Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Troops to Illinois
OK. What are we going to do to stop it, JB?It’s unclear what type of troops would be deployed or when. But Pritzker likened the memo to one sent by the Defense Department to Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek on Sunday, which called 200 members of the Oregon National Guard into federal service for a 60-day deployment, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
“What I have been warning of is now being realized,” Pritzker said. “One thing is clear: None of what [President] Trump is doing is making Illinois safer.”
The governor’s office is preparing for the possibility of an imminent arrival of troops.
[...]
Pritzker urged Chicagoans to record any interactions with ICE agents on their phones, and “narrate what you see, put it on social media.
“With one voice, we are telling this unwarranted and unconstitutional occupation by ICE and potentially by military troops to get out of Chicago,” Pritzker said. “You are not helping us.”
Pritzker called the need to protect ICE facilities a “pretext, again, for bringing troops into the city, for normalizing the militarization of our cities. And we just won’t allow that.”
Chicago Sun Times
Pritzker said a memo was not enough to spark a legal challenge, “but I know that there are actions in waiting and a lawsuit potentially,” the governor said.
Sadly, Italy is withdrawing its escort to Gaza
I haven't heard whether Greece and Spain are going on.
SHUTDOWN
They're telling their gullible minions it's because the Democrats want to give health benefits to illegal aliens. And their minions are too ignorant to know illegals can't collect any entitlements. Doesn't matter if they blame Democrats, all the threats of what they will do, they will do regardless of whether Democrats bail them out. Mass layoffs? Are you kidding me? Anybody remember DOGE? Also, nobody is going to be thinking about today by November 2026.
Are the Democrats growing spines?
UPDATE 07:53 pm:
Good for her! She'll never be allowed in another press conference, but good for her. I hope she didn't get picked up by ICE afterward.
Kudos to a Republican-appointed judge worthy of a lifetime appointment
The ruling comes in a case brought by academic associations seeking to block the Trump administration’s policy of targeting and arresting noncitizens protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza. Judge [William G.] Young’s decision makes it absolutely clear that the First Amendment rights of students like Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk were violated when federal agents detained them and sent them to faraway immigration detention centers.
[...]
It was revealed that the Trump administration was relying on information from shadowy websites like Canary Mission to determine who to target.
The judge wrote that a hearing on how the government can remedy its unconstitutional conduct will be scheduled “promptly.”
But what sets the ruling apart is its mix of unapologetic evisceration of Trump and admiration for the rights he has trampled on.
[...]
Young, who is 85 years old and was appointed to the bench four decades ago, begins by quoting a postcard he received on June 19 that reads: “TRUMP HAS PARDONS AND TANKS …. WHAT DO YOU HAVE?” Young replies in the ruling:Dear Mr. or Ms. Anonymous,[...]
Alone, I have nothing but my sense of duty. Together, We the People of the United States—you and me—have our magnificent Constitution. Here’s how that works out in a specific case—
Young writes, the president has violated his “sacred oath” to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” That Trump is “for all practical purposes, totally immune from any consequences for this conduct,” Young adds, citing the Supreme Court’s 2024 immunity decision, “does not relieve this Court of its duty to find the facts.”Despite the meaningless but effective “worst of the worst” rhetoric, however, ICE has nothing whatever to do with criminal law enforcement and seeks to avoid the actual criminal courts at all costs. It is carrying a civil law mandate passed by our Congress and pressed to its furthest reach by the President. Even so, it drapes itself in the public’s understanding of the criminal law though its “warrants” are but unreviewed orders from an ICE superior and its “immigration courts” are not true courts at all but hearings before officers who cannot challenge the legal interpretations they are given. Under the unitary President theory they must speak with his voice. The People’s presence as jurors is unthinkable.Young is particularly disturbed by ICE agents’ use of masks [...] calling the government’s defense of the practice “disingenuous, squalid and dishonorable.” [...]To us, masks are associated with cowardly desperados and the despised Ku Klux Klan. In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police.[...]
The final pages of the decision are as unorthodox as its first. They begin with a quote about how “[Trump] seems to be winning. He ignores everything and keeps bullying ahead.” The line, Young explains, comes from a “very wise woman.” Specifically, his wife.
[...]
“The Constitution, our civil laws, regulations, mores, customs, practices, courtesies—all of it; the President simply ignores it all when he takes it into his head to act.”
Young wraps up by quoting Reagan’s lines about how freedom is a “fragile thing” that is “never more than one generation away from extinction,” and that, as a result, it must be “fought for and defended constantly.”
[...]I fear President Trump believes the American people are so divided that today they will not stand up, fight for, and defend our most precious constitutional values so long as they are lulled into thinking their own personal interests are not affected.
Is he correct?
Mother Jones+
Trump's hostile takeover of America (Military might on domestic targets)
Hegseth called in all the generals over 1 star. From all over the globe.
