Sunday, June 15, 2025

Trump's Military Parade

We had other things to do last evening, but I did try to just check in on the birthday parade for the Army and Trump. I tried about four different channels, including NBC and even Sky News...every one was either bashing Trump in some way or other--the parade was too expensive, it was going to tear up the streets in DC, it was overly militaristic...lots of dark suggestions that somebody, not saying who, might be a dictator...one channel said that people in the Army and NoVa were afraid to criticize the idea...
   Look, I wasn't and ain't wild about that idea. I don't believe it'll actually cost $40 million--that was the high estimate that all the channels were going with--but seems to me that $20 million would be too much. Even ten.
   I mean, I don't really have or deserve much of a view on the matter. Having a parade for the Army's 250th b-day/anniversary...perfectly good idea. Pretending that the dollars are the only thing that matters here is sophistry--you can pull that move on most things. Fireworks on the 4th--wasteful! Christmas decorations on Main Street--bah, humbug! F-16s overflying the World Series--just wasted $$$, Jack! But the proper standard is the established one--we do sometimes spend money on such stuff. It's also a mistake to try to justify such things in terms of specious "benefits" like pumping up patriotism--that's not the point, either. Not everything is done for some payoff--unless you conceptualize payoff so broadly as to make any positive aspect or consequence of something a payoff--which produces a lost contrast problem.
   Anyway, nothing inherently wrong with such an event. However, I do think it runs contrary to the administration's emphasis on cutting waste. And, though I like hearing the cultists wail and caterwaul as much as the next red-blooded American boy, they're going to be wailing no matter what Trump does. By all means, go ahead and provoke them. But maybe do it on the cheap.

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