Originally published at: Big Fans Of State Sovereignty Except When California Does It - TPM – Talking Points Memo
As I mentioned in yesterday’s edition of Where Things Stand, there is an element of campaign-promise fulfillment intertwined in the Trump administration’s aggro deployment of National Guard troops to inflame an already tense standoff between LA protesters and local law enforcement. Trump’s spent much of his political career vowing to punish his perceived enemies (in…
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I’m going to be 75 years old tomorrow (there’s still some shopping time left) and, after the last few days, I am more than ever worried about what faces us.
Events are coming to a head, no? Marines on the street under the pretext of the latest ginned-up “emergency”, a call from the Speaker of the House for the governor of a state to be tarred and feathered, vaccine experts fired, everyone but the rich getting screwed blue…you name it, it’s going backwards.
If the long arc of history bends in the right direction, it must be be a mighty long arc indeed to sustain this current dip in the curve. I’ll be out there on No Kings Day, like I was in Chicago in 1968. Hope the rest of you are, too. We are the only answer.
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It isn’t the hypocrisy that bothers me. I assume that anyone who works for Trump is a hypocrite.
It is their bloodlust that bothers me. It is their desire to hurt people that bothers me.
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What is getting lost in these discussions are the people getting really hurt by Trump’s lawless and recklessness and hateful policies.
In that regard I want to say something about many of the people Trump is trying to deport because for him it is good politics.
What I call people who have lived in America for years, many who have been in America since they were 5 and are now 30, is MY FELLOW AMERICANS.
So to anyone who thinks that Trump would never do what he is doing to Americans, my response is what Trump is doing, his most hateful and evil actions, he is doing to Americans.
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I heard Ta Nehesi Coates quote somebody, and I’m ashamed that I don’t remember who it was: “The Arc of History doesn’t bend, it’s bent.” Good doesn’t win by default, it has to fight.
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NYT Liveblog:
A Federal District Court judge, Charles S. Breyer, scheduled a hearing for 1:30 p.m. Pacific time on Thursday on California’s request for a temporary restraining order that would limit Marines and National Guard troops to guarding federal buildings, and not otherwise let them perform law enforcement functions in Los Angeles. The state had asked for an order by 1 p.m. Pacific time today, which the judge declined to impose.
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You are so right.
I could live with hypocrisy, because I could mock it. I can’t live with the cruelty. I don’t understand the cruelty. Why do these creatures hate their fellow citizens and their nation?
Didn’t conservatives used to yell at people protesting war, “America, love it or leave it!”
Why don’t they leave it?
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“As we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elite and warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers,” Gabbard said in the video
What the fuck is she talking about? Well, I have an idea. The “political elites and warmongers fomenting tensions between nuclear powers” are people who want to support Ukraine against Russian invasion. See, when Russia invades another sovereign nation, and begins murdering its people. for you to say Russia should stop is fomenting tensions between nuclear powers.
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This piece is adapted from Ill Fares the Land.
But, Tony [Judt] tells us, history “exacted no such retribution.” No righteous, God-ordained price was to be paid for this crime against humanity. The arc of history did not magically bend. It was bent, even broken, by those with power.
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One way to look at it, is that for Republicans, privilege is a zero sum game. White privilege, economic privilege, male privilege over women, whatever. To retain their privilege they have to reduce the privilege of Others outside their group, or they are at risk of losing their privilege.
Democrats feel that privilege is something we should all share. It isn’t a zero sum game. We can all enjoy a privileged and fair life as equals. At least that’s traditional party policy. This is way too simplistic, but it’s one angle of view on a complex issue.
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I don’t even know that it’s good politics. As said above, it’s bloodlust. Also, Mike Johnson can go fuck himself.
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Happy birthday! May we all experience hope and progress in the face of TSF’s malevolence. Maybe by your next birthday, things will begin to turn around. 
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California Governor Newsom is making a great case based on the facts and highlighting the hypocrisy. The realpolitik is that you cannot reason with folks motivated by ignorance and bigotry. These are the same folks who called for the arrest of Governor Newsom and the deportation of Mr. Musk, seizure of his companies and assets, and cancellation of his contracts after punching him in the eye. All this is about the true events in the Epstein files and putrid diapers. The coward is trying to put the taco back in chicken.
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This entire country and its denizens may be summed us thusly: “Mene, mene tekel upharsin.”
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I forgot to say, have a happy birthday with people who love you, and spoil yourself a little! 75 is a big deal.
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yes, and I still can’t believe the legacy media rolled over so easily for fascism
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Facts!
I think it’s bigger than that though. I think they see everything as a zero-sum game, when almost nothing is.
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It’s as easy as ABC.
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