Probe with bayonets. If you encounter mush, proceed; if you encounter steel, withdraw. — Richard M. Nixon attributed to Vladimir Lenin.
I have been tracking the social media reporting of Federal law enforcement officers in sterile uniforms – no badges, crests, insignia, or name tags other than a strip stating “Police” – operating in Portland since the earliest tweets about it. It took almost a week before local news in Portland started covering it. Which largely seems to have occurred because Oregon’s governor and Portland’s mayor responded publicly and negatively to the Federal law enforcement actions. This local coverage finally pushed it into the national outlets this morning.
I have been worried about something like this happening for over a month now since the beginning of the protests in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. That teams of Federal law enforcement, with the majority coming from the Bureau of Prisons Disturbance Response Units (they’re trained to go in one on top of each other into cells or areas of Federal prisons and use maximum force to achieve compliance) and C&BP’s equivalents of Rapid Response Units would be deployed to all the major urban areas, especially those with majority or plurality minority populations (African American, Latinx, or a combination of the two). Specifically, that they will be used in an increasingly visible manner over the next 100 days or so culminating in widespread visible use of them during early voting periods and on election day in or near voting precincts, as well as near mail in ballot drop boxes at municipal facilities. A program of voter suppression under color of law. While the mayors and governors of these states who are Democrats will push back, and the Democratic governors won’t allow their National Guard to be pulled into these operations, the states that have Republican governors aligned with the President like Florida, Georgia, Texas, Ohio, etc, even if the cities being targeted have Democratic leadership (Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Cincinnati, etc), will play ball with the President, the Attorney General, and the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security.
The goal of such operations would be to increase the fear and stress levels in big cities with significant minority populations that overwhelmingly vote Democratic to depress turnout. Voter suppression under color of law. I expect that whatever executive order (EO) the President issues next week will be declaring some sort of national emergency regarding the degradation of law and order in US cities that authorizes the Attorney General and the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security to utilize Federal law enforcement to respond. For those not following it, as it did not get a lot of coverage, the President telegraphed the signing of such an executive order on Wednesday regarding restoring order while flanked by the Attorney General.
Flanked by AG Barr, Pres says he's planning announcement next week on Federal action to quell violence in cities, citing Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago. He says some cities "are like war zones," and makes it partisan, saying they're run by "liberal, left-wing Democrats." pic.twitter.com/MEPVVrk1Dq
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) July 15, 2020
And, of course, the beauty of issuing a national emergency declaration is it gives the President broad and sweeping powers to do a lot of things that aren’t directly referenced in the declaration. The Atlantic published the definitive rundown of what the President is allowed to do under a declaration of national emergency back in January 2019.
A second major concern has to be the Customs & Border Protection goons. C&BP asserts that they have jurisdiction to operate anywhere within 100 miles of the border, which includes all of the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coastlines, as well as a 100 mile radius of all international ports of entry into the US, which is every airport that receives international arrivals or the direct shipment of international goods into the US. This puts around 2/3rd to 3/4s of the US citizenry, based on where they live, under C&BP jurisdiction. The ACLU has the details about what Customs and Border Protection asserts is its jurisdiction. And, of course, the Acting DHS Secretary, when asked about the operations in Portland, stated that DHS had jurisdiction everywhere to protect Federal facilities. Which is also most of the metropolitan/urban US.
Trying to formulate a response to the ongoing Federal law enforcement operations in Portland, as well as the potential for them to be undertaken elsewhere in the US, is made more complicated because some of the most extreme right, neo-fascist, racist groups in the US have already been trying to do this.
Some alleged KKK members were arrested in #Richmond for impersonating police officers. These men had fake badges, police vests and they had zip ties that were allegedly going to be used to kidnap unsuspecting Black people.
Could this be why so many Blk ppl are found hanging? pic.twitter.com/OLIDjTmRbI
— Tariq Nasheed ?? (@tariqnasheed) June 30, 2020
Fortunately local law enforcement in Richmond arrested the alleged Klansmen who were impersonating law enforcement officers before anyone was hurt or killed. But it raises a real problem vis a vis what we are seeing with the Federal law enforcement operations in Portland: are you being scarfed up by real law enforcement in sterile uniforms or by the Klan or the Proud Boys or the III% militia or Ammon Bundy’s crew who are trying to overthrow the Republican governor of Idaho or any of a dozen other white supremacist, neo-NAZI, neo-fascist, militia, and/or patriot cosplay groups impersonating law enforcement in sterile uniforms?
Now that the Republican National Committee is out from under the Federal court imposed requirement not to use paid election monitors, I have long predicted that they would hire off duty law enforcement to work as election monitors while in uniform. While this is what got them in trouble to begin with in the 1980s and resulted in the Federal court order that was finally lifted last year, the RNC knows it works and paired with an escalating use of Federal law enforcement within urban areas between now and the election in November would go along way to suppressing the vote under the color of law.
My final concern, and it is a major one, is the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). OLC’s job is to provide the executive branch with interpretations of the US Constitution and Federal law, delineating what is constitutional and lawful in regard to executive branch actions and activities. OLC’s guidance, however, is largely secret. Until or unless the DOJ or the White House or a specific executive branch department, agency, bureau, or office needs to make public OLC’s guidance to justify an action taken or not taken, no one outside of the OLC and select others in the executive branch even know that OLC has provided guidance on a specific matter, issue, or action. The OLC functions as producer of secret law for the executive branch. Attorney General Barr’s first senior appointed position at the Department of Justice was as the Assistant Attorney General at the Office of Legal Counsel. If you don’t think that AG Barr hasn’t had the OLC churning out opinions over the past two years or so in support of both AG Barr’s ultimate political objectives, as well as in support of the President, then I have a bridge to sell you! I guarantee that whatever DHS, C&BP, the Bureau of Prisons, the US Marshals rapid response personnel, and other Federal law enforcement are doing in these operations, or may do if they are expanded, has already been justified by OLC guidance. Before anyone asks whether this is really something to be concerned about, I’ve already asked a very senior subject matter expert on this whose response was: “that is a very good question, I don’t know, but I know who to ask.” When he got back to me with the responses of the people he asked, the response was: “they don’t know either.” That is not reassuring.
While people are right to be concerned about this being done in Portland in regard to that it is being done in Portland, the real concern needs to be whether this is a trial run for other cities in the run up to election day. The President is desperate. If it wasn’t clear to him before last week’s Supreme Court ruling that allows the Manhattan DA, and ultimately other state and local prosecutors, to get materials about him from third parties for investigations into whether he has committed state and local crimes that he is in serious jeopardy, it is now. And that will harden the realization that he is either reelected and remains in office or he will be prosecuted. He is basically in the same position that Bibi Netanyahu is in: reelection or prosecution and most likely prison. And given the criminality by those around him, both those taken by those around him to protect him and to enrich and empower themselves, senior and intermediate members of his administration all have the same concerns. The only way they stay out of criminal jeopardy is if the President is reelected and they stay in his good graces. That’s a lot of motivation to do anything and everything, even use the tactics that Putin, Erdogan, Xi, and Bibi use (both less lethal on domestic Israeli Jewish opposition and more lethal on the Palestinians and Israeli Arabs) both day to day and, especially, in the run up to elections.
