Two separate things seem to be going on.

First, the Trump administration is trying to deport as many people as possible with as little due process as possible, so it is setting quotas, and not differentiating between hardened criminals and lawful residents who have been here decades working at jobs, raising American citizen children and benefiting society. It is doing so without regard to economic considerations, or personal human considerations. It is doing this through unannounced raids and immediate detention, often without informing anyone, including family members, as to the whereabouts of the people who have been picked up, and not letting them be in contact with attorneys. Not surprisingly, this riles a lot of people and encourages protests of various kinds.

Second, the government is responding to these protests with a show of force, as we all see, right? Well, maybe not. Maybe the show of force that the government is putting on is not in response to the protests, but completely separate from it, although the protests are being used, dishonestly, as the excuse for the force.

These are connected, but separate.

Look at it this way. ICE undertakes very visible surprise raids in public places where non-targets see what is going on and objections and protests develop. If ICE wanted to avoid public protests, it obviously would not, for example, choose broad daylight in front of a Home Depot as a place for its activity.

As soon as protests develop, President Trump immediately says that Los Angeles is out of control and that the State of California is out of control and that it is the fault of Mayor Bass and Governor Newsom because everyone knows that they are unable to govern the city or the state (in fact, as Trump says, Newsom is known by all to be the worst governor of all the governors of the 50 states).

Even though the protests are relatively small and by and large peaceful, Trump decides they are gargantuan and will soon get out of control so he, without speaking to Newsom, much less getting his consent, decides to call out the California national guard and federalize its members. Using the national guard is probably not necessary, as the LAPD could have handled the protests without outside help. And not only calling out the guard, but federalizing it, is clear overkill. But Trump uses his extreme action as evidence (in a backwards sort of way) that Newsom (he calls him Newscum of course) could not possibly handle the situation himself. And when the guard members are met with more protests, Trump does not blame himself for a poor decision, but continues of blame Newsom.

But even the national guard does not satisfy Trump, who issues a country-wide order saying that an invasion is underway, which gives him the authority to assign active military troops to help.  He then calls 700 active U.S. Marines to Los Angeles to do who knows what to quell the small protests that could have been handled by the LAPD. Bringing active U.S. military troops into a city for this type of duty (potentially fighting against U.S. citizens as opposed to foreign adversaries) is even more unheard of. And even more unnecessary, but it goes further in an attempt to prove Trump’s point that Newsom can’t do this on his own, and potentially sets precedent for the same scenario in other parts of the country. And in fact, in issuing his order authorizing using the Marines, Trump made no reference to Los Angeles or California. The wording of the order opens up the use of active military troops anywhere in the country. Using the troops in southern California simply increases protests that much more.

Finally, if Trump did not want to stoke the flames of protest, he would have asked ICE to step back until things cool down. But no, this is not what he did. He asked ICE to increase the number of their raids in Los Angeles. This will undoubtedly create more opposition, giving Trump all the more reason to say that his calling the Marines into action was not only legal but required. So we can expect things in Los Angeles to get worse and worse, all as a result of Trump accelerating ICE activities, and a result of overreacting to the situation consciously and with the goal of provoking more violence.

There has been much written in the past few years about Fascism and much discussion as to whether or not Trump should be considered a fascist. A definition that has been in use by many for the past 20 years or so has provided 14 “Early Warning Signs of Fascism”. See how many of these you believe are appropriate in our country today (I think the answer is 13):

1. Powerful and continuing nationalism
2. Disdain for human rights
3. Identification of enemies as a unifying cause
4. Supremacy of the military
5. Rampant sexism
6. Controlled mass media
7. Obsession with national security
8. Religion and government intertwined
9. Corporate power protected
10. Labor power suppressed
11. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts
12. Obsession with crime and punishment
13. Cronyism and corruption
14. Fraudulent elections

What do you think? Here is a more detailed discussion of the 14 warning signs:

And don’t forget about Saturday’s parade.