Is Something Up For The Inauguration?

[MineralMan]

Since it was announced that Trump is dismissing the General in charge of the DC National Guard at the moment he swears his oath, I've had the feeling that something may be up for that day. It makes no sense to me that the General is relieved of duty as Trump's first action as President. No sense at all. And that bothers me, for some reason.

I won't be in DC that day. I wouldn't be, even if I lived near there. I don't like crowds much. But, I know that some are planning to be there and to heckle or demonstrate in some way. Right now, I'm becoming less certain that is a good idea. Given the violent actions taken by Trump supporters at a number of campaign venues, I'd be concerned about safety for anyone who actively protests at the inauguration.

But, that's not all. Why would an incoming President deliberately single out a black National Guard General and fire him at 12:01 PM on inauguration day. His first act as President will be to fire someone who helped plan security for the event. Did the General diss Trump? Does Trump not like his looks? I don't know, but it's troubling that he does this as his first Presidential act.

Take care, folks, if you're there. Seriously. Keep your eyes open and have escape pathways in your mind. It's a very strange set of circumstances, this inauguration. Watch yourselves. Seriously.

[get the red out]

1. I just figured it was racism

But it might be even worse! People might end up getting hurt.

Scary times.

[titaniumsalute]

31. It seems like if people were to get hurt...

Trump would leave the guy in place and then bash the shit out of him for being and awful awful General who needs to be removed immediately.

[NCjack]

36. Did the agenda call for Trump to shake the general's hand or

be photographed with him. Being photographed with an AA could damage the Trump brand. (Damn -- 4 years of Trump bullshit.)

[Arkansas Granny]

2. I don't know, MM, but I'm wondering what's going on. There seems to be no rhyme or reason.

I don't usually subscribe to CT, but I may get a new roll of tin foil before the event.

[romana]

61. Pettiness

I think it's just Trump's smallness made manifest. He thinks purging all these positions the minute he takes office is his revenge on Obama.

[Jacob Boehme]

3. Declaring Martial law at 12:02 comes to mind.

[TeamPooka]

15. in order to prevent the giant march of citizens against him the next day.

Wolverines!

[nolabear]

20. That was my first thought.

[adigal]

44. Or he could just tweet: "Crowds are overrated, really small crowds who don't like me. Not fair!!"

That should clear everything up.

[sarah FAILIN]

22. Especially if project Veritas actually did recruit people

Could be others didn't mind causing chaos. Some of the young rednecks in my area aren't about parties, they want anarchy and chaos.

[Bettie]

25. That was my thought too

and then immediately install someone who won't balk at an order to fire into a crowd of civilians peacefully protesting.

[Squinch]

32. Bingo. This is going to be his opening salvo in the new American Civil War.

He's planning bloodshed. That order is just too bizarre. He wants civil unrest so he can kill him some Democrats.

I guarantee there will also be false flag actions that exacerbate any violence and that are able to be laid at the feet of the Democrats, though in fact they will have been devised and executed by the Republirussians.

[Jacob Boehme]

33. And when they suspend the writ of Habeas Corpus, you'll know we've arrived.

[pangaia]

53. You got it right.

This is bad, bad shit going down...

[mnhtnbb]

59. I have been saying for some time that Trump will create a jack-booted military police force

that will not allow civil disobedience.

[CincyDem]

4. This guy (the General) sure looks like the kind of guy...

...who might think hard about a questionable "order" from the C-I-C.

My understanding is that there are 20 permits issued for DC gatherings on Friday and 200 on Saturday. I agree with you MM that this just feels weird. Maybe someone in the transition team started laying out plans for water cannon locations and he pushed back. That's all it would take to canned in a Trump military.

[Pacifist Patriot]

5. I'm extremely creeped out and concerned by this.

[etherealtruth]

29. Yeah

.... this rises to the level of extremely bizarre behavior (even for someone like tRump that is given to bizarre self serving behavior)

[safeinOhio]

6. Trumps wife told him the

General is tight with moose and squirrel.

