Why isn't Bowser getting impassioned and denouncing Trump? Why the restraint? What is the long game?
Trump is able to temporarily take control of D.C. police through a vague provision in the D.C. Home Rule Act, which gave D.C. residents the right to elect a mayor and council. By declaring that emergency special conditions exist, the president can require the mayor to “provide” police services to the president for federal purposes. Congress would have to approve an extension beyond 30 days....
But other than rebutting the president’s characterization of the city, Bowser largely referred reporters Monday to the language of the D.C. Home Rule Act, which requires her cooperation.... Her strategy has been marked by a kind of cautious cooperation, welcoming joint efforts to clean up parks and fountains, clearing certain homeless encampments identified by federal officials and avoiding any fiery, combative rhetoric that could invite the president’s ire....
30 days are 30 days, and she has a specific statutory obligation. Strategically, I would guess, it's better to meekly endure the intrusion than to contribute to any energy around repealing home rule.
पोस्ट्स
१०५ टिप्पण्या:
Maybe she honestly wants her city cleaned up.
Why should the one-sidedly partisan residents of DC get to control the conditions by which I can access my nation's capitol city? Repeal home rule.
Why isn't Bowser getting impassioned and denouncing Trump?
I’d like to believe she’s grateful for the help but it’s probably because she’s as crooked as a dog’s hind leg and knows they know it…
There was a picture of her yesterday, standing behind Trump at the press conference announcing this. Trump was at the mic in the foreground with his usual sh*t-talking expression going, meanwhile she was in sharp focus in the background, giving him the Stink Eye, big time.
Too bad the law does not say 90 days. There is no way with the filibuster that the action will be extended. If Trump can act fast and slow car theft, then let the city descend into a pit after he his done at no fault of his, but of congress and the DC government, we might see DC citizens push back.
She laying low because she’s crooked and doesn’t want the Trump attention on her.
Crime in DC is over the top. The corrupt democratic left let that happen.
Media(D) - lie.
A Democratic epiphany. "Nagin" again!
The Dems are on the wrong side of another 80/20 issue. I heard some whining by Pete Buttigieg, CNN and NPR that crime is down in DC. Some here have pointed out that the stats have been gamed.
But the real issue is: What level of DC crime (murder and carjacking) is acceptable to decent people?
Big Balls got the hell beat out of him trying to stop a carjacking. That has to stop.
The second term Trump is operating at such a high level of accomplishment and genius. The Left can bitch about DC for a day while Trump goes to Alaska to get a peace deal with Vlad.
So the Dems and Fake News are left to assert - without evidence - that Trump was somehow a participant in Epstein's child sex crimes. More failure by the Dems.
The Dems are getting crushed and they don't even realize it.
Another giant thing that Trump is doing is taking Fannie and Freddie public, merging them and a portion of the new merged company will be the beginning of our new Sovereign Wealth Fund.
Here's another great Trump thing: In the BBB Act there is a provision for a $1,700 tax credit if you make a gift to a scholarship granting organization for private school education. Next year, rather than paying Uncle Sam I'm giving money to Creighton Prep and Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart.
And, of course, every day Trump is pushing back against wind and solar.
It is completely glorious. I never imagined a President could be so effective at accomplishing what the American people voted for and want.
Why isn't Bowser getting impassioned and denouncing Trump? Why the restraint? What is the long game?
This is an intelligence assessment. Trump has been luring the democrats into taking 20% positions this whole term.
Over the next several years more and more democrats are going to realize that they will not win elections until they start taking the same positions as Trump.
They will realize that Trump is a 60s Kennedy democrat and that Trump is winning because he is stealing their platform.
It is actually entertaining to watch as people start to make these connections and understand what Trump is actually doing. For example the anti Iraq wars protestors, the ones who actually understood what they were saying and believed what they were saying are getting everything out of Trump that they wanted.
How long will it be before Ann realizes that the only thing in the way of a complete destruction of feminism and a return to 1950’s cultural family structures is Trump?
