Trump is using the military to crush freedom of speech

[j brown's body]

"...Trump’s deployment of troops in Los Angeles thus had no military purpose. It can best be thought of as a counterdemonstration. For Trump, those who protest against him are “paid troublemakers, agitators, and insurrectionists.” He cannot imagine large-scale dissent as anything other than a professionally organized conspiracy. The US Army, by this logic, is his own professionally organized crowd. It must be seen on the streets to demonstrate his personal power. That military presence in turn redefines peaceful protesters as enemies of the United States. They cease to be citizens exercising constitutionally protected rights to free speech and assembly and become outlaws and aliens."

True. A very important part of authoritarianism is to label all dissent as the enemy and attempt to criminalize it. That is what Trump is doing in LA. with the military.

 

[j brown's body]

Claiming Federal law should be regional confirms the Democrats imposition of California sanctuary state laws is responsible for the LA riots. Appeals to "history and economics" as a rationale to defy the rule of law shows the Democrats true duplicity.

Indeed, the violent Democrat endorsed mob wants anarchy followed by secession to rejoin Mexico.

Yet there was no riot until Trump sent in paramilitary. And the riot that resulted was, well, rather pathetic, as far as riots go. State law enforcement did not want them there.

 

[j brown's body]

The California Democrat hegemony's open defiance of Federal immigration law precipitatated the LA riots.

The LAPD took more than 2 hours to respond while ICE officers were under attack. Even then they were unable or unwilling to restore order.

The People also chose the President was he supposed to let LA burn at the hands of Leftist thugs because California Democrats can't accept the election results?

What'd they burn like 6 cars?

 

[ColdHardTruth]

Most folks would consider assault and battery on federal officers performing their duties as constituting a "clear understanding of the nature of [a] threat."

Coming from the party of people who attacked police during an attempted coup, this is just inappropriate.

 

[ColdHardTruth]

Claiming Federal law should be regional confirms the Democrats imposition of California sanctuary state laws is responsible for the LA riots. Appeals to "history and economics" as a rationale to defy the rule of law shows the Democrats true duplicity.

More reich-wing bullshit.

Stop making excused from Trump's terrorism.

Indeed, the violent Democrat endorsed mob wants anarchy followed by secession to rejoin Mexico.

Nonsensical bullshit.

Your side participated in an attempted coup. Your side has ZERO room to talk.

 

[AZRWinger]

What'd they burn like 6 cars?

Nearly a dozen deputies injured from the sheriffs office. Police vehicles destroyed. 6 Waymo electric cars ambushed and destroyed. Stores looted.

$32 million in costs to LA taxpayers for emergency services alone. Not counting costs from likely lawsuits and private property damages.

Yeah sure local LE had it under control. It was only a mob of a 1,000 or more.

 

[AZRWinger]

More reich-wing bullshit.

My post was in response to comment 149 in the thread. Perhaps if you read the comments first you could avoid further embarassment.

Stop making excused from Trump's terrorism.


Nonsensical bullshit.

Your side participated in an attempted coup. Your side has ZERO room to talk.

 

[j brown's body]

Nearly a dozen deputies injured from the sheriffs office. Police vehicles destroyed. 6 Waymo electric cars ambushed and destroyed. Stores looted.

$32 million in costs to LA taxpayers for emergency services alone. Not counting costs from likely lawsuits and private property damages.

Yeah sure local LE had it under control. It was only a mob of a 1,000 or more.

This is what Trump wants. But other than the suckers he strings along, it is not popular.

 

[Bullseye]

"Donald Trump’s desire to militarize American politics and politicize the American military is unfinished business. Militarizing American politics means defining all those who do not conform to his version of normality as mortal enemies to be confronted as though they were hostile foreign nations. Politicizing the military means dismantling its self-image as an institution that transcends partisan divisions, is broadly representative of the US population, and owes its primary loyalty not to the president but to the Constitution. These aims are intertwined, but the first cannot be consummated until the second has been accomplished. Trump failed to do this in his first term, but he is determined not to be thwarted again.

...Trump’s deployment of troops in Los Angeles thus had no military purpose. It can best be thought of as a counterdemonstration. For Trump, those who protest against him are “paid troublemakers, agitators, and insurrectionists.” He cannot imagine large-scale dissent as anything other than a professionally organized conspiracy. The US Army, by this logic, is his own professionally organized crowd. It must be seen on the streets to demonstrate his personal power. That military presence in turn redefines peaceful protesters as enemies of the United States. They cease to be citizens exercising constitutionally protected rights to free speech and assembly and become outlaws and aliens.

