[FoxNews] The Pentagon is developing plans to restructure the National Guard in Washington, D.C., in a move to address problems highlighted by the chaotic response to the Jan. 6 riot and safety breaches during the 2020 protests over the murder of George Floyd, The Associated Press has learned.
The changes under discussion would transfer the District of Columbia's aviation units, which came under sharp criticism during the protests when a helicopter flew dangerously low over a crowd. In exchange, the district would get more military police, which is often the city's most significant need, as it grapples with crowd control and large public events.
Several current and former officials familiar with the talks spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. They said no final decisions have been made.
A key sticking point is who would be in control of the D.C. Guard — a politically divisive question that gets to the heart of what has been an ongoing, turbulent issue. Across the country, governors control their National Guard units and can make decisions on deploying them to local disasters and other needs. But D.C. is not a state, so the president is in charge but gives that authority to the defense secretary, who generally delegates it to the Army secretary.
According to officials, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is weighing two options: maintaining the current system or handing control to U.S. Northern Command, which is in charge of homeland defense.
Senior officials have argued in favor of Northern Command, which would take control out of the hands of political appointees in Washington who may be at odds with the D.C. government, and giving it to nonpartisan military commanders who already oversee homeland defense. Others, however, believe the decision-making should remain at the Pentagon, mirroring the civilian control that governors have on their troops.
The overall goal, officials said, is not to decrease the size of the district's Guard, but reform it and ensure it has the units, equipment and training to do the missions it routinely faces. The proposal to shift the aviation forces is largely an Army decision. It would move the D.C. Air Guard wing and its aircraft to the Maryland Guard, and the Army aviation unit, with its helicopters, to Virginia's Guard.
An Army official added that a review of the D.C. Guard examined its ability to provide rapid response, mission command and coordination with other forces when needed over the past four years. The review, which led to the recommendations, involved the District Guard and Army leaders.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's office did not respond to a request for comment Friday on the proposed changes.
But Bowser and other local officials have long claimed that the mayor's office should have sole authority to deploy the local guard, arguing that the D.C. mayor has the responsibilities of any governor without the extra authorities or tools.
When faced with a potential security event, the mayor of D.C. has to go to the Pentagon — usually the Army secretary — to request National Guard assistance. That was true during the violent protests in the city over the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in 2020, and later as an angry mob stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to overturn the election of Joe Biden as president.
As the Jan. 6 riot was unfolding, city leaders were making frantic calls to Army leaders, asking them to send Guard troops to the Capitol where police and security were being overrun. City leaders complained heatedly about delays in the response as the Pentagon considered Bowser's National Guard request. City police ended up reinforcing the Capitol Police.
Army leaders, in response, said the district was demanding help but not providing the details and information necessary to determine what forces were needed and how they would be used.
Army officials were concerned about taking the Guard troops who were arrayed around the city doing traffic duty and sending them into a riot, because they were not prepared and didn't have appropriate gear. And they criticized the city for repeatedly insisting it would not need security help when asked by federal authorities in the days leading up to Jan. 6.
The swirling confusion spurred congressional hearings and accusations that political considerations influenced the Trump administration's response to the unrest in the Democratic-majority city. Defense officials rejected those charges, and blamed the city.
Within the Pentagon, however, there are broader concerns that D.C. is too quick to seek National Guard troops to augment law enforcement shortfalls in the city that should be handled by police. In recent days, a city council member suggested the D.C. Guard might be needed to help battle spiking local crime.
The restructuring is an effort to smooth out the process and avoid communications problems if another crisis erupts.
An Army investigation in April 2021 sharply criticized the D.C. Guard, saying troops lacked clear guidance and didn't fully understand how to use helicopters appropriately during the civil unrest in June 2020.
The probe was triggered by widespread objections, including from Congress, after one of the D.C. Guard helicopters hovered low enough over protesters near the Capitol One Arena to create a deafening noise and spray protesters with rotor wash. There were also concerns that the Guard used a medivac helicopter — with medical markings — to make such a "show of force" against the crowds gathered to protest Floyd's death.
[Gateway Pundit] On Tuesday, The Gateway Pundit broke a BLOCKBUSTER REPORT on 2020 voter fraud in Michigan.
The investigation had been buried by politicians, government investigators and the press.
