And to add to the Dems' collective insanity Zohran Mamdani (who is rapidly moving up the polls in the NYC mayoral Dem primary) thinks the NYPD should be removed specifically from high-crime areas.
He says that’s as mayor, he’d replace cops with social workers—and turn the subway into a network of homeless shelters. If there were ever a strategy to turn Gotham into a red city, I can't think of a better one than electing this guy (not that Andrew Cuomo is much of a prize either)
Imagine telling the upper middle class and the truly wealthy there would be no more cops in their neighborhoods, instead social workers would be protect their children and spouses. They would very quickly, and not very quietly, remove their leaders.
Exactly. Social unrest and de-funding of the police do not reach the suburbs. My liberal friends in L.A. are all for the protests and collateral damages… just not in their tony neighborhoods.
You will have to search for this given the forbidden word, but it's very worth it. Find the wickedly funny parody of Joan Baez from the National Lampoon's "Radio Dinner" album, 1972. A perfect fit.
"Just because I can't be there / Doesn't mean that I don't care / So next time brother, off a pig for me."
Virtue-signaling faux leftists are irritating as hell, but they aren't new. Back in the day of uncensored comedy, NatLampCo nailed it. LOL
Yeah. It's sad that Mayor G lost his way. He cleaned up NYC in the 80's and 90's like you couldn't believe. I was unafraid to go to Yankee game with my family and friends. Now, forget it!
Spot on, as always. Dems are reacting as if Trump woke up one morning, decided the ground was too wet for golf, and said "let's send the National Guard and Marines to Downtown LA."
The "mostly peaceful" crew and those that claim the mob is only a few dozen people having fun "watching cars burn", still do not grasp how insane they sound. They are often in front of a backdrop of people hurling Molotov cocktails, rioters dropping cinder blocks off of overpasses, tossing rocks at cops and breaking windows in a federal building, via skateboards.
The long time undocumented being caught up in the sweeps, after living peacefully in the US for decades, are Biden's victims, not Trump's. Biden purposefully imported 10 million unvetted people. Millions of which, did not claim asylum at a valid port of entry or have been issued Final Orders of Deportation. Some have serious criminal backgrounds and/ or gang ties. Someone was going to attempt to remove them. And it was entirely foreseeable, the long time undocumented might be caught up in the removals. The people may be great additions to our nation, but they do not reside legally in the US .
Reps need to ask Dems their baseline. Dem policy seems to be the US is a giant global home base. If migrants can make it to US soil, they should never be removed, unless they are violently criminal, or never removed, at all. While the former can sound somewhat benign, the Math does not work.
We are a country of 335 million. Polling shows between 750 million and 1 billion global residents would reside in the US, if allowed to do so. Chucking our immigration laws, will be a bad combination, with the next Democratic President. There is no Dem faction demanding even new migrant removal, now. So it stands to reason the next Dem in the WH, will again dissolve the Southern Border. If the world believes they will never be removed from the US, unless violently criminal, the next time a Dem occupies the WH, it will not be 10 million people crossing the US Southern border, but 30 or 50 million.
Just like they are reacting as if he woke up one morning, decided the ground was too wet for golf, and said “Let’s put Harvard out of business.”
They have built Trump up into a cartoon figure at this point, to the extent that they cannot acknowledge that his actions have any motive other than pure, irrational evil.
One can certainly disagree with his decisions or his methods. But to elide the existence of very real problems which motivated those decisions - including the fact that the violence in LA was out of control before the decision was made to send in the Guard and is still not under control now - is disingenuous and unhelpful to the millions of regular Americans who deserve a fair picture of what is going on.
The problem isn't that Trump is having ICE conduct raids or sending in troops to protect the perimeter of those raids or back stop local police. I think sending in the Guard/Marines wasn't really necessary, especially absent a request from the local authorities, but I could at least see the justification.
The problem is he as expressed so many other autocratic desires, e.g. using the military to seize election machines to void or prevent an electoral result he doesn't like, that should concern everyone with Trump's quick rush to send in the military. If he is quick to send in the military in the current cases, the bar is lower for doing it in the future for much less justifiable reasons.
How much damage are federal tax payers expected to absorb, without a federal response? On the West Coast during the Summer of Love , an occupied Federal Court House was set on fire. Is the President expected to just watch as vandals smash nearly every reachable window in a federal building, or cover it in graffiti, that is expensive to remove?
Tim Walz called in the National Guard only after millions or billions in damage. At that point, after curfew Minnesota residents were not allowed to stand outside, on their own front steps, on their own property, withou threat of arrest. Yet I do not recall any Dems upset with the policy.
Marines and National Guard are not rounding people up. They are defending federal property and public safety, or offering support to local peace officers. Dems should just be honest, they would have no problem with the Marine and National Guard presence, if anyone on earth but Trump ordered them.
President Trump has already said that he was not going to tolerate a repeat of what happened in Minneapolis after George Floyd's death when the Minneapolis police stood by on orders from the Democratic mayor while the city burned. No one in charge in CA was interested in putting a halt to this, so President Trump did.
