- No, Los Angeles is not burning down. Trump and his minions are lying. And whatever is happening recently, they started it. And apparently they have motives to start it.
- Also, Los Angeles is huge;
- David A. Graham in The Atlantic: Trump is like a bad parent, “never there when you need him but eager to stick his nose in your business when you don’t want him to”;
- Philip Bump on Trump’s incessant need to quash critics;
- Trump’s view of law and order: “Can’t you just shoot them?”;
- David French on how America is no longer a stable country.
To hear Trump and his minions like Hegseth and Bondi (children playing at being adults) you’d think California was as devastated as the Gaza Strip, and Californians should all be grateful to Fearless Leader for trying to save us from our criminal governor.
It’s nonsense of course. Here are James Woods (the actor) and Ted Cruz spreading a photo of a car in flames that is actually from the 2020 George Floyd protests. Here’s Trump saying LA “would have been completely obliterated” were it not for the National Guard he sent it. Tommy Tuberville calls LA “a third world county” with “anarchists” in charge, and Gavin Newsom reminds him that Alabama has 3X the homicide rate of California. ICE agents hide behind masks. Biden deported more people than Trump has, proportionately, and didn’t need troops in the streets to do so. (The cruelty is the point, for Trumpists.) And never mind all the civilians who attacked police on Jan. 6th who were *pardoned* by Trump.
Also this. The red circle in this map is downtown LA, where a few streets have been blocked off. (All the colored areas are the city of Los Angeles, which doesn’t include Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Long Beach, etc.) The Home Depot incidents on Saturday were in the small city of Paramount, at the right edge of the lower part of this map (also not part of LA).
The entire city is not in flames. Those who imply it is are lying (and/or geographically illiterate). And it’s not just that Trump lies incessantly — it’s that he’s deliberately trying to incite violence in states he doesn’t like and wants to subdue.
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This is echoes something I just said.
The Atlantic, David A. Graham, 9 Jun 2025: Trump vs. California, subtitled “The president is bullying states when it suits him and ignoring them when it doesn’t.”
Namely, the first line here:
Under Donald Trump, the federal government is like a bad parent: never there when you need him but eager to stick his nose in your business when you don’t want him to.
The relationship between Trump and California has always been bad, but the past few days represent a new low. On Friday, CNN reported that the White House was seeking to cut off as much federal funding to the Golden State as possible, especially to state universities. That afternoon, protests broke out in Los Angeles as ICE agents sought to make arrests. By Saturday, Trump had announced that he was federalizing members of the National Guard and deploying them to L.A., over the objections of Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat.
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Trump desperately needs to be worshiped. He gains worship from his fans by being mean to the people his fans hate. Serving the nation, or the better good, or the United States’ position in the world, has nothing to do with it, and is of no interest to him.
Washington Post, Philip Bump, 9 Jun 2025: Donald Trump vs. California (and everywhere else), subtitled “What happened in California this weekend was another facet of the president’s effort to quash critics.”
What’s important to remember about the fracture that emerged in Los Angeles over the weekend is that it came shortly after reports that President Donald Trump was seeking to block California from receiving certain federal funding. His team, The Post reported, was “asking federal employees to develop rationales for the funding cuts” — perhaps looking at conflicts with his executive orders about cutting costs or ending diversity initiatives.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) responded by noting that the state contributes far more in federal taxes than it receives in services. But the point wasn’t really the money. The point was that the Trump administration wanted to bring California to heel, precisely as it had sought to bring elite universities to heel, similarly by contriving reasons the government might strip funding. The methodology was the same because the intent was the same: inflict pain on an entity that Trump viewed as hostile to his presidency.
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Trump’s view of law and order.
AlterNet/The Conversation, 9 Jun 2025: ‘Can’t you just shoot them?’ Inside Trump’s threat to deal with ‘radical left thugs’ in America
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A rehash, with perspective.
NY Times, David French, 8 Jun 2025: America Is No Longer a Stable Country
It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the Trump administration is spoiling for a fight on America’s streets. On Saturday, after a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests degenerated into violence, the administration reacted as if the country were on the brink of war.
The violence was unacceptable. Civil disobedience is honorable; violence is beyond the pale. But so far, thankfully, the violence has been localized and, crucially, well within the capacity of state and city officials to manage.
But don’t tell that to the Trump administration. Its language was out of control.
Then follow examples from Stephen Miller (“Insurrection”), JD Vance (“invasion”), Pete Hegseth (call in the Marines!), and Trump (“the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!”).
Of course it’s Trump and ICE who caused the problem in the first place. They claim they’re enforcing the law, but it’s obvious to everyone who are not MAGAites that they’re enforcing the law very selectively, against black and brown people they don’t think belong in the United States. (And along other fronts, intellectuals they don’t like.)
