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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWe're minimizing the horror of Trump's military birthday parade
Were minimizing the horror of Trumps military birthday parade
Judith Levine
The media has focused on the price tag and potholes. But history may mark 14 June as the ceremonial birth of US fascism
Fri 30 May 2025 06.00 EDT
In 2017, watching a two-hour Bastille Day procession, Donald Trump told the French president that wed have one too, only better. That time, the grown-ups said no. The reasons given were costs estimates ran to $92m hellish logistics, and the Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowsers worried that tanks and other armored vehicles would tear up Washingtons streets.
Some retired generals objected publicly to the totalitarian-adjacent optics, especially given the US presidents praise for such bad actors as Saddam Hussein and Vladimir Putin. Several Republican lawmakers also expressed their distaste. Confidence is silent, and insecurity is loud, the Louisiana senator John Kennedy told MSNBC. America is the most powerful country in all of human history ... and we dont need to show it off. Were not North Korea. Were not Russia, were not China, he continued, and I dont wanna be.
This time, as Washington prepares for a huge military shindig on 14 June, Trumps 79th and, oh yes, the US armys 250th birthday, the generals are silent. The Republicans have sworn allegiance to the king. And the media are focused on the price tag, the potholes and the impending pomp; on tensions between the blue city of Washington and the red capital; and on the decimation of veterans healthcare, housing, and pensions while the administration throws $25m to $45m at a circus of war.
All are important parts of the story. Yet commentary is muted and the debate mischaracterized as normal political discourse. The horrific point is missed: the spectacle of a massive show of military might, before a president who behaves like a dictator and views the armed forces as his personal foot soldiers, evinces memories of the worst totalitarian regimes. History may mark 14 June 2025 as the ceremonial birth of a new American fascism.
more...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/30/trump-military-parade-fascism

Blue Owl
(56,382 posts)

SheltieLover
(68,701 posts)
Initech
(104,994 posts)Buns_of_Fire
(18,444 posts)By Executive Order.
SheltieLover
(68,701 posts)
Ritabert
(1,135 posts)...at Rate Field (Comiskey Park). There will be music, speeches and a Mass. Hopefully somebody will broadcast it.
https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/05/29/tickets-for-next-months-pope-leo-celebration-mass-at-rate-field-go-on-sale-friday/
Initech
(104,994 posts)I will do anything but watch his bullshit Nazi dictator parade! And I'll tell him where he can go shove it!
Volaris
(10,882 posts)ala Tienneman Square. At which point, trump and his goon squads, can't NOT overreact.
DENVERPOPS
(12,373 posts)you don't know what actually happened in Tienneman Square RIGHT AFTER the picture of the guy in front of the tank was taken.............
Linda ladeewolf
(907 posts)Here is some information. Accuracy can not be vouched for.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/tiananmen-square-massacre#:~:text=In%20the%20spring%20of%201989%2C%20thousands%20of%20Chinese%20troops%20entered%20Beijing%E2%80%99s%20Tiananmen%20Square%20and%20opened%20fire%20on%20unarmed%20protesters.
https://www.history.com/articles/who-was-the-tank-man-of-tiananmen-square
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/china-1989-tiananmen-square-protests-demonstration-massacre
DENVERPOPS
(12,373 posts)pretty well describes it, but did not describe the gory details of the carnage that was leaked elsewhere. (I can't remember where)
Linda ladeewolf
(907 posts)Not sure even those would pause the multitude of Millers we seem to have in the current regime.
Irish_Dem
(70,218 posts)Jit423
(1,381 posts)Ol Janx Spirit
(244 posts)Even in my very red part of the country there are six within easy driving distance.
Let's hope there is a lot of coverage to the counter the vanity fascism parade.
BigmanPigman
(53,052 posts)This will be even bigger that the first Women's March in 2017, the largest mass protest around the world.
I have 2 near me as well. I can't decide which one to attend. My sign has been ready for a week. I made a big jeweled crown with gold glittery paper.
KentuckyWoman
(7,010 posts)Maybe I missed something but I believe all the people who told him no last time have either retired or been let go. My impression is that the Pentagon is set up to just do what he says.
DENVERPOPS
(12,373 posts)to use the "Insurrection Act" militarizing the entire Armed Forces against the Citizens of America, establish Marshall Law, and totally ignore the Posse Comatatus Act....................He has already declared the entire Mexico border a "Military Base" under invasion, allowing him to already send THOUSANDS of U.S. Soldiers down there to assist the infamous Trumphumping Border Patrol......
Basso8vb
(1,028 posts)Please step aside.
DENVERPOPS
(12,373 posts)BigmanPigman
(53,052 posts)DENVERPOPS
(12,373 posts)if we got a buck for every time we said; he can't/won't do this or that these past 8+ years.
I am not giving up hope, but it is going to take something major to stop the progression and then the decades it will take to reverse it all.....
