The Rolling Reichstag Keeps On Rollin'

But a federal judge rules National Guard to return to Gov. Newsom by Friday

The Coop Scoop

June 12-13

A MAGA TRINKET FOR SALE ON THE US ARMY FORT BRAGG MILITARY BASE

No. Not a single Republican Senator has sent as much as I’m sorry you went through this tweet to their colleague Senator Alex Padilla who was roughed up, handcuffed and pushed to the ground by uniformed goons when he tried to ask a pointed question at an Ice Barbie presser this morning. I am decreeing her name now be changed to Ice Klaus Barbie. Why expect anything from a party that is now the civilian arm of Donald Trump’s increasingly repressive and militarized regime? A waste of time.

I, meanwhile, remain rather transfixed on the events surrounding Trump’s extremist speech to hundreds of extremist uniformed U.S. soldiers earlier this week as I find it eve more ominous than the temporary detention of Padilla — who was let go after a few minutes. Sorry to say, but out fate rests more with the armed forces than with a zombie Vichy congress.

A couple of days ago, I wrote what I knew at the moment. The uniformed troops, who had been hand selected for their pro-MAGA political leanings and were not too fat to be seen on camera, responded like trained seals, cheering and jeering along with the president as he verbally shat on the media, Joe Biden, California, and state governor Gavin Newsom along with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass.

We expect Trump to break the rules of neutrality of the armed forces. Nobody expected the uniformed troops to loudly participate in what was essentially a partisan campaign rally by MAGA. This is a blatant and serious violation of Army Regs. that strictly prohibit soldiers in uniform to participate in or even exhibit in any way any partisan sympathies. Especially on base.

What I did not know until I read it last night in the excellent Military.com. is that the card pictured above was for sale on a MAGA pop-up booth selling MAGA (and white supremacist) propaganda merch a few yards from the President’s podium.

The original piece I read about this from Tom Nichols in The Atlantic was significantly titled “Where are the Generals” — the guys who should have stopped this abomination dead in its tracks.

Now, thanks to what I read this morning in the excellent military.com, we know they were fully aware of this stunt about to take place, but these heroic “warriors” were too chicken shit scared to make an issue of it. They knew it was wrong, they wanted to ban at least the merch sales, but they were too afraid to voice their objections to the Idiot-in-Chief:

“While service members retain the right to hold and express political beliefs, military regulations draw a hard line when it comes to political expression while in uniform or on duty. However, no service members are expected to be admonished in any way, with multiple Army officials explaining to Military.com that, despite rules very likely being broken, holding troops to account when goaded by the president, who is ultimately the boss, would be impossible.”

"We're going to use this as a teaching tool to make sure soldiers better understand their position in their uniform to be apolitical," one service official told Military.com on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation.”

Oh, sure. Can’t wait for those classes.

The propaganda vendors are, of course, tightly tied to the Trump Mafia.

“And the Army's internal objections were ultimately brushed aside. The vendor appeared at the event put on by America250, to the shock of Army officials on the ground.”

“At the helm of [vendor] America250 is Executive Director Ari Abergel, a former deputy communications director for Melania Trump and a producer for Fox & Friends, a flagship morning news talk show on Fox News. The commission tapped Event Strategies Inc., a political event firm with deep Trump-world ties, to handle logistics for both the Fort Bragg appearance and the upcoming Army parade.

“Event Strategies, which has orchestrated many of Trump's rallies, was also listed on permits tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, protests in Washington, D.C. Its president, Tim Unes, a veteran of Trump's 2016 campaign, was previously removed from the planning team for former Sen. Bob Dole's funeral due to concerns over his involvement in the rally that preceded the deadly U.S. Capitol insurrection.”

So, that’s that. The base used to train Special Forces, and that also houses the 82nd Airborne, has been betrayed by its cowardly commanders and is now forever stained as a MAGA base as well.

This same report said that a number of soldiers present were seen after the event, walking around the base wearing the MAGA crapola on their uniforms. I suppose they know they will face no discipline as their commanders first half to dry their piss-stained undies.

