Fire and ICE in Los Angeles

ICE MELTDOWN: Protests in Los Angeles over federal immigration sweeps broke into violence yesterday with cars set on fire and police using teargas and rubber bullets. As many as a half-dozen driverless Waymo taxis were burned.

  Gov. Gavin Newsom said President Trump aggravated the situation by federalizing National Guard troops and threatening to send in active duty Marines. Trump ordered in as many as 2,000 guardsmen over the objection of local authorities.

  It is the first time a president has activated the National Guard since the civil rights era.

  Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff said that violence “plays directly into the hands of those who seek to antagonize and weaponize the situation for their own gain.”

  President Trump on his Truth Social posted insults about Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass and that: “These Radical Left protests, by instigators and often paid troublemakers, will NOT BE TOLERATED. Also, from now on, MASKS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED to be worn at protests. What do these people have to hide, and why???”

  Members of the National Guard had their faces covered.

  Demonstrators clashed with law enforcement starting Friday after Immigration and Customs agents swept through the garment district looking for undocumented workers. Law enforcement used pepper spray and rubber bullets to back off the protesters. Some protesters waved the Mexican flag.

  ICE agents have been hitting construction sites from Massachusetts to Louisiana  detaining workers and meeting protests. Businesses on Martha’s Vineyard have shut down after about 40 migrants were detained. “You’re going to see more work site enforcement than you’ve ever seen in the history of this nation,” Thomas Homan, the White House border czar told reporters. “We’re going to flood the zone.”

HATERS: ABC News yesterday suspended its high profile Washington correspondent Terry Moran for posting on social media that Donald Trump and his deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller are both “world class haters.”

  In particular Moran said: “Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater. You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.”

  It’s not that Moran was wrong but that he was wrong to say it. Covering Washington, especially under the Trump administration, it’s unethical and unwise for a reporter to express such an opinion. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called for Moran to be suspended or even fired.

  ABC issued a statement saying, “The post does not reflect the views of ABC News and violated our standards.” This incident comes after ABC paid $15 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit over morning anchor George Stephanopoulos describing him as a rapist. ABC said ominously, “Terry Moran has been suspended pending further evaluation.” 

  Miller posted on Twitter/X: “For decades, the privileged anchors and reporters narrating and gatekeeping our society have been radicals adopting a journalist’s pose. Terry pulled off his mask.”

CLIMATE OF FEAR: Terry Moran’s unfortunate posting came after CBS’s Scott Pelley spoke up for journalism following the Saturday night broadcast on CNN of the George Clooney play, “Good Night, and Good Luck.”

  “People are silencing themselves for fear that the government will retaliate against them, and that’s not the America that we all love,” Pelley told Anderson Cooper. Clooney’s play, which recounts the brave 1954 broadcasts by CBS’s Edward R. Murrow about Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch hunts, brought comparisons between McCarthyism and Trumpism, and between the CBS network then and now.

  President Trump is currently suing CBS for billions of dollars claiming he was damaged by the “60 Minutes” editing of an interview with Kamala Harris.

“The most important thing is to have the courage to speak, to not let fear permeate the country so that everyone suddenly becomes silent,” Pelley added. “If you have the courage to speak, we are saved. If you fall silent, the country is doomed.”

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE: 

— President Trump over the weekend told NBC Correspondent Kristin Welker that he has no desire to repair his public rift with Tesla billionaire Elon Musk.

  After leaving government service, Musk was highly critical of the President’s “Big, Beautiful” domestic policy bill that the billionaire said would put the country on the path to bankruptcy.  In a telephone conversation with Welker, Trump warned that there would be “serious consequences” if Musk financed candidates to run against Republicans who voted in favor of the president’s domestic policy bill.

— Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland resident who was the subject of a legal fight after he  was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, was returned to the United States over the weekend under a federal indictment that accuses him of conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain.” 

  Attorney General Pam Bondi described the activity as “human trafficking” and that, “This is what American justice looks like,” 

— A federal appeals court ruled that the White House can continue blocking the Associated Press from coverage in the Oval Office and on Air Force One. The court ruled that since not all spaces in the White House are open to the press and public, the White House may choose who to admit.

WINNERS: The musical “Maybe Happy Ending” was the big winner at the Tony Awards last night, taking six awards including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Original Score. The futuristic show is about a friendship and love between two Korean “helperbots.”

  Sarah Snook of “Succession” fame won best actress in “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Darren Criss won Best Actor in “Maybe Happy Ending.”  

THE SPIN RACK: A former Arkansas police chief who escaped prison while serving time for murder and rape was captured Friday after tracking dogs picked up his scent. Grant Hardin escaped May 25th wearing what looked like the uniform of a prison guard.

BELOW THE FOLD: President Trump, 78, stumbled climbing the steps to Air Force One yesterday … just like Joe Biden. 

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Thursday, April 30, 2026

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Page Two: 1984 in 2025

Monday, April 28, 2025

Take Back the Flag

Monday, January 13, 2025

Subscribe and Read

Thursday, October 31, 2024

The Most Corrupt Justice

Monday, October 2, 2023

Democracy and Video in the Dark

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Page Two: Do the Right Thing

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Page Two: Sound Recall

Monday, September 13, 2021

Page Two: Cuomo Must Go

Friday, August 13, 2021

It's Been Said

"Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you Christians. I'm a Christian. I love you, get out, you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again, we'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote."

  • Donald Trump courting the vote of the Christian right

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