US Military Parade

[Rick_Kitchen]

Democrats have introduced bills in Congress to prevent taxpayer money from being used to pay for Il Trumpo’s parade. It probably won’t go anywhere.

[Steve_MB]

Personally, I’d prefer a real ass-kicking parade.

[That_Don_Guy]

Here’s how to have the parade without it costing the taxpayers:

Tell the defense contractors that there’s going to be a military conference in DC in November, and as part of it, there will be an exhibition area, but only on November 11, and they have to pay to get their stuff in.

Oh, wait, I just noticed the problem; the defense companies would defray the costs by charging the government (read: the taxpayers) more for their weapons systems.

[Ashtura]

I voted “meh”. Trump was clearly inspired by Bastille day, and when was the last time somebody complained about Bastille day?? I don’t see showing off our military as necessarily bad, but I’d rather see the money going to the vets or some other cause. Honestly, I’d like to see our military spending much lower than it is in general. I’m kind of tired of the U.S. being the world police. I think a decent amount of nukes is probably 80% sufficient.

[running_coach]

@Ashtura

I voted “meh”. **Trump was clearly inspired by Bastille day, and when was the last time somebody complained about Bastille day?? ** I don’t see showing off our military as necessarily bad, but I’d rather see the money going to the vets or some other cause. Honestly, I’d like to see our military spending much lower than it is in general. I’m kind of tired of the U.S. being the world police. I think a decent amount of nukes is probably 80% sufficient.

The Bastille Day parade started in 1880 as a celebration of the Day. Trump wants this as a celebration of Trump.

[Spiderman]

@Loach

In general a M1 tank driven correctly on a road rated for heavy use that is not already in disrepair will not tear up the pavement. Track pads are rubber and weight is distributed so that the pounds per square inch of track to road is much lower than what you may think. I’ve seen tanks driving and sliding over ice without crunching it at all. Tanks drove on the streets of Germany all the time getting to training areas. The problems occur when there are tight turns where a neutral steer is needed. A neutral steer is when one track goes forward and the other goes reverse and the tank pivots without going forward. That tears up roads. On tank ranges where it was needed they would have concrete steer pads in the roadway. You try not to neutral steer anyway because it’s hard on the track. For a straight shot down Pennsylvania Avenue it could happen without much damage to the road. Proper planning will be able to minimize or eliminate the damage.

The problem is it’s Trump we’re talking about, which means it needs to be yuuuuge. The logistics & staging for one tank is not nearly the same as the [del]battilion[/del], [del]brigade[/del], [del]division[/del], corps…corps of tanks that Donald will want, which will require staging, both before & after, on side streets, which may mean some tight turns, which may mean the neutral steer that you’re talking about.
Also, while he’ll watch it pass right by him, logistics will prevent many people from being able to do the same. It can be ‘biglyer’ if it’s on TV. The question is would the networks want to televise it or do they think this will garner about as much interest as your local school board meeting televised on your local cable access channel & therefore not be financially viable? If not, what if more than one wants to? Would they setup pool cameras like they do for SoTU speeches? Would they need to bid on the exclusive rights for it like they do with sports?

[mikecurtis]

@galen_ubal

An informal poll by the Military Times showed the majority of respondents oppose the parade, as reported in The Hill.

Oddly, tracks pretty closely to our poll.
Grain of salt duly noted; internet polls are not necessarily all that accurate.

“I’m an Iraq War veteran. The military doesn’t want or need Trump’s parade.”

. . .

And yet such a parade could do more harm than good to the military itself. At a time when each service member and defense dollar counts, and as Trump is pleading with Congress to lift the military from the depths of sequestration, this parade would put those scarce resources toward feeding the president’s ego instead of our national security.
. . .
If my experience as an American soldier is a guide, though, most troops don’t relish the idea of marching in parades, let alone the endless days of rehearsals that go into making such events shine. Marching serves a purpose in basic training: to indoctrinate personnel and condition them to following orders, holding themselves with military bearing and working as a team. But in the real military, after basic training, marching in parades is a distraction from more valuable training that can save lives in combat.
. . .

