Not sure if this is more Orwellian or Nazi but disturbing nonetheless. Of course 46% of voters think this **** it cool. Just Donald being Donald......
Orwellian" is an adjective describing a situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society. It denotes an attitude and a brutal policy of draconian control by propaganda, surveillance, misinformation, denial of truth, and manipulation of the past, including the "unperson"—a person whose past existence is expunged from the public record and memory, practiced by modern repressive governments.
Looks pretty damn big to me and if you want to add the TV ratings it certainly was a very big. In fact the second most you were since 1981 when Reagan was inaugurated
(Interactive Gigapixel Image HERE)
The
New York Times and
Trump Press Secretary, Sean Spicer,
appear to be in an argument over the crowd attending the President Trump inauguration. In the politicized era of jaw-dropping media bias, fake news and constructed Potemkin villages, does this come as a surprise.
Generally speaking, most intellectually honest political followers/researchers already anticipated a massive amount of DC-based hostility in all things related to President Trump. After all, Hillary Clinton won the DC vote with 91%, and only 4% of DC residents supported Donald Trump –
LINK–
Pause. Consider
the disparity. Think about that for a moment.
WASHINGTON DC VOTE: 282,830 Clinton (91%), 12,723 Trump (4%) Trump. That’s more than a 22:1 ratio of Clinton supporters -vs- Trump supporters amid DC residents.
It’s Washington DC. Political shenanigans should always be anticipated – it is just how DC rolls. Slow-walking TSA screenings under the auspices of “security”, obstruction, annoyance, intentional delays and all manner of historic DC employee behavior is the norm – not the exception. Again, reference the statistical political ideology.
Seriously, have we forgotten the spiteful DC park closings during the “sequester” budget debate when DC authorities closed open space –
including war memorials on “Memorial Day weekend- because they wanted to
create the optic of impact from budget cuts. To wit, they put barricades around the National Mall, and transmitted warnings to kids in school about the zoo animals
no longer being fed. Remember all that nonsense?
The behavior of federal employees in DC is nothing if not
predictable. President Donald Trump is an existential threat to their interests; and by extension anyone who supports Donald Trump is antithetical to their interests. That is the correct background for the “optics” of crowd size.
However, all of that said – we can see a
Gigapixel Image HERE [we can zoom in/out and drag the image etc.] of much of the area during President Trump’s speech and decide for yourselves.
Explore Interactive HERE
Despite the shenanigans Sean Spicer was correct. The crowd grew significantly just as the event began. Yes, this was mostly due to the crowd being intentionally delayed from attending. Yes, tens of thousands of people could not get through the screenings. Yes, the federal workers and DC Park and Security leadership made attendance more difficult than any previous inauguration.
Yes, every imaginable tool and technique was utilized last week to provide the maximum level of crisis and discomfort….
