'Occupy D.C.' - Tom LoBianco Reports, Ep. 2
So, is it a military occupation? Cosplay? Somewhere in between in the nation's capital? Join me at Noon ET for the next episode of Tom LoBianco Reports.
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Welcome to the second episode of Tom LoBianco Reports, a new show from 24sight News and our friends at
. Every day, Monday through Friday, tune in here on Substack at Noon ET for a chat (usually) about the most pressing issues and (occasionally) about some lighter fare.Talk is cheap and opinions aplenty, but the story only reveals itself through reporting.
So each weekday, I’ll bring you along as I report the story. Along with my friend and colleague
, we’ll dive down the late-night, screen-glazed rabbit hole of the modern interwebs, acting as your personal guide to what’s real and what’s complete bullshit.If you want to join live, you can tune in every day on Substack. If you miss me, then hop on over to The Political Voices Network for the evening replay. If you’ve got questions or comments, just reply to this email and I’ll see it.
Coming up on today’s show:
The Top:
The nation’s capital is now an occupied city. But what kind of occupy are we talking about? British troops burning down the Capitol a la two centuries ago or Occupy Wall Street, scary-looking on Fox News but just another day in reality.
To the layperson, soldiers in uniform sure looks like a military occupation. MRABs repurposed from actual military deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq now sit outside Union Station, just north of the Capitol, right next to the small, semi-permanent protest encampment.
But the National Guard has long been deployed to actual emergencies throughout America, from race riots to even a pre-National Guard deployment by Abraham Lincoln.
So what’s happening here? Community watch? Brownshirt brigade? The answer is more nuanced.
The Nut Graf
Deploying military to police Americans sure looks dictatorial to the layperson. And permanent deployments inside the U.S. of a branch which is designed to be an emergency reserve, not a permanent police force, amplifies that sentiment.
Couple that with a massive increase in spending for immigration agents, gestapo-style sweeps of non-violent immigrants (smashing in car windows of grandmothers, masked feds
But there is a swath of D.C. locals who, peeling away the hyperbole and assuming this is not a military occupation, welcome the help.
Hot Quote
The president stopped all the crime. So I’ll just wrap the show right here.
At least that’s what he said.
Clearly it’s still happening. (If you have a crime tip, please call actual police, not the White House.)
By most accounts, this appears to be a replay of Trump’s attempts to turn every election into a crime election (we are now firmly ensconced in The 2026 Midterms, which could decide if he spends the last two years of his presidency in nonstop impeachments.)
Immediately after George Floyd was murdered in 2020, the massive nationwide protests (indeed, many of them violent) were portrayed as a war that must be put down by military. (To those of you who didn’t mainline Tucker Carlson at the time, that may sound strange, but it was the message pumped to one third of the country, repeatedly.)
Now Trump is running the same playbook.
Deep Background: DC’s actual Military style checkpoints
Seventeen years before the Trinidad neighborhood in Northeast Washington, D.C. was a bustling hub of gentrification, it was racked by violent crime. So Washington’s police chief at the time set up military-style checkpoints.
And the Washington Post editorial board (when it was still liberal, not the new conservative Post) supported it. Violent crime and homicides were actually through the roof (not a social media fever dream).
At the center of the debate, whether the sweeping police checkpoints violated Fourth Amendment protections against undue search and seizure or were tantamount to court-backed DUI checkpoints.
Fast forward to now and the debate is very much the same among D.C.’s local leaders.
What’s Next
Join us Wednesday at Noon ET for Tom LoBianco Reports, Ep. 3: Heartland Hysteria, The Hunt for Another Republican. We’ll redraw the lines on the debate over the White House pushing Indiana to redraw its Congressional Districts and try to squeeze another Republican in.
Catch up
Did you miss yesterday’s show? Watch it here! Every day’s live show, Noon ET, premiers at 8p ET on the Political Voices Network YouTube page.
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