Prevent Defense Has Not Served the Democrats

Gavin Newsom and others bring in a new playbook to bring some offense

This came in from The NY Times Friday evening reporting on the Felon’s post mortem of meeting with Putin: “Many points were agreed to, and there are just a very few that are left.” But he did not describe those points, or even specify that they had to do with Ukraine. “We’ve made some headway,” he added. “So there’s no deal until there’s a deal.” So many words with nothing to say. Mano a Mano with Vlad? And while he’s away, the inmates are definitely running the asylum. So with this going on, what are we gunna do? Ready? And go.

As a sports professional, okay a sports media professional, I cannot help but to analogize things to the sports world. After watching thousands of hours of football, one thing that is seared into my memory concerns how analysts on television love to sound an alarm when a team has been playing great defense or offense, suddenly decides to play a prevent defense, or where an offense changes what they have been successful at and tries a more conservative approach. The expression that comes to mind in this scenario is “playing not to lose” as opposed to the more emphatic “playing to win.” For far too long the Democrats have been playing prevent defense, which we see in the way that they react to what the Felon and his cult do; yes, it sucks, it is terrifying, but what comes next?

I know that we have all heard cries that range from what are the Democrats policy goals, to what would they do to for the economy? What I find most amusing is that the Democrats, my party of choice, failed in the last national election to trumpet the successes of the Biden administration. It begins with taking over an economy that the Felon helped to destroy. (Sure the pandemic had a huge impact, but his actions did nothing to help; and yet he crowed about Operation Warpspeed, even while attacking the medical experts.) And what about the Inflation Recovery Act and its efforts to help green-up America and the job creations built into it? But no, they played prevent defense and simply said, as Kamala explicitly noted, what would happen if he got elected. You cannot win an election talking about what the other guys is going to do; is that a fear tactic? Perhaps. Nevertheless, while that was going on, the Felon lied about the state of the country, promised to do things to make it a better place, and refused to let go of MAGA. As it turns out, everything that the Democrats said would happen and damage our country is happening, and much of what the Felon promised was other than he laid out, for example, the whole ridding us of illegal murderers, rapists etc., when the goal was really MAWA, Make America White Again.

While claiming that his ratings were the highest ever (really 37% approval rating?), he still went ahead and directed his lap dog, Greg Abbott, in violation of the US Constitution to gerrymander Texas electoral maps in an effort to gain 5 seats in Texas in the upcoming 2026 midterms. Many decried this illegal effort, and Texas Legislature Democrats in an effort to prevent the redistricting vote from happening, left the state. With his panties in a bunch, Abbott went crying to Daddy Donny and somehow got the FBI involved, which, of course, raise huge legality issue, but since this Trump administration seems to disdain the law, there was some serious table pounding around arresting the missing legislators. This may only be symbolic in the long run, but it’s a good first step in playing aggressive defense.

Flexing California’s muscle, governor Gavin Newsom responded to Trump’s attempt to strongarm the Texas redistricting to which he feels entitled. In a fire vs. fire moment, Newsom announced that California will hold a special election on November 4 for voters to consider redistricting their state temporarily if Texas redistricts, so that California can neutralize Trump’s rigging of the state of Texas. The beauty of this is, to torture another sports analogy, that Newsom has let the White House know that if Texas or any other state breaks the rules and plays with an additional offensive player, then, hell, yes, California will bring on an extra defensive player, and given that our team, California, is the 4th largest economy in the world, with a population greater than 20+ states, and a state that contributes way more into the federal bank account than takes from the Feds, well, you fucked with the wrong team.

Knowing that Newsom would be speaking at the Japanese American National Museum in the Little Tokyo here in LA, the administration sent in its Border Patrol (guessing since they don’t believe in badges or any identifying features) agents to the site of Newsom’s speech. The Gold Shirts (my version of the Nazi Brown Shirts and the distinction is getting less and less clear) stood nearby and some of whom carried assault rifles. Nevertheless, and pointedly, Newsom emphasized that democracy is under siege by Trump and his MAGA loyalists. Gregory Bovino, USBP Chief Patrol Agent and Commander of Operation At Large in California made it clear the agents were there to intimidate state officials, saying: ““We’re here making Los Angeles a safer place, since we don’t have politicians who can do that. We do that ourselves.” There just aren't enough Pinocchios, (the WaPo standard), for what comes from this administration.

Since irony is lost on the cult of MAGA, I have to point out that here was a California governor making a speech about protecting our states voice and its rights at the Japanese American National Museum. While border agents who have been rounding up undocumented people, denying all due process, one, at least one with a scintilla of an education, cannot help but think about the internment of Japanese during WWII. This administration seeming wants to forget that we made an official apology to those who had been unjustly sent to camps, and the overturning of the Korematsu decision, where Fred Korematsu had challenged the constitutionality of the internment. Quite the place to bring armed abductors; tone deaf, for sure!

