https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/15/trump-army-parade
"On Saturday, as a crowd of thousands of people near the Washington Monument
listened, a loudspeaker dramatically announced the names of the US secretary of
defense, vice-president and president. The final name received a modest roar
that surely flushed the watching commander-in-chief with validation. With that,
and with the boom of a 21-gun salute, the military parade that Donald Trump had
coveted for years finally began.
A protester, Nicky Sundt, kept a lonely and mostly silent vigil at the side of
the road. She held a sign depicting a cartoon Trump brushing back his comb-over
to reveal a swastika emblazoned on his forehead. The placard said “Save our
democracy”. Standing near her – as a “counterprotest to the counterprotest to
the protest, or something,” as one of them put it – a group of pro-Trump men
held court. One was draped in an American flag. Another had a giant picture of
Trump, in a crown, with the exhortation “Trump for king”.
For the next couple of hours, in heat and occasional drizzle, spectators
watched as the US army celebrated its 250th birthday – and, although he claims
it is a coincidence, Trump’s 79th – with America’s largest and most
controversial military parade in decades. Troops marched. Tanks and armored
personnel carriers rolled. Helicopters clattered. Paratroopers plunged out of
the overcast sky.
Yet, for all of it, the parade was somehow neither the totalitarian North
Korean spectacle that critics had grimly predicted, nor the triumph of Maga
nationalism that Trump’s most diehard fans craved. It was just a parade – and a
parade that was, for all its millions of dollars spent, controversy engendered,
and exhausting security precautions, a little underwhelming."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
