Trump’s Occupation of American Cities Has Begun
In a widely circulated video, a 53-year-old Navy veteran was pepper sprayed and beaten after approaching federal agents to ask them about their oaths to the Constitution, leaving him with two broken bones.
“Be wary of paramilitaries. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.” --Yale historian, Timothy Snyder
"...federal agents “have been using unmarked vehicles to drive around downtown Portland, detain protesters, and place them into the officers’ unmarked vehicles” since at least last Tuesday.
The protesters are neither arrested nor told why they’re being held.
There’s no way to know the affiliation of all the agents — they’ve been wearing military fatigues with patches that just say 'Police.'”
Comment in NYTimes from someone in Portland, OR:
I live in downtown Portland, not far from the federal building where the protesters congregate. Our city is not "under siege" by radicals by any stretch of the imagination, as Trump and Fox News want people to believe. You can walk anywhere today in downtown Portland and barely realize that protests are happening here.
The majority of protesters are peaceful advocates for the Black Lives Matter movement. A handful of more radical activists (mostly white youngsters) stay near the federal building late at night, spraying graffiti and lobbing items such as water bottles at the police. This is limited to fewer than 100 activists in a one square block radius and only after midnight. The protests were in fact winding down, until Trump decided to send in his federal thugs to commit violence and whip up hysteria for his base. Like all authoritarians, Trump is the one trying to create an enemy for people to fear.
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Where are the "states rights" conservatives?
Where are the Republicans who screamed that Hillary would take away our FREEDOMS! if she was elected?
Where are the Second Amendment yahoos who promised they would defend the country against a takeover by the government?
What the hell is going on?
20 comments:
Definitely fascism. Hopefully THIS TIME the republican president will be held accountable. It's the Democrats who failed to hold Reagan and gwb accountable (Iran-Contra, torture) that made this possible. Dotard knows there have been no consequences for corrupt republican presidents. As per Minus FJ, "...the laws (Regulations) are meaningless... the Authorities can do as they please".
Secret police in Portland?
We now have become a third world country with police snatching people off the street?
This is totally unacceptable
How the hell is this allowed?
We The People are witnessing the death throes of Fascism in the USA. Our country has been gutted, our institutions made ineffective by a group of people more concerned with their own well being than that of the population they were elected (and paid) to protect.
For too long We The People ignored the Vote - it's not exciting, definitely not sexy, and really - all those debates, could you die? Amirite? Our negligence, our inability to say never again and mean it (vs never again except when people I like do it - whatever 'it' is) has led WTP to here/now. How We choose to respond is up to each individual.
Right now those who believe they are the only ones worthy of privilege while all others must bend a knee, convert, or die are in charge. We allowed them to win elections (by whatever means they pulled it off) and now We The People must fix it.
Fortunately the Yutes of Today have an arsenal of tools at their disposal. While violence is on the table they prefer to use snark, social media, lawsuits, and a penchant for trolling that is near Master Class perfect. Compare the Yutes ability to Fly By The Seat of Their Pants against their ossified opponents who mistakenly believe protesters are enemies of the USA instead of Americans exercising their First Amendment Rights...
Looks to me like the current administration is bringing hammers to a Constitutional battle. Let the best lawyers win.
PS - while I can't always comment Shaw, I read your blog as often as I can get online. Thank you for taking a stand against the willfully ignorant. They truly are a bane to all civilization.
More from Portland: As military-clad federal agents swept through the streets this past weekend, they encountered a Navy veteran who had come out to ask whether the officers felt their actions violated the Constitution. They beat him with a baton and doused him with pepper spray.
Heather Cox Richardson tweeted this morning first thing an interesting fact - The current acting head of Homeland Security has held the position for 249 days which is 39 days over the lawful limit of an acting head of an agency.
Things that make one go Hmmmm....
Trump is methodically cementing authoritarianism in the U.S. while we’ve been sleeping! People need to stop believing this can’t happen in America! It’s happening now folks! I just hope we can hold out until Nov 3rd. Then we’ll have to stop him from further chaos until Jan 20!
Charlie Pierce, Esquire:
“This is not an ‘authoritarian impulse.’ This is authoritarian government—straight, no chaser. And this administration has a powerful thirst for it. It will do anything if it thinks it can get away with it in order to benefit a president* who wants to bring the Republic down on his head.”...
