Attention to the Unseen

Wired reports: Since the very beginning of the year, President Donald Trump’s administration has worked to build a self-sustaining digital media ecosystem in support of its controversial immigration policies. That system is now working overtime as protests bubble up in Los Angeles and get planned across the country, spawning an onslaught of AI-generated slop and reality television–style content. Protests broke out on Friday shortly afterImmigration and Customs Enforcement officers conducted a series of raids targeting Latino communities in Los Angeles….

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Robert Reich writes: History shows that once an authoritarian ruler establishes the infrastructure of a police state, that same infrastructure can be turned on anyone. Trump and his regime are rapidly creating such an infrastructure, in five steps: (1) declaring an emergency on the basis of a so-called “rebellion”, “insurrection”, or “invasion”; (2) using that “emergency” to justify bringing in federal agents with a monopoly on the use of force (Ice, the FBI, DEA, and the national guard) against civilians…

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Rebecca Solnit writes: I think maybe it’s begun, the bigger fiercer backlash against the Trump Administration which is itself a violent backlash against every good thing that’s happened over the past several decades – the advance of rights for nature, women, children, indigenous peoples, BIPOC and immigrants/refugees, queer people, trans people, people with disabilities, workers, the right of us all to be free from being poisoned by food, water, air. It’s begun in Los Angeles, the city of angels, a…

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The Guardian reports: The Trump administration’s deployment of national guard troops to Los Angeles to intervene in civilian protests in the face of opposition from the Californian governor is a major escalation that risks the politicisation of the US military, armed service veterans are warning. Former top military figures have told the Guardian that the decision to put up to 2,000 troops under federal control and send them into the streets of LA is a violation of the military’s commitment…

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NBC News reports: California Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed back against threats of arrest by Trump administration officials, remaining defiant as he oversees clashes between law enforcement agents and protesters in response to immigration raids across Los Angeles while also managing an ongoing power struggle with the federal government. Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, warned Saturday that immigration operations and the presence of federal personnel would continue in the city despite criticism from Democratic leaders who’ve warned it could further escalate…

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Robert Reich writes: Trump wants to escalate tensions. He wants a replay of the violence that occurred in the wake of the George Floyd murder — riots, mayhem, and destruction that allow him to escalate his police state further — imposing curfews, closing down parts of Los Angeles, perhaps seeking to subdue the entire state. And beyond. Please do not give him this. Don’t fall into his trap. We cannot be silent in the face of Trump’s dictatorial move. Silence…

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David Frum writes: If Trump can incite disturbances in blue states before the midterm elections, he can assert emergency powers to impose federal control over the voting process, which is to say his control. Or he might suspend voting until, in his opinion, order has been restored. Either way, blue-state seats could be rendered vacant for some time. Precedents do exist for such action. In autumn 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant imposed martial law on counties in South Carolina to…

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Anita Chabria writes: To say he is a beloved and respected leader in both the union and California in general is an understatement. You can still find his bio on the White House website, since he was honored as a “Champion of Change,” by President Obama. Within hours of his arrest, political leaders across the state were voicing support. “David Huerta is a respected leader, a patriot, and an advocate for working people. No one should ever be harmed for…

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Harold Meyerson writes: Let’s be clear about who, exactly, the agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been arresting in and around Los Angeles. On Friday, they raided downtown L.A.’s fashion district, where seamstresses and retail clerks, some of them undocumented immigrants, are clustered. On Saturday, they made arrests outside a Home Depot in Paramount, a working-class L.A. suburb where day laborers, some of them undocumented immigrants, assemble daily to get work on small-scale construction projects. The microscopically thin…

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