So our “illustrious” President, draft-dodging (five times) golly gee my bonespurs were sooooo bad but the hell of avoiding STDs during Vietnam was every bit as harrowing as actually dodging bullets and bombs in the war zone wants himself a parade.
Like all dictatorial “supreme: leaders get to have.
He is assuring everyone (“Believe me”) that it’s all about honoring the troops. And showing off to the world how awesome our military and weapons are.
He’s also got a Trump Steaks to sell, washed down by Trump Vodka while taking a ride on a Trump Shuttle to spend a glorious week in his Trump Moscow Hotel to celebrate having obtained a degree from Trump University that will make the sucker person who received it “really really rich like me.”
This bullshit has nothing to do with the troops or honoring them or even showing off our military might. On that last point the world has long been aware of how good we are at raining hell down on a place, even when doing so isn’t the right “tool” for the job that needs to be done. The extent Ole Bonespurs (cadet gives him too much credit) regard for the troops themselves is a sense of relief that enough people volunteer that his own kids didn’t even have to bug him for help (trading favors, bribing doctors to write bogus notes — about bonespurs for example) to avoid military service. Going back to his granddad's generation (and grandpa DRUMPF got kicked out of his own country when he tried to go back for having dodge his own military obligation!) no member of his family on either side has served one single day, hour or even minute in the Service. He is the ultimate ChickenHawk — someone who talks the tough guy super-duper patriot talk but is nowhere to be found when it comes time to actually put his own ass on the line.
So no, this big parade he wants has nothing to do with honoring our troops.
It has everything to do with forcing them to make a show of honoring him!
There’s actually a name for this — it’s called a Command Performance:
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a presentation of a play, concert, opera, or other show at the request of royalty.
Make no mistake. Ole Bonespurs believes he should damn well be royalty. His feelings are hurt that there are people who think he doesn’t deserve to be proclaimed not just King but Emperor, ensuring that his children (well, Udayv& Qusay Erick & Don Jr. and apparent “love child” with Leona Helmsley aka Ivanka at least) are official Princes and Princess who will rule when he tires of this world and gets to start chasing “angel tail.” Alas he’s not content just to be King or Emperor but also wants to be the most awesomest, bigliest authoritarian on the block planet too. They get to show off their toys so by gum he wants to show off his too! Only bigger and better!
This is a President who would gladly wipe his butt (or more accurately force someone to wipe it for him) with a copy of the Constitution. He ignores it every freaking day. However, there’s one part in there that (unfortunately) someone must have highlighted for him by stapling pictures above and below the relevant text — the part about him being Commander in Chief of our Armed Forces. That means as President he can order the DOD to put on a show for him. We’ve learned he’s been hinting at wanting his parade for a long while now. Apparently he finally threw a hissy fit and the only way Kelly and the White House staff could control him was to let him know he could actually issue an order that would have to be obeyed.
No matter the cost. In money. In training/preparedness. In the nightmarish security concerns in a (still) free country to prevent a terrorist attack that would spoil his not so little party. Or the logistical nightmare in the DC area for days (or even weeks) before and after including the costs of fixing streets and bridges. He’s throwing tantrums demanding his parade and found out all he has to do is issue an actual, official order. And he’s probably pissed he wasn’t allowed to do it via Twitter so he’s demanding something extra special for that!
Estimate of 20 million or so are wildly short of what this would cost. Those estimates are based on the “welcome home” parade after the first Gulf War. What Ole Bonespurs is demanding is a far larger and more “showy” task. And that’s before gold-plating all the hardware that will be rolling down the streets! But the most important cost is the training time that will be lost, and the maintenance time (for combat ops) to the equipment that will be lost. That shit will cost lives, especially in a Military that has been over-extended for years.
But at least he will be able to sit on the reviewing stand and watch as unit after unit passes, hears the command “Eyes Right” and salutes. He will have no trouble at all believing they LOVE him! “Just look at how all of them supported me! They even saluted! No President has ever, even been more admired and respected than me! Didn’t you see what they did for me?” He’s enough of an idiot he will have long since forgotten that he had to order his Command Performance. And it’s clear no one in the White House or the GOP is about to remind him of that inconvenient fact.
If he really wanted to honor the troops there are some things he could do, starting with:
- Ordering Tillerson to stop gutting the State Dept. and have Congress authorize bonuses to re-hire the staggering number of experienced career diplomats who have been forced out or quit before it happened to them. Because if he really respected “his” Generals he’d listen to them on this point — that good diplomacy drastically reduces the need to use combat troops and is cheaper not just in lives but over the long run money too. Not only would this help prevent war and localized military engagements, but it would allow us to extract ourselves from places we’ve already been for far too long with too little to show for it.
- Since he’s “really really rich” he could sit down with major Veteran’s groups and get a list of legitimate Veteran’s charities. He could then pledge a hundred million dollars to be divided equally among them and actually have a ceremony at the White House where on live TV he hands them the actual checks! And then challenge every major corporation, and every member of the Fortune 500 to do the same. And repeatedly praise those who do and criticize those who don’t — that would give him a worthy outlet for inventing insulting nicknames.
- He could call out Congress on something really important — fully fund the VA. Make it clear that the not so well hidden goal of privatizing the VA is dead. Done. Over. And tell voters and especially his base that any elected Official who refuses to fully fund the VA should be voted out of Office. Including him if he can’t persuade Congress to get it done before 2020.
- Finally, if he really wants a parade then he could call on all of America to return to something I remember growing up. Veteran’s day used to be called Armistice Day and was always celebrated on November 11th. Parades were held in lots of places, made up of members of the local American Legion and VFW. No fancy military equipment. Various honor guards escorting the flag had Vets on either side carrying M1 rifles but that was about it. And back then, it was quite the honor at one’s church to be tabbed to ring the church bell — all the churches rang their bells at the 11th minute, of the 11th hour, of the 11th day of the 11th month. To commemorate the ending of what was supposed to be the last war. He should call on the country to return to that type of thing on Veteran’s Day even if the formal holiday doesn’t fall on November 11 in a given year. And yes, calling for Pennsylvania Avenue to be closed on Veteran’s day for a parade of just people, Veterans to march — starting at the Capitol and ending (without going around the back side of the White House) at Arlington National Cemetery.
That’s some of what he could and should do if he wants to honor our Armed Forces and our Veterans. But there’s no one at the White House or in Congress that has the guts or the gravitas to tell him that, that he should do stuff like that and abandon this parade business. Certainly not former General and Chief of Staff John Kelly who long ago disgraced the uniform and stars he once wore. Sadly, while we once had hopes of it the General (National Security Advisor McMaster) who literally wrote the book (Dereliction of Duty) on telling truth to power has proven that he’s all talk (or words on the page) and no action when it counts. General Mattis at DOD is retired but in the Chain of Command so he has to either follow orders or resign. Mattis (who btw hates the nickname Mad Dog — that’s not the kind of guy he is or has ever been) is in a tough spot. He’s the closest thing we have to an adult with some actual ethics in this administration so I'm torn as to whether this parade business is worth losing him.
So Ole Bonespurs wants and will probably get his Command Performance parade. Complete with a buffet filled with slices of “beautiful chocolate cake” and an ice cream bar too in his reviewing stand.
But as everyone in this country and around the world (both friend and foe) knows this “Presidentzilla” desire for a parade has nothing to do with honoring our military or our veterans.
Everyone knows it’s all about a big show that’s supposed to honor him.