The Conversation -- June 8, 2025

Eric Thayer & Morgan Lee of the AP: “Tear gas and smoke filled the air on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles on Saturday as confrontations between immigration authorities and demonstrators extended into a second day and top Trump administration officials vowed to prosecute anyone who interferes with enforcement. Border Patrol personnel in riot gear and gas masks stood guard outside an industrial park in the city of Paramount, deploying tear gas as bystanders and protesters gathered on medians and across the street. Some jeered at officers while recording the events on smartphones.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Jesus Jimenez, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration said it planned to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles on Saturday after federal immigration agents in riot gear squared off with hundreds of protesters for a second consecutive day.... California officials, including Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles and Gov. Gavin Newsom, both Democrats, condemned the raids. The governor took particular issue with the arrest on Friday of David Huerta, the president of the California chapter of the Service Employees International Union.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Yes, we do live in a fascist country: ~~~

     ~~~⭐Shawn Hubler & Laurel Rosenhall of the New York Times: Donald “Trump took extraordinary action on Saturday by calling up 2,000 National Guard troops to quell immigration protests in California, making rare use of federal powers and bypassing the authority of the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom. It is the first time since 1965 that a president has activated a state’s National Guard force without a request from that state’s governor, according to Elizabeth Goitein ... [of] the Brennan Center for Justice.... The last time was when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators in 1965, she said. Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, immediately rebuked the president’s action. 'That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions,' Mr. Newsom said, adding that 'this is the wrong mission and will erode public trust.' Governors almost always control the deployment of National Guard troops in their states. But the directive signed by Mr. Trump cites '10 U.S.C. 12406,' referring to a specific provision within Title 10 of the U.S. Code on Armed Services. Part of that provision allows the federal deployment of National Guard forces if 'there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.'... Although some demonstrations have been unruly, local authorities in Los Angeles County did not indicate during the day that they needed federal assistance.” A Politico story is here. A related AP report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When LBJ called in the National Guard, he did so to protect the people from their local government. Trump is calling up the Guard to protect the government from the people. And so we have our second Trump chiasmus in as many days. ~~~

     ~~~ Hegseth, Vance, Miller Are Euphoric. Sandra Stojanovic & Omar Younis of Reuters: "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that the Pentagon was prepared to mobilize active-duty troops 'if violence continues' in Los Angeles, saying the Marines at nearby Camp Pendleton were 'on high alert.'... Trump signed a presidential memorandum to deploy the National Guard troops to 'address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester,' the White House said in a statement. Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, told Fox News that the National Guard would be deployed in Los Angeles on Saturday. California Governor Gavin Newsom ... posted on X that Trump was deploying the National Guard 'not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle,' adding: 'Don't give them one. Never use violence. Speak out peacefully.' Newson said it was 'deranged behavior' for Hegseth to be 'threatening to deploy active-duty Marines on American soil against its own citizens.'... 'Insurrectionists carrying foreign flags are attacking immigration enforcement officers, while one half of America's political leadership has decided that border enforcement is evil,' Vice President JD Vance posted on X late on Saturday. Senior White House aide Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner, described the protests as a 'violent insurrection.'" MB: This is a moment of unparalleled exhilaration for Drunk Pete, the Couch Humper & the Ghoul. ~~~

~~~ Lydia DePillus & Orlando Londoño of the New York Times: “The chaos that engulfed Los Angeles on Saturday began a day earlier when camouflage-clad federal agents rolled through the garment district in search of workers who they suspected of being undocumented immigrants.... [This] was not an isolated incident. Last week, at a student housing complex under construction in Tallahassee, Fla., masked immigration agents loaded dozens of migrants into buses headed to detention centers. In New Orleans, 15 people working on a flood control project were detained. And raids in San Diego and Massachusetts — in Martha’s Vineyard and the Berkshires — led to standoffs in recent days as bystanders angrily confronted federal agents who were taking workers into custody. The high-profile raids appeared to mark a new phase of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, in which officials say they will increasingly focus on workplaces — taking aim at the reason millions of people have illegally crossed the border for decades. That is an expansion from plans early in the administration to prioritize detaining hardened criminals and later to focus on hundreds of international students. 'You’re going to see more work site enforcement than you’ve ever seen in the history of this nation,' Thomas D. Homan, the White House border czar told reporters recently. 'We’re going to flood the zone.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, the point is not to rid us of dangerous, threatening criminals. It is to rid us of people who are willing to stand in the noonday sun for a chance to do the work most citizens won't do. ~~~

     ~~~ Orlando Mayorquín & Jesus Jimenez of the New York Times: “Federal agents in tactical gear armed with military-style rifles threw flash-bang grenades to disperse an angry crowd near downtown Los Angeles on Friday as they conducted an immigration raid on a clothing wholesaler, the latest sign of tensions between protesters and law enforcement over raids carried out at stores, restaurants and court buildings.... The raid at the clothing wholesaler began about 9:15 a.m. in the Fashion District, less than two miles from Los Angeles City Hall. It was an extraordinary show of force. Dozens of federal agents wearing helmets and green camouflage arrived in two hulking armored trucks and other unmarked vehicles, and were soon approached by a crowd of immigrant activists and supporters. Some agents carried riot shields and others held rifles, as well as shotguns that appeared to be loaded with less-than-lethal ammunition.” The link appears to be a gift link. ~~~

