Trump 41: Waiting For My Impeachment

[Howl]

On 6/28/2019 at 9:06 AM, fraurosena said:

it turns out that Trump actually did tell Putin not to meddle with the elections... sarcastically.

Yes, it was definitely "nudge, nudge, wink wink."

[fraurosena]

5 hours ago, Smash! said:

Does anyone have suggestions as where to find credible sources in German that cover all the madness that‘s going on in US politics? I had today a very frustrating chat with my dad about it. He says I‘m exaggerating, Trump is half as bad as I say and democracy is no way in danger in the States. I would love to give him articles to read but unfortunately he has only basic English knowledge.

Sadly, our press isn’t covering the dire circumstances in America either. My husband thought I was exaggerating when I first told him what was going on. Luckily he can read English and I was able to convince him otherwise, although he does not share my — facination, shall we say, with American politics, and he doesn’t delve into it as much as I do.

I’m not sure why the European press don’t seem that interested, but I surmise that there is enough going on in Europe and in its individual countries that they deem more important. And they have a point, of course. We need to know what’s going on right at our doorstep (hello, Brexit) because that directly affects us. But I also share your concern that they are to a large extent ignoring the American situation. The consequences of an authoritarian American State will greatly affect the whole world, an I think the time has come for all of us to prepare for that eventuality. I hope our press picks this up soon.

Edited July 1, 2019 by fraurosena
Autocorrect riffle

[WiseGirl]

Connecticut Senator calling it like it is.

[GreyhoundFan]

Sigh. More on the mango moron's takeover of Independence Day festivities: "Trump asks for military tanks on the Mall as part of grandiose July Fourth event"

Spoiler

National Park Service acting director P. Daniel Smith faces plenty of looming priorities this summer, from an $11 billion backlog in maintenance needs to natural disasters like the recent wildfire damage to Big Bend Park.

But in recent days, another issue has competed for Smith’s attention: how to satisfy President Trump’s request to station tanks or other armored military vehicles on the Mall for his planned July Fourth address to the nation.

The ongoing negotiations over whether to use massive military hardware, such as Abrams tanks or Bradley fighting vehicles, as a prop for Trump’s “Salute to America” is just one of many unfinished details when it comes to the celebration planned for Thursday, according to several people briefed on the plan, who requested anonymity to speak frankly.

White House officials intend to give out tickets for attendees to sit in a VIP section and watch Trump’s speech, but did not develop a distribution system before much of the staff left for Asia last week, according to two administration officials. Officials are also still working on other key crowd management details, such as how to get attendees through magnetometers in an orderly fashion.

Traditionally, major gatherings on the Mall, including inauguration festivities and a jubilee commemorating the start of a new millennium, have featured a designated event producer. But in this case, the producer is the president himself.

Trump has demonstrated an unusual level of interest in this year’s Independence Day observance, according to three senior administration officials. He has received regular briefings about it from Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, according to the people briefed on the plan, and has weighed in on everything from how the pyrotechnics should be launched to how the military should be honored.

As a result, the administration has organized a far more ambitious celebration than was originally planned, at a yet-to-be specified additional cost to taxpayers. Two major fireworks firms have donated a pyrotechnic show valued at $750,000, for example, but the Park Service will have to pay employees overtime to clean up the remnants of that display. The fireworks have also been moved to a new location in West Potomac Park at Trump’s urging.

Trump has also spurred the use of military aircraft for a flyover, including one of the jetliners used as Air Force One. In addition, the Navy’s Blue Angels were supposed to have a break between a performance in Davenport, Iowa on June 30 and one in Kansas City, Mo. on July 6, but will now be flying in D.C. on the 4th.

The White House declined to comment on the ongoing plans.

Asked about the discussions about using armored vehicles and the projected overall costs of the event, Interior officials also declined to publicly comment. They noted that the department issued an updated itinerary announcing the timing of the president’s speech as well as additional details on the military performance and 35-minute fireworks display.

“This is going to be a fantastic Fourth of July with increased access across the National Mall for the public to enjoy music, flyovers, a spectacular fireworks display, and an address by our Commander-in-Chief,” Bernhardt said in the news release.

