He Thinks Everything Belongs to Him Now

The National Guard has distributed itself throughout our nation's capital with one crucial task: Picking up the garbage.

There's too much crime there, we've been told. Well, yes, there always has been. If there's been some crime, there's been too much. As elsewhere. 

We need to go back a few years. Back, as it were, to Term One of Awfulness, when 47 was 45 and connected to DC but not vice versa. He dealt with it and the environs of the White House kind of like a new plaything. I wonder if he wanted to stay away from it more than Mar-A-Lago, if for no other reason than a fuzzy declaration that he didn't need it to be president. At any rate, he didn't change the atmosphere all that much, though something kept telling you that he wanted to.

Before we begin, a reminder: Whatever he does is going to be dreamt up by him alone, the credit for which is always completely all his. Regardless, the effects are his, for himself and himself alone. This, I hope, makes it easier to understand, never mind any connection to decent purpose or ethics or sound thinking.

It's unquestionably true, though, that the above attitude has now pivoted. He hangs around the capitol much more than he used to for anyone of the following reasons: He's simply older and lacks as much energy than he used to have; as the size of his government has gone down, his control of it has gone up; and he wants to leave his mark on everything people can actually see so people remember him, supposedly (but certainly not universally) for good reasons, just ask him. 

Thus, he has seized the Kennedy Center and will alter the selections to honor people altogether; he has demanded that the Rose Garden, once a place of peaceful gatherings, be flattened by concrete; and (although this has not worked to the best of my knowledge) the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to something designed to transfer ownership somehow, like the Gulf of America.

Hence, it becomes (to him) not too big to seize control of the entire federal territory and make it into his possession, replete with designation and faux significance that's genuinely his. This wouldn't necessitate overwhelming it with National Guard units, but something happened as he oozed his way back into town. I can only guess, but I'll bet it was something like this:

Remember when the Rodney Strong demonstrations rocked DC? Not only were the cops called out to stop riots that never really started (yeah, there were a few busted windows, but still not exactly Detroit in '67; now that was a riot), but 45 decided he had to make a public showing of strength by waltzing across Lafayette Park, hard by the White House grounds, stand in front of St. John's Episcopal Church, where many presidents (but not him) attended services, and wave an upside down copy of the Bible at the cameras, reassuring the MAGA faithful that he, and God (just about in that order) were still in control here. And that was that.

Onward beyond two elections, one of which he actually lost and then cajoled his minions to try to overthrow the government's token efforts to rubber stamp the Electoral College. Filled with lyrics of "the boys are back in town," he now needs to hang around longer and thus make the surroundings those of which he's comfortable--thus, for instance, $200M to redo a ballroom that he'll use, maybe, three times in four years, I'm betting. But there came forward something else.

He's just learned it, I'll speculate, because he had four years to point that out last time, and either the knowledge or the realization of it escaped him: The specter of the homeless on DC streets. Someone has recently, and I mean within the last month or so, told him although he's seen little of it, the streets of our sacred capitol are fairly crawling with ragged, destitute people who ought to be somewhere else, anywhere else, just out of his sight.

Some have been raised in DC. Some have not and have traveled probably from the Midwest or Northeast, where the weather's far more disagreeable. There are grates on some of the downtown sidewalks, out of which warm air emerges at times. They can be found sleeping there inside those workout sleeping bags.

They can also be spotted sleeping on benches in the many public parks of the city. One of them,  McPherson Square, is steps from a Metro stop and just a few blocks from Lafayette Park. Down a little way to the east is Franklin Square. Late at night, there are homeless with or without sleeping bags, trying to get a little shuteye. They seem to mean no harm. I never saw one even solicit money or food. But there they are. The homeless shelters are full. They have nowhere else to go.

I have no doubt that this bothers 47 no end, he of the overdone opulence about which he demands. Crime is down in DC by all measurements, but that doesn't stop him in the least. If he knows about disheveled existences messing up what has now become his city, he will deal with it as dealing with a cold with a blowtorch. There will be nothing left of it, no reminders, and certainly no compassion. But a better look.

Characteristically, the National Guard is focusing on the mostly black parts of the Northwest part of the district, the more prestigious and certainly the part with the most money. An MSNBC film shot was made near the corner of 14th and U Streets, NW, the area where the black businesses are best established. His claim of going to extreme measures to stop extreme crime waves will probably be met with partial caring, but overall, delayed neglect that white liberals often exhibit toward blacks--caring, but diminishing as it becomes part of a larger effort that people need to get serious about. What is not mentioned is the blackest part of the city, the part that lies east of the Anaconda River. But he is not threatened by that. He doesn't see it, so it's not there.

Brown-nosing to the max, three state governors--South Carolina, West Virginia, and Ohio--have pledged to send some of their National Guardsmen to the scene of pseudo-chaos. Looks like they'll be visiting DC soon. I mean, why else would they do that? Are they worried about being in danger? Don't they have their own states to protect? Or are they overenrolled?

No matter. 47 is there, so he cares more than he would normally do, which is not at all. He can't possibly be identified with anything bad, not that it matters all that much if he stops it, but if it's attached to him in some way that only he can determine.

Besides, it's his city, his national buildings once belonging to the national government. So he takes over the Kennedy Center because he's otherwise afraid of getting booed if he goes to anything there. It's an open signal for those on the right to attend and pay extravagant fees for doing so. (I went a couple of times while I lived there, and while it wasn't cheap, neither was it exclusively for the excessively opulent.)

He threatens the governors of California, Illinois, and New York with National Guard takeovers of San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City as well. At some point, there will be a showdown. Someone has to take this monster to court and slow him up. But at what point will he stop heeding a negative ruling? Will checks and balances endure? Will federalism slow down his train to nowhere?

That moment is imminent. He thinks everything belongs to him now; consider the opulent, gaudy remake of the Oval Office, unreflective of anything except what he wants, at this very moment. This is the detritus of neglect, apathy and sycophants. Consider, also, next steps.

Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.

Mister Mark