Morality is not determined by the church you attend nor the faith you embrace. It is determined by the quality of your character and the positive impact you have on those you meet along your journey
Donald Trump looks set to get the military parade he wants in Washington, on Veterans Day in November.
But a Pentagon planning memo issued on Thursday and released on Friday said the parade being planned for 11 November will “include wheeled vehicles only, no tanks consideration must be given to minimize damage to local infrastructure”.
In other words, heavy tanks could tear up the streets of DC and will thus not be allowed to rumble past the president on his reviewing stand.
The event will “include a heavy air component at the end of the parade”, the memo said, meaning lots of airplane flyovers. Older aircraft will be included as available.
The memo did not include a cost estimate. The White House budget director recently told Congress the cost to taxpayers could be between $10m and $30m.
Parade details for Nov. 11. Will have uniforms. Some planes. Maybe old planes. Tanks are banned. pic.twitter.com/W7xyhLYo9Y
I have also read that the parade could cost as much as 50 million dollars.
Just imagine how many children could be fed, homeless people housed, or veterans treated for their PTSD for 50 million?
But no, we have a conceited man child who needs to channel totalitarian despots by waving at members of a military that he lied about bone spurs to avoid joining.
President Donald Trump’s proposed military parade has a potential date and location: Veterans Day in Washington.
But there’s still the question of how it will be paid for.
“When we talk about the options — the composition, the theme, the date, the location, the associated costs — all those are being looked at as part of the options that are being created,” said Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Rob Manning. “The funding stream is a line that they [parade planners] would have to provide details on.
”No money was allocated for a parade in the fiscal 2019 budget, and none was previously identified in the fiscal 2018 budget, which ends Sept. 30, six weeks before the planned parade date.
The White House budget office has estimated that the parade options Trump is considering would cost between $10 million and $30 million.
Trump also said this:
“But the generals would love to do it, I can tell you, and so would I,” Trump said on Fox News.
But when asked about that:
On Monday Pentagon reporters asked which generals had indicated they would want a parade; Manning said he did not know.
“I don’t know what specific generals told him that,” Manning said.
I'm going to guess that none of them told him that, and that he just made that up like he makes everything else up.
President Donald Trump’s plans for a White House-backed military parade are beginning to take shape.
The president has directed the Department of Defense to organize a parade that would take place on Nov. 11 – Veterans Day – according to an unclassified Feb. 20 memo written by National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.
The memo, which was summarized to POLITICO by a senior administration official, was sent from McMaster to Secretary of Defense James Mattis. It says that Trump wants Mattis to brief him on “concepts of operation for this event.”
The memo also said that the parade route should begin at the White House and end at the Capitol.
Trump, who revels in pageantry, first floated the idea of putting on a military parade after he witnessed France’s Bastille Day parade last summer as a guest of French president Emmanuel Macron.
Quick question, exactly how much brain damage much you have suffered to actually believe this parade has ANYTHING to do with the veterans?
No this is once again about Trump's overwhelming inferiority complex.
His must be bigger, longer, and more impressive.
And since we know it isn't, he is compelled to produce something that is.
And we know exactly who is is comparing his manhood against, don't we?
Courtesy of the New York Times: President Trump announced harsh new shipping sanctions against North Korea on Friday — a clear signal, near the end of an Olympic Games marked by a rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula, that his pressure campaign against Pyongyang will not let up.
“Today, I am announcing that we are launching the largest-ever set of new sanctions on the North Korean regime,” Mr. Trump was set to say to the Conservative Political Action Conference, according to excerpts of his remarks released by the White House.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the White House, Trump said that if the sanctions don’t work “we’ll have to go to phase two,” which he said “may be a very rough thing.”
“We'll have to see,” Trump said. “I don't think I'm going to exactly play that card. But we'll have to see. If the sanctions don't work we'll have to go to phase two. Phase two may be a very rough thing. May be very, very unfortunate for the world.”