Your assumption is not only that Trump is attempting backdoor Martial law, but that the Marines and National Guard would impose it, after Courts championed it Statistically speaking, many are Dems, does that seem remotely possible?
It is like Dems assuming Federal Marshalls, the oldest police force in the US with universal jurisdiction, would stop protecting Judges en mass, if told Trump told them to do so. Forgive my bluntness, but that requires near total irrationality.
If there is an ongoing order that says the military can essentially be directed to do anything the president SecDef says in order "to temporarily protect ICE and other United States Government personnel who are performing Federal functions, including the enforcement of Federal law, and to protect Federal property, at locations where protests against these functions are occurring or are likely to occur based on current threat assessments and planned operations", then all Trump need do is tell the Marshalls "we have determined there is a high likelihood of violent protests in [insert wherever judge X lives]" or "we suspect [judge X] is involved in subversive activity against the government", and off they go.
Such an order now exists--and the deployment of the military into LA was the pretext used to issue it.
When local authorities request it is the obvious case. I don't think the President has called up the military without a request from a Governor or Mayor since the civil rights era. When it was done during the Civil Rights era, it was to enforce court orders. They may have been times when the President just did it on his own, but I'm not aware of any in the modern era.
I'd argue one of the things the made the US so special for so long is how rare our military has gotten involve in domestic events.
I think I'll take the LAPD Chief of Police's judgment over Trump's. (or yours, for that matter) He's in a better position to understand the conditions on the ground than any of us.
***McDonnell:***
"We’re nowhere near a level where we would be reaching out to the governor for National Guard at this stage.”
A: "What I see is the National Guard and now the marines are there. And I read the statement that they put out there to facilitate the federal agents that are out there. Our role here is, like I said, very different. It's to restore order to the streets of Los Angeles and that very small part of Los Angeles that is impacted. And we have a protocol for that with our mutual aid partners."
Q: "The Marines are here, they're used to war zones. Are you concerned about them interfacing with protesters?"
A: "Certainly a concern, you know. *Any time anybody comes in the city and we're not clear on what roles and responsibilities are, there's a concern. I worry for our own people, I worry for residents of the city,* and for those impacted military partners that are in here and working hard at what they're doing, but it is very separate from what we're doing.
To this day, I still haven't voted for a Republican in a presidential. election. I have cast write-in votes in the last three elections rather than bring myself to vote Republican. But this is the last straw. In '28, Trump will be gone and Vance will be the nominee. I very much doubt that I'll have any trouble voting for him.
The Democratic Party has become unrecognizable to me. I honestly think they have a political death wish, which is just as well. I'd rather see them crash and burn -- the more spectacularly the better -- and then be replaced with something else, than to continue. I think the situation has become unrecoverable. What a tragedy.
Yes, same here.. lifelong Democrat, never voted for a Republican (although in last election, I fudged and voted 3rd party because I also could not vote Democrat)… but maybe by ‘28 without Trump on ballot? (My hopes that the Democrats will see the light are quickly waning)
It took the Democrats three straight defeats in the 1980s to shove the party toward the center. If it takes three straight defeats this time, it will be too late because the 2030 census and subsequent reapportionment is going to shift a dozen electoral votes from blue to red and demolish the so-called "blue wall."
The level of political malpractice is so stunning as to make me uncork my gravest insult: "stupid." Ohio. Missouri. Iowa. Nebraska. The Dakotas. Montana. They have all been in play. They have all sent Democrats to the Senate. So has Florida. Gone! Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and New Hampshire are on the bubble. Hell, even Texas and Arkansas have sent Democrats to the Senate. Gone!
I can respect error, and even corruption. I cannot respect rank stupidity.
For a long time coming north to make some money was a great thing. Crossing cost a couple hundred and went up to three or four hundred. One could work and go home for Christmas. Obama tightened up the rules and if you got busted for domestic strife or a drunk car accident you might get deported, but things were generally good, especially if you lived in a city with welcoming policies.
When crossing started costing a thousand, then three, and ten, people tended to stay and send for families. Unfairly there were special classes of people who could claim asylum, but then all of the southern border is unfair compared to the difficulty for the rest of the world many of whom have to wait in line and go the legal route.
Wages in construction have suffered, and still do. Young guys if they didn't go to college, if they unplanned became a father, or otherwise grew up enough to become responsible, used to be able to work construction and earn a good wage, set up a small business even. Now that safety valve is shut off, and there are two generations of men without a decent paying dangerous hard job to do.
The good times of earning money by coming north need to end and people need to go home. I don't want to sound unwelcoming to some great guys but we need to take care of our own.
"But what’s unfolding in California should make it glaringly obvious that Democrats aren’t yet ready for a real reckoning with the party’s toxic brand on immigration, crime, and public order and the fight with the party’s left that would inevitably produce. Voters are noticing and will penalize the Democrats accordingly."
That's where my wife and I are. 50-year Democratic voters who switched to Trump because the party, infested by progressives, looks nothing like it used to. We want order and laws and law enforcement. You know, little things like safety. Imagine that!
