Donald Trump has been accused of “turning the military on American citizens” after a Pentagon official confirmed that planning is under way to send National Guard troops to Chicago.
Illinois attorney-general Kwame Raoul also told CBS News that the president’s actions are both “un-American” and “unwise strategically”.
Accusing the president of “turning our military on American citizens in his ongoing attempts to move our nation toward authoritarianism,” he added:
His actions are not just un-American. They are unwise strategically. Our cities are not made safer by deploying the nation’s service members for civilian law enforcement duties when they do not have the appropriate training.
To be clear: We have made no such request for the type of federal intervention we have seen in Los Angeles or Washington DC. There is no emergency in the state of Illinois.
I’m reluctantly starting to think that a civil war is inevitable. Does Illinois assert that there is no emergency to justify Federalization of the National Guard? They should act first, then, and force the issue.
The only genuine emergency is Federal overreach. Illinois should mobilize its National Guard and State Police first, with the express mission of keeping their citizens safe from outside military and paramilitary forces. Arrest anyone from out of state who claims the authority to act within the state illegally. And also arrest anyone from a Federal agency who conducts their business without appropriate identification. Pass new laws enabling this if they don’t already exist. When the Federal Government tries to counter-mobilize, tell them to pound sand.
This will force all this to the Supreme Court sooner rather than later. And if this court rules that this President can send military force to uncompliant states on a whim, then the civil war is officially on, because I don’t think Blue states will roll over and take that.
That’s what they’re driving towards, yes. History may say that it’s already started by now.
Historians will be arguing when the 2nd American Civil War started. For some, it was the end of Reconstruction. Others, the Business Plot. Yet closer to now, when the Heritage Foundation was created.
All I know, is that many pieces of shit were allowed to fester.
The failure of the attempt to remove Andrew Johnson after Lincoln’s assassination.
Johnson believed in white supremacy, and he was lenient towards the southern ruling class to keep them in power so that they would suppress the freed slaves*. Leaving the southern elites in power ruined the only chance the U.S. had to overcome the taint of slavery and racism.
Think of the difference:
The traitors from the first civil war may have actually faced consequences for their attempt to destroy the nation in order to keep people enslaved.
A president actually being removed via impeachment would have made the presidency less secure which may have either discouraged some of the behavior presidents have engaged in, or it may have been more likely to have resulted in them being held accountable (of course, I’m thinking of Nixon, Clinton, and Trump).
It already started. There are masked men in the streets with guns abducting citizens. They are tampering with infrastructure. They are stealing funds. What more do they have to do before you consider it a war?
I think war would require an armed and active opposition. Without that, it’s not civil war. It’s just oppression.
they basically said they are looking into options to be prepared and the governor and mayor are giving statements in two and a half hours.
I think blue states will roll over and take it. I can’t see an armed standoff happening on the highways or wherever the mobilized NG column arrives.
Trump and the fascist front wants to escalate against any resistance. Blue mayors and governors don’t want to be made an example of, so they will slowly get boiled.
I don’t think Illinois will roll over. Pritzker and the General Assembly have been on point. I’m very interested to see what the response is if Little t tries to send other states’ National Guard troops into Chicago. I feel pretty confident that Pritzker will not allow IL Nat Guard to be federalized for this purpose. Newsom didn’t authorize and yelled about it, but also didn’t really move to stop it in the moment.
To be fair, I don’t think Newsom and his administration thought they would go there, this quickly. Pritzker has the benefit of seeing how things went in LA, it’s no longer a hypothetical.
Yes, that’s definitely true. Other states now have California and DC as relevant examples, and can use that information to respond more firmly.
The thing is, I don’t see an armed standoff happening either, because I think that when push comes to shove, if any Federal or out-of-state troops are ordered into a neighboring state where they are not wanted, and facing the proposed to shooting other guardsmen, the troops themselves will stand down…
On the other hand, if I am wrong, at least we’ll know about it sooner. And maybe the frog will jump out of the pot if the heat is suddenly cranked up too high.
I fear they’ll just lie down and take it