With what? The tanks that have been shipped to DC for Trump's birthday parade? Good luck with that bsky.app/profile/hobb...
Replies
OmG they're so fking incompetent. Thankfully, for us for the long run. I hope.
jun 7, 2025, 9:32 pm • 0 0 • view
Considering morale and other issues the military would also have, Best of luck I guess.
jun 7, 2025, 8:59 pm • 2 0 • view
Yes
jun 7, 2025, 9:06 pm • 0 0 • view
Omg the timing!!! Wow.
jun 7, 2025, 11:12 pm • 0 0 • view
Of Uncle Sam’s assorted guys w/ guns, the US Army’s best able to deploy lots of them to one place. But it’s also least likely to actually shoot Americans if so ordered. I think you’re right. If they’re thinking Tiananmen Sq, they’re more likely to get a EuroMaidan
jun 7, 2025, 11:00 pm • 0 0 • view
Also likely those tanks aren't even armed
jun 7, 2025, 9:13 pm • 1 0 • view
Thank you! Ppl clutching their pearls thinking these bozos have an actual “plan.” It’s absurd.
jun 8, 2025, 1:39 am • 1 0 • view
I'm confident they'll try, regardless Trump never missed the opportunity to shoot himself in the foot whenever he had the chance
jun 9, 2025, 1:54 am • 0 0 • view
Fair. I fully confess to not understanding LA's geography, just that there's an immense expanse of tons of people to the point that even flying over it takes awhile 😂 bsky.app/profile/roos...
jun 7, 2025, 9:00 pm • 693 31 • view
LA County is 4,700 square miles. By comparison NYC is 468 square miles. Baghdad is 78 square miles. Kabul is 106 square miles. See what I mean?
jun 8, 2025, 7:06 am • 0 1 • view
We in SoCal are vast: we contain multitudes. "..Census Bureau also defines a wider commercial region based on commuting patterns, the Los Angeles–Long Beach, CA Combined Statistical Area (CSA), more commonly known as the Greater Los Angeles Area, with an estimated population of 18,584,307 in 2025."
jun 7, 2025, 9:15 pm • 4 0 • view
Long Beach is in LA County which has 88 individual incorporated cities.
jun 8, 2025, 7:40 am • 0 0 • view
Well, LA is 47% Latino. If it was like Portland it would be easier to find a particular Latino. Also, Latinos aint going to stand for this shit. Also, LAPD has become far more Mexican over the past 10 years. So are they going to help deport their abuelita? I dont think so.
jun 7, 2025, 10:44 pm • 3 0 • view
And its almost 100% open concrete, no geographic advantage to play, a million exits. It probably would've been easier to capture Hanoi.
jun 7, 2025, 11:54 pm • 1 0 • view
Just saying it's *even harder* (though other LAC cities have police forces, too)
jun 7, 2025, 9:12 pm • 0 0 • view
Los Angeles county is about 4000 square miles.
jun 8, 2025, 7:32 am • 0 0 • view
NO ONE understands L.A.'s geography! Our 3 weapons are a vast floodplain, multiple incorporated cities within the city, overlapping identically-named leadership structures, and a deadening dependency on automobiles... Our --4-- weapons are a vast floodplain, multiple incorporated cities....
jun 7, 2025, 11:29 pm • 2 0 • view
Militias only get you a few hundred extra bodies And protestors are much more comfortable fighting back against them than they are against uniformed officers bsky.app/profile/says...
jun 7, 2025, 9:01 pm • 789 45 • view
The LA Gangs will get tired of this too, and will act out if threatened.
jun 7, 2025, 10:30 pm • 4 0 • view
Great thread thank you (and followed). You're right across the board here but also I think to a certain extent they are relying on creating another George Floyd type of scenario where they can eventually twist any resistance into a propaganda tool with their back the blue BS.
jun 7, 2025, 9:39 pm • 6 0 • view
…and to that point they love love love pitting red states against blue cities with this stuff. “Look at the anarchy, make sure you vote R to stay safe in your little enclaves”
jun 7, 2025, 9:41 pm • 3 0 • view
I do think a lot of people overestimate how much American citizens will be willing to roll over for a bunch of ignorant racist neckbeards that are even less respected than ICE probably.