Trump is currently vowing to deploy more troops to more cities and states beyond California and anti-ICE demos have become a national epidemic, breaking out coast-to-coast hour-by-hour. The legality of the deployment to L.A. was litigated in court today and the judge sounded quite skeptical of Trump’s case and immediately ruled that the command of the guard be transferred back to Govenor Newsom by Friday at noon. A punch in the nose for Trump.

It’s not clear yet whether the administration can appeal to stave off this defeat. The ruling, however, does not address the issue of the Marines which keeps open the door to Trump’s future deployments consisting only of active duty troops. This is positive forward motion but it is based on the ruling of one federal judge who can sooner or later be over-ruled. Remember the U.S. Army is commanded by Donald Trump and he needs nobody’s permission to deploy active duty troops as we should expect soon enough in other venues

The Guard and the Marines had little to nothing to do in L.A. anyway as the spearhead of repression are the militarized and masked ICE goons….as law enforcement goes, ICE and the Border Patrol, btw, are looked upon as barely a half a cut above your average bounty hunter. lacking in prestige and discipline.

But the masked thugs continue to spread fear. ICE agents loaded down with 40 lbs of gear have been running through the strawberry fields in Ventura County, chasing down migrant pickers who labor in the triple digit temperatures. Then there was the daring, long-planned “strategic” operation by ICE, to raid six car washes in the greater L.A. area…an operation breathlessly detailed on the front page of the Washington Post as if they were like raids on Osama Bin Laden. (I mean, somebody had to plan to block the driveways so these covert insurrectionists could not make a run for it.). It’s a cross of the SS and he Keystone Kops with a lot of honest hard-working civilians as their easy targets.

When the Nazi-Stalin pact led to the invasion of Poland in 1939, one of Stalin’s stooges anxiously informed him that the Pope had condemned the invasion. Stalin responded slyly, “Remind me how many divisions the Pope commands.”

The bonehead in charge of the Pentagon is apparently thinking along the same lines. Again, from Military.com:

“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused to say Thursday whether he would follow a federal district court order if it rules that the Trump administration's troop deployments to Los Angeles are illegal.”

It has this afternoon.

"What I can say is that we should not have local judges determining foreign policy or national security policy for the country," Hegseth said in response to a question from Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.”

“Asked again by Khanna whether he would respect a court decision, Hegseth reiterated that, "What I'm saying is local district judges shouldn't make foreign policy for the United States."

People are angry... and many are scared. I understand, but fear only paralyzes you. We are at just the beginning of a tumultuous and precipitous fall into something very ugly. We need to remain clear-headed and courageous to try to change course.

Some of my readers have asked me what should we do.

That is not for me to decide. I can only say what you should not do. Do not get tangled up in the grotesque argument of what sort of protest does or does no help Trump. We don’t know and we should not care. In the coming days you should not ask yourself how your actions will poll. Better to ask yourself if I you are doing is morally the right thing or just sleepwalking.

Do not let the professional scolds 1000 miles away and two generations removed from the young people in the street tell you that the kids in the street —and they are mostly youngins—are fodder for MAGA propaganda. Trump is only falling in the polls and is underwater on every aspect of this conflict. Majorities are opposed to the masked ICE raids, they are overwhelmingly opposed to arrest of migrants who are working and a majority are opposed to the streets filled with soldiers and cops (who for too long have been fetishized as the answer to every social problem of the dozens that plague our society.

It’s already a cliche but what the hell. Trump’s America has crossed the rubicon dividing democracy from dictatorship so please do yourself a favor and do not pretend we are living under some sort of extreme but basically normal government. Normal tactics are useless against an abnormal regime. Use your imagination and think forward not backward

We must build capacity and power, people power. And as we do, we will collectively and instinctually know what to do with it. Building that people power requires you to attend one of the big No Kings rally on Saturday. Everyone take one. Drill time is over.+++

Not going to beg but just will simply say that this independent journalism depends strictly on your paid subscriptions. STAND TALL. NO FEAR. PUSH BACK.