Trump has been fixated since early in his term with putting on a military-heavy parade or other celebration modeled on France’s Bastille Day celebration, which he attended in Paris in 2017. Trump angrily backed off plans for a grand Veterans Day parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in 2018 amid concerns from District officials over costs and potential road damage from military vehicles.

The type of armored tactical vehicles under consideration for this year’s July Fourth celebration can weigh 60 tons or more, and some, such as Abrams tanks, have tracks that can be particularly damaging.

The Pentagon is aware of Trump’s interest in having armored vehicles involved and is weighing having static displays of them during the celebration, defense officials said.

Advocates for the Park Service as well as some Democratic lawmakers and D.C. officials have questioned why the federal government is devoting resources to the event given constrained budgets and other demands.

“It’s irresponsible to ask the National Park Service to absorb the costs of an additional and political event when there are so many unmet needs in the parks,” said Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks Chair Phil Francis, whose group represents current, former and retired Park Service employees and volunteers, in an email. “The men and women of the National Park Service have been asked to do more with less for too long. Funds should be directed to the agency’s highest needs such as operation of the parks and the maintenance backlog and should not be directed to support political objectives.”

Trump’s decision to transform the nation’s long-standing Fourth of July celebration provided an opportunity for fireworks firms like Grucci Fireworks, the family-run Long Island company that has produced shows to celebrate Independence Day in major cities around the world as well as ones at different Trump properties. As soon as the president tweeted about the idea in February, the firm’s president, Felix “Phil” Grucci Jr., recalled in a phone interview, he began sketching out a possible show.

“I made some design renders for what we would do,” Grucci said, adding that he had expected there would be a designated point person for the show, as there has been for other federal observances.

“We were originally thinking there would be an announcement of what the project would be for the event,” he added.

Instead, Grucci — who has teamed up with Phantom Fireworks CEO Bruce Zoldan, a major supplier of consumer fireworks in the U.S. — reached out directly to the White House. Grucci said he did not recall the names of his firm’s White House contacts, but said he did not speak directly to the president.

The Park Service already had a multiyear contract with Garden State Fireworks to launch fireworks on the Mall for the Fourth of July. While the cost varies per year, it was $271,374 in 2018.

Administration officials discussed whether they could cancel the existing contract to accept the new donation and save taxpayers money, according to two government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. But they concluded they could not break off the agreement with Garden State, these officials said, and instead opted to provide a show that will be roughly twice as long as last year’s.

“There was always a question of how the performance we were designing and envisioning how it would integrate with the existing Park Service show,” Grucci said. “We weren’t thinking we were going to replace that performance at any means.”

The upcoming pyrotechnics show will include several new elements, including a massive American flag and the words “U.S.A.” spelled out in the sky.

The only comparable event on the Mall in recent decades is “America’s Millennium Celebration: A Celebration for the Nation,” an effort commissioned by then-president Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton to mark the start of the 21st century. The festivities, organized by their friend and fundraiser Terry McAuliffe and White House Social Secretary Capricia Marshall, took place on Dec. 31, 1999 and Jan. 1, 2000, and included a concert on the Mall, an appearance by the Clintons, a fireworks show and presentations at multiple museums.

McAuliffe said in an interview that the effort raised roughly $4 million in private donations, and was closely coordinated with the Park Service and other federal agencies. But he emphasized that it was different from Salute to America, because the Clintons played only a modest role in it.

“The Clintons did not take over a decades, century-old celebration of the nation and insert themselves in the middle of it,” he said, adding that the president did not weigh in on any of the decisions and Hillary Clinton only initiated the event because other countries were preparing similar celebrations.

“Once she knew it was up and running, she was not involved in it at all,” said McAuliffe, who went on to serve as Virginia’s governor. “They showed up for the day, and were very happy.”

In a phone interview last week, Zoldan said that he hoped the Salute to America would bring people together rather than prove divisive.

“We wanted to do it as a gift to America,” Zoldan said. “We wanted to give back for this special great time to do bring people together again, by celebrating America’s birthday.”

Anti-Trump protesters, including the group Code Pink, are negotiating with Park Service officials over whether a massive “Trump Baby” balloon they want to fly will comply with flight restrictions that will be in place over the Mall during the Fourth.