In his remarks, Newsom noted that the Felon “doesn't play by a different set of rules.” He emphasized that point when we became declarative: “He doesn't believe in the rules. And as a consequence, we need to disabuse ourselves of the way things have been done…. We have got to meet fire with fire…. So that's what this is about. It's not complicated. We're doing this in reaction to a president of the United States that called a sitting governor of the state of Texas and said, find me five seats…. We can't stand back and watch this democracy disappear, district by district all across this country…. We need to be firm in our resolve. We need to push back.” Sometimes you have to call an all out blitz to let the other team know that your team is not backing down, nor is it afraid of you.

In what the Bible might refer to as a clarion call, he added that we all need to “wake up to what Donald Trump is doing…. Wake up to the assault on institutions and knowledge and history. Wake up to his war on science, public health, his war against the American people. This is a guy who lays claim to want to get a Nobel Prize sitting there and bending his knee to Mr. Putin.” Yes, the truth will set you free. But it takes more than talk, and sometimes as distasteful as it may be, fire must be fought with fire.

We have so much more to address than just this redistricting nonsense. The police state and march toward martial law is real. LA was first, and now look what is happening in DC. Notwithstanding the fact that violent crime is down, the Liar in Chief, has made wild claims about the state of the District. In response to his venting, AG Blondie on Thursday night rescinded Washington policies that restrict the local police from aiding in immigration enforcement as she moved to tighten the administration’s grip on law enforcement in the nation’s capital. Her order also declared that Terry Cole, the head of the DEA, who had already been overseeing the federal takeover of the city’s police department, was now the “emergency police commissioner,” with “all the powers and duties” invested in the city’s police chief, Pamela A. Smith. The DC police department, including Chief Smith, must now receive approval from Mr. Cole before issuing any directives, the attorney general declared.

What does this really mean? It seems an end run (keeping with the sports analogies) to stop DC from being a sanctuary city into one that aggressively pursues undocumented immigrants. This is the DOJ stepping up or actually on the city’s police since the 30-day federal takeover. In a legal opinion, the D.C. attorney general, Brian Schwalb, told Mayor Muriel Bowser that Blondie’s directive removing power from the police chief was “unlawful.” His opinion letter further advised the mayor that she was not legally obligated to follow the order. Schwalb cited the 1973 Home Rule Act, which granted Washington its limited self-government, gave the president the authority “to direct the mayor to provide” the president with police department services to address an emergency. The law does not give the president the authority, the letter said, to “alter the chain of command,” to rescind or suspend orders or to “otherwise determine how the District pursues purely local law enforcement.”

Going on the offensive, The District of Columbia filed an emergency motion on Friday challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to take over the city’s police department, seeking a restraining order barring the DOJ’s control of the police, as well as a ruling the the Home Rule Act was violated, and that the takeover violated the separation of power, and the clause of the constitution requiring President Trump to faithfully execute the law. U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes issued no formal ruling on the emergency motion, but she asked pointed questions of DOJ lawyer, Yaakov Roth, and appeared to take a skeptical view of the president’s broad interpretation of his authority under the 1973 Home Rule Act. “The statute would have no meaning at all if the president can just say, ‘We’re taking over your police department,’” said Judge Reyes, who was nominated to the federal bench by President Biden. Late on Friday Judge Reyes ordered the DOJ and then city leaders to come to a deal quickly over the issue. I guess we need to see if the order tempers the DOJ’s actions.

In yet another example of good offense, Sen. Ruben Gallego on a visit to Iowa, and before his obligatory tour of the Iowa State Fair last week, made a 6 a.m. visit to the JBS Foods meatpacking plant in Marshalltown. Appeal to working class voters? That’s a good start. What is more timely is that the administration told 200 workers at the plant that their visas had been revoked because the president was ending their protected status. How’s the price of beef in your city since the Felon came into power? I know, but maybe all that Brazilian beef…oh, wait, that’s been tariffed to hell and back.

While the Felon makes wild claims, such as posting on his socials that his approval rating is above 90%, the greatest ever (Eisenhower got to 80%, and that was probably the highest ever), how many of those that voted for him based on the simplistic campaign pitch of Biden being the one who makes prices go up while he will bring prices down, still believe in him? His efforts in the economy don’t seem to be working as inflation is growing at rate not seen since 2022, which means the Fed cannot possibly lower interest rates in the foreseeable future. “You’re fired” was a nice reality show tagline, but face it, the Felon and his merry band of fascists are the ones that need to fired, put in jail would be a better end, but we all just need to see them put out to pasture. Don’t worry, they’ll all get jobs on FOX News spewing the same shit but without the bully pulpit.

Get up. Stand up.