By Thom Hartman / AlterNet / June 10, 2025
Trump: Well, we’re going to have troops everywhere.
Reporter: What’s the bar for sending in the Marines?
Trump: The bar is what I think it is.
The 2026 and 2028 elections may have just gotten a lot more distant. First, the backstory.
It was around 2 a.m. on July 15, 2020, when Mark Pettibone, then 29, was walking home from a relatively calm Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Portland, Oregon. He hadn’t done anything more provocative than wearing a black shirt: no slogans, no mask, no glimmers of violence. Yet an unmarked minivan pulled up alongside him. Out jumped several armed men in camouflage, with no insignia, to slip a bag over his head and kidnap him.
“I was terrified,” Pettibone told reporters, his voice trembling with the memory. “It was like being preyed upon.”
He was shoved into the van, blindfolded, driven to the federal courthouse, interrogated, and held — with no Miranda rights, no paperwork, no explanation — for nearly 90 minutes before being released without charge or citation.
No uniforms, no accountability, no transparency, yet a citizen was stripped of his rights and dignity in a blurry high-stakes operation. And around the same time in Washington, DC, Donald Trump was trying to talk Gen. Mark Milley into having the National Guard shoot at protesters in that city.
This was not some fringe vigilante action. It was federal agents wielding brute force under cover of Trump’s executive order, agents whose silence spoke louder than any badge. The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon called it an unconstitutional kidnapping. Legal scholars said probable cause was nowhere to be found.
Yet Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General under Joe Biden, decided it wasn’t worth investigating or prosecuting. Let’s just move on. And so here we are.
As Trump levels attacks on Los Angeles — sending in federal forces to “restore order” amid unrest provoked by ICE’s illegal tactics — Portland’s secret police saga shouldn’t just echo, it should ring alarm bells. If you thought that unmarked vans and invisible state power were confined to dystopian fiction, Pettibone’s story proves they already stalk our cities.
Trump and his neofascist sidekicks sending the National Guard into LA may look, on the surface, like another “law and order” stunt from a man whose political brand depends on hate and fear. But beneath the posturing lies something far darker and far more dangerous to American democracy.
This is not even remotely about suppressing unrest. Instead, it’s about setting an unconstitutional, anti-democratic precedent: that the president of the United States can deploy military force on a whim, against his political enemies, without state or local consent.
It’s about turning a democratic republic into an authoritarian stronghold. It’s about ending federalism — what political scientists and our Founders called our form of government — as we know it.
This is a test and a dress rehearsal. If he gets away with it, he will probably use this exact same formula — create a crisis worthy of television, bring in the feds, declare a state of emergency — to accomplish what he really wants to do.
For example, suspending the 2026 election. Yeah, that. Otherwise, Democrats might take the House and begin investigations of him that could lead to more prosecutions and convictions. And there’s no way he’s going to peacefully allow that.
For nearly 250 years, America has been guided by a simple democratic principle: that power flows from the people upward, not the other way around. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he was unambiguous:
“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
We elect our sheriffs, our mayors and city councils, our governors and legislatures; those elections are our form of “consent.” They are closest to us, most accountable, and best positioned to determine how and when to protect public safety.
With very few exceptions having to do with the Civil War, World War II, and the defense of Civil Rights protestors, “keeping the order” through law enforcement has always been handled at the most local level possible so the people whose lives and daily activities are directly impacted have a say and can hold police and the people guiding them accountable.
But Trump has never cared for accountability. And now, like the autocrats he so admires — Putin, Erdo?an, Orbán — he is showing us that he sees local government not as a partner in governance, but as an obstacle to be crushed.
Let’s be clear: sending the National Guard into LA, especially when done over the objections of California’s governor and the LA mayor, is a direct assault on one of the foundational principles of American democracy: local control.
This is the classic blueprint for dictatorship — using federal military power to override the will of elected local leaders — and it reflects the way fascism has begun in nearly every nation that has lost their democracy over the past century.