.@POTUS on North Korea: "If the sanctions don't work we'll have to go phase two and phase two may be a very rough thing. It may be very very unfortunate for the world." pic.twitter.com/PQf0ysED5O
“But hopefully the sanctions will work,” Trump added. “We have tremendous support all around the world for what they're doing. It really is a rogue nation. If they can make a deal it will be a great thing. If we can't, something will have to happen. So we'll see.”
"Very rough thing for the WORLD." Not just North Korea, but the world. Keep that in mind folks.
In the past American presidents KNEW that they had nothing to prove, and that they could walk softly because they had a giant stick.
It should also be noted that none of Trump's family has served in the military, he aggressively attacked a former prisoner of war, and that he has done nothing to answer any of Russia's cyber attacks.
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.
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.
Surrounded by the military’s highest-ranking officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., Trump’s seemingly abstract desire for a parade was suddenly heard as a presidential directive, the officials said.
“The marching orders were: I want a parade like the one in France,” said a military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the planning discussions are supposed to remain confidential. “This is being worked at the highest levels of the military.”
Shows of military strength are not typical in the United States — and they don’t come cheap. The cost of shipping Abrams tanks and high-tech hardware to Washington could run in the millions, and military officials said it was unclear how they would pay for it.
Well yeah, how can you be a fascist dictator if you do not have a huge expensive military parade to celebrate your leadership?
We reported on this idea way back in September, but at that time we just laughed it off as absurd.
You know when I first saw this I thought it looked a little silly, but the more I thought about it the more I wish I had an opportunity to work off a little of my rage by kicking that huge flabby ass.
By the way I understand that was fashioned on Trump's actual derriere.
Who doesn’t love a parade? To a city that already offers many, President Donald Trump wants to add one that showcases U.S. military might.
It would take place on July 4 in Washington with, as Trump envisions it, tanks and planes rolling down and streaking above Pennsylvania Avenue.
Trump talked up the idea Monday as he sat down for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the president and first lady Melania Trump for France’s military parade in the center of Paris on Bastille Day in July. Trump said the two-hour procession was a “tremendous thing for France and for the spirit of France” and suggested he wants the same for Americans.
In typical Trump fashion, the president said he wants the parade to be bigger and better than the one he saw in France.
“It was one of the greatest parades I have ever seen,” Trump said. “It was two hours on the button, and was military might, and I think a tremendous thing for France and the spirit of France.”
“And to a large extent, because of what I witnessed, we may do something like that on July 4th in Washington, down Pennsylvania Avenue,” Trump said. “We’re going to have to try and top it.”
You may remember that Trump actually wanted a military style parade for his inauguration:
“They were legit thinking Red Square/North Korea-style parade,” the source said, referring to massive military parades in Moscow and Pyongyang, typically seen as an aggressive display of muscle-flexing.
That plan was discouraged because Pennsylvania Avenue is not built to support tanks and huge military vehicles. I somehow doubt that the street has been reinforced since that date.
At this point I don't even think that Donald Trump has a tiny penis.
I think he has an inny where his manhood is supposed to be.
By the way this was Chief of Staff John Kelly's reaction as Trump addressed the UN for the very first time today.
As Trump touched down in France Thursday to celebrate Bastille Day and to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Americans' entry into World War I, many Parisians said they recognized the importance of a U.S. president’s visit — but they wished that president wasn’t Donald Trump.
We know how you feel France, we know how you feel.
According to the Washington Post Trump really only wanted to come to France because they were going to have a military parade:
President Trump was not expected to attend France’s Bastille Day, which this year will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the United States’ entry into World War I.
But then he learned there would be a military parade.
French President Emmanuel Macron told Trump in a June 27 phone call about the event, which this year will feature U.S. and French troops marching through the historic streets near the Arc de Triomphe, fighter jets cutting through the skies above, and flags, horses and military equipment on display — the sort of spectacle that Trump wanted to stage at his own inauguration in January.
