There Are Some Corners You Can't Unturn

 

     This is one of them.

     We keep waiting for Trump to cross the Rubicon. We keep waiting for him to cross that red line, the Point of No Return that delivers us in black Marias into that fascist nightmare that he'd been promising on the campaign trail last year. 

     News flash, people- He's crossed the Rubicon more times than a professional coyote has the Rio Grande.

     It started a little over a month ago when Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, NJ, was arrested and charged with trespassing Delaney Hall ICE detention facility in Newark. The charges were almost immediately dropped in court but, undeterred, the government then went after Rep. LaMonica McIver, another black politician, for assault. A grand jury then indicted her just two days ago for assaulting federal officers. The charges were brought by Trump's former mouthpiece, Alina Habba, now the US Attorney for New Jersey.

     McIver's looking at 17 years in prison if she's convicted, more than all but two or three of the January 6th rioters got for their role.

     But what happened today was a new low.

     Around midday at the Wilshire Federal Building in LA today, Sen. Alex Padilla interrupted Kristi Noem’s press conference on immigration enforcement. More than one video shows Padilla approaching the podium, saying, “I’m Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,” before being immediately grabbed by several DHS goons and shoved out of the room. The video above shows him being led to a hallway whereupon he was forced down on his stomach and handcuffed like a common criminal.

     For asking a question.

     Predictably, the GOP response has been straight out of Bozo Headquarters. DHS started by saying that Padilla didn't introduce and identify himself (Note to fascist goons who may still be stuck in 1930s Berlin: There are such things as microphones and videotape and we can hear and understand English).

      Kristi Noem was the first to honk her clown nose by saying Padilla “burst into the room, launching toward the podium”, which, again, is belied by the video footage. DHS accused Padilla of “disrespectful political theatre,” you know, unlike Trump's insurrection speech on January 6, 2021.

     Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-Lady G) said Padilla “got what he wanted, he’s on TV.” Professional nonentity John Barrasso ragged on Padilla for missing Senate votes (?!). Always reliable ventriloquist dummy Mike Johnson said Padilla's actions were “wildly inappropriate” for “charging a cabinet secretary.” Among senior Republican senators, only Lisa Murkowski of Alaska defended Padilla, saying the assault on Padilla's person was "horrible" and "shocking".

     Democrats, for all the good it will do, took to the House and Senate floors to lambaste the administration for using such heavy-handed tactics against a sitting United States senator.

     All this, of course, is in response to the unrest in Los Angeles over ICE raids. Crowds gathered, the LAPD was, of course, brought in to restore order. Then, because a bunch  of brown people were assembling in large numbers, Trump called in the California National Guard (against a governor's wishes, the first time that's happened since 1965). First it was 2000 Guardsmen. Then 700 Marines. Then another 2000 Guardsmen.

     Anyone following these events coming out of LA can see that Trump is just quivering for any pretext to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807. But since Trump hasn't done so (yet), that means he's violating Posse Comitatus (which could be seen as a belated check on the extraordinary powers the president can give himself in the event of an invocation of the Insurrection Act as well as safeguarding states' rights) in the act of sending in those 700 Marines.

     We're not even five months into this administration and we're already witnessing the prosecution, arrest and violent detention of lawmakers who just happen to be people of color, the very same people the Fourth Reich posing as a democratic institution is systematically wiping off the public records. Even asking a Cabinet official a question on behalf of one's constituents during a press conference is viewed as a seditious act.

     Because totalitarian regimes don't like being questioned. They don't like being criticized. They certainly don't like being humiliated. This is why not a single figure who ever set up a fascist or totalitarian regime ever had a sense of humor.

     Keep in mind, the asshole who illegally sent Marines into Los Angeles is in two days going to have a Soviet/North Korea-style military birthday parade that'll cost nearly $100,000,000.