Even more glaring proof that this isn’t about “law and order” is the simple reality that Trump isn’t responding to a rebellion or foreign invasion. He’s responding, instead, to protests against ICE arresting people without warrants, a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment itself that says:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Trump is attacking the very same protests that are explicitly protected by our Constitution, reflecting the saying so often attributed to Voltaire (it actually came from his biographer) that it’s become an all-America cliché: “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
As the First Amendment makes explicit:
“Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
That’s what makes this move so chilling. When a president treats constitutionally-protected protest as insurrection and sends in federal troops over the objections of state and local elected officials, he’s not preserving order: he’s causing disorder and, in the process, destroying our democracy.
We’ve seen this movie before; as mentioned, in 2020, Trump deployed federal agents in unmarked military gear to Portland and DC. They tear-gassed peaceful demonstrators, beat and shot journalists, and abducted citizens off the streets. Americans shrugged. The media called it “controversial.” Garland decided other things were more important.
But the lesson Trump took from it was simple: it worked. He faced no consequences. The courts barely blinked and Garland looked the other way. So now Trump’s doing it again, only this time bigger, bolder, and with clearer political intent.
Sending the Guard to LA sends a message to every mayor and governor: If you oppose Trump, he can bring troops to your doorstep. And it sends a message to every American: If you protest, if you dissent, if you organize, you may one day be staring down the barrel of a gun flown in on orders from Washington, DC.
This is not hypothetical. It’s not alarmism. It’s a dry run for the eventual suppression of all dissent that seriously threatens the Trump regime. Just like in Russia, Hungary, or Turkey.
Deploying the National Guard for political purposes chills the First Amendment. Giving them the power to assault and arrest protestors breaks the Fourth Amendment. It tells the American people: stay quiet, or the military might show up.
That’s not democracy; that’s authoritarianism in plain sight.
Yes, Title 10 gives the president the power to federalize the National Guard during times of invasion, insurrection, or to overcome obstacles to enforcing federal law.
But Trump is taking it a step farther, giving Guard members the power to make arrests and point their guns at civilians, a clear and outrageous violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, enacted in 1878 in response to the violations of civil rights being perpetrated on civilians by the military during the post-Civil War occupation of the South.
That law explicitly forbids the military from turning their guns on civilians. Nonetheless, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) is now so concerned that she’s begging Guard troops not to shoot at protesters. This should deeply shock every American.
As California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted to Xitter:
“We didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved. This is a serious breach of state sovereignty — inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they’re actually needed.”
And let’s not pretend this is about safety. The same man who praised the “very fine people” who marched with torches in Charlottesville in 2017, after counter-protester Heather Heyer was killed; who pardoned violent insurrectionists after January 6; who routinely echoes Hitler when he calls his political opponents “scum,” “animals,” and “vermin”; does not care about public peace. He cares about control.
He wants to exercise domination and revenge against anybody (like Gov. Newsom) who dares stand up to him. And he’s now using federal armed forces to flex his power to lord over the rest of us in ways that would make our Founders puke … or revolt.
If Trump is allowed to normalize the use of federal troops against American cities — particularly progressive cities that vote against him — it won’t stop with LA. Tomorrow it’s Chicago. Next month, New York. Then Seattle, Atlanta, Philadelphia. It becomes a pattern, then a doctrine: the president as enforcer-in-chief, sending muscle into any jurisdiction that refuses to obey.
That’s not federalism or anything remotely resembling law and order. That’s fascism.
And it’s not “coming” or “on its way.” It’s here, now.
And if he gets away with it, future presidents will do the same. The precedent — already weakly established here in Portland in 2020 — will be locked in. The checks and balances will have been destroyed.
That’s assuming there even are elections in the future.
As former Trump insider Lev Parnas said:
“According to my sources, there are discussions happening right now — within Trump’s most trusted circle — about invoking martial law if the protests ‘get out of hand.’ They’re looking for any excuse. Any video. Any act of violence. Any disruption. That’s all they need to justify a crackdown.“And it gets worse. What I’m being told is that Trump allies — including elements connected to Proud Boys, III Percenters, and other far-right militia networks — are planning to infiltrate the June 14th protests. Not to support them. To sabotage them. Their goal? Create chaos. Spark confrontation. Trigger a response from law enforcement. And then hand Trump the justification he needs to clamp down.”
