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Trump has been hankering for a grand military parade for himself ever since French neoliberal president Emmanuel Macron celebrated Trump's arrival in Paris with such a display of military might. (Trump and Macron are such great friends that Trump even ostentatiously plucked "dandruff" off Macron's suit, announcing what he was doing in front of the gathered media, when Macron visited in Washington.)
So Trump has stolen $2.5 million from the National Parks Department budget, appropriated by Congress for funding park improvements, to pay for tanks and jets to celebrate The Ego of Trump. Coincidentally, the military muscle will be shown off on July 4th, officially U.S. "Independence Day." (The Parks Department has a maintenance backlog of $11 billion. So what's a few million more. Make America Great Again!)
The Constitution delegates to Congress the appropriation of funds. For the president to take funds appropriated for one purpose and use them for another is a direct violation of the U.S. Constitution and the president's oath of office.
Trump in his carnival barker mode tweets that it will be "The Parade of a Lifetime!"
This is the first time heavy armored vehicles are going to be on Washington streets. The mayor objected because the tanks will damage the pavement. The mall is expected to take a beating. Don't be surprised if the local government will have to pay for the repairs itself.
In another first, the mall is being closed off to the public and is being reserved for GOP (Gang Of Plunderers) big shots, who will receive tickets for entry to the "V.I.P." zone. Nothing like an ersatz aristocracy to celebrate "democracy."
Presumably the climate-crisis-denying Republicans will thrill to the sight of U.S. bombers and fighters flying overhead, safe in the knowledge that they only drop their "payloads" on defenseless and poor Third World countries, killing mostly poor people, in "defense" of the "freedom" of rich swells.
This is not the first time Trump has stolen funds appropriated for other purposes and illegally used them to satisfy his own whims, like a medieval King (or a Saudi ruler) might do. Trump took money for badly needed repairs on military bases to pay for wall construction on the Mexican border.
Nor is Trump the first president to swipe money in this way. He may be the first to do so openly, however. What differentiates Trump from his modern predecessors is that he says and does openly what used to be denied. This is a symptom of the political degeneration of the U.S. empire.
Another symptom of political decadence is that presidents routinely violate the Constitution in various ways, but are never impeached for it. But that goes back to at least the second president, John Adams, who imprisoned publishers of newspapers that criticized him. (So much for those "guarantees" of "rights.") So maybe we should just consider it evidence of the moral and political corruption at the core of the U.S. power establishment.
They used to do their coups covertly, and deny them. Now they do them openly and with fanfare, as the Trump regime is doing to Venezuela, to the vigorous applause of the top Democratic Party politicians such as Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schumer, "leaders" of the Democrats in the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, respectively.
This degeneracy is not recent either. The Reagan regime (1981-1989) created the so-called "National Endowment for Democracy," which has been tasked ever since with doing openly things the CIA used to do covertly: subverting foreign governments, creating front groups abroad, manipulating elections in other countries. In other words, the U.S. now acts as if it has the RIGHT to do things it used to hide because they are outrageous and illegal under international law, violate the sovereignty of other nations, and attack and destroy the right of other peoples to self-determination. In other words, as so often with the U.S. the "National Endowment for Democracy" has a perfectly Orwellian name that reverses the meaning of words. It is the National Endowment for ANTI-Democracy.
And of course the U.S. wouldn't be satisfied if it wasn't an outrageous hypocrite at the same time. Witness the years-long propaganda campaign falsely claiming that "Russia attacked our democracy!" and "hacked our election!" The sanctimonious outrage of the politicians and "pundits" is a sight to behold.
The U.S. is certainly Number One in utter cynicism and breathtaking hypocrisy. Give credit where credit is due.
So Trump has stolen $2.5 million from the National Parks Department budget, appropriated by Congress for funding park improvements, to pay for tanks and jets to celebrate The Ego of Trump. Coincidentally, the military muscle will be shown off on July 4th, officially U.S. "Independence Day." (The Parks Department has a maintenance backlog of $11 billion. So what's a few million more. Make America Great Again!)
The Constitution delegates to Congress the appropriation of funds. For the president to take funds appropriated for one purpose and use them for another is a direct violation of the U.S. Constitution and the president's oath of office.
Trump in his carnival barker mode tweets that it will be "The Parade of a Lifetime!"
This is the first time heavy armored vehicles are going to be on Washington streets. The mayor objected because the tanks will damage the pavement. The mall is expected to take a beating. Don't be surprised if the local government will have to pay for the repairs itself.
In another first, the mall is being closed off to the public and is being reserved for GOP (Gang Of Plunderers) big shots, who will receive tickets for entry to the "V.I.P." zone. Nothing like an ersatz aristocracy to celebrate "democracy."
Presumably the climate-crisis-denying Republicans will thrill to the sight of U.S. bombers and fighters flying overhead, safe in the knowledge that they only drop their "payloads" on defenseless and poor Third World countries, killing mostly poor people, in "defense" of the "freedom" of rich swells.
This is not the first time Trump has stolen funds appropriated for other purposes and illegally used them to satisfy his own whims, like a medieval King (or a Saudi ruler) might do. Trump took money for badly needed repairs on military bases to pay for wall construction on the Mexican border.
Nor is Trump the first president to swipe money in this way. He may be the first to do so openly, however. What differentiates Trump from his modern predecessors is that he says and does openly what used to be denied. This is a symptom of the political degeneration of the U.S. empire.
Another symptom of political decadence is that presidents routinely violate the Constitution in various ways, but are never impeached for it. But that goes back to at least the second president, John Adams, who imprisoned publishers of newspapers that criticized him. (So much for those "guarantees" of "rights.") So maybe we should just consider it evidence of the moral and political corruption at the core of the U.S. power establishment.
They used to do their coups covertly, and deny them. Now they do them openly and with fanfare, as the Trump regime is doing to Venezuela, to the vigorous applause of the top Democratic Party politicians such as Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schumer, "leaders" of the Democrats in the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, respectively.
This degeneracy is not recent either. The Reagan regime (1981-1989) created the so-called "National Endowment for Democracy," which has been tasked ever since with doing openly things the CIA used to do covertly: subverting foreign governments, creating front groups abroad, manipulating elections in other countries. In other words, the U.S. now acts as if it has the RIGHT to do things it used to hide because they are outrageous and illegal under international law, violate the sovereignty of other nations, and attack and destroy the right of other peoples to self-determination. In other words, as so often with the U.S. the "National Endowment for Democracy" has a perfectly Orwellian name that reverses the meaning of words. It is the National Endowment for ANTI-Democracy.
And of course the U.S. wouldn't be satisfied if it wasn't an outrageous hypocrite at the same time. Witness the years-long propaganda campaign falsely claiming that "Russia attacked our democracy!" and "hacked our election!" The sanctimonious outrage of the politicians and "pundits" is a sight to behold.
The U.S. is certainly Number One in utter cynicism and breathtaking hypocrisy. Give credit where credit is due.
Thanks for the Tanks!
Ego, I Salute You!
I love a parade! Especially when it's for ME!
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