BREAKING: The US military is officially on the streets of Washington DC. ....

[riversedge]

Here goes.

BREAKING: The US military is officially on the streets of Washington DC.

Imagine if Obama did this.

Link to tweet

[Skittles]

1. imagine if Obama had five kids by three different women, two of whom were immigrants

[markodochartaigh]

2. What are they doing?

Just walking around? Trying to get people used to seeing the military on the street? Proving Trump's point that he can tell the military to do whatever he wants, wherever and whenever he wants?

[Blue Owl]

4. It's all projected strutting by an insecure, inadequate, miserable fat fuck

[riversedge]

5. That's about it--Trump telling the world that the military is his to do what he wants them to do!

[wcmagumba]

3. We'll get that one carjacker...dam we good...

[karynnj]

35. The police already had arrested two of them on the scene!

15 year old kids. Between the police and their parents, they should be able to identify at least the one they have a photo of. Not to mention they were unarmed.

Any of the mass murders with assault weapons were at least a thousand times more violent and many happen in places that should be safe.

This is a pretty poor excuse to use the military to take over DC. There would have been FAR MORE reason on January 6, 2021 when he did nothing but watch a violent mob on tv. His reaction was he wanted to join it.

[Jack Valentino]

6. If they're looking for criminals, they should start with the GOP House caucus...

and move up from there!

[orangecrush]

7. They are going to round up homeless

Imagine living on the street, hanging on to life by a thin thread, and the terror these people are going to feel.

[Norbert]

20. And some were once valued members of our military.

And new may be ordered arrested by a draft dodger and rapist/felon.

[orangecrush]

21. Exactly.

[Diraven]

8. What is this even accomplishing?

Walking around in groups around the capitol area and waving to pedestrians as they pass by? This stops all the crime how exactly?

[MorbidButterflyTat]

13. Feeding the stupid felon's bottomless ego.

Disgusting clown.

[thought crime]

17. Trump now has authority over all armed forces in DC. He's grabbing power.

That could come in handy if he were to declare Martial Law, or if protesters got a little too aggressive at some point. It will be interesting to see if Trump tries the same thing in other cities, based on the same flimsy excuse.

[LeftInTX]

9. Are we having fun yet?

[rickyhall]

10. When is the Army gonna start defending the constitution? That is the actual job after all.

[AverageOldGuy]

11. There are NOT 800 National Guardsmen patrolling the DC streets 24/7

The reported number of deployed troops is 800.

Subtract the support personnel -- cooks, mechanics, medics, admin people, etc. Now you are down to 600.

600 troops will not be on duty for 24 hours. Instead, there will be shifts, probably 3 shifts per day of 200 people each but 20-25 of each shift will be at DC police HQ monitoring radio traffic and coordinating with DC police. All this leaves about 175 on the streets at any one time -- and that's a number on the high end.

Meanwhile, here's a report from the front lines in DC. My daughter is an attorney living on Capitol Hill. She reported the following today.

FBI playing at policing. Yes, there are FBI agents clearly identifiable because they cruise around in black SUVs or black sedans, all with federal government license plates. They monitor the DC police radio and when they hear an arrest or police activity in progress, they run to the scene so they can get on camera “assisting” the DC police.

Smoking weed. Marijuana possession and use is legal in DC provided you possess a small amount, do not sell weed, and use it only for personal consumption. In residential neighborhoods – especially the older DC neighborhoods made up of row houses – it is not unusual for people to sit on their front stoop in the evening, visiting with neighbors, and some folks smoking weed. Over the past two days, FBI agents have freaked out when they smelled marijuana and tried to arrest people for sitting on their front stoop smoking weed. The FBI agents were told to fuck off; they were informed about the DC law, and they left with their tails between their legs.

The churches. DC streets are crowded. In DC are several very large, well-attended churches, most of them Black churches although a couple of white churches have the same issue: Parking. So, on Sundays, at church time, parking is permitted on both sides of the streets around these large churches, and when church is out, no one interferes with those leaving church. Except this past Sunday, when at one big Black church, a couple of genius FBI agents blocked off the streets and tried to ticket drivers leaving the church and were eventually sent packing after church members explained the local customs and told – not asked – the FBI agents to get the hell out of the neighborhood.

Brown people. Reports are now circulating that the FBI agents are stopping cars with brown people driving or in the car. They demand ID, ask about immigration status, and generally harass people.

Trump’s stunt – putting FBI agents and National Guard troops on DC streets – is a failure from the start. It’s a big nothingburger. It’s not the streets-on-fire that Trump hoped for.

If you want to see clear evidence of Trump’s failure, watch the press conferences with the DC mayor and police chief. They are not expressing outrage about the FBI and NG personnel. Instead, they are talking about cooperation while, at the same time, going on with normal police operations.

Trump wanted DC officials to freak out, to pound the podium, to foam at the mouth and denounce him -- they did not take the bait. Trump wanted DC residents to take to the streets, throwing Molotov cocktails, burning buildings. NOTHING has happened or will happen because everyone in DC from the mayor and police chief down recognizes Trump’s move to be a stunt, a shadow-puppet theater, a big nothing . . . all staged by Trump in hopes of prompting riots.

