Will Trump's Arraignment In Miami 'Be Wild'?
Any Proud Boys not already in jail likely to show up.
Former "President" Donald Trump will be arraigned today at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Federal Courthouse in Miami, and while many indicted criminals have their very own gangs or mobs, most of the time, they tend not to show up outside the courthouse. That's more of a concern with Trump, who just loves it when a huge, potentially violent mob assembles to show the world how deeply they love him.
Previously!
Nutter Congressman Clay Higgins Calls For Armed Revolution, Shrimp Po' Boy, Tums
The Right Is Having A Real Normal One Over Trump's Unsealed Indictment
Trump himself has posted multiple messages on his fake Twitter calling for supporters to turn out in Miami, including the all-caps invitation “SEE YOU IN MIAMI ON TUESDAY!!!” and a fun meme saying "THIS IS NOT A GAME, THIS IS WAR." At political rallies over the weekend, Trump was also careful to say that protesters should be peaceful, which Trump supporters understand as code for "I have to say 'peaceful,' but you know that's just cover. Go ahead and be violent, but remember to say on Twitter that I said 'peaceful' so any trouble has to be Antifa's fault."
Trump also posted Monday,
"Getting ready to head down to Doral in Miami. We must all be STRONG and DEFEAT the Communists, Marxists, and Radical Left Lunatics that are systematically destroying our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The message contained no misspellings, so it may have been generated by ChatGPT.
Prominent MAGA supporters have used similar martial rhetoric, with varying degrees of hinting that it's merely a metaphor but completely serious. Congressman Andy Biggs (R-Arizona) tweeted shortly after news of the indictment broke,
We have now reached a war phase.
Eye for an eye.
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana) took the pretend-soldier bullshit even further Friday with a tweet filled with tacticool jargon because there's little difference between statesmanship and playing Call of Duty:
President Trump said he has "been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 PM."
This is a perimeter probe from the oppressors. Hold. rPOTUS has this.
Buckle up. 1/50K know your bridges. Rock steady calm. That is all.
Translation: After you've finished masturbating, get ready to rock and roll (i.e., masturbate again, this time while fantasizing about your AR-15). Before his embarrassing stint as a sheriff, Higgins served in the Louisiana National Guard's military police during peacetime (1979-85) and later managed several car dealerships, so he knows all about tactics. You have to get the undercoating or your car will be nothing but rust, soldier.
Higgins followed that on Saturday with a tweet suggesting that his earlier tweet had been a tacticool feint aimed at confusing the enemy, i.e., other Americans including the press.
Patriots, we’ve manipulated the MSM to establish deep commo, now copy this… do NOT trip the wire they’ve laid for you. Maintain your family. Live your life. Know your bridges.
Hold. Let Trump handle Trump, he’s got this. We use the Constitution as our only weapon. Peace. Hold.
That's a big 10-4, Rubber Ducky. Hold, and if necessary, stroke some too.
Arizona wingnut Kari Lake will take time off from her duties pretending that she won last fall's election for governor, and will appear at a rally in Miami organized by fringe wingnut Laura Loomer outside the courthouse today at 1 p.m. Eastern. Loomer's involvement gives us some hope that protesters will actually show up in Miami, Ohio.
During a speech Friday, Lake said that
If you want to get to President Trump, you’re going to have to go through me and 75 million Americans just like me. And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA. That’s not a threat, that’s a public service announcement.
We should probably mention here that in April, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill allowing concealed carry of firearms without a permit, although open carry is still illegal in Florida, so protesters may have to settle for one of those less-accurate AR-15 "pistols" instead of the full rifle version.
The Miami Herald points out that, as a possible venue for angry Trumpers, that makes Miami considerably different from Washington DC on January 6, 2021 (although armed protesters showed up all the same), and from New York, where Trump was indicted in April on state charges, but Trump didn't get the massive angry mob he'd hoped for.
It may help, too, that Trump isn't even likely to be seen by whatever crowd gathers, because he'll arrive at a secure entrance to the courthouse building, as CBS News reports:
Miami defense attorney Michelle Suskauer, a veteran in the field, believes the crowd is unlikely to catch even a glimpse of Trump when he arrives.
"There are underground tunnels, so we're not going to see that movement. We're not going to see a perp walk. We're not going to see him being booked," Suskauer said.
So will there be a huge mob in Florida today? Nobody really knows. Miami Police say they're prepared for crowd sizes ranging from 5,000 to 50,000, and will scale up response as needed based on who shows up. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a Republican, said Monday that the city was ready for protests. While he refused to take any questions he considered "political," he has previously "echoed Trump’s claims that the indictment is part of a politically motivated campaign to attack the former president," the Miami Herald reports.
The Herald also notes that at least one of the protests planned for today is being promoted by the violent extremist group the Proud Boys, although several of the group's leaders won't be on hand after being convicted of seditious conspiracy in the January 6 insurrection.
While there has been a lot of online chatter about how Trump is being framed and it's time to take America back, NPR reports that extremism researchers aren't seeing the kind of planning that preceded the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
"One of the most striking things that stuck out about January 6 that we're not seeing now are logistical and tactical maps of buildings, facilities, areas, exit routes," said Benjamin Decker, CEO of Memetica, a threat intelligence group.
Decker said violent rhetoric on fringe platforms such as far-right Telegram channels, 4chan, Gab, Truth Social, Gettr and Patriots.win has spiked since Trump's indictment last week. He said it has been particularly concerning to see some of this language targeting Attorney General Merrick Garland and special counsel Jack Smith. But he said the appetite to participate in a mass, in-person event is muted.
"There is a lot of paranoia among Trump supporters about getting arrested," he said. "And the cost of arrest and potential jail time, that's still going to deter people ... who may be on the fence about being there to exercise their First Amendment rights or being there to participate in mob violence."
Why, it's almost as if prosecuting the thousand or so idiots who tried to overthrow the government two years ago helped send a message to would-be goons, many of whom now worry that protest organizers are actually working with the government to entrap decent patriots. Finally, a positive use of their rampant paranoia.
Now we just have to hope there aren't any rumors that Trump's arraignment will be accompanied by a drag show.
Update: The area near the courthouse was briefly cleared after a bomb threat was called in;RawStory reports it appears to have involved a "television screen strapped to a post" and that a message on the screen said "Fuck The Communist Controlled News Media." This is purportedy a video of the deactivation of the device.
“Update: bomb squad responding to sidewalk in front of the federal courthouse in #Miami @wsvn”
— Nicole Linsalata (@Nicole Linsalata) 1686667783
This does raise the question, what are we do do with history that plays out as farce the first time around?
[ Independent / Daily Beast / Miami Herald / CBS News / Image: Stable Diffusion AI , Photoshoop]
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AFAIK it turned out to be a couple of hundred mopes waving Trump flags around in the hot sun.