I’m glad that there are several well connected protect democracy groups trying to ensure the integrity of the election and its results. And that Marc Elias, the go to election attorney for Democrats, is spooled up and running. I’m glad they’re building a large team of lawyers for election day. I’m glad they know it is going to be a fight. However, I’m not particularly enthused that they can’t seem to grasp that this fight isn’t going to happen just in courtrooms and through the filing of motions or be resolved on the ground by thousands of lawyers at the polls as part of get out the vote programs. Those lawyers aren’t going to do anyone any good when a BOP knuckle dragger in a sterile uniform decides to scarf them up on election day, drive them around in an unmarked, rented van for twelve hours, then stand them up against a wall face in and bark questions at them for another six hours, and ultimately release them after eighteen or twenty-four hours with no paperwork.
We are now in the world of the irregular, the asymmetric, and the unconventional. And the people who have stepped up to lead the response understand the world as conventional. As someone who has held senior supervisory civilian appointments as a senior civilian advisor I’m a huge fan of process for how the US government is supposed to work. But my work for the US government as a mobilized civilian and as a contractor, both the conceptual and operational work, is within the world of the irregular, asymmetric, and the unconventional. And that is the world that we are now in. The President, Attorney General Barr, Senator McConnell, the Acting DHS Secretary, the DNI, and a whole host of other senior and intermediate level appointees, as well as the President’s surrogates within the Republican Party, and his enablers within the conservative movement have no interest in the conventional world of American politics based on norms, rules, traditions, institutions, systems, and processes except for how they can use and manipulate them to achieve their specific objectives.
Since the President came down his escalator and announced his campaign in June 2015, he and those working for him both in his campaigns and now in his administration, as well as those like Senator McConnell, have been engaged in an irregular, asymmetric, and unconventional political war against the United States and the American people. The Democratic Party; elected Democrats; party officials at the national and state level; the US news media, especially political reporters, editors, and bookers; and far too many Americans have tried to treat this as just business as usual, though just at the outer bound of what is politically and legally usual. What we call normalization.
Unfortunately, the US political system, beginning with the Constitution, is not built to respond to, handle, and/or deal with an irregular, asymmetric, and unconventional insider threat that recognizes no authority other than that of their own power and sees every law, rule, norm, and tradition solely as a means to obtain power, maintain power, expand power, or direct power to reward allies and punish opponents. The President’s actions; those of his two primary protectors Attorney General Barr and Senator McConnell; those of his other protectors like new DNI Ratcliffe, former Acting DNI Grennell, the Republican caucuses in the Senate and the House, the Republican governors aligned with the President, and his surrogates and supporters in the conservative movement and the conservative news, digital, and social media ecosystem are all part of this irregular, asymmetric, and unconventional political warfare being waged on America and Americans. An unconventional political warfare campaign that has dovetailed nicely with the one being waged against the United States, its allies, and its partners by Putin since at least 2014*. Their ultimate goals are within their grasp. AG Barr’s is establishing the presidency as an elected monarchy. Senator McConnell’s is permanently establishing a Federalist Society majority on the Federal courts, as well as establishing permanent minoritarian control of the Federal government through the Electoral College and a senatorial election map that after 2024 will be weighted more and more towards ensuring a Republican majority in the Senate. The President’s objective, of course, is being reelected.
Whether it is the Biden campaign, the various protect democracy groups, outside PACs and SuperPACs, the Democratic Party – they all need to be screaming about what is happening and what could happen. They need to be all over the political reporters, their editors, the bookers for the broadcast and cable shows about this. The wider the coverage it gets, the more light that is focused on it, the more pushback that can be generated and sustained, the less likely that what every bit of my professional expertise is screaming at me is going to happen and what is keeping me up at night will actually occur. Chuck Todd needs to so paranoid over this that they can observe him vibrating away in terror from the Crab Nebula! The way that Federal law enforcement and the National Guard has been used in DC to respond to the protests over George Floyd’s death to what we’re currently observing in Portland have all been not just responses in and of themselves, they have also been probing actions. The President, AG Barr, the Acting DHS Secretary, the Acting C&BP Director are using these operations to gauge the responses. If and when they don’t get push back, or sufficient push back, they’ll accelerate what they’re doing. The only way to prevent it is to make sure it is getting wide spread coverage to generate sufficient push back to make them stop.
Addendum:
I just want to stipulate that I hope that I am wrong, that I want to be wrong. And I will be very, very, very happy if all of you can come along in November and then, again, in January, and tell me “told you so!”
Open thread!
* My article on the changed nature of the character and characteristics of 21st century warfare is forthcoming from The Cipher Brief.
Adam L Silverman
You all wanted to know what was bothering me, well now you know. Though there are a few additional related items to this.
Just Chuck
The fascists are playing their endgame. Either we destroy them or we have no country left.
debbie
Has it actually been confirmed that these “police” in Portland were Federal?
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: Acting DHS Secretary Wolf’s statement appears to confirm it. As does the Mayor of Portland’s and the Governor of Oregon’s.
Martin
Adam Silverman bringing the upbeat to Friday, everyone.
Thanks for this Adam. Looks like our steady descent into fascism continues. I will ask this question delicately. Given:
That leaves us with relatively few traditionally acceptable mechanisms to deal with this. Assuming that Trump will have allies in some state governors and legislatures that can undermine the administration of the upcoming election (and it’s too early for them to really reveal their hand – that’ll come when there’s no time to act to reverse it) what sorts of non-traditional mechanisms are we left with which could work here?
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: As does Senator Wyden’s response:
Adam L Silverman
@Martin: No offense, but I’m not answering your question publicly nor on open comms. Even if I give a hypothetical answer from professional experience, I’m not putting that out there.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
If this is Trump’s master plan, and Adam I still think you are over thinking Trump, the problem is the damn virus. The vote is quickly turning to Biden as president and we have a chance or die with Trump. No one in Israel going to die because of Netanyahu so that’s why Netanyahu is game working for now. Trump declares Martian Law (because it’s Trump and he will screw that up) and it’s going to be Arab Spring American style in the streets because better to be shot than slowly die on a ventilator.
And I will say it again Adam, your argument is pretty solid and quite believable if this was about anyone else but Trump. Trump is way to lazy and impulsive to organize something like this.
debbie
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Putin could have worked out a plan like this and advised Trump.
Martin
@Adam L Silverman: That’s what I was afraid of.
rikyrah
They are indeed GOONS, Silverman.
When we recapture the White House, one of the first things that must change – in the law- is that they are only allowed a radius of 15 miles from the border.
PERIOD.
wvng
This is entirely disturbing and entirely believable. In particular, the Barr connection; this is his wet dream and he has the intelligence to put this all together.
Martin
This statement from Pompeo is also pretty troubling.
