Today's Belle

BRING THE NATIONAL GUARDENERS HOME!

It's Pure Theater

Rough duty - I hope they're all getting hazard pay.

National Guard troops deployed in D.C. add sanitation, landscaping duties

Service members say they’re glad to help the National Park Service. But some question if trash removal and groundskeeping are an appropriate use of the military.

The August air was crisp Tuesday as members of D.C’s National Guard, a key component of President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of the District, scooped, spread and smoothed mounds of mulch around the city’s treasured Tidal Basin cherry trees.

As they raked, specks of dirt and mulch floated upward into early morning sunbeams, an idyllic image starkly at odds with the president’s portrayal of Washington as a violent, lawless dystopia. The assignment was atypical for these troops, who more often are called on to respond to emergencies or deploy overseas, and it left some questioning if landscaping should be a military mission at all.

“I think it’s nice, as a D.C. resident,” said one Guard member. “But there are different things we could be doing.”

More than 2,200 troops, some from as far away as Mississippi and Louisiana, have been deployed in D.C. since Trump’s declaration of a “crime emergency” here. Ostensibly, they were mobilized to support federal law enforcement and local police, but in recent days those orders have expanded to encompass “beautification” tasks such as trash removal and groundskeeping around the National Mall and other federal property. Service members may work on removing graffiti, too.

Typically, custodial work like this falls to the National Park Service, which was already facing staffing shortfalls when the Trump administration this spring directed additional cuts as it gutted the federal workforce. The service used to have 200 people assigned to maintain thousands of acres of trees and gardens in D.C., and now there are 20, a Park Service official told The Post.

“It’s everybody — the masons, the maintenance workers, the groundskeepers, the plumbers. Every shop is short,” said the official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing a fear of reprisal.

So the National Guard is picking up the slack. But that is raising concerns among some troops and critics of the Trump administration’s moves in D.C. who worry that employing them this way will come at a cost.

The Guard’s new duties in D.C. appear at odds with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s laser-focus on preparing the military to fight and win wars. Late last year, as he sought to win the Senate’s support for his nomination, Hegseth, a former National Guard officer and Fox News personality, spoke forcefully about his desire to recenter the Pentagon’s attention on “lethality, lethality, lethality.”

“Everything else is gone,” he told reporters in December. “Everything else that distracts from that shouldn’t be happening.”

Representatives for Hegseth did not address questions about the new beautification assignment, or whether it was in line with the secretary’s lethality push. In a brief statement, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, said the Defense Department “is incredibly proud of our D.C. National Guardsmen and their work to make DC Safe and Beautiful Again.”

Joint Task Force-D.C., which has overseen the Guard’s activities in Washington since Trump declared the crime emergency Aug. 11, said that service members will be working on more than 40 “beautification projects” throughout the city that were identified with input from local and federal agencies. Though the Pentagon has authorized those participating in the deployment to carry weapons, for now troops on cleanup duty will not be armed, an official with the task force said.

A service member discards a plastic soda bottle during a cleanup assignment at the Tidal Basin in Washington on Tuesday. (Tom Brenner/For the Washington Post )
National Guard troops frequently get called in to support communities after major disasters and, on occasion, they do perform sanitation work. For example, during the coronavirus pandemic, Guard troops supported waste collection efforts to help slow the deadly virus’s spread.

It’s also not unusual for troops to be assigned cleanup duties on their bases, said Army veteran Kris Goldsmith. A video posted to Instagram by the D.C. National Guard, which shows troops rounding up trash, “is the most accurate recruiting video I’ve ever seen,” he said.

New 18-year-old soldiers spend a lot of time walking across fields and parking lots, ordered to pick up butts of cigarettes they did not smoke because it builds discipline, Goldsmith said. But for older, career Guard members, such assignments are “not worth taxpayer dollars,” he said.

In the last two decades, the National Guard has fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, braved wildfires and plucked civilians from raging floodwaters. The repeat use of the force both domestically and abroad has raised concerns that it has been deployed too frequently as the easy option when it should be the option of last resort.

“For years this country has not invested in its infrastructure or its social safety net,” but it has invested in the military, said Chris Purdy, an Iraq War veteran who served for eight years in the National Guard. “It becomes very easy for policymakers on both sides to say ‘Oh, the Guard will fix it.’”