Furthermore, we all know Trump pulled this stunt in an attempt to draw public attention away from (1) the declining economy, (2) his coming failure in negotiating with Putin about Obama, and (3) the Epstein affair, which will not go away and which just may eventually sink Trump.

This deployment to DC is nothing but a stupid Trump stunt that he has dreamed of since his first term. The reaction by the DC leadership and residents is not what Trump expected and he doesn’t know what to do. But his halfwit, drooling MAGAt supporters just love it.

[synni]

12. Cowards playing dress-up

If I employed a National Guardsman or Guardswoman, I'd find some petty excuse to fire him/her.

[1WorldHope]

14. It's late, and I'm drunk, but, that doesn't seem fair to the national guard personnel.

They are unlucky pawns in the fat man's fantasy of himself.

[Justice matters.]

15. Yes, but it is their DUTY to object.

Can they not see they're being used by a convicted FELON to help him cover up a pedophile ring crimes?

[Cloudhopper]

34. Instead of following their oaths to the Constitution and protecting us from

the domestic enemy, they're taking orders from him and shredding the Constitution. Should we still thank them for their service?

[1WorldHope]

39. I agree with you both, Justice Matters and cloud hopper.

This is about the time all American service members have to think about how to keep their oath to the constitution. This isn't what they signed up for. I have also been wondering how that tide turns for them. Will they protect us from him? If we actually have a civil war, where do we get our army from? Surely many will refuse to fight for him. Many will probably choose to fight for him. I want to assume the best and instead of assuming they like what they have been told to do, they have been caught off guard, and are in the process themselves of trying to figure out what to do. Let's put daisies in their rifles and send them kisses and beg them to come back to the light. Let's help remind them they are being used, with love, if we can. Many are just kids themselves.

[Red Mountain]

24. They don't have a choice

when activated, they go.

As an employer, you would have a choice. And that is to violate the law or not.

I'm all for prosecuting employers who retaliate against guard members for doing their sworn duty.

[MineralMan]

32. Bullshit! They go where they are ordered to go.

Clearly, you have never been in the military. Too bad...

[Initech]

16. And to think Nixon was taken down for way less than this.

[GoodRaisin]

18. Looks like they don't know what to do with themselves.

Just go walk around and think about what a moron Krasnov is.

[haele]

33. I'd go sight-seeing as a guardsman. Looking for "DEI"

Before they get rid of it.
But then, I love old architecture and looking for out of the way historical sites.
Maybe check out GeorgeTown? Look for interesting food trucks or stands that might still be open after duty?

Do they tell the Guardsmen where to patrol? Or tell them "just hang out and look efficient?"

[GoodRaisin]

40. Yeah, and check out some good places to eat.

[Oeditpus Rex]

19. Imagine if *any* president did this

apart from W in the weeks following 9.11, or Lincoln during the Civil War.

But, yeah -- imagine if Obama did anything The Felon has done, down to cheating at golf.

[DFW]

22. It has been a while since I have seen that kind of a scene

Tom Paxton wrote a song in the 1960s about how we were sending our troops to “help save Vietnam from the Vietnamese.”

And so now we have started to post troops in D.C.—for what? Help save America from the Americans? I remember my visits to socialist (East) Germany in the 1970s and 1980s. Banners with tired old political slogans on the walls, laws forbidding more than four people sitting together in public**, and groups of army troops marching the goose step of the Third Reich (at least the helmets were different, even if the uniforms were not).

**The East Germans confiscated all newspapers and magazines of all visitors at all border entry points. It was strictly illegal for more than four people to sit together at a restaurant or a café. The ruling SED (Socialist Unity Party) treated ideas sort of how some states treat marijuana. Possession of a small amount for personal use was tolerated, but any amount larger than that was considered dealing for wider consumption, and that was forbidden, and strictly enforced.

[Mossfern]

23. Why camo in an urban area?

It's not a very intimidating look if that's what Trump is looking for -nor is it very practical.
It's all cosplay for him and his ilk.

[Red Mountain]

25. It's what they have

You kinda see the theme her. Cosplay. Not well thought out. knee jerk. For show. No expectation of results.

Waste of money.

[Blue Owl]

26. That'll do wonders for tourism

[bucolic_frolic]

27. Army of occupation

This is not the government we had in 2024.

[Emile]

28. Trump is scared.

[-misanthroptimist]

29. Where is the right?

They should be screaming about Posse Comitatus. That's what they did with Obama on mere speculative conspiracy theories.

IOKIYAR

[RussBLib]

30. Twiddling their thumbs nt

[JustAnotherGen]

31. I wonder

If they can find a copy of the Epstein files?

[Initech]

36. This would literally end the career of any other politician.

Yet Trump gets yet another free pass to do evil shit. Who's protecting him? It's time to find that out.

[republianmushroom]

37. Land of the free.

[Emile]

41. Trump was too afraid to enlist and too afraid of DC.

TACO sob.