Marc Benioff: I No Longer Believe National Guard Is Needed for SF

The San Francisco reddit discussion of this included such lines as "Welp, picking up my frog costume from Temu asap.", and "San Francisco must out gay them": https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1o7mexv/trump...

Right now the Chinese are still relying on US tech but what happens if they actually manage to become self sufficient? What if those data centres at the Tibetan Plateau no longer needs Nvidia?

I mean if it was this easy why was the police created at all? We've always had soldiers.

I'm certain it was sincere reverence.

That's the logic that got Benioff in trouble.

FWIW: people like you have to realize that the Guard is not and has never been a law enforcement apparatus. The policy goal of "sending in the troops" to US cities is not and has never been crime (the metrics for which are getting better and not worse, yes even in SF).

The goal of putting military force in charge of directing civilians on city streets is and has always been giving the President, who commands that military, direct control over city streets. Right now if the white house doesn't like a protest or doesn't want it to happen, there's nothing they can do bureaucratically using their executive power to prevent it. It's a local thing. If the guard is already there waiting for orders, they can.

It sounds like hyperbole, but it's really not: the transparent purpose to this big National Guard kerfuffle is the military suppression of dissent at the direction of the President.

The sad part is that Trump talked so much nonsense and sh*t that you can find a quote to match almost any idea or policy, so any policy can be branded as his.

I’ve gone to SF several times over the years for tech conferences. It started out as standard tourist excellence. Then it started rotting. The last year I went to Moscone Center, the afternoon walk back to the nearby hotel was horrific. Druggies lounging around, poop on the sidewalk, conference attendees speed marching through the maze, trying not to make eye contact.

Once back at the hotel, it was nonstop sirens after dark.

Compared to a decade back, it was a nightmare.

Update: Just saw this article, SEMICON West skipped SF and went to Phoenix this year. It was a success.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/17/tech-conference-tha...

SF deserves better, much better.

To those saying we never use the military for public security that’s simply false. NYC has had heavily armed national guard deployed as added security at transit hubs since 9/11 and they’re there to this day.

If leaders of cities don’t want others to step in, don’t give people a reason to step in.

Janis Joplin was a hooker in SF.

What world are you talking about? You talking about the very small window of GAP commercial San Fran? Shoe store Haight Asberry versus 'doses, doses' Haight?

I might care a little more about how they fix the problem, but only barely. Somebody had better fix the country soon.

Walking where, exactly? Do you just tire yourself out doing laps in the Tenderloin? I suppose the Giants season was fairly depressing, so I'll give you that - walking around Oracle Park probably was pretty gloomy this year.

I live in the PNW and regularly visit most of the major cities there and in NorCal. What exactly is more depressing there than any other city of any economic relevance in the nation?

Just in general that kind of attitude is how you end up exchanging one problem for exciting new problems that might be even worse, assuming the poorly considered solution even fixes the original problem.

Any halfway thoughtful and intellectually honest solutions analysis needs to consider A) is this an effective way to solve my problem and B) does it create unintended negative consequences or tradeoffs. Rhetoric exclusively focusing on the severity of the problem is almost always intended to get you to disengage the part of your brain that considers those two questions in favor of supporting any approach that just promises to solve the problem, whether or not it does so or creates any new problems in the process.

I would imagine you might be met with scorn and ridicule but most people would just ignore you and walk past just like we do the crazies shouting about Jesus on a megaphone outside the Levi's on Market St.

Says a lot more about the “sad state of politics” than a MAGA hat (MAGA, the people whose official stance this week is 'political people being racist/saying they love hitler/rape in group chat at age 28 is totally ok') in San Francisco.

The story here is fairly simple; stupid guy says something stupid, is humiliated by the people pointing and laughing at the stupid thing he said, backs off.

In all honesty, if he hadn’t backed down he would have faced zero important repercussions.