Re: sending in the Feds.
Although I’m sure Dear Leader doesn’t care about the law.
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Maybe when they mentioned “posse” Trump thought they were referring to something else…?
.
Yeah, I know. I’ll see myself out.
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So glad I wasn’t drinking anything when I read that. I hate having liquid shoot out my nostrils!
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I doubt he plans to send in the regular forces (Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force) but the Act specifically allows the National Guard in that state to be mobilized by order of the feds. And there is precedent: Lyndon Johnson sent the National Guard into Selma, Alabama in 1965 to protect the civil rights marchers.
Takes me back… not only do I remember watching it on TV as a kid, it was the subject of my very first post on the BBS! 
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I guess we’ll have the fun of seeing a rerun of Kent State before too long too (but that was the state national guard?).
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The National Guard is composed of federal troops (usually reservists) who are based in the individual states where they serve, live, and drill. They are called by their state names even though they are under federal control and payroll. The theory was that troops with a local connection would be more apt to feel a connection with other residents of the state. They can be activated by the feds or within their own or neighboring states by direct request of the state government (usually at the governor’s request, but there have been exceptions.)
Kent State was a spectacular failure of that policy. Poorly trained and poorly managed troops, thrown into a situation they were not prepared for, and they did what they were trained to do: kill. The modern-day National Guard is much better; it’s an all-volunteer force, far better trained, and is commanded by officers who have seen combat, and often urban combat due to the ways we fight wars now.
That said, armed US soldiers marching down the streets of American cities is going to be a very big deal. All those guns being turned on the urban population of Chicago will have a brand new enemy and lots of targets. It’ll be ugly.
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No matter who the Justices are or how they vote, journalists and historians will always be able to rank them on a line as (relatively) most liberal to (relatively) most conservative and call whoever is in the middle the “swing vote.”
Obviously the whole Court has gotten much more corporatist and authoritarian since Reagan started appointing Justices. There is no “balance” to it unless one accepts the paradigm that it is always balanced by definition.
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[quote=“RatMan, post:732, topic:91600”]That said, armed US soldiers marching down the streets of American cities is going to be a very big deal.
[/quote]
Didn’t seem to be the last time they did it:
I don’t recall the tiniest squeak of protest about that in the media, despite the point that the Guard were reinforcing the aggressors in a police riot.
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Being asked in by the governor is a much different story than being ordered in by the feds in opposition to the local government. And Ferguson ain’t Chicago.
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I am hearing Jerry Brown on the radio talking about how he’s going to stand up to Trump.
Is he the leader of the opposition at this point?
He would seem to be the most powerful individual Democrat.
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He’s the governor of the state with the biggest economy. He probably does have more power than anyone else. No Dem elected to higher office right now, I’d say. Andrew Cuomo, perhaps? Is he speaking out as much, though?
Speaking of NY, Kirsten Gillibrand seems to be the senator putting up the most fight against the dreadful cabinet appointees.
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Makes me wonder if it’s possible to sue a sitting president for libel.
It’s fucking disgusting to see this type of public behavior from a sitting president.
And as far as his declarations of “fake news” goes…
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He’s gonna fucking get impeached.
*keeps saying it internally
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A light in the freakin’ dark; thank Dumbledore.
Whoda thunk the day would ever come that I’d actually be thankful for Jerry Brown.
I hope like hell that he really means it and we get some active help from others fixing this clusterfuck; 'cuz dude has got to go.
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Great reads. Thanks.
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It’s a brand new world, to be sure.
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Now the rovin’ gambler he was very bored
He was tryin’ to create a next world war
He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor
He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before
But yes I think it can be very easily done…
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