Worth noting the Founders considered a significant portion of the US population to be property. Somehow that is routinely ignored when we defer to their wisdom.
wvng
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Barr could and would organize something like this.
Adam L Silverman
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: It is not Trump that you have to be concerned with it. It is Barr and McConnell.
Martin
@rikyrah: Every international airport and shipping port is a border. 15 miles puts them in almost every city in the US.
Redshift
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I don’t disagree with that, but the areas where the Trump administration has competently done awful things (kids in cages, undermining the rule of law), it hasn’t been because Trump has been an evil mastermind, it’s been because he’s hired competent evil people and he doesn’t much care what they do, he only cares about having cheering crowds, being praised, and lining his pockets.
Adam L Silverman
@Redshift: Bingo!
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Why do you think that Trump is organizing and running this? Trump couldn’t organize a circle jerk. That doesn’t mean that someone like Barr couldn’t be behind it.
cain
@Adam L Silverman:
This.
Barr is the one that is going to fuck us all over with cover from McConnell.
I hope we survive in November because it is going to be a shit show from now till then.
When we win.. a significant amount of these pols need to go to jail and the new DOJ need to pursue them like Azrael.
Ruckus
I think I’m going to put this in simple language.
This is what a dictatorship looks like up close. And personal.
This is what a dictatorial takeover of a country looks like.
This is exactly the opposite of a democracy
The actual dictator is not necessarily the person in the head office.
Jim Appleton
This goes hand in hand with the executive order eliminating undocumented immigrants from the census count.
Lots wrong with the move. Its goal is, as with federal police deployment, handicapping blue strongholds.
Adam L Silverman
@cain: The angel or the character from the Batman comics?
Adam L Silverman
He seems nice!
raven
I went to get a tire fixed yesterday and there was a brother there waiting on his car and he was strapped big time!
Redshift
@Martin: Republicans in my lifetime have never cared about human rights internationally, other than pretending that advocating for Republican-aligned groups is about “human rights.” It’s awful, but it’s more saying the quiet part out loud than a real substantive change, it seems to me.
glyph2112
A few thoughts. While Trump may be all in on keeping power, he is still an idiot. I can see someone convincing him to put this rogue force out there but the minute the coverage turns negative, he would throw someone else under the bus. As long as we get out the vote, there is no way they have enough vans to grab enough people to make a difference. In fact, because they closed so many voting stations, you almost guarantee a huge crowd at each station. With all the cameras out there on the phones, any fishy hijinks will be filmed by many and uploaded immediately.
People showed up for BLM rallies, I don’t think they will be scared away from the polls.
But it all keys on registering and voting. Everyone needs to ignore the polls and act like our lives depend on this election.
debbie
@raven:
Ohio being open carry, I guess I should be grateful I haven’t seen any of that kind of thing since the pandemic began.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Could international condemnation and/or sanctions have an effect as well?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Could international condemnation and/or sanctions have an effect as well
ETA: Double post
donnah
MSNBC just started examining this today, and so far it’s been fairly innocuous, even set aside just as a non-serious event. They’re more focused on the virus and Mary Trump’s blockbuster.
But it worries me. It’s bad enough that these unmarked thugs are gathering people literally off the streets and taking them away in unmarked vans, they answer to no one in the public. This type of military intervention is scary as hell to me. Thanks, Adam, for spelling things out.
Martin
@Redshift: His statement and rationale implies that it’s a domestic view as well.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Adam L Silverman: That sequence of tweets is fucking amazing. The fact that he’s not embarrassed to offer those picture of graffiti as evidence for the over-the-top language implying he’s like Joshua Chamberlain at Little Round Top is just… I don’t know what. And Laura Ingram and Tucker Carlson have probably retweeted those with even more over-the-top language to the approving grunts of their followers. I’m glad he’s being roundly mocked, but it’s at least as scary as it is funny.
(and I respectfully acknowledge the points made by Portlanders earlier today about what’s going on there, I’m just talking about those tweets)
Constance Reader
We know Republican governors will back this play, that’s why a state governed by a Dem is the test case. But could the strong separatist/white supremacist/militia movement in eastern Oregon also be one of the selection criteria? Either seeing if they would rise up against the state they supposedly despise, or if instead they would rise up against the protestors knowing the feds were already doing so?
Gin & Tonic
@debbie: Not “could have.” Crimea 2014, what everybody called “little green men.” Armed, uniformed personnel with no identification.
It worked.
raven
@debbie: The family of the little girl that was shot and killed at the Wendy’s in Atlanta wishes she hadn’t either.
Cheryl Rofer
Statement on CBP Response in Portland, Oregon
They included the quotes. I have no idea why.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Another thing:
What if somebody packing heat kills these goons? Could they claim self-defense since they’re not identifying themselves as law officers?
Also, too, what if the person they’re targeting jumps into a car and takes off? Are they seriously going to give chase in a van?
Keith P.
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Yep, this is a field test for the long-rumored “They Live” style crackdown on San Francisco (et al) homeless camps.
Matt McIrvin
@glyph2112: The game plan I’m thinking of isn’t so much to grab voters off the street. It’s to provoke enough general chaos that Trump can plausibly say the vote was illegitimate when he sues to overturn an unfavorable election result.
(The other half would be to shut down the Postal Service so that mail votes can’t go through, or to disrupt service enough that he can say after the fact that it makes mail voting illegitimate, since obviously they’re going to be very popular.)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Gin & Tonic:
Yeah, but they didn’t have the Second Amendment in Crimea, did they? Along with widespread civilian gun ownership?
The Moar You Know
Adam: tracking. Both what was written and what wasn’t. I suggest most of you go read up on the Argentine “Dirty War”. You may find it instructive on how to survive the next decade.
dopey-o
Putin has a lot to lose during a Biden administration. He has effectively set himself up as president-for-life in Russia, but needs to keep his oligarchs and the lumpenproletariat content. Biden could upset his cash flow and his control of events.
The Little Green Men doing their night rides in Portland remind me of events in eastern Ukraine. Add some agents provocateurs with spray paint and rocks, and the Trump camapign has all the footage needed for scary ads to justify voter suppression in November.
This Portland business didn’t originate in DC. From Putin’s ass to Trump’s lips.
Ruckus
@Comrade Scrutinizer:
This.
This is why people haven’t feared shitforbrains. He is a failure, or has been. This is the people he’s hired to make him look like an actual human being. This takes more than one person to do to an entire country. We also thought that we couldn’t get here from our “democracy.” We can, and have. People are saying Barr and McConnell. They are part of it but they are not the only two, there are more.
@Adam L Silverman:
This is the proper response, absolutely.
This is history. It never repeats itself exactly but it repeats and is now. We’ve seen the overall concept in history before. It is one of the oldest stories since governments first happened. The details will be different, the concepts the same.
