{"id":43173,"date":"2025-08-11T21:53:34","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T04:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=43173"},"modified":"2025-08-11T21:53:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T04:53:35","slug":"the-army-was-built-to-protect-the-republic-now-its-being-deployed-to-subdue-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/11\/the-army-was-built-to-protect-the-republic-now-its-being-deployed-to-subdue-it\/","title":{"rendered":"The Army Was Built to Protect the Republic \u2014 Now It\u2019s Being Deployed to Subdue It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The battlefield is no longer overseas. It\u2019s your city. Your rights. Your voice. And the military is no longer standing guard: it\u2019s standing in the way\u2026<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Thom<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>THOM HARTMANN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUG 08, 2025 (hartmannReport.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a couple of wannabe carjackers punched out Big Balls in DC, Trump used it as an excuse to threaten<\/a> to take over the city and bring in the National Guard to police it, in a clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act<\/em>. This despite the fact that crime in Washington DC is at a 30-year low and the city already has the largest<\/a> police force, per capita, of any municipality in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of that matters; Trump wants to turn America into a police state, just like every other dictator in the world does when they get ahold of a democracy. They steal from the people, enrich their cronies, break laws with impunity, and then use police agencies to terrorize the general populace, judges, and legislators into docility and submission when they object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, they told us this was their goal. They showed us. They planned it in writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A leaked memo from inside the Department of Homeland Security reveals what many of us feared but hoped we were wrong about: that the military is no longer a last resort in American governance. It\u2019s now a first tool. A central player. A <\/strong>political<\/strong><\/em> weapon, just like in Russia.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And they\u2019re not even hiding it anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t some vague speculation or dystopian what-if. This isn\u2019t a shadowy plot hatched in secrecy. The document was written, circulated, and discussed at the highest levels of DHS and the Department of Defense and it spells out, in clinical, terrifying language, a plan to normalize and expand the use of the United States military <\/strong>within our own country<\/strong><\/em>, on our own soil, against our own people.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The memo, obtained by <\/a>The New Republic<\/a><\/em>, outlines a coordinated strategy to embed military forces into immigration enforcement not just at the border but across American cities. It calls for replicating the recent Los Angeles deployment \u201cfor years to come.\u201d It uses phrases like \u201chomeland defense\u201d and paints immigration threats as akin to Al Qaeda<\/em> or ISIS<\/em>. It pushes for \u201cnew ideas\u201d on how DHS and DoD can work together on \u201cnational security\u201d threats inside<\/em> the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 This isn\u2019t about law enforcement. It\u2019s about militarization.
\u2014 This isn\u2019t about safety. It\u2019s about power.
\u2014 This isn\u2019t about stopping crime. It\u2019s about building a political machine with boots and guns that can intimidate or even subdue any opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s already happening. America is rapidly turning into an authoritarian police state.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past two months, Trump has done what no modern president has dared. He sent 4,000 National Guard troops \u2014 federalized<\/em>, not state-controlled \u2014 into Los Angeles to back up ICE raids. He followed that with 700 active-duty Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These weren\u2019t weekend warriors. These were combat-trained infantry troops deployed to performatively surround federal buildings and \u201csupport\u201d immigration enforcement while pro-democracy protestors filled the streets.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marines. In American cities. In June and July. \u201cGuarding\u201d federal offices and intimidating demonstrators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now, we\u2019ve learned that smaller units have been sent to Florida and are prepping for deployment to Texas and Louisiana. The memo wasn\u2019t a warning. It was a <\/strong>blueprint<\/strong><\/em>. A playbook for turning the world\u2019s most powerful military force inward and turning constitutionally protected First Amendment political dissent into a \u201cnational security threat.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t believe Trump\u2019s PR spin or the media\u2019s pretending this isn\u2019t as illegal and anti-democracy as it is. Don\u2019t let the uniforms fool you into thinking this is routine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not normal.
This is not legal.
