Many of us remember fondly the Daily Press Briefings during Biden’s first two years. Press Secretary Jenn Psaki was always meticulously prepared, with an uncanny ability to anticipate dumbassery from the White House Press Corps. Some of her wry takedowns were so devastating they became known as ‘Psaki Bombs’ due to their ability to blow up b.s., especially coming from Fox’s Peter Doocy. Now in Rachel Maddow’s old time slot it seems she’s still got the touch. Psaki ridiculed the difference between the fainting couch reaction of the GOP to a small (in personnel) military exercise under Obama to cheeleading what Trump is up to deploying troops ‘support’ LE in our streets now.
The GOP really did at times go into conspiracy theory meltdown mode over the Jade Helm training exercise ten years ago. Terms like hysteria and meltdown aren’t an exaggeration. In Psaki’s show last night she included what Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (yes, the same one you currently know and detest) actually did. As in wasting taxpayer dollars to deploy his National Guard to monitor the exercise’s activities in Texas. Raw Story has a short write-up of Psaki’s take-down and I’ll include a clip of her at the end.
Raw Story’s headline says Psaki “torched” the GOP and I suppose she did, but watching it I saw it more (as I said) like her calmly and with a wry wit dropping one of those Psaki Bombs she was famous for when at the podium working for Biden. It was the old ‘Are you guys really that gullible/stupid?’ and/or ‘How stupid/gullible do you think we are?’ type of thing she delivered.
The linked Raw Story article starts off noting how she started the segment – flipping the GOP talk of Obama ‘taking over Texas’ back in their faces. They note she used the term “fanning the flames” referring to RWNJ conspiracy theories. But there was much more:
Psaki opened her show, “The Briefing,” recounting a “wild and crazy” conspiracy theory from 2015 that then-President Barack Obama and Democrats were plotting to declare martial law. The theory came from the U.S. military’s eight-week training exercise called “Jade Helm,” which took place in Texas, New Mexico, California, and other southwestern states.
“But because Barack Obama was president, conspiracy theorists seized on the fact that the military was going to be in Texas doing these exercises as proof that a hostile takeover was planned,” noted Psaki.
She went on to talk about how instead of tamping down the crazy-talk prominent GOP leaders including Sen. Ted Cruz and the aforementioned Gov. Abbott poured gas on the CT fire:
She noted that Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) even ordered the State Guard to monitor the exercise, using tax dollars to send troops to watch.
“That is how ‘hair on fire’ Republicans were just a decade ago about the unfounded, very remote, not-even-real possibility that the president of the United States might be calling the military into American cities,” Psaki railed.
Raw Story then says to fast forward to now and what’s going on in DC. I say let’s make damned sure not to forget what Trump did when he federalized (over California Gov. Newsom’s objection) the California National Guard and deployed them in tiny section of Los Angeles. AND in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act active duty Marines to that spot as well. It was widely believed that was just the beginning and Trump taking over control of the DC National Guard to ‘support” DC police, and now seizing control of the city’s police force proves those concerns were justified.
Worse, not just Trump but other GOPers are anticipating him (cough cough) ‘needing’ to deploy National Guard (and even active duty troops?) to other American cities. Maya Angelou’s quote about believing people comes to mind. Still, Psaki has highlighted something important. Jade Helm wasn’t some big secret. The Obama administration was open about it taking place and why. (So American troops, in particular Special Ops troops) could rehearse blending in/moving through civilian populations. Roughly 1,200 troops were involved in the eight week training which took place in numerous states across the southwest. Mostly it was conducted in small towns or on the outer edges of more populated areas.
Most importantly as I said the Obama administration was open with information about Jade Helm. It’s also worth noting that mostly the troops involved were dressed as civilians, not geared up in tactical gear and ‘loaded for bear.’ Nor were they granted any LE powers or worked in concert with state/local LE on crime suppression. In case you didn’t know, Special Operations personnel are often fluent in other languages and picked for missions for their ability to infiltrate and blend in to civilian populations in other countries to gather intel. Jade Helm was simply an exercise to give them some practice on home soil.
Yet fainting couch sales to conservatives went through the roof. Now? They sound like we used to say in the grunts (I was once upon a time a Marine infantryman) when watching the enemy get put in the hurt locker by our side “Get Some!” They are all FOR their turd-god Emperor Trump doing exactly what they sooooooo feared, and worse loudly claimed Obama ‘intended to do.’ It’s good to see someone willing to so pointedly call out their hypocrisy. Let’s hope Jenn Psaki is hitting her stride an this type of “Psalki Bomb” becomes as regular on her show as it was from the podium in the White House press briefing room:
Keep it up Ms. Psaki.
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For fascism to take effect we need Wilhoit’s Law to apply.
“There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
And for Wilhoit’s Law to take effect, the hypocrisy must become strong enough.
So it seems to apply now, ‘rules’ for one side differ from ‘rules’ for another.