This is a hostile takeover of a country. People of course have already started to die, not from bullets but from a totally unchecked disease. shitforbrains doesn’t care because he’s getting his undulation from his supporters. He couldn’t figure this out other than he’s not on top, but others can and they have. This is dangerous to all of us because they do not give a fuck about anything but power. Power to do whatever the hell they want. Power to be the top of the heap. shitforbrains is a tool in their arsenal.
I have no answers, there really are none, people are supporting shitforbrains because they are racists and power hungry and in position to effect what they want, three things that never go together well. They don’t care about illegal or the law, if they succeed they will be the law.
MagdaInBlack
Thank you, Adam. ?
I appreciate your posts, they help me keep my head on straight.
debbie
@Gin & Tonic:
No doubt he’s capable of that. but is this something he would dare to do here?
Adam L Silverman
@glyph2112: It isn’t about how many you can scarf up. It is about how you do it and the point is to make people go home or stay home because they’re afraid they’re going to be scarfed up.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Unlikely.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Cheryl Rofer:
Well now isn’t that convenient. They always have an answer for everything, don’t they?
And where the hell is their proof for this? Where the fuck were these clowns when the Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer were terrorizing Portland over the last few years?
Mike G
Don’t worry, I’m sure the NRA and our vigilant Second Amendment Warriors will be all over this, standing up for individual rights of protestors and….nah, they’re cheering on the government goons.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): You know what you did!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
Not even sanctions?
debbie
@raven:
?
It seems gun control has disappeared again as an issue.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
This usually results in either the person shooting back being perforated and quickly assuming ambient temperature or being arrested for murdering a cop.
lumpkin
A top priority for Democrats, if they ever get the chance again should be to rescind most of the emergency authority granted to the president and severely restrict whatever remains.
But, I fear that we’re already boxed in here and republicans will never be thrown out.
RandomMonster
I’m deeply worried that militias or boogaloos will put on camo/police uniforms and start abducting people and murdering them. Not just as a start of political cleansing, but to create fear and paranoia on the left.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@debbie:
In light of recent events, maybe that’s not the worst thing in the world
raven
@debbie: One of the suspects, who was on video with an AR, turned himself in and said he had nothing to do with the shooting.
Adam L Silverman
@MagdaInBlack: Nessun dorma.
JPL
@debbie: That’s what I said earlier. Putin is the campaign manager. Bill Stepien knows how to close down bridges, not how to build a secret police.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Nope.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
Yeah, but they’re not wearing regular uniforms. Anybody can buy that gear and claim they’re “federal officers”. A legitimate, reasonable legal argument could be made that the person didn’t believe them to be law enforcement, feared for their life, and defended themselves
Matt McIrvin
@glyph2112:
Trump’s obsession with his media coverage and whether people are saying mean things about him may actually be the saving factor here. If he were a purer gangster he’d realize that power comes out of the barrel of a gun and just mow down anyone who opposes him. But he cares about how he looks on TV.
raven
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): yea well why don’t you go give it a test run?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
And why not? Crippling sanctions could destabilize the federal government and combined with widespread popular unrest lead to Trump’s/the GOP’s ouster
rikyrah
@Martin: Then make it 1 mile.
the 100 miles is ridiculous.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): No. Do not pass No. Do not collect $200.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ruckus:
the silence of the Bush family is not discussed enough. Colin Powell poked his head above the parapet a couple of weeks ago, I already forget why, and ducked back down; I don’t expect to hear from him again until the Friday before the election when in some “exclusive” interview he endorses Biden. We may be treated to another of James Mattis’s carefully worded (“but if you read between the lines, it’s scathing!”) meeps before too long. Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski and Rob Portman probably wish this wasn’t happening, but probably won’t do or say a damn thing. Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz think they could do it better. Marco Rubio is probably trying to think of which word to search at bible dot com to come up with today’s tweeted scripture. Will former Defense Secretary William Cohen be offended enough to risk making things awkward at the next Bangor Republican Lobster Boil to endorse Sara Gideon? I wouldn’t bet on it. There are dozens of household names among trump’s active or passive accomplices.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The US faced a negative 30% contraction last quarter because of the pandemic. What exactly do you think sanctions are going to do that will be worse than that?
RandomMonster
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I think Trump would consider this potential for civil strife a feature, not a bug.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@raven:
@Adam L Silverman:
This is a purely academic exercise for me. If somebody actually did this, and survived, I’d argue they should be let off for self-defense. These “little green men” are fascist, illegal tactics anyway
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
I’m currently reading Joachim Fest’s “Speer: the Final Verdict” about Hitler’s architect and Minsiter for Armaments. Of all the people who ever played “Let’s Make a Deal With the Devil” he’s decidedly in the top 50 of all time. It’s oddly topical reading.
Mallard Filmore
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Only in the sense that foreign companies need to get wartime levels of insurance for USA investments. Or their business people get high level hazard pay to come here.
There may come a time when ocean shipping companies put an embargo on USA ports.
Gin & Tonic
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’m not in the mood for snark.
Gin & Tonic
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): You go first, OK?
debbie
@raven:
There are just no words for much of anything anymore.
Mike in NC
Somebody earlier posted a link to Chad Wolf. Where did they find this creep and doesn’t he own a razor? It’s highly unusual for senior federal employees to look so scruffy.
Just Chuck
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The second amendment has given us paramilitary thugs who will climb over each other to be the first to goose-step to Barr’s orders. We will gain no protection from it, rather an acceleration of tyranny.
Also, self-defense doctrines are only to protect white people who shoot minorities. Imagining that the government answers to the law is pretty foolish nowadays.
rikyrah
@MagdaInBlack:
Agree.
Ned F.
@Mike G: No, not unless they wear blue helmets and threaten a new World Order. I’m sure the Bundy Klan will be all over this.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): They arrested and initially charged Breonna Taylor’s fiancé because he shot one of the plain clothes cops that conducted the no knock raid on their apartment. He was returning fire because he thought it was a home invasion. The charges were only dropped because of the bad publicity around the warrant and the raid. Do you really think Barr would let a US Attorney drop charges from bad publicity if someone, thinking they were being kidnapped by Deity knows who, shot one of these guys in a sterile uniform? No, no he would not. A jury might ultimately acquit, but the prosecution would not be abandoned.
Mike in NC
Is Fat Bastard so insulated by ass-kissers that he doesn’t know how pissed off people are after his despicable bible stunt? I saw that as the tipping point to his downfall.
Cheryl Rofer
Q’s and A’s about the situation from Lawfare.
Also, a question occurs to me. How many of these “police” are available to the feds? The Lawfare article lists agencies involved in the DC uproar
Are there enough to blanket the major cities for the election, as Adam is concerned there will be? Or are the yahoos we’ve already seen in DC and Portland the whole show? I suspect it’s somewhere in between. And, of course, there may be Second-Amendment
cosplayersvolunteers.Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Gin & Tonic:
Not necessary:
In other words, just my curiosity about a subject
eddie blake
@cain:
“know that men call you liar! know that men call you betrayer! know that men call you defiler! therefore, it is the duty of the angel azrael to bring you punishment — the punishment of death by fiery sword!”
bluefoot
@Ruckus:
Yes, for certain. People should be angry. People should be terrified. Anyone in government, media or any sort of power should be speaking out against this and helping to find ways to fight this.
germy
Wow! This Woman Went From Living in a Democracy to a Military State Without Ever Leaving Home
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: They don’t need to blanket them. Just have enough to create fear and chaos. And last week, they declared that ICE officers are national security agents. That adds an additional group of personnel they can use. And, or course, they have the National Guard in the states with Republican governors.
