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There Is No “National Emergency” To Support The Deployment Of US Military, On Our Civilian State Governments. This Is Not… Putin’s Russia.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

To be certain, Stephen Miller — and Tangerine 2.0 loons more broadly, have been looking for a way to lawlessly impose supposed martial law on blue states, but only blue ones. They think LA gives them that opening. The US Supreme Court will — in a few months — tell them that we are a civil nation. We will not countenance… bully-despotic moves against supposed opponents — by 1600 Penn.

So, now I will quote a bit of last night’s complaint directly — it sets out the audacity, and majesty of the vision our Founders had. And it does so. . . by offering humility rather than hubris — in the grants to the federal government (see, Amend. No. Ten):

…One of the cornerstones of our Nation and our democracy is that our people are governed by civil, not military, rule. The Founders enshrined these principles in our Constitution — that a government should be accountable to its people, guided by the rule of law, and one of civil authority, not military rule….

President Trump has repeatedly [lawlessly] invoked emergency powers to exceed the bounds of lawful executive authority….

[M]embers of the public gathered in protest at the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse. This building, located at 255 E. Temple St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, includes a detention facility known as “B-18.” On information and belief, protestors gathered at this location based on reports that individuals who were detained during the ICE operations were being held there. Protesters also gathered at other locations where ICE operations were reportedly happening, including in the City of Paramount, a city in Los Angeles County.

While not unified in their views or tactics, most protesters seem to have gathered to express their opposition to the manner in which the Trump Administration has executed its immigration agenda and to express solidarity with and concern for the individuals and families most directly impacted by the enforcement actions taking place in their community.

During the protests, Service Employees International Union California leader David Huerta was injured in the midst of interactions with federal agents. He was arrested, treated at a nearby hospital, and then detained. Federal authorities have alleged that Mr. Huerta was obstructing federal agents’ access to a worksite where they were executing a warrant, while in contrast, Union representatives have reported that Mr. Huerta was detained while exercising his First Amendment right to observe and document law enforcement activity. The [ICE] arrest of Mr. Huerta, who remains detained as of the date of filing, led to further upset in the community….

Most of those involved in protesting have been exercising their rights under the First Amendment in a peaceful, non-violent, and legally compliant manner. There have no doubt been exceptions. News reports have shown some individuals in the midst of these protests breaking the law and acting violently, for example by throwing objects at law enforcement officers and damaging property, including by setting fires. State and local law enforcement agencies have responded to such actions, and Governor Newsom and other state and local officials have unequivocally condemned such conduct and called for the prosecution of such law breaking.

At no point in the past… days has there been a rebellion or an insurrection….

Now you know — Trump cannot use his own violations of US immigration law and treaties as a basis for claiming an “insurrection” or rebellion. Damn — that’s straight out of Putin’s playbook.

And so, the overnight deploying up to 700 US Marines — deep into the civilian cities, in the state where they are decamped — without the Governor’s assent… is a very bad look. An Unconstitutional one. This is not enforcing Brown v. Board, against Geo. Wallace in 1963. It simply is… not. The people have a right to protest Trump’s lawlessness, in rolling ICE on union leaders and peaceable protesters. Onward.

नमस्ते

Mirengoff Admits Trump’s Guard Order Is Unlawful…

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As ever, Paul chooses the most circuitous route to get to his very faint condemnation of Trump’s lawlessness.

But in the end, get there he does.

It is long past time for legitimate legal scholars inside the MAGA movement (are there any?)… to openly proclaim that this is organized crime to the detriment of the nation.

We won’t hold our breath that Paul will ever cross that threshold, but he ought to:

…In this case, though, Governor Newsom says the order wasn’t even sent to him. Instead, it was sent to the Commandant of the National Guard.

If so, this… [is] another case in which the administration undermined its position by ignoring the procedure mandated by law….

Yep.

Now join us in renouncing his illegitimacy, Paul… just as your buddy Bill Otis did over the weekend.

Out.

[U] The Details, Of California’s Federal Suit — Alleging Violations Of The Tenth Amendment — In Tangerine 2.0’s Sending In Troops…

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We now have the full 22 plus page complaint at law linked as a PDF here, but it is barely after lunch time now — on the West Coast, and it was all just drafted… overnight. It opens majestically:

…One of the cornerstones of our Nation and our democracy is that our people are governed by civil, not military, rule. The Founders enshrined these principles in our Constitution — that a government should be accountable to its people, guided by the rule of law, and one of civil authority, not military rule….

