TRUMP CAME INTO OFFICE WISHING A MF'ER WOULD

Two commentators I respect, Anne Applebaum and Jamelle Bouie, believe that Donald Trump is militarizing Los Angeles out of weakness. I don't think that's true.

Under the headline "This Is What Trump Does When His Revolution Sputters," Applebaum writes:

Revolutions have a logic. The revolutionaries start with a big, transformative, impossible goal. They want to remake society, smash existing institutions, replace them with something different....

Inevitably, a crisis appears....

[Trump's] revolutionary project is now running into reality. More than 200 times, courts have questioned the legality of Trump’s decisions.... Judges have ordered the administration to rehire people who were illegally fired. DOGE is slowly being revealed as a failure, maybe even a hoax....

Now Trump faces the same choice as his revolutionary predecessors: Give up—or radicalize. Find compromises—or polarize society further. Slow down—or use violence. Like his revolutionary predecessors, Trump has chosen radicalization and polarization, and he is openly seeking to provoke violence....

The logic of revolution often traps revolutionaries: They start out thinking that the task will be swift and easy. The people will support them. Their cause is just. But as their project falters, their vision narrows. At each obstacle, after each catastrophe, the turn to violence becomes that much swifter, the harsh decisions that much easier. If not stopped, by Congress or the courts, the Trump revolution will follow that logic too.

Bouie's latest column bears the headline "Trump Wants to Be a Strongman, but He’s Actually a Weak Man." He writes:

The White House clearly believes its actions are a show of strength, but ... they are not. The immediate recourse to repressive force; the inability to handle even modest opposition to its plans; the threats, bullying and overheated rhetoric — it betrays a sense of brittleness and insecurity.

Power, real power, rests on legitimacy and consent. A regime that has to deploy force at the first sign of dissent is a regime that does not actually believe it can wield power short of coercion and open threats of violence....

Americans are not enamored of his signature legislative package, the Big Beautiful Bill. They don’t like his tariffs, nor do they like the actual implementation of his deportation plans. Overall, more Americans say that Trump is fighting against them than say that he is on their side....

The White House wants us to think that Los Angeles is an advance, a forward march for its agenda. But there is the strong possibility that it is actually a tactical retreat to safe ground in the face of a poor strategic landscape.

I don't agree with Bouie that the troop deployment is a response to Trump's poll numbers (which, overall, aren't all that bad). I also don't believe it's a response to frustrations in enacting his agenda, as Applebaum believes. I think Trump would be doing this even if he were at 80% approval. I think he'd be doing it even if his administration's actions were being upheld by every federal court.

Trump reentered the White House like a guy walking into a bar looking for a fight. He's just been waiting for an excuse, because that's how this particular form of toxic masculinity works.

What's the favorite Greek phrase of every right-winger in America, particularly the gun owners?

It's "Molon Labe," translated as "Come and Take It." In recent years, laws in most of America have become more and more accommodating of gun owners, and the Supreme Court has invented an individual constitutional right to gun ownership -- but the gun community preemptively threatens critics if they dare to grab guns. (No one is grabbing guns.) The gun community wants a fight.

That's how this mindset works. It's the mindset that led to the hit country song "Try That in a Small Town":

Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk
Carjack an old lady at a red light
Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store
Ya think it's cool, well, act a fool if ya like
Cuss out a cop, spit in his face
Stomp on the flag and light it up
Yeah, ya think you're tough

Well, try that in a small town
See how far ya make it down the road
'Round here, we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won't take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don't
Try that in a small town

"I recommend you don't"? Bullshit. You're begging someone to do this. You're looking for someone to intimidate.

The (somewhat dated) hip-hop version of this is "I wish a motherfucker would" (sometimes expressed as "I wish a n***a would"). The 1980s right-wing-backlash version is Clint Eastwood's most famous movie line, "Go ahead, make my day." In every case, the message is the same: I'd kill you if you tried to fight me, and that would be fun. So come at me, bro. I'm begging you.

Trump would have been disappointed if his political opponents hadn't given him an excuse to deploy troops. He wants everyone to see him as America's alpha male, which is why he scheduled this coming weekend's military parade weeks ago. This isn't desperation. Trump is in his happy place.