Parade? “No, tanks.”
by Tom Sullivan
The president’s planned Veterans Day military parade will “include wheeled vehicles only, no tanks,” says a Pentagon planning memo, adding “to minimize damage to local infrastructure.” The memo obtained by CNN was sent to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Thursday as part of planning for the November 11 event.
Tanks but No Tanks! https://t.co/jMbmumcfFy— Council of DC (@councilofdc) February 7, 2018
Contrary to CNN’s reporting, the event was not inspired by Donald Trump witnessing France’s Bastille Day celebration in Paris. As Digby reminded Twitter, Trump wanted a military parade for his inauguration. Stephen Kerrigan worked on Barack Obama’s two inaugural committees and described Trump’s request in January 2017 as “very Red Square.”
CNN continues:
It will, however, involve “a heavy air component” with military aircraft flying overhead at the end of parade, including older aircraft “as available,” the memo said.
The parade will also feature period uniforms from the Old Guard Fife and Drum, a unit that parades in period uniform.
The T-Party will be pissed they weren’t invited.
The parade route will run from the White House to the Capitol, with the memo saying that veterans and Medal of Honor recipients will surround Trump in the reviewing area of the Capitol during the event.
He’s going to need a colorful sash. Trump is a throwback to another era.
Trump claimed in the 1980s that other countries were ripping off America. Japan was the trade enemy du jour, Tim O’Brien, executive editor of Bloomberg View and author of “Trump Nation,” told NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly:
TIMOTHY O’BRIEN: That’s right. Donald Trump was a real estate guy, and Japan in that period of course was buying iconic properties – the Rockefeller Center, the Pebble Beach golf course. Trump’s all, this is menacing and decided to portray Japan as the embodiment of U.S. weakness and an inability to get with the program, toughen up and begin to lap countries like Japan.
Thirty years later, Trump issues orders for aluminum and steel tariffs to show the world who’s boss.
O’BRIEN: …And went on to say how for decades, Japan and other countries have been taking advantage of the United States, and we shouldn’t be laughed at anymore.
KELLY: So that’s all unfolding in the ’80s, but I suppose the roots of Trump’s beliefs on trade, on tariffs – they go way back to his childhood.
O’BRIEN: So in the mid-1950s, he’s a little boy with his face pressed up against the glass of the American dream. And I think in a lot of ways, those are the visions that dance around in his head when he’s trying to recall an America that he thinks we’ve lost.
Next he’ll recommend the signs go back up on the bathrooms and water fountains. That’s how things used to be when he was a child and America was “great.”
Ah, you can picture it even now.
I love a parade;
The tramping of feet,
I love ever beat
I hear of a drum.
I love a parade;
When I hear a band
I just wanna stand
And cheer as they come!That rat-a-tat-tat!
The flair of a horn!
That rat-a-tat-tat!
A bright uniform!
The sight of a drill
Will give me a thrill!
I thrill at the skill
Of anything military!
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