jun 7, 2025, 9:15 pm • 33 1 • view
And not all those uniformed officers will show up, some will take sick days.
jun 8, 2025, 3:56 am • 6 0 • view
Given the rate or resignations through other actions, outside of completely insane agencies like ICE and maybe LASD, who is gonna actually support this at scale? It's absolutely not the FBI.
jun 8, 2025, 5:12 am • 3 0 • view
Also, given that the National Guard is composed of people from the communities trump wants to suppress then I figure some of them won't show up either.
jun 8, 2025, 5:20 am • 2 0 • view
Also if he redeploys everyone to LA, who will be doing deportations?
jun 8, 2025, 5:32 am • 2 0 • view
True, but I think they both meet the same goal of alpha cosplay.
jun 9, 2025, 6:30 pm • 0 0 • view
This absolutely would have worked in Texas, and pretty much anywhere along the Sun Belt It's a political op without thinking through second- and third-order consequences bsky.app/profile/figm...
jun 7, 2025, 9:04 pm • 582 40 • view
Texas cities are blue. Voting districts are gerrymandered to return red results.
jun 8, 2025, 5:37 am • 0 0 • view
A few things: ➡️ Too early to hope bad video alone will be enough. No one's going to be persuaded in November 2026 ➡️ "Lawlessness against ICE" means diddly when juxtaposed with "self-induced recession and mass unemployment" bsky.app/profile/that...
jun 7, 2025, 9:08 pm • 453 29 • view
One day @wolmanj.bsky.social's time will come! bsky.app/profile/exdi...
jun 7, 2025, 9:17 pm • 324 15 • view
If the economy improves and it's still happening in 2026, agreed If either of those things don't happen, likely has zero political effect bsky.app/profile/dave...
jun 7, 2025, 9:20 pm • 262 9 • view
Two things are true: ➡️ People writ large are *desperate* for life to be normal. It's why you don't see more people protesting, b/c they're hoping and praying that any day now things will be normal again ➡️ Legitimacy is still important to authoritarian regimes
jun 7, 2025, 9:22 pm • 754 89 • view
That said, people who are desperate for life to be normal also reach a level where they get the MOST mad that it doesn't stop and join in.
jun 7, 2025, 9:23 pm • 3 0 • view
I don’t think that’s why they aren’t protesting, tbh. 44% of America works in low-wage hourly jobs. The kind of jobs that fire you for one absence. That happens, there goes your healthcare, your transportation, your home. People caring for families don’t feel like they can risk that.
jun 7, 2025, 11:54 pm • 0 0 • view
When you get a critical mass of people who think normalcy isn't coming, things snowball When you get a critical mass of people who decide the government is not legitimate, things snowball So regime incentive is to back down if things approach a breaking point
jun 7, 2025, 9:23 pm • 685 86 • view
The media and Democrats will do absolutely everything they can to preserve the illusion of normalcy, ie support the fascist clampdown.
jun 7, 2025, 9:41 pm • 0 0 • view
That holds true except for when societal arsonists are in charge.
jun 7, 2025, 9:25 pm • 0 0 • view
There's a fine line between running Romania for 34 years with an iron fist and state TV broadcasting a crowd of "supporters" no longer afraid of booing your speech, and crossing it ends in your show trial and execution 4 days later.
jun 7, 2025, 11:16 pm • 50 8 • view
I saw that speech on the evening news as the uprising was underway. The look on Ceaușescu's face when they started booing is priceless.
jun 7, 2025, 11:32 pm • 15 0 • view
He drove his dog around the city in a limo, too. I'm sure that really got under their skins.
jun 7, 2025, 11:32 pm • 2 0 • view
These guys took all the wrong lessons from 2020. It’s impressive.
jun 7, 2025, 9:24 pm • 5 0 • view
Gradually, then suddenly.
jun 7, 2025, 10:05 pm • 1 0 • view
(It's why I expect Trump will, eventually, back off the economy-nuking tariff idiocy. He's not going to have a choice)
jun 7, 2025, 9:24 pm • 405 13 • view
He'll back off after it's too late. It may already be too late.
jun 7, 2025, 9:29 pm • 1 0 • view
If only we had a witty phrase for Trump consistently backing off.
