Two Words and a World of Trouble -- Jonathan V. Last

[erronis]

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/two-words-and-a-world-of-trouble

Bad troubles.

Bill Kristol sat in for Sarah on the Secret Pod today and it was dark. Just a warning. If you’re not in good head-space to begin with today, maybe skip this episode?

1. Invasion!

Over at Just Security, Mark Nevitt, a military lawyer and professor at Emory Law School, took the time to unpack Trump’s executive orders on the border. To wildly mix metaphors: This EO suggests that Trump has moved from clown-with-flamethrower to velociraptor-that-opens-doors.

A quick summary:

There are two border EOs. The first declares a “national emergency” at the border. The second “[clarifies] the military’s role in protecting the territorial integrity of the United States.”

The second EO directs the SecDef to submit a plan to “[repel] forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities.” [Bold added by me.]

“Invasion” is a legal, not a descriptive, word. Put a pin in this . . .

In a third “statement of America First priorities,” Trump declared that the U.S. military would “assist” law enforcement in “border security.”

As Nevitt explains, the net effect of this language isn’t just about immigration. It’s about a fundamental shift in American norms concerning the domestic use of the military.

...

Read the JVL Bulward post for links and more.

Just Security: https://www.justsecurity.org/106593/national-emergency-southern-border-order/