Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Are You the Enemy?
Washington DC has not reopened. Barriers remain in place. Downtown is still ghostly empty. The 25,000 or so troops deployed (twice as many as LBJ ordered in during the 1968 riots that burned entire blocks over three-four days) faced no hordes, no demonstrations, no threat but are still slated to stay the weekend. In hindsight, the bypassed Maginot Line and German defenses at Pas De Calais were for naught but at least there was an actual enemy in those instances.
We need to get used to the idea that from now on, the forces of righteousness will be justified in whatever they need to do to stamp out “systemic” racism and threats to LGBTQXYZ and to the planet itself. The fiasco at the Capitol was merely the tip of the iceberg of evil that Team Biden must defeat.
Now that their Führer has been deposed, there is no telling what the seething hordes in the hinterlands might do. Eternal vigilance and suppression of the threat will be the number one mission of our rescuers. Mr. Biden made it clear yesterday that “unity” largely consists of tagging all dissidents with negative labels, especially “racist.” This utterly ridiculous show of force should tell us all we need to know about the mindset of the people now in charge of the federal government.
Some scenes from this morning’s stroll downtown:
Barrier and guard tent on G Street approach to Treasury Building
Same view before the occupation in happier pre-occupation times.
These tents are placed across streets every two or three blocks. A festive wedding reception white instead of camo does not really lighten the mood.
Typical intersection barrier set-up within four blocks of the Biden Bunker in any direction
Check Point Charlie Berlin Allied Zone then.
Checkpoint Charlie Berlin now.
DC Street scene this morning
A street scene in downtown DC in happier, pre-occupation times.
Below is a photo of the American Bar Association HQ (displaying a large Black Lives Matter banner) now behind a police/military cordon. Political correctness obeisance and federal police physical control over the headquarters of the largest and most prestigious organization of the (theoretically) independent American legal profession. There is probably some metaphor/symbolism mileage available here but I will let it speak for itself.
American Bar Association HQ
This is how they won the election–creating fear of Republicans. No surprise that the theatrics kept going through the inauguration and will keep going for the foreseeable future.
The fear-mongering and the establishment of a police state accomplish two things: keep their existing followers in line and keep the Republicans on the defensive.
These are not military operations. They are psychological operations.
So goes the party of peace, love, charity, and good manners.
Spot on.
I can’t think but they aren’t having the opposite effect of that intended, however. When you have to establish a green zone a la Iraq, it speaks volumes.
Given the smooch-fest of the media during the coronation (I’m surprised that there wasn’t a Presidential detail to remove CNN’s lip prints from Biden’s derriere.), we can expect only more of the same.
Seems to me that Republicans/Conservatives need to figure out ways to go on the offensive.
Step 1) Stop apologizing
Step 2) defeat the nomination of the mentally ill tranny for the HHS position.
Step 3) Remove Liz Cheney from her leadership role (let Romney, Sasse and the other girls know same will happen to them).
Maybe I underestimate the ability to mobilize the ARNG, but it seems as if an operation to mobilize 25,000 troops from 50 states (as I read somewhere) must have been planned over a period of time longer than Jan 6-14. Donald Trump was President and CIC from Nov 3 to Jan 20. Would this need his sign-off? I have seen Nancy Pelosi blamed for this mobilization, but can the Speaker really do this?
Could anybody here with more knowledge in this area explain this? @cliffordbrown @bossmongo ?
And history will record that the terrible nationwide rioting, destruction and slaughter that the media had been predicting didn’t occur only because of the very wise and reasonable precautions that were undertaken by our omniscient leaders.
It is impossible to prove otherwise.
Thanks so much for the pics OB. Just amazing.
We attempted a photo pilgrimage on Sunday but ultimately decided the pain of being depressed by an armed camp was not worth the gain. When you’re at the “top” of 14th Street, the city, in its beauty, begins to spread out before you. I’d rather keep that image.
My question also. Stated a little differently: who ordered all this, the barricades and the national guard troops? Who made LTGEN Walker the commander? Trump was nominally in charge of the government, but it doesn’t seem like his doing. Did the bureaucracy just do it and he acquiesced? If so, which bureaucracy? DOD? That would have troubling implications.
I read your post after looking for an estimate of when National Guard troops will leave DC. No schedule has been announced yet.
National Republicans must insist that the show of force ends soon; within a week. Simultaneously, Republican governors should order their troops returned, regardless of national politicians.
Even if the politicized FBI wasn’t just blowing smoke, the Capitol has a large security force which can be assisted by non-military police agencies. Such a massive military presence in DC is a national disgrace.
