As the FT notes this morning:
Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to deploy troops to American cities, intensifying a stand-off with Democratic-led states resisting his use of the military on US soil.
The president sounded the warning as his efforts to send federal troops to quash protests in several cities have had mixed results in the courts, with one blocking the deployment of the military to Oregon and another allowing it in Illinois.
The problem for Trump is that there is no insurrection. In Portland, Oregon, for example, around 20 people protest each night against the actions of ICE. That's it. The suggestion from Trump that it is a warzone is so far from he truth it is absurd. But absurdity has never stopped Trump or any other fascist determined to deliver what their playbook demands of them. And so he is considering using the Insurrection Act, passed in 1807 for a wholly different era.
The worrying possibility is that facts do not come into this. As Robert Reich has written on Substack overnight:
Friends,
The direction we're going is either martial law or civil war.
Americans from so-called “red” states, with the backing of their Republican governors and legislatures, are on the brink of using lethal force against Americans in so-called “blue” states, whose Democratic governors and legislatures strongly oppose the moves.
I pray we don't come close to this, but Trump has now ordered the deployment of 400 members of the Texas National Guard to several states, including Oregon and Illinois — ostensibly to protect ICE agents and facilities from protesters. The first group of Texas Guard troops is expected to arrive in Chicago tomorrow.
Having noted precisely why Trump is seeking to incite what he can call an insurrection, and then why we are nowhere near such a situation, he concluded:
As I said, I hope we don't come near to this. I hope the federal courts, including the Supreme Court, stop Trump's plan. But I believe it is Trump's plan (the details of which have been worked out by the troika of Vance, Miller, and Vought), and they are implementing it as quickly as they can.
I don't want to unduly alarm you, but you need to be aware of this imminent danger. It's unfolding very rapidly.
I have little doubt he is right. The United States is nearing civil war, with its forces being turned on those on the left.
But then, so too are we, albeit a little behind the US, but nonetheless on the same path.
A Guardian newsletter this morning is based on a discussion with LSE-based human rights lawyer Dr Richard Martin and examines why new laws on protest are being put in place in the UK, and are targeted solely at the left, saying:
The government put out an announcement on Sunday, saying it would amend sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 to further impose conditions on public protests and assemblies.
The changes to the law would allow police officers to consider the cumulative impact of protest when deciding whether or not they are lawful, meaning they could potentially re-route or totally shut down protest they believe could cause serious disruption to local communities.
The term 'serious disruption' is, of course, totally subjective and open to any police officer to interpret. I have no doubt that this is deliberate.
And why is this targeted at the left? As the piece notes:
Do these new laws really represent a serious difference?
Martin thinks they do – but more as a vibe shift than anything else. “Crucially, the government is trying to send a signal to the police: to get tougher, less tolerant and to put more weight on the other side of the scales,” he said. “What happens next depends on how susceptible senior police officers are to the mood music.”
The police are, of course, notoriously right-wing.
Then this was noted:
I ask Martin why these same laws aren't being suggested to police far-right rallies, particularly given the government justification of wanting to make sure that communities feel protected and free from intimidation.
“I think we need to be upfront about what's prompted this,” he said. “It's not far-right rallies. The target to begin with was Extinction Rebellion, and now it's Palestine Action.” He thinks that it is the shared tactic of these two groups – which he defined as “a campaign of attrition where you keep protesting to effectively exhaust the police, to fill the custody suites” – that the government legislation is actually targeted at.
“Their approach … will potentially be met by police gradually breaking that technique down,” Martin explained. “It will mean there may be a greater number of arrests, the stakes for those arrested will be higher and we may well see less protest.”
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
The Conservatives appear to want to create a force of unaccountable and unidentifiable masked plain clothes immigration enforcement officers like the US ICE, patrolling the country, grabbing people off the street (largely racially profiled), detaining them incommunicado in horrible camps, and deporting them to countries where they are at risk of mistreatment, abuse and execution by the state. Welcome to the 21st century.
I know how to end the regular mass Gaza protests.
If Shabana Mahmood wants to hear the solution she can get in touch.
(think of all the police resources she could divert into dealing with real crime).
A carceral state that wants to punish protest is well out of order especially when it is not being fair handed as this one is.
Hearing Starmer banging on about the un-Britishness of the planned student demonstration when demonstrations are part of our history is just, well…………
What is telling is that it is further evidence that people have had enough – and Reform’s popularity is also a marker – and that power just does not want to listen.
And why does power just does not want to listen? Because it has been captured by vested interests that are calling the shots, that’s why.
Again, this is NOT a democracy we are living in. It’s not even close.
We are a fair way down that road and accelerating. The decline of local authority responsibility, privatisation, the incremental erosion of rights – this has been going on since Thatcher. The constant feed of right wing material by the media, the bogus patriotism of the right – authoritarianism that once was creeping is now galloping. It is instructive that the BNP programme for the 2000s elections is now the same or slightly left of both Tory and Reform, and not far of current LINO.
Might the machinations making our state increasingly totalitarian,have a second, less obvious, but powerful prong on the metaphorical fork which is currently attempting to impale and control our society?
“The D. S. M. A system, while technically voluntary, while technically “voluntary” amounts to government requests not to publish difficult to ignore.”
“The Official Secrets Acts criminalise disclosure of state material.”
“Libel laws further chills reporting. Plaintiff-friendly rules allow the wealthy to sue with ease, creating costly battles.”
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/07/between-myth-and-muzzle-press-freedom-in-the-us-and-uk/
All noted and, I feel, true.
And the controlled BBC tells people what to think – that the country is riddled with antisemitism from top to bottom – that protests are antisemitic, that selling bullets to those carrying out a genocide doesn’t merit attention, that islamophobia or anti minority racism barely exists , and that the burning of a mosque also merits barely a mention.
A few weeks ago I posted that I had revised the start of the third US civil war* from mid 2027 to the end of 2026. Given the evnts of the weekend with regard to the National Guard, I have revised that to the end of 2025.
*1st Civil War – 1775 – 1783, also known as the American War of Independence though it was a civil war as well
2nd Civil War – 1861 – 1865
3rd Civil War – 2025 – ????
Perhaps Palestine Action or whom-so-ever else wants to peacefully protest should just drive a tractor….they’ll be fine then.
I don’t know why they don’t change their placards to say ‘Plasticine Action’ as someone did a few weeks ago.
Everyone will know who it is but it isn’t a proscribed organization, despite PlayDoh’s best attempts.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/18/protester-arrested-wearing-plasticine-action-t-shirt-palestine-gaza-protest
Thank you.
Might the metaphorical fork of totalitarianism have a third prong which is the influence/power of the finance sector over government/governments?
Might the impressively bank benign and democracy denying composition of the governing body of the B. o. E. be but one indicator of such?
Craig Murray reports:
Fahad Ansar: “Thanks to everyone who packed out the public gallery today. The police refused to explain in open court why they detained me. Now a closed hearing will take place when the police will show secret evidence about me to the judge. Neither my lawyers nor I will be allowed to see it.”
Source: https://x.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/1975522882005488053
Reposted
I am an old sick man. I would go to the streets to protest, but I wouldn’t make it to the end of the day, I would become dead, heart liver bowel nervous system, wheelchair bound, I cannot justify putting other people at risk for my safety, but what is left of me, my mind is with the protesters. My parents fought this raving lunacy in 1939/45, I debated and protested against fascism/racism 74 to now, we are losing. I agree civil war is coming to America, the west, the east, the poor versus the very wealthy. I have no answers, but I will support where I can.
Go well, and thank you.