jun 7, 2025, 11:27 pm • 0 0 • view
The problem with doing pogroms is not knowing how regime actions affect the decisionmaking of millions of other independent actors Guess right, and your repression continues unchecked Guess wrong, and you're strung up feet first from a lamppost as you're pelted with rocks
jun 7, 2025, 9:25 pm • 514 46 • view
I get the impression he still thinks high tariffs are *good* for the economy in the long run, if they get a chance to be actually put in place permanently, he's just waiting for Wall Street to stop overreacting, perhaps when they get burned by timing a TACO Trade wrongly, and stop crashing at once.
jun 7, 2025, 9:54 pm • 3 0 • view
He is and has been—but that’s also just making things worse by straight up weakening the dollar. And normally some might argue that a weak dollar means increased exports, but reciprocal tariffs are taking care of that. It’s just a weak dollar. (…maybe a good time to buy oil tho?)
jun 8, 2025, 4:03 pm • 0 0 • view
you may be underestimating the narcissism involved
jun 8, 2025, 7:24 am • 0 0 • view
You better not back down. Our democracy house of cards will collapse if you do. It is incumbent for every lover of democracy to pick up his/her oar and help us row this democracy boat up the stream and help us fight the autocracy waves that are trying to make us fail. RESIST!!!
jun 7, 2025, 9:42 pm • 0 0 • view
The vast majority of Trumper actions AFAICT is done with an underlying belief that you can't *really* break things Just keep doing these things that don't blow against you because they never will, you will never reach a tipping point (nevermind if you've already hit the trust thermocline)
jun 8, 2025, 12:44 am • 2 0 • view
TBF this is how Trump has mostly lived his life, bend or break the law and get away with it because trying to hold him to account is more trouble than actually prosecuting him
jun 8, 2025, 12:44 am • 1 0 • view
> who think normalcy isn't coming *for them* That’s the rub. In Kabul, in the colour revolutions, in the Arab Spring, people had something at stake. If Trump can persuade middle class white people that they’re safe and everything is fine, he’s safe. And he has Fox, OAN, etc to sell that message.
jun 7, 2025, 9:52 pm • 0 0 • view
Important third point: the people who want normalcy blame the admin, not the protestors, for the current chaos.
jun 7, 2025, 9:23 pm • 7 0 • view
I hope so but that’s not what happened after 1968
jun 7, 2025, 11:07 pm • 0 0 • view
There's a cause and effect thing that I think people are missing here in their comparisons to the pro "law and order" backlash in summer 2020. In 2020, the feds and riot cops showed up after rioting started. Today, the riots are literally only happening because the armed, masked feds are there.
jun 7, 2025, 9:25 pm • 10 1 • view
Seems like this would make a difference in how ordinary people respond right?
jun 7, 2025, 9:25 pm • 2 0 • view
They'll believe what the news tells them
jun 7, 2025, 9:43 pm • 0 0 • view
People wanted 2019 back, instead they're going to get 2020 on repeat except this time completely self-inflicted and managed by even more incompetence. Don't think that's going to play well with the wider public.
jun 7, 2025, 9:32 pm • 4 1 • view
Legitimacy to whom?
jun 7, 2025, 11:18 pm • 0 0 • view
The Minneapolis/LA things this past week now are definitely illustrating this, but also that 2020 had some effects of people preparing. If they keep poking, they're gonna find the tipping point *again* and the communities are better organized for protests and support now.
jun 7, 2025, 9:25 pm • 5 0 • view
As you have pointed out, the decision to select L.A. as the location to initiate this major crackdown was a significant mistake. Repeated events of this kind, particularly in blue cities, will compound the error.
jun 7, 2025, 9:32 pm • 0 0 • view
I was just saying, the 3A association might need to start limbering up
jun 7, 2025, 9:23 pm • 0 0 • view
True, if this remains an isolated incident. But if this initiates a series of similar events, it will have a significant affect on November 2026 elections.
jun 7, 2025, 9:19 pm • 5 0 • view
The 2020 protests and Trump’s abuse of force helped get lots of Dems elected (even if they then forgot abt that)
jun 8, 2025, 1:25 am • 4 0 • view
IMHO, it really seems like Stephen Miller wants to recreate Nazi Germany (or at least some other form of fascist state like Russia or Hungary) without having the weaknesses in the system to exploit, the proportional manpower to do it with, or the years of power consolidation required.