The Trump administration, not that long ago, in late April, was bringing attention to what it called a 25% drop in crime in DC just since they took over the government. And they credited that drop of crime to Trump’s administration.
And they said strong law enforcement is making the city safe again. So by their own measure, crime was dropping. And it's a little strange now for them to suddenly come back and say, wait, let's just forget what we said before.
The murder rate is down a bit. The crime stats in DC are unreliable. How much crime goes unreported because the police are understaffed and incompetent? And a police commander was put on leave for allegedly cooking the crime stats.
From X via Instapundit:
Benny Johnson
@bennyjohnson
My security camera will show you what life was like for a family living in DC:
Here’s a mass shooting and murder in my front lawn, followed by my house being set on fire with my wife and infant child inside.
These are regular occurrences for DC residents.
I lived just a few blocks from the US Capitol. There were open drug deals and arms deals constantly outside my house. My family was threatened on a near daily basis. Racist epitaphs were hurled at my wife and infant children. Rocks were thrown at us as we walked down the street. We were constantly targeted for being white in a “black neighborhood.” No one gave a sh*t. Judges and cops saw us as the problem. When DC Defunded their police, the city turned into a deadly war zone. Every resident was terrorized.
DC is a failed state. DC home rule is a mistake. The worst, most entitled racists living off your tax dollars and desecrating our nations Capital. Turning the ‘Seat of Western Civilization’ into a deadly welfare narco-state. Entire neighborhoods need to be cleared out and bulldozed.
This can’t happen soon enough. Every American must support Trump federalizing the city and martial law as a point of American Pride. Restore the Seat of Western Civilization.
This tweet is accompanied by video clips of a young black man being murdered and falling into the writer’s shrubbery, and a second clip with his door being broken open and smoke billowing out.
Burning out a family with young kids, that’s pretty low.
Morning Blow handled this pretty evenly today. Joe was on (or off?) his meds and talked about stats, but also about perceptions, and how as a congressman in the 90s he had to deal with the Marion Barry third world DC government. Barnicle reminisced about how he lived in Southeast in 1969 and there was more gunfire at night than in Da Nang. He also praised Giuliani and Bratton for broken windows. They even had a former US Capitol Police Chief on to talk about the defund movement.
Bowser has been trying to restore some active policing, but she has to deal with a Council that is mostly still defunders.
The long term solution? DC is becoming a 1/3-each city. The Latino third will be demanding public safety. The white third, even though it’s all lefty, is also getting tired of not only crime, but just quality of life offenses. The black third has a lot of underclass members, because blacks with any sort of money tend to move out of the District. But black DC homeowners want an end to the foolishness, and if the underclass is a third of a third, its vote won’t be worth much. Black D technocrats who promise public safety without stop/frisk and the vicious cycle of warrants and fines can probably win council seats and the mayor’s office.
RR
JSM
Crime and poverty are the chicken and the egg. And the Democrats need poverty, specifically Black poverty, to work their grift. Of course Kaka is outraged.
The loyal hive left do not care about crime -they care about narratives and making sure corrupt democrats stay in power.
If Bowser tried to resist President Trump, I have zero doubt the Home Rule Act would be "suspended." Perhaps it would be restored, but Muriel Bowser wouldn't be mayor when the dust settled.
"Unprecedented actions"?? DC didn't gain home rule until 1973!
"Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser, who is publicly critical of this plan, calling it "unsettling and unprecedented," actually stands to gain here. She doesn't need to make many decisions or deploy the resources available to her; she can still blow all kinds of hot air about how Trump is the enemy if she so chooses; and she gets crime cleaned up in her city."
Liz Wolfe
no one has really tried in half a centuty, as the city descended into chaos, Guiliani did try, look how he was rewarded even Boston did try for a short while, but they have the attention span of 'a ferret on double expresso,
murder rate in DC is 27/100m National is about 5, NYC is around 5.