Trump told Macron he would be there, according to a White House official, and French and U.S. officials rushed to schedule a last-minute trip that will last about 27 hours and include dinner at an opulent restaurant in the Eiffel Tower and a visit to Napoleon Bonaparte’s tomb.
He's like a child who get invited to ride on a fire engine.
Protesters registered their rage against the new president Friday in a chaotic confrontation with police who used pepper spray and stun grenades in a melee just blocks from Donald Trump's inaugural parade route. Scores were arrested for trashing property and attacking officers.
Several spirited demonstrations unfolded peacefully at various security checkpoints near the Capitol as police helped ticket-holders get through to the inaugural ceremony. Signs read, "Resist Trump Climate Justice Now," ''Let Freedom Ring," ''Free Palestine."
But about a mile from the National Mall, police gave chase to a group of about 100 protesters who smashed the windows of downtown businesses including a Starbucks, a Bank of America and a McDonald's as they denounced capitalism and Trump. Police in riot gear used pepper spray from large canisters and eventually cordoned off protesters at 12th and L streets in northwest Washington.
The confrontation began an hour before Trump took the oath of office and escalated several hours later as the crowd of protesters swelled to more than 1,000, some wearing gas masks and with arms chained together inside PVC pipe. One said the demonstrators were "bringing in the cavalry."
Some of the protesters called the police "pigs" which I think is unfair and even threw rocks and bricks at them.
I don't condone the violent behavior, and the police are only trying to do their jobs, however I can certainly empathize with what these people feeling.
However acting like this makes it too way for the MSM to dismiss ALL of the protesters at mere thugs or anarchists.
Interestingly enough the big crowds seem to be the ones protesting Donald Trump's inauguration, rather than celebrating it as this tweet from MSNBC reporter Katy Tur demonstrates.
Apparently the orange tinted pussy grabber had big plans to make today's parade compete with the best parades ever held......in a fascist dictatorship.
Donald Trump’s inauguration team wanted to show off the U.S. military during inauguration weekend and even suggested including tanks and missile launchers in his inaugural parade, The Huffington Post reported Thursday.
“They were legit thinking Red Square/North Korea-style parade,” an inauguration team source told The Huffington Post, referring to massive military parades in Moscow and Pyongyang that are often interpreted as displays of aggression.
According to the report, the military shot down the request because of concerns about how it would look to have tanks and missile launchers in the parade, as well as the possible damage the tanks, which can weigh over 100,000 pounds, would do to the roads.
“I could absolutely see structural support being a reason [not to use tanks],” a Department of Defense official told The Huffington Post. “D.C. is built on a swamp to begin with.”
Trump did manage to get five military jets to do a flyover, but I heard they refused his requests to bomb the protesters.
Okay I made that last part up.
Or did I?
Personally I am boycotting all television coverage of this black day in history, which as you all know is really hard for me because I am a news junkie and because....well the blog.
Though there was one person who managed to shame me a little for hiding my head in the sand today.
Andrew Anglin, publisher of The Daily Stormer, said the armed march will not occur on Jan. 16 as previously planned. The neo-Nazi and white supremacist website mailed the city of Whitefish an incomplete application seeking a special event permit. City officials said they cannot act on incomplete applications.
Anglin wrote online on Jan. 11, “I have spoken at length with my lawyers – though the ACLU has yet to respond to my inquiry – and we’ve decided that due to the permit refusal by the city of Whitefish, we will need to postpone the planned march.”
However as it turns out the neo-Nazi only sent $65.00 top cover a fee of the $125.00 required for a parade permit.
I don't know if that being a white supremacist scumbag simply does not pay very well, or if they have trouble with reading comprehension?
What I think I do know is that the folks of Whitefish, Montana are probably breathing a sigh of relief.
Racist pieces of shit are one thing, but racist pieces of shit marching down the street with weapons strapped to their bodies is something else entirely.
