Capitol Police won’t help you this time
You are the guardrails! The Capitol Police won’t stop this insurrection.
The cosplaying Secretary of Homeland Security told a press conference in Los Angeles on Thursday, “We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”
Let me translate: The Trump administration’s actions in L.A. are not about public safety, or even about enforcing immigration law. DHS and ICE, at the behest of the White House, are conducting a military-backed political putsch to topple local and California state government.
Andy Borowitz rhymes:
Kristi Noem is Stephen Miller
With hair extensions and tons of filler
And guys with guns, don’t forget.
Who’s insurrection? Their insurrection.
“This administration is in open rebellion against the Constitution, and the government of the United States, and the states, and the people,” posted ProTip (AKA alt_localgov) on Bluesky, if I wasn’t clear enough above. The United Police States of America are at war with you.
Dan Pfeiffer this morning:
On Saturday, the president will force the military to conduct a taxpayer-funded celebration of his birthday.
This week should put to rest any doubt that America is being marched down a dark path toward authoritarianism.
Meantime, most members of Congress on the Democratic side insist on playing politics as cautiously as ever:
There are a litany of excuses for Democratic caution:
- “Immigration is Trump’s best issue.”
- “We don’t want to be seen as siding with violent protesters.”
- “Trump is trying to distract us from his unpopular tax bill.”
- “It’s a trap.”
If the Democratic consultant class had a family crest, it would be emblazoned with the creed: Paralysis by Analysis.
Once again, we are overcomplicating the simple. The president is deploying the military to manufacture a crisis, and his jackbooted thugs are roughing up a U.S. senator for doing his job. That is not a distraction from what matters — it is what matters. One lesson I’ve learned, often painfully, is that ignoring what truly matters out of political expedience is a surefire way to lose.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) has been perhaps the loudest voice. He claims he’s stepping outside Democrat’s “next election” frame to raise money to send directly to younger activist groups on the ground. “We can’t be preparing for the 2026 election. It might not come,” Murphy told Jen Psaki Thursday night [timestamp 4:50]. “All of our focus right now has to be on protecting the democracy, about stopping the corruption …”
That was encouraging. But it looks to me as if he plans to send money to groups I’ve never heard of that are organizing around protecting health care and getting out the student vote for that election he said might not come. Not on direct opposition to our proximate threat.
Democrats focused on defeating Trump’s “morally bankrupt tax bill” are not wrong about the bill, says Pfeiffer. But the fight before us — on our streets and in our neighborhoods — is one we must win.
Even if the polls showed widespread support for Trump’s actions in L.A. [they don’t], I’d still argue that Democrats must respond aggressively — as Gavin Newsom, Padilla, and others have done. Sometimes you just have to speak out, politics be damned. You meet force with force. Voters — especially cynical ones — can smell calculation and cowardice a mile away. Failing to speak out in moments like these reeks of both.
America’s split-screen moment
One of Trump’s few talents is for putting on an eye-catching show, preferably displaying “you’re fired” male-ish dominance. That’s what Trump’s military penis display is about on Saturday. Of course, to the world’s autocrats he hopes to impress, it will come off as one of Charlie the Tuna’s attempts to prove he’s got good taste. But it will get plenty of news coverage, especially on Trump-friendly cable.
The goal of the “No Kings” protests on Saturday is to provide counterprogramming that is such must-see TV that the major networks will not look away. They must be not just massive in large cities but widespread in small-town America where MAGAs will see their blue and independent neighbors unbowed. Resistance to Trump must come in overwhelming numbers. Not just tomorrow, but each week.
The right’s M.O. for years goes like this:
Find the line.
Step over it.
No pushback? New line.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
We’re seeing that again in Trump 2.0, only the one-way ratchet is moving much faster. Yes, he/they are seeing pushback, and the courts are slowing them down (even if SCOTUS in the end grants them a judicial indulgence). But he/they mean to wear down public resistance.
While the last transgression works its way through the courts to whatever conclusion, they move on to the next step. They stay on offense. We stay on defense.
We also see their doubling down impulse at work in tandem with the ratchet. As we mobilize to stop the last line/Rubicon crossing, they move on to the next escalation. We get outrage fatigue. MAGA gets conditioned to living in a police state.
Tomorrow begins the pushback. This is serious. Please take it seriously. You are the guardrails! And you will have help.
The first U.S. bishop appointed by Pope Leo XIV—a refugee himself—is mobilizing priests to accompany migrants at immigration court on June 20.
(Via Christopher Hale)
— Olga Nesterova (@onestpress.onestnetwork.com) June 12, 2025 at 10:52 PM
I cannot vouch for the guy below, but he offers good advice for those protesting tomorrow and going forward.
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Have you fought dictatorship today?
No Kings Day, June 14th (TOMORROW)
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense