Like anyone else trying to watch Eva Longoria’s new CNN show about food in Spain, I saw the images of cars burning, scooters being thrown onto police cars on the road below, street signed torn out, graffiti painted and flags of terrorism being proudly waved by the standard issue lefties desperately seeking to get back into the fight game.
Like you, I remember the George Floyd “most peaceful” riots with buildings aflame in the background. I remember little to nothing being done to stop the burning, looting and destruction. I remember the feeling of outrage and frustration at watching wanton destruction by idiot children who had yet to contribute anything useful to society and likely never would.
And I, for one, do not want to see the damage that followed the Floyd riots happening again.
Trump federalized the California National Guard under 10 USC § 12406, in case of rebellion, despite Governor Gavin Newsome (whom he called “Newscum,” putting his full wit on display) on Saturday. Trump then thanked the Guard, even though they had yet to be deployed.
By Sunday, Newsome called upon Trump to rescind the order, as there was no reason LAPD couldn’t deal with the situation.
In fact, on Sunday evening, Newsom asked Trump to rescind the deployment, calling it a “serious breach of state sovereignty.”
The violence was worse on Sunday evening. Some argued that it was the product of Trump’s provocation caused by his calling in the Guard with the Marines on “high alert” to step in and do what Marines do. This rationalization does not justify the violence that happened on Sunday. The Guard didn’t “make them do it.” There were peaceful protesters engaging in conduct protected by the First Amendment, and there were violent criminals engaging in violent crime, choosing to do the very thing that the Guard was deployed to prevent. Trump desperately wanted to seize the opportunity to militarize the protests. The violent left desperately wanted to do the very violence that would justify Trump’s action.
It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the Trump administration is spoiling for a fight on America’s streets. On Saturday, after a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests degenerated into violence, the administration reacted as if the country were on the brink of war.
The violence was unacceptable. Civil disobedience is honorable; violence is beyond the pale. But so far, thankfully, the violence has been localized and, crucially, well within the capacity of state and city officials to manage.
But don’t tell that to the Trump administration. Its language was out of control.
And don’t tell me that the cohort of criminals who see an opportunity to burn and destroy, and want to do so, enjoy doing so. The Trump administration is out of control? You bet. And the criminals whose violence finds no sanction under the Constitution are out of control too. In their mushy minds, peaceful protest won’t stop what they perceive as the unlawful actions of ICE in rounding up illegal aliens from their homes, places of work, schools, hospitals and government buildings where they’ve been called to be interviewed for citizenship.
They may be right. It doesn’t matter. No matter how vociferously the unduly passionate shriek their reasons, destroying cannot be the answer and cannot be allowed to happen. What they are doing by engaging in wanton violence and destruction is giving Trump the excuse to do what Trump so badly wants to do.
The administration’s language was extreme. Its actions, so far, have been more limited. But that’s small comfort. The potential next step is plain to see. If the administration (in its sole discretion) believes that this first, limited deployment is insufficient, then it will escalate. It will shout “Insurrection!” and “Migrant invasion!” to justify more military control and perhaps the invocation of the Insurrection Act.
And what will become of the mix of peaceful protestors who seek to exercise their constitutional rights, mixed together with the violence rioters who seek to damage and destroy?
It’s worth asking: Does Trump want protesters to get hurt? Recall that Mark Esper, a former Trump secretary of defense, has said that in 2020 Trump asked Gen. Mark Milley, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “Can’t you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?” Esper took his comment as both a suggestion and a question.
If and when bullets start to fly, they won’t distinguish between the good and bad dudes. They will harm, perhaps kill, whomever they strike. Neither cops nor Guard will be able to differentiate between the protesters and the criminals in their midst, and they will all be rebels, then insurrectionists, in Trump’s mind.
Reporter: What is the bar for sending Marines into Los Angeles?
Donald Trump: “The bar is what I think it is”
WTF
pic.twitter.com/PZuKEkD9u4— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) June 8, 2025
If they give Trump a reason to seize military control, don’t be surprised when he does so.
Just as the George Floyd riots accomplished essentially nothing, unless you count the re-election of Trump as a win, and did grave damage to many innocent people, violence in Los Angeles will not change the law that empowers the government to remove the undocumented, provided they are removed with due process and in accordance with law. The scenario is set with LA turned into a powder keg. Don’t light the fuse. It will not turn out well for anyone.
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De-escalation: a good plan. but I wonder: will Trump also make the ICE agents take off their masks?
[Ed. Note: Do you really wonder?]
I try to follow the old adage (Patton? Jackson? not sure whom to credit) “Do not take counsel of your fears?’, but am finding it very hard to do.
I fear that we are perilously close to, in not outright civil war, wide spread violence/ societal unrest.
I miss precedented times.
Never let a good crisis go to waste.
By any means necessary.
Maybe people have a first and fourteenth amendment right to “peacefully protest” in the middle of a riot, but it won’t ever be safe. The violent rioters are generally not in the business of respecting “rights,” and when troops start shooting at masses of rioters, the bullets won’t distinguish between rioters and protesters. Any person who has regard for individual wellbeing should get the hell out of any area where rioting is breaking out.
Easier said than done. When a large group is involved in a peaceful protest and then a small group suddenly engages in violence, the large group doesn’t disappear like magic.
Or is your point that nobody should protest just in case a riot breaks out? If you exercise your rights, you can’t complain when the shooting starts?
When mooks start throwing things and setting fires, it’s smart to get out before it escalates to the beatings and volleys of rifle fire.
“When mooks start throwing things and setting fires, it’s smart to get out before it escalates to the beatings and volleys of rifle fire.”
– Patrick Henry
“When mooks start throwing things and setting fires, it’s smart to get out before it escalates to the beatings and volleys of rifle fire.”
– Thomas Paine
Mr. Henry and Mr. Paine helped trigger a seven year war that cost about the equivalent of 3.5 million lives as a percentage of US population. Right or wrong, the war they ushered in had cost.
Liberty ALWAYS has a cost. A steep one.
I bet this downright antiamerican defense of fascism sounds poetic in the original Russian.
My favorite part of this comment is that I have no clue which side this nutjob is on.
We never want to hear your side whining about J6 again. THIS is what armed insurrection looks like. Publish my comment or not, the MSM blockade on reporting this real insurrection will fail. Governor Newsome is suggesting California should withhold CA tax delivery to the central government while his state burns. He thinks these riots get him elected in 3 years.
>MSM blockade on reporting this real insurrection will fail
Beware the chemtrails and loosen the tin foil hat, dude.
Whining about J6? When a cohort of whack jobs tried to take over the capitol? That, my friend, is insurrection. Rioting thousands of miles from the seat of government is not.
“ The violence was worse on Sunday evening. Some argued that it was the product of Trump’s provocation caused by his calling in the Guard with the Marines on “high alert” to step in and do what Marines do.”
That’s like blaming the attack on Fort Sumpter on Lincoln’s efforts to resupply and reinforce it. Somehow I thought the issue of states deciding what federal laws would be obeyed inside their borders was settled in 1865.
It’s nothing like Fort Sumter, Whether the deployment of troops was provocative is a cause or effect can be debated, but there is absolutely nothing happening here that is remotely similar to the Civil War. That’s fucking nuts.
Is it? Then as now states were trying to dictate policy to the federal government. Elected officials in Los Angeles have said the only resolution is for ICE o stop enforcement operations there. The only difference will be if cooler heads in California and other states”sanctuary states” prevail.
[Ed. Note: California has neither seceded from the Union nor bombed a federal fort.]