La La Landmine

California Reaming, Cable Cuts the Cord

It's been 1,615 days since the January 6th insurrection and President Trump finally called in the National Guard. Only he called it in on the "violent, insurrectionist mobs" protesting ICE arrests and tactics in Los Angeles. The move threatens to turn the LA protests into an actual emergency. But California shouldn't feel singled out about being labeled a state of emergency. Somehow, since inauguration day, everything is. Trump has declared more emergencies than a 911 dispatcher. We have an emergency at the border. We have an emergency in our economy. We have an energy emergency. Declaring these emergencies gives Trump increased executive powers to declare new policies like building walls, levying tariffs, and increasing fossil fuel production. If the emergencies escalate, Trump will too, possibly invoking the Insurrection Act ("which would allow troops to directly participate in civilian law enforcement.") You don't want that. But he does. That's why anytime there's a spark, you can count on the Trump administration to start air-dropping gasoline (as a bonus, they get to make climate change worse in the process). Look out your window and you won't see the state of emergency described in the fever dreams of Fox News and Truth Social. That's because the only real emergency taking place in America today is happening in the Oval Office.

+ The ramifications of inward-facing militaristic jingoism are dangerous enough domestically. But the world is watching. Holding military parades, issuing tough geopolitical statements that no one believes, turning the military against our own people, losing our best and brightest minds at the Pentagon…We are telegraphing extreme weakness to the world.

+ "Governor Gavin Newsom of California announced that his state plans to file a lawsuit early Monday against Donald Trump for mobilizing the National Guard over the weekend to quell immigration-related protests in Los Angeles." Gavin Newsom Says Trump ‘Manufactured’ Crisis in California. And on the protestors getting violent: "They’re just playing right into Donald Trump’s hand. And they need to be called out and they need to be arrested...They’re doing more than damage to buildings and to property. They’re potentially damaging the very foundation of our republic. Democracy is in the balance." (Protest, yes. But why pick on Waymos?) Meanwhile, Trump endorsed the idea of arresting of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

+ "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." David Frum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): For Trump, This Is a Dress Rehearsal.

+ "In the longer run, Trump may be trying to create a national emergency that will enable him to exercise authoritarian control." Tom Nichols in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump Is Using the National Guard as Bait. "So far, even the Los Angeles Police Department—not exactly a bastion of squishy suburban book-club liberals—has emphasized that the protests have been mostly peaceful. Trump is apparently trying to change that. Sending in the National Guard is meant to provoke, not pacify, and his power will only grow if he succeeds in tempting Americans to intemperate reactions that give him the authoritarian opening he’s seeking."

2

Your Place or Mines?

"Many of the policies he promised never panned out. As James Browning, a thoughtful drug counselor and grandson of a coal miner killed in a mining accident, recalled, he never brought back coal or 'great, new jobs.' He did 'nothing about drugs.' But Mr. Trump’s story of stolen pride did take hold. With the fall of coal and American manufacturing, he told his followers, you lost your pride. That’s because others stole it from you, just as they stole the 2020 election, and they still want more — your guns, your families, your way of life. I’ll take revenge on them, he declared: on the pet-eating immigrants, uppity women, spying international students, idle government workers, and the institutions behind them — the universities, the mainstream press, the judiciary, the deep state." A very interesting look at what attracts voters to Trump (and whether that attraction is weakening) from sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild. NYT (Gift Article): My Journey Deep in the Heart of Trump Country.

3

Laws of Attraction

"For more than a decade, the United States has failed to develop an alternative to China’s supply of a specific kind of rare earth crucial for the manufacture of magnets for missiles, fighter jets, smart bombs and a lot of other military gear." That gives China some serious leverage in the restarted trade talks. NYT (Gift Article): China’s Chokehold on This Obscure Mineral Threatens the West’s Militaries.

4

Watch Party

Jennifer Wilson decided to train for Hollywood's most controversial job. The New Yorker: How I Learned to Become an Intimacy Coördinator. "Earlier this year—Valentine’s Day weekend, to be precise—I found myself sitting on the floor of a loft in downtown Los Angeles with eight other adults, learning how to fake an orgasm. We had been told to make three 'oo' sounds punctuated by a sharp inhale. Next, we bit our lower lips and exhaled on the letter 'V.' 'Vuh, vuh, vuhhhhhhh,' we harmonized. After a few rounds of this, I started feeling out of breath." (This sounds exactly like me when I recently tried pilates.)

5

Extra, Extra

Welcome (Paddy) Wagon: "Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man whose erroneous deportation to El Salvador became a protracted battle over due process and a test of wills, was returned to the United States." But now he's facing new charges.

+ Flame Extinguisher : "Elon Musk’s business empire, including SpaceX, Starlink, and Tesla, collectively stands to lose at least $48 billion in sales over roughly the next decade if President Donald Trump acts on his veiled threat to cancel the companies’ contracts with the US government." So you can see why Musk backed down from his flame war. And besides, he likes the heavy handed response to the LA protests.

+ Union Movement: Labor unions around US demand release of union leader arrested in LA protest.

+ Guess Who's Coming for Sinner: "Sunday’s win will be a legacy-defining one that we’ll discuss years after Alcaraz calls it a career. His perseverance, creativity, and incredible shotmaking are what make this French Open remontada against Sinner his finest hour. Or, his finest five hours and 29 minutes, to be exact." The Finest Five Hours of Carlos Alcaraz’s Career. It wasn't just Alcaraz. It was Jannik Sinner, too (who painfully missed out on three match point opportunities). What an epic match for the ages. I'm still recovering and all I did was wake up a little early to watch it from bed. (Here's the 12 minute version.) And Coco Gauff showcased her unrivaled fortitude in grueling French Open triumph.

+ Not Giving Away Their Shot: The Tony Awards put on a solid show on Sunday night. Cynthia Erivo was a great host, and some of the key perfomances included Nicole Scherzinger singing As If We Never Said Goodbye and an epic reunion of the cast of Hamilton doing a mixtape version of the show's greatest hits. Here are all the winners.

+ Cutting the Cord: "Warner Bros. Discovery is splitting into two separate publicly traded companies – one oriented around the HBO Max streaming service and Warner Bros. studio, and the other around CNN and other television networks." (You're not the only one getting rid of cable.)

+ Let Them Eat Hate: ABC News suspends journalist Terry Moran after post criticizing Stephen Miller. "Stephen Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater. You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate." (So Terry Moran has been suspended for saying that Stephen Miller’s personal branding efforts have been successful?)

6

Bottom of the News

"According to officials, they tried to go down the cliff to get the phones they dropped but became stuck." 2 rescued from San Francisco cliff after dropping phones. (They were rescued almost immediately. Whatever happened to teachable moments?)

+ A runaway pet zebra has been captured in Tennessee. (He was wanted by authorities because the mix of black and white stripes made him seem too woke.)