Beyond that, the are already trying to get local law enforcement to disregard the local elected officials who oversee them. The President once again made a verbal appeal for local law enforcement to ignore they mayor and chief of police earlier this week.
moops
Isn’t turning unbadged armed agents against your own population some kind of treaty violation?
and what kind of powers does a prison guard unit have out in the civil population? I understand the DOJ will let it slide, but state authorities can arrest them for stuff like this. This looks like kidnapping.
ruemara
I said it before that the takeover is very nearly complete. People need to stop playing.
germy
This is something I’ve been concerned about for a long time. But I’d always try to convince myself “It can’t happen here.” And now I’m even more worried.
patrick II
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Destabilizing the federal government will do the opposite of lead to Trump’s ouster. Chaos should not be our goal.
Patricia Kayden
So what are the House Democrats doing to address this descent into fascism? Why haven’t they subpoenaed Chad Wolf to explain why camouflaged thugs in vans are kidnapping peaceful protesters? Are they going to sit around while Trump sends his thugs into other Democratic cities to kill, arrest and intimidate peaceful protesters?
I’m not blaming Democrats for what’s going on in Portland. I’m just tired of the feeling of helplessness. It’s as if Trump really is a dictator and we can do nothing to stop him. This can only get worse.
piratedan
well here is the crux upon where I sit…
If these folks are escalating up the Fascism reaction checklist, someone, somewhere is going to no longer be a good citizen and NOT fight back… and therein sits the flashpoint… and I can understand someone wanting to stand up and attempt to go all action movie hero when confronted with this very scary series of events unfolding.
The other part of this that concerns me, say you do all the right things, you shut the hell up, you ask for legal representation… what is there to prevent them from disappearing your ass and dumping your body in a forest or a new infrastructure work that is in progress by a Trump friendly firm?
With my post a few days back regarding using the housing crisis to disenfranchise people from voting because they have no address, this seems like there is some very sinister string pulling going on and that frightens this out of shape, getting older guy to no end.
germy
Well, I’ll know it isn’t antifa.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@patrick II:
It would possibly create a power vacuum that we can step in and fill. Honestly, when faced with a fascist government that only cares about power and is utterly ruthless, what other options do you have aside from giving up?
debbie
Not to be outdone… //
cain
@Adam L Silverman: the angel .. I decry azrealbat !
Read the entire series when he took over after bane broke bruce.
Kelly
Thanks Adam. I’ve been reading you long enough that this informative post is not surprising. Most of our congressional delegation is responding well to this outrage. As our blogfather noted Sen. Jeff Merkley is spitting fire and I’ll add Sen Wyden is also attacking these actions. Reps Blumenauer, Bonamici and Defazio are outraged, in the majority and mobilizing committee hearings. My Rep Kurt Schrader is as usual waiting until the whole thing blows over so he can say he was in favor of whatever happened all along. The less said about Republican Rep Walden the better.
Emma from FL
Adam, So you’re basically saying that due to the Presidential emergency powers we can be turned into a police state and there’s nothing we can do about it? They can ignore local officials, Congress, the courts? And people should never, ever consider violence as a defense because… reasons?
Talk about lambs to the slaughter. Shall we sing as Christian martyrs supposedly did as they were fed to the lions?
raven
@Emma from FL: That’s one approach.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@raven:
What are the others? Genuinely asking. It’s already been established they don’t give a fuck about norms, traditions, or laws.
trnc
Trump is a means to an end. He has the power to do terrible things that a lot of republicans want him to do, and needs little to no coaxing to use that power.
Emma from FL
@raven: To be honest I don’t know whether to cry or scream. My family escaped from a police state just to watch our safe haven turned into a police state? And please don’t anybody tell me disappearances can’t be arranged. Thousand of children taken from their parents and given to white people as consolation prizes for empty wombs beg to differ.
raven
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I don’t think it’s all that wise to discuss shit like that on a blog.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@raven:
I’m not advocating anything like that, honestly. I’m just at a loss for what can be done to actually stop this. I was asking what you think would be the the approach to take
ruemara
@Patricia Kayden: What methods do you think the House Democrats have to fix this?
ruemara
@Patricia Kayden: What methods do you think the House Democrats have to fix this?
germy
@debbie:
If I said that, I’d be called a socialist.
raven
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
JoJo
@Adam L Silverman: I am an organizer in the Milwaukee area. I would assume Milwaukee will absolutely be a target for this kind of thing. What do those of us that are protesters, organizers, etc. do to protect ourselves? I mean that in a practical sense. I want to start preparing our people for this, if it becomes necessary. Like Portland, we have had protests every day for 50 days, and there are 200 (at least) planned, as a sort of sequel to the 200 days of marches in Milwaukee in the 1960s. Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, and West Allis police would LOVE to have Federal goons to make us go away, since the protests are actually having some of the desired effects. So, honestly, what steps can we take in case this shit really takes off? I don’t know what to tell people.
Adam L Silverman
@germy: I want to be wrong. I hope I’m wrong. I will be happy to be wrong!
eddie blake
@cain:
helps, of course, if you read the sword of azrael miniseries by oneil and quesada.
good stuff. and his solo series, for at least 75 issues or so, as well.
interesting character, once they got him out of the azbat armor.
trnc
@Adam L Silverman: Chad, He-Wolf of the SS.
eddie blake
@trnc:
i woulda assumed ‘chad wolf’ was a stage-name.
reads like a porn name.
Ladyraxterinok
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
He’s got people like Stephen Miller who look like they can organize. And what might the Mercers be doing. And other people and groups who don’t appear in public.
I suspect there are people/groups who’ve been working and waiting , just waiting to get back all FDR stole from them. And more.
And they have fervent true believers in the hordes of Evangelicals who believe Trump can do no wrong
raven
@JoJo: My dad was the football coach at Wauwatosa High in the 50’s!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Ladyraxterinok
They’re not omnipotent gods who are 20 feet tall either
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Ladyraxterinok:
But it is scary, I admit
Salty Sam
@trnc: goddammit, I spit rum all over my iPad…
Kirk Spencer
@Cheryl Rofer: So the question in my mind is, “How many of these agents are contracted from a private security organization like Xe?”
Mart
@rikyrah:
Customs and Border Patrol was a response to evil 911 Muslims killing us all, and was established in 2003. Shut the bastards down. We were fine without them.
pat
The BJ site is not loading. Looks like someone got wind of this discussion…///
eta: it’s back.