But at least one protest is going forward: a group of senior citizens living at The Residences at Thomas Circle will hold a singalong at the same time as Trump’s speech, in a gathering they’ve dubbed, “Make Americans Friends Again.”

It's sad that he uses the military as a prop.

[Howl]

 

45 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Sigh. More on the mango moron's takeover of Independence Day festivities: "Trump asks for military tanks on the Mall as part of grandiose July Fourth event"   It's sad that he uses the military as a prop.

Trump does this.  The Wall is a good example.  He'll declare he's going to build The Wall.  He get's shot down/blocked in court.  Then a few months later, he's back at it.  If he's blocked, he'll back off for awhile, and then he'll be back at it, trying to steal funds from DoD, or some other source. 

This is yet another example.  In the past he wanted a big military parade; everybody ignored it, hoping it would go away.  Now he's back, wanting a big military parade with tanks, FFS.  If it doesn't happen now, you can be sure he'll be back at it in months, or next July 4th.  Also, keep in mind that there is NO SecDef; I'm not sure at this point if we even have an acting one.  

Edited July 1, 2019 by Howl

[WiseGirl]

46 minutes ago, Howl said:

is yet another example.  In the past he wanted a big military parade; 

Emulating his good buddies? (Putin, et. al.) Autocrat with militaristic bent? Sound like anything in history? It's not helping that I'm reading in The Garden of Beasts and seeing a lot of parallels...

[AnywhereButHere]

So he may yet get his much wanted, dictator style grand parade on July 4th.

Quote

White House officials intend to give out tickets for attendees to sit in a VIP section and watch Trump’s speech, but did not develop a distribution system before much of the staff left for Asia last week, according to two administration officials. Officials are also still working on other key crowd management details, such as how to get attendees through magnetometers in an orderly fashion

And I love this part. Just like everything else in this fucking administration - there is no plan. Just what this country needs. Chaos and tanks on the Mall.

[WiseGirl]

16 minutes ago, AnywhereButHere said:

So he may yet get his much wanted, dictator style grand parade on July 4th.

And I love this part. Just like everything else in this fucking administration - there is no plan. Just what this country needs. Chaos and tanks on the Mall.

Well doesn't this read "Military coup" to me right now...

[fraurosena]

2 hours ago, WiseGirl said:

Well doesn't this read "Military coup" to me right now...

In order to have a Military coup, you need a leader of the military. There hasn't been a Secretary of Defence since 2018. I don't think Trump has control of the military just yet, simply because he hasn't found a general corrupt and unpatriotic enough to do his bidding yet. That could be just a matter of time though.

But don't worry, there won't be tanks driving up and down Pennsylvania Ave. any time soon. They're simply too heavy to do so, and would tear up the avenue pretty quickly. Although, on second thoughts, I hope there are tanks, and that they do tear up the streets in Washington, just to see the look on Trump's face as his big parade literally is torn to pieces in front of him. I'd love to see that humiliation in real time for all the world to see. 

[fraurosena]

Oh. Trump is scared of something that's going to happen (or is happening) in New York.

I absolutely love the New York AG's -- Tish's -- response.

 

[Smash!]

I see this happening.

https://twitter.com/amy_siskind/status/1145693176843374592?s=21

[GreyhoundFan]

My word, the mango moron's stupidity knows no bounds...brand new Sherman tanks? Um, maybe toy tanks could be brand new.

 

[WiseGirl]

On 7/1/2019 at 12:55 PM, fraurosena said:

don't think Trump has control of the military just yet, simply because he hasn't found a general corrupt and unpatriotic enough to do his bidding yet. 

"Yet" my pessimistic self is worried, but I would love to see him humiliated by his parade. 

I worry that we will end up with a coup d'etat for the sole purpse of ousting 45 and treason Barbie and reinstating fair elections. They need to go and yet I fear they will not... for sure not willingly.

And I love Tish...get them NY AG bring them down like a house of cards. The sooner the better. And 45 dearest fuckface you usually don't have to pay a fortune in lawyers if you do things legally.  Just saying (as my students would say).

[fraurosena]

Wut?!

