BREAKING: What’s Happening in L.A. Is Serious — But It’s Not The Insurrection Act

Title 10 is in play, not martial law. Here’s why the difference is important.

Dear friends

I don't normally write on a Sunday, but I'm doing so today because of the headlines. Because I know that your news feed feels tense, fast-moving, maybe even a little surreal.

So let’s begin with what matters most: Trump has not triggered the Insurrection Act. What’s happening in Los Angeles is serious — but it is not martial law.

And we should not escalate our response in language, or in action, beyond what’s actually unfolding.

What’s happened is this: Trump has deployed part of California’s National Guard under Title 10 — a legal authority that puts those troops under federal command, rather than the governor’s. It’s unusual, and it’s serious, but it’s also deliberate. Because this is exactly how he tends to operate: by pushing the law to its outer limits and watching who pushes back.

Trump hasn't chosen to do shut down the L.A. protests under the Insurrection Act, because — as I outlined in previous posts — he doesn’t need to. He can get what he wants without triggering the legal, political, or public consequences that would come with that move.

And if you’ve read those posts, what's happening in L.A. shouldn't feel surprising — especially as it's in the Border Zone. What’s unfolding is part of the playbook for silencing protest I walked you through last month. It’s Stage 3 of 6: "Expand enforcement and police powers", and we are watching it play out in real time.

So let’s not mistake this moment for something it isn’t. It’s serious — but it fits the pattern, if you’ve been watching closely.

So, as of the time of writing, this is not the tipping point. It is another step in a process that’s already underway — one I've written numerous posts to help readers prepare for (all of which are currently free to read). And if you’re not feeling prepared, that’s all right too. You’re here now. You’re paying attention. And that’s what matters.

There’s a lot of noise out there. What I want to offer here is something quieter: a clear sense of what’s happening, why it matters, and how to keep your bearings as things continue to unfold.

Feeling fearful under the circumstances makes sense, but it doesn’t have to take the lead. If you can understand what's unfolding, that clarity can help steady you, showing you where you still have room to move. You can meet the moment on your terms, not the ones it’s designed to provoke.

This moment is important because it shows us how Trump’s strategy operates. Not through formal declarations — but through steady, visible assertion of power, calibrated just enough to create fear, but not enough to provoke unified opposition.

He knows exactly where the legal boundaries lie. And rather than crashing through them, he walks along them, expanding federal authority bit by bit, without setting off the alarms that a full invocation of the Insurrection Act might trigger.

In doing so, he gets what he wants: federal troops in the streets, headlines about “riots and looters”, governors publicly side-lined, and protestors framed as threats to national stability. And all done without the political and legal scrutiny that the word Insurrection still carries.

This is repression by design — not declared, but performed.

Trump's government isn’t telling you your rights are gone. It’s staging events that make you behave as though they are. It’s creating just enough fear, just enough confusion, just enough visible force to alter your behaviour — without ever having to formally suspend the law.

That’s the performance.

Troops in the street, riot gear at a protest, Title 10 orders handed down with no clear need — none of this needs to be framed as authoritarian. It’s all done in the name of public safety, national security, or law and order. But the effect is the same: people start pulling back. Questioning whether it’s safe to speak. Wondering if this is another day the state decides to make an example of someone.

And the real power lies in the fact that no one has to say it out loud, you just begin to feel the effects.

That’s what makes this moment so difficult to name — and so important to recognise. When repression comes dressed as normal procedure, it can be harder to resist. Because it doesn’t look like what we were told to watch for.

But if you know what you’re seeing — if you’ve been watching the pattern, like many of you have — then it becomes easier to stay grounded. Easier to see past the theatre, and to keep choosing your next steps with care.

When we understand what’s really happening here, we stop waiting for a single moment to sound the alarm — as if the end of democracy will come with a headline or a breaking news banner. (Because it won’t — the line won’t be announced. It won’t be televised. It will be crossed quietly, through procedural language, tactical escalation, and deliberate confusion.) And we need to be ready — not to fight in the way that is expected of us, but to move in ways the state hasn't planned for.

So the most important thing we can do now is stay clear-eyed. Stay steady. Refuse to be rushed.

Because when we start bandying about legal phrases like "The Insurrection Act" and "martial law " panic sets in. And panic helps Trump.

Fear drives people to extreme responses. Some of those responses disempower us. Others hand the state exactly what it needs to justify its next move. And when people believe the Insurrection Act has already been invoked — even when it hasn’t — these extreme responses become more likely.

Some people will simply disengage, assuming the fight is already lost. They’ll stop reading, stop organising, stop preparing. Because — why bother, if democracy is already over? Withdrawal creates silence, and silence strengthens the regime.

Others may jump to the opposite conclusion — that if martial law is here, it’s time to act as if we’re already in open conflict. They start calling for escalation. For resistance that skips past strategy and moves straight into defiance, without checking the ground beneath them.

And that’s exactly what Trump's government is positioned to exploit.

Because if people start acting like martial law is in place, it gives the state cover to respond as if it is. It creates the conditions for harsher enforcement, broader crackdowns, and a chilling effect that reaches far beyond those who escalated in the first place.

This is why it’s essential you stay level-headed. That you see clearly. That you keep distinguishing between what’s been threatened and what’s actually been done. Because if we lose that distinction, we start giving up ground that hasn’t actually been taken. We start questioning whether we’re already too late, we withdraw from the conversation, and ultimately, we stop taking action.

And that’s how authoritarianism wins: not just through force, but through the quiet erosion of clarity and confidence.

It’s hard, I know. When fear is everywhere, clarity can feel like denial. Staying calm can feel like not taking it seriously enough. But in truth, it’s the opposite. Calm is what lets us respond instead of react. It’s what lets us make decisions rooted in strategy, not survival reflex.

And that’s what this moment asks of us.

It’s how we hold the line, and make it through what comes next.

Yours in solidarity,

— Lori

© Lori Corbet Mann, 2025

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