Trump sent his own contingent of "little green men" to crack down on protesters in Portland, Oregon. The term was coined when mysterious combat forces, their uniforms stripped of any insignia or badges that might identify their unit affiliation, turned up in Ukraine prior to Putin's annexation of Crimea.
Trump's little green men showed up in camo gear, helmets, etc., wielding a variety of "less lethal" ordinance. These "federal agents" turned up supposedly to protect federal property from the protesters but that pretence didn't last long as they wandered far afield. Some were caught on cellphone video snatching civilians off the street, flinging them into vehicles and then driving off - basically kidnapping.
“Keep your troops in your own buildings, or have them leave our city,” Ted Wheeler, the mayor, told the president, at a news conference on Friday.
The Democratic governor, Kate Brown, said Trump was looking for a confrontation in the hopes of winning political points elsewhere, and for a distraction from the coronavirus pandemic, which is causing rising numbers of infections in Oregon and across the nation.
Brown’s spokesman, Charles Boyle, said arresting people without probable cause was “extraordinarily concerning and a violation of their civil liberties and constitutional rights”.
The Oregon attorney general, Ellen Rosenblum, said she would file a lawsuit in federal court against the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Marshals Service, Customs and Border Protection, and Federal Protection Service, alleging they have violated the civil rights of Oregonians by detaining them without probable cause. She will also seek a temporary restraining order against them.
This certainly sounds like a tactic that might be dreamed up in the troubled mind of Trump's handler and in-house white supremacists, Stephen Miller. Even if Trump loses in November it would still energize the very worst part of his base if the Culture War somehow goes hot. To that base this clearly casts the protesters as enemies of the state, a meme Miller loves.
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| Little Green Men use vans to drive off with abductees. |
Several visitors to this blog have suggested that Trump could try to avert a loss in November by sparking unrest that he would use to justify imposing martial law. I used to think that was a fanciful nothing. Now I'm not sure that they were wrong. I might have got it wrong.
What if the little green men show up at minority polling stations to check ID for "voter fraud?" What if they run the ID numbers through a computer to check for ball and parole violations, unpaid court costs, speeding tickets and parking fines? What if suspects are driven away? What if Democratic poll workers are driven away? What if the little green men just stand outside polling stations in riot gear? So many possibilities once you've tossed democratic norms out the window...
ReplyDeleteCap
ReplyDeleteCap, wouldn't that be the final nail in America's coffin?
No, American minorities saw worse under Jim Crow. This isn't their first fascist rodeo.
ReplyDeleteCap
@ Cap.
ReplyDeleteIt won't be their last fascist rodeo either.
Those expecting a 180 degree turn under a president Biden are dreamers!
The USA has entered a period of political and social unrest that will not go away for generations; such are nations in decline.
TB
I have yet to see or read credible Main Media identify who the 'little green men' actually are.. More importantly in my view is the 'chain of command' - the 'initiate Plan whatever'.. Portland leaps off the Richter Scale of seismic political scumbaggery failure. As usual, the abject idiocy of 'the authorities' goes through the magic spin laundry machine.. to 'flood the zone with shit' (thanks Steve Bannon for that little shithole nugget) Americans should be grateful Ms Keighley McAsomething will appear in a delightful summer frock to shock and amaze with utter horsecrap.. mebbe she could do her daily exit with an invert backflip and stick the landing with a middle finger extended.. that's about what that Mar da White Lago House cartoon show is worth.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile in Canada eh.. we have a front row seat as the rabid American elephant in the room (North America) goes into civic level death throes. We have a political Party in Canada simply enchanted by the in your face betrayal by the GOP Republican droogs. Hello Andrew Scheer ! The ruling Party of Saint Justin keep faceplanting .. and if Gerald Butts is 'advising' the Dauphin.. perhaps he could recuse himself.. I do love hiw they trot out the rescue queen Ms Chrystia Freeland to carefully enunciate how earnest and wonderful .. she's so pedantic to us kindergarden Canadian folk that I want to claw the TV screen and yell 'talk like an adult to us'
Anyway.. I'm microdosing clinical grade LSD, muching a nibble o magic shroom here n there.. and refining the perfect Truly Spicy Caesar with no celery.. the signature is mucho salt rim & a killer Mennonite garlic pickled bean or three. A fine Newfoundland vodka tops any from France or Putin.. and its a drink I always built for clients who were zero alcohol.. if its spicy enuff, who can tell ? Or live to tell ? My lips are sealed. I remain the fastest gun bartender I ever saw.. Ottawa Hayloft and Montreal Barnsider trained.. I may drop an oyster in my most recent new drink.. the Anywhere On The Beach.. Put Copperhead Road on loud, take the juice from conch ceviche over mucho ice, short glass, Newfie Iceberg vodka as per doctor's orders.. big long toothpick.. insert Oyster.. Boss likes it but prefers tequila, hold the oyster.. and a stout caesar salad never hurt nobody, ever..
"The USA has entered a period of political and social unrest that will not go away for generations;"
ReplyDeleteIf you are correct, TB, and if Canada somehow limps along continuing to be a semi-functional democracy with a mixed economy including medicare and CERB-type supports, our very existence will be seen as a rebuke that calls out for silencing.
Sal, some media outlets report they're agents of DHS.
ReplyDeleteIt's enough to know they're the feds. The worrisome part is that they show up without any prior notice to the city of Portland or the governor's office.
Their excuse was that they had been sent to secure federal buildings and property but that doesn't explain why they were out on the streets, grabbing people, throwing them into unmarked (rental) vehicles and driving off with them.
They're not law enforcement. They're provocateurs, Trump's own Brown Shirts. The little green men are there to boil the pot, to create havoc for the municipal and state authorities and among the protesters on the streets. No wonder the state of Oregon is moving to bring criminal charges against them.
NPoV, you're not paranoid to worry about knock-on impacts of this partly engineered US chaos hitting Canada. I believe Trump is capable of whatever dark notions rattle around Stephen Miller's mind. And, with the election looming and Trump's numbers in the toilet, the "cornered rat" syndrome could be in play.
ReplyDeleteChris Hedges has repeatedly warned that America is in a "pre-revolutionary" state. Bill Maher, among others, regularly tells guests that, even if Trump loses in November, he'll contrive something to remain in power. Is this Portland business a prelude? Hell, I don't know but I suppose it could be.
To be fair to Putin, HIS little green men in Crimea don't seem to have done any of that stuff. It was a very peaceful changeover of power. And Crimea seems to have been significantly less violent than any other part of Ukraine ever since.
ReplyDeleteThis is bit late in the game..
ReplyDeleteThese badgeless enforces with no known distinguishing marks take down protesters .
As unknown nondescript, unannounced wavers of guns and other such paraphernalia performing acts of extraordinary rendition is the act illegal within the USA.
TB