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump is incapable of accepting that most Americans don’t like him"

Spoiler

One of the interesting aspects of the Trump era is that those who cover him are generally hard-pressed to guess what they might end up writing about on any given day. Perhaps it will be the policy issue his administration is advancing. Or, more often, it will be a thing he saw on TV and about which he decided to offer his thoughts.

And so Tuesday morning dawned, and President Trump decided, for some reason, to re-litigate the 2016 presidential debates.

“As most people are aware, according to the Polls, I won EVERY debate, including the three with Crooked Hillary Clinton,” Trump said on Twitter, “despite the fact that in the first debate, they modulated the sound on me, and got caught.”

The mention of “modulated sound” is a dip into the archive of Trump classics. As soon as Trump came offstage after his first debate against Hillary Clinton, he complained of audio issues that weren’t apparent to people watching on television. The commission that organizes the debates later acknowledged that there was an issue with his microphone that “affected the sound level in the debate hall,” whatever that means, but there is as usual no suggestion that anything intentionally nefarious — or particularly damaging — took place.

More important is the insistence that precedes that conspiratorial claim. Trump insists, here in the year of our Lord 2019, that he won all three debates “according to the Polls.” According to the Polls, Trump lost all three debates, by varying margins. According to CNN, Clinton won the three debates, according to 62 percent, 57 percent and 52 percent of those polled, respectively. NBC News polling had Clinton winning with 52 percent, 44 percent and 46 percent of support from respondents (polls that included about a fifth of respondents each time who said neither candidate won).

The “polls” to which Trump is referring are probably the same ones he cited after losing that first debate (which, remember, was in part a function of his faulty mic except also he won the debate). At the time, Trump pointed to useless online surveys like the one typically hosted at the Drudge Report or to little surveys posted on local news sites. These surveys are to polling what playing solitaire is to gambling in Vegas. If you try hard enough, you’ll probably be able to get the outcome you want.

It’s not clear why exactly Trump revived this issue at this moment. (Journalist Matt Gertz, who compares Trump’s tweets to what’s airing on Fox News, suspects it might have been a segment on MSNBC.) It’s interesting that he did, though, because it reinforces a broader issue in his presidency.

Trump is incapable of accepting that most Americans don’t like him.

This isn’t really a controversial claim. Since Trump announced his candidacy in June 2015, there has been about a month in which the percentage of Americans who said they viewed him unfavorably was at or under 50 percent. That month came during the transition period after Trump won the election and ended shortly after he took office. It’s worth noting that, during this period, more people still viewed him unfavorably than viewed him favorably, by an average of six percentage points.

Trump’s denial that he lost the debates is likely rooted in his inability to accept that perhaps he might actually have done so — or, at least, his inability to acknowledge that fact. But such denials are by no means limited to his performance in 2016. In an interview with Fox News’s Tucker Carlson that aired on Monday night, Trump also claimed that approval polls showed him excelling — or at least they would if polls were fair.

“A poll just came out today I’m at 54 or 55, and they do say you can add 10 to whatever poll I have, okay?” Trump told Carlson. “And I never get good press. I mean, I haven’t had a good story.” He reiterated a claim he’s made in the past that 93 percent of the stories about him are negative. (Trump claimed that number had “come out the other day,” but it appears to stem from a study released in 2017.)

Trump using Fox News to claim that he never gets good press prompted a number of irony detectors to short out and explode.

But it’s that “54 or 55” and the ancillary claim that “you can add 10 to whatever poll” that’s important. Generally when Trump touts approval ratings over 50 percent, he’s citing polling from Rasmussen Reports. He’s trumpeted polling at or above 50 percent at least nine times — again, because he wants to give the impression that a majority of the country supports him. All of those polls were from Rasmussen, whose results have been better for him than the RealClearPolitics average on more than 99 percent of the days of Trump’s presidency.

Trump’s approval rating from Rasmussen right now, though, is only 47 percent. He hasn’t been above 50 percent since mid-June.

The president has claimed in the past that his approval polls should have 10 points tacked on. He’s claimed that this is meant to compensate for Trump supporters who are too intimidated to tell pollsters they actually support his presidency. (He made this claim in 2016, too, though national polls that year ended up being accurate.) To make up for this purported effect, he said last year, you should just take everyone who says they’re undecided and add them to the “approve” column.