jun 7, 2025, 9:15 pm • 2 0 • view
Except MAGA is completely unaware of things we all are. They live in a bubble where the biggest news, until today, was that Biden was replaced with a clone & his staff signed all the laws to cover it up.
jun 7, 2025, 9:26 pm • 6 0 • view
War is policy by other means and these dipshits in gov don’t understand either
jun 8, 2025, 3:51 pm • 0 0 • view
Let's hurt a blue state's economy and make liberals cry. So we raid LA? That will work out fine.
jun 7, 2025, 9:07 pm • 0 0 • view
Don’t try this shit in North Texas or Houston, though. DFW has as many guns as the rest of Texas, but we don’t like MAGA. And the feds don’t actually want to test Houston gangs.
jun 7, 2025, 9:13 pm • 5 0 • view
Texas doesn't want to lose their access to low-wage immigrant labor. www.texastribune.org/2025/06/05/t...
jun 8, 2025, 11:52 pm • 4 0 • view
Their problem in Texas would be offending the right wing employers of undocumented people they would arrest--also accidentally arresting right wing hispanic millionaires, etc. Lots of Mexicans in Texas who've been there since before the Texas Republic. Not all of them Democrats.
jun 10, 2025, 11:26 pm • 3 0 • view
Dallas maybe, but Houston (most diverse city in the country) would rise up. Suspect they also didn’t do this in Texas since a lot of Texans would shoot back
jun 7, 2025, 9:32 pm • 2 0 • view
FYI the population of LA county is equal to the entire state of NJ (the most densely populated) and 1/2 the sq mileage
jun 7, 2025, 9:07 pm • 2 0 • view
I'm thinking they're just trying to lay the groundwork to occupy blue states with the military
jun 7, 2025, 9:07 pm • 1 0 • view
The military does not have the manpower to occupy California let alone every Blue state.
jun 7, 2025, 9:11 pm • 9 0 • view
Unless these particular militia have extensive combat experience within their current org structure, they probably reduce the overall capability of the government response, rather than grow it.
jun 8, 2025, 12:29 am • 2 0 • view
It's fascinating that so many people view what is happening as if it is a movie or video games, and a lot of those edit out logistics or have easy logistics. To paraphrase Napoleon, an army or a military moves on its stomach. Supplying and maintaining such a force for a campaign is astronomical.
jun 7, 2025, 9:07 pm • 71 2 • view
Don't siege Los Angeles, take it immediately
jun 7, 2025, 9:49 pm • 0 0 • view
People don't understand the vast gulf between what it takes to level a city and what it takes to occupy one.
jun 7, 2025, 9:24 pm • 31 1 • view
Yes, that's true, and you are right.
jun 7, 2025, 9:32 pm • 11 0 • view
🎯I've been watching the Mission: Impossible movies, and noting exactly that. Who installs the tape drop or puts the cool car on-site? Who gathers the intel that Tom Cruise gets in the beginning? It's all in good fun with a spy movie, but thinking that reality works the same way is insane.
jun 7, 2025, 9:53 pm • 6 1 • view
Yes, you are exactly right. These things happen, or things are just left around conveniently for the major character to find because that's the plot of the movie. In real life, those things don't just happen that often. It's like video games where people can find ammo drops everywhere.
jun 7, 2025, 10:01 pm • 3 0 • view
Nah, bro, it's all warrior ethos bro. Who needs logistics when you can just repeatedly hammer your head into the wall while bellowing "HOO-rah!" This is what happens when your SecDef is a TV personality who thinks anything not stupid is "woke."
jun 8, 2025, 10:48 am • 9 1 • view
Reminds me of “the cult of the offensive” that was popular among WWI generals at the start of the war. The French “élan” true believers were pretty much all dead by the end of 1914.
jun 9, 2025, 8:04 am • 2 2 • view
Yes, the First World War I showed that defensive warfare demonstrated how essential logistics are in waging a modern war. Now, of course, logistics have always been important throughout the history of war, but to the scale of industrialized warfare of the modern age.