If someone like Emanuel can miraculously get the nomination, we'll quickly return to our past beloved Democratic Party. But, unfortunately, we'll get a Gavin or someone like him.
And we will continue to wander in the wilderness politically.
"When I see activists carrying Mexican flags as they challenge ICE raids in Los Angeles this week, I think of two possibilities: These “protesters” are deliberately working to create visuals that will help Trump, or they are well-meaning but unwise dissenters who are inadvertently accomplishing the same goal."
Or the third... and it confirms the nation's popular mood about immigration in general... that these are foreign nationals disloyal to the US and with a mindset of criminality to loot as much as they can from the US... and they are just being authentic. And their authenticity aligns very nicely with the average upper-class liberal Democrat that also loots from the US and is disloyal to the US.
I think it's safe to say that we can eliminate "well meaning" from the mix. And I flatly do not believe that the Trump administration is conspiring to vandalize federal facilities and attack federal law enforcement agents. Yeah, yeah. Reichstag Fire. Hotsi tatsi, Nazis!
There are many potential reasons for the blindness of the left: 1) They don't know any better but they're sure they're right. 2) They're overcome with scorn and dislike for the majority. 3) They really are anti-American (this goes back to sex, drugs, rock n roll, and the Viet Nam war -- and I liked a lot of those things). 4) They still can't believe they lost in 2024. 5) They believe they're doing good. To gain back the control, they need to change, or Trump needs to do too many unattractive things. Either will do it.
Goes back to the Iron Law: "You can always tell a 'progressive,' but you can never tell a 'progressive' anything because they think they are smarter and better than everyone else." God forbid that they will ever admit even a minor mistake let alone a serious one.
The blindness of politicians (much more notable on the left these days, as you note) can be summed up by mankind's source for wisdom, meant to warn us of what not to do, "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes". Jud 21:25
I think the melodrama from the left (e.g. the ubiquitous "first they came for the Communists" posts on social media) is wearing thin.
Four years of open borders created a big problem, and big problems require big solutions. And a few ICE raids for criminal illegal aliens in LA doesn't cross the line at all.
The left is clearly not interested in giving up its gains (i.e. expected Hispanic votes). They will drag their feet, bitching and moaning the entire way.
As near as I can tell, amidst all the media disinformation, the National Guard's role is to protect Federal buildings and perhaps Federal officers when they are conducting an operation which can lead to confrontation with rioters only when they attack such buildings or officers. The Marines are sitting 20 miles away as a backup. All the scenes of street fighting I have seen involve the LAPD and not the Federal forces. The LAPD has shot enough reporters with rubber bullets to make one think that reporters are being targeted or that reporters comprise a large portion of the crowds. In any event, they are not under Trump's command.
For Democrats who have to know better to blame Trump for the chaos because he brought in the National Guard to return order is a little like blaming the umbrella carried out on a cloudy day for the subsequent rainfall.
Maybe when Democrats as a whole follow Texeira's truth-telling lead with honesty about what is transpiring in Los Angeles and the stakes not just for L.A. or the Democratic Party but the nation, there can be real dialogue and resolution without violence.
In the meantime, with so many Democrats in positions of power and responsibility either turning a blind eye to what is happening in L.A. or actively sympathizing if not openly supporting it, might this shed light on the wider political culpability for the grave White House missteps during four years of the ghost Biden presidency? Asking for a friend.
It is my understanding that some of the people surrounding Biden once he took office had positions far to the left from anything Biden had promised during the campaign, particularly in the area of immigration. It is possible that Biden’s infirmities may have allowed these voices to prevail, to the country’s detriment.
This moment in time would be perfect for Dem leaders in blue cities to go out of their way to help ICE identify the illegals who are criminals and hurting their communities. If ICE ignores them and goes after the landscaper who's been working here for >10 years, then the Dem leaders can claim a moral high ground. Doubtful that will happen, and DJT will just keep exploiting this opportunity.
If conditions in 2028 are similar to the current political environment, a moderate sensible Democrat would beat JD Vance in a landslide with Democrats winning majorities in both the House and the Senate. MAGA has no plans to reduce the annual federal budget deficits; the looming crises in Medicare and Social Security will be that much closer; tens of millions of Americans will still fear medical bankruptcy; and much else.
But the far, woke Left controls the Democratic nominating process because they vote in primaries at extremely high rates because left-wing politics is their cause in life. Most mainstream Democrats stay home and don't vote until the general election and in many states independents can't participate in major party primaries. So the wokesters will choose the Democratic nominee, invariably someone who is all-in on the transgender mania, i.e.-XYs in XX sports; de facto open borders policies; hostility to law enforcement; subservience to public employee unions, especially in education; NIMBY opposition to home-building which makes housing unaffordable for most people; extreme DEI and identity politics advocacy which repels a large majority of people, especially young white men; etc. ,etc.
If a Democratic candidate in 2028 wanted to make sure that he/she lost the general election for President, what would he/she do differently than what I describe in my second paragraph?
Blaming MAGA is not a platform. What is Dem plan for reducing the deficit (as far as I can tell they are against any cuts to any program), what will Dems do to fix Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security? If you submit concrete proposals you might have a chance.