This, I probably don't need to tell you, is not how it works.

He’s also previously made this claim that the media is tamping down his approval numbers. In May, he claimed that his approval rating would top 70 percent if it weren’t for the media. There’s a sense in which that’s true: If the media weren’t accurately reporting what Trump did and, instead, the only coverage of his administration came from, say, interviews on Fox News, it’s possible that a vast majority of Americans would say he was doing a perfectly fine job. Instead, the media reports on what’s happening and Americans make up their minds accordingly.

Again, though, this all loops back to the central tension of Trump's presidency. He wants to be popular and wants America to see him as popular. That he's not — and that he's demonstrably not — is a constant frustration.

So sometimes he’ll wake up on a Tuesday and decide that the world should know that actually he won those debates that he lost. Just another day in Trumpworld.

I wish we could have one week where all media (except Faux and the other crap presented by RWNJs) made zero mention of the mango moron. He would probably have a stroke and heart attack and we'd be free of him. He could retire to Mar-a-Loco to be handled by uniformed nannies.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

On 7/1/2019 at 11:55 AM, fraurosena said:

In order to have a Military coup, you need a leader of the military. There hasn't been a Secretary of Defence since 2018. I don't think Trump has control of the military just yet, simply because he hasn't found a general corrupt and unpatriotic enough to do his bidding yet. That could be just a matter of time though.

But don't worry, there won't be tanks driving up and down Pennsylvania Ave. any time soon. They're simply too heavy to do so, and would tear up the avenue pretty quickly. Although, on second thoughts, I hope there are tanks, and that they do tear up the streets in Washington, just to see the look on Trump's face as his big parade literally is torn to pieces in front of him. I'd love to see that humiliation in real time for all the world to see. 

It’s not the weight - garbage trucks can weigh 80k.  It’s the tank treads that would be the issue.  Even with the rubber tipped treads the weight distributionis the problem.

what is going to piss me off are the people who aren’t trump suppprters who will go becuase of tradition and not stay home and deny him his numbers.

i cannot fucking believe this is happening.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Because of course: "White House gives tickets to Trump’s July Fourth extravaganza to GOP donors"

Spoiler

The White House is distributing tickets for President Trump’s July Fourth speech on the Mall to Republican donors and political appointees, prompting Democratic lawmakers to question whether the administration’s planned celebration violates federal ethics rules.

The Republican National Committee confirmed on Tuesday that it had received some passes to Trump’s address at the Lincoln Memorial, which it described as standard for presidential events. The speech Thursday will kick off the “Salute to America,” a revamped Independence Day observance designed by the president that will also include a military flyover and an extended fireworks display.

The awarding of tickets to GOP supporters, which was first reported Monday by HuffPost, has exacerbated tensions between the Trump administration and lawmakers who have been pressing for a full accounting from federal agencies. The White House has also provided a select number of tickets to top staffers at federal agencies, who are free to distribute them as they would like.

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” said Sen. Tom Udall (N.M.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, in a phone interview. “No ticketed political event should be paid for with taxpayer dollars.”

Udall noted that Interior Secretary David Bernhardt had yet to respond to a request he and two other Senate Democrats made two weeks ago for a full accounting of how the event would be conducted and what it would cost.

“This is the typical stonewall of the Trump administration. But there will be hearings, and we will have an opportunity to grill the Trump administration on how much money was spent and where the money was taken from,” he said, adding that agencies cannot just divert money unilaterally. “The Congress tells the executive branch how to spend money.”

Amanda Yanchury, a spokeswoman for House Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), said in an email that McCollum “takes her oversight responsibilities seriously and will exercise her role as chair to get a full accounting of the taxpayer costs incurred by this event.”

The Interior Department declined to comment Tuesday.

An official from the RNC, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the group’s inner workings, said in an email that the Democratic National Committee had also received passes to White House events when a Democrat was in the Oval Office.

“It’s standard practice for the RNC to receive a small number of tickets to events just as the DNC did under Democrat Presidents,” the official said. “This is routine for events like the White House Christmas Open Houses, Garden Tours in spring and fall, etc.”

While the White House has hosted limited tours for years, this year’s gathering on the Mall marks a departure because presidents have not traditionally participated in the nation’s Independence Day celebration.

