There is a planned rally at Grand Park in downtown LA at noon PT. The LAPD have declared downtown to be an "unlawful assembly area." This will be interesting.
Donald met with military leaders at Camp David yesterday and posted through the night. He probably didn't realize that he was calling for the arrest of ICE agents with this one:
Then today he had to pat himself on the back for being so brilliant in handling the protests and calling in the National Guard. Gov. Newsom is suing over the illegal action.
"We made a great decision in sending in the National Guard..."
No, you didn't You're getting sued. Newsom will win. Time out in the corner for you.
"... violent, instigated riots in California."
Trump just can't believe that spontaneous gatherings can happen without somebody scheming to organize against him, and therefore all the participants have to have been paid.
"If we had not done so, Los Angeles would be completely obliterated."
I can't match the hyperbole. Trump claims omnipotence and omniscience. The first of three instances of the royal "we."
"... should be saying, "THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP, YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL WE WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT YOU, SIR."
Gag me with a spoon. First off, they only call you Trump, or the guy in the White House. You're never "President Trump." Mr. Wonderful is also without comparison. The end, with the "SIR" garbage, is just one more sure sign of cognitive decline. He wants to be loved so badly, and he's not getting any from Melania.
"Instead they chose to lie to the people of California and America by saying that we weren't needed..."
"We" weren't needed. The royal "we." It's true. You totally weren't needed.
It is true that the pictures and videos of the parts of the protest that got out of hand, with burning cars and the like, is playing into his hands. Bad optics. The news media are concentrating on that instead of the totally peaceful protests. The bad stuff makes the news. The peaceful stuff, not so much.
"We will always do what is needed to keep our Citizens SAFE..."
Again, the royal "we." If you wanted to keep citizens safe, you wouldn't be attacking them and arresting them. You wouldn't be disappearing them off the streets. You wouldn't be arresting government officials, like Mayors and Congress people and judges.
He just has to end with his propaganda slogan. Everything Trump does is just the opposite. Trump is president, why aren't we great yet or when does it finally happen?
No one can blame protests against ICE. They are being used as a private police force by Bondi, Noem and Trump. California is a sanctuary state and Los Angeles a sanctuary city. When there is a conflict between state law and federal law, the federal takes precedence. But, what we're talking about here is due process guaranteed by the Constitution. There is no law that superceeds it.
Trump will continue to rant incessantly for days, now that he's finished playing golf for the weekend. Let's hope the protests are completely peaceful from now on and Trump is given no cause to invoke the Insurrection Act. That's exactly what he wants, so it must be kept from him.
The "Thank You Mr. Wonderful" imaginary compliment is one more in a steady stream of signs of dementia and cognitive decline, but the main stream media won't even see it.
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I told you he couldn't shut up. Here's a new post:
Unbelievably, the whole thing is about "If they spit, we will hit." The man needs to get a new hobby. I don't think Trump could get any more childish, but every time I say that, he proves me wrong.
At the White House, later, Trump told reporters,"I wouldn't call it quite an insurrection, but it could have led to an insurrection. That was serious, that was a lot of, that was a lot of harm that was going on last night. I watched it very closely, and it was an amazing job that the National Guard did."
It turns out only 300 National Guard members are in Los Angeles, with 1,600 stationed at armored outside of LA.
Trump is sending in 700 Marines, but has not invoked the Insurrection Act. That's illegal.
Gov. Newsom has responded to the Marines deployment that it is a "deranged fantasy," and they are heroes who "shouldn't be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial president. This is un-American."
Gov. Gavin Newsom has been told that another 2,000 National Guard are being sent by Trump. "This isn't about public safety. It's about stroking a dangerous president's ego," he said on a post on X. He also said those on the ground already needed food and water. "This is reckless. Pointless. And disrespectful to our troops."
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Updates:
Trump talked to reporters on his return to the White House from Camp David. "The people that are causing the problem are professional instigators. They are insurrectionists. They're bad people and they should be in jail."
When asked about Governor Newsom challenging Tom Homan to arrest him, Trump said, "I would do it if I were Tom, I think it's great...He's done a terrible job."
Governor Newsom responded, "The President of the United States just called for the arrest of a sitting Governor. This is a day I hoped I would never see in america. I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican this is a line we cannot cross as a nation --- this is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism."
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that he is filing a lawsuit today asking a federal court to "set aside" Trump's "unlawful" action federalizing California National Guard troops.