Which they are going after hammer and tongs.MAGA is a revolutionary movement.
[...]
Revolutionaries target all key institutions of influence and turn them into levers of power to advance their cause. The MAGA revolutionaries have been doing this in three clear stages: purge, replace, and attack.
[...]
Purging and replacing have been the main actions of the first nine months of Trump’s second term. From the Kennedy Center to the Department of Justice, the project of 2025 has been a blitzkrieg-like assault to MAGA-ify every federal institution.
They have had plenty of help. Where there is potential ambiguity in the law about whether Trump has direct Article II control, the Supreme Court, usually through silent shadow-docket enforcement, has acted as Trump’s revolutionary handmaiden, swatting away pesky constitutional concerns from lower court judges and their 100-page opinions.
[...]
Institutions that Trump doesn’t directly control are attacked indirectly. He threatens to destroy or boost specific corporations or entire sectors of the economy with tariffs that he personally sets. He stifles critical coverage at what were once the crown jewels of American media with lawsuits and threats from the federal government’s alphabet soup of regulatory agencies, such as the FCC and FTC. He uses federal government spending to modify the behavior of universities and other recipients. He attacks individual Americans and large law firms with executive orders.
[...]
There have always been strings attached to federal money.
But what is new today is that these powers—and many others not cataloged here—were never exercised all at once and maximally. [...] The MAGA revolutionaries are willing—and are actually defined by that willingness—to use all state power to enforce revolutionary doctrine and cripple political opponents.
America is a big country with lots of institutions on MAGA’s hit list, so the purge and replace cycle will continue apace. But enough of the government is now fully captured by MAGA that we can expect to see much more of the scarier third phase of this project: attack.
[...]
I could probably make a good case that more times than not, the Trump attacks have backfired in some way. You know the examples: grand juries in DC have refused to go along with punitive MAGA prosecutions, the law firms that stood up to Trump all won their lawsuits against his executive orders, Kimmel is back on the air, everyone hates Paramount, and most legal observers think the Comey case will crumble.
But it’s much too early to be confident about how this is all going to go.
What is true is that, as Jonathan V. Last recently argued, “we are in the worst-case scenario” relative to what almost anyone predicted back in November 2024.
And that’s why you should be very freaked out by today’s speech by Trump in Quantico to hundreds of military leaders recalled from around the world.
[...]
Today, Trump told his top military leaders that “America is under invasion from within” and he repeatedly described “the enemy within” as the “radical left,” a term he increasingly uses to describe all of his political opponents, from Mike Pence to Joe Biden to AOC to antifa.
He said, “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military,” who, he said, would be “a major part” of fighting this “war from within.”
[...]
“This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room,” he said. He added that “it won’t get out of control once you’re involved at all.” He directly compared the military’s current missions fighting abroad to this new mission he has in mind at home. The “enemy within,” Trump said, was “no different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms.”
[...]
[W]e are only nine months into this revolution. The key goal of the revolutionaries at this point is not to pass legislation or even to accomplish stated policy goals they seem to really believe in, such as the mass deportation of illegal immigrants. The key goal is to take total control of all levers of power. They have been remarkably successful so far with the purge-replace-attack formula.
But two major institutions have been elusive: 1) the military, and Trump made his intentions about that clear today; 2) the machinery of our elections.
Telos
And the room was silent.More than 800 of America’s top military leaders sat silent and showed no reaction as ex-Fox News host turned Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth issued a series of new directives that will make it harder for women to serve in combat and easier for personnel to engage in hazing and bullying without repercussions at an unprecedented gathering at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia Tuesday.
[...]
[Hegseth] told the group of admirals, generals and their senior enlisted advisers he was “ending the war on warriors” and complained that too many of their peers had been put in their roles “for the wrong reasons” including their race and gender.
“Out with the Chiarelli, the McKenzies and the Milleys and in with the Stockdales the Schwartzkopfs and the Pattons,” Hegseth said, denigrating former Army Vice Chief of Staff General Peter Chiarelli, ex-U.S. Central Command commander and Marine Corps General Kenneth McKenzie Jr, and ex-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman and Army General Mark Milley, each of whom has been critical of Trump or his administration.
“The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies,” he added.
[...]
He told the assembled leaders he was issuing a directive to ensure that “every designated Combat Arms” role across all branches “returns to the highest male standard only,” all but reversing a 2015 directive from then-Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to open all combat roles to women.
“If you do not meet the male level physical standards for combat positions ... it’s time for a new position or a new profession,” he said. “If women can make it excellent. If not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it.”
In addition to rolling back standards to make it harder for women to serve in combat, Hegseth also told military leaders he was rolling back longstanding policies meant to prevent hazing and bullying in the ranks.
He complained that Pentagon initiatives to eliminate “toxic leadership” — including racist and sexist behavior by supervisors — had effectively lowered standards and empowered complainers to attack effective leaders.