The Democratic plan is to raise taxes so that there will be no benefit cuts to SS and Medicare. Like it or not, a large majority of the public - including a majority of Republican voters - will support that plan.
If the choice is raising taxes or reducing SS and Medicare benefits, all polling shows that raising taxes is by far what a large majority will choose - including Republicans.
that's a false choice. nobody is suggesting cutting benefits for current beneficiaries.
that is push-poll nonsense.
Not to mention it will get demogogued to death.
R ad: Democrats have a gun to your head and will cut your grandmother's benefits unless you agree to tax hikes to fund __________________ insert whatever bullshit woke D priority.
No cuts to SS and Medicare is what Trump supports. Their funding shortfalls will have to be made up by increased FICA taxes and/or infusions of general revenues.
I'm a registered independent not tied to either major party. I don't doubt that there are several hundreds of billions of dollars worth of inefficiencies, fraud, and waste in the federal budget - still not enough to cut the nearly $2 trillion annual deficit in half. Given what a large majority of the American public favors, we have long been undertaxed.
The public is far more favorable toward Trump than Ruy suggests. Take, for example, Right Track/Wrong Track polling results. The American public today believes the direction of the nation is on the Right Track by the highest percentage in the past 16 years! This is a poll that measures the generalized feelings of all voters and is less distorted by personalities. It's hard to dismiss these results as biased or unrepresentative. As for the polls regarding Trump's favorability, all I would say is that the polling firms that did the best job of measuring voter opinion in the 2024 election- Trafalgar, Insider Advantage, and Rasmussen - all have Trump's favorability well over 50%. I see no credible evidence that Trump's approval among the general public is "declining." To the contrary, his favorability is likely to continue to rise as Democrats reflexively support illegal alien criminals, looters, and rioters, and as they continue to tell Americans not to believe their lying eyes.
Ruy again nails the recurring Democrat dilemma. But are Democrats listening? David Hogg certainly is not. Buried in failure, Gavin Newsom is throwing a Hail Mary, seeming to pretend that someone else presided over California’s kaleidoscope of failures. The current Democratic Party has a paucity of grown ups.
Game, set and match to the Republicans, right? Not so fast. With his impulsive and contradictory policy decrees, Trump shoots himself in the foot so often it’s a miracle he can walk. And why is no one talking about the Posse Comitatus Act? Deploying the Marines domestically is a terrible idea that could really backfire on Trump and the Republicans.
Why are the mostly good and hard working people of this country so poorly led? Simple. Instead of focusing on policy specifics, facts and trade offs, the party duopoly turns us against each other. A lifelong independent, I’ve never understood why anyone would commit their allegiance to these self-serving intermediary organizations.
There are two separate issues that need to be dissociated, but are mushed together here and in too much of the commentary: a) the violent, riotous conduct associated with (but to be distinguished from) the protests and b) Trump's entirely inappropriate and illegal intervention, which, deliberately exacerbates the problem. Keeping the two separate is essential if the Democrats are going to come up with a clear and convincing line on these things.
Similarly, there are three types of people active in these things (more to come this weekend): a) legitimate, peaceful protesters, who need to express strong feelings about Trump's excesses and (or) about immigration policy (which are not the same thing); b) romantic lefties who are playing anarchist or think they are starting the "revolution" and are therefore tempted to attack or bait the police (even when they are legitimately doing their job); and c) opportunistic vandals and looters who just want to have a fun riot, exploiting the situation. Trump calls all these people "protesters", but the media should not follow him. There is a big difference between legitimate protesters, the play-acting lefties, and the opportunistic rioters. The media should draw sharp lines, otherwise the public will slide into Trump's view.
And, of course, the legitimate protesters should forego self-defeating tactics such as waving foreign flags or signs attacking the police.
And to add to the Dems' collective insanity Zohran Mamdani (who is rapidly moving up the polls in the NYC mayoral Dem primary) thinks the NYPD should be removed specifically from high-crime areas.
He says that’s as mayor, he’d replace cops with social workers—and turn the subway into a network of homeless shelters. If there were ever a strategy to turn Gotham into a red city, I can't think of a better one than electing this guy (not that Andrew Cuomo is much of a prize either)
Imagine telling the upper middle class and the truly wealthy there would be no more cops in their neighborhoods, instead social workers would be protect their children and spouses. They would very quickly, and not very quietly, remove their leaders.
Exactly. Social unrest and de-funding of the police do not reach the suburbs. My liberal friends in L.A. are all for the protests and collateral damages… just not in their tony neighborhoods.
You will have to search for this given the forbidden word, but it's very worth it. Find the wickedly funny parody of Joan Baez from the National Lampoon's "Radio Dinner" album, 1972. A perfect fit.
"Just because I can't be there / Doesn't mean that I don't care / So next time brother, off a pig for me."
Virtue-signaling faux leftists are irritating as hell, but they aren't new. Back in the day of uncensored comedy, NatLampCo nailed it. LOL
Impossible to turn NYC into a red city. Crime and homelessness is the hairshirt that guilty progressives wear and bear.