Brendan Fischer, who directs federal reform for the Campaign Legal Center, said in a phone interview that while it may not violate federal ethics law to distribute limited tickets to the president’s speech to party contributors, “it certainly looks bad.”

“Limiting public access to a public monument on Independence Day in favor of wealthy donors just sends a signal that our political system favors the wealthy and well-connected,” he added.

Since federal appropriations law prohibits using public money for political purposes, Fischer noted, the issue will depend on what Trump says in his speech. If he refers to some of the 2020 presidential hopefuls, or polling related to the race, Trump’s reelection campaign may have to reimburse the U.S. Treasury.

“The content of the event, and the nature of the event, is probably the determining factor” as opposed to donors getting to see Trump up close, he said.

Even as some critics questioned the White House’s handling of access to the Lincoln Memorial, officials from the Pentagon and Interior Departments scrambled to transform Trump’s vision of an elaborate military and pyrotechnics display into reality this week.

Two Abrams tanks, two Bradley Fighting Vehicles and an M88 recovery vehicle sat on train tracks in southeast D.C. Tuesday, destined for the Mall. Administration officials were finalizing aspects of Thursday’s schedule, according to a senior White House official, including the plan to have one of the planes in Air Force One’s fleet zoom overhead as Trump takes the stage that night.

A U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said that the Pentagon was not planning for tanks to be involved until late last week. But after the president requested them, they were shipped up on rail from Fort Stewart in Georgia, and spotted by an Associated Press photographer on Monday night.

The list of fighter jets and other planes involved in Thursday’s military flyover also has grown, with the Pentagon carrying out requests from the White House while the Interior officials organize the overall celebration. As late as last week, according to two defense officials, the U.S. military was planning to have only about 300 service members involved in the celebration, primarily from drill teams and bands.

“The military isn’t in charge of this thing,” said one defense official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. “This is a Department of Interior event that DOD is giving support to, and the White House is giving guidance on how they’d like us to celebrate the Fourth.

The Pentagon has referred virtually all questions about the celebration and the U.S. military’s involvement to the White House — a function, officials said, of the president’s desire to have some elements of surprise in the event.

“We are referring everyone to the White House who will be making announcements about the event timeline and participants,” said Jonathan Rath Hoffman, the Pentagon’s top politically-appointed spokesman.

But the department is devoting significant resources to the event. The celebration will likely cost taxpayers millions of dollars, given the additional construction, transportation of heavy equipment and personnel, additional security, price of fuel and overtime pay that federal employees will receive.

The flyover will include a performance by the Blue Angels, an F-35 jet from the Navy, an aircraft from Marine Helicopter Squadron One and one of the planes used in the fleet for Air Force One, the specialized airliner that carries the president.

It will also include a B-2 stealth bomber, the batwing shaped jet made famous during the Persian Gulf War, and F-22 Raptors, the Pentagon fighter jet, said a defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss plans before they are announced. Those details were first reported Tuesday by CNN.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"The ‘Baby Trump’ balloon is coming to Washington, but don’t look up to see it"

Spoiler

The surly, flying orange balloon known as “Baby Trump” has received an invitation to the Fourth of July celebration in Washington, thanks to a permit from the National Park Service.

The permit, issued Tuesday, will allow activist group Code Pink to station the imported balloon near the Washington Monument for 15 hours during the day’s festivities, which will include an elaborate 35-minute fireworks display, concert, parade, fighter jet flyover and a possible display of military tanks.

But it won’t allow the Baby Trump balloon to fly.

The Park Service indicated protesters couldn’t use helium to fill the blimp, which has soared high above crowds in London during Trump’s visits to the United Kingdom. Instead, the agency said, air could be used.

That means the balloon will bob along the ground, where it will be tethered west of the Washington Monument.

“It is ironic that it is right here, in the ‘land of the free,’ the balloon is being grounded,” Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin said in a statement Tuesday.

Park Service spokesman Mike Litterst cited the no-fly zone that includes downtown Washington for keeping the balloon grounded.

“We can’t have a balloon that, if it were to come untethered, would take flight,” said Litterst. “It’s the same category as why D.C. is a no-drone zone. Anything that is able to take flight.”

