Trump fabricates urban revolts from peaceful protests, using stormtroopers as reelection extras
The use of federal protection squads in Portland and DC is expected to expand, even as there is no need for them except as actors in re-election campaign media. It’s more security theater, situated in cities rather than airports. It is pseudo martial law, transgressing on state and local laws, superspreading like a virus.
States do have some recourse on dealing with federal forces in their cities, and then there’s the quartering of occupying armies going back to the Founders. State-level criminal prosecution of Trump’s protection squads is entirely possible. It’s a 3rd Amendment pageant, sans swimsuit competitions
Remember that this is a re-election stunt on the scale of the 2018 “caravans”. It is being done in the service of a smear campaign against Biden, and it has the same structure in abusing federal resources and transgressing on state sovereignty.
Ironically he has thrown responsibility for tackling COVID-19 to the states. It’s not so much genius as expediency: a desperate Trump is trying anything to get re-elected, even if relentless lawfare may keep him out of prison.
It is a paradox of the Trump era: Precisely because the president often unabashedly displays corrupt or sordid motives in broad daylight — and even on national television — we sometimes fail to give the admissions themselves the attention they deserve.
So it is with Trump’s new vow to send federal law enforcement into numerous cities — against the will of Democratic officials in them — which comes after federal agents already invaded Portland in defiance of the city’s mayor and the governor of Oregon.In the course of announcing that “more” federal law enforcement will be descending on cities like Chicago, while hailing enforcement efforts to “grab” people in Portland, Trump quickly segued into a claim about the presidential race.If Joe Biden gets elected, Trump said, “the whole country would go to hell. And we’re not going to let it go to hell.”Trump just said it straight from the Oval Office: This is all about Biden.[…]
The broader point here, as Ryan Goodman and Danielle Schulkin explain, is that the administration is working to develop a “playbook for using federal forces without state consent.” As they note, this may be legally dubious and it certainly strains historical precedent.
— Mieke Eoyang (@MiekeEoyang) July 22, 2020
Oregon officials, including the mayor of Portland, have said the influx of cross-designated DHS officers has heightened tensions. Despite that, Trump said on Monday that the feds plan to send officers to a number of cities run by “liberal Democrats,” including Baltimore, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
But spokespersons for those cities’ mayors told POLITICO that nobody from DHS had formally contacted them about the potential deployment of federal officers.
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) July 22, 2020
— ð”¹ð•£ð•–ð•’ð•¥ð•™ð•¥ð•’ð•œð•šð•Ÿð•˜ ð•Âð•šð•Ÿð•¥ð•’ð•˜ð•– (@destruction_bay) July 21, 2020
In his “defunding police” ads, Trump creates the bedlam that will happen if Biden wins, much like the continuing Trumpian tactic of diversions and distractions. It is sheer fantasy and framing reinforcement for the Trumpian base’s media outlets.
We are now being assailed by a re-run of the Giuliani shenanigans last year, because Trump perhaps believes that he’s been exonerated by the impeachment trial, which is not identical to the fabrication of materials then and now to smear Biden.
It is the manufacturing of consent using a crude media campaign no different than last year’s attempts to manipulate the situation in Ukraine. This is currently being mobilized in an attempt by Ron Johnson to use the Senate to recycle the same debunked arguments that were developed in the impeachment hearings.
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) July 22, 2020
— Anita Kumar (@anitakumar01) July 22, 2020
— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) July 22, 2020
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) July 22, 2020
— Chad Loder (@chadloder) July 21, 2020
— Chad Loder (@chadloder) July 21, 2020
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