[onenote]

7. My guess is that it's just mindless robots sending notice to every presidential appointee

telling them they're terminated as of 12:01. I suspect they got a list of presidential appointees and prepared a form letter, did a batch address printing, and had them sent to everyone on the list without even bothering to look at who they were sending to.

[MineralMan]

11. Perhaps. Perhaps not.

I haven't heard of anyone else getting the boot, except for appointed Ambassadors. You'd think we'd hear about that, if it was going on.

[Sissyk]

14. Have you seen the memo sent to the General?

I'm having trouble finding it, and the quoted comments from the General don't help much.

[onenote]

16. NNSA administrator and deputy are two others. Plus Obama requested resignation letters by December 7

You wouldn't expect to hear about most of them because it's not that atypical for most presidential appointees to be out of a job on inauguration day. On November 7 -- the day before the election -- Obama requested that all non-term presidential appointees tender their resignations by December 7. The exceptions were: U.S. Marshals; U.S. Attorneys; Inspectors General; Appointees serving in termed appointments; Appointees of independent and regulatory agencies headed by termed appointees; and Appointees serving on part-time boards and commissions.

https://www.chcoc.gov/content/governmentwide-moratorium-senior-executive-service-ses-qualifications-review-board-qrb-cases

This is Standard Operating Procedure. It lets the incoming administration decide whether or not to accept the resignation letters of some or all of the previous president's appointees. The difference is that most incoming administrations then carefully review and decide whether or not to accept certain resignations or offer the appointee the opportunity to stay on for some period of time after inauguration day. Trump apparently is not doing that.

[2naSalit]

8. I am glad that my

family members who were planning to go decided not to today because as they watch FB feeds and the like, they are finding that a major bad thing is likely.

Frankly, I suspect a game changer event of unknown origin or type but I think it is to "allow" this bad thing to take place with no recourse for citizens.

[HoneyBadger]

18. Any Keifer Sutherland fans?

Who is the Designated Survivor for that weekend? I imagine that you need to go pretty far down the list to find someone not going into DC.

[mnhtnbb]

60. Maybe it's also just a scheme to make everyone afraid to come protest

and gee, whiz, look, no protests! Everyone loves the Cheeto Fucktrumpet.

[2naSalit]

62. Possibly..

I'll put some weight behind that idea because I'm sure that's a big part of that bit of info and the reason it's out there. But I have an ominous feeling that something far worse will take place in the city that will bring us back to the shock part of the shock doctrine that is in progress.

[Qutzupalotl]

9. I think the plan is to stage a false flag operation

and blame Democratic activists. Another thread here talked about O'Keefe involvement. The goal could be to implement emergency powers and/or martial law.

The incoming general is probably in on it, possibly the announcer too.

(This is all speculation on my part.)

[2naSalit]

19. Sounds pretty

credible in my view from way over here.

[mainer]

10. Well, this is kind of alarming. I'm going to be there, both days.

on inauguration day and the women's march. My son warned me to keep my eyes open and get the hell out if anything alarmed me. I thought he was being alarmist, but now it sounds like prudence.

[MineralMan]

12. Be careful and watchful.

Check the news from the 20th before going into DC.

[likesmountains 52]

38. I agree. I'll be there,and find this a bit disturbing.

[MissKat]

49. a bit of advice from someone who's been there

not to show my age, but when we were demonstrating agains the horrible war in Viet Nam I learned a few things--
1. Have an escape route planned in advance, with a meeting place in case you get separated. (don't be surprised if cell phone service doesn't work)
2. Make sure you have a bottle of water and a large bandana and swim goggles. If the police launch tear gas, use the water to flush your eyes. Then get the bandana over your mouth and nose and put those goggles on.
3. If the crowd panics, lock arms, don't just hold hands.
4. BE PREPARED. Take a good first aid kit with you. If you have a poster, make sure the stick you use can also double as a club.

My hope is that you won't need to worry about any of this. But if you do...

I wish I could be there. But just too much going on for me.

If you can go, please do!! Just be prepared.

[Initech]

13. I am very scared to think about what happens after 1/20.

[jmg257]

17. I'll be there (as close as I can get anyway), not worried - I think it should be quite interesting!

Protests, anti-protests, concerts, inaugurations, parades, marches...and it should be warm too!