As the Trump administration considers expanding these domestic deployments to other major cities, Purdy, who now runs the Chamberlain Network, a pro-democracy veterans organization, said officials should be mindful of the implications for unit readiness.

Pulling Guard members — civilians often with full-time jobs who report for duty once a month and then for two weeks a year — for such missions comes with a trade-off. The time they would have spent focusing on training in their military specialty or participating in battle drills may be spent on groundskeeping or urban foot patrols instead.

Master Sgt. David Bowden has been part of both efforts. When he and other members of the D.C. National Guard were first activated about two weeks ago, Bowden was on a foot patrol along Constitution Avenue when he and other soldiers saw a D.C. police officer be assaulted by a driver she had stopped.

“It looked like a routine traffic stop,” Bowden said. Then the suspect “got out of the vehicle and took her down in front of us,” throwing her to the ground.

Bowden and three other Guard members chased the suspect on foot until they caught him, and one of the members, a military police officer, handcuffed him. The deployment has been quiet since then, he said.

Bowden said he and the other Guard members who participated in Tuesday’s mulching assignment were glad to help with the Tidal Basin cleanup. But still, it’s raising concerns about how to maintain the units’ readiness.

“It’s a question,” Bowden said, that “I and a lot of other higher enlisted are asking.”

Today's Trump Theater

Our tax dollars "at work".

The fact that these guys are touring the monuments and prowling Georgetown is all the proof anybody should need that this is all just more of Trump's theatrical photo op bullshit.

And:

Trump says he will go on patrol in Washington with police, military

WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he would patrol the streets of Washington, D.C. on Thursday night with the police and military, after deploying National Guard troops in the nation's capital last week.

"I'm going to be going out tonight, I think, with the police, and with the military, of course," Trump said in an interview with Newsmax reporter Todd Starnes on his radio show.

Remember this one from 2020?

Today's Belle

It's just another stunt.

If "rampant crime" was the real reason, those governors would've send their Guard to their own cities.

Unserious

If you can keep people running off chasing the chaff, some will see thru it, recognizing it as a total distraction, some will see it as just a silly thing, and some will barely notice it treating it like more confirmation that they need to ignore the whole thing.

Divide and conquer.

It's All WWE Bullshit

The Secretary of Education:

It's A Reality Show

It's easy enough to assume someone's affinities would match up a little bit with a candidate or a celebrity they choose to support or hang out with or whatever.

And sometimes, that's a mistake because we know there are people in the world who have a very flexible relationship with morality and honesty and such, and a mortgage can be a very powerful motivator.

I get it - I don't have to like you in order to do business with you, or to make common cause politically.

So it's always a pretty good idea to look for confirmation - is that asshole actually an asshole? Because sometimes they're just being an asshole to fit a role they're playing. And this is especially true when considering guys like Donald Trump and Hulk Hogan. They don't care if they're the hero or the heel as long as the check don't bounce.

I think Hulk Hogan is the asshole he appears to be.

And remember what Grandma said:

People will know you

by the crowd you run with.

Post Mortem

Rick Wilson looks at that weird-ass "convention speech", and breaks it down.

Because Murder Sells

... as long as you get to frame the story around a particular kind of murderer.

Laken Riley's murder has been a cause célèbre for MAGA for weeks.

Who the fuck gets their murdered daughter's

picture autographed by a politician

(who spelled her name wrong, BTW)

and then poses all smiley and shit

for a photo op?

Why Laken Riley’s murder is a national story and Preston Lord’s is not

Opinion: What it boils down to, ultimately, sadly, politically, is not who the victim was but who is accused of the killing.

You may not want to admit it, but you know why the murder of 16-year-old Arizona high-school student Preston Lord is not a national story, as is the murder in Georgia of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley.

It is not because of who the victim was. No. It is because of who is accused of the killing.

The seven young men arrested in connection with Lord’s death are from the suburbs. They grew up in American neighborhoods, going to American schools in communities that pride themselves with extolling American values.

The man accused of murdering Riley is an undocumented Venezuelan migrant.

That one thing makes all the difference these days. At least to some people.

We are not talking about values, or justice, but about politics

As if the murder of an American is worse because it was committed by someone who is not a citizen.