The gulf between our self-selecting warrior caste and the rest of society has arguably never been greater, and there are indications that this split is affecting military recruiting and readiness. But neither our military nor our country needs the spectacle of a parade to better appreciate the service of our troops — especially one that will deplete scarce military resources at a time the Pentagon is preparing for potential conflicts with China, Russia and North Korea in addition to the engagements we’re already in. If Trump wants to see how great our troops are, he should visit them in training — or better yet, visit them in Iraq or Afghanistan, where they are fighting (and sometimes dying) on his orders.

Amen
mc

[Ashtura]

The Bastille Day parade started in 1880 as a celebration of the Day. Trump wants this as a celebration of Trump.

Okay, so as long as it’s been happening for a long time, and corresponds to a historical event that happened a long time before that, it’s fine. I think we we can work with that. Does it* have *to be French to be OK, or can it have happened in the U.S.?

[VinylTurnip]

@Ashtura

I don’t see showing off our military as necessarily bad, but I’d rather see the money going to the vets or some other cause.

Not an issue. The president is adamant that we’re going to have a big, beautiful parade, and North Korea is going to pay for it.

[ThelmaLou]

@VinylTurnip

Not an issue. The president is adamant that we’re going to have a big, beautiful parade, and North Korea is going to pay for it.

Wait! Isn’t Mexico going to pay for it?

[k9bfriender]

@ThelmaLou

Wait! Isn’t Mexico going to pay for it?

No, but they did offer to throw in a mariachi band.

[begbert2]

@Ashtura

Okay, so as long as it’s been happening for a long time, and corresponds to a historical event that happened a long time before that, it’s fine. I think we we can work with that. Does it* have *to be French to be OK, or can it have happened in the U.S.?

I think that we can have another iteration of any parade that’s been happening on a regular basis for a long time. That sounds fine, so long as we do it on the schedule we’ve been doing it on for the last few decades.

Maybe the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade? We can try to make sure there’s a tank balloon specially included for Orange Boy to masturbate to.

[carnivorousplant]

@k9bfriender

No, but they did offer to throw in a mariachi band.

I could go with a mariachi band being run over by a tank.
I hate that stuff.

[DinoR]

@kayaker

I’ll bet they could build cardboard tank and missile replicas around Buicks and Trump would be totally fooled.

We might want to avoid that strong of a parallel with the Reichswehr. Unless your goal is getting a lot of French to soil themselves in terror. That’ll show 'em for inviting Trump to Bastille Day celebrations.

[JRDelirious]

Look, just be glad he did not get invited first by his bro Vlad to a Victory Day parade. He’d be expecting the chairman of the JCS to hold a salute for 20 minutes and the entire Marine Corps to “OORAH” him at the end of his speech.

[kaylasdad99]

@Jacquernagy

^ with that being said, I hope Trump actually consulted with military officials and got a consensus on whether or not this was a good idea. Not in terms of its optics, but in terms of “is this going to be a giant pain in the ass/waste of money for the military”? If the answer was “yes” and he did it anyway, fuck him.

He did.

They came to a consensus that it would be a BAD idea, and told him so. His response was an order to do it anyway.

[ThelmaLou]

@kaylasdad99

He did.

They came to a consensus that it would be a BAD idea, and told him so. His response was an order to do it anyway.

He doesn’t take advice from anyone, especially people who know what they’re talking about.

[Johnny_Bravo]

I seem to remember him being pretty dismissive about “the generals” during the election.

Like any other group of highly knowledgeable, highly skilled, highly respected people, they threaten the hell out of him.

[kaylasdad99]

@Ashtura

I voted “meh”. Trump was clearly inspired by Bastille day, and when was the last time somebody complained about Bastille day??

Big deal. Nobody ever complains about the concept of breathing; I still don’t want the America-hating fuckstick doing that either, no matter where he gets the inspiration from.

[carnivorousplant]

@running_coach

The Bastille Day parade started in 1880 as a celebration of the Day.

I seem to recall that was about some have nots murdering some haves.