Fun!



Though it is indeed weird to swap out a/the guy in charge right in the middle of such a major event, don't think it would even be noticeable.

[tblue37]

21. Probably DC will be flooded with Trump's volunteer brownshirts wearing read

baseball hats on their heads. Without adequate security, the brownshirts will be able to go after the protesters, the same way the Chicago cops went after antiwar protesters at the DNC in 1968, in what the official investigation called a "police riot."

[Cracklin Charlie]

23. I wish all my democrat friends would just stay home.

If he's not legitimate, why go?

I would rather imagine D.C. as a ghost town that day, when no one showed up to welcome him.

He's just not worth it.

[cab67]

42. I'd rather see the Mall deserted than thronged with protesters.

[Ilsa]

64. I'm with you. I'd rather Dems stay home safe. nt

[Runningdawg]

24. I am worried less about inaugration day

than the fact our foreign enemies will see this chink in our national security as an opportunity too good to pass up.

[SummerSnow]

26. maybe Trump has a militia group for the inauguration.smh

[classykaren]

55. While Paul Anka sings my way in the backround.

[MFM008]

27. hopefully

an asteroid.

[FraDon]

28. Wait! What's that smell?

Is that a fire, over at the Reichstag?!

[ProudProgressiveNow]

45. +1 nt

[byronius]

56. This. +1000

It's how these #$%ers think.

[NBachers]

30. Provocateurs in the crowds, a planned fake terrorist event; chaos, death, and martial law resulting

Thanks, alt-left voters.

[Squinch]

34. This exactly.

[OldHippieChick]

35. Along with Ambassadors and other

federal employees, he fires the "volunteer" announcer and now this. I think it's just a crazy power grab that says "nah-na-na-na-na, I'm the boss now". It's just another childish, senseless act by a petulant brat. Look how he treated the CNN reporter. There is no sense in much that he does because he has no sense. He is merely strutting his perceived stuff because he really doesn't know how much power he truly has and has no idea what he's supposed to do with it.

[coco22]

37. My thoughts exactly..

I think they will do anything.

[bucolic_frolic]

39. You mean like

Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur disperses the Bonus Army?

Protests will be dealt with harshly? Or imminent martial law?

[cab67]

40. I assumed it's part of Trump's apparent efforts to replace everyone with a hand-picked loyalist.

He's doing the same thing with the entire diplomatic corps.

But the timing on this particular replacement (assuming there's a replacement in mind) is very, very strange.

[lunatica]

41. I just started a thread what Dictators do to the leadership

Trump is doing what all Dictators do to the leadership in the country.
He's firing them. Getting rid of them. Leaving Embassies and agencies without their bosses to do anything. Who's going to have the authority to do anything now?

It's the non violent way of sending them to Siberia or out and out killing them. Stalin did it to all the leaders, all the intellectuals and to all the generals in the military. He also forced people who worked for him to turn in their spouses and families who he then sent to Siberia.

And remember Saddam Hussein's famous video of him sitting at a desk on a stage with all the Iraqi leadership as his audience and him calling out names and his military police dragging them outside to shoot them? Saddam did that.

Think of any dictator and you'll see that Trump is doing the Democratic version of his own purge.

Trump is just firing them because that's all he can do in this Democracy. If he could he'd probably shoot a few.

Because he can't possibly have enough friends to fill all the posts. He's just going to leave everything as leaderless as he can.

[grantcart]

43. Nope

These guys have difficulty organizing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

They got a list of every position that they have power over and sent a,mass,mailing.

Reminder that at 12:01 they will have no cabinet officers nominated, confirmed or sworn in.

[Phoenix61]

50. Agreed

To stupid to think through the consequences. We know Trump likes to pitt people against each other. We know you have to be an immoral snake to work for him. My guess is this is just one of many in house back-stabbing incidents.

[secondwind]

46. LEAVE YOUR TELEVISION ON, TO ANY CHANNEL BUT THE INAUGURATION! RATINGS WILL BE AWFUL.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

66. I'm pretty sure that's not how ratings work.

Of course, with all the Orwellian stuff that's been happening, it may go from people reporting what they watch to Big Brother watching and controlling it.