90-94% of all homicide victims are black (Seth Rich was an exception) Virtually all of the killers are black.
It seems black lives don't matter.
Even if we assumed the rates were honest and murders really are down to 27/100m, is that acceptable?
John Henry
She can use the help and knows it. For 30 days, it's worth it to her. She'll be able to use any success as her own. And if it doesn't help, she'll be able to blame Trump. Why wouldn't she go along with it?
Lots of FBI agents are going to be pounding a foot patrol beat.
I read yesterday (on a blog, so it must be true!) that these agents will be the ones who were involved with the J6 and Russia! Russia! Russia! shenanigans.
Not sure if they were serious or kidding. Would not be a bad idea though.
John Henry
Nothing but upside for Trump. If he cleans the place up, great result. If he is turned away after 30 days, he can say he tried but Congess or the courts wouldn’t allow him to continue and succeed. The same with the Epstein files.
thats about four times the murder rate in lima and bogota,
"D.C. Mayor meets police takeover with reluctant compliance".
Lie back and think of America.
https://x.com/greg_price11/status/1955292615420588495
This and the military intervention in the Los Angeles ice riots have been giant nothing Burger successes for Trump.
I wonder how many more black male voters the Republicans will Garner from this move in DC
Jeff Childers, one of my favorite bloggers on Substack has an interesting theory. He posits that crime is the excuse, not the reason for the federal police takeover.
He thinks next week some very high level arrests will take place. He doesn't say but I am thinking he has Schiff, Swalwell, Hillary, perhaps Obama in mind.
He thinks when this happens, the fracists* will descend on DC and turn it into Minneapolis/Portland/Seattle cubed.
the DC police will be useless against this. Partly because their bosses are collaborators, partly because they will be outgunned. If PDJT tried to call in the troops after the shenanigans start there would be at least a few days before they could get into position. If he called the troops in after, he would be accused of interfering with a (mostly) peaceful demonstration, it would show that he wants to destroy democracy, yadda, yada, yada.
If they are already there, the demos either wont happen or will be contained and controlled.
I like the theory of battle space preparation with the added benefit of cutting crime.
*fracist - fascist/racist
John Henry
But that stink eye!! Dems triumph again~
Today's Coffee & Covid is very good.
Here is a snip.
"“The murder rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogotá, Colombia, Mexico City… Baghdad… Panama City, Brasilia, San José… Bogota… Lima, Peru — all double and triple what they are,” Trump said during the presser.
Hilariously, not even Trump’s most rabid critics dispute whether DC has a crime problem. (WaPo’s Megan McArdle, for instance, began her op-ed by agreeing DC crime was “outrageously high.”) The best they can do is credulously cite Metro Police crime statistics showing dropping crime levels —as if to say we were already fixing it ourselves— but without mentioning that those stats have been credibly accused of being cooked up."
DarkIsland - thanks for introducing us to Coffee & Covid.
It's very good!
Coffee and Covid that Peachy linked and cited is Jeff Childers blog and we are both citing the same essay.
John Henry
Remember - the loyalist mob-Soros democrats have a recent history of allowing criminals to walk free. that alone really helps their fake crime stats.
For Mayor Bondi, it's Authority with no Responsibility. For any elected official, that's Valhalla.
Bowser’s long game? Hoping for a video of excessive force.
The left was supposed to be leading us towards clean, decent, orderly, egalitarian Scandinavia, the Utopia or New Jerusalem. It turns out now that they just wanted to turn our cities into Mogadishu or Kinshasa. One might think that they might notice this, wonder about it, and try to resolve the contradiction. It's surprising but understandable that Bowser may not be fighting Trump tooth and nail right now.
Keep scrolling that link - Jeff Childers goes into detail on Adam Schitt's illegal actions.
Ha Ha ! Meant to say, Mayor Bowser, now that's funny, right there, inadvertently on point both ways, to my mind.
