The War Between the States Redux
An architect of Project 2025, the right wing blueprint for the authoritarian takeover of the United States, once infamously declared it was part of a “second American Revolution” that will be bloodless “if the left allows it to be.”
But Donald Trump doesn’t intend to leave anything to chance. After declaring the American military should use “dangerous” American cities as “training grounds” he’s doing all he can to drum up that violence in places like Portland, Oregon, where protesters have been “ICE fishing” by dangled doughnuts in front of law enforcement officers to protest the regime’s immigration crackdown.
Not violent enough for you? How about ICE agents in full battle rattle invading a Chicago apartment building, rappelling from Black Hawk helicopters, firing chemical agents and rousting sleeping residents into the street, zip-tying children.
If Americans won’t take the initiative to start a riot he dreams about to justify his invoking the Insurrection Act, then he’ll do what he can to help them along.
All aided and abetted by right wing “media” like the Fox Propaganda Channel, which aired five-year-old footage from after George Floyd’s murder to assure the Dictator-in-Chief that Portland is a “war zone” that is “burning to the ground.”
Never mind the city’s police chief says:
“No, I would not say Portland’s war-ravaged. It’s not a narrative that’s consistent with what’s actually happening now. Granted, 2020 and ‘21, that conversation made a lot more sense.”
Oh, is it worth noting that Portland’s city council includes four Democratic Socialists, elected in free and fair elections?
Then there is Chicago, where Governor JB Pritzker, after expressing outrage at the commando-style assault on an apartment building where many American citizens live, called out Trump’s fantasy about the city on Lake Michigan:
“Federal agents were ‘just picking up people who are brown and Black and then checking their credentials. They are the ones that are making it a war zone. They need to get out of Chicago if they’re not going to focus on the worst of the worst, which is what the president said they were going to do.’”
Facing continued inflation, falling poll numbers, a government shutdown over the GOP’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” cutting health insurance for millions of Americans and the Crisis that Won’t Go Away — the Epstein files — Trump and his attack dogs like Stephen “Pee Wee German” Miller are desperate to change the subject.
Their answer appears to be starting a new War Between the States by deploying National Guard troops from Texas to patrol the streets of Portland and Chicago.
One problem? A Trump-appointed federal judge is having none of it.
“The President’s determination was simply untethered to the facts. This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law.”
But wait, there’s more.
The regime was actually pondering an even more outlandish (and illegal) scheme until they were found out by yet another sloppy use of an unsecured Signal chat. As the Minneapolis Star-Tribune first reported (in a paywalled article) aides to Miller and Pete “Warrior Ethos” Hegseth, mused about deploying the Army’s elite 82nd Airborne to Portland. To put down ICE fishing and a five-year-old fire.
“The messages, casually exchanged last weekend in a crowded, public space, show high-level officials in the Trump administration discussing the deployment of the Army’s 82nd Airborne, an infantry division that has been deployed to combat zones in both world wars, Vietnam and Afghanistan.”
The 82nd Airborne specializes in parachute assault operations into hostile areas and has remained active since World War I.
Trump’s toy soldier aides did come to realize using a highly trained, lethal attack force on an American city might generate a few bad headlines, prompting them to wonder whether Hegseth would want Trump to sign off.
“Between you and I, I think Pete just wants the top cover from the boss if anything goes sideways with the troops there.”
Ya think?
But then again this is a regime that has attacked alleged Venezuelan drug smugglers in what Trump has declared an “armed conflict,” apparently on the authority of Miller, not the United States Congress, which is the only body authorized to declare war.
Miller clearly believes the same response is required in the “homeland.”
“The issue before us now is very simple and clear. There is a large and growing movement of leftwing terrorism in this country. It is well organized and funded. And it is shielded by far-left Democrat judges, prosecutors and attorneys general. The only remedy is to use legitimate state power to dismantle terrorism and terror networks.”
And Trump, in a speech at the Norfolk Virginia Navy Base clearly had another target in mind:
“We have to take care of this little gnat that’s on our shoulder called the Democrats. “They want to give all of our money to illegal aliens that pour into the country.”’
Untethered. Unhinged. Take your pick. Sending federalized troops from red Texas to blue Illinois could well be remembered in the same breath as the Confederate attack on Union soldiers at Fort Sumter.
Remind me again who is the worst of the worst?