Originally published at: Chicago Tells Of Escalating State Violence, Including A Killing, As It Challenges National Guard Occupation - TPM – Talking Points Memo
Chicago’s new lawsuit against imminent National Guard deployment paints a city besieged by disproportionate federal force, its inhabitants angered by the killing of an undocumented resident, pain inflicted gleefully and needlessly by federal law enforcement and the looming specter of further occupation. Following Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Portland, the city and state challenged President…
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We need to start calling this what it is: political violence.
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ICE is on a collision course with disaster. An org this big and violent, and this undisciplined and ill led, has little chance of avoiding tragedy.
In the aftermath, reasonable people will wonder how we went so far astray. When Trump is dead and Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem are in prison, what’s left of MAGA will blame Biden and Obama for instigating so much un-American activity.
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It is GOP political violence for the camera. They have been videotaping each time the goons fire tear gas at the 10 people protesting. They had videotape rolling when the black hawk dropped the goons to the roof top in order to trash the apartments and make a show of children in tiptoes in the middle of the night. ‘see i am tough’ - actually I think they are cowards because they don’t have their body camera rolling, no id badges, and their face is hidden.
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Miller needs to die in prison.
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Now is the time to begin a massive series of NON-VIOLENT, peaceful protest demonstrations in Chicago (and in Portland and other cities threatened by ICE and MAGA violence), just as the Black community and white allies responded to the provocative, dangerous violence unleashed by Bull Connor and his poiice dogs and fire hoses in Alabama in the 1960s.
And, to cite another example of long-range victory for decency and freedom, emulate Poland’s Solidarnosc in the 1980s, which brought down the Communist dictatorship.
Those powerful, peaceful protests, and all the searing photographs and journalists’ stories that they generated, turned the tide.
PLEASE: No crazy “Antifa” retaliatory violence, which is exactly what Trump, Vance, Miller, Noem, and the rest of the MAGA goons are hoping to set off.
We have the moral highground, and we can win this if we’re brave and steadfast. It’s Trump and his regime who are panicking.
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The greatest pain you could inflict on Miller is that he dies in obscurity. Just like his boss.
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It’s not just that the Trumpers are deliberately trying to cause violence in Chicago to provoke a response, to then claim a justification for federal troops. It gets worse — the local police chief for the town of Broadview Heights (location of the ICE facility) has stated that ICE officials are repeatedly calling in false reports of folks trying to attack/break into the facility, despite no such activity occurring. So if they can’t provoke a violent response, they’ll just fabricate one.
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As always with these assholes, every accusation is a confession.
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The plan is to use ICE violence to provoke people - or as Pee Wee German would put it, to be extremely “hard core” - until those people defend themselves with violence, so that the masked goons can get even more “hard core”.
In large part, it’s designed to play well on television and social media, to give an image of chaos, when the chaos is caused entirely by ICE. Here in Portland, ICE had videographers filming their tough guy antics, creating content for more trolling ICE social media videos and for recruiting commercials.
Miller and Tom “Cava Bag” Homan are a couple of sick fucks.
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Well, a tragedy for someone, certainly. Maybe for an entire nation. But will the tragedy touch those causing it all?
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I hope Judge Karin Immergut has verified that she has adequate property insurance. Not to mention medical. Trump keeps putting a target on her back, and her house, her family, her pets, her vehicles …
And somehow, it’s us Democrats who are fomenting hate, stirring up violence, and all that carp. Are Americans still buying that schtick?
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Chicago is going to be a flashpoint for federal perpetration of and attempted incitement of violence. And a harbinger of Court action that could turn the tide.
Nice to be a Democrat in my home state these days. But even though I’m a white male over age 70, I haven’t dismissed the possibility of zip-ties.
I just hope that former convicted reality TV show host doesn’t try to keep the troops in town and fuck up the Paul McCartney concerts in November.
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This could go totally wrong for them. So wrong.
The entire administration are. These are not normal, well adjusted people. And Donnie gathered them all in one place. Their thinking is flawed, emotional and not founded on fact. They are going to fool themselves into a corner that they cannot get out of.
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Not sure where to share here at TPM. I still get messages (of all sorts) from the college I retired from. This, today (or yesterday, as I type). I’m aware that not all faculty are happy with the pres’s way of handling things, vis-a-vis fed-funded research. But this statement she issued today sounds pretty good to me:
Last week, the federal government invited nine universities to sign The Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. By asking schools to commit to an ideological program, the Compact threatens to undermine academic independence, which has been essential to the flourishing of ideas and innovation in the United States.
