Democrats - Where ARE You?!?

Our Leadership Has Gone Missing

Here’s a clip of Eric Swalwell saying what I totally agree with:

@swalwellericKristi Noem must resign. She has deported a four year old with cancer, detained a U.S. marshal, and arrested two members of Congress. She’s lost the confidence of the American people. ICE must stop terrorizing our communities.

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Kristi Noem should resign, because she’s a horrible human being and what is happening now in our country with unrestrained deportations is disgusting.

The federal appeals court delayed an order requiring the Trump administration to give control of the California National Guard back to Gavin Newsom, so the three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit chose to allow the military to remain in control of things in LA for now. The decision does not limit the use of Marines if tensions rise. The judges believe that Trump did not overstep his presidential authority in overriding the governor’s wishes - for now.

The case was an extraordinary ping-pong of litigation.

Early on Thursday, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in which he seized control, overriding the California Governor’s authority over those troops. Then, in a quick appeal, the Ninth Circuit stepped in and issued what is known as an “administrative stay,” extending the president’s authority through June 17.

It should surprise no one that this stay is just long enough to cover June 14, when there is a big ol’ parade to celebrate the Army’s 250th, and coincidentally Dear Leader’s birthday in Washington DC.

The lower court district judge had called Trump’s seizure of the National Guard “illegal - both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

But the Ninth Circuit, made up of one Biden-appointed judge and two Trump-appointed judges, disagreed.

This leads me to the - “where are the Democrats?” question.

We know from news reports and citizen journalists that there IS no insurrection in LA. There is no violence, no looting, no craziness a’la George Floyd.

What we also know is that people are getting snatched up off the street, from work sites, from Home Depots, from elementary schools, from their universities, from their immigration hearings, from literally every imaginable place - by masked agents.

And yet, our democratic leadership does what Swalwell does. They talk. And they talk, and they talk, and they talk. Meanwhile, Trump sends in troops and Noem conducts raids, and Rubio revokes visas and on and on and on. It is long past time for talk and more talk.

I get it that the dems hands are tied in some ways because they do not control either house. The courts are often their better option. But when all that Swalwell and his colleagues can do is tell us - the working Joes and Janes - to protest on No Kings Day - that we are the only option?

I call bullshit.

I want to know that each of my representatives will be there, too. I want every elected official to be with me, John Lewis style. My local city councilman, Mark Parker, marched this week with protestors in Baltimore. That is the democratic action I want to see.

Maryland governor Wes Moore will celebrate the Army’s 250th, but has called Trump’s actions in California a “dangerous abuse of power.” Will he be in the streets with us? Where will Chris Van Hollen be? Angela Alsobrooks?

And across the nation? We have democrats all over this country who are speaking out, but are they leading as well? Are they calling for crimes to be charged when they happen? We’ve got citizen journalists capturing real brutality, we have actionable wrongdoing, and many of us are more than ready to cooperate with informing, assisting, participating - but we are not leading. We asked YOU to lead. We chose YOU to lead.

Now it’s time to show up. It’s time to ensure that the lawless, corrupt, criminal enterprise working to toss out the Constitution we asked you to protect does not win the day.

So democrats, where are you? A press conference and a note here and there will not do it. I like Eric Swalwell, I really do. But I don’t want to do the job for him. That’s not why any of us voted for him and guys like him. I want the democrats to show up.

And I bet you do, too.

So while he’s correct that we have an obligation to be out in the streets at the more than 2,000 No Kings Day protests - I will be there with my sign, my shirt, my voice, and my energy - our leaders need to be there even bigger and bolder than we do. I hope they do not let us down.

Be kind, friends.