I’ll be a bit contrarian here. I agree, the barricades, fencing and troops looks horrible but for those living in the Imperial Capital, I’m experiencing some schadenfruede. Glad its making your lives, commutes, lunch hours more difficult.
It’s a taste of how that town makes everyone else’s lives more difficult.
It is an overreaction based on biased and faulty information from those same biased agencies.
Looks like all those employees and staffers day’s near the locus of power and authority will get that much longer navigating the TSA like cordon daily. Really, it’s for your safety. Make sure you wear your masks.
It’s funny that the Trump campaign was so thoroughly trashed for daring to ask questions about the election and for not graciously backing down when the Democrats told them to. In other words, the Republicans were assailed for exaggerating the threat of a determined group of Democrats messing with the election. “Just stop it. Your making things up.” Blah blah blah.
Here we are with the Democrats exaggerating the threat Republicans pose to the new Democratic Party administration, and the press is indulging their conspiracy theories and overwrought reaction to those theories. :-)
Old B, please stop posting these photos of DC. They make me physically ill. We are living in a damned banana republic.
Is the Reichstag still burning?
Great post, thanks. And awesome comments. This is what makes Ricochet Great. I will be linking to it on RushBabe49.com.
Probably.
What kinda of amazes me is how so many of the NeverTrumpers and Democrats have jumped on the “Domestic Terrorist” bandwagon with all it’s Stalinist Thug implications and consequences without nary a whimper of displeasure or objection. It is frankly embarrassing. I know that many of these types don’t even realize all the extreme Stalinist measures being imposed now on conservative but really now this is getting ridiculous.
Even here at Ricochet where are all those people who screamed “Conspiracy Theory”, “Conspiracy Theory” so consistently when one would question the official narrative, but now these same people are so quiet at these Police State tactics? The Democrats and their NeverTrumper Friends may not know it, but they have crossed a political Rubicon which will never be easy to go back from. Their precious reputations have been stained in such an unbelievably ugly way forever by their sad lack of defense for our cherished American Civil Liberties.
Beyond belief.
Inquiring minds want to know–and this is the place for inquiring minds.
Was there any incident of a protest that got out of hand anywhere yesterday?
I’m not a local. But I made a trip to DC a little over a year ago. The picture of the “Biden Bunker”, intersection which I take means the White House, looks familiar from my trip.
Security in around the mall in Washington, including the White House, the major departments (Treasury and Justice) seemed pretty high to me at the time, with lots of jersey and other types of barriers as well as TSA type scanning to get into places like the Smithsonian buildings.
I also saw lots of white “tents” in the mall area, mostly for catered events that probably happen a lot around there.
I can’t get too excited about this. Washington doesn’t hold the glamor it once did.
Seattle and Portland.
In Portland the democrat party HQ was vandalized in a riot.
By Antifa.
Who also rioted at ICE offices (again).
Yeah, I guess that I should have qualified my question with “by the Q people or anyone attributable to the right”?
They’ve now evicted the National Guard troops from the Capitol. But it’s OK. R leadership thinks our institutions are strong.
https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1352411922390515714?s=21
I am not screaming, yelling or cat calling, just because this is so unbelievable! And it is all for show, to make the world believe people in America are all maniacs. It doesn’t matter what happens if anything it will be blamed on the conservatives. Even if we sit at home on our hands. I am so angry, it’s a good thing I’m not there.
It’s a real stretch to compare empty city streets and makeshift barriers as analogous to East German checkpoints. Didn’t we just get done with a president who ran on building a huge barrier?
Against an invasion, yes. Not against his fellow citizens.
Now we juxtapose:
One of Biden’s first acts in office was to sign an executive order halting construction of the border wall. Former Acting CBP commissioner Mark Morgan
There are words for the situation when you have millions of people crossing a border bringing their culture with them and not assimilating to the culture of the nature they are entering: “Colonization” and “invasion.” Colonizations are supported by military force, invasions are overt military operations.
And:
Berthold Brecht wrote the following about events in Soviet occupied East Germany:
The Great Replacement resumes.
The analogy to Checkpoint Charlie arose in my previous post about guys coming to service building HVAC or computer systems inside the 100-block cordon zone. They were not permitted to drive to building loading docks or parking lots without papers proving (a) they were who they say they were and (b) could identify the particular customer and that the service was actually ordered with a printed document of some kind.
Being made to show papers to a cop or soldier with unfettered discretionary authority at an intersection with barriers just to conduct routine business in an American city is pretty damn abnormal and a hell of lof more analogous to old Berlin than what should be the case.
Sorry, you were offended and found it a “stretch.” I find it highly disturbing that you are not more offended by a precedent involving an arbitrary overreaction and use of force to address an imagined threat which overreaction curtails everyday freedoms.