Why Ice Won’t Be at Polling Stations During the Midterms
Some laws are unclear. This one isn't.
Whoever, being an officer of the Army or Navy, or other person in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, orders, brings, keeps, or has under his authority or control any troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both; and be disqualified from holding any office of honor, profit, or trust under the United States.
This section shall not prevent any officer or member of the armed forces of the United States from exercising the right of suffrage in any election district to which he may belong, if otherwise qualified according to the laws of the State in which he offers to vote.
Welcome to 18 U.S. Code § 592 - Troops at polls.1
On Thursday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the grifter in chief’s personal attorney who currently represents him in the Department Formerly Known as Justice, loosened his belt in front of fellow child predator protectors at the Conservative Political Action Conference and wistfully asked, presumably whilst unzipping his pants, “Why is there an objection to sending ICE to polling stations?”
The answer, of course, appears at the top of this page.
He knows it. We all know it. He’s bluffing, but many Americans who will be inclined to vote against Trump will not know it, and that’s the point.
The Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, for those of you blissfully not aware, has been one of the most mendacious yearly gatherings known to humanity for years.2
By the time Blanche was done speaking, he was probably presenting the full monty to his captive but eagerly receptive audience. After all, this is a group of Americans who are activists in the name of protecting a billion dollar child trafficking empire. Imagine that for a moment. Imagine being an activist for such a thing.
Imagine knowing that is the main agenda of the confab you’re attending as you walk into the hotel and begin your “business trip.”
“Dad, can you tell me more about the business trip you’re missing my soccer game for?”
“Well, sweet cakes, I am on the front lines in the battle for the rights of Americans to have sex with your friends. It’s an important strategy session.”
“Does mom know?”
“Of course, honey bunch. She’s a Republican Trad Wife.”
Yes, I digress, but it’s important that we always talk about those who continue to enable the predator in chief from the perspective that matters most, out of many awful ones. We can’t allow anything they do to help them escape this scrutiny.
I sometimes wonder if their initial blitzkrieg, when Musk arrived at the Oval Office with a chainsaw and a weird kid on top of his shoulders who dropped F bombs and said the orange sack of slime isn’t the real president, wasn’t part of a plan to deflect from the Epstein files from the beginning.
They hit us from all sides. Every day. Usually several times a day. They still do, of course, but the initial onslaught was truly shock and awful.
Much of what they do revolves around bullying and intimidation.
And that’s what this is. Blanche knows all about 18 U.S. Code § 592. He’s been involved in more federal lawsuits than Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has bar fights (a lot, methinks).
Unlike many U.S. statutes, this one doesn’t lack clarity. It requires no interpretation or reading between the lines. It says, quite clearly, that no armed federal personnel are allowed at polling places. Not even the John Roberts Supreme Court can look at the sentence fragment that states, “unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States” and conclude that such a condition exists.
So if you’re part of the resistance, part of the great hope of America trying to end this regime, please, for the sake of protecting your kids, for the sake of everything you care about, do not spread the bullying propaganda Blanche wants you to repeat.
Do the opposite instead. Help your neighbor register if they’re disabled, infirm, or otherwise facing difficulty having their voice heard. Do whatever you can to help get out the vote. Even if you think Democrats are crooks or corporate panderers, too. We’ll deal with that later.
Be loud tomorrow at your local No Kings demonstration.
Maybe even draw up a sign that loudly states that you will vote.
I’m not sure we can wait until the midterms to end this regime, but I know, also, that time flies. Before we know it, the midterms will be upon us.
Be ready. Don’t let these nutwings push you around. Believe it or not, there’s a small chance to pull off a 2/3 majority in the House of Representatives.
The only requirement to make that happen is getting enough people to VOTE.
And that’s what they’re afraid of.
Thanks for reading!
Notes
h/t and special thanks to Cinda Williams Chima on Jay Kuo’s Subtack comment area for pointing me to this statute.
If you check out the top photo, you’ll see “TRUMP” emblazoned on the ICE goon’s uniform. This is in recognition of the simple fact that if the Grifter in Chief can add his pubey signature to American currency, he should add his name to ICE uniforms too. It only makes sense.