Keep in mind that they elected Guiliani
And Bloomberg, who was in reality more of a Republican than Dem. I could see a serious reaction if rhe Dem nominee is Mamdani
Yeah. It's sad that Mayor G lost his way. He cleaned up NYC in the 80's and 90's like you couldn't believe. I was unafraid to go to Yankee game with my family and friends. Now, forget it!
The downward trajectory of Guiliani's career is stunning. From America's Mayor to a national joke....wow
Seemed like early stage dementia to me.
I think i give him more agency
Thats true. The rest of the city council was pure communist though
That's hilarious-But true!!! These Democrats are so out of touch!!!
Spot on, as always. Dems are reacting as if Trump woke up one morning, decided the ground was too wet for golf, and said "let's send the National Guard and Marines to Downtown LA."
The "mostly peaceful" crew and those that claim the mob is only a few dozen people having fun "watching cars burn", still do not grasp how insane they sound. They are often in front of a backdrop of people hurling Molotov cocktails, rioters dropping cinder blocks off of overpasses, tossing rocks at cops and breaking windows in a federal building, via skateboards.
The long time undocumented being caught up in the sweeps, after living peacefully in the US for decades, are Biden's victims, not Trump's. Biden purposefully imported 10 million unvetted people. Millions of which, did not claim asylum at a valid port of entry or have been issued Final Orders of Deportation. Some have serious criminal backgrounds and/ or gang ties. Someone was going to attempt to remove them. And it was entirely foreseeable, the long time undocumented might be caught up in the removals. The people may be great additions to our nation, but they do not reside legally in the US .
Reps need to ask Dems their baseline. Dem policy seems to be the US is a giant global home base. If migrants can make it to US soil, they should never be removed, unless they are violently criminal, or never removed, at all. While the former can sound somewhat benign, the Math does not work.
We are a country of 335 million. Polling shows between 750 million and 1 billion global residents would reside in the US, if allowed to do so. Chucking our immigration laws, will be a bad combination, with the next Democratic President. There is no Dem faction demanding even new migrant removal, now. So it stands to reason the next Dem in the WH, will again dissolve the Southern Border. If the world believes they will never be removed from the US, unless violently criminal, the next time a Dem occupies the WH, it will not be 10 million people crossing the US Southern border, but 30 or 50 million.
Just like they are reacting as if he woke up one morning, decided the ground was too wet for golf, and said “Let’s put Harvard out of business.”
They have built Trump up into a cartoon figure at this point, to the extent that they cannot acknowledge that his actions have any motive other than pure, irrational evil.
One can certainly disagree with his decisions or his methods. But to elide the existence of very real problems which motivated those decisions - including the fact that the violence in LA was out of control before the decision was made to send in the Guard and is still not under control now - is disingenuous and unhelpful to the millions of regular Americans who deserve a fair picture of what is going on.
The problem isn't that Trump is having ICE conduct raids or sending in troops to protect the perimeter of those raids or back stop local police. I think sending in the Guard/Marines wasn't really necessary, especially absent a request from the local authorities, but I could at least see the justification.
The problem is he as expressed so many other autocratic desires, e.g. using the military to seize election machines to void or prevent an electoral result he doesn't like, that should concern everyone with Trump's quick rush to send in the military. If he is quick to send in the military in the current cases, the bar is lower for doing it in the future for much less justifiable reasons.
How much damage are federal tax payers expected to absorb, without a federal response? On the West Coast during the Summer of Love , an occupied Federal Court House was set on fire. Is the President expected to just watch as vandals smash nearly every reachable window in a federal building, or cover it in graffiti, that is expensive to remove?
Tim Walz called in the National Guard only after millions or billions in damage. At that point, after curfew Minnesota residents were not allowed to stand outside, on their own front steps, on their own property, withou threat of arrest. Yet I do not recall any Dems upset with the policy.
Marines and National Guard are not rounding people up. They are defending federal property and public safety, or offering support to local peace officers. Dems should just be honest, they would have no problem with the Marine and National Guard presence, if anyone on earth but Trump ordered them.
President Trump has already said that he was not going to tolerate a repeat of what happened in Minneapolis after George Floyd's death when the Minneapolis police stood by on orders from the Democratic mayor while the city burned. No one in charge in CA was interested in putting a halt to this, so President Trump did.
Your assumption is not only that Trump is attempting backdoor Martial law, but that the Marines and National Guard would impose it, after Courts championed it Statistically speaking, many are Dems, does that seem remotely possible?
It is like Dems assuming Federal Marshalls, the oldest police force in the US with universal jurisdiction, would stop protecting Judges en mass, if told Trump told them to do so. Forgive my bluntness, but that requires near total irrationality.
If there is an ongoing order that says the military can essentially be directed to do anything the president SecDef says in order "to temporarily protect ICE and other United States Government personnel who are performing Federal functions, including the enforcement of Federal law, and to protect Federal property, at locations where protests against these functions are occurring or are likely to occur based on current threat assessments and planned operations", then all Trump need do is tell the Marshalls "we have determined there is a high likelihood of violent protests in [insert wherever judge X lives]" or "we suspect [judge X] is involved in subversive activity against the government", and off they go.
