And now Trump is deploying the Marines. There is no need for this, and it’s illegal.
The situation in Los Angeles doesn’t require military assistance. There are already 2,100 guard troops in the area with another 2,000 on the way, and now 700 Marines will join the party at a cost of around $134 million to taxpayers, which is five Trump golf trips, or three Trump birthday parades.
The military is deploying 9,000 troops for the parade.
Back to LA, these are protests, not riots. But Trump’s trying to create a riot.
Trump posted on Monday, “IF THEY SPIT, WE WILL HIT, and I promise you they will be hit harder than they have ever been hit before. Such disrespect will not be tolerated!” Remember, this is the guy who pardoned White nationalists MAGAt terrorists who attacked cops on January 6, 2021. They did a lot more than spitting.
Trump is also praising himself, saying that Los Angeles would have “burned to the ground” if he hadn’t called in the National Guard. The protests are in a small area in the city of 4 million people. There were only around 400 protesters when Trump decided he should call in the military.
Trump wants a riot because it’ll give him more excuses to expand his power and extend his authoritarianism. Calling in more soldiers and Marines creates a much more hostile atmosphere, and creates more protests in other cities, which Trump will use to deploy more of the military to fight civilians. Trump is fanning the flames. In another post, he said we will “Liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion, and put an end to these Migrant riots. Order will be restored, the Illegals will be expelled, and Los Angeles will be set free.”
That post is designed to create riots. (snip-MORE, and it’s on point)
Ever since Donald Trump came down his racist escalator and vaulted himself to become leader of the Republican Party in 2015, a popular theory has taken hold in liberalism and particularly at the highest levels of the Democratic Party: “Distraction.”
The idea goes something like this: Because Trump is a creature of the modern media environment and because we are constantly bombarded with narrative after narrative, Trump and his acolytes within the GOP are regularly setting off distraction bombs, meant to keep us occupied while they’re up to no good behind closed doors.
There were two recent invocations of distraction theory worth noting. First, the fight between Elon Musk and Donald Trump was purportedly a distraction from the harm of the “Big Beautiful Bill” that intends to destroy the social safety net. A few days later, some Democratic leaders argued that the attempted military incursion of Los Angeles over immigration was also a “distraction” from the bill. It was also argued by California Gov. Gavin Newsom – who is directly involved in the Los Angeles “distraction,” ironically – that the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador was also a “distraction.”
If it isn’t already clear, I think this theory of the world is very stupid and frankly counterproductive. It operates as if we are still somewhere in the distant past, when only a few narratives could ever operate at one time, usually with a clear “A” story and one or more less important “B” stories. But it is 2025 and that method of operation has long been obsolete.
We are in an ideological war with the American right. They are attacking everything good and right about America and are trying their damnedest to drag us back to the stone age when women, minorities, and LGBTQ people were a subordinate slave class to the whims of wealthy, straight, white men.
These things aren’t distractions. They are fronts. America fought war on two fronts during World War II, taking on the Axis powers in the European and Pacific theaters. There wasn’t any choice in the matter. There were American soldiers island hopping toward Japan and there were soldiers landing on the beaches of France and Italy on their way to Berlin. Leaders like Franklin Roosevelt and General Dwight D. Eisenhower, while they had to prioritize targets and objectives, didn’t have the luxury of saying the war couldn’t be fought on either side of the U.S. It was an existential battle for survival and they were victorious on both sides.
That is the situation we are in now against conservatism and Republicans. Liberals have to make the case, over and over, that these people are unfit to rule and shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the levers of power. Every action that liberals and its representatives within the Democratic Party undertake should underscore that clear goal.
That means war on multiple fronts. Sometimes that means pushing legislation and investigation. Sometimes that means a press conference or media briefing. And yes, sometimes that means childish insults, memes, and trash talk.
WASHINGTON — Bradley Bondi, the brother of Attorney General Pam Bondi, lost his bid for president of the D.C. Bar, receiving 3,490 votes compared with opponent Diane Seltzer’s 34,982.
Seltzer, an employment lawyer who ran a campaign focused on supporting members of the organization at a time of “governmental chaos,” said after the results were announced Monday that she credited the D.C. Bar’s members with showing up and saying what kind of leader they wanted.
“We’ve got to make sure that we hang on to the rule of law and that we can practice law safely,” Seltzer told NBC News. “That we can represent who we want without worrying about retaliation, and that judges can issue fair and impartial rulings without worrying about being intimidated or retaliated against.”