On October 8, 2020, only one month before the 2020 general election, Muskegon, MI City Clerk Ann Meisch
...a brave and principled lady, by all accounts...
noticed a black female, whose name was later redacted from the police report, dropping off between 8,000-10,000 completed voter registration applications at the city clerk’s office. Clerk Meisch immediately noticed that the stacks of registrations included the same handwriting, non-existent addresses, and incorrect phone numbers.
The Muskegon Police Department was contacted and asked to investigate. On 10/21/20 First Lieutenant Mike Anderson was contacted by Tom Fabus, Chief of Investigations for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s Office. According to the MI State Police report, Fabus asked for Michigan State Police assistance with a joint investigation of alleged voter fraud being conducted by the Muskegon Police Department and the AG.
An investigative task force was formed, and an investigation was initiated.
During their investigation, the state police discovered the women worked for GBI Strategies. This was included in their police report. The group had temporary offices in numerous Michigan locations. The police also identified Gary Bell as the head of the organization.
When the police inspected the GBI Strategies office near Muskegon they found semiautomatic guns, silencers/suppressors, burner phones, a bag of pre-paid cash cards, and incomplete registrations, in an office space that was styled as an eyeglasses store that had gone defunct.
There were never any arrests. And the investigation was turned over to the FBI where it went to die, just like all of the other Democrat voter fraud investigations. Back in November 2020 Bill Barr appointed a notorious DOJ attorney who covered up voter fraud crimes.
#2
There were never any arrests. And the investigation was turned over to the FBI where it went to die, just like all of the other Democrat voter fraud investigations.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/14/2023 6:56 Comments ||
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#4
There were never any arrests. And the investigation was turned over to the FBI where it went to die, just like all of the other Democrat voter fraud investigations.
Wray will have no comment because it's an ongoing investigation.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/14/2023 11:26 Comments ||
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[NYPOST] The capital of the most powerful and prosperous country to ever grace Earth is an unpleasant — even unlivable — place to call home. I recall driving up South Capital Street. The Capitol itself looked just magnificent, a beautiful piece of architecture. My destination was usually on the left, I Street SW, where I was in love with three absolutely lovely girls sharing an apartment in a high rise, splitting the three hundred dollar a month rent. On the right were the crime-ridden slums of Anacostia. The contrast was pretty striking. That was back in 1969.
Over the past decade, Washington, DC, has transformed from a beautiful, bustling and vibrant metropolis into a city that often feels like a rip-off of Batman’s Gotham. I believe the mayor back then might have been Walter Washington.
Between 2013 and 2019, DC recorded between 104 and 166 homicides per year. Back in '69 there were still places you wouldn't go without an armored vehicle. In the three full years since, it’s recorded 198, 223 and 203 murders. This year, it’s on pace to bear witness to 256. The old Washington Star used to have the habit of reporting crime and identifying perps by race, almost all of them black. That was kinda natural since residents of both D.C. and Hershey, Pennsylvania referred to their towns as "Chocolate Town, USA," though for entirely different reasons. D.C. was about 66 percent black.
All this has been accompanied by skyrocketing crime rates across the board. It is forbidden to discuss factors in common among them.
The capital has already far eclipsed the staggering number of carjackings that took place there last year. "Anarchy does not mean chaos," or so they say. It doesn't mean peace, quiet, and security either.
Worse yet, only 80 arrests have been made in connection with 2023’s 606 carjackings so far. Somehow there aren't any DNA samples, fingerprints, eye witnesses or video of any other incidents.
Prospects are so bleak that Trayon White Sr., a Democratic city councilman who originally voted to lower the criminal penalties for a number of serious infractions — including carjacking and armed carjacking — is now calling for the National Guard’s intervention in the carnage. Probably he won't call for repeal of his stupid bit of legislation.
Imagine telling someone in June 2020, amidst the gnashing of teeth that accompanied Sen. Tom Cotton’s call for the National Guard’s use then, that a little over three years later, Democrats would be pining for the same. Calling for someone else to solve the problems they created? I was only in the Army for twenty years. I never had the authority to arrest anyone. I never shot an American citizen that I'm aware of.
“I am tired of burying our children,” White told the press this week. Sadly, they're not tired of killing each other. They live in a subculture where "That boy's crazy" is exclaimed with admiration. Children grow to adulthood with no more accomplishment than being dangerous. I recall overhearing one conversation that started "When that boy walked into that police station with a .38 they really noticed him..." I believe the outcome was that the coppers shot back and blew him away, but they did notice him. Had he walked in with a degree in mechanical engineering who would have heard about it? Have you ever heard someone laugh and say “Dat's boy's accomplished!"
