Brian Beutler is unhappy, as well he should be. National Guard troops and federal officers Donald Trump dispatched to pacify Washington, D.C. (let’s be blunt) occupy his city. The District neither needs nor wants pacifying. Trump the Insecure has a need to pacify it. First, to show who’s boss for the cameras. Second, to road test his plans to pacify blue-state cities run by Democrats. He’s hoping to provoke a violent response that will give him cover for declaring martial law. (He’ll spell it “marshal.”)

The District is not a state. There is no illusion of sovereignty. Mayor Muriel Bowser has little leverage for pushing back that won’t backfire against her citizens and make the crackdown worse. Congressional Democrats have no such excuse, Beutler explains. “And yet they have provided little comfort, exhibited little leadership, essentially left us to fend for ourselves.”

I posted the transcript and video of Illinois Gov. JB Pritsker’s defiant speech in Chicago yesterday against Trump’s police-state action. Beutler this morning summarizes key paragraphs, their messages and purpose.

“A speech is just a speech, but Chicagoans who heard their governor will sleep better than Washingtonians, if and when the shock troops arrive. Someone who possesses and is willing to use real power has their backs,” Beutler writes ruefully. Bowser is hamstrung. No one has D.C. residents’ backs. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, for godsakes, “has effectively opened the city to Trump-loyal militants, Beutler adds,” and per Fox News “will no longer slap people with felony charges for possession of rifles or shotguns in the nation’s capital.”

. . .