America is at a crossroads. We can pretend this is just another Trump stunt, something to be laughed at or dismissed, or we can recognize it for what it is: a direct assault on civilian government, an unconstitutional power grab, and a warning shot at the heart of democracy.
It’s time to stop normalizing the abnormal. Troops in the streets of American cities should send chills down our spine, not shrugs across the airwaves or the pathetic cheerleading we see on the billionaire-owned Fox “News.”
When a president uses the military against his own people to score political points, democracy itself becomes collateral damage.
And if Trump gets away with this like he did here in Portland in 2020, every new act of violence against the Constitution and people who disagree with him (Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is now threatening to deploy Marines) will become less scandalous, more “normal,” and more likely to lead to the next crackdown.
And then the state of emergency. And then the suspension of elections.
Very well written and researched. Horribly terrifying. I pray that in the very near future this dictator is somehow stopped and or controlled and not left to tear our country into tattered shreds of forgotten democracy ? o
President 47 truly believes that all forms of civil protest constitute violent civil revolt that must be met with guns, tanks, and bombs and that is the real reason he has ordered the June 14th Armed Forces Parade. His form of extreme racism is about to play out all across the United States with violent ICE raids on civilian populations backed by armed soldiers, tanks, and jet airplanes. In a matter of weeks, these assault forces will be viewed in every state in the Union and that is because he does not recognize the independent sovereignty of the 50 states. That is why he ignored Governor Gavin Newsome in calling out the California National Guard and United States Marines and authorized $134,000,000 to pay for this assault on the State of California. This is about to repeat all across the Nation. Beware of June 14 and take caution on No Kings marches.
The Fascist on-going plan to weaponize ‘lone wolf’ assassins is moving along splendidly, don’t you think? Who will be next do you think? I guess it doesn’t matter as long as they just keep instilling fear.
There WILL be more. Guaranteed. It’s what Fascists do.
How Trump’s Fascist Rhetoric Produces Political Assassins
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/06/18/how-trumps-fascist-rhetoric-produces-political-assassins/
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sealintheSelkirks
This talks about what IS coming with the pending $175,000,000,000 infusion of our tax money into the US Secret Police/ICE. We are paying for our own destruction.
The Terrifying Truth About Who Wants to Work for ICE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Cq0PHxTZtw
The full 21 minutes is extremely telling, but just the information between 3:20 to 8:40 is enough to overwhelm most people I’d imagine.
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Want a laugh? Really!! Go to the very end, at 21:05 to listen to this moron coming up with a great idea about flood warnings…using bells. Oh my hell!!!
sealintheSelkirks
We should stop going around babbling about how we’re the greatest democracy on earth, when we’re not even a democracy. We are a sort of militarized republic.
– Gore Vidal
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+ George Retes was pulled over by ICE as he was driving near the violent raid on farm workers outside of Camarillo last Thursday. The ICE agents broke the windows of his car and pepper sprayed him, before taking him into custody. Retes is an American citizen and disabled US Army Veteran. He was held in federal lockup for four days , during which time his family and lawyer had no way of contacting him to find out where he was or inquire about his physical condition. He was released without charges on Sunday night. Is this what Thomas Homan meant when he told FoxNews that ICE can stop people based on their skin-color and “briefly” detain them without a warrant or probably cause until ICE is satisfied they’re American citizens?
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+ George Retes: “Clearly it didn’t matter that I was a citizen, or a veteran, or that I identified who I was. They ignored everything I said, and they just they broke my window and they dragged me out. I let them know that I was a veteran and I wasn’t doing anything wrong, that I’m just trying to get to work.”
+ Reporter: Congressman, do you care if U.S. citizens accidentally get detained in ICE raids?
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC): “No, I’m not concerned about that.”