The result came amid the Trump administration’s attacks on judges who have ruled against its policies, as well as on law firms that have represented causes or clients President Donald Trump doesn’t like. Last month, federal judges struck down Trump’s executive orders against Jenner & Block and Perkins Coie, finding the orders unconstitutional. (snip-MORE)
June 10, 1917 The Women’s Peace Crusade in Scotland launched a three-week campaign of street meetings and demonstrations in dozens of towns to build support for peace in the midst of what was then called The Great War (now known as World War I). More about the Womens’s Peace Crusade
June 10, 1937 The mayor of Monroe, Michigan, organized a citizens’ posse of some 1400 vigilantes, armed with baseball bats and tear gas, to combat the union organizing drive at local Newton Steel. The mob threw a dozen of the picketers’ cars into the River Raisin. Steelworkers’ cars were rolled into Monroe, Michigan’s River Raisin by strike breakers recruited by the mayor. The 120 striking steelworkers and their supporters were working to form unions in the “Little Steel” companies which, unlike U.S. Steel, continued to resist unionization. Newton had just been purchased by Republic Steel [see Chicago’s Memorial Day Massacre [May 30, 1937]. The whole story (Note from Ali: the link in the newsletter was no longer functional. Doing a search of cars going into the River Raisin is really interesting, even simply in modern times! I had to search the specific date to get this report. Seems like an “active” place, there in Monroe!)
June 10, 1963 The “Equal Pay Act of 1963” was passed and signed into law; it guaranteed women equal pay for equal work. The legislation was a result of the recommendations of President John F. Kennedy’s Commission on the Status of Women. The law itself
June 10, 1980 Nelson Mandela’s first writings, and those of other imprisoned anti-apartheid leaders, were smuggled out and made public while they were imprisoned on South Africa’s Robben Island. “ As I read these fascinating essays, I was struck so forcibly by the importance of memory, of history, for both the individual and the community. . . . I pray that our people and especially our children will, by reading this collection of essays, remember the very high price that has been paid to achieve our freedom.” – Desmond Tutu, from the foreword Nelson Mandela’s cell on Robben Island, where he spent 17 years Review of Reflections in Prison Portions of the book
Since I blogged about this issue yesterday, and I just finished my second cartoon of the day (for the FXBG Advance, which you’ll see tomorrow), we’re going to talk about some of the fallout of the Elon/Trump War.
Trump is thinking of selling the cherry red Tesla S he bought from Elon to throw some public support and propaganda his way after Tesla’s stock took a huge hit. Since Elon started gutting the government, a lot of Tesla owners have buyer’s remorse and have been selling their cars. Now, Trump has buyer’s remorse.
Presidents can’t drive on public roads, and Trump can’t drive at all. Trump buying a car would be like me buying a helicopter. I can’t fly a helicopter. If anything, Trump should buy Jeffrey Epstein’s plane. That would be more accurate symbolism, especially if what Elon said about the Epstein Files is true.
I’m sure there’s a MAGAt out there with too much money who would overpay for Trump’s Tesla, other wise, the value has dropped about 28 percent, even if it’s slightly used and fart-free (though Trump did sit in it for a minute which is probably long enough for him to blast a few dozen and christen the car. (snip-MORE)
I thought I’d be up super late last night, and planned to watch news coverage of the L.A. protests until the wee hours of the morning. But I felt out of sorts all day yesterday, which infected my cartooning, and sleepiness hit me heavy at 11 p.m. after a dinner of runny egg salad sandwiches (I had to do something with a dozen recently-expired eggs before leaving town Saturday, and I used too much mayo), so I went to bed.
I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning, and I was ready to go. But I dreaded turning on my TV. I was afraid I’d find nothing but coverage of deaths and a city burning. But no, I didn’t find any of that. The most disturbing thing I learned was that Lauren Tomasi, a reporter from Australia’s Channel 9 News, was struck by a rubber bullet while she was doing her job. (snip-MORE)
The Advance included a note with my cartoons this morning as it often does, and today’s said:
Mail delivery in our area — indeed, in the Commonwealth — is a problem. Don’t take our word for it. Take former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger’s word for it. Her work uncovered delays galore, and the state consistently rates as one of the worst in the country for mail delivery. So when the downtown post office recently shutdown for, well, whatever reason it was closed for, there was mumbling, but not much of an uproar. Clay certainly noticed, however.
This cartoon was inspired by my own grievances, and it’s the second time the local post office has pissed me off enough to draw a cartoon. Louis DeJoy has inspired others.
The first time was back in December, when they raised the rates to my mailbox and then shut down the branch containing that mailbox. (snip-MORE)
Donald Trump is deploying the National Guard, not to stop riots or for safety, but to start a fight. And he’s doing it illegally.
ICE is conducting raids in the Los Angeles area. They’re not going after criminals, but average citizens who may just so happen to be undocumented. I don’t use the word “illegal” to describe humans unless it’s in the context of someone else using it. Humans are not illegal.