[...]
In addition to rolling back standards to make it harder for women to serve in combat, Hegseth also told military leaders he was rolling back longstanding policies meant to prevent hazing and bullying in the ranks.
He complained that Pentagon initiatives to eliminate “toxic leadership” — including racist and sexist behavior by supervisors — had effectively lowered standards and empowered complainers to attack effective leaders. [...]
UK Independent
I think Hegseth and Trump think military leaders are as racist and prejudiced as they are. I think they're wrong.
Top military brass aren’t exactly excited about a bizarre “pep rally” with President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, political analyst David Rothkopf revealed on The Daily Beast Podcast.
Rothkopf, a foreign policy and national security commentator, predicted that the highly unusual all-hands meeting in Virginia on Tuesday won’t go down well, based on his conversations with several generals, admirals, and other sources close to them.
“I can tell you: It is not going down well.”
Daily Beast
He thinks he's so smart. Does he not know these generals are well educated?President Donald Trump made numerous false claims in a rambling Tuesday speech to hundreds of generals and admirals who were summoned to a military base in Virginia to listen to addresses by the president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Some of Trump’s false claims were about the military itself.
CNN
I can only imagine what the generals are saying to each other after that."There were just so many false claims," Daniel Dale, CNN's fact-checker, said after Trump's speech. "And I say that after essentially every speech, unfortunately, from President Donald Trump. But I think this is notable because of the audience. He was telling a lot of lies, saying a lot of other inaccurate things, regardless of his intentions, to the U.S.’ top military leaders."
Exactly.
Any media outlet that characterizes this as just another day at the office isn't doing its job. Simply put, this was nuts, often in a scary way. No matter how many bizarre lawsuits Trump files against media companies or what insane demands Hegseth makes of reporters, this has to be called out as what it was: crazy.
Hegseth strutted around talking about how tough the military would be under his leadership (and what good shape he was in).
[...]
Hegseth went on to decry "wokeness" and "dudes in dresses" and, taking a page from his boss' book, praised himself. "It all starts with physical fitness and appearance," Hegseth said. "If the secretary of War can do regular hard PT, so can every member of our joint force. Frankly, it's tiring to look out at combat formations and see fat troops. Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals."
Arizona Central
Ooooh boy. I can only think they intend to try to turn the rank and file against the brass."We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy," Hegseth said. "We also don't fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement."
And in what has already become a meme, Hegseth also offered this: "Should our enemies choose foolishly to challenge us, they will be crushed by the violence, precision and ferocity of the War Department. In other words, to our enemies, FAFO."
[...]
"If necessary, our troops can translate that for you."
Trump, meanwhile, basically delivered a head-spinning, unhinged campaign speech, only instead of the usual full-throated, MAGA-hat wearing worshipful followers, this was in front of an audience ordered to be there, the nation's highest-ranking military officers ― who, one supposes, must have better things to do. He railed against Joe Biden and Democrats; talked again about how "tariff" is his favorite word; said, "I love my signature, I really do"; and more.
[...]
He lied about the 2020 election results, again. He attacked the media, again. He trotted out this old chestnut: "We were a dead country a year ago, and now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world. You must be proud of that.”
[...]
Amy McGrath, a retired lieutenant colonel who flew combat missions, described Trump's speech perfectly.
"There was a lot of rambling, there was a ton of lies, a lot of politicization … and some of the craziness that you heard from this speech," she said. "But the scariest part was when the president talked about using the military and using our cities as a training ground for the United States military."
"I’m very worried about this," she continued. "I think the whole part of bringing these generals and admirals back here was to discuss this type of thing. It should scare us all. This is something that we just don’t do in America."
It is now.
UPDATE 06:50 pm:
And the 80-year-old Orange God King.
Yes, I see this stunt as a recognition on Trump's part that the National Guard, and even the ICE goons they're putting on the payroll with $50,000 signing bonuses, are not going to be sufficient.In his address Tuesday before a rare gathering of hundreds of military leaders, who were summoned from around the world to Virginia, the president lamented “what they’ve done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles”—cities where he’s threatened to send troops based on the baseless notion that Democratic officials have allowed crime to run rampant there.
Priming the top brass to conceive of forthcoming military operations in those cities as a “war,” Trump continued, “They’re very unsafe places, and we’re going to straighten them out one by one. And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war too. It’s a war from within.”
Trump later added that he’s told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military—National Guard, but military. Because we’re going into Chicago very soon.”
Chicago Tribune
I suppose it's possible that he's counting on a certain number of generals to contact him directly to offer support if the entire group doesn't bend.
UPDATE 10/01/2025:
Monday, September 29, 2025
Vote for Mamdani
You can stop whining about something Trump is doing being illegal. Just assume what he's doing is illegal. Now. What can we do about it?
This is America in broad daylight
The point is to instill fear. Fascism, Nazism, Stalinism, Trumpism.
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