Agree, and didn't mean that AZ had anything to do with it. Only that beyond the Coachella Valley there is nothing, and pretty much the last stop before Arizona. So it's the furthest out of So Cal & the last thing that Trump would want to secure/seize.
Okay, I guess I'm still not following. Trump doesn't have SC locked down yet, let alone the rest of the state.
Of course he doesn't, but locking it down is his aim. He's not sending Vance out here for some lunch talks. And if Los Angeles on its own was the big concern, as they claim, then why the NG in San Diego, Riverside, Orange County, and now Coachella Valley? Draw a circle around that & just ask why?
I'm guessing (since all of us are) he wants some splashy confrontation ahead of his budget vote, so he'll have the money to do more. There aren't enough NG anywhere to lock anything down, right now. Just bc there are a handful of NG in those places doesn't mean they are "captured."
I didn't say they were captured. How easily things get conflated here. And no, there aren't enough NG anywhere to lock down anything yet, as you said. But the numbers are growing, not decreasing, and the areas of presence increasing too. Why?
But your words make me think - "drawing a circle" - are you thinking 4000 NG has So Cal locked up? In May, 1970 there were 1000 NG at Kent State. 2700 for the Peoples' Park protest in Berkeley.
No, what I'm saying is that everything is a step by step to what his real aim is with California, and the NG only part of it. You can decide for yourself what you think his goal is, but I personally don't think it is to just rile and provoke.
Also, I haven't said that he has anything locked up. I merely insinuated that if you wanted to get control of a state, taking the steps to grasp the main part of it would be a surefire way, and it certainly seems like that is what Trump is doing.
I'm sure T would love to control California, the entire US, Greenland, Mexico, Canada, etc. like any dictator [Putin] but how's he going to do that? Militarize CA, lockdowns, martial law, etc. - possibly and if so chilling if the NG, cops, Marines, support that
1/3 of the state lives north of Monterey. If we drew the line at Santa Barbara, it would be even more. Even if he had SC in his grasp, he'd still be some distance from control. (Not sure locked up means something different than having control, but sure.)
We may be talking past each other about immediate goals, (getting those billions from Congress) and longer term ones. (Literally rounding up and deporting millions.)
Thanks. The end game with California. That's all I'm looking at, and how each step he's taking could lead to it.
I suspect there has been enough chatter about California seceding or withholding funds from fed govt for him to want to play war games. Esp if he has control of California military aka NG).