Bonta also said that protests escalated after the National Guard arrived. He also said Trump violated the 10th Amendment which says that powers not specifically delegated to the federal government are are reserved to the states or to the people.
JD Vance chimed in on a post on X, "Do your job. That's all we're asking." With a clip of Trump talking about Newsom.
700 Marines have been deployed to LA in a "support role," as we're the National Guard, according to CBS. Federal troops are stationed outside federal buildings, not on the streets of Los Angeles. At least how it was supposed to work.
As I explained in my diary about the Posse Comitatus Act and federal law, it is illegal to use military troops, other than the National Guard, to enforce domestic laws. Can't be used on US soil against US citizens unless the Insurrection Act is invoked. Trump has not yet done so, so this is another illegal act if reporting is correct.
There is now confirmation that the 700 Marines are being deployed to LA. "The activation of the Marines is intended to provide Task Force 51 with adequate numbers of forces to provide continuous coverage of the area forwarded the lead Federal agency," a US military statement says.
So, the Posse Comitatus line has been crossed.
Task Force 51 is comprised of 2,100 National Guard and the 700 Marines and are trained in "de-escalation, crowd control, and standing rules for the use of force." Doesn't sound like the National Guard de-escalated anything last night. Their presence brought on more actions of protesters.
David Huerta, president of the Service Employees International Union, was arrested by ICE on Friday. A picture looks like it was taken at Grand Park with protester in support of Huerta.
Source: Reuters.
He is supposed to be in court today.
Huerta has been released after posting a $50,000 bond. The protest was in Grand Park. Overhead video shot looked like there were at least a thousand people. Huerta's arrest was not peaceful. He was tased and "brutalized."
Source: Reuters. David Huerta in center.
After Huerta's release he asked for forgiveness from the union, saying it was not his intention to get arrested or put other union members in danger.
3:45 PT LAPD now on "Tactical Alert." This means that any and all officers can be called to duty. Those already on duty stay until relieved by their commander. It also means low-priority service calls may not be answered.
3:50 PT 50 people were arrested over the weekend in LA for failure to disperse, 21 on other charges. 5 officers and five horses suffered minor injuries. 600 rounds of non-lethal ammunition were used.
At the same time, 150 people were arrested in San Francisco Sunday night during anti-ICE demonstrations.
4:50pm PT Protesters outside the Federal Building in LA have been declared an unlawful assembly. A couple of water bottles thrown.
Protesters continue to chant "ICE out of LA," "Trump out of LA," and "Shame on you," at the National Guard protecting the building and the protesters are waving a bunch of different flags.
5:40pm PT Watching live overhead video of Grand Park in LA, it looks like the LAPD is moving to clear the area. Moving forward in a line at protesters, and following some, and then double-time marching in a column to get in place for still another line to push protesters out of the park.
5:50pm PT More overhead drone video of a large intersection have police in a line blocking one direction, backed up by dozens of police vehicles. Police on rooftops. Those buildings covered with "F*ck ICE" and other graffiti. This police line is static. Protesters are just milling around.
6:30pm PT Mayor Bass from the Emergency Operations Center talking to Rachel Maddow. "I think we're being used as a test case...This was a solution in search of a problem... we are an experiment for the use of federal power...if you want to see chaos, send in troops when there is nothing happening...We are talking about an end to the raids... nothing was happening until Friday morning when the ICE raids started."
Kristi Noem was on Fox News on Monday being interviewed by Sean Hannity when she claimed that the protests were "professionally done " with paid protesters.
Sean asked, "Have you found evidence of organization and funding?"
Kristi responded, "Absolutely. These are organized. These are people that are being paid to do this. You can follow how they behave, the signals they give to each other in these crowds in these protests to instigate violence. This is an operation, and it's professionally done. They've done it before, and we're going to stop it and make sure that we prosecute every one of them."
Earlier California AG Rob Bonta said he was suing Trump over the National Guard being called up. Now he'll go after Trump for the Marines.
Newsom said, "US Marines serve a valuable purpose for this country --- defending democracy. They are not political pawns. The Secretary of Defense is illegally deploying them onto American streets so Trump can have a talking point at his parade this week. It's a blatant abuse of power. We will sue to stop this. The Court's and Congress must act. Checks and balances are crumbling. This is a red line --- and they are crossing it. WAKE UP!"