My fondest hope is that Trump, his entire CABAL, The Repubs in the U.S. Senate, The Repubs in the U.S. House, and the Repubs in the USSC, and the Republican Governors, all call for a Military Coup and THE ENTIRE MILITARY pulls a 180 degree military coup ON THEM.........(And all the Trumphumping State and Local sheriff's and Police....)
Along with the Trumphumping members of the National Guard, Reserves, Secret Service, ATF, FBI, DOJ, EPA, Dept Secretaries, etc.......and every Judge at any level appointed by a Republican President in the past 45+ years.......
How does that sound, BP................???????????????????????????????? Sometimes a person only has their dreams.......
madinmaryland
(65,437 posts)BaronChocula
(2,775 posts)Everything about the column is correct except for the pronoun.
Harker
(16,268 posts)I don't like it at all.
BaronChocula
(2,775 posts)Still scratching my head (kind of because I kind of know on a deeper level, but really...)
Harker
(16,268 posts)It's been an incremental worsening since Nixon, and every step has always been as bad as I thought it would be..
I'm in the camp that is hoping we don't need to rely on midterm elections.
AdamGG
(1,708 posts)Was there a giant military parade for the 200th anniversary of the US army or the 150th? Of course not because we don't do this.
It would be great to have some planes with banners or skywriting overhead to say what bullshit this is, but they would be shot down for violating military air space.
barbtries
(30,449 posts)the biggest protests since the abomination inauguration.
Find one near you.
https://indivisible.org/statements/indivisible-and-partners-announce-no-kings-nationwide-day-defiance-flag-day-during
BigmanPigman
(53,052 posts)There are going to be about 2,000 protests planned by June 14th. People are pissed off!
There are 9 in Europe, too.
barbtries
(30,449 posts)and it has to be.
BigmanPigman
(53,052 posts)I'm hoping that word spread quickly. Of course the MSM won't even cover it before the protest and very few will cover the story afterwards. I think Rachel Maddow was one of the few reporters who covered this April 5th, Hands Off protest when 5.2 million people showed up in 1,400 cities. We are on our own!
RESIST!!!!!!
barbtries
(30,449 posts)and regularly on fb.
that people are unaware tells me that legacy media is not covering it.
yes. April 5, April 19 protests were huge. I was in Raleigh with thousands of people and the local rag's headline was "Hundreds show up to protest in Raleigh"
it is maddening. But we must just keep coming.
BigmanPigman
(53,052 posts)and never had fakebook or twitter so the info I get is mostly via reports from Liberals on YouTube and the comments such as Meidas.
DinahMoeHum
(22,943 posts). . .when another head of state decided to have a parade in honor of himself.
Here's hoping history repeats, or at least rhymes.
AdamGG
(1,708 posts)that Anwar Sadat was.
EarthAbides
(294 posts)I can't help but feel it will be the official start of the fascist taco regime. We still have two weeks to go and a lot can happen in that time.
Paladin
(30,580 posts)I didn't know he was even capable of such a thing---he damn sure wouldn't repeat it, these days.
Here's hoping that TACO Donny's military birthday event is an absolute clusterfuck---something that can be scorned and laughed at, years and years from now.
Cha
(311,303 posts)is saying.
Why I'm so Grateful for all the Protests that Individual is Organizing.. they're Not "minimizing", of course.
And, Pope Leo is going to be in Chicago For a Mass Celebration on June 14th!
KTB2025
(13 posts)I'm going to suggest folks go to Trump's parade and not protest, but watch quietly...with a camera and notebook in hand. Because in between the harmless tourists and bored street vendors will be a lot of MAGA, many with their usual accessories of Proud Boys regalia, antisemitic signs, and so forth. Take pictures - like a nonchalant selfie with these individuals in the background. Take notes - write down any names and identifying details you hear the MAGA thugs mention. Then, when the parade is over, run to a laptop and post your intel to the world. Humiliate the actual parade attendees, many of whom pose as normal, reasonable neighbors in their day-to-day lives. Name and shame them with help from the Internet and the details you jotted down. That is how we hold MAGA accountable - no violence, no lawbreaking, but by exposing and identifying the troublemakers so that they are saddled with real consequences: public embarrassment, social rejection, fewer job opportunities, and maybe even...genuine guilt.
ThoughtCriminal
(14,558 posts)What struck me was the expression of the soldiers who participated.
I may have misread them, but what I saw in the faces was not pride, but fatigue. They had just fought a war and just wanted to get this last duty over with and go home.
IcyPeas
(23,623 posts)This grifter never served. None of his spoiled brat sons served. I hope someone releases wasps and locusts and red ants.
But we have to cut medicaid.... because we're all going to die anyway.
Buckeyeblue
(5,914 posts)returnee
(549 posts)Totally agree!!!