No. We are not on fire.

 Welp, it has begun. Or continued? Or just impossible to ignore?

The Jacarandas are blooming

In any case, President Trump called up our state National Guard to help with demonstrations against the rounding up of illegal immigrants. The headlines will say it is happening in Los Angeles, but the majority of the demonstrations occurred in a couple of outlying, Hispanic-majority cities, Compton and Paramount.

No one needed or asked for the California National Guard to intervene in this matter. For the British readers, the state National Guard is essentially our military reserve. Each state has a National Guard that may be called up to quell serious problems in states where the local police cannot handle it. These call ups are almost always activated by the Governor.  In this instance, they were called up despite the. The governor said they were not needed.

It does happen occasionally at the governor's request. For example, during the LA Riots over the Rodney King verdict, the state called up the California National Guard to help with peacekeeping. They can also be assigned overseas sometimes. When we were fighting in both Iraq and Afghanistan, some state National Guard units were transferred to the areas, mainly in support roles.

But the President overriding the state and calling up the National Guard, as happened in LA this weekend, is very rare. Before this, the last time it happened was in the 1960s (about 65 years ago) to force Alabama to accept the integration of school children. The famous picture is shown below.

This latest action is a flex by the President to show that Trump has control of our official paramilitary forces and is not afraid to use them. (He has already shown he has control of our unofficial paramilitary, like the Proud Boys.) So another facet of authoritarianism has made its way to the. American front.

I think we stay here, like others, because this is where our friends are. And we keep thinking nothing too awful will happen. We can live with our delusion or hope, depending on your viewpoint, until the 2026 elections.