Cheryl Rofer
@Kirk Spencer: That’s a good one too!
raven
@Mart:
Armed agents with tear gas and guns swarmed the Gonzalez family, who were unarmed, turning the raid into a media sensation. A photograph of American officers pointing a gun at a terrified and crying boy appeared on news channels and newspapers across the world, eventually winning a Pulitzer Prize.
Martin
@RandomMonster: They’re already doing that. And the feds are encouraging more of it as ICE is doing a civilian academy for armed civilians to augment their work. When un-uniformed civilians are being deputized, then anyone can claim to be acting on behalf of a federal agency.
Martin
US Attorney in Oregon investigating the arrests. Who wants to start a betting line on whether he gets fired?
Kirk Spencer
@Mart:
Sorta. Guessing you know but just in case, CBP was what the agency was named as when Customs and ICE and a couple of others were moved and grouped together under Homeland Security.
Abolish Homeland Security. Break it up. It was a bad idea when formed, and it’s fulfilling every prediction of evil that was proposed when it was created. Send Customs back to the Treasury. Send immigration back to Justice, or better yet further back to Labor. Take away the Special Police Protecting the
FatherMotherland.Adam L Silverman
@cain: Tracking. Not a bad concept for the comics, but the execution left something to be desired.
Adam L Silverman
@Kelly: The Republic has not had the best luck with congressmen named Walden.
Adam L Silverman
@Emma from FL:
Where have you seen me write anything of this sort?
Adam L Silverman
@germy:
You know what you did to get on that watchlist…//
Salty Sam
It has been my belief that democracy in the USA was irreparably damaged by the SCOTUS decision to hand GWBush the presidency in 2000. I have dared to hope that since the first Women’s March in 2017, and the mid-terms in 2018 that we might have a chance to claw our way back to some sort of functional system from which further repairs could be made.
But since I take Adam’s post serIously, it appears to me we are on the cusp of losing it all. I hear the calls for “how should we respond?”, and I don’t have an answer, and I feel sure I understand Adam’s reticence to go there. But my gut tells me that, like someone posted above, there will be someone, maybe a bunch of someones, who will stand up and say “ENOUGH!”, and the spark will hit the tinder. I have predicted that blood will be spilled before this is all over, and I’m feeling that more and more after reading this.
I agreed with Betty Cracker last night when she asserted “there will be no civil war.” Not so sure now.
My personal hero is Popeye The Sailor- As he would say, “That’s all I kin stands, I can’t stands no more!”
Leto
Here’s some more dystopia/CBP hate: CBP does end run around warrants, simply buys license plate-reader data
Happy Friday everyone.
raven
@Salty Sam: This is what pushed you over the edge?
Adam L Silverman
@JoJo: Be aware it could happen. I’d also be engaged now with attorneys. Both to get advice for what you can and/or should do and to get them lined up to provide assistance should it be needed. I’m not particularly sanguine that these Federal law enforcement assets really care about the legal niceties, but having your legal responses and options ready to go is still a smart thing to do.
Engage with local elected officials and the local law enforcement officials immediately. Discuss your concerns. Ask what they’re positions are and what they will or won’t do in response to protect their citizens’ rights to peacefully assemble and petition their government regarding their grievances. Also, get ahold of state law enforcement and the governor’s office.
Engage with local news media. And make sure everyone has a GoPro or other recording device, that it is on, and that it is streaming to secure locations in the cloud where others can access it if necessary.
Finally, everyone has a buddy. And every group of say five or ten buddies has someone coordinating and looking out for it and can report back to the organizers. That way if someone gets scarfed up, someone knows about it, and can the word up the chain so you can get the lawyers moving and work your contacts in the news media and local government and law enforcement.
scott (the other one)
This is an absolutely insane notion, but then this is an absolutely insane situation, so what the hell: could Governor Kate Brown order the Oregon National Guard to come protect the protestors against these secret police? And, if so, should she?
Adam L Silverman
@trnc: Fräulein Ingraham might actually get a date…//
Salty Sam
@raven: not by a long shot. But this has dampened my hopeful mien quite a bit…
raven
@Adam L Silverman: Affinity groups we used to call them.
Cheryl Rofer
J R in WV
@rikyrah:
I would be OK with a distance like 25 miles from the border. The real problem is the definition of the border, which should be actual borders with other nations, not every airport, seaport, etc. The east and west coasts are not borders, nor are all the airports in the nation which ever have a FedEx cargo airliner landing with packages from overseas. The current broad definition of “border” is insane and makes the whole nation subject to Customs and Border Protection goons.
When Border Patrol is in charge of the territory, you are NOT in the USA, normal law does not apply to the CBP at all.
raven
@scott (the other one): and when Trump federalizes them?
eddie blake
@Adam L Silverman:
as ideas went, it was kinda brilliant. for a very long time, there had been a clamoring to “let batman cut loose”, and “let him fight fire with fire”.
denny oneil got sick of it and finally decided to give the fanboys what they wanted, and see if they rejected it out of hand or embrace it. they wanted a wolverine, a punisher, a spawn, or one of those other forgettable vigilantes of the nineties.
they forgot what made batman special, and oneil set out to remind them.
azrael was MORE formidable than wayne, more formidable than BANE, but did not detect. he was an armored, flame-slinging bull in the proverbial china shop, and when he KILLED in the name of the bat (or more specifically, in the asmovian sense, allowed for someone to be killed,)…
the fans who BRAYED for a more vicious bat recoiled, as if as one.
(he confided to me that had they gone the other way, he’d have known it was time to hang up his hat and retire from the industry)
but yeah. it was inspired writing, and the way they seeded the concepts just about a year before the payoffs was pretty impressive.
(and roger robinson’s art on the azrael series proper is just…beautiful. amazing draftsmanship and fairly impressive, adams-like compositions. really good shit.)
Adam L Silverman
@eddie blake: I did not know that back story. O’Neill was a genius. I’m sorry for your loss given his recent passing.
And I agree on the art. I miss the Adams/Aparo art style.
scott (the other one)
@raven: Don’t be silly. The Party of Small Government™ would never do any such thing.
RandomMonster
@Martin: That is some scary sh**.
J R in WV
@rikyrah:
Again, it isn’t the distance that matters, it is the definition of the border.
The coast line is not a border, not past San Diego.
The St Louis airport is not a border, not past the traffic pattern around the airport. Green Bay, WI is not on an international border that needs C&BP in charge.
That’s what needs corrected, the definition of the border, and distances related to those definitions. An airport, maybe 5 miles around the airport. A seaport, likewise.
