Additional thoughts while laying in bed surrounded by concerned cats.

If you are thinking about this just in terms of the military you are thinking too small. Do you remember the weirdness in Portland that Summer during the BLM riots?

July 25, 2020

The news this week has been at a surreal level of dystopian scariness. American citizens have been snatched off the street by men in paramilitary uniforms, forced into unmarked vans, and hauled away.

Without probable cause, without identification by the men kidnapping them (because it was not an arrest, detaining someone in this fashion is by definition kidnapping), without advisement of their Miranda rights, without any of the due process of law that supposedly distinguishes the US from a police state or third world dictatorship.

When did ICE and CBP build an army that’s under the personal control of the President?

Who authorized this?

Where did the money to pay their salaries, train, and equip them come from?

How many of them are there?

How long has this been going on and why did anyone think these units were necessary?

The implications of these units are deeply disturbing, and their existence should be a major topic of discussion in the upcoming election. The Republicans need to be called to account for this and DHS needs to be purged of everyone involved in this proto-Gestapo.

Because what it looks like to me, is that they are doing unit shakedowns in anticipation of needing to do post-election riot suppression.

HAVE ANY OF THESE QUESTIONS BEEN ANSWERED?

Then came the BLM demonstrations in DC. My wife's idiot niece went to a bunch of them. Kids think they're invincible.

Anyway, do you remember all those ICE and BLM and we now know, paramilitary dudes "standing guard" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The ones with no unit badges or identification on their uniforms.

They broke the law doing that BTW, by law they are required to wear identification. Because we don't want men in unmarked uniforms snatching people off the street. We have laws about that.

Who were those men?

Who in ICE and CBP authorized their deployment?

Who in ICE and CBP authorized them to deploy without identification, and why?

Again no answers.

Biden took over in the middle of a pandemic and has lurched from crisis to crisis. So it's easy to miss that none of these questions have been answered.

We tend to think of the federal agencies as neutral. That was true when we were young. Not now.

Bush II destroyed the professional bureaucracy. Articles like this were common.

New GAO Report Exposes More About Politicization of Department of Justice Under Bush

The takeover of the Federal agencies has been on going since then. Early on in Trump's term he did the "Muslim Ban". A lawsuit was filed immediately and as normal the Federal Agencies all said they would wait until the courts ruled before doing anything.

Not ICE and CBP.

They demonstrated their loyalty, not just to Trump, to the Republican Party. They implemented immediately.

They have been captured by the Republicans.

This happened a couple of weeks ago.

Ed Gonzalez, Biden’s Long-Stalled Nominee to Lead ICE, Withdraws

His 14-month nomination was ensnared by immigration politics and allegations of domestic abuse, and his departure is another blow to the Biden administration on an issue where it has struggled.

Biden hasn't been able to regain control of ICE, CBP, or Homeland Security. He barely has control of the FBI, a lot of offices are actively hostile and "investigating" things like Hunter Biden's laptop.

Biden is struggling because there is a war being fought in the Federal Agencies. Some of them are actively working against him.

Biden wasn't supposed to win the election.

If it hadn't been for Covid, Trump was on the glide path to a second term. What Biden got was a bunch of Federal agencies packed with Trumpublican zealots expecting a second Trump term.

The military didn't go over for Trump on J6 but a bunch of them were ready to. Over 1200 officers with ranks of colonel or higher have resigned their commissions or retired since J6. Milley has been cleaning house.

A lot is going on under the surface. We are in a state of civil war.