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Trump threatens to ‘go after people’ and accuses Obama of treason over Russia investigation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDilGG-xEgs
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Fired DOJ official warns “the rules don’t exist anymore”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut9AuM3pGGI
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This is an amazing interview. Recommended!
Hunter Just Said What We’ve ALL Been Thinking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH9vfM7zkUY
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sealintheSelkirks
You will not like what this soldier talks about.
And I’m sorry to say that relying on the ‘oath’ they all take to uphold the Constitution is about as useful as all those ‘thoughts & prayers’ the right wing politicians always give after every school shooting because #1`, they aren’t actually thinking and, #2, obviously prayers don’t work.
A short interview with what (I assume) is a current National Guard officer as he refers to officers as “us.” Tienanmen Square anyone?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/A5D6YyZhC3c?feature=share
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What Humans Are Capable Of…
“Someone who is permanently surprised that depravity exists, who continues to feel disillusioned (even incredulous) when confronted with evidence of what humans are capable of inflicting in the way of gruesome, hands-on cruelties upon other humans, has not reached moral or psychological adulthood.”
– Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others
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Which brings us to this, another San Diegan who turned her back on her ‘oath’:
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/ashli-babbitt-to-get-full-military-funeral-honors-from-us-air-force/3893115/
Undersecretary of the Air Force: “However, after reviewing the circumstances of Ashli’s death, and considering the information that has come forward since then, I am persuaded that the previous determination was incorrect.”
Exactly what new information is that which proved she was not an insurrectionist smashing through a window of the Congress building with a huge crowd of rioters is that? Oh, and I guess monkeys can fly out of DJT’s ass, too?
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Remember when the Wbush regime told us all that they ‘make history’ while the rest of us will always play catch-up? Well, these Fascists are trying real hard to top that because not only are they ‘making’ history but they are erasing it, too.
Babbit’s family was paid $5 million tax dollars by for their ‘wrongful death’ suit by this current Fascist regime, but now we are all going to pay for her ‘military funeral,’ too! Is the cop that killed her going to be charged again, too?
And after listening to the blunt truths being uttered by the National Guard officer, does anybody doubt that the future is looking exceedingly grim?
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Whoever it was that claimed women are more ethical than men is certainly being proven incorrect with this regime…
sealintheSelkirks
Some of our public officials are speaking out, fighting back, and even extremely conservative judges appointed by Reagan and WBush are saying YOU CAN’T DO THIS to the wannabe dictator DJT, but Fascists don’t give a damn about any laws or rules when they are in power and can kill anybody they want to. Or make them disappear. But they sure do want you to live under THEIR laws don’t they?
Gov Pritzker warns:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nk6Vl769oms?feature=share
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This is Fascism:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DQ9OuHclk60?feature=share
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Domestic Terrorism and Spectacularized Violence in Trump’s Warfare State
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/29/domestic-terrorism-and-spectacularized-violence-in-trumps-warfare-state/
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So this is what living in 1933-1938 Germany felt like while building his violent brownshirt militia and Gestapo, eh?
I saw this today on the Rag’s This Time Last Year section:
“Editordude: ‘Hey Trump! I Just Donated to the Harris-Walz Campaign. Come Arrest Me!’
Frank, be careful what you wish for. Not that my contributions to this and other sites put me on his friends of Fascists list…but historically that is what they do. They come get you in the dead of night and you are never seen again. Not to be alarmist or anything, but it’s definitely looking in that direction, ya know editordude?
sealintheSelkirks
‘War Is Here’: The Far-Right Responds to Charlie Kirk Shooting With Calls for Violence
https://www.rsn.org/001/war-is-here-the-farright-responds-to-charlie-kirk-shooting-with-calls-for-violence.html
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Yep, I expected this crap to spew out of the ‘hate everybody that isn’t like us’ crowd. Who are the ones that have been calling for killing people who’s politics they don’t like? Which got worse for YEARS since 2020 and their lies of a “stolen” election? That started in 2016 when DJT got in the first time?