This is not American.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This memo, which Hegseth and friends didn\u2019t intend you and I would ever be able to read:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Urges DHS to persuade top military brass to view immigration enforcement as a \u201chomeland defense mission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Seeks to embed armed, kill-trained military personnel inside ICE and CBP to \u201cincrease information sharing\u201d and support \u201cnationwide operational planning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Frames transnational gangs and cartels as equivalent to Al Qaeda<\/em>, a dangerous, dishonest leap that pretends to justify extreme, deadly force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 And it admits, in its own words, that due to the \u201csensitive nature\u201d of the meeting it documents, \u201cminimal written policy or background\u201d should be preserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translation: They <\/strong>know<\/strong><\/em> what they\u2019re doing is legally and morally criminal. So they\u2019re minimizing the paper trail.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carrie Lee, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, put it bluntly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThis speaks to the intent to use the military within the United States at a level not seen since Japanese internment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d add, also not seen since the Civil War, when Americans turned their guns on each other and 700,000 of us died. And outlawed a decade after that war with the Posse Comitatus Act<\/em>. And after the Kent State massacre, we resolved, \u201cNever again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph Nunn at the Brennan Center warned<\/a> that this could create a permanent \u201cdomestic Forever War,\u201d a campaign of endless militarization justified by fear and manufactured crises. Soldiers \u2014 including armed, masked ICE agents answerable only to the president \u2014 terrifying civilians on their own streets and in their own homes: a military occupation of The United States of America.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s exactly the point. It\u2019s all part of the classic dictator\u2019s playbook.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You gin up fear about migrants and minorities. You call them invaders, terrorists, cartel assassins. You blur the line between protest and insurrection. You say cities are out of control. Then you send in the troops. Not to protect, but to occupy<\/em>. And you call it \u201cnational security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t just Trumpism. This is textbook authoritarianism in the mold of Putin\u2019s Russia and Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Hungary. It embodies the early stages of all the horror stories of 1930s Europe.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And let\u2019s not forget the power grab embedded in all this. When Trump federalized the California National Guard, he did it against the will<\/em> of Governor Newsom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state fought back in court. A federal judge ruled in California\u2019s favor, but the administration appealed, and for now, the troops can remain under federal control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s not just a skirmish over jurisdiction. That\u2019s an open attack on the sovereignty of states, the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution. That\u2019s a president saying, \u201cYour Guard is my<\/em> army now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This moment is a test. Of our Constitution. Of our institutions. Of our will.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because if we let this stand \u2014 if we normalize Marines in our cities, Guard troops on our streets, soldiers surveilling residential communities \u2014 then we\u2019ve already surrendered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happens when the next protest erupts? What happens when a city pushes back against federal immigration policy? What happens when a journalist, a mayor, or a movement becomes \u201ctoo disruptive\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do we really think they\u2019ll hesitate to send in the troops again?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what kind of soldier will say no, when DHS and DoD have spent months telling them they\u2019re defending the \u201chomeland\u201d against \u201cenemy cells\u201d within?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The line between foreign combat and domestic suppression is being erased. On purpose. By design.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Founders of this country were obsessed with avoiding a standing army for precisely this reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s why they wrote the Second Amendment into the Constitution requiring a \u201cwell regulated militia\u201d at the state level and that same Constitution, in Article 1, Section 7 bars Congress from appropriating money for the Army for any period longer than two years. (\u201cThe Congress shall have Power To \u2026 raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;<\/em>\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They had seen what happened when monarchs used soldiers to police dissent. They knew the threat; not just to liberty, but to the very idea of a democratic republic. They wanted to keep the military on a very, very short leash.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So they built guardrails. Laws. Norms. Civilian command. Posse Comitatus<\/em>. State<\/em> control over Guard units. Strict separation between military and police roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of that is being unraveled right now.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may not see it in the headlines. But if you read the memos \u2014 and watch the deployments \u2014 you\u2019ll see it plain as day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The military is no longer on the sidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And unless we act \u2014 loudly, urgently, relentlessly \u2014 it will become a permanent force in American civic life. Not a protector of freedom, but a tool of control, just like in Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Hungary or Putin\u2019s Russia.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are not at war with ourselves, at least yet. But our democracy is under siege.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the troops have already landed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The battlefield is no longer overseas. It\u2019s your city. Your rights. Your voice. And the military is no longer standing guard: it\u2019s standing in the way\u2026 THOM HARTMANN AUG 08, 2025 (hartmannReport.com) Share After a couple of wannabe carjackers punched out Big Balls in DC, Trump used it as an… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43173"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43174,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43173\/revisions\/43174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}