As many as 500 people are expected to attend Code Pink’s protest — one of several planned Thursday as activists opposed to the president’s presence during Mall activities finalize events to express discontent.

No president has participated in a Fourth of July celebration in generations. Nor have protesters typically gathered along the Mall during the festivities.

This year, there will be several protests — though the gatherings will be relatively small by D.C. standards.

A group of District seniors will host a singalong dubbed “Make Americans Friends Again” at the same time as Trump’s planned speech. The man at the center of a 1989 Supreme Court decision protecting the right to burn the American flag will set fire to a flag to protest “the ugly American chauvinism” he said Trump represents. Code Pink will hold its rally to accompany its bawling-baby blimp, and dozens of individuals have vowed on Facebook to turn their backs on the president as he begins to speak.

D.C. officials have expressed concern over how the president’s presence would reshape the celebration.

“It’s about the worst holiday he could have chosen,” said D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), who on Tuesday called on Trump to pay for any damage to the Mall during the event. “You never want to make events like this around a single person.”

More than a dozen other groups and individuals have requested space on the Mall for activities that include making cards for troops, leading group meditations, selling books of poetry and preaching.

Gregory “Joey” Johnson, who has been burning American flags in protest for more than three decades, will torch a flag Thursday to encourage others to “imagine a world without America.” He called on others in Washington and around the country to join him.

“When I see that flag burn, I’m not only thinking of the children who are starved and bombed by the U.S. in Yemen, or the children who are torn from their parents along the U.S.-Mexico border,” Johnson said. “This is the workings of a system that the U.S. dominates . . . built on the plunder of literally billions of people around the world.”

Johnson said he wanted to come to the District for Fourth of July festivities because of Trump’s immigration policies, Republican efforts to roll back women’s reproductive rights and escalating international tensions with Iran.

The Park Service requires a permit for demonstrations involving fire — and for its numerous rules and regulations to be followed. On Tuesday, Johnson submitted an application to conduct the flag burning though it was not immediately approved, according to the Park Serivce.

About two miles from the Lincoln Memorial, a different protest will unfold at the same time as the president’s address: a singalong.

Organized by senior citizens from the Residences at Thomas Circle apartments in Northwest Washington, families looking for an alternative to Trump’s speech can join in as a group of seniors and neighbors sing songs such as “America The Beautiful,” “This Land Is Your Land” and “We Shall Overcome.”

“It will be a spirited group of D.C. senior citizens singing 22 patriotic songs that we all love,” said Tina Hobson, 89.

Hobson, who has made a name for herself at the senior living facility for organizing protests by residents, said the demonstration will be its biggest since a group of grandparents protested gun violence at the same time as the March for Our Lives rally last year.

“I think that those of us who talked about it and started generating the idea to do this about two-and-a-half weeks ago felt that this was kind of treasured earth that (Trump) was speaking on,” Hobson said. “We did not like the president speaking at the Lincoln Memorial, and so we wanted to provide an alternative. We put it this way today: Let’s take the Fourth of July back.”

Meanwhile, on the northwest quadrant of the lawn surrounding the Washington Monument, Code Pink demonstrators will let “Baby Trump” fly.

The balloon, created by a London artist, recently made an appearance in Orlando outside Trump’s reelection campaign launch.

Code Pink organizers said the decision to import the blimp originated around the time Trump announced he would hold a military parade in Washington last year. The parade was canceled amid questions about its impact and price tag, estimated to cost as much as $92 million.

“We’ve just switched our plans from the military parade to the Fourth of July,” Code Pink co-director Ariel Gold said last month, noting the group had raised more than $10,000 to bring “Baby Trump” to the District.

The group had originally asked for “any open grassy area nearest to [the] Lincoln Memorial,” but was instead granted access to the Washington Monument lawn.

The group will also host speeches, possible poetry readings and a “male bathing [suit] contest,” according to the permit issued by the Park Service.

Male bathing suit contest? That is an interesting addition to the Independence Day festivities.