~~~ How to Face Down a Tyrant. Robert Reich on Substack: “Trump’s action is extreme although technically legal.... Why is he doing it, and why now? Because Trump can’t stand to be humiliated — as he has been [re: several matters] in the last two weeks.... So ... like any bully, he tries to find another way to display his power — especially over people whom he doesn’t consider 'his' people.... Trump wants to escalate tensions.... We cannot be silent in the face of Trump’s dictatorial move. But we must not succumb to violence. What is needed is peaceful civil disobedience.... Americans who do not attempt to strike back, but who do what many of us did during the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements — peacefully but unambiguously reject tyranny.” ~~~

~~~ Josh Marshall of TPM: "We’re very clearly entering a moment of grave danger. My main thought about this is to remember – as we’ve said in other contexts – that the fight to preserve the American republic remains fundamentally one over public opinion. The President has a lot of power here for violence and mischief. But he’s not in charge of what people think about it...." ~~~

~~~ Digby has more from Marshall and others, including a skeet by Kara Swisher that would shut down the Trumpy Testosterone Theatrical Performance if the boys could be controlled. (MB: We're not hearing much from Kristi in all this, and we know she has the outfits for it. Maybe she and her get-away handbag were out dining over the weekend.) 

Fascist Fathead Lashes Out Again. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 'very serious consequences' against Elon Musk if the tech billionaire and former adviser were to fund any Democratic candidates, the latest escalation in rhetoric in the messy breakup between the two former allies.... Trump told [NBC News on Saturday] that he assumed his relationship with Musk was over and also continued to insist, as he did in several interviews with media outlets Friday, that he was too busy to reach out to Musk.... 'I think it’s a very bad thing, because he’s very disrespectful. You could not disrespect the office of the president,' Trump told NBC News on Saturday.” The NBC News story is here. MB: Trump asserts that he himself is “the office of the president.” He's not an office; he's an ass. One does not disrespect the office when criticizing the person who is disgracing it. Indeed, in the very act of threatening to use the power of the presidency to harm someone for exercising his Constitutional right of free speech is deeply disrespectful to the office and is a violation of the oath of office.   

Ben Rhodes in a New York Times op-ed: Donald “Trump has more than doubled his personal wealth since starting his 2024 election campaign. Billions of foreign dollars have flowed into his family’s real estate and crypto ventures. A plane that doubles as a 'palace in the sky' has been given for Mr. Trump’s use by the government of Qatar. It is easy to dismiss this as just a bigger and more brazen version of the self-dealing we saw during the first Trump term. But it poses a more fundamental danger. Our political system is being transformed into something that no longer serves the people. Indeed, the United States is seemingly becoming just another country with a corrupt strongman personalizing and profiting from power.... To build a movement powerful enough to push back on Mr. Trump’s self-dealing, Democrats must show people how it will affect their lives. The outrage isn’t just that the Trumps are getting richer...; it’s that your car payments and groceries will be more expensive because of tariffs, that you could lose your job if A.I. is unregulated and that the world will become more dangerous if there are no rules — only deals and the perpetual aggrandizement of the president’s ego.”