Growing up I remember a phrase people used all the time. "It's not the end of the world".
I like the theory of battle space preparation with the added benefit of cutting crime.
Fun but I’m taking the under and hope I’m gloriously wrong on the trade…
Years ago I used to joke that UN peacekeeping forces would be sent to U.S. urban centers. Never happened.
Granddaughter is a rising 4th year ChemEng student. She is focusing her studies on rare earths and just got back from a 10 week paid research internship at Notre Dame (Hell yes, I'm proud and I'll brag if I want to!)
The PR govt, local Unis and Congress have a program where every semester a bunch of students go to DC to work on committees that are involved in their field of interest. It is not really an internship, more like a temporary job. They put them up in Arlington and pay them.
My son did it in the late 90s and worked for Rep Ros-Letinen on medical policy.
Grandaughter goes off the end of the month. She will work on rare earths but does not know who for yet.
Wife was watching the news last night and now is scared shitless about A going into that crime ridden shitpit. I told her that it has been a crime ridden shitpit for 200 years, she just was not hearing about it.
I also told her that this time of Maximum Effort is going to be the safest DC has ever been.
Son survived summers in Baltimore, Chicago and Rochester MN as well as semesters in DC and downtown philly. A can survive DC for 3-1/2 months. I'll still worry, though.
If she specializes in rare earths, she may wind up going to places like Congo, New Guinea, Afghanistan and so on. DC at its worst will probably seem like a good way to get her feet wet.
John Henry
well we know how well un peacekeepers behave in other countries, haiti and bosnia for example
I wonder how many more black male voters the Republicans will Garner from this move in DC
Would it ever occur to people like you he's not doing this for votes, but because it's actually the right thing to do?
https://twitchy.com/samj/2025/08/12/reporter-claims-since-hes-never-been-carjacked-in-dc-that-theres-no-violent-crime-there-n2417153 one of the wurst
"vague." There's a little-known codicil in the Faber College constitution which gives the Dean unlimited power to preserve order in time of campus emergency.
Bowser is letting Trump do the heavy lifting that Democrats don’t have guts to do. She’s not going to turn down a free ride. She just has to hope that the rank and file police don’t use this 30 day window to tell Trump where all the skeletons are in the police department’s closet.
Childers' speculation is that high-profile arrests are coming, which may trigger riots; Trump is preparing to head that off.
If true, and the high-profile people [actually person] are/is who he hints at, they are going to need riot police in a lot of other locations besides DC.
Congrats on your granddaughter, JH. You have every right to be proud as hell.
I guess D.C. statehood is off the table for at least 30 days.
I second boatbuilder’s congrats, John Henry. Well-preparing them for the future.
Ewwwww Kinshasha…
—— h/t Sly Stone (RIP)
"...If true, and the high-profile people [actually person] are/is who he hints at, they are going to need riot police in a lot of other locations besides DC. ..."
Well, I wouldn't get too far out over my skis, but if these events come to pass, the ensuing riots would be in Blue cities, Blue states, so it sounds like a problem for the professionals there to solve. It's just going to make the voters madder.
"It's just going to make the voters madder."
Makes them see red.
For those who’ve never lived in a big American city, a mayor’s intentions are constantly, mindlessly frustrated by union intransigence. This mayor is no doubt sick of it and secretly appreciative of something — anything — that will reshuffle the deck.
actually the union has wanted this for years, so try again,
“Racist epitaphs were hurled at my wife and infant children.”
Epitaphs or epithets… the miscreants had murder in their hearts.
Earnest generosity from teh Prole…
Why isn't Bowser getting impassioned and denouncing Trump? Why the restraint? What is the long game?
She's a wee bit smarter than the others? CNN latched on to the "crime's the lowest it's been in 30 years, this is authoritarianism" mantra last week and beat it into the ground over the weekend. This morning they're all "crime's down, but it can't hurt to make DC safer!" Not a good look for CNN. She's avoided all that by keeping quiet.
Kurt Schlichter
@KurtSchlichter
I’m sitting here stunned – and I’m the most cynical guy in the universe – that the Democrats have decided to dig in on the position that it is bad for Trump to stop crime in Washington DC because stopping crime is fascism and Washington DC doesn’t have a crime problem anyway.
It’s like the Democrats convened a council of renowned idiots to come up with the stupidest possible position, the one that’s going to alienate the most normal people, and then the Democrats dig to defend it.
Trump is able to temporarily take control of D.C. police through a vague provision in the D.C. Home Rule Act …
Nothing vague about that provision. It exists for a reason.
And for those not in the know, DC has the strictest anti-gun laws in the country. You can be arrested and face serious jail time for having an expended shotgun shell in the trunk on your car. Yet DC’s criminals have plenty of guns. Including fully automatic AK-47s.
https://twitchy.com/videos/2025/08/12/morning-joe-hosts-stunned-realize-trump-is-right-on-crime-n2417178
It would be better for Bowser if she gave "the old stink eye" to the feral little felons that infest the streets of Washington D.C. And I am not talking just about the Congress critters--well, them too.,
Per Wapo: "Violent crime is down 26 percent compared with last year and has reached a 30-year low, according to police data"
Always be suspicious when people give you percentages and not raw numbers. And what pray tell is a "violent Crime"? Unclear. And what precisely has "reached a 30 year low"? Unclear.
According to Police data...why not FBI data? Anyway, DC homicides were 274 in 2023 and 187 in 2024. Meanwhile SF with an equal population had 35 homicides in 2024. NYC had 386 despite have 10x the population.
BTW, in 2024 DC had 668 assults with a deadly weapon and 1200 robberies. And 3000 stolen autos. Weirdly only 545 burglary reports. Maybe the crooks dont want to break into people's houses anymore.
yes but are their enough nets for lobbyists,
The city is run by a mix of wealthy white oligarchs on the northwest, political panderers downtown, and the declining black population on the east and south sides. The DC crime story is 100% about the black population and getting their votes. Scandal after scandal after scandal involves black voters. Crime, teachers promoting student fraud, useless patronage Metro jobs and train lines (Green Line), etc.
Following the black migration north circa the Civil War, DC and Baltimore became very very very black urban areas. Given Biden's equity agenda, nothing was going to get done. The northwest remains ultra wealthy and safe, as always (e.g., Georgetown).
The local population sees itself able to get away with anything (see the Adam Schiff news today), per even their car license plates. DC license plates used to read:
"Taxation Without Representation" on the bottom edge.
They now read:
"End Taxation Without Representation" on the bottom edge.
Republicans would happily turn the residential areas back over to Maryland. The portion across the river was given back to Virginia a long time ago and became Arlington.
Darkisland said...
Jeff Childers, one of my favorite bloggers on Substack has an interesting theory. He posits that crime is the excuse, not the reason for the federal police takeover.
Brian Cates- among others and Jeff Childers- has been referring to the constant drip of intel information as battlespace prep. For what's coning- whatever it's going to turn out to be.
Because the vast populace really doesn't pay much attention, and most of the evidence will have to be out there in public before they'll be ready to accept that a President (Obama) and a presidential candidate (Hillary) and the highest level of intelligence and police agencies (many) were actively plotting to overthrow an elected President (Trump). Which is, of course, exactly what happened.
We're living in the first part of the old Chinese curse- "May you live in interesting times..." And some have been subject to the second part- "and come to the attention of important people."
Of course, our rulers, the 700 US District judges haven't weighed in on this. Look for 1 of the 700, to stop Trump because blahblah.
Remember, according to our "elite leftists" who are sooo much smarter/better than the rest of us, it's fascism and dictatorship to try to lower crime rates, and Trump is just about to declare martial law across the entire country.... all to distract from Epstein.
