UPPING THE STAKES

On the tarmac a few days ago, before tripping his way up the stairs to Air Force One, Donald Trump said: "We're going to have troops everywhere. We can't let this happen to our country."

Not realizing, I suppose, that the second half of his statement could be seen as blow-back from the first half.

Whatever nonsense the man screeched out in front of a howling mass of supporters at a one of his campaign rallies, Trump took as a contract to be performed in the event he won the election. Well, somehow or other, he won.

He said he would remove eleven million undocumented people from the country, starting with the "worst of the worst."

In order to perform this task in the four years of a single presidential term, Trump would have to deport more than 7500 a day.

In the last year of the Biden administration, ICE deported 271,484 people. That's 744 individuals a day, on average. It's been reported that Trump's numbers are currently below that rate, let alone ten times the Biden number, which is the level the president needs to be hitting. As a consequence, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told ICE commanders to up their game or be fired.

What better location to up their game than Los Angeles County, where an estimated one million undocumented critters make their homes.

ICE agents raided the garment district in LA, and a Home Depot in Paramount, chasing a handful of would-be day workers out of the parking lot.

Folks protested, saying these people were not criminals, not the "worst of the worst" they were promised would be Trump's target.

Of course not. Because the really bad boys are a lot harder to grab up.

I don't have the exact numbers, but I would estimate that of the eleven million people ultimately pursued by ICE, approximately none of them belong in the category of worst of the worst.

But for the average (legal) citizen of LA, what ICE is doing is a violation of the mandate they think Trump is operating under.

It's not, of course. And folks ought to know it.

But folks are folks: stupid and crazy and unaware of it. It's how we humans roll. We misunderstand the rules. Important details fall under the table and are lost.

Protesting the actions of ICE is protected under the Constitution, but does it make sense? That depends on a lot of stuff nobody is talking about right now. Will removing the eleven million help or hurt the economy? On the other hand, should the economy even be considered when determining the right path?

Is there still such a thing as political asylum in this country? And if so, should there be? How many people around the world ought to be absorbed into this country? One percent? Ten percent? Any of them who want to be?

All questions that need to be pondered.

But now the emphasis in LA has shifted.

How many have moved on to protesting the presidential deployment of the California National Guard? Or the presence of Marines in the city? How many are protesting presidential overreach?

Trump says if he hadn't sent in the National Guard, LA would have burned to the ground by now. Is this the delusion of a power-mad would-be dictator? Maybe.

(Okay: probably.)

Are Trump's actions making things better or worse? I think we know his answer. And unfortunately, his answer is the only one that counts.

Will the courts undo his actions? I guess they might try. Not that it's likely to have much sway over Donald Trump. When courts shoot him down, he simply declares victory and sends in a phalanx of new lawyers. He's got millions of 'em.

Trump promises to have troops everywhere. Oh, boy. Going to be a long, hot summer.

Starting with Saturday the fourteenth, with freshly-painted Army tanks rolling through the streets of DC.

Now we have to worry: Is the big man setting the stage for his big move?

Stay tuned.