Borowitz Report: "In a bold attempt at high-stakes diplomacy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered on Friday to broker a peace deal between Elon Musk and Donald J. Trump." (Also linked yesterday.) And this, via Borowitz: ~~~

The Coalition of the Gullible Is Fraying. Nate Cohn of the New York Times: “The long-awaited breakup between ... [Donald] Trump and Elon Musk was as personal and petty as anticipated, and yet it’s a sign of something much more than a conflict between two of the world’s most powerful and mercurial men. It’s a signal that Mr. Trump is not finding it easy to hold his populist conservative coalition together.... Mr. Trump won a second term with a much broader political coalition than the one that brought him to the presidency in 2016. He added millions of young and nonwhite voters to his base of older, white, working-class populists and stalwart Republicans. He also added considerable support from anti-woke and anti-establishment elites who previously backed Democrats.... Less than five months into Mr. Trump’s term, there are already indications that this broader coalition is fraying.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I still think calling Trump a "populist" is ridiculous. A populist does things that the people -- i.e., certain voters -- think are in their interest. For instance, Mussolini made the trains run on time. George Wallace suppressed people of color. But Trump's "people" never asked to pay high (and volatile) tariffs and most didn't ask to get rid of the guys who framed their new houses or picked their vegetables. They didn't ask for in-your-face corruption. And they didn't ask for tax breaks for billionaires. They didn't ask to be kicked off of Medicaid or get dropped from Obamacare insurance. Trump's pitch might have been "populist," but his actual policies are largely anti-populist -- and therefore unpopular. that's why the Coalition of the Gullible will not hold.

Christian Davenport of the Washington Post: “NASA and Pentagon officials moved swiftly this past week to urge competitors to Elon Musk’s SpaceX to more quickly develop alternative rockets and spacecraft after ... Donald Trump threatened to cancel Space X’s contracts and Musk’s defiant response. Government officials were especially stunned after Musk responded to Trump with a salvo of his own: SpaceX would stop flying its Dragon spacecraft, a move that would leave the space agency with no way to transport its astronauts to the International Space Station. Musk later recanted his threat. But it alarmed officials at NASA, which entrusts SpaceX with the lives of its astronauts, and at the Pentagon, which relies heavily on the company to launch its most sensitive satellites.... The concerns are compounded by the fact that [SpaceX's] competitors have been slow to catch up, leaving SpaceX’s dominance largely unchallenged and the government with few options.” ~~~

~~~ Lucia Sang of CBS News: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren is asking Secretary of State Marco Rubio for information on the Trump administration's contingency plans if billionaire Elon Musk breaches his companies' current contracts with the U.S. amid the ongoing public fall out between him and ... [Donald] Trump. In a letter to Rubio as acting national security adviser..., the Massachusetts Democrat mentioned Mr. Trump's proposal to terminate Musk's government contracts and subsidies, which the world's richest man followed with a threat that SpaceX would  'begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.' Musk has since walked back his threat. 'No petty social media fight between the president and a billionaire should jeopardize U.S. national security,' Warren said.... The senator [also] asked for information regarding the impact on U.S. agencies' satellite communications if Musk's Starlink is turned off. Additionally, she asked Rubio to provide any analysis that the Trump administration has conducted 'of its authorities and options under the Defense Production Act to address vendor lock, monopolies, or contractor refusal to meet national security needs.'"

Hey, Donald. It looks as if Elon and his Chinese friends -- to name a few -- are listening in on your calls. ~~~

~~~ Joseph Menn of the Washington Post: “Elon Musk’s team at the U.S. DOGE Service and allies in the Trump administration ignored White House communications experts worried about potential security breaches when DOGE personnel installed Musk’s Starlink internet service in the complex this year, three people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post. The people ... said those who were managing White House communications systems were not informed in advance when DOGE representatives went to the roof of the adjacent Eisenhower Executive Office Building in February to install a terminal connecting users in the complex to Starlink satellites, which are owned by Musk’s private SpaceX rocket company. The people said those managing the systems weren’t able to monitor such connections to stop sensitive information from leaving the complex or hackers from breaking in.... [A Starlink guest] WiFi network was still appearing on White House visitors’ phones this week.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

