Is Donald Trump trying to outdo Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro with his July 4th extravaganza?

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Puck magazine July 2,1902 illustrates the spirit of unity that
use to characterize the 4th of July.

One of the Break News stories of the day was the way in which United States President Donald Trump is planning to politicize the American celebration of its revolutionary Declaration of Independence from the English monarchy on 4 July 1776, in way that has never been done before in the more than 240 times it has been celebrated since its first anniversary in 1777, and certainly since it became an official federal holiday in 1870, after the country had been re-united by the Civil War.

Trump is planning fly overs by war planes from each branch of the military, and he is bringing tanks to Washington. Military Times reported on Monday:

Officials told The Washington Post, according to a story published earlier Monday, that the White House had requested Army vehicles for the celebration but that the service was scrambling to figure out what to send and how to get it to D.C.

“You’ve got to be pretty careful with the tanks, because the roads have a tendency not to like to carry heavy tanks," [Trump] said. “So we have to put them in certain areas, but we have the brand new Sherman tanks and we have the brand new Abram tanks.”

The M4 Sherman, best known for its role in World War II, went out of service in 1957. The M1 Abrams came online in 1980.

“tanks for the memories”

Our president is an idiot. Please note that I cite the Military Times for this quote and correction, because while it is less read by the general public than The Washington Post, it is very widely read by its target audience, and is almost certainly more popular than “The Post” in the military. So, the Military Times is, in effect, warning all the soldiers and officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines that their Commander-in-Chief is an idiot!

We have also learned that the Republican National Committee is handing out tickets for reserved seating in a special access area for this command performance by the Pentagon to high dollar donors of the president's campaign.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. David Barno, a commander of US troop in Afghanistan said:

“This looks like it’s becoming much more of a Republican Party event — a political event about the president — than a national celebration of the Fourth of July, and it’s unfortunate to have the military smack dab in the middle of that."

Retired Army Maj. Gen. William Nash, whose service goes back to the Vietnam War, was more blunt:

“The president is using the armed forces in a political ploy for his reelection campaign and I think it’s absolutely obscene.”

It's pretty clear that the con-man Donald Trump is trying to turn the Independence Day celebration on the National Mall into a big tax-payer funded campaign rally.

Big 4th of July in D.C. “Salute to America.” The Pentagon & our great Military Leaders are thrilled to be doing this & showing to the American people, among other things, the strongest and most advanced Military anywhere in the World. Incredible Flyovers & biggest ever Fireworks!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2019

About six weeks ago I did a blog post about the corruption of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and in it I made a prediction with regards to Donald Trump's future ambitions:

Maduro's final campaign rally on 17 May was an example of corruption that Donald Trump will undoubtedly try to top because the Tal Cual newspaper called it the “greatest demonstration of corruption” for its “shameless” use of state resources. The paper published the PSUV party operational plan for the rally. Instead of assigning tasks to party members, they were assigned directly to the ministries and other public agencies: PDVSA, the state-run oil company, was responsible for the main stage, the backing, the sound system, and generators. The Ministry for Mining Development was responsible for decoration. The Defense Ministry was responsible for fireworks, and other agencies were responsible for portable toilets, refreshments, etc. The plan even specified that those closest to the stage should be militia members dressed as civilians.

Now, it looks like he is really taking up the challenge! I don't know how much government money Maduro spent on his campaign rally, but its probably didn't top the federal dollars The Donald will spend on his.

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