[Cryptoad]

47. Never undersetimate these People,,,,,,,

[braddy]

48. Here is what was going on in D.C. in 1971, just before Nixon won 52% of the under 30 vote in 1972.

From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_May_Day_protests

"10,000 federal troops were quickly moved to various locations in the Washington, D.C. area. At one point, so many soldiers and marines were being moved into the area from bases along the East Coast that troop transports were landing at the rate of one every three minutes at Andrews Air Force Base in suburban Maryland, about 15 miles from the White House. Among these troops were 4,000 paratroopers from the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division,troops from Marine Barracks lined both sides of the 14th St bridge. These troops were to back up the 5,100 D.C. Metropolitan Police, 2,000 D.C. National Guard and Nixon’s internal security forces that were already in place. Every monument, park and traffic circle in the nation's capital had troops protecting its perimeters. Paratroopers and marines deployed via helicopter to the grounds of the Washington Monument."
(snip)
"While the troops secured the major intersections and bridges, the police roamed through the city making massive arrest sweeps and used tear gas. They arrested anyone who looked like a demonstrator, including construction workers who had come out to support the government. By 8 am 7,000 protesters had been arrested. The city's prisons did not have the capacity to handle that many people thus an emergency detention center surrounded by an 8-foot-high (2.4 m) fence was set up next to RFK Stadium. No food, water, or sanitary facilities were made available by authorities but sympathetic local residents brought supplies. Skirmishes between protesters and police occurred up until about mid-day. In Georgetown, the police herded the protesters and onlookers through the streets to the Georgetown University campus. The police then engaged in a back and forth with the protesters outside the university's main gate on O Street, lobbing tear gas over the gate each time they pushed the crowd back. Other forms of gas were used including pepper based and one that induced vomiting. Police helicopters also dropped tear gas on the university's lower athletic field where protesters had camped the night before. Numerous people were severely injured and treated by volunteers on campus. By afternoon the police had suppressed the disruption efforts and the protesters had mainly dispersed.

Smaller protests continued resulting in the arrests of several thousand more, bringing the total to 12,614 people, making this the largest mass arrest in U.S. history."

[murielm99]

57. I remember.

I had one friend who attended. She ended up next to RFK stadium, in detention. She reported to our student body about her experiences. As far as she could tell, there was never any record made of her arrest. Eventually, everyone was just allowed to leave.

That was quite a year. I graduated from college in 1971.

[braddy]

65. Where I was held there was no food or blankets for several days, and then I was transferred to

the DC jail where we had a huge communal box of dry baloney sandwiches to eat from, which I thought was fantastic for jail food, not tasty, but plentiful.

[FailureToCommunicate]

58. Yup. I was one of thousands arrested. There were so many,that they used school buses,

and bus drivers, to take us to processing. Our bunch demanded that the driver pull over and let us out. He did, and we went back to the fray...

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

51. I suspect there's nothing special about Trump dismissing the General

heading up the DC National Guard.

I believe he's fired many appointees, not just the ambassadors, effective the moment he actually becomes President.

As others have already pointed out, it's the sort of thing a dictator does. And I don't assume that the firing means DC will have no effective law enforcement at that point.

[OldRedneck]

52. Making signs . . .

Several ladies from my area are going to the women's march to be held the day after the urinauguration. We were making signs today -- some of them are carrying my favorite:

WE CAME UNARMED.
THIS TIME.

Meanwhile, DC police announced they have received parking applications for 200 buses for the urinauguration.

At the same time, DC police announced they have received parking applications for 1,200 buses for the women's march.

[Percy Cholmondeley]

54. anybody going to this should have a camera

preferably a phone capable of videos, clear ones, if possible. James O'Keefe and his henchperson have already been caught trying to recruit helpers to cause trouble. I'm sure there are plenty of other false-flag types capable of dirty doings.

[herding cats]

63. I think it was to try and discourage the protesters from showing up.

Do something that people can spin, and then sit back and watch the fear spread through the masses.

It looks like it's working.