What Happens When the Dogs Catch the Car. Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: Kash “Patel and [Dan] Bongino, partisan showmen placed in positions previously held by people with greater experience, earned their bona fides in Mr. Trump’s camp by promoting conspiracy theories, making promises of what they would accomplish under Mr. Trump when he returned to power based on fictional or exaggerated premises, pledging to reveal deep-state secrets and vowing swift vengeance on their enemies. It has now fallen on Mr. Patel, Mr. Bongino and Attorney General Pam Bondi to make good on the promises explicit and implied — or show how hard they are trying. But they are running what amounts to a conspiracy theory fulfillment center with unstocked shelves, critics say.... Mr. Trump himself campaigned on the spurious idea that immigrant criminals had invaded the United States like a foreign army.... He has flirted so often with the QAnon conspiracy theory, which falsely holds that prominent Democrats like Hillary Clinton are dangerous pedophiles, many followers still cannot fathom why Mrs. Clinton and other plotters are not in prison.”

John Hudson & Kate Brown of the Washington Post: “The chief executive of one of the world’s top consulting firms apologized to staff and admitted 'process failures' in the company’s decision to help design and run a controversial Israeli-backed group that supplanted the work of the United Nations to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip.... Christoph Schweizer, the CEO of Boston Consulting Group, said his company had fired two partners involved in the Israeli-American effort and launched a  'formal investigation' to ensure 'this does not happen again....' The apology letter is the latest fallout from the decision by Israel and the United States to bypass the U.N. and channel the delivery of essential aid through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an opaque entity that has limited aid delivery to a few distribution hubs overseen by U.S. private security contractors in coordination with the Israel Defense Forces. 

“The GHF came under immediate criticism from the U.N. and aid groups, who expressed concerns about the independence of the program. Hours before the group began operations, the foundation’s executive director, Jake Wood, resigned, saying that its plans were inconsistent with 'humanitarian principles.' The rollout of the program has seen crowds of Palestinians come under gunfire while trying to collect food.... Nearly 50 Palestinians have reportedly been killed and 300 others wounded near the distribution center that Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. Palestinian relief agency, has called a 'death trap.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I did not realize how deeply involved the U.S. was in creating and maintaining this "death trap." Now I'm doubly horrified. Jake Wood and others have claimed that GHF is part of a policy that "forcibly dislocates or displaces the Palestinian population." So naturally, I'm thinking this is all part of Trump's Gaza Riviera con. 

Chris Geidner, the Law Dork, on the Supremes' recent DOGE decisions: "On Friday afternoon, heading into the weekend, the U.S. Supreme Court told the Trump administration that the non-department Department of Government Efficiency can more or less do what it wants. In a pair of orders on the shadow docket, the court’s conservatives — over the objection of the liberal justices — allowed DOGE to access individualized, sensitive Social Security data for all Americans even as they prevented Americans from being able to access information about DOGE.... In the [second] case, the Supreme Court again granted the Trump administration’s request for a stay — and did so, again, over the objection of the liberal justices. This time, though, the conservative justices prevented access to DOGE’s data. This order came in a case brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and it relates to whether DOGE is subject to public records requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) — or whether it is, in effect, exempted for now from such requests as a presidential record.... [The right-wing justices] made new law restricting the public’s access to our government by expanding the scope of insulation the president and executive branch receive from even the minimal scrutiny provided by FOIA." More on these rulings linked in yesterday's Conversation. ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux is incensed: “Just how authoritarian are the Republicans on the Supreme Court? The shadow docket knows[.]... 'If Trump wants to do it, it’s legal' is a kind of legal doctrine, I guess.” Worth reading Lemieux' whole post.

Paige Cunningham of the Washington Post: “Joe Biden’s doctor should have given him a cognitive test during his final year as president because of his age, Barack Obama’s former physician said in an interview, contending that the results would have helped the White House and the public understand whether Biden was up to serving another four years. A report by White House physician Kevin O’Connor in February 2024 didn’t include any mention of neurocognitive testing for the then-81-year-old Biden. Jeffrey Kuhlman, who held the same job under Obama and has called for cognitive testing for presidents and presidential candidates, said Biden would have benefited from such a test given his age.... Kuhlman also said the 2024 report merely assessed Biden’s health when it should have considered his fitness to serve in one of the most taxing jobs on the planet.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I tend to agree with Kuhlman. However, he should have said in the same sentence, "Whoever has assessed Donald Trump to be fit to serve should lose his medical license." And I'm serious.

