curated citations to news sources
Atlantic: For Trump, This Is a Dress Rehearsal
Ordering the National Guard to deploy in Los Angeles is a warning of what to expect when his hold on power is threatened.
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The state, counties, and cities of California employ more than 75,000 uniformed law-enforcement personnel with arrest powers. The Los Angeles Police Department alone numbers nearly 9,000 uniformed officers. They can surely handle some dozens of agitators throwing rocks, shooting fireworks, and impeding vehicular traffic.
If and when those 75,000 uniformed personnel feel overmatched by the agitators, California can request federal help of its own volition. When California has asked for needed federal help—during the wildfires earlier this year, for example—Trump has begrudged that help and played politics with it. Trump is now forcing help that the city and state do not need and do not want, not to restore law but to assert his personal dominance over the normal procedures to enforce the law.
But if the Trump-Hegseth threats have little purpose as law enforcement, they signify great purpose as political strategy. Since Trump’s reelection, close observers of his presidency have feared a specific sequence of events that could play out ahead of midterm voting in 2026…
(Atlantic more…)
LAWdork: Trump is spiraling. We face the consequences. Where are the other branches?
Atlantic: Averting a Worst-Case Scenario in Los Angeles
Immigration raids and protests will continue so long as Trump is president. His opponents should do everything they can to stay within the law.
Reuters: California governor calls Trump National Guard deployment in LA unlawful
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – June 8, 2025
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Anna Giaritelli of the Washington Examiner reported that at a meeting in late May, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who appears to be leading the administration’s immigration efforts, “eviscerated” federal immigration officials for numbers of deportations and renditions that, at around 600 people per day, he considered far too low. “Stephen Miller wants everybody arrested,” one of the officials at the meeting told Giaritelli. “‘‘Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?’” Miller said.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
Rebecca Solnit: Some Notes on the City of Angels and the Nature of Violence
Liz Dye: ICE Riots In Los Angeles
Trump declares war on America.
Isaac Saul: The Los Angeles protests.
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In case you think that the protests were not “mostly peaceful” up until Trump’s deployment announcement, consider this: On Saturday, the Los Angeles Police Department issued a statement describing the protests as peaceful and commending people for exercising their rights responsibly. The Los Angeles Police Department — not exactly an outfit known for taking kindly to civil disobedience. On Saturday night, Trump thanked the National Guard for stabilizing the situation (even though the guard hadn’t even gotten there), and then the situation got markedly worse in basically every way on Sunday (once the National Guard did, actually, arrive). Sending the military to confront protests, unless local law enforcement is truly overwhelmed (see: Kenosha, Wisconsin), is always inflammatory. Even if you believe that Trump is earnestly trying to restore order, you must be able to concede that violent clashes with hundreds or thousands of protesters is a profound failure in his effort to get things under control.
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Adam Mockler: ABC Just Allowed The White House To Silence Their Journalist
Terry Moran told the truth. Stephen Miller’s feelings were hurt. ABC folded immediately.
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Intercept: ICE Official Reveals Miserable Conditions for U.S. Immigrants at Djibouti Prison
A top ICE official said illness is common at Camp Lemonnier, with inadequate medical care and exposure to smoke from burn pits.
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“The judge gave the government a choice as to how to remedy the government’s violation of the court’s order — either return them and comply with the order in the United States or comply with the order overseas,” she said. “The government opted to comply overseas after telling the court that they had the ability to do so. This is a situation the government both created and can remedy if it so chooses.”
(Intercept more…)
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Allison Gill: Abrego Garcia’s Lawyers: “This Case is Not Over.”
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Today, lawyers for Abrego Garcia have filed their opposition to the government’s motion to stay the discovery process that could lead to contempt and/or sanctions for the government’s failure to obey court orders. They write:Though Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is, at long last, back in the United States following his illegal removal, to characterize the Government as having “complied with the Court’s order” is pure farce.
The Government flouted rather than followed the orders of this Court and the United States Supreme Court. Instead of facilitating Abrego Garcia’s return, for the past two months Defendants have engaged in an elaborate, all-of-government effort to defy court orders, deny due process, and disparage Abrego Garcia. In its latest act of contempt, the Government arranged for Abrego Garcia’s return, not to Maryland in compliance with the Supreme Court’s directive to “ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,” but rather to Tennessee so that he could be charged with a crime in a case that the Government only developed while it was under threat of sanctions.
(Allison Gill more…)
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Ruth Ann Crystal MD: COVID & Health news, 6/8/25
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Bo Forbes: Trump Insults Friedrich Merz + Germany
This week, Trump met with German chancellor Friedrich Merz in that gilded lily of an Oval Office.
Merz is a businessman, and shrewd enough to know that flattery would be the main course on the menu.
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After allowing him to go on for a bit, Chancellor Merz had a pressing question for Trump about the new travel bans.“Mr. President, on your new travel ban, why now?” he asked. “And if the Boulder attack was part of your reasoning, why not include Egypt on that list, where the suspect is from?”
…Trump then mused aloud, inappropriately, as to whether it was a good idea for Germany to increase its military spending, something that Trump had long bullied Germany (and the EU as a whole) to do.
“I’m not sure that General MacArthur would have said it was positive, you know?” Mr. Trump said at one point, referring to the American military commander *in Asia* in World War II. “He wouldn’t like it, but I sort of think it’s good. You understand that?”
Mr. Merz said he did understand, allowing Trump’s massive blunder about MacArthur to go unaddressed- as did, for some strange reason, the NYT.
“He made a statement, never let Germany re-arm,” Trump went on inanely.
There is no record of General MacArthur ever having said these words.
It is widely known by anyone with even a cursory knowledge about World War II that MacArthur was wholly uninvolved in the European theater. In fact, he retired in 1937, but was recalled into service in 1941 as Commander of the U.S. Army in the Far East. After the war, President Truman named MacArthur the military governor of Japan.
Sadly, Trump continued on his path to reverse diplomacy.
…Trump suggested that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was not, as he said recently, the source of the greatest casualties since World War II. It was rather, he said Friday, more like “a playground fight between two children who hate each other.”
Imagine comparing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with nearly 1,000,000 dead on Russia’s side and likely 750,000 on Ukraine’s end, to a schoolyard squabble.
…The lack of intelligence is blinding, the incompetence unparalleled.
And we’re only four months in.
(Bo Forbes more…)
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James Eagle: TACOs are all the rage
TACOs tasted amazing while they lasted. For months investors gorged on the “Trump Always Chickens Out” trade, betting every tariff threat would be walked back. Now the sauce is turning sour.
The key fact: Donald Trump has already reversed or delayed five big tariff moves this year, yet fresh talk in Washington hints he will stand firm on the next round. One hard decision could smash the idea that he always blinks.
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(James Eagle more…)
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Borowitz: Qataris Buy Trump’s Tesla for $400 Million
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
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