"If national pride is ever justifiable or excusable, it is when it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory,but from a conviction of national innocence, information and benevolence."
Inaugural address of the second President, who knew all about Independence Day
"Big 4th of July in D.C. 'Salute to America. The Pentagon & our great Military Leaders are
thrilled to be doing this & showing to the American people, among
other things, the strongest and most advanced Military anywhere in the
World. Incredible Flyovers & biggest ever Fireworks!"
-- Tweet by 45th President who knows nothing about Independence Day
I was wondering if the Abrams tanks would be there. They will be but they will be trucked in and stationary because they're afraid to damage the roads. Actually, for tanks, the M1 tanks are relatively gentle. They have rubber pads on the treads. There is usually no physical damage but the rubber does leave marks. A shame. I was hoping for a real Soviet-style May Day Parade. I miss the Soviets. They were fun to watch.
ReplyDeleteIn his Tweets, Gen. Bonespurs thinks those Abramses are Shermans. By time of the war he missed, the Abrams had replaced the Sherman. But, as Kim Jung Un would say, if it ain't got no missiles, it ain't nohow a military parade.
DeleteBelieve me, his dream is to ride to the Lincoln Memorial in a tank. Like John Wayne or Mussolini.
DeleteOne of my girlfriends just sent me this message, "Here's a better deal if you wanna watch a parade sponsored by a grifter."
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdd6q0pW4DM
At least Harry Hill was redeemable.
Just a little correction, Tom. The M1 Abrams didn't come out until 1980. It was designed to go toe-to-toe with the Rooskies in Europe. It had a lower profile and layered armor, infrared vision, stabilized periscope, digital fire control computer and other goodies. Its anti-Soviet predecessor was the M60 tank. For Viet Nam, they used M48 tanks, I believe. Tank warfare on open terrain was not applicable to Viet Nam. Anyway, don't worry about the Fearless Leader riding in a tank. I don't think he'd fit through any of the hatches.
DeleteMaybe they'd have to grease him up to get him out. Like Taft in his bathtub.
DeleteI don't know nothing about tanks, but John Wayne showed up at Harvard in one.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dINMVPRA3DY
Stanley, I stand corrected. I guess a Sherman (or an Abrams) in a rice paddy would be about as useless as a president with Dunning-Kruger Effect. (Thanks again, Katherine.)
DeleteJean, but Henry said he always believed there WOULD BE a band.
Enjoy this: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/7/3/1869322/-In-rare-editorial-statement-the-NYRB-publishes-a-photocritique-of-Trump-s-military-propaganda-rally?detail=emaildkre
DeleteWell, here's hoping it's a big fat bust as far as attendance. Personally I'm not planning on turning the tv on all day. Hope someone takes an accurate head count, though, because Trump will be sure to claim that it was the most awesomely huge crowd evah.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about how we can note the passage of time by the veterans marching in local parades. In our town they marched in groups according to the war they were in. I remember the few and grizzled WWI vets wearing their distinctive helmets and khaki uniforms. My great-uncle Jack was among them. My grandpa would have been, too, but he had already passed away. They never wore dress uniforms, it was always khakis or o.d. green. My dad (born in 1928) remembered a few Civil War veterans marching in the parade when he was a child. Of course when I was young there were lots of WWII vets. Now if they are still alive they aren't marching any more. Still lots of Vietnam and Desert Storm veterans. We never seem to run out of wars.
ReplyDeleteI got to doing some math; I think my dad's memories had to have been of the Spanish American War veterans rather than Civil War. The Civil War ones would have had to have been at least 90 by the 1930s.
DeleteAn 18-year-old Yankee in 1864 would have been in his 84 in 1930. I'm trying to remember, but istm my earliest Fourth of July parades(besides featuring Navy trainees from Great Lakes who couldn't march a lick) had two small groups of real old timers before the WWI vets. One group would have been Spanish-American, but I think there were a handful of older ones. That would be circa 1939-40.
DeleteToward the end of the Civil War some really young ones were enlisting, so I suppose it could have been possible. Now I'm curious, I'll have to ask Dad for sure next time I see him. His memory and mental faulties are good enough, but his hearing is terrible, even with hearing aids. I talk to him every Sunday on the phone, but sometimes we're having two different conversations. But if I'm standing in front of him he reads lips to an extent. He's the only one left in the family who remembers the 1930s and 40s.
DeleteI'm sure there were plenty of civil war vets in 1940. The last one, a drummer boy whose Union Army division near the end of the war never saw combat, died in 1956.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Woolson
It amazes me that some of these guys were still alive after my birth in 1948.
Our town has parades both on Memorial Day and Independence Day, and veterans march in both. Ours march or ride primarily by social club rather than by war or branch of service. There is a VFW group and an American Legion Group. There is also a Marine Corp League group, so I guess there is some "branching" going on there. Some years there is also a Vietnam Veterans group, so I guess maybe there is no organizing principle.
DeleteTom, on Memorial Day we usually get a unit or so from Fort Sheridan or Great Lakes. They still don't march very well. But those are induction points now, so they're still learning, I guess. I'm always interested to note that the naval inductees still wear the white sailor uniforms from WW II that must have been anachronisms even then. They're very distinctive, but they don't look very, er, intimidating. Not that I have any disrespect for the US Navy.