More reporting from Portland, OR:
"I watched part of this last night on livestream, and was stunned by what I saw. A line of women proclaiming themselves to be Moms, including at least one heavily pregnant woman, were attacked with gas and smoke by unidentifiable camo-wearing thugs on the streets of an American city.
When I saw the the Naked Athena appear, I realized something profound was happening. She is aptly named for the warrior goddess of ancient Greece. But even more than that, when she took that iconic pose (thank you for printing it) I saw a mortal woman go Full Goddess: life, death, life. And for a moment, the forces of destruction were abashed.
May the Mother of All keep her safe."
Derv, R.D., Grey One, and Ray Thank you for commenting. I've got appointments this AM and will respond later.
Meanwhile, I've been deleting trolls who've come here and listing everything they believe is bad about President Obama. It's really hilarious. Our country is facing creeping fascism and all they can think of is trashing America's most popular president, Barack Hussein Obama.
Laughed myself silly reading their trash.
Later.
Let's just all take a breath and imagine for a moment what we would be reading at conservative blogs and from conservative thought leaders had a President Obama even mused in public about doing this, let alone actually carrying it out.
Add that to to the hooting, hollering and spasms we'd be seeing if again, a President Obama had publicly said he wasn't sure he'd accept the results of an election.
And this is the world we live in today. WE are called traitors and un American because we decry the very behavior 4 years ago they also would have decried. But now the cheer it on.
To quote our president... sad.
Republicans/Conservatives/Libertarians are all, apparently unwittingly, in support of an authoritarian fascist president who will, if given the time, destroy ALL that those groups have historically claimed as their mantel.
How fast and far libertarianism, conservatism, and republicanism have fallen.
YES - we can call it fascism. For it IS what it IS.
We wondered who trump would invade as he continued to sink in the polls.
Turns out it’s US!!
RN... in fairness, Rand Paul has spoken out against these actions.
Rand does get some things right, Like his father Ron. My question for Rand would be are you going to support Trump in the 2020 election? If his answer is yes, or if he refused to answer, then his criticism really means little to nothing at this point.
I happen to be a conservative who does not support federal law enforcement intervening. This is an issue for the people in the cities who elected the mayor's and if they choose to let their city burn and punish all their citizens that should be their choice. If federalists are protecting only federal property then it is acceptable.
It is like chicago being the murder capital of the US, their choice and for decades and multiple mayor's nothing has changed. People must be fine with seeing 50+ shootings and several murders a week in a city that does not allow citizens to carry firearms and condemns the police at every turn. Lets see black mayor, black police chief, overwhelmingly black murders, must be a racial issue not a leadership issue.
skud:
It is like chicago being the murder capital of the US,
Wrong. According to the FBI data, Chicago is NOT the murder capital of the US. A simple Google search confirmed that.
The rest of your comment is nothing more than uninformed opinion, so I see no need to answer it.
Jeh Johnson confirmed on MSNBC that DHS 'cops' are 'contractors': therefore they are mercenaries supplied by Erik Prince.
Nobody is going to believe 100 years from now that a country with the Bill of Rights largely tolerated quasi-militarized law enforcement, but drew the line at wearing masks that saved lives.
Skud... why don't you support federal law enforcement intervening? Do you feel strong about that?
But let me ask you and any other conservatives... why is there still support among conservatives for a policy so against the perviously stated positions of conservatives for decades? You guys would be calling a Dem president a freaking commie autocrat had he/she done this.
Tell me... why the silence now? Why is Trump not a freaking commie autocrat?
The force is strong with your group...
Rev, Of course I feel we should not use federal troops to enforce local laws. Use them to protect federal property is fine but use local law enforcement to enforce local laws.
Ms Shaw, of course you are correct it is NYC, LA then Chicago leading the way with homicides. You may be referring to homicides per 100,000 but that is not the total. Does having a democrat for mayor have anything to do with this or is it just non support for police. We need to pick a city, Baltimore would be a good example, defund the police and in three years judge the results.
Masks are a good idea but a better one is staying away from crowds or not living in a densely populated city.
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