jun 9, 2025, 2:20 pm • 1 0 • view
The one thing the center and the left agree on is if they had to shoot they'd much rather be shooting at a proud boy
jun 7, 2025, 9:21 pm • 30 3 • view
Legally that makes sense. A decent lawyer would find one easier to work with
jun 7, 2025, 9:24 pm • 5 0 • view
Mostly defensive and LARPing anyway.
jun 7, 2025, 9:19 pm • 3 0 • view
Also, I suspect that despite LA being "blue" - the residents have firearms.
jun 7, 2025, 9:12 pm • 12 0 • view
The smarter alternative would presumably be a campaign to deputise and ship in large numbers of local cops from red states? But the logistics would still ofc be an issue, and AFAIK there’s no sign they’ve started preparing this.
jun 7, 2025, 9:32 pm • 2 0 • view
Most of those would have to come from cities, which would then potentially become their own hotspots. Either of protests or actual crimes by local opportunists realizing all the cops are off playing in a different sandbox.
jun 7, 2025, 9:43 pm • 3 0 • view
Yes, but those states are more docile (under a GOP POTUS) and ICE mostly hasn’t been poking the hornet’s nest out there.
jun 7, 2025, 10:20 pm • 0 0 • view
Cops are so trainable and smart that I am sure such a plan would go off without a hitch. I would guess it would be as well coordinated as the Uvalde shooting response.
jun 7, 2025, 10:23 pm • 6 0 • view
I for one would love to see the Oklahoma Freedom Farts Militia airdropped into LA to fight. They'd be unarmed, pantsless and mewling in the gutters in ten minutes.
jun 7, 2025, 9:39 pm • 12 1 • view
We could just send the gangs to take care of them. We wouldnt have to do anything.
jun 7, 2025, 10:32 pm • 3 0 • view
The "militias" ain't about shit. They'll walk into the wrong neighborhood and be violently reminded that the origin of many street gangs was defensive.
jun 8, 2025, 12:41 am • 16 1 • view
Any "militia" in LA would find out pretty damn quick that they're outnumbered, outgunned, out-organized, and out of luck. They'd hightail it back to Redding where they can strut around pretending to be all alpha and shit.
jun 7, 2025, 9:53 pm • 26 0 • view
American Black-and-Tans are going to be a biiiiiig help.
jun 7, 2025, 11:44 pm • 0 0 • view
Homan just said he's bringing in the National Guard.
jun 7, 2025, 11:18 pm • 0 0 • view
2,000 troops. That'll barely make a dent.
jun 8, 2025, 2:12 am • 0 0 • view
But it gives them the opportunity to initiate the Insurrection Act and martial law.
jun 8, 2025, 2:14 am • 1 0 • view
An opportunity they take at their peril. I think it's pretty clear that if they try that in LA, at least, they really will have an insurrection on their hands -- one they won't have the personnel to defeat. Obviously I hope it doesn't come to that, but the logistics numbers are pretty compelling.
jun 8, 2025, 3:06 am • 2 0 • view
They claim to have 2,000 NG. If they're the CA Guard at least half will be people of color. If they're from Red rural states they are afraid of the big city.
jun 8, 2025, 7:35 am • 0 0 • view
We had a militia group show up to intimidate us at a protest in NH. It did not end well for them. They were outnumbered about 45:1, and they did not anticipate that we might also be armed.
jun 7, 2025, 11:28 pm • 13 1 • view
LA is exceptionally hard because of how spread out it is as well. Logistically hard to tackle as well.
jun 7, 2025, 9:40 pm • 7 0 • view
Can you imagine how panicked out of town cops would be in typical 405 traffic! Let alone gridlock from a chaotic scene like martial law.
jun 7, 2025, 10:25 pm • 3 1 • view
The greater LA/Long Beach area is nearly 20,000,000 people, larger than almost every red state, and far more prosperous and diverse
jun 7, 2025, 9:07 pm • 48 3 • view
And armed. 🤔
jun 7, 2025, 9:28 pm • 17 1 • view
Yep. For some reason, MAGA thinks liberals don’t have guns. Of course they do
jun 7, 2025, 9:33 pm • 20 1 • view
And we’re better shots.