We must resist, comrade, and let the murderers and rapists and arsonists and burglars roam free, with no penalties and no consequences to crime! Wanting to not get raped is a sign of a fascist! So says our leftist betters!
Begley wrote: "Big Balls got the hell beat out of him trying to stop a carjacking. That has to stop."
Big Balls got the hell beat out of him because he's white.
As long as black people control the police, the Mayor's office and the streets of DC this won't stop. The mayor is black. The police chief is black. More than 52% of the cops are black even though blacks make up only 13% of our population.
Crime in America is a largely black problem. 95% of all carjackings in the United States are perpetuated by black people and they are responsible for three times the rate of murders compared and other major crimes versus white people.
Both the mayor of DC and the Chief of Police are black, most of the force is black, as are most of the criminals.
We have a black problem. And that's why it will NEVER be solved. Because if you even talk about this, then you will be falsely accused of racism.
Enigma: "Republicans would happily turn the residential areas back over to Maryland."
Well, maybe not so happily. The white NW would go to Montgomery County and make it even more lefty. The black NE and SE would go to Prince George's County, a middle-class black suburb, and force it to deal with black poverty - possibly even worse than DC currently does. The population added to MD would probably generate one if not two guaranteed-D seats in the House.
RR
JSM
Ocean: "Always be suspicious when people give you percentages and not raw numbers. And what pray tell is a "violent Crime"? Unclear. And what precisely has "reached a 30 year low"? Unclear."
The National Crime Victimization Survey is a much better measure than any LE agency's stats, because, as it says on the box, it's an independent survey of the victims. So the guy whose house was burglarized, again, and never called the police, will tell the NCVS he was burgled.
It is still a DOJ program, and Biden messed with it in 2024, but apparently enough professionals still work there that the 2024 survey used both the old and new questionnaires.
I haven't played with it, but you can find it at https://bjs.ojp.gov/programs/ncvs.
RR
JSM
@john mosby: "Well, maybe not so happily. "
I think a good chunk of the political class would be happy to be rid of the fuzzy muddy mix of politics and local urban micromanagment. They wouldn't feel obligated to hire local "talent" for Capitol Hill or Whitehouse or Smithsonian jobs any more...see the Jan 6 police response...
A turnover would put Maryland in the spotlight, as (relatively upscale) DC issues draw attention away from the worse state of affairs in lower income Baltimore.
Maryland maximally gerrymandered their electorical districts a long time ago, and got shot down the last time they attempted to go further. There's a chance that the wealthy white/Jewish/Chinese population in Montgomery county would pull a bit back from self-destructive Woke leftism too. See Jewish politics following Gaza. See the long history of "Business Democrats" in California before Woke took over too. Marylanders also have a history of electing purple Republicans.
like happy hogan and ehrlich before him who were bookends to the one who inspired a character in the wire,
Ever occur to you guys that if they DC government does NOT at least look like they are complying that it will give Trump an excuse to get rid of the home rule and federalize DC.
Yes fire ever DC official, cops and all, and let congress run it.
Big Mike said...
And for those not in the know, DC has the strictest anti-gun laws in the country. You can be arrested and face serious jail time for having an expended shotgun shell in the trunk on your car.
Unless you are a WaPo columnist. I can't remember his name but he shot someone invading his home and may have received a warning.
John Henry
Carl Rowan. That was a long, long time ago.
Members of Congress represent about 700,000 people. D.C.'s population is about 700,000. It wouldn't be hard to fold most of the district into Maryland. I'd love it if Black D.C. were pushed into Jamie Raskin's district and he were primaried out, but it's not going to happen.
Weren't thousands of National Guard troops brought into DC after the January 6 2021 unpleasantness?
Our Nations Capitol is a mentally Ill crime ridden mess. Democrat media lie - and the democratics in charge do not care.
There are 2 car-jackings every day in Dc. Democrats find this acceptable.
So he needed to send in 800 fully armed National Guard troops to do this? Sounds a bit excessive, especially since violent crime has been decreasing in D.C., at least according to Trump's own DOJ.