“We are too comfortable with the state of our city. We must take action to gain control and protect our residents.” It's only been 54 years. The years included Marion "The bitch set me up" Barry, who was reelected when he got out of jail.
The violence and liberal backlash to it are hardly contained to the capital. Did that start before or after they defunded the police and painted "Black Lives Matter" on Independence Avenue?
Oakland is on track to double the number of assaults and triple the number of carjackings cases in the city from 2019. Oakland, for the geographically challenged, is the seedy sister city of San "Poopville" Francisco. Besides its dope addicts and homeless, San Francisco has the Mark Hopkins, Chinatown, Cable Cars, and Fisherman's Wharf. Oakland has... dope addicts and homeless.
Its NAACP chapter has minced no words in assigning blame for this sorry state of affairs. “Failed leadership, including the movement to defund the police, our District Attorney’s unwillingness to charge and prosecute people who murder and commit life-threatening serious crimes, and the proliferation of anti-police rhetoric have created a heyday for Oakland criminals,” asserted the progressive group in a letter. Who was it that wanted to defund the police in the first place? My guess would be crooks, but I'm an aged, retired fart, not a criminologist.
“People are moving out of Oakland in droves. They are afraid to venture out of their homes to go to work, shop, or dine.” The usual solution to situations like that is to tax those remaining. This spring, even Al Sharpton — he of “No justice, no peace!” fame — ripped his fellow progressives for their reticence to take the crime epidemic seriously. “Anybody that tells you they’re progressive but don’t care about dealing with violent crimes are not,” declared Sharpton. “You’re labeled progressive, but your action is regressive.” Tawana Brawley agrees.
All this follows Eric Adams’ ascension to Gracie Mansion on the strength of his tough-on-crime image in 2021 and San Francisco’s ejection of progressive prosecutor Chesa Boudin last year. How'd that work out for ya?
To be fair, it turned out that Mayor Adams lied about being tough on crime. Who could have expected that?
As the Golden City’s bleeding-heart liberal mayor London Breed put it in a famous rant in late 2021, it’s time for “the reign of criminals who are destroying our city” to end. Hope abode briefly in every heart but the bad guys'.
Both she and law enforcement, she said, needed to be “less tolerant of all the bullsh-t that has destroyed our city.” So what happens to people who poop on the sidewalk?
Hear, hear. Or are they exempt because that's not bullshit?
Breed’s fellow progressives may be late to notice the rampant lawlessness rendering America’s cities unrecognizable, but their change in heart should nonetheless be celebrated. Yay. Hooray. Whoopdy doo. Does that mean you can't poop on the sidewalk anymore? Can't jack a car? Can't get high sitting on the sidewalk in front of one of the remaining nice places?
The hard truth is that because urban electorates will not so much as give Republican candidates a second look, Democrats will need to lay the groundwork for urban revival in most cases — at least over the short term. I'm trying to get my jaw back up. It dropped when I read that.
City dwellers should be optimistic about progressives’ increasingly firm grip on reality regarding the state of their streets, then — but only cautiously so. They should? They are? How're things in Baltimore? Chicago? Is Minneapolis still run by a student council? Is Philthadelphia rounding up gangsters and putting them into long term storage? Has San Francisco reopened Alcatraz?
As Mayor Adams has shown, there are limits to the power of tough talk. Two words: Alvin Bragg.
Polling last month showed 70% of New Yorkers are still “very” or “somewhat” concerned that they may soon be the name behind another crime statistic. Sounds like all that tough talk is working as expected.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2023 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[21 views]
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#1
All our cities are infested will politicians and other grifters that act as blood sucking ticks. This extends into the suburbs but to a lesser extent because the ticks need an environment of failure that brings the lifeblood of state and national funding. The system will ultimately collapse when the nation defaults and begins to face hard choices. At that point all the ticks will waddle away to the Hampton.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/14/2023 6:55 Comments ||
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#2
Eat the shit off your sidewalk and die.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
08/14/2023 12:06 Comments ||
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#3
I will say this. "Progressives" promoted this mess. "Conservatives" did nothing to stop it.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/14/2023 12:09 Comments ||
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[Daily Mail] Joe Biden refused to comment on the rising death toll in Hawaii following the devastating fires as the president spent two hours on Sunday relaxing on the beach in Delaware.