jun 7, 2025, 10:31 pm • 9 0 • view
I was raised shooting guns. I don’t talk about it but I was a really good shot. With my 30-30 and rifles in general. FFS they used to have shooting ranges at summer camp! As long as we were 500 feet from homes, you could shoot in any canyon or creek you wanted. It was fun
jun 7, 2025, 10:43 pm • 11 0 • view
Sadly I'm terrible with rifles Quite good with a Ruger MkIII or S&W M&P9 though
jun 7, 2025, 10:49 pm • 7 0 • view
Someone posted a 1955 news clipping from my hometown in Florida, and about 10 little Boy Scouts had earned a trip to a shooting range thanks to the Rotary Club and it was a very normal thing.
jun 7, 2025, 11:13 pm • 4 0 • view
I think the FFA or NRA even had clubs in high school (rural NC) as late as the 1980s. (I taught in one).
jun 7, 2025, 11:13 pm • 1 0 • view
Militias are also way less well trained and more easily to break/notorious for losing discipline
jun 8, 2025, 1:13 am • 6 0 • view
Militias are really bad in combat too, especially if they are doing violence for the joy of it rather than following orders I expect the dudes in jeans will be worse than useless
jun 7, 2025, 9:10 pm • 39 1 • view
Worse than useless: they’d be a liability.
jun 7, 2025, 9:32 pm • 10 0 • view
walking loot boxes
jun 8, 2025, 5:55 am • 2 0 • view
After a couple of them FAFO their numbers are probably going to dwindle
jun 7, 2025, 9:48 pm • 6 0 • view
Like what happened after three AWB members were killed on camera in Bophuthatswana in 1994
jun 7, 2025, 10:23 pm • 1 0 • view
bsky.app/profile/im-s...
jun 8, 2025, 1:50 pm • 0 0 • view
Many of them probably personally broke and ran when Ashli Babbitt was neutralized; I don’t imagine the median one has done much introspection about how to display any courage next time
jun 7, 2025, 9:51 pm • 1 0 • view
A lot of right-wing yahoos don't bother with firearm safely. If militia types get involved, the government should expect to lose some personnel to ostensibly 'friendly' fire. #MuzzleDisclipline
jun 7, 2025, 9:25 pm • 21 0 • view
I mean I live in Cali and this is the bare minimum understanding you need
jun 7, 2025, 9:49 pm • 2 0 • view
Excellent points. The logistics alone makes this all impractical. Furthermore, such operations would take days or weeks to carry out, and who will be paying for all this?
jun 7, 2025, 9:02 pm • 1 0 • view
Yeah, geography is important. The greater Los Angeles area is considered America's largest megalopolis. Read that again: MEGAlopolis. It essentially extends from the Santa Monica Mountains to San Diego. It contains a region called the INLAND EMPIRE, so names because it's huuuuge.
jun 7, 2025, 11:13 pm • 3 0 • view
I always like to move my assets the complete furthest away from where I need them before I start using them
jun 8, 2025, 3:50 pm • 0 0 • view
I would hazard a guess that a lot Joe/Joan Q Soldiers aren’t just going to open up on American citizens either
jun 8, 2025, 12:14 am • 0 0 • view
The real threat might be the rise of paramilitary groups, hunting protestors and helping ICE.
jun 7, 2025, 11:12 pm • 1 0 • view
Wouldn't the move be to activate the National Guard, like what happened at Kent State University in Ohio in the '70's? Maybe bring in the Guard from neighboring States, like Texas, if required?
jun 7, 2025, 11:18 pm • 0 0 • view
All the tanks are in DC? Unlikely. Are tanks moving around the country ostensibly for some stupid parade? Very likely. (Dsclmr: I know nothing.)
jun 7, 2025, 9:47 pm • 0 0 • view
Also, ICE are obviously bootlickers, the police are very Trump friendly - but the troops much less so. If the idea is to have the army fire on American protestors I think that will go poorly for this administration.
jun 7, 2025, 9:35 pm • 4 0 • view
Right and it would be a monumentally bad geopolitical move to start deploying large battalions away from their normal locations. Asking for foreign actors to exploit the weakness.
jun 7, 2025, 10:52 pm • 0 0 • view
Imagine a ground offensive in LA. It’s huge with no easy transportation routes
jun 7, 2025, 10:07 pm • 0 0 • view
LA traffic is a bitch. It can take hours to go 10 miles even knowing the old "shortcuts".
jun 8, 2025, 7:45 am • 0 0 • view