Residents in Indiana are up in arms over a parade float Saturday that depicted Donald Trump throwing the switch on Hillary Clinton in an electric chair and President Obama as a Easter Island figure with an oversized head.
A public protest started when an Aurora mom posted a photo of the float on Facebook and condemned it as sexist and racist. Most commenters agreed with her, but others defended it.
"Who thinks this is appropriate for a fair parade where children, some of them minorities and girls, are marching and playing instruments and watching?
Who thinks this is something to laugh at or be proud of?" Penny Britton said on her Facebook post. "This is disgusting. This makes me embarrassed to say I live here. This is Aurora, Indiana. Congratulations."
The float was part of the Aurora Farmers Fair Parade Saturday morning in the small Ohio River town 35 miles west of Cincinnati. It's sponsored by the Aurora Lions Club, according to its website, and touted as Indiana's oldest street festival. The theme of the parade was "Celebrating the Past, Embracing the Future."
And that's really the key phrase here, "embracing the future."
Because if Donald Trump were really to be elected President this is exactly the kind of future for which this Indiana woman and all of us need to prepare ourselves.
Increased racism, misogyny, and anarchy will rule the day.
Someday this woman might look back on this incident as a quaint reminder of when people could still feel outrage at its disgusting lack of sensitivity.
Who would hijack a public sphere and turn a spectacle into an outlandish political platform. Donald Trump—'s opponents.
Above all the Pasadena floats are planes writing anti-Trump slogans.
Although the image is cut off, the writing says "Donald Trump likes to hate anybody."
Parade workers even stopped to read all the anti-Trump slogans above them.
One other sign read, "IOWANS DUMP TRUMP" possibly to distance themselves from his appearance at the Iowa-Iowa State game.
The signs are very direct in their message as evident by the "America is Great, Trump is Disgusting" writing.
Personally I would not be at all surprised to learn that Trump paid for his himself in order to get more publicity and perhaps a little sympathy.
Or perhaps it's just somebody who has been paying attention to the things that Trump has been saying and who he associates with. Such as this guy from the World Net Daily website.
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump took to Facebook on Thursday morning to thank a right-wing conspiracy website for the “amazing honor” of naming him its Man of the Year. Trump told the publication, WorldNetDaily, that he “very much” appreciates its “informative polls and coverage.”
WorldNetDaily’s founder and editor Joseph Farah is one of the nation’s leading purveyors of “birther” conspiracy theories — the repeatedly debunked notion that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya — publishing more than 600 posts on the topic. Even after Obama released his long-form birth certificate indicating his birth in Hawaii, Farah claimed that this proved nothing. Trump has frequently repeated these claims and Politico reported in 2011 that Farah frequently advised the billionaire investor and former reality show host.
As many of you may remember Trump is also a fan of Alex Jones and has appeared on his batshit crazy radio show quite a few times.
Perhaps Donald Trump is less interested in becoming the Commander-in-Chief than he is in becoming the Conspiracy Theorist-in-Chief.
At the Fourth of July parade Hillary Clinton marched in Saturday in Gorham, New Hampshire, reporters following the candidate were kept -- and at moments, dragged -- behind an actual moving rope line.
The rope, which two Clinton staffers held on to on either side, was meant to give Clinton space as she walked down the parade route, but photos of reporters being dragged behind the rope as she marched have gone viral on Twitter.
I saw this yesterday and have to admit that I was kind of shocked.
I mean it is one thing to have a roped off area for reporters to stand during an event, but quite another to use a rope to herd them down the street like cattle.
Ultimately I am unable to really defend this action, and think it is really bad optics and not at all helpful to the Clinton campaign.
Does anybody else have a different opinion on this?
Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue moron's Facebook page:
Happy Fourth of July! This day epitomizes what is unique and beautiful about the greatest nation on earth, our own America. Countries are normally based on geography or ethnicity, but ours is based on ideas that bind us together and were declared in writing on this day in 1776. On that day we were united. It is time for that unity again, so that we may stand again. (Does she mean the unity that she is always trying to undo with partisan political attacks against liberals, and our Commander-in-Chief?) To explain to the next generation what those essential, exceptional ideas are, ask a child to look closely at a handful of loose change and read what’s written on our coins: E Pluribus Unum. In God We Trust. Liberty. These are the notions our nation was built on, and they are still true and necessary today. Divided from these precepts our nation will fall. (Actually E Pluribus Unum was only officially added to our coins in 1873, almost a hundred years after the country was founded.) This Fourth of July, we celebrate our Founders making their desire for liberty plain by declaring their independence from Britain’s King and his burdensome government. May that same unifying desire and courage to fight for God-given sweet freedom be our driving force today. (Yeah God didn't give us our freedoms, our ancestors fought for them. That's actually what today is all about.) God bless you all and God bless our United States of America!
- Sarah Palin
You know the fireworks in Anchorage have been cancelled this year, and there are restrictions all over the state, but I bet there will still be a noisy display coming out of the Palin compound this evening fueled by alcohol, another unwed pregnancy, and long festering animosity.
All I know is that if I happen to be anywhere near Wasilla this evening, and I might be, I am going to keep an eye out for any flying wedding rings, or loud explosions of temper.
Personally I will be headed down to the parkstrip today to catch the 4th of July parade, and see if I can find that awesome corndog stand again.
I love that the guy narrating this video, who is clearly African American, is at first really irritated by the fact that the police are blocking off the streets for this debacle, and then becomes almost giddy after one truck rear ends another.
"God don't like ugly."
By the way this is in Georgia where my daughter is currently staying for work. I REALLY do not like her being in Georgia.
Parade committee member Rick Konopasek said the float wasn’t meant to be any more offensive than a political cartoon would be. The only restriction for entering a float is that it can’t be considered morally objectionable. That basically translates to a ban on nudity to sexually explicit messages, Konopasek said.
“We don’t feel its right to tell someone what they can and can’t express,” he said. “This was political satire. If we start saying no to certain floats, we might as well not have a parade at all.”
Konopasek and parade announcer Wally Sonnenschein said the outhouse float was the most popular one in the parade, and the three judges awarded it an honorable mention.
“It’s obvious the majority of the community liked it,” Konopasek said. “So should we deny the 95 percent of those that liked it their rights, just for the 5 percent of people who are upset?”
Look, another place I am never planning to visit.
Update: Oops sorry folks. I did originally think this was Virginia, but it's Nebraska.
Alabama Rep. Steve Hurst wants you to know he is for gun rights.
The District 35 Republican from Talladega gets his message across at parades in a very unmistakable way: He uses a giant revolver as a parade float. (And a barbecue. The gun is actually not a balloon but a large barbecue shaped like a handgun.)
Hurst said the parade float has two purposes: For one, it reminds people Hurst is a small business owner. He owns a fencing company and also Haynes Street Pawn and Gun Shop. He sells guns with his business partner.
And two, the gun-shaped barbecue, often attached to his truck, reminds people he supports gun rights. Hurst pushed for and won a change in Alabama law that no longer requires homeowners to flee from an intruder. Now Alabamians can shoot an intruder, a right often referred to as the "castle" doctrine.
Well hey, at least this giant compensation for a small wiener can be used to grill them as well.
I found the reporting on the castle doctrine law a little telling.
"Now Alabamians CAN shoot an intruder." Makes it sound like this is something the people of Alabama have been looking forward to, and now they get to do it.
Personally I might have worded it as "this law means that if a homeowner HAS to defend themselves, and their family, by taking an intruder's life, they will not face prosecution."
Unless of course the defending of the property, and protecting the lives of their families, is secondary, and the REAL selling point is that now people get to shoot somebody.