When the National Guard is deployed, it’s usually at the request of a governor or other officials. Yet, neither the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, nor Governor Gavin Newsom has requested military aid, like what happened during the Rodney King riots in 1992.
There has been some violence, such as cars being set on fire and other property damage, but to a small extent. The L.A.P.D. can handle these protests, which are legal.
Governor Newsom said Trump’s decision to call in the National Guard is “purposefully inflammatory.” He’s right.
Trump wants everyone to sit back and allow him to do whatever he wants. Not getting that, he wants a fight. He wants protesters to get violent. He wants L.A. to burn. He wants blood. He wants to point at the city and blame a Democratic mayor and a Democratic governor. He wants to blame liberals and Democrats. He wants to portray himself as the law-and-order president (sic), while he’s the president (sic) who pardoned the white nationalist J6 terrorists who attacked law enforcement. (snip-MORE)
So many old friends in Wichita deplore the conservatism, and yes, there are more voters voting Republican than Dem (though their Dem party is healthy.) Yet, Wichita loves everyone, and I love that! If you’re lucky the little video player on the page will work, and you can watch the broadcast. https://www.ksn.com/video/ict-big-gay-market-hosts-event-for-3rd-year/9749633
June 9, 1872 Julia Ward Howe, an abolitionist and the composer of “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” tried to establish the Mothers’ Peace Day Observance on the second Sunday in June. In 1872 the first such celebration was held and the meetings continued for several years. Her idea was widely accepted, but she was never able to get the day recognized as an official holiday. Mothers’ Peace Day was the predecessor of the Mothers’ Day holiday in the United States now celebrated on the third Sunday of May. Julia Ward Howe ca.1898 Her proclamation read in part: “As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, Let women now leave all that may be left of home For a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means Whereby the great human family can live in peace….”
June 9, 1954 Special Counsel for the U.S. Army Joseph N. Welch confronted Senator Joseph P. McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) during hearings into alleged communist infiltration of the Army Signal Corps.McCarthy had attacked a member of Welch’s law firm, Frederick G. Fischer, among many others, as a communist. This was alleged due to Fischer’s prior membership in the National Lawyers Guild. The Guild was the nation’s first racially integrated bar association. Army counsel Joseph N. Welch (l) confronts Senator Joseph McCarthy (r) Welch was outraged by the attempt to destroy the reputation and career of someone of whose integrity he had no doubt: “Until this moment, senator, I think I never gauged your cruelty or recklessness . . . . Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” The entire hearings and this encounter were seen live on television, the first congressional committee hearings ever to be broadcast. McCarthy’s ability to make such accusations was soon greatly diminished. Watch the confrontation National Lawyers Guild, since 1937 and today
June 9, 1984 150,000 marched in London, England, for nuclear disarmament, protesting the presence of U.S. cruise missiles on British soil.
June 9, 1993 Police banned a vigil by Women in Black (Zene u Crnom) in Belgrade, Serbia. Who are the Women in Black? Women in Black demonstrations combine art & politics
June 8, 1956 Air Force Tech Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth, Massachusetts is listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as being the first U.S. military casualty of the Vietnam War. His name is listed on The Wall (the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC) with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Colonel Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who died September 7, 1965.
June 8, 1966 270 walked out of graduation ceremonies at New York University (NYU) to protest the presentation of an honorary degree to Robert McNamara, then the Secretary of Defense and responsible for U.S. forces waging war in Vietnam.
June 8, 1969 Two-thirds of the graduating class of Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island) turned their backs on Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as he gave the commencement address, silently expressing their opposition to U.S. foreign policy and the war in Vietnam.
June 8, 2002 1500 Israeli and other peace activists demonstrated peacefully in front of the Prime Minister’s Jerusalem residence in opposition to 35 years of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. “The occupation is hurting us all,” said advertising placed by the organizers, “draining billions of shekels from us, forcing cutbacks in social and educational programs.” Coalition of Women for a Just Peace leading a demonstration against the continued Israeli occupation of Palestine. They also claimed the occupation inculcates the belief that “violence is the only way to solve problems” and “allows militarism to run rampant in our lives.” Buses with banners saying “End the Occupation” and “The Occupation is Hurting Us All” started out from four locations throughout Israel, arriving in Jerusalem together. A choir of Israeli and Palestinian children had been scheduled to close the action but their conductor feared government retribution; the demonstration ended in silence instead of with children’s voices.
“Her insistence that the rights of women, people in poverty, people of color, and immigrants all be upheld within the political Left, as well as without it, left a legacy of intersectionality that was ahead of its time.”
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Scottie's Playtime 