Footnotes
The statute can be found here:
Hartmann, Ray. “These Are the 12 Worst Moments in CPAC’s Decades of Depravity.” Raw Story, March 2023. https://www.rawstory.com/cpac-2659484734/.
That was my question too, really. Given Trumplethinskin's flagrant disregard for the law, at least where it's not in his favour, who will stop them? ICE have shown no scruples about shooting innocent civilians, Trumplethinskin is a moron and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he incites civil war. I hope I'm being needlessly pessimistic, but I was much too optimistic in 2016 (present company excepted, my precise words were, “I don't think they're that stupid”, referring to the electorate). I was more forlornly hopeful than anything else in 2024, but I'd learned my lesson (again, present company excepted, at that time my precise words were “They've proved they are that stupid and, this time, I'm not going to say ‘I don't think they're stupid enough to do it again’! People like that hate admitting they were wrong, so they'll cut off their noses to spite their faces.”).
Having said all that, I have been heartened and encouraged by what I've seen, particularly in Minnesota. The solidarity of their communities, the way they've come together to support their neighbours, have remained disciplined under the most extreme provocation; that quite a few MAGAs are turning against him (even if, in most cases, it's an economically motivated decision), MTG's epiphany (and she was so awful, so vile, appallingly atrocious; the fact that I'm finding myself agreeing with her is causing me to question my sanity! On the other hand, I've long maintained that Trumplethinskin thrives on division and argued for forgiveness and finding common ground with anyone who regrets voting for him. I just never thought that would include MAGAs! My reasoning: that the Republicans' defeat must be so decisive and convincing that there can't be any doubt about voter fraud—never mind that it's a ‘fake narrative’, to paraphrase one of his favourite utterances: it's never been an issue on a scale large enough to swing an election¹), these are all very encouraging signs. However, Trumplethinskin and Kegbreath have shown they'll go to any lengths and they're so moronically imbecilic, not to mention narcissistically hubristic that I wouldn't put anything past them. That was another lesson I learnt pretty quickly: every time I thought Trumplethinskin had stooped to the limits of depravity, he did something worse. For Trumplethinskin depravity is a bottomless pit, it has no depths (except the as yet unplumbed ones). There is but one ray of hope and, ironically, it's his narcissism: he's still under the delusion that he can con-vince people that he's a great president, the greatest president ever and he does care about his image. Even someone as unbelievably dense as he is must realize that starting a civil war by ordering ICE to shoot on police is a step too far. Even he can't possibly believe he can blame that on Biden. On the other hand, yet another lesson, never underestimate the limits of his cretinous idiocy. Argh! He's actually managed to confuse me! The Trumplethinskin 1.0 adminstration wasn't entirely made up of sycophantic, deplorable incompetents and lunatics, but 2.0 is. And even with an ego the size of a planet and levels of hubris off the scale, he's getting desperate and worried. Let's say that I prefer to remain cautiously optimistic, it's 50/50. Bonne chance.
¹ Much as I'd like to believe certain reports that the election was stolen from Camilla Harris (and I certainly wouldn't put the kind of chicanery purported past the Republicans, much less Trumplethinskin), as suspiciously convenient as some of the figures from Florida are (if true), it's a dangerous road to travel. If it really was true it would give credence to Trumplethinskin's preposterous claims of a stolen election in 2020. It cuts both ways: you can't claim that voter fraud has never been significant enough, but it was this time. Mind you, Trumplethinskin has no evidence, the only explanation his reprobates could give in answer to “How?” is “Because that's exactly what we…er…suspected! Yes, that's it!: it's exactly what we suspected.” Bit of a giveaway, that.
Charlie Thank You for spreading the truth for exposing Blanche for his & the rest of trumps regimes typical LIES & intimidation. Trump et.al. know they are losing and all they have to give you is lies because all trump did was sold out the ppl to make his wealthy boys club richer with our pay taxes - Trump WILL LOSE.