I have a friend who was in Desert Storm. I was with him last night and he mentioned, apropos of his oldest child getting married this summer, that he's never worn a tuxedo in his life. We were pretty surprised, as he's been married for 30 years, but he was on active duty when he got married, and war his dress uniform for that occasion. (His new wife, fresh out of law school, joined the service so as not to be bored stiff at his army postings. As an attorney, her initial rank was higher than his, which apparently constituted an issue in the Army in those days, so the Army solved that problem by promoting him.)
At any rate, I asked him last night why he doesn't march in the summer parades. He said he marched enough when he was on active duty.
Not what the founders envisioned. Where are the orignalists when it comes to Trump's hare-brained delusions?
ReplyDeleteHe's speaking at the Lincoln Memorial. Maybe the statue of a great president will fall off its pedestal and smite him.
DeleteMmmm. There's an idea!
DeleteOh yeah.
DeleteWe're hanging out our flag and playing American Trivia and watching "Get Out!" or "Carrie."
ReplyDeleteThe WWII generation might have had a different view of military service. My aunt who died in her nineties a few years ago was in the WAVES and then worked for the Pentagon as a civilian. She and her husband, a navy captain, thought all this honor being paid to the military was wrong. They thought of their service as a civic duty.
ReplyDeleteWhen my aunt joined a retirement community, after a year or two her new friends discovered her service, and that she had passed up all the perks and honors that were passed out on national holidays.
After many veterans were dishonored for their service in the Vietnam era by those who opposed the war, I can understand the desire to return to due recognition for those who served not because the war was justified but because they thought service was a duty and they were willing to defer political judgments to the people and their elected officials.
I think the pendulum has swung too far, and we are using the willingness of people to serve their country as a justification for our military industrial complex, unjust wars, and a philosophy (maybe even theology) of violence and might.
Speaking of veterans...Here's a description by Mayor Pete of his experience (in an announcement of his national service plan):
Delete"When I was in Afghanistan, I served alongside people from every conceivable background. People who came from the coasts and the heartland, from cities and from farms—people who held beliefs as diverse as our great nation. Some of us had almost nothing in common except the simple fact of being American and in uniform. But the men and women who got in my vehicle didn’t care if I was a Democrat, a Republican, or an independent. They just wanted to get home safe, like I did.
"It was a life-changing experience, and that sense of connection to others is one that young Americans should be able to gain without having to go to war. I believe this can be achieved through national service." ETC.....
Did he say anything about his national service plan being connected to assistance with college or vocational tuition?
DeleteWe could start a drinking game. Every time Trump defies, or threatens to defy, the Constitution, a Supreme Court ruling, the emoluments clause, etc., and nobody does anything about it; we drink a shot. We'd be illegal to drive in no time.
ReplyDeleteThe latest; he says he's considering putting the citizenship question on the census forms in spite of the Supreme Court ruling. He thinks he can do whatever the hell he wants to. So far he hasn't been proven wrong about that.
I have heard that there is a special surprise in store. Near the reviewing stand is a large object entirely covered in canvas. It's supposed to be a secret, but I know "someone".
ReplyDeleteWhat the object is is Lenin's Tomb, which Putin has loaned to Bonespurs to use an a reviewing stand. They kept the body of Lenin behind, but the gossip is that McCain is filling in.
Tee hee. It rained this afternoon in DC, and there may be more showers later. Might put a damper on the festivities.
ReplyDeleteSo did anyone bother to watch Trump live or on YouTube? I can't stand his delivery style, so I try not to look at him, but it sounded like a pretty long blah blah. Bo-ring.
ReplyDeleteI didn't watch Trump either. That would have been an hour of my life I'll never get back. I know his speech didn't last an hour in real time. But it's like when you approach a black hole, time slows down.
DeleteWhat I'm reading is that the crowd was underwhelming, not reaching six figures, and the speech was tepid and boring.
To me, watching and listening to Trump for nearly an hour would be the penance a priest would give to me for confessing to being a serial killer.
DeleteFor all their troubles and disarray, the UK still has an ambassador in Washington who seems to get the picture.
ReplyDelete"Britain’s ambassador in the United States has described President Donald Trump and his administration as “inept” and “uniquely dysfunctional”, according to ‘leaked’ diplomatic memos published by the Mail on Sunday. Ambassador Kim Darroch reportedly said Trump’s presidency could “crash and burn” and “end in disgrace”.... etc. etc.....
Even worse than we imagine!!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/07/donald-trump-inept-and-dysfunctional-uk-ambassador-to-us-says
Setting aside the generally contempt in which all Brits hold all Americans, the fact that a seasoned diplomat like Darroch would put these words on paper is pretty eye-opening.
DeleteOtoh, given the chaos of Brexit and the prospect of Boris Johnson as PM, I wonder if the Brits are not inclined to be gloomier than usual about the state of things. Not that this assessment of Trump is surprising.
Meantime, the Wash Post reports that Trump's approval ratings are up, most Americans approve of his handling of the economy, and if he were up for re-election today, only Joe Biden would win a decisive victory.
But press coverage has not been kind to Uncle Joe, and he's got 23 competitors eager to attack. At the end of the debate/primary season, he'll have more stab wounds than St. Sebastian.