Chicken. Little.

I know that the big news yesterday was, understandably, the indictment of New York Attorney General Leticia James.  The reality is, though, that as sickening as the news was with the indictment -- we knew it was coming, as will other indictments, because Trump is a malignant narcissist, painfully insecure, has dementia, and has said very publicly it's the retribution on his enemies that he wants, and so his lapdog AG Bondi will keep finding some low-level insurance lawyers or more parking garage attorneys to handle the cases.  And furthermore, it's near certain that all these cases will lose for lack of evidence, which is why most DOJ prosecutors refused to indict, or will even get thrown out before just going to trial.  And as disgusting as the indictments are, I truly think it will backfire on Trump with the public.  After all, when you keep using a jackhammer to try and pound a toothpick into cement for no apparent reason other than you really want to destroy it, people eventually notice there's something very wrong with you.

Much the same as we've regularly been seeing with the bulk of Trump's most fascist efforts, because the deeply-troubled Trump is his own worst enemy.  Unable to control his worst instincts (which is another way of saying "his instincts"), we see his approval plummet after just eight months in office, even on his signature issues.  We see him go so massively over the top on some of his proclamations that even he realizes he's backed himself into a hole and has to find a way out.  The nickname "TACO Trump" -- Trump always chickens out -- didn't come by accident and has been well-earned.

Much the same as I think the other big story will continue to be a part of harming Trump even more than the damage he's doing to the country.

Which is why it was great to see the federal judge in Chicago put a temporary block on the National Guard from coming into the city.  But almost more notable than the fact alone was what the judge said in her ruling.  And Anderson Cooper on CNN and legal analyst Eli Honig put that ruling in its deeper and more damning perspective.

"Not only did the judge say that that she didn't see a credible evidence of rebellion," Cooper noted, "she also said the Homeland Security Department's perception of events are unreliable, which is incredibly damaging.”

"Yeah, that's a stinging rebuke right there," Honig agreed. "So what this judge did is really dig in over the last several days and gather facts. And the judge said the president's claim that it was necessary to deploy these troops in order to protect federal assets and federal resources was simply untrue, unverified and questionable. And the judge gave as one example -- she said, the largest protest that we've had involved, 200 protesters, and there were 100 local cops. So you have a 2-to-1 ratio there. No one got hurt, no one got injured. So this judge has put a pause on what the president has done now.”

And that's the far deeper problem for Trump and his DHS appendage Kristi Noem.  When you continually overreach in trying to cram your fascist agenda on America, the hell you create not only gets noticed, but your cries of "The sky is falling!! Everything is burning to the ground" suddenly become just white noise (no pun intended..., though the racism is impossible to ignore), and you risk your credibility not just on this issue, but all issues.  At some point, people who aren't your loyal cult followers grasp easily that the country is not aflame, and not only are you a liar, but you're the one lighting the matches.

In fact, in her oral ruling (a written ruling is scheduled to come today), Judge April Perry said that very thing -- 

National Guard troops, she explained, are “not trained in de-escalation or other extremely important law enforcement functions that would help to quell these problems,” and then added importantly, and damningly, stating what is become ever obvious to likely even casual observers, and most especially problematic for Trump, DHS and ICE, that allowing troops to come into Chicago “will only add fuel to the fire that the defendants themselves have started.”  [Emphasis added.]

Indeed, just like I think the Trump-pushed indictments will backfire on him, I think his ICE raids on cities under faux-cries of cities burning and the "The Sky is Falling!!" will backfire.  Or rather, are backfiring.  As seen in Trump's 38% approval overall and only 35% approval (in a Gallup poll yesterday) on his handling of immigration, perhaps his signature issue.

And as seen, too, with wildly popular far-right podcaster Joe Rogan, especially popular with young white men, who is breaking even more that he has in the past with Trump on the ICE actions and deportations --

"That shows no heart, and that's the problem," Rogan said. "You're not going to get any reasonable people to want to go along with that. Any kind person would look at that and go, 'This can't be the only way to do this.'"

And political analyst Tim Miller put that in very important perspective:

"It's helping wake up a lot of people who might not be consuming whatever left media or even mainstream media," Miller said. "A lot of people who aren't reading the New York Times or watching the nightly news and who are getting their information from Rogan... maybe some of them will also be woken up to the fact that holy s--- they signed up for something that was a lot more cruel than they wanted."

That's the problem for Trump, as his malignant narcissism, crushing insecurity, and degenerative dementia kick in and feed on each other.  The more out-of-control bombastic Trump gets, the more cruel and smaller he is seen.

All of which makes the Chicago federal court ruling with the National Guard a significant matter, extremely positive, most especially with the judge noting that not only is the sky not falling,  but stating that it's the Trump-led ICE that is actually starting the fires. 

Sometimes, it turns out, you discover that it's not the sky that's falling, but rather is the roof caving in on you.