Leo Dominguez, et al., of the New York Times: “... the WorldPride parade on Saturday in Washington, D. C..., was part of the three-week WorldPride festival, one of the biggest celebrations for the L.G.B.T.Q. community in the world. Attendees were spotted carrying flags representing Finland, Iran, Spain and Britain.... The parade was heavy on security but far heavier on floats, with people marching along the route and throngs of partyers cheering them on from the sidelines. By late afternoon, some sidewalks were barely passable.... Amid the joy and celebration, there was still an undercurrent of anger and worry. The parade route wound its way to within less than a third of a mile of the White House, and ... [Donald] Trump’s moves to curb the rights of the L.G.B.T.Q. community weighed heavily on many paradegoers and prompted some not to attend at all.... The festival was due to conclude Sunday with a rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial followed by a march to the U.S. Capitol building.” Photos accompanying the story are awesome.

Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo publishes these organizations' Web addresses so you can find a place near you (or not) to express yourself on No Kings Day. ~~~

No Kings Day, June 14th 
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense

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Arkansas. Ben Brasch of the Washington Post: “A former Arkansas police chief who escaped from prison while serving time on murder and rape convictions was captured Friday after tracking dogs picked up his scent, officials said. Grant Hardin, who served in the top police job in Gateway, Arkansas, was found in Izard County, about a mile and a half from the facility he escaped on May 25, the Arkansas Department of Corrections said.... Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) thanked law enforcement for the search and said Border Patrol helped capture Hardin.”

Texas. Edgar Sandoval of the New York Times: “Gina Ortiz Jones, a Filipino American who served as under secretary of the Air Force during the Biden administration, won a runoff election on Saturday to become the mayor of San Antonio, making her the first openly gay leader of the seventh-largest city in the country. Ms. Jones, 44, defeated Rolando Pablos, 57, a Mexican immigrant and former Texas secretary of state known for his close ties to Gov. Greg Abbott.... The election was a test of Latino sentiment after the dramatic shift of Hispanic voters toward Donald J. Trump in 2024. Kamala Harris handily won San Antonio, a Latino-majority city and Democratic stronghold, but Mr. Trump made significant gains in the city on his way to a 14-percentage-point victory in Texas.”

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Colombia. Julie Turkewitz, et al., of the New York Times: “A conservative Colombian senator, presidential hopeful and grandson of a former president was shot from behind at a campaign event on Saturday in the capital, Bogotá, according to his party. The shooting of the senator, Miguel Uribe Turbay, 39, by unknown perpetrators comes amid escalating political tension in the country as the country’s leftist president, Gustavo Petro, tries to push through changes to labor regulations that Mr. Uribe and other conservatives oppose. Conflict between armed groups also continues to plague the country, though mostly in the countryside.” ~~~

     ~~~ Frances Mao & Ian Aikman of BBC News: "A Colombian presidential candidate is in a critical condition after he was shot three times - reportedly twice in the head - at a campaign event in the capital, Bogotá. Miguel Uribe Turbay, a 39-year-old senator, was attacked while addressing supporters in a park on Saturday. Police arrested a 15-year-old suspect at the scene, the attorney general's office said."

Greenland/France. Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Oaf? Roger Cohen & Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times: “In a challenge to ... [Donald] Trump’s vow to take control of Greenland, President Emmanuel Macron of France will visit the enormous Arctic island on June 15 with the aim of 'contributing to the reinforcement of European sovereignty.' The French presidency announced the visit on Saturday, saying that Mr. Macron had accepted an invitation from Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland’s prime minister, and Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, with whom it said Mr. Macron would discuss 'security in the North Atlantic and the Arctic.'... Mr. Macron, who has seen in the various provocations directed at Europe by the Trump administration an opportunity for European assertion of its power, will be the first foreign head of state to go to Greenland since Mr. Trump embarked on his annexation campaign this year.... The French announcement did not allude to Mr. Trump or the United States, but it was clear that the intent and symbolism of the visit is that Greenland, a vast and mineral-rich island, is not there for the taking on the whim of an American president. Early this year, France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, offered to send troops to help defend the island. Denmark demurred.”