That started with Reagan for that matter. Democrats and everybody else to the left of those conservative moderately right-wing politicians… The Wbush regime were pretty awful, too, and then when Obama was elected oh MY did the long knives come out!
But REMEMBER who took a shot at Trump at that campaign rally; a seriously right-winger activist in high school kid that couldn’t even pass the tests to get into his high school rifle club, one with Trump-voting parents whose property was covered with ‘Vote Trump’ and ‘Stop the Steal’ signs still covering their yard in 2024. And next it was a crazy guy caught in the bushes with a rifle at his Florida golf course who VOTED for Trump in 2016.
And what political direction do nearly ALL of the school shooters lean towards? Anybody else been paying attention? That’s correct, right-wing so-called conservatives along with bible thumpers who do NOT follow the words of the one they say they do. Not Democrats or Liberals or Progressives who are NOT, by the way, Lefties or Socialists or Communists at all though they get lumped all together for political purposes.
I’ve been wondering when a Reichstag Fire was going to be lit by the Fascists in power. Since DJT and the extremist Heritage Foundation (who’s heritage I might ask?) has been following Hitler’s playbook for years inciting the violent elements of society to do their ‘bidding,’ With vicious f**ks like the ‘Proud Boys’ leader pardoned (who is so competent he shot out his own eye), a ready-made Brown Shirt army is ready to get to work.
And doesn’t this distract nicely from DJT’s Epstein Scandal? Perfect timing I would have to say. One shot from how far away? A targeted assassination by a professional perhaps? A paid professional or a die-hard MAGA soldier wouldn’t surprise me a bit…this wasn’t a disgruntled high school kid.
Following the playbook, the ‘night of broken glass,’ Krystallnatch, came next.
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from a retired pastor:
The Killing of Charles James Kirk: Violent Speech Leads to Violence
Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/11/the-killing-of-charles-james-kirk-violent-speech-leads-to-violence/
sealintheSelkirks
The CIA has said that right-wing domestic terrorism is a bigger threat than terrorism from other countries. Sometimes I think that we have a low-level civil war going on. They seem to have forgotten how it turned out for them the last time.
White mormon gun kid, dad a mormon pastor and ex-sheriff…oh this is going to cause the MAGAS to twist their brains and how are they going to make this a ‘leftie’ thing again? Just like the MAGA kid that shot at Trump at that rally…and missed (Trump was NOT hit by a .223 round or he wouldn’t have an ear). The MAGA echo chamber is not going to deal with this very well but one thing we can be assured is that somehow it’s going to be about the ‘radical Dem lefties’ somehow.
I’m a Utah State University alumni, spent 6.5 years in VERY RED northern Utah at the university and know exactly who this kid was. I debated in too many classes with brain-addled white mormon 18-22 year old kids about every subject you can think of…I was 33 when I switched schools from San Diego City College. Funny that a large percentage of the professors actually appreciated what I was trying to do and privately said so.
I pissed off more than a few fellow students, too. They would come to my Kenpo classes occasionally at the AVA (Alliance for the Varied Arts building) to…exhibit their displeasure with my words. That never worked out well. It was almost sad.
This is good:
IHIP News: BREAKING ? Charlie Kirk’s Shooter CAUGHT and He’s MAGA?!?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63D8vC-taeE
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sealintheSelkirks
My oldest/longest friend who for nearly 50 years has listened to me bitch and moan about the extremist right wing and all the predictions I foresaw coming with the installing of Reagan as president in 1981. Saw me protesting the policies of that Racist Fascist Liar and supporter of the wealthy oligarchy with petition signing and letters-to-the-editor in the San Diego Union, and get-out-the-vote to deny Reagan a second term. Which didn’t happen of course.
He watched/listened from afar when I joined the protests in the 90s against B. Clinton and his War Crime bombing of civilians during the break-up of Yugoslavia when half the Mt. Shasta band I was in headed to Sarajevo to volunteer as civilian relief medical techs in the late 1990s. The band never got back together.