Edited July 2, 2019 by GreyhoundFan

[GreyhoundFan]

A good one from the Divine Miss M:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

From Jennifer Rubin (some good numbers in the op-ed): "Trump’s celebration of himself is the perfect reminder of why he must leave"

Spoiler

President Trump has crushed political norms and constitutional barriers, whether by his incessant, brazen lying or his defiance of Congress in executive power grabs or impeding the Mueller investigation or smearing our intelligence community or taking monies from foreign governments in violation of the emoluments clause (according to two district court judges). But now, he has really done it.

Absconding with the most American of holidays, Independence Day, he plans to run a Soviet-style military display on the Mall; and just like the Soviets of old, he’ll have rich apparatchiks ... er, donors, in preferred seats, because nothing says Fourth of July like preferential treatment for rich toadies.

The event embodies so much of what is wrong with Trump that a Hollywood screenwriter surely would have been told to do a page-one rewrite of “Trump’s Grotesque Celebration of Himself.” It has nearly every Trumpian element.

There is the cringe-worthy ignorance. (“Abrams tanks — which Trump referred to as ‘Abram’ tanks in his remarks — weigh more than 60 tons and are usually transported over long distances by heavy rail,” The Post reports. “Trump also said ‘we have the brand-new Sherman tanks,’ which have not been in use by the U.S. military since the 1950s.”)

There is the misuse of the military as props for his own partisan ends and personal glorification (especially demanding that service commanders to stand at his side during the flyovers, as any tinpot dictator would insist upon). His incessant desire to ingratiate himself (he imagines) with the military while lacking any sense of its code of honor and values (e.g. considering pardons for war criminals, extolling police brutality) is a pathetic attempt to “make up” for draft avoidance.

There is the raiding of the Treasury for his personal aggrandizement. “The F-35 costs about $30,000 per hour to fly, according to Pentagon estimates. Each Blue Angel jet costs at least $10,000 per hour to operate, and the cost of flying an Air Force One jet is more than $140,000 per hour,” The Post reports. Moreover, “Two major fireworks firms have donated a pyrotechnic show valued at $750,000, for example, but the Park Service will have to pay employees overtime to clean up the remnants of that display.”

There is the misconstruing of American traditions. What should be a commemoration of human rights ("All men ... ") and the unwavering faith in the rule of law and in democratic governance in Trump’s hands becomes a caffeinated Armed Services Day. He manages to transform a holiday about the greatest experiment in civilian self-government into a garish military Mardi Gras.

There is the invasion of Americans’ nonpolitical lives, the peace and relaxation free people enjoy from the dictates of the Great Leader. A constitutional government with limits on the power of politicians is designed to carve out a free space for civil society and the joys that friends, family, picnics and community associations provide. So much for that.

I would suggest there are a few countervailing considerations that might reduce your blood pressure, relax your clenched fist and even provide a laugh or two.

First, this is precisely the sort of reminder that 60 percent or so of the country needs. This is why a lying braggart and ignorant narcissist must go. He defiles and deforms everything he touches, putting our American creed and values in jeopardy. We long for a normal president who will allow us to return to daily lives not soured by 24/7 politics and not forever on edge that he is up to some new horror. (Might I suggest you donate time or money on the Fourth to some good cause or candidate that aims to eliminate his presence from the national stage, taking his family of grifters with him?)

Second, the “Trump Baby” balloon might be aloft.

And finally, there is a good chance of thunderstorms. Trump plans, God laughs.

 

[WiseGirl]

 

 

 

 

6 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I wish we could have one week where all media (except Faux and the other crap presented by RWNJs) made zero mention of the mango moron. He would probably have a stroke and heart attack and we'd be free of him.

I like the way you think.

[fraurosena]

10 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

And finally, there is a good chance of thunderstorms.

I want this so bad. 

[GreyhoundFan]

Dumpy is spending millions of taxpayer money for his ego-stroking "celebration" tomorrow. And, as a bonus, he gets to line his pocket. He needs to go.

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

I just saw how he’s holding a rally the day of Mueller testifying and it hit me.

He self medicates with rallies.

obviously his most potent source of narcissistic supply, so when he’s especially anxious he cloaks himself in it.

oh, and my sincere apologies to all the wonderful FJers who are in the DC area who just want a nice holiday, but I hope it rains like fuck all over his tribute to himself.

[formergothardite]

I hope no one goes, in reality most Trumpsters aren't going to head to D.C., and that it pours and pours rain.