Anyone else have an issue with Mayor Bowser? She needs deputy Mayor Screamin’ Scott…
RCOCEAN II said...
According to Police data...why not FBI data? Anyway, DC homicides were 274 in 2023 and 187 in 2024. Meanwhile SF with an equal population had 35 homicides in 2024. NYC had 386 despite have 10x the population.
San Jose Ca. Population 997,000. 28 homicides.
This works great for Bowser. She's off the hook. If Trump succeeds and reduces crime, then she gets fewer complaints. If he doesn't succeed, and crime stays just as bad or gets worse, she gets to blame him. It's win-win for her.
Democrats are willing to tolerate crime as long as getting rid of it would make Trump look good. Same with war and pestilence.
TCrosse: Weren't thousands of National Guard troops brought into DC after the January 6 2021 unpleasantness?
And kept there for weeks? With barbed wire fences around the Capitol?
Yep.
Remember the outcry?
Nope.
Washington DC is slightly over 68 square miles. NYC is 303. DC had 187 murders in 2024, NYC 396. DC's murder "rate/sq mile was 2.75. NYC 1.3. Considering how dense NYC is, that is scary. But it's just kids on ATV having fun in DC
Imagine Jeffrey Dahmer arguing that he should be left alone by saying "I only eat 70% of the people I used to."
Here's my solution. Move the capital building white house etc. to Colorado Springs or witchita. move the various agencies around the country. They don't all have to be in DC.
Then turn the whole mess over to MD. Let them deal with the crackheads and carjackings. they're used to it. they have Baltimore.
tcrosse said...
Weren't thousands of National Guard troops brought into DC after the January 6 2021 unpleasantness?
Wasn't that the day some people did something? Asking for a friend named Ilhan.
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;
Congress is actually required to exercise control over the seat of government, and ceding this power to an elected city government is actually unconstitutional as long as it remains the seat of government. But, of course, no citizen has standing to challenge this.
But having the seat of government in one place made sense back then. No telephones, telegraphs, and no internet then.
Time to think a serious redo. Return the land not occupied by actual facilities to Maryland. Relocate Congress and the Senate to two separate districts, complete with housing for all congresscritters and senators, with only them and military security living in the defined areas. With controlled access. Aides and lobbyists can live in the newly built suburbs that will surround the legislative areas. Ensure ONLY mass transit and security vehicles within the legislative areas.
White House and Supreme Court? Keep them in DC. Or not.
Did the National Guard deployment in Los Angeles amount to much more than a publicity stunt in the end?
I think the long game being played here is to humor Trump’s bombast and retain as much control as one can until he goes on to his next thing.
In other examples: Trump gave the Chinese 90 more days on tariffs. Somehow Zelensky is back in some sort of favor and Putin is out of favor. Harvard almost has a deal that gives Trump a political win of extracting $500 million from Harvard without actually giving the $500 million to Trump.
joe biden brought 25,000 NG troops to DC to protect him from the American people in January 2021. And then kept them there for 3 months. No one in the MSM cared. No DC mayor cared. No Democrat Politcian cared.
But now they care. What absolute Goddamn Fakes.
Gospace: yes, the distributed capital concept could work. We've seen the need for it since the atomic bomb, but the tech wasn't there. 9-11 should have been a wakeup call, but the leadership had too many people used to old ways of doing things. Covid should have driven the nail in the coffin of gather-round-the-fire government. Too many people think there are more ways to fuck off at work when you're working from home (they obviously forgot about Wally and Costanza). And Vivek/Musk just gleefully wanted to use revocation of telework as a way to drive employees away, but how many feds you have is a separate issue from where they work.
Have a completely distributed government, and I mean completely. Don't move the Ag Department to Topeka, just have it staffed by 50,000 farm wives working from the farmhouses on Starlink. Cincinnatus never has to leave the plow.
