“Ordinarily, a person … who is confronted by anonymous men in military-type fatigues and ordered into an unmarked van can reasonably assume that he is being kidnapped and is the victim of a crime.” You may agree or disagree with the protesters in Portland. You can certainly oppose any violence or vandalism. But as Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes explain in The Atlantic: Nothing Can Justify the Attack on Portland. (Not even desperate political moves leading up to an election.)

+ “For decades, conservative activists and leaders have warned that ‘jackbooted thugs’ from the federal government were going to come to take away Americans’ civil rights with no due process and no recourse. Now they’re here—but they’re deployed by a staunchly right-wing president with strong conservative support.” David Graham: America Gets an Interior Ministry.

+ On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century author Timothy Snyder: “This is a classic way that violence happens in authoritarian regimes, whether it’s Franco’s Spain or whether it’s the Russian Empire. The people who are getting used to committing violence on the border are then brought in to commit violence against people in the interior.” Michelle Goldberg in the NYT: Trump’s Occupation of American Cities Has Begun.