So it may be a moment to hit the clerk’s virtual window. Here are the broad strokes of it:

…In a lawsuit being filed today, Attorney General Bonta and Governor Newsom will ask the court to hold that the President and Department of Defense’s orders federalizing the California National Guard are unlawful, arguing that:

The federalization of the California National Guard deprives California of resources to protect itself and its citizens, and of critical responders in the event of a state emergency.

10 USC § 12406 requires that the Governor consent to federalization of the National Guard, which Governor Newsom was not given the opportunity to do prior to their deployment.

The President’s unlawful order infringes on Governor Newsom’s role as Commander-in-Chief of the California National Guard and violates the state’s sovereign right to control and have available its National Guard in the absence of a lawful invocation of federal power….

Onward — to run circles around this Tangerine dotard.

नमस्ते

[U] Again, The Federal Executive Branch Has Only A Very Limited Role, If Not “Invited In” — By A Given State. That Didn’t Happen In LA This Weekend. A Suit Will Follow.

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In fact, Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass specifically told Tangerine NOT to roll up. But — plainly, he is trying to engineer a crisis to distract from all his other failures to lead effectively. And to whip up the frenzy, in his hater-base.

The people (of LA, and elsewhere) have a right to complain, when many are abducted by Tangerine 2.0 forces, without any due process at all. [The 14th Amendment uses the term “persons“, NOT “citizens” — and so, Stephen Miller vacuously lies, here. All “persons” on US soil are entitled to due process. With or without… papers.]

In any event, here’s the latest on it all:

…Immigration protests in California and President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to quell them have set up a clash between the president and foe California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who confirmed Monday that the state will sue the federal government over the escalation.

Thousands of protesters were in L.A.’s streets Sunday in response to the National Guard deployment, at one point blocking a freeway and setting self-driving cars ablaze. Law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bangs to control the crowd, The Associated Press reported. As police declared protests in the city to be an unlawful assembly, crowds broke up Sunday evening.

It was the third day of protests after workplace raids began Friday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement….

“Looking really bad in L.A. BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!” Trump wrote in a post on his social platform, Truth Social, shortly after midnight [Sunday]….

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday morning in a social media post that the state would sue the federal government over Trump’s deployment of National Guard.

The governor said Trump “illegally acted to federalize the National Guard,” adding the order he signed applies nationwide.

“We’re suing him,” Newsom said….

[UPDATED: 2 PM EDT] President Donald Trump said Monday he thinks it would be a “great thing” if border czar Tom Homan arrests Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“I would do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great,” Trump said as he arrived at the White House from Camp David. “Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing….”

What a putz — but, as ever, onward, resolutely. The Abrego Garcia matter will not result in a Trump win, down in Nashville — it will now… backfire. That is Condor’s firm prediction. Out.

नमस्ते

Bill Otis Finds… A SPINE. Finally! Calls For The End Of Whatever “Trumpism” Pretends To Be, Now.

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Do go read all of this — and you may ignore the senseless bashing of Kamala Harris. [He did that solely to avoid being shot in the face with a shotgun — by MAGA losers — if caught on a dark (alley or) road… alone, at night.]

What his piece is really about… is REPUDIATING Trump.

And he’s right — the guy has killed a generation of would be GOP ambitions, now. Vance will never be President. He flat out states it.

And he finally agrees… that there must be some limit to the amount of personal corruption Trump is able to get away with, before the GOP decides they should help prosecute him, directly.

Here’s a bit — but do go read it all. And expect more to speak out in the coming days, after he rolled the National Guard onto LA streets, while being asked to remove them by both the mayor and the governor. That has never happened before — the governor or mayor or both must always invite the national forces, if they are to roll at all (under our shared notions of federal / state comity).

Now, get this:

…I suggest here is that, while the Left and the Democrats are toxic to America’s future, Trump is hardly the right person to deliver a more wholesome message….

Let’s be honest: One might better ask whether he’s so bad so often that he further discredits the message, to whatever extent he can be thought to be faithful to it at all. Do “stability” and “character” even belong in the same sentence with “Trump”? Can a plausible attack on Big Government be made by the man whose budget plan expands the government’s indebtedness by trillions, and who uses the government’s power to settle personal grudges?

