This was taken on a major commercial street about five blocks from our house.

Luckily there hasn’t been too much looting in our extended neighborhood -- four pharmacies and a T-Mobile store that I know of – but Washington, D.C., has been turned into a virtual war zone by the administration, with a battalion of federal law enforcement officers from numerous agencies, National Guardsmen and US military “protecting” us in addition to the Metropolitan Police Force, which actually does protect us. The latest shocker has been the presence of heavily armed men, wearing tactical clothing bearing no official insignia (who refused to identify themselves), who turned out to be riot specialists from the Bureau of Prisons. They are reportedly protecting the president in the White House.

There were some violent protests, fires and property damage Saturday and Sunday nights, but after federal agents brutally removed a group of peaceful protesters from Lafayette Park to make way for Trump’s photo op holding a Bible at a damaged church across from the White House, protests have been mainly peaceful, albeit growing larger by the day. Yet the federal presence keeps increasing – more soldiers, more Guardsmen from out of state, more federal agents, complete with helicopter flyovers, military vehicles at intersections, street closures and checkpoints.

Since the states don’t want federal interference in managing their protests, I guess the administration decided to just put all that man and firepower in the District of Columbia as a show of force…

Best to view in "Original" because other versions resized by Pbase are decidedly unsharp.

Taking a break, posted earlier: