(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.

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….

…and yet, given the history of DC doing this with other events, this somehow surprises people?