...putting troops on the streets of Los Angeles is a training exercise for the army, a form of reorientation. Soldiers are being retrained or loyalty to the president rather than the Constitution. They are meanwhile becoming accustomed to confronting that deviant and anomalous America. In his Fort Bragg speech, Trump invited the troops to see protesters in Los Angeles as invaders: “We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy, and that’s what they are.” But what was happening in LA was, he claimed, even worse than an armed incursion: If the army doesn’t know exactly who “they” are, it has to be told. Trump reminded the troops that their purpose is to spread fear: “For our adversaries, there is no greater fear than the United States Army.” Its job now is to spread that fear to an ununiformed and thus unknowable mass of internal enemies. Just as Trump transforms actual rebellion into the vague but omnipresent “danger of a rebellion,” he makes the invading army invisible, amorphous, and fluid. Traditional military doctrine demands a clear understanding of the nature of the threat and the shape of the opposing forces. Contrariwise, in the Trump doctrine the threat must be as nebulous as possible, and the opposing forces must be formless. Thus only the commander-in-chief can say at any given time what they are. The enemy the army must learn to face is one that he, and he alone, can conjure."

Link

Needless to say, this bad.

To be blunt:

Nonsense.

 

[j brown's body]

To be blunt:

Nonsense. View attachment 67580949

Can you be more specific?

 

[Bullseye]

Can you be more specific?

No, that about covers it. The Left has panicked and have instituted the "Throw everything you can find against the wall" tactic; hopefully something will stick. Their drooping popularity numbers SHOULE be a clue they're failing - but so far it's not.

 

[NotreDame]

That's a lot of words and in-group clucking for "I'm religious, you should be obedient."

Your arbitrary word limit conceived from an aversion to reading is the problem, as a post with fewer words would not prove an impediment to your Strawman phrase “in-group clucking.”

Nothing I wrote states or reasons to your false statement of “I’m religious, you should be obedient.” As a matter of fact, what I did right cannot logically be reconciled with your asinine interpretation of “in-group clucking for "I'm religious, you should be obedient."

Care to venture a retort based upon and rooted in what I wrote?

 

[ModernDiogenes]

Claiming Federal law should be regional confirms the Democrats imposition of California sanctuary state laws is responsible for the LA riots. Appeals to "history and economics" as a rationale to defy the rule of law shows the Democrats true duplicity.

Indeed, the violent Democrat endorsed mob wants anarchy followed by secession to rejoin Mexico.

I didn't claim federal law should be regional.

I claim the response to it to use paramilitary and military personal should be by regional request. If they want the National Guard, they will ask AND NEVER should the US Army be used on the streets of this nation to enforce the law. We have a law against that, in case you were unaware.

 

[j brown's body]

No, that about covers it. The Left has panicked and have instituted the "Throw everything you can find against the wall" tactic; hopefully something will stick. Their drooping popularity numbers SHOULE be a clue they're failing - but so far it's not.

You kind of need a specific act.

For instance, Trump pressured his vice president to violate the Constitution.

What did Obama do?

 

[Bullseye]

You kind of need a specific act.

For instance, Trump pressured his vice president to violate the Constitution.

What did Obama do?

allegedly run the whole Trump is a Russian spy crap.

 

[j brown's body]

allegedly run the whole Trump is a Russian spy crap.

How so?

You guys really don't know, you just eat at the Trump trough, don't you?

 

[Bullseye]

How so?

You guys really don't know, you just eat at the Trump trough, don't you?

Get your head out of the NW Times - this has been reported on several platforms.

 

[NotreDame]

Yet the law enforcement community did not want them there.

Yes, but so what? The local law enforcement not desiring the Nat’l Guard in LA County doesn’t adversely impact my position, neither Trump nor the Nat’l Guard acted to “crush freedom of speech.”

 

[AZRWinger]

Yes, but so what? The local law enforcement not desiring the Nat’l Guard in LA County doesn’t adversely impact my position, neither Trump nor the Nat’l Guard acted to “crush freedom of speech.”

You can be certain the victims of the violent Leftist mob wanted them there

 

[NotreDame]

There wasn't ANY free speech at that time. When that's the case, why would they not heave bricks?

OH, TEH DRAMA!!!11

There wasn't ANY free speech at that time. When that's the case, why would they not heave bricks?

Of course this misses the entire context of the dialogue with a poster. The poster invoked the Boston Massacre to disparage another’s position the Nat’l Guard had not infringed upon free speech but present to preclude unlawful conduct as also justifying/dedending the actions of British soldiers at the Boston Massacre. This was undoubtedly a comment made devoid of, ostensibly, any sufficient investigation of the Boston Massacre. A rudimentary glance of the events of the Boston Massacre would very likely have revealed the colonists’ conduct of physically assaulting the British soldiers is not/was not speech and the actions of the British soldiers neither trampled free speech of the colonists and the British soldiers conduct not as egregious as professed by some.