Such an order now exists--and the deployment of the military into LA was the pretext used to issue it.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/06/department-of-defense-security-for-the-protection-of-department-of-homeland-security-functions/
Agree.
When local authorities request it is the obvious case. I don't think the President has called up the military without a request from a Governor or Mayor since the civil rights era. When it was done during the Civil Rights era, it was to enforce court orders. They may have been times when the President just did it on his own, but I'm not aware of any in the modern era.
I'd argue one of the things the made the US so special for so long is how rare our military has gotten involve in domestic events.
The United States is not the receptacle for the people of all the world’s failed states.
I think I'll take the LAPD Chief of Police's judgment over Trump's. (or yours, for that matter) He's in a better position to understand the conditions on the ground than any of us.
***McDonnell:***
"We’re nowhere near a level where we would be reaching out to the governor for National Guard at this stage.”
https://youtube.com/shorts/tVb1ZEC9NoE?si=gltIgHy62J3KukDb
***Also McDonnell:***
"Collins played the clip for McDonnell and asked whether he agrees with Trump’s characterization of his past statement.
“No, we were not in a position to request the National Guard,” McDonnell reiterated."
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5346247-lapd-chief-donald-trump-national-guard-la-protests/
https://youtube.com/shorts/tVb1ZEC9NoE?si=gltIgHy62J3KukDb
***Also McDonnell:***
A: "What I see is the National Guard and now the marines are there. And I read the statement that they put out there to facilitate the federal agents that are out there. Our role here is, like I said, very different. It's to restore order to the streets of Los Angeles and that very small part of Los Angeles that is impacted. And we have a protocol for that with our mutual aid partners."
Q: "The Marines are here, they're used to war zones. Are you concerned about them interfacing with protesters?"
A: "Certainly a concern, you know. *Any time anybody comes in the city and we're not clear on what roles and responsibilities are, there's a concern. I worry for our own people, I worry for residents of the city,* and for those impacted military partners that are in here and working hard at what they're doing, but it is very separate from what we're doing.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/la-police-chief-national-guard-focused-on-immigration-agenda-not-helping-with-protests/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab6a&linkId=829759875&fbclid=IwY2xjawK4aF5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFoR2ZuNmdUVmFFd2l1VlpDAR70s20pAFYiHlRqwpn19IY0q7PwTvQbF4i8uNFlWrOHabiEc-HsZ5xkvrcZZw_aem_9nMq0436qonmERV-MrMYcQ
To this day, I still haven't voted for a Republican in a presidential. election. I have cast write-in votes in the last three elections rather than bring myself to vote Republican. But this is the last straw. In '28, Trump will be gone and Vance will be the nominee. I very much doubt that I'll have any trouble voting for him.
The Democratic Party has become unrecognizable to me. I honestly think they have a political death wish, which is just as well. I'd rather see them crash and burn -- the more spectacularly the better -- and then be replaced with something else, than to continue. I think the situation has become unrecoverable. What a tragedy.
Yes, same here.. lifelong Democrat, never voted for a Republican (although in last election, I fudged and voted 3rd party because I also could not vote Democrat)… but maybe by ‘28 without Trump on ballot? (My hopes that the Democrats will see the light are quickly waning)
It took the Democrats three straight defeats in the 1980s to shove the party toward the center. If it takes three straight defeats this time, it will be too late because the 2030 census and subsequent reapportionment is going to shift a dozen electoral votes from blue to red and demolish the so-called "blue wall."
The level of political malpractice is so stunning as to make me uncork my gravest insult: "stupid." Ohio. Missouri. Iowa. Nebraska. The Dakotas. Montana. They have all been in play. They have all sent Democrats to the Senate. So has Florida. Gone! Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and New Hampshire are on the bubble. Hell, even Texas and Arkansas have sent Democrats to the Senate. Gone!
I can respect error, and even corruption. I cannot respect rank stupidity.
For a long time coming north to make some money was a great thing. Crossing cost a couple hundred and went up to three or four hundred. One could work and go home for Christmas. Obama tightened up the rules and if you got busted for domestic strife or a drunk car accident you might get deported, but things were generally good, especially if you lived in a city with welcoming policies.
When crossing started costing a thousand, then three, and ten, people tended to stay and send for families. Unfairly there were special classes of people who could claim asylum, but then all of the southern border is unfair compared to the difficulty for the rest of the world many of whom have to wait in line and go the legal route.
Wages in construction have suffered, and still do. Young guys if they didn't go to college, if they unplanned became a father, or otherwise grew up enough to become responsible, used to be able to work construction and earn a good wage, set up a small business even. Now that safety valve is shut off, and there are two generations of men without a decent paying dangerous hard job to do.
The good times of earning money by coming north need to end and people need to go home. I don't want to sound unwelcoming to some great guys but we need to take care of our own.
Another good article.
"But what’s unfolding in California should make it glaringly obvious that Democrats aren’t yet ready for a real reckoning with the party’s toxic brand on immigration, crime, and public order and the fight with the party’s left that would inevitably produce. Voters are noticing and will penalize the Democrats accordingly."