Myrtle Beach — no phucin way!!! Not a border in any way!!
eddie blake
@Adam L Silverman:
he was my writing teacher, my mentor, my debater of dumb comics-movies tropes and ideas. (livid that wb ripped him off by slightly changing the NAME of ra’s al ghul to RAYSH al ghul so they wouldn’t have to pay him royalties,) we laughed about them ignoring him in the tim burton batman movie. he thought it was funny that they missed the point and put guns on the batmobile and batplane. i thought it was funnier that they would let him kill the downwind half of gotham city by blowing up axis chemical.
i miss him. SO much. he was a good egg (and a great writer).
dirge
@J R in WV: I would be OK with a distance like 25 miles from the border. The real problem is the definition of the border…
Bear in mind that more goes into the definition of jurisdiction than territorial extent. Just about any distance is fine if the authority is constrained to pursuing specific persons or cargo that’s crossed the border in the past week. Perhaps allow limited investigative powers within 25 miles. The kind of unconstrained power they routinely assert only makes sense within about 100 yards of the border.
LongHairedWeirdo
Thank you! I’d seen a reference to the OLC and its power earlier; and it made me suspicious that the OLC issued an opinion that said “although refusing to turn over Trump’s taxes violates the law, we don’t want to follow the law, so we’ll say we don’t have to if we choose to claim the request is partisan”. An IG then found that Treasury didn’t violate the law in not handing over Trump’s tax returns, which we may reasonably assume means “because of the OLC opinion, since the law is clear”.
That also means that two successive Republican administrations could game the OLC to get baseless opinions issued, to allow them to do whatever they wanted. This is even more scary than it looks at first glance (and it looks *terrifying* at first glance).
JoJo
@Adam L Silverman: I will definitely talk to some attorneys. Luckily we have a couple in our group. There are a few different groups doing protests and organizing in the area, so we can all loop one another in on any legal response. There are a lot of people with cameras and GoPros, so that part should be easy to cover. My biggest worry is when protests disperse. We’ll definitely have to work on the buddy/group part of it. That was common when the protests started, but it has kind of fallen apart since the police stopped tear-gassing everybody in recent weeks.
Adam L Silverman
@eddie blake: My sincerest condolences.
eddie blake
@Adam L Silverman:
thank you.
LongHairedWeirdo
@scott (the other one): Honestly, the one grab I saw was a straight up kidnapping. I see nothing insane about protecting citizens from unauthorized people grabbing them under color of the law.
I mean, that’s the one thing about this that scares the crap out of me is, no one involved can think they’ll get away with it, right? If these are actual law enforcement officers grabbing people, and detaining them for any length of time, without having a warrant or probable cause, they must know that there’s no way they’ll get away with it. *SOMEONE* will blab.
If it’s not being done by actual law enforcement officers – dear lord, that’s saying “let’s see if the explosion of this atom bomb makes this bottle of nitroglycerine explode too!’. (i.e.: it’s no longer “juggling (occasionally: greased) bottles of nitroglycerine.”) And, again, they should realize there’s no way they’ll get away with it, because someone will blab, and it could be any single one of the real cops out there, trying to prove *they* aren’t this stupid.
In any event, if this has any connection to Trump – and it seems impossible it doesn’t, though probably via deniable channels – I will remind every single Republican in the Senate that you swore to see *impartial* justice, and did everything you could to help your party’s leader. I don’t believe in eternal damnation, but if you swore before God, I sure hope he throws a momentary scare into you demanding to know why you broke your oath!
Chris Johnson
There are several things I like about the response to all this.
I still think some of the people being ‘disappeared’ are confederates: unidentifiable, no resistance, not responding to allies but just ‘surrendering’ and being taken away. I think there’s a shitload of sneaky but tactical crap going on like that, and it’s probably a lot of people speaking Russian volunteering to do medium-dangerous stuff like that (or being provocateurs, which I think is also happening really intensely). It’s straight Putin: fake a lot of violence and chaos and then send in the little green men.
But we, here, oldsters on the top-10,000 blog: we are NOT the target audience. We are supposed to not be hearing about that shit, or not believe it. But we are, and we know what we’re up against, and all this will go smoother for Putin if we do NOT believe it and don’t go on alert.
I see some “I just want you to know that I’m scared, very very CONCERNED, and I’m really scared right now you guys” is also a Russia message but it’s not really supposed to be happening HERE. It’s for more street level protesters, and the message we’re supposed to be getting is ‘boy those protesters are really off the chain! They are savages!’ but wires are crossed.
Some of us have connections. Some of us are a lot like the congresscritters who are supposed to be dithering and ineffective. Wires are crossed, the wrong people are alert to what’s really going on. I like that part. No sense playing ostrich and hiding our heads.
Part of this is because the evil forces are (a) fucking idiots like Trump, and (b) fucking animals like Proud Boys and such. I include far too many cops in category B, which is news to nobody. These people could run a coup with this game plan IF it’s possible to ‘other’ the ‘violent antifa thugs’, but they are too vicious and too dumb to do it. They’ll beat down old folks, tear-gas priests, they do not have the control to modulate what they’re doing.
I think that is fatal to their eventual plans.
Strap in. It’s getting messy. But we already know what we’re up against. It’s OK to be scared and unsettled, but being scared does not mean you will lose. Hubris leads to disaster. This right-wing Russian-backed coup is pure hubris and is ‘led’ by a demented orange madman who cares only for himself and his own greater glory. THEY WILL MAKE ERRORS. A lot of time, the errors will be in the form of horrible, criminal acts that are too excessive to hide.
Courage.
Dave
(aka
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): war is chaos. Only the degree of firepower differentiates what it’s called
Matt McIrvin
@Cheryl Rofer: You only need a subset of major cities, namely the blue cities in swing states: Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Columbus, Milwaukee, Durham, Miami, Houston… That’s still quite a lot of territory, of course
(the three cities David Byrne mentions in “Life During Wartime” would all be on the list)
PIGL
@Martin: I’ve been saying for years that the US was bur a few short steps away from death squads. We’re down to one stop, now.
Matt McIrvin
@Chris Johnson:
True. Though if you read Facebook you know that SOME people are definitely getting that message loud and clear. They are getting pushback when they say it on my friends’ feeds.
Matt McIrvin
@scott (the other one): I think she could, but Trump could nullify those orders by federalizing the National Guard. The claims they’re making seem designed such that they could cite them as justification.
I’m wondering more if he’s going to try to overthrow uncooperative state or municipal governments by force, a thing I’ve been thinking about for 3+ years actually.
MoCA Ace
Thanks Adam. I won’t be stressing about the Caronavirus tonight!
Scott Peterson
@eddie blake:
I don’t know if it’ll make you feel any better or not, but I don’t believe that’s quite how it went down. And while he didn’t get paid anything close to what he should have—since they should have had to use a Brinks trucks to make his quarterly payments—Denny did make out pretty well darn well, as he himself often said.
Chief Oshkosh
@Adam L Silverman: So, a known liar and two people you’ve already told us are playing by conventional rules, and thus would likely be the last to know. Not dinging you at all! Just pointing out that it’s still possible that these are all a bunch of Eric Prince’s Boyz.
Matt McIrvin
Do they have the power to deny that? It seems to me that the claims being made about anarchists attacking federal property are constructed such that they could be used as justification for federalizing the National Guard against the governor’s wishes: e. g. that there’s an insurrection ongoing with state cooperation such that federal laws cannot be enforced. Like a mirror-universe Little Rock.
lumbercartel
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Yes, Trump is not up to planning anything remotely like this.
