the first racist president, but he might be the first fascist president, deploying secret military police to disappear civilians simply because he can. History, should everything land safely in November, will remember him as an irredeemable villain, routinely abusing the system, gutting the government, stealing taxpayer money like a poseur Russian oligarch, bastardizing American institutions and traditions, and systematically forcing the United States to conform to his own twisted, stunted, paranoid, aggrieved worldview. Regardless of what some folks on Twitter might tell you, the primary goal of the election coming up isn’t necessarily about supporting your political party or endorsing a slate of policy proposals. It’s about patriotism -- the patriotism to oust a petty tyrant from unearned power before he blindly mows down what’s left of the nation for shits and giggles. The evidence of his tyranny is coming soon to your town.

[Budi]

1. Thank you. Outstanding dose of truth here.

"...the primary goal of the election coming up isn’t necessarily about supporting your political party or endorsing a slate of policy proposals.
It’s about patriotism -- the patriotism to oust a petty tyrant from unearned power before he blindly mows down what’s left of the nation for shits and giggles.
The evidence of his tyranny is coming soon to your town.