You Will Anyway: The optics

Wednesday, March 3, 2021

The optics

Army officials on a call with law enforcement officials Jan. 6 expressed concerns about the optics of deploying the National Guard to the U.S. Capitol, the commander of the D.C. National Guard said Wednesday.

“The Army senior leaders did not think that it looked good, it would be a good optic. They further stated that it could incite the crowd,” Maj. Gen. William Walker, commanding general of the D.C. Guard testified to a pair of Senate committees Wednesday.

The Hill

The optics were fine - in fact, desirable - when deploying them at a peaceful Black Lives Matter rally where Trump cleared the street for a photo op with a bible.

On the call, D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee and then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund “passionately pleaded for the District of Columbia National Guard to get to the Capitol with all deliberate speed," Walker said.

And HE's the one who had to lose his job over the affair.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

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Life, as Explained in "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead"

GUILDENSTERN: What a fine persecution---to be kept intrigued without ever quite being enlightened.

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ROSENCRANTZ : The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come on in a minute.

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GUILDENSTERN: But for God's sake what are we supposed to do?!

PLAYER: Relax. Respond. That's what people do. You can't go through life questioning your situation at every turn.

GUILDENSTERN: But we don't know what's going on, or what to do with ourselves. We don't know how to act.

PLAYER: Act natural. You know why you're here at least.

GUILDENSTERN: We only know what we're told, and that's little enough. And for all we know it isn't even true.

PLAYER: For all anyone knows, nothing is. Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true. It's the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn't make any difference so long as it is honoured. One acts on assumptions.

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GUILDENSTERN : We act on scraps of information... sifting half-remembered directions that we can hardly separate from instinct.

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PLAYER: Life is a gamble, at terrible odds-if it was a bet you wouldn't take it.