it's really hard to explain to people who don't live here how incredibly jarring it was to see the events unfold yesterday, not just because the events themselves were shocking, but because it completely upends the entire psychic geography of this place

fortress DC is, it turns out, a complete myth. and one that for the last 20 years we've been increasingly asked to put up with for... no reason at all?

and the response to this is going to be to double-down. to believe in the myth even harder! to give up more under the promise that that's what's needed

I biked through the capitol complex and past the white house everyday for 5 years. yesterday, with totally insane confidence, I said to my wife 'oh, those assholes will get fucked up if they mess with USCP. Those guys don't fuck around!'

because they don't fuck around... to a random bicyclist who strays slightly off the approved path. Or to someone with a bottle opener on their keychain. Or one of the million other reasons people who live here are routinely and pointlessly harassed