While XXX was not an initial recipient of the Compact, the document’s broader implications are significant. With that in mind, I would like to pre-emptively set out the principles upon which I believe a more constructive compact should have been built.
Over my seven years as president of XXX I have witnessed the transformative power of an education rooted in free and open inquiry. I have seen thousands of students arrive with curiosity and depart with purpose, ready to begin their careers, assume their roles in society and engage, as we all must do, with the challenges of their lifetimes. Guiding students along this journey is our duty and privilege. It is also a profound public good: one sustained for generations through a partnership between America’s colleges and universities and our government.
The partnership has enabled us to prepare students for lives of value. It has also fueled discovery, powered the economy, and nourished democracy. Success has relied, not on coercion, but on a shared understanding that the work of pursuing and passing on knowledge requires a full measure of freedom.
The following principles are articulated with that history in mind.
1. Freedom of Inquiry. True excellence is born from the freedom to ask difficult questions, challenge dogma, and follow evidence and reason wherever they may lead. This freedom is not a privilege; it is the essential condition for discovery. Our campuses must always aspire to be places of robust, reasoned, and respectful debate, where intellectual courage is valued over conformity. These skills and dispositions must be taught, honed, and practiced, never taken for granted.
2. Open-Mindedness. Vital educational institutions bring together intellectually engaged, curious students, faculty, and staff from every corner of the globe, every region of the country, every community and culture. They share an interest in the type of learning that results from working and living together in a heterogeneous community, within which all members participate in a spirit of inquiry and openness. Eligibility is not defined by a single metric but by a constellation of qualities, including intellectual vitality, creativity, and capacity for growth.
3. Institutional Autonomy. Although higher education has always been and should be subject to oversight, the federal government has respected our need to freely determine whom we admit and hire, how we teach, and how we manage our operations. The public-private partnership was based on a shared belief that education is most effective when it is insulated from short-term fluctuations in political priorities or public opinion. Even as society’s expectations about higher education shift, this autonomy allows colleges and universities to serve the public good by teaching students to question established orthodoxies and assumptions.
4. Self-Critique and Reform. Higher learning is a complex, naturally imperfect human endeavor that must meet the ever-changing needs of society. As such, it requires a commitment to ongoing, honest, and fact-based critique, followed by informed efforts at improvement. We must always ask ourselves the tough questions, and there is no need to fear them if asked in a spirit of openness. Over decades, if not longer, we have developed a practice of repeatedly reviewing and re-thinking our curricula, pedagogical approaches, paths of inquiry, and institutional forms and policies. Our aspirational commitment to continuous self-awareness and -improvement is central to the educational project itself.
5. Accountability and Due Process. In all our affairs, we remain bound by a duty of fairness. We expect the federal government to hold us accountable to this ideal through processes that are transparent, predictable, and just. Doing so requires a well-established legal and administrative framework rooted in Constitutional principles and the rule of law, thereby protecting individuals and institutions from arbitrary action.
In my view, any compact committed to excellence in higher education should be based on these and similar principles.
The challenges that the world is facing require more of what American higher education has to offer, not less. We need citizens capable of critical thinking, workers who can power the economy, leaders who can navigate complexity, and innovators who can imagine a better future. Threats, sanctions, and funding cuts undermine trust and hinder us from this work. Pitting institutions against one another weakens our collective impact instead of advancing our excellence.
We should commit to renewing the great American partnership for education and discovery; to respecting the principles of freedom and integrity that have served our schools, students and nation so well for so long; and to upholding a system of higher education that is, and should remain, a beacon of hope and a force for good.
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“We have long reached the point where Trump needs to openly defy these judges,” tweeted right-wing commentator Matt Walsh. “Some random federal judge has no authority to decide how and if troops are deployed. She is not the commander in chief. Ignore her and deploy them. It’s time for a showdown with these activist judges.”
Who are these conservative commentators and why do they think they have the moral authority to defy the rule of law?
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I was in PDX today. The smoke from the Battle of Portland was completely obscured by the crystal clear, blue skies.
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“one of the most egregious and thunderous violations of constitutional order we have ever seen” and “the latest example of unceasing efforts to nullify the 2024 election by fiat.”
Hyperbole much. I can do that too, Stephen Miller is one of the biggest assholes violating the constitution on behalf of Donald Trump that we have ever seen, and his latest example shows his unceasing efforts to start violence in Blue states so he can send in the military.
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Col. Bone Spurs is ready for his Nobel Peace Prize…..
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