The 80-year-old was seen reclining on a sun lounger on Rehoboth Beach, near his holiday home in the state. Earlier, he attended mass at St. Edmond's Catholic Church in the resort town.
As Biden left the beach, the White House correspondent for Bloomberg asked for his response to the wildfires that have killed 96 people.
'No comment,' the president replied.
Hawaii's governor and senators - all Democrats - have repeatedly thanked Biden for immediately approving an emergency declaration, which frees up federal rescue funds, and sending FEMA officials.
#2
Actually, it does make sense for him to stay away. All it would do would be to take resources away from firefighting and recovery to guide and guard him.
For once, I am actually defending a Joe Biden decisionl
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/14/2023 10:22 Comments ||
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#3
I agree Rambler. I don't know why people demand the president comes for a state disaster. That isn't their fucking job. The FEMA appointee, that IS there job. I wouldn't go and tie up resources just so I could get my PR photo of me staring out a helicopter window at the mess below.
#6
Maybe Joe has a situation room in Delaware that allows him to keep tabs on developing situations. Perhaps, it has Legos. I notice that he doesn’t play golf at this point in his slope down into oblivion. Maybe he drilled Humpty Dumpty too hard or the or damaged the windmill on his last round and got asked not to return.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/14/2023 12:24 Comments ||
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Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/14/2023 16:08 Comments ||
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#10
This is why I declined to move to Hawaii for a promotion. The islands only ever have 4 weeks emergency food rations as it's the most remote place on the planet. Oh, that and "long pig". I pray for those locals and curse those who caged them thus.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
08/14/2023 18:43 Comments ||
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#11
Poor Joe, red-faced object of hate,
Looks surprisingly orange of late,
Like old Branagh enthroned
On the bridge, but more stoned,
As he scuppers our great ship of state.
Troubles double feature last night. Commas back in stock at local Time Saver!
#13
Nobody normal wants Joe anywhere, least of all in Hawaii right now. But to just blow it off with”no comment” - while sunbaking on the beach- is astoundingly sociopathic.
I wonder if he even knows. What’s the point, it would just confuse him, somebody says “Hawaii” and he jokes about girls in grass skirts. Just whisper “no comment” in his ear if a microphone approaches.
A bit more on this story — where to find the infamous letter. And besides, that photo is just precious.
[NYPOST] Former President Barack Obama If you like your coverage you can keep it... wrote of his own "androgynous" mind and "mak[ing] love to men daily, but in the imagination," according to the redacted portion of a now-notorious 1982 letter, obtained by The Post.
The more than 40-year-old letter to an ex-girlfriend recently resurfaced after Obama biographer David Garrow gave a long and winding interview on the one-time commander-in-chief.
"In regard to homosexuality, I must say that I believe this is an attempt to remove oneself from the present, a refusal perhaps to perpetuate the endless farce of earthly life. You see, I make love to men daily, but in the imagination," Obama, then 21, wrote to Alex McNear in November 1982.
"My mind is androgynous to a great extent and I hope to make it more so until I can think in terms of people, not women as opposed to men. But, in returning to the body, I see that I have been made a man, and physically in life, I choose to accept that contingency," he added.
The profundity of that statement is truly profound.
McNear, who dated Obama during his year at Occidental College in Los Angeles, later redacted the salacious paragraphs, which the Pulitzer- Prize-winning historian Garrow hunted down and included in his tome, "Rising Star."
The letter is currently owned by Emory University, which doesn’t permit it to be photographed or removed. Instead, Garrow’s friend Harvey Klehr transcribed the paragraphs by hand and sent them to the author.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[NYPOST] The capital of the most powerful and prosperous country to ever grace Earth is an unpleasant — even unlivable — place to call home.
In the three full years since, it’s recorded 198, 223 and 203 murders. This year, it’s on pace to bear witness to 256.
This spring, even 
[Daily Mail] Joe Biden refused to comment on the rising death toll in Hawaii following the devastating fires as the president spent two hours on Sunday relaxing on the beach in Delaware. 
No comment. Nothing on the schedule for Wuhan either. 
[NYPOST] Former President 
