"President Trump’s vision of soldiers marching and tanks rolling down the boulevards of Washington is moving closer to reality in the Pentagon and White House, where officials say they have begun to plan a grand military parade later this year showcasing the might of America’s armed forces.Here's an idea.
Trump has long mused publicly and privately about wanting such a parade, but a Jan. 18 meeting between Trump and top generals in the Pentagon’s tank — a room reserved for top secret discussions — marked a tipping point, according to two officials briefed on the planning."
Let's exhume Ronnie's dead ass and build a honkin' big mausoleum for him on the White House lawn, overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue. We can prop up his embalmed corpse in there as a reminder of how we started down this idiot path.
We can make it Republican red, too.
And then on Lincoln's Birthday or John Birch Day or something, some sort of GOParteitag, anyway, all the bigwigs - the Ryans and McConnells and the Sean Hannitys and Rush Limbaughs and Joni Ernsts, forchrissakes, can join Trump on the reviewing stand on top and salute the forces as they goosestep past. And Napoleorange can salute, too, just like he learned in the little military school where he got the bone spurs that kept him out of Vietnam and safe and rich until he could get elected to play "Commander-in-Chief" and send other poor, dumb bastards out to kill and die for him.
This is what you want, America?
Seriously?
By God, I've lived too damn long.
Update 2/8: Jim Wright lays some wood on a GOPandering twit:
I laughed when I first heard about it.
ReplyDeleteThen, on reflection, I fully support it.
In fact, I hope Trump gets highly involved in the details of the parade.
If we get lucky, he will spends hours and hours on the minutiae of the choreography.
I figure every minute he spends on this, is one less minute he spends causing real damage. Similarly, for every General with associated soldiers, tanks and aeroplanes involved. Better to be practicing marching down Pennsylvania Avenue, than blowing up someplace in south west Asia.
Oddly, I have no real "Christ, what a Trumpasshole" thing about this. For me it's purely
Delete1) American soldiers parade to celebrate victories - WW1, WW2, even the Second Gulf War, ferchrissakes. What "victory" are we supposed to be celebrating? If none, this is just a goddamn May Day parade, and We the People are supposed to be "better" than that. And
2) Here we're being told that we can't afford Social Security and health insurance for kiddies, the guys are getting sent all over the world and the O&M budgets are shit, and yet we can blow a couple of million on this useless fucking dog-and-pony show? And
3) I used to hate Division Review, and this would be like the Division Review from Hell. I can't THINK of anything more useless to do with soldiers than have them prancing down the street in formation; I thought that way when I was a soldier and I still do.
The other thing that gets me about this is how it reminds me that republics need to be wary of getting into the habit of fellating their soldiers and setting up a military caste. And it brings to mind GEN Kelly's diatribe on American solders' role as the sacred vessels of The American Spirit.
ReplyDeleteCombine the two and you set yourself up for an officer corps that sees itself as poised to step in to "rescue the nation" and a servile populace willing to tolerate that. Who's to say that somewhere in one of those marching units, or tall in the turret on an M1A2 rolling above the adoring crowds like an imperator in his Triumph is the future James Matoon Scott, the first glimmerings of his role as the Man of Destiny sparking in his synapses?
I grant you all of that. Of course soldiers prefer to blow shit up. That is what they *do*.
ReplyDeleteYes, there are downstream political risks, but the careerist orientation (and the inevitable nomination to the board of some arms manufacturer after being a General in the Pentagon mitigates these risks.
I say that if it prevents the destruction of another shithole country then start shining those boots! Far far better to have the troops and their associated toys "Advancing in Review Order" than killing men, women and children who simply had the bad luck to be born in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The point of a Triumph, tho, is to excite the plebs with the might of the legions. Those battalions transition seamlessly from March Order to deployment. That's the point of May Day parades; to ensure the proles see the army as The Nation, ensuring their support for what that army does to The Others.
DeleteAnd don't be too sure that fat Raytheon contracts will buy off General Scott. We're in the early stages of our Late Imperial Era,band I'm not sure the examples of the earlier period of the MICC will hold. I think it's very possible that our current social enthusiasm for soldiers may be currying some soldiers' enthusiasm to be more than just a functionary.
I agree, it is a risk. But it is a deferred risk.
DeleteMuch better to paint everything a shiny black (something that *really* shows the dirt). Plus, make everyone wear mini-skirts (call em "kilts" - in the video above, all the legs swishing by is entrancing). Of course, on the chest, you need lots and lots of braid. I'd line up to watch the Door Kickers march by with 15 pounds of brass above and very little below.
I also vaguely recall that Wilhelm II loved a parade. It kept him out of mischief.
If referencing William the Sudden's military perversion is supposed to be reassuring..? I'm hoping I just missed the sarcasm font.
DeleteFWIW, Hair Furor doesn't need to be involved day-to-day to make mischief. He's put all his vandals in place so he can kick back, tweet, golf, and dream of his imperial triumph. Trying to "distract" him is meaningless at this point.
According to the internet, Winston Churchill said "success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." This tells me that the USA has institutionalised that quote as its foreign (and military) policy, and this is a parade to celebrate that success.
ReplyDeleteAny day now I expect Orange Foolius to hint that Congress should award him one of every military decoration, like one of those Latin American caudillos strutting around with a chest full of more medals than Audie Fucking Murphy. And, whathehell why not? He's failed no worse than any of his predecessors since Truman...
DeleteEven Strom-Thurmond-protege Lindsey Graham has called the idea "cheesey".
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I say invite Kim Jong-un's ladies in uniform to march, but in July when minis are more decorous.
Best comments so far -
ReplyDelete@MicahZenko: The parade should have unobtainable objectives, constantly shifting missions, expand into new routes, and never end. Mica
@pptsapper: Sergeant Major of the Army rn: "No parades. WE'RE DOIN' A FUCKIN FULL ARMY RUN"
Jean Larteguy: “I'd like to have two armies: one for display with lovely guns, tanks, little soldiers, staffs, distinguished and doddering Generals, and dear little regimental officers who would be deeply concerned over their General's bowel movements or their Colonel's piles, an army that would be shown for a modest fee on every fairground in the country. The other would be the real one, composed entirely of young enthusiasts in camouflage uniforms, who would not be put on display, but from whom impossible efforts would be demanded and to whom all sorts of tricks would be taught. That's the army in which I should like to fight.” (via David Adstutia)
I'm kind of amazed at how the more I think about this the more chapped I am that the draft-dodging shitheel-spur wants to play Army now.
ReplyDeleteI always kind of laughed at Bill Clinton's draft dodging. Yeah, it was cheesy, but it kind of fit with Slick Willie's personality; he was the guy in your frat who would get you in trouble and laugh with you about it.
Trump just seems like the bully and blowhard, the sort of dick who boasts about being a "Navy SEAL" to people who don't know any better, one of those "stolen valor sonsofbitches.
What a douche.
Well, chickenhawkery is really not surprising given his ltiany of psychological issues.
DeleteBTW, you're still linking to Krugam's inactive blog.
ReplyDeleteYou could link to his column instead:
https://www.nytimes.com/column/paul-krugman
FDC-
ReplyDeleteCan you change that Krugman link? I looked into it but my html skills are lacking.
I no longer have admin rights. If you can reactive mine I can do that.
DeleteTry that. I dorked around for half an hour before I found the right screen. Hope I did not screw it up.
Delete