That's where my wife and I are. 50-year Democratic voters who switched to Trump because the party, infested by progressives, looks nothing like it used to. We want order and laws and law enforcement. You know, little things like safety. Imagine that!
If someone like Emanuel can miraculously get the nomination, we'll quickly return to our past beloved Democratic Party. But, unfortunately, we'll get a Gavin or someone like him.
And we will continue to wander in the wilderness politically.
I'm not seeing any prominent Dems other the Pennsylvania Sen. Hoodie talking sensibly about the California situation, or about immigration.
"When I see activists carrying Mexican flags as they challenge ICE raids in Los Angeles this week, I think of two possibilities: These “protesters” are deliberately working to create visuals that will help Trump, or they are well-meaning but unwise dissenters who are inadvertently accomplishing the same goal."
Or the third... and it confirms the nation's popular mood about immigration in general... that these are foreign nationals disloyal to the US and with a mindset of criminality to loot as much as they can from the US... and they are just being authentic. And their authenticity aligns very nicely with the average upper-class liberal Democrat that also loots from the US and is disloyal to the US.
I think it's safe to say that we can eliminate "well meaning" from the mix. And I flatly do not believe that the Trump administration is conspiring to vandalize federal facilities and attack federal law enforcement agents. Yeah, yeah. Reichstag Fire. Hotsi tatsi, Nazis!
There are many potential reasons for the blindness of the left: 1) They don't know any better but they're sure they're right. 2) They're overcome with scorn and dislike for the majority. 3) They really are anti-American (this goes back to sex, drugs, rock n roll, and the Viet Nam war -- and I liked a lot of those things). 4) They still can't believe they lost in 2024. 5) They believe they're doing good. To gain back the control, they need to change, or Trump needs to do too many unattractive things. Either will do it.
Goes back to the Iron Law: "You can always tell a 'progressive,' but you can never tell a 'progressive' anything because they think they are smarter and better than everyone else." God forbid that they will ever admit even a minor mistake let alone a serious one.
The blindness of politicians (much more notable on the left these days, as you note) can be summed up by mankind's source for wisdom, meant to warn us of what not to do, "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes". Jud 21:25
I think the melodrama from the left (e.g. the ubiquitous "first they came for the Communists" posts on social media) is wearing thin.
Four years of open borders created a big problem, and big problems require big solutions. And a few ICE raids for criminal illegal aliens in LA doesn't cross the line at all.
The left is clearly not interested in giving up its gains (i.e. expected Hispanic votes). They will drag their feet, bitching and moaning the entire way.
As near as I can tell, amidst all the media disinformation, the National Guard's role is to protect Federal buildings and perhaps Federal officers when they are conducting an operation which can lead to confrontation with rioters only when they attack such buildings or officers. The Marines are sitting 20 miles away as a backup. All the scenes of street fighting I have seen involve the LAPD and not the Federal forces. The LAPD has shot enough reporters with rubber bullets to make one think that reporters are being targeted or that reporters comprise a large portion of the crowds. In any event, they are not under Trump's command.
Bad idea for anyone, reporter or otherwise, to stand between the police and a crowd.
Thank you Ruy Teixeira.
For Democrats who have to know better to blame Trump for the chaos because he brought in the National Guard to return order is a little like blaming the umbrella carried out on a cloudy day for the subsequent rainfall.
Maybe when Democrats as a whole follow Texeira's truth-telling lead with honesty about what is transpiring in Los Angeles and the stakes not just for L.A. or the Democratic Party but the nation, there can be real dialogue and resolution without violence.
In the meantime, with so many Democrats in positions of power and responsibility either turning a blind eye to what is happening in L.A. or actively sympathizing if not openly supporting it, might this shed light on the wider political culpability for the grave White House missteps during four years of the ghost Biden presidency? Asking for a friend.
It is my understanding that some of the people surrounding Biden once he took office had positions far to the left from anything Biden had promised during the campaign, particularly in the area of immigration. It is possible that Biden’s infirmities may have allowed these voices to prevail, to the country’s detriment.
Newsom and Bass and ALL politicians should be asked: Will you enforce the immigration laws? Will your local police cooperate with ICE?
Newsom might very well win the Dem nomination, but he will get smoked in the general.
This moment in time would be perfect for Dem leaders in blue cities to go out of their way to help ICE identify the illegals who are criminals and hurting their communities. If ICE ignores them and goes after the landscaper who's been working here for >10 years, then the Dem leaders can claim a moral high ground. Doubtful that will happen, and DJT will just keep exploiting this opportunity.
If conditions in 2028 are similar to the current political environment, a moderate sensible Democrat would beat JD Vance in a landslide with Democrats winning majorities in both the House and the Senate. MAGA has no plans to reduce the annual federal budget deficits; the looming crises in Medicare and Social Security will be that much closer; tens of millions of Americans will still fear medical bankruptcy; and much else.