He saw pictures of me and read my letters to the Mt. Shasta paper and my speech to the Mt. Shasta City Council trying to get them to declare the city as against the coming Wbush War Crime of invading without cause the country of Iraq that directly lead to the deaths of over a million Iraqis. Wbush the mass murderer. I stood on the street corner every Friday during the weekly protests that were held while those people died, and it didn’t make a bit of difference. The killing went on and on and on. That country is still destroyed in 2025.
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Now another Fascist-leaning Republican is finally turning the US War Machine against its own citizens, something that has been hovering just out of sight for a long time. And this time my oldest friend is out on the streets protesting for the first time in his 68 years of life.
And he’s scared because during the last NO KINGS protest in downtown Honolulu he saw a scruffy older guy walking along with a very expensive digital camera set-up filming every single one of the protesters, zooming in on faces and making sure he captured every one of them from all angles. There were hundreds in this protest.
He sent me a picture of the guy that he took. My take? A government agent because I said look at his shoes…they didn’t match the costume.
His wife is worried as her family lived through the US concentration camps for US citizens that weren’t white during WWII. Her parents were so worried about what was coming that all the girls were given white women names, just like my stepmom’s Japanese family’s girls who were named Jane and Dorothy etc. Not that it did any good, they were all imprisoned anyway. But not in Hawai’i where the economy would have crashed in the Islands if they did that though the US government did send the ‘more suspicious individuals’ to the Mainland concentration camps. Mainly the leaders in the Hawai’ian communities of course…with no evidence against them.
But she’s worried when she heard about this guy. She has a right to be I think. My old friend knows that his face is now in a file of the Fascist organization that is now in power and rules the US government.
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I’m hoping most here on the RAG are very aware of the recently signed ‘presidential’ order declaring ‘ANTIFA’ to be a terrorist organization though it has no leaders, has no mailing address, has no email or meeting place, cannot be donated to or anything else so it actually doesn’t even exist. But what it does do, however, is finally put a target on the backs of white people protesting…which is the skin tone of most of the people that are against Trump out on the streets from what I see. A lot of old white people for some reason.
Note: Both my Grandpa Dewey and my Grandpa Harold were ANTIFA. They killed Fascists in WWII as combat soldiers using M-1 rifles, Thompson Machine guns, 45 pistols, grenades, flamethrowers. One, Grandpa Harold, was awarded a Bronze Star for charging a machine gun nest and killing all in it by himself therefore saving the men he was fighting with that were pinned down. Both came home severely traumatized, and both essentially drank themselves to death.
I wonder what my grandpas would think of Trump?
I sent this clip to my oldest friend last night. Just to let him know:
Trump’s Antifa Label: This is How They’re Gonna Start Rounding Up White People
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRLjSXeStOU
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sealintheSelkirks
So much for Posse Comitatus, eh? And so much for expecting the military to ‘honor their oath to the Constitution’ for that matter.
Anybody else thinking that having a bunch of ignorant but brutal low-education dumb-ass volunteers that grew up wearing MAGA hats (instead of white pointy hats) who were raised on Grant Theft Auto 5 and plenty of porn carrying military grade weapons of war are going to stop and question their ‘illegal’ orders any more than they did at Kent State when they were ordered to FIRE on the protesters are in for a very rude awakening.
The violent Fascist right-wing fanatics are finally getting to bring the insanity of Vietnam home, and they just can’t wait for the fun to start it seems like. Their ICE-tapo are getting the early licks in on the commie traitor Anti-Fascist Democrat terrorists who hate ‘Murica but soon DJT will get his trigger for invoking the Insurrection Act even if he has to invent it himself with a False Flag event that sacrifices a few more of his expendable deplorables. No big deal, plenty more where those came from isn’t there?
Revealed: Pentagon orders states’ national guards to form ‘quick reaction forces’ for ‘crowd control’
Pentagon memo details plan to train over 20,000 national guard members across the US to carry out Trump’s order on subduing civil unrest
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/29/pentagon-memo-quick-reaction-forces
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Funny how this British paper is doing what our reporters seem to be forgetting to inform us of, eh?
sealintheSelkirks