All the legislative stuff is already on C-SPAN, so the argument to even have a physical Congress is gone. And both the lobbyist and the ordinary guy have the same Internet connection to petition their representatives - no need for a Capitol Grill or Cafe Milano tab.
RR
JSM
@RCOCEANII, @FullMoon, and @Marcus Bressler regarding murder rates by city and urban density.
San Francisco's main crime issue is tolerance for street junkies (i.e., the Tenderloin District is terrible; the old hippie haven of Haight Ashbury turned into a retro theme park and went upscale some time ago). The junkies do steal things, but mostly beg, vegetate on sidewalks, die from overdoses, and get free city handouts.
For California demographics similar to high-crime DC (i.e., black), look at the crime stats of the Oakland to Richmond region across the bay from SF. Do not include the Oakland hills or waterfront, as those are shipping ports or upscale.
For NYC, consider crime borough by borough and by regional race stats, such as Staten Island vs. the Bronx. Manhattan runs 24/7/365, and high density entertainment zones are correlated with theft, drunkness, fights, etc. No shocker, and ilt's not only about race.
Worldwide, dense black populations are correlated with much higher crime rates. This is why it's very hard to see crime numbers and percentages in the same chart or table. Raw crime numbers make black communities look a bit better with a shallow glance than the crimes-per-1,000-resident rates.
Stating that black crime is a core urban issue can get you accused of racism today, but even the NYT covered black male crime (leading to death and prison) and the lack of potential husbands for black women circa 2014. the pre-Woke left was sometimes actually honest and sincerely "progressive."
Why should she care? They're in the middle of a bloodbath of blacks killing blacks. They're in a budget crisis. Now they'll get some federal relief, and she can blame any bad outcomes on Trump.
Crime in DC is concentrated in two relatively small areas. If we limited statistics to just those areas, it would be shocking.
JSM,
You take this idea too far; in-person meeting differ in kind, not just degree, from other kinds of interactions (whether digitally mediated or not.)
Still, there is much to like about eliminating the scenario where the ruling elites all live in the same place and breathe the same air. And once we stipulate that *some* of the ongoing work can be done remotely, well then there's no need to have the in-person stuff all done in the same location either.
Imagine Congress having two 45-day in person sessions per year. There's no reason these can't occur in various places around the country--this spring in Vegas, this fall in Cincinnati, next year Seattle and Houston, then Miami and Denver, etc
Kirk Parker says, "Imagine Congress [meeting] in various places around the country--this spring in Vegas, this fall in Cincinnati [etc.]"
Just keep them out of Memphis. We already have too much crime.
I think all these schemes are utopian.
Kirk Parker: “ in-person meeting differ in kind, not just degree, from other kinds of interactions”
Oh I know. And the kind lends itself to all sorts of mischief. Smiles, shoeshines, and firm handshakes have done far more harm than good. Remote methods will force focus onto the actual issues.
RR
JSM
Why isn't Bowser getting impassioned and denouncing Trump? Why the restraint? What is the long game?
However pro-crime she is, she knows that many of her constituents aren't. So she can sit back for 30 days, blame anything bad that happens on Trump, and take the credit for anything good that happens
Enigma: I picked the entire NYC area, not just one borough, because I did not want to cherry pick my examples. I did not look, but I am certain Staten Island has much less crime per acre than other boroughs. I felt that by including the other boroughs, it would dilute the murders/acre "stat". I really don't think it is an accurate description of crime, but I offered it for what it was worth.
We all know that the term "the bad part of town" means black people live there.
JSM,
> Remote methods will force focus
> onto the actual issues.
I have an email here from a Nigerian prince who strongly disagrees with you on this point.
lonejustice said...
"So he needed to send in 800 fully armed National Guard troops to do this? Sounds a bit excessive, especially since violent crime has been decreasing in D.C., at least according to Trump's own DOJ."
800 fully armed National Guard troops make a law enforcement statement all their own.
But you're in favor of crime.
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