But the far, woke Left controls the Democratic nominating process because they vote in primaries at extremely high rates because left-wing politics is their cause in life. Most mainstream Democrats stay home and don't vote until the general election and in many states independents can't participate in major party primaries. So the wokesters will choose the Democratic nominee, invariably someone who is all-in on the transgender mania, i.e.-XYs in XX sports; de facto open borders policies; hostility to law enforcement; subservience to public employee unions, especially in education; NIMBY opposition to home-building which makes housing unaffordable for most people; extreme DEI and identity politics advocacy which repels a large majority of people, especially young white men; etc. ,etc.
If a Democratic candidate in 2028 wanted to make sure that he/she lost the general election for President, what would he/she do differently than what I describe in my second paragraph?
Blaming MAGA is not a platform. What is Dem plan for reducing the deficit (as far as I can tell they are against any cuts to any program), what will Dems do to fix Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security? If you submit concrete proposals you might have a chance.
The Democratic plan is to raise taxes so that there will be no benefit cuts to SS and Medicare. Like it or not, a large majority of the public - including a majority of Republican voters - will support that plan.
"I will raise your taxes" sure worked for President Mondale. Remember him?
no, nobody is going to support raising taxes, at least not without sizeable spending cuts.
The idea that tax increases are popular is pure wishcasting.
If the choice is raising taxes or reducing SS and Medicare benefits, all polling shows that raising taxes is by far what a large majority will choose - including Republicans.
that's a false choice. nobody is suggesting cutting benefits for current beneficiaries.
that is push-poll nonsense.
Not to mention it will get demogogued to death.
R ad: Democrats have a gun to your head and will cut your grandmother's benefits unless you agree to tax hikes to fund __________________ insert whatever bullshit woke D priority.
You'll be lucky to carry Park Slope.
What specific cuts are you proposing to make to the budget?
No cuts to SS and Medicare is what Trump supports. Their funding shortfalls will have to be made up by increased FICA taxes and/or infusions of general revenues.
Forget Trump, do you (Dems) have any proposed cuts? Specific cuts?
I'm a registered independent not tied to either major party. I don't doubt that there are several hundreds of billions of dollars worth of inefficiencies, fraud, and waste in the federal budget - still not enough to cut the nearly $2 trillion annual deficit in half. Given what a large majority of the American public favors, we have long been undertaxed.
The left has no plan to reduce the deficit either, aside from raising taxes which isn't popular.
The public is far more favorable toward Trump than Ruy suggests. Take, for example, Right Track/Wrong Track polling results. The American public today believes the direction of the nation is on the Right Track by the highest percentage in the past 16 years! This is a poll that measures the generalized feelings of all voters and is less distorted by personalities. It's hard to dismiss these results as biased or unrepresentative. As for the polls regarding Trump's favorability, all I would say is that the polling firms that did the best job of measuring voter opinion in the 2024 election- Trafalgar, Insider Advantage, and Rasmussen - all have Trump's favorability well over 50%. I see no credible evidence that Trump's approval among the general public is "declining." To the contrary, his favorability is likely to continue to rise as Democrats reflexively support illegal alien criminals, looters, and rioters, and as they continue to tell Americans not to believe their lying eyes.
Ruy again nails the recurring Democrat dilemma. But are Democrats listening? David Hogg certainly is not. Buried in failure, Gavin Newsom is throwing a Hail Mary, seeming to pretend that someone else presided over California’s kaleidoscope of failures. The current Democratic Party has a paucity of grown ups.
Game, set and match to the Republicans, right? Not so fast. With his impulsive and contradictory policy decrees, Trump shoots himself in the foot so often it’s a miracle he can walk. And why is no one talking about the Posse Comitatus Act? Deploying the Marines domestically is a terrible idea that could really backfire on Trump and the Republicans.
Why are the mostly good and hard working people of this country so poorly led? Simple. Instead of focusing on policy specifics, facts and trade offs, the party duopoly turns us against each other. A lifelong independent, I’ve never understood why anyone would commit their allegiance to these self-serving intermediary organizations.
There are two separate issues that need to be dissociated, but are mushed together here and in too much of the commentary: a) the violent, riotous conduct associated with (but to be distinguished from) the protests and b) Trump's entirely inappropriate and illegal intervention, which, deliberately exacerbates the problem. Keeping the two separate is essential if the Democrats are going to come up with a clear and convincing line on these things.
Similarly, there are three types of people active in these things (more to come this weekend): a) legitimate, peaceful protesters, who need to express strong feelings about Trump's excesses and (or) about immigration policy (which are not the same thing); b) romantic lefties who are playing anarchist or think they are starting the "revolution" and are therefore tempted to attack or bait the police (even when they are legitimately doing their job); and c) opportunistic vandals and looters who just want to have a fun riot, exploiting the situation. Trump calls all these people "protesters", but the media should not follow him. There is a big difference between legitimate protesters, the play-acting lefties, and the opportunistic rioters. The media should draw sharp lines, otherwise the public will slide into Trump's view.
And, of course, the legitimate protesters should forego self-defeating tactics such as waving foreign flags or signs attacking the police.
Trump has the legal authority to use the Guard and even the Marines. Stop lying.