Hence, highlighting for the poster the conduct of some of the colonists present at the Boston Massacre wasn’t and isn’t free speech, similarly the Nat’l Guard was dispatched to LA County to preclude criminal acts and not free speech.

Whether the colonists were in fact protesting England’s infringement upon their free speech by “having bricks” I have no interest addressing, other than to say such action requires free speech to exist in some capacity prior to the Boston Massacre. Second whether physically assaulting the British soldiers because of infringement of free speech, I express no opinion.

Have they tried not being evil ****s?

Have they? Have “they” in fact behaved as “evil sh***?” For clarity, who is “they” you reference.

 

[NotreDame]

Poor use of American soldiers, IMO.

We also have a long tradition of choosing violence when government gets out of hand.

And after the pardon of J6ers, there is clearly no ethical concern, is there?

We also have a long tradition of choosing violence when government gets out of hand.

Such a statement begs the question, as applied to deployment of Nat’l Guard to LA County, of whether the deployment of Nat’l Guard troops to protect federal property from vandalism, prevent trespass of federal property, and prevent interference with federal offices enforcing federal immigration law constitutes as “government gets out of hand.”

We also have a long tradition of choosing violence when government gets out of hand.

Yes, time honored with the “long tradition of commensurate criminal prosecution for the “violence.”

 

[Tangmo]

Democrats have condemned President Trump for not quickly deploying the national guard to the Capitol on J6. Now in an homage to Goldilocks, Democrats are enraged over the Bad Orange Man supposedly acting too quickly in dispatching the national guard to restore order. No doubt only a Democrat President will use the national guard just right. LOL

In the early 1950s Potus Eisenhower refused the request of his ICE chief who was a military veteran to use the active duty armed forces in the "Operation Wetback" mass deportation that expelled a million immigrants from south of the border, mainly Mexicans. Ike instead went to Congress to get 1000 new ICE agents to execute the disgusting project.

Each Potus Eisenhower and Kennedy used elite Army airborne troops to implement the Supreme Court's Brown v Board by which the Court ruled unanimously to racially desegregate public education in the USA. This was during the Cold War when the US under severe Soviet criticism had to show the people of color around the world that people of color in the USA were not third class citizens.

The present Ice-Stapo mass deportation of Latino and other people of color in the USA shows the world at large that Trump and the MAGA movement are hard core racists who are throwing their fascist net over anyone they choose and are doing it outside of the Rule of Law. Their damage being done to America and Americans is huge and continuing.

 

[Tangmo]

Quell protest? Organized violent gangs looting, burning and assaulting the police Isn't protest, it's rioting. It took the LAPD two hours or more to respond to the ICE request for assistance handling violent Leftist thugs. President Trump dispatched the national guard to restore order after the California Democrat hegemony chose to side with the rioters.

That's your imagination creating a wanted and needed imaginary problem that did not exist.

Not every civil disorder to include not every riot demands or justifies using military forces to suppress.

Trump is trigger happy and MAGAs cannot believably deny knowing this reality and fact.

At the Lafayette Square civil disorder of June 2020 across from the WH the Bloodthirsty Potus Trump told Gen. Milley and the then SecDef Mark Esper a West Point grad to have the DC National Guard units present shoot unarmed peaceful civilian protest demonstrators. Both Milley and Esper told Trump to put that order back up where it came from -- sideways. Trump wailed out that "Can't you just shoot them in the legs or something." Milley and Esper said NO and NO again and again.

The Generalissimo Trump has Bloodlust running through his veins. He is the last one to believe or defend for ordering in armed forces troops domestically. Unless of course one happens to share Trump's Lafayette Park bloodlust the Generalissimo revealed shamelessly and aggressively. Esper was fired soon after and Milley retired as scheduled with Trump wanting him punished for "treason." Milley and his family have 24 hour private security protection.

 

[Tangmo]

To be blunt:

Nonsense. View attachment 67580949

Alas, it's another speechless MAGA.

The TDS crutch is so old and broken down it's beyond repair or use.

So now the mud comes.


FAIL.

 

[Tangmo]

True. A very important part of authoritarianism is to label all dissent as the enemy and attempt to criminalize it. That is what Trump is doing in LA. with the military.

Trump has had to defederalize a National Guard brigade of 2000 Infantry and return the battalion of 700 active duty Marines to their base in California. LA now is free of these two armed military forces that approached nearly 3000. Trump-Miller are losing in their blatant attempt to militarize deportations in blue cities in blue states. Trump is indeed chickening out on this.


TACO !