When, if you think about it, the opposite should be true. It should be worse that someone who grew up here, with all we have to offer and all the opportunities that exist for an American, would take someone’s life.

But we are not talking about actual values, or justice, are we?

We’re talking about politics.

And in that grotesquely crass arena the life of one young murdered American can be made to seem more valuable than the life of another young murdered American.

Is there anything worse than that?

Migrants are less likely to commit crimes than we are

The homicide rate in the United States has fallen nearly 13 percent in the last year, but there still were close to 19,000 killings.

I’d guess that the families of each and every one of those who were lost feel the same anguish as the families of Preston Lord and Laken Riley.

A Georgia congressman invited Riley’s parents to the State of the Union address last week “to honor Laken and all American victims of illegal alien crime.”

Her mourning parents declined the offer.

The terrible way that politics victimizes victims

Like all Republicans, the congressman was simply mimicking Donald Trump, who said last week, “You know, in New York, what’s happening with crime is it’s through the roof, and it’s called ‘migrant.’”

Actual studies done on the subject, both nationally and in big cities, consistently show that is not true. They show that migrants are far less likely to commit crimes or be convicted of acts of violence than native-born Americans.

That does not matter to Trump, however, so it doesn’t matter to the Republicans under his thumb. Which is all of them.

Laken Riley’s death is less a tragedy to MAGA politicians than it is an opportunity. A way to score political points.

Riley, Preston Lord and the thousands of others killed last year, was a victim.

Unlike most of the others, however, she is being victimized again.

Vampire Politics

Typically, the Republican Way is to run everything on vague hints and innuendo.

Trump gave us at least two instances when he told Zelenskyy all he wanted was the announcement of an investigation, and again in 2020 when he told acting AG, “Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen”.

Years before that was the endless "investigations" of Hillary & The E-mails, and Hillary & Benghazi. There was never anything of substance, and Kevin McCarthy came straight out and admitted it was all about driving her approval numbers down.

Now we've got almost exactly the same playbook in action, as dog-ass Republicans try to make us believe Biden is exactly the Crime Family Boss that we all know Trump to be.

Daddy State Awareness

THE BASICS:

• The Daddy State lies as a means of demonstrating power.
• The lies have practically nothing to do with the subject of the lies.
• Lying about everything is a way to condition us - to make us accept the premise that they can do anything they want.

The goal is to dictate reality to us.

THE RULES:

1. Every accusation is a confession.

Raskin rips GOP for not agreeing to open hearing for Hunter Biden

House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) ripped his GOP colleagues for rejecting Hunter Biden’s request for an open hearing on Dec. 13, when the president’s son is set to appear for a closed-door deposition.

In a statement Tuesday, Raskin called the GOP move “an epic humiliation” and “a frank confession that they are simply not interested in the facts and have no confidence in their own case or the ability of their own Members to pursue it,” referring to the Republicans on his committee.

“Let me get this straight,” Raskin said in his statement. “After wailing and moaning for ten months about Hunter Biden and alluding to some vast unproven family conspiracy, after sending Hunter Biden a subpoena to appear and testify, Chairman Comer and the Oversight Republicans now reject his offer to appear before the full Committee and the eyes of the world and to answer any questions that they pose?”

Raskin’s statement comes after Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, responded on Tuesday to a subpoena from the Oversight committee proposing a public hearing on Dec. 13, instead of the committee’s proposal of a closed-door deposition.

In Lowell’s letter, he wrote that he did not trust the committee to provide an accurate account of closed-door proceedings.

“We have seen you use closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort the facts and misinform the public. We therefore propose opening the door,” Lowell wrote in a letter to Comer on Tuesday. “If, as you claim, your efforts are important and involve issues that Americans should know about, then let the light shine on these proceedings.”

Comer rejected the request Tuesday, saying the committee expects Hunter Biden to sit for a deposition on Dec. 13, but that he should have the opportunity to testify in public at a later date.

“Hunter Biden is trying to play by his own rules instead of following the rules required of everyone else. That won’t stand with House Republicans,” Comer said in a statement.

Raskin argued that Republicans were afraid a public hearing would make clear that House Republicans did not have evidence proving President Biden committed any wrongdoing.