Does standing for a strong defense mean better funding for the armed services — only to be combined with an ideological unwillingness to use them or even plausibly threaten their use (with Iran, for example)? When the authentic meaning and obligations of “America First” are understood with all the historical learning, sobriety and thoughtfulness of a third grader?….

Welp — let us hope that he is only the first of thousands… to finally take a stand.

Onward, resolutely.

How To Tell Insipid Lies: Hinderaker Edition (Again!)…

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I really was just going to leave this alone… but it just keeps weighing on my Sunday afternoon:
There is zero equivalency between a January 6 storming of the capital rotunda where three people died, including law-enforcement officers, as violent protesters tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power voted by the people — and the protests in Los Angeles against what have been almost uniformly kidnapping of people in the street without a warrant, without judicial intervention, and without any due process of any kind. In many cases to be swept away to offshore black-site private prisons where torture occurs.

Protesting egregious violations of the 14th amendment, and the eighth amendment, is very different than trying to literally overthrow the government. Moreover, every single J6 violent defendant received full due process, including a judicial arrest warrant, an indictment, a presentment in front of a federal District Court Judge, and a full right to a trial (with competent defense counsel, at US expense if they were of limited means) — on the merits — before their fate was decided.

And so, Hinderaker should take a seat — and let the adults in the room handle this.

Of course, there shouldn’t ever be violence at any protest.

But if Hinderaker can’t understand that people get very frustrated (Dr. King said riots are “the language of the unheard”) when their rights are not just abridged, but intentionally and lawlessly ignored… and that that is in no manner like Trump telling the Proud Boys to “fight like hell” to overthrow the government…

I really have no more time for his flatulence.

Out.

A Sunday Motion/Response — To Ensure The Maryland Courts Retain The Power To Sanction Noem, Et Al., For “Abuse Of Process” — In The Abrego Garcia Case.

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Here on a Sunday midday — in federal court in Maryland, the capable lawyers for Mr. Abrego Garcia let USDC Judge Xinnis see what they’ve seen — between that state, the hell-hole in El Salvador — and now, the State of Tennessee.

This cannot just be allowed to be swept under any rug. It was conscious, knowing and flagrant violation of final court orders — all the way to the Supremes. And Noem/Rubio were directly pushing that lawlessness. Here’s the Sunday filing — and the sharp end of that spear:

…Though Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is, at long last, back in the United States following his illegal removal, to characterize the Government as having “complied with the Court’s order” is pure farce. ECF No. 181. The Government flouted rather than followed the orders of this Court and the United States Supreme Court. Instead of facilitating Abrego Garcia’s return, for the past two months Defendants have engaged in an elaborate, all-of-government effort to defy court orders, deny due process, and disparage Abrego Garcia. In its latest act of contempt, the Government arranged for Abrego Garcia’s return, not to Maryland in compliance with the Supreme Court’s directive to “ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,” but rather to Tennessee so that he could be charged with a crime in a case that the Government only developed while it was under threat of sanctions.

That Tennessee indictment was filed under seal on May 21, yet six days later the Government continued to insist to this Court that it “do[es] not have the power to produce him,” ECF No. 165 at 5. The Government’s convenient ability to return Abrego Garcia in time for a press conference unveiling his indictment puts the lie to its previously feigned powerlessness to comply with this Court’s injunction.

Over the past two months, the executive branch has acted not just in contempt of multiple court orders but with open defiance towards its coequal branch of government, the judiciary. The very highest officials in the administration have publicly stated that they will follow orders of the Supreme Court, in contrast to valid lower court orders, and even that they would refuse to tell a judge about their directly relevant discussions with foreign officials.

The dichotomy between the lip service Government lawyers have paid the Court about supposed efforts to comply and the hostility and intransigence displayed by the White House and cabinet members has been stark and chilling. Two things are now crystal clear. First, the Government has always had the ability to return Abrego Garcia, but it has simply refused to do so. Second, the Government has conducted a determined stalling campaign to stave off contempt sanctions long enough to concoct a politically face-saving exit from its own predicament….

By proffering witnesses without knowledge, hiding behind questionable assertions of a potpourri of privileges, and deliberately foot-dragging on written discovery, the Government has stonewalled Plaintiffs and the Court’s efforts to get at the truth. The Court previously ordered discovery to “assist the Court in determining whether contempt proceedings are warranted….”