Barr most certainly is. As are several of the current acting Cabinet members.
eddie blake
@Scott Peterson:
it TOOK them a while to make good for him, irrc. and that was after trying to just cheat him out of what was HIS.
Ryan
It’s a shame there are so many federal agencies volunteering to be abolished.
Medicine Man
Well, now I feel ill. I hope it doesn’t come to any of this.
J R in WV
i spent months within 30-40 miles of the Mexican border every winter. We drove through Border Patrol check points every day to go home from the work site. We were never hassled, because we were all white boys, old white boys, but still white. Even though many of the BP agents were very Hispanic.
They weren’t really Hispanic, they wanted to be white boys just like we were.
We were all pretty upset with the Border Patrol checkpoints, even though Obama was still president while all the building was going on. We never approached the actual border, which was about 25 miles S of building site, tho I did visit lumber yards and hardware stores in border towns. And took friends sightseeing into famous towns very near the border.
It is interesting country, so different from WV and the green rolling hills… fascinating with geology laying right there in front of you, instead of buried under green stuff, like trees and weeds.
BrumDaBronze
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: RE: Trump declaring “Martian” Law, well, this whole thing is pretty out of this world, in my limited experience with this kind of craziness. Oy.
As for The Orange Turd being too lazy to impose Martial Law, or enforce it at the very least, it’s not really him (as much) we have to worry about. It’s his minions. All Dump has to do is give the orders–or should I say, have the idea be the most recent thing he hears his minions “discussing” within his hearing as they pretend to shoot the shit.
So, he gives the order, because his “stable genius” comes up with this brilliant way to deal with an internal “terrorist” threat, and his minions (who aren’t really underlings, but the real leaders in the government that we need to get rid of. Dump is a puppet figurehead. That whole Cabinet is in the pay of Putin) start the ball rolling.
Yeah, we have a fascist government in the White House. It’s not developing. It’s fully there, and now we have frakkin’ Gestapo under the command of Homeland Security and Chad effing Wolf? WTF?!
I so want to do some very not-good things, this development has me so cheesed off.
BTW, I don’t know what the rules of this forum are, yet, or what is allowed to post, so I’ll be careful for a while. Is uh, vulgar language allowed? >^_._^<
Another Scott
+1.
We must vote the monsters out. Everywhere.
Cheers,
Scott.
Emma from FL
@Adam L Silverman: Sorry, late to the discussion again. I’m sorry if I misunderstood you but it did feel that every legal avenue could be blocked. When those are not available, what do we have left?
nasruddin
Practice for Election Day?
BrumDaBronze
Then a secure way of exchanging that kind of information might need to be developed (assuming it’s an action one could ethically use against an oppressor). I suppose the old methods could still work, but they’re slow and clunky. Though, they might not fit well with a society that moves as fast as ours.
There has to be a way to fight back, hopefully non-violently, one that has a good chance of succeeding. I’m sure others have said this multiple times, but the first thing we should work on is protecting the voting process this Nov.
The very idea of having any kind of armed force hovering around the polling offices is nerve-racking. WTH? I’m wondering what would work to keep people from being intimidated from going to the polls if they don’t vote by mail. Voting by mail is probably the best option for making sure people are able to vote. Next, I’m guessing, is making certain those votes are actually secure and counted properly. *sigh* This whole thing has me all a-twitch. Being a person with an anxiety disorder, I probably shouldn’t pay so much attention to the news… >^_._^<
Does anyone else feel a bit like they’re living in a Black Mirror episode? Certainly getting that dystopian vibe. :-p
Adam L Silverman
@Medicine Man: That’s two of us. I hope I’m wrong. I want to be wrong.
Adam L Silverman
@BrumDaBronze:
Yes, yes it is.
Adam L Silverman
@Emma from FL: Here you go:
https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Publications/FMFRP%2012-15%20%20Small%20Wars%20Manual.pdf
Adam L Silverman
@nasruddin: That’s my worry. Hopefully I am wrong and I’ve currently got an overly sufficient level of paranoia.
Emma from FL
@Adam L Silverman: You give the nicest presents!
Procopius
I haven’t read all comments, so this may have been posted already.
US Attorney For Oregon Calls For Investigation Into Portland Protester Arrests
It does not seem to be exactly what Mr. Silverman is talking about, but it’s closely related and a frightening abuse. I suppose it’s possible this may lead to more coverage of the federal activities in Portland. I don’t have much hope this will lead to an ending of the abuses.
Adam L Silverman
@Emma from FL: That one was slightly facetious.
Bill Arnold
@cain:
There’s also the Azrael in Dogma:
Azrael: “Evil is an Abstract”, from DOGMA
Dogma – Central Air (Jason Lee) Azrael
Probably not that one.
Glyph_2112
@Adam L Silverman: the other thing I ponder is how many of his cabinet is willing to go down with this ship. If he tries all these legally questionable tactics and loses, I would assume there would be investigations. Without the pardon parachute, are these people willing to go to jail for him? Maybe self preservation will take them to the very edge of the line but will keep them from crossing.
thanks for your insight on these matters.
Adam L Silverman
@Glyph_2112: I honestly don’t know. You’d expect self preservation would have kicked in a long time ago.
jc
Why did the FedGoons come dressed for a riot? Why are they wearing in-the-woods camo? Haven’t the Feds developed an urban camo yet? Did they dress in green camo so they wouldn’t have the usual black Storm Trooper – SWAT look?
Adam L Silverman
@jc: C&BP Rapid Response uses this stuff because they work outside along the border.
Comrade Misfit
We are one ginned-up event away from Trump declaring martial law.
Reichstag fire anyone?
Amy
I am in OR and what I am seeing is ringing true to what I have researched. Most people are not aware of ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council. This is a list from 2018, a more current list is on their site. These are some of the people writing our laws and creating the world we are in. Lobbyist, Politicians and Corporations, tilting everything for their benefit.
http://documentedinvestigations.org/2018/03/08/revealed-names-alec-lobbyist-legislator-members/
If you think anyone really cares about you, I would say guess again. This takes 22 minutes to watch. I have spoken with these people along the way, as I have been looking at ALEC since 2011.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUGh1Su7-ok
oopzwtf
@Adam L Silverman: So you need to keep your good standing advising the tyrants?
With all your expertise in asymetric warfare, have you ever seen the naked woman defense successfully used before last night?
Adam L Silverman
@oopzwtf: I’m not following your question. What happened last night?
oopzwtf
@Adam L Silverman: It was 2 questions.
I assume you’ll ignore the first.
The second one you could understand if you follow @donovanfarley, or a lot of the others that have been reporting from Portland for the last month or more.
Jim Appleton
@oopzwtf:
zzz
oopzwtf
@Jim Appleton: Don’t share that on open coms.
liakim
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: trump’s not the organizer, he’s just a tool.
They have thousands in think tanks for years developing these warped strategies.
GOTV