House Republicans have brought public impeachment hearings against Biden in attempts to produce evidence and prove allegations that President Biden is involved in his son’s legal troubles. The first public impeachment hearing, however, came up short, with the GOP key witness admitting there was not yet evidence proving the president committed any impeachable offenses.

“After the miserable failure of their impeachment hearing in September, Chairman Comer has now apparently decided to avoid all Committee hearings where the public can actually see for itself the logical, rhetorical and factual contortions they have tied themselves up in. The evidence has shown time and again President Biden has committed no wrongdoing, much less an impeachable offense,” Raskin wrote.

“Chairman Comer’s insistence that Hunter Biden’s interview should happen behind closed doors proves it once again,” he added. “What the Republicans fear most is sunlight and the truth.”

Other high-profile Democrats echoed this sentiment.

“The reason GOP don’t want a public hearing on Hunter Biden is because @OversightDems have hoisted them by their own petards in every public hearing this year. They’re scared of getting humiliated for not having an actual case (again), so they need to hide,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote in a post on X.

Roasting

Everything the Republicans put into the Congressional Record is little more than taxpayer funded campaign content for DumFux News - which makes the activity of the House GOP one big Hatch Act violation.

Mr Romney

I really hate it when my old "conservative" shit comes back on me from somebody I know to be as phony as an acrylic merkin.

But think about what "law makers" you're familiar with.

Whose names do you recognize?

Are they moving legislation that makes things any better?

Or are they just famous for being bomb-throwers and fire-breathers - sideshow freaks whose "talent" is nothing more than attracting attention because they're so goddamned freaky?

Hmmm

It strikes me as interesting.

What I hear Ken Buck saying (at about 7:30) is that Kevin McCarthy is fucking around with this impeachment nonsense in order to placate the MTGs in the Freedom Caucus (and the rabid loons who keep voting for them) instead of facilitating the Old Guard Republicans who really wanna dig in and do their dirt by fucking my kids out of their Medicare and Social Security when it comes time for them bow out and retire.

But ol' Kevin is bound and determined to run the Benghazi play again, hoping he can cast just enough doubt on Biden to move the needle.

Makes me wanna holler.

In Case You're Wondering

... or not wondering, or whatever: No, I don't miss this phony bullshit at all.

Today's Political Sideshow

Dear AG Garland,

This Fauci guy humiliated me on national TV by exposing my propensity for political grandstanding, as well as my inexplicable ignorance of science and the peer review process.

And even though he's about my size and a hundred years older than me, we all know I'm not worth a shit in a fist fight, so I need you guys to beat him up for me, OK?

Sincerely,

Senator (and "Doctor") Rand Paul

PS) We're in the same gym class, and today it's dodge ball, so you have to get him before 5th period. Thanks.

"Conservatives" are a buncha whiny-butt pussies

Today's Political Theater

The "willing suspension of disbelief" is supposed to be confined to books and movies and such.

One of our political parties is trying to impose it on the real world.

GOP: Brett Kavanaugh's record speaks for itself.

Dems: Great - let's take a look at that record.

GOP: No

FADE TO BLACK

The Best God Is No God

Real tired of spending money time or effort on anything having to do with anybody's brand of religion - especially when it's government employees wrangling over who gets to mumble entreaties to non-existent deities on my fucking dime.

The Hill:

House Chaplain Patrick Conroy’s sudden resignation has sparked a furor on Capitol Hill, with sources in both parties saying he was pushed out by Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

Conroy’s own resignation announcement stated that it was done at Ryan’s request.

“As you have requested, I hereby offer my resignation as the 60th Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives,” the April 15 letter to Ryan, obtained by The Hill, states.

Through his office, Conroy, who has served as chaplain since 2011, declined to comment on Thursday. His resignation is effective May 24.
- and -

A second Democratic aide said Conroy’s ouster was “largely driven by a speech on the tax bill that the Speaker didn't like.” But the source also offered a second reason.

“Some of the more conservative evangelical Republicans didn't like that the Father had invited a Muslim person to give the opening prayer,” the source said.
Having an official chaplain of any stripe working for any branch of my government is an offense to the US Constitution. Fire 'em all.

1. Leave your imaginary friends in the cloak room. 
2. Put your asses in those chairs.
3. And get some fuckin' work done.

Like Deja Vu All Over Again

History does not repeat - but it sure as fuck rhymes.