Indeed — onward, resolutely. Even if the government wins a conviction in Tennessee — it will likely owe him money, as he departs — for abuse of process.

Moreover (should Mr. Abrego Garcia win an acquittal in Tennessee, based on prosecutorial misconduct), this whole effort down in Nashville may well backfire on the involved AUSAs — leading to sanctions for them, as well.

What a tangled set of lies this whole effort involved. Damn.

नमस्ते

With More International Support / Resources — We Might Have Arrested The 2022 Mpox Clade 2 Outbreak More Rapidly: Study

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This is more fuel for the fire — to re-invigorate USAID.

We must do better — per CIDRAP’s cogent reporting, of last week:

…A new gene-tracking study in Nature shows that mpox spread among people in Nigeria for 8 years before it sparked a global outbreak in 2022.

Using genomic tracing, researchers from Nigeria, the United States, Cameroon, Ethiopia, and Belgium estimate that the ancestor of the clade 2 mpox virus (mpxv) that ignited an international outbreak beginning in May 2022 first emerged in southern Nigeria in August 2014 and spread to 11 Nigerian states before human infections were detected in 2017.

In light of the findings, the authors write, “We need improved surveillance in the wildlife population in the forest systems to better understand the transmission and maintenance of MPXV in animal hosts,” as well as better human surveillance.

“We could have very easily prevented the 2022 multi-country outbreak if countries in Africa were given better access to therapeutics, vaccines, and surveillance technologies,” says first author Edyth Parker, PhD, MPhil, a researcher with the Institute of Genomics and Global Health and with the International Biosecurity and Biosafety Initiative for Science….

Onward, resolutely. When you know better, you do better.

नमस्ते

Mirengoff… Racist Tool. Damn. Still Trying To NOT Talk About Trump Violating Musk’s Rights. Wow.

~ condor ~ 4 Comments

Paul this evening tries to turn the page — by saying the Democrats were mean to the wife of the WWF king-pin… whom Tangerine 2.0 has installed as the (purported) head of US Education Dept. Yikes. [That (the mere fact of her appointment) alone should serve as indictment enough, but she is also trying to abolish that department, without Congressional approval.]

But crazily, on the way to making his “point” (whatever that might be, in his mind)… Paul stipulates to the following:

…[US Rep.] Lee asked [Education Sec’y.] McMahon whether she would consider it “illegal DEI for a lesson plan [to discuss] the Tulsa Race Massacre?” or to include Ruby Bridges’ book Through My Eyes. McMahon responded that she would get back to the Congresswoman about this.

Then, in obvious attempts at “gotcha,” Lee asked the Secretary whether she knew what the Tulsa massacre was and who Bridges is. McMahon could not identify either the event or the author….

I think the thing speaks for itself.

That’s what “education” looks like at the top of Tangerine 2.0’s “pinnacle”.

D A M N A T I O N.

And by the way, Paul is obviously also a dyed in the wool… racist. See at upper right.

O U T.

Hinderaker Is Apoplectic — To Turn The Page On Musk v. Trump “Thunderdome”…

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“…Two men enter; one man leave. Two men enter; one man leave!”

That’s always been the mantra of… Auntie Entity, in “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome”.

And it does increasingly look like this will be a fight to the death. I’m good with that.

John and Paul though are losing their minds, and well they should be.

So John turns the page to… “Let’s annex Canada.” Or more specifically, but equally preposterously, “let’s annex Alberta.”

It is astonishing that he thinks a super majority vote in Alberta will be possible to join Trumpism… And that a majority vote in Congress would ever exist to add a 51st and 52nd state out of Canada…

Largely against most Canadians’ will. Of course it is always about oil, and thus for Republicans it is only about money.

This is one of those “rainbow unicorn pony” moments… where John hopes for things that will never pass… solely to avoid things that are right in his face — that are unpalatable. [However, all his flatulence — and that of Tangerine, re Alberta… may well lead to Canada as a nation joining the EU. Pretty much the worst case scenario, for these bitter old codgers Trump and Hinderaker. Prices paid by the US will rise, should that happen. Hilarious!]

[And to be sure, it is manifestly obvious that these most recent threats by Trump — to use the cudgel of taking away Musk’s government funding, to suppress Musk’s First Amendment right to support any political candidate he might choose is… wildly unlawful. But why quibble, right?!]

Precious. Out.