ACTION ALERT: We need your signature to tell Trump what he can do with his private militia.

TELL TRUMP: AUTHORITARIANISM HAS NO PLACE IN AMERICA.

From the moment Donald Trump became president there has been speculation as to whether he is solely a creature of impulse or if there is a method to his madness. Does he spontaneously make outrageous comments or tweet insults or does he do it to distract the media from the scandal of the day?

I suspect it’s both. He clearly has the impulse control of a five-year-old. But if John Bolton’s book is to be believed, Trump gave his odious defense of the Saudi regime in the wake of the Khashoggi murder in order to distract from Ivanka’s private emails.

So, it’s not a stretch to believe the reports that Trump has sent federal paramilitary troops into the streets of Portland and other cities in order to distract from his disastrous response to the pandemic and cratering poll numbers.

But that doesn’t mean that he and his accomplices in the DHS and DOJ aren’t dead serious about this authoritarian move to foment violence and quell dissent. They have signaled their intention to send these troops into cities all over the nation.

He is getting desperate. And desperate authoritarians always resort to police state tactics.

Blue America has joined with Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley, Ron Wyden and others in sponsoring a petition demanding that our government:

• require federal agents and the agency they work for to be clearly identifiable.
• prohibit the federal misuse of unmarked vehicles.
• prohibit federal agents from patrolling city streets, outside of federal property, unless invited to do so by local authorities.
• require agencies to disclose how many personnel have been deployed and for what mission when they’re sent into our cities.

I think we all knew on some level the moment they gave the agency the Orwellian name “Department of Homeland Security” that we were building an internal police force. And if you build it, they will use it. They are using it.

Please sign this petition telling congress to act immediately to put a stop these unAmerican police state activities.

If Donald Trump is allowed to get away with this, just imagine what the next Republican president will do.

Thanks for always doing what you can to help make a better world,

Heather “Digby” Parton, for the entire Blue America team