The Daily Beast, Betsy Woodruff:

The FBI has not been permitted to see the memo Rep. Devin Nunes and his staff wrote about alleged abuses by the intelligence community, The Daily Beast has learned.

"The FBI has requested to receive a copy of the memo in order to evaluate the information and take appropriate steps if necessary. To date, the request has been declined,” said Andrew Ames, a spokesperson for the FBI.


-and-

The fact that Republicans refuse to show the memo to FBI, which characterizes the intelligence they shared with Nunes, has Democrats concerned. One aide told The Daily Beast it means Nunes’ efforts are just politics.

“If this is about FBI abuses, why wouldn’t they share it with the Trump-appointed director who wasn't at the bureau when the abuses supposedly occurred?” the aide said. “If this is about cleaning up the FBI like they claim, wouldn't they want Wray as an ally?”
McClatchy's Day In History:

During a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, Senator Joseph McCarthy (Republican-Wisconsin) claims that he has a list with the names of over 200 members of the Department of State that are “known communists.” The speech vaulted McCarthy to national prominence and sparked a nationwide hysteria about subversives in the American government.

Speaking before the Ohio County Women’s Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, Senator McCarthy waved before his audience a piece of paper. According to the only published newspaper account of the speech, McCarthy said that, “I have here in my hand a list of 205 [State Department employees] that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department.” In the next few weeks, the number fluctuated wildly, with McCarthy stating at various times that there were 57, or 81, or 10 communists in the Department of State. In fact, McCarthy never produced any solid evidence that there was even one communist in the State Department.

Despite McCarthy’s inconsistency, his refusal to provide any of the names of the “known communists,” and his inability to produce any coherent or reasonable evidence, his charges struck a chord with the American people. The months leading up to his February speech had been trying ones for America’s Cold War policies. China had fallen to a communist revolution. The Soviets had detonated an atomic device. McCarthy’s wild charges provided a ready explanation for these foreign policy disasters: communist subversives were working within the very bowels of the American government.

Yeah But No

The Hill:

A firestorm over former chief strategist Stephen Bannon is consuming the White House with the new year only days old.

It comes even while the president’s latest controversial tweets are still reverberating and the stubborn cloud of investigations into collusion with Russia remains.

By the end of an extraordinary day of news on Wednesday, Bannon’s enemies within the GOP were glorying in his apparently final demise from the Trump inner circle. His loyalists were complaining that the White House was being too easily spooked and had overreacted.
Never forget that this is a Reality TV Show - a years-long effort at Brand Visibility.

Take a look at the script of any "Unscripted Reality Series" - or listen to the instructions and suggestions of the show's producers - and you're going to find a pattern of deliberate mischief. The players make more money if they start a fight - especially the women, cuz hey - it could get physical, and everybody loves a girl fight, and we might get to see some boobage, and that'll be good for at least a few days of good buzz.

Nobody watches the typical family next door as they take out the trash and bring in the groceries, so nobody's going to buy advertising on a show like that.

I'm thinking Mueller and Schiff and Warner (maybe even Burr) are keeping their eyes on the ball while the rest of us get to spend a day or two indulging ourselves in some good ol' fashioned celebrity voyeurism.

Pro Wrestling meets The Kardashians - it's The Infomercial Presidency.

Unfortunately, it's being used as cover by the Kremlin, and by some very shady characters in and around Capitol Hill.

Yeesh

These last few days have provided a good lens for me to focus in on why I have a solid Love/Hate Relationship with politics.

John McCain escapes from a hospital in Arizona, kinda wobbles his way thru a short address to the Senate, and votes in favor of going forward with debate on a bill that fucks everybody over who isn't pullin' down about $200k a year - I can hate that one pretty bigly. 

But maybe by doing that, whatever version of this piece-of-shit bill McConnell has up his scaly sleeve today finally gets exposed as a piece-of-shit bill - so maybe I don't hate that one so much.

Meanwhile, 45* continues to shit on his AG because he thinks the guy in charge of the DoJ is supposed to be loyal to the POTUS instead of holding him (and everybody else) accountable before the law.  So I love showing 45* up for the Daddy State Swingin' Dick he obviously is.

But that means I'm forced into the position of having to defend a malignant leprechaun like Jeff Sessions, and fuck me, I hate the shit outa that one.